Here it is at last. Sorry it took me so long i've been VERY busy. BUt here is chapter 5. Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Dark Wood

“Wake up!” Rancher yelled at Wes. Wes’ eyes felt heavy, and he slowly rose them.
“We over slept! The tournament is gonna start in 30 minutes!” Rancher exclaimed, ripping the blanket from Wes’ bed.

Within 10 minutes Wes, Rancher, Skippy, King, and Killa Kan were heading toward the great tournament ground in Dark Wood City. The coliseum stood towering above all the other buildings of this large city. It’s off-white walls looked well cared for, and the designs of monsters battling that were carved into it’s walls were still very sharp looking, even after it’s 120 year history it still looks new.

Wes ran all of King’s moves through his head. Rancher had taught King moves most Hares don’t know. Even crossover moves that Gali’s normally learn. Even complex cross Gali-Hare moves. It’s was funny, Wes thought. Rancher decided to use Killa Kan. Rancher had a thing with Killa Kan, Wes didn’t know what it was, but there was something Rancher knew about Killa Kan that made Killa Kan “different”. Wes just figured that Killa Kan was just much smarter then normal Golems, nothing more.

Off into the back allies to conspicuous mean stood talking. One was dressed in a ragged brown pullover, much like Rancher’s, and had a floppy hat, much like Rancher’s. The man’s face was concealed in darkness, as was half his body because he stood in a shaded part of the alley. The other man wore a long black coat, he wore a black high collar shirt under that, and to match he had black jeans and black boots. Also to match he had black slicked-back hair, and to finish it off he had small rectangular silver-rimmed glasses. One vicious feature were that the boots each had a strip of steel attached to the front.

“He is here,” the cloaked man said.
“Yes I know,” the man clad in black said. He’s sharp chin and narrow eyes made him look almost more intimidating then the tall cloaked man.
“He has the golem,” returned the tall man.
“I will return him to you, it shall be easy, I have Harvester and Deus with me,” the smaller man said, straightening his small glasses.
“Harvester, yes. It shall be easy with him, but I don’t want any attention drawn to him. Remember, since he is so different he will be easily caused to question. That is why I don’t like this tournament idea.”
“Don’t worry, I know what to do. Besides, wouldn’t it be safer to use Deus?”
“No,” snapped the shaded man,” if he decides to turn all his force upon him Dues will surly be destroyed. The point is we want to take him out as fast as possible and get out.”
“Okay then. I’m off,” With that, the black wearing man turned meaningfully and strode out the ally.

“All right!” the announcer rang through the speakers, “let’s began the Dark Wood City Free for All Tournament!” There was a brief pause as the announcer shuffled through some papers, then reading from one.

“First off we will have Samson v.s. Gina!” he said excitingly through the speaker.

Wes and Rancher were stationed in the waiting room that was set inside part of the thick walls of the stadium. It was sort of cool in there as the floor was stone and the walls were pretty much the same. 6 people other then Wes and Rancher were there, not including the two that were already fighting above. All of the monsters were kept in a separate area for the sake of not knowing what you’re going against. Since Skippy wasn’t participating in the tournament he got to watch up in the stands. It sounded like the fight was going good as every other second or so it seemed as if the place was about to collapse as the audience above yelled and shouted with “oh’s” and “ah’s”.

Rancher sat calmly on the bench that was set against the wall and sipped from a hot cup of coffee. Wes simply sat there lost in thought’s of what he planned to do when he’s turn came up. He looked about every once in a while to look at his competition, trying to guess what each rancher had brought with him.

One particular person that intimated Wes. It was a man that sat on the end of the opposite bench. The man sat there staring into the wall ahead of him. Though the man’s eyes were not fixed onto Wes they felt as if they were and their sharp gaze pierced Wes’ soul and made him in unease. The man was dressed in all black and had silver-rimmed frames set on the base of his nose. This man looked confident, not overconfident, but certainly confident looking enough as if he had this tournament in the bag. All the people here looked confident. If they were not then they were very good at hiding it. Wes only knew himself to be the nervous one. He figured that he probably was the only one here who hasn’t been to a tournament before, after all he’s not a certified rancher. He only ever had one monster and that was Fury. Was, that is. Wes had no idea where the heck Fury was now. Since that black dino, Ash, dragged him off. Perhaps, hopefully they will meet again.

“It’s been about 3 minutes now, since the tournament actually began. There was a minute time limit for each match, so the first one should be over by now,” Wes thought to himself. As in response the announcer was heard over the speakers…

“Times up! The winner is Loc! Now the next round will be ranchers Gou and Franky!”

After the speakers made a small pop sound indicating that the announcer shut off the speaker, a large man and a tall, slender man got up and walked out the wooden door. After a few silent seconds one rancher entered. Wes guessed it to be Loc, the rancher that one the last fight. It was a short woman wearing a white shirt and a black dress with small yellow flowers patterned in. She sat a few seats from Wes. Then, the silence washed over the room again. There were a few more rounds then Wes was finally called… to fight against Rancher. They both rose and made there way out the door, down the hallway, and up the steps. As they rose through the arc way at the end the light washed over them, then cleared to reveal a very large stadium with hundreds of people lining the seating.

“Well this is it,” began Rancher, “welcome to the world of rancher’s.” Wes headed toward one side of the stadium and Rancher headed toward the other. There was an addition to the stadium seats that the rancher would be stationed at during the fight. Wes knew that if he did not eat Rancher he’d be eliminated from the tournament.

Wes boarded he’s side and Rancher upon his own. A large stone double-door opened, opposite from the door the ranchers come from. Out walked Killa Kan and King. They made their way to the front of the additions and faced each other. A silence ran over the stadium. The wind blow, caressing the stadiums brim.

