Jigoku Games: A Battle of Elementals

The clouds were gray above the Deathbound arena, a light wind picking up some of the loose dirt that made up its floor. On either side stood the contenders for the games first round. One the eastern side of the arena stood both Aether Cade and Yukiko Inari, the two being paired for to fight alongside each other for the duration of the tournament. Yukiko looked to her partner, only vaguely knowing anything about the man and none of it would serve her any good in figuring out what he could do to help her win this match. Her eyes then moved to her opponents, again finding no one she would know. It would be a near blind fight and it would be likely that the majority of the beginning would be trying to gauge the strengths and weaknesses of one another. "Ice and Key" she spoke in a whisper to her opponent, letting him know what magic she was capable of using, purposely grabbing hold of her sword to make sure he noticed that as well. While she had no idea whether or not he would understand her, she could only trust that her partner would catch on quickly.

Aether smiled in response to her. "Plasma," he mumbled in return. "This fight should be interesting. I'm confident in our victory. After all, you are an Inari."

The excitement was overwhelming for Zero as he could not help but be happy for the fight about to take place. A huge grin was plastered on his face and his flames kept erupting around his hands in short bursts preparing for the arduous battle to begin. Moving forward, Zero stretched out his arms in multiple ways as well as crack his neck slightly warming himself up. With a huge smile upon his face, Zero bowed down showing his respect towards the arena as well as his opponents then quickly turning to his partner saying "We got this!"

"If everything goes our way, then yes. We got this." A focused Reikokuna responded as he hastly followed after Zero to confront their opponents for the match. The pale skinned warrior did his best in order to follow quietly in Zero's footsteps, quietly muttering words to himself as he slowly began wondering who his opponents were, and gripping his blade Dragon Saw tightly in one hand as it rested on his shoulder backward. "You humans and your fighting never fails to entertain me." Reikokuna continued to mutter to himself, as the dust underneath his feet was pushed away in all directions as the force of the feet met with the ground. Among the muttering and mumbling, Reikokuna's eyes wandered all over the arena, taking in every single bit of information that was in his line of sight, wondering how he could use the environment to his advantage as the magic power of the two that he and Zero would face felt of something that should not be taken lightly. His time in the guild left little to no time at all to converse with the outside world and so had no knowledge of the two that he was fighting against, except a brief amount of time before the round itself where Reikokuna was able to meet his partner Zero.

"Don't let my ice touch your skin," she spoke in a hushed tone as the bell tolled to signal the start of the match. Yukiko was the first to move, leaning down to place her hand on the ground to cast Blizzard God's Arena. Ice quickly spreading out to cover the arena, choosing to gain the field advantage from the start. "Watch your step, it's slick out today." She spoke to no one in particular as it applied to all of them but herself. "Flank, I'll go left and you go right." Her hushed tone returning as she took off to the left, skating effortlessly on the black ice. She moved along the circular curve of the arena, letting her hands drop back to the ground the moment she reached the middle of the curve which was about halfway across the arena from where she'd been about four seconds ago. When her hands touched the ground, she cast Blizzard God's Heavenly Cannon, the large gun rising from the ground and beginning to fire needle-like ice bullets at the targets at a rapid pace similar to that of a mini gun.

"Understood," replied Aether to Yukiko. He jumped lightly off the ground, transforming his body into plasma before flying over the arena floor. He was controlling his energy output, as to not melt the ice that his partner had so graciously created for them. He moved to the right of his opposition, an equal distance form them than Yukiko was on their left, using his immense speed to get there in no time at all. He briefly charged his magical energy into his cupped palms as he moved, before thrusting them forward to fire his '''Plasma Dragon's Electron Cannon. '''Afterwards, he stayed floating in the air using his plasma, not wanting to melt the ice his partner had created, and not wanting to slip on it either. He was ready for whatever his opponents' next move would be.

