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 Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:49 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 10:04 pm
If there was anything at all to say to this year's fight...
The choice in terrain still sucked, as usual. Not that the swordsman would pay any much attention to the ground right now, sandy as it is, no -
Surprisingly the swordsman kept a noncommittal demeanor today for this fight as he waltzed into the ring, wearing his usual adornment of gears and weapons - except for one extra weapon, which was slung lazily behind his back.
A halberd. After having crossed the vast expanses of this land to fight all over Gaia, the swordsman - with his newly achieved experiences, went on a search to find a weapon that would give him an edge in battle - especially against the more notorious brutes and armored figures that he has seen a rise in recent months. And for that, a long ranged staff was necessary - something that is designed and made primarily to fight against brutes and heavily armored foes.
The Halberd is the main weapon of choice that the swordsman has added into his arsenal of weapon combat. Of course, he did not throw away nor discard his dual katanas that had been with him since the start of his journey - each blade hanging down on each side of his hips, rustling and swaying with the swordsman's motion as he went to the center of the ring to wait for the opposition.
Recalling some previous history in which some fighters attacked right as they came in - the swordsman twirled the halberd about for a swing or two before holding the staff with both hands - left hand closely placed just beneath the sharp axe of the halberd, and the right hand held lower for balance and better grip.
He took a simple right side stance, slanting the staff down so the end point of the staff is pointed at an angle to his respective right side - lowering the halberd's axe so that it was at height level to his left chest.
Since he's already at it in preparations...
The air around the swordsman cooled briefly, the swordsman churning up and concentrating the energy around him for use as he waited for the foe to arrive.
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Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:58 pm
If this wasnt dejavu he didnt know what was. He was paired agaisnt the same man who narrowly defeated him in the second GTB. Life certainly was a b***h. At the very least he already knew what to expect from the man other than a few surprises he may have developed in the time span after the second GTB. At any rate he loved the choice of terrain, it was his haven and, if the swordsman remembered this, he would already know that he was at a disadvantage. Clad in his normal apparel of the time, black and gold tightly fitted shirt, loose black and gold jeans with matching shoes, he made his way to his opponent. He could already feel that his opponent was preparing himself for the match and he could say the same for himself. Several areas around the arena had actually begin to shift in color slightly, its tint turning to a slightly darker brown almost red that would be hard to see unless truely looking for it. "Im ready when you are." he said simply
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:11 pm
....Aw.
This is certainly a twist.
And what's better, it's against someone who he'd fought with and barely won - on normal terrain.
So what happens if the opposition has the terrain advantage?
Goddammit.
Able to recall the things that had occured in their previous debut over the last GTB - only one thing is for certain;
The swordsman needs to act, and act fast. Already able to prep a single charge by the time Ryu came in, the swordsman immediately took the time to dash right for Ryu at a quickened speed, just as the words left the foe's mouth. Halberd at the ready, with the end staff point of the weapon pointed directly for Ryu's chest - as if the swordsman is planning to impale the foe with the blunt end of his halberd weapon.
It's a possibility, yes, but if Ryu can notice, a single orb was floating lazily around the swordsman's left side, sticking close to the swordsman in an idle manner. Was it some new trick that the swordsman plans to employ with a feint, or is it another action altogether?
Only the results would show when the swordsman gets into weapon range with his Halberd - the weapon much longer than his katanas and giving him a slight edge in ranged combat. Of course - it would be different somewhat if Ryu still plans to use magic as his main method of combat.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:30 pm
One of the spectators pointed at Snow and said:
"Hey look! Its d**k ball face!"
dramallama lol rofl mrgreen
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:14 pm
He knew he was going to have fun again. Ryu wasnt too concerned about the orb for it was not well hidden. His opponent surely didnt expect something that churned the air to go unnoticed by him. He was more concerned upon continuing his preparations, so, for the moment, he would not use his earthen abilities. As the attack came at him, rather than countering it and initiating an attack, he moved to the left at the last given moment, his opponents right. Now just before leaving this point the ground beneath him hardened leaving merely a dusting of sand upon the top of the hardened platform to cover its change. For most people when they stepped upon a hardened surface that had tiny particles of sand or rock there was indeed a heightened chance of slippage. This chance increased when running. Hopefully, since he had given the motivation, Snow would fall and place him right ontop of one of the gently discolored areas that he was working on. Whether or not he slipped, Ryu would continue to backpedal, away from that huge a** blade.
