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Match Start: June 6th, 2011 @ 9:00PM
Match End: July 5th, 2011 @ 9:00PM

Post Response Limit: 4 days
First Post: Claire Wilder

Stage Description:
Sylixzan's marshes are famous for how extensive they prove to be. Indeed, one could run (or swim) for hundreds of miles and not find any true land. The water varies in depth, at least being able to cover one's feet, and at most nearly swallowing their stomachs. Due to non-standard dimension physics, the water on Sylixzan is terrible at carrying electric charges, but conducts heat and cold very well. The grass grows a good two to three feet above the water's surface. The sky is overcast, but visibility is still fair. It is extremely humid and fairly warm as well, equivalent to a typical summer day (85 degrees).

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May the strongest grass blade emerge tallest.

With a soft pop, the assassin materialized five feet above the marsh and gravity immediately took hold, dropping her to the surface of the marsh with haste. Unlike other less sleek and experienced fighters however, Claire immediately adjusted, landing in the marsh with a splash on bent knee and an outward placed hand for stability.

The girl surveyed her surroundings and immediately felt disappointment. The entire arena was a marsh, not just where she had landed. This would serve to restrict her movement speed and evasiveness. On the plus side, the muddy marsh would make any earth based magic fairly ineffective as the water likely saturated the soil for many many yards underneath her feet.

The air was stifling, such extreme humidity had already caused Claire to breakout into a marginal sweat. She was thankful she had decided to keep on the balaclava. On top of keeping her hair out of the way, it would also keep sweat out of her eyes.

Claire remained crouched, peering out just over the tall grass, waiting for her opponent. It appeared she had been teleported to the exact center of the arena. If her opponent was wise the being wouldn't bother showing up to this fight. If (s)he did, Claire would observe their starting position and duck under the tall grass. Ambushes were the best, cleanest way to eliminate an adversary and Claire was very good at setting them up.

While she waited, Claire did her best to ignore the water that had already began to seep into and saturate her footwear, but it was to no avail. The sneakers would only serve to hinder her footwork, clinging to her like lead weights. Untying the laces, Claire removed them with little hesitation, letting them sink to the bottom of the marsh. Bare feet would function better here anyway, allowing her a little more freedom of movement.

Half an hour had passed since Claire had arrived at this mosquito infested marshland. Other then the insects and the light breeze that occasionally washed over the marsh, no other significant noise had been made. Just where was her opponent? Claire's senses could tell no other being was in the arena with her. Had the creature been wise enough to realize any efforts brought against Claire would end in death?

Claire had not moved since the moment she took off her footwear, a testament to the assassin's patience and resolve. She would continue waiting for her opponent until the announcement of disqualification was made. The battle had technically already been running for thirty minutes. Gracie Gonzaled was entirely late, and Claire decided her opponent was not worth a clean fight. With a slow steady motion, the assassin slid two knives out of her bandoleers, clipping each one into the holsters at her waist. The motion was made almost entirely with her free left wrist which managed to complete the action without making a noise or disturbing the grass around her.

Claire continued to kneel in the warm wet marsh. One way or another this would all be over soon.... hopefully before her toes got that shriveled look to them. She hated that.

Not a sound was made. Not an object was seen. Gracie silently warped into the area crouched down within the bulwark of tall grass. Seeing how he had no time to make a strategy, he was looking all around the visible area - up, down, left, right. Immediately, a few aspects of the area stood out to him as a possibility for strategic maneuvers. The water appeared to be somewhat dirty due to the area being a marsh but he could easily purify it to make it into the clearest of clear water. The sun was high above the horizon but somewhat blocked by the vegetation in the area, making it an indirect source. There were a few clearings where the sun shined down directly without any perversion so that appeared to be somewhat of a bonus there.

Now since the fore planning had been completed it was time for The Capoeira King to strike. He decided to play it safe for the time being, refusing to take any risk at this point in the game. To Gracie, fighting was like cooking - you start out with some appetizers then you move on to the main course followed by a little 'dessert'. Right now, it is time for the appetizer..

Act I: The Luring..

As Gracie analyzed the area around him he noticed the water and it's disgusting murkiness. He slipped his right hand into the water and underneath it, down into the soil that lurked below. Within his mind whilst he swirled his hand through the soil, he mentally analyzed the contents of it. It turned out to be mostly dirt but around thirty percent sand. If he had arrived first he could've gone ahead and purified some water using the sand but at that time it would take far too long. To be able to purify the water he would need to buy himself some time..

With his hand still within the soil he extended his metaphysical aura throughout the sand - causing the soil to operate as receptors for him in order to track vibrations. He shut his eyes from the physical world and from the blackness appeared a new, metaphysical world before him. The visions were mainly of odd objects moving and swaying in the wind or of animals such as worms and insects but something seemed odd. It was a bit larger than the rest of the insects. Scratch that, much larger. A few feet away from the much larger object was seemingly a pair of shoes that were being consumed by the soil in the marsh. Through his mind he tracked any movements of the object and tracked breathing patterns. No other human sized objects within four miles of him besides the other one, leaving him to think that it must be his opponent.

"Hmm..Appetizer.." Gracie said within his head. Firstly, he needed a distraction to sway the attention from him. In order to make a good distraction, he needed something to keep the opponent occupied while at the same time allowing him to work on his makeshift sand filter. Some basic earth techniques should do the trick.

Gracie took a deep breath then slowly released it without even the slightest sound escaping his mouth. The ground began to shake and tremor then all of a sudden the area around Claire just completely plummeted. It was one of the most basic but at the same time deadly techniques that Gracie possessed - the underground tornado. The depression in the ground around Claire was sixteen feet in either direction around her and was very muddy - as the composition was purely dirt and water. The underground tornado was shaped like a cone and spiraling counter-clockwise. Due to the composition of the mud, it was nearly impossible for one to be able to grip onto the sides of it and would end up in the person sliding down the side then falling to the bottom. Slowly, the underground tornado began to compress, shrinking at a rate of roughly one feet per thirty seconds. Eventually, the tornado would completely swallow the one trapped within it - leaving them buried in an underground fortress. If one is trapped at the bottom of the tornado for long enough, they would begin sinking to the bottom of the marsh through the mud. What a pity.

As he did the underground tornado, at the same time he was working on his water filter. Underneath the ground, Gracie was pulling a majority of the sand around him toward his hand. After around ten seconds he had a nice amount of sand so he began running the water through the sand, causing the mud and dirt to be removed from the water - leaving it purified. Once the water was purified he mentally controlled the water and placed it around his hand, pushing the dirty water out from it and making sure the two did not mix. Gracie figured that he would toy around with Claire for a few minutes then pull out the real punches, until then it was simple mind games..

Forty five minutes into the fight and still her opponent was a no show. Claire adjusted her footing slightly in the mud. Only another fifteen minutes and she would claim an easy victory through disqualification.

"Oh son of a f*cking bitch". The words floated through Claire's mind. The gall of Gracie Gonzalez to show up to this fight almost an hour late. Claire understood having to stake out a position for hours waiting on a target, but not showing up to a planned event on time was annoying to say the least.

The second Gracie materialized inside the arena Claire knew when and what the person was. The magical aura given off by Gracie was easily identified as belonging to that of an elemental. The subtle differences in how elementals, wizards, mages and psychics controlled their magic was something a mageslayer like Claire learned over time. Unlike most other casting classes, elementals drew their magic out of the elements they controlled instead of out of some medium like Mana or Chi. They then manipulated that element to their desire.

This registered to Claire's magic sensing senses in a snap. Thanks to the same senses she could also tell exactly where Gracie had materialized; some fifty feet to Claire's right. Reaching back into her bandoleer with her right hand, Claire removed two throwing knives from it and, with a flick of her wrist and elbow she let the first knife fly through the grass, easily trimming down the grass between the two kneeling combatants.

Preparing to loose the second throwing knife, Claire felt the elemental channel his power into the ground under her. Almost immediately, the ground began to shake and fall away. Snapping up from her spot, Claire made a few steps over the muddy ground toward Gracie before it completely fell out from under her. How the elemental had found her she had little idea. She had made no movements, given off no vibrations, and yet still the attack was spot on. Perhaps this particular elemental sensed pressure instead of vibration. With a splash, Claire landed in the water some five feet from the edge of the underground tornado. Perhaps the attack would have been more deadly on solid ground, but the marsh provided an excellent escape route. The tornado deepened as Gracie channeled more power into it, but the physical concepts of the marsh came to the rescue. As the tornado spun and deepened, the muddy water of the marsh siphoned into the vortex of the tornado. This allowed Claire to simply swim right out of attack, gain footing on semi-solid ground, and begin closing ground on the kneeling Gracie some forty feet in front of her.

On her hip, the two discharge knives gathered a full charge from her holsters, and began working on a second. Moving forward, dripping with muddy water and some literal mud, Claire began to close in on her opponent.

Act II: Deception..

Unexpectedly, Claire made an attack at the same time that Gracie did. It was just a simple knife though so that wasn’t too much of a worry. In the middle of the direct line between Gracie and Claire, he raised a two feet thick, three feet wide, and three feet tall wall of solid, compressed dirt which. The knife that was aimed in the direct of Gracie impaled into the wall, only around five inches of it making it into the wall before being halted completely in its tracks. The wall was around twenty feet away from Gracie, making it be right in the middle of the two opponents. That should certainly be enough to work against Claire’s long range attacks.

All of Gracie’s preparation had now been set into place and it was time to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together. While Claire was still distracted by the underwater tornado that was not made for malicious intent but for distraction, Gracie began to manifest his next attack. Quickly he raised his purified water into a thin sheet then shaped it into a dome that was completely around Gracie. It went around eight feet in each direction, making a sturdy mask around Gracie. As the dome was being raised whilst Claire was still distracted, Gracie added his light elemental abilities into play. By modifying the way the light reflects off of the water, he could create mirages that were extremely deceiving to the opponent. With each and every inch that the dome grew, Gracie made his image upon the water – causing a realistic image upon it. The opaqueness of the water was completely taken away and it was made in such a manner that it appeared to blend in with the surroundings behind him. Due to the shape of the water sheet being placed as a dome, it could be seen the same way from any angle anyone viewed it from.

Once the dome was up and had blended in with its surrounding which took around fifteen seconds, Gracie modified the image yet again. Appearing in the water dome was now an image of Gracie standing upwards – a grimace upon his face as he stared out at Claire. While the image was being changed on the water, the real Gracie slid into the ground to the base of the water – allowing him to spread his mana out evenly around the dome which made it seem like he was actually in the position that the water made him appear to be. Gracie sunk deeper into the ground to ten feet down but made a few holes that lead to his nostrils therefore allowed him to breath. At this point, Gracie was purely relying upon his metaphysical vision that was connected via the soil and water vibrations and pressure and whatnot. The image of Gracie upon the water dome had realistic motions, the chest moving up and down as he appeared to be breathing and the eyelids blinking. It was nearly impossible due to the masking that Gracie had placed to tell that the image was not the true image of Gracie.

Claire tried the same old attack yet again, another knife being thrown at Gracie. He simply moved the wall of dirt, allowing it to catch the second knife. The image grinned at the second knife, taunting Claire with his seemingly careless attitude. He raised his right hand then pulled it index and middle fingers towards him repeatedly – signaling to Claire to ‘come at him.’

Claire extracted herself from the water vortex in plenty of time to see the creation of the water mirage dome Gracie was making. Fifteen seconds of casting time was a long time in a battle, and Claire wasn't about to give Gracie anywhere near that. While the dome would effectively fool the visual senses into seeing multiple copies of her opponent, Claire was not without other, more reliable forms of finding her target. Her ability to sense magic energy easily distinguished the exact position of Gracie inside the forming dome. It had taken Claire only six seconds to extract herself from the muck of the vortex, and she needed little more time then that to close the distance between the two combatants.

In what seemed like an instant, Claire had set off at a breakneck charge through the marsh, kicking up mud, water and grass behind her as she chewed up the forty feet between where she had been and the forming water dome. While she ran she pulled her discharge dagger out of the left holster with her right hand, the knife crackling with energy. The right holster buzzed slightly as a second charge was completed and started working on a third. The dagger carried with it two electrical charges from sitting in the holster for so long. With her left hand, she reached back into her bandoleer, pulling out an iron knuckle knife. This particular knife was gripped like a pair of brass knuckles with spikes, the blade jutting out the thumb side of the hand. The small wall that had been in the way of her charge she circumvented with ease. With a hefty momentum, Claire closed her eyes and trusted her senses as she crashed shoulder first into the water dome that began to display various pictures of faux Gracies, spraying water everywhere as the real Gracie tried to put the finishing touches on his spell.

Not 10 seconds had passed since Claire had left the vortex's grip. Raising her right hand, Claire pointed the knife at what her senses told her was Gracie. The silhouette five feet from her was the only thing creating and channeling magical energy in the whole vicinity. Sure there was the dome itself giving off it's own signature, but the spell led back to it's master who was still pouring energy into it. With a press of the button at the base of the discharge knife's handle, the knife erupted in branched lighting from the tip, arching for Gracie's body, the surrounding water, and anything within a ten foot range in front of the knife.

Claire was sure to follow this up with an open palmed shove to the solar plexus from her left hand, and a stab to the left kidney from the right.

Gracie seemed.... unprepared for Claire's onslaught. The elemental looked up from his spell just as Claire came crashing in through the dome's wall, discharge knife already being raised at the man's chest. With a motion, it seemed like he would try to block while holding onto the spell he was casting, but the combined focus slowed his defense down enough for Claire's knife to discharge right at his chest, as well as into the water and air surrounding him.

TzzzzZZZZZAPPPP went the knife, as two charges worth of electricity were dumped into Gracie's body. On Claire's right hip, A single high pitched beep sounded, signaling the discharge knife in the right holster had acquired as many charges as it could hold. Claire ignored the beep though, a chance to finish her opponent had come. she would take full advantage of it.

Closing the remaining distance between the two fighters in less then a quarter second, hopefully quick enough to take advantage of a potentially stunned Gracie, Claire followed up with a twin attack. A stab to the kidney from the discharge knife in her right hand, followed up by a nasty open palmed shove with her left to her opponent's throat. Claire threw her charging momentum behind the shove, intending to send Gracie skidding, bleeding and choking through the mucky marsh waters.

Sccccchloooooook
GYAHH---
Thud

Gracie let out a pained scream as Claire's knife stabbed right through his skin and into his kidney. The scream was promptly cut off by Claire's left hand impacting his throat in a forceful shove. The Capeoria Champ was thrown backwards by the force, skidding through water, grass and mud away from his unfinished and fading dome of deception.

Claire was in hot pursuit.

With a short leap onto the already prone and vulnerable body, Claire made to finish the job. Arching both knives for Gracie's neck, Claire intended to stab either side of his Adam's apple, bringing the knives down and around to fully behead the man.

Besides, what more could a girl want. She was already covered in marsh water and mud. Why not a good bit of her opponents blood as well?

"AaaiiiiEEEEEEYYYAaaaaaa"

With the shrill cry of someone enjoying herself way too much, Claire brought her knives down on Gracie like a butcher. The man, sensing impending doom did his best to struggle out from between her legs, but the mud and water of the marsh gave him no leverage. With doom impending he screamed. Cold. Bloody murder. The sound was bone chilling, but perhaps even more so was the following sound of gurgling and silence.

The cold flashing knives brought themselves down on the prone body and sunk into flesh, immediately severing the man's windpipe and vocal chords. With an exhilarated cry, Claire pressed down on the hilts, filleting Gracie's neck. Blood spurted into the air, spraying her and the surrounding area. The wound quickly turned the marshy waters around the two a deep crimson. Claire however, unfulfilled in her blood lust, continued to sever arteries, skin and bone until Gracie's head slid from it's position on his shoulders and floated away on the marsh waters.

It was done. Her opponent, if you could call this a fight, had been neutralized. Reaching into one of her pockets, she pulled out her room key. The key apparently had a "STAFF" button near the center. Pressing it, Claire brought her emotions back into check.

"Claire Wilder, winner of her round one match. Requesting transport directly to the lobby."

Manticore wins.