Duel:Gorzhageigk v Ryker, Match 8 of the Frostmaw Tournament

Duelists: Gorzhageigk vs. Ryker.
Duel: Traditional 3 posts each, with final defense. 15 minute posting limit.
Stakes: Autohit post. Advancement in the Titans of Winter Tournament 2012.
Judges: Ranok, Satoshi, Cyllth

Frostmaw Colosseum

(Continued from Match 6, and in conjunction with Match 7. All RP posts can be found on the Eboric/Javelin duel, this wikipage is strictly Gorzhageigk and Ryker's match.)

Ryker roars in response, the labored beat of his mending wings sounding over the arena as he brings himself towards the northern end. The wall of ice did little to intimidate, but was a strange addition. Perhaps it would work well with his plans. Once over the section he was to fight in he tucked in his wings and dove down, slamming onto the ground. The proud beast rose his head and awaited the appearance of his opponent while his mind reeled with possibilities of how to rise out of this victorious.

Duel Start

Gorzhageigk stares out across the field at his bronze opponent. He reaches up, takes a long draw from the cigar hanging from his mouth, drops it to the snow-covered ground, and stamps it out with his foot. Smoke pours from his nose and mouth. The obtuse gentleman seems to stretch yet, with each flex of muscle hidden beneath coats of fat, his arms and legs extend and widen and clothes and skin alike give way to the dragon's natural scale-covered form. Shiny dress shoes melt into enormous dull-brown claws, once straight legs buckle and collapse as they struggle to support the dragon's ever-enlarging form. He topples forward only to catch himself on two massive forearms. Wings sprout from his sides and trail all the way down the strong tail protruding from his backside and all the up to his head which melts and molds into an enormous and frightening maw. His deafening roar splits the evening air. With little more ceremony, two strong wing beats drag the brown dragon into the air. He locks onto his opponent and rockets towards him, feigning a collision with the other dragon in favor of swooping past him and slamming his massive tail, lined with razor sharp scales, into Ryker's neck.

Ryker had been hoping for such a fierce enemy to face him. His own wings, one a bit limp and hanging slightly began beating furiously. All the while he had been collecting his own electricity and saliva in his throat. While rising the massive tail caught him by surprise, the swiftness of the strike sending him crashing into the arena's wall. Along with the battering of the blow, he also felt his scales weakened, the razor edges of Gorzhageigk's scales grinding against and thinning the bone-like makeup of his own natural armor. His head quickly cleared from the daze and he rose once more into the air, using his own natural powers to grow in size, as of right now he was several times smaller than the brown dragon. Glittering wings edged with emerald beat against the wind as they grew with his body until he reached his current limit, which was two-thirds the size of his opponent. Unhinging his jaw he shot up into the air, spraying a mass of electrified saliva down upon the dragon below, which would both amplify future lightning attacks and begin to numb the muscles, which would in turn make his opponent sluggish and less agile, perhaps even temporarily traumatize the body enough into a minor paralysis. When he reached about three quarters of the arena's height, he furled his wings and dive-bombed Gorzhageigk, claws open and the fleshy film covering his eyes, creating a blindness. Although hindered by this, the sheer size of his opponent would allow him to make contact as he went for where the blood flowed the hottest, taking in the smell as it guided him to his enemy's back where he would try and find purchase and rake away at the scales with tooth and claw until he could get to the weak flesh beneath.

Gorzhageigk completes a circle around the arena, never losing site of his opponent as he slams into the wall, recovers, and takes to the air. Then, the little bugger spits on him. Gorzhageigk flaps his wings and attempts to vacate the general vicinity before any of the other beast's bile could touch him. Unfortunately, his own massive size already denies him the natural agility of most dragons and his tail catches the brunt of the insulting attack causing it to tingle quite like he had been sitting on it for some time. Nevertheless, Gorzhageigk spirals through the air, his unique kite-like wing structure allowing him to fly upside down, and stares his opponent down as he rockets towards him. As Ryker reaches out to begin clawing away at his scales and the flesh beneath, the great brown beast reaches up to envelop the bronze's slightly smaller claws in his own. He twists around once more and beats his wings, righting himself and sending the pair soaring towards the icy barrier separating the arena. His wings flare as they both near it, rapidly slowing Gorzhageigk as he releases his opponent from the grapple. Momentum alone should be enough to send the poor dragon flying towards that deadly wall of ice.

Ryker continues on his descent, even more anxious as Gorzhageigk flies with his belly towards the sky. An easy target he would be, a finer spray, more like a mist, was released from his maw upon his opponent when he was close enough to bear. Just like his saliva before, it was electrified, just the effects would be more dulled. As his claws rake away, he was continuously building up the static in his throat. Then all of a sudden he was struggling to escape from an enemy that had so easily overpowered him. Turning his head, he saw where his opponent was taking him and knew only too late what was going to happen as he was thrown. His body was tossed, but his wings outstretched allowed him the ability to slow his path down considerably, enough in fact that he was able to turn his head and released a pink arc of thunderous might upon the wall, striking and carving a path through it that shortly after exploded into a cloud of falling debris and icy particles. Spikes tore into the soft flesh of his wings, and battered upon his body while he fell to crash upon the arena floor. Once he recovered, his body accustomed to lower temperatures, however not to magic of this type, he only briefly acknowledged the layer of frost developing and slowing his movements, attempting to pierce his flesh to the bone and turn him into a mere sculpture, frozen in time. Through all of this though, his focus was only partially deterred. Using a bit of magic, the cloud was sent towards his enemy, the brown dragon more habituated in warmer climes that the gust-guided icy cloud with disorientate his foe. As a final strike he spat out a ball of lightning that would work in tandem with the ice to electrocute and further traumatize the dragon into falling to the ground, should his misty spray of static saliva have worked earlier. All the while he would be waiting on the ground, charging for where his enemy would land to lunge for the throat, only all to eager to end the battle.

