"Silently, the swallow dives, its sharp talons trained to pierce anything. Dead or alive,"
In the broad blue sky, a coliseum sits upon the clouds, as a massive crowd stands, surrounding the arena. The silence deafening and the anticipation for what's to come even greater. Everyone was focused on two metal gates sitting across from each other on each end of the blood-soaked arena, full of bodies, gods and monsters alike. The audience patiently waited, each second longer than the last, each minute feeling like an eternity, and when the time was ripe both gates slowly opened, and with a loud click, they stopped moving simultaneously.
On the left gate, an imposing aura rushed out, and loud screeching was heard from inside the dark opening, slowly, one giant of a man covered head to toe in scars walked out. His left hand dragged along the source of the screeching: a giant sword almost as tall as he was. In a few seconds he stopped and looked towards the opened gate in front of him.
He didn't have to wait long though, as a slender figure walked out of the shadows the humongous gate formed. smoothly, almost too gracefully, a pale woman wearing thin leather armor stood across from the man, her beautiful visage causing every man's eyes to transform into hearts, and was instantly woken up due to receiving slaps from their significant other. As the slapping stopped, the crowd focused on this magnificent rose.
But do not be fooled, this rose has thorns, and very sharp ones at that; on her waist lay 2 daggers longer than her forearms, their jagged shape made specifically to slash and cause as much pain as possible. Even lightly glancing at them made the man involuntarily gulp, though he quickly snapped out of it, and in response gripped his weapon even tighter.
The woman unsheathed her weapons first, the daggers that were finally in her hands somehow looked even more dangerous than before.The man, seeing her getting into a stance, lifted the sword onto his shoulders and gripped it with both hands instead of one.
Under the burning gaze of the crowd the woman engaged, disappearing, only to reappear behind the man a moment later, her daggers glowing in a pale blue light. Swiftly utilizing his incredible amounts of experience in battle, the man moved his sword slightly, and blocked the slash to his back without turning around!
Oohs and Aahs echoed out from the crowd, their eyes widening even further when they saw the woman disappear again, this time though, the man couldn't be as easygoing as before. slowly, he looked around, preparing to counter any wayward attacks to his back and sides.
Swoosh!
The sword on his shoulder disappeared in an instant, and reappeared right above him. It's metallic sheen glowing with a deathly aura. As if transforming, the already gigantic sword became even bigger, and from afar the crowd could see his tense muscles becoming even more taut from the weight of the sword.
With both hands grasping the handle, he swung in a wide arc, only to be stopped in midair. Raising his head to look at what happened, he and the crowd were utterly surprised as they saw the figure of the woman, her daggers forming a cross shape, which blocked the sword from advancing.
"Humph,"
With a grunt the man put even more force into his swing, slowly and steadily, with sparks forming in between the two weapons, the sword brute forced its way to the woman.
Struggling to block the sword, she kicked the sword with both of her legs and leaped tens of meters into the air, then performing a flamboyant twirl she faced the man in a skydiving-esque position. With her arms outstretched and her daggers shining a dangerous glint she dived straight towards the man.
"Heh,"
Smirking, the man suddenly grew larger, his muscles bulging out even more noticeably.
"Herculean strength,"
The man's arm became as large as logs, capable of smashing the ground apart, and if you were to look at him with an x-ray, his bones were larger than someone's thigh. Bringing his sword over his head, he swung even harder then before at the woman.
"Dolos's blessing*,"
The woman mumbled her own spell, and her body visibly started to take on an illusive shine, and a ghostly fog started to form around her body, even her daggers were affected as they seem to switch between real and fake.
The man, noticing this change, had a bad premonition and immediately stopped his sword mid swing and hurriedly used it to cover his back.
-Clank-
2 metal objects collided, and a sound of frustration was made behind him. Turning to look at the person behind him, he completely ignored the falling woman, who he determined to be a doppelganger. Right he was, as the figure falling at him completely passed through him. What he didn't expect was that by passing through him, he lost control of his body for a split second.
Taking this chance, the woman stabbed her daggers through his heart. But was stopped a few centimeters short because of the man's already tensed muscles.
"Hoo,"
Sighing in relief the man hurriedly gripped the body of the woman, intending to tear her apart, what he didn't expect was that her special moved still lasted up until now, and grabbed nothing but air.
"Good job... in dying that is,"
Frowning even harder, the man held his head and barely managed to stop the dagger from decapitating him. Though he couldn't save everything as one of his hands we cut clean off from the forearm.
"Huff, huff,"
Breathing heavily, the man shrunk visibly due to his buff wearing off, but he did see the woman's power wearing off as well. Taking the moment of weakness his enemy showed, he managed to slash at her once, only cutting off a leg, even though he aimed for the head.
-akh!-
Shocked from the flash of pain, the woman quickly retreated to look at her wounds, and the man did the same, though not moving and stayed in place instead.
----- a few minutes ago -----
"And there it is, both of their units dead, now both finalists only have one card to left to play, and it will be the deciding factor of who takes the crown as world champion between the two bitter rivals,"
The man who wore a referee's outfit watched over 2 teenagers who were focused on a rectangular holographic board, on one side was a boy sporting short dirty blonde hair, wearing a white shirt and jeans, while the other boy had ginger hair, wearing teashades and a loose basketball tanktop, with basketball shorts to match.
the blond had only one card in his hand, so did the other boy. both the crowd and the referee already knew who was going, as they could see both the player's cards. But chose to keep silence in respect for the loser.
While the blond was getting ready to play his final card, the ginger tensed up and fumbled to ready his card as well.
"hey babe, this will be worth all the marbles,"
spoke the blond, who flashed a cool smile at his opponent.
"H-hey, I'm not your babe!" the ginger boy shouted back, but quietly mumbled something only he could hear "At least not yet..."
"There he goes again, the two faced dealer! He's so timid he wouldn't hurt a fly, but in the game, he's braver than any soldier! But will that confidence bring him the win, or is he going to go home crying?"
Finishing up their banter, both players placed down their cards, but only one of their faces turned pale...
----- back to the present -----
"Hoo hoo,"
The woman, heavily injured after a few more bouts with the man, decided to bet it all on one strike, while the man who was no better off than her, did the same, and readied his sword. Both dashed at each other simultaneously, their weapons glowing a white light, met each other and after what seemed like an eternity, one of the weapons broke.
"Kuhak!"
The woman, dangling in the air, with both her weapons broken coughed up blood. Seeing this, the crowd went wild and the edges of the man's mouth slowly lifted up. But what he didn't expect was that the woman also smiled. A wild and cruel smile, but a smile nonetheless.
"I'm the wildcard, motherfucker,"
-BOOM!-
The air around her exploded, sending dirt and stone flying, but she was completely fine. The same could not be said for the man, as his body started disintegrating, along with the body parts and corpses of the other fighters in this wicked coliseum...
"And you have seen it folks! In this cutthroat game, the winner's wildcard:『The Lady Of Einbildung Lake』had defeated his opponent's best mortal card:『Herakles Of Thebes』,"
As the referee spoke, he took a quick glance at the playing field only to be stumped as to what he was seeing play out between the two teens...