The Dueling Arena ~The RP~

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura, unable to rest like he wanted, stood and sighed. "It'll start when they announce our names." he told the feline. "Besides, don't you want to look around first, or at least bandage that tail of yours." he said as he shoved his katana back into his obi as he walked to the table. "If there's anything I can do to mend it let me know, I don't like injuring those I don't have to." he said as he watched the felines movements, gauging how the katt would fight.  

[cheeta-katt]

Ghost’s ear twitched with a small hint of annoyance as Takamura replied. He half-expected the man to have already gone into a trance with his meditation; however, that did not appear to be the case. His eyes wandered toward the unsheathed katana with some interest.
As for waiting, Ghost…really had nothing to do right now. Not knowing anything about where he was or even how to start finding his way around—let alone his missing friend—he wasn’t quite sure he was prepared to go wandering around the streets (or even the arena) without being able to find his way back in time.
On the other hand, the mere mention of his tail brought back a few painful throbs up the cat’s spine. Ghost looked over his shoulder, watching with some anxiety as his injured appendage limply trailed at his feet. Upon receiving so much attention it began lashing, seemingly on its own accord, as the movement caused Ghost a considerable amount of discomfort. Nevertheless, he shrugged it off casually.
”It’ll heal,” said the katt, blinking hard, ”Besides, I—“
Ghost held his tongue; he continued quickly after the abrupt pause, trying not to seem too conspicuous.
”—I’ve had worse.”
Whew. Almost gave it away, now didn’t he?
In the meantime, Ghost noticed that Takamura appeared to be studying him. His continuous gaze was unnerving; as a cat, it was engraved in his instincts to avoid direct eye contact to show his politeness, and though he had long since gotten used to the varying human customs, he could not help but flinch at the burning holes created from those icy eyes. Ghost turned away, beginning to hum to take his mind off these stimuli and his ever-increasing anxiousness.  

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura, with nothing better to do, and unable to concentrate due to the roaring crowed, decided to follow the katt. After drawing up next to the creature Takamura spoke, avoiding eye contact as is customary with people of his birth. "Do you have a name Friend?" he asked politely, looking straight ahead. His mind processed what he had seen and heard. The flinch, the pause, even the tails actions were of interest to the samurai. He's got good reflexes, and probably enhanced senses as well. Takamura thought as he continued to look around the arena.  

[delbosque]

When Ghost asked about the tournament starting, the typically cheerful BillBob almost frowned as he replied that the tournament had been delayed due to a kidnapping. Then he suddenly brightened, his irrepressible optimistic side coming back out.
"Oh, but some of us are in the basement getting Christie back! And you two can look too if you want to help, or you can go through this doorway here and down the stair to the warm-up and exercise rooms, especially if you want to spar with each other, but here, take these things, they're so we can notify you when it's your turn in the tournament, they ought to work anywhere you go in Byako, so you don't have to sit around the arena if you have other places you need to go meanwhile!"
BillBob held out to each of them a small device, a lot like the sort of thing that restaurants with long waits for seating sometimes hand out. Each device had a little screen on it to display messages, and lights that would flash if it were activated.

((Um, for now, if you want to join the rescue mission, read back a bit and you'll see where Saito, Raul and BillBob (the 'other' BillBob) are, they've been fighting monsters on their way to rescue Christie... I'm going to write another post for them sometime soon, perhaps today. They're down the stairs leading to the exercise rooms, in that same staircase they went through a door that was left open that says employees only or something, and then down some stairs, through a room with cages of monsters in it, down more stairs and through another similar room, and then down more stairs to yet another room with monsters in it. Or you can feel free to leave the arena or wander around, or spar or whatever.))

((and sorry about any annoyance in asking questions about your character, I find it's often faster to just ask about what I need to know than to wade through that characters thread hoping to find what I'm looking for, because any profile I'd be looking for would usually be buried by the time I have reason to look. Thanks for telling me what page in that thread to look for to find your profile, though.))  

[delbosque]

delbosque

The next basement level down was slightly better lit than the previous one, but still not as well-lit as the levels above that.
There were more cages here, mostly bigger and farther between. A few had creatures in them, but most did not. One cage had very obviously been left open, and there was nothing in it.
"Blast!" BillBob exclaimed, "I don't know what's loose!"
"I hope it's not anything poisonous." Raul said uncertainly.
As they all finished walking down the stairs and moved on into the room, various sounds could be heard of movement in the cages. The cage nearest the stairway had something in it that started to laugh maniacally at them.