Gorzhageigk had hoped his opponent wouldn't see him flip over and curses, now, that he had left himself so open to an auxiliary spray of his paralyzing saliva, a fact which had just now registered in the heat of battle. Still airborn, he feigns away from the magical barrier and, flapping wings to send him back towards that deadly component, manages to dodge the brunt of the magically accelerated icy cloud and ball of lightning, though his wing doesn't completely escape all damage. He jerks his serpentine body away from Ryker, partially by design but mostly out of writhing pain caused by the other dragon's electric breath, sending him into a haphazard tail spin towards the ground. His tail, now nearly paralyzed by the notable amount of saliva with which it was hit earlier, slaps against the ice barrier on the way down, catching a nasty case of frostbite but also managing to scrap a, hopefully, surprising cloud of ice towards Ryker's head followed by the dead weight of Gorzhageigk's tail itself. Soon after, the great brown slams into the ground on all fours facing his opponent, shaking the ground and causing a thunderous clap. A solitary moment of silence passes as he inhales and then all hell breaks lose. Sand pours from the beast's gaping maw, filling the arena with the searing sands of the nameless desert. The brunt of the attack is aimed directly towards the bronze dragon but others, including the ice barrier and, perhaps, some of the people in the stands, are in danger of being sandblasted as well.

Satoshi curses yet again when the stray edges of Gorzhageigk's sandblast head her way, forcing the kit to retreat into the confines of her dragonscale-lined coat with hood drawn up to prevent a skinning. "Break his wing, you big oaf!"

Ryker retreats, his movements continuing to slow until his body heat rose enough to begin fighting off the frigid cold. His attacks had been working, but something was amiss. His opponent wasn't nearly as harmed as he should be. His claws and teeth hardly managed to break through the thick armor of the opposition and his lightning wasn't doing nearly as much damage. The gust that he conjured before had ended long ago, only enough to propel the cloud before his magical talent was spent. Ruined wings furled against his body tight and he began to bring in more electricity, his entire form glittering as the static bounced on his scales, drawing it into his throat while light escaped from between his open lips. The film covered his eyes again while his opponent landed, figuring that something big was going to happen. He was right as his enemy released his fierce breath attack against him, hot sand blasting against him, grinding down his scales and sticking into the exposed flesh of his wings and embedding in the film that protected his eyes. Even making it up his nose he could feel it tearing into muscle and causing blood to flow freely. This would be allowed to go on for quite a while longer until he was fed up with the entire ordeal and unhinged his jaw. Throwing his head back he released a massive sphere of lightning, firing through the cone of sand, the hot plasma fighting back and pushing through the attack. At the same time he was charging swiftly behind it, knowing that although it was decreasing in size, the sand was turning to glass around it, showering him with the sharp bits that ripped into his face. The sphere would be heading for the dragon's own mouth, even possibly getting swallowed while Ryker lunged behind it, forelimbs outstretched and aimed to grip around Gorzhageigk's throat, hopefully his weight and velocity would topple the larger foe and force him to the ground while his claws would hold him down if all succeeded as planned. In the end he would be left with open mouth, glittering fangs ready to tear away the throat of his enemy and end it at last.

Gorzhageigk doesn't let up until he sees something shimmering and speeding towards him through the nearly blinding sandstorm. With little time to react, the brown dragon turns his head and angles his body away from the approaching light, unsure of it's effects but unable to dodge it completely. As lightening collides against his unprotected side, the dragon releases the second earsplitting roar of the match. Fortunately, scales normally intended to dissipate heat are also poor conductors of electricity as well, leaving him sizzling... But not fried. Glancing over his shoulder at the state of his opponent, he sees him fast approaching as well and, with little time to spare, flares his wings and, more accurately, the three strong bone structures which support them each topped with needle sharp horns, signaling it time for Ryker to either stop the battle or be skewered.

Winner:Gorzhageigk

Gorzhageigk is a bit surprised to see Ryker continuing towards him and, thus, is forced to quickly move his wing lest he impale his opponent. And we can't have that. After all, what sort of brown dragon would he be if he impaled a creature and didn't proceed to -consume- said creature? And even Gorz knows better than to omnom another dragon in front of present company. People would think him a cannibal, they would! And so it comes to pass that Ryker is not impaled. Instead, Gorzhageigk spins around, dragging his now thoroughly paralyzed tail with him, and lunges forward just as Ryker does. They meet in the middle and tumble to the ground in a fit of furious dragon fury! As the dust clears, Gorzhageigk stands tall as the victor, his enormous front claw clamped tightly around Ryker's head who struggles weakly beneath him. A third roar, a cry of victory, splits the frigid air. Perhaps we shall feast tonight?

Satoshi, while the dragon roars his victory, begins to make her way from the stadium. But not before saluting the brown beast and stopping off to give Hanan her earned gold. "Remind me to bet with you again. It makes things far more interesting~." With that, the magus departs.