[RPBT] John Henry Westhead v. Lloyed Tashna

[CassinoChips]

Setting: Lloyed likes to fight in barren areas. If there is no life, no objects, he is set. Something he really enjoys is a stone ground that anyone could get hurt on with a good fall. He would like there to be a rather colorless sky as well, so to add to the effect of his desires. A bland, gray color scheme of no life, and no end, with no sky. In his abilities he has a spell that can take one to this land. A solid sky seeming to be no sky, appearing full of non-existent and stagnant gray materials, falling in place, drifting with winds. In his preferred area there is no wind, no fire, no water, there isn't even water in the air. If someone wanted water, they would have to use magic to make it.

 

[CassinoChips]

Force kept his sword drawn. He had no idea where he was, and no idea how he got there. One minute, he was feeling the sting of a throwing star tossed by the young girl in the small town, the next, a flash of gray light appeared and he was sucked into some sort of portal. Now he stood in this barren wasteland, which was devoid of any sort of landmark that would enable Force to get his bearings.

Surely, he felt, he had to have brought here for a reason. Thus, it would stand to reason that whoever wanted him here would come to fetch him. So Force decided to wait for that moment. He would go nowhere, and let whoever it was come to him. Sword in hand, Force faced the direction he thought could possibly be north, and occasionally flicked glances all around him, trying to do his best to see whatever would end up approaching him. The horizon line was unblemished in all directions. It was a vast, empty nothingness.

Even to Force, it was very disconcerting.

 

[Captain Squee]

After having caught the man he had his eyes on, Lloyed went into the afterlife area he had created with his evil powers after him. He saw the back of this man, who was quite easily in his 30's. Lloyed knew a good warrior when he saw one. The man was obviously ready for combat, as a sword longer than Lloyed's own was in his hands. The blue and yellow lines on the sword were rather intricate in Lloyed's opinion, and he liked the style it was in. And the armor he was wearing looked very formidable as well, and it looked strong, but heavy.

Lloyed unsheathed his sword, letting what little light was in this place shimmer off in a purple hue. He was not worried to grab the attention of this man, as he spoke aloud from behind him, "My name is Lloyed Tashna, and I wish to have you join me. If you join me now, then you shall receive a nice position during my reign with the gods, where I truly belong." His words were cold but at the same time, they seemed to have no emotion. His face was rather blank, and he had chosen not to make himself seem malicious at all, but no matter what, evil was written all over him.

Although Lloyed has his sword out, he was in no particular fighting pose, he was simply showing that he was armed. His pose was very lax and at ease. It was his casual stance that he stood in even without his sword. His hair was hanging low, flickering every now and then in the non-existent wind that floated through him. His robe was already starting to do as it was meant to, and it began draining slow energy from the man he was confronting.

 

[CassinoChips]

"My name is Lloyed Tashna, and I wish to have you join me. If you join me now, then you shall receive a nice position during my reign with the gods, where I truly belong."

Force whirled quickly. The man had surprised him, much to Force's amazement. This land had strange effects on the senses. The nothingness could destroy a regular man's psyche over time. Fortunately, Force was not a regular man.

Taking stock of the itnerloper, Force could see that he was comfortable here. His relaxed and easy posture told him as much. If this wasn't his home (how could anyone stand to live in such a place?), he at the very least spent a significant amount of time here. His cloak and clothing seemed to fit perfectly in the bleak, featureless surroundings. The dark material absorbed what little light what cast into the barren wasteland. His body was remarkably average; Force towered over him, and outweighed him by a fair amount. But Force's trained eye could see that the man was no stranger to battle. His confident stance and the conviction in the tone of his words told Force that he was also no stranger to victory.

"Join you? You mean make myself subordinate to you, naturally. That is something I will not do." Force shook his shoulders, disregarded a nagging feeling creeping through his body. "Unless, of course, you can prove that you are, in fact, superior to me." Crouching in a defensive stance, Force awaited the man's response.

 

[Captain Squee]

"Join you? You mean make myself subordinate to you, naturally. That is something I will not do. Unless, of course, you can prove that you are, in fact, superior to me."

