1v1 Argentum Astrum Vs. Morituri te Salutant

[Christoph]

This battle will end in 17 days. Best of luck to both competitors.

[Lasair Anubail]

She could feel that nervous flutter dance along the pit of her stomach. It had started off as something small, like the gentle beat of the wings of a bird, but now it had grown into something monstrous that roared within her and spread throughout her entire body. Even her mind was blanketed in the uncertainty and the fear, leaving her in a state of almost tears. They threatened to blur her vision and wash over her golden eyes, but they never seemed quite able to. It was as if some kind of strength from deep within her she didn’t know she had found a way to work itself to the surface and tell her that everything was going to be all right and she was going to be okay.

It was a lie if she’d ever told herself one.

Lasair was not going to be all right and nothing was okay! She was a ball of nerves and tense muscles that felt like lukewarm gelatine. To keep herself from going insane or even just running away from it all, she had plopped her small little behind upon a rather uncomfortable rock that was jutting from the dirt and the underbrush. And that was how she had remained for the past two hours. Two hours as she awaited her opponent, someone she knew nothing about, to finally arrive. Not even a name. Someone that she was beginning to picture as a Giant, five headed dragon with menacing red eyes and flames of death that could come shooting out of its mouth and incinerate her instantaneously! Oh, she was doomed. She never should have agreed to this, she never should have let Caddy talk her into it.

Pulling her legs up closer to her small frame, Lasair wrapped her arms around her shins and rested her chin upon her knee. At least she had been able to pick the venue for this particular battle. That was the only upside she supposed. And knowing that she was already severely crippled during this fight, the Fae had picked something familiar, something that she hoped she could defend herself properly in. She had picked the Craighivar ruins. They sat deep within the twisted trees and interlocking branches of Luthmor and no more than a few hours from the ancient city of Donnalaich. It was a magnificent set of ruins, far larger than the majority of singular standing buildings and temples that were normally found in the region. This one truly looked like the remains of some city long since forgotten.

The stone was weathered and grey and falling apart under the not so gentle touch of time and the elements. She imagined that these even bricks of stone had once towered towards the sky, creating deep and open dooms high above her head, the remains of which could still be seen. She thought that they had been covered in beautiful sculptures long since lost and the likes of which only remained in the deepest and most sacred areas of Donnalaich. She dreamt that a race similar to hers had walked across cobbled streets now covered in dirt and grass and dead branches and leaves. They had lived and breathed within these ruins and perhaps spent their last days here as well. That was what she liked to imagine. She sat upon the ruins of wall on the outskirts of what remained of such a magnificent city, her rucksack to her left. Behind her the structure rose, barely visible through a deep fog that had settled over the forest during last night’s downpour. It obscured the stone and made it hard to see the looming structure before one was nearly running into it. Ancient stone columns created shadowy ghosts in the white haze that shifted the moment one turned to look at them and disappeared as if they had never existed. Lucky for Lasair, she had been in these ruins before and her memory as sharp as ever knew of every twist and turn and every trap yet to be released. Here she hoped she could have some kind of advantage over the fire breathing dragon that was coming to dismember her, slowly and painfully and laugh in pleasure the entire time.

Closing her eyes for a minute, the tiny Fae shivered at the thought, causing the wings upon her back to shimmer even with the lack of light. When she opened them again, she instinctively huddled closer upon herself, even though she was already a tight ball of limbs and dark green material that made up her dress. The fog may provide her some kind of help, but right now it allowed her to only see the barest of hints at the outline of trees in the forest around her. It would also hide her approaching opponent and perhaps cause her to lose the advantage she had thought gained from this.

You owe me big time for this, Caddy.

[Max Dirks]

I've been asked to step in and judge this round.

Lasair Anubail wins.