Round 2 Team One Versus Team Five

The announcer had given him, and Deca, quite the introduction. Celerous supposed that was his job, to get the crowd riled up, and make it seem as though this match was going to keep them on the edge of their seats all the way through. But Celerous knew the truth of the matter: as strong as he might have been, a farmer was still just a farmer, and the opponents he and Dec were about to face were true warriors in every sense of the word.

Empress Ise and Emperor Brumal. True leaders among the Arcosians. Warriors with experience far beyond Celerous himself could claim.

Though Celerous walked onto the fighting stage, clad in his gi, and his chin held high, he couldn't help but feel like a pretender. Like a lost child. He shouldn't have been here; should never have made it past the first round. It was luck, and luck alone, that had ruled the last match in their favor. Now they had to prove they were worthy of being in this tournament, and while Celerous had faith that Deca could handle herself, he was really starting to doubt his own ability.

Because, for the love of Kami herself, look at who they were fighting!

But Celerous supposed that having the right mindset was half the battle. So he sucked up his self-pity, and began to stretch. If he had to fight physical gods today, he may as well ensure that he wouldn't pull a muscle while doing so. That would just be embarassing. Now, if he ended up with his face cracking the tiled stage beneath them... well, Cel supposed that he couldn't do anything about that. May as well just come to that bridge when he had to cross it.

"Alright, Dec," Celerous rolled his neck, popping it, "I reckon if we gotta go out, we may as well go out in style. Full bore from the get go. What do you say?"

| Ise | 86,265 PL | Ikari Form |
| 6/6 KP | 0/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

Ise had been rather eager to face off against Jagaimo and the news that her team had been eliminated was rather unfortunate, that she could now tell the ones that had defeated them were not QUITE at the right level to face herself and Brumal was rather unfortunate for them, still though apparently Kamae had been one of the stronger fighters she had sensed and these two had managed to hold out enough to be given a decision victory when the first round ended. Ise was STILL immensely frustrated with how their own first round had ended, she was no closer to finding out exactly what was going on with K500 and he had the gall to say what he had to her.

It had frankly taken all of her self restraint to not simply attack him despite the forfeit, part of her wondered now if that was intentional, an attempt to trick her into disqualifying herself so that he might be given the advancement in their place?

It didn’t matter anymore she supposed, she HAD kept her cool, relatively speaking, and now she had new opponents to consider, the first to enter was reasonably strong and appeared to be a Saiyan or Eartling based on her current impression of his pattern, body type, and attitude, unfortunately ‘reasonably strong’ was still only about a third of her own power.

Brumal seemed to sense that she was weighing the pros and cons of just going all out from the start, Ise joined Brumal not long after his much more subdued entrance likewise keeping her power restrained for the moment “Let’s give them a chance to show off what they can do, it’s not as if we benefit from making this quick.” Ise’s decision was absolutely NOT affected by the fact that Zerori had mentioned an interest in watching the tournaments proceedings and Ise’s own eagerness to show off to her.

Definitely not.

“We can try to split things up again if you want, then if the fight loses your interest you can try to wrap yours up sooner.” Ise said giving Brumal a shrug that seemed fair enough to her, a chance to get a decent fight out of what would otherwise be an easy round while giving Brumal an out to step away if he grew tired of it. Plus perhaps there was a chance they could recruit one or both of their opponents.

WC: 404
TWC: 404


Celerous could understand Deca's reluctance to fight. He shared it, even. But Celerous hated giving up far more than he hated losing. In losing there was honor, and a lesson to be learned. Growth came from failure, after all. But quitting? Ma didn't raise a quitter. And all quitting did was hurt you, and deny you opportunities you might have otherwise had.

"Fortune favors the bold, Deca," Celerous said simply, "we are going to lose today, but I ain't going down without putting up a fight. I'll take the Saiyan, and leave you with the Arcosian."

Drawing in a breath, Celerous braced himself, and forced his energy to rise. Power flowed through his body, more than he usually coalesced. The tiles beneath his feet began to crack and splinter, while his muscles began to bulge and grow. They expanded almost like a balloon, and his veins became thick and clearly visible beneath the skin. At some point, he began to roar, almost as if in pain. His gi top stretched to the point of shredding, leaving his chest bare to the Konatsian air. Green eyes turned yellow, and fury erupted in his chest like a wild fire.

Even if he'd wanted to let Empress Ise make the first move, Celerous wouldn't have been able to hold back. Not in this form. His body, his blood, demanded a fight. It pulsed through his veins like hot slag, making it almost painful to sit still. So Celerous charged the woman who would almost certainly plant his bloodied face in the ground today. He didn't bother with running across the tile, not when flying was faster and would build more momentum. If he only got one punch out today, well, Celerous thought it ought to at least be a good one.

As Celerous approached, he pulled his arm back, as if to punch his opponent. Only for it to be a feint, and to kick a leg out horizontal to the ground, aiming to strike royalty itself in her side.

| Ise | 175,000 PL | Ikari Form |
| 2/6 KP | 2/6 MP | 0%/270% |

---

With the arrival of the final fighter and their decision to proceed Ise grinned pleased with the decision on their part to continue in spite of the poor odds of victory for them, fighting against difficult or even impossible odds was an admirable trait even if they had the relative surety that it was unlikely she or Brumal would break the tournaments rules and take things in a more lethal direction. Ise was also quite curious what exactly the last fighter was, their pattern was a curious and unfamiliar style and their general build did not quite map properly to anything Ise was familiar with.

Despite her curiosity it seemed Ise would be facing the stronger of the two, Ise’s lips twitched slightly as she resisted the urge to frown in annoyance at her opponent referring to her as ‘the Saiyan’ it was of course not WRONG but after how the fight against K500 had wrapped up Ise was still in a rather sour mood regarding that.