The man was reluctant, as were all the ones he tried to turn to his underlings. It seemed the best warriors never knew power when they saw it. But this one was unlike the others, as he was clearly a 'brute force' type of fighter. Lloyed knew his defense would be needed for this. His target, now his opponent had to look down at Lloyed, and he crouched defensively.

Lloyed did not even speak, he simply raised his Katana, the Kiku-Ichi-mojo, then engulfing it in his black energy. The waves of darkness seemed to glow in a black mist around the sword, as if a ballet of some sort pulsing back and forth with evil. There was no need to say any words once he did this, as he posed in his fighting pose. Knees bent, back arched slightly, and feet positioned shoulder width apart. Hes sword was facing directly forward as he breathed slowly, prepared to attack.

Lloyed would start the battle with a blow just to show what exactly it was he could do, so he leaned forward and let his momentum fall for a split second, but used the forward weight to send himself through the air as he ran. While he ran, there seemed to be no air blowing on his face like there was in the normal world. It felt as though he was standing still, but indefinitely, he was moving. He lowered the blade that he had to trust with his life so it was low to the ground, seeming like he would be to do an uppercut. Despite his pose, he leaped up and swung the sword backward, ending in his blade coming down to try and strike. He put a lot of power into it, but it would never be enough to knock this man down, but it was full of a lot of Lloyed's overall strength.

 

[CassinoChips]

Force tensed as the man approached, ready for whatever strike may come. Given the low angle of the man's blade, Force expected an upstroke. But instead the man leaped and sent a swinging downstroke in the general direction of Force's face. Quickly bringing his Zweihander up, Force blocked the stroke with the flat of his blade. The power behind the blow was enough to make Force slide backward a few yards before his feet once again found purchase in the scree that made up the ground in the wasteland in which Force had found himself himself not so long ago.

Once again on solid footing, Force pushed back against the cloaked man, aiming to create a little distance between the two of them. Almost simultaneously, Force himself jumped back, again with the purpose of creating space. He then charged forward, Zweihander pointed straight forward, held in both hands at Force's right hip, as it if were a lance. Force aimed directly for the center of Lloyed's mass. He didn't expect the blow to land. Force knew Lloyed was a seasoned fighter, and this was not exactly a subtle attack. Force's real intention was to see how he would react to the sight of the bull of a man that Force was, bearing down on him, weapon at the ready.

 

[Captain Squee]

It was no surprise to Lloyed that his foe was able to parry the attack Lloyed delivered, it was mainly an attack to show just what he might pull out, and that he could switch at any time he wanted. Being flung back from his own attack was unexpected though, and all he could see was the stagnant sky, full of seemingly still particles that drifted in place. Lloyed managed to land on his feet somehow and get a good solid footing.

Lloyed looked up to see an attack being launched to his mid-section. Letting out a shout, he spoke, "I see then" while he also spun around, but part of the attack from the mans sword caught his robe. The black cloth ripped, but it didn't cut his skin. Lloyed tried turning the same spin into a lower body attack, trying to cut his foe out below the legs. The swing was rather fast, but very low and avoidable...

 

[CassinoChips]

Force saw Lloyed spin away from his charge as his sword caught a piece of his cloak. Figuring that an attack in some form was coming, Force leaped forward and rolled into a somersault. Keeping his sword straight out in his left hand as he tumbled, he reached down with his right hand to his hip and unclasped his chakra. With only one free hand, one would have to tumble to the ground. It was a risk he would have to take. He normally would make a mental note of where the chakram fell, but with no landmarks in this place, that would be difficult to do.

As he came out of the somersault, he propped himself up on a knee and hurled the chakram in a wide swinging arc to his right. The curve of throwing weapon would carry it in a circular arc towards Lloyed's side. He waited a heartbeat, then charged Lloyed once again, hoping to time his attack at the exact moment his chakram reached Lloyed, forcing the man to have to deal with two attacks.

He charged again, both hands on his Zweihander. He rotated his torso slightly and rared back to swing the immense blade in a cross cut from his right to left. His first charge was a tactic. This charge was meant to hurt.

 

[Captain Squee]

Lloyed was not able to see clearly, as he was spinning for his attack, but it was obvious due to the feeling of the swords easy motion that he had not landed the strike. He heard tumbling and he looked up from his previous attack to see his foe mid-somersault. Lloyed was unsure of exactly what was going on, but the next thing he knew, he saw a gold projectile being thrown at him. At the same time, the enemy he was faced with was violently charging. The charge had a lot more intensity than the last one, and Lloyed was also worried about the projectile...

