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 Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 12:18 am
((An important note: This battle has already occurred, it's simply being written after the fact.))
This was it. This was a battle of the immensity she had been wishing for. This great magical creature, challenging her, against the beautiful blade she had forged, which had been enchanted by that cloaked figure... It would be a battle the likes of which this world had rarely seen. And she would destroy the creature, she was sure of this. Something such as this being could not be here by the will of any god or goddess... though she had begun to doubt that any truly benevolent gods or goddesses existed by now. But here it came, another attack. This one was more concentrated than the last; she could feel the heat roiling towards her. Good. The thing was not going to hold back. But she couldn't allow him to hit her with something like that. Pure magical breath was not something she could stop. And this concentrated, her sword would not spread it out enough to have much effect.
Instead, Misura grasped the hilt of the sword and, using the weight of her armor to her advantage, dropping and sliding while using the sword as a pivot. This move, much more agile than one would expect from a General, especially one with the amount of armor Misura wore, sent her out of the way of the burst of flame, though it left her sword behind. She waited, and the flames and heat dissipated, leaving Vezra glowing softly in the middle of a burnt and scorched triangle of ground. The woman grasped it, not seeming to mind the heat, and rushed forward once again.
"Demon," she spat. "I will kill you and drain the magic from your corpse to make Vezra stronger." Her hate for all things magical was beginning to show once again, coming into her movements and her battle style. She would not slow, would not show any mercy to this beast. It was still far away, and she had no doubt that it would attack again before she reached it. It didn't matter. She could take heat, and one attack would not nearly do enough to her to stop her. No, not even from this creature.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 8:15 pm
The General had successfully gotten out of the way of Fire Dragon’s second blast of Flametongue’s range and as making with more haste towards him that before. A GENERAL successfully dodged his Flametongue. Deflecting it with her massive sword as she had with Fire Dragon’s first attack, although shocking to the dragon at first, was at least believable and made sense to the Fire Dragon for the General to do so. But for a GENERAL to actually be able to maneuver out of Flametongue’s line of fire seemed insane to Fire Dragon. Speed was supposed to be a General’s biggest weakness! The Fire Dragon had used two completely different approaches to attacking the General thus far and neither had been successful. This demon General had clearly attained the status of a Legend for a reason, he acknowledged. This would be, by far, the most powerful opponent Fire Dragon had faced – even with the Scouring in perspective.
But there was no time to simply remain in place and allow this b***h to close the distance between the two of them. Fire Dragon couldn’t allow any opportunity to attack the General go by and not act upon it. He wouldn’t know how to go about attacking her had it not been for Nils’ support. With Nils’ support, Fire Dragon took advantage of his newly found energy. Nils had to deal with the remaining morphs and stay safe while on this battlefield – FD couldn’t afford not to take advantage of the support he’d received from his bard partner. Sinking his claws in the earth to remain grounded, Fire Dragon began lobbing a series of short Flametongues at the General as she approached him – each with a slightly different trajectory. If one Flametongue could be avoided, maybe five Flametongues would be more successful. Granted, they weren’t at all as powerful as his previous attack, and lacked the range of his first attack – they were more like giant fireballs of Flametongue than an actual beam attack. But with Misura closer than she was before, and the speed of these Flametongues being greater than his previous attacks, she’d had less time to make a reaction. This is for you Nils – you better stay safe during this fight.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:32 pm
Now this was unexpected. Balls of flame, flying through the air at her. This was in a way like an Elfire spell, but on a much larger scale. Her feet pounded against the ground, heavy armor leaving small indentations behind her. How could she stop this? It would be difficult. She'd be hit, but she could minimize the damage. She brought Vezra down, holding it to her side so it trailed behind her, and she rushed straight towards the first fireball. The blade came up in a great sweep, cutting through the flames as if they were a real, solid object. The fireball split cleanly, rushing to either side of the blade and only flickering against Misura's armor. That much was enough to heat it though, and the woman shuddered a bit. It was hot, and would only get hotter...
The next fireball came down from above, and Misura swept her blade up again to split this one as well. It didn't split as cleanly as the last one, and the flames licked down her side as it sped past. She didn't cry out, didn't make a sound, just kept moving. She wouldn't have a chance otherwise. The third fireball and the fourth came at her from different sides; she couldn't possibly stop both. This one was going to hurt. She decided on the one to the left, bringing the blade up to block it. The other fireball slammed into her turned back, blazing through her armor. The pain was excruciating, but she handled it. She had to. And she had burned herself before... this was nothing new. The last fireball spun towards her, but she was close now; she tilted the sword, the point held low as she moved. The flames split, and she rushed through them before they could close on her again.
The creature was there. Right there, in front of her. It was too big; it couldn't possibly move out of the way of her attack in time, not even if it tried to fly; too much time to move its great bulk. She tilted Vezra a bit, sadistic grin spreading across her face. Ignore the throat. Go for the shoulder. If the first hit didn't kill it, she would eliminate one of the great claws that would certainly be rushing towards her in a moment.
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 10:07 pm
(Don't mind me. I've had this cleared with FD.)
Jin remained hidden in the trees behind the Fire Dragon, taking in the awesome display of sword and fire. A great SWISH from Misura's gigantic blade, and a fireball split in twain! SWISH, and another ball falls apart! It was so much different than arena battles... why, this made them seem like mere child's play now.
Why did he remain hidden now, when he could help heal? Simple: Matter of pride. The Fire Dragon seemed to want him to stay out of this. So he would.
...But that didn't mean he wanted Misura to get away, if that was her intention after she won. If she won, and he could do so, he'd slay her personally.
But for now, he remained in the shadows of the trees, watching from afar.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 12:42 am
...and Fire Dragon's attack had FINALLY connected... except Misura wasn't a pile of ashes or on fire. It was to be expected, or course - she wasn't a morph. No, she was a so-called "hero" who had the skill to back up her legendary status. Still, the force behind the Flametongue usually had the impact to knock opponents that weren't killed with one shot down and make an easy target out of them for more. This homicidal General had actually closed the gap between the two combatants! And if she was hurting, she certainly wasn’t showing it. Seriously – Fire Dragon might as well abandon everything he knew about fighting as a dragon: nothing he knew to be the case was applying to Misura.
Worse yet – she was finally before him. FD could move fast once he got going, but it took time to actually get going - so he couldn't just run or fly away to fire more attacks from a distance. He could rely on actual physical attacks with his claws and teeth, but he’d dug his claws into the ground for firing the Flametongues quickly and without knock-back. He could try to fire off another Flametongue, but that would take time too – and that was something he didn’t have at the moment. There wasn’t much he could do that very moment. He pulled his foreclaws out of the ground and braced himself for whatever was going to happen next as he did so. If an opening made itself available, he’d want to at least be ready to take it. It had been a while since he actually been hit by something that hurt much. The last time had been in the fight with Molina at Christmas. Christmas! Fire Dragon had no idea what to expect.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 4:01 pm
Here it was, here it waaaaas~ Misura giggled like a little girl; the thought of being able to begin killing this massive thing filled her with glee. Both hands clasped tightly around the hilt of her blade as she rushed; her movement didn't stop until she reached him. Yes, perfect~ His scales were likely as strong as her own armor, so she would have to aim properly and put her full weight behind it to damage him. The blade thrust forward, Misura's armored body adding force to it, as she plunged it just into the underside of one scaled foreleg. Hopefully the scales underneath would be weaker than the ones on top, and hopefully she would hit a muscle or something of the sort, and not simply have the blade scrape to a stop from the friction.
After a moment, Misura moved backwards, pulling the sword free with a horrendous scrape of metal on scale. "Beast," she growled. "Does that hurt? Is the magic that forms that body beginning to leak?" She laughed louder this time, seeming quite pleased with herself, but she didn't lower her guard. In reality, she was searching for more weak spots. She couldn't make any downward swings; they'd just slide off the scales and slam into the ground. A swing straight at the dragon would not work either, not unless it had a great amount of force behind it; more than even she could muster, though perhaps Kyros might have been able to. It would have to be either a stab, or a slash upwards, under the scales. Those were her only options. Difficult. . . but hardly impossible.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 5:08 pm
Here it came! Fire Dragon had never fought someone so sadistic before. As Fire Dragon had pulled his claws out of the ground, the General had made her first strike against him, successfully puncturing him with that massive runed sword of hers on one of his forelegs. He knew she would have to actually puncture his scaly body if she was to have any success in attacking him – but the sensation of something piercing his dragon body had become one he was unfamiliar with. Most enemies he fought that used piercing, slashing weapon we far too pathetic to stand even a chance at damaging the dragon. Of course, most enemies weren’t legendary “heroes” either. The last time he had taken an attack that hurt him significantly, it had been a blunt attack from Molina meant to crush enemies rather than tear them open. This particular feeling of pain was new to him. It was more centered, focused on a single area than a massive blunt attack. He couldn’t let pain stop him from going on though. It was an inevitable aspect of a good battle.
“There’s no way I’m letting someone like you get past me to more people! And there’s definitely no way you’re a hero – you homicidal maniac!” Fire Dragon snarled in a roar. There was a mixture of anger and a reaction to pain in it. And she was laughing! There shouldn’t be time for someone to laugh during a battle, Fire Dragon thought. With his claws out of the ground now, he lifted his right foreleg and swiped it, intent on clawing the General. The pain coursing through it had Fire Dragon make it tense in reaction – which allowed it to carry more force with it as he swung from the right at the General. His claws might not have had the sharpness of a sword on both both sides like paper, but their tips were most certainly capable of slashing and penetrating things. But he didn’t particularly care what his claws were capable of. With any luck, the swing would force the general to move back to avoid taking a hit, leaving her far enough that Fire Dragon could fire another Flametongue at her if he acted quickly enough.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:01 pm
It was angry. It had a voice, clearly, and it was screaming at her. She had no interest in understanding it though. She'd kill it, then do the proper thing and gut its corpse, flaying the skin off so that the magic would leach from the corpse and dissolve in the air of this world. It was something that was a blasphemy, a perversion of the natural order, something that did not belong in this world, and one that would surely do more harm than help if left alone. The members of this group seemed good, in general... but this was yet a war, and she had her orders. Against something such as this, though, she was only too willing to carry them out.
She couldn't stop laughing. Against something of this power? It was simply too enjoyable. This being thought she was wrong. But she was right. This was the only right way. Magical beings should be wiped off the face of the world. They had never caused anything but more war and strife; they were even worse than humans in that. Power corrupted; this was an absolute. And what were those who used magic but those who stole the magic of the land and gave nothing in return? A power this immense, with a cost so small, could not be allowed to continue to exist. Especially in this form. . . that of a great being that controlled the very element of flame itself.
Claws came down. Should she dodge? Yes. She should. But he would be expecting it. She'd dodged all his attacks so far; why wouldn't she do it again? But instead, the great blade came up again, clashing against the claws of the dragon. It didn't stop the full motion; the claw still slammed into her side, denting the metal; but less than it would have before. She grinned up at the dragon from under her helm, seemingly unfazed. "You are quite strong," she breathed, just loud enough to be heard. "But you are too slow." The blade came up, furrowing a thin line up his forearm, not anything major, but it would likely be painful.
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Posted: Sat Jun 27, 2009 6:58 pm
Fire Dragon was only further convinced by the laughing. There could be no way such a being could ever have been heroic, he thought to himself. It was people like this that had caused the Scouring. Fire Dragon told himself that he’d refuse to let such people continue forward in time whenever he came across them – especially in the one place FD had found where people of all backgrounds had proven themselves capable of interacting without strife with one another.
