Tru Grit’s Fight Pits: First Tourney (Pt. 5): The Elven Practitioner Vs. The Guild Member

--- Maya Williams ---

Deciding once more that information was power, she quickly made her way out of the arena, only instead of trying to just get a general look of things by watching the TV she instead decided to see if she could get a full and proper scan of one of the other top four. The idea being that one of these people might actually be one worth adding to her database to dissect for whatever ideas she could come up with.

To this point she decided to go after the one that was arguably the most unique of the three others, of whom -the various screens showing replays told her- were a girl using shields similar to her previous opponent, the girl with the potted plant, and the one that had caught her inner Madness’s attention.

(Trust me, this’ll be worth it. We just have to get there before her next match ends.) Said Madness assured her.

Fighting her way through the crowd that had built up as the tournament progressed, she spotted several interesting people in her search of her target, each very clearly a Deviant of some kind. From a man in a cowboy hat with glowing shadowed eyes to an oddly familiar monochrome teen wearing (are those groucho marx glasses?)

(I… believe so?) Her inner reason answered, sounding unsure. (My perception is flickering a little bit.)

(What’s that mean?) She frowned, her eyes straining to find the guy who weirdly blended into the crowd in spite of his appearance.

(Hey, focus!)

“Right…” She mumbled, shaking her head and getting back to her search. “Got distracted.”

(I know, also it was really weird being the one who had to say that. I mean I’m supposed to be the easily distracted scatterbrained one. That’s my gimmick, I’m a reflection of your insane fractured mind culminating in my irrefutable genius that cannot be denied!)

(And her megalomania…)

(It’s not megalomania when you’re right.)

(In which case it’s probably delusion.)

(Hey!)

“Wait, wait.” She interrupted her own delusions as she looked down on an arena with two girls in it, one wearing one of the Gamer Guild’s neon splattered hoodies and the other having green dyed hair and pointed ears. “Is that her… the elf?”

(Please tell me you didn’t drag us here for another one of your waifus…) Her inner logic sighed with no small amount of disappointment.

(No. That’s just a happy coincidence; the other one is the one I wanted us to Scan.) Her inner Madness promised.

(You sure because… elves aren’t normal.) She pointed out. (Maybe we should get a Scan of her? See how different her biology is from ours?)

(No. Now is the time for science not smut.) Her inner scientist scolded.

“What? No! That’s not what I meant!” She hissed at herself, earning a few looks for her outburst from the crowd that promptly looked away upon seeing her gear.

(Maya I live in your head, I know exactly what you think when you hear ‘biology’, and it’s not the science. I mean you’ve completely neglected that skill compared to everything else. We only get a passive gain because of growing more herbs and minion food at this point.)

Deciding it was best to just ignore her raving madness she instead turned her attention onto the girl that had caught its attention once more as the announcer signalled for the fight to begin, the barrier around it briefly flashing to life.

The elf started things off by promptly throwing out a trio of violet fireballs, ones notably smaller yet denser than what her own opponent had thrown at her.

Rather than being thrown off by this her target merely grinned before swinging her arm and manifesting what looked like a massive knight’s gauntlet to block the flames.

“Okay… that’s interesting…” She admitted, as she went ahead and started moving around the arena to make sure the girl was within her scanning range.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

(Told you~)

(I’m curious as to whether this is an ability common to the Gamer’s Guild or one unique to her like Decker’s music?) Her inner reason wondered, beginning to dissect the girl’s power even before they could scan her. (If you look there’s a glow coming off of the limb, a blue one that’s far more prominent when she first brings it into existence.)

As if to underline this a second gauntlet formed in the air before rocketing towards the elven girl, who in turn manifested her own violet shield covered in a complicated runic script.

(We might want to try scanning her arm too.) She realized, once she finally got to a point where she could give the other teen a proper in depth scan of her and her powers.

The elven girl put her hands together and made several hand gestures -that Maya couldn’t see past the shield- before slamming her hands onto the ground and in a burst of blue electricity replaced her shield with a rock wall that completely blocked her from sight.