Lloyed seemed to be frozen in time as he hesitated on what to do next. Finally, when it was too late, Lloyed tried to spin around to his left, and he managed to get a small cut that wasn't very deep from the golden projectile. Unfortunate for Lloyed though, his Vampiric Robe was cut across the front, and a small black pendant on a silver chain fell off. The skull had green eyes made of emerald, glimmering faintly. Lloyed then felt a warm liquid pour down his right side where the robe was torn. Looking down at it, he saw blood.. In trying to avoid the projectile, he forgot to take into accord the sword his foe had swung, and took the strike.

He then tried standing, and he managed, a little shaky, but he could do it. He was leaning and breathing rather heavy. He then began to charge a spell he had, a rather powerful one. White streaming lights then began to flail around him and dark smoke of solid black began to pour from under his feet. He spoke in pain, "I can be destroyed, but I cannot be defeated..."

 

[CassinoChips]

After seeing both his chakram and his sword strike home on Lloyed's body, Force halted his charge and spun around. Lloyed had gone to the ground and was in obvious discomfort. Force wanted to press his advantage and attack again immediately, but for some reason his strength was being sapped. This is ridiculous, he thought. There's no reason for me to be this tired right now.

Force was tired, and tired men make mistakes. Before Force could press his advantage, Lloyed had gotten back up on his feet, and was preparing a spell. The dancing streams of white light were distracting, almost to the point of disorienting Force in his fatigued state. A tap at his foot helped him re-focus. His chakram had continued along its arc, lost velocity, and rolled along the ground, returning to him. He picked it up and snapped it back into place on his hip. He briefly considered tapping the power of the crystal embedded in the pommel of his Zweihander and absorbing the spell, but he had no way of knowing how strong this spell would be. So he elected to be patient, waiting to see the effects of Lloyed's spell.

 

[Captain Squee]

Lloyed could see that his robe was doing as it should have. It was about time the sap was enough to make his opponent feel it. Lloyed was lucky that he was able to continue his spell, and he watched as the one he was faced with picked up the golden projectile that was thrown at him earlier. His streaming white lights we getting more and more active, and the smoke around him was growing thicker. It was almost time for his spell.

Finally, after his 15 seconds of charge time, Lloyed actually considered himself to be lucky that he was not attacked. But he knew this was the end of the battle, if he didn't take his foe out now, he could die in his own afterlife. What irony that would be. Releasing his spell, the streaming lights came together on one side to create the shape of a wing, while at the same time, the smoke came to his other side and collected in the shape of a wing as well. Ten with a flash of pure light and true darkness, he was winged. The side that had collected the light had a white wing resembling that of an evil shape, and the other side had a feathered wing, but the feathers were black.

Lloyed knew he couldn't stand on his feet anymore, as the pain from the cut the sword left would stop him, so with the little lower body strength he had left, Lloyed jumped up, just high enough to get ready for flight. He was hovering not too far off the ground now. The wings were very contrasted, but the were flapping strongly. Raising his sword, Lloyed launched forward with every last bit of his strength in the air. He was not too high, and his attack was possible to counter., but he was headed full speed, aiming to deliver a cut as deep as he could in the mid area of his foe. This was most likely his last blow, but he wasn't going down easy. When he got close to the opponent, he spoke to say, "Farewell."

 

[CassinoChips]

Had he not been fatigued, Force could have parried the blow. He had seen it take shape as the wings coalesced into being on Lloyed's back, and as the man leaped into the air and unexpectedly flew directly at him. But with his energy slowly being drained away from, it was all Force could do to raise his sword across his torso to protect himself.

His Zweihander was not enough to block the force of the attack. It was only able to redirect the strike, preventing it from being a killing blow. Unfortunately it lodged itself deep into Force's right shoulder, penetrating nearly all the way through to his shoulder blade. Howling in pain, Force was knocked backwards, falling to the ground on his back, and sliding for several feet in the loose dirt and gravel.

