RE: =Elemental Championships= Cellar Arena


	Home \| Login \| Register \| Help \| Play

RE: =Elemental Championships= Cellar Arena

Logged in as: Guest

Printable Version

All Forums >> [Gaming Community] >> [Role Playing] >> The Championships >> RE: =Elemental Championships= Cellar Arena

Page 2 of 3

Forum Login

Message

<< Older Topic Newer Topic >>

8/15/2007 19:45:40

Riker
Member

He drew in the attention of other competitors, that much was expected. The soud and sight of arrows flying at him, the cloaked man now very angry, charging at him, due to the fact that the object he froze earlier seemed to be his pet flea. The Golem on the other hand seemed to have not cared and was still focused on the mage. These events were almost moving by in slow motion, even though time wasn't altered. Maybe I am a monster. He started thinking to himself. Maybe all I do is cause death and destruction, and should be slain. He started to accept the thought that this was the end. He was about to give up. He then thought back, far back to another year.

"This can't be all I'm here for. To be reject from the people that cared about me, before I learned to freeze." He was sitting on a chair in a room darkened from absence of light. "I will find my purpose. I will not die until I know what I am here for.

He grabbed the jug on his back and smashed it against the ground. It shattered into tiny pieces. At this exact time, he collected fallen ice needles to the point of impact. The water in the jug flew through the air, and along with the needles, formed a protective dome around him. Combinded with his will, the dome could withstand some of the most powerful non flame techniques. Flames would damage it, but not break it. The only true drawback, he couldn't attack.

< Message edited by Riker -- 8/15/2007 20:33:21 >

AQ	Post #: 26

8/15/2007 20:30:55

Cheeseliker
Member

The girl had been as fast as expected, maybe faster. The bells on her jangled and she turned on a dime, firing an arrow along with a little wind magic that turned away his shards quite easily. The arrow was shot quickly though and had no real chance of hitting him. Unfortunately, the noise that followed was nearly as painful as any wound the arrow might have inflicted. The sharp whistling made him cringe, stopping his motion and nearly shutting his eyes. Realizing his mistake, he rolled to the side, wary that standing still whilst engaged with an archer was foolhardy.

His eyes widened as he realized the girl had truely fired another arrow but not at him. It flew towards someone else, air waves pulsing around it as it went. He wondered why she had fired the arrow, then noticed the ice needles flying every which way, fired by some crazy ice mage. Malloc was forced to abandon his attack on the archer for the time being, his attention diverted to dodging. He was suddenly in his element, and no, I am not speaking of Earth. His body moved as fluidly as an acrobat, as gracefully as a dancer, and as quickly as any human could move. He flipped, twirled, spun, leaped, and cartwheeled around the Arena, avoiding every ice needle that came near. He even dodged, dipped, ducked, dived and...dodged.

He landed not too far from where he had started, his breathing heavy and sweat dripping from his forehead, but he was grinning. Those had been some of his best moves yet, and yet he knew he wasn't even started. He lived to move like that, and he could only wait for more. But not now. Now, he needed a plan.

The wooden staff beneath his fingers twisted and moved, and he shook his head. "Not yet..." He whispered, looking around. He realized he was near where he had dropped his bag, and quickly moved to it, glancing around making sure nobody was interested in him. He reached in and grabbed another ball, wondering just what to do with this one. He saw the archer and nodded. Why change enemies now?

He whispered another magical chant, different from before, and dropped the ball to the ground. It hit, then slowly sank into the earth. It moved towards the archer fast, its movement only noticable by the small amount of ground disturbed by its progress. It would move underneath the archer and rise up, hopefully trapping the the girls legs and holding her still long enough for Malloc to once again close in. He grabbed another ball and put it in his pocket as he moved. He moved slower this time, not following his ball right away, but moving around the pillars, trying to get closer without getting noticed. As the ball came closer, he leaped out of hiding and charged, once again ready to use his staff face to face.

< Message edited by Cheeseliker -- 8/16/2007 6:23:06 >

AQ	Post #: 27

8/15/2007 22:20:32

demonhunter
Member

A scorch mark... That was the only effect her attack had on the golem. Muttering a string of curses under her breath, Lisa gathered her energy and used it to teleport herself to a point some eight metres behind her foe. It was a rushed teleport, which was a little dangerous, as it was possible to leave parts of herself behind if she didn't concentrate hard enough.

Fortunately, she arrived in one piece... Mostly... Her robe had been left behind, and it crumpled to the floor with nothing to support it. Now, she was wearing only her undergarments and her chain shirt. Her cheeks turned red slightly as she realised this, but she didn't dwell on it over much. She had more important things to worry about.

She shifted her grip on her staff, and sent a telepthic command to it... A curved steel blade, about a foot long, slid out of the end furthest from her. She held the staff now in such a manner that one would almost think she believed it a sword...

Her eyes narrowed, and the blade began to glow brightly. At the same time, a small point of light could be seen gathering at the tip of the index finger of her right hand. Lisa was a skilled multitasker; it was something she'd had to learn to survive.

She moved the staff to her right, and then brought it around to her left in a swift slashing motion, releasing a swathe of light that would act as a blade, directly at the golem. When that was released, she was able to focus her energy on the light at her fingertips. If this move failed, she would be able to follow it up immediately... She hoped.

Post #: 28

8/16/2007 11:32:06

xaxtoo
Member

Another loud eerie shrill invaded his hearing, this time much more sharply than before, and still rising in amplitude. He slightly stumbled, losing precious speed he had accumulated. It was such as if his ears were on fire, nay a thousand tiny needles all striking simultaneously at his ear at the same time, no time to act on it now. In almost a futile attempt he draped his ears over the side of his head. His target is in reach.

Just another instant more, but his slight slip opened the door of chance as an imminent rapidly forming icy shield. Launching his puppet into a rapid head first pirouette for the last second boost in a bordering reckless maneuver that cracked the fake blood system, springing forth a small ring of red around the puppet’s midsection. Still an opening, almost, now, as Lapinche struck out one of the puppet’s leg as a sharp guillotine blade condemning the fate by bearing down upon the poor neck of the guilty man in the final act of judgment.

Too late! Already in the downward slash, Lapinche couldn’t stop. A resounding bang concluded his attack as the leg of the puppet completely shattered into many pieces upon hitting the icy dome. Still sailing and spinning through midair, Lapinche immediately yet ruefully cut off all remain wires linking himself to his puppet to sadly abandon what can be now is described a massive bloody jumble of wood enmeshed in wires. Unexpectedly, the source of the murderous aural discomfort collided with puppet shaking it, unsettling Lapinche’s footing landing him on all fours. Indignity suffered, revenge to be extracted in kind. Hopping off was especially painful to him for having lost both a container of his association with humanity and his amenities. If he has the chance, he will have to recover the carrots and the manuscript, and maybe the fake blood device, so his technology competent friend can examine it and make improvements. He watched, shedding a small tear and drooping his ears as the puppet sailed through the air from so much built up momentum towards the eastern wall. To his surprise and consternation the puppet exploded in a jumble of scattered wooden pieces shredding the clothes on their way every which direction, even, to his chagrin, precious munchies spilt out. Only the clothes remained on path, but without most of its support structure it soon, like a deflated balloon, lost the trajectory and floated, still wrapping the manuscript almost as a tribute of penultimate service to the holy words, to the ground, where all his precious carrots now lie, sullied!

No time for eulogies now, as he potentially has a list of things he might have to eulogize starting with a probable Germaine, and he added puppet, and subsequently each remaining carrot he hadn’t eaten. Turning his attention back to the iceman, he was just in time to see some ice needles, strike iceman’s icy shield dome. Reflected or was it another ice user? Trivial seemingly now since the either new or reflected attack did anything consequential.

A stationary target was more than Lapinche could have hoped for. Anything else would have significantly reduced the effectiveness of his planed attack. Even if it is ice completely solid from outside to the utmost inner core, where his target is hiding, he was going to melt it, and he was going to relish the opportunity to impress someone through his magnificent display of his mastery over air and its properties, whether the Elemental Lord happened to be paying attention or not. A golden opportunity to show one of the prized techniques of the monastery will not be let wasted.

Circling back to the west side of the dome due almost as much to familiarity as with the lack of threats on this side, Lapinche turned to face the structure but not before he noticed the mess his puppet has caused before running dry on blood. As his limber ears, still ringing mind, in a display of acrobatics, silently beckoned and amassed a large quantity of wind, he gathered a large amount of chi acting as a wind divide to enclose the icy dome with an opening where Lapinche was standing and one directly after the dome.

