LAQUET VS. PRESTON
“Our first contestant has had a fairly clean showing throughout the entire tournament. Despite being from the Central Peace, he’s won over a lot of fans from his masterful showing of his Curse. Will he be able to withstand the pressure? The Gravity Gunner, Laquet!”
“And our second Fiend has made absolutely no fans during this competition. The Fiends For Hire fanbase has mostly remained staunchly loyal during the tournament, directing their distaste towards those from the CP and Above. Yet this man has managed to accumulate more hate than all of them combined. Are we in for a redemption arc, or will he succumb to the heavy weight? The Pressured Peer, Preston!”
“Again with the masks,” Preston Groan groaned when he saw his opponent. “But I suppose I should have never counted on the same trick working twice. That’d be too easy. And even with that silly thing on your face, I can still see the anger in your eyes. You really look like you want to kill me.”
“It’s because of that girl, right? I apologized already! And this is a competition with only one winner. I get that she was probably forced to join, but she wouldn’t have made it past the first round if her competitor had any spine. If anything, she should have just surrendered right when I told her too, and then she wouldn’t have had to go through that anguish. You can’t say I didn’t warn her!”
“That doesn’t matter!” Laquet unholstered his revolver. “You tortured her and made her cry. I’m going to make you feel every ounce of that pain!” The Gunner fired a gravity well right at Preston’s feet. But before it could grow too large in size, The Peer caused an explosion of pressure beneath himself, sending him flying into the air. He then made another explosion to the side, blasting him off to a different spot in the arena.
“Aren’t you worried that I’ll just do the same to you?” Preston inquired. “Would you care for a dose of the same torture?”
“Not at all,” Laquet made a new gravity well by his opponent, forcing him to scramble away again. “It took a lot of focus from you, and you could only do it because Hickedy was standing still. As long as one of us is moving, you won’t get the chance.”
“Well spotted,” Preston didn’t hold back his praise. “But that still won’t help you. Your well’s certainly are annoying, I’ll give you that. However, you could almost think of me as the improved version of you! My power doesn’t take time to ramp up like yours does, and I don’t need a pointless gun to use it!”
Preston blasted himself forward across the arena and then used his power to lunge himself up into the air. Once he loomed over his foe, he shouted, “Pressure bomb!” and flung out both hands.
Laquet quickly shot again, near himself, making a well that flung his body away just in time. Behind him, the ground exploded, sending shrapnel from the flooring flying everywhere. Damage to the arena was allowed to the extent, as long as they still had somewhere to stand.
The Gunner fired two more wells. First, he used it to escape further across the playing field. The second was again aimed at his opponent, but it also sucked up the shrapnel as well. Preston blasted his way out of the situation quickly, but not before he got a couple shards embedded into his leg.
“Ha, you think this will slow me down?!” The Peer jabbed with his words at the futile attempt. “Mangle me all you want. As long as I can use my power, I won’t lose this!” Preston flung himself towards his opponent, unleashing another barrage of pressure bombs.
Laquet made a well above them to escape, but it also dragged up his opponent. Preston took the chance for more attacks, so The Gunner had to then cancel his power to escape before he could get hit, his hat getting sucked up and then obliterated by the pressure.
Once they were both back on the ground, the two practically started circling each other, trying to attack and defend at the same time, both of them skirting around the edge of the arena with their powers.
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《Rezin: Umm, so Kada and Niloy were banned from commenting on Preston after last time. So they made me do it. But this fight is pretty interesting. It’s almost like a puzzle game.》
《Rezin: Uhh, that probably sounds weird. This isn’t really a battle of strength, but of output and physics. Preston boasted about the instantness of his power, but from what I’ve watched, that’s really not how it works. He can use it pretty fast, but just like Laquet, it takes time for it to build in power.》
《Rezin: That’s why he’s been using smaller explosions instead of bigger ones that’d shatter the arena, or trying to crush Laquet with air pressure. Neither of them can afford to let the other take a minute to focus. I’d say Preston definitely has the edge. Laquet’s power is stronger in the end, but takes much longer to build up. He needs to find a way to speed up. While any one of Preston’s blasts won’t likely do much, enough of them will make him lose in the end.》
Maybe it was the commentator’s words giving him an idea, but Laquet suddenly switched up tactics. Meaning he stood completely still, and the only movement was to reload his revolver.
“Have you given up?” The Peer stopped flying around as well. “I won’t complain. You’ve just left yourself as a wide open target!” Preston started unleashing pressure explosions at Laquet’s feet, ripping into his legs and sending the man flying into the air.
So Laquet shot the ground directly beneath himself. The gravity well spawned and pulled him back to the ground, straining his own lower body slightly to stay planted.
“Heh, if you want to be crushed that badly, let me help you out!” Preston held out both hands and acted as if he was going to clasp them together, but left them a few inches apart. Yet his muscles strained, as if he really was squishing something between them.
Welts and ruptures started appearing all over Laquet’s body, but he ignored them and pushed through. He raised his gun and fired at Preston’s feet. The Peer paused his crushing for a moment, ready to cause an explosion to create an escape, but the well never came.
Instead, Laquet just fired another shot, and then another.
“I have no idea what you’re thinking! But when you make your well, I’ll just blast myself out of here again! Now then, I hope you’re ready! I’m going to cram you into a ball like you did to that woman in your first fight!”
The crunching resumed, and Laquet fell to one knee, both from Preston’s pressure, and his own well holding him in place. As he raised his revolver once more, the weight was enormous. But he had just one more bullet to fire.
Once the shot rang out, Laquet turned off the well around him and stood back up, still being battered from all sides. But then he smirked.
Six gravity wells spawned at once around Preston, as he’d done before with Ancett. But unlike those that were perfectly spaced apart, these were all crammed together. The wells collided and erupted into one giant sphere of gravity, enveloping most of the arena, stopping just a few feet shy of the battered sheriff.
“The mawhg is this?!” Preston panicked, making countless pressured explosions to try and escape, only to be dragged back to the crushing core every time.
《Rezin: I wondered what would happen if two wells collided. It seems we have our answer.》
Laquet enjoyed his opponent's torment for a few moments, but then he looked over into the stands. Hickedy wasn’t commentating this time, but she was sitting in the front row. She cheered him on with Pox sitting on her head—the real one—cheering him on too. He was delighted to see her smile, but there was still a bit of payback he had to deliver.
The Gunner holstered his revolver, sprinted forward with every ounce of strength that remained, and leapt into the gravity well. He was immediately caught by the force and yanked towards the center, right to where Preston was still desperately trying to escape.
Laquet wrenched back his arm and clenched his fist. He swung forward, all of his retribution channeled into that punch. At the exact same moment, he released his gravity well.
The man connected with Preston’s chin. From the sheer force, The Peer was sent flying faster and farther than ever before—slammed out of the arena, crashing into the outer barrier with his skull, knocking him unconscious.
“Laquet wins!”
~Unfulfilled Wish~
Preston: To repay my debts, monetary and otherwise.