Duel:Ayras v Irthos, Match 4 of the 2016 Frostmaw Tournament

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

Wolves Den

Within the den you can hear growls coming from deeper within the cave, the sounds of wolves are near as shuffling is heard. Upon the ground lays various bones of deer and rabbits, seeming to be the main food source of the beasts that live here. The cold air is silenced here, and you are sheltered from the wind outside. You may leave the den to the east, or head deeper into the cave to the west, however disturbing the wolves more will more than likely cause an attack.

--

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 a special case. Today, the accused murderer Ayras fights for his freedom in this trial by combat!" Once the signal to begin is given, the crowd steps back out of the way to allow both combatants to do their worst. Amongst the crowd is Balder, who smirks confidently. Aramoth's justice would surely be done this day.


Zipping around overhead, a pale pixie surveys his opponent and judges what tactics he should use. /Ah screw it,/ he thought. /I want to have fun./ His greys eyes go over the sides of the cave and floor looking and taking note of everything he could. While not normally one to wait to take action, this was a bit more serious side to the small being. No goofing around like he did in the Sage forest and got it burned in places, this time control. Once deciding on his course of action the mutant goes zooming across the cave floor turning on his Fire magic and reaching deep within him. Soon distortions of light waver around the pixie as he heats up, and scorches the floor as he travels at his now increased speed. The air hums as he gets closer and the fire burns hotter, he reaches out with a hand and accumulates and fireball in front of him that grows as more magic was poured into it. He launches it at his opponent and should his opponent dodge, the force of the blast would throw everything human sized within the radius off their feet.


It was, indeed, a special occasion for this bout of the first round. Accused of murdering one of Balder's posse, Ayras had been jailed for the last week. This marked the first day he had seen sunlight in those days, the first time he had been around the living, and oh how close two sources of blood were as he was escorted to the scene of the fight. But alas, he couldn't have fed if he wanted to; around his face was his half-mask, essentially a stylized muzzle, and around his wrists were a pair of shackles that negated his magics. The only things he had been afforded were his armor and his jasper sword. The giants that escorted him were none-too-gentle as the shoved him in the mouth of the cave to face his fire-wielding opponent, and, indeed, they had the greatest of timing to push him in just as Irthos was setting off his grand fireball. Eyes widened for a moment before they narrow and a growl escaped his throat as he threw himself aside, face-first to the floor of the cave. Over his body rushed the heat and the flames of the pixie's spell, the concussive force holding him to the ground for the moments the explosion lasted. Up the vampire went, scrambling to his feet to come face-to-face with a wolf that had not at all been cleared from the cave. A hushed curse sent the elf twisting about to flee towards Irthos, his manacled hands awkwardly pulling his sword from its scabbard at his side. Fangs gnashed at his legs and heels as he sprinted, and despite advice he had given to many, Ayras was soon to take to the air, a great leap taken to lead into a somersault over the diminutive fellow. It wasn't anything of the elf's that lashed out at the mage; instead the attack came in the form of a snarling muzzle and snapping fangs. Ayras was too busy trying to pry off his manacles with his sword to worry about actually attacking, himself.


Irthos was moving too fast to be able to change his course so quickly, and teeth did close around him, however because he was still wrapped in his fiery aura, the closing jaws soon felt the urge to spit the pixie out, yelping and bleeding from intense burns of the softer tissues inside and on the tongue. Covered in spit then very quickly dried and flaked of only to turn to dust before getting to far away from the mini-mage, the pixie had to quickly think of another plan. Most of his foes weren’t so nimble and rushing in was a bad idea as he just experienced. He reaches deeper inward and taps into the reserve of magic laying within, his aura grows once again and the Firebug starts zooming around at a much faster speed. He rockets around Ayras and increases his speed, creating a fiery tornado. The swirling vortex took on a writhing form like that of a serpent as the pixie continues he spirals the accused and the heat grows ever more hotter with each pass.


While the pixie was busy burning the wolf, then with his fire-serpent-tornado, Ayras was prying at his manacles with his red-bladed sword. It wasn't until the the heat had risen to unbearable temperatures that the things finally gave way with a metallic 'pop' and fell to the ground at his feet. Electricity sparked around the vampire's hand as he looked up towards the source of the circling inferno; he was safe for the moment with the vortex doing nothing but boiling the air - he didn't need to breath it in, after all - but soon he'd need to get out from within the fiery tempest. Silver eyes dropped to the manacles that he had just been wearing, that had been cutting off his ability to call on his lightning magics, and an idea sprang to mind. He took up the magicked restraints and tossed them into the pixie's circular path and prayed to Aramoth that his timing was perfect to have Irthos pass through the shackles and lose his burning spell, even if for just a moment.


Irthos yet again falls for the same mistake, rushing in got him into trouble, this time it cost him all his fire magic that had built up. As the manacle had tossed up into the air, and at the very impressed pixie for the accuracy of the toss, Irthos passed right through the ring thinking he would be fine at fire, however once he spell failed him the pixie lost control slamming into a wall across the cave. Luckily he was used to this sort of thing, some people did say he seemed a bit dense in some cases but to what degree of truth did they mean, he always took it as a joke. Back into the fight his thoughts went, and as he slid down the side of the wall with a squee sound off the ice chunks that helped build up the cave, it was the cold that reminded him of his other magics he had been practicing with. Mind you all this happened quickly in the pixie’s head so as he slid down the ice the memory of a lesson he learned from a Master Wizard came back. “Quiet your mind and hear the sound of the Song of Ice.” Doing so he dropped off the side of the wall and daintily touched down, and continued to dance a bit, of course from an outward appearance folks might think the pix had hit his head too hard on collision. He tapped into that magic and finally touched down again, though this wasn’t in as much control as he had with his Fire, so soon enough the floor spread out with giant jagged spikes shooting from the floor all around him. Of course maybe a loose of control was contributed to his crash after all…


Ayras couldn't believe it. He had actually managed the throw to perfection. He stood there, dumbstruck, not even sure where to go from there. There was so much he had planned out for the failure of his hail mary, and now it was all...unneeded. So long did Ayras remain blank-minded that by the time he realized what was happening, the pixie was already in his magical dance. That couldn't be good. Sparks hissed to life around Ayras' metal hand, growing and growing with each passing moment until his hand was a blinding ball of crackling, white light. He expanded the magic, a net of electricity surrounding the vampire in a protective cocoon, but Ayras was not simply going to cower behind an electric fence. Further he delved into the magic, though his head spun for the effort, and pushed the cage outward, just in time for the ice spikes to hurl themselves from the ground. So many volts surged through the air to meet frozen spikes of doom, slicing through and melting some of them. Poor Ayras, though. There was a gap between a few cackling threads of his net, a gap big enough for one of those icy spikes to soar straight through. Into the side of his abdomen that spike went, blood spraying the floor behind him as it burst from his body. To his knees the vampire fell, his body and mind in agony as he fought to hold his shocking defense in existence, as he pushed out one final surge to electrocute the flying barbecue that was Irthos.


Irthos was very surprised to see a type of magic he hadn’t seen before practiced and more so practiced on him. The pixie, while a bit noggin rattled , thought for just a moment to stop and observe the properties of such a spell, however that came to bite him as the spark net spread outward and soon very quickly at him. Turning to get away the spherical spark wave caught up with him and zapped him silly. His silver hair stood on end and when he dropped to the floor he looked more in common with a Dandelion about to spread its seeds to the wind if someone were to pick him up and blow on his head, which ironically some lunk head giant decided to do because it would be funny.


Balder's interest in the match has been obvious. It seems all he can do to contain himself and hang back with the other observers. Each one of Irthos' swoops toward the vampire has Balder growling noisily and throwing shadow punches in the air, as though to take his part to the pixie's blows. A lively bystander indeed, he's the loudest to bellow his excitement at the sight of Ayras' blood, and the pack of cronies around him are quick to lend their congratulations and support, slapping Baldur on the back and raising cries of their own. "Blood!" "What a hit!" "He's as good as yours!" Never mind the pixie's frizzled state; Balder seems rather sure already he's about to have a new butler.


Winner: Ayras


Ayras collapsed as his lightning fizzled out. Silver eyes stared out at the frazzled pixie and the giant that had picked him up, eyes that showed no signs of humanity. He looked a predator, a hunting cat on the prowl. He dragged himself across the floor, the pain in his abdomen keeping him from pulling himself upright, until he came close enough to both pixie and his captor. It had been so long since he had partaken of blood, and with his house he grievously needed it. His mask was ripped away before he threw himself forward across the ground, clawed his way up the giant's leg and sank his fangs in. The giant was shocked by what was happening, and poor Irthos was in the worse possible position for it. Yelling and cursing, that hand that held the pixie swatted down at Ayras like a man swatting at a pet dog that wouldn't leave its lap. The poor little fellow was just getting flung back and forth, back and forth. There's gotta be a workman's comp case somewhere in here for whiplash...


Irthos growls after being pulled to and fro, and begins heating up again. After awhile the Giant realizes he was holding a ever growing ember in his hand and instinctively opens his palm. Irthos sees his moment flits in the air and makes what he thinks is a rude gesture by sticking out his tongue and smacking his backside in the giants face, before blasting out of there as if an ice devil was after him. Hopefully Hildegarde never hears of that.


Post-duel RP here.