Congratulations for making it into the Tournament of Champions. Both teams receive two Fate Points for making it this far! Posting can begin at 12 PM EST on the 14th and the battle closes at 11:59 AM EST on February 4th. Good luck to both teams!
Arenas were arranged at random, and your prompt is as follows:
Your battlefield is snowy peak of a mighty mountain. The air is cold, the winds are strong, and the ledges are deadly.
Howling wind took over this area of ice and freezing cold, the temp was well below negative ten degrees and life seemed to come to a complete stand still. For miles around nothing but white was seen within this area, the ground harder than that of a diamond in some places but softer than a feather at others. Snowdrifts began to blow around this seemingly lifeless area; snow mounds well over thirty feet high encased this area randomly through hills and flat lands. Small foot prints of arctic foxes and snow rabbits went through this area, some life was present but most gone for the winter to survive since they wouldn’t live through such a cold. The wind whipped around great portions of snow and ice while it continuously feel like an endless abyss of light instead of darkness, through each great whip of wind another snow bound creature was uncovered or covered by this great and deadly blanket of white death.
Flowing deep into the area a small arena was found towards the edge of this snowy mountain, the arena was cut off from the animals by a large now rusty gate that had seen many many years of abuse from harsh climate along with bodies being thrown upon it like rag dolls of death. This gate seemed to stretch from the eastern half of this island to the west, colored now a dark brown color it was easily covered by the great mounds of snow and ice making it appear solid although it was originally a chain linked gate. Blowing against this gate with great force it always appeared the wind was bound to knock this great feat over but still it stood strong, never wavering under such harsh contact, just giving a simple creek or groan of movement but never gone, always there standing tall. This now solid gate of ice and metal went exactly forty feet high, a height which most animals were unable to jump alone or with help.
Being closed off in a rectangle shape there was around fifty feet of open space between the wall and the arena, occupying this space was a very thin layer of ice which was covered in snow that if even the slightest amount of added weight other than snow was to touch it, it would surely break sending that entire half in a domino effect crashing down sending whatever was on top of that ice down into the freezing water that if left unchecked would freeze the one who fell in within a minute.
The rectangle shaped arena appeared to be made out of some type of transparent material, looking down upon it one would see nothing but the water below them flowing. This made differentiating the arena floor from the extremely fragile ice which lie there waiting to be broken difficult, if nearly impossible. Having a very low visiblity within this deadly area it would test all the fighters within, even the slightest step could send them deep into this water and possibly end their life. The material in which the fighters would be upon would seem sturdy, having lasted many years within this harsh climate and constant freeze over of the ice must have left it strong enough, at least they would hope so.
On each corner of the arena were pillars of great proportions, with rounded bases that stuck below the ice these great pillars were twenty feet in diameter. Each pillar held a design of a different element but what each design did was help protect the arena created from souls to not be broken since many strong fighters came to this area with tremendous and outrageous attacks that would clearly cave the earth in to create craters and such but were stopped due to four pillars. At the top of these fifty-foot pillars large platforms twenty-five feet in length and width covered it, this allowed for fighters to jump to a higher ground for fighting. The length of the arena was well over twenty miles, which gave plenty of fighting room while the width was around ten miles.
The snowy whiteness of this beautiful day was about to be changed, sliding over the great wall of ice and metal a fairly small shadow appeared. Small shadow prints for legs galloped across the snow; leaving no physical prints upon the snow meaning it was weightless allowed this tiny wolf shadow to run free across the shallow ice floor.
"Hmm...this must be the place, I hope it is at least..."
continuing to run to the arena this small wolf sat, the same size and shape of an adult wolf this Shadow wolf was different in every other possible way. It was merely a shadow upon the ground, no physical form, simply what would be if there was a real wolf sitting there. The twin tails of this shadow wolf waving back and forth, waiting and wanting there was always something about those that made people wonder. The white dots for what one would take as eyes now began to move, streaks of white now began to radiate throughout the frame of this small three-foot wolf shape. While within this small shadow state a great power began to shake the arena floor, great waves of twilight began to come off of this shadows being. Going out seven feet in diameter within a half of a second, the waves of twilight began to give a small opening with this shadow to transform.
A faint sound began to emit fromt his wolf, the sound of electricity running wild began to break the silence. This crackling began to get louder as the small wolf shape finally began to take form, swirling around like that of a hurricane in a counter clockwise spin it began to lift up off the ground. Spiraling up a new form began to show, what exactly this form was many knew but none knew of this exact way of his coming. The shining of a bright light ensued, like a star put on this planet it could be seen for miles and miles around. Not a word uttered nor a sound made a wave of darkness swept out from what was once this bright white light, continuous another wave of light followed quickly by darkness began to come off of this light. The Twilight upon the ground now began to seep back towards the center as the waves now cocooned around this light, blocking it out with only quick flashes happening as the power continued to rampage some what.
Spinning fast and faster with the rays of that bright light coming out fast and faster, nearly to the point that the light didn't seem to be flashing it stopped. The power still rampaged by the light within the center now disappeared, within the center of this cocoon two orbs began to glow. Mysterious this power seemed to simply out shine the light waves, yet more sinister and dark than the waves of dark power. Laughing from within now the waves that created the cocoon now began to spin faster, uplifting the snow that feel upon the ground and within the air, pushing it away and making a ten foot clearing around this cocoon the power then imploded upon this being within the center. Encasing the frame of what lie within the center a humanly shape appeared, this one still a lot different than other humans for the simple fact of the sharp ears and twin tails.
Standing with his arms crosse Kasei began to look around, his marble colored eyes shifting from left to right over the horizon his body wasn't affected by this cold.The faint glow of the Twilight around his body hugged him like another skin, protecting him better than any armor that he could possibly come across his Twilight was resistant to the normal elements. Increases or decreases of temp's outside of his Twilight didn't bother him at all.
"God, I wish the other two would get here already...and where the hell is Xero? He's probably late again..." growling at the prospect of waiting out here within what seemed to be the middle of no where made Kasei angry. Waiting was his number one problem at times, "Why can't everyone just be on time like I am?" he used to question but after a while gave up on that prospect.
Still never letting his guard down Kasei's mind began to move, tracking life forms like a radar he'd wait for anything or anyone to come near him. Within the center of his body a reaction was happening, there was always a sectioned off part of his body that always tried to break loose and that was what he named "Nightmare" encased within a bubble of Twilght Nightmare began to beat on the bubble
"Kaaaaaaassssseeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiii, I know you hear me!!!!!!!"
Simply shaking his head this was what kept Kasei at fighting at his full potential due to using a lot of energy to kep Nightmare in check within him, not letting him rampage like he did once before causing so much death within a single incident. This wolf was truly a nightmare, only appearing to Kasei within his dreams, but more recently taking over Kasei while he was awake making his life much harder.
"Quiet already Nightmare, I don't have time to deal with you right now so go away and wait until I actually need you to come out. You'll get your chance to play, but not if you keep annoying the hell outta me."
Kasei was stern yet tried to keep the peace between the two, without Nightmare Kasei would have never found out about himself so he had to find ways to repay him. Still keeping his senses up the Twilight released the sound reduction, increasing Kasei's hearing for now since he was unsure how his opponents would fight. Letting his arms drop down to the sides Kasei simply looked around once more, sighing he looked up into the sky and yelled
"I'M READY, COME DAMNIT"
his voice echoing into the snowy abyss, Kasei was ready.
Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht.
The only signs of life around were the muffled footsteps of myself and the sound of hydraulics coming from my battle partner Nikolai Redmond's mechanized battle suit.
Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht.
I want to know who the asshole was that picked out the arena that I'd do battle in. From what I could tell, we were in some sort of desolate, mountainous area; whether it was a part of Salvar that not even the natives dared to venture or some other plane of existence I couldn't tell. But what I was sure of was this: Someone was going to die, specifically the jackass who sent me here. The winds were whipping about in a violent frenzy, carrying drifts of pristine snow with them. The minuscule ice particles bit my face and collected in my hair. I could barely see twenty feet in front of me.
