[Deleted]

"Huntress, you'd better not try to make disciples of anyone you see."

"..."

"Stop staring at people and help us set up. We've a lot of work setting up our tents, you know."

"... That one. Strong spirit."

"NO, stop right there, huntress! That's a child!"

"Child is strong! Let him carry weapon."

"By a Jhen Mohran's scaly tusks, Ania... kid, where are your parents? Are you lost?"

"Child is NOT lost! Fate brought him here! Give him weapon to hold!"

---

It was quite an interesting spectacle. No fights had broken out, and no blood had been spilled. Not yet at least, especially with that woman around. She stood at 6'2 and was clad in blue, scaly armor and a long, green hakama. Her green eyes appeared to blaze with fervent enthusiasm, and her sun-darkened face was scarred in several places. Her straight, tied hair had a radiant crimson color that stretched all the way down to her legs. The one muscly arm that clutched onto a crying child was covered in scars and a wrist piece. 

Was she your friend? No. She wasn't anyone's friend. She was just a head hunter for enormous monsters, and in effect, the idea of fighting other humans was foreign to her.

But that didn't mean she deemed them weak. Her heart is to seek potential in everyone she comes across. No matter who it is, what age they may be, or what status they are, they could all be good disciples.

This huntress wasn't the brightest of the bunch, and she, more often than not, burned more steaks than she could count, but it didn't matter. Trials made a man, and in this case, a woman. You could say that she was just a meatheaded instructor, but in terms of survivability, she had yet to find an equal to herself.

"Little boy!" she thundered to the terrified child, "Would you like to become powerful hunter like Anastasia?!"

[Coolshaymin]

Black Mage was using the commotion caused by the Amazon to look around the camp. Now, it may just be his 'hero' instinct but where there was people, there was treasure. Even if the heaviest weapon Black Mage could lift was a staff and a knife, he could just inventory it to give away for something more... manageable. Like Mama Hippo's Cookies. Even those goodies of light were too powerful for even a dark hearted one like Black Mage to overcome. Then again, he heard there was hunters in this tribe? If they hunted powerful monsters by themselves would he stand a chance?

... They are probably simple minded savages anyway. Black Mage was the most intelligent person in the Life Sphere, he was sure he could easily outwit them if he was caught. OOooooo! A treasure chest! Putting stuff in these basically says open up the box and take me. Black Mage for one doesn't mind if he does. As he reaches though he trips and hits the ground face first causing a bit of noise. "Ugh, I got to really work on my traction. First Ice while fighting those stupid Gemini Twins, now this."

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

It was another off day today, just like any other day, but this day was more productive than others because Ragna was busy with his training, despite his loss to his mortal enemy in Hazama, it was still never a good time as any to focus on proving that he was the stronger of the two of them, regardless of his being the inconsistant Glass Cannon.

"Maybe I'm reaching my current limit, but I still need to hone my strength a bit more, better try that arena again just to be sure." ragna said to himself, wiping sweat from his browdue to the fact that he was training all by his lonesome.  It was the only thing that was keeping him going besides the cheering and jeering fans who saw him in some of those matches.  He didn't care either way, mainly because he wanted a good strong opponent to beat the floor with in single melee combat.

[Deleted]

At first, it was the noise, but then came a strange aura. A particular, unfamiliar strength, one that is completely foreign. There was something powerful shuffling amongst their belongings.

Anastasia's fervent gaze drifted over to a spot by her luggage as she dropped the child almost instantaneously. She instinctively crouched down and started moving quietly over, stopping at her special equipment chest, stuffed to the brim with weapons and armor pieces. These were more like relics rather than actual equipment, since many of the weapons were chipped and blunt, and most of the armor pieces were too brittle to consider wearing.

But on the subject at hand, the aura came right behind the box where she was, and so she looked over it.

"Oh?" she smiled in a somewhat cheerful manner, "I have never seen strange man before. Are you here to train under Anastasia?"

At the same time, there was another presence nearby that gave her chills, causing her to look up cautiously over into the passing crowd. There was no panic to see, so that must mean that there was no large monsters to worry about...

Unless it was a Chameleos. That would be bad.

"Stand up!" the huntress commanded as she stepped over the box and picked the little man up with her one arm, "Do you feel it? Presence of strong monster. Invisible! Must be Chameleos. Care. You must have it."

[Coolshaymin]

"Uh no, I'm not here to train under anyone. I'm here to..." Black Mage paused he can't just say he was here to steal her belongings. That would be pretty stupid to do. Even if they weren't hers he doubted she would like him stealing belongings in this camp in general. And what was with her arm? ... Or lack there of in this case.

Fortunately she changed the subject. Wow she had a lot of strength in this arm. Would be great if she wasn't as dumb as fighter... but he had a feeling this wasn't the case. Black Mage was caught off guard by her talking about a strong monster. She had some natural sensing ability as well? Well, that might of been how she found him so easily he guesses. Still, he did not know what a 'Chameleos' was but he was curious in what she sensed. After a few seconds his magic sense did pick up on a strong dark aura... but it was coming from some random guy that was training. "Um, hate to break it to you, but that is not a monster. Its just that Ragna guy that lost to Snake boy. Must be training himself because of self conciousness or something."

