View Full Version : The War of Flickering Lights, Pt 1
This quest is closed to Khungar, Serus Tarsin and Rylius.
In front of Atzar stood the large building where most of the Charms tables were located. On the door was a sign:
5th Annual Charms Tournament
Come join the games!
The 5th annual Charms tournament begins in three days from the posting of this message.
This tournament is slightly different from the previous ones. Where the last four tourneys have all between solo battles, this one is going to be a 4-on-4 full-scale showdown! The tables are a surprise, and will be revealed at the beginning of the tournament. They are being enchanted and tested as you read this message!
Signups inside!!!
Intriguing.
Atzar Kellon, mage and citizen of the village of Tel'Han, had a weakness for Charms. The game was played on a table. On that table, the competitors entered an alternate reality. This alternate reality usually resembled a setting in the wild, and the features varied greatly. In his latest battle with Brugo, Atzar had fought on a mountain of ice that was riddled with torches. It was probably his favorite arena, because ice was probably his favorite element.
Atzar decided to give the tournament a try. It was a fun game. The mage didn’t have a team yet, but he figured that he could hook up with a few other people in the building. There were, after all, usually many people in there. Atzar gently pushed the wooden door open and stepped into the big room.
The room was vast. The wooden ceiling stretched far above their heads, supported by wooden beams. Great crystal chandeliers hung at intervals from the ceiling, filling the room with a moderate, comforting light. The wooden walls were easily a hundred feet on each side, and there were eight Charms tables placed around the sides of the room. Noisy crowds stood around three of these tables, testimony to the intense battles taking place. In the middle of the room, a young, pretty human girl of about twenty years sat at a desk. When all of the tables were occupied, matches could be placed on the waiting list at this desk. Atzar figured that the signups for the tournament would be in the same place.
Pushing himself past the nearest roaring mob, Atzar strode up to desk and smiled at the girl, who returned his smile wearily. Her name was Elara, and Atzar knew her to practice the healing arts. Atzar knew some of the other boys in the village to fake small injuries just so they could receive her attention for a minute.
“Are you here for the signups?” she asked him politely. He nodded, and she pushed a piece of paper across the desk. He skimmed the top of it.
Rules:
* In order to sign up, you must already have a team of four people ready for entrance into the tournament.
* No weapons are allowed into the games; however, it is legal to create weapons during a battle through the use of magic.
* No tampering with the enchantments on the table through any means.
* Official results of a battle cannot be disputed.
* If a match lasts four hours without a decision, then the team with the most surviving members is declared the winner. If both teams have the same number of players, both teams will choose a champion to battle on a 1-on-1, small, empty arena. The team of the winner of this battle will be declared the winner.
“Oh, I don’t have my team formed yet,” Atzar mentioned to Elara.
“Come back when you have a team, then,” she responded. He smiled again in thanks and headed away from the table. He looked in turn at each of the three games that were in swing around the room. Choosing the loudest, Atzar headed over to watch. He stayed slightly apart from the rest of the crowd, however, in case somebody that he knew walked through the door. The two competitors were in full swing; he saw one miniature fighter throw a ball of flame at the other. An irresistable smile began to form itself on his face as he sunk into his favorite pastime.
I think really long pieces look better broken into 2 posts rather than one behemoth... thus the double-post.
Khungar
10-25-06, 12:23 AM
Khungar enterred the grand room, allowing the wooden door to swing loudly shut. No one paid any heed to the loud sound, as their ears were already full of raucous shouts of the dozens of spectators, but Khungar hurried quickly away from the entryway so that he would not be noticed. He was no particular fan of attention and would have been content to study his magic away from everyone, but the lure of battle had appealed to his Beastman instincts. The game of Charms had intrigued him ever since he had learned of it, but he had yet to go out and seek the game for lack of confidence.
He didn't like his anti-social ways. He would've preferred to have gotten along greatly with everyone in Tel'Han, as most of its members did. But the six-foot-six, two hundred-and-seventy pound Beastman had had trouble connecting with people in the past, and that trouble had multiplied with time until he had become too self-conscious to even make much eye contact with any but his teachers. He would've loved to sit with people when he ate, but he feared they would not accept his immense appetite and complete lack of what they called "table manners." He would've been happy to show his magic to others and watch as they showed them his so that he could expand his (in his mind) too small repertoire of skills. He would've been thrilled if one of them came up to him and presented him with a chance to join their team for this tournament.
But today would be different. Khungar needed a team, it was true, but he wanted to find one. He didn't need to create one (long journeys start with a small step,) but he knew it was about time that he started reaching out to the other members of he community that had so kindly taken him in. And so it was with a slow, heavy step that Khungar made his way over to the tables. He left the relative safety of the walls and stepped into the expansive room. The magnificent hanging lights watched as the Beastman traversed the great space between table, staying for a few nervous moments to try and catch a glimpse of the action on the big tables. His height allowed him to see over the heads of the building crowds, and the small figures fighting on the tables pulled a small smile from his snout. It looked like fun.
As he turned to move to the next table, he noticed a man set back from the crowd a bit. The man was watching the same game of Charms that Khungar was leaving, and Khungar made a last second decision to alter his direction. He didn't know if his head or his feet had made the decision, but he found himself taking an awkward step to alter his path towards the man. He supposed it would be easier for him to approach a man who was alone than one within a crowd. Plus, this one probably didn't have a team since he wasn't standing with a team. That is, if he is even interested in joining this tournament.
The large beast stepped strangely beside his target and folded his arms over his still-cold woolen coat. He wasn't exactly sure how to start a conversation, but he knew he wanted to start one that would eventually lead to the discussion of the forming of a team. And so:
"Pretty good fight goin' on. Who you got your money on?"
Even as the words left his mouth, he felt stupid for saying them. He tried not to show it, but he thought his eyes narrowed a bit as a sort of defense.
"You, uh, joining the tournament later?" He tried again more cautiously, hoping he had remembered to wait for the other person to respond before asking another question.
The battle was almost over now, but it was exciting to the last drop. The combatants were too exhausted to dodge spells now. Each threw attack after attack at his opponent while taking each vicious blow in return, trying to the best of their ability to give better than they got. The grin on Atzar’s face was tight; this was the game at its best.
Finally, one of them took too much. One had reached the physical breaking point, and slowly toppled forward. The entire crowd roared with noise and swarmed the victor as both of the entranced bodies sprang back to life. The enthralled mage cheered as hard as any of them when he became aware of a gruff, hesitant voice talking to him.
He turned and suppressed a start when he saw the huge, horned, shaggy-haired beastman behind him. In a village of less than two hundred people, Atzar had seen the beastman before (he didn't have an appearance that one forgets quickly, after all). He did know that his name was Khungar, but the shy man had always seemed inclined to keep to himself. The spellcaster was surprised that Khungar had decided to talk to him.
Atzar smiled politely. “I think my money’s on that guy to win,” he said with a grin, pointing at the mobbed victor. He immediately regretted the gentle jibe. There was no way that Khungar, having just arrived recently, could have known what was going on. But the beastman didn’t seem to notice, and moved on.
The grin remained on his face at Khungar’s next query. The timing of the question couldn’t have been better; it was one less person that Atzar had to find for a teammate. And the brutish-looking man definitely looked capable of taking care of himself in the fight.
“I’m glad you’re asking. I came in just a few minutes ago to sign up, but I don’t have a team yet.” The grin dropped from his face, and he adopted a more serious tone. “Do you have a team? Want to join me?” It was true that he didn’t know Khungar. He didn’t have any idea of his capabilities, other than the obvious stereotype. But then, Atzar reminded himself, he’s in the same position. We’re both taking leaps of faith here.
The crowd around him started to disperse. Some approached the desk with the apparent intent to signup. Others turned towards the door to leave. Other still had yet to have their appetites sated of games, and approached the other fights. Atzar stood still. Perhaps he would get lucky, and another would approach him with a proposition of alliance.
It seemed as if his work was doing itself for him.
What a grand building. I wonder how much time they spent on this place.
Rylius stood outside what he dubbed the 'Rec Hall' in the mountain village of Tel'Han. Inside, he was sure crowds were watching as people beat each other up in a surreal environment for fun. Given he was never really one to start a fight anyways, he usually stayed away from the game, and preferred to occupy his time making someone's staff glow blue when they weren't looking. But today was different, he had told himself. He saw the tournament signups, and was just as surprised as everyone else. Teams were a relatively new thing. An apprentice enchanter himself, Rylius couldn't even imagine the magic that goes into making a table for eight people at once. Certainly well beyond his abilities.
He entered the bustling hall and walked to the center of the room, where the signups probably were. Seeing Elara at the table, he walked up to her, smiling, and leaned on the table. She looked back up at him, with her usual smile covering her face. Rylius was never sure if it was real or if she was just being polite.
"I never expected to see you here. I thought you avoided Charms." Elara spoke first, smirking at him. She had been teaching Rylius simple healing spells, though it was rather slow going. He wondered why nobody else thought of trying that, just to get one of the few pretty girls in the village to notice them, but then it was his sister's idea anyways. Especially since had it been his idea, she never would've agreed.
"I guess team play sounds more interesting to me." He smirked back at her. Of all the people in the village, he thought she was one of the different ones, the people who didn't seem to belong. But then again, he didn't know her very well anyways, and it may have been wishful thinking. "Are there any teams that I can join? Or something?"
She sighed heavily, but still maintained a polite tone. "We aren't here to make the teams. You're supposed to do that yourself." She sighed again and looked up at Rylius. "Go ask Atzar, he was looking to find a team too. Maybe he'll be desperate enough to take you in." She pointed at a tall man, around Rylius's age, and with long black hair. Rylius thanked her, then walked off to the man she pointed him to, as the crowd erupted in glorious cheering at the victor of one of the matches.
Atzar was talking to Khungar, the strange beast that had been in the village for a while now. Rylius didn't know much about him, but the beast usually kept to himself anyways. He watched them for a moment as the crowd pushed its way around him. He took a deep breath and approached the two. "Excuse me... Elara says you're looking for teammates. You don't have four yet, do you?" He fidgeted a little as he spoke. This was entirely new to him, and he still wasn't sure how he'd handle the intensity of a fight, even if it was completely safe.
But he'd just have to see.
Serus Tarsin
10-25-06, 05:46 PM
Serus strolled casually into the hall, paying little attention to the bustling crowds. He was only interested in joining the tournament. A small desk near the center of the commotion caught his attention. This had to be the registration area. Making his way towards the table, he stopped as a fair number of people were turned away for not yet having a team.
Just great. I thought they'd be matching me up with people. He stared up at the chandeliers and grimaced. If he couldn't find some teammates then he couldn't play. A sudden out roar of cheering caught him by surprise. He swung around to see a mage being swept up by a group of rambunctious spectators. It was nice to see that others were having a good time at least. One member of the audience stood out, however. Even though a name escaped him, Serus recognized him instantly. He had seen the mage play Charms before. He chuckled as he remembered Brugo getting buried by a giant avalanche.
I'd love to be on a team with him. As he contemplated this, a large figure approached the mage. This newcomer was only about inch taller than Serus, but was definitely much more muscular. Serus immediately noticed that his body was covered with fur. Khungar. He had seen this beast-man before, but they'd never been formally introduced. The two conversed about the recent match while seeming to stay separated from the crowd. Could this mean they were trying to form a team? As if to answer his question, another person walked in front of him towards the mage and Khungar. This initially caught Serus by surprise. The man must have blended in with the crowd by the registering table, so Serus was unaware of his presence. After a few seconds, he recognized the figure to be Rylius. They had never really formally spoken, but Serus knew who he was well enough. He had seen him multiple times in passing. Rylius started talking to the mage as well. It appeared that they were indeed forming a team.
