The Great

Lila Fairheart: Me and Aurora had been dealing with Fellen the entire fight, and it hadn’t been fun. I had to constantly keep healing Aurora to keep her brains from being scrambled, and I wasn’t doing too hot either. I took a deep breath and felt oxygen flow all through my body. Red blood cells multiplied and strengthened me and I willingly strengthened my muscles to their fullest capacity. My hair rose up and my eyes sharpened as I looked forward. I looked at Evay, who was still sitting on the ground. I looked at him and spoke, “Keep resting. Put your shields on us, we’ll go in.” He smiled and saluted us.

“Aye, aye captain.” I smiled and Aurora stood beside me.

“Let’s go.” I felt a warm golden glow surround me as I ran into the fray. Fellen jumped out behind a mass of broken boulders and landed with a huge shockwave. I jumped up to avoid it and Aurora sailed over him and chucked a lightning bolt at Ally. She deflected it with her shield and she threw her shield at Aurora. It transformed into a spear mid flight, and Aurora caught it with her hands. She spun around and threw it right back at Ally, who had to jump backwards to avoid it. I looked down at Fellen and I landed behind him. I threw a punch right to his head when he turned around to face me.

He smiled, “got you.” He reached out his hands towards my abdomen, but a grin came across my face. I dropped down and swept the back of his front leg, which was left wide open as he turned around. He stumbled backwards and I lifted up my leg to the sky and kicked down on his face with all my might. I heard a loud crash as I felt my foot connect on his face. I looked down and I had done it, he was done.

Fellen looked at me with a bloody smile. “You’re not really that strong, or fast, or special in terms of your abilities…But your eye for combat is impressive.” He grinned again.

“You threw a feint, yes? Then when I turned you knew my stance would be messed up, and the rest is easy.” He let out a short painful laugh.

“Read like a book, as you say, right?” I lifted up my fist and let out a little laugh,

“Yes, but you weren’t an easy book to read.” I struck down and his liquor screenshot was red. The crowd erupted as I heard the announcer over the chaos.

“Taegan has downed a member! The first blood of this match goes to Lila Fairheart!”

Aurora Maple: NICE!

Lila had done it, we were up one. I didn’t have time to celebrate as Ally shot a series of arrows at me. I ran around the arena and slid, leaving a trail of electricity behind me. I somersaulted behind debris and caught my breath. For close range she has chains, for far range she has arrows, she has a sword for offense, shield for defense, and realistically a lot more. That was bad, since I was good at short range and middle range combat I couldn’t easily play to my strengths… Think… I felt the connections and ideas form in my head as I left my cover. Arrows sailed past me as I ran along the stadium walls. I heard the thunks of the arrows as they hit the hard surface of the marble floors, and I finally reached Ally. I kicked off and sailed over her. She looked up and fired a chain at me, directly over her head. I knew it. I grabbed the chain and she prepared to let go. I yanked the chain upwards and her face filled with surprise as she was pulled upwards as well. She didn’t even have time to let go of the chain as I met her face to face in the air.

“Too concerned about getting shocked, huh?”

A shield materialized in her hands as she tried to leap away. She was falling faster, and I threw the chain around her legs so that she couldn’t escape. We landed and I yanked the chain so that she fell on her back. I let a surge of electricity go through the chain and she writhed in pain. The chain disappeared and she leapt at me with a sword and shield in her hands. Close range combat–my speciality. She swung at my head and I ducked under her swing instinctively. I shoulder slammed into her shield and imbued my fist with electricity. She stumbled backwards from the impact and I punched her shield as sparks went flying off the weapon. I punched again and again and again and she was being pushed back every time. I kicked her shield and she thrust her sword at me. I turned my body to dodge and threw a spinning kick over my shoulder as I turned. It connected with her chin and she stumbled backwards. She slashed at me with immense speed as I ducked her slash and pulled my head back to dodge a stab. She cut down the middle of my face and I caught the blade in between my bands. Electricity coursed through the metal as she dropped her sword. She quickly rammed her shield into me, but I didn’t budge. I elbowed the shield and continued to strike it. She kept getting pushed back and her shield was looking worse and worse. Come on, do it, do it.

Then she finally saw her opportunity. The shield disappeared and Ally threw an uppercut at my chin, just as I stepped in for a strike. It would’ve been the perfect counterpunch, if it wasn’t thrown at me. I pulled back and raised both my hands as a net of bright blue electricity shot out towards Ally. The net encased her and exploded in an electric flash. She was thrown backwards and her clothes sizzled as she tried to stay on her feet. I kicked her down and blasted her in the stomach with a flash of electricity, and her eyes went wide with pain. She didn’t get up, and she didn’t move. She looked at me with an angry stare. I went up to her and I prepared to strike. Her eyes relaxed and she sighed in acceptance. “Very well.” I struck and her liquor screen shattered. The crowd erupted and I heard the announcer scream again. I looked on in the distance and saw clouds of smoke and debris. It was almost over…we just needed to finish it. Two down, three go to.

Savain Yelenta: I ran around Doner and I went in for another strike on his leg. I rammed into his calf and I zipped around the arena and charged at him again. He made a desperate grab at me, but his hands moved in ultra slow motion. I slid under his huge arms and jumped up into a high speed uppercut. My fist connected and he fell upwards off his feet. Geon soared in from the sky and he rammed into Doner mid-air. They rolled on the ground and Geon encased the giant in marble. The stones quickly shattered as Doner got up again and let out a terrifying laugh. “For someone so small you two are strong!”. He screamed and he charged at us with impossible speed. Geon held out his hands and a giant explosion echoed out in the arena. Sulfur, ash, and smoke clouded my vision as I raced towards Doner. Geon flew towards him and began his assault. Marble arms rose up out of the ground and threw punches in unison with Geon. His fists were coated with iron and he threw a flying straight punch at Doner. Doner slipped it and he threw a hook which Geon flew under. He kicked Doner in the body and flipped upwards as he kicked him in the chin. Doner stumbled and a marble fist rammed him from above, while two marble hands came together and sandwiched Doner like a bug.

