Live From High Above Monsteropolis

Arena Arcadia Presents Episode 2:

YOUR SUBSTANCE OF CHOICE HITS THE FAN

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Image [https://i.imgur.com/idWXKoJ.png]

★ ★ ★ INTRODUCTION ★ ★ ★

Arena Arcadia returns, not to the middle of nowhere but to the deck of a massive airship. Soaring above a high tech cityscape, the logistics are roughly the same--a large, flat ring, surrounded by a designated out-of-bounds zone, surrounded by camera crew and an audience. This week, though, that's all flying high, and the audience is mostly comprised of humans and robots. The sky is heavily clouded, and a cool breeze whips by as the arena/airship courses forward.

Before the first match can begin, however, someone in the ring has a microphone--and this time, it's not the Administration.

Rather, the man with the mic is one of the arena's newest competitors, Crown Chaser. Chaser--a vampire of the Ventrue clan, according to the commentary team--introduces himself with a certain level of flair and a questionable amount of arrogance, garnering a mixed reaction from the live audience. "I hope you're all as excited for this duel as I am," he concludes. "A battlefield like this is where I belong. I promise you this: I will become your champion. ...And you're going to love it.”

The vampire draws his weapon: an ornate and wicked looking scarlet blade.

His opponent--an irradiated ghoul who has patiently waited from the edge of the ring this entire time--draws his weapon: a simple parasol.

★ ★ ★ OPENING MATCH ★ ★ ★

Theodore Oakley vs Crown Chaser

0:00 Chaser appears to have only now seen who his opponent is; he forces a chuckle and quips to the audience, "Does it count as a kill if my opponent's already dead?"

"I'm not dead yet, smoothskin," replies the ghoul on the other side of the ring, "though I guess the same can't be said for you. Don't get cocky, kid." Both men steadily approach the center of the ring.

1:15 Crown Chaser takes a slow, almost casual sort of swing; Oakley blocks it, almost as casually, with his parasol. They hold the position for a moment, with CC finally smirking. "Hey, you did your homework! Good--" He begins to slide his blade back. Theodore grabs hold of the sword outright, locking eyes with his foe. Chaser's smile doesn't shift an inch. "--You'll need every advantage you can GET!” And with that, he jerks his sword backward--and with it, Oakley, slamming a knee into the ghoul's hand.

2:00 The gentlemen are off to the races. Chaser attacks rapidly but not aggressively--jabbing and slashing at his opponent at a gradually increasing rate, as though merely gauging his abilities. Theodore Oakley keeps up, however, batting the flat side of the oncoming sword with his umbrella, defending himself from just the right angles at just the right times. Despite being on the defensive, he has impressive control of the battlefield; he parries and counters only enough to maintain his position, holding his ground with a clearly inferior weapon.

6:23 With a risky feat of dexterity, Theodore uses his umbrella to briefly trap Chaser's blade. While Chaser appears the healthier and stronger of the two, he's caught off balance--and pulled straight into a headbutt from Theodore.

6:25 "Ugh!" The Ventrue stumbles back, seeming more disgusted than hurt. He gathers himself quickly, regaining the smug smile of earlier. "So what IS the deal with your umbrella?," he asks. "I've heard of bringing a knife to a gun fight, but this is a real joke."

Oakley gives the parasol a twirl. "And yet, somehow... you've yet to win."

"'Course not," replies Chaser. "I'm trying to see what you can do." The grip on his sword tightens. Oakley visibly braces himself; he knows something's coming. "Now make this EXCITING for me, please!," CC demands as he launches forward into a thrust--

a thrust so fast that Oakley, even being ready for it, scarcely manages to dodge.

6:54 Though the entire tone of the fight has changed, the eager grin on Chaser's face has not. No longer is he measuring his opponent--he attacks now with an impressive intensity, a speed and a power that even his biggest critics in the audience are stunned by. "So," he asks, "are there any perks to being mostly dead?"

8:37 Theodore Oakley isn't losing, at the very least, which is more than most fighters would be able to say against the assault Crown Chaser is conducting. Despite being armed still with only a parasol, the old ghoul still deftly maneuvers between strikes, blocking and parrying with clear difficulty but nonetheless blocking and parrying. CC is almost a blur, swinging his sword with inhuman force--and though Oakley is quickly losing ground now, being herded back toward the edge of the ring, he's barely taken any real hits. The irritation in Chaser's voice is faint, but present. "Where did you learn to fight?"

10:15 "Tell me," Chaser huffs, forcing his opponent ever closer to the out-of-bounds zone. "What makes you so special?"

Oakley's heel hits the elevated edge of the ring. Nowhere left to go.

"Nothing," Oakley finally responds. "...Now quit your yapping and fight."

10:21 Chaser goes for a thrust; with another debonaire flaunt of his parasol, Oakley catches the blade in the handle and twists it out of his foe's hand. Crown Chaser stumbles back, seemingly shocked as Theodore Oakley now wields both weapons--the meager parasol in one decaying hand, the scarlet sword in his other. His stance suggests he's no stranger to dual wielding; the smirk has disappeared from the vampire's face.

10:27 Crown Chaser makes his play. Faking several different ways before dashing in, he deftly avoids being cut down by his own sword--

and is instead stabbed through the chest with a parasol.

10:28 He does not stop, however. He hardly even slows down, the sinister smirk returning as Chaser barrels forward onto the impaling instrument, grabbing Oakley by the shoulders and taking both men out of the ring. Oakley hits the floor first with Chaser quite deliberately atop him; the judges ring the bell.

Winner: Crown Chaser by Ring Out in 10:28

★ ★ ★ A NEW FEATURE ★ ★ ★

Starting this week, Arena Arcadia is trying something new: hazard matches. Unlike normal matches that take place in the ring and in the arena proper, hazard matches go on location to surrounding areas, giving the fight a more au naturel style. The fighting area is larger, making ring outs less likely, and more importantly: hazard matches are no disqualification, meaning that death is NOT off the table (though arena staff are well equipped to resurrect competitors in most circumstances). Currently, the plan is to have one hazard match per show... and without further ado:

★ ★ ★ MATCH #2 - HAZARD DIVISION ★ ★ ★

Alph the Prinny, Dood vs Champ Fire

0:00 The camera cuts to a place far, far below the airship that the rest of the fights are happening aboard--to the depths of a forest.

...A very strange forest, as everything appears artificial. The trees are lined with wires and blinking lights. The birds are mechanical. There are tents, but no sign of campers. It has begun to lightly snow.

0:08 The camera finds Alph the Prinny (dood), who is darting through the woods quickly--but cautiously, keeping his head low and a steak knife ready in each hand. He darts out from behind trees and into bushes, visibly sweating under his bandana in spite of the growing cold.

0:25 The source of his anxiety briefly crosses the path of the camera--an elevated flickering, like a flame in the distance, casting an eerie glow between the synthetic trees. The source of the light sneaks out of view just as quickly as it arrived.

1:31 Alph stalks the glow, following the smell of smoke through the woods. He clenches the handle of one knife in his beak so he can carry a third. He pushes his way through the brush, his breaths growing shallower and shallower as he nears his target.

2:08 Alph discovers not his opponent, but an actual, normal campfire.

2:10 From directly behind Alph, a voice: "If a winter camping spree is in the cards, go with a mountaineering tent that can withstand harsh weather conditions!" Alph screams--somewhere between a death shriek and a battle cry--as he whirls around, slashing wildly at the air. His opponent moves fast; dust and snow kick up as wooden legs launch the creature backward, out of the way of Alph's attack. Amidst the debris and chaos, the camera can barely get a good look at the advertised Champ Fire.

2:15 Alph pursues in an adrenaline fueled frenzy. He rushes blindly into the woods, only to get slid across the forest floor by a roundhouse kick to the face.

2:20 As Alph gets to his feet, his opponent emerges--Champ Fire, a stiff wooden humanoid with a great flaming expression in the place of a proper head. Alph throws two knives as he rushes forward--the blades pierce straight through Champ Fire's "face" and continue onward, sticking into trees behind him. As he rushes up to Champ Fire, Alph pulls the third knife out of his mouth--

2:23 Alph ducks a kick, then dodges a swing from Champ Fire's blaseball bat. It's not entirely clear how he's wielding the bat, lacking any distinct fingers--but he nonetheless swings with enough force to crack the surface of one of the surrounding trees. The knives that shot straight his head do not seem to have affected Champ Fire much. "Use silica gel packs to keep your camp cookware rust-free between uses!"

2:25 Alph shoves his knife into one of Champ Fire's "legs," almost managing to saw it halfway off before he's kicked into a tree. Drawing more knives from his fanny pack, Alph shoves them into the same tree, beginning to rapidly climb up and away before Champ Fire can finish advancing on him. As Alph disappears into the foliage above, Champ Fire addresses him in the same cheerfully out of place tone. "Be sure to clean up food and cooking supplies after every meal--otherwise you can attract bears or other animals!"

