Battle Of The Kings

"Well, I have to say, this was a request I did not expect to receive," Zack Blaze shrugged as he stood in the empty room, "and you are sure that you did not want any special arena? Just the two of us here, in an empty Pagoda room, one on one?"

"Our last match ended quite abruptly," the answer came from the orange haired man standing before Zack. The long white cloth draped around the right shoulder of the warrior laid dormant at his side and did well to conceal any weapons on the entire half of the Mystic. "I feel I owe it to myself and to you that we have this rematch. There was also the matter of Ixian Castle, but I felt you would have denied a contest such as this anywhere but your own grounds."

"Heh, not a bad assumption, Orloogie," Zack smiled at the man who conquered Corone and scratched the back of his head, "Guess there's no fooling the great 'Silence' Sei with false pretenses and whatnot, eh? I already beat you once, and you expect me to believe you wouldn't run away once I got the upper hand again? At least this way, the whole world will believe me when I beat you here in the Three Stock. Nobody took my victory over you seriously when you disappeared on me."

"My apologies for that," Zack could see the balled up fist of the Mystic shake. Something was eating away at the leader of the Ixian Knights and it was not the juvenile taunts of the street fighter. "If this is where I must defeat you, then so be it."

Zack tapped his foot against the redwood boards and crossed his arms. "Yeah yeah, just try your best not to completely damage my Three Stock, okay? I just had the thing repaired and moved to Alerar and I know what kind of damage you can do after watching what you did to Tobias Slut. I'm a bit more cautious than that guy though. For one, I tend to not like getting my ass handed to me. So if you don't mind, how about we get this over with?"

Sei Orlouge nodded and with that, Zack Blaze darted towards the master of Castle Ixia, a fist raised in the air as if to to strike at his face.

Zack Blaze's name was synonymous with chaos thanks to his exploits in the country of Eiskalt. Because of this one man and his grab for power, thousands died from a plague and hundreds more still distrusted the Ixian Knights for their part in the country. Eiskalt was without a doubt the biggest failure of the prestegious career of the IK and by proxy their leader at the time, Kyla Orlouge. Sei hoped one day that his little girl would one day be able to fix Eiskalt, repair it to the glory it once was and help put the rightful monarchy back in power.

But there was no fight in this world that was Kyla's to bear any longer.

The Mystic hated the proper prose that he was expected to show Zack Blaze. After all, the street fighter was under Aleraran custody, a prisoner of war who was to be treated with respect and tact lest he stop supplying information about the Crimson Hand and their nefarious deeds. It left a sour taste in the mute's mouth to have to treat this man as an equal and to humor him with his delusions of their last encounter. Zack Blaze had surprised him, but the former leader of the Ixians was not going to allow such a thing to happen again.

As Blaze dashed at him Sei reached for his non-concealed weapon, a simple chakram attached to the hip of the Mystic. Normally, the strategist would allow Mystic Protection to do the dirty work for him but given that his opponent had a way to counter the glass shield, Sei was a bit reluctant to use his ace-in-the-hole. Zack dashed at the warrior with a confidence that the telepath had rarely seen in youths. The mute jumped back as the punch flew past him. Sei quickly grabbed the bladed ring at his side and swung it up to try and sever one of the hands that sent Eiskalt, the Ixian Knights, and most importantly Kyla Orlouge, through so much pain and heartache.