Section 4
Part V Qualifiers
"Now that everyone is gathered, matches will commence. The first group, Team 1, will face Team A, and the second group, Team D, will face Team 18. Please take your place on the stages left and right respectively by taking the stairs on the platforms left and right of your stage. Group2: Team 2 versus Team C and Group3: Team 4 versus Team D, your matches will proceed upon completion of the first pair of matches of the first round of the Preliminary Qualifiers.
The first team on the right side began their fight, well it would be hard to count what happened as a fight, it was more like a massacre because that elf and his glowing skin partner used some spells that launched Phantom’s brothers off the stage. They landed on the ground 5 feet from the base of the platform. From my mind, I felt Phantom tense up and was upset that her brothers were treated with such disrespect. I looked over to the right stage, where Phantom and Sopheia stood a few meters from the stage with their other waiting competitors. I saw Sopheia place her hand on Phantom's shoulder to console Phantom and stop the violent tendrils of color radiating from Phantom out of seemingly all of her pores and gathering in the air around her like a tornado’s vortex. Shelltri announced the results of the fight on the left stage, declaring the victor's names, TreeLif and Defeata something; I didn't hear them all the way since I was watching the more enthralling match on the other stage.
The dwarves were advancing on their opponents, the one with the great sword on its back rushed the human in chainmail armor and struck him with her short, great hammer; her blow rang across the entire body of spectators with the metal-on-metal strike as an after shockwave ability, the chains of the human male's plate armor detached from its carefully woven structure into thousands of chain pieces sent flying in every direction around him. “Woah, that's very interesting; how in the world did they accomplish that.” I thought to myself, watching a look of terror sweep over the face of the chain-mail, well former chain mail armor wearer. The fantastic display caught the immediate attention of everyone, holding the other competitors and spectators, and even the merchants selling food and drink, captive to see how the fight ends. In a panicked response, the armourless human raised his mace to fight off the stronger female forge Dwarve’s hammer, but her hammer prevailed as she brought it down on the mace's striking edge, and with a loud yelp and flinch of pain, the human dropped the mace to the ground with a loud “clack” it hit the stone platform’s surface. The now armourless and weaponless human backed up, looking to his ally to find them, also engaged in a fierce battle with the other Dwarf who was swinging her hammer in a frenzy, slowly overpowering her opponents equally as frenzied but sloppy attempts to block her hammer strikes.
The human engaged with the larger dwarf, finding no help from his otherwise engaged ally, backed up in fear from his opponent, and she, with a different side of her hammer, struck him and launched him from the stage further than the previous team, making their display of spells look like nothing compared to the grand flaunt of strength on the dwarves Stage. Moments later the teams remaining adversary was knocked off the stage and the match was concluded when the other human hit the ground on their rear. The announcer's voice immediately boomed over the crowd as the dwarves held a celebratory pose by raising their hammers, holding them high above their heads. “The second match of round one of the qualifiers concludes with that splendid display of teamwork and might; your winners are Merc Trath and Swarf Blite.
The rest of the qualifiers mostly lacked such spectacle and ended nearly as quickly as the precedent set by that first round of qualifiers, but there were a few interesting fights, so I’m going to recount the entertaining ones.
Phantom’s fight was against two heavy-plated sheep beast men, and her partner was also a thick and unruly fur and heavy, sheep beast-kin in gleaming set of metal plates. I didn't mention it, but it was getting hot that afternoon, and those sheep beast men, and maybe they might have been sheep beast women or a mix of both; it was hard to tell when they all had that massive coat of fur obscuring their physical structure. Their faces all looked the exact same, just like a herd of sheep would, and forget what I said about the rest of the fights being boring because they all were except for this one. Phantom fight with the sheep beast-kin was the most hilarious fight I have,to date ever witnessed, her opponents and even her ally bleated, just like a sheep would, and I guess thats pronounced their Speach? Or whatever you would call it, but anyway, they sounded remorseful that they had to fight each other. And just when I thought it couldn't get any more out of hand from the base of the stage, there were another four sheep, standing there bleating their support, grief, or whatever they were doing; whatever it was, they were disrupting the fight so much, that after a minute of trying to let it die out on its own Shelltri, the announcer and host had to step on to the stage and had to politely ask for the sheep at the base of the stage and the competing members that were on the stage to please stop their disruptive behavior or they could face disqualification because of their outside interference or refusal to fight.
Unsurprisingly to me but unexpected to the rest of the crowd, Phantom rushed her two idle Opponents alone, took advantage of their immobility, and knocked one of them down. She had to drag them off the stage after an attempt to take off their armor was unfruitful. Phantoms, other opponent was absent-mindedly standing in the same fashion on his knees after Phantom knocked them down. Thrn finally one of the sheep beast-kin made a move against Phantom. The first one to make it to Phantom was her ally, who placed a hand on her shoulder as Phantom was trying (and struggling greatly) to drag a sheep that potentially weighed over 200 pounds on her own to the end of the platform. Phantom barked something back to her ally, probably a warning to back up or help her, but no matter what her command was, her sheep beast-kin ally backed away from her. The sheep that I mentioned earlier was trying to stop Phantom from toting away their ally tried to grab Phantom, but his efforts were rewarded with a series of snaps as Phantom snapped her jaws in a warning.
They backed up, leaving Phantom to her heavy burden of dragging a full-plated sheep with no assistance of her majic. When Phantom finally got tired of this, she planar shifted the armor off her opponent and, with a rush of adrenaline, dragged and tossed her opponent off the stage, well she tried her best, but her opponent held onto the edge of the stage, on the thin line between being eliminated or remaining in the match. Phantom stomped the sheep's hands over and over again, all the while her opponent belated at her in the same unintelligible sheep language, pleading for mercy from Phantom. Phantom let out an exasperated sigh, stomped off to the abandoned suit of armor, hoisted it up with her legs, and with much effort and strain, she carried the set of armor in her arms when she reached her opponent, who was trying to recover at the edge of the stage, she dropped the armor on them, resulting in the sheep beast landing on their back with their heavy armor landing on and around them with heavy thuds and clanks of metal on metal. Her opponent lay on the ground, unconscious from the impact, having already taken over 5 of Phantom's allotted minutes to qualify for the next round, she hurriedly ran over to the two dumbstruck sheep beasts, who just stood there watching her in disbelief at Phantom display of tenacity and strength in which she knocked her opponent out of bounds, were too shocked to do anything as Phantom held three knives about two inches from her opponent's throat; one in her left and two in her right between her index and middle and in between her ring finger and pinky. Phantom made a commanding gesture with a shout and posing her hand to flick the knives at her opponent to herd her them to the end of the playing field.
A wolf struggling to defeat sheep was quite funny. I’ll never let Phantom forget.
Her opponent went willingly to the end of the platform, Phantom agitated, said, “Jump off.” Her opponent stood still at the edge of the platform until Phantom's ally pulled her back by the shoulder, causing Phantom to look back at him with a fire in her eyes that scared everyone watching, and, more importantly, the sheep who her gaze was directed at. The ally sheep beast kin stepped away slowly trying to go unoticed. But it didnt make it far from Phantom or the edge of the stage. Phantom turned her ally towards the south side of the stage, pushed them to the edge, and finished the sheep by bending down and grabbing them by the legs and flipped him around to the other side and slammed them off the stage (like how the sensei in karate movies knocks their pupils down to teach them how to recover to a standing position.). With that, Phantom eliminated her unsupportive and disruptive ally from the match before returning to her final opponent. In the last seconds after the fight, Phantom kicked the remaining sheep beast off the stage with her left foot to the chest plate; her opponent stumbled and fell off the stage as the final second passed, and the match was announced over due to no more time and by Phantom being the only one left on the stage.
Her sheep beast ally was disqualified and eliminated from the qualifiers for being unhelpful and for acting against their ally, Phantom, so She was the only one crowned the victory of that match. What happened on the other stage throughout her fight wasn't important to me, and I have no recollection of it since I was so entranced in Phantom’s fight that I could not tell you anything about the other fight that was occurring at the time; I couldn't even tell you who the winners were because the shouting and cheering of the crowd while watching Phantom’s fight and victory. I didn't mention it earlier, but Phantom immediately fell into a heap on the satge, and she then curled into a ball. I ran, and so did Sopheia and Phantom’s brothers, to Phantom to give aid. Sopheia restored some energy to Phantom with one her spells ; a moment later Phantom recovered enough to speak, she said; “That was the single most annoying fight in my life. I would rather listen to elves talk about nature for hours than live through that ever again; the longest 10 minutes of my life.” Phantom said before her head dropped to her lap again.
“Can you help me lift her up, Draxson?” Sopheia asked me before turning to Phantom's brothers and telling them, "Can you go with draxson and help him take care of Phantom, I’ll be preparing something for your sister's recovery.” Sopheia finished as she extracted a book from the satchel she carried and began reading it while walking to go get her supplies from the bags we left in our room this morning. I squatted down to lift Phantom by her back and behind her knees and then carried her to a spot where I had her brothers set up a bed roll that I asked one of the taller brothers to go fetch from the bags they brought and deposited with the attendants. Phantom's recovery was complete before Sopheia got back with all her supplies, but Sopheia still administered an elixir she brewed that would relax Phantom’s mussels and calm her mind on top of a rapid energy restoration potion Sopheia made from her own majic and some other materials that we needed to stock up on here if we could.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
After Phantom rubbed the muscle-relaxing mixture onto her skin, she downed the vial of energy restoration. She was in a visibly better mood. she slowly recovered from the mental strain and physical exertion from her fight, but she said she could keep fighting she just needed to relax for a moment. With no further fanfare, we headed back to the stages, and as we walked back before Sopheia’s match started, Phantom spoke in a calm and cheery voice, “Thank you, Sopheia, Draxson, and Bark Bark (I assumed this meant to thank you directed to her brothers.) thanks a lot for your support, I'm going to be so happy when this tournaments finally over and we can move on.” and towards the end of her statement, she said “but I'm excited to see how far we can all get, Good luck Sopheia, go get them and make sure you qualify for the tournament this afternoon. I’m placing my belief in you, Sopheia don’t mess this up, Kitten.” she said, watching Sopheia’s tail quickly swishing through the air in excitement. Phantom gave Sopheia a teasing smile as she pushed her forward toward the stage before Sopheia could retort her displeasure with the comment, “Hey, what do you me—--” Sopheia said as she passed through the sea of people and stopped at the base of her stage right before her fight started.
Sopheia's qualifier match
Sopheia’s match seemed to be the shortest of them all, she quickly dispatched her opponents, alongside a fellow sword user with majic blade extensions, allowing them to take out their two opponents, I didn't have enough time to look at their faces before they were removed from the stage and blended back into the crowd we never saw those contestants again. Sopheia’s and someone with name of Doff Halt was announced as the winner of their qualifier match.
Like i said earlier the rest of the fights were very boring after this, that is was the time for the last 4 groups with their teams to conclude the qualifiers, mine was at the very end, o and what a spectacle it was, the match was so exciting but the conclusion of the qualifiers was spectacular.
Draxson's qualifier match
As the cheers from the excited spectators and contestants began to settle down, it was announced that it was my group's turn to decide which team would qualify for the tournament a few hours after this match. “Wonderful contestants, I want to once again express my heartfelt thanks for coming and extend congratulations to the winners of the qualifiers. Remember, if you didn’t qualify, you still have the chance to participate in the secondary competition being hosted tomorrow at the same time that today's games began. This will last for an hour, during which the battle royal winner(s) will be determined and thereafter crowned as the champions of the multi-competitor endurance challenge.
Without any further ado, please give a warm welcome to the final two teams that will cap off the qualifiers: Team B features Draxson ChaosWing and Fennib Flynn, and Team 17 includes Reiz Jazef and Kigali Tokal!
The fight was very drawn out and so full of action that for now, I'll give you a summary of what happened, and I might, at a later time, recount the full fight. Ok here is the summary;
The fight began with me and my ally, Fennib Flynn, a nice 23 years of age human lady, who I was talking with and got to know a little bit about as we watched all the previous qualifiers together before it was our time. Fennib was a warrior in her village's army, and we had a shared interest in archery now, I would be able to see what she's capable of with a bow while also displaying my powers and skill to my opponent, Reiz Jazef, and his ally. But anyway, the fight began with Me readying my bow and Fennib doing likewise as we distributed who would take out who. The other team was talking amongst themselves as Fennib fired the first arrow since the match had already started when we got on the stage where we would battle it out for a spot in the main attraction of the day. Fennibs first arrow pinned Kigali to the ground with an arrow through the pant leg. I rushed Reiz, who was also trying to circle around us, and I met him head-on as he swung his sword at me. I responded with a clawed strike to change his trajectory and move out of the way. I sidestepped it and was met with further slashes that I, in turn, barely redirected and avoided. I looked over to my opponent and knocked an arrow on my bow, Pulled back the string to its max, and launched an arrow aimed at the foot of Fennib’s opponent, which her opponent dodged well enough until he landed himself in a trap because he steps to the side and my ally took that advantage to shoot her opponent in the foot with a spirit bind arrow, that pierced the middle of his foot but the physical arrow only went through his shoe while the enchantment on the arrow bound his soul to that position the same way an arrow inside the foot buried in the floor would immobilize.
With her opponent pinned to the ground, she whacked her opponent with the wood part of her bow before Fennib, from its sheath, drew her blade and slashed at where her arrow was stuck in a foot and split the spirit binding enchantment(she later told me when she and I had a meal with the rest of our group before the main tournament) and forced her opponent back with the point of her sword. When her adversary was near the edge of the stage and trying to make a move to change his position with Fennib, I ducked out of the way of my opponent as I had been through the entire time watching my teammate. It was only different this time because I couldn’t avoid his blade without taking a cut to my left shoulder, not a deep one, but with much blunt force. I moved back from Reiz and shifted my bow to my left hand as I conjured a missile twice the thickness of an arrow but half the length of one and fired it at Reiz, where it struck him in the chest, setting his leather chest armor aflame for a moment, before being put out by Reiz’s heavy smacks of his gloved right hand.
I swung my bow at my opponent’s leg and looked over Reiz’s shoulder just in time to watch Fennibs rival (Kilgali) yanked off the stage by some invisible force at extreme speeds, flinging him off the stage to land on (an object I was later told was the anchor part of the spirit arrow trap), and fell off the stage landing on, and breaking the arrow underneath him. Still mid-swing of my attack I tensed my mussels to hasten my attack. Meanwhile Reiz seized the opportunity to direct my bow away from the leg I designated to strike; Reiz would have been successful if I didn’t belch some flames at him from my transfigured Dragon throat causing Reiz to shy away,abandoning his mission to deflect my bow. The flames came out of my mouth and cut through the air with a rolling fwoosh. Reiz backed up just as I wanted him to so I could strike the area behind his knee with my bow ,causing him to trip as he tried to escape my flame breath. As he toppled over backwards over where my bow was behind his knee my teammate Fennib shot a spirit arrow in Reiz’s right arm effectively pinning him to the ground. His immobility gave me the opportunity, which I most certainly seized it, I emptied most of my frost reserves between coating a few arrows in my quiver and freezing Reiz’s legs, so that when I destroyed the spirit arrow tethering his right arm I could drag him to edge of the stage and toss him off to secure mine and Fennib’s victory.
I tossed Reiz head first, I was only a few meters from the edge of the stage when I tossed him, an oversight on my end but nonetheless I drew inspiration from the results of said oversight; Reiz bent his legs, the massive strain of making his frozen legs move visible on his face,he was able to get his legs bent so that his legs were underneath him and he shifted all the weight that he could to behind him causing him to slide across the stone like platform in an attempt to stop himself from falling off the stage. Though his efforts were astounding they only amounted in a rapid ice-supported slide across the rock surface and off the stage landing on his knees a few seconds later, his momentum carrying him another meter as the friction of the ground he landed on melting the ice and by extension Reiz’s icy-slide. When Reiz came to a stop on the ground Shelltri announced the conclusion of the qualifiers announcing me and my teammate as the last pair of winners. “ Esteemed challengers, ladies and gentlemen of might an valour alike I proudly announce the winners of the Preliminary Qualifiers, Fennib Flynn and Draxson ChoasWing are your winners, which concludes this event.” Shelltri breathlessly announced, excitement obvious in her voice. Shelltri paused for a moment and while Fennib and I approached each other at the center of the stage and bumped our fist’s together in congratulations, Shelltri continued her announcement “Now that the qualifiers for the days main attraction, ‘The tournament of talented warriors’ all qualifying contestants and spectators, you may now all indulge yourselves in some food and rest during the few hours before the days main event begins. That is all, thank you all for participating in our humble tournament, and congratulations to all that survived as long as you did in your matches and for your victories, and just for being an amazing audience.”
Shelltri finished her statement with that as cheers erupted from the surrounding crowd. The crowd was massive, spanning over 100 meters around the stage, the main stage was about 5 feet tall to cater to the spectators at the furthest ends of the congregation of people. Even still a faint replica of the contestants floated about 4 feet above us, all of the contestant’s duplicates mimicking the interactions that the real contestants had with each other below and with their environment being parts of the stage immediately around them. I heard shouts of Draxson and Fennib at the front of the stage, localized from where Sopheia, Phantom, and a group of 3 young women, 1 man and an older man presumably Fennibs family were shouting her name and expressing their pride in her, while My friends cheered me on.
After the match we all ate lunch together and chatted amongst ourselves about the fight while we waited for the start of the main tournament. It started three hours later when the matchups for the first two fights of the tournament were put on the board, with only the names of the first contestant on opposite sides of the bracket.
