With the three profile papers in hand, I walked over to Brunhilde and handed them over. She wordlessly looked them over, analysing physical features, feats and specialities. Naturally, Subaru and Alexander were chosen. Though the Gods of this universe were invulnerable to mortal weapons, Subaru channels the concept of the stars and Alexander assisted in killing the Elden Beast.
Alexander was chosen for round 9 so I sat him down and begun giving him some tutoring on the unique properties of the Gods of this universe. "So they all have some kind of hidden weapon, strength enhancement usually comes at a cost and is temporary for them. Information and foresight are the ones you have to be careful for as they can usually be maintained constantly. Speed might be used to try and get a quick victory on their part and some have magic or some elemental control so be wary."
The morning of his match, I filled him with blended Mohg corpses, to be able to fill him as much as possible. The bar was filled with everyone ready to be watching him fight on the screens.
"ARRRRRE YOU READYYYYYYY!!! Round 9 of Ragnarok is about to begin! Both teams are neck and neck with 4 points each, it's looking like we might need a tiebreaker!! But now… representing the Gods, the shining light himself, God of the Sun and Boxing… IT'S APOLLO!!!" A beautiful blonde man stepped out from the God's side, strutting down with a pristine white toga and palm wood sandals. He stopped and simply smiled, looking at my clone camera man for a moment before looking back over the crowd.
"And for the Humans! From the Lands Between, travelling between realms to get here… The Jar that helped kill the avatar of an outer God… It's ALEXANDER!!!!" Spinning over onto his spot we watched as he rested his hands where his waist would be and though we couldn't hear him, we could assume he said something about a true warrior's duel.
The match begun and Apollo backed up and begun firing arrows at Alexander, who proudly charged through them, crumpling against his ceramic hide. Apollo seemed pleasantly surprised as he rose up, threads manifesting and holding Alexander. He raised his bow and aimed for the wax seal on top, judging it to be a weak spot.
He never got the chance to test it as Alexander easily ripped apart the threads and spun towards Apollo, caught off guard, he was sent flying into the arena walls.
(Elden ring bosses are star level, Alexander can relatively compete with that so his speed when spinning can be comparable to Apollo's.)
"OOOOHH APOLLO WAS SENT FLYING, HOW IN THE NINE REALMS DID HE MANAGE THAT?" Heimdall was all but gushing into the gjallarhorn.
With no hesitation, Alexander run into the crater that Apollo was recovering in and dove in with a punch, leaving a sickening crunch that even we could hear. More punches were thrown but Apollo squeezed out, his face being indistinguishable Butcher's hairy ass now.
Though you can't tell much anymore, it's obvious Apollo is pissed off. He rose up once more, flurries of arrows flying, bouncing off of Alexander, eventually, he placed hisself upon a bowstring and rocketed towards Alexander. Bracing for the impact, Alexander stayed steady but cracks were now visible on him.
A clear resolve settled over them, both wanting to end it quickly. Apollo sent a hailstorm of arrows and Alexander started spinning once more. Apollo was betting on the arrows breaking Alexander before he reaches him and Alexander was betting on crushing Apollo before he took serious damage.
Clearing the arena in half a second, Alexander was up front with Apollo and driving him into the floor once more. Used to much more gruesome practices in his universe, Alexander broke Apollo's kneecaps and hands, though he would call that a tactical move. From there the match was over, beaten within an inch of his life, Alexander gave him the chance to surrender and he took it. Smart choice.
"AND WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ALEXANDER THE WARRIOR JAR! THAT BRING HUMANS TO A 1 POINT LEAD, IF THE GODS DONT WIN ROUND 10 THEN THE HUMANS HAVE GUARANTEED THE HALTING OF RAGNAROK!!!"
Alexander stumbled into the bar, I brought him into the training room and started patching him up. "Fantastic job out there, managing the win even though Apollo is your direct counter, well done!" I patted his shoulder and carried on using the jar wax on the cracks.
"Yes he fought marvellously! He had a true warrior spirit until his surrender, clearly he didn't believe in the cause enough. What was the cause again?"
"The Gods wanted to wipe out all 8 billion humans on that planet."
"I should have finished the job."
"Oh well, hindsight's 20/20. Now I just have to get Subaru trained up some more, I don't know how much real life matches he's had honestly. Baptism by fire if he's not ready I suppose." I finished patching him up and called Subaru in, I'll have him training for a week straight with me and my clones. It'll be a good way for me to train all the different sword techniques I know now.
Over the week, my regulars made merch for the tournament, many won small bets on Alexander winning. Brunhilde stopped by for a drink and to personally see Subaru, offering him a Volund of his own. I felt like his father when he looked to me for permission, naturally I said yes. Watching the process was interesting, I assumed it would turn into a staff for him but it ended up turning into a wizard robe that can crystallise on command, capable of even tanking one of my more simple attacks.
I made sure that the one spell he will always cast is Terra Magica, why would he need to move now if he has constant missiles, shield and floating swords protecting him and now a crystal cloak? During our sparring sessions, I would use as many clones as I had available and see just how much pressure he could hold off successfully.
I knew he was ready when he used a spell that I hadn't even taught him to get a surprise attack on me. He remodelled ambush shard to have glintstone origins, getting me by surprise in my back. So just like every night, his progress was celebrated with lots of food and drinks.
[Time Skip]
"So just go out there and kill a God, simple right?" Subaru was asking himself, psyching himself up.
"Basically, good luck" I gave him a thumbs up as he walked to his gate. I went back in my bar and served out all the drinks, and leaned on the counter to see the screen.
"ROUND 10! THE FINAL ROUND OF THE RAGNAROK TOURNAMENT, WOOOOOO!! WILL THE HUMANS PULL THROUGH OR WILL THE GODS FORCE A TIEBREAKER!?" The crowed roared in anticipation, former contestants all watching amongst their people. Apollo watching from his hospital bed, using his one good eye.
"OVER ON THE GODS SIDE THIS MORNING WE HAVE THE GOD OF SWORDS, THE MAN WHO SLAYED GODS AND DEMONS, THE MASTER OF EVERY SWORD STYLE…. ITTTTTTSSS SUSANO'O NO MIKOTO!!!!!" He sounds a lot more difficult than Hades, I hope I haven't sent Subaru out to experience death again. Susano'o walked out onto the arena, gathered and calm, his swords rattling slightly with each footstep.
"AND OVER ON THE HUMANS SIDE, GARNERED WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE, IT'S NATSUKI SUBARU!!! A PRODIGY SORCERER OF RAYA LUCARIA, TAUGHT SORCERY BY OLIVERICK HIMSELF. ALREADY TAPPING INTO THE… er Prime Eval current? PRIMEVAL CURRENT AFTER ONLY A YEAR OF TUTELAGE!!!!"
Subaru awkwardly walked onto the arena grounds, a bit nervous in the face of the crowd. However upon looking upon Susano'o he regained his composure and readied himself.
"ARE YOU READDDDYYYY??!!!" The countdown seemed to last centuries, and yet it was only 3 seconds. Subaru was already getting spells ready mentally as Susano'o drew his swords. I suppose it works out that I attempted to learn many different sword styles before hand.
At the count of go, terra magica was cast along with various layers of shielding, missiles and counterspells. Susano'o simply slashes once, ripping through the first line of defence he was immediately bombarded with an omnidirectional hailstorm of glintstone. With everything being boosted with terra magica, Susano'o felt pressured by the immense volume and velocity at which he is being assaulted.
Deflecting the attacks, he dove in to target Subaru directly, only to be flipped the other way through a mix of Thopp's barrier and Carian Retaliation. Using the stunned moment, a glintsone spear impaled Susano'o shoulder. He dashed back and sent a variety of wind blades to Subaru, aiming to disarm the magical traps in place.
Each windblade was met with manifesting glintstone shards or being warped off to somewhere else. The final one required Subaru to take a step to the side and dodge.
Not giving him a moment to recover his defences, Susano'o dashed in for a secondary attack. Glintstone pillars blocked his path, though he sliced through them easily, however on the other side was Subaru with a charged comet azure already blasting towards him.
The impact could not be dodged as it rammed him into the wall at the sheer speed of sound. Upon impact various swords flew off of him, though not nearly enough to disarm him. The side of the arena he crashed into was scorched black and Susano'o's hand stuck out of the rubble, grasping at the rocks and shakily pushing them off.
Subaru waited not a second longer and used a carian influenced spell of glintstone blade and sliced his hand off. God's blood sprayed the ground but Susano'o stood firm, charred and damaged beyond repair, and now an amputee. His eyes were crimson red, and his fingers twitching, he placed a sword in his mouth and the other in his remaining hand.
Subaru stood firm, though disturbed at the sheer resilience of Susano'o, he recast his defensive measures and begun sending comets to create pressure once more. To which he was once again charged, Susano'o deftly avoiding and weaving past the sorceries.
A thrust attack deflected off a summoned shield and a blow from a staff was blocked by a katana. Blows were traded on the spot with Subaru desperate to make space between them, however Susano'o had him exactly where he wanted him. The staff was being slowly chipped apart by the blades and had to be repaired with summoned glintstone mid-fight.
With a window of opportunity, Susano'o impaled Subaru through the gut and was just about to behead the man when a fully charged cannon of Haima was rammed into his mouth blasting off the top of Susano'o's skull. He slowly fell back, the katana still gripped and pulled out of Subaru as he collapsed on the ground.
Subaru buckled backwards himself, coughing up blood onto the sand surrounding him.
"AND WITH A SHOCKING TURN OF EVENTS THE HUMANS WIN 6-4!!! NATSUKI SUBARU HAS SPRING VICTORIOUS AGAINST SUSANO'O!" I ran in and healed Subaru immediately, pulling him up and raising his arm to the millions of cheering humans and Gods.