As his claws approached the moment to strike the General, rather than dodge, she attempted to parry the attack with her sword. An awfully brave maneuver, and one that prevented Fire Dragon from firing the Flametongue he’d wanted to from the distance he desired. Perhaps he’d find another opportunity. Still, he didn’t want to let up on his offense while he probed her for openings to use Flametongue again. If he’d fire another Flametongue when she was at the right distance – just a regular Flametongue – he’d her sword wouldn’t be able to cover her, now would she be able to dodge it due to how much closer it would be. He’d just need to get her in that position. Fire too soon and she’d realize the strategy.
Worse yet then not getting an opening for Flametongue, Misura had struck back against Fire Dragon’s forearm, with another slashing attack that pierced. Although not nearly deep enough to stop Fire Dragon from using the arm, it would be more painful than necessary to do so, unless using it was deemed necessary, which it most likely would be for this fight. Now struck twice, Fire Dragon retracted his right forearm/leg (whatever it is) while side stepping to the right. As he moved his now twice injured forearm, the most outer nerves and muscles manifested in pain. But he couldn’t stop now. His other forearm was now parallel with the General. Rather than attack from the side with this one, however, Fire Dragon swung his left forearm directly forward, claws sticking out in a formation so as to hopefully pierce through that armor.. If the General tried parrying again, the force behind his strike would at least push her back to position her for a Flametongue.
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:02 pm
The great beast. It was beautiful; even Misura had to admit this, whether it was a being of magic or not. It seemed almost a shame to kill something like this. And though it was against her nature. . . perhaps, in another place and time, they might be able to become allies. But not here, and not now. It was kill or be killed, and the woman had no other choice, not if she herself wanted to live. Given a choice between herself and the creature, she chose herself. Jyoti still needed her...
The claws came towards her, fast and fierce. She could afford to take some damage, but not too much... And similar to the dragon, the most effective attacks against her would be those with the strength centered on one point. And, looking at this creature's muscles, most likely it would be able to crush her armor as well if it felt the wish. She would have to avoid that, as well. With this, she had a choice; allow the claw to hit her, or have it slam her back, losing some of the space between them she had gained. And that great head... if she was far enough, the flames would again erupt from its mouth and cover her body. But did she have much choice? No. If the claws hit her, she would take the hit, but she would still be pushed back. Then she might still have to take the flames, and she'd be harmed by both. No choice, then. Instead of attempting to block, though - that was iffy, as her blade might just slide off the slick claws - she dropped the sword quickly, clasping it between elbow and side, and took the approaching claw in both gauntleted hands, allowing his to push her back instead of knock her back. Now. He could breathe his flames again. But once he did, if he tried to retract his arm it would only add extra force to her next strike as she held on.
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 8:57 pm
Fire Dragon hadn't clawed Misura and punctured her armor like he'd have wanted to, but she was in position to take a Flametongue finally. Except the General had decided to clasp onto one of his claws instead, meaning that if he wanted to attack her with a Flametongue, he'd have to attack himself as well.Really, this general had been brilliant in her maneuvers throughout the fight in minimizing the damage his flametongue should have dealt to her and taking advantage of every oppurtunity she had to attack him as well. Taking his own hit would be unfortunate, but hardly a price to pay for attacking the general at such a close distance it all that armor she wore. After all, he WAS a Fire Dragon. It's not as if he wasn't used to heat or was incapable of handling high temperatures. His kind were capable of living near volcanic activity for a reason. Still, it was sure to hurt somewhat - but the General would be certain to take far more damage from it than himself. This was the opening he had been waiting for, and he couldn't afford not to take it. Besides, pulling his arm back would only mean pulling Misura forward to get in a good hit. This was it: Fire Dragon readied his attack and unleashed a Flametongue directly at her, closer than she had been for any of his other attacks and with her sword on her side. It definitely hit too: Fire Dragon could feel the flames licking across his arm as it made its impact and the burning sensation that came along with it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 9:33 pm
It hurt. As expected, but... it hurt ever so much more than she had thought it would. She had worked with flames, forged weapons, been burned by the heat of the ovens... but even that could not compare to this. This flame, created by magical means, was hotter and more intense than any she had ever experienced... and at this close range it swept over her, sending waves upon waves of heat into her body. The metal on her body resisted it for a few moments, then began to heat as well, making quite the effective oven. She let out a cry of pain this time; it was quite genuine, but it was also a distraction. There was no point to letting your opponent know how bad of a condition you wew in... unless it would cause them to lower their guard.
She didn't move for a few moments, gauging the extent of her burns and how badly it would affect her strength. It would be quite bad in a normal situation. But it was all right. She would live through it. And now... there was an opening. He'd used his breath, and now he would have to take a moment to breathe in again, and ready himself. One foreclaw was in her hands. The other was injured, and would not move fast enough to stop her. It was perfect... even in this condition she would win. She knew it. Using the Fire Dragon's claw as an anchor, she pulled herself forward and began to run again. Pain thudded through her body with every step; but she gritted her teeth and bore it stoically. Almost there. Almost... And then, with a swift movement, she drove her blade upwards into what seemed to be the softest part of the dragon's underbelly, moving a couple more steps before losing power in her legs and falling to the ground. That was not planned. Her sword slid down, to lie on the ground beside her, as well. Now there was a large, possibly fatelly-wounded dragon above her and she couldn't yet move...
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 10:25 pm
Fire Dragon had done it, he though to himself! This time the demon General had even made a made an audible reaction to his attack. Had he won?
Not yet, apparently. No, rather he had just let his guard down after his attack. The General was now rushing towards him and - successfully stabbed him stomach. As the sword retracted from his gut, the deep wound leaked with blood. He had never taken a hit there and for good reason he realized in the moment. He felt overcame with pain, crashing down to the ground atop the general (that would hurt). His body reverted to the human-looking form that it had. He was lying on top of the general now. Was she dead? It seemed that way. Her armor seemed ruined. It took several minutes to figure out if he was alright but that seemed to be the case. The wounds he’d received as a dragon from the general had followed him into his substitute form and he was still bleeding heavily from his gut. He needed to get some medical attention and fast! More important to himself at least, he had to find Nils! The General was still on the ground… and FD HAD fallen on her while in his dragon form. He assumed she had died and limped off, bleeding…
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Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:22 pm
...
That...
Hurt.
Dragons were HEAVY.
This was something that Misura had suspected, but just actually found out. She couldn't move yet. Partly because she didn't want him to know she was still alive... but she had to admit, even to herself, that it was mostly because she couldn't. Pain. Immense, crushing pain, all across her body. She wasn't exactly going to intensify it.
It took a few minutes before she could move. Even then, she moved only a little; her helmet fell off easily enough, as did her gauntlets. The boots came a bit harder. The plateskirt and breastplate, however... they were dented and torn out of shape by the pressure. So the woman gritted her teeth, and forced the plateskirt down her legs, scraping and cutting them as it moved. The breastplate was even harder. It would not move as it was... and to the side, it had torn, ripping into her body. So, she had to force it, using her strength to bend the metal just enough that she could move it. There was a tearing pain in her side as the metal moved up, then it was off and she could throw it aside. All that was left was her usual underclothing - half-shorts and a simple sleeveless top, both scorched and burned to little more than rags. She stood slowly, muscles tightening and then slowly unclenching themselves as she adjusted to the pain. It hurt so badly, but... she lived.
One hand clasped Vezra's hilt; and the last rune glowed green, releasing a wave of healing energy into the General's body. It wasn't nearly as strong as that of any mage, but it closed the worst wounds she had suffered. The sword now dark, the woman relaxed slowly, then began to limp back towards the house. Jyoti would be there... Jyoti would fix her.
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