It was around dusk and Rella was waiting on the location that had been decided, in her orange kimono and holding a glowing orange lantern, mostly just to stand out against the night sky to come. The idea of fresh blood, and even this upcoming tournament, was all her idea so it wasn't her time to screw it up now. Of course, if no one showed... well, then that'd be all kinds of screwed up. Rella had been everything from clean-up at the beginning all up to manager now: it was her job to set up this show, and she had seen it go from just a single guy fighting a slime with a few people in the stands to a full-blown Saturday night ritual. However, once less and less people were coming to the arena every night and less money was coming in, it was now a question of what to do? The tournament was an idea of Rella, and not something that would be straightforward. There were more than a few twists and turns that they had planned, and was unbelievable excited for what was coming. Fresh Blood was also extremely important, the people fighting were too well known. Things had gotten stale at the Arena and this was another solution, and having the newcomers come in for the tournament was just icing on the cake. Rella found herself fidgeting, excited for what was to come. @Alonso Thorlion @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate
For an immersive game there sure were not enough quests to do. Or at least, the man did not find any more. Night missions were a dangerous sort. Enough troubles roamed about during the day, and weakened visuals once the sun removed itself added to the mess. However, this quest did not depend on the natural environment for its difficulty. Combat heavy tasks placed in a remote area lowered the amount of factors he needed to watch out for. Assuming was not going to reward the man with any awards, since even the most well defined jobs always had a catch to them. Indeed, Alonso had another reason for accepting a rather good chance at being shady underground battle arena. Sure, he was not going at it alone, but there being a recommended amount of party members alerted every sense he could find worthwhile. The reality was he needed someone to hold the over sized Felis back once a fight ended if it came down to it. Some weird feeling tended to surge within his body, and there was a single mastery he took that was under suspicion. Outside of this world he was certain his body was not diagnosed with anger issues, "Perhaps it's a glitch I overlooked when making this build?" His visuals caught sight of a woman in elaborate dressings, matching the appearance given in the quest objectives. "Would I be correct in assuming you are Rella, who sent out the request," Alonso said, wandering up just enough so he did not loom over the poor woman too much. A man of his size, stature, and willingness to brawl without any armor or upper body clothing should be the kind of person she wanted. The Felis's arms rose to his sides, fingers resting on his hips. Just as fitting, his avatar was the hairy sort, an alarming difference from the standard Felis player character. "If you needed a name, I am Alonso Thorlion. I will assume there were no other requirements needed that would block my entry," he continued. Once more his eyes gazed upon the landscape surrounding him. This might have been an easy spot for an ambush by some roaming mob, and he did not have much time in the way of browsing forums for rumors. Part of him wanted to figure out this world on his own. Tags: @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate @MechaCake
Dempsey had traveled most of the day from her home in Stokbon to attend this tournament. The invitation seemed almost as sketchy as the location to her, and she was curious as to what she'd gotten herself into. She hung back in the shadows and observed for a moment, watching a conversation unfold between two Felis, one almost as small as she, and the other by far the largest she'd ever seen in her life. She wondered for a moment whether she'd have to fight that one, or if he'd be eliminated before the finals. After waiting long enough to reach the conclusion that this was, in fact, just a sketchy underground fighting exhibition, and not some sort of organ harvesting scheme, she stepped from the shadows and quietly made her way over to where Rella and Allonso, introducing herself with a cheerless wave. "This had better be worth my time. It took me all day to make it here from Stokbon, and it doesn't look like much. What's the pay?" She looked at Rella expectantly, waiting for an answer, of course the other Felis woman would likely begin some sort of explanation as to how there's a cash prize for the winner, but she intended to leverage the situation, and squeeze a small bribe from her simply for participating. No fighters meant no tournament, and she didn't see crowded training yards, a packed staging area or anything of the sort that would indicate she had a replacement readily available. this would be best left until the absolute last moment, when she knew that no matter how the otehr woman argued, things would go in her own favor. for now, she simply waited for a reply she would likely ignore, and for the third participant to join in on the 'festivities.' of course it was Alphabet. That girl kept popping up like a bad penny, and while Dempsey didn't exactly dislike her, she could only handle the accidentally obnoxious creature in small doses. The opportunity to punch her repeatedly in a consensual setting might well be extremely therapeutic. Dempsey checked over her arms and armor one last time, just to be sure she was as prepared as she could be, then took to pacing impatiently. she didn't come here to watch the sun set, after all. @Alphabet Chocolate
