Have at it.

Bane stepped softly onto the ice covered ground. He couldn’t tell how slippery it was, but he was careful to not find that out in some unfortunate and embarrassing way. He scampered swiftly up a spire of tall ice, that seemed to be one of the many remnants left of an iceberg. The field was littered with them, making the battlefield a good defensive outpost as well as an offensive ground. Bane slid down the smooth side of the pinnacle and landed with a thud on the apparently thick ice. His clothing was his Clan outfit, seeing as though his first opponent in his duelling career would be none other than Raquar, a fellow member of the Clan. From what he had gathered, Raquar was a little bit taller than him, and had chosen the Long Arm class. For what this meant to Bane, well, he hadn’t found a proper player before, so he didn’t know what the possible outcomes, disadvantages or advantages that came with a pole arm as a weapon. All he could do now is sit and wait for the battle to commence.

“Geez, talk about a killer on the nerves…” Bane sighed to himself as he hastily got the time for the duel wrong and showed up a little too early. He did however double check his weapons and inventory for anything he had forgotten about, finding nothing unfamiliar, he returned to watching the horizon. A faint sound could be heard over the slight breeze and Bane’s vision caught a robed character walking towards his position. He ducked down and kept low to the ice, hopefully catching his opponent on a pre-emptive and allowing him to get a good shot at his opponent.

As far as Bane was concerned though… “Game on!”

He sighed woefully as he looked at the clouds drifting above the Mac Anu bridge. There they were, lazily free to do whatever it was they wished on their own time. Oh how the boy envied them. He had been quite busy of late, being dragged this way and that, if not by Tiral and Nemera, then by rumors of the one called Garvix. And now, he had another assignment from the Commander of the AoD. Apparently there were a few inter clan duels set to commence, and his opponent was fellow Private, Bane. He hadn’t done much with Bane; in fact, he didn’t think he had met the kid until that last jaunt into the Theta Server. Now he was roped into a duel to the death with the Heavyblade, and they had just met. Oh how he wished he was free.

He began to trudge slowly over toward the Chaos Gate expanding the few moments it would have normally took into a lifetime of solemnity, hesitation tingeing his footsteps. He really didn’t want to do this, but he really didn’t have a choice. His eternal trudge had finally come to an end with the sight of the cool, unrippling surface that signified the Chaos Gate. Grudgingly, he raised his hand to the mirror-like object, and spoke the three words only to be whisked away by a frantic swirling of the three golden rings.

The sun diffracted into his eyes off the ice below. The boy brought up a hand to his face in an attempt to obstruct the light from his eyes and survey the field. The field was entirely coated with ice, like a huge frozen body of water, except that the ice was thicker. There were a few spires of ice poking through the huge ice block in sporadic places around the field. It brought the Long Arm back to his days in the Real World growing up in Alaska. Ice wasn’t going to be a problem for him at all. The reason most people slipped is because they stepped down with too much weight, and the lack of traction caused their feet to shoot right out from under them. If you stepped with just the right amount of weight, one could do something like . . . this.

He amused himself by sliding back and forth across the ice for a few moments, grinning gleefully as he became a child again. The joy was short lived as he slid over to one of the spires and saw a blur of movement toward another spire off in the distance. The boy swung his spear at the top of the stalactite slicing the sharp point of the thing and creating a nice little plateau-like object. He hopped up and sat down in a relaxed pose. Hell if he was going to make the first move.

SP:
60/60 SP

The air was silent; Bane looked over at the apparently gleeful Raquar as he sat in wait, wondering when the battle was to commence. So far, he could read his opponent quite well. Not only did he get a preview of his opponent’s fighting style in their previous encounter, but also he got a feel of how he moved. He had noted down the limits of a Long Arm character and compared it to his own Heavy Blade status. Sure, Long Arm’s had extra skill points to use up, not to mention the exact same HP growth. However, there was one thing that Bane could use to his advantage; the fact that a spear or pole arm was wielded with two hands, meant that the speed could be faster or slower depending on the wielder’s attack pattern. Now, if Bane were to get close enough, the spear would be rendered to a less useful state and his swordsmanship would be the thing that could win him the battle. Not to mention that he had a pretty poor level disadvantage going, he wasn’t about to give up without a fight.

He shot out from his hiding place, keeping as low as possible and staying as light footed as he could to maintain speed. As he rounded another spire, he could feel the sun bouncing off the ice below, warming things up; if the ice were to melt entirely, there would be nothing more than water. Bane stopped moving his legs and skidded to a halt while drawing back his right hand and drawing his sword. As he made another move towards his opponent, he slid across the ice, getting a good position behind his opponent and made a diagonal cut that originated from Raquar’s right side.

As Bane’s sword sunk into the ice covered ground, he used the weight of his sword to springboard to get some distance from Raquar. He had a healthy stock of items and some nifty equipment…he only hoped that it was enough to end the fight before someone got seriously injured. Little did Bane know that a duel wasn’t honourable in the sense that he knew it, but rather an old fashioned fight to the death; he was so not ready for combat this intense.

SP: 38/38

He needed to use the time that his opponent was using to approach him to think. Bane was of the Heavyblade class, which meant almost exactly what it implied. He utilized the techniques of a huge honking blade. However, that also meant that in most cases, the blade was rather heavy. So a crunched analysis yielded something like this. In order to perform a seriously damaging attack, the younger private would need a head start of sorts, or at least some continued momentum. However, due to the fact his weapon was a tad bit longer, that meant that his opponent would also try to get in close. Also, the heavier classes tended to be a little short changed in the SP department, which basically broke down to that if the Long Arm wanted to win, he would have to keep his distance and utilize the advantage he had in SP. He watched the Heavyblade come closer and closer, skating across the ice like he was born on it.

He was charging the side of the temporarily motionless lance wielder, and skidded and slid a bit until the other fighter was positioned directly behind him. There was a whistling as blade cleared sheathe, and began its deadly descent downward. There was no need for Raq to actually lift his weapon. All he had to do is fall; well, and roll a bit. Bane’s Magnifier bit into the air where he had been situated moments before as he rolled down the edge of the spire. However, this wasn’t all that the young sword user had in mind, as he used his broad expanse of blade much like a pole to vault into the air and sail over the Long Arm’s head.

It was almost too good to be true. The older of the two privates raised his head and followed Bane’s trajectory, and levied his hand as the other player neared the ground. He would have to aim low. That way, he would hopefully hit the player and melt some of the ice. Assuming everything worked out of course.

“Vak Kruz.”


SP: 51/60

Bane’s Magnifier met nothing but air and he leapt over Raquar to meet him both head on and to make sure he didn’t pull anything sneaky with his hands. Sure, Bane liked to believe that a player on player bout was more of an honour bound thing and had a set of rules that followed common courtesy; however, he was certain that there would be some people that didn’t like to play fair and use everything to their advantage.

“Vak Kruz.”

This meant a few things. For starters, Bane shouldn’t hand tried to flip over his opponent, and also, probably have taken into account of the difference in SP. As he neared the ground, he felt the air around him heat up, meaning that the spell was homing on him. Unable to successfully dodge, he was forced with 2 options: He could both take the hit from the spell and shake it off with some quick healing, or he could counter attack and hopefully deal some damage back. His feet landed on the soft ice and as his right arm swung around in a circular motion, aiming for Raquar’s torso, his left hand was raised, clutching a spell scroll. “Feel the winter chill! Rue Rom!” Bane’s Ice Storm scroll unfurled itself, and from it erupted a Rue element tornado, which countered the opposing element spell. The spell itself was self explanatory, a tornado that consumed the fireballs that were ready to fall directly on top of Bane, however, the spell had not only engulfed them but a partial stray part of the spell headed for Raquar.