Not until they got halfway into the room did they find out what had been let out of the open cage. The maniacal laughter of the creature near the stairs had drowned out all small sounds of movement in the room, so they hadn't noticed that the loose creature had been walking behind the cage the laughing thing was in.

Coming out at the three guys from behind, a reptilian-looking thing leapt at Raul, knocking him down and tearing at him with the wickedly-sharp claws it had on each of six long toes, three to each foreleg.

BillBob jumped aside with a shout of surprise.

Fortunately for Raul, Saito had fast enough reflexes to attack the creature before the thing could tear at Raul enough to kill him.

With Saito locked into deadly combat with the monster, BillBob did his best to pull Raul aside and try to bandage him up before he could lose enough blood to make him faint. Though knowing Raul, BillBob thought that he might start fainting anyway.

The situation looked pretty bad. BillBob thought he recognized that monster - an Oineren, if he remembered correctly from what Christie had taught him - and it was the sort that normally required more than two or three people to handle it even under the best of circumstances, unless you happened to know its weakness, which he couldn't recall if he had ever learned.

As they fought, Saito and the oineren managed to injure each other seriously, and sometimes it seemed that one was going to win at any moment, and sometimes it seemed the other would be the victor. Just as BillBob finished bandaging Raul as well as he could for now, Saito hit the oineren with a big blast of energy as the monster was furiously attacking him with everything it had.

When the air cleared, things were quiet and both Saito and the oineren were laying on the floor. The monster heaved itself to its feet, moving slowly and painfully. Its own blood dripped from wounds in its sides, and from the cruelly sharp teeth in the creature's open mouth dripped the blood of its opponent. The oineren moved its long, thick tail slowly from one side to the other and shifted its weight, testing each of its four legs for stability before noticing that BillBob and Raul were sitting just a little ways away.

Saito did not get up.  

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura nodded as he took the small device and slid it into his kimono. Nodding at the man he decided to head to the gym and see if he could spar with anybody, namely the Katt that seemed to have taken a liking to him. Smiling Takamura turned towards where Billbob had indicated the gym was in and began to walk in that general direction, taking his time and not really bothering to watch where he was going.  

[cheeta-katt]

((Oh, it’s no problem. ^^ Now that you bring it up, that character profile thread’s a bit of a mess…there should really be some sort of directory, I think. A new suggestion perhaps?
As for the rescue mission, why not? It’ll certainly keep me busy. xD ))

Ghost blinked, turning around to face BillBob, who had apparently made up his mind and answered his question with a rather disconcerting response: the tournament had been delayed because of a kidnapping.
Ghost’s tail twitched slowly. He listened carefully as BillBob explained the situation, soon after giving him a small device—but by then the captive situation was his complete and utter interest. Even as Takamura signaled the way to the gym, perhaps as an attempt to get Ghost to spar, the samurai’s gesture went unnoticed.
”…A kidnapping?” the katt raised an eyebrow, placing the blinking appliance carefully in his back pocket, ”That’s unfortunate…”
He pondered.

So much had happened since he went through that teleporter. Was it really worth the trouble? Ghost cocked his head sharply, indecisive. He was already planning on risking his life anyways for this tournament in the overall goal of rescuing Dustin, who had disappeared from his world several days earlier. It would seem that this task was the most important; however, there was somebody else in trouble now—somebody else who needed his help, perhaps desperately. At least Dustin could fend for himself.
The paths were weighted deeply. If Ghost declined, then he would have time to practice for the tournament, increasing his chances of winning and finding his companion, but would sacrifice the life of a stranger in the process. If he chose to save her, then he could get killed before he ever had an opportunity.
…But hadn’t BillBob said that the tournament was delayed because of the kidnapping?
Ghost smiled. Well then it was obvious, wasn’t it?

”…Show me the way,” Ghost nodded, determined, his bravado showing in his unwavering voice, ”It looks like I’ll have to be the hero for another day.”  

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura heard the Katts words and rolled his eyes as he continued walking. Shaking his head he walked towards the door to the gym. "Oro, maybe I should go down to the basement and see what types of things are hiding down there." he said as he looked at the Katt. It wasn't his nature to be so helpful, but he figured a fight for his life might just bring back what he had kept hidden for so long. It would certainly be much better than a tour in the gym, besides, Takamura would probably get a good look at some of his opponents, and be able to judge their fighting skills accordingly. He looked at the Katts eyes, the courage evident, though there was also a hint f fear, maybe, just maybe, this creature would go down there as well. "He's going to get himself killed if he does." Takamura said to himself as he he finally looked away. He pushed open the door and walked down a set of stairs.

He passed a door to his left that was standing open. Hanging on the door was a sign that said employee's only. "Oro?" Takamura uttered as he took a step inside, the smell of death and the sounds of battle far below greeting him. Steeling his gaze he crouched low and darted down the stairs, passing many strange creatures on his way, most of which were trained for combat. Each room he passed brought the sounds of battle closer, the stench of death ever present in his nostrils.

Soon Takamura had reached the source of the noise, a room, much like the others, except inside were two men that he could see, one on the ground, either dead or knocked out, Takamura hoped the latter. Standing before them, beaten and bloody, stood a creature Takamura could only assume was one that had escaped his cage. Slowly Takamura crept forward, pressing up against the wall and staying close to the shadows. He hoped that neither the man, nor the creature noticed him. If he was successful he would try to get as close as he could, so that when the creature attacked the other man standing there Takamura could spring into action from behind and hopefully distract the creature long enough for the man to escape.  

[delbosque]

((Oh, I think there have actually been multiple attempts at cleaning the thing up and organizing it. The most recent attempt I know of is this one:
http://byakocity.wikispot.org/Front_Page
but I don't know how many characters are actually listed on the wiki.
I do know, however, that there are more that people have added that aren't shown on the People and Places page... you can search for them, though, to see if you can find something.
As far as I know, no one is going through and listing characters from the thread, you have to add your own characters yourself.))

BillBob nodded at the two as they left the sign-up desk and watched them as they headed downstairs.

The "other" BillBob was meanwhile bandaging up Raul while Saito and the oineren fought. By the time Takamura and Ghost arrived at the same level as them, the oineren had finished fighting and just barely noticed BillBob standing up.

The redheaded boy watched the oineren carefully, wary of what it might do. He knew it could move faster than he could ever hope to outrun, so he couldn't draw it away from the wounded man at his feet by running, and he certainly wasn't strong enough to take it on by himself.

But why wasn't the creature attacking?

As BillBob watched, the oineren started breathing a little easier within mere seconds of having stood up. The cuts on its sides started to close up, though there were still streaks of blood down its sides.

Blast! BillBob thought, This is the one that heals itself! What else did Christie say about it? Think! How can we fight the thing?

He didn't see or hear Takamura arrive, but he knew the two newcomers were on their way, knew how far they had to walk to get there, and knew about how fast they'd been moving when they'd walked away from the sign-up table. Hopefully they'd arrive any moment now, but the oineren was quickly healing, so he couldn't wait for them before trying anything.

Just as Takamura was edging himself into an attack position, BillBob grabbed the lid off of a food bin next to him and threw himself into a roll that would take him right up next to the monster. The oineren would still be able to get at him somewhat, but he had the lid protecting his head and torso.

Seeing BillBob start moving, the creature stopped resting and immediately moved to attack the boy.  

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura smiled as the creature lunged at the man, moving to attack. Now was his chance. He Ran directily behind the creature and ran towards it, leaping into the air at the last moment and drawing his katana, trying to land on it's back. If successful his katana would be plunged into the back of the creatures skull, hopefully killing it after that last display of self healing.

If he missed his target he would either push off the opposite wall, the one the creature was facing, and attempt to slash at his face, or he would try to slash at the tail as it came around to knock him off, either way this would not be an easy fight, and that's just what Takamura wanted.  

[cheeta-katt]

((There’s a Byako wiki? oO I didn’t know that…
Either way, already working on sorting out the profiles here.))

Ghost saw no motion from BillBob; however, from the corner of his eye he could see the tail end of Takamura’s clothes disappearing into a small door near the back. Squinting, he was able to make out the letters along the top:

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY

Knowing for a fact that Takamura did not fit under that category, Ghost’s suspicions were raised. He jogged swiftly across the decorative marble floors and vanished into the darkness.
Immediately he knew he was on the right track. There were many scents here, as well as obvious signs of battle and bloodshed; as Ghost headed further down, he saw places where the ground and walls had been burned, or even broken through completely, where the smells directed him down into even deeper parts of the arena until he knew he was quite far from the surface. Escaping, while not such a problem for an adept climber like Ghost, would certainly prove to be a problem to others without his abilities.
It got darker. This was not an issue—if anything, it actually helped the situation. Ghost’s senses were best in a nocturnal setting such as this, to the point where he could even feel his pulse slow as he relaxed. Like a squirrel high in the trees, he knew very well that he was safer here than in daylight, and that seemed to calm him as he sprinted, advancing into more dangerous waters.
Soon enough the katt came upon a room full of bat-like creatures, fluttering about in a cage held together by rags; covering the floor was a large pool of acid-green liquid. The stench here was terrible, smelling strongly of many chemicals that burned the hairs in his nose. Ghost sneezed violently. To keep from retching, he was forced to cover his maw with his hand, though that did little to help. Through this mild protection, Ghost was still able to detect the qualities of this acid: it was diluted with some sort of compound, but a vast majority had run off, leaving the dangerous chemical to impede his progress.
There were two options here. Ghost could either jump over the mass using his powerful hind legs and the nearby set of steps, or he could climb along the pipelines overhead. He chose the first, as the pipes didn’t look nearly sturdy enough to hold his weight, seeing as more than one had been blasted clean through and were dripping with mixed liquids. This had been the sight of a large and violent battle. The acid, Ghost noted with a small frown, was created naturally. With a hint of doubt he realized that if he were to come across a monster of this type during the tournament, winning would be impossible.
Ghost shook his head. He didn’t need to be concerned about these matters now—not when somebody’s lives were most certainly in danger. Plus, he reminded himself, if this one had been defeated, then there had to be a way, right? Of course there was. So, alert and with a clear head, Ghost took a running leap, cleared the pool, and dashed down the next exit.

What he found when he came to the next hallway was not a pretty sight.
The place carried the overpowering stench of blood and death. Crinkling his nose, Ghost immediately lowered himself to the ground, instinctively minimizing the target. Though he had yet to find the attacker in question, he knew undoubtedly that there was something here to be feared.
Whiskers fully extended, each struggle played itself out to him in the form of air currents and sounds. There were a total of five living organisms in this space; one of them was dead. Another was close to it. Still another had thrown himself into battle, fresh with the scent of the injured one’s blood—his body seemed to radiate fear and desperation like a strong helping of cologne. And, of course, there was the monster in question.
But there was on smell that stood out against all the others, and that was the smell of Takamura. His presence gave Ghost reassurance, knowing that the strong samurai was on his side. And so he threw himself into battle.
…However, to say that he “threw” himself is not the best way to describe Ghost’s stealthy approach. His black fur blended in perfectly with the darkness, his padded feet making no sound as he drifted on gliding strides towards the fight. As he got closer he developed a better idea of his adversary; it was reptilian, so the scales would be something of a problem. Nevertheless, there were very little organic materials that could stand up to Ghost’s claws, so he didn’t worry much about that.
Confident now, Ghost waited for the favorable moment. Nigh invisible, and with two others already distracting the beast, he had time to calculate his next move. When the opportunity showed itself he lunged immediately for the creature’s throat, letting loose a guttural yowl as he extended his claws, ready to grapple onto the monster’s neck and never let go. His plan was for this to be as quick and with as few casualties as possible.  

[Sou Jara]

Yarn sat in a small waiting room, waiting for her first match to begin she was completely unaware of the problems going on within the arena. Even if she did know however it was doubtful that she would take any action unless she had something to gain for it.  

[delbosque]

Unfortunately for Takamura, the oineren had experience with swordfighters, including ones who liked to go for the head. The monster was in fact quite surprised, but had a reaction time just fast enough to move its head as soon as it sensed someone coming at it from behind and landing on its back. Takamura was fast enough, however, to still wound it in the head... just to one side. Instead of running the creature's skull through, he sheared a big chunk of flesh off down to the bone. It wasn't a clean in-and-out cut, so it was a wound that couldn't heal any time soon, and the loss of some muscle would also make it harder for the oineren to control its jaw movements.

Giving out a bit of a screech of pain, the creature immediately tried to roll over to knock Takamura off, but that had the effect of exposing enough of its neck for Ghost to latch on to. Of course that made the thing only roll around more violently, trying to shake the katt off.

BillBob was lucky in that the oineren had rolled away from him instead of onto him, and though he'd been cut deeply in several places from the oineren's claws, the 12-year-old struggled to stand up to where he could attempt to hit the monster with the lid he still had a good grip on.

Raul meanwhile seemed to have been surprised out of his state of near-fainting.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed at the sudden new outburst of violence. Wincing in pain, he tried to scoot himself a bit further away from the action without actually getting up.  

[cheeta-katt]

Ghost had timed his attack just right; the monster, while trying to shake off Takamura, had rolled over and exposed its soft neck and underbelly, making it all too easy to find a good spot to latch on. Ghost landed hard on the creature’s trunk, just underneath its chin. His paws sunk deep into its skin, and his teeth far into the loose flesh above its windpipe. Unfortunately the beast was obviously much too large for Ghost’s relatively small (but still very powerful) mouth, so as a result he was completely unable to constrict the trachea like he was hoping.
Thankfully there were still some other options. In the mean time, the monster had been badly injured, as determined by the amount of blood dribbling down its limp jaw, and with the added attacker it must not have been in a very good mood. Ghost’s eyes widened as he was turned head over heels while the brute thrashed about in an attempt to throw him. Lucky for him, his two-inch claws were more than enough to keep him firmly in place during the counterattack, and the creature’s own head kept him from being crushed in the process.
So, though getting increasingly disoriented, he wasn’t dead. That was the good part.
Now for the second option—Ghost grimaced, knowing that this would not be pleasant for either one of them. Though, being a predator himself, he was totally accustomed to the entrails of other organisms, that was only if he planned on eating them in the near future. Selfless killings were not Ghost’s forte; it had been quite a while since he was last forced to kill another living being without intending to consume it later.
But, he reminded himself, it had to be done. Glancing back for a moment of temporary stability, Ghost saw the two humans, both badly injured and bleeding. One of them—armed with only a lid for protection—couldn’t have been much older than ten or thirteen. The feline turned back to his victim and gave a heavy sigh through a mouthful of epidermis.
Well, it was settled then. Ghost went in for the kill the only way he could figure how.
Having opposable thumbs, he was blessed with the ability to practice proper dental hygiene. Thusly, Ghost’s teeth were much stronger and sharper than a normal cat’s—or any creature’s for that matter—and were easily capable of cutting through a sheet of titanium like a knife through warm butter. Naturally this meant that the creature’s partially scaled underbelly hardly stood a chance.
Unless the beast did something to knock him off, Ghost would bite down very hard on the flap of skin that he had a hold of, cleaving off a clean chunk of flesh to expose the trachea. This would clear out any pesky muscles in the way, allowing Ghost to get a firm grip on its windpipe to completely suffocate it. If that didn’t work, then his front claws were already digging pretty far into the monster’s neck; if its anatomy was even remotely similar to most creatures’, then he was bound to sever a major blood vessel at some point or another.  

[Takamura Kobayashi]

Takamura went flying, hitting his head on the opposite wall. He stood shakily and took a few moments to clear his head. As the creature thrashed he noticed a large black catlike creature clinging to it's chest. He smiled as he recognized the pants and tie. "I better save him before he does something stupid." he said as he rushed at the creature again, this time aiming to take the creatures right arm off. If successful the creature would be incapable of prying the Katt of his chest, and it would give the Katt a clear shot at a choke hold. If Takamura miscalculated, or the creature moved unexpectedly Takamura would shift his point of focus to the creatures Side and tail. Either way Takamura was now a distraction more than the main event.

He began his run towards the creature, the tip of his katana no more than a few inches off the ground. As he approached he swung the blade upwards, going for a downward strike. If he missed the creatures shoulder joint the slice would be naturally carried forward and into the creatures side, puncturing a lung, and most likely several other vital organs.