An art? A swing of his sword? Did Tyr have any live saving treasures on hand to form a barrier and block this net? No, no, and, you guessed it, no. None of these options were going to free him from this current predicament and it truly looked like all was lost. The most Tyr could do here was attempt to fight back against Fate and H.I.JACK even if the net was going to unavoidably doom him. "Resolution To Disputation." There was a light, forlorn melancholy to his voice that could only belong to a man shuffling along to his inevitable death but he still went through the motions and placed the giant sword directly above Fate. Maybe, just maybe, if they took too long killing him after the net trapped him on the floor then there could be a chance for the Resolution to fall and take Fate with him. It was better than accepting a loss and not making any attempts to change fate metaphorically and change Fate into a pile of paste literally.
As the net was now looming over Tyr and the Grand Prix, crackling away with some serious voltage that would no doubt paralyse Tyr the second it touched his skin, the Grand Prix decided, for whatever reason, that now was the time to do a wheelie... Tyr wanted to smack the stupid thing because he thought it was showing off one final time before it bit the dust and now really wasn''t the time for this but, when the holy flames draped off the bike all congregated in one spot at the front of the bike, he realised that the treasure might actually have one more trick up its sleeve. If it could get him out of this situation then it could do all the wheelies it liked! Tyr wasn''t entirely sure what happened next, as he wasn''t the owner of this treasure and was blissfully unaware of its capabilities, but his vision was blanketed in white fire as the bike sailed past the charred net with a massive hole in the middle. It seemed like the bike was able to gather any Burning Rubber flames it possessed and create a blast in front of it by sacrificing said flames in one big explosion. It came at a great cost in that its speed was now way slower both as a result of losing the holy buffs but also because that was just a penalty that came attached with that specific action. It also probably couldn''t do much of anything else like sliding around or attacking people by ramming them anymore as it looked quite frail now to Tyr. Granted Tyr didn''t know much of anything about technology but even he could tell there was something amiss with the bike. It still rolled around but it almost looked like it was limping with every revolution of its wheels. Tyr could erven feel a small bump in the ride which wasn''t present before the last ditch defensive manoeuvre.
Would this affect the strategy going forward? Maybe but it was better than having the bike be decommissioned entirely so Tyr pat the side of it and went back to chanting various arts to stop the spike launcher. A few Stop All casts did good work but he also had other tools in his arsenal to deal with projectiles, the main one of which being control over plain wind magic. By shifting the direction of the wind along the trajectory of the spike Tyr could somewhat redirect it, sending it barely off course and missing the bike by the narrowest of margins. Doing so gave the Grand Prix more breathing room and prevented it from having to work too hard now that it was exhausted after the massive flame blast from earlier. As the dynamic duo of captain and his borrowed trusty steed of steel pulled up in front of H.I.JACK, Tyr leapt off and rolled forward to launch a pre-emptive attack on the puppet. It had long range weaponry out, and was moving slow from the drawbacks of the Overclock, so now was a good chance to strike. While Tyr did that, the Grand Prix chased after the papillon while avoiding Fate''s pot shots aimed at its wheels. Part of the reason Fate chose a treasure that boosted accuracy was because she, admittedly, wasn''t great at aiming guns and that was blatantly obvious as she kept trying to hit the moving vehicle and kept failing miserably. It didn''t help that the bike was moving relatively quickly compared to a sprinting human which Fate also wasn''t capable of hitting. As she missed her sixth shot in a row she started reloading as she kissed her teeth and pouted while swearing to herself to hit a shooting range at some point in the future. If Palioxis could learn to use a shield then Fate could easily learn how to wield a gun accurately!
