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Literally Snails

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  1. Shining Armor nodded and whispered to Jade, "I know you can do this." He stepped forward, speaking loudly enough to get picked up on Rail's mic. "Alright, Rail, we accept your bet!" Rail nodded. "That's three parties in agreement. Now we just have to wait for the tournament committee to accept our ruling." Since Topaz was in no shape to make any announcements, Rail turned to the crowd and said, "There will be a short recess before the final round while the Tournament Committee considers this offer. In the meantime, all betting booths will be open for the next ten minutes."
  2. "You're good to stand up but not much more than that," Dai said before turning her attention to the ring. "It's weird that you aren't at least a little bit concerned about what's going on here."
  3. @Unicorncob @DwhitetheGamer @dragon4111 @Dynamo Pad @Canteen_the_unstable@reader8363 Inaudible shouting from the crowd slowed down to murmurs. There was an uneasy tension in the air while both Rokata and Jade waited to take the stand. Rokata and Rail stood directly across from team Lotus with Onyx laying in a corner next to the unconscious Selene, and though they were down to just two and behind on points, they looked resolute. "They don't look like a team that's been losing..." Quill muttered. "Don't act paranoid. They're down to one fighter and Jade is gonna wipe the floor with him," Shining Armor confidently stated. "I know how to sense magical energy. That Rokata guy has been putting on an act. Sure, he's tough, but he doesn't feel nearly as strong as his teammates did. He barely even registers compared to Jade." "Loot at Rail," Quill instructed. Rail was standing tall, his head slightly cocked with a cigarette in his mouth. "Rail is no fighter. He's a middleaged businesspony with his entire fortune riding on this tournament. If Rokata loses, he'll lose everything he has and probably be imprisoned for his crimes." "I was planning something like that. What's your point?" "The body language isn't there. Either he's mislead, or he knows something we don't." "I ask you to wait a moment longer," Rail said to Rokata. He removed his cigarette and stepped on it as he walked up on the ring. The murmurs in the crowd picked up as fans asked why the non-combatant was entering the ring. Rail approached Topaz and she gave him the microphone. "Thank you sweetheart." "Don't do something crazy, dad," Topaz said. Rail gave his daughter a pat on the head, but didn't acknowledge her. He turned to the crowd with his mic and addressed them. "Mares and gentlecolts, spectators and combatants alike, thank you all for joining me on this momentous occasion! The Dark Tournament has been my life's work, and this year's competition is its grandeous result." He paused and scanned the audience with an even expression. "We're about to witness the tournament's two stars, Rokata and Jade, battle at long last. The very spectacle that I set out to create." "He's trying to pull something," Shining Armor muttered. "However, I believe you all agree that there is no way this tournament can end without a decisive victor. For the proceedings to end in a tie would be most anticlimactic. The people deserve better!" He glanced at Dynamo for a moment before tilting his head back up at the crowd. "My proposal is this, one final bet. The terms: If Jade wins this fight and this tournament, I give her team a prize that the tournament committee cannot. Her mentor, Tricis, did not die during the semifinals as you were all lead to believe, but her life is in danger. If Jade loses this fight, Tricis will lose her life. If Rokata loses, she will live, and I will give mine." The crowd erupted into a fervor, asking confused questions to one another, mixed with cries to get on with the fight. Topaz stared up at him in shock. "I do this as a stallion of the people," Rail declared, speaking over the crowd. "This tournament must decisively end with a contest between its two main stars. With two lives on the line for each team, this next will be, in effect, worth two points." He smiled confidently. "Of course, I can only do this if Jade, Shining Armor, and the honorable tournament committee accepts my terms." Shining Armor glared at him. Damn it. He's been planning this the whole time. He really did prepare for everything. If we don't accept this deal, Rail could continue his plans after the tournament even if he loses.
