Euphoria’s head spun around at the sound of her name, and she looked at fox girl with surprise. “Oh yo, I thought you were done! C’mon, c’mon, hurry up! Most of em’ already started!” She grabbed Masami by the hand and nearly pulled her off her feet as she half dragged her toward one of the rings. “Yo, hey, I found her, she’s here!”
The crowd turned as one toward them, along with the boy standing in the makeshift ring. Aegus’s eyes were less impassive than before. Slightly surprised, and just a tad more judgemental.
Before Masami stepped into the ring Euphoria took hold of her shoulder. “Hey, listen. Not to give out spoilers or nothing, but that guy’s hard to damage. It’s that ego of his, it’s a real cushion. You want to get through it you got to pull out something
real impressive. You know what I mean. A real display.”
Backing off, she patted Masami on the back and pushed her gently toward the ring.
No spoilers, huh? Masami thought. Whether Euphoria had meant to or not, she had just given her somewhat of an advantage over her opponent. So apparently they thrived on their ego. But...it acted as a cushion? That’s...odd...
Masami entered the confines of the ring, watching her opponent from her side of the field they were allowed. His expression was not one of approval.
She laughed nervously, calling over to him. “Haha...Sorry if i’m a bit late-” Masami said as she scratched her head, “-I had to deal with some personal things. But i’m ready now.”
“Are you?” he asked, not looking for the world as though he really cared. “Are you really? I had assumed you’d gotten cold feet. But, if you say so. I may as well get as much use out of you as I can wring.”
Suddenly, like a lightning bolt cutting through the air, something about Aegus changed. His lazy eyes sharpened and narrowed, his whole body swapped from a weak, unsteady posture to tensed like a hunting tiger in a moment. It was like a switch had been flipped, and this change barely had any time to register before he was upon her. As though he had been storing speed for this instant he sprang to her side, swinging his fist round to catch her in the ribs.
Masami wasn’t prepared for the sudden attack at all. No warning or gunshot this time. He was just mid attack. She was unprepared, but she didn’t need to be. To Masami, every close-quarters-combat attack was highly telegraphed. It was almost like slow-mo as the attack processed in her mind.
But she still had to act fast enough. She couldn’t draw her weapon and her Starballs were still in her mouth, as she had not expected a sudden attack such as the one know presented to her.
She raised her elbow swiftly to intercept Aegus’ wrist at the joint. Which would probably be very painful. The speed and and force of the elbow strike would be enough for her to generate another strike, but this time of air, which she would aim at his stomach. If this succeeded, she would then try and back away, giving herself some space to wield her Soul hilt.
If Aegus felt any pain at all it didn’t show on his face. As the wind battered him is was as though it were trying to batter down a mountain. “Drafty today, isn’t it?” he asked, springing after her, keeping on her even as she moved. It was as though this were an entirely different person from before. As he swept his arms out there was a bright glow in the palm of each, space inverted, and with a popping sound like balloons a pair of silver handled scimitars materialized in his hands. He swung again, and again, and again, a relentless but not wild assault. Every strike was fast and deliberate, every move focussed. “Come on now. Draw that sword of yours! Don’t make me regret wasting my energy. I want to enjoy this as long as I can.”
Masami was a little bummed that her plan to attack and maybe weaken the wrist had failed, but a more pressing matter was present. Having ripped two blades out of seemingly nowhere, Masami had little chance to maneuver as a series or organized cuts was relented upon her by Aegus. Thankfully for her, she was abe to stay just out of the blades’ reach as she danced backwards while he stayed directly upon her, applying a constant offensive pressure.
While Masami wasn’t a stranger to combat, her normal practice partners were quite...predictable. This one was not. She needed to escape his reach quickly. She waited until he was mid-slash with one of his Scimitars, and then opened her mouth widely as she lept backwards once again. As soon as the first Starball left, it began to increase in size extremely rapidly, flying directly at the boy’s face as it erupted into a burst of hot flame. To anyone else, it’d look like Masami was also part dragon.
The second Starball would jump to her right hand as her left drew the hilt from her hip. She would slam the two together, and an ebony blade would sprout from the hilt as she drew it into a defensive grip.
As the fire erupted out the Masami’s mouth Aegus’s grip loosened and his schemitar clattered to the ground. Was it suprise? Fear? Before anyone had any chance to determine the reason he vanished into a sea of flames.
When the flames parted, however, it became clear. There he was, slightly scorch, hunkered down behind a new sword with the scimitars lying at his feet. It wasn’t even really a sword. It was impaled halfway into the arena, one of his burned hands still wrapped around the long brown hilt, more of a giant slab of iron than a sword. It was still enough for him to shelter his entire body. No normal human being would ever hope to wield something like that, he had to have simply conjured it to let it fall into the ground.
He stood up and looked at Masami, something approaching respect in his eyes. “Well, you’re certainly a higher class of mythical creature than I thought. Those are real, aren't they?” He asked, pointing at her ears, and smiled before summoning an exact replica of the sword she was now holding and stepping forward with a single overhead strike.
Masami’s eyes widened as she watched the flames disperse, revealing a only-slightly-charred Aegus, with a massive sword in front of him. Her first Starball had returned to her after glancing off the sword and engulfing it in flames. It was now back to its original form.
