[RPBT] Alicia Fable v. Anastasia Hallows

[CassinoChips]

Setting: A deep, dark forest with only a little sunlight poking through the canopy of treetops above. Hinders the enemy's vision significantly, but allows Anastasia to see perfectly well. Moss and lichen climb the tree trunks, and there is plenty of flammable material, as well as places to take cover while she charges her attacks.

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

Alicia, once again had found herself lost. Her pathetic sense of direction had now got her caught in a dark forest and she saw no clear way out. Timidly she walked through the thick bushes and trees and took note of how deathly quiet it was, not even birds were singing in the treetops. This thought only served to put her further on edge, shakily she proceeded through the forest. Alicia just wanted to get out, she wanted to return to the children, where she was happy, not alone in this dark and deathly silent forest.

Emerging into a small clearing she heard a noise not made by her, she didn't know who or what caused it, nor did she know from where it came. Mustering up what little courage remained she called out into the darkness, half hoping for no answer "W-w-who's there? I W-warn y-you, i-i-i'm a-armed!" trembling and shaking rapidly she attempted to nock an arrow onto her bow, this being quite the ordeal as she couldn't keep her hands still. Eventually passing this trial she slowly and unsteadily circled around herself.

 

[Gaige]

Anastasia walked through the forest with deliberate slowness. She had left her hut that morning in search of something living and concious to hunt down, but as of yet had been unlucky. The rumours of her little forest home had spread quickly. Those that stepped in... occasionally didn't step out.

Running her hands among the rough bark of a tree, she sensed life, and with it fear, and smiled softly, letting out her first sound, a condescending, monosyllabic chuckle. The little girl (for that was who she was to the quite ancient Anastasia) seemed afraid of something. She had not grown used to the sounds and voices of the forest, as Anastasia had.

Anastasia pondered for a brief second, and then decided to make a second noise, crushing a few dead leaves underfoot with the heel of her boot. The crunching sound was both loud and sudden in the relative quiet of the wood, and would have put Anastasia on edge had she been the stranger in another's domain.

Still, the fact that the child was armed was not lost on Anastasia, and she glanced at both her Desert Eagle and her rapier, and chose to draw the short range weapon. There was no pleasure and not much blood in a firefight.

"A little halfling, trampling through my forest..." she said softly, her voice carrying far and fast as the sound of the leaves under her foot. One side of her mouth turned up in amusement at the girl's fumbling with her weapon. She would stay concealed for now. Let the hybrid make the first move...

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

Circling around herself in panic, Alicia tried to find some sign of what it was. In her head she was hoping a rabbit or something would come out, that this was all just her overreacting, this however was quickly proved wrong as a chuckle filled the air and reached Alicia's ears. At times like this she wished she didn't hear so well as goosebumps overwhelmed her and she shivered in fright. Almost wanting to cry and run away she could feel herself welling up in petrified fear, her mind wanted to flee but her legs were like concrete.

Just as she didn't think her nerves could get any worse, they did. Hearing the sound of a crunching of twigs and leaves her fear got the fest of her, finding the origin of the sound she blindly fired an arrow directly at the spot where the sound originated.

Almost to finalise the presence of another in the woods, Alicia heard a voice. "A little halfling, trampling through my forest..." Though, was it truly another or had Alicia gone mad? Perhaps in the panic she had begun to hallucinate. Right now all she wanted to do was get out of this forest, run from her fear before it drove her mad. Clutching her head, trying to see sense she impulsively lifted her head to the sky, screaming an ear piercing scream of terror.

 

[Gaige]

The arrow pierced the tree Anastasia was beside, and she glanced at it for a moment as it quivered in the trunk, before turning away from it and letting out another laugh. Well, she had given her the chance. It was Anastasia's turn now.

She stepped out slowly but with no hesitation, dragging her sword through the moss that lined the forest floor. She stayed only slightly in the shadows, thinking up her strategy even as she moved.

Anastasia would start with melee fighting, aiming to draw as much blood as possible with a series of mutilating slashes.
Next would come the pistol and the magical assaults. A bit more draining, and a lot less fun, but the squirt had a weapon, and Anastasia never underestimated an armed opponent... no matter how young they were.

Remaining true to her plan, she leapt out of her cover as the halfling clutched her head and screamed. Silly girl. Raising her head to the sky exposed her throat, in which sweet life blood coursed through her jugular vein.

Anastasia jabbed at the girls stomach three times. It was not an elegant move, nor even a particularly powerful one, but if it hit home, chances were it would leave a few nice little puncture wounds to slow her down.

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

As Alicia's scream subsided her throat felt incredibly dry as small tears slowly fell from her eyes, however she had no time to cry as an attacker was before her, armed and dangerous. Having no will to fight she fell back onto her bottom, narrowly avoiding the first jab before rolling sideways away from the second and cowardly crawling on all fours to avoid the third jab.

Not wanting to fight her, both out of fear and out of her non-violent morals she tried to run as fast as she could away from the woman. Now tears were falling from her eyes, why today? Why was she being scared so much? Why did this woman want her scared and dead so much? These thoughts played through her mind as her tears blinded her, making her trip over an exposed root of a tree. Falling facefirst in the mud she cried loudly as she got up, continuing to run. She just wanted to get out of here, was that too much to ask?

 

[Gaige]

Anastasia smiled and breathed in deep. The tears and sorrow were almost too good for words to describe. A vicious, primal instinct surged within her, and for a brief moment her smooth features were marred by a violent lust for more of the same. More pain, more sorrow, the agonised squeal the intruder would make as Anastasia tore her opponent limb from bloody limb.

Ah, the thought made her almost paralyzed on the spot with ecstasy. But first she had to catch the mouse she wanted to kill. And half the fun was in the chase. This thought, and the aroma of salty teardrops, was foremost in her senses as she gave chase to the escaping Alicia.

Magic flowed to her mind and through her body, hot and scarlet in her mind and down her arms. She revelled in the sensation of destructive warmth, before focusing it all on her hand and igniting it.

It was a charged fireball, and Anastasia felt the energy fly out of her body with a brief moment of dizziness. The world swam in a green and orange blur, before reforming in front of Anastasia. Her eyes gleamed with delight as she spied her prey ahead and hurled the fireball, anticipating agonised screeches and the sweet smell of burning flesh.

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

Continuing to run what was a seemingly endless path through a menacing forest, Alicia wondered when she was going to die, there was no way she could live through this. She was too scared to do anything to defend herself.

Feeling the rising temperature of a fireball approach her, Alicia closed her eyes, awaiting the inevitable, a few seconds later she opened themto find herself alive and unharmed yet... In the air.

For a moment her heart felt like it would leap from her mouth in fear as she tried her best to stay calm, breathing deeply in and out she gently closed her eyes, opening them again calmly. It was then that she saw a feather fall below her, and not any old feather, but a feather of purest white, looking at her back she suddenly found the cause of her new airborne relocation, she had somehow sprouted angelic wings and flew!

Not really able to process what was going on she eventually drew attention back to the task at hand, from below the fireball that was meant for her was now burning the forest. Even if the forest did scare her, the animals inside would surely be dying from the flames, shedding a single tear from her left eye she slowly wiped it with her left arm.

"Do you realise... What you've done? THOSE WERE INNOCENT CREATURES! How could you harm the innocent like that? Have they done you any wrong!? I swear on their graves I will punish you for this barbaric act!" suddenly growing enveloped in a fiery red aura she nocked an arrow into her bow and enchanted it with a 'Holy Rays' spell and fired the arrow toward a wide area of the forest, wherever her attacker lay in wait, the holy rays would most likely find her.

 

[Gaige]

Anastasia was startled and caught off guard when the girl grew feathery wings of the purest white like the angels of legend and take flight above the mossy ground. This maneuver seemed to unnerve the halfling, Alicia, as much as it did Anastasia, for she seemed unsteady on her newfound transport, and Anastasia fully intended to end this battle before she found her... air legs?

But the fireball that had ended up going under Alicia's now airborne form flew into a grassy copse, and it was immediately consumed in a blazing inferno that caused leaves to crackle and smoulder at Anastasia's feet. She quickly stepped away. The flames were spreading quickly, filling the forest with noxious smoke and the pungent odour of burning, rotting vegetation, mixed with the much more pleasant sound of the screeches and roars of terrified, dying animals.

Turning back to Alicia, she smirked up at her as the girl noticed the burning forest and made her threat. Tilting her head to one side, she addressed her. "Innocent? What's the difference between innocent and weak? There is none. Nature demands that the weak die and the strong survive. Which one are you?"

But Anastasia's taunting of Alicia was cut off as she readied her bow, a scarlet aura surrounding her bow. Anastasia sensed powerful magic, the kind of magic that could cause intense harm to a Twister like her.

Holy Magic.

The arrow flew into the air, and it was almost as if a second sun of luminescent and sacred creation had formed to dispel the darkness of Anastasia's forest and, just like the name Alicia had screamed out suggested, let loose a storm of powerful holy beams. Anastasia let out a gasp of surprise and frustration as she sidestepped one, then ducked to avoid another, both letting loose large explosions to leave small, steaming craters in the forest floor.