  4. The disks struck the shield at opposite angles, creating a flash of blue and white light that reflected back at Selene. Her eyes closed, weakening her powers as she continued her dive, by the time they opened again, it was too late. @DwhitetheGamer @Canteen_the_unstable @Unicorncob @dragon4111 @reader8363 Selene put both her hooves together, increasing the size of her rei Bomb to act as a shield, but it was nothing against the might of his ZettaFlare. She stopped in place when the first shockwave of the attack hit her, and then she was sent flying back when her momentum was broken. For a few seconds, the ring was enveloped in a blinding blue light, before the light suddenly dispersed and Selene was seen flying up toward the stands. She hit a pillar near the highest parts of the stand, and fell back to the ground with no strength left in her body. "Continue this path, and I'll consider you the greatest friend I've ever known," Dynamo heard. Selene landed with a booming thud on the ringside grass near where Rokata and Onyx were standing. Dynamo saw Rokata standing beside where she fell, looking up at him with a smile across his lips and an intense gaze in his eyes. Topaz cartwheeled toward the side of the ring with a pair of sunglasses balanced on her snout. "With explosive moves like that, you don't need to be in the line of fire to need some protection!" She gracefully leapt off the ring and landed in front of Selene, bending down to look at her closely. She turned to the stands and said, "It looks like Selene is incapacitated and wont be back up by ten if she ever gets back up at all! Team Lotus takes a one point lead going into the final match!"
  5. After another interruption from Canteen, Topaz gave him a decisive bop on the head in the middle of his speech and pushed him off the ring with her hind hoof. "Leave it to the professionals and go get some help, will ya?" She said, twirling her mic. Selene's largest eye, the one covering her mouth, opened and gazed at Dynamo while he stood at a safe distance. "FOUR!" Topaz continued her count. "You asked me something at the beginning of this fight and I was unwilling to answer." He heard her voice say, but it was ringing through his head, coming from no direction in particular. Only Dynamo could hear it. "FIVE!" "To learn that which took my life. You wanted to know what that meant. I am no closer to answering that than I was before. All I've learned is how little I know." "SIX!" With her large eye trained on Dynamo, her true eye looked at Rokata. "What a fool I've been to think that our abilities are the things we were here to test. That this was meant to push ourselves to new heights. It's nothing like that." "SEVEN!" "When Rokata killed me, my existence became intertwined with his. When he dies so will I." "EIGHT!" "Please don't ask me any more questions. I know little more than you do." "NINE! -uh-" Selene rapidly rolled on her hooves and sprung into the air, forming her psychic bracers on each hoof. "Psychic Bracers!" She launched the tracking projectiles at Dynamo and used her remaining strength to instantly form an energy bomb in her hoof before turning her momentum and diving down at Dynamo. "Rei Bomb!"
  6. Selene's eyes narrowed. She'd expected Dynamo to charge straight into her attack and clash metal. He uses his head in battle even in this state. @DwhitetheGamer @Canteen_the_unstable @Unicorncob @dragon4111 @reader8363 Selene teleported a foot to the side to blink away from the whirling blade, only for it to reverse course and hit her in the back. Striking multiple points on her body. While reeling from that attack, Dynamo made his feint attack, which she tried to block. His real strike came lower, landing a solid blow to her back. Each time she tried to defend from one of his strikes, a different one hit her, allowing Dynamo to dominate the space. She backed away, attempting dodges and parries. All of it was happening too quickly for the spectators to make out the individual strikes. He's swift! My eyes can see his moves coming but I can't do anything about it! As she took more damage, the eyes on her body started to close one by one, sealing so tightly that they were almost invisible. She looked at Rokata briefly, seeing his stern expression. This is what you were talking about wasn't it? The opposition trial. A real proving. She looked straight at Dynamo with her true eye opened wide and a look of shock on her face. But I'm not ready for this! Dynamo landed a blow squarely in her face, launching her back with such tremendous force that her small body created a fissure in the ring where she landed. "Maybe Rokata picked the wrong one..." she muttered to herself while staring up at the darkening sky. All but her true eye slowly closed, some of the eyes were dripping a thick purple blood. Topaz jumped on the ring and ran to Selene's side. "With Selene down, It's time to start the ten count!" She announced. "One! Two! THREE!"
  7. Selene landed on three hooves with her front right hoof pulled back. By the time she was on balance, Dynamo already started his attack, so she readied her third attack, creating an energy bomb in her hoof. "Rei-bomb!" Dynamo could see that the area of the sphere was actually deceptively larger than the visible light indicated. She swung at Dynamo while jumping back, hoping to break his momentum.
