Types:
Men of L33t, Part XIV
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Manta took a step forwards on the balcony, his magically enhanced voice boomed over the stadiums. "I bid you welcome to the first annual Deathmatch in the Empire of Angland! A contest fraught with death, danger, and unbelievable feats of skill!"
The stands roared with enthusiasm, and Manta smiled in satisfaction. He raised his hands for silence, and waited for the audience to die down. "Would our noble contestants please step up to their respected points of entry?"
Shadow watched as sixteen men and women walked up various points on the field. She strained to sense any trace of energy over the field, around each contestant, over Kit... nothing. She leaned back in frustration. Manta was just about finished with his speechifying. There was something she was missing, she knew it. She could feel it. She glanced again over the field.
"On my mark!" cried Manta. "Five!"
Lightsider readied himself.
"Four!"
Will appeared behind the stands on the top support, watching the Church guards carefully.
"Three!"
A single hooded figure in the crowd stood to leave.
"Two!"
Kit began readying the illusions in her mind.
"One!"
Shadow glanced up.
"FIGHT!"
Lightsider leapt from his cloak into the stone arena, Illusion snapping into place and Light forming in his hands. Shadow turned sharply.
"What just happened?!"
Nightwalker turned in his seat. "Miss Kitsune no Miko just cast weaponry around the compound and clothed the contestants in armor. All illusion, of course, but for our case and purposes, good enough. Why? Did you sense something?"
Shadow's eyes moved slowly across the field. "A jump in power... somewhere. It feels so foreign to me... I can't pinpoint it."
BG glanced up. "But you can feel it, at least? Then we are making progress!"
"Perhaps so..." said Shadow, unsettled by the vagueness she felt. It was more power than she wanted to think about for something so untouchable.
The cloaked figure had disappeared; where to, nobody knew and nobody cared. The game was afoot! Kit had cast up huge panels of illusion around the arena, each showing what every contestant saw, and the sight was breathtaking. A young man leapt across lava flowing through the first floor to bounce upwards off the wall and catch the rope hanging from the second floor's ceiling. Another simply dove into the lava, swimming through the molten stone with a shield-charm he'd bought the previous day from the OGSB. Lightsider's wings flared out around him, his illusion turning the brilliant white feathers into dark red leather as he shot through the air to the top. He snatched up the portable grape-shot cannon and dove into skylight. Winging by the floor's upper ledge, he tossed it to Largo and formed a sword in his hands as he shot down to the poor lad would had only just now found a bomb-launcher in deep magma depths.
Piro shed his cloak as he wove through the stands, making his way to Kit-chan. Lightsider's illusion had covered him the moment the games had started, and wearing it any longer might draw suspicion. He glanced carefully around a corner and caught sight of her. Now for a little magic. Calling up arcane forces, he etched several runes in the air before him, and sent them flying with a wave of his hand. One impacted against the ground at the stand's entrance, making the thud of heavy footsteps, and another exploded at the end of the corridor opposite him.
"Listen! Did you hear that?!"
"Yeah, I'll go check it out- you stay here and guard the young miss!"
"Right."
The remaining guard scanned the entire place carefully, watching for any sign out of the ordinary. Piro cut his hand down sharply and his last rune darted into the guard, giving him an urgent need to relieve himself. The man bit his lip, glancing at Kit only moments before deciding she'd be all right. Piro slipped around the corner as the guard ran off. The plan had worked perfectly, so far.
"Kit!" he hissed sharply.
It had only one flaw.
She jumped and lost control for a second. "Piro!"
They hadn't realized how startled she'd be.
* * *
The entire arena disappeared for a fraction of a moment. Largo cursed as he fell, barely reaching out to grasp the ledge when it reappeared. Others fell to the floor below, while other still stumbled through walls.
Lightsider's arm happened to be halfway through a wall when it reappeared. Naturally, both his arm and the wall couldn't coexist, or so his mind said. His scream could be heard all the way to the back stands, and he completely lost control of any illusion that he had.
* * *
Shadow jerked upright at the scream. "What's wrong?!"
"The entire arena just flickered!"
"How d-" The power she'd felt all this time suddenly slipped away like mist, unmasking a burning soul she knew all too well.
"Piro." she growled, whirling in his direction. Walls and people melted away from her vision as she centered in on him. There. With the girl. "Call out the guard!" she cried, leaping from the box with her wings unfurled.
* * *
"Piro, what are you doing here, run!" cried Kit, trying to keep the arena intact while he held her attention.
"I came to save you!" exclaimed Piro, stepping forwards. "I couldn't let them keep you here!"
"Piro, you idiot! I-"
"There he is!" Guards burst into the room from all sides and rushed Piro.
"No!" cried Piro, whirling about with his blame. The Church guards reacted instantly, half shattering his blades with pure energy while the other half snapped holding bonds upon him.
"No, you can't!" cried Kit, pounding against the guards.
"NO! Stop it! Let me go!" yelled Piro, struggling against the bonds. "Dammit all, I said STOP IT!"
Time froze.
