GTB V. Imported from live Gaia guild archive.
Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:14 pm · id 329436019 · page 1
The arena itself, which actually sits below ground level, spans two hundred feet in diameter with walls twenty feet high before the stands begin. The floor of the arena is sprinkled with just enough sand to cover up the stones beneath, but not enough to be significantly detrimental to footing or traction. Gates at the northern and southern end lead into the arena, through which contenders will enter upon being summoned from their quarters in order to compete in the designated match. The platform is risen only four feet off the ground. The stone is tough and is made to withstand superhuman matches. Though there will be cracks and such to show damage, it is a resilient platform that cannot be destroyed with ease. The ring itself covers a span of seventy-five feet in diameter within the two-hundred span of the whole fighting arena within the seating area (this includes out of bounds).
Out of Bounds: The ground between the platform and the wall of the stands is out of bounds, which naturally starts the ten count. Touching the stands is also out of bounds. If the platform somehow ends up getting chunked somewhere to reveal ground, that exposed ground still becomes time out.
Thu Feb 02, 2012 10:08 pm · id 329439479 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Thoma calmly walked up to the gates that lead into the arena with a smile on his face. The people that were supposed to lead him there were a little unhappy as he was actually standing at the gates about five minutes early... What would lead one to do such a thing? Well, there were many answers to that really, there may very well be a different answer for every competitor in the tournament why they would show up five minutes early, but the answer for Thoma... Well that was obvious wasn't it?
Thoma closed his eyes for a second, listening to the roaring of the fans, they were already so loud, and not him nor his opponent had even opened their gates, though that would quickly change. With one swift motion, that gates would be open and Thoma would be walking out into the eyes of the crowd who's cheering intensified. If one were to pay careful attention, they would notice that the pitch of the cheering was a bit higher for Thoma than for most competitors, mainly due to the fact that Thoma's very existence revolved around women in an ideology that could only be related to an extreme form of chivalry. Top that with the fact that he was rather handsome, well dressed, a good fighter, and possessed a silver tongue and you had quite the lady killer.
Roses rained down around him as he bowed to the mostly over excited audience. As they did he grabbed one out of the air and pinned it to his jacket which was quite deceptive... In a sense, it held no special powers and wasn't any more useful for defense than any other jacket, but the style of it made it look rather stiff, but it was actually pretty loose and allowed for decent movement.
Well, now it was time to move on to why he came out here five minutes early though. After a quick scan of the lower row of the audience, he soon found his target and walked over to talk to her. It was no girl in particular, just your everyday beauty, and as if mirroring her role in the grand scheme of things, he spoke to her about nothing in particular. After all, what better way to kill time than to spend it talking to a beautiful girl? At the very least, it was better than being cramped up in a lonely room, no matter how lavish it may be.
Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:03 pm · id 329475879 · page 1
Thomas opponent would receive a substantially lesser fanfare.
Black flesh pulled taut over a bony exoskeleton leaving a gleaming skull in the bright lights of the arena floor, the zodiac was by no means a friendly or even a human figure. Their lower jaw hung loosely, both rows of teeth clearly visible in their mouth, an odd shaped and angled thing. Overall their skull was human-shaped, but the slitted nose and the deep-set eyes were simply just too inhuman.
They had no hand, that was obvious, instead possessing two bulky claws at the end of their arms. They possessed only two legs, possibly leaving some confusion over what their species what, though the last feature of Eianicith would give away their person.
A tail with a stinger swishing back and forth.
The weak of stomach were revulsed, the odd were fascinated and those here to see bloodshed were excited. A freakshow had just walked in to give them the entertainment they oh so desired.
Not wasting his time, the scorpion-man-thing stepped into the ring and took four steps towards the centre, before dropping into a kneeling position with one knee to the floor, resting on both claws with head bowed, as if in a deep prayer.
A low hiss escaped their odd shaped mouth and for a moment the lights dimmed for the zodiacs pre-planned entrance.
"Prepare for total- Domination," rasped Eianicith, head rising up as the last word echoed about the room twice.Their skull twisted to the left, cracking, and their tail laid on the floor.
Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:35 pm · id 329482607 · page 1
"So that last fight was actually part of round two?" Thurgood asks Aveline.
"Yep, you and the no-show both had a bye for the first round, so the organizers put you both together in a round 2 pre-fight as the round 1 fights were taking place. You'll fight the winner of this match."
"Yeah, and I'll need to know who, and more importantly what I'll be up against."
Thurgood and Aveline both find their seats: fifth row up, right at the central axis between both of the gates. Aveline had reserved them earlier, and once she explained the situation to the officials, she got both at no charge, since her brother is fighting in this tournament as well.
