Challenge to Anyone: Bring It




Posted by Chiaroscuro

I've been itching for battles and what I have on hand, which an awesome fight, DK, is not satisfying my desire for more. This is an open challenge to anyone and will adhere to the basic rules; I know them quite well, seeing as I helped to build their foundation.

I do not like to boast but I would like someone with awareness as to what sim battle is rather than a new poster looking to get started. I admire and support all aspiring writers and will gladly help anyone asking me for personal pointers (PM or AIM me) but I want a fight to test my own abilities. Things have changed, my friends, and I feel for the better.

And no, I will not abandon these. I'm in a permanent location for once and am looking to reignite an old career which I hope hasn't been forgotten.




Posted by Haley

Hm...I may very well be interested in taking this up, but you will have to wait for a reply to come. Is that fine by you? Also, set your parameters for battle...the system under which I fight is slightly, subtly different from most. Arena, or first attack?




Posted by Chiaroscuro

Come now, do you really think I don't remember you? Anyways, I've got all the time in the world. E-mail or AIM me so we can discuss your system before we start.

EDIT: Coin flip says arena for me.




Posted by Haley

I will be more than happy to mail you my parameters. I hope I catch you online at some point, however, as it is better to communicate one on one as opposed through a system of messages. Yes, well then, I will send you a list shortly.




Posted by Chiaroscuro

A waning moon hung heavily in the night air behind a misty mask of cloud. The sky suggested precipitation, and from Nido's judgement it would be snow. Faint chills ran the lengths of his exposed fingers, which were the only parts of his hands not covered by partial gloves. The rest of his outfit was composed of loose Apache leathers, denim threads and black fleece. Although the warrior obviously bore no form of armor beyond his hides, a securely fit leather sheath fastened to his leg implied a sizable blade which seemed to be for more than steak.

Nido paced along the carpeted castle rooftop; to one of the floors, anyways. The ancient structure was undoubtedly several thousand feet tall, and being the middle of the summer season, this altitude still brought ice and snow. Glistening flakes soaked into Nido's emerald hair as the predicted weather began to show face.

Settling his pace to a halt near one of the rooftop torches, Nido embraced the fiery warmth, crafting his hands in and out of cradling forms above the flame. Hues of oranges, reds and whites danced a frenzied pattern inside the rather primative light sources. Nido's already leathery face seemed almost degredable to the heat of the flame as his battle fatigued features drew themselves into the element.

The energy; he craved it. His fascination with it's very existance and flow was almost overwhelming as his veins seemingly pumped with adrenaline. His next battle was so near he could taste his own blood. The stage was set, and the night was young.

War was bound to shed it's ugly face upon these castle grounds.




Posted by Haley

<<Lē dēmans voiçe rand…>>

The shadow realm lay cold in disquieted slumber, for Ninédth at least, as the last shrouds of company disappeared and the blue moon dipped heavily in the jet black sky. He came fast like no other force, with no specific intent, but rather with a lust, a lust of blood and the musk of death. And then to his nostrils, it came, the unmistakable scent of warmth, the overwhelming sensation of fire, and it came from what lie above. Following it, Ninédth drew through the portal, and emerged in the musty lower quarters of an eons aged castle.

The dark inside was perfect to shield his appearance, or, for that fact, any trace of even the most subtle glint on his trailing blade. Taking hold of a stone balustrade he, with as much grace and poise one could imagine, made way up the stairwell, and down the carpeted corridors, the odour growing stronger yet.

The effects of his presence were well felt; in an instant, temperatures dropped, and the wavering glow of the candles and lamps, all caught in a stage of ephemeral existence, blinked out, leaving a trail of dwindling black smoke where they used to reside. This was so everywhere he walked, and the cold night air, as the night was probably one of the coldest seen for the season, seemed to grow colder - Ninédth thrived.

