GTB I. Imported from live Gaia guild archive.
Unnamed [[Unnamed Angel]] vs. Corant Ja'Kalie [Skyburn]
Match Ends: Next Monday 9 PM Central
A sunset lurks over a city that is abadoned due to a past war. But buildings and other sites of the city, though destroyed entirely or partially, still exist on this site.
Ready?
FIGHT!
=A low growl can be heard. It's almost predatory in nature, but the feeling coming from it is mournful. The unnamed looks out over the city from the rubble of one of the many destroyed buildings. He has that ever unchanging gaze, one that holds no obvious emotion. There's still that strange growl, but it doesn't appear to be emanating from his throat. When he lifts his right arm over his right, the untrained eye might mistake it for nervousness. He rubs his fingers over the links of the chains. He can feel what lingers at this site, and he takes in a breath as his two-toned eyes just continue to scan.=
What to this field shall potential endeavor?
Corant steps out onto the roof of one of the nearly fallen skyscrapers, already starting to list to one side. The black-clad figure was silhouetted against the sky from the ground as he stood on the side of the roof, looking down. Normally, being paned against the bleak sky was an idiocy. Now it was a challenge.
=The unnamed lets out a long breath, and the growling stops. He turns to face the skyline. He looks up and faces the silhouette directly. It's easy to see that the two-toned gaze, indeed, has two differently colored orbs, no indication of the damage done in the last match. The unnamed gazes upon Corant with both his right, platinum and left, blue hued eyes. His left arm hangs, seemingly limp, at his side with the heavy chains wrapped tightly to that appendage. His right hand still rests over his left bicep. They stand at different heights, and the unnamed is the one who should be seen as having every disadvantage in footing. He's on rubble and the low ground.=
The twilight sets. We mourn no more.
=His strangely dull tone carries on the wind. When his voice becomes a whisper, it might feel as if the breezed temporarily stops.=
Do not let pride fall potential.
=The unnamed is ready. It may be despite appearances, but even unstable earth can be used for momentum and defense. With Corant at the high ground, it is a fool's game to rush in.=
Corant too notices the one well below him, and, leaning back to obscure the view that the unnamed has of him, his arm slides back and draws his Particle Rifle. He leans into the rifle after putting the butt to his shoulder, and aim's down at the unnamed. His visor scoped and checked for heat to make sure it was the true unnamed, not a doppleganger. The rifle burst with a purple electrical shock, firing out a series of neutron-packets just a few feet in front of the unnamed, only their after-effect of burning through the atmosphere visibile, their speed much too great. The Solarian Federation soldier brought it up and to the righting, firing again, then to the left again, these two shots going behind and to either side of the unnamed. Their purpose was to trap him fully with their explosions, each firing equal to about 250 pounds of concentrated C4. Lastly, the fourth shot, right at the chest of the unnamed, who Corant hoped would be too perplexed by the rain of fire produced by the shots piercing through and causing the air around him to go to a state of plasma in addition to the three explosions he hoped to trap him with. All four shots would be completed in less than a second, the marksman Corant assured this, also the low-recoil.
((Just to tell you, it looks like you described five shots not four.))
