Cassandra v. Elric

[Admin]

The tournament floor was empty, but the crowd was filled with excited patrons hoping to see a bloody battle between two great fighters. There were two doors on opposite sides of the arena. One for each fighter to step though. The announcer wasted no time in yelling from the side lines, "Without further delay, let's begin this fight!"

All that there was to wait on was the entrances of the two opponents from opposite sides.

[Golden Emblem]

Cassie was an angry girl.

She had wanted to fight again, as her parents had been in the ring, but no. A stupid hawk had taken her foe away, never to be seen again by the young fighter. She wanted to show her parents that she was actually good, but she hadn't gotten the chance. She was ready now, and she wanted to do a good job.

"Come on, I can do it."

[Griffin]

Elric was sick of these damned hawks. All he wanted was a conclusive battle. And with any luck, this battle would be such that.

Elric stood, cloaked, in his position in the arena, waiting for his opponent to make her move.

[Golden Emblem]

Oh, he looks like a stupid mage. So I'l have to run towards him quite fast before he starts casting, or else I might be in trouble. I can protect against some of the weaker spells if they're projectiles, but stronger ones are just going to suck the fun out of this battle. I can do it, I can do it... I've got to do it.

As Cassie repeated that mantra in her head, she began to step forward slowly, flipping both of her balisong open to reveal the recently sharpened blades, which gleamed in the light. They weren't long blades by any means, but she could use both to slash into that staff of his, and get through his cloak. She knew that she should have been nervous to talk badly to a mage, but...

"I don't get it. Why do some mages have to hide behind those godawful cloaks? Are you so afraid that you need to hide behind a security blanket?"

[Griffin]

Elric smirked ever so lightly at these words. He lifted his head and tore off his cloak with his free hand, revealing the black leather vest and the black cloth pants he wore beneath. His arms were well toned and likely a surprise for his approaching opponent.

"Fear is something you've yet to learn," Elric said blankly.

He caught on that she obviously knew mages were weaker in close range, so Elric decided to show his prowess at this midrange. Standing firm, he placed his hands apart vertically, his palms facing each other. In one palm, black energy began to form. In the other, a smaller amount of blue spirit energy gathered itself. Between his palms, this energy blended and Elric weaved it around with his fingers to form an oblong sickle shape. With a flick of the wrist, he gave it some spin and sent it hurdling toward Cassandra.

(Spirit Burn: A wave of spiritual energy is directed at the enemy. If it hits, the enemy experiences a rather mild burning sensation, but their energy is sapped slightly. Obviously, it is more devastating in succession.)

[Golden Emblem]

Cassandra saw the attack coming, as she had been waiting for him to cast a spell and hoped like hell it was a projectile. Since it was, she did what she thought was best and did a roll to the left, moving out of the way of the oblong shape. She didn't know what it did, but she knew that it probably would have hurt if she had gotten hit by it.

"Oh, you're one of those mages," she replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "Boil boil, toil and trouble, trying to be scary when you're not. I'm sorry, you aren't anywhere as scary as some of the mages I've gone against. You've got to do better."

She decided after her little speech that talk was cheap here, and she dashed towards him, her aim being that when she was close enough, she'd slash him across the chest, unless he did a spell first.

[Griffin]

Elric's reflexes were with him today. As Cassandra still had ground to close, Elric watched her movements carefully while charging an Orb in his hand. Elric slid off to the right when Cassandra struck, and swerved in to slam the Orb into her left shoulder. With his change in direction, though, the blade caught his upper left arm, leaving a decent gash.

(Orb: A basic, versatile dark magic spell Elric simply calls Orb. Orb can attack, be shaped into different shapes to attack with, absorb simple spells, knock people and projectiles away, act as an eye in the sky, and other simple tasks.)

[Golden Emblem]

Cassie got the Orb right where it was aimed and stumbled back, her shoulder now aching quite a bit where it was hit. However, she didn't really care. She was close and he didn't have any spells on the go, so she knew she had an opportunity to strike at him. She ran again, but when she would have been close enough to attack, she decided to try a roll, aiming a low slash at his ankle as she moved.

[Griffin]

Elric fell back into the rhythm of the battle and barely sidestepped Cassandra's low strike, though the blade did nick his ankle.

Need distance...

Instead of retaliating, Elric took many quick steps backwards. While doing so, he took the first two fingers of his right hand and ran them through the blood from his arm wound. He smeared the blood on his left palm and slammed his hands together, forming a red-purple light between them. He stopped his retreat and opened his palms, facing them out. A ball of this colored light fell gently to the ground. Once it made contact, it flashed brightly and began to swirl and expand. The red began to fade and soon an ovular, shimmering portal formed.

Elric took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He began to charge an Orb as he awaited Cassandra's response.

(Fade's Embrace: Elric opens a rift to the Fade, the spirit world, and guides it's energies to feast upon the enemy, draining them of spiritual (magical) power.)

[Golden Emblem]

Cassie saw the portal form and knew that it would not be good, so she decided to get away from it as quickly as possible. He seemed to have formed the spell by using his own blood, so she was getting a bit worried about his magic. If she hurt him more, he would use more magic. She'd simply have to be smart about it.

"So, is that it?"

[Griffin]

Force her to you.

Fairly confident she wasn't moments away from attacking, Elric took a moment to breathe and gather his focus. He held out his arms in front of him with one palm facing up, the other down, and took one heavy breath. In...and out...

A solid cylinder of darkness formed in the gap between his hands. With swift, fluid movements of arms and hands, he divided this cylinder into three fragments and shaped them into Orbs. He struck the top one with his left hand and the bottom with his right, arcing to two Orbs toward Cassandra. The third he arced over her head and then swiftly pulled back with his hands, like a mime pulling on a rope so the Orb would sail back toward Elric.

Come to me...

[Golden Emblem]

Cassie saw the three orbs coming, one going over her head as the other two aimed directly for her. She was in trouble, unless she thought of an idea which could help her get out of this ugly situation, fast. The only thing she could think of would be painful, but at least it would stop the worst of it, right?

"Gotta do it..."

Cassie actually dodged the two orbs that came immediately for her by a fraction, and, when the third came, one of her balisong began to glow brightly.

(Mortal Blade: Cassie focuses spiritual energy onto a balisong, causing the blade to glow, and have a much powerful effect when used on an opponent. It can even cut through some magic spells.)

She attempted to slash through the third orb, hoping it would work.

[Admin]

Hawk... Elric... yeah...