Back over by Tyr, he''d just successfully swung his Sword Of Damocles horizontally against H.I.JACK''s misty body. It felt less like slicing a gas, which would have had no resistance and accomplished nothing, and more so like running a knife through a thick liquid. His sword slowed down as it inched through the mist but it was definitely doing damage as the bits of data floating around and through the fog were visibly glitching and making a static noise. H.I.JACK sprung backward and finally managed to swap its weapons to something more suitable for an engagement at this distance. As Tyr was going all in with his attempt to finish this fight quickly H.I.JACK opted for the claw and screwdriver as they were its best close-range options for mounting a deadly offensive. It was throwing caution to the wind and trying to drag Tyr through the mud along with it. It was convinced it was going to die but if it could leave a wound or two that mattered then that would be good enough for now. It also had one more goal, dragging Tyr over to Fate''s side if possible. This might have seemed counter-intuitive, as keeping Tyr away from his currently busy master should have been his number one priority but that Resolution To Disputation would kill Fate almost without question if it dropped. H.I.JACK needed to keep Fate alive until Scar arrived then they could swap roles. Scar would become Fate''s guardian and they could fight against Tyr together even if H.I.JACK was long deceased. That was the plan anyway but whether H.I.JACK would be able to bring Tyr over before the Resolution fell was uncertain. It had already been a a few seconds and that random duration was anxiety inducing. The correct way to deal with the Resolution, however, was to remain undeterred by it and pretend it didn''t exist. All you had to do was do what you were going to do anyway, just a little quicker if at all possible. Rushing your gameplan and screwing it up because you were needlessly desperate was the real power behind this art. That and it screwed over ranged cultivators quite heavily but that was another matter entirely.
With a flicker of its motherboard cloak, H.IJACK drifted forward like a snake to make its approach difficult to predict. Tyr readied himself by brandishing not only his Sword Of Damocles but also his Staff as he had a use for the latter that he hadn''t demonstrated yet. "Sharp!" The sword aspect art that could turn even the bluntest of objects into a sharp, obviously, and lethal weapon was something Tyr valued immensely in close range skirmishes. If you attacked him thinking he was weak up close he had this up his sleeve to get the jump on you with and he''d won a number of fights right out the gate by throwing his opponent for a loop. Although the Resolution was frightening, Tyr was arguably a bigger problem at closer ranges than he was at longer ranges. A professional sniper would make short work of Tyr long before the Resolution could drop as there was a range where Tyr just couldn''t fight back with his magic. It was actually the complete opposite scenario, swinging at him in close proximity, you wanted to avoid if you were able to. H.I.JACK had no such say in the matter, though, so it swung its two weapons and hoped that the Sword Of Damocles'' 10% critical hit didn''t spring up as that would be terrible luck. The screwdriver''s tip went up against the Sharpened Staff Of Jako while the claw clashed with the Sword Of Damocles. Thankfully no random quadrupling of damage took place so H.I.JACK was only slightly on the backfoot. If it was right as rain it might have had an even fighting chance against Tyr but that was an impossibility right now. If H.I.JACK wanted to be able to truly kill Tyr it would have needed Overclock available to it. Still, it did manage to float around Tyr as it kept trading blow for blow with Tyr somewhat evenly. As much as H.I.JACK wanted to camouflage itself and take pot shots like it normally would, pushing Tyr backwards toward Fate was still a necessity so that took precedence.
Tyr regripped his Staff, positioning his hand lower on the weapon so that he could extend the range a bit and throw off H.I.JACK with the new attack timing. This, at a glance, appeared to have failed when the puppet reacted accordingly and brought the claw over to deal with the Staff instead. A clever move but this was where disaster struck for H.I.JACK as the Sword Of Damocles now only had to contend with the screwdriver, a far weaker weapon. Normally Tyr would have just pushed H.I.JACK back here a few steps but, well, 10% may not have been a high chance but it wasn''t a low one either. You weren''t guaranteed a jackpot after ten swings but you also weren''t required to swing ten times to hit the jackpot either. On Tyr''s seventh swing, lucky seven to some, he hit the 10% chance square on the head, like a hammer on a nail, and absolutely obliterated the screwdriver as well as the entire rest of the metal arm it was attached to. For a brief second a professional swordsman was Tyr, cleanly bisecting the left half of the puppet and tearing its cloak to shreds in one single swing with a beautiful arc. Time felt like it slowed for the spectators as this was like a final oorah of the Legion captain who''d hit the big time at a crucial moment, turning the tide. He wasn''t the strongest Legion kin but, if you had to pick someone to be a leader, there really was no better choice. No matter how low into the pits of despair morality descended amongst his men, all it took was that measly 10% to flip the table and throw what was once an organised brawl into absolute chaos.
