Faust vs Faustus

The arena, a place where legends were born and failures come to die. The arena had been a curiosity of Faust for years now, he had come here a few times to watch the matches but had never once participated in one of his own. He came here today to see what he was really worth. The half demon spawn walked into the massive structure heading towards the sign up area. Standing behind the desk was a short woman, mid to late thirties, blonde hair, and rather large breast. Faust walked right up to the woman, as he did this she looked up from the small magical monitor in front of her. “Oh, hello there. If you are looking for the main entrance you need to go back out the way you came and take a left, it will be the set of double doors about 30 meters, you can buy tickets in there.” Almost immediately she went right back to her screen ticking off Faust slightly.

He pushed the magical screen causing it to fall onto the woman’s desk shattering. “I am here to fit you stupid woman. Just point me in the direction for the sign ups and I will leave you alone.” His eyes narrowed and showed a part of his angry side. The woman just locked eyes with him for a moment. She seemed pissed and baffled at the same time but the icy stare that Faust gave her must have made her realize that he was not a man to cross, even if he was not the strongest mage out there. ”Through those doors….sir.” She pointed at the doors and would glare at him until he was out of her sight. The doors led to a large black room with another woman behind a desk, much younger than the previous one, with much more attractive look about her. She grinned when she saw Faust come through the doors. “Hello there, are you looking to sign up for a match today?” Her voice was bubbly and kind. Faust walked over to the woman and filled out the paperwork for the match. Once he was finished she pointed him to a room where he would wait until it was his turn.

" Come on Jacob! We will be late if you don't hurry up!" the bellowing of a child's voice could be heard, only the words didn't come out of child, not a human one at least. It was a cobalt blue exceed with white whiskers and small black freckles on its cheeks. Obviously, by the tone of its voice it was a he, also look closely one could see that the exceed wore boyish clothing, a navy blue jean vest and a white shirt with the Sabertooth guild mark on the chest area. By now the Exceed was running  through the halls of the arena trying to get to his destination onto, only to repeatedly look back to see if his companion was keeping pace.


" Why must you rush me Adam? Honestly, we're in no rush to fight anyone are we?"


" That's the attitude I am referring to, you got to have pride in yourself Jacob, how else are you suppose to become Sabertooth's strongest mage!?"

" Bah! What do you know about pride? Last I saw it you were too nervous to even speak out against those lowly thieves on our last assignment."

"WHAT! I would've taken all of them out myself, I  just wasn't prepared..."

" Ayyye so you say, but had I not swoop in and rescue you , you would've still been on the ground crying ."

" What ! I.. I... pffft that wasn't even a rescue, you always dropped me and got ambushed too!"


The two continued bickering, as they were swept in the heat of their argument they never noticed that they would come across the sign up desk in the arena.

"Um... excuse me sir... Are you here to sign up? "


" And another thing..... I 'll have you know my magic wasn't feeling right in that tunnel, that's why I tripped."

"Ummm.. sir?"

" Bala, Jacob you were just horrible, no wonder you haven't moved up to C rank yet."

"Um  (cough) excuse?"

" Pfft what I haven't moved up because I haven't moved up my skill level has nothing to do with my progress at the moment"


" EXCUSE ME!!!!!!"

The young woman shouted with anger, she seemed to grow impatient of waiting for the two to settle their argumenet so she could speak, so she chose to shut them up herself.


"Now as I was saying...... (coughs several time) Welcome to the Arena, would you like to sign up for a match, it will only take a second for you to become active for we have another gentleman awaiting."


Jacob smiled before, uncloaking himself.The tattered black jeans and horizontally striped shirt, black and grey in color, are the only articles of clothing he owns in all the world aside from his black coat and boots. His most prized possession, the coat, is cashmere and always kept clean despite his meager earnings. With its folded collar and quad-tailed endings, the coat is quite possibly his defining characteristic. When buttoned closed, the tails of his coat lay to each of his sides, as well as to his front and back, and reach from his waist to his ankles; covering steel plates which are bound to each of his knees. Two rows of buttons run parallel to one another from the base of his collar to his waist, securing the coat shut when necessary. His final article, the last pair of trinkets he owns, are the black ear gauges, embossed with silver skulls in the lobes of each of his ears.  


Finally, after thoroughly dusting his attire off, the exceed  wrote down "Jacob Faustus" and guided the mage  towards the waiting room in which he would proceed to take part in the Arena's activity.

Tap…tap….tap… Faust feet kept hitting the ground at an impatient rhythm, he was growing rather bored of waiting for this fight to start. He had been watching the clock for nearly twenty minutes waiting for them to just call his name. He was about to get up and leave when the doors swung open. The young woman that was in the sign up area entered with a smile on her face and a clipboard in her hand. “Hi Alex you are up in the forest arena. If you want to just follow me there your match will be starting shortly.” He quickly stood up and followed the young woman keeping a keen eye on the woman’s rear end. As they walked he whistled a haunting tune.

