Damn, I zoned out for another one.
Three fights have gone by since my fight with Tom, each one ending completely lopsided considering everyone's shocked reactions signaling me to check back in. Once the considerably stronger of any match used their best move, I practically disassociated anyways. All I really needed was information on the victor, which didn't necessarily mean their highlights. Instead, I found myself reflecting on mine and Tom's match. Particular making note of his very clear technical improvement throughout this tournament. Not to mention his quickness felt more than double what his lanky ass used to be capable of. There was one particular moment that I haven't been able to shake since it happened.
He actually hurt me.
Tom was many, many, MANY things, a more than decent student being among them. At least, when it came to studying things he actually wanted to learn. He took a special liking to his training, even at times where I couldn't help but use specialty moves I'd normally never attempt in a competitive fight. The kind that would dishearten any rational human being to get hit by, such as scorpion kicks and flying arm bars. Simply put, he never truly stood a chance.
This was by no means a jab at Tom, because I hit him with way more than what most could handle on a regular basis. Almost every technique he treated like a lifestyle choice came under my tutelage. His foundations that is, however that didn't mean we fought similarly. Quite the opposite in fact, as we fundamentally differed in fighting style.
Tom naturally gravitated toward watery techniques, as he'd always carried the quiet, patiently aggressive personality they required to properly apply. Of course, it had to be the most fucking annoying style that man has ever conceived, and remains a stain on my pursuit of accepting the unfair bullshit I may encounter in life. And of course being Tom, he decided to dive headfirst into what most naturally suited him, only changing focus to interpolate his lightning techniques into his watery move-set.
Me, I liked a to dabble in a few different styles, playing with air and earth based techniques in my free time. At my fundamental core however, and the style that had manifested into an affinity as soon as I selected my mage class, was fire. It just resonates with me at a spiritual level, much more than just an 'I see red' sort of deal. To put it in basic Tom-terms, the style and I just 'clicked' since I first began training myself. Simply put, I knew Tom was going to be fine here.
Well, I was mostly confident. Tom's insanely annoying determination to get better actually made him a pretty decent spar relatively fast. Granted, our bouts were always under certain self-made handicaps on my part, but it's hard for anyone to learn anything when you're just getting blatantly outclassed anyhow. For him to hit me in general wasn't even that shocking, especially considering the mind shattering nature of our new 'reality' worked like a fucking rpg game now.
But for it to hurt? Okay, not like I haven't been caught sleeping before. It's a fight, and sometimes shit just happens. Twice? Fucking alright. I get it, Tom, you're real fuckin' spirited. Otherwise known as suicidally stubborn. Good for you.
Now, that third time he hit me though. That actually stung pretty badly, causing the lights to go out on my vision for a second. Either I messed around way too much with far less skilled opponents for too long and got lazy, or Tom got much better than I anticipated by a metric shitload. Which quite frankly doesn't add up, considering he'd very recently hit a small ceiling in terms of skill development. The very 'cut' build he boasts lacks the optimal muscle mass for body control, something that's been holding back his physical ability to perform his minds' commands more often than not.
By the end of the second finalist fight, I landed on the culprit of Tom's marginal success last fight being a mixture of both. A grin formed across my face at the pride in having been right twice in one sitting. In fairness I'm sure he loathed having lost to me, though I'm not sure why he's always so damn surprised. Thus far, barring the blonde lady with explosive hands, my priority 'numero uno' of possible threats had been checked off.
My second priority on the to-do list, at least until I can get back to my wife and daughter, is entertaining my Patron. Box checked once more. My Godly Friend Baloris found me decimating the poor souls who also chose his fire arena, and decided to message me around fight 22. It didn't say who it was from, nor what they wanted, but just a blank page, with the text 'nice' at the center.
Unsure how Tom got texting to work, I brushed it off, and paid my visit to a few God's a bit after. A couple were cool, at least in concept. One was all about war and shit, which is again very impressive and screams powerful ally but, I do enjoy a bit of joy every now and again. Didn't feel like devoting my soul to an eternity of battle, I'm like 26.
I'm too old for that shit.