H.I.JACK was leaking from its mask and sparks were flying from the top hat as it swerved backwards. It wasn''t just a matter of losing an arm, that was a massive problem too, but part of its core, the fog, had been severely damaged in that last attack. Most of its core functions were on the fritz and changing weapons on its remaining arm was no longer possible. Thankfully, if nothing else, the claw was overall its most reliable weapon... But what did it matter when Tyr could easily punish the lack of a second weapon with which to defend itself? It was putting up an effort to swat away the first attack before blocking the second but there was no way H.I.JACK could keep this up forever and it wasn''t even getting any attacks in of its own anymore. Fate was too busy trying to stop the bike to help H.I.JACK so its future was bleak. It made the last choice it knew it needed to and floated backwards for a second before turning its claw into a drill and preparing itself to bore a hole into its target at any cost. A puppet with nothing left to lose was a fearsome foe because it knew there was little risk involved. Its creator could always stich it back up again so some even wore explosive vests. As a general rule of thumb, puppets on their last strings were to be kept at arms length. The drill claw revved to insane speeds, worrying Tyr who was hoping it wouldn''t fly out of the socket randomly and strike him when he wasn''t expecting it. H.I.JACK resolutely hovered forward an inch before pausing and turning to its master. It had realised a split second faster than Fate that a certain art was about to rear its troublesome head at the worst possible moment. The Resolution To Disputation was about to live up to its namesake and end this quarrel between them.
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As for Fate, she was currently stoked. She''d just shot one of the wheels on the Grand Prix and she felt confident her next shot would knock the bike down another peg. The papillon was already wagging its butt and preparing to jump up high, catch the frisbee, and chew into it with gusto. Things were looking promising until the air above Fate quivered and, without even needing to look up, she knew what it meant. The shadow that appeared beneath her, roughly twenty times the size of her own, completely engulfed her in darkness as she gulped to herself. Her hand holding the gun shook but she steadied it with her other hand and focussed strictly on taking the shot. The bike was more important than her life so, although Tyr was nearby and could be her ticket out of death, this took precedence. If she ran over to Tyr the papillon would be run over and that was far too cruel a fate for the cute, hologram dog.
And once more, Tyr''s random spurts of greatness gave the Umbra supporters in the crowd conniptions. First the random 10% and now an extremely early Resolution... This guy was cheating! What was with this absurd last quarter comeback?! Who did this guy think he was?! Some kind of all-star player?! There had to be a limit to this man''s heroics! Scar and Fate wished that were true but, as Tyr chased down H.I.JACK, who was trying to retreat to Fate''s side and prevent her incoming death, Tyr''s Sword Of Damocles hummed a dreadful hum and it seemed like he hit the jackpot again. His strike was going to cleave the retreating H.I.JACK in two and leave Fate all by her lonesome to suffer at the hands of the Resolution. Fate, and more specifically H.I.JACK, were incredibly angry right now but what could they really do? They''d tried their hardest but Tyr''s lucky streak was impeccable. And yet, despite being angry, they weren''t feeling as hopeless as they were a second ago because someone else was also somewhat perturbed by the recent series of events. As Tyr''s weapon descended to deal the final blow to H.I.JACK, a Scar-y monk suddenly materialised between Tyr and the puppet with a fierce glare stuck on his burly mug. Scar was not happy right now. Between the opposing captain fleeing from him, blinding him with that cheap trick earlier, and now trying to beat Fate in such a cheap manner... Scar''s sense of justice was very different to Tyr''s but he was about to uphold and deliver it nonetheless!
