"Yeah Yeah, keep talkin'!" Rory yelled out as a large explosion was created within her room, blowing her into the wall. "Shit...!!" She said to herself as blood spewed from her mouth. It must've been a strong explosion to make her bleed like that... "Looks like my opponent has already gotten her..." She said as she regenerated rather swiftly.
"Alright, let's do this!"
Rory yelled out to whoever her opponent was, "I'll take you on fair and square!" Through the dust and the rubble, she could hear the shifting of metal and steel, as if a heavily armored person was walking towards her.
"Woah, calm down there missy! This old man just got here!" The man said nonchalantly. He was clearly a swordsman, just like Rory. "Heh... Never thought I'd meet a swordsman as my opponent." She said, "What's your name?" She asked. The man smiled, using his thumb to point to himself.
"Call me
The Dauntless Swordmaster."
Rory chuckled, "What a weird name..." The Dauntless Swordmaster chuckled, "That's what they all say. Sit down! Before we duke it out, blade to blade, let's have a drink." The man said a gourd that was filled with saké appearing on the ground. "Wow, you're pretty chill for somebody who's supposed to be my enemy. Any chance you'll let me and my friends pass?" Rory asked the Swordmaster.
"No can do! Not until you defeat all the opponents of course." He said, sitting down with his legs crossed. Rory joined him, sitting down with her legs crossed as well as he poured them both a cup of saké. "Woah... It's pretty good. I ain't getting drunk though, which is surprising since I'm sort of a lightweight..." She said.
"That's cause this stuff is pretty weak! I usually use it because it tastes good, so don't expect to get wasted" He said as Rory nodded. "Well, it does taste pretty good so you've got me there." She said. "So, what brings you to the
Qliphoth? What're yah looking for?" The Swordmaster asked. "Well..." Rory then explained.
"Your son ate one of the fruits? That sucks. He probably won't make it..." Rory tilted her head, "What do you mean by that...?" She asked, "Well, those fruits give power, yeah! But if you hadn't already guessed, there's a huge mental change afterward. It's more drastic the worse you're mental state, so your boy must have some strong willpower to last this long against the temptations!" Rory nodded.
"What even is the
Qliphoth...? Why was it even made? We've got plenty of Evil Gods!" She asked, causing the Swordmaster to chuckle. "This particular flower was made so that Kill-Gaia and the evils of humanity were kept in check... But it seems to have failed, hah! Nowadays evil is just getting amped on the daily by the damn thing... Like it's gained a will of it's own. So, of course, the Star Gods designed the Apoptosis." Rory's eyes widened. "You know about that?" He nodded.
"Figured out you were that same Apoptosis they designed as soon as you walked in... Well, not the same. There have been 5 previous Apoptosis." Rory tilted her head, "Really...?" The Swordmaster nodded, smiling. "What's your name kiddo?" He asked her.
"Rory. Rory the 6th." He laughed out loud, "So you're the 6th of the set!? Haha!" Rory was once again confused, "So there have been 5 other people named Rory that came before me? I mean, that makes sense, but they were all an Apoptosis?" He nodded. "Yep, and Rory the 1st and Rory the 5th were a special breed of crazy! But I suspect you are too." Rory chuckled a bit.
"Damn... I always thought my 5 predecessors were just some dead family members." Once again, the Swordmaster laughed. "They technically are, since you're the most recent Rory. Don't know why they were all named Rory..." He said. "Not like it matters." Rory stood up, "I wish I could know more about my predecessors, but I have a job to do. I have to find out more about that tree, and to do so, I've gotta get past you." The Swordmaster stood up, sighing.
"Yeah Yeah, I get you... Damn, I'm getting to old for all this fighting business!" But before they began, Rory posed one more question. "Who exactly are you guys...?" She asked. "Let's just say us
Qliphoth guardians are victims... Of Kill-Gaia." This really surprised Rory, "So you know of him... What exactly happened?" He sighed once more, "Well, we all tried to fight him and lost! I guess he liked us since he said I was strong at least, so Imagine it must've been the same for the other 2 guardians." Rory rubbed her chin in thought.
"Peculiar... So this is like you're curse or whatever?" He responded, "Pretty much. Whenever we lose, we just get reborn and wait for the next challenger... So boring!" He said, sighing. "I don't hate it. A Swordmaster needs opponents, after all! And I get plenty of strong ones, but you... I don't think you make the cut, kid." This sort of ticked Rory off. "Oh really now...?" She asked.
"Yeah, sorry. I can feel you're passive growth, but there's a wall between us you can't breach with just that. It'd be best if you just turned back, I don't want to kill a woman." Now, this really ticked Rory off, "I ain't no weakling, yah hear!? Let's dance you old fart!!" The Swordmaster simply smiled.
"Now that's the spirit!"
The duel had begun.
Gabriel floated in the air, sighing as she awaited the arrival of her opponent. "Fighting... So barbaric, but unfortunately existing within this world requires doing battle as a skill to survive." Gabriel said as her disdain for battle showed.
"Ugh..." Gabriel crossed her arms as an explosion was generated, same as Rory, which she swiftly dodged without damage. "Durability isn't really my strong suit, so you may want to hold back on little Ol' Gabriel." She said. Her opponent approached her.
It was clearly a wild animal without reason, covered in the very concept of fire and magma that vaporized the ground with each step that it took towards Gabriel, causing her to sigh. "I don't expect that this will be easy... What a brute." She thought to herself.
What differed from King Tiger's opponent entering the room compared to Gabriel and Rory was that there was no huge explosion... In fact, it was a rather calm and collected entrance. A portal opened, and a being entered gracefully.
Obviously some sort of elf or demonic being. He said nothing and didn't even breathe.
(King Tiger's post is shorter because for the other two posts I will be of course personally narrating the fights, but his will also, of course, be normal RP, so yeah.)