Preparations completed, Lapinche turned sideways, so he can point one of his stubby little fists at the structure in a dramatic pose. Rue this day iceman, the bunny glared menacingly once more at the iceman’s shelter. For Germaine! For the continuity of carrots! For summer fur! With his ears struggling under the strain to retain the shape of one large circle as a fence for intensely compressed air, he slightly lifted the tip. A huge bang signified that massive torrent has been unleashed. Instantaneous upon release, a bow, starting from the ground and extending to the chi shield, can be seen separating Lapinche from the dome. Behind the bow, the dirt on the floor was flung up and to dance amongst themselves other all the way out through the farther opening before still flying in a sporadic path towards the eastern wall.

AQ	Post #: 29

8/16/2007 13:26:09

Harlequinade
Member

With a menacing force the anvil-sized fist struck Lisa Hunter. So great was the force that nothing was left of the poor girl. Nothing at all. Except for her robe, which now lay buried in the small crater caused by the golem's sheer strength. Apparently the blow had been of such power that the girl had vaporized or perhaps been struck into another dimension. Perhaps she had been withdrawn from the arena as the second competitor of the cellar. It was not unthinkable that in order to prevent a gruesome death the merciful Lords had teleported her away from the golem. To protect her. Or perhaps they had taken her for other reasons. That would explain why such an attractive young woman had left behind her robe. If the Lords needed earthly delights then surely they had picked a fine fruit to taste.
None of these thoughts raced through the missing head of the golem.

It stood motionless for a second with its fist planted in the ground, frozen in its last movement and now seemed more like a harmless, albeit bizarre, piece of décor.
As Lisa Hunter materialised behind the golem and prepared her actions the golem started moving again. A human would have needed to turn around to see her there. But something without eyes has no need to see. Whatever mystic force made it possible for the golem to find its targets it worked in all directions and not like the relative linearity of human vision.
With a leap backwards the yellow Goliath was attacking again. Without a change of tactic it simply rushed backwards – or was it forwards?
The outcome of this duel seemed to be based on who had the most resources; the tireless golem or the mortal girl, bound by how far she could push her own body.
It was bizarre, however, for when the golem landed it did not turn around to face her. The monstrosity ran backwards as if time had been reversed and if not for the danger the golem possessed the scenario would have seemed almost humorous. Certainly the spectators to this once-in-a-life-time duel were getting their gold's worth of entertainment. Not just from the golem but also, and in particular, from the sight of the half-naked girl as she stood there in her undergarments so all could see her curved figure. If she survived today's tournament then it was almost certain some of the young men would come seek her out, thinking her more of a prostitute than a fighter.

A sudden wave of something flowed in over the arena. The wave distorted the vision and raised the temperature. Everything seemed a drunken haze, senses both heightened and at the same time all out of order.
But this time it was the humans who could not feel what happened. Where they had light and sound to guide them the golem only had these vibrations of an outer plane. It could feel what humans only could to such a degree that it was laughable. Most animals were completely oblivious to the plane that guided the golem and now roared like a vast ocean during an apocalyptic storm. The golem felt the plane from which it had been pulled out of. In this moment it felt the plane of ideas. Emotions were running wild now. The spectator who watched the arena duel were excited about something. Many laughed and many cheered - especially those who had not bet money on the Lapinche. The mortals who viewed the match were suddenly overwhelmed with a pleasure in seeing others get hurt; Schadenfreude. They radiated schadenfreude.
The trigger of this sudden emotional burst was the massacre that took place elsewhere in the arena. The puppet met its doom and splintered into many fine little pieces. How marvellous. How cruel. How they loved it. The destruction and the death. This was what the spectators came for. Why else would one go to arena matches? Why else was it that bar brawls and street fights attracted such an audience, who always just stood their ground and viewed the bloodshed? Schadenfreude. The humans felt pleasure in watching the suffering of others. Even the illusion of pain was enough to make the onlooker reach near orgasmic pleasures. The puppet had probably felt nothing like the golem had not felt the previous blast of light. But the puppet had been shattered and this the audience loved. They filled the arena with their schadenfreude. They allowed the golem to feast on it.

With the sudden burst of nutrition the golem was allowed to grow. Like a fire spreads as long as there is enough to consume then so did the golem grow. The sudden burst of schadenfreude in the air was like a fresh breath of oxygen to a camp fire and the silent embers suddenly burst up to create frivolously dancing flames.
In a sudden, violent motion the right shoulder of the golem changed. In a second a one feet green spike erupted from the once round yellow shoulder. What use the spike had seemed nonexistent as no arena fighter could reach the spike, let alone be impaled on it, but nevertheless the spike shot out like lava from a volcano.
What happened on the other shoulder was even stranger. Instead of a round, pointy cone the shoulder began to emit bubbles. It could be that this was how the golem was supposed to react but maybe, just maybe, the lack of results could be attributed to the blast of light that had struck the shoulder only moments prior. Over the next minute or so the shoulder would turn into a small hump of sort. As if the spike that was supposed to be there had melted away and left a molten blob on the shoulder, in a colour just a little more dark green than its more fierce-looking counterpart.
As a last change the golem’s left baby arm grew in size, though only very slightly. The fingers began to spastically move about on the arm, like a puppeteer pulling invisible strings and the arm stopped growing when it reached the size of a 10-year-old girl’s fragile limb.

The backwards running monstrosity did not seem to react to these changes, though. If Lisa Hunter could do two things at once then surely the golem could too: Alter its shape and keep attacking.
While the spike grew out and the arm changed size, the golem itself kept on running towards the young woman, Lisa Hunter. But unlike before, where the golem had simply tried to crush the girl under its feet, it now began swirling around the lower part of its strong, right arm. The spheroidal joint allowed the golem to swing the arm around in a circular motion with tremendous speed so that the arm seemed to almost form a shield. Should anyone be hit by the swirling three-fingered fist at the end of the arm then the result would look grim.
Whatever force possessed the golem to act like this was a clever force, indeed. The golem seemed to master the arm with more skill that in mastered its feet for on several occasions the golem seemed about to stumble in its awkward backwards run.
When Lisa Hunter attacked she sent out a blade of light. It cut through the air and towards the naked back of the golem with impressive speed. If the blade had hit its intended target then no one could predict the result for no one had ever seen such an attack strike a golem of schadenfreude before. But the curious ones that hoped to witness such a result to tell their grandchildren of it would have to wait at least a little longer for as the shimmering light blade came flying all it connected with was the golem’s special right arm. The arm swirled around in front of the back – how stranger that may sound – and successfully acted as a shield. Once more there was a bright flash as there seemed to be when light and schadenfreude collide, but to those who did not close their eyes they would see that the golem reflected the light blade and send it flying up into the air. If by intention or by pure luck from the golem no one could tell – as always.
With no apparent harm done to it (no one could tell if the arm was damaged for it continued its swirling about) the golem acted. With so little distance between it and Lisa Hunter it made an attack one would not have suspected of such a being.
It jumped.
Planting both its massive feet in the ground it crouched for a second and then with all the power it could conjure up it leapt high into the air with a magnificent grace. When it reached up about three or four meters in the air it began descending again. Lying almost horizontal in the air it fell down with its back first towards Lisa Hunter. The golem would surely crush her, seeing as it weighed nearly ten times what she did. Still in the air the arm kept swirling about like a shield to protect the broad yellow back. Regardless of the outcome it was interesting just to view the act.

< Message edited by Harlequinade -- 8/16/2007 13:58:52 >

Post #: 30

8/16/2007 15:03:11

Riker
Member

Reave seen his foe through the frosted crystaline structure. The breaking of the shell, his true form, and that rage that was focused into a compression of air. The blast was sent spiraling towards his direction, and all he could do was hope that his shield would hold against the mighty blast.

It didn't.

Apon impact, a surge of heat hit the shield, how hot, he couldn't say. The true issue was the unstable air within the dome. Shaking and turning, he could continue the fortification of the ice. It shattered all around him, andalmost instintly evaporated. The resulting explosion of the shield blasted Reave into a far mirror. Shards slashing against his skin on the way there. He hit the wall, and dropped the ice dagger in his hand. Shaking, he was completely stunned from it, he couldn't move his body. He went back to the world inside his head.

"You lack aggresion" he heard the voice as if it was yesterday. " If you do not attack your opponent with the desire to kill, you can't exceed. You might not reach your goals." "Teacher your right." His rapid breathing calmed down, and he stood up. He pulled a large shard out of his arm. Instead of there being blood, the was water, which quickly solidified and patched up under his skin. This was the same with all of the cuts. He felt it, the desire to kill. This gift may have caused him misery all of his life, but now it would be the solution. He walked towards his attacker, collecting what remained of the water in the air, and forcing it into his body. The water he drank earlier was just to prepare. prepare his armor. A frozen layer of ice that aligned itself against the muscles and under the skin.

