The Tagi Challenge
October 23rd, 2005 by Salem
Chapter 11 – The Gemini Twin HexBlade Masters, Salem and Selene were sitting in the Bill’s Miller tavern with Emhril and Jarody as they knock back a few beers. Christina is upstairs putting Haiku to bed. “So, how do I use this thing other then lug it around,” said Emhril. “Well you can destroy anything you hit with it, is one idea,” said Jarody. “A Blade of destruction,” said Emhril with a frown then sarcastically says, “That would make me popular.” “You attach it to your wrist; the chain on it is called an Eternity Chain. It can get longer and longer as long as it is on your wrist,” said Salem. “Two hundred years ago, the last Blade Master of the EarthBlade took it and threw it across the Mantyan Expanse and let the chain flow out of the shackle. The EarthBlade made it to the other side and he attached the other end to a rock. The people who lived in the area then used the chain to help them build a bridge,” said Selene. “The Mantyan Expanse Bridge?! That bridge has got to be a mile long!” said Emhril. “That bridge would not have been possible without a Blade like the EarthBlade to help make it,” said Salem. “So you see, your Blade is not a Blade of destruction. It is a tool to help people make Colloquy a better world to live,” said Selene.
Haiku is in her sleeping clothes as Christina pulls the thick patchwork blanket over her. The HealthBlade, although not really needing sleep, attaches itself to Haiku’s headboard and closes its many eyes. “My mom sang for me,” said Haiku as Christina tucked her in. “Where is your mom now?” asked Christina. “She was taken away,” said Haiku. “Well I am sure you will see her again some day,” said Christina trying to backtrack out of something that was obviously hurtful for the child. Christina sang her a song called “Simple and Clean” until the child was asleep.
Christina heads down to the tavern to join the others, “Haiku’s mother was taken away?” Emhril looks up from his EarthBlade to Christina in surprise then after a while he starts to cry, “Yes. It was a long while ago. As you could guess from Haiku’s face, her mother came from the forbidden country in the East. She was a slave of a shogun who ruled over land. She had escaped and ended up here. We fell in love, married and had Haiku,” said Emhril as he started to really break down in tears now, “The Shogun’s warriors had tracked her down to this town and broke into our home.” Emhril was really balling now, finding it hard to get the words out, but Christina held him. Jarody did not like this much but he wanted to hear what happened next. Jarody kills millions of people everyday, each death just gets mixed up with the others, so stories about his handy work were always enjoyable to him. “I tried to get my wife to run away with me. I BEGGED HER! She wouldn’t LEAVE! She wanted to stay and face the shogun’s warriors! She said SHE WAS TIRED OF RUNNING AND HIDING! I didn’t know what to do. All I could do was take Haiku and run. I hid with her in the woods until I was sure it was safe. I went back into town and gave Haiku to a friend to watch while I went back to the house. I was hoping that she had changed her mind and ran away when I did,” said Emhril as he really starts to cry hard making it even harder to get his words out, “She was still there! She was dead! They had killed her! It was MY fault! If I had only stayed!..” cried Emhril. “If you had stayed, you and Haiku would be dead as well. Selene and I have met warriors from the forbidden country and they do not discriminate. They kill everybody regardless of age or sex,” said Salem. “So you told your daughter she was taken away by the Eastern warriors?” asked Christina. “Yes. I figured it was easier on her if she thought her mother was just taken back to where she came from,” said Emhril, “But I understand I’ll have to tell her the truth when she is old enough.”
“You are her father, Emhril. We will respect your choice. But now, as I understand it, we have tickets to the Tagi Challenge tomorrow,” said Selene. “Oh, yes, I almost forgot,” said Christina as she took the tickets out of her cleavage where she thought they would be safe.” Jarody almost fell over when he saw where she was keeping them. Christina holds out the tickets for everyone to see. “Yes, those look to be very authentic,” said Emhril who was now sucking up his tears, “I’ve seen tickets like that being sold everywhere until they sold out.” “Well I guess it will be myself, with Christina, Salem, and Jarody,” said Selene. “Not me sister. With an event like this, I will be busy. There’ll be a lot of delicious spirit energy for me to eat and grow stronger with,” said Jarody. “Emhril?” asked Christina. “I’ll be to busy getting the tavern fixed and finding someone to run the place while I’m gone,” said Emhril, “You could take Haiku with you.” “Ok. Haiku will join us,” said Salem. “Time we got some rest,” said Selene. And the group all started to leave the tavern to their rooms. Jarody followed the girls into their room but was quickly kicked out. “Fine then, I guess I’ll have to take care of my serious wood on my own!” yelled Jarody. “People are trying to sleep asshole!” said an unidentified man in another room. “You want sleep!” yelled Jarody, “I’ll give you sleep pal!” Jarody turns into his true form and using his ScytheBlade; he reaps the soul from the man and takes the spirit energy. “Now I can sleep,” said Jarody. “You better take the body outside before it starts to smell up the place,” yelled Salem from her room. “Let the fucker smell. I’m going to bed,” said Jarody as he walks into his room and slams the door several times before locking it.
