Revival Arena Finals

By the time Beatrice had been warped into the arena, Sarah had already been there for nearly half an hour. Along the outskirts of the large field surrounded by the stands, she sat in wait, her legs tucked in pretzel style. Her eyes were closed, as she was making all efforts necessary to focus herself for the battle to come. In her mind, the movements of her body as they would soon execute their varying rosters of move and techniques flashed before her as though her eyelids were merely television screens. All she needed to was make the battle smooth and decisive; there was simply no room for error, not that there was any other time, and this battle would cement her superior abilities against not one, but multiple foes.

At last her eyes came open, and she peered towards the interior of the arena’s in field. For the first time, she could see for sure how much this battle seemed to mean to people. The stands, which seemed capable of seating well over ninety thousand bodies, were packed full all around her, and everyone seemed to be cheering loudly enough that the air around them quivered with each exhalation. The noise was something she was used to, and wasn’t particularly bothered by. Still, it wasn’t her preference to be around so many people, granted that if they were all fighting as well, her opinion to that might have changed. Rather annoyed in her expression, she looked at the woman who had arrived announcing the battle and its conditions.

“What’s the point of filling a stadium with people just to send us off?” she spoke in a soft voice, one that only she had heard. Not that it matter, but the woman that seemed to be running this clash came off as odd, even whimsical. Her methods were certainly something that Sarah might have gotten frustrated with if she had bothered to think too hard about them. She shrugged her shoulders and brought herself back up to her feet. She walked towards the area where another woman, one of her opponents had arrived and presumably been befuddled by it, tying her hair back into a tight bun as she did. “No room for silliness like hair pulling,” she told herself. Reaching near where the gruff looking woman was standing, she came to a halt.

In a controlled voice of an energized calm, she spoke the only last words she had to say. “Let’s get started.”​

 

((There IS an "h" in Sarah's name, you know)).

Sarah's eyes wandered from their initial gaze upon the one called "Freya." Immediately, though not particularly quickly, they fell upon the mechanic-looking woman next to her. Her gaze was not sharp, but smooth. Yet it maintained a contemplative air about it, a sign that she was, as always stacking the foe she was about to engage. The rough talk suggested she was either a coward, or a fighter. Sarah concluded that if she were a fighter, the battle would be a tough one, fought only in the most ingenious of manners. The woman's weaponry was odd, and suggested a less standardized means of combat, far form regimented, and flexible to more situations; yet like her own, it was more than likely that her methods were prone to technical flaws. It would be interesting to see how she fared against such an opponent.

Briefly, her eyes spared a glance at the other opponent, a male, who had entered the arena just after Beatrice. She had little to think of him, which boded ill. His silence told her that he was up to the same thing as she was, and trying to extrapolate as much information about herself and the other woman. She concluded that her battle would have to start with the woman, while keeping an eye on the man, at least until she could assess one as more dangerous than the other. She turned back to the woman, who had doubled back from her. "I don't intend to start anything until the go-ahead has been given," she said simply. She turned back to Freya, awaiting the official call for the start of the battle.​

 

As the tail end of the “pleasantries” lead them to a close, a fourth competitor, of whom Sarah was, until then, unaware had entered. She did her best to extrapolate as much as she could about her before the match began; the thought that she looked more ready for some teen fashion photo shoot than she did a battle was about all the conclusion she could come to by the time the Arena began to shift and dissolve. Keep my distance, she told herself, from that one, and the man. That’ll do for the starters anyways. But the wrench woman will probably be the easiest to catch on to.

Before she knew it, the floor had broken, or rather vanished from under her feet, and she was descending into another world, one she had never seen or imagined before. The key feature of it, as she saw in her descent was a massive tree, with an even larger number of branches extending out from its thick trunk. It seemed apparent that the top of the tree was the goal for her to shoot for. She contemplated floating over to land nearer the top, but changed that decision when she saw her opponents readying themselves to land near the bottom. Certainly, there would be consequences for landing at the top without the climb up.

Thus, it was settled that she would, as her foes were doing, assume position closer to the bottom, and work her way up as it seemed to be intended. As she came level with the top of the tree, she pulled herself into a levitation of steadily increasing force. Eventually, she found herself a wide, sturdy branch some thirty feet above the base of the trunk. The unknown opponent seemed to have gotten the head start, with the wrench warrior steadily making her way up as well. Sarah began to climb as well. She pushed herself from the current branch she had occupied, easily making it to a nearby branch, and preceded to figure the best path up the tree.

