Nathan Hill vs. Hal

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KD_Everett
KD_Everett
A Beat Spider
KD_Everett
A Beat Spider
KD_Everett
A Beat Spider

1KD_Everett

Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:29 am · id 1 · page 1

[center]Concert Stage

One of Gaia's premiere music festivals -- with a wholly unpronounceable name -- has allowed its stage to be used for GCL fights. Hundreds of thousands crowd the area in front of the stage to watch, held off by a cordon of security. The bands have abandoned the stage to the fighters, but left their instruments.

Terrain General: The base stage is 50' by 20', with a 50' space fenced off to keep the crowds away from the fighters. The stage is wood and rubber. Above the stage is a second "backstage" area, connected to the main-stage by two spiral staircases of wood. This wooden platform is the same size as the main stage and is normally used by the bands' friends and family, and hangs 25' above the main stage. Weapons: Six guitars, a drum kit that would make Neil Peart green with envy, four microphone stands, and two 10' long, 10' high walls of amps, each amp weighing around 100 lb. In the wings of the stage - to its far "left" and "right" - are piles of band merchandise; t-shirts, hats, CDs, and actual vinyl albums. There is also an on-wheels TV camera that has been left on the right side of the stage by the media crew.

Bonus Features: Don't get stage fright. [/center]

2KD_Everett

Fri Jun 03, 2016 5:40 am · id 2 · page 1

Beat Spider Wrote:

There was part of Nathan that wondered where the people that ran this tournament that he was part of got their arenas from. He had looked over the list at one point, failed to memorize them and forgot almost immediately, only to be amazed at some of the locations. The one that he was walking up to now was something of stand out from the rest. He could hear the crowd as it chattered among itself, rising and lowering in volume as the seconds ticked by, meanwhile the security guards were talking among each other since what they had to do was easy at the moment. Nathan walking onto the scene certainly garnered some looks and one glance at the armored gauntlet that covered the entirety of his left arm and the sheath it held mid-way in its grip told anyone what they wanted to know. Their regularly scheduled entertainment had been throw to the wayside in favor for a fight, one of the fighters had arrived.

The cheers of thousands would roar from the crowd as Nathan ascended some stairs on the left side of the stage, from the viewpoint of the fans, while the roar of the crowd bombarded his right ear. He looked out over the assembled masses in slight awe as the sheer number of people sort of got to him. Did he have stage fright? Oh hell no, he just didn't think this many people would stick around to see a brawl. He'd cross the stage to about its halfway point, right hand reaching up to scratch at his head in contemplation as he wondered what to do since it appeared that he was the first to arrive. He was wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans which were held up with a black belt, and brown boots upon his feet that had a hardened tan sole to them. At a loss of what to do as he waited he raised that gauntlet covered left arm up, bringing his sword above his head and parallel in position to the floor, extending it high which just aroused the fans to cheer even louder than before. His right arm lowered as a smile pulled across his features, changing his confused expression into one of joy.

So maybe being the center of attention wasn't all bad all the time.

(Edit: Noon Time)

3A Beat Spider

Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:15 pm · id 3 · page 1

KD_Everett Wrote:

Hal arrived a short time after his opponent did, but Hal's arrival wasn't nearly as graceful. He had been coming up the stairs on the right-hand side of the stage, the opposite side from where his opponent had entered. Halfway up the stairs, the sound of the concert stage hit him: The deafening screams and cheers of the crowd, which blended into one major roar. Hal balked. He hadn't realized the concert hall would be full of spectators. Sure, he knew his fights had been viewed by thousands anyway over television and the Internet, but that was different. He didn't have to see the spectators and could pretend they didn't exist. This setting made that denial impossible. It went against his entire being, to be seen by this many people. Even if he had been in his human disguise body, or the crowd had consisted only of his own people, he would have been uncomfortable. This was way too much.

He dropped down onto all fours there on the stairs and crouched low, tail wrapped tightly around one of his own legs. Panic began to overwhelm him. His breaths came rapidly as his circulatory system pumped hard. He took a few steps back down the stairs but was stopped by gently bumping into the leg of one of the League staff. He glanced back briefly at them, and they sternly nodded at him to try to entice him to move. He could not. He thought of just conceding right there. He could not do that, either. The consequences would be too heavy. There was only one choice, which was to go in and fight. He didn't like it, but there were some things in life that really sucked like this. You had to push through it and defeat the challenge.

He realized that he was trembling. He also realized that the crew might already be filming him, and he really didn't want to be seen like this. He took a few deep breaths, each time drawing in air until his lungs were at capacity before releasing it slowly. After three such breaths, he thought he could continue. He stood back up on two legs and unwrapped his tail from his leg, and proceeded the rest of the way up the stairs. He still felt shaky.

He paused at the top of the stairs, but took another breath and emerged onto the stage. Seeing the thousands of people packed into the concert hall was about six times worse than just hearing them. Hal felt a wave of panic again, and he had to fight off the urge to run away. He clenched his fists tight, and decided to try to pretend that those people weren't there, or that they were all actually just robots or holograms or something.

He focused instead on his opponent. He was surprised by how... normal the fellow looked. Like anyone Hal might see just walking around. Except for that metallic gauntlet on his left arm. Hal's ears pricked with interest. What was with his opponents and their modified left arms? Hal might have said something to his opponent, but he wasn't sure he would be able to bring himself to speak. So, instead, he waited. He felt stiff and tense because of his nervousness, so he tried to force himself to relax so that he could move more quickly.

Post 1/20

4KD_Everett

Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:22 am · id 4 · page 1

A Beat Spider Wrote:

As Nathan did his best to play to the crowd that had been left for the combatants his opponent had arrived. It didn't take long, like Nathan hoped it wouldn't, and quickly his eyes had fell upon the creature that ascended the stairs. It was evident that his opponent wasn't human. He had seen non-humans before and wasn't thrown off by the sudden reveal, it just meant there was going to be a need for him to be extra careful. In human anatomy he knew where to strike without hitting vital organs, he knew how to cripple an opponent without killing them, but this didn't work for non-humans. As the creature crouched at the sudden realization they were in front of a crowd Nathan tried to surmise where vitals might be but, looking from the outside, it was hopeless. So instead he took to the realization that his inhuman counterpart seemed negatively affected by the crowd that was present. Was it stage fright? Could it be something with his species? There was a look of concern on his face, stage fright was a horrible thing.

He'd patiently wait for his opponent to get nudged back up the stairs, they were going to have to fight unless one of them conceded, which Hal found out quickly. The look of concern turned into a smile as he tried to assuage the creatures nervousness. As he looked at Nathan he'd see him waving his free right arm up and then down slowly while mouthing the words 'calm down' slowly, since the roar of the crowd would have made normal conversation possible. After a few rise and falls it'd lower to his diaphragm, turning palm up with a bend in the elbow to bring it to center of mass. He'd slouch some and raise the hand slowly, palm toward the sky, while straightening like he was taking a deep breath. The hand then flipped over at the apex of the breath, palm facing the ground, so that it could lower back to his center of mass while he slouched once more, simulating an exhale. He did this three times and then took on a fighting pose.

The pose itself was almost one of a traditional boxer. The left foot was in the lead, toe line just about facing his opponent, while the right was to the rear about shoulder width apart and offset from the left by about 45 degrees. His knees were bent, lowering his center of gravity for better balance, while he lightly bounced on the balls of his feet. Meanwhile his fists were raised. With his left side closer to his opponent than his left the gauntlet covered arm and hand were in the front, elbow bent, with the fist in line with the left shoulder. It gripped the sheathed sword mid way and seemed to hold it tightly. The right hand was raised and held closer to the body at shoulder level, looking as if it were for defense or set up to follow another strike. He kept his eyes on Hal and didn't move until his opponent showed some form of readiness.

Said movement considered of a shuffling of the feet so that the right never moved past the left to slowly closed the distance between them, each step was nearly a hop. His opponent had some wicked looking claws, he'd have to be careful. When he got to the half way point, if his opponent hadn't advanced, he'd flip the sheathed sword in the left hand. It was a deft motion that brought it into a one-eighty and left the hilt of the weapon in the grip of the hand that held it, still sheathed. If his opponent had moved anytime prior it'd be done sooner. He'd move until Hal was within striking distance of the sheathed weapon, if he wasn't interrupted up until this point, and would stop just close enough so that when the left hand struck quickly it'd bring the sheath to tap upon the top of the creatures head. The force behind the tap wasn't too great, it'd cause a normal person to flinch and rub the top of their head, but overall not threatening. He didn't want to fight Hal with a handicap, so maybe a bump on the noggin would wake him up!

Soul Reserve: 100/100

(OOC: Family came into town so I've been considerably busy. They're leaving soon so I should be able to return to posting regularly.)

