Duel:Alex v Ynhaldei, Match 6 of the Frostmaw Tournament

From HollowWiki
Duelists: Alex vs Ynhaldei
Duel: Traditional 3 rounds with final defense, 15 minute posting limit
Stakes: Auto-hit to the winner
Judges: Hildegarde, Diryon, and Ayras

Hidden Mountaintop Colosseum

Balgruuf steps forward, his hands gesticulating up and down in the air in indication. It seems the crowd is wise, and as the various spectators and gamblers begin to quiet down, the aged being takes a stance at the center of the fighting pit. The mouth piece is a towering man, an elder frost giant whose hair and beard have turned a stark shade of blue-tinged white. His voice is growling and severe as he booms out to those present, "Welcome to the first round of the Titans of Winter Tournament! Today's match is held in the Hidden Mountaintop Colosseum to watch Ynhaldei and Alex-" Boos hiss through the air at the mention of the exiled bard, "battle honorably in this sacred tournament!" Once the signal to begin is given, the crowd steps back out of the way to allow both combatants to do their worst, and Balgruuf fades into the jumble of frost giants collected at one end of the fighting area. "Good luck to you both!"


Khitti had just barely made it up the mountains and into the city in time for this duel. With Alex being the only reason she ever comes into the city, it took some time to convince the guards, but with the fact that she made it a point several times to tell them that she was there for the tournament and nothing more, they eventually let her in. The dark ranger was tired, still drained of her magic, but doing her best not to show it, the hood of her duster pulled up over her blood-red hair. Dark verdant hues survey the area carefully, seeking out the best spot to watch the match from, a frown lining her lips in worry for the bard. Much like herself, he wasn't exactly completely adept with his magical abilities. Nor was he immortal like she was. This troubled her greatly and only added to her worries. Nevertheless, she watched and listened to the officiating frost giant, then turned her attention to where the battle was to take place, ever ready in case something bad were to happen.


Ynhaldei was sitting upon the chairs, clapping about and drinking some liquor as if expecting to watch the show. "Wait..." she thought for a second before jumping down toward the arena, waving her arms toward the crowd before bowing toward her enemy, she looked around the grand coliseum, though thinking such might be counterproductive as structures like these are to be used publicly, to entertain people as barbarians try to end their lives in the battlefield. But Hidden at the mountain top? That simply limits the number of people who can visit. But no matter, it wasn't her coin that was spent to build this, she should not be bothered. Taking off her top hat as she introduced herself, "Miss Yin of the Traveling Misfortune. I thank you for the opportunity." She smiles and throws her hat upwards, Her hair is secured perfectly in a bun, still garbed in her usual. Blouse, Corset, Jacket, Slacks, Gloves and Boots, a fine set of clothing for a Circus Master. On her hip however is a sword with a large one sided blade, A Dadao Sword. But when introductions are done, their battle has began. The hat that she threw earlier landed a few feet away from her, its corner tipped against the snow but instead of landing perfectly, it starts to roll on its sides and started to make its mark upon the snow. If unhindered however, it will circumnavigate a large circle around them before finally hopping upward, hovering above their heads, like a spectator, watching. "I do know a number of circus tricks if you are curious." Drawing her sword and hefting it both hands as she takes a step forward. Her right leg, in half crouched as her sword was raised close to her form with its tip aimed toward the man. Her right palm against the swords pommel, charging forward towards him as the crowd goes wild while the spectacle starts before them.


