Settling a Score

[Tobias Stalt]

Flashes of color in the night sky illuminated the deck of the "Axios" as the engine sputtered and spewed smoke. The airship lurched and plummeted toward the world below, and warped and mutilated bodies spilled over the bow. Tobias held fast to the helm as he fought to right the doomed ship. "Lye!" His scream was filled with hatred as he roared his determination toward the assassin. The other man was stronger, quicker, and more experienced in most forms of combat, but Tobias had skills the other man had recognized. That was, perhaps, the one reason he still drew breath when all the others did not. So many names and faces. So much grief.

Tobias jerked the wheel and the ship lifted regally skyward, oblivious to its encroaching doom. He stared madly into the wretched moon, each breath ragged. "I know you're here!" His words were frantic and manic as he called for the object of his ire. "Come and face me! Show me you're not a coward!"

His uniform was destroyed- covered in grime and dried blood- and he wore black robes that fluttered madly in the darkness. Tobias' face was contorted in a mask of despair and anger. He turned his gaze over his shoulder, searching for any hint that someone else had been left alive. He knew he would find nothing, but he obliged the futile notion nonetheless.

When he was met with silence, he slammed his fist on the wheel. "You'll pay for this," he called out, "I will rip your throat out with my bare hands! Even if it kills me, I swear it!"

He recalled the debacle on Eiskalt, all of the 908th reduced to ashes. He remembered the face of Lye Ulroke in the flames, his hands as they made the marionettes dance. Everything had been his machination, right down to Tobias' assault. All of the innocent deaths. And now, all of the men he had trained with. Everyone who had become anything to him.

Tobias slammed the wheel once more and gave a cry of futility. "I do swear," he huffed finally. He stared into the night as he stood stoic against the scene of abject annihilation. "They're all dead," he choked, and his hand clapped over his mouth. Both his golden eyes screwed shut.

"They're all dead."

[Lye]

Between the shouts, screams, and groans mixed with roar of wind and explosions, Tobias's primal howls were as apparent as the blood still wet on Lye's garbs. The assassin’s chest heaved from the strains of combat. Bodies of the his past allies laid mangled at his feet. These puppets served their purpose. They were no longer needed.

The airship jolted and the assassin struggled to keep his balance. Before this flying hunk of steam, wood, and metal met with the rocky crags of Eiskalt's mountains, there was one traitor left to discipline. Lye got his footing on the blood slick decks of the Axios, and charged towards the sound of Tobias's cries. Instead of an expression of anger, his features held an eerie calm. This chaos, this madness, was home. Lye could not have felt more alive than he did now.

Explosions of ground to air magic thundered around the vessel. Struggling to keep them from plummeting nose first to an early grave was one tattered Tobias Stalt. Lye smiled.

"What are you going to do Stalt?!" Lye shouted through the wind. A fireball burst against the hull and the ship jostled again. Lye slammed his battle worn blade into the railing to catch his balance. His arm swelled with pain from the cuts, scrapes, and bruises used to purchase the deaths of the Aleraran crew. Though Lye was a professional of his trade and a monster, he was still in fact human. The pain was an unwanted reminder.

"You let go of that wheel and we both die!" Lye scoffed. He ripped his weapon from the splinted rails and stepped closer to the unraveled tactician.

"You chose to believe me! You chose to lead your people into this war! Then, you made the mistake of abandoning that resolve! For that, all of this is the consequence!" The steam chambers below surged, the ship lurched, and another blast rang from below. The assassin struggled, but maintained his approach.

"I'm going to kill you Stalt," Lye affirmed. "But first, I want you to know you are in part responsible for the lives lost. Their deaths are as much yours as they are mine!"

[Tobias Stalt]

"Are you so deluded," Tobias whispered as he clung to the wheel. The ship rattled and dipped, but held aloft with a tenacity that rivaled the soldier's own. "That you would believe I don't know that?" He turned to stare a vicious amber gaze toward Lye. "You think I don't have an ocean of blood on my conscience? I call out for your head, Ulroke, because I am not the same monster as you."

Tobias tugged at the wheel, once, then twice. It whined protest as his effort jerked it free of a hinge. "I feel the weight of their lives, all bought and paid for with my mistakes. And I know I must give them answer. I will pay my debts, Lye, but so shall you. You will give them their solace."