*=The unnamed sees Corant move, and immediately responds. Even in reducing visibility, aiming requires sight. The unnamed is perfectly capable of keeping his eyes locked on a given target. When the light of the setting sun reflects off the finish of the rifle, he quickly assesses what he can do. With his left arm forward, he could take a hit and quickly move forward. When the first shot misses, the plume of smoke ensures a quick escape. There are obvious delays between each burst, and such powerful blasts can only mean limited shell or energy supply and would speak against such rapid fire capabilities in most cases. A large capacitor which needs a long recharge time could be imagined, but the unnamed has no time to think of that. The thunderous sound of the air as the plasma state quickly ended tells of the short time limit, not to mention the fact that heat, gases, and kinetic forces had to be dealt with. Fortunately, all forces can be dispersed, and that's just what his armor-like clothe does.=
=He quickly ducks, and a second plume is created by the second shot. When the third shot creates yet third plume, he's already pushing forward. Based on general trajectory, the fourth shot should miss him entirely and fly at an angle which might graze him, most likely the armor-like clothe on his back. The unnamed rolls forward, through the first plume. With such explosive power, the initial heat caused no ill effect on the chains but did begin to singe the skin underneath. There's also a crater and more stable footing to roll onto, which he takes advantage of to take off into a full run. He makes unpredictable zigzags towards the skyscraper.=
=As he does this, he assesses the damage done in the initial strike. He can feel heat along his left arm's 'exposed' flesh, where the chains meet it, and even along his legs. Inconsequential. He can also feel patches of the first layer of his armor-like clothe burnt away. Inconsequential. All could all be regenerated easily enough. One second was more than enough time to duck below a trajectory based on information before a plume of smoke and dust blocked vision, not to mention the heat and gases blocking accurate assessment of a heat signature.=*
Corant, at first, appeared to roll over the side. His foot locked firmly on the side of the skyscraper, propelling him off at the first building, his rifle already firing at the base of the building he was just upon. The particle rifle blasts appeared to give him delayed flight for a moment due to the recoil, landing him gently ontop of his targeted spot. A dozen rounds, scattered between the foundation of the building and the area around the unnamed, not completely trying to hit him, detonated the area... intending the building as their target. Plasma - merely fire - errupted in the wake of massive concussive blasts colliding together and passing through each other, severly weakening the structure of the building he fired upon. Massive waves of smoke and dust filled the area as the building began it's slightly tilted collapse, starting to fall towards the unnamed, but mostly down. More importantly was that four plasma-yield grenades, set to explode at a fifteen-yard radius, tossed around the unnamed's last seen location - just before his rounds impacted, were entirely camouflaged by the roaring dust and sound of the collapsing.
*=Sniper. Technology. There's no indication that the rifle follows any conventional limitations. The unnamed can see the building falling, but there is the obvious threat that traps could be set up. He looks at the chains wrapping his left arm. There's a plan. He has his control over two forms of energy that should be of some help. He keeps his pace towards the falling building, knowing he still has time before it collapses on his position. There is the fact that Corant has provided a rather...unusual escape route as well. With all that fire, there are sure to be random chunks of debris to actually leap off of.=
=With a plan in mind, the unnamed need only execute it. He closes his eyes, and what might appear to be purple electricity arcs across the links of his chains. He feels a quick burst of pain, but the first phase completes itself. He whips the lethal tip of his chain down to impale the ground, using it to slingshot himself back the opposite direction. He maintains full momentum as the reason for the purple arcs makes itself known. Something like an electromagnetic shield surrounds him. It's not much, but it'll protect him long enough to be propelled up to the first chunk of debris.=
=At that point, he pulls hard on his chain. It reacts by quickly whipping up to him, and he begins to rapidly rotate it around a central axis, his left fist. He launches it out to impale into that first chunk and pull himself up to it. The point? He lands on his feet and quickly begins jumping from large chunk to large chunk, keeping an eye out for more plasma fire. If the grenades went off after he did the slingshot maneuver, the energy would have dissipated across the shield as he rose above the effective radius. The unnamed is, literally, leaping with debris, using his chain as an anchor when necessary.=
=As he does this, the unnamed pulls that strange card of his out and holds it in his right hand. He carefully amasses energy along both the chains' links and the edges of the card. For now, he'll have to use the building as both a ramp and cover.=*
The four grenade's massive blast spread throughout the area where the unnamed was, which was still, unfortunately, near the building for him. Due to the physics of it all, no large pieces of building were being carried away from the doomed edifice, only straight down. By jumping upon these, the unnamed only prolonged his death, as they only fell down or even closer to the building. The blast of the four grenades lept out, enveloping the entire area of unnamed's precense and many dozen feet around and above him, with plasma and concussive force following the former, well enough to kill. As a precaution, Corant Ja`Kalie checked his ammunition counter - reading 280 shots worth of power left - and fired another thirty shots over the course of two seconds down into the area, blanketing it with suprisingly massive (in a literal sense, not in size, as they are too small to see with the average human's eye) neutrons moving with an incredible velocity, acting as a secondary explosion which would send chunks no larger than a tennis ball every which way at also incredible velocities. The ground that the unnamed thought sturdy was now being turned into an inverted rain of fire and hellish shrapnel against him, which would pelt harshly him even if the neutron rain did not.
*=Not being one to let physics be completely ignored, the unnamed had already put up defenses against the grenades. One. He erected an electromagnetic shield that would absorb the brunt of the damage. Two. He propelled himself upwards through the narrowest part of their combined blast radii, which would be at the convergence of each of their fifteen-yard (forty-five-foot) radius. Not that he planned on avoiding grenades, but it minimizes or negates any possible damage. In the end, he just did a one-eighty shift in momentum by using his chains as a slingshot to get turned around towards Corant.=
=The unnamed never assumes anything and watches everything. The yield has been observed since the first shot was fired. As theycannotinstantaneously increase yield without changing several variables, including but not limited to fire-rate and energy consumption rate. If Corant's weapon uses ammunition, the yield cannot change without reloading with altered munitions. These are facts that cannot be changed. If Corant changes weapons, he needs to physically exchange them or take the time to change munitions barrels. There is no way around this.=
=As the unnamed has observed a 250-pound yield, he can safely find and leap to and fro chunks of debris ranging from barely big enough for a foothold to several persons large. The concrete of the building ensure this, not to mention the steel girders or possibility of steel-lattice concrete. As these materials require energy to change from a solid state, and a lot of it, even plasma would disperse its energy in order to reach a state of equilibrium. By the time Corant unloads additional rounds to attempt to make the footing unstable enough for the unnamed not to be able to reach him, it's too late.=
=The unnamed swings his right arm around, and his card comes flying at Corant. The card is attached to the unnamed through invisible 'strings' of energy, and the first target is that gun. Specifically. The card is aiming to slice it into at least two pieces, and it's on a return trajectory that would ensure at least four passes at the rifle.=*
((This is likely the last post I'll be able to make, since I have to leave early tomorrow. I just hope I won't be penalized for things currently out of my control.
And that 250-pound yield is equivelant to 250 pounds of C4, enough to really topple a building in a single shot.))
Corant still had quite a bit of ammunition left, as the ROF was only 15 shots per second. As the card was launched, that ensured no less than a perfect shot at the unnamed. The suit aided his aiming as he mentally commanded the reticule to be placed on the unnamed. The weapon aimed directly on the upper-body of his foe - this was not something taking any more than a fourtieth of a second as it was already close - and it fired for a single second, unleashing fifteen shots upon him, with very little recoil, and the fire traced up towards his head during that duration. He fired for yet one more second, his shielded arm moving in the way of the card to block it. Even with one arm, he was rather accurate. The Hunter/Killer suit aided him in his aiming, tracking the movement of the unnamed.
((If I had it my way, they'd extend the time limit for your uncontrollable circumstances. Also... kicks my ISP My ***** Internet has been out whenever I get home for the past three nights now! It's not just me; a bunch of people I know have been losing theirs, too.))
((I'm not disputing the capability of the yield to topple a building. I'm saying even the plasma state isn't enough to disintegrate debris that would be formed that much, but, whatever.))
