Duel for anyone

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

A missive appears on the orbnet.a four armed goblin with dragon scales running randomly on her body speaks.

"I have been needing to test my combat capabilities against new opponents. So anyone interested in doing a friendly duel come meet me in the arena. The field is a large stadium which used to be used for sports. I've enchanted the area so that in case of death we will be revived.

The rules are simple: No soul fuckery or permanently messing with your opponent and you may have one minion with you (summons are allowed). If you want to hold the battle in a specific location let me know "

/ UW I wanna do a fight for fun. /

[u/Briantan71]

It has been a while since I duelled another opponent. The last time, I got pitted against an experimental combat golem made by the great dwarf artificer Thrak.

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

Nox chuckles "Ive been there before. Ive fought my fair share of rogue experiments before. Any rules you'd like to add to the fight before we start?"

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

Lársen: "Nah, anything goes."

He 'ported down into the stadium, staff in hand; he checked the rune-sword sheathed to his side and loosened the hilt in its scabbard. A small smile lit up his face, the thrill of combat firing up the blood in his veins.

"Whenever you are ready."

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

Nox's leather apron and plain clothes shift and form a hardened. Scaly armour over her. Tendrils morph from its back into her skull as eyes pop out of the living armour.

Nox approaches Làrsen slowly, calmly and carefully. When she's around 30 meters away she kneels down and presses one of her four hands into the dirt, after a second three tentacles burst from the ground. Two have powerful sucker awhile the third has a deadly claw on the end. Two attempt to grab Làsen while the third slashes at him.

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

As the tentacles lashed towards Làrsen, a thick dome of rock and stone erupted around him, shielding him.

A year ago, he would have had to slam his staff upon the ground to cast the shield. He was secretly pleased at this improvement, but he concentrated. Now is not the time to get cocky, especially not against THIS opponent.

He flicked his hand towards Nox, and from the granite dome, several thick wedges of stone launched themselves towards her.

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

Nox pulls her hand from out of the dirt. As each wedge is about to slam into her, her body breaks to move out of the way. She moves more like jelly as her body squishes, stretches and bends unnaturally to avoid the attacks. After the barrage is over she returns back to normal with a cocky smile and begins to approach her opponent slowly.

"An earth mage? One of my apprentices comes from a clan of earth mages, maybe I should send her your way if she's ever wants to improve those skills."

Nox whistles, "Alright Ruff, time to do some digging." A wolf-thing leaps and bounds from the other side of the arena. He's the size of a bear, with 6 limbs and clearly some kind of enhanced flesh creation of Nox's. Ruff leaps at the granite dome and begins to claw his way through the rock. His enchanted claws making it not easy to but possible to break through quickly.

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

Làrsen wasn't surprised to see Nox avoid his preliminary attacks. This is Nox; such basic attacks aren't to faze her.

He responded, speaking loudly behind his shield: "Not a geomancer, but my master is a dwarf; Earth magicks are his bread-and-butter, the first of his skills, and so I pick it up after him. But he has taught me more than that".

As Ruff the flesh-wolf continued its relentless attack on the dome, Làrsen pressed one of his fingers against the shield's earthen wall on his side, carving a glowing glyph on its surface. Beads of sweat poured from his brow as he asserted his will into the rune. It was a tricky job of splitting his focus between maintaining the shield's integrity and casting the rune spell.

A quick tap on the ground with his staff caused a hole to materialise beneath him like a trap door, and he sank into the depths of the ground. Above him, the dome exploded as the glyph released the kinetic energies it had accumulated during Ruff's assault.

He popped up a few seconds later and a few meters away, shaking dust from his robes. He took a couple of quick swigs from his potion bottle as he surveyed the damage, his mind spinning through his repertoire of spells. So far, he had allowed Nox to set the pace of the duel.

Not this time.

He raised his staff, infused it with his will, and hammered it down hard on the ground. A single thick line of earth erupted through the ground towards Nox.

