Spring 2007 R1-3: TheDarkDragoon v. Rai Blackthorne -- Yuril River Valley

[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!

[Kaiser Dragoon]

Before Abduction: Yuudai.

Yuudai had just finished up his training for the day, feeling like he could have done more... and better.

"Hmm, I feel off today, perhaps I should go recentre myself at my shrine, then head to bed..."

After a few hours of meditation in his shrine, he snapped out of his meditation... early. He felt an eerie presence, watching him. In an a attempt to locate the source, he found... nothing. He could feel the eyes on the back of his skull, but he could neither see or find anything watching him. Slowly, he walked out of his shrine, his spear at the ready. When he stepped out into the open, he felt a cold sensation wash over him, like he had just jumped into a river of cold water. His sight had gone black, and he felt himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness.

His mind, swimming in the state of semi-consciousness, he heard voices talking around him.

"Well, he looks like he will be a fine contestant!"

What? He tried to speak, but wasn't able to make words come out, yet he heard these voices, talking about him.

"Yes, perhaps we should pair him with the other warrior we got from the planet."

There is another in my situation? I wonder who the person could be... wait, contestant? Yuudai slowly flipped the concept in his mind, trying to put the pieces together, but not able to make a plausible explanation for the voices talking around him, or what had happened from his shrine to... wherever he was. Perhaps it was magics, far more powerful than his own, far more powerful than he had ever seen or heard of. This only added to the confusion of the moment, but, then he felt himself being pulled from the pool of half consciousness to being awake.

Yuudai quickly sat up, only to lose his balance and fall back over on the cold table he was laying on. He lay there for a second, and once he gained his bearings, looked around. He saw blackness, and shadowy figures all around himself. Attempting to talk, he let out a croak, and once of the voices from before talked...

"Don't worry, Warrior, your voice shall return soon, it becomes a more bearable journey the more you do it. You have been summoned here before us, to partake in a tournament. Warriors from various planets have been assembled to see what kind of fight they would put against eachother. You have been personally selected by us to see who the most powerful warriors in the universe are. You will be fighting with another warrior from your planet. Of course, you won't be fighting without cause, you will get the one thing you desire most, if you win the tournament that is. The first round starts tomorrow, until then, sleep."

Before Yuudai could comment, or even think about what had been said, he felt his consciousness slip once again into blackness.

Before Abduction: Isamu

Isamu woke from a very troubled sleep only to hear his name be called by a vassal next to his bed.

"Sir Isamu, the king summons you to his chambers."

Hmm, most likely more menial work. Isamu slowly got up and dismissed the vassal from his room. He looked over at the blessed armor and sword over in the corner of the room, and the pain of the thought of his families predicament slowly made his heart ache. The thought hit him again, This might be a good opportunity to talk to his lord about release of his family. It was almost the thirty year anniversary of his servitude to the king, surely, by now, the king could not question his loyalty, he had been working nonstop for the king every day since that day, even now, he had just gotten back from his last task, delivering a letter to the Prince of Arethia, with talk of peace. It had not been a smooth road for Isamu, either. With the nations warring, and Isamu himself bearing the colors of his kingdom in enemy territory, it was like a rabbit jumping into a wolves den to talk to the wolves about becoming vegetarians. None the less, it had been done, and Isamu returned, battered and bruised, but, alive.

After reflecting for a while longer, Isamu slowly suited up in his armor, leaving the never before used helmet on the rack, as per the usual, and grabbing his Zanbato, he headed off to the kings quarters. Rounding the corner into the kings room, he found the door open, with the vassal standing at the ready to close the door, and Isamu was waved in by the king. This wasn't a normal practice, the kings door was always closed when he arrived, Isamu slowly entered and bowed before his lord before the vassal left, and closed the door. The king was seated before him, in gaudy robes made of expensive material, his regal bearing was a stark contrast to what everyone else in the kingdom was able to afford, and what everyone wanted, even though none of the peasants could ever reach such a status. The kings face was muscular, the king himself being a very large man, but nothing compared to Isamu. The look he gave Isamu was... different than usual. The king always gave Isamu a look of cold, straight to business type thing. The look he was giving Isamu at the moment though, was a striking difference, a soft, caring look... something was wrong.

"Isamu, I hear good tidings from the kingdom of Arethia, and the peace is coming, once more to the war tattered borders of our nation and theirs."

"Yes, my liege, I delivered the letter and returned, as expected."

