Tag Archives: Bear Gate

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #040

The night was uneventful as far as Brisa could tell.  She slept like a rock.  With a warm comforter, the fresh air, and fanned wind, she only could sleep this well in her apartment back in South Coast.  As she woke to the soft music of an alarm clock, she was certain she was in her apartment.  Her comforter, her fan, everything she owned was in its place.  The events of the last few weeks were dismissed as a weird, vivid, escalating dream until she spotted the missing window… and her armor piled in the corner.

What is going on here.

Looking around with this new revelation, she noted the walls and furniture changing.  The wild bright assorted colors and weird decorations she associated with the Casting and Kin-Po school returned.  At the same time, the alarm clock’s music became more and more annoying until it sounded like a random series of beeps.

Enchants.  They are everywhere.

She made her way to the showers and prepared for another lesson.  In mirrors, she saw a stronger face and body than she was used to.  The fact that it was also much easier to move testified that she was getting stronger.  Perhaps the enchants on her armor were having a permanent effect.

She made her way out of the lower floors and met again with Vangie who was already prepared and waiting with her bubbly smile.

“Ready to continue your training?” she asked.  Her hair was bright pink as she clapped and smiled.  

“Sure,” Brisa said, unable to share in her excitement.  She was being ripped off.  She knew it, but she needed rest and didn’t have enough money or defensive skills.  She had to sleep in a safe place and the terms of her night rest “discount” demanded that she continue her training the next day.  It didn’t matter what she learned as long as she completed a lesson.

Whatever she learned, it had to be fast.  For all she knew, Jaquan was already in Bear Gate.  That city was known to be large and confusing.  She’d have to start the search from scratch.

Why did I leave.  I shouldn’t have let my emotions get to me.  Should have followed along with Jaquan.  Hmm… lesson learned I guess.

The past was in the past.  She could only work with what was in front of her at the moment.  Right now, a lesson as good as any other was waiting to be finished.  She conceded a sigh and said, “What do you have planned?”

“Well,” Vangie started, “What are your other Talent Sets?”

“I went to the Sword Master school not that long ago.”

“So, you only have two.   Would you like to learn Casting as well?”

“Sure.  Is it useful?”

Vangie’s eye’s widened and her hair turned to a bright color in the blue and green family.  They were near the entrance so the main desk was nearby.  She picked up a pencil making and held it out in a stiff motion.  Her expression told Brisa that she had a lot to learn, but was going to learn something soon.

Vangie pointed to a chair behind the desk and motioned Brisa out of the way.  In a quick throwing action she sent a ghostly blue pencil speeding into the chair.  The ghostly item stuck there a few seconds.  When it would have fallen out of place, it disappeared instead.  Brisa watched this short demonstration.  Her mouth opened slowly as she noticed that the pencil was still in Vangie’s hand.

It wasn’t a trick.  There was a definite hole in the chair where the ghost pencil had been.

Giving Brisa ample time to see what had happened, Vangie repeated the action never having let go of the pencil.  She then sent a flurry of ghost pencils with what looked like a dance of death.  By the time she was done, the chair was riddled with holes and the bright glow of dozens of ghost pencils.

As they slowly vanished Vangie added, “It works with bullets too, but I don’t use guns.”  

That could be useful.

#1Opportunity #39 Opportunity #41

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #038

There was no known land route to Bear Gate; or air route actually.  Pilots would waste an entire evenings searching for the city with no sign.  There were however, widespread rumors of it being somewhere south of West Drop.  No one knew exactly where.  Pictures from inside the city depicted a rustic rural place with hints of modern technology scattered about.  Regardless of the rumors, Jaquan and his companions were headed there.  At least they had every reason to believe they were.  

The tunnel they entered a half hour ago was marked to lead them there; as was the subway car they boarded.  Jaquan occasionally checked his communicator’s compass, and for the third time it stated that they were headed northwest.  Despite the discrepancy with known facts, there was nothing he could do about the travel plans now.  They were in the car and no amount of unwarranted panicking would make any difference.  Besides, he wanted to keep up appearances in front of Justice.

The subway car was much like any other only exceptionally clean, and empty.  Shiny compressed steel surfaces were highlighted with burgundy cushions.  There were windows but there was no point in looking through them.  Bright lights from the tunnel whipped passed and didn’t add anything to the trip.

The crew’s luggage was packed away in a pushable cart just on the other side of the car.  As much as Jaquan wanted to train by carrying the load, he didn’t want risk pushing himself too far so near the tournament.  The maker of their healing water was off on an adventure leaving them no hints when she’d be back.

Again, he looked at the compass hologram.   He blinked as it shifted slightly, pointing their direction more northward.  Instead of revealing a worried face, Jaquan looked up and heard Justice talk about the tournament’s specifics.  Justice made certain to stress that Jaquan should be especially careful not to lose any of the opening rounds.

“Why not?”

Liana slapped her face in frustration, “Listen for a bit will you,” she pleaded, “This is a coin based tournament.”

Jaquan’s confused face told Liana and Justice that Jaquan’s mind had been elsewhere for the last fifteen minutes.  So after a deep inhale and purposeful exhale, Justice started again.  “A coin based tournament is like this.”  He thought for a bit to put things in terms that Jaquan could understand.  “At the beginning of the tournament, all the fighters have two coins credited to an account,” he paused again to make sure he was saying everything correctly and that Jaquan was following, “At the end of a fight, the winner gets a coin from the loser.  If at any point you run out of coins you’re out of the tournament.”

“So why do I have to be careful in the beginning?” Jaquan asked.  The thought of losing was never a good one.  To go through so much to acheive nothing was such a waste of time, money, and effort.  He wanted to avoid it at all cost.  

“Oh.  I forgot,” Justice corrected himself, “on the third round, the bank takes a coin from everyone still in the tournament.  They keep doing that every other round until only one player remains.”

“Oh!” Jaquan realized the severity now, “That changes everything.”

“So,” Liana chimed in to conclude the original point, “He was saying that if you don’t maintain a winning record during the first four matches, you’re done.  Even a tied record causes elimination.”

“The chumps and wanna-bes are eliminated early.”  This was truly going to be a challenge.  In a tournament such as this, everyone will be on top of their game.  Everyone will be looking for an edge on whoever they fight.  “So who am I fighting first?”

Justice leaned back in his chair, covered his face with his hands and purposefully exhaled again, “I have no idea.”

#1Opportunity #37 – Opportunity #39

 

Champions of Battle: The Very Best – Opportunity #036

West Drop:  Kinetic-Potential Talent School

The Kinetic-Potential school’s talents were incredible fun.  The ability to move things in unexpected ways challenged Brisa’s mind and was visually appealing.  Often times, the simplest of effects repeated several times over made the most beautiful of patterns.

Currently, Brisa was practicing a particularly challenging and visually beautiful feet using simple pencils.  Arm stretched, she sweet bullets as dozens, almost hundreds of pencils hovered, rotated and flipped slowly.  Together, they made something that looked like a giant spinning wooden bagel.  Occasionally parts of the large form turned pink as the untouching pencils’ erasers came into view.

Vangie Ren, her instructor, stood near matching Brisa’s pose.  She had lavender skin.  Her plain clothes revealed her yellow and eggshell splotches of color that formed vertically along her arms.  Her face was of average beauty but was calm and focused as she glanced over to see Brisa’s hand shaking.  Seeing that Brisa was struggling with the simple task, she decided to end the lesson.  

All at once, the pencils moved as one back into their respective boxes on the shelf, all except five.  Brisa focused on her pencils half a second longer before realizing the lesson was over.  At this realization, her pencils fell to the table.  As they hit, they joined their kind on the trip to the pencil boxes.

“You did well for your first lesson,” Vangie said smiling.

Brisa looked immediately at the colored highlights in Vangie’s black hair.  It took less than half a minute for Brisa to realize that those portions of Vangie’s hair were enchanted.  They changed colors with Vangie’s mood and brightened greatly when she lied.  Right now the deep dark indigo shade told her that although Vangie was quite disappointed, she wasn’t lying.  “Thank you Instructor,” she replied.

Vangie nodded in response.  “I told you before, Vangie is just fine,” she said as her hair brightened to a slightly less deep shade of indigo.  “It’s getting late,” Vangie resumed, “You should stay the night here with us.”

Brisa’s perception enchant shown its brilliant glow again.  The near miss earlier that day was still getting to her, if that’s what it was.  This city was quite dangerous, but the wall of thoughts and prick of warning didn’t hit her this time.  

Brisa sighed, eased by the slight comfort, “How much are the rooms?”

“Not that much,” Vangie giggled, “You get a discount for being a student.  You get even more of a discount if you choose to learn more from us.”

Brisa looked to check her banknotes as the two walked to the front desk.  From the little traveling she did, she knew that term “not that much” translated differently between a seller and a buyer.

The two ladies returned to the front of the crazy building where the prices for a night’s rest were proudly displayed.  They caused Brisa some concern.  

The discounts were nice but with all the training she had already done that day, she was starting to run low on funds.  Brisa may not be able to pay for her trip to Bear Gate!  However, she’ll need that money later and this was now.  Right now, she needed to rest and this was the best place she could think of.

Brisa resigned to what was happening now, “Kay, I’ll take the room.”

#1Opportunity #35