[Power Shot/Zanza Tournament] Freezing Turmoil (Hyrulian Hero)

OoC: Please excuse the title, I was a bit lacking on creativity when I did that part. To my opponent, best of luck. Just becasue I am a relatively new RPer gives you no excuse to go easy on me. Oh, and I hope your character's dont mind cold conditions.

BiC:
The wind howled like a wolf as the lone dark figure made its way across the snowy plain. The young man had been walking for days looking for a place in particular, and he sensed he was close to his goal. However, the wind felt like a frigid embrace as the man tried to walk in its gale force, hindering his speed and concentration. Yet, he had to go on, he had not come so far as to give up and yield himself to death so easily.

Then his tired and frozen legs could not take anymore, he collapsed like a tree, and his mildly frost bitten face implanting itself in the snow. As he lifted his tired head, the young man could see some buildings beyond the snowy vail. His heart leapt in anticipation, and he found the strength to pick himself up and keep on moving. As he entered the village, however, his heart took a nosedive.

The town was in ruins, blood tainted the stone walls, and many of the buildings razed to the ground. Using his magical powers, the mage calmed the howling wind so he could view his surroundings with more ease. Also, noticing how cold he was, he decided that wearing Arctic gear was not the best idea. The mage searched for a building that still had for walls and a roof, and changed into his Infinity Robes. Now that he was nice and warm, he walked through the town, hoping his goal was intact, but it was not. The building that was home to one of the most famous mages that ever lived was in just as bad, if not, worse, condition then any of the other still standing buildings.

He unceremoniously opened the door and walked in to see that beyond only lay snow covered rubble. Well, I have come this far. I may as well search for it, thought the mage. He sifted through the snow-covered rubble of hours, but to no avail. Tired of searching, the mage abandoned his pursuit for now in favor of figuring out why this snowy village was now no more than a snowdrift waiting to happen.

It only took him a few seconds after arriving in the Village Square to decipher what had happened. The court had tons skeletons of humans and mountain trolls splayed on the ground. That’s odd, thought the mage. There are no mountains around here. Why would trolls come so far from their habitat to attack a remote village? However, the answer came easily once had seen the desecrated figure of a human riding a troll as a mount. Who or what could tame trolls? The mage wondered.

However, he became distracted from this mystery when he heard a mewing sound. The young mage quickly wheeled around to see a tiny black kitten starring at him. The kitten could not have been more than two months old, and looked famished. The curious kitten then began to walk away slowly, as though leading the way. The mage decided to follow the small cat.

The kitten had led him to an alleyway where there was a furry cloth underneath a small brick. As the mage got closer, he realized the furry cloth was, in fact, the kitten’s mother. The kitten licked its deceased mother’s ears, then looked the mage and mewed at him as thought to say, “Please help her.” The young man looked sadly at the kitten and said, “I’m sorry, there is nothing I can do. She’s gone now.”

The mage turned his back on the orphaned kitten, deciding his time was wasted. He made his way to the exit of the ruins. Unbeknownst to the mage, the tiny kitten had sneaked into one of his pockets. As he neared the exit, he got a strange feeling of foreboding. The mage reached into his pocket and drew a small stick made of crystal. However, the staff began to shimmer in the light, and grew into a large magical staff made of crystal.

A swirling dome of wind surrounded the traveler, snatching at the sleet of snow and pulling it into the ever-spinning globe. Within the center of the dome, Lhaeo held his left hand out in an upward claw, a small miniature of the larger globe swirling in the palm of his black glove. Flames shot from the right hand, licking at the snow on the ground and clearing a path for the young god. Lhaeo sighed as he continued his pointless drudging. He felt as if he were trapped here, destined to forever wander this frozen wasteland. The small pocket of air around him kept him at a steady and warm temperature, and the larger dome of air around him blew away the fierce winds and snow, but such luxuries were pointless if the priest didn’t know where he was going.

It was hard enough to see through the swirling snows, but his protective dome made it absolutely impossible, catching at the flakes of ice and dragging them into the circular current to form an icy shield. For the hundredth time that day, Lhaeo dropped his windshield and dropped to both knees, placing both hands firmly on the hard, icy earth. The harsh, wasteland winds slammed into his body like a hammer, a sheet of snow and ice immediately coating his body and then melting under the influence of the warm air around Lhaeo, turning into a cool liquid that somehow found its way under his clothes.

Lhaeo ignored the icy discomfort, closing his eyes as he melded with the earth. Within his mind, he could see the rise and ebb of the land for miles in any direction, a blue ethereal model that he could view from any angle. Lhaeo’s inner eye scanned the blue figure, following the sloping hills and jagged mountains in an outward spinning spiral. Yet that was all there was; jagged ice-covered mountains. He would never find his way out of here, he knew—as the mountains and hills gave way to a flat plain, the priest’s heart skipped a beat. There, in the middle of the endless ice and snow, was a large cluster of squat, square buildings. Zooming in on the town, the Master of Elements carefully examined every detail he could.

Only a third of the builds were still intact, the rest missing their roofs or a couple of walls. The ice-covered streets were littered with frozen bodies, human and monster alike. Lhaeo shook his—well, his ethereal presence. Despite how closely he looked, he could only find bodies. Everyone was dead, and his chances of finding his way out of here once more diminished. But still, even if the inhabitants were gone, the god might yet be able to find a useful clue; a magical item or the sort. It was a small chance, but the best he had. Sighing as he broke off the contact, Lhaeo erected his windshield once more and set off.

<====}=0 – 0={====>

To Lhaeo’s eyes, the town appeared abandoned, rather than ravished. The streets were clean, free of bodies and blood. Yet he knew, as he trekked between the stout buildings, that he was walking on a solid, frozen layer of corpses. The traveler shivered, and not from the cold. The idea of walking on bodies, even bodies buried under a foot of snow and ice, was extremely unnerving. The Elemental Master had dropped his windshield when he had entered the frozen city, the buildings providing a somewhat adequate amount of protection from the harsh winds. And that was all he needed, his heat shield taking care of the rest.

Without the winds to spur them on, the snowflakes here fell slowly, in a straight vertical line. And as such, the footprints Lhaeo threaded were not yet completely covered. The blonde-haired man placed his hands on the hilts of his double kodachi’s, just to be sure that they had not frozen in their sheaths. The blades slid easily from their wooden housing at the god’s touch, and he slid them back in, satisfied. He already knew that his heat shield protected them as well, but caution was the better of wisdom.

A sudden crunch echoed around the approaching corner, driving Lhaeo through a small doorway. The blonde-haired immortal peeked out of the open doorway, one eye just inching around the ice-covered wall. A curious man was walking down the street towards him, a long, glowing staff in hand. He appeared to be rather young, his body somewhat scrawny and lacking in muscle. Yet what caught Lhaeo’s eye was his clothing. He was covered head-to-toe in a multitude of colored stripes, robe, boots, gloves, and hat. Lhaeo clamped a gloved hand over his mouth to stifle his laughing, but was unsuccessful for the most part. The man stuck out against the uniform ice and snow like the sorest of thumbs, a condensed rainbow plastered against a blue white piece of paper.

Chuckling, Lhaeo checked his kodachi’s one more time and stepped out into the street. Caution was the better part of wisdom, but it was also the major part of boredom.

OoC: Sorry if I misrepresented your character. If I did, then by all means, scold me via PM.

BiC:
As Arin walked down the cold, Barren Street, that feeling of foreboding kept growing stronger, like a crescendo in a piece of music. The dead town was silent, the only sound being that of the howling winds outside of the town’s wall. After what seemed like an eternity, the young mage undoubtedly heard the sound of stifled laughter. Something is here, said the mage in his head. The sound seemed like it was coming in form all directions, echoing in the constricted streets menacingly.