"I have never wanted to use this technique on another living being. But I must now, as I have no other option." Holdng out his hand, he concentrated his power into freezing the air around his hand. The result was what looked like a blue flame. flickering around wildly and with the same destructive look of fire. He was taught his other moves by other cryokinesis users, but this was purly his own, that only he could do. He was ready and pitied the fool who thinks he could stop this. He held out his hand and in an instant, giant blue flames ingulfed everything on their way to his target, mving swiftly with the apperance of a blue dragon. Everything the flames touched shattered into frozen dust. He was ready to kill, and he would if neccisary.

< Message edited by Riker -- 8/16/2007 15:04:17 >

AQ	Post #: 31

8/16/2007 22:28:45

Varin
Member

Step by trudging step, Davian continues towards the center. At least, his body does, with his mind being elsewhere for the time being, he barely notices the movement. The speed of his progress increases slowly with each step, his destination is apparent to any that can see hin, the southwest most pillar. Coming from the southwest corner of the arena, this is not an entirely unexpected move.

What else am I wrong about? How else have I been a fool? Davian's perception of self railed at the question. Shaken were his tenets, shattered were his beliefs, sundered were his thoughts. Everything. In all possible ways. You are a but a newborn, mewling at mother's teat. I can not even call you naïve for that would be a compliment to your vacuous cavern of a mind. A scoff can be heard in the antagonist's perceived voice, scorn and contempt laced within the words. Silence in Davian's tortured mind reigned as he fumbled to grasp concepts foreign to him.

The events happening around the arena were lost to him. One competitor's façade being blown to bits, one competitor being ravage by their own attack, the golem in it's macabre recreation of life, none of it was being registered to Davian. It could have been due to the fact that his mind was in another place, or quite possibly because the pillar that he was walking into was obstructing his view of pretty much everything. Being nose to stone isn't exactly the best vantage point for a view, after all.

With a roar of rage at the offending item, Davian swings his "rapier" at it, connecting soundly! That is, of course, if he still had said weapon in his grasp. Instead he merely managed to punch himself in his left wrist. Utterly embarrassing had he thought about it, but he wasn't even aware of his own actions. If he was feeling anything, he would have most likely felt relief that no other competitors could see Davian. Snarling sadistically he rounded the pillar and reached for the sword that for years used to be strapped to his back. All he managed to nab with his free hand was the collar of his cloak, which he grasped as he would a hilt of a weapon and "drew". Around the southwest pillar Davian came, brandishing his mace and a cloak, facing the center of the arena.

Post #: 32

8/17/2007 10:04:04

demonhunter
Member

The light blade deflected... The creature changed... What the hell was with this thing? Lisa was starting to doubt her chances of survival, let alone her chances of victory.

Just my luck to be up against a frickin' golem, she thought grumpily.

Her eyes never left the creature as she debated her next move... Her decision was made for her, when it leapt into the air. Crouching, she lunged forward, close to the ground. Tucking her head in, she somersaulted, landed on her feet, and pushed forward again, clearing the creature's landing point by as much as was humanly possible.

Her robe... An aerial flip to bring her close to her robe. A point of light could still be seen at her fingertip as she reached for it. Observers would be a tad surprised to note that she did not, in fact, don the garment, but instead seemed to be groping for something in the pocket, whilst she kept a wary eye on her opponent.

Her unseeing fingers found their objective: A small cloth bag. Tearing it from the pocket, she threw herself into another cartwheel, away from the mirrored wall. Upon landing, she turned to face her opponent, her staff having somehow found its way back into the carrier that adorned her back.

She tipped the contents of the bag into her left hand, keeping her hand in a closed fist to prevent others from seeing what she held. They would find out, in due time.

Post #: 33

8/17/2007 19:59:39

xaxtoo
Member

Lapinche is annoyed.

Moments before, Lapinche had been filled with a sense of destiny, only because he was certain of his victory, for exacting revenge on everything that the iceman has wrought on him thus far. He had even tumbled upside-down, flippantly switching between one ear stand to the other to enjoy the fallout of one of the sacred techniques of ear pugilism in a different light. No, he didn’t relish in the havoc, he liked watching the way the compressed air fought the serene surroundings before finally dying out, elucidating some of the very nature of the world, such as why the monastery is always halcyon despite turmoil in other places. He didn’t watch the iceman flying towards the wall and crumpling as a rag doll—why would he, a dead body is of no interest to him, nor did he see the unexplained phenomenon of the ice dome that should have sublimated instantly shatter into shards sharp enough to puncture the iceman in various places, watching the eddies whirl was idyllic bliss, and almost making him forget that this was still a battlefield.

But for some bizarre inexplicable reason, somehow, the iceman stood up, becoming the source of why Lapinche was annoyed. Mostly, his annoyance derived from the iceman surviving what was certain death for anything living, subjected to heat approaching a thousand degrees, water would have instantly vaporized leaving the body, a living capsule for water, dessicate and blackened. How this man could’ve survived, Lapinche couldn’t explain, only knowing for certain that he wouldn't enjoy telling the elders as well as his master that the technique which has endured time itself has met failure on the battlefield. Perhaps that was the root of his aggravation, having to be the bearer of disastrous news on top of everything else he still has to do, including eulogizing the carrots.

Not opting to give the iceman respite, he stood up after all, which was a signal for the continuation of battle, Lapinche again sped towards the iceman, this time without the obstruction of wooden pieces. Against this man, Lapinche was even willing to renounce his foolishly obtained dignity and fall on all fours to further increase his already incredible speed. The man stretched out a steady hand, odd considering the recent trauma, and shot out a stream of azure flame taking the shape of a dragon with an open maw, eager to feed on the cute bunny in its path with the fluffy white tail. Oddly enough, Lapinche had a nagging feeling something like this was up the sleeve of the ice mage, even to the degree that it may be a powerful yet generic energy burst. Still, besides the thing obviously freezes and is huge the properties of the flame remain mysterious, but Lapinche already formed a plan only guessing on several aspects of the icy flame. Slowing down slightly, mostly for balance as he became a biped, Lapinche gathered air in front of his ears as he ran drawing closer to the snout of the dragon and the tendril of blue flame that acted as its tongue. He could feel the air acting sluggish as he neared, sensing the opportune moment, dived head first into the air, which deposited into a block of ice, landing on it with both of his ears, before pushing off, reversing all the momentum he had built up in a single moment. Being so close to the flame, Lapinche should have given off the illusion of being absorbed by it, losing out to its strength in his incapacity to stop in time.

He flew feet first towards the pillar with which he had previous built a rapport. Observing the flame moving further and further away yet noticing that the fire was relentless, worried that he might have to perform extra maneuvers upon landing, he turned his attention to his path of flight which to his surprise was a little off target as he won’t be coming close to the pillar but would rather hit the man he had previously tossed into a corner. The man still looked crazy with a mace in one hand and the other grasping the collar of his cloak with the lethal intent to strip. He doubted the man’s ability to escape from the anti-fire. The irony would haunt him for eternities if he was the extenuating reason for the man’s demise. Therefore, with a slight twist of his body, he sailed past the man without touching him with the exception of his ears, which he used to grasp the man’s waist redirecting his speed by circling the man, while rapidly calling his chi to gather into his ears to create an explosion of air which propelled the two in opposite directions, hurling both to safety from the azure flame. Lapinche hoped his flings with the man wouldn’t become a regular happenstance.

AQ	Post #: 34

8/17/2007 22:18:26

Varin
Member

Davian's next step was into thin air. Then his one following that wasn't really a step anymore as he was airborne.. once again, this time heading towards the north-west corner of the arena. The momentum from his meeting with the bunny and the subsequent explosion was fair enough to hurl him with enough force to collide soundly with the wall of the arena. Normally something this traumatic would snap a person's neck with an audible crack, except for the fact that these particular mirrors reflect most projectiles off of them.

Including people.

So colliding with the reflective surface resulted in a turn of direction, this time to the northeast, Davian's body continued soaring through the air, his cloak still wielded as it were a sword, trailing loosely behind him; it waved with the air resistance, but much less than it probably should have.

It was with a tumbling roll that Davian did come back down to earth. He passed some female, half naked, being tormented by a half-ton golem; if Davian thought that odd or in the least bit curious, he did not express it in anything other than a whimper of pain. He continued to careen onward, stopping near the middle of the northern wall of the arena. Bruised and battered were his sides and back, but still fighting fit. His tunic had multiple rips in it as did his trousers, a lamentable waste of good silk if he had thought about it. Again his body pushed itself to its feet, instincts taking over where mind gave over.

