Spring 2007 R1-6: Alucard v. Mariko -- The Blazing Nation's Arena

[LocoColt04]

Reference this thread for bracket information. Reference this thread for environment information.

You have from now until the 28th of February to finish your round. Good luck!

I was going to expand the environments for you, but I've decided to leave that in your hands. Pay attention to what's already listed in the Environment thread, and build upon it from there. I look forward to this season's tournament.



Remember, your characters have been teleported to this location via the powers of the gods/aliens (call them anything but judges). Because this is the first round, long introductory posts explaining your characters' journey prior to abduction are acceptable. In future rounds, try to keep them shorter.

Again, good luck, and more importantly, have fun!

[Bryan]

The sun blisters down onto the dirt of the arena as Raven glares out into the opening from behind the bars of the entrance.

"I'm not going out there. It's far too bright." says a mysterious voice from within the dark behind Raven.

"Quit whining. Between you and the sun, I'm getting a headache." Raven replied.

The two remained silent in their holding cell, not speaking of how they arrived. Alucard was resting his back against the wall, staring at the floor in the dark as Raven stood at the gate looking out. Raziel wasn't present, so Raven wasn't worried about him being harmed.

Alucard pushed himself away from the wall, brushing off his jacket. He then made his way next to Raven, squinting his eyes at the sun, looking out. His pale skin almost seemed to glow under the white hot sun, though he did not sweat.

"This is the last place that I wanted to spend my afternoon. In a dark cell with you, staring at the sun" said Alucard as he looked out into the arena.

Raven turned his head a bit, glaring at Alucard, showing his grim skull face paint slightly. Just as he was about to speak, the gate swung out and open allowing them to move foward into the arena.

The two slowly made their way to the middle, looking around. The sun was blazing down even worse in the middle of the arena. Raven turned to Alucard, giving him a look of question.

"Wow. Yay. We made it out of the cell. Doesn't help the fact that the sun is still beating down on me with white-hot intensity. You know I am a vampire, right? This isn't exactly my cup of tea..." sneered Alucard

Raven turned away, obviously irritated at Alucard.

"I wish there was something that would make him stop bitching about the sun...even for just a few minutes" Raven muttered to himself.

Just as he said this, the earth seemed to move from behind Alucard. The soil then shot up, creating a cieling over Alucard's head, blocking him from the sun and putting him in the shade.

Raven turned around again, looking at Alucard. They both looked confused as to what just happened.

"Happy now?" chuckled Raven.

Alucard glared at Raven when a thought crossed his mind. This soil must move into shapes if someone desires it to do so. How odd.

Alucard brushed the dirt off of his jacket and gave a cheesy smile to Raven, showing his pearly white fangs.

"I wish I had a different partner" he said to himself.

He waited for a few seconds and watched Raven as he turned around.

"A new partner would be fantastic" Alucard said to himself again.

Again, nothing happened.

"Damn!" muttered Alucard.

[Yuki-onna]

Lo-chent slowly arose from sleep, her bones groaning in protest as she stretched her cramped limbs.
She brushed the sand off her cheek, blinking against the bright light.
Sand? Bright light?

Last I know, I was in the Femizir Woods...

The knowledge of her new surroundings dawned upon her like a bucket of ice water would have arosen her from sleep.
She was crouching in a vast arena, resemblant of the lodgings of the fights of gladiators in times past. Her eyes widened, instantly pained by the fierce sun.

"Where the-?"

She stood and turned on her axis, gaping at the huge structure of stone surrounding her.

"Acharak," she whispered. "Acharak, you must come see this."

A soft breeze lazily stirred the dry dust of the arena. Nothing happened.

Summoning her breath, Lo-chent screamed with all her might: "ACHARAK!!"

The remnants of the name bounced back and forth between the great stones, fading into nothing.

Carefully, like a man stepping into a hot bath, the black tattoo on Lo-chents back started to shimmer and flow. It stretched itself out and oozed off her skin, touching the ground and swirling in place.
It grew larger, than spawned itself into a humanoid shape.

Acharak's voice was like himself; oily, black and full of depth.

"What is it now, woman?"

"Care to notice where we are?" Lo-chent spat, impatient with the demon already.

Acharak's head swivelled to and fro, it's seemingly eyeless shape surveying the arena.

"Well," he said, "what a charming little abode we have here. Where on earth did you take us now?"

Lo-chent scuffed the dirt with her foot. "I didn't take us anywhere. We just...happened to be here when I woke up. I..."

She looked around at the empty seats, but had the uncomfortable feeling she was being watched by a thousand eyes.

"Acharak," she said softly, "what's that over there?"

"Two men. Oh my, we have a bloodsucker. Shall we dilly dally over there and ask them for tea?"

Lo-chent snorted. "Well, maybe they at least know what this place is...come on, let's go."

The two slim figures made their way across the dust, the sun beating mercilessly down upon them.

[Bryan]

Raven shielded his eyes from the sun and continued to look around the vacant arena. A pair of vultures were now circle above.

"We have visitors" muttered Alucard.

Raven turned around, looking into the distance. He was able to make out two figures heading toward them through a blurry mirage.

"One of them has a bit of an attitude. The male. I caught something about a "bloodsucker" in their conversation." said Alucard calmly.

Raven turned to Alucard and noticed he was slipping his white gloves on. He was still in the shade of the ledge that had erupted from the sand.

"No need for violence just yet, Alucard. There's no need to drink his blood when there is no reason to." said Raven.

Raven turned back to looking into the distance, watching the two figures once more.

Alucard gave a sarcastic chuckle as he slipped on his right glove.

"I'm not going to drink his blood..." said Alucard.

"Good." replied Raven.

Raven then paused for a moment due to the unusual silence. He quickly looked over to notice that Alucard was no longer standing underneath the sand ledge. He was nowhere to be seen at all!

Out of the sky came Alucard, dropping down quickly towards Acharak. In mid-air, Alucard ejected his arm blades from under his suit coat, sliding the right blade along the left. Upon doing this, he sent a shower of sparks toward Lo-chent in an attempt to blind her.

Coming down, he violently slashed in a backhand motion at Acharak's throat.

"...I'M GOING TO SPILL HIS BLOOD ALL OVER THESE WRETCHED SANDS!" screamed Alucard.

His eyes were wild with rage. Nothing got at Alucard quite like disrespect for his kind. In his mind, a slow painful death would be enough to make up for the disrespectful comments.

In the distance, Raven witnessed the outbreak and began running toward the three.

"Arrogant bastard..." Raven mumbled as he was running.

He pulled his frighteneing daggers from their holdsters, spinning them around on his fingers until they became a shiny blur and increased his speed towards them.

[Yuki-onna]

Adrenaline rushed through Lo-chent's veins the instant she saw the tall man draw his blades. The sparks emitted from the metal clashing together blinded her momentarily as she fumbled for her dirk. Finding the handle, she whipped the vicious blade out and took up a fighter's stance, balancing her weight on her back foot.

In the same moment, Acharak narrowly missed a slit throat from Alucard's blades. The thin, stick figure-like black form of his body started to shift and change. Rapidly he assumed his warrior form, resembling a sleek cat that had the essence of a sabertooth tiger.
He snapped viciously at the vampire's feet, peeved at being so easily caught off guard.

In the meantime, Lo-chent ducked and weaved towards the man, like a little bird catching insects.
She was used to guerilla fighting, not open fights in an arena filled with sand.

"Sure wish I had some goddammned cover..." she thought to herself.

As if in response, the sand around her lifted itself and started forming into shapes. The "bloodsucker" as Acharak had called it, disappeared behind a column of sand. Trees formed out of the sand all around her, resembling the forest she had been in before her abduction.

"Well, that's something at least," she thought quickly. She touched one of the sand trees, feeling its firmness. Swiftly she hoisted herself into it's boughs. Seeking the tall man, she hovered in the branches above him, planning to jump him and catch him off his guard.

I don't really feel like fighting for no reason, anyhow...

[LocoColt04]

Heh, Alucard, if I have one pet-peeve about your writing, it's that you fail to use commas with dialogue. It's just a silly little grammatical thing and by no means counts against you, but I figured I'd just throw that out there at the start because there's no way I can finish this post without mentioning it.

"I'm rather a bit of a grammar nazi when I want to be," I muttered.


So, to the point. There really isn't much action in this thread, though I suppose the lack of posts may have something to do with that. I'd assume that had the two of you had more opportunities to sit down and write, your posts would likely have had more... well... fighting in them.

Alucard (the character) seems like quite the bloodthirsty little beast. I suppose that only makes sense, considering he's a vampire and whatnot. You know, it's funny, but when Alucard and Raven interact with one another, they seem to have a very Samurai Champloo vibe about them (as far as their attitudes go, anyhow).

Lo-chent and Acharak, on the other hand, seem to be more mellow -- at least that's the impression I'm getting from this. On the one hand, it's interesting because playing a defensive role is certainly different, but at the same time it's almost detrimental in a way. There's a lack of offensive action, and that really doesn't help in a tournament designed specifically to showcase said action.

At a glance, you both seem to be on an equal plane as far as skill is concerned. Mariko may have a slight upper hand in terms of descriptive writing, but it seems Alucard has the upper hand in terms of creativity. You both have a good handle over your characters, and I really wish we could have seen more out of you.

The whole thread is a bit slow, though. It's very dialogue-heavy, and again lacks in action. Then again, with only two posts each, it's hard to expect an action-packed sequence yet, you know?

This one's a bit tough just because there isn't much to go by.

Since this is an RPB tournament, the action sequences are really the only things to go off of, and in that case, the round goes to Alucard. Each of his characters had an action during his turn, which is what the team play was supposed to give us. Mariko's tendency to play defensive, while good in longer threads with more posts, really hurt her in this one. =/