(Less than) Legal Fighting Ring (King of Fighters job)

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Anastasia woke up to find herself in yet another unknown place, her head throbbing from what was apparently unnatural sleep.  She had been finding herself waking up in strange places lately; from Valhalla, to the land of the dead, back to somewhere on Earthland.  That travel to find her way home was a doozy; having no frame of reference for where she was made it difficult to find her way home.  Now she woke up in places unknown with a bandage upon the back of her neck.  It seems that she was tranquilized for this.  

Turning to look around, Taliya was completely unconscious.  This wasn't a comforting feeling in the slightest; however, Nao was right there with her.  At least this time she wasn't alone in an unknown place and hopefully if she were to die here, she had someone to die with her.  But knowing Anastasia and the plot armor that the two of them had, they'd get out of this place relatively unscathed.  They weren't like Almyra, losing a hand for mere plot purposes.

Her head felt like it was exploding over-and-over again from the pounding and throbbing, forcing her to move her hand up to her head in natural reaction to the pain.  The throbbing was audible, hearing a loud banging noise in her head along with blurred vision as the drug started to completely wear off.  "Where the hell are we, Nao?" Anastasia asked, figuring he probably didn't know either.  Scraping herself onto her feet, she walked over to Taliya and nudged her with one of her feet to stir her awake.  

"Wake up," she said as Taliya continued to snooze from the drug administered to them.  "They must've given you a monstrous dosage," Ana stated.  The pounding seemed to intensify the more aggravated she got from not knowing where she was or why she was there.  Suddenly, multiple Naos started to appear in her line of sight, causing the already blurred vision to betray her.  Now she thought she was seeing in doubles, triples, or quadruples.  Upon rubbing her eyes, she just realized that Nao had, yet again, altered his magic to encompass the many Naos.  No wonder Taliya was excited about seeing more Naos on-board and around the Guild Hall.  Or perhaps that was just her enjoying living in close proximity to him; the question has yet to be answered.

"You roped me into this?" Ana asked after Nao, the summoner, apologized for dragging her into this.  "Whatever, I've been in worse," she said while brooding in the cage.  She looked up for a moment and started to pace around.  At least the cage was big enough for them to move around and not keep them crammed up. "Don't worry about it, Nao.  You best bet I'm going to make them pay-up or take all of their crap with me," she said before a door opened up.  Turning her head towards the door, she rushed to the edge of the cage she was in to see a well-dressed man approaching them.  The man looked posh and wealthy; at least he gives off the air of wealth.  One of the noticeable things about the man was a slight cleft in his upper lip.

"So, these are my contenders huh?  Well, sorry to bring you to such a crappy place, but since I'm your client, I feel I'm inclined to at least speak with you before you start fighting," the man chuckled as he started to play with his hands nervously.  "Well, that's the least I can do for you, right?" he said before shaking his head rapidly and returns to his normal demeanor.  "Anyway, this is exciting right?" the man asked.  Anastasia's face didn't seem very amused at the situation.  The man's demeanor went from cheerful to dreadful.  

"Right, so I'm going to be using you guys to bet on and hope you get far in this tournament; well, your lives kinda depend on winning so I hope you guys get pretty far," he said before shaking his head again.  "Well, I'm short on cash so I'll split the pot 50/50 with you guys.  There's a MASSIVE pot for you two since you are technically nobodies in this world of pit fighting," the man said.

"Okay, alright.  We'll fight for you.  But I need you to take her out of this cage," Anastasia said as she motioned towards Taliya.  "Oh, right, her.  She wasn't actually supposed to be a contestant in this tournament.  She sorta came along with because she's quite good eye-candy.  Figured she'd be better used as a card-girl," the man said as his eyes beamed towards Taliya for a moment before nervously looking back towards Anastasia and Nao.

"You guys -ARE- strong right?  I mean, I didn't pick up some trash from the streets did I?" the man asked before Anastasia gave the man a look that would kill.  This caused the man to pull back in recoil.  "Okay, okay.  Just thought I'd ask," the man said before the crowd further on erupted in cheers.

"Looks like the show's about to begin.  Time to get yourself mentally prepared," he said before raising a finger up to the sky for a moment.  "Oh, before I forget," the man said as he reached into his jacket pocket to give the two a bottle of water each to quench their thirst.  

"Drink this.  Don't worry, there's nothing in it other than water.  The drug used to knock you two out has a bad habit of dehydrating you.  So make sure you drink up, yeah?" he said as Anastasia grabbed both of the bottles from him, still giving him the stink eye.  She handed a bottle to Nao and opened her bottle and downed the contents almost instantly.  After she was done drinking the water, she threw the bottle down onto the ground in the cage they were held in.

"You better give us our share of the money.  If not, I will find where you live and I will take everything you own," Anastasia said in a threat.  Oh, with how wealthy this man appeared, she is more than willing to have the Black Sails steal all of his stuff.  Well, she might steal all of his stuff anyway after this is all said and done.  "We'll see," the man said as he waved to them before walking off.  

