Tournament of Red Lions: Round Two

[Zado Zudamee]

Scythes saber floated out of its sheath and into his hand,the sun glinting off its needlelike blade. ``And so it begins.``

Scythe flew at Lucius,a Sonic Boom roaring behind him.Moving with unexpected speed,Lucius hurtled to the side,barely avoiding being skewered.But before his feet had touched the ground,Needles pommel had caught him on the forehead,knocking him to the ground with a small depression in his skull.Scythe stabbed down at his opponents face,but Lucius rolled to the side,getting a dissected ear in the proccess.Lucius,still slightly stunned by the blow to his head,quickly tried to get off the ground,but was knocked back down by a vicious kick to the side.

Lucius coughed up blood,but quickly drew his sword to block another lightning flash blow from Needle while he was still on his back.Scythe stepped back,allowing his opponent to regain his footing.``This will be an intresting fight.``Scythe said casually,awaiting his opponents move...

[Scripture]

As Sun Chaser sprinted forward, he had no intention of fighting to the death simply for the honor of it – he had roamed the earth for more days then he could ever chart, it was almost the only thing he knew how to do. This female arrival all done up in black, she was just a road-block on a never-ending highway.

Sun Chaser’s fist had little repute for doing much, but as he stopped on a dime in front of the woman, stabilized himself, and twisted at the hips, it demonstrated itself to be the equivalent of a palm-sized cannon; smacking the woman without honorary inhibitions in the jaw and lifting her into the air, the explosions of any number of blood vessels creating a purple blemish near her chin. Her assailant felt something grip his mind, but disregarded it as a mere bout of light-headedness.

His other fist coiled and shot forward like a shotgun blast; it caught her in the gut and pumped the air from her lungs, coaxing even a small rivulet of blood to stain her cloth mask. Her back hit the rock and recoiled, arching her, those eyes for a moment knowing pain before flame was reflected in her oceanic irises.

From what used to be Sun Chaser’s fingernails shot vines that grew as they hit the air; warped growth, they glowed with rising-sun brilliance only dulled by the their incongruent soil. That same, earthy flow seeped up the Chaser’s veins, looking like alcohol silhouetted in strobe lights. The veins quickly sought out the woman, the first group of them aimed for her head – they were rent apart by innumerable invisible hands in great explosions of vicious flame, those eyes flaring.

Chaser’s elbow, attached to the hand from which the alien veins sprouted, came downward and snapped the woman’s head back against the rock, the sound of her skull splitting ringing in her ears as vines encircled her neck and knotted off. The ends came up, wriggled from the tie and reared like venus fly-traps. From their throats poured golden flame, the shadows ebbing as their glowing pulsed inside them, poured out from those smooth mouths. It was diverted as if by a wall for a moment, a swift kick allowed the passionate light to do away with her hair, most of her good looks. She screamed as her flesh burnt away, the sinews charring and becoming like old paper.

The Chaser allowed this to take place, until a blip on the organic server of psychics told him this woman had her wits back in great fury; this was remedied by the stopping of the flame and the immediate hauling up of the Chaser’s catch, like a prisoner trapped in hay. He whipped his arm towards that great city, but did not allow the arc to sever his precious vines, instead opted for slamming her into the rock before him, eliciting small pops as she had the consciousness to shift her weight and take the hit with her shoulder. It fell out of alignment, but a second attempt on the reverse proved much more effective on her rib-cage.

Without further adieu or precautionary violence, he grunted and allowed the greenery which so precariously held fire to burst open, dousing the woman completely in fire. She was easy to see as he whipped her forward with a pitcher’s mentality, ending their withering connection and sending her through the nearest building’s massive window, glass finding its way into her burning skin and melting there, numerous other office supplies burning or adhering to her; and still the plants mindlessly torched her, almost out of fuel but relentless even in their death throes.

