Rumble in Old Londo Part 2
Wordcount: 2715 (+3)
As soon as the game began, Bruce raised up his assist trophy to call forth the fighter within. The Barrier above the base peeled away, revealing, briefly, a small stone that floated there for half a second before vanishing.
Both g-corp employees glanced around in confusion at this supposed dud, while Jr called out
”Oh come on! That’s like the best one” as he too looked around, and most notably, up.
There he spotted something which prompted him to start running towards Bruce.
He was half way across when Lucky caught on, mainly due to the red glow in the sky that heralded the incoming
moon burning its way through the skies, and followed suit, legging for a spot that wasn’t going to be in its direct impact zone.
As they came running, Bruce held his nerve and held his ground. Jr very much wanted that ground, and opened fire with his vending machine cannon. Unfortunately for him, the low velocity shots were easy enough for the kick boxer to parry, and in some cases return to sender, resulting in the runners facing down a shower of exploding carbonated coffee cans.
Lucky was spared most of this, and was also willing to swipe at the other runners, finding out in the process that her sword launched
rainbow trailing cats when she swung it, which rather made up for her lack of skill with the weapon.
“What in the hells is that!?" Yayama scrambled toward the corner of the stage drawing everyone else in, fleeing the glow that reminded her an awful lot of Meteor. “Who just drops a moon in a casual tournament!?” She put up an aetheric barrier up around herself, electing to deal with the issue of the mass of bouncing feline and carbonated projectiles by not thinking too hard about them.
The drinks barely scuffed the barrier, but the cats hit hard. Fortunately for Yayama, however, the barrier was more than enough to get Lucky focusing on the easier target, namly the bot causing the issue of the flying bean bombs.
The first cat smashed the weapon out of Jr’s hands, the second sent him stumbling, and the third caused him to be knocked off of his feet and crash to the ground.
It was more than enough to slow him down, such that when the moon came blazing over the heads of the crowd and over the water, he was in the impact radius.
Rather than pancake the poor boy, however, the moon actually slowed down as it approached the stage, and instead did its damage via the
fiery aura surrounding it. It remained embedded in the stage for two seconds, before blasting the prince away and sending him slamming into one of the windows on facade buildings surrounding the back of the stage.
He was, interestingly, not disqualified for going in there.
Yayama likely didn’t have time to think about the implications of that, however, as while lucky was allowed to dash past Bruce and take cover in his corner by the black iron fence, the kick boxer very much made the effort to try and slam a foot into the Lalafell in-order to try and knock her into the burning moon before it exited the stage in a flash of light.
She responded with a swing of her blade, half block, half counter. If she couldn’t exploit the opening, she could at least deflect the blow and keep running forward, then bowl Bruce over and take advantage from there. That was the plan, anyways; his partner in crime could always interfere, and her favored weapon was not exactly the quickest option available.
Interfere she did indeed do. As Bruce was shoved aside and Yayama got clear of the moonfall, Lucky leapt up and then springboarded off of the wooden fence that cordoned off the river surrounding half of the stage. She used this move to reverse the momentum of her run and then bring her sword swinging down, a cat blasting out of the blade as she finished the swing.
Bruce also recovered quickly enough from the deflection, catching himself, pivoting, and then swinging a punch at the back of Yayama’s head.
The combination was enough to overwhelm the lalafell’s defenses for the moment; the boxer’s punch connected cleanly, sending her staggering away. “Not again,” she groaned, sounding dazed, before stumbling her way back into some semblance of a guard. “My chirurgeon’s going to have my head if you keep abusing it like that, you know.” She wreathed her sword in aether, preparing an Edge of Darkness should either of the duo approach. Of course, she had a trick up her sleeve; if one of them decided to test her reflexes, she’d simply transform the weapon into a katana and strike with the gathered power before they could react to the change in threat.
The two moved together, not even trying to hide their cooperation now as they eyed her dark blade from out of its reach. Then Lucky stepped to one side, swinging her sword at the air in-order to pelt the dark knight with rainbow cats, ones that bounced off of the fence that was now behind her and ricochet back her way. As he did this Bruce stepped to the other and approached with his guard up, intending to deliver a low legsweep once she was off balance from the kitty assault.
Unfortunately for them, on the third swing of Lucky’s sword the neon pink blade flashed and went dull with a drawn out power down meow as the imitation of the legendary weapon ran out of batteries.
Then a second later the idol exploded, sending her flying back into the fountain. Then the source of the hurled bob-omb shouted
”Cheaters!” at the pair, and then
”They’re working together!” across the water to where Pride Falcon was spectating the match.
“Unsporting, but not rule breaking I’m afraid young chap!” He called back, prompting an
”Oh come on!” from the young prince.
Yayama utilized the distraction to take back the initiative. Enduring the last few feline missiles, she darted forward. She swung her blade in a wide arc; Midway through, it turned into a much faster scythe sweep. The mass of demonically empowered steel and magic slammed into Bruce with force beyond the lalafell’s minuscule frame. Her expression had shifted dramatically now that she realized what the two were doing.
“Fine then. If it’s a real fight you’re here for, then I’ll be happy to provide it to you.” Her Grit swelled as she made a “come-hither” gesture toward Bruce. “Try me again, boy, and we’ll see who’s standing over who afterwards.”
The fifty three year old man gave a bark of a laugh at this, calling her comment "ridiculous" before rolling his neck around, cracking it as he did. Then he crouched down into a boxer’s pose and agreed “yes, let us end this nonsense” before coming at her with speed a fifty three year old man absolutely should not be able to pull off, dodging and weaving as he delivered swift punches and kicks with the aim of starting a combo a devastating beatdown.
The dark knight grit her teeth and powered through, taking the damage on her chin. She relied on her armor and a little blessing she’d gotten from a forest spirit to let her endure the pain, then retaliated with a Lalafellin classic: a headbutt directly to Bruce’s stomach. The unexpected blow sent the man reeling, enough that Yayama was able to ready her actual weapon and charge him while he was off balance.
Her charge was complicated a bit by a boomerang coming sweeping around from center stage, one hurled by a lucky dressed up in a
turtle outfit. It was the only one that came flying, however, as a moment later the idol was forced to dodge a trio of rocket propelled
boxing gloves that came her way courtesy of bowser junior.
The kid hadn’t cottoned on that this was an assasination attempt, thinking it was just an unsporting teamup, while Lucky, with her already eccentric aesthetics and fighting style, was more than happy to incorporate the powerful items into said attempt.
Yayama intercepted the flying boomerang with a Blackest Night, the shield absorbing the blow and popping immediately. The used power flowed into her blade, allowing her to launch another Edge of Darkness in Bruce’s direction - hopefully before he could recover.
He’d recovered enough that he wasn’t slammed flat by the blow, but he still stumbled back, off guard and open to being struck hard. The dark knight, however, was keen on demonstrating why she was known as Yayama the Unrelenting. She followed up with a leaping Plunge, not allowing him any breathing room. Once she was in close, her greatsword shifted, becoming an ominous red-and-black katana. The lighter, faster weapon was applied to devastating effect, a barrage of powerful slashes overwhelming Bruce’s ability to defend himself. Leaving him reeling, she finished off her assault by launching an iai strike. Halfway through, her weapon transformed once again to its original shape, resulting in the charged slash slamming into him with enormous force and sending him flying away.
He slammed into the ground next to Lucky, the momentum of the launch causing him to roll over a few times till he hit the base of the fountain, leaving a trail of blood in the process. The man himself was carved up, but impressively still conscious, a hand gripping the fountain as he tried to unsteadily haul himself to his feet.
Lucky tried to protect him, flinging more boomerangs Yayama’s way as she moved to put herself in between the tiny knight and her bodyguard. From the side there came a thunk as Jr dropped down to ground level again, but rather than come help he called out
”Yeah, get em!” as he himself went to smash an item crate, still ignorant as to what was really going on here, and prepping to steal the win once Yayama was done with the two humans.
