Tff Toa Finals!!! Lococolt Vs Malevolence!!!

[psychosyd]

Well there you have it... despite my saying first poster could make the setting, im taking liberty for the finals. Feel free to expand or add to what I give you though, just use this as your skeletal outline. Congrats for making it this far, and for all who have done so very well. It was a long haul, but we finished. Anyways... this 2 weeks will be extended for posting through the sunday, due to the lateness of getting it up, so you get an extra weekend day... Good luck, and may teh best man/woman/child win.

The cheers of the spectators were deafening. The 2 finalists had fought long and hard to finally arrive at this point. It was a beautiful day (so far) the sun having risen high into the sky, though still meerly 11 am. It was moderatly warm, and the breeze brought a smell of new birth and spring in the air. The finals arena was larger than any of the others. It was oval in shape, covered in a soft grass turf, with a few rocks to make it seem like a normal plain over a sanded arena. It was lined high with the seats of spectators. The tournament wizards had placed wards to the stands to prevent any damage to come to the crowds, much to their joy. In the box sat the 2 judges of the match, the great Syd and Spike sitting in a box well elevated to watch the entire match. Both men had earned this reward, and everyone sat cheering and awaiting their arrival and the match to follow. Soon the wait to find out the victor, and the champion of the TFF TOA would come to an end.

[Malevolence]

Taere’s eyes still burned red. But then it ended. This color was once again replaced by blue. A pillar of blue light descended upon him, and with a great WOOSH!! transported him away from the underground dwarven city. Taere was expecting this interruption in his battle, but what he did not expect was where he was being taken by this pillar. Instead of ending up back in front of his room in the TOA quarters, his vision, now returned to normal, was assaulted by the bright light of the sun. Taere found himself in the middle of what appeared to be at first an open sandy plain covered in knee-high prairie grass. As Taere’s hearing returned to him, though, he could see that this was no normal plain. As the range of his vision and earshot increased, Taere saw the grandstands that surrounded the arena, and the packed seats on them. Spectators reached up from near ground level to seats that surely could actually give someone a nosebleed. A gigantic magically controlled stone board was on one side of the arena, and on it, Taere saw his face – blown up to an enormous size – his name, statistics, and those of another, unfamiliar face. The image was a of a strikingly beautiful woman, with black hair streaked a bright red. The statistics next to her picture read:

KARA
VALKYRIE
5’10”
134 LBS.
WARRIOR/MAGE NINJA

A Valkyrie, Taere thought, what the hell? How is a Valkyrie alive on this plane, let alone competing in a battle? What is she trying to do, collect my soul or something? Taere’s thoughts stopped as he saw another pillar of light descend in front of him to see Kara emerge from the light. As he saw her real face, he was overcome with a wave of impressed pseudo-love at her actual beauty. Taere quickly shook this feeling off as he saw the shining breastplate on her chest, reflecting bronze light into his eyes. The polished sheen on the metal was beyond compare, this was without a doubt the breastplate of a true Valkyrie. This was beyond odd, since, as he had already pondered, Valkyries should not be on this plane, they should either be in Valhalla or invisibly collecting the souls of warriors, not battling living mortals. This was not normal.

Taere shrugged off this small bit of indecision, and readied himself. He drew the Malevolence from behind his back, and let the liquid crystal extend from the hilt into a blade shape. The convoluted crystal curves hardened into a sharded blue adamantite crystal blade with an edge sharp enough to cut metal as a razor cuts tanned skin. The crystal blade also reflected light as the brass breastplate did, but this light was refracted and shone blue off the glassy surface of the Malevolence. Taere swung the blade around a few times to get his arm back into shape, then readied himself in a braced backward position behind a few rocks embedded in the ground under the prairie grass. He readied himself, and, wasting no time, stated:

“Let’s get this started, shall we?”