Considering her plan, she determined that the wrench warrior would be best dealt with from a distance, and likely from well above; but there was no reason to go attacking her too soon. The other woman, well along her way, would be best dealt with via some manner of stealth or sneak attack. So long as Sarah could pull herself up the tree quickly enough, and come to a path around the trunk in the opposite direction, she’d be able to get a decent jump on her. But for the time being, the distance was important, and certainly everyone would need to slow down at one point or another.

Her plans in mind, she jumped to another nearby branch, making it, once more, easily across. She then took a second to point herself towards the wrench warrior. Gathering a small charge of energy to her hands, she flung a baseball-sized blast down the tree in the wrench wielder’s direction. The aim was not, however, to kill or injure in any direct manner. That would have taken a bit larger of a blast. Having been targeted at the feet, it would do more to the effect of throwing her off course or impeding her than anything else.​

 

Upward and upward, on and on, and ever higher through the heights of the unfathomably tall tree, Sarah climbed her way hoping from one large branch to the next. Her path, for the first moment, remained free of trials, and none of her opponents seemed to have made it far enough up, or taken the time to drop far enough down to attempt at combat against her. She knew not whether or not her previous attack at done anything to stop the wrench girl, but at that, didn’t particularly care; she was well below where she was, and thus far, further from being a direct threat.

In truth, there was very little chance of Sarah being threatened by anyone below her on the tree, as the thick branches made for a generally reliable cover. So she was able to keep a clear focus on that which might come down from above. It was to her fortune that she remained fixed on the path before, for it was that which allowed her to see the impending fire attack from the crystal. She saw a red flash from above, and a ball of flames streaking through the air downward. She knew after a short second that it was aimed in her direction. She sprung herself in leap backwards, relying partially on a quick boost of flight. Using this, she floated her way around the trunk of the tree, onto a branch completely blocked from the crystal’s line of fire, taking nothing more than a wave of heat as she drew away.

Taking the chance, she made her way carefully around the trunk, until she could peer around in the direction of the crystal. Its fire had ceased with her disappearance from its sight. It was factor that Sarah determined was best to keep as she continued her ascent. She also took note of the swirling mass of energy that had been conjured from a floating island nearby the crystal. The figure of a living being was visible within the mass, being hurled from the island. By process of elimination she concluded that the other woman who had arrived before the warp had conjured the energy. A conflict with her would have to wait, and surely, with Sarah out of its path, the crystal would choose another nearby target to blast its flames at.

Rather than continue her path of circling around the trunk, Sarah doubled back to the safe spot she had taken from the fire attack. From there, she jumped up, and flew to the next branch a short distance above her. Flight, a less consuming application of her powers, would allow her to make considerable distance up the tree without expending herself too much for the fight.​

 

((I think it’s about time we actually, you know, had a fight, like the arena is intended for)).

Sarah hadn’t gotten very far when she once again found her path up the mighty tree impeded. This time, it was not some mechanically driven, automatic object raining fire down on her. Around her she could see the figures of toned, tall males scampering about the tree’s branches and the floating platforms. Many of them were left behind on lower branches as Sarah pushed up wards passed them; they slipped down the tree to deal with other fighters further down. Others had left to tend to the other competitor further up who had dispatched their comrades not too long before.

With her last jump up, Sarah avoided a pass by of a large blast of fire, which skimmed through the air just below her. The heat was no less effective, and she was sweating a bit by the time she got up to the next branch. There, she found herself mobbed by three of the male figures. Two stood at either side of her on the same branch. The third was perched on a branch a distance away. All of them had bows notched with spear pointed arrows. All of them, at that, were ready to fire, and aimed at her for a killing shot.

With little time to act, Sarah took the quickest avenue for evasion from all three shots. Taking her feet out from under herself, she allowed gravity’s natural pull to land her against the branch. She coupled this fall with a roll towards the outside of the branch. Two arrows from her sides streaked narrowly passed each other, landing non-lethal, but nonetheless injuring hits on her assailants. The third arrow from above struck and stuck into the branch. It was a bit more forceful, and far less graceful then she’d have liked it to be, but it got the job done.

She recovered more swiftly. Not wasting the time rising to her feet, she sprung upward from a brief crouch and floated quickly up to a branch that was both higher up, and around towards the other side of the trunk. She continued that way, skimming across to another branch roughly level with that, from where she was on the opposite side of the tree. A short way below her, gathered on a small floating island, another team of guards had their bows drawn in readiness for an ambush. Having no time to stew over any real strategy, Sarah swept her right arm across through the air, dispersing a slashing wave of energy that spanned the width guard's branch. It wasn't powerful enough to deal any significant damage. However, it did result in enough of a force that the arrows that had been fired were knocked off course. As well, the guards had withdrawn their bows in defense against the wave. This offered Sarah the time she needed to retreat further up the tree.​