"Yes..." An uncomfortable silence settled over the room before the king spoke again. "Isamu, you have been in my service for what now... 30 years?"

It was quite a shock for his years of service to be brought up in a conversation with the king, it was always strictly business around the king. It took Isamu only a second to regain his composure.

"Y-Yes, my liege."

"Yes, it has been a while, do you not feel the wear and tear of the years of service to me?"

This felt like a trap of words, and Isamu could very well tell what the king was thinking.

"No, sire, thirty years has gone past me like dust in the wind, I only live to serve you."

"Yes, yes, of course, 30 years of unquestioning loyalty, its quite a while to consider dust of the past, no?"

"Not in the least, sire, I only wish to serve you, much as I did the day I won the battle in the arena to become your next general. If I could live the rest of my days serving you, I would be happy through my death! If only..."

"If only what? Have I not given you everything you could ever want? I have given you women to line you bedside, I have my vassals clean your quarters, I give you more than triple what I pay even my most loyal soldiers. What is it you can desire?

Isamu cringed at the thoughts, yes, he had been given everything, everything but what he really wants...

"Sire, my family, have they not suffered enough?" Isamu, swallowing hard, forced himself to regain his composure to talk again. "I thought, after proving my loyalty time and time again, they would be able to eventually go free. Years passed, then a decade, and now, two more, but no sign of them ever being able to go free in sight, why?"

The king, after giving Isamu a long, cold stare, slowly answered.

"Isamu, you ask time and time again about your family, but, they will not be released, I have said it every time, to make sure your loyalty stays to me, I will keep your family here and you will continue your servitude. Do you understand?"

Isamu cringed, and answered slowly.

"Yes, sire, I will not question anymore about it." Even though, in his mind, he wanted to.

"Very well, then, to business" The king issued his normal stare at Isamu. "You will go to the lines and ensure that the Prince is not playing farce on his word of peace. You will leave for Fort Dwindel tomorrow, Dismissed!"

The doors opened behind Isamu and he reluctantly left the Kings quarters. Instead of heading back to his own quarters, Isamu took a detour to the castle's courtyard.

Slowly thinking to himself, he wondered why the king felt it was necessary to withhold his family from him. Carefully walking on the stones that went around the garden in a maze like fashion, he suddenly felt the tingling of someone watching him. He turned around slowly, getting his sword at the ready, only to feel cold sweep over his body as he lost consciousness.

He felt his mind spinning as he lay in a state of half consciousness, he heard voices talking around himself, but, was unable to make out the words due to the confusion of his mind.

After a while, he managed to pull himself to the world of conscious thought, only to look around and see shadowy figures around him. His armor beating together, he slowly rose up.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Peace, warrior, we mean you no harm, and you couldn't get out of the area you are in even if you wanted. You have been summoned here before us, to partake in a tournament. Warriors from various planets have been assembled to see what kind of fight they would put against eachother. You have been personally selected by us to see who the most powerful warriors in the universe are. You will be fighting with another warrior from your planet. Of course, you won't be fighting without cause, you will get the one thing you desire most, if you win the tournament that is. The first round starts tomorrow, until then, sleep."

"Wai.." and, before Isamu could finish the sentence, he was asleep.

At the Yuril River Valley

Slowly, both Yuudai and Isamu woke, surprisingly refreshed, especially after sleeping on a concrete dam. The Dam, which had been worn from years of use and the weather from the area, seemed like it could break loose any moment, which, Yuudai didn't like in the least, nor did he like who he saw as his partner.

"Great, you again." the air of disappointment filled his words

Isamu, on the other hand focused his attention on the duo that was standing across the bridge from them. Slowly rising, he found that he was far more refreshed than he had been in his life. After assessing the duo for a while, Isamu grabbed his sword, which radiated heat almost immediately, and turned to his partner.

"It isn't like I chose to be here. Believe me, I wouldn't be here on my own account, perhaps we should focus on the two that are standing there instead of our squabble, Tainted Elf.

"Hmpf, you're asking for trouble, Human, but, this seems to be a bit more important. If we aren't careful, I do believe these games aren't for sport, I do believe the losers are ment to die."

Yuudai picked up his spear from the ground, the mystical fog dripping from the from the area around Yari Rin.

Suddenly, a voice boomed over the valley

"Fighters! You have been selected from many planets in the Universe to fight in this tournament, the only rules are, there are no real rules. Fight to your hearts content and each of you will be rewarded with the one thing you want more than anything in the universe upon winning. Losing gets you nothing. May the battle begin!"

