Falling Up

[SirArtemis]

(Closed to Caellach)

Artemis had an interesting idea, and wanted to see if the power of The Citadel could help see that idea come to fruition. When he approached the monks to design an arena, the concept was rather simple, but knowing whether it would work was in the hands of the creators.

"I'd like something... that is just a manifestation of my current state of mind," he began, scratching the back of his head, confused as to whether this request would make sense. "Is it possible to just take my thoughts, mood and emotion and just throw them into a landscape? That way, whatever opponent I face, I'll be facing myself at the same time."

The monks looked at him curiously before exchanging knowing glances. Without a word, they nodded with a smile and pointed the man in the direction of a door down the hall. As soon as he looked in that direction, he jerked a bit in shock.

"How the ..."

The door was the same door that belonged to the Norlond Forge, the smithy where Artemis was apprenticing. It was in the shape of a large beer mug, but made of steel. Cautiously, the vagabond walked over and began to open it in the same fashion as the original door. Despite the expectation that it would work the same, it was still a bit surprising that it did. He put his hand behind the handle, as if to lift the massive mug, and pulled a small lever behind it as he slid the door to his left.

"This place continues to freak me out."

Stepping through the door hesitantly, Artemis stepped out onto the open sky-blue floor, wondering what this had to do with his thoughts. Beginning to look around, he started to understand.

Artemis was standing on the sky. Looking up, the world was looming, as if suspended in mid-air. It was Knife's edge, and it was quite a sight to see it from this angle. Staring in awe, the wind buffeted Artemis, shaking him up but filling his lungs with the familiar crisp and cool air of Salvar.

Across from him, about 50 meters away, a small door literally hung in mid-air, suspended in nothingness. There was a thud behind Artemis, and as he turned, the door he had entered had disappeared, nothing but blue skies... or ground... behind him.

"Okay, I spoke too soon. Now, I'm freaked out."

As the wind blew, a light flurry of snow began to fall upward, coming from the ground and floating toward Knife's Edge up above. The world had turned upside-down, much like Artemis' life recently.

The door across the way started to move, sliding open to the side, and as a man stepped through the portal, the whole world rumbled as if an earthquake had happened in the sky.

"What did I get myself into..."

[Caellach]

The Citadel was a rather massive structure. Caellach was not used to large cities, nor large buildings, and was fairly taken aback by the sheer scale of the place. He had grown up in a fairly small town, and had only recently left to explore the world. As such he had little experience with anything larger than a barn -- not to mention anything not made of wood looked oddly foreign to him.

He entered and saw numerous monks scurrying around, and a couple waiting behind a desk. He had heard stories that these monks could create any kind of battlefield a challenger wanted, and heal any wound. While he had known powerful magicians in his village and did not doubt their healing abilities, he did wonder about the arenas... For instance, what if he wanted to fight somewhere larger than the entire Citadel itself? How would they create a room bigger than the building that housed it?

In the back of his mind he knew almost anything was possible with magic, but having never seen it and not being capable of it himself, it was still difficult for him to fathom. He approached the monks sitting behind the desk, noticing that the desk was exceptionally well-crafted; despite it's very simple design it seemed the legs and table top all seemed to be one seamless piece of wood, he couldn't tell where they were joined.

He looked up at the monks and their expressions showed they were used to people being as awestruck as Caellach was, but he grinned slightly in embarrassment anyways. "Hello, I'm looking for-" he began, but cut himself short. He was going to say "a battle," or something similar, before realizing how silly that sounded given his current location. At first he thought it didn't really matter where he fought, he just wanted an actual person to train with. Having left his village years ago out of shame -- he had been escorting a merchant when thieves ambushed them, killing the merchant -- he had been training alone for some time now. He had decided he needed to start fighting real foes, not just trees and imaginary ones.

He wasn't sure why he was so compelled to train, he assumed it was so that if an incident like the one with the merchant occured again he'd be more prepared. That seemed like a somewhat silly reason he thought, but could not quiet the urge to better himself in combat. His town had not blamed him for the event -- they had actually offered him a position in the town guard for dispatching the thieves -- but he was consumed by shame and a lack of self-confidence nonetheless, and he had ended up here, at the Citadel, to try to remedy that.