The moment Zero saw Yukiko move and place her hand on the floor, he began to act. Gathering his flames onto his right hand and quickly raising it upward above his head. Seeing the black ice head towards him, Zero used the gathered magic and through it towards the ground via a sweeping motion. Releasing his Fire Wave spell. This caused a large pillar of black fire to rise only around Zero, destroying the ice around himself as well as destroying the incoming ice needles headed his way. This actually caused large amounts of smoke to form do to the spells colliding with each other as well as the black flames hitting the ground. This provided Zero and Reikokuna something of a cover. Though this was not the only thing Zero was prepared for, as upon releasing his Fire Wave, Zero also ducked down and placed his hand on the ground while also activating his Eye Magic, '''Taiyō no Masutā. '''Which can be seen when his eyes glow a gold color. When Zero placed his hands on the naked ground, Zero activated yet another spell. Though this time he used the black ice formed around the arena to his advantage. Muttering to himself, "Shadow Blades" he created multiple magic circles in the distance, close to Yukiko and Aether. Since the black ice was still perfectly intact near the two, Zero's magic circle was perfectly hidden underneath the thick sheet of black ice. That is until his spell began to break through the ice around his foes, flying towards his two enemies. Though Zero did not forget about Aether who was mid-air. Using his activated Eye Magic, he created two small, but heavily condensed '''Heat Shields. '''They were a little odd though as they were formed in a slant not trying to block Aether's spell, but rather change its course even slightly.

In response to the attacks carried out by Aether and Yukiko, Reikokuna was quick to swipe his arm diagonally downwards across, another movement and action to cast his Master Magic Shield in the form of a shell that contained him within, keeping him safe from the attacks as the ice continued to make it's way to him. Allowing the ice to touch the shield, Reikokuna watched from within his Master Magic Shield as the ice began freezing over the barrier, have coated the Magic Shield in a layer of Yukiko's dangerous ice that his barrier now had another sort of shield to absorb damage from the incoming pins and needles that her cannon shot at her opponents. The icy pins striking against it's own element, the black colour of the ice made it somewhat difficult for Reikokuna to see from the inside and what is happening on the outside as he deactivated the Master Magic Shield in order to conserve magic energy, leaving the icy shell normal as it acted as a temporary shield for now against Yukiko's magic. "Well, at least I guess we now the girl uses some sort of ice magic. But this black tinge to it really doesn't help what kind of ice magic this is." Reikokuna thought out loud in his ice shell, only to proceed by blending into a flash of light as he Requipped into his Archangel Armour, now holding two complex pistols attached with blades and his body becoming surprinsgly more lighter, allowing Reikokuna to move faster than before. Having stored his other clothing back in his pocket dimension, Reikokuna was ready to start the fight as he utilised Dispel Pulse in order to dispel that ice that was around him, freeing himself just in time as the smoke rolled in and shielded Reikokuna and Zero. "I hope that was you who did this and not just the enemy trying to gas us to death." Reikokuna muttered as he held onto his guns tightly. With some of the smoke clearing up, Reikokuna pointed and aimed his firearms and aimed at Yukiko who stood near her machine gun, using Spark Shot from both pistols on Yukiko as two light blue seals appeared right in front of her body and didn't seem as if they were going to be going anywhere soon from their target. Pulling the triggers at the same time, both Spark Shot bullets whirred out of the barrels of both pistols and at lightning speed headed right towards the Blizzard God Slayer in an instant.

The sudden light of a requip drew Yukiko's eyes, seeing the guns being raised in her direction. Immediately stepping to the side to appear to slam her body into the side of the ice turrent but instead going into it, using it's thick ice body to protect her from the bullets that began bombarding the front of the gun. The shadow blades produced by Zero jutted from the ground and certainly would have done some damage had she been standing where she had before. Once the hail of bullets ended, she collapsed her cocoon around herself, creating Blizzard God's Sacred Armor, knowing it would be able to withstand most projectile attacks with relative ease and defend her body from her opponents attacks. Using the ice around her opponents, she cast Blizzard God's Vortex, the wind picking up immensely as the ice is shattered and picked up. The swirling winds and ice became a contained blizzard, trapping her opponents in its vacuum-like vortex which would soon begin making it hard to breathe. It's crushing winds equal to that of an F-5 tornado, sending the black snow and shards of ice around and into those trapped inside with the cutting power of millions of tiny razor blades. The temperature of the ice being equal to that of liquid nitrogen, causing the skin to freeze on contact but due to the nature of such temperatures it would feel far more like a burning sensation as the ice begins to freeze the water within the cells of the targets' body, bursting them and turning it as black as the ice itself. She was sure the many hazards found within her blizzard would see to it that she would draw first blood in this fight and gain the upper hand. Knowing that the vortex meant her partner couldn't do much at the moment she allowed the blizzard to continue for only ten seconds as opposed to its normal twenty to thirty. Moving her hand in a downward motion the all of the ice and snow that made up the blizzard falling down in an attempt to bury her opponents under several feet of her deadly cold snow.

