Round Two, Bracket B: Tvier Valka Seula vs. Bang, Whoosh, Slice, Death

[Christoph]

Congratulations for making it to the second round of the Tournament of Champions. Both teams receive three Fate Points for making it this far! The battle closes after 11:59 PM EST on March 27th. Good luck to both teams!

Arenas were arranged at random, and your prompt is as follows:

Your battle takes you into a steaming, fetid jungle thick with thorny vines and infested with mosquitoes.

[TwinDeath]

Xaul stepped through the portal into the thick jungle, grimacing as his boot landed in something warm, wet and squishy. The animal that had been feasting on the carcass bared teeth larger than its face and scurried off into the undergrowth. Xaul growled back at it as he scraped his foot against the ground and grumbled to himself. It turned out that the portals made his stomach go a bit off, and the ambient rotting smell wasn’t helping. He was used to it thanks to years of wielding Haingre, his left-hand katar that emitted a stench that would not be out of place in a charnel-house, but still…

I like it here, Xaul. Quite the ambiance. Can’t you feel these beasts, feel the truth that they recognize? They’re so right, so pure… The dark and rough voice that invaded Xaul’s thoughts was that of a god, the bloody and terrible god that Xaul had so long ago chained himself to in exchange for revenge. They became locked together, neither existing without the other, and constantly battle for control.

“Quiet, Resheph. I see them,” Xaul muttered, “but I will not succumb. Not to you, and not to that life.”

But think of the beautiful chaos, Xaul. Look around you, look at this jungle. Here, life is understood. Kill or die, feed or starve. Don’t you remember those days? Don’t you remember the euphoria of an enemy’s blood pouring down your throat? Resheph chuckled as snarls and roars echoed through the greenery. They know the truth, why can’t you? Only one law, Xaul. Survival above all else.

“I can’t believe that, Resheph. There must be something else, be it faith or honor or what have you. Who am I, without honor? Who are you, a god, without faith?”

Who am I without belief? I am still a god, because I don’t need that belief. Even sacrifices made unwittingly suffice, and with a world full of animals, blood is constantly dripping from “honorable” fingers. Besides, even the lowest of animals need revenge. Just look in a mirror to find the truth of that.

Xaul shuddered at Resheph’s words, but did not argue. His eyes flicked to Epsilon, who had emerged from behind the portal slightly after Xaul had. “We need a plan, shiny. I didn’t predict that the jungle would be this thick. We could go a week in here without finding our own asses, much less those of our opponents. Either we split up and sneak n’ seek or set off a red flag, your choice.”

[Gordie]

'By the founder, first the cold, then this,' Nikolai paused in his thought for a moment before continuing, 'jungle. At least the freebirth wont be complaining about the cold.' The armoured warrior looked about at the jungle, it seemed the visibility was less than thirty meters in some places, and there were bugs everywhere. Nikolai sighed loudly, enough for the external speakers to pick up the mild annoyance in the Clanner's voice.

'I swear' The clanner thought to himself as he looked around for the small body of Madison, his battle partner, 'If what happened last round happens again, it shall be my rede to see all the monk's perish at my hands.' His battle claw flexing was the only visual clue that something was up in the clanner's mind.

The jungle itself wasnt so much a jungle, as just an area of alot of trees, alot of bugs, and alot of bogs. Unfortunately, Nikolai missed a step on landing and ended up at the edge, in one of the many bogs. The warrior knew from personal experiance, that his jump jets would probably fail to work in the bog, having the intakes for the Heat Sink's in his legs covered, would mean that the jump jets wouldnt fire. So it became clear, and with a barely audible "Damn" from him, that he needed to get to the edge of the bog before he could regain his lost mobility.

With a metallic whine, the moyomer muscles in his one-ton suit lifted each of the suit's multi-hundred pound feet to bring him implacably closer to the marker line that bordered the edge of the battlefield. A small imprint was the only thing, besides the noise of the suit itself, that gave away something was amiss.. With a hiss of compressed gasses, the suit dropped the leg with a squish back on to the boggy ground. Whine, hiss, squish. Whine, hiss, squish. The Elemental Class Battle Armour gave a small shudder when it's first foot met with something that was not 'boggy.'

Using the battle claw on the elemental suit to brush aside a tree as if it were just a branch, Nikolai spotted what might possibly be a teammate or enemy. It was a little far out for him to see, even with his enhanced imaging. "Damn it, Freebirth," He shouted into his microphone, "get over here before I start lighting the whole jungle up!"

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

"Fucking shit!"