With a moan of defiance, the wheel creaked free of its proper position, and Tobias hurled it toward the assassin with hateful vigor. "If I must die, so be it!" His cry bled into the whine of the airship as it tipped to one side and began to sink from the sky. Exposed as the deck was, another volley from below pelted them, this time exploding far too close to the two men for comfort.

Tobias caught the deck as he began to slide toward the edge, barely able to catch a proper grip. He gasped loudly in surprise as a chamber pot- thank the gods it was empty- hit him on the head, then went plummeting toward the hell below. A glance toward the world showed icy crags lit up with angry torches and cannons screaming out for the Axios to fall.

How it had come to this, Tobias could not say. After a moment of hanging limply, Tobias began to climb inexplicably toward Lye. He knew death would come for him one way or another, but he wanted to be certain that Lye went to hell with him. Axios plummeted slowly, a testament to the excellence of its craft, but the impact would still be lethal if they were caught between ship and mountain.

He drew Blackheart from his back with his free hand as he dangled there. In several moments, he would need it more than he had ever needed anything. Its weight felt as nothing next to the fear of falling.

[Lye]

The horrible condition of the ship translated to poor footing for anyone aboard. When Tobias ripped the wheel from its axis, this grew exponentially worse. Even more worrisome, the massive object hurdled toward Lye and left him little ability to dodge. When he went to avoid it, the ship shook, and his leg buckled. The makeshift weapon slammed into his chest and subsequently into the wall of the main cabin behind him. If he were but a few inches to the left, one of the many jagged tips of splintered wood would have impaled him. It would have been over then and there.

Without the ability to control the ship, it tilted and began its final drift toward destruction. Corpses, debris, and even Lye began to slide along the deck. Still winded, but conscious, the assassin once again dug his blade into the wood and kept himself from an unexpected flight. He felt something crack against his free hand. Pain shot up his arm and one of his weapons chimed farewell as it disappeared from view. With a wheeze, Lye finally found his breath and returned a ferocious gaze to his attacker.

"You are just as much a monster as I!" Lye roared over the ship's suffering. "Do you have the resolve to kill us both?!"

The killer jerked the blade free and began to slide toward Stalt. The small blades fixed to the back of the assassin's boots bit at the deck as he descended. The ship groaned as yet another blast cascaded to the rear. A burst of light, followed by the glow of fire raced across the clouds.

The new blow began to level out the deck. Lye's boot caught a foothold into one of the many holes given by the thralls of war. As the ship righted, the slide transitioned into a sprint, and the assassin swung his bloodied blade for the throat of his past comrade.

The blast which gave a moment's reprieve for the attack, began to catch drag from the wind. What had just righted the deck, began to throw the vessel into a slow rotation. Lye's footing gave loose before being able to confirm his attack, and he slammed into the railing. The second of his blades slipped from his grip. Lye watched helplessly as it clambered into a nook of ruined debris. The railing at his back cried under his weight and cracked. Uneasy as to when it may give, Lye gripped the kusarigama chiming at his side.

[Tobias Stalt]

It was impossible to keep track of anything. Tobias barely fended off the slice meant for his neck with a clattering of metals. A moment later, the ship's spin took Lye away from any possibility of reproach from Tobias, though the eerie black blade swung for him and bit into the deck. Tobias had let go the wood that held him so high above the world only to find himself in a maddening slide toward the other edge of the ship.

This was chaos, and it was a world he had no mastery over. This was the penultimate goal of the man he intended to kill- to plunge all the world into a scene that mirrored this one. Tobias found himself, astonishingly, devoid of words. There were few times in his life that Stalt lacked for a witty or snide remark, but this situation had jolted him into grim seriousness. Darkened amber eyes stared at the madman who accused Tobias of an equal level of monstrosity, and the soldier had to confess, he might not be so wrong.

Heat in the air singed his throat as he gulped down a powerful breath and struggled to regain some semblance of sanity. He had never been so far gone from his tempered stoicism. He had never stepped this far out of his comfort zone, and his facade of calm suffered for it. His hurried breaths kept his mouth agape as bloodied drool flooded his jaw.

He spit, and the gobbet disappeared into the pyroclasm ripped open beneath them. The deck had begun to rip apart at the seams. Two disproportionate halves of the Axios split into opposite directions and fell away as the last vestiges of engineering and alchemy died out. Nothing was left to slow their descent.

