Sally clicked her fingers. “Montage!”

She drew the ire of four pairs of eyes in the room.

“I do wish you’d stop saying that,” Edward said, scowling before looking back out at the open arena. “It’s been what, five times in the last couple of days?”

“Plenty more than that,” Theo murmured, his eyes staring out at the distant horizon.

It wasn’t her fault that she was so excited for these small slice of life segments. She’d need to keep them in her mind when she was out dragging her broken body through dying fields on other worlds. Just tying to them to the word ‘montage’ made them easier to recover from the depths of her brain.

“And I’ll be saying it again when I win this tournament.”

This statement was also met with murmured displeasure. Some of them were still sore after the game of baseball yesterday, or perhaps felt they had a better chance. Theo, Edward, Humphrey, and Dent had all signed up from the side of the Outsiders. There were sixteen combatants in total, so the rest were made up of other Players or Uniques.

Dent held a hand up to his ear. “Chuck is about to draw the first pairings.”

Information started filling through their screens, and Sally ignored all of them, except for the ones that included one of her pals.

[Edward vs Theo]

[Dent vs Roddick]

[Sally vs Kyle]

[Humphrey vs Bugula]

“One of us going out in the first round. Such a shame.” The demon grinned at the vampire.

“Yeah,” he replied, still staring.

Sally clicked her fingers. “The way we are seeded, if me and pops beat our opponents, then we’ll face each other in the next round.”

“That’s a big if,” the Death Knight replied, before realizing that was ruder than he meant. “Not that I don’t want to have the opportunity to-”

“Yeah, yeah. Save your energy for swinging your oversized sword around.” It was rather unfair that a large greatsword counted, but a dagger did not - despite just being a tiny sword.

They all winced as Theo and Edward vanished in a flash of light.

“Oh, guess they’re up first!” She hopped over to the wide opening at the side to peer down into the arena.

----------------------------------------

The space which Chuck had created for the tournament was rather impressive. Theo ran his tired eyes around the raised stands. Tiny figures bobbing up and down, cheering and looking forward to the show. Normally he’d have a bit of trepidation about failing in front of such a huge number of the world’s populace, but today… it was eh.

There were even groups holding up signs with his name on - some in the shape of bats. It hadn’t been his intention to grow a fan club, but he had built a reputation in the dungeons as a nigh unbeatable Boss. In this wide oval of amber sand and loose sawdust, he would eventually be humbled. Always so reliant on his stats and broken abilities, now just using pure skill, he probably wasn’t in the top five in the world. Well, no, he was being a little down on himself.

One hand in his pocket, and the other loosely holding his Demonkiller sword, he eventually made full rotation and was now facing his opponent again. Having equal stats to everyone was a wet blanket, when he had put in hard work to be more powerful than most Players. If you ignored the errors that helped him along that path.

“Too busy having inner monologues to pay me full attention?” The demon grinned, his thin rapier-like sword drawn at the ready.

“Yeah, sorry.” Theo shrugged.

Edward narrowed his eyes. “You are acting unusual. What ails you?”

“Just really tired. Didn’t get much sleep.” The vampire removed his crimson-lensed glasses and put them in his Inventory, the dark circles around his eyes now clearly visible.

“Ceaselessly practicing your best moves until you were aching and sore?”

Theo ran his tongue across his teeth, and shrugged. “Sure.”

The demon flourished his blade. “Well, don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because we are friends.”

“Friends?” A wry grin went across Theo's face. “This has always been an act to lull you in to a false sense of security, Edward. So that I can inevitably betray you.”

“W-what?” Edward growled. “That’s my line, you-”

[Edward vs Theo - Begin!]

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The crowd roared to life as PvP became enabled in the arena. Wasting no time, Edward surged forth, driven by his ire at the verbal prodding of the vampire. His sword drew back and then he lashed forward in a jabbing motion.

Theo stood there idly, and the end of the blade pierced through his suit and into his chest.

“Aha!” the demon growled, leaning forward into his strike to drive the sword deeper into the vampire. “Too slow without your boosted stats. I win!”

With a tut, Theo tilted his head to the side and regarded his opponent with dull eyes. “Submission or death, Eddy. Your aim was too high. Missed all my important organs and arteries. I’ve had stubbed toes more detrimental to my well-being.”

Edward stepped back, withdrawing his blade from the wound to deflect the first attack of the vampire. He tutted and took a step back, his eyes incensed. “This is a test of combat abilities, not an excuse to give your tongue a workout.”

----------------------------------------

Jackie whistled. “No wonder fangs looks drained of energy.” She turned to the Mummy. “Smart move by Sally though, ay?”

Norah shrugged, but gave her and Fran a warm smile. “Two birds with one stone, I am sure. Theo is a resourceful gentleman. A little exhaustion won’t stop him from doing his best.”

“No doubt he’s gone through this scenario in his head a hundred times before,” Fran added. “They’ve fought before, right?”

Jackie snorted and shook her head. “If you could call it that.”

“They are on equal footing now,” the Mummy said, picking out a familiar figure in the crowd and waving them over. “The results might be different.”

Fran leaned forward, her white hair falling across her face. “Is this a difficult one for you, Norah? Humphrey, Theo, and Sally all competing together?”

“Oh, no. No matter how they do, they’re all winners to me.”

“Bullshit,” the mobster interjected. “Sals and the big guy might be trading blows in the next round. Who you gonna back?”

“Hey ladies!” Lucius waved to them as a grinning face appeared by his head. “Thanks for saving me a seat. I had to give a pep talk to one of the fighters.”

“Of course, hun. How kind of you. We were just discussing who I would support in the eventual Sally and Humphrey fight.”

The Shade paused, and a question mark appeared beside him. “Oh? You think Sally will actually win her fight?”

While Norah narrowed her eyes at him, Fran raised an eyebrow. “You know something that we don’t?”

----------------------------------------

Theo fought the urge to yawn as he stepped back and deflected the swing of Edward’s sword.

“What do you think of dismemberment, Ed?”

The demon twirled with his weapon, part of his suit dropping to the floor as a line of bright blood ran up his torso. “How so? In general, or as part of the rules?”

Although the vampire was still lethargic, there was a crimson light burning at the back of his eyes. Perhaps it was the crowd energizing him… or no, it was from the sight of blood. Edward bared his sharp teeth.

“More of a personal thing, I guess.” Theo lowered his head and drew his sword at the ready. “Like, if I took your arm off, would you relent?”

“You would never-”

Theo darted for him, interrupting his sentence. A wide swing of the Demonkiller sword that he had to twist and block - but then the vampire was already drawing back for a follow-up.

Not very technical or precise with his attacks, Theo was instead just unrelenting with the continuous blows, putting all his strength to continue pressure on the demon. If anything, it looked as though he was using the weapon more like a baseball bat, attempting to bludgeon the demon down with repeated force.

As Theo raised the sword for the next blow, Edward moved his weapon across to block it. Theo paused, instead grabbing at his opponent's shredded suit and pulling him in closer. A headbutt connected to the surprised demon, blood spraying out from his broken nose.

“Asshole,” he growled, clutching at his face. “That’s not a sword.”

“I read the rules as provided,” Theo grinned. “Five times over. That was my preparation for this tournament. My head is not classed as a weapon, thus falls under the allowed Grappling rules. Section two-point-five. Article B.”

“There weren’t that many sections.” The demon stood up taller, his blue eyes aglow with burning fury.

The vampire flourished his sword, and readied to approach again. “That’s because as soon as I saw they were delivered in paper format, I found and removed half of yours.”

“You’re… you’re lying.”

“Doesn’t matter if I am or not.” Theo’s foot dug into the loose sand. “You were dead as soon as you stood against me.”

----------------------------------------

Sally grinned ear to ear, wincing only slightly as the head of the demon fell to the ground of the arena away from the rest of his body.

With the flash of blue, Edward appeared back in their little room. They all turned to him and he sighed, deflating onto the couch they had near the back of the chamber. Down in the arena, the cheering increased as Theo flourished his blade and gave the crowd a bow.

[Theo Wins!]

“Fair enough - he is better than me,” the demon said, as he closed his eyes. “But why does he have to be so extra about it?”

Another flash of blue and Theo returned to the enclosed space. After receiving a hug from the zombie, he turned and stepped over to the defeated demon.

“I am disappointed, Edward.”

He opened one eye to scowl at the vampire. “There’s no need to rub it in.”

“No. You let me get into your head, and that is where half the battle is won.”

Edward exhaled slowly. “Are you still doing that now?”

“Yes. Want a hotdog?”

Sally smiled as the pair made amends and went to nudge Dent. “Feeling any more nervous now?”

The man shook his head. “If that’s how he always fights, then no. There’s a couple other fights before mine. I’m more interested in the unknowns.”

She leaned against the wall and looked out at the arena. The next two fighters had just been summoned. One was a woman that was wearing a purple veil that covered her eyes, her sword a bright silver. The other looked like a Unique that was half-serpent, his sword was curved like a snake near the hilt before it ran up to a point.

“Not done your homework?” She raised an eyebrow.

“I felt that I was in a position where that would seem unfair, with having the resources that are available to me.”

Sally nodded. He was sure to get enough flak for being with the Architect already, without him being able to dig through the history or fighting styles of everyone taking part. Or whatever information they stored about everyone in the world.

“Nice of Chuck to give us this private booth, though. I feel like a VIP.”

Dent grunted. “It was more to keep the trouble makers in containment, than anything.”

She turned her head back to the others. Humphrey looked like he was meditating - although it was hard to tell, considering he just had empty sockets for eyes. Theo was currently trying to direct Edward to places on his chest where he could have stabbed to kill him.

“Whaaat?” She stuck her tongue out at Dent. “We’re behaving today. There’s a lot at stake.”

“Be that as it may, you have quite the reputation and-”

“Montage!” she yelled.