Vallenguard 1 - Introduction

Yuri sighed. The girl had lost! Too bad, she seemed to have strange, powerful potential that even she didn't know about. The girl called for her mother, not out of fear but for forgiveness. Maybe she had a sad past too.
But the next match was his. Yuri walked swiftly to the arena, awaiting his opponent.

Even inside the inn of the arena, Ledah managed to hear the roars of excitement from the crowd
"What? Over already? such a pity, i thought that it would drag on longr... I wonder who was the one who lot. Ah, ain't my business, best get going." he muttered betwen sips of ale.
With that, he got up and left the inn still holding the mug, not even bothering to pay the tab as he strolled out back to the waiting room

Ella’s head flopped as she became unconscious, her limp body hanging in the air as Mikael continued the death lock on her. He knew that the hold would eventually break her spine, but he did not care for her life. Mikael looked up to see a familiar figure walked over to him.

“Let her live. She‘s not the type we‘re after.”

At the command of the man, Mikael dropped Ella to the ground, and walked off, not caring about the state Ella was in. The man caught up with Mikael, just as he limped into the makeshift medical tent. Two men in white came running out of the tent with a stretcher, to retrieve Ella and try to fix her wounds.

“This man needs that dagger out of his leg and his wounds closed straight away!” Demanded the man.

“W-we do n-not take orders from nobody! I-it has to be the contestant’s ch-choice if they want to be healed or not.” Replied the chief of the medical staff, clearly not wanting to stick with the rules of the game.

Mikael let out a deep growl, as he turned his head into the direction of the chief. He limped up to the chief and pointed at the blade stuck in his leg.

“Oh dear, seems like you’ve angered my friend.” Said the man as he pulled out his sword, “And people usually don’t survive when he’s angry.”

“I’ll get to it right away! I just need your name, for the record sheet.” replied the chief as he signalled his staff to come pull the dagger out of Mikael’s leg.

“The name’s Marinus Aqwar, and I’m the official ‘speaker’ for Mikael. He’s been a little out of touch with his voice since the war.” Said Marinus as he swung his sword upwards and into it’s sheath.

Ledah strode ino the waiting room to see no one around except for the strange announcer man
"You are... Ledah i believe? Yes, no one else wears a coat like that, either way your match is up next, go down the hallway behind me and turn left," The man said
A grin spread across Ledah's face and he storde down the hallway as he muttered to himself, "so its finally my turn? Good!, lets show dwon what i'm made off"
He laughed heartily to himself as he strode down the hallway.

Yuri looked up as he heard the brisk footsteps approach him in the arena.
A man strode up to him, grinning from ear to ear, wearing a strange coat. Yuri studied his opponent carefully. He seemed strong, but Yuri wouldn't be sure until he actually fought this guy.
"The match is about to start!'' The announcer shouted into the microphone. "The second match is-" The man looked at the two fighters.
"Yuri versus Ledah!" The crowd cheered wildly, obviously favoring the muscle man in the strange coat over the quiet young boy. Yuri looked into Ledah's fierce eyes.
"May the stronger one win,'' Yuri said quietly to Ledah.

Ledah scrutinised the boy in front of him. The boy didn't seem to have any special charcteristics that would prove dangerous to him but he dicided to play it safe. However, he was disappointed that he had to fight one of his own kind in the first round rather than a human or an elf especially but it looked like he would have no choice. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out his axe which was almost 3 quaters of his size and pointed it at the boy as if it were a mere sword.
"Good luck to you as well boy, try not to die, i don't like killing my own kind," he muttered in the most polite way he could find for the boy for respect for his bravery
However to the bewilderment of the crowd, instead of charging head-on, Ledah hammered the axe into the ground in front of himself and pulled the cloak deep over his body, making it look like there was a wolf in the arena instead of a human. Hidden under the cloak, Ledah began chanting a spell, one that rang through the entire arena. If there was one thing he had learnt after being hunted for so long, it was that a head-on charge resulted in nothing but problems for him

Yuri stared at the man. Ledah had pulled out a huge axe. At first Yuri watched his movements carefully. Although axes were heavy and slow, they were powerful and their blows were always fatal.
But Yuri was surprised when the man instead crouched to the ground and wrapped his large cloak around him. Ledah shifted from a crouching person to a large, fierce and growling wolf.
The wolf did not move, poised to attack, but instead stood still and growled deeply. Yuri soon realized that the wolf-man was murmuring a spell. It had to be something powerful, or else it would not take this long to cast...
Yuri was unsure of what to do. Charging head on was like a death wish, but he did not know what his opponent was planning either. He stood there for a moment pondering on what his next action should be.
The crows was getting bored. They booed and shouted for action.
Yuri decided. He steadied the rhythm of his heartbeat and started to circle Ledah. At first, the boy was just pacing around the wolf. But Yuri went faster and faster, from a blur, until the wolf could see nothing.

Ledah grinned to himself, being able to see everything due to small holes he had cut in the wolf. His spells were very unlike those used by most people and he knew it himself full well. His opponent was now a blur that may be true but that dosen't mean he couldn't try to stop it. With that, he made slight reconfigurations to the spell and finished it. This resulted in a great earth tremor, causing even quite a few of the audience memebers to lose their footing. Pulling himself up slightly disoriented from his own spell, he pulled the great axe up to his shoulder and charged forward toward his opponent, bringing down a great downward slash upon the ground which surrounded him with spikes of earth in a 1 metre radius.

The earth seemed to tremble violently, startling Yuri. What a powerful spell! This half-elf, one of his own kind, was immensely powerful. Where did one being gain so much mana to cast such a huge spell?
Yuri knew he couldn't run anymore; doing so would only make him lose his footing. Ledah suddenly charged at him, axe coming fast. Yuri was fast and alert, though, and, while dodging spikes springing out of the earth, Yuri searched for a weakness in Ledah's strong defense. As Ledah was about to strike, Yuri vanished.
A split second after, Yuri was behind the wolf-man, his scythe slamming towards Ledah's back.

The sudden disappearance of his opponent took him by surprise and by the time he realised the prescence behind him, he was to late to et away unharmed. Jumping foward, he grimaced in pain as the blade of the sythe slashed his two legs, the cutbiting deeper into his left leg over the right leg. Forcing himself to stand, Ledah laughed heartiy tohimself. To see the young of his kind being able to fight well impressed him. Giving his opponent a thumbs up, Ledah pointed the axe at his opponent as if it were a toy and the next second, the spiked tip of his axe flew at his opponent like a harpoon, rapidly closing in on his opponent. With that, his axe had lost almost half its weight. However, he realised his predicament. He was in a position where it was almost impossible to run now... meaning he would require heavy dependance on magick to get by. Hammering the axe into the ground, he began to lean on it, drawing all magic possible out of it and the surrounding ground. The earth tremor before had drained his power extensively and leeching it out of the earth was his only alternative left... this was so going to piss off the elves.
Right before everyones eyes, the land around Ledah was bled dry of the life esscence in it which was mana. A majority of the crowd had begun to jeer and gasp in horror as the land slowly began to die. Holding his palm forward, Ledah proceeded to fire an earth base spiral at his opponent, laughing maniacally as the power began to slightly overwhelm him.
"For my goal, all expense can be paid!"

By the time the match had started, the medics had only just been able to pull Mikael’s dagger out of his leg. Marinus had walked out of the tent to catch a glimpse of the next fight up close. Marinus was surprised at how young one of the contestants was, looking no older than 18. His interest in the match greatly rose when the other contestant’s cape turn into a wolf figure. The speed of the young man also came as a surprise to Marinus, as he had rarely seen someone able to run that fast. The earthquake that had caught Marinus off guard, and he almost fell over from the impact.

Mikael came limping out of the tent, sliding his dagger back into it’s sheath with blood still dripping from it.

“The young one seems to have the quite an advantage after hacking into the other contestant’s calves, but the older man knows how to use magic effectively.” Marinus said to Mikael, informing him of what had happened.

Both Mikael and Marinus walked over to where the ground seats were. Mikael sat down to save what energy he had left in his leg, while Marinus leaned against the wall. Mikael watched on, staring intensely, trying to find any sort of weakness in the contestants in case if he had to fight one of them in the next round.

The earthquake was no surprise. But Yuri gritted his teeth and thought fast. The earth was twisting and spiraling uprward towards him, a bit too fast for him to dodge. It was too late. Yuri would have to bear the damage and hope for the best.
A large crest of spikes sprung from the ground, wickedly digging into the flesh of the youth's left leg. Yuri was obviously in pain, but he was fighting it. Using all the energy he could muster in his right leg, he hopped out of the way just in time to dodge the next spike.
Yuri was gone again.

"Tch, even with one leg he is still so speedy... how interesting," he remarked as he pulled the remainder of the axe out of the ground stopping the drain. Using another spell, he got the ground to move in return for his damaged pair of legs, using it to inch closer to the mace tip of his axe while keeping a look out for the boy.

"He has a rather distinct pattern. Tremors, followed by an overhand cleave... those piercing spines are a distraction as well. As for the youth... his invisibility could be troublesome. He seems to need to drop it before he strikes, however. One would need to be aware of his surroundings against such an opponent."

Soreliss watched attentively from his seat in the lower arena, his keen eyes making note of the contrast of size between the two combatants. He was eager to raise his blades to either.

Yuri couldn't keep this up. The pain in his left was eating at him, and running didn't exactly help. He knew speed was not the answer, and Yuri desperately tried to formulate a plan.
Yuri skid to a stop just as a huge spike burst out of the ground, catching him completely off guard. He couldn't jump out of the way, so he accelerated and ran up the spike. Jumping to the wall, he shot off of it and aimed himself right for Ledah.
"Think fast!" Yuri yelled through the noise.
The youth studied his opponent and the crumbling surroundings, then to the crowd's annoyance, disappeared yet again.

Ledah grunted as the boy disappeared again. Releasing the ground mpovement spell, he let himself fall into the ground before using his cloak to cover the hole he was in. He was draining his magiks like water after having had both of his legs immobilised and the only way left was to drain it from his surroundings seeing how his axe skills were only slightly above average. There was only one way left and he knew it wouldn't be easy. Staying underground, he placed his axe above himself as a form of shield while concealing everything under the cloak. Bracing himself, he began yet again to chant another spell.

Above? Why above?
Yuri frowned as Ledah started to cast another spell. I can't let him, he thought, or I might actually die in this fight.
Yuri increased speed just a little. He tapped Ledah's axe lightly, so that Ledah swung and Yuri ducked just in time. Yuri then proceeded to slash Ledah between the legs.
''Sorry, man.'' Yuri jumped back as Ledah lurched over in pain.

Rolling to a halt not far away, Ledah had by some miracle managed to block all attacks inflicted from reaching his pelvis though his legs had been cut to a state worse than they had been in before however, he had made it in time.

"Sorry for you pal!" he snarled as he finished his incantation. Using the axe as a fulcrum, he forced himself to jump and immediately locked Yuri in a bear hug before Yuri could jump any higher, Ledah's entire body beginning to glow on contact. He grinned from ear to ear as his life energy(mana) began to replenish as he drained it from his opponent bit by bit. His gamble had succeeded for some part but he knew that he still needed to keep the hold and so, using every once of energy he had left, he tried to lock his opponent in place as long as possible, hoping that it would be long enough for him to drain enough to incapacitate his opponent, he wouldn't want to kill his own kind, that went against his moral values.

Yuri gasped in surprise. This man was a parasite!
"Mmmph!!" He mumbled in Ledah's bear hug. The man was surprisingly strong. Yuri felt ounce by ounce of energy draining from his body...
Yuri didn't want to lose because Ledah was stealing his mana. What a lame way to die.
Yuri used all he had left and shoved his scythe right through the guy's stomach. Pushing back with a groan, Yuri managed to pull himself away. He stammered back, taking cover behind one of the spikes to recover himself.

Ledah gave one final yell in surprise before falling to the ground
already half-dead. That attack had come to him as a great surprise, no
doubt the boy had alot more in him than Ledah had believed. Spitting
out a mouthful of blood, Ledah forced himself to stand, slowly
shuffling over to his axe and pulling it up.
"P-perhaps, this boy could...fu-fufill that wish of mine....." he
sigh,wracking up another mouthful of blood as he held his arm to his
stomach.
He had drained enough mana, enough to prevent his stomach for
puncturing totally and for him to die here, but even his body had
limits.
"I'm such a hypocrite... but, if my opponent is another half-elf...."
he laughed, pulling his axe into a battle stance, glaring and Yuri for
afew seconds before hammering the axe hard into the ground, creating
one small tremor before giving Yuri a thumbs up
"W-what can I say kid, you've g-got guts, a lot m-more than I had
figured, well, I'm tired... Its b-been almost 5 years since I've actually bothered to cast spells in a fight... huh, if you hadn't got my legs first, maybe I could've have just slammed all I had into you rather than using it to move but... well you can't change the past," he coughed, splattering yet another pool of blood on the ground, " you better do our kind proud kid, or I'll kill you'll myself after this "game" is over... just kidding, well I look forward to seeing you again after the tourney, maybe we can train together then."
With one last laugh, he picked up his coat and put it back round himself, sliding the gargantuan axe neatly into the coat such that it was out of sight.
"All right you fucking lot who are watching this you hear me! I'm resigning the rest of the match, I don't care for your comments so fuck you!" he bellowed, pointing the middle finger with both his hands to the crowd before making his way to the medical centre. However, he still managed to turn around and mutter to Yuri one last time, "well boy, be seeing you then, lets train after the tourney kay, I'd like to see what you can really do." With that he gave Yuri a thumbs up once more and made his way straight to the med tentage thing.

He did it. The fight was over.
Yuri sat down wearily, not quite believing that he had won. Well, he hadn't actually won, but Ledah resigned. The guy was strong, but Yuri didn't understand why he had just quit. Maybe he hadn't wanted to hurt his own kind? Ignoring the booing of the crowd, Yuri limped to the infirmary and tended his wounds.
Yuri hoped the next fight was interesting.

"Finally" Connor said to himself as he walked towards the entrance of the arena. His hand on his blade Connor looked around for the man who would be his opponent

(Is there a set order? Or do I just jump in?)

The elf made his slow way down to the arena floor, his blades hanging from the scabbards at his hip and back. At last, he emerged past the last layer of spectators, still hungry for blood from their disappointment. It was slightly distasteful to realize that they hoped to be sated from his performance. Such vulgar motives to witness such an exquisite event. The dance of his blades in the sun would be captivating. He only hoped they would not wish too much for them to be coated in blood.

He reached the floor, and stood facing his opponent, spending a moment performing some last stretches, to limber himself. At last, he was ready to perform.

Connor studied his opponent. He seemed nimble, as most elves did. Drawing his twin longswords he readied himself for the elf to make the first move.

Soreliss stuck his left leg forward, and bowed over it, then rose back up. In the same motion, his weapons had found their way out of their sheaths and into his hands. Without another word of warning, he had pounced forward onto Connor like a cat. His longsword swept a glittering arc through the quickly duskening sky, meeting his blade with a ring of steel. The shortsword in his other hand jabbed forward, weaving out and in like a seamstress' needle, plying and probing Connors defenses. The momentum of one last stroke from his blade carried Soreliss whirling back on his heel, landing just out of the reach of Connor's blades. Landing on one foot, he strafed back towards his left, beginning to circle the warrior, his swords occasionally jabbing out in sudden strikes.