A piercing scream broke out above the groan of wood and metal, and Tobias was struck dumb. His gaze raced toward the source, and he saw her there, at the edge of everything. "Camille," he rasped breathlessly, "no, no! You can't be here!"

Her vivid eyes met his, filled with fear and uncertainty. She held tight to the deck as she fell free of the captain's cabin, her apparent hiding place. "Stalt!" Her cry was a plea. "I came to ask you, please! Please, come back!" She reached out for him. "You should never have left! You don't know everything. I can explain...!"

The words went unfinished into the wind, and Tobias watched the next few moments in paralyzed horror.

[Lye]

Lye gripped the railing and glanced to Tobias. The bastard was still alive. Lye readied his chained sickle to pluck him from the deck, then let it fly. Lady luck had other plans in mind when, to his dismay, the deck sundered in half. The jostle from the ship splitting in two crumbled the railing at the assassin's back. An explicative escaped his mouth and his decent to earth began. For a moment, the scythe of death pressed against Lye's neck but the strong jerk from his arm bought him more time.

Lye's kusarigama chimed taught and sent him swinging into the side of the Axios. The hull's wood gave way, sending the assassin rolling through charred planks and live embers. His body came to rest with a thud against what used to be a feasting table. His body ached with pain. Lye coughed as smoke filled his lungs. The assassin struggled, but got back to his feet. His first priority was to get back to the deck.

Navigating the thick fog proved to be a challenge, but Lye emerged from below only to find half of the Axios remained. The roar of wind had grown louder than before, but no longer did the sky rain fire upon them. Both facts bode ill against the living still aboard.

"Stalt!"

Lye's snapped a furious emerald gaze towards the source. Unarmed, but determined, Lye charged toward the main cabin.

"You don't know everything. I can explain...!"

The shadows behind Camille danced in the flicker of nearby flame. They grew dark and took form. Then a hand reached out from the wall and the assassin followed suite. His grip wrapped around Camille's mouth and Lye came into sight. His fiery eyes locked with Stalt's, and he jerked the woman in his grasp to show his control over her.

"I missed one," Lye mused.

Camille's body writhed and her muffled screams desperately tried to escape her lips. The pain in her eyes grew greater. Her writhing became more dire. Tears began to fall.

The killer smiled a chesire grin.

Camille's shrill filled the air and her body arched. Her abdomen burst open to reveal a bloodied prong of ivory- one of Lye's sinister abilities to grow blades of bone from his arms.

"Such a shame. She had been so good at twisting you around her finger. Now, falling for you? That was unexpected."

Camille no longer struggled, and Lye no longer cared to restrain her. He slide his ivory blade from her body with a musical combination of slurps, pops, and feminine whimpers.

"Here."

He shoved her toward Stalt. Her consciousness teetered in and out of darkness.

[Tobias Stalt]

It seemed so unreal.

Lurid eyes looked right through Tobias as they flickered. His mouth opened, but the scream never came. Madness swallowed everything but the crackle of flames and the groan of splitting wood. She hardly recognized her name as it floated across her ears. Instead, both her hands clutched at her throat in a futile attempt to stem the bleeding. Camille barely felt the bone through her torso, because at that point, her body had suffered too much pain. Her nervous system had started shutting off receptors first, then entire clusters of neurons. She was limp as she fell through the air, and Tobias caught her like the sack of bones she had become. "Camille," he managed to sob when he drew her to his chest. "Camille!"

She was beyond a place where Tobias could be heard. Her soul fled her body in each gush of blood, and though her eyes found him, her words never would. Her gaze said everything. She begged, pleaded with Tobias to somehow find her salvation. It tore at him that, for the first time in his life, he had no way out. Not for himself, nor for Camille. "Close your eyes," he whispered softly. He implored her to free him from that haunting gaze, those eyes that reminded him all too well of his shortcomings. "Please," he tried to gather himself, but failed at even that. "Please, don't look at me..."

She died staring into his eyes.

His head bowed and he trembled with the overwhelming grief that had stricken him. He recognized that the time was not right, but he was powerless to stave off the emotion. "Camille," he called to her beyond the veil, "stop looking at me." His eyes had screwed shut and his head bowed, but his hand closed her eyes like a Priest giving the Last Rites.

He hugged her to his chest for all of a second before the ship rocked again. He scrambled in a botched attempt to keep hold of her and save himself and cried out when her body fell from him toward the depths below. "Noooo!" He screamed out, one hand tightly gripped to the railing while the other stretched toward her fading form. He watched her disappear beneath the waves with a single splash. He had failed to give her even a proper burial.