Alex shuffles out into the center of the Colosseum with a stagger as boo's erupt from the crowd of giants surrounding him, the distraught bard waving his hands up into the air with their chime in a disgusted fit of antagonizing taunts before he seeks out Balgruuf in the stands and openly bears his teeth to the giant with the bloody beard as a show of open defiance, the stains of red and black lgunk across his own teeth all the more meaningful in effect as he suspends the glare to turn to Ynhaldei. The usually well groomed human looks filthy in his poorly washed sagging black pants and over sized shirt that cover his hands with their extended sleeves as dark heavy rings circle his eyes replacing those usually inviting blue hues with a look of disdain and anger, weeks of heavy drinking and substance abuse leaving him strung out on a range of emotions and none of them are good. The belt around his waist obviously serves no purpose to holding up his trousers but instead does decent work of holding the steel scimitar that hangs from his right hip along with a trio of inverted regular wine glasses pressed against the opposing side on his left. The intoxicated man looks to the desert elf and exhales hard enough to puff up his cheeks in a display that clearly states he hasn't been looking forward to this moment in the least as Ynhaldei puts on her little show. The man grunts out "Shut the hell up, freak." before taking hold of the wrapped handle of his curved blade and jerks it free of it's holster with a satisfying sound to meet her in battle by slamming the cleaned blade against her own in a deflection while leaning forward and snarling at her before pressing all of his weight into his back right leg while raising the left to thrust his foot towards her gut in a counter attack meant to throw her off balance and tumbling into the snow covered arena at which point he'd lunge forward with her neck as his prime target.


Ynhaldei missed... or was she? No, she was blocked. She doesn't know.. or care, she's a mage and barely knows how to use a sword but a duel is a duel so she has to make a move. It's not like she should cast everything she knows right away, would simply give away her talents to her enemy and may cause any chance of her winning. "My My... This one... you do know it is considered rude not to introduce oneself even amongst enemies?" This is quite a problem with her, fighting people that she has no quarrel with, no grudge to hold. It feels fights such as these lack luster. She moves her hand upon the man's right foot, using his own force to proper her backwards to dodge his attack and her acrobatic days of the past seems to pay off, Though she weighs a lot less than him and such trick is easy to pull off when one knows what they are doing, It still didn't change the fact about the force that surged into her limb, nearly dislocating it. Trying to shrug it off as she landed safely a few feet further than he expected, safely on her feet. Turning her attention to the man as she adjust her sleeve as she aim her arm toward him. "I hope you like birds and bunnies." Smiling as a torrent of doves and bunnies started sprouting out of her sleeve, all non-damaging illusions, tricks that even a novice can perform, clearly circus material. Though as such came into his range, they started blowing up into confetti, to distract him at least for her next attack. She held her sword both hands and started turning its pommel into a certain combination as the spring loaded mechanism activates, turning the Dadao Sword into a Guan Dao Spear. With its new length, giving her an advantage for its reach. She turns about, using her whole form as counter balance, as she started to cleave upward, from low left to high right. If it would miss however, all she need to do is step forward and lunge a straight strike.


Alex groans at the woman's words and is visibly agitated as she makes a very successful retreat outside of his scimitars reach causing him to growl in a low and heavy voice as his white as paper skin turns red in a violet blush of absolute anger and irritation. As she lands, he takes a few steps forward muttering to himself about the giants and their stupid games even taking the time to raise his left hand to present a formal middle finger to the observers which garners even more boos and curses, the human feeling ill due to his exile and now ridicule. The next thing he knows a flock of disgusting little avians are flocking towards his visage without warning and his jaw drops as far as it can go to present the power of his voice for the first time in a structured conflict, the screech that erupts from the human's vocals is absolutely deafening causing many of the giants to seek shelter for their ears using their hands though the birds are far less fortunate as they fall left and right in a seizure induced state from the sheer force of the sound, leaving Alex wide open to spot the oncoming attack and deflect it with another arc of his blade, the all too familiar slamming of metal ringing out across the white Colosseum once again in another stalemate among the two combatant. "Give it up, elf. The entertainment of these filthy mongrel's isn't worth it." he decrees in a definite tone while his teeth bear to her once again before he slips out of the hold in a right turning spin to accelerate his scimitar in an accelerated blow aimed to take the right side of Ynhaldei clean off with his aggression.


Khitti's eyes widened as she watched the odd interaction between them and then all of a sudden, Alex decided to use that voice of his. Oh no. That's not good. As the screech fills the air, the vampiress is quick to cover her ears, and thankfully didn't have to endure it much. Sensitive hearing and all that, you know. Once the attack has passed and she's able to hear again, she cups her hands around her mouth, trying to make herself heard amongst the boos and jeers from the Frost Giants, "Come on, Alex! You can do it! Knock her on her arse!" Hopefully he hears her and is inspired somewhat to snap himself out of his tired, drugged up state and actually beat the strange elf.


