"Here we are, ladies and golems! The third match of my terrific Thunder Tournant!" - Mikazuchi
The crystal golem audience gave a loud...shout (I guess?) as the bratty Spirit Lord introduced the next combatants.
"In the losers’ corner, we have an alcoholic ss of a berserker: AKAAAAAII!! And her partner for today’s tag match is the arrogant newbie, the bootlicker of her lady, the worthless furball of shadows, ARTEMIIIIIISS!!" - Mikazuchi
And this is why the announcer is normally not the leader of one of the participating groups.
"...hey, you’re supposed to go up on the stage after I diss you!" - Mikazuchi
"One second!" I shouted back at the impatient lord.
"NOOOOO! I don’t want to die!! Not before I see my Lady agaaaaain!!" - Artemis
"Forget this! The contract didn’t say anything about this kind of impossible ga! I’m quitting! Quittiiiiing!!" - Akai
These girls, they’re still in shock over witnessing the battle between Ling and his opponent in the second round and are refusing to co up and die for..., I an, to fight for our team. Not that they can refuse. Not with the contract Blot made them write is still in effect. Not that it helps in getting them up on the stage!
"Ehm, the loser team seems to have so technical, or rather, personal problems, so while we wait for them to fix things up, let’s introduce the winner team’s dream duo! First, we have a bird of prey and honor! The righteous lightning bolt! When he grabs you, it’s already over! Give a warm round of applause for Raimaru, the Thunderbird!!" - Mikazuchi
From the sky ca a giant bird clad in yellow, sharp-looking feathers. From how it’s discharging electricity all the ti, I think it’s safe to say it’s the Thunderbird.
"Bird!?" - Artemis
"...hey, cat. Are you sure you want to be looked down on by that overgrown chicken?" - Mira
"No cat shall ever be looked down on by simple prey!" said Artemis with more pride in her voice than I’ve ever heard from her as she jumped onto the stage. Akai only looked at her exasperated as she face-pald.
"Oho~? Looks like soone’s finally showing so moxie~! In that case, ti for our second star player of today’s third match! He’s a wandering warrior, a samurai to his bones, even when he doesn’t have any at all! Fighting dozens of battles to feed his hundreds of siblings, this Gel has more heart than the whole of humanity combined! Despite his soft body, his martial arts hit like a rockslide! Can anyone take the champion belt from this reigning master? No, there is no way in either heaven or hell! Here he is! The hero of our tournant! The Oil Martial Arts Gel, Oily Ollionder!!" - Mikazuchi
The next thing that ca onto the stage was a...brown, bouncing ball? It has sothing like a white headband on it and beady eyes, which makes it kinda cute.
"...that’s a gel, right?" - Akai
"I’m no expert, but it looks like it." - Mira
Gels are a sub-species of slis. They’re rounder, cuter, bouncier, and are much more accepted by people in general. They’re often used to clean sewers or to dispose of trash. So slis start as gels before evolving, but so gels may specifically take evolution paths that let them retain their cute appearance, or so the rumors go. This guy must be one of them.
"...and here I was afraid of what they would throw at us, but it turns out to be simple D-ranks," said Akai while sighing.
Thunderbirds are famous, so it’s not weird knowing their strengths, but that Gel is new to . Where did this Oni get to know about them?
"Also...hearing about this whole new kind of martial artist is making the old embers in my chest go ablaze once again." - Akai
Wow, that’s so face. Is she a new type of predator?
Since Akai jumped onto the ring as well, the match could proceed without any more complications. Except for that Shiro, the vampire, fainted when she saw Akai’s smile, but that’s not relevant to the match.
"Wow! Everyone’s getting nice and bloodthirsty! Just the way I like it~! Ready..., FIGHT!" - Mikazuchi
*Ding!*
The gong rang and the first player to move was..., the Gel nad Oily. It jumped toward the girls with a huge, humanoid arm at ready...the heck!?
