by It was yet another day off for Martian Moonie, his third month living in the town called Magnolia. While understanding a greater deal about urban living than when he first arrived, the boy was still peculiar in his mannerisms, and he intended to maintain and even improve the prowess he had prior to the boy barbarian being domesticated. There have been times where he's been chased by local law enforcers due to them catching him while he was marking his territory with a paintbrush covered in red paint, his frantic scurrying serving as his non-violent form of regular exercise when he wasn't doing jobs. Other times involved him getting into scuffles with weak low-life thugs or upstart mages whose heads were swollen by their own egos only to later be swollen by the bruises they sustained when the job was done. While the jobs he did outside of his work in the Yummy Siege Bakery were a good source of income, they were mostly lacking in the sense of challenge that forged Mars into the feral survivor that he was. He hoped that he could find some way, or someplace where he could at least properly improve his strength.
That place would soon make itself known when Martian came across a flier among the job commissions. It was an open invitation to a battle royale that was being co-hosted by a Lady Guinevere Marcellus Loren and an Ivanov Denizen Titulus. It seems that a free-for-all battle was to be held in an arena that was located somewhere a little beyond the East Forest in Magnolia, in a place dubbed the "Valley of Mist". Compared to the various other side jobs that the apprentice baker took and somehow completed, this would be on a much higher level, as there were going to be combatants who have acquired more experience and proficiency at what they specialized in compared to the upstarts who would rather risk their lives over fame and glory than to get more stable and relatively safer jobs.
Reaching the intended destination was simple enough for Mars to do, as he navigated through the East Forest as though it were his backyard and made his way down into a large ravine where various individuals were either already fighting or were simply sitting back and chatting it up with other would-be sparring buddies. There were 16 participants including himself with an additional four individuals who were all occupying spectator seats which totaled up to 20 people who were in attendance. How the fighting played out was especially intense, as most of the competitors appeared to be familiar with one another. A peculiarity that was in place was that each time an individual has been rendered unconscious or too injured to continue, they would disappear in a puff of glittering dust, only to reappear in a different part of the arena completely unscathed as though nothing happened.
One individual seemed to be taking the worst beating out of most of the other combatants here, as he was on the receiving end of a full-on teaming. This unlucky soul was subjected to a complete bombardment of attacks from a cavalcade of individuals who each used different abilities. One was a sorceress using some form of dark magical energy to create shock waves and projectiles, two or three surprisingly were girls who appeared to be a little too young to even enter into a place of violence, let alone be able to operate various machines and utilize toxic substances in such ruthless efficiency as they did. There were also one or two archers, with at least one of them mixing aspects of acrobatics and simple melee into their attacks. There was even one woman whose main weapon of choice in her attacks were... fans? Given that there were still more contributors to this gang-up, the young man wearing the straw hat receiving the worst of this beating would be taken down, turn to glitters, and revive, only to repeat the whole process again and again.
This was a free-for-all, yet some of those taking part were deliberately and callously singling out this one hammer-wielding fighter. A few others tried to intervene, but they too found themselves being overpowered by the majority, as this instance devolved from a battle royale to 5-versus-3 or 5-versus-2 smackdowns that were often onesided. With all of these disadvantages, the man with the straw hat continued to fight, his skill level at least allowing him to score a few hits on one or two of his multiple opponents before he quickly went down and revived. At this window of opportunity, Mars jumped into the fray and attempted to unleash a rage-fueled onslaught against the first magic-user he saw, only for him to be brushed aside as the sorceress simply "blinked" from one area to another to evade his attack and proceeded to knock the apprentice baker down with a ball of dark energy before spraying him with some sort of green acidic slime.
The sorceress was about to follow up with her own devastating chains of attack when the lone hammer-fighter roughly picked up Mars by the collar and threw him a few meters behind him, "You're in the f**king way!" he barked before he charged at the sorceress with his hammer brought to bear, dark red energy arched like crescent moon shock waves in his attempts to hit the offending woman. Unfortunately, his retaliatory attack was too slow, and the dark magic user simply blinked out of the attack and proceeded to down the fighter yet again, letting out a smug laugh as he turned into sparkling dust. This would continue on, the fighter silently continuing his struggle with a face of unspoken hate and weariness while Martian himself was fighting the lady dancer with the fans and was trying to adapt to her unorthodox methods.
Eventually, the red-robed marauder found himself falling to his knees as the dancer delivered her coup d' grat by bopping him on the head with one of her fans. "Da Wae!", was Mar's alarmed reaction when he turned into glitters. Rather than being met by the cold blackness of Oblivion, he saw everything that was happening in the arena, as though he were a disembodied spirit, only to be revived himself. While Martian wasn't a big fan of magic or its users, the experience that this place gave was rather unique if nothing else. The bouts kept going in full-swing, one-on-ones, one-vs-many, any scenario under the sun until a loud clapping of hands and the sound of a bell resounded throughout the place at a volume loud enough to be heard by everyone within the ravine.
"The skills displayed by a great number of you are truly remarkable", Ivanov began, an amused smile accompanied by his reserved clapping until he broke out into a guffaw, "I wish I could say that for all of you but that would surely be a lie!" The co-host of the event was wiping away tears while he got a few bouts of chuckling out of his system. As this was going on, the young man with the straw hat was staring daggers at this Lord Titulus as though he intended on killing him once they were out of the arena. "Gather 'round and get your Goddess Medals!", This time it was Lady Loren who was gathering the attention of the combatants as she had next to her a table containing small bags, "Turn in enough of those medals to get better weapons, crafting materials for important jobs, or maybe trade them in for jewels!"
All of the competitors lined up as they each took a bag from the table, some of the more sizeable rewards were given to the dark magic user and those who teamed up with her to strike down the hammer-wielding warrior each and every time. The highest medal counts were in the mid-20s, some got 17, and a few others didn't get any more than seven. The unfortunate fighter was given 14 medals for his troubles and Martian was given nine. "Alright, who's up for another round", lifting an hourglass upside down, Ivanov gave a small smirk as he saw at least half of the beginning roster stay for the next game, this included the battered fighter who strode back in determined silence and anger. The sorceress intentionally brushed past her victim, pushing him slightly to the side as she too would continue the game but not before feigning curiosity, "Moru, why do you even bother?"
Believing it was getting late, Martian was one of the fighters who left, returning home and keeping the medals he acquired as a sort of trophy. At least until he found a way to trade them in for food or jewels. The next morning, the apprentice baker asked his boss Billiam about how he could go about trading in the medals, to which the older man reacted with mild surprise, "Where did you get these Mars", there was a strange familiarity that Billi expressed towards the clinking tokens, which made him sigh as the red-clad weirdo confirmed what they were when he explained where he went. "Go to that one guy with the ridiculous suit of armor on, I think he still accepts those...". One session of scurrying around all over Magnolia later and Martian Moonie managed to find a guy who called himself the Arena Quartermaster, to which he exchanged his tokens for trinkets that he then sold to a local pawn shop for a surprising amount of jewels.
Word Count: 1593
Total Word Count: 1593
That place would soon make itself known when Martian came across a flier among the job commissions. It was an open invitation to a battle royale that was being co-hosted by a Lady Guinevere Marcellus Loren and an Ivanov Denizen Titulus. It seems that a free-for-all battle was to be held in an arena that was located somewhere a little beyond the East Forest in Magnolia, in a place dubbed the "Valley of Mist". Compared to the various other side jobs that the apprentice baker took and somehow completed, this would be on a much higher level, as there were going to be combatants who have acquired more experience and proficiency at what they specialized in compared to the upstarts who would rather risk their lives over fame and glory than to get more stable and relatively safer jobs.
Reaching the intended destination was simple enough for Mars to do, as he navigated through the East Forest as though it were his backyard and made his way down into a large ravine where various individuals were either already fighting or were simply sitting back and chatting it up with other would-be sparring buddies. There were 16 participants including himself with an additional four individuals who were all occupying spectator seats which totaled up to 20 people who were in attendance. How the fighting played out was especially intense, as most of the competitors appeared to be familiar with one another. A peculiarity that was in place was that each time an individual has been rendered unconscious or too injured to continue, they would disappear in a puff of glittering dust, only to reappear in a different part of the arena completely unscathed as though nothing happened.
One individual seemed to be taking the worst beating out of most of the other combatants here, as he was on the receiving end of a full-on teaming. This unlucky soul was subjected to a complete bombardment of attacks from a cavalcade of individuals who each used different abilities. One was a sorceress using some form of dark magical energy to create shock waves and projectiles, two or three surprisingly were girls who appeared to be a little too young to even enter into a place of violence, let alone be able to operate various machines and utilize toxic substances in such ruthless efficiency as they did. There were also one or two archers, with at least one of them mixing aspects of acrobatics and simple melee into their attacks. There was even one woman whose main weapon of choice in her attacks were... fans? Given that there were still more contributors to this gang-up, the young man wearing the straw hat receiving the worst of this beating would be taken down, turn to glitters, and revive, only to repeat the whole process again and again.
