1 on 1 Battle by the River (anyone)

Leonus's feet made barely any noise as he walked along the bank of the river. He heard that some treasure was supposedly at the bottom, some two miles east of the bridge. He watched for a glint, anything, but saw only rocks and occasional fish swim by. Sighing, he turned to go back home, stopped. There was an erie silence, almost disurbing. Walking faster than he prefered to, Leonus got the feeling that he was being watched. 5 minutes later, he broke into a run, not caring about how much noise he made now. He knew there was someone there, and he was almost certain he would have to fight.

OOC: Say hello to my least used character, Harges. (link in sig)

BIC: Harges watched Leonus run, and realized that he was very slow compared to the former god. The fallen god ran after Leonus, and caught up with him very easily. "What do you want!" shouted Leonus.

Leonus had stopped running, and was now facing Harges. Harges had also stopped, and he faced Leonus. "I was wondering if you would perhaps provide a decent meal. I'm starving." replied Harges. Leonus and Harges started to circle eachother now.

"I won't be eaten by a fowl demon!" yelled Leonus as he charged at Harges.

Harges charged, too. When Leonus saw him coming, he had an idea. Right when Harges caught up to him, Leonus turned into a lion and turned sideways. Before Harges could do anything, he triped over Leonus. He turned human again, and pulled out one of his axes and threw it at him. Quicker than Leonus thought, he turned and jumped up. In an attepmt to stop him, Leonus pulled out his sword and they clashed marolously. They fought and fought... When Leonus started to get tired, he thought Harges was, too. However, it seemed that Harges was in fact stonger than him. With a particularly stong hit, Harges swung his sword, Leonus blocked it, but it seemed that his muscles had finally given up. His own sword came down on his shoulder and lodged itself in there. Crying out in pain, Leonus fell. At the mercy of a demon, he was terrified. Leonus looked down, and saw his axe that he had thrown earlier. He kicked with all his might, and tripped Harges, and got up, running with all his might to his fallen weapon, his sword coming out of his shoulder. He didn't notice the pain, he just had to get out of this alive.

Leonus grabbed his axe as Harges started to chant. Leonus turned and swung his axe at the chanting Harges head. Harges ducked, and retaliated with a spinning kick to Leonus' chest. As the air was knocked out of Leonus, Harges finished chanting.

Leonus was suddenly filled with a certain dread. A feeling of hopelessness had come over him. Harges laughed. "My spell worked. He is losing hope of winning." he thought. Harges had used one of his favorite mind game spells. A spell that made it so that the victim of the spell would be filled with hopelessness, and think that they wouldn't be able to win.

This by no means meant that Leonus was guaranteed to lose, just that he didn't think he could win. Harges used Leonus' temporary confusion in between the time the spell started, and the time that the spell started to work, to cast the "Power of oblivion." spell. Harges could feel the raw power coursing through his veins, as his muscles bulged and his overall power nearly doubled.

Leonus knew he had now chance angainst his enemy now. He started to run back toward the river. He could hear Harges feet thumping against the ground behind him. If only he could reach the river, he might have a chance. Soon, he heard the gurgling, but he wouldn't make it. Harges had caught up with him, and hit Leonus around the head. He fell, his face smacking against the warm, dew covered grass. Leonus saw Harges raise his sword, and something occured to him. Why hadn't Leonus thought of it before? Using his magic, he put Harges' shirt on fire, got up, and jumped with all his might into the trees and hid for 10 minutes before jumping into the raging waters.

Harges heard the splash of the river as Leonus jumped into it. The former god dove into the water after Leonus, but was quickly swept up by the current. As the wrath demon whizzed by countless trees, he saw that Leonus had gotten out of the water and was catching his breath by some trees.

Harges shot the flesh of his shoulder in the form of an incredibly long spear. It stabbed into one of the trees, and pulled Harges out of the water. The former god charged at Leonus. The warrior saw Harges coming, and attacked back.

Harges jumped back to dodge an attack from Leonus. "It seems my despair spell has worn off. No matter, chaos will do just as well." Harges dodged a few more attacks from Leonus while chanting. Much to Harges' surprise however, Leonus ducked down and swept at Harges' feet. Leonus' blade sliced through Harges' ankles, and severed his feet off.

As Harges fell onto the ground in a puddle of blood, Leonus backed up to the trees to rest. What Leonus didn't see however, whas that Harges was regenerating.

Ducking into the trees, Leonus thought he heard Harges breathing a little faster than he was earlier. Praying that it was over, he ran again, turning into a lion. Turing severaltimes, he eventually reached the edge of the forest, emerging onto a great plain. He knew something must be done, and quickly. Somehow, Harges would catch up, Leonus knew it. Thinking fast, he put fire to the trees. It would spread fast, and Leonus was grateful for that. Running, he heard a crashing sound as Harges broke through the flaming trees that made up the border of the forest. Shooting fire behind his back, Leonus ran as fast as his legs would allow him. His breath became raspy, and Leonus eventually stopped. He turned to greet the oncoming hell that was garunteed to come to him.

And what came was the closest thing to hell that Leonus had seen in a long time. The forest was a living inferno, blazing with the crimson energy of the flames. Leonus stood for half a minute with no sign of anything coming from the forest. Suddenly, a war cry was heard.

Harges had turned his arms into five foot long swords, and was covered in the blaze. He was charging through the forest not caring whether he smashed a tree or not. Before the flaming demon came anywhere near Leonus, he swung one of his arms upwards. The blade stretched out at an incredibly quick pace, and Leonus was barely able to block the flaming blade of flesh in time.

Harges arm returned to the five foot blade form, and he continued to charge at Leonus. Leonus readied himself as Harges continued his mad hell dash from the trees. The former god finally left the trees, still aflame. Harges swung one of the blade arms at Leonus, who ducked the horizontal slash.

Acting quickly, Leonus replied with an upward slash. Harges jumped over him, but before anything could be done, they heard a horn. Carriges, with bucketfulls of water came at full speed toward the forest. Harges looked back at the oncoming blockade, scowled at Leonus, then vanished. Then the smoke started to have an effect on Leonus. He quivered, feel to the ground, and vomited. He felt nausious. This was something he had not felt for a long time. With all his might, he turned into a Lion. The feeling left him, but the blaze was still there. Leonus ran as fast as he could into the forest, looking for the river. After a while, he did find it, and it was refuge from the flame. He turned human again, and jumped in. As he was getting washed downstream, he saw a glint. It came from what he came here for: the treasure. So the rumors were true. As Leonus dove down to retreive it, Harges dove down, too. Noticing him, Leonus swam faster, and then his hand closed around the small ruby. The next moment would never leave his mind: he saw his wife, holding his daughter's hand, on the bank. Then, the ruby, still in his hand, shot out toward Harges and a beam blasted him out of the river. As Leonus surfaced, he saw that his wife and daughter were gone, and Harges yelled,
"This isn't over!" and vanished again. Praying that it was, Leonus allowed himself to be a victim of the river's current, and was pushed down the downstream.

Harges stood inside the flaming forest. "Grah! What was that jewel..." thought the former god. The blast had drained him of energy, leaving barely enough left to get back to the trees. The people using buckets of water to try and put out the blaze were doing a good job.

Two fifths of the forest was already doused in water, and the fire couldn't re-take the wet trees. Seeing as most of the wet trees were in a perimeter around the flaming forest, the fire couldn't spread to the plains. Seeing as the river was too wide for the fire to travel from one side to the other via trees, the fire soon died down.

Despite the fire dieing down, Harges remained in the smoldering remains. One of the water bucket users started to check for any way that the fire could start up again. He came upon the spot where Harges was resting. The man looked back and forth, making sure that the fire couldn't start up once more. When the man was satisfied he turned to leave, and found five knife-like fingers about to slash across his throat.

As the river washed him down, his house came into veiw. Breathing a sight of relief, Leonus pulled himself out of the river and pushed open the door and threw himself on the floor. Resting there, Leonus realized he needed to get away. Within half an hour, he had all his things packed in a bag and went out to the stable to Hernean, his horse, and ran over a several day period. After a while he decided to go back to the forest to see if there was anything left. There wasn't. So he was responsible for this chared land, the place he had played in as a child.
"See what you did?" said a voice behind him. There stood Harges, hating him more than ever.
"I knew I'd run back into you," Leonus said. "And I knew that you were going to be alive."
"Really? I was under the impression that you were going to kill me," Harges shot back, grinning.
"You really enjoy seeing me suffer, don't you?"
Harges grinned even more.
"Well, I can extend you happiness," Leonus said, not beleiving what he was about to do, and threw away the ruby that had saved him days previously.
"No magic, no spells, just your sword, and my sword, and nothing else."
"Very well. I exept your challenge," Harges said, and charged.

As the former god was charging at Leonus, he turned his arm into a sword. Leonus blocked the attack easily, and countered with a downward swipe. As Leonus' blade came whizzing down, Harges rolled to the side. The former god leapt up onto his feet and kicked Leonus in the side.

As the flame user bent down slightly, due to the pain and force of the blow, he swung his sword horizontally at Harges. The blade met thousands of years old flesh, and slashed a large gash across Harges' chest. The demonic creature howled in pain and leapt over Leonus.

On Harges' way down he slashed Leonus in his left shoulder. It was now Leonus' turn to howl in pain, but that didn't stop him from turning around and giving Harges a spinning kick to the face. Harges roared and started to swing his blade-arm madly. Leonus was forced to back up due to the ferocity of Harges attack.

The former god continued to force Leonus back until he was satisfied. He had forced Leonus onto an old bridge which spanned the river's width. Their battle continued on that bridge, both competetors careful not to fall off.