Scar caught the sword with his bare hand and growled at Tyr who was smiling wryly and backing up after letting go of the weapon. The Sword was a personal treasure and could be recovered without having to try and personally remove it from the walking pile of bricks before him... Or that was what Tyr thought would happen as that was supposed to be how personal treasures worked... Right now his Sword Of Damocles was cowering in Scar''s grasp and, although it did briefly struggle a moment in time, it had seemingly given up its futile endeavour and was now chickening out of its duties... As it turned out Scar had developed a passive art that came under the constant blessing art by the name of ''Come Get It''. It was a highly specific art that prevented personal treasures from escaping his grasp, forcing his opponent to face him directly and earn the right to wield their treasure once more. Scar had learn this recently as he had a habit of clutching onto people''s treasures and being dragged around by them... But make no mistake, he''d done this on purpose. If he could find a method to fling himself at an opponent he would take it and this method, though the safety of it was highly questionable, did work most of the time! Actually, there were some very awkward scenarios now where Scar wished he didn''t have the art because he missed being flung around in such a manner but, overall, it was more beneficial to have this art than not. Yes he couldn''t force the other person to fight anymore but, if they ran away, they were leaving their treasure behind in his care. If the person died it became a regular treasure he could use freely.
Most cultivators would fight through hell for their personal treasures so it was rare to see someone abandon them anyway. Technically speaking, Scar was still forcing the fight just in a very different manner. He didn''t have to go to them in a bizarre way, they had to come to him, giving him the advantage in terms of positioning. Also, before he learnt this art the personal treasure was guaranteed to return to the owner so, if his sneak attack failed, the returned treasure would actually matter. This way they had to actually steal it back off him before they could use it, weakening his foes significantly. After all these weren''t just regular old treasures, they were all personals. A lot of people had personal treasures that were specifically catered to their specialties and losing them hampered these people to a shocking degree. Some people literally couldn''t even function properly without them due to their reliance on these treasures. So this was absolutely a useful art... Even if the amount of times it was actually relevant were few and far between. Actually being in a position to steal the opponent''s personal treasure was rare and it would almost never happen twice to the same person. It was more of a neat trick that fooled people once and never again... Usually. There were cases in which Scar could bully a person repeatedly in mean-spirited fashion if he really wanted to. Scar was still a young cultivator in the grand scheme of things so maybe this art would see its fair share of usage over the coming years. regardless, it wasn''t the kind of thing he wouldn''t complain about having at least! Randomly learning a passive art was always a good thing!
Just because Scar was stonewalling Tyr though, that didn''t mean the situation had magically reversed. Yes H.I.JACK was now free to run back over to Fate but would that even really help? The Resolution was not something H.I.JACK could stop fully in its current state. Maybe if it could Overclock things would be different but, right now... Nobody knew how things were going to go. A large factor in whether this match would go to the Legions or the Umbras was whether or not the papillon safely caught the Fritzbee. Fate swallowed nervously as the pressure mounted... She already hit one wheel so hitting the second should be even easier but, in a way, that was ironically the problem... The bike was now moving at a different speed, it being slower mattered. The travel time of the bullet she''d just gotten used to now had to be used in a slightly different manner and she only had one shot. She needed to make it count so she flushed out all the noise around her. H.I.JACK floating over her body and throwing its claw up into the air as it covered Fate beneath it, the sound of Scar decking Tyr and breaking some of his bones, the crowd behind her cheering or booing, and the sound of her manic heartbeat... All of it needed to be ignored as there was only one thing that mattered right now. She aimed five inches in front of the un-punctured wheel, shifted her aim back a little to compensate for the lowered speed... And...
