Hades Cup: Team Heavens Judgment VS Team Punishment Detail

Hades Cup: Team Heavens Judgment VS Team Punishment Detail
Date of Scene:	11 February 2013
Location:	Traverse Town - Coliseum
Synopsis:	The final of the round one matchups in the Hades Cup gets underway, Heavens Judgment vs Punishment Detail. Ducks get channeled. A truly Quackers fight indeed.
Cast of Characters:	Evja, Tifa Lockhart, Quistis Trepe, Makenshi, Grant Majors, Negaduck
Tinyplot:	Manhattan Restoration

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Evja has posed:
As one would expect, the Coliseum Stands are packed. Who wouldn't want to see entertainment like this?! 'Heroes' from across the worlds and lands had come to duke it out for the chance at winning this coveted cup, among other possible things. And with the two previous matches having already taken place...

The last had arrived.

Heaven's Judgement
VS
Punishment Detail

The event hadn't started just yet, but it was getting to that point. On one side of the field a tall imposing figure in a new set of armor stood leaning against the wall, arms crossed with no weapon visibly drawn or out. The Vieran Judge was waiting for things to start, silent in thought as he went over possible strategies to ensure his teams victory. Of course, his team did have one asset - a very smart woman by the name of Quistis, and an equally strong woman by the name of Tifa.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Quistis is lightly armored compared to the towering judge of the most long and elegant ears. Wearing her usual salmon-tinged 'I'm adventuring and am totally not an elite representative of a paramilitary PMC with amazing super brain ghost powers,' she doesn't even have her glasses on. She is doing, at least, some light stretching, her whip hanging at one hip.

"I like the style," she tells Evja as she straightens up, raising her arms above her head and arching her back momentarily with faint clicking sounds. Then a gust of breath and a little arm swinging to loosen the tendons.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is just glad to be back to human shape, after being an animal for a few hours last time. Oh well. That was still pretty interesting. Can't imagine what people would think if she was walking around on all fours and swiping with razor sharp claws. Something for another time than a tournament at least.

Tifa isn't used to tournaments either, usually its a fight for your life situation. She had a few spars before, but this is a bit different. Its not training, you still want to hit hard enough to win, but not kill them. Its a careful line to walk for the barmaid sometimes. She doesn't have that problem with heartless.

She steps over to Quistis and Evja, wearing her usual leather dress, sliding on her fighting gloves.

Grant Majors has posed:
Grant Majors doesn't really want to do this. Like, he really doesn't want to do this. He has nothing against fighting people, of course; he was a regular in the Coliseum (anyone who visited it regularly knew him as someone who had had a really bad losing streak before suddenly achieving a ridiculous winning streak), but this is something a little different. This is a team fight, which meant that you lived or died on the virtues of your team.

Which would be great, if Grant had been assigned to a team of people with virtue.

UNFORTUNATELY, he's with Makenshi and Negaduck, which is the opposite of people with virtue.

Grant lands opposite the other team, taking the center of the field; he more or less crash-lands, his strange, massive red cloak flowing around him as he rises up, his massive spear slung over his shoulders. He's double-triple checked it for Hydra Poison this time. Like hell if he was going to kill one of these people.

He stands there, awkwardly for a moment, before nodding at the enemy team. "Let's have a clean match."

He's lying to himself, but he's good at that. "Nice to see you again," he offers to Tifa. "Hopefully you've still got those piledrivers. I'm looking forward to seeing what you can really do."

Negaduck has posed:
Heavy metal plays in the background.

*VRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNN!!!!!!*

The first thing leading into the arena is the sight of a massive chainsaw. As the chainsaw's fangs roar to life, it seeks to tear along the air. As it gives out its call of death, the leader to its call is none other than an anthromorphic duck.

Why is he in this tournament?

Mayhem! DESTRUCTION!

...Money.

Hades promised lots of money and Negaduck is pretty greedy. However, mayhem is a reward itself.

"Let's get this over with! I am itching to beat up some kittens!" He tosses the chainsaw off somewhere.

At a distance, WILHELM SCREAM!

Makenshi has posed:
The tall stone walls of the coliseum tower over the wide battlefield of hard-packed earth, filled to the brim with peoples of all shapes and creeds from across many worlds. The remnants of the once great city of Manhattan are the easiest to pick out as many of them have carried over the traditions born from decades of sports-viewing. Painted faces, cheap mass produced t-shirts declaring affiliation with one team or another, and cheesy battle cries inspired by booze and a lack of shame rises from the general din of the many voices gathered here.

Naturally, plenty of Atheneans are among the spectators as well for no Greek worth their salt would miss games of such magnitude of they could help it. Despite their togas and robes, they fit right in alongside the cheering drunks of the 'modern' world. Some things never change. The rest of the crowd is composed of various peoples and demi-humans that populate the assorted worlds drawn together. No one is missing out for this will be a fight to remember.

High above the walls and the cheers, Makenshi watches from the comfort of his perch in the clouds. This spectacle was something he did not particularly care for though after having wormed his way into the Earl's court through such methods he was certainly not above them. Especially if the deal he made with Hades held any truth to it. Beside him the small armored form of Crux hovers silently, her wide childish eyes cast downwards at the arena with a mix of wonder and confusion.

"Kukuruyu?"

"That's right. It seems I have little choice."

The fairy merely glances at him for a moment then nods, accepting his answer at face value. If he thought it was necessary she couldn't very well complain. That didn't mean she was going to miss out on the fun though! The doll spreads her wings and glides lightly down into the theatre, alighting on the edge of an unoccupied seat that gives her a decent view.

The albino swordsman himself sighs and closes his eyes. Time to get this over with. The loose cape upon Makenshi's shoulders billows out as his slender form drops from the sky in a blur of silver light. He lands gently behind Grant, his incredible speed arrested at the last moment as if momentum and gravity means nothing to the knight.

With both arms crossed he turns his head to give a dismissive glance at the competition and his allies, neither of whom impressed him terribly. He would probably have to take it easy on them, as usual, and ensure his teammates did not destroy the place lest Chaos grow from their anguish. Grant he wasn't too worried about but the feathered one could be trouble.

Evja has posed:
Grant gets a simple enough nod, a silent breath coming from Evja in thanks to him wanting a clean fight. At least that was a bo-- duck. With some kind of giant spinny weapon. With loud obnoxious music.
JudgeBunny staaaaaaared towards the duck before sighing and shaking his head, chalking it off to one of the oddities of this new world. Looking between Quistis and Tifa, he gives a soft "Thanks." towards Quistis before saying to them simply enough, "Let us go after the duck first, then, and any further strategy changes mid-fight you can tell us then." Turning to look between the two in turn once again, he taps on his helm to indicate the communication device he had before waiting for anything to be said and turning to walk towards the Arena to join the others there.

Serving the role of guest announcers today, two perky young lasses who are in this more for a chance to be famous and be seen, likely also given the chance by Phil, because let's be honest - he likes cute girls - step out to the arena.

"Let the last match..."
"...of the first round..."
"BEGIN!" "BEGIN!"

Then the two girls turn and hightail it right out of there before they get caught. Once all parties are within the large square arena, a shimmering wall appears around the borders, locking them in there before going translucent.

Right... Giving the ground a light kick beneath him, JudgeBunny pauses for just a moment before leaning forward and vanishing, charging right towards the opposing group and making it seem like he was going in unarmed and in a rather straight-forward charge. Of course, that was all a mockup, as when he gets about halfway there, he vanishes and reappears on the otherside of where Negaduck had been a moment before with spear in hand, attempting to knock the duck on the back of the head as hard as he can with the blunt-end of his spear, hoping to get a clean blow and knock him out if possible.

But let's be honest, things never work that smooth in this new world.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Quistis frowns at the sight of that dastardly duck. As that cruel and criminally contemptible canard communicates, she looks towards the other members of her team.

She rolls her neck once, and then pauses. The duck gets another glance, as does the other two individuals who came in. But they trouble her in wholly conventional ways. She has a dim sense about Negaduck, something subtle, arcane, hard to put her finger on.

Evja speaks. She nods to the words of VIERA LAW, and takes a deep breath, before letting out at 'begin!' At which point she just stands there like an idiot and does absolutely nothing but pose dramatically.

Nothing? No.

Streaks of red light come out from Evja, streaking momentarily towards Quistis before bursting back out as a pair of streaks of yellow light, producing twinkling floating clocks over the heads of the Judge and the barmaid alike. This is followed by a shimmering, loud and rainbow-hued flash around them as something else gets thrown into the mix as well.

After this, Quistis peers towards Negaduck. Her attention, moved through the Guardian Force, reaches invisibly towards Negaduck.

> Draw > Negaduck

>> Doom
>> Duck
>> Duckara
>> Duckaga

"... What the," Quistis says, baffled.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't know what Quistis is doing with her 'supervision', but from the reactions, its better that she doesn't either. Along with Evja, she rushes forward, rist raised, aiming toward the duck. No, its not exactly any strategy for her right now. She just has a bone to pick with it after the Black Friday. That damn duck pretty much humiliated her after all! She got trampled and stomped and tossed out into the street by mobs of crazy grocers because of him! Well he was disguised as DarkWing Duck, but she learned of the truth later.

She's hoping to turn the duck into stew... well not kill him, that's against her own morals, but if she can soften it enough and hang him as a pinata in the bar or something...

Negaduck has posed:
Go for Duckaga, Quistis. Duckaga. You know you want it.

Once upon a time, he disguised himself as Darkwing Duck. He made a menace of the World of Ruins while he was around. However, the cat was out of the bag. It was none other than Negaduck.

"Oho ho..." Negaduck gives a menacing grin, "So my fans have been awaiting to see me." There is a dark gleam over towards the group. His stance becomes mocking, a hand extending out to beckon Evja forward. "Let's see what you can..."

And Evja is behind him from what was supposed to be a straight forward charge.

"--..Do?"

The armored figure manages to slam that blunt end of the weapon towards him. As Negaduck stumbles forward, he is knocked right onto the incoming strike by Tifa. She manages to charge and beat him around with those crazy punches and kicks.

This is where Negaduck is now staggering about. "Grrrrrrrr!!!" His eyes are flashing red.

"Try this on for size, you walking tin can!"

His attention is first given to Evja. After all, first order of business is to get rid of the walking tincan. So, Negaduck is lunging forward with a flying kick towards Evja, seeking to bowl him over.

But then he tosses something in the air.

"Here."

*ffssssssss*

Wait, a bomb?

*KABOOOOMMMM!!!!*

Makenshi has posed:
A cheer travels through the crowd as the final round of the first elimination matches begins, drowning out all other sounds in the cacophanous roar of the adoring fans. Finally, the action has started! Crux looks around with wide-eyes at the screaming masses and hooting drunks, not quite sure what to make of all this. However, not wanting to be left out she decides to join in, raising one of her stubby little arms in the and waving it around to cheer at her master.

"Kukuruyu!"

With the signal of the round's start, Makenshi's eyes narrow slightly but he otherwise shows no signs of being even the slightest bit concerned as their opponents rush into battle. Tifa and Evja both go after their feathered compatriot which makes him smirk a little behind the metallic mask that shields his features from view. Well, perhaps they could keep him too tied up to cause any real trouble without any interference from him.

However, he cannot allow them to demolish his ally without taking advantage of their tunnel vision. With a sharp hiss the mask splits down the middle and retracts into nothingness, revealing Makenshi's youthful noble face and he turns to face the trio of warriors. Air is audibly exhaled by the pale warrior and thick hazy wisps of white Mist billow out around him like the smokey breath of a dragon. The hazy fog swiftly grows in intensity and within a few moments the entire battlefield is cloaked under the various shades of white and gray.

Extending a measure of his will into the magically charged Mist, Makenshi creates a wave of oppressive power that seeks to paralyze and debilitate his foes. There is no pain or suffering involved in this technique, merely a sense of being weighed down and smothered by the very air itself. Exhausting them early will make the battle that much smoother and easier to direct.

Grant Majors has posed:
Well, he'd been hoping to enjoy this fight, but Negaduck was bound to make that impossible. Then again, as all three of his foes pile onto Negaduck, Grant gets a brief reprieve; he wasn't going to need to mess with Negaduck if EVERYONE was determined to end the duck first.

So instead, Grant just hangs back. A few moments later, his cape explodes around him; his bared chest, arms, and legs seem to have grown in muscle mass, or at least they look a great deal like they've grown in muscle mass. Grant whirls the spear in his hand around once, the tree-trunk weapon whirling and whistling above him as he tests it out briefly. One part intimidation factor, one part putting up something like a whirling blade defense! Useful and showy - just the way gladiators needed their moves to be.

Evja has posed:
Perfect.

Not only did the attack land, but Tifa and he were working in unison well enough that the attack led into hers beating the duck soundly. Hopping back and away with a quick zigzagging vanish and appear here and there, Evja focused on Grant a moment before suddenly DUCK FEET! With his back to one of the arena corners, it might look like he was trapped, though he leaned back and kicked off the ground, vanishing completely. Then he reappeared against the corner, which he used as a platform to kick off and jump over Negaduck. Though with that bomb coming, once again it might look like the tin can was caught...
Until he shifted his feet and kicked off the air itself. A magical circle appeared beneath his feet as he vanished and reappeared further away, kicking off another corner and skidding on the ground only to realize there was mist coming. "Jump!" he shouted towards Tifa and Quistis, throwing a spear up into the air and launching himself up. He vanished as he had been, reappearing above the spear and kicking it so it spun and stuck tip first into the ground near the two ladies, hoping they could use it in time as a platform to launch themselves into the air like he had. Though as he jumped a second, then somehow a third time, Evja pulled out two spears and meteored down towards the explosive-toating avian, planning to give him a sharp edge like a flea.
Or in this case... Bunny.

