Colosseum - Round 1, Group A - Gildarts vs Bandit w/ No Name

[Gildarts]

Immense heat hung in the air as the gruesome scene hushed the audience for a moment before an immense burst of approval rumbled from above. The girl’s flesh simmered and Gildarts tasted immediate remorse. The surfacing shame was hot on his cheeks, as was the fresh splatter of her blood.

He had warned her, hadn’t he? And now her arm was the first of many casualties. Disturbed, he looked at his own silver hand, the one he had lost long ago from the same power revolting within him. He could still feel the distant tingle of his fingertips, and now, she would be like him. He had overestimated himself then, and today, he had overestimated her.

The flash of his magic web jolted him back to the sickening reality. Gildarts could only blink as he took in the horrific image and the overwhelming tide of his magical power began to ebb once more. In his impulse-driven mercy, he nearly offered her his own hand to help her up, but that was before he caught a glimpse of the rushing fire that rose with the onset of pain in her eyes. The veteran saw himself reflecting in her black eyes. He had forgotten his lost limbs, and plaguing his mind with shreds of disgust, was the immobilizing loss of his honor.

Air splashed into her lungs, but not fast enough. Bandit howled as her other, gravel-caked hand met the warm, juicy blood that poured from her bicep. Her blood-chilling caterwaul quickly filled the arena, prickling even the villains in the audience who had half a heart. Dry gulps forced down her throat in a vain attempt to swallow the profound pain. She could not set aside the endless inferno of her suffering, and she was drowning in it.

In her frenzied, maddened eyes, she sought relief from the insufferable hell, the pain found its outlet with a fluent cascade of perturbing curses. "Motherfucker!" she finalized as the blood continued to drool in waterfalls to the ground while her dreads became heavy with soggy crimson dye.

Bandit checked over her shoulder and Gildarts seemed to have powered down. Maybe there was enough time before he would strike again. His expression had turned to stone. Their skin became pale and flushed; both had lost blood, both seemed to have been hit with the savage blow of unearthly revelation, and both seemed to be standing on their last leg, each of their endurance trickling where it had once flowed in the whirling streams of combat.

Salty sweat pooled on his lip and hung like dew off of his stubble. There was a motionless silence that hung between them. The skull on the woman’s face had wilted now and the veins bulged in her face with unquenchable rage. Gildarts admired the woman’s strength, the respect for his opponent burned in his eyes. He shed his cloak to reveal his own two lost limbs, his battle scars. The rogue’s arm still dripped consistently with the blood Gildarts had shed.

The mage executed his resolve and applied enough force to tear off his silver arm. The empty shell of armor clattered in the dirt near her feet. Gildarts felt a little lighter, relieved to show his opponent that he was not made of only staggering violence, though no amount of sacrifice would lift the insufferable burden from his shoulders.

The woman snarled. Did he think that made them even? The bandit only scoffed, “Fool.”

Hadn’t he seen her? When she had put a noose around the stub of her arm, her eye caught on her rifle, which was just within an arm’s reach. A repulsed grimace turned into a thrilled gleam as her white teeth offered a smile and its snout prodded the air in front of the unarmed, defenseless, and noble man. She would see to it that this repulsive weakness would be his demise.

Bandit was desperate and by the look of it, her enemy was going to triumph, so she took a risk to end it all, despite how Gildarts was less than five feet away from her. A quick click of her index and the battery was freed from the carbine; she was afraid of overshooting her last chance, so she did what any armless freak would do, and clutched it close as her feet kicked her haggard body off the ground. She ran at him with her hand clutching the grenade, and herself, into the unsuspecting Prime’s torso.

The battery ignited.

[spoiler]

749 words
Checked with Bandit ahead of time to use. AER9 Instability. You have my permission to use a T1 supermove of mine in the last round.

AER9 Instability – 300 OM Requires Ranged Proficiency, Area Attack Proficiency
The AER9 is well known for its unreliable nature, and the Bandit has overclocked the weapon beyond what she probably should have. If she sets the weapon to charge and then gives it a major impact, the weapon's energy cell explodes. The resulting blast is a massive red sphere of plasma with a few arcs of electricity thrown in for show. The attack isn't substantially more powerful than a focused laser beam hit from the rifle in it's normal function, but it is omnidirectional and can overcome things like cover or concealment.

The bandit shorts the energy cell within the rifle, and the next major impact it suffers will set off the explosion, or it will self-detonate after about 5 seconds.

Obviously after the rifle has exploded, it's not available for the rest of the fight. Because it exploded.

[/spoiler]