She paid little mind as Brumal focused on his own opponent instead keeping her senses focused on her own as he managed a rather impressive boost in power, one that pushed Ise toward the belief he might be a Saiyan, Earthlings of his level were not capable of such a rise in power, he’d so far pushed himself to about five times the strength he’d entered the arena with.

And Ise raised an eyebrow as he took the initiative to launch the first attack, using his newly bolstered power to rush at her, Ise still a little annoyed by his inadvertent emotional jab at her let loose a bit of her own restraints on her power, not quite going all out but recllaiming a good portion of the power advantage she had prior to his boost.

Ise opted to meet his attack head on letting her power surge letting the kick strike against her empowered shoulder as she wrenched up an arm to slash across his chest, her attack weakened as some of its power went toward negating the fighter’s kick but still enough to cause quite a bit of harm if it landed.

WC: 361
TWC:  765

Ise counters Celerous’ Roundhouse Kick with her Rush Smash (122,500 PL), Rush Smash overpowers the attack, the remaining power of the Rush Smash is returned to 50% making for a 61,250 attack coming at Celerous!


"Fortune favors the bold," he had told Deca. What a load of crock. If he'd really used his brain, Celerous would have realized that her plan of playing defensively was the correct course of action. These were two physical gods that they couldn't hope to match, so why in the world had he thought to charge Ise head on? Because of this ridiculous form, lumbersome and over the top, that compelled him to fight as aggressively as he could regardless of reason. And he was about to pay for it, dearly.

As Celerous' leg smashed into Ise's arm, he didn't so much as feel her even budge. Cel wasn't an idiot, not even in this testosterone fueled form that left him with only fury, and he felt immediately just how outclassed he really was. How large the gap was between himself and the Arcosian Empress in front of him. He had known that from the start, in all honesty, but there was a difference in knowing a fact, and in experiencing it.

And as Ise's arm raked across his bare chest, rending the flesh and spilling blood... well, Celerous certainly experienced something. Mostly fear. He didn't let that stop him though. As he recoiled back from the force of the empress's blow, the young hybrid planted his foot down on the tile so hard that it cracked. He forced his body to refuse to submit to the staggering momentum of Ise's blow, even as he felt his bones creak under her strength, and threw a right hook aimed at her jaw.

A war of attrition was most certainly out of the question, not in such a short bout. So really, all that was left to Celerous was to try and dish out as much damage as he could, before Ise put him face down in the dirt.

| Ise | 175,000 PL | Ikari Form |
| 1/6 KP | 4/6 MP | 17%/270% |

---

Ise smirked as her claws dragged across her opponents chest and she was very quickly greeted by the coppery scent of blood, a few open wounds like that would make it all the easier to keep track of Celerous and allow her to extend her senses just a bit to ensure nothing went awry between Brumal and Deca, it was wildly unlikely that Brumal would be defeated but theoretically not impossible for their opponent to have some sort of trick to land a solid hit and if orchestrated properly it could arguably lead to the judges leaning in favor of the weaker duo if she and Brumal allowed the fight to go to a timed finish.

As things stood though Ise was confident that such a thing was a near impossibility, even if Brumal got caught up in his fight she had a timer set on her visor now after how narrow the end of the last round had been and if things got just a BIT too close she would simply pull out the ‘big guns’ and launch the fastest attack available to her at her full strength.

Part of her, the part that was not eager to be just a bit more brutal than necessary due to Celerous’ comment earlier, sort of hoped that DID happen, it heavily suggested a high level of skill from her opponent and meant she would likely have a good fight.

Ise felt her opponent slam his foot down to catch himself and she found herself slightly impressed with how quickly and effectively he kept himself from being sent flying, his follow up was pretty strong as well though Ise had a plan for it, one that she was reasonably certain Celerous was not prepared for.

She dropped her arms and simply let him through without any hindrance, his fist connecting completely, causing Ise to stagger back and plant her own foot to avoid tipping backwards as she spat out some blood, the distance between them however was quite small, and Ise intended to take advantage of it. “Not bad.” Ise said in spite of the pain in her jaw as she fired off a quick series of small but potent energy beams from her index finger at Celerous’ midsection hoping to take him off guard.

WC: 375
TWC:  1,140

Ise takes the hit and then responds with a Rapid Fire! (35,000 PL)!


Celerous hadn't expected his punch to land. Yet it had. Usually that might have been cause for celebration, or at least a boost in confidence. But... Celerous was certain that Ise had more than enough time to block that blow. In a way, it almost seemed like she'd allowed him to strike her. That alone worried him: could she be setting up for a counter-attack? Celerous didn't want to find out.

So he jumped back.

But it was too late: Ise had already been in motion, probably before his fist had even grazed her jaw. A rapid burst of ki blasts left her fingers, and they hit their mark. They scorched Cel's abdomen, and unlike with her earlier strike, Celerous couldn't keep his footing. He was sent tumbling to the ground, rolling over tiles that he cracked with the impact of his landing. Celerous came to a stop a few feet away, face down on the ring, and picked himself up with a pained groan.

"Yeah, I thought that punch was too convienent..." Cel trailed off, before projecting his voice, "I knew how this fight was gonna go when I entered the ring, but... I appreciate you humoring me. I gotta imagine it ain't too fun for you though; you could blow me away with a finger, couldn't you?"

Celerous had no idea just how strong Empress Ise was, but if her reflexes and judgement were anything to go by, she was in another world compared to him. He'd known that, but wanted to fight her anyhow. He... couldn't explain why. It wasn't normal for Cel to want to brawl with someone. Maybe he was just a little bit more Saiyan than he liked to admit. It was something to ponder later.

Letting out a breath, Celerous dropped into a low stance, waiting for his opponent's next move.