I'd better get over there before they complete a team. Serus jogged over to the small group, hoping they were still looking for another ally. He stopped about an inch behind the mage, wasting no time in getting to the point.
"I see you're trying to make a team," he stated, wearing a toothy grin. "If you're still looking for another member, I'd be more than glad to join."
Indeed, his work was doing itself for him.
Only about fifteen minutes before, he had walked into the game hall with the intention of joining. After his conversation with Elara, he believed that he was going to have a hell of a search ahead of him. But instead, it appeared as if his team had formed around him.
Khungar the beastman was somewhat of a mystery. Atzar really had no idea of the man’s capabilities.
Rylius… Atzar had always liked Rylius. He was a trickster, but his jokes were always amusing and never really harmful. Aside from the little pranks, however, he only knew Rylius to be studying with Elara on the side. Any skill with healing that he might have had, however, was unknown to the mage.
Serus had always seemed a little creepy to Atzar. He had never had the opportunity to talk to him and get to know him, but those brilliant red eyes were more than a little unsettling. The mage had heard from somebody that he was a shapeshifter, but Atzar couldn’t fathom his skill level with that art.
His brief appraisal of his newly-formed team told him one thing – they needed to learn a little about each other. The team would stand no chance if they went into the first match with no coordination.
To that end, he spoke. “Alright, we have our team now. Let’s go sign up, but then we need to get to know each other a little. I have no idea what any of you are capable of, and in a team that’s a problem.” With that, he led them over to the registration table, where Elara still sat with that unwavering smile still pasted on her face.
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There seemed to be nobody around. Now was his chance.
A figure approached the door of the game hall to read the message. Fully-clothed in black with a hood that completely concealed his face, the man’s intentions were obviously not friendly. Upon reaching the door, he tore the sign from the door and read it.
Perfect. He needed to get this to his master, and he needed to do it now.
On the other side of the door, however, the noise grew louder. People were about to leave, they were approaching the door now.
And here he was, standing in the middle of the path like a dolt. He cursed his lack of intelligence under his breath.
The door opened, and a group of people left. It had to be one of the oddest assortments he had ever seen. A beastman with freaky gold eyes, a human with freaky blue eyes, a human with freaky red eyes, and a human with… well, actually the last one seemed fairly normal. But there was no time to stop and chat.
Had Atzar or any of his newfound friends looked carefully, they would have seen footprints leading away from the path without benefit of feet to make them. The hooded wraith had vanished.
He had to get the note to his leader. This was too perfect to miss.
The day had come.
Atzar and his group approached the door of the game hall, paying no real attention to the light snow that the leaden sky was sending them. The mage, butterflies fluttering in his stomach, glanced at his companions one last time.
They didn’t really complement each other very well. Atzar was a spellcaster. He had no abilities, other than the manipulation of the elements around him. Khungar’s ability to create small amounts of fire would mesh well with his ability to control it. Other than that, Khungar could warp his body to give him extra… beast-features. Also, he could call the spirits of beasts from another plane to attack. Serus, the red-eyed shapeshifter, could currently turn into a jackal for a short period of time.
Those last two thoughts clicked, and he looked sharply at Khungar and Serus. Perhaps there was some way they could use those abilities in tandem.
But that left Rylius, the trickster-turned-healer. He also had the ability to enchant objects, but weapons were forbidden. So I’ll be doing the heavy hitting, Atzar thought reluctantly. Serus’s jackal wasn’t powerful enough to do anything but attack from the shadows. Rylius’s only use would be for healing. And Khungar… actually, he wasn’t really sure what Khungar was capable of in battle.
The group reached the door, and Atzar pushed the door open. Immediately, his jaw dropped.
The room had completely transformed. Gone were the eight game tables around the edges of the room. Gone was the dingy wooden desk in the center of the room. Gone, inexplicably, were the pillars that were placed at intervals to hold the ceiling up.
In their place, bleachers formed an amphitheater around the center of the room, easily providing enough seats to satisfy Tel’Han’s small population. In the center of the room was a massive Charms table, and the arena looked like nothing Atzar had ever seen before. A large number of small rocks hovered in the air, bouncing off of each other and floating in a display of gravity defiance. Below the rock field was… nothing. It appeared as if there was just a void below the battleground.
Atzar looked speechlessly back at his friends, and then motioned to the seats. They would watch until their match. He climbed the seats until he reached an unpopulated section and sat down.
The action started right away.
“Ladies and gentlemen, mages of all ages,” an unidentifiable voice proclaimed, “I give you our first match. I introduce our first competitors. Marlin, Dei, Garrett and Brugo. Fighting them will be…” the voice paused, and was filled with wonder at the next line. “I have the honor of presenting Tel’Han’s council!”
The crowd went silent, and all eyes turned to the entrance of the hall. Four figures floated in, all wearing robes of the same style.
The first was Galla, wearing a brown robe. He specialized in Earth magic, and his skills in defensive combat were second to none. He was a small elderly man with a long beard, and he bore a serene aura around him.
Next came Bast, adorned in red. Fire and offensive magic was his strength. He was a bigger man with a short, iron-gray beard, and a temper to match his element. As much as Bast and Galla differed in personality, they supported each other almost flawlessly in a fight.
Third was Ruri, in blue. She was the only female on the council, and her skill came in the shape of water and healing. She could mend broken bones with ease, and it was believed that she could even mend severed limbs. Small and thin, her cheerful presence was nonetheless always felt.
Last was Keyei, the enigmatic wizard dressed in white. He had come to Tel’Han about five years ago, and even then he was stronger than most in the village. Only around thirty years old, the deep scar across his left cheek gave him a frightening appearance. His command of Wind magic was unparalleled, and he could fly. In addition, he had amazing physical skills. He was incredibly fast and agile, and his skill with a sword of wind was unbelievable. Although it was unconfirmed, Atzar had heard rumors that he had recently fought all three of the other elders and won. Keyei’s personality was largely unknown, because he never talked unless it was absolutely necessary.
Atzar looked across to the table, where the other team had assembled. He was pleased to note the look of absolute terror on Brugo’s normally-arrogant face.
This would be a massacre.
Each of the fighters took his place and grasped the metal handles of the table.
The fight was on.
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“Alright, I think we’re done here,” the robed and hooded figure announced to his associate. “Let’s head back and report to Master.”
“We don’t want to do these other tables, too? Why stop here?” the other hooded figure argued. His comment received a smack to the head from the first man.
“Idiot!” he snarled. “When they see what happens with this one, they’ll end the tournament! They’ll never use the other tables, so let’s get the hell out of here before we’re caught!”
“Alright, alright, I’m coming. You know what Master said about hitting me,” the second man whined in a childish voice.
“Keep it up,” the first growled, “and I’ll bury you. Master will never even notice.”
The second nodded sulkily and kept his silence. Both figures vanished and departed silently under a clearing sky. The snow had finally stopped, and unbeknownst to either of them, two trails of footprints followed them in the fresh snow.
Truly, it was a massacre.
As soon as the miniature figures arrived on one of the largest rocks, the elders split up. Ruri headed to the left, jumping from rock to rock as small gaps became available. Galla headed to the right with the same tactics, and Bast went straight up the middle. Keyei, however, dived off of the rock and plummeted a long way before pulling up and hovering far below the arena, drawing a gasp of amazement and applause from the stunned crowd.
Bast was the first to make contact with the other team. Brugo threw a ball of fire at him, but it was like throwing a candle at the sun. Bast sneered and held his hand out, and the ball of flame topped in midair. Suddenly, it flared to many times its size and returned to its original owner. It was so big that Brugo had nowhere to go. The ball of fire was easily as big as the rock that he was standing on. With no other choice, the terrified fire mage jumped from the rock in a futile attempt to reach a neighboring stone.
No such luck. Brugo’s hands scraped the side of the floating rock before he plummeted into the nothingness below.
One down.
Ruri was next. She stood calmly on one of the larger rocks, staring her foe down. The doomed man created a dagger of ice and attempted to jump to the rock that she was standing on.
Only now did she move. Extending both arms, two sizable balls of water instantly appeared and rocketed at the legs of her prey with amazing speed and accuracy. The stricken fighter flipped in the air from the force of the blows before falling between the rocks to meet the same fate as Brugo.
Galla fought the third man. His adversary threw a ball of fire at him and began charging another in his palms. Suddenly, one of the other rocks in the arena moved into the path of the fireball. The flame harmlessly extinguished itself on the unmoving rock. Then, the large boulder moved slowly, inexorably, at the man.
His foe, surprisingly, did not give up. Instead of being pushed into the yawning abyss, he scrambled to the top of Galla’s rock in an attempt to save himself. There he rested, panting from the large effort. Unfortunately, Galla caused the boulder to flip over, depositing its burden into the void.
The last fighter had not moved. He merely stood, watching the unmitigated rout around him. The fear was evident on his four-inch frame even to the crowd. All three of the elders approached him. The fighter, his face snow-white, faced them and prepared for the inevitable.
Keyei rose silently behind him from the chasm.
The crowd began to laugh. Everybody knew what came next.
Keyei didn’t even use any more magic. He merely reached out, took hold of the mage’s hood, and pulled him from the rock.
The battle was over.
It hadn’t even lasted five minutes.
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“Tel’Han, your victors!” the voice announced as the entranced figures came back to life at the conclusion of the match. The fighters, both victors and vanquished, took seats in the lower levels of the audience.
“I present to you, your next arena!” sounded the voice again. The rocks and the void suddenly vanished as an unknown mage warped the arena out of the hall. Shortly after, the second arena took its place. This Charms field was incredible. Where the first had been simple and devoid of detail, this was the complete opposite.
Ruins. The ground was littered with the crumbling architectural remains of an ancient city. The pillars and stonework were weathered and infested with lichens that ate at their structure like parasites.
The center of the stage, however, was still intact. It was a pyramid, steps leading up all four sides to a plateau at the top. On that plateau was a circle of lit torches, as if some invisible inhabitants were holding an eternal ceremony. For some unknown reason, there was a sinister air about this table, as if this temple was used for dark rituals.
“Introducing the players in our second match! I give you Ladrice, Bryce, Zain and Turo!”
Inexplicably, Atzar felt a twinge in his insides. He knew who was next.
“Their opponents will be Khungar, Atzar, Rylius and Serus! Please report to the floor!”
The mage no longer felt any emotion. Numbly, he stood up and walked down to the table from his seat in the bleachers. He took his place in front of the enchanted metal handles. He looked at each of his teammates in turn. Khungar, Serus, and Rylius.
This was it.
Yes, I'm finally done... I'm sure everybody's tired of my voice by now ;)
Khungar
10-26-06, 07:24 PM
The sound of his own name echoing through the big room seemed to reverberate all the more between the beast's ears. Khungar. A swirl of embarressment, fear, and excitement blossomed within his soul, and he rose with the rest of his team. He tried not to let his self-consciousness show, but his movements were timid, and he kept his head down as he fell in line behind Atzar. He pretended he was looking at the stairs. Actually, he was looking at the stairs, but he made sure his wild eyes didn't stray to look elsewhere. He didn't even notice the other team. He merely stared at the steps and followed the figure before him. The sounds of the cheering crowd heralded his approach, but he tried to pay as little attention to it as possible.
You know, maybe this wasn't the best idea. Everyone's going to be watching me. I'll be right there for them all to see. What if these guys are as good as the masters? They don't even have to be; they just have to be better than me. What have I gotten myself into...
