"Now, who shall Riko-chan's next opponent be? Any volunteers~?" asked Tiamat, floating gracefully above the stage and glancing in the direction of the competitor waiting area with crossed arms.
"I would be honored by the opportunity," said a lithe, eyepatch-wearing woman with black hair fixed into a thin ponytail, the upper half of a white military dress uniform, white dress shoes, and, most notably, a dark blue sukumizu-style swimsuit.
"S-Sakamoto-san!?" exclaimed Riko, swallowing nervously as the woman, Lieutenant Colonel Sakamoto Mio, was nearly as capable as Tanya with a Flight Unit.
"It pleases me to see you again, Riko-chan. You've grown considerably," remarked Mio, adopting a friendly smile as Tiamat teleported her onto the stage. At the same time, however, she materialized a red-sheathed katana from her Inventory, making it clear she was prepared to do battle.
"Thanks...we've all been training hard this past year..." responded Riko, swapping out her trench gun for a buckler resembling a turtle shell and a hand pickaxe. She knew she wouldn't be able to hit Mio if they were both in the air, so while she wasn't as proficient with melee combat, she didn't fear it.
"Excellent," said Mio, nodding approvingly as pointy ears popped out of the top of her head and a tail unfurled from between the fabric of her top and sukumizu, reminiscent of a Doberman. Then, with a broad smile, she unsheathed her katana, returned the sheath to her Inventory, and stated, "I will do my best during our match, so you should do the same."
"To do otherwise would be to disrespect my opponent..." affirmed Riko, raising her shield, attached to her left arm, while posing with her pickaxe concealed by her body.
Seeing that both Riko and Mio were ready, Tiamat didn't hesitate to raise her hand, shouting, "Begin~!" in a melodious, exceptionally loud tone that reverberated through the stadium.
Wasting no time, Mio darted forward like a blur, her katana leaving behind a silver trail as she slashed at Riko's turtle shell buckler. The latter put her weight behind it in preparation for a parry, but Mio had predicted this, the tip of her katana passing within half a centimeter of Riko's buckler without making contact.
Before Riko could make sense of the incongruency that washed over her, Mio transitioned the momentum of her slash into a spinning kick launched at the center of the buckler.
'Well, that's not good...' thought Mio, expecting to push Riko back or off balance with her kick. Instead, the latter's arm barely budged, and while she was pushed back, it was nearly impossible to tell as her feet adhered to the arena, giving the impression she was an immovable boulder.
Though she had never attacked one of her allies with the intent to cause harm, much less eliminate them, Riko's experience slaying thousands of monsters allowed her to transition from blocking to swinging her pickaxe at Mio's torso without hesitation.
With Riko parrying her foot, Mio abruptly found herself in an awkward position. Despite this, her smile grew as she swung her katana, choosing to meet Riko's attack by striking at her wrist. Her speed and flexible body allowed her to pull off the maneuver, but she got the uncanny impression she was attempting to cut through rebar as her blade met Riko's wrist and barely sliced into it.
Powering through Mio's counter, Riko's pickaxe failed to find purchase, but the momentum behind her swing caused it to shatter on contact with the ground, producing superheated fragments that scattered through the area like shrapnel. Even she was tremendously surprised by this, so while Mio had instinctively dodged backward, the distinctly Japanese-looking swordswoman's body was invariably peppered.
'What monstrous strength...' thought Mio, her expression turning serious. She had failed to get up her Magic Barrier in time, but the reinforcements to her body allowed her to avoid serious injury. Blood stained the left side of her lower abdomen and thigh, but her body quickly pushed out the bits of shrapnel and healed under the influence of her Magic Power.
"I'm not the same as I was when we last fought, Sakamoto-san," stated Riko, reestablishing her defensive posture with a replacement pickaxe. At the same time, pale green flames burst forth from her body, boosting her physical parameters nearly ten times over, consequently increasing her Power Level from 25 to 47.
