Three Ring Rumble
November 1st, 2005 by Salem
Chapter 14 – The Gemini Twin HexBlade Masters, Salem and Selene with Christina and Haiku were ready for the last three matches of the day in the Tagi Challenge to determine who the last three will be to fight in for a million collons and the title of Master of Warriors. Ring one was Wayne Marcus to fight Lady Slambrawn. Ring two was Zealot to fight the well named Fist. The last ring was General Carcass to fight the mysterious Vivien Leblanc. The event officials were all over the arena floor moving bodies, providing water to the remaining champions, or repairing the fence around the ring. Arian made her way to the stage as three other women followed her with clipboards in their hands talking to her. The three women left when Arian made it to the stage and walked up to the cone. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Tagi Challenge will now continue with our last challenges. Let the fights begin!” announced Arian, as all of the fighters got up from their seats and faced their rivals in each ring.
Vivien Leblanc did not waste any time at all and started with a few slashes toward General Carcass, who jumps back to avoid the attacks and hits the ground with his fist knocking Vivien off her feet and returns her attack with a charge as he tries to grab her leg. Vivien pulls her leg out of the way in time and twists her body to get herself crunched up on her shoulders then launch herself off the ground and over the general’s head as he stands back up. Vivien uses his back as a springboard and gets in a few slashes on his back. Her attack did not feel right to her. As she landed on the other side of the ring, a look back at the general showed her that the he had on some sort of armor under his uniform, saving him from her recent attack. She could see that if she wanted to cut him, it will have to be his arms, head, neck, or anywhere else where she can see skin. Not that she could not get through the armor, but all of her attacks will have to count, meaning she did not have the luxury of wasting her attacks.
In ring two, Fist opened up with the first attack that Zealot had seen before. Fist swipes at the air with his open hand, sending a wave of compressed hair in Zealot’s direction. This was what Zealot was expecting and planned for since he saw Fist fight. The compression wave gets to Zealot as he jumps over it knowing that his attack leaves Fist open for an attack. Zealot raises his Blade of Defiance as he comes down. In ring one, Lady Slambrawn and Wayne Marcus were facing off. This was the first time Wayne had a chance to fight in this heat because he was passed up in the initial eliminating. He saw this as an advantage. Lady Slambrawn did not care much, her plan was to end it with the easiest fight she saw, and this staggering young upstart did not pose much of a threat. Lady Slambrawn closed her umbrella and pulled out a fan from her purse. Wayne did not know what to think about the woman but he knew enough not to be fooled by her looks and he knows very well not to underestimate the woman, after all, she did beat a snake woman 4 times her size. Wayne picks up his scimitar and gets the urge to attack first, but second guesses himself and waits instead for Lady Slambrawn to make the first move. Lady Slambrawn just stands in the middle of the ring fanning herself and tapping her foot. “Well, Mr. Warrior,” said Lady Slambrawn in her proper voice, “what is the hold up? Attack me. I am getting bored.” Wayne’s body was very much ready to attack but his mind was so sure that any opening attack could be used against him. The fight was already going on in his head using every move he can think of. The sad thing about it, he was losing.