Across the championship those poor sots who have their Lord's favor are dying left and right, what makes your battered corpse any better? Silence reigned in Davian's mind while he mulled this question over.

Nothing? Again, contempt laces the pseudo-words of this other quantity, I did not ask what you were, but close. Closer than you have been in your entirety. The voice trails off there, leaving Davian's assaulted mind to its own devices. For the moment.

Post #: 35

8/17/2007 22:19:22

Harlequinade
Member

The crash was of such magnitude that had the golem had any ears then surely it would have become deaf from the sound. The ground around it trembled and small stones flew about as the yellow body crashed into the cellar's cavern ground, forming a golem-shaped hole in the arena floor.
If the golem had hit the girl it would have been a grim sight, indeed. Her blood would, for the rest of the battle, adorn the golem’s smooth, broad backside, turning it from yellow to scarlet. The thought of something capable of fighting with a dead girl's insides on its back was quite frightening, indeed. Luckily for the more fragile onlookers a sight that grim was not to be seen at the moment. For the girl was as fast as she was agile and she easily managed to escape the meteor-like golem as it came crashing down from above, like a twisted fallen seraphim. But as always the illusion of pain was there. The girl could have been crushed and turned into a puddle of goo. The result was a second wave of schadenfreude that came flowing in over the arena, lesser in magnitude that the first but powerful enough to change the golem once more.
The gargantuan contestant was only lying still for a second. Laying in a pit it had created itself. But when it arose, its motions were slow and steady, the left girly arm had gained a more orange colouration as well as being twice the size it was before. While still being ridiculously small compared to the right arm it was beginning to look useful. As if it could actually be used to turn the fight around. For the left hand no longer looked so much like a hand. The fingers were more like bend nails than they were anything else. Quite thin but nonetheless fierce to behold. The crooked fingers seemed frozen in place, as if the hand was holding an invisible orb. But the sharp end of each finger – and there were five on this hand – seemed to pierce whatever invisible object it might seem to hold. The right hand had been capable of crushing and hitting. The left hand obviously had the purpose of shredding and cutting. To flay a human of its skin and peel the meat of the bones. To prick out the eyeballs and as soon as the golem developed a mouth it would undoubtedly consume said eyeballs.
The sentence had been used before but it fitted so well that someone from the audience muttered it again: “Poor, poor Lisa Hunter.”

But what of the right arm, the wise would ask himself. The golem had landed with all its weight on the right arm. Surely it had broken off when the immense weight of the golem came down on top of it.
Lisa Hunter was not the person to tell. For when the golem arose it stood with the front to her. And the arm? The arm was hidden behind the golem's back. Lisa hunter would most likely not be able to see it.
The spectators could, however. They would see that the arm was perfectly fine. The mysterious right hand, which was quite different from the rest of the golem, had not received a scratch when the golem hit the ground. What the arm had done, however, was being forced down into the arena floor. As the Cellar was once a cave the floor remained that of a cave. And while down in the ground the golem’s hand found a useful little object. It was not a sword or a lost treasure. It was not a magical artefact, conveniently buried there. What the golem brought back from the ground was a rock – but one it kept hidden behind its back along with the arm holding it.

The golem seemed to have no hurry in getting back up. The scantily clad female adversary seemed to be in a hurry regaining her virtue as she rushed to the robe. Of course, the golem did not think such thoughts. If it even recognized her actions it would surely have no clue about the ethical dilemma of fighting half-naked. After all the golem, itself, wore no clothes at all. And it hardly considered itself a sinner. In fact it considered itself nothing. Insight in your own being was a luxury only possessed by the living. But so was guilt. And this fact made the golem all that much more dangerous. While it could never murder anyone – murder, too, being only something the living can do – it certainly could destroy its adversaries.
Another attempt at destruction was performed when the golem got back up and once more started its steady run towards the young Lisa Hunter. It stretched out its vicious new arm with the clawed hand and obviously wanted to grab hold of her – a painful experience. Should this happen then by the Light Lord she would need that teleportation ability more than ever.
But while it ran it suddenly moved in a blur of speed. Not the entire golem, naturally, but its arm. The right hand had been so placed on its back that the lower arm through its spheroidal joint could swing in an arc of approximately 213 degrees around, tipped a little downwards. While the golem could undoubtedly have made the arc larger then that would have been foolish because the 213 degree arc was just right for the purpose of hitting the girl with the rock.
The arm worked a bit like a sling. The large arc as well as the apparent power of the golem and its ability to swing the arm in the joint with amazing speed, allowed the relatively round rock, to be thrown at an amazing speed without having to swirl the entire around several times over the head like with a regular leather sling. (Ironically this time it is Goliath who uses the sling against his smaller opponent).
The rock, roughly the size of a large man’s fist – maybe a tad bigger – thus came flying through the air towards the golem’s feminine adversary. This attack was done at a time where the girl seemed quite focused on pouring out an unknown content into her hand. Though the golem was blind it could be assumed she used both hands for this – one for holding the pouch and the left hand for receiving the content. The girl would have to be careful now for a rock of that size with that speed should possess the force to easily knock a larger human unconscious if the rock hit the head. Pity, then, that the rock’s direction was more in the area around her young legs. A killing blow seemed quite out of question. That is, unless the golem, itself, managed to come near now with that dreadful claw stretched out.

Post #: 36

8/18/2007 0:01:52

TormentedDragon
Member

She did not wait around to witness the effects of her attacks, but rather wind-sprinted for the northeastern pillar, pressing her back against the cool, hard surface. That had been close. The Earthling had managed to surprise her, which should not have happened. She needed to get her bearings, quickly, before the place got any more chaotic, and so she closed her eyes. A quick sweep was all she needed to place them, their bodies disrupting the currents. The other favored of Wind was, it would seem, smaller than before, perhaps the result of Crescendo's impact. But he was occupied, as were the golem and the girl, making the Earthling a more imminent threat.

Her eyes opened, and she crouched down, shifting slightly away from the pillar, eyes on the acrobat, watching as he dropped a ball into the ground. The attack would come from below, that much was obvious, but his actions would bear watching as well. She concentrated, sweeping the area around her pillar, her sight dimming as she did so... but still her eyes followed him, refusing to let him disappear. Slowly, the air around her began to move, her bells stirring with the slight breeze... yet still they made no sound. She readied her arrow as he came around the pillar, the name hidden from view by the shadows of the torchlight. The smile on her face, however, boded ill for the gleeman.

His motion was an open book, every step he took outlined in moving wind. Her bells suddenly rang out, a note that traveled across the arena and over the enraptured audience, the sense of expectation it brought followed by the sudden burst of air that surrounded the archer. She flew, body lifted on the currents, and trained her arrow upon the Earthling. The guttering torchlight revealed it to be Fortissimo, a name that boded ill for any and all, despite the rounded point.

She released it, purposely aiming for the ground behind him. It shattered as it hit, releasing a tremendous burst of sound, as if a score of dragons had roared in unison. As with Crescendo, the sound was followed by the wind, an expanding globe of moving air that would unbalance most anyone. Its passing snuffed out the torches in an instant, cloaking that corner in shadow.

Post #: 37

8/18/2007 1:56:01

Riker
Member

the blue dragon was forced to stop before the mirror. Reave did not want to know of the effect of the blue flames clashing with each other. The attack left him drained and exausted. His breathing was sporatic, and he was leaking. The ice armor formed could not keep its form. Reave used almost the last of his power to force the water out through the cuts. Some were scratches, but others were preaty deep. The effect of his armor was not enough to keep some of the ice shards out of his body.

"Hare man!" he started to speak. "Before we continue further, the flea will be fine. I want what will hopefully happen next to be based on us being equals." The thought of speaking was what he believed his opponent need. "It can be easily ressurected from its frozen cell. I understand your anger towards me. I am not the one to try to fight in vain." He wanted nothing more than to reach his opponent. " I have little energy in me at the moment. It is for that reason that I challenge you to a formal duel. No abilities or anything, just or own skill with weapons or hand to hand. If you accept, I will use the last of my energy to form you any weapon if you so desire. If not, than it is your decision." He held his hand down towards the ground where the water in his body puddled out. He bent down and placed his frozen dagger against the water. He pulled up a frozen staff in its place, his weapon of choice.

"What will your decision be, either way, I only have enough energy to form one more weapon for a while."

In his mind he wished he was lying, his elemental focus was shot, and would need time to regroup. He could now only depend on the staff.

"A fair one on one fight with no special techniques. " Reave held his palm on the water, waiting for a responce.

