Duel:Demelza v Jaegar (DD)
Shrubbery and various grasses are abundant here, a welcome sight after so much desolation to the north. Field mice and other rodents can be heard scurrying through the vegetation in search of a meal, and smal birds twitter and chirp back and forth. The sweet aroma of wildflowers wafts through the air, and seems to be coming from the east, where the fields are full of them. The road continues south, while the plains go on to the west.
Demelza is a Fermin and seems to be a Shinobi. Demelza is wearing black-leather bodice on her body, black hood on her head, black veil on her face, crystal earring on her left ear, crystal earring on her right ear, spiked-leather collar on her neck, wolf-fur-shoulder cover on her shoulders, black runed-sleeve on her left arm, black runed-sleeve on her right arm, generic oddball object on her hands, rune detailed-leggings on her legs, and rune inscribed-footwear on her feet. Demelza is unarmed. Demelza is not using a shield. Demelza has red eyes, pale skin, and black hair, and is single.
Jaegar is a dragon and seems to be a elemental warrior. Jaegar is wearing dragonscale breastplate on his body, warrior clip on his left ear, warrior clip on his right ear, bloody pendant on his neck, Cloak of Stealth on his shoulders, dragonscale leggings on his legs, and dragonscale boots on his feet. Jaegar is using dragon claw as a weapon. Jaegar is not using a shield. Jaegar has grey eyes, light skin, and black hair, and is single.
Winner: Jaegar
Demelza stood in the plains with the grass waving in the occasional gust of wind. Fingertips drifted link by link down the chain towards the ronded weight. She had literally just finished the new chain today and it still held the gleam of being entirely unused in any situation. With those polished links between fingertips, the rat girl looked up as she smelled the approach of her opponent. Standing downwind did come with its advantages after all, advantages that sent her tail flicking back and forth almost like a snake writhing in wait of taking its first bite of a prey that would become dinner. She would be paid a great deal if she had this corpse as proof of the deed, and greed was the motivator as she snapped into action. Looking up for the first time, she finds her opponent to be quite larger and more reptilian than she last saw him and for a second she considers her weapon choice as the weight is spun in a vertical circle to her right side. Footpaws pounded the dirt beneath them, building speed to close the distance as every stride became lengthened and the velocity of the weight grew at a similar speed until both the weight and the rat was a blur. Nobody was stupid enough to charge head first into a dragon and Demelza wasn't going to be the first to jump down the throat of a lizard thingy as stopped just within range of the kusarigama she was holding and sent the weight forward like a hissing missile towards the giant eyes of the dragon in hopes of drawing first blood and gaining an advantage right off the start of the duel as her legs tensed and prepared to backpedal should the dragon take too deep a breath.
Jaegar pauses to savor the earth, the feel of its gentle cushion, nostrils pulling in that sweet aroma of the wild wheat and oats mixed with wildflowers before releasing a sulfur-filled sigh; soon it would only be the scent blood and churned earth. He notes Demelza 's perch and the gleam in those links. In many years the drake has come across many differing implements the Kusarigama being no exception to the rule. He accepts the range with a glint in those gray eyes before taking note of her launch to the offensive. The drake of storms moves forwards at the general lumbering gait with which he'd arrived, and to all appearances he seems completely relaxed in wake of the begun battle. The drake's ploy is victorious as the fermin female jerks to a stop using her velocity to aid in the use of the deadly implement that comes hurdling towards his eye. The saurian's armor-like scales glimmer and he moves, a sudden burst of speed from the elemental dragon who seemed before like little more than a target. His head twists, body following back to the left as he narrowly avoids the weight's blunt force as it grazes the tip of his nose. His response is just as swift as his defense, for as the weight nears its range the dragon's heavy talons lash out, grabbing to the freshly-linked chain with the intent to drag Demelza in, and using her weapon's range to create her disadvantage. Should this attack work Demelza would find herself upon the receiving end of the very thing she feared. His chest heaves forth a belly of blue sulfurous flames over the grassy plain and the line of the chain to which he grasps to roast the black as oil fermin.
Demelza wondered if the dragon had ever seen her fight before and if he knew the folly of his thinking when his massive claws try to pull her in with her own chain. Muttering a curse underneath her breath that held a signal as well as an angry sigh, the chain snaps with a loud ping as the rushing intake of air from the dragon signals that it is time for Demelza to start running for the hills, albeit not literally. With the roar of the flames spewing from the gaping maw of the lizard that tore through the plains like a volcano erupting and consuming a village as wheat and long grass became ash instantly, the hiss of a silver tine turning red and curling much like a fuse would was unlikely to be heard. It slowly went up into the hollow link of chain that had snapped at the command of the female fermin, the inside of the link glowing orange with miniscule runes that one would assume had been carved into it by the fermin with some intention. Demelza rolled to the side as the flames and the heat battered her form and literally scabbed her ears over almost immediately as the bare flesh was cooked. Fingertips shook as well, they too are unguarded from the extreme heat even though the flames didn't exactly wash over the rodent. Runes on her leathers helped keep the rest of her somewhat cool, but only because she had been lucky this time and the next blast of flame might indeed strip away everything as each piece of her equipment strained under the heat. The hissing would finally stop as the roar of flame died down, igniting the orange runes inside and beginning a chain reaction that would go off in a series of small but powerful pops as the chain literally exploded link by link in the grasp of the dragon, sending concussive shockwaves that would mean nothing to the dragon but it would help propel red hot metallic shrapnel in the forms of practically dissintigrated chain links. Charging back towards the behemoth with the whizzing of metal slicing through what unburnt plains there were around them, Demelza kept her distance and the same target in sight as fingertips normally able to throw multiple projectiles are able to only hurl one shuriken each towards the open throat of the dragon with a hiss of pain as Demelza grips the still hot disks.
Jaegar does not rejoice in the effectiveness of his attack, his eyes covered by those protective milky films unable to sight more than the smoky haze that comes from the plains as they are burned. His reaction to the suddenly exploding chains is delayed, to the point that the first warning is from one that erupts just beyond his deadly talons. The drake releases the chain though not nearly quick enough to save himself as metal bits tear into the fleshy underside of the massive-scaled creature. A bugle of pain breaks his flames, bringing them to a halt and heralding the happy freedom of his eyes from their protective coverings, into the haze of the burning plains. The dragon ignores the pain from the burning metal as he searches out his crafty prey with a jerk of his head, thus causing her shuriken to be skewed from the previous targets. The first in question skitters up and over his plated skull while the second buries into a niche betwixt two large plate-like scales upon his neck. The blood blossoms upon his body as the drake releases a hiss, storm clouds forming over the beautiful plain turned arena as if called by him. His wings extend, suddenly beating downwards and forcing the smoke outwards to consume the field before he moves towards the fermin. His talons churn the earth, forcing dirt and ashes into the air as he wheels his sixty-something foot body forwards and to the left suddenly, his entire body becoming a cracking blue-gray whip. His head jerks and causes the wave of his entire body, bringing that spine-covered tail around and out towards the shinobi through the cloud of smoke and earth in an attempt to skewer her upon those vicious daggers that run from crown to tail-tip upon the massive blue-gray drake.
Demelza finds herself launched through the air by the force of the tail that had appeared from the smoke as she wiped her eyes clean of the soot and the dirt that was kicked up with the flapping of those wings. Now stunned momentarily, floating lazily through the air as easily as if she was floating on her back in a slow moving stream. Eyes watched the clouds, gathering now at the beckoning of the dragon it would seem as her body began the slow arc that came from physics. It was only by the grace of fate that two of the spines had punctured her leather armor and body, one nicely sized hole in her side and the other nearly tearing all the muscle off of the bottom of her left tricep. She was already woozy, her body lacking the proper amount of fluids as they spilled across the plains below, watering what little survived the firestorm with her own body. A crash into the dirt was numbed, her body practically in shock as it was and her nerves absolutely frazzled and almost unable to accept any more sensation. Tears leaked freely from her eyes even if she didn't notice it as the blurred shape of a dragon hovered in the air. Her tail flicked back and forth, Demelza's survival instincts kicking in fully as she managed to raise up on a hand and two footpaws in a hunched tripod position. She looked shook her head free of the tears and prayed she had enough adrenaline and limited magical ability left to survive this. Body heaving from the scorched earth, footpaws pounded the ground at an absolute full speed with the tiniest bit of magic she had holding her organs inside that hole and keeping her from losing any more blood from her wounds for the moment. She pushes off the ground, right hand reaching behind her and drawing the black sword she kept sheathed upside down upon her back and hurling it like a spear towards the unprotected stomach of the dragon. The blade glistened with an oily sheen that screamed some type of poison as it whistled through the air and aimed to plant itself and the poison it bore inside the dragon. The rat's jump was shortlived, landing in a tuck and roll and laying low as she tried to hide amongst the remainder of the scorched tall grass and out of sight of the monster she had been contracted to take down.
Jaegar is physically tired, his large body took much effort to move at the rate at which this fight had required; as his long tail connected with the female, thus launching her across the hazy plains he felt the pain of his previous wounds come through the wall of his senses. She is upright by the time he turns his large serpentine frame towards her again, too late to catch the thrown blade as it pierces an iridescent scale, shattering the hard enamel that covers his skin before digging into his body ever so slightly. There is grace in this attack however, for the blade's poison is shorn from the weapon partially from its breach of the scale in question and in part by the swift, knee-jerk reaction of the large dragon. His maw closing over the blade and tearing it free in a spurt of macabre blood as the scale is also removed from his body. Jaegar slings the blade away into the ash of the burning landscape before giving a shattering roar and surging from his feet, into the air in a swift if pained run. It's as his wings extend, pulling him upwards to a climb that the drake wheels to find his hiding prey from among the low storm clouds. A rumble of thunder heralds the first drops of the rain as it begins to pour over the battered landscape and the drake relinquishes his search calling to the particles charged in the sky with the spines along his back extended outwards to deflect and adjust the massive bolt of golden light that rushes to meet those spines into a outrageous spectacle of cascading lighting upon the poorly treated plains. His body acting like a specialized lightning rod in this instance to create an attack that showers randomly over the landscape in order to completely electrocute his opponent should it prove successful.
Demelza whimpers horribly as bolts of lightning churn earth and start quickly dampening fires under the rainful. Every bolt that strikes near the rodent can be felt through through the water connection as the plains quickly become a marsh with the heavy rain. Another bolt landed not far from her, skin prickling in pain as the electricity races across her flesh and skin. Maybe if she kept her head down long enough he would get tired and die or the poison might reach his heart and send him crashing to the earth in a graceful neck breaking fall. A bolt lands not three feet from her and sends her shrieking up into the sky as the electricity flows across the wet ground Demelza was pressed against and into her battered and beaten system. Heart beating frantically as more bolts land with similar but far less painful effects as their distance is more often a bit too far than as close as the few that leave Demelza writhing in the mud screaming.
Satoshi mutters darkly when her imp is toasted by a stray bolt, and with a growl the assassin makes a hasty departure.
Satoshi backtracks just long enough to swipe Demelza's poisoned blade where it had landed after tossed by dragon jaws. Some little rat-voice had told her to, probably.
Satoshi, now with pilfered sword in hand, remakes her hasty departure, albeit a bit singed from the lightning storm she's had to venture near. So much for merely spectating.
Jaegar lands with all the grace that might be mustered under his injured condition. The drake wanders the butchered grounds, moist with water and smoldering still to the form of the partially-fried Fermin. Two sets of claws rest on either side of her head, a deep, cavernous voice echoing from the dragon's maw. " Deposit all items of value before me Fermin...Leave nothing out."
Demelza dumps her bag, removing even her clothing as she lays curled up on the ground holding her wounds.
Kill Post:
Jaegar stares at the items dropped, and then sadly shakes his large head, "Tragic... I only wanted to kill Morvious. Good bye... " The drake's talons lash out, tearing an arm from Demelza's form before heaving forth his deadly flames , quickly burning away all but her bones.