War of the Races [II] (Open)

OoC: For the sake of the continuation of the RP (and because of it's hectic nature), if you haven't posted in it for over 10 days, your character is fair game to be killed off or forgotten. Which can be very inconvenient. So post often. I will be using Camilla for this one. Please limit it to one character.

EDIT: ALSO, you don't need to necessarily read the first one, think of this as season two Instead, just have your character be abducted, and wake up aboard this ship. Give a little expose about who the character is, have them hear the spiel; you know, for cinematic purposes. Once we have enough on board, the ship will land.

SECOND EDIT: I guess if you want to read the original crap, it's here. There, now you don't have to search.

BiC: Camilla remembered running. There was lots of running. In her panic, she didn't even think to unstrap her leather, let her wings spread; she thought only to run. She was terrified. What came after was not of the world she was used to, nor was it of any world she knew of or had heard of. The technology seemed both human and living. The harvester, as she assumed it was, seemed to be at least partially organic. So she ran. She obviously didn't make it all the way, though.

She awoke, regretfully. She attempted to stand, managed to do so, and noticed that the floor was soft and spongy. Indeed, it was made of a strange blue fiber woven atop an unusual metal. She jumped a few times. She got dizzy quickly from moving too quickly too soon, but it was fun. Her leather bind was lying, folded neatly, on the floor next to her, along with her other vestments. In fact, she realized, she was completely naked. As she looked about her, she noticed a hardly-disguised two-way mirror. She realized then that her nudity was an attempt to humiliate her, a prerequisite for some biological scanning, sheer perversion, or all three. She didn't really care, though, so that took the edge off of one of those possibilities.

"Camilla Arabella deRiveur." a voice droned. The quality of it did not seem human, but it didn't seem garishly inhuman, either.

"That's... me?" she responded timidly.

"We know that, it was not a question," the voice responded. The noise seemed to be coming not from a speaker (or from the two-way mirror), but rather from the surrounding growths. It was some sort of algae, it appeared. She realized, then, that her paranoia had gotten the best of her. The mirror was not a two-way mirror at all, but merely a normal mirror. But then... where was the man behind the curtain?

"Wh... why am I here? What do you want from me?" she questioned, putting her bind, cloak, and boots back on.

"You're here to participate in the second intergalactic, inter-species War," the voice answered, in a calming (almost soothing...) voice. It, again, seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once. "You have been specially chosen for your uniqueness, and will be put to the test. The War of the Races, as the event has come to be known, will be publicized and glorified. Only one will survive. That is the way it is, that is the way that it was.

"Of course, there has been a regime change since the event on Nerrab. As such, this event will be slightly different from the one that you may or may not have seen before. More efficient, with less... materialistic promises. If you win, you will survive. There are no prizes here. This is truly a study in human, hybrid, alien, demonic, and... other... nature. This is not to say that you aren't to be as creative as possible, of course.

"But we wonder," it continued uninterrupted, although Camilla took note of whoever it was using the term we instead of I, "how long will it take before you understand the necessity of taking another's life? Will you kill, or let yourself be killed? There are no alternatives.

"Now go back to sleep, Camilla Arabella deRiveur. We will wake you when we arrive at our destination planet, Detalosed."

Now that the entity mentioned it, Camilla was still rather tired... and the fiber was so soft...

A general sense of peace overwhelmed her, and she was out before her body hit the floor.

Atropos Belladonna was running zig-zag through the lamp-lit street, her jacket flying out behind her in the wind like a cape. It was quite late at night, and the moon was but a glimmering sliver of light among the vast sea of stars. Atropos was breathing heavily, glancing over her shoulder every once in a while, out of paranoia. Like usual, nothing was actually chasing her, but the shadows in her mind had her convinced otherwise. She ran for her life from the imagined threat, her eyes alert and darting about.

She happened to be recklessly running in the middle of the street. There weren't too many people out driving at this time of night, but every once and a while a car or two would fly by her, blaring its horn and swerving to avoid crashing into her. As she reached a four-way intersection, she brushed past a motorcycle, pushing it over, and ran through the red light. For a short moment, time around her seemed to stop. Atropos saw it all in slow motion, as a speeding minivan came hurtling towards her. The terrified driver, a typical looking soccer mom, slammed hard on the brakes, causing the tires to squeal and smoke. It was too late, however, and the vehicle collided into Atropos with a sickening thud and loud crack.

Nightshade flew over the top of the van, spinning through the air, and landed hard on the asphalt behind the vehicle. She lay there on her back for a moment, observing the stars in the sky and ignoring the pain in her limbs, while the bones in her right leg pulled themselves back together. The lady who had been driving the minivan quickly got out, rushing over to see if she was alright. More damage had probably been done to the van, its front crushed in like a soda can, than had been done to Atropos. The lady looked down at Atropos, asking if she was alright.

"Fate has decided," was Atropos' response, and she thrust her hand into the air, pointing upward. She got up to her feet and brushed herself off. There wasn't really anything to brush off, but it was somewhat of a habit of hers. She then flicked her wrist through the air, and the worried woman was suddenly thrown down to the concrete. Atropos cackled like the madwoman she was and flew over to the lady, picking her up off the ground before she could run off. The lady screamed as Atropos bit into her arm. Nightshade reached for the shears in her boot, which flew through the air to meet her open hand.

The poor woman was struggling, trying to get her arm free of the psychopath's teeth. Atropos decided she would help her out, and with psychokinetically enhanced strength she used the scissors to separate the lady's arm from her torso. From fear and blood loss, the woman fainted and lay limp on the ground, bleeding out. Atropos dropped the arm from her mouth, spitting out blood. She was about to finish off her prey, when suddenly she heard another scream. She turned around to see a pair of panicked children, standing next to the stranded minivan, the woman's children no doubt. The screaming from them was like nails on a chalkboard to Atropos. She couldn't stand the sound. It had to stop. She forgot everything else she had been doing.

Atropos screamed for herself, drowning out the sounds from the children, and thrust her gloved hand towards the van. An invisible force caused the vehicle to topple over on its side, putting an end to the screaming and bringing sweet silence to Atropos' ears. Glad for the silence, she decided to spare the woman of her original fate, leaving her on the ground, where she would soon slowly bleed to death. Atropos put the bloodied scissors away in her boot, and started to walk away, satisfied and no longer paranoid.

As she left the bloody chaotic scene behind her, something large loomed over her. She turned around and glanced up at it. It was some sort of flying machine, built from a mixture of some glossy dark metal and luminescent blue organic material. It slowly began to approach her, blue tentacles reaching out from it, and Atropos examined it curiously. She put up her hand and waved at it, and it reached out and grabbed her. As soon as the cold blue tentacles touched her pale skin, she lost all sensation and fell into a deep sleep.

[x]
When she woke up, Nightshade found herself in a strange small chamber. The walls were all covered in a soft layer of blue moss, which lit the room in a strange neon blue fluorescence. A full length mirror was propped up against one of the walls, and when Atropos looked into it, she realized that she wasn't wearing any clothes. She looked around, and found them all neatly folded on the ground beside her. Admittedly, it wasn't the first time she'd woken up without her clothes on, but this time she had reason to believe she hadn't done it herself. Mostly because she never folded her clothes.

