Canopus absorbed as much as he could through the next few fights, a task all the easier without Kyanosa’s random, loud comments. Actually the arena slowly emptied as the fights continued. By the time the last fight rolled around, there was barely anyone left in the stands.
“And now the last fight of the first round.” David said with as much enthusiasm as he had before the first fight. “Reykin Jones versus Ambyr Tenbrook.”
Reykin was an anthro kangaroo with light brown fur. She was wearing loose and flowing clothing, and wore a pair of punching daggers. Ambyr walked up with a smile. Canopus’ gaze lingered on her for longer than normal. Her red hair was cut short at her ears, framing a pretty face. Her outfit consisted of a sleeveless white and sky blue dress, and a pair of white boots that went up to mid shin. In her hand she held a foot long stick, which glittered slightly in the sun.
Category: interactive stories
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Chapter 5.1
“Welcome back,” David said exactly 30 minutes later. “Let’s get this tournament back underway. First fight in the second half, Valorie Sterling versus Travis Dulean.”
“Oh, keep an eye on this fight. Valorie is another advisor and she’s pretty strong.” Dirk commented.
Canopus nodded. Valorie was reasonably attractive, with chestnut brown hair that fell halfway down her back. She had a sky blue baby doll tee shirt and long white pants. Her shoes matcher her shirt, and she carried a wooden quarterstaff in her hand.
It was quickly apparent that she wasn’t using the extent of her power, but the battle against a scythe wielding half sheol. She still seemed to win easily, blowing kisses to the crowd before leaving the arena.
Nothing much of interest happened through the next few fights until Josh’s name was called. He headed down to the arena, opposite Julia Sur, a woman with fox ears and tail.
Kaye could tell he was slightly distracted by her outfit, which was pretty revealing. It consisted of a purple tank top with only one strap, and some short jean shorts.
David looked from Josh to Julia. “Everybody ready?” Both combatants nodded. “Then fight!”
Julia grinned. “Good,” she bounded across the arena, pulling a fireball in-between her hands, and firing it toward Josh. Josh dodged to the side; his hand instinctively going for his knife, which he quickly remembered was no longer on his belt. By the time he realized it, Julia had reached him, and was throwing a strong punch toward his face.
Josh bent over backward as the blow flew right over him. As expected, Julia was thrown off balance by the lack of resistance she was expecting. He righted himself and spun around, slamming his foot into her back, hoping to throw her even further off balance. The fox girl caught herself easily.
Josh backed off slightly as Julia turned back around. She looked him over quickly, then reached into her pocket and withdrew a hammer that could not possibly have fit in her pocket. Josh jumped back as she swung it at him. This is crazy, where did that hammer come from?
She swung at him several more times, but each time he was able to dodge away. Unfortunately the fight wasn’t going anywhere. If I can hit her stomach, she’ll drop that hammer, and then she’ll be wide open for another attack. Josh continued to dodge as she swung, until after a particularly strong uppercut, he saw a clear path to her stomach. He darted in, slamming his fist into her stomach, and Julia dropped the hammer, but not the way Josh had expected. She dropped the hammer straight down onto the middle of his back, and the teen slammed into the ground.
Before he could get up, he felt a hand grip his arm, and another grab his leg, and he was picked up into the air, swung around twice, and tossed out of the arena.
Josh hit the ground hard, and rolled several times. When he opened his eyes again there was a medic standing over him. He healed the wounds, and then helped the teen to his feet. Julia was waving to the crowd as David announced the next three fights.
Chapter 4.3
Quartz smiled slightly as the healers reached them. One of them healed the bruises on Quartz. Another healer with long blue hair moved toward Munashii, but he shook his head, flashing her a warm smile. “No need for that.” He then waved to the crowd, and proceeded back to the stands, his wounds bleeding slightly.
“What a great fight.” David said, receiving a hearty cheer from the crowd.
Canopus was itching to fight Munashii. Quartz had not been a weakling, but the silver haired man had very nearly crushed her once he had caught her. But the way the ladder fell, it would be several rounds until he got the chance.
