Chapter 200: Skimpy and Armor
———Karra———
<11: 09 am>
“<And we got our winner! Give it up for our local doctor, Cevin Zeone!>” Coach Wana announced as the two fighters made their exit. It was definitely a less brutal fight all things considered, but certainly not boring.
“About what we expected, if only because it feels like he was always destined to lose.” Gregori makes a rather cruel remark. Come on now, don’t say things like that…
“Yeesh, did he mess up an operation on you or something?” Qyunda said, noticing how weirdly personal it sounds.
“No. I’m just saying it for how it is.” He replied, not sounding particularly bothered. “Unlike you and Malk, the rivalry is way more lopsided. Rivalry generally doesn't have a perfect balance anyway.”
“Doesn’t change how callous that sounds.” Qyunda said before shifting her attention to the screen in front of her and ordering more food.
“<Our next match will start up in about five minutes, make sure to stay seated!>” Coach Wana announced. They are definitely cramming in more fights than last time, probably to make up for the students not having anything to do and exert themselves. “<Also, don’t forget to vote for the terrain of the next match!>”
I’m just picking at random. I don’t particularly care which one was settled on.
“...So was anyone actually expecting those two to fight?” Jeyst chimed in after a moment of silence and the crowd’s voice lowering.
“Not really. They are medics, they probably shouldn’t even be fighting in the first place.” Orrel replied first. “I think it’s probably due to familiarity and the fact that the other school staff aren’t actually all that strong. It’s extremely top-heavy in terms of power distribution.”
“So you think the next pair would be strangers?” Useph asked.
“It’d make sense. Showing familiar faces would’ve probably tempered expectation and lowered the anticipation. Maybe they could go for someone a bit famous, if they can get into contact.” Gregori replied before Orrel could say anything. “...Considering last time, they probably got some people from a different state involved as well, assuming the first pair isn’t also from a different state. Do we get any recon on where they came from yet?”
“Do we really care at this point? Let’s mull over that after the school is over.” Qyunda said, clearly not interested in any speculation.
“Oh, look, the participants are here.” Jeyst called out.
Huh… A rather unique set of clothings for the two fighters. Both of them are covered in black clothing, but in very different directions.
On one side, there is someone who seems to be a guy who is extremely tall, completely covered in bulky black armor and a tall helmet that completely covers his face, his arms are large and his hands even more so thanks to the pair of gauntlets. Wide shoulder pads, big boots, certainly not skimping out on stuff that make him look extra large. The black cape with white fluffy bits at the top makes his appearance even larger and more grandiose.
Another side of the coin is his opponent, a catkin with light purple hair and eyes, wearing quite a skimpy outfit with black corset, arm gloves, leggings, short skirt, and boots, all of it black and contrasting her light skin tone and hair color. It’s certainly not something most people would’ve worn in public.
“These two… Haven’t we seen them before?” Useph asked as the two moved into position and the crowd grew louder as more discussion was heard.
“They do look familiar, but where does…” Gregori muttered. “Ah, right. I remember that big one. He was parading around in a city about doing justice or something. What is his name again? Dark Knee Super? Stupid freaking name.”
“And that cat woman is… Her name was Gwiyen, I believe. A rather seasoned adventurer at this point. There have been a lot of pictures online due to how she was dressed.” It is a rare set of clothing, especially for fighting. It’s not a big dress, of course, but I feel like such a revealing outfit would’ve been a cause for concern in a public space like this.
“Just let her have her fun.” Jeyst quickly came to her defense. “So these two are quite strong and have a bit of popularity to them already. Other people besides us probably know about them to some extent.”
“<Ahem. Students, parents, and other spectators. I will hand the voice to the two participants before the battle begins just like last time, they have some choice words to say to each other.>” Coach Wana announced. “<Make sure to cheer them on! They came from faraway place to entertain you all in this moment>”
“<Thank you for your attention, everyone!>” A boisterous voice rang through the stadium. “<I! Darkkni Super! Shall fight with all my might and be a great aspiration for justice! To my opponent, I will do nothing less than the very best and show you how it’s done!>”
The crowd grew louder hearing the confident and hammy tone of the man in bulky armor.
“<Ugh. And if you think it’s going to be that easy, then you got another thing coming, big guy!>” The cat lady in black said, clearly not afraid of his boisterous clarification. Do they rehearse this at all or is this just something they freeform the intro?
“<Haha! I wouldn’t have it any other way!>” And he certainly doesn’t seem to be afraid either.
The crowd gets a bit louder, but definitely not quite on the level of certain sports events or other shows. Even if there are a lot of people here, there isn’t exactly any hype build up or storyline to follow, so audience reaction is gonna be more modest than one would expect. Maybe if it’s a more regular thing the crowd reaction would’ve been much more feverous.
“<Looks like our fighters are all fired up. It’s time for the surprise countdown. I hope those two are listening to me very closely!>” Coach Wana said, building up the suspense as the sound of the crowd still rang out strongly. “<...Oh! Right! First off, let’s see which terrain was voted in.>”
No wonder I felt like something was missing. Hopefully she wasn’t seriously thinking about starting the match before they even get the stage set up.
Suddenly the playing field was shifted into a field of rocks with a bunch of rock hills and… floating glass island? I didn’t even see the option for that. Where was it…
“Oh. Nice. I actually got what I voted for.” Gregori remarked. So it is in the options at least. It looks like the previous terrains were removed after being chosen once.
The two fighters are now on two of the floating platforms on opposite sides of the area.
“<...Now!>” Coach Wana shouted out loudly suddenly.
*Leap* *Swing* *Evade* *Zip* *Swing* *Evade*
The dark knight jumped towards the goth lady and swung his fist which was easily dodged, and he moved while still mid-air and turned around for another swing that she also avoided and he dropped out of the air like a rock, but landed gracefully when he landed on the ground.
*Slash* *Blast* *Slash* *Blast* *Evade* *Dash*
Gwiyen then starts throwing out projectiles by rapidly swinging her katanas from the glass platform, launching a bunch of sword beams towards the hero in dark armor down below. He starts dodging and running away, not afraid to not just tank and challenge those attacks even with the heavy armor he has.
*LEAP* *CRASH* *Leap*
After a moment of brevity as she stopped her offensive gameplan, he jumped towards the platform, and instead of aiming to hit her directly, he crashed into the platform itself and while it did take it down his opponent already jumped off it and managed to land safely on one of the other floating platforms.
Like some sort of predator and prey dynamic, the battle itself feels more like a game of tag compared to the previous two fights. It’s new, at least, though I wonder why they seems so much more unwilling to just rush in when the attacks being sprayed down are all rather weak and would only cause tiny scratches at worst.
*Crack* *Grab* *Throw* *Leap* *Crash*
He grabbed one of those massive stalagmite and broke it off from the base, throwing it at the platform Gwiyen is on and destroying another one, though like last time she managed to get out of the way in time.
*Sizz*
He then suddenly forms a massive ball of fire that he held with his two hands. Now that looks like an actually big attack. Is he aiming to just purge the top section out of any platforms entirely? That would speed up the first tremendously, let’s see how that goes.
*Throw* *BOOM*
The entire crowd cried out in surprise at the flashbang that just happened, a massive ball of magic exploding and destroying everything it came into contact with, or at least, the things it was meant to target.
When the light level returns to normal and the smoke clears, there are no more floating islands and the tall structures are all cut down.
*Dash* *Kick* *Crash*
Before he could even process the destruction he caused to the battlefield, his opponent ran up to him and kicked him in the chest and sent him flying before he had any chance to react, causing him to crash into one of the nearby rock structures that is still standing.
“<Looks like that big attack didn’t hit how he wanted it to!>” Coach Wana commentated as the crowd’s murmur grew louder.
I don’t think many people caught it. She already reached the ground by the time the giant explosive ball was thrown. She was obviously not going to tank such a heavily telegraphed and strong attack.
“Doesn’t look like that kick does a lot, but they are definitely on a more even playing field now.” Orrel commented.
*Dash* *Swing* *Block* *Swing* *Evade*
The big guy ran towards her and she swung her blades at him that he tanked through and swung his fist forward, only for her to avoid it.
“Can she even do any damage?” Jeff asked, clearly not confident in her firepower.
“Just give it time, she’s just trying to wear him down.” Gregori said, not seeing any problem so far. I do think the disparity is a bit much. One is clearly more tanky and the other more agile. It’s a rather awkward matchup since it doesn’t look like either have a clear advantage on the other.
*Dash* *Swing* *Spin* *Slash*
She ran at him with her blades glowing bright in their color, blitzing him with multiple sword strikes from multiple directions that actually looks like it is causing him to stagger.
*Swing* *Evade* *Shatter*
He swung his fist in retaliation and she dodged it, letting the fist fly straight into a nearby rock which shattered upon impact.
It’s really hard to tell who is going to win when it feels like it could easily boil down to chance. At this stage with their stamina and mana in full swing, it doesn’t look like they are gonna make any major mistakes anytime soon.
“This one is also quite easy to follow.” Malk remarked without much thought. “Their fighting style feels a bit sloppy, don’t you think?”
“Hey, don’t say that out loud now, they've got quite a fanbase to them, you know?” Gregori said despite not sounding particularly serious.
“It’s very niche. More of a gossip than anything else.” Orrel rebutted. “Still. Malk isn’t wrong. The fight itself isn’t particularly impressive in the grand scheme of things. I feel like I could… No, perhaps I really shouldn’t say that.”
“Well they ain’t weak, that’s for sure. It’d be really dishonest of us to say that.” Qyunda remarked. Indeed, they aren’t. No way in hell the school is gonna recruit weak fighters that even the average student here could handle. What’s the point of all these special guests otherwise?
*Swing* *Block*
Another swing of the dual blades being blocked, but the force behind it is at least enough for him to stagger.
*Leap* *Blast* *Evade*
He jumped into the air and stayed there momentarily before launching a magic blast that she quickly avoided by simply leaving the area he was aiming at.
“Even the fight at this power level has its virtue. We can’t be having sensory overload all the time.” Gregori remarked. It is nice that the fight is much more readable than the previous two, though I’d say that neither Cevin or Lebeta feels overwhelmingly strong either.