The remaining players in the second round watched as Roxanne fell defeated. Cassandra clutched Julian's arm with enough intensity to leave a bruise if she kept the pressure up.
"What was that?" Ryland asked, clutching his stomach.
"That has to be illegal, right?" Samuel asked, looking around for anyone to agree with his statement.
"Why would it be?" Luca asked, looking the most relaxed out of anyone there. "She knew what she was getting into."
"I know…but like…Roxanne's not a fighter!"
"Yet she survived two rounds of the fighting tournament." Fiorella added. "Frankly, I think you're underestimating her."
"Besides, we all knew she wasn't winning." Julian shrugged. "If I know her, she went in expecting to lose, but learn just what Cheng is capable of."
"And?" Caoimhe asked.
"Well, I bet it's-"
"Julian Torres and Zee Shijima, please enter the arena." One of Zach's staffers announced through the door.
"-something I'll confirm when Roxanne wakes up."
"Next up, the greasy lord of death, truly committed to looking the bit. Or lazy, but we don't judge!"
Julian stepped into the arena with the bear hobbling behind him, holding a jar of bugs in his hands, still crawling around. There were a few cheers in the arena, but not a lot. Whatever, Cassandra was probably splitting eardrums in the back, and the thought of that was enough.
"And the man voted most attractive in the tournament, the clown of calamity, Zee!"
The crowd exploded with excitement when Zee stepped in, roaring to the heavens when he entered the arena. Next, he started flexing his muscles to the crowd, letting a smile slip as he did so. Not bad, Julian thought.
"Begin!"
Julian shoved his hand into the jar of bugs, crushing several into his hands and shoving the remains onto the bear, slathering them into it's greasy fur. Zee delivered a flying kick to the bear just as it was about to wake up, sending it lifelessly tumbling through the arena. Julian could only put the lid back on the jar and cling to it as Zee picked him up and flung him into the air. The crowd cheered as Julian shut his eyes to brace for impact, only for it to suddenly stop. Julian fell to the floor, forcing his eye open. The jar was fine outside of a small crack nothing could escape from. He stood up to watch Zee get himself up, pointing to the audience before beginning to run to Julian, before the bear appeared to grapple him. Julian tucked the jar under his hoodie, climbing to the top of the bear. Julian quickly took a handful of beetles out of his jar, throwing them onto Zee. Zee tried his best not to look disgusted, but he recoiled just a little bit. Julian jumped off the back immediately, taking the opportunity to slather the bear's right arm in more dead bug juice, issuing one more command to strike Zee in the stomach. Zee's stomach seemed to coil around the bears claw for a brief second, just before he was flung near the edge of the arena. With no time to spare, Julian threw one more handful of beetles at Zee, grabbing his head when he was distracted, putting every ounce of strength ever contained in his scrawny arms, and slamming it against the edges of the arena.
"And Zee was the first out of bounds!" The announcer yelled out in shock. "Julian moves on to round three!"
Julian looked towards the crowd waiting for the admiration to pour in, and he had less cheers then when he entered. Whatever. If he wanted admiration of the masses he'd stuck with Luca's band of jackassery.
Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
Julian came back into the waiting room with all eyes on him. Capri and the Battlestorms looked unimpressed, and Samuel looked straight up disgusted. But Fiorella was nodding in approval while Cassandra was beaming, jumping up to kiss him almost as soon as he walked in, which he returned with his own shower of kisses, glancing up to see what Luca thought. He couldn't see Luca through the beautifully tangled mess that was Cassandra's hair, but he knew he was pissed.
The next fight of Samuel vs Luca was called, and both left without saying a word.
"First up, the Maximo's high energy dynamo and martial arts master, please welcome mister Samuel Abara!"
Samuel stepped out to many of his cheering fans, looking out for any particularly attractive women in the crowd. There was one screaming her lungs out, which only got louder when he looked in her direction. But she started looking to the left.
"And the man no needs no introduction, because he asked it to be that way, mister Luca Biere of the Battlestorms!"
