Welcome to Khanari's
Twilight Stadium, where people from all over the
Ismat Empire and beyond come to experience the great battles and tournaments that only happen here!
"Tonight! A fight between the amesha, Iron Ball, and one of Khanahari 's own, the deva Dualusionist."
The Iron Ball gladiator is named for the head sized iron sphere at the end of his chain. He strolls into the middle of the arena with his sphere and chain hanging over the back of his shoulder. He is built well for a man who is 5 foot 8, but even so, he shouldn't be able to carry a chunk of iron that big with such ease. But the Iron Ball is a
Stone Ameshas , and he made that weapon himself. Forging that sphere when he was young was his trial of passage that welded his own essence forever to it. His mind carries and sways that sphere and chain as well as his body does. He lets the chain slip from his shoulder down his arm and grabs it as his opponent approaches, who looks far more relaxed than he aught to.
The Dualisionist. He is nimble, has a dancer's poise, physique, flamboyant blue clothes and a theatrical white mask- a tribute to his deity
Mythserela. He carries no heavy weapon that could possibly shield him from a blow from the sphere, but there are quartz crystal caps on all his fingers and thumbs. Through them, the Dualusionist has learnt to cast a mirror image of himself. It is a perfect reflection. In spite of all the details of his costume, he has mastered the subtleties so that his opponent can never be sure which of the two figures that appear before him are real.
The gladiators meet in the middle of the pit surrounded by spectators. The gong is struck. In a flash the Dualusionist raises his hands, points his fingers down towards himself, and as he brings them to his side and steps one way, another of him steps the other way from the same place. Both figures look lifelike to the Iron Ball.
The Iron Ball sees a one in two chance to be in Khanahari's banquet halls within a half hour, and throws the sphere at the second of the two Dualusionists.
The first of the one Dualusionist that did not have a metal sphere pass through him steps forward and smacks the Iron Ball's jaw with a reinforced elbow.
'An elbow attack,' The Iron Ball thinks, 'against him- a Stone Amesha.' It barely phases him. He considers sticking to his strategy of always taking the one in two straight shot at his opponent. All he needs is one good hit, where as going off that last hit, the Dualusionist will need many.
The Dualusionist knows that if he is to win, he needs to get into his opponents head, further than he already is. He is an expert in body language, adept at reading it and fibbing in it. It was no accident that the Iron Ball thrust his metal sphere at the wrong image. The Dualusionist drew him to it by giving the illusion an emotional embellishment, in this case a rude gesture with a finger that made the illusion ten times more satisfying to take a swing at. But the strike he made to the face was barely successful. He'd never faced an Iron Amesha before. It would take many strikes just to soften him. The Dualusionist needed to keep him off balance, strike quick and hard to keep the Iron Ball from thinking.
As he moves towards the Iron Ball, The Dualusionist dances three times through his illusion till he is in a striking position. He feints a kick, a deception within a deception as the illusion mirrors him. The Iron Ball falters on which kick to protect or not protect himself from. The Dualusionist keeps the feinting leg hanging in the air as he jumps with the other leg and shoots it into the Iron Ball's midriff.
The Iron Ball keels over. The Dualusionist sees an opportunity for a decisive blow, to swoop crystal fingers onto the Iron Ball's head. Even against a stone amesha, a wound up strike to the temple is a wound up strike to the temple. But in that moment of hesitation he sees the Iron Ball's fingers slide up the chain. He is waiting for the Dualusionist to come at him. The Dualusionist, working against the temptation to test his speed against the Iron Ball, twirls backwards into and out of another him. He knows one blow from that sphere will be crushing. Patience and guile will be his path to victory.
The Iron Ball curses as he stands. The kick to the midriff was deep, but not as crippling as all that. He was ready to pop up while swinging his sphere around him, hitting at least one of the two masked figures. But his opponent is going to drag this out. The Dualusionist plans to make him swing his sphere again and again to tire him out. What an embarrassing way to lose a bout. The Iron Ball needs to change tactics. He lets the chain slip down his hands till the sphere is a good two feet from his fist, and starts swinging it in circles. This is not how he likes to fight, defensively, using his weapon as a spinning shield with room for short quick shots, but he needs to force the Dualusionist to change his own strategy. He went for the one on the right, last time. He'll go for the one on the right again just because and ignore all other instincts. It is still one in two shot
The Dualusionist realizes his error, he gave the Iron Ball time to think. The deva doesn't have the chance to come up with something new before the Iron Ball rushes him with his chain and sphere spinning in front of him. The Iron Ball is actually coming at him and not the illusion, despite him making the illusion more convincing. Fright almost paralyzes him, but he manages to leap out of the way.
With much of the chain wrapped around the Iron Ball's. arm he doesn't have the range he desires, but the Dualusionist actually leapt out of the way. He didn't dance, or twirl, or skip with a kick in the air. The Iron Ball shifts his trajectory and clumsily jumps after the figure he knows is the Dualusionist, and swings his sphere wide. It is as awkward an attack as it gets, but the Iron Ball is rewarded with a dull 'thud' that vibrates up the chain.
'Foolish' The Dualusionist thinks of himself as he rolls towards the Iron Ball. The sphere smashing his back left shoulder enrages him as much as it hurts. Patience is a virtue, but no gladiator ever won their duel by not being bold. 'What good is being patient,' he thinks 'if it allows the opponent time to adapt.' The deva dashes towards the Iron Ball who is still recovering from his own desperate attack, and shoots out his crystal tipped fingers at the Iron Ball's neck.
With a pull of his arm and mind, the Iron Ball summons his sphere into his hand. It is a move he does whenever he is vulnerable- the feel of the sphere in his hands motivates him. This time when he calls the sphere, it crosses over his neck, unintentionally getting between it and the Dualusionists rushing fingers.
'One solid blow from the sphere is all it'll take' the Dualusionist knows, but he never expected it to happen this way. The crystals of his right fingers shatter against the sphere, and his fingers turn numb and still.
The Iron Ball, still not fully caught up with what just happened, tosses his sphere and chain outward before he commands it to revolve around his opponents midriff. He is delighted that there is an actual body for it to swing around. He yanks the Dualusionist towards him, ready to drive his fist into the white mask and end the fight. But he falters and loses all momentum when he sees the katar in the Dualusionists left hand coming at his throat. The Iron ball crosses his hands over his exposed neck, but even his dense skin is no match against the fierce piercing metal of a katar. He waits for the blade to slice through his arms, hoping he got them up in time to protect his life from the cheating Dualusionist who snuck in a secondary weapon.
But the Dualusionist does no such thing. The katar is an illusion, it is the Dualusionist's own instinctual attack when he is vulnerable. The chain around him loosens as the Iron Ball reels, but instead of slipping out, he continues the momentum the Iron Ball started. The Dualusionist abandons casting the fake katar in favor of a tight fist and uppercuts under the Iron Ball's arms and strikes his mouth. There is blood, but the earlier strike on the Dualusionist's left shoulder prevents it from being a finishing blow. He would follow it up, but the fingers of his right hand are useless. The Dualusionist double knees the amesha in the stomach instead. One of the two strikes failed to hit, and in the chaos the Dualusionist is not even sure which one before the Iron Ball's hard fingers grab hold of the Dualusionist's costume.
'Damn,' The Dualusionist thinks, as he is risen up and comes down hard against the ground. The first strike against his face is the sphere breaking his mask. The second is the Iron Ball's fist breaking his jaw. 'At least it wasn't the other way around,' the Dualusionist thinks as the Iron Ball steps away as the victor.
The Iron Ball raises his arms to the cheering crowd. He is under no illusion that the whole match turned because of a chance encounter between his opponent's crystal fingers and his sphere that shattered them. He has had similar victories before, where his weapon has saved him without him meaning it to. It is as if his bond with the metal makes it faintly sentient. He leaves the arena with his sphere in his hand, happy that he is still fit enough to visit the banquet halls.
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