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// Chapter fifty three, Fiery Fights: Bad days ahead. 
// Story: Airship Mauled 
// by Darkonshadows 
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-The next day, The Volcano, Upper Tier, Coliseum, medical area, Shocking-

I looked down on the badly beaten muscled oaf, muscles weren’t everything when talent could get you just as far. I could disable this heavily muscled punks like this guy for breakfast, but I needed someone to experiment on and he would do just nicely if he even had a hint of griffon or pegasus in his bloodline like I thought he did.

“Hey there, you look like you could use a job as a minion!” I said with the maximum amount subtlety I’m known for. 

“Why should I… join you, this hawk… just needs to rock out more… and ugh…” Jock Hawk was pretty poor off if he was this heavily bandaged.

This was a good opportunity and I was taking it even if this amounted to nothing. You can’t expect to start with the cream of the crop minions, it’s better to take someone who is weak and mold them into the position of being a decent lackey. Doing that ensures loyalty and eventually a strong minion that can take care of themselves enough to hold their own.

I still had to stay stronger than him to keep him under my hoof and that gave me the motivation to get better as well, a win-win if I ever heard one 

That cow did a number on him when she drove him into the solid stone flooring of the arena. That reversal attested to how talented the cow was at fighting, given that she didn’t outright kill him doing it. I don’t think many other fighters would have been capable of pulling that off, it just means my rival has gotten stronger and I welcomed the challenge.

“I possibly have a method that can make you stronger, but it’s going to hurt quite badly and we’ll have to do it when you’re in better health.” Yeah, an untested method to increase his strength that could kill him, better him than me and if I can perfect my idea then I can use it for myself. “If that’s not enough for you, you get someone who beat that cow once as a trainer. If you love to fight, then I can readily oblige you personally! I love to pound my opponents into the floor, but she took it quite literally with you and a little revenge wouldn’t be out of the question after something like that.” 

“Humph...” Jock didn’t look ready to accept, but he looked like he was contemplating my words at least.

I needed something to clinch him, I wanted him to agree to this. Now if I were an egomaniac, judging by his entrance and how he destroyed the stands coming in, then how would I get him to work for me? Oh wait a moment… I am an egomaniac! Hehehe… I know exactly what to say, for I am one of the best!

“What, are you seriously going to say no to my offer, especially after you were upstaged by a cow with udders so petite that she resembles a dog? Where’s your pride? Did it get buried and left in the ground in that hole they pulled you out and then filled back up?” That got his attention, now I had to just reel him in to the idea of working with me. “You didn’t even land a solid blow on that cow the whole fight and she blocked your attacks without bruising or even getting a tiny scuff mark to show for it. You are weak is what you are, I don’t know why I’m even bothering to make an offer to take in a coward like you if you’re going to give up after a one-sided smack down like what happened to you. You just got matched up with a really bad opponent for you, one I had believed a second ago that you could possibly personally beat eventually. I guess I was wrong about you…”

I turned to leave and took five steps towards the exit, then looked back at him slightly disappointed, I really thought he was going to call out to me and accept my deal. I took one step out the entrance and wouldn’t have looked back if it were not for one thing.

“Wait… how would you make me stronger?” That sounded like the sweet music of an agreement coming to pass, I just had to seal the deal.

I’m getting myself a thug and will have actually have hired someone for once.  Jock would of course be working for me and not GODLESS, but it was basically the same thing until it wasn’t.

If we get matched up Arizona, I promise our fight will be legendary! Until then, I needed to make an acquisition here and now.

-Coliseum Stands, Arizona-

“Winner, The ‘ton of bricks’ Wall!” When the referee announced that I could help but think that was a little bit incredulous. The wall made it past the second round by falling on its opponent… again!

“I can’t believe that stupid wall is making it into the finals!” I grumbled.

“The longma are not too happy about it either.” Velvet grunted as she we watch the longma struggle to move the wall out of the arena again.