=The card has an interesting trick. There is an invisible string of energy connecting it to the unnamed. Therefore, he can alter its trajectory with a thought. As it hits the shield, it propels upwards with a sharp curve to get over and around the shield and towards the riffle once more. The aim is still not to directly harm Corant, but it is aiming to take out his riffle. The methodology is to either slice the weapon and make it unusableor*knock it away.=
=The unnamed never wastefully gathers energy. The purple arcs of electricity can be seen again, but they're thicker and darker than that first time. When they extend out into an electromagnetic shield as the reticle is aimed at him, the result is a much stronger barrier. It still can't take even fifteen shots, but it can take enough to severely distort the heat signature in a given area. Even before the reticle is aimed thus before shots are fired, the unnamed is spinning his chain. He'd still have to leap from the falling building, and he had no intention of leaving himself completely open and vulnerable.=
=He watches as the first shot impacts and spreads across his shield. A second shot. A third shot. He launches his chain towards the building, under Corant's position, just as the fourth shot hits. The shield has been fluctuating this whole time, so the unnamed can't tell exactly when it will fail. He pulls his left arm to propel himself towards the building. The fifth shot takes out the shield and enough of the shot penetrates to cause a burn on the grazed left shoulder. Probably a good thing the chain was there to dissipate what was left of the shot and he'd already pulled himself diagonally to the right.=
=With the preprogrammed firing instructions, he should have easily disappeared between the massive heat given off by the impacts and horizon created by the building.=*
He allowed the rifle to twirl out of his hands with the impact, and it clattered along the rooftop. There was a mark there, but it was otherwise intact and workable. His hand drew his particle dagger - more of a sword, really. It whirred and glimmered to life, and Corant Ja'Kalie lept back a good two dozen feet to give himself ground. He entered a class fencing en garde stance, ready for his opponent.
*=Knowing perfectly well he can't stay still too long, the unnamed uses what momentum he used to pull himself below the horizon of the building to swing himself right back up. He knows he knocked the rifle away with his card, so he immediately pulls back on that invisible string of energy to get his card in position to either defend himself or knock another munitions-based weapon away from Corant. As he comes back above the horizon of the building, he notices the position his opponent is in and yanks his chain so it comes out of the building face and right back to him. Not letting his position keep him open for long, he thrusts his chain down, so he can pull himself onto the roof.=
=Once he lands, he sets himself into a defensive posture. His left foot leads while his right foot spreads back. He keeps his knees loose, easy for quick and fluid motions. With his leading left foot, his left arm is pushed out forward to allow it to take any first assaults while giving plenty of time for his trailing right arm to launch its own attack. His card floats back to his trailing right arm; though, he doesn't grasp it. It floats just out to his side. Now that they are in melee combat positions, the unnamed takes a moment to analyze the exact posture, build, and armament of Corant. There's no need to rush in, and the unnamed can easily identify the stance currently taken.=*
Unexperienced. Obviously never fenced in his life. Were the first things that Corant's mind produced. The unnamed obviously forgot the advantage of fencing. Speed. Agility. Precision. A fencer did not miss. Better yet, Corant knew such style. Better still? He trained aiming for the torso. Now the whole body was fair game. That was like telling someone with a nuclear warhead to hit an ant. Overkill that could not miss.
He didn't give the unnamed time to second guess his mistake. He lunged, the tip of his blade out, leading with his right side, leaping into the air. The unnamed had made the fatal mistake of leading with his defending side. Yes, this was good for powerful hits. But it sacrificed reaction time. The only way to defend against it opened up the unnamed's body to being hit. The charged blade, made to pierce battleplate and shield, lunged tip forward as Corant sped through the air in a classic fencing stance. Oh, this was not it. If his first hit did not fall, he'd mentally prepared a modified Crusader-Rabbit; his blade would initially be aimed for the heard, then strike for the head, then whip around a third time for the shoulder. There was only one defense for this combination of moves that would work without damage done to the unnamed. Any attempt to retaliate would be quickly beaten through by this move, and only one move could counter it all, even for a normal human to be performing such maneuvers. Corant was genetically and technologically altered, as were many generations before him.
((Seriously. I know what I'm talking about.))
