The Tournament
(Wednesday, 1st of Dream King Moon, 2021)
"ALRRIIIIIIIIIIGGHT FIGHT FANS, WHO WANTS TO SEE SOME VIOLENCE?!"
It was now the day of the tournament, and the day where all of that training bears fruit. Jack adjusted his glove as Maui riled up the crowd, hyping them up for the violence. Jack's classmates were in the waiting room. All of them were sitting down in the waiting room, awaiting each of their fights. After the intense training, everyone looked slightly different and wore new equipment, almost like actual Guardians.
"NOW, THIS IS BY NO MEANS A SERIES OF DEATH MATCHES, BUT A FIGHT BETWEEN RIVALS AND FRIENDS!" Maui shouted with excitement. "TO GIVE EVERYONE A FAIR CHANCE, NIKOLA TESLA MADE THIS ARENA TO CHANGE TO SUIT THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF BOTH SIDES! NOW LET'S SEE THE FIGHTS!"
At the arena, a set of four giant screens appeared that hovered over the arena, kind of like those screens above the arena in wrestling matches. On these screens, the fights were displayed so the audience could see them, unfortunately, Jack's group could not see them due to the waiting room not showing the arena. Instead, the waiting room has its own set of televisions that display fight schedules, for the group to see.
"WITHOUT FURTHER ADIEU, LET US BEGIN THE FIGHTS!" Maui heard the cheers of the crowd as the arena around him began to rumble. "TO MAKE THIS FAIR, LET'S GET AN URBAN ARENA!"
While the center ring of the arena where Maui stood remained the same, the area between the center ring and audience began to change. From the water that surrounded the center ring, numerous city-like buildings rose up, with the tallest of which being only three stories tall. The audience stands moved farther away from the arena, as well as upwards to get a better view. Jack wasn't sure how they would go to the bathroom now if they had to go, or how they would go grab something to eat.
"NOW, IN THE NORTH CORNER..." A cable went down to the arena's ring for Maui to grab, and the cable began to reel itself up towards a kind of terrace where all the faculty members were overlooking the fight. "HE'S BLUE, HE'S HIGH TECH, AND HE'S GOT COMPUTER SKILLS FOR DAYS, GIVE IT UP FOR SANCTUARY'S BLUE HACKER, ZANE!"
From the North entrance to the Arena, Zane walked out wearing his usual outfit and some new gear that he got from his training. His pink boots were replaced with sci-fi looking gravity boots, while his hands were covered by sci-fi gloves. Black headphones were draped around his neck. On his head was a vr-headset that was adjusted up over his eyes, ready to be pushed down over his eyes. His back had a large backpack on it, while his belt had a wide variety of black devices on them.
"IN THE SOUTH CORNER..." Maui reached the balcony where the rest of the faculty were. "DESTRUCTION, TRANSMUTATION, RESTORATION, ILLUSION, CONJURATION, ALCHEMY, DIVINATION, AND ENCHANTMENT. OUR NEXT CONTENDER DOESN'T STUDY ONE, NOR TWO, BUT ALL SCHOOLS OF MAGIC! OF COURSE I'M TALKING ABOUT SANCTUARY'S LAVENDER WIZARD, MEDEA LAVENDER!"
From the south entrance, Medea entered the arena. Like Zane, she also received more equipment from her teacher. On Medea's back, seven wooden staves were held by a bag. All seven staves had different heads, all of which were made of thick stained glass: with one having a green tree, the second with a cyan eye, another a golden bird, the third a purple spiral, the fourth a white skull, the fifth a lime potion, the sixth with a cyan sword, and the last one with a crimson flame. On Medea's head was a bandana to pull her hair back, and this bandana was decorated with a variety of charms that stuck to the bandana. In her hands was a massive Spellbook, and at her side was a small pouch.
"WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF OUR TWO FIGHTERS, LET US BEGIN THE MATCH!" Maui shouted as Zane and Medea reached face to face with one another in the middle of the main ring.
"Well, we may not have talked much, but may the better Guardian win." Zane reached to his belt and grabbed something that looked to be a grenade of some sort.