[ July 15, 2005, 10:23 PM: Message edited by: Scripture ]

[NintendoGod]

"Well, this should be an interesting fight," Scythe remarked as he watched Lucius carefully. Lucius gave a low chuckle, then replied in a chiding tone.
"If you're going to be vicious, you shouldn't give your opponent-"
Suddenly, the sound seemed to change places in an instant, the conversation continuing unabated as Lucius appeared right behind him, an identical version to the one who sat before him, except completely unhurt. He was close, barely an inch behind him, almost whispering in his ear.
"-A chance to retaliate."
"An illusion!"
Scythe moved, faster than quicksilver, his sword coming up and around to attack his foe...
...only to have it pass harmlessly through what he thought to be the true Lucius, dispelling the new arrival. His suprise and annoyance was met with an equally strong blow to the spine, arching his back as Lucius' second move, a kick to the knees, dropped him on his back. He followed it up with a somersault backwards, bringing him to his feet again, but Lucius's blade sang out and gave him a sharp blow to the leg. As he stood and came towards his foe, Lucius seemed to split in two, going in opposite directions.

Scythe groaned. The paladin was busy playing mind games with him, which could prove to be deadly if he wasn't careful. He strode forward as the two Luciuses came for him. He ducked and leapt, dodging both blades as they came at him, and landed on one knee. With his sword he decapitated the one to his right with a solid blow, the sword singing harmlessly through the dissipating form of Lucius. His left, a strong backhand, nailed the second one in the temple... only to have it vanish aswell. As he swore mentally, a heavy blow dropped on him, kicking his head backwards and knocking a tooth lose. Lucius reformed before him, once again visible, his sword following the heavy booted kick that had knocked Scythe to the ground. The blade met flesh, digging into his right arm and leaving a nasty gash, despite Scythe's roll away to the side which negated most of the blow's force. As he rose on one arm, Lucius split again, now three separate forms, two of which charged towards him.

Scythe grinned. He ducked past the left one, and parried aside the right, his sword swinging around at the third, which sat behind the other two.
"Gotcha!"
His sword hit... and fell through.
"Son of-
The second illusion he had parried spun, bringing his sword down to cut through his unprotected backside, while the first came right behind it...

[ July 16, 2005, 05:35 AM: Message edited by: NintendoGod ]

[Asnabel]

A lone man slowly made the ascent to the top of the pyramid, marveling at its construction even as he cursed its size. He wore very loose, jet-black garments which caused him to stick out on the pyramid’s surface. The only uncovered part of his body was his head, and even then the lower half of his face was still covered by a small black mask. His dark hair flowed behind him gently, and his eyes were of a striking red color. As he climbed the massive structure, the long lacquered scabbard on his belt jingled at his side along with the several small medals he carried with him.

It wasn’t long before the man in black reached the zenith of the pyramid, and was face to face with the strange creature that was his opponent. For only a moment the man looked at his opponent mildly shocked at his appearance, but quickly composed himself. He drew a long, gently curving sword from the scabbard at his hip, and spoke quickly “My name is Sol. I’m here to kill you.” And with this he sank into a combat position, and readied himself for the battle.

OoC: Sorry for being late and not giving a very good post.

[Zado Zudamee]

Scythe,instead of risking another miss on an illusion,slammed his hands into the ground.There was an earshattering BOOM of thunder,and electricity channeled through the ground around him.The illusions dissapeared,leaving the real Lucius thrashing around on the ground,lightning coursing through him.Scythe stood from his crouch,just as Lucius was regaining some mucle control.

Lucius gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand,bearing the terrible pain his muscles were going through.But before he could use another of his tricks,another blast of lightning poured into his chest,then lifted him into the air.As he floated some 50 feet above the ground,Scythe continued to pour energy into his body,then stopped.His opponent fell to the ground,landing with a sickening crack ....

[Erdawn Il Deus]

OoC: Thanks, Dusty. ^^

Sol’s boastful comments fell almost anti-climactically across the heat fog of the pyramid, namely because the Thing that stood or hunched or just was before him took an enormous amount of time to react. Whether it was slow-thinking or spiteful, when it did move, it was hardly a response. A single, knuckled hand lifted easefully from the melt of skins and hides, skin coal black and slick and stretched so tight across the bones it should have ripped. Snaps and chimes and rattles cracked across the heavy silence as bone necklaces and bracelets of enamel clacked together. This thing took so much time to move it might have been slowed by poisons or bound by invisible rope.

