HoH season 07. Source: valucre.net static Gaia dump.
One of the expansive suites reserved for teams advancing beyond the quarterfinals.
Terrain
General - Sprawling, luxurious private suite complete with three bedrooms, kitchenette, and full bathroom
Weapons - Expensive furniture of all kinds; lamps, tables, chairs, sofas, minibar
Natural Element Resource - None
Bonus Effects - Nobody's looking
Following the end of the quarterfinal matches, each member of the advancing team had been given a new suite entirely to themselves. These new rooms were larger than the previous and included finer services and 24-hour on call room service. Each person had fought their way here and the Hotel rewarded the celebrities with better accomodations.
However, none of these fighters would realize that while they were in their rooms the hotel had been evacuated. Every floor was voided of other guests and staff. They were all outside, equally ignorant of what was happening on the inside of the hotel.
Click. Click. Click.
Beep-BANG-BANG-BANG. Three in the morning, on the dot.
"KALIS! KALIS GET UP!" a female voice yelled through the door, while fists pounded a wakeup call. The expensive panelling distorted the voice enough so that the identity of the speaker would not be easy to determine. But even with the distortion, panic was obvious.
"SOMEONE'S HURT OWLE, KALIS! HELP! THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHE--!"
KA-RACK!
THUD.
-FWUMP-
There are many ways to wake a man up with a smile on his face.
A pleasant smell of food.
Soft music.
Letting him sleep in until the sun was beginning it's descent.
A gentle kiss.
The sound of a shower running without the bathroom door shut.
This was that sort of thing that drew quite a different reaction.
"THE HELL-!?"
Kalis turned over onto his belly, twisting out of the covers that he'd dragged with him as the pounding made him jump right out of his bed.
The hell- Owle, someone, Owle- ********>
He hardly processed the words, only that Owle was hurt and something unfriendly was out there. Shirtless, his clothes were strewn across the room except for the belted pants and socks he'd at least worn to sleep.
No more thought than that, Kalis rushed to the door, forgetting even his sword, and slammed the door open.
Rushing straight into whatever was out there, near bare, unarmed, and unprepared.
Kalis would find the hall absolutely empty.
"Unngh..." came a groan from inside the suite. An Owle-shaped silhouette appeared behind the minibar, but a general lack of clothing was obvious even in the dark.
"Kalis... help me please..." her shaky voice came, sounding as though her jaw were still wired shut.
Maybe this should have sent off a mental alarm, somewhere in his mind. Rather than putting the pieces together into anything coherent though, he was simply taking them as they came. Panic, and that period of cloudiness following sleep, both lent to it.
"Owle-!"
Kalis spun from the door, red eyes wide and catching in what faint light there was.
Panic.
He forgot even to grasp for the lights as he rushed straight toward the form already within his room.
Without mental clarity, there was little hope of discovering the deception at play.
She sobbed, but kept her distance. "Oh Kalis, this woman-- She-- She--"
The form of Owle suddenly changed, but not in an expected way. She grew taller, head and shoulders above Kalis. Then a new voice emanated from above his head.
"She's been waiting for you."
With a sudden jerk of her left arm, a bar glass went flying at Kalis's head. While he would deal with the projectile, her right hand grasped her nearby staff, thrusting the bladed end toward his abdomen.
"What the-!?"
Confusion.
Kalis flashed his arms up, stumbling backward as the glass cracked, glancing off in one piece- until it struck a harder piece of furniture behind him and shattered- leaving a small red line up his arm.
The distance helped, but it didn't stop the thrust slicing a shallow wound over his side as he continued backward from the further assault, nearly tumbling over as glass peices bit at him through the socks.
He retreated, frentically, back and back in attempt to escape until he hit the wall behind him.
s**t! What am I-!?
He shoved off to the side, backing up further, deeper into the room again but always away. Trying to keep his distance and avoid being cornered as he collected his mind.
