Anyone as long you stay relativley active.
Took me a while to get a decent arena thought up myself...anywho.
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Perfect... Crono mumbled as he laid onto his beach chair. He had traveled to the island he discovered years ago, in his first fight against another battler. He and Chrono had gone at it hard, and the island, even years later, still showed the toll of the beating it took that day, when trees had been pulverized and still had not grown back, leaving only charred stumps in the battle's wake. Crono's back was to the sky, the wings tattooed on his back giving him an odd look from above. The demon wing on the right side, with the angel wing on the left; Crono enjoyed his peace and quiet, but he also enjoyed causing extreme chaos and loved his fighting even more. A perfect combination for him. He was wearing some swim trunks, and had just gotten out of the salt water that surrounded the island for hundreds of miles. He had just gotten comfortable when he thought he heard something, and he stood up quickly, pulling on his black tank top and shoes. His sword belt appeared around his waist swiftly, buckled into place, and he rattled the swords in their sheaths to make sure they were loose in case he had to draw them quickly. He wrapped his headband around his head, cinched it tight, and let the ends hang in the wind, resting his right hand on the hilt of his Dark Saber on his left hip, crouched low. After hearing nothing more, he pulled his hand off the hilt, and put his arm on the end of his Blood Blade's hilt, in a relaxed manner.
Maybe I'm just getting a little jumpy these days... he thought to himself, and sat back down, still prepared.
Better safe than sorry...
Malichi could feel the sea floor begin to rise slightly. land ahead. Malichi glanced up at the water face. It seemed so far away & reflected light beamed down in small pools of cold glows in the tropical water around him. His cloak flurried & swayed gnarling itself with the soft rolling current. The scarlette color of his cloak looked like a churning cloud of blood as the pools of light beamed in on it. Malichi slowly spread his arms & his cloak rippled across his shoulder blades. The skin on his back tightened & groaned. With a wince Malichi flexed his hands & grey wings burst from his back sending little fragments of his cloak raining like leaves as they fell in the waters low gravity. Malichi crouched & wound all the tension he could into his calves & released. A wake followed him as he rocketed through to the suface. The reflecting beams of the sun flew by like tracer bullets to the surface. Malichi could now see the surface. The face of the water broke sending streams & droplets spraying in every possible direction.
As Malichi climbed the water trailed off of him until he was almost completley dry. Malichi hovered above the island & beheld it, it was in bade shape. "What sorcery is this? A great battle was fought here. This island has not yet healed." Suddenly he spoted Crono. "The victor? Could it be him, The fates have lead me here." Malichi hesitated a moment. "I will test him." With that he shot down at Crono like a bullet.
Crono eyes shot open as he felt what was comming instictively he leapt to one side as Malichi hiot the sand like a bomb. Sand scattered ereywhere as Malichi skidded a few feet. He planted & changed direction running full tilt at Crono. Crono brased himself. He watched his opponent speed toward him drawing closer with every step, Malichi wasn't a foot away when he slid his foreward leg out & dropped his back leg. Malichi's foot struck Crono's ankle with such force it buckled. Crono fell forward but before he landed Malichi thrust his knee into Crono's stomach. Crono could feel the air being forced out of him. Malichi put his weight on his hands & folded his body into them like a spring. He rolled his hips up, his knees touching his chin & with a push from his hands he shot from the ground like a torpedo at Crono's Face. Malichi's feet rocked Crono's head back. A small stream of blood flew from Crono's mouth as his body flipped in mid air before it slammed into the sand. It mad a hard dull, packing thud as it did.
Crono rose to his feet, his ankle throbbing. The sand had cushioned his landing quite nicely, and he now knew that he wasn't paranoid at all: he had company.
And rather unfriendly company, at that... he thought to himself, with a slight grin. He didn't mind though. after lying on the beach for a couple hours, it got to be rather repetitive, just hearing the waves and the odd seagull. It was a nice change of pace to have someone that wanted to challenge him. He glanced about, thinking of his first move, and decided to go with one of his more unique techniques. He vanished from sight completely, reappearing quite a ways away, before blinking out of sight again, only to return on another side of Malichi. Crono's grin widened at Malichi's confused expression, and he continued blinking in and out of sight for a few more seconds, before stopping right in front of Malichi.
What sort of sorcery is this? Malichi asks, and Crono laughs.
I like to call it speed...because there's no sorcery involved at all, he responds, and Malichi's eyes widen as he blazes forward, tearing a pair of daggers from small sheaths on his back, one on either side, and they come forth with resonating screams of protest at the speed of their withdrawl.
