I'm a Fun Guy, I Promise! (Closed to Flamebird)

[Flamebird]

The sound of water circling down a drain trickled away as she rummaged through her satchel. From inside a small washroom, Felicity Rhyolite leaned against the wooden wall above the waste bucket. She had needed to go before her Citadel fight, and had just finished washing her hands like a responsible person. She pulled out a mirror from the bag. The cold item was held in a fanciful, old wooden case. The mirror itself was made not of glass, but of ice. The ice mirror, after four years of usage, still served her well.

The eighteen year old gazed into the reflection. Her hair was mostly pulled back into a loose yet strict bun. Smaller strands of hair lined the sides and her forehead. Her large forehead... The redhead tried brushing more hair around to cover her forehead, eyes narrowed in dull annoyance.

The girl sighed as she lowered the mirror. She looked down at her sturdy frame. The clearly muscular, fit girl attempted her best to dress in a respectable manner - she was a general, after all. Outside the Citadel, she had responsibility. She wore a black coat. With double buttons wrapping the top, the back strips of the coat reached down to her ankles. She had tight, black leather boots on her feet, still suitable for acrobatics. The white pants, tucked under all other cosmetics, unfortunately bore marks and stains of mud and ash from the journey here. Felicity was unused to wearing such formal attire here, but she was an honored member of the Brotherhood of Castigars now. It was her duty to look her best.

She had grown up.

She slipped the mirror back into the pack hanging on the nail of the locked door. She rested her head against the back of the stall, internally questioning the battle ahead. She was tired of paperwork and ordering soldiers around. She wanted to feel alive. With her mentor a bit busy for training sessions, Felicity turned to the brutal yet brilliant Citadel.

A heavy thud sounded from just outside. Felicity's head shot up, eyes wide, as boisterous knocking barraged the door to her stall. "Come on! You've been in there for ten minutes, I need to go!"

With a long sigh, Felicity pulled the satchel from the back of the door and wrapped it around her body. Battle awaited her...

She opened the stall. As a rather angry dark elf rushed into the stall, Felicity stepped onto the cold stone floor. Just down the bland, vacant hall stood a hooded figure. The monk of the Citadel leaned against the wall, guarding several weapons laid against the wall. His expression was vague and shadowed as the girl walked over. She started clipping the two arming swords to her belt as the monk spoke with a voice like cold water.

"Your fight is down the hall and to the left, Madame."

Felicity hooked the quiver of iron arrows to her belt, then reached for her knife as she hooked the knife's sheath to the strap crossed over her arm, she smiled and nodded to the monk. "Thank you."

The monk continued to look straight ahead, into some sort of void. Felicity's smile melted like snow. She strapped the sheath to her katana on the strap and pulled it to her back. Silently grasping her war bow, she jogged down the empty halls until she reached her destination. She had seen it many times before. An unassuming, simplistic oak door. On the other side, however, the monks worked their brilliant magic. Her sense of magic flared as she opened the door.

The door cracked open, revealing a long forest ahead of her. This forest, however, was the most bizarre of places. Instead of trees, this arena was spotted with massive mushrooms. The tree sized mushrooms, red, blue, green, yellow, and more, covered the damp landscape in colorful array. The ground on the other side of the door was damp and cool. Felicity could feel the chill floating up from the weed coated, muddy ground. Understanding that her outfit would ruined by the wet weather, Felicity took a deep breath and took a step in. The mud was insanely shallow, barely making a splash as Felicity stepped inside. She closed the door behind her, taking in the rich earthy scents of this land.

Step after step, Felicity walked under the mushroom forest. A diversity of sizes and shapes surrounded her. Many shadow colors danced on the forest floor as sunlight filtered beneath the shrooms delightful canopies. So caught up in the strange forest, Felicity smiled as she took step after step into the forest. The door was soon lost and out of sight.

Felicity remembered very well that battle was to be fought here. She knew the muddy ground would pose a problem for her footing and once again regretted wearing this outfit here. Attempting to be mature, Felicity forgot how much the elements could effect her. Looking up towards the dim sky, Felicity clenched her war bow. She would have to get dirty and fight. Both mud and blood would fly within this fungal paradise.

She was ready.

[Rehtul Orlouge]

"It's time," Rehtul said to himself as he pushed himself off the wall and opened the door before him. He'd been told to wait a couple of minutes for them to find him an opponent, and just to enter that door when the time had elapsed. He breathed in the new air and found it to be damp and muggy. He looked at his white pants and coat with a cringe. This was going to be a dirty fight, he could already tell.

He stepped through and heard the telltale squelch of boot hitting mud as he looked around. The place was dimly lit, but visibility was still there. He could easily see his opponent, so long as they didn't have some ability that allowed them to blend into the shadows. Soft luminescence filled the area around him as he continued to walk forward. The source was giant mushrooms, fungi, growing as tall as the trees of Concordia and emitting a soft glow in a rainbow of colors.

"Hm, well... Where plants fear to tread, fungi will often take their place. They don't necessarily require direct sunlight to grow, so it comes as little surprise that they'd be able to grow easily in a subterranean environment like this one. Though that does beg the question..." Rehtul trailed of as he looked in every possible direction for a wall or roof. As the gloom turned into pitch black darkness at the edge of his vision, he could see no signs of an edge to this underworld populated primarily by bioluminescent fungi.

He frowned slightly as he came to a stop. His ears perks up as he heard the same squelching that his own boots had made. His opponent was nearby and apparently favored somewhat the same type of footwear for battle. As their silhouette came into view, Rehtul could make out it was at least someone who was taking this seriously. It appeared to be a dress uniform fitting for a ranking officer of some military unit, but also appeared tough enough to protect the wearer under normal combat situations.

Probably lined with puncture resistant materials, he thought to himself. As the woman, for from her body shape he could now tell that this was indeed a woman, approached, Rehtul reached toward the mud beneath him and concentrated. The air around him dropped in temperature substantially as white-tinged wind whipped around his arm. Water, cool and clear floated up from the damp floor and around his gloved hand. It solidified itself into a wrist-mounted sword. He gave it a couple of experimental swings and then turned toward his opponent.

"I pray you don't mind me arming myself ahead of introductions. I'm Rehtul Orlouge. I'll be your opponent today."