He had only paused a moment before finishing, "something... exotic, something from a dream. I'm looking to train but I want to be amazed, if that makes any sense." He had decided that he might as well make the best of the fight, and perhaps enjoy himself.

The monks nodded and said they had just received a request from another challenger, and that they thought it would do just fine for Caellach as well. They led him down a hall to an extremely oddly shaped door. Caellach wasn't quite sure what the purpose of the door was, but it seemed to resemble a beer mug, and had a handle much like a mug as well. He reached forward and grasped the handle, and pulled it towards him.

He was fairly sure he heard a snicker from a passing monk as the door didn't budge. That's really not monk-like behavior, he thought with a sudden tinge of anger, but realized it was silly to be annoyed and quickly calmed himself. Putting his hand back on the handle, he felt alever under the handle and pulled it up. Then he tried pulling the door open. Nothing. He tried pushing the door open. Nothing, again.

Casting quick glances sideways he saw there weren't any monks immediately nearby. Taking advantage of the lack of supervision, he just shook the handle violently, trying to get it to open. Usually, he thought as the door moved sideways slightly, anger doesn't solve problems this well. He slid the door all the way to the side, and entered, closing the door behind him. At first he thought he must be in some strange, magical, light blue fog. Then he noticed there was nothing under his boots. If it were too foggy to see the ground, he wouldn't be able to see his boots he reasoned. His stomach turned a little bit as an unsettling thought came to him.

He closed his eyes and looked up. Sure enough, when he opened them, he saw the ground miles and miles above him. His first thought was to get away from here before he was crushed by a mountain. He spun around frantically, reaching for the handle... Only to find there was no longer any door. Looking back up at the earth though, he realized it did not see to be moving. He simply seem to be upside down, in the middle of the sky.

Cautiously he stuck his leg out and carefully took a step forward, expecting to fall. Instead, he seemed to strike an invisible floor. He walked a couple steps more, and felt the air, or rather floor, around him with his foot. He seemed to be on a flat, invisible surface. I really hope there aren't any holes.

Suddenly he was aware of snow all around him... But instead of falling, it was rising. Or rather falling towards the ground above. Falling upwards. Caellach decided not to think which way was best to describe it. However, while watching the snow rise, he became aware of another man, about 50 meters or so away. He's probably wondering what the hell I'm doing over here. The man had brown hair and dark clothing, either black or blue. Caellach thought he could see two daggers or short swords but not much else at this distance.

Before he could speak or move, he was suddenly cut short by an enormous rumble. At first he only heard it, but then it grew louder and it felt as if the floor -- or lack there of -- was actually shaking underneath him. He had to concentrate just to stand up. After only a few moments the rumble ceased, and he was able to stand easily once again. However, when he glanced up, the ground, far above him, appeared to be somewhat closer. He could not see it moving but he swore he could just barely make out trees where he could only see a green blur before. Deciding -- or rather hoping -- he must be hallucinating, Caellach began walking towards the man and called out, loudly, "So are you my combatant, then?"

He wasn't quite sure what the etiquette was, if he was supposed to shake the challenger's hand and discuss the rules of engagement, or if this man was going to suddenly start flinging fireballs with no warning. He couldn't see the man or his weaponry very well from this distant but he did not appear to be the type to try for an unfair advantage. Caellach continued walking towards him and hoped that if the man was going to attack without talking he'd at least make it obvious, and not try to stick a stiletto between Caellach's ribs instead of shaking hands.

[SirArtemis]

After recovering from the rumble, it seemed his opponent was as confused as he was.

"That I am!" Artemis yelled in response to his opponent. "This should be fun!"

He hopped up and down, each subsequent jump being more intense than the initial to test the floor. It was like testing ice for thickness and hoping to God, quite literally at this point, that you do not fall through.

"Floor looks steady!"

As he began to walk forward, hands in the air, he addressed his opponent. After all, courtesy was something that he afforded all of his opponents. Not to mention that this was just a skirmish; there were no ill feelings toward his challenger.

After arriving a few meters away, so that he would no longer have to shout, the vagabond bowed slightly as a courtesy and then stood straight. The man before him looked similar to Artemis, though a head taller. Dark hair hung over his forehead barely reaching his eyes. He wore simple dark clothing and a cloak with a hood, which he wore down. He seemed to be a fit man with a sword hanging to his side.

"Well, I suppose we should figure out rules. I chose the arena... sort of... so I will leave the terms of engagement up to you."

He couldn't help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of the environment, glancing up and seeing Knife's Edge looming overhead.

"These monks... I'm tellin' ya"

[Caellach]

"These monks... I'm tellin' ya"

Caellach was glad his opponent seemed to be as startled as he was. He was also glad that his initial judgment about the man appeared to be correct, that he was not the type to lull you into a false sense of security one moment and then gut you the next. He was nonetheless cautious as he observed his challenger; the other man was now close enough that they could speak more easily. Caellach could also now see his opponent looked somewhat similar to himself: dark brown hair, blue eyes, and a similar skin tone. He could also see that the man was wearing leather armor -- he would have to aim for neck or else use a lot of force to pierce the dark blue leather.

"Exactly how did you get the idea to fight upside down in the sky while it's snowing?" Caellach inquired with a short chuckle. I sincerely hope this man is sane. He continued with a wry grin, "Anything and everything sounds fair game to me. As long as you leave enough of me intact for the monks to heal, that is. All I have is my hands, blade, and bow. And a little magic, but only a trifle."

He had been momentarily distracted by the conversation, but now he looked up again. Thankfully the ground above them hadn't seemed to move too much, but he did note with a sinking feeling that the trees again appeared ever so sligtly more in focus. By now the snow was a little heavier, and it was growing a touch chillier. Without really thinking about it, he channeled a small bit of magical essence towards his head, and spread it outwards in a small orb. He didn't want to put on his hood, both because he was talking to the man, and because he was going to be fighting soon, but without much effort he was able to control the minuscule fragments of ice floating upwards. He pushed them outside of the small orb, so that his face and hair were no longer getting dampened by the snowflakes.

Much more comfortable now that he wasn't inhaling the rising snow, he reached over his shoulder and slowly drew his longsword. He wanted to make sure his opponent realized he was not yet attacking, merely readying himself. He held it with one hand and let the tip of the blade rest on the invisible floor. Fleetingly he was worried he might drop it and it'd soar away; he still wasn't used to not being able to see what he was standing on.

"Well, unless you have any rules you'd like to impose, we may as well get on with it. Good luck to you."

[SirArtemis]

Still acclimating to his own surroundings, the vagabond looked forward to what this fight may bring. He thought about buying a drink for the monk who came up with this, though the drink would be tea instead of ale.

"Well, as odd as it may seem, I just told them to take what was in my head and make it into a world. I never expected this to be in my head, though that is the city I live in," he gestured pointing up at Knife's Edge. That lovely door you encountered is the door I go through every day to enter the forge I work in. Though... now that door is gone."

He took a deep breath, watching the man draw his long sword. He wasn't too worried. Artemis had enough time to draw his daggers had the man attacked, but he just rested the sword on the surface that was acting as their ground.

"Well, it seems melee combat might be the best. I have a bow, but I did not bring it. In addition, I am not magical. It's up to you what you use in the battle, but all I have are my daggers."

At that, he drew out his two blades and entered his stance.

"Now that our world has been completely turned upside down, I say we get down to business."

Again, he laughed at his own humor, knowing how hard this fight was going to be with respect to maintaining battle without any reference points except the city looming overhead.

"Good luck to you as well. You may have the opening strike."

[Caellach]

At the suggestion of melee combat, Caellach nodded. Somehow I doubt I'll ever be far enough away to use my bow anyways. He grabbed his bow with the hand not holding his sword, and tossed it away. It'd be a nuisance in close-range battle, and he assumed if the monks could create a world where you could stand upside down in the sky, they could also retrieve any possessions from the world. Or so I hope.

Taking his sword up in both hands, he tensed his legs slightly as he shifted his weight to a battle stance. His opponent offered him the first strike, and he nodded his assent and gratitude. He let the magical essence enveloping his head fade; he wouldn't be noticing snowflakes hitting his face as much in battle. Taking a deep breath he briefly considered the situation from a tactical perspective.

His opponent had not one, but two daggers. If Caellach let him get too close, he would have great difficulty blocking a dagger with a longsword, and it would be near impossible to block two. He decided that the best course of action would be dodging close attacks instead of blocking, and trying to keep his enemy at a range where a longsword could hit a target easily, but a dagger would require either movement or a lunge.

He was good enough with a blade the length of his sword that he might be able to parry a lunge, but close up Caellach knew he stood no chance. He had assessed the situation in only a few moments, but was confident with the results, and decided he'd start out with a relatively basic attack to test his opponent. The warriors who defended his home town were used to fighting thieves that were not incredibly skilled at combat; as such Caellach had been heavily trained in second intention, the art of fooling your opponent with feints.

He tightened his grip on his blade and brought it over his left shoulder. Then he ran forward a few steps to close the distance and brought it down in a diagonal arc. His feint was aimed at the point where the man's neck formed a right angle with his shoulder, just above his leather armor. A split second later when it was nearing it's target he jerked his left hand backwards. He maintained his grip on the blade just long enough to stop the blade's velocity, then let go of it with his left hand. In a fluid motion he brought the sword backwards with his right hand, so that his hand was at his waist and the blade pointing outwards toward his opponent. Finally, hoping he could pierce his enemy's armor, he lunged forward, aiming for his opponent's mid section.

I realize this might sound like a somewhat advanced maneuver given Caellach's "average" sword skill, but keep in mind he's fully energized at this point and not currently under attack, and wouldn't be able to pull something as delicate off when tired or as a counter attack at his current skill.

[SirArtemis]

The stance of his opponent showed that he wasn't a brawler like one of Artemis' past opponents. This man had some training with the sword, so Artemis had to be on his guard.

The man began with a two-handed slashing attack, which seemed oddly obvious for someone well trained. The blade swung diagonally toward his neck from the right, and Artemis jumped back to get out of reach of the sword.

At the same moment, the man's training with a sword became more apparent as he feigned and continued with a follow-up attack, lunging forward with the sword in his right hand aiming for the vagabond's abdomen. Using the momentum of his dodge, Artemis turned and parried the blade with his left dagger, stepping to the man's left, his front facing the blade. In the same gesture, he swung his right dagger in toward the man's arm in an attempt to pierce the wrist and make it difficult to hold the blade.

[Caellach]

Caellach immediately saw the enemy was not a novice in combat. Most opponents would have moved directly backwards to avoid the slash, and would have had difficulty moving again to dodge the lunge. However his opponent had moved back and turned, so that he was to the side of Caellach's sword rather than in front. Before he could recover the vagabond parried Caellach's sword, causing it to move to Caellach's right, bending the wrist of his sword arm.

Just as Caellach noted that this left the tendons of his wrist dangerously vulnerable his combatant brought his other dagger down towards the exposed flesh. Outstretched in a lunge as he was, and blade held at an awkward angle, Caellach knew he wouldn't be able to move his arm quickly without dropping his sword, and he had no intention of any such thing. Instead, he brought his elbow slightly back -- he wouldn't have time to pull his entire arm back to avoid the attack altogether, but the slight movement allowed him to bend his elbow a little -- and then rotated it counterclockwise to face upwards, towards the looming city above. This effectively allowed him to turn the back of his hand toward the dagger while easily holding onto his sword.

Had he not left himself so open with the bold lunge, he would've been able to move his hand completely out of harm's way. As it was, however, the dagger came down across the back of his hand, leaving a heavy gash, but not rendering his hand useless as a slash across his wrist would have. Caellach did not think he would have time to turn his hand enough to slash at the man, although he was sure such an attack would leave the rogue with very little chance to dodge. Instead he crossed his left foot forward, over his right, and then brought his right foot back around. Pivoting his elbow back down to a normal stance, he had essentially just taken a large step forward and to his right, so that he was once again in front of his opponent. However, by crossing his feet he was able to maintain more balance than he would have if he had just taken a giant step.

He considered channeling energy towards his cut to numb it with his frost magic, but the pain wasn't terrible and he wasn't sure he'd have enough time. Instead he turned his right hand so that the blade pointed to his right, the other man's left. He replaced his left hand on the hilt, took a step forward, and slashed towards the man's left arm.

[SirArtemis]

Artemis' lips formed a slight smirk. This opponent posed much more of a threat than his last encounter, and he was thankful for that. It seemed like he might have a chance to try some new maneuvers as well as hone his skills.

The opponent had avoided the bulk of the damage of the attempt at the man's wrist. The slight gesture showed that he had decent reflexes. However, Artemis expected that he was the quicker, and it would be interesting to see if this were true.

The man was now facing Artemis and began a swing from the vagabond's left this time, and it seemed to be a slashing move aimed for the middle of his arm. As the blade began to come across, Artemis leaped away from the coming blade, turning mid jump to use his left dagger to block the sword as much as he could. He flew past his opponent's left side, stabbing with his right dagger in an awkward overhand motion. The blade was aimed at the left side of the man's abdomen while it was exposed.

As he stabbed, he hoped to feel resistance against his blade, but couldn't tell if the attack had hit its mark. As he flew past and pulled his dagger in, he tucked into a tumble and rolled frontward, quickly recovering to his feet and taking a defensive crouch and turning to face his opponent. He looked at his blade and saw blood, but that blood could have been from the previous attack against the man's wrist. He could only hope that the attack had landed, given that it would cause some serious trouble for his opponent from this point on.

He then got slightly distracted as he looked up at the city that loomed overhead. He could of sworn that the city seemed much closer than the first time he looked at it.

'What the heck?'

He looked back to his opponent. There were other matters to address.

[Caellach]

As his opponent easily evaded his blade, Caellach had the fleeting thought the man seemed to be more dancing than fighting with him. Caellach could see his combatant was incredibly agile, and adept at attacking with his daggers while dodging at the same time. He also kept getting past Caellach's guard, too close for him to effectively block any attacks with his sword.

However, his foe dodging his blade was the least of his worries. As his opponent moved nimbly away from the slash, he brought his dagger up to parry the blade. Caellach was strong, and the dagger likely would not have been able to parry the attack if the vagabond hadn't moved away, but by now the sword was reaching the end of the slash and had much less force behind it. The parry pushed his sword off to his right, making blocking his opponent's next attack impossible.

He had managed to follow his opponent's movement despite missing his attack, and saw the dagger coming down towards his side. He knew he would not be able to dodge it in time and clamped his teeth together to brace for the impact. He was able to turn counterclockwise just enough that the blade only scored part of his exposed side. His cloth tunic offered little resistance to the blade as it cut into his flesh, but at least he had avoided a larger wound by turning. His opponent had been leaping, and was now behind him. Instinctively he had dropped his left hand off his sword to feel his wound, and now he turned to face his opponent.

His opponent had assumed a defensive stance, and was a ways away after rolling. Caellach took the opportunity to channel a fair amount of icy energy through his left arm to his side, and coated the length of his wound in a thin coating of ice. Maintaining the ice without devoting most of his conscious to it was a difficulty, so he was not sure how long he could keep it from melting, but it helped to numb the wound and staunch the bleeding. Not to mention, moving quickly would likely cause the ice to break, anyways. He saw his opponent look up towards the sky, and Caellach had to fight the urge to follow suit. He was sure the city, trees, and mountains above them were much closer, but he didn't want to see them.

He briefly considered attacking while his opponent was checking the sky, but decided it wouldn't be a very honorable gesture; instead he decided to stall for time.

"How long do you think we have before we get crushed? Sure hope the monks can heal us once we're turned into compressed meat," he commented, trying to buy a few more seconds.

He fed some more energy directly to the wound simply to help numb it, but it was a deep cut and he wasn't able to ignore the pain very easily. Taking a breath he brought his sword up to an attacking position, and began to take a step forward with his left leg. Bad move, he thought grimly as pain lanced through his side. He blinked once heavily in annoyance, and halted his advance. He had made both attacks, and the man had deftly countered both. Now was the time to defend. He already had his left leg forward and his right leg back, and he was able to easily shift his weight to stand in a defensive stance. He held his blade with both hands now, not far from his chest, ready to attempt to block any attacks and counter with his own.

[SirArtemis]

The man continued to impress Artemis with quick reactions and adjustments to mitigate damage. This was proving an enjoyable duel, and this opponent seemed to have character. He held his left side, implying the attack had landed, though Artemis could not know for certain. However, as his opponent took on his own defensive stance, a grimace fluttered across his face, letting some satisfaction take hold in the vagabond's mind.

"Well, I honestly have no idea, but I only now noticed that it seems closer. It's like the ceiling is meant to crush us. Neat idea, though I'm worried what that implies with respect to what is going on in my mind. Nevertheless, I'll tell you one thing, that tumble was one of the scariest fucking things I've ever gone through. How the hell do you figure out when to tuck in!?"

Artemis laughed, enjoying the fight and the environment. The Citadel was always an interesting experience.

"Guess we don't have time to chat though!"

With that, the vagabond flipped his dagger into a reverse grip in his left hand and moved forward. Offense wasn't his strong suit, but this was a training ground, after all. He stepped forward on his left foot, thrusting the left dagger toward the man's heart. Simultaneously, he aimed his right dagger toward the man's left thigh, hoping to do further damage to his weakened side.

[Caellach]

Any bunnying from this point on has been agreed upon by both combatants.
Caellach tried to put the pain in his side out of his mind as his opponent began to advance. He had to be very careful, if his opponent got to close he wouldn't be able to defend himself. He considered outstretching his sword at the last moment to try to get the man to impale himself, but he wasn't sure the man was moving fast enough, not to mention how good he was at dodging. Instead he clamped his hands tight on his sword, hands just above his right hip, holding the blade diagonally so that the tip was just above and in front of his left sholder.

His opponent made one last quick step before launching his two-pronged attack. Caellach knew he wouldn't be able to stop both blades in time, and his mind raced to think of what to do. The foe was too damn fast for Caellach to consider dodging. However, as the vagabond's left dagger went for his heart, Caellach noted how the man was extending his arm out too far, and leaving it incredibly vulnerable. The right dagger was going lower, likely for his legs, and he did not think he'd be able to block that.

He decided he'd lean forward, into the attack, and turn his left side towards the man to try to evade the lower blade. More importantly, as he turned, he swung both hands clockwise a little more than a quarter rotation, as hard as he possibly could, so that his hands were in front and to the left of his face, and the blade stuck out horizantally in front of him. In the process, the blade sliced through the man's lower arm, near his wrist, cutting off his enemy's hand before the dagger could puncture his chest. He had to duck his head to the side to avoid the hand as it came off, and was already beginning to decide on his next slash when he felt an intense pain in his leg.

Both men screamed in pain, and collapsed away from each other. Caellach looked down at his leg to see the dagger had gone straight into his leg. He realized he could just barely move his leg, so it must not have gravely injured any muscles or tendons, but that knowledge didn't help with the pain. He yelled once more before closing his mouth tightly. He instinctively reached for the dagger to pull it out, but stopped himself in time to realize how much blood he would lose. Ignoring the other man for a moment, both his body a few feet from him, and his severed hand right next to Caellach, Caellach placed his right hand around the blade of the dagger next to his skin, and grabbed the hilt with the other. Slowly, ever so slowly, he pulled the dagger out, channeling magic essence into the wound as he went. Smooth, crystalline ice covered the wound as the dagger exited, halting the bleeding.

The patch of ice was smooth and transparent like glass, and was small enough that moving would not break it. By this time the initial pain had made him forget about his other injuries, and the temporary bandage on his side had melted. He carefully numbed and covered both his side and the injury on his hand in a layer of ice, before turning to see how the other man fared. His combatant, or rather former combatant, was sitting on the ground, clutching at the stump at the end of his arm. I wonder how we get the monks in here...

[SirArtemis]

Artemis had never experienced such an incredible physical pain in his life. There was of course the emotional past he had had with his father, but this was something completely different. Having a limb severed was clearly not in his past, and despite the ridiculous pain, the relief that this was in The Citadel was at least mildly reassuring. Then again, it still hurt.

Taking deep, quick breaths to try to cope with the pain, Artemis sat down on the invisible floor, staring off at his opponent. He seemed to be pulling the dagger out, and it looked like there was ice forming over his wounds.

"This looks like the end for me. I have no weapons and missing a hand to boot. You win this one. But curiosity is getting the best of me. I really want to know what will happen with the ceiling. Would you mind using that ice trick to help me out so that we can stick around and see what happens?"

Artemis hoped the man believed him. He was being sincere, but no one really trusted anyone, especially where the vagabond made home in Salvar. It was a cold place, both literally and metaphorically.

As his opponent finished healing his own wounds, he began to approach Artemis.

"I must admit, I find myself just as intrigued. I've never worked on a wound of this magnitude, but I'll see what I can do."

Artemis nodded in thanks to the man, staring up at the falling city to avoid the freezing process and distract himself from the pain that was sure to follow.

[Caellach]

Not long after finishing his own wounds, the other combatant forfeited. Caellach was slightly amused that the other man seemed to think Caellach won, considering the swordsman wasn't sure he could actually stand. He began to get up, and sure enough, the pain in his leg was excruciating. He settled back down to rest for a moment, then got up on his knees. It hurt, but it was better than standing, and half crawling half walking on his knees, he began to make his way over to the other man.

"I must admit, I find myself just as intrigued. I've never worked on a wound of this magnitude, but I'll see what I can do. As for me being the victor, I'm not sure that's fair to say. Somehow I think you'd be able to run away from a crawling man, missing a hand or not."

He finally got all the way over to the man, and took the bleeding stump into his arms. He had never channeled magic for use on other people, he had always used it just for himself. He held the the arm tightly close to the wound with his right hand, and covered the end with his left. He let the flow of frosty magic drift down his arm towards his hand; he always enjoyed the feeling of power that came with casting spells. It made him feel strangely whole, as if he was missing some part of himself when not channeling. Putting his thoughts aside for the moment, he turned his attention towards the task at hand. He began by forming a small ring of ice around the skin just around the wound, and then weaved the flows of ice into a thick sheet across the open wound.

The man was obviously in more pain than he had been in before; numbing took time and placing ice directly against your skin was never truly pleasant. Unless of course the ice was your own creation, in which case it felt strangely familiar, like holding a sword you had fought with many times before.

"Don't worry, it'll be over fairly soon. I can help numb it faster, too."

The man grunted his assent and continued looking upwards, obviously not wanting to see exactly what was going on. He added a little bit more ice all around to ensure the seal was strong. Then he began to simply let the cold energy flow into the other man's wound to help fully numb it. He let go of the man's arm, and stated plainly, "That's all I can do. The monks should fix it up further... I just hope they don't mind reconstructing our bodies when that city crushes us. I wonder if there are any people up there, wondering what we're doing in the sky?"

[SirArtemis]

After the wound was numbed and the blood flow stopped, Artemis dried the tears that had formed in his eyes from the painful process and carefully set the stump of his arm down in his lap. Trying to slow his breath, he watched the city falling up, so close at this point that it was visible how fast it was moving. They must have been quite high up, because it seemed as if the city was falling as fast as the men would have had they come from the sky.

"Talk about building character. I'm not sure what hurt more, cutting the hand off or freezing it."

Artemis let out a distressed laugh, staring up at the city as if the two men were sitting side-by-side watching fireworks together.

"You know, this fight isn't over for me. I still have to figure out what this world means. After all, it's a manifestation of my own thoughts, mood and emotions. Whatever it is, it can't be good."

He let the silence sit between the two of them as the city fell, and when it seemed there were only a few seconds remaining before impact, Artemis laughed aloud.

"Well, see you in the lobby!"

Both men burst out laughing barely more than a second before impact.

Just before the roof of the Norlond Forge crushed the pair to the invisible ceiling on which they had been dueling, Artemis recognized the building.

'Hey, isn't that...'

It seemed the monks had a sick sense of humor, if it was not already apparent.