Darkness had washed over his face. Tobias' eyes were veiled in shadow as the fragment of the doomed Axios righted, and he pried Blackheart from the wood. "You're mine," was all Tobias said. He did not look up to give Lye the satisfaction of his heart-wrenching sorrow. Instead, he became everything Lye had always wanted him to be.

A cold-hearted killer.

[Lye]

"And there she goes," the assassin stated as the freshly made corpse plummeted out of sight. "I'd tell you to get a grip, but I think we're past that."

Lye chuckled in the face of his misery. Instead of killing him, this suffering would serve a better purpose to teach him discipline. Her blood dripped freely from the blade of bone extending from his forearm. Though the crackle of burning ship and roar of rushing wind drowned out all ambient noise, each drop that fell to the deck pounded like drums of war. Each drop hammered away at Tobias's sanity until it would fracture. Lye wanted him broken.

Stalt pried his mighty blade from the floor boards.

Lye quirked a brow. In that moment, the flickering light from the wreckage seemed to warp the tactician's shadow. The blade he held now hummed a different tune. It gave off an aura, one that knocked at the memories deep within Lye. Stalt did not make eye contact, but Lye could feel his gaze burrowing into him. Something changed. Something dark.

"Yours?" Lye quipped. His emerald eyes flickered with intrigue. He had planted a seed and now, he wanted it to grow. "Much like you thought she was yours? That whore who I found addicted to self destruction? No family. No friends. No one to love her."

Stalt's shadow flickered with greater vigor. It could have been the fires that grew to overtake their barely airborne hunk of vessel, but Lye felt a pressure no shadow could invoke.

"I was the first to take her in; give her shelter. I gave her purpose beyond fruitlessly taking droves of men inside her."

Lye smiled.

"Then, I stuck her in the Aleran ranks. Albeit her... skills did prove useful to that effect. Low and behold, along came Tobias. Your brilliant tactical mind and knowledge not only piqued her interest but mine as well. The rest I'm sure you know."

Tobias was about to give in. Lye could see the restraints become taught and start to give. He prepared, and another prong of bone summoned forth from his other arm.

"If you weren't such a spineless coward, the whore would still have a beating heart. Now come on, coward. Show me what the bitch died for."

The fires blew out. All that was left was darkness. Lye braced himself with a grin.

[Tobias Stalt]

Lye pontificated his sadistic words to the wind as the sea below drew ever closer. Tobias could feel the air getting harsher as the salt spray mixed with hellish heat and stole breath from his lungs. He knew exactly what Lye intended. His words provoked the still fresh rage within Tobias. Every fiber of the young man's being screamed out for reciprocity. His amber eyes set on the diminished boards beneath their feet; there was precious little time to move, and so few, narrow pathways to victory.

The world around him moved in slow motion; rather, as he thought, everything seemed to twist and writhe at a staggeringly slow speed. Lye's words jumbled in a mesh of adrenaline and concentrated effort. He saw only red, the blood on Lichensith's bony blade. "I want you," Tobias whispered, impossibly quiet, "to die."

He had never wanted for the death of any other being. Tobias advocated an approach to life that entailed mutual respect and relative kindness. The very blackness in his soul that could summon enough hate to condemn even his worst enemy had risen from the depths. In an instant, everything converged.

Tobias took a sure step forward. "I'm going to kill you."

Blackheart rose, and the world became discord. Lye and Tobias met in the midst of a fiery hell. Blasts on any side of them deprived both men of hearing or rational thought. Bone and Dehlar clashed, and sparks flew. Skill from years of mastery gave Lye an overwhelming edge, but Tobias was unrelenting. Step for step and blow for blow, the tactical genius broke down the graceful and deadly dance. They were at an impasse.

Tears and sweat plastered to his face illustrated Tobias' irritation. Lye deserved to die. Failure upon failure had wracked Tobias like chains, until finally he stood here shackled, unable to free himself. Blackheart pushed backward into the ivory spike with conviction, but it was for naught.

"I will," he swore it again. He screamed it, though he could not hear himself say the words. "I will kill you!"

[Lye]

Tobias seethed his hatred, his sorrow, and his absolute conviction. Lye met him with cold, green eyes. The assassin fed on his despair.

"Then kill me," he replied though heavy breath - salt to the wounds of Stalt's fruitless efforts.

