Dead Shadows (Closed)

[Hysteria]

It was quiet. Talen's eyes were firmly shut as he repeated a mantra in his head. I will do better... I will do better.... Talen's past fights in the citadel were something similar to a comedy play. Not only had he lost, but he had royally stuffed up. The boy though may have been too hard on himself. He was a little over 19 and most of his life had been spent running rather than fighting. They say that life on the streets makes you tough, but if you never stay still in one place trouble doesn't find you. Talen had only recently decided that he was tired of running, he wanted to stand up and actually experience life rather than constantly running. Thus, the wander had come to the citadel to test himself and more importantly, get stronger.

The wandering shadow puppeteer opened his eyes to the citadel arena. The magic that must go into a single fight must be staggering far beyond Talen's meagre skills. The arena was a large canyon with curved raised walls lifting high into the dark and cloudy sky. The area itself was quite small encased in the large semi formed dome. Talen stood on a small three metre wide platform jutting out from a curved rock wall behind him. On the other side of the twenty metre oval was a similar platform. All in all the area seemed normal at first glance, that was until one looked at the space between the two platforms. Talen had to look twice before he realised that there were three dozen metre wide floating stones arranged into neat rows of three creating a hovering bridge between the two platforms. The only thing which seemed to stop the stones from move around was a creeping vine which spread along the wall behind Talen, down onto the platform and across the stones.

Talen sighed to himself. He had played the fool in the last battle thanks in part to the odd terrain, now he was faced with a similar situation. This time the shadow puppeteer took note of the peculiarities of the terrain lest he fall into the same trap. His eyes fell onto a small pebble just a metre or so in front of him. The stone twisted through the air against the weak wind that managed to enter the arena.

Looks like they move pretty easily...

The dark-haired youth was ready to fight. He had taken off his heavy cloak and rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt before entering the arena. His black pants were loose and easy to move in and at his belt he had his twin steel swords. Not waiting for an invitation, Talen pulled his Katana, sheath and all, from his belt and held it easily in front of him. Placing the sheathed sword blade down into the stone platform he lent forward, stretching out his leg muscles. It wasn't really necessary, but he was nervous.

For Alis.

So the arena is oval shaped, twenty metres from wall to wall on the long side (so we are just under 20metres apart) with the floating bridge about 15 metres long (one metre for each of the 12 stones and then a small space between each one making the remaining 3 metres). The width is about 10metres in the middle, with about 3.5metre wide bridge (again a metre per stone, plus some gaps).

Stones are frictionless and don't gravitate to any particular spot. They are held by the vine, which is easily able to take two peoples weight (thanks to the distribution across the bridge). The stones have a bit of movement, but not much. The vine can be cut easily enough.

We are outside, but there it is very overcast. You can take that to mean whatever. I thinks that about it. :) PM or OOC if you have any questions.

[Artamos Alcor]

Sorry to keep you waiting mate, but the char is finnaly approved and am ready to rock

Artemos found himself in the particular special environment, he had somewhat known of the place already. The stone ledge he stood on, his opponent on the other side. The movement of their “ground” if they were to meet one another head on, interesting was the thought that came to mind. The vines held the stones and the safety of trusting it to hold was somewhat a challenge of fear. One without fear would easily master the terrain if balance could be maintained. But fighting a place such as this was more a feat of balance, control and awareness in change of environment as much as it was to attack and defend. The apothecary made a mental note on the subject that this battle could most likely be easiest won by not allowing the enemy to keep his balance and awareness up and he would attempt to use such means to win. For Al was not one to fight, for all the matter he was more for his studies and further his abilities, he was not built for fighting and he thought that only barbarians would willingly engage in combat.

The sky was filled with dark clouds, it wasn't raining, but it wasn’t sunny either. Though the bio mage would appreciate the sun to warm he discarded the feeling, considering the thoughts a flaw. When he was done with himself, he would remember to make him immune to cold and heat, and an idea came to mind that he could create an implant in himself, a living organ or closely related to it that could control the amount of melanin in his skin. So that exposure to high levels of sunlight would result in his skin darkening to compensate, and return to normal when no longer exposed, this could as well with a bit of modification protect him from fire or light magic. A memorable note he apothecary concluded with and quickly found his book that hang around his waist in a belt on the inside of his robes. Bringing it out, he flipped the pages to get by already stored thoughts and places his hand on a fresh page and instantly his idea and how to perform it was stored there. Pleased with himself on his development of new ideas, and so early in the morning and he had already stored something to be tested.

Bio mage had been so distracted by his cheerfully thoughts of how to further reduce his flaws and reach for perfection that he had yet failed to gain any details of the other person. Looking at him, at least the apothecary perceived him as male, for the time of being. Was much like himself frail looking fellow, and seemed like he wasn’t much of a fighter. Though what you see can often be deceptive. Seeing how he used his sword to look over the edge, the apothecary felt a slight tingle in his stomach. His opponent had fear, and he could fix that, at least theoretical.


“If you have fear, I can fix that you know, fear is such an illogical, emotional.”

The apothecary spoke out loud so that his words would not be missed.


“A mere creation of the right hemisphere of the brain, I can remove that hemisphere, and replace it with the cogitator though pattern and link it directly with your logical left hemisphere. This ought to free you of any irrationality and illogic as fear and emotions. ”

Standing with his little figure barely over 1.60 in height, and weighting only at 45 kg he was hardly a big bad guy. His body covered by a red robe, with mechanical cogs at the bottom and the back between his shoulder blades he had incorporated a twin snake, a Prime Helix by all means, with angel wings out on each side. This was his sign, that was all he had left of his father memories and this mark and he wore it with the utmost respect. The hood of his cape kept most of his face away and little could be made out from the darkness it created around his face unless one had acute eyes.

[Hysteria]

The words of the little red man washed across the empty space between the two fighters and broke against Talen. The shadow puppeteer cocked his head to the side as he listened to what was said, but it meant little to the unlearned man. The words sounded like gibberish and the youth smiled.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Said Talen scratching his chin, “Look, I am not normally aggressive, but are we going to fight or what?”

The dark clothed youth lent forward on his sword and concentrated on the pressure of it pushing back. He leaned back and lifted the sword up in front of himself. In a quick movement he gave a small bow and then drew his sword. Holding his sheath in his left hand and his sword in his right he started off at a run. The first impact with one of the stones made the bridge move a little, but not enough to throw him off his run. Quickly he moved towards little red man.

[Artamos Alcor]

The response was somewhat annoying to the little red dressed fellow. How could people stay so uneducated? Against all he stood for, to not seek wisdom, knowledge and answers, what could possible drive these people without such goals? Even so, he proclaims not to be the aggressive type yet he falls onto such barbarian ways with ease.

“fight? Leave such things to the brainless barbarians. Fighting is just an milestone for warriors to measure their worth when their intellectuals minds cannot fight. A fight of words is where a true mans worth is measured, not by feat of strength, blades or otherwise.”Before Artemos could continue his speech the pale looking fellow had drawn his sword and was now charging towards him and the alchemist left out his air in a sight of annoyance.

How rude...
He though as he man took his first step on the bridge that swayed a little from the momentum that dark clothed youth was starting to produce. Already the bio mage knew that his words would probably not sway him to halt his charge but perhaps a little unbalance would and without doing anything, his subconscious already sent his chirugeon came to life and appeared up where it before had been hidden behind his back, 2 metallic limbs came up one wielding a scalpel and the other a saw looking object and without effort cut to vine’s that snapped with ease that could easily weaken the bridge a little and perhaps make the other fellow think twice.

“Is it not rude to attack a man that has not provoked or otherwise signaled hostile intent? No less without giving your name nor asked for mine? I believe among these barbarians that resort to fighting it’s called honoring you’re enemy or some of the like. Am not to familiar with such, I don’t care much for the likes of fighting.”

Sorry for the lack of posts... i had a laptopp break down but gotten a new one now so am back to where i was.

[Hysteria]

No worries.

How crappy was my last post? Ugh, I pick it up a bit.

Oh shit... he's cutting the vines.... why didn't I think of that?

Talen had ignored the man more than he should have. The way the little red man presented himself, the way he moved and acted were all signs that a more experienced fighter could have picked up on. The only thing that had caused Talen to actually focus on the dangers his opponent presented were the two large metal arms that extended from somewhere behind the man and started cutting the vines. Quickly the shadow fighter realised that if the vines were cut the bridge would collapse and send him into the darkness below.

KEEP FUCKING RUNNING!

The youth urged himself forwards, ignoring the little red man's second go at conversing with him. He reached the second last stone of the bridge and launched himself into the air as fast as he could push himself. Desperation tinged his actions as he quickly used his only unique skill and summoned shadows. The dark shades sprang to life around Talen's face. They lifted from his skin and twisted around each other forming a snarling wolf's head. As the youth came down towards the little man he roared with a mixture of anger and frustration. The wolf's head detached from around Talen's and shot towards his opponent. Trying to use the floating spectre as a distraction Talen swung his sword downwards with as much force as he could mustered, seeking to cleave the little man between his left shoulder and head.

[Artamos Alcor]

The red dressed man saw that his efforts to prevent them from engaging in fighting had been futile and so he brought his hands up. Fingers spread wide, much like a mage would do before concurring out a spell to throw at his opponent, instead his left hand went behind his back and touched the metallic spider limbs that rested at his spine. Using his bionic ability he fused the spider limbs into a double one, that became big and quite massive as they shot out to intercept, now he had 2 limbs instead of several and one came with a spiked tip as it surged for the snarling wolf head. It was an attempt to break the attack, pierce the wolf head and kill whatever power that held it together. The other limb came in a curve from below, under the apothecary’s right arm, surging up also with a spiked tip that could resemble a boxer’s uppercut towards his attacker. Hoping that it would stop his attacker before his blade could cause havoc at his body.

[Hysteria]

Instead of being called 'the little red man' the name 'Dr Octopus' seemed more apt now considering he had entered the fight with eight limbs. Now with six, the revelation still shocked Talen. The boy had made another mistake during a fight. His choice to run head long at an opponent without gathering information first had given his target the opportunity to surprise Talen without even moving. Shadow puppeteer had only a second to try and fix it.

The first metal arm pierced the illusionary wolf's head. The metal limb passed through without any resistance and without any damage to the shadowy illusion. The Wolf's head wavered for a second and then disappeared, not because of any direct action from the little red man, but because Talen lost the concentration to keep it going. If the second arm had managed to pierce Talen however, it would not be quite so uneventful. The youth was unable to change his trajectory mid-air and so had to rely on blocking the attack instead. He dropped the sheath in his left hand and grabbed his sword with both. In the same movement he pulled his hand towards his body, shortening the outstretched sword slash. The downwards arc of the blade caught the side of the metallic limb and Talen pushed against the limb, moving himself just far enough to the side to have the spike pass by his left arm.

The boy had thrown himself off balance to escape a spiky death and he landed hard in a kneeling position. His right knee struck the hard rock with a thud. The impact would swell pretty quickly, but it was a small price to pay for survival. There wasn't much time for Talen to lament his bad decision, he knew that he had to keep up his attacks should he win. Still pushing against the metal limb, Talen let go f the sword hilt with his right hand and reached down and grabbed hold of his other sword hilt still sheathed in his belt. With a fluid movement Talen drew the smaller sword and made to slash across the little red man's legs at about knee height.