The final ray struck the ground, and the explosion would have only been enough to do a little damage to your average human as it glanced off Anastasia's side, yet she let out a scream of pain and rage as the holy magic burned into her, ripping her dress at the side from waist to shoulder, and leaving an ugly black burn mark etched on her side.

It hurt like hell while even now the holy magic was seeping into her bloodstream, and her vision was swimming as she drew her desert eagle, pointing it unsteadily at Alicia, like a blurred angel in the distance, coming for her... coming for her....

Anastasia fired three times, not even sure where or how far the bullets would go as her world swam in a sea of crimson and wbony black. The taste of coppery blood stained her taste buds briefly, but her determination to expunge this intruder from life was still strong in her mind, even as she painfully purged the toxic holy magic that coursed through her veins.

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

Charging down in blind rage Alicia withdrew her bow and unsheathed her Elvenblade, she was going to cut down the monster who dared harm the innocent. "Innocent... Weak? You really think the strong prey on the weak? No, it is those very people who are weak! Your high and mighty stature has deluded you from what you really are! A monster!" letting out an angry battle cry she charged at her foe, however before she was able to cut her down she heard a bang as a bullet tore into her left arm, the only thing stopping the bullet reaching her torso, and potentially her heart.

Being knocked off target she was unable to carry out this blow. Landing on the ground her wings disappeared. Standing behind her enemy she removed one of her daggers and enchanted it with the 'Healing Waters' spell, placing it on the bullet wound her whole body began to glow light blue as the bullet was forced out by magical energy and plummeted to the ground as the skin pulled together, healing the wound instantly and rapidly.

With this done Alicia withdrew her dagger and held her Elvenblade in both hands, eying the injury on her enemy's body it seemed holy magic was effective on her. It was then that Alicia came up with a plan to truly punish her foe.

"I summon you from the elemental plane... Heed my call, Omni! The Elemental Warlord!" As these words were uttered the ground began to tremble beneath her as the earth at her feet began to split, blasting Alicia, unharmed into the air. A giant man clad in thick, golden armour shot out of the ground, catching Alicia in his left hand and slamming hard into the ground, causing more ground trembles.

Alicia, dropping down from his hand pointed her sword at the enemy "Omni... Destroy her in the name of the innocent!" As the giant summon creature of golden armour rushed his prey, Alicia enchanted her sword with 'Light Strike' before charging her foe, leaping into the air with a 360 spin to make the blow stronger while Omni performed a much slower, yet easily more powerful chop aimed for the opponent's head.

 

[Gaige]

Anastasia laughed for a brief moment, confusion, holy magic and pride distracting her from the danger she was undoubtedly in. She somersaulted backwards as she sensed Alicia's onslaught, yet her poorly aimed bullet luckily struck home, piercing Alicia in the left arm and forcing her to step down from her planned strike.

As she purged the last of the holy magic from her body, she smiled at Alicia, her composure returned. "You think I don't know what I am?" she asked, flicking her now wild and unruly hair back from her eyes as the forest burned around her. "How ironic... I know exactly what I am." She smiled serenely. "I'm a Twister. I was born to slay your human brethren, and anything else that got in my way."

She stumbled now, not realizing how fatigued she was. "I... was born to rule over you." She stood up straight, sword held loosely in her hand. "You... were made to be my plaything, and the plaything of my kind." She giggled madly as blood began to seep from her lips and trickle down her chin.

As she saw Alici begin to summon something from the depths of the earth, Anastasia's wild visage changed to a more serious one. She scowled. "We're not done yet." She brought her hand in front of her face and clenched her fist so tight, blood began to seep out of the palms and ooze from the gaps between her fingers.

The sound of shattering glass signalled the start of a spell. Anastasia knew that when she cast it, she would use up near the last reserves of her energy. There would be no more time for mistakes, or playing, only her demise, to a hybrid...

The summoning ritual gave her more than enough time to prepare and lock the spell in her mind for casting as she desired.

Glancing at the summoned, humanoid figure garbed in thick golden armour, Anastasia was in awe for a moment, but there was no time to think as the halfling bitch was already charging towards her, her wound healed. She could dodge the summoned man easily by flitting, appearing to the side of it as fast as the eye could see.

However, this left her wide open to an attack from Alicia, and she was sent sprawling to the ground with a pained cry as the girl's sword struck her in the stomach, her momentum sending Anastasia flying back, only to be stopped by the body of a rapidly burning tree trunk.

Standing up after a brief moment to catch her breath, Anastasia let rip her charged spell- her penultimate assault- on the summon and Alicia.

