1) The battle will consist of 8 members of the Sworbreakers. Each one will be using a weapon that is not really their own, and not really a weapon. They will be items along the lines of brooms, plates, and other random objects to be decided upon by the participants. The weapons will carry no skills.

2) The players will be allowed to use a maximum of 40 SP and not one a bit over. If less than 40 SP is available to them, then it will regenerate until they have reached a total of 40.

3) The players will be allowed to use one item that is available for purchase in the Magickery. They are responsible for purchasing it, and they will be allowed only one for the duration of the duel.

4) The duel's ideal location is the courtyard of the Swordbreaker Castle. There will be a discription of it in the first post for any unsure of its looks.

5) There is a ten post limit for each player! We do not want it dragging on forever, so this will be implemented and enforced.

6) All participants must have fun. Should they be found not having fun, we will preform unspeakable acts upon them.

Those are the rules. Now go kill each other like the backstabbers you are.

A lone Heavy Blade sat on the edge of the river that flows through the beautiful Aqua Capital Mac Anu. His muffled laughter could be heard by only himself and the fish that ran through the digital water. How is it that I get myself into the predicaments? I can never just have a regular day in The World. I always have to go out on a suicide run against a Headhunter when I am only level one, or I go and face players I have never met before in a duel to the death for no real reason. Now I am participating in a duel with my own clan members. Yeah, sounds great, but I have never met most of them. In fact, the only one I really have met is Slicer, and if memory serves me right, the last time I got into a big fight when partied with him he took off running. This should be great, truly wonderful.

Centrus lifted his feet from the water, and rose to begin his journey. He lifted his sword, placed it in the proper spot on his back, and started walking towards his clan's home, the large castle on the edge of town. It stood as a monument to those who knew of it, and yet those who knew nothing of the clan seemed entirely ignorant of it. The Heavy Blade stood in awe, taking in the entirety of his Worldly home, and finally let out a sigh he had been keeping in for good long while. Well, I guess I have to meet everyone somehow. Centrus arrived in the courtyard and set his weapon down on the cold stone floor. Well, I won't be using this for now.

Centrus sat down, cross-legged, and settled himself into a simple state of pure contentedness. I know I am going to have fun, but I need to know who these people are! Well, I guess there is no better way to do this than to fight them. You learn a lot from the way people move their bodies, from the way the react. I will know these people by the end of this. I want to know them more though. I want to make them family. These are the people I want to have with me to rely on when times get rough in this game. I want to be friends with them. I want to, well, FIGHT! I left the invitations in the common room of the castle, let's see who will come...

The Heavy Blade opened his starburst eyes. The sound of footsteps echoed against the rock walls. Allowing his eyes to focus, he saw one of his fellow clan mates coming. Rising to his feet once again, he extended a hand to the newly arrived character. "Hello, I am Centrus. Thank you for accepting the invitation. I am glad to make your acquaintance!"

The drapes on the rough stone walls were purplish in color, with black rivets tracing the jagged contours. A single torch brightly illuminated the ten foot by ten foot personal study room. The door was a richly brown, deep treated solid oak. One hundred level one hundred Heavy Axe's couldn't break through it. An intricate series of ebony-shod bolts and gears locked the door into place from all angles. What appeared to be a knot was actually a small spyglass. To soften the harsh image of the rough-hewn rock floor and walls, I had hung those black and purple drapes. One wall was hidden behind a massive bookcase, and on it was most information to The World anyone could ever want. The FAQ books worked by opening small windows to navigate in front of the user when the book is opened, as opposed to the more tangible method of turning pages. I had stashed topics on current trade and pawn prices, diplomatic interclan relations, bestiaries, key word guides, item almanacs, and endless other histories and source code logic. All the text files were on permanent loan from the official clan library. On the wall next to the bookshelf there was a desk with a chair where I read or occasionally typed and saved observations. The wall opposite the door had a large fireplace, where a table with some chairs was placed so I could entertain friends and fellow clan members. The fire sometimes made it a little sultry in my bodysuit, so I designed one of it's decorating stones to be a controlpiece so I could turn it down when it got unpleasant. The whole ordeal took ridiculous amounts of time and ridiculous amounts of coding, but hey, I like to have nice things too, sometimes. Not just that ramshackle place I hung around in Mac Anu. Good old Kiwi had talked the game's administrators into letting the Swordbreakers all design thier own personal studies in the clan castle. Sometimes I wonder if I keep paying these monthly charges just for this little place.

I decided to stop sitting in a chair and take a walk around the massive castle. Kiwi himself was a programming god, and had made the castle so excessively luxurious as to be almost impractical. Walking anywhere could take over an hour, though the frequent atriums, art galleries, and aquariums usually prevented boredom. To help with the distance problem during emergencies, Kiwi created elegant gold-fringed mirrors that used a system similar to the Chaos Gate keyword system to provide navigation throughout the castle. I always keep a small text guide of it in my hood's secret inner pocket. Today I'd chosen to wear that hood, a rough green shirt, some tan pants and some dark boots. My spear was slung over my shoulder and held with a small tether. I had specially made it the day prior. Using a combination of a keyword guide and a server glitch guide I was able to find a fire-field which grew burning grass. I rode a red grunty there so as not to burn my feet and red grunties having a natural affinity for fire so as not to hurt the longhorned grunty either. It was full grown, "borrowed" from a Swordbreaker stable. I let the stupid beast munch the fire grass to its deranged content, and then gated out to Mac Anu. I keep a special small place in the heart of the city, a building designed long ago for some special purpose but now left vacant. I had fashioned most of the garbage left inside into various pieces of furniture. It was between a weapons shop and a casino gaming center. Leading the grunty there, I cleared a large spot in the center of the room and began to work. Braced against a wooden pillar rising into a beam, I pushed against the grunty with all my might. It tumbled over with a loud annoyed noise. I then picked up the hooves and flipped it onto its other side. After several laborous flips, the grunty began to flatten. Every five rollings I softly kneeded the braying creature and patted it to even out the process. Special attention had to be paid to keep the horns at the very tip of the shrinking monster. With the grunty now a little more cylindrical, I was able to carry on at a faster and easier pace. In three hours of work, I was able to keep the horns and the teeth at the tip of the six-foot long glaive known as the Fire Steer. The horns rolled during the spin into a spiral and the teeth converged as sharp barbs, giving the Steer a powerful and deadly blade. The bones condensed so compactly during the rolling that the haft was almost unbreakable. The whole Steer was a crimson red.

