2008 TOA Quarterfinals: Itachi Uchiha v. Unknown Entity

[LocoColt04]

{{OOC:

Hello, and welcome to the mid-year 2008 Tournament of Arms!

Do remember, we are in a modern setting, and the tournament will be taking place inside of the Roman Coliseum. If you need further details, reference the information thread. If you need imagery help, reference the internet. Good luck to you both, and I'll see you in two weeks. You have until Friday, July 4th. Get going!

}}

[Unknown Entity]

Entity walked out from the dark tunnels which lead to the dampness of the waiting room, out into the almost fresh air of the Coliseum. On the other side of the circular arena, Entity could spot her opponant walking towards her too. The floor was tainted with dried blood, and other bodily fluids that have been there since the Coliseum was last used for battle. Entity was sure that her own share may be added to this mess, but she willed herself not to think that way.

Taking a deep breath, she reached behind her and pulled out her twin blades. As the sun hit the blade, she could see the fine engravings on the blade, that would soon rip through the flesh of...

Enough! she thought to herself. Don't get ahead of yourself. Just do what you have to do...

Taking up her stance, she watched her opponant ready their weapon... As she stared into Solstafir's eyes, she saw the same anger and... fear? that she felt to... STOP IT!!! She willed herself.

"ENOUGH!!! I'm ready..."

[Itachi Uchiha]

Sat on the floor, legs crossed, Solstafir waited in the murky holding arena of the tournament arena. Thick green moss clung to the walls and ceiling; dispersed rays of light barely shone through the crack that ran rife through the room. A feeling of humidity hung around him as he breathed foul stale air in. Letting out a sigh he thought ‘Such a barren and forgotten place. The carer’s seemed to have been lax when preparing for this tournament’. Looking round, he could hardly see anything in the darkness that held him. ‘It would seem even God’s hold no power here. I haven’t heard their whispers in a while. Maybe this is a place of solitude after all’.

With that thought, the sound of a mighty mechanism sprung to life. Large rusty gears could be heard tearing away at each other as light slowly dawned his face. Before him a wall slowly lifted, revealing itself as a gate. The sun showed all in the abyss as Solstafir stood, removing his cape, and proceeded out into the open.

Upon emerging he found himself on a ramp and the deafening roar of the crowd could be heard. Their voices carried calls of battle and praise. Bloodlust and honour. Heeding not their cries, he remained focus. Coming to the top of the ramp and into the battlegrounds, the view once more showed little care at all. The silky sand was tainted crimson and other signs of battle were apparent. As his eyes wondered around, they fell upon a shadowy figure rising up form the other side. ‘So that is my opponent, is it? A bit young and unnerved to be fighting me?’ he thought as her appearance became more clear. Her eyes showed what emotions she hid whilst his only reflected what they saw.

Drawing his swords, they to came to life. Truth with its clean blade shone with brilliance as lightning began to trail it. It crackled with menace and lust for battle whilst its twin, Deceit, only hummed silently to itself. The black blades’ song was the herald of death and his opponent was soon to find out. With Deceit in his left and Truth in his right, Solstafir adopted his stance. Truth held high with its tip facing diagonally down; Deceit held horizontally across before him. Patience was what the millennia had taught him and so calling out to the young woman,

“Look not so scared as I do have manners. To compensate for the quivering in your boots, you may go first.”

[Unknown Entity]

"Thank you, must honorable man! And to compensate for me going forth first, may ask that you not hold back your arms..."

Entity took a tiney step forward across the grit of the floor. One step closer to her opponant. The weight of her blades all of a sudden felt a hundred times lighter, and she could feel her own power build up in her upper arms and legs. The time has come... Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she saw her mother and father in the spirit relms. They were smiling at her, and Entity felt a surge of warmth build up around her heart. Be there for me, give the strength I need... Please...

Opening her eyes, she felt completely ready. Entity's will grew at a considerable rate. Staring into her blade, she saw that her eyes had turned to their usual shade of scarlet red, and were now glowing. Moving her eyes back to her opponant, she let out a low but loud grow, and feeling every muscle in her body doing its job, she charged. She watched as his stance changed - a minor change to ready himself for the coming blow. Leaping up into the air 10 yards before him, Entity raised her blades above her head.

Entity allowed the weight of the blade to come back and guide her down toward the blow she was about to make...

