From Haidia's Heart, I stab at thee. (Closed to Lye)

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Death...it filled the air.

Elthas saw the burning husks of Lichensith's allies for a moment, then returned the gaze of his smiling face back towards the man himself.

"Life. Death. Funny to think about it isn't it? You must think all this unfair right now." Elthas shook his head. The spectral daggers had bit deeply into Lichensith, and at the same time, Famine from Lichensith's weapon also coursed through Elthas. Elthas had timed his counter strike flawlessly, and it had paid off. He looked as Lichensith knelt. "Consider this." Elthas said calmly, as he passed final judgment on Lichensith. "If you hadn't done the things to Amari that you've done...this would never have happened to you." Elthas was determined to make Lichensith pay for all his sins.

As Elthas stood there, the blazing inferno swirled about across eternity, time and space.

Elthas felt considerably weakened, the bastard's famine curse had affected him quite a bit. After all, I did take the full brunt of his initial attack...now I must endure. Elthas thought to himself. He looked down on his chest, though it was true...Elthas had no organs or bone in the physical sense, there was a glowing mark of energy where famine had struck. Spectral energy leaked out of the potent energy, but it was a gamble that Elthas had been willing to take.

Elthas looked down at the severe injury.

Spectral energy swirled off it, and it hurt like hell. Fitting. Elthas smiled wider at that point. Then he looked back at the bastard before him. Elthas readied his spectral daggers one more time. The hour is upon us now...all the world's a stage. And Elthas readied his mighty weapons. And as he stood there...something happened.

His mind calmed and he could see the image of Hylda Terrentius before him...Finish this... She said to him in his mind. A haunted past.

And Elthas acted decisively. He meant to finish the job he'd started with Lichensith and become as Death might. Elthas ran forward at best speed, and readied his daggers for one final attack. The plan became real at that point. A few paces directly in front of Lichensith, Elthas acted. He used one of his two remaining blinks in a full forward assault. But the target? He was going to attempt to to blink right through directly and finish him off in that sort of way. Even as Famine burned through his body, Elthas knew this was his finest moment. He had to make every microsecond count.

And the entire time, Elthas began to laugh at Lichensith...his laughter became maddeningly serious very quickly.

[Lye]

As Elthas turned and spoke, Lye urged himself to carry forward. Into the best of a sprint he could manage, he made for his comrades' discarded weapons. Unsettling as the specter showed to be, Lye drowned out its words in favor of survival. Guilty of it himself, speech whilst engaged in a life and death struggle only gave time and opportunity to a foe.

Lye dove toward Theo and Earlwin's remains to much protest of his wound. He winced, grit his teeth, and bore the pain as he tucked into a well timed roll. His body hit the scorched ground and he tucked his body in a peculiar manner. Shoulders, back, and finally, his wound pressed into the earth but found reddened steel instead. The growl of unfettered pain escaped Lye while the metal seared and scorched the open wound into a cauterized mess. Again, Lye recovered at a knee, but his foe proved unyielding.

With his verbal warning spit to the wind, Elthas charged.

'Theo, Earlwin...' Their names rang out in the assassin's mind as both gratitude and regret throbbed at his core. Brothers cast aside by society, starved in the streets of their home town, and victims of the world's ruthlessness turned to thievery and violence. In the end, they died as brothers and together, they still served nobly to a man who understood their plight.

Lye spanned his arms over his companion's blackened and warped shoulders and with one final embrace, they fragmented and scattered into a cloud of ash. Like the mist of shadows, the brothers enveloped the assassin. Elthas rushed and blinked from view. His trail blasted through the cloud like a cannon, dispersing it immediately.

In the remnants of the haze, Lye emerged. A trail of blood streamed from his forehead and down his eye. The leather that protected his shoulders looked as though they had been vaporized and his skin mangled. Despite the unavoidable damage from his foe's onslaught, Lye's blades lashed out with the fervor of a predatory cat. Two blows lashed for the Elven ghost's oblique as repayment. Fluidly, Lye's crossed arms transitioned to a second strike and scissored his cursed steel for the square of Elthas' back. Were his enemy mortal, Lye aimed to sever the spine and finish the task.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Coming out of the blink maneuver, Elthas materialized to his normalish state.

As Elthas rippled back into existence out of the fancy blink maneuver, he knew he had driven his point home. But there was another problem, one that Elthas did not count on. The man, Lichensith had cut Elthas out of desperation. At that point, he was thankful for his ghostly form he remained mostly intact. However, large gashes were visible where Lichensith had cut him. Elthas looked down at the point where he'd been licked by both of Lichensith's weapons at that time. He knew Lichensith intended to destroy him. I must take him down first... Of course, the man's accursed blades has placed their dark power into Elthas and would likely be lethal.

But he still had time...

There was always time to act...

Elthas turned slowly towards the weakened form of Lichensith. Then, he ran at best speed...no more blinks or fancy maneuvers. Instead, he readied one of his mighty blades to launch one final assault at the crafty bastard. Elthas rotated his weapon a he ran forward feeling the exhausting weight of Lichenith's curses already acting against him. Elthas was leaking spectral energy very rapidly, he was hurting. But the blood that he saw on Lichensith's face was more than satisfying. Elthas ran forward deciding he would press the attack at that point. No room for mistakes...

He swung his mighty spectral blade with one solitary purpose. The decapitation of Lichensith, should his strike be true. And the entire time he endured the man's assault...Elthas laughed. The laughter...it never stopped. It almost seemed as if Elthas were enjoying the pain...the brutal punishment. Elthas swung his weapon down at Lichensith's neck in an attempt to end the battle. He knew they were both severely inured. I have to push myself a little bit longer...just a little bit. Shit this hurts...just what were those spells he used against me?

Tendrils of energy swirled off the Wraith as he attacked all he could do was wait...wait for the correct opening to strike.

[Lye]

Laughter, always with the hysterical laughter. Each phantom breath of the undead elf rang out like a death toll of deep, harrowing mockery. It echoed in Lye's mind and dredged up memories of his earlier days. His dead wife, the innocent prison guards flayed and broken, the faces of all the corpses he claimed in his mentally shattered hysteria. Almost as if radiating from his cauterized wound, it jostled Lye's movements. Something supernatural gripped him deeper than any poison.

He groaned to oppose it, pummeled by the maddening voice which seemed to echo only louder in this spectral realm. The hesitation gave his foe the moment he desired. Elthas swung, might backing his ferocious blow. Wisps of Lye's cerulean flames danced of the elf's spectral form. Seconds became minutes. Every heart beat pounded like a war drum in the assassin's chest. His widened, emerald eyes watched the reaper's scythe come to claim him.

Blade met flesh, blood poured against the blackened earth, and Lye's steel clattered like a chime against the ground.

No words escaped the assassin's lips in those few eternal seconds, only the soft, barely audible song of steel as it sang through the air. Lye, with Elthas' spectral blades buried half through his hand against the hardened bone his forearm, took a page from the elf's book. A sacrifice of one hand opened way an opportunity for the other. Cleaving as though to split the elf in half, Lye's blade dropped from above Elthas' head with all the might his battered body could summon. The leather of Lye's vest smoked, stray hairs lit aflame, and his skin began to bubble.

In exchange for the full stopping strength of bones as hard as steel, the assassin severed his connection to the shadow plane. Nothing staved him from the raw fury of the Anti-firmament. Defiant, ferocious, and merciless, Lye held steady to his resolve.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

In the blink of an eye it happened...

Elthas watched as the man dropped his only protection from the forces of the inferno all around. What's he doing...!? Elthas felt a momentary state of insanity as he considered the situation at hand. His spectral dagger got lodged into Lichensith's blocking forearm. Elthas felt a powerful weight against his spectral dagger, one that he had not counted on. His eyes narrowed at that point. Elthas noticed out the corner of his eyes that Lichensith was moving to attack again...

However, Elthas was not his normal self at that point.

Something had happened to him in his encounter with the bastard before him. Something quite dangerous. He wasn't sure of it up until that point, but the effects of Famine and the other curses Lichensith possessed played on his mind. He was smiling the entire time. Despite that, Elthas knew at that point. He'd changed. Something inside of his very soul had changed during the events of the battle itself.

And that change manifested even more clearly at that point.

Elthas did not stop laughing.

In fact, the laughter got louder as all semblance of rational and sanity faded in one decisive moment. Elthas quickly enacted the swirling plans in his mind. They were coming at him like a storm, rapidly. In that moment where nothing mattered...it all made sense to him. Lichensith had changed him in a very provocative sort of way. The offending spectral dagger that was intercepted by the Assassin's arm was the key. He is made flesh...I just need a moment longer... And Elthas acted.

He felt the weight of the plagued weapon that Lichensith used.

It sunk into trapezius muscle group and sank deeply in his body...

At that point, Elthas flicked his wrist and he was determined to finish Lichensith off. He wanted to be certain to take Lichensith with him. And so doing, he flicked his wrist and willed the spectral dagger to move. Elthas pulled his weapon and moved quickly to attempt to stab the bloody spectral dagger in Lichensith's face...and leave it in there if it plunged in.

Then, at that point the full effect of Lichensith's curses burned through Elthas.

Elthas laughed louder, and then he screamed horribly...

The famine, and everything else tormented and tore at the very spectral essence that kept Elthas intact. A few moments later, there was a brilliant burst of energy as Elthas exploded with a powerful energy. His body flared up, dispersing into burning ash as the laughing howl filled the air. Elthas had fought like a champion. As he vanished, there was one clear matter...the smile never left the wraith's face...

[Lye]

Unlike before, Lye's blade felt no resistance as it slid through Elthas' ghastly form. In earnest, the searing pain from his scorching flesh, burning hair, and collapsed lungs proved too much interference to notice. What he did notice, however, was Elthas' maddened expression as his spectral dagger swung overhead.

Lye struggled to wrench his arm free, but the split second of movement only served to lessen the blow. Phantom steel slammed into the assassin's brow. His bones, strong as smithed steel, staved the worse of the attack. Yet, as the dagger drew downward, the fleshy membrane of his right eye parted and ruptured. Sight immediately left him and in a voiceless cry of anguish, Lye's open jaw finally wrested the blade to a halt.

Then, in the echo of laughter, Elthas exploded in a dispersal of light. The force blew Lye to his back and tumbled head over heels through the charred earth.

At rest, Lye could only focus on one thing.

Air.

Wracked with pain, fingers dug into the embers and ash, Lye willed for the shadow's embrace. He begged for it, mind screaming for sanctuary. Air, he needed to breathe. Searing heat, he needed to be set free. Anything. Something!

*GASP*

Lye's lungs filled with the sharp, chilled air of the Seventh Sanctum. Steam roiled off his melted leather and bubbling flesh. Deep, long, painful, but necessary, he found the air his body needed. Lye clenched his hands, gripping a fist full of icy powder which quickly turned to water. Somehow, someway, through the peak of his desperation, he managed to step through the plane of shadows long enough to eject him back into the real world.

"Master!" shouted the shrill voice of Advencia.

He felt her hands on him and roiled from the exposed nerved of his burns. His eyes failed to focus. His cracked lips parted and dry mouth hoarsely spoke.

"Water," he groaned.

"What the--!" exclaimed another voice.

"Go get some water! Quick!" Advencia barked. Lye felt her tiny frame struggle to upright him. Through his aching body, he managed to stand, letting her bare the brunt of his weight. His only good hand clenched at his throbbing head. Crimson ichor peppered to the snow in swaths. Rivers of blood spilled from both his face and sundered arm.

"Your hand!" Advencia shouted as they staggered forward together. "Your eye! The portal closed, then--! Then--! What happened?!"

Lye's chest heaved, still relishing in the luxury of fresh, breathable air.

"I'll get the Ai'Brone," spoke a third.

"Water," Lye repeated in a hoarse drawl.

The remnants of the Sanctum busied about in the twilight hours. Bloodied rags fell to the floor and the shadows danced with figures of men trying to restrain their master's thrashing. The old monk failed short of his miracle, falling to the ground, dead. In the hours of dawn, the assassin finally quieted. From the madness induced by Ethas and his horrid realm, Lye's eyes finally focused on the hunched figure of Advencia. His mouth opened, but only a groan escaped.

The small succubus' eyes fluttered open, and it took a moment for her to awake.

"Master?" She asked, gripping his hand. He winced from the pain of unhealed wounds.

"Advencia..." Lye spoke in arid breaths.

"We couldn't save your eye..." The sentence left her lips with sorrow and defeat. Lye raised his bandaged hand to his forehead. A dull ache responded as it rest against the dampened linens over half his head.

"What?" No other words made sense. "Why? Where's Corvanik?"

Silence stood between them.

"Dead," Advencia stated. "The wounds, they wouldn't heal like normal..."

He felt her soft touch graze his side where Elthas stabbed hilt deep. It ached and burned.

"He gave his life to get you stable, but," she paused. "In the end, it was too much for him."

Lye rest his head against the pillow and stared at the hewn stone ceiling of the infirmary.

"Advencia."

"Yes, Master?"

"Help me dress."

"You're not--"

His voice remained soft, distant, but firm. "I said, help me dress."

"Y-yes, Master..."

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Judgment

Story

Elthas: 15

You start with a solid continuation of the events of Day 4 (where Elthas issues Lye a stark warning about his treatment of Amari). It was good to see you looking to continue that line of story. However, I found myself a bit puzzled early on in the thread by an apparent contradiction of intent.

In your first post you state “It was not an issue of good versus evil, or right versus wrong. Elthas had stumbled upon a harsh crime being committed and he would make Lichsensith pay for it” which lead me to believe that the spectre was here for vengeance. Yet, in post three, you then state “He wanted to be absolutely certain he could speak to Lichensith and perhaps reach him if he could” before then again contradicting yourself a line later with “Elthas knew he had done the right thing. Either way...one of them was going down”. Finally, you then once again make a hard turn back towards a more passive line of enquiry with "Needed to bring you out here so we could talk." I found myself perplexed at Elthas’s intentions at this point and felt the initial story was at crossed purposes with its intended destination. Was he there to reason with Lye or get revenge for his friend Amari?

The setting of the Antifirmanent was a good idea, I thought, but I was rather hoping for a little more from you in terms of its use. This was an area that belonged to a wraith like Elthas and I expected perhaps to see some sort of manipulation of its workings. You mention the inferno amongst the trees but then most of your action focuses entirely on the combat, which detracts from this wonderful, ethereal place you have created.

One thing I believe you did well on was emphasising your connection with Amari and keeping on topic. In my last judgment for you I noted that you tended to sway “off plot” a few times but there was none of that here; initial confusion aside. You did what you came to do and your conclusion was both spooky and well written.

Lye: 19

As with Elthas, you lead with on from of the events of Day 4 and give us an insight of the events in the immediate aftermath, with Amari moved from her cabin to Lye’s private quarters and the discovery of Elthas’s gate to the Antifirmanent. From here, I thought you did a good job in making it known that there was a very clear and direct reason for Lye to enter Elthas’s world, conveying well his desire to confront the wraith over the previous day’s offences.

Your use of Theo and Earlwin in the fight accented your work, although I found myself a bit perplexed by Lye’s original non-reaction to their deaths in post two. Given the sweeping statement later made about them being “brothers of his cause” I perhaps thought his immediate reaction would be anger or at least some sort of veiled concern. That being said, their utilization throughout and the very way the Antifirmanent affected Lye and his men was absolutely superb. You used the setting better than Elthas and established one solid line of reasoning which was present throughout and that, essentially, was the difference here.

Your conclusion was well written and I liked how you have essentially created a canonised wound for Lye as a result. If I have one criticism, it is that I would have preferred to see more of a reaction to Elthas’s supposed death. Once the wraith is gone, Lye’s focus is (understandably) on getting some air, but then not so much as an afterthought is paid to the encounter. Perhaps this will be elaborated or expanded upon in another thread.

Character

Elthas: 17

Once again you mostly stay true to Elthas’s character throughout, placing emphasis on his nobility and good nature, but were hurt here by the confusion of your early posts. I think you would benefit from finding one particular direction in a thread with Elthas and sticking to it. The jumping back and forth between “wanting to make Lye pay” and then “wanting to reason with him” highlighted inconsistencies in Elthas’s persona that I couldn’t overlook.

I mentioned this in your last judgment, but I did like your use of internal dialogue to allow the reader to follow his way of thinking. You were a little less conservative with your spoken word than previous battles but I actually think it helped you here rather than hindered you because this particular bout had story connotations that verbally needed to be addressed.

I loved some of the action you portrayed here and I am a fan of the way that you put Elthas through the wringer. We are thankfully long past the days of people avoiding hits for the sake of “winning a battle”, but the hits you took not only served to show a certain level of fairness but were also tactically intelligent, such as those in post nine.

Finally, in your last post, we once again we see a metamorphosis in Elthas that jumps from normality to insanity; only this time there is consistency in the way it is done, which wasn’t the case in your last judgment. There was also a justification for it, which you wrote very well.

Lye: 22

The one thing I love about the way you write Lye is that you leave very little grey area when it comes to his persona. Almost every nuance, every line of dialogue and action that he took was consistent with the type of person he is – controlling, hedonistic and intelligent. Again, I believe your shortcomings stemmed mostly from small things – your previously noted delayed reactions to Theo and Earlwin’s deaths being one – but these were few and far between.

As I mentioned with Elthas, your actions absolutely defined you both here. I loved the fast back-and-forth combat and especially enjoyed the effects of Lye’s accursed weapons upon Elthas’s body. The outstanding moment of the battle for me, though, was Lye losing an eye. It is becoming less unusual in modern times that writers put their respective characters through the mill but it is very unusual to canonise a permanent wound. This is probably as a result of the Citadel, and its ability to heal even mortal wounds, but because this took place outside of its walls you gave Lye the chance to do something difference and offered a little character development into the mix whilst you were at it. Good job!

Prose

Elthas: 15

Unfortunately there were a large number of mechanical issues throughout that really hurt your score here.

I found quite a few spelling and grammatical errors which interrupted the pace of my read and threw me off, meaning I had to re-read sentences to fully understand what was happening or what you were saying. Again, to a degree I can understand why this happened because the thread moved along very quickly, but it wouldn’t hurt to run your work through a spell-check to eliminate as many “silly” errors as you can.

As an example, “Present was the large trees of Concordia Forest” should have been “Present were the large tress of Concordia Forest”. Another sentence read “With the scorching wind constantly flowing with sulpher in the air, debris, remains of a lost civilization.”, which, without wanting to cause you any offence, I still can’t decipher in the context of the rest of the post.

Your technique differs to Lye, but your delivery of the writing itself is still of a good quality. You use some nice literary devices but could profit from perhaps using a few more to add splashes of color to your work. You make use of paragraphing in such a way that adds suspense to Elthas’s actions but I do believe you could have perhaps benefited from separating out your dialogue from the main body of text. You did however avoid the previous pitfall of repetition of a single word too much in a sentence, which was a vast improvement.

Whilst the posts themselves were pretty straightforward, your clarity suffered as a result of the initial confusion as to your intentions. Otherwise, nothing else was particularly confusing or muddled.

Lye: 21

I thought the overall technique employed was fantastic. I could really visualize every small detail of each attack, the Antifirmanent and even the detailing on the wounds as they occurred. Lye, I’ve said this before you have a natural gift for bringing everything to life with your vivid descriptions and you gave this thread the texture it deserved with some of your more potent devices. A personal favourite was from post eight (“A blossom of azure flame erupted from the desolate earth where Elthas stood. Lye did not hear screams nor did he see the telltale struggle to fight off impending death. Instead, the blur of speed and trailing wisps of chilling flame shot from the frigid pyroclasm.”).

Mechanically speaking, my gripes are limited to basic things and seem a bit nit picky but are still relevant. You suffered from one or two instances of word repetition (“the the” in your opening post) and a couple of grammatical clangers (“Like leaves swept up in an vortex” which should have been “Like leaves swept up an a vortex”). There were one or two questions on punctuation as well (“From it, exuded an unnatural warmth while simultaneously broadcasting an eerie chill down the back of the assassin's spine.” – I’m not sure why the comma is there after “it. It’s either “From it exuded an unnatural warmth” or “From it, [something] exuded an unnatural warmth”). None of these issues stem from a lack of understanding of mechanics but I suspect instead were simply overlooked. A quick spell-check and read through might have eliminated these issues entirely, but they were present nonetheless.

The final word was on your clarity, which was pretty much spot on. Rarely (other than in the case of the issues highlighted above) did I not understand what was going on. Good work.

Wildcard

Elthas: 7

Lye: 7

Gentlemen, I am awarding you both equal points for collaborating to provide us all with an entertaining and somewhat unique battle that carries real-world implications for both characters. I love a thread with character development and I enjoyed this as an extension of Day 4. Well done to you both.

Final scores

Elthas Belthasar: 54
Lye: 69

Lye wins!

Lye receives 2875 EXP and 115 GP!

Elthas Belthasar receives 500 EXP and 90 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!