I quickly brought a hand to the side of my neck before the insect had any chance of escape. I took a look at the aftermath. The decimated remains of a mosquito that was easily three times bigger than it should've been decorated my palm, along with a small splotch of what was presumably my blood. With a huff, I wiped the gore off on my jeans. Boy, I've read some sick shit about diseases that tropical areas such as this can carry. I could only hope that after this battle, the monks would give my body a thorough once-over. The last thing I needed was to have my face rot off while my insides melted out through my ass.

So here I am, in Round Two of this little tournament because of a clerical error. As it turned out, the two guys that the guy in the over-sized sardine can and I were about to fight were the wrong opponents. So the monks ripped us back to the temple, gave us a couple of pats on the back and an apology, and told us to wait. Well, after some serious thumb twiddling, me and Nikolai were escorted to another part of the temple where we were told that we'd be in the next round--and that we would be facing the correct team.

Horray. They finally got their shit together.

But if it's not one thing, it's another. The first not-quite-battle found us in the middle of a barren, frozen hell hole. My lips were still cracked from the intense wind and cold. But now, we were in the middle of a gods-damned jungle. It was the complete package: A cacophony of birds, bugs, and other wildlife, sweltering heat that made me start to sweat buckets before I could even finish my post-teleportation gag, and a brutal maze of tightly-packed tropical plant life.

I could hear another mega mosquito closing in. I quickly ducked and weaved, trying hard to not trip over any errant tree roots or vines as I went. The heel of one of my boots caught on a thick, thorny vine and sent me to the soft, wet ground in a classic example of speaking too soon. "Dammit all!" I quickly rose to my feet. My jeans and arms were covered with light mud and leaves.

Then, whilst I was distracted, the insect landed on my cheek and began sucking blood. "What the fuck!" Crunch. Bits of mud and bug juice sprayed across my nose as my hand brought swift vengeance upon the mosquito. About ten feet away from me, I could see Nikolai's hulking suit moving slowly between the trees. Smarting from my fall, I slowly maneuvered through the mess of underbrush to catch up with him.

"Seriously, Nikolai, use need to use that detection stuff of yours and find our opponents so we can get this over with!"

[Exspherius]

All bunnying between the members of Tveir Valka Seula has been approved by both parties.

Epsilon sighed briefly as he stepped from the gleaming silver disc. He loved the feeling of teleportation; being reassembled from the sub-quantum level up left him feeling new, whole, and recharged. It was the perfect mood in which to enter battle. He pitied the unfortunate many that found the process distasteful, and especially those whose bodies reacted badly to the strain.

This feeling of comfort abruptly vanished when his boot squished into the loamy ground. Immediately, a film of sweat coated his body, his uniform's moisture-wicking properties useless in the intense humidity. He could already feel beads of liquid coating his forehead beneath the cool metal of his mask. But that was only a trivial concern; it had no place in his thoughts at such a time. The Esper pushed it from his mind and turned to observe his surroundings. Massive tree trunks covered in moss, reaching upwards into the leafy green sky, so dense they were practically walls. Between them, the ground was choked with vegetation that dripped with moisture.

A jungle, pure and simple. A place where the inner beast is unleashed and the only laws are the brutal truths of survival. A dangerous place. Especially, he thought, for someone like Xaul. Epsilon could hear him now, arguing with Resheph. Epsilon wanted to offer some sort of aid to his ally, but he knew that there was really nothing he could do. So he settled instead for answering his partner's question.

"Perhaps not their asses, but I could certainly find their minds." He stretched out his senses to the jungle, and was immediately overwhelmed. The forest was so vibrantly alive, so densely filled with so many varieties of insect and bird and mammal, that he almost missed the telltale feel of two human beings not too far away. He went to report this to Xaul, but as he opened his mouth to do so a loud noise broke through the chatter of the forest animals. It was a human voice; male, though synthetic-sounding, as if it was being broadcast by speakers. It came from the direction in which Epsilon had sensed the human minds. At the same time, there came a ponderous creaking, followed by a series of snaps and a deafening crash as a tree toppled somewhere directly ahead of them.

Epsilon shook his head. "Though now that seems hardly necessary." he finished. "Judging by the sound, we're not far from them. We should approach with caution and try to set up an ambush. If they're equipped heavily enough to knock down trees, it should be a simple matter to outmaneuver them. If we split and move through the trees, we can flank them and take them by surprise."

[TwinDeath]

"I'll go high. It's where I'm best," Xaul nodded as he drew his katars. For now, the weapons lay dormant, as they were not being fueled by Xaul’s rage, but that would change. He stabbed the blades into a tree trunk and prepared to haul himself up into the canopy, but turned back briefly.