Instead of facing the opposing team, Khungar made an effort to focus solely on the battlefield laid out before him. Atzar had told him prior to the match the basics of Charms, and it definitely seemed like fun. However, the beast was still nervous about working under the watchful eyes of practically in Tel'Han. The tables before were so much smaller...I thought we were gonna play on those. This thing's huge! And everyone's watching...But I've got a team. It took most of his will power just to reach out for those two, metal handles. His hands hung over them for a long moment.
No backing out now.
He closed his eyes and his hands and his mind to the crowd. And when he opened everything up again, he was in a completely different place.
The thing he noticed first was the cold. This place held no warmth compared to the cozy atmosphere of the grand building in Tel'Han. It was comfortable enough for the shaggy-haired, wool-coat-wearing beast, but the sudden drop in temperature was immediately noticed. The next thing he noticed was the smell. It was a lot damper here, and the moist air slowly floated into his snout, filling it with a strange odor. He sniffed it and blew it back out in a thin white cloud projected directly away form his face, the narrow cone fading away into nothingness. The last thing he noticed was the scenery.
Any sort of grandeur of the great hall in Tel'Han was gone. It seemed as though Khungar had been frozen in time for hundreds of years and the little community had been reduced to mere ruins. Moss clung to surfaces, stones poked out of what used to be walls and the streets, and the sun had vanished. From where Khungar stood he could see only ruined buildings and other structures. Statues rotted in a courtyard to his left, and he remembered the towering pyramid in the middle of the table. He had no view of it from here, though. He didn't even know where he had come down.
He took a look around, but saw only the ruins of the arena; no one else on his team had apparently grabbed the handles. A strange thought occured to him and he raised his large head to look up to the sky. Instead of clouds and a sun he saw eight towering figures on the very edge of his vision. They looked incredibly far away, and incredibly familiar. They were the contenders. Khungar could see Rylius just approaching the table. Serus was moving his massive head to take in the battlefield, and Khungar just caught view of Atzar suddenly enter some type of trance. And there was the mighty Beastman himself. He looked rather peaceful. But Khungar's view was immediately caught by something in the background. Dozens of faces, farther away than his own, were peering down on him. He snorted in surprise and ripped his head back down so he could only see the world he was in. He was nervous about the battle enough; he didn't need to think about everyone watching.
Since his team hadn't shown up yet, Khungar decided to set up camp and wait for them. His hooves clomped on the jagged cobblestones as he walked over to stand next to a crumbling wall. He put his back to it and leaned around the corner, looking for the opposition. As expected, he only saw the damp ruins of the arena. Maybe the others will remember where the pyramid. I suppose that's as good a place to go fight as any. The large figure stood there behind the wall, waiting for his team and feeling more than a little nervous deep down in the pit of his stomach.
Here goes nothing...
As the young human took a deep breath and grabbed the handles, the whole hall seemed to blur away. Soon it was replaced by... ruins? Of course, he was in the Charms arena now. After the initial shock wore off, he shivered, and cursed out loud. "Dammit! The least they could do is heat this place!" He frowned and looked around. No sign of the other team members, but he could see the giant pyramid looming in the distance.
This isn't good. I have no idea what I'm doing. Where are they, anyways? I thought these things dumped us in the same place. Rylius took stock of his surroundings. A cobblestone path led into the ruined structures. The path itself looked like it hadn't been used in years. The edges were all jagged and weeds had taken hold in the cracks. Suddenly, Rylius sneezed.
"Mold!" There was mold everywhere, he finally realized, and he cursed once again. What a miserable place to fight. You'd think they'd do something like a gigantic tree, or a volcano. He sighed and started walking towards the pyramid, along the path.
In only a few moments, there he was in another pack of structures. He looked for the pyramid, but this was a valley, and the path had curved in such a way that he couldn't see the giant structure at all. His thoughts wandered for a moment... This would be a lot easier if I was telepathic. We could talk to each other. Great, I hope they're not telepathic. Hmm... I wonder how hard it would be to learn that? I could put thoughts into people's heads, and it would be fun. He snickered to himself as he tripped over a rotting statue.
"AGH!" The clumsy human muttered something under his breath again, but lay still on the ground. He thought he heard something else... like a beast's breath. He looked up and saw Khungar flattened against a crumbling wall by the further ruined cobblestone path. The air suddenly seemed even colder, and Rylius could see his breath as he shouted out to his team member.
"Hey! Hey! There you are!" He scampered over and flattened himself against the wall next to Khungar, not caring - or rather, noticing - that if anyone was looking for him, they'd hear him. "Is anyone else here yet? I thought they'd be right behind me. It's weird though, we should've popped in right next to each other." He glanced over his shoulder at the rest of the ruins. "They should be here any moment..."
Might as well stay here until they show up. It's not like the other team is going to pop out of nowhere.
So he waited, getting even more nervous by the second.
Serus Tarsin
10-27-06, 07:35 PM
Serus studied the vast table in front of him, surveying the complex landscape. It was almost breath taking. He had played Charms before, but had never seen anything like the tables used so far in this tournament.
Amazing. First floating rocks, and now this. I wonder what other surprises they have in store. The playing ground was quite diverse, and played to many different types of combat. The massive pyramid would probably force full out confrontations, but the torches and incline could easily give a fighter the upper hand. The ruins were complex, with many possible hiding areas littered randomly about. This was an area perfect for guerilla warfare. Looking around at his teammates, he saw that Khungar and Rylius were already in play. Serus stared down at his own handles and exhaled.
Game time. The shape-shifter grabbed the handles, and closed his eyes without hesitation. When he opened them, the cold was immediately obvious. Grinning ear to ear, Serus rubbed his hands together for a few seconds as he adjusted to the quick change in climate. He breathed deep and exhaled, easily amused by the presence of his own breath. He preferred to fight in colder weather. It helped keep him awake and alert. Then came the smell. Serus choked on the air as the pungent odor filled his lungs. The rotting ruins didn't just look decayed, but they smelled so too. Shaking his head to take his focus from the stench, he began scanning for the others. He immediately noticed that the ruins were a lot more intricate than from above. Fallen statues blocked a fair number of paths, and large chunks of crumbling walls dotted the scene. The top of the pyramid was visible in the distance.
Serus suddenly noticed Rylius in the distance. He was up against a wall next to Khungar. He sprinted over to them, climbing and jumping over rocks and downed architecture. As he reached the chunk of ruin they were settled against, the shape-shifter lost his footing on a patch of moss on top of a currently horizontal pillar. He launched about half a foot in the air, falling to the ground on his behind. He stood up and chuckled audibly.
"That was fun," Serus joked, brushing himself off. The shape-shifter glanced behind him for any sight of Atzar. Once the mage joined them, they could really get started.
Before grasping the handles, the mage turned to look up into the crowd. Directly in front of him, the council elders and their victims were seated. The elders seemed passive as always, but it looked to Atzar as if Brugo and his partners had seen a ghost. Beyond them, the faceless mass of people returned his gaze. He couldn’t make out their faces. He couldn’t tell one person from another. They just blended together in a mass of eyes and mouths, prepared to do what spectators do best: watch and yell as Atzar struggled for his life.
His attention snapped back to the field before him. All three of his partners had entered the game. Now it only waited for him. Enough stalling.
Atzar reached out and took hold of the handles, and goosebumps ran up his arms at the feel of the cold metal against his palms. Then, the familiar feeling ran through his body as he was pulled into the realm of Charms.
No. It didn’t feel like it always had in the past. There was… something different. Something… dark. As the world blurred momentarily around him and the ruins came back into focus on a much grander scale than before, only one thing was certain to Atzar: the stakes of this game were much greater than before. He didn’t know how he knew; he just did.
It was cold here. Atzar shivered as the frosty air hit him, and the goosebumps on his arms spread. And the air... it seemed different, too. On every other battle, the arena had its own temperature, but it always maintained that dry smell that inhabited the game hall. Here, however, the air felt… dank. It could have just been the decaying ruins around him and underneath his feet. It could have been the moss and lichens that clung to every crack in the rocks like a scabrous disease. But Atzar’s mind took it further. Instead of smelling merely of decay, to the now-scared mage it smelled of death and evil. The feeling of dread was growing in Atzar with every extra detail –
Why is the ground so far away?
The thought intruded itself forcefully into Atzar’s skull, and the world came back to him in such a rush that he almost toppled from his perch.
For that’s what it was: a perch. Atzar stood atop a crumbling wall that rose about ten feet off of the moist ground. He looked down, and saw with great relief that Khungar was standing directly below him, his horned head identifying him immediately. Then, the rest of his team arrived on the scene at the same time.
Atzar had never seen a more graceless arrival in his life. His eyes rested on Rylius, who seemed to be reveling in his own private world before falling flat on his face. Atzar, letting a sigh of disappointment escape his lips, averted his eyes just in time to see Serus as he slipped on some moss and landed unceremoniously on his back. The mage turned his eyes skyward, looking sightlessly at the shadows so far above him. Excellent, he thought hopelessly. This is my mighty team. So powerful they are, that their own energy knocks them from their feet.
He couldn’t help himself. The situation looked so hopeless that it was just funny. He burst into laughter as both Rylius and Serus caught sight of Khungar and dashed up to horned figure. As one, all three faces turned up to see him, crouched on the top of the wall above them, laughing.
He waved at them. “I’m up here,” he stated the obvious. He gingerly hung one leg from the wall before executing an awkward spin, falling from the wall and grabbing its rough edge in the same motion. He hung from the wall for a second, feeling somewhat proud of himself. Indeed, his descent looked somewhat impressive up until the rock under his hands gave way and pitched him from the wall. He fell the remaining five feet to the earth, landing on his back in the soft moss. The fall, luckily, had hurt nothing more than his pride.
Screw you, Karma, he thought bitterly. Getting to his feet and brushing his back off as well as he could, he looked at each of his friends in turn, a smile coming inexorably to his lips. All four of them burst into simultaneous laughter as the same thought occurred to them all: here they were in a serious battle, and they couldn’t even stay on their feet. Atzar idly wondered what the watching crowd thought of their pathetic antics.
“Alright,” the embarrassed mage said as an attempt to push the laughter to the back. “We need to be quiet.” He looked again at each of them, his demeanor now serious. “What should we do? Any ideas?” Atzar had a few of his own, but he wanted to see what his team could come up with before he talked. Perhaps they had something better. Their future in the tournament, after all, depended on their tactics.
Rylius suddenly jumped when he saw his other two teammates arrive. He had expected it, but he was still a little nervous. He took a deep breath as Atzar 'gracefully' descended from the wall and gathered his thoughts...
Come on, Ry, get it together. This isn't to the death anyways, it probably won't even hurt. He pinched his arm hard and yelped. Okay, then. It'll hurt. But there was that time I fell down and broke my leg, and the whole merchant wagon... I can take it. He laughed with everyone else, though at what he wasn't sure. Maybe I'm laughing in the face of fear. Ha ha. Funny!
He stood up as Atzar started to talk about tactics and peered into the ruins. It was a perfect place to set up an ambush, but then again, if both teams were waiting to ambush the other, they would have a very long match. I have to know what they're up to first. Then I can misdirect them. Chances are they won't have split up... so... The trickster started thinking out loud now. "We need to split them up."
Rylius turned around as his teammates stared up at him. "We're all good at something. You two..." He pointed at Khungar and Serus. "...are probably faster than us, right?" He nodded and started talking again without waiting for anyone to answer, seemingly in his own world now. "We can split them up if we don't attack head on. For now, though, we have to get to the pyramid before them. Come on!" He started walking blindly along the jagged cobblestone path, not knowing or caring what was in the crumbling structures around him.