The lalafell was finally forced to break off her attack, going on the defensive before her barriers stopped being enough to keep her hale and hearty. “Kid, they’re not playing around, help me out here!” She probably should have assumed that Jr wouldn’t have put two and two together, being a literal child, but she was still used to people accustomed to ancient schemes and modern plots going off approximately every five seconds.
”I know they’re teaming up, I’m not stupid!” Jr called out as he grabbed an odd
ball, peeked up the hole in one end, and then shoved his hand into said hole. He then turned the arm cannon on the two humans, firing a burst of lemon sized yellow projectiles at Lucky, forcing her to duck and then block, ending her boomerang spam.
Behind her, Bruce glanced left and right, deciding that maybe going for a no-items 1vs1 battle wasn’t it when your opponent had magic and at least two swords. He then lunged, going for a
rosted chicken of all things out of the items that had been scattered by the moonfall.
Junior still didn’t get it, of course, but at least he was helping. Yayama took the opening he gave her and lunged toward Lucky, aiming to take her out before her partner could fully recover. Electing to get straight to the point, after baiting out a block with a running slash, Yayama simply grabbed a fistful of Lucky’s clothing and hurled her toward the edge of the arena, hoping to get a quick ring-out on her (assuming these two would respect that at all.)
The popstar managed to just barely grab the railing on the edge of the arena, swinging down and planting her feet against the wall below just above the waterline. As she tried to climb up, however, Jr dashed closer, his arm cannon glowing bright, before he unleashed a power shot into the pop star, finishing the job and dunking her into the water.
She surfaced a moment later, makeup running and looking furious, but before she could start swimming back into the fray she was plucked out of the water by a surprisingly strong Pride Falcon who gave her a commiserative “Better luck next time young lady” and then put her in an armlock when she struggled to try and rejoin the fight regardless.
The fighters might not be aware of their own Galeeming nature, but a fighter being too hot headed to give up the fight was its own factor, and so the popstar was swiftly subdued for her own good as much as anything else.
This resulted in a “Damn it!” from Bruce, words said through a mouthful of roast chicken, the man having rapidly devoured his way through the healing meal. It had helped undo the damage Yayama had wrought, but with his team mate in the drink.
”Two on one! Let’s see how you like it!” Jr jeered, turning his armcannon on the kickboxer and forcing him to get on the defensive by pelting him with the last of its ammo. Yayama took advantage of this by charging in once again, taking the opportunity to refresh her barriers as she tried to force Bruce toward one of the arena edges.
While the veteran kickboxer was no slouch, he had difficulty dealing with the two-pronged offense. Although he held out initially, Jr’s supporting fire gave Yayama just enough of an opening to break his guard once more, and she went in for another throw.
Half a breath later, and Bruce was also in the drink. A few more after that, and the still battle listed man was pinned down in a submission hold by an expert grappler. Lucky, for her part, was up on her feet again, but was silently fuming rather than trying to attack them again. She might be a problem again, but for the moment, she clearly knew when she was beaten.
A grinning jr, still blissfully unaware of what the two dunked humans had been trying to do, ignored the losers entirely, instead turning on Yayama. The very beat up prince formed a blunt fencing foil of raw iron, squared up against the tiny dark night and declared “just you and me now!” before lunging at here with the training sword.
Yayama elected to simply dodge sideways, and give Jr a swift kick in the rear to send him stumbling into (or rather onto) the drink alongside the other two - although she expected this one wouldn’t need to be subdued after that happened. “Sorry, but we need to get this over with,” she said as he tumbled over, before turning to the organizer. “That’s another for me, no?”
“Quite so little miss, and there’s nothing quite like a champion to get folks riled up and spoiling for a chance to prove their own gumpshun” Pride Falcon replied with a beaming grin and a thumbs up, before asking if they’d be “up for another round?”
Sadly for the organizers, they would not, as the call had come in for them to gather for a far more serious battle. Jr was rather grumpy about the fun being interrupted. He was considerably more angry when his sister arrived to check on them, and filled him in on the attempted assasination attempt on herself and Therion, only then realizing that the last match had also been such an attempt as well.
At least he had a target to take that anger out on, regardless of how difficult that was going to be.
Fetzen
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Neziul
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Shadowheart