Prepare yourself...for you are the first to meet Distress and Despair, Crono says, his wide grin tainted with red as he closes in with his new weapons. He ducks underneath an outstretched blocking arm, dropping to his knees and sliding forward in the sand backwards, right between Malachi's legs, and stbas upwards as he rolls out the other side, lodging Distress in Malachi's right calf muscle. Despair comes quickly after, but does not find its way into his skin at all, finding a different way to damage Crono's new opponent. Crono slams the pommel of Despair into that of Distress, and the two red crystals connect, crushing Distress further into Malachi's leg, and a satisfying scream erupts from Malachi's lungs as Distress rips its way through skin, fat, muscle, and lodges itself in the bone of his right leg with a searing pain he had not been expecting. Crono gets back to his feet as quickly as possible, and begins to run forward before stumbling on the ankle kicked out from underneath him earlier. His attack had already put enough stress on the damaged leg, and Crono did the only thing he could think of to follow up on his daggers' assault; he fired a lightning bolt directly into Malachi. Or rather, into Distress, which was embedded deep into Malachi's body, and the full force of the shock traveled through his bones, following his skeletal system and everything connected to it in a rapid, and incredibly painful, way, dropping Malachi to his knees as his legs buckle from the moment of paralysis he experiences. The effect wears off quickly, but Malachi drops straight down, and drives the dagger even further into his bone as he lands on it, splintering fragments of the bone throughout his leg in a painful and effective assault. Crono walks over as quickly as he can, and grabs hold of Distress' hilt, bracing his good foot on Malachi, and sends another surge of electricity through Malachi's body as he tears the weapon free from Malachi's slowly shattering bone.
Bring it on... Crono says, his serious expression falling apart back into his usual grin.
Malichi quivered as the current pulsed through his veins & along his nerves. He clutched the wound & applied pressure to stop the bleeding. His eyes fluttered closed in focus. Malichi's thoughts went into the wound, he willed it to seal & for his bones to reconect. Crono looked on as Malichi's scarlet cape began to ripple. Very gradually at first but The ripples slowly grew. After a few seconds the ripples folded over each other like tiny waves of crimson. The threads in the cloth began to unstring & melt into one another. Malichi's cloak churned as it liquified around his wound. The liquid crept like blood to the rim of the dig in Malichi's leg & plunged itself in.
Malichi gave a strong drawn out groan as the the creature of his cloak flooded his wound & dove to the broken bones in his leg. He could feel the being inside him. It sanked itself around the cracked feemer & filled the gap where the parts of his bone where seperated like a puddy. Malichi grimised under his hood. A tired, velvet smooth voice came from under the hood.
"Well done, but we are only beginning." Malichi drew back his wing & swung it at Crono. As his wing cut the air Crono braced himself. Inches away from Crono Malichi's wing began to change. The membrane became rigid & the veins went grey. The grey spread from his veins over his whole wing. The impact of granite & Crono's head echoed in a muffled, wet thud. Crono's head snapped sideways & he fell to one knee to keep from falling. But Malichi wasn't finished.
Malichi dug his foreward foot into the sand & widened his stance. As he dug his foot deeper he swung his whole body in a backward arch somersalting in the air. grains of sand were tore upward with his black foot before falling like drops of rain inot the sea of grains. Malichi twisted his hips throwing his back leg over his head as he turned over
He flexed his foot bringins his heel down like a mace on Crono's head. Crono could here the whistle of Malichi's heel tearing through the air. Seconds before impact the skin in Malichi's foot became rigid & a layer of stone quickly formed into his foot. Crono felt the shock in his head & it traveled into his mouth where he could almost taste it. His head hit the sand with such force that grains flew in two great upward archs. Malichi pushed himself up off of Crono's head & sumersalted into a ready position behind Crono. As he landed his wounded leg buckled slightly. not completley healed but it will have to do. Malichi's sword made a sliding ring as it left it's seath.
Finally, an opponent worth some of my greater attacks. I use this one in almost every battle, but lately...none have been deserving.
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Crono's mind came alive quickly, the blackness fasing away. he felt a tremendous throbbing in his head, and he wasn't quite sure of his location. Things started coming back in a flash, and he braced himself for another impact before rolling to his right. To his surprise, nothing came, and he opened his eyes to a blurred world in agony. He was starting to realize everything, and his head ached like never before. He thanked the sand once more for the somewhat cushioned landing, and thought back to his battles here. He had lost to his counterpart Chrono, and the island was torn from that battle, but his trademark attack had been conceived out of desperation in that battle, and this island had been torn and had its landscape charred and broken twice more afterwards, against his rival Echo. The same attack that helped him so many times in the past would have to grow in strength this time around, and Crono thought he may have found a way to do this through the great amount of magecraft and studying he went through in the years since the conception of a purely theoretical attack that had worked exactly as imagined. The time had risen to bring that theory to the next level, and his thoughts drifted to the passage in a book he had skimmed through in his search for a certain location. The book had not revealed the location of what he was searching for, but told of a great battle in which the mage had perfected a spell that had not yet reached full potential. Crono now knew the secret to perfect his favorite spell, and he could now bring it forth against this worthy assailant of darkness.