He got maybe fifteen feet before he turned around and saw his other three teammates kind of looking at him strangely and not moving. For the love of all that sparkles- "What are you doing?!" He stared back at his immobile teammates. "They're on the other side of the table." The human sighed and returned to his group, then kneeled down on the ground and sketched a very crude drawing of the table as he had seen it from his real body.
"Here we are, in a small valley. It's blocking out view of the pyramid for the moment, but it's along this path..." He scratched a line from the little circles which were probably supposed to indicate his team to the triangle he had drawn. "...to the pyramid. We'll go to the pyramid first. I'll explain on the way." He got up and started walking along the path. This time, the team followed.
As they walked along the path, Rylius continued talking, not really caring if anyone was listening or not. "Teamwork is important here, so anything you all have to add is very important." He stopped for a moment, smiling weakly as he let Khungar lead the group in a loose formation. "When I'm done, say whatever you can do to help this succeed. If we can at least win this round, I'll be happy." He paused for a moment, and all he could hear was their footsteps. "Alright. So we'll go to the pyramid. I'm guessing they're going to be doing the same. What we really need most of all is distractions, and lots of them. Confuse them, then we can take them down."
Rylius stopped speaking again for a moment. He was laughing in his mind. Before he grabbed those handles, he assumed Atzar would lead the group, since he had the most Charms experience. Plus, the only thing he was basing his strategy on was a book he had read, probably by an author who knew nothing of real battles. In it, the three protagonists confronted their three nemeses in a series of caves. They managed to beat them, despite being sorely outmatched, by creating the illusion of having split up. The antagonists really did split up, and the three of them picked their enemies off one by one.
But that was just a story. Fiction. This wasn't, and the young human knew it. What was I thinking? I should never have signed up...
Rylius stopped walking as the pyramid returned to view, not very far away, and took a deep breath. "Is any of what I'm saying making any sense? I mean, you all know what you're doing a lot better than me." He smiled tensely as his teammates looked back at him.
This is going to hurt. A lot.
Khungar
11-02-06, 03:24 PM
Everyone was falling down.
Now, Khungar was not one to judge others. And he realized that this was a strange new environment and a bizarre set of circumstances. He fully understood the fact that their bodies and minds might feel a bit of a disconnect since being magically shrunk and dumped on a table. But he couldn't help but worry over the agility (or apparent lack-there-of) displayed by his team. He had watched them, one by one, show up in the same general area as he, and proceed to fall down.
He didn't show his thoughts though. In fact, even though they were on his team, Khungar still didn't know these people, and felt somewhat uncomfortable, moreso than a regular person who had been enchanted to fight a small-scale battle on a table in front of the vast majority of an entire village. He looked at each team member as they appeared without sound, then nervously looked away behind the wall again, pretending to be scouting for the enemy. He wasn't sure what to think.
I better get over this. Yeah, everyone's watching, but that just means that this is my chance. I can show your team, I can show the whole of Tel'Han, my abilities. And I might even walk away with a few friends.
If I don't mess this whole thing up, of course.
It was with mixed emotions that the Beastman turned back to listen to the plan of Rylius (whose name he was proud to remember.) The beast led the group down a cobbled street lined with decrepid buildings and listened as the man's plan broke the eerie silence of the battlefield. Khungar's hooves, too, disturbed the stillness, which was something he didn't like but couldn't help. Rylius' voice drifted up to him, and he listened while peering about the post-apocalyptic arena for any signs of their enemy. Ideally, they'd know about the enemy before the enemy knew about them, but with Khungar's clomping hooves and Rylius' none-too-quiet voice, their situation was far from ideal.
Tired of his own footsteps, Khungar stopped and turned to face the group. It was time to suck it up and work with his team. He didn't need to try and be their best friends, or make them like him, which gave him confidence. He just needed to try and win the fight.
"That sounds ok to me, except for one thing. About the distractions? I say, we let our distractions do our attacking. For example; I could run about to one side, while (he motioned to Serus) Serus runs to the other. If we flit in and out their view, they'll be confused. Then you and Atzar can attack them, which will draw their attention from me and Serus, who will by that time be amongst them." Something occured to him. "Unless they are split up very far. Then, I don't know..." He hadn't thought that far ahead, and he lowered his head, looking as though he were thinking of a plan.
He was thinking, though not necessarily of a plan. Good. Now they think I'm stupid. That's what I get for trying to help. Might as well throw myself at the enemy now. It's all I'm good for, it seems...
The group spontaneously moved out together, picking their way around fallen stonework in the general direction of the pyramid. A large wall completely blocked their view to the left. Atzar winced slightly at the noise they made; they were most likely moving in the direction of the enemy, and Rylius’s voice carried. With the bad light and large ruins inhibiting the vision, hearing would likely be the sense to rely on until they engaged their adversaries. A quick glance at Khungar’s brutish face told him that the beastman shared his sentiments.
Between them, however, Rylius and Khungar were coming up with a decent strategy. The beastman, in spite of his exterior, appeared to have a fair mind for tactics.
“That sounds like it could work, actually,” Atzar supported him. “Actually, it could work even better if they were split up. One of them alone probably isn’t going to give all four of us a problem. And if he does… then we don’t stand a chance here anyway.” As soon as it was out of his mouth, Atzar regretted blurting that last sentence out. Here they all were, in the first round of the tournament, with no real experience and nervous as hell. Yet there the stupid mage went, blowing his mouth off about a possibility that would best be forgotten at that point. His head lowered to join Khungar’s in embarrassment, his gaze following the cracked cobblestones underneath their feet. They needed to think about how to win, not how to lose.
More to try to cover his blunder than to really add anything, Atzar’s head came back up. “I have something to add, though.” He looked at Serus. “You can morph, right? Into a jackal?” Not waiting for the obvious affirmation, he went on. “Why don’t you morph right now and scout for us? As an animal, you’ll have a much higher ability than any of us to avoid detection. Then, if you find them and all goes well, you can come back and then we can try out Khungar’s plan.” This time, he didn’t raise the possibility that Serus might be caught. He wasn’t dumb enough to blunder twice in the same manner.
Atzar felt bad, however, for putting so much responsibility squarely on the shapeshifter’s shoulders. He hadn’t thought about what he was throwing at the kid; he just wanted to try to cover up his mistake. Once again, his eyes fell to meet the pavement underneath him. He never was good with words; stuff always seemed to come out in a way that he didn’t intend.
Apparently he was dumb enough to blunder twice in the same manner.
The tall, mossy stone wall to their left came to an abrupt end, and the pyramid erupted just as abruptly into their view. Atzar stopped and stared at the spectacle.
At his normal size, the miniature altar had been impressive. Now, however, it was astonishing. He judged there to be over a hundred steps leading to the summit of the structure, and in the poor lighting he could see the red glow emanating from the fires at the top. Atzar and his team stood only a few hundred feet from the base of this monolithic giant, various pieces of fallen stonework littering their path to the stairs.
It was only a matter of time now.
Serus Tarsin
11-03-06, 10:31 PM
Serus strolled along the path with his team mates, listening intently to the strategy in progress. He was amazed at how quickly Rylius and Khungar had begun formulating a battle plan. But what exactly could he do to help? He only knew a bit of hand to hand combat techniques, and his jackal form wasn't as strong as it could be yet.
Oh man. I'm beggining to think signing up for this contest was a bad idea. He muttered under his breath at his own hastiness.
Wait a second! He suddenly realized what he could do to assist in getting things rolling. Sure, the jackal wasn't the toughest thing ever, but it was fairly quick and nimble. That speed would be perfect for reconnaissance on the opposing position. Just as Serus was about to say something about it though, Atzar butted in to suggest he scout ahead in morph. The shape-shifter couldn't help but smile in response.
"I was actually just about to suggest that same thing," he chuckled. "Well be able to plan better if we know where they are." He shook his head while letting out a little snicker. Why hadn't he thought of that before? The shape-shifter halted in his tracks, and clapped his hands together with his index and middle fingers still pointed out on both hands. To a bystander, he might have appeared to be praying. Serus closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
"Let's do this." He exhaled and concentrated on his jackal form. The shape shift commenced within seconds. He could feel his bones starting to shift as his body began to change. A few joints popped loudly, echoing ten fold in his skull. Shaking his head to get rid of the resulting ringing in his ears, he concentrated slightly harder on the morph. Serus dropped to all fours as his arms turned into legs, and his feet and hands quickly transformed into paws. The shape-shifter's mouth extended outwards into a long snout, as his nose turned black and wet. While his ears shifted to near the top of his forehead while growing upwards, a long tail forced itself from his lower back. Fur sprouted across his body to complete the transition. Serus opened his eyes, which still kept their eerie red glow.
The smell of the mold and moss of the rotting ruins was suddenly massively intensified in the jackal's nose. The stench was now so awful, that he couldn't help but gag on the rancid air. After a brief snort of disgust, he looked up towards Atzar, forcing as best he could an attempted canine smile. Not wanting to give their foes any more time to discover their location, he instantly sprinted towards the pyramid to search for them. The foursome needed to keep organized. They had probably already lost precious time laughing at each other. For all he knew, the enemy could be laying in wait at the huge structure, hoping to ambush them. He banished the thought from his mind as he reached the bottom of the pyramid. Serus turned slightly, and began running diagonally up the face. If it was a trap, he might be able to avoid it by moving side to side on his way to scout. However, it was strangely quiet as he ascended. It reminded him of the ghostly calm before a great storm.
I've got a bad feeling about this.
Serus could say that he agreed with Atzar’s plan.
The mage didn’t believe him.
All manner of misgivings flooded his mind as he watched the man’s rather gruesome metamorphosis. New form completed, Serus immediately retched as his heightened senses reanalyzed the environment around him. Then, the jackal glared with fearsome eyes up at Atzar and bared his teeth.
Yeah, the mage thought glumly, he hates me.
Without waiting for further words or actions, the animal took off, quickly covering the ground to the pyramid and scrabbling up the stone steps towards the top.
Atzar’s attention shifted back to Rylius and Khungar. “I guess we wait,” he mused out loud. He didn’t really expect an answer; they weren’t going to run off and leave Serus to fend for himself, and they all knew that. Atzar already felt bad enough about what the jackal had to do. There was no need to make it even worse.
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Ladrice wasn’t afraid.
In reality, she had never seen her opponents in action, with the sole exception of Atzar. She did see his fight with Brugo. She was fairly impressed with his tactics; she wasn’t impressed at all with his abilities. It was a cheap shot, and in the end Atzar’s victory was due not to his own skill but to Brugo’s stupidity and arrogance.
Step, step, step, step… Her tiring journey to the top of the manmade mountain continued. Her breath was visible in the cold air as she neared the top of the mountain.
Step, step, step… Only about ten steps left now. She stopped for a moment and looked back down at the dark landscape below. Initially, she only saw the far away jumble of ruined stonework. This, however, was no problem. She smiled, proud of her ability as her vision adjusted and zoomed in on the ruins as if she had held an invisible telescope to her eyes. There. Zain was crouched at the side of a wall as promised, keeping an eye out for their adversaries. The other two would be somewhere nearby, waiting for her signal.
She turned to ascend the remaining steps, but hesitated. It wouldn’t do if her foe looked up and happened to see her figure outlined against the distant walls of the game hall. Instead, she remained where she was, close enough to hear the snap and crackle of the torches just above her but not so close that her head was above the surface of the summit.
Yes, she was perfectly fine where she was. She sat on the cold stone steps and began her job, her magic aiding her as she scanned the cluttered arena below like a hawk.
A hawk, looking for its prey.
