"Contestants, get your teams on the field and ready to battllllleeeee!!!"
Bianca fanned herself with her folding fan. "My! The announcer is really excited now, isn't he?"
"Yes, well, it's only natural to have excitement build up slowly as fights are completed throughout the day." Beside Bianca, Cheren commented as he polished his shield. "After all, this is mainly a show."
"Hey! 'Mainly a show'??? You're talking a lot of trash for someone so smart!" Hugh jumped up, his giant bush of hair quaking, katanas shaking in their scabbards.
Sitting cross-legged on the floor was Natural, also known as 'N'. He put up a hand. "Hugh. Please don't get excited. I'm trying to concentrate for the fight."
"You guys are all so lame! At least N is serious about the fight..." Hugh managed to say, before being punched lightly on the shoulder by Bianca.
"Hey! No name-calling! We're a team, Hugh! And I'm plenty serious, so is Cheren! Just because we don't show our serious face like you all the time doesn't mean that we're not taking it seriously!"
"...fine. Let's just get this over with." Hugh sighed and made his way to the gate, with the rest of the team following.
--------
The field was a flat plain, with a cliff overhanging the middle. NDGO strutted up to the middle, with BHWN doing the same.
"Competitors! On your marks!"
Nebula finished calibrating her crossbow's string tension, ready to level it towards the opposing team.
"Get set..."
Cheren hefted his shield, which glowed with its inlaid technology and a faint green color.
"Go!"
As the sound was made, Nebula and Gwen, in a moment of synchronization, fired their respective weapons. Nebula's bolt found a mark on Cheren's torso-covering shield, only to be absorbed!
"Shoot. Girls, that shield absorbs projectiles. Focus the others." Nebula commanded, and the other girls nodded, each going after another combatant.
"Come on! Let's see what you've got!" Hugh pulled out his dual blades, swiftly stepping forward while N laid down suppression fire with his dual dragon-shaped blasters. Fire dust exploded around NDGO, causing smoke and regular dust to form a cloud.
Dew, realizing the lowering visibility, pointed her staff to the ground, then slowly twirled it around until... a tornado had formed, sucking up all the particulates in the air, turning into a dust devil, staying beside Dew.
"Good job!" Nebula shouted, advancing with another volley of shots.
However, when the last bit of dust settled, there were strange... creatures in their wake. Had BHWN summoned monsters of some kind? Some were fox-like and quick, while others were bird-like and flying. There were many others, shooting ice and dashing around, distracting NDGO from the fight...
Cheren and Bianca took the opportunity to jump in, beelining for Nebula and Dew, respectively.
Nebula switched back to sword mode, taking a moment to jump over a furious swipe from a bear-sized dark fox! She slashed downwards, and instead of flesh, there was... shadows.
The creature dissipated into a dark, wispy material, and before Nebula could ponder that, Cheren smashed down onto her with his shield, it breathing out a wall of flames, swallowing Nebula. She screamed, and was knocked face-down into the dirt.
Cheren made some hand gestures on his shield, and it switched to have arcs of electricity flow out.
He smashed the shield at Nebula, only to be thrown up into the air as his arm came down. The tornado Dew made this time was huge. There were rocks, dirt, chunks of shrubs flying through the air, buffeting the combatants.
Nebula got up, turning to see Dew get blasted by a gas from the staff-wielding Bianca.
The cloud emitted from a spin of the staff, similar to Dew's method. With the tornado raging, the gas spread out, covering all four of the girls.
"Whaa..." Nebula became terribly tired, and saw Dew fall down. "N-noo..." As her eyes closed, Nebula saw a figure run up behind Bianca, while small explosions sprouted up around the ground.
Octavia was quickly sliding over the ground and, in one smooth motion, stabbing her kris into Bianca's back. Whether the source of the gas was the staff or her semblance, she needed to be taken down.
The kris glowed black, pushing Bianca to the ground as it impacted.
"Ahh! Please!" Bianca called out before being beaten until her aura ran out.
"Bianca Whitewood is eliminated!"
"Ow... you're... mean..." Bianca laid on the ground, staring at the sky.
"...Sorry." Octavia said, before turning to the blasted blaster-wielding N. He had taken a bit of time to calibrate his weapons. Looked like he had to recharge them with his aura as well...
The creatures he summoned were still around, but none of them were dealing damage, and all died in one hit, as you realized when cutting a giant rocky ball into some black, wispy substance.
Not taking any chances, you focus on the electric dust in your kris, and slice vertically through the air, right at N. His eyes widened, and he leaped out of the way before dropping his blasters, which were hit by the shocking wave.
N felt the chill of steel smack into this side, knocking the air out of his lungs.
"Natural Gropius is eliminated!"
Nebula stood groggily above the fallen N, making sure he's alright.
"Ugh. Gotta work on my semblance." N smiled faintly.
Subconsciously, Nebula shifted her sword into crossbow mode as she turned. The double sword boy was... where was he?
"AAAAHHHH! TAKE THIS!" A cry came from behind the small hill to the right. Gwen flew over the hill her knives scattering over the ground.
Following her was a really furious Hugh.
"THIS. CANNOT. STAND!" He ran at Dew, who was just waking back up.
"Nhhh...?" Dew managed to groan out. She tried to wave her arms to deflect somehow, but her aura got cut by the blue haired swordsman.
"Dew Gayl is eliminated!"
"One down..." Hugh growled at Nebula, his arms outstretched. "Come get some!"
Then he took off.
It was magnificent, his determination, his speed, the way he held both arms behind his back for minimum air drag.
It wasn't enough for him to get blindsided be Nebula's parry and roundhouse kick, however. He dropped to the ground, head impacting with a bump.
Rolling backwards, Hugh crawled back, when he saw a wall of fire shoot out nearby. Cheren.
Cheren had tried blasting Octavia with fire, but she was simply too quick, dancing around the flames like her last name suggested. Hugh and Nebula looked over, but quickly refocused on the other.
Furrowing his brows, Hugh saw Nebula still having the crossbow configuration, and charged right into her. What he didn't expect was for her to release the bolt right underfoot.
An explosion of black gravity energy threw the two of them back, Hugh into Cheren, and Nebula safely into a suitable range, before loading another bolt.
Cheren and Hugh were in a pile, weapons and shield lying beside them. With one motion, Octavia swiped right, covering the two battered boys in fire dust.
"Cheren and Hugh are eliminated in a combo double knockout! Indigo wins!!!"
The audience cheered loudly for Octavia, with some for the other teammates. The other girls were helping each other and BWHM up.
"Thanks for the fight, Cheren. That shield really got irritating the first time!" Nebula patted Cheren on the back, causing him to wince a little.
"Yeah, need to work on absorption. Good luck on the next bracket. The other teams are way stronger than we are right now." Cheren replied, holding his head down, exhausted.
Hugh was more exhausted. "ARRGH! Okay, that was a pretty decent fight. I got SO pumped up!"
"Yeah, but you were kind of going crazy, from my memories when sleepy..." Bianca perked up.
"That was painful... my semblance needs more work." N comes over to the rest of the team. "I'm going to get a shower."
"Hey! Right, let's get a good bite after that's done!" Hugh follows, their other teammates in tow.
Gwen, for some reason, said: "That dual sword boy is pretty cool."
Nebula smacked her own face. "Oh, no... let's just also get washed and get on with it. Today's been tiring."