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

The crowds of the Huntresses fellows did not seem to notice Ragna, but having heard the Black Mage call him 'guy' and refering to Hazama as 'Snake Boy' seemed to strike a certain nerve, a nerve that would immediately earn Black Mage a one-way ticket to the infirmary via the Black Onslaught. "Hmph. Just some silly magic user, not even affiliated with the N.O.L.... I've no time for spellslingers raining on my parade, the one-armed woman on the other hand must have sensed the might of a creature that seems to have been stirred from my last fight with 'Snake Boy' as you would call him. But either way..." Ragna unsheathed his weapon, it looked like it was a claymore though the power it eminated was enough to make anyone near it back away from the weapon in utter fear of what it really was. And he pointed at the huntress with this weapon, clearly sensing that she might be a worthy challenger, "If you want to show people your power, the best place for it would be the Sunshine Stadium, that is where all the Battle-Freaks go to test their skills, I even heard that there are boss battles being conducted at the arena at this moment. I intend to see who in the 'Melee' department is worthy enough to put on a show fit for a crowd of Smash-Match fans." Ragna said, the blade extending and revealing its true form to be the dreaded BloodScythe. the weapon belonging to none other than Ragna The Bloodedge, whom BM and Ania were so conveniently glimpsing.

All the while, the dark aura emmited by Ragna revealed a bestial serpentine head with evil and menacing red eyes and razor sharp fangs poised in a growling snarl, one of the eight heads of the 'creature' that was sleeping within Ragna, an extremely deadly creature known only in Blazblue Lore as the Black Beast.

[Deleted]

As the powerful man made his appearance and demonstrated his unusual power, Anastasia's face instantly brightened and let go of the man with the pointy hat. "Are you great hunter, too, Ragna guy? Loss is normal trial. Happen every now and then for Anastasia." She thumped her fist above her chest and grinned, "Sorry. I am Anastasia, One-Armed Huntress! Strong hunters are attracted to each other, yes? Perhaps you can help Anastasia fight monster we bring from home. Accident. Big sorry."

"Would you quit it with the hurdy-gurdy talk, Ah-nya?" a squeaky, meowing voice grumbled. A striped Felyne popped up from behind the equipment box and stood on top of it, "You're making us sound like barbarians, nya."

Anastasia put her hand demurely over her mouth and chuckled, "Oh, please, silly cat. You're ruining my perfectly good idiot cover." She placed her hand on her hip and looked down at the man with the pointy hat, and then back to the Ragna guy, "So, let me get this straight. You're gladiators of some kind? What do you do, kill each other? That's a big no-no where I'm from."

[Coolshaymin]

Black Mage regained balance from the one armed amazon letting go of him. Black Mage was not really afraid of Ragna's scythe. Black Mage was a powerful practicer in Black Magic so he did not really fear weapons of darkness. Nor did he dear the dark auras he felt from Snake Boy and this guy, Black Mage was familiar enough with the dark presence stuff to not really worry about it. Besides, Black Mage had a strong dark energy about him too and he wasn't about to fear himself. Though the statement the Amazon said was clearly a sign she was new here. Good thing she seemed to be smarter than her broken english implied but Black Mage did not have hope. What was with the cat thing anyway? Who really uses talking cats as assitants, it is really cliche.

"The Stadium is not so much a fight to the death as a test of ability. The rules even forbid from finishing your opponent off. Each combatant is given a time limit to fight each other, at the end of the time limit a judge will pick who he deemed to be the better fighter. About the best entertainment there is in the Life Sphere to be honest. I go there regularly to watch the violence unfold. I'm pretty strong myself but I never really cared enough to have a match set up," Black Mage explains. Truth be told he also doesn't really participate because he was kinda frail but he wouldn't admit it.

[Maverick Hunter Zero]

"I only go there because I seek to test my limits, I'll not fight you now, because I have an errand to finish for a certain 'Turtle', then I'll enjoy my time hunting monsters and destroying the N.O.L. facilities I find at my leisure." Ragna said, firmly planting the BloodScythe -which was in its claymore form- into the ground, then took off his heavy red jacket.

This revealed that Ragna was not so difficult to read at first glance, his height less than that of Ania, there were several diferences however; Ragna had white Spiky hair, a Red eye and a Green eye, and an Azure Grimoire Arm, the other arm being similar, but with the dream engine being incorperated.

"Best to enjoy myself from time to time, now what can you tell me about your line of work, I might not be bored off my rocker with all the crazy crap that's been going on; what with three Legends of the Life Sphere being kidnapped and all that." Ragna added, taking a seat with his weapon behind him, and wondering if these hunters had any meat-based dishes on them... suffice to say, Ragna was hungry and training for several weeks straight would make anyone want to eat a Lizalfos that was skewered by a spear straight in the gut.