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((If Adrastos continues to talk and think, I might break the record for most asterisks used.))
She cleared her throat and directed a short question towards the registration officer speaking slowly in to keep her voice from cracking, "Excuse me. How long... until the tournament... starts?"
((I donno about that, lately Damien's been in a rare form lol))
The clerk looked flabbergasted after Adrastos's outrage. "P-please calm down sir... It is almost time for the ceremony. Listen, you can hear the audience above us. I'll escort you all in a moment... I just hope Mr. Raem will show up soon..." Fortunately, the final contestant, Eraclease, arrived just a moment later. "Oh, excellent timing!!" The clerk was happy, since he could finally get rid of these scary people, especially the one with an anger management issue. The clerk guided the twenty people down the hall and up a small flight of stairs. "Sorry, the complex is a bit old. We should be updating the facility sooner or later. Stairs are so 19th century."
A few minutes later, the twenty were guided throw an archway leading out into the center of the Rockwell Bowl. The stadium erupted in cheers. "I'd say, 'Give a warm welcome to our competitors,' but you guys have beaten me to the punch!" Charlie yelled over the crowd.
"If you all will calm down for a minute, we would like to introduce you to your twenty fighters for this week's central entertainment," Dr. William said, quieting most of the crowd so they could hear the introductions. "First up, we would like to welcome back Marie Raiken, C.E.O. of Raiken Corp. After leaving the ring in 1960, she has been dearly missed, but the famous three-time world champion has returned!" The crowd cheered.
"Of course, she is not the old champ here today! Our defending champ, Pinyana Raiken IX, is back and ready to go. And don't let those wings fool you--they nearly fool us--but that man in the LED helmet is the one and only R'lyeh Madrigal!! Three champions, two with more than one victory under their belt. Will Marie or R'lyeh defend the honor of the Neo-Genners, or will Pinyana prove the mettle of the new generation?!"
"Charlie, don't get ahead of yourself. We've got a potential dark horse present. Don't let her innocent appearance fool you. Let me introduce you to Adele Thanos, a Tanan chef, though her mother is from Etrean nobility and her father is from N.I.U. She took down her opponents in the elimination rounds without breaking a sweet."
"Wow! That is impressive. We've also got two major vets returning. Also coming out of retirement in the competitive circuit is Nina Godfried, the infamous assassin. She placed in the Top 4 of the 1955 tournament and Top 8 of the 1965 tournament. Also from the Top 8 of a previous tournament is Romarh Comech, a former military commando."
"Any other noteworthy folks, Charlie?"
"Yeah, actually. We've got the daughter and granddaughter of Tannishtha Satpathy, another Top 4 fight from the legendary 1955 tournament. Dress for the club, let me introduce Farida Satpathy, a master of Chou Ryu. Her daughter is Luna Satpathy, who uses a style dubbed Ou Ryu. Sounds deadly."
"Our specialists are still trying to figure out how it works, but it was devastating during the elimination matches."
"We've also got a third Raiken here, Pinyana's loving husband Rakurai. Ain't it nice to have a happy family ready to bring home the gold?"
"Our other competitors come from around the world. Besides the Satpathys and Mr. Madrigal, another Etrean has made the long journey here. Please give a warm welcome to Adrastos Polemece."
"Also against the odds, we've got a cute little Commie here today. Say hey to Jeane Grant from Zotta."
"Before we get too ahead of ourselves Charlies, I think the girls here would like us to take a moment to give the stag to their heartthrob rock star. Please welcome Riley Skylex, who is making the transition from music to competitive battle." Dr. William had to give a long pause for the fangirls to go wild. "We've also got quite a few Allanans here: Private Investigator Vendetta Vandort, Janet Abendrot, Trenzattium Anheim, and Enrica Gardello from the Order of Wolves. From Autumne, please welcome Lobo Hunt."
"And of course, the remaining fighters here come from the one and only Tana!" A lot of the audience cheered. "Adele Thanos's husband is here competing with her, Officer James Thanos. The infamous molester-extraordinary Eycopefield is present, so keep an eye out! The young man with the unique hairdo is Eraclease Raem, also from Rockwell like many of our competitors. That's everyone, right Dr. William?"
