From Haidia's Heart, I stab at thee. (Closed to Lye)

[Elthas_Belthasar]

(Continued from these events: Day 4 (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?31522-Day-4-(Mature-18-)) and is a progression/story based battle. Using my level 6 profile for this battle. Thank you.)

The Antifirmanent.

It blazed with it's angry inferno everywhere. Present was the large trees of Concordia Forest...Ruild...but they were grayed out and dying in the mysterious aether of The Antifirmanent. When Elthas met the mysterious girl calling herself Amari...he'd met for the second time a man named Lichensith. Lichensith and another had been torturing Amari horribly in unspeakable ways before Elthas was irrevocably summoned by Amari's anguish and pain. Elthas retreated from the event and returned to his native Concordia Forest, not knowing if Lichensith had the power to follow him across the lands of Phantaria and into the Antifirmanent. it was a blazing sky, with the fires of Hell everywhere. The wind was hot, scorching, and the clouds above were the debris and dust of a dead civilization. This was the Antifirmanent, and in many ways, different from the once gray, dead land of ghosts.

The trees of Concordia were scorched and gnarled.

A truly hideous representation of the Antifirmanent proper. Elthas, in his black robes, stood there calmly in a plain field. He knew what he had done in some ways...and in other ways he did not realize the gravity of the situation. With the scorching wind constantly flowing with sulpher in the air, debris, remains of a lost civilzation. The dead and the spirits of those who had turned away from final judgment were present. In the Antifirmanent, there were plenty of blinking doors that flashed in and out of reality and not reality. Elthas could see the gates of Phantaria blinking in and out in the distance and he was waiting.

He didn't necessarily hate Lichensith...he only knew that a challenge had been made.

So he would keep the gate of Phantaria open from within the chamber Amari's torture was horribly taking place.

He purposefully left that gate open for Lichensith to follow him to the depths of Haidia's farthest reaches.

Elthas held his spectral daggers in his hands, gripping the handles tightly. His robes were kinetic and shifted about in the harsh light of the Antifirmanent. He had lowered his hood so that Lichensith could see the face of his enemy. It was not an issue of good versus evil, or right versus wrong. Elthas had stumbled upon a harsh crime being committed and he would make Lichsensith pay for it. Or die trying.

Many thoughts passed through Elthas's mind as he considered the gravity of the situation.

He had no idea of what Lichensith had done to Amari since he left and transported back to Corone proper. Elthas stood in a relaxed position, his poker face at the ready. He did not know what type of an opponent he would facing in Lichensith. He only knew that a battle would be inevitable at that point. Elthas did not view himself as a Hero those days...but he had a strong sense of morality and justice and injustice. Perhaps, he had not been summoned by Amari on accident...maybe the Thaynehood had intervened. I will never know. Only thing that mattes is that he will come to me and I must be prepared for the war that is to come... And so,, Elthas would wait to the ends of time for his enemy to appear.

[Lye]

For the sake of the setting, Lye is locked in a constant state of his Shadow Meld in order to survive the Antifirmament. Since the Antifirmament is on a parallel but separate plane to the Shadow Plane (headcannon), Lye is able to sustain it for the duration of this thread regardless of the limitations in his profile. As a drawback, his body still takes damage in this realm, negating all beneficial effects of Shadow Meld. This also means Lye cannot phase out of attacks and is unable to use Shadow Meld to negate blows during the duration of this fight.

Salvar's eternal winter bit relentlessly at the flesh of mortals. Advencia, clad in revealing attire for both the current weather and present company, relayed her findings to a tall, silver haired gentlemen. Beside him, two burly thugs listened in to her report.

"We put up as many wards as we could, but we found something in her cabin," Advencia explained. The chilling breeze temped at her exposed chest and lengths of her legs. Yet as scantily clad in her white dress, she seemed unphased by the cold - a true testament to her hardened lifestyle with the Crimson Hand. With a slender hand, she motioned to a small wooden cabin twenty paces away.

"Something?" Lye asked. Unlike his feminine colleague, thick winter furs draped around his lean form. Falls of platinum hair blended in with the surrounding snow and his own pale skin. His verdant eyes followed her gesture and became slits as they fell upon the sight as she described it.

"We had Cantor provide his best assessment. He said it might be some kind of gate?" The group gazed on as a distortion of color writhed within the door-less cabin. The day prior, a man named Elthas appeared to him inside with regards to Lye's current captive, Amari. Tensions pulled taught as the specter laid threat upon Lye then vanished without a trace. In a fit of rage, the assassin deprived the building of its door and relocated its inhabitant to his own private quarters.

"Elthas." The name slipped from the assassin's lips as he watched the abnormality twist and phase, skewing the light around it.

"Who?" Advencia asked, still flustered from her previous exchange with her master.

"It doesn't concern you, Advencia." Lye turned to the vertically challenged killer and warned her with a silent snarl. The girl protested with crossed arms, pushing her bosoms from already questionable coverage. "Don't you have some mark to seduce and assassinate?"

"Not at the moment..." She retorted, thick with venom.

"That's all, then. Go find something to occupy yourself with." He shooed her and turned to the two men that idly waited. "Change of plans, Theo and Earlwin, come with me." After a nod from his associates, Lye made way for the cabin.

"Fine then..." Advencia spat as the trio ventured away from her. "I'll see what that little bitch is up to then..." With a mischievous sneer, the femme fatale started toward the longhouse opposite them.

The others approached the cabin, and the two men hesitated in the doorway. Lye's boots sounded against the oaken floors which groaned under his weight. A change of wind pulled his silvery locks inward toward the epicenter of the odd distortion. From it, exuded an unnatural warmth while simultaneously broadcasting an eerie chill down the back of the assassin's spine.

"Sir," Earlwin began, concern thick on his brow. "Where do you think it leads?"

"To him," Lye replied, lips curled at the ends into a smile.

"Him?" Theo looked to his brother and the two shrugged.

"Yes, you two are going to help me take care of a pest. Follow me," Lye commanded. He inched closer to the anomaly until something latched onto the core of his being. Like leaves swept up in an vortex, the distortion gripped him and pulled him toward it. Resist as he tried, Lye felt as if his body was being torn asunder. Staggered and pained, he grew closer until the form of his being twisted, warped, and vanished into the center of the gate.

Like waking from a dream, reality blurred and a new flood of senses slammed into his body. Heat like nothing felt before threatened to singe his skin - a stark contrast to the blizzards of the Scavian Wilds. More prominently, Lye fell to his knees, hand clutched tightly to the fabrics above his chest. A pressure weighted down on him, crushing the air from his lungs and wrapping its thorny grip around his beating heart. He tried to inhale, failing to breath in this world's unusual atmosphere.

He checked behind him and found his return cut-off. Panic threatened to grip him, unaware of Elthas' steeled gaze. Options thinning, Lye willed upon the aide of the Shadow Plane. Then, like a switch flipped, all ailments lifted. Unlike the the other world, Lye felt his connection to the shadow plane stabilize. Holding himself between here nor there became effortless - part in Elthas' plane and part in his own shadow plane.

Lye rose, eyes meeting his enemy. The sweltering heat still lashed out at Lye's skin, forcing him to shed his arctic furs. Like tinder, they lit aflame at his feet, unable to withstand the full brunt of this new reality.

"Elthas," Lye greeted. He drew his enchanted knives from their scabbard upon the utterance of Famine's name.

Blades drawn, a sudden interruption cast Theo and Earlwin into the fray. From nothing, they appeared and also collapsed upon the weight of this realm. Their weapons fell to the ground of the mirrored forest and attempted screams became guttural struggles for air. Their flesh singed, blistered and boiled. Then, the two brothers lit aflame, thrashing as the life drained from their bodies in an utterly violent manner.

Lye, keeping his focus on his enemy, stepped forward and free from his colleagues' final struggles.

"You threatened me in my home, taunted me with secrets, and left an invitation on my doorstep to this..." He gestured to the blazing woods around him. "This hell..."

His arms fell to his side and grip tightened on the hilts of his weapons.

"Well, you have my undivided attention."

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Elthas, son of clan Belthasar, looked upon Lichensith Ulroke as he truly was.

He nodded casually towards the assassin, understanding the gravity of the situation. His eyes studied the man carefully, the other two who died in the mysterious alternate plane were inconsequential. Elthas had a job to do. Do I really need a reason to do the right thing...? Does Amari even really matter? Elthas considered the situation at hand very carefully. He wanted to be absolutely certain he could speak to Lichensith and perhaps reach him if he could. The battle would only be one rung of the ladder. There was a many tiered puzzle that needed to be solved. In his own way, Elthas knew he had done the right thing. Either way...one of them was going down. Elthas looked at the man very carefully. He did not show any emotion on his own face, he merely stared forward. Perhaps coldly, more coldly than he initially meant to. But without realizing it he observed that he, Elthas, had much in common with Lichensith. Under different circumstances they may have been allied...maybe.

Elthas could feel the weight of the burning inferno around the two of them. "Needed to bring you out here so we could talk." Elthas continued. "Figured that given the circumstances, you were not game for speaking socially about your charge." Elthas considered the time he had spent with Amari and had gotten to know her. He knew there was no future for he and Amari, but she had at least become a friend. Her image reminded him of why he was there with the enemy present. "For all it's worth I respect the fact that you did not know." But alas, his heart belonged to the mortal woman named Hylda Terrentius and perhaps it would always be so..."But your attempt to break the girl brought me to her...it was an unexpected circumstance. In the Antifirmanent I spoke to something that the body you were breaking housed. A sort of chain connects this entity to the body. You have stumbled upon a piece of a much larger puzzle that does not belong to me, you, or anyone."

In the short and brief time he had talked to Amari...he had grown to respect the entity. He did not have a name for whatever race Amari belonged to...only that there was a power hidden deep within the entity. He looked at Lichensith for a long moment. "So here's the thing. I know its probably too late for you to stop and redeem yourself in this matter. What has happened with me, you, Amari...was a lot more than the mere game that we are about to play." His eyes never left Lihensith. "So I have given you something." Elthas said. "What you do with that information is entirely up to you." Though in his mind, he had already committed to the idea of fighting Lichensith. Simply to fight the man. The spiritual entity calling herself Amari was of little consequence at that point. It was even that Elthas hated Lichensith, his own feelings mattered very little where Lichensith was actually concerned.

Elthas stood a few feet away from Lichensith, facing him directly. The Phantaria gate closed down behind Lichensith nearly as an after thought. Elthas knew he was now trapped in this blazing inferno with one of the most dangerous men on Althanas. And Elthas...was not afraid.

[Lye]

"So," began the elf's counterpart. "You put me through all this trouble..." He pointed his blade at Elthas with a leer. "...for that?"

The two men that were tasked with helping him smoldered behind him. Columns of smoke spiraled into the air from ashen statues, held twisted in agony and horror. Lye stepped away from them, at terms with his unexpected loss. Already, this elf claimed two of his men and long term advocates of the Crimson Hand. With his grip firm and anger tempered only by his curiosity, the assassin began a slow and wide pace around his opponent.

"The whole world is a piece to some puzzle or another. There is always some calamity that waits on a butterfly's whisper," Lye chastised, eyes fixed and studious of the specter before him. "You, me, this place: all parts of something larger by one means or another."

Lye's boots stopped on the charred earth to Elthas' side. Both men faced opposite directions, gazes locked in anticipation of one another.

"You've given me nothing," Lye spat, teeth bared with the rage induced by the elf's actions. "I'm not so crass as to deny a man his final words, but I will be damned to accept this lunacy for anything more than what it is."

The fires raged behind Lye. Trees as tall as the blackened sky and as wide as houses burned in an everlasting orange fire. In a colorless land of ashen grass and grey dirt, the assassin's piercing green gaze and firelight pale skin stood stark contrast. His mere existence in the Antifirmament proved testament to his will and power.

"If you have no useful reason for your crimes against my house, then make honest on your threat." Lye's feet sifted and purchased a firm footing. "Amari is my charge, the Sanctum is my home, and those two were brothers of my cause." Lye's head nodded to the husks of Theo and Earlwin. "So if all this has been to talk, then talk and stop wasting my time."

"Or," he hissed. "Prepare your steel."

[Elthas_Belthasar]

He is insane...he did not listen. Elthas for a moment, as Lichensith walked towards him, had a sad expression on his face. In a lot of ways, his opponent was a pathetic man. That does not mean he is any less dangerous. Elthas held his spectral blades at bay, listening to the acid-edged words that his foe spouted. He shook his head. "That's your reply then?" Elthas said with sadness in his voice, the choice had been made. All around him, the inferno swirled about the ruined trees. Gnarled barks were consistently blasted by the scorching waste. Elthas respected his opponent, but made no mistake about it, the man was his enemy. Elthas smiled at that point. Around the wraith, the spectral mantle began to ripple in anger. Though Elthas was physically calm, he felt rage in his heart. Rage at the fact that the narrow-minded man had made his decision. There will be blood. Elthas thought to himself and turned towards Lichensith. "So be it." Elthas suddenly said.

And he attacked...

Never one to waste needless words, the wraith understood that there would be no more words exchanged with the dangerous man before him. Elthas was on the move, best speed, he had summoned the dark power from within. He knew the battle would be ugly, there was nothing heroic about what was about to happen. But it had become a necessary evil. The glaring sun over head, was barely visible through the thick layer of debris and hot winds. The very ground itself was ablaze with a constantly glowing inferno. The wraith readied his spectral daggers and prepared them for their greatest challenge yet. Elthas moved into a tight combat stance, his eyes focused on the task of defeating the man before him. He observed that the man's own blades were made of titanium...or at least he guessed that was their metallurgic composition.

Stay focused. Elthas gathered his speed and would move at best speed throughout the remainder of the battle. There was no need to hold back. With his eyes narrowed, Elthas moved quickly, and at supernatural speeds. His body had a glow of rippling darkness about it as he moved on the assault. He hoped it would be enough to land the first strike. Elthas slashed at the middle of Licihensith's body. He was attempting a twin-pronged cleaving style maneuver. His spectral blades had a shadowy aura that were accented by the inferno swirling around him. He attempted to cleave in a downward motion, putting his best speed and might in the attack. It was a long shot, but he was hoping to catch Lichensith off guard.

As he slashed he thought of many matters. The battle with Lichensith reminded him of his battle against his other enemy, Yosef Terrentius. There were similar circumstances. As he slashed he summoned up all his anger, and hatred for Lichensith. The man had made Amari suffer tenfold, and for such a deed, Elthas would make him pay. His body moved as a blur as he attacked, and set the stage for the battle that would occur without hesitation. The time for words was over, now was the time for action.

The inferno blazed on eternally around him as he prepared to fight his enemy.

[Lye]

Elthas' final words proved all the provocation needed to announce his intentions. The elf moved with a haze of fervor and his already translucent limbs lashed out like wisps of wind. Blades, spectral and smoky like glass threatened blood but Lye violently denied his foe's inhuman agility with that of his own. Steel, enchanted by the curse of the horsemen of the apocalypse (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?26951), met ghostly blades. The clash of ethereal and physical rang out in a haunting toll unheard in the mortal coil. Feet firmly rooted, Lye blunted the blow, and forced the onslaught away from him.

As Elthas' weapons left contact, a chip of steel followed suit. Likewise, a mark from the curse of famine left its haunting touch on the specter's tools. The assassin buckled at the knees, dropped, and rappelled away from his assailant. As he skid to a stop in the snows of ash, Lye snapped his fingers to evoke the wrath of his forgotten powers upon Elthas. The ground in which the elf prepared his next assault began to cool and crackle. The embers of the Antifirmament faded and hissed, preparing to unleash an unholy flame to rival the one which consumed the forest around them.

Brow low and eyes narrow, Lye bore his teeth to Elthas. Though ghosts may not bleed, the assassin resolved to see Elthas suffer.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

The clang of the two weapons temporarily joined, clashed and sent sparks of energy everywhere. Elthas noticed that his spectral blade glowed with a dark energy that swelled off the man's own weapon and into his own. Elthas grinned at that point, he was not afraid. He knew that his opponent would be strong, so he readied himself for the journey that would occur. As the blades collided, Elthas readied himself. He saw his opponent bound off, Elthas's own eyes were quick. He was able to map the trajectory of his foe in his mind and made a point to cross reference the man's combat style.

Elthas was a fast study.

He saw the ethereal energies that swirled through the air from Lichensith's body. Energy that swirled from Lichensith flowed towards Elthas and he observed. He kept that dangerous smile on his face. Again, Elthas was not afraid of his enemy. His eyes were narrowed and he prepared to react. For a moment, he wanted to simply will himself out of the way. But another thought passed through his mind. No. I must overwhelm him. The fires of the inferno around him blinked for a moment as a new power was released from Lichensith. The scorched earth beneath ELthas did crackle and break at the weight of the man's assault.

And yet, Elthas smiled.

Used to pain and suffering, there was little that Lichensith could do that would marr Elthas. Elthas considered the glowing taint on his spectral blades as he felt the release of the man's power. At that point, right when the blast was about to erupt all around him...Elthas acted. Power coursed and burned through the wraith as he was assaulted by Lichensith, but Elthas was a crafty one. He moved at top speed, and then, as the energies burned through the air and broke the very earth beneath him, Elthas acted. Summoning one of his blink spells, he powered through the skilled attack. Elthas moved as a blur might appear. He didn't avoid the attack...instead he took it dead on.

Though he didn't have any kind of enhanced endurance, he was still capable of survival. And survive he did. The wraith moved forward, and covered the ground between himself and Lichensith knowing full well he had used one of his three available blinks. Energy that had been summoned by Lichensith burned and swirled around Elthas but he simply found the pain delicious. His eyes were narrowed as he looked at Lichensith. The smile, still on Elthas's face. "You don't know the meaning of pain." Elthas taunted and began to prepare his spectral daggers once more. He did not swing just yet...he merely floated there in front of Lichensith, as if daring him to act.

[Lye]

A blossom of azure flame erupted from the desolate earth where Elthas stood. Lye did not hear screams nor did he see the telltale struggle to fight off impending death. Instead, the blur of speed and trailing wisps of chilling flame shot from the frigid pyroclasm. As flickers of blue flame peppered his ghastly presence, Lye noticed a single eerie detail amidst the flurry of his opponent's agility.

A smile.

The assassin's lip flared and teeth clenched. The weight of this place hung heavy in his mind, forcing him to maintain a delicate balance between two planes while Elthas existed in only one. Here, the elven wraith did not fear death, nor pain, nor fatigue. For what Lye thought as a fight between them, Elthas merely smiled and stood defiant. This dawning reality sent a chill down the hardened assassin's spine. Lye knew his time here was indeed, "borrowed".

As his foe glided effortlessly in front of him, Lye felt a pang of doubt. Elthas readied his knives, a threat Lye feared from the spirit realm and one he aimed to avoid.

The assassin recoiled like twilight shadows from the flicker of a candle. He placed a fair space between his opponent and felt the heel of his boot press against the gnarled roots of a scorched Concordian tree. The gears of his mind spun with options to combat this ethereal threat. Something in the Antifirmament, in Elthas' world, had to be of use.

Lye's glance trailed to the statuesque figures of his fallen comrades, then to the swirling pyre of frosty blue and blazing red, and finally to the grimacing specter which wore Lye's flames with a jeering pride. A plot brewed and thickened in his mind. Lye readied to act.

"Pain," Lye scoffed. "What does a dead man know of pain."

The assassin pressed his weight into the charred trunk of the tree. He lunged headlong at Elthas with cursed blades in his wake. Lye's enchanted steel sped its needle points for Elthas' sternum. From the wake of Lye's flowing silver locks, his left hand arched wide and made ready to render the elf's head from his neck.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

With the frost-fire still burning Elthas even as he moved forward, in his blinking maneuver, the Wraith waited.

His eyes were quick and he saw the man's counter preparation. As Lichensith struck back, Elthas moved against the fellow's forward momentum. Stopping his blink movement in a moment, Elthas saw the attack towards his chest first. He figured another attack would come, so he risked something. With the smile still on his face, at the pain he was feeling, Elthas let Lichensith's taunts hang in the air for a moment. Elthas suddenly dashed forward and into Lichensith's attack. Elthas knew what and who he was.

He doubted any normal combatant would have tried something that crazy, that suicidal.

But Elthas was not a normal combatant. He was there to prove a point...he had a lot on the line with that battle. As he moved forward he stopped directly in front of Lichensith. The man's attack did puncture his chest, but it had a different reaction. Because of Elthas's wraith-like nature there were no organs to pierce. Instead, the cursed blades struck his spectral body. Elthas could feel the negative effect of Lichensith's weapons playing on his mind and soul. Dangerous.

He knew his actions were risky, but fortune favoured the bold.

When the second portion of the attack came, Elthas continued at that point.

He decided to duck, with the man's weapon still in his chest. He didn't know how or why, maybe luck? But he ducked. The man's second hand strike sliced a few strands of Elthas's hair that burned into ash in turn. Elthas kept the smile on his face the whole time. He had taken a considerable amount of damage, [i]and was taking a considerable amount of damage from those accursed weapons his foe wielded.

Now, as Elthas was directly in front of Lichensith, he acted.

"Time to return the favour." He said with that eternally taunting smile. He was trying to get under Lichensith's skin, mess with the man's fragile mind. He would make the man pay for everything he had done to Amari. And planned to do. "From Hell's heart, I stab at thee." Elthas said, and at that close proximity, Elthas acted. Moving with his own forward momentum, Elthas attempted to stab at the man's oblique section with his left arm. He would make sure his spectral weapon feasted adequately that day.

[Lye]

Ghosts were like memories - real but an illusion of what once was. Once physical and now a haunting remainder of shade, spirits to not obey the laws of man. As Elthas fell upon his enchanted blade, designed to combat such a threat, Lye cursed his nativity. Feet planted from the blow, he could only watch on as the viper's bite of Elthas' dagger fell into him. Trapped between realms, subject to both physical and corporeal, Lye's unusually hardened body failed to resist his foe's curved weapon. It sank deep and pain fired through his body like blaze upon tinder. The dull thud of Elthas' hand crudely informed Lye that the blade penetrated to its hilt.