2
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:00 pm
Cue Narrator's scorn at one of the spectators.
Bringing the action back to focus here...
Actually, it's a huge a** axe perched on top of a staff - the entire length of the weapon being approximately seven foot long - not inlucluding the axe perched on top of it, which gives an additional foot and a half to the weapon's range. It was just about two foot taller than the swordsman's height, intentionally designed to fight foes at a particularly long distance.
Though it can be arguably thought of as a huge a** blade, the swordsman somewhat expected Ryu to be more offensive, with all that terrain advantage and whatnot. After all, back in the previous GTB tournament, it's not often that the swordsman had to fight around damn pillars and bubbles of earth constantly, no thanks to the foe that is currently his opponent right now.
But with some new tricks and ploys that he'd developed since then, the swordsman would give Ryu a run for his money, when Ryu moved to the swordsman's right at the last moment to avoid a possible full thrust from the Halberd's end staff point.
He only needed Ryu to react away from his thrust to use the range of his Halberd with maximum efficiency.
In this case, as Ryu quickly backpedaled to the swordsman's respective right in an evasive maneuver, the swordsman suddenly brought the end point of his staff upward in response - diagonally to his right to bring the lethal axe to bear. Pulling the staff up with his right hand and directing the direction of the Halberd's axe with his left - the swordsman quickly cut down the time required for him to manuever the staff about, letting the weight behind the halberd's axe carry itself out of his left hand's grasp. Using the inertia from the running and turning his body clockwise to the right in a torque, the halberd's axe swung out from where it lay poised in a left to right slashing motion, aimed right for Ryu's central torso in a smooth motion.
Anchoring his weight onto his right leg,caused the axe to acquire more blunt force behind this seemingly simple slash, the swordsman loosening the grip slightly with his right hand - letting the staff slide out in a wide arc to give a much heavier slash than usual.
What range that distanced Ryu from the swordsman would be quickly covered by this action, the Halberd's weapon range solving the issue rather well - easily covering 8 feet from where the swordsman stood, which in the meantime would be following the motion of his halberd using his left leg as directional support on the ground.
As for Ryu's hardened ground...the trap would have been much more useful had the swordsman used a shorter ranged weapon like his katana or went close for hand to hand combat. But with the staff, the swordsman didn't even need to get close to where Ryu stood, using range as both a means to fight offensively and play defensively in a simultaneous gesture.
Strangely though, the orb which trailed along with the swordsman was nowhere to be seen, either gone...
Or being implemented somewhere in this maneuver.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 10:56 am
This moment was definatly what one could call an "LOL" moment. It seemed that the swordsman had forgotten the kind of ground they were on. The surface of the ground needed to be solid, free of any particle that could cause for slippage of any kind when planting a foot for any given pivot motion. You see, Snow was running forward at a pretty fast rate. Upon pivoting his body he would have to have an anchored leg on not a solid surface but a sand suface. This by itself, even if he didnt manage to step onto the trap would cause room for slippage. However even if that wasnt the case and the swordsman had managed to keep his balance, Ryu would deal with the problem accordingly.
-Enhancer-
The crystal that laid hidden behind his forehead began to shine, his bodily reactions increasing due to its probbaly much rememebered affect by Snow. The pointing up of the index finger of his left hand caused a thightly compacted spire to lift from the ground within the arching path of the weapon. This spire, at its base, held a slightly different tint from the rest of the sand a feat one would not be too surprised over. If you have ever dug in the sand before at the beach you would notice the deeper you went the darker the sand. However, this tint was not because of that. Ryus counter was a simple attack from the spires base, an assortment of needles fireing from the base towards Snows midsection and legs as Ryus path altered slightly to a diagonal reverse retreat no longer aided by his legs but by the sand itself. He planted his feet as the spire rose and allowed the sand to carry him. He didnt take the chance that the weapon wouldnt be able to break the spire and he didnt want to take it close..... yet.
Meanwhile, other discolored spots upon the areana began to become in their dark color. Snow was going to be in a very bad situation that would bring him back to their first match. However, the same mistakes would not be made.
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:44 am
It also seems that the foe is underestimating the assets the swordsman has in terms of his...skills. Frankly speaking, the swordsman isn't too concerned with the sandy ground for certain reasons. One, to tell the truth, was that it wasn't too different from having a fight in a snowy field or unstable terrain. The use of proper placement and adjustment of how the weight is displaced on the ground is a certain required factor that many fighters need to fight on uneven grounds.
For the swordsman, such grounds were of no particular difficulty - having spent most of his time in practicing his footwork and mobility in all forms of terrain during his travels and in training, whenever he has a chance to polish his skills.
Keeping the body in a centrifugal manner helps solves much problems than displacing his weight widely - leaving much room for errors, which Ryu had hoped for. And with that temporarily explained...
There is also a problem with Ryu's little stunt with the spire. The swordsman has seen the move before in their fight in the last tournament, and knew full well of the implementations of such a thing on the ground.Ryu Blazer The crystal that laid hidden behind his forehead began to shine, his bodily reactions increasing due to its probbaly much rememebered affect by Snow. The pointing up of the index finger of his left hand caused a thightly compacted spire to lift from the ground within the arching path of the weapon. This spire, at its base, held a slightly different tint from the rest of the sand a feat one would not be too surprised over. If you have ever dug in the sand before at the beach you would notice the deeper you went the darker the sand. However, this tint was not because of that. Ryus counter was a simple attack from the spires base, an assortment of ne--
The spire itself broke apart rather easily, even with the tight compacting of sand that held the structure afoot. What caused the disintegration of the spire would be quickly answered when water blasted out of the spire from within - the swordsman then finishing his slash to completely sever the spire from the ground itself - the object being blasted away from the swordsman as a precautionary measure.
It won't be hard to figure it out what the swordsman had just done - having augmented his charged orb along with his staff weapon, and then detonating the orb within the spire to destroy its structural integrity. Using water as the basis medium to break down and loosen the compacted sand around the Halberd's presence - the force behind his axe did the rest to make quick work of Ryu's potential counter attack with the needles.
That may, most likely, be still as explosive as the last time in their previous debut.
This was a temporary halt to Ryu's little counter, but the swordsman knew full well that he'd just lost his chance to quickly cut down Ryu, the combat now coming into ranged fights - with Ryu most likely in the lead with preparations. Yet - if the swordsman is to allow Ryu some breathing space and try to catch up in terms of charging, it's nonetheless going to be a lose-lose situation with the swordsman not knowing how Ryu would use the ground exactly. Sure, the swordsman can predict...
But how much would his guesses be correct?
How problematic would it be with the swordsman standing right in the midst of Ryu's own element?
...
.....
He left that as a thought to brood about sometime later, keeping himself on the move already and going after Ryu by chasing after him again. Using a bit of his energy to form rough ice on where he ran - for traction and quick mobility - gave the swordsman a faster chase method on this blasted ground. It also acted as a means to avoid direct contact with the ground, as well as some means to fight against this terrain advantage in certain ways.
While he didn't use it in the beginning simply because of trying to land a hit in...the swordsman quickly allowed the ice to spread from where he ran - letting it act as means to compensate for the time needed to charge up some orbs for use.
And as the halberd was quickly pulled back by then for use - left hand grabbing the back part of the axe and pulling it back to his left chest at chest level, right hand still holding the lower end of the staff - the swordsman doesn't have any time to waste on getting ready to charge up on his more arcane abilities, with Ryu having a lead in spell effectiveness right now.
Whatever he does right now, he'll have to get in fast, and hit hard while Ryu is still vulnerable to close range combat. If he can't get a decent shot in, then the swordsman will have to find a way to get out of Ryu's terrain in order to charge properly without problems of being attacked.
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:12 pm
Snow forgot something. What other trait did he posses when it came to earthen manuvers? As the spire was broken down and his opponent began to think he was safe, something weird occured. It was easy to note that despite the break down of the spire, many, now loose particles were now present in air as the destruction of his spire was present. In this mix, however, were large and small peices of discolored rock. Now to set his backup plan into motion Ryu snapped his fingers as he was sent back by his earth, changing tactics due to the new situation. These rocks would explode rather close to Snow and would be enough to not only create a dust screen, but to send a few tiny peices of rock that could cause a few flesh wounds to him depending on where they made contact. Now if Snow continued to chase him he would have to first go through the dust cloud thus his vision of Ryu was temporarily obscured.
