Season 45, Week 3
Nina Wyndia
(Breath of Fire III)
 
Boom! Bang! Sizzle! Such are the sounds of Nina's powerful...well, more powerful...magic. It will come raining down on a young artist this week, as Nina seeks to prevent Relm from stealing her magic for another one of her lethal portraits. However, the advantage is firmly on the Wyndian side. With a lifetime of magic experience instead of merely a few months, Nina will draw on her powers with added skill and ability. Calling down the fury of mighty lighting bolts or crushing infernos will overwhelm Relm before she can do much of note. Even despite Nina's legendary problems with durability, this match is still simple, easy and forthright for her to win. For once.

V

S

It's really fun to be a magical painter, isn't it? After soothing the greedy mind of a crazy merchant fuddyduddy, Relm Arrowny now sets her sights on a truly wondrous model! Nina Wyndia the Third has cute little wings, a nice dress and great colors for a watercolor! Granted, she might not agree to pose without a fight, but this is no problem! After all, Nina is really really bad at fighting, with her shoddy elemental magic and the physical build of a hospitalized twig. As such, a few thwacks of a brush, with the elemental resistances of Relm's trusty Cat Hood to largely mock Nina's spells should be enough to convince miss wings to be Relm's painting muse!


superaielman
Relm and Nina weren't evenly matched at all. Relm could heal in a fashion and had gravity rod beats at worst, and resisted Nina's magic. Hitting like a little girl kept her 'offense' in check, but not not nearly enough to prevent her from crushing Nina the third. Relm left the arena with her granddad while Ryu3 tried his best to cheer Nina up. Zidane hadn't even bothered to directly come to the arena, instead stopping to eat some lunch and listen to reports of several pissed off Godlikes that he had crossed in his mad plan. There was no way Edge was going to top him. To Zidane's amusement, the fight was already over. Ryu was gesturing rapidly to Nina, and.. there wasn't much of anyone else left in the arena. All the hangers on who had watched Zidane's blaze of glory earlier had left after they got assurances from Zidane that he had a TimeRecord spell going in the Light arena to catch whatever happened. So what if he had to sell the pendant Garnet's father gave to him for the scroll? She'd forgive him after hearing what a MAN he had been during this adventure. Eiko had read the scroll (She did know the basics of time magic after all) and cast the spell. Edge had beat him to the arena.. and it was utterly peaceful. To his tremendous shock, Edge was there- but wasn't fighting or doing anything wild, but instead playing chess with Fou-Lu (and losing, no great shock there). Zidane ambled over, sure that victory was in hand. He didn't bother to keep his voice down and began bragging about all he had accomplished.

---

The sound of Zidane ranting pulled Edge's focus away from the brutal beating he was getting in Chess. He looked up, giving Zidane his time to rant.

"Look at all I did. Melfice and Xorn? Crushed. I bribed Ghaleon to interfere in a battle between two demonic demigods. I hired the entire Chrono Cross cast to interfere in that fight and paid them off with Alexandria's treasury. Bwaaaaaaaahahahaha Haschel and Emelious. What did -you- do, huh?!?!?! NOTHING. You can't match me here!"


Edge shrugged. "You win. You certainly caused enough trouble with all that, and summoning the Infinity Dragon and all.." Edge lept to his feet with nothing else said, and ran over to Ryu's direction. One quick shove nudged Nina into Cid's grasp, who lifted the princess up into his arms and took off as soon as he saw Edge pushing Ryu towards Fou-Lu. Another shove from Edge pushed Ryu towards Fou, who was waiting and looking slightly bored by all this. Edge whispered into Ryu's ear, earning a shrug from the Brood's strongest fighter. All Zidane heard was "It's worth a shot." Apparently it worth a shot, as, Ryu held out his hand towards Fou-Lu who silently got up and took Ryu's hand. A blinding flash of light filled the arena, along with a rumbling sound that seemed to make the entire universe shake.

Edge shook his head in wonder at the sight before him. While Ryu the fourth was insanely powerful beyond all words and reason, he still was no match for the Ryu the third, owner of the Brood genes. The Infinity Dragon reared up and roared, his head brushing the top of the arena. Only one comment seemed to be appropriate here.

"Huh. It worked."

Edge then shrugged at Zidane. "I was going to just beat you up and say that all of your trouble was self inflicted and didn't count, but then you sicced Ghaleon on me. Not nice. Anywho, enjoy dealing with the Infinity Dragon+5 and Ghaleon and.. well whoever else you crossed during all... huh?" The rumbling had stopped. Edge spun around and saw Ryu and Fou-Lu on the ground, out cold.

"Maybe it wasn't stable.. definitely was worth a shot. Though... damnit.. this means that you won Zidane. Congratulations are in order. You are in fact better at causing trouble than I am. Even if it was self inflicted and you pretty much pissed everyone else off in the DLverse, you won." Edge walked out, not noticing that Zidane had not in fact responded.
===
It took several weeks and an army of healers to snap him out of his trance state, and he still had to 'pay' Ghaleon back. Zidane of course remembered nothing, but hey, apparently he had beat Edge at something! He would've been happier if he hadn't spent the entire rest of the season taking beatings from everyone he annoyed, but no one said victory came at a small price!

Nina Wyndia: 22
Relm Arrowny: 31

Jo\'ou Ranbu
An innocent painter girl.

A beautiful winged princess.

An epic duel.

This match would enter history.

*****

"SHE TOOK TWO PICTURES OF MY ASS!"

Nina the Third fumbled around madly, pouting and breaking vases around the spectator seats while Ryu the Third tore into poor Relm.

"Um, technically, she -painted- two pictures of your ass. But I guess that doesn't make it better, does it?", Rei shrugged.

"UUUUUUUUUGH!", the princess violently grunted as she tossed a vase at the Woren, who nimbly ducked the certain porcelain pain. However, Skelly wasn't so lucky as to dodge the pottery piece. "Jeez, doesn't that beat all. I wonder why would Relm paint a picture of your ass, anyway... well, two."

Behind the head-scratching face, Rei whistled merrily and left with the pictures. Those would make a good buck in the Duelling League's black market.

Oh, if anyone cares, Nina was disqualified for calling for Ryu's help against Relm. The painter will be ready to fight in the semis as soon as the infirmary healers finish reassembling her body parts.