“Next, Jacky ‘The Blackcap’ Chickadee La Perm.” The referee was calling out the next fighters. I wonder who she’s fighting. “Her opponent, Dispel ‘The Holy’ Grace!”

-Fortitude-

This… this was going to end poorly. Yak friend Jacky is not winning this one. Even if she had good strength of character, she does not have good strength of body to match Dispel.

“You can do it captain!” Nefer is being very innocent for this world, I like him a lot.

-Five minutes later, Jacky-

I didn’t pull any weapons out, mostly because I didn’t want them to be destroyed, I saw what Dispel did to that last guy. I was hiding behind one of the toppled pillars and I had yet to be hit by Dispel’s cataclysmic holy energy blasts with that big two handed sword of his.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t injured from shrapnel of exploding stone, getting hurt by the terrain of the mildly broken arena or tripping a lot on top of getting knocked around by all the near misses. I couldn’t tell what parts of me weren’t bleeding or bruised at the moment.

Dispel didn’t care about any kind of collateral damage, he was wearing armor for a reason and it was doing a good job of preventing injury from his own blasts of power. I had to aim him away from the audience in case he over did it with those holy blade beams of his, even then I knew he wasn’t using his full power.

Also I was going to have to move eventually because I could hear… I jumped onto the fallen pillar and jumped off it as a wave of horizontal holy energy hit it. The pillar evaporated beneath me in a rather explosive manner. After I landed, I ran towards him and Dispel swung his large sword around to bring it into position for a downwards vertical swing.

Hitting this guy with a cannonball wouldn’t be honorable and facing him like this was about as dumb as could be, but I would be showing my bravery at the very least. I wanted to hit him once and deal some kind of injury to him, but what to hit him with.

As I closed the gap between us, his armored hooves started to swing the sword downwards. I had a decent idea of how to deal some damage to him, but I wasn’t going to be able to beat him at this rate.

The sword came down and I side stepped the blast of energy as it ripped across the ground by me, pelting me with chunks of stone that ripped into my feathers and down. Once I got close enough I pulled out a sledgehammer and twirled around to bring it around into his chest plate with a full swing.

I actually knocked him into the air and dented it with my blow and continued to charge him, he had expended a lot of energy and I wasn’t going to let him get another chance to get another blast like that off. I swung for his head with the sledgehammer using a golf swing and felt my arms shake with the ringing of his helmet as my blow landed.

“Have at thee giant purple carrot shaped like a pear on a bean pole!” Despite clearly disorienting him, Dispel still brought around his sword. My last sight was thankfully seeing the flat side of his blade as it impacted with my skull and I heard one line as everything faded out of existence. “Monsters like you don’t belong in this world!”

-Gene-

“Jacky.” I wondered where she got the sledgehammer, but that wasn’t important at the moment. What was important was that she was hurt.

Dispel moved over to the fallen form of Jacky with jerky and uneven movements. He slowly raised his sword, the Referee thankfully quickly called it before he could bring it down. I might not have intercepted with my spear in time.

“Winner, Dispel Grace!” The referee called and I quickly arrived to cradled Jacky’s head, her head was swollen and she was knocked out and barely breathing. I started to check her injuries as I pulled her away from Dispel.

I calmly put the sledgehammer back behind her back, that strange slurping noise could be heard and the sledgehammer disappeared into nothingness. I didn’t think about it too hard.

I reverently carried her to the medical professionals and sadly handed her over to them without a hint of emotion on my face. I followed after them once they put Jacky on a stretcher.

“Next, Pom ‘The Canine Queen’ Lambchop.” The voice faded out as the medics started checking Jacky over. “Versus her opponent… ugh… Glop-Glop the alien flying electric blue boogaloo squid of rectitude.”

-Ten minutes later-

Jacky would be okay, she will be fine. We would be getting that cursed artifact and then we’d continue our adventures. We also needed to deal with Teatime and his ilk, but we would have to do it legally or we’d face an armies worth of longma. I should focus on getting through my next match.

“Winner, Pom!” I exited the medical area and witnessed the end or at least the aftermath to Pom’s match.

