Taran Hoth in: The City of Shadows (Random)

Taran's grip tightened on his bamboo stick. He grasped it so tight his knuckles turned white. Cold sweat ran down his face. He had just gotten past the booby traps leading into the city. He had tracked his attacker all the way from Dinerva, on the other side of the world.

Taran looked around, his eyesight panning the area. Bones littered the ground, covered in dust. Fresh corpses littered the earthen ground. The gigantic stone buildings leaned and tilted in the wind. Lightning flashed in the distance and it began to rain.

Then, his attacker struck. Taran was sent sprawling forward. He rolled over and hopped back up. He jumped into the air, did a front flip and landed, striking his oponent in the head, sending him flying backward into a wall. His opponent's hood on his dark cloak fell back aboat his shoulders, and he caught a glimpse of his face. What he saw surprised him.

Sorry, but as you can clearly see I am not your attacker. I do however have an obligation to fight you.

"Why?" questioned Taran
"Does everything need a reason?"
"Huh?"

"What is life? What is death?"
"Are you saying you're gonna put me to death?"
"What is death?"

"You're going down!" yelled Taran
"The answer, I am both... a mere ghost of life"

At that, Elf launched himself at Taran who in turn jabbed him in the stomach. Grasping pain which he ahd not felt in ages, Elf kneed Taran in the stomach. Taran raged towards Elf and slashed his face. To his amazement it was metal, not flesh which he had tarnished. Furthermore, a light glowed from within Elf's wound. The rain ahd stopped, but lighting continued causing a fire in the area. Neither of the warriors, however, moved muscle. Both gazed at eachother menacingly with the fire crackling in the background. Their battle was just begining...

Finally, Taran moved. He looked at the pale sun in the sky. THey had been standing still for 2 hours. "Lets go!" Taran yelled. He used increadible spead as he jumped and ran up a wall of on of the near by buildings. He pushed off with his right foot and did a backflp, pulling out his broad sword, Storm Crow, and stabbing it into Elf's head.

The sword slid right into Elf's head, but not through it.
"What is this?" yelled Taran as he yanked out his sword but Elf was still standing. From his head where the sword had entered glowed a bright white light. Taran swung again, but this time Elf dodged and grabbed the Storm Crow. Taran pulled and rtrieved his sword, but there remained a silhoutte where his sword was moments ago. The silhoutte was surrounded by glowing rainbow-couloured bits of fragmented data. The silhoutte of the Storm Crow glowed and a flash of light blinded Taran. When he opened his eyes, he saw Elf weilding a nearly identical copy of the Storm Crow. The only difference was the strange glowing blue markings on Elf's sword. Elf swung his sword and muttered under his breath "Charge one". He swung again "Charge two". The sword then errupted with green energy as he yelled "CHARGE THREE SLASH OF THE X CROW" and swung his sword at full force releasing a mountain of energy into a single blast. Taran dodged, but witnessed first hand the destructive power of the being he was facing. It was clear that the X Crow was far more powerful than the Storm Crow. However, the use of the full power of the X Crow did have a drawback. It disappeared after being used. The X Crow burst into pieces of fragmented data and vanished into the air. Taran was determined not to let Elf get ahold of his sword again, for he knew the results could be lethal. This message was further enforced as he gazed at where the balst had hit. Where there were once buildings, there was now nothing but a gigantic crater in the ground. Then, to finish up, Elf was given enough time to heal his wounds where the sword had traversed using his "auto-repair systems.
"Such senseless destruction!" hollered Taran. "Youd didn't have to involve the city!"
"I sense pain in your soul...I remember when I used to feel that" replied Elf as cryptic as ever. But now I feel nothing. I do not want you to share that fate."
Taran gazed at him perplexidly.
"Life is a part of death...and death is a part of life...esentially, all simply exists..."
"You're making no sense!" roared Taran impatiently.
Elf looked at him with a dry expression "If the destruction of this world troubles your young soul, the allow me to change that. After all, I want you to fight at your fullest.
"Young? Who are you calling young?" asked Taran as he gazed at being which looked a lot younger than he did.
Elf didn't answer, but simply gazed penetratingly at Taran, and soon all went dark. Next thing Taran knew he was in a world unlike his own. The entire arena was composed of different coloured blocks of compressed data.
"Welcome to Cyberspace" exclaimed Elf.



Note 1: X was only able to heal because he was given enough time to launch his auto-repair system's sub-fuunction. Energy restore. Life Energy is gradually stored in each of Elf's two Life Sub-Tanks and Weapon Energy is stored in his single Weapon Tank. He wasn't, however, capable of recharging the X Crow which he acquired using his "DNA Manipulation Copy" ability (has nothing to do with real DNA) because he can only recharge either Life or Special/Weapon, not both at once. You gave Elf a big advantage by letting those two hours slip by like that. You should try not to let it happen again, since X can't fill his Life tanks during battle. ^_^

Note 2: I'm really getting into this, I hope you're having fun too

NOTE: 1. Taran Doesn't cuss. He shows respect for all living creatures. Can you please edit that out? 2.Okay, i'm getting into this too. Let's continue.

Taran gasped as the city dissapeared. It all just seemed to evaporate... to shatter. Soon, Taran found he was standing on a green grid-like block. Darkness was all around him. But soon, more identical blocks entered his vision.
"What is this place?"Taran asked.
"This is cyberspace, a rift in the dimensions. The dimensions between dreams and reality. Except in this place, anything can happen." Elf replied. "I Can program it to be so. Here, there are no others. Only Virtual Realistic people. My subjects. Ha ha ha ha. Here, i am the master! I rule All!" With that, Tarans block dissapeared, but at the last moment, he began humping on the grid-like platforms, as they dissapeared at his touch. Soon, grid blocks flew at him, but he cut them with his charged up storm crow.
"Why are you after me?" Taran yelled in pain as a block hit him and he flew through the air.
"Because." Elf replied, laughing. "The rift in the dimensions only opens once every hundred earth years, and i figured this time, i would come and get some real people to be master of. THese virtual people can feel no pain and cannot dispair. I like toying with you pathetic humans." Elf laughed once more. Then, his fingers danced across the air, as if tapping on a keyboard. Taran landed on a giant green platform. When he climbed to his feet. Green grid-like tigers popped into view. They then gained their color as a scanning of light washed over them.
"I think these things are gonna be a challenge." Taran said aloud. "I love a good chalenge." He lowered his head, ready to fight.

Note 3: I edited my post as requested.

Taran fought fiercely as the tigers tore his cloths and scratched his flesh. He noticed however, that as the blood purted out and hit the ground it would vanish. As his eyes remained fixated on this fact one of the tigers bit his arm. He had no choice but to severe its head. Much to Taran's amazement, however, his sword passed through the tiger as if the tiger was made of water.
"In this fight you are not allowed to use weapons" laughed Elf.
"Then what about your tigers?" asked Taran as his sword vanished into digital fragments before his eyes. His blood spurred and smered across the tigers' faces he barely felt additional pain as a tiger attempted to bite off his entire right arm.
Another tiger then leaped at his chest and bit a piece right out. Taran yelled in agony the whole time and finally the third tiger used his lethal paw to scratch out Taran's heart. Just as Taran began to loose conciousness and life began to flee from his dying body, something happened. At first Taran thought it was a hallucination...but then he saw it. A blue light that appeared from seemingly nowhere. It engulfed him and before he knew it he had been fully healed. Then he looked at Elf and realized that there were two of him. One of them was wearing green and was the one he knew, and the other dressend in blue which was holding out his arm and aparently paralizing the one in green merely with his will. As the one in green screached not in pain, but in terror, the one in blue declared "I AM THE REAL ELF!". He continued to say "This imposter is my brother iX who I have trapped in this virtual world centuries ago for contributing to the termination of human life and corruption of robot life. I am sorry to involve you in this. I could have destroyed him...but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Now I regret it . Strike the final blow to shatter his control over you" spoke the real elf.

Taran barred his teeth. He focused his energy on his feet as he charged his "Boots of Kick Everything." THey turned a light green color and then exploded in green flame, propeling him forward toward his opponent. "Well, if we can't use weapons, taste light speed dash!" He leapt into the air, did a front flip and kicked IX in the face. He landed on his feet, preformed a perfect round house kick and knocked him off the edge. IX Fell, screaming into the darkness. THen suddenly, a blue lazer grappling hook reached up out of the darkness. It clung to the edge of a grid-like block.

Instantly IX began to be pulled upward. But Elf was too quick he ran and held his hand upward. A beamsword appeared out of nowhere. He sliced the grappling hook clean off the edge. IX resumed falling, down down, into the darkness...

iX was not through yet though. He manipulated a block into levitating him, but when he got back to the top, he was being awaited by a charged beam of pure concentated cyber energy. He was blasted by Elf's beam and hurtled backwards. iX's control over Taran had been shattered and the Storm Corw returned to him. Taran then leptand sliced iX's arm off and watched in awe as it became digitally defragmentized. With a sad expression, Elf rose his hand and released a beam which contained the accumulated sorrow of centuries of life. The pain and misery endured by this being was concentrated into this single blast which shattered the entire dimension. As the dimension collapsed, Elf opened a portal and both he and Taran escaped abck to the real world leaving iX to be consumed...overwritten...deleted! Finally Elf looked to Taran and said "The man yous seek is to the north, I look forward to seeing you agian someday my friend". With those words, Elf disapeared in a flash of light.

Final Note: If you ever wanna battle again feel free to PM me ^_^

Taran, turned and walked through the gates of bone. He looked back, reflecting on what had happened. "TO THE NORTH" were the words of elf. The REAL elf. Taran had almost died back there, and was nevous about seeking out his attacker. Then IX's words flashed through his head. "WHAT IS LIFE, AND WHAT IS DEATH?" Taran laughed in spite of himself. With that, he trudged onward.