The next battle left Azure, a saska, the winner, and the fight after that a 7-foot tall green skinned lizard. Then it was Dirk’s turn to head down to the arena. A young girl stood waiting for him, wearing a red seaweed skirt and a top consisting mostly of two purple shells.
Chapter 4.2
“Isn’t he great?” Kyanosa grinned.
“That was amazing.” Kaye said.
“She wasn’t that tough.” Canopus shrugged. “Didn’t take long to see through her style.”
Dirk glared at Canopus. Though he didn’t consider it a real magical ability, Dirk had the uncanny power to make people know he was glaring even through the sunglasses. “You’re not saving your abilities for later matches.”
Canopus returned to his usual stance, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “Yeah, how about that.”
No one in the group’s name showed up over the next several battles, so they fell to talking, only looking up when Canopus found something interesting enough to mention it out loud.
One such occasion came at the start of battle twelve.
“It’s a dragon.” Canopus stated.
Chapter 4.1
The cheers and whispers of the crowd passed in one of Canopus’ ears and out the other. His entire focus was on the foxgirl eyeing him from the arena. He walked silently up the steps and crossed his arms, nearly glaring at her. His attitude didn’t seem to faze her in the least, as she neatly glared right back as he stopped on the other side of the arena.
He looked over her entire body, memorizing how she stood, what muscles she tensed, the movement allowed by her clothing, everything he could just from a rest stance. He nodded. “Are you planning on using that sword?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see won’t you?” she replied.
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter for the result. I just wanted to give you an appropriate opponent.”
Her eyes narrowed even more, if that was even possible without them closing completely. “You’re right. Won’t change the results.”
Chapter 3.3
Kyanosa walked back around the arena, grinning at the cheers of the crowd and specifically his group in the front row. He sat where he was before, between Kaye and Canopus. Kaye grinned and patted him on the back. “Dirk taught you to fight like that?”
“Dirk and Cowboy Bebop.”
“See. I told you you’d do great. What did you think Canopus?” She had glanced at the white haired man a few times during the fight, but was not able to figure out what he was thinking.
“Mostly what I would have done. But you’re too flashy. Should go for the simple, effective attacks over what looks better.”
Kyanosa threw up his hands. “You use your style, I use mine.”
“Neither of which is mine, I hope.” Dirk looked at them both.
Canopus stared back at the ring. “Don’t worry. We’ve learned more than that.”
Chapter 3.2
The next two matches passed too quickly for Canopus and too slowly for Kyanosa. Naslok, the elf, quickly magicked his way through his fight, with Canopus muttering the whole time about fighting yet another fire-based opponent, and Malhildur threw enough rocks to viciously force her plain-clothed opponent out of the ring. Then came Kyanosa’s turn.
“Good luck Kyanosa,” Kaye said with a smile. “You’ll do great.”
Kyanosa pumped his fist in the air once and left his seat, walking up the stairs to his side of the arena. His thought-out plan for sizing up his opponent (which, for fairness’ sake, was thought out by Canopus and told to Kyanosa during the first match) went out the window when he first saw him. He, Kyanosa, survivor of the exploding planets, ten-foot-robots, magic-hurling demons, and death itself, was fighting a puppy.
Chapter 3.1
“That was a marvelous breakfast as well,” Kaye said rubbing her stomach. She, Kyanosa, and Dirk had finished breakfast at Sydnei’s and were now heading toward the arena for the announcement of the matches.
Kyanosa sighed. “Yeah, I know. It was great. But I thought you guys were supposed to make sure I didn’t eat too much.”
Dirk shrugged. “Just don’t get an early match.”
“You can decide that?”
“No.”
Kyanosa sighed.
“You’ll be fine,” Kaye said, skipping a little as they walked.
She could feel the excitement in the air. The rest of the participants as well as spectators were gravitating slowly toward the arena.
Dirk looked around. “If you guys see Canopus or Josh or anybody especially good-looking, point them out so we can sit with them.”
Chapter 2.4
Canopus stood with the others, but waited until they had already moved with the rest toward their respective Dragons. It did not matter to him much who he was fighting for, but he was at least curious. Alexis greeted all of her fighters with the same engaging smile she had been introduced with. She shook hands with everyone but then her eyes turned to him and she beckoned him over.
He moved toward her, hearing Kyanosa as he passed by.
“So you’re Dirk’s boss? You’re really tall. How come you don’t have scales?”
“I can break you with my pinky.”
Alexis smiled again as Canopus stopped at the edge of the group aligned with her. She stepped toward him, offering her hand. “I’m pleased to meet you, Canopus. I’ve heard great things about you.”
He took it and shook it while nodding once. From what he could tell, she looked and acted like a normal human. He wondered what it would be like fighting one of the Nine. Alexis’ hand tightened on his enough to be almost painful for a moment.
“You’ll get to fight plenty,” she smiled before turning back to the rest of the group.
The opening ceremony was a standard flashy array that usually accompanied things like this. A huge stone arena was surrounded by risers that held thousands of screaming fans. Each Dragon led out their group of fighters before showing off their powers a bit. Alexis made it snow bits of ice that tasted like candy on the tongue.
Checking out his future opponents did no good in a setting like this. He could tell most all of them held themselves well, but that was normal for a fighter of the level that would gather here.
“Now I wait another day…” Canopus grumbled when the group had met up after the ceremony was over.
“Aww, it’s not so bad Canopus,” Kaye said.
He kept grumbling, but now it was quieter.
Dirk almost smiled. “So that’s the deal. Sometime tomorrow each one of us fights some random opponent, unless we end up with each other. Spend tonight however you want to, but I suggest sleeping in your rooms so you don’t miss the entrance cutoff. I’m spending tonight with some music in my soundproof room and getting up tomorrow at eight for breakfast. Besides that, whatever. Have fun. Just don’t lose.”
Kyanosa shook a finger at Dirk. “That’s all good and well, but if we do get paired up against each other, it’ll be hard for us all not to lose.”
“That’s the problem.”
“No use worrying about that now,” Kaye aid.
Kyanosa nudged Josh. “So who are you staying with?”
“Search me. Some guy with a huge sword and a little kid. House 2 if you want to visit though.” The punk grinned.
“We’re in House 8,” Kyanosa informed him.
“How about we take a tour around the village?” Kaye asked.
Kyanosa and Josh quickly agreed. Canopus and Dirk admitted to other plans and the group went their separate ways until the next morning.
Chapter 2.3
He tapped his chin and looked thoughtful. “I think that’s all the rules for now. If you have any more questions, read your information packets. Now for the fun part. As with every tournament, we have a team of talented healers standing by in all cases to make your boo-boos go away. We’ll introduce them now so you recognize them around the grounds. Firstly, the team leader is Duran Wahl who has been a Healer of Madison for almost 50 years now.”
A man had walked up to where David was standing. He was an avian anthro, with dark maroon feathers touched by gray. He bowed to the crowd.
“Nextly is the lovely Paula Jasperson who will delight you with her soft touch, both physically and mentally as the team’s foremost mental health expert.”
The woman who came up had rich brown skin and her hair was done up in dozens of braids that fell all around her head. She lifted her fingers to her lips and blew a kiss to the crowd.
“Other nextly is Jaspel Godwin. You know that achy, tired feeling you get after an exhaustive healing session? Jaspel here is an expert in energy manipulation that will keep such healing side effects to a minimum.”
Jaspel was a man in his mid-thirties who had two antennae coming out of his brown hair. He had a mustache and smiled dazzlingly at the crowd.
“And now lastly, but of course not least is Melanie Griffin. Isn’t she adorable folks? Don’t let her countenance and age fool you. She was talented enough to catch Madison’s eye at such a young age and excels at detail-oriented vein and nerve work.”
Melanie was clearly the youngest of the group, she appeared to only be in her mid teens with waist length powder-blue hair and eyes that remained firmly on the floor.