Zealot had left the Bill’s Miller before daybreak to get a good position in the preliminaries before the actual event started. Jarody had left early as well to both get a good start on the easy spirit energy that will be spilled in the preliminaries and to heckle Zealot. “So did you almost freeze it off when you stuck it in Selene?” yelled Jarody as he ran after Zealot to the arena where the Tagi Challenge was being held. The others were awakened by one of the many roosters that walked around the town. Emhril had started breakfast as the Blade Masters made their way down with other people who were rooming at the inn. Another person who worked there took over for Emhril as he went up to his daughter’s room to wake her and possibly give her instructions on how she should behave at the warrior competition today since he will not be there. Salem and Selene were wide awake and ready to start the day. Christina was dragging her feet. She did not even know she had her breakfast in front of her. “Are you feeling OK Christina?” asked Selene. “I know I got some sleep. I just had a very real dream I was flying over the town and the surrounding area,” said the tired Christina. “Well there is your answer. Sounds to me like you linked up with your GullBlade as it was flying around in the sky and it sapped your energy when you were trying to get your sleep,” said Salem. “You have to put your GullBlade to bed if you want to get your rest,” said Selene. “Now you tell me,” said Christina as she falls to sleep in her eggs. “Are you sure you want to come to the Tagi Challenge?” asked Salem. “I will be alright once I have my breakfast,” said Christina as she rolled her face onto her toasted bread.
The 4 female Blade Masters stood in line as they waited to enter the gated area of the Barter Arena. There were venders walking up and down the long line selling their merchandise. “Magna Glasses! Magna Glasses! Get your Magna Glasses here! Get close to the action you want to see without leaving your seat! Magna Glasses!” yelled a man with a tray of his merchandise in front of him. “Hotpigs! Hoootpigs!” yelled another man. “Christina?” called Haiku with the HealthBlade in its backpack form on her back. “Yes Haiku?” responded Christina. “Why are my spider and daddy’s ball and chain called Blades?” asked the little Blade Master. “That is because they are made of the many metals that came directly from Gin’s Blade, the Blade that separated into eight pieces and created our world,” answered Christina. “What was Gin’s Blade called?” asked the curious child. “No one knows its true name. We have been calling it “The Blade” for as far back as recorded history,” answered Christina as the line moved a few more inches before coming to a dead stop again. “How many people would you say is left ahead of us,” asked Salem to her sister. “I have to guess about a hundred and twenty more,” said Selene as she paid a vender for four pairs of the Magna Glasses. “Six collons each for glass wrapped up in two rolls of thick parchment?” What a gyp,” said Salem.
Weapons were not allowed in the audience so Salem had to have Pawn place the GunBlade in the ThievesBlade void. The WitchBlade, the GullBlade, and the HealthBlade did not look like weapons so they stand a good chance of passing the security check. Selene was taken by surprise as the large man in front of her took a big step back, she was about to complain until she noticed the entire line had moved back. “Someone must have had a baby,” joked Salem. “Feels like we have been here that long,” said Christina. “Christina, send up your GullBlade and see what is going on up there,” ordered Selene. The GullBlade took off with a gust of wind from Christina’s left shoulder and headed for the front of the line as Christina started to concentrate on seeing through her Blade’s eyes. Rook was in the air as well and flew next to the GullBlade in hopes of racing it again. Christina could see a man swinging at two of the event’s guards with a broad sword. “Looks like someone does not want to be separated from his weapon,” said Christina. “Then we are going to have to tell this boy to put his toy away,” said Selene as she ducks under the rope that is keeping the line a single file. “But, I am sure they are handling it!” yelled Christina trying to stay in her place in the line and hoping Selene heard her. Christina’s attention turned to Salem who just stood in her place as if nothing unusual was going on. “Are you going to do anything about this?” asked Christina. “She can do it on her own,” said Salem with a bored tone in her voice.