'Those flames must bolster her strength and defense...' concluded Mio, pulling her sheath from her Inventory and sliding her katana into it before lowering herself into a quick-draw stance. Then, similar to Riko but using Magic Power in place of Life Essence, she became enveloped in a thin film of bright, bluish-white energy that caused a circle of dust roughly a meter and a half in diameter to swirl around her.
Though Mio's stance and the energy she was giving off caused her to feel a fluttery sensation from the pit of her stomach, Riko's expression became even more resolute. Then, as if an inaudible starting pistol had been fired, both she and Mio moved at the same time, her charging forward with her shield raised and the latter executing a lightning-quick draw that gave the impression it was tracing the horizon.
swf
Confident in her speed and timing, the pupils of Mio's deep brown eyes shrank to the size of pinholes as she witnessed Riko come to an abrupt stop just out of range of her katana. It shouldn't have been possible to go from 100 to 0 in an instant, but as Riko's left thigh bulged and the tendon in her ankle snapped like a rubber band, she firmly adhered herself to the arena using the grounding method Fran had learned from Kakashi.
Taking advantage of the brief window of opportunity she had created for herself, Riko moved aside her buckler to reveal a restored gun-type Relic with three barrels. From Mio's perspective, her movements were in slow motion, but since she had fully committed to her slash, she couldn't react in time as Riko pulled the trigger and discharged three glistening metallic balls that visibly distorted as they traveled.
thunkthunkthunk
Contrasting Mio's expectations, there wasn't much force behind the balls as they slammed into her left shoulder, lower back, and outer thigh. What made this especially confusing was that they were heavy, significantly so. The moment they struck her, she felt like lead weights had been attached to her body. Even more concerning, they were gradually increasing in size like inflating balloons.
"It's over..." asserted Riko, breathing heavily and enduring the pain in her left leg and ankle as she explained, "I just hit you with an artifact used to capture dangerous Primeval Creatures. The material expands by feeding off of kinetic energy and absorbing oxygen from the environment, so the more you struggle, the quicker it will envelop you."
"Capture...?" repeated Mio, remaining calm despite her increasingly dire circumstances.
Nodding, Riko elucidated, "Rest assured. Although it may not appear so, the material is elastic and extremely porous, permitting oxygen and other gases to pass through. It won't be easy, but you'll still be able to breathe even after it envelops you completely."
"Fascinating..." stated Mio, adopting a broad smile as she added, "Once this tournament has ended, I would like to learn more about this artifact of yours."
"Of course~!" responded Riko, smiling radiantly as Mio was inevitably enveloped by the artifact, aptly designated Capture Gum. This left her unable to do more than wiggle and breathe, consequently affording Riko her second victory...
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Ding!
'Hmm...?'
Though all seven of his bodies received the notification at the same time, it was the Vahn who was cuddling and reclining against Yamato's cool and comfortable wolf form that opened his Chat interface to see who had sent him a priority message.
"Has something occurred...?" asked Robin, nestled to Vahn's left in a loose black kimono, deftly pouring him a drink.
Hearing Robin speak, Nami, who had been observing the match with her hands on the viewing deck's railing in a turquoise-green and white bikini, stood up and turned around, naturally striking a pose with her right hand on her hip as she sighed, "Please don't tell me it's someone from our crew causing trouble..."
"I can't say they're not causing trouble," responded Vahn, adopting a faint smile as he assured, "But it's the kind that's in good fun. Would you like to hear the specifics...?"
"Yeah, hard pass..." responded Nami, returning her gaze to the arena and exhaling a second sigh from her nose. She wasn't the type to do battle if she could avoid it, but seeing how much Riko had grown in a short period and being D-Rank herself made her feel uneasy...like she was being left in the pigtailed girl's wake.
Noticing Nami's thinly veiled solemness, Vahn passed off his bowl-sized sake cup to Robin, rose to his feet, and took a moment to caress Yamato's head before approaching the voluptuous pirate from behind and wrapping his arms around her.
