The Red Hand

Chapter 248 – Hishya v. Tiball

"It's been quite a while since we fought, hasn't it, Tiball?" Hishya said as she and Tiball approached the center of the Arena. Both could hear a massive cheer from the crowd, though they were more focused on each other than the audience.

"If memory serves me, the last time we crossed blades was during a sparring session in Ultima Woods." Tiball replied. "That was just before you lot went into Calmira." He laughed, recalling the nightmare that said dungeon was.

"Ugh...Don't remind me of that hell." Hishya sighed as she was reminded of something that she'd tried to forget. "That we had to ask Akagi for help in that endeavor showed just how fucked things were." Calmira was the single hardest dungeon in the entire game and was a prerequisite for fighting Rivenshaft. It consisted of seventy-five floors that got harder as they descended, and at the end was a portal that led to another dungeon in Rivenshaft's underworld realm that had to be cleared before fighting the World Boss in question.

{Logic puzzles, instant death traps and every fucking nasty monster you could ever want... If I never see that place again, it would be too soon...} (Hishya)

"Are the contestants ready?" Kira looked between the two of them, waiting to start the match.

"Sure, I'm ready to kick his ass." Hishya laughed.

"Hey, don't count me out yet!" Tiball said as he drew both his blades. "I still need to pay you back for what you did to Eris, and I think I'll take this opportunity to humiliate you on global television." He smirked.

"Oh?" Hishya's laughter stopped as she glared at him. "I'd love to see you try, Tiball.” Her face and eyes grew sharp and her tone a bit more serious than before. “But don't worry, I'll be sure to make your defeat both quick and painless." Her eyes bore into the Paladin, something he'd dealt with before during their last battle.

{Man Hishya, you really don't let up do you? Not that I'm complaining.} (Tiball)

"Ah, there she is, the Hishya I've always known." Tiball laughed as he felt his entire body get jittery with excitement. He wasn't as much of a battle junkie as some of the players, but he always enjoyed a good fight against a strong opponent. "I was afraid that you'd gone soft over the last year, but I guess there was no need to be worried." He flourished his blades a bit. "So I guess this means you won't be able to use some lame-ass excuse when I beat you."

"Contestants, take your mark!" Kira exclaimed as she raised her hand, and in response, Hishya drew Sun Strike and took a fighting stance.

{Soft? No, if anything I'm far stronger than I've ever been before, Tiball.} (Hishya)

"BEGIN!" Kira signaled the start of the battle with a quick wave of her arm, and a moment later, the two fighters rocketed toward each other at high speed, clashing in front of where the Half-Dragon had stood only moments before.

*BANG*

The collision shook the ground beneath them as they locked blades, and as they looked into each other's eyes, they grinned.

{This is going to be good!} (Hishya x Tiball)

"Brave of you to fight me head-on, Tiball," Hishya said as the two exchanged blows, their forms seeming to blur as they danced back and forth. "I know you like getting right into the action, but I think there is quite a difference in strength here!" She roared as she put more power into her strikes, which Tiball either avoided or deflected with his dual-blades.

*CLING* *CLANK*

As a Paladin, Tiball was quite an adept frontline fighter. However, his lack of heavy armor made him a rather fragile combatant, and it wouldn't take many attacks from Hishya to bring him down. Though, what he lost in survivability he more than gained in maneuverability.

"Oh, don't you worry about me!" Tiball laughed as he continued to deflect Hishya's blades. "I've got everything all worked out so that I can defeat you right here!" As he said this, a rune started to glow on the back of his right hand as both his blades were covered in a deep red fire. "Greater Ability Boost! Maximize Magic, Superior Smite!" With a scream Tiball poured magic into his blades and activated two powerful abilities. Hishya figured that she'd be facing opponents that had access to some of Imperial/Imp's special gear, but she had no idea what Superior Smite did.

{Interesting.} (Hishya)

The sudden increase in power allowed Tiball to momentarily push Hishya back a bit, and he took this opportunity to bring his right blade down at the Dragon diagonally.

{Let me guess, he wants me to get stuck so that he can use that other blade of his for a big attack?} (Hishya)

Reading his move, Hishya allowed herself to be pinned by the blade, but just as Tiball moved to strike her with his offhand, she met his attack with an extended palm and cast a magic attack of her own.

"Nova Blaze!" Hishya used a medium-tier fire attack and blasted Tiball with it at point blank, expecting him to back off or be repelled. However, it quickly became apparent that her attack had less of an effect than she'd hoped and Tiball, while burned, still managed to strike her with his other blade and slammed the burning red sword into her side.

