A/N1: Kudos to Ragnarok Elements, who wrote the entire chapter himself. You rock!

A/N2: Sorry for the long wait. I tried to edit the story, but the damn computer crashed on me three times in a (bleep) row. Currently posted as is; editing would be done later. Looking for volunteers for editing, btw.

Chapter 3: Preliminaries

The darkness shrouded everything as the faint sound of a body being dragged across the ground cut through the air. The sound of a hunter dragging its prey…

Sloan dragged Arian’s body through a gravel road with a cold look on his face.

“Pitiful, who knew that this weakling actually massacred that warrior village, throwing away that useless armor weighed him down ten times, he really must not be that strong.”

Sloan lifted up Arian and threw him into a building on the side of the road. Arian’s body bounced on the wooden floor and crashed into the counter built in front of the entrance. A black-haired man shook awake from behind the counter and rubbed his eyes.

“What the hell do you want?” The man grunted, sitting upright.

Sloan lifted Arian’s body onto the counter.

“This guy,” The man pulls out a file with Arian’s picture in it on it, “Responsible for the slaughter of thousands in two years… wait, thousands? That’s a freakin’ army!”

Sloan stood in silence with only the faint clicking of a clock echoing through the room.

“Bounty… Ten million… man, you’re set for life,” The man said amazed.

“I don’t need the money, a weakling like that isn’t worth it… I’ll just keep this,” Sloan said in a monotonous voice, pulling Arian’s Bloodshed from his back.

“You sure?” The man asked

The man felt the tip of the blade barely touching his neck after he asked that question.

“I’m sure,” Sloan grunted.

He pulled back the Bloodshed and strapped it to his back. Without a word, he left the building walking down the same gravel path that stood in front of the building. The black-haired man rubbed his neck, finding that there was some blood.

“Bastard nicked me,” The man muttered, pulling out a chain and walking from behind the counter.

“Saved the government a hell of a lot of money by not taking that reward,” He continued, tying Arian’s hands together.

A grunt was heard from Arian as he finished, the man turned Arian over on his back and looked at him. An evil stare was fixed upon Arian’s face; the man wasn’t fazed by it. Instead he sat of his chest and stared back. After a moment he got up.

“We‘ve got a special place for the likes of you,” The man said darkly.

His foot went flying into Arian’s face and sent him back a few feet.

“You pussy.”

Arian felt those words imprint into his mind before he was struggling to maintain consciousness. Unable to hold on anymore, his head fell to the floor, with only the faint clicking of a clock growing in his mind.

Tick Tick Tick Tick…

XxXxXxXxX

Arian’s head shot up, with the buzz of too many drinks lingering in his head, as he got up, he stumbled and almost fell to the hard, tile floor.

“Fuckin’ hangovers,” Arian complained, staggering out of the bar.

The crowded, paved street was a bit much for Arian to get through, so he stuck to an alleyway instead. He was in S1, one of the small outpost-towns near the shoreline of Hell.

“What are you doing here man?” A random punk asked walking closer to Arian.

Arian didn’t answer and kept moving forward.

“Hey man, I was talking to you.” The punk said, pushing Arian to a wall.

Arian still kept walking, ignoring the curses the punk threw. When the punk got extremely irritated, he tried to hit Arian with an overly swung right hook. It was the last move that he ever took. Arian disappeared as the boy swung and clutched the punk’s neck as he reappeared behind him.

“You could’ve left me alone…” Arian suggested.

His grip tightened on the boy’s neck, he heard him gasping for air, a grin stretched across Arian’s face as he held his hand up, purple sparks started to surge through it.

“…you want to cry don’t you? You want to cry for help, go on, I’ll make sure to slaughter every last one of them,” Arian said evilly.

The boy coughed.

“Good Night.”

A purple bolt shot through the boy, his chest started to rumble rapidly. Arian threw him into the air and the boy exploded into a bloody rain. The blood splattered all over the purple barrier around Arian. The blood rolled off the barrier and splotched to the ground. After the rain ended, the alley was painted red with the blood of that single boy.

“That felt good, can’t wait to do that some more in the preliminaries.”

XxXxXxXxX

Kiki couldn’t help but smile when she heard the way Seth entered the tournament.

