Esteros: The Dancing Dragons

[Mizagium]

Zelmon shook his head. "It is not for a knight to question the ways of his lady." Seeing the detransformation of Sailor Eros back into Hioma, Zelmon put away his weapons, too.

"Of course, I could tell you what she has told me. There's no rule against that. I am here to stop Jeffrey Valentine from completing whatever it is he is doing."

Jeff looked up from his new seat. "Who? Me?"

"He is working against my lady Evennia and therefore must be stopped. Since he is clearly here to win this tournament, I must win it for myself in order to prevent him from doing so."

"Laaaaaaaaame!" Xeltyr hollered from the stands.

"Would you stand in the way of true love?" Fabio-Ridley demanded.

"If it means remaining true to Lady Evennia, then I would intentionally cause a divorce."

"Jeeeeeeerk!" Xeltyr called from the stands.

"I didn't ask you," Zelmon retorted. "I don't tell you how to uphold your morals!"

"My morals involve stopping the end of the world."

"Blah blah blah excuses. I serve a higher purpose for beings I deny." He rolled his shoulders. "You probably won't dissaude me."

[Damien]

Trosdan sat and watched the spectacle, wondering what on...Earth, maybe?...was going on. Sailor Eros had just transformed from her one strange form to another strange form. The atheist paladin (normally paladins worshiped a god or gods, so this, too, was strange to him) was okay with fighting for gods that he didn't believe existed. Xeltyr was jeering at the "combatants", and the dragon things were talking of "true love".

"I am so confused right now," he said to no one in particular. "Oh, well. I guess I'll just sit here and watch until it's my turn. I just hope it's not against Xeltyr. I don't think I could hurt a single blond hair on his head."

[Monika]

"I can honestly say that I admire your loyalty, Zelmon," Hioma said, although her tone betrayed a hint of sadness and displeasure. "Truly, anyone would be immensely fortunate to have you in their employ. But blindly following orders...Well, perhaps that is the way of the knight, but I could never understand it - and I've read a lot about knights." Sighing, Hioma tore a spare page from the Notebook of Fate! and drew a stunning ink picture of Fabio-Ridley and Rachel being wed at an altar, complete with masterful sketches of the Dayman, Perish, Magnus, Jeff, and even the Bread Wizard and Trosdan as the guests. Something about the picture seemed off, though. It was indescribable - but something about it just didn't feel complete.

She handed Zelmon the picture, smiling warmly. "Beautiful, isn't it? The whole thing was my idea - Fabio-Ridley, the one in the suit, was ravaging the countryside, and I thought that finding love for him would get him to change his ways. And it did. Love is a powerful force, isn't it?" Hioma nodded as if she were answering her own question. "This is what the wedding between those two wonderful reptilians would look like. But much like this portrait, their ceremony remains unfinished. The prize for victory in this tournament is a set of brilliant rings that we need for those two creatures to finally be wed. I care not what you do to Jeff after this, but someone in my group - Jeff or otherwise - must win these rings."

With a heavy sigh, Hioma walked back to the other end of the arena and stared at Zelmon, her gaze appearing to pierce through his helmet. "I do not understand why Lady Evennia needs to stop Jeff, nor will I pretend to. If you are as fiercely loyal to her as I suspect, and you are absolutely sure that you need to win this tournament and stop this wedding to remain true to her, then I will make no further attempts to dissuade you from it." She readied the Pen of Love! in anticipation of Zelmon's response and continued. "Know, however, that my loyalty lies with the ideal of Love. Anyone who would stop it must himself be stopped...and as Love's Enforcer, I will be the one to stop him. So, what will you do, Zelmon?"

[Myrdraxxis]

"Well, so far I'm rather disappointed in this tournament." Magnus said dryly as he sat down next to Jeff. "There has been very little actual fighting....most of it by the Bread Wizard of all people."

"I'm sure you'll throw in enough firepower to make up for it." Leske observed.

"Probably. Speaking of which, what are you three going to be doing?" Magnus asked. "Do you guys even have like...I dunno weapons or something?"

Leske thought for a moment."I still have that howitzer you gave me back in Hero's Refuge." The other two mooks and Magnus stared at him for a moment. "What?"

