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 Posted: Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:08 am
Description: A mountain plateau, one of many that lies in a mountain range north of GTB known as the Tophead Mountains, is the fighting spot for this round. Moving from the standard of being inside a stadium surrounded by people, Midus Sonners has decided to make up for throwing the fighters into a fight full of bad weather and has taken them to a spot that is nice and warm with nice breezy winds of the fresh mountain air, and a good amount of water surrounding each plateau, with various other hills present throughout, including some land and a background view of the higher mountains. Each fighter will be in a location far away from the other matches, so neither will be capable of seeing one another, unless someone launches a pretty large technique, be it visually or by magical sense. Cameramen rest in flying helicopters and on islands out in the water to keep a close watch on the fights taking place for all to see from the safety of their livings and the large screen present back at the GTB stadium. Grass and rock is the terrain, with a few small ups and downs that keep the plateau from being perfectly flat. The edge drops down in a curve toward the waters, the plateau raised at a height of fifty feet above water. The slope isn't steep, so if one slips down the hill, they can easily catch themselves and start walking back up, though not without some effort. How The Fighters Arrived: All fighters were transported via helicopters, one helicopter per fight with both fighters being transported in the same vehicle. Special Conditions: None. Field Measurements:Here is a visual of the field measurements, with the assumption that the plateau is circular on its top. Ten Count Boundary: The moment someone goes goes outside the 30ft diameter, meaning touching the slopes, the ten count starts. To show where the ten count starts, a holographic barrier surrounds the plateau in a half opaque orange color. For reference, the distance of the slope from the edge of the top to the water is 15 ft. The flying rule remains.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:50 am
James waited for battle.
The martial artist had returned to his classic outfit... atleast for this match. Clad in his recognizable outfit, the black jacket that bore the burning symbol of Eredas on his back was more then adequate for protecting him from the elements up high on the mountain, and also adequate for concealing some of his weapons.
James's main weapons were still in plain view. They always were. The two fists he had on his hips were covered by an arcane gauntlet, and a toughened punk glove, the latter which was designed to resist bladed weaponry. The beautiful nearly 6-feet long nodachi Amaterasu lay at his feet.
He looked extremely handsome today, standing casually proud with wind-swept hair awaiting battle. His eyes betrayed his doubt however, from behind the grey shades he wore, the brown orbs held some anger from the previous match. People like Link were the worst for James to fight, naturally kind-hearted and spirited people were the hardest for him to work up any battlefury to execute his more powerful moves on. It irked him to lose a match that was far from decided without him having fought to the fullest of his ability.
"Perhaps I really should have just toasted him" James mused silently. But where was the fun in that? The martial artist had his pride as a warrior too. He couldn't let the doubts take hold of him today though, he had a battle to win. Hesitations were death.
He held up his left hand and pulled back the sleeve to check his pulse.
"Check your blood" he told himself.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:15 pm
Vince was known for being a some-what outlandish fighter, mostly berserker-esque until he decided that it was necessary to bust out the magic. If he did bust out the magic, well, it was still more or less wrapped into or tied into his melee usage, and it was deadly nonetheless. James' opponent arrived at the same time , however, not in the way that one would suspect. The massive beast of a man literally, despite the pilots' warnings, jumped from the helicopter which was meant to touch down and drop him off. True enough that the helicopter was only thirty or so feet from touching down, but Vince just wasn't going to wait any longer to get into the heat of battle and show his opponent just why he deserved to be here.
When Vince smashed to the ground, there was basically a huge thud as his right fist slammed into the ground. He was in a typical kneeling position, one leg back, the other forward, and his hand was placed on the ground in-front of him, black-plated gauntlets having smashed up rocky terrain during the impact. As Vince stood up, his massive great-sword touched scraped the ground, and even though Vince's height was that of a very tall basketball player, 6'11", the sword didn't hang much off the ground. It was very evident in this that despite James' sword having length, it wasn't longer than Vince's.
Infact, the swords pretty much evened out. Vince, however, seemed to have a slight reach advantage with the blade being six feet long in length and the hilt being a foot and a half long or so. The hilt stuck up over Vince's head, and with a yank, Vince ripped the sword free from the straps that held it to his back. He pushed it forward in his right hand so that the tip of the blade touched the ground a few feet infront of him. The massive warrior standing to 6'11" and weighing in at roughly 250 lbs was ready to get this show on the road.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:26 pm
"Giant" James thought as he studied his opponent, although he had taken the chance to eye him earlier on in the helicopter (their ride was a bit slower due to the man's weight), you could never know enough about your enemy.
