Duel:Grailan v Kang, Match 4 of the Inaugural Warrior's Guild Tournament

Duelists: Grailan vs. Kang. 
Duel: Traditional 3 posts each, with final defense. 15 minute posting limit. 
Stakes: Autohit post. Advancement in the Inaugural Warrior's Guild Tournament. 
Judges: Leone

Snowless Training Yard

Leone said, "Welcome to the Inaugural Tournament of Warriors! Here we gather in the arena of Frostmaw to watch two noble warriors do battle. The arena's orbs have been tweaked and turned to precisely the right calibration until the scenery is wholly alien. The arena has been transformed into a wintry rushing river. Ice floats on top of the quickly moving waters, some of them still moored into place, though it appears as if there are no banks. As they are disturbed, the chunks of fragile ice rock and bobble, threatening to tip over. The floating islands of slippery, frozen foam shatter and separate from larger chunks into ever-increasingly smaller ones with vibration, weight, and impact. As the floes bump and jostle against one another with the current, they begin to break apart. Nothing is stable, there is no retreat, no quarter, no safehaven...and everything is slick. Good luck to both Kang and Grailan!"

Kang turns away from the monster he'd released upon the unsuspecting bystanders to focus on his opponent. In previous lives, the battles Kang fought ended when the other side died. For some reason, in this realm the battles don't truly begin until the man dies. The preklek focuses his breathing and holds up his staff, tracing patterns with his left hand along the smooth shadow gnome craftsmanship. A curved dark obsidian blade grows from the top, turning the inconspicuous walking stick into a deadly weapon. He faces Grailan, matching the dread knight's cold gaze with his own. A faint hint of reptilian musk wafts over the icy flow, reminiscent of the harsh warm up of earlier. Kang wastes no time watching the disintegrating walkways, he starts running. His movements blur as he reaches near sonic speeds, and the ice below disappears in a splash and perhaps a bit of steam from the brush with absurd velocity. Kang knows his maneuverability will be next to nil on such slick surfaces, so he uses his newly-formed scythe to anchor him. Upon reaching striking distance, the preklek death knight stabs the blade into the ice and swings around to send a flying kick directly at Grailan's face.

Grailan was of a different ilk than Kang; the Dread Knight was clad in black platemail armor that was adorned with ornamental spikes to add to a far more intimidating appearance than the simple garb of the living, and coupled with the added girth, he stood a good half-foot taller than the average human, which gave him an entirely hulking appearance. The creature lacked both hood and cape and opted for their absence because of the restriction that they placed upon his movements, so both his dull, lifeless grey eyes and his equally dulled pale and straight hair was completely visible. In his left gauntlet he held a heater shield, which was a medium shield much alike a kite shield, except shorter, and therefore lighter. The right? A heavy flail, anchored by a two-foot obsidian rod and bearing a single massive, spherical, and dastardly spiked weight; the rod and weight were connected by a pair of helix-wrapped chains, and long enough that it reached perhaps double, or double-and-a-half his normal arm's reach. Unlike Kang, he did not move; he began on one of those ice platforms, large enough to fit himself and perhaps half an unarmored man, that was seemingly moored to the bed beneath the violently rushing river and, due to his weight and lack of speed, opted that staunch defense was the best course of action. He wouldn't be able to stand there the entire fight; it was already cracking subtly beneath his weight. But for now, this is where the Dread Knight stood his ground. Instead of beginning in a sprint, the man began an exponentially-increasing pace of swinging his flail in a vertical circle, gaining momentum and speed until the spiked weight became a blur of color that offered a shrill whistle through the air. Dull eyes followed the incredibly swift approach of the preklek, and it was likely that he would not be able to time his attack in accordance with the oncoming death knight; a split-decision was made. His heater shield was lifted in trailing the twisted man so that that foot struck the incredibly steadfast and strong wall of defense in the form of his ascended shield, resulting in the slightest slide backward, but no loss of his swinging flail's momentum. That weapon was utilized immediately afterward in a downward vertical arc aimed to smash Kang bones into the ice and the raging river beneath.

Kang hits the shield, as was expected. No one ever expects a mad rush to work. Before gravity kicks in and Kang jerks his scythe cleanly from the anchor-point and swings it up and over his head, but is forestalled from completing the action by the sudden unforgiving slam into the ice. A bruised and sore preklek crashes through into the biting cold waters that sap his strength as they draw at his body heat. The raging rapids drag Kang along underwater and he hooks the wickedly sharp blade into the ice overhead. Above, all the crowd would see is the sheen of the glassy blade, a dorsal fin hinting at the malevolence underneath. A swing of acrobatic and athletic prowess brings the preklek once more to the surface. He staggers a little but returns to his running, hoping to regain a bit of body heat before this fight goes too far south. Moving not as fast as before he approaches and retreats from his undead foe, slashing at the ice around him. Within the space of a couple seconds the ice between the two is thoroughly broken apart, and the area underneath Grailan is quickly disspating. Kang pats the side of his weapon and it whips inward, shrinking into a chakram. He let's it fly, ricocheting it off the wall behind Grailan to slice at roughly the heel. Though, if the ice breaks first, the strike may be even better placed.