"Where have you been keeping a howitzer?" Desmond asked incredulously. Leske shrugged.

"Magic."

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Dayman, with tears in his eyes after being moved by Hioma's speech, stood and shouted at Zelmon.

"Look into your heart good sir knight! Be it of your own accord or by the will of all those whom you deny divinity and existence, but please, if you truly are a knight, surrender for true love! Allow our group to succeed!"

He then felt compelled to eat some popcorn to accompany the romantic drama that was unfolding before his eyes, and reached into his infinity belt for a snack, but only managed to pull out a birthday cake. He scoffed, because only peasants celebrated name days with layers of chocolate cake and candles. What a trivial culture they tend to be. Then, for reasons unbeknownst to himself, The Dayman lifted the cake above his head and shouted, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFFREY", and threw the cake at his acquaintances face and splattering the spongy chocolate covered treat all over the group.

[Mizagium]

Hioma's words filled Zelmon's being with...something.

He didn't like it.

His first instinct was to brandish his mace and smite the believer, but he stayed his hand. "Lady Hioma, your words are...beautiful. I cannot bring myself to strike at one so pure as you. Such ideals are...beyond me. I have fought so long for things I do not believe in, I seem to have forgotten what I actually believe in."

Then he did something REALLY unexpected.

Zelmon knelt, and presented his mace. "Lady Hioma, please. Take me as your knight. Allow me to join you on your love-crusade. I will serve you faithfully and honorably as I have served no one else (which is to say, I have served no one else very faithfully). I have never been so touched by another's words as I have by yours. Please. If I should dishonor you, may the various deities I reject strike me down as I have struck down the faithful before. I shall no longer fight the faithful; now I am one of them. I serve Love and will defend it to the end."

He waited. "My Lady?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Dayman then began to sob uncontrollably, but still maintained his royal and manly composure mind you, at the sight of true love prevailing once again, and he began to start eating birthday cake off of Jeffrey's head to comfort himself.

[Myrdraxxis]

"This tournament sucks almost as badly as I do." The Bread Wizard remarked. Magnus nodded in agreement.

"You said it."

[Monika]

Taken aback by Zelmon's very unexpected gesture, Hioma was beside herself with shock for several seconds, although it seemed like an eternity (to herself, to Leon, and to the now mixed-emotion audience. Some were grumbling in discontent, but others were actually crying, cheering and shouting "Take him as a knight!")

When she came back to her senses, tears streamed from her eyes and rolled down her face, and she could barely contain her emotion. Her mind was overcome by all sorts of feelings, but they all seemed to be pointing toward one answer. "Yes!" she blurted out, nodding excitedly. "It would be my honor to accept you as a knight, Zelmon." She happily took the mace from Zelmon's hands and then - to drive the point home - she grabbed one of his free hands and pulled him to his feet (she was rather strong for a teenage girl, undoubtedly due to her part-time job as a love heroine). She lifted both their hands into the air as if they had both won the tournament, presenting them to the spectators and awaiting the announcer's response.

"WOOOO! HOORAY! HUZZAH!" Clapping, cheering and all manner of excited noises from the audience filled the arena; even those who had been clamoring for a fight mere moments before seemed satisfied with the outcome of the match...Leon was not among them.

"For the love of..." Leon shook his head and sighed, withdrawing the combatant list from his pocket once more. "The winner - again by technical knockout - is Hioma, I guess."

More "hoorays" and "huzzahs" filled the room.

"I don't see what you all are so happy about!" Leon snapped his fingers and warped Zelmon and Hioma back into the stands. "I love a good love story as much as the next traveling adventurer, but this is ridiculous! I mean, come on folks! This is the Demon Wrestling Association of the Ring Federation. I was generous enough when I replaced the demon combatants with bread sorcerers and rock stars! I was generous enough when I forewent wrestling in favor of an anything goes tournament. But now..." Leon's hand began brimming with dark energy and the cave itself began rattling with fear. "I'll level with you guys. The Ring Federation wants actual fighting, alright? That's how they make their more-or-less illegal money. They placed me here as a referee to enforce that. If there's no fighting, there's no money, and that means that they'll want to fight me."

Leon stood up in his lifeguard tower and turned to address the full audience. "And let me tell you, I am in no mood to kill a bunch of gang members. People are complaining about my fast food restaurants, my sister keeps calling me, asking for help about black holes and dealing with crazy people and-" He shook his head, attempting to clear his mind of all the thoughts that were jumbled together in his mind, eager to escape his mouth. "Well, let's just say that I've got a lot on my plate right now, okay? I just want to see some good, probably-not-clean fighting. And to that end..."

In a flash of darkness, Leon disappeared from the tower and reappeared inside the steel cage. "I'll be taking a more hands-on approach to refereeing the next match." Smiling, Leon displayed his list of combatants to the crowd as if they could read it from their vantage points. "As you all can clearly see, the next fight is between the soon-to-be-wed dragon, Fabio-Ridley and the no-nonsense necromancer, Perish! And rest assured, this will be a fight!" With his mini-rant over, Leon teleported the next fighters into the cage and this song started playing from the arena's speaker system.

"Round 3: Fight!" Leon cracked his knuckles and smiled, all too eager to "referee".

[Mizagium]

Fabio-Ridley stood up on his back legs, showing off his mighty codpieces. The precious stones caught the glint of the lava. Or may they're some kind of light-storing gemstones. I don't know man, but point is the codpieces was glowing ominously with low red light.

"Afternoon, Perish," he said rather casually, his hair blowing in the fire-breeze. "Fancy meeting you here. I don't think we got to finish our battle last time, did we? You may have stolen my Diamondium breath, but you certainly didn't steal my ridiculous good looks." He flipped his hair and brandished the codpiece, turning this way and that, giving the audience more than an eyeful.

"Oh god, make it stop!" Jeff's sunglasses were not enough to shield him from the glow. Indeed, many audience members were screaming in pain from the glare. Apparently the red glow intensified since last I typed about it.

"Or my love for Rachel Ridley!" He pointed with both claws and codpiece towards his bride-to-be. "She's my muse and the reason why I'll win this match!" He rose into the air with a mighty woosh and gathered Diamondium energy. "So come on!"

[blazinvire]

Amusingly Perish was of the same mind as Leon, after watching such an anticlimactic finish to the second 'fight', she was about ready to start throwing shit into the cage -except apparently she was up next, as she soon discovered when she randomly appeared in the ring.
Blinking a few times, she looked up at her opponent and found Fabio-Ridley yet again, idly glancing off at Leon with an eyebrow raised before shrugging it all off.
She finally got to fight and blow off some steam, she wasn't about to question this.

"Eh, I don't need any help in the good-looks department," Perish said haughtily, a bit of an evil smirk growing on her face, "Don't expect me to go easy on your shiny ass just coz of some lovey-dovey bullshit."

It was time to cut loose, and that music was infecting her mind, if only her heart worked she might have had her blood pumping, ready to blow things up.
She stretched her hands out suddenly, a shock wave of air shooting out harmlessly from her before ritualistic writings and symbols grew out from her like an intricate spider-web. Except they kept going and going, more and more circles and symbols drawn all over the place, pulsating slowly as it built energy.

"Let me show you how a true necromancer fights; the experience of a thousand life times, the fires of ultimate vengeance and love lost, of endless torment and pain," Perish monologued, floating off the ground several feet into the air as power continued to build up all around her, the shards in her hair came loose and her brilliant white hair was free to fly about in the phantom torrent of wind rushing about her.
"Let. Me. Show. You."

She drew her head back and filled her lungs before arcing forward and expelling a considerably more formidable, giant beam of Diamondium at Fabio, power from all over the place funneled into her and charged up the rituals of the dragon blood within her to empower the breath.

[Mizagium]

Diamondium breath met Diamondium breath in a sparkling fury of crossing streams. After an initial wave of confidence, Fabio-Ridley realized his laser was losing ground. Since he didn't fancy being caught in Perish's necromancy-enchanted Diamondium breath (Necromondium?), he gave one last burst before cutting off his stream and flying up above the battleground.

