[IC] RPGuild Ranked Tournament (ImportantNobody vs. Barthimaeus)

[ImportantNobody]

"How do I always get into these sort of predicaments?" Raln thought to himself as he stood high up in the air on some mystical floating island. He had tried to reform and become more like a normal person but it appeared like his past always caught back up with him wherever he went. Maybe he secretly didn't really want to reform after all. Whatever the case may be, it was far too late to back out of this thing now. After all...how could he get down from here on his own?! All that was left to do now was find his opponent, give him or her a little welcome party, and then on to the next round so that he could win the prize money and maybe have a little fun with it.

He walked closer to the large, northeastern pillar, taking in the details that revealed not much at all. He could use his light feet ability to run up and get a proper vantage point, although this would make him far easier to spot as well. He preferred not to reveal himself until he knew more about his opponent, who could very well have a sniper rifle as far as he knew. It would be best to not be too hasty and see if his opponent would make the first move, and the first mistake. He stood close to the pillar so that he could use it to hide and block attacks while he searched his surroundings.

[Bartimaeus]

"Hahaha... good try to hide, it will do you no well." Dimitri whispered. He was currently watching his oppenent while lying on the ground about 15 yards out. He was actually surprised he wasn't spotted, while he was behind sufficient cover facing the direction of this enemy that was forced upon him, the sun would still occasionally glint off his arm. "Stop it you!" He hissed at the sun. He snapped his head in the direction his enemy was, hoping he hadn't been heard, for that was a bit louder than he would have liked, and the element of surprise would be a great deal of importance if he wanted a secure win....

[ImportantNobody]

What?! Did they really get started so close to each other and did they really already find each other? Raln almost didn't believe his ears and eyes at first, but it became clear that his opponent was already this close to him and was failing quite considerably to stay hidden. Raln managed to keep a straight face long enough to turn his head briefly and let out a look of disbelief in his facial expression before putting on a default look again and turning back, pretending not to notice the man crawling around over there. Hopefully his opponent would still think he didn't know and would falsely believe he still had the element of surprise on his side. If Raln could no longer get that luxury then perhaps tricking his opponent into thinking he had it was the only redeeming factor, if it even managed to pay off. If not then things might quickly devolve into a straight fight. If his opponent was laying down then he was in a worse position, so if Raln did manage to sneak an attack in while he was still in that state then he could possibly win quickly. Too bad his magical attacks would need proper charge time. In that case...

Raln turned in place to block his right side from view. Letting out a fake cough into his left fist, his right hand discretely grasped onto the handle of one of his daggers on his belt and pulled it out of it's sheath. Hopefully his cough would cover up the sound. With that he made the swift motion to fling the dagger at the man's head, looking directly at him for the first time.

[Bartimaeus]

Luckily, it didn't seem as if his opponent had heard him. This was good, very good. "Wait...was that....did he just spot me? Nah, hes turning away now. Oh my god!" Dmitri barely had time to raise his left hand to clumsily deflect the knife from picksticking him in the head. " Watch it!" He yelled at his opponent, then quickly stumbled to his feet. He grasped for the hilt of DragonWhisker, which was on his back, and drew him into a position that was useul for an advancing soldier to block projectiles had they the correct skill level. One fact that may be useful or harmful for Dmitri is that the sun kept bouncing off all his metal gear and occasionally hitting him in the eyes. Hopefully he could get his opponent to move with him to another location.

[ImportantNobody]

Focusing on his powers, yellow mist formed around his feet as he ran up the pillar to get at a distance above any of his opponent's sword strikes unless he made an effort to jump, in which case Raln was confident he could react to and move faster then him. Crouching down on the pillar, he pulled out another dagger, feeling like a ninja while doing this despite having no ninja training (unless you count messing around at home).

"Watch it?" Raln questioned. An odd thing to say on a battlefield to an opponent. Was he actually angry with him that he attacked? Whatever. He indeed watched his opponent and waited to see what he'd do, grimacing at the light reflecting off of him on occasion but not considering this too big of a deal as long as he accounted for it.

[Bartimaeus]

Barely avoiding a fatal attack, Dmitri now had his blood pumping and was ready for a fight. He started to approach his opponent as yellow mist formed around his enemie's feet. "Hmm... how peculiar, he ascended that pillar with greater ease than ive seen in my days. No matter, he will still be no match for my power." Dmitri thought this, and thereafter used his ability Withdrawal. A fairly small portal opened up beside Dmitri to his right, purposefully place there so that he could quickly insert DragonWhisker into it with his right hand, and reach across his body with his left arm, offering some protection while he withdrew his GuanDao, a longer weapon than his sword. Dmitri then performed a short sprint and when close enough jumped, and performed a huge slash from right to left with his weapon, attempting to cut open his opponent. (Dmitri holds the GuanDao with his right hand forward, and his left hand further back.)

[ImportantNobody]

"Pulling weapons out of thin air..." Raln thought to himself as he observed his opponent. He'd have to be careful and find out more about what this ability would be capable of. In the meantime, he'd also have to worry about dodging the immediate threat. It wasn't too difficult given the nature of it, even if the weapon change was surprising. He leapt outwards and upwards over the horizontal slash, and while his opponent was still slashing he flung his dagger straight downward at him as he soared overhead. He couldn't pull off any more attacks by that time so he had no choice but to continue through the air until he hit the ground with a roll, turning to face his opponent.

[Bartimaeus]

Dmitri didn't really think his attack would land, in fact he'd be surprised if it did, but it was rather so that he could remove his opponent's higher ground advantage, which succeeded to do. But there was one drawback to his maneuver, his opponent ended up leaping over him with great finesse, which Dmitri was not expecting. He barely dodged the incoming blade, but it still left a fairly small gash (in his back to the right side) at half an inch, though it did sting, it did not hinder (his ability to fight in any way. But now it was time for him to take his advantage on the battle field. Backing away a fiew feet to get into appropriate range, Dmitri opened a portal under himself and above the very pillar his opponent had been perched on moments later, preparing himself for incoming attacks. "Seems this guy likes his throwing knives." Dmitri mumbled, he had had easy times against knive throwers in the past, but he was still cautious, this guy had a certain edge about him, it was completely unkown what this man was capable of.

[ImportantNobody]

His opponent appeared to open up two holes into the night sky. Even if that might not literally be his power, for now that's all he had to go on. Until he knew more it would best to stay clear of them, or perhaps if he got very curious he could send a dagger through one and see what happens. For now, though, he wouldn't intentionally do any such thing. On the bright side it didn't appear like his opponent had particularly enhanced defenses if his knife throw managed to wound him, so in terms of offense, most of his normal attacks would be sufficient. That made things a whole lot easier on him. Hopefully his opponent's attacks was limited to what he could see so far as well. That would also make things a whole lot easier. Raln grinned, feeling confident that he could pull off a victory.

He drew his sword, the Shimmering Lily, into his right hand in case his opponent charged at him, and in his left hand he began to form grey mist into the shape of a bullet, so that he could attack from range again, this time with another method. It would take 5 seconds of charge time until powerful enough to dent iron, which would surely do some significant damage against him should he get a good hit in towards the center of his torso. If his opponent did charge at him before the attack charged completely, he could likely use it to, at the very least, distract him and cause some pain while he prepared to defend himself with his sword.

[Bartimaeus]

Dmitri watched as his opponent a sword about the same size as his DragonWhisker, maybe a bit longer? It was hard to tell from this angle. But what he saw clearly was a greyish mist, almost appearing solid form infront of his foes hand. "Hmm i wouldnt guess i had much time to counter this." He thought. He waited about a second to open a portal about 10 feet behind his opponent, 1 foot infront of himself, giving them time to stabilize, he then quickly crouched low behind his portal, conceiling all of his body except his GuanDao. He then prepared himself to leap at his enemy as soon as he felt the attack enter the portal.

[ImportantNobody]

His opponent opened up another starry night sky, although this time in front of himself. It must be some sort of a defensive measure. Could the shield move once created? He ran off to the left, his opponent's right like he was the hands of a clock moving in a circular motion around his opponent. If the shield stayed put then he'd quickly get his shot off the moment his opponent's body came into view. If the shield did move to block him yet again then he'd have no choice but to keep charging his bullet and wait things out a bit longer.

[Bartimaeus]

His opponent began moving to his right, so Dmitri instantly dove off the platform into a combat role and, quite unorthodox to do such a thing, but what choice did he have, he couldnt gain ground, he threw his GuanDao like a spear and immediately started sprinting towards his opponnent at a speed that would scare the crap out of most people considering this man had just thrown like a 4 foot weapon at them. Dmitri wouldn't be able to stop soon enough at this running speed so he was wellprepared to slide under his enemiy's ranged attacks if need be.

[ImportantNobody]

Raln was surprised when his opponent decided to throw his weapon, although luckily that maneuver couldn't be pulled off too quickly if he was to get any range and power from it, allowing Raln to get over the shock and prepare a dodge by the time the throwing motion was complete. He ceased his circling pattern and jerked his body backwards, swinging his sword to the left to bash the tip of the blade further off course so that it would glide harmlessly past the front of his torso.