BANG
CCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!
A fraction of a second made all the difference as, right before the Resolution landed and devastated the entire area, Fate had fired her shot. In fact, the Resolution was so close to preventing the shot that, after landing, the shockwave was close enough to the bullet to affect it and make it deviate slightly off its original trajectory. Opting to ignore the Resolution wreckage and spectate the far more interesting bullet instead, everyone shifted their head to follow along and watch it sail off into the distance. It became apparent that Fate had missed thanks to the Resolution and the Umbra supporters were crestfallen...
...
...
... Up until the bullet magically fucking curved in mid air, switched directions, and nailed the damn bike in the wheel somehow.
The crowd was stunned in silence because they had clearly forgotten about something very, VERY important. Even Fate had only recalled a certain something she herself had done earlier that could potentially prevent a loss here. Venus! Fate had disabled the Training Field rune that prevented outside interference so the bullet that shot off into the distance had actually went straight towards her sister, on the resurrection platform, who''s Unpredictabullet reversed the shot in mid-air and saved the day! CHEATERS! The revenants were back to their foul play! Although it should be noted the only reason this was possible was because Fate was still alive. She had to be as her interference with the rune would have ceased by now if she''d been buried under the rubble and K.O''ed. H.I.JACK had actually made a difference by throwing its puppet body away to take the brunt of the hit. It fought valiantly with its claw and allowed Fate to lay broken, but alive, under the wreckage of the giant sword. More importantly, the Grand Prix was centimetres away from tackling the papillon but the decreased speed prevented it from accomplishing its mission and, sure enough, BARK!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
The EMP was detonated and the Grand Prix crashed to a halt on the other side of the arena. The papillon would have faded early, and failed its mission, if Fate was killed so H.I.JACK got the last laugh with its own hero play to save the day. Combine H.I.JACK''s heroic hijinks with Fate''s clever abuse of her dead teammate and you had the reverse comeback of the century. What was once a sure-fire win had become a sure-fire loss thanks to Tyr and was now, yet again, looking like a win already in the bag. The spectators caught sight of Fate respawning on the dead teammate platform a few seconds later, now that she''d succumbed to her grievous wounds under the rubble, at which point cheers erupted from the crowd who''d never seen a fight this close before. The direction it had taken was beyond anyone''s expectation and the hype was tickling the crowd in ways they had been wanting to feel since the start of the tournament. Some of the matches from the core disciples in their respective tournament had been good but this match took the cake and would be the most remembered match of the tournament by far... Unless Ares Vs Mako, predictively, blew this one out the water anyway... Right now, though, in this very moment, the crowd were, for once, giving the Umbras the respect they deserved as competitors. It was weird to see how many people were acting like fair-weather floozies but, alas, the support was real in the moment and set an energetic atmosphere throughout the coliseum that was hard to be grumpy about. Onno in particular was thrilled as he was about to make some serious bank. When people were happy like this they were more inclined to spend stardust, after all. Esme, who was sitting nearby, even helped him out by using her wind magic as a sort of loudspeaker, allowing his voice to spread far and wide. Esme had already been roped into money making... Although, then again, this was probably her natural calling anyway as she was a woman who was very partial to money. She would have helped Onno out regardless of whether he asked or not!
Back down in the arena Tyr was thrashed and Deimos was on track to mimic his brother''s battered body blanketed in black and blue bruises. It was now just an honest two vs two with no gimmicks to rely on for either side. Deimos had no Grand Prix and Tyr had no Sword Of Damocles while Verv felt no exhaustion and Scar was dominating Tyr... But there was something else that had been brewing in the background this whole time. The talisman! The talisman, up until now, had ticked its way up to 2:10... If it could just tick up to 2:30... There was so little time left that, in spite of the losing battle Tyr and Deimos were fighting, there was somehow, someway, still a shred of hope in all of this. This match wasn''t over yet!