((OOC: Not much I can do with this one, I’m there already, and yeah. Pardon if my intro seems short, but…it is…))

[LocoColt04]

((OOC: Yep, here's to nothing, eh? I feel it's only fair to warn you now that this will be my only post for nearly a week, maybe more. >_< However, I've convinced our judges to extend the finals to three weeks, so that in all fairness, we'll technically have two weeks, maybe a bit more. In case you're curious, I'll be in Seattle come Wednesday afternoon, and I'll have all that crappy makeup work to settle up. By the way, on a battle note, Kara's eyes are actually green with that gold ring, not blue... I'd been typing green for so long, I'd changed it in Omega but couldn't here due to the closing of the thread.))


Kara's blade locked with Lenith's as the two women began a heated swordfight. The mutating marble seemed thinner now than ever as the wind kicked up and the psuedo-bridge swayed stronger than Kara ever could have remembered. It was undoubtedly a play on her dreams in the netherealm of twisted memories, and though she longed for it to end, she could not make the gaping canyon disappear. Thousands of distracting thoughts barraged Kara's mind as her scythe continued to clang incessantly against the Vala Runya. She shook them off, focusing on the environment alone, wondering why it wouldn't transform. The blade of the Vala Runya came dangerously close to her right hand, causing her to shift the blade into the grip of both hands and wave off all irrelevant thoughts.

The moment she took her thoughts away from the arena itself, her surroundings morphed back to their original state; dark, damp, and dimly lit, the marble was cold and unforgiving once more. The women stopped, if only for a brief moment, to survey their environment. As the initial shock passed, the two picked up right where they left off, jumping and dodging and slashing at each other, hoping one would give in. Neither fighter had taken a hit in ten minutes or more, and their reactions gradually slowed. Lenith backed away for a moment, tossing Kara off balance and catching her off guard with a massive downward slice. Kara released her right hand from the scythe and leapt away from the Vala Runya as it knicked the tip of her scythe, forcing her to drop it. Kara continued her retreat, pausing near the corner of the platform, drawing energy from the torches.

The flames floated from the torches and into Kara's soul. She briskly walked the edges of the marble stage, drawing the fire into her body and removing the light source from the room. As she came around the final edge of the platform, Kara caught a glimpse of Lenith charging toward her. Keeping her hands behind her back, Kara sidestepped her opponent, slamming Lenith with her right fist directly in the gut. Lenith flew across the length of the platform, glowing from the flickering flames encapsulating her, and landed hard against the dense marble. Kara drew the last bit of light from the torches and looked across the pitch-black arena. Her eyes were the only source of light now as Lenith had promptly diluted the fire around her body.

Just as Kara prepared for her final blow, she found herself back in her dressing room, surrounded by that strange white light. She nearly cried to herself as her chance for victory was stripped from her raging hands. In a sense, she was relieved. Lenith had been a respectable fighter, and Kara had hoped for her swift recovery. Four days later, the two passed in the halls, bruised and beaten, and talked for a few moments of the judges' procrastination.



Kara found herself in front of the tournament brackets once more. She had advanced to the finals -- a morning match, and one which was scheduled to be a long and grueling one at that. She nearly expected the transportation beam, somewhat orange this time, as she found herself staring upward at a massive stone panel above which seemed to represent some form or scoreboard. She noticed not just the massive picture of herself, but one of her opposition as well.

TAERE FLARION
ISPARIAN
5'10"
172 lbs.
MERCENARY

A picture of a rugged, yet rather attractive man accompanied the statistics. His dusty black hair, which was arguably brown, was the perfect contrast to his piercing green eyes. The head shot didn't show him smiling, and Kara didn't figure it was a pasttime of his. She took a moment to allow her environment to burn itself into her mind. The screaming fans, the ideal field, the looming judges, the burning daylight... it was as close to perfect as a fighter could ever come. She turned her attention downward.

In her hands, Kara delicately held her trusted scythe. Rumor had it that Taere's blade was nearly unstoppable, and the tungsten blade of her scythe was by no means indestructable. The hardened black oak handle, recently polished, gently reflected the soft sunlight as it climbled higher into the sky. The tip of the tungsten was chipped by the Vala Runya, leaving a horridly jagged edge atop the once pointed end of her treasured weapon. Nevertheless, the inward curve of the blade remained relatively unscathed, save a scratch here or there. The oaken handle was tightly fastened parallel to the blade, as opposed to the traditionaly perpendicular fashion, giving it a near sword-like quality. Kara admired the work of art for nearly a minute before hearing a deafening screech from above. Apparently, the time to fight had arrived.

