The Games of Saberhaven
Prince Kroobor vs. Sade
The names are called, and the contestants enter. At the one end, Sade flies through with his batwings, tentacles writhing from his sides. His horrendously ugly face is twisted with a misshapen smile--Sade is enjoying himself.
At the other end, Prince Kroobor regally walks into the Arena. He seems everything that Sade is not--serene, dignified, majestic... Sunlight glitters from his silver scales, and his robes flutter in the slight breeze.
Kroobor waves a taloned claw, and at the other end of the Arena, a lightning bolt appears with a crack of thunder, lancing into Sade, hitting the wall, and rebounding back. Sade seems unaffected.
"I have studied you, Sade," Prince Kroobor calls across the Arena. "You like to open with long-range spells and then move to melee in the mid-game." The half-dragon priest pats his two mighty flails, jutting from his belt. "Now that you face someone who can match you, would you like to skip the main course and get right to dessert?"
Sade says nothing, only flies forward slowly.
"So be it then," Kroobor says. "You have actually chosen wisely." The Prince touches his right flail. "Your kind cannot survive this one's touch." He begins to walk forward, his head swiveling quickly back and forth. The Prince seems to be looking for something, and paying Sade no mind. At one point, Kroobor disappears and reappears about three feet ahead.
About 30 seconds later, Kroobor swings his head to the left, and his narrows his eyes. He waves a claw, and suddenly there is a huge zone of fog, forming a cube about 30 feet across, suspended about 20 feet off the ground, and about 50 feet from the Prince.
Kroobor suddenly leaves his feat, and zooms towards the fog bank he has just created, his robes flapping behind him. As he flies towards the fog, he unhitches his rods and gets them into attack position. He blinks again, but merely corrects his course. Face etched with determination, the Prince blasts into the fog.
Just as he does so, however, Sade appears about 100 feet in the sky, directly above the fog bank. He is glowing oddly blue, and seems quite disoriented. His wings flap slowly, keeping him aloft, but Sade seems very confused. He is scorched and burned in some places--apparantly he was unable to evade the Prince's opening lightning bolt.
Prince Kroobor erupts out of the fog, and flies determinedly upwards towards Sade, wispy tendrils trailing from him before disappearing.
The crowd holds its breath--Kroobor is rising slowly, but steadily, perhaps ten feet every five or six seconds. At one point he is aided by his blinking as he disappears and reappears about ten feet closer. Sade continues to flap about in confusion. Will Kroobor get there before Sade shakes off whatever is disorienting him?
Yes! Just as Kroobor is about to reach him, Sade shakes his head and scans about alertly. His eyes widen as he sees the half-dragon Prince about to pound him with his flails, and quickly draws his rapiers and a saber--one in each hand, and one in each tentacle. He tries to get into defensive position, but the Prince is on top of him...
Kroobor lashes out with his flails. The two heads of Kroobor's first flail both slam into Sade, bouncing away with small CHINKs, though they glow and shimmer for a moment as they land, and Sade grits his teeth as he fights off some mystic power. Kroobor swings his next flail, but Sade manages to duck and avoid the huge metal heads. Unfortunately, Kroobor manages to hit him again with the first flail. One head slams into Sade, again bouncing off and glowing wickedly, but the second head goes haywire, bouncing off the first flail-head's rebound and glancing off Kroobor's hand. The Prince manages to hold on to his weapons, but his attack routine is ruined.
Sade grins, and uses the opening to lash into Kroobor with his own weapons. His first strike misses entirely as Kroobor deftly avoids the thrust, but his second the Prince cannot elude. However, it bounces off the half-dragon's scales with a CHINK. Sade whips a tentacle around, and attempts to hit Kroobor with a glowing rapier, but the move is too complex--he loses his grip on his weapon. Sade breaks away from his attack routine, trying to snatch at his falling sword, but he cannot grab it. The rapier tumbles to the ground below, landing with a THUD and a small cloud of dust. Kroobor blinks.
"Give me a break," a fan sneers. "These stumble-bums are in the Top 8?" The rest of the crowd doesn't seem to agree, as they explode with applause at the exchange of blows.
