[IC] [TZDL2017] Xavier Bloodrayne vs Wayward - Preliminaries

[Mobius]

DUEL TOURNAMENT

Wheat Field[/SIZE]

Information
Time: 4:44PM
Location: Wisconsin
Date August, 29th.
Weather: Slightly humid and clear skies
Temperature: 70°F[/align]

Posting format:
After both fighters have posted, the initial poster will be allowed to make the first strike in their second post.

Format of the fight:
A battle shall end only when one or both fighters lives have expired; however, if their fight last longer than need be their bout will continue whilst everyone else progresses to round two. This way both fighters may play out their feud without seriously inhibiting the tournament’s progression.

Rules:

• Players must be at either side of the road.
• There's no field limit.
• Everything can be manipulated and/or destructible.
• You can not attack in your initial post
• Layout is here
• You are disallowed to edit your post without permission from Mobius and authorized personnel. Once your opponent has posted, the previous post YOU make shall remain untouched unless authorized. I will immediately disqualify you if you edit post after your opponent post (with some exceptions)

---

Flavor Text[/SIZE]

Enter a farm: broken and abandoned, it teetered upon the edge of Wisconsin in rusted red coating. An unassuming fixture forever frozen in a tableau of glistening chartreuse, and infinite expanse rich with naught beyond the scenery offered by wheat fields and green pastures. Picturesque if not for a loose aggregate of dilapidated machinery crumbling beneath the weight of age and rainfall, once proud tools of economic progress they have since then been relegated to a sideshow existence. Added to this graveyard of motionless machinery on the west, a barn, while traditional in its dimensions and appearance, elemental influence has reduced its lustrous red coat to a dull hue. Barn doors no longer stood as protectors of the overgrown shed, but as remnants of savage vandalism, leaving them torn and divorced from their charge exposing its hay filled insides. A farmhouse was the final attraction, complete with broken windows and worn surface, an echo of the decay that surrounded it.

It was a simplistic arena, but more than adequate for a wise fighter who knew how to exploit his/her environment. Humble terrain provided each warrior with a plethora of tactics to be implemented at leisure. Whether it was to simply charge recklessly into battle without fear of compromised equilibrium, thanks to dry terrain, or to hide behind one of many rotting tractors in preparation for an ambush. To each his own appeared to be a major focus of this bland battlefield as the opportunities it offered suggested. Malleability to situational variables was another key essence it gave to both fighters.

Poised at the forefront of a dirt road ambiguous in its length, they stood as one of few markers for a site that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. An unlucky victim of poor location attracting only monthly visits from whatever greyhound bus happen to be passing by or even rarer, a drifter. Even then it was a rarity for anyone outside of those few spectators who knew where to look to even acknowledge its presence. Though an unwise place to live, it was ideal for a fated battle set to take place shortly. Two contestants entered, but only one would emerge whilst the other found them self cast into the maw of oblivion.

Choice of transportation was optional, be it by boat, plane, or some metaphysical form of travel, conceived through supernatural means. Drawn by bravery, valor, or something else entirely, it was here they flocked for a prize to be announced only at the tournament’s end. Until such a time came blood sport was the central premise of this game as implied by its purpose and overall scheme. Of course why anyone would want to take up this challenge and traverse the globe simply to fight was another story. The reward for survival this round, however; would be little more than satisfaction one received from tearing asunder their unworthy foe. They would manifest their courage on an elongated path tar from one horizon to the next, cutting a black scar between the barn and limitless wheat. ~Credit to Doll Maker - 2007 Tournament preliminaries

BEGIN

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

(My intros are usually crap-tastic but here it is.)

In the glow of the afternoon sun ,the wheat field gave off such a radiant yellow glow that it could look like a man’s own personal pool of gold. When harvest time came ‘round, having a full wheat field was worth almost as much to a working man. Though, judging by the shape of the barn and the old rusted out farm tools, it was probably safe to say that this field had gone untouched for many a harvest; pity. Even now as a warm Summer breeze danced along the tips of the stalks, they would all sway and wave in a dance so full of loneliness you could practically smell a change on the winds as they whipped passed you towards the barn. The soft breeze would glide above the stalks and towards the barn through almost supernatural means. Not once did the pace of the breeze increase nor would it decrease; but instead ran unimpeded through the wheat in a large crescent.

This crescent could be seen to be shrinking in overall size as it neared the barn; focusing itself to the outer edges of the southern most side. It would smash against the barn with a forceless burst of air that sent dirt and stands of wheat flying. In almost perfect unison there was deafening explosion over 300 miles to the South which seemed to shake the Earth upon it's Axis. What's more the color of the skies shifted for but a moment to a deep blood red that vanished just as quickly as it had come, taking the clouds along with it. From the explosions epicenter there was an ominous red glow emanating from a strange metallic object that was tearing through the air from Illinois. This mound was oval in structure and possessed a glistening exterior comparable to red chrome. There was a strange red, comical plume of energy coming from the rear of this metallic structure; signaling the immense velocity at which it was traveling.
This metallic mound, as well as the wind, had originated from a convergence of Ley Lines just south of Wisconsin, through which a horrible man had forced his presence unto the world; a warrior born of Chaos named Xavier Bloodbayne. Word had reached him that the time for battle was now at hand and now, nestled within the confines of the mass of metal, Xavier would fly through the earthen atmosphere towards the Wisconsin wheat field; the Battlefield.

As the mound neared its destination the air would be split with yet another explosion of dark red energy that birthed to the metallic exterior a dark red aura similar to a cloak of flames. As it writhed and flicked in the winds the mound began its plummet towards ground, forcing the flaming aura to swirl and whip behind it like a large tail. Its tip had aligned itself with the eastern side of the Sement road and as it was screaming towards its target its surface began to bubble and boil before being visually sucked in upon itself. This in turn revealed Xaviers head of thick, long onyx colored hair and a stern looking face with shut eyes and skin as grey as ash. As for his mouth it was agape and out could be seen that the metal which comprised the mound was liquefying and forcing itself into his open mouth. Exposing his massive chest and all the ripples it contained from both muscle and scars alike, followed immediately by the thick black cotton jeans that dawned his legs and the black heavy rubber boots upon his feet. Xavier was now no more than 30 feet from the ground, but still his body would not shift an inch but merely rocketed headfirst towards the sement road; his legs now surrounded and his body followed by the red aura.

It was at only 10 feet high that the metal was gone and Xaviers body finally reacted, at which point his once closed eyes suddenly fired open; revealing the glowing dark red irises which hid behind his lids. In that same moment Xavier willed his legs to reposition themselves with inhuman speed so that they would be beneath him with a mere fraction of a second before impact. So immense was the impact that it caused the woodwork of the barn to quake and bend; dust billowing around it as it was all shook free from its hiding places.

The aura that had been wrapped around Xavier was dispersed through the air along with the dust cloud ; covering the immediate area in a thin red cloud of dirt. The dirt would pass in time to leave only the red tint lingering in the air; showing that Xavier was standing at attention on the Eastern side of the sement road and facing the western side. Xaviers chest would not rise or fall with a single breath and he would simply remain where he stood with his hands clenched into tight fists until his opponent, whoever it may bend, would show themselves.

[Little Bird]

A distance off, towards the Western end of the Sement road, the towering stalks of nigh-forgotten wheat rustled on the southern side of the road. Those closer the road bent out against each other as those further in were parted by a vigorous force of hand. There within the field, one hundred feet south of the paved pathway, a ‘modestly’ clad, dark-haired girl pushed her way through the grain as though it were some insufferable drove of city-dwellers. If an onlooker could have seen her face, the expression would have confirmed such an outlook: the tall growth was little more than an obstacle to overcome, however trivial it was.

So, the dark-haired girl, ferocity practically etched like stone-carving onto her face, and an obvious fire blazing in her eyes, forced her way, unabating, through the wheat field towards the road she understood to be on the other side.
Unabated, that was, until a calamity pried her attention away her course.

She was nearly fifty feet out from the road when, through the overhead clearing she had produced for herself, she took note of the obvious, and altogether atypical, shift in the atmosphere. The flashing rush of blood-red was first to catch her eyes, bringing her to the thought that something new to her was occurring. Then came an explosion, which, by its sound, could have come from mere miles behind her to the south. Next came to gale of winds, billowing across the landscape. If not for her being in the thick of the field, the girl thought, she might have been carried along to the road by it. Certainly, it proved enough to convince her to lower herself to the ground, a position that at least brought some sense of security amid the chaos.

A meteor? It was the only thing she had ever heard of that could have happened so suddenly.

In a matter of mere moments, her question was answered. Though the wheat had blocked out her view of the cause, another flash of red disrupted the otherwise blue serenity of the day. Following a second explosion, originating from the East. This time, she knew for sure that it was something close by. As a result, she renewed her proceeding through the field, this time with increased vigor, and trembling of anticipation.

Not a moment after, she emerged. There, she, the girl who went simply be ‘Sarah,’ burst out from the dense growth of the field, just in time to witness the faintest visage of a living thing flip bottom-side down just before slamming down upon the Sement road. When the dust and dirt began to clear, the visage came into better focus: a human-like figure, standing roughly a quarter of a mile to the East. With clarity, she took in the man… or woman… or thing, as it stared in her direction. Beyond pale, the… whatever it was… was gaunt by the looks of it, like an apparition from a modern horror flick.

Though the distance made it impossible to get any sense of the thing’s power, it was a no-brainer that something capable of such an impactful entrance, in particular surviving one at all, was not to be taken casually.

Sarah would proceed, then, with a slow, cautious pace. She took in the presence of the barn, already worse for the wear, and shaken more by the dramatic arrival of the being; it could provide some cover, if she could get to it. She thought of her knife, carefully stowed in the interior pocket of her leather coat; the other person didn’t appear to be armed, which she could play to her advantage.

At last, with a bold dose of daring, and firm focus on herself and her surroundings, she took the first strides towards the other end of the road.

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

Without his eyes shifting a micron Xavier was scanning over the land both in front of and behind him by means of the red particles which hung loosely in the air. Xaviers sense through this red fog was physical, meaning that as any one of the red particles are disturbed it sends a signal back to Xaviers mind. As the tiny particulates of dust began to settle back unto the ground Xavier was able to feel each of them in their individuality. Even the natural swaying of the wheat would have been shown to him; the swaying as well as the unnatural parting of the stalks by some… unseen presence.

Xaviers face began to contort now as this sense filled him immense curiosity; there was definitely something in the wheat across the street. However there was something preventing his energy from making direct contact with the disturbance and so it came across as a tall blob sifting through the wheat. Xaviers brow would have cocked by the time he began to see bits and pieces of a feminine frame working towards him. It was strange that Xavier couldn't read her body movements with his energy but it was of no immediate concern to him; it was time to spill blood.

Xaviers eyes would finally shift so that his gaze was locked onto the woman’s abdominal area; Xavier was never one to ask questions before murdering someone and was looking to get straight to work. No sooner had his glowing eyes locked onto Sarah’s abdomen when the heel of Xaviers left boot rose from the dirt before slamming back into it. This small action generated the same amount of force as an average mans punch but this force radiated through the earth rather then dissipating into it. The earth would quake for only a moment as this force moved through it towards Sarah, Xaviers eyes locked upon her to ensure pinpoint accuracy. No more than 5 feet in front of Sarah the earth would split open just as a red tinted stone spike tore through the air towards Sarah’s abdomen. The point started with an incredibly fine tip and would gradually elongate to 2 feet thick over a 3 foot length. It moved as quick as a man could thrust his arm forward and would be aimed to run her through entirely if she could not move.

[Little Bird]

Fifty… maybe sixty feet. Sarah had only made it so far, barely scratching the distance between her and the other when a movement from the end of the road stole her attention; a subtle, one, that she could have admitted to almost not seeing: the slightest rustle of pants as the heel rose and fell. While it could have been a mere fidget, or movement for movement’s sake, Sarah’s sense of preparedness delivered her thoughts directly to the possibility of an imminent danger; the expectation of a sudden rush of a likely adversary was her conclusion, and she would act accordingly.

As the man’s heel fell, she slowed her pace, and raised her fists to fighting position, left held in front as a slight mask for the right. As the hands set into their places, an internal flux directed energy through the arm to the palm of the closed right hand, where it would hold until the right moment.

