[open]Tricolour Exhibition, To Spectators

[Zaxton Books]

The Tricolour Knights were one, or, I suppose three of the more noteworthy combatants from Baron. Formerly co-headmasters of the Lyceum, the prestigious combat school, they now mostly tended to their own affairs.

Of course, when hospitality and entertainment magnate Locke LeCruset offered the three of them each an appearance fee of seven-hundred fifty thousand gil to perform a once-only exhibition fee, it was easy to draw the Cerulean Knight from her travels, the Saffron Knight from his studies, and the Crimson Knight from his meditations.

Surely it would draw a decent crowd.



Malvolio Coultier, the Saffron Knight, conjured a great aura of fire around himself, before condensing it and firing it along toward his enemy."Servitor Klenin Melenko FIRAGA!"
"EARTHEN STRIKE!", a rare battle-cry from his elder sister, Alexis, was proceeded by an impressive backflip, and followed by a wave of the earth.

In the vergence of the two attacks, the red-cloaked figure shifted his stance, sliding backward about ten feet. The fire and the earth collided, obliterating each other in a shower of soot that did not manage to darken Edward's pale skin.

"Come on, Eddy!"
"Where's your passion?"
Edward blocked his brother's saber, deflecting his sister's much larger sword with a sideways kick. "... You're looking at it."

His voice, etherally calm, none the less carried as well as any of their shouts.

[Eddy]

"Me cago en la madre...." Was all the viera could say. Granted, he arrived in time to watch the last bits of their sparring, and from a considerable distance. He was shirtless, and laying on the soft soil a metal with his gunblade propped up on a stand, watching from the primitive scope. A plaque that was stuck on his back glimmered with the sun, almost as if it were absorbing the heat from it.
"I don't think shooting them all off would work. As soon as I fire the first bullet I'm dead." He didn't remember when was the last time he saw the Coultier's spar, but in his head he argued it must've been some twenty years ago....or so, maybe less. Why keep track of things like these when you're doomed to live forever? Still, why risk being overwhelmed by three of the most dangerous warriors in Gaea? The money was good, really good, but he took this contract out of personal loathe. Their elders hunted down his father, and one of the younger ruined his life completely when he was but a young incubus.

"You're hanging around with mortals too much, Flare" He told himself whils he aimed at one of the three siblings, realizing that it didn't really matter much if they'd killed him, he'd just revive somehow and kill off another one right back. For now, he just aimed at the target that would please him the most, a personal grudge he'd hold for years. **** the money, He wanted to see her bleed.

The .44 caliber bullet flew right out of the rifle's barrel, piercing any obstacle with relative ease, and probably reaching his target before the thunderous growl of his weapon filled the air....The viera caught himself thinking that he'd rather her target were still "pink", it would've been easier to shoot her pretty little head right off.


Then he noticed the small whisp of dust when the bullet whizzed its way to the ground. "Me cago en la Puta Madre!" His rifle had failed him, that or he was too eager for the orgasmic pleasure of the kill and didn't take the time to calibrate it propperly. Either way, he was already on his feet, drawing a glistening, golden sword from its shealth. With the grace and agility of those from his race, the viera sought to get the **** out of there ASAP

[Zaxton Books]

The three fighters stopped at once but for Alexis and Malvolio, it was not so much because they had noticed the bullet, but because Edward was quite suddenly running toward an arbitrary-seeming point at the edge of the ring. Alexis looked down, and saw the bullet, giving chase afterward.

"Hey, Eddy, save some for me."
Edward made a noncomittal sound and slashed the air, cutting open a portal through which he could easily step through and head off the other.

"Leaving so soon?"

[Eddy]

Flare opened his mouth as to say something, but instead a short breathfull of white fire spat from his throat straight towards Edward's face.

"No, just drawing you out" He said, taking the moment's distraction to get into stance, that of a courching dragon ready to spring towards his prey

[Zaxton Books]

Edward gestured with his arm such that, for the briefest of moments, his cape floated past his face, absorbing, rather harmlessly, the impact of the white flames. "Ah, me. But I was quite in the open already."

He flourished the sword, adopting a relaxed state. "... Should I give you an autograph...?"

[Eddy]

"Oh, but you know me, Eddie. I need my space to turn into something big enough to eat you!" Flare just wasn't going to attack just yet. He had already built a strategy to fight his opponent, and it involved all three of them being there.

But hell, he was getting bored "You could always save me the trouble, though. You Coultiers have racked an impressive list of enemies since we last talked, and it's going to be such a pain to butcher you guys for proof." Flare lowered his stance, and took a couple of steps back. Only one thing would work to my advantage here, and it's that he's going to think that he knows all of my moves, which is probably true at this point. So he'll be expecting me to try something completely new, and that's not going to work at all.... Only one way to do this....
He started hurled his Excalibur II towards Edward, "So be a good boy, and make my work easy" Flare started to madly sprint the short distance, leaping high enough and praying that the hurling sword would be enough of a distraction. He extended his hands forwards, which turned into huge, pearly white talons. Only one way to do this... Do something so fucking obvious that he's not going to expect it. Flare exploded into white fire, and a white dragon took his place, just inches away from the fencer, it's giant maw opened and ready to swallow Edward in one bite.

Besides, asshole, I checked, your autograph is still worth Jack Shit

[Zaxton Books]

Edward here preformed a front-flip, landing on the sword and using his momentum against it, to drive it well into the ground at about a 45-degree angle.

Oh. A dragon.

He remained poised on the pommel of the blade, holding his sword loosely and out and a slight angle. The dragon opened it's great maw, prepared to swallow him whole. Edward's grip tightened.

A creature that size, perched on an upper edge of the metrodome, was stretching the bounds of engineering. The Coultier knew it, and, presumably, the Marbel would know it as well.

He let his left foot move backward, planting it on the broad of the blade, and hooked his right foot beneath the hilt, causing the whole thing to lever around the other way, and send a large crack through the floor beneath Flare... a crack that the dragon's weight would only exaggerate, until that piece of the structure collapsed beneath him.

As Edward landed for his pseudo-carwheel, he smirked, giving a salute with his blade.

[Eddy]

The weight of the huge beast did indeed collapse the huge segment of the metrodome, and the dragon would have presumably fell with it.

However, being a dragon can be a godsent in some situations, this being one of them. The beast still stood exactly where it had been before the area bellow his collapsed. In an impossible short amount of time, the beast's huge wings swooped away any rocks that might fall on him while they unfolded, almost like giant leathery shields, and were now flapping gently. Gently, but still strong enough to create powerful gusts of wind that could of easily destroyed any normal man's balance. The cunning of Edward's strategy pissed off Flare the Dragon greatly.

This rage was manifested by another blast that came from the monster's mouth. Not fire, but pure energy, pure enough to rival the strongest non-elemental spell the craziest nature adept could pull. Flare knew this was overkill, and that if it didn't work, he was going to be seriously fucked, as the blast contained all of his energy reservation.


...But he wanted to wipe that smirk off of the Coultier's pretty, pale face.

[Zaxton Books]

Your standard adversary, Crimson Knight or not, would typically attempt to dodge an attack of such strength. However, with the wind altering his reaction times thanks to his flash but otherwise impractical cape, that was not an option for him. The wind of the wings prevented movement, and the sheer energy of the attack itself distorted the bands of magic around the crimson Knight, moving the magic further and further away.

In the instant that he had, Edward braced his left foot behind him, and folded his arms in front of his face.

As the dust cleared... he was still standing there.

"Magic... against a Crimson Knight? You really are desperate."

[Eddy]

Magic? Magic?! Since when has a mixture of sulphur and gastric acid been considered magic? The sheer fact that Flare hadn't considered that Edward could absorb the attack, or that, in a sense, it was magic, didn't cross him until it was too late. The dragon exploded, his energy reserviors depleted.

Now, at the floor of the Metrodome, a viera laid naked. "Damnit...." He was mad, and that was an understatement. "DAMNIT, DAMNIT, DAMN IT! Why can't I Kill you?" He got up on all fours, and started to spit blood. His charred throat began to hurt him. Drops of black blood fell from his eyes, too, leaving dark trails on his face.

On a softer, more personal voice, he added "I'm still bonded. I can't die until she dies..." Flare got up and started to waddle away, hoping that the explosion was enough of a distraction for him to walk away at a slow pace.

[Zaxton Books]

Edward raised his cape across his face to protect it from the splatter of dragon offal that followed. "... Took you long enough."

A pair of armoured footsteps behind him signaled Alexis' belated arrival. "Was it...?"
"Yes. And we'll discuss that later. I doubt it's the last we'll see of him."

A search of the immediate area, little more than a visible scan, provided Edward with no information as to where the man could have escaped to. Reaching to his belt, he removed a small mirror, holding it in his palm so that an image of his brother formed, standing on its surface.

"... What is it, Ed?"
"Inform the producers that the rest of today's show is cancelled."
"... If we do that, we don't get paid for today."
"There are more important things on Gaea than currency, Mallow. If they ask about tomorrow, tell them we'll get back to them."
"... You got it."

[Eddy]

People were starting to stare, and that made Flare very uncomfortable. However, this vulnerability gave him a chance to get some clothes and replenish his energy. He just had to walk into this alleway and surely enough someone would try to rob him of his dignity or something...



Ten minutes later, the only thing that was left in the alleyway was a corpse with the entire upper half missing, clearly eaten away. Flare walked out, reinvigorated and wearing clothes that were both too baggy but too short for him. He ripped open his new shirt, letting the sunlight hit his exposed body.

[Zaxton Books]

"Knights Advance!"

A small detachment of mounted cavalry, lead by Edward himself riding on an albino chocobo, moved out of the Metrodome, advancing as Edward's Lieutenant, Francis De La Croix, road beside him with the standard; a red banner with a silver shield and two crossed blades. Edward's voice boomed over the footfalls of the bird-mounts.

"The Aerodrome!"
"Kurah!" Came the ritual reply.

Behind them, a pair of riders; Alexis and Malvolio. At the first fork in the road, Malvolio departed, heading in another direction.

[Eddy]

Flare got into a bar right next to where this was happening, sipping on a beer as the huge number of knights moved on. "Sometimes I wondered why I let Ed train all of those damn knights for them..."

He winked at the barmaid, giving her enough of a big dose of glamour as to get a free refil of beer. "...Other than the money, duh..."

Once all the knights were a safe (not far) distance awway from the stablishment, Flare finally went out. Sure, he wasn't stupid enough to take them out, for he was unnarmed.