The Wheel Of Fate Is Turning, Rebel 1, ACTION! (Tourny R1)

Luka wasn't quite sure what to think of this event, coming all the way to Britain to then fight against his peers for the amusement of whoever was watching. Still, it had gotten him away from the various stresses of home, his last conversation with his sister still festering in his mind, his mother's distance, his own lack of any real social interactions. Sighing slightly, the small blue haired teen tried to let go of all of that, now was not the time for introspection and self doubt. Now was the time of sword and claw and whatever else took his fancy, it was the time to let everything else fade away and allow himself to show what he was capable of. Last year's sports festival had been lackluster for him, the group task hadn't really allowed him to do much and really his mind had been elsewhere. This year, he had decided it would be different, he would be different.

He would be better.

Eyes sliding partially closed, Luka began to focus his mind and body as best he could, trying to connect to the part of him that was more combatative, competitive, and... predatory. Lukas von Eisenberg was a small, effeminate looking boy, cheerful, energetic, friendly. His quirk gave him the body of a slime, often considered one of the lowest forms of monster in many RPGs. But not all slimes were the same, and Lukas' quirk was registered as 'Infernal Slime' for a reason. He was, at heart, a predator, young though he may be his quirk was not like Elise's, it was nastier, darker even, and that was something he had dealt with ever since it manifested. Today he was going to forget all the things that bothered him and instead he was going to allow his quirk driven instincts a bit of free reign, after all if he couldn't go all out against a peer then who could he go all out with? For this fight he had to cease to be Luka, and not even Lukas would suffice, it was time to put on the persona of Genesis even if he wouldn't call himself by that name here and now.

Genesis did not know much about his opponent, his inward focus during his time at U.A. meant he hadn't really interacted with too many of his peers, and he hadn't even bothered reviewing the previous year's Sports Festival. There was no point to doing so, not for him to really see what he was capable of. Instead he would have to learn and learn quickly, to make sure that he didn't end up embarassing himself out there in front of the various individuals watching what he did. If he lost, he wanted it to be a loss worthy of his abilities, but really he would rather win. With the sound of his name being called, he emerged from his waiting room to the sight of the crowd, and the ring. He couldn't help the small grin that spread across his face at the replica of Stone Henge.

"Coming in from the Blue corner, we have 2A's own philosopher, the one who has given me almost nothing to work with for an introduction, the ironically blue haired.... Lukas von Eisenberg!" the announcer declared as he stepped into the ring. With the various stones of the fake Henge between them, Genesis could not see his opponent, the angles of entry meaning that their corners were blocked from each other's view. That suited him just fine. "ALRIGHT, LET RED VS BLUE BEGIN! FIGHT!"

With the start announced, Genesis sped towards the nearest stone, his body seeming to meld with it as he took his slime form, the translucent blue gel mimicking the texture and colour of the stone as he spread his form out and around the rock, pressing himself as close to the surface as he could to hide amidst the stones of the henge. Sliding up to near the top, he clung beneath one of the top stones that formed one of the henge's many 'doorways', his every sense alert as he tried to locate his opponent and prepare himself for the fight to come. Thus hidden, he would wait for Red to come to him... for now at least.
 

Hidden as he was on one of the 'cross beam' stones, Genesis was rather surprised as his opponent darted around the henge to appear at the blue corner at inhuman speeds. The slime boy went still as soon as he noticed Red, having spread his body thinly enough over the stone that it didn't really stand out while disguised like this. Taking in his opponent, Genesis was quickly coming to the realisation that he would probably only have one chance at this, with that level of speed he was going to have a hard time pinning the other boy down, and something told Luka that he was equally outmatched in most realms with this guy. That didn't mean he was going to just give up of course, but it did mean he'd have to play careful, and play to his strengths.

