Battle OF Grammar: Word Fu!

Chapter 3 - Grammar Admission Matches

“Yeah! The next match is about to begin! I’m looking forwards to this one. The Demi-Human chick who won the last round was on fire! Her fighting style is so lit!”

“Damn right it is!”

“Right! Right! She is the best of Block-C!”

Many spectators who were gathered around the arena anticipated the match that was about to take place on the centre stage of Block-C. Dam Son was among the forefront of the participating audience who surrounded the stage.

“From here I will get to see what a battle between Words Masters is like. Papyrus make sure that you record everything okay.”

“Yes, you told me before. I’ve already started recording, though I’m not sure as to how much footage I can store.”  Papyrus had a reflective page taking stock of the environmental proceedings, mostly the impactful events.

“Applicant-562, Lonely Pussycat and Applicant-600, Cinder Burn! Please come up on stage!” The referee of Block-C called for the next participants to come up.

From opposing ends, two young women walked onto the stage. Both of them were Word Augmenters. The crowd was mostly cheering for the Demi-Human in the right corner. She had a mini gourd growing from the posterior of her stylish tresses accompanied by a sheathed weapon at her waist. Most of her catching features emphasized the creative aspects of her character, such as her branchy horns, pair of leafy wings close to her rear, wooden left arm, moreover, her alluring emerald eyes.  

As for the opponent she was facing, that lady was also a Demi-Human based on a cat. Her eyes were as sharp as her protruding claws. Around her arms and legs were a pair of augmented gauntlets and foot armour respectively.

“The rules are still the same. Either force your opponent to submit or knock them out of the boundary. Are you both ready?” The referee pointed at both participants on stage who responded to his enquiry by nodding. “Then… Begin!” The moment the referee slashed his hand downwards, he vanished his presence off stage.

“Alright here we go.” Dam Son paid close attention to the ongoing match, hoping that he would learn a few things.

“Meow! Get ready sapling! I’m going to pound your branches to pieces!” The cat-based Demi-Human was the first to issue an attack. An Augmented Script manifested out of her Papyrus that integrated into her legs. “Speed x3!”

‘Whoosh!’

Lonely Pussycat became almost phantasmal. With insane velocity, she zipped around Cinder Burn while unleashing a barrage of illusionary claws that dashed out of her gauntlets.

Finished sizing up her opponent, Cinder Burn smirked arrogantly then whispered to herself, “Childs play.” She evaded all of the dreadful claws coming her way with ease and fluidity. After escaping to a safe distance on stage, Cinder Burn commenced the unsheathing of her Augmented Weapon poised at her side.

“Show yourself, Whip of Numbers!” What Cinder Burn withdrew from her waist was a versatile weapon that could undertake the shape of a whip or a rigid blade. This was due to its intricate design of having numbers forming its sharpness, mostly out of zeroes.

“Oh! There it is! She unleashed her Augmented Weapon! Hers is one of a kind that utilized Numerical Scripts instead of letters. It’s not easy to maintain a rare weapon such as hers.”

“Her weapon must have been crafted by an excellent Wordsmith. No basic Word Master could produce such a masterpiece. She’s probably a scion of a renowned Demi-Human clan.”

“That weapon is what she used to dominate her previous opponents! Using only a single strike!”

“Will she win another flawless victory?” The crowd was going insane over Cinder Burn's unveiling of her apex Augmented Weapon. This pissed off Lonely Pussycat even more.

“Meow! Don’t think that I will be easy prey, grass lady!” Lonely Pussycat tried to rile Cinder Burn with her insults as she rushed at her. However, her taunts fell on unresponsive ears. “Keep quiet then! Your silence won’t change the outcome! Papyrus, load my most powerful basic level scripts.”

Two semi-transparent pages, displaying similar complex graphs entered Lonely Pussycat’s gauntlets. Seconds later, she tossed out double punches at Cinder Burn which manifested two gigantic tigresses. “Tear her to pieces, Dual Tigress Assault!”

‘Boom!’

The atmosphere started producing bombastic vibrations as it was being assaulted by Lonely Pussycat’s horrifying attacks.

Perceiving the incoming threat, Cinder Burn stayed idle no more. “Unleash, Whip of Numbers! Zero Form, Whirlwind!” Cinder Burn’s Augmented Weapon lashed out with a frightening twirl of emerald zeroes. Their intertwining coagulation manifested impacting winds that blew apart the Dual Tigress Assault along with Lonely Pussycat’s character.

“Impossible! How can a carnivore be overpowered by dirty grass!” Lonely Pussycat crashed into the solid floor off stage, losing the battle miserably. She only served to boost Cinder Burn’s growing ego.

“We have a winner!” The referee overseeing the match came on stage to highlight Cinder Burn as the winner.  “Applicant-600 wins! She need only one more victory to get accepted into Raixom Academy! For all of you other challengers out there seeking enrolment, you better put forth your A-game. They are many participants today who are quite competent. Next challengers, please come up! Applicant-607 and Applicant-589!”

The referee called the next participants to Block-C’s stage. While they were going up, Dam Son stared at Cinder Burn who was coming off stage. Their eyes accidentally met for a brief moment. “She’s so awesome.”

Papyrus came along and rubbed its folds over Dam Son’s ear. “That Demi-Human has a lot more hidden cards than what she showed thus far. That mysterious gourd on her back hasn’t been utilized once during her previous matches.”

“I wonder what she has stored in there.”

“Now that you’ve mentioned that, newborn. I wonder what’s inside that sapphire suitcase that you carry around everywhere. By the imprinting trails left on the ground, it seems rather heavy.”

Hearing Papyrus's question prompted Dam Son to ask, “Even though you’ve assimilated with me before you don’t know about this suitcase?”

“If I knew I wouldn’t be asking, genius. I’m not an all-knowing entity and just because I’ve uploaded some information directly into your consciousness doesn’t mean that I know all of your dark secrets.”

“But you found out my race without me telling you, even my Vocabulary Pack’s attributes.”

“Those were procedural data that all Guides are programmed to access from their masters since such information is required for us to aid their quests. Other private information is inaccessible to me unless you give me special privileges. This failsafe was implanted just in case we got hijacked by foreign entities. That is unlikely to happen to me though. My encryption has already been upgraded to the peak by my previous owner.”

“I see, then can you tell me about your previous owner?” Dam Son wanted to know if he shared a secret with Papyrus would it expose it to others if he perished or switch owners.

“I’m sorry, my previous owner implanted a certain restriction which prevents me from divulging his privacy at this time. You are free to access his items though.”

“Wait, you mentioned ‘at this time’ then does that mean that there will come a time when I will be granted access? Something doesn’t add up.”

Papyrus realized that Dam Son was smarter than he looked, hence it tried to deviate from answering the question by saying, “Focus on your upcoming match, newborn. I will tell you all about that unnecessary stuff later.”

“Oh.” Dam Son gave his attention back to the match that had already started on stage.