Preliminary #3 (Auction House)

[Nightmare Zero]

The Auction House is a cathedral like building, at the far end there is a large stage lined with drapes to hid the merchandise from prying eyes. There is a large amount of pew like seats though some are made for creatures to big to imagine! Gary was the first to enter so he took cover on the stage and kept watch on the massive, heavily ornate, main doors. And that is seven, hmm. Seven warriors are lurking around the hall, stealing occasional glances at the doors wondering who else is coming. in the far corner, there is a man wearing a heavy green cloak with a longsword at his waist and a bow on his back. A barely clothed woman is pacing up and down the center asile, even from his vantage point, Gary could see she seemed to have been sculpted by the gods. Another man is leaning against the stage in full plate as black as the night is dark, polishing his matching Doppelhander. Another, who appears to be fey, is kneeling in half plate praying with his mace at his side. Over by the doors, a man wearing weird clothing is carrying a strange device in his hands. the last two are lightly armored and standing back-to-back watching all the others........

All contestants BEGIN THE FIGHT!

[Nightmare Zero]

At the sound of Zack's voice, all of the fighters enter a combat stance and draw their weapons. The male with the weird device, fires a spray of bullets at the twins who dive for cover but one of them screams in pain. He then gets hit in the shoulder with an arrow so he ducks for cover. Gary gives the draperies a sharp tug and curses as part of the drapery tears off. "So much for that."

As Gary steps behind the draperies again he pulls out and lights his matchcord, the elven cleric then charges at the fighter in black and the two of them start to fight an intense heated battle. As Gary sets up his musketeer's stake, a light flies from one of the twins and strikes the monk in her side. She then spins around and launches a roundhouse kick at his head. "What? That wasn't... I'm seeing things. I'm just seeing things. Something must have been thrown, I saw a glint. That's it. Just a glint." The Ranger, using a pillar for cover, fires another arrow at the Street Samurai who then returns with a volley of bullets from his SMG.

As Gary lines up a shot on the man in black armor, the elf deflects an attack while chanting in a strange tongue. Suddenly, a blue aura surrounds her and she resumes her attack with greater strength. M-m-m-magic! Gary lines up again just as the armed man's head turns and spots the light from Gary's gun, he then starts to move erratically but to no avail the round hits his midsection and penetrates his armor. The man reels from the impact and the elf takes advantage and strikes him with her mace and hits his ribs.

Quickly, Gary grabs his musketeer's stake and dashes to the back of the stage behind the drapes with his ears ringing from the sound of the blow. He ducks down behind a few crates and starts to reload his musket listen to the fight just outside. After a few seconds elf suddenly screams in rage and very loud "CLANG!" is heard followed by sickening squealsh and a spray of blood. "I guess that's it for him." Gary tenses up but the elf does not follow him and he finishes reloading his musket so he goes around to the other side of the stage and peeks out again.

The elf is halfway across the hall fighting on of the twins who is defending herself with a rapier, the other one is lying in a pool over her own blood. The ranger and the samurai are still trading rounds but the samurai took more hits than he struck. The monk is dashing down the center aisle towards the stage. Startled, Gary drops his musket and draws his pistol as she jumps onto the stage. As she turns to his last position, Gary fires a round at her from the pistol. As if she reacted from the sound she spins and the bullet grazes her right arm. She then charges at Gary, who has dropped his pistol and drew his sword and dagger and dropped into a defensive stance, and sends a mighty kick at him. Gary tries to dodge but her foot hits him in the chest but doesn't hurt him. She follows with another spin kick and Gary barley leans back in time to dodge. She spins towards him and closes the distance on him and throws a punch which her tries to deflect with his armored glove, but he only glances it and she strikes his breastplate again. She follows her fast and violent barrage with another punch, but this time Gary jumps back and opens the distance once again. Gary raises his sword and dagger while the monk takes a defensive stance.

"How about Live and Let Live, eh?"Gary says. "We could team up, kick the @$$es of the rest of these clowns."

"Team up with YOU? HA don't make me laugh! I need no one to win this thing." Replies the monk.

"And yet, I seem to be fighting you to a standstill, my dear. And, I mean, swordplay isn't even my thing."

"Just wait, I'll rip your head off and $&@% DOWN YOUR THROAT!"

"I look forward to it." Gary readies his stance and the monk attacks full out.

She steps forward and makes a high kick to his head when he suddenly steps forward and thrusts with his dagger. Before her kick can land, he buries his dagger to the hilt in her throat. Gary gently push the body off his sword and then wipe the blade on her clothing, then puts away his melee weapons and pick his guns back up off the floor.

He peeks out again and the elf is still standing but the twins are down for the count and the samurai is defending against the elf with a sword taken from one of the twins. The ranger is hiding from her view and waiting out the fight. Gary realizes he needs to move closer to hit with his musket, after some thought he moves carefully towards the ranger as the elf and samurai continue to draw his attention. He gets close enough and steadies his musket on the ranger when the samurai takes a final hit from the elf and falls to the floor, as he does the ranger takes aim on the elf. Gary pauses to let the ranger fire. The arrow flies at the elf but bounces off her armored arm. She spins around and readies her mace and spots both the ranger, who dropped his bow and drew his longsword, and Gary fires his gun at the ranger. His bullet strikes and passes through his right leg and embeds itself in the bones of his left foot. The ranger screams in agony and falls to the ground unable to fight anymore. Gary stand, picks up his rifle with the intent to bash the skull of the ranger in.

Diserning his intent she says, "Don't, it is fine if he just can't fight."

He wave to the elf, and says, "Alright now, I believe it's just the two of us. I don't want to hurt you, but I intend to win this. You can make this a lot easier for yourself if you just drop the mace and walk away."

"Dummy, and I quote 'the last two fighter move on to the tournament.'"

"... Oh. Heh."

"We're done fighting for now."

"Well then, congratulations!"

"You too."

Gary sighs and gathers his things, then heads for the exit.