While this happened she got her first bits of data on the girl showing off her vitals to be normal if notably more athletic than Maya herself, who had been working out with Izzy for a couple of months now. (The only thing really worth noting is that there’s a notable warping to her EM field around her head.)

Her target easily smashed through the rock wall, only to find the elven girl had disappeared from behind it. The guild member looked around the arena, her arms floating in the air behind her and staying in the same relative position from her body as she slowly spun in place.

(Alright, let's try scanning those arms now.) She wasn’t sure how much she’d get from this but she was hoping it’d provide valuable data of some kind.

From behind her target the elven girl reappeared as she cast some violet light in her hand to the side before pushing both hands forward and unleashing a bolt of lightning at the guild member’s back.

(Oh, now that is interesting~) She couldn’t help but grin as she realized that the gauntlets were actually…

Behind the guild member a large object briefly flashed into existence taking the electricity on before disappearing alongside the arms that had connected to it.

(She’s got an entire body to whatever she’s doing.) The outline was vague on her sensors, the majority of the body existing outside of a physical spectrum and only being picked up by the more esoteric of her Scanner’s parts.

Her target pointed her hand at the elven girl as she formed the gauntlet once more, only this time there was a swirl of blue flames gathering within the invisible giant’s hand.

Quickly realizing what was happening the elven girl rushed forward while forming another shield, allowing her to run through the blue flames that spewed forth from the gauntlet’s palm.

Bursting free of the flames the elven girl threw her shield into the air behind the guild member, even as a second gauntlet began to form on the opposite side. The runic script briefly spun in the air before exploding into a second more complex circle in an explosion of pink electricity.

Whatever this did was enough to stagger the guild member as both her gauntlets flashed out of existence, sealing the fight as the elven girl formed another fireball in hand.

Or it would’ve if the guild member didn’t ignore the fire to deliver a right hook hard enough to knock the elven girl off her feet and onto the ground, her flames disappearing just as easily.

The guild member ran forward and mounted the elven girl with a fist raised into the air, much like Maya had her previous opponent.

Briefly she saw another sphere of flame appear in the elven girl’s hand as she glared up at the guild member, before fading as the elf smashed it against the ground rather than her opponent’s face.

(So she gave up just like that?) She frowned.

(Well everyone is given two chances outside the final fight. She might be deciding that drawing the fight out here isn’t worth it?) Her inner logic tried to reason. (Perhaps she has limited resources for her abilities and is pacing herself by calling a fight she was likely to lose. At the very least it’s a problem we need to consider ourselves given our limited COMP battery.)

She couldn’t help but grimace at that reminder, especially since her scans of the guild member had cost her at least two more units of power. (But at the very least those are going to be worth a lot once I go over them.)

(A task that’s going to have to wait until after the tournament if we don’t want to miss our next fight.) Her more responsible self pointed out. (With this round over we’ve likely only ten or fifteen minutes to find our own arena.)

(Right…) She sighed, giving the combatants one last look as she wondered if her next fight was going to be on that level.

(Bah! It’s nothing we can’t handle. Until we run out of power we can kick the ass of anyone who comes our way!) Her inner Madness assured her.

She took a breath before nodding to herself. “Yeah, I can do this.”

While trying to keep that confidence in mind she made her way through the halls of the fight pit and to her waiting room, if only to find out which set of doors led to her next fight. Doors she made it to just a few moments before the light to enter flashed.

Once more stepping out into one of the fight pits, she found that the crowd that had gathered was notably bigger than her previous fights, this one looking more like the one that had gathered to watch the elven girl and the guild member fight.

(Just ignore them. They’re not a threat to us and they have no idea who we are.)

Doing just that she turned her attention to the other side of the arena where an oddly familiar girl wearing glasses and a yellow jacket was stepping out while carrying a potted plant under one arm.

(Alright, let’s do this.)