3:36 Alph is running across branches, awkwardly hopping from tree to tree to try and clear some distance and get his wits about him. He can hear Champ Fire just below him in hot pursuit. "When buying wood from roadside stands, only buy them from covered stands to ensure your wood is dry and ready for burning!" The trees in the area aren't even made of wood, but instead covered with some thin, plastic-like material.

4:57 Seeing the glow directly below him, Alph bites the bullet and dives off his current branch, knives out. Champ Fire leaps back and, with an impressive swing, bats Alph straight through one (thin) tree and directly into a second (larger) tree. The prinny impacts with a dull thud and enough force to make him drop both knives before he falls to the ground.

5:05 Alph barely manages to get up by a ten count. Champ Fire has advanced upon his position, hobbling slightly with a half-removed leg. Champ Fire does not appear too heavily affected by the wound, otherwise.

5:09 "Make sure your tent is not at the lowest spot on the site," says Champ Fire as he leers down at the heaving prinny. "Water has a tendency to pool--" He's interrupted when Alph throws a handful of snow and dirt into his foe's burning visage, stunning and sending Champ Fire stumbling backward. Drawing yet more knives, Alph charges, latching onto Champ Fire's leg and resuming his earlier attempt to saw it off.

5:26 "Just because your campfire embers aren’t visibly glowing doesn't mean the campfire is dead!" With another, noticeably weaker kick, Champ Fire sends Alph hurdling away--with part of his wooden leg in tow.

5:48 Champ Fire begins to advance on Alph again, now with a little over half of one leg missing and a knife stuck in his other leg. "Embers can stay hot for days! Be thorough when cleaning up your campfire!" He has not slowed down at all, in spite of everything; he uses his bat like a crutch, but moves at the exact same speed, with the exact same cadence to his camping advice--a facet that does not seem lost on the increasingly weary Alph.

6:01 Champ Fire goes on the offensive, attempting to pin Alph down with what remains of his wooden limbs; Alph fights back with a knife in one hand and Champ's stolen leg in the other. Closer to the ground because of his uneven legs, Champ Fire begins to use his flaming head more in combat--lunging forward for makeshift headbutts and swinging his face dangerously close to Alph's.

10:44 Alph's makeshift bludgeon catches fire from Champ Fire's head; Alph, narrowly dodging more kicks and bat swings, uses it to light up the rest of Champ's body. It takes several attempts and a little while to get going, but eventually, Champ Fire is himself on fire.

12:13 Cold, sore and exhausted, Alph steps back and looks over the destruction he hath wrought. Pieces of chopped up and burning wood are everywhere, including the one still clutched in Alph's hand. Champ Fire's... er... campfire portion sits limbless, crackling and smoldering but otherwise incapable of movement. As snow falls upon it, the main flame begins to die down. Champ Fire's expression fades, reducing its once leering countenance to a normal and fairly subdued conflagration. Alph's own face shifts as what he's done steadily sinks in.

Back in the arena, the judges begin the ten count.

12:20 The flaming log that Alph is currently holding smiles at him.

"It may feel silly at first, but practice setting up your tent at home! If you--"

Alph yells and drops the torch.

12:22 He yells again,

12:25 then a third, louder and longer, as he dashes into the woods to put as much distance as he can between himself and the new Champ Fire. It's hard to gauge how much is fear and how much is frustration, or if there's even a difference at this point; Alph just runs for it, or at least, as much as he can with as hurt as he is--limping blindly through brush and snow. "I'll camp! I'll fish, dood, I'll make s'mores, just get me away from this thing! I didn't sign up for deathmatches, dood! I didn’t sign up for this!"

Winner: Champ Fire by Tap Out in 12:25

★ ★ ★ MATCH #3 ★ ★ ★

The Spirit of Phlox vs Rin Natsuki

0:00 We return to the airship, and to the third bout of the evening. With the ringing of the bell, the yokai Rin Natsuki wastes no time hurling bombs across the ring at her opponent--the Spirit of Phlox, an incorporeal, almost vaporous entity. Both fighters were eliminated from the Worlds Championship tournament last week, and while the Phlox entity doesn't seem entirely aware that she's even in a match, Rin definitely looks a little more focused.

0:10 Rin's bombs start going off--and while the first seems to have the effect she anticipated (dispersing some of the smoky substance that comprises Phlox), the second and third bombs... do not.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The second bomb's explosion appears to be partially absorbed, going off with a muffled sound and a reduced explosion--and instead, Phlox distinctly glows, and swells in size.