He watched carefully as the other teen began looking around, obviously confused by the situation, the slime's body completely still and hidden as he waited, body alert and ready to react if need be. But besides that he was still, he was calm, he was the predator here and Red was his prey. Sure, it was a dangerous prey, but he had little choice, he needed to try to win. As Red continued to look around, Genesis extended a single tendril of slime from the main part of his body, the appendage pressing against the faux stone that he hid against and carefully, quietly, scooping out a small chunk of it. This tendril was on the opposite side of the stone from red, so the subtle movements should be impossible to notice, his ooze-like body seeping through the rock's weakpoints. Genesis watched as his prey began to move slowly, taking pot-shots at the stones of the henge with bursts of wind that gouged little holes in the stone. He ignored the other's words, knowing that to give himself away would only end in his ambush failing.

Luckily it seemed that Red was falling into that oh so common problem that belonged to most humans, the lack of consideration for three dimensional space. Each burst of wind was aimed at around person level, at least for the moment, while Genesis was quite high up on the stones, meaning he was safe from the probing attacks. Waiting for a few moments as he tried to guess Red's pattern of movement, Genesis threw the chunk of stone from an angle outside of Red's vision, the sound of it clattering off in the distance intended to draw his prey deeper into the circles of the henge. At the same time, the slime had begun burrowing through the stone as best he could, it wasn't easy by any means, but he was able to shred steel, so stone didn't stand too much of a chance against him. It was superficial, and a little slow, his body dragging the dust and chunks of stone up the tendril and depositing it on top of one of the stones he clung to as he tried his best to burrow.

Watching, waiting, Genesis would prepare as it seemed that Red was coming past the pillar of rock he had burrowed through, it wasn't a deep hole, just a few inches, but enough that it might seem like he was coming from within the stone itself. As Red walked past the stone on the opposite side of Genesis' position, the slime boy would push his slime out of the last layer of rock, a translucent blue gel shooting towards the boy like a spear at the other boy's knee level, attempting to skewer Red's leg enough to hinder his movement. With just enough of his slime extended for him to be able to see his target, his aim wouldn't be as bad as it could have been. 

Regardless of whether or not he struck true, Genesis would disconnect the tendril of slime from his body, the appendage losing cohesion and slumping into a puddle beneath Red's feet once he was sure he had either hit or missed. That done he would slowly pull back his body, bringing it to the top of the stone while trying his best to remain hidden, he wasn't quite ready to go on a full blown attack, not yet, he needed to tilt the deck in his favour some more first. This was a tricky situation, and one he was struggling to figure out. He would have loved to have just gone all out with the other boy, but having seen the way he moved, he wasn't confident that he could just yet. He needed to make sure that he was dealing with the other Heroics student within the rings of the henge, and that he got the first proper attack in. Without this, he doubted he had much of a chance to win, he had to rely on his intellect rather than his raw strength. Another thing to work on, to make sure that he didn't fall further and further behind.

This was an exhibition match though, and he knew he couldn't stay hidden for too much longer, and so he moved slowly and carefully across the top of the stone, keeping well away from the point where he attacked Red, and settling himself into position on another cross bar, waiting as calmly as he could for the other boy to move into a position where he could properly attack. He had to stay hidden just a little longer, throw his opponent off just a little more, so that he stood even an inkling of a chance of victory. He wanted to win after all.

Luka might have been an energetic boy, but right now he wasn't Luka, he was Genesis, and Genesis was a predatory creature, his human mindset taking second seat to the instincts of his unusual physiology. When he struck Red with the tendril he didn't feel the surge of excitement he might have, nor did he begin to think he had the upper hand. Instead, he assessed the situation and determined that there was no way for him to win in a straight up fight. At least, not yet. He needed to have a clear advantage, rather than simply a perceived one, or he was never going to progress.

As the other boy began to tie his bandage, Genesis slowly shifted to a new location, keeping out of the other boy's sightlines and moved down the side of the stone. Settling on the ground, he manipulated his shape more as he spread his slime around, forming a layer of 'grass' and 'stone' around the base of one of the archways. But he didn't just move places, he left a little part of himself behind, a tendril of slime left atop the nearby pillar of stone waiting for Red to come within view. At the same time another tendril wrapped itself around the same stone and spread outwards, camoflaged to remain as hidden as possible until he needed it. It was starting to strain him to be so spread out, but he didn't need to do it for too long. He just needed a few moments. Once Red moved into a position where his lure would be visible, Genesis began his next performance.