And then, all movement arrested, Ninédth halted, for, just above him on the outwards of the castle, the presence stood in semblance of...shivering? Yes, a strong presence, Terran, overtaken by the cold. Ninédth, in a flash of dark, the dark of an imploding wormhole, absorbed through the cieling, and, without sound or detection, rematerialized on the castle floor, standing behind the entity which he had come to see. The lamp before them both flicked out, and the night was left to nothing but the light of the moon.

<> Ninédth whispered, the subaudible levels surreptitious even to the smallest ears.

The spell fired, and the standing entity lost his feet, unaware as his body flew of the castle and landed heavily on the ground that sloped so far below the castle walls. Ninédth, with the grace of a bird, followed, his descent quick, and steady. At high speeds, he hit the ground, plumetting through the enemy, robbing his energy; his doubts, regrets, fears, anything within him that harnessed the energy Ninédth so craved. And into the ground Ninédth went, back into the shadow realm where he could rebase, and enter back into the safegaurds of the castle.

And so he left, the man lay cold on the castle grounds, several, if not all, bones broken from the plunge, head black, body colder than so immaginable. A sigh, and a temporary relief.




Posted by Chiaroscuro

Wayward energy stolen by his attacker surged throughout Nido's body, broken and sprawled across the castle grounds. Physical pain swept throughout Nido's consciousness like wildfire, and he couldn't help but enjoy it. Although his spirit yearned to further taste the fruits of battle, his body would simply not allow it; internal energies were badly stirred, and fractures limited agile motion.

Yet what was left seemed to be plenty. Struggling to regain internal focus, Nido awakened his dormant energies. Physical distress seemed a distant issue compared to the loss of inner powers, and Nido decided to retrieve them; immediately.

Fire again began to dance in Nido's crimson eyes, and this fire became a very real thing when flames leaped seemingly out of his soul. Tongues of red and orange erupted across Nido's form, a painless display of power for him which proved extremely painful for an unfortunate other.

Another wormhole was ripped open, and Ninedth's body was thrown through the resulting portal before slamming hard against the stone, awash in flames and burning rapidly. The energies had proved unfamiliar to the enemy, and these flames certainly weren't as painless as they were for Nido, picking himself up from the ground. Ninedth's body cackled sickeningly, a putrid odor riding along the smoke which rose out of charring flesh.

Extinguised candles and torches suddenly burst into flames stronger than before as the spirit energy surged between the two men, and as the light swept out to rid the shadows, the fire upon the warriors quickly died down. Nido's benefit from this exchange was obvious; broken bones hindered him no more. Ninedth, with his garments blackened and flesh marred, didn't seem to fare as well. He was fallen heavily on the stone, which was cracked by the force of his less than graceful impact.

Nido's body remained at a loss, but his spirit and mind soared in the heat of battle. Wicked flames now fueled by unnatural force hovered crazily above the castle torches, illuminating the grounds of what now had become a warzone.




Posted by Haley

Providing no ploy, no inconsequential deviancy such as to muster any surrounding energy, Ninédth lie, most possibly, dead on the ground, or so it would appear as any commoner stood above the cadaverous body that, despite the blackened skin, had grown pale on that which had been spared the torch. In that moment, ephemeral though it was, some beauty came over the place that, in upon all characteristics and laws that make life so understandable, seemed out of place, and nearly angelic, if one could deem it such. The corpse lie still on the ground, and the man, Nido, stood menacingly over it, as all warriors are well to do, for it is never wise in neglecting to expect the unexpected. Then suddenly, as if on the breath of the very wind that pushed through the moaning trees, a whisper came clear to he who listened:

“I am but no man, for ne’er have I truly existed, and yet, ne’er have I lacked qualities of the aforementioned state. For you see, warrior, you in the mind of the flesh and blood of Adam see the universe and it’s state as logical, a mere system of intricacies that correlate to form lines of reality. However, you have lived under this a false pretence. Let it be truly spoken that if you were to cut my head from my body, and send it to the North, only to remove my other limbs and send them appropriately addressed, that by the mere existence of nothingness and the shadows within, those parts could remerge, becoming whole again as one in the realm of no realms, where even the impossible becomes true, inevitable, spontaneous reality. I am Ninédth, warrior, the likes of something not previously envisioned by a creature such as yourself, attached in a vulnerable state of existence to the flimsy whim of the unpredictable mortal coil. I am the spawn of Agatha, herself, heiress to the throne of darkness who is much more than myself. I am your prophet of death.”

It must have been said in no more than an instant, for it came as though a torrent of strong gust, only to be followed immediately by the sounds of silence. Then, the silence terminated, replaced by sounds unimaginable to the most imaginative minds: wails, moans, pleas for death, and the sound of evil acting a cruel dictator of the souls it had reaped. A hole tore open once more in the ground, and tentacles of darkness engulfed the corpse of Ninédth, and stole it in such fashion to the darkness below. The foul stench of death choked Nido as the hole remained opened, and a vacuum, with the sound of a panting demon breath, retrieved the warrior, pulling him closer and closer to a dark fate. He found himself at the edge of the portal…

“You are man, susceptible to my whim and will. Feel your place, beggar.”

A rush, and the vacuum was gone, directly inverted as an inexplicable force of hatred and anger that pushed hard against Nido’s fragile mortal form, sending it soaring back a good volley onto the cold and bare ground. Ninédth came forth from the shadow, like a veritable phoenix, true to the tale it should arise from the ashes of its death. He came forth anew, taller, sleeker, a tangle of long hair falling about his naked male form that hovered lightly on the breath of webbed, black wings. As such he approached, taking the throat of the stunned warrior, and brining it to his level.

“You would do well, Mortal Warrior, to end this miserable life by some greater means than death, for, as you well know, there is no use fighting fire with fire.”

Ninédth rejected the opponent from his clasp, throwing the body once more the hard, unwelcoming terrain. With that, the sound of a thousand footsteps rumbled through the lands, or so it seemed. As it came, however, the sound became more evident: the surge of water…cold, dark, murky water, set afoul by the stench and pungent odour of decay and rot. It came about them both, and drenched all seen by the eye, both warriors left to the whim of the ocean of death. The fires were rushed out....




Posted by Chiaroscuro

Putrid waters rushed over Nido, Ninedth, and castle alike, submerging the current world in a tide of black water. Nido was temporarily stunned at being overcome by this foul wave, but soon gathered himself and quickly began to swim. Even powerful strokes proved difficult in this murk, yet he was able to achieve higher grounds as his body was lifted in this sea of darkness and within reach of another stone wall.

Pulling himself up and over the edge, Nido located dry land among one of the castle towers as the flood continued to rise. Soaking wet yet seemingly impervious to the deathly cold, Nido found Ninedth suspended above the waters, hovering gracefully to the tone of his black wings.

"I'd love to call this a battle of good and evil, but I'm afraid I can't be bothered with such trivial classification. There exists but the strong and the weak; the hunter and the hunted. One in touch with themselves to a deep enough degree can indeed be in touch with The Entirty."

Raising a hand to the accursed waters, Nido began to distort the temperatures once more; this time in the opposite direction. Sickly water surged from the sea in gurgling burst, splashing upwards and rolling over the newly attained high ground. As the gales rose in strength, the night air grew colder still; cold enough, it seemed to those in touch to feel it, to freeze the air itself.

The water would have to do.

Leaping upwards from the depths, a mass of darkened fluids was again propelled upwards by the force of wind, frozen in seperate pieces atop their climb, and shot forward at Nido's command.

The small yet sharpened shards of ice hit Ninedth with enough speed to pierce the flesh, some pieces lodging themselves into his body and others shredding delicate holes from one side to the next. The accompanying force used to drive the projectiles, the form of wind, proved powerful enough to drive the reeling Ninedth downwards, slamming his body into the waters with enough velocity to mimick a concrete landing. The resulting impact sent the deathly waters upwards again, raining down over Nido and his perch in a shower of filth.




Posted by Haley

The moment lingered in a trembling silence about the cold, murky depths wherein Ninedth rested: silence that wavered on the edge of certainty and possibility. Ninedth breathed gently, letting the foul contents of the black void fill his lungs, south those wounds which the ice had inflicted upon him.

'The Dark travels fast, yet not fastest,' he murmed as the wounds barley closed, leaving thin and tendre membranes that remained translucent, even in the darkness of the raging sea. 'I am yet mortal?'

Ne'er a man to be, Ninedth righted himself upward as his feet landed gently on the once dry courtyards of the now logged castle. A moment, and the very particles of him dissipated amidst the creature, and he with it became one. Every wave, every echo, every thing that swam was to Ninedth's senses as the ocean fell and collapsed, rocked and rolled for he was all, existing in everything yet in no one form. Possibility?

Atop the highest castle walls, so far above the bottom of the raging torrents, Nido sat in silent contemplation, surveying steadily the waters for the body of Ninedth, alive or otherwise. His eyes skimmed the surface, whence he caught his timid reflection atop the sleek surface. It bobbed, and waved, transformed and sharpened, and, with the hiss of a thousand serpants, broke into a stream of water with such a narrowed path and pernicious velocity it pierced straight through the very flesh of him that had be so caliced and battle worn. Another stream through the shoulder, and another through the abdomen, two to the right thigh, and a final that glazed the cranium, removing the hair and scalp of Nido, leaving him to fall beaten upon the castle roof. And he lay there.

The water rose, rushing atop the castle, pooling around Nido like rats would the dead, devouring the blood that he released as the wounds spouted their scarlet elixer. And it rose, drawing more the blood as it quickly flowed. And it rose, hence. Then, suddenly, the waters broke, receded, and the sun drew apart the clouds, shining on the pale body of the wounded battler. No water lay for miles, but a man, Ninedth, full fleshed and repaired stood waiting, perched warily on the battlements. He glared, drew his sword, and dared the enemy come foward.

'Approach.'




Posted by Chiaroscuro

Crumpled upon the castle roof and bleeding heavily, Nido's position had become increasingly worse over the most recent exchange of battle. His body was pierced through at several places as if lanced by blade, and the wounds were slightly more worse. Hell, taking a slip of the dagger would have been preferable to Nido over the elemental waters.

Regardless, he wasn't concerned. Raising himself from the ground to one knee, Nido suddenly became illuminated in unnatural red light, swirling around him in a crimson shell of smoke. His wounds began to burn from the inside out with literal fire, seemingly festering the lacerations down to the bone. The truth was that the wounds were absorbing the flames and manipulating their energies.

Nido knew well the mastery of fire elemental, and as he accepted this unnatural one into his bloodstream, the rest of his bloodstream reacted, as well; the blood taken by Ninedth, who abruptly burst into flames. Tongues of blue and orange ate hungrily at his clothing and flesh, charring the humanoid body too fast for it to be flames of the natural world. The warrior fell to his knees, catching himself from complete collapse only with a stab of sword into the ground.

The fire, albeit hot and vicious as it was, ceased to burn after mere seconds, but those moments seemed all too long for Ninedth. His body was sickeningly burned, noticably more so in some areas than others. Tough clothing had become nothing but fuel for the unholy flames, and the tattered materials were now fusing into partially melted flesh.

Nido's wounds had just as soon died out their own flames, and black, red, scaly flesh had filled into the open wounds. Suddenly refreshed by the exchange of energies, Nido drew his own blade, the ancient crystal-encrusted stone scimitar he had used to cut down so many enemies in the past. The emerald green of the uncurved edge's marblestone was stained crimson in some areas, seeming to absorb the life force from blood of warriors spilled upon it.

Nido leaned back into stance, and awaited for the the recovery he so desired. A thirst had been ignited, and a hunger had yet to subside; man and beast began to converge into one solid being of existance in Nido's mind, and his spirit yearned to follow suit.