A terrible shiver shook my body. I started furiously rubbing my arms together in a poor attempt to keep myself warm. The organizers of this little gala were kind enough to offer me a thin fur coat that looked and smelled as if it had been sitting in a darkened corner of a thrift store for gods-know-how-long. You know, mainly because unlike some of the other entrants I didn't have any magical or artificial means to keep myself nice and toasty. But even then, the coat was doing a miserable job. The ever-shifting winds always found a way to chill me to the bone and make my teeth clatter.
Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht.
I felt like I was going to die. The walk to the designated fighting space was taking forever; a span of time that wasn't helped by the poor weather conditions. Nikolai and I walked in silence from the moment we were teleported here. "What I wouldn't give for a nice cup of hot cocoa and bourbon right about now," I said through frozen lips. I could feel the skin crack with each syllable that I uttered. I licked away a small trickle of warm blood.
As I expected, there was no response from my comrade in arms. He was probably still bitter towards me after I refused to give him a "fair fight" during our qualification round. But then again, a scrawny waif verses some douchebag in a suit of science fiction-style armor with freakin' missile and flight capabilities isn't exactly fair to begin with. I had no choice but to hide in that building where he couldn't follow me.
Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht. Crunch, kssssht.
It was about another twenty unbearably long minutes until we found a towering gate--actually, almost ran into is probably a better way to say it. It appeared to be a forty foot high chain link fence, but there was no visible opening, at least, from our position. Feeling a bad case of hypothermia knocking at my door, I turned to Nikolai. "Hey," I managed to squeak out through clenched teeth, "would you mind getting us to the other side? And while you're at it, if you have anything in that suit of yours to detect our opponents or something like that, that'd be pretty helpful. I'd rather catch a knife to the throat before I catch a cold."
'You refuse to fight me fairly,' Nikolai thought angrily at the impudence of this small woman, 'and now you want me to open doors for you, quiaff?' Nikolai unconsciously flexed his left arm, and the three fingered claw did the same outside his suit. The only reason he'd even agreed to fight in this tournament was that they agreed to send him home afterwards. Back to the clan home worlds, where he actually knew what was going on that befitted his rank. The Clan Warrior clenched his right fist, causing the ignition flame in the barrel of his gun to momentarily flicker with life. He watched with almost cruel apathy as the woman stood there shivering before deciding on an action, and words. The voice activated mike on his suit crackled and a few almost-mechanical words came out of the external speaker box.
"Impudent Freebirth. You expect me to assist you over the fence, Quiaff?" The Clanner relayed to the small woman, before continuing, careless of any response from her. “If we were in the back on the home worlds, Chalcas, I would have you shot for even remotely thinking about asking for help.” He paused for a moment to allow that thought to sink into Madison’s brain before continuing. “However, as we are not on the Home worlds, and you seem to be cold in this ‘lovely’ weather, I shall help you out just this once.”
The warrior advanced on the fence, the glimmer of menace on his face obscured by the dark green visor. He grabbed the forty foot tall chain link fence, the ‘fingers’ of his battle claw barely able to fit through the holes in the chain link fence.
The moyomer musculature strained under the weight of the nearly half-ton section of fence. An almost audible groan came from the fence as the battle claw’s strength started to overcome the fence as a whole. Nikolai heard the plink, plink, plink as individual links gave way to the strain the Clanner was putting on the fence. Slowly he lifted the chain section until it was practically wrenched from the ground. This exertion exhausted him, but his suit injected a small dose of adrenaline to keep him ready for the battle ahead.
What lay beyond was both bleak and awe inspiring. Neatly crisp and clean, the snow was, what some would say, like a beautiful, crisp, refreshing glass of water. It was sickening to see something so beautiful, and had yet to be marred by missile craters, and battlemech footprints. He was relishing in the fact that hae was the first one to step foot into this arena specifically to melt and crush the snow into the dirt. The single beautiful act of mixing blood with the snow would fall to him and his ‘would-be’ partner.
