[IC] TEA: Mountain Base

[Vordak]

He didn't have to wait long for Sol to act, picking up some strange stirrings in the air, which, for some reason, reminded the demon of a cooler fan. Honestly, this wasn't what he expected at all, and somewhat perplexed, Ido continued to 'listen' to the motions of the air, raising his head to expose a patch of uncovered fur hidden beneath the chin - only to turn to a backwards dash the next moment. The mage charged at straight his opponent, despite there being an obstacle inbetween, and having seen how powerful his magic could be, Ido were right to assume that the makeshift cover was about to be busted and pull away from it.

However, perhaps unbeknowst to Sol, his sword wouldn't cut through the boulder in just one stroke. Adding sawblades, no matter how miniature, was a foolish decision: both creating great amounts of friction and jerking the blade around, they would rapidly dissapate all of the blade's kinetic energy and bring it to a screeching halt, leaving his weapon stuck. This could be a good opportunity to strike, but Ido had nowhere to hurry - the chances he would actualy hit Sol were too low to bother. Instead, he concentrated on increasing his supplies of Kzich, gathering all of it into one large sphere again.

As it flowed into existance, Ido made a few more preparations, tearing up the jacket to expose his chest, Ido let the fur there pick up the air's movements unhidered by clothing, slightly heighteneing his tactile senses, and then, took two grenades from his belt - one flashbang, one smoke. As soon as Sol would be within line of sight, he would try to blind him, while setting up a smokescreen behind the windmage to hide them both from the gunner's sight. This way, even if he opened blind fire, he would risk hitting them both; wether he would shoot or not would let Ido know if he really had any agreement with Sol.

[Eklispe]

Sol's blade ripped halfway though the rock before the tiny jerks and pushes stopped its force, he frowned. He had expected the blade to go entirely through the rock like it do most people's bodies, oh well the more you knew. Luckily Ido hadn't attempted to counter attack so Sol tore his blade out the way it came in. Sol decided to recklessly attack, so he jumped over the rock then pushed off of it to get in a flying jump cleaving the still elongated blade at Ido while prepared to either dodge or blast away an attack with his magic

[Skallagrim]

JT stared at the fight that unfolded before him. A hissing escaped him as he eyed the human gladiator. Shaking his head, JT put away the grenade in his haversack, his rifle continually pointed downrange at the two odd characters that were busy, engaged in their own world of violence.

Gritting his teeth, JT eased back slowly from the low wall, the entire time, his rifle pointed at the back of the human and the large boulder that the man stood before. JT stood slowly with the pillar betwixt his body and the two combatants. JT’s right side shading out from around the pillar, allowing the rifle to be squarely pointed back of the human warrior as he moved.

A quick scan told him that neither of two melee fighters were paying any attention to him, a sly grin spread across his lips as he quickly followed a snaking trail along the mountain. By running low and keeping the rocks and scrub brush hiding his position he quickly made his way from the fight.

“Tough luck bud, I wish you the best..” JT murmured as he glanced back one last time before he slipped down and off the mountain base, heading away from the mountain. If the kitty won, he wanted to be safely away, if the human won…well he was a lucky son of a bitch.

[Griffintaur]

A pair of piercing and rigid, deep gold eyes watched the skirmish far away from atop a cliff perched on the side of the mountain. The individual's pupils were abnormally large, which actually indicated his eyes were acting as a telescope to better visualize the battle currently taking place. The eyes belonged to a large figure, standing slightly larger then the average human male. He was primarily animalistic in nature, possessing an array of both feline and avian features while retaining a humanoid figure. The brown medium length fur covering a majority of his body as well as the white plumage covering his head and chest swayed about briefly in the light wind. His lengthy and slender russet furred tail slowly pivoted back in forth in what almost appeared in anticipation.

Tharraleos was a warrior who fancied combat above all else. For a large majority of him extensive lifespan, he was heavily influenced by battle. Watching a compelling fight was sometimes equally enjoying as partaking in one. The opponents facing off had appeared to catch his attention, but it was more of him wanting to show them how to really cause some damage. A smug grin and a light huff escaped his curved, goldenrod beak, his ivory colored fangs shined in the radiant sunlight. He took a couple steps forward, hanging the front half of his gold taloned feet off the edge. Perhaps he would show these weak fools a true testament of strength and valiance. He wasn't one to challenge an already injured fighter, so he was forced to remain where he stood, simply watching silently. Perhaps he as well would soon be bestowed with a battle of his own

[Vordak]

If not the familiar gleam of Sol's magical energy, sticking out of the gash in the boulder, his attack would've left Ido confused and seriously doubting the windmage's combat ability - but as the demon could see the blade's extension, he quickly understood what wicked intent was behind this strike. However, he was already far away from where Sol expected him to be, rendering the windmages efforts futile. A pity, since the poor guy was busy pulling out his sword, he also lost the opportunity to bring down his opponent's cover and let the gunner shoot, as Ido already had both the smokebomb and flashbang at ready.

However, he ended up needing neither, Sol choosing charging into a melee over requesting someone else's aid. Unfazed by by such a recklessly agressive approach, Ido smugly grinned, baring his sharp, carnivorous teeth, and put his right foot ahead of himself, preparing for a brutal counter. Locking onto the blade's path with his eyes, he leapt into the air and sent himself barreling towards Sol by pushing off with the left leg, while swinging his body clockwise around his right. Masterfuly transfering the spin, the forwards motion and mass of his body into a downwards elbow slam with his left arm, Ido would knock the blade away from himself, and then meet Sol with a powerful body slam, bringing him down to the ground.

[Eklispe]

Sol grinned, his enemy had done exactly as he had predicted. Ido had underestimated his midair capabilitys. As his enemy came within 10 feet of him Sol propelled himself down into the ground with a gust of wind landing on his back in a prone positon gritting his teeth through the pain of impact and stabbing upwards with his blade, still whirling with flesh tearing saws, attempting to hit any part of Ido's body prefarably the torso as Ido went over him

[Vordak]

It was as if his opponent was reading his mind, each and every of his actions being a complete suprise for Ido, almost catching him off guard - but this time, Sol had made a grief mistake, prone to be mercilessly exploited by his foe.

Why wasn't Ido expecting his rapid descent? How come it caught him by suprise even if he were aware of Sol's wind magic? The answer is simple: because that wouldn't put him out of Ido's reach at all. Thanks to his formidable height, he only had to lift himself some 10 inches above the ground to catch the blade with a downwards elbow strike, and now, the windmage would slide right underneath his feet, a hair away from being crushed by the ruthless behemoth. Or to be precise, [/i]could[i] slide, if Ido let him do so.

Unfortunately for Sol, that wasn't going to happen. During his travels, the demon had studied various martial arts and participated in numerous fights - thus, he understood well the importance of controlling one's own momentum, creating a continious, rapidly flowing motion, where the force of one action is swiftly transferred into another. With the bushy abundance of supernaturaly sensitive hairs on his tail, Ido could clearly read his opponent's descent and the following attack, so he knew everything required to avoid it. Using the downwards force of the elbow slam to bring himself closer to the ground, the beastman continued spinning, eventualy turning his back on Sol, and landed the heel of his right foot squarely onto the windmage's solar plexus. Relaxing the muscles of his back, he hunched away from the blade, making it impact at such a steep angle that the stab was turned into a slice, which would cut into his back muscles and glance off his metallic ribcage without actualy harming any vitals.

If he would suceed in pinning down his opponent, Ido would then proceed to use the curel, inhumane, yet also effective weapon in his arsenal: flame. As he would stretch his arms behind his back, several inches away from his knucles, two jets of Kzich would erupt, heading for Sol's face, and as soon as they would connect, the demon would ignite the two jets, setting him ablaze, flaying skin, boiling the eyeball liquid and charring the windmage's skull. Within seconds, Sol's whole body would be engulfed in it - but by that time, Ido would already be out of the fire's reach, the 75 litres he had been preparing now at his disposal, in case his opponent would struggle a bit too much.

[Griffintaur]

Tharraleos continued to watch the ensuing skirmish with the urge to battle beginning to consume him. Despite the fact these opponents were already engaged in a fight, the avian feline felt the need to bestow a swift defeat and move on to find a more suitable opponent. His large, brown furred paws gripped tightly around the black colored metal center of his unorthodox weapon. Possessing a quartet of halberd heads, the hybrid's weapon of choice was oddly shaped like a windmill. Appearing mostly impractical and awkward to wield, Tharraleos was able to utilize it with the upmost skill and elegance.

His massive, white feathered wings spread out, creating a small gust of wind from doing so. The humanoid creature began to step off the edge, giving the hefty appendages a series of flaps to prepare him for the brief flight. Sighing silently, Tharraleos tipped forward and off the edge, entering a state of brief free fall before his wings were able to propel his hulking figure through the sky. Ido and Sol would likely see the sun blocked out for a moment's duration and shortly after that, a loud crash not far from their location. A small billow of dust was formed from the impact and from within, a silhouette of the majestic bird could be seen. He was positioned in a kneeling position, wings folded over his body. He would remain like this for a number of moments, using his array of enhanced senses to determine what his next course of action was. Should be be instantly attack, he would react accordingly in seconds. If not, he would make his presence even more known shortly.

[Eklispe]

Sol panicked as Ido managed to put his body into a position to both dodge his attack and prevent him from moving his sword. However there was no way Sol was going to be taken down that easily. He mentally commanded his ring to let out a wave of force knocking back Ido preventing him from blocking his movements and hopefully leaving Ido stunned from the force of it. Sol savagely flipped his body to land on his feet and he, noting that for some reason the sunlight had faded, no doubt some swaying trees, and viciously swung his flesh-tearing blade with all his might in a horizontal slash aimed at cutting Ido in half at the torso. If Ido somehow managed to dodge, Sol was prepared to unleash another attack keeping his offensive momentum

[Vordak]

Just when victory seemed so close, his assault was abruptly halted, Ido crashing into the forcefield and violently flung back into the air; it looked like the windmage weren't out of tricks yet. Both of them ended up unscathed, but Sol would be on his feet quicker than Ido, and to aviod being charged down the moment he'd land, he blasted two bolts of Kzich back at his opponent. Twisting around to meet the ground with his back, the beastman would flip himself upright from this position and then continue to fire, while flicking out the pin from the flashbang he still had clenched in his hand.

Drawing from the plentiful supply of Kzich prepared beforehand, he would quickly fill the space between himself and the windmage with barrage of fist-sized blobs, each homing onto Sol at a steady 50 MPH. Slow, compared thier target's speed, but their sheer quantity would already make it hard to maneouver through them; not to mention that each and every one was manipulated by Ido to be in the right place at the right time. If this wouldn't prove to be enough of an obstacle, then he could still accelerate them to full speed - at the cost of not being able to alter their trajectory much.

A few second was all the time Ido had to win - by then, the flashbang's fuse would burn out, and he would toss it at Sol, while continuing to surround him with more and more blobs of Kzich, until a little under 100 litres would be gathered around him.

[Eklispe]

As Sol started to head towards the Beastman it launched two bolts of translucent liquid at him moving at ridicules speed, however Sol was used to these kinds of ranged attack by now and as soon as Ido prepared it he jumped backwards managing to avoid them. He continued to retreat as Ido blasted a barrage of blobs at him, dropping behind a tree for cover and then charging magic for another attack.

[Lord Ielsu Deathslayer]

Deathslayer walked out of one of the mountain walls, eating something "I like this fight. Its fun" he said as he turned into his Berserk armour

[Vordak]

Pulling out the clinch Sol had caught him into gave Ido ample satisfaction, and suceeding in driving back the foe had him relieved. One couldn't possibly notice it, but from the moment Sol took off, jumping at him from atop the boulder, and up until now, Ido had been incredibly tensed, consumed by frantic thought which sparked in reaction to the windmage's overwhelming speed. Hadn't his mind been conditioned by intense and rigorous training, he'd be dead three times over by now, each of his opponent's intended strikes potentialy a killing one.

Fortunately, the demon was no slouch. By the virtue of his cunning and calm, Sol's onslaught had been thwarted and the assilant himself forced into cover - now was time to retaliate. Thrown with savage vigor, the flashbang plowed through the debris scattered around and stopped behind the tree Sol was running for and detonated. Even if the flash wouldn't reach his eyes, the bang would be sure to stun the windmage, perhaps making him feel a bit dizzy by tampering with the vestibular system. The smoke, on the other hand, would be of no use for now, Ido putting it back onto his belt.

[Eklispe]

Sol peeked out from his cover just in time to see Ido throw a small grenade at him, a simple threat to deal with even while charging his magic. He gusted the grenade to the side causing it to crash into the nearby underbrush and detonate harmlessly and returned to focusing magic as the enchantment around his blade wore off..

[Vordak]

As Sol ran further and further away, his figure melted into a blurry silhouette, as if he were a wax doll left for too long under the sun. Tossing the flashbang after him wasn't too hard of a feat, but if Ido were thinking of beating his opponent in a ranged battle, then he'd need a much more detailed understanding of his opponent's movements than his eyes could give. The rest of his senses had been working fine, but now it would be necessary to amplify them. A light blue, eerie light flooded his vision as he linked his tactile senses to it, representing the ambient pressure of his surroundings. Within it, two powerful currents of red swirled, adorned with an orange glow - areas of high pressure, generated by Sol and some airborne passerby, previously unnoticed by Ido. Worried by the possibility of having to confront three enemies at once, he sniffed at the air once more, trying to determine the gunner's position and snatch some information about the newcomer, and to his surprise, the gunner seemed to be moving away from them. Ido figured that he decided not to butt into their fight, and humbly hoped that the the other guy would do the same. Alas, another pressure wave went surging through the air, indicating that somebody had landed nearby. Needless to say, this presence of another fighter had him on his toes again, and while he decided to ignore this for now and carry on with an attack on Sol, Ido poured 5 liters of Kzich into his jetpack, just in case. Bringing his attention back to the matter at hand, Ido cocked his head, staring at the tree with a snide glint in his eyes. Did his opponent really think hiding in cover from a homing attack would be good idea? With a whole hundred of liter sized Kzichballs at his disposal, the demon already posed quite a threat - and with what he were about to do now, Sol was certainly doomed. A large, 40 liter mass separated from the main group and began forming itself into two identical, hollow spheres, each 3 feet in diameter, while a third one grew at Ido's fingertips. They would be finished in a matter of seconds, quickly filled by a white mist immediately after: Kzich vapor, which Ido would create by heating the inner wall of the spheres, while letting air escape from a small hole situated on top. As for the rest, he would leave it the way it was - split into 60 pieces - and launch them in a volley at Sol, striking from both right and left at the same time. Half would be whipped around the tree's trunk, so close that splinters of bark would be chipped away from it; and half would fly a little further, turning around to attack at a distance of 20 feet, spreading horizontally to eliminate the possibility of Sol escaping with a sideways dash. Throughout the entirety of this assault, Ido would keep them at the speed of 50 MPH, where he were able to maintain control over Kzich's trajectory, and use this to keep his enemy surrounded, orbiting several of the projectiles around him while the rest striked simultaneously at his shins, waist and head. The demon had a feeling that Sol would still find a way to escape eventually - but he were sure that this would win enough time nevertheless. Soon the windmage would regret his decision to pull away from the melee.

[Eklispe]

Sol continued to watch from the behind the tree just peeking his head out as Ido created his arsenal of liquid shots. He took a deep breath and focused himself and upon hearing the ripping sound of bark being destroyed began his plan. He jumped upwards quickly grabbing branches and traversing the tree to the other side. As he flitted through the branches he sliced off a particularly pointy looking branch about a good 2 feet long and jumped off of the tree launching himself at Ido. As he did so he hurled the branch at Ido and gusted it towards him increasing its speed.

[Vordak]

It was hard not to notice Sol constantly peeking from behind the tree, as if contemplating wether to leave cover or not - and Ido was perfectly aware that he could probably be able to dodge the oncoming barrage of Kzichballs. However, this did not bother the demon in the slightest, as he had perfect control the projectiles, their trajectory easily altered at his slightest whim. Of couse, this came at a price, Ido having to resort to a lower speed for this ability to work, which could prove to be troublesome if the windwage decided to outspeed his attacks.

Fortunately, Sol went upwards, where his ability to dodge was severly limited. Unless he could fly, that is - but Ido highly doubted that, seeing as he chose the inferior method of climbing the tree he hid behind instead of soaring skywards right away. This was a good chance to catch him off guard, which Ido as always, wouldn't hesitate to use.

As soon as his opponent jumped, Sol's movement appearing to the demons eyes as an orange billow enveloping a black human silhouette - black being the color which represeted all solid, poorly compressable objects - Ido launched 20 of the Kzichballs up into the tree, ingniting them in proces, while the rest spread out and encircled it. Most of the flaming shots would strike the trunk, from which the onto all of the branches - but about a quater would head straight for the windmage, forcing him to jump off earlier than he had planned. Soon enough, the tree turn into a gigant pillar of flame, boiling tar causing it to explode from inside and spread its infreno around in burning wooden splinters.

[Eklispe]

Sol cursed as the orbs changed direction while also apparently igniting attempting to destroy the tree entirely, he had underestimaed the creatures control over them. Sol, rather than jumping off earlier than he had planned in a poor attempt at an attack, jumped to a nearby tree hoping the smoke and fire would obscure his position long enough that Ido couldn’t react fast enough to attack him with the spheres surrounding the tree. He then sliced off a total of 5 more branches hurling each of them at Ido.

[Vordak]

Yet again Sol had evaded his strike with Kizch, and Ido angrily growled as the futility of his attempts descended upon him. Such a demonstration of power - to set the whole tree ablaze! - all for nothing. His opponent would only tread even more carefully after this, the chance of scoring a hit dwindling into the abyss. Some long, tiresome slugfest would be waiting ahead, testing each side's endurance, if not for one fortunate circumstance - with the gunner gone, Ido could freely move around the battlefield, no longer bound by the unnerving feeling of having a gun pointed at one's back. This allowed for a change in tactics, and despite his trained senses snatching every single detail of Sol's movements, the demon let him be for now, convinced that the key to victory lay in a new approach.

The sphere between his palms began to swell, Ido pumping even more Kizch into it; the same happened with the other two, abliet their source of growth being the 40 litre sized balls hovering nearby. By the time Sol would be ready to strike, they would already be 1 meter in diameter each and with walls nearly 2 centimeters thick. Staying alert and anticipating the windmage's next move, Ido would notice the makeshift spear approaching him just in time to dodge - but instead, he chose to simply move the sphere he held into its path, the branch ricocheting off the hardening Kzich. Having heard Sol chop at the tree more than once, the demon expected that there would be more coming, so he kept alert. Regardless of wether his opponent would cease fire or not, he would slowly advance towards the trees, keeping at a walking pace and feet barely leaving the ground.

Meanwhile, his jetpack growled, coughing up a few ghastly shreads of flame - and turned silent again...

[Eklispe]

Sol hurled two more spears and contuined loading up and ammo while retreating backwards tree to tree, obviously attacking the creature in meele was going to end up with him getting pound by those balls of whatever so he decided to fall back keeping his stored magic in reserve.