Despite Zero's attempts to redirect it, Aether's plasma was too strong to be defeated in such a manner, and would've required more power than he had provided in order to do so. The flames from Zero's shield were absorbed into his own spell, continuing onto his opposition to strike them. Due to the timing of the spell, it wouldn't interfere with Yukiko's Vortex, and would strike before its activation. However, as Zero's magic seals activated in his location, Aether inhaled deeply. The flames from Zero's magic flew into his mouth, refilling the energy he had used to fly and cast his Electron Cannon. "Black Flames, but not God Slayer's flames..." he mumbled to himself as he finished his meal. Waiting patiently for Yukiko's spell to finish, Aether simultaneously charged a spell of his own, a sphere of plasma that he threw at his opposition before the Vortex dissipated. Based off of its speed, the sphere would be upon his opponents right when Yukiko's Vortex would be deactivated. "Plasma Dragon's Blue Bomb." A massive explosion would encompass the location of their opponents in a circular blast. He had intentionally only used enough power to keep the shockwave from reaching him or Yukiko.

Despite the Zero's shields not working, it had provided no problem as his partners Dispelling Magic had provided a means to stop the incoming spell as well as the ice around them. Though now Zero had been provided with two problems. Seeing as Aether could absorb his flames too fast, he knew most of his flame based spells could not work and now a giant tornado of black ice had encased them within. Though he felt no worry, only excitement as can be seen by his giant smile. The moment the tornado had been formed Zero pointed his palms downward toward the base of the tornado generating his explosion magic rather then his fire, shortly after using his Explosion spell which generated two explosions on the base of the tornado one on each side causing the giant tornado to collapse and disperse. Though the tornado was only created for a few seconds it would have proven dangerous if not for his Heat Sense that allowed Zero to alter his heat greatly shielding him from the tremendous cold.With their view of the arena no longer obscured by the tornado Zero could See Aether charging a spell that was thrown shortly after, though not at incredible speeds, which allowed Zero to act once more. Though he was relying on his partner to once again aid him with Aether's spell. Zero pointed his palms towards Yukiko and Aether creating his Explosion spell once again though this time it was somewhat different. As his eyes began to glow gold once more activating his Eye Magic, creating two moderate sized Heat Shields. One under Aether and one above Yukiko. They were formed as a means to direct the force of his explosions in one direction. The shield above Yukiko caused the explosion to direct downward hoping to engulf her, while the shield in Aether's side was used to direct the explosion upward hoping to completely cover him in the explosion, though Zero knew he could not harm them too greatly, he did dwarf down his explosions enough to not shatter his own shields. While all this was happening, Zero was able to yell to his partner "This is fun! Isn't?!"

As the chaos ensued around him, Reikokuna could only laugh as explosions were triggered from left to right. "It is isn't it? The thrill of battle is something I do adore so much." The warrior said as he continued on his path towards Yukiko as he was careful with where he was walking. Watching the blue shpere coming right for Reikokuna and Zero, the Elder Spirit immediately rushed towards Zero's position, placing himself between Zero and the Blue Bomb as he held his hand in front of the two and casting Advanced Magic Shield just in time as the blue sphere met with their post. Though he did not have enough time to properly cast a Master Magic Shield to provide extra defence, Reikokuna decided to take a risk and summoned a purple shield that shaded the two partners from the explosion, which was somehow able to take in most of the damage from the blast before shattering into pieces. With the shield only having taken in so much damage there was still enough energy in the blast to proceed, energy that Reikokuna chose to take head on so that he could protect his partner from the excess power of the blast. Putting both his arms in his face to brace for the impact, all that as last seen of Reikokuna before being consumed in the grey smoke of the blast was a light enveloping his body as he once again utilised Requip magic. Smoke had consumed Reikokuna's body temporarily but as the pale soldier emerged from the grey mist, a smile was drawn on Reikokuna's face as he had emerged with his other Requip armour Archdemon Armour, which heavily focused on defence and such. "There's some things that my Dispelling Magic won't be able to always take on, so it's a good thing I've got a fix for that." Reikokuna said as he reffered to his armour's high density and near impenetrable armour against physical weapons and the likes.