Without warning, the form of a man dashed out of a nearby building and into the middle of the street. The man had the most enigmatic appearance Arin had ever seen, and that was form a man who wore robes with all the colours of the rainbow on them. The man was wearing pitch-black leather boots and a matching pair of pants, a shirt green like the fields near Arin’s home. Over top of that, the man wore a black leather, silver-lined jacket, and over that, a blue trench coat made of cloth that moved in the slight breeze of the streets. On his head, he wore a hat just like Arin’s except for the fact that it was leather and had a red band and a blue feather sticking out of it. Finally, the mage could see that the man was carrying two swords. The man’s hands resting on them as thought he anticipated a fight.

What is it with this guy and leather? Arin thought when he was done taking in the man’s appearance. The two gazed at each other, as though trying to burrow holes into each other’s flesh. “Who are you, and why are you here?” inquired the mage sternly.

“I could ask you the same question,” replied the stranger with a grin on his face.

“What business of yours is it to know what I am doing?” Arin asked the man.

“Exactly,” the man simply stated.

I guess he is not as stupid as he looks, thought the young mage acidly. He began to move toward the exit of town, cautiously, but the man kept getting in his way. Frustrated, the mage shouted to the man, “Do you think you could move out of my way!?”

“Not until you answer my question,” the stranger said curtly.

“But I thought you said that that type of question was inappropriate?” the mage asked indignantly.

“I never said that, now did I?” the peculiar man smugly replied

“Get out of my way, or I will force you out of my way!” shouted Arin.

However, the man would not budge. He just held his ground, standing stationary in the snowy street, not even blinking. The mage lowered his staff and aimed it directly at the obstacle ahead of him. After a brief silence, He shouted towards the man, “I told you not to get in my way! Wind Arrow!” A giant gust of wind blasted out of the mage’s staff, disturbing the still falling snow.

As the swirling torrent of wind approached the stranger, he merrily smiled. With a lazy wave of his hand, sent the attack into a neighboring building, causing an explosion of snow and stone that would put fireworks to shame. The man beyond the dense cloud of debris laughed at the mage’s attempt.

“Is that the best you’ve got? If it is, I am sorely disappointed. I hope you realize that what is about to happen to you was brought on by yourself,” the man said to the mage, drawing his swords as he spoke.

Lhaeo laughed as he waved his left hand, a gust of air swirling around the cloud of dust and ice and condensing it into a large sphere. The young god could not explain the inexplicable joy that was flowing through his body like liquid fire, warming his muscles and sharpening his senses. Finally, after weeks of wandering aimlessly, something was happening. A flick of the blonde-haired man’s wrist sent the wind-borne sphere of ice and dust hurling at the mage. The contained cloud had not even soared two feet before Lhaeo completely disappeared from view, the Elemental Master’s speed akin to teleportation. Lhaeo watched as Arin shielded his eyes as the ice and dust bit into him, the freezing shards biting at his skin.

Twirling his kodachi’s, the young warrior shot into the air, turning a single flip before descending straight down towards the mage. Lhaeo knew that he could have easily killed the man then, preoccupied as he was, but it was not in his nature to do so. Rather than slashing at the man, the God of Elements snatched at his rainbow-colored hat, landing on the mage’s head with one hand as he closed his fingers on it. Laughing, he sprang backwards, twirling the brightly colored article on the end of his blade’s hilt. Arin spun on the god angrily, raising his staff above his head and bringing it down in a shining arc. A blast of wind flew from the staff, but Lhaeo merely sent it away with a flick of his hand.

“You . . . you . . .!” Arin stuttered with rage. “Give that back, you dirty little . . .” Unable to find the proper words, the mage instead uttered a spell and waved his staff. The ground beneath Lhaeo gave an eerie shudder and several thin cracks spread across the ground surrounding the elementalist.