"Correct, Charlie. Thus it is now time to announce the brackets. In Division A, fighting in the ancient coliseum located in the northwest, will be the defending Champion, Pinyana, as well as Nina, Lobo, Vendetta, and Jeane. In Division B, fighting in the northeast stadium, will be returning champion R'lyeh and Luna, Janet, Trenzattimus, and Eycopefield. In Division C, fighting in the southwest stadium, will be Adele, Romarh, Farida, Eraclease, and Rakurai. In Division D, fighting in the southwest stadium, will be returning champion Marie and Adrastos, Enrica, Riley, and James."
"As most of you all know, the ticket data installed in you was preset for one of the four arenas. Don't fret, we aren't so mean to completely disbar you guys from following your favorites. Please head to the Information Kiosk to organize a ticket data trade. All four stadiums are sold out, so don't try to sneak in; the scanners will catch you. The clerks at the kiosk will do their best to facilitate trades. The first round will begin at three. But first, let's let our competitors cast their votes for the format of this year's tournament. The first around will be the grueling and explosive five-man-melee! But what about round 2? Will they vote to make round 2 one-on-one, or will they keep up the brawl format for one more round?"
"Next, our competitors will vote on the prize money. The grand prize is one billion Hals in the winner-takes-all format. However, the competitors can decide if they would rather have the prize money split between the Top 4. Winner will take half, runner up will take a quarter, and the final quarter billion will be split between the other Top 4 competitors. Please give our competitors to cast their votes. Competitors, when you are ready, please think, 'I wish to fight round two as a brawl or as one-on-one; and I want the prize to be split or not split.' Everyone, please keep quiet for the next minute or so until we announce their decisions."
((Since I have 9/20 of the cast, I'm more interested in what some of you all want to do. Cast your votes ASAP; I'll be moving on regardless at noon today, since my characters can easily bring things to a majority. Since more of my characters could go either way, I will have the votes honor your all's votes. Also note that I will be posting the meta-rules for the tournament in the OOC soon.))
R'lyeh had known that he would not end up fighting Pinyana or Marie in the first round. Still, he looked forward to fighting the Satpathy. He also hoped that Adrastos would do well, so that a fellow Etrean might win the tournament. He thought to himself when prompted 'One-on-one, winner takes all.'
Fighting the reigning champion was indeed going to be interesting. Trez could admit it he was nervous. But he also knew that if didnt give it all he had, he was sure to fail.
And I cant fail," Trez thought. "I need this money."
Trez filled his mind with thoughts of what he desired from the tournament. "I want to fight everyone at once -- with the winner taking all.
"I guess I can feel pretty good about coming this far on a rather ridiculous push to try this out if I got to share a round with the former champion. Well, I'll be glad however it turns out, but it's hard to fight down some pride at this stage."
Jeane's smile faded a bit as she pressed a bit closer to Pinyana and lowered her voice. "Who is that woman who was shouting nonsense earlier? Is that really going to be alright? I'd like to think she's just an idiot with an impossible grudge, but that confidence is really creepy..."
"I wish to fight in round two as one-on-one and winner takes all." Lobo thought.
Jeane quickly shook hands, then left, intending to speak briefly with Lobos, but she bumped into Vendetta first. After but a moment, she decided not to be rude and spoke with him quickly instead. "It's nice to meet you. It seems that the two biggest monsters have a bone to pick, so we might stand a bit more of a chance than I'd have thought. Still, you seem to have quite the impressive weapon at hand. The personality seems inscribed, but... isn't it rather old? You certainly seem to have someone special there. Good luck to you in the match."
After that, the detective left Jeane and wandered off on his own.
"Watch out for her.." Dai Catarina warned.
"You're paranoid." Vendetta answered back.
"They're all your enemies. Watch out for all of them." the gun emphasized.
"I know that much.. It's safe to assume everyone's hiding something. Us included." The detective began.
"Fair enough.." The gun said quietly.
"It was a close race in both fields, but a majority came out!" Charlie inserted.
