Duel:Acheron v Jaize
Part of the Rynvalian War Arc
Judges: Arien, Reema, Alvina (mid)
Location: Waterfall
Verdict: Jaize, 2-1
Jaize slithers into the area with an air of confidence, her eyes watchful of the Avian's every move. With a smirk, she folds her hands before and begins to mutter softly. The roar of the waterfall would easily cover her voice, perhaps the Avian wouldn't even see her lips moving as she wove her first attack and illusion. Her mind brought forth the bright image of shards of ice, sharpened to lethal points and all directed at Acheron. Her frosty eyes closed for a moment to focus on the image, bringing it into reality without hesitation. Another wonderful addition to the illusioned ice shards is the extension of herself. The naga's own poison has formed inside each one. Should one strike him, it would leave him poisoned. Her eyes open, pinpointed on the Avain's form. Her lips mutter beneath the waterfalls cry, ushering the icey spikes forward to strike Acheron through his heart.
Acheron's path is a slow one through the chilly night air, the pounding crescendo of the nearby falls causing his hearing to be rendered useless. Along the narrow, rocky path he focuses, winding each turn carefully as to not fall into the abyssal hole. Jaize's oncoming attack goes un-noted as he continues his treacherous walk, pausing with the sudden appearance of a white shard in his peripheral vision. The hurtling needles coming as quite the grand surprise as he abruptly throws his body forwards into the rocky earth. Devoid of his formerly glorious wings, the avian is saved the agony of the needles as they impact into the cliff-side, shattering into poison-spitting pieces that fall to sting and irritate the bare skin and to corrode the metal of his armor. The avian stands without more than a passive wince at the sensation of the poison upon his body and robes, finding the Naga-queen in her hiding spot with no more than a studious casting of his blue eyes. He bursts into motion, closing the void between himself and the scantily clad illusionist; The first form of his beloved weapon, Oblige , a white katana blossoming from a rift into his skilled hands before becoming a spinning blur. The path is slick, causing the wingless avian to quickly shift from his sprint into travelling via the voids that make up his odd power. One swiftly taking him before he slips and drawing him into its embrace before spitting him out just above the naga; left to drop like a stone, sword arching towards the serpent-woman's back, to sever her spine and end this fight before it's truly began.
Jaize catches the Avian's eyes as he dodges her first attack with a parting of her lips to laugh, a sound which falls back into the depths of the pool, unheard. Jaize is already at work on her next illusion, bringing the image from her imagination to life. Just as her creation starts to blur into existance her keen eyes see him vanish into his portal. Having seen him use this technique before, she is quite prepared. With a loud shriek she calls a thick cage of ice to enclose her, protection from the Avian from any direction he might choose to attack from. The illusion is enhanced in strength due to the cool weather here. Nothing can be seen inside the cage, save a hazy figure of the Naga looking upward when Acheron frees from his portal most likely landing on top a split second too late to break completely through the ice. It splits reasonably beneath his armored weight. The naga draws in a cool breath before positioning herself in her icey prison for the next, swift-paced moments that would follow when he surely broke through the walls she had created.
Acheron isn't quite prepared for the sudden thud of his armored body into the cage of cold ice, as it halts him mid-attack, the edge cracking, splintering under the force of his body and the blade in hand before he slides from the slick surface and begins to drop. The awareness of his landing upon the edge of the path made with the sudden 'clank' of his armored form once again impacting into a hard surface and his scramble back upon it safely. Righting himself with whatever grace he might manage to keep after the slightly embarrassing ordeal the wingless avian focuses briefly upon the heavy box, as if perplexed. 'Oblige' mush the opposite of his master, seems unhappy with this sudden turn of events. The Katana apparently making its own decision, or so it might appear, shifting smoothly into the form of its secondary nature as a set of Kusari-gama, birthing into each of his hands as if the motion were practiced daily, the deadly coiling chain that joins each dangerous implement winding to kiss the path briefly before Acheron, that similar frown apparent moves again, though this time not in step, rather the flourishing throw of his right-handed gama, which upon release us breathed into a void just before the cage and then just as easily upon the inside wall of the strange shield made by the female. The weapon humming evilly as its speed is increased drastically by travel through the portals, intent to pin the shadow within to the shiny-cold wall of ice with blade or peculiar spiked-tip.
Jaize watches in surprise as the large shadow of Acheron slips off the top of her ice cage and back down towards the path. Unsure if she should prepare for another assault from his portals, she quickly realizes too late the error of making the cage so narrow. While it served it's purpose for keeping Acheron out in the beginning, it would now do nothing more then present him with an immobile targert. Barely hearing the hum of his blades, the naga picks a wall and bends herself against it, knowing the ice might still work...until a sharp pain erupts from her left arm. She cries out in agony, her bare arm now impaled by the thing. Her cry causes the ice cage to shatter, her mind lost in focus as the pain overwhelms her. Her muscular form falls down, much as her advisary, onto the icy path below. Another wince before she gives up trying to cast another illusion towards him. The naga holds her body taunt, stiff, before diving down into the pool, taking a length of chair with her. Spots of blood begin to rise in the water, no doubt where she ripped the blade from her arm, and tried with all her strength to lodge it into a large chunk of ice below the water. Another second more and she shoots from the water in mock flight, fangs bared towards the Avain, aiming her poisonious fangs at his weakened armour. Should her fangs fail to ensnare him, her muscular serpents tail was just behind, planning to knock the remain blade from his hand and weave herself around him until he drew his last breath. Her useless left arm flys limply in the wind, of no further use to her in this fight.
Acheron doesn't celebrate at his success as might be expected, rather the avian watches in seemingly numb fascination as the Naga drops from her broken cage and then dives into the depths of the torrential pool far below. The chain in its true fashion trailing after the naga, length sprouting from each end of the gama before, just as her body meets the water it stops, dragging him with all the weight of her momentum over the edge and into the expanse of air; plummeting towards the swirling, freezing pool. He's halfway to the frigid waters when the Naga-queen emerges like one of his own kind, ascending from the pool towards him with bared fangs. His weapon once stuck fast, now granted the limited mobility do to his fall is used, rather than slow his descent, the paladin takes action as per his known nature to be a bit overzealous. He pulls sharply with that one hand, speeding the fall and bringing him much more quickly towards his oncoming attacker, no, his oncoming prey. In the impact is where his gama joins the fight again, those teeth digging through the armor and into his flesh to inflict his fit body with poison as he slashes and stabs at the body that meets his with a disgustingly meaty-thud!
Jaize feels her teeth sink into his flesh with a joyous slice of his skin, her fangs pushing poison out and drawing his own blood in. It takes her a moment to feel the deep gashes form under the pressure of his flailing gama in her richly scaled tail. Clamping down her jaws for a moment, she moves to break free, finding herself disoriented by the fall and continuos blood loss. Another deep gash takes of a chunk of her snowlike locks, blood streaming down her cheek as the sharpest edges of the blade dig into and remove her left eye. With another howl of distress, the Naga Queen spins her entire frame full circle, using the rest of her might to pry the crazed beast off her, her athletic tail providing her the force and leverage she needs to separate the two. A loud and spiteful hiss glides over the pool as she searches in vain for her lost eye. "I will repay this debt to you Acheron..." she screeches over the thundering roar of the waterfall, glaring hard into his eyes, her anger palpable in the air surrounding.