Round 2: Cyrus the Virus vs. Djakara [Archive]

Cyrus the virus

03-06-07, 01:16 PM

Illness was not a feeling Luc Kraus was accustomed to. Yet here he stood in the Citadel, his sense of taste warped and his flesh feeling heavier. This was the intrusion of the metal in his blood, though he had no way of knowing it.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” asked the monk by his side, a concerned look in his beady black eyes. Luc, shoulders drooping and eyes sunk deep in his head, looked at him with a blank expression.

Not one to sit in bed until he felt better, Luc wanted to sweat out whatever sickness had plagued him. It didn’t feel serious, as he was still as powerful as ever, but it was just enough to make him feel sluggish. That and a tangy taste was forever on his tongue, as if he had drank liquid copper.

“I’ll be fine. You just focus on finding somebody for me to fight.”

With that, he stepped through the swirling pearl portal. The sensation was mildly disorienting, but Luc ‘landed’ balanced on his feet in the arena, having experienced the teleportation so many times before.

He got a good sense of the arena as he looked about. His boots were placed firmly against a steel grate suspended a few meters above a sea of black, the waters of which seemed eerily calm, though every moment bubbles would rise to the surface and pop quietly. The grate itself was large enough in area to accommodate him and another, with more than enough room for each of them to move ten feet in any direction.

The whole of the arena was inside of a dark, moist cave, as far as Luc could tell. Light was emitted from futuristic-looking lights mounted on the surrounding grey stone; Luc supposed they were powered by ancient magic. That or the Citadel monk had simply decided for them to be there, the likely truth.

Before he could cast a defensive spell in preparation, Luc shuddered and caught a gasp in his chest before it could escape. A fiery pain ran up and down his left arm like a serpent, nearly paralyzing the limb. He drew the arm up with his right hand and looked at it, witnessing the way his skin tone changed from its usual pale pink to grey. The color ran up and down precisely where the pain was, like a shadow.

And as quickly as it had appeared, it was gone, leaving Luc to stare perplexed at his own forearm.