Chapter 53: The Queen's Cup Begins!
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ARE YOU READY FOR SOME VIOLENCE? I HOPE SO!
ON WITH THE STORY!
~~~
{Contestant Holding Room}
Shortly after being allowed into the room reserved for him, the details of the tournament were explained to Kevin by the guard stationed there. The first bit of information was that there were a total of sixteen participants, including himself, with five of them being sponsored by the Queen. Each was given a private room to prepare for their matches, as was evidenced by the fact that only the boy and the guard were present in the room, and they wouldn't know who their opponents would be until they entered the arena.
Another important bit of information was the rules, of which there were surprisingly only three: no killing; no leaving the arena until the match is concluded; and if an opponent surrenders, the match is over. Outside of those guidelines, anything was fair game. Cheap shots, faking weakness, pulling out surprise weapons, and any other dirty tricks were practically encouraged. Apparently, after years of having monsters dominating the Colosseum, the Queen decided to adopt the belief that if you aren't cheating, you aren't trying hard enough.
After dumping all of that information on the Eevee, the guard left the room, telling him he would be called out when it was his turn in the ring.
He spent the majority of the time deep in thought. There was a lot for him to look forward to in the tournament, from the Fighting Type form unlocking, to the fact that he had confirmed with the Eeveelution System that every battle would count for the [Miraculous Money] perk; but, another factor that would come into play would be the limitations on his forms.
While Griffeon may be super effective against all Fighting Types, the possibility of one of his opponents having a dual-typing that canceled it out was not nonexistent. His compulsive desire to always counter with a super effective form might not be viable here. True, any one of his evolutions could wipe the floor with the competition, even when at Type disadvantage, but to NOT use a Type advantage at all times hurt his inner gamer.
"So," he mumbled to himself. "Other than Flying Types, Psychic and Fairy Types have the Type advantage against Fighting Types. I am DEFINITELY not using Sylveon, so that leaves Espeon as the only other form with a Type advantage, unless they have a dual-Typing that makes another form viable. There's also my Spookeon form, which can't be touched by Fighting Types, so that might be a good choice for a round where I want to keep hitting without needing to defend. Decisions, decisions…"
It took about thirty minutes for the guard to come back in. "Mr. Kevin, it's time for your first match. Please follow me to the arena."
Upon stepping out of the large ornate doors on his side of the arena, the boy was immediately assaulted by the roaring of the crowd. And, just like he expected, the words being shouted by the female members of the audience were…less than appropriate.
"Ahah! It's a cute little boy!"
"Ooooh! I wonder how he's going to be raped!?"
'Oh yeah? Well, I wonder how you'll look when I remove all the bones in your legs and push you off a cliff; he thought spitefully, imagining exactly that situation happening to the woman who shouted that. It helped him keep his expression calm.
Coming through the doors opposite him was one of the monsters he'd seen battling the other day. Dressed in steel and leather armor that only seemed to cover her most important parts and carrying her blue-haired head in her left arm was a dullahan, her purple eyed gaze practically radiating perverse anticipation.
[Dullahan]
[Type: Fighting/Steel]
"Oh, what a cute little warrior," she grinned. "Hehe…I'm looking forward to putting on a nice show after you lose."
Instead of shivering in fear or anticipation for the 'fun' that the monster was promising, the boy surprised both her and most of the audience by simply tilting his head to the side, a look of contemplation on his face. Raising a hand to hold his chin, he repeatedly switched between looking at her head and the empty spot above her neck, as if pondering some important question.
When both warriors were given the signal to begin the match, the Eevee spoke up. "Do you mind if I ask you a quick question?"
It took all of the dullahan's training to keep herself from tripping and falling on her face. She had been prepared to dash forward, ending the battle and treating herself to the young boy's body, when he spoke with honest curiosity in his voice. It was one thing for him to be putting up a front and acting tough for the crowd, as she'd seen men twice his age do the same, but the genuine tone of his voice brought most of her thoughts grinding to a halt.
'Is…is he even taking this seriously?' she wondered, frowning in uncertainty. 'I'm about to beat him into the ground and fuck his brains out, and he's stopping to ask questions? Is there something wrong with his brain?.'
"Um…sure…go ahead?" she answered, still unsure of how to proceed without making herself look bad. It was one thing to rape a full-grown man or a teenager, but even civilized monsters had reservations toward taking advantage of the mentally disabled.