The third bomb explodes with its full capacity--in a cone shape, angled dangerously close to Rin's general direction and forcing her to move (slightly) to avoid the blast. This maneuver, too, appears to increase Phlox's overall size and... volatility.

1:00 Rin, seemingly inspired, hurls a bomb outside the ring--but to her dismay, Phlox does not give chase. ...Instead, with Phlox's current size, the entity is able to catch the scant edge of the explosion and drain the remainder of it from a relatively safe distance. Phlox grows again, sparking and swirling, expanding to take over more and more of the ring. While Rin could theoretically keep this up to force a ring out (once Phlox is too big for the ring), it wouldn't leave Rin much in the way of safe space herself--not to mention her limited supply of explosives, something that helped lead to her downfall last week.

1:25 Phlox's growth appears to be more than aesthetic. Smaller explosions are beginning to emanate from her--not appearing to be aimed at all, but with her present size compared to the ring, Natsuki is still forced to avoid the random blast zones at Phlox's rim.

3:12 Rin continues to maneuver around random detonations as they burst forth from the formless Phlox. For some inexplicable reason, the Spirit of Phlox is now increasing--ever so slightly--of its own volition. The change is slight, but even with the supply of bombs cut off, Phlox is still growing in size and becoming more volatile. Rin's expression implies that she's thinking--strategizing--but it's difficult to do with Phlox becoming self sustaining.

4:48 Some of the lights in the arena flicker. The audience begins to murmur; it's starting to look like Phlox isn't self sustaining at all, but may have grown large/powerful enough to start draining the recording and lighting equipment around the ring itself. Rin, too, seems to realize this; she narrows her focus. The clouds overhead begin to swirl, the wind starting to pick up. Whatever Rin is trying to do, she's forced to try and do it while avoiding more frequent and more sizable outbursts from the swelling Phlox.

6:33 The wind picks up substantially. The temperature in the arena drops at a frantic rate. Seemingly fueled further by the sudden changes, Phlox expands to cover almost half the ring. The airship underneath begins to make unfortunate noises, to the dismay of arena staff and the excitement of the live audience. Staff begin to rush elsewhere to make sure the whole arena isn't going down.

8:04 With gritted teeth and a change in posture, Rin Natsuki pushes her hands outward--and a massive gust rocks the airship as it passes, sleet and snow sweeping over the deck of the ship. It's gone from a light, chilly breeze to nearly a full blown blizzard in less than ten minutes; hats and papers are flying everywhere, the thrilled crowd is growing in their actual concern, and Phlox is nearly blown right out of the ring.

8:47 Nearly, but not quite. Having lost her previous fight to a similar tactic, perhaps the elemental has learned--or maybe she's just too strong at this point in the fight to be pushed around so easily. Phlox twists and smolders--and as the wind blows, Phlox blows back, contorting herself into a counter gale that manages to keep its position in the ring. The Spirit draws harder on the combustible activities of the airship itself, which begins to tilt and shake as Phlox forms a tighter, more cohesive... phloxnado with the given blizzard.

10:09 Rin continues to boost the blizzard, hoping the next extra inch will be enough to overpower Phlox, but Phlox has enough energy from both the transitioning weather and the airship itself to stay in the game--it's a stalemate, and while Rin is struggling to keep the storm going, Phlox is only getting bigger and wilder. It's becoming difficult to tell where the blizzard ends and the Spirit begins, at this point.

12:29 The crowd and arena staff begin to panic in earnest as the airship dips. People are holding onto their seats, equipment is falling over, and the airship that the ring is set upon the deck of is now banking ever so slightly toward the cityscape below. With her expression sinking faster than the arena, Rin relinquishes the blizzard.

12:45 The lights in the arena are now more off than on. People in the stands are praying and calling their loved ones. The cameras are mostly picking up static, and audio is pretty much gone. The judges are having a heated argument about whether or not to call the match early. Rin Natsuki is no longer visible in the midst of all the wind and snow and chaos. Almost nothing is visible past the ever denser, ever larger phenomenon that is the Spirit of Phlox.

13:00 The Phlox-storm monstrosity now takes up the entire ring... and inarguably, the floor outside of it. The judges call for the bell, and Phlox's team rush the ring to contain their fighter. There's a very real chance that Rin is no longer aboard the airship, and it may take a while to figure out which of the two competitors technically left the ring first--

17:37 Power starts to come back as Phlox is finally restrained and removed from the ring with specially designed alchemical equipment. The ship begins to straighten out and correct its course. The audience steps back from the edge of outright rioting. The lights flicker back on, and recording equipment is restored.

