Danyel
FourtyTwo
Forsythe
Auz
ButtsnBallsJessi
"Are you enjoying your stay, knight?" A soft voice pulled Jessi out of his relaxing trance. To say Emilia was sitting next to him would be an understatement, as the girl was practically right on top of him. ”Uh. Y-yes Miss. Warov, the accommodations have been more than...Satis..factory.” All words were lost as the exiled princess began running her fingers down his chest. It felt as though someone was dragging the tip of a blade across him, but the wounds it left crossed the line of pain and into pleasure. This along with the gentle breath from her lips made every word she spoke sound like it came from an angel.
When she made the offer, he nearly didn’t reject it; she had even healed him to show she was in good faith. What was so wrong with it anyway? This was the best treatment he had ever had, it was certainly better than trying to keep watch of the princess. But what about all he had done? His training, his service, Jessi worked his entire life to be where he was, how could he turn his back now? It was getting increasingly hard to think as Emilia worked her magic. If only he hadn’t left his tome it would have been keeping his head clear enough to truly think about this.
In the end, while his body wanted to say yes, his heart and soul spoke no loud enough to break his euphoric state. ”No. Stop.” Jessi grabbed Emilia’s hands, but not in anyway forceful, just enough to lightly push them off of him. ”I appreciate the offer, but my heart does not belong to you, the princess, or any other woman for that matter; it belongs to the Imperium. I cannot give up my country for any sort of luxury or power. sorry, but my answer is no.” Hoping she would accept his answer and loosen her grip on his waist, Jessi attempted to stand up. ”If you could excuse me, I have to return to my duties.”
The three days to the tournament went by slowly, between training on his own time and still trying to keep an eye on the princess, Jessi had a lot going on. Not to mention lingering thoughts about his exchange with Emilia. But none of that mattered now as he, Fei, and the rest of the combatants made their way to the center of the Colosseum. Though she must have been trying to hide it, Jessi couldn’t help but notice Fei was actually smiling, probably for the first time since they had traveled. She even spoke to him in a kind manner as she told him ”Make the Imperium proud.” He nodded to her and replied accordingly, ”Let's bring home that Relic.”
The Colosseum roared with applause as the audience almost begged for a show of blood and death that was to come. Jessi checked the straps on his armor to make sure it was on tight, something he had already done a hundred times this day. He was nervous of course, but not afraid. He knew he could manage any of these so called warriors he stood in line with. Well. Except for Fei. He wasn’t sure yet which one of them would be the superior fighter, but it would soon be time to find out.
The thunderous applause died almost the instant Emilia showed her face. It was almost eerily similar to how the people of the Imperium responded when the Imperator spoke. Though Jessi could tell the one difference. The people here did not silence our of respect, but fear.
Emilia got right to the point. Barely speaking of the history behind this tournament and addressing the reason they had traveled all this way; the Red Relic. Once more she went over all the prizes the winner would receive, but in some sort of sick twist, she revealed that there was one more prize to be won…
”IMPOSSIBLE!” Jessi nearly shouted as he saw Asgard sitting beside the exiled princess. His grip around his spear tightened as his knuckles turned white. This was why she told them to avoid the dungeon. She had the red guardian imprisoned this whole time right beneath them. The thought made Jessi sick and livid, and he had nearly been seduced by this black hearted witch!
As furious as Jessi was, he couldn’t ignore Fei as she dropped to the ground. This was no doubt worse beyond anything he could imagine for her. Still this was not a time to give in to hate or despair, they had to stay strong and win this. Jessi knelt down next to Fei and put his hand on her shoulder. ”Princess. I know this is hard, but we need to stay strong if we’re going to...shit!” Jessi could see the fire build up and quick leaped away before Fei sent out a blast. Clearly she didn’t need nor was in the mood for a pep talk, as she went on a rant about how she would destroy everyone here.
This didn’t seem to hinder anyone much as the competition began and they made their way into the dugouts, but not before Fei made it clear he was to make them pay. The first round luckily involved Fei so she could get her anger out. She showed no hesitation in ending the gusty barbarian and made it clear she would be holding nothing back. With that, Jessi was up.
Jessi was up next, his opponent a samurai warrior with a shadow blade of sorts. The battle would be decided upon one factor; range. At far, Jessi would have no way of attacking while the samurai had his shadow blades, and up close, his sword would be much swifter and easier to swing. But at mid range? Jessi’s spear would make short work of the samurai. The trick now would be to find that perfect mid range where his sword couldn’t reach, and his shadow blades would be useless.
As it turned out, The samurai was not prepared for Jessi’s agility as he was able to avoid all shadow attacks and quickly closed the gap. Once he was close enough he pushed the samurai to the defensive as he relentlessly began swinging and stabbing which the man could only block. This didn’t last as Jessi was able to disarm the samurai and send his sword flying. Placing his spear straight at his opponents neck he could see the fear in his eyes and hear the crowd cheering for death. Though tempting to grant their wish, Jessi was not one to kill someone who was unarmed, and pulled his spear away accepting the surrender. Turning around boos from the crowd, the samurai slipped down and pulled a knife from his boot. With Jessi facing the other way, he hurled the blade hoping to stick in his back. Instead, Jessi could hear the knife fly towards him, and in what would seem like a single motion, grabbed it out of the air and sent it straight back into the samurai’s heart.
The crowd once more began cheering as Jessi made his way off the arena and the next combatants were summoned.
