obliviousRoadie — Roleplayer Guild

Jiang Zhao VS Garbage
Round Two

Jiang stopped the mess of gunshots and trumpets abruptly, which shifted into a continuous, soft drum roll. Concrete dust swirled around all over the place, its most dense spots marking the craters left from his magically-summoned arsenal. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed at the girl's ridiculous question. It was painfully obvious that this was a military march and she dares to even think of asking? Just what kind of musically handicapped individual was she? What was she even aiming by doing that? "It's a march, right?" Hmph. Mind of a nong.

"Of course it's a military march, laowai. A North Korean march - the most intense kind, in my opinion. Those bangzi hermits are really into beating their chest, as you can see.", he replied, with a slight tone of condescension. "...And this Baton was built with the sole purpose of sowing terror and destruction, when no other option is available. Do you really think I'm insane enough to bring this dangerous weapon to one of my concerts? Let alone being given permission by the Chinese Government to do that.", he added, ever so disdainfully, as an answer to Garbage's first statement, although it was sometimes quite tempting for him to show his true power to the world.

He stood there in the silence, expecting an attack or another statement which pointed out the obvious.

Jiang did not have time to examine the girl back at the Atrium, and neither did he even notice her in hindsight, so she was quite the mystery to him. There was definitely something, though - something about her voice that was pointedly convincing. It somewhat reminded him of the Lantern his tall lackey was holding in his hand. Maybe this was her thing - sweet-talking her way to victory.

Whatever it was, he couldn't afford to drop his guard. He kept holding his hands up to the level of his abdomen and constantly spun the baton around very slowly, to keep the ominous drum roll going. 

"Hey, uh...Mr. Conductor?"

"That's Mr. Zhao to you, laowai. What do you want?"

"...Mr. Zhao, I have an idea that I think you should definitely consider noting."

Jiang raised his eyebrow. "Go ahead. Do your worst."

"I'm not saying anything until you promise you won't shoot if I get out of my cover now."

"...You do realize how awfully suspicious that sounds. Where are you going with this?"

"I know, but trust me on this, alright? Just this once, come on!"

He was convinced, but not just yet.

"What about weapons? You have any?"

Some shuffling was heard for a few seconds before a knife jumped up into the air from behind the ruined block of concrete and dropped somewhere behind Jiang, making a few metallic clanks before resting into place with a scrape. He kept his gaze at the concrete block.

"That knife wasn't very convincing, laowai. I want you to raise your hands as high as you can above your head and stand up as slowly as you can.", he insisted. "Maybe then I can scratch turning you into Swiss cheese off my list and actually listen to your ridiculous idea.", he added, threateningly, as he watched two hands pop up from behind the concrete and the cloaked girl, now with her hood off, slowly emerge from her cover.

Jiang slightly, but noticeably increased the intensity of the drum roll. He then began twitching the Baton up and down in a particular tact, turning the drum roll into a rhythmic, heart-like beat. This was to appear dangerous.

"Now make four steps ahead."

Her combat boots made low-pitched taps on the floor, which echoed throughout the ruined building.

The two rivals eyeballed each other, both of them noticing the other was wearing a strange set of clothing for a tournament.

"Remove the cloak.", he commanded. "You have something strapped to your back."

She untied her cloak and held it up in the air, revealing an accordion.

"Speak up, then."

"How does a truce sound to you?"

"No. The Machine grants only a single wish."

"We'll just settle this at the end. Until then, me and you. With your awesome power and my silver tongue, we can definitely beat them all."

"No."

"Listen to me - you'll get the perfect chance to fight for your wish. You want to become the best and steal the limelight, right?, she said as she ever so slightly inched closer and closer to the Asian.

"Yes, but-

"We both know I have no chance of winning this fight right now. However, I might be useful to you in future battles, as you certainly will be to me."

"PFUH! 废话! <Nonsense!>", he spat on the floor. "How am I supposed to know you don't just want to steal my phylactery?!"

As she got closer, the drumming got quieter and quieter. He was visibly becoming more convinced.

"Because I want a fair fight, as do you. Surely, a man of your skill level and mastery would prefer an opponent to match it.", she responded. "By the end of this tournament, I will have become much stronger...And perhaps much more suited to appreciating your grand symphony of destruction." she said by the time she was almost within arm's reach of Jiang's phylactery.

At this point he could feel her gaze from behind the mask yanking his heartstrings. He couldn't say anything - anything but "yes". He tried as hard as he can to say anything other than "yes", but each time he did, no matter what, he would feel something clogging his throat, preventing him from saying whatever he had in mind. The only thing he really had in mind at that moment was to accept the offer, some sort of potent power prevented him from thinking otherwise.

"What do you say, Mr. Zhao? You wanna bring them all down with me?"

The rhythm of the invisible drums became very slow and faint.

dum dum

dum   dum

dum       dum

dum

...

dum

"You know what, laowai? I th-"

Suddenly, the very loud sound of two metallic feet scraping the floor came from the side. Jiang looked to the side and saw one of the robots scrambling out of its cover, its bronze body gonging and jingling as it hit the floor while it was trying to get up and run away. Garbage immediately lunged towards him and attempted to reach for the phylactery.

At that same moment, he whipped the Baton downwards and a heavy electronic bass drop blasted out of nowhere. With it, a thick steel barricade quickly broke upwards through the ground, sending hundreds of concrete chunks everywhere and blasting the girl backwards.
obliviousRoadie Member

big mac machine breaker extraordinaire

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