It was dawn as the inhabitants of the Owl House slept. Maria was the first one to get up as she yawned and stretched. Looking to his left, Apollo,Chris,deon and King,Maria scratched her head as she walked to the bathroom. She was about to walk into the shower when his scroll buzzed. Kai reached towards his clothes and picked up her scroll"saying today is the glandus vs hexside tournament"
'hmm…It's here already?' Maria said in her head.
she sighed as she went to take her morning shower. After taking her shower, Maria walked out of the bathroom wearing a pair of black jeans then she put on a bad girl coven shirt as she dried her hair with a towel.
She then went to the living room seeing her family awake.
everyone today is the is the hexside vs Gladus tournament Maria said.
What that Apollo asked.
Oh right that happened last two weeks before we meet you and Chris it's a battle between hexside and glandus Maria said.
Later at hexside.
They enter seeing everyone was ready for the tournament.
Hey what's going on Lincoln asked.
This is the hexside vs glandus tournament willow said.
This is gonna be great luz said as she,Kim,Emily,ash and hunter walked over to the others.
It's gonna be great when I see luz or they others play cabba said.
Guys i can't enter the tournament cause anyone in the royal family can't enter the tournament so we can watch mom and dad told me luz said.
I can't even play cause im her cousin hunter said.
That sucks gus said.
"Attention, Hexside students, this is your principal speaking."
"Oh, man, this is it," Gus clenched a nervous fist.
"He's announcing who will be this year's sports team to enter the tournament," Willow stated.
"This year, I have the privilege to bestow our highest honor to...emerald entrails!" Everyone gasped and Luz turned to see the members of the emerald entrails give a look of surprise.
"the emerald entrails ," People started whispering.
what since hunter can't participate we don't have everyone willow said.
You need to find a replacement for me hunter said.
Wait can't find a replacement for him right we have 30 minutes until the tournament starts gus said.
I'll do it cause your my friends and this is my school and we deserve to win lucy said.
Okay let's do this Apollo said.
later at the stadium.
Finally, the hexside vs glandus Event was a simplified emperors coven version of a form of real EC training; a maze full of traps that they were all dumped into via random gates, with the goal being to reach the exit without going under the maze, over the maze, or breaking down walls. It was being proctored by the royal family, who watched the Hexside duo of Willow and Skara rather nervously, especially when the event began.
Willow and Skara could have both potentially won the event if they'd wanted; the former could coat the maze in plants and use that to find the exit, while Skara could do the same with sonar, but they didn't get much of a chance to even try. They'd planned to just find each other in the maze and then get near the exit before pretending to get lost, but that was ruined when they were attacked by just about every other student in the maze right after they found each other.
Part of the event meant the students could fight one another if they wished, so everyone but the two Glandus students were gunning to take out Willow and Skara.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a fairly tough fight, but Willow is considered a plant prodigy and Skara was considered a Bardic prodigy that could stand on the same level as even higher ups in the Bard and plant Coven, so both were formidable foes. By the time belos announced that the event was over and Glandus had won, the girls had driven off most of their opponents,Still, with the starting of the tournament Event, there was a buzz in the crowd of students and teachers. Hexside had won the first five Blue Ribbons in a landslide, while Glandus had won the second five, making HECK a tie between those two schools.
There was some talk amongst the organisers about what they should do; some advocating for giving Hexside the Grand Prize since they'd had the overall higher rankings in each event compared to Glandus, while others felt it was unfair for that to be considered. Others believed Glandus should be disqualified since the other schools blatantly sabotaged Hexside, but rj had pointed out to these organisers that none of them had broken any rules of HECK, and their little plot could be seen as a positive sign of teamwork.
Ultimately, the emperor and Empress were the hosts and head proctors, so they went away to discuss what should be done while the rest of the organisers told the students they could continue to take part in demonstrations and lessons at the various zones, but were to be ready to return to the Central Zone for an announcement on the award ceremony.
The Hexside group deciding prepare in the Refreshment Zone. After only a five minute, an announcement echoed across the Covention centre, ordering all students back to the Central Zone for the verdict. Belos and Camila waited on stage for everyone to arrive, and after confirming all students were in attendance, belos stepped up to the microphone.
"Well everyone, this has been quite the spectacle. You've all done well and are a credit to your schools and your teachers. However as you can expect, we weren't exactly prepared for the idea of two schools same dominating the events so much that they each earned five out of ten ribbons! My family and I had to have a serious discussion on whether or not we should share the prize between both schools!" Belos grinned.
The Emerald Entrails gulped nervously as the other schools murmured; based on belos warning, that would probably be bad.
Only the best of the best can claim it! And so to determine who the best of the best is, we have decided to host the event as a tie-breaker! Rj, if you would?" Camila said, moving aside so rj could take centre stage and explain the event.
"Hexside and Glandus will face each other in a Tag-Team Duel. The rules are simple; each school will select two students to enter the duelling ring, and then a 2 vs 2 duel will begin. At any point, a student may choose to tag out and be replaced by a different member of their team. We will also be placing a barrier around the duelling ring, and if a student is knocked through it, then they are considered out of bounds and are eliminated, and a different student from their team must take their place. This will continue until one team no longer has any students to fight with, leaving the other team as the winner!"
The Emerald Entrails exchanged looks; this worked out great for them! Since they have hope of winning since they could control the flow of the duel easily!, so it would be for their opponent to easy fake being hit by a spell and launched out of the ring, but they could still put on a good show by making sure it was close! Gus wondered if Lucy had asked to join this kind of event specifically because she knew how easy it'd be for their opponents to win since the Emerald Entrails are beginners… lucy is an Oracle after all, so it was possible she'd predicted the outcome.
For the next few minutes.
the team and their temporary new member chatted with one another,Once the conversion was complete, everyone was summoned there to witness the important event of the school year.
a large circular duelling platform had been built, as well as arena style tiered seating on either side of the platform, so everyone could watch the duels from a safe and comfortable distance. Upon arriving, the Emerald Entrails were made to stand on the platform's left side, while a tall male 14 year old is with red skin with a raptor head wearing a chakra coven his name is Zander and the Glandus team stood on the right side. A rj stood between them, acting as the referee for the duels.