"Eeeef... wonder how I'll get around that stinger..."
"...and those claws... damn..."
Fri Feb 03, 2012 8:38 pm · id 329498427 · page 1
Adaire found her seat a while ago and was leaning back, an old hat was over her eyes as Thoma graced the stage and she slept quite soundly until the scorpion man entered the ring. This fight actually looked to be quite interesting, sometimes it was so much better to sit and watch.
As much as Red hated scorpions, it was just as hard to cheer for the wannabe ladies man. It was like trying to decided between the Giants and Patriots. She supposed the possible misogynist was a little easier on both the eye and the stomach. Though Thoma look absolutely mundane, and the scorpion man, looked dangerous. She sighed and wondered how this would play out.
Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:41 pm · id 329541609 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Thoma turned his attention away from the lovely lady he was speaking to as his opponent entered the ring, a smile on his face. He wasn't the most handsome guy in the world, but hey, who was Thoma to judge? He seemed to be a man, and any man of any species was a brother to Thoma.
Thoma quickly made his way to the opposing side of the arena, though not to fast as to give away his overall movement speed should his opponent be the a highly analytical type like himself. As Thoma got to the edge of the arena and propped himself over with his hands, feigning that his leg strength wasn't enough to hop up, he went over the possibilities... Due to his sub human nature and power, it was likely he wasn't into magic, though it couldn't be ruled out. His exo skeleton would also make some of his less powerful weapons somewhat useless. The only other real questions were his balance, his strength, and how much of a distanced fighter he was... His first tactics should simply be to guage his opponent, then the real fight could start, with that in mind attacking would be less than ideal.
After Thoma took four steps in, he lifted his hand to greet his opponent, "Yo. I look forward to a good match my brother." Total domination eh? Well, hopefully that meant that his opponent was underestimating him, though even if he took that into consideration he still had no gauge of how powerful he was.
Sat Feb 04, 2012 4:04 pm · id 329551947 · page 1
Editted due to misunderstanding on posting. So I'm assuming the time limit is reset.
The scorpion barely twitched to acknowledge the friendly gesture, still positioned firmly on the ground. "Man-thing," he hissed from his odd-jaw. "I loathe your fleshy exteriors and your weakness to cruel environments."
His face twitched awkwardly as if he did not hold a hundred percent confidence in his own words. "Prove yourself an able opponent and you will have my respect, but should you fail I would see you cast to the desert, to perish or prove yourself there."
He didn't move, though. He remained seated on one knee, both claws to the ground and tail flat behind him. Perhaps the one weakness he had compared to a smaller scorpion, he was not nearly as blindingly fast. His tail could be fast, but it was more like a fist than the gun a small scorpion was.
Sun Feb 05, 2012 12:27 pm · id 329615813 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Thoma smiled and tilted his head a little, "Well then, I hope I don't disappoint you." The creature wasn't moving, obviously Thoma charging in recklessley was a foolish idea when he already decided to gauge the creature first, but he could still make use of it's stillness for spacing which was a key factor in more than a select few battles. Moreover, Thoma noticed the sun to the east placing their shadows on their western sides, this gave neither the advantage which was decent, but it was still a fact Thoma would have to keep in mind.
Thoma walked into the arena more until their was about twenty feet behind him until the floor dropped off. Considering the size of his opponent, those four steps he took earlier would likely add up to more than just four feet placing him a little under fifty feet from his opponent, a decent distance to watch his approach from hopefully. Luckily the rules stated teleportation was banned but their was nothing against bursts of extreme speed or magic that does not originate from the opponents body... Casually Thoma reached down his collar into his jacket and pulled out a kunai. Both of the creatures claws were on the ground and so was it's tail, there was no question that this kunai would either be deflected or avoided, but the real question was which? Thoma threw the kunai to hit between the creatures eyes, and because he was a ninja, the kunai flew straight inside of with a spin. Thoma watched closely, what would he do?
Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:08 pm · id 329652509 · page 1
Fifty feet was a long way for the kunai to fly. The unimpressed scorpion tilted their head sharply to the side, leaning more on one claw to let it fly past their head. As it clattered to the ground (or against the wall) they would cast a look over their shoulder, then look straight back at Thoma.
"Labourers tools?" he spat furiously, "Next do you intend to attack me with a scythe?"
Eianicith seemed offended, now rising to his feet and snapping one claw in the air as an aggressive gesture. He let out a low hiss from his jaw and started walking forwards, tail whipping back and forth irritably, claws held up against his chest, almost like a boxer who didn't care to guard his face.
Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:30 pm · id 329654991 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Thoma watched as he titled both his head and his body by leaning on his claw. It seemed like it would have been easier to simply lift his claw to swat at it, Thoma didn't want to read to much into it, but it seemed like his opponent took the lazier methods when doing things. If presented with two options that yield the same end, he would go with the one that took less effort, at least that was his current deduction, he wouldn't stake anything on it. He also noticed that his opponent seemed to have a strong sense of pride, wating strength and then feeling insulted by the kunai. Thoma wasn't the type to make someone angry on purpose, but at the very least it was good to know, "Who knows." Thoma said with a pleasant smile, answering the creatures likely rhetorical question. It wasn't to make it angry, but Thoma wasn't going to just leave him hanging, but at the same time he wasn't going to throw anything out there...
As the creature began to approach, Thoma noticed its stance. It seemed like a lot of effort, and more over a waste of attacking potential for a creature with claws to cover its chest like that. Thoma also noticed the differece between the creatures torso area and the rest of its body which likely indicated a weak point. Since it was rather slow there was time to test this out. Reaching down his collar once more, he would pull out three kunai. He would throw the first two in rapid succession, one aiming at his open gut and the later aiming at his guarded chest. The third would be thrown the moment Thoma noticed the creature try to evade to the side, however, if their were no indications which would come within less than a second of the kunai being thrown, Thoma would throw it in the trail of the first kunai. Either way the target would be the creatures exposed, or when thrown, un exposed gut. The best part was, at least as far as Thoma could tell, was that the creature couldn't use his weapons, though it seemed like this thing might be above using kunai even if it had hands.
Sun Feb 05, 2012 10:25 pm · id 329669975 · page 1
On sighting the three new kunai Eianicith halted, letting out a low hiss and tilting his head downwards in an unimpressed fashion. Shoulders dropped for a moment with a heaved sigh. They clearly loathed the disadvantage they were put under at having both no weapon and no range.
"Man-thing!" the scorpion cried, then surged forward as the kunai began to fly. His left went first, lashing out with a jab to knock the first weapon from the air, at the same time drawing back his right first and chambering his body, ready to release a fast right to strike cross to strike the second down from chest height, though it was an awkward across-body and aimed-upwards blow.
Using their momentum they swept around, tail lashing out to swipe at the third kunai, but with his back turned it proved too small a target to so easily strike, and thus the weapon hit Eianicith in the back, causing an annoyed hiss as it clashed with his exoskeleton.
Whether or not it did any damage, it hurt.
The tail swipe would give him enough momentum to turn around, regain his balance and keep warning, more furious than ever.
Mon Feb 06, 2012 11:18 am · id 329690425 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Thoma continued to watch as the creature dealt with his kunai and closed a little more space. As he suspected, it would be somewhat troublesome to get off a clean hit on the creature with a kunai as he would have to force it off balance though from what he has seen wouldn't be awfully hard to do, at least compared to a human. All and all, if the fight kept up like this then Thoma wouldn't have to worry, but he had a suspicion that there was more to this creature than it was letting on. For now he would just wait for its approach.
Mon Feb 06, 2012 7:10 pm · id 329725301 · page 1
"Wait...
...wouldn't an exoskeleton that big be... uh, I don't know... heavy?" Thurgood asks nobody in particular.
"Either that or it's thinner than that of other arthropods..." Aveline responds.
Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:11 pm · id 329731255 · page 1
The observation for the stand was right. Due to the square cube law, the density of the exoskeleton had been sacrificed to some degree in favour of compensating Eianicith's size. It was the same reason his tail was slower than a smaller scorpion.
But if his opponent would not halt him, the Zodiac would approach all the way up to Thoma, standing about five feet from him, hissing in a low voice, looking for an opening.
Mon Feb 06, 2012 8:33 pm · id 329733277 · page 1
Thoma Shinuchi
Finally, Thoma had waited for the creature to get close enough so that he could launch an effective surprise attack. Right about when it hit six feet Thoma would thrust his left arm down and three balls would drop into his hand, between his fingers. Leaping back he quickly threw them in a line between him and the creature, one where he was standing, one directly in front of the creature, and one under the creature, as the balls hit they would burst into a large smoke screen, well large enough to cover a normal sized human anyway. This was far from a surprise attack though, before even touching down Thoma reached directly into his jacket, not wasting time with the collar trick as he couldn't be seen anyway and threw a kunai which would be aimed roughly at where the creatures exposed stomach would be in its usual stance.
