Dirlu stretched the collar of her blouse and fanned herself as if she had gotten out of  a sawna as she sat down next to her servant. "For goodness sake, Eimy. How can you stand that stench?" Dirlu asked.
"Well, I've grown accostumed to it," Eimy replied nonchalantly. "Since I have worked in a lot of unsanitary places, and I've smelled odors far warse than the stink bomb of bloody pads and gas. What that restroom needs is bleach and a change of plastic bags, whoever is cleaning it should lay off the air freshener."
"I should contact you to fill in for Renzo at the pub." Ximo offered, "He's been flaking out lately and he's not cleaning the bathrooms as much as he used to."
"If I wasn't working full-time at the D'or Manor, I'd be happy to take the job." Eimy admitted before Uiwo stood from his to seat to go buy lunch at the bottom floor, his short yet bulky frame walking out of the rows of seated strangers.

"Don't you hate it when you're enjoying the flight when out of nowhere, a fly gets squashed in your face while flying." Alexandra mentioned.
"Ugh, I know. One time I was flying on my way to the mountains of Phoenicia when a fly got into my eye. I freaked out like crazy and I had to make a quick landing to find a spring. I thought it was going to get infected. If you look closer to my left eye, it looks bloodshot, but it actually had pus when the fly got squashed." The light yellowing of Phixa's eye was not noticeable at first glance, but when Alexandra got closer she noticed little flecks on the hybrid Phoenix's eye. Come to think of it, Phixa's light red eyes nicely complemented Alexandra's olive green eyes in the reflection of her cornea.
"You should get some eye salve. My mom used to take Toni to the optometrist because she used to get conjunctivitis when we were kids." She remembered how Toni wore her glasses from time to time when she was focused on her writing.
"I did, I know a Phoenix that makes eye salves at the Lacrymosa river." Phixa blinked, as if she unknowingly broke a trance.
"The Lacrymosa river is not made of actual tears, is it?" Alexandra asked while Phixa shook her head. "Anyway, the other pet peeve I have about flying is my hair getting in the way like, I like the feeling of the wind blowing my hair, but not when it gets on my face."
"I know! That's why I like to keep my hair short." Phixa's brown hair had orange tips that hovered above her shoulders.

Stella walked into the room as she looked at the new competitors whom she hadn't seen before. She saw Shadow talking to an Asian contestant while they tried to kill time as she watched her throw the die. Stella looked at her wrist. An EMCuff. Is she a criminal? Stella thought to herself as she looked at the model from afar, judging by its shape and size it seemed to be fabricated in the mid 2030s based by its simple design equipped with nanotechnology. Shadow rolled a die. The die showed: 4. Then Shadow picked up the puny die with her sharp sickle like claw and scopped it before she handed it to Haeji. Then Haeji rolled the die, the die showed 3.
"So we should flip a coin, whoever gets Tails gets candy!" Hwa Hae Ji suggested before the Indoraptor nodded in agrrement.
"Sure!" Shadow flipped a coin. The coin showed: Tails.
"Oh, I guess you get the first one!" The Daoitu thief took the piece candy out of her pocket, grape flavor.
"Let's do it again." Shadow opened up the candy wrapper with a twist of her claw while Stella walked past them.
"My turn." Haeji flipped a coin. The coin showed: Tails. "YESSS."
"You get it!" Shadow congratulated her before swallowing the candy in one bite.
Haeji opened the butterscotch flavored candy and ate it. "That was good!"

Astrid walked out to look for the restroom, while she walked down the hall. Alexander had past by the restroom and decided to call her through the Hologlyphic watch. When she sat at the toilet she received an incoming call from her boyfriend. Should I answer him? Astrid thought about it before accepting to respond. "Hi babe!" She responded.
"Astrid, where are you?" He asked as he looked by the halls.
"I'm a little occupied at the moment." She sat on the porcelain throne as she did one of her biological needs, mostly emptying her bladder.
"Did the match start?" He asked, frantically looking for her.
"No, I'm in the restroom." Astrid scrunched her face.
"Sorry for interrupting." Alexander blushed as he scratched his head as his blue eye darted by a vending machine.
"It's fine. I'm almost done anyway." Astrid responded while she wrapped the toilet paper around her hand.
"Which floor are you on?" He asked as his blue eyes darted around.
"I'm on the first floor. I'll be out in a jiffy." Astrid answered before she hung up. Alexander made a U turn as he passed by Glen.

Stella had spotted Faim as he sat next to a blonde teenage girl. "Hi, Faim."
"Hey Stella, you ready for a one on one?" The blonde martial artist stood up from his seat warming up for a spar.
"Sure, that is if we get to fight each other. Are we going to fight using weapons or it's just old-fashioned fisticuffs?" Stella asked.
"I usually fight unarmed, though I read at the pamphlet that you can use weapons as long as there is no magic involved." Faim replied.
"So you're in the Melee Division too? That's great! I could use a sparring partner for a warm up." Stella took a couple of steps back before taking a fighting stance.
"You read my mind." Faim took a fighting stance before Yin came in and got in the way before the two could get a chance to practice bringing another competitor along. A tall elf with raven hair, light skin and cobalt blue eyes glanced at the other combatants before he directed his gaze at the Yamitzu master.
"Thank you, elder." Ryo expressed his gratitude with a bow.
"Think nothing of it, young man." Master Yin replied, unaware that the elf was a lot older than he appeared to be.