"Correct. Round 2 will have one-on-one matches, and the prize money shall be split up between the Top 4."
"So without further to do, let's get this party start! See you all back her in three days for the semi-finals. In the meantime, make your way for your spot in the four smaller stadiums to watch the different divisions fight it out. Who all will make it back here for the epic Top 4 matches? Will the champions come on top, or have we underestimated the newbies?! Let's find out!!"
The twenty competitors were split up into their different divisions and shepherd to their proper stadium. Most of the stadiums were the same as the Rockwell Bowl, just much, much smaller. The area had a ceramic tile floor that covered the whole fighting area. The tiles were sturdy but fairly soft; the material was definitely custom made. The exception was the ancient coliseum where Division A was. The floor was made of dirt, not at all modernized. As each set of five arrived in the stadium, they were given a chair and some water and were told to wait for just an hour or so for all of the spectators to arrive. The hour passed uneventfully, and finally the tournament began.
Division A
"Hello everyone, it is a pleasure to be here," said a middle aged man in a humble but powerful voice. "I am Mayor Daisuke Kaden of Rockwell, and I will be one of the announcers for the next two days. I am so happy to be here."
"It's an honor to have you here, Mr. Mayor," said an elderly woman. "I am Pearlie Breed, retired actress. If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Mayor, but the defending champion is your daughter-in-law."
"Yes, yes, my son somehow won the heart of the beautiful, sweet, and talented Pinyana. I never knew he had it in him!"
"Your son is here competing to day as well. Quite the family event."
"I just hope he doesn't make too much of a fool out of himself," the father sighed. "Now, on to the battles. We've all been introduced to our five fighters, so without a further to do, let Round 1 of Division A begin!"
Immediately, Pinyana took action, drawing her sword and pointing it at Nina. Right before she made a move, she hesitated and stopped. "Damn, Nina is ready to use Light Void. ...I never tested it, but based on my foresight, it would work. Damnit... Here she comes." Pinyana held back her sword strike, since she foresaw the Nina would use the spatial spell Light Void to redirect and absorb the sword in its light-photon-form. Pinyana knew the Nina could not directly attack her, but the werewolf had another move on hand.
"Tractus!" the insane werewolf screamed, drawing time to a new stand-still. Pinyana could still move at this time. Thanks to foresight, she knew where Nina would be come from, even though Pinyana herself was currently time-unconscious. With Nina's trajectory known, Pinyana could move at light speed the moment before time was paused. While her movements were not at light-speed (instead, she now moved at a normal pace), she tried to avoid Nina's trap by moving out of the way. While Nina was surprised to see Pinyana resisting Tractus in such a way, the werewolf was still far faster. Nina stretched out her wires, making them taught. She began to jump around Pinyana, surrounding the champion with spatial replicas of her sharp wires. Nina then retreated as silently cast Cage, a barrier spell that formed a small cage around Pinyana. Tractus ended, and Pinyana quickly brought herself to a stop. Still, she had moved just a few inches forward, causing herself to run head-first into some wire. Her armor was partly slice but resisted well enough to avoid injuring Pinyana. However, since the wires were spatial spiritus replicas, the wires were in a fixed space and would cut anything. Pinyana was trapped in every regard and should would be killed before should could escape. "If I touched you with my wires, I bet it'd somehow find a way to electrocute me, but in this setting I win the moment you take more than one foot forward. Now excuse me, I have to take care of one of these weaklings." Nina smiled to herself as she faced the other three.
Division B
As the members of Division B entered the arena, Eycopefield thought silently to himself. "They'll be expecting something from me. Can't let down my public rouse. So, who should I molest for the opening move? Hmmm... R'lyeh is so enigmatic that I'm not sure what to think of him. I'm sure the audience feels the same way. Janet is fairly normal looking. I think Luna's the cutest, but most people would probably disagree due to her physique. I guess that leaves the pretty boy. Hehehehe, this'll be fun.
"Welcome to Division B, everyone!" yelled Charlie. "Surprised?! So am I... One of our guests failed to show up. Anyway, time to get this party st--"
"Excuse me, but I would like at least some kind of introduction," a young woman interrupted.
