“Don’t forget that food is capable of being ordered at any point in time, morning and night people, I’ve already gained ten pounds since I’ve been here, and I have no plans of slowing down,” yelled Bobby in excitement.
The Builders of Godhood all sat watching Arson on screen, actual sadness on their faces. Their valiant leader wasn’t actually doing well thus far and it was obvious to them all.
“What’s he doing? Have you ever actually seen Arson struggle this much in… ever?” Everyone gathered looked at Jasmine with the exception of Xani, who hadn’t seemed to blink since the tournament began.
“He’s not using mana, weapons, his armor, summons, those strange people that crawl from his shadow, nothing,” responded Xani. The group created a subscription through their app that assigned a code to every competitor. Once input any group or individual that paid the competitor's chosen price could watch them as long as they were still participating. Propeller Palm Drones, followed the competitor completely camouflaged, and so far they’d only had to replace a few of the drones that had been destroyed within the chaos of combat.
Arson was currently in the middle of an all-out brawl with a dozen or more cultivators, and even though teamwork wasn’t allowed, the opportunistic attack upon vulnerable opponents was absolutely ignored by the judges hired by Maelstrom.
“You telling me that these fools don’t have a bias,” asked Khalif agitated by the view on screen in their guild suite. Micro stood behind him, she pulled his fist away from his temples and began to knead his head with a massage to distract herself from her own frustration at the sight on screen.
“And here we have an all-out brawl between absolute scrubs, look at these fools, I mean…” Bobby the announcer trailed off before he screamed in exhilaration.
“Oh my Maiden, what do we have here folks? If it isn’t Weapon Master Carter Gestalt, without a weapon in hand. What the sparks kind of garbage is this?” screamed Bobby to the crowd.
A handful of the many flying hologram based Jumbotrons shifted to show a gruesome brawl inside a multi tiered building near the outer edge of the jungle and stage. Roars of recognition boomed through the crowd, and a name begun to be chanted over and over. Booing erupted at the sight of Arson being obviously ganged up on behind metaphorical closed doors, until a group of fans was motivated to support the Cultivator that many there had grown to love through Lane’s broadcasts throughout a large swath of Maelstrom.
Only then a large portion of the crowd joined a chant, three familiar words yelled so loud that the suppression runes were overwhelmed, the words booming, yelled over and over and over.
“No sparking way…!” The entire group looked over at Lane who wore a massive smile.
“I’m not the only one hearing this, am I?” asked Micro with a dropped jaw.
“No you are not, gorgeous, we’d have to be deaf not to,” Khalif said tilting his head back to smile up at her.
…
Arson was kicked across a room, and smashed into a wall. He couldn’t help but feel targeted, his anger growing by the blink. Every breath he took was not calming him down as he needed it to, but instead seemed to fuel his rage.
Until a chant began. Strange looks crossed the faces of everyone around Arson. It took him a moment to decipher the sound, but when the words became clear, the aura within the entire room changed drastically.
Think!”
“Analyze!”
“Move!”
The words came over and over and over again. Arson looked around at the bewildered competitors around him. And slowly shook his head. He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes before he spoke up. All gathered looking in his direction.
“I’m sorry to say this, my friends, but it seems that I am being asked to stop sandbagging and start competing,” said Arson. He cracked his knuckles, and picked up the chant becoming a literal blur. Move, was spoken, and drill punches rained down on an unsuspecting opponent in a flurry that ended in a burst of light.
A cycle was started. An opponent was completely dispatched every time the final word within the chant was spoken. The crowd went absolutely wild.
A kick to the throat so powerful that not only the opponent it was sent toward vanished before it could land, but the individual behind the sudden burst of light was flung through the air by the very wind caused by the force of the blow was also eliminated before they could smash into the wall behind them.
Combinations were delivered with such finality, that Arson had to reduce the power of his blows, afraid to unbalance himself when the strikes ended in burst of light rather than making contact with an opponent.
The chant all around them grew, and many inside the room outright fled. The remainder of the opponents still fighting Arson gave up all semblance that they hadn’t united against a superior foe, and charged him all at once. Eyes still closed Arson wore a smile that made the crowd roar with excitement as if they all knew what was to come.
