"Well. Let's see what you got, huh?" Cassidy stood still, waiting for Hoffmann to make his first move. From her posture, it was easy to tell that she didn't really care about such a fight.
This... it irritated Hoffmann. His eyes widened and his nostrils flared. A subtle heat began emanating from his body.
Cassidy's eyes narrowed, and a strange smile appeared on her face. Hoffmann is quick to anger, huh? If he doesn't have a good control over his emotions...
This next part will be easy.
"You dare?" He yelled and sent a tunnel of flames at her the moment the bell rang. Cassidy had already used Teleport, moving to a random spot on the battlefield. But Hoffmann hadn't just sent one attack.
As Cassidy looked back at Hoffmann, she was greeted with even more tunnels of flame. They spiraled in the air, parallel to the ground, like flying snakes. Cassidy once again used Teleport in quick succession.
However, the flames followed her to her next location. Indeed, Hoffmann still had Wind Control - his second skill, which he was currently using to turn his attacks into tracking missiles. Cassidy and the flames chased around the arena like a game of tag, but the flames suddenly dissipated.
"Hmm?" Hoffmann looked somewhat startled. How the f*ck did my flames just go out?? Was it something to do with her? Damn it, that f*cking b*tch is gonna feel sorry about being so arrogant when I STEP on her head...
Hoffmann's thoughts were constantly shifting and running wild, which was definitely not the right thing to do in such a situation. Meanwhile, Cassidy had stepped out from the smoke, completely unharmed.
"Hey, don't you remember? One aspect of the Tournament... It's about what kind of backing we have. Y'know, any weapon is fair game or whatever..." Cassidy was holding an interesting weapon. It was a gun with an unusually wide barrel.
Sh*t. Hoffmann instantly sprung back using Wind Control to boost his distance. He then raised a ring of fire around himself in defence.
"Of course, you might've forgotten, since the last two fights were pretty much only about physique and skills. However..." She suddenly smiled in a dangerous way. "You'll definitely remember now."
"DAMN IT!" Hoffmann cursed as he saw her begin to raise her gun. Unlike other contestants, he'd never bothered with weapons - since he was a weapon. But the gun before him still haunted his dreams, an insurmountable wall.
Hoffmann held his hands together, combining fire and wind into one huge compressed ball. Then, he released it at Cassidy. Meanwhile, the barrel of Cassidy's strange gun had already pointed toward Hoffmann.
VZZT!
An even stranger noise occurred after Cassidy pulled the trigger, and a shockwave was emitted from the end of the gun. It spread out toward Hoffmann in a controlled manner, instantly dispelling the intense flames that he'd just conjured.
The shockwave then struck Hoffmann, causing him to stagger and bleed slightly from his nostrils. At the sight of this, Cassidy smiled.
"Recognise this weapon? It's the Vortex Gun."
Hoffmann stared at Cassidy in dread. She knows. F*cking hell, SHE KNOWS!!
The Vortex Gun was a weapon, firstly designed to incapacitate people in a less-lethal way. It could be found on a policeman during a riot or protest.
The way Vortex Guns worked was by sending an intensely vibrating shockwave through the air toward a target. If the target was struck by the shockwave, their entire body - including their brain - would vibrate alongside it and could cause intense dizziness or minor bleeding.
However, it had a secondary purpose which Hoffmann himself had discovered. During a training day, where he went through many different weapons to test their ability of holding up against himself, he realised something shocking.
The Vortex Gun would instantly dissipate any fire it came in contact with.
There was nothing Hoffmann could do against someone with a Vortex Gun. He'd spent all his life training his skills, and nothing else. In any other situation, it'd be fine. But against a weapon which nullified his skills, it was like climbing a wall without any gear.
And now, the fight was basically over.
VZZT!
VZZT!
The shots continued, forcing Hoffmann to lie on the ground in pain. Hoffmann could do nothing without his skills, and Cassidy also knew this. Thus, she slowly, slowly made her way over to Hoffmann, ready to end him.
NOW!!
In the next moment, a pillar of fire shot up from the ground, instantly engulfing Cassidy's body. It began to burn at her, melting and charring the Vortex Gun as the flames erupted.
"Hahaha... HAHAHAHA! HEHEHEHE!!!" Hoffmann almost shouted those laughs with glee and malice. He'd secretly created flames, directly between himself and Cassidy.
He'd made those flames lay flat on the ground, so flat that only if you looked from above would you see it. The fire itself was being kept alive by a barely noticeable stream of oxygen.
And the moment Cassidy had stepped over it, Hoffmann erupted the fire into a huge explosion!
Ahhh, as expected of myself, thought Hoffmann, who was still laying down on the ground completely satisfied. Medics rushed to his side to tend to his health, directly ignoring Cassidy's burning body.
After all, even though a Vortex Gun was considered "less-lethal", it would still mess up someone's vital organs if hit too much.
...
The following days went by like a flash. Hoffmann went onto the next round, winning against that guy Cane, and then the thuggish Nick Nick.
He earned himself a trophy, free choice in picking any weapon from the 4 Combat Schools' combined Weapon Storage, 1 million points and was even given the opportunity to hunt a rank 5 with the help of World-Warriors.
On one sunny day, he lay in the grass and stared at the sky.
Everything felt... nice.
"Having a good time, are we?"
... What.
Hoffmann suddenly sat up straight.
Did he...
Did he just hear Cassidy speaking to him?
"No, wait! You're dead. I KILLED you!!" Hoffmann shouted into the air. He didn't know where she was, but he knew she was out there somewhere. The sudden voices began to instill an intense sense of fear within himself.
It was like he was... in a Nightmare of sorts.
"Well, I probably should've stopped it earlier, but I wanted to see how far I could take it." Cassidy's voice came over once more. "Anyways. Once you wake up... It's just a dream."
...
"AGHHH!" Hoffmann let out a loud shout. He was...
Back at the arena?
Hoffmann stared around in confusion, seeing the look of mirth on Cassidy's face. Everyone in the audience was laughing at him. Of course, he couldn't hear it - but it was pretty obvious to anyone else watching.
"How did you like a taste of my Nightmare? Did it feel realistic enough?" Cassidy smiled. The next moment, it faded and was replaced with a cold look. "But I'm bored now. So, you can go ahead and lose."
The next instant, she used Teleport to directly appear in front of Hoffmann.
Slap! Slap!
She slapped him on the face with full power, causing him to see stars. Seeing Hoffmann being shamed by such an attack once more, the audience once again erupted into laughter. But Cassidy wasn't done.
Then, she held him by the shoulders and drove a knee into his stomach. In the next moment, she headbutted him, causing a CRACK! sound to ring out into the arena. Finally, to end her sequence of attacks, she grabbed him by his arm and performed a shoulder throw.
Hoffmann lay on the ground, unresponsive. This was partially due to the blows he'd just received, but more importantly, it was due to the immense embarrassment he'd just felt. Now, Hoffmann didn't feel like responding to the outside world anymore.
Medics once again rushed down to tend to Hoffmann, though this time - it was for his loss, not victory.
In this way, the second-last fight for the first round of the Tournament ended.
...
"Hahaha, haha! HAHAHA!"
Roars of laughter came from the waiting room as Cassidy made her way back. When she entered, she was greeted by Cane, rolling around on the floor and wheezing.
"Hey, you're up for the next fight. Be careful, alright? Alex isn't an easy fight. He's got insane hand-to-hand, and he even has mental attacks." With those words, she left to check up on Jeremy and Frytz. They were getting treated for injuries.
Cane became serious once more. Right. I'm gonna have to stay sharp.
He'd just seen the horror (and comedy) of a mental skill.
Just then, Hoffmann had instantly fallen asleep as the bell rung. The next things was what made everyone laugh.
See, even though he was asleep, he could still move whilst sleeping. And talk.
Thus, everyone heard his embarrassing conversations, everyone knew what he was saying during his "fight" with Cassidy. They also saw how he dreamt up an aftermath of the fight, and even how he'd imagined defeating Cane and Nick.
After such a shameful spectacle, there was no doubt that from now on, Hoffmann would be regarded as the trash of his family. Even worse, his father had a high-ranking position, similar to a count would be during medieval times, which made the embarrassment even greater.
It was too funny.
For Cane, such a scene was also somewhat scary.
Mental skills are no joke.
I'm gonna have to stay locked in for this next fight - or else.
With that, Cane left the waiting room and entered the arena. Across from him, Alex also entered - flying, of course.
Cane let out a wild grin. "Come on, then!"
The bell rung, and the two fighters met each other at the centre of the arena.
Clang!!!
The final fight for the first round...
Officially began.