*=The advantages of how the unnamed battles are mobility, fluidity, and using opponents' momentum against them. The art of fencing is no different against the strange style he utilizes, and jumping into the fray with assumptions on the brain will only result in dissatisfaction. If his stance is inviting, his movements are quite contrary. If the unnamed made a mistake, it was not in his calculations or his stance. To assume his defensive side can only be that is foolish and fatal.=
=The aim for his heart is simple to avoid. He merely leans back. With his left shoulder leading, his chest is not fully exposed. This is where things get interesting. The unnamed quickly whips the loose-hanging end of his whip forward to quickly change the direction momentum is heading. The result? The second strike to his head is aimed far too high as the unnamed 'ducks' below Corant in an odd, twisting motion. He's actually 'suspended' in midair for a moment, even as the third strike comes for where his shoulder once was. Watching all this, the unnamed whips his chain, once more, to intercept the charged blade. Is he foolish? No. He's already learned quite a bit from carefully observing and analyzing Corant.=
=Perhaps unbeknownst to Corant, electromagnetism runs through those chains. This is usually only released as light-based magic or 'expanded' into shields or barriers. It won't simply 'charge' through the chains and into Corant's being without very specific stimulus. The reason all this is important? The charged blade won't be slicing through the strange material of the chains anytime soon. If the unnamed had simply dodged the first and second strike, there would have been no damage by the third. Instead, the unnamed has decided not to remain still and actually test the worth of this Corant fellow.=
=The end result of the strange maneuver the unnamed pulled is a rapidly incoming chain to wrap the charged blade Corant carries. The aim is not to pull the blade away but to catch it and twist Corant into a mad spin. As the unnamed feels his feet solid against the ground, he pulls his chain to accomplish this. Of course, he has other plans if his chain did not indeed wrap the charged blade or if Corant let go to avoid this. In all things, the unnamed watches and maintains momentum once started.=*
It would only take two simple moves to change control. The first of these two was known as a disengage. His blade dropped from it's renewed course at the unnamed's torso, who, to be under him had to be practically laying on the ground ("lunge" implying most of the jumping motion to be forward, not upwards, thus leaving little air between Corant and the ground, as is common in fencing-style), and twisted around the oncoming chain to get closer to the unnamed. His left hand, backwards, shot forwards to grab at the chain in a speed resembling that of lightning or something akin - nearly the full speed possible of living beings using a nervous system, if not even more so. Corant did indeed know that there was something about the chain; that it was energized, but his suit was shielded as well as being protected form virtually all forms of electromagnetism. As his feet hit the ground, he knew his newest strike at the unnamed would either hit or miss, but (presuming the chain was grabbed), he yanked on the chain to bring the unnamed close to him as his sword-arm drew back, spinning to his right, using the unnamed's momentum to his advantage, attempting to run the unnamed through.
*=Fortunately for Corant, the electromagnetism isn't about to surge through the chains and into his body. This is the full spectrum of electromagnetism, not the limited range expressed in common thought which takes out computer systems. As Corant grabs hold of a few links of the loose end of the chain, the remaining links 'away' from the unnamed wrap that hand. As the unnamed was never laying on the ground, rather a quick twist suspended in midair, the plan behind grasping the chain wouldn't work too well.=
=With feet on the ground, even if not planted, Corant would find pulling the chain that much more difficult. For the unnamed, such an action presents the chance to use momentum. He loosens his knees to be propelled into a near-lunge towards Corant. Normally this would play into the opponent's hand, but the unnamed has his own unconventional way of doing things. As Corant now holds his charged blade in one hand and the loose-end of the chain which tightly wraps the left arm of the unnamed, there's a tactic very easy to pull off now.=
=The unnamed waits and watches for the exact moment Corant would thrust his sword forward. There will be a tell or multiple tells to give this action away. His two-toned eyes watch, and they seem to watch Corant's whole being.=*
Corant Ja`Kalie yanked at the chain - his momentum helped there. His footing was not secure right now - that was the full intention. His arm would act more as a connector to his body than the driving force behind the summoning of the unnamed closer to him. He was still traveling backwards in relation to the unnamed, using his feet more as controlling his movement rather than stopping. But now, as he faced him, his suit and arm, now securely having the chain around his hand - that action only helping his cause rather than hurting it - he pulled harder, the total sum of his force being the better half of a metric ton trying to get the unnamed towards him. His sword, on the other hand, was out-stretched in a stop-thrust, usually used against a charging opponent. It wavered only slightly, not in fear or lethargy, but in readiness and preparation.
Corant noted the fact that, should something give, he'd need to find his footing quickly, and prepared himself to do so, his legs tensing in preparation to stop suddenly.