-But he is poison.- Sol acknowledged – the thought was involuntary, but it popped into his head just the same. At least the hand categorized it as a human – assumed male. But that was an airy hope.

Suddenly, the figure whip-lashed his corded wrist, as if to crack something off the flat marble surface of the temple-face.

The crack echoed with the lethargy of hollow bones. He was holding a curved staff made up of a stretched knitting of inverted snake-spines and crowned with the eyeless sockets and macabre teeth and grin of an elk skull – the bones so old they had yellowed and fossilized, the vertebral disks rattling against each other like hardened eggshells.

The staff raised and fell down, and now the bottom was the racketed pelvis of butchered deer, dried and ancient and somehow horrible.

He had been holding the staff all along… ?

Sol narrowed his eyes. If he hadn’t done so already, he would be sliding into defensive stance. And a good thing, too. Air was ripped from space down gale-force canals as the thing moved – and it moved as to betray every idea nurtured by the former, ritualistic sluggishness.

Because it was only sweaty baboon pelts, Sol could not tell how many times whatever feet or paws it had met solid ground, but it rocketed towards him like a furred worm and left a sonic boom that crashed like thunder and ripped long like the tearing of sheet metal in its wake. Sol licked out with his sword to puncture an eye-socket – trained combat knowledge sought out anything that could be considered a weak-point, even if what he struck at moved in unshapely ripples betraying any angular point of entry. The hand twisted with subtle but muscular power and the staff wheeled and the heavy deer pelvis of the butt rose and arced and slammed down hard on his sword blade, bringing the arm and wrist downwards and pinning the hilt to the grey and black marble with enough strength to crack his knuckles, wrenching his entire body by the shoulder in a lean. Without wavering, the forehead of the calcified elk skull smashed into Sol’s nose, rupturing blood vessels and capillaries, spilling blood hot and slippy from his nostrils and blurring his vision with stinging tears. Sol’s head rocked back, the skull lowered, aimed, and shot forward, and a thorny nest of antlers slammed into the dark man’s teeth, ripping open his cheek and actually locking inside his mouth between smashed molars, opening his jaws into a painful wedge, pushing forwards with weaving strength to slam back his skull, push him off balance, and force Sol into the air in a single, monstrous lurch of arm muscle. The warrior slammed and skidded across the marble, chipping and cracking fissures across the unmarred (if crusted) surface, sliding backwards like a curling stone, his blood spattering from his face in sleet sprays of hot droplets, drawing patterns on the hewed rock.

A single spoken word belched from beneath the curtains of coarse white fur, something unlike anything produced by human throats, and the witch in the baboon pelts lifted the morbid scepter and brought the skull-crown to crack heavily off the rock. As it made contact, the rock moved like a thing alive – bulging upwards as if being uplifted from beneath by some subterranean rock whale, marble brick bruised and pushed up in mosaics of broken stone, the fissure line steam-rolling towards Sol’s still-sliding body in a beeline of dark purpose. As the rupture struck him, rock measured in tons and aged in centuries pulsated like the beating of a pangean heart, slamming upwards against Sol’s skeleton and shooting him straight up into the air like a bottle-rocket.

He came down past the edge, and landed hard down the side of the gold-brick staircase, a few even rolling loose and following his crunching, battering passage down the pyramid-side like yellow boulders. He left a trail of blood and skin.

The barbarian witch moved to follow his passage, standing, or hunching, at the top of the western stair-wall. For the first time, he answered Sol’s greeting.

”Haughty claims, inchling,” – his voice throbbed like an organic drum, scabrous and deep. ”Presuming to kill who’s business is death, and sacrifice, and things undreamed. You shall kneel, and by Flesh your bones shall be drawn in a circle around your penitent corpse.”

He drew in faceless breath, and the entire bulk of furs stirred and shook so intricately and violently it was like the shaking of a snake rattle or the buzzing of a bee’s ass, a revolting vibration that made the pelt-hairs stiffen like quills off the warm hideskins, as if pushed by a thousand small and violent things underneath.