Kara shifted her focus to Taere and studied him as he readied his weapon, approaching him slowly. He swung his blade around once or twice as it solidified itself into that weapon she'd heard about from Damaru and Alexander.

"Let's get this started, shall we?"

Taere's voice pierced the sudden silence of the crowds. Kara now grasped the scythe tightly with both hands around the short handle for maximum power. She stalked toward him as a raving lunatic would, penetrating his psyche with her empty glares, playing her insignificant mind games. The two finally met in what seemed to be the center of the arena, standing merely meters apart. "By all means, let's," Kara smugly responded. Her attempt at unnerving the competition seemed to have failed, though she couldn't be certain. She patiently awaited Taere's onslaught, motioning for his advancement.

[Malevolence]

“By all means, let’s.”

Kara’s scythe was a short, easy to use weapon, with a simple strategy for the beginning user – swing and hope you hit neck. More advanced weapons masters – as Taere was sure Kara was – instead can control movements of the blade like an axe or a club. The blade would change directions up to three times as the blade continued its arc from start to strike. This was to be a devastating weapon, and Taere would have to work out a new defensive blocking strategy, as he had never faced an opponent with an axe or scythe. Taere’s mind began churning, as his muscles began tensing. Taere’s eyes then locked with Kara’s. He sensed a feeling of false odium, as her empty glares penetrated his skull. There was nothing to her stares, and Taere sensed it. He was not unnerved. They were mere yards apart at the center of the plains grass arena, when Taere sensed a twitch in Kara’s left arm. Taere immediately moved the Malevolence up, and stepped behind himself with his left leg, off towards his right. They began to circle with blades raised, and slowly drew themselves apart.

Taere continued cross-stepping behind himself to his right, circling wider and wider until both Taere and Kara were about 20 feet apart. Taere twirled the Malevolence around, keeping his eyes locked on Kara’s Valkyrie visage. Kara also slowly twirled the scythe in her hands, moving it up and down and from left to right, keeping Taere guessing if she was just tossing the weapon or preparing for an attack. Taere’s actions did the same thing; his weapon never moved more than a foot from the end of his nose away from his body. As Taere continued to circle, a thought and command was lurking in the back of his mind to be used on the Malevolence. As he did so, the blade started to glow a slight blue, and, as Taere turned the pommel around, it was visible that the Red Dragon gem on the quillions was glowing with a deep cobalt aura. The cobalt had spread to the blade, and now a flowing waved aura had begun to waft over the surface of the blade. The air around the blade began to crystallize, and small bits of frozen water vapor and even dry ice began to flake off of the blade into the air.

“Feeling chilly?” Kara gave a blank look. “Ok, that was a stupid cliché. But in all seriousness, I hope you’re used to cold with your fjords and all, because it’s about to get frigid.”

Taere flipped the Malevolence up on end, and jammed the blade into the ground. Instantly there was a blue flash, and the sapphire aura sped from the blade into the ground. A wave of dark blue ice washed over the plains, flash-freezing the ground under it and the blades of grass instantly. The wave of ice continued quickly out under Kara’s legs, causing the ground under her to become unnaturally slippery, and Kara instantly became rigid and moved not an inch. Her boots were still firmly planted on the ground, but she couldn’t (or shouldn’t) move for fear of slipping. At the moment, she had no reason to move, and therefore didn’t need to worry about moving at all.

