Duel:Shishi v Leoxander, Match 15 of the 2021 Titans of Winter Tournament
Duelists: Shishi vs Leoxander Duel: Traditional 3 rounds with final defense, 20 minute posting limit. Stakes: Standard, autohit delivered by winner with allowance for final reply. Judges: ???
Hidden Mountaintop Colosseum
Branching out from the lovely scent of the night blossoms, a secondary exit to the mines is found. However, it is an exit, and just that. Cut off from the frozen slopes that everyone knew as Frostmaw, a grand- and recently built coliseum has been erected. Roughly a hundred meters in diameter, and several stories high, none from inside could mistake this grand colossus for the structure for what it really was. The entrance sloped up, and was one of twelve- each gated off from a tunnel that lead to an even deeper, more complex network of tunnels underground. Amidst the dead center in the ring of combat, an acutely-shaped slice of rock rose heavenwards. From the stair-shaped seats that rounded twenty foot walls, one could simply note that it was a massive sundial, the gates being the hand of time it represented at the current moment. At the twelve-o-clock gate, a small booth stood out above the seats, seven chairs of importance standing firm. Naturally, a light cover of snowfall masked the blood-spattered and weapon torn field of battle. In passing by, none would ever figured the steep rocks of the mountain to house such a feat of architecture.. Although the occasional cry of death, or clang of sword could suggest otherwise.
Leoxander was known for his stealth, that quiet but intense stare, often a man of few words unless necessary. So it might alert a few ears hearing his loud, feral tone before he was even visible to the crowd. Not all of his words were discernible, yet, but one thing was for certain - the rogue was pissed. He might be first spotted at the six o'clock gate, not yet paying much attention to the span of the snow-covered battlefield ahead, but turned to confront the spellrogue with a fit of verbal wrath. “Why don’t I throw your ass in there and let him feast on you?!” Hackles raised. Unfortunately, he only had the time for one altercation, for now, and whether or not Eleanor stuck around to witness it, Leo turned away from her, spitting on the ground. “Bloody witch!” He screamed out through his teeth loud enough that she’d hear it - the damned of nine hells would probably hear it. Although he was armed thoroughly with a compound bow, quiver, blades and the gods knew what else in the satchel against his ribs, as he stalked toward the repaired sundial, he was starting to violently throw things down into the snow with a rage he didn’t often resort to. One that could only be brought on by a cur-sed woman.
Eleanor rolled her eyes at Leoxander, scoffing with her thinly-veiled disdain, her shadowed cloak snapping about her legs, testimony to her own mood. "Och please, /dog/," the spellrogue growled in reply. "Ye main hae lae ay them fooled, but ye cooldnae flin' me anywhaur, e'en if ye tried." Her cheeks were flushed, a few tears dried to them, and as Leo spat and spun around, she kicked at the snow and slush, sending a flurry of it against his wake. "Heel, mebbe Ah'll flin' myself in, an' th' blue demon can be th' next a body in mah black book." The spellrogue's arms were shaking, wisps of blue fluttering around her compacted fists. "Ah've heard he knows a hin' ur tois, mebbe ye ooght tae tak' notes." Another frustrated growl left her before she pivoted on the heel of a boot, and shouldered her way through the crowd, in search of a drink, anyone's really, she wasn't picky, only pissed.
Shishi might be expected to appear out of the 12 o’clock gate to oppose the pirate wolf’s entrance, but instead the vampire steps out of the four o’clock gate to the rumble and roar of the crowd that is still reeling from Leoxander’s vitriolic entrance. White shirt, black tie, black pants; the classic look for the returning champion makes him instantly recognizable for even those in the cheap seats. He’s also wearing that threatening fanged smile as he basks for just a moment in the adulation of Frostmaw and Her guests. He knows exactly what section of the stands to look in to meet the eyes of a particular trio. Terra and Leralynn have been living in Frostmaw with him for the duration of the tournament, but his son has made the trip up now for this fight in particular and he is seated beside his sister and previous step-mother. Those three get a wink and a tilt of the head before The Blue Demon’s focus shifts to Leoxander at the center of the colosseum. He makes his way over and offers a little smirk, “Who do I have to thank for heating you up?” He doesn’t so much as wait for an answer before his irises go through their accursed shift in hue, from oceanic blue to a flickering glowing red and a dark wind blows through the entire arena, the shadows in this place given life and starting to creep towards the center of the battleground towards the reigning Titan.