Annabell and Scale brought Herring, Ratu and Violet to see the other competitors. "This is where we're staying until the match starts." The human evolution stated while the reptilian looked at the new competitors, an elf and a grey-skinned woman. In his infra-red vision, she had a vibrant hue, not as radiant as the Phoenix hybrid, the Angel or the Hue-Mans, but there was some different about her. In his normal vision, she looked beautiful.
"This is great, I can't wait to find out who will be my opponent." Herring started. Ratu spotted Shadow and Hwa Hae Ji flip a coin for candy. The little runt wanted to play to win. If that failed, he would steal the candy. Violet simply looked for a place to sit.
"Me too." Annabell agreed while Scale was gawked at her, without realizing that Annabell was talking to Scale.
"Scale. Scale! You-hoo! Isaeria to Scale." Annabell waved his hand in front of him before the reptilian snapped out of his reverie.
"What?" Scale asked her.
"You zoned out there for a sec. You ok?" Annabell looked at him.
"I'm ok." Though his scaly green skin was sweating a little bit of slime. The human evolution looked at where Scale was looking at and spotted two girls.
"Oh... so you have a crush on someone are you?" Annabell grinned darkly.
"No!" Scale denied it, but it was obvious that he liked her. Annabell teased him for it, to think that someone that was over a thousand years of age would resort to something as childish as teasing.

"You can go scavenging for illegal Rave parts while I take a break and enjoy the show." Octavia took her coffee and walked out, leaving Logan to his own devices. Uiwo stood in line to order just as Octavia past by him.

"I'm hungry." Mewmi whined. "Is a good I packed food inside my satchel." Eimy stated.
"Yay! Food! Gimme gimme gimme." Mewmi opened the zipper of the satchel before Eimy swatted her hand away.
"No! This is for Faim. He gets hungry after fighting." Eimy glared at the gijinko.
"No fair!" Mewmi whined before she shapeshifted unto her cat form as she meowed, begging for food.
"The answer is still no." Eimy barred her teeth.
"Eimy, can you get me some egg salad with baked potatoes and hot coffee? I'm kind of famished." Dirlu requested as she passed a roll of 1,200ğ.
"Sure thing." Eimy takes the money and takes her satchel with her.
"No fair! Buy me something to eat!" Mewmi whined in her cat form.

"Master Yin, do you have any news yet?" Faim asked, but the Yamitzu master shook his head as a response. Ryo looked at the other competitors, Herring was not far as he approached the elf, mesmerized by the large sword that was on Ryo's scabbard.
"That's a fancy sword you got there, what's it made of?" Herring asked wit genuine interest.
"What you see here is a Spellblade, it's a special sword forged by elven blacksmiths. I imbue spells into his sword." Ryo replied as he took out his sword with a radiant smile on his face.
"So you are saying that you can cast spells with a slash of your sword." Herring implied.
"Correct." Ryo raised the Spellblade.
"But you didn't answer my question. What metal was used to forge it?" Herring asked.
"It's made out of a special metal that can absorb magical properties, only the elven blacksmiths know the name of the metal." Ryo explained.
"Oh, it makes sense. Reminds me of an old folktale about a sword that was forged by a coppersmith who found a magic ore and used it to forge a sword for his beloved who was destined to rule a nation, though the fabled blade only acknowledged her and her bloodline worthy of wielding it. The fable was called the Sanguine Sword or the Blood Blade, I won't bore you with the details." Herring scratched his chin at the name of the folktale.

Ratu watched as the Indoraptor and the Daoitu thief chewed on their candy. "Can I play?" He asked while her heterochromic eyes landed on him.
"Sure." She answered just as Ratu swiped the coin in a blink of an eye.
"Tails!" With a flick of his thumb, he flipped the coin in the air and caught it when the coin was in arms reach before he put the coin on the back of his hand. His hopeful expression immesiately changed into disappointment. "Heads." He frowned.
"Wanna try again? The Indoraptor asked.
"No thanks." Ratu declined the offer as he returned the coin to the owner before he walked away, holding a piece of candy that he stole from Hwa Hae Ji's pocket while he unwrapped the strawberry wrapper and chewed on the piece of candy. Like stealing candy from a babe. Ratu thought as he smirked.

Astrid got out of the restroom and saw Alexander there before he came in to give her a warm embrace. "I finally found you." Astrid reciprocated the embrace before he looked at her with his blue eyes. "We gotta meet the others at the rendezvous point." Alexander told her.
"Now? The match will start in any minute." Astrid countered.
"It'll be quick, we meet up at the checkpoint with the others and then you can go back just in time for the fight." Alexander coaxed her.
"Fine, where are we regrouping?" She asked him.
"Follow me." Alexander took her by the hand.