[Itachi Uchiha]

With his opponents retort, he could feel a shift within her emotions. The air about her seemed to change to him as orbs of glowing scarlet looked back at him. He shifted slightly, readying for an attack from the woman. Small beads of sweat slowly trailed down his skin as the glaring sun bared heavy upon the surroundings. All was quiet. The crowd had turned silent in anticipation. They waited for one to move at the other, to ignite the fires of battle.

A deafen roar came from his opponent as Solstafir watched, unflinching from his position. The woman leapt at him, the roar her battle cry. She soared with animalistic grace through the air, her sword ready overhead. As she came upon him, Solstafir moved his swords into a cross-guard and held them in the other blades path. Metal clashed, people screamed in ecstasy and Solstafir held his ground beneath the blow. The feral human was still hovering over, bringing her blade down more as if to overpower him. Looking deep into her eyes, he smiled. A mocking gesture to entice mistake.

Taking a jump of his own, he moved backwards releasing his swords from the pressure. His enemy’s sword struck the earth as sand rose into the air. That same smile still crossed his face as he called out to her.

“Please ready your stance. I don’t want my first attack to kill you. We’d hardly give our guest a show now then would we?.”

Waiting precious few seconds, he made his move. Swords at either side of him, he sprinted at the thing. Through battle he had not learnt what he was against yet he still charged, seeing the factor to be irrelevant. Coming into range, he raised his blades and started his performance. Swords slicing through the air they danced around the woman, looking for weakness to expose. Strikes intertwined but never mixed against each other as the performance continued. Deceit hummed louder with every swing; Truth’s white lightning grew in strength and rage. Solstafir’s arms wrapped and looped over each other as he moved and turned, looking for the same weakness his blades did. The display to the audience was magnificent as they watched in awe of the swordsmanship.

[Unknown Entity]

Entity smiled.

"Even I cannot die so easily... So if its a show the audience wants, its a show they shall get!"

Moving her whole body with such grace and speed, Entity swung her blades around her. She could feel the shock of her blades and Solstafir's blades as they hit. These shocks seemed to make their way up her slightly tones arms, up her neck and into her head, where they seemed to explode into a furious headache. The pain eventually became too much for Entity to cope with. Bending her legs, she catapolted herself into the air. Using her will to stay in the air, she shouted:

"Ready youself! Here I come!"

Once her air-time was up, she felt the earthly force of gravity drag her back down to solid ground. Doing a mid-air back-flip - not just to wow the audience, but to build momentom and force for her landing blow. She could hear the audiences' gasps of both fear and wonder just before the blow.

Her left blade was blocked by Solsafir's sword which was held in his mighty hand, however... her right blade swooped down and was heading straight towards his legs...

[Itachi Uchiha]

The swords clashed as his strikes were parried and blocked by the human like creatures defence. Even though they were getting started, it seemed to him his opponent was above average as they managed to safe guard his first onslaught. As blade warred against blade, it seemed his opponent also sought blood. She leapt into the air once more above him with the same grace as before. As he stopped and raised his swords to guard, he could help but notice her shaking; that same unnerving feeling that wracked her body. But it apparent didn’t affect her too much as she called out,

"Ready yourself! Here I come!"

That mocking smile was still held across his face as the prospect of a better battle lay ahead. She landed and came at him, all in a flowing movement that bore much momentum to strike. Two swords flashed and struck at him, as Truth was ready to defend him. The two opposing blades clashed and were locked once more in battle. But the second came low, aiming to impair his movement with a swift cut. Moving Deceit in position, the next two blades collided as well. Smooth against jagged; Deceit wasn’t designed for defence as his enemy’s sword moved further down the black blade.

Feeling somewhat vulnerable in the moment, he pushed back against the thing before him. The swords freed themselves as dust from the earth rose from the tips of metal scrapped against. But the movement was not clean and swift. As before the blade of Deceit was for more offensive tactics and so its awkward edge allowed his enemy’s blade to nick the flesh of his thigh. The cut was shallow, barely a cut to effect him. But the action of fighting had enraged Truth, as the lightning grew strong still. Calling out to the skies above, he chanted,

“Wrath of the God’s, fickle in judgement. Its searing power shapes the world in their view. From heaven it strikes carrying creation or devastation and so now I choose. See it now, purifying power. Wrath of the Heavens! I call thee down!”

With a swing of Truth, the emerald glowed and pulsed with power that acted as an amplifier for the lightning. In the mighty swing, the energies shot forth with a deafening roar. Arcs of white lightning ripped and distorted all around them as they travelled with unparalleled speed for their target.

