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The warrior harrumphed, his opponent's antics eliciting a chuckle from the man's lips. He figured the old rock-in-the-snowball trick would have been worth a try. He only shrugged when the suited man made his disappearance behind the ice block, letting his feet carry him easily towards the block.

Combined with the loud crowd and Deitric's own experience as a hunter, not a single sound came from him. The ground beneath him wasn't the best, but he was used to loose soil of all sorts. He kept a low profile as he moved, almost moving on all fours at a speed belied by his height, tearing away the short distance. In the last ten feet or so, he broke his movements into a sprint, pulling his left fist back, as if he was going to punch the gigantic block of ice.

Maybe he was.

He'd rarely kept his ability under control and in focus for so long without release, in fact, he'd never pooled such a large amount of electricity without aid before. His power had been buzzing beneath the surface, fighting to escape his iron grasp, growing with each passing second that he'd been generating-- like adrenaline, the shocking power came naturally in times of combat and danger, and only training had allowed him to keep it under control long enough to pool it and give it a focus point.

And that focus point was his fist.

Cackling electricity swam around his fist, spinning and growing wildly, no longer kept pinned under Deitric's will. In the blink of an eye, the warrior was enveloped in a spiraling comet of lightning. He threw all his weight behind his left fist, sending it hurtling into the ice block with all the physical and electric power he could muster at that very moment - a lot, all considering. He was ablaze with power, and the block - and the man behind it - were about to suffer. A split second, and things were about to change.



Deitric's fist slammed home into the ice-block with an indescribable cacophony of sound, the first sound to come from the warrior - even his normal cackling aura hadn't seemed to create a sound amidst the roar of the crowd. For a moment, time seemed to slow down; cameras in the crowd zooming in to the scene at hand, catching the entire scene unfold.

SCREAM

Then time came back, and the cacophony seemed louder than ever as the ice block had actually given way to Deitric's attack. In fact, it had done more than that - his Maelstrom Spiral had smashed the ice block apart, fissures running through the slab of ice, the entire slab exploding outward from the force of the attack. Pieces went every which way, but by being the cause of the destruction, Deitric was mostly safe - a few bruises or nicks wouldn't bother him anyways.

AIM

The shining bullet of a warrior wasn't deterred though-- showering his opponent with chunks and pieces of ice of all sizes; Deitric continued on through the flurry of shattered ice, some chunks nearly as big as he was. His fist as still alight, and if his opponent was (hopefully) caught off surprise, the momentum of Deitric's Finisher would carry him on, slamming his fist home right into Katsu's face. His power had all for all intents and purposes, been depleted and he'd need time to let his generative abilities restart, but it'd be worth it - such a direct attack would be the last thing most opponents would have done.

FIRE

Deitric grinned amidst the ice as the area around him was alive with a flurry of ice. He still had one ace in his sleeve, and as soon as he didn't feel flesh, he triggered it.

The secondary portion of the Maelstrom Spiral, typically used to send his opponents flying away, if they weren't already.


WHUSH

The 'tail' of the human comment suddenly reversed, flowing over him before sending out a cyclone of force from his fist; which had previously been used to help propel him forward. Now, it had a new purpose. The sudden spiral of force rushing out from his fist in an "overblow" from his propulsion caught the nearby shards of ice and sent them hurling forward - right for Katsu. If the man were close enough, he might even be knocked off balance by the sudden force of the over-blow, combined with the pelting shards and chunks of ice being sent his way.

"Heh.."

The rest of the ice shrapnel had flown elsewhere, and paper-thin slivers fluttered in the air around him like snow, the immediate area around him caught in the flurry of the exploded ice; the death throes of his attack and the after effects. His hand was back down at his side now, the leather glove he wore shredded, small nicks and cuts covering his hand and wrist.

He felt the faint spark of his power inside - it needed time to rest and regenerate, but he wasn't in a hurry. He was confident, now. He raised his right hand to the crowd again as the lightest of the debris finally settled, leaving Deitric surrounded by shattered ice and gravel - all the actual snow had been blown away in the first few feet around his person.

For now, he only grinned, bringing his arm back down. He'd wait to see just how things went.

Deitric eyed the oncoming fighter calmly. He was breathing a little harder now - he'd been hoping to catch the man off guard enough to end the fight when he'd gone through the ice block, but luck hadn't been on his side. Steam was rising from his left fist still from the heat of the attack and the floating motes of ice left in the air.

Whoosh

In came the projectile, and and aside Deitric stepped. It spun past him, his eyes never leaving the opponent in front of him. His arms were bent at the elbows and slightly raised, ready to defend or attack - his movements were minimalist, simple.

[Short post. Crazy storm hit earlier.]

His body is flagging.. But his determination is still strong.

Deitric watched Katsu falter, and realized just how tired he was too. His left arm ached, burnt from the chill and his assault earlier. Pains were all over his body, but he wasn't in quite as bad a position as Katsu, thanks in part to the thick leather and denim he wore, and the armor beneath his jacket. The mixture of leather and metal that Nasrudin had made for him was truly a wonder - his strength allowed him to move so easily in the armor! If he won the tournament, he'd see to it that the architect was paid properly.

He didn't attack his opponent when the man seemed to seem a little weaker, the man's eyes casting to the timer. Deitric had too much respect for his opponent and for himself for that. He stayed in place as his opponent continued his approach. Katsu flung another ice shard at him, and this time Deitric did do something other than a minimal movement.

His right hand reached out, swiping out quickly with a straightening of his right arm at the elbow, smashing the ice shard away. It lowered quickly and off to the side, leaving a long, thin line of red gouged into his upper thigh. It hurt his hand a fair bit, but by now, the cold had probably numbed both of them in their extremities, so it probably didn't matter.

The arm stayed out, just in case - bent at the elbow again, ready to block or strike at any time.

When Katsu when up, Deitric watched his opponent move up into the air like a predator, his turquoise eyes kept on the man's airborne form. He put his weight forward slightly, bending his knees slightly as if ready to dodge at any moment.

The third shard came down--

And up Deitric went rather suddenly, pushing upwards with all the leg power he could muster. Katsu would have just started coming downward from the apex of his throw. The shard flew down in a blur, slicing down his shoulder and back - his shoulder suffered a sharp gash, but stuck on the armor and spun off elsewhere.

The warrior's right arm reached out, aiming to smash fore-arm to forearm with Katsu's arm and force both their arms wide as they continued on their mid-air collision course. Deitric's right arm was up now, bent and over his head. He'd torqued his body as he put the arm up, aiming to smash it into Katsu's body or head, while hopefully protecting the Khasmin man's own - it was in the position to block any downward strike from the knuckle duster. Sure, that'd hurt, but not as much as a knuckle duster to the head.

If they continued on, Deitric's left forearm (including the metal bracer beneath his sleeve) would hopefully find it's way into Katsu's face, or slam into his head. Their bodies' momentum would do the rest of the work from there, and hopefully the heavier Deitric would have something to show for it.

Deitric felt his opponent's hands wrap around his wrists when the met in mid-air. Being the heavier of the two, and with less momentum, the red-skinned warrior would be the first one to hit the ground, most likely landing on his back with Katsu on top.

But he had other plans.

The fighter grunted as they collided, feeling his upward motion ceases as they began their descent back towards the ground. He let gravity do its work, tilting them down slightly to bring them back down to earth wit hthe heaviest parts of their body hitting first - the shoulders. His opponent had his wrists - that was fine, he didn't care. In fact, it probably served his purpose.

Without hesitation, Deitric tucked his legs up, then sprung them outwards into Katsu's gut. Their proximity meant that it was likely to succeed - even though it might not do a huge amount of damage, it would force them to separate, forcing them both in different directions. The movement of his legs had been minimal - and probably hard if not impossible to see, due to their proximity and positioning.

If all went to plan, they'd be separated about half-way down, putting some space between the two fighters while they fell.

[Dunno if Katsu grabbed both wrists with both hands, or what. If not, I'd just assume that Deitric would use his free arm to guard his head and neck from Katsu's free hand.]

Deitric growled as he felt his arms pulled taut-- a soon as he pushed with his legs, he could see that Katsu wasn't willing to let go, at least not any time soon.

That suited the Khasmin tribesman fine.

In that split second that Katsu was upside down and Deitric had his back (with a tilt that favored his shoulders) to the ground, the fighter took his chance. His stressed arm burned in pain, but he didn't matter. Pain was weakness leaving the body. That's what someone said, wasn't it?

His free hand reached out like lightning, already out-stretched from their free fall, moving only a handful of inches through the air for something--

Katsu's hair. Assuming his fingers dug in good and well into the man's hair, Deitric would pull down hard on the man's mess of locks, twisting his body in the air while he pulled down with both his arms, most notably the arm that had gotten ahold of the man's hair. The arm Katsu' had a hold on would take an injury as well - the stress of pulling down on the man's weight as much as he could, even with the torque of his body and the use of his other arm, it had been a lot. Muscles were pressed to their limit, and when they rose, he might find it hurt a little too much to use his arm.

Why was he pulling so hard on Katsu's head of hair, though?

He was literally going to bring Katsu down crashing on his head-- albeit, Deitric's hand was going to be beneath it, he'd trade the use of a hand for his opponent's head smashing into the ground. By twisting his body and pulling both his arms down, he'd be putting them practically level in the air in the last fraction of time before they smashed into the earth-- Deitric side first, Katsu most likely headfirst, albeit wearing a bit of protection better known as the human dynamo's hand.

THUD--

--But what had happened, when the dust cleared?

[Well, we confused the s**t out of each other amidst the fun xd . We're not asking for a judge, but it's close to the deadline and we've had an awesome fight, so I think we'll just leave it as is-- right near the deadline, in a "what if" situation. It's fine with both of us - no need for a judge to try and resolve anything, we're content to leave it as is for the judge's to review.

Awesome match and everything, and we'll let the judges see who goes on to the next round.]