Excitement filled her when she caught sight of the two felis. She already knew Demps well at this point (the girl was one of her great friends, after all!) and the burly blue-haired man seemed like a fun fight (he reminded her of those giant crabs she found down at Druuk Island awhile ago). Terry, however, did not share the same sentiments upon spotting the two. He bared his fangs, his claws dug into the dirt underneath, and he glared suspiciously at the three (if you counted the NPC hosting their quest). She combed down his puffed-up fuzz down before grinning sheepishly at her competitors and the tournament host. "Nice to see you again Demps!" she laughed, holding out her arm to greet the woman in good cheer. She was blissfully unaware of Dempsey's inner thoughts and couldn't see the older woman harboring anything but good will shared between two close friends. Then she looked at the fox-lady and the blue-man. "Nice to meet you guys too!" she grinned. "What're we gonna do?" She patted the egg in her satchel with a motherly look. It's been awhile since she got the egg and she wondered when it would hatch (hopefully soon). Then she sat on the ground, waiting intently for the next instructions, before Terry gave her nudge. Startled, she once again looked up with an embarrassed expression. "Oh yeah! My name's Alphabet Chocolate, or Alpha, what're your names?" @MechaCake @Dempsey Fabijain @Alonso Thorlion
"Yes that is correct, I am Rella and in terms of compensation, your payment will be based on how you place in the tournament. If you can't get past even the preliminaries, I might not have anything for you: but, I'm willing to make a deal. Our preliminary round is going to have a dozen teams like you all, and they're going to be fighting for a point value: the team with the most points gets first place, and there are advantages to winning preliminaries. I'm not going to tell you how to get points now as I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I'll give you a bonus if you get first place. Now, if you'll follow me..." Rella moved from the mountains into the light forest next to it, before finding a tree with a suspiciously perfect clearing around it. She knocked onto the tree... and it knocked back. The circle around the tree slowly moved into the ground, before they were submerged. The lantern had a double purpose: it was the only thing lighting up the elevator. "If it weren't for mages, this place wouldn't even exist. It was a real pain to get in before we had the elevators here, you had to go through this staircase and then through this gate and then another stair case and blegh. By the way, before you go down..." The feli handed a hexagon-shaped stone object with a green deer painted onto it. "Put these on your clothes, they should automatically stick. You guys are the Greenhorns, so remember that name and keep the signifier, if you'd like." Finally, the elevator sunk enough that the group could see the arena. It was gigantic, old, and every seat seemed to be filled. The elevator landed in the main area, where about thirty other people were, with group names floating above their heads. "You have about five minutes until preliminaries start. Take a look at the other groups, figure out a group strategy and be sure to win. I'll be rooting for you, good luck." Rella stepped back on the elevator and floated back up. Looking over the groups, there were a ton of interesting ones. The names of the groups, including your group, floated over their heads in an MMORPG style. There was the Family of Steele, which was a group made up of a father in his 40s, dual-wielding swords, a mother also in her 40s, who was a paladin, and a teenage daughter, who was a witch. There was also the Black Mages, a group of music-playing magic-users who augmented their sound with spells. At the moment, they were playing to the crowd by performing a song that sounded way too much like a podcast theme song. The point was, there was a lot of variation: every group with a different gimmick and weapons from bows to swords to kukris to... barrels?! You could taste the tension, and competition, in the air. @Alonso Thorlion @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate
He eyed the other two players who, by all reasonable accounts, were his allies for the upcoming tasks. Some woman and a little girl, the later an odd and concerning factor. But this was the online world. Unless the person behind the visor was quite experienced in gaming for being at such a young age, Alonso figured the higher possibility of an older player's avatar preference. The man shrugged and focused his attention on Rella. All the big Felis needed to worry about was the explanation of their quest at this point in time. From there he could judge the proper reasoning with his teammates. So far the main idea was straightforward. Obtain the proper conditions, and the rewards were theirs for the taking. The downside was how the points were earned. All of the may outright fail to gain any sort of scoring despite harboring victory over their foes. For now Alonso needed to focus on the preliminaries. That also meant following Rella further into her domain. When the client in question led them to a tree, the man entered a mental note of the knock, response knock, and then the ground beneath him giving way into a makeshift elevator. Alonso became aware of the insignia handed out to him, "If I were to make a guess, you placed more stake in tonight than you let on if you had a team symbol and everything sorted out. But if that was inappropriate to consider, I'll say no more on that matter." He took the stone icon and gave it a good pat on his pant leg. Just as she said, it stuck on no problem, and turned out much better than velcro or somebody who had no idea how to sew. Part of him wanted to know the trick which allowed the object to become magnetized to his clothing. Another time perhaps. Tonight's significance became a bigger deal now that his eyes bore witness to the arena's presence. Each team had a convenient group of letters hovering above themselves. Little time was given for the group to converse with Rella longer, but if need be questions could be asked later. Sighing, the male Felis looked over the combatants all waiting to get into his bloody mess of an evening brawl. Five minutes. None of that time was Alonso going to waste on trivial matters. The two teams who sprang up to his initial attention seemed like folks he would have to keep his eyes on later. He turned around to face his own group, mass towering over his companions. Wide arms folded his massive chest, lowering his jaw to speak, "Since I know nothing about either of you, it would be better we did not waste time. Here my name is Alonso, and so far my combat abilities are on the, let's say, unconventional side. I've been fighting with the Unarmed skill, and having taken both Berserk and Guard in addition. The amount of practice I've had has not been significant enough for me to have a full breakdown." A brief explanation such as that should help, right? @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate @MechaCake
Dempsey was never too fond of revealing too much about her own abilities, so she answered simply "I'm Dempsey. I fight unarmed as well. I can do some other stuff, but nothing that's going to help us here." After her intentionally brief introduction, she focused on the badge, looking for somewhere to affix it where it would be well anchored and not in her way. Attaching it to her pants was out of the question, as the weight of the thing could possibly bring the garment down around her feet mid-fight. Her chest protector was the only real option, and after a moment of self examination, she elected to simply place the thing on her side. It would be partially obstructed beneath her right arm, but that wasn't her problem. This wasn't a fashion show after all, and it's not her fault the person who organized the event hadn't provided something more sensible like a tabbard or some kind of sash. She also wondered if the badge was somehow significant to the outcome, as these battles were not to the death, as far as she was aware. After taking care of that, she looked Rella over once, then turned her attention to the competition. they all seemed to be working some sort of theme, which implied chemistry as a group, and previous experience in these fights. She was a bit concerned with that aspect, but She'd seen the deceptively capable Alphabet fight before, and the stranger was bigger than some of the teams combined, so she had faith that he'd at least be able to pull his own weight. furthermore, with two of three of them unarmed, they would be at an inherent disadvantage as far as reach and force were concerned. they would be facing wielders of all sorts of different types of weapons, to which the unarmed skill set provided some basic mitigation, but the strength of Unarmed combat was in inflicting crippling and mortal blows that seemed to be off limits in this tournament. Unarmed combat was eye gouges, strikes to vital organs, dislocated limbs, broken bones, and snapped necks... an art as graceful and beautiful to watch as it was brutal and merciless. She didn't think anyone would take kindly to a broken pile of corpses with snapped necks in what was largely meant to be an exhibition sport. Unless their group was selected in the first round, they would all have time to sit back and observe how things unfolded, and get a feel for the level and skill of the competition. Turning to Rella once more, she asked simply: "Can I kill people? I mean, I know I can, but is it against the rules? I don't spend my valuable time and energy to learn the nuances of pretend fighting, and I'm a bit annoyed to find myself in a tournament that seems to be tailored to present people with actual fighting skill an innate handicap." @Alphabet Chocolate @Alonso Thorlion @MechaCake
Alpha put a finger to her chin and looked up, deep in thought as she tried to recall the abilities that she had invested in at the start. Then, after a moment, she looked back at the group and smiled, giving Terry a friendly pat. "I think I'm okay at making animal friends, being sneaky, and fighting with this really cool dagger!" she pulled the weapon out, the blade shining in the lit area. She twirled, testing the stone with the green deer, finding itself fitting snug (if only a bit heavy) around her neck. "This is gonna be so fun!" she laughed as she observed their competitors in the tournament. They were all heavily specialized and seemed to carry the same general appearance, making them easy to distinguish. Alpha couldn't help but give a warm laugh at the cliques, remembering her time in high-school just a year ago (albeit the time wasn't as fond but the year she had spent away had dulled the ache and sadness of her time there). She pointed to the Black Mages and the Family of Steele. "I have two friends, I don't think you've met them yet Dempsey! There's Merkaba and Aaron and, well, these guys seem just like them! It'll be really cool to fight them and see what they can do because I never really fought Merkaba or Aaron before because I turned into a cat the last time I saw Merkaba and she got really angry so I had to run away and I forgot to exchange contact info and she's a bit scary, especially with her really big scythe (you should see it, Dempsey!) but she's nice and Aaron is super nice because we've been in, like, a quest or two together and he also helped me find Terry!" she pointed to the dingo who, despite the prolonged exposure to the two felis, still stared at them with barely-contained contempt and looked at their competitors with an arrogant glare. She continued to talk on and on, her words turning into what could only be called a wall of unreadable text. "This is gonna be so fun!" she repeated, finishing after a few minutes of non-stop talking. She was so ready for this! @MechaCake @Dempsey Fabijain @Alonso Thorlion