The ship shuddered and a blast rocked the boards on which they stood. Their stalemate broke. Lye swung high, Blackheart countered with zeal. Stalt gave no reprieve and thrusted for the heart. Panic set, but Lye evaded. Stalt became quicker with his follow up strikes. Lye struggled to match his fluid maneuvers. The ever increasing finesse and speed boggled the assassin's mind. The tactician began to transcend to something more than man.

"I will kill you!" Stat shouted.

Another explosion.

Blood spattered to the floorboards. The two jumped back against opposing walls. Or what remained of them.

Lye patted his hand against the dampness on his ribs. His gloved hand glistened with viscous fluid. Were it not for the killer's genetically enchanted skeleton, the gash would have ended the fight. Lye grimaced, and he looked to his adversary. Stalt returned a lifeless stare, and it unsettled the assassin.

Tobias looked at him with the same empty gaze Lye knew all too often from his own reflection. Tobias had become a monster. The hairs on the assassin's neck rose, and his lips spread a victorious grin.

The mist of the ocean below frothed up from the fractured floor at their feet. They had minutes. Whether this information stirred him or failed to reach him, Stalt kicked back into action. Lye blocked and parried. Stalt kept coming. The blows rang against the hardened ivory of Lye's bones - their somber tune both ferocious and filled with a twang of sorrow. Tobias roared and Lye felt himself losing ground.

"What in the --"

Another sweep from Blackheart lodged in the assassin's shoulder. Lye winced in pain and pushed the blade to the side. The joys of this game left his mind. It had to end.

Lye's boot lashed out and struck Tobias square in the gut. He staggered, but began to right himself as though unaffected by the laceration Lye's axed heel delivered. Lye grit his teeth. Tobias advanced. He swung Blackheart with a mind shattering howl.

The blade went through the assassin. Stalt staggered, and Lye stood unscathed behind the traitor by some manner of dark magic.

"LYEE!" he shouted as he caught his balance against the wreckage. Tobias turned.

"It's over..."

Stalt seized. Time slowed. Lye's face looked at him without expression, his arm extended.

[Tobias Stalt]

It dug for his heart.

Tobias felt it without ever seeing it; the weapon in Lye's hand probed his chest, mere inches from a killing strike. Like a surgeon, the assassin had gouged his tool into his victim with ruthless precision. The solider could do naught but stand in muted awe of the act.

Lichensith stared into the abyss that was Tobias, and instead of torment, he could only see hatred. He saw that same gaze every day of his life. Instead of satisfaction, Lye felt tinges of discontent, and even resentment. "You're about to die," he sneered, "you've failed, even at revenge." His moment of triumph, and the monstrous killer had a bitter taste in his mouth. He pressed the needle further toward Tobias' heart. "In the end, you made no difference at all."

Vicious words railed against the ever fading wall that was Tobias' psyche, but the soldier's darkened eyes remained focused. He had nothing else. The malicious blade dug into Lye's flesh refused to answer his desperation. Tobias felt his effort wane with his consciousness, but he refused to relent. The suffering youth strained to repeat his previous sentiments, but no words formed from his lips.

Instead, Lye never got the satisfaction of an emotionally driven response. He felt only the Hellfire from the Tactician's eyes, robbed of their light. The final words from Tobias to Camille echoed in Lye's mind, disturbingly. "Don't look at me," he had begged.

The irony chilled him to the bone.

The limp body of Tobias fell free of Lye's blade when a catastrophic blast tore them apart. Whether it came from a malfunctioning system or fire from the world below, neither man was certain. Lye grabbed for Tobias to ensure the job was finished, but his fingers grasped only air. The murderer watched as his quarry slipped away, floating somewhere between life and death, and screamed his hatred to the heavens.

...

The waters off Eiskalt's coast in dead winter were so frigid, no sane creature would venture into them. The small assortment of fish and mammalian creatures who inhabited the area were nowhere in sight of the hellish scene painted in the sky, so when the ear shattering splash came, it fell in a world of silence.

Tobias sank into the depths peacefully, a haze of red billowing toward the surface from the wound at his chest. It was a portrait of the eerie calm that came with death.

Peace for a man who had never known it.

[Lye]

The concussive blast slammed against Lye like a hammer to the forge. The heat washed over him and pieces of ship danced about his rag doll body. The searing pain that plagued his body was only dwarfed by the image of Tobias slipping his grasp haunted his mind. The uncertainty of putting that bastard in his grave lingered. It lingered even when the blackness framed his vision. The assassin struggled to hang onto consciousness. He had a job to do.

His mind began to fade. Images of past memories spliced with the face of Tobias Stalt. They reflected another man for which the killer failed to claim, a thief of extraordinary legend.

"Dahlios..." Lye hissed. His fist clenched.

"I will kill you both."

Flames washed over his silhouette. No sooner, a large chunk of the Axios swept through the fires and hammered into the sea. Debris rained around, casting pillars of salt water into the sky. Chunks of wood surfaced, some charred, some still smouldering. The waters were littered with corpses, clothes, and remains of a once mighty flagship. Amongst it all, a scarf drifted to the surface atop a blood stained plank.

A scarf of crimson vlince.

***

"What the hell was he doing out at sea?!"

"The traitor from Alerar, I believe he boarded the ship to eliminate the defectors."

"All by himself?!"

"Seems so and by the looks of the wreckage, he succeeded. The only thing alive was him. Well... if you call this alive."

Lye heard the two voices conversing, but he could not see, he could not move, and he felt nothing. One of the voices slightly slurred as though a few drinks deep at the time. His voice was young, but strong. The other sounded old. Lye knew this voice.

"Either he knew I'd be needed or he's just damn lucky. Tell Admiral Torin to double pace back to Salvar," the elder of the two commanded.

"Yes sir."

"And Erikar, do not let any of the Ixians know his identity."

"Of course." Footsteps faded. "Like they'd be able to tell without a face on him." Lye heard muttered in the distance.

There was a sigh. "I don't know if you can hear me lad... but hold on. I'm going to pull you from the veil."

The chants of the Ai'Brone filled the air. Then, Lye heard a high pitched ring. The blackness for which engulfed him began to brighten. He began to feel, at first cold, then as though a fire warmed the chill from his being. There was pain - endless, maddening pain. Then light, searing, blinding light.

"Torin said he can get us back in about one da-- Corvanik! Stop!"

A heartbeat.

Lye gasped for air. His body shot upright through the horrid screaming his body wreaked on his mind. The breaths were like daggers.

"You'll kill yourself! Stop!" he heard Erikar shout as footsteps pounded closer. The Ai'Brone chanting grew weak, raspy, and wet. Words devolved into gurgles until silence filled the air.

"Damn it! Corvanik!"

Lye's skin grew cool. The pain had subsided to a low roar, and his breaths became clearer. The light faded back to black, until Lye opened a single eye. He saw his hands and his legs, both looked as though processed by a meat grinder. The more he looked at their mangled form, the more the open wounds stitched themselves shut. The exposed bone grew layers upon layers of red tissue until they finished with a pale, peach hue. His hands, which had been missing appendages, now rotated in his sight fully formed and only sightly abrased.

"By the Thaynes... Master?!"

The assassin turned to the voice. Lye saw his disciple, Erikar, cradling a form wrapped in thick brown linens. Erikar's face stood frozen with disbelief. The robed figure in his hands grew dark in splotches, red spilling from underneath. Lye's second eye opened and he strained the blurred vision to find Corvanik's mangled face hidden by the shadows of his hood. The Ai'Brone had once again risked his own life to bring him from the abyss.

"How did he--" The boy was stopped short.

Lye snapped his newly reformed hand to grip Erikar by the fabric of his cowl. Corvanik's limp corpse rolled from the red head's grip and thud against the deck. Erikar grew wide eyed.

"Tobias Stalt," Lye managed to say through rasps and wheezes.

"What?"

"Find. Tobias. Stalt," Lye gurgled.

Unsure what to make of the message, Erikar nodded. Lye's vision began to haze over, and his grip loosened. Fatigue, pain, and the overwhelming sensation of revival took its toll.

"Kill. Stalt," he mustered before slipping back into darkness. There was silence.

"I will, Master. "

[Silence Sei]

This was Kyla's war.

There was no doubt in his mind that, given the circumstances, he too would have came to the aid of Eiksalt. However, Kyla took nearly all of the Ixian Knights with her, made their home territory ripe for the picking for their enemies. She was guarding her front with no regard for her back. He knew with all of his heart that he would not have made the same mistake. He was not guided by emotions like she was, not most of the time anyways. He also knew when he watched a nearby fight unfold that he had to do the right thing.

The water was as cold as iced tea in Salvar. He could feel his muscles tense and slow the instant he dived into the cold sea. A pool of red was the only indicator he had to finding his quarry, and the slower the would-be rescuer went, the faster the victim sank. He forced himself to stroke further into the depths, all of his might forced into his kicking feet. The depths were growing dark, and he could barely see in front of his face now. He reached outwards, feeling around for some sign that he had accomplished his mission. A heavy tug from a torn piece of cloth gave him hope, and he swam to the surface as quickly as possible.

He gasped as he hit the open air, the body of Tobias Stalt raised so he too would not suffer from drowning. A mental message was all it took for a monster made up mostly of plants to appear behind the two warriors, and take them to safety. Within a minute, Stalt was on a stretcher in a medical ward. The doctors that were left hurried to his aid, finding whatever medical supplies they could to fix him. The hero looked over the still body of the boy, and only rested when he saw his chest fall and rise once more.

His hand went to the forehead of Tobias, both to feel the warmth return to his body as well as to comfort him.

"Death has not claimed you today. You must live and grow strong. Seek out those that can help you, and seek the vengeance you so deserve; or the lies, for the wounds, and for your men. Know this, Tobias Stalt, it is not over between you and Lichensith Ulroke. I will aid you when I can, but there is only so much I can do to help."

"And if you should need my aid again, remember my name. Silas Aura."

[Philomel]

Thread Title: Settling a Score (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?27437-Settling-a-Score)
Judgment Type: Full Rubric
Participants: Tobias Stalt vs Lye



Plot: 16 --- 19

Story- 6/10---6/10

Tobias: Overall the timescale made sense, and you communicated the story rather well through your use of referral back to the past. This could have hindered you, especially in such a fast-paced battle, but you managed to communicate it well.

Lye: Similarly you told a definite story, and we could see Lye’s purpose through it.

General: One thing that failed to be mentioned, however, is how Tobias knew Lye was on the aircraft - did he see him on it? - and why Lye might be there. This covers both of you, hence a slight deduction to the score.

Setting- 5/10---6/10

Tobias: For starting off you grabbed the reader’s attention, using the setting to your advantage, and made the burning city come to life. Tobias, however, seemed slightly more disconnected from the setting as Lye did, and seemed to forget he was on a falling air ship.

Lye: You were able to have your character interact with the setting as the chaos went on very well. Times when Lye used his weapons to hold onto the ship served him well, and those small other details, such as hanging off the edge of the ship.

General: For a start, congratulations on the unusual setting. Due to the extraordinary uniqueness of the setting, points are rewarded. Not only is it on a place unusual in terms of typical battle but it is in flight.
A weakness you both shared, however, that there was a slightly strange amount of walking around in such (if it is indeed breaking in half). However, Lye made more general use of the chaos, and mentioned it in terms of “corpses” and sounds also, making his use of setting stronger.

Pacing- 5/10---7/10

Tobias: One weakness that was found was in the sentence, ‘Two disproportionate halves of the Axios split into opposite directions and fell away,’ which did not have much prior allusion to the breaking. However, you had a great sense of the battle and the timing it took. The best strength in terms of pacing you had probably was the slow tearing off of the wheel, occurring over several posts. Camille’s introduction in post 5 is also unnecessarily rushed.

Lye: Your pacing was better in terms of adapting to the sinking ship, and you managed to keep up with the chaos eschewing around your character.

General: One thing that could have been useful is to speed up the flow of the words as the ship begins to crash - this would have helped better the natural pacing of the prose itself.



Character: 20 --- 20

Communication- 7/10---7/10

Tobias: As to Tobias’ sorrow, determination and his pain, it is well shown through his choice of words, using auxiliary verbs to show absolutes such as ‘"You'll pay for this,"’ (you will). I saw no change in the tone of his language, which is often hard to keep up. All the way through it is strong and defiant - an excellent job.

Lye: You have a brilliant grasp of how your character speaks. Simple phrases such as “hissed” helped to communicate how Lye’s voice sounds, and you varied his speech patterns to the correct degree in order to show how he felt. This was especially strong in post 12, when Lye has just recovered and is filled with intense anger.
‘"Tobias Stalt," Lye managed to say through rasps and wheezes. - "What?" - "Find. Tobias. Stalt," Lye gurgled.’