"ACK!" Hishya took the blade's hit directly and was momentarily stunned as the damage she took was far greater than her expectations.

{What the fuck was that?!?} (Hishya)

Panicked, the Dragon mustered more strength and pushed Tiball away before jumping backward and putting some distance between the two of them.

"Didn't like that hit, did you?" Tiball snickered as he twirled his blades in his hands. "I assume it stung a bit more than you're used to, huh?" He looked down at the spot where he'd struck her, taking note of a small amount of red blood that was flowing out of a small hole in her armor. "Do you need a band-aid?" He laughed.

"What the fuck was that?!?" Hishya put her hand down and attempted to heal the injury with magic, but found that it wasn't working very well. "And what the hell did you do?!?" She'd only rarely seen healing magic fail like this, and usually, it was due to poison or other status affliction.

{Something's wrong! His weapon shouldn't be able to create such a major wound so easily!} (Hishya)

"Did you really think I'd come into this fight with no preparation?" Tiball laughed as he held the blade he'd struck her in front of his face. "Take a close look with those Dragon eyes, and I think you'll see something quite nice about these blades."

"What are you talking about?" Hishya narrowed her eyes as he looked at his sword, noting a thin white sheen that seemed to glaze over the blade. "Is that poison?!?"

{Are you trying to fucking kill me?!?} (Hishya)

"I'll admit that its effects and applications aren't exactly much different from a poison, but it's fundamentally different." Tiball shook his head. "I'm sure you recall that certain gear could come with special bonuses that did extra damage or effects to a specific race or monster type, right?"

"Of course." Hishya said as she finished healing her wound. "And what's your point?"

"Well, you're a Dragon, so I just had Impy and Imperial do a bit of tweaking to my blades to make them deal a bunch more damage to anything they hit that met that criteria." Tiball smirked. "There was a chance that it wouldn't actually work while you were in Human form, but it looks like the gamble paid off." He laughed.

{Looks like Eris' hunch was right. Human form or not, Hishya's a Dragon 24/7 and is effected by anything that targets her race specifically.} (Tiball)

"You fuck!" Hishya growled as her eyes widened for a moment. "You actually went out of your way to get counters for me?!?" She wasn't mad at him per se, but still felt it was a cheap tactic.

{I hate you! But damn is that a good idea!} (Hishya)

"Hey, this is competitive, and I cleared it with ol'spooky up there." Tiball pointed to Akagi, who seemed to be laughing.

{You bitch! And to think I gave you pets and made those damn cookies for you and Miji!} (Hishya)

"Fine! Have your anti-Dragon blades, but I hope you don't think that such a little trick is going to be enough to beat me!" Hishya glared at him, the fire in her eyes burning even brighter.

{Ahh... I might've angered her a bit with this. Oh well.} (Tiball)

"Alone, maybe not, but it's a hell of a lot better than not having it!" Tiball shrugged. "But if I combo it with some of the other gear I got, then if that hit there was anything to go off of, I think I might be able to pull something out of my hat." He winked.

"You got one good hit on me, Tiball." Hishya's more authoritative Dragon voice slipped out. "Don't think I'll allow it again!" As soon as she was finished speaking, Hishya rocketed forward even faster than last time. Tiball was only barely able to react, but the sheer force of Hishya's blow still caused strain on his arms, and he could feel her strike resonate throughout his body.

{Yeah... She's pissed...} (Tiball)

"I hope you're ready to get torn apart, Tiball!" Hishya roared as the two began to zip around the arena at extraordinary speed. Due to his item granting him access to Greater Ability Boost, Tiball was able to keep up with the angry Dragon reasonably well, but he knew that a war of attrition wouldn't work in his favor since there was still a time limit on such an effect.

{Ending this in one blow would be nice, but I think that's asking a bit too much...} (Tiball)

*CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK* *CLANK*

The two continued to exchange blows, with both Sun Strike and Tiball's blades engulfed in fire as they clashed. Each hit sent plumes of flame into the air, and it wasn't long until sections of the arena were set ablaze due to the scattering of the magical fire.

"Better watch out, Tiball. Unlike me, YOU aren't immune to fire damage!" Hishya yelled as the two warriors locked blades again, causing a huge shockwave to erupt from the point of contact resulting in large sections of the ground cracking beneath them.

{Yeah...} (Tiball)

"Well, lucky for me that my divine fire doesn't count as such for purposes of your damage immunity, so I can still burn your lizard ass with it!" Tiball channeled more Divine power into his blades, causing the deep red fire that covered them to grow larger and hotter. Like Hitamaguchi, Tiball could channel divine power to augment his weapon attacks, and though their Subclasses were different the idea was the same.