But big didn't necessarily mean slow he knew. It was the story of his life, usually matched up against the big people. He had about a 50:50 ratio in this department, depending on how seriously he took the fights. Vince was atleast a foot taller, and much more heavily muscled. James figured would require his flames in ample amounts, and from the feeling the man gave off, James was willing to wager any important body part that Vince was in no way human. Just what he was remained to be seen however.
He kicked his sword up and deftly caught it with both hands, the beginnings of a plan formulating in his mind. He slid his right foot back and held his nodachi up above his head with both hands, his right hand on the end of it and the blade pointing at his left and waited for Vince, some 15-20 feet away, his own aura expanding and growing in intensity as he drew out his powers. His sacred flame manifested themselves around him like little vapors, taking a focus around his hands. The non-human would suffer incredible pain if he was exposed to them, even if he was resistant to heat.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:47 pm
Vince of course had sensed earlier on that James had some sort of magical energy to him originally. However, as the flames manifested themselves around James' hands, Vince's right eyebrow raised slightly. Of course, it wasn't every day when you seen a man wielding a giant sword and making magical flames fly about his hands. Then again, Vince had seen something like it before in the Dark Tournament in his own fight against one Gold Alexander who used magical flames with physical property which burnt through even Vince's natural, specialized armor.
The giant of a man shrugged, and instead of rushing James, took a very slow step forward, the sword dragging along the ground infront of him. As this happened, Vince's magical energy began to manifest itself, however, not in the form of an offensive ability just yet. Instead, the ground around Vince's very slow moving feet began to tear itself up, sending rocks and grass flying up into the air to float around Vince's knees. A very small amount of energy was amassed for the time being, but it would grow more potent, and eventually, make the man a humanoid tank.
For now, however, he would be satisfied with gaining a bit of his own magical build up while slowly, and very slowly, walking towards James.
Charge = 1
Sword position: Infront of Vince and diagonally touching the ground two feet or so infront of Vince slightly to his right side, James' left.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:01 pm
Gold Alexander sounded just about right. If anything though, Vince was about to meet one of the originals, the real damn thing. Welcome to the bigs you b*****d. If James knew about Vince's fight in the DT with this so-called Gold Alexander, he might've kindly informed his opponent that if he had a tough time with Goldilocks, he was plain screwed here.
Not that he would've anyway. No need to alert his friend here any more then he had to. Deciding to buy more time, and feeling that he was up to the challenge of taking anything Vince could through at him (from this range anyway), he would called out tauntly even as crimson flames blossomed into existence around him, burning steadily.
"Alright, lets cut to the chase, why don't you tell me what you are?" Whether he lied or told the truth, James figured he'd know soon enough.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 6:39 pm
Did Vince have trouble with Gold Alexander? Not so much. Basically, Gold Alexander managed to get Vince in a choke hold and complete it, at the cost of his life basically. Shattered ribs, all of his muscles were torn with absolute monstrous electrical shock, and his arms and sides had been ripped to living ******** by something other than Vince's sword. Something more natural that James would feel very soon if he kept playing games. True enough he was building up more of his magical fire, but Vince was gaining strength, and before long, his monstrous strength would be a little bit more than doubled.
"Aha, how about you tell me what you are? You seem to me like you're some sort of fire demon, yet I sense no mythical pansy-blood running through your veins. You're a little bit less awesome than my first opponent. Apparently he was some sort of angelic half-vampire with the ability to turn himself into a brick of titanium." Vince was more than content with giving James a bit of banter, and while he did so? You guessed it, bigger chunks of the ground began breaking up from the floor to float around Vince, however, this time the rubble was floating around Vince's chest, and not his knees.
His energy was at about 66.6% of what he needed to unleash his most potent form, and all James was doing was allowing him to build that energy. He of course kept walking very slowly towards James, his sword scraping the ground infront of him as he did so. It's not a wonder that the massive man needed his sword sharpened before he came into this match; he treated the beautiful black blade as if it were a beginner's bronze sword. Treated it as if it were a toy, and perhaps, in the man's eyes, it was. After-all, he was using it in a tourney for sheer sport, and that must have been as much of a playground as any; why not bring in the toys, then?
His very slow, sluggish walk had now brought him to about ten feet away from James instead of the original fifteen. He was really just toying with his opponent at this point.
Charge = 2
Sword position: Same place as before.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:07 pm
Whatever the hell Vincent said, James only noticed that he didn't answer his question, instead skirting around it. He also noticed the big rock chunks breaking off and flying up into the air around him. Was he telekinetic? Did he have power over the earth? Was it simply the result of him powering up? James didn't know, although he waved off the first two as being unlikely.
He threw his first plan out the window, sensing that it wouldn't work against this large man (it had orginally involved using the terrain against him, such a small arena it was). Powering up worked both ways however, and although James remained alert as he did so, he pointed the nodachi forward at his approaching enemy, looking as if he was using it as a stop-gap buffer. The very ground he was standing on was scorched black as his aura of fire grew and burned light-blue with a brilliant intensity.
If Vince thought that his flames were simply just that, he would be mistaken. James's sacred fire was that of his ki, an energy that most living things had, given special power by his bloodline.
"I? I eat things like you for dessert." the martial artist stated boldly. His hair flowed upwards widely, and his hands seemed to shake ever so minutely from the strain of containing his own raw power as he stood his ground before Vince's advance, only shifting his right leg back a little more and bending his knees ever so slightly, as if preparing to make his move. His sword was ungulfed in his fire a while ago, and it was only strengthed, the beautiful nodachi finely attuned to its owner.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:41 pm
Alright. This was getting to be a literal fight of "My power beats yours!" and Vince was getting a bit antsy to start the show. True enough that he should have started it before James built up this massive amount of energy which involved the man literally scorching the ground and wrapping his weapon in spiritual flames, but again, this was simply another Gold Alexander. True enough this guy was seemingly stronger than Gold Alexander, based on the energy that was coming off of this guy as Vince's energy grew. Unfortunately for James, Vince's energy was reaching its cap.
This time, as Vince took one more step forward, Vince's energy broke its maximum level. This time massive amounts of rock flew up from the ground to float around Vince's torso, literally hiding his torso from view. His arms however came down past the shrouding of rocks, and the sword was still visibly sticking out from the rocky armor that Vince had apparently donned. Not only did the rocks get larger, and float around Vince, the ground seemingly.. flattened.
An area in a five foot circle around Vince seemingly smashed itself into the ground, flattening stone and grass alike, but doing nothing to the over-all scheme of things. Vince's blood seemingly ran cold as he felt his power pulse through his veins, and with a blink, he looked at James and the magical flames which flew every which way. However, if James were to pay close enough attention, he would notice that Vince no longer had human eyes, nor were they brown any longer. His eyes were sharpened, almost squinted, and in the middle of a now green iris, there was a serpentine pupil.
Whatever Vince had been doing would become apparent if James gave him anymore time, and since James had been bending his knees and prepping his weapon, he obviously expected Vince to move at him, and to do so with his own weapon. Oh, Vince would come at James with a weapon, but it would be like nothing James had ever seen before. Or perhaps he had, but the creature he'd fought then was nothing like Vince. Who took one more step forward on his newly created flattened surface, and closed the distance down to eight feet.
Charge = 3
Sword Position: Still as it had been.
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Posted: Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:13 pm
"Distance!"
Should keep your distance, James told himself. Although he had some space behind him for maneuvering, it would be highly unfortunate if some outburst of power simply ringed him out, and the chances of that were increasing as both combatants built up their power.
He saw the slitted eyes. He made eye contact, an action meant much as to gauge the intention of the foe and to gain an insight into what would happen next as much as it was simply the way of the warrior. He had seen those kind of eyes in precious few before. Basilisks, dragons, reptillians, dinosaurs. His most recent memory of one of these creatures was a naga (she said she was a lamia though) in Heaven or Hell named Vivi.
Again, story of his life, giant opponents, be them women, men, or monsters.
"No reply?" James asked softly, and then "Well then, I don't need this for you!" with one mighty stroke, he reversed the grip on his nodachi and drove it straight into the ground before him, biting deep into the earth.
The blade was super-heated, and the weapon was still on fire after being in contact with James. It didn't seem like it would be pulled out easily. James took up a low stance, bent over with his left elbow resting on his forward knee and his other hand dragging on the floor. He had the demeanor of a tiger ready to pounce his prey. His crimson flame seemed to disappear, but if Vince would notice, James seemed to be absorbing his flame, letting it empower himself.
There were two ways that he primarily used his unique power. One, he let it wrap around him, or casted it at will, allowing for a great variety of fire-based assaults, and giving him a minor physical boost.
The second, and newly developed method, was to absorb it into himself, and unleash it from within, like a firecracker within a glass container, generating immense strength and power for short periods of time at great detriment to his body. It was more efficient and effective then his original empowerment methods, but also far more damaging. His eyes flashed ruby. His muscles twitched and bulged as he fought to hold himself together. This was it!
"Seidou Goui!" (Roar as One).
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:26 am
Needless to say, James guessed it correctly. Half of it, anyway. Vince's eyes maintained the green serpentine slit as he began walking towards James even as he began to kneel. This was fine. It was all good and dandy that the energy that James had built up was being consumed in order to make himself stronger in some way, whether that was physically, mentally, or magically yet, Vincent wasn't sure. However, it didn't really matter. He had a feeling now that James would be much more limited in how he attacked now that he'd gone and driven the sword into the rocky ground they were standing on.
"Let this answer your question!" Vince yelled out with a chuckle following as the massive stones which flew around his head began to break and crumble, and then all of a sudden they were thrown in every direction. The rocks flew upwards, downwards, sideways, and pretty much scattered all over the arena as Vince's energy manifestation broke and went into his technique. As Vince began walking towards James, and as soon as the rocks started breaking, Vince's body began to alter itself. His muscles began to compound and grow a bit larger, his skin even, started to change.
His slightly tanned skin began to have scales crawl up his arms and down his neck. The scales quickly covered his form, changing him from slightly tan to literally green. Not only this, but four things of note happened. There was a shredding of metal as claws burst from Vince's gauntlets and from his steel boots. The claws on his hands dangling from where his fingers were. This made gripping Vince's sword slightly awkward, but it was done easily enough when the claws cut into the hilt, creating more of the tears in the new hilt that had been present in the old hilt.
The claws on Vince's feet just shot out of the boots and were there, menacing, sharp, and could be used to tear at things if he were to kick or drag his foot down something. From his back burst three things. A pair of veined leather wings with green scales were the first to manifest themselves as they ripped through the back of Vince's thin tank-top. The second thing was from Vince's lower back as the dragon's tail snaked it's way down and hung idly behind Vince, massive, thick, what you'd imagine a miniature dragon to have.
The most stunning change, however, was when Vince' face changed. His face jutted outwards, his mouth and nose literally turning into something which resembled an alligator's snout. His new serpentine eyes sat in their original position, however now more menacing when viewed with the entirety of the beast's body. With a roar and a swelling of the dragon's throat, the dragon walked slightly faster towards James.
By this time, he was roughly five feet away from the crouching James, well within range to use his sword. However, the sword didn't move.
Charge = 0 (Transformation = 3)
Sword Position: Still in the same place.
Breath weapon use: Prepped due to the throat swelling; not used.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:21 am
James let out a focused kiai, or martial arts breathe, bringing himself under control... for now. It was fitting that the very top-tier techniques relied so heavily on the basics of all martial arts just to work. James did not think for a minute that this empowerment was going to help him outmuscle a dragon.
No, he was much smarter then that.
The rocks he could deal with, easily smashing aside the limited ones that came at him with his fists and a burst of flame. As for Vince's transformation into a dragon? It was one of the best things he could've hoped for. No longer did he have to actually deal with the metal armor, but the reinforced hide of a mythical creature.
Although some would argue that the latter was much more intense, it was exactly the sort of thing he learned and trained to defeat.
James darted back three feet, closer to the edge and cocked back his right fist, with his left held open before him and holding a small flame. Additional fire once again simmered into existence around him, just waiting to be unleashed. Even in his apparent backing away, James taunted his monsterous foe one last time.
"Looks like you're the one with the mythical pansy-blood eh?"
It was like that moment in the Hitchcock movies before all hell broke loose. Their arena looked fitting enough, large area of it blackened and super-heated and alternatively flattened and ripped up by his opponent.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:49 pm
Well, needless to say, James was making this much easier for Vince than he should have been. This arena was only thirty feet in diameter. Both opponents had been fifteen feet away on opposite sides, and James kept backing up? How much more space did he really have? Or was he trying to get Vince over to the edge to try and push the much heavier opponent down the slope? It really didn't matter, because James was making some stupid decisions in the long run of things.
