The gates swung open, and Fiona clicked her weapon to length and dashed forward with grace and elven agility. She knew the smart thing would be to keep to the edges and skirmish against weaker opponents, but she only had one goal:
Win it. And to do that, they needed to do something bold. She saw a pair of two women coming after her, clubs held too high, and their grip all wrong.
A couple of impact hits later, they were on their backsides, and their armor was flashing with little red motes–they had been eliminated. Kieran held the rear, while she dashed across the arena. “Kieran, pair at three o’clock! On me!”
The wolven and the lizardman were tougher and more seasoned, and strafed for an opening, swinging lightly with their blunt weapons. She twisted and swerved, waiting for an opportunity for them to slip up, and deliberately baited an opening. Wolfy boy went for it and tried to pounce on her.
That proved to be a big mistake when she swiveled the hammer in a hard turn to crack him in the jaw, and his armor went from green to red in an instant–a responding blow that left him shaking his head, like there was a cloud of flies buzzing around him. Kieran was creating space on their flank, as a few opportunists tried to seize an opening.
The melee did not stay simple for long. In mere seconds, some of the magically affluent were casting out ice, small heat burst spells, and viscous goo to slow and delay their foes. She was not cool with a gob of green nastiness whizzing past her head, catching her foe off guard, making him and recoil in surprise. She took the opening and smacked the lizardman with an opportunistic hit after he overcorrected. A second follow-up blow knocked him into the red, leaving him wheezing on the ground.
“Toodles!” she called out triumphantly, while barely avoiding a swing by the wolven. He tried to grapple with her, trying to force her out of position, and he needed a bath–he smelled like he’d been doing the all-natural thing for too long. With his size, he maneuvered her to pin her movements against the side of the arena.
She waited for the right moment for him to try to push her into the arena wall, snapped her weapon away, and sent his weapon to the ground. She sprung up in the air, almost like her winged heart made her lighter than the air.
Even though she had a hefty helping of coins still in her pocket, she seemed to be moving faster than anticipated.
Kieran came in with a swing of his staff, keeping the wolven wide, and he let out a chuckle. “Damn old man, you’re quick!” he complimented with a bit of lightheartedness.
“Why thank you, son! Now, watch your feet!”
Kieran managed to get the young wolven dancing back from a low swipe that almost caught the him off-guard. He stumbled on the gravel, and Fiona took her opportunity and sent him skidding with a hammer blow to the torso that resulted in a dog-like yelp.
She almost hated herself for it–wolvens were so cute, like overgrown plushie toys! “Well, you can teach an old wolven new tricks–”
A blow slammed into her from behind that somehow worked its way past Kieran's interweaving strikes to buy space for the duet. She reacted to the blow and turned--a young man had gotten a lucky hit in, and gold sparks formed off her armor set. But he didn’t get to gloat on hitting the hero of Fiefdala, because she sent him on an express flight to low orbit with her hammer strike in a reciprocal strike. She still didn't get how he didn’t become paste when she blasted him off like an acme rocket, because he bounced on the ground a few seconds later, groaning.
That had been a careless mistake. She couldn’t afford another.
“Mind the flank!” Kieran called out, his armor flashing yellow now, as well. A few more foes had fallen prey to his fancy staff work, and she sized up the melee still going on. Her dazzling display had knocked two more out of the tournament. One mage's armor was flashing red and trying to fire off a hailstone blast–painful, but not dangerous. A clever idea came to mind as she grabbed a handful of coins, and targeted the foe, trying to line her up.
“Coinuken!” she called out as she flung the gold coins in a barrage with deft flicks of her wrists. They left her hand at a high speed and impacted like they were riot rounds, hitting the mage in the chest, torso, and one in the face. The warning lights on his armor winked out and he sprawled on the ground, the hail attack melting in his hands and soaking him.
“This is not my day,” he groaned while rubbing his forehead. “Ow.”
The other mages were trying to enclose prey tactically, and had put up a defensive barrier of frozen or immobilized participants, all of them trying to roll with the inconvenience of being stuck there. She danced past a few other foes more interested in bashing each other than the hot elf chick, and she made short work of one of the mages with a dizzying strike that left him eating gravel.
But the second duo of mages blasted her backward with a telekinetic strike, and she rubbed at her chest and winced. It had not triggered her armor hit detection. Maybe it only detected against a contacting blow? Either way, she had to dodge a few magical staff blasts.
