Prologue: A Hotpod Heist Gone Horribly Wrong

"Ugh…dammit! You candy-***** have no idea who you're dealing with! "

Gig looked around, and found that his surroundings had changed drastically from when he was last conscious. Previously, he was in Vitali's restaurant, hiding out from a bunch of goons that owned a train he had hijacked & looted. And now, he was stuck in one of those strange mechanical flying machines, being piloted by a guy obviously ignoring his threats. They were, quite literally, heading towards a god-forsaken pile o' dirt in the middle of nowhere. Oh, how far the mighty manipulator of souls had fallen in the past two centuries…

Two hundred and one years ago, he was the Master of Death, a freakin' demigod. Not only did he have unimaginable fighting prowess, but also, he had control of three giant beasts known as World Eaters, which he used to completely devastate the world…until, of course, that Layna ***** cheated during a battle and managed to seal his soul inside of an onyx blade. Stupid daughter of some famous so-and-so named Median…he could be the king of the world by now if she hadn't stepped up and bested him in combat!

Twelve months ago, that blade was given to a chick named Reyva, which was his grand chance to regain a body and dominate the world all over again. That failed, because of the strength of the girl's soul. Still, Gig had hope; the girl and her friends were on a mission to destroy the World Eaters, which had still lived on even after his defeat. Since they needed his power to defeat them, Gig could just wait until Reyva used enough power to have her soul completely overtaken by his. But, of course, **** happens. By the end of the damn quest, the group had saved lives, toasted villains, and Gig had actually shown…ugh...humility. The adventure wasn't a total waste, though; since he had helped out a lot, Gig was given a body just like his previous one, minus the nifty powers.

Two weeks ago, his section of the world was about as normal as it got. Since he could not use his powers anymore…it was not that they were gone; it was just that he couldn't channel them properly with his pathetic mortal form…Gig had trained in hand-to-hand combat so he could still push others around. Reyva was off…well, he didn't really have a clue. Not that it mattered; after spending almost a year stuck inside her body, he was glad to get some personal space. And the team's healer, spy, and gourmet chef Vitali had opened up his own restaurant, which served the greatest of delicacies: Hotpods! No matter how they're sliced, diced, cooked, boiled, or et cetera, those things were worth saving the world for. As for everyone else…yeah, right; as if he really cared about those other meatheads!

Yesterday, he had heard that a fresh shipment of hotpods would be brought from the kingdom of Orviska to the city of Astec via a newly-built railway. Most other people wouldn't care less about this fact; the veggie-fruit-things weren't exactly a rare delicacy. But Vitali had shut him out of the restaurant again for overdue bills, and the entire kingdom of Orviska had banned him after he raided all of their farming ground a week back, so this was the only way Gig could get his hands on the tasty stuff. He snuck on board as it stopped to refuel at the small town dubbed Zazana, hijacked the train, and prepared to feast like royalty. However, when he checked the cargo, there weren't any hotpods in it. Instead, there was enough gold to buy the entire southern half of the continent, pay some guys to demolish the whole thing, and then rebuild it from the ground up with nothing but armpit hair! …Okay, that just sounded plain weird. But Gig still thought that it would get the point across, if he was actually talking to somebody about how the heck he wound up here.

Now, when the guys that were supposed to be guarding this stash of loot found him, Gig could tell by their faces that there was a damn good reason why the guys that owned the train…some company called BORED…had lied about the cargo. But he didn't think that now was a good time to start respecting authority figures, so he knocked out those peons and dashed to the nearest town with as much treasure as he could carry. He had little time to find a hideout, but luck seemed to be on his side; this was the same place that Vitali had established his restaurant. So, the former Master of Death had charged inside, and demanded for his former ally to give him sanctuary until the fuzz died down. It was a shame that more of those BORED guards came in and beat his mortal *** before the cleric accepted, 'cause he could've used the dough to pay off his debt.

Hours passed, and when he awoke, Gig was blindfolded. Some fool with a stuffy accent gave him an offer: there was going to be a tournament of some sort on a secret island. If he participated, not only would he avoid jail time, but he'd also get even more cash than the amount he tried to steal if he won! Plus, it was one of those 'win or die' events, and there was nothing Gig liked more than brutal carnage. Since his hands were free, he decided to take off his blindfold and see who he was addressing…finding that he was talking to a helicopter pilot. It was at this point that Gig had shouted that his kidnappers had no idea who they were messing with; while he actually enjoyed everything else about this situation, he was ticked off that somebody other than himself was controlling his near future.

As the helicopter approached the island, Gig wondered what kind of halfwits he would have to draw blood from in the next few days. Were they all former demigods such as him, or was it a varied bunch, filled with meatbags talented in other things than killing? He wondered if he'd have to fight Vitali; before he lost consciousness back at the restaurant, he saw some of the goons talking to the chef, accusing him of being an accomplice. But, even though Gig knew little about what would happen in the near future, one thing was certain: no matter whom he would face while on the isle, this tournament would be a freakin' blast!

Author's Note: Hello there, everyone! This is my entry into avatarjk137's new tournament, which is the sequel to his last tournament. For this tournament, I have chosen to play as two characters from the game Soul Nomad & The World Eaters. By now, it's quite evident that one of them is Gig, though his powers have been turned off in order to make things fair. Who's the other one? Well, if you can't figure it out from the text, you'll just have to wait and see!