But then she did. Taere moved his blade back up to his face, and began to circle slowly around Kara’s front. Still, she followed him with her eyes, and Taere could not get out of her vision without going behind her. And that would be dishonorable and just unfair. Taere did not plan to win unfairly. Instead, he stood in front of her, and ran towards her. His heavy metal boots smashed through the ice easily, eliminating the problem of walking or not moving at all due to the slipperiness of the ice. He raised the Malevolence over his head, and prepared to strike. He pushed off hard with his left foot, and slid on his right over the ice to make a strike at Kara’s chest. He instead pulled away at the last moment, and dug the blade of his sword into the ice behind Kara. The sharp tip and edge of the blade cut a deep crevice in the ice around Kara, and, as his momentum carried him, Taere whirled around on the blade, and ended up cutting a small ovular platform in the ice around Kara. By this time, Taere’s twirling and ice cutting had shattered the ice around the small platform Kara was standing on, leaving her a platform just wide enough to be too wide to jump off onto shattered ice and solid ground. Taere then smirked, and stepped down hard on the front of the platform.

Taere normally would have shattered a chunk of ice off the side of the platform. Instead, using the amplified strength and momentum control the armor granted him, Taere flipped the frozen platform upward and forward, which could do nothing but flip Kara headfirst up into the air. Taere then readied the Malevolence to catch her on the tip and instantly run her through with the blade. Taere aimed carefully as he stepped down on the platform, so as to catch Kara squarely in the chest firmly on the razor tipped point of the Malevolence…

[LocoColt04]

What a bad cliché. At least he admits it...
Ah, ice. How I've missed you...

Remaining motionless, Kara spent a moment enjoying the ice beneath her. She raised her cold green eyes and watched as Taere sped toward her, crashing through the sheet of ice without effort. He ran with such graceful clumsiness that she couldn't help but chuckle as he charged. Taere leapt by Kara's dormant body and forced the Malevolence into the ground behind her. She turned her head to watch as he followed through, slicing a relatively narrow elliptical platform upon which she now stood alone. Kara released the grip on her weapon with her right hand, balancing the scythe diligently in her left.

Now more than ever, Kara wished she'd listened to Vincent's mindless drivel about the superiority of the dragoon. Taere slammed his foot heavily into the edge of the platform, causing a shift in balance. As the thick ice snapped upward, Kara could do nothing but shove off with her feet and hope for a good landing. She flew headfirst over Taere and his extended Malevolence, but her momentum took her past her opposition as she began her descent. She made a desperate swing with the scythe, missing her target entirely. Taere watched, stretching upward for even a scratch as she floated overhead, and settled into a look of slight disappointment as she continued without contact. The only thing which remained between Kara and solid ground was a thick layer of jagged shards of ice atop a frozen labyrinth of water.

The juxtaposition between the heat of the sun and the chill of the ice fueled Kara with power she hadn't known. From the moment the Malevolence produced its miniature blizzard, she had felt the itching of home within her. Now extending her right arm, she emitted not one, but a whole fleet of small flames which seared into the ice and created a small pool of water she could land in. Fate, however, would not allow it.

As she passed her mark by mere inches, Kara pulled her arm back toward her body, slamming shoulder-first into the ice and sliding on her right side. Immense heat still eminated from her body, softening the landing, but the brute force of the initial blow would leave her whole arm out of commission for a few minutes. Hoping to stall for time, Kara struggled to her feet only to see Taere already on the rebound. She looked down at her scythe, neglected in the strong grip of her left hand, and decided to get physical. Kara stepped back toward Taere, who wasn't more than a few meters away, and swung upward at his right side. Her left arm was nearly fully extended as she reached for the right side of Taere's torso. As he adjusted, she did too.

Kara jerked the her scythe out of its path and into her body, following the swing of her arm upward and tilting the blade back downward. In one fluid motion, she pulled the scythe toward Taere's unguarded left arm, using gravity to her advantage.

[Malevolence]

((OOC: Pardon my absence this time, we have until Thursday of this week to finish this off, I think. I was away for a few days. Anyway, I shall now post.))

Kara landed. Hard. Taere heard the thunk of her body against the flat sheet of ice, and smiled as he turned around. It was obvious that she had hurt herself rather badly, and her arm hung loosely against her side. As she stood up, her shoulder slumped over, and Taere was rather confident that though he had not broken her flesh, she would be at list slightly incapacitated, and much easier to deal with. Suddenly this had become seemingly easier. Taere put up the Malevolence in front of him, holding it with his right hand crossed across his body. He left his left hand open, and extended the gauntlet blade to its full length of 2½ feet. The blade was scalloped 3 times hard into the edge, making it easy to catch weapon blades on the sides and thrust them away in an assisted parry. This was perfect for blocking weapons like clubs and axes that rapidly change the directions of their swings. Or, in this case, scythes.

