Slayer of the Rot vs. Cyrus the Virus

[Slayer of the Rot]

Blood.

The sticky thick liquid gushed into his mouth as his warped teeth punched through the geomancer's flesh. With a grunt, the slayer yanked his head back, ripping free a mouthful of the mage's meat, snapping his teeth wildly as he struggled to chew the large chunk, spittle mixing with blood to make a macabre, thinner concoction than what he'd so eagerly swallowed to ooze down his chin. Luc, wriggling pitifully in his grasp,let a scream burst from his lungs a moment before he vanished in a burst of wind that pushed the slayer closer to the tower.

His prey had escaped with that damnable magic of his, but the slayer was satisfied, for the moment, that he left him with a wound that would probably scar terribly, even after the monks worked their magic on it. That the tower was now rushing past him in a rapid blur, and he could not feel the comfort of something solid to any side of himself did not register in his mind at the moment. Only that he'd marked the powerful mage as his kill reigned high in his rustic mind...until he noticed that Luc had re-emerged above him, and noticed the violent motions of his cloak.

With a grunt, Dan twisted to the right as best he could -- and stared down at a rapidly encroaching blanket of soft clouds. That he was falling jarred him, shocked him much as a fatal blow on his person would. Throwing his body weight into the effort, he pulled himself back to glare at Luc, and ground his teeth as he watched the man yell something that fell mute on his ears, and formed a pair of obscenely long swords in hand, and cast them forward. Forgetting that his full plate was a mere thought away, Dan covered his face as be st he could, and threw his shoulder to the left, trying to make himself as small a target as possible.

The first sword spun past harmlessly, but the second caught him across the side, slicing easily through the thick cloth of his coat and biting painfully through both flesh and meat. Blood swirled through the formed blade like a vacuum, then faded away, the air passing by biting agonizingly into the wound , stinging with cold as he was sure that the wound in Luc's shoulder was. His jaw clenched even tighter as he pressed a hand against the gash, though his other fished into the folds of his coat, producing a throwing blade between each knuckle. Leaning into the throw, Dan's arm lashed forward, flinging the blades with incredible force up at Luc's form.

[Ther]

Cyrus the Virus

Story
Continuity – 8 (Good work recalling your previous battles with Slayer.
Setting – 6 (The tower in the clouds is a great, classical setting.
Pacing – 9 (Reads briskly)
Writing Style
Mechanics - 9
Technique – 6 (“Kissing death” is an interesting image – “pissing rain” sounds forced and is ineffective.)
Clarity - 9
Character
Dialogue - 6
Action - 5
Persona - 5
Misc.
Wild Card - 4

Total – 67

Slayer of the Rot

Story
Continuity - 8
Setting - 6
Pacing – 9 (Paragraphs are just the right size)
Writing Style
Mechanics - 9
Technique – 5 (Lines like “enough only so that the blow would crush bone if Luc would attempt to instinctively guard his face with his forearms” tend to sound they came out of some martial arts defense manual.” Avoid them. I do like this line, though – “It was odd, how heavy the fat drops came, in huge gushing sheets, as though born on the arms of some righteous rage.”)
Clarity - 9
Character
Dialogue - 6
Action - 5
Persona - 5
Misc.
Wild Card - 2

Total – 64

Cyrus wins and advances to Round 2. Both participants get a 500 EXP bonus.

[Ther]

Cyrus gets 2800 EXP and 200 GP.
Slayer gets 1100 EXP and 100 GP.