Perrin (Round One) FINISHED

[Perrin]

"In the east corridor, Perrin the Devout Light," the announcer yelled, "and in the west corridor, Shaso the Devilish Shade!"

The crowd roared at the announcement of the fighter's names, raucous for the upcoming fight. In the moments before the announcer started the fight, Perrin studied his opponent. The man seemed to be several years Perrin's senior, as there was a long scar that ran from his jaw to his forehead, plus a nose that looked like it had been busted too many times. His head was covered by a dark bandana, and the hair that spilled out in the back was a midnight black. There was a large, long black scabbard hanging at Shaso's waist. The scabbard matched the man's shirt, which almost matched the hue of his skin. Altogether, Shaso actually looked like a shade.

Perrin had been studying his opponent so intently he almost did not realize that the announcer had said, "Begin!"

Perrin slapped his book open to a page containing many attack magicks, and incanted one of them. He made an 'X' in the air with his hand, and two connected arcs of streaming light formed, flying toward his opponent. The man rolled to the side to dodge the attack, barely managing to free his sword from its scabbard. When he stood up at the end of his roll, there was a hole in the arm of his silken shirt, exposing the dark skin from underneath.

So his sword is slowing him down, then. Interesting, Perrin thought to himself.

[Clair Feldsky]

The Falcknight looked on at the start of the new match. Devilish Shade against the Devout Light? That was appropriate. At least considering they were in the middle of an arena. She still had trouble reconciling the fact that she was here to reality. Mostly when she saw the start of the matches. During her own matches, there wasn't room for anything but the competition, but as she waited she still thought about whether or not she'd made a good call in joining the arena.

Putting that aside though.... The fighters squared off against each other, and as the fight began Clair spotted the telltale lightning strikes of an acolyte of light magic. So that was what was meant by the "Devout Light". The devilish shade would have to contend with a mage then.

As far as combatants went, she wasn't really a fan of either one. At least not yet. Most magics made her a bit wary, but she really didn't care for anything that was "devilish" either. She'd be willing to overlook that as the creation of an announcer somewhere though, assuming he did something to impress. Hopefully, one of them would win her over, but in the meantime, she grudgingly stood back to watch the fireworks show.

[Edrick]

Edrick looked upon the arena as the two combatants walked into the arena, intently waiting for the next battle to start.

"IN THE EAST CORRIDOR, PERRIN THE DEVOUT LIGHT!" The announcer shouted as a young man dressed in light robes walked into the arena."AND IN THE WEST CORRIDOR, WE HAVE SHASO THE DEVILISH SHADE!" Yelled the announcer as a man dressed in all black, with dark skin walked into the arena to face this, "Devout light".

As the battle starts the "Devout light" starts off with a lightning attack that just manages to hit the "Devilish shade" on the arm"

"Go Devout Light!!" Edrick yelled "you can do it!" Rooting for the young man that reminds him of his family.

[Aurek]

[Yellow]"Well this definitely proves that those who are in charge have a sense of humor. Light versus dark... at least in name. It doesn't appear that either one has a definite advantage though."[/Yellow] Aurek said as he looked on. The comment was to no one in particular, and Aurek wasn't sure if he had actually spoke the comment or just thought it. The arena was doing weird things to him it seemed. Bah! It doesn't matter. I'll worry about that later.

The magic user was first to attack, conforming to the way things had proceeded throughout the day. [Yellow]"It's always that incredibly range they have, isn't it?"[/Yellow] There had to be some way to even the playing field quickly, but Aurek had yet to see it. So frustrating. If my match involves a magic user, I'll be finished before it even starts. He stared on intently to see how the events unfolded during this match.

[Perrin]

Perrin continued to cast spell after spell, most missing their mark. Shaso kept inching closer and closer, and Perrin was becoming worried about what might happen if he did not end the battle soon.

The man was very close, so Perrin incanted a powerful last ditch spell to cause a fight-ending wound. Unfortunately, the large, powerful arc of shining, streaming light went too low and hit the ground, causing a large plume of sediment to rise into the sky. Shaso use this to his advantage and ran out of the cloud, yelling with his sword held high. The heavy blade came down upon the top of Perrin's book, caught on the opal stud; Perrin had reacted fast enough to block the fatal blow with his book.

Unsure of what to do, Perrin could only stare into Shaso's wild eyes, full of violent hatred and anger. He spit in Perrin's face and cursed at him, while Perrin's hold on the tome grew weaker. Having a sudden revelation, Perrin raised his foot awkwardly and kicked the man in the gut. Because of the sudden release of pressure, Perrin also fell backwards, both men falling flat on their back.

Perrin stood up slowly, clearly showing exertion, while Shaso still lay on the ground. Perrin moved away from where man was, and by the time he had put distance between them Shaso was standing up assuming his stance. Both men stared at each other from opposite sides of the arena, east and west, sweat and grime marring Perrin's face, the dirt slyly blending in with Shaso's. Then Shaso ran forward, sword poised to strike.

[Edrick]

The monk seemed to have trouble hitting the swift sword wielder as he had barley landed a hit. Then in a apparent desperate attack "The devout light" launched a bolt of light at the dark skinned man missing and making a column of sand rise in front of him. Then the dark skinned man ran in and struck at the monk but got blocked by the book the monk had.

"COME ON PERRIN!!!! YOU CAN DO IT HIT HIM A COUPLE OF MORE TIMES!!!!!" Yelled Edrick, joining the crowed of shouts.

[Aurek]

Great. So the plan is to make him blow up the ground in front and charge in for a quick defeat while he is distracted. Perfect plan. Except how do I make him blow up the ground in front of him!!!!! The devout light was definitely shining some light on his opponent. Granted, it was all missing or being dodged. You couldn't discount the man for lack of effort though. Shaso seemed to fight with Aurek's ability, which was to say, having none at all. Getting a strike blocked by a book? Who does that? Then getting kicked in the gut. A physical attack from a magic user actually working? The thought hadn't even occurred to Aurek. Fantastic. Not only can they blast me from a distance, but they also have kicking skills. There is no way I will be able to beat one of these guys.

After falling apart, both were much slower and showing more effort. The battle was clearly having an affect on both. Then Shaso charged forward yet again. Do what you got to do, man. Aurek grimaced in anticipation.

[Richter Abend]

Blocking with a book? That was a new one.

But it had worked, and although the Devilish Shade had forced the Divine Light to the ground, the pause had given the light mage enough time to kick the practically rabid swordsman in the gut and force him off of him.

Richter ran his forefinger and thumb across his beard. So far, the light mage had yet to hit with anything close to effective. In fact, the most he had been able to do was kick up a cloud of dust that had done little more than give Shaso an opening to strike, so that was a point against him. But Shaso wasn't much better. Although able to avoid the monks ill-aimed attacks, there was no thought in his movements. Just a beast it seemed.

With neither fighter exactly capturing his attention, the Ilian merely looked on in passive observation. Victory was quite up in the air right now.

[Clair Feldsky]

Clair watched impassively from where she stood, and lightly tapped the lance she held against the ground. The match wasn't going to be a short one. Perhaps if the spell caster could hit his target it would pregress quicker, but Shade wasn't going to let him do that by the looks of things. In fact, Shaso seemed to be making some headway in reaching his enemy. The falcoknight held her breath as she saw the swordsman coming at the light user with an overhand strike. Was this going to be it? She hoped not for the monk's sake, because that swordsman looked vicious. There was a place for ferocity, but she'd seen many people today that simply hadn't cared whether their opponent had a chance at surviving. She'd seen a few sick individuals that seemed to enjoy killing their opponents.

As she awaited the monks fate, she spotted what happened, and let out a sudden laugh! He'd caught the sword on his book?

"Ha! Not something you see everyday. I think I'm rooting for the light caster now." She said, edging over closer to the disguised Richter as the match continued.

The two broke apart and watched each other for a moment, but it wasn't long before Shaso charged forward again. And so, she imagined, his light strewn gauntlet would begin again.

[Perrin]

If he gets too close to me this time, I'm as good as dead, Perrin thought to himself.

He was half-way across the arena grounds, running almost at a full sprint toward Perrin, Shaso's sword glaring in the sunshine. Perrin calmed himself, opened his book to a page with a simple attack spell, devised for quick strikes. He bent down to his knees and traced the spell's rune with his finger, and closed his eyes. The rune began to glow, and when Perrin opened his eyes, the arc that had formed cut through the air with ease. The arc met with the side of Shaso's upper leg, successfully hamstringing him. He fell to the ground, blood pooling around his leg.

Perrin did it; he had beaten the shady swordsman.

The crowd roared at the sight of blood, cheered for Perrin and his victory. However, Shaso still wanted to fight, and stood up. His face was a madly wicked, teeth-clenched grin; pain and fatigue clearly staining his face. He stumbled toward Perrin, roaring in agony and anger as he put weight on his injured leg. The crowd watched with growing interest, and Perrin was both horrified and somewhat disgusted that the man would still try to kill him.

Some people in the crowd called out "Finish him!" and "Kill him!". Perrin turned his back on Shaso, clearly not going anywhere in the meantime, and said: "I will not kill this man! He has foug-"

The crowd did not agree with him; more people joined in with the previous, calling out rude comments and throwing whatever they could find into the arena.

Perrin called out again, his voice shaky with the idea that he may have to kill Shaso, "I will not kill this man! He has fought bravely against me, and done nothing cruel enough to me that I should kill him!". He was lucky enough to get his whole sentence out, but the audience only became more furious.

Perrin was terrified, he certainly did not want to kill Shaso, however he did not have much time to continue to reason with the crowd, as his vision suddenly went black.

He burst out the back door of his house, the guttural voices of the pirates following him. He had to get to the boat before they caught up to him. Perrin slowed down to a fast-walk to look behind him. What he saw filled him with rage and heavy sadness. Three dark-skinned, weapon-wielding pirates were running towards him. The leader of the two, the one who had grabbed his mother, had blood smeared on his axe; he must have killed his mother.

Eyes wide with terror, aflame with rage, Perrin resumed his sprint toward the docks on the opposite side of the village, wanting very badly to turn around and futilely attempt to kill the pirate captain. Perrin ducked behind houses and anything that would serve as cover, doing all he could to confuse the pirates.

He opened his eyes, and for a moment did not realize where he was. Perrin heard the crowd and spontaneously remembered that he was in an arena, and his previous revelation. It seemed that his revelation had looked like an extended blink, as the crowd was still angry and not the least bit worried.

Perrin looked behind him and saw Shaso still stumbling toward him. This time, in lieu of his fear, Perrin was filled with rage: Shaso resembled the pirate captain that attacked his village and killed his mother.

[Clair Feldsky]

The mage scored a good hit on the swordsman. She felt a tinge of sympathy for Shade as he suddenly had his speed halved. He still struggled forward though, violence burning in his eyes. He was going to keep going. Granted, the light caster could probably get away with just staying ahead of Shaso until the swordsman collapsed from pain and exhaustion, but to continue when ones mobility became so hampered against an opponent like his was sheer madness. He was taking his life in his hands.

It was good that the monk seemed to be unwilling to kill the man, because he could easily keep hitting Shaso now.... Clair thought back to seeing Light's attack. He'd knelt and drawn something.... Had that been something special? Had he needed to do it to complete that attack? Was it technique belonging to a master or a novice? Well, the earlier clashes made her think it wasn't the work of a master. Still, she wanted to know what the tracing had done..

She waited for the match to end. Shade only had to fall unconscious. She doubted that he would lose any other way short of death.

[Aurek]

[Yellow]"Oh for crying out loud!!"[/Yellow] Aurek yelled. He was not happy. First of all, the magic user had finally landed a hit. It wasn't a deadly strike, but it hampered his opponent enough to make it a battle-ending injury. The blood was gushing from his leg and the pain must have been excruciating. Except Shaso kept coming. Clearly, the swordsman was not about to give up. That was stupid, in Aurek's opinion. Especially since Perrin had already voiced his unwillingness to kill the man. An impasse had occurred, and it was one the crowd was not taking too well. They kept yelling and screaming. Something Aurek was normally not a fan, even less so right now. [Yellow]"Someone kill something!"[/Yellow]

[Perrin]

Rage swept through Perrin like a fire through a forest. He looked at the man whose leg was bleeding profusely and who still stumbled towards him, Perrin's eyes blinded by rage. This man had killed his mother ... or rather looked liked the man who had killed his mother. Upon thinking this, Perrin's anger lessened, however, he still wanted to hurt the vicious Shaso a little more.

Perrin flipped his book open, and the crowd seemed to stop their yelling and throwing of items a bit. He knelt to the ground once again, so that he was looking straight at Shaso's legs and had a straight shot. His small arc of powerful, burning light cut as deep as the last hit but struck Shaso's lower leg. The gash was gruesome blow, a gush of blood spilling down his leg. However, Shaso did not seem to notice, and kept walking blindly forward. All hatred for the man suddenly vanished. Perrin thought this man just fought for riches or fame (or because of idiotic bloodthirsty-ness), as some men did, but this man was something else entirely; he was beyond the point of stupid blood lust, Shaso did have some brains, however tainted.

Shaso somehow increased his stumbling speed, clear exertion on his face (along with his usual pain-filled-grimace), and tried to keep the pain of his wounds out of his mind.

Perrin was stuck in the same spot as he was before: he did not want to kill Shaso. For a time, he jogged well out of the way of Shaso's range, all the while contemplating what he could do to render the man unconscious.

And then it hit him like a hammer striking an anvil; he knew what he was to do. It was the first time Perrin had used the more explosive light magic that monks usually casted, however he was beginning to feel the effects of fatigue, so he accelerated his search of the right spell.

At last he found the correct spell; a spell not suited to kill, or to harm as much as his arcs of light. Shaso was too close to begin to compose himself and to be able to still cast the spell, so Perrin moved around him. Shaso did not seem too appreciative of Perrin running around him, and started to curse. Perrin, after he was well away from his enemy, composed himself, and extended his hand. The orb began to form as he spoke the spell out loud.

Shaso seeing that his opponent was trying to concentrate, began to rattle off louder, more guttural, and stronger oaths.

For a moment Perrin was uncertain of where to aim, threw off a bit by the Shaso's cursing, but when he finished his incantation, the grapefruit-sized orb flew through the air on its planned course. Right before it struck his forearm, the sphere of pulsating light exploded, not only dazing Shaso, but sending a jolt of pain up his arm.

Perrin's idea worked just as he thought; his dark-skinned opponent dropped his sword.

The man roared in fury, for he knew that if he tried to pick up his weapon, he would tumble to the sandy ground, unable to get up. To Perrin's surprise Shaso resumed his trudging.

How much blood does this man have? Perrin thought to himself wearily.

The Devilish Shade closed the gap between them somehow, through a series of painful jumps, skips, and curses, his hands extended, ready to grasp Perrin's throat. All the while, Shaso seemed uncaring that he was losing his last precious pints of blood.

All seemed to slow down as the devil put his hands around Perrin's windpipe. Perrin responded with one last attack, utilizing his last breath to muster his remaining strength: in one swift motion, Perrin drew his ornate book back over his head, and smashed the heavy tome down upon the shade, just as he was picking him up by his throat. Perrin's poor opal stud fell to the ground in shards.

The fiend fell to the floor of the arena, as did the Light. Perrin's vision cut out just after someone called: "The win of this fight goes to Perrin the Devout Light!"

[Aurek]

Shaso was a fool. That's all there was too it. He had disregarded everything including his sword. There was blood all over the arena from the man as well. I'm surprised he didn't keel over sooner. Both men were unconscious on the ground, but the winner had been called as Perrin. Apparently the officials had decided he was the last one awake. [Yellow]"Whatever, a strange end to a strange fight."[/Yellow] Way too much running around for Aurek's tastes. Plus, the whole mess with the magic user not wanting to kill his opponent yet still causing the man to bleed to death, most likely. Weird things happen in the arena, apparently.

[Edrick]

The battle entered the same repetitive rack of Perrin running from Shaso whenever he got close and trying to strike from afar. The path of the battle changed suddenly when Perrin launched a orb of exploding light magic at Shaso disarming him. " Yeah! Go Perrin!" Shouted Edrick as Shaso's weapon hits the ground of the arena. Then haphazardly, Shaso stumbled to Perrin and picked him up by his throat, Perrin then preceded to strike shaso over the head with his tome knocking him to the ground. Both fighters then collapsed to the ground of the arena then the announcer declared the winner to be Perrin. "YEAH PERRIN GOOD JOB!"Edrick shouted excitedly as the person he was rooting for won the match.