"Thanks," he nodded. "I just wanted to know if there is a limit to how far apart your head can get from your body."
While the question was odd in the circumstance, it was one the dullahan had answered numerous times throughout her life, so she had no problem replying. "No, not really. Due to my magic, my head could be on the other side of the continent and I would still be able to move around without issues.."
Kevin nodded. "I see."
".Why… did you want to know?"
"Oh, because I plan on launching it out of the Colosseum as far as physically possible," the boy stated with an unnerving smirk.
Before she could wonder what he meant by that, the Eevee was enveloped in a bright flash of light that momentarily blinded her. Even while trying to clear the spots out of her eyes, she could feel the sudden presence of blisteringly hot magic emanating from where her opponent was standing.
Now, standing in place of the short boy, was the more mature figure of his Flareon evolution. Coal-black eyes glared at her with an anger more intense than any she'd seen in her entire life as he visibly tensed the muscles in his legs.
"I hope you're ready," he growled, his feet erupting in flames. "Because this is gonna hurt."
At some unseen signal, he suddenly launched himself forward, covering more than half the length of the arena in the time it took her to raise her sword in defense. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't taken his earlier statement to heart, and was more focused on protecting her main body than his main target. By the time she realized where he was aiming, it was already too late.
In a single powerful kick that left a trail of fire behind it, Kevin's shoe connected with the bridge of her nose, shattering it instantly. The sheer amount of force behind the limb was so powerful that the dullahan's head was launched out of her normally-unbreakable grip, and sent screaming into the sky. It soared over the arena's edge, past the stands, and finally cleared the outer wall of the Colosseum, her voice fading into the distance as it flew away.
[Blaze Kick - Fire Type Move]
[Description: The user launches a kick that has a heightened chance of landing a critical hit. This may also leave the target with a burn.]
For the first time in the many years the Colosseum had been open, the entirety of the audience was rendered speechless. Jaws were dropped, food and drinks were spilled onto the floor, and eyes were widened in shock at the spectacle they'd just witnessed. A small boy, whom they'd assumed would be quickly subdued and raped, had shapeshifted and used a mixture of overwhelming physical and magical power to completely remove the dullahan's head from the fight.
Back in the arena, the body of the headless monster was frantically swinging her sword in every direction with both hands. Despite the terrifying predicament of her missing head, she was at least able to try lashing out at her attacker in retaliation. It was too bad that he was already moving onto his next Move.
Her weapon was wrenched from her hands when the boy grabbed it by the blade and gave it a sharp tug, rendering her completely defenseless. Not allowing her any time to react to being suddenly disarmed, he immediately stepped forward and buried a fist in her stomach. Needless to say, she dropped to her knees and looked as if she would've been vomiting up her breakfast if her head were with her.
Still showing no mercy, Kevin stood menacingly over her and opened his mouth, unleashing a torrent of flames that engulfed her from neck to toe. Some of the onlookers with better hearing caught the sound of the dullahan's head screaming even louder than before from where it landed, the sensation of burning alive obviously bordering on cruel and unusual torture.
[Flamethrower - Fire Type Move]
[Description: The target is scorched with an intense blast of fire. This may also leave the target with a burn.]
By the time the flames had died out and the screams had come to a halt, her body had been sealed in the form of a small child. Her head was firmly attached to her neck and her eyes were wide open, but no pupils or irises could be seen. She was still breathing, but had passed out from the agony.
"Hey!" Kevin shouted, bringing all attention back to him in a moment. "Let this be a warning to you sick fucks! I'M NOBODY'S ARCEUS-DAMNED SEX TOY!" He then turned to look directly at the Queen. "And I would suggest you tell that to the next bitch you put me against; because, if I hear ONE FUCKING WORD out of their whore mouth about raping me, I will INVERT THEIR RIBCAGE!"
With his piece said, he stormed out of the arena, violently opening the doors and slamming them shut behind him.
It was at that moment that the Queen finally understood what the boy's tiny companion meant the other day when she had said "There's nobody in this whole city that Kevin can't beat." It had only taken him three moves to end the battle; and somehow, despite the obvious deadly force he'd used, the dullahan was only left in a diminished state, instead of dead. This meant he could use as many deadly attacks as he desired, and still not break the 'no killing' rule of the arena.
Well, despite wanting someone OTHER than a rape-happy monster to win this year's Queen's Cup, the monster participants were still her subjects, and she was reluctant to have them tortured to like that dullahan if she could do something about it. As such, she summoned one of her guards to pass along the message to the boy's next opponent. One that strongly emphasized the importance of NOT saying anything that could provoke a particularly violent reaction out of the boy.
Sitting back in her seat after sending the guard on his way, she considered what would happen when the boy inevitably (because she couldn't imagine ANYONE beating him at this point) made it to the finals. His match had been the last one of the first round, so she knew that Kyuba, the current reigning Champion of the Colosseum, had also entered the tournament and was headed for the finals as well.
She'd originally planned to advise the boy to drop out if he managed to scrape by in his match, but that plan had crashed and burned. At this point, she honestly didn't know who would come out on top if the strange male monster and the overpowered succubus came to blow; and honestly? She was afraid to know the answer.
~~~
{Up in the Stands}
"That was awesome!" Sylph shouted, flying out of the Bag of Bedding and zipping around excitedly. "Did you see that, Gnomy!? He was all like KICK! PUNCH! FWOOM! It was-!"
SMACK!
"OOOOOUUUUCHiiiieeeee," the tiny Spirit cried dramatically as she plummeted down a few rows of seats.
Of course, Gnome had seen the fight. She, Sylph, and Alice had received premium seats with perfect vantage points to see every match, so it was impossible for any of them to NOT witness the one-sided beatdown. The Earth Spirit even smirked when her husband had punted the dullahan's head, silently sitting up and holding up her arms in the 'field goal' position, which brought a laugh out of her sister.
Alice, on the other hand, had a look of worry on her face. Just like the Queen, she had noticed the Colosseum's Champion the moment she took to the arena floor. Unlike the Queen, however, she knew that the pending encounter between the Kyuba and Kevin would probably leave the entire Colosseum with irreparable damage if something wasn't done to contain their battle. So, she was busy calculating the amount of power she would need to put into a barrier capable of handling both of them at full strength.
~~~
{1 Hour Later}
Following a twenty-minute intermission, where the catatonic dullahan was removed from the arena and every member of the audience was given a complementary hotdog as an apology for the spectacle they'd witnessed, the tournament was back in full swing. Only prominent fighters had made it to the second round, so the battles were much more intense. Sure, there was no exhibitionism to be seen, but that particular thirst in the female onlookers had been EXTENSIVELY sated in round one.
When it finally came time for Kevin to take to the field again, a wave of whispers overcame the onlooking masses. Even with him back to his smaller, more adorable form, none of them were fooled into thinking that this would be an easy battle for the monster on the other end. If anything, they were worried for whoever his opponent would be.
Stepping through the doors opposite the Eevee came an…odd monster that he hadn't expected to see in this world. Covered from heads - and yes, I mean plural heads - to toe in black fur and standing at an intimidating seven feet tall, this particular monster was a furry's wet dream. What made her difficult to look at, though, was the fact that so many of her features were multiplied by three; from the three sets of breasts arranged vertically from largest to smallest; to the three dog tails twitching nervously behind her; all the way to her three heads, each adorned with its own set of soft, furry ears sticking out of the top.
[Cerberus]
[Type: Fighting/Dark]
The boy frowned upon seeing that. Only Bug, Fairy, and Fighting Types were super effective against Dark Types, and he would only use Sylveon if he had absolutely no other options. So, he was down to only using the forms that were superior to Fighting Types. He eventually came to the conclusion that the Griffeon form would be fine to use for this particular fight, as it allowed him to save both his Spookeon and Espeon forms for later, if they were needed.
On the cerberus' side of the battlefield, the monster herself had to work hard to keep all three of her mouths shut and her body from trembling. While contestants normally weren't given any clues as to who they would be facing before they made their way to the arena, she had not only been told about Kevin, but also shown the motionless form of his last opponent. The guard in charge of escorting her had then revealed the details of the boy's last threat before he left the field, and advised her to take it seriously.
Seeing him now, she couldn't reconcile the cute boy who barely came up to her second set of breasts with the unstoppable force of nature the guard had described. However, she also knew that the Queen wouldn't have sent her that warning if the danger weren't incredibly real. Thus, all three of her heads were staring at him, each one's brain working overtime to curb her usual trash talking. The frown he was giving her wasn't encouraging, though.
As was expected, the bright light of evolution encompassed the boy the moment they were given the signal to start. To both her and the audience's confusion, what stood in the foxlike boy's place wasn't the same embodiment of rage and violence as before. Instead, he now took the form of a winged teenager with white hair and an aviator's jacke, both of his eyes covered by a pair of flight goggles.
"I hope you're ready!" he cheerfully shouted as he stretched his arms above his head. "Because this will be over before you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism!"
"...anti-wha-?" Even with three brains working together, the cerberus couldn't make sense of his words before he made his first Move.
Before she could react, he had already dashed forward and grabbed her with both of his hands. Beating his wings as hard as he could and harnessing the wind, he ascended as high as the outer walls of the Colosseum. It was at that moment that the cerberus realized something that she probably never would have if not for her current predicament:
She was terrified of heights.
Fortunately for her, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, she wouldn't have to deal with it for long. Upon reaching the zenith of his ascent, the Griffeon spun in mid air and smiled brightly at his opponent. "How are you liking the free flight?"
"...c-c-could you p-please let me d-down?" she whimpered.
"Sure!" he nodded in agreement. "Just make sure you plan out your landing strategy before hitting the ground!"
All three of her hearts seemed to stop beating at that moment. "M-m-my…w-what?"
Without explaining any further, the boy shifted the monster's weight until she was only held by his right arm, spun around, and threw her as hard as physically possible at the ground. Both his own Flying Type Energy and the Wind Magic provided by Sylph worked in tandem to make the cerberus' descent quicker than the eye could follow, the force of which ended up causing a large explosion of fragmented stone to fly up on impact. When the dust finally settle, a cerberus-shaped hole now existed in the center of the arena, the monster's moans of pain coming from within.
[Sky Drop - Flying Type Move]
[The user takes the target into the sky, then drops them. The target cannot attack while in the air.]
The boy himself slowly came down, landing lightly on his feet as he peered into the hole. "Are you okay?"
"Uuuuuuugh."
"Do you still want to fight?"
"Nooooooooo…"
"Alrighty then! It was nice to meet you, and I hope you feel better soon!" he stated, giving her a friendly wave goodbye before heading back to his waiting room.
Once again, the Queen was stumped. She'd been under the impression that the fire breathing transformation was the boy's trump card to make it through the Queen's Cup, but for him to have a second one? With possibly more that he hadn't shown yet? It was becoming more and more clear that inviting him to participate in the tournament had been a stroke of genius!
It was also apparent that he didn't hold any particular grudge against monsters that didn't threaten to rape him. The cerberus had held herself back from making any comments about how much she obviously wanted to dominate him, and was rewarded with a quick and relatively painless defeat, instead of the slow torture the dullahan had to endure.
She was actually looking forward to the semifinals at this point, mostly due to the fact that the boy's next opponent would be the only human to make it this far into the tournament. The man, who registered under the name Draco, had similarly steamrolled all of the monsters pitted against him, though not nearly as flashily. It would be interesting to see him and Kevin clash in the arena.
{30 Minutes Later}
Kevin was expecting a lot of things when he entered the arena for the semifinals. After two monsters that he'd battled so far, he somewhat anticipated battling another one with some kind of weird head situation. There was also the possibility it would be some other kind of afterlife-related monster, since in his old world both dullahans and cerberus were connected to death in their respective religions. Hell, there was even a chance of him fighting a monster that had a completely different theme altogether.
What he didn't expect, however, was to be greeted by what appeared to be a normal human man. With a lightly athletic 5'4 build, unkempt brown hair, and chocolate colored eyes, he looked rather unassuming as he walked across the field toward the Eevee boy. Both his expression and posture were laid back, with both hands resting in the pockets of his dark blue shorts, his sandaled feet barely raising up and making scuffing sounds on the dirt below. To top off the whole 'lazy day' aesthetic, he also wore a dark gray shirt with the words 'BUSY DOING NOTHING' printed across the chest.
It was when the Eeveelution System finally scanned him that things got much more…complicated.
[Draco The Glitched]
[Chaos God of Matter and Energy]
[Type: ERROR/UNDEFINED]
"Hey," the man waved, an easygoing smile on his face. "So I hear you're the new furry that's joining the Chaos Pantheon."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone