[Half a Month Before the Games]
Being the adventurous person that Ike was, he went from town to town for a couple of years while training his magic. He was more so trying to find other people who would have a clue on how he could improve it, or at least make the energy absorption absorb at a quicker rate. He only found one person in his travels and they were six years old. So alas the great Ike wouldn't be learning much from him, although he wouldn't deny that he learned one thing: to spit energy out of his mouth. It was too awesome to pass up.
So one day he arrived in this town called Oak Town after hearing some rumors about a more warlike guild called Frenzy Plant being in the vicinity. He thought that with a guild that was considered warlike that the chances of finding people who could help his magic would be incredibly high. Ike would then survey through the area attempting to find the place yet after an hour of failure he had no luck and so as he was pouting about the location being to hard to find, this tiny old lady asked if he needed assistance. Ike would hold his head up high and laugh loudly at this question.
"The Great Ike needs no assistance..... But a tour to Frenzy Plant would be appreciated." Ike would shout in his loud voice, to which the old woman did that old person laugh before taking his hand and leading him to the guild. Turns out Ike walked past it multiple times and was too oblivious to notice.
Waving the old woman off Ike pushed the doors open and placed his fists on his hips.
"I would like to speak with.... What was it called again? Oh yeah! The guildmaster! I require the guildmaster!" Ike said not caring that people were training for the Grand Magic Games and was using his full volume when speaking.
Immediately inside the grand doors of the Frenzy Fort was a small, rectangular chamber. Though clearly designated a reception area, it also sported shades of a room that could be converted, in times of war, into a Murder Hole. The doors of this area leading into the interior were made of metal and, though open now, easily reinforceable judging by the circular holes in the floor directly behind the doorframe. Vertical slits, usable for either arrow-shooting or spell-slinging, lined the interior walls, and beneath the carpet in the area's center the floor was suspiciously hollow. Even in the ceiling, there was a panel that could be moved out of the way for the pouring of boiling oil. In the new age of magic, such medieval defenses seemed antiquated and useless, but nevertheless they provided a glimpse of Frenzy Plant's fortitude and seriousness when it came to war.
In greeting to Ike came a bright, friendly voice from his right.
""Hello! Welcome to the Frenzy Fort." Against the room's right wall was a long desk covered in neat stacks of folders, binders, and papers, behind which sat a gorgeous woman of about 30 years. Her long, blonde hair streamed behind her, which -coupled with her elegant, extravagant garb- gave her an almost regal air.
She wore a professionally friendly and welcoming expression.
"The guildmaster's on call right now, but I've been cleared to take any messages, requests, or complaints concerning Frenzy Plant. What can I do for you?"As Ike entered the building he would look around the room and do a whistle to signal that he was surprised yet impressed at the same time. The place lived up to the rumors he has heard, it was truly a warlike guild and that was just from looking at the inside of the building. A voice would then sound out which caused Ike to jump a bit before looking at the source of the nice greeting. Now she didn't seem like the type of person he would have seen in a building referenced with war, but hey he didn't judge. For all he knew she could be one of those girls that used their pretty looks to their favor and then bam!
Realizing he was just making up fantasies in his head and not actually answering the woman back he tapped his head for a way to explain this without sounding like an idiot.
"Yes I was told this place was a warlike guild, so I thought what better place to get better with my magic than a place that should specialize in physical magic! So I guess that means I want to join? Yeah thats what I mean. So do I have to punch something or absorb something to show I have physical magic?" Ike asked her as he rubbed the back of his head, not quite realizing that he guessed correctly when he asked if he had to punch something.
Indigo tilted her head at the man's odd phrasing, giving a small, professionally courteous smile. It was easy to tell where the majority of his focus was, and it wasn't on her face.
"Well, something like that. If you want to join, you must defeat in combat a guild member of a rank that you wish to attain. We have C, B, A, and S, so if you wanted to become a B for instance, you'd need to beat one of our Privates and then one of our Lieutenants. Sound good? She rose from her seat, preparing to lead him into the training hall.
Ike scratched his head as her mentioning letters from the alphabet.
"C, B, A?" He mumbled as she explained it a little further.
"Ahhh so C would be weak, while S is the best? That makes sense I guess. So to be this A rank I'd have to beat a Private, Lieutenant, and a Commander? Or was it Corporal?" Ike began to ask before following behind the woman as she would lead in to a training hall.
"Oh yeah my name Is Ike Riven, I guess I will attempt to become an A rank. Achieving this should be nothing for the great Ike! Or I could be horribly wrong....." Ike said as he mumbled the last bit to himself.
A shrug was given in reply.
"Not quite. Other guilds use the same ranking system to express overall strength. Ours is slightly different. For instance, our Private Jillian Suede can lay siege to entire castles on her own, using enormous metal machines to fling stones and giant bolts at them from afar. In a straight fight, however, her machinations take too long to set up. Chester Graham can turn entire battles in our favor with his reconnaissance. A mage capable of leveling opponents but can't take a hit to save his life will be C because of that glaring weakness. So it's less of a total evaluation and more of a...quick-response, flat-out combat evaluation. Follow me, Great Ike."She led the new applicant into the training hall and left him there as she ascended a spiral staircase to the second floor. Not long after, she returned with a
knight on her heels. Though young, the woman was fairly heavily armored, and she bore herself very seriously with traces of anxiety beneath. Cecilia Lenin had only just gotten into magic, let alone Frenzy Plant, but already she was being called upon to test someone for a C-rank. At this point, the Requip user relied totally on her physical fighting capabilities, and one look at the musclebound man she'd be fighting made her nervous indeed.
Still, she said nothing, and the receptionist took the lead.
"Alright Ike, your first opponent will be Cecilia here. She's new to magic, but her training as an enforcer ought to present a worthy obstacle. Arena Command: bracket draw!" Immediately, green lines of light snaked across the floor from the similarly-colored crystal braziers glowing on every cardinal wall. They formed into simply squares around Cecilia and Ike before moving slightly, showing the fighters where to stand before the signal was given.
Ike nodded at her explanation he understood most of what she was saying to him.
"So even if they are a total powerhouse, if they get beat in one shot they would be no better than a C rank. I see, that's understandable then. Good thing gramps taught me to take a beating as a child! Man was he right when he said it would help me in the future." Ike said with a proud grin not caring that some could mistaken what he said as him being abused by his grandpa. So when she told the Great Ike to follow, he nodded not noticing that she was being a little bit of a smartass to him. Thankfully though Ike was good with quick responses; his magic allowed that when his power was saved up enough. So he should be fairly good at what was in store for him.
Led into the training hall she left him there as she went up some circular stairs and then returned with a knight following behind her. Ike looked at the small female knight and was instantly distracted by the shiny armor.
"That is so cool....." Ike mumbled gleaming at the armor like a child would to a favorite hero of theirs. Ike waited for the female to say something and when she didn't the receptionist started speaking instead. She introduced the woman and gave her a brief summary.
"An enforcer? Thats cool, my dad always said they were like these badasses that prevented people from doing something crazy or dumb. Well nice to meet ya then Cecilia!" Ike would say before the receptionist would say some things about an Arena command and like magic the floor had this odd green light that formed two squares for both Cecilia and Ike. Ike looked at his square and stood on it, and then he looked at Cecilia with a smirk on his face as he looked around the area. Attempting to find the path with more clustered magical energy fragments for him to absorb so he could power up right out of the gate.
"Okay. After yesterday's admission with the oni, it's become necessary to declare what actions will earn you a penalty. Damaging the training hall will, since it demonstrated a lack of self control, cheating, and nearly killing the opponent will as well. That last one has...a bit of a harsher penalty. Ready, you two? Time to begin then. Go!"Cecilia bowed quickly before assuming a stance.
"Requip: the Spearman!" There was a flash of silver light, and the knight suddenly held an iron spear and iron kiteshield.
"Hah! she said, as if she had been worried that the spell would work. After flipping her visor down, she raised her shield and leveled her spear, ready for Ike to attack.
"An Oni? Aren't they like demon peeps that eat man's soul? Oh well, no destroying or killing. Don't know how I could cheat but I wont try to." Ike said giving a nod that he was ready, so when they were told to go he let Cecilia do her bow and activate her requip magic. She seemed happy about it and so Ike clapped as well not knowing that she was probably happy it worked and didn't fail.
"So cool." Ike mentioned againand would then blink with his eyes flashing green once to signal his absorption power was activated.
Ike took off in a sprint in a different direction than straight at the girl, the flaw with his magic was he had to be within three feet for the magic fragments to absorb into him and power him up. And all the clusters were farther away from her than three feet. Yet for the moment when he absorbed one cluster he left it at that for now and just absorbed the tiny ones as he began his charge at her. He knew fully well that he shouldn't run straight at someone with a readied weapon and jumped up in the air with a ball of green energy in his hand and chucked it downwards at Cecilia. It was an attack to see what she could do, before he went and expended all his energy out of the gate.
A mundane attack from Ike received a mundane response from Cecilia. Seeing a magical attack flung toward her, the woman knight raised her shield and soaked the verdant ball. With that out of the way, she attempted a spear thrust at Ike's head as he fell back to the ground. A blunted spear like hers, robbed of its point for training purposes, wouldn't break the skin, but would nevertheless hurt.
Ike's eyes widened a tad at her standing her ground against the attack, it showed he was going to have to be more aggressive if he wanted to get past her defense. So when he fell to the ground he coated his head in his green energy and took the attack head on. While it hurt, his coating lessened the pain he would have received otherwise. He quickly pushed the spear to the side and pushed himself within her defenses. He was close enough that she would have to move back to jab him with the spear, yet also close enough that she could just ram him with her shield. So he coated his right arm with his energy and would try to ram as hard as possible into the shield to stun her and would follow it up by sweeping out her legs. That was the plan anyway.
Predictably, Cecilia was not at all comfortable with Ike being so close. She was already beginning to backpedal when her opponent landed a massive hook punch to her shield. If by some miracle he had hit her head, she would have been stunned and then some, but as it was she suffered minimal repercussions from the attack but for a slightly jarred wrist. Using the force of the punch, she allowed herself to slide back and out of the range of his leg sweep. This time, the knight poked at his legs, hoping to hinder his mobility.
His plan went somewhat as he expected it to. His first attack did prevent her from attacking right away, yet it only gave her more opportunities when she used his own force to slide backwards and begin to thrust the lance at him again. Thankfully though she only aimed at his legs, he could easily continue his own assault with this kind of attack. As the thrust got closer to his leg he would jump off the ground to avoid it, yet received a jab to his left leg which wasn't coated in his energy so that stung like hell, thankfully it wasn't a powerful thrust so it didn't move him off course. While in the air he made his way forward while clenching his fists together. They were coated in his green energy and as he made his descent to the ground he swung his clenched fists down towards her. At this point with her defense he was going for brute force to knock her out, he was certain her armor would keep her from taking too much trauma if any of his attacks made direct contact.
Again Ike's fists met metal protection, and again Cecilia was forced back a few steps. While her shield had not been damaged and overall she suffered little, her right forearm was beginning to sting. Clearly, she wasn't good enough with a spear to take the offensive against her opponent. Needing some space to requip, she aimed a shield bash at him, jumped back, and then threw her spear to keep him distracted.
"Requip: the Marauder!"Blocking his attack with her shield again showed that she certainly had talent in playing a defensive game, yet defense was not going to win out in this and the shield bash that was coming at him showed that she knew this. Putting his forearms up he coated them to lessen the damage he took from the shield bash as he held his ground. As she jumped back he started to move forward not wanting to give her any chance to rest and pushed off to the side when the spear came hurdling at him.
He heard her say the requip word and knew something new was to change about her. He began to rush forward and was quite shocked at the fact she was still switching her requips. Just like the receptionist said earlier, any huge flaw would make you a C rank and he could see a big one in her magic. It took too long for her to switch between them and wanting to capitalize on this he expended a bit of his energy to burst forward at her, slightly praying as he launched his right arm forward. He coated his right hand with his green energy and hoped for contact.
"Uh oh." Realizing that she'd underestimates Ike's speed, Cecilia turned ninety degrees to try and position her pauldron in the path of her adversary's fist. The fact that he hit there was a mixed blessing: on one hand, a blow anywhere else would have likely hurt more, and on the other, it still sent a wave of pain through her. Cecilia gritted her teeth, however, and bore it. Those long hours in the gym would not be wasted. She charged into Ike and attempting a headbutt, putting a surprising physical strength behind a helmet of metal. The next moment, her requip finally completed. On her left, attached to her forearm, was a small buckler, and in both hands she held a double-sided poleaxe. The knight swung the dulled blade at his shoulder.