“Shiny, Epsilon, promise me something. If I go off the deep end, if you see Resheph gaining control… Kill me. Put me down fast and hard and never let up, because if you do, you’ll die.” Xaul’s raspy voice was heavy with terrible certainty. “Kill me, and burn the body. I’ll do my best to take the bloody god with me into whatever hell awaits me.”

The possessed man sighed, remembering the days when he was just a simple farmer, and began to scale the tree. The steady shunk shunk of the nysattva steel piercing the bark was a small comfort as the sounds recalled the scrape of a hoe against dirt.

Stop thinking about that, Xaul. Forget your wife, forget your family. We avenged them, and they rest. Forget your old life, Xaul. Forge a new one. Let me in, and start anew. Let me in, and it all goes away. All the pain, the suffering, all the bad thoughts? Gone. Welcome the void, Xaul, and rest. Just let me in. it’s all ancient history. After all, that was hundreds of years ago, right?

“No, Resheph,” breathed Xaul as he moved rapidly up the tree trunk. “That was only yesterday.”

Fine then. You won’t take the carrot, so here’s a taste of the stick. You said you would drag me down into a hell. But think, little Xaul. Who is the god you have given your life to? Who do you constantly sacrifice to? Heh. I never told you, but the tears you cry later only make the innocent lives that much sweeter. You’re coming to my place, Xaul. You will be freely welcomed in my kingdom upon your death, upon my release. Heh, I might even make you my servant, for a change.

Xaul said nothing as he continued climbing, clutching tightly to his memories.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

I resolved that for every minute longer I had to spend in this jungle I was going to break one additional bone in my opponents' bodies. My shirt was soaked with perspiration, my face stung from where I hit the muddy ground, I was covered with bug bites--and all before lunchtime.

"Nikolai! I said hurry up and find them!"

My teammate replied with a crackle from his loudspeaker, his voice tinged with annoyance. "We will find them when we find them, freebirth, and not a moment sooner."

"How many times do I have to tell you, my last name is not--"

Nikolai cut me off with a quick distorted hiss. "You do have parents, quiaff? That means you are a freebirth, pure and simple."

Patience was never one of my strong points. Back in the days when I was training to be an assassin, my parents would always scold me for being quick to act. That recklessness led to the botching of a few early assignments, until I got slapped around enough to get my act straight. From then on, I was able to idle in the shadows, rather than run out knives blazing into battle. But ever since I quit the profession and opened up my bookstore, my old habits started to return. And sulking around in this jungle, waiting for a battle that, quite frankly, I had no I idea why I was fighting in the first place... It wasn't helping. I wanted to scream.

The men who had sent us to this godsforsaken place didn't even bother to tell us who exactly we were fighting, only guaranteeing us that they were the right opponents. Given some of the stories I heard floating around after the first round, I could only guess that Nikolai and I were going to be squaring off against the real deal. My imagination ran wild with the possibilities. Perhaps my opponent would be covered in tattoos that gave him a wide range of magical abilities? Or perhaps there'd be that one guy you always hear about in fantasy stories from the far eastern portions of Althanas that was the sole survivor of his village's destruction--only because he was a chosen one of some lost god or what have you.

I swatted an unrecognizable insect off my shoulder. My patience was wearing increasingly thin. "Hey, Nikolai," I addressed the hulking suit that encased my partner. "You got a flamethrower, right? Start burning this mother down so we can get this over with. I want to go home."

[Exspherius]

Epsilon watched in silence for a moment as his black-cloaked companion vanished into the tangle of foliage above. Xaul's parting words were hard to hear, but he knew they were true. After the episode in the Garden of Secrets when they had first met, Epsilon knew that it would be extremely difficult to draw Xaul back from the brink a second time. He could do it, he knew, but only by entering Xaul's mind and forcibly yanking his conscious mind to the forefront. Epsilon also knew that this would almost certainly kill him, and the sight of his own dead body would send Xaul immediately back to Resheph's control. The Esper, however, had no intentions of letting that happen.

"I will never kill you, my friend." he murmured, "I swore I would help you see the universe rid of Resheph. I will be damned, more so than I already am, if I fail you in such a way." He made another brief mental sweep, passing over Xaul's presence in the canopy overhead. Phasing out the wild chorus of lifesigns was becoming easier as Epsilon maintained the scan, and he soon found his target: two swirling vortexes of thought and emotion directly ahead of them. Unmistakably humans, and undeniably his opponents. Both of them were quite obvious to his senses. One of them was female, her mind seemed to resonate with his mental energy. A psionic, at least slightly. Latent talent, perhaps. The other was male, thoughts swirling at a rate that suggested enhancements similar to his own, but it was also oddly muted.