This was a free-for-all, yet some of those taking part were deliberately and callously singling out this one hammer-wielding fighter. A few others tried to intervene, but they too found themselves being overpowered by the majority, as this instance devolved from a battle royale to 5-versus-3 or 5-versus-2 smackdowns that were often onesided. With all of these disadvantages, the man with the straw hat continued to fight, his skill level at least allowing him to score a few hits on one or two of his multiple opponents before he quickly went down and revived. At this window of opportunity, Mars jumped into the fray and attempted to unleash a rage-fueled onslaught against the first magic-user he saw, only for him to be brushed aside as the sorceress simply "blinked" from one area to another to evade his attack and proceeded to knock the apprentice baker down with a ball of dark energy before spraying him with some sort of green acidic slime.
The sorceress was about to follow up with her own devastating chains of attack when the lone hammer-fighter roughly picked up Mars by the collar and threw him a few meters behind him, "You're in the f**king way!" he barked before he charged at the sorceress with his hammer brought to bear, dark red energy arched like crescent moon shock waves in his attempts to hit the offending woman. Unfortunately, his retaliatory attack was too slow, and the dark magic user simply blinked out of the attack and proceeded to down the fighter yet again, letting out a smug laugh as he turned into sparkling dust. This would continue on, the fighter silently continuing his struggle with a face of unspoken hate and weariness while Martian himself was fighting the lady dancer with the fans and was trying to adapt to her unorthodox methods.
Eventually, the red-robed marauder found himself falling to his knees as the dancer delivered her coup d' grat by bopping him on the head with one of her fans. "Da Wae!", was Mar's alarmed reaction when he turned into glitters. Rather than being met by the cold blackness of Oblivion, he saw everything that was happening in the arena, as though he were a disembodied spirit, only to be revived himself. While Martian wasn't a big fan of magic or its users, the experience that this place gave was rather unique if nothing else. The bouts kept going in full-swing, one-on-ones, one-vs-many, any scenario under the sun until a loud clapping of hands and the sound of a bell resounded throughout the place at a volume loud enough to be heard by everyone within the ravine.
"The skills displayed by a great number of you are truly remarkable", Ivanov began, an amused smile accompanied by his reserved clapping until he broke out into a guffaw, "I wish I could say that for all of you but that would surely be a lie!" The co-host of the event was wiping away tears while he got a few bouts of chuckling out of his system. As this was going on, the young man with the straw hat was staring daggers at this Lord Titulus as though he intended on killing him once they were out of the arena. "Gather 'round and get your Goddess Medals!", This time it was Lady Loren who was gathering the attention of the combatants as she had next to her a table containing small bags, "Turn in enough of those medals to get better weapons, crafting materials for important jobs, or maybe trade them in for jewels!"
All of the competitors lined up as they each took a bag from the table, some of the more sizeable rewards were given to the dark magic user and those who teamed up with her to strike down the hammer-wielding warrior each and every time. The highest medal counts were in the mid-20s, some got 17, and a few others didn't get any more than seven. The unfortunate fighter was given 14 medals for his troubles and Martian was given nine. "Alright, who's up for another round", lifting an hourglass upside down, Ivanov gave a small smirk as he saw at least half of the beginning roster stay for the next game, this included the battered fighter who strode back in determined silence and anger. The sorceress intentionally brushed past her victim, pushing him slightly to the side as she too would continue the game but not before feigning curiosity, "Moru, why do you even bother?"
Believing it was getting late, Martian was one of the fighters who left, returning home and keeping the medals he acquired as a sort of trophy. At least until he found a way to trade them in for food or jewels. The next morning, the apprentice baker asked his boss Billiam about how he could go about trading in the medals, to which the older man reacted with mild surprise, "Where did you get these Mars", there was a strange familiarity that Billi expressed towards the clinking tokens, which made him sigh as the red-clad weirdo confirmed what they were when he explained where he went. "Go to that one guy with the ridiculous suit of armor on, I think he still accepts those...". One session of scurrying around all over Magnolia later and Martian Moonie managed to find a guy who called himself the Arena Quartermaster, to which he exchanged his tokens for trinkets that he then sold to a local pawn shop for a surprising amount of jewels.
Word Count: 1593
Total Word Count: 1593