Masami smiled happily as her opponent inquired about her ears after giving what was probably a complement for him. “They certainly are!” she exclaimed. But there wasn’t much time to talk about as her opponent
seemingly duplicated her sword.
Interesting… She giggled.
He came at her with an overhead strike.
Goodie, she thought,
even more telegraphed than normal. Her remaining Starball was now just in front of her right shoulder, and at this point had grown into a bubble about the size of her head and developed a beige coloration. She would command it to throw itself at her opponent’s blade, where it would reveal it nature as a thick, sticky substance reminiscent of Napalm, or Tar. At the same moment she would sweep her blade upwards into Aegus’s sword.
It would then
also reveal its true nature. The entire blade would crumble into a cloud of pepper. And she would blow winds from behind herself and into Aegus’s direction.
He slammed his sword directly into the ball of tar and watched as Masami swept her own blade up, scattering both into a thick cloud of black dust that the wind kicked in his direction. It got in his eyes, some sort of horrible death dust. Clever fox, so this was how Aegus Reister died. Surrounded by adoring fans. He could feel the dust eating away at his insides, his eyes melting, his skin burning. He made a gurgling sound and clutched at his throat. He fell to his knees, lamenting his fate. The taste of it, oh gods above the taste, it was like...like…
He sneezed. He took his hands off his throat. Then he stuck out his tongue and licked around his lips. “Is this pepper?” he asked, the symptoms suddenly vanishing. There was a snickering throughout the crowd, a hundred sharpened barbs in his back. He started to go slightly red. “This is pepper. You just tried to kill me with pepper.”
He climbed back to his feet, a little more shakey than before. He cleared his throat, but that didn’t silence anything. So he pulled out another sword, this one a european broadsword with an intricately inlaid blade and a golden pommel. “Let’s end this. I won’t let them say the last move you landed on me was pepper! Come on, hit me with your best shot!” He charged forward and swung, then suddenly dropped the sword. His other hand shot forward, a rapier of the same style as the broadsword appearing in his offhand, hunting Masami like a missle.
Masami had to smirk at his reaction to being face-blasted with pepper. But she had finally made a move that seemed to at least have some effect. Hopefully he’d have blurred vision or shortness of breath or something. He just summoned another sword. The second charge in the Starball attached to her hilt took effect, changing from from a deep black to a bright blue. The blade reformed much differently this time. It wasn’t like the one before, which was reminiscent of a Katana. This one was a very broad blade, possibly resembling the one Aegus has summoned earlier, but smaller. But the blade wasn’t quite solid, it was made of it seemed to be made of electricity.
Her opponent once again took the offensive. He charged at her with a broad-bladed sword, and swung it. Which she obviously tried to block with her much larger sword. But no such luck. She felt the movement of the thinner sword coming towards her right side, but both of her hands were on her own blade, as it was too heavy for one, and she couldn’t move fast enough to block.
She felt the quick chill of the blade touch her skin, and soon the warmth running from the same spot of contact.
She released her control over the form of her blade, and at the same time her remaining Starball flew at her opponent, engulfed in the same unstable element. The would both... explode brilliantly into arcing strikes of purple and blue electricity that would strike both her and Aegus, knocking her backwards off her feet and away from her opponent. She would grip her stomach where the blade had dug into her. She didn’t know how far it had dug, but it
hurt.
Unlike Masami, Aegus wasn’t thrown clear. He didn't move. He couldn't be moved like that. So while she was thrown clear he stood in the center of the crackling hurricane of electricity. Yet there he stood. Blackened and twitching, little arcs of purple and blue jumping out of his body, smoke pouring from his mouth, but there he stood. Smiling.
“He...was right.” He said raspily as the flaming remnants of his shirt fell off his body. “My....butler. How...stimulating...thank...you...” The his head leaned back, his mouth opened wide, his eyes rolled up into his head, and he passed out right there. Still standing.
A whistle sounded as Jokey rushed into the ring, followed close behind by his blank faced medical toadies that immediately started trying to move the boy onto a stretcher with great difficulty. Joey walked up to her and held out a hand to her. “Can you stand to take a bow? Or should we carry you off?”
Masami didn’t respond at first. She was looking up, towards the sky as she lied flat on her back.
That. Hurt.
She shook her head as if snapping from thought.
“Wait... I won?!?!” She exclaimed, moving to prop herself up on her elbow, prompting a grimace of pain. She reached out her right hand towards Euphoria as her left clutched her wound and her separate Starball drifted towards her slowly.
Euphoria looked around, perhaps thinking that one of Masami’s friends from earlier was beside her, before shrugging and leaping into the ring. Her and Jokey lifted Masami up gently between them and the crowd erupted into cheers.
The Jokey poked her in the wound and examined his finger. “Yep, we gotta get that looked at. Toadies!” Two more blank faced guys in medical caps appeared as if from nowhere at his command, bearing another stretcher. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine in time for the next one. Patch her up.” The poke earned another grimace from Masami, and she squealed at Jokey. “AYE!! WATCH IT!”
They laid her down on the stretcher and boar her through the crowd like royalty, toward one of the waiting ambulances. Euphoria waved with both hands.
Secret Condition: Impress Aegur Reister UNLCKED!