Kroobor and Sade break away from each other after their attack routines, flying in different directions. Kroobor seems much more manueverable than Sade, and is using that manueverability to stay in Sade's flank. When Sade sees he cannot evade Kroobor, he begins flapping his wings at top speed, trying to outdistance the Priest. He starts to pull away, and Kroobor waves a hand. "Die!" the Prince commands.
Sade ignores him, and puts about 120 feet between himself and the Prince, though the half-dragon tries to pursue. As he does so, he pulls a potion from his belt, and drinks it.
Kroobor continues to fly towards Sade, confident that his superior manueverability will allow him to corner his opponent. He flicks his talons yet again, and six bolts of energy fly from his fingers, lancing into Sade.
Unfortunately for the Prince, the bolts bounce off Sade and return to strike him also, burning into his fluttering Robes. The Prince looks surprised and angry at this development. Sade twists his ugly face into a smile.
Kroobor continues to attempt to corner Sade, who is having trouble evading the Prince. Finally, Sade sees he cannot escape Prince Kroobor, and at the wall he turns to face his opponent. His unarmed tentacle slides a staff off his back, and the fighter-mage readies for battle. The two opponents lock eyes with each other, and Kroobor begins to cast a spell. Sade takes a second to take free a hand by grabbing its rapier with the other, then also begins to cast, but Kroobor finishes his first. Nothing seems to happen, but when Sade finishes HIS spell, seven bolts of energy fly from his hand and slam into the half-dragon priest.
Prince Kroobor grimaces with pain as the missiles find their mark, but now he is scant yards from Sade and closing fast. He has readied his flails, and swings them in anticipation.
Sade is ready for him, however, and darts forward with his swords. His blades flash with inhuman speed, and flick into the Prince's defense. Kroobor seems momentarily taken aback, and Sade's rapier slams into his throat for a sure kill! CHINK.
Sade's eyes had widened at the opening, but narrow again with disappointment, and he continues to attack. Miss, miss, then a hit that actually tears into Kroobor's scales! Sade sees another opening, rears back to take it... and accidently hits his own flapping wings. The sword is knocked from his hands, but in an amazing display of dexterity, Sade merely swipes it out of the sky.
Prince Kroobor pounces on HIS opening, and smashes Sade with his flail. The heads glow wickedly as they pound into the ugly fighter, and Sade's eyes widen as he grunts and chokes with pain. Sade is knocked back in the air, and Kroobor smiles as he smells blood.
"Time to put an end to this, ugly one..." Prince Kroobor pulls his arm back to apply the finishing blows... but one of the heads of the flail catches on his robe. The Prince spins in the air as he is wrenched off balance, and flies right past Sade, nearly smacking into the wall before blinking away from it and back into open air.
People in the crowd are snickering... This is one sloppy match. Each fighter has ended each exchange with a screw-up.
After the mid-air exchange, the combatants continue to fly forward, and in different direction. Kroobor is obviously angry he let a sure victory slip from his grasp, but Sade is still wearing that same stupid grin. They both begin to turn towards each other--Kroobor quickly, Sade more slowly. As they turn, Sade wings a flurry of stilettos towards the half-dragon priest.
Nearly a dozen deadly slivers fly towards Kroobor... who blinks harmlessly out of the way. The Prince breathes a sigh of relief, then motions with his hands as he whispers under his breath. Kroobor grins as all of his wounds and bruises disappear, his scales regenerating as if they were new.
Sade shakes his head at this development, but readies his attack as the combatants make their pass. Kroobor also is ready, and when the two fighters swoop by each other, they both lash out with their weapons.
Sade manages to get his attacks in a split second before Kroobor can. He hits three times, tearing into the half-dragon, and causing him to rear his head back with pain. Sade takes that opportunity to shove his rapier into Kroobor's face, through his eye, and out the back of his skull.
Kroobor dies instantly, twitches reflexively, and then his corpse begins to fall. He falls for long seconds, hits the ground with a THUD, bounces, and lands again. A pool of blood rapidly begins to form beneath him.
The crowd goes absolutely nuts! Applause explodes into the Arena. Sade flies about, takes his bows, then exits the Arena. The Prince's retainer Bleche, the healing priests, and the Arena guardsmen rush onto the field to tend to the fallen Prince Kroobor.
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