General Carcass understood that this opponent is one of the few that could actually be a challenge for him, so he walked back to his seat, took the yoke with the cape and epaulets attached to it and placed it on the seat, then he pulled his broadsword out of the ground and over his shoulder. Vivien Leblanc pulled the straps on her Celtic armbands to make sure they would not slip. As soon as General Carcass brought his sword to his shoulder, Vivien started a new attack with a fast run to the opposite side of the sword and tries an uppercut slash. The general took a quick turn to the left colliding with the woman and knocking her off her feet again as he brought down his heavy sword. Vivien avoids the counterattack by rolling out of the way and jumps back onto her feet to try another attack on the general’s hand. General Carcass was able to pull the sword out and get his hand out of the way of her attack and counters it with a slap to the face with the flat side of his large sword. Vivien is knocked back a distance as her body flies to the fence. Vivien grabs the fence and holds onto it like a spider on a web. Vivien climbs up to the top of the fence just out of reach of the general then she launches herself with a spin for a new attack. General Carcass slashes the air looking to cut the woman in half while she was in the air. Vivien was expecting this and blocked his attack with one of her wrist blades and actually rode down his sword and jumped on his hand to travel up his arm and makes a slash on his neck. Vivien does a frontward flip to the ground and turns back to see the general holding his neck as blood pored down and landed on the ground in red drops. General Carcass does a quick turn to the left with his sword in his left hand and attempts a strike back attack on the woman. Vivien saw this coming and jumped back onto the fence. General Carcass’ army were now at their feet yelling with outrage that their leader was cut by the woman. General Carcass just stood in the middle of the ring holding his neck as his blood continued to gush out between his fingers. Vivien saw this as the time to attack him from behind and launches herself from the top of the fence again at a spin. General Carcass turns around and throws his sword in her direction. Vivien deflects it as she did before but since he was no longer holding onto it, it turned in the air and the large ball at the end of the hilt hit Vivien hard on the head as she continued to fly to the general. Still determined to complete her attack she shook off the injury to her head and brought her wrist blades to the attack position. To her surprise, when the sword hit her, it had turned her in the air. Vivien was heading to General Carcass feet first instead of head first as she planned. General Carcass grabbed her feet and slammed her to the ground. Still holding onto Vivien’s feet, General Carcass pulls her up again and slams her on the ground a few more times. Vivien comes out of her delirium and slashes at his hand with her wrist blades. General Carcass lets her go and walks over to the fence where his heavy sword was stuck between the linkage.
Vivien wrests her right arm back into its socket with painful results and got back onto her feet. General Carcass removes his hand from his neck; a scar had already healed over. Vivien was shocked. General Carcass grabbed his sword and pulled it out of the fence. Vivien jumped on the fence again and climbed up as General Carcass was now charging over to her. General Carcass hits the fence hard knocking Vivien off. Vivien is caught by General Carcass who’s large hand was wrapped around her neck. General Carcass shakes her a few times and moves his grip from her neck to her waist holding her arms to the point where she could not use her weapons to defend herself. General Carcass pulls her covered face close to his. “You little parasite, you know how long it has been since I felt the sting of a blade on my flesh? Thanks for the reminder,” said General Carcass, “That is why I will allow you to live, to see my victory. You came close. Now I suggest you find a very quick way out of here.” General Carcass takes his large sword and so happily cuts the right arm of Vivien’s suit. Vivien tries to scream in pain but her yell was muted for some reason. Vivien struggles free from General Carcass grip. “What did he do?” asked Christina as Vivien climbs the fence again but jumps out and runs to the nearest passageway off the arena floor. “Oh! That is a disqualification! Vivien Leblanc left the ring automatically making General Carcass the winner of this heat and a spot in the final three tomorrow,” said Ed over the arena speakers.
Zealot landed on the ground but his attack did not connect. Fist had rolled out of the way and launched a roundhouse punch to Zealot who was caught and flew back. Zealot was waiting for this too and used the fence as a spring to launch himself back to Fist and a new attack. “Fist!” yelled the warrior as Zealot slashed his Blade of Defiance, cutting Fist’s hand then grabbed Fist with his tail around the waist to start squeezing the life out of the small troll. In ring one, Wayne Marcus was still waiting for an idea to jump into his head as Lady Slambrawn continued to fan herself in the middle of the ring. “Very well, it is ladies first I see,” said Lady Slambrawn as she folded her fan and umbrella. Lady Slambrawn puts her fan away and twists the hooked handle to remove the slender sword from the umbrella. “I shall have at you. Now defend yourself,” said Lady Slambrawn as she put the rest of her umbrella on her seat and held onto her sword. Wayne did not know what to think. Wayne brought up his scimitar ready to attack when Lady Slambrawn disappeared. This strange occurrence did not last long with Wayne for there was a sudden pain in his side. Looking down, he was bleeding. He turned, looking everywhere for Lady Slambrawn. The stage was raising to let the victorious General Carcass out of ring three distracting Wayne.
It was her very proper laughing that told Wayne she was behind him. “You can’t even see a simple dash attack, how do you hope to beat me when my weakest attack can cause you such damage,” laughed Lady Slambrawn, “give up now and go home. There really is no need for you to die in order for me to win.” “I must win!” yelled Wayne as he leaped forward and started to attack with his scimitar. Lady Slambrawn deflected the scimitar and did her usual sidestep move to grab him and toss him. He sidesteps with her and they collide. Both of them fall to the ground together and end up in a heap. Wayne pushes himself up and rolls away from Lady Slambrawn. Wayne stands and looks at the woman laying on the ground. The whole arena takes a look as Lady Slambrawn remains on the ground. Wayne looks at his hand then pulls out an empty dagger sheath from behind the many folds of his belt and sash. A dark red pool begins to form around Lady Slambrawn. “My Lady!” yells Dalton from outside the ring. Lady Slambrawn begins to move. She gets up slowly to stand on her knees. The hilt of a dagger can be seen sticking out just under her bust line and blood soaking her expensive dress. “Sloppy,” said Lady Slambrawn with a weak voice, “Very sloppy move, but effective.” Dalton quickly went up the steps that led to the raised stage and got the ring officials to lower a ladder into ring one. “You win this fight young man, but not for the right reasons,” said Lady Slambrawn, “We will meet again. This time, your death will be required.” Dalton arrives with a bag in hand and starts to treat his Lady until they are able to get the dagger out safely. “What a big upset! Wayne Marcus is the winner of ring one and will fight in the three way Tagi Challenge Championship match tomorrow!” yells Joe. “I was not expecting that Joe,” said Ed. I do not think our fans were expecting that ether.
Zealot was putting all he could into his tail to pop the head of the malformed munchkin named Fist. Fist started to use his huge hands to pull Zealot to the fence but Zealot was not letting go. Zealot knew he had Fist and will soon win if he kept tight on the ugly midget. Fist gets to the fence and starts to climb up. Zealot was about to start dangling from his tail when Fist said with a muffled voice, “Fist, Fist, Fist, FIST!” Fist launched from the fence and landed hard on the ground causing Zealot to go airborne. Fist then ran with his hands and launched Zealot into the fence on the other side and pounded the ground hard causing a shockwave to be felt all over the arena and launching Fist into the air again taking Zealot with him. Zealot tries to hold onto the ground but it was useless. Zealot found himself in the air until the ground came up real fast and slammed into him. Zealot’s tail let go of Fist involuntarily and fist yelled, “FIST!” and he came hurtling down on Zealot with his two fists together. Zealot rolls out of the way and tries to flick his tail to knock the falling Fist out of the way but his tail just was not working any more. Fist hits the ground with a great force that actually caused the fence around them to topple down. The spectators in the stands were launched about an inch off their seats. The one thing that told Salem that it was a very powerful attack, Pawn actually woke up.
Zealot was sent rolling on the ground by the shockwave but was able to stop himself before he left the ring. Zealot knew that even though the ring was gone, stepping out of bounds would still disqualify him, even if it was not of his own free will. Fist runs to Zealot on his hands and starts rolling like a wrecking ball. Zealot reacts by reaching for his scabbard to pull out his Blade of Defiance but quickly realized it was at the other side of the ring under part of the fence. It was too late to think of anything else as Fist hits him with great force. The wind is knocked out of Zealot as his tail flies wildly into the air. Fist grabs Zealot’s tail and starts to pound Zealot on the ground to the left of him, then to the right. Zealot grabs onto the broken ground and holds on with all he had as Fist pulls and pulls to slam Zealot into the ground again. Zealot sucked up his pride because he knew what he had to do. “FIST!” yelled the warrior as he gave Zealot’s tail a powerful pull. Zealot released his tail causing fist to fly backwards and out of bounds. “Zealot is the winner for ring two!” announced Ed. The four Blade Masters stood up and cheered as Zealot got to his feet and Fist was pounding the ground with a tantrum.
Arian makes her way to the front of the stage for it was unable to lower or rise again due to the shockwave. “Ladies and Gentleman,” said Arian as she talked into the cone, “The Tagi Challenge will end tomorrow with an all out three way fight between Wayne Marcus, Zealot, and General Carcass. One of these men will be the Tagi Challenge Master of Warriors!” The crowd began to leave but General Carcass’ army was busy cheering and celebrating their leader’s victory as if he had already won. “You think Zealot could win agents General Carcass?” asked Christina. “Everyone has a weakness,” said Selene. “Zealot could always try and tickle General Carcass,” said Salem as they left the arena. The Suns were just starting to go behind the mountain as the four Blade Masters walk to the center of town.
“Sooth. Sooth!” yelled a raggedy man in the town square, “Sooth!” “What does this guy think he is doing?” asked Salem. “I am just guessing, but I believe this person is a Soothsayer,” “Sooth I say! Sooth!” yelled the man. “Tell me Soothsayer, what have you seen?” asked Christina. “Sooth?” asked the man. “He wants money,” said Selene. Christina gave the man fifty pents, “What have you seen Soothsayer?” ” The sun will fall and the world will end! “ said the man in a strange voice. The Soothsayer put the pents in his mouth and ran off. “People have been saying that for years,” said Salem. “What a strange voice he used,” said Selene as the group continued to walk to Bill’s Miller. “It takes talent to whisper in a loud voice,” said Christina.
The four Blade Masters arrive at the Bill’s Miller tavern. The place was jumping and many people were inside drinking and a band was playing on stage. Jarody was busy splashing a bucket of water on a bunch of women wearing cotton shirts Jarody had brought with him. The shirts became nearly see through when they got wet. “That’s what I’m talking about!” yelled Jarody trying to be heard over the cheering crowd of men. “Christina, take Haiku up to her room and stay there until we get you,” instructed Selene. “Why? What is the matter?” asked Christina. “Jarody is just being vulgar again,” said Salem. Christina took the seven year-old up the steps and into her room as the twins walked up to Jarody. “What do you think you are doing?” asked Selene. “Havin a good time!” said Jarody. Getting women wet is not fun,” said Salem. “You two just forgot what fun is. Come on, Salem, don’t tell me you don’t find this a little arousing,” said Jarody over the yells and hollers. “I am not a lesbian!” yelled Salem. “I didn’t call you a lesbian,” said Jarody as he took up another bucket of water and splashed the women again as they danced.
It was a while until the warriors from the arena started to show up to take one last drink before hitting the road home. Zealot entered the tavern with cheers and congratulations. “Tomorrow, we will see Zealot, Tagi Challenge Master of Warriors,” said Selene. “And how can it be any other way?” said Zealot. “I suggest you and Wayne pair up against General Carcass. He is a force not to face alone,” said Selene. “I understand and I know this already. Wayne’s from the same ship Lancer was on. I spent most of the time in the waiting room talking to the guy,” said Zealot, “We have a plan set and I promised I’d get plenty of rest for tomorrow.” Suddenly, Vivien Leblanc enters the tavern. Half the bar gets quiet as she walks to the bar where Emhril was busy training a replacement. Vivien sits at the bar as she reaches up and pulls her cowl off. Vivien’s skin was very pale and she had blood red hair and eyes. “A vampire, that is why she quit her match. She had to get out of the suns’ light, Christina,” said Selene. Salem went up to her sister and said, “I was about!” Pawn jumped off of Salem’s shoulder and started to shake. “What?” yelled Salem, “but!” Pawn opened the ThievesBlade’s void. The MirrorBlade comes flying out and lands in front of the vampire Vivien. Vivien jumps back from the bar where the Sword Blade rested as a light grew and shot a beam at her forehead. “The MirrorBlade chose her as a master!” said Salem in total shock. Vivien turned to look at the circle of people around her not knowing what to do now. The Blade Masters felt the same way.