Bane had countered an attack, and made one of his own, and he was sure that there was bound to be more spell based skills. This however, didn’t faze him as he knew well what element countered what and most skills on Long Arm weapons. From what appeared to be the case Raquar’s Bloody Lance only had one offensive attack, and one passive, both which Bane saw as no threat. This was starting to heat up, literally. However, the steam that was caused by that fire and ice clash had covered up Bane’s attack and from where he could see things going, his attack was either going to hit completely or Raquar’s going to only just avoid it. Who would be able to evade an attack that was commenced in a thick steam anyway?

It did work slightly both ways, so not knowing the exact location his opponent was after his own sneak attack, he slid out of the steam and took refuge on a similar plateau shaped spire of ice.

SP: 38/38

(OOC: EDIT: I realised that I had wrote down the SP cost for a Rue Zot spell when I had actually used a scroll instead. This edit was to fix that SP miscalcuation.)

A circle of fire blazed to life around the Heavyblade. The fiery orbs had just begun to coalesce when his opponent proved that he was not as dumb as the Long Arm had hoped. He countered with the perfect type of spell. The young one had crushed a scroll in his hand and swirls of ice and frozen water rose to meet the blazing challenge. In a clash of opposite elements, a huge cloud of steam rode forth from the impact. Inside, the boy could make out a fuzzy shadow or two, but nothing major; hence why he was caught completely by surprise when two chunks of frozen water rocketed toward him. He was frozen by shock for just a moment as the two icy projectiles rocketed towards him. He recovered with enough time to duck under one, but the latter of the two slammed into the side of his head. The boy’s vision blurred, and his ears rang.

A touch to the side of his head yielded a slippery substance, red to the eye and coppery to the tongue. He was bleeding. A quick glance at the HP monitor on Josh’s visor revealed that the damage wasn’t serious, so he could save his SP for a Repth later. When he was actually able to see more than a blur and hear more than a constant ringing sound, he began to survey the field. The elemental clash steam had dispersed and there stood Bane, in an imitation of how the Long Arm was sitting earlier. He sighed.

“Can’t he come up with his own ideas?”

He began to run, picking up speed as he slid across the ice. He slid around, aiming to continue his charge towards Bane’s back. It took only a few moments before he was in position, bringing his Bloody Lance to crash into the platform where Bane was still sitting. If everything was perfect, Bane wouldn’t have seen him coming, and this attack would serve to crash him into the ground hopefully dealing a fair chunk of damage. If not, well, they would come to it when it happened.


SP: 53/60

Bane watched, his eyes searching the thick cloud of steam for any traces of the Long Arm. The steam began to slowly settle, his vision getting slightly better; yet he could still not spot Raquar within the cloud in front of him. He closed his eyes, his sword drawn and in a kendo stance known as the chuden no kamae stance. His sword was out in front with both hands firmly gripping the sword, totally relaxed and mind free of distraction. A thud could be heard somewhere within the depths of the mist, drawing a smile of satisfaction from Bane. He then heard the steam subside, and opened one eye to check if this was true. Seeing no Raquar alarmed bane a little, but he closed his eyes and focussed his concentration on hearing Raquar, rather than risking a slip on the ice while scanning the horizon. The one thing Bane was listening for was a ring, chime, or whistle; all of which his spear would emit if his opponent was running, or in this case, sliding fast enough. Bane readied the grip on his sword as the first signs of the sounds were made.

“He’s close…and judging by the sound, he’s coming from my left and heading for a cheap shot at my back…” Bane waited patiently as Raquar drew closer, his spear homing on Bane like a heat seeking missile. As the downward arc of the spear was made, a high pitched ring sounds which, by instinct, made bane perform the Men-uchi stance, a position that brought his sword up into the pole arm’s path and barring its progress to his body. His eyes met Raquar’s; he stared right into the red eyes of his opponent, a slight sadistic smile spreading from ear to ear as they grappled for a hit on the other.

“Raquar, I am impressed by how you tried to outsmart me by using the steam as a shield, however your major flaw in that was that you can’t hide every trace of your existence on this field. Especially when I eavesdrop into everything.” Bane stepped to the side and in one fluid motion circled his sword down in front of him, breaking the grapple and then finishing the motion by slamming his blade down into the spear, locking it in place. He then used it as a rail to slide the edge of his sword up and aim a direct hit at Raquar’s right shoulder, which could severely decrease his dexterity in one arm if it hit. From Bane’s knowledge on Long Arms, most had a leading hand, and some even ambidextrous, however the main flaw in both styles were that if one arm, or the preferred arm in some cases, were to go out of commission, the accuracy and fluidity of Raquar’s actions would effectively be cut in half. But that was not all, as Bane had remembered when his sword gave off a bluish aura around the blade, that his Magnifier had the Skill Drain ability, one that drained SP on hit if the hit was successful.

SP: 38/38

The descent of his spear was blocked by the large Magnifier that his opponent wielded. Having his attack blocked was fine, but then he had to listen onto his opponent criticize his techniques and attack pattern. What Bane failed to realize, was that Raq just didn’t care. His blabbering over, the Heavyblade finally made his move. He reversed the sword, bringing it down on the now forced to block Long Arm. Their positions had switched. Without missing a beat, the younger Private had inverted his blade to a horizontal position, sliding it down the shaft of the spear down towards the Long Arm’s shoulder.

There was an easy to way to dodge this maneuver and a rather complicated one. Being the rather lazy fellow that he was, he opted for the easier way. Now that the blade that he was being assaulted by had been turned horizontally, a majority of the pressure had dropped off. It was an easy maneuver for him to simply let go of the polearm with his right hand. His spear dropped away from the blade as he spun around to his left, dodging the now erratic strike of his opponent. He bounded back a few steps before levying his hand at his hopefully still off-balance opponent.

“RAI ROM”


SP: 45/60

“Oho? What have we here?”

Bane’s attention was drawn to the fact that Raquar had countered by shifting the spear’s position when the weight was lifted off it was slightly confronting as Bane’s attack had been derailed and his blade was now in the air; the weight of it already drawing it’s tip towards the ground. Raquar by this stage had jumped back a few paces and had his hand outstretched in his direction; the silent mutterings of a thunder based spell crossed his lips.

“RAI ROM!”

Bane’s eyes widened with shock as the lightning tornado spiralled around him, chipping at his HP. He struggled to move, but the electrostatic pulse of the spell bound him down due to the abundance of metal in his gear. His eyes glared in rage as his heath was slowly deteriorating, he knew that the chances of him winning were slim, but he had someone to fight for. He fought not only for himself, but for Chaos, his girlfriend within The World; she too was a member of the AoD, and he didn’t want to be beaten and have to tell her of his defeat when he got back.

“Must…get…” His hand slowly edged over to his leather pouch which housed his items, flipping open the flap with his left index finger. His hand quickly grasped the first scroll he could see and he jerked it out just as the spells effect was coming to a close. He held it above his head and focused sternly on Raquar, a compassionate fire burning in his eyes. “Meteor Swarm!” He returned the friendly gesture of a spell tornado, using that time to retrieve a Health Potion and quickly drink the contents, restoring the majority of his HP; he still was down roughly 1/9 of his max HP, but that would suffice for now as Heath Potions weren’t unlimited. Bane took a few paces back and waited for Raquar to respond; he didn’t want the fight to continue on much longer, as it was starting to bore him slightly. Besides, Bane wasn’t a fighter to begin with; he was more a healer and support type of person.

((I am withdrawing from the duel. IRL Situations prohibit me from posting on a regular basis and I'm behind on other things as well. Congratulations Bane, it was well fought.))