[Round 3] Patcharoo vs. YummyBiscuits

Marx hopped into the arena with a light splash. Having removed his sandals when he saw the first sign of water, Marx sighed happily with the calming water flowing over his toes. It felt nice.

As a matter of fact, the trip itself, and the few hours before the fight itself, were calming as all get out. The sweet venue had a wonderful calming effect, to anyone who walked through the smallest portion of the vacation resort. Marx could absolutely feel the Prana rushing around! The magic energy was attracted to areas of high emotion; meaning places where emotion could coagulate, prana coagulated with it. Marx was almost too happy with the feeling the air gave him, the energy it had flowing through it.

He had a wide smile on his face, and he absolutely beamed. The healers had done a wonderful job fixing his body up, and he had provided help with the fractured rib that the rock had landed him. Marx was not only in a wonderful place, but he felt top notch! The Djinn couldn't be more confident in the coming battle. No matter who his opponent was, unless they were a water elemental, Marx knew this was in the bag!

Marrx raised an eyebrow. To say the least, a shouting female cat wasn't the opponent the Djinn had been expecting. What good was a cat going to do against a skilled swordsman? The only problem the Djinn could see in the coming battle, besides the obvious weapons in the cat's form, was the things agility. Nevertheless, Marx would hone in on the cat, and his eyes narrowed with that killer instinct.

" Hmm, can't say much about the place. " Marx remarked, before kicking the water idly. " Just your bad luck, and my advantage. " He would seethe with a smirk. Marx was going to capitalize upon every advantage he could get. That last fight was much too close, and he wasn't going to let something like that happen again.

With a subtle shifting of his stance, Marx dropped his hand towards the blade at his waist. His left hand grasped the handle, before pulling the blade out. It had been repaired at the blacksmith's, and was once again at it's top form. Much like it's master. Marx shifted his right foot along the top of the water, before planting the foot, and creating a solid foothold. His left hand raised above his head, pointing the curved blade so it was almost horizontal with his shoulders. He had prepared a stance, and waited for his opponent's reaction. There wouldn't be any foolish running this time.

The referee rose an eyebrow. He was just a man trying to do his job so he could go home to his wife who was the god of the moon and make sweet, sweet love to her as she calls him daddy.

"We are to remain here in case of severe injury. That is all. Other than that, you are allowed to do as you pleased."

The referee then disappeared. He was still there, but she wouldn't know. The more she stalled the fight, the more it may count against her.

When the man moved within ten feet well that sent off alarm bells much much much worse than the ref. That was within her 'kill-range' prompting her to turn sharply, plant both feet into the wet ground and swing her right arm diagonally downwards, launching the concealed viper head attached to a slim ten-foot chain spooled up her wrist. Aimed for the left shoulder, the fanged snake head would bite down and latch on at impact.

"Back off," 'Sassin suddenly called out, bending her knees slightly in preparation to get the hell out if her viper chain failed. Specifically the boosts of her boots would kick into gear, giving a small pulse to work with her own jumping power to launch herself sideways, a lateral dodge moving in the same direction as Marx's strike, which would take her away from it as he swung. She couldn't really afford to back up this close to the arena limits, and he had a sword. She was pretty outclassed if this came to a melee.

Her left fist descended, body tilting forward to throw her curled hand into a rough mash aimed at the nearest edge and center of the blade. Her full weight was aimed to guide the blade down from the front. A normal hand would suffer greatly, both from the physical impact of flesh on metal and the risk of getting split open by the blades edge. But fortunately for 'Sassin she wore robo-gloves, which would at worst be scratched or dented. Of course this would mean her weight was currently aimed forward, and as two feet touched ground she would be slightly hunched towards Marx, head fairly exposed. With her current stance she would not be able to quickly move her feet without re-balancing herself.

With Marx right in front of her she relied on an old trick, warping her snake head into something more practical, specifically an oversized fishing hook and as long and half as thick as an index finger, though lacking the barbs a fishing hook would normally sport. And with that she jerked her right hand backwards, hoping for the hook to embed itself into the back of Marx's ankle. It could easily be a debilitating blow if it hooked deep.

Judge Ruling

In terms of what Patcharoo claimed, I agree that due to the rapid movement of both of your characters. Yummy will indeed not be able to hear the tell tale sign of the chain moving through the water considering the myriad of noises already surrounding them both.

HOWEVER, at the same time, Patcharoo's use of his character's metalmorph ability just to animate his weapon is not viable with the way his character uses its ability.

