Afl Match: Levacius Vs. Takanuva Stars.

The Zone of Shadows

Mesonak climbed the spiral staircase leading up to his podium. "Let the games begin." he thought to himself.

He entered the podium to roaring applause from the spectators, assembled Matoran, Elementals, and Toa gathered to witness the upcoming battle.

He looked to his right, and saw MT Zehvor sitting down. "Hey MT." he said.

MT nodded. "Hey Meso. Odd that I beat you to your own Arena."

Mesonak rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, what an accomplishment."

Mesonak cleared his throat, and spoke. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Zone of Shadows! Presenting, Toa Levacius Zehvor and Toa Takanuva!"

Two gates on opposite sides of the arena opened, and Levacius and Takanuva stepped out.

Levacius smirked. "I'm fighting a midget? This should be fun.

Takanuva looked stricken. "No one treats the Toa of Light that way! You just bought yourself a pounding, stranger."

"I'm not a stranger," muttered Levacius. "I'm your WORST NIGHTMARE." Levacius ran forward slamming into Takanuva and knocking him back into a wall.

***

In the stands, Mesonak couldn't help but grin. "Worst Nightmare? Seriously? That's fail. And cliche."

MT seemed uninterested in what Mesonak had to say; He was too busy watching the fight. "It's better than that rant you made about you being the "Lord of death" or whatever."

"...Shut up."

***

Takanuva pushed himself off of the wall, drawing his Staffs of light. He hurled one at Levacius, who ducked, barely missing the speeding projectile. The staff embedded itself in the Northwest wall of the arena, causing a spiderweb of cracks to appear from the staff's tip.

Levacius drew his sword and shield, and ran forward to meet Takanuva. He tried a slash with his blade, but it was parried by Takanuva's remaining staff. Takanuva tried to knock Levacius's sword out of his hand, but his staff was blocked by the shield. Takanuva leaped up, landing on top of the shield. He jumped, and began running toward his other staff.

Levacius unleashed several lightning blasts, which followed Takanuva. Takanuva reached for his staff, pulled it out of the wall, spun around, and formed an "X" with his staffs, blocking the lightning. He charged, as did Levacius.

***

In the stands, Mesonak was growing bored. He decided to kick things up a notch. He pressed a concealed button beneath his chair, which caused several Death Elementals to appear from the Eastern part of the arena.

"Now we'll get to see something interesting, other than these two people clashing swords..."

MT looked over toward Mesonak. "What?"

"Oh nothing, nothing..."

***

Levacius was the first to notice them: Purple smoke demons waving ebony scimitars, riding on skeletal horses and bellowing a fierce battle cry. Takanuva ran forward to meet them, but was tripped by Levacius.

"Whoops." he chuckled, grabbing Takanuva's staffs. He hurled them at two of the elementals, striking them in the head and causing their essence to dissapear.

"Awesome plan, genius." grimaced Takanuva, standing up. "Now I have no weapons, and you took down a grand total of two. Ah well. I don't need weapons." Takanuva closed his eyes, and shot a pinpoint beam of light toward the elementals. He swept it across the arena, taking out every single Death Elemental. He cut off the light with a snap of his fingers.

An awkward silence followed.

It was broken by applause from a random Matoran in the crowd. More applause followed, until the audience was roaring and clapping with renewed ferocity.

"Hey! HEY!" screamed Mesonak. "Isn't there supposed to be a fight going on here?"

"Oh. Right. Sorry." Mumbled Takanuva, who proceeded to attempt to stab Levacius in the back. But Levacius fipped around, catching his staffs in between his blade and shield. He pulled, and Takanuva's weapons went soaring to the Northwest wall. They struck, causing the wall to shatter. Water poured in, causing several screams to come from the crowd.

***

Mesonak was pretty upset that Takanuva had taken care of his elementals so easily. He was just about to come up with something else to sabotage the battle when the wall shattered and the arena began to flood. He groaned. "Note to self," he muttered. "Don't host fights in the Arena on a rainy night anymore; It always floods."

***

Takanuva backflipped, dodging Levacius's swipe, and landed straight on a large tidal wave which cascaded into the arena. He rode the wave for a short time, before leaping off and striking Levacius in the face. Then the wave consumed them both.

Levacius immediately held his breath, trying to formulate a plan. Takanuva was shocked, and was trying to regain his bearings and swim upwards. Then, an idea struck him. He released a gentle bolt of electricity, not powerful enough to kill, but enough to knock someone out. Conducted by the water, it hit Takanuva, who began to convulse before unconsciousness claimed him. Levacius grabbed him, and began to swim upwards.

When he broke through the surface of the water, he was grabbed by Mesonak, who pulled him up onto a raft. Takanuva was hoisted into the stands by several Death Elementals.

Mesonak punched Levacius in the face. "Don't EVER do that to my arena again."

Levacius smirked. "Now now Mesonak, no need to get violent."

Mesonak groaned, sprouting his wings and flying into the stands. Levacius followed suit.

MT was there in a flash. "Nice one, Lev. Congrats on your victory. You nearly gave Mesonak a heart attack when the water came in."

Mesonak gritted his teeth. "It already happened once; Do you know how much work it takes to clean this place? Sure, it's easy to stop the flood," said Mesonak, gesturing toward the large hole which was being patched up by threads of shadow. "But not so much cleaning up the arena itself. If we're going to host more fights in the Zone of Shadows, they'll have to be postponed."

MT shook his head. "No can do, Mesonak. You'll need to find a way."

Mesonak groaned. "We would have to host the next fight somewhere else; And this is the only structure big enough in the Zone of Shadows."

MT tilted his head to one side. "You're smart; Figure something out. In the mean time, let's congratulate Lev."

"Okay." said Mesonak, leading Levacius onto the winner's pedestal. "Ladies and Gentlemen," yelled Mesonak, through the tumult of applause. "I present to you Toa Levacius Zehvor, winner of this match!"

***

A while later, after the victory party, Mesonak, Levacius, and MT walked out onto the balcony overlooking the lake. MT turned toward Mesonak."Well, that was epic. Got any ideas of where you'll host the next fight?"

"Actually, yes. It's a place outside of the Zone of Shadows, yet a place that is within my realm. It's a most intriguing location."

Levacius appeared interested. "And what, pray tell, is this place called?"

Mesonak grinned. "It's a place you should know quite well, Levacius. You as well, MT, but to a lesser extent."

MT groaned. "Spit it out already, Meso."

Mesonak settled for three words. "The Ruby Citadel."

~Mesonak~