“Uh-oh.” Lhaeo said, his eyes going slightly wider than normal. The blonde-haired floated up into the air, summoning a globe of wind to protect himself. The earth groaned and exploded outward, magma spewing out of the earth and blasting through Lhaeo’s sphere of wind. The young god screamed in pain as the burning hot liquid enveloped his body, his overcoat catching on fire. The Elemental Master fought through the pain and took control of the liquid fire, throwing out both arms and sending the magma flying away to pelt the land below in burning rain. Arin yelled in pain as globs of magma hit him in the chest as arms, quickly burning small holes in his rainbow robes. A shout from above drew the mage’s attention away from his immediate pain.

“Magma, huh?” Lhaeo asked, fireballs hovering above each of his palms. “Then I’ll fight fire with fire!” Lhaeo flung his hands forward, the spheres of flames soaring through the icy air to burst at Arin’s feet. The Master of Elements followed the fireballs with twin jets of flame burning a path in the snow and ice towards the mage.

OoC: I am having a massive surge of CJ's at the moment which would explain the close proximity of time to our posts.

BiC:
The two glowing jets of fire quickly made their way toward Arin like two snakes going in for the attack. Thinking hastily, the mage jumped out of harms way and into an abandoned shop by going through the plate glass window unharmed. The shards of glass littered the dusty floor like droplets of water reflecting the red glow coming from outside.

Even thought he was indoors, Arin still had a way to attack. What is that guy? he thought as he concentrated on his next assault. He aimed where he last saw the man and bellowed, “Ice Barrage!” Immediately, the tiny shards of ice formed due to the frigid climate of the dead village. The razor sharp projectiles had no problem piercing their way through the stone wall of the store. The mage heard a loud yelp of pain a few seconds into the attack; one of the ice crystals had hit their target. Sure enough, when the mage ran out of the shop, he saw that a particularly massive ice crystal had implanted itself in the man’s right leg.

The man lay on the ground clutching the wound, the bloody crystal lying beside him. However, this did not stop him from attacking with a colossal blast of wind that made Arin’s look like a pocket fan in comparison to a hurricane. The mage sailed through the air and landed on his back, some thirty feet from where he last stood. The force of him hitting the cold, snowy ground had knocked the wind out of the mage. He was unable to get up until he had gathered himself. The man began to limp menacingly toward the vulnerable mage. The man still clutched Arin’s hat in his hand, the mere sight of him with it enraged the young man immensely.

The mage slowly got up, still gasping for breath. “Are you finished, or are you thirsty for more?” inquired the man. As every second passed, Arin became increasingly enraged with the man. Without thinking, he charged at him, but the man seized the mage by the arm and threw him through the large bay window of a house. The tiny shards of glass cut at the mage’s flesh, and embedded themselves in his skin. As he lay hunched over a table in front of the now shattered window, the man waved his hat teasingly in front of the bleeding mage. Arin managed to pick himself up, now with his own blood staining the once clean garb. His crystal staff lay only a few feet from him, but he extended his hand toward it, and it jumped up and flew into his open, bloody palm as though it willed to go there.

Without uttering a single word, the mage lowered his staff at the man and cast a Wind Arrow. The attack caught him by surprise; he was unable to block it. The man went careening into a brick wall, releasing the hat from his grasp. As the full brimmed hat gently floated down to the ground like a large feather, Arin picked it from the air with one of his bleeding hands and placed it firmly on his head. “No one touches my hat!” exclaimed the mage.

Groaning slightly, the Elemental Master paced his hands against the crumbling stone wall behind him and pushed himself to his feet. Swaying deceptively as if in a daze, the Captain of the Phoenix Guard placed his hands on the hilts of his kodachi’s. Peeking out from under the bottom of his floppy hat, Lhaeo could see Arin advancing on him, the staff in his hands glowing as it shifted forms, shortening into a golden blade. Grinning, the god launched forward in a burst of wind, Arin giving a surprised yelp as the gust blew him back several feet. A master of elements and servant to the Weaver he may be, Lhaeo tired of this magic game. Too long had his weapons sat in their wooden housing, too long had it been since Amatsu Tsurugi had been summoned to his hand. Too long had it been since he had had some real fun.