Serus Tarsin
11-08-06, 12:36 AM
Serus panted lightly as he scaled the massive pyramid. The enormous structure was much larger than it had appeared even from the ground. How much further was the top? It seemed like he'd been running forever. Looking upwards, the shape-shifter saw the summit of the complex less than twenty feet away.
At last! After trekking up the pyramid's steep incline, he'd finally reached his destination. He slid to a halt about four steps from the edge. No use in popping right up into an enemy's view. Especially if it just happened to be the entire opposing team. Still, something about the whole situation formed a lump in his gut. How had none of them even caught a glimpse of their foes so far? As Serus poked his head over the end of the pyramid, he got his answer. Sitting less than ten feet from him was Ladrice. He instinctively ducked back behind the small amount of cover to be found. Had she noticed him?
Just great. Now what do I do? If he fought her, it would only be one on one. Although, he'd never seen her skills or abilities before, and that lack of information could prove lethal for his miniature form. Yes, it seemed that his best choice was to relay this information to his team mates. However, his front right foot seemed to pull itself forwards.
Fresh blood. His heart beat unnaturally loud in unison with the sudden thirst. What was this bizarre feeling? Could the beast's instincts be influencing him? Serus leaned forwards against the top of the pyramid.
Stalk!
No! I must complete my task!
Stalk!!
My team is counting on me!
Hunt!! KILL!!!
I am the one in control!!! Serus mentally screamed until he had a small headache. After a few seconds of quiet, it appeared he'd suppressed the jackal. For now at least. He'd never been in that kind of situation before. Apparently he didn't have as much control over the animal as he thought he did. There was no time to worry about that now though. The shape-shifter moved his back left foot to turn, but slipped on the ledge. A loose chunk of stone flew off in reaction, and tumbled loudly down the slope. First his sloppy entrance, and now this. It seemed that grace and luck weren't on his side today.
Serus spun completely around, and broke into a full fledged sprint. He had to make it back to the others before the opposing team found him out. His descent speed became so great that he almost fell flat on his face when he hit the dirt at the bottom. He continued his full out run, and lept in between the rest of his team. Without a moments hesitation, he began the transition back to his normal body. The fur pulled itself back into his skin, forcing him to wince. He'd never gotten used to that sensation. It felt like someone was pulling every single hair on his body simultaneously. The tail shrank back into his torso, as his mouth and ears morphed back to their respective normal form. The claws on his front paws extended into fingers while his feet elongated. Serus gritted his teeth as his bones shifted back to normal to complete the shape shift. He coughed a couple of times, and stood up straight.
"Looks like we got here faster than expected," he explained. "One of our foes, Ladrice, is less then a stone's throw from the top. She's sitting just on the other side. It appears both teams got here at about the same time, so I suggest we get to work before they find us out."
Boredom…
When she had made the offer, Ladrice hadn’t realized how tedious it would actually be. Her amplified sight was an extremely useful ability, to be sure, but so far she had spent nearly fifteen minutes at her post without seeing a thing out of place. She decided that it was probably time to go to another side of the pyramid. It wasn’t likely, after all, that her enemies would be placed that close to her own team when the match started.
Yes. She would move to the next side to see if her luck was any greater.
Clack, clack, clack… Came the noise as something dislodged a stone from the crumbling pyramid.
Just as Ladrice had prepared to move, she froze in her tracks. A chill ran down her spine. Had she been seen?
If she had, then it wouldn’t matter now. She ascended the last ten steps to the summit of the pyramid and stopped again to listen. All she could hear was the sound of the blazing torches and… There! No… the sound was different this time. Instead of the noise of a rock falling to its doom, it sounded like… claws?
There were no animals on these Charms tables.
She ran to the opposite side of the pyramid, weaving between the crackling flames to the edge. Down there… something was moving. She stopped and focused her eyes on the target. It was some sort of dog. It had reached the bottom of the huge pyramid, and it was running straight to the rest of its team!
She could see them all from that height, trying to hide behind a wall. But her vantage point was too high, her eyes too good. She saw all of them: Khungar the beast, Atzar, Rylius, and the jackal which could only be Serus.
No time. She ran back to the side nearest her own team and selected a torch at random. Without stopping to think, she concentrated and forced her will upon the flame. It erupted away from the torch into the air above her enemies, a signal for own team. She didn’t stop to think that her prey might possibly see the signal, as well.
Khungar
11-08-06, 06:52 PM
Fwoosh!
A ball of fire rocketed from the apex of the pyramid and came to a rough halt above their heads. Khungar looked up to it and winced, expecting it to come crashing down. But the flame just hung there in the sky. The beastman's vision rocketed back to the top of the pyramid and he spotted a figure silhouetted against the false sky.
Now they know where we are.
Adrenaline burned inside him as the signal burned above, and his mind clicked over to a more primal state. A state of battle. His nervous tendencies were momentarily lost as he sprang into aciton, galvanized by danger.
He would work with the distraction thing. That's what his mind arrived at first. Reaching deep within himself, he harvested some of that battle energy. Slowly, he pulled on it, trying to tear off a small piece. His hands pressed close to his chest, and his eyes closed in concentration. Suddenly, he ripped his hands away from his furry torso and brought forth into existence a small fire that danced happily in his palms. He turned to Atzar, even as the flames burned in his hands.
"Use this. False signal."
But should they split up? Or charge forth together? Khungar didn't want to waste too much time. His beastman instincts told him to take the fight to the enemy. So he did.
"I'm going for the pyramid. Its ok if no one follows."
His words were short. He had no time for disrespect or questions. He merely stated what his plan was. And executed it.
As Atzar lifted the flames from Khungar's grasp, the beast turned and sprinted for that massive structure. His hooves clomped more loudly now, and more staccato. He raced down the cobbled street, his heavy coat bouncing on his shoulders. He slowed only marginally as he reached the first huge step. He turned horizontal into vertical and bounded from platform to platform, his body swaying left to right, right to left as he ascended.
He could feel it rising within him, but it was not yet time to let it out.
Something… was different.
Khungar handed the flame off to the mage and barreled down the stone-strewn street towards the pyramid. His teammate, however, was different. The way he talked, the way he acted… it seemed like there was a burning rage just underneath his skin, and it was fighting with everything it had to get out. The beast in him… it was trying to take over.
Atzar never wanted to be on the beastman’s bad side.
Holding the fireball between his palms, Atzar considered Khungar’s plan. He wanted him to make a decoy. But the other team was coming already, they would probably see him try to throw the second ball up. Besides; he wasn’t sure if he could hold it in the air for that amount of time. No. Better to hold on to it. He had another idea.
“Follow me,” Atzar said tersely to Rylius and Serus in a voice that brooked no disagreement. With that, he headed back the way they had come, picking his way over fallen stonework and being sure to keep his feet on firm ground. He had, after all, already seen the possible effects of slipping on a patch of moss.
Here. They were far enough now. Ducking behind a wall, he motioned for his two remaining teammates to follow his lead. He then began speaking in a low whisper, his fireball casting an eerie light on his features.
“Stealth," he said, his breath steaming in the air. "The other team will storm Ladrice’s fireball, but we won’t be there. We look for them, attack when nobody is looking our direction.” He looked at Serus. “Rylius and I are fine; we can attack from far away. Once they come into sight, try to circle around behind them. This can be over quickly if everything goes according to plan.”
With that, Atzar broke off. It seemed sound enough, and hopefully Khungar could keep Ladrice busy enough so that she didn’t just throw another flare in their direction. Atzar watched the minute figure of the beastman quickly scaling the slope. He didn’t like that matchup at all. Ladrice had every advantage; higher ground, and an apparent affinity for fire amongst a circle of torches. The mage could only hope that the beast could cope.
And he still couldn’t shake that cursed feeling that something was amiss.
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Just a step away from sheer panic, Ladrice wrung her hands as she watched the angry beast heading up the cracked stone in her direction. She hadn’t counted on being noticed; she had hoped that she could sit atop the pyramid, away from all danger, while her teammates did all of the dirty work. She had never been good at spars. She was too jumpy under pressure. She had no ability to stop and think when faced with the quick decisions that battles required.
Ok, focus, Ladrice… she said to herself, touching her fingertips to her temples in an effort to calm down. She had the upper hand. Khungar would be fighting uphill, and she could use the fire around her as a weapon. The flares, after all, were useful for more than signals.
Her mind now quieted somewhat by her silent pep talk, she continued to gaze at the beastman as he climbed. Everything else, friend and foe alike, vanished from her mind as she prepared for the conflict that was only seconds away.
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“Let’s go,” Zain ordered. He reveled in his status as undisputed leader as the three of them rounded the pyramid, eyes always on the signal still blazing in the air.
Zain looked at his team, taking mental stock of their capabilities one last time. Turo was an earth mage. He had immense power, but no finesse. While the man was completely capable of shifting a boulder, accuracy was a foreign concept to him. Hopefully it wouldn’t matter. The stone around them was large enough that accuracy shouldn’t be too much of an issue. Bryce had the rare gift of lightning. It was frequently lethal when it struck its target, but it took a lot of time to build the energy necessary to cast it. That left himself, a proud ice mage. He preferred to create a sword of ice in a battle.
The proud ice mage, however, started to have misgivings as they got closer and closer to the flare. He couldn’t see anybody. He hoped they weren’t being tricked.
What if they just moved when they saw Ladrice’s signal?
He held a hand up. “Stop,” he whispered. They were perhaps thirty feet away from the flare, and still they could see nothing. He turned to his mates. “This could be a trap. Let’s come around from the back,” he ordered, pointed in a direction away from the pyramid. Once again, they moved out with all the silence they could muster. Although none of them were aware of it, this new direction would take the group straight into the Atzar's team, which was hidden from their view only by the large stone wall in between them.
Rylius watched as Khungar stalked after his prey. In his mind, he was snickering, but he kept as much of his thoughts from appearing on his body as he could. That left only one option, and that was to follow Atzar. Really, it wasn't a bad plan, assuming that mage on top of the pyramid was busy and the other group didn't catch them.
As he passed by the crumbling remains of a wall, he stopped for a moment, thinking. I don't have any way to attack, except.. He ran his hand over a loose stone in the middle of the wall and grinned widely. It was now glowing red, and rather noticeable amongst the green moss. He continued as he followed Atzar, making a trail of red stones throughout the wall, until he noticed Atzar stopping. He pushed the last stone he had glowed and thrust his hand out to it. It stopped falling, and he had it hovering in his grasp.
Excellent.
He grabbed it and carried it over to Atzar's hiding place. The younger mage had a plan to ambush them, and as he was explaining it, Rylius peeked through a hole in the wall. He could see his glowing stones, five of them, going along a trail from where the flare indicated. Perfect! He was proud of himself, but quickly ducked down again when Atzar pulled him down.
Rylius whispered to his teammates. "If it goes well, sure. But I'm still not comfortable with killing people." He frowned, thinking of having to crush someone's skull with a boulder. It just wasn't him. Thankfully, he could leave that to his team. "Alright. They'll come over here, I know it. So as long as we're the ones ambushing, it'll work out." He took the glowing rock that was in his hand and sent it sailing into the air, before stopping it over another part of the crumbled wall, way off to the right of where they were. "Distraction in place. Serus, um..." He didn't want to give any orders to the beastman, so he tried to have as gentle a tone as possible. "Wait until that stone drops. That means we're starting."
There was a tense moment as the only sound he could hear was his and Atzar's breathing, and the only thing he could feel was his pounding heart. This is a silly plan.. what if they see the rock and that tips them off to the ambush, and it fails? No, no.. not a time for what ifs. You made your choice, Ry, go with it. With his arm still extended, he peeked through the hole. A gasp escaped his mouth before he could stop himself, and a harsh shiver ran down his spine. They were coming, and it all came down to what they did next.
Hold still. Patience. Patience. Hold still. Don't breathe so loud. Wait until the right moment. Wait, wait, wait... This was too much. Even if they couldn't hear his breathing, they still could hear his heartbeat... but wait. They stopped moving? Rylius looked closer. Ah ha! They were investigating the hovering rock. Now he had a clear view of Zain's side. Bryce ran almost right in front of him, but kept staring at the rock. Keep waiting...
Zain cautiously creeped up to the wall, hiding when he could. His fists were gripped tightly, and he had to admit he was nervous, but he had to set the example for his team. He couldn't wimp out now, not that he ever would anyways. He looked over to Bryce, who nodded at him, then to Turo, who grinned. He nodded to both of them and formed the sword of ice in his hands.
This is it. Act quickly. He poked Atzar and nodded at him, then flung the rock towards Zain. He quickly moved both his hands towards the stone wall between him and Bryce and telekinetically grabbed two loose stones, sending them at both sides of his head. They collided at once, combining to give him a pretty nasty bonk. Bryce went down, but Rylius got the feeling he wasn't out. He ducked behind the wall, wondering if Zain caught his friend getting hit.
Having played his part, Rylius ducked down and against the wall, letting Atzar take over. He could only hope Serus caught the signal. Somewhere in his mind, too, he wondered how Khungar was faring, but he imagined it went rather well, since she didn't send another flare out. We actually have a shot at winning this.
Khungar
11-14-06, 09:02 PM
He halted several large steps from the top, his wide shoulders rising and falling heavily. White hot air flew rapidly from his furry snout, the nostrils visibly moist. He stood defiantly, goat-like legs straining to keep his form inclined somewhat towards the giant structure. His hooves were planted a few feet apart, and his arms hung loosely by his sides, moving in time with his shoulders. He looked up to the top of the pyramid with his squinted, yellow eyes.
He could see the girl. The enemy, he reminded himself. She stood, too, surrounded by flames. He already knew she could use them; the flare perhaps still lingered over his team. And he also knew that she was in this for the fight. There was no way she would've signed up for this battle if her only skill were flinging signals. He knew she would try to hurt him. And he knew he would try to hurt her. It only came down to skill and determination.
Now, Khungar was in full knowledge of his own skill; he knew nothing of the girl's. But he also knew of his determination, and his heritage. He was fully confident, since he couldn't really know, that he was far more determined to win this fight. And he thought it only right to warn the girl of this. Let her know. Show her that Khungar, the Beastman, the Shaman, would win this fight.
"Rraaaahhhhhhh!"
He flung his head back, violently tossing his hair, and unleashed a powerful challenge to the girl above. Even as he roared in fury, he arched his back and raised his arms to the sky, as if trying to bear-hug the sun or the moon or whatever was through that enormous roof above. Even as his rage poured from his mouth, stranger things sprouted from the rest of his body. His body trembled with unadulterated hatred as he vented both his anger and his soul.
His horns extended. They elongated and twisted until they pointed almost perpendicularly from his forehead, spun a full loop, and ended in creamy-white tips. His tail extended, too, and sprouted wicked barbs where his tuft of hair had been at the end. His claws ripped out from his finger tips, stretching to four full, razor-sharp inches. His body seemed to generally expand as well, his flexed arms and legs bulging even further. His eyes, even, seemed to intensify, almost to the point of glowing. The yellow seemed to reach out to the spectators so many miles above, catching their attention as much as the signal flare several hundred feet behind him.
He was out of breath. His yell stopped, and he resumed his normal posture. His tail flicked dangerously behind him as he slowly raised his gaze to meet that of the girl. His brutish head shook once again, though his shoulders had seemed to return to their normal breathing pattern. His eyes were terrible, and fixed so intensely upon the girl that it appeared he was trying to remove her very soul from even that distance.
He roared out a challenge again, though his eyes never left those of his opponent. He took one powerful bound and cleared two complete steps, whose size and width had limited him to only one prior to his transformation. His larger, bulgier veins fueled his enhanced muscles as he closed the final twenty feet to his opponent much faster than he had travelled before. Khungar the Beastman was coming, and he would not be vanquished.
Serus Tarsin
11-15-06, 06:48 PM
Serus hunched down next to the others, leaning against a solid portion of the rubble. Atzar definitely knew how to whip up some great battle plans. The current one actually reminded him of an historic battle he'd learned of as a young one.
"Many ages ago, a great war ravaged many lands throughout the planet. Near the end of the fighting, it seemed that the groups that started the conflict would be the victors. A recent capture of one nation's capitol building had given them more than enough supplies to finish the war. However, before they could put this to their use, a crafty general launched an offensive on their location. The men under his command were outnumbered three to one, but he was determined to win. He split his soldiers into two groups, one of which started attacking the front of the facility. Meanwhile, he and the remaining warriors snuck around the back as reinforcements went to aid up front. With no one left guarding the rear, they slid in through the building's back door, ambushing their foes from behind. After numerous hours of fighting, the pinscher maneuver allowed them to defeat their opponents with few casualties."
The shape-shifter was glad to have an equally efficient strategist on his team. It freed him to do what he did best. Thinking on his feet during intense and fast paced events. To make the situation even better, his part of being a "pinscher within a pinscher" allowed him to do just that. However, he would need the jackal for this fight. His tall figure would be near impossible to hide in close range combat. Serus really didn't want to be noticed before he was ready. Especially after that little fire works display by Ladrice. If she could manipulate flames like that, who knew what the rest of that team was capable of? He shook his head a little violently to get rid of this seed of doubt.
If I start thinking like that, I'll screw things up for sure. Letting out a deep sigh, Serus mentally tried prepared himself for the transition. He'd never done it twice in such a short period of time, so there was no telling how difficult it might be. He concentrated once more on the jackal, able to at least initiate the transformation with some ease. Unfortunately, it was not quite the same for the rest of the shape shift. Serus gritted his teeth as his bones slowly and almost painfully began grinding into place. With a slight headache remaining from before, the popping joints left his ears ringing. His jaw elongated into a canine snout, causing the focused shape-shifter to bite his tongue. He winced slightly, and focused even harder on the morph. Both ears crawled to the top of his skull, momentarily increasing the ringing in his head. Although the creature's fur sprouted like normal, it felt like someone pricking him with hundreds a miniature needles. Te tail pushed painfully out from his torso as the shift completed.
Wow. I really need to start practicing more often. He sat panting for a few seconds to regain his composure. A quick glance towards his allies revealed their readiness. Good. He could start sneaking around the back way. Serus stood up, knowing that the sooner he hid, the less likely he'd be spotted. He peeked around the edge of the piece of ruin, making sure nobody witnessed his exit. Once he was sure the area was clear, the jackal ran back the way he came. After almost ten feet, Serus changed direction, trotting off to his right. A few sets of footsteps began echoing in his ears, as three new scents blew towards him. Their opponents had arrived. It wouldn't be long before Rylius gave the signal. Serus quickly searched the area for a place to conceal himself.
Perfect! He sprinted towards a unique piece of fallen architecture. It appeared to have been a corner where two walls converged with the ceiling of the former structure. It hid the jackal's body from view in practically every direction, making him virtually invisible. No sooner had Serus ducked into cover, did his three foes pass his location. So far so good. They seemed to have not even noticed him. The shape-shifter bellied his way towards the edge of his hiding place, ready to pounce. He tried not to groan as Turo created a good sized ice blade in his hands. Looks like his first target presented itself for him. The last thing he wanted to do was fight a sword head on.
How much longer did he have to wait? Serus wished Rylius would hurry. The more he remained still, the more he doubted they would win. A fair sized rock suddenly hurtled towards Bryce. The amused Serus knew what was coming as a second rock flew from the opposite direction. Both connected with the man's skull, instantly knocking him to the ground. The jackal hesitated for a split second, then burst out into the open towards the downed warrior, his new target. If he wanted to defeat this enemy quickly, he'd have to put aside all his compassion and feelings for the time being.
Spill his blood! Serus bared his teeth and lunged through the air only half a foot away from Bryce. A quick clamping of his jaws around the man's neck would probably suffice for a fast take down.
Events unfolded so quickly that Atzar could hardly follow them.
Thuthunk.
Before Atzar even knew what had happened, two rocks had struck Bryce in the head almost simultaneously. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious. His contact with the ground was accompanied by a canine growl, and Serus bounded out from behind a crumbling stone structure to sink his fangs into the lightning mage’s neck. Blood spurted from around the jackal’s mouth as blood vessel and bone alike was ruptured. It was sickening, to say the least.
The strange, uneasy feeling doubled in Atzar’s mind. Just as he prepared to leap out and throw his fireball into Zain’s face, doubt festered in his mind.
What the hell was this feeling? Why did it keep plaguing him? And why did it suddenly intensify when Bryce had come to his grisly end?
“Atzar!” Rylius called urgently, and the mage snapped out of his trance.
Zain was charging in his direction, frozen blade held aloft. A rumbling roar escaped his lips as he approached the startled mage. This impetus was all Atzar needed to react. Out of sheer instinct, Atzar jettisoned the flaming orb in his hands directly into the face of the charging fighter.
It had a favorable effect. While the fire wasn’t intense enough to be fatal, it caught Zain completely by surprise. His flesh sizzled and bubbled grotesquely as it burned, and his eyes were rendered useless. The swordsman howled in anguish and dropped to the ground, clutching his face. His screams cut clearly through the air like a bright light through darkness. His ice sword fell to the ground with a crystalline clatter, forgotten by its creator.
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Turo gaped in dumbfounded astonishment as his team was obliterated before his eyes. Bryce had fallen before his team had even known where the enemy was, and that Atzar fellow had annihilated his own leader with a single, well-placed strike.
He was all that was left. It was three on one. The big, simple-minded earth mage knew he had no chance.
He had no chance!
His spirit broken, he turned tail and bolted back through the ruins, rounding corners and vaulting fallen stone. He had to get away. He knew nothing else. He just had to get away from the ambush that had just claimed half of his team.
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"Rraaaahhhhhhh!" the beastman shouted in her face.
That was all it took.
Her composure already somewhat shaky, this level of bestial ferocity intimidate seriously rattled her. She cowed as the huge beast’s burning eyes ripped into her skull, her plan completely forgotten for the moment in her terror.
Closer and closer he came, bellowing all the while, and she instinctively stumbled backwards.
Her back bumped up against something tall and narrow, and the smell of burning pitch filled her nostrils.
A torch.
Fire.
Eyes never leaving her irate foe, she reached blindly behind her with her magic, tentatively feeling and grasping the flame. Suddenly, her resolve tightened and the strength in her knees returned. The presence of this burning energy gave her a boost of confidence, and the iron came back to her eyes. She coolly returned her foe’s gaze as he continued his rampage in her direction. It would end how it would end. But she wouldn’t back down.
She would fight this beast of a man with everything she had.
Khungar
11-15-06, 11:04 PM
The enraged beast charged after the retreating girl as she scuttled backwards. He had reached the top of the pyramid now, but paid no heed to the amazing view. If he had cared to, he would have been able to look out over endless miles of dilapidated ruins. He could've viewed the incredible magnitude of this magically created arena. He would've had a clear view of the eight towering figures above him, one of which looked remarkebly like him.
But he didn't care to. The only thing Khungar could be bothered to care about was the defeat of his enemy. The girl's gender had no bearing on his feelings; he was, after all, a beastman. Fighting and killing innocents had never been an issue for his race. And deep down, he knew this girl was more than just that; she was a mage. And the solitary torch she came to rest at heightened his sense of urgency.