"Gah!" Ike cringed a bit when he landed a blow on her pauldron, normally landing a hit was great but in this case it hurt like hell to hit like hell. Thank God those weren't super sharp or this would hurt way more than it did. Ike grinned though as she began her own attack putting Ike on the defense. He didn't expect her first attack to be a headbutt but hey, if it works then do it. However he rather not take any attack at full power if he could help it so he coated his body and lessened the damaged while skidding back a tad bit. Her power certainly did go up and that itself was helping her.
With her requip completed she had a small shield and, more problematically, the double sided poleaxe she wielded. Ike would watch the swing and would smirk as he raised his left arm and formed an energy shield. The attack pushed him to the side but kept him safe from the actual attack. Dispersing the shield he would grab the pole of the weapon and would pull her towards him while lifting his coated knee into the air to connect with her chin. Hopefully this little plan of action would catch her by surprise.
The knee connected, not with Cecilia's chin, but with the bottom of her helmet. Still, the impact was jarring, and aside from stunning her for a split second it also knocked her helmet off-kilter.
"Egh!" she grunted, yanking on the poleaxe and giving it a wild, blind swing.
He had to give her props whenever he hit her, it would always hurt when he hit. This guild truly had some tough people even for C ranks. Yet when his knee strike knocked her helmet off, she began to panic as she demonstrated by her wild swing. He would duck under the blind attack and would rise upwards towards her head. Without a proper defense she most likely wouldn't be able to fight after this. He would get close to her and with his right fist coated in his energy he sent it bursting out of his fist to give it more impact while expending his energy and connected it to her temple. He didn't even have to know that it was over he caught her and sighed in relief.
"Damn you are one tough ass woman. That was fun as hell!" Ike would say although his words probably wouldn't make it through.
Cecilia made a strange grumbling noise from inside her helmet. Though not completely unconscious, she was clearly in no condition to fight, or even walk. She slumped in Ike's arms. From the left approached a squat figure in white furs and an odd mask, surrounded by little dolls that walked of their own accord. The dolls, under Morimato Tsubano's direction, relieved Ike of his burden and dragged her, clinking and clanking in her armor, toward the medical wing.
Leaning against the outer wall, Indigo frowned.
"She's going to have a headache for a while. Poor girl didn't stand much of a chance. Your next fight will be against Kilo."One of the onlookers pushed himself up from his seat. The
man wore unique attire and an even more original hairdo, but it was his size and bulging muscles that made the biggest impression. As Kilo strode toward the starting square, he kept a neutral expression, but not his axe--that great, gleaming weapon he left behind. Kilo stood, unarmed but still plenty dangerous, and sized up his opponent.
Ike chuckled nervously as she made weird sounds as she slumped in his arms.
"Maybe I overdid it a bit...." Ike mumbled while Indigo would annouce his next fight as some weird person with dolls came and took Cecilia from him. Ike just rubbed the back of his head and then stared in wonder at his next match. He fit the part of a fighter that was for sure, from what Ike could tell he was taller but Kilo had the biggest muscle mass between them.
As Ike inspected him he found out he was also being inspected as well. Ike would grin and look over at the axe he left behind but not question this for now. He was sure it would come into play anyway, so when it did it did. Ike walked up to him and held out his hand.
"I'm ready when you are Kilo!" Ike stated still showing that grin of his off.
Kilo took Ike's hand and gave it a firm shake, but did not smile. To a disillusioned hero, fighting was never something to celebrate, even in controlled circumstances such as these. Combat in the training hall preceded combat in the battlefield, and no matter the skill, or style, or purpose, its purpose was to inflict pain and in war, take lives. Though generally an easy-going kind of man, Kilo could see nothing to be cheerful about in that.
"Then we're both fit for a serious rumble. Afterward, you can join us for dinner in the mess hall, as allies."The signal came, loud and clear.
"Start!"Even as they shook hands Ike wasn't sure if Kilo didn't even want to do this, or if he was just cranky today. Just maybe he was producing this facade so that he could look more manly for everyone, it was a guild about fighting that he knew about anyway. Listening to Kilo speak, Ike would nod in confirmation to his words.
"Sounds good to me dude." Ike replied with before going over to his square box again and waited for Kilo to do the same.
When the signal came Ike's expression changed from his grin to a serious one as he took off sprinting, Ike took a quick glance around the area and noted a few of the magical fragments still lying around after the first match. So if he needed a quick bit of energy he could just get those, not as if those would make a big difference. Yet any bit of energy would help him. As he got closer with his charge he would clamp his hands while locking his fingers together. He would part his palms while keeping his fingers locked, and in the empty space between his palms was a green energy ball that sparked a bit. Ike would point the ball at Kilo and without hesitation push his locked fingers off against the ball sending it flying at Kilo. As it got closer to him he snapped his fingers and watched it separate into multiple tinier balls of energy.
With impunity, Kilo bulled through the entire cluster of minuscule projectiles, thundering straight for Ike at an alarming rate. It was plain that the warrior had trained for both size and speed simultaneously, bulking with with both the thicker power muscles and the leaner movement muscles. With such a physique, he could shrug off weak spells like Ike's splinter orbs. Now in range, he delivered a line-driving haymaker at his opponent's head. He deliberately imparted to the strike more power than speed, planning to correct his course should Ike attempt to dodge.
As Kilo rammed through the small energy scatter shot Ike noted this down.
"Okay next time much bigger shots." Ike said and was about to jump out of the way but he underestimated the muscular man's speed and took the haymaker without putting up any form of defense. Needless to say Ike went sprawling to the ground after the shot and held the left side of his face.
"Yep, that's brain damage.." Ike mumbled standing back up and staring at Kilo.
"Yet if it's a straight up brawl then I have confidence I shall win!" Ike said with his whole body having his green coat to absorb most of the damage while dishing it out. Ike did a charge at Kilo and jumped up kicking out both his legs for a drop kick attack. He also pushed his arms downwards so when he fell to the ground he could get right back up.
Faced with a double kick, Kilo pressed his forearms together like a column wall to block it. He took a step backward to keep from being staggered by the force of the kick, and where Ike's feet impacted his skin they left behind a small amount of greenish char. Kilo then moved forward, lashing out with a Thai Kick as Ike was trying to get back up.
"Confidence?" he asked afterward. [color=FF4F00]"It's good. But confidence is duller than an axe's edge, cooler than a fireball, weaker than strength and slower than speed. Confidence is a means to use weapons, not a weapon. Part of wakin' up and seein' the world for how it is...is to realize that emotions don't win wars."
Ike grunted a bit after feeling like he kicked a wall and planted his hands on the ground and rose back up to his feet just in time to barely avoid the kick skimming past his face. After the kick he would find himself being lectured on Ike saying he had confidence. While Ike could have attacked he listened first before shaking his head at Kilo [color=1a7b30]"That's your definition of confidence then and that's okay, but my definition means you are willing to give it everything you got, despite the disadvantages or fear you may have! Confidence to me means you are willing to prove you are a different man! So I'll show you that my confidence speaks for itself!" Ike said as he charged up another ball of energy between his palms, except this time when he aimed it at Kilo instead of firing off in a scatter ball shot, a torrent of green energy fired off at him instead.
Frowning, Kilo crossed his arms and did not move, not even when the emerald blast crashed into him. The burning force of it forced the warrior to a knee, but afterward he rose, clothes steaming. His face was taut, not permitted by the mind behind it to show any pain.
"You're talkin' 'bout courage. That, I can believe in. That's why I'm fightin' you with no weapon and no magic. If I beat you like this, your confidence has no place here. Come on!" Kilo jumped forward, going for distance rather than speed, and reached out. He grabbed Ike's shoulder, and raised a fist to show his intention of punching his face. Instead, however, he sneakily lashed out with his leg, trying to knock Ike's own out from under him.
Ike smirked at the little progress he made, causing the wall that is Kilo to take a knee from one of his attacks. Kilo rose again which caused Ike to get prepared for another attack from the powerful man, when he corrected Ike on what he was talking about.
