In fact, with the crowd around me, and the instrument in my hand, I felt like I was playing in an arena or something. I didn't want all this to go to my head, but how could I not let it go to my head a little?
With that in mind, and channeling the myriad rock gods of the past, I spread my legs wide and did a total rockstar strum, my hand rising into the air and circling around as I played an open chord with my thumb, hitting it again and again, each movement creating a wave of sonic energy.
The female Alpha didn't know what hit her.
She staggered for a moment, caught her balance, and fell.
Seeing their Alpha fall created a burst of rage in the Tritanian knight, who attacked Aya with great fervor, but it wasn’t enough fervor to do him much good.
Aya toyed with him just a few moments longer before driving her sword through his stomach, completely breaking through his ribbed armor.
This left the war elephant, who had again gotten the upper hand with Rambi.
But with three of us available to fight it, the fight was pretty much over. Lady C. blasted it with lightning, and Aya used her limbs to get to the top of the elephant and drive her blade into the crown of its skull, riding it down to the ground as if it were a crashing wave.
I looked over to see Iris clapping, beating her hand in the air as she whooped for us.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
We respawned in the skybox, and I noticed for the first time that the entire stadium was surrounded by skyboxes, a bird's eye view if there ever was one.
The lightning ball with the mustache appeared, and after a sneeze, the disgruntled man cleared his throat and began. “Okay, okay, congratulations, you won your first match, here's your prize. Any questions? No? Good, if you have any questions, save them for the next time I come around. I got more presents to dole out.”
We were rewarded with four thousand Proxima dollars, the money instantly streaming into my bank account.
“Your next match will begin shortly, please relax until then.” With that, the ball of lightning disappeared, and cushioned chairs took shape, each of them facing the large front window of the skybox.
Aya plopped down and yawned, boredom in her orange eyes. “I hope the next fight is harder than that one. That one wasn't even a challenge.”
“You shouldn't be so confident,” Lady C. chastised her. “That's the best way to let your opponents get you, when you're confident.”
“You show me a Thulean who isn’t confident, and I’ll show you a Thulean that isn’t Thulean,” the half-dragon, half-woman said, a smirk on her face. She lowered her cap a bit, and leaned back in her chair. “And besides, you know that was easy.”
“Well, it wasn't difficult, and the real star, the real rockstar I should say, was you, Chase.”
Lady C. sat down on the armrest of one of the chairs. She nodded toward the seat, indicating that I should sit.
“Well, if you insist.” I took my seat, and she placed an arm on my shoulder.
Iris kept her place near the window, observing the crowd. “I can't wait to get out there and try out some moves. It's like freestyling music or something. It is so cool...”
“You’re going to love it.”
“Like I said, I just hope the next fight is worth my time.” Aya turned her palm up, and a glass bowl appeared in her hand. The bowl filled with a red liquid, which she quickly drank.
Lady C. did the same, even though neither of them had taken any damage at all in our last fight, or if they had, it had been very little. Regardless, they both enjoyed their health potion, while I just relaxed, and Iris continued to watch the crowd.
About ten minutes later, after we had chilled out even more, Aya practically dozing off, we received notice that our next fight would begin soon.
The Thulean stood, stretched a little, dropped to the ground and started doing sit ups, which she then flipped over and turned to burpees.
Lady C. watched her for a moment, and then return to the book that she was reading, some trashy romance with a bare-chested guy on the cover.
Once it was our turn, and the fight was set to start, our avatars reformed on the fighting field. This time I was on the sidelines.
Iris stepped up, and dropped her hand to her side, her legs spread wide. Her ukulele appeared in her hand, and she lifted it by the neck into the air, the crowd screaming for her.
I laughed, clapping my hands as I watched her bring the ukulele into its position and play it for just a moment, waves of colorful sound swirling around her.
Her opponents were already on the field, separated from our group by the giant coin with the lightning bolt on one side.
The Alpha was a Level Five buff military-looking dude with gun arms.
Ballistics seemed to be a theme of his group, as his first Hunter was a female Archer, who was Level Ten, and the second Hunter was a male Ballistics Mage, a guy with a magic slingshot, who was Level Thirteen.
Lightning struck the coin, and this time our team lost. Iris glanced at me, and I gave her a nod that said, it's your choice, choose whoever you want.
Considering that we didn't know what mythcrea they were going to use against us, and the fact that they were ballistics heavy, Iris made it a pretty damn good choice.
Fujin appeared, his legs in full lotus position as he floated on a cloud. I gave the Japanese wind god a thumbs up, and he gave me a proud, stoic nod.
The Level Eight angel the opposing Alpha had chosen wouldn’t be a big challenge for Fujin. The angel was female, scantily clad, and she carried a large spear as her weapon. I wasn't normally this confident, but I knew that his ability to control weather patterns would pretty much ground the angel.
“Five…”
“Four…”
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…”
~~“BEGIN FIGHT!”~~
Fujin rose into the air, his eyes flashing as a giant wave of air slammed into the angel’s body and brought the woman to the ground.
The opposing Alpha fired shots at Iris, who had already made a shield of music around herself. The shots ricocheted off, the bullets plinking as they zipped around the stadium.
Aya went for the Archer, using her limbs to bring her up and over.
The Archer’s first shot grounded Aya. Now trapped in a razor-sharp net, and cursing in a foreign tongue, Aya struggled to get out.
Seeing the Thulean in trouble, Iris played a quick triplet pattern on her ukulele, going for a distorted, flanging effect. The soundwaves traveled toward our pinned Huntress and ripped through the net.
Back on her feet, Aya loosed a throwing knife at the Archer that caught her in the throat. The woman fell to her knees, choking on her own blood as a blast from one of Lady C.’s swords met a blast from the Ballistic Mage.
He was stronger than he looked, and continued firing shots at her just about as quickly as he could. Each shot was met with a concussive wallop as Lady C. responded with her own blasts of fire.
It was really a test at this point of who could outlast the other, or who had the better trick up their sleeve.
This turned out to be Lady C., who had been biding her time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to appear behind the Ballistics Mage and end it there.
At the same moment that she performed her Time Scissors ability, the opposing Alpha dropped to his knees and loaded something big in his right arm cannon.
Aiming his cannon at Iris, he pulled his arm back and charged, only to be swept away by his own mythcrea, the angel.
A cat to a mouse, Fujin had been whipping the angel back and forth in the air, and this was precisely how she ended up colliding with the lead Alpha, a strike which took his legs out from under him and forced him to fire his shot upward and into the stands.
His volley didn't quite reach the stands, and if it had, there was actually a magical barrier protecting the spectators from any stray attacks, but it was close enough to see people scream and jump back, and others shriek with d
elight.
Iris began strumming like mad, her hand practically a blur as she ran her pick across the strings. This created a cascading, twenty-foot blade of light that extended from the neck of her ukulele, a blade that she quickly used to cut the lead Alpha in half.
“Hell yes!” I clapped for Iris, and the screaming spectators behind me responded in kind.
Their Alpha down, it didn't take very long for Iris and the others to mop up what was left of the opposing team.
We had won our second match, and as Iris lifted her hand into the air again, her fingers clutched around the neck of her ukulele, our bodies pixelated and reformed in the skybox.
“That was great,” I told Iris.
“That was exhilarating!” she said, breathing hard.
“I have to admit, I was skeptical about fighting alongside both of you, mostly because of the fact that neither of you appear very strong nor do either of you have any training, but good. Very good. Very damn good, my Alphas.”
“Thanks, Aya,” I said as the ball of lightning reappeared.
“Great, great, you won your second match,” said the lightning ball. “Will you win your third? Who knows? I'm not betting on anyone. No dogs in this fight. Geez, am I exhausted, I'm telling you guys, never volunteer to be an official in a kingdom-wide tournament. Stick with small, local stuff. Do you know how many Alphas I've met today? And most of them are like you guys, but some are actually assholes. I'll say it. I'm not getting paid, so I'm allowed to cuss on the clock, but anyway, here's your reward, yada yada yada, you know the drill, win again and I'll give you some more. Bye.”
With that, the disgruntled ball of lightning was gone.
“Is there any way we can catch him?” Iris asked, laughing.
“Please don't,” I said as ten thousand Proxima dollars poured into our bank account. “As long as he keeps giving us money, I'm fine to put up with his bullshit.”
A quick glance at the old bank account had me feeling good.
Proxima Dollars: $15,170
Spent: $107,500
Loan: 0
We would come out of here a lot richer than we came if we continued winning.
“Do you want to go next?” I asked Iris as the two huntresses drank from their health potions.
“Sure, if you don't mind. I’ve got some other things I want to try.”
“Fine by me, it's awesome watching you guys from the sidelines.”
“You guys, huh?” Aya shook her head.
“It’s an expression…”
“I'm okay with Lady Iris fighting with us in the next round, but the round after that, I want it to be you, Chase. It's pretty cute when you play your instrument. It looks like you let the rockstar feeling go to your head,” Lady C. giggled. “I’ve never seen you take center stage like that.”
I started to blush.
“She isn't wrong,” said Iris. “You were doing a pretty ridiculous guitar strum there at the end.”
“What? Why not get into it? Isn't that what this is all about?” I asked, trying to contain my embarrassment with a crooked smile.
“What's next? Are you going to do a guitar spin?”
I knew exactly what Iris was referring to. A guitar spin was something that I'd seen a metal guitarist do before. It involved spinning the guitar around your body, the guitar anchored by the strap, and once completed the guitar would be in the same place that it started.
It was a ridiculous move, one solely meant for show, but it did look kind of cool.
“I promise I'm not going to do any guitar spins. And what about you? What's with you holding the ukulele up in the air like you're the champion?” I teased Iris.
“I was the champion,” came her reply.
“That's right, we are champions,” said the Thulean, “and I believe Iris could kick your ass. No offense, and it's not like you really have an ass because you're very thin, but you know what I'm trying to tell you, yes?”
“You three are ganging up on me.”
“I'm not ganging up on you.” Lady C. showed me her book, the cover of which featured a woman surrounded by two hunky men. “I’m reading.”
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Back to the battlefield, the crowd around us electric, literally.
The stands were made of a translucent material, and even with the throng of spectators that had turned out to watch the tournament, I could still see cracks of lightning from beyond their bodies, the green and blue of the aurora borealis slapping against the barrier erected around the stadium, the sun over EverLife in the distance, a beacon of indigo and mystery.
Iris stood with the two Huntresses in the center of the field, the three of them actually striking a pose.
This had been Aya's idea, and while it was a bit ridiculous, they did look pretty badass.
Iris was up front, Lady C. behind her with her blades drawn, and Aya next to Lady C., her buster sword resting over her shoulder.
Lying before them was the giant coin that would soon be struck by lightning, and behind the coin was the opposing party.
The other side’s Alpha was an older man, a biker of sorts with one of those old German helmets with a single spike on the top. He wore leather and carried a chainsaw in his right hand. Next to him was a Level Nine Skeletal Warrior, thick armor encasing its bones.
Holding the Alpha’s free hand was a Level Ten Ice Mage, clear in the way she was dressed and the frosted, jagged armor covering her shoulders like epaulets.
His Huntress, I thought, and seeing them hold hands reminded me of my relationship with Lady C.
Had I become a stereotype?
Lightning struck the coin in the center of the battlefield, interrupting my thought. The coin flipped into the air, and landed with the side with two lightning bolts facing up.
Iris looked over at me and winked; we’d won the toss.
The older Alpha considered this for a moment, and then, with a snap of his beefy fingers, a freaking Level Thirteen minotaur appeared. The creature snorted, punched its fists together, and lifted its arms into the air, roaring as the crowd cheered in approval.
Iris looked to me, and before I could even offer suggestions, she offered her opponent a curt little nod.
Sun Wukong formed to the right of Lady C., a bowl of soup dumplings in one hand, chopsticks in the other.
His mouth full, Sun looked to the opposing party, over at Iris, shrugged, and threw his chopsticks and bowl of dumpling over his shoulder. He chewed for another moment, swallowed, and equipped his bow.
The crowd did not roar for Sun Wukong's opening, but that was okay, he would perennially remain our secret weapon.
“Five…”
“Four…”
“Three…”
“Two…”
“One…”
~~“BEGIN FIGHT!”~~
Iris was the first to move this time, and she did something that I didn't think was possible. Rather than go with an opening attack using her ukulele, she strummed the single note that sent a vibrating soundwave around her body, and casing her fists in an electric yellow energy.
I couldn't tell at the time, but I would later find out that she was humming, maintaining the energy around her fists as she charged forward to meet the chainsaw Alpha.
Rather than actually go toe-to-toe with the man, Iris fired off a blast that exploded at his feet, dropped to the left, rolled up and returned to her ukulele in her hands.
She began strumming, the effect she’d chosen like that of a fuzzy, distorted guitar from the 1970s.
On the other side of the battlefield, the minotaur had already collided with Sun Wukong, who had simply taken his unbreakable form and stood there with his bow, a grin on his face as the snorting beast tried to beat him into submission.
A blast of ice met Iris' soundwaves, and for a moment, it seemed as if the Ice Mage would overpower her.
Iris had clearly become the target of the other three opponents, evident in the way the Alpha and the Skeletal Warrior were run
ning at her, both their weapons at the ready.
The trio skidded to a halt as Iris began playing a soothing melody, her head bobbing left and right as she hummed along to the tune.
She's using it to seduce them?
The chainsaw Alpha lowered his weapon, staggering toward her, the look on his face showing that he was trying to fight it off, but not able to do anything about her powers over his psyche.
The Ice Mage was in a similar situation, trying to charge both her hands to blast Iris, but not able to actually make the attack. Only the Skeletal Warrior was able to break free from her almost psychic grasp over their minds.
And this was the first Hunter that Lady C. and Aya picked off.
The two Huntresses had switched weapons by this point, Aya wielding Lady C.’s two swords with her ghost limbs, while Lady C. charged Aya's buster sword with fire.
Aya stabbed the two swords into the ground, and used them to flip sideways into the air. She came down with her knees around the Skeletal Warrior’s shoulder and brought him (her?) to the ground.
I'd seen this move before, a play off the hurricanrana, but I was unaware that Aya had been watching professional wrestling.
She was back on her feet now, both swords now in her hands as she waited for Lady C. to attack.
Rather than approach the Skeletal Warrior with her flaming buster sword, Lady C. pulled it over her head and struck the ground, sending an arc of fire toward the warrior. By the time it was back to its feet, flames licked off the Skeletal Warrior’s body, black smoke billowing into the air.
The warrior finished, Lady C. turned her attention to the Alpha.
As the electric currents moved through his body, Iris stopped her sweet melody and tore him off his feet with a quick strum on her ukulele.
The blowback also tossed the Ice Mage to the side, where she was impaled by Aya.
It was an impressive move too, as Aya was fending off the flaming skeleton with one hand and still managed to see the perfect opportunity for skewering coming in her direction.
On the opposite side of the battlefield, the minotaur, consumed by rage and fury, continue to strike at Sun Wukong’s unbreakable form. This got me wondering if there was any way to break him from that form, and if the fight would go on indefinitely even if the rest of the party died.
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