Duel:Dominic v Gorim

Part of the Thy Kingdom Come Arc

Location: Queoldian Outpost
Duelists: Dominic (Team Hildegarde) vs Gorim (Team Balgruuf, NPCed by Odhranos)
Judges: Diryon, Pilar and Shishi
Stakes: If Dominic prevails, he succeeds in freeing the imprisoned centaurs, and they join Hildegarde's forces immediately. To arms! If Gorim wins, during the fog of war, Hildegarde's forces accidentally kill a significant portion of the imprisoned centaurs, a genuine case of devastating friendly fire. It ruins future relations between Frostmaw and the Queoldian centaurs.

Queoldian Outpost

Dominic made haste to the Queoldian Outpost, travelling light, rune-enchanted garb and agility his main protections against blade or magic. What had become of the centaurs that had allied with Frostmaw? As the schism of a man drew near, his signature runed stone grasped firmly in one hand, he spied a frost giant guard from a distance. Even just the one was bad news, given how the thing towered over his slight frame. Curses. While Dominic had been working on the illusion magic that allowed an image of Brand to fight on his behalf, it was unlikely that an illusion’s fists were likely to do much good here, and he hadn’t quite figured out how to get it to do anything else besides stab or punch yet. No, they’d have to do this in the usual way -- Brand would have to take the reins of their communal form, so that his elemental magic could be utilized. Dominic exhaled slowly through his nose, begrudgingly calling forth that other entity that shared his mind. A series of ripples cascaded across the surface of his skin and his body shifted in a matter of seconds. And so it was Brand who stepped into the frost giant’s view now, smirking widely, confidently. He was ready for whatever came his way.

Gorim stood, grumbling under his breath as he stood guard over the outpost. Curls of frosted breath twisted from the corner of his mouth as his muttered oaths and curses on everything from Hildegarde to the state of the City of War's tarnished economy. "Just brilliant, I spend ten years in a stinking training camp, join the army in the hopes of honouring Aramoth ith the blood and shattered bones of Frostmaw's enemies and when the greatest fight Frostmaw as seen in decades comes along, where do they put me? Guarding stinking horsemen!" He gritted his teeth, great tombstone slabs grinding together with the sound of an enameled rockslide. But then! What luck! A puny figure, human by the lools of it stepped boldly from the fog, walking across the ice-coated slabs towards the hulking frost giant. Gorim felt like celebrating, finally someone who's skull could be mashed in for Aramoth's glory!! "Oi! What do you think you're doing here, human scum!" He roared, gripping the steel-banded haft of his great twin-headed warhammer.

Duel Begins

Brand’s smirk only grew as he came to a halt, peering up at Gorim and his warhammer. He stood out of range for the time being, though admittedly not by much; he was sizing up the giant, confidence compensating for the height differential, his free hand flexed and outstretched toward the ground. “ ‘What do I think I’m doing here?’ Heh, I’m doin’ you a favor. Looks like you’re as eager to fight as I am.” The ice covering the earth beside Brand was growing thin and cracking as he spoke, slowly becoming a slush of frigid water. Much more malleable, that way, and much simpler to create something complex with than if he’d been conjuring the elements from scratch. That hand raised now, and with it the slush resolidified into weaponry -- twin spears of frozen water, tips reinforced by pointed stone from the ground below. “ ‘Ice’ to meet ya, big boy. Now, let’s go.” With a flick of the wrist, the spears went hurtling towards Gorim, seeking to pierce the giant’s eyes.

Gorim raised a hand and growled deep in his throat, an animalistic noise of anger and excitement for battle. As the twin bolts of ice screamed towards him, he shook his shoulders and bared his chest, standing at full height, so the area where his unprotected eyes had been was now centered on his broad scarred chest. "I'm a frost giant, ice does noth-Ack!"; he roared in pain. Although the ice did little to his frost-hardened skin, the hidden stones in the points carried the force through and both spear points lodged a few inches deep into the giant's thick flesh. "You little worm, no-one dishonours me by defeating me with what I was reared on, the ice is my home!" He roared with anger and, taking his hammer in both hands, he swung like a scythe, the end of the hammer designed quite similar to a meat tenderiser, which was now whistling on its way to tenderise a certain ice-wielding mage.

Brand didn’t have time for a snappy reply, or to be smug that his attacks met their mark. With the hammer swinging sideways and threatening to crush him into a pulp, the only winning move was to leap forward and up, toward the shaft of the giant’s weapon. As he gripped onto it, the momentum would carry him at a dizzying speed through the arc of the swing and eventually throwing him to the ground somewhere to the side and behind Gorim. Jagged bits of uneven ice coating the ground cut into him as he slid to a stop, lacerating all across the arm that gripped the runestone and leaving a mottled crimson trail behind him. But still, it was a sore sight better than becoming a frozen pancake.... and now he had a positional advantage. Staggering back to his feet now, the man surveyed the damage and -chuckled-, of all the things. Crazy fellow. He sent no fancy elemental weapons Gorim’s way this time, instead opting for speed over complexity. Racing to position himself directly at the giant’s back, Brand hastily conjured and then shot out an unruly blaze from the fingertips of his free hand, aiming to sear the back of the creature’s legs and send him toppling to his knees in pain.

Gorim finished the arc of his swing, resulting in the heavy hammer smashing into the stones of the buildings of the side, wedging the weapon firmly in the frosty rock of the wall. Giving a fierce grunt, the giant wrenched the great steel hammer from the wall, only to receive a torching across his lower back and thighs. Roaring in pain, the giant collapsed, armoured kneecaps punching through the stone cobbles as the flames scorched his flesh. The giant cursed like a vengeful sailor, he shouldn't have told the pesky mage about his glacial affinity, it was no great leap to assume his weakness to fire. However, the giant was far from incapacitated. Turning with a speed that one would have thought impossible for a creature of his mass, Gorim swung a meaty fist behind him, fingers open to grab and crush any human unfortunate to get caught.

Brand was a fairly nimble sort, but even he couldn’t roll out of the way quite fast enough to escape the giant’s grasp. He dangled upside-down now by his right leg, the bones cracking under the pressure and causing horrible agony. A stream of strangled curses spewed from the man’s mouth, precious seconds lost before he adjusted to his new predicament. The key here was clearly to free himself before the giant could crush the rest of him or slam him head-first into the ground, but he had precious little leverage from this position. In his moment of desperation, he called forth orbs of electrical energy from his fingertips and sent them at Gorim’s wrist and up the rest of his arm -- if he was lucky, the giant might spasm enough to release his hold; if he was luckier still, he might even fry some nerves, seize up some muscle, and render the arm temporarily out of service. He... didn’t want to think about what might happen if he was unlucky. He probably wouldn’t be long for this world if that were the case.

Gorim's arm jerked as the tendrils of lightning jittered and stung along his skin, sending lances of pain deep into the flesh of his hulking limb. The hand holding Brand's leg sprang open like a bear trap, no doubt depositing the unfortunate man on some important limb or his head. Grasping his wrist with the other hand, the giant fought to control the spasms, but the arm was truly incapacitated, reduced to a shaking hanging slab of useless muscle. The raging giant rounded on the man, spewing oaths and spittle in equal proportions as he squinted through the red haze before his eyes and focused on the impertinent outsider that was causing him such bother, not to mention dishonouring him in battle. "Battle is fought with steel and fists, not trickery and magic!" The rampaging giant roared. Grasping the useless hand in the other, he raised both hands above his head. "For Aramoth!" He roared, causing the ice-coated glass of the nearby buildings to tinkle alarmingly, then he brought both hands down in a air-splitting overhead smash, bearing down with the force of a small avalanche towards the poor unfortunate human, with the intention of acquainting him on a molecular level with the icy slabs beneath his feet.

Brand did his best to turn his fall into a sort of roll, such that it would minimize the damage he took. But in all the overwhelming pain of his broken leg, the gashes on his arm and the runestone he was holding had been momentarily forgotten. His tumble turned lopsided, losing any of the grace he might have liked to have possessed; he fell instead in a crumpled heap on the frozen ground below. Surely this was it for him, then. With his leg crushed so, he’d lost the agility that was his primary advantage against the giant, and now those hulking fists were coming straight down for him. Green eyes turned defiantly up at them before the man did the only thing he could think of that might give him even a chance of survival -- with a wave of his hand in an arc from one side of his body to the other, he bent the icy stone around him up and over him, producing a hastily constructed dome for him to hide beneath. It shuddered and cracked at a frightening volume as Gorim’s hands hit his makeshift shield... but it held, for now. The obvious downside was that now he was trapped, with even less mobility than he’d had before, and the giant was still out there... at least now he'd bought himself a little more time to come up with a plan of action.

Dominic wins!

Post-Duel

Those few seconds of contemplation felt like an eternity as Brand contemplated how he’d make his way out of this. When his new plan came to him he acted on it immediately, wasting little time between the making of his dome-shield and setting his idea into motion. The dome shifted above him, gaining matter and sharpening quickly to a jagged point. With as much magical strength as he could muster, Brand shot the thing upwards, the thing careening like a gargantuan arrow straight for Gorim’s face, or as near as he could manage given his limited vision.

Gorim's fists screamed down and collided with the stone barrier that Dominic had hastily erected. Growling deep in his throat, he stood up straight and spread his arms, roaring like a bull was he bared his armoured chest to the elements. "Now you die, human scum!" He roared and was about to bring all of his force down upon the stone sphere when it altered shape and rocketed upwards. With a sickening crunch, the spear of rock shattered its way through the giant's jaw and crushed his thick skull from the base up. Gorim's hulking mass swayed for a moment, then collapsed to the ground, brain matter splaying across the icy flagstones from his shattered cranium. The giant, for all his bluster and posturing, was very dead.