Blood and Cupcakes

by Taj McCoy El

  He shook his fist in the air to emphasize his point. The crowd cheered and stomped their approval, whipping themselves up like a banner in the wind.

  “Finally, a word of warning to all of the paladins assembled. Your fellow paladins are watching you, so we urge you to fight fairly. You cannot kill anyone here so the only lasting damage will be to your reputation.

  “Now with that out of the way, everyone do your best and show us what you’re made of!”

  He walked off pumping his fist to applause and trumpets. Mayah wriggled in her seat getting anxious from the attention she was going to have to endure.

  They called out the names of the first set of combatants and the crowd roared, their appetite for battle whet.

  Four teams and four combatants walked onto the runed stage and made their way to the proper rectangle. She was focused on the stage that was front and center where the Maple Bam Bams were facing off with 3WitchesB. The Bam Bams were a group of two large barbarians, one with a heater shield, and a female druid. They all wore the flag of Canada tied around their necks like cloaks.

  Maple Bam Bam’s, makes more sense now.

  3WitchesB looked like three female casters. They were wearing light armor, one in red, one in black, and one in green. They also appeared to be weaponless. I wonder if they have something to stop those barbarians?

  The match started with the teams at opposite sides of the field. Both teams moved forward towards their opponents. When they closed to a quarter of the distance, the barbarians picked up their pace, and the casters responded by fanning out. The barbarians picked their targets and split as well.

  Looks like they’re going one on one.

  A dome of ice formed over the green clad center caster while the caster wearing red started to burn with fire. The barbarian targeting the fire witch picked up speed and activated an ability that made him glow with an orange aura. The other barbarian sped up as well, charging the caster wearing black. She returned his charge and then, before meeting, just up and disappeared.

  Where did she go?

  The barbarian checked his speed and spun in a quick circle looking for his opponent. The druid, seeing this exchange, froze, looking around warily. She hastily cast a spell that spread vines out around her for 10 feet in every direction. They waved back and forth in the air like snakes looking for prey. She quickly armed a pair of daggers and searched her surroundings.

  The second barbarian had angled towards the ice shield and began hacking at it. The first barbarian was locked in hand- to-axe combat with the enflamed witch. She was dodging all of his blows but she couldn’t reach him past the shield. There were smoking dents on the heater shield where she had touched it.

  An ice spell erupted at the feet of the druid and her vines started to wither and die. Her legs were covered in frost.

  At the same moment, the invisible caster reappeared midair and swung a two-handed broadsword at the druid’s head. The druid barely dodged and rolled back, throwing two knives at her assailant. One was blocked and the other only scratched the invisi-caster’s arm as she pressed the attack. The druid retreated, scooting back on her hands and butt trying to evade the sword. Her legs, being frozen, were dead weight being dragged along. The caster followed her mercilessly, each step accompanied by a swing of the sword.

  Mayah was held in rapt attention as she imagined the whistle of the big metal blade in her mind. The druid’s hands began to glow as she crab-walked backwards, and the invisi-caster whipped a swift kick into her stomach to stop the cast. The glow quickly faded as she flew back about four feet.

  The druid came to stop using her hands and rolled to the side where the invisi-caster raced in and kicked her in the stomach again. The druid went flat and the invisi-caster ended it with a clean, overhead strike to the back of her head and the druid lay still.

  Where was her back up? That’s shoddy team play, that is.

  Mayah turned her attention to the flaming pugilist, who was keeping her barbarian at bay using martial arts moves Mayah swore she had seen in action films. His sword missed the flaming witch at every swing. Good shield work was the only thing keeping him in the game.

  Suddenly, the ice dome exploded and the third caster revealed herself at the center of the icy projectiles. She was covered in glowing runes that floated around her like ribbons. The ice struck the barbarian full in the chest, leaving him unbalanced, as lances of light struck out from the green caster. The lights pierced his side and arm and shot right through his abdomen. He rolled to the ground, stunned, with smoking holes where the light had pierced him. He tried to sit up, but the sword- bearing invisi-mage was only a few paces away, already lining up her strike. She stabbed her blade into his back with a critical hit, and it was now three on one.