Xaul. Our enemies are directly ahead of you. One male, one female, as the information said. Keep moving forwards and you will be directly overtop of the female. Once you locate them, hold position and wait until I am in place. We will attack together. He moved cautiously forwards, veering off at an angle from Xaul's tree. With luck, it would bring him around the side of the duo and enable a two-pronged surprise attack. He drew Sentinel, nudging aside a fern with fronds as big as he was. He moved quickly and quietly through the undergrowth, circling around the presences.

Epsilon moved into a small stand of bamboo-like plants, their many shafts concealing him behind a tightly-woven screen. Here, he paused to make one final scan, noting the positions of his enemies. Xaul was approaching the female, still hidden high in the canopy. Epsilon estimated that the other enemy was perhaps twenty meters ahead of him, directly between himself and his ally in the treetops. If he aimed well, he might even be able to strike them both.

Epsilon drew in a steady, calming breath as he closed his eyes and raised Sentinel. He gripped the bulky pistol with both hands, then again with his mind to further steady the gun. The beam would certainly be potent enough to burn through the foliage between himself and his target, and the Esper aimed towards the psi-presence of the male. Visible to no human eyes, the plants between them would not hinder his aim in the slightest.

This is the signal, Xaul, he thought as he squeezed the trigger and loosed the energy beam.

[Gordie]

'Who does this freebirth think she is, ordering me to burn down the forest.' Nikolai thought angrily to himself as he ignited the burner and prepped his flamer. The warrior tromped over to the closest tree, the mechanical whirrs of the gears, and the hissing air of the pneumatics, sounding alien against the natural backdrop of the jungle. He glanced down to see a snake barely manage to slither out of the way before the moyomer muscles in the suit released the foot to fall, implanting itself momentarily in the ground a couple inches.

He moved ever so slightly to bring up his flamethrower to bear as the corner of his eye caught something in the distance coming toward him. 'Oh.... Freebirth!' He thought as he watched, seemingly in slow motion, as the beam seamed to glance off the rounded portion of his upper leg.

He glanced at the armour readings quickly. There was a small tinge of yellow to the armour that was protecting his left leg. 'Good,' Nikolai thought to himself, 'still enough armour to deal with my foes.'

"Maddison," the Clan Warrior shouted into the external speakers, "I have located a gunman." The clanner quickly got in position and ignited his jump jets, igniting flashfires in the foliage below and sending himself bursting through the canopy, out into what looked like a storm brewing in the area, he quickly readjusted his trajectory so that he would come down on top of the gunman, in what was termed a Death from Above attack.

[BlackAndBlueEyes]

A shot rang through the air. The explosion echoed through the jungle, scaring the wildlife into silence. The near-immediate sound of something against metal snapped my attention towards Nikolai. I turned quick enough to see a beam of some sorts ricochet off his leg and into a nearby tree with a deafening crack! The wood spontaneously burst into flame, burning bright and hot for a brief second before breaking in two from the impact of the projectile.

I stood dumbfounded for a moment, which was by far the last thing I should've done in a fight with someone who has friggin' projectile weapons while I don't in a place where they can conceal themselves with minimal effort. "Oh shi--!" Nikolai interrupted, letting me know that he found a gunman. No, ya' think?

Wasting no time, my teammate fired up his jets and took to the skies and traveled off in the direction the shot came from, leaving scorched earth and plant life in his wake. I was all alone now. A bird squawked in the distance. "Dammit, Nikolai," I harshly whispered. I tried to calm my breathing down a little bit. More than likely, it was only one of my opponents that fired the shot; if the monks brought them into this jungle the same way the did with me and Nikolai, then chances are that the fourth participant was out there, separated from his own teammate. All I had to do was hope that I found him or her (or even it) before they found me. Track them down, sneak up from behind, a quick snap of the neck or a slice across the throat, and I'd be that much closer to going home in time for tea.

And yet, things are never that easy in reality.

I stood up, glancing wearily all around me for any signs of the fourth participant. The sad realization came to me that I had no chance in any known layer of hell of finding my other opponent. My hands slowly crept behind my back, removing my damascus daggers from their sheathes. I made my way through the jungle in the opposite direction Nikolai went, all the time being wary of any surprises that might pop out nearby.