But panic was already being quickly replaced.
The woman hadn't been aiming to gut him, so the wound to his side wouldn't be deep. She'd actually meant to thrust en passe and not hit him at all.
So much for fighting accurately in the dark.
Regardless, the half-moon-shaped blade nicked his side and kept going. But he wouldn't get a chance to hit the wall, as the woman violently jerked back and to her left on the staff, ensuring that the sharpened point would impale him in the kidney.
"You would do well to remember the name of your early demise. I am Leia."
Skysong Moonsword Wrote:The woman hadn't been aiming to gut him, so the wound to his side wouldn't be deep. She'd actually meant to thrust en passe and not hit him at all.
So much for fighting accurately in the dark.
Regardless, the half-moon-shaped blade nicked his side and kept going. But he wouldn't get a chance to hit the wall, as the woman violently jerked back and to her left on the staff, ensuring that the sharpened point would impale- Air.
If the thrust kept going past Kalis, the reaction of the open hands by his sides was going to be a lot different.
The length of the passing thrust put Kalis right hand almost right on top of the pole.
And he took hold tight, on an ingrained instinct, throwing his body weight back in a whip of motion to clamp his left hand over her leading, or only as case might be, hand to keep himself parallel to the polearm. So instead of stabbing into him, it'd just thump the pole against his stomach, providing her with little but a good way to haul him around at her discretion.
What am I-!?
This time, it was a snarl.
The reversion to soldier, keeping himself within the polarm's arc in combat, put an immediate brake on the scared little boy instinct to get away from something unknown coming after him.
Keeping his grip, the red eyes flashed up at hers. Blazing.
And his left hand woud tighten inexplicably over hers, nearly inescapable, closing it over the pole. And Chaos began to pour out.
"I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE!"
He was probably in for a wild ride, but he intended to hang on. In a few short seconds his palm would be bloody and blistered, and Leia's hand-
"Wh't've you done with them!?"
-well, she'd only have one of them.
Kalis Acineres: Abilities Wrote:
Kalis Acineres: Abilities Wrote:
Kalis's hands would be nowhere near her own, as the pole of the bladed staff alone was eight feet in length. She was holding onto the other side of the halfway mark, while he would grasp closer to the blade furthest from her. She had kept her distance when he'd approached.
The distance between them, and a certain personal finesse with her own weapon, would prevent his hand from clamping down on hers. That, and he'd made it so obvious.
If he decided to continue with his chaos attack, it would flow along the light inlays of the staff, burning them deeper into the wood, but not affecting its overall stability.
Leia smirked at his query. "Why do you deserve to know?"
With more strength than one would imagine, she used her fore hand, her left hand, as a fulcrum and pulled with her hind, or right hand, the end of the weapon behind her and to her left with all of her might. She was fighting Kalis for control, apparently trying to wrest the weapon from him. And all the while, she whispered inaudibly in a foreign tongue.
She wouldn't need to fight with Kalis for control of the weapon. As she hauled back, he stepped in with it, crossing his left arm over the right with the step to bring him even closer, leaned over the polearm a little to keep it getting above him and in the way.
"Obviously, you haven't tried Athan-"
His right arm came up in an arc instead of crossing forward again even as he spoke. He'd be getting real close real quickly. If he'd been armed, the proximity alone would have spelled a victory over someone with a war-length polearm.
Wait. He wasn't exactly unarmed, was he?
Psychofish Wrote:
There'd be nothing to see, just a ripple in the air that the darkness would more than cover. And his hand would yet be a good foot or two from reach of any soft target on the woman.
And a force like blades would draw cut in, drawing deep lines up her collar bone, into her neck, and up the face to the final destination- slashing her eyes out.
"-because even roughed up he'd have wiped the floor with sum' flunk out assassin."
As if that were the end.
He'd keep stepping with the pole, not trying to control but just hang on, as he closed the distance between them to redouble the assault.
