The third match of round four had ended not too long ago, and the break between matches was just about over. This meant that the fourth match would begin shortly and that Misaka Keiichi would be up again. As a result the boy made his way into the waiting room, eyes peering about before settling on the bench and making his way towards it. Once there he settles down into the seat and withdraws Zankoku from his pocket, peering down at him quietly for the moment. Maybe it was time to give him a new look or something, if he was going to keep doing well in tournaments tattered rags and patwork cloaks weren't necessarily a good image to have. He tilts his head slightly and continues thinking in silence for the moment while awaiting the announcement that he should be heading out.

Tomoe enters the waiting room very shortly before her match is scheduled to begin. She had arrived early for her other matches, but not for this one. Perhaps less time waiting /here/ would help with her nerves. As she takes a seat at the end of one of the benches, she realizes that, it certainly did not help much. Chimera is placed on the bench beside her, and Tomoe's hands move to her face, slipping under that veil of hair to press against closed eyes. She needs to concentrate on the fight to avoid thinking about the arena and the crowds. She's up against Zombie-boy this time. It's been a while since she's faced him. If she were in a better frame of mind, she might look around the room and see him - as it is, she can hardly see anything.

Thankfully Keiichi had forgotten about the fact that he was about to step out into a large arena with a large crowd of people gathered about to watch him and his next opponent. He'd mostly gotten over it during the last match anyway, but it was still a little nerve wracking if he let his thoughts linger on the fact for too long. It wouldn't take long for him to notice Tomoe, who wasn't all that far away really. He watches her for a moment while tilting his head a bit, she didn't seem to be doing overly well for some reason, probably nerves. The boy takes a deep breath before rising to his feet and making his way over towards her, offering a wave even though she wasn't looking. "Yo', Inugata-san." Might as well say hello before being called out to battle, right?

Tomoe looks up at Keiichi through her hair, letting her hands move down to her lap. "Yo, Zombie-boy." She uses the name she's always used for him, largely due to not knowing his name. It had taken her /quite/ some time to learn his name. Really, she's only picked it up while watching a few of his matches in this tournament. Not that she'd ever really /tried/ to figure it out . . . but, still. She looks back down, towards Chimera, and moves the little beast onto her lap.

Keiichi smiles towards Tomoe before peering over towards the monitor, where the spotlights seemed to be shifting about in random patterns still. He then looks down towards Zankoku for the moment. "You've been doing pretty well in the tournament, how are you holding up?" He never really had much opportunity to talk to the girl, might as well take advantage of the brief moments before the match where the opportunity was present.

" . . . Miserably." She answers honestly, and looks towards the wall monitor. "Don't care for the crowds." A slight sigh, and she bows her head again. Her eyes close, and she slips one hand underneath Chimera's chest, allowing the other hand to rest lightly on the angel's back.

Keiichi looks back towards Tomoe and nods a bit, even though she wasn't looking. "I know what you mean, I'm not much for the limelight myself." He shifts his position a bit and looks towards the hallway as one of the attendants makes her way though it and into the waiting room. Looks like things were about to get started. "Well, here's a tip that helps me a little bit. Just remember, most of the time they're paying attention to the angels and not us."

The wall monitor flashes as all of the lights flare around and then com to rest on the announcer, who was sitting high in his chair. The microphone tugged down so he could speak into it, his voice loud as always. "Ladies and gentlement, it's time for the fourth match of the fourth round to begin! Would the dues' make their way to the arena please?" And with that indication the attendant signals and calls out, "Inugata Tomoe, and Misaka Keiichi, it's your turn."

There's the faintest of a nod, but Tomoe says nothing else. And then, the attendant is calling their names. Tomoe stands, holding Chimera to her chest, and walks a bit too quickly to that corridor. One might think her anxious to get out to the layer - in a way, she is. The sooner she can focus fully on Chimera, the sooner she can block the unpleasantness from her mind.

Keiichi nods when they're called and makes his way towards and through the corridor as well, his eyes closing while he does so. Not particularly wanting to look out into the crowd and trying to steel himself for what was going to happen. His mind was now focusing on the battle that was to come, it was time to commit to it.

Tomoe moves quickly from the corridor, heading directly to one of the oval chairs. She seats herself just as quickly, placing Chimera in her lap as she carefully and quickly puts on and adjusts her headset. She does not look towards the crowd. She's doing her very best to ignore them. To an observer, it may seem as though she's doing much better - but she can still feel the pounding of her heart, and the tightening of her throat.

Keiichi makes his way towards his seat as well, his eyes opening as he takes a deep breath. He settles into his chair and begins setting up the headset and moving Zankoku into his lap for the moment. His eyes close again while he sucks in another breath.

After they're both settled into their seats, the announcer picks up again and cuts through the dull throng of noise of the crowd. "And here they are! In the west corner, the dues is Inugata Tomoe with her angel Chimera!" The crowd cheers loudly, and Tomoe's usual fanboy's are waving about their banner and cheering the loudest of course. "And in the east corner, the dues is Misaka Keiichi with his angel Zankoku!" Both of the chairs rise up into the air and set into place, and everything was prepared. "Both of these dues' have accomplished the same number of wins and loses so far in this tournament, but only one can come away from this match with a win. Who will it be? There's only one way to find out! Angels, FALL IN!"

Tomoe closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. Focus. Concentrate. Block out everything that is not of the layer. " . . . It's hunting time, Chimera." Her voice is almost a normal tone - quite the improvement. "Fall in." With that said, she lifts Chimera, then throws him towards the layer.

As Chimera passes through the layer barrier, his wing shoots out, then tucks sharply in. The beast descends with outstretched forefeet. It is not long at all before massive paw and talon slam down onto the little world, obliterating a tiny city in the process. Hindpaw and hoof slam down miliseconds later, taking out a bit of a miniature forest. Once landed, Chimera shakes himself, almost like a dog attempting to dry off, then all three heads look around the new environment, awaiting the appearance of an opponent..

Keiichi nods with the announcers words and opens his eyes to watch Chimera's entry into the layer. He smiles a bit and after the beast lands he draws his arm back and tosses Zankoku towards the layer as well. "Wreak the vengeance of the dead upon the living, Zankoku!" The zombie-angel goes tumbling through the energy barrier and springs to life, twisting and flipping down towards the disc-like world below. He lands with a heavy thud upon the surface, settled on both knees and one fist as he sends shockwaves through the little world below. The millions of tiny souls of the inhabitants were going to be oblitorated by Ragnarok anyway though, so now wasn't time to worry about such things. Slowly he rises to his feet and crosses his arms over his chest, a brief flash of red from the shadows of his hood as he looks towards his opponent. It was time for another battle.

After the entry, the announcer's voice picks up once more. "These two angels will battle it out at the end of the world, it seems that even if one wins they'll both lose in the end doesn't it? The desperate fight to be the last to die has begun, who will win? ANGELIC FIGHT-O!" Wasn't that a bit over-dramatic? Oh well.

Chimera stands where he landed, all six dull red eyes leveled on Zankoku. That tri-split tail sways slowly from side to side, but the beast makes no other move. He simply watches his opponent, waiting for the zombie's first move.

The buzzer begins and the timer begins counting down, causing the start of the match. Zankoku normally might wait for the opponent to perform an action first and react to it, but Chimera was a dangerous foe. He could not allow the beast to get the first strike in. Arms unfurl as he bursts into a rush towards the monstrosity, closing in and twisting into a roundhouse kick towards the central head. We'll start things off simple for now.

The kick land squarely, knocking that massive central head sharply to the side. Chimera growls low, but stands his ground. The central head turns back to face the zombie again, and both outter heads stretch out a bit, as if to flank him. But the beast makes no move - his tail swishes a bit more quickly, but his feet remain solidly on the ground, and that wing remains tucked closely in.

After the kick impacts and snaps Chimera's head to the side, Zankoku slides back just a step and settles into a defensive posture in anticipation of an attack. None comes, but he's not going to rush headlong into a trap either. He pauses for a moment and thinks about how to go about getting around Chimera's heads. It seemed he would be waiting for now.

As Zankoku slides back, Chimera steps forward. The beast continues his low growl, and he rotates his shoulders slightly forward, making himself seem even bigger than he is. It's as though he were trying to intimidate the zombie . . . as though zombies could be intimidated. The central head lowers slightly, snarling, growling, and the outter two heads rise just a bit, still stretched out forward. Then, the cervid head bellows, lunging forward to bite at undead flesh with those sharp, jagged, rather un-deer-like teeth.

