Welcome to Gaia! ::

1. Classic
2. Grasslands
3. Jungle
4. Factory
5. Frozen thundra
6. Lost desert
7. Cave
8. Sea of Hope
9. Abyss
10.Junkyard
11. Pearly Gates
12. I get to chose. >D

A fight to the death. A possibility of students dieing. Any weapon of choice. Any powers allowed. And Any kind of creature as an opponent. Whether it be a cave troll, or a demon as old as time itself. Kai began breathing regularly, as soon as he reminded himself that this was not the ordinary test of the school. This was an elite test to test the discipline of power, teamwork, and resolve. In his Deep Sapphire eyes reflected the selected battle field before him. The evening sun casted long dark shadows from the four statues that stood at the tips of the battlefield. Each one an ancient heroic figure. These figures bared the history and legacy that normal humans could not. They where like the people of the school. Special, unique, and gifted.

The wind began to pick up as Kai began walking up the marble steps to the arena floor. His sandy blond strands of hair waved softly with the breeze, and motioned with each step he took. It ran down deeper in the back to touch the collar of his dark green short sleeved shirt, which also moved gently with the wind, save the part pinned down by the strap of his sword scabbard on his back. His sleeves where elbow length, and rather baggy. His fists where protected by the hard leather gauntlets. Kai finally placed his right foot, covered in a thick leather boot, tightly buckled by bets. The boots, like his leather gauntlets, were meant for protective purposes. The baggy dark grey cargo jeans covered most of the top of the boots.

Kai's muscles tensed up with the cheer of the crowds. Other students that have gathered in the canopy of the arena to watch the deadly test. He reached around his back and gripped the scabbard, then moved it off his back, to an extended arm, parallel with the rest of his body. He lowered the finely crafted scabbard and moved his left hand to the hilt, then encircle his fingers around it. Slowly, he pulled out a gleaming longsword. The sword itself created a ringing noise as it slid out. The heirloom of the Arastoth family.

Kai turned his sapphire eyes to glimpse Taerel and Domeki behind him, then nodded, throwing his scabbard off to the side, and switching weapon hands. The low sun gave the blade a strong reflection, glaring onto the statue in front of him to his right. The teenage boy inhaled deeply to calm his racing heart. In a quickly display, he warmed his body by spinning the blade in a figure eight motion, with his wrist, creating a deep swooping noise, and then moved his foot back, then forward with the blade in a powerful thrust, creating yet another ringing noise with his blade. "I'm ready." He said, as the blond strands of hair began moving in front of his frowning eyes of concentration. As his boots clapped among the Marble, He looked at the creature looming from inside the dark bars. The bars slowly slid down, as a dragon like figure emerged.

The dragon moved on all fours, in a slow clumsy motion. Though if given the chance, the creature was by no means slow. It was easily identifiable as an earth dragon, as it stepped into light. From first glimpse, it appeared as if it was made entirely of stone, save the moss and weeds leaking out of the cracks. But as it blinked, it revealed its brown scales in its eye lids. Wood antlers stood erected from the stone at the top of its head. As its heavy foot crashed down, the moss and plants embedded in its armor moved with it. The dragon rose up in a loud roar, standing on its back legs, then dropped down, causing the earth to shake, creating cracks beneath it. Deep cracks, which lowered to the surface of the earth beneath the stage. The earth dragon's ebony eyes, which seamed to shine yellow when in darkness peered onto Kai, hungrily. Its wing span shot out, as its large draconic wings displayed, almost as if the juggernaut of a dragon was showing off, trying to intimidate its prey. But Kai well knew that with its stone armor, it was unable to fly.

"Alright. Allow me to see what this thing is made of." Kai said, competitively, swooshing his blade behind him, pointing to the side. Kai leaned in and spread his legs apart, then dashed forward. His hair trailing back behind him. The dragon began to run as well, smashing the ground, as if to make more cracks, then met with Kai. As Kai jumped up, he let out a mighty cry, as he swung his blade to the lower neck on the right side. The blade vibrated as it struck the stone. Dust began to fall, but the stone only had been scratched by his steel. Kai jumped to the left, then struck at the back of the leg. The same result of the steal and the stone. At this rate, he would only dull his sword. The creature reached down for Kai, attempting to grasp his leg. But Kai knew what kind of damage he could do. He had already gone under the creature, and held his left hand up to its chest, then attempted to crust its thick armor with ice to allow it easier breaking. But before he did, he was swiped out from underneath, as the dragon moved forward and whipped his tail at Kai's ribs.

Kai began sliding across the floor, holding his ribs tightly with his free arm. His sword off to the side in his right again. He tried to roll back to his feet, but felt a sharp pain in his ribs. The pain was enough to have him shout out "Aww!" Kai rolled over on his stomach, and planted the tip of his blade in the marble, then hefted himself up. He turned his head to see the dragon beginning to laugh at him mockingly. Vegetation began to bleed through the cracks near Kai. Soon, it began forming thorns, then sprang into animation, as the thorny vine shot towards Kai. Kai swiped his sword, slashing through the vine, then jumped back. But the vine still persisted, whipping in a wave motion to what would appear to be a three combo strike. With quick reaction speed, Kai thrusted his blade in a guard to the top, then twisted his wrist, bringing the sword down to guard the right side strike. This one was backed by his other hand, placed to the flat end of the blade. As the third ripple came, Kai ducked down and swiped the vine off, then extended his arm as the vine recoiled. The vine shot up in frost, as Kai froze the internal stream of water through it. The vine dropped to the floor and shattered. But as Kai was distracted by this, the rock armored dragon had positioned itself to his side, then lunged forward, and hooked its wood coated antlers into the boy, then hefted him into the air.

As the elementalist flung into the air, flailing his arms and legs, and letting out words that resembled cuss words, he was taken by the impact of the ground. The pieces of his shirt which had been ripped off exposed the rough scrapes along his torso. Kai turned his eyes to Taerel, weakly trying to get back to his feet.

By this point, Kai had managed to stand on his feet. He seamed well impressed by Domeki, and Taerel’s sudden burst of confidence. Her spirit was inspiring to him. However, he snapped back into reality as soon as Domeki announced the dragon’s weak point under its stone armor, and thick scales. He turned his head as his name was called. “The back of its neck, huh?” He asked, then peered an observant eye onto his enemy. With the whips of vines lashing around it, and its daring eyes, Kai could tell, it was very well guarded of this spot. It was not going to let them near itself anymore. “At this point right now, we can’t make a strike. We’re going to have to bind it some how.” Kai announced, narrowing his eyes to the ebony earth dragon eyes.

How am I going to do this? I don’t have a large enough body of liquid to bind it by ice. And the vines aren’t much help either. Kai thought to himself, feeling his heart race again. What the heck are we supposed to do? He asked, this time to the frost elemental spirit inside him. Yuri, who had been quietly observing the battle the whole time, began to spoke up in an irritated tone inside Kai's mind. It seamed as though he had been holding this in for quite some time.

You fool... Did you forget that with our contract, you are also able to vent your natural element as well? You have lots of darkness lingering in that soul of yours. Use it. Remember that I taught you one of the most simple dark elemental binding spells. All you need now is a source. Yuri informed him.

Kai smacked himself in the forehead. "That’s it! How could I be so stupid!" He shouted at himself, looking up at the evening sun. And how they cast the long shadows from the statues. A competitive smirk slid across his face. "Taerel, we need to get him into the shadows. Just trust me on this one."

Kai bent over, grabbing his sword off the ground. He seamed to be ignoring the deep jagged scrapes along his torso, and the bruised ribs. For now, he told himself what he always told himself when surviving out in the wilderness, when he found himself injured from falling into a pit, or fending off predators from his food. Take care of the current threat at hand. Then worry about your injuries.

“Alright. From its state right now, its well fortified in the center of the ring. We need to get it in the shadows. But whit how things are going now, this could be very hard. It seams as though he is happy where he is.” Kai said, watching the vines sway defensively. He swiped his sword to the side, then began to channel the ice energy across his blade. Quickly, he charged forward, and began slashing through the vines, keeping his distance from the actual dragon. With each slash, the water veins within the vines froze all the way to the roots. Although Kai was well aware that the creature before him could just grow new vines, this plan of action was enough to slow the progress. And Kai knew that once the dragon realized this, it would charge towards him.

“Take THIS!” He shouted, slashing down the final vine, then turning to the earth dragon, which turned to him, realizing what he had done. The dragon flung its stone coated tail at Kai with a loud swooping force. But seeing this would happen before hand, Kai had made sure to make his recoil short, and jumped over the tail. He turned to the long end of the ring and began running for the shadow, listening to the loud stomping behind him close in. Before he knew it, the stomping had stopped, then a large shadow flew over the blonde boy’s head. With a crashing thud, the dragon landed right before him. And Kai had picked up to much momentum to come to an effective stop to stay out of range. “Taerel!” He shouted, as his eyes widened with an “Oh crap, how am I going to make it out of this one?” look.

"Right!" Kai shouted back, running past the sizzling vines across the field. He quickly covered the distance, clapping his boots among the fractured Marble. Once in the deep shadow, he placed his arms down on the cool surface, then began to concentrate. What did Yuri say about dark energy again? Dark energy comes from the will to harm. The will to dominate. And Kai knew his resolve quite well. He wanted to harm this creature for his and Taerel's survival. He wanted to dominate to live another day. As his sapphire eyes glared fearlessly into the earth dragon's shining amber eyes, It quickly rose and lunged towards Kai.

"That’s your mistake!" He shouted, as black chains erupted from the shadow covered floor, wrapping around the creature in its mid air jump, then slamming it down with a crash. Yet another unbearable ear piercing noise was heard, but Kai didn't break his concentration. He was at the height of his will power at the moment, and would not stop until he was sure the creature succumbed to the force. As the dragon fought, the chains glowed amber, and tightened. Eventually it grew so tight, the creature could not move now. Kai rose both of his hands, slowly, as they swarmed with dark energy. Both his and the creatures eyes still locked with each other in a hatred. But the dragon began letting out a low pitched laugh that echoed through the arena. "Eh heehh heeehhh heehhhhhh." It croaked, before Kai realized exactly where he was standing, with the vegetation creeping through the cracks to his right.

"Crap! Taerel! Get it now!" He shouted, as three thorny vines quickly flung from the floor, and latched around Kai's left arm, then brought him down to the ground. "AHHH!" He screamed in pain, as the thorns tightened around his arm. Kai tried to fight it, but only found the thorns cutting across his bone, and ripping more skin. He turned to the creature, and extended his arm, making sure it still held the lock to the chains. That’s when the water began pumping through the thorns into the penetrated wound of his skin. The pain was nearly unbearable, causing Kai to go on the verge of passing out.

"Now..." He said weakly, as his eye lids began twitching, and the energy around his hand began fading.

Length and Pacing: Very good. It was easy to follow, and the posts were actually longer than I expected from both of you.

General Grammar rules: I believe I did see a minor spelling mistake or two, but it wasn't that bad that I couldn't tell what the word was.

Personality: GREAT!

Ali-kun continued to use Taerel's shy self, even though it was a life-death battle.

Chocopyro did good as well.

Use of Environment: You did okay, but I would have liked to see something like smashing the statues on the monster or something.

Details: GREAT! It was very easy to follow, and not once did I have to go back to see if I read something wrong.

Ali-kun's final score- 9/10

Chocopyro's final score- 9/10