Zane threw down the grenade, and smoke was released from the grenade, enveloping the blue haired boy in a thick grey smoke and blocking him from Medea's view. Medea pulled on one of her staves, and all seven shot out of the leather holder and formed a line in front of Medea. From the smoke, numerous holographic clones ran out and ran into the cover of the fake city, confusing Medea. Medea ignored all these holograms and had one hand hold her Spellbook. The smoke dispersed to reveal a robotic figure standing where Zane once stood. The robotic figure was glad in a black cloth, and the only reason Jack could tell it was a robot was because of its glowing blue eyes. The robot ninja was holding two large Odachi swords, one in each hand. The ninja got into a stance, and you were curious where Zane went.
"Now I see, the real you was hidden amongst those holograms." Medea grabbed the staff with the flames on it. "You ran off to hide so you could control the robot from a distance. Clever move. Especially since you're a support class, and not suited for combat. Clever, until you realize metal is an easy target for lightning."
Medea pointed the staff of destruction towards the robot, and a bolt of lightning shot from the tip of the staff. The lighting was launched towards the robot, but to everyone's amazement, one of the robot's swords managed to not only connect with the lightning, but also absorb it.
"This skill..." Alice commented from beside Jack, wearing her battle outfit. Jack examined her new outfit, which was her regular outfit with some new accessories. She now had a witch's hat, a leather belt with various drawing and ritual utensils at her side, and she had some enchanted jewelry. "I've seen this before. This may come as a shock to you since you forget, but Zane actually has one physical activity he's really good at."
"What activity is that?" Jack asked the goth girl, whose expression suddenly turned very serious.
"Beat Saver." Alice then looked at Jack. "By the way, Jack, I'm loving the new gear."
"Thanks, you don't look half bad yourself." Jack's equipment wasn't all that special, just some archeological equipment like a grappling hook, some dusters, and a magnifying glass. "By the way, how was your training with Geppetto?"
"Hell, my puppet kill count was immense." Alice shuddered. "We honestly gave up making me a puppet master and turned my training into making graves for the puppets I killed."
"Oh, I thought you just commit a murder or something." Jack did recall seeing Alice dig graves. "Also, if you need to hide a body, just ask and I'll help."
"Thanks, Bestie."
Medea was unwavering, and kept on delivering a barrage of lightning bolts from her staff, yet the robot managed to cut through every single one. As Jack watched the fight progress, you noticed something. The robot had a breathing rhythm. That combined with the hologram decoy that allowed Zane to put some distance between him and Medea, it didn't take a genius to realize that Zane was using some kind of body synchronization tech to control the robot from a distance.
"Well this is pointless, so let's try something different." Medea threw the fire staff into the air and grabbed hold of the tree staff and stabbed the tip of the staff into the ground. "Maze!"
Walls made of stone shot out from the ground around Medea, and the stone walls appeared to make a maze. The maze appeared to cover the entirety of the map, forcing Zane's robot to jump onto the walls as they rose. The maze walls reached half the height of the various tall buildings that made up the arena. Meanwhile, Medea was using the tree staff to fly like a witch rides a broom. Medea grabbed onto the staff with the purple spiral and the staff with the red flames. She aimed both staves at Zane's robot and connected the tips of the staves. Birds made of lightning shot out from the connecting tips of both staves towards Zane's robot, who had no issue parrying each of the strikes, but with every strike, the robot began moving slower and slower until it was suddenly slowed to a stop. The robot stopped moving, and Medea sent an invisible wall of force to knock the robot within the maze walls, then Medea controlled the walls using the tree staff to crush the robot. Between its walls, sparks shot out to signal the robot's destruction.
"Robot down, now to take down the hacker." Medea looked around the city from above, but she couldn't see the hacker anywhere. "Where on Desponia could Zane be?"
"I could be anywhere." The loudspeaker suddenly erupted with Zane's voice, and numerous turrets emerged from the rooftops of nearby buildings. "Let's see what's better, magic or technology."
"Bring it, Zane!" Medea let go of the fire staff she was holding and grabbed onto the golden Phoenix staff.
In total sync, the guns fired lemon-sized bursts of yellow energy at Medea, who used the phoenix staff to conjure a golden shield of energy to surround her body. The blasts of energy bounced off the shield and were reflected into the nearby buildings. Some of the buildings managed to take the blasts of energy hitting them without much damage, while others had holes blasted into them, revealing their insides. Medea couldn't see Zane, nor could she focus, so Medea grabbed the cyan and white staves, holding the skull staff and phoenix staff between her fingertips. A magic circle appeared underneath Medea's feet. A puff of gray smoke blocked the turret's view, and they all stopped firing in sync of one another. From the puff of smoke, Medea's body shot out from the cloud of smoke, and all the turrets began firing at her.