Selene walks up to the front of the line and activates her WitchBlade as she gets closer. “I will not! You have Oltan to deal with. Oltan will show you, Oltan will show you all!” yelled the man weaving around a sword. Selene arrives at the commotion and getting a good look at the sword the man was holding, she could see that is was made of wood with the name Oltan on it. The man yelling was not Oltan at all but a fan of Oltan and he wanted to take the wooden sword inside to cheer on his fighter with it. Wooden or not, it was still lethal enough to be a weapon. Selene walks up to the man pumping her right fist up and down yelling, “Oltan, Oltan, Oltan!” The man looked behind him and saw Selene and what she was doing. He joined her and they were now both saying, “Oltan, Oltan,” while behind him, Selene used her WitchBlade’s infection. A silvery web of infection veins had spread on the man’s back and finally reached his neck. The Man became frozen as the rest of his body was being covered with the WitchBlade’s infection. “And now you will hand your sword to the nice guards and enter the arena to cheer Oltan on with your grand voice, out yelling those infidels who would not support your champion,” said Selene in a commanding but almost dream like voice. “I will hand my sword to the guards and cheer Oltan,” said the man with a monotone voice. “And you will have fun,” ended Selene. “I will have fun,’ repeated the man. The infection left the man’s body and he came out of his trance like state. “Here, take the stupid thing. I will let my voice out do everyone for OLTAN!!!!” yelled the man as he entered the arena. “Thank you, Blade Master, we did not want to hurt him,” said one of the guards. “How can we repay you?” asked the other guard. “Just get this line moving faster,” said Selene as she left to return to her place in line.
The line moved slightly faster after that incident. After almost forty five minutes, the 4 Blade Masters make it to the arena entrance. By this time there were two new guards at the entrance. Selene was ready to hand over her WitchBlade. “No ma’am. You are a Blade Master. You are excused,” said the older guard. Another man took their tickets and ripped the stubs off, “That’ll be the White Section, Row double S, Seats 6, 7, 8, and 9,” said the man. “I’m sorry ma’am. No food from the outside,” said the other guard now looking at Christina. “I am not bringing in any outside food,” protested Christina. The guard’s eyes got wide then he said, “Oh I’m sorry ma’am. I didn’t know those were real and not melons.” People all around Christina started to laugh. Christina herself wanted to find Knight and use his ShroudBlade to disappear. It was Haiku’s turn but the guards did not bother to search her since she was just a little girl. “What a cute backpack you have on,” said one of the guards. “It’s a Blade,” said Haiku. “Sure it is,” said the guard not believing the little girl. The 4 were through security and found themselves walking down steps to the access level where they could find their section. “Hey!” said Christina, “I just realized how unusual it is for any Blade to choose a child as its master.” “It was bound to happen someday,” said Selene who sounded more concerned about finding their seats than about the discovery Christina had made.
They had found the White Section and were making their way down to Row SS. On the way down, they could see that the preliminaries were still being held. The arena floor was divided in twelve evenly sized round sections with space between them for contenders and event officials to walk through. There was an official handing out a list of contenders’ names and their descriptions. Selene took a copy and they found their row. “Wow. It is so close to the action,” said Christina as they took their seats. According to the info sheet, there were types and classes facing each other until they start to cross compete the champions of each. Human, Beast men, magical beings, and open class were the four types. Humans were separated by lightweight and heavyweight hand to hand combat, and lightweight and heavyweight weapons combat. Beast men were separated the same way. Magical beings were only separated in hand to hand (if you could call it that) and weapons (mostly being staffs and wands). The Open class was a mix of any type facing the other of any weight separated only by hand to hand and weapons combat. The last three fighters in the last fight that will happen three days from the start of the Tagi Challenge will have a three way combat where the last standing will win it all. “If two of the last three are smart enough, they would team up against the stronger fighter then face each other,” said Selene, thinking out loud.