She had to give credit, they were fighting very well, for a pairing no more than twenty years old apiece. But they were weak in the power aspect, and she was able to bypass their arcane deflectors with ease; she sent one smashing and skidding into the other, their armor going from flashing yellow, straight to blinking red, indicating they were out.
“Miss Swiftheart, I thought they were exaggerating when they said you slew a dragon!” Kieran commented with a crooked smile, even as he held off two more that engaged on the flank. He used a dash of sand kicked up by his foot to blind and distract one, while he grabbed the other after he parried a thrust of a club, and punched the man right in the face.
“Hey, stop inflicting charisma damage on the guy, that’s his moneymaker!” Fiona protested spiritedly. She was getting closer to the bad dudes who had been mopping the floor on their side of the arena, and one of them had a narrow graze on their cheek. She wasn’t sure when that happened, but it must have been pretty recent. Their armor still had bright green wisps hovering over them, and they were more than happy to cover each other's backs when they took on smaller opponents. They were even stalking the dwindling stragglers.
A few others had been clued in on the threat, and two pairs of teams drew together and called out the foes together. “Regarth, you won’t win this year!” one of the young men protested, but he was singled out and bashed with one man's giant mace of choice of his that sent him spinning–an instant KO from that weapon.
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Welp. One hit from that, and we're out. We need a solution! A big, bright, bold solution that takes care of the baldy with no hair and skin so bright, you’d swear you were lighting a beacon!
Almost as if on cue, her bangle started glimmering with light–now was the time to clear out the stragglers, and get to the main threat. “Kieran, shield your eyes!” she called out as she felt the surge of energy down her arm, into her gold bangle. She held up her free hand to avoid the blindness–mostly. She blinked past the starbursts, and the man that had been behind her was staggering and rubbing his eyes. She didn't waste the opportunity.
Her hammer clipped into his helmet, and sent it flying. That was warning enough for him to dart backward in a tumble, panting and rubbing his eyes. “Have you no sense of honor?” The man demanded, an elven, and was rubbing his eyes like they were still bothering him.
She pounced on his prone body almost like Tucker would, when he wanted to play with Greg. She heard the man groan beneath her feet.
“C’mon lazy bones, you gotta try harder than that!” Fiona encouraged him, but the lack of expediency annoyed her. Like her putting boots on his literal backside wasn’t enough incentive?!
“Gods, what was that?” Kieran gasped. Luckily he wasn’t blinded.
“New tricks I learned! I call it ‘All that glitters is gold’! No wait, ‘shine bright like a diamond’! Wait, no, I got it, Flash, aaaaah!” she grinned. “Man, I need names for these attacks! Now lets deal with the big guys!"
She made her way toward the brutes that had dispatched a good third of the teams by themselves, and they were not even hit yet. She was, however, taking in the scene. The brute that was Barry’s favored guy was using little earthen shields of the gravel to absorb blows at the last second–reducing blow impact enough that it didn't score as a solid hit for this tournament.
These guys were good, they might be a challenge, but they weren’t as good as her. “Kieran, split and flank!” She figured she’d get one good surprise on the big guy, and focused on her bangle, feeling that luster, that brightness shine. “Razzle and dazzle!” she called out.
She had no idea if she actually needed to say the words to get the effect, but it sure felt cool to say out and she made sure to not blind herself. The guy shielded her eyes, and she swung mightily–but gravel shifted up from the ground, absorbing the blow. He returned the favor by swinging blindly, and she dodged to the side–right into the waiting blow of the other!
She slid and dove to the ground, scraping her legs on the rough ground before landing a hammer blow at his leg, and knocking him off his feet. The motes of light went from green to yellow on his armor, and he was on his feet in an instant while the brute thrust out a column of gravel at her, intending to strike her. She rolled to the side, coming up in a defensive position.
She felt the motion before she saw it when her ears twitched in danger. She swerved to avoid the club strike from an opportunistic man, one of the last left standing besides her and the brutes. “Sorry hero, in here, it’s three strikes, you’re–”
He really should have been paying attention, because that column of gravel swiped at him and sent him tumbling, out of the fight. Bits of gravel sprayed all over the place, stinging her skin and pelting off her armor. The bruiser with the beard was no pushover! The clean-shaven man of the pair had just bowled over the last remaining opponent and she heard ribs creak from the impact. They were fighting just a tad too hard for this to be just a competitive sport!
“Kieran, change of tactics!” She barked out. “Gotta catch the big guy off guard, he’s got a reactive defense!”
“Timed attack,” he grunted in a barely audible manner. He was down to a single hit, with the lights over his armor flashing red. “Let’s take out the smaller guy.”
“They’re both huge!” she countered.
But with deft maneuvering, she was able to force his weapon wide, and tried to grab him with a free hand, intending to body-check him into the arena wall. But she grabbed nothing but air! This guy was mercurially quick, and she saw that hammer fist coming.
Crack.
One minus to using an unarmed strike, with no padding? It really hurt when you punched into solid steel, and she blocked his strike with the head of her hammer. He let out a whimpering sound while still trying to pretend he had not, in fact, probably broken a few bones. She gave him a gentle tap on the nose, and then swung her hammer like it was a croquet mallet. He crashed into the ground, wheezing lightly.
“Ow, Finks, take out the crazy hot elf chick, first!” he called out, before dragging his now-disqualified and dented body over to the sidelines. She spent a split second too long, because that gravel column snapped into position and came at her like a barrage of rocks. She stumbled between strikes and felt the breeze from the blow, while the man also kept Kieran at bay between swings of his staff.
Dual wielding?! How unsportsmanlike. She wished she had a ranged weapon–oh wait, she did! Almost by reaction, the coins in her purse felt like they warmed up–as if anticipating her motion.
She remembered the knife toss event. She’d been able to fling the daggers with precise aim, and at high speed. She flung the coins at him, but that gravel defense reacted almost instantly, stopping the coins where they clattered to the ground. He even grinned as he picked one up
"Sheesh, going right for the money shot, are ya?" he laughed.
"Touché!" she shouted back. He changed tactics and came at her, using his gravel defense to keep Kieran at bay, and she weighed her options. That defense was strong. But it couldn't be unbeatable!
Wait. I have it! I need to head-fake his defense! She should try to combine the effects of her powers, because this guy meant business. But, could she focus it well enough–
That column of gravel tricked her as it spun like a jump rope, and she was a tad too slow. She was flung to the side and skidded along, bruised and scuffed up. The motes on her armor set flashed red. But Finks, as he was called, was distracted just long enough with that gravel whip to allow Kieran to strike at his head, leaving the man reeling, and with a bunch of yellow motes now floating off his armor. He whipped the gravel lash around at speed, and nearly caught the elder man on the backswing. But Finks was getting tired. Using that ability must be energy-intensive. Kieran knocked some of the gravel aside with a swipe of his staff, and kept whittling away at it.
Fiona struggled to rise–that blow had hurt, even with the armor, and she grabbed the coins out of her pouch and felt that magnetism again as if she could direct it. I have to trick that active defense! Let’s try it like that!
Finks changed tactics and kept Kieran distracted with the gravel lashing out almost autonomously, while he charged at her, grinning wickedly. “The heroine of Fiefdala? Don’t make me laugh, sweetie. I might just take you out on a date, if you let me win,” he said with a haughty laugh.
“Babe, I’m a merchant. Wanna purchase my attention? That’s fifty gold!” She pulled out the coins and felt a heated rush through her body, and the coins glowed brightly. “Oh what’s that, you’re trying to cash a thousand?”
Her taunts had the intended effect, and he tried to bash her with the staff. She dodged nimbly to get some space, while Kieran kept pressure on him from the rear. “You’re the chick who beat Douglas the Red? Pathetic–”
“That’ll be another hundred!” she declared, as she dodged another swipe. She was waiting for him to commit to the gravel swing. Eventually, he got annoyed at the taunts, and flung the gravel column at her.
She had elven grace for days and landed on top of it, and it supported her weight. She used her opportunity to fling the coins like throwing stars that swerved to avoid his gravel defense in mid-air, hitting him in the chest, torso, and right into his nose, each one impacting and causing the motes to flicker between yellow and red. “And here’s your change!” she shouted out, and flung the last fifty gold coin at his head, sending him reeling backward.
The motes flashed to red, but he was still up and in the fight. He abruptly pulled the gravel back to his body, and she fell through the air, stumbling on the landing. He brought the column of gravel back down, intending to finish her.
She was cooked, she wasn’t getting out of the way in time.