*WOOSH*

Some of Tiball's flame flicked off his blades, burning Hishya's cheek, causing her to wince in pain.

While ordinarily, Hishya would not take damage from flames or flame-based attacks, a Paladin's Smite counted as either Radiant or Light-based damage and thus would bypass her protection. Tiball's Smite was specifically unique due to the Paladin Class he chose which, in FWO, allowed him to mix different kinds of elemental attacks into his strikes. However, due to some of Imperial's modifications he could now actually deal increased damage to creatures that would otherwise resist the type of damage he was dealing. This was what Superior Smite was, and since it was not an FWO ability, Hishya couldn't prepare for or counter it easily. The Dragon had caught on to the fact that she was taking this extra damage quite quickly, as her armor being penetrated so easily set off red flags in her mind. It was designed to take hits far in excess of what Tiball should've otherwise delivered, and the additional hits she took during their clashes around the arena only solidified her theory that she was actually taking several times the damage she otherwise should've been.

"HASTE!" Tiball called out the name of another spell, one that would double his speed in exchange for leaving him vulnerable once the effect wore off. He calculated that it wouldn't matter since his Greater Ability Boost would wear off around the same time, and thus things would be decided by that point anyway.

{Oh shit!} Hishya knew exactly what was about to happen, but due to the doubling of his speed, she was caught off guard as he deftly escaped their clash and appeared behind her.

"Maximize Magic! Guided Blow! SMITE OF THE HEAVENS!" Tiball called out two different abilities in quick succession. Guided blow increased his accuracy, which meant that a target would be guaranteed to be struck by his next attack, though such an ability drained a considerable amount of stamina. While the Smite he used was one of his most powerful, and as he struck Hishya's back with his blade, his entire body was covered in a deep red aura, similar to what covered his blades.

"TAKE IT ALL!" Tiball screamed as a massive red explosion went off, engulfing both him and Hishya. The audience screamed at the awesome sight, and Kana panicked slightly as she watched from the luxury private viewing area that she, Naomi, Yumi, Kaori, Misha, and Miji were sitting in.

"HISHYA!" Kana stood up and ran to the glass that covered the front of the booth. "Is she ok?!? That-That looked bad!"

{SHE EXPLODED! WHY DOES SHE HAVE A HABIT OF DOING THINGS LIKE THIS?!?} (Kana)

"Holy..." Yumi went wide-eyed as she watched the Dragon explode. "I've heard stories of Paladins stacking things like that to deliver one big nova, but I never saw it before today."

{Akagi did warn me that a Paladin could 'Nova' as she called it, but I never even considered what that meant.} (Yumi)

"KABOOM!" Miji squealed as she enjoyed the show. "Hishya went boom!"

"She'll be ok... probably..." Mika didn't look too certain about Hishya's survival and was now regretting her choice to join the tournament.

{I hope Chloe doesn't drop the fucking sun on me.} (Mika)

"D-Don't worry. Akagi isn't moving around, so I doubt Hishya is dead." Naomi tried to comfort her worried friend. "Hishya's pretty tough, so I doubt that would finish her off, so just relax."

{Though Akagi may just let Hishya die for laughs...} (Naomi)

"Y-Yeah, Y-you're right." Kana took a deep breath as she moved back to her seat.

{Please be ok... Oh why did I fall in love with somebody who does this kind of thing?!? Its not good for my heart!} (Kana)

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"Ugh..." Tiball slowly stood up, rubble and debris falling off him. The explosion was large enough to knock him far away from Hishya, his entire body was singed and his mouth was covered in blood. His massive nova strike had done a ton of damage to the Dragon, but he also took a large amount of damage himself. At that moment, a massive dust cloud obscured his view, so he could only see a few dozen feet in front of him.

"Well, that worked better than expected." Tiball laughed as he slowly stood up. "I just hope that didn't kill the Dragon. Otherwise, I'ma have an angry Kana on my back and thus an angry Akagi!" He didn't think she was actually dead, though there was always the chance.

"I presume you can still fight?" Kira appeared from the darkness to check on him.

"Yeah, for now anyway." Tiball laughed as he winced in pain due to his injuries. "I assume I'm not disqualified for killing the lizard?"

"No, but you're going to wish you WERE!" Hishya's voice echoed around him. He couldn't see where she was, but he could tell that she was beyond angry with him.

"Aww. Did that little blast hurt?" Tiball laughed as he scanned the slowly disappearing dust cloud for the Dragon. "How about you come over here and we get you a bit of healing magic?"

{She's gotta be feeling that one. It was basically a single target pin-point hit with multiple times the damage all focused on a vulnerable spot. Even with all her Dragon Empress BS, she must be quite injured from all that power.} (Tiball)

"Oh, it hurt all right. I'm gonna be feeling that one in the morning, that's for sure." Hishya's words gave the sense that she was smiling. "I'll admit I underestimated you. I thought that we'd just zip around a bit, have a show, and then I'd stomp you. Maybe you'd get a few good hits in, but I never imagined you'd actually make me have to take this fight seriously." As she said this, the dust cloud was pushed away with a bit of wind magic revealing a very burned and bloodied Hishya.

"Well, it's nice to see that I pulled this much effort out of you!" Tiball laughed. "I'll take this as a win already!" She was bloody and bruised and Tiball could tell that she'd taken considerable damage from his attack.

{I ended up shredding quite a bit of your armor too. Good thing Imp and Imperial can fix it. But damn... She's still standing?!?} (Tiball)

Hishya had activated her full power and looked just like she did on the day she defeated Serval. Her hair was now a purple flame, and her irises had become little more than an ever-raging fire of the same color, though only one was visible as the amount of blood leaking from her head made keeping it open hard.

{I suppose this is my fault. I let my old bad habits start to get the better of me again.} Hishya's grip tightened on Sun Strike. {Dragons get arrogant because we believe ourselves to be above everyone else, and it looks like that part of me was only made worse after defeating Serval and taking his place.} She glanced up at Akagi, who was smiling at her. {Unlike her, I actually allowed my arrogance to place me in a compromising position...}

"I won't let that happen again." Hishya took in a deep breath before exhaling. "Thank you, Tiball."

"For what?" Tiball asked. "Don't tell me you enjoyed all that damage."

"For showing me just how much of an idiot I am." Hishya took one step forward and rocketed off at maximum speed, and the two began to clash again. "I nearly allowed myself to slip back into one of my worst habits, so as thanks for forestalling my stupidity, I'll make this as painless as possible!"

With her full power unleashed, Hishya began to easily outpace the injured Tiball, even with his Haste and Greater Ability Boosts activated.

{Not good!} Tiball began to rack up quite a bit of damage as Hishya's blade slashed into his body. The Dragon's resolve had only been tempered and focused due to his damage, and he could tell that he was no match for her in his current state. {I guess that means I have to try my plan Z!}

Leaping away and putting some distance between himself and Hishya, Tiball put one of his blades in his storage and wielded the other with both hands. "Alright, let's fucking do this!" As he yelled, divine power began to erupt from his body yet again, but not wanting to take any chances, Hishya rapidly approached him, hoping to stop him before he got the chance to do whatever he was planning.

{There!} (Tiball)

As soon as Hishya got within range of his blade, Tiball unleashed his one single trump card, something that he'd hoped he'd never have to use.

"LIMITER RELEASE!" Tiball screamed out the name of an ability that every player watching knew all too well. It was the same technique that Ishigami had tried to use on Akagi during the attack on the base and would increase all its users' stats by an order of magnitude for a brief moment in exchange for leaving them vulnerable afterward.

With no choice but to meet him head-on, Hishya stopped short and quickly moved to stop the incoming blade.

*BOOM*

Hishya managed to withstand the impact of Tiball's attack but could tell that the clash had fractured her left arm due to the sheer power being unleashed.

{This hurts like hell!} (Hishya)

Hishya struggled against the incoming attack, and due to all the other buffs applied to Tiball, she was being hit with an extraordinary amount of damage, likely even higher than what Serval could dish out at once.

{Come on! BREAK!} (Tiball)

The ground beneath the two began to quake, crack, and shatter, and the very air around them seemed to ignite from the pressure being exerted.

Hishya had taken a great deal of damage from Tiball's nova from earlier, and she was honestly beginning to fear that she might not have it in her to defend herself from this attack as a result. However, as the moments passed, Hishya could tell that her stance wasn't faltering and that not only was she successfully absorbing Tiball's blow, albeit with some damage, but that he was weakening.

{Your timer has run out, Tiball!} (Hishya)

With Limiter Release only providing a short window for attack, Hishya knew that all she needed to do was wait him out, which is exactly what she did. After nearly thirty seconds of holding off Tiball's attack, the Paladin froze in place as the negative effect of his ability kicked in, and Hishya took the opportunity to punt him out of the arena and onto the clay floor below.

"WINNER, HISHYA!" Kira declared Hishya the winner, and the crowd exploded in a massive cheer as she fell backward onto the arena floor.

"Well, hey, I guess that wasn't too bad. Easy fight, yeah..." Hishya laughed as she laid broken on the floor until Mimi and her daughters came and carried her and Tiball away for medical attention.