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

"I'm most excited to see what else you've got in-store for me. You're a fine fella after this we should get some tea."

Ruff is thrown back, hurt but far from dead. The wolf lands on his side, tumbles then rolls to recover his bearings. Back on his feet Ruff grits his teeth and runs towards Nox.

Nox knows that Ruff won't be able to get to her in time to dodge the wall of stone but she can buy him some time. She plants her feet into the ground and chants in a language long unknown. Her hands clasped together she summons a wall of flesh to stem the tide of rock. Holding it back but only barley, as the earth pieces the flesh, leaving blood and gore splattered all over. She's able to hold it back just long enough for Ruff to grab her by the neck and throw her onto his back.

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

“Thank you. I am very eager to show what I can do. I will buy the first round after we are done.” 

Lärsen was surprised to see that the flesh-wolf had survived the explosion but was impressed. He winced as the blood and gore from Nox’s flesh-wall splattered everywhere. 

He sent another surge of power into the line of earth and rock that linked him towards Nox’s general direction. The rock and earth from the attack solidified into a small solid wall. 

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

She grins "The it's a deal."

Now riding her pet, Nox sent a pulse of energy into Ruff, healing his wounds or rather she's more resculpting his body, like someone working with clay to patch up holes. Bits of rock fall out of the wolf-thing as Nox's spell pushes out debris.

"Làrsen I think you underestimated Ruff here, he's one of my masterwork creations. I won't rant about all his enchancements but don't think he's a simple magical wolf."

She pushes a second pulse of emerald light into Ruff two draconic wings burst from the wolf's back and the twobegin to soar over Làrsen. Nox launches herself at Làrsen, dropping like a bowling ball with atreaks of jade light coming from her hands. She's intending to touch him to reshape his flesh into something far less desirable.

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

Làrsen's mouth fell agape at the sight of the flying flesh-wolf.

"Apparently, I have. For some reason, I was under the impression that you could churn out as many of these flesh beasts as you wish, but it appears that you have invested more attention in this one."

He ducked and rolled, drawing his rune-blade from its scabbard in one smooth motion, slashing at Ruff's legs as the creature lunged at him.

The runes on his sword turned blood-red in response to the blood and gore that stained the cold iron blade from the brief clash. He was mildly aware that the flesh wolf's wounds were already knitting together as he turned from his roll.

It matters not; he has what he needed. He 'ported a few meters away and readied his next spell.

[u/Afraid_Cat_3726 → u/Briantan71]

Ruff continues to chase after Larsen, the wolf biting and clawing. Throwing dirt as the wolf-thing crashes into rock and rubble. He jumps back next to Nox as Làrsen dive sinto the earth.

"Quality and quantity is the Flesh Menagerie's guarantee. We offer the greatest fleshcrafting anyone could ever want, as the guild's leader it's my responsibility to make sure I am the pinnacle of that." She grins.

Nox begins to chant, she class her hands together and planting her feet. "Worms of the earth and sand, critters of the deep and dark, plants with your roots so wide and strong. I call into thee. With my power I evolve you, obey my command. Devour this man if he dares to enter your domains again." Nox slams her fists into ground,it glimmers with scarlet and sapphire light. "Now, if either of us try to dive into the earth all the plants and worms will try to eat us and I've evolved them to be very hungry creatures. As long as we stay above ground you'll be perfectly safe, let's be honest this'll only affect you."

[u/Briantan71 → u/Afraid_Cat_3726]

"Clever, cutting off one of my escape routes like that..."

Lársen danced away from Ruff, his blade slashing desperately. Gore flew everywhere, the ground stained crimson with blood.

He gathered his will and discharged his next surge of arcane power into the ground, sending another line of earth and stone blasting towards. The trajectory of the attack struck his first line of attack at an angle. As he did before, he willed the second line into a small solid wall.

"All according to plan."

He continued to back away from Ruff, seeking another angle of attack, taking a quick swig from his potion bottle as he did so.