"Eh? She doesn't have her staves with her this time?" Geppetto examined from his spot next to Herakles in the box above the stadium seats. Similar to VIP rooms above stadium seats at baseball stadiums.
"I see what she's planning." Nikola commented whilst sitting not too far away.
All the turrets fired at Medea, who was soaring through the air whilst covered in a glowing purple layer of magic. The turrets fired bursts of energy at the purple mage, who was effortlessly weaving through the bursts of energy whilst flying through the air. As she did so, Medea's eyes glowed a purple color for some odd reason. Medea soared through the air with ease until she was suddenly face to face with one building in particular. She was directly looking at the glass, when multiple bullets broke the glass and pierced Medea's body. Weirdly enough, there was no blood, instead, Medea's body suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Found you." Medea appeared atop the tallest building in the city, with a massive magic circle above her head while all eight of her staves were plunged into the ground around her.
"Now I see, in the smoke, she created a decoy and turned herself invisible to gain high ground while also pinpointing Zane's location!" Maui shouted, and Nikola sighed. "What's the matter Nikola, jealous that I managed to be as smart as you?"
"No, you were right about the first things, but she didn't pinpoint Zane's location." Nikola examined. "I trained Zane myself, there is no way that she found him already. It was a bluff."
"But that window shot bullets out of it, there's got to be something there!" Maui shouted as Medea's magic circle grew in size.
"Correct, but that something is nothing more than another turret." Nikola began to grow curious. "Still, I wonder what Medea could be planning."
Medea stood completely still for a moment as the turrets all aimed at her, but from the magic circle, purple lightning bolts struck every single turret, deactivating them on the spot. The magic circle then disappeared, and was replaced by a palm sized magic circle in Medea's hand. Medea stared at this magic circle in her palm, as if she was analyzing it. On the lowest part of the four outer walls of the skyscraper Medea stood on, magic circles appeared with one on each wall. From those magic circles, hounds made of purple light appeared. These hounds smelled the air, and dashed towards one building that wasn't damaged by anything. The building they stopped in front of was made of brick, and they howled to get Medea's attention. Medea then aimed the destruction staff at the building, and a magic circle appeared over it.
"Pillar of Flames!" Medea shouted, and from the magic circle above created a pillar made of purple flames to engulf the entire building.
"HOLD ON, WON'T THAT KILL ZANE?!" Maui shouted from the box above the stadium, and he grabbed his mic. "I need to call off this match."
"Relax, Maui." Elizabeth sat on a nearby chair whilst drinking tea. "Nikola developed special shields that go underneath the students' clothes and activate before they reach 90% total damage, and they will also signal for a buzzer to end the match prematurely."
Then a buzzer went off, and Medea dispersed all the spells she had active.
"THE BATTLE BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND MAGIC FINISHED, WITH MAGIC COMING OUT VICTORIOUS!" Maui shouted into the mic, and people cheered for the wizard girl, who jumped off the skyscraper, and slowed her fall using magic. "THE WINNER OF THE FIRST MATCH IS MEDEA LAVENDER!"
As the crowd cheered, two medics went into the Arena from an entrance to the North. The medics' outfits were a white in color, and they had red clovers on their chests and backs. One of the medics was carrying a stretcher as they ran towards the burnt building. The cameras couldn't see inside the buildings, but from Jack's television in the waiting room, he saw that one of the medics went into the burnt building. A couple moments passed, and you saw the medical walk out while carrying an unconscious Zane on his back. The unconscious Zane was placed on the stretcher, and the two medics picked up the prongs of the stretcher and walked out of the stadium, heading to the infirmary. Meanwhile, Medea walked back into the waiting room after her match by using the south entrance, and sat down next to Bruce as the next combatants prepared for their match.
"How many entrances are there to this arena?" Nico asked whilst being shrouded in darkness, preventing Jack from viewing all of his new equipment.
"From here, there are the South, West, and East entrances." Alice answered, and she too was shrouded in darkness now. "The West and East entrances curve around the arena, but they're mandatory for drama/aesthetic related reasons."
"Hey is no one gonna mention the fact that this an entirely different arena compared to our entrance exams?" Jack pointed out the fact.
"Oh yeah, this place is so crazy freaking rich that they built two arenas that they only use like once a year each." Ned adjusted the strings of his banjo while what looked to be a horse sat at his feet.
"Also, why is everyone in the dark?"
"Because it's more ominous and fun this way."