[Caellach]

Spoils Request:

Caellach:
I'd like my frost magic skill to be upgraded from below average to average, but keep it openly worded to do with it what I want. I can now channel more energy at one time, but can still only create relatively small objects, such as a small dagger of ice, or a frozen orb. I can also now conjure the ice at range, without touching the object. The range would only be within a few feet, with perhaps a maximum of ten, at which point the power of the manifestation is exponentially reduced. I can also create objects a little faster, and can stop concentrating on them for longer periods of time without them melting.

[SirArtemis]

Spoils Request:

Increased Pain Tolerance: Given his painful experience in The Citadel, Artemis is now able to tolerate more pain while maintaining his demeanor somewhat.

Increased Dual Wield Proficiency: Has gained further experience with using his dual wielding style.

Increased Counter Attack: His counters are working efficiently, giving him more confidence in his fighting.

[Revenant]

Full rubric, full commentary requested. SirArtemis scores in red. Caellach scores in blue.

STORY

Continuity (6/7) – Both writers did a good job of explaining why this story was taking place, specifically what their characters were doing risking their lives in the Citadel. Both writers also did a good job of laying out part of their characters history, establishing this story in their lives. SirArtemis, your score in this category is less because you had the arena created specifically to mirror your internal state of mind but you never did anything with that.

Setting (4/6) – SirArtemis, you described the setting but did little else to bring it to life in any meaningful way, relying instead upon passing mentions to reactions Caellach had. Caellach you did a good job of making the upside-down arena more memorable, but remember that there is more going on than visual input. You made good use of the upward falling snow pre-battle but there was nothing further mentioned after the fight began.

Pacing (5/3) – There was a bit of a lag at the beginning while you traded pleasantries but the action picked right up after there. There was a good flow to the thread but nothing that really reached out and made me feel like I had to see where this was going. Caellach, the way you write your characters actions down to the minutest detail actually works against you in this area, slowing the flow of your posts down.

CHARACTER

Dialogue (4/5) –What I was expecting here and didn’t get was the feeling of weirdness and disorientation that you wrote your characters having. I would have assumed that having their worlds literally turned upside down would elicit more than “huh… weird”. The most surprising thing here was how SirArtemis’s comments remained calm and almost flippant after just having a hand cut off. You both had good timing on your dialogue, but to get a better score you need to use your dialogue to better convey your character’s emotions and state of mind.

Action (5/4) – Nice believable action from both of you, nothing over the top or out of character. Caellach, you needn’t worry that your opening maneuver was power-gaming. Average is typically regarded as “what is average for a trained professional in that field” and it would not be unbelievable that a trained soldier would have some knowledge of feints. One thing I noticed, though far more in Caellach’s posts, was a tendency to over-describe the mechanics of your actions. Don’t tell the reader every time your sword arm makes a quarter-turn, it slows the writing down and clouds it up.

Personas (3/5) – For the most part, your characters are representative of themselves but I found SirArtemis’ reaction to having his hand cut off to be really out of place. While I have never experienced the pain of having a limb removed, I’d have to imagine that the amount of pain involved would leave me barely able to think let alone quip and make light of the situation. For a character that has no ability to ignore even slight pain, to completely brush aside something so major is too much. Your character is still just a human, albeit an extraordinary one, and that even if you somehow manage to mitigate the pain, you are going to be suffering from things like shock or a fatal amount of blood loss.

WRITING STYLE

Technique (5/4) – Caellach, here again your technique of micromanaging your combat movements brings your score down. Writing fluid combat scenes can be a tricky thing, and as a writer you need to find a balance between telling the story as you see it and letting the reader paint the scene for themselves. Most of the fun of reading is in being able to create your own mental movie of what it is that you’re reading.

Mechanics (6/6) – There were some slight errors in spelling and grammar throughout, nothing that really stood out though. Taking your time and remembering to proof-read is the best way to overcome this.

Clarity (5/4) – Both writers had a couple of places where I had to stop and reread what I had just read to make sure I had all of the information down. Sometimes simple and elegant is better than detailing minutia.

WILD CARD

Wild Card (5/5)

TOTAL: (48/49)

Caellach wins and receives 500 exp and 105 gp.
SirArtemis receives 150 exp and 115 gp.

None of the requested spoils are approved at this time, though they may be approved during character updates when you earn a level.

[Taskmienster]

Exp and GP added.