[b]Xepabul District, Allure City (formerly Salamanca)[/b]

“Sorry for that technical hiccough true believers, but the Allure Combat League is back online!”

Thousands of heads turned reflexively as titanic screens inset into the polished sandstone of the Gran Circo winked to life. The rotund and rosy cheeks of Zrboe Heyanga dominated the image, a tiny slate pinstripe bowtie peeking out from beneath layered glistening chins.Thick beads of opalescent sweat were dabbed at with a square patch of Vurqilian silk, its hydrophobic properties repelling the fluid. The plastiwool of Zrboe's periwinkle jacket grew damp as he waited a beat for the crowd below to fall into an expectant murmur. 

“We’re here with one of our top contenders and Xepabul favorite, Jalro Fa’nämön. Jalro, you’re coming off a three match streak and that last victory over H-”

Tapered fingers pressed softly against Zrboe’s speech bulbs, separating with a thin thread of mucus. Prismatic hexagons of light danced playfully along the length of Jalro’s lustrous saxe mane. Jalro struck a pose, left fist raised to the heavens and was met with a cascade of rose-tinged sparkles from above. A pair of cam-drones whorled around the rooftop pavilion, broadcasting his lithe form to an eagerly awaiting public.

“Zrboe… Oh, my sweet little epigone. If you were impressed with that Velocity Jaldrop wait until you see what I’ve got planned for Masi Squiza this upcoming Erentil!” Plani-glass grains hummed as they shifted along the visible spectrum with a subtle wave, flushing Jalro’s attire to a scintillating amber.  “When I hit him with a Lightspeed Jalbomb they’ll be scraping what’s left of Masi’s sense-sacs from the interior of that wreck he calls a mech.”

“So you’re saying that Masi has no chance against you this Erentil?” Zrboe’s dorsal flagella quivered with delight, the air around him growing electric as Jalro plucked one of the cam-drones from its flight path. Deep pools of coral stared longingly into the lens, the light within them spiralled as it pulsed to a rhythm emanating from Jalro. The intimacy of the moment was punctuated by throngs of fans squealing. “I’m saying there’s no place for a rundown slob like Masi in the ACL, baby!” He released the cam-drone with a flourish and it buzzed away excitedly.

“Strong words from a strong contender. Now let’s check in with S’Xani Utron back at Xepabul Tower with official remarks from Fimiendel Vericlat-” Zrboe’s remarks, and life, were cut-short when he was suddenly crushed by a careening spheroid. The cam-drones continued to roll as they distanced themselves from the carnage, panning out to show the panicked throng of Jalro’s entourage fleeing through crashing debris. Production assistants and a handful of Allureans lucky enough to have won behind the scenes passes were transfixed by the visceral horror before them. 

The spheroid shuddered and with a partial bounce a pair of stubby legs were expelled from its shape with an echoing twang. As the cam-drone autocorrected the image to account for the smoking wreckage, an enormous eye was suffused from the orb’s epicenter. 

Long, thick lashes fluttered flirtatiously at the camera as the spherical being launched itself at the cam-drone, grasping it firmly with tri-clawed manipulators that burst out suddenly. The drone’s lateral hydrazine thrusters fired sporadically, causing it and its impromptu rider to meander through the air, the magnified image of a cyclopean gaze jostling on-screen in the background. Ckøst, scourge of the New Varda Concordant and defiler of Kenor’s Landing, held the cam-drone firmly in place as it began to sensually grind its rubbery cornea against the unblinking lens. Its pace grew frenzied, tear ducts twitching repulsively before expelling a viscous orange fluid that a serpentine tongue lapped up greedily. 

“Mmm Ckøst hasn’t seen himself in so long! So much Ckøst, such fun!”

Oversized incisors jostled in their sockets as the tongue returned to the wet ruin of Ckøst's mouth. The thrusters on the cam-drone began to sputter in the wake of Ckøst’s aroused assault and began to lose altitude when it suddenly erupted mid-air by a concussive blast of condensed sound. With a bloom the Gran Circo sent out a small fleet of cam-drones to cover Jalro’s defiant posturing from every angle as the smoke began to clear. 