Eyes wide and lungs expelled of breath, the assassin twisted and tore his tanto from the flaming spirit. He jerked his body away into a forced roll. Every torn muscle and rendered bit of flesh screamed out in Lye's mind. His foe's blade left his side, but the damage remained. Scalding ash and ember clung to Lye's leather carapace and singed his canvas leggings. Pain shot through the wound as it too rolled against the scorched earth and sent the assassin sprawling.

"Gyak-- Damn it," he cursed. Lye recovered a knelt stance, hand pressed against his sides where spectral steel drank of his blood. Smatterings of scarlet fell to the colorless soil, hissed, and charred to blackness. He pulled his hand away, confirming his wound visually as crimson ichor shimmered in the eerie light of the Antifirmament.

Past his hand, the glow of heated steel caught his eye as well as two statuesque columns of human coal. Theo's axe and Earlwin's longsword.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Death...it filled the air.

Elthas saw the burning husks of Lichensith's allies for a moment, then returned the gaze of his smiling face back towards the man himself.

"Life. Death. Funny to think about it isn't it? You must think all this unfair right now." Elthas shook his head. The spectral daggers had bit deeply into Lichensith, and at the same time, Famine from Lichensith's weapon also coursed through Elthas. Elthas had timed his counter strike flawlessly, and it had paid off. He looked as Lichensith knelt. "Consider this." Elthas said calmly, as he passed final judgment on Lichensith. "If you hadn't done the things to Amari that you've done...this would never have happened to you." Elthas was determined to make Lichensith pay for all his sins.

As Elthas stood there, the blazing inferno swirled about across eternity, time and space.

Elthas felt considerably weakened, the bastard's famine curse had affected him quite a bit. After all, I did take the full brunt of his initial attack...now I must endure. Elthas thought to himself. He looked down on his chest, though it was true...Elthas had no organs or bone in the physical sense, there was a glowing mark of energy where famine had struck. Spectral energy leaked out of the potent energy, but it was a gamble that Elthas had been willing to take.

Elthas looked down at the severe injury.

Spectral energy swirled off it, and it hurt like hell. Fitting. Elthas smiled wider at that point. Then he looked back at the bastard before him. Elthas readied his spectral daggers one more time. The hour is upon us now...all the world's a stage. And Elthas readied his mighty weapons. And as he stood there...something happened.

His mind calmed and he could see the image of Hylda Terrentius before him...Finish this... She said to him in his mind. A haunted past.

And Elthas acted decisively. He meant to finish the job he'd started with Lichensith and become as Death might. Elthas ran forward at best speed, and readied his daggers for one final attack. The plan became real at that point. A few paces directly in front of Lichensith, Elthas acted. He used one of his two remaining blinks in a full forward assault. But the target? He was going to attempt to to blink right through directly and finish him off in that sort of way. Even as Famine burned through his body, Elthas knew this was his finest moment. He had to make every microsecond count.

And the entire time, Elthas began to laugh at Lichensith...his laughter became maddeningly serious very quickly.

[Lye]

As Elthas turned and spoke, Lye urged himself to carry forward. Into the best of a sprint he could manage, he made for his comrades' discarded weapons. Unsettling as the specter showed to be, Lye drowned out its words in favor of survival. Guilty of it himself, speech whilst engaged in a life and death struggle only gave time and opportunity to a foe.

Lye dove toward Theo and Earlwin's remains to much protest of his wound. He winced, grit his teeth, and bore the pain as he tucked into a well timed roll. His body hit the scorched ground and he tucked his body in a peculiar manner. Shoulders, back, and finally, his wound pressed into the earth but found reddened steel instead. The growl of unfettered pain escaped Lye while the metal seared and scorched the open wound into a cauterized mess. Again, Lye recovered at a knee, but his foe proved unyielding.

With his verbal warning spit to the wind, Elthas charged.

'Theo, Earlwin...' Their names rang out in the assassin's mind as both gratitude and regret throbbed at his core. Brothers cast aside by society, starved in the streets of their home town, and victims of the world's ruthlessness turned to thievery and violence. In the end, they died as brothers and together, they still served nobly to a man who understood their plight.

Lye spanned his arms over his companion's blackened and warped shoulders and with one final embrace, they fragmented and scattered into a cloud of ash. Like the mist of shadows, the brothers enveloped the assassin. Elthas rushed and blinked from view. His trail blasted through the cloud like a cannon, dispersing it immediately.

In the remnants of the haze, Lye emerged. A trail of blood streamed from his forehead and down his eye. The leather that protected his shoulders looked as though they had been vaporized and his skin mangled. Despite the unavoidable damage from his foe's onslaught, Lye's blades lashed out with the fervor of a predatory cat. Two blows lashed for the Elven ghost's oblique as repayment. Fluidly, Lye's crossed arms transitioned to a second strike and scissored his cursed steel for the square of Elthas' back. Were his enemy mortal, Lye aimed to sever the spine and finish the task.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

Coming out of the blink maneuver, Elthas materialized to his normalish state.

As Elthas rippled back into existence out of the fancy blink maneuver, he knew he had driven his point home. But there was another problem, one that Elthas did not count on. The man, Lichensith had cut Elthas out of desperation. At that point, he was thankful for his ghostly form he remained mostly intact. However, large gashes were visible where Lichensith had cut him. Elthas looked down at the point where he'd been licked by both of Lichensith's weapons at that time. He knew Lichensith intended to destroy him. I must take him down first... Of course, the man's accursed blades has placed their dark power into Elthas and would likely be lethal.

But he still had time...

There was always time to act...

Elthas turned slowly towards the weakened form of Lichensith. Then, he ran at best speed...no more blinks or fancy maneuvers. Instead, he readied one of his mighty blades to launch one final assault at the crafty bastard. Elthas rotated his weapon a he ran forward feeling the exhausting weight of Lichenith's curses already acting against him. Elthas was leaking spectral energy very rapidly, he was hurting. But the blood that he saw on Lichensith's face was more than satisfying. Elthas ran forward deciding he would press the attack at that point. No room for mistakes...

He swung his mighty spectral blade with one solitary purpose. The decapitation of Lichensith, should his strike be true. And the entire time he endured the man's assault...Elthas laughed. The laughter...it never stopped. It almost seemed as if Elthas were enjoying the pain...the brutal punishment. Elthas swung his weapon down at Lichensith's neck in an attempt to end the battle. He knew they were both severely inured. I have to push myself a little bit longer...just a little bit. Shit this hurts...just what were those spells he used against me?

Tendrils of energy swirled off the Wraith as he attacked all he could do was wait...wait for the correct opening to strike.

[Lye]

Laughter, always with the hysterical laughter. Each phantom breath of the undead elf rang out like a death toll of deep, harrowing mockery. It echoed in Lye's mind and dredged up memories of his earlier days. His dead wife, the innocent prison guards flayed and broken, the faces of all the corpses he claimed in his mentally shattered hysteria. Almost as if radiating from his cauterized wound, it jostled Lye's movements. Something supernatural gripped him deeper than any poison.

He groaned to oppose it, pummeled by the maddening voice which seemed to echo only louder in this spectral realm. The hesitation gave his foe the moment he desired. Elthas swung, might backing his ferocious blow. Wisps of Lye's cerulean flames danced of the elf's spectral form. Seconds became minutes. Every heart beat pounded like a war drum in the assassin's chest. His widened, emerald eyes watched the reaper's scythe come to claim him.

Blade met flesh, blood poured against the blackened earth, and Lye's steel clattered like a chime against the ground.

No words escaped the assassin's lips in those few eternal seconds, only the soft, barely audible song of steel as it sang through the air. Lye, with Elthas' spectral blades buried half through his hand against the hardened bone his forearm, took a page from the elf's book. A sacrifice of one hand opened way an opportunity for the other. Cleaving as though to split the elf in half, Lye's blade dropped from above Elthas' head with all the might his battered body could summon. The leather of Lye's vest smoked, stray hairs lit aflame, and his skin began to bubble.

In exchange for the full stopping strength of bones as hard as steel, the assassin severed his connection to the shadow plane. Nothing staved him from the raw fury of the Anti-firmament. Defiant, ferocious, and merciless, Lye held steady to his resolve.

[Elthas_Belthasar]

In the blink of an eye it happened...

Elthas watched as the man dropped his only protection from the forces of the inferno all around. What's he doing...!? Elthas felt a momentary state of insanity as he considered the situation at hand. His spectral dagger got lodged into Lichensith's blocking forearm. Elthas felt a powerful weight against his spectral dagger, one that he had not counted on. His eyes narrowed at that point. Elthas noticed out the corner of his eyes that Lichensith was moving to attack again...

However, Elthas was not his normal self at that point.

Something had happened to him in his encounter with the bastard before him. Something quite dangerous. He wasn't sure of it up until that point, but the effects of Famine and the other curses Lichensith possessed played on his mind. He was smiling the entire time. Despite that, Elthas knew at that point. He'd changed. Something inside of his very soul had changed during the events of the battle itself.

And that change manifested even more clearly at that point.

Elthas did not stop laughing.

In fact, the laughter got louder as all semblance of rational and sanity faded in one decisive moment. Elthas quickly enacted the swirling plans in his mind. They were coming at him like a storm, rapidly. In that moment where nothing mattered...it all made sense to him. Lichensith had changed him in a very provocative sort of way. The offending spectral dagger that was intercepted by the Assassin's arm was the key. He is made flesh...I just need a moment longer... And Elthas acted.

He felt the weight of the plagued weapon that Lichensith used.

It sunk into trapezius muscle group and sank deeply in his body...

At that point, Elthas flicked his wrist and he was determined to finish Lichensith off. He wanted to be certain to take Lichensith with him. And so doing, he flicked his wrist and willed the spectral dagger to move. Elthas pulled his weapon and moved quickly to attempt to stab the bloody spectral dagger in Lichensith's face...and leave it in there if it plunged in.

Then, at that point the full effect of Lichensith's curses burned through Elthas.

Elthas laughed louder, and then he screamed horribly...

The famine, and everything else tormented and tore at the very spectral essence that kept Elthas intact. A few moments later, there was a brilliant burst of energy as Elthas exploded with a powerful energy. His body flared up, dispersing into burning ash as the laughing howl filled the air. Elthas had fought like a champion. As he vanished, there was one clear matter...the smile never left the wraith's face...

[Lye]

Unlike before, Lye's blade felt no resistance as it slid through Elthas' ghastly form. In earnest, the searing pain from his scorching flesh, burning hair, and collapsed lungs proved too much interference to notice. What he did notice, however, was Elthas' maddened expression as his spectral dagger swung overhead.

Lye struggled to wrench his arm free, but the split second of movement only served to lessen the blow. Phantom steel slammed into the assassin's brow. His bones, strong as smithed steel, staved the worse of the attack. Yet, as the dagger drew downward, the fleshy membrane of his right eye parted and ruptured. Sight immediately left him and in a voiceless cry of anguish, Lye's open jaw finally wrested the blade to a halt.

Then, in the echo of laughter, Elthas exploded in a dispersal of light. The force blew Lye to his back and tumbled head over heels through the charred earth.

At rest, Lye could only focus on one thing.

Air.

Wracked with pain, fingers dug into the embers and ash, Lye willed for the shadow's embrace. He begged for it, mind screaming for sanctuary. Air, he needed to breathe. Searing heat, he needed to be set free. Anything. Something!

*GASP*

Lye's lungs filled with the sharp, chilled air of the Seventh Sanctum. Steam roiled off his melted leather and bubbling flesh. Deep, long, painful, but necessary, he found the air his body needed. Lye clenched his hands, gripping a fist full of icy powder which quickly turned to water. Somehow, someway, through the peak of his desperation, he managed to step through the plane of shadows long enough to eject him back into the real world.

"Master!" shouted the shrill voice of Advencia.

He felt her hands on him and roiled from the exposed nerved of his burns. His eyes failed to focus. His cracked lips parted and dry mouth hoarsely spoke.

"Water," he groaned.

"What the--!" exclaimed another voice.

"Go get some water! Quick!" Advencia barked. Lye felt her tiny frame struggle to upright him. Through his aching body, he managed to stand, letting her bare the brunt of his weight. His only good hand clenched at his throbbing head. Crimson ichor peppered to the snow in swaths. Rivers of blood spilled from both his face and sundered arm.

"Your hand!" Advencia shouted as they staggered forward together. "Your eye! The portal closed, then--! Then--! What happened?!"

Lye's chest heaved, still relishing in the luxury of fresh, breathable air.

"I'll get the Ai'Brone," spoke a third.

"Water," Lye repeated in a hoarse drawl.

The remnants of the Sanctum busied about in the twilight hours. Bloodied rags fell to the floor and the shadows danced with figures of men trying to restrain their master's thrashing. The old monk failed short of his miracle, falling to the ground, dead. In the hours of dawn, the assassin finally quieted. From the madness induced by Ethas and his horrid realm, Lye's eyes finally focused on the hunched figure of Advencia. His mouth opened, but only a groan escaped.

The small succubus' eyes fluttered open, and it took a moment for her to awake.

"Master?" She asked, gripping his hand. He winced from the pain of unhealed wounds.

"Advencia..." Lye spoke in arid breaths.

"We couldn't save your eye..." The sentence left her lips with sorrow and defeat. Lye raised his bandaged hand to his forehead. A dull ache responded as it rest against the dampened linens over half his head.

"What?" No other words made sense. "Why? Where's Corvanik?"

Silence stood between them.

"Dead," Advencia stated. "The wounds, they wouldn't heal like normal..."

He felt her soft touch graze his side where Elthas stabbed hilt deep. It ached and burned.

"He gave his life to get you stable, but," she paused. "In the end, it was too much for him."

Lye rest his head against the pillow and stared at the hewn stone ceiling of the infirmary.

"Advencia."

"Yes, Master?"

"Help me dress."

"You're not--"

His voice remained soft, distant, but firm. "I said, help me dress."

"Y-yes, Master..."

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

Judgment

Story

Elthas: 15

You start with a solid continuation of the events of Day 4 (where Elthas issues Lye a stark warning about his treatment of Amari). It was good to see you looking to continue that line of story. However, I found myself a bit puzzled early on in the thread by an apparent contradiction of intent.

In your first post you state “It was not an issue of good versus evil, or right versus wrong. Elthas had stumbled upon a harsh crime being committed and he would make Lichsensith pay for it” which lead me to believe that the spectre was here for vengeance. Yet, in post three, you then state “He wanted to be absolutely certain he could speak to Lichensith and perhaps reach him if he could” before then again contradicting yourself a line later with “Elthas knew he had done the right thing. Either way...one of them was going down”. Finally, you then once again make a hard turn back towards a more passive line of enquiry with "Needed to bring you out here so we could talk." I found myself perplexed at Elthas’s intentions at this point and felt the initial story was at crossed purposes with its intended destination. Was he there to reason with Lye or get revenge for his friend Amari?

The setting of the Antifirmanent was a good idea, I thought, but I was rather hoping for a little more from you in terms of its use. This was an area that belonged to a wraith like Elthas and I expected perhaps to see some sort of manipulation of its workings. You mention the inferno amongst the trees but then most of your action focuses entirely on the combat, which detracts from this wonderful, ethereal place you have created.

One thing I believe you did well on was emphasising your connection with Amari and keeping on topic. In my last judgment for you I noted that you tended to sway “off plot” a few times but there was none of that here; initial confusion aside. You did what you came to do and your conclusion was both spooky and well written.

Lye: 19

As with Elthas, you lead with on from of the events of Day 4 and give us an insight of the events in the immediate aftermath, with Amari moved from her cabin to Lye’s private quarters and the discovery of Elthas’s gate to the Antifirmanent. From here, I thought you did a good job in making it known that there was a very clear and direct reason for Lye to enter Elthas’s world, conveying well his desire to confront the wraith over the previous day’s offences.

Your use of Theo and Earlwin in the fight accented your work, although I found myself a bit perplexed by Lye’s original non-reaction to their deaths in post two. Given the sweeping statement later made about them being “brothers of his cause” I perhaps thought his immediate reaction would be anger or at least some sort of veiled concern. That being said, their utilization throughout and the very way the Antifirmanent affected Lye and his men was absolutely superb. You used the setting better than Elthas and established one solid line of reasoning which was present throughout and that, essentially, was the difference here.

