Duel:Reginae v. Syrri, Match 8 of the 2017 Frostmaw Tournament

Duelists: Reginae vs Syrri
Duel: Traditional 3 rounds with final defense, 15 minute posting limit
Stakes: Auto-hit to the winner
Judges: Leone, Sabrina, and Hildegarde

Forgotten Catacombs

Leone said, "Welcome to the sixth annual Titans of Winter Tournament! Here we gather where the Frostmaw shamans have molded and shaped this area, altering the original state into some fresh hell. A sheen of magic coats the walls, ceiling and floor of the catacombs. The pale green stone shimmers and shines, reflecting myriad hues that move and morph as each surface switches and changes. Walls suddenly flip forward, blocking the width of the aisle, or the ceiling spontaneously juts downward, creating a crawlspace just barely wide enough for a body to pass. The floor is continuously shifting, panels sliding over and under one another like a child's puzzle box, and ensuring that there is no sure footing. Skeletons appear and disappear in the shifting maze of jadite stone, some of them clattering into a standing position to lunge and grab after our combatants. Several of them even manage to maintain weapons and armor. Creepy! Good luck to Reginae and Syrri!"

Reginae finds stability in the ever-changing environment by appearing in her normal form. Her Crystalline scaled tail curls around a momentarily upright pillar of stone while she is surveying her surroundings. Onyx halberd in hand, the naga locates her opponent's position, thanks to the soft yellow light of the inscriptions that blends with the green sheen cast by the shamans. The female pauses, lets her pupils narrow as if locking onto her target and thrusts the sharp spiked end of her weapon in Syrri’s direction with effortless force. The combination of speed and weight thrown into the attack allows it several thrusts in a short span of time, directed at various places on the halfling; knee, elbow, shoulder, chest. Below her, the pillar she coils around begins to twist itself from the floor onto the ceiling but she maintains her balance with keen eyes and tense muscles. A slippery smile tugs at her lips. The battle begins.

Syrri huffed and panted in annoyance as all the surfaces were suddenly mobile. "Not this again," she drawled, shaking her head. She didn't waste time, however, in lunging forward, dancing through the maze of stone, the soft pads of leather-soled shoes all but tiptoeing across the panels. Catching sight of Reginae advancing -- a bloody snake? she internally screamed -- and the halfling was curling her hands around the dual axes at her hips: Luck and Fate. Narrowly dodging out of the way of the first thrust, dual-hued eyes narrowed at the naga as her hands came up and down, left and right, clockwise and counterclockwise to block the halberd's onyx path. That last thrust however, into her chest, has Syrri throwing herself out of its way as it clipped her left shoulder, sundering the nightstone leather tunic. She crowed with surprise, gritted her teeth and, with Fate's leather strap loosened from around her wrist, she pulled back and flung the handax forward, her aim that of Reginae's halberd-wielding hands. It spun end over end toward her, but Syrri wasn't finished. She spied a skeleton behind the illusionist, but her focus was on the snake woman. Quickly, she leapt forward with Luck in hand, drawing her left arm back in a wide arc before sweeping it up, that chiseled blade's edge angled toward Reginae's coiled scales beneath her abdomen.

Reginae watches with hungry eyes as her prey darts with mouse-like agile through her attacks. The naga was a giant cat, fanged tooth grin and twitching tail adding to the imagery. The first axe whizzes harmlessly by the naga’s head, creating a cool breeze in the otherwise stuffy catacomb environment. The halberd is shifted from both hands to her left, the weighty weapon handed with fluid ease as Reginae’s tail releases the pillar from it’s scaled grasp to drop the full weight of the naga atop Syrri. The Skeleton shifts from behind Reginae, to momentarily on top of her as the room shifts again. It’s bones grind together in the narrow space, distracting her just long enough for the glancing blow of the second axe to draw a thin line of blood across her torso. Reginae twist her long serpentine tail against the granulated flooring, which creates a blinding dust storm and subsequently knocks the skeleton off it’s feet and to the ground, which just as quickly becomes the wall. Reginae then slithers away a safe distance to conjure an overly large illusionary battlement that tumbles several stone pillars in the immediate area, to crash down on the axeling.

Syrri didn't get a chance to see that Fate would favor Reginae this day as suddenly a massive snake woman was descending upon her. The axeling felt the weight of the monster, and she was kicking with her feet, digging her heels into the shifting floor as she sought some leverage to rid herself of the naga. Managing to scramble away, it was then that she noted the ichorous blood on Luck's bladed edge. There was no time to linger in this minor victory however! The naga had retreated, leaving the halfling to stumble to her feet, nudged this way and that in a daze as column and ground moved all around. She could barely see through the duststorm Reginae had stirred up. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she did catch sight of Fate, lonely and discarded. With a shrug to herself, she sauntered over to it, squinting against the dust as she knelt down to retrieve the handax. As it turned out, this saved her from being crushed by the stone pillars toppled by Reginae, and this became clear as she turned around to seek out her opponent once more, finding her path suddenly blocked. Securing Fate and Luck to her belt, she climbed over the debris, looking through the dissipating dust and spotting Reginae at last. Rising above the mound of stone, it rumbled beneath her feet as the ground shifted again and again. Quickly, she had to race down, and with abandon, she flung both Fate and Luck in the direction she'd last seen Reginae as she blindly charged in.

Reginae lets her previous illusion create a distraction for her opponent while she mounts her next attack. Her focus turns now to the skeletons that litter the ever-changing catacombs. With little time for flourishes, Reginae digs deep into the wellspring of her majestically crafted illusionary magics to summon a single idea into the minds of clattering bodies sharing the space with her and her opponent. The room charges with the thunderous chatter as every available body rushes to crowd the space Reginae occupies. They moan and stumble, seeking out their common enemy as if she was the soul reason of their unrest. All skeletons yank free their weaponry, bash their shields against the surrounding stones and thrash around in their skins. Reginae’s skull pounds, fogging with the dense nature of the magic. It’s enough time to give Syrri her charge, the previously discharged axe now making contact with her left arm, tearing cleanly through humanoid skin and muscle. Reginae hisses loudly, dodging away from the living to scale atop a dislodged tomb while her skeleton army encircles Syrri with malicious intent, arms raises, howls of the dead deafening in their ears.

Syrri surged into the illusionary battlement, her hands reaching for the nearest embrasure to pull herself up and over it; but her hands fell through the stone, and she stumbled onto the ever-shifting ground, perplexed. With a snarl at the illusion, she drew herself up to her feet once more only to find a skeletal battalion closing in on her. A curse most foul left the axeling's mouth then, and, with a running start, she dove and rolled beneath the nearest skeleton fiends, somersaulting headfirst into the tomb atop which Reginae now towered. The axes were nearby, and she snatched them up, gripping Luck and Fate with determination as she spun to face the skeletons once more. Her head swam, stunned by its connection with the stone tomb, and there was fresh blood staining her shoulder, a dull throb creeping up on her. She took a hair of a second to flex her hands around either handax before, features twisted into a rage, she charged forward into the encroaching mob, undeterred by their numbers as she waved and hacked and slashed her way through bone and decayed sinew. Their numbers diminished, others circled around like hungry vultures before closing in again, but Syrri was already racing back toward the tomb, using the hooked blades of her axes to pull herself atop, one ax into the tomb's cracked stone, the other seeking to embed in the thick coils of Reginae's body to pull the creature down with her.

Reginae lords over the scene like some grand, untouchable czar in a gladiatorial coliseum. Yes, my simple minded skeletons, rend her in twain! Her queenly stature summons envy in any witnesses to the grim scene, moments before the room shifts again to find Syrri’s three foot something form visible, both axes sinking slowly into Reginae’s tail. Once white scales are now slick rubied pockets of blood and the naga lets loose an earth shaking screech, that summons the skeletons to her aid. Her boney minions now try, with slippering footing, to scale the height of the combatants. Dusty hands clasp around Syrri’s garb while Reginae attempts to slither a larger distance between herself and the spiky rodent that just ‘bit’ into her tail. A small slither track of blood marks her progress, the remaining skeletons paw at Syrri or in her direction with an unquenchable bloodlust.

Winner:Syrri