Hop, SMASH, Hop, SMASH, Hop, SMASH

Quistis Trepe has posed:

MIST.

Quistis frowns. She had to deal with Mist not that long ago and it was exactly zero fun, perhaps even negative fun. She tenses up before breathing outwards, perhaps not wanting to inhale too much of the mysterious (Misterious?) substance. She grips her whip and turns her attention onto the Duck once more, for he stands out.

A new school of Paramagic, she thinks. Her eyes narrow, feeling it out. Feeling the mid-range at least - always the best choice.

>> DUCK*: A four-tiered element of magic which is fueled by the Dionysian nature fundamental to the billed birds of the world. Recommended Junctions: Strength, Fury, Adventure.

This will take some processing. The best thing to do with this discovery, even as she breathes in some of the mist and frowns at the sluggish sensation that turns into momentary pain in her limbs, is to try it out. Red streaks lance out from Negaduck, to no real harm or effect.

> Draw > Duckara > Cast

Quistis shivers. Then with a sudden burst of gratuitous feathers, she is thrust forwards, producing a string of inexplicable gibberish before aiming at lightning speed to collide into the handsome Makenshi. This produces a cloud of dust, more feathers, and Quistis is rebounded upwards, floating inexplicably in the air for the moment afterwards.

"And that's the MIDDLE level!?" she says, astounded.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was out of the way for the bomb, good thing for her given its size, but the mist is another story! Evja manages to jump out of it, but she wasn't in a good position to move, so she gets affected by it. Ugh, what a disagreable sensation, but at least she can still move.

She jumps up toward the duck, hoping to finish it off, grappling the feathery fiend as she turns him over, readying her supplex. She's done it once on it, she would hope that it still knocks some into its head this time.

Although last time he countered with Summon: Angry shoppers. And that was a bad day for the barmaid x.x

Makenshi has posed:
Content to merely sit back and watch for the moment after preparing the battlefield for his use, Makenshi is actually taken aback by the sheer speed and ferocity of the strange magic unleashed upon him by the rather prim looking woman. She earns a particularly rare expression from the normally aloof and arrogant young knight - shock.

His eyes widen and his sword comes to life, clattering noisily against its fastening on the side of his belt as it takes to the air seemingly on its own. The wide blade of the Maken whirls about to intercept the blitzkrieg streak of feathery doom but the knight is a hair's breath too slow and the two of them disappear into a comical cloud of conflict.

Quistis is ejected into the air a few moments later, clearly making use of her button mashing training from all those summons, leaving a bruised and battered Makenshi in her wake. Feathers and scraps of white cloth drift lazily through the air about the man who, for the first time in his life, looks utterly confused.

The moment is fleeting, however. With his pride throughly damaged all thoughts of playing nice quickly vanish. Glaring up at his attacker, the albino warrior opens his mouth as if to say something but instead fresh Mist billows from within him and rises up to clot the air. The haze grows thicker swiftly, making it difficult to see while providing ample fuel for his next trick.

The elaborate and iconic blade of Misterian heritage is snatched from the air, held straight up over Makenshi's head as he takes aim at the mercenary. When it comes down a great explosion of blue-white energy tears out from the vertical strike, streaking across the gap between them into the cloudy haze which detonates with incredible force.

Grant Majors has posed:
At least they were basically just targetting Negaduck. Again, Grant had, like, zero problem with Negaduck getting the crap beat out of him; the less able Negaduck was to walk, the better. The less able Negaduck was to do ANYTHING, the better. He seemed like the kind of villain who...well, heck, he'd even said it earlier, he wanted to go beat up small animals. That was the kind of villain guys like Grant /fought/, not fought *on the same side as*. Hades must've been loving this.

Still, as much as he was content to sit back, let Negaduck get destroyed, and enjoy that fact very very much, this was still a tournament. He was honor-bound to actually put up a fight; moreover, he really, really wanted to fight Tifa. People who could throw HYDRAS were high on his list of people who were probably strong enough to really interest him.

Unfortunately, Grant has sort of...well, he's sort of got to accept the reality of the situation. And that was that if he lost a teammate, he or Makenshi would probably be next, and no way he could do a three-on-one fight and win, no matter how strong he was. So he'd have to actually start whittling down some of their healths, making some impacts.

Let's see.

That ought to do it.

Grant's cape suddenly explodes around him again, sending him flying into the sky. He goes rocketting towards Tifa first, spiralling through the air as he does so; his unnaturally blue eyes focus on her, hunting down a weak point in her defense, a weak spot, anything, to punch through with that ridiculously huge spear. The spear's wrappings begin to come undone as he moves; a little bit of flame can be seen licking the tip of the magic blade as he charges through the sky. As soon as he's passed Tifa, he moves on to Evja, then Quistis; he arcs through all three of them, his cape moving him like a rapid jellyfish through the air, his spear slashing and stabbing and burning with a speed far faster than something the size of a tree trunk has any right to be. At the end of it, he lands on the other side of them with a crash, the ground around him cracking a bit; glancing over his shoulder at Negaduck, Grant shrugs his shoulders gently, as if to say 'good luck, you titanic asshole'.

Negaduck has posed:
"HEY!" Negaduck snaps towards Quistis, "That was my spell!" He flails an arm towards her, looking pretty angry for her theft of his magic! He saw that red streak lance from him! And he even saw the spell cast. "I will sue! You'll be hearing from my lawyer!" And then he'll steal her next! Why? revenge. No real value.

Meanwhile, Evja comes down at him like a meteor. *KABOOOM!* ...Which, the pain itself was not as bad, but the spear..?

It stuck him.

Right within those tail feathers.

O_O

"DDDDDDDDPOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!" Negaduck is flailing, springing into the air. He runs around in pain. As Tifa attempts to capitalize on the attack, Negaduck spins around, using the spears to distract her and deflect the incoming blows. It was not intentionally, but....

After plucking those spears out of his bum. "...I meant to do that." He looks at both Makenshi and Grant, glaring at those two. However, they provide him a great distraction.

Don't take your eyes off of Negaduck.

Why?

Suddenly, Negaduck has a tank.

HOW DID NEGADUCK PULL OUT A TANK IN THE ARENA?!

"Now then, let's have some fun shall we?" Negaduck replaces his fedora with a hard helmet, then he enters the tank.

The barrel of the cannon pinpoints at Evja and Tifa.

*KABOOOM! KABOOOM!*

Negaduck is going to spoil Grant's fun against Tifa. Oh, and Negaduck is likely to cause collateral damage with each cannon shot. ..Hence why some of the audience of the arena are fleeing.