"Oh yeah! If that sexy voice wasn't enough of a clue, I'm with Lenore, the popular R&B singer."
"Thank you Charlie-dear. Everyone, let's enjoy the show!"
With that cue, Eycopefield jumped into action and froze time with his spirit. He skipped over to the frozen Trez and put his arms around the man. "Give me some sugar~!" he said to himself as he kissed Trez on the lips, releasing the time stop. He couldn't wait to the shocked and disgusted expression. Hope he'll know I could have done much worst.
Meanwhile, a more serious competitor faced down R'lyeh. "You, me, right now," said Luna. "I'm going to kick your feathered ***, you dumbass bird!" She took a defensive stance, ready to counter whatever he planned to throw at her. She wanted to shock him with her ability before she moved into for the kill.
Division C
In Division C's arena, two new guests introduced themselves. One was named Kimber and the other was Digna. The battle began. Farida stood her ground. She wasn't sure who to attack first. She figured to avoid Adele, since the fat woman was apparently considered a likely candidate for the Top 4. Rakurai, meanwhile, eyeballed his opponents. "Err... Not many metal-wearers... This could be--Oh wait, he has knives!" Rakurai decided to try and take out Eraclease, since his powers were practically useless on the others. The hippie activated his magnetic spirit, using it to draw in all metal around him with an intense pull. He planned to quickly revert the process right before impact to catch Eraclease defenseless and open to an electric bear hug. Finally, Adele formed her spiritual force field around her body and began marching forward to crush Romarh.
Division D
The group in Division D were welcomed by Dr. William and a girl named Jessi--she emphasized that her name ended with an "i" not an "ie." Marie waved at her fans. Oddly enough, she did not remove her blindfold. "What's this? Is she planning on fighting blind?" asked Jessi.
"No, Marie's foresight allows her to see. However, she has in past tournaments taken off her blindfold so her fear spirit would be in effect. Is she planning on fighting these youngsters without her trump card?" Dr. William wondered.
James drew his guns, and Marie drew her rapier. The young police officer aimed at the rockstar and fired. "Sorry kid."
"Your mana's my mana, my mana's your mana." The gun said to the detective.
"Stonewater" Vendetta said as he cast the metal spell in a wide arc beginning at Nina's left arm and spreading out from there away from the assassin. If he were lucky, he would hit the werewolf and debilitate her arm, though that was not his actual intent. As the spell passed Nina, the metal stuck to the walls of the arena. Vendetta's eyes took on a slightly different appearance as he focused on the now-metal coated walls and fired a bullet at them. Vendetta had trained as a shooter for some time and used the metal to angle a ricocheted bullet at Nina's back.
R'lyeh stared directly at Luna as his LED display read 'Let's fight, then.'
R'lyeh began by creating a ring of explosions directly surrounding Luna, constant blasts of energy firing away directly at the Satpathy. He waited, meanwhile, spear in hand, for anyone to get closer to him.
He lowered himself back down, floating a few inches above the water, so as not to be in violation of rules. He then banged on the keys in a disjointed manner, and small waves began to crash all around the arena, and they were heavy, attempted to smash into the competitors and bring them into the water.
Her gaze briefly fixed on Nina as her eyes closed, and focused on her psychic spirit. She quickly planted the suggestion of almost instinctively expecting an attack from Lobo, just briefly enough to let it flutter through Nina's consciousness. In a high-adrenaline scenario, a persistent thought was the first one second guessed, so she knew she'd waste her time if she paused for more. Opening her eyes again, she thought beside her counting: "If Pinyana's down, should I go sooner? If I did, wouldn't she have already known it and not gone after Nina? I have to decide quickly whether I can wait since their conflict ended so fast."
Rolling his arms, Trez squatted down out of the mans grip. Twirling on his toes, he moved backwards to give himself some space. Trezs lips were pursed, looked as if he had just tasted something potently sour.
I can appreciate your feelings, Trez said shaking his head side to side, but Im afraid I dont share them.
Well, hes either very fast, thought Trez, or he can stop time. Either way
Lubel! Trez shouted to the air.