Dark enegies swirled about Zankoku's feet as Chimera moved in and growled, and when the beast's cervid head comes in to bite one hand lifts to grab at the top of the creature's maw. It hurt a bit, but he took that opportunity to snap a quick strike into the mouth attempting to snap the tip of his fingers into the back of the head's mouth, trying to stun it a bit. A little unorthodox, but one needed to be when fighting something with three largish heads.

The zombie's fingers stab into the cervid's throat. He'd done similar things before . . . and the result was always the same. This time is no different. The strike sends a wave a pressure through the wide neck, then a cloud of frigid air blasts out from that mouth, washing over Zankoku's hand and arm. The frozen air might not be much of a concern, but those blade-sharp shards of ice are another matter, entirely. As soon as the dead fingers are out of its throat, the cervid head shakes heavily from side to side. The beast makes no other move.

Well Zankoku had hoped that he could avoid something like that by going for the cervid head, unfortunately that wasn't the case. The ice shards rip into him, and he pulls back, hopping away several steps before settling into a defensive posture. One had to wonder what the people below thought of the huge mountain sized hail falling upon them, but it wa Ragnarok, they didn't expect it to be pleasant did they?

Chimera's central head turns slightly to one size as Zankoku hops away. The growl has ended, but the beast is not about to stand around. There's a clight crouch, then Chimera charges. That central head bows low, and the outter heads pull back. It's a lumbering charge, throwing up clouds of tiny trees and bits of road and houses as paws, hoof and talon put an end to countless virtual lives. The beast cares not for them - his current goal, is to simply slam those massive, spiralled horns into the zombie's chest.

As Chimera crouches slightly, so does Zankoku. And when the creature comes charging at him, ending countless lives below, he leaps high into the air while twisting into a spiraling flip that takes him upside down to rightside up again. The landing point was targetted at the creature's back, he liked it up there sometimes. During the course of flight however, dark energies pulse and charge about his arm and flow through his hand. There is a flare of it, before the energy springs into a punch-dagger blade along the ridge of his knuckles that was formed entirely of the inky dark flow. At the moment he lands, his arm is drawn back and then slammed down towards the beast's spine, between two of the sharp jaggies that would tear his hand apart if he'd decided to hit them instead. This was a tournament fight, no time for him to be pulling punches.

The serpent head turns to watch at Zankoku takes to the air . . . then lands on the beast's back. Chimera's legs spread out slightly at the blow, bracing him, and that giant wing falls limp. There's a slight twitch along the wing's membrane, and the cervid head turns back to look at the appendage before looking back to Zankoku.

Zankoku decides that it's kind of nice up here, now that the wing was disabled. At least for the moment. Since the cervid head took the time to turn about and peer, the zombie-angel decided to give it an award for doing so. He steps forward while grinning his twisted little grin and then twists into a heavy kick towards the head, trying to knock it aside and senseless to the best of his ability. Okay, maybe that wasn't much of an award after all. . .

And so, the cervid head gets kicked to the side. There's a low huffing noise, then a bit of a growl. Chimera has had enough of the crazy zombie on his back. A shudder, then that wing rises again - ah, so it wasn't taken out completely. And then, with a slight heave, the beast rolls over, attempting to squish the zombie on his back. The wing is held in such a way as to make it just a bit more difficult to flee from that perch.

Instead of jumping off and getting battered by that huge wing, or staying where he was to be crushed below the beast's weight, Zankoku decides to crouch low and scurry along the back towards the side and then stomach. He could be pretty quick when he wanted to be, couldn't he. It seems yet another huge part of civilization was destroyed by Chimera's movements, but they were all going to die anyway right? Before the souls can flee off to go fight the end war, the zombie angel's eyes flash red and the drifting souls also gain those red glowy eyes. They deviate from their coarse as they become visible and are sucked into the palm of his hand at a frightning rate. His normal dark energies area also gathering there as well, along with the sickly green hue taking form as well. By the time he is actually on the stomach his hand is drawn back and then brought forward in a rather heavy handed blow. He was attempting to slam that energy ball into the beast's gut with everything he had, and those little souls he'd gathered would probably wreak some havoc in their quest for revenge!

The blow slices open a gash in Chimera's stomach, but it does not put an end to the beast's fight. He roars, a shudder of momentary rage running through him as he lies on his back. And then he kicks at the zombie, then rolls back over. If Zankoku does not get out of the way, he's apt to be crushed. Nevermind that such a maneuver would keep the beast's belly vulnerable . . . it's not as though Chimera seems to worry much about acruing injuries.

Zankoku leaps away just in time to avoid the kicking foot, and removes himself from Chimera's body so it's easy enough to roll over. After landing the zombie-angel crouches low and rushes in again, this time both hands positioning fingers for a clawing attack. As he closes the distance his eyes flash red, he plants a deep kick into the ground below. This kicks up a large amount of dirt and debris towards the central head's eyes in an attempt to blind them. It also gives cause for panic to anyone that happened to still be alive in the world below as well. He then hops up on the central head and shifts into a spin, sending one raking motion towards the cervid head's eyes and another towards the serpentine one's. Seems he was trying to temporarily blind the beast for some reason.

And so the zombie jumps back on Chimera, after throwing dirt, little buildings, tiny people, and similar clutter in the central head's eyes, and raking at the eyes of the other two heads. But the beast does not seem concerned about such things. That central head shakes vigorously, then the beast shakes his entire body, trying to throw that annoying little rider off. He rears up on his hind legs, twisting sharply to and fro - making it even more difficult for Zankoku to remain on. The moment the beast feels the weight of the zombie lifted, he twists again, attempting to catch Zankoku in forepaw and talon. If caught, the zombie is in for quite the mauling, as all three heads would love to sink their teeth into and rip apart that desiccated flesh.

Zankoku actually leaps away so that he is not caught by the beast's massive forepaw and that wicked looking talon. He didn't want to be mauled, and it was quite obvious he would have been. While Chimera is still reared up and twisted about, Zankoku lands and charges in jumping in towards the beasts belly again, attempting to barrel him over on his back and knock him off balance. Luckily the area below Chimera was already mostly destroyed, so few people would lose their lives if it was successful. Not that Zankoku cared about such things really.

The kick lands solidly. Still, Chimera does not flail backwards - he's not built for such a thing, after all. Instead, he falls to the side. For just a moment, it seems as though the beast may rises again, but then those somewhat marred eyes dull even further. Chimera convulses, legs kicking, necks slapping down to obliterate a few more tiny cities. But the convulsions do not last long. As the beast stills, those talons twitch and clutch at the air, then fall limply into a small puddle.

Zankoku hops back and away to get away from the convulsions, just incase any spasm sends something his way that he doesn't want to get hit by. In particular he was eyeing the tail. Still, it seems that was unnecessary as Chimera stops moving. The announcer's voice comes in over the microphone, "Chimera is down, and it looks like he won't be getting up this time around!" Just then the calculating damage function on the scoreboard finishes and shows that the match is over, the buzzer goes off. "Zankoku wins!" There is the usual cheering from the crowd, mixed with a little booing from some certain fanboys, because their favorite didn't win. Disc world is then consumed in a brilliant, but brief flash, leaving darkness for a moment before the scenery fades back to the flat white glowy glossy surface that is the natural state. Both angels were sitting upon it. With the announcement, Keiichi manuevers his chair down to retrieve Zankoku from the layer before moving down to the ground to get ready to leave before the opressive nature of the area got to him.

The match is over. There's no more battle to concentrate on. Just as quickly as in her previous fights, Tomoe retreives Chimera, and heads directly back to the waiting room. There's no pause or glance at the audience - she's doing her best to pretend they're not there - or any words to Zombie-boy. Back to the relative quiet of the waiting room. This ordeal is almost over . . . she just needs to make it through one more fight.

Keiichi finishes getting everything together and then makes his way out of the chair and heads towards the corridor back to the waiting room. He doesn't glance up into the crowd at all, but he does offer a wave. He then passes into the hallway and fades from the view of the audience. The announcer can be heard, "We'll take a couple minutes to break and prepare for the next match folks! Don't go too far away, you won't want to miss it!"