“Move!” In one smooth motion, Arson lowered his center of gravity, let his feet slide smoothly across the ground, widening his stance, positioning one arm in front of himself, and the other behind himself. All without a single pause his next maneuver was sent out, a 360 degree spinning kick snapped with a sonic boom that burst every opponent in range into tendrils of light that left him alone in the room once he landed.
…
By the end of the first day of the tournament, there were many standouts, and though Arson was far from the top of the list, he still found himself being interviewed by Bobby and Lane. They all sat in an interview room speaking casually. Arson couldn’t help but feel undeserving of the attention he’d received that day after watching many of the highlights playing on repeat behind the two interviewers, but still didn’t complain knowing that any of the publicity he was receiving would benefit him and his organization in the end.
“So…, Weapon Master Gestalt, or can I call you Carter, please let me call you Carter, Carter,” Bobby said with a smile. Arson nodded, ignoring the eye roll Lane failed to suppress.
“Where is the scythe? Your fans are dying to know why you are choosing not to use it, and since we haven’t seen each other in a while I did a little bit of research,” Bobby said with a wave of his hand as he questioned Arson. The screen behind the interviewers showing Arson and friends fighting the large 8 legged demonic wolf on screen. Arson’s display of power in the video far more incredible than anything he’d done in the tournament so far.
Arson’s eyes flicked over to the screen and back again, and he sighed, knowing that an explanation would be needed, and any sort of lie offered would most likely fall short of his fans expectations.
“I’ve been challenged by my master and if I can manage to win this tournament without the use of anything but my body… she has promised to teach me to teleport,” Arson answered honestly. Bobby’s eyes went wide and he opened his mouth to speak but Lane cut in before he could manage it.
“Originally, weren’t the confines of the challenge even more difficult than that?”
“Yes, she originally stated that I couldn’t be struck the entire tournament either, but withdrew that requirement after I begged for a slightly easier challenge, not that winning is going to be a simple task,”Arson responded, pointing at the screen behind Lane and Bobby that still showed the highlights of everyone else who’d done well during the first day.
“Oh my, that seems almost unreasonable, so we aren’t going to get any of the things we know from you, Carter. Don’t make me sad now. As soon as I saw you, I assumed I’d see how powerful you’d become, but to hear that you are holding back for the entire tournament… I mean I know I can’t be the only one who is going to be disappointed by this news,” asked Bobby with a pout.
“I’m sorry to disappoint, but adding teleportation to my arsenal will make for much more interesting content for my fans in the future, don’t you think?”
“I honestly cannot wait for that, but even I can agree with this bossman. I mean I know that killing is impossible within the tournament, but even I was excited to see a few people try and overcome all of your new skills, some of which even your strongest fans have still yet to see,” Lane stated, now mimicking Bobby’s pout.
“Well since our services with Blackhole Coliseum will be available to all realms after the tournament, I’ve been told by our management team that an exclusive tournament is going to be held in Ascension next month. Win or lose, I promise to unload everything I have there, but for now I must work on my foundation and teleportation is at the top of my list of necessities.”
“This is news to me. Am I going to be hired for such an event? I wouldn’t dare miss the opportunity to be a part of an even more exclusive tournament than the prestigious Tournament of Scions,” Bobby asked wide eyed, clapping as if filled with a sudden burst of energy.
“Well, you would have to ask your lovely co-host beside you, or make a petition with the BlackHole Conglomerate’s management team,” Arson stated with a gesture toward Lane. Bobby’s eyes shot toward Lane, his eyes pleading to be involved without a single spoken word.
“Don’t look at me like that, Bobby, I will put in a good word for you with Jazz, our management teams head,” said Lane, patting Bobby on his hand softly.
“Oh my Maiden, thank you,” said Bobby with a sigh of relief. The young man looking pointedly into the camera.
“You have no idea how long a line of anchors and announcers were lined up behind me to take this job if I turned it down, people, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I would accept any job they had for me to eat all this lovely food being offered, am I right people!” The small gathered crowd that paid to watch the interviews inside the room cheered, many hooting and hollering with mouths full of treats and lavish meals.
Arson and Lane nodded, before the pair burst out into laughter. Bobby frowned and looked between the pair, before Lane waved it off and spoke up, not wanting the young man to take offense.
“It’s not you. Our head chef has been offered more jobs in a single day than I have in my entire life, so trust me you are not alone in your feelings,” Lane explained quickly.
“Our company's head actually had to increase his pay twice today alone in fear that he’d actually lose him to many foreign royals” added Arson with a chuckle.
“I’d sell my soul for a personal chef of his quality,” mumbled Bobby underneath his breath with a smirk.
“Well, not that we are accepting souls, but BlackHole Conglomerate does hire out the time of our chefs to individuals or organizations, but our Rob actually turned down the raises that were eventually forced on him,” Arson admitted with a smirk of his own. More cheering spread through the audience, and Bobby once more shifted the direction of the conversation.
“Well I know you are rather a busy man, Carter, but we would like to ask you, how do you plan on handling this if you are forced to encounter the young woman they have dubbed, the Tsarista of Storms,” asked Bobby. The screens behind him shifting once more to show various scenes that had occurred during the first day, Arson’s eyes going wide at the displays of power.
…
Troy watched the interviews of many prominent figures within the tournament in her room, and smirked at the look that crossed his face once the screens behind Lane and Bobby shifted to show her actions throughout the day.
On one screen. Troy was seen being charged by a dozen people she’d cornered that had tried to flee from her. With a single raised hand a wave of light had been charged in a blink, and shot out from her outward palm like a tidal wave. Every Cultivator touched, bursting into light without a chance of survival. Troy casually turning her back and walking away while whistling a merry tune.
Another screen displayed a man lying on a rooftop using a sniper rifle, easily picking off targets one by one from incredible distances. The camera angle zoomed out and the formerly invisible Troy appeared, far in the sky above the man, hero-dropping onto the man’s back, leaving nothing but a burst of light behind before she once more turned invisible, the only proof that she’d been there, the same whistled tune.
More and more scenes were showed. Troy catching a boulder the size of a bus, and using it to shield herself from ranged attacks, only to use the same boulder to charge entirely through the base of a tower, bringing down the entire structure onto of her foes, crushing any left in her path.
Arson’s mouth dropped open on screen when she was shown dropping an orb of light through the chimney of a fort, everyone hiding within the fort obliterated by the ball that rolled through the base, exploding with beams of light that shot out in every direction like laser beam bullets. The projectiles also causing explosions on contact with absolutely anything.
Arson blinked slowly. Closed his mouth, opened it once more, then closed it again. After a few more scenes of carnage he finally managed to speak, causing Troy to burst out into laughter.
“I have absolutely no idea…!”
“Yeah, my love, that’s what I thought,” Troy said more to herself than the other students watching the interviews with her from Adroit Academy. All three sitting in the luxurious living room inside their conjoined apartment within one of the top floors of BlackHole Coliseum.
“So that is your famous boy toy,” said Queen Augustine beside Troy. The once mean girl now clung to Troy as if they’d been friends since childhood, but the change in her attitude toward Troy had taken time and hard work to achieve. So where she would have once ignored the young woman’s comments, she now responded gladly.
“Yes, but I’m disappointed that I may not be able to engage with him at his full strength, it was much of the reason I wanted to participate.”
“I can see why you feel him to be worthy of you, even in that fight against the large wolf they showed earlier, his movements seemed reserved, as if he was holding much of his power back,” Marcus Regalia Sniper mumbled. His annoyance apparent to Troy. She’d once given Arson quite a lot of unnecessary hassle over Micro’s crush on him, only for karma to lay the same stresses back onto her own shoulders.
“Yeah, but we will see if I can’t force him to show off a little of what’s under the hood,” Troy said smiling to herself. The next interviewer came on stage and Arson waved at the crowd and the camera before he departed from the small stage, Troy coming to her feet at the same time.
“Where are you going? I know he’s cute, but not enough to get in trouble with the admins over,” said queen as Troy headed to the door.
“Don’t be silly, woman,” Troy said, dawning her mask once more.
“I’ve got an interview of my own to make it to!”