Immediately a black haired in loose black garb appeared in front of Trez.
This fellow is quite a bit quicker than I. Would you so mind taking care of him?
Ill see what I can do, responded the Auctoritae, drawing his Tractus Blade.
The Auctoritae began to walk calmly towards Eyecopefield, blade drawn. Lubel had not having accelerated his physical speed using chronomancy -- after all, showing one's hand so early in a fight would be ineffectual and foolish. Lubel did, however, begin to amplify his perception of time as to be completely prepared should his opponent commence with rapid movements or time techniques.
Trez meanwhile, took this opportunity to draw his rapier from his side. Once it was out, he began to dance around the ring, keeping an eye on his competitors. Trez dipped and slid, spun and hopped. His movements were fluid, and his footwork never sent him in the same direction for long. Trez knew he still needed to have a better gauge of what his opponents could do before risking attacks. For now, he would observe what he could, and hope that Eyecopefield didnt cause Lubel too much trouble.
Division A
"Wow, what unexpected attacks from Nina. To think the defending champion has already been defeat..." remarked the mayor.
"Unfortunately, she is still standing, so the match won't be over until one of the other four are defeated. It looks like Jeane is preparing her defenses while Vendetta prepares to draw away the dangerous Nina," commented Pearlie.
"That's not what I'm worried about," Pinyana thought. "That girl is planning much more than just defenses..."
Meanwhile, Nina quickly reacted to Vendetta's attack. She silently activated Bullet Time, allowing her to use her insane speed to jump over the spell. She saw him fire, and she realized her wasn't aiming at her. She quickly looked over her left shoulder and saw the incoming ricochet bullet. Using the last few seconds of Bullet Time, she narrowly dodged the bullet as it nipped her suite's coattail. The bullet zipped on, becoming embedded in a wall somewhere behind Vendetta's left flank. "Cute move," she praised the detective. Sadly, she was now interested in him. She activated Hyper Time on herself and Sloth Time on Vendetta and she ran towards him, ready to cut him down. "He shouldn't be able to draw that living gun in this state."
"LUBEL!" She screamed as the detective reappeared, half-summoning the auctoritae of time to provide some temporal correction to her owner.
Vendetta was brought back by the auctoritae of time which Dai Catarina had placed over him, allowing him to move his head freely and speak. "Thanks DiCat."Vendetta said as he was drawn into consciousness and realized what was happening. "Death Cloud." He said as he cast a cloud of corrosive poison around himself which he hoped would act as a shield from further close range attacks on the part of the werewolves.
R'lyeh meanwhile was pleased that Janet had retaliated, and proceeded to destroy the icicles with further explosions before continuing his onslaught of the two women, this time cranking up the explosions to the point where they would hurt Janet, who he was less than pleased with at finding that the sudden explosions had not phased her very much.
Division B
Luna quickly began to punch each explosion, as insane as that sounds. Her fists glowed with an ethereal aura, and each explosion she somehow connected with was crushed on the spiritual level. Luna literally punched her way through the explosions so she could close the gap between her and R'lyeh. She ran towards him, moving far faster than a human; her speed was on par with a phoenix. Her left hand reached out to grab the spear, while she curled her right hand into a fist. She planned on grabbing the spear and pulling him into a direct strike to his gut.
Eycopefield, meanwhile stared down the Auctorita of Time. OK, so he's a conjurer. And boy can he shake his money-maker... No, not time for that, Ned! Think, he said Lubel. Try to remember what Lubel does. Space? Sound? Water? Earth? Or does he plan to fight fire with fire and summoned up an entity of time? ...I really should read up on my magic. Dumbass prep on my part. Eycopefield sighed. "Well, nothing to it but to do it!!" He slowed down time as his time stopping ability recharged. He was already slightly above average in speed, so the affect made him much faster; he could currently out run even Luna and R'lyeh. Of course, his target was the dancing duelist. With his speed cut in half, Trez would be open to Eycopefield. Eycopefield was running towards Trez, ready to deliver a resounding spike-kick to the face. He just hoped Lubel wasn't able to keep up with him.