In an instant the tip of the tendril inflated, forming a small blue orb with lines in its 'front' to simulate eyes, the small gel form apparently staring down at his opponent. 

"Hi hi~" he said cheerfully, his voice emerging from the orb, "you know swearing isn't very heroic, ne~?" Without missing a beat, a small tentacle of slime shot out towards Red, aiming to whip at the other boy's face. At the same time, the disguised tendril lower down the stone extended like a spear aiming towards the white haired youth's legs, the true attack aimed at once more crippling Red's ability to move. The two attacks would hurtle towards Red as quickly as Genesis could move, the brunt of the attack depending on how the other moved. Whichever tendril Red tried to defend against, it would be the other that would bear the full strength, Genesis attempting to trick his opponent into blocking something that wasn't worth blocking. It would have been better if both attacks had been at his full strength, but he just couldn't pull that off as if yet. Maybe in the future. 

Regardless of how the attack went off, Genesis would deal with his slime in one of two ways. If there was a chance of retracting the slime back into his main body without Red being able to trace it, he would do so, otherwise he would simply sacrifice that slime as well in order to avoid being tracked back to his core mass. "Bye bye~" the lure chirped as it melted into a puddle of slime, seemingly vanishing from view to the other Second Year student. A few meters away Genesis sat calmly in his disguise, keeping a close view on Red's progress and generally preparing for whatever was to come. Beneath his body, his slime was digging into the soft dirt, carefully excavating a tunnel approximately a centimeter in diameter and extending a tendril down its' length, branching it out throughout the arena as he waited for his prey to arive. With the size of the hole he wouldn't have to worry about the displaced earth, as he simply compressed it somewhat through his wormlike movements. Thus anchored and able to escape via the small tunnel, the slime boy sat still and waited for his opponent to get close enough to attack, most of his focus either on watching what Red was up to, or keeping himself perfectly still and camoflaged.

It wouldn't do him any good to be spotted before he was ready to attack after all, otherwise his preparations would be for nothing.

Genesis remained patient as his next ploy played out, the strain of being so spread out causing him to lose one of his tendrils to Red's attack, the slime losing cohesion as it was detached from his body. The other tendril however, the one that had aimed for Red's face, withdrew back and lashed out at one of the standing stones, slicing a deeply jagged trench into it, a second whipping motion ripping through the other side and a final flick knocking the now broken chunk of stone down... aiming to drop it right on the hilt of Red's sword while the other student was busy trying to bandage himself. Genesis intended to either deprive his opponent of a weapon, of medical treatment, or if neither, prove that the other boy was still perfectly functional and able to move unhindered. 

Either way, he'd allow the dust and movement caused by hundreds, if not thousands of kilograms of stone hitting the ground to disguise the retraction of his tendril back into his central mass.

He took a few moments to bring himself back together and alleviate the slowly building tension in his body from use of his quirk. He was absolutely going to have to act soon if he didn't want to run out of energy before he had gotten a good shot or two in, but he wasn't buying Red's performance just yet. He knew how much and how deeply he'd hit the other boy, and he doubted his opponent was so weak as to truly let such superficial damage slow him down significantly. Sure, it no doubt had some level of effect on the other boy, but the limp... he wasn't too sure he believed that one, he wasn't a fool and he'd been attacking with a part of his own body that meant he could feel the contact they'd had. How Red reacted to his attempt to disarm him 

Withdrawn back to a more cohesive but thinly spread mass, Genesis rested so as to not over strain himself, his actions thus far had required him to utilise his every skill quite considerably, and if he kept it up he wouldn't be in a good condition when it finally came time to spring his last trap. The slime wanted to make more comments about Red's profanities, and the part of him that was pure Luka wanted to defend his honour against the aspersions the other Hero-in-Training cast against him. But Genesis was in control right now, and every instinct he had was to stay calm, quiet, and wait. So far he had been lucky to not be spotted, his camoflage far less effective when moving, and only his use of Red's limited lines of sight had allowed him to attack while remaining hidden. That couldn't last, especially if he made the other boy particularly angry.

Carefully, Genesis began extending tendrils of slime up to the nearby rocks and began weakening them in similar, if more subtle, ways to the one he had tried to drop on Red's hilt, preparing the area for the inevitable confrontation between them. At the same time he was also continuing to burrow through the earth, forming a fairly straightforward network of tunnels to use in case he needed a quick getaway. He was lucky that they were fighting on dirt and grass, rather than concrete, because it meant he would have an easier time using his quirk to move beneath the ground and be able to surprise his opponent. While preparing, Genesis kept as close a watch on Red as he could know how the other trainee was handling the current situation. The Slime knew that Red must be getting frustrated, and Genesis was aware that it might be reflecting poorly on him that he hadn't directly engaged his opponent yet.

But he had to do his best to win, and that meant not engaging in a pointless head-to-head fight with someone as fast as Red.

Genesis absently noted that his opponent appeared to have a hell of a temper, the slime sitting calmly in place as his 'rest' period continued. He needed to regain energy while he waited for the right moment to strike, otherwise he wasn't going to have a ghost of a chance of dealing with the other boy. He didn't respond, it would be stupid to reply to such taunts, no matter how much he wanted to, instead he watched and waited as the dust from the falling stone began to settle, satisfied that he had apparently disarmed Red without giving away his own position. He still wasn't nearly ready to simply begin an attack, he was feeling far too cautious for that, but at the very least he could continue to wittle away at the other Second Year's defences until he'd been sufficiently weakened.

The dust being cleared away by Red's quirk gave him further information regarding the other's abilities. It meant he couldn't rely on dropping more stones as a smokescreen as his only form of stealth, which was unfortunate. He considered his next moves from his hiding spot on the ground, the disguised slime boy contemplating his options as Red continued to move through the henge. He could attack from below now, the area riddled with his small tunnels that would let him extend slime out in a thirty meter radius. But he didn't want to give away a potential trump card and escape route. That would only end up leaving him vulnerable for what he felt might be a one use trick. No, it was better to stay in place as Red walked, the damaged upper sections of the stone waiting to be dropped on the boy's head, or at least funnel him to wherever Genesis wanted him to go.

Red came closer and closer towards the area, limping and quite clearly agitated, and Genesis had to decide how he wanted to proceed. He could drop the stones and then engage in combat, either harming Red or disorienting him, or he could drop the stones then withdraw underground to a new location and set himself up there. Both ideas had pros and cons, he couldn't tell how his opponent would react and also he was starting to run out of time. His camoflage was ok for now, but it wasn't fool-proof, and each attack he made did drain him of energy. As the other boy got closer and closer his time to decide got shorter and shorter, he would have to determine his next course of action before Red got too close, or he risked losing the element of surprise. 

As the other student got closer and closer, Genesis decided that neither of his original plans would work the way he wanted. Slipping behind the stone pillar as Red approached, Luka circled the stone as stealthily as he could, keeping it between himself and the limping boy. The moment he was behind Red, he sprung out from hiding. Many people would have let out a battle cry at this point, but Genesis was silent, slime emerging from each of his fingertips as he formed wire-thin tendrils that lashed out towards the other boy as quickly as he could, aiming to cut into the injured arm and leg while wrapping around them to bind Red and limited his ability to move further. Those who knew what he looked like normally might have been surprised by the unusual length of his hair, the small boy hiding a tether of slime by making it appear like his natural hair as he weaved into Red's personal space. He was lucky that Red didn't. That tether connected him to the tiny tunnels he had dug into the ground, it was one of his trump cards.