Suddenly, she heard a voice. "Atropos Belladonna." It seemed to come from everywhere, and nowhere, all at once. As the voice spoke, the moss covering the walls pulsated, glowing slightly more intense on each syllable.

"Who?" Nightshade asked. The name spoken by the disembodied voice sounded familiar, somehow.

"You, Atropos," the algae said.

"Oh, yeah, right. That's my name," she said. "Who are you?" she asked.

The voice gave an inhuman rasp, perhaps a chuckle of sorts. "Call us what you will, it is of no concern. We were once called Kashreth," the voice resounded through the chamber.

Atropos sat up, crossing her legs and looking all around the chamber. It reminded her of solitary confinement. It had the padded walls and everything, sort off. The mirror was off, though. Solitary confinement would not have any potentially sharp objects. Atropos whistled, and the glass shattered into fragments. Still bored, Atropos started searching through the pile of her clothes, looking for her MP3 player.

Apparently tired of waiting for Atropos to ask why she was here, the voice answered the unasked question. "You're here to participate in the second intergalactic, inter-species War." Atropos looked up when the voice spoke, having completely forgotten about it for a moment.

"What?" she asked, distracted as she pulled her MP3 player out of her jacket, along with the earphones.

"You have been specifically chosen because of your uniqueness, and will be put to the test," it continued.

"Oh dear, a test? I didn't study for any test..." Atropos interrupted, not paying much attention as she searched through the device, looking for a song to play.

The algae made another rasping sound, this one out of exasperation more than humor. "It's called the War of the Races, we're throwing you and a bunch of other specimens onto a battlefield, only one will survive and return home. The first War did not go necessarily according to plan...but we've fixed that. This is a study, a test of the nature of different races and abilities. The winner receives one reward: their life."

Atropos tuned out most of what the voice was saying, and put the earphones into her ears.

"Don't think you can avoid the rules and escape. The only way out is to be the last one standing. How long will it take you before you give in, and take the lives of your fellow captors? Will you kill, or be killed?"

Before hitting play, Atropos thought over what the voice just said, twisting a few strands of hair between her fingers. "So...I get to kill people?" she asked, summing up pretty much all she'd heard of the conversation.

"Well...yes. That, or die."

"Sign me up!" Atropos said, her eyes lighting up.

"Already been done, you have no choice. Now, return to sleep, Atropos Belladonna. We will wake you when we arrive at Detalosed, the battleground." The voice was calming; in fact, soothing to the point where Atropos did indeed feel somewhat tired. The soft blue glow and soft blue ground seemed quite comforting, and before she knew it, she was sound asleep. Her last thought before she was out was regret that she hadn't been able to listen to any music.

Synyx had come to a small town. With no other towns in sight, he decided to enter. He was searching for something to get rid of his corruption by darkness; maybe a Light Elementite sword. Looking around him, he saw no people; just a number of wooden one-floored buildings. None of them were labeled, and they all looked very similar. He walked into one. As the door closed behind him, he examined his surroundings. He had come upon a bar. Synyx saw the entire population of the town crowding the building. Great, a bar. The BEST way to get information, he thought sarcastically.

He turned and tried to exit, but the knob was broken; it wouldn’t turn. Wow, my luck just got even better! Synyx could easily break it down, but he didn’t want to cause a scene. I’ll just look for another exit. As he was walking through the bar, a drunk man tapped him on the shoulder.

"What're YOU doing here?" the drunk asked. When Synyx turned away from him, the man changed the question. "You new in town? Ha'nt seen you 'round none yet."

"No. I don't live here. I'm just stopping in."

"Where you from?"

"I don't know."

"How kin ya not know where you from? Simple question."

"Because I lost my memory."

"HA!" The man took another gulp from the glass of ale he had apparently been holding this whole time. "Weakling! Only weak'uns can lose somethin' like their memory."

Synyx was beginning to get irritated. Not too much by the man's remark(as it was bizarrely untrue, anyway), but by his stench and the fact that he was following Synyx through the bar. On the other side of the room was a door with some sunlight peering through its cracks. Why there was a library in a bar, Synyx did not know. Good. I’ll just go through there and enter another building. Hopefully the next one is a library. Libraries provided information, and that was exactly what Synyx needed.

So he started walking toward it.

"WEAKLING!" the man repeated. In fact, he was cheering it. First a few others joined in, then some others, then some others-- and before he knew it, Synyx was being called a weakling by the entire bar.

Synyx spoke as he opened the door he had finally reached. "I'm not weak. Far from it.”

"OOO! Sounds like a challenge from Mr. Weakling!" Behind the door he just opened was a room with an outhouse in the center. It had no ceiling. …I won’t even guess. Synyx slammed the door and started back toward the entrance.

"Shut up, drunk, and start learning correct English," Synyx said as he passed the man. A fist socked Synyx on the back of his head. He didn’t flinch at all. Synyx turned back toward the man and stared at him. He grabbed his arm as it came toward him for another hit. His other hand wrapped around the man's throat and he lifted him up before tossing him to the side. So consumed by alcohol, the man hadn't even thought to use his other arm.

Not that it would have helped.

The crowd stared first at the man, who was knocked out after hitting his head on a table, and then at Synyx. Well, I’ve caused a scene already…. He walked to the entrance and broke the door down with his shoulder. Without looking back, Synyx began walking to the next building.

He felt an odd sort of presence off to his left. Feeling suspicious, he followed it. It led him out of town and to a nearby mountain, where a cave was built into the side. This definitely isn’t natural. Synyx took out Xangatsu’s handle, but didn’t arm it just yet. He didn’t want to scare anyone that could see him. “Hello?” he called into the cave. There was no answer, but he still felt a presence. He entered slowly. It went far into the mountain and was pitch black after just a few seconds of walking.

Something tapped Synyx on the side of his neck. His body went limp and his eyes began to close.


~*~

Synyx awoke in a small, blue-lit room. Around him was some kind of moss which seemed to have a life force other than that of the normal fungus. It covered the walls all around him. As he got up, he noticed he was naked. He wasn’t concerned with this, though. He thought his body was just like anyone else’s. Looking to the left, he saw his clothes folded and stacked. And, he had also noticed, they were clean. In front of Synyx was a mirror, which stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Suddenly, a voice came from around Synyx.

“Welcome, Synyx,” it said in a happy tone.

“Who said that? Show yourself!”

“Be calm. There is no need to fret. Not yet, anyway.” The last sentence had come at a lower volume than the others.

“Where am I? What is this place?” Synyx was very confused at this time, since he still had not the slightest idea of who was speaking.

“You are on a transport ship to Detalosed.”

“Another continent?”

“No. It is another planet.”

“What?!” Synyx had assumed it was a ship on water, not in space. He thought space travel might be possible somewhere, but he wasn’t certain. People thought he looked too suspicious to bring on a boat with them, so he had never left the continent he was born on.

“Calm yourself.” A vent in the ceiling started releasing a purple gas, and though Synyx tried to avoid it by lying down by the wall, it eventually filled the entire room. When it reached him, he felt more content. Not tired, but content.

“…Why am I here?”

“You are going to participate in the second intergalactic, interspecies war.” Since the voice was louder by the wall, Synyx assumed the moss was speaking.

“Wait…. So, I’m going to another planet…”

“Correct.”

“…in another galaxy…”

“Correct.”

“…to be pitted against other species?”

“Correct.”

“No, thank you.” Subconsciously, he knew the gas had changed his personality. He only hoped it was temporary.

“You have no choice. The decisions have been made. You are fighting in the war.”

“No choice….” Synyx repeated to himself. The moss’s voice echoed in his head. He was going to be fighting things he had no knowledge of, on a planet he had no knowledge of, in a galaxy he had no knowledge of, against his will.

Dark flames flickered around Synyx’s body for a split second. He thought of—

Xangatsu.

“Where is it?!” Synyx yelled.

“I assume you mean your sword. We put it on another ship. We will place it on Detalosed’s surface, in an area we will not reveal. We’ve done the same with your gauntlets. Whether they will be in the same spot, we will let you find out on your own. Just remember: your sword is useless without the gauntlets and vice versa. Your blade seemed to have disappeared into the gauntlets when we incapacitated you.” The moss sounded intrigued during the last sentence. Synyx was angry, distraught, and confused.

“You dirty thieves!” His body was covered in dark flames as he shouted this, and they slowly began to intensify. The vent released more gas, but it had no effect this time.

“Interesting. You seem to be immune to our gas this time. Would that have anything to do with--”

“Shut up! Let me out of here!” The darkness around him flared up and Synyx was now in Elementite Overtake. He charged up his Dark Lightning to full strength and released it at the moss. It was ineffective.

“This is exactly why we have chosen you, Synyx. You are unique and powerful.” Synyx punched the mirror and it shattered, shards of it flying around the room. He jumped at the vent and tried to break it open, but to no avail. “Please, you must calm down. We would like you to be at full strength when we get to the arena.” Synyx continued trying to escape. “Very well, then.” An orange gas was released, and Synyx began to feel tired.

Very tired.

Reverting back to his normal state, Synyx dropped to the floor and immediately fell asleep.

Aronin stepped out of the portal from the Dome into the real world accompanied by the last rays of sunlight which beamed through the portal and lit up the dark forest the portal had opened in. He had proved fond of his newly found ability to create portals to and forth the world where the Dome rested in, and spent a lot of time exploring new and strange worlds the Dome linked to. Whether it was the dome, or a power of his own, he did not know, but if he concentrated properly and focused on the Dome, he could create temporary oval portals which linked to other dimensions. However, he could only create portals to other dimensions from the dome, and only portals to the dome from other dimensions, which had led Aronin to think of the ability as a power of the Dome.

But, as Aronin looked around, he found himself lost. The forest did not seem like a common Norwegian forest, which he had aimed for, as it was far too humid and green. In fact, as the rays disappeared when the portal slowly closed, he grew weary of the sounds in the air. There were monkeys, insects and the sound of exotic birds, and the foliage seemed too exotic for a cold northern forest. In fact, it looked like he had entered a rainforest somewhere, probably in Africa judging by the time of his watch.

But this was not a place to be in the middle of the night. In a swift movement, Aronin had pushed away the foliage directly above him and shoot up above the treetops. Wishing he had spent some time studying some basic star navigation principles, he tried to look for something he could recognize. But there was no stars on the sky tonight. A dark shadow hang above him, blocking his view. His instincts instantly told him to escape, but he did not move as he was curious about what this thing was. Something moved, rapidly and homed in for Aronin where he hung in the air. Aronin backed up instantly and flew straight into another thing which had attacked from behind. He only caught a glimpse of blue as he fainted.

--==§§§==--

Aronin woke up with a start and engulfed his hands in plasma as to counterattack that which had attacked him. But there was no attacker, only a mirror, which showed himself, naked? Why am I naked? However, he noticed right away his cloths and got dressed in a hurry, before he properly started to look around. Mirror on one wall, walls on the three others, covered in mushrooms. What kind of sick joke is this? But just as he was about to shatter the mirror with the plasma, a voice sounded through the room.

“Welcome Aronin Orino,” it said, and Aronin noticed how it appeared to come from nowhere and everywhere at once. “Please refrain from destroying that mirror, as that will make your journey far from pleasant. Shattered glass is not a pleasant thing to sleep on.” Aronin didn’t answer and closed his eyes, searching for the source of the voice. But it had stopped speaking, and Aronin opened his eyes again. The mushrooms seemed to glow faintly, almost like they were radioactive or something.

Then the voice appeared again, “You, Aronin, are really lucky. You get to participate in a intergalactic event, the War of the Races! The price is,” the voice paused as Aronin closed his eyes again. “Your life. That is, if you are the surviver.” Aronin opened his eyes again.

“My life? If I survive?”

“The War of the Races is a galactical tournament where you are to fight others from all across the galaxy. You are chosen for your incredible powers. Now, you should rest before we arrive.”

“Arrive where? What’s going on here?!” Aronin shouted angry out, but the voice did not respond anymore. Instead, the air near the walls became filled with a gas, which quickly filled the whole room, and Aronin fell asleep.
--==§§§==---

Aronin woke up a little later, still in the same room. The gas had disappeared and the sound of silence was ringing through his ears as the soft surface of the walls muffled all sound. But to Aronin’s relief, the voice came back not long after he woke up.

“Already awake? Good for you. We will grant you a head start, by releasing onto the battlefield first.”

“Battlefield? Which battlefield?”

“The planet you will be fighting on. But don’t worry. It’s perfectly safe for you to breath there. Too bad I can’t say that about the ground…” the voice said and faded out.

“Wait.. What do you mean?” Aronin shouted to the walls, which suddenly started to glow and wither away, revealing a red sky outside. Lightning filled the sky, and strong winds forced its way into the dissolving room. And before Aronin could react, the floor slithered away from the walls, and fell away, along with Aronin and the mirror. And underneath, as Aronin cleared the cloud layer, a roaring lake of lava greeted him with flames and flying pieces of glowing stone.

The mirror crashed into the liquid stone and melted in seconds, leaving nothing but a small puff of smoke. Aronin looked down at the destructive powers of the magma and looked around for less hostile grounds before flying away with the wind, hoping that whatever awaited there would be better than what he had been presented with.

"It is time to wake up," the room said, and Camilla awoke as such, "for we have arrived at our destination."

Camilla looked about her. The wall with the mirror was no longer there, presenting her with what must be the planet Detalosed. There were no structures within her sight, nor were there any trees or plants. It was terrifying. The rocks were stained red with rust that looked oddly like blood. A wind assaulted her as she took her first steps outside the cargo ship, and it was a foul one, smelling of decay and other less savory things. Camilla sat down, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"I don't want to be here," she sobbed, brooding over the prospect of dying here, so far away from Vylanos, "why do I have to be here?"

"It is an honor to participate," the moss said, and she saw that there was a patch of it on the back of her hand. It was obviously her way of communicating with the 'host'. "The other contestants have been released as well, Camilla, you would do well to leave now."

Camilla ran.

But why is the rum gone?

Hey i was just trying to relate to y0u

The room faded in and out of existence. First a blur, then total darkness.

Slowly the blurs became clearer. The beating of Synyx's heart could be both felt and heard.

The room was still very much real, the moss very much alive.

Xangatsu and the Xicarta still very much missing.

Synyx finally gathered strength and was able to sit up. He couldn't believe this was actually happening to him. He was trying to think of another escape route. He looked around, but was interrupted by the moss.

"Ah! You are awake. Very good timing; very good indeed. We are merely minutes away from Detalosed. Have you calmed down?"

Synyx remembered going into Elementite Overtake earlier. Feeling like a child, he reluctantly answered, "Yes."

"Good. Now get dressed."

Synyx walked over to his clothes, still neatly stacked, and unfolded them. He felt like a prisoner in this room. No matter what it was like on the alien planet of Detalosed... it must be better than this.

As he slipped on his shoes, the last bit of his clothing, the moss made another announcement. "Welcome, Synyx.... Welcome... to Detalosed!"

Synyx looked around in the ship for a window of some sort. "...Where is it?"

"Look down."

And as soon as he did, the floor disappeared. He began to fall, but only ten feet, maybe less. It hadn't hurt, but one look around made Synyx feel very uncomfortable. All around him was an orange-tinted sand. My God.... It's everywhere.

When Synyx finally decided to look up for the space ship, he saw nothing. Next to him was a single palm tree and a puddle of water, a meter across and maybe a little more than a foot deep.

Suddenly, the familiar voice protruded Synyx's ears once again. "This, Synyx, is your battleground. EVERYWHERE, Synyx, is your battleground. You will fight anyone, anywhere, at any given moment." By now, Synyx had discovered the voice was coming from a small patch of moss on the back of his left hand.

"And if I refuse?" Synyx felt certain that at least some of his opponents had not been very evil. It was one of the very few things he felt certain about.

"Then your precious sword will be lost. We can communicate with the others, too. We can lead them to the weapon right now if we pleased.

"But where's the fun in that?" it continued.

Fun? What's fun about killing innocent people? Synyx gave out a sigh and began to walk forward, toward the unmoving horizon.

OoC: Sorry if this seems "off" from my usual writing style, I was tired.

OoC: Since we are only four, I suppose there are a lot of NPC’s that we can fight too?

About an hour had passed when Aronin met his first opponent. A martial arts fighter, it appeared, had also been captured. But unlike Aronin, this guy were eager to fight, and did so with great ferocity. Also, it was not a human. However, he was weak, and not a proper opponent to Aronin, and only got in a few hits before Aronin caught him with his telekinesis and flung him into a rock. He did not stand up afterwards. Not all were as powerful as they claimed.

“Don’t get too cooky,” the patch of moss on his back had said. “That was only the beginning. To get you all warmed up, we also brought some contestants with lower power, and spaced out the distance between those truly powerful.”

“Damn it,” Aronin muttered and tried once more to remove the moss, but failed again. Somehow, the moss had fused with his skin and was impossible to remove without hurting himself. Hopefully, when he won this, the moss would be removed.

“In which direction should I head?” he asked no one in particular, and the moss answered.

“Go west, towards those rock formations.”

Aronin looked around. To his left, there was a mountain pass, with a dark cloud overhead, and a strong wind blowing out. To his right, a dessert emerged in the horizon, and straight forwards, there seemed to be a forest of some kind. He decided it would be best to follow the advice of the moss, and headed for the dessert, towards the rocks the moss had referred to.

A glowing energy sphere exploded to his side, sending him flying over the sand. Someone was there to greet him.

“You need to be more careful! I could have killed you in an instant if I weren’t as kind as I am.”

Aronin got up and looked at his attacker. A bald human with a staff was standing on top of one of the rocks he just passed.

“I am the Grandmaster of fire, Keeper of the seals, Lord of the darkness. Togesaki Gutho!”

Aronin remained silent, awaiting the battle, something which obviously ticked the guy off, as he began to shout and curse Aronin for not respecting his titles, to which Aronin turned away and started walking again.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me!” The grandmaster shouted and pointed his staff at Aronin. “Then let me show you my power!” And with a swing of the staff, an energy ball was formed, shoot at Aronin, and exploded. “Not so tough now are we?”

“You got dust on my suit,” Aronin said and turned around.

“No way! You can’t survive my dark blast!” the grandmaster said and sent another ball flying.

“So weak,” Aronin muttered and solidified the air around him with his telekinesis. The explosion didn’t even scratch the surface. “Do you have anything else to show me?”

Togesaki looked like he was about to get a heart attack from the look of his face. “Not… a scratch?”

“You are wasting my time, fool.” Aronin said and lifted the rocks that were shattered by the explosion in the air and let them hang there for a moment, before sending them at the grandmaster at blinding speed. His staff broke before it hit the ground.

What a waste of time Aronin thought and brushed away some dust from his black cloak.

“Well, ain’t you the tough guy? Remember, this is only the warm up. That guy was the most powerful being on his planet. You might become a bit weird from such things,” the moss responded, as if it could read his mind.

"Wake up," a voice said. Atropos didn't move, lying sound asleep on the ground. "Wake up," the voice repeated, louder. Atropos still didn't respond. The room began to reverberate with a loud screeching ringing sound, but even that was not able to wake the sleeper. A tentacle of blue moss dropped from the ceiling, touching Atropos on her back. A charge of electricity ran through the tentacle, jolting her awake. Atropos screamed and sat straight up, an explosion of telekinesis filling the room like silent thunder. Bits of glass from the mirror were thrown against the walls, and shattered into even smaller shards. Her neatly folded clothing was sent scattering as well, as Atropos remembered she still wasn't wearing anything.

Atropos looked around, trying to figure out where she was. A shard of glass from the mirror was stuck in the pale, slightly bluish tinted, skin of her arm. She must have been sleeping on it, for however long she had been sleeping. She pulled the piece of glass out, and the wound quickly closed up. She had also been sleeping on her MP3 player, she noticed, as it was sitting on the soft and spongy blue floor nearby.

From seemingly nowhere, or from everywhere all at once, a voice spoke to her. "We have arrived." Atropos looked around, just now remembering what was going on and where she was.

"Oh, joy of all joys," she said. "When can I go?"

"Right now," the blue moss said. The floor suddenly opened up, dropping all of its contents, including Atropos. She fell several yards, and landed on the side of a steep sand dune. When she hit the ground, the sand exploded up around her, and she was nearly buried in the dune. The sand was a rusty orange color, unlike any sand that Atropos had seen before. She crawled out from under the sand, standing upright. She was covered in sand now; it was in her hair and other places she'd rather it not be. A burst of telekinesis got rid of most of it, at least for now.

Her boots had landed nearby, while other articles of clothing were still gently floating downwards, caught in the wind. The wind carried the scent of death. Death, rot, and decay. Atropos crinkled her nose up when she smelled the air. It was not a very lovely smell, rather foul indeed. She grabbed her boots and climbed up to the top of the dune, where she could see the rest of the battleground. The sea of sand stretched on for miles, and was filled with islands of rock. Large blood red stones jutted out of the ground here and there, some of them small enough to lift, and others as large as ships. There were no plants, no living things at all. The desert was surrounded with mountains like teeth, stretching up into the dark skies.

The skies were overcast with pitch black clouds, casting a shadow over the lands. Flashes of light exploded in various places behind the clouds, some sort of constant lightning. Somehow, a pale light was able to shine through the cloud cover enough to make the world visible. Atropos used that light to navigate the sand dune she was on, gathering all her clothes. After about ten minutes, she was completely dressed, except for her left glove, and her boots. The boots she was still holding, or rather, had floating in the air behind her. The glove she was searching for still. Eventually she found it, resting on the top of a large red stone.

A burst of telekinesis threw her to the top of the stone, and threw sand into the air. She grabbed the fingerless glove, and went to put it on her hand. But there was something already on her hand. A small patch of blue moss. "Hey, what are you doing there?" Atropos asked the moss.

"I'm here to monitor your progress. Also, some of the contestants find it comforting to have someone to talk to. Someone to confide in, when everyone else is your mortal enemy," the parasitic growth said.

"Everyone else has always been my mortal enemy. I usually just talk to myself, but I guess you'll do," Atropos responded. "Could you go somewhere else, though? My glove goes there."

"If you insist." The moss moved to the next patch of bare skin on Atropos' body, the side of her neck. Pleased, Atropos pulled on her glove, and jumped down from the rock. She remembered now that the rock was higher than she expected, and her legs folded under her when she hit the sandy ground, sending her rolling. She almost rolled right down the steep dune, but stopped herself before then. Her boots slowly lowered themselves from the air, and landed next to her. She picked up the first one, poured out the sand, and put it on her foot. She did the same with the second one, but as she went to pour out the sand, her shears fell out as well, and began sliding down the dune.

"Oh, dear," Atropos said as the scissors slid all the way to the bottom. She put on the second boot as well, and began to run down the dune to get her weapon. The dune was too steep to run down though, and she ended up falling over and tumbling head over heels down the dune. Why she hadn't used telekinesis to get the scissors, or make her trip down the hill easier, was a mystery even to herself. Finally at the base of the hill, she grabbed the shears and put them away in her boot. As she got up from the ground, something jumped out from behind a nearby rock.

"An opponent approaches," the moss said.

The opponent was a man, although decisively inhuman, dressed in a black cloak. Wings reached out behind him, and from under his dark hood came the occassional flicker of a forked red tongue. It was wielding a silver sword. Bolts of red electricity ran down the blade, and he began to speak. "I am the Binder of the Shadows, Conqueror of Nashkquethai. Were I not as honorable as I am, you would already be dead, helpless to escape your fate. If I must fight, however, I will fight fairly. Face me now!" He held out his blade, waiting for Atropos to make the first move.

She looked at the odd creature, tilted her head off to one side, and took a moment of consideration. Finally, she flicked her wrist. There was a loud cracking sound from under the man's cloak, and he dropped his sword, which was no longer running with electricity. The man fell to his knees, and then fell face first into the sand, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"That was a powerful contestant. Too bad he had to fight honorably," the moss noted.

"Even the most powerful cannot survive a broken neck. That was boring though, I don't think I shall be doing that again. There wasn't even any blood," Atropos said, almost sounding disappointed. Sighing, she started walking off into the endless desert, waiting for her next encounter.

As she was walking she suddenly stopped. "Oh! I get it! Detalosed, ha ha." Chuckling at the clever word play, she continued her journey.

There had not been more opponents since his last encounter with the strange mage, and Aronin was actually starting to bore. The sandy dune seemed to reach forever, and Aronin assumed that a great part of the planet consisted of the dessert, based on the quick assumptions he did. Unless there was a vast amount of players, the planet had to be small enough for them all to find each other at one or another time as there would only be one winner. And judging by the gravity, which were much less than on earth, the planet was much smaller. Also, there would not be any enjoyable fights if there were too many participants as everybody would be too tired, and this was for the enjoyment of some space people.

“Yes, it’s a smaller planet than you are used to. However, it’s made of a much more dense material, making the relative gravity greater than your earth’s,” the moss said, confirming Aronin’s thoughts that it could read his mind. It had probably merged with his central nervous system, which greatly worried Aronin.

“Don’t worry, the effects are only temporary,” the moss reassured him. “We will disappear after the competition is over, or you die.”

“Shut up,” Aronin snapped back and scouted across the dessert. He needed water, having walked for hours without drinking. If he didn’t find any soon… But even more hours passed in the endless dessert, and even though Aronin had not yet found any water, he did not feel dehydrated or very thirsty. It was almost as if he had been drinking.

“It’s right. We are absorbing water from the atmosphere. It would not be any fun if you died without a proper fight first, would it?”

Aronin did not have time to answer, as the sound of battle appeared beneath a dune nearby, stealing his attention. Probably small fish, from the small amount of power displayed, he assumed and hurried over towards the sounds to see if there was anything worth fighting.

As he reached the top, he confirmed his thoughts that it was just small fry. A guy with a sword fought against a person which used some unknown technique to shield himself. But it was clear that the sword guy was the superior, driving the defending contestant backwards with fierce attacks. However, the swordsman had no real power behind his attacks, and Aronin could easily hold him back with just thinking about it, which he did.

The swordsman gasped surprised as he “accidentally” dropped his sword, which buried itself down into the sand. He jumped quickly backwards and dragged out a long knife from a sheath, Aronin prepared for an attack, to take out both of them. However, he was abruptly interrupted by someone else, which suddenly appeared at the scene and violently killed the two combatants with a sword formed by some kind of black material. Aronin smiled to himself. So, there were some worthy fighters here.

“Well done,” he said loud while descending the dune, “but those guys you just killed were mine. However, I don’t mind whom I kill, or whom I don’t, so if you please,” Aronin bowed at the female opponent as a courtesy before the battle. “can I have this dance?”

OoC: et cetra. Tag!

OoC: Sorry, I thought the thread was going to be put on hold.

BiC: This is insane; why did they hide my sword and gauntlets?!

"To add to the game, Synyx." The moss had apparently heard his thoughts. "It gives you a reason to do this, a reason you approve of."

"I thought there were other contestants...?"

"There are. Countless others, all out to kill in order to survive. You've just been very unlucky in spotting one of th--!" The moss was interrupted as the ground underneath Synyx shook and flung him into the air.

"Gah! Is this an earthquake?!"

"No," the moss replied.

Synyx, barely keeping his balance, turned to see a man in a red cloak with his hands in the air in front of him. Except it wasn't a human. It had four arms and its two legs seemed to be machines instead of actual body parts. Its face couldn't be seen because of the cloak.

It seemed like the being was struggling; its arms were trembling as it lifted them up. Synyx saw a chunk of sand lift out of the ground, not one grain falling out of the cube. Assuming this was the alien's attack, Synyx decided to try to reason with it, telling it not to harm him.

"Stop! I come in peace! I won't attack you if you don't attack me!"

The alien responded: "YOU ARE... OPPONENT. MISSION: ELIMINATE ALL OPPONENTS; ESCAPE FROM PLANET. YOU ARE A MISSION OBJECTIVE. ELIMINATION OCCURRING."

Synyx could now conclude that the alien was at least part cyborg.

Suddenly Synyx was buried under a pile of the orange sand. It attacked me! After I offered peace!

The moss responded telepathically. "There is no mercy here on Detalosed. It's kill or be killed. Most don't believe promises of truce."

...I hate this game.

Synyx could feel the weight of more sand being piled on him as he tried to hold his breath and force his way out. "I have to say," the moss stated telepathically once again, "this is quite a disappointment. You showed a lot of promise at first."

I'm going to die... on a different planet... because nobody believes in a promise of peace.

Nobody believes in good anymore.

Nobody....

Synyx immediately felt enraged and broke out of the pile of sand, covered in dark flames. He pointed his hand toward the cyborg and it began to seize as a steady, large flow of Dark Lightning rushed at it. Several small mechanical explosions could be heard as its knees gave way and it fell to the ground.

Synyx did not stop. He kept electrifying the being to make sure it was dead. Finally, a burst of sparks shot out of the "head"(it was just a sphere of metal and circuitry) and its body began to smoke. Synyx finally ceased and gasped for breath as he returned to normal. Using Dark Lightning for that long (it had been almost two minutes straight) was exhausting.

Synyx finally spoke once he regained his strength. "I... I killed it."

"Yes," the moss replied. "You did it to save yourself. And I assure you, everyone on this planet is out to get you. Every. Single. One."

"I don't believe you. That can't be true!" Synyx thought of having to wipe out all of the contestants just to survive. He still believed there was at least one who didn't deserve death, one who was friendly.

"Have I lied to you at any time before?" the moss asked. Synyx thought. Very angry, he concluded that it hadn't. "I'm telling the truth."

Synyx stood in silence for a moment. "They're all against me."

"Yes."

"...I have to kill them... to save myself."

"You certainly like restating things, don't you?"

The chosen wielder was at a loss for words. He couldn't believe it, but at the same time, he did. Finally, he made a decision.

"I need Xangatsu."

"And your gauntlets," the moss reminded Synyx. "And because of that impressive move back there, I'll give you something to get you started; look in the pocket of that opponent's cloak."

Synyx reached inside but looked away, still partially ashamed at what he had done. On the inside of the cloak, there was a large pocket. He could feel the Xicarta inside them.

"How did he get them?!"

"He found them. That's it. Remember, he was part machine; he analyzed the gauntlets, and when the material came back as unknown, he decided to take it back to his home planet for testing."

"Well, that doesn't matter now. I have them." Synyx was about to put on one of the gauntlets when he thought of something. "Hey, is it possible for you to move? I need to put these on." The moss moved up to Synyx's forearm. "Great."

Synyx made sure the gauntlets were secure and set out to the more uneven portion of the desert.

"A lot of dunes here, no?" Synyx asked rhetorically.

Walking through the desert, Atropos began to get hungry. There weren't any living plants around, and she didn't think she could eat sand. "Is there anything around here I can eat?" she asked the patch of algae on her neck.

"No," was all it said. "Unless you like to eat the flesh of those you kill, I suppose," it said about a minute later. Atropos frowned at the thought. She wasn't a cannibal. And she hated raw meat, most of all. Upon thinking it over, she figured if the meat was at least cooked, she could probably handle being a cannibal. It was better than raw sand, at least.

Atropos looked around, finding herself in the middle of the endless sea of sand. A few large rocks were halfway buried nearby, reaching up towards the dark skies as if they were trying to crawl out of the sand. Atropos tried to pull one out with telekinesis, but it was much larger and buried much deeper than she had expected, and she couldn't budge it. Instead, she decided she would climb up on top of it.

From this vantage point, Atropos could see a couple people fighting each other by a nearby sand dune. One of them was covered in armor and wielding a sword, and the other one was covered in fur and using some sort of magic to block the sword from hitting him. Atropos held out her hand, and droplets of black liquid began to form on her fingers. Some of the droplets fell down onto the rock, but the rest of them quickly began to stick together, rapidly forming a long flat shape in her hand. The black matter hardened, and soon she was holding a black sword in her right hand.

She flew off the rock with a burst of psychokinesis, soaring over half the distance to the two fighters. Using telekinesis to soften the landing, she hit the sand just hard enough to make a cloud of dust gather around her. The fighters hadn't noticed her yet, as they were both facing away from her. As they were fighting each other, a third person appeared, coming over the dune. The swordsman suddenly lost his grip on his sword, and pulled out a knife as the third contestant approached. Atropos noticed they were all now distracted, and moved in for the kill.

She quickly ran up to the two fighters, bringing her sword up in a powerful arc, slicing through the fur-covered creatures back. In the same movement, using the gathered momentum, she curved the sword around and hacked off the armored man's head. Both bodies hit the ground at around the same time, pouring blood into the sand. Atropos smiled when she saw the blood, but she wasn't quite content yet; there wasn't enough. And none of it was on her.

The disembodied head hit the ground a couple seconds later, rolling in the sand for a few feet. Atropos got ready to attack the third person as well, but he was still halfway up the dune. She decided to let him come to her instead, which he seemed content in doing.

"Well done," the man said as he approached, descending from the sand dune. "But those guys you just killed were mine. However, I don’t mind whom I kill, or whom I don’t, so if you please," he said, pausing for a moment as he bowed before her. "Can I have this dance?”

Without answering him, she swung the sword at his head, hoping to end the battle early. Something stopped the blade in midair, right before the man's head. Telekinesis, Atropos noticed with curiosity. She retracted the blade and tossed it over her shoulder, discarding it like a piece of garbage. As soon as it hit the sand it melted back into a liquid, quickly being absorbed by the sand. "You wouldn't hit a girl, now, would you?" Atropos asked the man. "Didn't you learn anything from your mother?"

Aronin let out a halfhearted laugh.

“Wouldn’t hit a girl,” he repeated. “Wouldn’t hit a girl... Now, I did learn much from my mother, but never anything like that.” He chuckled for himself and shook his head. “But never mind. I have learned that a long time ago.”

“So you got at least some manners,” the woman said and took a step closer.

“Not manners. It’s just not my style. But don’t worry, I won’t hit you,” he replied and looked her in the eyes with a smile. “However, I can’t promise the sand won’t,” he continued as he lifted up a tower of sand with his mind.

“Dodge,” he said as he both kicked off the ground and released the pile of sand down where they stood. “Too slow,” he noted to himself as the woman was caught in the sand. “She appeared to be stronger than most…”

He turned around, and started to walk away when a gushing sound caught his ear. The pile of sand began to dissolve, and fall away. Quickly, and surprised, he turned and only barely managed to block a cut from that black sword by forcefully emitting much telekinesis out from his arms, enabling them, or any other body part, to block objects without hurting him. Though, skillfully, he held back the plasma that came as a byproduct from mass emitting telekinesis.

Now it was the woman who were laughing. “Was that all you got? I didn’t even become dirty.”

“How? You didn’t dodge?” Aronin asked and sent a blast of telekinesis at the woman, blowing her a few steps away.

“It’s my little secret,” she said and pointed the sword at him. "Now it's my turn."

Atropos wondered why the man had even assumed that sand would be a problem in the first place. Sand wasn't really a deadly threat to anyone, least of all her. Nevertheless, here she was, buried in sand, holding her breath. She could feel the Black Matter from the sword she dropped nearby, as it had been absorbed in the sand, and she drew it back to her, reforming it into a blade. She realized what the man had thought soon afterwards though. There was a lot of sand, and she couldn't move under the weight of it all. If she didn't get out, she would run out of air and die.

That wouldn't be a problem though.

Using psychokinesis, she pushed aside all the sand piled above her, bringing herself up to the top. The man had turned in the other direction, but as soon as he heard her moving, he whipped back around to face Atropos. As he did, she struck out with her black sword, hoping to use the combined momentum of her swing and his turn to make an especially deep cut. He blocked it again, slightly irritating Atropos. Physical blows would be somewhat useless against him if he could just block them like that (in much the same way they were against her, although she hadn't thought of it that way).

Standing on top of the sand now, she brushed herself off and began to laugh. "Was that all you got?" she asked the man, knowing it probably wasn't. "You didn't even get me dirty." The man seemed confused.

"How? You didn't dodge!" he said, before throwing a burst of telekinesis at Atropos. She hadn't expected it, but she was able to absorb most of it and keep from falling over, simply being pushed back a few feet.

"It's my little secret," she said. She had a lot of secrets, especially to this stranger. He didn't know a thing about her. She didn't know much about him either, but she knew one thing. His time had come. The Fates had spoken, and his life had run out of thread. It was her job now to cut that thread off, and send him to his doom.

Atropos held out the black blade and pointed it at him. "Now it's my turn," she said, tilting her head to the left. With a piercing screech, she held her arm straight out towards the man, her hand wide open and her fingers spread. The sword in her hands quickly transmutated, becoming more malleable. The hilt of the sword wrapped around her hand, winding between her fingers. The blade of the sword turned into several separate tentacles, which reached out and wound around the man, binding him.

The black tentacles wrapped around him, holding his arms down, and constricted tighter and tighter. Atropos continued to shriek the whole time, pulling the vines as tight as she could. She decided she would keep going until the man popped, or broke, or something else exciting happened to kill him. Hopefully there'd be a lot of blood. If he didn't get out of the black net he would be strangled if nothing else. That would be disappointing considering there wouldn't be any blood or anything. Oh well.

Theme: on the precipice of defeat

The black tentackles shoot out at a far faster speed than Aronin could react on, and caught him bare handed. He gasped as the first hit knocked the air out of him, making his eyes black out for a second. They were strong, much stronger than he was physically, and as they contracted, pain shoot through Aronin’s body, temporarily paralyzing him.

He couldn’t move… He couldn’t think clearly..

He jolted as his left arm broke from the pressure. A new jolt came as the broken bone breached his skin and opened a large wound. Blood gushed out, and Aronin could hear the crazy girl squeal in pleasure as she saw it. Aronin threw his head backwards in pain as the tentacles squeezed the arm to pump more blood out of it.

I can’t die like this? At the hands of this crazy woman?

A tiny blue flame appeared in his left palm. It grew bigger, until it finally engulfed his whole hand. The tentacles stopped moving as the woman was momentarily surprised by the flame. An equal flame appeared in his right hand and engulfed it as well. The blue flaming plasma moved quickly up his arms, engulfing them as well, and Aronin could feel the tentacles started to contract with greater force. But it didn’t matter. The plasma from both arms connected, and in an instant, his whole body was emitting bright, hot, blue plasma. There was a moment of tension. Aronin screamed in rage, and the plasma literary exploded, shattering the black tentacles and releasing him from its grip.

“You broke my arm,” he said quietly as the plasma disappeared. “You actually broke my arm. Here I was taking you on lightly, and you answer by breaking my arm?” He shook his head and took a deep breath. It was refreshing, even how dry and full of sand it was. “But, from now on, I won’t hold back!”

He held out his hand, and the woman was lifted from the ground, paralyzed by Aronin’s telekinesis. Walking up to her, he lifted himself up to her height and looked her in her eyes.

“I felt you got some telekinetic powers back there. You protected yourself. That’s how you escaped the sand, wasn’t it? Well, I got something I wish to tell you,” he said menacing and leaned forwards to her ear. “They don’t even compare to mine,” he whispered and leaned back.

“Let’s see…” he said and put a hand to his mouth. “An eye for an eye, isn’t that right?”
He pointed at her face with his index finger and moved it slowly to the side. A nice gash appeared in her cheek, blood running down to the sand. “I’ll just take an arm then, shall I?”

The sudden explosion of blue fire shattered the black tentacles, and for a moment she lost control of them. The material that the tentacles had been formed out of quickly reverted back to a liquid and sunk into the sand, where it would likely stay forever, unless she had reason to draw it out again. Considering she could form the stuff from her skin by the gallons at will, she probably wouldn't need to. Before she could attack again, however, something invisible took hold of her and lifted her off the ground.

"So is this what it feels like..." she muttered to herself. Telekinesis versus telekinesis, something Atropos hadn't experienced before. This would be a fun battle, she thought. The man was talking but she was only catching half of what he said, being more interested in her current situation of hovering over the sand. He mentioned something about telekinesis, and how hers didn't compare to his. Then he recited a Bible verse and began to cut her face with an invisible blade of telekinesis directed by his pointed index finger.

She winced when the gash appeared in her cheek. Dark indigo blood began to seep out of it and drip down her face, some of the droplets landing in the sand below. The gash wasn't very large and in only a second had closed back up, but the man wasn't paying attention. Because she couldn't move her arms she couldn't wipe the blood away and it stayed there, staining her face.

With interest, Atropos noticed that his telekinesis was indeed different from hers. She'd never been able to inflict anything but blunt force with hers. His was apparently able to cut and pierce. Atropos wondered if maybe she could do it if she tried, though. It would save all the trouble of cutting people up with shards of glass like she was prone to do. She would have to practice that sometime in the near future. Maybe on this guy. He started speaking again, and this time she was paying attention.

"I'll just take an arm then, shall I?" he said, moving his hand down from her face to her arm. Atropos blinked a couple times, realizing what he meant by that.

"I...I kind of need that arm, I think. I like my arms," she said, pouting. He only motioned to his useless and limp broken arm, getting his point across just fine. He squeezed closed his fist in the air, and with a loud and painful crack Atropos felt her arm break under the force of his telekinesis. The pain suddenly washed through her, changing the state of her mind. Her eyes widened and the color of her irises changed from the dull gray violet they had been into a deep blood red. She screamed a piercing screech, and a sudden shockwave of psychokinesis exploded out from her, sending up billows of sand and throwing aside the man like a rag doll.

She hovered in the air for a moment, suspended by her own force, sand whirling around her caught up in the tornado of her mind. Black matter began to pour from her skin, dripping onto the ground, and forming around her in intricate shapes. Some of the matter took the form of widely spread demonic wings, which reached out behind her and began to flap as if they were holding her in the air. More of the matter wrapped around both her arms, protecting her broken left arm with a hard cast-like shell, and forming deadly six inch claws over her right hand.

Releasing the pressure of her psychokinesis, she dropped down to the ground, landing on the sand. The telekinetic man was just getting himself up off the ground where she had inadvertently thrown him. With a wrathful scowl on her face, she burst forward, propelling her forward movement with waves of telekinesis. She held out the sharpened claws as she prepared to collide right into the man, ready to tear him to pieces without a second thought.

The blue moss on her neck chuckled a bit. It was enjoying the show.

Theme: Heat of Battle

So she had some power after all, he thought and brushed his cloak clean of the sand. It was such a fine sand too, making it hard to get off. He had taken a good hit by the telekinetic blast. Well, actually, it was more the surprise of the blast, rather than the sheer force that caused it.

“So, you got more onboard?” he said as he braced himself for the impact of the black winged creature. The moss chuckled a bit as the woman shoot forth with her newly formed claws aimed straight at his throat. He raised a hand and charged up a powerful telekinetic barrier to counter, and released it just as she was about to strike.

For a split second, there was a power struggle which seemed like an eternity. The black claws would not penetrate the barrier, but Aronin could not force the claws any further back. A mighty, mighty woman, this one, he noted to himself as he felt himself being pushed backwards. The second was over and the point of impact exploded by the sheer force of the two colliding forces.

Both Aronin and the winged woman were pushed backwards by the shockwaves. Aronin stabilized himself with telekinesis and landed on his feet just as the dust whirled up floated off. The woman had also landed on her feet and was already coming for the second attack, which Aronin dodged by blasting himself backwards. His arm sent some shocks of pain through his body as the initial shock wore off, and Aronin held his hand over the wound, closing off the nerve endings that were wounded. He could not heal such a wound in battle, so that would be the best he could do to avoid distractions. However, he noticed that the woman had already healed the small wound he had inflicted on her, revealing her healing abilities.

“I see you got some healing powers,” he said as he released his grip of his left arm, the pain slowly diminishing. “So I guess taking it slow won’t hurt you at all? Your arm would probably heal too, I suppose?” The woman was about to answer when Aronin continued. “Then I suppose I’ll only have to separate your head from your body!”

He released a wide cutting blast of telekinesis at the lady, which exploded the ground where she stood. A deep and long gap was created in the sand where the blast had impacted, and Aronin looked at the sky. She had dodged, but one of the wings was now missing its bottom half.

“Remember what I said about the difference in power? It still applies,” Aronin said and sent another invisible blast of telekinesis at the flying woman.

OoC: How will the ending be? Must everyone except one die? Or how will they come home?

The man had noticed her innate ability to heal quickly, and was now apparently attempting to remove her head to prevent that. Atropos wasn't quite sure if she could heal from decapitation or not, as she had never experienced it before. Her arm, however, was in fact beginning to heal by itself. Already the separate parts of the broken bone were starting to knit themselves together, and the pain was subsiding slightly. Not that she even noticed the pain in her current state of insanity. Perhaps out of some small bit of retained reason, she kept her arm inside the hard shell of black matter to prevent it from moving around too much, both because it hurt more when it did, and it would take much longer to heal.

Atropos was now beginning to drop out of the air. She hadn't quite mastered the art of levitation yet, and could only manage to jump really high before coming back down. She could feel the air shift and move in a wave towards her as the man sent another blast of telekinesis her way, and she wrapped herself in an invisible shell of her own psychokinesis. The blast hit her pretty hard but most of the energy was absorbed in the bubble of force around her, sending her flying through the sky. She hit the sand with a thud and the bubble broke, sending a small explosion of sand into the air, as if someone had fired a cannonball into the desert.

Tired of maintaining the broken and useless wings, which were already pretty much useless before they broke, they simply fell off into the sand when she hit the ground and melted away. Pulling herself out of the crater with telekinesis, Atropos looked around to find the other contestant. He wasn't far away, and was heading in her direction. Noticing a large rock in the sand nearby, Atropos lifted it up with psychokinesis and launched it towards the man with a shout. Perhaps because the needless shouting alerted him, he was able to quickly dodge out of the way, and the rock tumbled harmlessly through the sand.

Atropos then rocketed into the air, leaving a wake of dusty air behind her, and flew up above the telekinetic. Growling like a maniac, she started to dive towards him, with her claws outstretched and ready to kill. He managed to throw up a wall of telekinesis before she hit him, and the collision sent them both rolling along the ground for a few yards. They both got back up as quick as possible, finding themselves standing only a few feet apart.

By this point, the fight had taken them to the crest of a large sand dune. Atropos thought maybe it would be a good idea to throw the other fighter down the hill, and sent out a wave of telekinesis to do that. The man either had the same idea or wanted to block her wave, and they ended up in another deadlock of forces. Energy built up and gathered at a point between the two of them as they both tried to pour as much force into the struggle as they could, in order to overpower the other.

The adrenaline rush from her sudden manic fit wearing off, Atropos was beginning to wear out. She started to feel the pain from the fight, and she was aching all over. The telekinesis she was using felt like she was pushing with all her strength against a wall, with only one arm. Only the wall was trying to push back, making it even harder. As the psychokinetic forces pushed against her, her feet were getting buried deeper and deeper into the sand.

Finally, she couldn't hold it anymore. The pressure of her telekinesis was released suddenly, and the other man's telekinesis hit her like a train, sending her flying down the sand dune. As she tumbled head over heels down the hill, the hardened black matter on her arms broke off and fell away. When she reached the bottom of the hill, she laid there on her back, looking up at the cloudy sky, wondering where she was and what she had just been doing. She ached all over, and her left arm hurt like heck.

Someone started coming down the hill, and Atropos wondered who it could be. As the man got closer, Atropos greeted him. "Why, hello. Who might you be? You can call me Atropos."

ooc: well the point of the game is to kill everyone and be the last man standing, but that doesn't mean our characters have to go along with it. In the previous War of the Races, our characters all joined together trying to escape without having to murder each other.

"Is all of Detalosed made up of desert?" Synyx was becoming annoyed at trudging through the sand constantly. He had been traveling for hours.

"About 20% of the planet."

"And the other 80%?"

"You'll find that out later, assuming you survive long enough."

Suddenly, Synyx saw something move in the distance. On top of a sand dune so steep it could be called a cliff, another opponent seemed to be blasted off. All he could tell about the contestant was that it was probably a young female. She rolled violently down the hill until she finally came to the bottom, where she appeared to have been dazed. Another opponent, a man in dark clothing, jumped after her now and seemed intent on killing her.

Synyx moved closer while trying not to be noticed. If the other contestant had found the Xicarta, perhaps one of these two had found Xangatsu. Since the man was staring directly at the woman and she at him, it was not hard to get just close enough to hear them. The woman spoke first.

"Why, hello. Who might you be?" Quite an odd thing to ask, since she was almost certainly fighting this man for some time; she looked exhausted. "You can call me Atropos."

Curious as to where this conversation might be going, Synyx continued listening. Lying down about fifty feet to her right and the man's left, the chosen wielder was just out of sight.