The First Heat
October 25th, 2005 by Salem
Chapter 12 – The Gemini Twin HexBlade Masters, Salem and Selene were in the bleachers of the Barter Arena with Christina and Haiku ready to watch the early day action as more people made their way to the raised platform in the center of the arena. A woman wearing a beautiful green low cut evening gown that showed a lot of her back and flowed down to the floor, walked up to the cone on the stage, “Attention, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Arian, I am the representative of the current event organizer of the Tagi Challenge. Soon, announcers in each section will be speaking in your language so you may follow the action on the arena Floor. This is already going on now in most of the sections.” The twins could already hear the woman’s words being translated in other languages in the other parts of the arena, but it was too faint for them to make it out. Arian continued, “This event will be held in three heats starting with the individual type competition until twelve Champions are selected. Tomorrow will be Heat two, the semifinals where our twelve champions will fight best 2 out of 3 timed matches facing a different opponent each, the order of which will be drawn at random. On the last day, our final 3 top fighters will face each other in an all out three way fight until only one is left able to fight. The last man will receive this.” Arian takes a golden medal from the hands of another woman and raised it for all to see, “The official medal of the Tagi Challenge, this medal is made to attach to anything our last champion sees fit to display. Written on the official medal is, “The 2005 Tagi Challenge Master of Warriors’. Along with this title will be the one million collon prize money. Now welcome our warriors as they make their way onto the floor!”
The trumpets blast out in triumph as the warriors make their way out of different doors in the arena. Presumably, each line was representing each class and they were lining up next to the ring they will be fighting in. Selene looked for Zealot on the Beast Man line but could not find him. “You think he was eliminated in the preliminaries?” asked Christina who was also looking for him. “There he is!” yelled Haiku pointing to the Open Class weapons combat line. Sure enough, there he was talking to a man in an eye patch and a Teskin navy uniform standing ahead of him. They seemed to be talking like they knew each other. “Here are the 2005 Tagi Challenge competitors,” said Arian into the cone, “One of these men or women will be your 2005 Champion!” The woman started to leave the stage as it lowered and a huge board with names on it was raised showing the names of the first fighters in each twelve rings. Those warriors moved into the ring and the rest of the warriors left their lines to practice wherever they were before they entered the arena, or to watch the match and get a better look at the other rings. The crowd cheered as the first fights began. Zealot’s name was not on the board and there was no way of knowing when his match will be on. “I am going to the ladies room.” said Christina as she got up. “Take Haiku with you,” said Salem. Christina left with Haiku as Selene watched as Zealot left the arena floor with the man in the eye patch. “Come off of it Selene. It is not like he is your boyfriend. It has been twenty five years since we saw him at the temple. Why are you so hooked on him now?” asked Salem. “I just want to see if he has gotten any better and what is wrong with rooting for an old friend?” asked Selene. “You need a man. A HU-MAN,” said Salem.
The twins can hear a crackling sound as the acoustic system near them came on. “Hello, and welcome everyone to the Tagi Challenge. I am Ed and this is my partner in crime, Joe” said Ed. “Right you are Ed. We will be covering the blow by blow play for you in the more prominent rings in the competition.” said Joe. In the human heavyweight weapons combat ring in front of them were a large man with a mace and a very muscular woman with a sword. “Look at her, she looks like a real winner,” said Salem. “Admit it Salem,” said Selene, “You are a lesbian. You would rather get that female warrior naked in bed with you than the guy.” “I am not lesbian!” protested Salem, “What is wrong with looking at other women? And anyway you have seen me in bed with men many times before.” “Yes, but how many women have you been in bed with I have not seen,” said Selene. “I am not a lesbian,” said Salem as Christina came back with Haiku. “Glad to hear that,” said Christina. “You just do not know how strange it is to me to have my identical twin naked with another woman,” said Selene. “I am not a lesbian!” yelled Salem. “What brought this on?” asked Christina. “I just said something nice about that female warrior and Selene took it as if I wanted to sleep with the warrior,” said Salem. “After four thousand years, my sister is still a closet lesbian,” continued Selene. “I AM NOT A LESBIAN!” yelled Salem. This time, the people who were sitting behind them had heard this and were now looking at Salem strangely. “Was wondering what was taking them so long,” said Selene. “You get a joy out of embarrassing me,” said Salem in a low voice. The female warrior had made a very quick move with her sword splintering the handle of the mace and knocked the guy out with the back of her sword’s scabbard winning the match.
After a few more matches and some surprises like a wizard who had the ability to turn into a mayfly and enters his opponent’s body then change into and elephant while inside, or a man with a coat with a saw like edge hidden in the stitching which could cut a man’s arm off with just a single swipe. The most entertaining one was the Beast Man who is part bull, charged at his opponent who was part rabbit, threw the rabbit beast up about 30 feet and just waited until the rabbit man came back down and was impaled by the bull man’s long horns. “And now get ready for the Great Oltan!” said Ed. “Oltan lost last year in Julep when his sword broke in two,” said Joe. “Looks like he got a new one with a serrated edge this time,” said Ed. One of the armies started to cheer as the name Carcass was put up next to Oltan. “And here comes General Carcass of the Ut army. Did I say that right?” asked Ed. “That was correct,” said Joe, “This is General Carcass’s first Tagi Challenge.” Selene could hear Oltan’s name being called out everywhere but it was being yelled very loudly by a very enthusiastic fan. The two men enter the ring as General Carcass was in uniform befitting a general. Only thing is he was a real mountain of a man with almost no neck to him. Across his chest were human and Beast men skulls strung together like trophies and a large blood red cape hung off large epaulets on his shoulders. General Carcass pulled out his broadsword but he only jabbed it into the ground, took off his epaulets and cape that were in fact both attached to a yoke and hung it on the sword. General Carcass’s neck was visible now and he moved his head around. The cracking could be heard all the way where the Blade Masters were sitting. The General then brought up his hands and motions Oltan to attack. “What? General Carcass isn’t using his sward? But this is the weapons type!” said Ed. “The rules state that you can fight in the weapons type as long as you bring a weapon into the ring with you, and the General’s cape rack there is a weapon, he gets to fight anyway he chooses,” said Joe. “Here comes Oltan at a full charge!” said Ed as Oltan reaches the General and swings his sword. The General grabs the sword with his bare hands and pulls the Great Oltan off his feet and while Oltan was still in the air, the General hits Oltan on the back of the neck with his right elbow sending Oltan face first into the ground and releases his sword sending it spinning it into the air. The General grabs the sword’s hilt and plunges the blade into its owner, ending the match with a win for General Carcass.
High above the action in the covered organizer’s box, Arian enters from a back door with a man with a long silvery chain hanging down his side. “Master,” said Arian, “Stanza is here to see you.” Stanza approaches the man sitting in the dark who was dressed in red business robes but still has the helmet on with the thick copper plate completely covering his face. “Stanza,” said the Master with a whisper like voice, “what news do you bring?” “Everything is going as I have seen and your plan at this point is a sure thing,” reported Stanza. “Good. I see our Blade Masters are having a good time and their masked pet should not have any trouble finding Blade Masters in this place,” said the Master. “You earned a rest Stanza. Please sit.” Stanza took a seat and noticed that fifteen of the Master’s women were also around him. They were all dressed exactly as the woman who showed him in. “Arian,” said the Master, “Your work is done until the end of the day. Join your sisters again.” “Is there anything more you want Master?” asked Stanza. “Just enjoy the hard work my loyal followers have done to put this event together with such little notice,” said the Master as he looked down at the Blade Masters.
It was almost high noon when Selene finally saw Zealot’s name in the Open Class weapons combat section of the board. Selene cheered with great enthusiasm as he made his way to the ring. Zealot’s opponent comes slithering out of one of the many doorways on the arena floor. It was a giant king cobra with an almost human face and arms. The giant cobra looked to stand about eight feet tall with the rest of him stretching an extra twelve feet on the ground. On the thing’s shoulders were armor plates connected to leather straps crossing his human like chest and a metallic whip in his hand. “Now entering the ring,” announced Ed, “is a warrior from the wet lands of Lizeran Acranma, that is L.A. to you Northerners. Here is Zealot! And his opponent from the desert land of the great pyramids, currently named after their reigning queen, Isis. Here is Henry!” Henry waved to the crowd. The air was electric as Zealot and Henry got ready to battle. Zealot pulled out his Blade of Defiance, a thin bladed katana with a scimitar like engraving of a flame on the side. Henry, the giant King Cobra, stretched his metallic whip and as he gave it a crack, it lit up with arcs of electricity. Zealot was adjusting his grip on his Blade of Defiance when he was tripped up by the tip of Henry’s tail. Henry then brought down his whip in Zealot’s direction. Zealot tries to roll out of the way but is hit on the back by the electric surge of Henry’s weapon.
“He is not starting out very well, Selene,” said Salem. “I can see that, sister. Pull it out of the fire, Zealot!” yelled Selene. Zealot is grabbed by his tail and thrown to the other side of the ring leaving his Blade of Defiance behind where he was. The Cobra man is moving too fast for Zealot to keep up as he receives more lashes from Henry’s whip spilling the first drops of blood on the ground. Zealot finally gets his head into the game and quickly looks around for a shadow to do his Shadow Step move, however it was now high noon. The suns were high in the sky shining their light directly down into the arena making any shadow very hard to come by in the middle of any of the rings. Zealot had no choice but to split his being into three 2 ft 1 inch tall versions of himself, a trick he learned in one of the many schools he had studied, avoiding Henry’s next attack. Henry countered this evasion move by sweeping the entirety of his tail across a large area of the ring knocking all three mini-Zealots off their feet. Henry uses his whip to grab one of the Zealots and starts to put all the power of his whip through him. The other two Zealots run to each other and join again making a 4 ft 2 inch Zealot and grabbed the Blade of Defiance. Henry was reeling in the 3rd burned out Zealot when the larger one plunges his sword into Henry’s back spilling more blood on the ground. Henry yells out and drops his whip as the larger Zealot retrieves the smaller one and takes it into his own body becoming the full size Zealot again.
With his body in one piece again, Zealot is now able to use his full power. Henry pulls the Blade of Defiance out of his back and throws it. Zealot runs and grabs the hilt of his sword in time before it flew through the fence and left the boundaries of the ring. Getting a good grip of his Blade of Defiance, he lines himself up for a good attack on Henry and yells, “Crimson Flame!” A fiery energy forms around Zealot’s hands. The energy moves up the Blade of Defiance turning it bright red then to an orange glow ending to be white hot. Henry grabs his whip and turns to Zealot who begins to charge at him. Henry uses his whip to grab Zealot’s sword to try and pull it out of Zealot’s grip but the white hot sword surrounded by a red fire energy only melts through the whip allowing Zealot to complete his charging attack with a slash at Henry’s body. The attack looked to be very successful as it opened up a large wound spilling blood on the ground. “Yes!” yelled Selene. “All Zealot has to do now is hold out until his opponent bleeds to death,” said Salem. “No, he can’t,” said Haiku. “Why, Haiku? What is the HealthBlade showing you?” asked Selene. “Henry’s body is segmented. His open wound will continue to bleed until there is none left, but the rest of his body will not be affected because each segment of his body has its own self contained circulatory system,” said Haiku. As soon as the child had said this, Henry thrusts his elbow down on the back of Zealot and grabs his tail again pulling Zealot off his feet and throwing him hard against the fence that surrounds the ring.
“Zealot only has one way to stop his opponent,” said Haiku, “But I do not think he will ever think about it. He will lose.” Zealot quickly recovers from his flight across the ring and charges again at the unarmed Henry. Henry sweeps the ground with his tail but Zealot sees it coming this time and jumps as Henry’s tail passes under him and opens up another wound at the other side of Henry. There was a wound but no blood this time. Zealot was confused but then noticed the wound on the back of Henry. “The blood had already flowed,” he says to himself as he avoids another tail sweep from Henry. “I can not trip him with my tail and his skin is too thick, I have to heat my Blade of Defiance just to wound him,” Zealot continued to think as he avoided more attacks as Henry starts to pound the ground with the entirety of his tail making it hard to stand on the ground, even the other nearby fighters and event officials outside the ring were being knocked off their feet. Zealot took a charge again, but this time it was to confirm a hunch. He completed another successful attack opening a new wound but no blood. “His body has separate sections. I can’t possibly cut him enough times to stop him; my own body will give out on me before that happens. There has got to be another way. Thick skin. Thick skin,” thinks Zealot. Henry understood now that Zealot will not stop running around the ring to give him a chance to do a direct attack, so he coils his tail around himself and spreads open the cobra hood on the back of his head and neck. Zealot is still in deep thought but attempts another attack just to look like he has settled on his course of action.
Zealot begins his attack as Henry starts to spit some greenish slime all around. Some of the slime lands on the white hot Blade of Defiance and quickly evaporates from the heat releasing a gas that starts to make Zealot choke. Zealot stops and his feet are quickly covered by more of the slime and stuck in place. “If I use my Blade of Defiance to cut myself out, it will create more gas choking me to death,” thinks Zealot. Henry quickly knocks the Blade of Defiance out of Zealot’s hands and gives Zealot a big bear hug. Henry wraps his tail around them both and starts to squeeze the life out of Zealot. Selene jumps off her seat and grabs the fence in front of her wanting to run out to the ring and stop Henry. Then the large cobra starts to laugh. His laughing grows and grows until his tail quickly unwraps and reveals Zealot with his own tail wrapped around Henry as he tickled Henry’s underarms. Henry was laughing hard now then got out a, “I GIVE!!! STOP!!!” An official declared the fight was over, “Winner, Zeeeeealot!” announced Joe over the Arena P.A. system.
“Zealot tickled the Cobra into submission?!” yelled Salem who jumps off her seat as Selene falls back onto hers with relief. “What happened here? How does someone win by tickling your opponent into submission?!” continued to rant Salem. “Was that the only move you were talking about, Haiku?” asked Selene. “Yes it was. Henry’s skin was thick everywhere but under his arms,” said Haiku. “Tickling?” said Salem again, “But ! but! That is just such an easy answer!” “An easy answer?” said Selene, “You mean that you would have me believe that you would often tickle your enemies first if at all to see if they can be stopped that way? From where I sit, the answer to defeating this adversary was not easy at all. Only a skilled fighter would have thought of using an opponent’s weakness like being very sensitive under the arms to win a victory,” said Selene. “Would you have Zealot not try and tickle Henry and get crushed to death?” asked Christina. “No, of course not, it is just such a strange end to a very bloody fight,” said Salem. The 4 Blade Masters watch Zealot win 2 other matches. They too were also bloody but were not as intense as the one against Henry. Zealot was declared Champion of Open Class weapons combat and given a trophy to signify this. Arian had returned to the stage in the middle at the arena to announce that the next heat will begin tomorrow. The Blade Masters and Zealot returned back to Bill’s Miller for a goodnight’s sleep.