Chase prepared himself as he would any battle, loading his brand new armor onto his body.
The pauldrons of his new shoulder plates gently pressing into his shoulders with a hint of viable protection radiating into his muscles.
"Sorry bout earlier." Equan mentioned casually, although he was clearly not regretting the hype up he had given the other fighters and workers within the arena.
Chase frowned. "It's whatever... But you do know that I'm not a Paladin right? Now rumors are gonna spread and we might actually end up fighting a Paladin because of that..." Chase grimaced at the words, and he was sure Equan felt a similar dread.
"Come on man, don't be a Debby downer..." Equan mumbled, turning towards Chase and revealing his new armor.
An indigo styled alloy of light armor of a very high quality, very similar to his last set, but this set sort of resembled Luke's armor quite a bit more than the last, with cloths hanging from his waist and shoulder.
Equan tilted his head at Chase.
"Woah dude..." He rubbed his eyes before lowering his mask from the top of his head.
"What?" Chase asked, before glancing down at his overly bright armor, not contrasting well with his onyx mask.
"Looks good!" Equan gave him a thumbs up before taking a wooden pole engraved with runic markings, and snapping it forward, watching with pride as the pole collapsed into his bow.
Chase was taken aback.
"Since when the hell did it do that?" Chase questioned, impressed by Equan's new battle tactic; however, all audio began to cut out as a voice began to whisper in his ear.
'I'd stray from using any magic in this fight...' Luna mumbled into his head with the telepathic abilities most gods seemed to possess.
'I get it.' Chase responded internally, remembering just how bad his magic caused the corruption to flare up, and he didn't want to make Luna's job any harder than it already was.
Then a loud horn resounded through the small room that Equan and Chase had spent their time preparing for the fight within.
"I'm kinda nervy!" Equan jumped up and down while shaking his arms violently, as he chuckled. And at the very same time, the stone wall in front of them began to lift upward with a quake.
"No you're not..." Chase grumbled, feeling a grin creep onto his face.
As the door lifted... Chants began to fill the arena...
'Finally...' Chase thought...
'Something I'm used too...' He flashed his teeth behind his mask with a bright grin.
The vivid memories of his time at Phoenix Academy flooded his mind, as the faces of his Aetherball teammates shot through his mind.
He remembered how Chase and Equan had been praised like superstars after the championship game.
It was quite strange, how a Stray could rise to such fame in such a short amount of time.
He couldn't help but feel nostalgic as the crowd yelled chants of battle, drowning out the noise of the announcer who was declaring the opponents in that very moment.
Chase and Equan stepped out of the room and onto the battlefield, cheers and chants growing twice as loud as they walked side by side.
On the other side of the arena... Chase almost choked on air, as the ram skull underwear guy from the coliseum line before stood with his axe in hand.
"Diff him..." Equan muttered his breath with increasing joy.
"What does that even mean?" Chase responded, causing Equan to frown behind his mask and roll his shoulders back.
Then Chase seemed to understand what he was saying as he spotted the other opponent... An archer donned in full golden armor that looked far too heavy for an archer type... And not only that, but his bow was twice the size of his body.
"You do the same..." Chase chuckled, reaching his right arm outward and extending his fingers with his palm opening.
Lunar runes began to flow through the air around his palm, turning from a bright blue: Into a crimson hue.
Then... Summoning out of thin air and sigils... Apocalypse began to form in his right hand, the weight of the greataxe instantly pressing down on his arm.
The axe hit the ground, taking Chase's upper body weight with it, taking off his balance only slightly, but even that micro movement quieted everyone in the crowd.
But Chase knew how this worked.
He forced Axis energy into his right arm, lifting the axe into the air with a hefty pull, and then spinning it in a wide circle, and stretching the blade of the axe far to his lower right, with the blade gently hovering above the ground.
"BEGIN!" With the yell of the announcer, the crowd grew three times as loud as before.
Then Chase vanished...
He watched as the world around him passed by in a picturesque show, his body soaring through the air, and heading straight towards the ram guy like that of a homing missile.
He reeled his right arm back, letting the weight of the axe push gently down on the left side of his hand...
Then with a mighty swing, the blunt side of his axe crashed into the chest of the ram guy, launching him backwards and straight into the arena's wall...
BOOM!