"Then, to business, I will take the one with the tainted wings, and you will take the one with the malevolent aura." And, almost immediately, Yuudai took of from where he was standing, heading straight towards the winged creature who stood before himself. Overtaken by bloodlust, he jumped into the air at an angle, he hoped to connect with the creature in the the angled fall.

Isamu, not as excited about the concept, headed towards the other creature... He almost looked human, Isamu slowly thought to himself. Isamu then charged it and brought up Faia Zanbato, unlit, preparing to swing down with all of his might on the thing before him. If this connected, which, Isamu was hoping would be the case, would more than likely finish this right here right now.

[Echo Zel]

(OOC: I'll follow in your footsteps and add a before)

Before Abduction: Rai.

The air was thick with a blood-like stench, a stench which arroused its visitor, Rai had been drawn to this battle, not ordered to come, just here on a leisurly strole to see what innocent mortal he could tear from the fabric of existance and drain of all lifeforce and strength.

"Alas, not a drop of worthy blood, I wouldnt let such unworthy blood pass my lips. Inferior beings no matter what way you look at it." He snarled through gritted teeth.

Rai shook his head, his hair blew in the wind, dancing like shards of pure light set against a red hued sky, bodies lay by his feet, his claws dripped with the life of the dead. He sighed and pushed his hair back into its side-parting, sweeping his fringe to the side and pulling his armour straight he walked stepping over the corpses he trudged across the battlefield in search of another sport-like kill.

As if by coincidence at his last words he felt a power that far surpassed any of those he had killed on this battlefield, it seemed somwhat out of place amoungst the foes he had felled today, he turned sharply as the force drew closer, as he did his body fell weak, he tried to open up his wings, but he lost control over them and they retracted painfully with a crack into his back, he fell to one knee, then face down in the dirt.

Before Abduction: Alasdair.

Alasdair sat alone in a dark corner of the 'Meadow Peak' bar, swirling a drink round in his glass, he laughed alone as the humans around him muttered pointing at his wings, he smirked and drank the last drops of vintage wine from the bottom of his glass. He then stood, his black eyes shot over the human closest to him, the human looked back, he was a fairly small man, sat with a large muscular body guard. Alasdair knew exactly what they wanted, as he took a step towards the door, his arm was grabbed from the side, he turned to the side, looking from under his fringe, he then looked down at the mans hand. It was the muscle bound imbacile, obviously too confident in his nurtured strength, bounty hunters were numerous and all to often for him, a fallen angel fetches a high price as a trophy.

"I think you should stay a while!" Chuckle the blockhead confidently,

"I think if you dont release my arm I'll tear yours from your body." Alasdair uttered back.

The bodyguard laughed loudly, as he did Alasdair sung round his other arm, placing it on his shoulder he pulled and the arm came free from the mans body, the hand still clenched around Alasdairs wrist it spasmed free from grip. The man fell backwards screaming loudly, he gripped with his left arm the stump that had been his right. Alasdair grinned as more men rushed around him, all holding chairs or broken bottles, some even wielded swords and daggers.

"Get out! Get out you monster." Screamed the barmaid over the roar of the mob.

Alasdair grinned and unfolded his wings, knocking several people back he took off, wrapping his tainted wings about his form he crashed through the roof and into the open air, but before he had got much space between himself and the ground, he felt himself being dragged earthbound, if he had senses he would too have felt his airways collapse as whatever was attacking him tried desperatly to make him pass-out, luckily you cant starve of breath what doesnt breathe. He crashed hard into the ground, as soon as he did his limbs bent and he flipped backwards withdrawing Aurion and Cornelius, he held them infront of himself, looking about, nothing was there. Suddenly his head became dizzy and his eyesight waned, he fell to one knee, but quickly rose to both again. Somthing was trying to incapacitate him, it was slowly working, he tried to speak, his eyes a swirling, unseeing blackness,

"Who? Who..." He uttered before his legs buckled again and he collapsed to the ground, his mind failed all thought and he slipped from conciousness.

At the Yuril River Valley:

Rai opened his eyes, his senses playing havok, he felt several creatures of great strength all standing in his vercinity, he heard a gushing of water, looking about his eyes were slightly blurred, he rose to one knee trying to gain his bearings, he saw a river straight ahead, then he sensed somthing behind him and bore his fangs turning rapidly, he looked up, there stood facing away was an angel, his height was that of almost 8 feet. Rai gasped,

"Alasdair?" He said shocked,

Looking around again he saw he knew not the landscape they were stood in.

