Shabaka's Pride - Round 2: Match 2

             Shabaka spent no time in thought, she hadn’t the time, for as soon as she and Vito had made it to the sidelines, Amare stood in front of Bard, ready for xyr match against Tilian. He was cautious to approach, but eventually did stand against Amare. Smalls watched the pocket watch closely, waiting for the exact second the minute hand hit a new reference mark, giving him a clear point to count from. But then, he did not hesitate.

            “Start the fight!” Smalls shouted, and the confrontation between Tilian and Amare instantly went full throttle.

Amare lifted xyr arms, causing two pillars of dirt to come jutting towards Tilian. He quickly dodged and went to bite at Amare’s hair. Just before he could get in range, Amare brought xyr right arm across their chest. The corresponding dirt pillar made a U-turn and came back towards Tilian. Tilian ducked just in time. To avoid being hit by xyr own attack, Amare clenched their fists, dispersing the earthen pillars. Tilian leaped back up, thrusting his sword up at Amare’s chin. Amare stumbled back, nearly falling over and ending the match.

Shabaka was slightly confused by this battle, not because any of the actual events were odd, but because of the thing she always found befuddling about Amare. This was a person who was two hundred and ten years old. Yet xey were barely any more mature or experienced than their short life spanned siblings. But that was just the thing, while even to Bard his own child seemed ancient, for an elf, xey were barely an adult. Xey had never been put into situations where they had to mature, this is what made the life experiences for different races vary based on life span. It was why barkeeps had to keep charts listing the different legal drinking ages. But there was one thing Amare had about the rest of xyr siblings. Sheer knowledge.

Tilian thrust forward again. Amare took their shovel and spun it so that the wooden blade ended up in the shovel’s bell curve chip. This gave Amare complete control over xyr brother’s weapon. The next second, the shovel had pinned the sword to the ground, allowing the elf to stand tall over the dragon. But that dragon smiled and pushed his sword forward in the ground. It was the one movement Amare could not stop or control without giving Tilian the chance to escape. Tilian bit down on the shovel’s handle and lifted it up off the ground. Amare looked panicked. So, seemingly out of fear and instinct, xey let go of xyr shovel and lifted their hands into the air. Tilian’s eyes showed that he was aware of what was happening but chose to keep pressing forward. Meanwhile, a jet of earth started flying to his head.

This fight was coming down to speed and speed alone. On one end, Tilian charged ever forward. He could knock down Amare, while still holding xyr weapon in his jaws. On the other end, Amare desperately used xyr magic. For some reason beyond Shabaka’s understanding, instead of making two pillars of dirt, they had made one with the density of two.

Particles of dirt flew as the spell dispersed… It had hit its target. Tilian laid on the ground, knocked to his side. Just before Amare fell on xyr back. Bard pointed his fan at Amare to confirm the result.


 

Amare

Vitoroy

Tilian

Smallblade

Shabaka

Points

Amare

~

 

W

 

 

1.0

Vitoroy

 

~

 

L

L

0.0

Tilian

L

 

~

 

L

0.0

Smallblade

 

W

 

~

 

1.0

Shabaka

 

W

W

 

~

2.0

Amare vs Tilian: Winner, Amare of Quickwood. Match time, 0:56.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In the City of Giants - Chapter V

             Tilian analyzed the structure of the giant robot, it seemed to be rather crudely put together, but he could not quite figure out how.             Suddenly, two figures in black armor rushed from the other side of the dig to in front of Bard. They were the BMC soldiers from before, the ones that Tilian and his siblings could not hope to survive against in a real fight.             “Looks like we got a prison break,” said the BMC Soldier on the right.             “And it seems to have been orchestrated by that Language Consultant the boss just fired,” said the one on the left. He looked directly at Bard. “Oh, you didn’t hear? Yeah, our employer does not want the secret of his new weapon getting out, so he is having us kill you, just like the last translator.” The two soldiers began to raise their swords into the air. Within that split second, Bard had pulled out his flute and Tilian, along with his siblings, instinctively covered their ears.             Bard blew int
Read more

Shabaka's Pride - Round 4

            Shabaka slowly got back up to her knees. Her first loss was painful, a depression fell over her, one that made her enraged. She felt as if the world had come to an end, and she had to wonder why she cared so much about this game with her siblings. The fight to hold back the tears was even harder than the one she just had with Smalls.             A large green hand reached out to her. Shabaka looked up and saw the gentle giant smiling. She wanted to knock the hand away and spit in the face of the one who had beat her, but she couldn’t. Not only because she knew it was inherently wrong, but because she was not really angry at him, she was angry at the concept of defeat itself. She took his hand, rose, and hugged him. She felt comfortable in his humongous and strong arms, feeling the rhythm of his heartbeat and his chest rise and fall. This gentle and kind creature had just been extremely violent, it was that family fire.             Shabaka went back to the sidelines and
Read more

Shabaka's Pride - Round 5: Match 1

             Three could still win the tournament, two could not. Those three were Amare, Smalls, and Shabaka. The match order was not announced yet, but only two possible matchups remained. Shabaka vs Amare, and Smallblade vs Tilian. If Smalls won his match, Shabaka could no longer win the tournament, at best she could match his score and he would win the tiebreaker. In this scenario Shabaka could purposefully lose to Amare, drawing the scores of those two and giving Amare the tiebreaker win. She threw off this idea, winning the tournament was secondary to winning as many individual matches as possible. But if Smalls lost, or even tied, Shabaka’s match against Amare would be winner take all.             “Alright,” sung Bard. “Go rest my children, and when you return, the order of this climax shall be determined.”             Everyone knew their final opponents through process of elimination. That was why Shabaka handed the watch over to Vito. It was also why she avoided making eye
Read more