< Message edited by Riker -- 8/18/2007 2:46:41 >

AQ	Post #: 38

8/19/2007 5:24:51

demonhunter
Member

Lisa's attention was focused on the contents of the bag she had emptied... Her eyes only dimly registered the movement of the golem... And the rock it threw.

That all changed when the rock hit her right leg.

An audible crack came from the bones of the lower leg, where the rock had impacted. The bones had been snapped clean in half from the impact, drawing an ear-piercing shriek from the young woman's lungs, as she dropped to the ground. Her hand opened to catch herself, releasing her hold on the seven small, brightly polished crystals, all of which fell to the ground, bouncing slightly, but not breaking.

Only one thing stopped the golem from being able to follow up the rock: A spell that Lisa had set in place some years ago, when she had first begun studying the magicks of light.

A sphere of light formed itself around her, reacting to the intense pain in her right leg, which now lay underneath her, the lower leg bent at an unnatural angle. The sphere was, in effect, a barrier, and would protect her only so long as she had the strength to maintain it. However, every impact on the barrier would draw energy from her. In the state she was in, it would only take four or five determined strikes from the golem to break the defensive spell.

And there was another concern. A second wave of pain had assualted her when she landed on the wounded leg, causing her concentration to slip for a brief moment: Long enough for the light spell she had been building up at her fingertip to discharge. The focused beam of light struck one of the crystals on the ground, and was reflected to another. The second crystal caught the light, and refracted it into several beams. Some of those struck the other crystals, and were in turn split and scattered. Those that missed the crystals simply went in all directions: Towards the walls, the roof, some towards the golem, and a few towards other contestants.

This was not how she had planned it...

Post #: 39

8/19/2007 8:44:06

Harlequinade
Member

The result of the stone was better than anyone had even dared hope for. The angle of the girl's leg as she landed clearly told even far-away onlookers that Lisa Hunter had broken her leg. She would no longer be capable of cartwheeling away and no longer capable of jumping or running like an acrobat. It seemed as though the girl was completely defenceless. And the thought of her apparent death made the spectators who saw the game all that much more excited. The third wave of schadenfreude that swept over the arena was by far the greatest of the three.
But strangely the golem did not change. The explanation could be one of several options, of course.
The first was that the golem needed an even greater amount of schadenfreude to evolve into its next form.
The second option was that the golem had already reached its final form, now that its left arm was capable of doing damage.
The third option was perhaps the most frightening of all. It could be - and not even the golem's creator knew the right answer - that the golem was storing up the released schadenfreude and just waiting to make one massive transformation. If this was true then what would it not turn into the next time?

If the train of thoughts were to return to the battle at hand then you would be able to see that the girl was not quite done for yet. A golden sphere formed around the young Lisa Hunter and allowed the nearest to see a faint silhouette of the girl inside the golden dome. The question now was whether or not the golem could reach her and break her scrawny bones, ending the duel.
This question was never to be answered. Perhaps the golem could reach her, perhaps it could not. Perhaps it could break through the protective light barrier, and perhaps it could not. No one knew for sure because the golem's power was never tested against the strength of the barrier.
The yellow behemoth had been running towards Lisa Hunter until she broke her leg. Even as the bone snapped and the girl fell to the ground with a shriek did the golem draw nearer. But in the second the light barrier activated the golem stopped dead in its track.
For a brief moment it simply stood there without moving one inch of its massive body. Then it turned around and ran in another direction.

What had happened to the golem? It could not speak or write so there was no way to know for certain. But it would appear that whatever magical system the golem of schadenfreude used to orientate with was being distorted by the light. With Lisa Hunter completely covered in her light magic the golem simply could not "see" her and as the yellow giant did not posses any sense of logic it was as if she simply did not exist anymore. Thus the golem turned around and left her to her own miseries.

The complete lack of insight in its own body as well as the world around it could be seen in what happened next. The attack Lisa Hunter had prepared to shoot against the golem was lost, relatively. The force of the light beam she had stored at her fingertips accidentally hit one of her light crystals, then another and from this point on the light beam spread out into many smaller beams, seemingly with the same amount of power as the original "mother beam". The result was many attacks that struck all around and cut through whatever they hit (save for when they were reflected on the magic mirrors). The holes and cuts the lasers left were just a lot smaller than the gathered light beam would have been as the rays of light were split into many and were thus thinner.

This led to a series of interesting events though only a small part of these had any kind of effect on the silent golem.
The most apparent form of effects was that the many light beams were being spread over a wide area. As the golem was so large, it was unavoidable that a good portion of the light rays struck its massive body. Varying sizes of beams hit it and cut through the yellow back of the golem as it was running away, without this changing the course of the golem. Deep holes were formed in its back and on two occasions the light beams went all the way through and exited around the chest area.
One beam of light struck the golem’s mysterious right hand and the result was complete reflection. The arm did not suffer any damage at all, not even a scorch mark. Unfortunately the reflection just carried the beam of light towards another part of the golem’s body and a hole appeared in the pelvis region of the golem.
On two occasions did light hit above the broad shoulders. The first beam of light would have hit where the golem’s head would have been if it had the shape of a golem-sized man. This was not the case, however, so the light simply hit air and continued its linear flight to eventually hit something else. The second beam of light did, however, hit the only part of the golem to be above the shoulders: the green spaulder-like spike. The result was not penetration or reflection but a completely third -tion: absorption. The light entered the spike without leaving an entry hole and did not exit either. The result was the curios, albeit seemingly pointless, change seen in the spike switching colour from light green into navy blue.
The golem, however, not feeling any pain, did not notice its new similarity to that of Swissian cheese (the cheese that the mountain people of Swissia do so enjoy eating). It had the yellow colour and now the holes to match. But as the golem could not feel pain it did not realise Lisa Hunter was still around and therefore continued its steady pace towards a new opponent; the ice-wielder Reave.

< Message edited by Harlequinade -- 8/20/2007 13:01:09 >

Post #: 40

8/19/2007 18:41:34

Cheeseliker
Member

Malloc moved swiftly, and gracefully, trying to stay out of sight of the archer, and get closer. Little did he realize his mistake as he moved forward towards the girl, that she had known where he was at all times. He shook his head at his own foolishness, as she leapt into the air, away from his underground attack. "Damn wind mages..." He muttered, knowing the wind had betrayed his position at all times, no matter if he was in her line of sight or not. Then the bells rang clearly, throughout the Cellar, and Malloc knew he was in trouble.

She fired the arrow, and he ducked instinctively, though he realized it was not aimed for him. It flew behind him and struck the ground, and though he had expected a combination of wind and sound attack, what happened was more brutal then he could've anticipated. Hundreds of dragons roared in his ears, so loud and painful that he cried out in desperation. It seemed to last forever, pain resonating throughout his body as the sound echoed for eternity. Then, as suddenly as it started, it was over. He would've collapsed, but then the wind hit him. It buffeted him hard from behind, throwing him into the air. The horrible sound had disoriented him, and now he flailed wildly through the air, finally hitting the ground and rolling. His back slammed into a pillar and he groaned. He lay there, ears still ringing, taking deep breaths. He opened his eyes, and sat up slowly. He gritted his teeth, and clutched his ears, which were still hurting like hell. He glanced around the Cellar, and it seemed as if the entire place had been muted. People fought, but no sounds came to Malloc's ears. No sound except the constant ringing. "Damnit...." he muttered, knowing his hearing would not come back soon, if at all.

He saw the fight between the girl and the golem had gone badly for the girl, as Malloc expected. The girl huddled inside a ball of Light, hurt badly, but Malloc could not see how. Lines of Light had streamed from the ball striking the golem, not to mention mirrors and other various places. Luckily, none came Malloc's way. Though the girl looked bad, the golem looked even better then before. It looked larger and even more deadly then when he first saw it. Now, it seemed to be heading for the ice mage, but why it had left the girl, nearly dead was unknown to him. It seemed to thrive everytime the crowd cheered, and in a place like this, that was a very bad thing for everybody else. Malloc shifted into a new position, his right knee down, his left knee up. He saw the archer, still in the air, and decided it was best to let her be. She was truely dangerous, even more then he had predicted, but the golem demanded attention now. He leaned forward, letting his right hand dropped, knuckles on the dirt. He looked at his underground projectile, still heading for the archer and shook his head. Though an idea to stop the archer had come to him, it would have to be implemented later. He quickly found his ball within the earth, and it suddenly halted, then sped back towards its master. He glanced at the archer as he pulled back, and he saw she noticed his retreat. Their eyes met. Without even thinking, he glanced at the golem, then back at her. She glanced too, and then back, and at the same time, they both nodded.