[Unknown Entity]

Stared in horror and disbeleif at Solsafir's power. She had not thought such power could come from anything to have lived in the universe! However... Once she saw the blinding white and blues bolts of energy charge at her with all their rage, a little smirk appeared arcross her pale face. Instead of casting up some sort of defence, she stood and laughed into the eye of the electric beast!

The blast hit her on the chest, throwing her meters backwards, as if she were nothing but a discarded piece of tissue paper. She hit the ground head first. Pain steered its way up through her head, but yet she continued to laugh. The dust that had rose up from the floor surrounded her, coking her, but hiding her from Solsafir, who had decided to come in this dust house to look for her. Getting to her feet, she lept high up into the air, out of the cloud of dust, and landed on the other side of the arena. Turning around, she saw a confused looking Solsafir emerge from the now fading cloud.

"Firstly, you use your power before the battle has began! Secondly, you use power that I can embrace!"

Managing to will herself to control her laughter, she once again took her stance. Raising her blades she caught a glimse of something red in the reflection in her blades... The glow wasn't red enough to be her eyes of rage, but... Tilting her blade a little more, she stared into her reflection, yet keeping one eye on Solsafir, who now was ever so slowly, edging towards her... She looked at her reflection once again, and saw a trinckle of blood running from her brow to her cheek. It seemed to be a tiney scratch, but her her...

Clenching her fists around her blades, and looking once more into her opponants eyes, she frowned with such anger and hate, that she was sure Solsafir would think it was a God raging at him. All her fear drained from her body, to the floor of dust and dried blood, and was replaced with strength and will to win!

The audience was once again settled and quiet, awaiting the next move. It was then an idea hit her... Smiling she shouted to the Gods:

"Help me to attack and confuse my enemy! Hide me, shelter me, for my sake give me power!"

The ground began to shake so feiously, that Solsafir had to lower his self to the ground to keep himself from falling over. A circle of small mountian like features rose up from the ground around him.

"Behold, my fellow siblings! You know what you must do!"

The mountains erupted, sending rubble flying everywhere, sending dust in the air. The dust this time didn't take long to settle. Once it had, Solsafir was going to be in for the shock of a lifetime. More than a mere hundred Entity's stood around him in her stance, all moving at the same time, and with the same grace. The faces all smiled back at him, and all said:

"Which one, which one? Ha! Even you are stuck for choice!"

The words echoed around the arena, as Solsfir made his next move...

[Itachi Uchiha]

The lightning struck with perfect accuracy and it seemed the battle was over in Solstafir’s eyes. The audience gasped in horror at the strength of the blow he struck. A small amount of dust rose hiding his victim’s body, of which he was sure to have killed. Strolling casually into the cloud, he mused at the thought of blowing the poor girls chest through so early in the fray. But as he looked through the hanging dust, he saw nothing. No fresh blood. No splintered bone. No cry of agony. Nothing. It was void of all damage.

Completely confused by the sight he looked around expecting some kind of ambush for his foolishness. But again nothing. The strangeness of the moment was held until he heard her voice from on high. She was mocking him as she cried,

"Firstly, you use your power before the battle has began! Secondly, you use power that I can embrace!"

His eyes met hers once more as she soared with that same effortless grace through the air. But his eyes had change. No longer were they impassive walls of hazel. It was now they showed intent; that glimmer of sadistic enjoyment of battle. A manic laugh left his mouth as he shouted to her.

“Oh. I usually think a battle starts when the warrior’s clash, no? It would seem you are only playing with me still. It matters not. You will fall just like others have.” His face was a portrait of amusement at his opponent’s dull wit and stupidity as he continued, “And just as a future note for you. You needn’t tell me what you can embrace for I will just hit you with something else.”

As he watched her fall back down from the sky, he began chant another spell but was cut off by hers. She looked to the heavens and shouted aloud to those dwelling in them. But Solstafir still could not hold back the laughter. She calls on God’s like I? Surely this is some ignorant form of mockery. I’ll have to show her what Heaven reflects then. As the thoughts passed through his mind, the earth began to shake and crumble. In a circle that encased him, large ground forms rose from below. It gained quick height as Solstafir watched, unwavering from where he stood. As it reached its peak, the mount exploded in to huge amounts of rubble and dust. Debris flew in all directions as rocks of varying size struck hard against the ancient armour Solstafir wore. Muscles bruised quickly and pain wracked his body.

Falling to his knees from the sudden blows, his head hung low as he took in the air. The dust had faded quickly and the oxygen rushed down his windpipe as his body cried for air. Stabilized, he lifted his head to the taunting gesture of his enemy once more.

"Which one, which one? Ha! Even you are stuck for choice!"