"Thinking of joining in...?" asked Vahn, his voice faint but deeply resonant as he punctuated his question by kissing Nami's right shoulder. His first instinct was to ask if there was anything he could do, but Nami was both more independent and self-conscious than the majority of his women. If he were too considerate, she was likely to become even more upset since she didn't like being perceived as weak.
Changing topics, Nami quietly inquired, "Who messaged you? Something must have happened for Robin to take notice."
"It was Tanya, the little military girl with bright blue eyes and wild blonde hair, who used to be in my Party..." revealed Vahn, gently rocking Nami's body as he explained, "She's taken an interest in Riko's growth and wants to meet with me to discuss the specifics of how she became so powerful in a relatively brief period."
"How did she become so powerful...?" asked Nami, leaning back against Vahn's chest and tilting her head to the left to grant him easier access to her neck and right shoulder.
"You know how diligent she is..." responded Vahn, peppering Nami's neck and shoulder with kisses as he conceded, "I did give her and the children in the Pavilion's care a few pointers, but her growth is ultimately the result of self-study, faith, and determination..."
"Is that your way of saying I lack determination...?" asked Nami, her voice faint, full of warning, and her brown eyes narrowed thoughtfully, reflecting the image of Riko bombarding a tenacious Sunraku. The former's ability to fly made her an outlier among D-Ranks, so when no one else volunteered to be her next opponent, he stepped up, boldly proclaiming that he would be the one to take her down.
"On the contrary..." countered Vahn, embracing Nami as tenderly as he was able while quietly asserting, "Like the rest of your crew, you possess a degree of determination that the average person can't even fathom. You just channel it into becoming the best navigator you can be..."
"That's true..." muttered Nami, placing her left hand atop Vahn's, cradling the right side of her abdomen. Then, guiding his fingers to the band of her bikini, she asserted, "But I don't want to be a liability when we finally set sail for the New World. That means you need to provide me the same and even more pointers than Riko..."
"Gladly..." responded Vahn, grazing the band of Nami's bikini with the tip of his pinky finger but resisting the urge to invade them as he had learned from experience that she was uncomfortable being on the defensive. She enjoyed being held and doted upon, but the moment things evolved past benign cuddling and kissing, she became tense and emotionally distant—a sequelae of the deeply rooted trauma she had endured in service to the Arlong Pirates...
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"Awww, what's the matter? All out of steam~?" asked Sunraku, his voice playful and taunting as he struck a pose with his body bent and hand up to his right ear in anticipation of Riko's response.
"Haaaa...haaaaa...haaaaa..."
Though it had only been a few minutes since their match began, Riko was utterly exhausted after having to dodge Sunraku's aerial counters. He was incapable of flight, but he could create temporary footholds in the air that allowed him to leap around at speeds she could barely dodge. As a result, her stamina depleted rapidly until she could scarcely stand upright, much less use Bukujutsu.
Repositioning with his hands on his hips, Sunraku exhaled a sigh behind his mask and remarked, "I'll admit it. You're stronger, more durable, and better equipped than me, but I'm faster and have waaay more experience with PvP. If we did this after you've fought against a hundred or two other people, the outcome might have been different."
"I won't surrender...or make excuses..." countered Riko, breathing heavily as she unequipped everything but a pair of red fingerless gloves, her gym uniform, and her running shoes. Then, even though she had been warned that it would reduce her lifespan, she overtaxed her life force, causing her usually green aura to turn crimson as she charged forward and attempted to tackle Sunraku like a wrestler.
"Like I said, you need more experience..." sighed Sunraku, dodging to the side and extending his left foot, causing Riko to trip over it and crash hard due to her momentum. He felt like a total asshole and received many boos from the crowd when she subsequently sat up and began crying her heart out, but since he was used to receiving hate, he rolled his eyes, shook his head, and waited for Riko to either surrender or charge him a second time with his hands on his hips...
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