"Good afternoon everyone! The Tie-Breaker Event is about to begin, so allow me to introduce our dualists! From Hexside, we have Captain Willow and her teammates; Gus,Skara,Apollo, Viney, and lucy !!"
The Entrails raised their fists and received a round of cheers and applause. The Referee then pointed to the other team; "And from Glandus, we have Captain Ukla and her teammates: Gobzo, Throak, Baran,Mia and the new member Zander!!"
Willow watched as the audience cheered for Glandus (though it was noticeably no louder than it had been for Hexside, despite the plot the others schools had shared). She also recognised both Gobzo and Throak; the former was the rotund, fish-headed demon that had won Glandus their last Grudgby match against Hexside by catching the Rusty Smidge, while Throak had been the burly but nondescript witch boy that had been subbed into the game. Both had normal uniforms on now, marking them as members of the illusion and plant tracks, which was a surprise given Glandus' attitude towards illusionists. The other three students were new though; Baran was another burly witch boy who appeared to be Throak's twin, and was a member of the abominations track, while Mia was an extremely small Gnomish girl with wild white hair that resembled a dandelion, and whose uniform marked her as an Oracle. Lastly, Ukla was an androgynous looking girl from an amphibious race of demons born from the mixing of witches and Sahagins. She had purple skin, ears that resemble spiky fish fins, and a squid-like beak for a mouth, as well as yellow eyes and a magenta coloured Mohawk. She was a member of the construction track, and had a confident smile on her face as she summoned her flying fish Palisman. Everyone else on both teams summoned their Palismen too summoning her normal staff and Willow saw that Gobzo had a raccoon, Throak and Baran had a frog and a toad respectively,Zander had a badger,and Mia had a tarantula.
"Captains, decide who will be your starting dualists!" the Referee ordered.
Willow nodded to Skara and Apollo, while Ukla sent up the twins. The rest of the teams jumped down into the sidelines and the Referee moved to a little referee's podium on the side of the ring, before casting a spell circle that made a blue barrier rise up all around the ring, separating the fighters. It was the kind that would catch the person hitting it and slow them down before letting them pass through, so it would be safe to get blasted into.
With the barrier in place and the dualists ready to go, the Referee raised their hand and then declared; "BEGIN!"
The instant the word left the Referee's mouth, both Throak and Baran leapt at Skara and Apollo, aiming to overpower the teens with their brawn and point-blank magic.
The instant they got close, Throak's fist was coated in tree bark as he aimed a punch at Skara's stomach, while Barak coated his own fists in an abomination goo gauntlet as he brought them together and tried to slam them down on the top of apollo's head. Apollo acted fast and used his powers to create a dark blue barrier, blocking both blows while Skara switched Melody into Harp mode and began playing a simple tune.
The tune enchanted Baran and Throak's feet and caused them to begin dancing on their own, forcing the two boys' upper bodies to follow along and move away from the girls. As soon as they were further away, Skara stopped playing her harp and began to whistle instead. Her whistling summoned the wind, creating a mini tornado around the boys that spun them around while Apollo used ice magic to pour snow into the tornado, turning it into a blizzard to try and freeze the boys. It almost worked too, but they were able to summon vines and abomination slime to lasso themselves out of the tornado.
Once the two were free from the tornado, Skara and Apollo stopped their spells to conserve magic, as Throak turned his wooden gauntlet into full wooden armour so he could charge at the girls, while Baran created a troupe of about six abominations to follow beside his brother while he stayed at a distance.
"Woody is all yours! I'll take care of the goop troupe!" Skara grinned at Apollo, plucking a single string on her harp to create a gust of wind beneath her, rocketing her over the heads of Throak and the abominations. She then played a harsh note, sending a blade of Bardic Magic directly at the abominations, slicing the whole lot of them in half.
Meanwhile
,
Apollo stood completely still as Throak charged him, aiming to shoulder smash him out of the ring. However the instant he hit her, Apollo disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing himself as a shadow clone. Throak was so surprised that he almost ran straight into the barrier that would have disqualified him, but he just barely managed to stop himself and begin looking around for the real Apollo, who'd made himself invisible.
"Quit hiding!" he growled, conjuring numerous flower buds all over his armour. The buds began to bloom and as they did, they released a huge cloud of pollen that not only filled the air and coated the duelling arena, but also stank to high heaven. Skara and Baran both gripped their noses and whined at the stench, temporarily distracted from fighting… yet the pollen didn't appear to settle on any invisible forms! "Where's that other Hexside Loser!?"
"Right here! And watch who you call a loser!" Apollo suddenly yelled in his ear from his perch on the back of his armour. Before the boys had gotten out of the tornado earlier, Apollo had switched herself out with an illusion, and the instant he began coating himself in wood armour, she jumped on his back. Since it happened before the armour was fully grown, Throak hadn't noticed the increase in weight as anything out of the ordinary!
The boy yelped in fear and tried to shake her off, forgetting all about his magic in his distraction. Emira held on tightly and laughed as if she was riding a bucking bronco, then just as Throak finally remembered he was a witch and began to cast a spell, Emira whistled sharply and her Palisman Russ suddenly leapt from the end of her staff and bit down on the boy's hand, making him scream. As he screamed, Emira coated her hands in cyan illusion magic and placed them near his ears, then once her trap was set, she leapt off his back and summoned Russ back to her hand in staff mode.
"Skara, switch!" Apollo yelled.
"Got it!" Skara replied, using wind magic to blast away the stench of the pollen before riding her own staff at Throak. Baran tried to use abomination slime to grab her and yank her back, but Apollo conjured some red energy string from his fingers and lashed them across the larger boy's chest, making him yelp and move the slime to instead attack his opponent. Apollo dodged with ease,while Skara sent some more sonic blades at Throak to shred his armour.
"Annoying Bards! Go play your little instrument somewhere else!" Throak growled, extending a massive tree root from his chest armour to try and swipe at Skara.
Apollo nodded as Skara nodded as well; now he'd done it!
Skara dove over the root as she continued to play notes on her harp, which coated her hand in gold and red magic. The root came at her from behind, but suddenly stopped as Throak was startled by Apollo suddenly screaming in his ear again. The surprise not only stopped him from controlling his root, but also distracted him long enough for Skara to get right in his face and slap her glowing hand against his chest.
