Duel:Kanna v Meri, Match 9 of the 2021 Titans of Winter Tournament
Duelists: Kanna the bardic necrobotanist 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: Iintahquohae, Kasyr and Josleen.
Snowless Training Yard
One would never know this patch of land once held the bloody remains of innocents killed long ago, for all have been cleared away and given proper burials nearby so that this area could be reborn. And reborn is has been, transformed from a battered street to a wide yard fenced in by a low, black stone wall. The yard sprawls out on either side of the iron gate that serves as an entrance, and the expanse seems to be sectioned off into four large rectangled areas by strange white lines drawn upon the ground--deeply embedded strips of marble, if one were to examine these closely. The ground itself is a peculiarity too, a soft, golden sandy surface without a single speck of snow upon it, as if the weather refuses to go near it. In fact, even the numbing chill in the air seems to be buffered while within the yard's boundaries. You suspect the four orbs of pulsing fluorite--white in the north, black in the south, crimson in the east, and cobalt in the west--that decorate the corners of the fence have something to do with this, riddled as they are with elaborate etchings of runes, sigils, and other arcane markings. Here lies the training yard for those learning the art of outdoor combat in Frostmaw, a blank slate to be altered as teachers see fit in instructing their students through the rigors of environmental conditions, for it takes no more than an adjustment upon the fluorite spheres to produce any arrangement of climates within their given battlefield. Rain, sleet, arid desert, howling wind, or boggy swamp, the four fields are infinitely mutable in their existence, as is to be expected of an institute devoted to the art of combat around the world. To the west looms an immense building, even by Frost Giant standards, with behemoth double doors of a darkly colored pine bearing the stern facade of Aramoth, God of War, chiseled across their collective front. One can safely assume this is the training academy proper, where various dojos, studios, and classrooms can be found, and unimaginable lessons attended by eager students of the art of War.
Meri makes her way into the training yard and is pleasantly surprised to find that despite it being an open arena, that it seems to have protections from the elements. Specifically the cold. Meri is quick to shed her thick fur cloak, finding the temperature to be more than suitable for a change. For the most part, Meri’s armor choice is the same as it was the first time she dueled. That is to say her feet and arms are protected with black leather bracers, and her torso is also protected with a hardened chestpiece. There are a few differences today though, for over her armored chest piece Meri is rocking a “GO KANNA” t-shirt over. The shirt is an obnoxiously bright shade of yellow that Meri would not usually be caught dead in, exceptions are being made for today. There are also flowers and hearts painted around the ‘Go Kanna’ text. Her weaponry selection for today has been mixed up for this battle. Meri’s belt is not weighted down with daggers for this battle, her sword has instead been positioned on her left hip and a heavy metal chain is coiled up and fastened to the right side of her belt. Across her back is a bow and a quiver full of arrows. Meri waves to Kanna from across the field.
Kanna has thankfully recovered the three fingers that were lost during her last match, courtesy of the dark magic of some edgy demigod that had converted her into an undead to begin with. Adorning these regrown fingers are gold and pearl rings, clashing with a single silver ring that was gifted to her by a necromantic prodigy. Many rows of pearls adorn her neck as well, resting on a powder-pink gown. Also resting atop the ballgown is a pearlescent chestplate that gives the appearance of an outer corset. "Hi, Meri!" Kanna calls across the stadium as if they were meeting for Sunday brunch. She transfers her Ya Te Veo staff, still in its resting pose of curling up into a heart, to her non-dominatnt hand, and waves at the rogue. Absolutely nothing about this pastel princess screams "ghoul" or "necromancer" aside from her silvery hair pinned up in a bun adorned with similarly powder-pink flowers, and strangely enough, some pearlescent-looking mushrooms. Those who knew the bard knew that the Enchantmentesque design was as much of a ruse as a witch burning trial was; Kanna had come to fight.
Josleen :: A frost giant emcee announces to the crowd, “Welcome, ladies and gentlemen to Round 2 of the 2021 Titans of Winter Tournament! Tonight, we bring you the arts versus the brain! Bard versus psion! Put your hands together for Kanna and Meri!!!” Contestants have agreed to 20 minute rounds, Meri will go first. The judges are Josleen, Kasyr, and Iintahquohae. The clock starts now!
