Who Are You?

[{STR}pride]

After the match between Darkest Hour and United Fire had ended, all Splinter could think about was the time he'd get to face some of the members on Darkest Hour. He always relished a challenge, and with the past few months spent on hunting down his enemies he was looking for a new challenge. Finally he found himself outside the circle, in a position to potentially beat what everyone called the best. He couldn't help himself, he found himself hoping that the second go round of the even later today ended up with him matching versus Darkest Hour, his former teammates.

It wasn't something he'd planned to happen really, that day, the day he finally witnessed what it was like to die in this game. While he'd known the risks going into that day, he'd never actually thought he would be put in a position where he could die. Even when the major fight had all been said and done, while he had felt exhausted, he had thought that the fight was over. That they had been successful once more.

He still clearly remembered the feeling as the shruikan struck him in the back.

It hadn't really been all that painful, perhaps his senses had been dulled because of how exhausted he had been. It had certainly been the only reason that Phalanx had managed to get the throw in on him without him realizing. But in the end he'd just felt a slight punch hit him, or so he'd thought till he couldn't breath. From there it had been a pretty short time before he closed his eyes, but that wasn't even the part that had been what changed him.

It was what had come after.

The feeling of having to choose a memory to give up is something he had entirely not expected, when he had first heard about what happened when one died in the game. His initial thought was that there was some memories he was better off without, that to get rid of these would make him a better person. Little did he know that when faced with it, he didn't want to give any of them up. The had made him the person he was, and he didn't want to change that or his memories.

This was when he realized there was another way out, he could give up one of his emotions instead of a memory. Why he had chosen this and to give up his kindness he still didn't quite know, it just had felt right to him at the time. During this time all he could think about was his revenge on Phalanx, which had slowly blossomed into a hate for any and all dark teams that existed. In the end he'd vowed to destroy them, to erase them from existence one kill at a time. This had created the Splinter who existed now, which his teammates often referred to him as Pride. This also gave him his eye.

He can still sometimes look at him from a different perspective, almost like he's looking at himself from above, and wonder what had become of him. What had made him choose to make the person standing there, he feared he'd never get the answer to that question. In this way there was two of him, but Pride almost always dominated the Splinter everyone saw today.

Given a chance he'd redo it all over with very different results.

"Hey Pride, stop daydreaming and get over here. We've got a match to play soon." Came Ghost's voice from what seemed far away.

Pride blinked, then realized where he was at what he'd been doing. "Damn." He said. "How long have I been zoning out? Who are we facing?"

"You've been gone for about a hour or so. But this should wake you up, it was announced our opponent was Darkest Hour, and we're going in, in about 15 minutes." Came Ghost's reply.

Pride's eye began to gleam. "Darkest Hour you say? This is a good day, lets go get our second win. Letting everyone know who is the top team now in the process."

As the Immortals set themselves to go out onto the arena, Darkest Hour had already made it out with their line up announced. A lot of the fans were shocked at the line up, and before long there was many whispers going around. Pride and his team came out just in time to hear some right above them.

"Poison's not playing this one?!"

"No! It's going to be Wicked, Lethe, Dumpster."

"What is he thinking?!"

Pride glanced towards the Darkest Hour tent, noticing Poison sitting there, watching. Pride smirked. Watch carefully, you're going to need it later on.

Shortly after the announcer boomed out.

"Ladies and gentleman welcome to our second set of matches for the day! Talking to the arena first is Darkest Hour versus Immortal Gaming! Darkest Hour has sent Lethe, Wicked, and Dumpster out for their line up. While Immortal Gaming has selected Splinter, Ghost, and Walrus. Good luck to both and the usual rules are in place!"

The countdown began, the entire arena tensed.

5
4
3
2
1

The explosion of action in the arena was in stark contrast to the last fight of the first set of matches, it took almost no time for both teams to be at each other's throats with blade, shield, or fist. The fight continued on for quite a long time, with seemingly no clear victor for either side. The amount of dodging, blocking, and jumping was something off the scale from any previous match. A testament to how much both teams had placed in this match, and this match alone.