  8. Rail's typical stoic demeanor changed. He was looking at Dynamo with an expression of shock, even a bit of awe. The pony who up until now had acted like everything was completely under his control was taken off-guard by this change of events. "That's not a face I've seen you make before," said Rokata. Rail removed his cigarette, never taking his eyes off the combatants. "I think... I may need to adjust my plans." Selene started backing away as soon as the shots were fired, circling the wing with swift agility. Her eyes helped her track the projectiles. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised anymore when the tables are completely flipped in these fights! Selene is now totally on the defensive and Dynamo's Aura is like a solar eclipse, rare, beautiful, and something you don't want to stare at for too long!" Topaz announced. Selene put up an energy wall between her and the projectiles, Two of them were destroyed by the wall, but the other five broke through. She crouched down to make them aim for the ground, and then jumped, skillfully causing another three to crash into the stadium floor, causing a tremendous explosion, but two more were heading straight for her, and she couldn't dodge in the air. She teleported to the ground and one of the projectiles took a wide turn, hitting a pillar and showering the stands with rubble, but the final projectile whirled toward her before she could defend and struck her in the back! There was a loud explosion of white light, singing the nearby eyes on her back shut. She fell forward and tumbled to her hooves.
  9. "And it's really sped up the show!" Tatterhoof said, tapping his cane on the metal floor. The gem at the end of his cane was glowing faint orange. Topaz squinted when the harmless discs passed through Dynamo. "This is a bizarre turn. It looks like Dynamo's last power up has given him the ability to phase through some of Selene's attacks! I know I'm supposed to avoid conjecture as an announcer, but I'm guessing ghost powers!" With Dynamo in the air, it would be harder for him to dodge without wings. Selene held up her hooves like she did with her second attack, but this time Dynamo could actually see the invisible green polearm forming in her hooves. "Dimensional Slash!" She swung upward at Dynamo with the massive weapon only Dynamo and others with heightened awareness could see.
  10. Selene didn't actually know what the gem Dynamo consumed was. She hadn't watched Canteen's match in the semifinals, but she could easily sense the change in Dynamo. Her eyes could see more than any normal pony, even one with psychic abilities. She saw his wavelength shift to something she was not familiar with. It may not have matched her in raw power, but it felt potent, something only Dynamo's unique experiences could create. This... Perhaps I was too effective. She thought as she slowly circled Dynamo from a safe distance. I've never seen a fighter grow so much so quickly. To think, he's managed to make so many ponies underestimate him in this tournament when he had this! @DwhitetheGamer @Canteen_the_unstable @Unicorncob @reader8363 @dragon4111 She leapt in the air, using the same technique she attacked Dynamo with earlier in the tournament. "Psychic Bracers!" Three hoops formed at the tip of each of her front hooves, but this time they crackled with electric energy, glowing far brighter than the ones she attacked him with before. Her eyes were enhancing her abilities. "If one of those even touches Dynamo he'll be dead!" Dai shouted, still treating Draco's wounds. "Geez, don't sound too optimistic," Shining Armor rebutted. Selene tossed the projectiles at Dynamo, but he was able to see something the others couldn't. Only two of the disks were real. The other four were just a trick to distract him! Dodging all six would be nearly impossible. Dodging two was easy.
  11. All of Selene's eyes trained on Dynamo, the pupils slowly dilating and shrinking at random. He feels completely different now. It's like I'm fighting a different pony. @Canteen_the_unstable Cumulus shivered slightly and ruffled his feathers. "It's like he's making his own climate now. I can feel all the sadness and moxy on his inner-sides like it was too much for him to keep to himself." The flash of light was too bright to look at directly. Selene put her hooves up, crossing them in front of her face to defend her vitals from the shrapnel coming back at her. A split second later, she was on her knees, bleeding from her front legs, before standing up and making her aura flare up again to show she was still up to the challenge. Now the debate can begin. @reader8363 @dragon4111 @Unicorncob "Alright Dynamo!" Shining Armor cheered. "I'm not a psychic and even I can feel he's gotten an upgrade! Looks like Selene's mind tricks have backfired!" "Or she's getting exactly what she wanted," said Quill. "How about now, Rail? Are you still bored?" Rokata asked, but Rail stayed silent, a smile creeping up his lips.
  12. "But it is real," Selene said as she circled to Dynamo's side, keeping her attack charged. Even with Dynamo entranced she wasn't going to strike. The point of this wasn't to get an easy win, plus she was still cautious about approaching him. "You only understand one part of reality, but existence is perception. Right now, you do not exist to Dynamo. I don't create facsimilies. I create windows into new truths, every bit as real as the one you experience." Selene watched Dynamo's reaction with a calm spirit, waiting to see where this new information would take him. Soon, she decided that his spirit was crushed, and there was no more need for her to be cautious. She raised her glowing hoof again, and prepared to fire. Copper's words were clear in Dynamo's ears. Somehow, his friend's shouting had managed to get through in a way that his other teammate's had not, and Dynamo was given a split second realization of where he was. Still, the pain of loss was heavy on his soul. Selene fired a psychic beam of energy at the back of Dynamo's head, this time prepared to kill him and decisively end the fight.
  13. Selene stood back up, but Dynamo still saw Starlight laying on the ground as he inched closer. "I don't know what's happened! It looks like Selene is the one who took the hit, but Dynamo looks like the one in pain!" Tricis announced, but Dynamo couldn't hear her. "I've never seen such a boring fight," Rail commented. "She doesn't want to win without finding out who's stronger," Rokata observed. "Mason might try a trick like this to get an easy kill. For her, it's the opposite. Dynamo's strength is hidden behind a wall of insecurity and self doubt. This is a fight that can only be had at the breaking point." "Dynamo..." Starlight said through half lidded eyes, looking up at the blue unicorn as blood dripped from her lips. "Why didn't you stop it?" She weakly raised a hoof to Dynamo, but let it fall back to the ground. Dynamo could see them in her eyes, Frostflame, Tricis and Quick Fix all laying helpless and lifeless. "Just... one more, right? You can't afford the luxury of having your friends survive. You're too weak." She closed her eyes. DwhitetheGamer @Canteen_the_unstable @Unicorncob @dragon4111 @reader8363 "It's something he needs to learn. It's something all of you need to learn." Selene said, she was looking at Dynamo, but it sounded like she was addressing his team as well. "You don't get to choose if you make sacrifices. Not really. If you don't give up what it takes to make yourself strong, the universe will take its due... with something else." She pointed her hoof at the back of Dynamo's head, and charged a blast, ready to end the fight here.
  14. That was a bit of a hair splitting technicality. The offer still came from Nin, Rail was just the one who did the talking. The ground beneath Dynamo's feet exploded into solid debris as soon as he jumped, Selene's strike had missed its mark despite her usual accuracy. He's still fast. He shouldn't be able to move with such swiftness after his injuries. She moved back onto all fours and looked up at Dynamo when he started his retaliatory attack. As I suspected. His strength and his resolve are closely aligned. Dynamo swung his blade at Selene before she had time to mount a proper defense. The audience saw a clean hit. Selene put up some kind of energy barrier to slow down the strike, but it still broke through and left a deep slice on her right slide, even cutting a few of the eyes on her torso as she was pushed to the ground. The first major damage she'd taken. However, once again, Dynamo saw something different. There was a flash of light as his blade connected, and when he was able to see again, he was on the ground, standing next to the body of Starlight Glimmer, bleeding onto the fragmented cement.
  15. Selene's original eye softened, half lidded. "I wonder what you gained when you rejected Nin's offer. Something in the next life, perhaps." She charged energy into her hoof and leapt at Dynamo when he still appeared to be off balance. The sphere in her hoof was like a small bomb that would explode as soon is it hit its target. This time her target was Dynamo's center of mass.
  16. The shield shattered like a glass mirror when she swung through it to strike Dynamo, but the shield slowed her strike enough to avoid anything fatal. She slammed into his shoulder and he was flung to the edge of the ring, dropping like a sack of wet flour. "And Selene scores a second consecutive hit on Dynamo! The advantage here is obvious!" Topaz announced. Selene stepped toward Dynamo, her hooves softly clicking on the concrete with each trot. "Is this your best effort? I've misjudged you." Her largest eye narrowed at Dynamo. "I mistook you for somepony with true conviction, but you aren't even worth the lives it cost to get you here." Her right eye glowed like it did during her semifinal fight, radiating a solid yellow light while she concentrated her power into her right hoof. She pointed the hoof at Dynamo like a loaded gun. Dynamo had used at least half his power but she clearly had plenty to spare. "We all make misjudgments."
  17. Selene tilted her head up, pointing her largest eye- that replaced her mouth- directly at him. "I did not. You saw what your mind was ready to believe. You tricked yourself." With Dynamo's hoof locked around her right leg, she raised her other leg which swirled with a red aura. "You take everything at face value and create a little world for yourself based on what you believe. A construct like that is a deadly prison, and you aren't likely to break it." Her largest eye narrowed at him, with the slitted pupil turning like the head of a screw. "For example, you still don't believe I'll kill you." She swept her hoof at Dynamo with the force of a wrecking ball packed into her small leg.
  18. @Unicorncob @DwhitetheGamer @Canteen_the_unstable @reader8363 @dragon4111 The span of this deception lasted mere seconds for those watching the fight. Dynamo stood staring at Selene, neither of them saying a word, and then Dynamo lowered his weapon as Selene stepped closer. "It was unfortunate you couldn't save everyone," Quick fix said to Dynamo. He reached for Dynamo's shoulder, but as soon as he touched him, Dynamo felt a sharp sensation of burning pain in his chest. The illusory world Dynamo was in faded away in an instant, and the blue unicorn suddenly realized where he was and what had happened. The cloud in his mind disappeared and he instantly remembered the fight he was in prior. "A direct hit!" Topaz announced to the cheers of the crowd. Selene stood directly in front of Dynamo. Blood trickled from Dynamo's chest where Selene's hoof struck him just beneath the ribs. There was a glowing aura around her hoof that made it burn like fire, searing through his flesh and penetrating deep.
  19. "Don't you remember? You won the tournament," Quick Fix said, taking a step closer to Dynamo. "I heard it was incredible. After you won your battle, Jade narrowly defeated Rokata and saved you all from certain doom. You were given one wish and you asked for me." When Dynamo tried to recall what Quick Fix was saying, to remember what happened during his fight with Selene, his memories were incomplete. He couldn't remember what happened. "I'm so proud of you. Why don't you put that weapon down?"
  20. When Dynamo turned around, his vision was blurry like an unfocused camera, as if his brain was still trying to process the information it was given. But he saw a figure in the center of the hallway behind him. A pony. One who was far taller than Selene and didn't have her same shade of blue fur nor her grotesque mutations. It was a stallion, and as Dynamo's eyes focused again, he saw that it was someone familiar. Quick Fix was standing just a leg's length away from him, with Selene nowhere to be seen. "What are you waving that thing around for?" He asked.
  21. @Dynamo Pad "The mind's eye sees what it expects. To alter your expectations is bewitchment," Selene said, stepping backward from Dynamo. She too faded into the black abyss. Dynamo could hear Topaz's voice echo all around, "After a long exchange of blows, the two fighters are in an intense standoff!" The world around Dynamo reformed into a long hallway with a marble floor and polished wood paneled walls. It looked like part of an old Victorian style mansion, but the hallway seemed unending, extending into blackness from both directions. Dynamo got a sudden tingling sensation down his back, a sixth sense telling him there was danger behind him.
  22. "That's quite the transformation... I don't really know how to describe it," Topaz said. "All I can say is that if you can't see her, there's a good chance that she can still see you!" Shining Armor had a visible shocked expression from the reveal. "Alright... I'm alarmed," He said. "Not... My first guess," Quill commented. Dynamo certainly liked to ask a lot of questions he had little hope to be answered. Selene wasn't interested in having a ringside chat with Dynamo. Not yet. "These eyes enhance everything about my abilities. What I see. What you see. What I see that you see," She explained, completely ignoring answering his question. The blue aura from Selene's body extended and Dynamo immediately noticed an effect on his vision. Anything outside of the ring darkened and blurred like he was being taken into a world of unfocused darkness. Purple and blue swirling lights darted the landscape and soon even the ring beneath his hoof couldn't be seen. @dragon4111 @Unicorncob @DwhitetheGamer @reader8363 @Canteen_the_unstable For everyone else, they appeared to be standing in the ring as normal.
  23. "How old area you?" Dai demanded. "You know that fight would have killed you right? You signed up for this when you went all out." She placed her hooves on both sides of his torso and moved one of his broken ribs back into place. "Now stay still while I set this." @Dynamo Pad Canteen's warning didn't come soon enough, but he was fairly close to being right. With the top of her head wrappings removed, the runes were facing out at Dynamo. Luckily he chose to attack at range, but the eight blasts of energy were met by electric pulses from the runes that bursted the first blast like a balloon and slowed down the others. The last seven blasts were repelled by a sonic wave of energy fired from Selene's forehead, which shot them back in Dynamo's direction in a scattered pattern, none of them heading directly for him due to the erratic nature of their repulsion. "I didn't expect you to attempt to attack me. That's more of something I would expect from Mason, but I thought you had a higher sense of honor than that." She pulled off more of her wrappings, unfurling her horn and revealing the top of her head. "Those runes are designed to repel demonic energy, they're far less effective on pony magic. Yet they were strong enough to repel your attack. I'll leave the interpretation of that up to you." When she unwrapped her eyes, showing the covered spot where her left eye would be, there was nothing but bare flesh and fur. She really only had the right eye. "You may find my appearance alarming," she warned. She stripped her head of the rest of the bindings, and it was clear that she more than made up for the lack of a left eye with a grotesque mutation. There were eyes of various sizes dotting her head, two on her neck, one under each eye, one quite literally on the back of her head. Strangest of all, her mouth was replaced by a large eye, starting beneath her nostrils and replacing her entire jaw. That large eye was yellowed with a purple, stilted eyeris. "I followed Rokata, and made myself like him, but I was not perfect." She explained. The vocalization seemed to come from nowhere, since she had no visible mouth. She cast off her robes in one motion, and her body was similar to her head. Yellow, red and white eyes dotted her blue fur, looking in all directions and blinking out of unison. They were in odd places, and totally unsymmetrical. @dragon4111 This included her flanks, making this about the time that Draco would regret fantasizing about her.
  24. @Dynamo Pad @dragon4111 @Unicorncob @DwhitetheGamer @reader8363 @Canteen_the_unstable "That's enough!" Selene said in a clear, powerful voice, loud enough to reverberate throughout the ring. She straightened her posture and stood straight. It certainly wasn't a ready fighting posture. She reached up with her right front hoof and gripped the end of her head wrappings with her fetlock. There was a shimmer in her eye. "I will fight you now." "It seems like that last attack was more effective on Selene than we thought! She seems to be completely disoriented!" Topaz announced. "I say that because the last time I checked, this fight has already been going on for over a minute." "First, I will remove these seals," Selene said. She pulled the wrapping on her head, revealing her light blue mane beneath, and Dynamo could see that there was black runic writing on the other side of the binding. Static electricity shot from the black lettering and struck her skin, but when she pulled the bindings further off, the electricity disappeared. As she unwound more of the wrappings, freeing her entire mane, Dynamo could see that every inch of her bindings were covered in the runic pattern, and the parts of her body that were freed emitted a faint glow. She freed the top of her head, but still had a lot of bindings to remove. Since it was taking her so long, she was opening herself up to an attack from Dynamo if he chose to attack her while she couldn't defend herself.
  25. The Bracer's flew past Dynamo when he rushed beneath Selene, this time without hitting Dynamo at any point. Selene couldn't fly either, and she was already on the way down when Dynamo made his rush. He's already learning to adapt, but he still can't see my illusions. If he did, he would know that only two of the rings from my psychic bracers are real. If that's the case, I know exactly the technique to recycle next. "Dimensional Slash!" Selene swung her hooves like before, miming like she had a polearm in her hooves when in reality she had nothing. She swung in the direction of Dynamo's sword, and he felt his blade collide with something as hard as steel. Sparks appeared out of thin air, but his Minato blade continued on, cutting the fabric on Selene's left shoulder and drawing a thin mist of red blood.
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