Colosseum - Round 1, Group A - Luffy vs Alain

[Alain the Carnedge]

Alain still found taunting his adversary to be incredibly amusing, though less so when he found himself outsmarted, and completely defenseless. The mercenary threw his knife at the pirate, the worn blade barely able to pierce flesh, and dove for the trench, only to have the wind knocked out of him by one of his foe's furious fists.

He flew across the battlefield, though he controlled his flight so that he ended up in the trench. Involuntarily spitting out more blood, Alain went invisible and flew back out as fast as he could. The stretchy pirate's foot came down upon where he saw the mercenary land, but they were far too late.

The mercenary had taken flight, levitating just below the barrier that prevented him from going further up. Luffy, meanwhile, started to destroy the arena in an attempt to reveal his foe. Alain savoured the brief respite, catching his breath and trying not to imagine just how messed up he was.

The crowd fell silent as Luffy demolished the arena. Various weapons were scattered around, both flags had been torn down, and all of the barricades had practically ceased to exist. There was no sign of the mercenary after he had fell into the trench, and it seemed that he had disappeared from the arena entirely.

Until the pirate leapt out of the way of what seemed to be nothing, Alain appearing with his reformed blood-red daggers. Luffy hurled the rusted knife at his adversary, the mercenary merely raising his arm to block it. The knife hit bone, but did not get even the slightest reaction of pain.

He merely pulled the blade out and threw it in the trench. Both warriors stared at each other, unmoving, for a good few seconds. Alain kept watching, keeping one of the blades behind his back.The blade ignited in crimson flame and started to change shape, the other one disappearing in a flash of red light. Along with that, what little could be seen of the mercenary's flesh turned black, the gloves he wore being torn by two similarly dark claws of bone.

"Shouldn't fight battles you can't win." Alain rasped.

The pirate opened his mouth to respond and the mercenary took his chance, gaining a burst of speed and going to slash the blade across their ribs. Unfortunately, Luffy saw it coming due to the previous tricks, and leapt backwards before running at his opponent again, arm stretched far behind them. "Gomu Gomu No..."

Alain waited with his flaming blade, unflinching. "...BULLET!" The pirate yelled, snapping his arm back in an attempt to deliver a powerful punch. Already expecting it, Alain stepped out of the way with minimal effort and slashed the extended limb immediately, causing Luffy to grimace in pain.

The pirate retracted his arm immediately, gritting his teeth. The mercenary kept on the offensive, running towards his hatless adversary with hopes he'd finally be able to end the fight.

Luffy grabbed another buckler from the ground and prepared to defend himself. Sresveltr clashed with the shield and, despite the defense, caused the pirate to stagger from the massively increased strength of both the blade and it's wielder. Luffy stretched his free fist to punch his opponent away, but Alain ducked under the blow and slashed at the pirate's gut.

The flaming blade barely hit, but it still broke skin. The mercenary thought he could see his adversary's intestines, which made him wince again for a brief second. That didn't stop him from capitalizing on the moment that the pirate was frozen by agony to thrust a claw through the wound.

"And I guess that's that." He grinned triumphantly.

Luffy just glared at him, defiant. "Gomu Gomu No..." Their neck stretched backwards.

"Ah, shit." He tried to pull the bloodstained claw out of his foe's insides.

Too late.

"...BELL!"

The mercenary was thrown back by the headbutt, claw torn out of his foe's flesh anyway. Alain activated his own flight to stop himself, only to see a rubber fist coming his way. He tried to fly out of it's path, but it hit his arm, and the force alone separated it from his body. The disembodied limb hit the ground with a dull thud, both of the fighters silent for a few moments.

"Well, not bad." Alain admitted. "But," The mercenary glanced at his other, still-attached arm, the skin beginning to return to it's normal colour. Either way, the fight was about to end. "it's time to finish this."