[IC] Nicoli V.S The Guardian

[ShidenBlades]

Name: Prince's Private Arena



Size: 25x20 feet

Properties: Invisible barriers past the gated walls, water around main stage is only 2 feet deep.

Player Capacity: 2 fighters only.

Description: A private courtyard Arena where the prince of the castle watches high level fights in a fair arena, but protected by any of the actual carnage from his magical barriers from his balcony seat.

Nicoli stood at the far end of the platform, the Princes Balcony to his left. There were no shadows for the assassin to hide in, nothing that could prevent any sort of advantage, except for perhaps the water that circles the rectangular courtyard.

He waited patiently for the man that would be his opponent; his cloak was pushed open and pushed back over each shoulder so that it wouldn’t become a hindrance. Nicoli kept his head tilted down, dark eyes staring at the different colored tiles at his feet, his hands rested on the hilts of the two swords on either hip.

He brought his full arsenal with him, though in this environment he wouldn’t be able to rely on his surroundings as much as he normally did. The cowl of his cloak was also pushed back as there was no point to it right now, no sense in hiding his identity. He hoped that he wouldn’t be forced to fight some fire wielding mage in these close confines, or any mage really, as there was nothing to take cover for him behind. Still, he was prepared for the worst and merely waited to see who he would be fighting.

[rush99999]

Suddenly, a commotion occurred in the prince's balcony. Someone had kicked the balcony door open and was dispatching the prince's guards effortlessly. Eventually, the assailant forced the prince against the balcony's protective barriers and finally came into view. The person who now had a dagger pressed against the prince's throat was a hooded man clad in iron armor with a carved ivory mask covering his face. This man was the mute warrior known only as Guardian.

"Sheath your dagger, Guardian" the prince demanded "Or you will never see Princess Rosella again".
Guardian lowered his dagger but did not sheath it, there was no sheath for the 1st of his 3 daggers, Guardian kept it in his right hand at all times.
"If you wish to see your Princess returned, you will do exactly as I say" the prince declared.
Guardian nodded in acknowledgement.
"Below this balcony, there awaits a skilled assassin" the prince said "Defeat him and Rosella is yours".

With that said the barriers were brought down long enough to allow Guardian to drop into the courtyard below. Upon landing, Guardian turned to face Nicoli and drew 1 of his 2 short swords, holding is in his left hand.

"Fight!" the prince called out. With that said, Guardian jumped into the air an descended on Nicoli with a strong slash from his short sword aimed at the assassin's throat.

[ShidenBlades]

With only the murmuring of those in the balcony the relative silence has been enjoyable. It was when that silence was broken with the shattering of the door that Nicoli looked up from his thoughts, dark eyes surveying the balcony. He heard the shouts, the sound of gurgling screams, and smelt the blood that followed, such a smell was easily identified.

It wasn’t until Guardian slammed the Prince against the barriers that Nicoli saw what had happened, though he suspected it. He listened carefully, a small smile playing across his face. He had, after all, set up this fight. Nicoli was not a good man.

He withdrew his weapons as Guardian descended from the balcony, his long sword held firmly in his right hand and short sword in his left. “I was wondering when you would show up.” He said lightheartedly, using the tone one would use when talking of the weather.

“Actually…” Nicoli’s words were cut off as his opponent took to the air and slashed out with the short sword in his left hand. Nicoli stepped to his right so that he wouldn’t be forced back into the waters and brought his long sword across, deflecting his opponents attack to the inside. Almost right after Nicoli’s left hand came across, the hand holding his own short sword, slashing out at Guardians left arm from left to right. He was careful to try and remain out of the daggers range, knowing that the man would have to step in close to use it, unless of course it was thrown.

[rush99999]

Guardian saw the short coming in for a strike. He moved his dagger into the path of the barbed blade and blocked it. Guardian's dagger was caught between 2 of the short sword's barbs, locking the weapons together. Meanwhile, Guardian's short sword was quickly running its way down the length of Nicoli's long sword. Guardian moved his short sword away from the long sword a few inches before the short sword could hit the cross guard. After leaving the longer blade behind, Guardian's short sword made its way towards Nicoli's right leg in an attempt to cut it off.

[ShidenBlades]

To the onlooker, the Prince, as Nicoli was sure that everyone else up there was dead or dying, the speed at which the fighters moved was no doubt impressive. While Guardian was clearly a man on the mission, and was the aggressor in this case, Nicoli was merely fighting to keep his ground, he wasn’t ready to commit to the sort of assault that his opponent was. He wanted to have his fun first.

He felt the weapon in his left hand , his short sword, get locked up with the dagger in his opponents right, effectively neutralizing them both for the moment. Since Nicoli had used his long sword to deflect the attack inward, in a hope to slash it that had been foiled, his opponent had to bring the weapon back to attack his right leg, that moment gave the assassin time to step back, leaving his left foot as the lead leg now.

His right arm would come back and then thrust out, the long sword aimed at Guardians gut. At the same time he would twist the wrist of his left hand to disengage the small barbs from his opponent’s weapon and retract it close to his body as a defensive measure. He wanted to know what this man was capable of. There were legends of the Guardian, and Nicoli was a man to test legends, to pit his own against the best, and so far he was still alive to tell the tale. His opponents were not.

[rush99999]

Guardian had not heard stories about Nicoli, be he had faced Veiled-Ones in the past. Nicoli would now be the 6th Veiled-One that Guardian had faced during his career. Guardian had killed 2 of the previous 5 and sent the other 3 back where they came from missing a few limbs.

Guardian spun out of the long sword's way just as his dagger came loose. Guardian continued to spin, using the momentum to send another short sword attack aimed at Nicoli's throat.

[ShidenBlades]

While Nicoli couldn't makeout a the facial features of Guardian behind his mask he could watch the way the man moved, how he struck and his footwork, it was very similiar to his own, then again when using the dual weapon style of fighting there were often many similiarities.

Nicoli was not one to relenquish his advantage of reach, so when Guardian came forward again Nicoli once again danced back. This time he also moved slightly to the left, bringing his left foot back and around he litterally spun around the tip of his opponents blade, an inch from death, and brought his long sword around with his right hand, slashing straight down at his opponents exposed back.

[rush99999]

Guardian's heightened sense of hearing allowed him to hear the blade coming. He rolled forward. Nicoli's blade missed Guardian's back but hit his armor, leaving a long scratch from where the long sword had struck.

Guardian then leaped into the air again. This time, Guardian landed behind Nicoli. Guardian attempted to make Nicoli lose balance by sweeping the assassin's legs off the floor. Guardian then followed it up with a series of fast slashes from his short sword and dagger, aimed at Nicoli's back.

[ShidenBlades]

The tip of his sword moved lightly across the man’s armor, cutting it, but doing no damage to his opponent. Damn. Nicoli thought as he watched the agile warrior role away, lightly come up to his feet, only to turn about and with unnatural speed and power, leap high over him.

Nicoli was in somewhat of awe at the audacity of the man, one part brave and two parts foolish he thought. He turned as Guardian passed over him, always keeping his dark humorless eyes on the warrior, so when a foot shot out to make Nicoli loose his balance he took a step back and away.

Then he watched his opponent come at him like a snake, short sword and dagger moving in a pattern of slashes to try and find an opening. Nicoli was quick to the defense, flipping his long sword around to hold it reverse he brought it back and forth to deflect the attacks from one weapon while his short sword worked in a furious circle to guide the other weapon away rather than block it out right.

Footwork is what kept Nicoli out of harm’s way, he moved backwards, turning slightly as he did so, to make sure he always had an opening if he was forced to make a full retreat. But, for now he was content to let the mans furry play out. Perhaps, he mused , he could help push the man over the edge further.

“Do you wonder how your Princess was captured? Why so many of our less than worthy assassins were sent after you or her? Do you believe we would be so foolish?” He asked contempt and disdain dripping like acid from his tongue. “You never saw me coming did you, never knew she was gone until it was too late.” He said with well practiced arrogance. “You are less than worthy.”

[rush99999]

Guardian rolled backwards about 2 meters away from Nicoli once the assassin had finished speaking. While the assassin's words were convincing, Guardian knew bait when he saw (Or in this case heard) it.

Guardian had allowed Princess Rosella to get kidnapped while they were attending The Ambassador's Ball, a highly anticipated social event that almost always entertained assassination attempts as well as guests. Guardian had been fighting with a ghoul at the ball and while he was distracted, Rosella had been abducted and a note from the prince was left in her place.

Once he had completed his roll, Guardian stood in a defensive stance. He crouched slightly and brought his head down, his sword in front guarding low and his dagger behind guarding high. It was now Nicoli's turn to go on the offensive.

[ShidenBlades]

As Guardian broke off his attack and rolled backwards Nicoli, seeing no further threat, lowered his arms and sheathed both weapons. It was a pity that Guardian didn’t speak Nicoli lamented, he would love to hear the man’s rebuttal. Yet, that wasn’t the case.

Nicoli wasn’t too disappointed when the man dropped back and recognized when he was being tested and verbally jabbed it. He also recognized that Nicoli had been purely defensive and hadn’t been willing to try and trade blows with him. So, Guardian wasn’t as headstrong and brash as Nicoli had first believed, that was pleasing.

He retracted the 10 foot chain whip that he wore as a mock-belt with his left hand and sent it into a figure eight pattern that covered a quarter of its length, slightly in front and to his left, ready to lash out when the time came. With his right hand he retrieved two throwing daggers; he held one in the palm of his hand and the other between his pointer finger and thumb. Being in no hurry he wanted Guardian to see what he was doing.

Then with one swift motion he threw the first dagger, his hand moving from right to left, then the second dagger when his hand went back the opposite direction. The first dagger was aimed low, at his opponent’s right leg, the second dagger was aimed at the same side but at the right shoulder and followed a moment behind it. In the same moment that the second dagger was thrown his left hand and wrist snapped out sending that long steel chain out back low to try and wrap around Guardians right leg at the ankle.

[rush99999]

Since Nicoli had taken his time, Guardian was able to prepare for the assassin's attack. Once Nicoli did launch his attack, the fact that he aimed all his attacks at Guardian's right meant that Guardian would have a simpler time avoiding them. A simple 1 meter roll to the left was all that was needed to move Guardian safely out of harm's way. Guardian then rose to his feet and awaited another attack.

[ShidenBlades]

It took but a snap of his wrist and rotating his arm to bring the chain back and send it into more continuous figure eight spins. An amused smile played across his sharp angled facial features, dead blue eye watching with cruel amusement. He made no rush as he grabbed another two throwing daggers, presenting them at eye level, his head cocked to the side.

This time when he threw his two daggers he threw the first swinging his arm vertically, than launched the second one underhand. Like the ones thrown a moment before these were aimed at the his opponents right side, exact same locations as before. The only difference was that this time as the second dagger was release Nicoli took a large step forward and to the right and swung the chain out.

If Guardian attempted the exact same maneuver he would find that the ten foot chain had more than enough reach to strike his ankle. What's more is that Nicoli kept attacking from the same side, eventually he would force Guardian the remaining distance into the two feet of water that wrapped around their small battle ground.

[rush99999]

Guardian sheathed his sword as he watched Nicoli prepare another attack. When the 1st dagger was thrown, Guardian threw his own dagger into the air, caught Nicoli's 1st dagger with his left hand, and caught the 2nd with his right hand. As the chain closed in, Guardian jumped 10 feet into the air to avoid the chain. While in the air, Guardian raised his hands over his head and threw the daggers back at Nicoli, moving his hands vertically. As he descended, Guardian drew his short sword and caught his dagger as it fell past him.

[ShidenBlades]

Nicoli watched with all of his focus as the Guardian reacted to his attacks. It was a rather impressive display of agility and hand eye coordination. Tossing up his own weapons, catching the daggers, leaping then throwing his weapons back at him. Yes, very impressive. Perhaps too complicated or Nicoli. But then again, he was like his father and was willing to dispose of his tools if it provided him an advantage.

At only about seven feet away from his opponent, the need that Guardian felt to leap incredibly high from a standing jump Nicoli would never know. But what he did know was an advantage when he saw one. He released his chain whip as it flew under Guardian, the momentum carrying it to slide over the edge of the lip and into the two feet of water around its edge.

Nicoli dove forward under the two daggers that were thrown at him, his body tucking into a roll that carried him under his opponent as well. Even as he was coming up he spun to his right and withdrew his long sword from his left hip, slashing at the back of his opponents leg while he was still in the air, the slash angled upward from left to right so that even if the Guardian managed to tuck his legs in he would only marginally delay the powerful slash that would meet the man on his descent.

[rush99999]

Suddenly, the entire universe ceases to exist.

The End.