His right arm rendered virtually useless by the sword strike, Force abandoned his Zweihander, as he could not effectively wield it with one hand. While grappling with Lloyed on the ground, Force took his left hand and went to his left hip, releasing the catch that his bagh nakh. Like with the chakra earlier, one of the two fist weapons would have to fall to the ground unused. But that was of little consequence now, as his right arm was virtually useless. Manipulating his fingers and twisting his hand slightly, he managed to equip the bagh nakh properly in his left hand. He managed to get a knee up into the chest of Lloyed, then pushed upward with as much strength as he could muster, hoping to create space between the two of them. Force then quickly rolled to his right, groaning slightly as he rolled on his injured shoulder. He propelled himself to his feet and charged at Lloyed once again, swinging his left arm in a cross hook, aiming for Lloyed's jaw.

He could feel the Rage inside him. It was building. It would not be long before it burst forth.

 

[Captain Squee]

Lloyed's purple blade was knocked off of where he was aiming it, but still plunged through the shoulder of his enemy. He found himself being pulled to the ground because his sword was still inside said enemy. The pull was unexpected and it really hurt Lloyed on his right side, as it was injured. The slide on the ground that his attack caused Allowed him to pull his sword out. It was clear to him that his sword had hit somewhere slightly vital to that made the right arm of the large, worthy opponent useless. But unfortunate for Lloyed, he was too weak to pick himself up fully, so he could not stand without struggling, and that would make him die without taking his killer with him.

Then Lloyed felt a force pushing him up, and it was rather close to his deep cut, so it made him ache fiercely. Then the one pushing him up rolled away from Lloyed's weight and managed to get up. Lloyed was highly impressed by his foe. Nobody had ever done this good a job against him. Lloyed was struggling to get up, but he managed to flap his wings to help him, and slightly get off the ground, but he came up and saw the strongest man he ever fought charging at him yet again. Lloyed the realized he had set his sword down to get up, and going back down to pick it up would be a stupid mistake.

Faced with his last chance, Lloyed only had one chance. Evading was pointless, so he decided it was time for some magic play. He brought up his Spirit Crushing Wall just in time to block the attack coming to him. Using whatever spare seconds Lloyed had, he dove down to get his sword, and he came back up with a struggle as soon as he could. He expected the wall he made to be down by then, so he launched in the opposite direction of his foe in hopes to evade just in case.

 

[CassinoChips]

Force's fist connected with something. But it wasn't Lloyed's face, like he expected. Just before Force had gotten within striking distance, there was small flash, and Force ran headlong into a barrier of some kind. Stunned, he fell to the ground on his back, rolled over and got up his knees. He shook his head trying to clear the cobwebs. Gathering his bearings, he rose to his feet again, though with a bit of a wobble from having his bell rung by the barrier, as well as the continual fatigue he felt. He was cautious now, unsure whether or not the barrier remained.

Reaching across his body with his left hand, he unsnapped the single chakram on his right hip. He wouldn't be able to throw it with much velocity at all, considering he would be throwing it with his non-dominant arm, and the bagh nakh was still in his left hand, hindering his grip. Still, he wasn't intending for the weapon to do any significant damage to Lloyed. He only wanted to see if the barrier was still intact. He threw the weapon straight at Lloyed, who was now running directly away from Force. The chakram would either be blocked by the barrier, or cause Lloyed some minor annoyance.

 

[Captain Squee]

In Lloyed's attempt to clear distance, he had not expected anything to come his way. But instead, he turned around to see yet another projectile attack coming for him, this one with less power than the last. He was afraid if his wall was down or not, so he brought up his sword to parry the attack. Either the barrier would block for him, or his sword would stop it anyway. As it turned out, Lloyed did not have his barrier up anymore, and the weight of the thrown object bounced Lloyed back a little bit, but it wasn't very much at all.

Then Lloyed realized his vision was getting a little blurred. He couldn't see as clearly as normal, and he was also shockingly light-headed. He was so caught up in the heat of battle that he completely forgot about the gash on his right side, that had been bleeding the entire time he was fighting. His blood loss was bad, and there was nothing he could do about it. Now his only hope was to use Entropy's False Order, and so he did. He gathered all the light energy he had to engulf himself in a slightly glowing layer.

Now he had to attack, but he was no fool. Attacking hadn't worked in the past as a head-on attack, so he would take a different route. He had only little time left, so he decided to use Mind Crush, giving his foe images in his head that would anger him so bad, he would have to attack. What the images were, Lloyed was oblivious to, but it was always what the target hated most. Lloyed then waited for the next attack...

 

[CassinoChips]

Weakness.

Force saw himself as a subordinate; weak and unable to impose his will on others, Force was stuck being a lackey. A gopher. Just another peon in some ragtag group that was passed off as an army. He saw and felt the Magick abandon him, leaving his body a shell of what it once was.

The scenes infuriated Force. His Rage ability was set off. Ignoring his fatigued state somewhat, he charged Lloyed once again, aiming yet another vicious blow at the man's chin. The strike, should it land, would be significantly stronger than any of Force's other attacks. It would likely shatter Lloyed's jawbone.

 

[Saga]

Jesse, I love the explanation you gave for leaving Cait's battle and arriving in Lloyed's. I was wondering just how you were going to do that and it works nicely, going into this new place where it's a monotonous grey landscape.

His words were cold but at the same time, they seemed to have no emotion. His face was rather blank, and he had chosen not to make himself seem malicious at all, but no matter what, evil was written all over him.

Cold is usually used in reference to someone who acts without emotion, so whilst I can see exactly what you were trying to say, it came across a little weird to me. I don't quite understand how evil is written all over him if his face is blank and he's giving no malignant sign, either. >.<

Squee. You lapsed into present tense for a split second in your first post.

Although Lloyed has his sword out, he was in no particular fighting pose, he was simply showing that he was armed. His pose was very lax and at ease.

Whilst you still reverted back to the past tense, it still threw me off a little.

Taking stock of the itnerloper, Force could see that he was comfortable here.

Itnerloper? I could have sworn it was interloper.

The dark material absorbed what little light what cast into the barren wasteland

Absorbed what little light what cast? It'd sound better if that second what was a was. (also be grammatically correct too. =P)
(Ignore my sentence fragments. )

His target, now his opponent had to look down at Lloyed, and he crouched defensively.

I know what you're trying to say here but it came across a bit... run-on or something. Didn't read right.

Lloyed did not even speak, he simply raised his Katana, the Kiku-Ichi-mojo, then engulfing it in his black energy

And again it read off weird. And it seemed as though you slipped back into present tense towards the end.

The waves of darkness seemed to glow in a black mist around the sword, as if a ballet of some sort pulsing back and forth with evil.

Feels really off. Metaphors are good, but this one just didn't work.

Knees bent, back arched slightly, and feet positioned shoulder width apart.

The sentence feels like it ended too soon. You could have easily have flowed into the follow on sentence.

Okay. I didn't see many notable errors on the rest of page one.

I do however, like how Squee took the charge attack and Jesse reacted to his energy being sapped. Very good yielding guys.

Whilst I could pick every error on the second page out... I won't. There were moments when sentences didn't flow together properly (squee) or a word was missing (Jesse and Squee) but I was nevertheless able to get the jist of what you were acting out. Some if it made for awkward reading, tbh, and I had to go over it a couple of times (Sorry, Squee) before I could fully understand it.

Your final post, especially the first paragraph, came across very powerfully, Jesse. It fitted Force and what I know of him perfectly.

Okay guys, you both did a great job here but it's crunch time. Sorry if I ever sounded harsh above... don't shoot the judge etc.


------------------


ORIGINALITY: Jesse
I'm not saying you weren't Original Squee, but a lot of the evil and shadow play has been overused in the past and I've seen a lot of it, therefore it didn't capture me as much as Jesse's posts did.

CREATIVITY: Slight Edge to Jesse.
You were creative too, Squee, but Jesse just outdid you near the end.

INTERACTION W/ ENVIRONMENT: Even.
There wasn't much of an enviroment to play off of seeing as it was a bland, desolte landscape

READABILITY: Jesse.
Some of your posts made for much harder reading, Squee. I'd suggest read-throughs. Sorry >.<

YIELDABILITY: Edge to Jesse.
You took a good few hits yourself, Squee. But the shoulder damage to Jesse pulled it away.

POWER-PLAYING/GOD-MODING: Even.


Winner: CassinoChips


Well done on a great match, however, guys!