Oglesby Misra vs. Arroth Erebrand

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

The small orange fencer found himself standing on yet another spent battlefield. These bloody trenches evoked the horrors of the first world war, and strewn all about were the weapons of great war soldiers. Spent guns, rusted bayonets, multi-tool shoves. Were they rusted from the rain, or was that just blood caked onto their surface?

He stood at one end of the trench, about a third of the way in, with his smallsword already drawn and ready. Unlike last season he wasn't encased in a metal shell, but rather a thick padded suit. His face was half hidden by a hood and a cloak rested around his form.

While waiting for his opponent Ogelsby would crouch down and start sifting through some of the piled up remains. He found an old pistol. A webley 1887, in fact. It was empty and the cylinders were full of mud. To put it another way this pistol was beat to hell and in bad shape, but Ogelsby admired it all the same.

"I should use guns more."

He mused aloud to himself.

Geist Reactor Data Wrote:

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

Fragile? Him? Did he even know who he was talking to? The King of fragile! Winner of exactly zero fights, most of which were by straight knockout last season. He curled his bottom lip up into a frown and narrowed his eyes incredulously at his opponent. He took in a deep breath and answered.

"Nnnno. No? Yeah. No."

He stood up to his full height and observed his opponent for just a moment. Without much warning, but wildly telegraphed, Ogelsby would chuck the rusty pistol at his opponent to get things started. He threw like a girl, so to speak, so it wasn't the hardest or most accurate toss, but a big metal frame revolver like the webley would hurt if it just happened to land on your knee or some other such nonsense.

Following this, Ogelsby adopted his standard tirse opening position. His sword was held in his left hand, held above shoulder height with his arm at half extension. His finger slipped into the finger ring behind the shells and his knuckle bow pointed to the outside of his position (left side). He angled the blade downward slightly.

The footing here was less stable than Ogelsby would have liked. He had to adopt a slightly wider foot position than he was used to with his heels just past his shoulders, his left leading and his right following, his body adopting as close to a profile in relation to his opponent as he could manage.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

So they were indeed close enough for Ogelsby to reach Arroth with a lazy overhand throw. We'll say, thirty feet or so. Ogelsby watched Arroth catch the revolver in one hand, which was impressive because a revolver was quite oblong and when spinning in mid air it could be pretty difficult to catch something like that. He gave Arroth a mental pat on the back as it were for his reflexes.

Even so, the glowing bothered Ogelsby. He'd dealt with weapon embuing enemies before. He recalled a particular psion, who's genetic data Ogelsby used as the basis for his Ghast Reactor technology. She could make her arrows explode at a distance. It wasn't so far a stretch to assume the same when Arroth then threw the revolver back.

By this time, Ogelsby had already started advancing on his opponent. He used short passing steps to do this, which is to say he would bring his right leg in front of his left, then skip his left leg forward. You might also refer to this as a gallop or a hop. Each hop helped Ogelsby advance three feet ahead, so by the time the revolver was thrown and hit it's mark on the side of the trench, Ogelsby will have moved six feet total.

Now, within twenty four feet of Arroth, the revolver passed by Ogelsby and landed in the wall. Ogelsby didn't think to parry or deflect it, because he could see from here that it was indeed going to miss him. However, he would be surprised when, as he passed by it, the weapon burst into flames and scattered fire all around it. Ogelsby was well out of harm's way, but he couldn't help but stumble a bit and turn his head to look. This gave Arroth ample time to bend down and find a conveniently placed mosin rifle with an already affixed bayonet.

By the time Ogelsby regained his footing, which was a span that could be measured in milliseconds, Arroth would already be taking steps forward. That was when Ogelsby stopped his advance.

"I see how it's gonna be then."

The boy said as he readied himself and stood his ground.

Geist Reactor Data Wrote:

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

"Let's not confuse hesitation with caution."

The boy answered back as Arroth broke into a charge. Ogelsby was still, despite the loud roar coming from the fighter before him. Then, just as Arroth neared eight feet from Ogelsby, the boy sprang into action.

He lunged forward suddenly, springing forward with force from his back leg. He bent his legs deeply, and he presented his weapon to give point just under his opponent's forward arm. It seemed that he was almost ignoring the weapon that Arroth hoped the drive deep into the boy's chest, and the reason for this would become apparent pretty quickly.

Ogelsby whipped his right hand out from under his cloak as he began his lunge. His intention was to activate his hardlight Energy Buckler and use it to parry the rifle. The motion employed here was something like throwing a punch. His right hand would ball up as a bright orange disc of energy appeared in the air before it, and his hand would slip up along-side his extending left arm. This disc covered Ogelsby's right arm, shoulder, upper torso, and head from the front, accounting for parallax. The path that the rifle would have to take in order to plug Ogelsby in the torso anywhere would have to pass directly through the buckler, then, and so buckler and rifle bayonet would collide.

Upon collision, the energy buckler would burst, applying a force to the rifle just high enough to stop it's momentum. Ogelsby's next step would be to try and push against the wooden hand guard with his palm.

His left hand would be looking for contact, or a miss. On contact, he would not be immediately trying to retreat. On a miss, Ogelsby would want to respond further with a cut towards Arroth's outstretched arms as he retreated. In eithe rcase he was going to be looking to get away from Arroth.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

"!!!"

Ogelsby felt his sword dig into Arroth's flesh, to which he didn't even get a reaction. No flinch, no backpeddle. Arroth was some kind of unfeeling badass, and he just immediately reacted.

Arroth lowered the rifle and whipped his left hand across. Ogelsby knee-jerked, activating his Drift Disengage. This propelled him back three feet in a stable position just as a magical blade appeared from Arroth's hand. Ogelsby pointed the knuckle bow of his hand guard up and lifted his arm above his head, angling the blade of his sword downwards to parry the incoming magic. There would be contact, which would drive Ogelsby's weapon inward, causing him to take a step back, but ultimately he wouldn't be struck in the face.

He was now quite uncertain of this opponent. Was he even bleeding? Ogelsby decided not to advance again until he could get a clear view of the wound.

Geist Reactor Data Wrote:

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

"Grah!"

The boy yelped as he lurched to one side mid step. He saw the gob of mud come flying, crackling with some kind of energy only to turn into some horrific magical spike. Ogelsby diped to his right, turning himself as best he could, but the mud-ice-missile scraped past his pelvis. One can presume that even though it did not pierce him directly, this magical projectile would still burn his skin with magic and cold, even though the layers of padded armor he wore. A surface wound, to be sure, but a painful one all the same.

He steadied himself, standing profile to Arroth. He lowered his sword so the hilt would be level with an imaginary line drawn across his nipples. His arm was outstretched to three quarters extension, so his elbow still had a noticeable bend. He tucked his elbow in, so the first knuckle of his thumb digit was the top most point of his left hand. He held the hilt of his smallsword as if it were the handle of a pistol with his finger slipped through the finger ring.

So any wound Ogelsby made would find itself filled with a stopper of black tar instead of blood.

"That's a real dirty trick mister."

He would complain, making an unintentional pun. How do I take something like him down without a kill shot? he pondered. There were weapons laying all about this trench, perhaps it was time to find something to bludgeon him with? But my arms are so weak, that probably wont work! He despaired.

So he started backing away with slow, careful passing steps. His left retreated behind his right, then his right behind his left, and so on. He would scan the ground as he went, looking for anything he could make use of.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

To say Ogelsby was not surprised by Arroth's choice to take the fight to range was an understatement. The orange fencer had proven in the first season of the GCL that he did not handle ranged opposition very well, so part of his strategy had been to compensate for the fact that he's very bad at avoiding projectiles or closing on projectile-based fighters. He'd been blasted in the face with fire one too many times not to see it coming at this point.

So the moment Arroth's hands ignited in magical motes of fire, Ogelsby was already planning his action. The space between the fighters was short, but Ogelsby had had enough time to expand this distance while Arroth's controller spoke to him. Distance enough to react when the puppet finally threw his spell.

Arroth hadn't moved away from the wall, so he was throwing his ball at an angle respective of the trench. He had no way to know for sure that this ball was going to explode, but having fought ranged specialists before, Ogelsby presumed a follow-up was on the way. The best course of action in his mind would be to run for cover and let Arroth wear himself down throwing magic. So, Ogelsby sprang to the side, the same wall Arroth was standing next to, and nestled himself into one of the alcoves.

This would prove to be a bit of a mistake. With the trenches only sitting twelve feet wide, and the fireball having an explosive area of 20 feet, it could land two feet away from the opposite wall and still hit Ogelsby. It'd be landing somewhere behind where Ogelsby had been standing, since it had been aimed at his knees, but it's safe to assume that he would still be within the fringes of the expanding magical flames.

He had just enough time to turn his face away from the blast, but most of Ogelsby's left side (leg, arm, ribs, neck) would experience first degree burns.

With no concussive component, the orange fencer was not left reeling or staggered, but he did whimper a bit. He'd stay in cover for now.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

So the floor slats were suddenly at a full burn in a twenty foot circle centered somewhere behind where Ogelsby had begun. Ogelsby's answer to this was to ignore it, since natural flames of this sort took time to build and release energy. It would have to eat through wet and mud-covered wooden planks from top to bottom. It wasn't that they wouldn't spread quickly, the real question was whether the flames would spread at all. It was a wonder that these water-logged planks could even be set ablaze with only an instant of contact. Those flames were only around for just long enough to leave first degree burns, meaning they couldn't alter the temperature of nearby objects by more than one hundred sixty degrees Fahrenheit or so. The ignition point of wood was a little above three hundred and fifty degrees, and considering these planks were both wet and muddy, the amount of time you would need to force the flames to linger to actually ignite them rises exponentially.

