Battle in the cold

[Midnight68652]

Closed to Hysteria

Matt walked down the halls of The Citadel. He had wanted to test himself against others before starting his mission. He kept looking down to a small slip of paper, the monks gave him, that read 169. This was the room he was going to fight in.

’They said it was this way.’ He thought to himself as he turned a corner, ’167,168, ah 169.’ Matt read to himself watching the doors go by. Finally he had made it to the room he wanted. With both hands, he took hold of the handles pulling the doors open and was met with a powerful icy wind. He looked in the room and smiled, just as he specified.

Matt walked into the room pulling the doors shut behind him as he took in the landscape. He had missed hearing the snow crush under his heavy footsteps. Matt’s feet held steady even on this slightly icy ground having doing a lot of training in weather like this. The room was mostly flat but very rocky. The room was covered in mostly ice, and snow, but with no drifts except where rocks stopped the snow. He shivered a bit having not felt the cold for a little while but was still used to it. Matt held his footing in the strong cold wind that was always blowing snow around randomly. He headed into the room till he came to a large boulder in the middle and took a seat on it.

He took his blade of his back ramming it into the icy soil to hold it ready for when his opponent showed. He had his normal steel mesh on covered by some decently heavy clothing on to deter the cold. His demon arm covered in the steel plate gauntlet as always since he really rarely felt temperature from it.

Matt sat there watching the door waiting.

[Hysteria]

The fleeting rays of light played across the pale boys skin as he walked with his back to the sunset. The night had come and with it the end of a days work. To Talen, a puppeteer who used his limited magical skills to entertain people, the night meant the end of people to watch his shows the market. Instead he had come to the citadel as he did every night. Recent events had turned the normally passive youth to seek out the citadel in search of a meaning for existence. He had fought and died in the cell, and his resurrection at the hands of the magics of the tournament had left him questioning more than just his lack of ability.

The tall youth reach the front of the giant stone structure and looked skywards. The building was etched on his psych as a temple of self torture. He hated the place, as he hated the limits he had discovered in himself. But like most things in life he loved it also and it was that love that drew him back every night to fight again.

The shadow puppeteer barely paid attention to the other people moving through the halls. They were as shadows, a passing parade of future opponents and nothing more. Quickly Talen was directed to a room where he would be faced against another opponent in a world far from the one he was used to. A monk recognised him as he approached and quickly told him the room where a fighter was waiting.

“169”

Talen nodded to the monk and mustered a weak smile before walking away. With his feet clicking on the stone floor he quickly found himself walking down the corridor lined with numbered doors. The youth reached under his black long cloak and pulled one of his swords out from his belt still sheathed. The long katana had seen many battles, most of which happened before Talen had come to be in possession of it. He wished there was some great story behind his sword, that it was some legacy of a greater good or hid within it some fantastical power, but in truth it was just the possession of a wanderer bought second hand from a man who took pity on a street kid.

With his second smaller sword still tucked in his belt, Talen pushed open the door 169 and stepped through. For a second Talen could feel nothing, but it was quickly replaced with absolute cold. The sort of cold that whipped against the skin and felt as if it was drawing the warmth out of you and the dark cloak that he wore was little protection against the extreme element.

Slightly shivering, but holding his sword in an attempted easy looking way, Talen moved out into snow covered ground. His opponent was sitting on a large boulder half buried in the snow, looking much more at peace with the extreme weather conditions that he was was. For a moment there was a shiver of fear accompanying those of cold. The man, if it was a man, he was going to fight had a monstrous arm and seemed to be more than a little tainted with demonic heritage. The shadow fighter knew little of the dark arts of the secrets of demons, but what he knew scared him.

Steeling himself for the battle as he had done many times before, the youth spoke.

“Some people like to talk before the fight. Others seem to languish in the joy of senseless fighting. Say your piece and make it quick.” Said Talen though teeth clenched in the cold.

I assume this is open? :)

[Midnight68652]

No unless you leave then it will be again :D

Suddenly there was the same sound as when he entered the room. The grinding of the heavy stone doors scraping across the stone floor as they swung out. The suction of the wind as it was diverted out. The warmth that was forced in from the change in the winds. All signs a opponent, no a victim, had arrived.

Matt opened his eyes as he looked up at the door. His eyes showing over his shadowed face as if he was some horribly dark monster laying in wait. He didn’t know how long he had sat there, nor did he care, he just wanted somebody to kill. Matt took a few moments to survey his opponent for weak points.

A boy. The monks had sent a boy to feed his hunger. This boy seemed ill prepared for the arena, his first weakness. Fear. He could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. Not fear of battle but fear of his arm and the unknown, his second weakness, if he didn’t control it.

Matt reached for his blade putting his hand right hand around its handle. He clenched his demonic fist. Grasping the now chilled blade, Matt spoke. He forced his voice to make it sound twisted, hollow, and demonic.

“I’m not here to chat.”



“ I’m here to kill ‘YOU‘.” His eyes glowed at the amount distain on the end of his sentence trying to feed the boy’s fear.

His demonic hand started to glow with an unholy light. He wasn’t going to hold back his magics in this fight. Though, how he was raised tradition dictated that he lets his challenger make the first move.

[Hysteria]

Threats and nothing more.

Words Talen repeated in his head to calm the fast pace of his heart. The youth feared that his opponent was about to launch the first attack, but none came. The corrupt arm did not release a blast of magic as Talen's instinct said it was about to. Instead he could feel, rather than see, traces of darkness gathering around the arm. The shadow fighter inhaled deeply and instantly regretted it as he felt the cold spread through his chest.

Why the hell am I the only one that seemed bothered by the cold? Damn demon man... thing.

The young fighter knew that he had to strike quickly after the words of the demons were swallowed by the freezing wind. The boy focused on his magic, pulling in power ready to summon his shadowy illusions when he needed. Darkness stretched down over the silver coloured blade until it was wholly black. Without much warning he pushed forwards, accelerating to a running pace to quickly cross the gap between both fighters.

The snow beneath his feet crunched with every foot fall. The perception of time slowed with each step as Talen readied his often used first attack. The cloak trailing behind him whipped against the air and the sword lifted in his right hand lifted towards the demons stomach while the sheath in his left was held low. Just a two metres from the beast of an opponent the shadow fighter released energy. There was a surge of darkness around the outstretched sword and dark blades splayed outwards and twisted around the original creating a dazzling display of shadows. The sword shot towards the demon's stomach, but suddenly veered upwards as the blades of darkness spit off creating a hopefully confusing attack. The darkness blades were nothing more than a distraction and were as harmful as a normal shadow, but the steel blade that cut the air towards the demon's chest was real.

[Midnight68652]

After a few moments of holding the blast, his opponent started gathering dark energy. Unlike Matt's own energy his seem to pull into him and his blade like shadows. Matt watched the shadows consume his opponent's blade and suddenly he charged, Matt just smiled. The closer they were, the less chance there was this boy would have to dodge his attack.

Suddenly his opponent, released the energy in his blade. Strangely it didn't seem to cut through the snow as any other ranged attack would, but instead it merely faded through the flying snow as it charged at Matt. Something wasn't right, about this attack, Matt slid his right foot back behind him, making himself a smaller target, and making this attack barely miss if that's what it was. Though in this position, his own Dragon Fang was useless. He was going to have to move his opponent.

At that thought he released his Dark Light, the ball of chaotic dark and light energy in his claw. It rushed at his opponent passing over the shadow blade. As the shadow attack neared him it suddenly zoomed upward. 'Figures an attack, that doesn't attack.' With that, his attention was solely on the boy running with blade forward at him. If his opponent dodged to the right he would meet the swing of Matt's blade, if he continued his path at him.

[Hysteria]

The fight continued, but not how Talen had wanted it. For all the positive self-talk, the shadow puppeteer was really just a scared inexperienced fighter. He had sought to bury his sword in the flesh of the demon, but it seemed that eventuality would have to wait for a little bit longer. Rather than injure his opponent Talen found himself running towards a blast of dark energy, an energy much more volatile than his own.

Without a second thought Talen found himself stepping to the side and the energy blast shot through his cloak trailing behind him and leaving a sizzling hole. The initial feeling of ecstasy at managing to evade the attack was quickly damped by the sight of a massive sword arching towards him.

Talen was not a very experienced fighter, but he had is good moments. The youth had been holding his katana's sheath in his left hand before he started running towards the demon and that sheath would now act as a defence. With the sword guard held much like a dagger, with the length being held down his forearm, he lifted it up in front of the demon's attack. The metal of the sheath was no where near the quality of his blade and as the two struck the demon's sword cut into it.

The resulting clash of metal on metal left Talen standing in front of the demon pushing against the massive blade. The young swordsman twisted right wrist to change the angle of his sword blade and with a feeling of self satisfaction at managing to get so close to his opponent he slashed his sword diagonally across his opponents chest.

Up from bottom left to top right from your character's perspective. Feel free to interrupt the attack whenever, or whatnot. :)