Duel:Haakon v Meri, Match 4 of the 2021 Titans of Winter Tournament
Duelists: Haakon vs Meri Duel: Traditional 3 rounds with final defense, 20 minute posting limit. Stakes: Standard, autohit delivered by winner with allowance for final reply. Judges: Caltarok, Aoife and Leone.
Walled Courtyard
Haakon arrived with an inner restlessness that belied his nervousness. It had been more than a decade since he’d been hotblooded enough to enter into any kind of combat tournament. There was excitement, as the beast that hid beneath the handsomeness of his features would always stir at the prospect of spilling blood. Gods willing most of it would not be his own. He’d pulled his roguish hair back to keep it from his way in battle. His armor was light, perhaps a bit arrogantly, as he’d only worn black mithril plated leather. The tunic was long of sleeve, the mithril thick around his forearms and the more sensitive areas of his stomach, groin and shins. His boots were similarly dark but simple thick leather with gleaming steel pointed dangerously at the tips. Haakon’s sword was strapped to his side, the amber on it’s hilt glinting with the firelight that bounced around the twilight darkened battle arena. His fingers twitched near it as he entered the walled courtyard with the inherent, deadly grace of his nature. The vampire took his place across from his opponent quietly, intent to aim his intense blue gaze Meri’s way and quietly study her one last time before the action began. It was no small testament to his will that he kept his eyes on the blonde and did not stray toward the crowd to find where Cesaria sat.
Meri arrives at the Walled Courtyard on foot, dressed in the same outfit that she decided to wear to the ball that was hosted to mark the start of the tournament. That is to say that a bulk of her armored outfit is currently covered with a thick cloak made of sable fur. The cloak does not stay in place for long, it’s too weighted and would be a considerable inconvenience during battle. Meri will abandon her cloak somewhere near Quintessa before making her way to the battlefield, her lips twisting up into a sneer of displeasure as she is hit with a wave of cold. Now that the cloak is not obscuring a majority of what the psion is wearing, it can be seen that she’s selected armored boots, thin gloves to help with the frost, bracers to help protect her tattooed sleeves, and a chestpiece. Every piece that Meri has selected for the day was black and color and none were made of metal, all were leather. The lycan’s choice of weaponry includes a single bastard sword that is currently sheathed at her back in a metal scabbard, and quite the variety of daggers that weigh down a belt. A sheathed pair have also been shoved into the back of her boots. No shield. The blonde positions herself at a distance and opposite of Haakon, dipping her head to him in a brief nod prior to the start of their fight.
Round One:
Haakon let the energy of the crowd roll through him and remained as still as the grave for a heartbeat. Held until the dark, twisted thing inside of him coiled and rose, ready to strike. Suddenly full of motion, he sprinted toward her with his unnatural speed. Grass and dirt dusted up beneath the thick tread of his boots as he focused on her left. The vampire waited until he was near enough that Meri might see the whites of his eyes before he pulled his black sword. His eyes might have given him away as he swung up viciously at her left, aiming for her neck. While he did this, his foot moved out to sweep at her legs, hopefully landing with savage force on the outside of her right calf. Regardless of the success of these blows the vampire would dance back on his heels and attempt to move just outside of her reach, expecting to use his height to his advantage. The vampire was no fool and had lived long enough to know better than underestimate a woman in anything, let alone battle, so he moved quickly and watched for an attack. He lunged back within range of the psion to swing again with his sword, striking like a viper with the killing edge of his blade aiming once more for her throat with deadly precision. Like before, he followed this blow by moving back, this time dropping down to pull his sword back in a defensive position across his chest as moved.
Meri :: To the audience, it might seem that Meri was remaining calmed and even keeled save for the grin that curled at her red lips for those few remaining moments that Haakon was stationary. Meri had no idea what her opponent was capable of but that burst of speed that the vampire was displaying was telling, and to an extent the werewolf welcomed it. It meant that she might actually be in for a challenge. Meri remained even keeled as Haakon closed the gap between them, making no move to advance toward him, fully intent on letting the vampire bring the fight to her. While she was laden with weapons today, it was her sword that Meri reached for in a blur of motion. As her bastard sword is drawn from its sheath, the friction of metal against metal causes the blade of the sword to ignite. Meri’s fiery blade meets the first strike issued by Haakon, the two blades clanging against one another with considerable force. While Meri is seasoned enough in battle to know that this was only the first of a series of attacks, she does nothing to deflect the kick that is issued to her leg and takes the full brunt of that attack. It’s not enough to cause the blonde to lose her footing, but it would bruise and she will be struggling to ignore the pain in her for the rest of the battle. During the brief reprise Meri gets between Haakon’s onslaught, two of the daggers that have been resting idly at her hips take to life as if of their own accord. Both blades levitate through the air with controlled speed, the psion’s own thoughts manipulating exactly where they are traveling and what they are doing. As Haakon goes in for his second round of attacks, those blades are circling behind Haakon where both weapons will seek to imbed themselves into the vampire’s back. One seems to be angled for mithril armor, while the other is looking to bite into the unprotected back of Haakon’s neck. While this is occurring the psionically inclined werewolf is trying to deflect the vampire’s second strike to her neck, this time only narrowly avoiding to do so. Controlling the movement of those blades was a slight distraction, and so the blade of Haakon’s sword managed to bite into her neck but not enough to do serious damage. It was just a flesh wound. Her own blade prevented any grievous injury. Twin daggers were not the only threat that Meri would be issuing. Haakon attempts to step back and assume a defensive maneuver, but the lycan is quite intent on not giving him a chance to catch a breath. He steps back and she steps forward, trying to distract him from the daggers by thrusting the tip of her fiery sword straight toward his cut.
Round Two:
Haakon ’s brows were nearly singed at the surprise of fire so near his face as his sword met Meri’s own. He cursed even as he moved back, noting nearly too late that the daggers she’d had on her moved of their own accord. He was blocking her advance and nearly lost them as he rose to meet her flaming sword with his own again, pushing up from the ground to throw his weight behind the defense and push her back. The first blade struck true and met the mithril of his light armor. While it caused him considerable pain it was the resistance of the metal there that caused it’s failure to draw blood. The second dagger was more successful and might have been buried to the hilt where his spine met his skull if he hadn’t managed to move to his left. Instead of a lethal blow, it sliced through the exposed skin of his neck and missed the artery there by a hair’s breadth. He might noticed as well that it gave him an unfortunate and unwanted hari hut as the blade had sailed right through the black hair that had been bound there. Now free of it’s restraint, it hung around his face and threatened his vision in this fight. Crimson bloomed and poured down the chest of his black armor. It seemed first blood would be Meri’s. His own sword found her neck moments after and the scent of it surrounded him even as she crowded in on his retreat. His true nature rose as blood fell, darkened the blue of his eyes to molten amber even as it hardened the attractive lines of his face to something darker and more primal. With a scream of effort, Haakon moved his blade to block the incoming blow to his gut and nearly stumbled back. The tight control of his movements slipped as he pushed forward again, the blades singing as they scraped together and he swung wide with a fist aimed at her face. Adrenaline coursed through him and dulled the pain of flames licking at his knuckles, the warmth blooming over the middle of his armor from the fire that was so near. When he could take it no more he fell back again, swung wide with his sword in the retreat to aim for her left.
Meri would deal with the fist to the face that is followed by the wide swing of his sword to her left wide with one practiced movement of her sword. The fiery blade is first raised so that it can first address the fist that is coming toward. If that attack fist was actually going to connect with Meri’s face, it would be a costly assault and it would probably make more sense for Haakon to consider pulling back on that attack. That is, unless he wants to sacrifice a limb in order to break Meri’s nose. In the same motion, her blade curves downward so that it can connect with the blade that is threatening Meri’s left side. Neither of the two daggers that Meri introduced to the battle have been lost to Meri, both remain fully in the psion’s control. This detail is more important to the psion than who actually drew first blood, there was a reason that the psion opted to bring the ridiculous number of daggers onto the battlefield. Four more daggers remove themselves from the belt that sits at Meri’s hip, bringing the number of daggers that now are circling through the air around Haakon to a total of six. Haakon seems to be on the retreat and this time the werewolf does not advance, if distance is something that he wants then it will be distance that he gets...From Meri, but not the six daggers that are presently circling him. Haakon is going to have to figure out how to permanently remove those blades from the field, because their only purpose for being on the field is to slice, dice, and impale the vampire at whatever chance they can get. Given the number of daggers currently under the psions control, the assault from the six daggers is pretty indiscriminate. A little kiss to the cheek? The slice to the neck? Slamming against Haakon’s mithril armor? It did not matter. It was like Haakon was caught in a swarm of angry hornets. While the psion had a bit of space between herself and Haakon, the werewolf would use it to her advantage. In addition to having to figure out how to deal with the six daggers surrounding him, Haakon is also going to have to figure out to keep hold on his weapon, for Meri’s trying to use those telekinetic abilities to relieve the vampire of his blade.
Round Three:
Haakon pulled his fist back with only seconds to spare, annoyingly missing his intended target but keeping his limbs intact. For now. His blade is met again with her own and again, inwardly he is cursing. The recklessness that Cesaria feared appeared as the six daggers circled him, one landing without resistance from him in the soft leather that was uncovered with mithril and sinking to the hilt into his left thigh. He might have screamed from the bite of the blade meeting all the way to bone but for the control that was already slipping, turning him from a mask of a man to a monster on tilt. The amber of his eyes darkened even as he advanced through the flurry of blades, the sword an extension of him as he battled them back and sprinted toward her again. It might have appeared he was going for a straightforward assault again but for the new shadows that surrounded him. As the darkness took hold, the vampire shadow stepped and Meri would need to spin wide to stop the blow that he aimed now at her back. It would be less controlled and certainly less precise this time as his senses called out for the blood that was pushing through her skin with each beat of her heart. The scent of her lycan blood called to not yet dulled memories of hex hounds that had deviled him for the better part of two months and there was rage now, mixing with his bloodlust and ambition in battle. One of the daggers slipped past him in his effort to cleave through Meri’s right shoulder and slammed into his arm. Mad and out of control, he continued to swing through the pain, even as blood trickled down his arm and made his grip on the hilt of his sword slick. As Meri’s abilities struggled with his will and control of the sword, it slipped from his grasp and fell uselessly to the blood and effort ruined ground at his feet. Without hesitation, as vampires were never truly without weapons, Haakon advanced again. His vision narrowed on her exposed neck he struck out with fist again, dodging her flaming blade carefully with another skilled step and the help of vampiric speed. As he neared her all of that hot pumping blood, Haakons eyes went as black as the shadows he now commanded. With a monstrous scream, the vampire shadow stepped again to move out of range of her blade. Thirst burned his throat and turned his heart black. His deadly grace returned, though without the careful control he’d commanded before, and he was lost to the monster that he’d held back as he looked for an opening to lunge at her neck.
Meri :: Ah, Haakon could shadowstep. This was an ability that Meri was familiar with and the blonde has been through enough battles to know that the moment he disappears, he is probably going to reappear somewhere within her vicinity. It is based on this hunch that the seasoned warrior pivots about on the balls of her feet with her blade still clutched tight within her hand. Despite her prediction and speed gifted to her by virtue of being a lycan, Meri is not able to fully stop the assault to her back. The two blades clang together loudly, but Haakon’s sword still connects with her person. It’s just not her back area as anticipated, instead it slams against the leather armor of her torso. It’s not enough to draw additional blood. Meri gives herself little chance to enjoy the victory of disarming Haakon for the vampire is clearly on the onslaught, an assumption based on the frenzied and blackened gaze that was now upon her. The blonde leans out of the way of the last fist that Haakon sends to her face, narrowly avoiding it. Were Meri your average human, this is a detail that might be concerning to her. She was a werewolf though and thus the concern of accidentally being made into a vampire during this fight was of little concern to her. Nor was a bite. If Haakon was going to get close enough to her to be able to sink his fangs into the exposed flesh of her neck? Meri was going to make sure the moment would hurt and that Haakon would regret not thinking this charge through. Her defense against the final assault that Haakon unleashes on Meri is to be aggressively offensive. The blonde holds her ground and keeps hold on her blade, the flames of which have considerably died down but the blade remains heated. Haakon might have thought the weapon out of his way, but it is brought back into his direct line so that it was again thrust straight toward his midsection as he goes in for the bite. As for the six daggers? All of them also make a beeline straight for Haakon’s torso, except this time they are cutting through the air hilt first to repeatedly pommel Haakon.
Final Defense:
Haakon might have let her run him through with her flaming sword to sink his teeth into her neck. As he lost himself in the blood lust, he pulled the dagger from his thigh screaming and moved to block the blade that aimed for his middle. Even still, the daggers that the psion wielded sang through the air and in his tunnel vision for blood their aim rang true. The first one struck him firmly in the ribs, hard enough beneath the armor that it knocked the breath he didn’t need from his lungs. On a grunt he was driven back, feet steadily sliding through the dirt and grass as the daggers pummeled him. He grasped one by the blade, slicing his hand for the effort of it and sent his own blood spraying through his fingers as he did so. The vampire dropped low and rolled, momentarily halting his mad dash for her blood to find his sword again. He rose out of the dirt with the sword in hand, the blade of the dagger still in his other. He would have volleyed it back at her, even as his free hand moved to block another dagger, if not for the sudden appearance of the Frostmaw peacekeepers. Even as he lunged again with an inhuman scream, fangs flashing in the firelight, the men were upon him. He struggled against them lost in his curse and worlds away from his control. Meri’s blood called for him and he would not relent. It took four of them to pull him back from Meri, one of them earning a vicious bite to the forearm for their trouble. They wrestled him to the ground shouting, demanding him to acknowledge the end of the fight even as he struggled. A boot swung toward him. Haakon took the blow squarely on the jaw, not unlike the lone man who’d cheered for him in the crowd had taken from the beer soaked goat earlier. Even still, he struggled against them as more peacekeepers arrived to drag him away from the field bleeding and screaming.
Winner: Meri
Auto Hit and Response:
Meri was still itching for a bit of a fight herself. Haakon was not the only individual that was struggling for control. The signs may not be as obvious with the lycan as they were for the vampire, but Meri’s heart was beating fast and a sneer was worn heavy on her lips. Meri’s heart was beating fast and she was struggling to keep her cool exterior. Were it not for the fact that Haakon was being hauled away, this battle might have continued. Yet Meri allows the Forstmaw peacekeepers to interfere, she doesn’t recklessly rush into the group that is pulling the vampire off the field. She does, however, stare after Haakon in a hard and relentless manner. Maybe one day the two will meet each other down some Cenril dark alley, or perhaps their paths will cross somewhere in Vailkrin when she pays Quintessa a visit. Meri is currently imagining these scenarios. But for now? She’d just glare at her opponent, spitting at the earth mid-stare as a signal of her current dislike for the vampire. Unfounded dislike, born from the heat of the moment. This hate will fade pretty quickly though, it’ll be gone by the time Meri finds her way to the bottom of her next bottle of whiskey.