What came to follow, or rather, what didn’t, threw the young fighter for an initial loop. The anticipated charge from the man opposite her never came. Instead, came a brief, unexpected level of stillness… And then, a vibration through the ground, resonating like a hum up her leg. Stirred for a moment before reassuring her footing, she took to a slightly wider stance. As the ground before her began to split, her course of action became evident. Repositioning her left leg, then at the rear, more to its proper side, she bent at the knees. In the following, motion, she sprang into a low jump to the right, lunging out to compensate for any missed distance.

The maneuver put her, albeit narrowly, out of the path of the swelling, stone skewer that had set upon her.

Shaken, and by effect, more motivated towards combat, she moved with urgency to make her response. After setting her left leg back to its rear placement, she stepped forward, throwing her right hand forward. As the hand pushed in the direction of her then opponent, the fist opened. The energy, until then reserved within the palm, released against the air, spurring a gale that would sweep across the length of road. The force, and the air it carried, would spread outward, and evenly over a steadily expanding area; if a shape were attributed to it, it would be that of cone, widening towards its base. By the time it would reach its destination, this area would span a rough diameter comparable to Sarah’s height.

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

While Xavier would have liked to have ran the woman through in the end such an outcome would be far from necessary. Xaviers once relaxed eyes began to pick up pace as the woman began to shift the position of her legs, jumping from the woman's sliding left leg to the bending of her knees and then to the shattering earth. As the tip of the stone tore through only empty air and the woman was leaping sideways there was a small twitch of Xaviers cheek as the surface of the red stone cone was suddenly littered by a series of thin cracks; plumes of dust erupting from within to leave a thin and harmless trail of dust as it passed Sarah.

Meanwhile Xaviers eyes had not stopped tracking Sarah's movements and his muscles began to tense in preparation as she readied herself; her right hand flexing out. There was no signs of a weapon in her hand to be thrown and Xavier surmised that what was about to come next would be an energy attack of some sort.

The shattered stone cone would have been 6 feet behind Sarah when it's form suddenly broke entirely; separating itself into 6 individual red stone cones. These cones would separate in a nearly perfect outwards growing circle in which the spikes fell into a half-second gap of one another as they aligned themselves to Sarah's backside with tenacity as she began to thrust her hand.

The red glow of Xaviers eyes intensified for a moment while his left hand tensed into a tighter fist as he began to feel the distortion coming forth from Sarah's hand and almost immediately he could feel that it was, passively, attempting to force his energy with the winds before it. Rather than fight this Xavier would allow his energy to ride upon the winds so that the energy which was in front of her would be pushed ahead of the pressurized air she released; the separate particles condensing together as they passed one another.

Impact was almost upon him when Xaviers fingers began to spread and released what would appear to be an incredible amount of red, black and purple sand that would lurch in front of his body. It was Dread Energy; a chaotic embodiment of Xaviers indomitable will power. In this dense form Dread Energy possessed an unnatural physical presence that is usually implemented through means of an attack. Now though, the energy was condensed before him in a roiling sea of dense particles and would serve as a deflection for the oncoming gale.

The first of the stone fragments would have been upon Sarah now, utilizing the remainder of his energy behind her to align them properly despite them being of sight. Pinpoint accuracy was not currently possible but Xavier was guiding them towards the base of her spine and between each strike she would have only a half second to dodge the following strike that would be guided at her until the final 6th had passed this turn.

Xavier was smacked first by his own energy which billowed around his already massing shield to add itself to its rear supply for upon impact of her gales Xaviers energy began to spread apart from the force. It would be forced to the edge of his nearly physical barrier where it would be recycled back unto the mass of energy by circling to the center of the reverse side. In this manner it would force the winds to part around Xavier and allow him to begin a slow march towards Sarah; unimpeded by the forceful winds.

Was Sarah's manipulation going to sustain a constant torrent of pressure upon Xavier? Should her force recede in the slightest she would find Xaviers energy thrashing towards her like a cloud of locusts; expanding not to hit her with force but rather to mask the entire area in a thicker fog than before. Otherwise it would stand strong confront of him as he trudged onward.

[Little Bird]

A weighing handful of circumstances now busied Sarah’s mind and body.

The first and foremost of these was the aftermath of her own attack. As with just about any application of force, there came a recoil. A minute backlash, it was something Sarah would shrug with general ease, owed in part to the firmness of her stance; following through with the natural recoil of the arm out of the punching motion, she swiftly retracted her right hand back into its previous position. The second came in the immediate desire to witness the result of her actions first hand. How would the man up the road respond? Would her maneuver be enough to faze him?

These questions were, and would have remained, imperative, if not for a sudden, unseen sensation that would distract her from what was in front of her.

Something, a subtle something, barely glancing across the threshold of an uncommon sense as her hand reeled back in. Not the man before her; he was still too far out for that. But, comparing what she felt to what she could see, it wouldn’t surprise her if the two were related. That detail wasn’t a priority of highest concern to her. What she could see but not feel took a backseat to what she could feel but not see.

Her first response was to turn her head to her right, where the wheat field on the southern side of the road would have served perfect place from which to engage a sneak attack. This same act would inadvertently bring her attention to the threat at hand. The sextet of stone spires, had been well en route to shish kebab her backside.

Where in the pass of the previous stone spike, the factors of time and awareness had proven themselves leaning to her favor, this round was not to forgive her as readily. Impact was inevitable. She had let her awareness of her surroundings slip too much to make a graceful evasion. The movement she would begin with was short, and covered no ground: a simple rotation initiated from the right leg, which put her right hip in the place that her back had been.

In a simultaneous action, she generated a increased flux of power, coursing from her core, through the entirety of her torso, so far as to carry to the surface of her skin. The energy carried with it the stimuli, signaling to the affected area of the body that a defensive measure was needed. Her tissues responded in a hurried fashion. Muscles contracted; skin and bone took on a weight impressing of growing density as Sarah’s energy flowed into their fibers. She would continue this process only so long as it took for the first spire to make contact.

The purpose of it all was nothing more than to dampen and blunt the impact of first spire. Between her prep, and some added benefit from what padding was offered her by her jacket, the first contact, came such a result as stone against the trunk of a thick tree. It was painful, but the tree would persist and stand strong.

Recovering from the opening shock of the blow, Sarah laboriously freed herself from the continuing drive of the first spire. This, along with the second spire, cut passed her, and through the fabric of her jacket; the first would leave behind the souvenir of a scraped scar just above her hip. The third spike would come to pass in the wake of the second, and Sarah then set herself behind the last three as she made a turn back towards the other end of the road.

With that danger presumably passed, she met the next one with all the more enthusiasm. Billowing from the other end of the road, the cloud of dust, filled with a dark red tint not unlike the flashes that had preceded the gaunt-looking man’s appearance, was practically upon her. Uncertain of the what the odd coloration brought, she could only predict that the cloud would bring a significant drop in visibility.

Feeling the need to conserve herself for a protracted conflict, she tempered the inner flux, normalizing her physical state. Her sense of sight blurred, and taste all but vanished completely, as she focused stimulation to towards hearing, touch, and smell. Her ears would prove her sharpest allies amid the veil. A reborn flow of energy would form, staging just below the surface of her skin, like an inner-lining to the entirety of her body, ready to release as quickly as Sarah could react.

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

The woman was quick, but Xavier could see that she was not fast enough and the spikes which he had been guiding towards her were about to hit their mark. The stone spikes had not been placed onto one set path but had instead been guided to the woman from the first spike to sixth. The action which she chose would have been sufficient to throw the first one off course of her spine and smash against her hip; this would shatter the tip of the fight before sending it into a flailing barrel roll off to her right. It was here though, in the wake of the first strike, that Sarah would find that her calculations had been far from correct. While it was true that the spikes had been following closely to one another she would find that their paths were not as linear as she had taken them to be.

The second spike was upon her quickly but Xavier was guiding its path; aiming for the general center of mass on the formless blob that interrupted his energy in the air. As this center would move and it’s position relayed to Xavier, it was an incredibly simple task for him to order the necessary minute correction so as to capitalize upon the openings Sarah presented with her incorrect maneuvers. Through these means the second spike was able to realign itself in the half second of travel time as Sarah shifted her body, following the center of mass so as to strike in the general vicinity of her abdomen. And this was only the second spike. Sarah had yet to spin back around to face the road and already the third spike would have been nearly upon her with 3 behind it; tracking her down. .

Was her defense still enacted? Could it brunt the 3 potential hits that Sarah had miscalculated? Furthermore; could she continue her spin to face Xavier when she was still to be attacked by a following 3 projectiles? Regardless of technicalities; Xaviers counter actions would be the same.

With his energy spreading to envelop the area Xaviers eyes would dim and his left hands fist would loosen for an instant before tightening again with ridiculous strength. This brief clench brought about many changes in perfect harmony; being that the glowing light of Xaviers was back, but it would now billowed outwards like his pupils were encompassed in a red flame.

There was but one more miscalculation for Sarah to make; Xaviers energy was not moving to block vision in any way shape or form. It was in fact thickening by means of joining particles; creating more potential energy within the thickened particles. What she was about to learn firsthand was that Xaviers Dread Energy had three forms in total: Raw, Lightning and fire. To stand within the cloud which had he just launched at her, was to allow the following tactic to envelop her and her Aura.

The flames had only just appeared over his eyes when the air round his fist began to visually ripple and distort as it was heated. In an instant Xaviers hand was enveloped by a ball of flames which would be a much deeper shade of red at its center; while the edges which would lick at the air were a dark purple. With a simple flick of the wrist Xavier would send this Dreadful Fireball literally screeching through the air as the souls of all those devoured by it cried out in distilled despair. As this fireball flew through the air it would leave a faint black streak in the sky as it devoured the light itself as it passed.

All things seemed to go silent in the instant before the Dreadful Fireball was to make contact with the cloud of Dread Energy. All things save the cries of the dead and the damned that would be wailing in unrelenting dread; brothers, countrymen, women and children all sounding off in an orchestra of pain as the cloud of Dread Energy was ignited as fast as hydrogen; the roar of flames replaced by the cries of the dead. With direct contact to the air and no inhibiting factors, Xaviers cloud of flames would be burning around 3000 degrees Fahrenheit and would cause the particles of Dread Energy to release thin arks of themselves the instant they were ignited.

Would those small, but innumerable energy arks be enough to overwhelm whatever energy shield surrounded Sarah as the flames engulfed her? What about her shields ability to repel heat? Was there one at all?

Find out next time; on Dragon Ball XB! (Lol)

[Mobius]

Ruling

• Each spike is treated as an attack. 0.50 of a second isn't quite fast enough for Bloodbayne to miss each shot if he is still in control of them or guiding them.
• The remaining energy to guiding them and accuracy must be accounted for, but the continuous stipulation of the energy drain allows Xavier to guide his attacks.
• Sarah successfully blocked the first attack; however, each spike must be treated as an attack to readjust their trajectory otherwise they'd miss as Sarah suggested.
• Since they are stilled "guided" by Xavier they are not treated as part of a combo chain, and thus mitigating the first attack doesn't ensure subsequent other attacks from the same cluster of spikes will be properly evaded.

Ruling: This fight continues. Wayward you may post when ready.

[Little Bird]

((OOC: I have constructed this post under my best understanding of the actions I am under permission to take, and to the best of my present ability within a reasonable timeframe within my availability. I’m confident, at the very least, in my surmising that Sarah’s turn around would fill the time that it would have lapsed as the spikes launched. In particular if the spikes are being committed to the .5 second time gap between (potential) impacts. If this all proves insufficient or improper for addressing circumstances… well, I’ll just have to cross the bridge if/when I get to it)).


The worst possible circumstances could always seem to come upon a person at the worst possible times. This sense of truth would come to haunt Sarah in her toil by the wheat fields. Through her grit and effort, she had managed to forge her resistance against the first of the six stone spires. With the extra doing, she was furthermore successful in shrugging the projectile off of and away from her.


Yet, it would be in the coming of the second spike, in which she found her judgement at fault. Where she had anticipated its course to carve a straight path in the wake of the first, it instead altered course, redirecting to strike her abdomen. With less of a window to respond, would come a more concise reaction. Offering a turn at the hips, she planted her feet toe-forward, a positioning permitting a more fluid motion as she would bend at the left knee into lean out of the path of a direct impact. This second spike would, indeed, connect with her abdominal, in a more glancing strike, cutting against her front side, compounding with the scarring left in the passing of the first.


Within the timeframe of this movement, the third of the six spikes would beset upon Sarah. It was at this point that she would commence in her effort to circle behind the spires; this same act would also serve to face her back in the direction of her opponent. Her her first maneuver to this end would be to carry her left foot into a forward step, offset towards the left in the intent to sidestep the incoming third spire.


It was after this that Sarah would then endeavor to make the rotation proper: She would swing her right leg around as she pivoted towards her left side; a motion anticipated to set her out of the path of the fourth spike. When her right foot would set firmly to the ground, she would close her stance, pulling back while pulling her left foot in closer to her right. With this, would come a more natural stance, and, as she would hope, the chance of avoiding the bulk of impact as the fifth. Impact from the sixth spike would prove an inevitability, striking her to much the same effect as the first, tempered chiefly by her then still-active augmentation.


If this maneuver were to leave Sarah in a, relatively, single piece, her attentions would shift back towards opposite end of the road, and the incoming red cloud. Her sensory priorities would realign, in majority, away from visual focus to disperse heightened awareness to others such as sight and touch. As the physical reinforcement would recede, a new concentration of her energy would coalesce within, and flux outward from her core. As the cloud would encroach upon her, she would release this amassing of energy. Covering all angles surrounding her body, the resulting force would burst outward in comparable fashion to her earlier offensive. If her own suppositions on the matter were to prove accurate, the exerted force would disperse the cloud from her immediate vicinity.

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

The first spike collided and went flying through the air in a cloud of stone shrapnel as it ricocheted into the dirt beside her. The second spike would make contact in much the same way, landing a few feet away from the first with a dull thud. Third spike; a near miss as Sarah manages to evade and causes the spike to slam into the earth like a javelin. The outcome of the fourth was the same in that it was a near miss that would end with the spike embedded in the ground just a foot from the previous spike. The fifth and sixth spikes found something to bite into but the angle of their impacts was too harsh and sent them flying off through the air to land just a few feet to the left of Sarah; embedded in the dirt.

By this point Sarah had begun to impose her force unto Xaviers cloud of Dread Energy in an effort to push it back; but this would not be done so easily as it was before and she may end up with less free space than she had planned. Previously in the battle Sarah had succeeded in forcing Xaviers energy through the air only because he had allowed it to happen. Now though, as he was forcing his enlarged energy particles to get closer to Sarah she would find that they were much harder to be rid of. Indeed she could push the energy away from her immediate vicinity but possibly not as much as she thought; and how long could she withstand? Long enough to avoid getting burned? The cloud would be writhing in a constant effort to get closer to Sarah; each particle pushed onwards by the one before it.

Ontop of this, Sarah had chosen to act before Xavier had even created his Dreadful Flames, which allowed Xavier to feel this change in the air with his still existing cloud. 9He was commanding the reverse supply in the cloud to join with the supply which Sarah had already condensed for him; granting them slightly more physical power. However it was the increased energy storage that Xavier was looking to capitalize on as the force they exerted when shifting to Dreadful Flames would be that much stronger. If their increased size would allow them to get closer to Sarah than it was all the better.

Xavier was upon the heel of his right foot when he would thrust it down against the ground to get himself but an inch into the air. Xavier had been doing a slow march up to this point and now with barely a quiver of muscles after he set his flames to flight Xaviers legs would move in a blur of motion. In one swift movement he would bend both his knees so as to bring both his boots a foot into the air before slamming them home onto the earth; an almost silent grunt of effort echoing out from Xaviers lips. Like a foot into a puddle the earth distorted around Xaviers feet as he crushed the dirt beneath his soles and sent out two massive shockwaves rippling visibly along the Earths crust; angling sharply away from their creators in slowly expanding cones towards Sarah.

In the wake of each rippling shockwave the ground would bulge for but a moment before suddenly crumbling in upon itself to leave a widening semicircular trench in the ground that would begin at Xaviers feet. The trenches were only made because the majority of the dirt that the ripples were passing was being taken away and used as a medium for new constructs.

The ripples had been angled away from Xavier so that at the end of their journey they would have been on the outer edges of the cloud of energy just a few moments after it would have ignited; surrounding Sarah in a veritable dome of Dreadful Flames as was the first intended plan. They’re journey may have ended, but their usefulness had only just begun.

Nestled almost perfectly out of sight within the cloud of flames, on Sarahs left and right sides, the ground would tear open once again. The guilty parties were not nearly as small as the spike had been before and a pair of 3 foot thick red stone pillars would tear through the wall of flames at around 80 m/s; black grooves lining their surfaces where the flames had begun to devour them. Their targets? They were quite simply gunning for each other. With any luck Sarah would find herself caught between their stony embrace.

[Xavier Bloodbayne]

In Xaviers mind, things seemed to slow down to a near halt as the gravity of Sarahs situation began to weigh upon his mind and brought about the faintest of smirks upon his lips. It was all over for her now.

The heat of The Dreadful Flames melting away the woman's flesh was the first sign of her death, but of course Xavier could not sense this. It wasn’t until the Dreadful Flames themselves had begun to make contact with the woman’s skin that he could feel her body withering away. Each lick of the flames would devour layer upon layer of her flesh rather than burn them away and Xavier could feel the breakdown of every last cell. If Sarah was screaming right now, the cries of the damned within the Dreadful Flames would be drowning her out as well as adding her screams to their orchestra.

Sarah had managed to keep the Dread Energy away from body for the majority of the fight but now as she was engulfed by the flames, Xavier could see her clearly and this was what made him smile. For in that moment that he was finally granted full sight, he was able to see that Sarah remained exactly where he had surmised and that his stone pillars were nearly upon her.

Their impact was quick, powerful and majestic; a brief, wet crunching sound tearing through the air as the bones of her chest splintered and broke whilst her flesh was torn asunder. The pair of pillars had slammed over her head and chest and as the two stone faces would come together Xavier could feel the glorious spray of blood and body bits that were sent hurdling away from the impact zone in a gory Halo. It wouldn't be able to land on the ground though, the flames were greedily lapping up every droplet of blood, fragment of bone or strip of flesh that remained of Sarah.

When the flames would finally pass; there was practically nothing remaining of Sarah. The ground was unbelievably black and covered in grooves where the Dreadful Flames had devoured the earth. The two pillars remained jutting from the ground, their surfaces also covered in random grooves where the flames had touched them. Beneath where they joined one another their was but a small pile of ashes; Sarah was dead.

The smirk upon Xaviers face had grown to encompass his entire right cheek and with barely a flick of his wrist the ground would open up once more. A rectangular hole roughly four feet long appeared before Xavier and within this hole was a staircase that would lead into darkness. Without a second look over the battlefield Xavier descended down this stair case with thunderous steps that would seem to shake the very earth itself. As his head would disappear into the darkness the hole in which the stair case had been suddenly slammed shut; a brief flash of red light overtaking the blue sky.

On the battlefield, the red stone spikes which had been launched previously in the battle suddenly shifted to brown dirt which would fall into a loose pile where each spike had been. The stone pillars were next to fall apart; beginning at the ground where the pillars jutting out from. Slowly they would lose their red tint and with each inch that lost its color their was a subsequent stream of dirt that fell upon the ground in a cloudy pile. The area where they were joined fell last and they would fall in unison in plumes of brown dust; dropping a semi large object from within that landed with a dull thud in the pile of dirt.

That which fell was roughly the size of a cantaloupe and was mostly black, but the upper left portion of the item was a shade of white and had straggling strands of burnt hair. It was Sarahs skull; the skin melted or burned away save that one chunk of skin. It would remain here in the pile of ash, mouth agape in an unheard scream of torment, until it is discovered by some unknown person.

[Mobius]

Ruling

• Wayward conceded defeat to Xavier

Verdict Xavier Bloodbayne advances to the Quarterfinals. Wayward, like Paradox, took the defeat with good spirits. I hope to see you again.