Assuming the tendrils found their mark, Genesis moved into close quarters, the slime tendrils trying to tighten in order to pull Red off balance while also further injuring the already damaged limbs. The slime knew that he had only a few chances to win this match, and all of them relied on him fighting smart. He didn't have the sort of brute power of his opponent, so he would have to use every trick in the book. And he meant every trick. With his own hands occupied by the slime tendrils, Genesis could only really attack in one way, at least without losing complete cohesion and then flailing around with a myriad of tentacles, and that was with his legs. His leg lashed out as quickly as he could make it, at first seeming to slip towards Red's uninjured leg, at his ankle in particular. But then Genesis' limb moved in a way that wasn't physically possible for a normal person, the angle changing until the limb was heading directly for a true 'below the belt' hit. It was the dirtiest move one guy could pull on another, but for Genesis, there was no place for honour in a fight. There were laws to follow of course, and it was always better to limit damage, however sometimes you couldn't allow yourself to hold back out of some misguided sense of morality.

That sort of attitude got you or innocent people killed, it led to failed missions and regret. As far as Genesis was concerned, any dirty trick was acceptable if it led to victory, a mindset shared by the greatest tacticians of history. He was simply following the teachings of giants like Sun Tzu.

The wire-thin tendrils that wrapped around Red's arm dug in deep the moment they came into contact with the limb, slicing into the other boy's skin just enough to be painful, but not enough to really cause much damage. Genesis may have been hunting his opponent, but he was still a hero, and that meant showing self-restraint as well. It would hurt Red to use that arm, but it also wouldn't even leave a scar. Red's next few movements were somewhat unexpected, but nothing that he couldn't account for. Tugged forward by the tendrils around Red's arm, Genesis used the slime 'anchor' that looked like hair to push himself forward even further, moving towards the other boy quicker than Red was expecting, his free hand held up by his ear in a claw as though he were in a kung-fu movie.

Red's cutting of the slime around his arm removed a binding, but didn't slow Genesis' momentum, and the larger boy was coming right at him as well. It was good to know that he didn't need the support device to use his quirk, something that Genesis might be able to consider should he make it out of this clash intact. Warned by the glow in Red's eyes, and the sparks that travelled up the other's arms as he raised them above his head. Most would try and move back, to dodge and flee, and everything Genesis had done thus far lent itself to following that course of action. But now wasn't the time for withdrawal, not yet, he hadn't achieved his goal and so instead of trying to dodge the attack by fleeing, he continued to move forward.

Unnaturally long hair reeled back into his body as his momentum carried him closer and closer to Red, the other boy's speed hard for him to follow. Thankfully, he didn't need to follow it too well, the Slime boy's body condensing into an orb of translucent blue gel, an orb flying at high speed right towards Red's stomach. As Red's arms descended and a hurricane exploded outwards from him, Genesis was practically cradled by the other boy's body in the one location where the winds hadn't emerged. The winds rocketed through the area, ripping chunks out of the standing stones and collapsing a couple of the lintel stones, the dust that might have been caused by such destruction quickly blown out of the area by the continuing winds.

Not wanting to give Red a chance to try and create more wind blades out of his currently safe stomach, Genesis' orb-like body rippled, slender legs rocketing out of the gel into a near vertical High Kick, the 180 degree angle of his legs likely causing some empathic pain from male viewers. With one leg planted on the ground and the other emerging to slam into Red's stomach, even a boy with average strength like himself would likely be able to cause quite a bit of damage. Maybe even make Red throw up.

But that wasn't all. 

Genesis was now in close range, and it was his chance to utilise his other major advantage. His physiology was unlike almost every other person on the planet, and he had spent significant training time on working out how to use it to his advantage. At the apex of the kick, once all the force he could put into it had been spent, his foot shifted into slime, the rest of his body following after it, engulfing Red's abdomen in slime as he first wrapped around the larger boy, and then reformed into his human shape clinging to Red's back. Genesis first slammed both his fists into Red's back, hoping to wind the larger boy, before creating a tentacle of slime as thick as his forearm where his hand would be, the slime cascading towards Red's head in an attempt to engulf it in slime. If that succeeded, he might be able to suffocate the boy into unconsciousness. At the very least it'd blind his opponent if it was successful, giving Genesis another advantage that might bring him closer to closing the gap between himself and the blond boy. If he were a less moral individual, it would have been easy to force slime through Red's nose and perhaps mouth, fully suffocating the other boy. Instead, he hoped for disorientation and a knock out.

He'd use his other limbs to try and control Red's movements, either locking or binding the other Heroics student, or at least manipulating him enough that he could avoid the attacks being made. He knew he couldn't keep this up for too long, so he hoped that he could end this fight soon. He was definitely going to be hungry after all this, but he hadn't really used up too much of his slime yet, so he could keep going for a while on that front. Still, the longer the fight went on, the more risky it got for him. He might not be able to disengage yet, but he would have to soon if he couldn't succeed. 

Throughout the whole process, Genesis remained silent. His only words the entire match had been the brief taunt from his lure, meant more to trick Red than give anything away. The slime boy was on high alert as he tried to pummel and restrain his opponent, ready to react at a moment's notice to avoid getting attacked again, if he could help it.

Genesis had misjudged the sensitivity of his prey's perception, and the reaction times he had, and had paid the price for such a miscalculation. Even as his foot slammed into the other boy's stomach there wasn't enough of a connection for him to follow through as he had intended. Instead, Red took to the air, dissipating much of the damage the kick would have caused and pulling him out of reach for the grappel that the slime had been hoping to achieve. Genesis' own reaction was as swift as he could make it, a mass of blue slime rocketing out of his body as he produced everything he had left.

From Red's position in the air he would see the slime-boy's form overcome by a mass of slime several thousand gallons in volume. Even as this formed, Red's second blast hammered home, tearing through the soft substance as it formed a large dome, desperately trying to reform into the orb-like shape that he had seen previously on top of one of the stones. The damaged slime slid away uselessly into the grass as the large mass absorbed the majority of the power of the airblast. Beyond the basic form of the dome, the slime seemed to form protrusions, almost spikes above its' surface that seemed to be as sharp as the tendrils that had cut Red's hand and leg previously.

It wasn't, but he didn't have to know that.

Beneath all the slime Genesis had reverted fully, his body slipping into the tunnel system he had dug out earlier and squirming beneath the earth while he put his all into the diversion. His body hurt, and his stomach felt like a black hole that was threatening to consume every part of him. He'd thrown everything he had left into keeping Red from noticing what he was doing, any more than this and he would pass out. He could barely form the shape of spines with what power he had left, there was no chance of making them actually dangerous. It was almost impossible to have kept the mass in cohesion when it had been hit with that airblast. 

Genesis was operating as a predator would, and any predator would choose to pull back from prey that fought back too harshly. It was far from ideal, but he had missed his one and only chance to win against someone far more powerful than him, which meant there was only one option. Popping out from behind one of the standing stones at the edge of his tunnel system, Genesis raised his hand as soon as it formed out of his blob-like body. "I forfeit, I cannot continue to fight," he declared loudly, the slime that he had left behind as a distraction losing all cohesion and melting away into the ground. It was the first words spoken from his human form the entire match, and it was the only thing he said. Looking far more gaunt than when he had started, and walking with the slow deliberation of someone whose whole body hurt, the small slime boy began to limp out of the arena without a backward glance at his opponent, his expression blank and his movements robotic. 

He hurt, and more importantly he hungered, and once that hunger had been sated there would be time for Genesis to become Luka again, and Luka to process what had happened. He'd tried his best, and it hadn't been good enough, he'd need to come to terms with that later, but right now he really needed to regain energy. He'd expended everything he had, and it would take a lot of food to recover that, but he couldn't risk trying to save anything, he'd been in an incredibly unfavourable position and escape had been the only option. Well, escape or being attacked until he couldn't move. Genesis' instincts wouldn't allow the second option, and so he'd done what he could. Red was just too powerful for him to have defeated, even with all his tactics. There would be time to try and figure out new ones, but ultimately the gap in their abilities was too high.

Clutching at his stomach, Genesis went to exit the arena, the hunger pangs all consuming. He needed to eat, self castigation could come later.

[EXIT]