A Score to Settle (Desert Warrior vs. Wayward)

Here we go man. You can have the first post, since I'm not quite up to it at the moment.

http://www.khplanet.com/forums/313282-post9.html

 

The sensation of portal travel wasn’t something that the young Mickale was accustomed to. In fact, this was one of the first times he had even tried to move by way of the “wormhole” methods. It was uncomfortable, to say the least about it. It was like moving at gummi-ship speeds… without actually having the gummi ship there as his protective barrier. He was flying, flying through the sub-space realms that bridged the worlds all over. His speed was break-neck, and it was shock to him that he was even resisting the pressure of that speed against his body as valiantly and healthily as he was. As he moved further through his little wormhole, he felt his body and head crunching slowly together, like a tin can being crushed underfoot. At his face, he began to feel his face stretching into a rather painful smile.

The sensations of this means of transportation last for a mere few seconds though. As he pulsed through space in his little wormhole, he caught a glimpse of the bright light that lead to the exit of the portal. He made a series of magical efforts to slow his pace in preparation for the inevitable crash at the other end of the tunnel. Eventually, he felt his efforts bearing their reward. Just as he burst out from the portal in his new location, he cast an air spell around his body. Steadily, the air around him gathered in a motion that, for the most part, proved useful in breaking his impact. It felt like little more than being thrown against a hard surface by a strong foe. Still, it hurt like he could believe as he knocked into a high bookcase, and then fell to the floor.

The shock of his impact against the bookcase caused the shaking of its contents, which, contrary to what was expected, consisted of a set of rather ornate and expensive looking vases. Wide-eyed with panic, he rolled out of the way as the vases were knocked down from their positions. The shards of pottery scattered about across the floor. Rising out of his defensive fetal position, Mickale looked around the room. He was still in a sense of panic, but this time, over the fact that the noise he had made might have triggered the awareness of others around… where ever it was that he had arrived. Looking around again, he realized that he had no clue where he had sent himself with his portal. He was trying to get across his hometown with it, a short jump for practice. But it seemed that he had been sent someplace much further away than intended.

“Well, that was a success, I suppose. I got further than I meant to. I guess the Masters can have that if they want.” He took a closer glance around the room. It wasn’t too large, but at the same time, not incredibly small. It seemed to be purely designed for the purpose of displaying rare artifacts gathered through the adventures of whoever owned them. “I wonder where this place is though?” he pondered as he wandered around the room, stealing moments to look at the trophies and treasures in the room. But as he rounded the room, his gaze met with another person. Shocked by the sudden appearance of another, he jumped back, summoning his Keyblade in case things got hostile. “Sorry about the vase,” he said hastily. “It was an accident, I swear!”​

 

A gapping expression crossed Mickey's face as the tall young man made his "introduction." He stared dumbfounded at the Shimmering bladed weapon the man had summoned in a manner not unlike his Keyblade. He looked with amazement at the trial left in the wake of the man's arrival in the decorated room. The wall had been cleanly broken through, as had a chunk of the floor nearby it. It truly was an incredible feat, especially since Mickey had barely even heard the wall break (granted his commotion might have drowned that out). He decided that a battle with the man would be dangerous.*

That was when he noticed the man was walking calmly towards him. He heard he warning, of how his enemy could get carried away. A man who could blow holes through walls would be sure to do a number on a small mouse creature such as him. He'd have to get him with more wit than strength. It started with getting out of the room, to where he could make his maneuvers more fluid and useful. Drawing his blade back and slashing it forward he sent a cutting force of air hurtling towards the man.*

With a second force of air, he pushed himself forward. Immediately, his form was surrounded in a quick burst of fire as he dashed passed the man. Touching ground in a corridor, he ran to his left. His mindset was simple: find a place to hide and ambush from.​

 

Where to go? Where to go? Where to freaking go!? All Mickey’s thoughts could muster up were frantic ponderings of where he’d be able to mount an effective offensive. Needless to say that the long corridors would be ill suited for his need to evade the seemingly devastating effects of his enemy’s abilities. But as he darted his way down the corridor, he spotted no refuge or strategic point. He dared not look over his shoulder to see where his pursuer was, but assumed only that he was on his tail. The only hope seemed to be at the end of the hallway, where there was yet another fork. Perhaps, he considered, if he just kept moving, he’d eventually find a way to sneak around and strike from behind.

But then, a better chance came, when from the corner of his eye the mouse passed by a pair of doorways, spaced a short distance apart. The first one he saw was shut, but the second was wide open. He came to a skidding halt a few feet beyond the second door, and slipped into the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Inside, he found that the two doors lead to a pair of adjoined rooms, the only thing separating the two being another door. Instantly he thought up a confident strategy. Carefully, and quietly, he cracked the door he had entered through open. Then, he entered the neighboring room, and made the same accommodation for the entrance there.

He had at least some semblance of tactic worked out: if the door to the first room in the hallway came open, he would escape out the second room, and move around into the first. If his opponent were to pass by the first room, he would push the door open with an air spell, and then exit to the hallway from the first room while the opening door served as a brief distraction. Either way he had an opportunity to strike from behind. And if he opted to destroy the walls instead, the same strategy might still be applied.​

 

Through the mounting tension of waiting out the time to be found, Mickale never broke his focus. The eyes in his head were like tennis balls, streaking back and forth between the two rooms watching for any sign of movement from the outside. His ears were on alert as well, listening through he silence for the slightest echo of footsteps falling upon the stone flooring of the castle. His opponent had to have followed him, or so he hoped. If he hadn't been followed, then he'd have to come out from hiding and seem out the guy directly, which he didn't fancy too much. Then, he could have just taken that as a sign that there was no battle and left the castle; that seemed unlikely though.*

Any hope of being able to leave soon was dashed away when he heard the distant sounding footsteps outside the doors of his hideout. The man had followed him just as planned, which meant all he needed was to pick any door, and Mickey would be able to have the battle in his favor with a sneak attack. But the. Something happened that he didn't expect, something that ran counter to his strategy. Both doors creaked shut at the same moment. Telekinesis, the mouse thought as his plans was torn asunder. He'd have to change tactics if he wanted to get that important first hit in.*

The plan came to him in an epiphany as the doorway in one of the rooms began to shatter open. He didn't need to attack from behind to have a sneak attack; all he needed was to strike when it wasn't necessarily expected of him. So long as his opponent thought he'd still be running, he'd have he element of surprise on his side. With his Keyblade drawn and poised, he charged a thunder spell along the blade. The cackling of electricity signaled it ready. With a boost of wind, the mouse charged forward while his opponent was scanning the room. By the time mouse was seen be was well on his way. With a forceful thrust, he drove the Keyblade in towards the larger man's stomach; force would drive him from the room, and the electricity of the spell would leave its shock.​

 

Mickey's plan had been simple: knock his opponent back, and give them a shock through their body in the process. It would have been so if his charge had gone over unnoticed and without response; he might have even been in a prime spot to finish the fight quickly from there.

But the maneuver didn't go off as planned. Mickey's Keyblade met with his opponent's body just as he wanted it to. Just not at the point on the body that he had been aiming for. Rather than the impact sensitive area around the torso, the blade found itself firmly grasped by a hand that not only hindered its path to its desired target, but also served to contain the lightning from the discharging spell at its tip. The lightning flared about between the two warriors off the tip of the blade. While much of it was shot off to the side, some remained on path through the grasping arm. The rest, to his misfortune, coursed back through the weapon through Mickey's body.

Fortunately, the damage done by the redirected electricity was minute and momentary. Mickey felt a quick jolt of pain and a vibrating sensation as the shock pulsed through his arms. For the moment he was dazed, and to a lesser extent confused. By the time he had come back to himself, he was being flung around by the end of his Keyblade. His attempt to waive the effects of the throw failed; there wasn't enough time to cast another wind spell. So he allowed himself to hit against the wall, dropping his blade and throwing his arms back against the wall as a distribution of the impact. It worked a bit, and the mouse slid down the wall to the floor.

No sooner than he had gotten back into a ready stance, he was being pulled up by his opponent's magic through a hole in the ceiling. He was released out in an open courtyard area. Immediately, he felt a little more comfortable about fighting. The openness of the area meant he'd be able to use his speed and footwork with greater liberty. Right away, he saw his opponent running towards him in an effort to strike. He might have been expecting Mickey to go running away again, or pull a sneaking motion. To the contrary, Mickey remained where he stood. He lowered himself to a stable, grounded position. Using a gravity spell, he provided himself a buffer against the impending attack. The force focused on Mickey's body, giving him the weight with which to resist being kicking about like ball.

As his opponent came within range, he summoned his Keyblade back. From his position, he gave another thrust of his weapon to deliver a stick into his opponent's groin.​

((Now that I think about it, we might want to think about finding someone to judge this battle as it gets into swing)).

 

The slashing motion of James’ blade was cue for Mickale to retract his offensive position. There wasn’t much time for a major adjustment, not with a man more than twice his size charging him dead on. He paced back a step and raised his Keyblade to protect against what would have been an impact against his chest. But when the dust kicked up he was forced to make another quick adjustment, raising his blade and arms up to face level. It wasn’t good, but it was good enough to keep him from going completely blind from the smokescreen effect. He caught a brief vision of motion from his opponent’s end.

He knew so much as that his opponent had become airborne. Squinting against the light burning of sand in his eyes, the mouse kept a rough track of the leap. There was no time for evasion (not without any compromise). In lieu of moving out of the way of the descending blade, Mickale erected a hasty barrier against the attack; a reflect manifested its solid shielding to hinder the strike. However, the motion wouldn’t be stopped completely, not with such a hastily erected defense. Supported by both hands at either end of his weapon, Mickale held out the broad side of his Keblade to block against the strike.​

 

While the barrier had been enough to give Mickale a second's worth of preparation, he wasn't quite prepared for the blow that had been delivered. The initial force of impact slammed into the small mouse like a meteor falling to the ground. But he held strong, despite his block being pushed down towards him. As soon as he recovered from the shock, he took up the arduous process of pushing away his enemy's weapon. It was a task easier said than done; his enemy had already begun to amplify the force with which he was coming down. It would only be a matter of time before his blade came down onto Mickale's face.

Knowing that resisting the attack any further would be a futile effort, Mickale concentrated on a different strategy. The force of his own spell was only helping his opponent at that point. That being so, he dismissed the gravity spell, allowing the gravity around him to return to normal, making his opponent's weight a bit easier to resist. Rather than stop there, he took his magic work in the opposite direction: pulling his field of gravity up instead of down, as it were. The zero-gravity spell gave the mouse a feeling of being lighter, and with the effect it had around him, served to further lessen the force with which his opponent was pushing; he might not have even noticed, given the force he was pushing down with.

Then, Mickale did something that was nearly reckless: he sent his Keyblade away. In a small flash of light, the weapon vanished. The mouse quickly moved his arm out of the path of his opponent's sword. Now working more with gravity than he previously was, Mickale leaped up towards his opponent's face. Hand clenched into a fist, he let his zero-gravity spell take a fuller effect on his person, and drove a hard punch towards the bridge of James' nose.​

 

As quickly as possible after his fist made contact with James' forehead, Mickale rebounded his strike. Shifting himself slightly in mid-air, he maneuvered passed James. Breaking off the effects of his gravity magic, he he landed with a normal impact against the roof of the castle, tucking and rolling to lessen any negative effects of the landing on his body. At the end of his maneuver, he stood upright, gazing up towards the skies wherein his enemy has been forced by his punch.*

His opponent, however, was not what greeted his eyes; instead, he was staring down a quickly descending boulder. The boulder would have left him crushed in an instant if he had been just a step or two forward from his position, and hadn't seen it coming in time. With a quick, long jump backwards, he evaded the gruesome blow of the boulder. However, what damage the boulder might have dealt was relinquished to the debris of the castle roof kicking up in the wake of the impact.*

Inevitably, the force of the boulder smashing into the rooftop pushed the small mouse back several tens of feet. Bruised and shaken, he could only think to cast a reflect barrier. Similar to his previous barrier, it was cast at an angle with the ground. Despite that it shattered, it was still resilient enough to shield him from the shards of rock from the castle roof.*

When the situation settled, Mickey pulled himself from the rubble and ran over to the hole left in the roof by the boulder. Thinking for but a second, he, jumped down through the hole and into the now shattered corridor below; the less he was in the open, the better... For the time being.​

(I think I've got your last post right. Don't hesitate to correct me if I'm wrong).

 

((I just wasn’t sure how far behind the boulder he was. I thought it was like he was using it as a cover in his dive)).

Mickey’s heart was pounding from the fierce rushes of adrenaline he had just experienced; he had just barely evaded death in the most damage of ways not once, but twice in the span of but a few seconds. The boulder had missed him, and has he landed in the shattered corridor, he saw James streak passed him in the boulder’s wake. He didn’t know how long it would take for his opponent to slow down and backtrack. He probably could have made a run for it and been in a safe spot before he had to fight again. But he was fatigued just enough to warrant a quick break to let his body recuperate.

He heaved in several deep, smooth breaths; each one brought him back into his confident and calmly energized battle composure. He could feel his energy for spell casting beginning to wane, though not so much that he wouldn’t be able to keep up the fight for a while longer. However, he wondered how long it would take for his opponent to run out of steam. If Mickey could just out-last him in terms of magic, he’d have an upper hand, or at least a leg up. I’ll just have to be careful about how I use my spells now, he decided. I can hold my own in melee well enough.

After another moment of regaining his composure, he saw his opponent rising back up from the lower levels of the castle. He waited, and watched as James flipped over and landed behind him. Mickey turned to face James head on. He summoned his Keyblade back and as soon as James charged him, he made his next move. His blade cut up and across to his left, throwing a gust of air down the corridor, enough to hinder James without throwing him backwards by any noticeable distance.

Mickey followed behind the gust, and cut his Keyblade back down to the right to deliver a blow to James’ upper leg.​