"And this is where you'll be waiting until the match begins." Patricia said as she gestured to the room while Chris and Sora entered. "Enjoy your stay." Patricia added before she exited the room.

The Izarian farm girl sat near the Hue-Man with aubergine colored attire, and the blonde teenager. In the corner of her eye, Stella spotted an imooverished girl with brown shaggy hair and worn out rags along with rusted shackles that had broken links on her wrists and ankles. "I'm gonna go play with Haeji." The shaggy haired hair chirped while the human teenager brushed her brown hair to the side with his fingertips.
"Sure, have fun." He gave his approval just as she ran uo to Shadow and to the young Asian teen whom Stella assumed to be Haeji. "Breloq, don't you think is odd that the match hasn't started yet?" Stella heard as looked at the teenager and a tall wind up doll with beady eyes, a zipper that reached to both of ends of his jaw, and pointed metal legs.
"Perhaps time works differently here." Breloq shrugged.
"That does make sense… I think," Ryan said tilting his head.
Haeji walked up to Ryan. "Hey Ryan, what's happening?" She looked up to Breloq. "So where's my book?"
Breloq pinches the corner of the book from the back of his pant pocket and pulls it out. He unzips his mouth and speaks, "Oh, was it not a present?" Ryan slaps Breloq's metal calf, making a slight ring.
"Honestly, I don't have a clue," states Ryan. "I was pretty much dragged into this… mostly by Breloq. He kinda just signed us up for the fight without our discussion. He has something in mind but he won't talk." Stella heard them, now that she was looking at the human and the tall deity. It reminded her of the description Hexice gave her. A human, a 10 feet wind-up doll and a poverty stricken child.
"So I guess the battles aren't happening yet, so you wanna start a fire or spar?" Haeji asked him.
"Ugh," He groaned. "I'd rather do neither. The last fight I had was with fire that almost consumed the entire world. My world at that…" And that statement confirmed Stella's suspicion.

Stella stood up and went approached them. "Excuse me, I don't mean to interrupt but do any of you know of a 7ft tall man, with a spade eye and a diamond eye. He was looking for you." Stella asked them.

Breloq takes a step back as he hears the description of a '7 ft tall deity'. He groans, "That white snake somehow slithered himself into this place." He rubs his forehead thinking of what to do. Speaking to Stella, "Well, if you do meet him again, don't tell him where I am. I prefer not to be around him."
"What a bummer. He was really kind enough to give me a card reading too. Oh well." Stella took out my phone to erase the note since she already found them.

"BRELOQ!" Hexice hollered as he was walking near backstage, as he pivoted to the side, he saw a door that had a small opening. Not wanting to wait, he opened it as he found to be a dimly lit dressing room. The deity took a couple of steps forward as he found a mirror, and a man with a glossy complexion. Breloq looked at the mirror and the deity's porcelain skin looked immaculate, to this Hexice let out a smile, his white teeth letting out a shine of its own. Mirror looked at the 7ft deity and moved from his seat.
"Do you mind? I'm getting ready." Mirror spoke, something that he didn't like to do much despite having a smooth baritone voice that could attract women.
"You can talk!" Hexice put his hands on his cheek, feigning a gasp.
"Very funny." Mirror signed, though his face and body language showed annoyance. The creases of his translucent eyebrows furrowed.
"Thank you, I aim to please." Hexice replied using American Sign Language before translating it to Quebec Sign Language for no other reason than to rub salt in the wound or to simply spite the combatant.
"Why are you here?" Mirror signed his question, glaring at the deity.
"Just admiring the view." Hexice put his fists on his hips before he squinted at the flashy fighter, his spade eye narrowing. "Though by the looks of it, you don't look so good."
"Excuse me?" Mirror asked before Hexice took a glimpse of Mirror's future when his diamond eye opened. Hexice clicked his tongue disapprovingly before the deity arched his back.
"What a shame, your winning streak is about to run out. I'd be careful if I were you, you don't know what is going to happen next once you step in the arena." Hexice walked by the door. "Break a leg!" Hexice lifted his leg back like a naughty school girl as he said it before smiling sardonically as he creepily got out of the door. Mirror only met the stranger and he already hated him as he faintly heard the deity hollered Breloq's name in a singsong.
"Creep." Mirror signed.

Natalie, Johnathan and Eleanor entered backstage while Erica prepared the camera and Brandon, the setting. Adrian, Glen, Marie and Lizzy go to take their positions.
"Are the cameras ready?" The hostess asked, Erica gave a thumbs up as confirmation.

"I see someone entering the arena!" Ratu shouted. Herring, Faim, Annabell, Scale and Ryan took a peek at what was going on at the arena. They saw a bald man enter, followed by two women as they took their seats. Marie and Elizabeth sat on opposite side while Adrian sat at the middle. Glen already stood in the middle of the arena.

"Looks like the match is about to start." Maggie commented as the spectators focused their eyes on Glen before large screens slowly made its descent before giving a live broadcast.

"We're live at 5... 4... 3... 2..." Erica gave her the signal to go live.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to what you've all been waiting for..." Everyone looked at the screen, especially Violet.

It's her.