Then Ghost went down on one knee, in a flash his opponent, Wicked. Was on top of him, using Sigil of Malice to deal the death blow. Shortly after Walrus as well, went down to Dumpster's fists. The crowd gasped as Splinter found himself in a one versus three situation. Or so it appeared at first glanced.

Pride grinned, being down in the arena revealed so much more. While Lethe looked no worse for wear, both Wicked and Dumpster looked considerably more ragged and tired. It had been fun toying with Lethe this entire time, he decided to leave him for last. He wanted to truly return the statement that had been made earlier today. For what was the point of becoming the top team, if you couldn't win versus the lower members of the current one?

At this moment Wicked began to use Distortion to rapidly close the gap as he lined up a chain to chain Splinter in place. At the same time Dumpster used Vault Breaker. Darkest Hour intended to end this match with none of their members dying.

Splinter suddenly seemed to disappear from their view. Pride grinned at the stunned faces, for he had become so attuned with the wind in this world, that he could fully use his avatar's abilities. It put him leagues ahead of them, and it seemed almost trivial to casually slice them both as he dashed by them. Both of them falling to the ground as he reappeared a short distance behind them. Grinning in Lethe's direction.

The crowd froze, they were so stunned by the latest turn of events they didn't know what to do. And there was still two opponents standing on the field, Splinter had done all of this with a single blade drawn, the other still sitting over his left shoulder. So it was safe to assume he still wasn't even at full strength.

He now pointed the blade at Lethe. "Your next, you going to fight me or not? You shouldn't be much harder than your friends here."

Pride's motive had been to anger Lethe, and it was clear it had worked. With a cry of rage, Lethe charged at Splinter. Using Sonic Wave while at the same time using Dragon's Rage to apply the maximum amount of damage he could. Surely. He thought. Surely he'd been phased by that.

But when he looked up it was to his dismay, Splinter still stood there, grinning. "Come on now, is that all you got?"

This angered Lethe further, and suddenly it become a extended brawl between the two opponents. Neither seemingly gaining the upper hand, but to a spectator with a keen eye, Poison in particular, he noticed that Lethe was slowly sustaining more cuts than Splinter was. He needed to stop this before it got out of hand. However right as he was about to communicate to Lethe to surrender, Splinter suddenly changed paces.

Lethe was unable to move all of a sudden, no matter how he tried he was rooted into place. He looked up to see Splinter a distance away now.

"I think you've proven yourself worthy to see a fraction of my strength, witness now what I am capable of."

A red spear suddenly appeared in Splinter's left hand, and he jumped up into the air as suddenly red energies started gathering around the spear. He stood there for a few seconds in the air, before he throw the spear with all his might at Lethe. Shouting out "GAE BOLG!" as he did.

Lethe recognized the name, and he knew what would happen if the spear pierced him. Any damage taken by this spear was permanent, and if it hit him in it's current state, he was dead. However he still had one final trick up his sleeve, something he'd been waiting to use for a moment like this.

Pride stared at the dust cloud that ensued, believing his opponent to be dead. However when a Sonic Wave suddenly came out and hit him, he couldn't help but be shocked as Lethe jumped on him. Suddenly raining blows far more furiously than he ever had for the entirety of the battle. Ah, of course. He thought. He still had his summoner ability this whole time.

Lethe rained punch after punch onto his opponent, even once again using his combo to try and bring him down. However when his final fist landed, he show Splinter standing there. Using two blades to block the attack, but that wasn't the part that got to Lethe. It was the fact that Splinter was staring at him, his left eye almost aflame, and he was grinning.

"Who are you?!"

Splinter's grin seemed to widen. "I'm Pride."

Pride raised his sword to deal the death blow, but suddenly Lethe surrendered. Kneeling before his opponent in defeat. Pride quickly glanced towards the Darkest Hour tent, noticing Poison lower his hand. Pride smirked. What will you do now?

"And the winner is Immortal Gaming!" Came the announcer.

The cheers and applause that came was the loudest it had ever been in the arena.

Seemingly not caring about the crowd, Splinter put his blades away and walked back to his teams room. He had a lot to think about.