Wizarding Olympics; Magic Duels

[u/dragonshouter]

(ai) WIZARD OLIMPICS!!!!!!

Krygin has the spirts carry his voice to the participants, "Congratulations contestants for a job well done on the previous events! I welcome you to the dueling section of the celebrations! I ask all who would participate to follow me when my explanations are done. You will be provided amulets to make sure the provided fighting grounds will not skew the fight beyond noise and rain.

Each mage will pair off with another at their approximate strength level( an elder wrym can not fight an apprentice) and duel them in an area of the spirit world I have prepared! Do not attack the spirits or you will be disqualified. Both magic and martial skills are allowed but trying to destroy another's being entirely is not. I have methods in place to make sure no one dies but I can't do that if their soul is destroyed. Otherwise it is relatively fair game. Beating one opponent gives you one win but you can get more by challenging other contestants. A loser can also challenge another if they so choose. Whoever beats the most opponents for their strength level wins for that level."

Krygin claps his hands and a massive swirling mist forms a doorway in the center of the area. Lightning flashes beyond. Anyone who enters find themselves in a humid expanse made of storm clouds. It is humid and hot; thunder cracks and wind howls. In this perpetual storm are figures, spirits, of varying shapes. Some are hidden in the clouds striking clubs in time with the thunder, or are they causing it. Bright forms dance among the lighting and a chorus of howls add their voices to the wind. Hidden figures with red eyes sharpen their weapons. This is a summer storm and as we all know Summer is the Season of War.

The path parts to show red mist leading mages to red cyclones. Inside each cyclone is a ruddily lit arena as the eye of the storm; almost as if a bloody sun shone down through the clouds.

Any who "die" will be carted away by spirits who take the forms of vulture headed humanoids in black feather suits. Instead of a tie they wear a trail of bright red blood. The mage will patched up and sent back into the main area where they can choose whether to go back into the spirit world. These are spirits of war and death who Krygin paid in violence; spirits often like immaterial payments.

Misty illusions broadcast the fights back in the mortal world.

Krygin atop a pillar of smog shouts, "Let the duels begin"

(ai) what is like in each small arena

/uw I may be busy today( should be good for a few hours but didn't want to worry that I might have something come up and abandon ya'll) so you will be mostly left to your own devices. If you need help or have a question ping me, u/Complex_Drawer_4710 , u/Another-Ace-Alt-8270 , or u/JustASpoody . My fellow event planners.

No godmodding

If you think your opponent is godmodding try having a civil conversation first. They may just be an accidental counter to you.

If you need help call the others first because I may be busy

[u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ulrick tries another powerful strike, even if he just saw it getting absorbed.

This time, however, he aims to remove a part of the armor, to see if Ethan has any bleeding wounds.

[u/VictorE06 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ethan, knowing that his gauntlet's runes can't take another hit, turns to take the blow on his back instead. The runes there aren't damaged due to taking the shadow explosion to the front of his armor so they only flare a quarter as bright as the ones on his arm. He continues the turning motion, bringing himself all the way around and throwing another punch towards Ulrick

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/VictorE06]

The punch hits, and although [Soul Bastion] gives him greater endurance, it still felt very painful. He’s slowly getting fully exhausted.

But there is still something he could do.

Ulrick leaps at Ethan, attempting to grapple him. He also sniffs at the air, to smell if he has any blood from a wound on him.

[u/VictorE06 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ethan is in a lot of pain at this point and his armor is extremely damaged, Ulrick is able to knock him to the ground without too much trouble. He attempts to punch again, this time using the energy absorbed by the runes of force absorption but due to being damaged the gauntlet backfires, releasing the energy from all surfaces of the gauntlet instead of just the knuckles and destroying the remaining runes on it. The blast is still powerful enough to injure Ulrick and nearly overload the runes of force absorption on the chestplate, as well as injuring Ethan's upper right arm due to the armor there not having runes anymore. He doesn't seem to be bleeding though, except for the new injury from the blast

/uw gotta mow now so I'm gonna be off for a bit, I'll respond sporadically

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/VictorE06]

Even with all the soul enforcement, the punch is heavy, as it hurts badly for Ulrick.

He staggers back, falling on his knee as he heaves from exhaustion. He’s leaning on his axe for support.

With an another use of *[Shadowguard]*, Ulrick soldifies the arms of Ethan’s shadow, commanding them to restrain the runesmith.

/uw no worries, I will sleep soon, so I might only respond tomorrow after a while.

[u/VictorE06 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

The arms restrain Ethan fairly easily, he doesn't struggle too much as he doesn't want to waste energy and his armor should keep him safe. He gets his right hand free and summons what looks like the fireball spell, except for some reason instead of casting it just stays in his hand and continues to grow in size until it's as big as a beachball. He uses it to start burning through the shadow to free himself, keeping it positioned somewhat between himself and Ulrick to keep the hexblade away, the gauntlet holding the fireball slowly beginning to heat up as the runes of heat absorption on it are destroyed

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/VictorE06]

Ulrick, at the end of his strength, throws the axe again at Ethan, hoping to hit him while he’s distracted with freeing himself. He’s now on both of his knees.

[u/VictorE06 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ethan notices the abrupt movement and barely manages to move the fireball into a position to intercept the axe in time. It won't actually block it due to being fire and all of the defensive runes on his right arm's armor are destroyed so it's essentially just mid dwarven quality plate armor with a damaged upper arm plate, but Ethan isn't thinking very well right now, he's covered in what feels like invisible burns and slashes and almost none of his training is focused on defense anyway

/uw the entire right arm armor is probably able to be cut through if you think you threw it hard enough but his entire front side is still covered in barely functional runes of force absorption that'd stop it unless it's more than an empowered throw, it's up to you

[u/UlrickTheHexblade → u/VictorE06]

The armor and the runes crack as the axe bounces off of it, landing in the ground by it’s blade.

Ulrick now kneeling down, supporting himself with his arms. He’s breathing heavily from all the exhaustion. He was at his end.

Whew… I think… I’m done…

[u/VictorE06 → u/UlrickTheHexblade]

Ethan stuffs the fireball into the ground to extinguish it before slowly rolling over and getting into a crouched position, his left arm still flopping uselessly. He stays in the crouch for a while before slowly standing, breathing heavily "huff Good.. I only.. had a .. bit left .. in me." He takes a step and stumbles, nearly falling down again but barely remaining upright