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Premise: With half of the participants remaining, GTB is now halfway through with a few more rounds until its conclusion. Through a series of three rounds, fighters have proved themselves of their prowess and ambition to win thus far, and move one step closer to their destination: the championship. However, as the numbers dwindle down, the competition increases, as the best are narrowed down and each comes with an equal amount of skill. It is going to take experience, intelligence, and even luck at this point to determine who goes on and who goes packing home.

Midus Sonners has also decided to increase the presentation of the fighting arenas that the fighters are going to be taking place in for the duration of the tournament. While keeping with the Colosseum theme, Midus will be including variations of themes to keep things interesting and not as boring as a plain sandy ground with some walls and people watching you. That is why he has sent all the fighters to another venue for their fights. This time, with all fighters on board a plane, the crew flew themselves to the southern coast, a place caused Myamu Beach. Normally a vacation resort, the entire span of the beach has been reserved for the entirety of round four. People will be scattered around each fighting site to watch the fighters go at it in a nightly beach arena. While to them it seems like entertainment, to the fighters this is life or death.

Description: The sun has set, bringing about the darkness of the night over the entirety of the beach. Instead of artificial lighting being used, natural fire has instead become its substitute, bringing about a constant changing hue of orange overlaying the beach and its occupants. The beach spans for a good amount of distance, so each fight will take places in its own "section" which will make it seem separate from the other far away fights.

Each fight takes place in a ring of fire, which is basically a large circle of the sandy beach. Outside this fire, spectators watch, either standing or sitting in chairs, laughing and talking as they enjoy their drinks, food, and conversation. While this may be a competitive tournament, this scene of "entertainment" has placed increasing obligations on the fighters themselves to keep the audience entertained. Unlike the normal arena, the people are closer than before and their boos, cheers, and comments can be heard a lot clearer and louder. This means the fighters will have the psychological element added to the fight, much like the closely watched fights such as wrestling and boxing. Expect a noisy atmosphere.

Field Measurements: The ring of fire has a diameter of 45 yards, which is 135 ft. For those who need a comparison, just look at a football field and see the distance from one touchdown line to the 45 yard line. On the boundary of this circle is a series of lit fires on wood, which are as tall as only one to two feet. Spectators are spaced twenty feet away from this boundary in order to avoid possible injury from the fight.


Ten Count Boundary: Going outside the ring of fire will result in the starting of the ten count. The flying rule remains intact.

Added Penalty: Harming spectators is a no-no. Any intentional action against them that ends up hurting even one will result in a DQ. This can be either direct (going up to one and hurting them) or indirect (using a very dangerous attack that has a possibility of hurting the spectators). Accidents will be gauged to see whether it counts as an accident or was considered recklessness by the user.

Then...

"Sword?"
"........check!"

"Breastplate?"
"........check!"

"Buckler?"
"........check!"

"Gauntlets?"
"........check!"

"Shank?"
"........check!"

"Sexy masculine aura?"
"Do you even have to ask?"

"Ha, ha, ha. Go get em' Tiger!"
"Don't I always?"


-----


Five seconds ago...

"Strippers. Gotta love 'em."

Benjamin gave a soft chuckle as he approached the ring of fire, thinking back on the events of minutes past. For it was so true, in no matter what their guise be it pole dancers or escorts, strippers were always the best way to pregame a fight. Everything he paid for the services before hand, he felt refreshed and renewed as they repaired both his body and ego.

Not that he really needed it with the low amount of damage he recieved last round but he felt the extra boost was necessary when dealing with his new advesary. Afterall, this was the dragonkin who had taken Eredas outta of the tournament. James Eredas, his past team leader and hard son-of-a-btich that never went down without a fight. A man he held a lot of repect for and thus in transit he held alot of respect for his new opponent.

So he had pulled out all the stops. Hookers, spa treatment, equipment upgrade, the whole shebang. All for this one moment.


-----


Now...

"Umph!"

He let out a little grunt of effort as he went from a slow walk to brisk run a little more quickly than necessary so that he could clear the line of fire and keep on coming. Going almost full tilt at his opponent with his arms pumping at his side, sword in his right hand and buckler in his left, kicking up sand as he went. His only form of greeting and sportmanship was this simple phrase and the distance between them.

"It's game time."

Simply no time or need for pleasantries as real men spoke with their fists, swords and the letting of blood.

"Woah!"

Benjamin was no longer charging towards an HUEG knight but rather a HUEG Sandstorm where his opponent used to be, and based on catching a few replays here and there as well as hearing bit of conversation as he walked through the hotel, he had some idea of what just happened. It didn't make it any less surprising to see it in the flesh, especially since this telltale sign of Vince's move from man to beast was much more flashy in the sandy arena.

But even thought he knew he was now rushing towards an even more deadly foe than before, he kept on coming. His stride may have sloppy for a second when the shock had rocked him but his legs didn't stop pumping. So what if he couldn't see his opponent? He could still see what was important, his opponent's weapon, as the sword was to large for a bout of earth manipulation centered around it's wielder to obscure it. And with that information in hand Ben drew closer and closer, his precise course of action determined by whether or not that blade moved.

The prince was hoping that the tornado of sand that obscured his opponent would also obscure him, but he had no guarantees as he knew not how this process worked. So he's simply watch and run until he drew upon the 4~5 foot mark at which point he would take one of the following courses of action.

A) If the sword stayed stationary and the sand screen held to this point, he'd leap forward turning clockwise as he flew towards his opponent so that his shoulder and the buckler pressed against it would be presented first and foremost. His right hand would be holding his sword up high such that he could get some real damage in if the moment presented itself but exactly what would go down once he left the sandy floor depended on how Vince reacted.

B) If there was a more immediate reaction before he got to that point, he would angle his charge off to his right and away from the large blade, content to strafe around his opponent's left side for the time being.

Benjamin was a fool, there was no denying that, but he wasn't a complete fool. He knew trouble when he saw it, and that big a** sword of Vince's was Trouble with a capital "T". So as said previously, he was keeping a vigilant watch over it. Didn't matter that he had got this far without it moving, especially when he got close enough to see that he wasn't as invisible as he thought. Little things, like exactly how the sand tornado was, were hard to gauge from a distance but up close and personal he could see those orbs watching him. Which made the fact that he wasn't being assaulted even more peculiar.

Or at least it was before he caught the sand tornado spontaneously combusting in his peripheral, blasting sand in the direction of his head. And as Vince may have expected he moved he shield, shoving it forward and up to divert the sand away from the sensitive organs on his face. The grainy particle having to settle for dirtying up his golden locks instead. However, unlike what else Vince may have assumed about this course of action, the protection of his face in no way stopped him from viewing the dragon-kin's followup. For bucklers were relatively small shields, giving up widespread protection for versatility and thus would not hide what was going on his sides. He could clearly see that big slab of metal moving, like a Grim Reaper coming up to greet him with it's sharp kiss of death.

But alas-what could he do? He was stranded in midair with nothing to bound off save for the air and he was no aeromancer. Good thing he was a quick learner, a person apt to create things up on the spot or turn accidents into signature moves. And in this case, Benjamin would go for the later, bring back a technique he had stumbled upon in his match with Omi. A move that would here-after be known as the....

THUNDER BOUNCE!

A move in which Benjamin utilized the concussive force of his chaotic electricity to explode him in a general direction, giving him some ability to alter his mid-air trajectory. In this situation, with Vince's blade bend on separating his thighs from his shins, Ben was going to tucking his legs in as he shot his power out of his boots. The non-charged blast was bit smaller than those utilized during his bout with Barsait, especially without the storm to augment them, but they would get the job done by exploding he feet several inches upwards. This combined with the tucking of his legs would give him a little forward torque as well so that in the end, he'd be vaulting over the hefty blade as it slashed beneath his curled knees.

Now with Vince caught mid-swing with his large blade and thus unable to make any quick turnabouts, Ben would strike. His altered trajectory putting him at height more suited for flying knee strikes than the shield bashing he had been planning. But shield bash he would, swing his arm forward as he was throwing a left hook except their was bucker attached to his fist adding more UMPH! and range. Meanwhile his raised right hand was also poised to strike but in a different manner, depending on just how Vince reacted to this turn of events.

And although Vince couldn't quite see it nor understand it's meaning, Ben's left fist was holding the buckler's handle awkwardly. The thumb held against his pointer instead of across his ring finger.

That was all Ben needed to know, he could didn't exactly what his opponent was doing at this point but he knew that his head was dipping and chance were he was going to land a glancing blow. But that wasn't good enough for him. Time for the old twist and strike.

Click.

The odd grip allowed him to keep his finger on and over the new button on his buckler, both hiding the addition and allowing him to press it at a moment's notice. So he would.

SHLINK~

The extra metal hidden with Ben's shield would be revealed, springing out and giving Ben even more UMPH! and an extra 6 inches of range. The kinda of range that would turn a simultaneous collision into a Ben scores the first hit scenario as the shield smacked hard into Vince's head. Or it would have had the prince been able to swivel his shield around properly. Thanks to the added bulk of his shield however, he wasn't really able to swivel the handle around properly, so instead of turning to face his opponent, his shield simply expanded in its current position striking Vince's shoulder down and to his right. Also meaning that when his buckler reached the dragon-kin's head half a second later, it was more of a glancing blow to the back/side instead of a faceful of metal.

CRUNCH!

"Ooofff...."

Shoulder met breastplate knee, as the two joint slammed hard into one another doing some heavy damage. The high boot on Ben's knee and Vince's general bulk would leave them in similar situations with each joint not completely out of commission but rather quite defective and a pain in the a** if either tried to put much use into them.

Ben would fall back and clutch his knee in pain, both hands cupping and soothing joint as best as they could, which wasn't much as he could only commit his fingertips to the job without let his weapons fall to the way side. His sword and shield would be very useful in the next few moments as he fully expected Vince to follow him to the ground after he recovered from the blow to the head and the initial shock of joint collision began to fade. Giving Ben some time to get his own injured joint and reaffirm his grip on his arms.

The problem here being that Benjamin was still armed, opting for a very inadequate and superficial massage of his knee instead of dropping all of his equipment to tend to his boo boo. Meaning that his buckler was currently covering his whole injured knee, a good portion the gap between his legs and a bit of his other one. Vince would have to settle for palming that buckler instead of gripping a knee, finding what should have a simple maneuver becoming a bit more complicated. Now that didn't meant it would be impossible for Vince to push aside Ben's knees to get into his mount but rather that it would just be more difficult and time consuming as he would lack a proper grip.

And Ben would use that time to mount an offense of his own, pulling his right hand back from his knee and towards the ground to angle his blade more towards his opponent and then at the last moment quickly moving his other hand to the side to give Vince's what he wanted while shaking off what would redoubtably be a weak grip. This would give way for the second part of his offensive where he pushed off the ground with his good knee and elbows to gain some leverage to allow his blade to more easily plunge into the dragon-kin's lower torso.

A successful stab would give way to an relatively small electric charge, as Ben put some of his constantly gathering energy into the effect. His only regret being he couldn't quite mount of a good nerve breaker without putting in some charges.