Predictably, the match started off slowly. Andy went on the defensive, backing away and darting aside whenever Lucas seemed about to make a move. This went on for a while until, in an ironic reversal, Lucas started showing signs of annoyance and frustration, which seemed to amuse the audience. This only made him even more annoyed. He wasn’t getting to play with his dinner this time.
“Come on, Andy,” cheered Sigrid.
“Watch for it,” I said. “Any second now he’s going to make his move.”
And he did.
Andy was nearly backed all the way to the arena wall when the attack came. One second there was a good ten feet between them. The next second there was a flash of light glinting off the slashing blade and a moment later, Lucas bounded back again and Andy had a red line across his abdomen where the cutting edge had struck. Half of Andy’s health was gone. That’s how Lucas liked to do it, weaken his opponent with a big hit in the beginning, then finish them off with a bunch of little ones. I could tell by how easily he was able to dash in and slash Andy that the participants were not watching the other fights behind the scenes. Andy had made no move to defend himself; he was clearly not prepared for it.
But now he was.
“I can’t watch,” said Nina, although she made no effort to cover her eyes or look away.
“Wait, it’s going to be fine,” I assured her. Andy still had half his health, he could still put up a fight. “If he continued to attack, Andy would have been in serious trouble, but look: he backed off. That’s a good thing.”
“How is that a good thing?” asked Nina. “He can just zip back in and do it again.”
“He won’t,” I said. “Not right away, anyway. Look at him, he’s smiling. A few seconds ago he wasn’t. If you wanna know what I think, I think he was pissed that Andy had been controlling the match instead of him, and now he wants some time to play with Andy before finishing him off.”
“Andy won’t last long enough, that’s a lot of blood,” said Sigrid. Sure enough, blood poured freely from Andy’s wound, more than you’d expect. This was the effect of Lucas’s Bleed Them Out power.
Holding the deadly katana in both hands, Lucas raised it over his head. His body was low, leg muscles coiled, ready to strike. He didn’t seem to care that was telegraphing his intent to attack, but why would he? He wouldn’t think there was anything Andy could do to stop him. Such hubris surely could not go unpunished. Andy still had half of his mana remaining, his opponent had revealed his hand, and Andy could still play his trump card. This match was far from over.
Suddenly, Andy surprised everyone by charging forward. A moment later, Lucas began running at Andy, but something was wrong. He wasn’t moving fast anymore. No super speed, he moved like a normal person. But he was already committed to the attack and continued to charge ahead as Andy barreled at him.
Andy’s mana was nearly drained. He had used his power to Lucas’s super speed, an all-or-nothing gambit. He needed to finish this off now.
When the clash came, Andy was ready. The sword began its downward slash but Andy was already there, ready for it. As the sword descended, Andy grabbed the hilt and pulled down hard while spinning to the side. The next thing I knew, Lucas was on his back on the arena floor with Andy looming over him with the sword in his hands, the point of the tip held unwavering against Lucas’s exposed throat. Andy had taken him down and disarmed him in the same move.
“Lucky for Andy that guy must’ve run out of mana and couldn’t use his speed,” said Wayne.
“That wasn’t it,” I said.
“Then what happened?”
I didn’t want to go around talking about someone else’s power, not without explicit permission. “You’ll have to ask Andy,” I said.
“Ah,” said Wayne, getting it. “Your discretion is admirable.”
Andy only had two powers, but they were both awesome. He’d just used his ability to nullify an enemy’s power, that alone made Andy a devastating opponent. Add in his ability to direct his inner qi power towards his physical abilities — strength, speed, toughness, agility, vitality, whatever he needed at the time — along with his martial arts and he would be tough to beat in hand-to-hand. Once he got Affinity Control so he could use his Ice affinity at range, and he’d be a dominating fighter in any situation.
He’d also need to find a way to increase his mana. Using his qi was a constant drain, and the nullification power consumed a huge amount. With the mana he had left over, he wouldn’t be able to use it again.
Down on the arena floor, Andy remained poised over his defeated opponent. One twitch and the tip of the katana would slice through his neck.
“Do you yield?” Andy said.
They stayed that way for a few long moments as his opponent gazed up at him with burning hatred in his eyes. “I yield,” he choked.
The crowd cheered. The killer had been taken down.
Andy lowered the sword and turned to go back to the gate. He made it a few steps before his defeated opponent sprang to his feet like a horror movie villain, clutching a knife he’d had concealed in his clothing. He charged, but Andy was the quick one this time. When the knife came down to stab Andy in the back he wasn’t there: he’d gone down on one knee and holding the sword in both hands Andy had thrust behind him, impaling Lucas with his own blade. They remained frozen in place until Andy let go of the sword and its owner toppled over with as much of its length protruding from his back as there was still sticking out of his front. All his remaining health had been depleted by that one hit.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Andy calmly stood up again and without looking back continued his march out of the arena, ignoring the blood that dripped from his wound leaving a crimson smear behind him.
His opponent wouldn’t move again until the cleanup crew carried his corpse out of the arena.
The crowd cheered like crazy now, most people on their feet hooting and clapping and stomping their approval. Beside me, Nina stood up and fist-pumped the air while yelling support for Andy. I looked up at her and she glanced down at me.
“I know I shouldn’t condone this kind of thing but screw it, that was amazing,” she said, and went right back to cheering.
It took a minute before things had settled down and everyone was in their seats again.
“Hey Nina?” I said.
“Hmmm?”
“Told you so.”
Jane turned around and looked up at Nina. “May I?”
“Be my guest,” Nina said, and Jane punched me hard in the thigh.
“Ow!” I rubbed at the place she’d hit me. “That’s gonna leave a bruise.”
Jane made a pouty face. “Aw poow widdle Danny. Does baby need his binky?”
Once Lucas’s dead body had been cleared from the arena floor, it was time for the other semi-final match. Chika struggled but eventually managed to pull off a win. She had become another crowd favorite, overcoming opponent after opponent to make it to the finals using the combination of her potent jiu jitsu skills, her leaping power, her strength, and her intelligence. It was obvious that she’d known how to fight before she got here, which helped too.
“This is terrific!” Nina said. “Both our people made it to the finals!”
“Yeah, it’s gonna be jiu jitsu versus kung fu in the last battle,” Wayne said. “This should prove interesting.”
“I hope Andy’s not too badly hurt to continue,” Byron said. “That was a nasty cut.
We’d finally reached the last match of the tournament, and it had been a goldmine for me. I’d seen System message after System message pop up, telling me all the new skills I’d learned just by sitting there and watching. I’d likely never use any of them, but it was still pretty cool knowing that I could pick up pretty much any weapon and know how to use it.
The stands were buzzing with excitement as all eyes remained on the gate, waiting for the final two fighters to enter the arena. The wait dragged on and we started to worry until the grinding of the portcullis triggered a roar of cheers. When Andy and Chika entered the ring side by side the place erupted. Andy no longer dripped blood, but the red-stained gash in his clothing remained, the white of a bandage barely visible in the gap. He had a little more than half his health left, but his mana was low enough to be concerning. Chika was also dangerously low on mana, but her health was close to full.
They faced each other in the middle and bowed. Chika’s face glowed with a huge smile. She was clearly loving every minute of this.
“Classic martial arts face-off,” said Wayne. “Striker against a grappler. It really could go either way.”
“No disrespect to Andy,” said Jane, “but I’m rooting for Chika.”
“Don’t tell Andy, but me too,” said Sigrid.
It was a good fight, maybe the best of the whole tournament. They were evenly matched. Andy was surprised the first time she jumped over him and caught him in a takedown, but he managed to wriggle his way out before she could get him into a lock.
“I doubt he’ll be tricked by her jump again,” I said. “She’s better off saving her mana for something else.”
The fight wore on, going back and forth. She managed to give Andy a few good throws, and he managed to return the favor with some nice punches and kicks.
“Chika looks hurt,” said Jane. She was right again. Chicka’s health bar was well into the yellow; she wouldn’t be able to absorb more than a few more of Andy’s hits before it would be over.
“That’s the advantage of the striker,” said Wayne. “Every time he lands a blow it’ll hurt her, but when she throws him it has little immediate effect, unless she can follow it up with a grapple or choke.”
“You seem to know a fair bit about martial arts, Wayne.”
“It’s all from movies, I’m afraid. I’ve always wanted to learn one, just never got around to doing it.”
“We can fix that,” I said. I got what Wayne meant, I’d always wanted to learn martial arts too. That’s probably why it made me happy that I had already learned several of them, and I decided at that moment I was going to learn all the fighting styles I possibly could, including any weapons skills I hadn’t already picked up in the past few hours. I might not be able to become an expert in any of them, but I liked the idea of at least becoming proficient in all of them.
As the fight continued, Andy seemed to be getting the upper hand. Chika started limping after a vicious kick to her leg, but she fought on, playing mostly defense and waiting for her opening, and neither of them managed to seal the deal until the opening came and she managed to flip him over her hip. She went down with him, falling hard on his chest and tangling him up in a classic Jiu Jitsu grapple.
He was flat on his back with this tiny girl on top of him, and it looked like he should be able to throw her off easily, especially in her weakened state. He struggled, but she clung to him, halfway between a squirmy octopus enveloping its prey and a tenacious lamprey latched onto a much bigger shark.
Her body was positioned to the side, her arms and legs entwined in his. She was constantly shifting, reacting to his efforts to get free in just the right way to keep him down. He weighed at least twice as much as she did, but it meant nothing in the face of her skill. That’s jiu jitsu. It helped that she was also clearly using her vampiric power to siphon his health into herself because as she held him her mana and his health were going down while her health went up. She was healing herself by sucking the life out of him. Another terrific and terrifying power made even more potent when combined with her fighting style. If he’d had enough mana left, he could’ve nullified it, but he’d blown his wad against Lucas and was now at the little girl’s mercy.
And as we were all learning, Chika had no mercy.
The crowd sizzled with excitement as it started to look like Chika was going to pull off a comeback victory, but then Andy slipped a leg out and rolled over, escaping the grapple. The girl still clung to him like a small, wiggly backpack.
Size and strength suddenly became relevant again. Andy got onto his knees, then rose to his feet in a squat, still with the wiry parasite clinging to his back. She wriggled and squirmed, her arms and legs knotted in his, and somehow she managed to reach down and grab his ankle while throwing her weight to one side and Andy fell on top of her. She used the momentum to roll until she was sitting on the ground with Andy in front of her. She held his right leg down with hers while wrenching his left foot up to her shoulder with her arm. As flexible as Andy was, his legs were never meant to go that way.
Seconds later Andy tapped out. The pain must have been excruciating.
Jiu jitsu had won, with a little help from some vampiric power.
The stands erupted. Everybody loves an underdog.
Chika quickly disentangled herself and bounced up. She showed no sign of a limp or any other injury. I could see her health was nearly full again while Andy’s was deep, deep into the red zone. She reached down and helped him stand up beside her. He bent down to say something into her ear, then took her hand and raised it over her head in victory.
I cheered alongside everyone else. She deserved it.
Annabelle came over to join them and waited for the din of the crowd to subside before presenting the Champion’s Sword to Chika, who looked even more waiflike than ever sandwiched between the two much taller people.
“Congratulations to the winner of the first Players Tournament, our champion, Chika Hachiman,” Anabelle’s amplified voice bellowed as she placed a duplicate of the golden laurel wreath Stratos had worn on Chika’s head.