All of the nonsense was the result of a neophyte 'Breaker named Centrus. Work had been long for a few months, and some new members were admitted in my absence. This Centrus fellow left all of the Swordbreakers flashmail invitations that I got from the commons when I logged in to chat the other day, challenging me to a chaotic match against half of my fellow 'Breakers but allied with the other half. All of our weapons had to match our classes but be completely homemade. With spunk like that, I couldn't resist his charms. I also couldn't have picked a better week to log in, because had I put it off until the day that I figured I'd have the time then I would've missed the event. To trump up his challenge I spent hours pouring over various glitch books and programming reports, to find the perfect weapon. Most of my ideas crapped out, but the Fire Steer hit me in a moment of inspiration and sent me into a rush to find the item guide entry on the Long Arm's Fire Spear. Once I'd calculated the ratios of all the exact programming variables and logirithms it was merely a matter of doing it. And come on, it was a spear made out of a fiery cow. That's comedy.

I walked through a few intertwined corridors with various supply closets, access terminals, and other handy things. I had no need to use the mirrors, for there was plenty of time to walk through the castle's winding backways. There weren't any fanciful decorations or distracting rooms to pass through. I could walk all the way to where I needed to get without encountering much of anything. That way I figured I might be able to focus before the duel. Thirteen levels lower and forty five minutes later, I came out into the main hallway. Courtly decorations of all sorts and a smooth velvet carpet lined the fifteen feet wide walkway and three story walls, in the opposite order. Since each room in the castle (counting hallways as rooms by programming logic) was seperately programmed, the castle was capable of amazing spacial impossibilities. For instance, though the castle had many floors occupying it all across the barriers visual from the outside, the main hallway on the first floor opened up to a massive glass dome which showed the skies over Mac Any. Today's blue was striking, and the sun danced in rainbow ribbons on the walled decor. A wide archway was just up ahead of me, with polished turquoise stones. Past it lay the immaculate green grasses of the courtyard where the duel would take place. About it were various trees, cute and harmless level 0 monsters, and small gardens. In the very center was a huge clearing with a beautifully carved stone fountain. The fountain was placed at the crossing of the four rooms adjacent to it, and had a walkway of flagstone around it that jutted where it continued on to the other main hallways. Sitting next to a rather large sword on the ring around the fountain was a Heavy Blade, who quickly rose as I approached, but left his weapon on the ground. It was either an intentional sign of trust, or the poor kid didn't reflexively pick up his weapon like I do before a good duel.

The shining and prismatic colors of the fountain against the form of the Heavy Blade created a dramatic effect on his thickly built form. Most Heavy Blades choose to wear cumbersome armor to match the image of an unstoppable tank character, but this one was different. He wore a white training gi and a navy blue hakana, which created a distinct matching with his gray streaked mostly black hair. Maybe it was muscle to attract the ladies. I should've asked him how it worked. Figuring that I'd try and make friends with this member I'd never seen, I moved in without taking mental notes of his armor or chosen weapon. Best let him to reveal that information at his own discretion during the duel, like I would be. As I walked across the flagstone pathway he greeted me.

"Hello, I am Centrus. Thank you for accepting the invitation. I am glad to make your acquaintance!"

I looked into his eye and grasped his now extended hand firmly. He had a pretty good grip. This Centrus member had to be a few levels greater than I expected. Next time I'll overguess. Making direct eye contact, I responded, "Hi Centrus, I'm Aeneas. Nice to meet you. Great event idea, by the way."

Soft footfalls sounded from behind, and I instinctively turned to see who was approaching.

SP 40/40

[edit: sorry about the first miss-post, I'm done now so commence.]

Senna paused at the top of the staircase that connected the bulk of Mac Anu to the chaos gate, the only point of contact with the rest of The World. There was a little twist of anxious energy in her stomach as she looked for familiar faces amid the familiar sights.

There were none – not really a surprising turn of events, as the number of players she could recognize on sight had to be only a fraction of a percent of the number of people who came through here any given day. No help for it, she thought with resignation. She’d been hoping to shoot the breeze with someone, just to take some of the time off the clock. No such luck. It figures, she thought. When I actually feel social, there’s no one around to be social with.”

As she started forward, she tried to examine that strange, rare interest in talking and spending time with others, figure out what triggered it. She was, by and large, the sort of person who found other people to be tiring in more than tiny doses. They were either uninteresting and incapable or – more often – interesting and capable to a point where she started feeling like an idiot for foisting herself upon them.

Her self-inspection led to the same thing it usually did – she was no closer to understanding that urge than before. She tried to hold onto it, however. She was about to meet several new people, and chances were extremely good that most of them would fall into the interesting-and-capable category.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and continued a leisurely stroll through the city. As she did, she slipped her spear into her inventory. With small items, she did this by slipping them up one of her wide sleeves, but with something as large as her spear, it simply melted out of her hands, leaving them empty.

Not for long. After rummaging through her inventory briefly, she came up with the weapon she’d been looking for. Well… if you wanted to call it a weapon. Since the idea for an upcoming clan duel had come up, she’d been working on it in bits and pieces, and what she held in her hands now looking like an old witch’s broom. The handle was made from a knobby length of wood procured from one of the fields, and the sweeping part was made from a bundle of twigs bound together around one end of the handle. As it materialized, she looked it over one last time, several self-aimed jokes running through her head. Then she put it the way she normally held her weapons – business side up, butt end tapping the ground like a walking stick – and proceeded through town to the entrance of the Swordbreakers’ clan home.

Senna came to an abrupt, lifeless halt as in the real world, Lissibith slipped her VR headset off and consulted a piece of paper with a number of markings on it. She never spent much time in the castle – it was interesting, but just too much for her most of the time. As a result, almost every time the Long Arm had set foot within its walls, she had gotten lost, in most cases resorting to logging out and logging back in to extricate herself from the maze of rooms and hallways.

When the plans for this duel had been solidified and the location was announced, her first thought, first worry, was that she would repeat those performances. Instead of seeing if there was some way to map the castle in-game, she’d fallen back on an old habit from text-based games – pen-and-paper mapping. The paper held a number of dots connected by lines. Some of the dots had a few words jotted next to them – “Hall with green carpet” or “large room with three curtained doorways.”

Senna stood in the room marked with “entrance.” Her goal was “fountain room.” The way there was not only short, but also simple. However, when it came to navigating through the enormous building, she was taking no chances.

After a short time, her journey brought her to the arched entrance of what her map proclaimed to be “fountain room.” From the doorway at the end, she could hear faint sounds of running water, and even fainter still, the sound of conversation.

Some are already here, she thought, a little niggle of worry creeping in. Was she late? The voices were so muted by distance that she couldn’t tell who they were, much less what they were saying. Forcing herself to adopt a steady, even pace, the Long Arm crossed the current room and entered the final one.

She was relieved to see only two people waiting when she entered. She was early rather than late, it seemed. One she thought she recognized, one she knew she didn’t, but felt comfortable in guessing the identity of thans to clan gossip and the process of elimination. She offered both a nod and wave in greeting, reserving speech until she was close enough that she wouldn’t have to yell. In addition to not really being in character for her in normal conversation, her microphone sometimes added a slight fuzz to the sound when her voice’s volume rose too high. The hazards of cheap equipment, she thought.

“Hello Aeneas,” she said. “Been a while since that penguin field. And you,” she smiled at the other of the two she was addressing, “must be the one who got this set up? I’m Senna. A pleasure to meet you.”

*Fwham* *Bam* *Smack* The large sandbag that hung from the roof of the training room swung back and forth from the blows of Savior X’s attacks. The chain that suspended the bag was being tossed around in circles, creating an illusion of a small tornado. Savior X was do a little extra training to prepare for the second Intra Clan Duel that he was participating in. The first one he was in he actually had never finished his last duel. He was in the finals with one battle left to go against Slicer, one of his good friends that he was been with for a while. However, due to a lot of other activity on “The World”, neither of them ever really got around to it. Savior X had always wanted to finish that one fight, call it a personal vendetta to see who was the stronger duelist. It wasn’t the fact that he wanted to necessarily be better than Slicer, but it was more so friendly competition. But, Slicer was positioned onto the opposite team for this duel, so maybe he might just get his final duel after all.

Spark glanced down from his VR screen on the goggles to a small piece of paper in which he had written down three names, his teammates for the duel. This Intra Clan Duel was a four-on-four duel held in the large courtyard of the Sword Breaker’s castle. His teammates were Aeneas, Usagi, and Yuna. Aeneas was one of his good buddies from long ago when he first joined the Sword Breakers. They had been teammates in the Double Duel Tournament, partners in quests, and of course just good friends overall. Savior X had encountered Yuna once in a quest he was on. Besides that, it had only been “passing hellos” whenever they had encountered each other. Finally, there is Usagi, which brings about an interesting fact of the matter. Savior X had recruited Usagi to join the Sword Breakers when they had first joined “The World”. Savior X had always enjoyed searching for new members for the Sword Breakers, not really sure why though. Perhaps just the fact of meeting new people…or new women.

Skip roundhouse kick, switch stance, backspin jump roundhouse kick. Savior X’s mindset of fighting was to plan out the attack the split second before he actually did it. This worked better for him then planning out attacks long before you actually did them. Savior X shuffled his right foot in to his left foot and then picked his left foot up sideways with the knee bent in close. Then with a quick flick, he sprung out his left and struck the bag with the top part of his foot. The whole concept of a roundhouse kick was that you were striking a target with the flat, top part of your foot in a sideways motion. So, in order to do this, you had to position your body correctly sideways so that you do not twist up your ankle as you let the kick go. Savior X recoiled his foot back down and set it in front. From that position, he quickly jumped and switched his feet to the left, causing his right foot to be in front now. From there, he slid his left foot around to his backside and brought it straight up into the air with his knee bent. Using this continuous torque motion, Savior X did a jump switch with his feet, bring his left foot down and bringing his right foot up into the air. With the continued motion of his body, the top part of his right foot struck the bag straight on sideways. Savior X brought his left down and let out a sigh of relief. Well, there’s one down, only 99 more to go.

An hour or so later, Savior X walked out from the training room with a towel around his neck. As he left the large wooden door close behind him, the once sturdy punching bag began to tear at the side, causing a deluge of sand to scatter onto the ground. Hmm, looks like I’m going to need to replace that. Savior X walked down the hallways of the somewhat eerily silent Sword Breaker’s castle. Usually there was a decent amount of activity in these halls, but with the upcoming duel, most people had gone outside to get a good seat. The ear-numbing sound of white noise echoed through the castle, causing Savior X to begin to hum a tune to get it out of his ears.

Savior X finally found the room he was looking for after walking for a good couple of minutes, the bathes. Savior X opened the door and peered in to see if anyone was inside. Hmm…No one’s here. Looks like I get a private soak. Savior X undressed and placed his clothes in a neat pile on one of the benches. He then wrapped one of the white towels around his waist and walked into the sauna-like bathes. The first step he took down the small wooden stairs into the bath caused a sharp tingly feeling of awe to race through this body. He then slowly ventured in deeper until the water was up to his waist. He drifted over towards one of the underwater seats and sat down, enjoying the soothing water that covered his body as he did it. The warm bath water began to ease Savior X’s tense muscles and sooth this tired body. Savior X leaned his head back against the edge of the bath and slowly closed his eyes. Well, I think that was a good training session. I think I have the technique down, but I need to work on my speed in particular. If I was really going to use these techniques in a duel, they have to be fast enough where I can land each attack successfully. Hmm, well I guess that means that I just need to keep practicing. But, I think today will be a good practice session for me. Savior X smirked as he glanced at this backpack that sat next to his clothes. The interesting part of his duel was that he had to use a funny weapon for it, and he think he found one of the funniest and most effective weapons.

After a few minutes of silent meditation, Savior X got out of the bath and began to dry himself off. He put on all of his clothing, slung his backpack around his shoulder, and then proceeded out the door. Savior X walked down the hallways for a few minutes until he finally reached the entrance to the courtyard. Savior X pushed open the large wooden doors and let in the radiant bolts of light to the lackluster halls of the Sword Breakers castle. The courtyard had a very beautiful elegance to it, it reminded him of something he would see in a fairy tale, but then again, this really all was make believe. Savior X noticed a group of three people standing amidst the courtyard area. As he proceeded over, his status screen picked up on their identities. Aeneas, Centrus, and Senna. I remember Senna vaguely from a few clan activities way back, but this Centrus I don’t think I have ever met. I mean, I know he sent me that Flash Mail invitation for this whole thing, but I’ve never actually met him in the flesh…err, graphics before.

Savior X walked up to the crew and greeted them with a pleasant smile. “Hey guys, how’s it going.” Savior X nodded towards Senna in a friendly gesture and then looked towards Centrus. “So, you’re Centrus if I am correct. Nice to meet you, I’m Savior X.” Savior X placed his hand out in front for a friendly handshake. He then turned to Aeneas and smirked slightly. “Hey dude, looks like we’re on the same team again. But, make sure not to disappear on me this time, ok?” Savior X let out a small laugh and then placed his arm around Aeneas’s shoulder, slightly tugging him to the side. “Hey dude, I have a little favor to ask of you. When the duel starts and assuming that both Slicer and I survive towards the end, I wanna see if I can finish it off with Slicer, just me and him. Nothing personal, but I wanna see who might have won in the last duel from the old Intra Clan Duel.”

---------------
SP : 75 / 75
---------------

(OOC : Just for grading purposes, I did not edit my duel post in it's entirety, but rather I edited and deleted a statement I had made in this post. So, this post edit is technically when my post was made.)

”*Beep* *Beep* Error! Error! Stability... destabilizing! Power dropping! Estimation to crash... 35 seconds...”

Not good. Nope. This was not good. Slicer pushed a couple random buttons. It didn’t help, unless sparks flying from the keyboard counted as a good thing...

Slicer was in an LCD tube. His hands were frantically pushing on the control panel infront of him. No luck. His external power generator had been cut not too long ago and after five minutes, his internal power had gone out. Now, he was a sitting duck. It seemed that a small, double A battery was powering a small counter. It displayed the time to... landing. Not something good to look at while you were frantically searching over your control panel for a button to save yourself.

Having been a button masher for a long time in fighter games, Slicer had gotten the control of it. He had even mastered the ability to button mash. Unfortunately, that had never actually helped him when he played the games. Sure, he had been able to use a couple unique techniques, but had never actually been able to win anything. Well, now his button mashing abilities were helping. He had been pounding on keys for a minute now and his hands still weren’t hurting!

”20 seconds...”

The small electricity shocks coming from the panel wasn’t helping too much. They tinged Slicer’s body as they hit a couple nerves every now and then. That still didn’t stop him, though. He continued on with his button mashing.

”10 seconds...”

How long had he been falling? A minute? Yeah, that was about right. How had he originally gotten himself into this predicament? Well, if memory served right, he had tried to somehow make a large mecha. An Evangelion, to be precise. It had worked quite well. Unfortunately, the administrators of The World hadn’t liked his plan, so they had decided to delete it... well, to just take it. Perhaps they just wanted it for their own? Anyway, Slicer had climbed into the cockpit and flown off. No, and Evangelion wasn’t suppose to be able to fly, but he had made it so they could, just for the effect...

He had flown for about four minutes when he remembered something. He was running on battery power. That was when he started his button mashing. He had descended a bit, but he was still pretty high up.

So, here he was. A minute or so later. About to crash into the ground. Slicer wasn’t actually afraid. He wouldn’t die from the crash. There was no way he’d die. It would be too simple a death.

”0 seconds... good-bye”

A giant robot had crashed onto the round. Somehow, it hadn’t crashed on anyone. Lucky? Kinda.

The sound of a sliding door could be heard coming from the pile of burning ash and metal. Slicer coughed a bit. His clothing was wet from the LCD fluid that was running out of the tube he had been in. In his hands, there was a small box, like, thing. He coughed a bit, as his giant Eva dematerialized. Guess that’s what happens when something blows up.

He looked infront of him. He noticed that he hadn’t been late. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to use his Eva for the fight. He’d have to go with his second choice, which was in his hands. He waved. ”Yo. Did I crash the party?” Horrible pun aside, Slicer laughed a bit. Unfortunately, his hand slipped and the box fell with a clunk... right onto a rock. Ow... There goes my weapon... But miraculously, the box didn’t break... the rock split in half. Slicer went to pick up his weapon. The X-Box glistened in the sun. ”Wow, these things are durable...” In his hands was one of the strongest gaming platforms made. Known as “The Brick of the Console Games”... it was... the X-Box!

SP: 40/40

(OOC: Bwhahaha, bow before the box... And I’m not making fun of the X-Box in any way, FYI XP And yes, this post isn’t good. Too lazy to try harder than I normally would... and it’s hard trying to get an Eva and such and stuff... ignore...)

“ARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!” I yelled as the fire suddenly stopped in mid-crackle. All sound had ceased immediately. I was surrounded in complete stillness except for a faint buzzing of the PC. Only one way to fix this I thought to myself holding up my left index finger to make myself look like someone in a “Peanuts Kids” video. I pulled my VR headset off to expose me to a completely different setting and kicked the computer drive. Almost instantly I heard the muffled sound of fire burning coming from the VR earpiece. I put my headset back on to reveal my personal study again. It was brightly colored cherry red, orange and yellow. My relatively small window lined with gold with the famous bright red velvet curtains let a stream of light illuminate the study. Well, I wouldn’t call it a study more like a second room. My window was in the upper right corner. I had an ultra-soft orange lounge chair with black stripes next to the window. Next to the chair was a book case I had programmed to contain all my favorite stories and a map around the magnificent castle. Across the chair was the white paned fireplace casting a radiant glow. Then there was my desk in the upper left corner facing the oak door. The desk too was made of oak, a rich brownish red color with a glossy finish and an orange wax candle. It was scattered with various new drawings for new comic characters. Leaning against the fireplace was my dueling weapon that took me so long to come up with. This was a duel for all the swordbreakers to get to know each other better hosted by the current newbie that I was yet to meet. The duel was an event of utter ridiculousness. Ridiculous duels call for ridiculous measures, concluding in a ridiculous weapon! I thought to myself happily as I looked over to admire my weapon that took so long to design. There it was, leaning against the fireplace, a large, five ft long, one ft wide mix of well, anything! My weapon was a gaggle of random things (markers, marbles, plastic army men, etc.) all glue together with a six in. long handle from a broom. It was like the pillar of random doom! I laughed as I thought of the look an everybodys’ face when they say my bizarre creation.

Looking out the window I decided to check on Aeneas. Since his study was right below mine I had a pole installed next to the window for me to climb out on and hang to see through his window and climb in. It was fun to surprise him by hanging upside-down outside his window five stories up. I opened the window, stepped onto the pane and climbed onto the pole. Suddenly, I flung myself downward with my knees tightly secured around the poll, but there was no Aeneas. “I guess he’s already gone to the common room” I said aloud. I decided it was time for me to go too and I hoisted myself back up and scrambled into the study thinking frantically on a dramatic entrance. Finally, when I decided on just the normal flip, I grabbed my map, picked my weapon up and put it in my usual comfortable weapon position over my shoulder and left my study.

My boots made a “click click” on the light blue and white tiled floor. After reaching the door to exit the corridor leading to my study, I entered the red and white tiled room with many other corridors on almost every side. This was the multi-corridor room with red carpeting and tiles according to my map. After I checked it I headed left into one of the small corridors with just white tiles. After about twenty minutes or so, I reached the door to the common room. With one hand on my sword and the other arm outstretched, I pushed open the door with such force it echoed around the room. Then as done so many times before, I put both hands on the sword and swung over my shoulder and into the floor, giving me enough momentum to flip forward. While in the air I pulled I switched my weapon back to my left hand and slung it over my shoulder before landing. Perfect! I almost cried with excitement. This was going to be a good duel! “Hi guys!” I said cheerfully. Everyone in the common room; Aeneas, Senna, Savior X, Slicer and the newbie I was still yet to meet all either smiled waved or said hi back. I spotted Aeneas talking to Senna and ran over to join in the conversation. “Hey Aeneas, I like your weapon” I laughed, pointing at his occasionally mooing spear. I walked over to the newbie standing by one of the walls. “Hey, you’re the guy that came up with this whole thing! I’m Paws, nice to meet you” I said to him and shook his hand.

SP: 40/40 (ooc: few finally got it up! ^_^)

Outside of the clan castle a cool breeze blew, washing some purifying air into the putridly smoked room. The torches emitted the miasma at surprisingly high rates, fluidly releasing the poisonous particles into the air without even consuming a bit of fuel on the wooden poles that suspended them. Somewhere in this room, a single person lay, gasping for air.

This person was... Not Atash. Let's focus the story back on him.

Atash bounded across the castle walls, occasionally kicking a rock off into the street below, maybe on to a passerby, maybe not. It was merely a game, and he felt like being a jerk for a while. Somewhere in the open castle courtyard, beyond a spire or two and beside a beuatiful mosaic piece made by the late Garfield Gonzalez the Third, lay the entrtance to the wondrous, magical and most bodacious field of trees, flowers, and spears sticking out of the ground dangerously. Of course, those weren't there at the moment, minus the flowers, the trees, and the most bodacious, magical, and wondrous stuff. Those were in fact right there, where the risk of concentrated fires and flaming corpses were plausibly high.

In an act of deus ex machina, the God of Systematic-nippity, He-who-might-be-named (Slicer), sent an Eva flew overhead, just skipping over the castle walls and leaving the scent of charged brimstone in the air. "What the heck...?" Atash leaped across to a plank that substituted as a bridge between walls. After a few seconds of silence, a huge crash emnated from the courtyard and an explosion rippled through the air. Well, the pathetic 'The World' simulation of an explosion. There were too many little kids playing the game at the moment to have an actual PG-13 explosion. Actually, there were so many little kids within the castle itself that even a PG rated explosion wasn't allowed. "Wait a minute! I'm not a little kid!"

Shut up Atash. I'm telling the story here.

Anyways, Atash made his way over to the courtyard walls and peeked over. Knowing how the duel was made to operate, he set his daggers into the wall on the way down, using them to slow his fall into something of a joke. To a feather. "I'm honestly going to kill whoever made the damn physics to this game..." Atash released the daggers half-way down (in other words, after a few minutes), and proceeded to fall at an accelerated rate of at least 32 meters a second. As funny as it was (in retrospect, and of course, funny to me and not to my character), Atash was yet again ticked off at the incompetency of whoever made the physics work as they did in the castle. Touching the ground as light as the wrecked Columbia hit the land on its last flight, he pushed himself back up, wiped off some dust and squished plant material, and then set off to retrieve his weapon. Somewhere in one of the more or less fire-retardant trees, a flaming falcon- "Eagle you moron, eagle!!!"

The flaming eagle smashed its beak into Atash and caused him much pain and suffering.

"Oh my god... I'm SO getting a new script-write- OW!"

And that would be the eagle smashing its burning beak into Atash again. In a way, it was a sign of devotion, love, caring, and passion for battle. In another way, it was like saying, "Li3k 0mg you n00b! Y d1d y0u leav3 /\/\e w17h 7he5e pe0p1e!!!" Yes, the flaming eagle speaks its emotions with 1337 occasionally. For the sake of readability, I'll translate all such messages as the enter your area of sight.

"G'day folks!" Atash yelled out to his fellow clan-members. Each one of them were as flammable as the rest. "So... Lessee... Oh my- ummm... Oh my Slicer! I'm the last person here..." However odd the 'Oh my Slicer' part sounded, Atash could have done worse and say 'Oh my God'! I mean, besides, God does love us all equally. I leave the rest of the awkward implications to you.

Anyways, as the ridiculousness continued, more ridiculous stuff was about to be ridiculed by ridicul-ar Riddicks. Whatever that means...

40/40 SP

(OOC: Yes, I'm trying my best here, so if it sounds simply stupid, you have permission to tear me limb by limb over IM.)

“Here Villa…Here pretty Villa!”

Usagi stood at the gates of the Grunty Farm, holding out a vegetable for her little virtual animal to eat. The pig-like animal seemed to be quite frightened by all of the hustle around them both. Usagi gave a sigh as she edged towards the animal a little more, still holding out the item to eat.

“Come on Villa, you need to eat!” She pleaded as she plopped down onto the ground. She was sure dust had gotten all over her skirt, but she ignored it and stared at Villa. Figured she would get the coward of a grunty. Shaking her head, her hands fell into her lap. She had failed in getting her own grunty to trust in her. Just as she was about to look up and then stand to leave, she heard little footsteps coming towards her. Small little sniffes blew onto her hand, and then she felt warm saliva hit her hand. Her little piglet was obvious salivating, its hunger finally causing him to give in and go to the Long Arm. She smiled softly and gathered the animal into her arms as it ate peacefully. A small ring then gained her attention and brought it away from Villa. She received a Flash Mail from her clan members.

“Time for that silly duel…” she said aloud to herself as she looked down at her grunty. He was still hungry for he was giving her more little grunts. She smiled and handed him one more vegetable. Finally, she stood up and gave Villa a nice pet along the head and back. She picked the animal up and placed him in his little pen and then gated out and into the field she was to meet the other members of the SwordBreakers. She spoke the words and then gated out to the designated area, butterflies forming in her stomach. Why was she becoming nervous? This was going to be something quite out of the ordinary.

Her feet landed firmly on the ground and she looked out to the area she was in. It was…Mac Anu. Seriously? They were going to fight in the capital? No way! This would be the greatest moment in Usagi’s life if this was true. So many innocent players at the Clan’s mercy… The thought just made her smile and snicker. But, unfortunately her dream could not come true, because at this very moment, the members of the SwordBreakers were gathering at their virtual home, the castle just on the outskirts of the town. For some reason, the Long Arm was drawn to the castle, so she walked towards it. As she closed in on it, she could make out six other members standing around. She silently made her way towards them and then stopped and placed her hands on her hips.

“Hey all.” Was all she said.
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4040 SP (Had to fix SP)

This must be quite a sight. Eight members of the same clan, one of whom had met only one of the other members, standing there in the courtyard, prepaing to dig into each other with an odd assortment of weapons. One carried a broom, another an odd spear, and yet another an X-Box. No matter what, I have the best weapon. Centrus had spent the last month developing his weapon, pooling his memories for anything that stuck, creating a list of possible weapons. When he finally decided on what he was to fight with, he could not have been more proud. With some help from a few frieds, he developed the code to allow him to fight with what he now prepared to reveal.

Lifting a single hand, he called out the name of his ring's element. "EARTH!" The emerald began to glow with a light that had never been seen in The World. A green beam emerged, and from it arrived Centrus's weapon. The beam, becoming more translucent, revealed a leg. The leg of Captain Planet to be exact. Somewhere in the world, a green hero was asking where the hell his leg went. In a moment of pure pride, the Heavy Blade grabbed his newly formed weapon and began swinging, practicing some simple katas so that he might become accustomed to the oddly weighted weapon. The leg possesed the power of the legendary hero, or a fifth of it at least. Sure, with pollution the power of this bizzare weapon may be decreased, but in a VR world such as this, the leg was perhaps infinitely powerful. Well, not really considering that he was subject to the rules of the event, but you catch the drift of it.

Admiring the stroke of pure genius, a thought struck the 'Breaker. I do not know any of these people, perhaps I should mingle a bit. The Heavy Blade took a few minor steps, and began to take in the crowd around him. The one with the broom is Senna, the cow spear guy is Aeneas, the one who made a ridiculous entrance would be the one I already know as Slicer. That over there is Savior, and the guy with the flaming eagle is Atash. That leaves those two to be Yuna and Usagi. Perhaps I should go visit with Senna a bit, this thing is the work of the two of us, even though we never actually met. It is amazing what a bulliten board inside the castle can do for communication. Centrus began a slight jog in the direction of the brrom maiden, when he was reminded of his dicarded sword leaned up against the fountain. That is to day he tripped over it, landing directly into the pool and drenching himself. I could have sworn I said Earth, but hey, water will work too.

Pulling himself upward, the task itself becoming quite difficult due to the added weight of the water in his gi and hakama, Centrus grabbed his dropped leg and nearly forgotten sword and placed the two behind his back. When in the world did I lose my mind? Oh yeah! October 5th, the day I...well nevermind. When I joined this group is unimportant, what matters is that I am a part. I now need to get to know them, and the only way to do that is to participate. Just what shall I do to begin? Well, I can think of one thing... The Heavy Blade retrieved the leg from his back, and lept off the marble ledge of the fountain. Aeneas won't know what hit him. That may be because he won't recognize the leg of some random early '90s superhero, but he still won't know what hit him. Centrus gave a smile that could only be described as that of a kid on Christmas. This was going to be fun.

Brief pleasantries having been exchanged with Centrus, I had turned to face the crimson-haired Long Arm valkyrie. Her name was Senna, and she was wearing what appeared to be a blue skirt with grey trim against an opened shoulder sleeved grey halter top with blue edgings on her torse. Once before we had encountered one another, on a bizarre field with flying penguins. Some bizarre administrator to The World had some fanatical obsession with penguins, for all I could explain that. Together we exchanged some politities that were interupted by the arrival of Savior X, another member I had some semblance of history with. Together we had been partners in a duel tournament that I had bailed out of for real life reasons. To this day I regret all of that, not only because I think that working together he and I could've won but also because it was a real failing of personal duty. I quietly hoped that he had forgotten, and then quietly vowed to never do such a thing to him again. Hopes were quickly dashed.

A slight smirk. "Hey dude, looks like we’re on the same team again. But, make sure not to disappear on me this time, ok?"

A mild blush rose up to my face. An awkward apology readied itself at the tip of my tongue but a better thought replaced it entirely. "I got your back Savior, and my nine rides shotgun." The implied promise was followed by a subtle wink. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and laughed.

“Hey dude, I have a little favor to ask of you. When the duel starts and assuming that both Slicer and I survive towards the end, I wanna see if I can finish it off with Slicer, just me and him. Nothing personal, but I wanna see who might have won in the last duel from the old Intra Clan Duel.”

"An entirely reasonable request, and I oblige unless I see you in dire trouble or direct danger. It's a team duel, my friend, and today's problem supercedes tomorrow's goals." Just to reaffirm his confidence, I nudged him and added "But I know you won't let that be an issue. Go get him, tiger!"

Before we could continue any further, a massive robot of obvious asian influence plowed its way through the courtyard and uprooted several trees in the process. A frantic porolin fleed into the distance and safety of a japanese rock garden. Emerging from the debris was a thoroughly soaked figure bearing a small package. I instinctively checked my watch to make sure it wasn't the postman or Santa. His blue and green hair clung to his face from the pungent fluid. Only one 'Breaker could be so odd; this had to be the Slicer figure so prominent in bizarre stories. Slicer shouted an obscenely corny joke and approached our growing crowd.

Next came a beautiful young girl with shocking pink hair contrasted against an elegant black choker carrying a diamond. Of course, I'm biased because Yuna is my sister. In her hands she swung a jumbled mismatch of incoherent potpouri all glued together in a seemingly strong adhesion. She smiled and waved at me while gazing wtih those sparkling lavender eyes, and proceeded to mingle with our now larger party. Another one for the home team.

Atash soon followed, with a flaming clumsy-looking phoenix close in tow. He too joined our gathering, addressing the occasional clan mate here and there. Hopefully his bird would lack the necessary agility to be of too much function against us.

Anxiously I looked around the field. Trees basked in the ample sunlight. Somewhere around this castle lurked the final participant, the last new member to our team. Other than the fact that her name was Usagi, I had no idea what to expect. The clan roster listed her as a level 7 Long Arm. News of her skill seemed to be travelling less rapidly. Today would be a fine day for her to prove herself.

Gradually Usagi's form made its way through the slightly hilly greens of the courtyard. She walked with a steady, confident stride. Placing her hands on her black tank top over her hips, she spoke "Hey all." I internally rolled my eyes and prayed that her arrogance would be well afforded. Then again, judged by the tone of the muscles on her character model, I figured that it just might.

To make sure things didn't stop getting too out of hand, Centrus pulled out his choice weapon for the duel. A ring that could give birth to appendages. The leg was a silvery metallic blue with black bands dividing it into thing sections. I immediately recognized it as a waste-product of my own generation. Poor Centrus didn't seem to realize that retro-hipsters such as myself would never be fooled by such outright manifestions of television pop culture. I had a brand new, devious weapon to use against such an adversary. Effortlessly I spun the haft of my spear between my fingers and then stopped the spear by pinching it with my fingers. The Fire Steer mooed loudly and belched a smelly grease fire spawned by the demons of the beef industry. With a prayer that virtual nature heroes would be inflicted by virtual assualts on a virtual environment, I proceeded to swing my Steer upwards and into the direction of Centrus's leaping figure. The side of my head was dangerously unprotected but there was no time for further recourse. I had a literal smoke screen up in front of my face and a six foot badass warding off an impending doom (provided it failed to twist in time). And here comes the conclusion of the first blows...

SP 40/40

Slicer looked around the overly large courtyard after his little... “landing.” Not everyone had arrived, it seemed, so they had unfortunately, been unable to see his great performance. Oh well, their loss. They probably wouldn’t be able to see anything like it ever gain... unless the Heavy Blade decided to try and build another mech... hmm... Now there was a thought...

After he landed, the other players began filing in. First was another Heavy Blade. What was her name, again? He heard her introducing herself to Centrus. If his ears weren’t playing tricks on him, then she’d be called Paws. Interesting name... Slicer didn’t really have any ground to mock other people’s names. His wasn’t all that creative...

Next was Atash. He had changed his name recently from FireX to this. The reason was unknown to the Heavy Blade, but it didn’t matter. Probably because he felt that his name wasn’t the greatest in the world or something. Wow... we Swordbreakers have something in common... horrible character names... Slicer chuckled as he thought this to himself. He’d have to write that somewhere later on, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.

”G’day folks!” Atash greeted them... being followed by... was that a eagle on fire?! Wow... something was seriously messed up with this game. He wondered first if he could roast marshmallows on the pet. His second thought was if the clan’d have fried chic-- eagle for dinner today...

”So... Lessee... Oh my-ummm...Oh my Slicer! I’m the last person here...” At that moment, the Heavy Blade would’ve rose an eyebrow, had he had that ability, which, from the fact that his eyebrow wasn’t raised, meant that he didn’t have that ability. In short, he didn’t rise his eyebrow in surprise due to his inability to do so. “Oh my Slicer.” That was a new one. He made a mental note to put that somewhere too.

”Hey all.” wh0a... Slicer really needed to pay attention. He almost didn’t notice the Long Arm appear before the party. Another person the Heavy Blade didn’t know. Usagi, was it? Was he the one that invited her or was it Savior? Did it matter? Not really. They were a clan. He just needed to know everyone, if only a bit. And a duel was a good way to observe each and every one of the people here.

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Slicer waved a small hi towards the new people that appeared. It was common courtesy. Yes, Slicer was a gentleman, for the most part. Kind of. No, not really, but he felt like it at that moment. As everyone gathered, no one made a little speech. You would think that Centrus or Senna, the organizers, would make a speech when most of the SB finally gathered for a little outing. Slicer looked over and noticed his dueling partner, Centrus, doing... something. He shrugged. It probably wasn’t important. He thought... Until he saw that the new weapon, a leg of some sort it would seem, was headed towards Aeneas, who pulled out his... mooing spear...? Yeah, that’s what it looked like. Did that make it important? No, not really. The two weapons were headed towards each other. Slicer didn’t pay too much attention to it. Instead, he turned towards the people who weren’t fighting.

”Um... yeah. It seems that our host isn’t gonna make a speech then. You’d think it common curtsey to. Since he isn’t, I guess I will. *Ahem* Welcome one and all to the Second Swordbreakers Intra Clan Duel. I’d like to welcome each and everyone of you to...” At that moment, he heard another moo come from Aeneas’ spear. ”...to the insanity that you shall soon take part in. I’d like to cheer on each and every one of you and hope you do well in this fight. Now, let the game begin!” And in a smaller voice, ”Though it already did...”

The Heavy Blade pulled out his weapon of choice, the X-Box and slowly walked to his right. He was looking for a small clearing, where he wouldn’t be interrupted by the flaming moos or the leg of earth. ”Savior. You wanted to finish this, right?” With that, the Heavy Blade held his X-Box by the handle (yes, it now has a handle, like one of the GCN) and held it up with his left, supporting the weight of the brick. ”Let’s dance.” It was a surprise that his X-Box wasn’t short-circuited from the LCL fluid that was running through the Eva, considering he had just threw in new batteries for his weapon.

SP: 40/40

(The dashes are there to signal the actual beginning of my actions. And no, there is no little book where I keep a bunch of random information... I think... Oh, and I'm posting, cuz I don't trust my teammates... or I just wanna post and don't want Senna to lose a turn. Your choice :P )

((Sorry someone on the other team. :-( ))

Senna hung back a little, trying and failing at not smiling as members of the clan gathered around. From greetings and body language, she gathered that some were old friends, while others were new to most of their group.

Senna was surprised to find she’d actually met or at least had dealings with most of the people here, directly or indirectly. None were people she had unpleasant dealings with or memories of. Now, if Flash had been here...

She had a momentary memory of being shoved out of a plane - a plane flying very high in the air mind you - while flying over a field of lava. It was all in good fun of course. But still, there was little pleasant about being tossed straight into one of your fears.

Luckily, for either herself or Flash, he was not here - hadn’t been heard from in some time actually. After exchanging a few pleasantries with Aeneas, a fellow Long Arm, she nodded and the successive entrances of Slicer and Atash and offered smiles of greeting. The event seemed to be achieving its major intended goal - getting them together and making them aware of one another. As to whether or not they’d all be friends after the admittedly odd planned duel, well, that was for each to decide on their own.

The collection of weapons was truly unique. One, Senna’s player Liss only barely recognized - at 19, the show Captain Planet had pretty much been before her time. The arrival of the mech was... disturbing, if entertaining, but the chosen weapon X-box was even more amusing to her. She put a hand up to stifle a laugh at that. Her own weapon choice seemed to be on the lower end of creative as far as this duel went. That was okay by Senna. As she pointed out to anyone willing to listen, she was not a creative thinker. She was pretty much a straight-ahead, lower-your-head-and-charge sort of person. The broom seemed to work for her.

The last of the group to arrive was Usagi, someone Senna had heard of and indirectly had dealings with, though she hadn’t actually spent time around the other Long Arm (My, the clan had a lot of those). As that member arrived, not introducing herself but just greeting them, Senna made her way that way to introduce herself. They’d had only indirect dealings before. It was good to have a face to put with the name.

“Hello,” Senna said, nodding in greeting to the woman. She didn’t figure she needed to offer her name – there weren’t that many female Long Arms in the clan, after all. She did have something else to add, but before she could, there was an odd sound.

A mooing sound, if Senna wasn’t mistaken.

A glance over her shoulder confirmed it. Aeneas’ weapon had sound effects. Interesting…

So the game was on. Senna grinned. Savior and Slicer seemed to be squaring off. Senna had no personal reason to pick anyone for a fight, and wasn’t sure quite what to do in this bizarre melee. She didn’t want to break in on any of the one-on-one matches yet – especially not Slicer/Savior’s, since they seemed to be dealing with something unfinished from a time before she was aware of either of them.

Well, no time like the present.

Turning back to Usagi, she said, “Shall we?” Without waiting for an answer, she brought the business end of her broom forward in a sharp blow toward the other Long Arm’s face. The bulk of her weapon maintained the diagonal protective line across the center of her body.

The move was strong but extremely limited. It should be easy enough for the other woman to oppose. It felt like a sufficient way to begin this fight, however.

SP: 40/40