Upon him leaving the cloud, or the cloud disapating his eyes would narrow in on the vision of Ryu running towards him. However, the image he saw was not the real Ryu. Using the cloud as cover and his quick retreat backwards, he shed his sand armor. Now it was difficult to say the least for anyone to tell that it was just armor for when it was on Ryu it took the same tone of his skin making it invisible until it were to chip off of him do to damage. This property made it the perfect clone that didnt have a long build time since it was already there. Now the real Ryu had fallen back, letting the earth cover him and leaving no trace of an entrance.. It was shortly thereafter that it moved him to the left, snows right, while the sand armor charged directly at him do to Ryus command. Now one of the discolored spots upon the arena was in the path of the clone. As it stepped on it the discoloration disappeared from the earth and a small orb became present within the armor. What would it do? Time was all that could tell.
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Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2009 8:59 pm
How Ryu hid himself was an act that irked the swordsman's senses. While the swordsman was fighting the foe on a turf that wasn't his own, what's worse - the foe's love of explosives and deceptive means proved equally distasteful for the swordsman's more aggressive nature in this round. He couldn't really tell what was what - with a sudden dust cloud billowing around him after the spire was destroyed, limiting his vision and hampering his movements somewhat. While the cloak he wore - thankfully all-terrain-resistant as it is - shielded him from the pesky rocks and pebbles that rattled him from all sides, the swordsman halted his chase and raised his left arm over his face to shield the exposed areas of his face from getting struck from the rocks and sands. The long cloak sleeves were particularly useful in acting as a barrier to halt incoming rocks that went for his face.
He took the short opportunity during the pause to gather up more energy for use - another pale, blue orb now appearing close to the swordsman's own presence. Eyes quickly re-focusing in on the incoming presence of Ryu - unaware of it being a clone or a decoy in the confusion, the swordsman quickly took a step back for balance, soft crunching of rough ice continuously forming underneath his footing. Finding it a bit odd that Ryu is actually charging him this time - the last few moments being more about ranged combat against him - the swordsman couldn't help but feel a sense of caution at the approaching figure.
There's something definitely wrong here...
The swordsman narrowed his gaze, pushing back on his ice to slide backwards a bit in slow retreat before flicking his right hand forward in a whipping motion at the incoming Ryu. Three ice-made projectiles shot out of the swordsman's right hand like hidden knives silently, spinning in midair like a boomerang as it came forward to slice at Ryu charging him. Weak in nature - as it was created without much density embedded in the structure - the projectiles were ice-made replicas of his katanas that he has slung on each side of his hips. Able to mimic the sharpness of his blades, the projectiles weren't designed to be longlasting, breaking or shattering after the third consecutive strike if used continuously. But in terms of sharpness, it can most certainly cut halfway through a hide or into human flesh - even through leather armor rather well.
The three projectiles would spin and fly through the air like a top briefly before coming in to slash past the fake Ryu's body - one aiming for the chest, another at the hip, and the third to slash at the general mass should the first two miss their mark.
And, as the swordsman finished the slight surprise tactic - as precaution, he quickly held the Halberd in front of him in a defensive maneuver while he continued to slide back in a steady retreat in a left side stance. The left hand still held the back part of the halberd lightly, around chest height to his respective left, the right hand holding the lower end of the staff, angled to the swordsman's respective right in a downwards slant.
If he can squeeze some affordable time to charge up another orb for use...
That is, if his wariness is just a false alarm, then certainly the swordsman can hold his ground while it still lasts. Otherwise, the use of explosive shrapnels and rocks would most likely be Ryu's main method of offense - if not using the ground as a means to do hit and run tactics.
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2009 1:41 pm
Ryu was surely entertained at this point for Snow held no clue as to what was going on. The incoming attacks, all aimed at the forward moving clone were in one line of motion. Using this to his advantage he directed the clone to evade the attack by throwing to the left to dodge all the attack. Upon landing shortly thereafter the clone leaned forward. It was at this moment that the earth lifted, propelling the clone quickly towards Snow. At the speed it was going it was obvious he was going to catch up to him in the next moment. Now it was at this moment that Ryu was traveling towards Snow at the same moment under cover of the sand. Using his ability to manipulate the earth he minimized ground vibrations almost completely as his moved. He was at this point angling to reach Snow at his left.
Now what Snow would fail to realize is that he was quickly backtracking towards a discolored portion of earth directly behind him. What this meant for Snow would not be apparent until he were to back into the looming trap.... or was forced into it by some unfortunate mishap. Either way, Snow was going to be in trouble.
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