In a moment, by eye contact alone, a silent agreement had struck up between them. The golem needed to be taken down, and he knew a way to do it. It would take much of his power, and would leave him quite open for attack. At least now, he knew the archer wouldn't shoot him in the back, unless she was the backstabbing type, or had completely misunderstood his intentions. She hadn't seemed the backstabbing type, and he could only hope she had understood. Even if she did, there were various others who could attack him when he was undefended easily. The Light girl would not, obviously, and probably not the ice mage for he would be aiding the combatant. The others...Well, it didn't matter and Malloc pushed it out of his mind, concentrating on the tough task at hand.

He felt for his other balls, four still in his bag, and they too, rolled out of his bag and towards him incredibly fast. He would need their added power along with his own for this. He also needed his...staff. He realized he had dropped it when he was flying through the air and quickly spotted it. He reached out with his left hand and the staff flew to it. He gripped it hard and it's inner power and mind calmed him. The balls reached him and stopped a foot in front of his right hand, still touching the ground. He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, closing his eyes. Now was the time. He didn't say any magical chants, for those were for prepared tricks. He didn't wave his arms and hands around majestically, for that was not how his power worked. He couldn't quite explain it, but as long as he had enough power, and concentrated hard enough, his spells happened.

He felt the power within himself, empowered by the power flowing into him from the staff, and unleashed it upon the earth in front of him. The balls dissolved into the ground beneath them, which began bubbling like liquid. It was truely a strange sight, to see this two by two square of ground in front of this man bubbling like near-boiling water. As Malloc forced more and more power into the earth, the bubbling grew more and more intense. Lines creased his face as he concentrated harder and harder to make the earth do as he wanted it to, to mold the earth and make it do as he willed. The bubbling increased its fervor even more, looking like brown boiling water, until finally, it slowed and died away all together, returning to a mere dirt floor once again, but it wasn't over. Malloc bit his lip, trying to keep his concentration at the high level it needed to be,

The two by two square that had been boiling suddenly grew nine feet into the air. It was very strange, just a nine foot tall two by two block of earth standing there for no reason. Then it exploded, dirt flying everywhere. As the dust settled, what was left of the block was a nine foot tall blocky humanoid earth golem. It's figure was rough, blocky and formidable. It's head was small, about the size of a humans head, but it's shoulders, arms and legs were huge in proportion. It's hands were mere blocks of hard stone, ready to bash anything in it's way.

Malloc took a deep breath, but kept his eyes closed. He could relax slightly, now that the hard part was over. A mouth suddenly appeared where the golems face would've been and it roared loudly, obviously challenging it's water brethren. The mouth dissapeared and it charged towward the other golem, intending to tackle the huge thing to the ground. Unfortunately, it had taken Malloc too long to create the creature, and it seemed he was too late to stop the confrontation between the ice mage and the golem. Hopefully the ice mage would make it out alive, but Malloc doubted it. He could only hope his own golem would be able to stand up to the thing.

< Message edited by Cheeseliker -- 8/20/2007 9:26:00 >

AQ	Post #: 41

8/20/2007 16:26:53

TormentedDragon
Member

The Earthling's thoughts matched hers, it would seem. A common enemy would halt their battle... a wise choice, in his case. Her attention refocused on the golem, whose form had changed since last she had looked. The construct's target had managed to shield herself, and for some reason, it was no longer after her, but was headed for the Iceling. She reached for her quiver, fingers latching onto two arrows, this time. She readied them, one on the first string, the other on the second. Wind swirled around their forms the moment she drew back on the bow, their three-pronged tips aimed at the golem's hulking form.

Whatever it was the favored of Earth was doing, it was taking a while, and she preferred not to wait. The two shafts flew straight and true, the tips causing them to spin as they flew. She smiled. Impact.

To the rest of the arena, the effect was paltry compared to the others... to the golem, however, it would be far more damaging. Each arrow exploded in a contained sphere of gale-force wind and ear-shattering sound. Such was the effect of the Rinforzando.

Post #: 42

8/20/2007 19:07:13

Varin
Member

Davian was on his feet once more when the inevitable happened, he was struck by an attack from another contestant. A hail of light beams went scattering through the arena, piercing a few contestants and, most importantly to himself, Davian as well. With an unearthly howl of pain he was jolted to the here and now.

A bright beam of light burned its way through his face, searing its way through both cheeks, leaving a pinkie sized hole in either side. Astute followers would note that this particular beam of light had refracted twice, splitting once before hitting Davian. Around his body, four other beams of light connected with his body, singing their way through the cloth and slightly blackening or browning the skin on his thigh, bicep, lower back, and stomach. Much weaker beams but enough to make him squelch. Wordlessly did Davian howl, breathing hard and focusing on the nearest threat on hand.

The pain was intense, excruciating even, but Davian fought through it and charged at the female archer. He didn't know if this one had hurt him, he didn't even care, all he knew is he wanted to hurt something, and badly. She was distracted, he was no longer, that was all that he needed to make his move.

Davian closed the distance with a fleetness not even matched by a sprinter. Was it natural talent or just pure adrenaline? The point was moot. With a snap of his wrist, he proved to those laughing at his inane weapon just how silly it really was. While his cloak is an awful sword, it would make quite an effective whip-like weapon. The three weights he had sewn into the hem years gave it heft and accuracy as he sent it soaring to ensnare Tasha's legs, intending to fell her with a powerful tug. He finished his charge, his aim to bowl her to the ground if not already there. Obvious to anyone looking, his mace was wielded with lethal intent, and could easily be employed to such purpose… provided he was able to knock the distracted archer over.

Post #: 43

8/21/2007 15:40:44

xaxtoo
Member

A trap! No, the iceman couldn’t have caused this. Still, the sudden appearance of several strange focused light beams on his path, which had beguiled him with visceral visions of a quick counterattack, left him wanting, but lacking the time to rethink a strategy. Arduously honed instincts covered for the frozen thoughts mired in doubt, as Lapinche swerved and twisted to the best of his abilities, manifesting fully in lieu of imminent danger to help him avoid almost all the light beams. He got by, if only barely, with only a streak of singed hairs on his backside, and the remnants of half of his tail, leaving the rest of it floating within a thin wisp of smoke in his wake. Jolting pain sharply shot through his body, which reawakened his mind, and subsequently, instantly intensified the sensation, before with some great effort, it managed to isolate his tail in chi, effectively limiting the area to a constant throbbing.

Without any more unexpected trouble, he hit, and immediately reflected off the mirror, a seeking bullet headed right for the iceman. Riding on the winds gushing past, some pleading words of reached him, asking for a duel, laying out its conditions, the last plea of a dying man. The idea annoyed him, for the conditions precluded his martial arts, leaving the duel as an ignoble affair involving a man and something less than half his size. Lapinche shouted back with a resounding “No”, hopefully loud enough to reach, before a small gust of wind blew him off course. Losing his desire to kill the man as soon as the plea was made, Lapinche welcomed the crosswind, and adjusted midair to receive it fully, using the force to straighten himself to the wall. Releasing chi, and bouncing it back from the mirrors with a doubling effect, Lapinche slowed and somersaulted to a landing inches away from impact.

A cursory glance allowed him moments of respite, and told him the archer was within range for a greeting of his own. With a simultaneously flip of the ears, a large but gentle breeze floated towards the archer. Falling on all fours, he darted towards the far pillar, hiding his movement in the shadows as much as possible.

AQ	Post #: 44

8/21/2007 16:59:58

Harlequinade
Member

An ancient paradox asks that if a tree should fall in a forest with no one around to hear it, would it, then, still make a sound?
There could be no doubt that sound existed when the yellow giant ran through the arena at a significant speed. Each time its heavy foot collided with the earth it was as another beat of the war drum. In its own steady rhythm the golem of schadenfreude moved forward towards its favoured target, the iceman, Reave. In this scenario the paradox could not be asked as there were plenty around to hear the tree fall.

It was a different matter when the archer, Tasha Terrel, send her two arrows flying. This special part of her grand cacophony had the interesting power of sound. When each of the two arrows struck something they would trigger their imbued magic. The result would be that each arrow produced two separate blasts. One blast was simple wind magic. A powerful kind, but wind magic nonetheless.
The other imbued magic was the most interesting one, for it was this magic that gave room for the questions. The magic was relatively simple to explain: sound emitted. Strong waves of sound of such magnitude that they should be able to pierce a man’s soul and to a greater extent a man’s ears. Such was the magic. A man could die from it. But there was one other curiosity about the magic. For not all could hear it. The arrows generated a small bubble wherein the roaring sound waves were set loose. To the outside world it was practically nothing.
If a tree falls in a forest…
By now the question could be asked. The audience could not hear the tree falling in the forest. The arrow roared but no one was left to hear it. Only the golem. And the golem was deaf. In this bubble did sound then really exist? No one could hear it?
But does sound have to be heard to be there? Were the stars in the heaven above not there until they were seen by living eyes? Were the mountains and islands not there before humans pioneered to them? No one knows for certain as no one was there in the before-time. And no one knows if sound was near the golem.