Leoxander was already furious, and the tournament fight had not even begun. Usually, the pirate kept that favored jacket as some armor for his body, concealing a meager shield in sleeve and the harness that housed several throwing blades strapped to his torso. Hiding the scarred depiction of ink that traveled down his arms and the faint blue mark that flickered through fabric like a lit wick in wind. “Take a wild (censored) guess.” He answered Shi in a snap, his own eyes threatening a similar change, but not just yet. Brazenly, he was tearing off the coat and flinging it angrily aside, steam from the light falling snow and the frigid temperatures vaguely visible rising from his form. Two chains visible around his neck, one silver, one steel, the latter of which concealed a pendant beneath the collar of his shirt. Stakes were the furthest thing from his mind. Taking up that worn satchel, his fingers curled brutally into something exposed in his grasp as he tossed the duffle aside. A thick, sanguine substance dripped like spilled ink between his knuckles and down his wrist as the organ was revealed. Larger than a human skull, it’s specific origin unknown, Leo dropped the bleeding heart. One hand bloodied, one hand branded, the rogue’s arms crossed at an ‘X’ and he gripped the leather-bound hilts of dark-steeled twin blades, wrested from their holsters, igniting a faint spark and a metallic noise as the edges scraped. Glaring ahead and seeing red, a moment’s pause before both weapons were plunged into the core of that vessel, a burst of gore splattering across his boots with a rorschach of red in the snow. “Come get your goddamned crown, then.” He growled across the yard to the Blue Demon, his fury not stemming from his former clanmate, but damned if he wouldn’t be the one Leo took it out on. That taunt might easily translate to ‘Ready’.
Round One:
Shishi glances sideways towards the shouting Eleanor, blinks a couple times, then returns his now crimson gaze to his opponent that has so graciously invited him forward, though what he is guessing is a dragon’s heart filled with a dragon’s blood might give him some pause. The Blue Demon takes in a deep, unnecessary breath and this rematch begins. The assassin makes no sudden movement to signal that it is on, but the shadows around the colosseum do. One moment they are swaying unnaturally in place and the next they are rushing towards the accursed vampire en masse. Darkness envelops him for but a moment before separating into four black objects, first three floating disks each about the size of a large serving plate that hover around Shishi’s body, and one long, kind of scaly looking tail that extends out from Blue’s waist behind him, other than for the fact that it is at the moment completely weightless and intangible, it might not look out of place on one of the prehistoric creatures in Venturil’s wilderness. Now Blue moves, darting forward with intense, vampirically enhanced speed towards Leo, only to extend his arm and direct one of the black disks towards him. It zips by the lycan with no intention of making contact with him and stops short a few feet behind the pirate, lining up perpendicular with the approaching Shishi and expanding to the size of a small, oval doorway. The second disk stops following The Blue Demon and does the same expanding trick, remaining behind him while the third follows suit, but up above both combatants, hanging in the air. The black tail swishes fluidly behind the assassin as he moves forward at that intense speed. He extends his right arm out to his side just as he is reaching Leo and goes for a big clothesline on the lycan before letting his momentum take him through the dark portal he had thrown behind the other fighter. Almost immediately after disappearing into the dark portal, Shishi emerges from the portal overhead, somersaulting, head over heels and whipping the black dinosaur-like tail end over end and down towards Leoxander’s skull, the ethereal shadows that make it up gaining weight and material form just before impact was meant to happen…
Leoxander was familiar with the demon’s black tide. He expected it. Before the shadows even lost their sway, his boots dug for traction in a sprint that could not match but might rival the vampire’s speed, thus making it a short trip to contact when Shi decided to advance in return. The clothesline would bring him into proximity, and while the rogue flinched his head to the side for the sinister frisbee whipping passed his ear, he ducked the clothesline completely with a slide on his knee across the snow. In hand, both blades aimed to the same side with intention of splicing through formal attire, both pants and shirt - one aimed for ribs, the other aimed to thigh as he’d learned from Mathollak’s mithril not to expect a single mark. Naturally, Leo shot a look back toward where Shishi had disappeared into his doorway and bit back a silent curse, looking upward only in time to see that tail flailing toward him like a kraken’s tentacle. It was shadow magic, and perhaps not even tangible, but Leo’s left arm went to block and provide something other than his skull to tear or tangle around, perhaps even finding a purchased grip in return if there was actually anything solid about the demon’s extra limb. Regardless of whether they were tethered or not, that same left hand abruptly flared, the display of hellfire much more controlled than any would have witnessed in the preceding displays of that unnatural power. A substantial blast of heat and hellish light roared up his arm and in the direction of Shi and his topmost portal. Sensing a possible manipulation, he kept his peripheral vision on either dark doorway to his left or right, the grip on his right hand tightened in preparation for a counterstrike.
Round Two:
Shishi did his very best to avoid those now toxic blades during his first pass by Leoxander, and for the most part he did with a nimble twist and contortion as he flew by, but the lower weapon just barely manages to slice through fabric and skin to leave a flesh wound on his thigh. That was enough though with the dragon’s blood present. Now The Blue Demon isn’t very much like those necromancers who like to call shadow magic that looks like this ‘The Black Tides’. No, those people have something called control over the things they make the shadows do and use the shade as a servant. The Demon and The Darkness are frenemies at best and this chaotic relationship is on display, as when he’s emerged from the elevated portal his clothing is torn in multiple places and there are scrapes and cuts like claw marks littering his body and face from that very short stint in the Plane of Shadows, though the one cut from the dragon blood laced blade is the only one sizzling and smoking. The only thing that is unclear is whether that place doesn’t want him there, or doesn’t want him to leave. The landing of his flip is interrupted when Leo tries to grab onto the hefty black tail attached to the assassin, stopping his rotation and causing him to fall to the ground on his back. The tail detaches from his waist and becomes intangible again, a dark mist in this sundials atmosphere while Blue quickly springs up to his feet and is immediately met with a blast of hellfire to which he can only raise his hands up in defense of. The heat and force of the magic sends him staggering backwards into one of the two ground level portals. He emerges a second or two later from the other lower portal, with his shirt blackened and smouldering, his necktie incinerated, and his face singed and burned. There is a feral rage in his expression and in his hand is his chaotic weapon, Wand of Mordant Flame. The portal snaps shut behind him and all the darkness that composed it is sucked in a line to the tip of the dark wand where it ignites into an impossibly black flame. This fight is remaining in close quarters despite the extra-dimensional travel and The Blue Demon needs only lunge forward a few feet to be within striking distance of the lycan, which he does. The cursed assassin swings the wand in his left hand like a shortsword, just before it makes contact with Leoxander the fire at the tip will explode with tremendous concussive force and spread that dark fire in all directions, burning magical energy only and leaving physical material unignited.
Leoxander stubbornly tried to shake the appendage off even as it dissipated, blades still in both hands. He hadn’t lost his footing, yet, but that victory would be short lived on the second impact of opponents. Although he twists with intentions of finding a blade deep into Shi’s shoulder or back, that otherworldly flame from the cursed’s wand managed it’s target first, and erupted against Leo’s shoulder blade with the force to send him lurching several yards to a heavy and painful collapse in the snow, a grunt clearly heard as the wind was knocked from him and diaphragm ached. The shirt he wore was possibly in tact if that flame did not eat through the material of it, but his skin felt doused in acid as he pushed his fists, still clutching blades, into the cold ground and got back on his feet, slightly slowed by the jolt. The ringing in his ears coincided with the spots in his eyes as he squinted them, focusing as best he could on the demon. There was a vague bleed of gold in his eyes as that wolf’s infrared-like vision assisted in pinpointing his target, though it was not at all based on tracking heat. No one would be privy to the claws that started to dig through his fingerless gloves, though there were other changes melting into his appearance that hinted at the debate of who would dominate - man or beast? Footing regained, the rogue rushed forward again as though a repeat of their first clash, and on the path he raised both hands over shoulder to throw and forfeit those blades like hatchet axes, a spinning propulsion aimed a little to the left of Shi’s center. Perhaps easily dodged, but it was more of a distraction in order to close the distance and try to grasp that wand-wielding arm, using his momentum to twist and bend that limb in a way that might dislocate or fracture, weapon relinquished or not. Even if he missed that technique entirely, he risked himself close enough that the force of boot treads aimed for the vampire’s ribs toward the back of those bones, clutching onto wrist to assist another possible fracture if he managed his grip.
Round Three:
Shishi too is thrown backwards by the force of his own magical attack, though his trajectory is a little rougher as he is sent hurtling to that his back lands flat against the replanted stone monolith that casts the time-telling shade on this massive sundial. The reigning Titan shakes away the little birdies flying around his head after the impact and squares up against the oncoming lycan. It might be difficult to tell who is looking more like a beast in that moment, but it very soon clearly becomes Shishi as fangs bare and he hunches into a low stance before darting forward to meet his opponent. The thrown blade comes whizzing by his head and he kind of snaps at the sound like a rabid dog after it passes by.At the same time the two remaining dark portals and the shade cast by the sundial are rushing towards Shishi as well, snapping to the dark wand and igniting. As he bounds forward, stumbling and using all four of his limbs to propel himself at some points thanks to the trouble the dragon blood wound is causing for his movement, the mass of dark fire at the tip of the wand starts to travel down it and up The Blue Demon’s arm, engulfing the entire appendage by the time Blue and Leo meet. The vampire hisses and roars in pain as his arm is twisted and the pair struggle for a moment, the monstrous titan gnashing his teeth and trying to take a bite out of the rogue during the tussle before the wand is wrested away. However the process of igniting The Blue Demon is already in progress and this intimate range is exactly where Shishi likes to work. So when Leoxander starts grabbing for the other arm, the spread of the flame quickens and the lycan is now dealing with something more like a dark flame elemental than a man. One with wildly glowing red eyes, claws made of solidified shadow and magic burning flame that try to latch on through flesh to hold the lycan just a little bit still, so that the fangs can find purchase anywhere and start tearing away at the challenger… ‘Vampires only want one thing, and it is disgusting.’
Leoxander both gained and loss with that successful grip, and whether boot broke into the vampire’s anatomy or not hardly mattered. The two were now tangled like serpent and beast, coils and claws finding their hooks in the other. Equally opposite were the opponent’s elements, for as the dark flame ignited in the vampire’s arm, a yin-yang trigger of hellfire erupted to Leo’s shoulder to combat it, or at least return the agony. The wolf’s yell of pain echoed throughout the colosseum as that fanged bite found purchase in not one place, but several places, shredding skin and spraying the blood with snow. He attempted to throw his weight, aided by a lycanthrope’s strength, even as Shi’s claws anchored in, and the two would be on the ground if he was successful in doing so - attached in a chaotic knot. On their feet or tumbling across the red, slushy terrain, Blue wasn’t the only one who forfeit to a bestial advantage, and while in that struggle, Leo sought to stumble and tumble where he knew the pool of dragon blood to be. One arm ignited in that anarchic power meant to keep some of the bitey bastard at bay while the other hand sought to reach and scrape his half grown claws across the crimson snow near the chunk of dragon flesh that diminished pathetically on the ground. Risking more wounds, tears, torture to the moment, the lycanthrope sought to rake his nails down the side of the demon’s face wherever he had thrashed to tear apart his rival, ending with a clutch of throat that sank the doused, sharpened tips of his fingernails into jugular with a violent choke hold, unless he was thrown off or fended away.
Final Defense:
Shishi struggles even with his vampiric strength against the partially transforming lycanthrope as they move, entangled across the battlefield, darkness and light, both utterly chaotic, pushing against each other to cast one half of the colosseum in brilliant radiance and veil the other in unpierceable shade. Leoxander dips his newly formed claws in that despicable liquid and brings his monstrous hand towards Blue’s dark burning face. The assassin brings both his hands up to attempt to catch the rogue by the wrist, but only one manages to grasp it while the other’s grip slips off. The oncoming attack can only be slowed so much as the sharpened claws rake through the dark flame and into the vampire’s left cheek beneath, just below the eye. Again that sizzle of dragon blood meeting the stolen blood of a vampire can be heard by the two opponents and the claws drag down to grasp around The Blue Demon’s neck, drawing blood there two as they attempt to lethally dig in there now. Dragon blood is the ultimate weapon against vampires, and the accursed shadows that mingle with the dark flames enveloping Shishi know this. So they act on their own, all the flame and darkness compressing and concentrating itself into one point between the two monstrous men, paradoxically shining bright and consuming all light at the same time before it explodes in an unbelievable torrent of shadow and dark flame that blasts against Shishi and shoves him out of Leo’s grip, though not without leaving some more flesh behind, sending him flying, tumbling onto the snowy ground several yards away where he lays motionless for a moment. Two moments. Three. Then he stirs, pushes himself up onto his feet, smoking, bleeding, breathing heavy (though he has no need for air, this is an old habit from his days of humanity), his eyes are still burning red as the caustic smoke from his new wounds rises up into the vision of his left eye. The Titan trudges forward. This is going to end now.
Winner: Shishi
Auto Hit:
Leoxander hadn’t bitten directly into Blue, but most assuredly some of the vampire’s blood was splattered across his face and biting at his open wounds, not necessarily sizzling as the dragon’s life source did to Shi, but no less painful and detrimental to the lycan’s health. The trial came to what seemed an explosive finale, both champion and challenger thrown apart to opposite sides of the sundial, which had miraculously survived. When the immovable object meets the unstoppable force, there is no direction to go but backward. It was almost perfectly simultaneous that the rogue was on his back with a scrape of snow like treadmarks in his wake, wincing and trying to fight for consciousness. As he finally managed to feebly push up on an arm and gradually sit up, he saw the Titan of Winter do the same. A limp to his step as he found his way to footing, panting fogged breath and spitting up bits of blood to the ground. He was lacking the strength to do more than a couple steps forward for that ending.
Shishi and Leoxander each advance in a kind of slow motion reenactment of earlier in the fight. Blue can see the wand he lost on the ground nearby, but looking around, everything is unnaturally bright. He used up too many of the shadows in the colosseum as fuel for that wand and there aren’t enough for him to call on to retrieve it now. (Don’t worry if you’re an audience member and your shadow is gone. It should grow back in the next three to five business days). After about ten seconds the two inhuman fighters meet in the middle and just go toe to toe, bare knuckle brawl for a full thirty seconds. Blow for blow, teeth chattering violence that whips the crowd into a wild frenzy that they will remember in their dreams until next year. Blocking is nonexistent, dodging is imaginary, this is a duel of fists and faces and in the end it is Blue standing upright, face bloodied and swollen, caustic smoke rising from the dragon blood infected wounds. He roars, still The Titan.
Leoxander involuntarily submit when one last hit put him into the snow, on his hands, a spurt of his blood coming from his mouth and dripping from his nose and face. Muscles quaked, as though the stubborn bastard wanted to get up and keep going, but time was slowing down and for once, the wolf was feeling the cold of Frostmaw's chill at the center of the colosseum.