Duel:Bob v Lanlan, Round One Agitation Monster Tournament
Part of the Agitation Arc
Duelists: Bob the Bone Crushes, animated suit of armor (played by Irthos) vs. Lanlan Duel: Traditional 3 attacks and defenses each. 15 minute posting limit. Stakes: Advancement into Round Two of the Agitation Monster Tournament. Judges: Linn & Lanara
Xalious
Lanlan was tasked by the Mage's guild to assist in the patrol, being that he is among the apprentices. The notion irked him to his very core, that one such as he should be regarded as an underling. The nobility wasn't as evident as it once was, being that his beautiful cloak was destroyed long ago. Now he's dressed simply, a black tunic, white pants rolled to just under the knee, and a brown satchel; stuffed indubitably with artifacts of mana manipulation. The remaining sign of his rich stature was the ever-elegant purple and white striped pair of dress-socks he wore. He kicked his legs out in his gait proudly to display them. He considered the task at hand, the information he took with him in preparation was that strange things were afflicting the wildlife, and mutations were needed to be disposed of efficiently. Otherwise they might find a way to reproduce and what an abomination that would be? "A human," he said to himself with mild grin. But these circumstances mean that he is here to potentially kill something. And as averse to the labor as he is, he is nevertheless ready to perform it. Lanlan is personally overseeing the destruction of any such monsters on the road to Xalious, to be sure that none of them escape into the mountains.
Duel Starts
With a slow creak of metal, Bob becomes aware, aware that it needs to gaurd the house of its former master. The armor stood about 6 feet tall and in hand, rather gauntlet, carried a giant maul. The dyed black steel was slightly rusty at the edges do to unuse but that was from a long time ago. Sensing an intruder out the boundaries of the ruined property, Bob creaks as he gets up, however someting was different. It seemed to float as pieces of it moved with it, an odd feeling nonetheless, you could also hear a slight hum as it moved across the ground towards the intruder. Maul raised up in one hand it brings it down heavily towards the intruder, cracking the ground should they dodge.
The fancy illusionist detects the metallic clinks and subtle hum of the haunted plates, and turns to greet him. "Knight," he begins very respectfully, "I believe you're intruding into my jurisdiction, I'm scouting this area for disturbances, if you're so generous as to do my work for me I can assure you I won't grant you any credit." The knight not being phased or halted, Lanlan turns to him sternly, with intent eyes staring right into Bob's blackened visor and; being that the only people foolish enough to abide by something as rigid as a code are humans, Lanlan simplifies his speech. "Go away." Bob however is relentless, and Lanlan sees why; no one's in there. Silently he's thankful no one gets to see him being the fool, and checks around just to make sure. Then, before he's pounded into the ground like a nail, he musters up some surprising agility and scoots out of the way of the armor and his maul. Before debating whether collaborated metal pieces have a gender, he manifests what appears to be a large see-saw. The hammer smashes down on one end, when on the other, sat a hunky iron anvil. This anvil goes up, over their heads, and the illusive thing supposedly comes back down hard on top of Bob. Some foggy illusive dust blinds them, and when it clears, metal pieces appear scattered about the place. The poor knight hopefully being tricked to thinking that he'd been dismantled.
Bob’s pieces were scattered about the area, but after a moment a loud humming sound was heard and then the pieces that were scattered about started being pulled towards the torso piece as if by a large magnet. The pieces clanged together as the collided with Bob’s main section and it started to reform itself as each piece returned to it. A louder softer hum was heard and Bob’s image seems to distort and a snake of electricity darted across the steel plates that made up the Armor. The maul was raised once again and slammed down at the ground causing a ripple in the dirt throwing folks off balance. Bob pivoted at the waist in a full circle to gain momentum as its hammer came at a side swing for the man as he might be caught off balance.
Lanlan was glad he was able to trick the knight into thinking his pieces were scattered everywhere, and began to walk away triumphantly to call someone to clean up the knight. Then he heard that mechanical hum and following clanks. The knight tricked himself into thinking he was put back together! The ground quaked under the heft of his mighty hammer and and the shockwave tripped Lan. On his butt and leaning off his hand, he held his hand out against the disembodied armor; not in defiance or to ward off attack, but induce another of his own. His hushed words called upon a creature of illusion to literally erupt from the earth and leave a craggy crater behind him. A dirty rock golem awoken from its slumber by the shudder caused by the hammer supposedly. The thing was a hominid, but it was definitely right handed, possessed of an enormous battering ram of an arm on one side. Meanwhile Bob smacks Lanlan's arm away with his baseball swing, immediately reducing the bones in his forearm to particulates and illiciting an uproarious scream from the elf, which persuaded an even greater one from the imaginary elemental. Lanlan hugged his floppy arm to his chest and rolled over three times and jumping to his feet. He ran behind the living dirt as it hefted up it's good arm, and holding it over Bob's head like a pillar ready to fall, and then suddenly activated it like a piston, battering him over and over and over. More dust, more debris, more obscurity. This time when Bob looked up, he would hopefully think himself in a deep hole 3 times his height.
Bob doesn’t seem to sense another presence while being pummeled over and over again. If it could feel emotion then irritated would be the feeling. Something preventing it from doing its duty to guard the grounds, with each hit the armor sizzled with more electromagnetic energy, sparks snaking across the surface soon turning into serpents of live energy. As soon as enough energy had built itself up it was quickly absorbed by the Armor compressing itself to the size of a speck of dust, then soon exploding out moving dust and earth away from it. The hole was soon turning into a crater as the great force of the electro-plosion moved outward. More dust and dirt kicked up from this but you could soon hear the sound of heavy metal clunking its way toward the elf with a limp, one less arm, and a large portion missing from its torso piece evidence that the explosion came from with the armor. Bob raises up its maul once more, electricity arcing to the hammer’s head, as it does you can see a flicker in the light of the eyes of the helmet meaning that this was its last attack. The maul comes swinging down heavily at Lanlan, once in motion the armor channels the rest of its energy into the maul. On impact the hammer would discharge all its energy but then it would be stuck until it could fully recharge with the magical energies that created it resupplied it with enough energy to move once more.
Lanlan knew Bob had some means of seeing through his illusion, it's the only explanation he can come up with! Otherwise he would have been trapped into believing it was dismantled by his see-saw illusion. To suggest that something HE did wrong could've affected the outcome was pure ludicrosity. Therefore he accepts the possibility that the extravagant magical craft of his could be reduced to merely a distraction to Bob. He steps back wearily as he considers his options. He could tell Bob was at LEAST distracted by the illusions, so he could see them. But perhaps he was able to survive long enough to see overcome them, where others would simply die of fright or faint. He needed another trick, one that would physically destroy Bob. These things he was thinking while his dirty illusion pounded Bob, and then he noticed the electrical phenomenon coming from the middle of it all, and quickly dispersed his magic to get a better look. Yes, Bob was okay, until a pulse-wave and an expanding ring of dust opened up a cavity in his chest, and sent Lanlan skidding on his heels as he cradled his crooked arm. But Bob was relentless, unlike Lanlan who retreated away. Bob smashed down with thunderous might (and lightning) against the ground behind the running grelf, releasing yet another explosion. The concussive force sent the poor noble flipping through the air above. Frantically he clutched his satchel between his legs and rummaged through it with his last good arm. At the end of his arc and just before crashing into the ground, Lanlan finds what he's looking for: his dark elf signet. Forcing magic through it to activate it, he's repelled from crashing into the ground by its levitation ability. Instead, he hovers quickly to an alternative form of pain, smacking into the side of a sheer cliff. After a brief recuperation, the stars return from before his eyes back to the sky, and he's still floating. Bob's still standing, but appears to be devoid of whatever energy was possessing it. Tentatively, Lanlan approaches it, picks up a stone, hurls it. He misses. No one was around so he doesn't bother explaining how that was obviously a warning toss. He picks up another one, it's arc is decent, it'll hit Bob right in the head if he's finished budging.
Bob's helmet just clangs as the stone hits it. No movement can be seen, so the armor remained still, devoid of the energy used to animate it.
Lanlan wins.