5A Beat Spider

Wed Jun 22, 2016 2:04 pm · id 5 · page 1

KD_Everett Wrote:

Hal saw that his opponent was trying to encourage him to calm down. He felt even more embarrassed. He looked down and to the side, and would have been blushing had he been a human. He did appreciate that Nathan was waiting for him to get a hold of himself rather than rushing in and attacking while he had the advantage; his embarrassment was with himself. He resettled his eyes on the opponent.

The opponent was coming forward now, the sword raised but still sheathed. Hal didn't know what to expect, and prepared himself. His right leg slid back into a similar stance to Nathan's, his left shoulder pointed toward the man while his hands raised up protectively in front of his head and chest. His computer brain tracked and scanned Nathan's movements, watching for signs of an attack. Hal stood his ground and waited for Nathan to close the distance. The man flipped the sheath around and then came into range and swung it down toward Hal's head. Hal's right hand shot up and caught the sheath. He was surprised by how little force ended up being behind the swing, and realized that it must have been made to test how he would react. Such often happened at the beginning of a battle. Hal tightened his grip on the sheath and jerked it toward him, trying to bring Nathan forward. In the same motion, he twisted to his right and extended his left wing to slash toward Nathan's abdomen. His wing wasn't vorpal sharp right now; he made it sharp enough to cut without being so sharp that it would severely harm his opponent if it hit.

Status: Very nervous, but not yet harmed.

Post 2/20

(OOC: Very well.)

6KD_Everett

Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:51 am · id 6 · page 1

A Beat Spider Wrote:

The stance that his opponent took pleased Nathan, it showed that he had a nice grasp on combat. Did the human think that people would jump into a tournament like this one without knowing how to fight? Not necessarily but there were those who were good at fighting that didn't have any specific stance. A stance, itself, showed knowledge of martial combat that went outside of pure instinct, which was powerful in its own right. Regardless he made his approach and commenced with his attack undaunted only to find his opponents reaction time to be incredibly quick, this creatures' reaction time was really good. But then came the first proper exchange of the fight. What Hal had grabbed was a weapon that was still in its sheathe. This meant that was he tried to pull on it to jerk Nathan out of position he'd rip the sheathe off of the sword and effectively draw the mans sword for him. This gave him a perfect opportunity to block the incoming wing strike. The sword was rotated clockwise, from Nathan's perspective, which would allow him to bend the elbow and catch the wings blade against the blade of his sword.

The two metal objects would clang together, as metal often did when it struck another metal object, and force Nathan to slide to his left a few inches across the surface of the stage. But the attack would be stopped. Nathans right arm would immediately reach out to place its hand against the flat portion of the wing in an attempt to push it off to the side so that his sword would be usable in a strike. Said strike would be at chest level to Hal, since he was shorter than Nathan, and it'd take the form of a Horizontal slash from Nathan's right to left. The striking area would be straight across Hal's pectoral muscles, if he had human physiology, and leave Nathans sword held at his left side. The arm would be half extended with the elbow bent which would leave the point of the sword, at the end of the strike, pointing dangerously at Hal's right shoulder. Nathan was stronger than a regular human, about 2 or 3 times stronger, which would be taken into account when he tried to push the wing.

It should be mentioned though that the initial push against the wing was to free up the longsword from it's previous block. If Nathan wasn't strong enough with his one arm to move the wing, he had a bench press of 800 lbs., then the sword would not have been able to move since it'd still be locked against the wing to keep it from impacting Nathan's body.

Soul Reserve: 100/100

7A Beat Spider

Sun Jun 26, 2016 8:27 am · id 7 · page 1

KD_Everett Wrote:

Hal had done Nathan a favor, it seemed, by removing his sheath for him. This didn't take Hal by surprise; this was one of the expected outcomes of yanking on a sheath. Hal had been hoping, however, that the force of it would still pull Nathan off balance or perhaps only take the sheath off halfway, making the sword awkward. Instead, Hal now held the sheath in his right hand while his left wing clashed against Nathan's sword with a nice metallic ring. Because Hal had twisted to the side to make the slash with his wing, it was his back and left side that were currently turned toward Nathan, so a slash toward his chest level from Nathan's right to left would likely only hit a wing again. But Hal wouldn't wait for that; immediately after the clash, he ducked under the sword and turned his twist into a spin so that his back and his right side were now turned toward Nathan, and he brought up his right leg and executed a back kick to Nathan's abdomen. Regardless of if it made contact, Hal would finish his spin and come to stand with his left leg back and right shoulder forward now, knees bent and ready for swift movement. He kept Nathan's sheath in his right hand and held up at an angle, prepared to use it to either block or strike.

Status: Nervous, calming down. Holding Nathan's sheath in his right hand.

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