“You were forced here?” She asked.

Seth took a bite out of the sandwich in his hands as they walked down the street. Few people walked outside, and most of them were participants, observing their would-be opponents.

“Yeah, it sucked. I just thought of a suggestion and WHAM, here I am.” He complained, taking another bite out of his sandwich.

“You still haven’t told me about why you’re here.” He continued.

“Well… I’m in here to get my mind off of something, and… that’s about it.” Kiki answered.

“That seems kinda dull, don’t you think?”

A vein popped in Kiki’s head.

“At least it’s better than having no reason at all.”

Seth sweat dropped at that comment.

“You got me there.” Seth reasoned, thinking about the current situation.

“You probably aren’t even that strong anyway...” Kiki examined eyeing Seth closely.

“Don’t you think that’s going a bit too far?”

“Give me a reason to think you’re strong.”

“You’ll just have to wait until the preliminaries.”

“If that ever happens.”

A floating TV screen flew by giving a simple message,” THE PELIMINARIES HAVE STARTED, THE PELIMINARIES HAVE STARTED.”

Seth, unfamiliar with the device called the TV, pointed at it in confusion.

“What in the world is that?!”

“Who cares, the tournament’s begun!”

Kiki ran off into the direction of the giant done in the middle of the city, the metallic structures stretching across the street and the sea of people made Seth lose track of her. He took a sigh, scarfed down the rest of his sandwich and ran toward the arena.

“This place is getting more irritating by the minute.”

XxXxXxXxX

“Damn, I’m way too far to get there in time,” Zora spat as she started to leap to each roof of the building again and again.

When she arrived a fourth of a way there a gust of bats swarmed in front of her, leaving the familiar figure of Dante standing in front of her. When she tried to run past him he blurred right in front of him.

“Move,” Zora demanded.

She tried to run past him again, he did the same as before.

“I said move.”

“You need to get there fast, don’t you?” Dante asked, flicking his fingers.

A swarm of bats enveloped the two as Zora covered her eyes and fell down startled. A moment later, the two appeared in front of the arena. Zora got up and looked around, the floor was made of marble with the walls made of a dense stone, chairs already taken by those who had arrived earlier. The counters were lined up with lines of people stretching a few yards each, she managed to find one that had a rather short line.

“You’ll soon figure out that even though we’re the same species, we’re nothing alike,” Dante smiled, walking away to the counters.

After contemplating on what just happened, she went to the counter she spotted earlier muttering, ”Wish I could do that…”

The last person in line left as she got there, the counter lady handed her a ticket with the letter C on it.

“Group C, you’re up with Groups A and B, you have five minutes to prepare.” The woman explained, giving Zora a pleasant smile.

“Right,” Zora replied, heading off to prepare.

“When you think of Hell, you would think that the people handling this would be a bit more… evil,” She thought, not aware of the person she was about to bump into.

As she knocked into Saya, Zora barely noticed before turning around.

“You again? I guess we’ll be bumping into each other a lot in this tournament.” Saya predicted, with a slight smile on her face.

“I guess…” Zora replied, walking off.

“Hmmm… She could be in either Groups A, B, or C… I’m in C… I wonder how this’ll turn out…” Saya wondered, turning around and heading to the entrance of the Group C Arena.

Everyone waited for a few minutes before an enouncement echoed through the waiting hall.

“ATTENTION THE TOURNAMENT HAS BEGUN, WILL GROUPS A, B, AND C PLEASE ENTER THROUGH THE REQUIRED ENTRANCES, ATTENTION…”

The announcement played on as Zora walked to entrance with a screen displaying the letter C over it. She walked through until she saw the sight in front of her, an open space, no rings, no boundaries, just a wide open plain, with blue skies and cool breezes.

Participators in the tournament were spread out through the arena so you really couldn’t see them all. As you look at the scenery you would see endless plain with hills and no boundaries, freedom, absolute freedom. A voice shot through the area, carrying a simple message.

“THE TOURNAMENT HAS BEGUN, LET THE BATTLE BEGIN.”

XxXxXxXxX

Seth was sitting in the grass as the announcement was heard. He got up and saw the familiar face of Kiki, surrounded by three men.

“That’s really not that fair…” Seth pointed out, drawing his sword.

After a moment of thinking, he decided to sheath his blade.

“I think I’m gonna fight hand to hand this time, got to sharpen my other skills.”

He looked up and saw the three men surrounding Kiki were on the floor, not dead, but from the looks of it, they wished they were. Kiki spun her wakizashi triumphantly as she headed off to a larger group.

“Wow…” Seth trailed off in amazement.

He walked a bit further until he heard yelling. He looked behind him and saw a man running at him holding a broadsword over his head. Seth stood there, waiting for the man to get closer. As the man brought his sword down Seth caught it, not bother by the amount of force the man was putting into it.

Seth shattered the blade with his bare hand and heel kicked him across the jaw. Two more men came at Seth as the man flew to the ground. Seth held out his hand as a silver aura pulse from it. A pulse shot from his hand, cutting through the air and hitting one of the men square in the chest.

The man flew a few yards and rolled away, leaving the other man alone. The final man swung his flail. With the spiked ball inches from Seth’s head, he ducked and kicked the ball back into the man’s face, turning it into a bloody mess as he fell to the ground.

Seth walked up a hill and saw Kiki surrounded by a ring of unconscious fighters, then he noticed the group of men closing in on her.

“Something tells me that I’m gonna have some trouble with her…” Seth predicted, emitting the silver aura from both of his hands.

He smirked as he fired two orbs of light at the men rushing at Kiki from behind; they spiraled around each other like a double helix and collided with the group. An explosion shot dust and dirt into the air as it blew all the men away. Kiki looked behind here and wondered in confusion.

Seth rushed past her, palm fisting a man rushing at her in the face, he shot back a few yard before colliding with another fighter. They fell to the ground as another group came at them.

“I think you’re tough enough to handle this.” Seth said jumping off to find a real challenge.

“Hey!” Kiki yelled, but the group was getting closer. He sighed and grinned, she spun her wakizashi and sprinted head long at the group.

The men tried to charge at her but couldn’t get a foot off the ground before one of their numbers was close lined by Kiki. She disappeared behind them and caught one of the men in the back with her blades. She kicked him off of her blades and right hooked the nearest one in the jaw. A snap was heard as the man fell to the ground. Another attacker lifted his blade from behind Kiki and brought it down.

Kiki stabbed the attacker in the chest without looking at him. She let the pain simmer within the assailant before pulling out her blade and letting the person fall. She blocked an incoming blade and kicked the man’s leg. The man fell to his knees as Kiki brought her heel in the back of his head.

The last two attackers charged at her with two broad swords yelling wildly. Kiki caught both blade with only one wakizashi and had a look of disappointment on her face.

“Why is it that I always get stuck with the weaklings?” She asked herself.

She knocked the two back and held out her blades, blue aura emitted from them and started to grow. She slashed the air, sending a blue X at the men; it hit both and sent them flying. She sheathed her blades and walked away.

“It looks like I have no true rivals in this…” She pointed out walking up a hill.

It was then that she saw Seth, heading over to what looked like an immense slaughter taking place…

XxXxXxXxX

Saya leapt back, drawing her daggers as she heard the crashing of the ground as her assailant’s blade missed her. She leapt at her attacker and lobbed his head off his shoulders. Five more men surrounded her as she went back into fighting position.

She disappeared in a blur, only to reappear and stabbing one of the men through the neck. She pulled her dagger out and disappeared. Faint streaks of the blades cut through the air as they started to search for her.

She reappeared in the middle of them and sheathed her daggers, making them freeze and soon fall to the ground. A blast of wind cut through the air as Saya rolled out of the way. A giant of a man, wielding a cleaver about the same size as him stood there confidently with his blade dug into the ground.

Saya charged at the man with her daggers unsheathed and came in downwards with a sweeping crash. The blades clashed and Saya was stuck in midair, she disappeared and came in from behind. The man turned around and swept his blade through the air. Her daggers were knocked out of her hands and she was hit by a blast of wind that hit her five times before it let her go.

She flew and crashed to the ground, with one of her own daggers stabbing her in the arm. She gasped for air as the wind was knocked out of her lungs.

“Sorry, miss, but I want to win this tournament.” The man said kindly, starting to walk away.

“Wait…” Saya called.

The man stopped.

“If you want to win…”

She got up.

“…You’re gonna have to beat me first.”

She yanked the dagger from her arm, cursing at the searing pain. Steam arose from her wounds as they sealed, soon they were gone, as if nothing was there. This predicament brought the attention of many other fighters as they turned their head from their own duels.

“She might be too strong for us,” One fighter said.

“We should get rid of her now…” One suggested.

The other nodded in agreement as they started to close in on Saya, she readied her daggers. It was then that she heard a thump a from behind, she turned her head to see Zora, readying her claws.

“All these men against one woman? Sounds kinda sexist to me.” Zora remarked grinning slightly.

“I’ll help you for now, I want to fight you one on one, with no distractions.” She continued.

“So we have a truce right?” Saya asked.

Zora got into her stance.

“Just make sure you get rid of the big guy.”

Zora ran to the group of growing fighters, leaving Saya and the man alone…

XxXxXxXxX

Seth walked from the greenish fields into grass stained with blood, dead bodies littered the floor, already letting out their stench, Seth took a few more steps forward, seeing the cause of the carnage.

Arian had finished slitting a man’s throat and threw him aside.

“Had to make this place look more hellish,” Arian said, smiling evilly.

“Not one to complain but… you really don’t have any taste, do you?” Seth replied, his hand clutching the handle of his sword.

Arian blurred in front of Seth as he twisted the dial of his watch, a black sword came crashing down upon Seth. Seth raised his sheath and skidded back after the objects collided. He drew his sword and charged at Arian.

Arian disappeared as Seth came rushing in. Seth turned around just in time to dodge a stab coming in from behind. He rolled to the side and fired three orbs of light at Arian, knocking each orb out of the way effortlessly, Arian ran at Seth with his sword outstretched, Seth knocked the sword out of the way and swung his fist towards Arian’s face. Arian leaned under it and landed his foot in Seth’s chin.

Seth flew up five feet in the air as Arian gathered a purple aura in his hand. The aura shifted into an orb around his fist as he leapt toward Seth. He came crashing down with his knuckle and hit Seth right in the chest. They crashed to the ground with Arian’s glowing fist digging Seth to the ground. A yell of pain escaped Seth’s lips as he felt the fist dig deeper. Before Arian’s fist broke through Seth’s skin a silver aura blasted from the contact point of the fist.

Arian was knocked away from the blast and skidded slightly from the crater he created. Seth got up, clutching his chest tightly and breathing heavily. With each breath came a sharp pain until finally, Seth collapsed and coughed out a splotch of blood. His heavy breathing stopped as he tightened the grip on his sword. Arian readied his blade once again as Seth got up. Silver pulsed from Seth’s fists along with Arian’s fists pulsing purple. They charged at each other for another round.

XxXxXxXxX

Zora buried her claws into a man’s chest as she entered the group of fighters. She leaned under a swing from a sword and back fisted the assailant across the face. The fighter fell to the ground and skidded back a few yards. An arrow flew past her cheek, grazing it slightly. The wound quickly healed as she dug her claws into another man’s chest. With the body attached to her claws, she tackled another man and wrapped her legs around him.

She bit the man’s neck and started to suck the blood out of him. It was sour, but she didn’t care, it has been a while since her last prey. As the other fighters charged at Zora, wings sprouted from her back and blew them away with a gust of wind. She flew into the air, dropping the body attached to her claws.

Wiping the blood from her mouth, she flicked her fingers, muttering the word, “Burn…”

One of the fighters were set ablaze, he ran frantically until finally falling to the ground, burning to ashes. She cast her eyes upon another fighter.

She muttered the word, “Freeze…” and flicked her fingers.

The fighter froze, and stood that way for a while before cracking slightly and shattering. The men, scared now, ran from Zora and her awesome powers. She smirked as she gathered fire into her hands, flying at the group. A stream of fire erupted from her hand, burning all in its path. The men this time did not burn to ashes, but melted from the heat. She landed and retracted he wings before setting her sights on Saya and her opponent.

Say was having a difficult time, to the say the least, steam started shooting from her wounds like steam from a hole. She leapt at her unscathed opponent, this time breaking through his cleaver. She stabbed he chest and pushed him to the ground. She kept him they for a few seconds, but was lifted by the man and thrown aside.

She bounced off the ground and landed back on her feet. When she looked at her opponent, he wasn’t bothered by his wound. She lifted her daggers once more and disappeared from his sight. The man looked around but couldn’t see her. Saya appeared from behind and stabbed the man from behind, mustering some of her strength, she lifted the man from the ground and threw him behind her. The man amazingly flipped in the air and swung his cleaver in the air.

The air blast hit Saya and knocked her away like a fly. Saya recovered and rushed at the man again. She knocked the cleaver out of the way and slashed him across the wound she gave him earlier. She stumbled back and clutched his wound.

“Ah, so Mr. Invincible can actually feels pain…” Saya said, smirking slightly.

She rushed at him, kicking his cleaver and shoving it back into his face, he stumbled back again, this time left wide open. Saya disappeared, reappearing behind the man with her daggers sheathed. Slash marks flew across the man’s body and blasted him back. The man landed next to Saya losing consciousness from blood loss.

“Good one…” He complemented, finally fainting from the loss of blood.

Saya sat down, sighing slightly.

“This is gonna be one hell of a challenge.”

XxXxXxXxX

Dante watched from afar, looking at the two females fighting across hordes of men.

“This is gonna be very interesting…” He said, thinking slightly.

He looked around from the hill of blood drained corpses, finding no challenge that isn’t in the middle of a fight, except for Kiki.

“I don’t fight women.” He said, looking around some more.

A slightly wounded fight approached from behind the hill of corpses, he pointed his sword at Dante.

“I challenge you.” The fighter announced.

Dante looked at him, thinking if he was worth the fight.

“That’s an interesting sword you have there…” He examined, getting up from the pile.

The fighter readied his blade as Dante smirked, but then he noticed something, he sat back down.

“I don’t think we’ll have enough time for this.” Dante predicted.

“What?” The fighter asked.

“You do want to make through the preliminaries don’t you?”

After thinking, the fighter withdrew his blade. He said nothing and only walked away.

“The end is nigh for this round.” Dante predicted once again, disappearing in a cluster of bats.

XxXxXxXxX

Kiki watched the fight between Seth and Arian intensify, with her eyes showing an expression of surprise.

“Wow, Seth is pretty good…” She examined.

Seth blocked a crosslash coming from Arian. Purple and Silver auras shot out from the contact point, pushing them both back from each other. Arian rushed back in with his fist surrounded by a purple orb. Seth lifted his blade to block, but it was knocked into the air by the power of Arian’s fist.

Seth took a blow to the chest, but he didn’t move. He took the pain and knocked the hand away and swung his own fist, brimming with a silver aura. Arian was too slow to block and took the attack to the face. He flew away and bounced off the ground.

Arian recovered just as Seth caught his own sword. Arian rushed at him with his sword readied for another attack. A voice boomed across the area, delivering one simple message before their swords clashed.

“ATTENTION, THE BATTLE HAS ENDED, ALL REMAINING PARTICIPANT PLEASE EXIT THROUGH THE NEAREST PASSAGE, ATTENTION…”

Arian and Seth stood paused, with the wind blowing past them with the grass moving like a wave. Arian withdrew his blade and walked away. A pillar of light opened up near Seth as he sheathed his blade. He looked at it, and heard the sounds of commerce and other social gatherings. He sighed again, but this time a grin stretched across his face.

“This tournament might not be as bad as I thought.” He complimented, taking a step through the pillar.

XxXxXxXxX

Dante looked over another field that caught his eye, but was a bit surprised at the site that awaited him. A plain, even more bloody than then the one Arian created, stretched from the base of the hill. Dante looked around until he found the source. The man that challenged him earlier stood in the middle of the plain with a cold stare in his eyes, in his hand was a nodachi, stained red with the blood of all the members of Group B. He sheathed his blade, and didn’t even bother to shake the blood away. A pillar of light opened up near the man. Saying nothing, he walked through the pillar.

Darkness is winning the battle, the light is dim, but there is still hope. The preliminaries have ended. The true battle has started, not only within the tournament, but within the combatanants own self as well…