Evja has posed:
Here comes Evja Judgebunny, hopping round the arena...unny, hippity hoppity, SPEARS ARE ON THEIR WAY. All considered, the rabbit had done an increasingly swell job in avoiding the pain. However, he saw several things coming and by this point, he began to worry. First of all, Grant was beginning to act finally.
Second? Makenshi looks to have just pulled out the stoppers against Quistis.
Third? His teammates were being hit! Before he had a chance to really react, Evja got smacked into from Grant. Luckily for him, the Viera curled up and grabbed at the spear as it lunged in, knocked backwards and into the wall before bouncing off and kicking into the air to vanish and reappear behind Tifa. He wasn't fast enough, however, unable to get her in time. Thankfully he grabbed her before she wound up falling down, only to have the same problem with Quistis.

"Sorry... wasn't fast enough."

SUDDENLY TANK

This time, Evja had no intention of letting his team mates take the hit if he could help it. Spinning in the air so both the girls were in front of him, he hugged around both and took the first shell on his back, hitting him hard enough to knock him in a spiral against the transparent wall. Though this sadly meant the second likely hit Tifa dead on.

"Dang... THIS ENDS NOW! Dropping down to the ground quickly in a corner, Evja sets the two ladies down and rests just a second to give any magics a chance to be cast, only to launch up into the air and pull out two spears, both glowing gold. Spinning in a pirouette, Evja begins to launch ghostly holy copies of the spears towards the tank and Makenshi, since Grant didn't seem too stationary last he had a chance to check, attempting to deal as much damage to them as he could.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Energy blasts, then? So it should be, and so it shall be. The haze thickens as Quistis recovers from her unplanned trip into the air, floating hilariously and squinting before suddenly

POW!

The light smashes against her and she falls downwards, legs kicking. Caught in midair, she coughs once and slides out once she's let loose, seeing Tifa getting slammed into by DUCKFORCE a moment afterwards - surely, Quistis thinks to herself, Duck Magic is something that bears studying. If only she could somehow find and eat one, and gain the power of Duck Rage herself. But where could you do something like that?

SOMEWHERE IN MULAN'S OLD NEIGHBORHOOD

"Fresh duck! Freeesh duck! Greasiest off the old pod! Come get your duck!!"

HERE AGAIN

Quistis is let loose, and her hand reaches out to 'pap' onto Evja's shoulder for a moment. A gesture of sororal affection? Wait, no - it's another of those weird draw-cast things. Another shower of speeding clocks and rainbow shells, and Quistis says hurriedly, "I'm going to try something powerful, try to keep them busy for another minute or so. Neither of you are prone to frostbite, right??"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart isn't doing too well, between the flaming spear throwing and the cannon blasting, she's taken quite a beating out there. And Evja can't come to the rescue fast enough, he can't be everywhere after all. But she's not down yet. She still has some left to dish out.

And that duck needs to go down now.

She rushes toward the caped duck, starting up with a strong uppercut to send it flying, and while its airborned, using some of her (up to now useless) speed, she literally appears behind the duck, grabbing it and unceremoniously tossing him toward the ground, hoping to make a small crater out of him this time. One she hopes he won't get out of.

Grant Majors has posed:
Grant's eyebrow quirks as Quistis does her little shield. Speeding clocks, rainbow shields...very interesting. Those unnaturally blue eyes dart across the field, checking for an opening as the other two perform their movements; he considers everything in the moment, taking everything in stride. He's a well-trained warrior, that much is obvious; the way he carries himself, the way he handles his blade, the way he moves, the way he targets.

What is also obvious is that he is tremenously, ungodly strong.

This was obvious before; however, as he juggles that tree-sized spear in one hand thoughtfully, watcing the girls and rabbit move, it becomes that much *more* obvious. Doubly so as he, well...as he pulls back his spear in one hand, waiting for a perfect shot.

Then he takes it. He flings the spear, as hard as he can, at Evja first; the massive weapon goes spiralling, end over end, trailing bandages and flames through the air as it moves to punch right through that shield and that spinning clock, to break through those strange defensive tricks and shatter Evja's defenses. As the spear makes its way towards Evja, suddenly Grant is following along right beside it, running on the air, his cloak trailing behind him; he grabs the spear just before it lands and THRUSTS, adding yet more momentum to the strike, more force to the attack. Then he flings it in the direction of Quistis; again, he darts along behind it, dancing and bouncing over the spear on the air, to make his attack that much harder to guess, that much harder to predict, and he swings again, this time the stab coming downwards. Finally, Tifa gets the exact same treatment; her swing comes from an off diagonal, slashing downwards to punch through her shield.

Grant lands again, shouldering his spear once more. "There is no aegis I cannot shatter, no shield I cannot break," he observes passively.

Makenshi has posed:
The shockwave of the explosion sends the surrounding clouds of mist rippling away from Quistis as she suffers the white swordsman's wrath and a few moments of harsh wind assault the entire coliseum as it washes over the battlefield and the crowd. Combined with the sudden deployment of armored vehicles, flying squid-capes, and duck magic there is an appreciative silence followed by even louder cheering than before. It seems like the crowd is enjoying the show!

Up in the stands, Crux suffers a little more than the regular sized people as her wide golden wings are snagged in the buffeting gale. The little fairy leans into the wind, latching her fingers on the edge of the stone seat but she is ultimately overwhelmed and goes pinwheeling into the air, only to land head first into a bucket of popcorn.

She struggles at first but once her armored visor pops free of the confines of the container, she suddenly gets a taste of the liquidy butter on her lips and rolls it around on her tongue tenatively for a moment. "Kukuruyu!" Flipping the bucket upright with still about half of it not scattered on the ground or lodging her flowing hair, Crux begins to munch happily on the kernals and turns her attention back to the fight.

Back in the thick of the action, Makenshi stands stoically in the face of the rippling wave of energy released from his assault, cape flowing out dramatically from his shoulders. He moves to follow the woman when she falls back, however, a glint of light from the corner of his eye arrests the forward movement and forces him to spin about to face this new threat.

Ghostly golden spears rip through the air with lightning speed and again the elegant swordsman finds himself overwhelmed, his defenses taxed by the sheer volume and the unsual magical nature of the strikes. Several of them are knocked away, spiraling off into the walls where they shatter stone and rain debris into the stands. A one of them gets through, however, slicing wide across his narrow flank when the sword spinning wildly about him like a blur of white steel fails to stop it in time.

Blood spurts from the wound, spattering the ground with a single spatter of red droplets. Gritting his teeth at the mounting absurdity of this battle, Makenshi knocks the final holy blade aside and sends it back with a little love of his own. As his blade slices across the mist-filled air, there is a momentary pause, and then an massive explosion that tears across the battlefield at the two airborne opponents.

