Spring 2007 R2-2: TheDarkDragoon v. Musicmuse -- Urai Temple of Baiyy

[Shan'do Spike]

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

You have from now until the 5th of April to finish your round. Good luck!

Welcome to the second round:


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 second round, long introductory posts explaining your characters' journey prior to abduction are acceptable, so try to keep this aspect of the opening post shorter.

Remember in Round 2, Character 1 will be used.

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

[Kaiser Dragoon]

Yuudai was coming in for a landing, and a blanket of feathers appeared behind the enemy as the great booming voice came over the valley once more

"Fighters! It has been decided!"

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he saw everything slow down, and blur. Everything was moving so quick that he wanted to puke... It was the same feeling that he had before...

As quickly as he could think about it, Yuudai found himself in a strange building. The stone works seemed almost untouched from time itself, and the magical energies whirled around everything. he was standing in a darkened hallway, illuminated by the small windows going down the corridor. Yuudai tried moving only to get hit by the mind numbing pain of his fractured bones. He then fell backwards, landing hard on his rear.

"Bah, not going to be able to fight well with these injuries," stated Yuudai as he worked what remained of his magics to try and dull the pain a bit. It wasn't a permanent fix, but it would last him for a bit, as long as he didn't have any more blows to those areas. Almost instantly though, he managed to pull energies from the building around him, and he heard a noise as the room in front of him shifted downwards.

Surprised and a bit shocked, he got up quickly and, strangely enough, found his spear next to him as the new room lowered in front of him.

"Fighter, step into the room." Said the same voice as the one that boomed over his last fight, considerably lighter spoken.

Unsure if he should trust the voice, he looked back only to find wall. 'Great,' he thought to himself as he realized, he had to trust the voice, and reluctantly stepped into the room. The room, only measuring around 10 feet all around, Yuudai wondered why it was that the voice wanted him to come into here.

As he tried turning around, he found that the room started moving upwards, and turned black on the inside. Yuudai could only focus on the grating of the stone rubbing together as he stood in a defensive position staring in the direction where the door once was. Soon, he felt the room jerk to a halt and the stones in front of him revealed a blinding light, which soon cleared to reveal the outside of his new environment.

The trees were thick, enveloping the entire outside of the building, and exotic plants blanketed the floor of the forest in front of him. slowly looking around, he noticed that the building itself had some growth on the walls and around the doorways. The stones themselves were a yellow color, probably from age and the elements. Even out here, Yuudai could sense strong magics guarding the place from intruders... he just hoped that he wasn't one of them.

Slowly walking forward, he felt the stone under his right foot give way as a spear shot up from the ground. Yuudai barely managed to escape the spear, while it cut his right leg, nicking some flesh, but it wasn't too bad. He turned around to see another being, this time, a young woman in strange garb. He knew better than to let his guard down though and got ready as the booming voice spoke once again.

"Fighters! Welcome to the second round. This time, you will be fighting by yourselves. Remember, the only rules are that there are no real rules! May the battle begin!"

With that, Yuudai slowly sighed at himself, 'Great, I am already hating this thing I seem to have gotten myself into,' he slowly thought as he took off towards the human who was also getting ready to make her assault.

[Musicmuse]

Niah found herself whirling once again. Well, more accurately, everything else had begun to spin while she seemed to stand still. A moment ago she and Genesis had been fighting two very odd creatures, and now she was tumbling through space once again. The journey ended abruptly as the ground under her feet steadied once more. She staggered slightly from the intensity of the change of environment, but managed to keep herself from falling to the ground. Where once there had been fiery lava, there was now cool stone.

Unsure of what had just transpired, Niah slumped down against the wall behind her and focused her sigh down the long narrow corridor in front of her. It seemed to lead to nowhere... there were numerous tiny windows along the walls of the corridor, but the passage was straight and the opposite end had only another stone wall like the one Niah was slumped against.

Still unable to track where she was, or even what time period it could be, Niah decided to just wait patiently for a resolution. Her breath came in and out in a steady rhythm, and she let her head drop down onto her knees. Never before had anything so surreal happened to her. It was amazing how many things she had left to learn about the universe.

A subtle scraping snapped Niah back to attention and small beams of light peered through the wall far down the length of the corridor. The stones seemed to be shifting and moved back and forth over each other as if solving an intricate puzzle. The flashes of light danced between the openings and Niah stepped forward cautiously to try to get a better look. Between the shifting stones she could see some sort of vegetation, but the changing wall was moving too quickly for her to really get a good idea of what was beyond this confining passage. At last the stones moved completely away, and sunlight streamed into the narrow stone structure.

"Fighter, step into the room." The voice was strong and instructive, without the slightest hint of anger or punishment. It was merely a direction Niah knew she was meant to follow.

Her eyes darted to the floor for a moment as she decided whether leaving this corridor was a wise move. The sound of humming insects and a gentle breeze from this new location was very calming, and it seemed to Niah that there was probably more harm in not following an order from this unseen force rather than just obeying. Niah sighed and stepped forward, blinking as the full force of the sunlight beamed down upon her.

As soon as she had completely exited the stone corridor, the shifting wall began to madly reconfigure itself to close back up again, and Niah stared in amazement as it became solid in front of here eyes and then faded into nothing. What was more alarming was the figure standing behind where the wall had been.