Action-7/10---7/10

Tobias: All action was fitting well within this battle. The basic ones - such as choosing to take over the airship in the first place to get Lye by himself - are very clear at demonstrating the personality and emotions of your character, especially the desire for revenge. Using language and actions also in Camille’s death scene when he begs her not to look at him worked especially strong for you here. His actions carry his feelings and personality stronger than any other character section.

Lye: Within Lye’s actions we definitely see what Tobias describes as ‘a cold-hearted killer.’ Lye’s actions, down to the way he carelessly let ‘freshly made corpse plummeted out of sight,’ is a display of this strong demeanor. It is not even said that he watched the corpse, emphasising this personality trait. Overall his vivacity is displayed through consistent actions.

General: Both of you stayed remarkably true in terms of your characters and what actions they would take in terms of their personality, the setting, and their emotions at their time. Each strongly gave a sense of what makes that particular character tick.

Persona- 6/10---6/10

Tobias: Upon when when Camille is first introduced it is not clear how Tobias feels about her, as we see not much of his inner thoughts. This maybe be down to the very brief and sudden introduction of her character. Yet, you manage to reimburse this with the longer death scene, that reveals more of him, however, there is a slight lacking here as you rely on action to communicate Tobias’ feelings vastly more than anything else.

Lye: Similarly you rely on actions to communicate Lye’s feelings, until post 12, when Lye revives. We see a strong sense of characterisation in terms of a hardened individual, but little else beneath apart from the occasional ‘grin.’ However, this is very much a moot point, as this is also one of your greatest strengths in showing Lye to be a competent, yet mysterious, individual.

General: The most difficult thing here for both of you is finding the balance between showing the stoicism of your character yet also giving the reader an insight into their feelings instead of a blank slate, hence this being a lower score than the others in terms of Character.



Prose: 19 --- 21

Mechanics- 7/10---8/10

Tobias: For the majority of the part your Mechanics are strong. However, sometimes it is better to set dialogue out on its own line. In post 5 this brought you down the most as the reader discovered Camille was on board the Axios, and Tobias gave all his reactions within the same paragraph.
‘A piercing scream broke out above the groan of wood and metal, and Tobias was struck dumb. His gaze raced toward the source, and he saw her there, at the edge of everything. "Camille," he rasped breathlessly, "no, no! You can't be here!"’

Lye: In general you fared better in terms of having a mixture of short and long paragraphs.

General: There is not much to say here as both of you wrote excellently, with no obvious spelling mistakes and sentence structure entirely correct. Marvellous!

Clarity- 6/10---7/10

Tobias: The clarity of your actions is generally concise and excellent, but as mentioned in Mechanics it might help to space speech from action a little more in terms of paragraphing it might be easier for the reader to read. Also, one odd thing was that you mention in regards to Camille, ‘both her hands clutched at her throat in a futile attempt to stem the bleeding,’ whereas there is no mention of a cut to the throat in the post before (post 6).

Lye: Your actions are very clear as to what is occurring, and there is nothing obvious that does not make sense.

Technique- 6/10---6/10

Tobias: Using a strong sense of the subtle build-up you conveyed well a sense of oncoming and worsening danger. This was especially strong in the progression over three posts of the removal, and eventual useage as a weapon of, the wheel from the airship. The incline in tone was reflected well, as well as the general description of the piece.

Lye: A sense of time freezing is related well through your technique in post ten. Your general use of grouped adjectives and description in itself carried the story along strongly. This art did not falter, and the entire rhythm of the piece was consistent. Also your use of personification upon both the blade, as it 'hummed' and the ship as it was 'suffering' are significant areas where you triumph.

General: Both of you did not vary much with use of description, although it was always strong. I did not see many metaphors or much variation on literary use as far as dynamics go.



Wildcard: 5 --- 6

Ending -

Both of you finished the post remarkably well, and it was only added to by Sei’s last and only post. Sometimes it is easy to leave a battle hanging, with no real explanation for what happens next, but both of you brought it around to a close with finesse. Lye is getting more here as he added a further idea of an epilogue - a short of “what happens next.”


Final Score: 60---66

Lye (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?XXXXX) Wins!:

1725 EXP!
80 GP!

Congratulations!


Tobias (http://www.althanas.com/world/member.php?XXXXX) Receives:

450 EXP!
40 GP!


For further contribution Silence Sei is awarded:
100 EXP!

[Lye]

EXP & GP Added!