The 4 Blade Masters were closest to the human heavyweight weapons combat ring. There were two men each looked evenly matched when it came to muscle mass but one was using a broadsword and the other was waving an ax around with great precision. The shirtless ax man who looked to have on soldier pants and boots came close to hitting his opponent many times but the man with the heavy broadsword, also with out a shirt but had a red bandana on his head and wore cut-off shorts and Roman style sandals, was somehow escaping every attack and landing blows to the ax man’s sides with his sword. The sword man’s attacks were good ones but they were always off balance and did not cut deep. “Look at that! That is the most sloppy sword work I have ever seen!” yelled Salem, “It is like he is trying to chop firewood!” “He is starting to panic. He’s going to make a mistake,” said Haiku. Christina turned from the fight to look at Haiku. “His heart rate is up to a hundred and forty two beats per minute and his muscles are taking up most of his blood,” said Haiku. Christina’s eyes got as wide as saucers then she gave a quick look at the twins who did not seem to be hearing what it coming out of the child’s mouth. “His neck is starting to tense up and his blood flow to his cerebral cortex is very limited. He’s having a panic attack. He’s fighting his body’s natural response to run. He’s about to make a mistake now,” concluded Haiku. The ax man starts to charge at the sword man with his ax held high ready to end the fight with his next attack. The Sword man stood his ground, ready to stop the attack with a simple swing of his sword, but the twitching muscles in his legs seam to confirm what Haiku was saying. The sword man was panicking then took the swing of his sword too soon. The ax man was able to complete his attack and swung his ax into the sword man’s neck. The sword man’s body hit the ground with his head still attached only by a string of muscle and skin as his blood squirted out of his neck.
Christina was shocked beyond measure. “Did you see that? Selene! Did you not hear what she was saying?!” said Christina. “Yes, yes. Salem was right. He was obviously a farm boy. He had no business being in this competition,” said Selene. “NO!! I mean Haiku! Did you hear what she was saying,” yelled Christina. “We heard her, Christina. We both figured, because of Haiku’s age, her link with her Blade would be on a level no adult can achieve. It is the HealthBlade putting all of that in her head. Only two of its eyes are for seeing. The other six eyes are specialized like for seeing into the body, heat sensing, electrostatic, microscopic magnifying, and other things I cannot think of right now,” said Selene. “Awww! The man is blind! Kick that idiot out!” yelled Salem who was looking at another preliminary match through her Magna Glasses. Christina looked back at the bloody scene, “Should we even have Haiku here?” “Haiku, do you want to leave?” asked Selene who was using her Magna Glasses to scan around the arena looking for Zealot. “I’m OK, Selene,” said Haiku with a joyful tone in her voice. “I wonder at what her father will get angry at more. A spider showing his daughter the insides of people or the fact that watching a man getting his head chopped clean off does not bother her,” said Christina. “It wasn’t a clean cut,” said Haiku as she pointed at event officials lifting the body and putting it on a wheelbarrow, “See, it’s still attached by that semispinalis capitis muscle.” Christina’s jaw drops.
Selene continues to scan the arena floor for Zealot. “I think he must have gotten in on one of the earlier matches and is waiting under the bleachers in a room somewhere for the competition to start,” said Salem. A look around the arena showed that the spectators were also separated much like types in the competition. They were in the human section, There was a section full of beast men and women, a section of magical beings, but the last section was filled with men in uniforms. It looked to be several different armies each taking three rows. The last 3 matches were being held. In the Open Class fight circle there was a large four armed man with a mask in a kilt and a matching sash crossing his very muscular chest and on the other side was a very short pencil necked man with eye glasses dressed is some strange outfit with metal plates connected to it and a brown ragged cape what was way too long for his height. “You can guess where this will go,” said Christina. “Do not underestimate some of these contenders, Christina. He may have an ability that cannot be seen.” said Selene still looking around the arena now looking at the bleachers on the other side hoping the competitors were sitting there. “I am Brandon the Light One,” yelled the small man with a voice more befitting a boy going through puberty, “Give up now or feel my power of unimaginable pain!” The four armed man just stands there not believing what he was hearing, then turns to an official behind him and asks, “You want me to fight this man or just sit on him?” “You will pay for that!” yelled the small man as he took off his cape and made a flexing pose even though there was not much to flex. A radiant red light started to form around the small man, “TAKE THIS!” The light around him explodes like a light bulb burning out and the small man falls to the ground with his clothes burned to a crisp. The four armed man was declared the winner.
Finally, after the 12 rings were cleaned and the bleachers were full of cheering people hungry for blood, the event started with a fanfare of trumpets on an upper section of the arena. A man walked out onto a raised platform in the middle of the arena floor and a cone was placed in front of him much like the kind that was part of the acoustic system in the cathedral. “People of Barter and visitors, I am Mayor Wolff of Barter and I welcome you all to The Tagi Challenge!” said the man on the platform as the High Priest from the cathedral joined him. “Before we begin, please stand and join in on our prayer,” said the mayor. The arena was alive with activity as everyone stood. “Gin, we ask you today to watch over our competitors and wish them well. May our competitors fight well and die with honor so they may join Gin in his heavenly shrine in space, to shine down of the rest of us on Colloquy, Sanon,” said the High Priest. “Sanon,” responded the crowd. “And now,” said the Mayor, “Let The Tagi Challenge, BEGIN!”