Round One:
Meri was not used to her opponents looking so dang adorable. I mean, look at Kanna over there, in her with her pearls and her pink gown? It was so cute that it was almost sickening to Meri and yet the werewolf knew perfectly well that the bardess across the field from her was going to give her quite the run for her money. Meri would not be deceived by her insane levels of adorableness. While the blonde still had the advantage of distance, she was quick to remove her bow from it’s resting place across her back. One after the other the blonde retrieves arrows from the quiver that she ganked from the Syndicate of Shadows headquarters, without paying attention to what was really placed inside. If she had been paying attention, she might have noticed that what she actually picked up was a quiver full of training arrows. None of the heads on these arrows are pointed, none will do any serious or lasting damage. If Kanna is hit with them, the worst she is going to experience is a bit of bruising. Alas, Meri does not come to realize her error until she has fired off about three shots. While Meri has no real desire to doll out any serious damage to Kanna, her red lips twist up into a sneer of disappointment as she has a feeling the bardess will not be taking it easy on her. The blonde feels that she has little choice but to continue with the course of action she has taken, continuing to fire off arrows until Kanna forces her to abandon the bow and take up another weapon. As Meri continues to rain harmless training arrows down upon Kanna, the bard might notice the soft and sandy earth beneath her feet begins to move and turn. Meri was not content to leave her first assault as a total failure. It is true, Meri has no connection to earth magic but the ground was still a substance that the telekinetically inclined weapon could manipulate on a whim and with a thought. The arrows may prove to be harmless, but if all goes as hoped then her botched attack with the bow and arrow will serve as a distraction while Kanna’s feet are sucked into the soft and sandy ground.
Kanna plucks a flower from her hair and gives it a kiss before throwing it into the chilly air. The flower turns a deep red before bursting, the petals spelling out 'Meri' before falling. This is not an attack nor a defense, simply a reciprocation of admiration for someone who could draw flowers so well. Was someone playing the piano inside the academy? "Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never comin' round," She sings as she spins, the training arrows making perfect landings on her frame. The first three bounce off of her chestplate, leaving small circular dents. As she sings, a strange powder flows from the crown of flora and fungi on her head, drifting onto the field for a botanical attack. "Turn around, every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears!" In the space between the two, webs of spidery fungus begin to reach up in fractals, almost immediately becoming coated with frost even in the milder climate of the arena. Then, oh, the unthinkable! A training arrow smacks straight into Kanna's mouth as she sustains a note. Oh, the embarassment is too much! Kanna clutches at her pearls and rips them off and foward into the field. Thankfully, they were not real pearls. A few of the small projectiles smash into the frozen mushroom webs, having quickly grown to the height of Meri's chest. Being extremely brittle, the frost quickly shatters, but releases a suspiciously pink cloud of spores. The psion could manipulate the ground, but an ill-time gust of wind and a movement of the wrong area would be sending it directly into Meri's face. Kanna spits out the training arrow and gathers the other arrows that have fallen at her feet. In a strange display, she licks the blunt ends of all the arrows in her fist, which proceed to give off a similarly pink light. Were they poisoned, or was this a bluff? Surely, Kanna would go easy on Meri as she did her. As the earth beings to sink beneath her, Kanna spins, crossing the width of the field to avoid the shifting as best she can. "Turn around, every now and then I fall apart!" As she goes into the chorus of her ballad, her acoustimancy launches the arrows over the web of frozen fungus and tripping hazard faux-pearls and towards the rogue, though she lacked the precision of a real ranger.