Steel flashed in an ethereal silver light as the blades flew from their sheath as light as a breeze. A quick double crossover deflected the glowing long sword, leaving the mage undefended. Grinning impossibly wide, Lhaeo pulled back and jabbed the man in the face. Twice. Arin stumbled back, clutching at his nose while swinging his blade in a defensive pattern. Laughing, Lhaeo disappeared from view, leaving a flurry of snowflakes and ice crystals swirling in the air where he had been nanoseconds before. Coming up behind Arin, the God of Elements crouched down, dug his left foot into the ground, and spun a quick circle; his kodachi’s drawing a set of parallel lines in the rainbow robes. The cuts weren’t deep or life threatening, but they were obviously painful, judging from the mage’s scream.

Arin spun around, his magical blade leaving a glowing trail in the air as it descended on the god. Faster than a thought, the crouching Lhaeo raised both blades up in a defensive X, catching Arin’s blade-staff. The traveler rolled over backwards, placing both feet in the mage’s stomach and sending him flying through an empty window. Rolling to his feet, Lhaeo twirled his kodachi’s between his fingers, waiting for the mage to pop back up. Several minutes passed, in which the Elemental Master grew more and more disappointed, as well as worried. Perhaps he had been too hard on the man. What if he had actually killed him?

A nervous and worried expression plastered across his face, the blonde-haired man scurried through the snow towards the window. He had not wanted the man dead, not even seriously injured! In fact, Lhaeo wasn’t really sure why he was fighting this mage, why he was egging him on so. He simply was not the type of person to fight so carelessly, nor so recklessly. If he were left dying out here, what would happen to him? Yet the god believed that it was because he was here that he was doing these things. It had been weeks since he had entered this frozen hell, in search of gaining “what he had lost”, whatever that was. Indeed, Rhayin was the one who had sent him here, on another quest that was without apparent meaning. The blonde-haired god’s older brother had assured him that there was a profound reason for his being here, although he could not at the time disclose it.

Rolling his eyes at that particular exchange, Lhaeo placed his hands on the stone window still and leaning in. The weeks he had spent in this barren wasteland were nothing short of hell. He had to constantly use his powers in order not to freeze to death, there was nothing much in the way of food, and the only human contact he had had was with this man. Oh, how these past weeks had been so troublesome, so disheartening, so frustrating, and oh so utterly boring. As such, Lhaeo had become somewhat temperamental and vindictive, aching for some kind of excitement, some way to give his life meaning again. Of course, the normal, sensible part of Lhaeo’s brain told him that he should ally himself with this mage, if only temporarily. But, then again, Arin had hardly seemed accommodating, especially since Lhaeo had really done nothing at the time to warrant an attack.

Shrugging his slightly nagging conscious away, the young god peered into the shadows of the abandoned building. There was a deep depression in the snow, the size and shape of a human body, and a set of footprints leading away from it. Lhaeo climbed through the window and made his way across the room, his hands on his hips and his head down. The tracks led him out of the building and around the corner, back to where he had launched the mage through the window and across the ice-laden street. The deep tracks halted abruptly, just in front of the blank wall of an adjacent building.

“Oro?” Lhaeo asked curiously as he looked up at the only spot on the lip of the building free of snow. Drifting slowly upward, the young god flexed his fingers around the hilts of his twin weapons, feeling the stagnating blood begin to flow through them again. As he had expected, Arin was crouched on the roof, his sword-staff propped up against his shoulder. As he had expected, a blast of air shot towards him, easily deflected into the roof in front of him.

What is he thinking? Lhaeo wondered as he took the opportunity that the small explosion of snow gave him to escape. Surely he can’t still think that that’ll work? The blonde-haired god moved faster than the eye could follow, zipping around the perimeter of the roof to Arin’s back. To Lhaeo’s immense surprise—and yet, curious delight—the mage had apparently expected this maneuver. A jet of magma was already shooting forth from the ground below. His eyes wide but a grin on his face, Lhaeo held forth his hand. A magnificent blade appeared there, held upside down and tilted slightly under him.

The sword was huge, easily just as long as Lhaeo was, if not longer. Etchings of the highest caliber, of the finest quality, ran up and down the length of the blade, depicting all of the elements of the worlds. Grasping the blue leather handle, Lhaeo crouched in midair, angling the massive blade towards Arin. The jet of magma slammed into the zanbattou and bounced off the god-made blade towards the mage that had summoned it, as if a beam of light off a mirror. Yet the boiling, red-hot liquid still gushed over the sides, clutching at Lhaeo’s clothing as if it were a sentinel being. Annoyed, the God of Elements blew at the small flames that sprang to life on his coat, the flames winking out just as they were born. The magma stopped, and Lhaeo slung his massive blade up over his shoulder, the burning sludge flinging off to splatter and hiss noisily against the snow.

“Well?” Lhaeo asked, surveying the slightly burned mage. Arin had apparently managed to dodge his reflected attack mostly, but his left sleeve and base of his robe were burned. “Had enough?” To emphasize the point, flames burst into fiery life along the length of Amatsu Tsurugi, while a small cyclone whirled around the hilt. The mage merely glared at the god with a rage that matched the intensity of Lhaeo’s fire, his knuckles white as he gripped his sword-staff and raised it above his head. Shrugging, Lhaeo heaved the godly blade towards his opponent. Propelled by the cyclone whirling around its hilt, the zanbattou shot through the icy air, homing straight in on Arin. At the same time, the mage swung his sword, a shockwave cutting through the air to collide with Amatsu Tsurugi.

The two powerful forces struggled against each other for a moment, the combatants watching intently. Finally shrugging, Lhaeo raised his hand to add a bit of extra power to the gigantic blade. Across the rooftop, he saw Arin doing the same. Again and again, shockwave reinforced shockwave and gusts of wind reinforced the blade. Still, the two forces struggled against each other in midair. Sighing in frustration, Lhaeo rose above the power struggle and lobbed a fireball at Arin. Forget the standoff, he had other ways of attacking.

OoC: Well, the end of the round is near. So I will leave you to finish off our battle. It was a pleasure fighting with you. If you win, Congratulations and good luck with round two. If I win, it was still a pleasure fighting with you. Now, without further ado, my post (even if it is a little short).

BiC:
The fireball came at the mage with unimaginable speed. Even if he were not concentrating on sustaining the Shockwave Blade attack, he could not have possibly avoided it. Arin flew backwards at the force of the fiery attack as it made contact, his staff-sword soaring out of his hand, and right off the roof of the building. Thinking quickly, the mage cast a Wind Arrow spell on the ground, the force of which delayed his decent to the ground. His feet softly touched the cold ground in the icy ally, the snow still whirling from the gust of wind. The man jumped off the roof and right in front of the ally where the mage landed. He advanced on Arin; swords draw and ready to attack.

Without his staff, the mage was unable to do many of his spells. The only ones he could do without its aid were too weak to be effective against the advancing man. Arin turned around to run and try to retrieve his weapon, but alas, found only a brick wall in his way. The mage sighed at the sight of the brick wall and thought to himself, I hate it when things like this happen. The young mage was literally up against the wall as his opponent slowly closed in, yet when he was a couple of feet away, he stopped.

“Are you ready to give up yet?” the man asked. The two combatants stared at each other tensely. The mage longed for this battle to be over, his battered body could not take much more of this kind of punishment. However, before he could utter a single word, something sprung out of one of his pockets and rushed toward the man, hissing savagely like a snake. It was the young cat form before.

The cat leaped onto the man’s face and began to slash and scrape at his flesh. Arin rushed to the man’s aid and removed the cat off his face before it could do anymore damage. “What kind of dirty trick was that?” said the man in a raised voice. “Sending a vicious cat on me as a last resort? How sad.”

“Its not my cat!” shouted the mage indignantly, still struggling to keep the cat from launching another attack. “He must have jumped in my pocket when I was not looking.” However, the man did not look persuaded by the mage’s plea.