Your conclusion was well written and I liked how you have essentially created a canonised wound for Lye as a result. If I have one criticism, it is that I would have preferred to see more of a reaction to Elthas’s supposed death. Once the wraith is gone, Lye’s focus is (understandably) on getting some air, but then not so much as an afterthought is paid to the encounter. Perhaps this will be elaborated or expanded upon in another thread.

Character

Elthas: 17

Once again you mostly stay true to Elthas’s character throughout, placing emphasis on his nobility and good nature, but were hurt here by the confusion of your early posts. I think you would benefit from finding one particular direction in a thread with Elthas and sticking to it. The jumping back and forth between “wanting to make Lye pay” and then “wanting to reason with him” highlighted inconsistencies in Elthas’s persona that I couldn’t overlook.

I mentioned this in your last judgment, but I did like your use of internal dialogue to allow the reader to follow his way of thinking. You were a little less conservative with your spoken word than previous battles but I actually think it helped you here rather than hindered you because this particular bout had story connotations that verbally needed to be addressed.

I loved some of the action you portrayed here and I am a fan of the way that you put Elthas through the wringer. We are thankfully long past the days of people avoiding hits for the sake of “winning a battle”, but the hits you took not only served to show a certain level of fairness but were also tactically intelligent, such as those in post nine.

Finally, in your last post, we once again we see a metamorphosis in Elthas that jumps from normality to insanity; only this time there is consistency in the way it is done, which wasn’t the case in your last judgment. There was also a justification for it, which you wrote very well.

Lye: 22

The one thing I love about the way you write Lye is that you leave very little grey area when it comes to his persona. Almost every nuance, every line of dialogue and action that he took was consistent with the type of person he is – controlling, hedonistic and intelligent. Again, I believe your shortcomings stemmed mostly from small things – your previously noted delayed reactions to Theo and Earlwin’s deaths being one – but these were few and far between.

As I mentioned with Elthas, your actions absolutely defined you both here. I loved the fast back-and-forth combat and especially enjoyed the effects of Lye’s accursed weapons upon Elthas’s body. The outstanding moment of the battle for me, though, was Lye losing an eye. It is becoming less unusual in modern times that writers put their respective characters through the mill but it is very unusual to canonise a permanent wound. This is probably as a result of the Citadel, and its ability to heal even mortal wounds, but because this took place outside of its walls you gave Lye the chance to do something difference and offered a little character development into the mix whilst you were at it. Good job!

Prose

Elthas: 15

Unfortunately there were a large number of mechanical issues throughout that really hurt your score here.

I found quite a few spelling and grammatical errors which interrupted the pace of my read and threw me off, meaning I had to re-read sentences to fully understand what was happening or what you were saying. Again, to a degree I can understand why this happened because the thread moved along very quickly, but it wouldn’t hurt to run your work through a spell-check to eliminate as many “silly” errors as you can.

As an example, “Present was the large trees of Concordia Forest” should have been “Present were the large tress of Concordia Forest”. Another sentence read “With the scorching wind constantly flowing with sulpher in the air, debris, remains of a lost civilization.”, which, without wanting to cause you any offence, I still can’t decipher in the context of the rest of the post.

Your technique differs to Lye, but your delivery of the writing itself is still of a good quality. You use some nice literary devices but could profit from perhaps using a few more to add splashes of color to your work. You make use of paragraphing in such a way that adds suspense to Elthas’s actions but I do believe you could have perhaps benefited from separating out your dialogue from the main body of text. You did however avoid the previous pitfall of repetition of a single word too much in a sentence, which was a vast improvement.

Whilst the posts themselves were pretty straightforward, your clarity suffered as a result of the initial confusion as to your intentions. Otherwise, nothing else was particularly confusing or muddled.

Lye: 21

I thought the overall technique employed was fantastic. I could really visualize every small detail of each attack, the Antifirmanent and even the detailing on the wounds as they occurred. Lye, I’ve said this before you have a natural gift for bringing everything to life with your vivid descriptions and you gave this thread the texture it deserved with some of your more potent devices. A personal favourite was from post eight (“A blossom of azure flame erupted from the desolate earth where Elthas stood. Lye did not hear screams nor did he see the telltale struggle to fight off impending death. Instead, the blur of speed and trailing wisps of chilling flame shot from the frigid pyroclasm.”).

Mechanically speaking, my gripes are limited to basic things and seem a bit nit picky but are still relevant. You suffered from one or two instances of word repetition (“the the” in your opening post) and a couple of grammatical clangers (“Like leaves swept up in an vortex” which should have been “Like leaves swept up an a vortex”). There were one or two questions on punctuation as well (“From it, exuded an unnatural warmth while simultaneously broadcasting an eerie chill down the back of the assassin's spine.” – I’m not sure why the comma is there after “it. It’s either “From it exuded an unnatural warmth” or “From it, [something] exuded an unnatural warmth”). None of these issues stem from a lack of understanding of mechanics but I suspect instead were simply overlooked. A quick spell-check and read through might have eliminated these issues entirely, but they were present nonetheless.

The final word was on your clarity, which was pretty much spot on. Rarely (other than in the case of the issues highlighted above) did I not understand what was going on. Good work.

Wildcard

Elthas: 7

Lye: 7

Gentlemen, I am awarding you both equal points for collaborating to provide us all with an entertaining and somewhat unique battle that carries real-world implications for both characters. I love a thread with character development and I enjoyed this as an extension of Day 4. Well done to you both.

Final scores

Elthas Belthasar: 54
Lye: 69

Lye wins!

Lye receives 2875 EXP and 115 GP!

Elthas Belthasar receives 500 EXP and 90 GP!

[Shinsou Vaan Osiris]

All rewards added!