He nearly flew across the impressivley flat surface of the structure's top. His hooves clacked with the intensity of a galloping horse, though they shared not the rhythm. His tail whipped from side to side behind him, and he bent his whole body forwards, towards his foe. His face was the quintessence of hatred. He didn't really have control of himself. He had relinquished that right to his inner soul, but he knew no fear. He leapt as soon as he thought he was close enough.
A dive of death. Hair flattened against his body as his figure soared through the air. Nearly horizontal, his legs pointed directly away from the girl. Bulging arms reached out for the girl, ready to tear her limb from limb. Soon, he would feel her bones and flesh give way as he completely destroyed her.
His inhibitions were well forgotten, as was the crowd. They, however, were not forgotten of him. A general gasp rippled through the crowd as the battle on the center of the table ignited. The ambush had been very successful, and it seemed as though the girl would fall as easily as her team had. Could she fight off the unadlterated fury of the beast? Could she salvage the battle for her team? Only time would tell.
Serus Tarsin
11-21-06, 10:25 PM
Blood splashed against the canine’s muzzle as its fangs pierced his opponent’s jugular. The crimson liquid dripped out his open mouth, seeming strangely pleasing to the beast’s primal instincts. Serus stood staring down at the blood soaked Bryce sprawled out in front of him. His heart was still racing from the adrenaline rush of the speedy kill. The animal licked its lips at the copper taste in his mouth.
Kill them all! The shape-shifter snapped from the trance, frightened by his own blood lust. A large flame flashed in the corner of his eye, bringing down Zain in a single blow. The mage’s face was boiling away from a well placed fireball from Atzar. Turo spun and fled, obviously realizing that if he stayed he’d be butchered. Serus was glad that he had joined up with his team. This wasn’t a fight. It was a massacre.
Let’s finish this now, and get it over with. The jackal turned on his heels, sprinting after the remaining foe. This time Serus swore he would sedate the animal. The shape-shifter didn't wish to give more control towards the beast. He sprang off the path in between a couple of halved pillars, almost losing his footing on the cold hard ground. Serus pushed his form to the full extent of its speed, flying by Turo. The ringing in his ears expanded to a splitting headache as the shape-shifter felt his consciousness begin to fade. He had to figure out a strategy before he blacked out. Once he was a few lengths past of the earth mage, the jackal lunged in front of his opponent. Serus bared his teeth and snarled, his snout still stained with Bryce's fresh blood. He hoped that the sight of the beast ahead would force his foe back towards the others.
Just as soon as his rock fell and the signal was sent, everything happened quickly, and before Rylius knew it, Serus had killed Bryce and Atzar had crispy-fried Zain. Turo took off, and with him went Serus. Rylius looked over at Atzar, who looked ferocious as he looked over Zain. The former leader of their enemy squad was hardly in any position to put up a good fight, so the only thing left to do was run after Serus and Turo.
Nodding to Atzar as he ducked out of the crumbled building, Rylius broke into a full sprint. The match, so far, had gone far better than anyone on his team expected. No casualties so far on his own team and two down on the enemy team was amazing. A complete shutout would be a miracle. So it was up to Khungar to succeed against Ladrice, Atzar to make sure Zain was down, and finally Serus and himself to ensure Turo didn't pull any tricks. For their first match in the tournament, they were doing far too well to miss a great opportunity now, and the feeling of accomplishment gave Rylius a great feeling, overwhelming the dread that occupied his mind earlier. There was that voice in the back of his head telling him not all was right, but he pushed it away, not caring about it much. For now, winning was important.
Suddenly, Serus was in front of Turo. Rylius snuck over to the right of Turo, trying his hardest not to be seen. Any way he went would send the earth mage right into trouble except for one, but Rylius was pretty sure Serus would lunge out at him even if he did try to run away again. The jackal didn't seem to be pouncing - yet - but either way, the prey was cornered. Rylius's heart pounded, but this time not in fear. It pounded in eager anticipation, ready to strike if Turo made the mistake of running towards him.
Turo’s heart was in his throat, trying to beat its way out as he ran. All the while, his greatest fear ghosted along the ground beside him with an occasional canine growl.
A chill flooded his spine with each snarl. He had always been afraid of dogs, ever since one had attacked him as a toddler. His parents had driven the dog away before he was seriously hurt, but the mental impression it left was quite profound.
The dog leapt in front of him, and he barely contained the panicked yell that threatened to rip from his lungs. Out of sheer fear, he lashed out with his magic, causing a sizable chunk of stonework to fly ponderously at Serus. He urged the stone on, eyes wide with desperation.
In his panic, he failed to notice the sneaking form of Rylius to his right.
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On top of the pyramid, Ladrice’s situation was considerably worse. The bestial, raging form of Khungar had reached her before he could gather her wits enough to use magic. Helpless, she watched as his hulking body crashed into her.
The force was so great that she was lifted from her feet, and both aerial bodies cannoned into the stout torch behind her back. Two resounding cracks filled the air.
The first was Ladrice’s back as the thick, sturdy wood proved stronger than her spine. The shock killed her instantly, and her body went limp in Khungar’s claws. Blood dribbled from her lips to fall towards the ground.
The second was the torch itself. The force that struck it was too great, and the top of the torch snapped off. The torch fell to the surface at the top of the pyramid; Khungar’s feet found no such salvation. Time seemed to slow for that instant. Into empty air he flew, still moving horizontally for a surprising distance before physics reared its ugly head. Gravity took over, and he plunged helplessly to the steps as they dropped ever further away.
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Zain was in horrible shape.
He moaned piteously as the pain ripped through him. Eyes ruined, skin destroyed, the only thing the man could feel was the incredible agony.
Atzar felt horrible.
Even in a game such as this, pain existed. Because of this, the mage always made a point to keep attacks away from his opponent’s face. This reaction, however, had been completely unintentional. Zain had surprised him, and he had responded with instinct rather than reason.
This was the result.
He took slow steps over to the stricken wizard, guilty tears hot in his eyes. He never meant for this to happen. His body shuddered, and the drops carved their meandering course down his cheeks. He never meant for this to happen!
Zain apparently heard him approach. His misshapen, charred face turned in Atzar’s direction, and the ghastly lips parted. “Please… kill me…” his voice cracked.
Silently, numbly, Atzar picked up Zain’s sword of ice. Holding it in both hands, he positioned the tip of the blade over the suffering man’s heart. “I’m so sorry, Zain,” the mage whispered as he pushed the blade home. Zain jerked once, and then was still.
The deathly feeling washed over the mage’s mind once again, but this time he didn’t feel it. All outside stimuli were forgotten. He tottered a couple steps, tears nearly blinding him, and then collapsed to the ground. Sobs wracked his figure as he cried bitterly at the fate he had just visited on another man.
Khungar
12-07-06, 01:09 AM
It all happened so fast. His claws dug into her clothes and flesh alike just before his large frame impacted her relatively small one. Immediatley following the rough impact, there were two roughly coinciding cracks. He didn't have time (nor the desire) to contemplate the first one; it was the second one that was threatening his life. With the now-limp form of the girl in his rough hands, he was carried by his own bestial momentum into space.
He seemed to hang for a moment, his hair blown back by air resistance. The girl's face lingered before his for that one long instant, a trickle of blood hanging down her chin. The beast-like mind didn't pick up on it, but something in the back of brain cringed from the sight of the still, dead face. Even though it was just a game, the death of an innocent, fellow villager was too terrible for his own tastes.
Time resumed, and gravity suddenly yanked on both air-born figures. Like an apple and a moon they plunged downwards, their different shapes falling at the same speeds. Khungar's wild eyes widened in frightened realization as his tail and arms and legs wind-milled futilely. He realesed his hold on the dead girl, offering the fate of her corpse to simple physics.
He broke the first fall with his chest and arms. He had rotated slightly during the fall, and continued to do so on his new reference point (his face). His legs whirled over him, entangling with the still-warm body of his defeated foe. The added weight whipped him halfway over until his legs came to a jarring halt on the step below. The girl continued to freely rag-doll down the steps of the pyramid as the impact dislodged her from Khungar.
His stronger legs didn't snap, but weren't strong or ready enough to completely halt his descent. He had been slowed, sure, but not enough to stop him from falling forward once more. His tail whipped helplessly against the step before his weight carried him forward once more. Dazed and confused, he was unable to react to the last stone step he would see as it came rushing up to meet him. His head made a sickening thud before being violently twisted to the side. Blackness consumed him, offering temporary respite from the dull agony throughout his body.
That same body continued to roll down the pyramid, bouncing off several steps, rolling off a few, and skipping less and less as he neared the bottom. His limbs whipped about at the mercy of basi principles such as gravity and impact and momentum until, finally, after such a great height, he came to rest on the cobbled street. He landed on his chest, and his snout was displaced by the cold ground. His physical form had, after he had lost consciousness, reverted back to its normal appearance. He lay there, next to the still fearfully staring corpse of the girl, white-hot air blown rapidly from his bloody snout.
Serus Tarsin
12-13-06, 06:05 PM
The obviously frightened Turo almost shrieked at the sight of the jackal. Serus could understand why anyone would be scared in his situation, with at least half his team obliterated so fast. However, the shape-shifter noticed that there was more to it than just his predicament. The mage looked like he almost had a seizure when his animal form had leapt onto the path. It appeared that Turo did not have a good relationship with canines.
Can I really do this to the poor soul? If Serus attacked his foe, there would be a good chance of victory given the mages state of mind. On the other hand, what was seeminly Turo's worst fear hunting him could scar the mage for life. Before the shape-shifter could sort out this dilemma, his opponent turned tail and fled. The problem had solved itself for him. He had to give chase, since losing track of the mage might become a thorn in his side. Serus snarled and ran after Turo, trying to keep a slight distance between them. If one of his partners was waiting up ahead, he wanted to give him a fairly large window of opportunity. A loud shwish of air ehoed in the jackal's ear. Serus suddenly realized what was happening, but only a split second too late. A stone about the size of a large fist struck the beast square on his upper leg.
Agh! The jackal yelped in unison with the shape-shifter's mental anguish. His survival instincts kicked in as it tried to regain the balance lost from the hit. The attempt proved futile as he stumbled for a few seconds, then proceeded to flip end over end of the trial. Serus slammed against the ground, sliding for a good two feet. The animal only stopped when its head cracked violently against a huge piece of rubble. He suddenly found himself in daze. Every little movement looked slowed and blurry, while sounds all around him faded in and out. Eventually Serus was enveloped by a creeping darkness. The jackal sprawled across the damp earth, unconcious.
From his hiding place, it was difficult to see exactly what happened. However, from the snarl, Rylius could tell that Serus was about to pounce again. But then he heard a distinct whimper, or maybe a yelp. Had the jackal been taken out? Did it even matter? There was a thumping, getting closer and closer. It was too loud, too cumbersome to be a nimble jackal. Even if his enemy had taken out his teammate, here he was, ready to strike back.
It wasn't a well coordinated attack, nor was it carefully planned out. Rather, instinct took over in the brief window of opportunity he had. There were several loose cobblestones in the path ahead of Turo. Rylius reached his hand out and focused. Perhaps Turo was looking behind him to see if he had succeeded in taking out his first persuer, as he didn't react to the appearance of the human. Soon, Rylius had two fairly large cobblestones hovering in midair.
It seemed luck was with him once again, as the earth mage stumbled in the newly created gaps in the path. But he did not fall, and he now looked ahead - straight towards Rylius. The actions happened simultaeneously; as the human telepathically sent the rocks towards the earth mage, the earth mage used his powers to send a boulder, hanging loosely on a nearby wall, crashing straight down towards the human. Rylius fell back in a poor attempt to avoid it, but the rock clipped the bottom of his legs and crushed them underneath. Meanwhile, the two cobblestones collided with Turo's head, and much like Bryce before him, he went down to the ground.
Rylius looked down at his legs, stuck underneath the boulder. He couldn't feel them, and he relished that. He knew that once he could, they would hurt. A lot. He glanced over at Turo. He seemed to be unconscious, for now, but if that changed, Rylius would be up against one very angry, powerful mage. He couldn't let that happen.
As he wiggled out from under the boulder, feeling started to return from his legs. There was a sharp, stabbing pain. Using all of the focus he could muster, he telepathically shoved the boulder off his legs. It only barely moved, but it was enough. "DAMMIT!" The human screamed out in pain. He knew it was a game, but it felt real. It felt so very real. He figured the bones in his feet and legs must be broken.
Rylius looked over at Turo, who seemed to be awakening. Suddenly he was filled with rage at what he had done to him. He shouldn't, he kept telling himself. It was just a game, it didn't matter, he was just playing his enemy. But the pain... there was blood seeping from his tattered shins, and it was more than he could even hope to heal. He wanted the game to end, and he wanted it to end now.
Turo was his ticket out. As long as Khungar was successful with Ladrice, his team had won. All he had to do was finish Turo, the game would end, and he would be free of this pain. He slinked up against a nearby wall, sitting against it, with Turo still in sight. He reached out his arm and focused on a fist-sized stone, sending it flying towards Turo's head. He never loosened his grip on it, and again and again he had the rock slam against the earth mage's head, until his face was a bloody mess.
Rylius collapsed. The image of Turo's face burned into his mind. There was nothing worse, nothing at all, then seeing yourself kill someone, and now his actions were replaying, over and over. No, no, this isn't you... He tried to comfort himself, but it was too much. His eyes dried up in the shock. So he kept them open, staring at nothing, curled up on the ground, battered and bruised, just waiting for the end of the match to come...
...and this was only the first of many.
It was a strange sensation. It almost felt like a hook sank into the back of his head and pulled him away from the bloodstained battlefield, but there was no pain. Even so, the ruins faded away. The wizard’s wracking sobs gave way to utter silence. The scents of blood and scorched flesh vanished. Eyes closed, tears falling freely from his face into the void, Atzar knew only on some subliminal level that the battle was over. They had won. They would move on to fight in the next round of the tournament. The mage, however, just couldn’t shake that black chill that now plagued his mind more and more. They had tasted victory, but its flavor was so… bitter.
Finally, a new world of sensations burst through to his guilt-clouded brain. Atzar was standing now, and he was vaguely aware of the now-warm metal that he held in each hand. The noise of the audience would have been overbearing, had he not been sunk so deep in his emotions. As it was, the screams and shouts dimmed to mere background noise. Softer and softer that background noise seemed to get, until it ceased entirely. Finally, the stricken mage realized that something was really amiss. His blue eyes opened to take in the source.
When the battle had begun, eight people had stood in front of the table, eager to take part in an entertaining, challenging tournament. Now, Atzar was the only one left standing. Somehow, the game had transmitted their bodies directly from the table into reality. What had happened to them in the game was genuine. The mage’s opponent’s were all dead, and all three of his teammates were wounded and unconscious.
This can’t be happening…
Suddenly, the wizard ceased to see. He could hear no more… all that was around him was black silence.
THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!
Atzar had unusual eyes. They oscillated at will between all the shades of blue, from sky to navy to nearly purple. Now, they were pure black. A bloodcurdling yell erupted involuntarily from the mage’s throat as he dropped to his knees and unknowingly cradled his head in violently trembling hands.
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Many voices suddenly erupted throughout the hall at Atzar’s scream. Throughout it all, one mouth remained closed, one mind remained clear. Aseri, a little boy no more than ten years old, watching the pandemonium unfold with little more than childish perplexity. He didn’t really understand death yet. He was at the tender age where he knew that it meant the person was gone, but the concept of ‘forever’ just hadn’t yet dawned on him.
In front of him, Bast and the rest of the elders sat. “You know who did this, right?” the angry councilor grated, voice stretched taut over a rapidly rising ire.
Galla and Ruri said nothing, but Keyei nodded grimly. “There can be no doubt,” his quiet voice intoned.
“You know what comes next, right?”
This time, none of the three had the courage to speak the answer aloud. The answer, however, was obvious.
War.
More bloodshed.
More lives lost.
The silence persisted between the elders before Ruri finally moved. Wiping a tear from her eye with the corner of her blue robe, she turned to Aseri. He sat calmly, listening to their every word, a small oblivious smile on his face. The water mage stood up and grabbed him under his arms, lifting him with a strength that belied her thin frame.
“Come on,” she said comfortingly. “Might as well get you home. A kid like you shouldn’t be in a place like this.”
Tears formed anew in the woman’s eyes as she stepped carefully down from the bleachers and exited the dimly lit hall.
To be continued. No spoils.
Cyrus the virus
03-27-07, 07:22 AM
My apologies for the slowness, I’ve had a bastardly (not dastardly, see how clever I am?) amount of homework and work.
STORY
Continuity: 6 I enjoy Atzar’s personality less than his mental thoughts. “This is my mighty team. So powerful they are, that their own energy knocks them from their feet” is a pretty neat quote… Though that comma is out of place, in my opinion.
All of your characters are consistent, though they’re a bit similar, which can dampen a reader’s enthusiasm. Each of these characters had real issues with killing, they all did kill, and they all were hurt by having to do it (I imagine Khungar will when he’s conscious again).
No issues with continuity, really.
Setting: 6 A nice thing here and there that I like, such as the crowd cheering at the appropriate time during Rylius’ first post. That helps put me into the scene. There was a lot of reference to smell and taste, which I appreciate. Lots of description on the ruins, though there are a lot of different types of ruins in this world, and I’d often project my own understanding of them into the scene, rather than stick to what I was told.
Good stuff.
Pacing: 4 Something good to keep in mind is to limit ‘waiting time’. If you feel like you have little to write about, try to throw something of substance into your post involving your character. To give you a bit more explanation about what I mean, when Khungar enters the first Charms battle, he describes the area and ends up waiting for the others. Rather than simply tell us that he needs to wait, which makes the pacing suffer, tell us about him if you like. That, or make something happen. Take charge and create conflicts beyond what the quest leader gives you.
Khungar’s post (post #27) really serves no purpose and killed the pacing for me. I can tell he wasn’t sure if it was okay with Atzar to take charge of the battle. This is something you guys should have worked out through PM or IM, because the conflict between Khungar and Ladrice was painfully long. Khungar isn’t the only person guilty of this, though.
I felt the pacing went from too fast to too slow back to too fast. I also feel your antagonists were simply too easy to overcome.
CHARACTER
Dialogue: 5 Pretty average, but consistent. I’m not sure I feel your characters should have been so comfortable with each other from the get-go, but I imagine that since they all live (or visit frequently) this village, they have a kind of understanding of one another. Most of the inner monologue was stock stuff, “This can’t be happening…” “Let’s finish this now, and get it over with.” “Ok, focus, Ladrice…” People think other things as well, and I grow tired of only seeing this type of thinking from characters.
Not bad at all, not particularly good either.
Action: 4 Kind of convenient that the four of you were all around looking for a team, all noticed each other, and all decided to join up. There’s no problem with that, really, but I’d have liked to have seen something more than “I feel like joining this Charms tournament because Charms is fun -- oh look, a team being formed” from at least one of you.
I felt Khungar presented an interesting opening when he first entered the Charms arena. He was alone, which opened up opportunities nobody really took. Instead of Rylius and the others simply falling upon their hairy friend, why didn’t you stay separate for a bit? It’s just a bit too convenient and, well… Not that interesting, that you all met up inside the arena so easily. Maybe it’s just my preference, but I think it could have been a lot more exciting if one or two of you were stranded alone, forced to fight off opponents as they happened upon you. Taking the opportunity to head off and not just follow the pack is usually a good thing.
I disliked some of the fighting because of how incompetent the antagonists were, but the tactics were pretty nice. I attribute the downfall of those mages to quasi-careful planning, so I didn’t subtract a point for their easy loss. Hopefully in round 2 you guys will have some really different, capable opponents, and less of a one-sided battle ;)
Apologies for the low score, but I feel like a 5 would be a bit too generous.
Persona: 5 As big as Khungar is, I’d have appreciated a bit more of a mention of it when everybody was meeting him. He’s shy and quiet, yes, but does that really come across as easily as the fact that he’s a huge motha-motha? Meeting him seems just a bit too casual -- it should be elaborated upon as to why one is comfortable around him (this is from the others’ perspective, not Khungar’s, mind you). Does he radiate a niceness aura, or what?
As for those mages (just about every NPC mage in the story), I couldn’t take them seriously from the get-go. Not to be mean, but the aggressive fire mage dressed in red, the water-user/healer, ‘earth mage’, ‘ice mage’, it’s all really typical and not particularly exciting to read about. I’d like to see this kind of comfortable antagonist done away with. Mix it up a little. Throw in a bola thrower who can enchant his bolas with electricity or something. A dancer who radiates the smell of pizza, whatever!
Generally the personas were consistent, save for a few moments where I felt a character wouldn’t be thinking what he did. I wish I’d seen more of Rylius’ tricky nature, but this is hardly a good setting for harmless jokes.
WRITING STYLE
Mechanics: 5 In the beginning, I would have liked a bit of detail as to how your characters all knew each other. It’s one thing to know names from seeing each around town, but Atzar seemed to know Rylius was a trickster. Do they have some past history? I didn’t know at this point in the story, but I imagined it was word-of-mouth knowledge.
Not much mechanics here, in terms of symbolism and all that. We do have some foreshadowing, as this is part 1 in a series. This intrigues me.
Technique: 6 This is totally nitpicky, but I hated the sign advertisement for the tournament. It seemed amateurish in a way that even an amateur would pick up on.
When rereading posts, don’t be afraid to move commas or remove them altogether, if it makes your sentences smoother. It’s awkward to have a comma in certain places. It halts, the point that, you’re making. ,, ,,,,
At other times, there’s no need to state the obvious. It can be bothersome to constantly be told what’s going on. Here’s an example: “Fresh blood. His heart beat unnaturally loud in unison with the sudden thirst. What was this bizarre feeling? Could the beast's instincts be influencing him?” This is right after Serus’ transformation, and the part in italics just doesn’t need to be there. Give your reader a bit of credit and it’ll make the story come across just a wee bit better. This is, once again, me being nitpicky.
The writing was good, otherwise, very easy to read and understand in most cases. So yay!
Clarity: 7 As I always say, reread your posts. I see a lot of ‘on’ instead of ‘in’, and that sort of thing. They’re just sloppy mistakes, but they’re distracting.
Same comment as in technique, really.
Wild Card: 8 High Wild Card score for not harassing my slow ass too much =) Thanks for being patient!
Final Score: 56
Atzar gets 1,000 EXP + 300 bonus EXP for being a patient mofo. +75 so he can level.
Khungar gets 400 EXP + 300 bonus EXP for being a beastly beast-fo.
Rylius gets 375 EXP + 300 bonus EXP for being a googly-eyed sho-flo.
Serus gets 400 EXP + 300 bonus EXP for being an apocalypse pony.
EXP added, naturally. And 200 gold for you each.
Again, apologies for being slower than molasses.
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