  The fire witch hopped back from the lone barbarian and conjured up a beach ball sized fireball. Instead of throwing it, she rushed back in and drove it against the shield like a kamehameha. The shield became super-heated, dripping molten metal. The final barbarian yelled in pain and Mayah could see his skin crisp like pork rinds. He was quickly retreating from the flames and struggling to remove the slag attached to his arm. The fire witch pressed her advantage, striking him in the face. A nimbus of smoke and char exploded out from his head as fire engulfed his form for a moment and blew him back.

  The green witch cast a snare AOE that wrapped up his legs with smoky hands seizing his feet and legs, causing him to stumble and almost lose his balance as his feet were immobilized. He struggled to free himself and couldn’t block as the invisi-caster flanked him and skewered him where he stood.

  The crowd thundered appreciatively at the conclusion of this match.

  Impressive! that only took 90 seconds.

  She watched the other matches finish fairly soon afterwards except for one of the individual matches that was still going on. It looked like they were two low levels. They were out of stamina and could barely move.

  They must’ve logged in just for the tournament. Noob move.

  And she looked at the board where the Maple Bam Bams were crossed out.

  They should’ve lost with a name like that. They weren’t really weak, but they weren’t a team. They lost that battle individually. The thing that really bothered her, though, was that third witch.

  What does she do? That dome was hiding something.

  She saw Majestans carrying off the stunned Bam Bams. Six mages stepped up to the separate arenas and a wave of light washed over the fields, fixing any damage and clearing the stage of anything the paladins had left behind. The field looked brand new.

  They waited until the two noobs in the farthest ring finished their fight. It was decided by one noob suddenly falling over after using all of his stamina. It was very sad, and hard to watch. The announcer stepped to the podium and called out the next round of entrants.

  He called the Dragon’s Leaf Brigade and Lion’s Roar Sect into the center ring.

  Well, either of these names is a huge improvement over the Children of Earth, Mayah huffed to herself.

  The Dragon’s Leaf Brigade consisted of a more common grouping of a paladin-paladin, (hehe), with a bastard sword slung across his back and an axe at his waist, an elven caster with a staff whose top half was shaped like a bow, and a warrior with two short swords.

  Looks like the paladin is either going to tank or play defense for the caster. The warrior is their main damage dealer. Good setup, but maybe not for PvP.

  Lion’s Roar Sect was an oddball collection of a samurai wearing three swords at his belt, a dwarven tinker with a tool belt, and a mage that, with the exception of the bulging arms, the missing sleeves that should have covered them, and a pair of elbow length gauntlets, looked like Gandalf the White.

  More like Gandalf the strong. From henceforth, you shall be known as Strongdalf!!! she giggled to herself.

  The teams squared up at their starting places. The horns sounded and the Dragon Leaves ran forward while Lion’s Roar stayed still. Strongdalf was
muttering an incantation that began to glow very brightly between his hands, causing the Brigade to slow its pace a fraction.

  The caster drew back on her bow staff, pulling an energy arrow back to her chin and sent it flying towards Strongdalf, hoping to ruin his cast.

  The samurai acquired a black glow, dashed in, and quickly sliced at the bolt, deflecting it to the ground in a flash of debris.

  Strongdalf finished his casting and raised an orb of bright, blueish-white light above his head. The Dragon Leaves slowed again and readied themselves to scatter. Strongdalf took his ball and threw it behind him at the tinker who was standing at the farthest edge of the field. As it struck the ground, a bubble of light burst forth, obscuring the view of the tinker as he mostly disappeared behind the shield. Mayah noticed he was leaning over a box, working a screen and pulling tools out of his inventory as he had been swallowed up. The Brigade, noticing the shield go up, doubled their efforts to reach the Lion’s Roar.

  As he walked forward, the caster began summoning a lightning storm and targeted Strongdalf. In response, Strongdalf slammed his forearms together where they glowed golden, then shielded his head from the lightning strike, taking the hit and barely flinching.

  His resistance to magic must be obscene!

  The samurai moved out in front of him and threw his swords in the air one after another. As he reached up and caught the first sword, he made a slash at the air and tossed it back up. He repeated the action walking towards the paladin. The slashes sped up, and within seconds he was a whirling, walking blender. The groups clashed as the warrior tried to strike Strongdalf with an overhead slash that Strongdalf blocked on his forearm. He then had to roll to the side as Strongdalf stepped in while throwing a glowing fist that barely missed striking the warrior on the chin.

  The caster had turned her attention to the shield that was surrounding the dwarf as he merrily worked away at his box. Strongdalf hollered something over his shoulder while parrying the two short swords. He and the samurai began to walk backwards towards the shield while defending themselves against the Brigade.

  The paladin-paladin who had been on the defensive took the lull to cast a spell. An angel appeared to hover behind the paladin-paladin with a spear that glowed like the sun. The samurai didn’t seem to notice until he caught one sword and tossed it directly into the face of the angel. Its head rocked back as it disappeared in an explosion of light motes. The spell backlash sent the paladin to a knee where the samurai caught both of his swords and began to whirl them into the downed paladin over and over again. They weren’t critical hits, but there sure were a lot of them. The caster came to his rescue with multiple shots from her bowstaff.

  The samurai deflected most of the shots and dodged others, but he was still backing away towards the shield. The paladin-paladin rose to his feet and raised his sword. The samurai’s third sword, the one he threw at the angel, suddenly shot through the air behind the paladin-paladin, hacking into his back like an axe into wood and then dragging across his ribs, spinning his body and dropping him to a knee. The samurai snatched the flying sword out of the air. As Strongdalf placed a hand on the shield, it rippled, and the samurai fell under its cover. Strongdalf followed only to have his hands return outside, pushing the tinker’s box.

  The Dragon Leaves looked confused by their tactics but continued to move forward to beat away on the shield. Before they could even hit the shield once, however, the box exploded. One hundred or more fist sized balls had been shot out to damaging effect. After losing momentum, the balls rolled around the stage. The Dragon Leaves were alive but shaken, and as the warrior and the paladin-paladin started to rise, the balls began to shoot out needles in every which direction.

  They hopped about trying to hide from the barrage. The unarmored caster was taken out in seconds. The warrior and paladin were still on their feet but looked extremely angry until they began to sway. The warrior dropped to his knees and wretched up what looked like all of the meals he had eaten today. The paladin-paladin soon followed suit.

  Strongdalf and the samurai exited the flickering shield and began to attack the fallen Dragon Leaves, and in a few hits, both were out.

  With that fight over, Mayah’s attention was drawn to the fight on the field closest to them on the right. A small, armored figure was soaking up everything a ranger-based character was throwing at him. The ranger was casting a fireball spell and using arrows. The knight was just sitting there under the barrage. None of the attacks were affecting him. He took two steps towards the ranger and banged on his shield with his large, double-headed axe. A purple ring of energy surged forth, hitting the ranger’s feet and washing up his legs, giving him a purple aura. The ranger roared and then ran into the armored figure like a berserker maniac, swinging his bow at him like a sword. The armored figure hit him with his now glowing axe in a shower of lightning and sparks. The ranger fell and was defeated in two swift hits.

  Oooooh… a tank… me likey!!! She checked his name on the screen. PythonC++. Ooh, he must be an old school programmer. Wouldn’t mind picking his brain for a bit either.

  The mages came out and cleaned the stages and removed any incapacitated paladins. The stages were reset and the announcer called forth the next contestants. In the team battle the Grind Guild was facing Punkinyousoftly.

  As Mayah waited for the next teams to come out, she heard Grax call her name.

  “Fluff,” he was standing in the aisle facing her, “c’mon, we’re almost on.”

  “I couldn’t tell because I don't know what our team name is.”