The wind wrapped the withered, ashen scraps of leaves about Anastasia's feet, whipping up her hair and dress in a chaotic frenzy as a force in the centre of the gap between Anastasia and her opponents. White winds began to blow so thick and rapid they became visible, absorbing the filth, moss, leaves and life of the wood into its six foot tall vortex, which Anastasia commanded.

"Agh!" Shoving her hands forward, Anastasia pushed the twister- named for her kind- at Alicia and the servant she had called forth. It flew forward at an incredible speed, and as the energy left Anastasia, she dropped to her knees with a grunt, blood flowing from her nostrils and tear ducts, and the pain was intense and hot.

Her next assault could well be her last...

 

[Rorolina Frixell]

Seeing the twister form before her, Alicia was quite adamant to charge through it and kill the self proclaimed monster, however while her summon creature bore no obligation to keep her alive, he did however have his orders. Standing in front of Alicia he faced her before covering her with his enormous body as the Twister ran over him, even his great strength and weight was not enough to fight off it's pull. Knowing the danger that Alicia, his summoner would be in if left alone he grabbed hold of her and held her against his armoured body, shielding her from the pieces of tree, earth and leaves as they pounded against his large body.

Alicia, while this was going on could not struggle against both her summon's strength and the Twister's pressure and was unwillingly pinned down with little ability to do more than keep breathing as the air was blasted to and from her. As the wind began to subside the rushing feeling of falling through the air became very apparent, feeling herself move as the ground came frighteningly closer. With a metallic clang dust flew up into the air, slowly Alicia climbed out of the now opened Omni's arms.

Observing her summon creature, wounded as he was from protecting her from certain death. Slowly, Alicia moved her eyes from her heavily wounded Omni to her attacker "first innocent animals, now my friends? Are you never satisfied until you've destroyed everything!?" Alicia was prepared to kill this evil abomination, something with such a desire for destruction who only lives to hurt others can not be allowed to live.

Taking a deep breath she whispered a silent apology to Omni, her aura changed from fiery red to silver as she charged her sword with her ultimate light spell 'God's Judgment' as her summon disappeared from sight, using it's remaining life force to halve the usual strain associated with the spell that had been cast Alicia charged the monster, slashing powerfully at it's torso, aiming to put an end to this creature. If this worked it would easily kill such a corrupt creature, moreso as it was weakened. The strain however would almost completely kill Alicia, it was now or never... All or nothing.

 

[Gaige]

Anastasia smirked as she saw how heavily Omni was wounded. Poor little summon beast. Her heart danced with delight that she could cause that last little bit of pain. It made the agony of her rapidly failing body that much more bearable. As earth, moss and twigs danced the contorted dance of thw wind and tangled in her hair, she revelled in it, for, though she didn't know this, the last time. She smirked as she watched the summoned man vanish, presumably dead.

And then with speed too great for Anastasia to verify, light energy began to gather, light, luminescent crystal's gathering in the air and surging around Anastasia's underweight, pale body, and up to the canopy that darkened and blocked the sky above with an almost inpenetrable ceiling of leaves and branches.

And yet the canopy, Anastasia's shield from the sunlight and the outside world, was now burning as the light crystals flew through it. Anastasia hissed in fury as the glare shone down upon her face. A perfect blue sky, a glowing amber midday sun, and a few white fluffy clouds drifting lazily through the skies.

It had been years since Anastasia's eyes had seen such light, and tears leaked from Anastasia's eyes, to trickle down her pale face, the animal instinct in her visage revealed in grotesque detail as Anastasia growled, as though at nature itself. It was almost as if...

As if all darkness was being burnt away.

The crytals of holy magic were gathering into the sky. The heavens were opening: The fucking heavens were opening and Anastasia was powerless before them! As light continued to gather above Anastasia, and the final scraps of wind died down, Anastasia felt... fear for the first time in her life.

The light was moving now: towards her forest. No, towards Anastasia herself. The light was coming for her, and had come to judge, pass sentence, and execute. Nobody was here to help or save Anastasia, for she had always rejected that kind of aid, and now her knees were rooted to the ground, the Twister who had taken so many lives unable to move as she felt the same fear her hundreds of victims must have felt. She had planned to block the halfling's next assault with a magical shield, and then attack when her guard was down to finish her off, but this... this was beyond anything Anastasia's magic or body could withstand or even survive.

Anastasia was screaming before the light even touched her. The pain of the powerful spell was already huge before it came to end her existence, but it was not just that. In that brief moment before the light was upon her- although it seemed like an eternity- Anastasia Hallows realized she was going to die.

And then it was upon her, and her vocal cords were almost torn apart as the wave of life sent unyielding agony coursing through her body. She opened her mouth and tried to scream again, but it was as though boiling lava was being poured down her throat, and her body would not allow it. It would barely allow the movement of her lungs to breath in and out,or her mind and nerves to comprehend the pain she was in, but the judgement of all things would not quite allow that mercy. No, it wouldn't let her die, or go numb. Not until after the judgement was done.

And when it was, Anastasia dropped to the ground, burnt black. The light was finished, and life was slowly seeping from her. Now she had fallen even further from grace, and was on the ground, barely able to move. Yet she still had those precious few moments of life. And she would not let them slip away unnoticed.

So she stood, though the pain was unbearable. What's cooking? she thought briefly as the aroma of cooking meat barely reached her dying scent glands. Then: Oh yes, it's me. The thought sent her into peals of laughter, orit would have if her ruined vocal cords had allowed such a sound. It would seem odd to see such a devastated body laughing, but the agony of Alicia's last move had sent her over the brink and into insanity, and she was no longer concious of her pain.

So she addressed Alicia in a hoarse whisper, and at first coughed up a globule of blood, staining the patch of green forest floor in front of her a dull brown, rusted colour, before smiling maniacally at Alicia.

"Congratulations, little halfling. You killed me. Destroyed me." She coughed feebly, then stood, a fragile broken old woman. "But eventually, you'll come across something, or something will come across you, and you will die by its hands. And I'll be laughing with delight down in Hell." She let out a dead imitation of a laugh, like the rustling of dry autumn leaves. "And someone will come to kill it, and something will come to kill them then." She laughed for the last time. "So in the end, you killing me means little... no, it means absolutely nothing...."

With that, the Twister's body gave out, and she toppled back, scarlet eyes wide, dull and unseeing, and she landed softly in a bed of leave and earth, with a ray of sunlight shining upon her proud, beautiful face.

Anastasia Hallows was dead.

 

[CassinoChips]

First of all, let me say well done to both of you. It was an enjoyable read from beginning to end, and I thought you both played your characters very well. You both deserve to move on to the next round, but unfortunately, only one can do so.

I'll let you in on some of my reactions and thought processes as I was reading through.

-In reading each of your introductory posts, I really got a sense of your characters' personalities. I could sense Alicia's timidity, contrasted against Anastasia's confidence and arrogance. Even at this point, I could tell it would be an interesting clash between these two, just because their personalities were so opposite that they played against each other very well.

Perhaps in the panic she had begun to hallucinate. Right now all she wanted to do was get out of this forest, run from her fear before it drove her mad.

-I like that her first instinct isn't to locate the sound. It's to get the hell out of there. True to her personality.

her jugular vein.

Anastasia jabbed at the girls stomach three times.

-Surprised me a bit that she didn't go straight for the jugular, considering her notice of it.

a few seconds later she opened themto find herself alive and unharmed yet... In the air.

-A bit of a yieldability factor here. Anastasia's 0-for-4 on connecting with Alicia at this point. In hindsight, with the fireball missing, I would have liked to have seen one of the sword jabs draw some blood.

"...I swear on their graves I will punish you for this barbaric act!"

Good tempo change for her.

yet she let out a scream of pain and rage as the holy magic burned into her,

Great reaction to the ability.

Standing up after a brief moment to catch her breath, Anastasia let rip her charged spell- her penultimate assault- on the summon and Alicia.

For both of you, really, I think this battle got too big too fast. In other words, you got to the really strong abilities too quickly. I think with a little more patience from both, this could have been a very, very good battle that could have lasted almost all the way through the length of the first round. That's not to say it isn't good as it stands. It just seems that there was quite a bit left on the table, so to speak.

Alicia, while this was going on could not struggle against both her summon's strength and the Twister's pressure and was unwillingly pinned down with little ability to do more than keep breathing as the air was blasted to and from her.

I like how you handled the Twister ability. Very fair.

Then: Oh yes, it's me.

-........ Is it bad that I lol'd here?

-I would have liked to see one more post from Damon, just as a sort of conclusion. We don't really see what happens to Alicia after she dispatches of Anastasia. Does she make it out the forest? Does she collapse in exhaustion? It's just a bit ... incomplete, for lack of a better word.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To sum up, you guys made my job difficult, which is a good thing. A little run-through on judging each category.

ORIGINALITY: Push.

CREATIVITY: Slight Edge to Diar.

INTERACTION W/ ENVIRONMENT: Slight Edge to Damon.

READABILITY: Push.

YIELDABILITY: Edge to Diar.

POWER-PLAYING/GOD-MODING: Push. (No issues.)

Our winner is ....

Diar