Taere saw the start of the swing as Kara’s hands tightened on the handle of her weapon. She dashed towards Taere, and as such, Taere ran at her as well. His blades were ready, and he pulled the Malevolence off to his side to strike; leaving the gauntlet blade in front of him to block any blows from the scythe. Kara ran towards him with her scythe out, and as soon as she came within range of him, she changed the course of the strike, as Taere expected. Again, she changed it to a vertical downward strike, and Taere prepared to block the blow. Suddenly, with inhuman speed, Kara again changed the strike to a horizontal slash at Taere’s left arm. Taere tried to both swing his right arm and the Malevolence around, and to move the gauntlet blade to block the strike. The Malevolence did not get there in time, but the gauntlet blade just barely grazed the wooden handle of the scythe. The strike missed severing his arm from the forearm down, but instead slashed downward, slicing open his left gauntlet and putting a deep gash in his left arm. Blood poured from the wound, and the Gauntlet blade was temporarily damaged, and was stuck on the “out” position.

Taere immediately sheathed the malevolence, and grabbed at his left arm. He backed off quickly, and tried to stop the bleeding. The blade had sliced through the black underarmor suit, and therefore the armor itself could not heal the wound. Taere pulled the left gauntlet off, still keeping his eyes on Kara in case she moved against him. He pulled off another long piece of the incised underarmor, and tied it around his forearm under his elbow as a light tourniquet. The bleeding slowed, and eventually halted, but Taere still had an open wound on his left arm. This was going to impair his abilities, and could cause a few problems in his fighting style.

“Ouch.”

Taere stood up again, and replaced the gauntlet on his left hand. With his right hand, he reached behind his back and drew the Malevolence again. Once again liquid adamanatite crystal flowed from the hilt into the shape of a blue, jagged-edged blade. Taere readied both weapons, and prepared to make his strike at Kara. Taere broke into a fast run, and prepared to use a strategy that had worked well many times before. Taere ran straight for Kara, and used himself like a scythe blade. Changing direction quickly, as Kara prepared to block his strike, he fired his gauntlet blade out to his left. The blade stuck in the energy shield surrounding the arena, and Taere saw the dismayed faces of the few fans in the grandstands near where the blade hit the shield. Taere was then pulled by the blade off to the side of the wall, about 100 meters off, and slammed into the shield, sending out ripples of yellow energy. Taere then pushed off of the shield, firing the gauntlet blade out in front of him again to stick into the other side of the field. Just as Taere was losing momentum and beginning to fall, the gauntlet blade pulled him over again, at exactly the right angle for Taere to make an enormously hard slice across Kara’s torso. As the blade approached, a display flashed over Taere’s Blacksun Filter. He was moving at over 50 knots, and his blade had the force available to slice through most nonmagical materials. Taere was pleased as he guided his blade – moving at 50 knots – toward Kara’s wast to cleave her in two…

[LocoColt04]

Kara still wondered where Taere had found such a strange contraption, and intended upon asking him once the battle had been called. The gauntlet seemed capable of many things, and yet another of its uses made itself apparent as Taere began to use the magnificent barrier to his advantage. He charged toward Kara with amazing speed, and just as he came near, his body jerked to its left, interrupting the course of his run. The strange blade of the gauntlet had shot upward and outward from his left hand, implanting itself within the depths of the magical shield. Kara could almost feel his breath as Taere launched into the barrier with the retraction of his gauntlet. She watched diligently as he pushed himself off the wall, shooting the blade again. Taere began to slow, but gravity and tension sped him once more as the blade of the gauntlet locked into place.