In an instant, she blasted him with a massive sonic shockwave, sending vibrations through his armour that caused it to splinter and break apart, while the boy himself was wracked with tremors that left him unable to move and barely able to even think.
He was utterly paralysed by the sound waves coursing through him, allowing Skara to switch Melody back into staff mode and smash the base of her staff against the boy's chin with one swift movement, sending him staggering back.
The sound waves in his body stopped him from recovering or catching himself, and he ended up staggering straight into the barrier, before promptly falling through it and onto the ground beyond the ring.
"Throak of Glandus has been eliminated!" Rj announced.
Baran gasped; "No! I'll get you for that you Bardic Brat!"
Baran slammed both hands into the ground and conjured a wave of abomination slime that forced both Skara and Apollo to take to the air on their staves. Baran then re-summoned his own Toad Palisman, and shockingly, summoned his brother's Frog Palisman too.
"What the!? How'd he do that!?" Skara cried.
Apollo frowned; "I heard from Maria Twins on the isles have a tradition of carving their Palismen from the same branch. We're bonded to our own Palisman, but also have a weaker bond with our twin's Palisman too! And that's not all! If this guys is anything like Ed and em, then he can-"
Apollo was cut off by the two amphibious Palismen beginning to croak together, creating an ear-splitting cacophony that nearly deafened the Hexside teens. They covered their ears (but Apollo banished Russ so his sensitive ears wouldn't be harmed), then watched in shock as Baran's Toad Palisman opened its mouth wide and the Frog Palisman jumped into it, being swallowed whole.
The Toad then began to grow to a massive size, almost twice as big as an Abomaton II, and stood on its hind legs like a person. Green and purple magic markings appeared all over its body, and Baran jumped up to sit on the Giant Toad's head, then used the abomination slime he'd conjured before to create simplistic armour for the toad, as well as a very large curved sword that looked a little like an over-sized Katana, like the type Luz had shown them in one of her anime shows.
Apollo and Skara gulped at the giant toad as the former finished her sentence; "-he can combine the twin Palisman into a single form…"
Skara squeaked as she ducked beneath the Giant Toad's tongue, which suddenly whipped out at her; "Can't you call on Orthie then!? Orthrus would be real handy right about now!"
"Apollo was quickly dodging a slice from the giant katana.
Skara groaned; she hated slimy things and she hated abomination goop! Still, this Giant Toad was kinda impressive… there wouldn't be any shame in losing to it and they were planning to throw the match anyway. With that in mind, Skara braced herself and used Melody to fly up and try to get one final shot off on Baran himself, but as expected, the Giant Toad's tongue darted up and caught her, then tossed her at the barrier. Skara made no attempt to recover and hit the barrier, before being caught by Willow's vines and gently lowered to the ground outside the ring.
"Skara of Hexside has been eliminated!"
"You're up, Viney! It doesn't look like Glandus has bothered sending in their next guy yet!" Willow said, noting that all three remaining Glandus students were still stood on the opposite side of the ring.
Viney nodded and leapt into the ring, then immediately used her Wild Heart spell to take on her more beastly form. The spell also worked on her Palisman; Regant, turning him into a full sized lion with a long scorpion stinger for a tail and large draconic wings. Viney and Regant both ran on all fours towards the Giant Toad's legs, with Viney using her claws to slash one of its ankles while Regant stabbed the other with its stinger. The Toad croaked angrily and shook the pair of them off by leaping high into the air. The barrier reached all the way to the ceiling, so the area they could fight in also reached that high, allowing the Giant Toad to stick itself to the ceiling with its abomination slime armour, while grabbing its giant katana with its tongue, allowing it to still slice at everything in the arena.
Viney hopped on Regant's back, while Apollo used umbra in staff form to begin flying up, evading the goo katana as well as the globules of abomination slime that Baran himself was conjuring and launching at the girls. The onslaught was relentless, and both Viney and Apollo had to keep stopping their advance to conjure barriers, which Viney found difficult thanks to her Wild Heart spell impeding her mind with feral instincts.
"Dang it! Apollo growled from Regant's back as her Manticore Palisman began shooting blobs of thick green poison from his stinger. The poison collided with the abomination goo being sent her way, melting it into useless sludge, but Baran and his Giant Toad could produce more slime than Regant could poison.
Thankfully, Apollo had a plan; "Hey Kitten, think you can beat the stuffing out of this guy and his big toad if I get rid of his goop?"
"Probably. Do you think you can do that?" Apollo asked, dodging a swing from the abomination katana.
Emira grinned; "I may not have Amity and her dad's talent, but I'm still a skilled! I've got a trick or two up my sleeve for dealing with Abominations! Starting with this!"
Apollo combined ice magic and wind power to create a thick flurry of snow. The wind was weak (so as not to impede himself and Viney), but visibility was next to impossible for everyone inside the barrier thanks to the powdery white snow. Thankfully, Viney, Regant, and Russ all had amazing senses of smell, and could easily detect Baran and his Toad even without seeing them.
"Nice try!" Baran yelled as his Toad began to inhale, sucking in all the snow in a giant vortex, before blasting it all back out again with a massive exhale, clearing the flurry in one big breath. Viney and Apollo were so shocked that they didn't react in time to the Toad stretching its tongue out and impaling its katana straight through Regant's body.
The audience gasped at what was surely a lethal blow to the Palisman, and the Referee looked ready to intervene, but then Regant and Viney both disappeared in a puff of cyan smoke. Apollo and Russ did too, revealed to be nothing but illusions that Apollo had created while hidden by the snow flurry.
As Baran looking around himself for signs of an attack, Apollo suddenly popped out of invisibility and landed on the Toad's extended tongue. His hand crackled with electricity as he slammed it against the sticky tongue, using justu to make all the nerves in the Toad's tongue spasm and go numb.
The Toad shrieked at the horrible sensation and dropped the goo katana, which became embedded in the ground below. The Toad then sucked its tongue back into its mouth out of instinct, dragging Apollo into its mouth with it. A second jolt of magic to the nerves had the Toad's jaw opening, allowing Apollo to crawl out and cast a pink spell on his hand, which he slapped onto the Toad's armour.
In an instant, every bit of abomination armour on both the Toad and Baran began to swell and bubble as if it was boiling. Apollo leapt out of the Toad's mouth and landed on Russ, who appeared from his own invisibility to catch him. He then flew him away to safety as the abomination goo all exploded violently, causing the Toad to scream and both it and Baran to go tumbling to the ground, covered in fairly mild burns. Apollo smirked as they fell; he may not have the same abomination skills as amity, but he could use the self-destructing spell that her amity's Dad created to destroy them!
Right before the Toad could hit the ground, Viney and Regant appeared from Apollo's invisibility powers and leapt up to meet them. Regant stabbed it in the stomach with his tail, injecting an emetic poison, which combined with Viney's full force punch to the gut caused the Toad to violently vomit.
Thankfully the only thing it spat up was saliva and Throak's Frog Palisman, but the separation of the two Palismen resulted in Baran's Toad losing its markings and shrinking back to normal size. Baran was able to use this moment to summon his Toad Palisman back to him in staff form, allowing him to avoid hitting the ground, but unfortunately he was now in range of Apollo's final trick.
Apollo and Russ flew close to Viney and Regant, and the two created a sturdy barrier around themselves. Apollo then pointed to the giant abomination slime katana still embedded in the floor and grinned. Baran looked at it too, then paled as it began to bubble. Apollo had hit it with the self-destruct spell too.
Baran didn't even have time to scream or put up any defences; the katana exploded and launched the boy straight into the barrier while the teens were protected by their own.
"Baran of Glandus has been eliminated!" the Referee announced.
Viney and Apollo cheered and landed back on the ground of the duelling ring, dropping their barrier. They both briefly cringed at the awful fishy stench that permeated the air though; had the Toad's saliva been that pungent?
Now that Baran was defeated, Glandus sent their next student up; the little gnomish Oracle known as Mia, who was almost small enough to ride her Tarantula Palisman even in animal form. Viney and Apollo prepared to face her, but frowned when they saw she was alone.
"You know this is supposed to be two on two, right?" Apollo asked, looking over to the rest of the Glandus team. The whole rest of the team was out there (including Throak and Baran, who were grumbling as a healer saw to their wounds), but that just confused the girls more.
Mia giggled and spoke in an extremely squeaky voice; "We don't need two of us to beat the two of you. Just one will do."
Viney and Apollo scowled, feeling like they were being insulted by the little gnome girl… at least until they suddenly found themselves both being grabbed by something invisible and tossed at the barrier. Both teen were so surprised that they didn't react in time and hit the barrier. They were caught by their teammates outside, who all looked stunned by the sudden defeat.
"Apollo and Viney of Hexside have been eliminated!" the rj declared, looking just as confused.
"W-Was that some form of Oracle Magic? I didn't sense a spirit!" Lucy yelled.
Mia and the entire Glandus team burst into laughter, much to the annoyance of the Emerald Entrails. Gus narrowed his eyes, then gasped; "An Illusion!"
At those words, the Gobzo who was sat on the bench with his teammates disappeared into cyan smoke, and the real Gobzo appeared in the arena. He'd taken his place as soon as Throak had been knocked out by Skara, but hidden that fact with illusions. He'd also hidden himself from the noses of Viney and the Palismen by creating that awful fishy stench, which they'd mistaken for the result of the Giant Toad's saliva.
Seeing the surprise of the Hexside team, Mia giggled then gave a malicious grin; "I'll admit you Hexside losers did better than any of us expected; we'd thought you'd all go down like chumps to just Throak and Baran. But ultimately, you're still just losers. Hexside only exists as one of the "big" schools because all the students there couldn't afford St. Epiderm or prove themselves worthy enough for Glandus. Your school was literally founded as a refuge for losers! You should feel honoured that you managed to come this far!"
The Emerald Entrails all glared hatefully at the giggling gnome, while Lucy glared with disapproval. Mia's teammates were smirking along with her comments, with the exception of Gobzo (who still looked like he had nothing going on in his head), Ukla, and Zander. Ukla in particular looked more annoyed with Mia than amused.
Willow turned to Gus and Lucy; "You two are up. I know the plan is to throw the fight, but I don't want us losing to Glandus themselves, so we're going to knock out everyone okay?"
Gus and Lucy both nodded and climbed into the ring, ready to duel. However as they both brandished their staves, Willow called out; "Make this round quick."
Grins spread across Gus and Lucy's faces and they nodded once again. Mia saw their grins and scoffed; "Don't think the pipsqueak stands a chance just because he's got lucy backing him up! He's still just a Hexside dwe-"
Before Mia could finish her taunt, Gus's hand suddenly shot out to his side and grabbed something no one else could see, his eyes glowing a soft cyan colour. In a flash, the "real" Gobzo disappeared in cyan smoke, revealed to once again be just an illusion.
Gobzo hadn't revealed himself at all after the last duel; he'd just changed the location of his illusory clone. The actual real Gobzo had remained invisible and aimed to pick up Gus and toss him out of the ring like he'd done to Viney and Apollo, but once Gus was aware of the illusionist's abilities, he kept his eyes focused and was able to detect the illusion and counter with his own. The real Gobzo became visible, with Gus's hand pressed over his face. A cyan glow had covered Gus's hand and now filled Gobzo's eyes, completely filling his brain with a nightmarish illusion. The illusion scared Gobzo so much that he let out a weird burbling sound and then turned on his heel and fled, leaping out of the arena of his own free will and running to hide behind his burly teammates.
"Uh… Gobzo of Glandus has been eliminated." the Referee replied, stunned.
Gus turned to grin at Mia; "You were saying? Also, kinda ironic to be calling me a pipsqueak, you know."
Mia went red in the face as the Glandus team were shocked. The audience began to chuckle at their expense, especially as Gobzo was so terrified that he was holding onto Ukla and Zander for dear life, preventing them from tagging in.
Mia sneered and turned to glare at Gus; "Don't think I'll fall for your illusions too! I can see through them all with my Oracle Magic!"
Lucy smiled serenely and stepped forward; "Then by all means, bring out your spirit."
Mia glared at her and tried to summon her spirit from the stone around her neck, only to turn pale when she realised she couldn't. Her spirit was almost as scared as Gobzo was, and refused to leave her stone! Mia began to sweat bullets as she looked up at Lucy, who'd walked forward and now loomed over her.
"Having problems? Oh, that's right; Oracle Magic doesn't work on Angels." Lucy smiled, as tailed beast chakra was around her body(gus transfer some of his tailed beast chakra to protect lucy from oracles) ; "How unfortunate for you. Do you have some other form of magic you can use?"
Mia gulped; she didn't. She relied heavily on Oracle Magic, and had risen high in Glandus' hierarchy through her mastery of it. But without her spirit, she was helpless. Lucy could tell by the look on the gnome's face that she was out of options, so decided not to waste time knocking the girl out of the ring. No need to hurt her body after all… her pride was a different story though.
Lucy stooped and grabbed Mia by the back of her uniform, like she was some stray cat, then had Shade grab the girl's Tarantula Palisman. The two then walked over to the section of the barrier closest to Glandus' team and tossed the girl and Palisman through it. In the end, despite all her trash talking, Mia had been defeated without casting a single spell.
"Mia of Glandus has been eliminated." the rj announced, trying to keep her obvious amusement out of her voice.
rj didn't need to bother with that though and they promptly burst into laughter. Mia went beet red, especially as one student from St. Epiderm commented that she'd been the biggest talker, yet the one to achieve the least on both teams! Still, with Mia now eliminated, she could now use her Oracle Spirit to force Gobzo to let go of Glandus' final two members, allowing Ukla and Zander to finally step into the ring.
Both brandished their staves, though Ukla looked at Gus and gave a nod of respect; "I apologise for my teammate's boasting. At Glandus, we value strength above all else, but I believe that someone with real strength doesn't need to brag, as that strength speaks for itself." she declared; "That said, I'll be going all out!"
Gus grinned; "Then let's have some fun! Lucy, mind if I leave Zander to you?"
Lucy nodded as she stared down Zander; "… are you ready, Zander?"
"You know it! Let me see what you've got, little girl!" Zander grinned, getting pumped up.
For an instant, all four duellists stood completely still. Then, in a single heartbeat, they suddenly burst into action. Zander rushed towards Lucy with his hand pulsing with electricity, whilst Lucy dove into the shadows while leaving her Oracle spirit Shade behind to fight in her stead. At the same moment, Ukla got onto her staff and darted towards Gus, sand swirling around the tail end of her staff to propel her faster, whilst Gus rode Emmiline into the air as if he was surfing a giant wave, conjuring a fine mist with water magic as he went.
Ukla frowned at the mist, knowing the water vapour would soak into her sand and make it sluggish and hard to move, so she instead condensed it down into a single perfectly spherical ball in the palm of her hand, before shooting it at Gus like a cannon ball. There was even a burst of fire and a small explosion, as if Ukla really had shot a cannon from her hand.
Gus swerved to avoid the cannon ball, but then to his surprise, Ukla flicked a finger and the ball suddenly changed trajectory and nearly hit him in the side of the head. He barely ducked in time, feeling the ball blowing through the top of his hair. Seeing this, he condensed his mist into a discus of ice and launched it at the cannon ball, slicing it in half before it then swerved and headed back at Ukla. It was spinning enough to become like a saw blade, but Ukla coated her hands in sand and caught the spinning disc between her palms, before crushing it and letting the fragments melt and drip down to the battle below.
She then tried to harden the sand into rock and launch it at Gus, but the boy twirled his finger and caused the fragments of his ice disc to become vapour again, which he then used with an olfactory illusion to make Ukla think she was smelling something foul. The girl gagged and instinctively tried to cover her beak, allowing Gus to hide himself with an invisibility spell. While hidden, he produced another illusion and then conjured some water in a torrent to hit Ukla.
The girl had her eyes closed due to the fake foul smell making them water, so she didn't see this coming, allowing the water to hit her. However there wasn't much force behind it and since Ukla had Sahagin blood, the liquid was absorbed into her skin without bothering her at all, leaving her bone dry. However, absorbing the water also cleared her beak of the water vapour (Sahagins could only absorb proper liquids), freeing her from the olfactory illusion.
Now able to open her eyes without them watering, Ukla looked around for signs of Gus and noticed that she seemed to have been knocked awfully close to the barrier by the torrent of water. It hadn't felt like she'd moved much, but being in the air must have messed with her sense of movement.
"Unless…?" she whispered, before a shard of ice suddenly flew at her. It came from the side closest to the barrier, so she flew away from it, then conjured a large floating rock for her to stand on so she could use her staff to fight with properly. More ice shards came out of seemingly nowhere, but Ukla expertly parried two of them with her staff, then conjured rock around her hand to catch and crush the last one. All three shards had come from different directions, so Gus was moving around a lot while invisible, which could become a major problem for her if she didn't find a way to pin him down soon.
Twirling her staff, Ukla created a massive bronze spell circle which conjured an equally massive sandstorm around her. Such a tactic would reveal Gus's location, but it would normally dry her out too… luckily for her, she'd just absorbed enough water to keep her extra hydrated!
As predicted, the sandstorm buffeted Gus with sand, allowing his silhouette to be seen despite his invisibility. However the sandstorm also revealed something else to Ukla, making her smirk. "Clever boy… but not clever enough!" she yelled, casting a spell to condense all the sand onto Gus and trap him inside a statue of himself, like a form of pseudo-petrification.
Gus allowed himself to become visible again as he used water magic to damp the sand, then once Ukla hardened it into stone around him, he froze the water into ice. The ice expanded within the stone, causing it to crack apart and allowing Gus to free himself, which Ukla hadn't expected.
Gus leapt out of the remains of the stone shell and took flight with Emmiline again, then he made dozens of clones of himself, though this was quickly countered by another sandstorm, which shredded the clones and left Gus disoriented and trying hard to stay stood on his staff. Seeing her opportunity, Ukla then darted at Gus by manipulating the boulder she was floating on. Gus tried to make a last minute ice barrier, but Ukla was as good with the demolition aspect of Construction Magic as she was the others, and a single palm strike with a Construction Spell was enough to destroy the attempted barrier and allow Ukla to finally knock Gus into the barrier.
However to Ukla's eyes, it looked like he'd nothing but empty air. Gus righted himself outside the barrier as the rj declared; "Gus of Hexside has been eliminated."
"Dang, I thought that trick would work. How did you spot what I'd done?" Gus asked curiously, seeing as Zander and Lucy were focused on their duel.
When he'd made Ukla close her eyes earlier, he'd cast an illusion that made the entire world around Ukla look like it had shifted forward a few feet, meaning she thought she was closer to the barrier when she was actually still where she'd been flying before.
The weak water torrent had been to make her think he'd blasted her towards the barrier when she actually hadn't moved. Gus's goal had been to try and make her fly into the barrier on her own, because she thought it was further away than she realised, but it looked like his plan failed.
Ukla smirked; "My sandstorm didn't just reveal you, it kept passing through a chunk of the barrier like it wasn't there and hitting another part that you'd hidden."
"Aw man, I should have covered that detail. Oh well; good duel." Gus smiled, before going to join his friends. Ukla watched him go, frowning slightly as she felt like he'd gone easy on her… an Illusionist Genius who'd figured out to use water vapour for olfactory illusions would surely have figured out that she might discover the truth with a sandstorm… she'd used sand earlier in the fight after all! Gus also didn't seem too disappointed to lose…
Ukla's frown deepened; there was more to these Hexside kids than she realised.
Shaking that from her mind, she looked down to observe the fight between Zander and lucy. Lucy herself had been hidden the entire time, instead directing her Spirit to claw at Zander from the shadows. Took out a sword to fence with its claws, but it was clear the two weren't taking the duel seriously. They had nothing to lose or gain no matter how the duel turned out, so they were seemingly just playing. Ukla considered flying down to help Zander, but then she remembered that Hexside's captain still hadn't been defeated and should have taken Gus's place.
Looking around, Ukla saw no signs of Willow; she'd disappeared from her teammates' side outside the ring… was she under an illusion of some kind, or has she just excused herself to the bathroom and hadn't entered the ring yet?
Ukla soon got her answer, as she suddenly felt something wrapping around her body… something inside her clothes! The girl shrieked and looked down her shirt to find tiny, ivy-like vines creeping around her skin, which she traced back to beneath her body. The little vines were emerging from the shadow Ukla was casting on her own staff, and had crept up into her shirt and was wrapping around her abdomen and snaking their way up to her throat and arms.
She began to yank at them, but suddenly felt all strength leave her as the vines sapped her magic and the moisture in her body. Ukla began to get dehydrated and before she knew it, she barely had the strength to stay on her staff. Then she noticed the ivy creeping up her staff to her Palisman too, and realised they were being drained of magic as well.
Slowly, the girl descended to the ground before her Palisman could lose strength and plummet, but the instant she touched the ground, a new shadow was formed beneath her and a large vine shot out of it and grabbed her, tossing her from the ring entirely.
"Ukla of Glandus has been eliminated!" the Referee announced, just as Willow rose up out of the shadows and snapped her fingers, making the vines and ivy on Ukla disappear. The audience cheered; Hexside had now officially beaten all five of Glandus' students! Under normal circumstances, that would make them the winner, but Hunter was still active and fighting, though he looked mildly annoyed that his teammate was gone and he was now in a two VS one.
"Lucy must have pulled the Captain into her shadows the second Gus was eliminated. Well if she'd planning to double team me!" Zander thought.
Spinning his staff in the air, Zander drew a massive amber spell circle and began to channel a huge amount of lightning into his free hand. A bolt of this magnitude was far too dangerous to use on someone you weren't willing to kill, but thankfully that wasn't zander's goal, as he thrust his hand towards the ceiling and launched the lightning bolt into the sky.
The result was a monstrously loud clap of thunder and a flash of light that would have made Luz proud, destroying all shadows in the ring. Lucy was forced out of the shadows she was hiding in,
Zander saw lucy and then shot cables came out of his hands then threw her out of the ring.
"lucy loud has been eliminated! Both teams are down to their last member!" the Referee announced.
zander turned around to see Willow smirking at him, a Shooting Seed Pod growing from her wooden bangles.
"Just you and me now,!" Willow grinned.
Zander immediately conjured a machete-like short sword and electrified it with Lightning Magic, then super speed towards Willow. He aimed a slash at her bangles, but Willow ducked and pointed one of her bangles at Zander as a new flower grew on it.
It wasn't one Zander recognised; it looked a little like the Shooting Seed Pod on her other bangle, but the opening of the pod had petals like an Artillery Azalea. A short spray of seeds were launched his way, and Zander just barely flashed out of the way in time, then watched with wide eyes as the seeds exploded like the seeds of an Artillery Azalea. It looked like Willow had found a way to combine two different plants!
"Grafting Plant Magic! Artillery Seed Pod!" Willow announced with a proud grin, tracking where Zander was fleeing to and spraying more explosive seeds at him. Hunter yelped as he dodged around the ring to avoid the blasts, ultimately having to fly up high just so there was enough space between him and Willow that he could dodge without needing to rely on his magic any more. Thankfully for him, the explosions were kicking up a lot of smoke, and the first few near the ground had torn up the ring a little bit, leaving the ground uneven and covered in chunks of rubble he could manipulate.
Using his limited ability with conventional Light Magic, Zander conjured a simple throwing knife imbued with light and tossed it at Willow. She dodged as he expected, but the knife released a massive flash of light as it hit the ground, blinding the girl and giving Zander a chance to flash behind her.
He aimed an almost lazy lightning-imbued palm strike at her back, but Willow summoned another of her Grafted Plants to protect her. This one looked like a Bouncing Bellflower, but with the amber colour of a Gummy Goldenrod. As Zander struck it, the rubbery petals not only protected Willow from the lightning via insulation, but it also got zander's hand stuck on it, forcing him to abandon his glove to escape.
"I call these Gummy amber Bells! I developed these after seeing your little lightning palm trick l" Willow smirked.
Zander was impressed, but not cowed. His plan had been to get on the ground and prevent Willow from immediately stopping what he planned to do next, and the Gummy amber Bell got in her way just as it did his.
First, Zander electrified his machete once again and stabbed it into the ground in front of him, causing lightning to arc out in all directions, hitting the knife he'd thrown earlier as well as several others that he'd tossed out using the smokescreen as cover.
The result was a web of lightning that forced Willow to hide inside a giant Gummy Zander Bell just to avoid being shocked. This further obscured her vision as well as getting her briefly stuck, giving Zander the opening to spin staff in the air and draw a large spell circle, which caused all the rubble from the explosions to gather together in front of Zander and form themselves together into a rough golem.
"Time to pick some flowers!" Zander smirked, leaping onto his golem's back so he could control it more directly. He had it reach for the flower Willow was hiding in and pick it up, tearing it and Willow out of the ground and lifting her high into the air. Willow withered the flower to free herself from its stickiness, resulting in her landing on the Golem's fist.
She then slammed a palm down on the golem's arm and caused vines to sprout in the gaps and begin to worm their way through the gaps in the golem's body. Zander countered by conjuring another machete and stabbing it into his golem's head and using it to release lightning into its body, striking and burning the vines to a crisp before they could do much damage.
Willow was impressed by the boy's quick thinking and jumped off the golem, using another vine to safely swing down to the ground. She then summoned Clover back to her hand and used her staff to conjure a huge swarm of Daggerdil leaves, which were razor sharp by nature.
",willow was sending the swarm of leaves at the golem.
They struck faster than Zander was prepared for, resulting in the golem losing a hand before Zander released his spell on it, causing it to fall apart into rubble again. Zander then quickly teleported above the leaves and shot lightning down at them from his sword.
Daggerdil leaves were a kind of organic metal, so the lightning tracked them like each one was a lightning rod, causing them to burn up into ash.
Zander then conjured a breeze to blast the ash back into Willow's face to blind her. This kept her busy as Hunter reassembled his golem again (with a slightly hollower body, to compensate for giving it a new hand), but when the golem was complete and Zander sent it stomping into the ash to grab Willow again, he found she was missing.
"What? Where did she go?" Zander frowned, looking around.
He suddenly heard a rumbling beneath him, and ordered his golem to dodge backward just in time to avoid an uppercut from a giant fist made of vines and tree bark.
The owner of the fist emerged from the ground a moment later, revealed to be a humanoid construct that was about the same size and proportions as Hunter's golem, only with a body made of vines and coated in shells of bark and the giant petals of Bouncing Bellflowers, giving it protection from both blunt force trauma and Zander's Lightning. Willow emerged from a flower that bloomed on the Vine Construct's shoulder, grinning as she did.
"I can do this too, you know! In fact it was something similar to this that kept me in the plant track to start with!" Willow said confidently, remembering how she and Luz had first met all those months ago.
Zander chuckled, beginning to enjoy this fight; Willow was skilled with Plant Magic! Perhaps almost as skilled as Terra Snapdragon!
"Alright then, let's see whose is best!" Zander declared, riding his golem forward to attack Willow's. His launched a stony punch at Willow's, but thanks to the vines that made up its body, it was much more flexible and leaned its head to the side, before countering with an attempted body blow to Zander's golem. However since Hunter's golem wasn't as held together as Willow's, he was able to shift the rocks that made up its torso so that the plant construct's first went straight through its chest without damaging it.
The rocks then packed around the plant construct's arm to stop it from pulling back, and Zander then created a blade of lightning from the end of his sword and swung it down like a glaive, slicing off the trapped arm.
Willow's construct staggered back, coming uncomfortably close to hitting the barrier, but then Willow regrew its arm and had it leap forward and attack again. Hunter tried to part the rocky body of his golem to trap the construct's arm again, but this time Willow was prepared and caused spiky roots and thorns to sprout from the bark and vines of her construct's arm, which speared the rocks when Zander tried to pull them back.
Zander panicked, not wanting to lose more of his golem's body, and in his panic, he wasn't able to react quickly enough to the construct's other arm punching forward and hitting his golem in the side of the head, sending it staggering backward.
The two duellists exchanged looks from the tops of their creations, Zander frowning as Willow smiled. Zander was at a disadvantage; he could disassemble and reassemble his golem to easily dodge blows, and its rocky body could hit harder, but that was its only advantage.
Willow's construct could dodge more easily thanks to its vine skeleton making it flexible, she could regrow damaged areas, manipulate the shape of its body in ways Zander couldn't match, and the rubbery petals of the Bouncing Bellflower served as not only good insulation, but also a way of reducing the impact of his golem's blows.
Even with these disadvantages though, Zander still gave a good fight. The two creations threw punches and kicks, turning the Witches Duel into an impromptu cage match between two elemental magic automatons. Both fighters were using their staves to primarily control their creations, while occasionally using Plant and Lightning Magic to take pot shots at each other whenever their creations got close enough and they had a clear shot. The two stood almost rooted to the spot as they exchanged blows, and Willow couldn't help but laugh.
"This is like that Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots game that Gus bought from Eda!" Willow said, having a shocking amount of fun.
"Oh yeah? And how does that game go then, Captain?" Hunter asked as his golem landed a solid hit to the plant construct's head.
Willow almost fell off her construct's shoulder, then grinned wide as she replied; "It goes like this, with me knocking your head off!"
Twirling her finger to create a green spell circle, Willow suddenly grew a large tree out of the ground behind her, causing it to shoot out of the ground at an angle and hit her own construct in the back, propelling it forward after zander's last blow had sent her staggering back.
As the construct was launched forward, Willow used Clover to massively swell her construct's arm as it swung for an uppercut. The increased size, the unexpectedly quick counter attack, and the extra speed kept Zander from reacting in time, and Willow's construct landed a devastating uppercut, knocking the head of Hunter's golem straight into the ceiling. Zander had avoided getting smacked in the face by the golem's head as it flew up, but he'd leaned back too far and ended up toppling off his golem, only barely avoiding a painful landing on the ground below cause he backflipped.
then Zander tried to have his now headless golem continue its attack, but Willow had her construct tackle it, smashing it into the ground and causing the rubble that made its body to scatter everywhere. Her plant construct then glowed green and disintegrated into raw plant magic, which spread across the entire ring, coating it in moss and grass that grew so thick that each chunk of rubble was covered, keeping Zander from easily rebuilding his golem.
but then willow sent a stone fist at her face but then a mask like item fell off her opponents face reveal to be a plumber id mask the person revealed to be blaze.then coven squats came out and the emerald entrails. He then grabs luz golden key with his cables toward at the center of the arena then pulled Griseous Orb from the ground.
