The Aislinn Chamber

[Hysteria]

I blinked a few times, my eyes sore from staring at the fight unblinking. I registered for the first time how tired I felt. My throat was dry and sore, I'd been yelling without realising. I chuckled to myself. If I felt tired, how did those out in front of me feel? I pushed my silly concerns aside and focused back on the fight, hoping that Talen would finally make a move.

My prayers were answered seemingly, as just seconds later the youth disappeared. He had been focused on the fight between Resolve and Aurelianus, refusing to look away or make a move. The fight had been quick, but brutal. The moment that the pair were forced to the ground Talen made his move. The boy's body puffed out of existence, the tiny cloud of shadows dissipating into the air in a moment.

My eyes moved around the cell, searching for where he was going to materialise. The answer should have been simple, and I cursed myself for not realising it sooner. Darkness materialised, a tiny cloud pre-existing for a moment before Talen appeared. He had chosen, of course, four metres above the grappling pair.

The youth's sword was in his hands, aimed down towards the ground. His body was bent, holding the sword between his hands, but also steadying the blade with his feet. It wasn't something I had seen, or even considered before. The kid's hands ready to force the sword even further down should the contact be successful.

I wasn't the only one to see the moment, the whole crowd realised what was happening. There was eerie silence for a moment as people watched the small form fall towards Resolve's back. The room exploded with a roar, half the room wanting the kid killed for taking a cheap shot, half wanting to see the fighting pair skewed together. I just held my breath as he fell.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

The tiefling lay there for a few moments, letting himself catch his breath, trying to fight down the nausea-inducing agony of his pulverised cheek-bone. Though it was hard to tell with his inhuman eyes, most of the blood vessels in his right eye had burst, but black blood on an already black surface rendered the damage invisible. Sadly, the hideous, rapidly expanding bruise on the side of his face was becoming more visible by the moment, his cheek caved in, in the rough shape of Resolve's knuckles.

On top of the painful burn on his ribs, the shards of glass embedded in his right arm, the gash on his left cheek and his grotesquely broken nose were all making themselves known. His face looked like he had tried to kiss a mace, and felt much the same.

With a painful twist of his neck, Aurelius hawked another mouthful of thick blood across the already gore-soaked floor, his inky splash mixing with Arden's and Flint's on the grimy stones.

Finally, the half-demon realised he was a sitting duck where he was, and gave a heave to shift the literal dead-weight of Resolve off the top of him. The blades adorning his leathers slid free of the chit's body, releasing warm splashes of red to run over the amount of exposed flesh showing through the tears and slashes all over his armour. He savoured the warmth of the fluid as it touched his battered flesh, but he didn't have any more time to waste lying on his back. He had Resolve raised limply above him, her hardly-impressive bosom dripping wetly in his face as he tried to work up the energy to throw her aside... though the temptation to sample her flesh before he did was definitely there. There was something else vying for his attention, though.

And with a lurching sensation in his stomach, Aurelianus realised what it was; the crowds spectating had fallen completely silent.

That struck the tiefling as a wholly bad sign. The distraction cost him, as Resolve's body slumped back across him, impaling herself with the barbs and blades once again. This is gettin' pikin' ridiculous, he thought with an irritated sigh. The chit's lank, sweat and blood soaked hair was plastered across Aurelius' face, and he shook his horned brain-box trying to dislodge the strands.

It was right as the crowd started roaring again that he finally succeeded... just in time to mark Talen as he started to fall towards them, sword catching the weak light thrown off by the skylights.

"Oh, shi--"

The Cager never had the chance to finish his sentence, as he found a new burst of energy to dislodge the deader but there wasn't enough time to try and get out of the way. Not completely.

With a herculean effort, Aurelianus lifted Resolve's body off his chest, gasping with effort as his lungs could finally work. The girl's chest was balanced precariously on Drak'shal's fully extended arms when the blade hit. It pierced the chit's back cleanly, emerging from between her ample breasts a split-second later to come down at the pinned tiefling. Rolling as hard as he could, while the shadow-creature was still in the air, Aurelius sought to unbalance the boy using the sword in Resolve as a lever.

It was a decent plan, as far as on the spot solutions to imminent death went, but it was definitely not perfect. He had a moment to reflect on this as the blade came down with bone-skewering force. Sweating heavily, every muscle and tendon taut with effort, the half-breed managed to turn the blow slightly, but with the full weight of 'Tails' on top of his already devastating wounds, the tiefling didn't achieve all that much, other than shifting the point of impact away from his heart.

Instead, the razor-tip of the sword hit the plane-sourced leather and for an indeterminably short instant, it looked like the armour would stop the weapon from piercing the tender flesh beneath... but sadly this was not the case, and after smashing into his right shoulder with enough force to crack his humerus, the weight behind the sword finally went through the leather, sinking deeply into Aurelianus' shoulder. A scream of utter agony was ripped from his raw throat, as the black blood welled up around the end of the weapon. With a tinny ring, sounding distant and muffled in the warlock's ears, he heard the unmistakable sound of the tip hitting the stone floor underneath his body.

Black spots exploded across his field of vision, the foul taste of bile rising in the back of the impaled tiefling's throat. But even through the agony, though every breath felt like someone was sand-papering the inside of his lungs and every beat of his black heart pumped acid through his veins, Aurelianus flailed out his arm. He smashed his left fist against the floor, trying to alleviate the pain dwarfing all other sensations.. and felt his fingers brush the hilt of one of his previously forgotten knives.

A single, shining moment of clarity shone through the pain-induced fugue. Trying to avoid blacking out, his chest shuddering as he tried to draw in enough breath to stave off unconsciousness. His fingers touched the rough demon-hide wrapping the grip, left arm straining to bring the weapon within reach as Talen's feet touched down. With one final surge, Aurelius managed to grab the serrated weapon, even as the shadow-made-flesh tried to rip his sword out of the pair on its length.

Not.. ugh! Not so fast, mate!

The tiefling, bloody saliva running down his chin as he held back the screams, whipped his right hand up to grip the blade sliding out of his shoulder. The edge instantly started biting into his palm, but his efforts managed to stall the blade for a fraction of a second. Hissing, jaw clenched tight against the slow, drawn out torment of the razor-edge parting his flesh like cloth, Aurelianus forced himself up the blade in a sudden surge. It tore through the muscle and bone, a torrent of blood pouring from the wound as it was torn wider, but Aurelianus knew he wasn't in much of a state to fight off this competitor anyway.

Uncaring for the damage he was doing to his own right arm, the guttersnipe lurched up at Talen, his green-steel knife lashing out to stab the "boy" savagely in his man-parts.

If he was going to lose, he was at least going to rob someone of their dignity before he did.

[Hysteria]

Success! I allowed myself a moment of joy through the rage fuelled viewing. The thought caused me a moment of pause, now I have accepted that there is something primal about watching a fight, something that sits in the back of your mind and calls for more. Apart from the few moments of disgust, granted the scene still looked like one of those horror tales, I had enjoyed the fight immensely. The carnage, the thrill and of course the fact that the person you were rooting for had yet to die.

The blade pierced Resolve, and down into Aurelius. The rising tide of the audience a fitting crescendo to the coming end of the battle. No one expected it to go on for much longer. Either the kid won, or he made a mistake and was undone. Either way it was clearly all or nothing now. The blood that moved across the floor seemed a fitting poetic allusion as it moved over the charred stone and flecks of other people's blood.

Whatever qualms I had on the ethics of desecrating a fallen warriors body to take out another seemed redundant, it had worked, and the crowd loved it. As the Tiefling fought against Talen the youth released the sword. Unceremoniously he kicked Resolves limp body and sent himself backwards. His feet caught the ground, his body low to maintain balance. His eyes flicked back up to the prone demon and his second sword flashed from his back into his hand.

Two steps. That was all he took as he brought the blade back down towards his opponent. There was nothing on his face. The cold pale features matched with a stoic determination to finish this. His blade moved through the air, coming down towards the Aurelius's neck. I held my breath as I watched the blade move towards its target.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

He felt the vibration singing through the blade as Talen jumped back, releasing his grip on the weapon through the tiefling's shoulder. It brought another spasm through his right arm, a low hiss sliding out.

But as the sword was released Aurelianus felt the dull blanket of haziness that was starting to encompass his senses, and knew he was in trouble; he knew from experience that cool numbness was a very bad sign. It meant he was dying.

For the second bloody time today, he mused sourly.

Despite knowing it would be a temporary demise at most, Aurelius' monstrous ego still would not let him go down without putting up a fight. As far as his senses could determine, the two of them were the only fighters left standing.. figuratively speaking, in his case. The Anarchist malcontent would be damned if he was going to come close to being the sole survivor of another chamber, only to end up spitted by this thrice-damned man-boy-thing.

As soon as the creature stepped back from Resolve's now quite abused corpse, Aurelianus was on the move. He marked Talen circling round to his right and couldn't suppress the attempt at a smile - the shadow-beast was doing exactly Drak'shal would have done in his situation; capitalising on the opponent's weakness, like a predator should. Still, the cheek of the whelp, thinking of the planewalker as prey.. well, that was an insult he'd answer for.

A steady stream of profanity emerged from the tiefling's mouth as he forced his body and Resolve's to roll, twisting his torso to the right. It put weight on his wounded shoulder and he felt the sickening sensation of the blade parting more of his muscle. The whole sorry catalogue of wounds made themselves known with every single movement, but the half-demon forced himself through the pain, his iron will driving and sustaining him beyond what even his inhuman resilience could.

Putting Resolve's corpse between Talen and himself, Aurelianus took a deep breath trying to prepare for the stupidity of his next move. In hindsight, it did not help one jot.

With a surge of willpower channeled through him, the warlock sent an overcharged Eldritch Blast into the chit's body, the wall of raw arcane energy ripping her slender frame off of him even as Talen brought another sword down at the tiefling.

The body was sent sprawling at the boy like she was trying to tackle him from beyond the grave, ripping the sword out of Aurelianus' shoulder in a spray of black blood. He screamed. Again. Nothing could have contained it. But as the blood started flowing down his arm, the half-demon rolled away from the strike, whether his diversionary tactic had worked or not.

He forced himself to his knees, clamping a hand to the gaping wound.. but a quick glance at the gash told him a quick cauterisation wasn't going to cut it this time. With a feral growl burbling liquidly in his throat, Drak'shal stumbled unsteadily to his feet, swaying from blood-loss. His right arm hung limp at his side, inky blood running from the fingertips in a more or less steady trickle, staining the crimson puddle his boots were sloshing in; his face was a ruin, cheek-caved in, nose smashed across his face and right eye swelling shut as the two wounds pressed in from either side of it.

A more abused creature it would be difficult to picture.

But, despite the fact he was almost dead on his feet, the plane-touched guttersnipe still had his fanged blade clutched loosely in his cracked hand. He staggered a few steps, trying to blink away the dancing white flashes in his eyes, and trying to avoid choking on his own blood as it slid down the back of his throat.

"C'mon then yo--" he coughed violently as a thick clot caught in his windpipe. "C'mon you smug little prick!"

He tried to raise his right arm for an obscene gesture, but it was useless, swinging dead at his side. He settled for bringing his left up, blade held as ready as he could hope to make it in his state. But, a spasm of agony freed the weapon from his grip, and it landed at his feet with a clatter.

His face might have dropped, had he had enough face left working for the movement. He settled for hawking up another mouthful of black, but it wasn't his own blood this time despite appearing that way. Oh no.

With a smirk to himself (inside, at least) the warlock opened his mouth and breathed a searing cone of Hellfire at his opponent, even as the ability to stand deserted him and he collapsed onto his knees, bleeding from a dozen wounds. Whether it did any damage or not, Aurelianus was going to go out fighting.

[Hysteria]

Talen's sword sliced through neck and spine, separating a slightly stunned looking head from its shoulders. The spray of blood across the ground was red, dark and weak. The youth's face looked almost as surprised as the fixed look across Resolve's as hit the ground with a dull thud. To Talen's credit, he managed to keep his footing as the decapitated corpse hit him. After a momentarily stumble he was back, his eyes locked on Aurelius. The smell of blood must have been unbearable, as a clear line of dark red had been splashed across the youth's face. The pale skin flecked with crimson, his eyes unblinking pale blue.

The kid lifted his sword, the momentarily reprieve in the middle of battle allowed me to catch my breath. The headless and twisted corpse at Talen's feet still had the sword sticking out of her back, protruding through the centre of her chest.

The sight of the Tiefling fighting against his own wounds was commendable, that is, if you pretended like he wasn't hell spawn. The words of abuse, spat through falling black blood, it seemed oddly poetic. I thought him done for, but then I had continually been wrong the whole fight. With a gesture of defiance the Tiefling let lose another blast of hellfire.

Talen reacted quickly. His hand grabbed the sword still protruding from Resolve's body. The boy barely strained as he lifted it, and her up into the air. The fire smashed into the limp, headless form with a roar of burning flesh. Talen was bracing himself behind her, using his smaller size as an advantage under hers. The youth didn't wait for the fire to stop, he charged forwards, body being torn asunder in front of him. He wasn't completely untouched, I could see flames licking the sides of his arms and legs as they flowed around the girl. The youth's dark pants burn in places and thick red burns appeared.

The flames dropped and Talen threw the body to the side. The desiccated mess shed charred flesh as it bounced across the ground. It was no longer recognisably as a body. I again felt a sick sense rising in my stomach, but I turned my eyes back to Talen. Both his hands gripped his blade. The youth threw another swing towards the Tiefling's neck, for whatever reason he sought to cleave his head from his shoulders once more.

[Aurelianus Drak'shal]

Once again, Aurelianus felt the loss of his ability to smile, his facial muscles twitching and spasming as the torment wracked his body. Using Resolve's body as a shield was not only a canny move on the cutter's part, but the tiefling knew Luned would still be watching from the crowds.

As if watching her best friend murder her fuck-buddy was not enough, she had then had to watch he creature she so loathed snap her neck, and now.. well, there was very little left of the exorcist's corpse besides charred meat and the gleam of exposed bone. The trauma that was likely to cause the scribe was a wonderful little upside to Aurelius' day.

Not that he had the time, or the clarity of mind to dwell on the small pleasure.

He couldn't smell the hideous reek of roasted flesh through his ruined nose, and by now his right eye had lost vision completely. True, Aurelianus had taken many a severe beating throughout his life, on occasion even worse than this one, but if not for the demonic blood flowing through his veins.. and down his flesh through the many tears, gashes and scrapes, then he would have succumbed to unconsciousness long before now. If not death.

As it was, on his knees, with Talen raising his sword for the second decapitating strike in a row, there was the temptation whispering sibilantly in the back of his mind to just give up. To just take the blow and wake up soon enough, bright eyed and bushy-tailed.

But a survival instinct is a hard thing to quell.

As the sword sang toward his neck, the tiefling, moving as slow as treacle to his own perception, brought his arm up even as he allowed gravity to take hold of him, collapsing to his side. The warlock lashed out a hasty Eldritch Blast at the weapon, but with his lack of focus, and blood for that matter, he barely managed to alter the trajectory. Ironically, his raised arm did more to deflect the blade than his magick had.

He watched with his remaining good eye as the blade took his arm off cleanly across his forearm just above the elbow - a flood of sticky, glistening blood jetted from the wound, spraying across the boy-beast as he closed in again for the kill. He seemed adamant he was going to take the half-demon's head. As his body collapsed heavily to the floor of the chamber, Aurelianus didn't imagine there was much he could do to stop him. He didn't even feel any pain from the wound. Aurelius only felt cold, his body shivering violently as shock set in, robbing him of muscular control.

There was only one choice remaining to the insurrectionist at this late hour in the fight. He could try and cauterise the neatly bisected stump of his arm to stem the massive flow of blood pouring out.. or he could try for a single last attack before he wound up in the dead-book.

When you put it like that, there really was no choice for the Cager.

But in the end, his choice became irrelevant; with one arm dead from the shoulder down, and the other gone from the elbow down, he couldn't summon up any more scouring Hellfire. Instead, Drak'shal lifted his head weakly, neck straining from the effort and spat a mouthful of his own blood in Talen's face.

Satisfied, the half-breed's head thumped back into the collective blood-pool on the floor with a thick splash. He was dead before the sword came down at him again, the fanged smirk still plastered across his face.

And that would be the end of Aurelius for Round 2. Congratulations to the survivor.

[Hysteria]

The movements felt slowed. The blade rang as the blast of smashed into it. The sudden movement caused a flicker of concern across Talen's face, I could guess that in that instant he imagined if it had been aimed at his head. The sword continued its path, catching Aurelianus's raised arm and slicing it off. The limb fell limply, the now familiar spray of blood a moment later.

I could barely believe what I was seeing as the Tiefling lurched dangerously. Talen lifted his sword backwards, ready to take another swing. The kid was refusing to celebrate, refusing any movement that might put him in a disadvantage from some desperate attack. His sword caught the light, but even with the flashing steal he looked like a dark avenger rather than a saviour.

A final kiss goodnight, the demon spat blood across Talen's face. The youth stepped backwards, expecting the paint that never came. Aurelianus collapsed and Talen paused to wipe his face against his sleeve. The mishmash of Resolve's and Aurelianus's blood painted his face red, highlighted with streaks of soot. His armoured arm was darkened by dirt and grim, his other with slight burns across pale skin. I could imagine the coppery smell entering his nose, a foul mixture of charred flesh and blood.

That then was it. The youth had won, and slightly dumbstruck he stood amid the corpses. His small frame was hunched and exhausted. His eyes made slow movements around the bodies, checking to make sure everyone was as dead as they appeared. For a moment I pitied the youth. What life does one live where you instinctively check to make sure people are dead? Where you grip your sword as tightly after the final call of battle as during? After the battle ended I could go home. What of this kid?

[Silence Sei]

	Hysteria	Roht Mirage	Resolve	Aurelianus Drak’shal	Warpath	Amber Eyes	The Hound
Story	7	8	6	8	6	5	6
Setting	7	7	6	5	6	7	5
Pacing	6	8	4	4	4	7	9
Communication	6	7	7	7	7	7	8
Action	8	7	5	6	7	7	7
Persona	7	8	6	5	5	6	9
Mechanics	4	6	7	7	7	5	9
Clarity	8	8	5	5	4	6	6
Technique	6	5	5	5	5	7	8
Wildcard	8	7	4	3	0	0	7
Total	67/100	71/100	55/100	55/100	51/100	57/100	74/100

Now for some bullet point notes on each of you.

• Hysteria
• I thoroughly enjoyed the second person perspective of your writing this round, but it was slightly confusing at times
• Your conclusion was not the greatest, and if it had better, it may have warranted an 8-9. The rest of your story, however, balanced this out.
• Remember that Talen isn’t a God; he can take hits, you know.
  
  Roht
• I found myself generally concerned for the well-being of the kids in your side story. It was a nice change of pace from the confused girl who caused a bar brawl last round.
• You’re writing was clear, and I could understand your actions just fine. Furthermore, Roht became the Aislinn Chamber punching bag while still being belivable.
• I would suggest writing more literary techniques to your writing. Your foreshadowing was good, but using more literary devices would have helped your score there.
  
  Resolve
  
• You basically did nothing until the last parts of the Cell. I am surprised nobody took advantage of your prone body in astral form sooner
• Your conversations lasted more than a couple of seconds, which in essence bunnies every other character around you. They can’t say they attacked during the conversation because then you still have to respond to it in your next post, and it becomes a whole clusterbomb.
• Remember that using multiple energy blasts should start taking its toll o Resolve, especially considering she teleported twice, and went astral.
  
  Aurie
• While Aurie plays the part of a sinister bastard well, he really did nothing super sinister this round and just came off as ‘atypical villain #3537’
• It took an Aurie 4 posts from ‘not knowing how much more he could take’ to die. The ‘go out fighting’ approaching loses its appeal once it has been mentioned more than once by a character who’s supposedly on his last legs.
• Remember my advice to Resolve, about bunnying and Endurance. You also did really well respecting the abilities of your ICly more powerful opponents, and your conclusion was gold.
  
  Warpath
• You took a 0 in Wildcard due to posting 4 minutes late.
• There was a lot of questionable activities going on with your character. While your character is powerful, I just couldn’t believe a few of the miracle moves he had pulled off.
  [*The cautionary tale for Resolve/Aurie applies to you as well. Flint is a very interesting character, made for combat, and I hate to see him bogged down with bunnying conversations that prevent him from doing what he does best; clobberin.
  
  Amber Eyes
• While I understood that your Mystic Bomb should have canceled out Resolve’s energy blasts towards you (I –think- that’s what you meant to do), it was a bit confusing to read at first.
• You also took a 0 in Wildcard, as well as a DQ, for your completely missing your deadline.
• Kyla always has interesting storylines, and the dream predicting her as Roht’s ‘savior’ was an awesome side story.
  
  The Hound
• Arden is just full of unpredictable surprises, isn’t he?
• As usual, your writing techniques and mechanics are your big number crunchers, great job!
• Be careful with that silence bubble though, the writing in the profile is pretty ambiguous, so be careful on its use.

Hysteria, The Hound, and Roht Mirage advance to the finals!

[Mordelain]

Aurelianus Drak'Shal receives 500 experience and 100 gold.

Roht Mirage receives 3000 experience and 200 gold.

Hysteria receives 2875 experience and 300 gold.

Warpath receives 375 experience and 100 gold.

Resolve receives 500 experience and 100 gold.

Amber Eyes receives 500 experience and 100 gold.

The Hound receives 3000 experience and 200 gold.