the Rift


[JUDGED] When giants collide | Iso v Abraham

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#1
the girl.

Isopia hadn't been wandering the Flats for very long when he came into view. Although more correctly, it wasn't he who caught her attention. It was his companions. His dragons.

Having grown up in the Edge - at least for a time - Isopia was no stranger to dragons. Her mother had one, as did many of her former herd. But never had anyone been bonded to two of them before. At least, not until the earthen-child met the dark monolith outside of the caves. Perhaps what was most impressive was that it wasn't just any dragon that was in his possession - but something about the brilliant and large gold one just seemed to scream status. Unbeknownst to her, she actually did have a status - but the hierarchy among dragons was not part of the education that the Edge had afforded her. So when she spied the trio, the earthen girl immediately ceased her studying of the flats and trotted over.

They all appeared so different to her now, as her vision was still fully affected by the black sludge that lined her eyes and dribbled from her nostrils. Instead of seeing Abraham's monochromatic pelt, she instead saw waves of reds, yellows and oranges. Although the girl had suffered from this condition for a week already and had begun to adjust, she was still startled to see that the dragons did not display the same warm gradient that their bonded did: instead they were shades of warm purples and blues, almost like the ocean. How can they be cold here? She wondered soundless as she halted and nodded, her mind whirling to try and reconcile what she saw. 

Up close now, she let her eyes fall over their scaly bodies. It was hard to discern muscles beneath the fluid curve of their hide, but she was sure that they were there. These creatures were skilled hunters, and judging by Abraham's own muscular hide, she very much doubted that he let them live their draconian lives in sloth. Isopia had used her own magic to replicate the likeness and movements of dragons before, but she suddenly realized that the visual library from which she drew inspiration was fairly static. Her mother's dragon was always kind, and usually just flew around. Verzes, Volterra's dragon often left the two alone.

Perhaps now was her chance to amend her insufficient visual stock.

"I want to see them in action. See...what they can do." She finally said, apparently not noticing (or just not caring) about beginning with a proper greeting. Abraham's confirmation of this idea was all the approval she needed. 

Although she stood slightly taller than Abraham, it probably didn't look like it. His body was robust and muscled, while hers was much more narrow making him appear so much larger. That, and the radiating pulses of heat within his body made his bulk almost deceptive. His muscles seemed to gobble-up and radiate heat in a way that made his whole body appear on fire. (Is that an efficient system? Is that how calories are burned? her mind wondered, even as her body rolled forward). 

A wall of earth materialized right before her chest - almost like an extension out of herself - as she lunged. Her tactic was to use the earthen-shield almost as a barrier, for even though her mind told her that his body would be roughly the same temperature as her own, seeing the permeating pulses of bright orange flickering across his muscular chest caused her to be irrationally defensive. As she moved to try and force their chests to collide, two water dragons appeared near Brienne and Gwyn. Although the girl knew that her watery creations wouldn't be a real threat to the two beasts, she wanted to see how they would react. Would they destroy them and then attack her? Would they sense their relative inertness and ignore them? Would they leave Abraham to fight his own battles? Did they even see her as a threat?

This would as much of an academic experience as her previous spar with Mesec had been. Whatever bruising or pain her body experienced was merely the cost of learning about Abraham's wondrous companions. 

 
Setting: Halycon Flatts
Time of day: hard to tell since it's always so sunny. But there is a fair amount of glare reflecting from all the puddles/pools. 
WC: 698
Attack: 1.3
Other: has GLL so affected stats.
@Abraham 




Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Random Event Posts: 1,286
Helovian Ancient
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
#2
Abraham has contracted GLL.

Because fighting already started we won't adjust his stats for this fight. Symptoms can either begin showing now or in the next thread.

Abraham Posts: 113
Absent Abyss atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17.3 hh :: Three years HP: 71 | Buff: NOVICE
Gwyneverre :: Plain White Dragon :: Fire Breath & Brienne :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Frost Breath Time
#3

Abraham
Heed my warning, stay away

Abraham was privy to the female's approach before she reached his side. He saw her coming towards him with reptilian eyes, seeing simultaneously through green and fiery orange. The monstrous beast turned to face the demi-girl as she closed the space between them. She stayed silent, even as her golden eyes examined him and his companions, and Abraham looked her up and down skeptically. It had been many seasons since they had met outside of the caverns, and when she began to argue senselessly with a black and white mare, Abraham saw himself out. He was no stag to be stuck in between the quarrels of fools--no matter how pretty they were or how they drooled over his draconian queens. It simply was not anything the behemoth could bring himself so low as to suffer. Dark brows furrowed and knit together over his bi-hued eyes as he met the girl's scrutinizing gaze, though she seemed to nearly look straight into him--or, even over him, as if he were some monument for her to gawk at. Above him, Gwyneverre held tight into his mane and let loose a small, rumbling growl, a dignified sign of her questioning hostility towards the woman. Brienne, on the other side of Abraham's withers, flicked her tail some and gently trilled towards the death-marked mare. The brilliant gold's curiosity nearly outweighed the white's viciousness--but it did not mean, in any way, that the gold was not also a force to be reckoned with. 

Isopia--a name unknown to Abraham--did not waste time in making her intentions known. The words fell from her lips like liquid butter, and instantly they pleased the leviathan stallion. A smile, dark and menacing and proud twisted the man's face as his neck instantly arched. Oddly colored eyes danced over the tribrid's frame, watching as her muscles tensed as she moved. Abraham was trained well, his parents before him were mercenaries of excellent skill and highest regards on the battlefield.  He was taught to watch each muscle twitch, each step, each glance of his opponent--take in the evidence to form a theory of what might happen next. And so, the mountain did just that. A wall of rock suddenly hardened before her as she shot forward. Tucking his chin, Abraham moved to his left, hoping to end up parallel to Isopia's right side as she moved forward. Following suite, the monochrome beast lurched forward. 

Carefully, twin horns aimed to slice down the woman's right side and shoulder--perhaps her delicate wing--as she raced toward him. His intended assault did not come without consequences, however, and he felt the impact and sting of colliding with her stone wall send heat and pain to the point of his right shoulder instantly. Where the woman was slight and Abraham was rodust, she overtook him in speed--but surely he outmatched her in strength. Finishing his attempt at a horn-scrape, Abraham shot his neck and head forward with quick precision, hoping to snap his teeth shut clean and hard on the woman's right gaskin. He grunted, but even with the bruise forming beneath his white shoulder, he refused to wince, to show the pain that radiated out through his muscle and tingled down towards his knee. He was strong, he was a monster, he was a son of hellion that would not be brought to kneel before anyone's hooves. Your horns are shields, he could hear his mother's voice ringing in his head, the image of her blue-grey body fading behind his dark lids, just as they are weapons to wield. Massive hooves dug into the moist, white sand beneath the thin water, propelling him forward. He wondered if this place would prove to be a wise place to battle, or if the sands that seemed to hold him now were just as slippery in spots as the water made them appear.

His dragons, in tandem, snapped open glorious wings and took to the sky above him. There was no trouble with communication between the two dragons, for even though their minds were not connected through their shared bond with Abraham, they were sisters of the same species. For Brienne's first real fight, her actions defected to the commands of the more experienced white. Gwyneverre hissed darkly as a water-dragon appeared before her, and she flew forward toward the girl, attempting just to go straight through the harmless phantom of herself. The white dragon dove towards Isopia's left wing, and from the depths of her belly she released hellfire aimed for the demi's feathered appendage. Brienne, unlike her more upfront sister, opened her jaws to merely freeze the water-dragon before her, but made no assault--not yet. Vibrant green eyes watched, and wings moved her in circles above the dancing trio, mind reeling and waiting for her turn. 






[PC: 1/3 | WC: 798 | Magic: [ Magic: Dark | Skin excretes a neurotoxin ] :: [ Restrictions | Restrictions: Symptoms include hallucinations, loss of motor control, sense impairment and cognitive impairment for 30 seconds in battle] | Abraham will begin showing GLL symptoms in his next thread. @Isopia ]

Photo and Table by Time

Holy water cannot help you now
Thousand armies couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn your kingdom down


pixel by tamme

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#4
the girl.



He was correct - he was stronger, and she faster, but only just. So then, what happened had to be a fluke - or perhaps simply the mechanics of 'beginners luck' in action.  As Abraham's entwined horns shoved towards her right side, intent on sheering away skin, feathers, or both, her body swayed jerkily to her left. Isopia could feel her tall frame become unbalanced as weight was shoved through her left shoulder and hip. Her hooves skittered beneath her large body to try and compensate for such an inelegant maneuver, and a sound something like "hnnnnnnnnngggggggg" escaped her lips with the effort of such an uncoordinated solution. And so when no pain came across her right side, Isopia had happenstance and luck to thank, rather than any ingenuity on her part. 

The girl heard the sound of teeth snapping, somewhere near her tail, but already her mind had moved to Abraham's dragons. Without the sting of his attack to tether her to the battle, an academic interest had pulled her gaze to the sky to see what the two beasts (still seemingly made of some wintry substance) would think of her watery creations.

She missed Gwyn's unimpressed hiss, but was just in time to see something very odd happen. The dragon's body - previously awash of blues and violets which the girl had already concluded indicated cooler temperatures thanks to her thermal vision, suddenly bloomed bright orange - and then yellow! and then nearly white!! - within her chest. Isopia's mind worked quickly, dispelling with her incredulity and instead focusing on the implications.

Heat. She was seeing heat forming within the frigid body. 

A tortoise-shell shape of earth appeared over her back, as the girl once again dodged, (without any battle prowess), to her right side. Her long legs pulled her over the pale and watery earth - the same earth which had risen above her and taken the entire brunt of Gwyn's attack. Isopia could feel heat radiating along her spine, and might have thought it was a pleasurable sensation, if not for the pounding and panicked feeling resonating from deep within her most primal nerves. Although Isopia had never really experienced pain or defeat, some subconscious and intuitive part of her knew that she had narrowly escaped serious and significant pain twice in a matter of seconds.

Pay attention - some small battle-rational part of her mind tried to council, but Isopia ignored it, instead opting to look for the second dragon, rather than where Abraham was likely mounting another attack. Her black and sludgy gaze immediately caught sight of shattering ice, as Brienne's handiwork finally descended to the ground. Smiling, rather than feeling the fear and apprehension which would have been more appropriate, Iso formed a plan.

Her body began to shrink suddenly and contort. Patches of sand and maroon suddenly become black and glossy. Russet hair became onyx feathers, and large hooves became dexterous claws. The transformation was well practiced and relatively quick - and before long, Isopia was in flight as a raven. She assumed she had the dragon's attention, but just in case, she magically threw the equivalent of a handful of earth haphazardly in their direction - more so to try and gain their focus, than to injure (but then again, the demi-child didn't have a solid idea of what could cause an injury).

To Isopia, the entirety of the Flats was a gradient of reds and oranges and yellows. Since nothing was cold, and most light was reflected back, there was nothing which was blue or purple (save for the dragons). Isopia assumed her body was the same warm shades that Abraham's was, and wanted to see if she could create an illusion to fool his dragons on that basis. Conjuring more water - this time in a shapeless puddle - she flew quite close to the ground. She knew there were shallow craters of water below her, and by creating a puddle directly above her that mirrored her movements, she hoped to confuse and conceal her position. 

This tactic had a two-fold goal. The first, was to find out whether the dragon's relied on sense of sight alone, or whether other senses would take over (would her scent remain the same, as a bird and as an equine?). The second, was purely defensive. She knew she couldn't out fly them.

But could she outsmart them?

Weaving back and forth, Iso tried to lure them to ground - to see if they would mistakenly attack her mere reflect as it cast on the ground and the air above her.



 
Setting: Halycon Flatts
Time of day: hard to tell since it's always so sunny. But there is a fair amount of glare reflecting from all the puddles/pools. 
WC: 756
Attack: 2.3
Other: has GLL so affected stats.
@Abraham 




Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Abraham Posts: 113
Absent Abyss atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17.3 hh :: Three years HP: 71 | Buff: NOVICE
Gwyneverre :: Plain White Dragon :: Fire Breath & Brienne :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Frost Breath Time
#5

Abraham
Heed my warning, stay away

There was so much water and so much sun. In an instant of wonder Abraham decided this place--as beautiful as it was-- was not a wise place to battle. Perhaps Isopia knew that, and the knowledge fueled her challenge. The leviathan was unsure, but he knew now he wanted to win. Light glared off the surface of the shallow water, casting a glare into the behemoth's mismatched eyes. The light was blinding and caused him to momentarily falter. The frustration that rose within him manifested in a growl-like noise bursting forth from behind teeth that missed their target. His horn, a deadly saber capable of flaying muscle from bone did not run across the length of her body, either.  

Instead, the beast injured himself. Stopping abruptly, Abraham shifted his massive body to follow where the girl had fled. However, he pulled just the wrong way. Pain, electric and tingling, struck and rose from his left fetlock up to his shoulder. His face wanted to contort, to surface the extreme discomfort he felt radiated through his joints, but the stallion refused. Instead, he followed through on his turn stubbornly. His stubborn nature did not come without fault, and he felt it in the dragging, limping limb as he followed after the demi-god. Even in his pain, his eyes widened as he watched her transform before his very eyes. In the lapse that was his stubborn, pain-devoured turn, the son of hellion had missed his dragon's hellfire assault miss its mark. However, Abraham felt the rage that bubbled within his white's chest well enough to know what had happened, but he watched as the demi-god threw dirt at his dragons--and the sharp, piercing cry of the dragon's wounded pride that sounded into the salt flats solidified it in his mind. Don't kill her, Abraham warned, a slight wince of pain contorting his face as he limped at a trot off after the death-marked raven. The white gave no reply.

Bri! Abraham called out to the circling gold. Called into action, the golden darted down from the sky. Abraham slowed his trot to a walk, stretching his injured leg on. He knew if he did not let the injury rest his muscles would stay loose enough for him to finish this fight, but the injuries to both his front legs were not pleasant, and would need some rehabilitation in the coming days. The golden's brilliant green eyes watched as the raven-girl covered herself in a clever disguise of shimmering, reflecting water. She smart, the younger dragon mused, wings beating hard to follow, but I smart too! Quickly the white caught up to the gold, fiery eyes waiting for her sister's attack. With a trill of approval, Gwyneverre veered off and up--hoping to make a wide arc around Isopia and end up in front of her. Brienne swooped downward, jaws unleashing a small stream of petrifying ice in an attempt to freeze and shatter the water shield as she had done to the water dragon. Quickly, and precisely, the golden's body shifted and her back legs propelled forward. Talons reached out in an attempt to grasp the raven-girl's wings, like an eagle swooping in for its prey in the ocean. In her swooping arc, Gwnyeverre let loose another engulfing rocket of white flame towards the girl, who she hoped was in her younger sister's grasp.

Abraham grunted and suddenly moved from his walk to a canter, hoping to close the distance between him, the woman, and his infuriated dragons. The leviathan could not control the contortion of his face, the limp, or the sharp breath of pain he toook in. I said DON'T kill her! He called across his double bonds simultaneously, the sound of blood and water crashing in his ears. She wanted to fight dragons--and we never lay down a challenge! Gwyneverre retorted, silencing her flame and taking to the skies once more. Brienne flapped her wings slowly, letting warm air from her sister's flame help keep her in place. Turning her head and meeting eyes with Abraham, Brienne roughly pushed down with her back leg before releasing her grip and following her sister into the sky. "They're proving what they can do, because you challenged them." Abraham scoffed, siding with Gwyn's point. Tucking his chin again, Abraham waited with a pointed spear for the woman to react.




[PC: 2/3 | WC: 726 | Right shoulder bruise, left leg strained. @Isopia ]

Photo and Table by Time

Holy water cannot help you now
Thousand armies couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn your kingdom down


pixel by tamme

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#6
the girl.



In this form, with her wings beating so close to her ears and her other senses skewed by the distortion of her vision, it was hard for the raven-girl to place just where the dragons were. Their bodies sliced through the air in a way that was unfamiliar, and with no feathers to gently sway and flutter, what little she could hear of them, was distorted by her ignorance of how dragons moved.

So it was no real surprise to her that Brienne's frosty breath had already found the water that lingered above her, before the demi-god was even aware of how close the dragon had become. The thin panel which was now ice, fell heavily onto her black shoulders, immediately slamming her avian body into the sand. Her body and mind immediately tried to reconcile the abruptness of her halt, the abrasive feeling of the sand against her feathers, and the permeating cold across her back, with what must have happened.

Which one had the ice breath? Her more academically inclined inner voice wondered, (much to the dismay of her instinctual inner-self, which was really starting to wonder if putting in the effort of trying to keep her alive was even worth it).

With the breath squeezed out of her small body and the pain that had begun to set in from her fall clouding her ability to think rationally, Isopia began to wonder if she shouldn't just transform back into her original form. After all, her experiment to see if she could fool the dragon's clearly and disappointingly hadn't worked--

--a paralyzing sensation bloomed brilliantly and brightly in her mind interrupting her self-critique. For a moment, the girl didn't know what was happening. All she was aware of was an un-articulated flash of white in her mind, and the sensation of being moved. Am I dead? She questioned through a silent fog as her mind tried to reach out and grasp onto something that made sense.

When it did, the girl almost wished that it hadn't.

Pain, more bright and intense than (quite literally) anything she had ever experienced before, tore through her shoulders. Gwyn's grip felt like iron and fire, and her brittle bird-bones felt warped like a sapling in a storm. Her beak opened to let loose a cry of pain, but the hurt was too much, and her body couldn't even react vocally. Instead, her beak merely opened and closed spastically, as her inner mind screamed and searched for a workable solution. 

Although her eyes were open, they were hardly seeing anything. The world was adrift in oranges and yellows - it was warm, and roughly all the same temperature, and so depth perception was made all the more difficult as the dragon pulled her through the air. Once again, it was only because of the bizarre affects of the infection she had picked up, that she was able to spot the other dragon's second attack. As she came near, through a wall of pain and confusion, Isopia reacted. A shield of stone materialized in front of the girl (though was already crumbling around its circumference, due to her immense pain and therefore lack of concentration). A warm light was seemingly bleeding outwards from the stone, heating the entirety of the structure even as it flew towards the dragon's open jaws. The stone blocked the dragon's attack, saving her body from experiencing more than the savage pain of one set of dragon's claws. Relief flooded her mind, but regret was absent. Even amidst an empire of pain, the girl's academic interests had been satisfied. 

As her body hit the ground Isopia was vaguely aware of Abraham's proximity, and also the sound of his voice. Although she heard him, the words didn't really sink in for a few seconds. The word challenge reverberated in her mind, and she was reminded that she started this. This was a spar, which meant she couldn't just lay in the sand.

Her golden eyes rolled in her avian skull, taking in Abraham who was like a gigantic flowing fountain of oranges and golds, contained within the proportions of a unicorn. The pain had dulled enough that her focus was returning, and it didn't take a battle-expert to recognize that she needed to act. Fast. Calling upon the magic she had just used, Isopia tried to swiftly erect four pillars of stone, directly under Abraham's hooves. They blazed with a magical heat almost instantly. She hoped that either he would be precariously raised into the air and be forced to leap off (all the while having the softer parts of his hooves scalded) or, that should he move, that he would be knocked and burned by one of the pillars.

If nothing else, maybe it would buy her time to get up.


 
Setting: Halycon Flatts
Time of day: hard to tell since it's always so sunny. But there is a fair amount of glare reflecting from all the puddles/pools. 
WC: 800
Attack: 3.3
Other: has GLL so affected stats.
@Abraham 

:: [ Magic: EarthxFire (U) | Can create stone structures which can also provide heat ] 
:: [ Restrictions | Can only create 1 large item (heatse to 20m), 2 medium items (heats to 8-10m) or 3 small items (heats to 2-3m) per season ]




Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Abraham Posts: 113
Absent Abyss atk: 4.5 | def: 8.0 | dam: 7.5
Stallion :: Hybrid :: 17.3 hh :: Three years HP: 71 | Buff: NOVICE
Gwyneverre :: Plain White Dragon :: Fire Breath & Brienne :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Frost Breath Time
#7

Abraham
Heed my warning, stay away

Words rolled off of his tongue like venom, his body coiled like a viper. A flash of pain in his face, however, gave some faltering discontent to his demonic looks. Grunting (and sounding oh, so much like his father), Abraham stopped his canter. Weight shifted onto his back legs, back rounding and center of gravity lowering to take the pressure off of his injured from legs. Pain throbbed and radiated through his right shoulder and continuously--like a pulse of lightning--up and down his left leg. In some part of his mind, the growing stallion had an ounce of worry that the injury he sustained from his own vigor would remain with him forever. Flashes of his colossal father entered his mind, the massive scars ripping across the right side of his body vivid and intense. While he did not suffer the same fate of an outward scar, he remembered the way his mother's joints clicked when the weather grew cold. From battle, she would remind him, pride and glory glimmering in her eyes. Was this injury enough to hold with such regard, should it cause future discomfort? The leviathan would have to weigh the thought carefully, and for now he pushed it into the abyss of his thoughts.

His twin dragons moved quickly in the air, avoiding Isopia's magic stone wall from slamming into either of them. With intense cries--though unique to each the gold and the white--the reptilian queens caught a rift of wind and glided toward their bondmate. Above Abraham they circled, scales shining brilliantly and beautifully in the sun that shone down on their backs relentlessly. Their rippling reflects were even impressive as they danced on the surface of the water, a mirror beneath the massive stallion they called their own. Abraham's mismatched eyes narrowed as he watched the raven-girl, still sprawled on the sandy earth. Abraham's muscles coiled and tightened beneath his sleek fur, already moist with sweat from their endeavors, his tail lashing like that of a predatory cat waiting for a mouse to make its final move. The girl was not moving, and it made the giant suddenly clench his jaw. She had called this spar, and now she was just LAYING THERE, BASKING IN DEFEAT!

The boy's face grew warm beneath the black pelt his father had  given him, not knowing how the girl could inspect the sign of offense painted so clearly to her on his features. "Get up!" He snapped viciously, teeth gnashing wildly at the air. He waited for her to transform back into a horse. He had commanded his dragons not to kill her, and he knew he could easily kill her in her raven form. He and Reginald had killed animals larger than the raven-girl when they were but babes. Snapping her bones and watching her blood pour into the salted sands would be easy. But this was not a battle of death and destruction. If it were, Abraham guessed that she would at least try harder to survive. But she merely stayed in the dirt and grime. Snorting, body swelling with his pent up frustration, Abraham prepared to verbally lash at her once more.

Beneath him, suddenly, the earth rumbled. Warmth--like the warmth he knew well of Gwyneverre's fire--started to sizzle beneath him. Pulled away from his anger at the raven-girl, Abraham suddenly jumped sideways. In his rapid movement he lost all sense of the commands of grace and fluidity his mother had given him as a colt. He even forgot the throbbing pain he felt in his shoulder and leg--but he was quickly reminded. Sharp, like a horn digging into his flesh, his wounds came back to life. Muscles pulled and screamed their displeasure and defiance, joints shaking and trembling in their pain. However, as pillars of earth suddenly surged from where his hooves were once planted, the pain he felt increase only made sense. The stallion's face twisted into a dark scowl, pain laced through the fibers. "We shall end this, then." Guttural and penetrating, Abraham voiced his decision.

Gwyneverre, the speedy white and older of the two dragons, suddenly darted from her circling above the warmed pillars. A raucous cry emitted from her throat as her belly warmed, glowing oranges and reds that matched her eyes. A shooting, targeted spiral of hueless flame sought the raven-girl, hoping to disintegrate her and leave her nothing but a memory. Brienne let loose a cry as well, watching her sister dart for the attack. The golden yearned to hold the elemental prowess of her sister, but alas, she was still too young. This battle had already depleted the amount of ice she could conjure from the depths of her gut.



[PC: 3/3 | WC: 783 | Right shoulder bruise, left leg strained.]

Photo and Table by Time


@Isopia

Holy water cannot help you now
Thousand armies couldn't keep me out
I don't want your money
I don't want your crown
See I've come to burn your kingdom down


pixel by tamme

Isopia the Mountain That Knows Posts: 780
Dragon's Throat Apostle atk: 6.5 | def: 10 | dam: 8.0
Mare :: Tribrid :: 18hh :: 3 - is now aging slowly HP: 90 | Buff: NUMB
Hubris :: Royal Bronze Dragon :: Shock Breath & Frost Breath & Babel :: Royal Gold Dragon :: Fire Breath Odd
#8
the girl.



Isopia sensed anger in Abraham's voice, and the notion was mildly surprising. What did he have to be angry about? Hadn't he agreed to this farce? (For to call it a spar at this point would be a gross misappropriation of the term - clearly what had occurred was not a spar. It was just a beating). Abraham - and his dragons - had proved their prowess, had come out on top, and had reduced her to a pile of feathers. So why was he angry? Why was he telling her to get up? His hostility only added to the evidence already mounting in her brain, ultimately suggesting that she was simply no good at this. She just didn't get fighting.

And as Abraham rolled his massive frame away from the pillars she had forced up from the earth, the earthen-girl was also forced to conclude that along with not getting fighting, she was also apparently no good at it. She had three targets during the duration of this 'spar', and yet she had only managed to land an attack at the outset. And even then, it had been on the largest target (and Abraham certainly was a large target). He certainly didn't look like the type who could out maneuver her - which only further compounded the conclusion that it had been her impoverished skill-set which had made it so easy for him to evade her.

"We shall end this, then."

Isopia wanted to say, "you mean it wasn't already over?" but she didn't have the chance. In a way, it was a small blessing - for it eliminated the chance of revealing yet another moment of ignorance.

As her attention was drawn upwards to a sky bathed in oranges and yellows (appearing nearly featureless due to her thermal gaze), Isopia passively contemplated whether or not she was about to die. Her body remained in immense pain - so much so that Abraham's earlier command seemed entirely laughable. Get up? Impossible. The girl was almost certain that she couldn't transform back into her normal form, not that she would want to. The logic of pain that was forming in her mind, told her that the pain would be bigger, on a bigger scale. It just seemed clear to her that no matter how much this body hurt, her regular body would hurt more.

Although the thought of dying didn't rouse a sense of anxiety within her complex and distant mind, it certainly had an affect on her body. Adrenaline flared with painful precision through her avian limbs as the dragon bearing a visually cool-palette appeared overhead. Heat blossomed in the creature's chest, and Isopia's already tattered body spasmed in response.

Stay still. Accept what is coming - She tried to tell her already flailing limbs, but it was no use. Regardless of how 'zen' her mind had become, it had, at best, a weak control over her physical instincts and reflexes. 

Her body rolled to the left, and, as all of her concentration became focused upon not dying (much to the dismay of the inner philosophical monologue taking place within her brain), the pillars she created immediately crumbled. This had two effects. The first was that the falling stones bounced and fell towards her - knocking with a blunt force into her scrambling avian body. The second, was that while some of the rocks acted like a barrier between herself and the dragon's fire, because they were already heated, the bursts of fire that didn't immediately singe her tail and right wing, were nonetheless burned by the now-super heated rocks. 

Isopia tried to wrestle the pain that exploded in blistering heat waves through her body to a manageable level, in order to use her magic to douse herself with water, but it was no use. Her body screamed with an intolerable soundless wail that made rational thought impossible. Her beak opened and closed as black goo dribbled out of the corners of her eyes. Even now, already half-dead and half-buried, Isopia was moderately pleased. Although she had been beaten badly (both physically and with regards to the outcome of the spar), she had learned much. Abraham's dragon's were much smarter than she could ever imagined, and the way they worked in tandem was something she hadn't anticipated. On a more introspective level, she had found that pain radically dulled her ability to think and reason properly. Not only that, but her body had seemingly acted on its own accord multiple times. 

I have a lot of work to do. Isopia thought from within her rocky tomb. She wanted to croak a thank-you, but pain had disabled her ability to speak. So she merely shuffled away from the heated rocks into the sunlight, flopping onto her back as an indication that she wasn't dead.


 
Setting: Halycon Flatts
Time of day: hard to tell since it's always so sunny. But there is a fair amount of glare reflecting from all the puddles/pools. 
WC: 796
Attack: 3.3 + Closing Defence
Other: has GLL so affected stats.
AWESOME SPAR TIME <333333




Image Credits

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here

Official Posts: 847
Administrator
Stallion :: Equine :: ::
Official
#9
By my verdict: ABRAHAM is the winner!

ISOPIA
Realism [+3]
I really enjoyed seeing how well you incorporated your GLL sickness into this fight, though I would have liked to see more adverse affects from it rather than just the pros and cons of the thermal vision ti granted - for instance being more winded from it, coughing, feeling more weak etc. I felt it played a huge part in this fight though which I loved to see!
“...for even though her mind told her that his body would be roughly the same temperature as her own, seeing the permeating pulses of bright orange flickering across his muscular chest caused her to be irrationally defensive.”

Your attacks and defenses were all solid strategies, and I liked how well you utilized the terrain to do so, especially in that second post. You incorporated stat differences throughout the fight and I thought you took good injuries - though that last post almost seemed a bit much. I liked that you ended with an overall exhaustion that felt fitting for all she’d gone through. Overall great job!


Emotion [+2.5]
I definitely felt I understood why Isopia was acting the way she was during the whole fight. Although she isn’t an overly emotional character to begin with, the dry academic take she has fills up every bit of your writing making it so solidly her and backing up her motives at every turn that it still really resonates as great emotion.


Prose [+4]
Really beautiful writing all throughout that used great style, flow, and vocabulary.


Readability [+2.5]
Just one small error otherwise very readable with good use of directions and correct punctuation and grammar.

P2:
“...her mere reflect as…” (reflection)


Finally tally: 46.5+(12*2)-10(ending fight not standing)= 60.5 HP

*******************************************

ABRAHAM
Realism [+2]
You had great attack and defenses responses, and I really loved seeing your dragons working together to create some unique attack strategies especially in that second post. I do not think though that a gold would have followed the lead of a white, even with age difference, just given how heavily status plays into dragon lore. I did enjoy however that you had your younger dragon less able to use her magical abilities!

Although you didn’t take much damage this fight, what you did sustain seemed appropriate and I liked how well you involved the sustained injuries in each post. I think at times you focused too much on it, because his damage roll of 2 and his 3 crit miss from the first post shouldn’t have made him quite so lame, that’d be more like a 5 or 6 damage to me. Your last post also made it seem like he injured himself further avoiding Iso’s pillars despite the fact he rolled a 0 damage. I re-read it and it’s passable, but just watch the wording when you are reiterating an old injury versus sustaining further injury. Overall awesome job though and I enjoyed your utilization of the stats differences and some of the terrain!


Emotion [+1]
I felt a sense of Abraham throughout this fight, but it seemed more like I was just being given the surface. I know a lot of this fight dealt with the companions which might have made this more difficult than usual, but that’d be a different emotional area to explore and better show the link between all of them. I felt often that posts were heavy on action with emotion sprinkled in here and there.


Prose [+2.5]
Throughout the fight you had well written posts with some great verbiage and imagery. However I also got a sense that there were a lot of commas and dashes that didn’t seem necessary, and many long sentences, which all disrupted some of the flow for me when reading.


Readability [+2.5]
Overall easy to understand and utilized directional wording for it to make sense. Just some minor grammar issues.

P1:
“Following suite, the monochrome beast lurched forward.” (suit)
“...he felt the impact and sting of colliding with her stone wall send heat and pain to the point of his right shoulder instantly.” (reads awkwardly)
“...Abraham was rodust…” (robust)

P3:
“...of his injured from legs.” (front)
“Their rippling reflects were even….” (reflections)
“... not knowing how the girl could inspect the sign of offense painted so clearly to her on his features.” (reads awkwardly)


Finally tally: 53.5+(8*2)= 69.5 HP


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