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Post by Dirge on Apr 28, 2019 17:50:20 GMT
Vincent Introduction
"Seriously? Can none of you guys handle your own messes? Why don't you send Virginia or Landius? A mere advisor shouldn't fight your battles."
An audible sigh rolled past his parted lips as his crimson-clad digits rolled through silver locks. The palm remained against the forehead for a moment, and the only thing coursing through his mind was how incompetent these Babel fools were. Or, well, just the one that he'd been witnessing from the top of the tower. He'd been brought in as an advisor by Miyazaki, the current mastermind behind the entire company, and even though Babel Corporations hired contractors from all over the Multiverse to handle less-than-savory matters, the quality control was at an all-time low for the time being, according to the crimson-clad individual.
"With all the resources at your disposal, you'd think you guys would hire only the best out there. Then again, I suppose the best have no need for trinkets or money..." It looked as though he was rambling while talking to the officer in charge of dispatching people to these three territories Babel had put on the line. Kids playing at war, he called it, but given the scope of the corporation, it made sense. "Alright, alright. Settle down. I'll come down and play with this guy. I swear you kids are just so afraid of playing with fire."
Instead of employing the elevator to descend from the top floor of the tower, the keen advisor merely opened up a nearby window and practically flung himself out from it. Supernatural forms of flight weren't a stranger to him, and through his rapid descent, the soles of his boots shone vibrantly with an iridescent light, propelling a minor stream of energy in order to increase his velocity. Right before his head could collide with the concrete below, something that would have produced quite the crater on the land while giving him nothing more than a shortlived headache, the crimson-clad advisor corrected his posture, propelling himself in a straight line toward the horizon and closer to where the fight between the hunter and the exiled emperor. No sooner had he calculated the distance between himself and the other person was fifty meters, he was brought to a complete halt, hovering nearly thirty centimeters over the land.
"So, you're the one that repelled the hunter we first sent. Luckily, that alone let me collect plenty of data from the top of the tower. Hopefully, you'll last longer than he did."
The words traveled through the air like acid through flesh as a pair of bladed weapons materialized to his left and to his right. The two floating blades possessed an apple-sized ruby encrusted within the guard, golden runes shining vibrantly along their length. These two blades were nothing more than lambs to send to the slaughter, and considering there were thousands of them in the advisor's pocket dimension, something he'd employed as a storage more often than not, it wouldn't be a great loss if they turned out to be obliterated in this little battle. That said, the silver haired advisor merely awaited to see what the exiled emperor would do after dispatching the hunter. Defending the territories of a corporation that could barely stand on its own two feet was boring work to him, but it had to be done regardless. |
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Post by Dirge on Apr 28, 2019 17:51:27 GMT
Ignis Introduction
Molten hues flickered, trailing along the blood of crackling sparks at waxed and waned along the roiling aurora that danced into the night, where the hunter had been finally laid to rest. Embers waltzed along a blackened skyline, shimmering beneath the light of that crimson-stained moon. The smell of ozone clung to his nostrils with every inhale, and with every exhale came words that crumbled and cracked; like the cruel call of carrion crows. With it, obsidian digits twirled and flicked, spinning the spear betwixt their crevices in a silent dance of man and blade. The boiling ground tempered and cooled, and the searing air where the hunter once stood swirled into howling vortex emanating from his flourish where the heat released was absorbed again to replenish his stores of power once again. The radiation, the carbon, the energy left behind by his vaporized corpse served to bring the exiled emperor sustenance. He could take solace in the fact that his vigil had ended, and another had taken the weight of it's burdens.
With the same graceful motion of his armament, like an extension of his body; weaved a glyph of threefold circles which spun quietly in opposite directions of one-another. Within them cracked and sparked vermilion energies, and branded upon the scorched cobblestone burned indecipherable sigils and glyphs so archaic that even Ignis had forgotten their meaning. Though he could never hope to understand them, he at least knew their purpose. To contain, and to release.
By now the advisor had made his way onto the battlefield from the lowering tower which spread it's shadow over the town. Ignis would see the lofty decrepit torn asunder, but not before killing it's denizens to the man. -c-
The shadowchaser turned, rearing his head to the magister who stood above him and away. Not through staggering height, but through means of a more mystical persuasion. As his eyes finally met, there seemed to be a fog, like a shimmering veil of stars over his pupils. There was melancholy in them, though his eyes burned like smoldering coals that could singe the mind, burning that gaze into the memory of all those who gazed into the conflagration of his watch. He talked, but Ignis did not listen.
Instead, midway through the advisor's rambling, the exiled emperor advanced with a speed and a force that shattered the earth beneath his clawed sabatons which closed the fifty meter gap within the frame of a half-second. The sheer sound of it deafened the magister's words to where he could not hear them even as he left his mouth; like the roaring of furious thunder. His spear drove forward before he could summon his daggers, aiming for the center of his chest; and as his hands drove forward with his weight and strength into the thrust, the plume of volcanic ash about his tassle spewed outward, and the wards surrounding his crimson hand tightened in a slow spin as if retracting like a spring.
By the end of that night, that tower would be replaced by a mountain of the men he had slain to reach it. -e-
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Post by Dirge on Apr 28, 2019 17:52:14 GMT
Vincent Post 1
Several things happened in rapid succession the moment the exiled emperor's steel-clad foot kicked off of the ground in a vain attempt to interrupt the silver haired advisor's statement. First and foremost, the immediate hostility caused a thin layer of light to surround his frame in the blink of an eye, the telltale sign of his usual defenses springing to life. In the stead of a suit of armor, tried and true shields birthed by the selfsame magic he'd employed for quite the stretch of time served a similar purpose, even when he purposefully fought with every single defensive capability of his attire as dormant as ever. Secondly, the show of thunderous force by the armored interloper trespassing in one of the many territories Babel had across the Multiverse was matched by the killing intent of the crimson-clad agent, which washed across the battlefield not unlike an oppressive presence increasing the very atmospheric pressure upon the area. It was likely not something that would impair the exiled emperor's movement, though lesser creatures would ultimately find themselves paralyzed by the psychological effect Vincent Fiorelli's raw power exuded.
While the pair of blades would inevitably remain within the confines of his personal pocket dimension, the fact that his guard had never dropped meant that a different course of action could be approached in the split second his opponent took to breach his immediate surroundings. Fortunately for the Red Magister, one of several advisors employed within the Babel Corporation, the answer to such a brazen approach was obvious. All it took was a simple, yet celeritous, sway to the right of the spear's direct trajectory whilst executing a side-step, ensuring that the plume of volcanic ash would merely, and barely, singe the right side of his crimson attire. In the same motion, however, his body would be brought closer to the exiled emperor's, with his open palm hovering dangerously in front of his clouded visage.
The counter-attack was simultaneous; the very moment the exiled emperor's spear reached the apex of its thrust, pressurized clouds of gas particles and dust exuded not only from Vincent's palm, but also from his very silhouette, lessening the effect of the heat coming from the plume of volcanic ash in the same motion, should that provide to be a constant endeavor.
This particular spell had two goals in mind, with the former being far less useful than the latter. The first goal was to impair the shadowchaser's vision, something that the thick clouds would undoubtedly do to anyone's physical sight, though it was not something that affected supernatural sensory skills. The second goal was to forcibly initiate a phase change on the fiery combatant before him; should the particles make contact with the spear, the armor encasing his frame, or even his bare skin, an effect of gradual petrification would follow. Of note was the fact these gas particles were not flammable, and given the timing of the Red Magister's movements, it looked as though Ignis was in a tough spot. Naturally, Vincent already had accounted for the myriad possibilities and the attempted defenses his opponent could employ at such a distance. The unfortunate timing, however, made most of these approaches extremely difficult to execute, to the point that it was almost certain his opponent would suffer the effects of the Pnoe Petras - the Breath of Stone.
Alas, this was but one of the many spells at the Red Magister's disposal, and while comparatively feeble, it was still effective in a pinch. |
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Post by Dirge on Apr 28, 2019 17:53:05 GMT
Ignis Post 1
Ignis's 'Battle instinct' as well as his secondary brain could have easily compensated the reaction time and reflexes needed to respond to the Red Magister's sudden and graceful response, but it wasn't needed as much as initially expected due to the simple fact that the opponent had done exactly what the exiled emperor had planned. Arrogance begets predictability. The plume of smoke which expanded from the end of his lance was not meant as a 'weapon' to singe the opponent, only preparing to release itself in full. Indeed, the moment Vincent turned to evade the thrust of his spear, Ignis held his breath as the volcanic ash exploded outward with a twist of his blade in a large cloud of black, searing smoke roughly ten meters in diameter around them. Breathing the ash would vaporize the lungs before it could poison them, likely killing him instantly. However it was not used necessarily as a weapon, but acting more as a smokescreen should the foe not be killed then and there which clouded the vision and blurred his senses.
At the same time, the spring-like crimson rings hovering around his right forearm contracted fully, releasing an audible 'snap.' When the Red Magister weaved his spell, Ignis had already been gone. In it's place was the large, triple-layered seal which the exiled emperor had placed on the ground fifty meters away. Ignis had used the glyph as and anchor, and was tethered to it by the spell on his arm which compressed the farther away he traveled from the seal. When terminal distance was reached, the spell activated; ultimately 'switching places' with the seal at blinding speed, all while the particulates began exuding from Vincent's exterior. -c-
The glyph's restraints came undone in that moment, releasing a gigantic torrent of screaming flames of an odd, almost mythical hue and coloration as if taken directly out of an oriental painting of some ancient fire-god. The flames quite literally roared deafeningly, and at point-blank range Vincent would see the magics he weaved incinerated and devoured into the magical energy and ether-destroying conflagration. His defenses and his particles anihilated and serving now as fuel to increase it's size and power.
It would have been possible to dodge to sudden devastation, however, the Red Magister had ultimately condemned himself for a single, fatal reason. He release his spiritual pressure across the whole of the area with a concentration and intensity which forced lesser beings into paralysis. Naturally, this would have been like pouring gallons of gasoline before lighting a fire. So instead of facing a concentrated, single-directional torrent of these tainted fires; the entire area near-instantly combusted into a colossal explosion. Ignis may have met the same fate, however he had fifty meters of distance that Vincent did not, and knowledge of what he was about to do. He immediately turned tail and dashed madly in the opposite direction so quickly and with such force that he pulled several tendons in his legs as the sound barrier shattered around him. The ground beneath where he leapt reduced to a tumultuous pile of rubble as he bulletted with every bit of strength his superhuman body and augmented muscles could produce which injured him in the process.
Naturally, the explosion expanded as far as the influence of the mage's spiritual pressure, and by the time Ignis had left it's area of effect he could no longer steer or control his acceleration or speed, sending him pinwheeling against the cobblestone and smashing through multiple buildings before grinding to a violent halt roughly three miles from the initial blast. Despite his immense durability and the shock-absorbent properties of his armor, he was rather battered from the experience. The deafening roars of the profaned flames still audible even from this distance, and Ignis could see the apocalyptic conflagration that erupted from Vincent's own spiritual pressure, spells, and wards used as the very fuel that sealed his doom. Even if Vincent did somehow survive, he remained a powerhouse which exuded magical energy, and the profaned flames would seek him out without prejudice, now many times larger than Ignis had initially predicted, not even he could control them now.
In a pinch, yes. Though, it wasn't Ignis who was in mortal peril. |
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Post by Dirge on Apr 28, 2019 17:54:09 GMT
Vincent Post 2
Predictability begets predictability. While the exiled emperor hadn't been able to observe the countless patterns available to the Red Magister, Babel's advisor had been privy to the movements of the armorclad individual throughout his exchanges with the now deceased hunter. The simple approach the crimson-clad jack-of-all-trades had taken merely relied on exploiting his opponent's timing, as he was oft wont to do, ultimately making their motions the noose with which they'd hang themselves. Alas, even when all signs pointed to a singular scenario working out after the full analysis of all variables involved, there was a certain beauty in the final outcome being nothing more and nothing less than failure. For one, it allowed him to continue battling the exiled emperor. Secondly, it let him further showcase his own skills throughout the course of combat. This was not so much a fight about defending a territory, as the higher-ups would let him believe through their begging, but rather about poking and prodding the opposition before him just to collect additional combat data to add to his stores of knowledge within the Secret Library of Hyades.