Grailan didn't offer any change in his expression; the profound melancholy that he wore (aura of eternal sorrow belied by the rage of the roaring rivers and the conflict engaged) neither shifted into glee nor determination but rather held that distinct despair, as if he was apologetic for his attack. Still unlike Kang, the Dread Knight opted to remain as planted as possible, which became all the more difficult with his own attack, as the preklek crashed through the ice and caused it to distinctly and audibly over the din of the vehement water crack, splinter, and separate. This put the hulking monstrosity of an undead at a particular disadvantage; his weight and lack of speed prevented him from adequately moving along the ice as Kang was able to, and did. The man's dull eyes followed the trail of Kang from his presumption of going along with the current, only to more accurately track the other's position once that dorsal fin of a sharp blade dragged along the ice overhead. Stablizing himself, the servant of Eboric began to swing his flail's spiked weight again in that vertical path of a circle, gaining faster and faster momentum; it was a weapon used mainly to literally bludgeon and beat against platemail and stronger armor, and not technically designed to face a swift opponent. Yet Grailan was resourceful and relentless, if his state of un-life were any indicator thereof; the preklek's acrobatic antic brought him once again to the surface. The black-armored warrior did not slow the momentum of his flail as Kang approached and retreated continuously, though he did repeatedly lift his heater shield as if expectant that these feignts were attacks, but the Dread Knight's 'acting' (if his melancholious expression could do anything to help that) did not let on that he knew full well that the weapon was slashing at the ice around him. He appeared undeterred, and as his thin, fragile platform disappeared, Grailan opted to attack. His flail came around in a diagonally-downward arc and aimed not at Kang's body, but at the area just before him. The flail's weight would smash powerfully against and through the ice, causing the entire platform beneath Kang to explode in a fury of of shards of crystalline frozen water and snow. Then the chakram sliced Grailan's foot off as he descended into the water, without a single droplet of blood to attest to it; the man quickly was moving down river by his sheer weight, though he was yanked to an abrupt halt by the weight of his flail, suspended in the middle of the current beneath the water in a difficult positon to strike.

Kang continues his darting, hoping to press his one advantage. He leaps off the ice at the same instant that the flail demolishes it, the spray of ice against his still cold arms elicting a faint shiver. Kang races out of range. Somehow he retrieves his ever-changing weapon and stares at his anchored opponent. The preklek, bruised and close to hypothermia, idly traces a new pattern on the arced weapon and drops it. The rippling object grows to the single shape that would do Kang the most good right now: a spear. With the breaking ice, the only thing Kang wants is a place that won't move or disappear underneath him, but failing that he'd like a way to attack Grailan without getting wet again. Continuously finding safe footing is strenuous, but Kang has experienced harsher conditions. He locates the underwater dead man, stabs and darts away. Wait a few moments and repeat, off and on. Making sure to space the attacks to be unpredictable, hit and run. He didn't want a repeat of the begiining off the bout.

Grailan , on the other hand, remained like an anchored submarine, suspended in the water and held in place from the current washing him away in the freezing, violent river by his vice-grip upon that flail. Luckily, he didn't need breath, never became tired, didn't feel the cold or any sort of pain; he hadn't even flinched and he was now missing a foot. That expression of oppressive depression, that sorrow and eternal regret, remained engraved and affixed upon his pale face even as that spear bounced against his platemail several time, sinking into dead flesh intermittantly. But those dull eyes were anything but brainless; they watched and, although they were lifeless and pale grey, held a degree of cunning and single-mindedness that kept him steadfast in his intention of defeating the other. They tracked the movements of the preklek who continued to exert his energy with accurate efficiency for quite some time, only losing track sporadically before quickly refocusing once spotting the warrior again. As that spear came one final time and sank into the shoulder of the armored warrior, just between (either by proficiency or mere luck) two plates of obsidian-hued mail armor, into his shoulder, Grailan did not simply remain. His hand freed itself by releasing his heater shield down the roaring current only to power along his body and grasp hold of the shaft of the spear. Still anchored by the flail's weight grasped by his other hand, he yanked down hard on his opponent's weapon to push it through his own dead flesh and attempt to pull the preklek once again beneath the surface of the water.

Kang feels the resistance of Grailan grabbing the spear and taps one last command on the shaft before releasing his end and skipping away along the ice floes to wait. He thinks it wise to stay out of range while Grailan grapples with the unruly spear. The weapon begins shifting inside the dead man, sending spiked tendrils down into the ground anchoring him even more fully to the riverbed. No matter how many tendrils Grailan rips up, three more will find purchase. Thus describes the parting gift Kang left for the man who grabbed onto the sentient staff. On the surface, the preklek scans the audience for his little terror. He finds her in a matter of moments: just follow the screaming.

Winner: Grailan

Grailan had to grapple with that spear; as he attempted to keep himself from being anchored to the ground by wrenching tendril after tendril out of him, it becomes more fervent and more frivolous. But that expression still did not contort from a horrible melancholy, wrapped in the regret and sorrow of his own actions as if Kang were undeserving of fighting against him. Eventually, as the 'little terror' and preklek were reunited, Grailan stopped struggling against the spiked tendrils and instead still focused on his opponent. Slowly, step after powerful step, the undead used those spikes as anchorage to walk toward Kang's position beneath the ice, relentless and tirelessly. Once the Dread Knight was beneath the preklek, he pushed upward with incredibly force to jam his gauntlet through the ice and grasp hold of Kang's ankle. Then he allowed the spear to rip him downward, crumbling the platform and dragging the death knight beneath the current, where, mournfully, the undead would let go for the river to take his opponent downstream.