*CRASH!*
Oily’s ridiculous-looking arm punched the arena surface with enough force to crack the crystal floor. It’s only its appearance, but also its strength that’s ridiculous!? Good thing the girls managed to dodge. Artemis created so lightning claws and tried to slash at the Gel, but the latter created two arms and caught both claws in a bare-handed sword catch.
"No way!?" - Artemis
"Then how ’bout this!" - Akai
Akai ca to the rescue and punched Oily with fists covered in solar flas. The Gel swiftly escaped by detaching its two arms and bounced away. Then Akai’s burning fists ca almost in contact with Artemis..., but close enough for the heat to ignite the oily substance that used to be the Gel’s fake arms.
"Hot! Hothothothothot-HOT!!" - Artemis
"Crap! Sorry!" - Akai
"...is this Gel a Garami-type?" - Mira
I’m feeling that a C-ranker would have been a kinder choice for those two.
"...food, gone." - Sara
"Huh? You still got tons of popcorn...oh." - Mira
It didn’t hit right away, but then I noticed what the Nekomata was trying to say. The Thunderbird has disappeared. The only ones on the stage were Artemis who had extinguished the fire with ice produced by her skills, Oily that’s being chased by the cat who’s started to run on all four with lightning claws on all limbs, and Akai who seems to be preparing to cut off the Gel’s path of escape.
"Girls! Watch out for the Thunderbird!" - Mira
I shouted a warning to the two girls who looked at funny before realizing that they also had forgotten about the bird and turned red from embarrassnt. That gave Oily ti to stop bouncing and start rolling to gain more speed. A [Rolling]-type skill? And it’s damn fast! He’s even making burn marks on the crystal stage’s surface!
And it’s right then and there that the Thunderbird stroke. Like a lightning strike, it ca from the sky and body-tackled Akai before any could react. Luckily, the Oni’s tougher than she looks, so she stood up looking no worse for wear. But the bird’s gone AWOL again before she could do so payback.
But what was that instant movent before? Heck, even I couldn’t notice it! But sohow, it feels sowhat familiar...
"Damn, that speed demon! I’ll pluck all its feathers when it slows down!" - Artemis
...no, that’s not it.
"Be careful! The bird got more than speed to it! It must be using classes like Assassin to stay out of your range of direction while also moving at a speed that’s impossible to notice from the start!" - Mira
"It’s fast AND sneaky!? That’s cheating! So lousy bird-*SMACK!*-guh!?" - Artemis
Ahh..., the cat got smacked by the Gel’s muscle punch. Right into the face. But she was caught by Akai before she flew out of the ring.
"Stop acting like so upstart noble and focus on the ga." - Akai
"No way! Not against sothing that ridiculous! Just a Gel and a bird shouldn’t be able to beat ! My Lady has personally trained !" - Artemis
"In that case, you’re lower than so lowly Gels and birds. Now get fighting," replied Akai before she kicked the stupid cat’s butt back into the ga.
"Who’s this Lady-person Artemis was talking about?" I asked Sara, who was busy trying to slap the pale and shivering Shiro awake.
Giving up on the fainted vampire who was constantly mumbling "scary, scary, scary...", Sara looked over at the audience seats before pointing at a certain person. They were wearing suspicious clothing like a mask, suncap, sunglasses, and an extrely big jacket. All while taking tons of photos with various magitech caras. Those must be damn expensive...
"The Lady?" - Mira
"...Lady pervert." - Sara
...don’t respond. If you respond, you lose, Mira!!
Ignoring the pervert-*cough!*-, the strange photographer, I turned my attention back to the stage. The fight has gone to the next level with Artemis having created large ice pillars all around her. She’s looking a little pale though. Isn’t she calculating the MP costs as she fights?
The pillars have turned into an obstacle for the Thunderbird, so it can’t do that dive attack with his top speed anymore, but he can still use his stealth to attack when Artemis least expects it.