.Apollo then grabbed it from blaze using his all mighty pull. well look like it's show time blaze said as He stood up. Then He lifted his head to the sky. He turned his sights on rj, blasting her and some surrounding squats to the ground. Turning around, blaze blasted all the squats and some of the entrails but Apollo.
Blaze blasted Apollo, knocking him on his butt. The orb went flying from his hands to hunter, who wanted to catch it, but blaze blasted him. Hunter spun in the air, kicking the amulet to willow,she caught it.
blaze turned around and pointed his finger at hunter. "This is between me and the girl!" He screamed. Then he yelled, throwing his hands in the air. An inky purple and green force field appeared.
We can't get through! It's a force field." Gus observed.
"Pity," blaze yelled over the powerful winds that became contained in the bubble. "Things were going so well until you and your friend showed up." He sounded disgusted.
"Sorry to spoil your fun," willow yelled out. She placed the orb in her bag.
blaze sickly grinned at him. "Hand over the orb." He ordered, bending down and picking up a fallen sword.
willow summoned her Keyblade. "I can't do that." She told blaze. The two circled each other.
"Well, then…" blaze continued to round a circle with willow standing opposite of him. "I'll have to take it from you." With that blaze said as willow charging him.
Both swung and paired, neither hitting each other. Then that developed into a grudge match with their weapons. "You're a brave one oh and thank the principle of glandus for this,he just really wanted to win another tournament," blaze mentioned.
"yes I am," willow told him. Blaze tried to reach for her bag to get the orb but shifted the sword fight so they were shoulder to shoulder.
"Give me the orb." Blaze sneered.
"never," willow replied. She kicked blaze back. Willow ended rolling on the ground. She hit the force field and groaned.
blaze towered over her. "You put up quite a fight," He commented, yanking willow to his feet. "But now, prepare to meet your fate." He threw willow to ground and stood over her yet again.
willow climbed to her feet, holding her own against blaze. Blaze had his sword pressed against willow's Keyblade in a grudge match.
then blaze drew a spell circle around himself, which killed the grass and moss growing directly around him. He then drew a second circle and began to charge a large amount of raw amber magic into a ball floating on the end of his staff.
Once it was charged, he would unleash a blast of magic that would hopefully be enough to finally send Willow out of the ring and end the duel in his favour.
Willow saw this and decided that if Blaze wanted to end things like that, then she would respond in kind. She began to channel raw plant magic to the end of her staff, creating a green ball of magic that grew to match the size of blaze's. For a moment, the two looked up and locked eyes; both realising the duel was about to end.
With a battle cry, Hunter thrust his staff forward and fired the amber beam of magic straight at Willow. She immediately returned fire with her own green beam of magic, and the two blasts collided in the dead centre of the ring.
The force of their collision gave off a shockwave that pushed the audience back in their seats, and for several seconds, there was a stalemate as both witches used all the magic they had at their disposal.
One moment, blaze's beam would overpower Willow's and inch closer to her, and then the next Willow would force it back and turn the tables, before the two equalised and the struggle was even once again.
Both were filled with feelings of exhilaration, enjoying the sensation of pushing their magic to the limit. Willow and Clover were the stronger team, each having magic of their own to fuel the blast, but blaze held their own with skill and experience.
blaze knew how to maximize the power of every drop of magic. Slowly, blaze began to overpower Willow and as his beam crept closer and the girl realised she had nothing more to throw back, a voice in her head sighed.
But as Willow looked up, at blaze, another voice inside her said; "No. We are not done!"
Throwing caution to the wind and forgetting everything but the opponent in front of her, Willow allowed blaze's beam to overtake hers a little more so she could use a bit of magic to cast a spell on the grass and moss she'd coated the ring with.
All of it melted into green light and flooded into her, converting plant matter into raw magical power, and with this massive windfall, Willow was able to blast back against Hunter with all her might.
The added power was too much for blaze to counter and to his shock,his beam was completely overpowered and Willow's blast struck him in the chest and sent him flying against the top of the bubble..then The bubble disappeared. Blaze sat up seeing a whole in his chest as sparks of electricity coming out of him,
what nooo blaze screaming in anger..as he explodes.
Willow's beam dissipated and the girl was about to collapsed to her knees but then hunter caught her.
Glandus is disqualified for cheating in belos said.
And the winner of the tournament is willow park of hexside rj announced, as theaudience burst into roaring cheers and cacophonous clapping.
Willow panted tiredly as she listened to the sound of the cheering crowd. She'd done it! She'd defeated blaze! She's won!
everyone was cheering for her and her team, the winners of the Grand Prize none of them wanted! Willow could barely bring herself to look over to her friends, ran up to her.
hunter know howWillow was strong.
"Are you okay, Captain?" Hunter asked kindly.
"Y-Yeah." Willow swallowed thickly; "Just… adrenaline, you know? I wasn't expecting this…
seriously, well done!"gus said.
Belos Summoning a microphone, he smiled brightly; "Well everyone, that was an amazing series of duels! Hexside and Glandus both gave it their "Now it my great pleasure to announce Hexside as the winners of this year's tournament! Give them all a round of applause!"
The crowd did so, and so did the other schools The Emerald Entrails tried not to let their true feelings be too obvious as they waved at the applauding crowd and took a bow, though they all looked nervous and Willow looked and felt ready to throw up.
luz gave willow a senzu bean,helping restore her health and strength.
Hunter applauded too, then spoke once more; "And as the winners of this year's event, they are the recipients of the Grand Prize, provided by the Emperor himself! And that prize is this hunter said as he hands each one of the Emerald Entrails trophies and metals to them even hunter even though he didn't participate in the tournament he's still a member of the Emerald Entrails. Unknown to them. A black and yellow male armor robot,with a mask/helmet, he has an arm cannon on his right arm and is the same size as Mega Man. He has a jet blade on his back.