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Everyone watches with bated breath as the wheel spins, the faces of different champions around them circling through quickly. Scott, Nikos, Apo, Pearl, Abolish, Nobody, even Shelby could be picked. Finally, it starts to slow, and as it lands on the face of Nikos, 11 out of 12 champion’s shoulders loosen minusculely, as if forgetting for just a moment that a second person will be picked. Once again, it spins, this time without the option of Nikos, eventually landing on Scott.
“Interesting…” Abolish mutters, quiet enough that nobody can hear over the noise of each other’s voices. A loud crack of lightning interrupts the conversation for a few seconds, Scott and Nikos appearing in the arena.
“Ohoho! Good luck, pretty one!” Nikos laughs aloud, confident and booming. Scott smirks, tilting his head and letting his white, fluffy hair just barely fall into his eyes, as if concealing him from everyone else.
“Right back at ya, handsome,” Scott purrs. The two stand across from each other, Scott’s small movements fluid and mesmerizing as Nikos’s are quick and eye-catching, opposites on the surface but at their core both attention seeking. From up above, Drift and Shelby offer their gifts to Scott while Nobody lends his own to Nikos. Almost in sync, the two champions decline.
“It’ll be a fair fight,” Abolish smirks as he watches the men. Cleo, beside him, huffs and rolls their eyes.
“I wouldn’t call this fair,” they say. Other champions listen carefully for Zeus to call the start of the round, most feeling a sort of guilt for their excitement but all far too interested to hide it.
“Why not?” Abolish counters, gaining a strange look from the champion beside him.
“You’ve seen the differences between Scott and Nikos. Scott constantly calls himself a lover, Nikos is geared up for a fight. Scott says he doesn’t have much experience — looking at him, I believe that — while Nikos very obviously does.”
"THREE!" A booming voice from above starts.
“He’s an actor, Cleo.”
"TWO!"
“They’re good at pretending.”
“ONE!”
The effect is immediate, lightning striking where Scott is- no, where he was, as the lightning simply chars dirt uselessly when Scott swiftly dives out of the way. A fog suddenly covers the arena, making it hard for spectators to see anything that’s going on, though they can certainly hear Nikos.
“Don’t hide, pretty one! I can make this quick!” He taunts, despite having the shorter hand. There’s nothing but silence on Scott’s end. After a few seconds, the sound of a slightly pained grunt from Nikos makes everyone even more curious. “You don’t hit hard enough, Scott! You’ll have to try harder than that.”
“Hmm…” Scott’s singsong voice mutters, but it doesn’t come from the arena. Not exactly. Now, it’s everywhere, as if inside both Nikos and the spectator’s ears. For the first time in far too long, Abolish finds himself nervous. “Will I? You seem a little panicked. Maybe you should calm down, handsome. I’m sure I can offer some help.”
This time, when Nikos laughs, they all hear it; he is nervous, Scott was right. How was he right, when none of them could tell before? Does Nikos always laugh when he’s nervous? Has he been nervous this whole time?
None of those questions are answered before the fog dissipates and Nikos grins as his eyes land on Scott. Gathering a lighting bolt into his hand, Nikos swings it like a sword at Scott, who simply uses wind to dodge it.
“You can’t run forever, Scott!”
“Maybe not,” Scott hums. “Say, why don’t we make this area a bit prettier? I always liked a good stage.”
Scott holds his arms out like he would if he was a performer bowing on a stage, and suddenly he is — on a stage, that is. Hundreds of people surround them, noise booming from all sides. Apo reaches out to touch a person, someone who looks so vague yet familiar, as if they could be anyone and no one all at once, but her hand goes right through them like they’re mist.
Maybe they are mist, she thinks, wonder and horror simultaneously dawning on her face.
“Although, you seem like one to prefer a good bull fight, yes?” The area morphs into a desert, sudden dry heat, sand, and within the arena four different bulls circle Scott and Nikos like prey. By now, Nikos’s fear is written all over his face, finally silent for the first time since they got here. “Go!” Scott shouts. Though Apo knows nothing will happen when the bull charges, Nikos doesn’t, so he dives out of the way as the bull uselessly fades through Scott’s body.
Uncaring, Scott pounces, grinning like a tiger as he pulls out a dagger and stabs Nikos straight through the chest. There’s a horrid, disgusting choking noise, before Nikos's large body falls limp and his eyes go glossy.
“I told you,” Abolish mutters to Cleo. Scott stands, waving his hands again to turn the scenery back to how it was, and casually dusting himself off before finally looking back up at the other champions. Pearl notices a nasty bruise of the winner’s cheek, which must have been during the fog, and finds herself entranced in the fact Scott didn't verbally react to such a hit.
“Sorry for tricking you into thinking I was worse at fighting than I am,” he smirks, a different side of himself coming out. One who’s conniving, manic, almost inhuman. “But that was so entertaining, don’t you agree?” At the end of his little speech, Scott flies up past all the people and stands near the doorway. No one moves, very few even breathe, as if waiting for Scott to do something more.
“Cleo, you were right,” Abolish breaks the silence of the champions, and suddenly there’s so much noise it’s almost overwhelming, everyone fighting to cheer him on and ask questions. “The fight was unfair. But you were wrong about who it was unfair to.”
~
“I do agree,” Abolish says, now sitting on his couch with Scott sitting at the other end. “That was entertaining.”
Scott giggles with faux innocence, leveling Abolish with a siren-like gaze, sending a shiver down the champion of Haphaestus’s spine.
“I can be much more entertaining than that, handsome.”