"Cheater!" He yelled. "You wouldn't be so tough if you hadn't stolen that attack from me!"

He kept moving around to prevent Perish from getting a lock on him. "Let's try this!" He flew up as high as he could (which wasn't terribly high since they were underground) before turning and dropping straight down, crotch-first. "Crotch-cracker!"

[blazinvire]

"Your Diamondium Breath is just a gimmick for me, nothing more than a distraction to buy time," Perish said, looking a little bored as she reached out towards one of the ritual symbols, causing it to flash and a stream of shadowy spirits flew out in a fluid mass, enveloping her in the tide and sweeping her right around the arena well out of the way.
"And with a Necrolae Sanctum up, time is all I need," Perish said carelessly.

The thousands of ritual symbols and circles littering the place were all building power slowly, and the tide of spirits that had ferried Perish away had slipped off and were reabsorbed into the symbols with ease.
She was about to fire off another spell when her hair that was flapping about in the phantom breeze suddenly caught her attention, and she discovered she had an extra three feet of brilliant blond hair extending from her original mass of white.
"Wh... what the hell!?" Perish fumed, snatching a lock of hair and glaring at it, the only explanation being when she overcharged the dragon blood ritual earlier, "This crap is coded into your BLOOD?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Dayman, still munching on Jeffrey's face cake (which probably would have made Trosdan quite jealous, there was something strange about that character, but The Dayman let's it slide. He respects true love so much that he does not dare question ones taste, even that of an inferiorly classed person as Trosdan and the rest. Which, excludes The Illusive Squid of course, for it is told that he has a glorious codpiece. Oh, and The Dayman wishes me to remind you that he now accepts the royalty of the Ridleys, seeing as how they are apparently from The Secluded and Tropical Nation of Koosalagoopagoopakuzbekistanahamas...I am doing it again. My apologies, prince, I shall continue with your story), stood up and began to cheer and cry some more (spewing chocolate face cake out of his mouth in doing so with such royal force, that it entered the ring and got into Perish's new flowing locks).

"You can defeat her Fabio-Ridley! Do it for Rachel! For the glory of all codpieced clad men in the world. Do it for you yourself even, but most importantly, do it for true love!! Love must prevail!" He sat down and tucked his head against his knees and began to sob some more.

"Such a beautiful display of true love. Oh how I wish you were here to see this..." His mind began to trail off once again to the memories that the arena and Mount Wedding Ring holds for him.

[Damien]

Trosdan went over to Jeff and began eating cake off his face as well. "I had no idea it was your birthday, sweetie," he said. "Well, happy birthday!"

He sat and watched as Fabio-Ridley and Perish continued their fight, mentally preparing himself for his time in the ring. He looked over at Jeff and noticed a nice-sized chunk of cake on his nose. He grabbed it and popped it into his mouth, smiling and winking at Jeff.

[Calefrun]

The Illusive Squid, who was once again perched atop the back of Jeff's chair, leaned over the cake-faced man, eyes intently focused on the first actual fight of the tournament. Slowly he began to reach down with his tentacle-beard, still watching the fight, and casually pick up pieces of cake and place them into his mouth.

"Lobster..." he said through bites of cake, with a bit of emotion in his voice, "how did you know that it was my birthday?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Dayman watched as Trosdan seductively munched on Jeff's face cake, while The Illusive Squid was beginning to follow suit as well.

"Does anyone feel...ambivalent all of a sudden? What the hell is in the cake?"

[Myrdraxxis]

Magnus leaned over and began to partake in the cake eating as well. But with more dignity than the other common rabble.

"I can't decide if you're actually gay or just trying way, way, way, way, waaaaaaaay too hard." He said to Trosdan. "Also, who are you?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

The Dayman, who was unable to resist a proper royal zinger, interjected a statement after hearing Magnus' question.

"Perhaps his trying isn't what is hard." He followed his witty retort with a wink.

[Damien]

Trosdan turned to Magnus, taking in the amazing sight of his strong arms and washboard abs, and said, "I'm Trosdan Woodstrider, the wood elf Druid....emphasis on 'wood'."

He got up and sat next to Magnus and just stared into his eyes...well, eye because one was covered with a patch...