"Lower your voice old friend, bodies lie on the ground ahead, I dont wish to wake them, not yet." Said Alasdair in a calm whisper.

Rai then rose to his feet and dusted himself down and sorted out his hair, Alasdair cared little about this and stood caked in the dust, much to Rai's displeasure. Rai then looked ahead, indeed there were bodies lay in the valley with them, two of them. He then looked to the side, the water was apparently gushing from a broken dam nearby, by the looks of it, it wouldnt hold long either.

On this thought he looked back at the bodies, they started in motion and began to rise, apparently having a little squabble between themselves. Rai grinned at their lack of unison, a voice rang out over the landscape rattling stones and rippling the water,

"Fighters! You have been selected from many planets in the Universe to fight in this tournament, the only rules are, there are no real rules. Fight to your hearts content and each of you will be rewarded with the one thing you want more than anything in the universe upon winning. Losing gets you nothing. May the battle begin!"

Rai and Alasdair stood in defencive stance as their counterparts charged upon command,

"Typical, we fight those who take orders from heightened voices, they hold no authority over me. Yet, how can I turn down such a worthy opponent?" Laughed Rai looking straight at the huge man running up towards him,

Alasdair grinned, "I agree. I have never been bound by any bonds as well you know, but these two are just so eager to seal fate."

The first jumped and slashed at an angle at Alasdair, with lightening fast reaction Alasdair responded, he jumped to the side slamming his elbow into the attackers ribcage, he then backflipped plucking his blades from his back. The second swung a strange weapon straight for Rai appearing to hope to cut him in two, yet Rai leapt high in teh air and landed pushing off the back off his opponent, which caused Rai to land on all fours several meters away, his attacker stumbled forward and turned, Rai turned too to look at him, dusting off his knees he smirked, 'Height, surly, clumbsiness comes hand in hand' he thought with a sniger, he readied his claws for the next attack, his eyes glowing, his wings still retracted, out of sight in his back.

[Kaiser Dragoon]

Yuudai had known what he had done was a hasty mistake, but, only after he had done the jump, had he had this thought. He braced himself for the blow to the ribs, but, it still hurt quite a bit.

"Gah..." is the only thing he could spat out of his mouth before hitting the concrete dam. Damn! he thought to himself, I let myself become overwhelmed with the draconic bloodlust... I mustn't be so hasty... But, lately, my training sessions have been finishing with a... bad end, nothing I am doing wrong, its just that I just don't feel right afterwards...

Thinking in his head for a while longer, he felt the false earth move below him, and a crack formed where he lay. Quickly, he got to his feet and assumed a defensive position.

"So, tell me, tainted one, why is it that you have to use a weapon? You seem to be fine without it, and will only be a hindrance during our battle." he sneered at his opponent.

This time, he thought to himself, I won't be so hasty to underestimate my new friend. No, this time, I will have him on the end of my spear, begging for mercy...

And with that thought, he closed himself in defensively, and slowly walked towards his opponent. 10 feet... 5 feet... right on his opponent, he stared into the creatures eyes and made his move... a jab straight at its right shoulder. Hopefully, with that incapacitated, he will be far less effective striking.

[Echo Zel]

A spearblow came swiftly to Alasdairs shoulder penetrating his flesh, he winced slightly, his pain threshhold may have been high, but pain it was non-the-less. After that he grabbed the shaft of the spear and gripped it tightly, pressing forward he walked down the shaft of it, he threw his other arm forward grabbing the neck of his opponent, he pulled its head forward and sniffed inwards, his black eyes grew, he smirked and threw it backwards. Pulling with his arm he withdrew the spear and launched it at the man which now stood a few feet away.

"It appears you are alot fonder of weapons than you previously suggested. A victim of your own cliché line. Pathetic." He said looking down at his wounded shoulder, he poked at it smirking.

Alasdair then closed his eyes and breathed in largly before opening them again, returning his swords to the scabbards on his back he lunged forward swinging his left knee at the mans skull. Bringing his fist at the same time to rest happily in his ribcage, hopefully cracking a few and leaving him short of breath.

[Kaiser Dragoon]

Isamu had been wary of how agile the creature might of been, even though he was kind of hoping he was wrong. As the opponent hopped nimbly from Isamu's downswing... something that would kill any normal being in one slash. Unphased by the remarks of his slowness, Isamu knew, unless the man had great magical prowess, there was no way the creature could even get close to harming Isamu.