From the ground, Kara's eyes followed Taere intently, and for a slight moment (as he checked his velocity), he seemed to waver off course. Kara dropped her scythe and prepared herself. He quickly adjusted, but by the time he would have sliced her in two, Kara was already flat against the ground. Taere flew overhead with blinding speed, slashing downward with the Malevolence. He missed altogether, but Kara was wary of a return attack. She remained pressed to the field, rolling herself onto her back. She closed her eyes for a moment, internally reaching for a greater grasp of the sun. A lone white cloud rolled under the light of the celestial being and Kara instinctively snapped upward. Some greater power would not have it... not today. Kara was on her own.

A wispy shadow covered a large portion of the arena as Kara sat upon the earth, glancing about for Taere. He had already dislodged his gauntlet from the barrier and was now collecting himself near the wall. She was uncertain of how he landed, be it rough or smooth, but knew that it was irrelevant anyway. She sensed movement and focused on Taere. He wasn't moving -- at least, not toward her -- it had to be something else creating the strange sensation within her. Kara shoved the notion aside and planned out her next attack. The elements were a given; Taere was highly agile, and she probably wouldn't catch him on foot alone. She would be slightly weaker with the sun clouded out, so heavy fire attacks were out of the question. The last thing Kara wanted was exhaustion from a massively unsuccessful attack, setting her up for a loss. And possibly death.

Taere was unforgiving.

She glanced over at Taere once more. Though her vision may have been deceiving her, it seemed as though he was approaching her slowly. Too far away to know for sure, Kara leapt to her feet, snatching her weaponry from beside her with her left hand. Her right arm was still numb from her impact against the ice -- most of which had melted around her -- and retained minimal motion. As she began walking toward Taere, Kara prayed that it would loosen up enough within the next few minutes to prevent a heavy disadvantage against him. The distance lessened as Kara quickened her pace, nearly breaking into a run toward her foe. Taere readied himself as Kara started another upward slash, but she halted in mid-step.

Her abrupt stop sent her momentum charging into her left arm as three baseball-sized fireballs flew from the tip of her rising scythe. The first stayed low, burning the grass a few feet ahead of Taere's body. The second, larger than the other two, sped toward his midsection, and the third raged toward his neck. Following through with her slash, Kara just began to return her left arm to her side as the flaming spheres neared impact.

[Shan'do Spike]

First off, before I write this, I’m going to ask that you don’t just scroll mindlessly through this post, read who the winner is and move on, because I prefer to explain my decisions thoroughly.

First of all, VB3 has screwed up a lot of the characters, so we’ve tried to wade through those as best as we can, not holding it against anyone. But here’s what I’ve observed from the battle so far.

Malevolence, I don’t know what it was, but I don’t think this was your best work at all. I’m not saying that it was bad, but there were points where I would be reading and have to pause just to make sure I didn’t completely miss something. The most striking example of it that I remember best would be this:

“As the blade approached, a display flashed over Taere’s Blacksun Filter. He was moving at over 50 knots, and his blade had the force available to slice through most nonmagical materials. Taere was pleased as he guided his blade – moving at 50 knots – toward Kara’s wast to cleave her in two�

There’s a bit of lack of caring with spelling, and this sentence really seems to bog down, but what I’m really talking about is how you mention that you were moving at 50 knots twice in a row. It just seemed really….sloppy, which is one of the characteristics that I would assosciate least with you. Your posts also seemed unusually devoid of content. Your intro post shocked me by its length (not that it was bad, but it just seemed uncharactistic of you).

That all being said, I do think you have a great talent for writing, and your posts, in general, bar a few sloppy points, reflected that talent. Your posts really were very good.

LocoColt, this was a good battle for you. Your posts are in general very strong. Perhaps the biggest single complaint I can lob against your writing is that, especially with Kara, your posts seem very…whiny, which I know makes sense with the character, but at some points, it does get annoying to read. These posts, in general, were better in that department than most of the posts of yours I’ve read. There still felt to me like a slight undertone of whininess, but I didn’t feel as if I was being assaulted by a gigantic hammer of wankerdom. I can’t believe I just actually used that sentence in actual judgment.

Beyond that, your posts weren’t magnificent or eye opening, but there were no gigantic flaws seeming to rip the continuity of your posts apart. They were very solid posts.

In light of all of this, the winner of the 2004 Winter TOA is LocoColt04.