Thanks to having to cycle 13 miles to work and a further 13 miles home every day this week, I've been too exhausted to actually sit down and write. Since I'll be cycling all next week too, I may have to switch to weekend updates.
Anyways, I won the previous round of my fiction battle, so I got to go on and face off against Calamari with her character Magdalena, from Magician. I'll add links later.
Magdalena Blackwood was furious. Her two young children were causing a ruckus in the back seat, which would have been flat out dangerous if the car had actually been moving. As it was she was stuck in a traffic jam. She glanced at her watch impatiently and noticed that her kids would be late for school. If it weren’t for her children in the back she would have gotten out to investigate the cause of the hold-up.
After five minutes of honking her horn she finally got fed up and got out of her car. Clambering up onto the roof she cupped her hand above her eyes to protect them from the glaring sun and peered as far ahead as she could.
“Kids, get out of the car.” Magdalena said as she jumped down. As she practically dragged her son out the fleeing crowd reached them. Magdalena ran around to the other side and grabbed her daughter by the wrist, then she began running.
“Mom, what’s happening?” Her step-daughter, Vivi, asked. Before she could reply Magdalena threw herself and her children to the ground, barely dodging the car that hurtled over their heads.
“Mom, that was our car!” Zach screamed as he got back on his feet.
“Zach, Vivi, listen carefully. I want you to run home, don’t stop, not for anything.”
“But Mom, what-?”
“Just run!” Magdalena drew her pistol and left the two children in the middle of the fleeing crowd. She didn’t look back.
Once she returned to where her car had previously been she saw the cause of the traffic jam. A red-skinned man dressed in furs was throwing cars around like plastic toys. He had his back turned to her, which gave her a good look at the rather large sword he had strapped to his back.
She pulled her police badge from its’ position on her belt and held it up in front of her. Holding her gun next to it she accosted the man.
“Halt! My name is Officer Blackwood and I’m placing you under arrest! Come quietly and I won’t hurt you!”
The red man turned slowly towards her. His face was hidden by a red and white mask, but it didn’t cover his mouth. He smiled to himself, then calmly picked up a car and threw it towards her. Magdalena once again found herself barely dodging a flying car. As she rolled to her feet she gripped her pistol tighter and unleashed several rounds on hot lead at his chest.
He didn’t seem to notice.
Instead he casually reached over his shoulder and drew his sword. Then, weapon raised, he charged at her. Magdalena holstered her weapon and focused. She dodged at the very last moment that she dared and fired an ice spell at his flank. The ice smashed against his skin harmlessly.
Magdalena hopped over the crash barrier and onto the other side of the highway, then began sprinting in the opposite direction from which she had sent her children. With the red man hot on her heels she fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone. Before she could find it, however, a loud honking caught her attention. Looking up, she realised that she had run straight into oncoming traffic.
She barely jumped out of the way of the bus in time. The red man wasn’t so lucky, taking a bus to the face at +50MPH. Although the bus came out far worse, crumpling around him as if it were made of tin foil, he didn’t have any leverage against it. He found himself crushed between the bus and the crash barrier. The bus scraped its’ way along the barrier until it hit a bit of rubble, sending it over the barrier and onto the remains of a truck.
Magdalena picked herself up and gaped in shock at the wreckage before her. The bus had been completely decimated from the impact.
“Well, I guess I won’t be needing to call for backup after all.” Magdalena said to herself as she slowly wandered closer to inspect the man. Before she reached where the bus had ended its’ final journey a police helicopter descended above it. It trained its’ spotlight on her and turned its’ loudspeaker on.
“You there! Put your hands over your head.”
“Hey, I’m one of you guys!” Magdalena searched her pockets for her badge but couldn’t find it. With no other option she slowly raised her arms. At that precise moment the bus suddenly hurtled sideways. The red man untangled himself from the wreckage of the truck by means of ripping it in two with his bare hands.
“Holy! What the heck is that thing?” The man in the helicopter shouted. The red man glanced up at the source of the noise and growled angrily. He then picked up a piece of the truck and threw it skywards, only just falling short of the helicopter.
“Okay mister, you asked for it.” The helicopter had a mini-gun attached to the underside of it, a sign of the times they lived in. It unleashed a hail of bullets at the red man, who simply shielded his eyes with his arm and let the bullets bounce off harmlessly.
The helicopter man obviously got annoyed because he fired a rocket at the man instead. This time he batted it away with his sword. With the helicopter still shooting at him he paced over to a motorbike, the owner of which was lying in several different places. The red man gripped it by the engine and felt its’ balance. He then squinted at the helicopter before spinning around in a circle. After two spins he released the motorbike, which spun through the air in an upwards arc. It slammed into the tail of the helicopter and continued on through. The helicopter, now missing its’ rear stabilising propellers, spun in circles before crashing into the side of a nearby building. With this interruption removed, the red man turned to face Magdalena once more.
“I am so dead.” She muttered to herself under her breath.
Showing posts with label Fiction Battle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fiction Battle. Show all posts
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
Fiction Battle: Jack versus Bloodkind Chieftan
Okay, this is something for a little competition I'm taking part in over at Legends Of Satura. Every year, around the anniversary of the MLC's founding, we have a series of fiction battles. Each entrant selects a character and then lots are drawn (In a manner of speaking). We battle each other in a knockout tournament. How do we decide which character wins? Well, both fighters begin their own version of the fight scene, but leave it open-ended. Then the other members vote for who wrote the coolest piece. Afterwards, the winner gets to wrap up the fight.
Full rules can be found here. My character, the Bloodkind Chieftan (Members of the Bloodkind can be found in the post prior to this one) faces off against Jack Macalaster, from Zokusho: Tahou Ibun. Yes, this means that I may not get to finish, because I may not win. Either way, we get some great stories.
In a field on a world far, far beyond the reaches of imagination as men know it, a small butterfly landed on a flower. It made its’ way past the jagged thorns and towards the delicate circle of red petals. As it approached the flower twitched and snapped shut, enclosing the butterfly completely.
As the flower began to excrete powerful acids, the butterfly laid its’ eggs and peacefully died, secreting a paralyzing toxin that would prevent the flower from opening until the caterpillars had hatched. All across the field this was being repeated as an entire flock of butterflies descended upon the unfortunate flowers.
In the middle of the field a huge explosion occurred, despite the lack of anything to explode. As the smoke dispersed a small child of roughly nine human years coughed. His crimson-trimmed silver robes stood out starkly against the green of the field. A few more coughs, then the child clambered to his feet.
“Note to self: Never listen when Raziel suggests combining time and teleportation magic. You will not, as he suggested, summon ‘Miss December’ from the calendar he found, but will instead transport yourself to a field of thorny plants.” Jack pulled the head of one of the flowers from his rump, wincing as he did so.
After taking in the landscape, Jack checked the jumping crystal he had used. He had carved a time displacement rune into it, but was now regretting that decision. The crystal glowed with a dull light.
“Well, at least there’s a strong magical field on this world, so it shouldn’t take long to recharge and go home. So all I have to do is find a way to kill time,” Jack glanced around the field once more, “Should’ve brought a camera.”
For a few minutes Jack sat and watched the butterflies getting eaten, but found himself bored. He walked over to the nearby woods where he sat down with his back to a tree and began to read a book.
He hadn’t gotten past the first page when the tree next to his exploded in a shower of splinters. Jack instinctively used his body to protect the book. When he dared to turn around he saw two massive monsters duking it out barely more than ten yards away. The first creature, which had thick splinters embedded across its’ back, was a mix of a gorilla and a wolf. It reached more than ten feet in height, but was crouched over, walking partially on its’ huge fists. It had a sword larger than most men sticking out of one shoulder.
Hanging from the handle of that sword was a humanoid. It too was larger than most men and more muscle-bound than any Jack had ever met. It’s crimson skin shined with gore, presumably from the creature it was fighting. With seemingly impossible dexterity it placed its’ feet against the raging creature and pulled its’ sword free. After a backwards somersault it landed in a crouched position. With its’ free hand it pushed its’ dreadlocks out of its’ face, revealing a white mask with red patterns.
The larger, wolf/gorilla lunged, but the red man spun quickly, slicing through the large creatures’ wrist and removing its’ hand. It was obvious that the battle had gone on for a long time.
The creature roared in pain, but was quietened when the red man plunged his sword into its’ face. With one hand he withdrew it and let the creature slump to the ground. Then he turned his attention to Jack.
“Fing! Fing gar rhuk creng!” He yelled. Jack had no clue what language he was speaking in, let alone what he was saying. Jack just shook his head and gave a theatrically large shrug. The red man charged.
Jack barely had enough time to choose a spell before the red man had closed the gap. He leapt to the side, barely dodging the swing from the huge sword. The tree he had been standing in front of was cleanly sliced in two. With trained speed Jack scrawled a symbol in the air and passed his hand through it. A sheet of ice sprang up at the feet of the red man. The ice rose up in thick stalagmites, trapping the red man between them. Jack turned and fled.
Before he had even gotten ten strides away, Jack heard cracking from behind him. He turned to see that the red man was already free.
“What? That can’t be right?” Jack muttered to himself. As the red man swung his sword over his shoulder and began another charge Jack scrawled desperately in the air in front of him. Unlike the hasty ice spell he had used earlier, this symbol was intricately complex, requiring great sweeping motions and small but precise scribbles. The finished symbol hung in the air, a blazing white against the green grass.
By this time the red man had nearly reached him, so Jack didn’t have a chance to admire his artistic skills. He hastily slammed his palm against the symbol, unleashing its’ power upon his foe.
Between Jack and the red man a great gust of wind had sprung up. The red man slammed his sword sideways into the ground and hung on for all he was worth. The wind only got stronger, lifting him from his feet with such force that he was parallel to the ground. Nevertheless, he didn’t let go of his sword, holding on with incredible strength. It was clear to Jack that his spell would run out of power long before his foe tired, so he tried a different strategy. He quickly drew another symbol on the ground, which glowed green. The ground holding the sword in place gave way. The red man was flung backwards by the wind, which had already begun to peter out. He still crashed into the forest with enough force to pulverise the first tree though.
Jack lumped to the ground. Despite using two spells at once, at a much higher power level than usual though, he didn’t feel as drained as he normally would have. He could feel the magic of this world coursing through him, strengthening him. Making his magic more powerful than ever.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He reached inside his pocket once more and withdrew the crystal. It was shining as brightly as the day it was first charged. Now he could go home.
Before he did though, he heard a splintering sound from the direction the red man had landed. Jack stood up and watched as his foe flexed his shoulder muscles, a grin on what was visible of his beneath the mask. He hefted his sword up and noticed something stuck to the end of it. He reached up and removed the offending item.
It was the book Jack had just begun to read.
The red man deftly sniffed it. Then, to Jack’s amazement, he took a bite out of it. After some thoughtful chewing the red man spit it back out and sneered loudly. He threw the remainder of the book into the air and chopped it in half with his sword. He then looked straight at Jack’s face. If he had been capable of fear, he would have been petrified by the expression of sheer anger emanating from Jack’s features.
“Oh buddy, you’re in for it now!” Jack said. Feeling the magic surge through him, he began drawing a symbol in the air in front of him.
You can view Raziel's version and see the poll here
Full rules can be found here. My character, the Bloodkind Chieftan (Members of the Bloodkind can be found in the post prior to this one) faces off against Jack Macalaster, from Zokusho: Tahou Ibun. Yes, this means that I may not get to finish, because I may not win. Either way, we get some great stories.
In a field on a world far, far beyond the reaches of imagination as men know it, a small butterfly landed on a flower. It made its’ way past the jagged thorns and towards the delicate circle of red petals. As it approached the flower twitched and snapped shut, enclosing the butterfly completely.
As the flower began to excrete powerful acids, the butterfly laid its’ eggs and peacefully died, secreting a paralyzing toxin that would prevent the flower from opening until the caterpillars had hatched. All across the field this was being repeated as an entire flock of butterflies descended upon the unfortunate flowers.
In the middle of the field a huge explosion occurred, despite the lack of anything to explode. As the smoke dispersed a small child of roughly nine human years coughed. His crimson-trimmed silver robes stood out starkly against the green of the field. A few more coughs, then the child clambered to his feet.
“Note to self: Never listen when Raziel suggests combining time and teleportation magic. You will not, as he suggested, summon ‘Miss December’ from the calendar he found, but will instead transport yourself to a field of thorny plants.” Jack pulled the head of one of the flowers from his rump, wincing as he did so.
After taking in the landscape, Jack checked the jumping crystal he had used. He had carved a time displacement rune into it, but was now regretting that decision. The crystal glowed with a dull light.
“Well, at least there’s a strong magical field on this world, so it shouldn’t take long to recharge and go home. So all I have to do is find a way to kill time,” Jack glanced around the field once more, “Should’ve brought a camera.”
For a few minutes Jack sat and watched the butterflies getting eaten, but found himself bored. He walked over to the nearby woods where he sat down with his back to a tree and began to read a book.
He hadn’t gotten past the first page when the tree next to his exploded in a shower of splinters. Jack instinctively used his body to protect the book. When he dared to turn around he saw two massive monsters duking it out barely more than ten yards away. The first creature, which had thick splinters embedded across its’ back, was a mix of a gorilla and a wolf. It reached more than ten feet in height, but was crouched over, walking partially on its’ huge fists. It had a sword larger than most men sticking out of one shoulder.
Hanging from the handle of that sword was a humanoid. It too was larger than most men and more muscle-bound than any Jack had ever met. It’s crimson skin shined with gore, presumably from the creature it was fighting. With seemingly impossible dexterity it placed its’ feet against the raging creature and pulled its’ sword free. After a backwards somersault it landed in a crouched position. With its’ free hand it pushed its’ dreadlocks out of its’ face, revealing a white mask with red patterns.
The larger, wolf/gorilla lunged, but the red man spun quickly, slicing through the large creatures’ wrist and removing its’ hand. It was obvious that the battle had gone on for a long time.
The creature roared in pain, but was quietened when the red man plunged his sword into its’ face. With one hand he withdrew it and let the creature slump to the ground. Then he turned his attention to Jack.
“Fing! Fing gar rhuk creng!” He yelled. Jack had no clue what language he was speaking in, let alone what he was saying. Jack just shook his head and gave a theatrically large shrug. The red man charged.
Jack barely had enough time to choose a spell before the red man had closed the gap. He leapt to the side, barely dodging the swing from the huge sword. The tree he had been standing in front of was cleanly sliced in two. With trained speed Jack scrawled a symbol in the air and passed his hand through it. A sheet of ice sprang up at the feet of the red man. The ice rose up in thick stalagmites, trapping the red man between them. Jack turned and fled.
Before he had even gotten ten strides away, Jack heard cracking from behind him. He turned to see that the red man was already free.
“What? That can’t be right?” Jack muttered to himself. As the red man swung his sword over his shoulder and began another charge Jack scrawled desperately in the air in front of him. Unlike the hasty ice spell he had used earlier, this symbol was intricately complex, requiring great sweeping motions and small but precise scribbles. The finished symbol hung in the air, a blazing white against the green grass.
By this time the red man had nearly reached him, so Jack didn’t have a chance to admire his artistic skills. He hastily slammed his palm against the symbol, unleashing its’ power upon his foe.
Between Jack and the red man a great gust of wind had sprung up. The red man slammed his sword sideways into the ground and hung on for all he was worth. The wind only got stronger, lifting him from his feet with such force that he was parallel to the ground. Nevertheless, he didn’t let go of his sword, holding on with incredible strength. It was clear to Jack that his spell would run out of power long before his foe tired, so he tried a different strategy. He quickly drew another symbol on the ground, which glowed green. The ground holding the sword in place gave way. The red man was flung backwards by the wind, which had already begun to peter out. He still crashed into the forest with enough force to pulverise the first tree though.
Jack lumped to the ground. Despite using two spells at once, at a much higher power level than usual though, he didn’t feel as drained as he normally would have. He could feel the magic of this world coursing through him, strengthening him. Making his magic more powerful than ever.
A thought suddenly occurred to him. He reached inside his pocket once more and withdrew the crystal. It was shining as brightly as the day it was first charged. Now he could go home.
Before he did though, he heard a splintering sound from the direction the red man had landed. Jack stood up and watched as his foe flexed his shoulder muscles, a grin on what was visible of his beneath the mask. He hefted his sword up and noticed something stuck to the end of it. He reached up and removed the offending item.
It was the book Jack had just begun to read.
The red man deftly sniffed it. Then, to Jack’s amazement, he took a bite out of it. After some thoughtful chewing the red man spit it back out and sneered loudly. He threw the remainder of the book into the air and chopped it in half with his sword. He then looked straight at Jack’s face. If he had been capable of fear, he would have been petrified by the expression of sheer anger emanating from Jack’s features.
“Oh buddy, you’re in for it now!” Jack said. Feeling the magic surge through him, he began drawing a symbol in the air in front of him.
You can view Raziel's version and see the poll here
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