The Ranch

Tih & Friends (7)

There's a three second countdown before the cylinders start turning. Everyone has been spread out. Sherlock, Kai, Victor, Abel, Basile, and Pierre are on the left side. Tih, Theodore, Henri, and Lucien are on the right cylinder.

The cylinders start rotating and those on the slime immediately slip. Some manage to slide to another terrain before falling, others aren't in the vicinity of anything to grab onto except for other people. Dragging them down with them, around a dozen people fall in a matter of seconds.

Everyone that watched this took the slime terrain as a death trap and would try as hard as they could to stay away from it.

Others on more stable terrain immediately start fighting. If they stay in the same spot for a period of time, they'll reach the edge where one or both people fall off if neither can scramble back up the side.

Lucien is engaged in battle. The other man has a a sword, so all Lucien can do is dodge, but he was smart enough to walk against the turning motion of the cylinder, but this creates a disadvantage for him. Walking backwards, against a moving platform is a lot harder than walking forward against one. He also can't spare the time to look at how the terrain will change behind him.

On a good note, Henry and Lucien were close by, so Henry comes to help Lucien. Even if neither have swords, fighting one person in the front and one in the back gives the opponent the disadvantage. The battle of two against one starts.

They did well for a while until-" Behind You, Snow!" There wasn't enough time for Instructor Henry to say anything else, because by the time he noticed, a snowy patch was seconds away.

Even when he had a moment to prepare, Lucien stumbled as his foot unexpectedly sank into the snow. The snow that won't fall even if it's upside-down, is influenced and can be condensed by weight.

The man takes the chance to stab at Lucien. He barely misses him as Henri was a little faster at tripping him. The man falls and the two take the chance to run. They're not stupid enough to stay and fight a man with a weapon.

The man grabs Henri's ankle, tripping him. By now, they're already at an angle, and are at risk of falling if they stay longer, but it seems like the man has not noticed.

The man reaches for his weapon but it has started sliding along the snow like a snowboard and is too far to grab while still down. He only realizes now how close they are to the edge.

He starts scrambling up the snow, holding onto Henri's ankle to pull himself up. Instructor Henri turns in the snow and kicks the man's chest with his free leg. The man is pushed backwards by the force. He can't regain his balance, but he can pull Henri down with him.

"Go!" Henri says to the tired Lucien before he falls off the edge with the man.

Lucien didn't have much stamina to begin with and didn't want to risk any injuries. He only managed to last a little longer by dodging and crowded areas, but eventually had no way out and jumped down.

Abel seems to know the best path for avoiding ice and slime, the two most problematic ones, like he knows what is coming.

Some people start to target Tih's team members as they have a large lead on the scoreboard. Having observed the one in the spotlight, Tih, during the break, they've determined who his teammates were.

Tih's team realized this too, but there isn't much they can do. The only plan was to group together with whoever was closest. It's a gamble of sorts.

Pierre dodges to the side, landing on rocky dirt. He tries negotiating," Hey, we're all calm, mature people here. How about-" His words are cut off as he has to edge once more. "C'mon man, why do you gotta pick on me?" Pierre becomes irritated as he can't fight back.

"Ya shouldn't have stolen all the spotlight, brat." The burly man swings his sword.

Throwing his first plan of "negotiating" out the window, Pierre rolls his eyes and raises his voice,"Woaaaah, someone's saltier than the Dead Sea," he taunts the middle-aged man in front of him.

From afar, Kai yells," Yo nice sea joke Pierre!"

"Just because you're losing horribly doesn't mean you need to be a sore loser about it." Pierre follows with a shrug, agitating the man more.

"Boooo, this old man's bullies newbies! Where's your pride bro!" Kai calls out, closer now.

"You brats! You're dead!" The man puts all his strength into his swings, losing coordination as a trade.

Almost catching up with the two, Kai laughs, "Ah? What's that? All I hear is the blubbering of a fish!" The loud insults have drawn everyone's attention, "Oh, shi-" He runs away from a number of incoming people. Luckily, the surface area of the cylinder is so wide that he has no need to be worried about being cornered quickly.

Pierre's opponent's attacks become more ferocious, but he wasn't considered a part of the aces for nothing, but maintaining a defensive position is straining. On the other hand, the opponent is also wasting more energy as his swings have gotten wider and worse.

Author's note: This "arc" is gonna be one of the longer ones. It's practice for what I'm planning in the future wink wink. If anyone has any feedback, I'm totally open.

I was watching WWE double team clips for Theo and Tih's bit, but wow does that job look like it hurt. I saw a compilation of maybe twenty tables get broken for a certain move and one of them was set on fire. Like safety, who's that?

I went back to the Newbie tournament arc to reread Pierre's intro and oh my god hav I strayed from his original character.