Jalro’s plani-glass attire throbbed in rapid tempo as it assumed a more martial aspect, hollowing itself along his extremities to better channel vibrations. His left arm was extended outwards with his pointer finger leading the plummeting interloper. Seven swirling prisms of light bathed Jalro in a rainbow effect. They then began to condense into a thin beam at his fingertip while he amplified his voice through a subtler application of his abilities, his words loud enough to be heard over the chaos. 

“Chumps belong behind the camera, not in front of it!” The crowd’s cheers were lost in the eruption of light and sound that struck Ckøst and sent its form crashing through miles of downed satellites, interstellar wreckage, and the occasional congregation of shanties before bursting through the neon slurry that was the leftover biowaste from the ACL’s last free Libuschan chili day. Jalro beamed triumphantly at the cam-drones, hovering high above the Gran Circo with a vermilion shimmer. His hair whipped back as he let loose a thunderous laugh, soft motes of golden light dreamily suspended around him. “A fitting grave for someone so trashy!”

The projected image of Jalro was replaced with that of an oozing mound of mucilaginous greens and yellows, pocked with the occasional undigested Koroxian gristle or still squirming djrowm from the moons of Poxu Prime. The heap steamed in the unfamiliar, alien star above that was slowly being tinged purple. A wave of subconscious dread washed over the crowd as their attention turned skyward. Minds human or extraterrestrial alike were frozen in dread as the astronomical nightmare of a colossal Cnidarian passed in front of the sun, a flotilla innumerable in strength traveling in its wake. 

Unnoticed, the hummock quivered violently before beginning to collapse in upon itself as it was hungrily devoured by an emerging effulgence in the refuse. Narcissism incarnate, a translucent eidolon of Ckøst rose from the filth. An intricate network of ghostly capillaries were pushed to the construct’s surface that throbbed with the pressurized waste pumping through them. Suspended within the muck was Ckøst, his lonely, lovely eye glaring at Jalro whose attentions were turned elsewhere. This infuriated Ckøst further, the mouth of the radiant apparition narrowing into a nozzle that spewed a stream of highly pressurized waste as Ckøst threw a mid-air tantrum. “Ckøst is most important! Ckøst will not be ignored!”

Stil in a stupor, the feculent stream was already upon Jalro when he instinctively clapped his hands together just as he was met by the blast. The impact of his hands generated a bass wave that pulsed through the bodies of everyone in a 5km radius, their sensory organs nearly rupturing as their bowels (or analogous system) bubbled sickeningly. Meanwhile, Jalro was explosively ejected from Xepabul with a glimmering trail of distressing reds and alarming yellows that was closely followed by an enraged Ckøst, traveling in a discus shaped like a flattened version of himself. 

Waves of concussive force rippled Jalro’s plani-glass armor as he ricocheted off a spindly spire of Ridulian crystal, creating a high frequency note that Jalro rode while firing scintillating saffron spheres at Ckøst. Not to be out-done, the disc that bore Ckøst inflated comically as a series of miniature Ckøst began to trickle down from a single point creating a chain along what became a dense spiked weight. Ckøst swung the flail at Jalro wildly, each missed strike creating untold destruction as the two’s battle took them through many of Allure’s regions as they continued south.

Ckøst, incensed beyond rational thought, began to indiscriminately launch a volley of miniature explosives in its likeness. They screamed through the air, prepared to crumble an entire mountain range in the vague hope of striking one who had the audacity to take focus away from itself. Jalro's plani-glass condensed along his arms creating powerful subwoofers and revealing his lithe and naked form to the frigid surroundings. Jalro began to feel a micro-dimensional tear as his vibrations reached their apex, channeling all of the force into his arms. The two glared at one another, prepared to end everything as the sun’s light began to return to its normal yellow. 

Suddenly, both were struck down from the heavens with a blur of resplendent jade, their faces still locked in aggressive scowls that slowly grew slack. Between two smoking craters knelt a humanoid form, swathed in an aura of coruscating emerald. “Sorry to be so rough, but Jemha Autonomous Zone is under my protection and I’m late for a meeting.”