Ynhaldei felt that. Her ears ringing as the man shouted, but she did not show any indication that she was in pain. She just continued her attack that was easily blocked by the man once her distraction have failed. Frowning a bit, as her arm is getting a bit stingy the longer she use her spear. "Well this is getting a bit out of hand.." She is trained with this weapon, true but no amount of training would help anyone if their limb is no longer working properly, the pain is surging up to her shoulder, stressing it further as she makes more strikes, blocks and stabs with her spear is only making it worst. Watching his movements as they held into a stalemate once more. She runs her hand upon the length of the spear and stabbing it against the snow, just in time as the man turns about to slash her. Using her damaged arm, she pressed upon the weapon's hilt and use it as an anchor to push herself away, sliding in the snow before the weapon get swatted away upon the man's strike. Clearly not thinking straight as such maneuver did save her life but causes more pain to her form. "I still didn't get your name Mister." She soon pulls out a wand out of her sleeve and dropped it to the ground. At first it bounced once and suddenly stopped mid air. A surge of magic soon filled the air before them, She doesn't know if this barbarian is even aware of what magic is, he looks too hammered for anything. It was her circle. Any magic has a 'circle' that represents the constant flow of power and she was able to write her mark on the ground without the man interrupting. A Spatiomancer now holds this space around them and for now she is siphoning magic from the land around her, pouring it into her territory. Now any spell she casts would be at a much greater magnitude, even a lowly mage can cast the simplest of fireballs but only a master can create a far more devastating attacks. Now try to imagine where a space, filled with enough magic to 'trick' a spell as if it was casted by more than a dozen novices? It doesn't matter if it is weak... the intensity of the spell will multiply depending on the magic present in her space. And for now... Let's try a bit of Terramancy, the basic spells would be moving of stones and guess what? The coliseum is made out of stone and is abundant around her, raises her arms as rubble from previous fights started to move around her, earth started to shake a bit, a single novice cannot move a boulder but a handful of them casting the same time? Rocks started to levitate around them before willing them to charge forward, wanting to strike down the man right away.


Alex is rather disappointed at the repeated success of the woman repelling herself away from his assault that surely would have represented a fatal blow though he finds himself cringing in embarrassment even more as the words of a single woman in the stands reaches his ears. Those humble blue eyes of his don't have to stray from Ynhaldei to realize Khitti is residing in the stands and now the pressure on his chest amplifies to a degree that is beyond a definition as simply as stressful as the bard's arms wave out in a nearly frantic display as he grumbles something to himself as the rocks around him begin to rise. His left hand is quick to fall to the three inverted wine glasses that had been spotted by many bystanders earlier and he rips them free without much effort before tossing them into the air with a spiral followed by a second banshee level screech that is aimed towards the glass that splinted the frail surface with a series of cracks and stressful hums before they collapse and erupt into a series of shards that are then thrust towards Ynhaldei with a heavy force as Alex is left with no option but to buckle his knees and cover his head with lengthy arms that bulk up as his muscles flex to deflect the oncoming stones as deadly shrapnels of glass close the distance between the circus mage and himself.


Ynhaldei only knows the basics, she is never a master of any elemental spells. She just know the spell as of course when one finds a teacher or a master, the Master has to gauge what type of magic his/her student would be good at, for them to know. One has to test out every know basic spells then the Master would use such information accordingly before one continues to formal training. Nonetheless Ynhaldei knows these 'basic' spells but her main power is Spatiomancy which is far too dangerous to use in combat, that's why she is bending the rules and using other spells instead, simply intensifying it with her Spatiomancy. But this of course is something that she did not expect. As soon as the man draws out his glass, her head turns about, wondering what he is doing. But as his screech was the last thing she saw. Distorting her vision badly as she lost control of the stones... then again she doesn't need to anyway, the stones were already willed to move toward the direction, it may weaken the force behind them but it still has force to continue the attack, she soon switches to Aeromancy and tries to pump air before her in hopes of waving the glass away but she can't see as her ears did not expect such sharp sound, ringing her brain. Getting peppered with glass. Feeling lacerations all over her, her jacket did decrease the penetration of the glass, but wounding her still, good thing she was able to cover her head and face. Her torso has a corset, solid enough to block the glass but a bit of glass made its way to her legs as well. Bleeding a bit as she try to regain her footing. Both of the combatants were struck, though clearly she did not do herself any good this time, she only landed one strike to the man, unsure even if that makes any difference, unlike him, striking her numerous times. She tries to remove the glass off her form as her hat finally falls to her head, standing still hoping she didn't accidentally killed him.