In theory, of course...always in theory. I've done enough research....never had a theoretical spell fail yet, so it's time to give it a shot, he thought to himself, his usual grin replaced by a look of concentration. Malichi lloked impatient, as though waiting for something, and Crono's grin returned in confidence.
If I don't have confidence in myself and my abilities, then what do I have left?
Crono finally began, picking up a small bit of sand from the ground beneath him in his left hand. It was stained red, but the color of the sand didn't matter much. He let a bit gently drift through his fingers, and measured out the amount he wanted. Too much would harm not only his opponent and the surrounding area, but himself as well. In his right hand he conjured a small, bluish flame, and clapped his hands together, right on top of left so as not to lose much more sand. He held the swirling mass of sand and fire in his left hand still, and gestured with his right towards the ocean waves. A small bit of water tugged itself away from the retreating waves, and floated in Crono's direction. Malichi looked on, interested in learning this new type of spellcasting, never having seen anything like it, and Crono held his right hand straight upwards, his two main fingers extended skyward. Closing his eyes helped to clear his vision, also, as he blinked away the sweat and blood now dripping into his eyes. A single bolt of lightning, more like a strand then a bolt, fired down from the clear blue sky into Crono's arm, channeling through his entire body into the swirling mass now consisting of sand, fire, and water. A blinding flash sears Malichi's eyes for a few seconds, and when his vision returns to normal, he sees Crono holding a black ball in his right hand, about the size of a softball, with streaks of blue lightning bouncing along its surface, as though the ball itself repelled the energy for fear of imploding in on itself.
Now, the real problem...that stone skin of his. I'll have to weave in a bit more before this attack can come into effect...
Another flash resonates from the ball, and as Malichi's vision repairs itself for the second time, he notices that the ball is missing from Crono's grasp, nowhere to be found. He also notes the scrapes and bruises to Crono's face missing, although the larger wounds still seem to be partially intact. His look of confusion draws Crono's attention, and Crono's grin widens.
That bolt of lightning being drawn through me is more than just for show...I let it heal me slightly on its way through, taking care of my body and letting just the right amount into the ball at the same time.
Crono smiles once more, and then vanishes in front of Malici's eyes once more, before reappearing behind him.
Prepare yourself...for the likes of something you've never seen before, Crono whispers, a strange power emanating from his body before he vanishes once more.
More speed games? Malichi asks, looking about to sort out where his opponent could or could not be.
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Crono smiles, pleased with the success of his assault so far. He had not even begun the physical damage, but he might as well have completed it already. He had never carried out a spell this interwoven and intricate before, and it was a show to himself and others of his evergrowing power. Within his sight were two timelines: one in which Malichi was alone, and one in which they were together, but slowed down by a thousand times, so Crono's movements were beyond the speed of light compared to Malichi's. In fact, in the timeline he was residing in, Malichi could still not see him. So in fact, that were two streams of time at the moment, both with Malichi, but only one with him. The slower one that he existed in appeared in a haze of blues and greens while the regular appeared normally, and he closed his eyes, focusing both of them on his current stream. He drew his Dark Saber and Demon Edge, his double bladed sword, and darted forward even faster than before, spinning, whirling, and whipping his blades in a sword dance so intricate that it came only as instinct, not as a trained art. His first slices were shallow as he waited for his first spell to bridge the time gap, and then felt the energy of his Manaball reach him at last, only infused in his body instead of formed into a ball. With the power of his trademark attack infused in his body, emitting a strange aura of power, he channeled the energy through his weapons into Malichi as he drew an X across his opponent's chest, before spinning around the outside of his opponent, back to back, to thrust his Demon Edge, straight back, lodging yet another of his blades into Malichi, this one digging deep into his back, piercing veins, arteries, and muscle all the same. The razor sharp edge continued its path through to the other side, and Crono let go of the blade, spun, and tore it free from Malichi's rib cage back into his waiting grasp. He blinked once more, envisioning both timelines, and completed the last of his spellweaving, fusing the two strands of time into one stream again.
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Crono blinked into vision a few feet in front of Malichi, and Malichi laughed at Crono.
What pathetic sort of attack was that? And what happened to that aura of power surrounding you moments ago?
Crono shrugged, having only been gone for two or three seconds in this the true timeline, and waited. He counted to five, and then grinned as he saw the first small cut catch up to him in time. A streak of blood appeared across Malichi's left arm, and he looked at it, confused, before a sudden explosion of pain was on him as cuts and slices began appearing across his body, but they were all shallow wounds. There was a moment of reprieve, and Malachi assumed the strange attack was over, but a large X shape appeared across his chest, and an audible snap was heard as the channeled power of Crono's Manaball ripped into his chest as though it had hit him there twice, the power of the earth crushing his organs and snapping ribs like twigs, before fire unleashed its fury on him, searing the skin and burning away at his leather like it was made of paper. The water soothed the burning, however, and this confused Malichi greatly, trying to figure out why his opponent would cool the burning of his own attack. He understood greatly as the electricity flowed through Malichi's now soaking wet body, and he collapsed to his knees buckle again under the temporarily induced paralysis. The last attack comes through the twisted strands of time to finish the merging process, and a ghostly image of the Demon Edge Crono holds in his left hand appears. Malichi follows the blade up to the owner, then glances back to Crono, holding the same blade, right in front of him, trying to figure out the horror of the second, ethereal Crono behind him. The ghostly image plunges its Demon Edge through Malichi's back, and a brand new type of pain runs through Malichi as the power of Crono's Manaball attack is felt from within, pushing and crushing vital organs and searing the inside of his body as well as electrocuting him once more. Malichi falls forward onto his chest, gasping for breath, and Crono grins as he wipes a small trail of blood off his pounding head.
Surely you have some fight left in you, yet...
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EDIT: Typos
wow man that's quite an impressive attack I'm honored to meet someone of your talent.
Malichi spat blood as he lurched foreward trying to fill his lungs with air. It came in short rapid draggs through vomits of blood. Crimson trails streamed down from his arms & legs into several small pools around his body. He tried to move up to one knee but as he rose a great rush flooded his head & the air left his body. Malichi fell back to the sand with a grunt. He hadn't felt pain like this in ages. Even if this man wasn't who he seeked he was well worth the fight. Malichi closed his eyes for a moment & pulled sand into his fist as he willed his body to rise to his knee.
"Bravo. A warrior of the ages to be sure.... Malichi stopped in mid sentence. Something odd was happening to his cloak & robes. A sudden bursting pulse shot through his body & he collapsed in a spasm. The cloak began to ripple again, more violently now. It slowly began to fold & move seemingly of it's own free will. It began to pour itself into the host of wounds across his body. The searing pain was incredible. Malichi's eyes fluttered & he almost lost his consciousness. The cloak flared & pulsed but there was no breeze. Crono looked as this strange cloak wearily paying very close attention to its movements. It coiled back like the heads of two snakes ready to strike. Crono braced himself.
They snapped foreward simotanesly hurling at Crono with lightning speed. Crono cut the one on the left. As he did so flecks of blood blotted themselves into the air. Crono's vision went black as the second hit its mark. Crono felt a pressure on his neck as the cloak coiled itself around it like a constrictor. As he opened his mouth to suck in air the cloak pressed itself up against his mouth preventing any air flow what so ever. The pressure tightened around Crono's neck & the air clogged in his lung. Crono could feel dizziness creep as the grip grew tighter & tighter. It tightened until Crono felt his lung began to collapse & then with a sudden jerk tugged his body foreward. as soon as the cloak pulled him it released its grip. He would have no time to recover.
As the cloth left his eyes & his sight returned Crono saw Malichi two feet below him coiled back on his hands. Malichi pushed off his hands & straightened his legs in a snap. Crono saw the stone form over Malichi's feet before the forced into his jaw. There was a wet pop & a splinter as Crono's jaw cracked. The force of the blow was like a battering ram to the face. A loose stream of blood spun out of crono's mouth as his lower jaw was forced into his cheek bone.
Malichi sumersalted in mid air as Crono was still falling. Malichi drew his right hand back. Crono watched as the skin in his hands go translucent & his veins go grey. The skin tensed & the patterns grew smooth. The ends of his fingers fromed into granite points & the stone traveled up his hand to the forearm. Malichi smerked from beneath his hood & shot his clawed hand into Crono's shoulder. Crono winced as the granite points touched hithe skin of his shoulder & tugged the surrounding skin into it as it puched in. There was a wet gummy suck as Malichi's finger punched into Crono's shoulder. Crono's shoulder hit first. On impact Malichi shifted all of his weight inot Crono's shoulder plunging Malichi's fist into Crono to the wrist. Malichi twisted & Crono's flesh churned with Malichi's hand. As the hand left his shoulder Crono watched the blood stream & bead from Malichi's fingers.