Luca stepped onto the stage, blowing kisses seemingly at random to the audience before drawing his swords. No worry. Time to take this loser down a notch.
"Begin!"
One good hit. One good hit to this jackass's arms, and he'd be forced to use his legs. And Samuel had the strongest kicks around. So he began running, stylishly ducking under the first horizontal swing Luca prepared, kicking the sword out of his left hand. He then got out of range by jumping back, doing a backflip with a natural perfect landing. No time to see which girls were impressed by that, time for the next move. Samuel jumped back, kicking the sword out of the arena, causing Luca to flinch for a brief second. Only for him to smile, point his Rapier in Samuel's direction, and put his left hand behind his back. Samuel tried once again to kick the sword out of his hand, but Luca effortlessly swatted his leg away, taking a step to approach him, continuing his precise series of flourishes. He kept stepping forward until Samuel, so focused on defeating his opponent, stepped out of bounds.
"Seems I win again." Was all Luca said, calmly leaving the arena and leaving Samuel to stew in his own rage and mistakes.
"And round four! The lumps golden leader and the Fightston golden boy against the mystery orange haired lady without a home! Ryland Jones against Cassandra Torres!
Cassandra had a mild training axe that probably wouldn't deal any major damage, along with a small training sword, and Ryland was using good old Fightston fists.
"And…begin!"
Cassandra started swinging her axe, which Ryland managed to jump over, closing the distance with a smile followed by a punch to the face. It barely seemed to hurt, however, so Cassandra kept swinging the axe with all she could muster. But Ryland kept weaving through it, punching different parts of her body. The impact felt smaller and smaller each time, until she learned to ignore the hits entirely and land her own. She got a good swing in, flinging him away to near the edge of the arena. But Ryland got up with a smile on his face, and casually snapped his left hand. Cassandra felt something move inside her body. Several points converging on her chest like worms colliding. Whatever, it didn't hurt that much. Cassandra began to run up to Ryland, who snapped his right hand.
The points in her chest exploded at the same time. It felt visceral, she had to stop for a second to make sure there wasn't a hole inside her. There wasn't, just one explosion of pain that her body was already recovering. Ryland let loose a kick to her stomach, causing her to flip through the air and do her best to cling onto the axe as she landed. She managed to keep it, losing no time to run over to Ryland, who leapt up and kicked the axe out of her hands, letting it clang onto the floor. Ryland quickly picked it up and flung it out of the arena, before letting forward an onslaught of punches.
No time to get her sword out, time for hand to hand. Cassandra blocked most of Ryland's hits, with him landing another good kick to her stomach, leaving him to snap both his left and right hands in quick succession, causing all the hits to build up in her right arm. She felt an explosion in her arm, leaving it limp for a quick bit. Cassandra ran away, trying to shake her arm back to life in an attempt to speed up the regeneration. Ryland went in for a punch on Cassandra's right arm, only to back away and land a kick to her left instead. Cassandra managed to stop herself being knocked out of bounds, quickly getting her sword out of her jacket, her arm felt healed. Time to get even.
She leapt into action at once, hitting Ryland with a flurry of hits from her sword. Ryland tried blocking them, but she was matching the speed. Ryland knew what was happening. She was trying the same tactic Luca did to Samuel. he barely ducked out of the way of her next swing, attempting to deliver an uppercut to her, which Cassandra stepped to the left to dodge. Just what he needed. He leapt over her, causing a panicked Cassandra to swing her sword upwards, slashing his leg.
Ryland fell to a heap on the ground. Blood was leaving his right leg and staining his jeans. Wanting to end this fight as quick as she could, she pointed her sword at his face while standing above him, hoping he'd get the message to give up. Ryland inched his face away from the sword, trying to rise back up, but Cassandra offered him one quick headbutt in return, causing him to faceplant to the ground unmoving.
"And Cassandra wins!"
The crowd began cheering as medical staff escorted Ryland away. It was a training sword, but carelessness around weapons is always an issue.
But Ryland gave a smile as he was carried off, mustering the last of the strength to wave to the crowd.
"Next up, Fiorella and Arianna!"