Isamu knew, even if he wanted to though, he wouldn't be able to touch the creature, it reminded him of his battle with Yuudai years earlier, Yuudai couldn't harm Isamu, but, Isamu couldn't touch Yuudai, and the battle finished without a definite winner. Since then, he had been working on ways to defeat opponents without even touching them, once of which was feeding magicks to his sword and making it alight, and then, swinging the sword so that it would arc away from the blade and reach much further than what was normally possible. But, doing this also reduced the effectiveness of his blows, and thus, would only cause minor burns... but, enough burns in the same area could turn into major ones, and, hopefully, incapacitating ones.

Feeding Magical energies to Faia Zanbato he caused the blade to erupt in fire. Isamu could almost suddenly feel the drain on his energies. I've got to make this quick, Isamu thought to himself, or I won't be able to continue from too much loss.

Quickly, Isamu brought up his enchanted sword, the fire pulsing from the blade itself, and swung it as powerful as he could muster at his opponent, hopefully catching him off guard.

[Echo Zel]

A flash of orange-red light, it temporarily shocked Rai, but as the harsh flames struck him he took a step back and flickered from sight, appearing as flickers and outlines around the huge man, he looked longingly for a weak spot, noticing that half his opponents downfall was his sheer weight and therefor his agility. This was perhaps a upperhand for Rai, however only perhaps. He slashed with his claws, nocking lightly on the 'giants' armour.

He jumped and punced around nimbly between visions, occasionally he even seemed to see himself dissapearing, though only his outline in a cloud of dried mud and dust, he ceased flickering and stood on a shelf in the rock above, seeing his opponent wore no helmet he assumed he could use that to an advantage also, or perhaps find a way to force him off the dam, or into a crack or crevice where his weight would become a burdon, he pushed his hair from his eyes, flattening it and straightening his armour once more, he had to act again before another inferno came his way.

Thinking no more on the subject he decided to try to wear the attackers energy down first, though, with every step his burn tingled and sprang into pain, luckily though the blow seemed to have been only of partial power, it was best to stay well away in future, no more taking his agility for granted. He began to flicker again, kicking and jabbing with his feet and fists, his opponent watched him circle and leap over and around only in partial sight, but soon he too would become tired, using his speed couldnt last forever, then he'd resort to using his sword and other powers.

He took a massive leap and aimed a knee directly into the side of the huge beings skull, he landed again on all fours and leapt across his sight path, still flickering he landed back upon the ledge ready to evade attack.

[Kaiser Dragoon]

Yuudai had only milliseconds to react to the attack... block his face, or block his ribs. A terrible predicament, as he knew, either way, he wouldn't walk away from this unscathed. He knew his ribs had been injured before, and they were on the verge of breaking, every little move caused him pain beyond belief, but he endured it to make that last pass at his enemy, but, if he let the blow to the ribs connect, he knew that it would only get worse. That instant he made the split second decision to block his ribs with his left arm.

Time itself seemed to stand still for that second, as he felt the blow connect with his left forearm, and his skull took a pounding from the knee. He felt his left arm fracture both forearm bones, and his temple took the blow of the knee, sending warning pains all through his mind.

As time resumed, Yuudai, once again, hit the dam like a rag doll. The spinning of his head, accompanied by his newly fractured left arm, he was in a world of hurt and could barely think straight. His vision blurred, but he knew he must keep conscience to keep alive, and force himself to bear the pain, and get up.

Staggering on the upward motion, he regained his balance and focused his attention on the dam... It was crumbling at the sides. Why would the... Beings, who put us out here, would want us to fight on such an unstable platform? He pushed that thought out of his mind, as he looked over at his new "partner" who was having difficulty on his end too.


Isamu wasn't in the fighting spirit he usually was. His attacks were sloppy at best, and he left himself open for counter at every turn. As he watched his opponent dance around, he felt the drain of Faia Zanbatostart getting to him. He immediately cut the flow of energy to the sword, and focused on how he would beat the opponent before him.

When that thought occurred to him, the creature started aiming for Isamu's head. Caught off guard by this action, Isamu was disgusted by it. Such a disgusting tactic, Isamu thought to himself. When the creature connected, Isamu was ready, and grabbed the leg of the agile creature, and threw it to the concrete.

The concrete, which is the thickness of plywood in some areas, cracked and large chunks fell from behind where the creature landed. As that happened, he looked over at Yuudai, and knew that he was thinking the same way... for the first time since they had met. They were going to have to work together to win this.