For all the mental celerity the exiled emperor claimed, when compared to the Red Magister's heavily enhanced physiology through decades of self-betterment through not only training but also genetic manipulation, something akin to a 'Battle Instinct' fell flat on its face. Every fighter worth anything throughout the entirety of the Multiverse possessed something similar to it, honed with every battle they fought and further refined as they expanded on their knowledge. In fact, Vincent himself had been honing such a thing ever since the swordsmen of the Isamahii Gardens had taken him under his wing! It ensured he wouldn't overshoot the swings of his weapons, that he wouldn't miscalculate the timing of an opponent's movements, and conferred the sort of precognition that an experienced martial artist would ultimately possess when facing others of his caliber. And yet, with all these variables taken into account, his opponent somehow could react faster than himself in the middle of a committed action, something he couldn't help but write off as preposterous. It appeared as though things had to be kicked up into higher gear.
However, first and foremost was the matter of the exiled emperor's plume of volcanic ash, which heat merely washed over the simple layer of light surrounding the Red Magister. This layer was simply the byproduct of a pair of defensive spells within the Fiorelli's arsenal, which enabled him to defend against physical and supernatural attacks via a magically constructed barrier. Once the layer was established, it worked in tandem with his natural Reinforcement, though it also pulled in aether and nether from his surroundings, acting as a standalone shield that grew stronger in both intensity and density as the battle went on. Even if the noxious fumes had managed to enter the magister's system, however, there were several variables working against it. For one, the fact he did not require to breathe in order to subsist, much like he required no food or water, and barely any sleep; he was, after all, no longer human in the full sense of the word. His physical vessel preserved all of his organs to remind him of what it was like to be human, and yet none of his internal systems worked like a human being's, mostly due to the fundamentally different processes he possessed on a biological level. This was partially why he would linger in the endless sea of stars and travel throughout the voids between universes without collapsing. Even if poisons and venoms found their way within his system, they'd be quickly dealt with by the energy of his own internal 'world' purifying them, as other fighters had found out the hard way.
But that was neither here nor there, and currently Vincent found himself 'trapped' in the midst of a glyph that looked as though had begun to unravel. Expertly honed senses picked up the latent heat slowly - at least to his perception of time - building up on the ground before beautiful flames coated the area the glyph occupied upon the land. It was unfortunate that the first thing they'd touch would be the particles of petrifying gas he was scattering from his palm, and which also shot out from his very silhouette. The stoppage of the flames was nigh-immediate, and the concentrate of heat, light, and smoke found itself gaining a physical form as the petrifying gas forcibly initiated a phase change to turn them into a single solid object. While the flames could have devoured magical energy and ether, the consumption of such energies when Vincent cast a spell occurred within him, leaving his opponents to deal with the byproduct of the spell, which was the effect of his will made manifest upon the material, spiritual, and astral planes. There were no latent traces of mana, ether, aether, nether, ki, qi, chi, or even quintessence within his spells, and unless they were further augmented by an additional injection of magical energy - such as a lightning bolt enhanced through mana after its manifestation -, the flames would find nothing to devour.
Instead, they would find the highly excited particles vibrating within their area of effect coming together and solidifying no sooner had they touched the gas. The newly solidified construct of flames shimmering with vibrant crimsons and oranges, found itself contrasting heavily with the rock and dirt beneath it. Lastly, there was the issue of the Red Magister's killing intent, something that was merely the manifestation of a mere portion of his power unleashed on the landscape. This was not spiritual pressure, and it certainly did not carry with it the connotation of magical energy; it was simply a direct byproduct of his raw power, much like the gravitational pull of a planet or the forces elicited by a black hole amidst nothingness. As aforementioned, it would have no real effect on the exiled emperor, and only lesser, weaker creatures would find themselves paralyzed by the psychological effect of merely sensing such a presence. That said, if Ignis did want to bathe the entire area in fire, then the gas particles exuding from the Red Magister would simply solidify the flames around him in the midst of his opponent's timely retreat, all without even moving from his current vantage point, until a beautiful and immense construct birthed from his opponent's very flames.
Had he wanted to extend his sphere of influence throughout the entire area, Vincent would have done so. Alas, that was not the case in this particular instance. Regardless, the massive amount of petrified fire did, however, allow him to segue into his next move without shifting up his strategizing all too much. Focusing on twenty spots along the entirety of the crimson and orange construct of stone, Vincent shattered the rock in these locations only to turn it into minuscule particles of dust, which shortly after bundled up together. These pockets of dust and sand hovered around the outermost edge of the petrified fire, as though orbiting it. With Vincent at the very epicenter of the construct, Ignis had provided him with both a means of additional defense and further attack, and now the Red Magister simply awaited for his opponent's next move, if he had any. His internal systems merely focused his own energy, further reinforcing the aspect of a 'closed world' inside him, as he readied himself for any further plans the exiled emperor could concoct. |
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Post by Dirge on May 1, 2019 19:41:30 GMT
Ignis Post 2
Clawed digits slammed into the cobblestone as Ignis turned his body, sending his feet grinding against the ground in an earth-shattering slide which sent massive plumes of dust and debris hurling into the air. He further dug his spear into the ground, causing just enough friction to grind to a halt roughly two miles from where he had thought an explosion would have occurred. Instead, he found something more confusing.
Due to the nature of the Red Magister's presence, the spell and wards placed around him, the consuming flames did not expand, but instead intensified; which arguably was more lethal than the former. This 'gravitational pull' or something of the like, caused the flames to instead become much more fixated on obliterating it's origin point where the intensity or energy was being exuded. Further, since the gaseous particulates and 'wards' were a physical byproduct of his spells rather than an actual extension of his magic, the corrupted fires seemed to ignore them and bypass them entirely; displaying that these flames were not physical in nature, and not even the Red Magister could feel any semblance of heat radiating from them. -c- . All physical barriers such as his wards and armor were thereby ignored and phased through as if a ghost through solid wall. If they were all of the sudden magical in nature, they would be consumed and used to fuel it even further. Even if Vincent's armor contained some sort of miracle mechanism to save him in the fraction of a second, his face was completely unprotected. Since the Red Magister decided for some reason simply to stand there and not attempt a single movement, he had forfeited his life in the process. Through every orifice the flames poured; his eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and even the pores of his skin. It was now that he could feel the heat as it burned away his flesh and flayed his skin, finding an enormous wellspring of power within the being which it would take it's time in devouring and incinerating. His body's attempts at purifying it failing miserably and destroying his spirit piecemeal.
Ten long seconds it took to burn away every trace of power until what was left was a hollowed soul, and a singed husk clad in perfectly untouched armor. The profaned conflagration then exploded out from those same orifices hundreds of times larger than it had previously been upon release, roaring and raving to incinerate the last traces of his essence before falling silent and stagnant. The raging fire now wirling like intense auroras of burning serpents which slowly drifted through the streets and sky, until they had found another ethereal presence to bring them stimulus. -c- Ignis, luckily, remained out of range of their field of awareness, though barely. Those corrupted oriental flames were ones of terrible power, but due to their nature, even he could not control them and would have killed him alongside the magister had he not escaped the moment he released them. His opponent on the other hand, in his arrogance just... Stood there.. Even seasoned warriors often recognized the danger in the simplest of things, though he was an advisor.
It may be best to leave the wars to the warriors. -e- |
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Post by Dirge on May 1, 2019 19:42:17 GMT
Vincent Post 3
Unfortunately, it mattered little whether the flames exhibited a spectral or ghostly nature. As aforementioned, every spell the Red Magister cast manifested his will in the material, spiritual, and astral planes, targeting both the physical and the supernatural alike. As such, the result when the flames clashed against the Pnoe Petras did not change. The exiled emperor had much to learn, yet this advisor would not act as his master. On the other hand, willful ignorance had to be purged from the face of the Multiverse. Ultimately, Vincent would remain as he had originally expected, amidst a safe space within the core of the structure of petrified flames. The opposition's offense had failed, which only meant that the magister was free to continue his counter-offensive.