  He shrugged and smiled at her innocently. Mayah tapped Margaret to get her attention and made her way to the aisle.

  “You know you're gonna pay for this. How could you name us Children of Earth?”

  He cocked his head and said, “You don’t like it? Then be mad.”

  He strolled away, leading them towards the waiting room. They followed because they really had no choice if they wanted to win this tournament.

  When they reached the doors, Grax said to the guard, “This is the rest of my team.” The guard nodded and let them in.

  There were only three other people in the room: The Royal Death Claws. There was a character dressed from head to toe in black mummy rags. He had no visible weapons of any kind so Mayah guessed he was either a caster or a rogue. The other member was a tiger beastman with soft, white, pettable, luxuriously fluffy fur.

  No don't try to pet the fwuffy tiger. ...but so FWUFFY!!!!!!

  He wore an embossed metal breastplate, leather leggings, and a two-handed sword slung over his shoulder.

  Their final member wore a cloak made up of patchwork very similar to Mayah’s own. She also had a two-handed battle hammer strapped to her back. It was like looking into a dirty mirror on drugs. She looked like a thrown together version of Mayah at the duel.

  What is this, the Twilight Zone?

  The other Fluff looked at her and, rushing over to her, said, “So you’re a Fluffy too?” she asked in a rush.

  “A Fluffy?” Mayah asked, confused.

  “Yeah, you know… someone who saw Princess Cuddle Fluff’s video. I took her advice and started getting much stronger much quicker. She’s so amazing, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah… I guess?” Awk...ward….

  “My name is Rabe.” She pointed up to her name floating above her head and extended her hand. She pronounced it like “Rob” and she must’ve expected Mayah to do the same thing, but when she looked above Mayah’s head she finally noticed the light pink PK mark.

  “Oh…” and her hand withered.

  Mayah’s guts twisted a little, but she held it in, saying, “It’s okay, I understand.”

  Mayah was upset at not really being able to make friends with someone who would possibly support her goals in Majesta.

  “Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.” She offered a shrug and sad smile and turned to walk away. She was surprised when Rabe grabbed her by the arm.

&nb
sp; “You know what, I’m sorry. This is more than just a game for us now. We intend to protect those we can at any cost. I just thought you were like us. In-game it’s hard to tell sometimes.”

  She tugged at her earlobe as a look of concentration crossed her face. “But I do know that if I don’t live up to the Fluff and at least offer an olive leaf, the bloodshed might grow and that’s the real danger here. So, with that spirit in mind I greet you.”

  She extended her hand again. “Rabe.”

  Mayah took her hand and introduced herself while making her nametag visible. “Fluff.”

  The size of Rabe’s eyes was only matched by the gaping maw of her mouth. The realization hit her like a lightning strike as she exploded, “NOOOOOOOO WAAAAAAAAAAY…..!!!!!!!!!” She bounced all around her like a humming bird with ADHD. “OH MY GOD, it’s really you, isn’t it?”

  “I guess... so….” she said amidst the one-woman jubilation explosion.

  Rabe stopped suddenly. “But if you’re her, then how come you have a PK mark?”

  Mayah shrugged. “Long story short, there was a paladin who was a risk to me and my friends. We were being hunted, but we actually landed the first attack and got the PK marks.”

  “Sounds sketchy. You expect me to believe that? Sounds like you’re glossing over a few key details.”

  “I honestly don’t expect anything of you, except for you to fight with your all in the tournament.”

  Rabe’s face screwed up a little at her response.

  Mayah raised her hands to stave off any misunderstanding. “I only say that because I just met you, and the last few days have been a bit hairy for me. I’m glad that you’ve decided to help the Majestans. I’m glad that you have gotten stronger because of that decision, and I hope that one day we can be friends. So, don’t take that statement too harshly, okay? It’s very nice meeting you, but until the tournament is over, we’re opponents. So, let’s both focus on that for now. Afterwards we can maybe meet up for a drink. Deal?”