Spikes rose up out of the ground and impaled Doner’s legs. He let out a roar of pain and fell backwards. I ran behind him and kicked his back as he was falling down. He was sent skyward and Geon erected a marble ramp for me. I raced up the ramp and jumped high into the sky. Red armor adorned me as I allowed all my energy to be put into one last strike. I rose above Doner and spun my body as fast as I could. Lightning formed in my arms as I plummeted down towards Doner. For the first time he wasn’t smiling, or laughing, but he looked panicked. He reached out his arms to grab anything as he fell but it was no use. I smiled and heaved with all my might. My crimson armor flew off my arm and joined my spear of electricity. The crimson red bolt connected, and I heard a mighty explosion detonate under Doner as well. Nice combo, Geon. A deafening roar echoed through the stadium, and so could hear the screams of all the spectators. I landed with a heavy thud and rolled twice before stabilizing myself. The dust cleared and I saw Geon standing next to Doner. He was out and Geon had shattered his liquor screen already.

I smiled. “Well, easy day huh?” Geon laughed and he gave me his hand.

“Annoying or not, we fight well together.” He gave me his hand and helped me up. “Alright pretty boy, we’re good now.” I scoffed.

“Yeah, yeah…Whatever.” Geon grinned and we heard a whoosh as Lila and Aurora came to meet us along with Evay. They had won too, we were almost there…

“You all look great, maybe expect you Evay,” Geon said. We laughed and Evay smiled.

“Yeah well let’s finish this and go eat.” I smiled and looked around. Two more, that weird kid was still on the ground somewhere and the Mia girl was also hiding…

“Ok well—“ I felt something grab my foot. We all looked down and saw Cain, the chaos maker. He looked terrible. Geon had slammed him pretty hard and the explosions had burned his hair. He had frantic and anguished eyes as he clawed at my feet.

“No, no, no, no ... .Bad…they’ll kill us, we can’t lose. The Mr and Mrs are going to be mad…so mad…mad, bad, mad.” He rambled on and on and mumbled his words with immense speed. He was losing it, he was going insane.

“Can’t go back, not with no kills. Can’t, sorry, can’t.” His eyes dawned a painful look and he let out a broken smile. His eyes bulged and his face dripped blood as he let out a terrible scream.

“MIA, COME OUT!”

His body exploded with a pulse of blue light and we were blown back. I heard his liquor screen shatter and I tried to regain my balance. Then I felt it. Immense vertigo and nausea ensued as my head felt like it was being detached from my body. I fell with a thud and my head spun. It was bad, so bad I couldn’t breath. It felt sick to even look straight ahead, my nose clogged up, and my eyes watered. Nothing was going right, my body couldn’t do anything normally. Nothing, normally… It was his last attack. He let out a sacrificial blast, he broke himself to let out one last winning strike. Wait, no. I started to regain sight and looked up to see Mia standing over all of us. She smiled sadistically, “Well, this will be easy.”

Evay Maver: I could barely see as I looked up at Mia. We were all stunned, we couldn’t move, we could barely see. Mia walked over to me and knelt down. Geon was knocked out next to me and she put her hand on his head. She smiled sweetly and looked at me.

“Your….friend here is quite the warrior. Strong, skilled, agile, and diverse. Good combat sense and instincts. He is spoken highly of in my country, I can see why.” Her fists started to fill with white mist and the air began to get colder. “I draw heat out of the air. I draw heat out of life and all its creatures. I will freeze myself if the battle lasts longer than 10 minutes, which is why my wonderful team here has given me your heads on a platter.” She smiled psychotically and ice began to form on Geon’s neck. “The cold follows me wherever I go, and I take life out of the very earth. Your group with all your boundless hope and chemistry are perfect for me to prey on.” Geon let out a sharp gasp and began to spasm. She let go and put her face to mine, smiling venomously. “Because nothing feels better than quenching the fire of friendship.” My heart raced and my blood pumped rapidly. Friends, friends were all I had. I had no family, no parents or guardians. I had been alone for so long, with no one to turn to. No one to look up to.. Having friends gave me everything I was looking for. Comparing this team to the other teams around me, it was clear I was lucky to be such good friends with my teammates… They were all I had, the only thing keeping me from chasing a life of vengeance and misery. She couldn’t take my friends from me, no one could. No one would, because I couldn’t lose them. I couldn’t lose all I had left. My eyes began to glow, my hair turned bright white, Beautiful ivory and golden robes adorned my body, and all the nausea and shellshock vanished. Mia backed away and her face filled with shock. She began to panic and she backed away with a look of terror and awe. I floated up and I landed gently on the ground before her. She stumbled and fell backwards and looked up at me. A malicious grin spread across my face. “So pitiful. You human, are an example of what mortal truly means.” She didn’t say a word. “Imperfect, weak but arrogant, fearful in the face of reality….nothing about you makes you great. Life and color do not deserve you, and your confidence makes me laugh.” I held out my hand and a golden glow emitted from my palm. I grinned. “I’ll show you how imperfect you really are.” The golden glow got brighter and I let go.

The flash of light practically blinded the whole arena, and Mia was blown so far back that she hit the liquor barrier on the other side of the floor. She dropped down and her liquor screen shattered. Smoke and fire erupted over her clothes but they died down as she lay still. I relaxed and Gold’s Veil went away. My friends slowly got up and little by little we all came to the same realization. I heard the announcer’s voice, “Taegan has done it! They are your match victors!”