Something did happen, though. Whether it was sound that effected the golem or the use of wind magic no one could tell, though even a man of simple intellect could make qualified offers based on the reaction.
The first and oddest sign was that the golem seemed to completely give up its effort. The two arrows struck it in the side, one in the upper right arm and the other in the right side, where the golem’s rib would have been. There the arrows made their way into the yellow material and suddenly the arrowheads could no longer be seen. Only two protruding sticks stuck out from the yellow golem.
The effect seemed greater than mere penetration, though, as the golem gave up its running and placed itself foot against foot and arms down its side – this resulting in the second arrow breaking off – the arrowhead still somewhere inside the golem’s right side.
No one could hear the roaring sounds but they must have been there for once more the spike on top of the golem’s shoulder began to change colour. It went from navy blue to a deep purple, to a girlish pink and then changed to a deep scarlet. This all happened in just a few seconds and to actually see all the colour change would require an eye fastened to the golem rather than to what happened around in the arena. Regardless of onlookers the scarlet spike faded in colour to plain grey. From this point on the spike began to vibrate more and more forcefully. Not only this but the spike also began to glow – first a faint glimmer and in a flash into a blinding light.
The final result was the golem’s roar. Although an overstatement the golem seemed to finally talk. The spike exploded in a glitter of dust and yellow water in a colour reminiscent of something best left unmentioned.
The most significant effect was the sound, however. Even the most battle-hardened warrior would have trouble focusing so much on a battle that he did not hear the sound coming from the golem. Rather than a manly roar or a feral howl the golem shrieked. As the spike exploded it seemed to release whatever sound it had stored inside in a curios expression as the result most of all seemed like a small girl screaming her lungs out – if only for a few seconds.

There was no telling how long the magic of the arrows lasted but it was certainly long enough to make the absorbing spike overload and still leave enough room to have the yellow side of the golem crack. Night invisible lines formed in the golem where the second arrow had struck. The reason these cracks were so hard to see was that beneath the yellow surface of the golem was only more of the exact same yellow material.
If a crack is made and no one sees it is there then still a crack? If this question followed the rules of the tree in the forest then, yes. While no one could hear whatever sound waves roared inside the bubble the effects on the yellow golem certainly made it clear that there was still sound – regardless if anyone is around to hear it.

The simple wind magic did have an effect, too. The wind pushed back the golem, but the yellow giant was far too heavy to be thrown around in the air or forced to its knees. But the magic did force the golem to clumsily stumble backwards.

This was the first time in the course of the duel that the golem of schadenfreude did not continue its set course undauntedly. It kept still for a second and then changed its target from Reave to another combatant.
There were many theories on how a golem orientated itself. Some claimed that golems could actually see, as many were known to have eyes of some sort.
But the golem of schadenfreude did not. It did not even have a head region where the eyes could be located at.

Another theory stated that some golems, if not all of them, guide themselves by sensing the magic lines of magic that flow throughout the universe and is in all living creatures. While it was heavily disputed amongst scholars what mechanisms the golem used to sense the magic and how accurate its “vision” was then this remained one of the most popular theories in the constantly growing filed on golem behaviour.

The third popular theory stated that all golems use their element as eyes. An earth golem would as such use the earth to see. This would explain, one of the leading golem masters had stated, why no golem had ever been interested in birds or bees. They simply cannot see the flying creatures of this world. Naturally, the counterargument for this was that no golem had ever paid attention to anything it had not been ordered to. A golem stopped to admire the flowers as much as it stopped to admire the birds or the butterflies around it.
The theory could not be completely disposed of, however, for it would explain why the golem of schadenfreude acted the way it did.
If the golem did “see” through emotions then it perhaps it had chosen Reave as its target based on his feelings. He was drained of his magic energies and was forced to challenge his adversaries to melee combat. Obviously there was fear to be sensed in him and this made him the obvious target; Reave was weakened.
If the golem chose its opponents based on the feelings of the combatants then perhaps it had sensed the anger and hostility in Malloc. The golem had been given the order to win the Elemental Championship. This did not mean that the golem needed to kill the weakest of the combatants. While this could hardly hurt its chances of winning then it was more imperative that it needed to stay functionally for enough time to prove its worth to the Water Lord.
As someone was about to attack the golem then this someone was a danger to it. Ipso facto the golem would – according to theory – need to eliminate the attacker.
So according to the popular theory on golem behaviour it would need to attack either the ranger or the gleeman. It chose the gleeman, Malloc, though the reason for this choice could still be pondered over. It was possibly due to the fact another combatant now attacked the ranger and thus kept her distracted, making her less of a threat to the golem. That the golem should posses the needed level of logic to put all these pieces together seemed, however, unlikely and therefore no conclusive answer was given as to the golem’s choice of opponent.
Regardless of this the golem of schadenfreude began its steady run once more, clawing furiously through the air with the smaller left arm as it ran in a straight line towards Malloc. To see if the gleeman was too focused on making his earth golem was what made this attack so exciting. For if Malloc should somehow miss the ominous thunder of each golem step and not avoid the golem of schadenfreude before the golem of earth was to interfere then it seemed that Malloc’s blood would be the first to quell the thirst of the left hand and its long, vicious claws.

Post #: 45

8/21/2007 20:07:15

Ronin Of Dreams
Still Watching...

There was a rush of elemental energy that reverberated mightily within the expansive entombed complex that formed the despairing embrace of Cellar Arena. Displeasure resonated from these energies as a swirling vortex emanated from within the ice armor that Reave had donned. Within the blink of an eye, Reave was frozen entirely from within and shattered into a sparkling shower or snowflakes that quickly evaporated in the dank atmosphere of Cellar Arena. Ice had made its decision, and Reave's personage was instantaneously transported miles away from the Arena complex and the burgeoning township of Bren, leaving him chilled slightly in the act.

Nowhere was Reave within the sprinkling snow, easily revealing his pointed absence from the midst of both current friends and foes.

This message was clear, lose all favor of the Lords and your presence would be removed from this competition of skill and ability.

AQ	Post #: 46

8/22/2007 11:26:44

Cheeseliker
Member

Fortunately for Malloc, his hearing was still quite disabled, and so the shriek went unnoticed. He did however feel the golem stop, and then change its direction. The sight of a nine and a half foot tall yellow golem barreling his way was enough to unsettle him and he cursed himself as he lost concentration. The earth golem stopped suddenly and stood motionless, having lost it's connection with it's master, meanwhile the yellow golem came closer and closer, clawed hand reaching out. Malloc noticed the golem had changed once again, with two arrow shafts sticking out of it. The spike was gone now, probably some side effect of the sound arrows, which seemed to have done little else. At least the archer was helping, for now, but Malloc couldn't think about her, couldn't think about the dangerous predicament he had gotten himself into, or the impending death he might soon face, for he had a decision to make.

The earth golem had not been charging straight at the yellow golem, instead heading in a trajectory that would've resulted in them colliding if the yellow golem had kept its speed and direction. Unfortunately the golem had changed it's direction, and now the earth golem was not between the yellow golem and Malloc. Not to mention Malloc had lost his concetration and would need to get it back to control his creation once again. So he could do one of two things. Either quickly regain his concentration and manuever the earth golem to intercept the yellow golem, or leave the earth golem for now and move.

"Ahhh hell." Malloc muttered plunging his hands into the earth before him and closing his eyes once again. He ignored the pounding feet of the yellow golem and focused on the earth golem. The statute snapped into life, bellowing and charging as fast as it could. It was moving fast enough that it should intercept the yellow golem around four or five feet from Malloc. Malloc took a deep breath, and the earth golem began changing. It lowered it's right shoulder, and it's left arm began shifting. The left arm grew shorter and shorter until it was no longer there, all the while the earth golem's right arm grew and grew. The left arm was now gone, but the right arm had doubled in size, a formidable boulder of a shoulder was now lowered, ready to slam into the yellow golem and knock it off its intended course.

AQ	Post #: 47

8/23/2007 22:47:10

TormentedDragon
Member

She frowned. That had not gone as hoped. Something had happened, of that she was certain, for the golem had responded with sound of its own... exactly what kind, however, she could not tell. Perhaps a different arrow would be more effective. She reached for her hip quiver, fingers playing over the arrows, and too late noticed the madman's charge. She began to turn, bells chiming their warning, as the warrior's cloak wrapped 'round her legs.