Negaduck has posed:
*TINK! DINK! DINK! TINK*

Those ghastly spears do not seem to have much effect on the harden cased tank, it seems. Negaduck has been driving that tank to bowl over the attempts of piercing its defenses. Negaduck has a crazed look on his face.

The tank is rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (wha?!)
It's rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' (come on!!)

So, while Negaduck is inside the tank, she manages to uppercut it into the air... and then tossing it back onto the ground with a heavy THUD! into the arena.

Negaduck emerges, looking rather dizziedly.

"Nggghhhh..." Negaduck is displeased. In fact, Negaduck whips out the dreaded chainsaw. "..Grrrrr...." *VRRRRNN-chrgghggkgk*

"...One moment."

*VRRRR-VRRR--VRRRRRRNNNN*

Negaduck whip the chainsaw into the air, "Eeeeexcellent...." He smiles towards Tifa and Evja. His sharp teeth forms a grin and his eyes look crazed.

"Here's...../NEGA/!!!!"

He creeps.... He does the creep (ahhh), he does the creep (ahhh). Negaduck's planning to do some hacking, bcause boy is he unhappy.

He's swinging that chainsaw around towards Tifa and the Judge.

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!!! *VRRRRNNN** "AAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
With the duck going on his Texas Chainsaw Massacre, despite not being in Texas, the barmaid barely can manage to get away from it, landing and rolling away, the dangerous metal chain still managing to snag a piece of her skin along the way. That one hurts!

And yet, nothing a sleep at the inn won't fix, right? Silly fantasy worlds.

Anyway, as she rolls out of the way of the dangerous duck, she's already charging up her attack. If she's going down, she's going to take some with her. Her fist is glowing, and then she becomes a blur.

All of her speed and her remaining strength go to her legs, blurring her from sight to the untrained eye, first catching the duck by the feathers of the neck and tossing him into Grants. Before the duck can even land against his teammate, a similar fate pushes Makenshi toward the others. It all happens in a fraction of a second.

But where is Tifa gone to? Overhead. Using that speed, she comes crashing down into the three as she manages to get them together, even for a fraction of a second, which is what she wanted, where she can concentrate all of her power into this attack, releasing a punch straight to the ground in the middle of the three, making the ground explode around them into a small fireworks of her own devise.

If there's a heaven on earth, Tifa's heaven is final.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

What does Kukuruyu mean, Quistis wonders, a moment before she is engulfed in bone-shuddering explosions. Fireballs arise around her in a manner almost copy-pasted, and when the smoke clears, Quistis is wobbling slightly, her shoulder on fire gently, and largely around the cloth.

She seems to be grinning somehow, though. At least this time, she thinks, I didn't break my leg. She then gives the tank that Negaduck appears to have brought inside a long, glaring look, and crosses her arms over her chest. Is she calling for a time out? Surrendering? No - she leans her head back, closing her eyes...

And then looking upwards, one hand raised, splayed fingers over her face. "Do you think that you're in the lead, because of your tanks and your mist and everything? Relying on machines or the exegencies of the environment isn't the path to victory. Here. Let me -"

She erupts in orange light. "Show you!!"

A good dozen rockets appear literally out of nowhere from Quistis's back, tacking around over her shoulders gracefully and picking up speed as they undulate around each other and move primarily towards Makenshi. She turns slightly, and the missiles arc in their last third or so towards that tank, aiming to hit it from above - the reason, of course, for so many tanks needing PROPER AIR COVER!

But that's not enough. She raises her hand outwards and mimes blowing a kiss for a moment. The result of this moment of pointless femininity? A sudden blinding ray of horrifying light from her mouth, shading towards violet - it rests towards the Negatank's area before she walks it back to Makenshi, just to close the loop.

Evja has posed:
Evja stood back at this point, quite winded, looking to be giving the others a chance to do their thing. Though suddenly Negaduck came running over, and just as Evja got knocked back by his attack, the explosion caught him, leaving him to hunker down and try to wear through it. This wasn't looking the best for him, though as he rested and attempted to recoop his energy, Evja started to glow faintly. He watched and concentrated as Tifa unleased her attacks, then Quistis next, leaving him a chance to build up before his attack came.
And somehow...

The opposing side withstood it.

Which simply left him with one last thing to do - try to take out the ones who, like his team, were rather bad off. Jumping up into the air once more, twice, thrice, Evja summoned all the spears he had around the arena and the golden ones that had landed and exploded, their energy lingering around, into a massive golden spear. "SPEAR OF THE JUDGE!"

Whooosh, BOOOOOOOOOOM, it launched right towards the ground like a holy-laced golden missile, aiming to take them out.

Grant Majors has posed:
Grant gets smacked by...something? He's not quite sure what hit him; he stumbles backwards, his cape immediately planting itself in the ground to stop him from sliding. As Tifa's attack nails him, the cape simultaneously stabs outwards, slashing at her chest - it's aimed for her heart, though Grant has no ability to control that; it just reacts on its own free will.

"About time," Grant observes passively. "Now I can really enter the battle! I've been waiting for this!" His spear falls; the massive thing tumbles like tree-trunk, landing in front of him; its fall echoes through the Coliseum, shaking the whole of the building as it lands, cracking the ground below. His hands, now free, reach for the bindings around his legs, utterly unconcerned with the fact that Negaduck and Makenshi just got destroyed. He tears the bandages off casually; they flutter the ground, revealing blazing, blue runes all the way up to his thighs. Then he does the same for his hands; again, a set of blazing blue runes, glowing with an unnatural light. Finally, he rips off his cape, tossing it to the side; it floats casually near him as he unveils exactly how ripped he is, exactly how STRONG he looks. His face is handsome, a bit unshaven, a five o'clock shadow across his face that will likely not persist for long; his eyes burn with the same intense blue light, no whites left within them.

The man had a fistfight with Hercules. He looks it.

Then he lifts his spear again into his hand, and rips off the bandages there, and blue flames trail from the tip, the same runes carved into his flesh - and yes, they are CARVED into his flesh, or burned into it, still burning, ever-burning - are carved into the spear. The tip suddenly erupts into a cerulean blaze.

Grant looks absolutely delighted by this turn of events. Now...NOW he can cut loose.

Grant's roar erupts from his lips and tears through the whole Coliseum, echoing and rebounding. There is fury on those lips, fury and power; fury and power and honor, for it is as much a scream of rage against his fate in this tournament as it is a challenge to his foes. He leaps, not flying into the sky like a dragoon, but simply bounding upwards, trailing fire in his wake, five trails of blue flame.

And then...and then he falls. That tree-trunk spear, that monstrous strength, the immense weight his body must be sustaining, they fall, fall, fall, plummetting towards the other team with all the strength he has available to him.

"I AM GRANT MAJORS!" Grant roars as he falls, "MARK WELL MY NAME! FOR I HAVE BEEN WAITING TO FIGHT FOR THE WHOLE OF OUR MATCH...AND NOW I AM UNLEASHED!"