A few other gods were lame as fuck, talking about their 'graciousness in inviting such a cocky, sniveling, back handed monster who had no reason to be as diabolically devious as they exhibited'. Old money, you know? Anyways, after like, 8 more fights, Baloris messaged me once more inviting me to meet. No name added, only a small image of a purple devil smiling.
"Oh I've GOT to meet this guy." I said aloud to absolutely no one in particular before accepting the offer. Sounds of raging fires roared alongside the occasional terrified whaling filled the dimly lit dark stone catacombs I found myself in. Odd, sharp featured little red demons frantically floating about the well lit tunnels that felt like a warm blanket by the fire on a winter's night. Along a stone floored pathway outlined by countless burning candles was an open wooden door that looked to lead directly into space itself. A single wall at my side illuminated with bright orange flames, manifesting a fiery mirror reflecting a devilish version of myself.
"Welcome to my humble abode, Korbin." A welcoming tone echoed throughout the fiery chamber, with a pressure in the air heavy enough to make my ears pop as I searched for the source. At the end of the opposite side of the burning path sat a giant, scarlet skinned man in an untidy suit and tie. He held a flaming red cane, with a barbed pitchfork at the bottom. He had a long tail, with an arrow tipped shape at the end of it that waved in the air behind him. His head bore two long curved horns above his eyebrows. Balls of orange energy floated just above the ends of each horn.
Heh, 'balls'.
"Sup." I answered, throwing up a 'peace sign'. One of the winged goblin things floating by looked at me like I'd just insulted the man's mother, turning his little head to observe his assumed master's reaction. The horned man grinned as we made eye contact. That same smile fell to a disgusted grimace upon spotting the little guy though, and addressed the small devil accordingly.
"You're mistaken, little gnat. Admiring your glorious master isn't until 7:30."The devil said with a chuckle. Removing his fist from under his chin, the well-dressed devil pointed his palm at the floating creature. Instantly, a torrent of orange energy beamed into the creature's jagged red skull. Its eyes bursted with fire before exploding altogether, bursting into colorful confetti instead of a mess of blood and organs.
The heavy cackles that escaped from my belly was uncontainable. My knees almost gave out from how hilarious that exchange had been. After gathering myself, I stood straight from holding my knees bent over, and addressed the certified legend.
"Oh, oh man that was priceless. In terms of godly first impressions, absolutely 11/10 good sir." I said excitedly. The devil chuckled back, analyzing me thoroughly as he replied.
"I'm glad you find my authority around here so amusing. If only these little idiots shared our humor." The horned, well dressed devil said.
"I like your vibe man. What's your name?" I asked, now too invested to fuck around before knowing.
"My name is Beloris, God of Chaos, and Infernal Flame. I am among the oldest Devil's in all of the 9 Hell's and…second, in command of all the realms of Hell."
Ouch, that 'second' part's a soft spot, SO noted.
"I see. So, the 'God of Chaos' you said? How'd you get that gig?" I asked, casually but curiously. The devil grinned recoiling his head lightly, appearing pleasantly taken aback by the question.
"What, other than being the bane of all that is orderly? I simply hate the illusion of paradise via order. Without chaos, how the fuck could you even define order in the first place? It's all self serving bullshit those too afraid to accept change use to stay comfortable."
The god quickly shot back, rolling his eyes while pacing.
"I'm listening." I said, nodding thoughtfully.
"…no that, that's pretty much it. Just a lot of tangential adventures rooted in 'why not' until eventually stumbling on a faction of my own. Now, I run shit here, just so I can fuck it up everywhere else more efficiently." He replied with a shrug.
"'That's about it' he says, then proceeds to prove it in fact wasn't 'it'." I said laughing aloud at the devils self contradiction. His brow shot up in curiosity.
"Haha, Touché, man. You must know why you're here by now?" He asked, coming closer. I smiled glancing over his collection of fine China sets that's swirled with dark energies and beautiful weapons displayed across the massive chamber. I answered while playing catch with a neat looking vase.
"I assume we're going to be God and Chosen buds? Couple effigies, some ritualistic murder between friends in exchange for cool stuff. That sort of thing?" I casually asked, nearly fumbling the vase on a one handed catch. He smiled as I spoke, laughing as I finished my guess.
"Ahh, yeah, yeah pretty much. There is certainly more to it than that, and you will be responsible-ish for handling very important business for me relatively soon. For the most part though, I like your style, Korbin."
I froze from twirling the antique staff with hundreds of strange etchings and glistening runes covering it, returning my attention to Beloris.
"Well, if you like that, you should see me in a be-."
"I'd really rather not, Korbin. Though I fear if you accept, I may have no choice in making that very predictable discovery." The horned man replied, shaking his head.
"Oh, okay. So do I sign somewhere or like?"
"N-no." He sighed, rubbing between his eyes with his finger and thumb.
"Look, do you accept my offer to become my Chosen or not? We have some serious infernal mischief to do around here, and I could use the extra hands. Besides, unlike the rest of the notable Patrons taking their pick of the litter, I'm hungry. And, well, filthy rich. So, what'll it be?"
Pretending to consider my options, I locked my vision onto a painting hung on a nearby wall. It was clearly that of Beloris slaying a dragon with a small orange dagger, while also loving up on some demon lady. The color pallet choice was rather curious, as I'd never seen red and purple blended so expertly. You'd think it'd come out looking almost dirty, or childish. Yet the professionalism with every stroke wa-hehe, 'stroke'. It's funny, cause he's clapping them demo-
*snap snap snap*
Beloris' snapping fingers stirred me from my internal tangent.
"Yoo-hoo hey, space cadet. Welcome home! So like, about that highly prestigious offer of being my Chosen…"
"Hm? Oh, yeah, I'm game." I replied with a shrug. Beloris clapped his hands, holding them folded together.
"Excellent."
Snapping yet again, the spiffy devil disappeared in a trail of his oil paint trail of existence, only to reappear right in front of me with the same smoke trail around him.
"Shake my hand."
Reaching my hand back, I shook this Demon Gods hand similarly to how I would Tom, slapping his hand before clasping, and finishing with a snap.
"N-no, no you have to actually shake my hand. But that was fun, what was that?Beloris said, with a surprised laugh.
"See, we cultured few on earth refer to that version of a formal handshake as 'daps'. No worries though, here." I answered, shaking his hand the old fashioned way. A massive rush of fiery hot energy poured through my forearm spreading across my body, along with the official Chosen offer notification. Upon accepting the offer, I received a title.
*ding*
*Congratulations!*
New Title earned!
-> [Chosen Of The Chaos Devil] - The infamous God of mischief himself has felt a sense of kinship in you, and has deemed you worthy of his path and partnership alike. User can imbue their body in chaotic infernal energy, raising strength, agility, endurance, and vitality by up to a quarter their original stat level value for the duration of the skills use. Boost and backlash varies based on time used and amount boosted.
"Oh, it's like a passive skill." I said, after giving it a second read over.
"Yeah, yeah it is. You will also be recognized as my Chosen now, so go fuck shit up." Beloris happily replied.
"Sounds good to me, bud. I'll see you around, Lori." Said, waving goodbye to Beloris as I turned around, waiting to go back. After a few awkward seconds of only the sound of crackling fire, I turned back around to find Beloris arms crossed with a narrow, disappointed glare.
"You know I'm the one who sends you back, right?" Beloris clarified, raising his brow and letting an orange flow flair in his eyes.
"Figured you'd appreciate the theatrics. So-rry." I said, my hands bent upward in a defensive gesture. Beloris laughed snapping his red fingers, sending me back to slay out my competition at the tournament. It was pretty fun for a while, using the boosting skill whenever I felt like being creative or speed up a fight. Then, Tom decided to do some crazy Flow switching bullshit, damn near knocking me unconscious. If he'd hit me with that again…well, he couldn't. So it didn't matter.
Still, ole' Tommy did force me to crank up the boosting skill from my title further than anyone else had yet. His vastly improved speed made me use some shit I never showed him because, well, situations like this where I need to know more than others are a possibility.
I just couldn't believe it was him, and here, of all combinations of people and places. Still, the look on his face was pretty hilarious, and I'd never got to actually throw him into a guillotine before because, well, couldn't really murder your buddy on any given Tuesday afternoon before could you?
It wasn't much of a sweat after the boost, so all's well in the world for the time being. The loud ticking of another match about to commence interrupted my thoughts, only after the incredibly underwhelming 'beep' sounded. Except, no one was teleported. Instead, the same soft female voice rang through the arena once more.
"Congratulations, you've made it to the final round of the Placement Tournament! For your final test, each of you will be relocated to the finalists arena, where all five challengers will fight to the death, proving your prowess in more than a simple duel! Good luck champions, and remember, we're all watching!" Said the effeminate voice.
Everyone left immediately began sizing up one another, some far more twitchy and panicked than others. Before I could get a final look at the blondes position myself, the sensation of a cool breeze kissed against the back of my neck. In a blink, the low-lit arena we fought in previous was gone, replaced by blinding sunlight.
Surveying my new surroundings, the other 4 finalists stood all around one another, forming a circle. Behind us, incredibly rocky mountains erected in unnaturally even inclines, and waterfalls all flowing into a body of water that bordered the massive biome. Beautiful flora and towering flowers I've never seen in any of my research peppered the soil. The sheer diversity of color reminded me how much I preferred standing on natural ground rather than hard marble floors. Glancing amongst the other confused faces on my fellow competitors, the familiar feminine voice echoed through the valley yet again.
"This is your final battle arena, you may begin the match…Now." She said, abruptly. Excitement pulsing through my veins, I darted towards the biggest threat I'd assessed before anyone else could process the suddenness of our match; the blonde. She's the only other fighters that left me with more questions than certainties after watching. Of course, this is the top 5, so I should've guessed I wasn't the only one to surmise her as the largest threat.
What I hadn't considered, was all 3 of the other contestants agreeing not only that the blonde was a danger, but me as well. The realization abruptly crashed down as the feeling of an arrow pierced my shoulder blade. It took 2 others whizzing past for it to process I was indeed a mutual target.
Damnit, too hasty, Korbin.
Glancing over my shoulder, the archer in green had her bow knocked tracking my movements. She had to go totally out of her way too angling around two others fighters heading toward the blonde. Knowing full and well what her big play was, my hand wrapped anround the atrope ripping it from my body and throwing it to the side.
The spine shivering shriek of loud cracking bark screeched at my side. My timing tossing away that arrow couldn't be better, as the archer turned the arrow into a full blown tree as it bounced off the colorful foliage below. The loud pops were accompanied by a man's hollow yell undergoing the doppler effect at my backside. Turning to find its source, a smile twitched at the corner of my mouth watching that overdressed Wind dude fly away from the instantly sprouted tree.
Gathering my composure, my head whipped around finding the blonde halfway through a kip up from the ground. It took all of my patience not to angrily curse out loud, realizing the wasted opportunity of not tossing that arrow at the downed blonde.
Way to FUCKING be, Korbin.
Activating my boosting skill at about 10% it's maximum ability, I turned my attention back to the blonde. She'd hand-sprung backward and into the air, kicking up into an approaching cloud of vapor that exploded just in front of her foot, igniting the steam in a ball of flame before abruptly evaporating.
Hoping to gain the numbers advantage, I turned to join the trident wielder. To my unpleasant shock, she too decided I was her priority enemy smashing the butt end of her weapon to my jaw upon eye contact. Channeling my boosting skill into my arms, I snatched the trident and front kicked my grudge-bearer in the chest, keeping her trident for myself.
Before I could launch it back toward my prone opponent, more mist began streaming out of her trident curving back directly for my hands. The mist felt like hot water, and I figured I'd pay no mind to some lame jacuzzi skills when I can become a fucking flame.
Of course, the pain across my blistering hands swiftly disproved that theory, causing me to drop the stupid oversized fork. Patience waning, I abandoned my plan of focusing on the priority 'problem' and addressed all of them at once instead. With a flair, my hand grappled tightly on the green coated archer collar. She'd made the mistake of turning her back on me to fend off the returned wind warrior. He'd been slingshotted by the massive arrow-tree so far into the sky that his outline had disappeared. Yet somehow it only took him about a minute to slingshot through the air and back into battle.
My hips slid under the archers as I leveraged my weight, torquing her arm over my shoulder while twisting my hips. Before she could tumble all the way over me, I pushed the boost up only slightly, adding enough juice to throw her 5 feet through the air into the rock face beside us. The back of her head clapped hard against the unnaturally cut rock wall.
Yeah, that was definitely well deserved jail time pre-integration.
Before I could capitalize, the blondes first attacker decided to follow suit of the steam lady and attack me instead of the incredibly vulnerable opponent downed and actively concussed. The wind warrior went on the attack being much more aggressive and copious flurry's of strikes than the counter attacking approach he'd took in his last fight. Due to his speed, the timing required to parry his regular attacks with my sword while dodging their copycat swipes in the air gave little room for miscalculations.
His incessant jumping and flying about was frustrating to hit back, but not too difficult to handle. Clearly, this guy likes air so much, he'd rather be in it than grounded handling people problems, so I let him.
One more attack, and I'll make my move.
The wind warrior slashed twice with his katana from a sprinting stance after having bounced from rock wall to the ground. Blocking one strike and ducking the other, I rode my inertia around for a leg sweep. Stomping hard on his foot, my leg nearly yanked out from under me as he attempted leaping free. Instead, his body rubber-banded back down to the floor with an abrupt thud.
Unfortunately, my advantage would yet again go to waste being forced to evade a descending barrage of arrows. Blocking and dodging the many arrows as fast as my focus would allow, I continued backing up the inclined mountain.
The archer did her tree teleport-thing after firing a series of arrows in rapid succession, but she wasn't covered enough by the barrage of attacks for me to lose sight. Turning around, my vision shot high above assessing where the many trees stood along the mountain face, only to be greeted by a trident hurtling towards my chest out of the blue. Dropping my sword, I caught it by two prongs on the side instinctively.
I'd momentarily lost sight of the incoming trident, giving rise to a relieved 'fhew' from me audibly after the catch. My relief was quickly extinguished by an explosion that erupted from a few feet behind me. Twisting my neck, I found the blonde with her back to me now, a dozen or so arrows cracked or shattered around her, behind me.
"They're cooperating too openly. I thought I'd caught them scheming earlier, could even be their God's that set this up." The blonde hollered over her shoulder with a wild grin, extending her first two fingers out triggering a small explosion. The wind warrior only appeared for a moment before launching back up in the air, his hanging body wrap's charred as he burst back skyward. Miss-mist emerged into view having recovered her trident, already sending her malevolent fog toward us.
"Fogger, 6 o'clock!" I shouted at my unfortunate temporary ally. My truce accepting warning was met with a fiery blast exploding from her open palm over my shoulder as she whipped around. Meanwhile, I worked to evade the mist hovering in within arms length.
Having seen the outcome of fire hitting her mist, I channeled my boosting skill into my calves before leapt toward the flames. The mist ignited once more, the warmth of the fire mana blossoming its orange fiery pedals around me feeling like a wonderfully warm embrace.
Behind the flash stood the trident lady, her eyes bulging indicating she had no notion of a counter attack. Odd, she's literally used one move, what do you expect? Anyways, my boot slammed into her in the chest, sending her flying down the slightly inclined mountain face. An arrow wizzed to my left, and I didn't sit still to find its source.
Planting hard, I channeled my boost into a single calf before releasing the mana into a concentrated jump up the mountain. The sound of rocks crumbling under my foot and arrows littered the ground behind me, accompanied by some familiar loud wooden creeks. Glancing up ahead, I noticed the blondes hands were full handling the wind warrior again, only a few paces up the mountain from me.
Psh, she's got it.
Turning back, my vision was blocked by a jumble of tall willow trees. They just kept sprouting, and I questioned what quiver could hold all of these damn arrows. That was, until my vision spotted a burst of movement across one of the myriad of leaf-covered branches. She placed her hand on the tree, then removed it pinching her fingers. An arrow emerged arrow tip-first from its bark.
"Hey! Just so you know, that's some serious bullshit!" I shouted up at the endless ammunition boasting archer through cupped hands. Her wide eyed shock was priceless realizing I was looking right at her in that little hiding spot. My smile dropped to genuinely confusion at seeing her shoot an arrow back into the tree bark at point blank range.
Why would yo-..SHIT!
The memory of her torturing that narcissistic prince flashed just in time as I leaned my head down, feeling the wind of her arrow brush by ans it flew out of a tree trunk beside me. If she had managed to create a tree directly behind me, I'd be dead right now. Luckily, the archer foolishly chose my peripherals to attack from. My eyes darted back up to the branches in search of the temporarily missing archer, however the popping of wood gave her plan away.
Using the loud thumps of her approaching footsteps, I timed her arrival before dropping my hip closest to her, using my rear hand to catch her wrist clutching the overturned arrow. Twisting the archers hand in my grip, I contorted her arm up and away from me to disarm the arrow, and used my nearest leg to wrap behind her knee. Quickly transferring the boost to my hand holding her wrist away, I let go of it while dropping an elbow down on her face. My hamstrings flexed hard pulling her leg out with mine simultaneously.
Her head repulsed violently from the first hit, and bounced hard off the ground after. Yet, she didn't disappear.
How resilient.
The loud crunches of now fallen dead leaves gave away my flanker, allowing me time to face the oncoming trident headed for my chest.
Ugh, how annoying.
Unwilling to waste another moment, I declined her lazy, horseless jousting form, and kicked up some leaves in the air in front of me. Side stepping, I timed her entering the mini leave storm and side kicked her ribs as she charged through, sending her careening into a tree with a loud 'ah-fucker!', rousing a giggle out of me as I ascended towards the blonde and wind warrior.
If we can make this a 2 on 2, we can break this stalemate before I tucker out too fast.
Constantly boosting bore little effect up to this point, except for the fight with Tom where I went a lot harder on it. The sluggishness of my muscles kicked in the moment I'd sent him spinning, making me take a moment to assess before the guillotine hold. Meaning, if I wanted to use that on the blonde, I'd need to preserve until my chance came. So, naturally, I decided we'd jump the shit out of their best fighter; the wind warrior.
They had taken their fight much further up the near-evenly sloped mountain, now nearing the top where its inclined sharpened. The wind warrior was mid-swiping at air towards the floor once as I arrived within earshot, the blonde glancing at me before returning her attention to her original focus. Somehow she looked completely spotless from the head down, as if she hadn't even fought yet.
An overwhelming urge to stab the insanely athletic blonde in the back surged through me when she leapt up n the air, her reasoning unclear at first. The sound of whipping wind rapidly approaching from my side only afforded me time to brace, preparing to parry as the wind warrior appeared high in the air above me.
Before the wind warrior could send out a swipe, however, a bright explosion shot out behind him as his chest exploded into chunks towards me, a boot just barely visible before I shielded my eyes from the mixture of organs and bone ricocheting off me. The wind warrior disappeared, along with his innards and as blonde's feet audibly clapped upon landing.
"Nice distraction, let's clean this up quickly." She said, before turning towards the other two who now ascended at a slower pace than any other attack thus far.
Apprehension? Cunning but so, so disappointing.
"Thanks, totally did that on purpose, now you take the mist bitch I-."
"No." She interjected in a monotone, before leaping towards the archer, swinging a heel kick to destroy an arrow before blocking the other, a giant tree sprouted sideways onto the angled mountain beside them.
"Or fuck it, I will, BREAK." I said aloud while clapping to no one.
The mist lady was now just 8 feet from me below the mountain, her face contorted in confusion at my solo huddle.
"You're fucking weird, you know that?" She snapped, in a condescending tone.
"You spit mist out of a fork and I've only kicked your ass, I'll take weird over weak and one dimensional anyday, babydoll." I retorted, before clicking twice with my tongue while pointing with a wink.
She did not like that.
Pointing her stupid fork again wearing the angriest scowl, the warrior unleashed a narrow stream of mist from its prongs. Only the mist didn't expand into a heavy cloud per-usual. Instead, it stayed tightly packed as it whipped forward, creating a small water shard. I barely had time to react as it rocketed at me, my sword parrying the water shard off its blade. Continuing my forward motion, I side stepped her jabbing prongs, throwing my sword up making sure she tracked it with her eyes.
Grasping her trident under where the prongs split, I twisted while pushing off of it with my hand outward. Feeling the sword fall into my hand, I jammed it into her throat. Problem was, my grip was opposite what I'd assumed, meaning my pommel had punctured through her throat, collapsing her trachea as she fell wriggling, gasping for air while gagging on her own blood.
"Really? You let me do that twice? That's on you honestly, that's ridiculous. Nice water move though." I said, earning a shaky middle finger and disappeared.
"So, we're going to pretend like you meant to not stab her?" An effeminate voice sounded behind me, my stance now facing the blonde.
"Archers done?" I asked.
"Been done, I was about to start stretching to stay limber. Brutal quip at the end by the way." She replied, shaking her head. Doubt flooded my bones, as I figured she'd attack me from behind the moment opportunity arrived.
"Maybe, but she struck me as practical enough to know what I said was helpful, considering she'll live to learn the lesson." I replied, in a matter of fact tone. The talented blonde grinned at my response.
"I didn't take you for the 'mentor' type of guy, Korbin." She jeered, twirling her sword effortlessly in one hand.
Yeah, she definitely never got close enough to hear my name.
"Maybe you didn't do your homework…Carey." I guessed.
"Not my name." She replied in a deadpan.
"Could be, if I imagine hard enough. Now are you done flexing you got intel on me, or are we doing this?" I asked impatiently. Her smile remained, but her eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, alright. At least try to this interesting for me, would you?" She asked with a sly grin.
Hey? I wanted the last qui-
The blondes bloody bottom finger boot filled my view, forcing me to retreat to maintain a visual. Of course, she'd stolen my move and followed her fire burst, a heel flying towards my chin. My lead hand raised her ankle just in time as the air above my head exploded, my ears throbbing as it's filled with a deafening ringing tone.
FINALLY.
Thoroughly pissed, I ignited my boosting skill to 85% its maximum while spin kicking her back as she contorted trying to land gracefully. The blondes body shot forward, tumbling at an angle down the slight sloped mountain. Her arms extended, her legs twirling as she flew to her feet. Before resuming our fight, she winced, looking stiff for a moment.
Pfft, liar.
Not falling for it, my body illuminated with energy as I launched towards the blonde, maintaining my balance in case she reacted quick enough. She did, only to be met with an elbow into her forearm, flopping down as my sword extended toward her stomach. We were close, as in hugging range close, which is why her ability to twist around the blade landing a hook to my jaw was so jarring.
My head didn't even move, thanks to my boosting skill no doubt. Meanwhile her hand appeared to suffer some damage bouncing off my face with a yelp. Shaking her hand, the blonde hand-sprung back with her sword hand. Not willing to let this quickly accumulating fatigue catch up to me, I pressed forward. Before finishing her flip from the floor, the hand she'd hurt previously appeared to hold a grip of sand she promptly chucked into my eyes as I approached her landing zone. I tried to close my eyes in time, but it felt like the sand had wormed under my eyelids.
Half blind, the foot hurdling for my face barely missed as I ducked instinctively, nearly falling head first into her sword, now wedged between two rocks.
How the fuc-
I couldn't even get a thought across before hunching over the blondes shin blasting my ribcage, followed by a fist to the temple that sent my vision spinning. The world blurred and narrowed momentarily, returning only to catch the blonde greedily pushing me again. Flaring my boost to its maximum capacity, I gripped her by her throat, cutting her next head kick short as I smothered her space. Feeling her throat crumbling in my hand, I focused my energy into my forearm muscles. She didn't panic, she merely closed her eyes while her face quickly reddened. Before I could wring the life from this monster of a woman's neck, I felt my grip loosened slightly. Instantly, her eyes lit up with a devious grin.
Shit.
A rush of exhaustion washed over my body, watching weakly as the blonde landed on both feet. A small ball of sand-like powder shuffled around her palm before rushing along her fists. Then in a blink, my vision was consumed by a bright red light. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself standing in a massive white room full of people, a lot of them I recognized from absolutely stomping the floor wi-…
Oh fuck…I lost?