”Come unto me, and be splintered!”

OoC: Bit long, but I reckon it did me proud.

[Erdawn Il Deus]

OoC: ...This round ends Monday? ****hawk. Orchis, post fast! I will not be robbed of another battle with you! > [img]redface.gif[/img]

[Scripture]

What?! Dammit, I thought it ended Wednesday. ...

My amazing math skills are demonstrated once more!

[NintendoGod]

OoC: Monday? Bah. And here I was taking the day off...

Lucius hit the ground hard, tendrils of energy crackling down his profile as he slowly rose on both hands. He had broken at least a ribs from the fall, though he had managed to brace himself before he hit. As he lay there, he began collecting energy from the land around him, purging the electricity from his form and into the ground below him. In it's place, he drew in coolness. His body slowly became colder and colder as he channeled, closing his eyes as he pulled in every scrap of energy he could find...

Scythe slowly walked towards his fallen opponent; he lay still, barely moving, seeming unwilling to rise. However, as he got closer, he could see something interesting. Ice was slowly forming over Lucius' form, encasing him at first with a thin sheet, then slowly spreading around him, coating the ground at a rapid pace. As if instantaneous, the air around him dropped several degrees, the grass solidifying as ice began to coat EVERYTHING. Scythe grunted in annoyance as he stepped back, ripping his boots from the ice that began to encase them. No snow was falling, yet the entire area was almost like a blizzard had hit. He turned back towards Lucius, who now was deep within a very thick block of pure ice. And despite the fact that it was harder to walk, he couldn't find any danger from this attack. He chuckled a bit as he started to walk towards the frozen form...

Then a gust of wind slammed into him. It wasn't just a chilly breeze, it literally slammed into him, lifting him into the air a good 15 feet and slamming him down into the ice, harder than even Lucius' fall had been, cratering the ice beneath him. As he tried to grasp onto the slippery ground beneath him, he was lifted up again. But as he rose, the entire upper layer of the ice flaked off, frozen daggers and glassine rocks, some ground into snow and tossed into the air. The wind almost had a mind of it's own, orchestrating the entire scene within the odd, blue haze of Lucius' potent magic. Scythe gripped his blade, beginning to channel another spell; a bolt of lightning seared down towards his frozen opponent, ready to fry him yet again... yet when it hit, it seemed to channel harmlessly around the ice, it's magical infusion shrugging it off and moving it aside. As he watched on, he was slammed to the ice again, then lifted up again and slammed down once more. As he choked on his own blood, he was lifted up and tossed down, once more. As he landed again, harder and faster this time, the cyclone of winds around him seemed to encroach, slashing at him over and over again, beating him senseless and rending through clothing and flesh alike, the seemingly weak ice rendered as hard as steel. He felt horribly cold, freezing his skin and cooling his blood, and he nearly fell unconcious. Then, as the winds started to slow, he saw the ground coming up fast. He hit hard, a wet slap on the ground as his bleeding form hit and bounced once, rolling over onto his back. He was still concious and could see the ice above him; in less than a second, the water melted and reformed, the shards of ice transforming into a single large chunk, almost like an icicle, which proceeded towards Scythe, intent on impaling him to the ground...

[Zado Zudamee]

Like plants growing at superspeed,Scythes wings sprouted from his shoulders,and with frenzied beating,pulled up just short of being impaled.Chunks of ice clinging to him melted as he crackled with energy,spreading from the tips of his wings.The clear blue sky dissappeared as black clouds began to form.Lucius,seeing that something serious was about to happen,quickly began to form a shield of ice around him.

The energy that had engulfed Scythe began to spread to the storm clouds around him,which now filled the sky from horizon to horizon.Thunder boomed like a huge wardrum,and the air seemed to grow thick.Everything grew silent for one split second;the birds stopped chirping,the insects ceased their buzzing,and time seemed to stand still.Then;

BOOOOM!

The sky exploded;hundreds of lightning bolts pummeled the ground.There was a sound like the roar of a hundred freight trains,or the roar of a thousand lions.The ice melted instantly,covering the ground in water. The unfrozen grass burst into flame,and many trees fell,burning,to the ground.Finally,after what seemed an eternity,the barrage finally stopped...