It looked to be a man, but he seemed slightly miniature or somehow more delicate than a human. He wasn't facing her so it was impossible to see any sort of expression, but his clothing said it all. A long black trench coat hung majestically from this creature's frame, and shiny black boots poked out from under the end of the overcoat. From appearances only Niah would have guessed that this creature was of some relation to the wicked little being named Dragoth she had just been squared off against.

The delicate figure turned to face Niah, his eyes searching her as if sizing her up. But it wasn't his eyes that caught her attention... it was his ears! He had pointed little elf ears! Ironically, Niah had never missed seeing a normal human being so much before.

"Fighters! Welcome to the second round. This time, you will be fighting by yourselves. Remember, the only rules are that there are no real rules! May the battle begin!"

Second round? That was news to Niah. Apparently that altercation with the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde duo before had been the first round, and now the goal was clear -- stay alive by any means necessary. Her opponent looked ready and willing, and Niah took a fighting stance to show that she too would fight for her life.

[Kaiser Dragoon]

As Yuudai headed for the woman, she stood still, only moving to protect herself. This seemed to get the better part of his conscience and he broke off the attack, stopping to examine the situation for a little bit.

"Woman, why are you here if you aren't going to fight? I was brought here to fight in a tournament, not beat up on cowering women." And once again got to the ready position, with ready to strike. "Prepare yourself, I won't be as hesitant this time, you must have skill if you're here."

This time, Yuudai circled around her side, making sure not to under-estimate the woman, she seemed defenseless, but, Yuudai made sure to not take that for granted. He would come in and try to jab her left shoulder with his spear, incapacitating it, hopefully.

[Musicmuse]

The spear soared past Niah's shoulder as she narrowly sidestepped the attack. Hey eyes never broke contact with her attacker, but they narrowed as she understood his intentions.

The spearhead was yanked back and Niah stood defiantly with a determined glare in her eyes. She slowly and deliberately removed her suitcoat and flung it aside, letting it fall in the flowering bushes. The sudden movement from her discarded white suitcoat sent a multitude of birds squawking away in a frenzy from the nearby trees. She flippped her hair and her lips curled into a sneer -- now she was ready for a brawl.

Her leg shot up suddenly as she sprang into a roundhouse kick, hoping to disarm her opponent. Niah knew that if she could make it a hand-to-hand fight that she would most likely have an edge over this strange foe.

[Kaiser Dragoon]

As Yuudai watched the opponent nimbly dodge his attack, he thought to himself 'I knew it'. he had been better than to under-estimate this opponent, because, last time he under-estimated his opponent, he ended up with the wounds he has now.

As the spear glided past the woman, or girl it would seem. Despite her stature she didn't seem to have a womanly aura about her. Actually, the more Yuudai tried to feel her presence, the less he realized he actually felt the.. thing there. Yuudai quickly withdrew the spear and got at the ready again. The thing he was fighting stood up, as if almost a challenge to him.

'Hm, I really don't like this', Yuudai thought to himself. 'She doesn't even seem alive, but, yet she moves like she yet lives. I mustn't take this lightly, lest I lose my life in this hell.'

With that, the woman threw her coat off in some nearby bushes, and launched herself at Yuudai at blinding speeds. Before he even really knew what happened, the his spear had been kicked out of his hand and was sent flying onto the stone walkway to his left. Momentarily distracted by this, Yuudai once again turned his attention to the now offensive woman, who seemed to want to fight him hand to hand.

Yuudai, spending most of his life in training with his enchanted spear, had never attempted to learn the art of hand-to-hand combat. This was something he was sorely regretting now as the thing headed towards him intent on combat. He knew, that unless he could retrieve his spear, he would be defenseless. Taking a step back, he felt a twinge of magical energies and a spear shot from the ground, grazing his leg as he barely dodged it jumping backwards. 'Hm, just the thing I was looking for,' Yuudai thought, somewhat relieved as a wall of spears popped up in front of him. He quickly took off to try and retrieve his spear, and hopefully manage a counter-offensive.

[Musicmuse]

Niah watched as the palisade of spears erupted from the ground, distancing Niah from her adversary. Her eyebrows furled in annoyance and she moved around the blockade to pursue the enemy. She had just disarmed him perfectly, and it would be a waste if this interruption cost Niah her advantage.

As she rounded the wall her fears were confirmed -- the mystery rival had disappeared. She tried to listen to the sounds of the jungle to try to ferret him out, but there was just the insistent chirp of cicadas an the occasional howl from some unseen predator lurking in the distance.

The great temple structure stood looming behind Niah and she scaled a few of the steps to get a better view of the area. Her keen eyesight scanned the trees and foliage quickly yet carefully, but there was nothing out of place.

...nothing? Not even a wayward spear?

Niah cursed softly to herself upon realizing that no spear in sight meant that her opponent had most likely retrieved it. Not only had she lost her weapon advantage, but also any trace of where he had gone in the meantime.

There was a subtle scraping sound and Niah strained to make out what direction it was coming from. The answer came swiftly, but wasn't of any comfort -- the noise was from the steps beneath her feet shifting position! The steps transformed flawlessly into a downward slope that faced into the temple itself. This ancient ruin seemed to have a mind of its own, and it beckoned Niah to plummet recklessly into the very heart of its madness.

The journey was short and ended in Niah being spewed out into a large room with a ceiling that soared high above her head. There were countless balconies stretching across the open space above her, and Niah suspected she was at the bottom of a very large and complicated maze. A few walkways shifted position again and Niah tried to think promptly about what her next course of action should be.

Obviously finding the elven madman who intended to kill her was a priority, as was avoiding any other secret surprises this unpredictable temple held.