He stepped on the remains of the chain-link fence, forcing it into what used to be a crisp section of snow. As he got to the end, he looked back at Madison and judgingly proclaimed.
“You are coming with me, quiaff?” Without waiting for a response he continued. “Good, now hurry over here lest our targets get away.”
Muttering to himself, hopefully low enough to not be picked up by the mike “Why the frak did they stick me with ‘HER’?” He had no time to dwell on it though, as he picked up a faint sound in the distance. Nikolai used his suit’s enhanced imaging program to make out a man, standing in the middle of the snow, about a half a kilometre away. “Madison, I have acquired single target. I have permission to engage, quiaff?
Out of Character:
Freebirth: Will be defined In Character next post, as per BaBE's request
Chalcas: Anything or anyone who challenges the Clan caste system is consideres a chalcas.
Quiaff/Quineg: These expressions are placed at the end of rhetorical questions. If an affirmative answer is expected, quiaff is used. If the answer is expected to be negative, quineg is the proper closure.
A long period of time had passed since the last spotting of the Mighty Paladin, Xero Hexus. Over the years he had chose to keep his location hidden from the world, for he trusted nothing and no one at all on the face of this acursed planet. Long had he wished to end every last person and thing upon this planet, but to do this, he had needed power.
Embarking on a journey to find the ultimate source of power, Xero traveled the world, demolishing anyone or thing that dared to cross his path. Xero cared for nothing really, and if he truly did care for someone, he would never admit or show it to his spectators. Over the years he had built up a reputation for himself, that being a cold-hearted being, one that rarely spoke to anyone unless he really had to. Having no friends or parents growing up, Xero soon found his own kind of friends, the shadows.
Dark and mysterious just like him, he quickly grew attached to them, always seen within them pretty much every waking moment of the day, and every sleeping one of the night. Growing up with no parents, Xero never knew the true meaning of love, he merely though of it as something useless to him and another weakness of the mind, something to hold him back. Which Xero did not like. Therefore, Xero pushed this little "emotion" out of life, as far as anyone knew, he never showed any sign of emotion or spoke. Xero's treacherous and daring travels had now brought him to the entrance of a wide spread Ice Land.
Slowly, Xero would place his first foot onto the arena floor, carefully avoiding any of the thin ice in the area. He stood firmly as he glanced around, scanning the area for any signs of life. It didn't take long for him to realize that there were three other beings in the area. Xero ignored the two auras he didn't know, but smirked when he realized the other. From his current position, Xero was around ten feet from Kasei's left.
Cracking his head from left to right, Xero readied himself for the up and coming battle, adjusting his gloves slightly. Xero's eyes suddenly began to change. Over his blackened pupil, a Hazy red veil crept over. During this, Xero's hands also began to seep energy from their clutched position. This energy appeared in a smoke-like state, moving upwards and stopping about an inch above Xero's head.
Alright...Who's first to die..?
Xero mumbled to himself.
Glancing to Kasei, Xero nodded, signaling he was ready.
((Sorry for taking so long, my keybord is broke. T___T))
Having just yelled out into this empty space the radar within Kasei's mind picked up three different aura's, two whom Kasei never felt before and the dark red aura of the bikou dragon also known as Xero. Clenching his fists closed Kasei's body began to shake, excitement began to race through his veins and his entire body "Here we go, I hope this'll be fun.." was all he thought. Whipping all around him this wind was relentless, the snow that was cleared just a minute or so by his coming was already back. Mounding up just a few inches or so and blowing off into this great land snow. Growing a bit restless Kasei spoke to Xero, low as he wasn't exactly sure what those they were about to go up against were capable of.