Round Two:
Meri :: Music can soothe even the most savage of beasts and the werewolf always has had a bit of a soft spot for bards. We could make a list, but that would be irrelevant to the battle. The point is, despite the fact that Meri is supposed to be taking this duel ever-so-seriously, it is almost impossible to hide those hearts that are growing in Meri’s eyes. Oh my, what a lovely singing voice Kanna had. That in itself was enough to pull Meri’s attention away from what she was supposed to be doing for a few brief moments, that is until that mushroom wall is formed between the two of them and pink spores are released into the air. The blonde’s eyes widen. One might think that manipulating a cloud of some unknown substance would be easy for the psion, but her mind goes straight to trying to demolish the fungus wall that separates herself and Kanna. She’s a fighter, her best work tends to be done up close and personal, despite any telekinetic abilities she has….even if she did not have a strong desire to dish out any lasting damage to Kanna. Meri does little to shield herself from the pink cloud of spores that was drifting her way, at least not until the very last minute. The blonde instead abandons her bow, tossing it to the ground with her dominant right hand while her left works to free the chain that rests coiled at her hip. As the chain is released, it is also whipped across the battlefield with Meri’s psionic abilities giving it the proper momentum it needs to spin round in a circular fashion. The chain is thrown directly at the fungus wall that separates the two combatants, hopefully tearing through it with ease given the brittle nature of the spidery web that separates them. In hindsight, though, Meri realizes this may have been a bad idea. It could equal more spores? It was too late to take the attack back now, and if the chain breaks through the web-like fungus then it will next spin through the air straight for Kanna. If the bardess is unable to evade, the chain will wrap itself around the woman to further hinder her movements. Once the chain is thrown, Meri will take that obnoxious yellow shirt and lift it up so that it covers both her mouth and her nose. This is only going to protect the woman so much, she’ll still inhale a lungful of the pink spores. As for the pearls that are launched at her? Meri makes no attempt to advance toward the pearls, the lycan is in fact backing up in another bid to avoid the cloud coming her way, with little success.
Kanna feels her jaw drop as some poor spectator willingly inhales her spores as if it were pixie dust. It was luckily not one of her reanimation poisons, but she winces slightly in sympathy as she watches the figure fall backwards, sound asleep. The distraction is enough to allow the sinking sands to engulf one of her booted feet. "And I -need- you -now- tonight! And I -need- you more than ever!" The bardess sings despite having to yank her leg back in an attempt to free it from the sandy snare. It is finally sucessful, but not without collateral damage: Her boot! Kanna scowls slightly at the loss. The time lost freeing herself from the sands leaves her without much room to evade the chain. Instead, she decides to sacrifice something else. "And if you only hold me tight! We'll be holding on forever!" The chubby woman holds out her branch of the Ya Te Veo tree. The heart shape at the top of curls away with splintering cracks to reveal spiked wooden tendrils. Her staff was not merely for casting, it too was a beloved partner, and a dangerous contender during sing-a-long nights. The staff's tendrils reach out to intercept the chain, looping and weaving around until the chain is interwoven with the tendrils. Without Kanna holding it to keep the semi-sentient weapon dormant, the staff intertwined with Meri's chain would continue to lash out with other woody tendrils akin to an octopus crawling along the seafloor, dragging itself across the arena. Like the ghoul, the man-eating tree the staff was crafted from was extremely carnivorous, and now hungered for something sentient. Hopefully, that something would not be the lycan. With the web of frozen fungi mainly destroyed, the Ya Te Veo disappears into what is now a pink fog spreading out over the arena. Kanna had not gained air from drawing a breath in nearly two years, and as such is unaffected as she continues to sing through the fog, waiting patiently for either her opponent to succumb to the sleeping fog, her carnivorous but chained Ya Te Veo staff to strike or return to her, or for Meri to come through the mist to face her. "And we'll only be making it right, 'cause we'll never be wrong, together we can take it to the end of the line!" She encourages the psion with her song, hoping she was not being too rough with the lycan beauty.
Round Three:
Meri is very relieved that she did not inhale a lungful of poison, but she’s disappointed that she finds out she won’t be hallucinating tonight. Instead her eyelids begin to grow heavy and the psion finds it harder to concentrate, especially as the bardess continues her song. Does it seem like Meri is about to nod off? Well she comes pretty close to it, that is...until some weird tendril plant monster manages to sweep her feet out from beneath her, literally pulling the blonde across the sandy earth closer to it. Today is not the day that Meri turns into a quick snack. The blonde might be down two weapons, but her sword is still at her hip. It is with considerable effort that Meri pulls her sword free from the scabbard on her hip, and it takes even more will power for the blonde to be able to sit up to swing at the tendrils trying to pull her in toward this plant monster. As Meri draws the blade, it ignites into flames as it customarily does, but the blonde is not put off by the heat of the flames and the close proximity to her shins. Or at least if she is, she manages to ignore the uncomfortable sensation. After a few swipes of her sword, Meri manages to free her ankles from the tendril-monster..but she’s very tired, and on the ground, and not entirely sure how to cover the distance between herself and Kanna without having to go through that hungry beast. It was all seeming like a lot of work at the moment, and Meri was literally that little girl crying on a beach who just wants to go sleep right here. Just gonna take a nap okay? The psion does the one and only thing that she can think of to allow her to accomplish nap time. Kanna needed to deal with her own hungry beast. While Meri’s energy levels have been successfully zapped to almost nothing, she manages to find enough willpower to deal with the tendril monster. Her telekinetic abilities are employed for what could be this final time this battle, and the monster threatening to eat her is going to have to deal with a psionic blast of energy...that has enough omph to fling it directly at Kanna. The psion is confident that Kanna will be able to dispel her creation no problem and may not even sustain damage in the process. That’s fine though. Meri was just so sleepy...and the ground was just so comfy looking right now.
Kanna is not clairvoyant, though many times she finds herself wishing that she was. "Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time, all of the time, I don't know what to do and I'm always in the da-- KUH!" One of those times was right now, as her Ya Te Veo staff unexpectedly returns to her with a solid smack to the face. Kanna stumbles and slips on her scattered fake pearls from before, swifly falling back onto the sandy ground. The body of the necrobotanist rises, but strangely, it appears to be missing something. "A little help, my love?" The semi-severed head resting against her shoulderblades pleads to her Ya Te Veo staff. Answering her call, the wooden tendrils wrap around her neck and the base of her skull, creating a makeshift neckbrace to hold together whichever vertebrae it was that had snapped out of place. It works only somewhat, as her head comically rolls around as the slow-working healing magic starts its process. The bardess stumbles around the fog blindly, searching for her opponent. "We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks, I really need you tonight..." She catches sight of something in the fog ahead and smiles. "Forever's gonna start tonight." Kanna reaches up and plucks a handful of pearlescent mushrooms that have managed to stay in her hair despite the near decapitation. With a swift motion, the small mushrooms are launched at the ground, where they quickly blossom forward in rapid succession. Kanna stumbles slightly, still disoriented from her head and body being misaligned, but still manages to direct them in a direction that seems vaguely like forward, commanding the fungi to bloom forth and hopefully ensnare the figure in the distance. "Forever's gonna start tonight."
Final Defense:
Meri is starting to get deliriously tired as the psion continues to only barely fight the temptation to curl up on the cold earth for a little nap. The only thing that is keeping her conscious is the fact that in the back of her mind she knows the battle is not over. Yet, nothing Meri does going forward is going to be sensible or even productive when it comes defending herself. Circle back to the point that Meri is just a bit loopy right now. Her flaming sword is set on the ground next to her and Meri...literally...sings right back to Kanna. It’s off key and all of the lyrics are a bit delayed and sung a few seconds behind Kanna. But Meri is singing, "We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks, I really need you tonight..." The blonde goes on, "Forever's gonna start tonight." Just as she is about to start singing the second round of ‘forever is going to start tonight’, Meri is quite effectively ensnared by Kanna’s little trap. She does almost nothing to stop it too, but at least the crowd doesn’t have to listen to her anymore, aye?
Winner: Kanna
Auto Hit and Response:
Kanna steps out through the pink fog to gaze down upon where Meri has become encased in the harmless button mushrooms. "Once upon a time, I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart..." The necrobotanist tucks her dress under her knees as she sits next to Meri and uncorks an awakening brew. No good necromancer would concoct a poison without keeping the proper antidote on hand, after all. With a wave of her other hand, the mushrooms recede into the sandy ground to free the psion. She holds the vial under Meri's nose to help wake her up, just in time for them both to sing, "There's nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart!"
Meri :: Oh good, Kanna is armed with a vial to undo all of Meri's sleepiness. You know what though? She's still just going to pretend like she did not hear Magik like at all, what so ever. Instead! She rises to her feet just in time to sling an arm over Kanna's shoulders. Look, a lost duel was a lost duel and Meri was often lacking in this thing called shame...So she'd bite the bullet on this one and humor the bardess, singing the final line along with her, "There's nothing I can do, a total eclipse of the heaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaart!" Please note Kanna has a much prettier singing voice than Meri.