“Surly this is but an illusion of the mind. I don’t know how but you must have confused me with you pointless spell. This won’t last long.”

Raising Truth to heaven once more, he began a nice chant,

“Rise from the blackness, if hath no might over you. Journey through the void to bring your lasting gift. The eye of the God’s that watches all mortals. Bringer of day and night. Shine your might through your rising! Dawn!”

The emerald sparkled as bright as the sun and magicks gathered to it. In a blind of an eye the jewel began emitting a harsh white light that engulfed the arena. The watchers gasped and shrieked in pain. Like a beacon in the night, the sword glowed brighter than day. Rising to his feet once more, Solstafir simply shrugged off the lights power. Chosen of Gods, the purity was nothing to him. But still the sight shocked his eyes. The copies of his opponent still stood around him, imposing in their number. Brining Deceit up higher, he chanted again.

“The Gods brought this world to be and so they choose its end. From the pits of darkness from which they made, new power comes to light. Scions of light detest such thing and crush them with their might. But light holdfast as darkness shows that it too is of the Gods. With flame eternal that sears through all, I bless you now with its presence. Stand your ground, false hope be found as I strike with vengeance. Abyssal flames!”

With a sweeping arc of Deceit, its blade hummed to a deafening pitch. Sounds of burning and the flickering of flames came full in the orchestra of noise. From the blade itself, spread by the swing, sprouted forth black fire; its hungry everlasting as the conflagration flew through the air, seeking targets to devour.

[Unknown Entity]

“The Gods brought this world to be and so they choose its end. From the pits of darkness from which they made, new power comes to light. Scions of light detest such thing and crush them with their might. But light holdfast as darkness shows that it too is of the Gods. With flame eternal that sears through all, I bless you now with its presence. Stand your ground, false hope be found as I strike with vengeance. Abyssal flames!”

Entity and her clones couldn't help but laugh. Calling upon the Gods - again? When will this man realise that the Gods won't always help? she thought. As powerful as the Gods were, she could never believe that they could be there all the time - How could they?

It wasn't until she witnessed a small wisp of a dark flame emerge from the tip of Solstafir's blade that her smile was wiped from her face. Once again, the Gods have helped him? This cannot be! Who is this I'm fighting?

"Speak man! Who are you! To call upon the Gods in bulk, they must deem you worthy!"

Once again, the voise came from the mouths of all of Entity's clones. There was no answer, and Entity was angered. She had noticed the flame of his blade grow, and when it had reached its maximum size, Solstafir swung his blade. Almost instantly, this was followed by such a noise, Entity was sure she'd never be able to hear again. Falling to her knees and raising her hands over her ears, she began to scream insults at the Gods - not a wise move, but it was them who brought this apon her.

Her Snake Eyes fell to the ground, but she didn't hear them. Opening her eyes, she saw that all her clones were one by one disappearing into the dust from which they came. Looking a little higher into the stands, she noticed that the audience, too, were covering their ears. Moving her gaze to Solstafir, she saw a grin appear across his face.

She saw the red spark of her battle raged eyes in her Snake Eyes. She went to lift them from the ground, but... Closing her eyes, she heard a faint whisper. I'm still hear my Lady... Opening her eyes, Entity put them back on Solstafir. Feeling a gentle pulse at her side, where Witness was kept, she grinned. Raising her blades from the ground, she placed them back in their holders. The audience and Solstafir laughed.

"What are you going to do!? Stare him to death?!" She heard someone shout from the audience. Entity chuckled, and pulled Witness from his holster... She lifted the barrel, and aimed for Solstafir... Thats it... whispered Witness. That said, she began to spin, her black as night cloak lifting up around her, hiding her. Dust once again was lifted into the air. The time has come my Lady... FIRE! Stopping her spin, she leaped high up into the air, and took her aim again.

Entity pulled at the trigger multiple times, sending a wall of bullets hurtling towards Solstafir, before landing. He can't dodge ALL of them... Entity mocked. Lifting her canteen from her pouch, she lifted it to her lips. The wine was warm, but did its job by washing down her dusty mouth, and warming her insides. Placing it back in her pouch, she watched as the dust settled, so that she may see what became of Solstafir...

[LocoColt04]

Winner by default is Itachi Uchiha.

Unknown Entity was disqualified due to editing a post WELL beyond the 15-minute mark, and actually after a post by the opponent. This also happened on more than one occasion. The TOA rules clearly state that there is only a 15 minute grace period for editing, after which all changes become potential for godmodding.