"Xero, start a strong shadow wind about one seventy feet out. I'll draw them in closer to us, but for now focus on getting the wind there. I'll summon one of the wolves to come to you once I'm nearly there, that way you can release it early. I'll be able to absorb whatever hit's me with the Twilight that way it'll be fine if I'm caught within, any questions about that?"
Kasei was a known master mind when it came to attacks, knowing that his opponents may not fall for such a simple trick there was of course more to his plan. Taking a step forwards there was no foot print within this soft snow left behind him, his aura acting as his own floor Kasei was able to walk upon any surface and if all went well then he would be able to entice those other two into coming onto this dangerous ice, hopefully turning them into a block of ice which made them easy prey.
His ears twitching a bit now with a sheepish grin upon his face Kasei's eyes began to shift around, no longer a mass of black and white blended together but now with the shape of something that hunted, dangerous and never seeming to miss a beat. Not underestimating his opponents, but not wanting to use things that would show too much of what he was completely capable of Kasei's eyes moved into the first stage. Going completely white from within the center a black slit formed from top to bottom of his eye, widening and then closing in it sharpened like a razor,completely aware of all around him. Shifting his eyes from left to right the animal instinct of the wolf began to rise within Kasei, taking one last look at Xero Kasei nodded to him and took off.
Starting off with a slow pace Kasei began to cover ground quickly,snow flurries going down his body he moved like everything parted way for him. His legs pumping up and down the faint glowing aura's within his mind began to grow as he came closer "Now the fun starts.." pulling both of his hands towards the front of his chest a small vortex formed within his palms, spinning in a clock wise manner the vortex moved to the right palm of Kasei's hand. Glowing within the center a white dot began to glow, from within this tiny glow a hilt began to come forth. This vortex which was acting like a portal to Kasei's Twilight realm was giving birth to one of his dual bladed sabers, fully opening his right hand with his palm facing his left hand he grabbed onto the hilt with his left hand.
"One hundred more yards"
That was the distance between himself and the other two, not much of a distance to cover when one moved around one hundred feet a second. Having a visual upon the two he differentiated the two as he saved these two life aura's within his mind, burning them into his memory like he did all others to make sure he'd never forget them. Moving at this pace took a bit from him but this was no matter, Kasei could depend upon Xero to come through for him.
Hitting the fifty yard mark Kasei changed up what he was doing, instead of running directly into the two he now began to run a circle around them. Moving in a counter clock wise spin Kasei kicked up his speed to about one hundred twenty miles an hour, still having his hands in front of him Kasei now pulled the hilt from the portal within his palm. Letting the Twilight blade drag upon the ground the blade of Twilight seemed to slice through the ice, racing upon the ground the transparent flow of Twilight raced towards the larger one. Leaking off the Twilight saber a small jolt of Twilight Lightning came off, six inches in width this small force ripped apart the snow causing the visual of the snow splitting in two just a split second or two after it passed through moving about forty miles an hour.
Having similar qualities of the known element "lightning" this Twilight was named "Twilight Lightning" misleading by name this Twilight possessed no real electricity, but a artificial type that held the same shocking effect, was nothing like normal lightning at all due to it being made by Twilight.
Racing towards the heavily armored one Kasei was in hopes of hitting him, seeing that he appeared to be slower than the female who didn't appear to wear as much, thus getting her to move a bit faster, yet the line in which this lightning moved would strike her as well if the larger one didn't move out the way. Still grinning as the snow continued to spin upwards from his movement it seemed Kasei was creating a small cyclone of snow as he moved, what would come of this?
Out of Character:
The wind howled all around me as I cautiously made my way through the brand new hole in the fence that my teammate made. "Look, Nikolai, if you're going to address me by my last name, would you at least try to get it right? It's Freebird, not Freebirth."
Nikolai cracked out an annoyed sigh. "A freebirth is one who is not a member of the Clan Eugenics Program, someone who has 'parents'. They are typically not worth the air they breathe and should be crushed mercilessly unless they prove themselves worthy." He paused for a brief second to let that sink in, before continuing with an irritated edge in his voice. "Now, do I have permission to engage or not, freebirth?"
Not worth the air they breathe. Boy, somebody's not shy about sipping the punch. I didn't bother bringing up the fact that I, the "inferior" member of the team, didn't need to hide inside a glorified, projectile-equipped sardine can like a wuss when it came time to fight. "You know, if you're gonna' keep copping an attitude with me, I don't mind hanging back while you take on these guys by yourself. I don't know about you, but I don't really have anything to win or lose here. But yeah, sure, go ahead and engage the living shit out of them."
Rather than blasting off on his jet boots or whatever they were, he remained motionless. "A second target has been acquired. The first one is fast approaching our position." I looked ahead of us, trying to discern any sort of movement in the chaotic curtain of snow. I squinted hard and cupped my hands around my eyes like a pair of binoculars, hoping to block some of the sharp wind--as if that was going to help my sight any.
"I don't see jack sh--"
A figure rapidly faded into view. It was like a human in appearance, and moving in our direction faster than I've ever seen anyone move. My right hand slid behind me as if it hadn't forgotten anything in the two or three years its been since I last killed someone. My frozen fingers tingled with pain as they wrapped around the hilt of one of my daggers. But then, the figure in front of us feinted to the left, coming around in a wide circle and picking up speed while preparing to attack Nikolai with something that resembled a sword that was trailing a small bolt of lightning.
I had a split second to do anything to prevent Nikolai from having his circuits fried. Luckily for me, I'm not exactly slow either. I sprang a little ways away from Nikolai's backside and crouched down. A small puff of snow blew up into my face and down my shirt. I gritted my teeth and put the biting cold aside as I buried my left hand into the deep powder. My steel wire obeyed my commands and snaked along the ground towards our first attacker at a speed that rivaled his own. With any luck, the wire would find its target and ensnare this guy's leg before he could do anything to Nikolai. And hey, if I was lucky enough, my target would trip and fall flat on his face. That'd be one hell of a way to start a fight, eh?
Out of Character:
Out of Character:
Xero had been adjusting his gloves when he heard Kasei speak to him in a low tone, one that Xero was barely able to decipher.
"Xero, start a strong shadow wind about one seventy feet out. I'll draw them in closer to us, but for now focus on getting the wind there. I'll summon one of the wolves to come to you once I'm nearly there, that way you can release it early. I'll be able to absorb whatever hit's me with the Twilight that way it'll be fine if I'm caught within, any questions about that?", Kasei said.
Xero glanced towards Kasei's general direction and gave him a slow nod. Just when he finished such, Kasei had nodded to Xero and proceeded to make his move. Xero couldn't help but smirk as he watched Kasei's abnormal speed kick in. Bending his head downwards, Xero began to concentrate his energies into his palms. While performing this task, a lightly tinted aura began to incase Xero's frame, being barely visible to the eye. As he lifted his heead, His eyes had just finished their transformation into the second "Shadow Eye" stage. They had taken on a more solid form, though still keeping the hazy red tint to them. Heeding Kasei's words, Xero held his arms outstretched infront of him, his palms opened towards his opponets.
Radiating off of his body, the aura of the Shadows as they were known to be now began to mix within the air, tainting the color of the air around in his body in just a sphere of about ten feet now. Through the manipulation of his Shadows he was now able to create a "wind" like feature to it, swaying around his body like a banner now the Shadow wind began to whip off, into the normal air before it. Unlike normal wind the pressure of Shadow wind is much greater, capturing the victim within this small sphere or even within a lick of wave would cause a pressure of about a ton within. Each square inch of the Shadow wind possessed this pressure, yet Xero's body was unaffected becuase right at the aura touched the body it began to give off the same force from the other side, saving them from this crushing force.
Swiftly, Xero would send the Shadow Wind out the designated one-hundred and seventy feet outwards, having it maintained in that position. As Xero continued this, He'd watch from afar as Kasei moved into attack, though he couldn't make out exactly what was going on, he only knew that Kasei could take care of himself.
Out of Character: