Round 1: Rehtul Orlouge Vs Bank of Hoytti.

[Silence Sei]

Round Begins at 12:01 AM May 3rd. The Icy Orlouge Vs The Coralian Accountant! Good Luck!

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul stepped into the ring. His mind felt like it was going a million miles per second as his footfalls echoed across the floor. He noted that surrounding this wooden walkway were various little areas, like gardens, but beautiful in their attention to detail. He could tell someone put in a lot of work on them. Immaculately maintained grass, flowers in their perfect positions, pools of reflective water, tiny manmade waterfalls.

“Everything has its proper place, very orderly, even if it is also for aesthetic effect,” Rehtul said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper he’d read over multiple times over the last few days.

Those in possession of this letter are hereby invited to join the Serenti Invitational, it read, along with instructions on how to get to the tournament, as well as various other rules and things of note. Rehtul was still quite shocked that his uncle, Sei Orlouge, would be willing to part with such a thing, though the running of the Ixian Knights, along with several family emergencies, would inevitably make it impossible for him to come.

But why me? Rehtul asked himself for the five hundredth time, just in that day alone. I’m not a fighter. Someone like Jensen would have been far more able to make full use of this invitation that I would.

“Oh well,” he said out to the air around him. “If this is what the old man wants, I suppose I’ll have to make do with the hand I was dealt.” This time, he was representing the Ixian Knights at a grand tournament. No matter what else there was to be said on the subject, the entire truth of the matter was that he would have to do his best, so as not to embarrass his uncle, his father, or the hundreds of other Knights who would have shown up to watch him and anyone else from the organization to be invited to the tournament.

He hopped off the wooden pathway and knelt beside one of the flowers, taking in its scent with a smile. The aroma of flowers was one of his favorite things, though his particular forte of magic would inevitably end up killing them if he released it. He turned to the small pool of water next to the little patch of flowers and dipped his fingers into the water, watching with absent amusement as flakes of frost began to form in the water.

“Good, it is real water, then,” he said. With that out of the way, he stood up and wiped his hand off on his shirt. He looked back over the area surrounding him. “I know I’ve seen this type of garden before, albeit on a much smaller scale. Is it modeled after the gardens in Akashima, perhaps?”

He could easily believe this to be the case. The long, polished wooden walkways, the man-made peace of each of the small garden areas, and the steam rising off of what appeared to be a hot spring further down the path. All of it pointed to being modeled after the societal norms of the Akashiman region of Corone.

“That... certainly makes sense.”

He jumped up to the walkway and looked both ways down it. It seemed to infinitely stretch in either direction, though Rehtul knew there would be at least one exit somewhere. He sat down and crossed his legs over one another. Since he was going to be greeted by an opponent h ere, he might as well relax and save his energy for the fight, instead of running around, and possibly missing the other person.

Besides, he thought, looking into the noonday sun, no use for two people to look for one another, when one of us staying stationary will speed up the process.

[Bank of Hoytti]

Maribel made her way through a beautiful garden. One that would make most feel at peace and happy. Maribel however wasn't here to enjoy the peace of the garden. No, instead she was here to ruin the peace. She was here for a fight. A fight she was invited too. She was in the Serenti. So, with determination to complete the task at hand, Maribel made her way through the garden in search of her opponent.

It didn't take Maribel long to find her opponent. "She" was a beauty to say the least. "Her" long, white hair was tipped with blue. "She" was in a robe that probably hung down to "her" feet. A cape, that probably belonged to "her" lover, hung from "her" shoulders. The robe and cape were both white with a ice blue trim. This "woman" had to have a thing for ice and snow.

Maribel gave her opponent another once over before she cleared her throat and said, "Excuse me miss. But I believe we are opponents this fine day. My name is Maribel and I hope to enjoy the battle ahead.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul heard footsteps behind him and could feel the person’s eyes appraising him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he fidgeted for a moment before looking over his shoulder, his narrow eyes looking at them as they called him “miss.” With a short chuckle, he stood and turned on his heel to look the woman directly in the eyes, his ice blue eyes catching her own with a bemused look.

“First time in years I’ve been mistaken for a woman,” he said, a hint of laughter in his voice. He bowed to the woman, his eyes never leaving hers, in the style of the Akashimans. As he came up from his bow, he rolled the sleeves of his white robes up before adjusting a set of buckles hidden around his elbows to lock the sleeves in that higher position, freeing his forearms for maximum movement.

He adjusted his cape as well, brushing the long stretches of cloth that covered his arms over the back of his shoulders, where they folded next to the shorter center of the piece of clothing. A single lock of his hair fell into his eyes, and he tucked it easily behind his ear. He stood there, looking the woman over for a moment. Her brown hair hung to roughly the same place as his own, and she stood perfectly straight, a woman used to having control in her environment if he ever saw one.

From her closed body language, he could tell that she was every inch a no-nonsense type of person, similar to himself and his father. She didn’t seem to be particularly suited to battle, however, though Rehtul had made that assumption before and been proven wrong. A person could never tell about another person’s battle readiness based purely off of their looks. As he finished surveying the woman, overlooking her rather plain clothing, he nodded his head.

“Indeed, however, I am your opponent for the tournament,” he said. He smiled and said, “My name is Rehtul Orlouge, Mystic, Elementalist, and researcher into the powers of magic, both grand and minute. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

With the niceties out of the way, at least on his end, he smiled once more and held out a single hand, palm up, in the most unthreatening manner possible. A cool breeze blew through the gardens from west, causing Rehtul’s hair to flow along with it. With a snarl, he produced a comb from within one of the pockets on his robes and placed the errant locks of hair back into their original places.

“Apologies for that,” he said, placing the comb back into his pocket, “I suppose we should begin. Would you like the first move, milady?"

[Bank of Hoytti]

Maribel nodded as she said, "Indeed we shall, and sorry for the mistaken gender Mr. Orlouge." She then threw her pencil at the young man as she came up behind it in order to try to catch him off guard. Her hair and robe flew behind her as she ran forward. Once she was close she brought her fist up in order to attempt a sucker punch.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul listened as she admitted that the two of them should indeed start, and smiled. The woman then did something intriguing, throwing a pencil in front of him. He was unsure if it had some kind of hidden power or not, so decided not to take any chances, breathing out slowly as the air around him began to mist, the temperature dropping ever so slightly around his body. As the small wooden item entered the mist, it began to slowly frost over before he reached out and caught it in a single gloved hand.

He saw that it was indeed just a regular pencil, and wondered why she threw it at him. He realized just a split second too late, however. It’s a feint! he screamed inside his head as a fist slammed hard against his jaw, sending him spiraling toward the ground in a most ungraceful manner. He landed flat on his shoulders and gasped in pain.

Sighing, he untangled himself from his robes and cape and stood up, the mist beginning to coalesce around his body.

And now my shoulders hurt, he complained inwardly as he rotated both of his shoulders to stop the pain in his shoulder blades.

“My turn, then,” he said simply as he held out his right hand next to him, dropping the pencil and extending his fingers out. The mist around him began to quickly gather in his hand before spreading out in two directions, straight up and down. The air around the quickly forming ice creation seemed to come to a standstill, almost as if the world was holding its breath, waiting for the spell to end.

A shaft of ice was the first thing to appear, as Rehtul’s hand closed into a fist around the ice form. It then proceeded to flow in either direction as it ended in a large, flat blade. Seven feet of weapon had been created from the moisture in the air around the young man, and he intended to use every single drop of moisture he had gathered to his advantage.

Without a second thought, he rushed the woman with his spear, his eyes glinting with amusement. He’d never been sucker punched before. It had been an interesting experience, if not one that he would ever like to revisit. As he finally approached the woman, he lunged the spear forward with its full length, attempting to skewer her.

[Bank of Hoytti]

Maribel inwardly applauded herself for hurting an Orlouge, one of the strongest and richest families on Althanas. but that was short lived when Rehtul stood back up and just shook it up like it was nothing. To make matters worse. Her arm was extremely cold from the mist he breathed out to freeze her pencil, which now laid useless on the ground.

However, the next thing that happened actually got her nervous, not that it showed. The man made a spear of ice. A long pointy stick made of ice! As he thrust forward to try to turn her into frozen shish kabob. However, she had trained for such a weapon before and quickly spun out of the path of the ice sickle of death. She then tried to grab the spear with her hand.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul smiled as the woman danced around his lunge with a surprising amount of grace. He let go of the spear as she gripped it, laughing inwardly at the fact that she’d be lucky to be able to hold onto the frozen shape for very long. He could see it now, before it even happened. It was likely that the biting cold would force her to drop the item almost immediately. Even if she didn’t, it would eventually overwhelm her, and the spear would drop back to the wooden pathway beneath them. He would just have to wait for that to happen.

He jumped back, to remain out of the range of his own weapon as he drew his blue steel dagger from his belt.

I can’t afford to waste all of my magical energy making new weapons until I see what this woman is actually capable of, he thought simply.

With his dagger firmly in hand, he looked at the woman simply and had a brilliant idea. The air around him began to mist again as he summoned a small amount of his magical energy. Mist began pouring from the reflecting pools surrounding the wooden walkway, and crept up underneath the woman. Starting from the bottom of the unblemished wood, frost began to creep up through it. A loud groan started to echo through the area as Rehtul held out a single hand, two fingers pointing directly at the floor beneath the woman, Maribel.

He thrust his fingers upward, causing the frost within the wood to solidify, creating immense strain on the walkway and causing it to splinter, crack, and finally break. He jumped forward at that exact moment, his dagger at the ready. With a small, simple motion, he slashed the dagger, aiming to cut the woman’s chest wide open.

Thank the Thaynes that the monks are here to heal us up after these battles, or I’d be way more worried about hurting this woman.

[Bank of Hoytti]

(Bunny permitted by Rehtul)

Maribel released the spear as soon as she grabbed it. 'Man that's cold,' she thought as the spear fell to the ground and shattered. Right as the spear shattered she heard it, the creaking of the wood under her feet. She looked down and noticed that frost covered the wood.

Suddenly the wood cracked, so she jumped forward only to see the knife headed straight for her chest. 'Well, this is going to hurt,' she thought as she put the hand that had grabbed the spear up and let the knife sink into it as she grabbed the hand that held the knife. however, she noticed that it didn't feel the pain at all.

'Must be numb from the cold,' Maribel thought as she pulled the Rehtul close and brought her elbow down onto his arm to break it with a crack. As soon as she heard the crack she released his dagger and pulled back to assess the damage done to her opponent as well as to her hand.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

Rehtul gasped as his arm was broken by the woman’s expert disarming attack, watching in disgust as the dagger fell limply from his hand. He watched her, eyes ablaze with fury as she jumped back to take stock of the damage. He was getting sick of her dodgy antics, and it was beginning to show. He cupped his limp arm and scowled. This was the second time he’d been disarmed by her, and worse, now his right arm was crippled. He considered trying to heal it with his Light Magic, but he had yet to master repairing bone.

Damn you, he cursed to himself. The mask of his self control was finally starting to crack under the pressure this woman had managed to put on him. He hadn’t been able to land even a single one of his intended blows yet, and she had managed to simply avoid even the breaking of the wood walkway. It was irritating, to say the very least.

“I’ll hand it to you, you’re a lot better at this than I’d have first thought,” he said, his voice reduced to little more than a growl. He lifted his left hand over his head as the air around him began to mist once more. “Of course, it’s been pretty fun too. You’re great at up close and personal combat. I shouldn’t have underestimated that much about you, I’ll admit. However...”

Droplets of water began to rise from the small pools on either side of the walkway as Rehtul continued to focus his energy into the air around him, drawing toward him in streams, rivers floating in the air around him. The water continued to gather from around him as he smiled darkly. He could feel the power welling up from within him, allowing him to access ever increasing amounts of power as he continued to fight strong opponents.

The beads of water continued to gather inside of the mist around his body, forming into small, three inch long needles of ice, sharpened to a deadly point. The mist cleared as the ice finished forming, floating there in the air around the young Mystic. He could feel the eyes of Sei and his father Succed upon him, judging him, criticizing his every mistake.

“I am no slouch, especially when it concerns ranged attacks. Prepare yourself!” he said simply as he pointed his hand, finger outstretched at the woman before him, releasing a barrage of no less than twenty total needles at Maribel.

“I will not allow myself to lose,” he muttered, more for his own benefit than for the intimidation effect. “At least not yet...”