The two twist and turned through the hallways of underneath the arena making their way to the entrance to the field that he would be fighting in. They must have been entering the final stretch because the woman started talking to him again. “Okay Alex you will be fighting in the forest arena, you may use any and all things in the arena anyway that you see fit. There are a few ground rules we would like to go over quickly though, first no attacking the audience they did not pay to be maimed they paid to be entertained, second off once a contestant says they are done or put into a critical condition the fight will end and the medical team will come to the field to administer aid if need be, third no killing or permanently maiming this rule ties in tightly with the second rule. Those are really all the rules if you understand these things please sign here on this clip board.” She handed Faust the clipboard without missing a beat in her stride, he scribbled his name on the paper and handed it back to her.

The two stopped at a large brown and green door with a picture of the leaf on it and a blue light glowing above it. “Okay well we are all set here, go ahead and enter the arena. Your enemy will be entering in a different area of the forest arena, once you are in the area the fight has begun. Good luck.” She opened up the door for Faust and flashed a smile. He walked into the tunnel that would spit him out in the arena. He emerged from the roots of a large tree. The forest he emerged into was massive, the trees were the size of redwoods. He could hear the roar of the crowd, at least 200 meters away. He guessed that he was roughly in the center judging from the echo of the people. In the near distance he heard the sound of running water. A small orb flew in beside him, the camera for the fight he guessed, he spotted at least a dozen other floating in the trees around him. He walked over to one of the nearest trees and went ahead and quickly scaled it in other a matter of seconds, he was about halfway up the tree standing on one of its massive branches. Up here he would be semi hidden from the ground and could hopefully get the jump on whomever his enemy turned out to be.

"Ahem.... we are ready for you Mr. Faustus." The young blonde woman informed the mage and his exceed, little did she know the too where both fast asleep. One could say, they were overwhelmed by the long wait, and slowly were finding themselves to sleep out of boredom.

[ Adam yawned] " Wake up Jacob! You're on, go out there and represent SABERTOOTH!"


" Aye, I got this."

The young mage rose from his fetal position, filled with excitement he ran straight forward towards the door leading to a bright light. As he leaped forward, the light faded away from him vision only to reveal he had leaped into a heart of a jungle.

" Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!?"

The mage was astonished, he had never thought that the arena would have such distinguishing battle arenas, caught up in all the amazement, Jacob didn't acknowledge his opponent mostly because his opponent was not in sight. Instead, the cheers of crowds could be heard from the floating lacrima. Acting as cameras, the lacrima got up close, orbiting around Jacob, introducing him to the crowd patiently anxiously awaiting for the two mages to encounter and engage in an magical battle. Jacob glanced at the lacrima, only to wink at the crowd observing him.


Meanwhile... in the crowd, Adam sat patiently alongside other random folk who happen to be watching the current match as well, only this time, the lacrima produced an projected screen of the jungle arena, this way everyone could see what is happening.


" Be careful.... Jacob."

Adam whispered to himself, as he balled his face up in a grimacing frown.Somehow, even apart.. Jacob heard his words, not literally but mentally in a way.

" I will Adam."

As Faust waited in the trees a new scent crossed his nose. He could tell very little by just smell, he could tell that whomever the scent belonged to was still at the very least 50 meters or so away. He kept his ears and nose on over drive trying to track the owner of the scent. He moved silently and carefully along the tree branches, their massive size and close proximity made it rather easy to navigate through them. Since he was moving so carefully he would only be moving about a meter a second. He did not want to get too close to the enemy for fear that it would give away his location, he wanted to lure the enemy out where he would easily ambush them.

As he crept he allowed for his magical energy to build up so that if the enemy was aware of his location he would be able to act quickly. The branches hardly moved as he slowly walked on them, the leafs did not shake very much as he walked. Faust was actually surprised that the trees still had leafs seeing how it was mid-winter. The forest must have been magically enchanted so that the naturally occurring weather would not affect the area inside as harsh as it should. The forest was not warm per say but it was defiantly not as cold as outside, Faust guessed that it was roughly 50 degrees or so. He was now about 20 meters away from the scent, he still could not see the enemy but knew that he was close. He would wait to see what the enemy would do next.

"Huh? where is my opponent? Bah, don't tell me I have to go find him." Jacob snarled,before he went into his tantrum, several lacrima orbs re appeared and began orbiting around Jacob again, this time Jacob could see and hear the crowd.


" Ladies, and gentlemen.... boys and girls of Fiore.. I give you.... Jacob Faustus!!!!!! "

Jacob tuned the announcer's word out, just as he would usually do , he was in an arena, and technically that meant he was already engaged in a battle which he knows never to let his guard down, however so naive.... Jacob repeatedly looked around only to see floating trees and leaves falling slowly, there was no other sound other than the annoying sound of cheering crowds from the lacrima.


" Come on.. Jacob... get your head in the game already..."

Adam sympathized with Jacob's impatience, but he knew how to handle it, Jacob on the other hand grew irate and began flipping boulders over until his opponent would show himself, such a rude and thoughtless action.