Ten of the twenty spheres that had been created from the enormous construct of solidified flame approached the injured exiled emperor, descending from the skies in order to surround his battered frame. All things considered, the Sagitta Magica series of spells were particularly basic when one analyzed the full extent of spells contained within the magister's codex, but they possessed several key qualities. They could pursue evading targets akin to a homing missile, though the individual arrow's tracking capabilities were low; the Sagitta Magica served more as a diversion than a deadly attack designed to destroy the opposition. Their basic firing speed could be compared to a gunshot, though this could be regulated at will depending on the skill of the caster, much like the penetrative force and raw power of each arrow. Additionally, the Sagitta Magica can supplement other attacks or spells, thereby augmenting it. Lastly, the arrows can be temporarily held in place as glowing spheres around the caster, holding them on standby until necessary.
In this case, Vincent was employing his knowledge of the Sagitta Magica Series Sabulonis, which grasped gravel, dirt, and rubble in the surroundings to 'create' projectiles in the form of spheres. Augmented through the supernatural shifting of their composition, the density and sharpness of each particle increased to the point of being able to penetrate even the heavy plating of dreadnought class ships. While Vincent was unsure about the degree of resistance the exiled emperor's armor possessed, it was better to be safe than sorry. As such, once these ten spheres surrounded Ignis, they began to burst in pairs of two at a fixed interval of a split second each. First, the spheres to his north and south burst, followed by the spheres to the east and west of his current location, followed by the rest until they covered all the angles ten spheres surrounding him could. Of note was the fact that each sphere possessed a slight difference in their height of no more than three feet, thus instead of surrounding Ignis in a perfect halo, the shape the Series Sabulonis spheres projected was akin to a circular sinusoidal wave.
The moment the first two spheres detonated was the moment a portion of the energy the Red Magister focused upon was consumed. The effect was immediate within every bit of shrapnel expelled from the spheres, as they shone momentarily with a teal glow as they approached Ignis with the sole aim of piercing through the armor. If the injured emperor survived this minor onslaught, perhaps he'd be able to see what Babel's advisor had in store for him. If he didn't, however, it would be a fitting end for a warrior. |
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Post by Dirge on May 4, 2019 22:38:24 GMT
Ignis Post 3
The flames expelled, taking into consideration the sheer amount and raw nature of their power, proved more difficult to petrify than initially thought. More akin to a slow, gruelling process requiring every bit of the spell the Red Magister had cast; and Vincent would find it's volatile and indomitable will equal if not superior to his own. Regardless, Ignis needed to give it a nudge in the right direction as a final nail in the opponent's coffin, using a technique taught to him by the leader of the organization he represented. With the wave of his molten vermilion hand did cinders spark and rave into violent flashes, occurring in the midst of the Red Magister's grueling attempt to tame the untamable.
Fire Transmutation
The uncontrollable inferno spiraled and churned like a tumultuous vortex as the phase change was immediately reversed, feeding then on the energy Ignis had poured forth into a voracious flare of light and deafening howls as the opponent was, as expected, completely engulfed before he could make a single further step. Due to the foe not preparing his wards with the same time and attention to detail as Ignis had prepared these corrupted fires, and due to the ether-absorbing nature of said wards having no source to draw upon; since the flames incinerated any traces of it within their vicinity, he would find his defenses quite thoroughly overwhelmed and destroyed. Further, he had ignored his chance to further prepare against anything, or even move for that matter, forfeiting any chance of escape. -c-
Ignis reared his spear, crimson energies sparking and crackling along it's runeforged surface; a contingency meant to tie down anything that may have remained of his opponent and well aware of the danger such an attack posed to him. The raw thermal energy he had absorbed from around the previous opponent's corpse served to fuel back into his own mana stores, granting him an extra boost in power to draw from which he now poured into the spear itself; and like a javelin he launched it in an overhead throw with a thunderous scream across the sky as it's blades cut through the wind like lightning through rolling thunderheads.
He then took the time he had remaining during their exchange to motion back and to the side even further in an attempt to re-position himself for any further defenders of the tower. -e- |
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Post by Dirge on May 4, 2019 23:02:20 GMT
Vincent Post 4
Puerile behavior was not something the Red Magister entertained.
