Torvak Thorne had been standing in his quarters for over 7 hours. He had been eagerly awaiting his first matchup, and had nothing better to do, so he had been doing squats and sit-ups continuously for no reason.
Just a few minutes before the creature arrived at his door, he briefly opened a small paper he held in his pocket. It was a stick figure drawing of three people. One labeled "Me", one labeled "Probably dad", and one labeled "Probably mom".
Looking at this dialed back his energy, and he looked at it with a sense of longing, but not for long, as he crumpled it back into a ball and shoved it back in his pocket.
He soon heard a buzzing at his door, and thought it must be one of the mosquito creatures, so he threw open the door, and it slammed against the wall, and the Creature cowered in fear.
"OH HO HO! So you have finally come to tell me that it's my turn, right!?" His voice boomed throughout the halls and the Creature flinched every time he spoke.
"T-T-Torvak... Your first match is next... You a-a-are after... S-Sereth Vaelw-w-wyn."
Torvak slammed his hands against his thighs, and rejoiced.
"HUZZAH! I have been so excited to kick some ass!"
The Creature, not wanting anything more to do with this insane gorilla-like man, opened a gate and gestured for him to go through, which he did eagerly.
The crowd, still pumped after Sereth's battle against Dragok, welcomed Torvak with uproar of cheers. He removed his crimson gloves to reveal his gigantic hands, weathered and scarred. The announcer's voice boomed in.
"Our next matchup of the day will be just as good folks! So let's introduce our fighters! Coming out of the golden gate, we have Torvake Thorne! I haven't heard of him, but he sure looks scary!"
The crowd bursts into cheers at the sight of Torvak, which naturally provoked him to say something.
"HAHAHA! Prepare yourself! You all will witness an amazing battle today!"
His confidence was clear, and the crowd was loving it. Every word he spoke had a commanding sense to it.
"And emerging from the red gate, We actually don't know his real name, Please welcome the... uh... Shadow-walker?"
A figure emerged from the red gate, with its entire body covered in black ninja garments, it wore shuriken on its leg, and had a katana safely strapped to its back.
Torvak removed his red gloves and curled his fists. His mouth twisted into an eager grin, and prepared for the green flag.
"And begin!"
The ninja across from him began to dart in a zigzag pattern, while throwing black shuriken that screamed through the sky, Torvak struck them down with open palms, and they each vanished upon contact with his hands.
When Torvak refocused, he realized he could no longer see the ninja, who had jumped into the air and aimed for Torvak's head with his sword. Torvak was quicker than this and split the sword with a ridge strike from the side, and the ninja jumped back, but Torvak rushed forward and nailed him with a forward punch, sending him recoiling backward, into the wall.
"And now!" Torvak said, with his grin wider than ever, "You will lose the ability to perceive anything but color!"
The ninja began to tremble violently and cry out in terror and point at things while crawling backward in an attempt to get away from what he thought was his adversary. Torvak approached like an angel of destruction. Slowly and deliberately, his giant steps thundered forward as he wound up another punch, before crushing the ninja with it.
"And now, You will lose the ability to not be a pineapple!"
And surely enough, the ninja instantly transmogrified into a pineapple.
The crowd was quiet for a moment, as everybody stared in awe at the beast of a man who just reduced a well trained ninja into a literal fruit.
...
"TORVAK THORNE IS THE WINNER!!!"
The crowd went absolutely ballistic. Torvak raised both his hands in triumph and laughed loudly so that everybody could hear. Even after the gate had opened and the creature came out to the arena to bring him back he just kept yelling at the crowd. Though, after a little bit of persuasion, grabbed his gloves and stomped back through the gate.
He was sent back to the quarters. He had decided to head back to his room, but on his way, he bumped into someone.
"That was pretty sweet." Sereth exclaimed while grinning, "And here I thought I was gonna be the star of the show."
Torvak let out a hearty, but not explosive laugh.
"Thanks! I didn't see your match, but I heard you were damn-right decent!"
Sereth was definitely a little confused, but Torvak seemed like a friendly enough guy, and he figured it would probably be better to be on the friendly side of this loud, powerful gorilla.
"I appreciate it." Sereth replied.
"Haha! Yes!"
And without another word, Torvak stomped off leaving Sereth wondering what the hell was wrong with everybody here.
Torvak arrived at his room, but then decided against it. Much like Masaru, he hadn't really seen what was outside, so he found the nearest transporter and appeared outside the stadium.
It was raining. The city was devoid of life, and the electricity was weak, which made the only colors seem pale.
He started walking.
His gigantic feet sloshed through small puddles and signs flickered overhead. After getting some distance, he turned around to look at the giant stadium.
It was incredible. It was the biggest structure he had ever seen in his entire life. Brilliant neon colors radiated off of it, which probably explained why the rest of the city seemed bland. He saw spectators flood out the doors, like how the water created tiny rivers in the road. But he didn't feel comfortable when he looked at it.
He just felt like there was something that wasn't quite right about all this. The "Universal office for competitive absurdities" had a funny name, sure, but there had to be something more than that.
"I wonder." Torvak said quietly, in a rare moment of thought. "I really wonder."