"Was I? Well either way I'll show that my confidence will win out in the end!" Ike responded watching Kilo jump through the air and grabbed his shoulder. Ike saw the raised fist and brought his arms up, yet his guard failed when he found himself on his back. Ike was starting to pant a little from exhaustion and remembered back to the knee Kilo had to take from one of his attack
'Okay if I can hinder his movements then this might turn in my favor a bit.' Ike thought as his right arm had the green coating and instead of trying to get himself up, he threw a straight powerful jab right at Kilo's right knee cap. He wouldn't try to break it, just hurt it enough that moving was more of a burden to do.
One perk of fighting Ike was that his magic, as far as Kilo could tell, broadcasted what he was about to do. When the newcomer's right arm began to envelop in energy, Kilo guessed that he'd be using that next. Instead of allowing that punch to land, Kilo raised his leg and brought it down in a stomp on Ike's belly, enough to drive the breath from his lungs. Not wanting to be too brutal, however, Kilo stepped back to allow his opponent to right himself and perform his next move.
"Ahhh shit." Ike muttered as Kilo raised his leg causing his jab to miss its target, and the consequence of this was Ike gasping for air as Kilo's foot slammed on his stomach. Instead of capitalizing on Ike he allowed Ike to stand and regain his breath.
"Taking pity? Thats a little cold." Ike spoke before assuming a combat stance yet again and took off running at Kilo. Both of Ike's arms had the green coating as he arced both of them back. Before Ike got too close though he suddenly spit this green ball out of his mouth at Kilo, this was followed by a machine gun spray of energy balls shooting out of his mouth. He hoped this was enough of a distraction for the moment, so that Ike's real attack could hit and so he launched both his arms forwards and the green coating on his arms shot off them in the form of two big energy orbs. At this point Ike was considering using his Negative Energy to get that extra power to take Kilo down. His fight with Cecilia tired him out more than he thought it would.
Despite having just executed a fake-out, Kilo hadn't been expecting Ike to perform one of his own. The warrior, surprised not only by the origin of the green orbs, but also their volume, threw up an arm over his face to protect his eyes. As a result, Ike's Vert Twincannon blasted his torso unhindered. Kilo grunted and staggered, falling back a step.
Ike's eye light up at the outcome of his attack, while he wasn't expecting him to shield the mini shots he was super glad his Vert Twincannon hit. So when Kilo would stagger Ike wouldn't let the chance slip away from him. The markings on his eyes turned black as he really wanted to make sure Kilo stayed down for the remainder of the fight. Ike would then jump into the air with his black energy forming this giant hammer in his hands.
"Ebon Hammerfall!" Ike would shout as he fell to the ground and towards Kilo and once within range brought his hammer straight downwards toward Kilo. Once this was over, Ike would stop fighting, he was much to exhausted at this point to keep going.
The hammer hit its mark, and Kilo was floored. The big man landed on his back with a weighty
whump and lay still for a few moments, dazed. Though not unconsciousness, it was certainly enough to call the match.
"Done!" called Indigo, springing up from her seat and jogging toward Ike.
"A very close match. Good work, Great Ike!" she gave a friendly smile to him before turning to Kilo.
"Get up, kid. You've had worse than that." Down on the ground, Ike's opponent grumbled something beneath his breath and sat up. He bore neither happiness nor anger on his face, and except for a few new bruises he did not seem out of sorts, so the receptionist did not display any special concern for him. Instead, she addressed the newcomer once again.
"So! B-rank now, feel like trying for A? You look pretty exhausted."With his attack connecting and sending Kilo to the ground, Ike would stand up straight as he gazed at Kilo wondering if that would be it. Sure enough Indigo would call the match over and done which made Ike grin a bit. Indigo would come over and tell the Great Ike that he did a good job, then tell Kilo to get up as he had worse. Despite the fact Ike won, Kilo didn't look like he had lost really, just got unlucky with that one move. Indigo asked Ike if he wanted to try for A now or stick with B for the time being. Ike's markings turned back to green and he shook his head.
"Nah, too tired to keep fighting. I'd end up fighting in a half-assed state. I'll try some other time, but for now Im done. Great fight Kilo!" Ike would reply with before rubbing his head.
"So any chance I can get a tour of this place?" Ike asked wobbling a bit from all the energy he expended.