This is its description:

Quote: Wrote:

> The ability to warp and change the shape of any metal 'Sassin is touching. This extends to any metal touching metal that 'Sassin is touching and so on.

We as judges, having both read and seen it in action, justify that this ability is used as more of a changing of shape. It shouldn't allow for delicate movement such as allowing your chain to suddenly animate like a snake and snag for a limb. That goes outside the use of the ability and you should edit that. Now, I wouldn't mind the ability being used this way, but it would require at least a post of standard concentration, and your character is currently not in the situation to try to make her chain act in this manner. You were probably better off pulling it in and trying to have it catch the back of his foot or something, but nothing as detailed as letting it conveniently clasp onto his ankle. Simplest way I can see that happened is if she was low on the ground and was pulling it. Using metalmorph, your character could erect a blade and have it snag onto a limb. Standing where she is, it'll just follow her pull path and hit somewhere around the calf or thigh area of Marx.

But this is where it gets even more unfair because your character is using her metalmorph ability in an intense situation where she's getting swung at by a sword. She wouldn't have the concentration to even use the ability effectively. The only way I would allow it is if she decided to sacrifice any notion of defense, took the sword strike and spent all her concentration on her ability. Then she could morph her blade and attempt to hit some part of the back of his legs. However, from a combot sense pov, that would be a very bad trade on your part. Yummy can just do what he wants with a blade through her body.

Therefore, my judgment is that Patcharoo must edit his post, for use of that ability in that way is not in the confines of his ability's acceptance in the tournament. At the same time, however, Yummy will not be able to "hear" the counter attack. He chose to attack Patcharoo's character head on after knocking away the chain. Instead of biding caution to "Maybe that thing can be used against me even after I deflected it", he committed to the attack, and so he must reap the consequences of his actions. Keep in mind that Patch's character is just landed from the air, so she has two options to take in the edit of his post:

1) Sassin struck her full weight into a sword with her hands, so her twist is going to throw off her fall and have her take a sloppy landing. Cats always land on their feet, but the narrowness of the situation is too slim for something that perfect at this point. This will delay her action of pulling her chain back for an improvised attack, which would give Sassin a chance to attack her from her down position, though keep in mind, he either chooses to attack her prone position and be prepared for a back attack, or he hesitates in fear that she has something up her sleeve and holds back. Either way, this exchange is going to decide both of your logic scores depending on how you react. It's not so much how you do it as much as, taking all of this into consideration, if it's believable to the judges.

Or 2) Sassin does land perfectly. But her effort in landing so puts a delay into being able to attack back, meaning Yummy has the opportunity of attack before she can even try to use that back snag trick (once again, she won't be able to animate anything).

The choices between them is whether Sassin wants a ground or standing position, and whether she wants to focus on offense or defense. Marx has possession of a light blade, so he can attack successively as long as his blade isn't locked down. That is my decision. Patcharoo, edit then inform your opponent.

'Sassin wasn't able to escape the blade in time, catching it along her arm with a hiss from her mouth as it slashed through clothing and fur which provided little protection to her flesh. Blood was drawn and with the blade above her arm there was little room to push forward and move. But she was far from out.

At such a close range she could be utterly deadly. Hell, she was an assassin wasn't she? She lifted her left foot slightly and pushed it back down to jolt her body back upright to regain her balance and simultaneously went for a push pull strike.

Her right hand, still with the chain and hook embedded in Marx's calf, pulled sharply towards her once more, body turning to the right to wrench it hard with her arm moving behind her body. And at the same time the turning threw her left side forward, left fist aimed right for the throat of Marx, aiming for his windpipe to crack or break it. And with a metal glove that could easily be achieved.

Edit: Due to the confirmed positioning of the sword I couldn't go through with my initial attack.

Judge Ruling

Patcharoo chose to have his character land on her two feet, metalmorph her chain, and proceed to catch Marx's character in the back of his leg. Meanwhile, Yummy's character is going for a second attack. In the timing of things, Yummy's character would be faster with every action taken into consideration, and thus, Patcharoo's character is subject to the attack at her arm. Considering these are gauntlets his character is wearing, we can assume the wrist is mildly protected, so the sword slash at it wouldn't do any good. However, your character is logically more likely to attack the unprotected part of her arm, so I will rule that Yummy attacked Sassin's forearm just past the glove, and gave her a good gash. This will basically make the attack at Marx's leg obsolete.