As for the other two, they started to fight one-on-one at the other end of the stage. Oily’s creates a whole six arms and keeps on punching at Akai, boxing-style, while the Oni uses her more honed martial arts to fend the Gel off.
I’m surprised that she doesn’t use those solar flare-fists again, but then I noticed that Oily has managed to douse both Akai and the ice pillars with oil. One wrong move and we’ll have an Oni-barbeque. Not to ntion that Artemis’ lines of defense will lt away and she doesn’t have the MP to create new ones.
The fight was gradually turned into a stalemate, had it not been for one of the contenders having other plans. And that culprit is the Thunderbird.
"Huh? NYYYYYAAAAAA!!" - Artemis
The bird had zig-zagged through the ice labyrinth and gotten close to Artemis thanks to his stealth and grabbed her by her shoulders and suddenly ascended. Now that they were in the sky, the bird started to speed around the arena with incredible speed, all while Artemis was still in his talons. That’s gonna make you hurl if your body’s not falling apart on you before that happens...
Nice move there, tiger. You managed to get the bird out of balance.
It seems that Artemis has squeezed out the last remains of her MP and frozen a piece of the Thunderbird. The extra weight and that the bird can’t move its body as it likes anymore is making its attitude drop. In lots of ways, I bet.
*CRASH!*
And there goes the Thunderbird out of bounds. Too bad. And Artemis is...
"Uuuuuuhh..." - Artemis
Crap, she’s underneath the bird. That ans...
"Contenders Artemis and Raimaru are both out of bounds!" - Mikazuchi
Uh-oh. Akai, please win..., hey! Don’t start a solar barbeque the second your teammate gets bird-napped! Or should I say cat-napped?
Not like she would stop even if she heard my ntal scolding, but Akai kept on launching fists filled with sun-power at the Gel, not carrying how much of the stage she sets on fire due to her flas and Oily’s oil. But why’s the Gel not worried about the flas?
...and here’s the answer. Oily’s not taking any damage from the fire. Rather, it now looks stronger than before. What’s this? So special thod to grow stronger thanks to an attribute you’re not allowed to use yourself or sothing!?
Just how strong, you ask? The little Gel, small enough to fit your palm, suddenly grew multiple tis its size to be bigger than Akai. Plus it now has 10 arms! And he’s on fire and digging every second of it. Not good.
"This looks bad..." - Akai
"Akai! If you win, I’ll triple your pay!" - Mira
"Yes, milady!!" - Akai
Just how much are you guys in need of money?
"Akai! I want a new set of lingering-GUUUHHH!?" - Shiro
Why did you only wake up now to get sent back to sleep by a flying punch attack? Akai, seriously win this round. If this one’s part of the duo for the next match, we’re fated to lose!
---
*Bzzzt*...
[Scarecrow! You’re late with your report!] - Black Baron
"Sorry, boss. The communicator was getting dusty, and I needed to restart myself again once~." - Scarecrow
[...y-you do know that for you guys it’s equal to dying and being revived...] - Black Baron
"My mory unit was acting up for so reason, so I didn’t have any other choice~." - Scarecrow
[Tch, blasted samurai.] - Black Baron
"Samurai? That bat-shit crazy mouse?" - Scarecrow
[Not that one..., whatever. I’ll explain it later. For now, get to that ridiculous "thunder tournant" and prepare for the final match.] - Black Baron
"...boss? I can’t beat the infamous "Dream Eater" on my own, let alone when there’s a living zappy nearby." - Scarecrow
[You got Rubber-Burner there, and our man-inside will strike at that ti. Join them and get the Virtue factor I need to synthesize the new skills for my Machinerz army: the Proto-Virtue series!!] - Black Baron
"We’re not taking the sins anymore?" - Scarecrow
[I’ve already sent Assault to take care of that. He couldn’t wait to give the Voyagers so misery after his last encounter with them in his weakened state.] - Black Baron
"Poor dragon girl. An~. Scarecrow, over and out!" - Scarecrow
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