Among Deitric's people - the Ki Oyate - a warrior's standing and ability is reflected both in his position at the council fire, and by what fire he sits at with his fellow warriors. There are a number of "warrior circles" with their own fires, and as a warrior's skill grows he moves from one circle to the next, always sitting with peers. The outermost circle is for the youth and novices, and is subsequently the largest. The innermost circle is reserved only for the premier combatants of the tribes, and only a select few men ever become Thok'tek'a, or "renowned warrior." It is the singular aspiration of all Ki Oyate warriors.
In order to become Thok'tek'a and sit at the innermost fire, one must not only be renowned, but they have to fight against the other Thok'tek'a present to earn their spot at the fire. It is not necessary to win, but it is necessary to fight well, and a warrior has only one chance to succeed. Failure is not a dishonor, but permanently bars the warrior to a lesser circle. More importantly: a warrior cannot decide to attempt entry to the Thok'tek'a Hochoka, they must be invited based on consensus of all current Thok'tek'a. The invitation is a great honor, and one can never choose to be honored; they must be chosen.
Forgoing traditional entrance into the Gaian Tenkaichi Budokai, Deitric - the most famous Ki Oyate warrior of the Khasmin tribe, and previous GTB champion - has instead commandeered the Exhibition Arena at regular intervals to make his own Thok'tek'a Hochoka. Using the tournament's roster, he will make a challenge to individual fighters each round - a fighter can choose whether or not to accept, and only a handful of the tournament's participants will be extended a challenge, and through that challenge an invitation to be considered Thok'tek'a.
To be offered the challenge of entry is, in and of itself, an honor - but to actually achieve entrance is something only the best can hope to attain.
OOC - The Rules - Information
1. The premise is pretty simple: I choose someone from the roster to fight with each successive round of the tournament. The choice might be from winners or losers, and to be honest is entirely dependent on both whim and chance. Maybe the person had a good fight, or they have an interesting character. Maybe it's decided based on a random number generator.
2. Each fight has a maximum of forty posts - twenty per fighter, and will generally have a maximum time limit of 7-9 days. This is to avoid running overly long and to ensure fights are going on alongside the tournament's rounds, or its judging periods. The fights will happen consecutively, not concurrently, meaning only one at a time, and the same amount of IC time passes between these fights as passes between in-tournament fights (a few days' time).
3. The general rules of the tournament apply - no killing, no teleporting, no leaving the arena, etc. Profiles can, if need be, exchanged via PM or posted publicly based on opponent's preference.
4. Deitric can choose to end a fight whenever he desires - if an opponent impresses (or disappoints) him enough to warrant it.
5. Completion of the challenge - that is, earning the title of Thok'tek'a - is not dependent on victory. A challenger can win, lose, or even concede and may still be awarded the title. Of the same note, they can also do any of these things and NOT earn the title. The only rubric to the challenge is that the fight is a good one.
6. The Exhibition Arena thread already present isn't being used to avoid clogging it with posts and keeping it free for the use of others.
7. There is no real reward, other than hopefully a good fight and an honorific conferred to the characters who complete the challenge.
Challenged
1. Tresondoros Ecstuffuan -- fight in progress.
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:24 pm
Tresondros Ecstuffuan
Arrogance. It was all that the psion had. Deitric steeled himself before a lesser man without it. It was his arrogance that held that broken dead flesh upright after he had broken it beyond repair. It was his belief that he was fated to be the living god of all fighters and that he was better than the rest because of it, it kept him alive. That attitude that was ultimately born of self doubt now kept his body moving. Now the half thought promethean set upon that final challenge, the one that held the title of his mortality in his hand with all the rage of a monster.
By circling to his right as Deitric circled to his left, the powerful leather jacket wearing warrior put his back to the pews that he was previously sitting on.* Tres almost didn't catch it but he noticed Deitrics fingers flutter out suddenly. At the speed they were moving they only registered as twinkles, barely distortions on the visual field. Tres not knowing what it was bent his knees, turned his waist to the right and leaned forward slightly, slipping the general area of the distortion. His left shoulder came up in front of his chin as his left arm came down slightly. He performed the slip as best he could without setting himself off balance and making him vulnerable.
Several pieces of change would slam hard into Tres's crystalline left shoulder. The odd properties of the crystal would have the quarters wedge into the crystal dermis but not too deep. Tres appeared to have felt it, but was in no great pain. With time the change would be pushed out by the crystals subtlety morphic properties with time.
In that same moment the crystalline left hand of Tres's now low leading guard flourished, opening and closing in a beautiful and yet barely noticeable fashion. This fast and gentle motion was made even more artful because of the odd shifts within the crystalline field.
Quote:
Throw Anything
Tres never liked the idea of using a firearm as he felt that not enough of his body was doing the work of attacking with the weapon in order to feel confident or even rewarded by using it. To fill the void of long range attacks, Tres studied the art of throwing objects. Tres's ability to aim is increased due to his developed senses and body control. Tres can accurately utilize any throw any weapon within his maximum throwing range, dependent upon the weight and design of the object.
Sleight of Hand
Tres can draw small sized or smaller weapons quickly, often without the opponent being able to see him arm himself with the weapon. Tres has several weapons other than the visible ones hidden about his person. This ability allows Tres to reveal a hidden weapon that he had drawn without the opponents knowing during a movement of the hands.