The kunai was far from like his other ones though, it had a tag wrapped around the handle, and after he put just a tiny bit of chakra into it, within about a half second after it was thrown the tag would burst into flames for a small burst, though that in itself would likely not hurt the creature, mainly because of the other flames. That is, the flames created when the fire from the kunai hit the flammable smokescreen. The smoke was designed to burn at intense heats, but to burn extremely quickly, likely dissipating in less than a second. As such, the creatures exo skeleton would likely keep it safe for the most part as their wouldn't be time to super heat it, but being surrounded in the smoke would leave all soft points of it's body exposed to the heat which would cause at the very least first degree burns all over its exposed flesh.
Still, that was not the end, as he touched down he slammed his left foot down, making a flash bang drop from his pants and bounce on the ground. On the bounce he would lift it with the top of his foot into the air before kicking it towards the opponents head. Unfortunatley the explosive power of it has been removed, and he would have to check later to see if he could return the "bang" to it, but at the very least it still let out a blinding light which would come right after the fierce assault by Thoma. Whether or not Thoma would keep up with this momentum or not depended on the enemies reaction...
Tue Feb 07, 2012 9:00 pm · id 329806049 · page 2
Eianicith stopped and took a step back as the round objects struck the ground. If Thomas had been preparing the follow-up attack before the smoke rose, Eianicith would be visible as they dropped to all fours.
Otherwise, they would wait for the smoke to wash over their dark flesh and then drop. Resisting the urge to hiss, the slitted nose of the zodiac tightened. They were treating it as if it were a sandstorm, the concealing and hazardous conditions. Which was their natural habitat.
If the tag only activated on hit, then there would be no immolating smokescreen, otherwise yes it would light up and it would be quickly revealed that joints seemed to be the most vulnerable areas.
The flashbang would be completely unexpected, and would either sail over their head or detonate early and succeed in temporarily blinding Eianicith, but as it was the bang that caused disorientation, they would maintain their steady, low-to-the-ground balance.
Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:34 pm · id 329834059 · page 2
Thoma Shinuchi
As the flame tag was time based, it would still manage to ignite the smoke, but in some ways, unfortunately for Thoma, he had little ways of knowing that the creature had dropped down on all fours so the kunai would simply continue to sail over his head and drop down in the arena a ways back. The flash bang would also be somewhat unsuccessful though not completely... As it was meant to light up just in front of his face, it would now be almost directly above his head or neck which wouldn't directly blind him but should cause some bad glare for a moment.
Thoma though, having just a moment between the fire and the flash bang, was able to notice the stance that the scorpion had taken up... Proceeding forward at this point would likely be a bad idea as he would simply face the creatures shell and tail. When the flash bang went off, Thoma took that moment to skirt around the creature at a distance of about twelve feet and would make his way to about twenty feet behind it assuming it did not move. This would also allow Thoma to scan the creature for signs of burns as well as see any side affects of those burns...
Thu Feb 09, 2012 12:43 am · id 329880623 · page 2
With the kunai passing overhead and igniting the smoke behind Eianicith, the first instinct was to charge forward with the flames, towards the last location he had seen Thoma. So if there was a delay between kunai and flash bang, the zodiac would not be burnt.
A careful eye would notice, once the flames had subsided, the scorch marks had been most effective on the joints, specifically the armpits, around the base of the neck, the multiple plates on the chest of the scorpion, but additionally the entire creature seemed to be burning.
As said, he had a layer of flesh over his exoskeleton. He was scorpion-like, but not a true arachnid, just an imitation.
Howling in pain he now dove forwards, dropping into a full charge for Thoma, claws now open, tail drawn back to strike, moving to cut him off as to prevent him from using his ranged advantage.
Thu Feb 09, 2012 2:22 pm · id 329902907 · page 2
Thoma Shinuchi
As the flames burned at such extreme temperatures and lasted less than a second, their would have been little to no way for the scorpion man to walk away without burns. His charge however, well that was rather meddlesome, Thoma was sure he could out run him but just in case he would provide... Incentive for the creature to stay back. As he ran he started throwing smoke balls to create a wall between himself and the creature, these balls were a little different than the ones he used before though. While they were the same in appearance, and there was no difference between the appearance of the smoke in these ones, they were not flammable.
He would use around ten as he made his way to the other side of the creature, though depending on what the creature did after that, he may have to change up his strategy...
Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:51 pm · id 329908387 · page 2
Eianicith was in a rage, using adrenaline to override their sense of fear. And as the arena was round, there would be limited room for Thoma to just run. Even if he did run in a circle, the Zodiac would just move to cut him off. He would have to outpace Eianicith by some large degree to actually consistently run to safety.