Round 2 - Low-Budget Man vs. Water Nymph - Judge Merry

[Merry]

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The air around you is frigid and thin. So chilled that when you breath in, it feels as if you are breathing in small particles of frost, freezing you from the inside out. With each breath you exhale, the warmth is quickly vaporized into the cold. Gone as quickly as your body warmth seems to be.

The uneven frozen ground beneath your feet has a thin coating of black ice, dangerous to even walk along. A light mist is descending. It's freezing as it hits the ground, the stones, and you due to the frigid temperature. Making this location quite treacherous. One wrong foot placement, and it could be the end of you. There is no recovery from a fall such as this, it's a very long way down. Should you miscalculate your steps, we will only hear your screams, until they simply fade away into nothingness.

You have 5 posts per person, and 72 hours to respond between each post. By the luck of the draw, Low Budget Man goes first.

Best of luck to you both!

[Low-Budget Man]

Monolith felt an odd tingly feeling fill his body as he was teleported to the elevated location. After a few seconds, the feeling disappeared, and Monolith was returned to his healthy self. Gentle clouds rolled near Monolith, dancing happily in the wind. It must be nice to be a cloud, careless and full of freedom. The independence of the clouds quickly returned his mind to his duty. It was simple, kill Zelda Bouton. Being utterly loyal and unquestioning to his master, he quickly marched to make his master’s will happen.

Burning steam rose from Monolith’s bulky form, sending up a small fine mist around him. The ice and fire rarely mixed. Sadly, Monolith was the fire, and he was surrounded by the freezing cold. Water accumulated at his feet as the ice began to melt from contact with Monolith. It felt quite nice to the massive creature.

The fiery golem gingerly took a single step forward, his weight cracking part of the ice. Already, liquid was forming where his step was. He was taught by his master “water was very hazardous to beings made of lava “like himself. For all his strength and power, Monolith was still young, and like any other young creatures, he wanted to explore and had a deep sense of curiosity. Melting all the ice and forming a large pool of water seemed quite reasonable Monolith figured. Even though it seemed dangerous, Monolith longed to dip his hand through a puddle of water. It was similar to a child wanting to put his hand through a fire.

Monolith took another step forward this time, with a different outcome. Instead of him cracking the ice, the ice managed to stay intact. Although Monolith’s expression remained “stone cold”, Monolith was quite happy at this new revelation. It was nice to be able to walk on ice and not have it be destroyed instantly. The cold feeling beneath his feet lasted for just mere seconds before the ice continued to melt at an astounding rate.

Monolith halted his discovery and glanced upward across the platform. A solitary figure stood a few dozen feet away. Monolith was not a blond eagle eyed elf, but at that distance he could easily tell it was Zelda Bouton. Quickly, his left hand was morphed into a shardgun. His left hand now resembled a cluster of outward pointing rocks. Bits of lava dripped off the newly birthed shards. With a slow and steady jog, Monolith charged forward. His left arm was raised toward Zelda and began unleashing a hailstorm of scorching shards toward her. The shards ranged a few inchs each , were a cylinderical shape and were sharp on both ends. The shardgun didn’t fire once and stopped, instead it was a consistent suppressive stream of fire. New rocks were constantly reforming upon his hand, giving him a relatively infinite torrent of ammo.

Monolith also did not exactly aim at Zelda. He shot it in her general direction but angled it so the majority of the rocks would land scattered behind her. There was a fairly good chance the flying rocks might embed themselves upon her, but that wasn’t his main idea. The main idea was he was building up a collection of deadly caltrops behind her. One tip of the shard would smash itself on the ice, pointing the other tip upward, baring a sharp edge. Even if she didn’t impale her feet on the rock, just touching it would probably burn her feet. If she attempted to flee, the shards would possible cause damage to her, effectively causing her to collapse. You can probably guess what will happen next.

His right hand remained a fist, for the possibility of him slipping off and requiring to be hauled upward. Also, he kept it in a fist so when he reached her, he could easily crush her puny head in his grasp. Maybe when she died, he could spend some time playing with the ice. Monolith still remained expressionless, but the small joy filled his "heart".

[Vampirequeen]

The young witch's heart was pounding as she was teleported to the field. She took a deep breath of the freezing air and immediately started to cough. She pulled her cloak around her body as her opponent took a few steps in her direction. She studied him as he approached, but there was so much distance between them that she couldn't see if his weight was breaking the ice or if he was melting it. She could handle either one, but she knew that she'd have to be extra careful if he was melting the ice.

Zelda watched as her opponent's hand changed and began to drip something that looked like lava. From where she stood, the substance matched the description of lava, but the young woman had never seen it before. Whatever it was, she had to be careful.

Suddenly, her opponent began to run forward and shoot shards of rock in her direction. Zelda awkwardly darted out of the way of the falling shards. She slipped several times, but was able to stay on her feet as she half-ran, half-skated towards her opponent and away from the shards that were landing behind her.

The witch was thinking about which element to use when she suddenly slipped and fell to the ground.

"Damn," she muttered as she struggled to stand up. It was difficult, annoyingly so. The palms of her hands, which had landed flat on the ice, were as cold as the air and the ground, which made getting up even harder. She rolled to the side and barely avoided a shard of rock from her opponent.

Zelda forced herself to her knees as she had an idea.

"Fire," she muttered to herself. Instead of seeing flames circling her hand, Zelda felt a faint warmth in the center of her palm. She cursed under her breath as she dove to her left to avoid another shard. She got back on her knees as she rubbed her hands together to try to warm them up.

Stronger, it needs to be stronger, she thought to herself as she began to feel some warmth in her hands. She dove out of the way of another shard and managed to shove her right hand under her cloak as she rolled. She pulled the hand out as as she once again got on her knees. A shard landed on the other side of her, leaving with nowhere to go but forward.

By now, a small flame was circling her hand. She placed the hand over the ice in front of her knees. The flame grew stronger and the ice slowly started to melt. She moved her hand back and forth in front of her until a small section of it was melted. She placed her hand on the ice in front of her and quickly put one foot into the icy water as the ice around her hand melted. She placed her other hand in the water on the other side of her foot. In one quick motion, she pulled her other leg forward and put her foot in the water next to the other one. She closed her fist and held her hands together as she rose to her full height and darted forward to avoid more shards.

It was then that she realized just how menacing her opponent was. She lunged out of the way of the charging behemoth and was able to catch herself before she fell again.

She stared at her opponent as she tried to think of a strategy. She needed one and it had to involve keeping herself upright.

[Low-Budget Man]

Monolith was charging forward, hoping to slam into Zelda. One foot after another, it was a slow and steady rush forward. Monolith wasn’t the most graceful being in the world, so his movement was quite sluggish. However, Monolith moved at a speed at which after impacting Zelda, something was bound to be broken. Zelda had to repeatedly duck to tumble to dodge the hailstorm of shards, therefore switching her location. Something Monolith was forced to attend to. The hulking giant decelerated and changed his direction, then accelerated once more.

She was also doing something to the ice in front of her, not that it mattered too much. Unless it was a wall of some sort, she was still going to get hit by an attacking golem.

When he reached about five feet in front of her, he halted his stream of fire and curled his left arm. His left arm was still in the form of a shard gun, but instead of it firing it, he used it as a sort of shield. Monolith highly doubted Zelda could afflict damage upon his person upon impact, but it was still better to smash Zelda with his arm than his body. Not that the damage wouldn’t be remarkable reduced.

At the final second, Zelda threw herself down. Monolith unprepared for the hasty move, stagger forward and smashed onto the ice. Shattered ice and rock flew into the air as the golem slid forward. The scream of ice and rock crashing against each other echoed through the air. A few of Monolith’s own shards impaled Monolith, drawing a bit of lava to dribble. To prevent him from sliding any further, Monolith rammed his left hand into the ice. His left hand was a plethora of spiked shards that provided a perfect anchor. His spiked fist was driven deep, breaking through the ice and jamming itself into the ground. Monolith’s brief career as a ice-skater ended. Monolith lay prone upon the ground for a split second, before using his hands to assist him to lurching to his knees. Already, the ice beneath him was also steaming and melting.

His back was still facing Zelda, leaving her a perfect view of the dozen or so stalagmites protruding from his backside. He then decided, he wanted to give her a closer view. With a barely noticeable groan, the stalagmites flew like missiles. These stalagmites were hollow and filled with lava. Surprising eh? Each was roughly two and a half feet long and was sharp on both end. These were definitely longer than his previous shards and held a decent amount of lava. The burst of stalagmites was akin to a shot gun blast, sending a discharge of “bullets” at a general area. Monolith's backside was now bare.

He slowly wobbled to his feet after the blast, and turned around. Lava dripped from a few of the shards embbed in his chest. Ice was melting all around Monolith from random bits of rocks and shards scattered about. There was also a trail of open dirt leading toward Monolith.

[Vampirequeen]

When her opponent fell on the ice, Zelda smirked in amusement. The emotion lasted for a few seconds before she was pelted by shards of ice and rock that had been broken and sent airborne by the golem's fall. Before she could get out of the way, a large shard of ice struck her below her right eye.

"Damn," she muttered as she ducked and wiped a trickle of blood off of her face. She stared at her opponent's back as she thought of her options.

She was in the middle of wondering if her sword would be of any use when she realized that the creature was shooting stalagmites at her from his back.

"Ugh," she muttered as one of the stone projectiles flew past her. She was surprised when she felt heat radiating from the stone "bullet". She ducked as another one flew towards her. It missed.

Water Whip, she thought to herself as she rubbed her hands together to warm them up. Before she could separate her hands, a stalagmite flew towards her and grazed her cape, tearing a hole in it and scorching the torn edges. She shot a glare at Monolith's back as she curled her right hand into a fist.

Her fist had barely closed before another stalagmite forced her to dive to the side.

"Damn it!" she shrieked as she felt a sharp, burning pain in her lower left leg. She slammed into the ice and rolled over to look at her leg.

Zelda bit her lip to keep herself from cursing when she saw her leg. The stalagmite had grazed it with enough force to make a deep cut, but everything was still attached and there was no chance of anything falling off.

"Water," she muttered. Her right hand was immediately surrounded by the clear liquid. The witch sighed as she sat up and placed her right hand over the bloody, burning wound. The battle was important, but she needed to at least clean up her wound.

[Low-Budget Man]

Monolith slowly and carefully turned to face Zelda. The ground around her was embedded with multiple lengthy stalagmites. They raised of the ground likes spines on some sort of a great beast. Scorching lava oozed out of the stalagmites, forming small pools around them.

The area around Monolith stood in a roughly similar condition. Bits of rock shards, lava, and ice were scattered haphazardly upon the ice. They didn’t bother Monolith too much, but someone with thinner and weaker feet might find stepping on the makeshift minefield a bit dangerous.

Monolith took a single step with his left foot, crunching upon some ice. He kept his hands to the side for balance. Sliding around the battlefield was probably not the best idea in the world. Slowly, he progressed toward the wounded Zelda. She busily contented herself with healing. Monolith then began a steady trot toward Zelda, noticeably slower than before however. Little momentum was put into this advancement, and it was at a speed in which breaking was simple.

The golem had various cracks in his rocky carapace where lava dripped out leisurely. Half a dozen shards had impaled themselves upon Monolith. It wasn’t enough to warrant him to stand and overheal himself. He would rather finish his fight then do so. Zelda seemed to have plenty of tricks up her sleeve. Anywho, it would take several days for Monolith to "bleed" out with the wounds he had encountered.

After a few seconds, he reached around three and a half feet of the healing witch. Monolith halted his slow charge. In one fluidic motion, he leaned over and swung his left arm toward her. His left armed retained its shardgun form and had managed to grow a healthy bristle of shards during his advance. Being a few feet taller than her, he aimed it downward. It was essentially a heavy mace.

The fist whistled through the air, several hundred pounds of brute strength. The force of a dozen men was contained in a single fist. As it curved through the air, he unleashed a storm of rocks at once from his shardgun. It was a shotgun blast of rocks toward his foe. If his fist doesn’t hit her, at least his shards might. His newly emptied fist soared through the air on its previous route, noticeably less menacing and lighter. It was just a stump of craggy rocks with shards already beginning to peek outward from the stub.

[Vampirequeen]

Zelda sighed in relief as the cold water soothed her leg. A crunching noise brought her back to reality as she looked up and saw Monolith approaching her. Her eyes widened when she saw the red liquid dripping from her opponent's cracks. An idea began to form in her head. She closed her fist before she looked down and the wound. It was clean, but still bleeding.

Suddenly, she sensed a presence near her. The young witch looked up and realized that her opponent was a few feet away from her.

"Aaahh!" she screamed as he swung his left arm downwards. In one quick motion, she rolled away from him and managed to avoid the stone mace. She darted to her feet as she was pelted with rocks from the creature's shard gun. The majority of them bounced harmlessly off of her breastplate, but a few hit her on the head and feet.

"Ouch," she muttered as she half ran, half slid out of the range of the shards. Her leg was painful, but she needed to put her plan into action before she lost her chance.

Water whip," she thought to herself as she closed her fist and awkwardly moved a few feet behind the golem. A long stream of water flowed out of her hand and took the form of a long whip.

Please don't freeze on me," she thought to herself as she raised her right arm above her head and swung it diagonally across her body. She hoped that it wouldn't freeze, but if by some chance it did, hopefully Monolith's body heat would remelt it if it made contact with him.

[Low-Budget Man]

Monolith’s fist whooshed through the empty air as the witch dodged his strike. The confused golem surveyed the area in front of him puzzled at the witch’s sudden disappearance. If the golem had owned eyebrows, he would have surely furrowed them. Sadly, the golem didn’t so we are awarded with him staring blankly at the fields of destruction.

CRACK, a diagonal slash went across his thick backside. Chips of rock exploded through the air. A strip of rock was removed from his exposed back. Recently freed lava began their migration down Monolith’s rocky hide. He didn’t scream nor grunted in pain, he merely just mentally acknowledged the fact that someone was behind him.

There was no pain from the wound, only a slight feeling of lava dripping out from the cut. He had to finish this sooner or later, if she kept poking him, then Monolith would possible die from the attrition of lava lose.

Monolith pooled his rapidly decreasing supply of lava into his arms. The lava swarmed his arm and slowly elongated it about six inches, giving him extra reach. The Monolith rotated to face the battered witch. Instead of attempting to bash her once again, he opted for a different approach. He spread his arms wide, as trying to give Zelda a hug. Slowly he stomped toward her.

A risky move quickly followed, using his depleting supply of lava, he spewed a gush of lava at his foe. It wasn’t like a singular jet of water. Instead, it was similar to when you hold a finger a couple of centimeters in front of a hose. Water would blast outward in wide vicinity. However, Monolith was not firing out water. What was coming out of his mouth was lava. A liquid heated at roughly one thousand degrees was spewing out in an explosive manner.

[Vampirequeen]

Zelda smirked in satisfaction at the sound that the water made when it hit her opponent's back. She had just opened her hand to make the whip disappear when the golem turned to her.

What is he doing? she thought as she watched him use the lava to extend his arms. She took several steps back as he approached her.

Suddenly, the stone creature began to spew lava at her.

"Damn," she muttered as she darted out of the way and face-planted on the ice. As she tried to get on her hands and knees, the witch accidentally placed her hand into a puddle of lava. She screamed in pain and managed to dart to her feet. She would have liked to use some water to soothe her hand, but after using the water whip, she didn't have enough elemental energy to use more of the fluid element. She had no choice but to bite her lip and dart out of the way of the lava.

After some sliding and stumbling, Zelda found herself behind the golem. She took several steps backward and tried to think of another plan.

[Low-Budget Man]

Monolith swiveled to follow Zelda, sending lava over the edge and then behind Zelda. He had to halt his lava spewing after a few seconds to conserve his precious supply. The witch had once again managed to evade Monolith’s attack. If Monolith had emotions, he would have surely been angry. Both combatants were battered and bruised; Monolith was leaking lava out of his wounds like a waterfall.

The battleground was splattered with sporadic pools of lava, glowing bright orange. Shards still rose out of the ground like hungry hands waiting to cut stab someone. The air was a thick blanket of burning steam from the ice and lava. Even if you haven’t touched the lava, you could still feel the heat resonate from the puddles of death scattered about. A majority of the nearby ice has melted, turning into soft water. What was previously a freezing field now was a scorching sauna. It was treacherous to move at all.

Monolith however, wasn’t a normal man, he was a golem. The area behind Monolith laid in ruin, the area in front of Monolith also laid in ruin. Although, not as badly.

Monolith took three huge steps forward. With his arms outstretched, he swung both his arms toward Zelda. It was if he was trying to huge her without touching her with his chest. Like those awkward outstretched hugs. Except, if he succeeds in hugging her she would probably die. Two bulky fists flew toward her from both sides.

If she succeeds in dodging the fists, then the two fists would crash together and there would be an explosion of lava and rock. Rock splinters would fly. Blobs of lava leap into the air. He had made his fist into grenades when he extended his arm, giving it more lava to make the blast deadlier. It would be a shower of death. Sadly however, his fist would be stumps, but it could easily be repaired after the fight.

Monolith yearned to finish off Zelda. Not because he might die from her or because she was dangerous. It was because she had to die by his master’s decreed. By failing to kill her, he is failing his master. That is a fate worse than death.

[Vampirequeen]

Ideas were still swirling around in Zelda's head when she was forced to dart away from another spurt of lava as her opponent turned around. She stumbled and a burst of pain shot through her leg. She grimaced and stopped to rest her leg.

Suddenly, the golem charged at her as he swung his arms. Zelda dove out of the way of his fists, but she was unable to avoid being hit by small rocks and lava from the impact of the creature's fists slamming into each other.

"Damn it," she muttered as she tried to come up with a plan. The golem was just as battered as she was and she knew that she had to defeat him before he defeated, no, killed, her.

Suddenly, she had an idea. The young witch took several steps back and moved sideways so she was facing him.

Element combination. Water in the right hand, air in the left, she thought as she raised her arms. Her right fist was surrounded by more water and an unseen breeze was now swirling around her closed left hand. She brought her fists together in front of her body, linked her thumbs together, and raised her arms above her head.

You're going down, she thought as she swung her arms forward and opened her fists. Thanks to her use of the element of air, the stream of water flew towards her opponent as a faster, and therefore harder, speed than usual. The young woman started at her opponent as she wondered if he could get out of the way. If he couldn't, the battle would be close to over, if not finished. If he did get out of the way, she'd need a new plan.

[Merry]

Zelda’s attack was, in fact, quite successful. Streams of water hit the Golem full force, pushing him back at a rapid pace. Steam rose from his molten body momentarily hiding him in a cloud of liquid as he slipped backwards. He swiftly slid across the ice to the very edge of the precipice of the battle grounds on which they had been placed. With barely a toe hold left, he stopped, teetering on the edge of oblivion itself, battered and beaten by the water's assault.

Unfortunately for Zelda the sheer force of her magic pressed backwards as well. With her feet sliding on the treacherous, icy grounds of the battle field, she found herself careening, backwards rapidly. She slid to a stop, wavering dangerously close to the edge of the battlefield's abyss, her arms thrust out wide in an effort to balance herself and remain upright.

Both warriors paused mid balance, barely daring to count what seemed like endless seconds. As Zelda let out the breath she didn't realize she had been holding, her recent water whip victory became short lived. With a resounding crack that reverberated throughout the bizarre arena, the footing underneath her gave way, completely disintegrating under her feet and dropping the mage into the terrifying and infinite utter nothing of the abyss.

Monolith has survived this battle and is moving onto the next.

Low Budget Man

Writing Style (of 15): 12
-Ideas 4
-Flow 4
-Conventions 4

Effectiveness of Combat: 12
-Character Consistency 5
-Ingenuity 3
-Interaction 4

Control of the Field: 10
-Environmental Awareness 5
-Strategic Awareness 3
-Control of the Fight 2

Total: 34

Water Nymph

Writing Style: 9
-Ideas 3
-Flow 4
-Conventions 2

Effectiveness of Combat: 9
-Character Consistency 4
-Ingenuity 2
-Interaction 3

Control of the Field: 9
-Environmental Awareness 3
-Strategic Awareness 4
-Control of the Fight 2

Total: 27