Although not at full power, it could still be lethal if hitting the right spot or at least a distraction otherwise so he fired off the mist bullet, his opponent reacting to it just in time to slide underneath. Too bad his bullet couldn't travel as fast as a real one could, which he was still training to see if he could achieve.

Even though the attack missed it put Raln into an advantageous position, still on his feet while his opponent was down on the ground and sliding towards him with little possibility to divert his course easily. He poised his sword to thrust at his heart as he slid into range.

[Bartimaeus]

Oh no... this wasnt good at all...wait! As Dmitri had the idea, he retrieved the Timebender's twig so fast it was as if it had materialized in his hands. He snapped it as fast as he could and was suddenlybehind his opponent. He closed the small gap with ease and performed a drop kick right at his foe's back and at the same time used Withdrawl to open a weapon retrieval low to the ground so that he could draw DragonWhisker as he stood up. Hopefully he could finally land a blow.

[ImportantNobody]

Raln's face showed his surprise as his opponent vanished from view before the fatal strike could land. Well that was certainly new. He jerked his head around to quickly take in his surroundings to see if his opponent was still in the premises, and indeed he was; right behind him in fact. During this moment of confusion he didn't have time to avoid the kick, causing him to stumble forward and downward. It was a painful but not particularly deadly blow other then the fact that it put him in a far worse position then he had been a moment ago. He regained his footing and swiveled around, hoping that he still had time to slash his opponent's head off with a right to left swing across his neck before he had a chance to fully get out his weapon.

[Bartimaeus]

His opponent had been faster than him at getting off the ground, but no matter, he just halted the ascent of his head to have the blade slash above his head harmlessely, then performed an upward thrust towards his sword arm's shoulder. He also began to swing his leg in the opposite direction his foes sword came from, attempting to 'sweep the leg'.

[ImportantNobody]

Raln grimaced in pain as the tip of the weapon stuck into his shoulder as his sword arm was crossed over his body. He got careless in light of recent events, but he didn't have much time to do any advanced planning in these sorts of scenarios. He had to act fast and by instinct until he could get some separation of one of them fell to the other. Things might turn out that way really soon.

While his opponent's weapon was preoccupied with stabbing him, with all the adrenaline in his body he pushed through the pain and swung his sword back in the other direction now, this time lowered to account for his opponent's lowered position. Although the sweep sent him sliding downwards into a crouched position he was still going through with his swing underneath his opponent's blade towards his lower abdomen.

[Bartimaeus]

Dmitri felt the well known feeling of blade against flesh. He had landed his blow. But he was in a dangerous predicament, his sweep had semi-success, but his opponent's blade was swinging towards his ribs. Thus blow was too dangerous to take. he couldnt easily maneuver his left arm into place in time and his right was occupied, so, he allowed his bofy to ascend until he felt the tearing of flesh in his hip, a much better place to be hit in than the ribs. This blow didnt hurt as much as it would have a long time ago, he was more accustomomed to cut open flesh now, but pain was not damage. Dmitri need to back away for a moment to asses the situation without getting too far, so he thrust his leg towards his opponent's chest attempting to throw them and himself in opposite directions. This caused a dirty pain in his hip, but he didnt have time for pain.

[ImportantNobody]

Raln let out a grunt as he was kicked backwards and the blade in his shoulder slide painfully back out of his skin. He let himself separate from his opponent, that being his plan anyways. They were both in bad shape and he didn't particularly like the idea of them just swinging wildly and taking themselves both out in a violent struggle like what could have happened back there. That was a close one. So much for his easy victory as originally thought. With his right shoulder badly wounded it would make fighting with that hand far more difficult and painful to the point where it would be better using his left hand. Luckily he got his opponent in the hip so would cause similar problems to his leg as Raln's arm. At least it was a good trade. He had to use his opponent's now weakened, at least somewhat, mobility to his advantage if he would still win without his dominant hand.

With his left hand he got out another throwing dagger and flung it towards his center of mass. Although far less accurate he could still hit a target that large without a dodge, and a dodge would reveal how weakened his mobility was.

[Bartimaeus]

Dmitri and his enemy stumbled to their feet at about the same time. Okay, so they were both wounded, but his wound would hinder him in a way that he couldnnt manuever aswell, while his opponent couldnt attack as well. His opponnent sent a blade cutting through the air towards him, it was slower and less accurate than his other hand throws, but still had the possibility to be deadly. Dmitri didnt think dodging would be ideal at themoment so he just stuck his left hand out while backing away, and caught the blade by the well, blade.
He held the knife with the flat side of the blade facing Raln, how knives are usually held to throw at targets or dummies. Dmitri had now reached his destination at 13 feet from Raln and Used withdrawal to remove his GuanDao from the ground and into a portal. Dmitri then summoned 4 nether screens to the tip of his sword.