Atrophy ((closed to Zieg))

[Sorahn]

The large wooden door creaked loudly as Sorahn set foot inside the Citadel for the first time in what seemed like ages. He hadn’t fought in a honest-to-goodness battle with anyone in probably a year or more. It was time he returned to fighting condition. He needed to stay in shape, both mentally and physically. He had neglected his art, something that to him was inexcusable. Today he would rectify this injustice.

With spear in hand, he made his way up to the front desk. Soon a monk came and he was whisked away through hallways and down passages past door after door. Finally they stopped in front of one of the many heavy doors. The monk produced a key and without a word unlocked it for Sorahn and left.

It seems the hospitality of The Citadel has declined somewhat since I was last here. Sorahn thought to himself as he watched the monk disappear down one of the endless halls. Shrugging it off, he turned the iron doorknob and pushed open the door.

He found himself in one of the oddest arenas he’d ever been in. It was a sort of island, floating in vast black nothingness. It was almost as if he was standing on land that was slowly vanishing. The edges seemed to be torn off. From what he could tell, there seemed to be no threat of the island vanishing from under him. It appeared that whatever had happened here was either happened a long time ago, or was happening so slowly that it was unperceivable.

There were a few trees on the “island” but none had any leaves on them. But probably the oddest part about this strange world was that there was no color. Everything on the island was a shade of gray. Even his clothes and hair had changed to a shade of gray.

What is this place? was the first thing that came to mind as Sorahn set foot on the floating land. It felt stable, but Sorahn was still a little wary. He walked out further, exploring the terrain, his footsteps echoing. The island was flat and irregularly shaped, with about the area of a football field. The few trees on it were rather large, with many branches, but appeared dead. Actually, the whole place just seemed lifeless. Sorahn found it rather creepy.

I hope my opponent shows up soon. I want to just get on with the battle. Hopefully it will ease my mind a little.

He stood with his tail swishing nervously, awaiting his opponent.

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

When Zieg dil' Tulfried stepped from the rickety wooden boat onto the dry docks, he was likely the happiest man alive. While most of the other Haidians were busy building new homes and shops for themselves, a single group of them had gotten together to begin building a fleet that they were calling the Demon Navy. They had vowed supreme loyalty to both the crown under Prince Aidos and to the Demon Army, giving Zieg full command of their fleets. That is, after they had fleets.

So, once they had finished building their first vessel, they had naturally come to Zieg for the first voyage. Not wanting to discourage them, for he truly did like the idea of a navy, he asked them to take him to Corone, the docks closest to the Citadel. Had he thought about how bad of an idea that truly was, he never would have volunteered.

First off, the boat was in very poor condition. It was of a good size and shape, but it had very little going for it in the way of being water-tight. So, leaks sprung forth from nearly every nook and cranny of it and, being so covered in armor as he was, Zieg was not really looking forward to swimming. Secondly, these nautical newcomers were not really adept at sailing. Finding one's bearings in the middle of the sea was difficult when one had never sailed before. Luckily, the High General had been on many a ship before and was able to steer them in a close direction.

Thankfully, they made it to Corone in one piece, albeit soaking wet and two weeks later than they should have been. After Zieg had directed the aspiring sailors toward a professional shipbuilder for advice, he had headed off toward the Citadel. It had been a good while since he had visited the majestic building. The broad entrance opened into a parlor that appeared to have been redone since he last visited.

"High General! Welcome back to the Citadel." A slender, yet obviously muscular, monk approached him from a hallway to his left. "Please come this way. We have an opponent waiting that we are sure will interest you." The monk led the Haidian leader down the same hallway from where he came, the tiled stone floor releasing groans with every step that he took. Finally, the red robed monk stopped in front of a very nondesript door, lacking any color what-so-ever.

"Enjoy your battle, general." The monk held open the door and Zieg stepped through, instantly losing all color. The demon knight was constantly amazed at how truly gifted the Ai'bron monks were, both in battle and in visualization. It truly was an art. The colorless, dissolving arena in which he stood truly astounded him.

It astounded him, that is, until he saw who his opponent was. "Sorahn un' Rohnahmeh! My friend, how long has it been!" was what the demon intended to say, but when he opened his mouth only a muffled sound exited. In fact, as he stepped along the sandy ground all he heard was a hollow echo, as if he were hearing it through water. He did not like this place and he placed one hand on his blade and pulled it from its sheath. It slid with a wicked hiss, the sound of the titanium blade against the steel sheath strangely amplified in this place.

Everything here is quite peculiar. Who knows what other strange properties may exist here. Need to be on my guard. He may be my friend, but this is the Citadel and I am not here to lose.

[Sorahn]

Sorahn was surprised to see Zieg dil’ Tulfried walk through the door. He hadn’t seen the demon in years. He had almost forgotten about him, but one look at his massive armor reminded him of their past exploits. He instantly felt more at ease, and made to greet his long lost friend, but muffled sounds were all that resulted.

This place is even more odd than I thought.

Instead he simply shrugged, and waved to Zieg, trying to get his point across without the use of words. He smiled warmly to him, but already his mind had been set into motion, plotting the actions for the upcoming battle. He knew that Zieg was a very powerful warrior, and would probably have little difficulty in slicing Sorahn in half. He had to rely on his only advantage: his speed. Zieg must have difficulty moving in all of that heavy armor. Hopefully I can dodge his attacks and sneak in some quick hits. He thought to himself.

If there was one thing Sorahn prided himself on, it was his agility. In most battles he fought he had to rely solely on his speed and quick reactions to dodge attacks and land his martial art attacks. Because he knew that it would only take one good hit to his armor less body to end his battle.

Still, he had his doubts about winning this battle. Zieg was older than Sorahn, and had a lot more battle experience. While Sorahn was no novice, he seemed like a child compared to Zieg’s seasoned technique. If he was going to come out of this alive, he would probably need some help.

He thought for a moment until he felt a presence in a meadow in the northern Concordia forest. He could feel the creature’s emotions. It was hunting something; patiently stalking. But almost immediately it reacted to Sorahn’s presence and its emotions changed.

Yes, master? A voice in Sorahn’s head responded.

Nyris, I may need some assistance. He replied. This was all he needed to say, since the mental link between him and his familiar was growing steadily stronger. They could feel each other and share thoughts. By the time Sorahn had finished his mental sentence, Nyris already knew his situation and location.

I am coming. The response came, and Sorahn returned his mind to the situation at hand. He grinned at Zieg, and then assumed a battle stance, readying his spear. The small talk had been eliminated for them, so there was nothing left to do but get on with what they had both come here for.

I really hope my skills aren’t as rusty as I think they are.

[Zieg dil' Tulfried]

The muffled response from his opponent indicated that he was having as much difficulty speaking as the blade-wielding knight was. This place felt as though it had been forever scarred by battle and that everything else had been forgotten, color, life, personality. All that remained were memories of the battles that were fought, through the sound of the blade. Zieg had no idea if it would have any effect on him in battle, but he felt confident that he could beat the furry Ranoan.

The one thing Zieg had to watch about Sorahn was his agility. The Haidian knew that he would be relying on that most of all, due to his small size and stature. By no means did he think that Sorahn had any advantage over him, but he knew the furry creature would have a great deal of trouble penetrating his titanium armor.

The demon knight knew that to gain an advantage over the Ranoan, he would have to take him by surprise early. He brought his left arm across his face in a defensive posture, while crossing the Gamygym perpendicular to his arm. Out of sight from Sorahn, Zieg undid the single latch that attached the arm piece of his armor to his torso, using only his mouth. The latch easily unhinged and the armor dropped slightly on his arm.

Zieg swung his left arm hard towards Sorahn and the armpiece flew from his arm, revealing a limb not solid, but made completely of fire. The armor was heading straight and true, straight for his opponent and friend. He was pretty confident Sorahn would be able to dodge the flying arm, but that wasn't his plan. All he needed was for Sorahn to be distracted enough to lose his sight of Zieg.

Swinging the Gamygym toward the ground, he concentrated for a moment and two thin beams of light sprung forth and quickly transformed into two identical copies of Zieg, flaming arm and all. He sprang into action by running at Sorahn, his two dopplegangers to his left. The General needed to confuse the Ranoan enough to keep him from knowing which Zieg was real. He swung the Gamygym at him diagonally from the right to the left before leaping to his left and holding his position. The first doppleganger followed suit, but jumped to the right instead, and the final doppleganger kept running straight through to stop near the tree.

All at once the three Gamygym's burst into flame, leaving the demon a confident feeling of victory close at hand.

[Sorahn]

Sorahn’s eyes widened as what appeared to be Zieg’s arm came flying toward him like an arrow. Sidestepped to the right to avoid being hit by the armor, but was amazed to find that by the time he had regained his footing, two more Ziegs had appeared, both identical to the first.

“Shent.” He swore in Ranoan as his three opponents charged at him. What made matters worse was he had no idea which one was the real Zieg. He had no option but to assume they were all deadly, because a wrong guess could cost him his life. He readied himself as best as he could just as the enemies descended on him.

He quickly blocked the first attack with his spear, and spun gracefully to avoid the second. It was already difficult to keep track of all their positions, and Sorahn was trying hard to remember his training with multiple attackers. He leapt over the final doppelganger and spun in the air to land facing his three opponents.

There was an odd silence as Sorahn stood panting. He stared down all three Ziegs, spear at the ready. You can take them. You can take all of them. Show this demon what true Ranoan warriors are made of. He knew Zieg had a great advantage over him, but still he was determined to either win, or go down with one hell of a fight.

Suddenly he let out a monstrous roar, which came out sounding very quiet and distant but grew progressively louder to resound in the odd arena. He leapt forward, charging straight toward his enemies. When he had almost reached them, he sprung into the air. As he descended on the trio, he waved his left hand and sent out a powerful shockwave toward them. He hoped to at least knock them off balance as he descended on the middle copy, slamming the titanium blades of his spear down on him.

The instant his feet had touched the ground he swung around to slice at the Zieg to the left of him then jumped and aimed a kick straight to the face of one to his right. He was simply going to attack all of them until one of them either died or disappeared.

He landed behind the copy on the right and spun to ready himself for a massive counterattack. He had hoped to at least disable one of them, but wasn’t so foolish to assume he had succeeded.

“When a Ranoan is cornered, he develops a certain ferocity that most underestimate. But it is this ferociousness, this unparalleled determination, which allows Ranoan warriors to survive when others would fail.” - Kahn un’ Mehnath, Former Ranoan High General