“It’s time,” the black clad man whispered. He stood from the bench in the waiting room and made his way toward the exit to the outside of the stadium. He was glad he didn’t have to fight or Killa Kan may have noticed him.

“GO!!” the voice rang over the speakers.

King charged at Killa Kan reading himself to execute his “Sol Uppercut” attack. Unfortunately Killa Kan knew most of King’s maneuvers, so he shifted his stance for a counterattack. Just as King was upon striking he quickly jutted to the side and was ready to spin kick the Gobi. Right as the Gobi saw that he wasn’t going to pull off the uppercut he tried to bring about his hand to whack the Hare, but he knew he wasn’t fast enough. The Hare took one step forward then brought up both of his legs and began to pull his weight around using his hips. He managed to reach the Golem’s head level then struck.

The man’s eyes narrowed, “Now,” he said quietly.

Just as King’s kicks was about to make contact…. he flew backwards, hurled across the stadium by the invisible assailant that had been there the entire time. The Hare smashed into the wall with such force that it left his indentation into the wall.

There was a brief second of confusion as an amount of people looked about stirred and bewildered. A swoosh sound was heard, and Killa Kan somehow blocked a whole barrage of incredibly fast attacks from the unseen foe. The Golem only backed up one step.

“What the hell is going on!?” shouted Rancher. Almost as if on cue, he looked up into the stadium seating and upon the top row, were the sun was rising, stood the darkened image of a man wearing a flowing pullover and a hat. The pullover wavered in one direction as the wind blew.

“No! Not here! There are too many innocent people! He’ll kill them all!” yelled Rancher as he ran to the steps that’d lead him to the seating. Though he was very far away from the cloaked man he ran as fast as he could.

Wes looked around in confusion then ran over to try and catch up with Rancher.

Just as Killa Kan retaliated from the several strikes he charged forward. He stuck one hand out almost as to catch something as he was running forward. Even for a Golem he ran with amazing speed. As was across the stadium in less then a couple seconds and he ran he hand into the wall, and that disabled the creatures cloaking technique.

There, pressed into the wall and being held there by Killa Kan’s large hand was the assailant. It was a Joker. Not just a normal one, but one Killa Kan knew. The Joker was black with a white mask and with a flame design running along the bottom of the robe and around the wrist. His scythe had a solid black handle and a bright silver blade. The hollow mask was in it’s locked smile and it echoed with laughter.

“Harvester,” Killa Kan said though clenched metal teeth.
“I’m going to rip you to shreds!” Harvester exclaimed in a chaotic tone.

Then with blazing speed the black Joker freed one arm then used his scythe to knock away one of the Golem’s arms the twirled the scythe in front of him, waving it left and right, in an attempt to strike at Killa Kan again. But as before the Golem backed away a little blocking the blows the attempted to pound the Joker by pulling off a series of quick punches.

It seemed useless though as the Joker swayed left and right managing to dodge the furious blows without even raising a hand, like that would do good anyway against a juggernaught like Killa Kan. Just as the last hand passed over Harvester used the butt of his scythe to pop up Killa Kan’s arm and got inside his reach, swinging his scythe around as he spun and managing to knock the Golem off balance. Then with a powerful and fast thrust aimed toward Killa Kan’s head, using the butt of the scythe, the Golem was grounded and a loud clang was produced when the scythe meet the metal.

“You haven’t changed! You are still the weakest of us! Either you use it now or you’re done for! “ the Joker cracked while laughing insanely.

“No I won’t let you win!” the Golem said as he began to rise. Just as he got to his feet Killa Kan was grounded again and rolled back a few feet. He saw the Harvester standing still with the butt of the scythe up in the air.

“AH HA HA HA!” Harvester laughed, “you couldn’t even see me coming! Do you want some aspirin for the rattled head?!”

Wes and Rancher were a good ten yards away when the figure jumped down. Wes and Rancher looked over the side to see that he has disappeared. They look back to see Killa Kan has been grounded.

“We’ve gotta help Killa Kan!” exclaimed Wes.
“No…we gotta get out of here,” Rancher said in a quiet and stern voice that surprised Wes.
“Why?” asked Wes.
“No time! I’ll explain later!” Rancher said running down the stadium seats and headed for the exit.

Killa Kan panted, he was still on the ground.

“Please don’t do this,” Killa Kan begged.
“Don’t do what?” cackled the Joker,” don’t make you responsible for the deaths of many hundreds? Isn’t it too late for that?”
“Yes! And leave me to be, leave Rancher out of this! Leave all my friends out of this they have nothing to do with it anymore!”
“No, they don’t. But you do!”
“Please don’t!” This only made Harvester laugh even harder, his howling was heard by everyone.
“And just to get you started let me get rid of this vermin here!” Harvester said as he turned so that Killa Kan could see King’s unconscious body. That did it to…

…Killa Kan’s face turned absolutely serious. His eyes began to glow red, and he slowly rose to his feet.

“Don’t you dare hurt him,” Killa Kan said in a soft voice. This only brought on more laughter from the Joker. Harvester totally disregarded the Golem and dashed at Killa Kan with his scythe above his head. He sped across to the Golem ready to deal the final blow and end this. Just as the Joker closed in, a loud metallic gear sounded quickly from Killa Kan.

Wes and Rancher reached the door and out into the street to see the man with the black long coat. His glasses sat on the base of his nose. Rancher stopped as he saw the man. Wes stopped with him confused of anything that was happening.

“Well,” the mysterious, man began,” it’s been a long time”….

-Nicholas D. Wolfwood-