Rella paused a moment before leaving to answer the question. "Pretty simply, we have healers at the ready, and the arena has some enchantments. You don't have to worry about injuries but fight to defeat your opponents. If death happens... well, it's an uncommon occurrence but we have someone with a resurrect spell in those cases. So, yes, killing is okay." Rella proceeded to leave the arena but it wasn't a few minutes later that her voice was booming over the arena, sitting on a stage near the stands. "Hello! Welcome to the Pormont Arena! I am Rella, the organizer for this, the very first Contest of Champions! The preliminaries are about to start, but before they do I thought I'd talk a little about what the preliminary round is like. First, I'd like you all to meet your opponent!" A gigantic gate at one end of the arena opened up and initially, it was just a bunch of gigantic men carrying chains. It didn't take long for the gigantic monster to appear: a half-dead, decaying dragon growled as it appeared out of the darkness: it was fairly small, about 20 meters in length in comparison to the 50 square meters of the arena, but it certainly dwarfed the normal-sized human. At the moment there were a lot of restraints for the thing: it's mouth and wings were clasped and it was attached to multiple ball and chains. "This is something our mages have been working over a hot stave for. This is a reanimated Dragon, a Zombie Dragon some might call it. It does still have things like eyes and flesh but it's gotten a hell of a lot more decayed than any other you might see. The game here is parts: dragon parts are always extremely pricy, and what each of the teams will be doing is extracting parts of the monster in battle. Points are based on the value of each part of the dragon, and the top four teams with the highest points will be the ones proceeding. Now, get your heads together and figure out your strategy: the parts of the head tend to be the most expensive, but also what everyone else is going for. Be sure to look at the whole dragon to see what's worth taking. Now, we'll be releasing this dragon in five... four... three... two... one!" The shackles completely disappeared and the beast went rampant. Due to his decayed wings, he couldn't fly well but immediately the Zombie Dragon shot a weak, gassy flame out of it's mouth and spread it around the arena. As Rella said, multiple people went straight for the head with all kinds of arrows and objects going to the neck. Others were still discussing strategy, and a brave few jumped right onto the monster's back.
Unfortunate their team was not comprised of much in the way of variety. Alpha was the single member of the group who had a versatile ability spread. Losing her would prove to be a set back difficult to recover from, and the man knew he would be at a high risk of going berserk due to the prospect of a young child getting hurt. At least the one in his crew. The conversation was cut short, however, when Rella's voice resounded throughout the arena. Looking around a brief moment, in case of a sneak attack, his brow quirked at the preliminary target. In truth, it was a terrifying monstrosity which made him question just how much of this was entertainment compared to madness. Dragons tended to be higher level enemies in these games. Of course with the amount of teams here it should not have been a problem. The poor bastard looked terrible anyways. Alonso payed enough attention to notice the shackles vanished, and a weird gas emanating from the dragon, extending a hand to note his party members to back up, "All right then, they should be distracted by that thing. We shouldn't take long though otherwise we won't be able to score any points here." The little time they had would need to be in secret as much as possible. Alonso stretched his arm out again to gather his small party up, then lowered his volume, "The quickest idea I have, and perhaps safer by comparison, is somehow get around while everyone else is distracted and take out smaller parts such as the claws. Whether or not those are of high value I unfortunately am not aware, but it's better than nothing." The Felis was not a master of dragon anatomy. Heck, last he checked no game required an understanding of such detail. He dove into his thought processes again, turning his head to eye those who went after the dragon in their hot headed strategies, "As for my other idea, it'll be more difficult in addition to being more dangerous. If you're as sneaky as you say, Alpha, assuming Dempsey or me get a distraction going you might be able to rush in and steal a piece weakened by the other competitors It's not quite noble, I know, but it is also a possibility we could enable." Tag: @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate @MechaCake
Dempsey sized up the situation, and could come up with no better strategy than the one proposed by Alonzo. though she was unfamiliar with the man, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and a realistic grasp of the situation. She reached to the small of her back and drew her Katar, showing it to the man. "I have this, but I am a bit envious of Alphabets spear right about now. I'm not thrilled with the format of this contest, as I was expecting something... less like this. Come though, We can sort out the details later. we're wasting time" As the countdown reached zero, she turned to join the fray, taking the opportunity to inspect and familiarize herself with her competitors as she weaved through the crowd, until finally she closed on the zombie dragon. She had no idea how or why someone would conjure such an abomination just for sport, but that was a thought for another time. It was here before her, and she knew what she must do. She watched the melee unfold, and predictably saw a good number of fighters hanging back and waiting for the beast to weaken before closing in to finish it. It's scaly flesh would be decayed and possibly weakened, but she was wary that the thing had magic somewhere in it's arsenal. Tentatively, she stepped forward and mounted her first attack. (((OOC: ProTip. keep your posts shorter during action sequences, and limit yourself to one attack and one movement. Really shoot for clocking in around the 200 word minimum.This makes it easier to keep the chain of events straight, and also easier for players to keep track of one another. If my posts seem kind of short, I'm not trying to shitpost or blow the quest off, that just be how I do))
Alpha nodded along her teammate's plan as she was dazzled by the rotting, skeletal creature. She had to admit that she felt nausea bloom from her stomach to her head just from looking at the unsightly dragon but its very existence was a wondrous thing to Alpha. If dragons were real here, what other mythical and fantastical beasts lurked in Terrasphere? The question drew unadulterated excitement and glee from her face as she squeeze Terry tight, the pup yelping, as she looked at him in excitement. She pointed straight at the dragon, still looking into Terry's eyes. "Let's get him!" the dog nodded before getting ready to pounce. She laughed at his eagerness to fight before raising her own spear up, ready to strike. They would definitely win this entire tournament thing and, after this, Alpha was gonna go search for more cool creatures like the one they're facing right now. Quickly, she charged with agile footing and quickly made her way, circling the creature whilst it was distracted by their competitors. With a strong roar, she attempted to plunge and twist the spear into the dragon's back. @Dempsey Fabijain @Alonso Thorlion @MechaCake
Attacks on all fronts were successful, but fairly small in terms of scale: at this point the barrage of attacks coming from all sides was clearly overwhelming for the beast. It took a moment for the Zombie Dragon to roar loudly, trying to shake off the people around him. The Dragon moved it's wings, seemingly unable to fly but causing a large gust around it's body to help the effort of dropping it's many enemies. People flew back, the strong wings making quite the gust and more than a few people mounting the monster flew into the air. "The beast strikes back," said Rella from the stands, grinning. "Those that stand their ground will be the victors! All others will perish! Oh, and I see we have the first big cut-" The father from the Family of Steele cut off about a third of the monster's tail in a flash. The father flew away from the monster and it was his daughter, with her magic, that caught him. Within a few moments, a couple teams looked from the monster to the team. "It seems that the Family of Steele has taken a piece of the tail, the second most pricy part of the Dragon. Keep in mind, you don't have to fight the dragon: you can take parts from other teams if you choose to, meaning if you're massive cowards."
Each attack in the swarming chaos totaled up to the dragon feeling the impact. So much the wings created a gust powerful enough to make the attackers get blown away. Alonso did not doubt some of them could withstand the force, like he was at the moment due to not being too close, but it created an opening. Good. None of the Felis's abilities were drained yet providing him the power to go full force. Granted, he was feeling the guilt of not being able to help out his party members from the dragon's gust, but they also were too fast for the hulking cat man. Rella's announcement of the cut tail forced him to get a move on. He did not want his team to fall behind on points, as getting the most out of this quest was a necessity. Charging at the Zombie Dragon was now this shirtless beast of a man. Everyone else was distracted by the Family. Idiots. He bent low to allow his body the best positioning he could, clenching his fist to hear the taut bounds of his gloves. "Very well, come at us," Alonso said, his leg muscles pushing off the ground and forcing him into the air. The head was a good target point regardless of score. He swung his mighty fist at the dragon for an uppercut, "Dempsy! Alpha! Don't get distracted!" Tag: @Dempsey Fabijain @Alphabet Chocolate @MechaCake
So, The first round would be this; hacking pieces off the zombie dragon. Her options were limited to one of two things; Engage the undead beast herself, or challenge other participants. Both options were equally unappealing to her to be honest. She was not particularly good dealing with non-humanoid opponents, and if she stated attacking other fighters, it could quickly turn into a scenario of one on three. She decided to aid Alonso in his endeavor, figuring that taking the dragons head was possibly their quickest route to victory. She turned to Alpha and called out "Watch our backs, I think we got this" then sprung into action, seeking to leap and land on the things back to attack it at the base of it's neck. Alonso seemed confident enough in his abilities, and if not, his sheer size would likely compensate. @Alphabet Chocolate