Yuudai quickly ran over and lept to Isamu's side, and both were on the same wavelength for the first time, ever. Yuudai took to the skies, and Isamu held his great sword parallel to the ground. Yuudai landed on the sword, and Isamu immediately used his sword as a springboard of sorts, using the sword to propel his partner into the sky, and he took off towards the duo before them, getting ready to swing his sword horizontally at the two...

Yuudai could feel the heat burning through his soles upon touching the sword, but immediately was sent soaring into the skies, farther than he had ever been able to obtain before, at least 25 feet into the air. He felt the oxygen getting thinner, and he felt the apex of the jump. Immediately he used his still working right arm and threw Yari Rin at the two, while sending himself flying in the direction with a powerful wind spell, he felt this would be his last chance at this, and if he blew it, he wouldn't live to regret it...

[Echo Zel]

Yuudai's first attempt at an attack, a leap and teh swinging of his sword had been escaped narrowly by the duo, Rai leapt backflipping and avoiding the blade, Alasdair had merely dropped to one knee and let the sword glide grazing the top of his hairline. Yuudai then leapt again but as Alasdair was on on knee Rai had seen it first, a spear like object hurtling towards him, he staired for a moment, wondering what exactly it could be. Alasdair on the otherhand felt the temperature as soon as it had entered his sight and senses, he immediatly looked down at Isamu, the huge man had left himself vulnerable, for now, only a few moments. He glanced at Rai, then back at Isamu, yelling out he cried,

"Soul Fragments!" And thrusted his palms out infront of him, the air rippled and a force of high magnitude shot in Isamu's direction with devestating speed.

Rai meanwhile was struck by the weaponm whilst Alasdair had taken flight to avoid it. Rai staggedered backwards feeling his skin tingle, his blood was beginning to feel colder and colder, he staired up at Alasdair then grabbed the body of the spear, it froze his fingers to touch, but he had to remove it, he pulled it out, but by this time his hand was completely frozen and was a block of solid ice around the length of the pole, it wa sstuck, he couldnt get it free. Rai didnt even think a second before using his remaining hand to take out his blade and remove the impurity, he yelled out all across the valley and fell onto one knee.

Alasdair withdrew his blades and began a combination attack on Yuudai, he parried and jabbed excessivly, not seeing if the attacks hit, he followed wherever he went with his eyes, his sword skill a mere reaction and therfor wasnt being payed much attention to, he flew backwards, not knowing if he had hit Isamu or not,

"Rai!" He yelled, "Dodge."

Rai nodded his head gritting his teeth and wincing in pain holding his stub of a wrist.

Alasdair backflipped in the air, his wings folded inwards towards his body, a glowing light came from within the feathery barrier, then they shot out at his sides and Alasdair yelled,

"Guiding light, lead my body to justice. Remove these inferiors from my sight."

Razor sharp feathers shot out in a mist like swarm ahead in a blanket pushing forward, below Rai was flashing between the gaps in the cloud before leaping up onto a high ledge to escape the water which slowed his movement speed.

They awaited to see if Alasdairs attacks had been successful.

[Shan'do Spike]

Oooookay.

Very nice battle here. Very close too, making my job difficult.

I think TDD had the upper hand in having the characters work together. The first part of the battle really felt more like two 1 v 1s instead of a 2 v 2, which somewhat makes sense, given your characters, but I enjoyed how his characters learned to actually use each others advantages to help, whereas Rai's mostly stuck to just using their individual talents separately and not hurting each other in the process. It made sense given your characters, but it still would have been nice to see some chemistry

I think the writing swings very slightly towards Rai. You both were good: not spectacular, but certainly quite good, but I felt that Rai's flowed slightly better and just had better prose.

Like I said, this battle was pretty close in all aspects, but I think I have to give the overall edge to TheDarkDragoon, since somebody has to lose. I felt that in the end, his characters and actions just had the overall advantage in creativity, which is obviously very important. Yuudai, Rai, and Alasdair all felt fairly standard characters, but I thought that Isamu's story and his family carried the characters.

I would have liked to have seen more use of the actual environment: I only really saw Rai really discuss anything specific about the environment in terms of battle tactics, but there was very little use of it.

I'd also suggest not splitting posts between characters, and handling both characters in each post, or we're given the impression that we're in a turn-based combat system or such. However, both of you did that.

As always, if you want me to copy it over to the RPB forum and re-open it for continued posting, please just let me know.

Congratulations to you both on an excellent fight. And good luck in the next round TDD.