Alright, well, here we go nido...you want first strike, or to make the arena? And as far as characters go...you have a profile up somewhere? cause I couldnt find one...if ya dont, then whatever, im not gonna make a big deal out of it. Oh, yea, and just an idea, since neither of us really have much of a profile up, and since we both might need a couple of warm up rounds, maybe we should start this fight out with a little bit of a back story or something and then jump into the battle after 3 or 4 posts? Just a thought.
Anyway, lets get this show on the road
IC:
Death. It's presence here was unmistakable; the footprints left behind too large to be ignored. Whether broken glass or crumbled stone, the manifestations of life now gone were rampant in the empty streets.
Maybe a ghost town, he thought. Not necessarily, though. Nido knew quite well these symptoms of abandonment might be more sinister than they appeared. He knew of powers that leveled towns; and if that was the case here, the attacker had been merciful. Walking along the street upon the divided line, Nido had no need to form concern for oncoming traffic; he knew not of land-roaming vehicle that would even attempt to navigate these huge potholes of upturned cement and hazardous blockades of wreckage and ruin.
Nido was drawn to this place not for a leisurely stroll. Quite contrary, he was here on a job; or that's how he thought of it, at least. It had been close to a year since he had been pulled by the essence of battle and bloodshed to pursue it any further, and while he felt a touch of disdain in having to interrupt the longest stretch of peace in his life, he couldn't help but feel the pulse of excitement as well. Indeed, it was warrior's blood that coursed through his veins for good or ill, and it would be so until the day of death that Nido had avoided time and time again.
Coming upon a fallen lampost, Nido sat upon the makeshift stoop, focusing inwards on sensory enhancement as he smelled and tasted the crisp, dry air. Yes, of course; he was definitely here for blood. A portion drawn, and a portion spilled.
Always the addiction; never the fear. As Nido sensed his unknown adversary drawing close, he closed his eyes, and drew in his breath; he was home. The welcome would be wonderful.
IC:
Blood and dust formed a sickening concoction on the bottom of Edgar's bare feet, a combination of elements that seemed all too at home at Edgar's gauntlet en sheathed fingertips. Electricity danced whimsically behind his eyes, arced gracefully between his outstretched digits as he slowly approached the ruins of the place Nido had once been a not-so-ordinary citizen of.
"Home sweet home, eh?"
Keen eyes and even keener intuitions whispered languidly in the ear of each warrior that this day was special, that on this day, the blood of something that had ascended from the rank of "human" was to be shed, and this ground would be hallowed forever more.
"Yea...They seemed to have changed building style's since I left though"
The joke hung in the stale air, the thick stench of blood that followed Edgar seemingly sucking all humor out of it.
"Yea, that seems to happen when I visit places...I guess I just give people that creative spark"
Edgar's emphasis on the word 'spark' came at the same moment as his advance, stopping short about 20 feet away. His eyes opened wide and a smirk crossed his face ever so briefly, as if taunting Nido. Edgar held his position for only a split second before continuing the advance, as if stopping in the middle of his assault to pose for some ethereal paparazzi to capture a snapshot of him, hands raised, hips cocked with feet wide, a smile on his face, and the devil in his eyes.
Pivoting on his front foot, he launched himself off the ground with his right, vaulting over the debris that covered the pocked marked ground. He rotated twice end over end in the air, and three times around, picking up notable speed as he passed the zenith of his flight. His right foot crashed down onto the forgotten lamp post with enough force to drive it more then halfway through the rusted out iron, coming down with the rotations at a 45 degree angle facing Nido's pedestal, creating a solid ledge for his foot. Edgar pushed off the iron, thrusting both arms at Nido, right arm high, connecting just above his left tricep, left arm sinking into his hip, forcing Nido off the edge and onto the forgotten roadway.
Using the momentum from the attack, Edgar planted his left hand on the spot where Nido had just been sitting, followed closely by his right, and pulled his legs up into a handstand. Hooking battle-scarred metal into the edge of the cement base, Edgar called out
"Next time, I'd leave the meditating until after the battle"
as he tucked his legs through his arms to take a seat on Nido's faux-throne, electric blue and the crisp smell of ozone cut through the mood as lightning trailed his feet from the air to the edge of the post.
Edgar sat, watching the figure of Nido expectantly, and couldnt help but smirk as Nido's tricep involuntarily spasmed from the residual electricity that his punch had left behind.
OoC: Ok, so its not really my best post, as i've forgotten consideribly the mechanics of attacking and sh*t, but it'll work. Thats the point of this battle, right?
The throbbing in his tricep was more of an annoyance than anything to Nido, which turned out to be quite a disappointment. Never mind that, he told himself. The battle was young; his hunger for pain- his hunger to be back in battle- would certainly come his way this day. He knew not of this adversary from any previous encounters, but the man was of obvious physical fortitude; his nimble acrobatics and elemental commandeering of the electricity coursing between his hands told Nido that much. But his true grit as a warrior was to be put to the test; doing this, in fact, was Nido's duty.
Rising from the concrete, Nido was able to afford a smile. Hell, half the fun of getting knocked down was getting back up, anyways. He drew himself into form, tightening muscles and clearing his mind, twitching slightly regardless as the electrical energy surged through his body.
"Meditating is for those whose minds are beyond their control."
With this, Nido seemed to snap forward rather than move, and Edgar received a swift side kick to the throat that hit him with such momentum he was thrown backwards, slamming spine-first against an already decaying lamp post, bringing the stone to it's final crumbling and leaving Edgar in a pile of debris.
Nido discarded his outer cloak from his shoulders, tossing it aside to rest amid some random ruins as he regained his balance and achieved defensive stature.
A crimson river of iron and plasma eroded a path through the dust that had accumulated on Edgar's back, seemingly oozing rather then flowing down his back and between his shoulder blades, a highway of blood from his shoulders to the ground.
Edgar's hand clutched his neck as he rose from the wreckage, whispering
"In cavda venenvm"
As he cleared his throat.
With feet now firmly planted, Edgar fished a piece of rusted iron from the former light post. He twirled the bar of iron between his fingertips playfully, a wisp of electric blue chasing the rotating head, a tail of energy to the micro comet that had been created by Edgar’s influence.
His eye twitched. Only a slight movement, hardly noticeable if not for the piercing blue of his iris that highlighted the flinch. A tip off. A single mistake, as simple as a wandering eye, could tell volumes to the weathered warrior. The two strangers stood toe to toe, the twirling in Edgar’s hand had stopped, and the only movement was that of dust and clothes as wind cut through the valley-like indentation that the road of the newly deserted town had become. Their clothes whipped, eyes staring through each other, striving to see the inner workings of the other’s mind, to discover some weakness, if not in physicality, then mentality.
Edgar moved with incredible speed and force, defying laws that Einstein and Newton had set years before, and that the universe had enforced without prejudice. The sapphire silhouette cloaking Edgar’s moves formed a blinding rainbow of pure energy as it followed the arc of his overhand right cross, connecting solidly to Nido’s right shoulder, crashing down onto his clavicle with a punishing CRACK!.
Nido spun into dark disorientation, regaining bearings long enough to watch, helpless from his back, a beautiful flash of light come careening from the air into the base of his throat.
A map of residual energy hung eerily in the air, the pathways that Edgar’s limbs had taken as he had assaulted Nido. The looping arc that the initial punch had left suspended, and the tight semicircle floating only inches above the ground that was the outlining of his right foot as he had used the momentum from the punch to hook his bare foot behind Nido’s. The short protrusion on the end of the looping arc caused it to look almost like a fishhook, where the right arm had followed through the punch, then drastically changed directions in order to knock Nido off his feet.
The smell of ozone seared through both men’s nostrils, the only remaining sentient light in the air from the energy that had followed the heel of Edgar as he had brought it down with devastating force as an axe-kick into the top of Nido’s chest, just at the spot where the collar bones meet the top of the breastbone.
”Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.”
Said Edgar, as he spit the blood from his mouth and readied himself for retaliation.
OoC: so... I think i've gotten a little too wordy, haha, I think it must be from starry eyed memories of old writers. oh well. :-). Yea, I think this post may be a little confusing, the timing is off, the prose isnt quite right, and the flow is too choppy... Oh well, it works, we're still just warming up
Nido laid still upon his back, badly winded and awash with the sensations of fresh pain. Energy burns, cracked bones; yes, indeed, Nido had found skill within his enemy. He had underestimated this stranger and paid the price quite quickly, but nevertheless, it filled him with satisfaction. He had found a challenge; this man was much more than training fodder and target practice. He was a warrior.
Luckily for Nido, though, so was he.
Bringing himself to rise upon one knee, Nido ran his ringed hand over his chest and across the collarbone, physically attesting to ensure the abscence of fracture his subconcious mind had already confirmed. He wasn't injured now, but he probably would be; a thought formed more out of anticipation and preparation than the usual pseduo-masochism Nido found himself indulging in lately. Hell, for all he knew, he could be addicted to this bloodsport, and he knew very well he'd been away from it plenty long enough for withdrawal to set in.
Still upon one knee, Nido extended his right index finger and waved it across his front, summoning a quick and simplistic charge of elemental wind which took the form of a sudden gust that swept forward and took Edgar off his feet, slamming him backwards against the remains of a building's brick exterior with force more suitable to stun than injure. A stun was all Nido had intended, though, for before Edgar had time to do much but come to a stationary position, Nido had recovered and advanced with surprising speed, kicking sharply off the ground and propelling himself into aerial assault.
A snapping kick lashed out and savagely tagged Edgar's head, landing toe-first upon the cheekbone as the warrior's head smashed into the brick while Nido's momentum came to a halt, his body following through and careening off the building. Rapidly gaining his footing before Edgar's legs could possibly give way, Nido exploded forward again in a burst of adrenal energy as he first swung low in stance and then came upwards fast and hard with a rising right uppercut to the base of Edgar's chin. Teeth bit the tongue and the jaw rattled against the skull as blotches of blackness flooded Edgar's vision, clearing only to reveal the clouded sky from the vantage point of the sidewalk while Nido waited, poised and balanced, focusing inwards on his own energies.
Fury. Boiling deep. It bubbled through him, dark and thick. Adrenaline ate through the pain, replacing firing synapses with a cold fire. Heart beating fast, his fists clenched and released. A hand crept to his face, the battered cheekbone, probing damage, massaging feeling into the contusions. He could still breathe through the blood; a syrup of iron and plasma in his mouth. The wound was superfluous, only cosmetic; he didn’t need to be pretty to fight. Slowly his vision came back, through blood flecked eyelids and bits of tongue and unidentifiable muscle that had been ejected from his mouth.
Breath back, adrenaline flowing, endorphins released, Edgar rose to his feet, a pulse of energy flashing behind his already blue eyes. They focused, a fierce gaze through the warrior he stood toe-to-toe with, falling not upon Nido, but through his soul and into the dust wrapped streets just beyond him.
Dark clouds encroached upon the desecrated town, lightning anxious to burst forth, pregnant with rain. The smell was unmistakable; rain was coming, ready to bathe the pockmarked battlefield. It was the calm before the storm.
Edgar doubled over, a residual muscle flare from the rising blow that struck him in the abdomen, half processed blood expelled from his open mouth. His eyes stuck on Nido’s feet with the intensity only the warrior posses, only the crazy would wield.
He advanced on Nido like a berserker, feet pounding, excitement glinting off his pupils. When he left the ground, it was more an affront to gravity then it was a leap, his bounding gait seemingly parting from the Earth on its own accord.
His fist connected with Nido’s face while his body was in full extension, striking bone with enough force to pulverize. He knocked Nido clean off his feet as he sailed headlong through the air, the sound from the blow echoing with a satisfying CRUNCH!
Nido’s head snapped back, pulling his neck, forcing his legs and torso to follow, parting his footwear from the cobbled ground. Both men landed at nearly the same time, Nido landing with his back arched over a jagged chunk of displaced concrete, Edgar prostrate into a pile of rubble.
Edgar pulled himself from the debris; slowly, deliberately. It took him a full ten seconds to regain his feet; he was still shaking off the earth-shattering uppercut that had robbed his lungs of oxygen. He stood, breathing hard, expectantly waiting his adversary to pull himself from the dirt.
The first droplet of rain landed. The deluge had begun, and with it the dirge was underway.
OoC: Hey man, it says in your profile you haven't been active since May, but if you're ever back around and feel up to completing this, let me know and I'll be more than happy to get my reply up. I, uh...seemed to have misjudged the length of my absence and I apologize for that.
Just thought I'd throw that out there...
Yea, my computer kinda exploded and other things distracted me from this forum. if you have any interest though, I think this has potential, so yea, if you wanna reply, ill try and check back here often so we can finish this