"Urggh!" Anastasia groaned before pacing around cage.  "We couldn't have been stuck with more of an asshole huh?  We are pirates, not gladiators for people's amusement!" Anastasia shouted out before noticing there were eyes upon them.  This seemed to be the staging room for all of the fighters before they entered the coliseum.  She looked at all of the other fighters and snarled a bit.  "Piss off."  All Anastasia can do now is to wait their turn.

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Anastasia twitches upon being referred to as a slave.  That wasn't quite what she had planned to do for today, but if she has to break her, Taliya, and all ten thousand Naos out of slavery, then so be it.  Her and the Naos were escorted to the arena while seeing Taliya being escorted off somewhere.  "You all better treat her with respect or you'll friggin regret it!" Anastasia shouted out before Taliya waved to them with a big smile upon her face as she was getting hauled off to who-knows-where.  Anastasia and the Naos were taken to the cage, an octagon shaped cage with a dome-like top over it, also made like a cage.  

They were introduced to the audience with a minimal applause, being really nobodies in this underworld battle tournament.  They were then followed by their opponents, Raphael and Sugoi who received a much larger fanfare for their entrance.  "What the hell makes them so much more impressive?" Anastasia asked with obvious annoyance evident in her voice.  She started to get more and more upset.  After the opponents entered the ring, Anastasia became surrounded in white light only to appear in strange armor with an unorthodox weapon attacked to her shoulders.  The Dragon Fangs.  This armor and weapon were feared among sky and sea farers alike, but to these hooligans in the underground combat circuit, they haven't seen anything like this before.

Before the bell rang, Anastasia put her arms together and doused super-heated plasma upon the opponents before they were able to act, being given boos in response to her cheap-shot tricks.  "Don't worry, Nao.  If our 'owner' wants his money, he'll get his money," she said.  If the two were painted as bad-guys, people would throw more money at those perceived to be the 'good guys', altering the betting odds against them.  This would, in turn, grant the winning check a LOT more money because Anastasia and Nao WILL come out on top of all of this.  Ana will be damned if she died in this decrepit dungeon-like-hole.  

The men flinched from the super-heated plasma as the crowd started to boo.  The MMA fighter, Sugoi, started to charge at Nao.  Laughter could be heard from Anastasia.  "Did your parents hate you or something to name you that?"  Anastasia gave off an audible laugh only for the audience to boo her even more.  However, Sugoi remained focus on his attack against the team of Naos.  Nao was strong enough  to fend for himself.  If he needed actual help, Ana would help him. But for a weakling scrub like Sugoi, he would be able to manage.  

Ana's eyes fell upon the swordsman, Raphael.  Judging by his weapon, he was quick and used guerrilla-style tactics while fighting.  Waiting for an opening before landing a quick strike to a weak-point.  Anastasia just stood there and waited for Raphael as he paced around, trying to find a good angle to attack.  Ana continued to turn with Raphael, frustration was plainly evident in the man's face.  "Stop turning and let me find an opening!" Raphael shouted out.  The only response was "No," from Anastasia.  Ana held out her left hand and launched the Dragon Fangs out towards the man only for him to turn his back away from Ana's right hand as a means of avoiding the attack.  This left him open as Anastasia launched her right Dragon Fang at him, grasping him in the jaws of the weapon.  Anastasia reeled her Dragon Fangs in and looked at Raphael.  

Ana swung Raphael like a toy as she turned to look towards the announcer.  "Are these fights to the death?  Because I'd rather not kill him if I don't have to," she said as she slammed his head into the ground multiple times before returning to swinging him around.  This took little to no effort on her part as the Dragon Fangs seemed to act on their own accord.  The announcer moved his mouth to the microphone.  "You don't HAVE to kill him. But it might be a bit more entertaining if you do," he said.  Sucking air in between her teeth, she pulled the man back and threw him against the gate, leaving a massive dent in the cage they were held in.   This caused Raphael to fall unconscious from being stirred up and thrown directly into an object, stopping his velocity back to zero.  

"If you want more entertainment, bring me someone who will actually give me competition.  Instead of this weakling you call a fighter.. And THAT weakling over there," she said as she pointed to Sugoi, who was still fighting Nao.  She is intentionally doing this to stir up a ruckus, to cause the crowd to hate her even more.  "Pathetic!" Anastasia said as the crowd started to boo her and shout things about her armor and weapons being overpowered and that they ought to be nerfed.  They also mentioned that Anastasia wouldn't be able to fight without her precious weapons and armor.  Anastasia just basked in this hatred as it fed into her plan.  

In the stands..
The man that gave the two water before the match began sat with a look of amusement upon his face.  He seemed to enjoy all of this dramatic ruckus that Anastasia is creating.  He flipped his tablet over to see the odds for Anastasia and Nao to win pull out of their favor, which would make bidding for them to win the tournament give lots and lots of jewels.  The look of greed and jewels sparkled in his eyes as he keeps seeing the numbers go up and up and up.  

"That chick is a total bitch, don't you think?" one of the men said within the cleft-lip guy's, let's call him Chuck for now, ear-shot.  Others around the man that made the first assumption saw his assessment as correct and started to boo Anastasia as she started to show-boat and insult the fighters.  The numbers continued to move out of their favor causing him to laugh hysterically.  The man who called Anastasia a bitch stopped booing to look at the man, almost feeling a bit uncomfortable with his presence.

In the arena...
Anastasia turned to look towards Raphael as he slowly made his way up to his feet.  Turning up the gain on the volume control of her suit's microphone, so even those in the back could hear her, Anastasia then looked on to the man that stood up.  "Very good of you to stand up.  Maybe you'll be able to mount a counter-attack!" she said before releasing a single shout with the words 'Fus Ro Dah' which caused the man to get blown into the gate as well as everyone behind him being blown away, being blown back up to a 100m.  "Oopsie.  I don't regret that," Ana said with a chuckle.  Yes, this was all a ruse; she wouldn't normally do something like this to people she was fighting.  

However, if she were to make money off of this fight, which was one of the ways she can earn her freedom from the stupid tournament, she would have to rig the odds a bit.  It's either the two would fight their way out of this tournament or turn everyone here to ash and just walk out.  But since they aren't barbarians, they'd have to be careful.  Ana was already cautious in which spells she could or couldn't use, easily being able to defeat anyone here with a few simple blasts, but she would also run the risk of killing everyone in attendance as well.  Pickle that.

Raphael finished getting up to his feet and the boos turned into roars of fanfare with the crowd shouting "Raphael!  SUGOI~~~~ RAPHAEL!!  SUGOOOOOI!" As the crowd shouted Sugoi, Ana couldn't help but bust out into laughter.  What a stupid name.  But Round 1 continues.

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Anastasia was witness to Nao single, or rather, multi-handedly take down his designated opponent.  They did it in such an efficient manner that it was actually kind of frightening.  However, it wasn't as frightening as the Naos taking on Raphael, who Ana had been goofing around with the entire time.  They all spat their darts at him, overwhelming him with projectiles until he wasn't able to deflect all of the attacks.  Nao, however, spat out a terrifying mass of pure blackness towards Rafael and Anastasia's jaw dropped to the ground.  Afterward, one of the Naos came up to Anastasia and congratulated her, or rather thanking her, for being there.  

Without even breaking into a sweat, Anastasia smiled and nodded to her friend.  "Yeah, you guys did very well too.  You guys are absolutely terrifying as a team," she said; meant as a compliment to the variety of Naos that he could summon forth.  As soon as accolades were over, she was greeted to silence from the crowd.  Originally, she was expecting a horrible reception, but due to how well Anastasia and Nao took on these scrubs, their odds increased; at least until a crowd favorite would show up.  She will continue with the 'asshole' facade for now, just for the finals to make the pot even sweeter for them.  

Without much of a break, a couple of loud roars could be heard from the back.  A little groan came from Anastasia as she looked to the Army of Nao and shrugged her shoulders.  

"It seems like these up-and-coming fighters won't get a moment's rest as the second round of the tournament begins!  They will be encountered by a couple monsters we had found in the middle of nowhere!  Introducing!!!!!" the host stated as the monsters were pulled out in cages, latching them onto the fighting cage that they were stuck in, raising a part of the gate while leaving the cage shut.  "Introducing:  The snout-bat creature!  Krakatoa!  And Krakatoa's partner, the 3-faced sabertoothed tiger: Garland!" the gate was then opened as Anastasia had a bright white light cover her body, displaying a sized down version of her Dragon Armor and her Dragon Fangs.  

"I'll handle the flying one," she said as the elephant-bat hybrid took to the top of the ring.  With a quick "Fus-Ro-Dah!" Anastasia fired a pulse of air at the bat, causing it to fly directly into the cage.  Slapping her Dragon Fangs together as a ball of plasma was formed upon the maw of the dragon fangs.  She shot off the ball of energy towards the bat before it begins to circle around it.  Moving positions, Anastasia moved in front of Nao and set up her shield before the ball of plasma exploded, enveloping the entire cage with terrifying plasma, eating away at both of the combatants.  The shield that Ana put up successfully protected the two of them.

"Having big moves like that isn't a good idea for a small fight like this, huh?" Ana said as the two opponents laid on the ground, unconscious from the hit.  They weren't done yet.  The unconscious elephant-bat creature was quickly grasped in Anastasia's Dragon Fangs and she released a wave of pure plasma upon the creature, waking it up with a terrifying scream.  Unlike the last opponent she fought, this one doesn't seem to have the same fight in it.  With a few slams against the cage and against the floor, the creature was instantly knocked out.  Letting the creature go, she let it lay upon the mat.  Her job in this round is done.

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