That is, if the massive bleeding incured by a slashed out neck and having her eyes hacked in half wouldn't deter her.
Psychofish Wrote:She wouldn't need to fight with Kalis for control of the weapon. As she hauled back, he stepped in with it, crossing his left arm over the right with the step to bring him even closer, leaned over the polearm a little to keep it getting above him and in the way.
Except she hadn't been lifting up. Leia had been pushing him to her right, not attempting to lift it out of his reach. With a quick jerk of her right hand, she slammed the pole hard into his hips. In all honesty, she was just wasting time.
Realizing that her weapon was the only connection between them, and the only thing allowing him to move closer, she gave it one good shove in his direction. Then, as he made to attack her, she quite simply fell on her a**.
All right, the motion was more graceful than that. She'd fallen to the rear to complete a backwards somersault, ending in a runner's ready position crouched on the floor. His attack left a neat, light line of blood to the right of her spine, hitting her as she rolled.
It was then that she completed her spell. The sharpened metal plates on the back of her fingerless gloves crackled and sparked. Finding another bar glass near her hand, she flung it at his head. While he would be preoccupied with dodging the projectile, she lunged forward to somersault under the blade of her own weapon. Landing on her feet, she would deliver a shocking uppercut to his groin.
Somehow, though it had turned into a roll backward, her falling on her butt was at an amazing speed. Invisible arcs of kinetic force concentrated, rolling off his fingers, arm already coming up, had been slow enough that her head cleared completely, passing down from the top to the bottom of their arc before they covered the distance. Somehow.
But Kalis was no physics major, he wasn't going to pause and boggle over that.
He had it about the center, rather than one end. So, though it was far too large to be a proper quarter staff, it was closer to it than if he'd been trying to make use of one end. He could work with that.
Kalis spread his hands about two feet apart on the length, stepping backward and around as she rolled and came up, crackling now.
"Your Owle impersonation wasn't caught up, so you musn't have checked in there."
He backed towards his bed, watching her pick up the glass. Holding the staff in front of him at a 45 degree angle, bladed end still sloping up over his head, butt not far from the ground.
Then she proved how little she knew about Kalis. He didn't dodge the glass. No, he took a single step backward, and thrust the haft of the spear forward, bending his knees to keep the broken peices flying into his eyes. Still burning right in her direction.
"And if a clumsy a** like you had gone after Flare, you'd be a crispy critter."
So if she rushed him, he wouldn't be distracted, or holding the blade out already. Not to mention the greater distance between them would alter how time played out a little.
No, if she rushed Kalis, he'd bob the end of the staff in her direction in a feint, and, regardless of if she tried to move out of the way of that or stayed still, make his move then.
Already in position, it wouldn't be hard for him to smash the butt of the spear into either her face if she was crouched way over to make a small target, or the oversized woman's stomach if she was upright, stepping backward as he stretched his arms into the push, and letting go as soon as the follow through finished. That was when he'd dodge, stepping quickly to the side as he ditched the spear, hopping backward up onto his bed and keeping his feet close enough to step quickly, waiting for the next assault.
"So then, if all you're good for is head games, you'd better leave. Now."
Since her weapon was a staff, and not a spear, both ends had blades. The blade thrust at her head bounced off of her shoulderguard, sending a good amount of vibration into her right shoulder. Unfortunately, her punch missed entirely. Her gloves continued to crackle.
To her luck, he threw her weapon away and backed off. It landed near her feet, and she picked it up with her left hand.
Psychofish Wrote:"So then, if all you're good for is head games, you'd better leave. Now."
"I cannot," she said simply.
With a flick of her wrist, the bladed staff spun from her left to her right hand. A half-thrust served to put more of the staff in his direction, and then came the attack. Grip firm in both hands and with the blade parallel to the ground, she thrust it at his knees.
Again came the almost inaudible chant.
She spun the staff, and he tensed, leaning backward and digging his heels in and bending his knees a little. She'd picked it up again, but he could deal with that. Just...
Magic stuff. All of 'em. This time... electricity? No, there might be more.
"Then you're s**t out of luck."
She moved, and he responded, lucky that his response had been readied to act the same against any assault. He might have been in trouble if he'd been trying to watch for that one.
Kalis pushed off, half jumping and half falling backward and off the bed, onto the floor on the far side. It would have been cool to say he did a dramatic close-dodge and had the legs of his pants cut, but this just wasn't the case this time.
He planted on knee and the other foot, grabbing his instrument left by the side.
And started to draw the blade quickly, head up and watching for what came next.
He didn't know what this was about, but he was going to end it.
As her thrust missed its mark, Leia raised the staff high and, with a flick of her wrists, flipped the orientation of the blades to be perpendicular to the ground. At the high point, she uttered the final words of the spell. This one was slightly shorter, and its result could be clearly seen: the blades of Leia's staff erupted in a ghostly blue-green flame that would not be put out by ordinary means. Magic is a b***h like that sometimes.
At the apex of the swing, Leia would lunge with her fore foot like a fencer, simultaneously bringing the pole of the staff crashing down on Kalis's back.
"My friend, it is you who is out of luck. You were chosen, after all."
Move out of the way?
Hell no.
Kalis dug in his heel and brought the kneeling leg up, his right wrist flicking to center, pulled low, as the left dropped the sheath and went to the end of the hilt. He stood, leaning straight up and into her as he let the staff strike him full on the back. And at the same moment it struck, you see, he'd have lunged straight up and under her arms. Her blow across his back had practically placed him there already. Dangerous territory, but within her gaurd. That zone he loved where each combatant was almost absolutely at the mercy of the other.
The blade was in his hands, held low, parallel to his body as he moved in, taking the blow as his arms thrust.
"-HURG!"
More exertion of his arms, driving the blade upward, than from the blow.
The point of the sword buried itself into Leia's stomach, and traveled upward, his hands pushing the blade up hard, until the tip burst out again from between her shoulder and neck.
Skysong Moonsword Wrote:A half-thrust served to put more of the staff in his direction...
His lunge would not get him nearly close enough, as Leia had not closed distance aside from her standing lunge (just an extended step with one foot), and was holding onto the staff in the last foot and a half before the blade furthest from him. Her arms extending with the lunge simply gave her another three feet of distance between them.
As soon as he took the hit, she recollected herself from the lunge, jerking her staff back with her. The blade was still perpendicular to the ground, so the point would be jerked into his body. To ensure that it would stick even with his lunge at her abdomen, she retreated in a lithe reverse crossover and gained another five feet. Her arms extended once more as she moved, keeping the staff in place for a moment before jerking back on it once more.
If the point wouldn't catch, the flames would at least burn him moderately.
Kalis lunged forward into it, staff smashing down on his back as he thrust in. The blade would sink into flesh, sinking the tip in. Only, as he was charging forward to push it beyond the first few inches and angle it upward, she started retreating.
What came of it was him stepping headlong in, pushing it deeper and starting to pull downward so he could get the right angle to shove it up where it would surely catch vitals.
Then she stepped her front leg back.
It'd twist the blade sideways in her wound as it started to come up and make it larger, but the turn was ultimately removing the tip from her side. Assumably, the turn would pull her blade away from over his back as well, leaving a small red line surrounded by inflamed skin along his lower back, as both their weapons disengaged.
The red eyes darted from her eyes to the near tip of her staff, and back again. He was out from the zone of vulnerability, but-
Gotta keep pressing-!
He drew back, moving the foot toward her new front side; his left forward if hers was, his right forward if her right was. The blade come reflexively up to a vertical guard at his head. But if she didn't force him back before he was able to get the moving foot 90 degrees around and behind him, the blade would flip around in an arc at the back of her thigh, looking to sink the blade through the hamstrings, as he leaned back, taking his weight off his front foot.
The tip of blade had sunk into her abdomen, a little inside of her right hip. Her reverse crossover involved no twisting of her upper body, any movement of her body began at the floor and ended at the hip joint, so the sword pulled out cleanly. Blood bubbled and oozed out slowly. There was little muscle damage, so she ignored what might be an intestinal rupture for the moment.
As her own weapon pulled free, the flames extinguished themselves since the spell had been nullified with his blood. Her right foot would be in the fore, but her torso faced forward, shoulders squared.
Wasting no time, she thrust the blade at his left shoulder, trying to back him against the wall. The center of the curve would connect just at the inside of the joint and sink in at least an inch unless he did something to defend himself.
His blood was starting to pound. It wouldn't be long before he started sweating too, but Kalis was focused even as the fight burned hotter in him as their combat continued.
Go.
Crimson eyes snapped to the motion, and his sword pivoted from it's vertical guard, coming forward and to his left to strike the side of the staff with the flat of the blade, pushing forward and left to throw it off it's course to his rear shoulder even as he turned his shoulders further and stepped his front foot forward.
Move.
"Hrra-"
Don't think-
Stance widened, his upper body now practically turned parallel to the staff, he leaned that with the lower body lunge, he kept sliding the blade forward and against the staff as the lunge increased his range; and with a sudden furvor as his upper body came forward, a burst of strength tearing it down her staff's length- tearing off a chip of wood and continuing if any of those inlays were deep enough to catch the edge- on a course to tear the fingers off her leading hand.
Just fight.
Leia's thrust had been a feint, so not much force had been put into it. As Kalis snapped into action, she simultaneously took another crossover step back and popped the staff up, only to slam it back down in an upside-down V. It just barely cleared the end of his sword. The point of the blade would have come down just beyond his right shoulder, ready for another stab in the back... had he not rotated his facing.
Now, the blade's trajectory was on course with the top of his head, and she could do nothing to prevent what might be the end of her opponent. Diamond-edged steel hurts like a b***h.
Don't think-!
His burning eyes followed the staff as it turned up and around his parry, doing exactly a feint's job. His guard was misplaced. And as he realized it, he didn't have time to replace the guard, but-
His right foot stuck to the ground like it'd been nailed there*, and turned his swing deftly toward the side the blade was coming on, leaning his torso in hard as he let go with his right hand, left arm straining for all it was worth and more**, and-
Just keep your eyes open AND FIGHT!
-thuck-
"Agh-!"
He'd had just enough time to lean in further forward and downard, flipping his shoulders most of the way to forward again.
He hadn't been brained.
But the edge of the blade had buried deep enough into the muscles high on his back that it wasn't entirely certain it hadn't knicked bone, stopped going deeper by the staff striking his shoulder.
His right hand had it's hold up the staff, two feet up the staff from his shoulder's contact point. And pulling.
Blood flew as his turn continued to twist him free, cutting the wound a touch wider. Kalis' lips curled up in an snarl as he spun using the planted foot as his pivot, pulling with the right arm and flung the left leg forward, finishing into a full body turn as the swing continued. His sword, in the left hand, was coming her direction already, and the turn of his body did all the adjustment for him of changing the swing already in progress into a doward arc.
Because of how the spin had moved him forward, the arc coming downward would be landing squarely on the staff near the sword blade's base.
Landing with tremendous force.**
The sword came down right through the wooden staff like it was nothing, and through the middle of her upperarm, bone and all, much the same, ending the swing planted into the floor.
The object he'd been holding on released, unfortunately, Kalis' wild turn would cause him to fall flat onto his face on the far side from her of the sword, still gripping cut-off staff piece and sword hilt.
*See "Clamp"
**See "Grarr"
Time Ova, Waaaaaaah!
Kalis faces defeat for not laying the smackdown quickly enough.
Eliminated.
Appealed, progression.