Veteran Bracket R2: Bloodrose vs. Zerith

[Tainted Bushido]

This match begins Friday 9/4/2009 at 12:00 AM and will end on 9/19/2009 at 12:00 AM.

Best Wishes.

[Bloodrose]

"Tournament?" Teric asked the monk indignantly as they strode out the front door of the Pagoda and turned left towards the Grandmaster's arena. "You go ahead and enter me in a tournament, and you don't think to tell me?"

The mercenary felt justified in his anger, his displeasure stamped onto his bearded face in the form of a vicious scowl. Apparently, without his prior knowledge, the monk-like staff of the Pagoda had felt it appropriate to enter his name into some event known as the Magus Cup - a one vs. one ladder tournament where the winner of each fight advanced towards the championship. Normally, had he been informed of the decision, the veteran fighter might have been more than happy to participate. In fact, if he'd been told about the Magus Cup, the veteran would have likely entered himself without prompt from the monks that watched over his tenuous reign as Grandmaster.

Only Teric hadn't been informed of the decision. He hadn't found out about the tournament until his first opponent arrived on his doorstep towing a wagon of nightmares along behind him...

"W-w-ell..." The monk stammered, his sweaty palms lifting the hem of his robe as he tried to keep up with the quick stepping mercenary. Shorter by a few inches, and heavier by about forty pounds, the tonsured man was finding that to be no easy task. "We just assumed..."

"Assumed what?" Teric interrupted. "Assumed I'd figure it out on my own when some random stranger showed up looking to pick a fight?"

"N-no," the monk was finding it difficult to get a word in edgewise, "we just assumed that you were aware of all the perks associated with your position. We thought it was common knowledge that Pagoda Grandmasters are entered into important combat-sport events like the Magus Cup. It is done on your own behalf, so that you may showcase what the Grandmaster's have to offer those wishing to test their skills in our arenas..."

"Well that's very kind of you and all, but I don't need to showcase my sword arm for anyone." Teric spat. They were rapidly closing on the open gate to his personal battlefield outside the magical influences of the Pagoda's walls. Beneath their feet the short, manicured grass of the temple lawns was giving way to the hard packed dirt that not only moated the ring palisade wall, but also made up the arena floor. The only noise that could be heard, between the two men talking, was the rapid beat of their feet on the ground; Teric's clear, rhythmic, iron-shod footfalls a sharp contrast to the hurried, scuffing footsteps of the monk struggling to keep pace. "If I'm going to compete in this tournament, I'm going to do so for my own benefit - not to serve as some advertising tool for this blasted place."

Teric jerked a thumb over his shoulder to indicate the looming tower behind him, his disdain for Scara Brae's only combat institution growing steadily by the day. As they reached the gate, Teric strode inside without pause. The monk came to a stop just inside the palisade walls, leaning a weary hand against the timber door that swung shut and locked when two combatants were in the middle of a fight. Taking note of the Grandmaster and the monk at the door, several other tonsured, brown-robed men who had been milling around the arena sweeping the hard dirt floor packed up their brooms and made briskly for the exit. It took the last man, a portly gentleman in his mid-fifties, almost a minute to walk across the eighty foot diameter of the dirt circle and exit via the gate.

"Would you... like us to... inform you... when your next opponent... arrives?" The monk who'd followed Teric from the Pagoda asked between labored breaths.

"Get lost." Teric dismissed the man without the slightest hint of courtesy. "My last opponent had no trouble finding me on his own. I'm sure the next will be just as successful."

[Tainted Bushido]

Bloodrose advances.