It's weak, I know. Much the reason for my reemergence. not nearly on par with my best work but with some practice, I hope to get there.
[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]"Yes...this will be perfect."
::The planet Dirga was renowned through the galaxy for it's desolation. An entire planet full of cruel, forbidding, desert. It's seemingly endless sand-strewn surface was pockmarked with craters, where space debris had had no trouble shooting through it's thin whisp of atmosphere. Deep crags and canyons spoke oif a planet nearing the end of it's cohesion, and should the battle reach a proper intensity, the destruction of this world would be no great loss.::
::This made Coren smile as he strolled idly along a vast plain of hardpan dirt. Hopefully, this battle would reach that intensity, and beyond. Far beyond.::
::The immense red sun began to set upon the eastern horizon, and Coren waited patiently, the calm before the storm had set in, but the storm was fast approaching.::[/COLOR]
The fact that this battle was previously arranged was much to Nido's chagrin; approaching an enemy by way of stealth was likely impossible in this climate. Not tree nor rock nor bush nor shrub gave essence of life to this landscape, and the only discrepancies to the flat desert plains were the craters and dunes within it. Visibility on the surface was occasionally marred by the veils of sand in the wind, but other than that it was reasonably clear as far as the eye could see.
Nido saw Coren across the plains while still quite a distance away. The vantage point from a hundred yards was still a little bit hazy, but Nido's memory was ripe with the image of Coren from years before. It had been some time since the two had met in the ageless arenas of battle, but the caliber of war the two had had made forgetting each other impossible. How long had it been?, Nido wondered. The years seemed blended together. The two men had obviously aged in body and likely grew in the mind. Nido could only offer his hope for an encore of epic proportions.
As he drew near at last to Coren's position he gently removed his cloak, allowing the vestment to drift from his shoulders and offer itself to the wind. The current setting of Dirgan's sun meant desert night was approaching, and the cooling effect of the dropping temperature had begun to emerge from the heat.
"Some time," he said, nodding to Coren, a respectful show of acknowledgement. The nod was returned, a welcoming gesture, and silence came to follow. The two men knew their purpose this day, and formalities seemed irrelevant. With this unsaid notion mutually understood, Nido propelled himself forward.
His back foot stomped at the hard-pan dirt as his front one departed the surface, immediate proof that a few year's aging had not impaired his agility. Muscles tight and body tighter, Nido careened in the air, rotating once in the course of his flight with one leg beginning extension. The obvious momentum of aerial attack fared well with its quick execution, leaving Coren with minimal chance for a fully successful evasion. He managed to avoid taking the boot in the head as Nido intended, but he caught a shin to the chest instead that hammered against his sternum.
More from the physical force of the blow than the damage it actually caused him, Coren was shoved from the safety of balance and staggered back in retreat. With his bearings returning in formidable speed he was quickly back in position, assuming the entirity of height and stance as Nido drew distance between them.
OOC: Ah, the wonders of sleep deprivation and Mountain Dew. A classic combination.
[COLOR="Lime"]"With his bearings returning in formidable speed he was quickly back in position, assuming the entirity of height and stance as Nido drew distance between them."[/COLOR]
[COLOR="deepskyblue"]
::A distance which Coren, the White Angel intended to close before his query could claculate his first offensive. With the ease and grace of experience, Coren leapt forward, sending his leading foot crashing into the ground to put spin into his advance. As Nido entered his intended strike zone, Coren Kicked again, increasing his spin and letting his opposite foot fly with the power of centrifugal force into the soft tissue of Nid's left side. Of course, the battler easily snared the attack with his arm, wrapping Coren's ankle with nearly limitless strength, but much to Nid's bewilderment, Coren only smiled, kicking the ground once more and bringing the knee of his free foot to his chest before slamming it with all his might into Nido's nose. Usually, he'd keep his distance, feeling his opponent out before unleashing his full fury, but against a veteran battler, a man he'd faced in combat many times before, there was no need to stand on ceremony or hold back for respect. Like himself, this man valued every opportunity to inflict gratutitous amounts of pain, and as Nid sailed away, leaving Coren to somersault into position for the counterstroke, the White angel silently vowed to himself that this fight would utterly redefine the meaning of pain itself.::
"It's an honor to stand once again across the field from you, old foe. Brings back happy memories. Let us strive to make this fight equally memorable."[/COLOR]
Nido staggered away from his foe in less than a graceful manner, nearly tumbling into the dirt as he fought to regain his balance. His face ignited with the tell-tale sting of a possibly fractured nose, which emitted a miniscule trickle of blood from his nostril down to his lip. The familiar warm and metallic taste seemed only a tease as it stained his tongue. Nostalgia, then, and memories followed; battles he had long since forgotten. The smell of death, the smell of fear, the snap of the breaking bones-- these things, at times, seemed sealed in the past, safely bound from their hauntings. But now, today, in return from his absence, Nido could not forget.
"Those happy memories you speak of," he said, advancing slowly to Coren's position, "they always came with a cost."
Then again, in a flash, he was on the attack, coming at Coren like a freight train. The distance, this time, was less than great, and melee began in an instant, a flurry of punches and hooks and blows erupting from Nido's fists. Coren defended, forearms blocking, Nido's strikes slamming hard at his arms. For the initial attacks of greatest momentum Coren foiled them well, but it wasn't long before his shield was inevitably broken through. A crushing hook sailed under his arm and caught him square in the ribs, doubling Coren over Nido's fist as the second hit hammered his chin. For the shortest of moments his vision blackened as he felt himself falling backwards, landing in a dazed and awkward heap on the sands of Dirga's surface. Nido drew back, ceasing attack, and waited for Coren's recovery.
"Today," he said, centering in stance, "we will pay that cost again."
[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"]::As he hefted himself once again to his feet, a sinister smiled curled the White Angel's lips, baring pure white teeth. He ran his white glove over his chin, wiping the blood trickling from his mouth.::
" Indeed my old friend. But, when calculating the cost, we must not forget to factor in a few years worth of inflation!"
::With that, Coren leapt again to the attack, drawing Absolution. As he let it fly, Nid brought forth his own blade. The two clashed amid a grand shower of sparks. Sparks not composed of hot, chipped metal, but of fractured space-time itself. The two warriors pressed forward upon one another, their weapons squealing under immense pressure, as their auras flared, singing the air itself. Coren's smile twisted into a vicious snarl.::
"Long has it been since I've seen your face contorted with pain, my old friend. Let's see what can be done to remedy the situation!"
::Coren supinated his wrist, letting Nido's parry slide to one side of him. Spinning clockwise, Coren let fly a horizontal strike, which once again found Nid's defenses ready. But Nid found all too soon that there was no weight behind the blow, and cast his eyes back to Coren's shoulders too late. Coren's off-hand, now a fist, slammed again into his opponent's nose, this time, the blow had been reinforced by pure, focused kinetic energies, and the cracking of a sonic boom could be heard as Nid's head bounced rearward. His momentum was multiplied by the White Angels foot, planting itself squarely into Nid's chest, lifting him from the ground and sending him rocketing backward.::
::Coren Left Nid no time to react, leaping to overtake him in midair, and kicking into a midair spin. An instant later, he sent the flat of Absolution crashing down upon his opponent once more, the impact knocking him violently into the dirt, and sending dust and debris cascading into the air.::
::Coren passed over the scene, one hand slamming into Dirgas surface and sending him head over heels into a graceful somersault, with a twist. He landed lightly a few yards away, slinging Absolution into a tight, defensive position, and watching keenly for Nid to attack, while absently pondering what his face must look like after that little number...::[/COLOR]
Whatever was left of Nido's nose, he knew it would not be of function; even the inhalation of air brought fiery pain to his sinus. Albeit his usually keen sense of smell was now of a total absence, the taste of the blood welling up in his mouth was suddenly all the more prevalent. Warm and thick, it stained his tongue, and just as before, nostalgia. The trickles that recently teased his palate now were of total redemption, replaced instead by the crimson wave that now sputtered free from his nose. He knew of his needing to stem the flow, but first, to savor the moment; recalling again the forgotten wars that littered his fragmented past. This taste of blood was with him then; the lancing pain, as well. And just as it had in those instances past, adrenaline burst through his veins.
Rising again from the Dirgan surface, Nido revealed his face--now but a mess of flesh and blood, a portrait of battle itself. One hand tending the wielded blade, the other came up to his nose, twisting and popping the battered bone in a rough and rugged manner. The flow of blood, refusing to stop, instead made a drastic slowing, regressing again to its previous state of a light and harmless drip. Content with his efforts of medical aid, Nido again stood to Coren, wiping--and smearing-- the blood from his face with the back of his leather-skinned hand.
"The pain that a man displays on his face is only addressing of body..."
Nido grew tense, his blade lifted high, his body a statue of carnage.
"...the pain, however, the pain of his soul, cannot be conveyed in expression!
With the end of the word, the blade came down, cleaving the air set before it, far too distant from Coren's position to find itself target of flesh. Instead, with the swing, the desert grew still, a moment of absolute solace. But then, again, did the winds gust forth, now in unnatural fashion.
Nido suddenly left his feet, rocketing into the wind, the powerful gale that vaulted him forth enough to bring gashes to clothing. Coren, standing, blade at the ready, had no real chance of evasion. Nido's fist, extended in flight, viciously hammered his ribs. The sheer momentum contained in the blow sent Coren spiraling backwards, brought to a skidding, tumbling stop in cloud of disrupted sand. Pains akin to the stabbing of knives were quick to make way through his torso, likely fractured or splintered ribs obstructing his every breath.
Nido's flight had came to an end but fifty yards in the distance, the briefly mastered force of the wind now returned into nature. Unable to stick very much of a landing, Nido came down in a fury, skidding and sliding against the sand as momentum finally left him. He rose to a knee, a slight bit shaken, long gone away from such antics. But still as he managed his way to his feet, he realized how much he had missed it.