Conclusion, the fire wasn't going anywhere. The most likely scenario without further magical fuckery would be that the fire quickly starves of fuel on the top layer of wood within the next couple of seconds.

It would take Ogelsby little effort to climb out and then hop back into the trench, so once he was back in he would immediately start advancing towards Arroth. Advancing was a technical term in this case, denoting a very specific method of stepping. Left foot first, right foot second, neither foot ever crossing the other. It would have a look something like a gallop. An alcove existed every three meters, Ogelsby was aiming to reach the next one from where he'd begun.

On his approach, he reactivated his Energy Buckler and tucked his right arm tight against his chest. He held his sword at carte. Carte is a position where the sword is held at the height of one's navel. The knuckle guard is pointed towards the inside line, in Ogelsby's case his right, and the blade is tilted up at a slight angle.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

As Ogelsby approached Arroth, and Arroth approached him back, the gears started turning. Was he out of magic? Did he have something else hidden up his sleeve? What was his game plan?

It didn't matter. Ogelsby knew what he was going to try next. It was a risky gambit, letting himself get up close to this guy again. Still, he had a trick in that right arm of his. The Shield Wave. Ogelsby could overload the hardlight projector, causing it to deliver a wave of kinetic force up to five feet away. Anyone caught in the wave would find themselves accelerated away from Ogelsby at a rate of up to ten miles per hour, but steps could be taken to reduce this push-back such as reducing ones center of gravity and minimizing their profile. The trick was to use it square-on.

That meant getting close, getting right up in on your target and setting up a shot that they can't tuck under.

What also meant getting in close enough to have your face rocked if you plan goes south.

He needed only a little time to charge this shield wave of his. Visual cues came in the form of a sudden surge of energy into his buckler. It would glow brighter than usual, and th orbs lined up on his right forearm went dim.

When in measure, Ogelsby would perform a half lunge and feint a high cut number two. That is to say, Ogelsby stepped within seven feet from the tip of his left toe to the tip of Arroth's forward-most toe. Then he stepped forward one half measure of his stride, roughly two feet, while lifting his sword out of carte position and making the motions to appear as if he was about to cut across Arroth's face from the top right to the bottom left. Instead, Ogelsby was hoping to bait out movement. This movement could come in the form of a retreat, an advance, a counter, anything. Any reaction out of Arroth would spark Ogelsby to suddenly leap to his left as far as he could manage.

The distance Ogelsby could feasibly reach from a half-extension would be about four feet or so. He would aim this leap, more of a powerful stride, forward and to the left to try and bring himself alongside Arroth as much as possible. He'd bring his buckler up near his neck at that point.

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

So, despite Ogelsby's leftward bound being absolutely contingent on Arroth reacting to the threatened face-cut, Ogelsby apparently went along with the leap anyway. That's fine.

So Ogelsby lands. Arroth steps in at the same time to deliver a nice hard straight(?) towards Ogelsby's shield. Ogelsby, having his sword already up and primed for a face cut, countered this punch by attacking into Arroth's attack. Ogelsby would cut into Arroth's wrist or forearm on the outside line and redirect it to the outside of Ogelsby's left side, turning his torso with the stroke to present his energy buckler as far forward as he could manage.

If Arroth maintained his current course of action, he was confident that he could present the buckler into Arroth's core, where it would then burst with a wave of force. To restate, anyone caught in the wave would find themselves accelerated away from Ogelsby at a rate of up to ten miles per hour, and without any way to reduce this push, Ogelsby was confident that Arroth would be thrown back onto the trench wall opposite to Ogelsby's back.

IF, this outcome was true, and IF Arroth appeared stunned by the throw, Ogelsby would immediately lunge with the full intention of burying his smallsword into Arroth's liver. OTHERWISE, he would wait.

Geist Reactor Data Wrote:

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Truest Valor Wrote:

Ogelsby Misra: Hey, this seems familiar.

Arroth lost his head and overattacked.

Ogelsby, delivering his parry as intended, would find himself in a position where he was completely at the mercy of this magical sword. Since Arroth would only be flying backwards at about fourteen feet per second, his sword essentially had six feet of reach including the length of his arm, and it was determined that Ogelsby's sword was not in a good position to intercept it; Ogelsby has his throat slashed.

Without the ability to speak as his neck became a river of red, he looked blankly at Arroth for one final moment before his body crumpled.

Geist Reactor Data Wrote:

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Truest Valor Wrote: