"Hold on to your seats, ladies and gents, we're about to see the Shock Lance Charge that Jiyuko the Monarch has made famous!" the announcer proclaimed as a tall and broad in shoulders woman of long black hair with thick, mane-like golden ends pressed the sides of the horse underneath her feet with her heels and positioned her lance forward.
The sole woman conqueror was a famous military commander called to battle by the Earth Daimyo. Unlike many other generals, she tended to each battle and commanded her army from the bloody heat of each engagement personally. She also always fought mounted, commonly employed sieging mechanisms, and heavily favored lance cavalry charges and heavily armored units, removing personal skill that each soldier wanted to show off during times of battle entirely for efficient and established military maneuvers and battlefield technology.
Jiyuko's reputation has been well known amongst most warriors that have fought in the Land of Earth, as well as the Land of Lightning. Ever since the beginning of the battle, one after another, warriors of all creeds rushed at the Monarch, trying to keep her busy and oppressed so that she could not employ her Shock Lance Charge. While initially the mass suppression and focus proved successful, keeping Jiyuko on the defensive and evasive, forcing her to rely on heavy battle armor and the mobility of her steed in battle, the ranks of active combatants had drastically reduced, leaving Jiyuko unattended for just a second and that was the exact opening necessary for the Shock Lance Charge.
A thunderous crackle signaled wild lightning vortexes shooting off into the sky with a ridiculous amount of Lightning Release chakra focused around the massive lance that Jiyuko was armed with. Encumbered with an entire lightning storm, the lance became a living embodiment of a cosmic thunderbolt. A crackling and roaring tunneling wave that threatened to unleash the full brunt of an electrical discharge at anyone even vaguely positioned within the range of her Shock Lance Charge.
The back thighs of the Monarch's steed tensed with unchained raw power. The majestic beast was as furious at the difficulties that the esteemed military commander face early on as its rider. With the skies turning black and thunderbolts signaling the drum that set the scene for the ride of the Monarch, Jiyuko pointed her tremendous lightning bolt that was as taller and longer than a building and had incalculable charge pent up and ready to explode at the eastern wing of the arena and took off.
"Shock Lance Cha…" the conqueror dressed in a tight and splendid golden suit of armor and a baggy monk-like robe on top, with a flapping cape with the Earth kanji proudly waving in the wind chanted before her battle cry was snuffed out by a ripping thunderbolt, obscuring the shadow of a young man slamming with an elbow straight into the Monarch's face. Stunned and bloodied, Jiyuko fell from her horse on her back while the baffled steed thrashed about for a few moments, then turned back to its rider, wondering why she laid knocked out on her back and her charge didn't bring victory like it usually did.
"That was a very terrifying storm you've armed yourself with. Though it's all focused on your lance, wasn't it? Ironically enough, it is just before your explosive Shock Lance Charge that you are the most vulnerable," a young shinobi dressed in a brown bodysuit and a Kumogakure flak jacket and wrapped in a yellow scarf pointed out. The teen was sweet of facial features with hazel eyes and yellow, squarely cut hair growing up to his shoulders. The young man had a white Kumogakure headband tied around his right arm.
"A Kumogakure ninja?" Jiyuko grunted while slowly returning to her feet and doing her best to bring herself about to a fighting shape. She wasn't the most efficient ground combatant, relying on the advantage of hefty battle armor and a mount in battle, though the strong hit she took as well as difficulties breathing through her broken nose made a swift return to the fight into a cumbersome affair.
"That's right, name's Yoibetsu-N," the Kumogakure ninja greeted his injured and worn-out opponent with a youthful salute using his index and middle fingers. "Your charge could have eliminated a whole bunch of guys. Quite dangerous…"
"That was the idea…" Jiyuko admitted before lifting off the ground to sit on top of her mount. That very instant Yoibetsu's eyes became dead-serious and the young Kumogakure ninja burst with flashy Lightning Armor, taking off with a flying kick that hit the armored military general square in the chest and sent her crashing out of bounds. After landing on his feet, Yoibetsu smacked the rear of the steed and encouraged it to take off and leave the arena.
"Sorry about that, but I know well that we ninja can't take on a military-class combatant in a head-to-head battle. Especially not a mere chuunin such as myself. That is why, most of the time, we are hired for special forces assignments and not to lead or fight on the battlefield," Yoibetsu gave his stunned and eliminated opponent an innocent chuckle while sifting his hand through his cluttered hairdo. "Though, I must also admit that being able to fight efficiently under very specific circumstances like being clad in armor that is ridden with weak spots, wielding a hefty lance you cannot lift when you're injured, while mounted when you take so long to sit atop of your warhorse is kind of just begging for a cheap shot. Respectfully, I can only accept half the blame."
"Hmm!" Jiyuko closed her eyes while removing and flinging aside with a notable thud her armored gauntlet only to pinch her busted nose to restrict the blood she soiled the patch of grass out of the fighting grounds with. "I couldn't agree with you more, young man. Plenty of clueless numbskulls and out-of-touch war veterans think a battlefield is about honor and defeating your opponent while they are using all of their strength with superior power. The reason I earned my title as "The Monarch" and achieved so many victories on a battlefield is that I used every advantage I could access. From using mounted cavalry charges, siege, and heavy weaponry to suppressing the opportunities for expressing a warrior's personal skill on a battlefield at every corner for the benefit of the collective victory. I can only congratulate you on your victory!"
Much to the surprise of the audience that expected the distinguished military commander to lose her cool after being eliminated in such a cheap and unsatisfying manner, Jiyuko slowly clapped her hands in applause for the young shinobi who burst with an aura of Lightning Armor and shuffled back into the fold of the brewing battlefield.
"The fight's over in a flash! The Kumogakure ninja Yoibetsu-N eliminated The Monarch with a couple of well-timed blows, disrupting her unstoppable Shock Lance Charge before it really got going and then eliminating the conqueror while she was still recovering! On a battlefield, Jiyuko would have had the backup of her troops who could have covered for her and watched her back while she returned to the back of her steed, here, however, she was all alone, and young Yoibetsu-N found and used that opening!" the announcer counted the Land of Earth conqueror out. "This battle royale proves to be not overly successful for military leaders and conquerors since their faction's left down to only Cornab Thunderbone to represent them!"
Farther to the southwestern area of the arena, a short and bald middle-aged man with a brown sheepskin jacket that flapped behind him and measured up to his knees was skating on a piece of debris down a risen rocky mound. A potent quake shook Xerxex Turbo and nearly toppled him off of his makeshift mud-board as an ivory obstacle peeked directly in front of the mud-boarding super-spy and adrenaline junkie.
"Whoa, hell yeah, I live for this shit!" Xerxex exclaimed overcome with the ecstasy of nearly snapping his neck in a frantic and devastating fall while taking off of the emerging gigantic skull and pulling out a grappling hook that connect with the skull's dome to grab hold on to in mid-air while his mud-board smashed down below and skidded off to a forest of emerging bones. "We've got giant fucking skeletons appearing from underground! I don't want this mission to ever end!" he yelled out while dangling on top of his interwoven wire of rubber lines attached to a hook that smashed into the skull of the emerging colossal skeleton.
The forest of bones that Xerxex would have skidded towards and gotten himself impaled on had he carried on boarding like nothing happened revealed itself to be the ribcage of this emerging skeleton giant. The arms of the deadly spirit sprung to life, making the makeshift mound of debris decorating the battlefield collapse as it wasn't built to contain a gigantic bottomless skeleton monster assembled from the waist up and chattering its mouth with rabid hunger to devour living flesh.
"Not sure what the fuck your deal is, but yeah… Come on, let's see what you got!" Xerxex nodded a few times, acknowledging the appearance of a foe, unlike anything he had ever encountered living his life on the extreme or any of his missions as a spy. With a strong swing on his grappling hook wire, Xerxex evaded the grasp of the famished skeleton before pulling out a combat knife from a pouch inside of his sheepskin coat and cutting himself loose to flip and swing through the air and grab a tiny root sticking out from the muddy ruins of the mound of debris.
Swinging along the side of the stack of debris with the loosening root, Xerxex looked around for potential options. He could have easily landed on the ground level, but if he was to tackle the gigantic skeleton gunning after him, his best odds would have been to strike at the evil spirit from a position of advantage. As he was scanning his immediate surroundings, having only a handful of seconds to put together his next course of action before the fiend locates him and tries eating him up, Xerxex saw a pipe sticking out from the mud.
There shouldn't have been anything unusual with underground pipes delivering water all throughout the Sheikhate. An efficient water passage system was one of many advantages of living in a prosperous Sheikhate when one lived in the middle of the desert. What was odd and immediately stuck out for the unorthodox spy was the fact that the pipe didn't have any water flowing out after it's been severed and stuck out on the outside.
After swinging and running alongside the muddy wall to grab hold of the pipe, Xerxex pulled himself closer to determine what was wrong with it, but when he pulled himself up, only a blinking human eye could've been made out from inside of it. The sight was so otherworldly that the freaked-out spy nearly lost his grip and began dangling on one arm again. Before he could regain his balance, he had to let go and start free-sliding on his way down. As if that eyeball peering through the busted pipe belonged to him, the gigantic skeleton appeared to know exactly where his chosen prey was and unleashed a thunderous slam of his knuckle against the muddy stack of debris.
"Aww, man… All those freaky demons ruined my coat," Xerxex cursed after carefully navigating his way down a perilous slide full of sharp, jagged, and protruding debris and busting through a few tiles, blocking his path with a freefall shoulder tackle. Indeed, after the adrenaline junkie stood up and examined his coat, it had been smeared with black and brown mud and torn open in a few places where the jagged debris cut through the leather and left fluffy holes. This prompted the spy to remove his coat and face the fiends hunting him in a sleeveless black shirt that also had a few tears and tatters.
Before Xerxex could realize what was happening, a loud and painful thwack on the back of his head sent him down on his front. Despite being caught off-guard at first, the spy rolled to the side and avoid the follow-up staff slam before scrambling back to his feet only to get flung aside by a crashing fist of the gigantic skeleton torso sticking out from the mound of debris and punching right down at him. Rubbing the back of his cracked and bleeding bald head, Xerxex slowly got back to his feet while staring at a magician in a black robe and black, shaggy hair.
"So, this bonehead is yours? I also figured out what's wrong with the water in this desert–all the waterworks are stuffed with creepy eyeballs…" Xerxex pointed back at the chattering ivory colossus looming over him. After spinning his bo staff around in front of him, the black-robed magician made it disappear behind his back and his hand returned to the front wielding an oriental-style polearm with a golden ring sticking out from the metallic dull backside of the blade while the rest of it was black as granite.
"You are an anomalous soul. A disturbing presence. I fight using evil spirits that I call forth to do my bidding, yet, for whatever reason, they've been acting strange this entire tournament. It was only when I singled the source of the issue down to you that I finally got their full focus and cooperation back," the wild-haired magician said while pointing the tip of his polearm at Xerxex. "I think I realize why my spirits are so mad around you. You are a man who plays it quick and loose, a man who mocks and taunts death to do its best yet always eludes it. My evil spirits are emissaries of death and death hates being cheated. You've caught its eye and as long as you are alive or around me, putting you back in the grave for all the times you've tempted death is all that is on their undead minds."
"Yeah, well, this wouldn't be the first time that I've tangled with death. It's the first time I did it this literally, but I live for this shit!" Xerxex taunted his opponent with a confident and wide stance.
The summoner magician spun his one-handed saber around before pressing his hand to the edge of the blade and slicing it open. By pressing his hand to the ground, the magician created a ring of sealing glyphs with a web-shaped network of glyphs spreading off from it. "Summoning Jutsu: Hag Mountain!" the magician chanted out as the ground underneath rumbled.
The entire southwestern wing broke and crumbled, giving way to emergent jagged rocks that shot up into the sky in the shape of mountains. Stalwart old trees burst forth from the mountainsides. Curious eyes blinked from every shady crevice, observing the situation and tracking the death-defying spy who ran, leaped, hung, rolled, and crawled for his life in a desperate attempt not to get devoured by the emergent rocky mountain range.
"It's not that I hate nearly dying or anything, but I've already done mountain gliding, mountain swinging, and mountain surfing. I'm a bit done with mountains right now 'cause I don't wanna seem repetitive!" Xerxex shouted out but his voice rang into nothingness as he could make out only a white shroud that obscured even the audience stands around the mountain range occupying a quarter of the arena. A howling gale followed by an oppressive bird-shaped shadow from above made Xerxex press closer to the rock's edge before he tracked the shadow flying further away.
"Are you lost, weary traveler?" a cheerful yet old feminine voice rang through Xerxex's ear, scaring him into jumping and turning behind him only to see the source of this cacophony of someone who had a sheet of rusty tin stuck in her throat but didn't let it get her down. It was an old and flabby-skinned hag. So old, in fact, that the flabby skin and wrinkles on her, admittedly large, body made her look almost fluid. Like at any moment the fat and the skin would just ooze out of the humanoid shape she narrowly retained.
The hag would have been completely naked if it weren't for the green shrubs of the mountain that appeared to wrap around her like a dress. Rarely, if ever, did Xerxex Turbo thank his fortune that the women he encountered showed modesty and while the hag wasn't entirely modest with the amount of skin she showed, Xerxex was spared of a heart attack because the meek leafage of the mountainside and vines weaved together to wrap the woman's extremities in mother nature's finest natural garbs of roots, leaves, and vines.
The hag's white hair wildly flowed like she was underwater, but the current ran freely in all directions, as opposed to undulating and washing it upward. At their tips, the silky threads of the hag's hair became one with the very shroud that obscured any sights further than the hand's reach from the mountain that the black-robed magician called forth.
"You know what? I think I'll take my chances…" Xerxex faked a smile and waggled his finger out in front of him with a kind look on his face, not wanting to offend the very obvious spirit of death herself parading her flappy skin and ancient complexion in front of him. "If you could pull your hairdo mist back a bit and let me see farther than my own hand, that would do a lot already…"
"You must be tired, mountain traveler, here, rest up…" The mountain hag put her hands out in front of her and blew into her handful, blowing sparkling dust at Xerxex Turbo only for the handful of stardust to smack into his face and shape a cartoonishly overwhelmed look on the spy's face. The short yet burly enjoyer of the extreme collapsed on his side, dangling over the mountain's edge on a short yet adamantine shrub, snoring as a sign of his deep sleep.
Crawling forward like a spider in an uncanny and unsightly manner, washing forward and backward like a wave coming and going on the beach shores, the mountain hag crept up over her fallen prey only for a thunderous smack of a bo staff to stun her in place and turn to the side with a tormented croak. Like a vampire bathed in sunlight.
"That's enough, Yamauba. There is no need to eat this man," the wild-haired magician in the black robe stepped out from the murky white mist and slashed with a long polearm, cutting the shrub that held Xerxex Turbo hanging on by his sleeveless black shirt only for the spy to roll, bounce and flop down the mountainside and into the grassy area outside of bounds.
"Trickster! You will pay for this!" the Yamauba hissed, crawling forward and onto the magician with her long and crooked fingers reaching to rake and scoop his tired black eyes out. Before her nails could slip underneath the eyelid for the pop that the mountain hag loved so very much, the mountains that the magician summoned disappeared in a puff and a storm of smoke and dust, only for the screaming hag to vanish alongside it.
"If we were on natural mountains, where you manifest, I would have let you devour this man simply because stopping you in your natural terrain would be too much trouble. Now, I think, I'll be content with letting you starve and not rely on your services long enough until you'll forgive me for leaving you hanging this once…" The magician shook his head with his tired eyes finding a moment to close for a second. "Hopefully, with this blowhard out of the picture, you guys will be easier to handle again… Fighting all of my battles myself is such a bother."
"Ladies and gents… Yes… I'm not exactly sure what happened, but it appears that the healers are carrying off the spy Xerxex Turbo to the infirmary! I apologize for being unable to explain what happened to him, but the sudden emergence of an actual mountain range in the southwestern wing of the arena and that thick, white mist made it impossible to say for certain! The last we saw Xerxex Turbo, he was fending off the evil spirits summoned by the magician Hakuji Shukufu, so it is entirely possible that he is responsible for the elimination of the spy with an affinity for the extreme with unorthodox work methods, Xerxex Turbo!" the announcer hurried to report the elimination while apologizing for a rare instance of being unable to patch the audience in on the juiciest parts of the most bombastic tournament they've ever had the honor of witnessing.