He didn't try engaging his opponent, who now was building more energy. This time, however, things were being done differently. Vince was no longer gaining energy for his transformation, but instead, he was powering his elemental skills. There were different elements that Vince could control, and one of them happened to be stone. As Vince began to walk forward, once more slowly, towards James, shortening the distance once more down to five feet, rocks from the broken and smashed ground once again pulled themselves upwards, but this time, they stuck to the sides and bottoms of Vince's steel boots. Why in the hell was he doing that?
Powering the element of earth that he was able to control, obviously. Now, this wasn't all he was doing. He was finally giving his stance a switch. Now, his left foot slid forward, his right slid back, and it more or so looked as if Vince's left shoulder was facing James, Vince's right shoulder and sword arm was back, with his sword having shifted so that it's tip was touching the ground a few feet behind Vince with about the middle of the blade parallel with Vince's hip, and the blade being held a bit infront of it.
At five feet, Vince waited.
Sword Position: Changed so that Vince's left shoulder is infront, Vince's right shoulder and sword are back, the sword touching the ground with it's tip behind Vincent.
Breath Weapon Use: Prepared
Elemental magic: Charged for one use in earth.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 7:51 pm
For those who had fought James multiple times, they'd notice the subtle color change in his flames. They denoted the intensity and power at which he was fighting. The now-brillant red fires about him now were approaching a whitish blue sometime before dropping back to current brighter iteration of what he had started at.
It meant that atleast half of his power was somewhere else. Vince would find out all too late as James held up his left had and clenched it.
The dragon just walked into a landmine of epic proportions. All of James's fire stored and charged within his sword erupted like a volcano point-blank before Vince's very eyes. Why else had James left his sword there and backed up? Vince probably thought he was disarming himself out of pride. Instead James was setting the trap.
A geyser of blinding blue flame poured out out of the arcane weapon like an unending tide, with more then enough force to rip the the dragon's makeshift stone protection and his actual armor and toughened hide from him, let alone scorch him horribly all over.
Ontop of that, he didn't seem like he had any way to block the attack. His sword was in back, doubtless ready to swing or something similar, and his stance was crumbling as the ground gave way beneath him.
Fighters on other plateaus may be treated to a small spectacle as the pillar of flame surrounding the sword raced upwards to the heavens for a brief few seconds.
Now, as impressive as the attack was, James didn't think it'd take the miniature dragon out, but he'd be crippled nonetheless and in immense pain. Flesh would seared and melted to metal, torn up by force all over, and his eyes probably disorientated in the brillant blast as well. If he was unlucky, they'd be damaged for the rest of the match, the man's race made him even more susceptible to James's sacred fire overall. Vince would probably need a moment to get his bearings on where his opponent was, and James wasn't an idle man.
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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:49 pm
Needless to say, explosion or non, it didn't really matter. The sword had been a few feet away, perhaps two or three. James had backed up only a few feet, after-all, and originally had been directly behind the sword. Now, if Vince were to stand idly by and watch as a sword erupted into a dazzling pillar of flames, well, then yes, he was obviously retarded. However, as soon as felt the magical energy erupt, he of course countered with something that he had hoped not to use so soon. Didn't really matter, though. Vince's right foot lifted about an inch off of the ground and smashed back down. This brought a rumble beneath Vince as stone and chunks of ground ripped themselves from around him, and even snatched stone from the air to use in the grand scheme.
"FIRE? IS THIS ALL YOU HAVE? FIRE?" Vince let out a bellow of laughter as the stones quickly manifested themselves into the shape of a giant stone wall, which of course, was thrown up in Vince's face. Of course, no, the wall wasn't seven feet tall. It was only nearly four feet tall, and of course, Vince was forced to react even further. The flames ripped towards Vince, and Vince's sword was ripped to the front of his body, and slammed against the rock wall, even as Vince's body bent and smashed against the wall.
What Vince had done, of course, was reinforce the wall against the explosion by bracing the sword, and then, braced himself against the wall and the sword with bent knees, hiding himself behind the wall. The fire and explosion would rock the wall, and some of the flames would of course rip into Vince's face, and would heat the sword to the point of where it scorched his scaled hands, however, no serious damage was attained. Unfortunately, this did leave Vince unaware of where James was at the time, but he could be easily found.
Sword Position: Braced against the rock wall that was created using Vince's stored energy in the earth element.
Elemental Magic: Down to even, no charges in any element.
Breath Weapon Use: Still prepared.
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