The sight I saw in the arena as I stopped at the stairs leading up to the stands was a longma dressed in a strange electric blue squid costume who looked to have been wielding a saxophone as a weapon. The red colored longma with orange eyes was poking halfway out of his costume and looked as confused as Pom probably felt, given that her opponent was currently tied up in the costume’s tentacles and Pom likely didn’t do anything for him to end up like that.

She won her match at least, though why it took so long against that oddly dressed longma I’ll never know. That the longma even won his first round meant that he had to have at least some skill in combat.

“Next Gene ‘Swift Reaction’ Eric.” I stopped from going up the stairs and turned around to walk into the arena proper. “His opponent, Shocking ‘Vicious Volts’ Awe!”

The minute Shocking Awe was announced, he slammed into the ground in front of me.

“You look like a good fight, I hope you don’t disappoint my expectations of you!” Shocking seemed like a fairly aggressive individual, also a physical step above most pegasus ponies. I was going to have problems focusing on him, what with Jacky being on the back of my mind.  

“I don’t like you GODLESS guys.” I told him honestly and flatly.

“So… doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun right? Well come on and start the fight ref, I’m going kick his griffon ass!” Narrowing my eyes at Shocking, I spread my wings and held my spear at the ready. “Make me feel alive if you can!”

The battle crazy pony spread his wings, soon sparks of lightning started jumping around randomly in the air around his form. This was not going to be an easy one to win.

-One hour later, Skelly-

I watched as Gene, the brother of Fortitude and Flamberge prove himself to be a mighty warrior, also the smartest out of the three brothers. The griffon paced himself expertly and despite being at a handicap because his opponent could throw lighting and he was basically carrying a lightning attracting weapon, he was actually making a good showing in this fight.

I watched as Gene rapidly twirled the spear and caught a lightning bolt on the tip of it and, with a quick thrust, he fired the lightning straight back at Shock. Despite Shock being good at controlling lightning, it didn’t mean he was perfectly immune to it and griffons were just as good at weather manipulation.

Both the griffon and the pegasus were still going strong, until they shot by each other at high speeds. They then both started falling out of the sky.

The two hit the ground and Gene quickly propped himself up on his spear, he pushed off the ground using it.

Despite him not roaring personally, Gene's spirit sang as he shot forward. The pegasus, whose wings were shredded by the last attack just as much as Gene’s were broken by his hooves upon passing one another, dodged under the shaft of the spear and grabbed the middle of the shaft with his left hoof.

Using his grip on the spear, Shocking leveraged himself forward and his right hoof quickly became surrounded by a mass of gathering lightning.

Gene had reacted too many things quickly, but he couldn’t keep it up forever. Shocking rammed his hoof into Gene’s chest and poured thousands of tiny bolts into it to send Gene sprawling.

Gene didn’t get up, the scorch mark on his chest was a grievous wound.

“Winner, Shocking Awe!” The referee quickly called out.

The medics quickly ran out to gather up Gene, Fortitude collected Gene's spear and followed after them.

Gene had fought with honor and is a true Viking, even when his mind was elsewhere.

“Now that was a fight!” Shocking bellowed out and then let out a gasp of pain, trying to spread his wings probably just made the injuries on them worse. “That guy was actually tough, not a single scream out of his beak despite all the pain he must have been in. Also he could have showed a little more emotion.”

-medical area, Fortitude-

I am seeing my brother lying there, laid low by Shocking Awe. Things are not looking good for him.

A bright light filled the room for a second and I blinked the spots out of my eyes to see the Valkyrie who took that evil unicorn's spirit.

“Is my brother… is he…” I could not get the question out of my throat, Eir turned to me and smiled.

“It is close, but he is not yet ready for Yakhalla… he will live. His willpower is keeping him here, even when he is not conscious.” A boulder rolled into the room and then rubbed up against Eir. “I’ll get to you in a moment Ragna. He is a Viking who knows to fight even when he’s not aware that he needs to.”

I sighed with relief.