Negaduck has posed:
"HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, MY PRETTY?!" Negaduck leers at Tifa as she manages to get cut in her evasion attempts of rolling and weaving away. Negaduck stalks her way, that chainsaw in his hand.

"Come on out, lil' lady. Negaduck's going to play nice this time." He deactivates the chainsaw and puts it into his pocket. Wait... what? Pocket? No pants? Don't ask.

Negaduck does see Tifa coming out toward shim wit her flurry of strikes.

"HA!"

Suddenly, an anvil comes down at Tifa to halt her on her tracks.
And then, Quistis gets his attenion. "...You.... Oho ho. I owe you one for RUINING MY PLANS OF MAKING AN ANGSTY PROTAGONIST MONTHS AGO!" He then blinks. "You and...."

"POOOOOWWWWWWWWEEERRRR PIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGG!!!!"

In Negaduck's horrified flashbacks of anger and humilition, he fails to recall the fact of rokts flying his way. Explosions occur--- and the blinding ray of light blasts against the tank. That and combined with the energy engulfed from the golden-spear, Negaduck is lanced... His entire tank is lanced. The combined efforts DESTROYS the tank.

...And Negaduck lands with a thud.

After a few moments, a bloodhound shows up to point and laugh at Negaduck.

"Huhuhuhhuhuuuurrrurur..."

Makenshi has posed:
Why, Kukuruyu means anything and everything, my dear. Tis a magical language, you see, granted only to the cutest of fairies which happen to be the soulless puppets of a spawn of Chaos that fails to understand the concept of bone structure. Crux closes her eyes and nibbles contently on her popcorn, clearly not spying on anyone today. Nope.

Makenshi rolls with the sudden force applied to his body when Tifa manages to snag his collar and his body flips gracefully about as he sails down towards the others, narrowly sliding out of the path of her glowing fist and drifting lightly to the ground nearby. He glares at her with a dark frown but retains control of his emotions, clenching his fist tightly about the blade instead.

And then the missiles begin to rain down on him, Quistis seeming to take offense of his utilization of the Misterian's birthright. Again his blade whips out, sending a powerful wave of compressed magical air to intercept the deadly projectiles. The foremost of the munitions wobbling crazily in the air for a moment before their warhead crumple and detonate violently, sending a rippling wave of fratricide through their ranks. However, instead of exploding harmlessly before him the missiles soldier valiantly onwards even as they die to the death throes of their fellows and a massive ball of fire erupts about the albino warrior's body.

Makenshi can do little but shield himself from the painful blast, even his stalwart mastery of the blade no match against localized explosions. From the dust and ash his slender form flies into the wall where he crashes painfully against the dark masonry before crumpling to the dirt. Even before he can rise from his knees the golden light envelopes him once more. "Tch," is all he can manage before another brilliant blast flattens him against the wall.

When the light clear, Makenshi staggers to his feet, obviously injured. Blood trickles from his previous wound and the corner of his mouth. Looking back towards the opposing team, he ponders for a few moments and then smiles faintly. "Well done."

Evja has posed:
THUD

Evja lands, and looks around to see who is left standing. Of course, this reveals two things. Two are down...(plus snickering dog wat?) and Grant is gleeful.

"Ohcrap. GET BEHIND ME!" Evja yells before using the brief moment while Grant was in the air to try and make a barricade in front of himself as best he can, pulling spears out of the air and smashing them into the ground like a cage to try and secure himself on. That, and he didn't plan on moving. He was tanking this one and hoping the other two might manage to escape the impact of it while he hopefully would stay standing as well.

The attack came and the spears weren't enough to stop it, only break it as Evja stood his ground against Grant as best he could. When the spear lanced through his own, Evja grabbed onto it, only to gasp out as it pierced through his side. However, even as it pierced him, Evja pushed back with his feet as hard as he could at the point of impact, curled around it while trying as hard as he could to keep it from doing more, from hurting the others if he possibly could. He hadn't even had a chance to see if they /did/ get behind his wall.
He simply had to hope he could manage to stop it as much as he could and hold onto it, so if they did stay standing after the attack, hopefully it would leave the weapon temporarily lodged in his armor so they had a chance to beat on Grant, or try to.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as the combined efforts managed to take down the evil duck and the mist maker. Although her attacks were not very effective, she has to thank Quistis and Evja for finishing it off. But she doesn't really have time for that right now, when Grant turns into MR HUGE and tries to bodyslam most of her team down. She can't do much about the Judge, but Quistis was within range. She dives for the other girl, just in time to drag her out of the growing shadow of the 'unleashed warrior', and narrowly rolling out of the way with her, managing to limit all damage to minimum. That was a very close one!

But Tifa is running short on her strength right now, between the repeated attacks. All she can do is hope for the best at this point, and launch herself into another attack. Those punches and kicks are getting alot weaker, but she's on her last mile in this fight. No supplex for you right now Mr Grant.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Hip-bumped out of the way with dramatic force, Quistis is spared the wooden wrath of Grant Majors; her flesh remains unpenetrated, her jimmies unrustled, and her innards fully inner, nor in any sense outwards.

She gives Tifa a momentary look of terror, but she seems to be - if not exactly well off - unmurdered. The Judge is still standing, of course, and so their fate isn't as doomed as it might be - except Evja doesn't seem to be moving a great deal. And so her attention comes back to her enemy, the last man standing on the field... Grant Majors.

She frowns at him. Strength like that, she thinks: If she got close, even Shiva would just mean she only got ripped into recoverable chunks. Hardly a positive outcome. Her arms fold in front of her; she imagines snapping her whip at him, but the image of him snarling the cord with his trunk, pulling her inwards, and disassembling her like a recalcitrant chicken wing is too clear.

She breathes in - and Negaduck saves the day (and so, perhaps, is truly defeated). She reaches a hand towards him, contorting the rest of the body so it looks like a saucy pose. Perhaps this will distract him. "Unleashed? You sound like you consider yourself held back by your team mates. That's not a very cooperative behavior pattern. You should consider working more closely with your friends."

Some red sparkles flow out from Negaduck a couple of times as Quistis stocks some Duckara and Duckaga. Her other hand comes up, raising an index finger. "Do you have the story of the three arrows where you come from? I've heard it a couple of different ways, but the way we tell it, it was a sorceress speaking to her three sons, who were sad they didn't share her magical powers. I'll spare you the whole tale: I'm sure you can get the idea if you think about it -"

Another spangle of light. "But instead you've set yourself apart from them. I'd say you were all more powerful than us, individually, but look at where we stand now. And what's more... We retain flexibility." She smiles then. "I bet you think I'm a support mage, right? Here, let me show you."