Scythe looked down at what had once been a plain,but was now a torched wasteland.He landed slightly next to the burning husk of a tree,and began to search for Lucius.He soon found him lying in a pool of water,his skin torched torched black and covered in soot,an unhealthy amount of electricity coursing through him,but alive.``Amazing!``Scythe said as he looked down at his dazed opponent.Lucius groaned in pain,then stood up! .

[Scripture]

Sun Chaser felt like used chewing tobacco. His chest poured blood, a peculiar light flickering about it, was drawing the eye of the illusionist. The disfigured muscles there wrenched and twitched, his body still sparking in some places like a plasma ball.

Chaser rose and quivered, what appeared to be molasses dripping from his chest wound. His hands hung at his hips like a gunslinger’s before the draw. To the woman’s chagrin, they snapped to attention – the mere image of him walking was miraculous, but even his misfiring nervous system was able to follow a simple command of rage. He took a step forward, steam rising from where his blood touched down.

The woman focused a storm of telekinetic force at him, looking prone like a bum on the side of the street. He continued walking with that same ungraceful swagger, disregarding the invisible squall about him. His eyes were half open, but slowly rose to full consciousness; teeth were revealed to be golden, decayed but not maggot infested; his features pulled taut as fury pounded through his veins, a light beginning in his head and then spreading like venom the length of his body. The woman knew for that brief instant no illusion would work on him and that such a warning-signal type of psychic blast would only drove his urges on.

Sun Chaser was suddenly right in front of her, not grinning but showing his teeth in a demonic frown which was quickly made insignificant to his hand driving its way through the fabric of her clothing, imposing blunt fingers through her abdominal flesh to grip the muscles beneath. His hand looked bloodied from the gesture, but the red liquid had simply melted through his flesh, becoming too divine to be held anymore. His hand smoked away, fumes billowed from her wound, and shattered capillaries and veins took the acidic blood down their appointed paths.

She screamed, now, as Chaser turned to rock in her mental grasp, as much a part of the environment as each smooth curve of the country. She screamed as the acid-blood coursed through her veins, diffusing so as to become less potent, but still roasting her from the inside, charring flesh. Her heart beat faster in the agony, and the Chaser continued to bleed – in the deepest reaches of her mind, she hoped the man didn’t have anything to diagnose – until the blood reached her face, melted her eyes like a an inmate on the electric-chair, sent her hair, once more, into smoke.

She was vaguely aware of movement, of being dragged along by her abs through the ground in what must’ve been an awkward crook of the back for Sun Chaser. She had a head-ache, felt dim thoughts waver in her mind, and felt motor-nerves act on their own so violently plumes of flesh and meat shot off her body jerkily. Her brain was being roasted like corn in boiling water.

Chaser jammed her head into something too solid, among durable plaster and metallic braces and other parts of the same building she had burst from, not meant for the incursion of skulls. It was the corner of what once was a reputable office-building, now smoldering through its back. Chaser groggily pushed her headfirst through the thick wall, hoping to damage that precious link between brain and body while simultaneously acid seared her precious gray matter.

Sun Chaser took another grip and tore his hand from the woman, a black and red spray of gore showering him as cauterized arteries tore open anew. He fell to a knee, clasping his hands as if in prayer, and willed his blood to heat up despite its diffusion. Her black flesh became hot as an iron and the woman began to bulge with heat swells in all the wrong places as Chaser took his own end of the bargain. Smoke rose from the two though only one high-pitched scream pierced the air.

He gripped that steel rod attached to his arm and wrenched it free. The glow dulled. He brought it down on the grotesque protrusion of cooked flesh before him. Her shins turned to powder, ribs exploded and punctured cooked organs, arm-bones buckled around muscles. Cooked ivory shattering like potting clay.

