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 Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:45 pm
Description: Unlike last year, the stone platform has been removed, making the entire ring nothing but a sandy ground. A twenty foot wall surrounds the ring to protect the audience in this open ceiling stadium. Field Measurements:Ring: 70 yard diameter Ten Count Boundary: As soon as a fighter enters the bleachers, the count begins. The flying rule remains, as well.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 7:24 am
Soloman might've seen James at the Black Sand Bar. The asian slayer was a prominent regular there lately, and he stood out from the crowd noticeably.
Standing at 6 feet tall, weighing in at around 175ish pounds, the martial artist was one of the slighter people around this tournament. His dress was stylish, and fashionable, matching black slacks and jackets, patterned with beautiful crimson lines. The barest hint of a gauntlet peeked out from under the jacket on his right hand, while his left was encased in extremely tough looking reinforced glove.
Slung over his right shoulder was a massive nodachi, nearly as long as he was tall from end to end. As a complement, was a combat knife sheathed upside down on his chest.
His manner was all friendly it seemed, as he bobbed his head with a smile to the unheard beats that stepped in his mind. It was only too bad that a ruby-colored pair of shades obscured his eyes, preventing any true reading of his currrent emotional state. He didn't mind the sun at all, even in all of that gear.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:23 pm
This Solomon had heard some about James due to the link that connected him to his brother. They both shared the same name but looked differen, if only by a bit.
James would see a man, standing at five feet and ten inches with prominent muscles and a hard look in his brown eyes. He wore a heavy cloak of gray that concealed his undergarments. A katana was tucked into the black sash around his waist and a wooden bokken held in his left hand.
His build was mostly hidden under his robe but one with a sharp eye could tell he had a nice balanced build. He stood erect as he swept his gaze over the crowd and onto his opponent. Solomon wasn't much for subtleties these days and so cast off his robe with a tug from his right hand, revealing the clothing beneath. They consisted of a light gray long sleeved hooded shirt with a sleeveless dark brown leather wrapping, trousers, leather calf braces, leather wrap arm bracers, a white sleeveless surcoat, and leather foot wear.
As the cloak fell to the ground Solomon twirled the bokken in his left hand ending the display by pointing the weapon at James.
"How about we forget formatlities and just get to the good parts?" as he spoke in a rather deep voice, beginning the sublte motions that began Vaapad.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:43 pm
James just nodded in response, and gave a cheerful smile.
He dug his sword in first, and stooped to gather a large amount of sand with both hands, rubbing in between his palms. A flash of blood-red fire emanated from his palms, as he then lifted his hands up to shake off some excess. Presumably, it was to increase his grip, and the fire was a teaser of what he was capable of. James was usually a fair fighter after all.
"Lets go then" he replied casually, with a calculating glint behind those shades, repossessing his weapon.
The slayer would probably open the battle, moving in on Solomon with a steady walk till he was just within his range, at which James lashed out with a heavy one-handed swing using his nodachi, aimming to slash Soloman from his left shoulder to right pelvis.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:15 pm
"Cool,"
Solomon would allow James to approach him, eyeing his large weapon as the man approached him. As James swung at his form the young man leapt backwards, kicking up a small cloud of dust as he moved out of the nodachi's range. He skipped back a few feet, creating a distance of roughly four feet between them. His kee's bent in preparation for a dodge as the dark jedi moved the bokken in what seemed like a very amateur style, full of many opneings a swift opponent could pierce.
The nodachi's range was what kept Solomon on the defensive, aware of both James strength to wield it one-handedly and his pyrokinetic abilities. A smirk appeared on his lips and the brown-skinned man wrapped both hands around the bokken hilt. He felt the familiar tumble of memories and emotions escape his barriers and he felt the presense of the Force, granting him the begginnings to the deadly form of combat. He started to channel the energy of the Force through and along the blade, granting it an aura that increased it's durability and granted it a cutting aura.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:00 pm
James shook his wrists a bit.
Seemed like some of that sand got into his sleeves and was irritating him.
"Udaryouna Mizuchi"
He simply brandished his weapon at Solomon next, as if taunting him. However, if the man was truly a Jedi, he'd feel his spider-sense tingling, even as the aura around James intensified.
The reason was simple. James produced an extremely low powered, nearly invisible wave of heat from his blade, and it raced toward Solomon in in a horizontal arch. Significant damage wouldn't be inflicted, the heat wave lacked the physical force and sheer scorching that every other of James's sacred flames had, but it was an excellent ability to keep his opponent guessing.
The only visual sign that it was coming was a blurring of the air as it raced toward Solomon.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:14 pm
Solomon felt it, not exactly a disturbance but he did feel it. Instead of blocking Solomon ducked, bending his knee's then gathering the power of the Force and directing it towards his les. With a small burst of sand Solomon dashed toward James , making sure to get near the borders of his range before flipping to the side and dashing once more for a swift jab with the weapon aiming for the man's shoulder. The jab would be quick and the gathering of energy to leap out of James range would have to be crucialy timed. Solomon couldn't affod mistakes.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:01 pm
James exhaled as Solomon approached, only to feint, and approach again.
That was fine and dandy, but James was a man who wouldn't be tricked easily. If Soloman wanted to dance at his own range and make light attacks the slayer would punish every move he made with the advantage he held at the moment.
James focused himself, gripped his nodachi tightly with both hands and ducked as Solomon came in for the second time, twisting and spinning in place, unleashing a furious and powerful horizontal slash in the process. It didn't really matter where it struck at this point however.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:23 pm
As James ducked and executed his spinning attack Solomon would release that pent up energy for his leap although due to the swift response of his opponent he was forced to manuever the bokken into a blocking motion in order to protect his legs from the weapon.
As his arm pulled the weapon back Solomon moved his hold on his weapon to a reverse-style grip , moving it to block the counter-attack in the swift motions that were important to Vaapad. Due to the Force aura on the bokken the weapon didn't break or even chip, the aura taking the damage as if the bokken were a katana although due to the nodachi's size and weight Solomon was moved in the direction the blade. Rolling in the sand to keep up his momentum that allowed him to land on is feet Solomon took some time to re-evaluate his opponent.
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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:13 pm
Even as Solomon finished his tumble and looked up, James was already approaching, two hands on his nodachi again, with the tip pointed down at the sand, half-embedded. He burst forward, flinging his sword and a decent amount of sand particles at Solomon's face.
A moment later, the nodachi was thrust forward toward the man's gut in a precise and controlled stab.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 5:47 am
Sand flew toward his face much to fast to block or dodge though he managed to close his eyes. Onlookers would believe this to be the end but as James swiftly went in for a stab the lack of sight allowed him to sense his opponents movements in the Force, a feeling of knowing and power that granted him the prescsion to counterattack.
Solomon brought his feet together, turning his body sideways and angling his bokken downward and against the Nodachi, the Force aura flaring in contact. Due to the lack of a crossguard Solomon was forced to angle the bokken sideways a bit, to ensure Jame's just didn't slash to the side after the stab. Moving with amazing speed and coordination Solomon charged toward James, his eblow over his head, his knee's bent and a gathering of power in his body.
Once Solomon moved to a sort of midpoint near James he would duck under the Nodachi, moving his body an weapon in a way that placed it above James weapon then with the Force gathered, released a dense wave of kinetic energy strong enough to knock him back about four yards. It's angle woud cause it to strike the back of James elbows and abdomen with the most force. Not much damage would be done, the wave holding similar force to an average sized rock hitting James in the said locations.
If his hold on the weapon was released Solomon would cross te distance between them, his bokken moving in what seemed like a bending whip that struck at James from several angles. Solomons form was amazing striking swiftly and withut warning from any angle he chose. To the spectators it looked like the was using a whip or several swords to attack the unarmed James.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:10 am
He felt that force aura himself. It was a bit... different from the auras that he'd seen over the years, but the principle of it now was that James knew his opponent was using his powers, whatever they were, in full.
The slayer took his right arm off his nodachi and held it up crosswise against his body, bracing him against the force push. It struck, he did slide back a foot or two, but he was still upright, mostly. His gauntlet helped absorb most of the blow.
His counterattack was simple, he reached forward to grip the bokken, followed by a quick successive pair of kneeing motions, as James performed a small hop forward, both strikes done in midair during the same jump. First the right leg, then the left, James would land with his left leg forward.
Depending on how low Solomon ducked to get under his sword, the knees may strike the man in the chin, or chest, and send him staggering back.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 9:25 am
This was unexspected. Solomon's shock would prove to be is downfall as the valuable time wasted thinking about how James had blocked it allowed him to be attacked. Luckily he managed to get his wits about himsel to throw up a sort of cushion to the blows. Unable to duck he took both of them to the chest, sending him tumbling back.
He was however able to do something before James attacked. When his opponent grabbed the wooden weapon, even if it was only for a short time. Solomon forced all the aura pent up inside the bokken into the outward aura, increasing it's cutting power drasticly in a very short amount of time. Though this temporarily increased the durability it allowed Solomon to focus his Shatterpoint technique on the hand that gripped the bokken.
Shatterpoint was a technique that located the weak points of anything it was used on, although due to the nature of the grip the Force energy rleased would only be able to explot any weaknesses in the hand, mainly in the palm. If James held the bokken with his armored hand any weaknesses in the material on the hand would be attacked by very thin, concentrated points of the Force that then violently expanded in such a way to damage or break the armor. If instead it was James gloved hand the Force would target the joints in the hand, probably creating small cracks in the bones due to the durable glove. The only thing that kept James hand from breaking if unarmored would be that he didn't hold it for very long but if he did, James wrist would mostly likely fracture or sprain due to more time to build up the pressure to his joints.
The bokken would not be resupplied with Force Aura, the damage from Shatterpoint requiring Solomon to wait aawhile before he stared dawing upon the Force so easily.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:19 am
Minor damage on the gauntlet, had it been his left hand that did the grabbing, James's wrist and fingers might've been all fractured and broken to hell and back. Thankfully, the artifact nature of the tool on his right arm granted it defensive properties surpassing that of normal armaments, it was the greatest piece of armor available to the slayer. One more strike like that may damage it however. James simply rolled with the pain, he was too far into the fight to suddenly back off from some minor damage like that.
Almost immediately after Solomon was went tumbling back, James used creation of the new space between them to refocus his grip on the nodachi Amaterasu and execute a powerful sweeping slash from Solomon's right knee to his left waist.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 10:36 am
Solomon felt the attack coming this time, able to almost see the action coming a second or too before James went through with it. His connection to the Force granted him speed, prescision, and stamina to fight. He felt it in his very core and through that he dropped down to the ground the nodachi's blade cutting through the fabric of his pants and grazing his skin very softly.
Solomon's movement was fluid and easy his stance very low to the ground with his right foot moving to the left as James weapon sang overhead. His left leg was curled beneath him, supporting his weight along with his left hand[his right holding the bokken] while he released another wave of the Force from his right leg in a sort of arc. Due to it's width th attack wouldn't be as concentrated but it was done to either push James back or send him toppling onto where Solomon was.
Moving his bod with the motion of his kick Solomon swiftly planted his right foot inthe sand when it could countinue no more and then with that motion twisted his body into a standing position. While he was moving he placed the bokken into his sash and drew his katana holding it in his right handd while his left hand held thehandle of the 'sheathed' bokken. An excited smirk played on the man's lips.
"Your really good," he said then began to advance slowly.
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