> Cast > Duckara

Quistis smashes forwards again with a more controlled burst of Duck Energy (it's an element now; adapt), blurring fast and perhaps really simply manifesting the magic in a unique way. When the spell finishes, she raises her hand up, letting out a wordless kiai of focus, snapping her fingers once.

> Cast > Duckaga

"AWBJWBGWBJLEGLKJEG" Quistis says cogently as she loses, for a moment, the power of rational speech. As she descends to the ground, though, she seems to glow blue, moving with inordinate grace. 'Huh,' she thinks, even as righteous indignation swells within her like deeps barely held back by the thinnest layer of stone, her body shaking, arms flailing - before she becomes suddenly completely still.

Nothing happens for two long, agonizing seconds.

Four spheres with red glyphs within rise and swirl around her, and Quistis Trepe is replaced by a far different figure; the air of the colosseum plunges frigidly, frost forming as a crystallized form manifests itself in front of where Quistis had been standing. The sky darkens, even as the Guardian Force bursts from its icy prison. It - She - spreads her arms up, exulting in power for a moment, before she takes on a glow much like the one Quistis had been sheathed in earlier.

Shiva glances to the stands then, and she winks once, before leaning forwards and reaching towards Grant with both hands. Stone-cracking frost arcs outwards, the chill coming first and followed a moment after by the sudden eruption of ambient atmospheric moisture drawn into automatically crystallizing and /incredibly sharp/ pillars and stalagmites of ice around him. Don't lick them.

And then Shiva vanishes, Quistis returning and wobbling to one side, perhaps drained by the dark arts of Duck Force.

Grant Majors has posed:
For a very, very, very brief moment, Grant releases his spear, leaving it where it is - more or less impaled through Evja's armor, the huge stone weapon stuck in the floor of the arena quite firmly. Okay. That was fine. Tifa comes in, her fists smashing against him; she's obviously exhausted. Grant's disappointment is evident on his face, in his eyes; he was looking forward to seeing her real strength, her real power, her real ability, not this tired-out girl. His hand snaps outwards to pat her lightly on the stomach as her blows fall upon his shoulders, light bruising showing up; it is a very light tap, by his standards, just enough to knock her away.

Then Quistis begins her speech. "I hate both of those people," Grant replies casually. "One of them is a psychopath, and one of them is a destroyer. Why should I want to befriend them? Do you think it was my choice to be on this team?"

"You make too many assumptions. You assume that I am their friend. You assume that I believe you to be impotent because you are weakened and I am not. But most importantly of all, you assume that I believe anything about your capabilities."

Suddenly, those flames are burning even brighter. Grant's hand tightens into a fist as Quistis smashes into him; he's clearly no stranger to hand-to-hand combat, and though her blows are strong, are fierce, he's compensating for his inferior position with sheer expertise. Each blow is deflected just enough to minimize damage - not nullify, no, not nullify at all, as the...Duck Force...(curse Negaduck's existence) rushes over him, because he has no real way to counter magic...but dampen, lessen, /weaken/. Weaken was enough.

Then she goes still; Grant leaps backwards, throwing up his burning arms as Shiva appears. He knew Shiva. He was aware of Shiva, the ancient Esper; he knew of her power. He is a bit surprised by that, actually; that must mean that this woman is from a world not unlike his own.

Shiva comes in; frost arcs outwards, pillars and stalagmites and crystals rushing upwards to meet his skin. A normal man would try to dodge, or guard, or hide; Grant does neither of those things.

Grant's fire-covered fist smashes outwards, and he smashes right through the pillars in front of him; they shatter, sharding, cutting, slicing his hand and his arm and his chest and his face, and he bleeds, oh, he definitely bleeds. But the ice does not impale him, and that makes all the difference. In moments, however, it has cauterized, some internal flame just searing the wounds shut; it looks like it causes him a great deal of pain just to do it, but he does it regardless.

"You should never assume anything about your enemies capabilities in battle," Grant replies, shaking his hand. It's not frozen, but it looks like it's only now thawing out. That was a deep cold.

Then he jumps backwards, grabbing that tree-trunk sized spear...and he rips it out of the ground effortlessly, whether Evja is holding onto it or not. In fact, Evja holding onto it merely makes the attack that much better; he swings it around, fiercely, slicing it towards Tifa. Quistis is clearly too dangerous to split his attention on; he has no choice but to try and finish both of them off, then focus on her and her alone.

Evja has posed:
"HURK"!

Evja, true to his intentions, doesn't let go of Grant's spear. Even if that damned thing is as big as can be, he was holding on tight, fingers gripping into it to the point where he probably looked rather silly. Thankfully the attack from Quistis didn't hit him, but it did blow his helmet off and backwards, leaving the Viera glaring towards Grant.

"Pitiful... I do not even know mine... and I would still protect them. LIKE THIS!"

As Evja is swung and used as a weapon, he coils his legs up and just as he is about to be impacted with Tifa, used as Grant's weapon, Evja kicks out with both legs and cries out at the feeling of the spear finally ripping free of his side and armor.
It worked, though, kicking Tifa away from the spear itself to lessen the blow and leave her standing.

Of course, at this point, Evja was flung free, and only had a moment to respond. So the Viera grabbed a spear out of the air and used the last of his strength to throw it dead on towards grant, as hard as he could, before smacking into the arena translucent wall and thudding against it with a meaty impact, head first.
Bunny is finally down, laying on the ground and looking completely out of it.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is tired of course, but still standing. And as long as there's some fight in her, she's going to the end of it. The little show of Quistis does manage to invigorate her a little, if only for the breather she gets before moving on to the next plan of attack.

That's until that large tree-sized spear tries to slice her into two. But Evja's sacrifice had the expected results. She didn't evade all of the damage, but still enough to only graze her. Its lucky for her, but bad for the fallen teammate. "Stay still and rest Evja, we'll finish this." Or, well, fall unconcious trying.

That invigoration was just enough for her to mass up her energies into her fist again. If Grant wants to see what Tifa can do, he's going to get a sample of it. Sure, she's tired and weakened, but that's only a taste of what she can do when she's at full strenght.

She charges up her energies into her first again, making it glow with the accumulated ki, and then she rushes at Grant before he can reel back his huge spear from the swing. He might be fast with it, but she's faster. She reels in the punch...

But the strike doesn't come. Instead, the motions makes her slide down right between his spread legs, and using the momentum, she pushes herself up, and latches her legs around his neck from behind as she makes a handstand. And with all of her might, she flips him up, and back, and DOWN into the ground, a variation of her supplex using her legs no doubt. She can flip hydras, this tall man shouldn't be any heavier right?

And while he's laying flat on his back, you know the next part right? She releases her Final Heaven at point black range, bringing the fist down straight into his chest, releasing the explosive energy where he can't evade it (or at least she hopes :( )

Quistis Trepe has posed:

After Grant's words, Quistis considers for a long moment.