[ July 18, 2005, 12:43 AM: Message edited by: Scripture ]

[Erdawn Il Deus]

@#!&$, man. =P

[NintendoGod]

Lucius stood, shakily. His cloak, one a pristine white garb, hung at his back, the fabric torn from the metal underlay and leaving a burned remain. His flesh was scarred from the energy, soot falling from his soaked form. Yet he still stood. Around him, almost as a reply to his arisal, the clouds above boomed, and rain started to fall. The rain was not a sprinkle, but a full downpour, the water below them rising. Scythe shielded his eyes, trying to watch his opponent, but the rain came so fast, so hard, that his visibility dropped to zero. He started to rise higher, when a sudden blast of water nailed him in the upper back, flipping him forwards and locking his muscles, his wings freezing in mid flap. He dropped, and managed to recover, only for two more blasts to hit him. Potent orbs of water and energy, they hit him like boulders, blasting him down to the ground. But the ground had vanished beneath the rising tide, which started to fill the valley like an ocean. An obscene amount of water was forming, flowing from everywhere and nowhere at once, until Scythe was floating in what looked like a small lake. Suprised, he started to lift off again... But he could not move. The water around him spiralled, a vortex pulling him down into the water, beneath the rapidly growing waves.

As he sank downward, the undefinable force of the water pulling him down and defying his every move, he saw Lucius. He floated, neither bouyant or not, in a bubble of air at the very center of this new body of water. He said not a word, and instead continued to channel his magic. Despite the incredible pain and duress he was under, and the great strain such an orchestration was causing, he still managed it. Suddenly, Scythe felt an incredibly pressure upon him; as if every drop of water in the entire lake was shoving inward, directly upon him. He tried to focus another lightning-fast bolt of energy, yet he could not summon the will, the water pulsing inward, pushing at his chest and driving the air from his lungs. His breath left him, and his body convulsed as the pressure increased even more, the water spiralling around him in a whirlpool, slowly crushing his relatively frail form inward, endlessly dragging him down...

[Omni_Link]

oh ****ing wow pick my poison huh? scripture or wyborn....wow easy damn choice there!. and since I didn't get a chance to battle I'm feeling most uninspired to battle and time soon....lame...

[Cosenticus]

Since I cannot call time at 4:00 PM EST and since we got started a little slow, I'm extending the time limit to about 10:30 PM EST.

[Lycrios]

I'm working until late tonight, so, my judging will only posted then, but it will be posted, no worries there.

[Zado Zudamee]

The water foiled all of Scythes efforts to escape,and continued to crush down on him.Finally,he knew there was only one way to escape from a watery grave,and that was to toss away his human disguise and assume his real form.As his bones began to groan from the agonizing pressure,he began to change.His wings spread,and took on a whiter shade than before.Feathers began to sprout along his body,and his face bulged out into a hooked beak.....

Lucius continued the flood,and finally stopped when he could no longer manage it.What had once been a grassland,then a burning, desert,was now a raging ocean,clotted with whirlpools and tides.But he knew he could relax to a degree,for Scythe would surely have drowned by now.But as he was about to reverse the effects of his spell,an eerie sound filled his ears.Like the song of a pod of whales,it spread out for miles through the mini ocean.In one spot,the water boiled and glowed yellow,then exploded outwards as something broke the surface.

What emerged from the ocean was a huge Phoenix like creature,with a wingspan of 15 feet.Electricity crackled around it,and its plumage was the brightest white.Scythe gave another cry,then dove back into the water.Lucius tried to cast another spell,but was instantly snatched up in Scythes talons and ripped out of his air bubble.Lightning poured into Lucius from contact with his opponent,and the water he was drenched in didnt help at all.As they soared high above the lake,Scythe dug his talons deeped into Lucius,piercing his armour,then released him.The Paladin plummeted through the air,hitting the surface like a brick,then sinking...

[Lycrios]

Yeah, but that time limit is that still for today? And well, it's expired now I guess... So, should I call time?

[ July 18, 2005, 09:56 PM: Message edited by: Lycrios ]

[Scripture]

We're three minutes past the time limit! Golly gee!

[Lycrios]

Three?? Wait what? Ok, then I might not be suited to call time then [img]graemlins/lol.gif[/img] When will I ever get used to the time here...