JAID VS. LIEU
“We’re down to the last match of the second round already. Let's hope it’s a great one!”
“Our first Fiend beat her last opponent with just one punch. It was hardly chivalrous, but it sure was effective. The Prude Paladin, Jaid! And I bet our second competitor would love for her to punch him, because that would only make him stronger. He brutally demolished his last opponent with the worst shot to the gut I’ve ever seen. The Garrish Guerilla, Lieu!”
“Why am I not surprised by this outcome?” Lieu repeatedly tapped his shotgun to his shoulder once he made it into the arena. “Seems they must have caught word of our fight before and are hoping for an explosive rematch. While I don’t mind sparring with you, Luciri, I can’t say I particularly hold a grudge against you either. As a fellow soldier, I understand you were doing your duty, even if you don’t have your own solid foundation of beliefs.”
“Kalter really wanted to fight the detective. Can’t blame him. I’d love to put him in the ground myself. Alk really wanted to fight against the timid girl for her own personal reasons. But me against you? Doesn’t really have the same spark. My heart’s just not in it like theirs were.”
“So I’ll have to make this fun in my own way. Forget that rule about not trying to kill your opponent. They call this an unrestrained tournament, but then put the biggest restraint possible. So here’s what’s going to happen. I’m gonna go all out. I won’t be aiming to kill you, but if you die, you die. If I’m disqualified, so be it. But I’m not going to half-ass this zjik, and I expect you to do the same. Let’s have some fun, Luciri!”
Lieu opened his jacket and grabbed a handful of grenades, tossing them all at his opponent. Jaid slammed down her sword in front of her and hunkered down behind it. She then made a circle of clones to protect herself on all sides from the ensuing explosions.
The woman then dashed out of the lingering cloud, zooming across the arena while swinging her sword. Lieu was forced to duck under it before he bolted away. He then stopped, turning, and rubbed his neck. “Ahaha, you really did go for my head! Any other attack I would have taken for the power up, but even my Curse won’t save me from that.”
《Drim: So who exactly do you all expect me to root for here? Am I supposed to be enthused about either of these two Fiends who’ve thrashed me in the past. Jaid beat me in a contest of strength, and Lieu would have critically wounded me if Nachi hadn’t been there to intervene. Or at the very least I would have had to resort to powers I didn’t want to use for both of them.》
《Drim: But hey, let’s hope for a good match, I guess. Please don’t actually kill each other. Though I understand it’ll be hard not to. If Jaid doesn’t go for heavy attacks that disable Lieu cleanly, it’ll become a much rougher fight for her. Ohp, and there it is.》
After a few more blows, Lieu purposefully messed up his footing and found himself stabbed through the chest by the tip of Jaid’s sword. “Heheha! Fog of war!” The man vanished into fog and reappeared right behind Jaid’s back. She barely spawned a clone in time to deflect the point blank blast from his shotgun.
The Guerilla then dissipated once more and floated away, to the other side of the arena via a quick trip over to the trunk he’d brought with him. Lieu reappeared with a grenade launcher in his arms, firing at his foe. Jaid dashed forward with her clones and sliced through the shell, splitting it in half. The resulting debris exploded behind her when it slammed against the barrier.
She then quickly split her sword and charged it, firing the railgun at her opponent. The attack was fast enough that it hit him on the arm, dropping him to the ground and paralyzing him for a moment. “Kah, this trick again,” he grumbled as fog swirled around his injury. “A lot more painful than that other zjik you tickled me with. But you won’t be able to stop me with it this time.”
While he was still healing, Lieu vanished again, floating around the stage for a while before he reappeared and took another shot. “Unlike last time, I have this whole area to work with! There’s no shame in me running, so you won’t be able to pin me down! I’ll just keep healing, and when I get a single shot on you, it’s over!”
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《Drim: Yes, Jaid is certainly on the ropes here. But I would have expected her to have planned for this eventuality. I wonder, what’s that box dangling off her hip.》
“Tch, perceptive as always,” Jaid finally spoke, but not to her opponent. A new circle of clones appeared around her, all with railguns out, ready to fire wherever Lieu popped up again. Meanwhile, the main Jaid pulled out the cube-like device that was mounted next to her sword’s sheath-pouch.
Since she still had to maintain one hand on her sword for her clones’ sakes. It took a bit more messing with the box than it would usually to get it turned on and operational. “As the numbers continued to dwindle, it became obvious that you’d most likely be my opponent, Caffold. So I had this specially requisitioned and sent here via express delivery.”
“You may remember it from our raid. But it’s a shame we never actually got a chance to try it out on you specifically—a special device designed to suck up and contain fog!” Jaid sent a line of clones his way the next time he appeared and then two more sprouted out at the end. One Jaid swung at Lieu, trying to injure him with the sword in her right hand, while the other held out the vacuuming box with her left.
The man did his best to dodge, but his leg was still grazed. He had to turn into fog and escape before the sword dug any deeper. It didn’t take him much to escape the pull of the box, though there was a noticeable bit of struggle. “Ha, you really think you can stop me with that dustbuster?!” Lieu shouted when he reappeared, swinging a hammer at the new approaching line of clones, wailing one of the Jaids right in the stomach.
All the clones present felt the anguish ring out through them, multiplied by how many of them there were. Normally, Jaid would be forced to retract them all to reduce her anguish, but instead, they all persevered. Lieu genuinely seemed taken aback when more clones sprouted instead of retreating, encircling him and spraying him with sparks.
He was stunned once more, his body lighting up with fog dots all over his skin to heal. A huge swing from a clone sent her sword slicing down at his shoulder, primed to slice off his arm, so he was forced to retreat once more. This time, it was even harder, since there were multiple boxes all trying to suck him up at once.
But he managed to escape again, not to much avail. As soon as he reappeared, he only stayed solid for the briefest moment, having to dodge the new line of Jaids sprinting towards him. And every time he ran, he had less places to go. Jaid let every single clone remain, cutting off the size of the huge arena, down to just a few open spots.
And finally, there was barely any room left for him to move. Lieu tried his damndest, but eventually, his fog was caught in a pull he just couldn’t escape from. In moments, every last bit of cloudy air was sucked up into the box. The device closed and beeped, and lit up to confirm its contents. Jaid became the clone that had been holding the prize and smirked down at the small container.
“Jaid wins!” Applause erupted as expected and Rallie came up to congratulate her. “And with that, Above has been entirely wiped from this competition. We still have a few free agents, but can we expect a final showdown between the Fiends For Hire and the CP? You’ll just have to—”
The victor turned to walk away, returning to her staging area, but she was stopped. “Now hold on just a second!” Phon appeared in front of her, prompting Rallie to stop talking immediately. “We have a bit of unfinished business.” The woman then held out her hand. “If you’d please.”
“I understand that in your position you must feel obligated to hand a captured criminal over to the authorities. But that’s against the spirit of the competition. All of our competitors have their safety guaranteed here, even after they lose, and even if they’re not one of our own.” Phon flexed her palm expectantly once more.
“Of course,” Jaid handed over the box and set it down in the woman’s hand before heading off to finally return and take a break.
“So up next we have the quarter-finals after a brief reprieve!” Rallie announced. “We’re going to try to get through them all this evening, and then we’ll have the semi-finals tomorrow morning. Since we’re getting down to the wire, we need to allow a bit more time between each set to allow our competitors to recover. If all goes according to plan, then tomorrow night, we’ll finally have our grand finale! Stay tuned everyone, we’re rapidly approaching the climax!”
~Unfulfilled Wish~
Lieu: For Alk and Kalter to have their criminal scores pardoned. For them to be able to start fresh and live new lives however they see fit.