"Well, I had no idea that anyone was making a penal entry into the contest, so..." She frowns and nods once. "So yes, actually, I did. But I mean, the point remains the - oh!" And then she beams, cheerfully. "Don't I?"

Unfortunately the fast motions of the fiery man put the pressure on Quistis, and she is aware that she is mere seconds away from Tifa getting ripped apart like a fried chicken breast at which point Grant will come eat off /her/ head and have the victory. Pride if nothing else keeps her aloft here, but, she thinks, what can I do to stop him --

The thought travels through her nervous system as her first and in some ways finest Blue Magic comes to mind. She turns away from Grant for a moment.

Then she turns back around, and her eyes erupt in /lethal laser beams/, focusing balefully on the man with shimmering pink light. Her hand goes, saucily, onto her hip.

Grant Majors has posed:
"Yes. I should absolutely protect the criminals that I ideologically am opposed to. You are full of wisdom. I have changed my entire view on life. Thank you for straightening out my life. From now on, I will strive to defend criminals I am forced to work with as though they were my own flesh and blood." Grant observes dryly at Evja as he swings his spear back over his shoulder. So dry, the Sahara Desert could curl up and die of heat exhaustion. Apparently Grant doesn't really like being lectured about honor, who knew?

However, he definitely likes Tifa, or at least he does after this. She comes in; her legs wrap around his neck in a surprise move, and he can feel his neck suddenly straining against his body as he's brought down, smashing into the ground. As he smashes down into the Coliseum rock, he cracks the stone, shaking the Coliseum once again, a combination of Tifa's incredibly strength and his own weight. The man is practically all muscle; as Tifa's Final Heaven comes smashing down into his chest, exploding across his body, she can feel that much to be true - there is not an inch of fat on that man. He is a killing *machine*.

The explosive energy pours through him; the crater from his impact explodes outwards, his body shakes and shudders, and he roars outwards, accepting and challenging the pain in a very verbal way. His hand smacks outwards, again, very gently, to knock Tifa back and away with his enormous strength; he stands, just in time for Quistis to blast him in the chest with laser beams. They pierce through his body, exploding out the other side; blood splatters behind him as the wounds punch through, and then seal, again, adding to the pain of the laser with the pain of the blue fire that very visibly licks across them. The blood itself erupts into flames and disappears, a fine red-and-blue haze emerging behind him.

"Impressive," Grant replies; a trickle of blood from his lip, too, erupts into flame, and he winces. It's not enough to really bother him, not right now. He's weakened - of course he is, he's been taking on three very powerful, very expert, very dangerous fighters - but he is far from beaten. Grant lifts his spear again, snagging it upwards into his hand with a bit more noticeable effort than before...and then he hurls it, as hard as he can, flinging the weapon directly at Tifa and Quistis with all his might. It screams as it flies, flames pouring out of it on every angle; it seeks to pin them to the coliseum wall with its own massive girth, to pin them down and shatter them under its sheer, unbelievable weight and the speed with which the man has thrown it.

"I AM HONORED TO FACE SUCH FOES IN BATTLE!" Grant roars. And he is, he really is; the grin on his face is huge. He hasn't enjoyed himself like this in a very long time.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart has given everything she had in the entire fight, with mixed results, but she has nothing to regret about this right now. The spear comes hurtling toward her and Quistis, but she's powerless to stop it. In a last ditch effort though, she attempts to vault over it, sending a strong kick up, an attempt to lift the muscleman off his feet. But sadly, she's a few inches short of it, mostly distabilized by the large stone spear that strikes her.

That's all she wrote in this fight, the last of her conciousness fading even before the hits the ground. No need to count to 10, its over. But noone's dead, just hurt alot. And that's what Hades standing around with Pheonix Down is for, right?

.... Right?

...

... Where is Hades anyway?

Quistis Trepe has posed:

When the man gets sarcastic at Evja, Quistis frowns. And yet he's going through Tifa like the aforementioned chicken breast. She breathes in deeply, deciding perhaps that the best way to deal with this is to throw it all on that one last untried spell -

Light flashes from Negaduck, to Quistis, and then outwards as her eyes widen as the rippling figure throws that fiery log towards them. Towards HER. She swings one fist towards it - and the might of Duck flows through her once more, splitting outwards. The spear hits her thrown strike...

There is a resounding QUACK of stone, and the weapon falls apart in three parts, like ancient Gaul. Two of them fall to either side in front of the surprised Quistis, who blinks through the inevitable stone dust. The power of this new route of paramagic is manifest in the third part, a fallen chunk landing in a peculiar shape, like a lower case 'r' that just kept on going for about three feet.

"Now I understand it," she says, wonderingly, rather than replying directly to Grant. "I understand everything!"

She runs forwards and grabs the object. This time she does NOT leech off of Negaduck, having sensibly stocked spells previously. After a deep breath, she snaps her fingers, surrounded once again by that yellow glow - but this time it does not turn her into a living body-slammer.

Instead, she rises upwards in an arc, pulling up her legs and pressing her knees to her wrists, both hands around the sliver of stone. Something tells her it will probably break in at most three or four tries, but, she thinks, it's the last gasp --

The springing sound booms out, like Truth unveiled.

Negaduck has posed:
"Myyyyyyyy fiiiiiigghhhttttt mooooonneeeyyyy!!!!!"

Negaduck sees the signs of victory crushed.

The bloodhound laughs at Negaduck again.

"Hurhurhurhurhurrrr...!"

Grant Majors has posed:
Grant is satisfied with this outcome. He watches his magic spear shatter into pieces; the massive weapon lands on the ground, bursting into flame, and is instantly consumed into nothingness. Not even ash remains. Quistis's paramagic protects the shard she has taken; however, she can feel it, at the edges of her consciousness, attempting to burn and return to its master.

She hammers down on him, and he stumbles and falls; she hammers again, and the ground explodes below him. She hammers a third time, and Hades will need a new ceiling tile put in in the Underworld, and a new flooring for the Coliseum. Finally, the spear gives in, and shatters into flame, disappearing into Grant.

He is not unconscious. But he cannot continue to fight. He knows as much.

Grant makes a weak gesture with his hand. His cloak flies over, wrapping itself around him and resituating on his back (despite the fact that he's laying flat on the ground); his wrappings bind themselves back around his hands and legs, powered by magic.

"A wonderful fight. You denied those villains their goal, and allowed me to truly enjoy myself. Thank you."

Grant lays his head back against the crater and smiles.

**** Negaduck and Makenshi. He /won/, as far as he's concerned.

Evja has posed:
Suddenly, the two cute announcers return just as the walls descend, "AND THE..."
"...WINNERS ARE..."
"HEAVENS" "JUDGMENT!"

The stands burst into cheers, likely giving little Crux a proper experience in what explosive cheering is like. Maybe she'll don a cheerleader costume for the next fights?