Leo can hear the crowd roar as he double checks his spell book. In the corner, the Monk he was to face was meditating. Zilo looks to Leo with his arms crossed and asks, "Do you have a plan buddy?"
"I do, I've got a trick up my sleeve I had planned to save for Alaroc or Cruxis, but it looks like I'll have to reveal it early."
Zilo rubs his chin and says, "You'd show your ace to the people you wanted to use it on?"
Leo looks over to the Monk again, his aura still intimidating. None of the others felt like they could get within even 10 feet of the resting man. Leo sighs and says, "If I lost to them I'd only lose the tournament. I'd prefer that to what happens if I lose now."
A few moments later the arena guards come for thew two warriors, and they silently walk into the fighting pit. The Monk's eyes won't leave Leo, and his face never changes from the grimace of a man looking past his opponent rather than at him.
While the monk takes out his Waveblade and Leo surprisingly doesn't take out his Rhoka in return. He instead takes out his spell book and places his hand behind his back underneath his cloak. Leo then focuses his power on his Arcane Pool, which he would normally use to enhance his Rhoka.
The fight begins, and the moment that it does, Leo casts Haste and lightly throws his spellbook up and casts Floating Disk to catch the spell book and he immediately turns tail and sprints away at high speed with his book floating right next to him. The Monk looks on as he runs and sighs,
"Another coward." Before he suddenly streaks away at the same speed as Leo, trying to keep after him. While the a arena was moderately sized, it was clear that Leo stood no chance at avoiding him indefinitely.
The Monk suddenly had his speed increase even more as he began to close in on Leo. Leo grins and spun to face his attacker, having finally prepared for his coming counter attack. From his sudden stop the wind he was running with blasted his cloak up to finally reveal what he had been reaching for at the start of the match.
He had a set of 4 masterwork Chakrams hooked lightly onto a new belt that looked like a series of metallic segments. Leo snatches 3 of the 4 off of his belt and hurls them at his target. The monk easily dodges the first one, but Leo seemed to predict his dodge, the second one being on course to hit him.
The Monk easily knocks away the flying disk, but the third one right behind it looked to scrape his hip. The moment impact is made Leo's spell book floats to the mage's front. The spell book and Leo's hands glow as though he's using his spellstrike ability and he shouts, "Trial by Fire and Acid" and the Monk's body suddenly began to darken and smolder as he grunts in pain.
Cruxis and Alaroc leap out of their seats and the Cavaleir shouts, "How did? What!?"
Cruxis follows up, "But he never even made contact with his blade?! Since when can he throw his spells?"
"He's using Spell Hurling Chakrams." Responds Tess, her eyes never leaving the fight as she continues, "Magi are usually limited to only using our Spellstrikes close up, but I've heard that some who learn to craft magic can make weapons that can connect with our strikes even when they leave our hand."
Zilo smiles and pounds his fists on the railing "Genius! He's don't more than assist Maldrek, He's learn how to do it himself! He's trumped up close, so he's keeping him back indefinitely with his magic items!"
"I don't know about indefinitely, He wasted 3 of 4 alre-what?" Tess notices that despite appearing to have only had one left, Leo is hurling Chakram after Chakram from the space behind his back. Tess now stands and asks, "How does he have so many?"
"He doesn't, They are the same ones." Smiles Zilo as the group now turns from Tess over to Zilo. Zilo explains, "It was only for a second, but when his cloak showed his belt, I recognized it. He has a back b- a blik" Zilo breaths in and emphasizes each word, "A blink-back-belt. It returns thrown weapons that were on the belt seconds earlier."
Leo is keeping back the Monk easily as he begins leaping and diving to avoid the disks as they come. Leo hated wasting the spells as he sent them in with the disks, so he took a moment halt his disks and instead cast two spells back to back,
"Cat's Grace, Fireball." Leo's aura grew sharp before he let loose a blast of fire. The Monk had already been burning from the lingering Acid and Fire of his former spell, but he still had his reflexes on point, and a large clumsy blast like that was easy for him to leap over.
As he did he was hit with another Chakram, but this one didn't lead to a spell like the first. The monk landed, now much closer to his target he looked up and his face twitched as he then ran full speed directly at Leo.
Leo hurled more Chakrams, trying to get his wall of disks back rolling to stop the Monk, but this time the Monk managed to only get hit by the Chakrams besides those that Leo was spellstriking. The Monk quickly arrived in front of Leo, but as the Magus turned to flee the Monk flipped about and with a spinning ax kick he knocks Leo to the ground.
In a flash the monk landed, twirled his arms about gracefully flowing into a kneeling down position over Leo and with a thud, crushed his hand right into Leo's midsection. Leo sputtered and shook as he felt his entire form lurch from the strike. His diaphragm screamed and his torso continued to tremble after the palm retracted.
The monk rose and spoke as the acid and fire left his form, "Sneaky trick only charging some of those disks, but your terrible poker face gave away the ones I needed to avoid. You've lost now, I've struck you with my Quivering Palm. It is the kiss of death."
Leo rose with his chest still ringing as the man pointed to Leo's chest and continued, "You feel that, that is the rattling of my force surrounding your organs, and with a small flux of my ki, I will sync with your body's rhythm and make your heart cease to beat."
Leo's face went pale as the man shook his head, "I can kill you at any point, but you are a valuable pawn right now. Your two friends fight in the next round. I will face the victor. If they can defeat me, then I will release you."
Leo's body froze as the rumble in his chest persisted. He didn't believe it possible, but he could not deny his feeling of dread and his rattling body. This tournament's stakes were no longer a paycheck to him. Now his life wasn't just threatened, but kidnapped.
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