Winner: Alex


Khitti still cheered on the bard as he worked his magic with the the glass shards. He was getting better with his voice and she was incredibly proud of him for that. She wasn't so sure about this odd state his was in, but he was sure to get a scolding for that later. She resisted the urge to meet him in the center of the coliseum because who knows how the giants would react, instead remaining where she is, but waved for him, trying to get him to see her, to know she was there like he wanted before heading off out of the area because frost giants.


Alex keeps his arms above his head in a crouched defensive position as he is peppered by the multitude of stones that are cast in his direction and they do considerable damage due to his poor choice of attire, the stones piercing through fragile exposed flesh allowing crimson blood to boldly flood to the surface of his skin and stream down his hands, arms and neck. When the assault subsides, the bard lowers his arms and raises his chin to stare at Ynhaldei with hatred deeply apparent in his eyes, his knees slowly extend back into a locked position to bring him to full height as his right hand tosses the curved scimitar to the powdered white and red ground before beginning his approach, his strides towards the disoriented woman are quick and almost elegant in their execution as the range between them closes to a small gap of two or less feet when the bard swings wide with his right leg to connect with the back of her left tumbling her towards the ground only to caught by the throat as he proceeds to lift her into the air, her feet dangle a few inches off the ground before him. The sound surrounding the duo is a mixture of cheers for the violence and boo's at the victory of the exiled bard which send a whirlwind of emotions running through the young male's mind though it's apparent he will not take the high road in this battle. He turns Ynhaldei to the side and brings his lips just out of contact with her left ear and peels his lips apart to reveal those dirtied teeth that precede the sound once more as a sharp, ear shattering screech aims to apply enough pressure in the desert elf's head that her skull feels as though it's about to pop and decorate the snow in a rain of brain matter. Satisfied, he releases his grip dropping her to the ground before him and without so much as a second glance turns to make his escape from the arena, stopping only to scoop up his blade and find Balgruuf's face in the stands, the boo's ignored as he stares to the giant and provides a single, short and curt nod. Alex the bard has claimed a small victory in this duel though Ynhaldei was never his real target. He remains confident that he has proven to those that sought his exile that he is much more than a mere musician and hints strongly that he will not take so kindly to being forced from his home.


Khitti had thought that the match was over, but as more boos and cheers are let loose by the frost giants, she pauses in her escape of the coliseum. A deep frown lines her lips as the rocks pelt the bard, the fingers on both of her hands curling into fists, the flame that was her anger easily lit. It had been quite awhile since she had been here, in this frozen wasteland, but the fact that things had gotten a hell of a lot worse was evident. She didn't want to believe it. She had hoped that it had been some drunken, drug induced stupor on Alex's part, even though she knew he had been nothing more than slightly crazy due to the interaction with the frost giants and his subsequent banishment. This is was bad. This was very very bad. Her line of sight shifts from the giants, a shake of her head given, and fixates onto Alex as he remains in the middle of the stadium. As if things couldn't possibly get any worse, she watches as the bard lifts his opponent and uses his voice once more in an attempt to further cause harm to the woman. Shaking her head, pale lips part to scream down at the bard as she runs to the end of the steps to bring her as close to the center of the coliseum as she can go from the stands, “Alex! No! Don't give in to zheir madness! Alex! Please!”, but it goes unheard. Well, it at least goes unheard to the bard that her words were directed towards. For the most part, everyone's still focused on what was going on in the middle, but a few giants close by have finally taken notice of the fanged female and her cries of opposition towards their actions and Alex's as well. It was definitely time to go. As it's clear that the bard means to leave, dark verdant eyes dart around at the frost giants near her before she's quickly making her way towards the exit designated for those in the stands. Whether or not she actually makes it out is a different story.