D.E.M.O.N.S: Getting Summoned Weekly isn't so Bad

"BEGIN" shouted the announcer as he kicked off the ground, leaving behind his own crater as he left the arena. Careful observation would reveal that despite the fact the crater seemed to be a result of too much force applied when the announcer jumped, looking closer revealed a different story. The crater was perfectly symmetrical, cracks reaching equally to either side of the arena and providing the same number of obstacles for both contestants. This announcer was clearly a cultivator in his own right, and likely much more powerful than the contestants.

*I wonder how many people noticed that…*

[Well, I certainly didn't tell you mentally pointed it out. My eyes are good… but I'm not able to see a crater, process the creation of the crater, and catalogue all the similarities in less then a second.]

Kat didn't know what to say to that. Both because she had no good answer, and because while they were mentally chatting the match had already started. Voldar sped forward and unleashed a flurry of blows onto Bodeir. Bodeir, remained rooted and strong against the assault, blocking even the large hammer strikes with a palm or thigh, depending on where it was aimed.

Voldar was elegant in his assault. Despite being a dwarf, and quite a rounded one at that, he moved like a dancer and flowed from one stance to another as he used as much leverage as he could to unleash a chain of attacks, usually with his hammer. Each blow upon Bodeir's body rang out like a deep gong, but Bodeir remained strong. The only proof it was having any effect at all was actually if you looked at Bodeir's feet.

Bodeir's stance was still perfect, a heavy set horse riding stance that shifted as needed… but the ground beneath his feet cracked with every blow, sending him deeper and deeper into the ground with every blow of the hammer, and strike of Voldar's fist. Bodeir seemed remarkably unconcerned with this, and was even going with the flow, allowing the chipped and broken bits of the arena floor to flow up his legs.

Voldar, snarled at the clearly lacking reactions from Bodeir and switched tactics. He planted his feet and brought up a slow, heaving swing in an overhead strike, attempting to really slam into Bodeir. Unfortunately, despite Bodeir's immobility up to this point, the elf wasn't simply a punching bag. Bodeir dashed forward as the hammer reached its apex and slammed a palm into Voldar's metal plated stomach. The dwarf flinched, knocking his strike off-course and killing most of the power.

More power was lost when Bodeir followed up his palm strike, with a knife hand chop to Voldar's elbow, causing the dwarf to drop the hammer and abandon his attack. Voldar rolled with the momentum on his arm in an attempt to escape from Bodeir, but the elf gripped hard on Voldar's arm locking him in place.

Gritting his teeth, Voldar suddenly increased the gravity on his body by a massive amount and just let himself drop, ripping his arm from Bodeir's hand, even as he crashed into the ground, causing a large crater and the shaking of the arena. Bodeir stood strong, the dirt around his feet remaining intact despite the large impact. The elf followed up Voldar's attempt to escape by stomping down on the dwarf, who flipped the heavy gravity to the side, and sent himself flying towards his hammer.

Bodeir kicked the ground to get some loose debris, and sent them after Voldar, but it was in a mostly half-hearted attempt to disrupt the dwarf. Voldar flipped around his hammer, landing heavily and breathing a bit hard. Voldar simply let the rocks strike him, to seemingly no effect, the clumps of stone breaking upon his armour. Bodeir though, smiled as the finer bits of sand started to seep into the dwarf's armour. Not useful now… but perhaps later.

Voldar growled as he glared at Bodeir. The annoying elf had managed to simply shake off his weight increasing effects, if they were even active in the first place. As Bodeir stood amongst the shattered pieces of the arena, the small area around his feet was very conspicuously intact. Even if he had managed to overcome the extra gravity to move, it should've cracked the floor again… that is, if the gravity increase had worked at all. It seemed that it had not, at least in Voldar's mind.

He was completely wrong. Bodeir had specifically strengthened this bit of arena purely by instinct when he'd dashed in, and simply held the ground together when Voldar crashed into it. Footing was key to his sect's martial forms, and getting caught on awkward terrain was really easy to avoid when you made sure the terrain was flat and steady. It was a basic teaching tool.

For Bodeir, this was an easy first exchange. For Voldar, it seemed like he needed to swap up his entire strategy. Instead of carefully wearing Bodeir down with low-cost techniques over an extended period of time he'd need to blitz the elf. The elf who specialised in earth aligned defence.

Unaware of each other's thoughts, the match resumed. Voldar dashed forward, and his once flowing movements changed into a series of almost drunken looking flailing. Wide but quick swings that seemed to speed up an instant before impact, where Voldar drastically increased the weight on just the tip of his hammer, then letting that extra weight throw him around as he bounced all around Bodeir.

Through this new serious of attacks, Bodeir stood strong, though he did summon up a coating of earth to help with his defence. It cracked, each and every time it was struck, but a flex of Bodeir's will and the flowing earthen coating was repaired and none the worse for wear. The match continued like this for a while, developing into a stalemate. No matter how heavy Voldar made his hammer, Bodeir stood strong. No matter how quickly he struck again, Bodeir's earth armour was already repaired.

Voldar didn't know what to do, so he slammed one final heavy hit into Bodeir and used it to launch himself away from the annoying earth cultivator. Voldar was panting and covered in sweat. His muscles burned and his qi reserves weren't looking particularly good either. He cursed mentally as he considered his options. His attacks weren't doing enough, and he didn't trust Bodeir to just stand there for long if he looked like he was just taking the chance to recover, even this moment to think was a blessing Voldar didn't want to count on.

It was eventually a simple thought that got Voldar grinning. What if I make him heavier? Voldar had already tried to increase gravity and slam Bodeir into the ground. It was his go to technique because despite what one might think, the world seemed to more actively resist decreasing gravity on things, so he could get a lot more effect for his qi by going that route… but what if Bodeir needed to remain in contact with the ground?

Voldar smiled, and transferred most of his remaining qi into his hammer, ready for Bodeir to block. Bodeir did, of course, and Voldar slammed the hammer into Bodeir's waiting palm. Instead of floating of as expected though… Bodeir remained planted on the ground. Voldar's mind was filled with despair. "FUCK!" shouted the dwarf, even as he changed his grip on his hammer and tried to send Bodeir flying by treating his hammer as a golf club.

Bodeir blocked the hammer with his foot… and that was enough. He was sent flying into the air. The reduced gravity and having only a single foot on the ground was enough. "YES!" shouted Voldar in triumph, mood bouncing back upon seeing his opponent's mistake. Voldar launched himself after Bodeir and slammed his hammer into the elf, sending him off to the side, going for a ring out.

Bodeir however, slammed into the shield around the arena, and Voldar had a moment of horror as he remained one line from the sign up sheet. 'Due to the nature of defences on the semi-finals arena, ring outs will not be possible'.

Voldar felt something in him crack, even as Bodeir kicked off the wall and was coming right for his face. Voldar was exhausted. Reducing Bodeir's weight by so much, and then putting a bunch of qi behind the launch? It was too much. His qi was spent, and his resolve was broken.

Bodeir's fist slammed into the dwarf's face. And Voldar was unconscious before he hit the ground.