"Burst." The word carried power, power which realized itself the moment it left her lips. The air that separated her from her assailant compressed and exploded, slamming against their bodies, lifting hers up and pushing it back. The cloak stretched to its limit, jolting them both, and was ripped from his grasp as she fell back to the floor.

Davian's forward motion was arrested nearly completely by the fury Tasha released in the air. He swung his mace a second too late, whistling with the wasted movement. Tasha's concussion of wind forced the wind out of his lungs with a pained grunt. She was flung backwards, the cloak stretching taut. Davian's arm suffered a massive jolt; wrenching his right arm and causing him to drop the cloak, with the side effect of yanking him forward. Where her flight could have been considered graceful, quaint bells tinkling, his was ungainly at best.

He landed not a foot from her, banging his knees with the landing. A severe bruise later, to be sure, but inconsequential with the torrent of adrenaline coursing through him. Davian crawled forward with the intention of pinning her under his weight, swinging his mace at her midsection as he went.

She landed hard, but there was no time to rest. Her attacker was resilient and persistent, and was dead set on the kill. She raised her right arm and slammed it back down, a second wind blasting upwards as the buckler made contact with the floor, the bell giving off a low, resonant tone. The wind rolled her to the side, the mace slamming into the ground where her body had been.

Her legs were still tangled in the warrior's cloak, which made things difficult. She still had her bow in hand, and so she lashed out, a wild attack that could yet serve to distract. The tiniest hint of wind began to swirl around the right buckler, a barely audible ring coming from that bell.

Davian cursed when he missed, yet took the opportunity to grab a knife from his left bracer for his free right hand. Tasha's bow staff took him in the ribs, not as clean as he was sure she liked, bit it would make itself felt later for sure. Taking advantage of her attack, he followed the staff inside her guard. Snarling with a dangerous fury in his eyes Davian, made his move.

Already having his knife wielding arm reaching over her body, he committed himself. Using his mace for leverage, Davian wrenched himself up and over, trying to fall in a half straddling/half kneeling position over Tasha. Even before it looked like he was or was not going to settle onto her, he swung his knife, aiming for the left side of slender neck. Not content with that, he used the momentum gained from levering himself up to swing his mace, aiming it at her right temple, using his lateral movement for acceleration.

She cursed, seeing what was going to happen even as she pulled back the bow. Her attacker was quick and filled with battle-rage... her strike had not even caused him to flinch. She brought her left arm up with the speed of desperation, barely managing to block the dagger, the meeting of metal on metal as it struck the buckler creating a painful screech, evidence of her spellwork. Her right arm she flung out to meet his left, bow held crosswise to intercept his blow.

There was nothing she could do to prevent him from settling over her, restricting her even more, yet she still had some tricks. She exhaled as he landed, her breath turning into a miniature gale as it left her mouth. The wind howled in his ears and ripped at his face, tiny fingers tearing at his eyes.

The screech Davian's dagger made on the buckler was not entirely unlike nails on a chalkboard. Irritating and grating but in the grand scheme of things, forgettable. Less forgettable was the gust of wind issuing forth from Tasha's mouth, tearing at his eyes. His reflex was to close his eyes, losing sight of his opponent.

His next three actions were simultaneous in their executions. Not one to be taken at disadvantage, Davian snapped his head forward, hoping his forehead was still in line with the bridge of her nose. The fury from her mouth was enough to bleed some speed off of his attack but he hoped it was on target. Davian's mace sprung off of the blocked bow, swinging with fury towards her left thigh. His hand with the dagger simply pulled away from the buckler. Aiming by recollection and relative position alone, Davian thrust it violently where he thought Tasha's right hip was.

She acted with her usual speed, pulling her legs up, thighs impacting his rear and aiding him in his fall, so that his head would make contact with hers. Her right arm was already moving as he pulled away his dagger, shifting to place the buckler just under her neck. The bells in her hair began ringing, chiming one after the other, a ripple of sound. The air between her head and his compressed, forming a cushion, so that the impact was less than it could have been. There was pain in her legs, as the mace made contact, but that, she ignored.

As quickly as they had started, the bells ceased, leaving only one, that which was on her buckler, to ring. The sound was deep, much deeper than should come from such a small source. She spoke the word, the sound of "Sonore" almost a whisper. Air blasted forth from the buckler, ten chapel bells booming in accompaniment, the wind lifting her attacker off of her and tossing him away.

< Message edited by TormentedDragon -- 8/23/2007 22:49:19 >

Post #: 48

8/24/2007 17:36:48

Varin
Member

Davian's angle was awkward and his aim was off, connecting his forehead with hers more gently than with any true force. What he intended to be a vicious head butt was more of a sedate fall. More intended as a distraction, it served its purpose. While his mace did not connect with full force nor at her knee, his attack would make its presence known. Of his knife, there was only disappointment as it connected with nothing in the crook between her thigh and her calf.

The shockwave hit an instant before the sound registered. Davian felt himself blown backwards, and by pure stubbornness he kept hold of his knife. The angle and position it was at coupled with his rotation forced the knife to bite deep into the back of his opponent's thigh. Davian squelched as his weakened right shoulder was stressed once more, but still his grip did not falter. The power behind "Sonore" was enough to launch him off of his opponent, her knees acting like a ramp, sending him catapulting into the air.

Davian's right eardrum, turned closer to his opponent, was ruptured at the cacophonous blast. His left ear fared better, if just. The way a bright sun causes an afterimage was how his hearing was now on the left, a loud clanging of church bells heard in every stirring of air, in every movement. On his right side was a silence as pure as vacuum. His body flailed through the air, landing into a haphazard jumble of limbs and weapons. Flat on his back he landed, sprawled out, miraculously avoiding impaling himself on his own dagger by inches.

Post #: 49

8/27/2007 0:32:03

xaxtoo
Member

Finding his movements ignored by the archer, he nevertheless kept to the shadows as he rounded the pillar. Darkness shrouded his vision, but he embraced the anonymity, for his ears are far better navigators anyways. A loud tremulous thump signaling the inevitable meeting of the two golems was quickly followed groans of a struggle coming from where his target was. Someone had beaten him to her! Likely, through some quick deductions, the assailant was the man he had twice saved, finally being useful, if only ironically, in obstructing his wants. He might be forced to observe a fight, unless he broke the rules the engagement. He wasn’t sure if his previous attack had succeeded, which would signal his intent well, giving case to his having first bout with the woman before the man. Hell, the attack was now just as fanciful as the previous thought, since the entangled people would be in no position to listen to his plea.

Just leaving darkness, he confirmed the status of the fight and observed for a chance to intercede a few meters away from the wrestlers. To his frustration, none was presented for the whole fight consisted of a wrestling match, which precluded any attempt to satisfactorily and cleanly blow the guy off the gal. As a spectator, he had to content himself with sitting cutely, albeit slightly askew with uneven weight distributed on his bottom, on the sidelines while occasionally twitching his nose in boredom. These moments of reprieve seemed to be accumulating as of late, but only a fool would doubt his concentration during those brief periods, even though he waved a paw in the air in what could be considered as exuberance for the fight. Despite how idyllic everything seemed, he was prepared for close encounters of a sonar kind. In fact, the whole thing was a façade, with the exception of sitting, for his waving was to test the level of compressed air he had gathered around his ears to hopefully create dissonance to cancel loud noises.

The man couldn’t handle being on top as he quickly was manhandled off in a displeased cacophony, softened noticeably by his makeshift ear muffs. Getting the signal for action, Lapinche’s ears, in sequential instantaneous motions, withdrew behind his head and sprung forward, unleashing the compressed air with their forces, rolling Lapinche unto his back as a result. Two powerful fists of wind raced towards the fallen archer. No rest for enemies.

AQ	Post #: 50

Page: << < prev 1 [2] 3 next > >>

All Forums >> [Gaming Community] >> [Role Playing] >> The Championships >> RE: =Elemental Championships= Cellar Arena

Page 2 of 3

Jump to:

Icon Legend

New Messages	No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages	Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages	Locked w/o New Messages

Post New Thread

Reply to Message

Post New Poll

Submit Vote

Delete My Own Post

Delete My Own Thread

Rate Posts

Forum Content Copyright © 2018 Artix Entertainment, LLC.

"AdventureQuest", "DragonFable", "MechQuest", "EpicDuel", "BattleOn.com", "AdventureQuest Worlds", "Artix Entertainment"
and all game character names are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Artix Entertainment, LLC. All rights are reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY