Akunin vs Shivering Jemmy

Setting: The contestants appeared on a large mountain way too high to be on earth, which was surrounding a large pit of lava almost spilling over the edges of the mountain. It was surrounded by a large forest miles in expanse.

If a contestant is hurtled into the lava and is incapable of surviving lava, they are immediately disqualified.
First Blood: Toxicity

So, Jemmy got to play with her dear friend Kyte again. Jemmy smiled, evilly. It had been a long time since they had battled, so this was sure to be interesting. She wondered if Kyte had become any stronger. Jemmy herself hadn't really grown, although she had certainly changed. The unfortunate side of being a Lord of Chaos was that none of your powers were safe. One day recently, Jemmy's abilities had just switched on her.

It wasn't like her old tactics had been particularly effective against Kyte last time, so it didn't really matter. This was serious business. Jemmy didn't really care about this tournament, but it would be fun.

Jemmy teleported up into the air, where a spectacular view of the volcano and the surrounding forest awaited her. Looking out over the endless trees, Jemmy could see Kyte running away, heading for the forest.

She could also feel him. His magical aura and his thoughts both reached out to Jemmy. She closed her eyes, pin-pointing his location with her mind. He was running away from her, trying to take advantage of the forest's terrain, probably to set some sort of trap.

Well, she would just have to play a trick of her own. Jemmy teleported down, just a few inches above the volcanic lava. She dipped her feet in. They melted away quickly, but before they completely disappeared, she teleported again, this time right in front of Kyte.

"What's the matter?" Jemmy asked, with a big grin on her face. Holding onto her balloon to keep her in the air, she kicked out at Kyte's face with both of her lava-covered feet. "Did you get cold feet?"

Kyte managed to dodge Jemmy's lava kicks, and kicked Jemmy's face into the mountainside. By the time Jemmy stood back up, both her face and her melted feet had healed completely, without leaving a single scar.

Kyte made some lame joke about it being too hot to get cold feet. Jemmy frowned and stared at him, unamused. "I get it. We're at a volcano."

Wait a minute. Kyte was flying. Did he have wings before? Jemmy didn't think so. It seemed he had changed quite a bit since their last meeting. He mentioned as much, summoning an aura of black magic. It wasn't anything too impressive, but learning magic did take a lot of patience and concentration, which was the main reason Jemmy hadn't bothered to learn any.

Kyte called himself a changed man, but Jemmy didn't know why. His reasoning wasn't at the front of his thought right now, so she could only guess until he thought about it. Despite his changes, Kyte said that he wouldn't be a servant to anyone, not even her.

As Kyte shot his magic at her, Jemmy wasn't afraid for herself. Her balloon familiar, however, couldn't survive such an attack for very long. Jemmy teleported out of the way, reappearing back on top of the volcano. She decided to leave her balloon here for the rest of the fight. Only if she needed to go far away from the peak would she move it. She couldn't risk Kyte's magic hurting her beloved pet.

Jemmy teleported back to where Kyte was. She didn't want him to become suspicious of her balloon, so she had to explain it's absence somehow. "I spent a whole dollar on that balloon," she said, rolling up her sleeves. "But now I don't have to hold back. You ready, Darling?"

Kyte seemed to have been bothered by Jemmy calling him "Darling." Strange. He had been so full of himself the previous time they had met. What was his problem now? Just how had he changed over the past few centuries?

She could find out later. For now, she had a fight to win.

Kyte took a moment to conjure some weapons, armor, and some sort of magical aura. Jemmy had to admit that it looked cool.

Jemmy walked closer to where Kyte hovered. "Oh come on, Dear. Give me a kiss." She teleported behind Kyte this time, and a few feet above him. Her mouth stretched and opened impossibly wide, wide enough to engulf Kyte's entire head. Sharp, shark-like teeth snapped together as she tried to bite his head off. If Kyte didn't notice her, or wasn't fast enough, he would soon be without a head.

Of course, Jemmy had said she wouldn't kill Kyte. Not until she tormented him enough, at least, but she had a feeling that this tournament wouldn't result in any final deaths. She herself was unable to teleport off this planet right now, even to the realm of Chaos. Reality itself was being manipulated here, but she didn't care. It was all just a bunch of fun for her to sink her teeth into.

Kyte put a scythe in Jemmy's mouth, locking it open. Jemmy tried to open her mouth even more to get it out, but Kyte put a foot on her lower lip. Well, this was awkward. If nothing else, Jemmy's teeth might stab through Kyt'es boot to impale his foot. After saying that kisses often got messy, Kyte aimed his sword between Jemmy's shark teeth and unleashed a blast of destructive magic. The resulting explosion tore Jemmy's body apart. As the cloud cleared, however, Kyte would see Jemmy about fifty feet away, coughing hard but visibly unharmed. She had a puzzled look on her face.

"Enervation? What does that even mean? Also, you're a terrible kisser. No wonder you can't get a girlfriend." She coughed hard again, pretending that the magic attack had hurt her. "That wasn't very nice using your magic. Do you get a kick out of beating up little girls? You're so naughty, but don't worry. I'll get you back for that."

Jemmy teleported away, returning a second later. She was now twenty feet above Kyte, and she had a hand full of lava. She threw the lava down at him, and it spread out into little destructive droplets as it fell. Jemmy disappeared for a second, only to reappear twenty feet above Kyte again, regardless of where he might have moved. She threw another handful of lava down at him, her first hand already fully healed from the previous attack. She repeated this attack twice more for a total of four hand-fulls of deadly lava. All that teleporting was hard work, so she followed the last spray of lava down to the ground below.

Jemmy's comment about Kyte not being able to get a girlfriend seemed to bring up some unpleasant memories in him. He remembered women from the past, women he had loved and let down.

After annoyingly dodging the droplets of Jemmy's lava attacks, Kyte stabbed Jemmy in the back, grabbed her neck in a choke hold, and started flying towards the top of the volcano.

Kyte suggested that her little girl form was intended to cause guilt, and Jemmy grinned. Kyte would hear her voice telepathically speaking in his mind. 'That's an interesting way to look at it, but you're giving me too much credit.' Reaching her hand over her head, she jabbed her thumb into Kyte's eye. Both of his hands were busy, and with his aura of black magic gone, his eye would be unprotected. Of course, she didn't have the strength to do any real damage, but she could sure make it hurt. 'Guilt is just an unintended side effect. I can hear your thoughts, Kyte. I know about all those women you let down. You failed them all. The feelings of guilt you have are all your own, simply projected onto me. You really have changed, haven't you? It seems my Cupid's Arrow really went deep. I gave you a heartbeat, Kyte, and now I get the chance to take it away.'

As they approached the edge of the volcano, Kyte passed by Jemmy's red balloon. Jemmy could hear his thoughts. He was becoming suspicious of it. She also knew he was planning to throw her into the lava below, so she locked her hands around his hair at the last moment. She dangled from his hair, waiting for him to rip it out in order to throw her down into the volcano. She also tried to distract him by talking in his head more. 'You think you know who I am? You know nothing about me, because you know nothing about yourself. I taught you how to love, and I hope you're thankful for that.'

As she was distracting him by messing with his head in two ways (by pulling his hair and telepathically speaking to him), Jemmy's red balloon floated up silently behind Kyte and expanded until it was about 5 feet in diameter. Two black eyes and a huge, sharp-toothed mouth opened from its red body. The mouth opened wide, intending to bite Kyte's head off from behind. It didn't care if it took Jemmy's hands with it.

Jemmy couldn't help but chuckle in Kyte's mind. 'You deserve a second chance. Give me a kiss.'

The balloon's jaws snapped shut.

Kyte was getting angry now. His sword let loose some magical energy, and Jemmy allowed it to tear her body in half. Only the top half of her torso was now clinging to his hair.

Uh oh. Jemmy realized that she had hinted too strongly. Kyte whipped around and saw the balloon coming. He even managed to avoid its jaws before unleashing a blast of black magical energy. This wasn't good. If that balloon got hurt too much, it was game over.

Jemmy's legs teleported in front of the balloon, shielding it from the black, corrosive energy. A moment later, her torso teleported in front of the balloon, too. Jemmy's entire body was destroyed in the process, and the balloon still lost a little bit of flesh. Blood started dripping out of its wounds and between its teeth as the black explosion cleared.

After a display like that, Jemmy was pretty sure that Kyte had figured out the situation. She would do anything to protect that balloon. Her body slowly started to rematerialized, but it wouldn't be fast enough to defend her familiar. Instead, she had a different plan. She commanded the balloon to stand its ground.

Jemmy's voice sounded in Kyte's head again. 'That wouldn't be a good way for her to meet her end. I call her Red. She looks like a balloon, but she's actually a living thing. You know, sometimes people make deals with me. This particular person...well, they were special, so I made them immortal, and a balloon. Were they someone you knew? Who can say?' Jemmy's face materialized, floating about 4 feet in the air beside Kyte. She laughed, her voice completely evil. 'You said you would never submit to me. Well, let's test that. Kyte, I command you to kill Red. She's your enemy, so kill her and never regret it. Never question your actions here today. Kill Red. That's an order.'

Jemmy frowned as Kyte refused to follow her orders, but still carried out what she had commanded. Perhaps he was simply too dumb to understand what he was doing. Then again, he was probably just spiteful that she had out-smarted him. Either way, he had won this fight.

Jemmy felt tears forming in her eyes as she watched Kyte's magic tear through Red, completely destroying her demonic balloon. She had grown quite attached to the creature. She had been lying about it being a person, of course. It had been born a demon, and Jemmy had merely shaped it to her liking. There was little difference between Kyte and the balloon, but one of them had chosen to obey Jemmy, and the other had not. Now one demon was killing the other.

What did she want now? She wanted to cry for her dear balloon. But even more than that, she wanted to make Kyte suffer. "Well," she said, wiping her tears away with a recently materialized hand. "Even if you said the wrong word, you still did what I wanted. It's so beautiful, you know? Seeing you finally submit to my will. She really loved you, you know. But just like with Cleopatra, you only pretended to love her, only to kill her in the end."

Jemmy started crying now, but she was too stubborn to give up her cover story. "And I spent...a whole dollar on it."

The balloon familiar died, consumed by the corrosive magic. But something was wrong. Jemmy didn't disappear. She couldn't return to the realm of Chaos. What was going to happen now? Suddenly, she understood. She had been disqualified. Kyte had won the fight.

They were both transported back to the room where the pairings had been made. Red was suddenly returned to life as Jemmy finished healing herself. Nobody could die in this tournament, and that included Red. Jemmy smiled and gave the balloon a hug. It had reverted back to just a normal balloon now. She was so glad that her friend, her anchor, was still with her. Even the mean Kyte couldn't take Red away from her.

Losing in some dumb tournament wasn't so bad. Jemmy still had her balloon. Her pride was a bit wounded because Kyte had beaten her, but she would have plenty of time to pay him back.