Due to the lateness of this ruling, this fight will get two extra days of length.

Done.

Apparently Marx was immune to the pain and imbalance of having a hook in your calf violently tugged on, but his movement left also somehow dodged her punch. The blade easily severed the opening under her arm, where she had no defences of which to speak of. But that was okay, she decided it was time to not focus on worrying about getting damaged. They had an infirmary for that. No she was going to do everything within her power to try and win the fight.

Somehow, turning to the right and pulling further backwards had also put her chain beneath her own body, because that's what happens when you pull backwards.

In one deft movement, reeling in pain from the cut to her armpit, she returned in kind, jerking her right hand inwards, fingers held flat as she unleashed a Razor Wind, a little bit of razor sharp magic with a range of ten feet that would utterly fuck up anything it touched that was not metal. And as Marx currently had his sword over to her left side there was almost no way he could block this attack, which was aimed for his entire left side, looking to slice clean through flesh to bone where it would meet something worth resistance. Due to the short range of less than five feet there would be little to not time to react or dodge.

She aimed for waist to shoulder in a slightly angled motion, to account for the fact his two-handed weapon style would have his hands leaning over to HIS right, leaving their outsides exposed. At the same time this sharp upwards motion would jerk violently on the hook in his lane, tearing flesh further from being wrenched in multiple directions. After all, the hook was the size of an index finger. It was hardly a fishing line. The damn thing would be quite literally ripping flesh from bone.

But as the chain was beneath her, it caught her leg. So she went, "Well, fuck it all, might as well throw it in at this point," and raised her leg up in a mighty cunt punt of doom for between Marx's legs, where her Razor Wind wouldn't hit.

'Sassin's leg descended back down to the ground, now with a bruised thigh as she pushed forward, another step towards him as her raised right hand swept sharply to the left in an open palmed strike, which would bring the chain in Marx's leg over the top of his sword-arm, which was lowered to halt the kick.

And with a metal glove a slap to the face would hurt more than a normal punch or fist. It could easily split lips and shatter bones. But hey, if anything she was obviously still trying to avoid the 'no-kill' rules, because she wasn't metal-morphing it into a knife.

'Sassin was damn flexible, so when she saw the incoming strike, going from her leg height which would have been waist at highest up for her jaw she rocked her body backwards to let the jab pass harmlessly into the air. This would pull her slap out of range of Marx's face, but the chain would probably still loop over the blade and or arm.

And then she dropped, downwards and backwards onto her left elbow, which ensued a hiss of pain as she kicked sharply with her right leg for his left, aiming for the shin to remove his balance by kicking it backwards. As her body fell backwards she would also keep grip of the chain with her right hand, which would put the entirety of her falling weight into the hook in Marx's leg.

Her right hand slapped down onto the top of her thigh with the palm upwards, racing the blade to get there. She was relying on the robo glove to be tough enough to wear it, though damage from this blow would be noticeable in a neat line over the hand, as she would try to lift to redirect the blade away. Her knuckles would be quick to fold over the weapon to grip it.

At the same time her right boot flopped sideways on top of her own chain which was still just lying all over the place. And this would be accompanied by a manic stare from the bleeding kitty and the utterance of, "Miao."

A hiss escaped her lips as the blade pierced her flesh, slicing cleanly through to the bone of her shin, which fortunately provided limited protection to valuable tendons and muscles underneath. Her body rocked up and forward, upper half easily moving to a sitting position as she shifted her right boot back upright, now attached to the chain, but subtly below Marx.

"Come down here and give me a hug," she snarled as her right hand grabbed out, aiming for the wrist of Marx this time.

[As they're mutual right arms I'm confused how Marx's right is batting the hand towards her centre, unless you mean away from the grab aimed at his left hand, which was slashing her left (his right)]

This time she was well-prepared. Having taken careful time to prepare her metalmorphing she lurched her foot upwards, right boot kicking to send the hook flying and miraculously curving for between Marx's legs in a wide sharp arc for his neck. With the chain being five foot long from her sleeve, it would easily by six or seven feet extended past her foot.

And with a careful manipulation of the metal, bending it inwards with the momentum kicked up by her foot, the sharp index finger hook was now aimed with surprising force for the back of Marx at neck height. Failing that, it would probably hit his shoulder or collar bones.

Now she drew her hand sharply downwards and inwards to backhand the blade, drawing her arm very close to her chest, so that it was all but pressed against it.

[Reserved]