Well my friend, we've already come to the conclusion that this is a battle we ought to get around to completing, and our past few attempts have all fallen short. That's why we're going to make this one count.
Ready to put on a show?
I am my friend.
Well as we have already agreed, I will come up with our lovely arena, so let me compile a post and I'll go ahead and throw it out here.
IC:
We had been traveling for days when we finally emerged from the trees and into the open area of Corino Point, a fairly large area of green grass and random rocks lining the earth. The edge was overlooking the vast sea, and several hundred feet below the water smashed against the jagged rocks causing a spray of ocean mist to climb upwards and brush against my face. Standing here looking out at the distant horizon I kept asking myself why I was following this man, and I simply could not answer the question.
The man’s name was Necro and I had been tagging along with him for several weeks now as we traveled from place to place. My initial encounter with him was in some distant field where he and a fellow warrior waged battle against one another. Never in all my years of existence had my eyes laid upon such a feat. I was mesmerized, and as the battle concluded, I found myself wanting. I needed more, and it was then I decided to follow this man in his…hell, I don’t know what it is he is doing, I never asked, but I figured if I followed I would see more of what I saw in that field. I would be able to write bout it, and with any luck, live to tell what I had witnessed.
So now, there I was standing several hundred feet above the ocean, and no idea as to why we had come here. Necro had simply laid down his blade and sat upon a large grey stone as if waiting for something, or more likely, someone….
‘Why am I here? Why does he let me follow? Why don’t I ask him questions? Am I afraid? Why is he always so quiet?’
Corino Point was as breathtaking as he had been promised, and for an opinion like that to form from Nido's head about a choice of battlefield, the place in question had better be pretty damned amazing.
He really couldn't expect less from Necro, though. He knew the man like he knew himself; too well, in both instances. He had bled this man, and bled from him; they had sparred as friends, and killed as allies. These two men had watched the growth of the other through years of war and countless battles, and today they came together again to reunite those memories.
It had been too long, Nido thought, as he moved forward toward the sight of his long-time friend, poised in patient waiting atop the perch of a large stone. He looked well, indeed; Necro had obviously been putting some work into what Nido remembered as an already formidable physical form. Those frozen eyes, unbearably cold to most, were nothing but warm and inviting to Nido, who had come close enough now to meet their gaze as simultaneous thin smiles crossed the faces of both men.
"You've been waiting?", Nido asked, loosening his outer hooded cloak, tossing it carelessly across the branches of a convenient oak in lieu of a missing coat rack. A wakazashi blade was drawn from aside each respective hip and then laid gently among the grass beside Necro's own weapon as Nido disarmed and then straightened to face his friend.
"I've only just arrived", Necro replied, rising from his stool and engaging in the greeting handshake Nido was now offering with outstretched arm. Power coursed amongst their veins and seemed longing to leap between their bodies, hardly able to maintain control before the inevitable battle at hand could commence.
"Well?, Nido beamed, retreating several steps as the two began to circle a central point on the soil of Corino Point. "We've not come all this way to shake hands and reminisce."
Another thin-lipped smile covered Necro's lips, and with more words said than words themselves could say, Nido advanced with tremendous force.
A jabbing left-fake paired with a true right cross was simple enough yet adequate to disrupt Necro's defenses, catching him unevenly against the bulk of the right shoulder. The taller of the two was sent off balance into a defensive backwards step as Nido attacked again, twisting himself sideways into a quick spinning kick that built some easy momentum and slapped Necro sharply in the ribs. Necro stumbled off balance, dizzied and dazed, but certainly still well-off as Nido stepped back and resumed his half of the circle, raising his hands into defensive features as he flashed a fanged-toothed grin.
"Let's see where we left off, my friend."
Everything had begun to happen so quickly, the embrace of two old friends, then the spark of a battle that both warriors seemed to welcome with open arms. It was clear on their faces that they had been looking forward to this for quite some time. You could see it in their eyes and movements, the fun they were about to have.
These people amaze me with their awesome lust for battle, like its all one big game, something they live for…and in fact, they do live for it, this is what drives these men. They embrace flesh and bone, pushing each other to the very edge, to that fine line where fantasy and reality collide and stories are born to carry out through the ages. You hear about stories like this at bedtime; well, these men are those stories.
As these thoughts raced through my head I found myself retreating to a safe distant, no need in putting myself in harms way. Am I a coward? Perhaps, but it was clear from the beginning that these two would bring chaos down upon this earth today. Like I said before, it was something in their eyes; that fire lingering in the background waiting to be set free and engulf the area around us.
Necro had let a sly smile stretch across his face as he began rotating his shoulder, popping the bones, loosening up for the storm headed his way. “I see you haven’t lost your touch old friend,” Necro said as he dug his feet into the earth, readying himself for his retaliation. “Let me assure you that neither have I!”
Like the crash of a lightning bolt, Necro had taken off towards Nido with blinding speed; my eyes could barely keep up as I watched with great intensity. It happened fast, Necro had leapt into the air in some sort of acrobatic like maneuver and sent his right leg crashing down into the top of Nido’s right shoulder. The mass of the green haired warrior stumbled backward as Necro landed on his back, quickly recovering into a defensive like stance.
What skill these two possessed, every move so deliberate, so precise. These two would clearly show me today what true warriors are made of…
It didn't take Nido long to recover from Necro's aerial assault, but it seemed almost instantaneous that the attacker was poised for defense. His speed is still great, Nido noted to himself; quickness and raw agility were always some of Necro's greatest assets, as far as Nido's opinion was concerned. As he felt a sharp twinge in his shoulder denoting the after effects of the kick, though, he remembered that power was yet another.
"This shall be a thing of beauty", Nido said, more or less thinking aloud his sentiments for this battle. More often than not was battle a thing of survival; an option to kill or be killed instead. Today, though, he knew not fear; the anxieties of fight-or-flight were not present anywhere within Corino Point's grounds. Yes, these men had come for battle; they wielded powers of tremendous magnitude. But alas, battle itself, for these seasoned warriors, could easily be made into a thing of beauty. They would paint these fields with each other's blood; and the resulting picture would be a masterpiece, indeed.
Nido bore downwards on his center of gravity and shifted his weight against the ground, kicking sharply off his back foot as he propelled forward into his own aerial acrobatics. Rolling forwards in mid-air sommersault and extending a flying kick of his own, Nido brought both legs down with thunderous force, clobbering Necro across the head, neck and shoulders with a large portion of his lower body's bulk weight. The blue-haired man toppled backwards as the green-haired one rolled over and through him, sticking as clean a landing as he could as a plume of dust leaped forth into the air, thrown from the ground beneath the impact of the two warriors.
I remember thinking about the strength and agility this man Nido was able to display, such determination in every move, no visual faults in his form, simply flawless.
Necro had begun to lift himself from the ground as he wiped away a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth. “Isn’t it always beautiful,” Necro had said in response to Nido’s comment as he began to smile once more, bringing himself to his feet. “Let us make people remember this day throughout the ages.”
Necro assumed a fighting stance as he and Nido began to stare each other down. It was hard for me to make out facial expressions since I was a good distance away, but you could tell there was a sense of extreme determination upon both their faces. Then, like before, Necro took off in a dead sprint, his speed even greater than before as he rushed Nido. He began to slide forward on one foot as the other came flying around, smashing Nido in the side of the head. His body jerked violently and then tumbled to the side, sprawling out across the earth. Yet Necro was not done as he carried his momentum into another aerial maneuver and sent his knee crashing towards Nido.
Dirt and dust flew into the air as Necro made contact, I could no longer see either man. I began to squint as if it might give me the power to see through the thick cloud of earth, yet nothing was visible, I had to wait with great anticipation for the dust to settle, and as it did I noticed Nido standing to the side and Necro removing his knee from a small fracture in the earth. Nido had dodged the attack and a look of satisfaction seemed to spread across the face of Necro…
Choosing wisely to take advantage of his opening, Nido was upon Necro in a flash, blasting forward and catching him squarely in the abdomen with a counter knee. Necro jerked backward, his lungs robbed of wind, his jaw absorbing another shot as Nido popped him with a short jab. A second punch followed, intent on creating a flury of blows, but Necro's arm came up and across, parrying Nido's fist away as Necro landed his own counter punch with an overhand cross to Nido's chin. Nido staggered back, caught off balance by the sharp fist, instinctively bringing up his guard even though space had again been created between the two men.
Resuming their circling pattern, the two moved in a current silence, drawn into the heat of battle and away from their preliminary ease. The gears of great minds began to shift as each man mentally sized up the other, noting what they knew of their opponent's style; how they defended, how they attacked. Such deep-rooted friendship between these two left far less to the imagination than your typical battlefield enemies and today that was both a blessing and a curse on both ends of the deal. Sure, they could analyze and predict the other's moves; but that was mutual, and evenly shared. Impossible to find an advantage; leverage would require physical attainment.
Making advance once again, Nido came in as Necro stepped back to defend the attack, blocking a short front-kick but finding himself helpless to stop the other leg which swung up and across from the right side with an ultimate destination flush against the face. Blood spattered forth from Necro's mouth as Nido hit the ground and rolled backwards and to his feet with agility, quickly becoming evasive from the inevitable retaliation.
Necro spun around as blood flew from his mouth and splattered against the earth. His momentum sent him around in a full 360 degree rotation and he was once again facing Nido. Quickly wiping his mouth, Necro began to play with his jaw, moving it from side to side and jutting it out. You could hear the bones cracking, loosening up as he readied himself for his next assault.
“Quite a kick you have their,” Necro said as he began to smile once more. You wouldn’t think someone who had just been kicked across the face would be smiling, but this white haired warrior was. He was having fun, like he always did; this is what he lived for.
Necro made another advance on Nido, his feet digging hard into the earth as he sped forward with blinding speed. I couldn’t even see it when he sent both palms of his hands smashing into the upper body of Nido, sending the green haired man staggering backwards in a fit of coughing as his lungs were robbed of their precious oxygen. Necro then carried the remaining of his momentum into a swift kick to Nido’s temple, but was quickly blocked by his opponent’s quick thinking. Nido had brought up his left arm and now had a hold of Necro’s right leg….