A shard of crystal glimmered in the air as it hurtled towards Deitric's abdomen. Its shape melded into a perfect throwing knife. The knife rushed in to meet Deitric and Tres followed the subtle throw by making a short hop back to attempt to maintain outside boxing range just as Deitric came in to strike with his own jab.
Tres would move just enough to slip the Jab out over his left shoulder and then just after the jab passed...
Oh...
Tres was surprised to find that the jab had never came but he was already in the motion of his response before he could pull it back.
Just after Tres slipped the phantom jab he threw a hitman style snapping low jab to the area between the nose and upper lip. Tres attacked for a nerve cluster in this area in an attempt to stun the brave.
Bruce Lee once said about the jab:
"When throwing a punch, you're not pushing your arm -- imagine your arm as a ball and chain. Your arm is a chain, and your fist is the ball."
The jab that Tres threw was similar not just only in technique but literally. As the psions fist came up it was nothing more than a solid spiky mass. His arm wasn't a chain though, so it didn't get any more strange. The speedy and snapping jab was now more of a viable threat due to the jagged texture of the solid mass.
PP: 24 [-1]
Quote:
Ectoplasmic Shard [Metacreation]
[Immediate - 1 Point]
Tres can quickly produce a single shard of ectoplasmic crystal. This shard is a long sharp crystal that can be used to stab and puncture flesh. The crystal only remains in existance for one post. The Crystal shard weighted for throwing and can be used as a quick thrown long range attack. These crystal shards are as hard as steel but once they disappear they evaporate into gas.
* (I realized as I was thinking about this earlier that it may be presumptuous on my part because this positioning is based on some assumptions I made earlier which may be completely erroneous. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong and I'm very willing to edit.)
2
Deitric didn't slow down in the least when his opponent managed to duck most of his opening attack; it was made to allow him to close the distance, not to do any serious harm to the psychic. The attack might not have hurt Tres now, but it could in the future - having a dozen or more chunks of metal embedded in your arm wasn't exactly wise when facing up against someone whose modus operandi revolved around lighting opponents up like Christmas trees with lightning.
As the tribesman stepped in, his opponent formed a glowing, ethereal blade of psychic energy and hurled it at Deitric's torso. Training told him to ignore it, but his training was tempered by experience-- and experience made him ignore the attack. He had seen it before, had faced it before; the knife struck the warrior's abdomen and the ablative plates beneath the leathers he wore tightened against one another and broke beneath the force, keeping the attack from doing anything more than giving the GTB champion little more than a welt beneath his jacket. The dark-skinned warrior stepped right into the attack and threw his feint, the blade tumbling away to land in the coliseum's sand.
Tres slipped weaved to avoid the jab-feint that had threatened to strike his face but never quite made it, and moved to throw his own attack. As Deitric pulled his feint back, he used the self-same motion to twist his body to his right, whipping his left leg up and around, aiming to come under Tres's outstretched arm so that he could hammer his knee into the other man's exposed side, right where his floating ribs lay. Tres wasn't the only one who had learned a few tricks since their last engagement - Deitric had trained with a number of fighters, drawing out and refining the elements of Muay Boran that had already been present in his fighting style until they become as quick and vicious as any of his punches.
Maintaining a persistent offense had its drawbacks, however - namely, he was in no position to completely block or redirect Tres's incoming fist. Deitric rotated his shoulder, bringing the thickest portion of his forearm - near the wrist - to clip the psion's emerald arm, pushing the attack up so that it struck him across the cheek and temple as he turned into his own attack, rather than squarely in the mouth.
The gnarled ridges and spikes of emeral psi-crystal gouged and skinned the flesh of his face, but it was only a jab. The punch itself didn't cause too much harm, but the attack stung as the crystal cut into his face, leaving a series of superficial gashes and nicks in his cheek and around the side of his eye where the fist struck. It wasn't enough to knock him off balance, but the pain of having his face cut made Deitric suck in a tight breath through clenched teeth. The last thing he needed while fighting an opponent like Tres was blood in his eye.
So far, the fight was blow for blow, neither man gaining an advantage - but such a balance was destined to shift in one direction or the other eventually.
CD: 1
The Thunder Tyrant
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Vintrict Captain
Omnipresent Poster
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Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 1:46 pm
While the fight was happening, a single man stood at the top of the stands with his arms behind his back. He was a tall and musuclar fellow with brown short hair on the top of his head. He currently wore a sleeveless brown vest with a waist cape falling over black battle pants and boots. His face was rigid like the side of the mountain, the strength etched just as much in his facial features as it was in his arms. Yellow eyes kept forward on Deitric, but the man made no other movements.
Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:55 pm
The Black Chapel - Rebirth by Baptism!
'Guh!', the exhalation of air echoed inaudibly through the dim halls of the seemingly abandoned church. Tres felt the jolt of the khasmins left knee crashing into the smaller floating ribs. It felt like a cave within the fibrous mines that lay beneath the white surface of the bone began to cave in. Tres ever aware of himself could feel the cracks beginning to form within the strange but very human bones of the psionic warrior. You could see Tres's teeth clinch as this senses filled with that red hot yet ghostly hollow sensation of agony flood through his system. The pain was so real that Tres could swear he once again could smell its familiar stench. Dietrics knee cracked clean against its target as sure as thunder came with lightning. Tres was obviously effected by the solid hit and yet at the same time he was not slowed nor did he flinch away from his own all important intent.
He kept coming.
There was a reason for this.
Tresondros Ecstuffuan
...maintain outside boxing range just as Deitric came in to strike with his own jab.
Dietirc was on the outside boxing range of the tall lanky warrior. This meant that for that knee to come up and around towards the target of Tres's leading left side, his rear left knee would need to take a long path across the center line to arrive at that target. The attack would hit fine still but it gave Tres just enough time and just enough cushion to keep him from getting staggered by the brave's strong attack and give him the time to take advantage of a moment of imbalance.
Forward!, his mind shouted.
Forward!, his body acted in the same moment.
At that moment Tres did not relish in the sensation of the violent surface of his crystal left arm tearing ultimately ineffective gashes into his brown flesh. This was not a personal thing but one of business. This was not to say that Tres had no heart in the duel. A businessman must have pride in his work and demonstrate that his product was the best. So, once that sensation was felt Tresondros Ecstuffuan, the perfect union of mind and body, did not waste any time before snapping the whip like jab back on guard and throwing out the next attack.
In that same motion of pulling his left arm back, Tres's right arm cast forward into a straight right cross aimed at at Dietrics left floating ribs. This attempted to take advantage of Dietrics raised left arm. His glorious right hand traveled in a downward angle to hit the lower target across his center line making up for fact that Dietrics hips were now a little closer than they had been the previous moment. His wrist turned throughout the arms vengeful path towards its target, aiming his knuckles that were pounded into a perfect weapon by an unfathomable number of fights. His perfect fist were aimed to smash into the target with its wrist supporting the primal bludgeon.
It was a combination.
A 1, 2 punch.
BAM! BAM!
Tres fist would deal a violent blow but mere damage was not its sole intent. Tres intended to take advantage of the fact that during this strike Dietric's left knee would be returning to the ground. Tres did not expect the khasmin to fall, he just wanted to set him slightly off balance to make sure that the coming storm...
To make sure that the coming storm did not belong to the thunder god.
but to demand that combat be the diefic domain of the Emerald King.
Deitric felt the sting of the blow as his knee ram home into its intended target - the same ribs that he had shattered in their previous fight. Maybe they were a weakness now, a year and more on from the original match-up; never quite healed from the original injury. Or maybe it was just a proven strategy against the psion, although the tribesman had never been one for predictability as a fighter. When openings presented themselves - or, more often, when he made them - he acted to capitalize on them.
Deitric's fighting style was quick, efficient, and ruthless; flash and pomp didn't figure in to victory, as far as he was concerned. Neither was putting himself into a precarious position, such as standing on one leg - not unless there was something significant to be gained from it. The fighter's leg didn't retract to put him onto a stable base, but only shifted a few inches away, as if he were intending to regain his balance.
That wasn't going to happen just yet.
"OUS!"
Movelist
One Inch Smash: When caught in a tight space, Deitric can make an attack akin to the force of a normal blow, with a burst of electricity emanating from the area struck. Useful in grappling situations where full, bodily motion might not be possible.
With a sudden burst of locomotive power not usually possible for the human body to achieve in such a tight space, the leather-decked tribesman's knee rocketed back across the span of those scant few inches to try and smash home a second time, right where the first blow had landed. It wouldn't be quite as powerful as the first - it lacked the necessary torque and build up - but Deitric's lightning manipulation supplied enough force to make it a very unpleasant surprise for the Son of Sieg.
With his left arm across his body and his right too far away, Deitric's quick ace in the hole had a drawback; he had no way of reacting to Tres's attack. He was in the midst of his own, and his left arm had been lured out of position by the other man's jab. Had Deitric not been so tied up in his own offense, he might have seen the one-two coming; after all, he used the technique to ferocious effect on more than one occasion. Adding insult to injury, Tres was mimicking - successfully, even - the previous tactic Deitric had utilized, which involved attacking the ribs. The warrior's saving grace in the previous match had been that he had played a hand that Tres couldn't match, but now Tres was doing his damnedest to match him card for card.
The attacks landed at nearly the same time - the GTB champion's landing perhaps a split-second first, for lack of distance to travel - and the force of Tres's punch combined with Deitric's one-legged balance was enough to bowl the mohawk'd man over, putting him on his rump and sending him tumbling backwards as he instinctively rolled away to put himself into a crouching position a few feet outside of melee range. Tres had an annoying knack for being able to knock Deitric off his footing, something that rarely happened otherwise.
The tribesman stayed semi-crouched, slow to rise as much from caution as from the throbbing pain in his flank. One or two of his ribs had definitely cracked under the attack and every breath sent pain radiating out through the lower left side of his ribcage. It was a hindrance, but not a fight ending injury - he had fought with worse, albeit to Tres's credit Deitric couldn't have recalled the last time he had been dealt such a heavy blow so early in a fight. They normally came later, when he got sloppy, trading caution for aggression. He could ill afford to take any more of those kinds of punches. He knew it, and knew that Tres was no doubt aware of the fact.
It was still blow for blow, but the living lightning psychopomp was willing to bet his opponent was worse for wear after eating two knees to the same part of his body in quick succession. The burst of electricity was just icing on the cake - the real danger Deitric's knee attacks presented was the exact same danger as his punches had in their previous bout - if Tres ate too many, too often, he'd be in the same position as before: on the ground, with his ribs shattered and his body broken. The biggest difference between the first fight and the second was that the threat of Tres doing the same to the tribesman was much greater than it had been previously.
CD: 0+2
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 1:18 am
The Exhibition Arena
After Dietric's leg retracted a few inches and the right cross was made, suddenly and unexpectedly the knee would come forward. At around the same time Tres felt the sensation of his fist slamming into the leather of the opponents jacket he felt the all encompassing red pain that outlined the sensation of that crack along his ribs made by the first attack growing deeper. His body curled in with the force of the blow, failing to cushion it enough to keep the ribs from cracking. Tres was astonished. It was a variation of one of his fathers techniques. Using the concept of the spiral the brave had managed to produce an immense amount of force within a very small area.
Dad called it...
Sieg Ecstuffuan
"One Inch Smite"
Yet it was imperfect and it angered the young psion. He was unable to engage in that anger for the briefest moment. Electricity surged through his chest and in a rare instance his body fell out of step with his mind. Tres took a step to his left to further roll with the blow, visibly wincing with the attack. Tres knew that he could ill afford to take another blow. However the chorus of his bones smashing beneath his sensitive right fist were telling and Tres could ill afford to let it happen again. He dreaded the fate of their last duel, the event that changed him into the monster he was today.
Fear of the past caused him to visibly tighten his right arm guard as if masking the target of the left knee. The same thing he feared urgently pressed him into action the very moment his body recovered from the electric shock. Tres moved forward with his rapid shuffling footwork to engage Dietric in inside boxing range. As Tres closed the distance, his crystalline left hand would visibly shift. The spikys on the arm and fist would grow more menacing and dangerous. Where once was a jagged surface now was a spiky maul.
As soon as the psion stepped into the inside boxing range he launched a snapping left uppercut at the chin of the semi crouched brave. It was an attempt to break that crystalline surface against his brown chin. Tres wanted to keep up the forward momentum and not to give the khasmin a moments reprieve. Tres's stance as he got in inside boxing range was subtly different. His trunk was lower while his shoulders were more tense. His posture was slightly forward and his chin was down.
Isshouken
Tres can command his arm at will to grow jagged spikes of sharp psionic crystal. This will cause his arm to look like it is literally composed of large shards of psionic crystal. He can also command his left hand fingers to morph into razor sharp claws. This takes a fair amount of concentration and one power point
Deitric wasn't too surprised to see Tres already trying to close the gap again as he came up from his crouch - or by the fact that his opponent was favoring his right side, leading a little with his left to avoid making his already-injured flank a bigger target than it already was. Even if the fighter never attacked his enemy's right flank again, he knew it was a weakness; not simply because it was an injury, but because it had to be guarded, drawing away from the psychic's ability to fight at his fullest.
As Tres came in, the tribesman used the bend of his knees to push off, throwing himself quickly to his right, the power in his legs combined with his long gait allowing him to sidestep the attack by several feet as he circled around his opponent. The brave wasn't fast enough to get behind him - not that it mattered, he had lunged out of punching range anyways - but he was fast enough to time his movement so that the punch narrowly missed him, giving him time to circle away to the outside of the psychic's guard while Tres recovered from his attack.
Deitric's own guard stayed up and loose, his right side just inches ahead of his left as he moved, his quick steps carrying him 'round and away from his opponent's quick uppercut. He had no fear or apprehension of engaging Tres, but he wanted to see just how extensive the man's injury was by drawing him out, making the psychic come to him. Like a predator, he was circled and watched, looking for to see a weakness or a flaw.
He also knew he needed to put a little time off before his next offensive - he didn't want to have to compromise himself just to gain an early advantage in the fight. For now, it was a patient approach that suited Tres's opponent, taking a moment from his own offensive to study and re-position.
CD: 2
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 4:23 pm
The Arena
Tres's snapping left uppercut would swing back into guard quickly. This gave Tres time to react following dietrics lunge to his left (Dietric's right). After his left uppercut had returned on guard his left foot stepped to his left for the purpose of turning his body to keep square with Dietric. This was an attempt to keep from exposing his left flank.
Once dietric exited the outside boxing range and the pair vied for the superior position, the psions stance would shift subtly again. Tres would stand with a more erect posture with his center of gravity a bit higher. His footwork became a bit lighter with Dietric outside of boxing range, giving him the maneuverability to keep up with Dietric's attempt to reposition.
Tres's eyes seemed to focus upon a point on Dietric's chest, watching his opponents entire body. The psion maintained evasive head movement the entire time as he also watched for a weakness in his opponent. Dietric would notice here that Tres wasn't making a lot of the mistakes he was making in his first fight. The typically loud mouthed psion did not speak or boast, nor was he as quick to use his psionic abilities.
As Deitric circled, his gait and his stance grew lax - his hands came down to his waist and soon he was almost casually walking, stalking 'round the psychic. The left side of his face was a mess of cuts and crimson gore, but the superficial wounds and the blood only darkened his brooding glare. It was a strange change of pace, but the warrior's intensity never subsided; what looked like a relaxed pose to the casual observer was every bit as suggestive of violence to the trained eye, as if he were daring Tres to attack him.
"This is meant to test you - not me," he warned coolly as he moved, constantly keeping Tres to his left as the psion circled to keep his eyes on the dark-haired man before him, staring his opponent down as he walked, "Is this how you've learned to fight, now? By cowering?" the warrior asked, a hint of contempt edging his words.
The tribesman sneered, his white teeth contrasting with the dark tan of his skin. "What will they put as your epitaph, at this rate? 'Here lies Tres - the man who would beat Deitric by doing nothing'?" he taunted. He knew who Tres was, but more importantly, Deitric knew who he wanted to be. Gaining a measure of an opponent was more than guessing their next attack, it was piecing together their mindset, for a man's view of himself and of the world around him had chinks in it the same as any armor of leather or steel. Perhaps more than anybody, Tres could be goaded by attacking his ego - the pillar on which he stood.
What would happen if somebody came along and upset that pillar, or set it to wobbling? Would Tres be able to keep himself under control, or would he take a fall as the foundation was yanked out from beneath his feet and lash out?
CD: 1.
NEW ABILITY LEARNED
SUPERTAUNT: Ten times the taunt.
Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:08 pm
1 Years Ago - Tresondros Ecstuffuan
Lesson Learned.
The Arena
The psions greatest power was not the long cords of steel like muscles that wrapped taught about his lanky form. Lean and powerful, they throbbed with mind wrought energy and yet it was nothing. The power of the body was worthless without the mind to unlock its potential. What made the mind strong was not its ability to manifest the psionic power but its ability to learn. Tres saw a moment then. Perhaps call it dejavu but Tres had seen this moment before. However the last time it happened he stood where Dietric stood now. Running his mouth when he ought to be fighting.
When it had happened last, the brave shut the psion up with a blast of electricity that snapped away from the earth. However no matter how hard Tres wanted to deny it He had been humbled. That was a dangerous thing. It was a dangerous thing to put a man who's pride kept him alive on the line. Dietric standing before him was just putting the psion's back to the wall by forcing him to behold his own inadequacy. Dietric found the c***k in the young psion's armor. It was his pride, it was his weakness. As those words fell through his lips, maybe Dietric would catch the crack in the perfect pearly light brown flesh across the psion's left cheek. It was as if a small stone had been cast against a window.
Yet as soon as the psion saw the blow coming he acted without any bit of hesitation. Thought and Action became one, within the psionic warrior. With his back to the wall Tres would become like an animal who was all bite and no bark. That's why when Tres made his attack, it did not come with the thunderous crash of a bolt flashing from the earth. Tres rolled out his left shoulder, shaking out his left arm, at that moment Dietric's words fell upon the syllable. Hidden in the small motion, Tres would cast a throwing knife against the ground and ricochet the blade against the surface of the ground and skipping the blade up and at the underside of Dietric's moving chin
The Darth Vizzle
"Is this how you've learned to fight, now? By cowe~"
Quote:
Ectoplasmic Shard [Metacreation]
[Immediate - 1 Point]
Tres can quickly produce a single shard of ectoplasmic crystal. This shard is a long sharp crystal that can be used to stab and puncture flesh. The crystal only remains in existance for one post. The Crystal shard weighted for throwing and can be used as a quick thrown long range attack. These crystal shards are as hard as steel but once they disappear they evaporate into gas.
Throw Anything
Tres never liked the idea of using a firearm as he felt that not enough of his body was doing the work of attacking with the weapon in order to feel confident or even rewarded by using it. To fill the void of long range attacks, Tres studied the art of throwing objects. Tres's ability to aim is increased due to his developed senses and body control. Tres can accurately utilize any throw any weapon within his maximum throwing range, dependent upon the weight and design of the object.
Sleight of Hand
Tres can draw small sized or smaller weapons quickly, often without the opponent being able to see him arm himself with the weapon. Tres has several weapons other than the visible ones hidden about his person. This ability allows Tres to reveal a hidden weapon that he had drawn without the opponents knowing during a movement of the hands.
BOOM!
A small stone made of crystal would throttle towards Dietrics chin, attempting to smack the brave on the underside of his chin. It wasn't a knock-out blow by any means, but it was still going to bring the hurt, and Dietric probably wasn't expecting an attack from that angle.
The half-thought promethean performed a very short step forward with his right foot as soon as the attack would either hit or miss. Tres attempted to press in to take advantage of the brief distraction. The step was just a set up however to enter outside striking range with Dietric and throw a left low muay thai roundhouse to the outside of Dietric's right thigh. The hard shin would smash into its target, however it would not be the solid bone of Tres's left shin that would deliver the blow to the thighs.
It seemed that in mid strike, a growth of jagged nasty looking crystal grew along the surface of Tres's shin; transforming the low left kick into the downward arching swing of a spiked bat. Tres also wanted to take advantage of the opponents circular path to his right.
Quote:
Crystal Skin [Metacreation/psychometabolism]
[Immediate - 2 points]
Due to Tres's new ability to metabolize psionic (astral) crystal inside of his body, he can cause crystal to grow along areas of his skin by drawing the microscopic bits of psi-crystal through his blood stream and layering it on top of the skin. He may do this anywhere on his body but his head or his torso. This quickly formed growth of crystal along the skin can protect Tres from a single armed strike before shattering. The crystal skin can prevent a weapon from breaking through the skin but Tres can still feel the shock of the blow leaving behind internal damage and broken bones. The crystal remains in place until it is either reabsorbed or broken.
Tres can also use this ability for offensive purposes, such as layering his forearm with a crystal bracer before striking the opponent to produce a more heavy blow. This means that at maximum this power can protect one limb, be it a forearm, a bicep, foreleg, or a thigh. The crystal produced by this technique may be altered with the 'alter crystal' ability. The crystal weighs about as much as bone per ounce.
The accumulated electricity the brave had been gathering rushed through the metal beneath their feet, leaving it scorched black beneath the water. With a considerable force of will, the Khasmin man bent the lightning up away from the metal, forcing it upward. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled as the fork of electricity shot up from the ground, aiming to catch Tres along the underside of his jaw and chin just as he began to shout
Tresondros Ecstuffuan
"I must win!"
BOOM
A cackling uppercut from out of nowhere, the lightning bolt arced upward from the ground in front of Tres, seemingly out of thing air. It wasn't quite as powerful as the one he had cast at Ko in the previous match, but it was still going to hurt. Deitric had been forced to use some of his of the bolt's energy in to channel and direct it, sapping its strength. He could have just tried to electrocute his opponent through the water or metal flooring, but he wanted to keep the attack focused and powerful. Simple electrocution lacked the physical force that came with a lightning bolt. It wasn't a knock-out blow by any means, but it was still going to bring the hurt, and Tres probably wasn't expecting an attack from that angle.
Someone once claimed that imitation was the most sincere form of flattery.
Deitric disagreed.
He caught the small flux of energy in his sixth sense - a sort of metasense that perceived the electromagnetic spectrum in something likened to sight and to hearing, but not quite either of them. Unfortunately, Deitric had yet to master that sixth sense to the point that it worked smoothly in tandem with his natural senses; he often kept it suppressed to some degree to avoid interference between it and his sight and hearing. It had only begun to develop during his time in the mountains, and he was still learning to cope with it.
The concentration of psychic energy didn't really register at first; Tres's psychic energies bent and warped in his perceptions constantly like boiling water; a small concentration was barely perceivable in comparison to the roiling energy that came off of his arm and head. It wasn't until Tres threw the small sphere* that it really registered in Deitric's metasense as a small warbling of electromagnetic wavelengths, lashing like waves against invisible rocks as the psi-crystal sphere bounced off the ground.
Suppressed as his metasense was, combined with his relative inexperience with it, the tribesman barely caught the movement of the attack, but it was too vague of a sensation to trigger his fighting instincts - he leaned in as he spoke and his head turned down for a moment, as he suddenly became aware of the projectile; too little, too late. Aware, but incapable of responding - the worst position to be in, as a fighter.
"Hrgk--" the fighter grunted as the sphere caught him under and behind his chin - at the curve of his jaw's underside, right where the throat met the jawline, trapping the half-formed words in his throat as his airway was punched shut momentarily. There hadn't been enough force to seriously damage any of the vital inner workings of the throat, but it was enough to make him choke and halt in his circling.
The tribesman lurched a single step to his right in surprise, his mohawk wavering as Tres charged in, aiming to build off of his surprise attack. The psychic wasn't just picking up ideas from Deitric's playbook - he was lifting them wholesale, and to good effect. Deitric was nothing if not a born-and-bred fighter though, and there was a single maxim that all fighters understood:
Inveniam viam - Find a way, or make one.
When attacked and put off his footing, Deitric didn't retreat. He didn't fall back, nor did he defend. When pushed, he pushed back harder. Strike him, and he struck back doubly so. When pushed into a corner, the tribesman reverted to type; he sought not to redirect force, but to meet violence with violence. Experience and instinct had gave him one lesson: nobody won a fight by not fighting.
Tres came in with his kick, but he wouldn't be met by an opponent trying to back away from the incoming attack or to dodge it, but one who intended to embrace the impending clash. Deitric lurched backwards, and as Tres stepped in to throw his kick, the tribesman would rush to meet him in a cackling burst of electricity. He didn't know what Tres's attack was - he only saw his opponent rushing in, and reacted in kind on raw adrenaline and instinct.
Techniques
***Thunder: This technique turns Deitric into a human freight-train, allowing him to slide or "blitz" across a twenty-foot area at roughly 30 mph, shoulder-checking or tackling someone with an enormous amount of force, concentrated into a singular area (usually his shoulder). The impact is accompanied by a terrific burst of lightning, akin to Lightning Cast, as his entire body is enveloped in electricity.
The GTB champion became a human freight train, propelled forward by an explosive burst of his energy: one moment he was lurching backwards, the next he was hurtling forward, pushing off of his back foot to throw himself bodily at his opponent. Deitric led with his right forearm and shoulder - there wasn't much in regards to aim, but when they were only a few feet away from each other, nobody really had to worry about aim or trajectory; unless Tres could leap out of the way on one foot, the two men were on a collision course with the tribesman's shoulder set to crash headlong into his opponent's sternum.
There was no finesse to the response - it was all force and violence, with enough power behind it to send his opponent several meters in the opposite direction. Deitric had no way, so he made his own - incapable of retreat or fighting off his opponent's advance, he simply made to halt it. Like a wounded animal, he had relied on instinct with the sole intent of driving his attacker away, the same way a lion instinctively swiped at a threat.
As (if indeed it occurred) Tres was sent flying back, Deitric stumbled after the force that was carrying him forward had been expended at his opponent's expense, falling over onto one knee as he coughed and hacked, trying to get his breath back. No matter how tough of a fighter he was, the tribesman couldn't ignore a shot to the throat. He gasped hoarsely for air, his left hand pressed to his throat as air rushed back into his lungs through his bruised airways.
Pain flashed in his right thigh where the jagged spines on Tres's thigh had rent his riding leathers and the armor beneath, leaving a shallow, angry gash in the flesh of his leg. His shoulder ached too - he hadn't been in any real position to make the attack, Deitric had just lashed out blindly. He felt something clicking inside; the ball of his shoulder had slipped a little out of joint and slid right back in, straining the ligaments of his rotator cuff. He could still use the limb, but was loathe to do so.
The fighter was slower to rise this time; watching his opponent warily as he picked himself up off the ground, unsure of what - if any - damage he had really dealt to Tres. He gingerly put weight on his right foot. It would support him, but he wouldn't be throwing anymore left kicks; doing so would compromise his right leg and if he lost the use of one, his base of power in hand to hand went right out the window. The psychic had momentarily knocked Deitric off of his game and it showed. It hadn't shaken him, but it had surprised him. His opponent talked the same game but he fought differently; the tribesman knew he'd do well to remember that fact.
CD: 0+3
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 10:13 pm
The Arena - Chapter Six - Electric Bugaloo
____Presently in the crowd watching the battle take place between the young charismatic self styled champion and the powerful original s**t stomper, were two bro's. They were marking out at the concept of a rematch between and even more at the fact that this bout was unannounced and not a part of the tournament card. They felt like they had stumbled on an event that very few would ever witness but very many would desire to if they knew of it. That made it special to them. You could see their excitement in their anxious faces and rooting postures.
____Tres for more often than he would ever admit, was not doing this one for them. Yet they didn't know that, for them, it was a worthy gift all the same. They exhaled and shouted with each dramatic moment. When the flash of thunder came just at that moment before the BOOM! struck. That moment where Tres seemed like he finally had the drop on the elder khasmin caused them to take a large sudden breath. However it was not fear that gripped their hearts, but pleasant disbelief.
____Wide Eyed they looked at each other and then shouted out the name of the famous technique in wondrous astonishment!
ELECTRIC SLIIIIIIDDDDDDEEEEE!!!!
____"GUH!", air erupted from Tres's chest as the train smashed into him. At the same moment his left leg landed true his opponent was already in the sudden thunderous closing of the proximity. Electricity cackled violently in the air as that explosive burst of energy emanating from Dietric made Tres tighten up at the perfect roar of intensity and suddenness. Was it fear or respect in what struck at Tres so deeply as to force him to behave involuntarily? Or where they merely the same.
____Whatever it was. It protected him against the primal terror in the coming force.
____Rather than Dietric's shoulder smashing into Tres's sternum, it would smash into his meaty forearm. Bruising pain and Electricity rushed in equal measure through the limb pressed against his chest. While it had saved Tres from any crippling injury the pain made its presence in full effect and the force at which it threw his body was monstrous.
____During the kick his body had been bent on his right leg during the kick, sinking his center of gravity. Despite this the blow against his arm and chest would throw his body back and force him to come upright. Tres was thrown back a few feet and he struggled to catch himself. His legs seemed to kick against the ground as they tried to catch him and hold himself in his bodies backwards momentum. Tres finally was able to find his footing and stop his backwards momentum without falling to the ground. He crouched down to catch his momentum some in his knees.
____His normally inhuman agility was negated somewhat by what made fighting Dietric so frustrating. Tres would have acted immediately rather than pausing for that briefest instant, if it wasn't for the electricity running through his body. It was in Tres's almost obsessive musings on the subject of their inevitable duel, the most frustrating thing about Dietric's element of choice. The electricity ran through his body, interrupting those neural connections even the supplementary ones formed by the psionic crystal in his body. It took Tres a moment before he would finally act again. However in that moment the one function in his body that clearly wasn't caught up at all in the electrical torrents surging through his body, was that hawkish gaze.
____The wondrous emerald churning depths of his eyes beamed forward angrily at the Khasmin warrior. He knew he had his number this day, but he was finding it difficult. He knew he was better than Dietric, he always was, he just hadn't reached the supreme state of his present form. Dietric would see it in that look. Tres wasn't mentally fighting as his father taught him to. He wasn't enjoying the sport or the challenge or the self discovery. Tres saw his own demons and failures in Dietric and he wanted to overcome them so badly. He wanted it because the shame at his failures was salt in a wound that would not heal.
____ Vengefully the Psionic Warrior finally broke his electric chains in that next moment. A fresh bruise on his right arm, Tres would shake the still tingling limb out as he returned to his stance and started forward.
____Tres came straight forward with maniacal purpose. He didn't want to give the slowly rising fighter a moment. Tres was not going to turn down the pressure. There was no weaknesses were in the fluid footwork and his subtle changes of stance relative to Dietric's quickly closing proximity. Tres would enter outside striking range and stop just for a moment, while maintaining evasive head movement. He would pause as to not jump the gun if Dietric made a sudden movement like the last. If a moment passed unmolested, Tres would then use his footwork to fake a step to his left.
____The step however would mask the set up positioning to throw a quick snapping left low kick to the outside of Dietrics right thigh in that exact same spot where the spikes (now broken and evaporated) had tore into his flesh. The left low muay thai low kick was poised to strike in a tight arc at the leading right (?) target. If Dietric was perceptive, he would note that Tres was still unable to squeeze his right hand into a tight fist. The limb still had electricity running through it and Tres had little feeling in the limb.
Deitric watched his opponent swoop back in as he rose from the sand, eager to try and finish the tribesman. Like his opponent, the psychic also fell back to type in certain situations, but in this case, it wasn't necessarily a good thing. Tres was letting his confidence get the better of him; he was counting his eggs before they hatched and that degree of self-assurance never ended when paired off against any opponent.
Still slow to rise, spitting out an ugly mouthful of bloody saliva into the sand, the warrior didn't look as if he were in a position to deal with the incoming attack, his left hand pulling away from his throat into a high guard, with his right pushing on his upper thigh to help himself stand up a little more quickly. But such appearances were often deceiving, especially when dealing with fighters.
After all, Tres wasn't the only one who was skilled at sleights of hand. As the psychic's leg whipped in, Deitric turned to stand square with his opponent, his right arm whipping out from his waist in a flash to intercept the kick--
snikt
-- with eight inches of sharpened steel poking out from the bottom of his fist in the form of a razor sharp knife, the end coming to a wicked point designed for stabbing and slashing. Deitric was nothing if not clever - he hid the scabbard for his knife in the gunslinging belt he used to holster his tomahawk and war-club, the scabbard was stitched into the inner side of the broad belt so that an opponent couldn't see it until it was too late. When lifting himself up off the ground, the brave's hand had stayed close to his waist, under the pretense of picking himself up off the ground.
When Tres's kick came in, Deitric curled his fingers onto the hidden hilt, yanking it free of its hiding place to slam the blade into his opponent's thigh just above the knee as the kick came in, utilizing the momentum of the kick and the movement of his own arm to make sure the wound was as deep as possible. In doing so, he also blocked the kick, using the strength of his arm to absorb most of the force.
In the same motion, Deitric kept turning, presenting his left side with his arm ready to fend off any attack as he ripped the knife out, aiming to have the knife slice through the outer thigh on its exit, rather than the inner. Going through the inner thigh would have been impossible given their positioning, but Deitric instinctively avoided the area anyways - the femoral artery lay there, and a man with his femoral artery slashed would bleed out in mere moments. His real target was the musculature. The quadriceps - especially where they connected into the knee - were extremely important for straightening the knee and supporting a person's weight. Having the connective tissue slashed at or near a major joint like the knee was enough to through a wrench in any fighter's plans.
As he turned, the tribesman also intended to step away, if he could, leaving his opponent with a bloodied, carved-up leg for his troubles; a far more grievous injury than what Tres had dealt Deitric with his first kick. Tres had made the first, and worst mistake that any hunter made: he had thought that the wounded wolf wouldn't be able to bite.
CD: 3.
Tres Ecstuffuan rolled 1 4-sided dice:
4Total: 4 (1-4)
Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 12:32 pm
Roll
Quote:
The Need to Concentrate
To manifest a power while in a close quarters combat exchange, must be able to concentrate and even so he can only manifest immediate powers. If Tres is being attacked at close range, he may have trouble concentrating. Roll a D4 dice, before the post where Tres attempts to manifest a power while being attacked at close quarters. If the result is a 1 then, the power fails to manifest and Tres loses the power points used to manifest the power.
____Roles suddenly reversed. A year ago it had been the psion popping knives and going for those career ending attacks. He was met with career ending attacks that in the end, ended up taking his life. However the psychic warrior came back and it seemed that death could not hold his half crystalline body down. The psion would never have expected the sharpened steel blade. Instead he was thinking that Dietric was going to try to hit his quads with some electric attack to make it difficult to move for a while. The psion accounted for this with a thought and in a single instance after throwing the kick something strange would happen.
____His pearly light brown flesh along his right thigh would seemingly flip over piecemeal in small diamond segments. This would reveal the underside of a wide area of flesh along his left thigh. Suddenly where there was immaculate brown flesh was now a thick growth of crystal along the thigh. The opponents eight inch blade would pierce through the crystal but only to a very shallow degree. Tres's leg would bleed a bit from where the knife hit but his ability to use the muscle and the movement it granted would not be compromised.
Krink!
____Just after the blade slammed into the steel like crystal growth along his left thigh, Tres placed the foot down and stepped into inside striking range. Tres attempting to use his footwork to prevent the opponent from increasing the distance with his own retreating step.
____Simultaneously, the psion threw a huge left hook with that crystalline left fist to the right side of the khasmins chin or head if it was tucked under the shoulder. Tres attacked as the Khasmin turned to his right bringing his left side forward. This meant that Dietric would be turning into that spiky mace like solid mass of his left crystal fist as it moved to slam menacingly into the khasmins head. The morning star like impact of the crystal fist would stagger and rock even the strongest opponents.
____The opponent was now armed and Tres would keep that in mind after he threw that left hook...
PP: 18 [-2]
Quote:
Crystal Skin [Metacreation/psychometabolism]
[Immediate - 2 points]
Due to Tres's new ability to metabolize psionic (astral) crystal inside of his body, he can cause crystal to grow along areas of his skin by drawing the microscopic bits of psi-crystal through his blood stream and layering it on top of the skin. He may do this anywhere on his body but his head or his torso. This quickly formed growth of crystal along the skin can protect Tres from a single armed strike before shattering. The crystal skin can prevent a weapon from breaking through the skin but Tres can still feel the shock of the blow leaving behind internal damage. The crystal remains in place until it is either reabsorbed or broken.
Tres can also use this ability for offensive purposes, such as layering his forearm with a crystal bracer before striking the opponent to produce a more heavy blow. The crystal produced by this technique may be altered with the 'alter crystal' ability. The crystal weighs about as much as bone per ounce.