20:02 As the swirling snow fades away and the ring becomes visible again... so does Rin Natsuki, who had frozen her feet to the ring in all the madness. Realizing that she's still in the ring and Phlox is not--and that the entire airship has NOT in fact plummeted into the city below--Rin gives a relieved sigh and a small fist pump.

Winner: Rin Natsuki by Ring Out in (technically) 13:00

★ ★ ★ TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES ★ ★ ★

While the arena staff scramble to make sure everything's still kosher (and to double check all the live audience are still live, and not dead (and that everyone signed a waiver before boarding the airship)), a pre-recorded video from earlier today is played over the arena's various screens and fed directly to the fine folks at home.

"How do I tell if this thing is recording?" A solid block of yellowish-green. "A green dot- ah, silly me, covering up the lens..." The screen clears up to reveal a lizardgirl with pea green scales, vibrating in place. She waves to the audience.

"Heya friends! Caxi here, managed to score myself more screen time, or at least my manager did. Apparently I just do stuff in front of the camera and we get more points to buy stuff with! I wanna get a new teammate! No, wait, a fun item! Actually, maybe a teammate..." Something about 'rambling' and 'limited time' is said offscreen. "Fine, fine, I'll stop. Anyways, I did plan on doing something fun today, other than fighting, of course." She picks up the camera, bringing it to a hallway with a particularly low ceiling.

"I've been wanting to do this since I got the portal gun..." Visible excitement as portals are placed directly above one another, with a blue hole on the floor and orange on the ceiling. The camera is raised over the portal by a very enthusiastic tail. "Here we go!"

The view is of the hallway, plummeting from top to bottom, steadily gaining speed. Caxi's voice is heard vibrating, probably a product of the infinite falling loop.

"Woah that's dizzying... And I jump through those things daily..." Half the audience is still watching, caught by the almost hypnotic repeating descent. The other half is trying to not throw up. More muffled speech from offscreen.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's fine. Probably." A glimpse of her shrugging is caught. "Besides, what's the worst that can happen? It moves over to the side and slams into the ground at terminal velocity? I dropped it in perfectly straight, I prom-"

A loud crunching is heard, followed by a pitch-black screen.

★ ★ ★ MATCH #4 - TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS ★ ★ ★

AGINT vs Leith

0:00 The live feed returns... more or less. The audio is having definite issues and sometimes the feed cuts to static. The airship itself sometimes shudders with the rare, brief drop, prompting some unwanted thrills from the still shaken audience. The show must go on, though, and the bell rings to start the fourth fight of the episode.

0:10 AGINT and Leith appear to be having a conversation, but the mics can't pick it up; the commentators helpfully try to explain how every fighter in Arena Arcadia is equipped with something called a regalia--a weapon or artifact of bygone days, often from legends or famous stories. AGINT is well aware of how dangerous Leith's regalia actually is--a weapon powerful enough that she risked losing her match last week to keep it hidden. Leith responds--

1:29 Static.

1:34 A technical difficulties message.

3:00 Live feed. AGINT is doing something to the audio--not the arena or the camera's audio, but the local audio, interrupting Leith's ability to--

3:03 Static.

3:12 Cut to commercials.

7:36 Technical difficulties message.

12:40 Leith, in her horse form, kicks AGINT's server with both back legs. He relents as she rises up to stomp on his largest blinking light. There are, inexplicably, a large number of broken roombas scattered about the ring. The audio and video appear to have mostly stabilized. A great deal of strangeness has gone on, but Leith continues to the finals to compete for the Worlds Championship next week.

Winner: Leith by Tap Out in 12:40

★ ★ ★ MAIN EVENT - TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINALS ★ ★ ★

Douglas vs Caxi

0:00 It's the main event and the semi-finals of the Worlds Championship tournament--and neither fighter is here to mess around. Caxi is on the offensive from the moment the bell rings, leaping and rolling, making fairly risk averse strikes on Douglas with her claws and tail. She seems to be gauging his defenses--and at first, the 13 foot hivemind struggles to keep up with the speed of the lizardgirl's attacks. The excitement from the audience is building rapidly, many of them having seen Caxi's impressive performance last week; aiding the enthusiasm of the crowd is Caxi's constant taunting of Douglas. "Try to keep up, wormbrains!"

2:50 Douglas starts to catch onto the pace of the fight. Using broader sweeps with the insane reach of his double-sided lance, the Big D begins to minimize the space that Caxi has access to--even getting a few minor knicks on her as she gets more and more ambitious with her strikes. Caxi, for her part, is landing plenty of hits on Douglas--but even as she starts to take more risks and hit him harder, it accomplishes little. Douglas' armor is too resilient--her claws do little more than leave scratches.

6:15 Douglas is getting more aggressive, now confident in the resilience their armor provides them. Caxi responds by whipping out her portal gun, frantically throwing herself from one side of her opponent to the other in addition to her natural acrobatics--still hitting Douglas with claw and tail,

7:32 but almost entirely as a distraction. Once Douglas is thoroughly struggling to keep up with Caxi's location, she latches onto him, shoving her claws into the more flexible material between Doug's armored plates. She manages to almost rip a piece of Douglas' armor entirely off before she's forced to withdraw from her opponent's reach, back into her unrelenting portal spam and unpredictable flipping about. The audience, by this stage, is losing their minds--cheering on the spectacle that is Caxi's wild offense.

9:24 A whole piece of armor comes loose. Douglas is bleeding a bright orange. Though they may be a faceless gestalt of extraterrestrial worms, Douglas' frustration is palpable. They swing wide, they swing hard, they swing fast--but Caxi is everywhere and nowhere, popping in and out of reality like a ghost, exposing her much larger foe one fragment at a time.

12:50 More armor is coming loose, but Caxi is slowing. It takes a great deal of effort to pry Douglas' shell apart, and that strain is catching up to her. More worms are cut loose, more blood is drawn; for the first time in two episodes, Douglas is audible, a low grumbling welling up from the humanoid mass of semi-armored worms--though it's barely heard over the cheers of the crowd, who are increasingly drawn into Caxi's flashy attempts to take the giant down.

14:19 Caxi grabs a hold of Douglas' arm, and shoves her claws between the plates of the titan's glove. Douglas lets out a full scale roar that stuns the live crowd into a moment of silence; as the amalgam drops their symmetrical lance, Caxi swings her whole body around Doug's massive arm, kicking the weapon away way with both feet. The lance is sent hurtling across the ring, tumbling toward the edge and well away from the melee. "Hah!," Caxi declares, "can't do THAT with claws!"

14:24 Douglas is enraged; the exposed worms that still remain intact in the fighter are visibly agitated. Caxi lets go of the damaged arm and attempts to slip into one of her portals--but Douglas catches her by the tail before she can fully disappear. "Nonono, not the tail--"

14:26 Douglas jerks her backward by the tail... and then into the air, swinging her overhead before slamming her into the ring's surface.

14:30 Douglas slams her a second time.

14:33 Douglas goes for a third slam, but Caxi manages to fire another portal off at the last second and slip out of her opponent's grasp; the damage done to Douglas' hand is taking its toll. She emerges from her other portal a decent distance away, trying to get her wits back about her, but Douglas is already advancing rapidly.

15:01 Caxi attempts to go back on the offensive with her portal jumps, but it's clear that she's hurt; she's slower to react, sloppier in her movements. Even through the pain, however, she seems to maintain her spirit, keeping the crowd behind her. "Is that all you got?"

16:12 Douglas, now relying on only their fists, manages to catch the leaping Caxi with a glancing blow. Caxi is sent hurdling in one direction, the portal gun in another--out of the ring entirely, in fact. The judges start the count.

16:17 Caxi rises at the count of five. She spits out a mouthful of blood. "Maybe I shouldn't have asked..." The fight becomes a straight up boxing match, with a weary Caxi trying to bob and weave through Douglas' massive punches to claw at their meatier bits. It's an impressive show of grit, but the crowd has fallen quiet--on the edge of their seats, holding their collective breath.

20:21 A right cross from Douglas puts Caxi back on the floor.

20:28 Caxi gets to her hands and knees; Douglas punts her across the side of the head before she can finish getting to her feet. The judges begin the ten count once again. Audience members are yelling for Caxi to get up, but she isn't moving.

20:38 Caxi does not get up again. The bell is rung; the fans begin to actually boo, shouting and throwing empty cups and popcorn bags at Douglas. The Hunter, bleeding out of broken armor, seems unaffected by the volatile reaction of the crowd.

Douglas moves on to the Worlds Championship tournament finals next week.

Winner: Douglas by Knock Out in 20:38

NEXT WEEK: The tournament concludes! Douglas vs Leith to decide the first Arena Arcadia Worlds Champion! All that and more in Episode 3!