The simultaneity of the first movement he had employed with the exiled emperor's spear thrust, the sudden retreat from the latter in order to activate a series of wards, and the resulting conflagration had all been dealt with accordingly. Conversely, the attempts to obliterate the Red Magister hadn't worked from the very beginning, with the Pnoe Petras remaining as efficient as ever in a situation of this sort. Regardless of how much 'will' these flames possessed, the approach hadn't shifted in the slightest, and much like the flames had been affected before, they'd remain affected. That wasn't to say the exiled emperor could inject additional power in the situation he was in, however, given the timing of every single action flawlessly executed by the Red Magister. On the contrary, the flames remained the same as they'd been when they were first expelled, and given the lack of appropriate defenses from the exiled emperor, would remain petrified all the same, with the aforementioned scenario coming to fruition all the same.
Regardless of the fantasies taking place in Ignis' mind, delusions failed to manifest themselves as reality. The hands of time did not go back for those that failed to make the right decisions in the heat of battle.
The defense presented against the Pnoe Petras was ineffective, and there was no defense presented against the Series Sabulonis. Overall, this only meant one thing; Ignis would feel the full force of the piercing shrapnel coming from the Sagitta Magica spheres. Once any of the bits of the extremely sharp and dense shrapnel came into contact with the exiled emperor's armor, either piercing through or clashing against it, the effects of the minor glow seizing every piece for a split second earlier would come into play. Pockets of thick, white mist emanated from the clash, possessing and afflicting the immediate space surrounding and within it with temperatures nearing a perfect absolute zero. Given the angles the shrapnel impacted Ignis from and the spread of every sphere, it was only logical the exiled emperor would find himself not only battered by the countless shards of Sagitta Magica crashing against the armor, and possibly piercing through some sections of the metal, but also surrounded in a substantial quantity of this thick mist.
Effectively, each bit of shrapnel had been infused with another spell coming directly from the Red Magister's arsenal - the Ensis Exsequens, the Sword of Conviction - albeit altered as a minor enchantment. Originally, the spell in its standalone version allowed the caster to manifest a shining blade, which adhered to the arm, that forcibly initiated a phase change in certain substances and turned solids into liquid and gas. It was a spell designed to vaporize solids and liquids. As an enchantment, however, the caster could project the secondary extreme cold wave, something that occurred when swinging the shimmering sword, as the cold mist that originally radiates from the blade itself without the need to vaporize the object it comes into contact with. The way the cold wave works is through the absorption of the enthalpy of fusion by the surrounding air, though in this case, since there's no vaporization, the temperature of the mist is fixed and the target suffers no forced phase change.
To sum up, the exiled emperor would be not only battered and pierced by the bits of dense and sharp shrapnel, but also subjected to temperatures close to absolute zero due to his failure to react to what was going on around him. |
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Post by Dirge on May 8, 2019 12:46:39 GMT
Ignis Post 4
The Dead Magister.
Unfortunately, the opponent had for the fourth time failed to respond in any meaningful way. All of the foe's spells were weaved in a split second, reactionary manner without charge or proper preparation. Regardless of their nature, the profaned flames simply could not be controlled; and if Ignis couldnt even keep tame his own ability, the poor mage hadnt a single chance. The fire transmutation continued and worked on the conflagration without fail, due to "because I said so" simply not being a solid enough excuse to keep them in check. Further, since the flames were incinerating any residual traces of ether in the immediate area, the wards he had placed would have no source to draw upon but the magister's own mana stores which further exposed him to their detection. Although it didnt much matter since the attack occurred at point-blank range. Disregarding how his own abilities functioned wouldnt save him.
As expected, his wards were overwhelmed and the magister was subsequently annihilated in the process. Since no effort had been made to dodge or prepare anything else even though he had had four previous opportunities, there was no resisting or postponing his demise any longer. Never before had Ignis seen someone so flawlessly execute their own death. |
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Post by Dirge on May 8, 2019 12:47:49 GMT
Vincent Post 5
Once again... For the fourth time in this encounter, the exiled emperor had done nothing but assume time and time again that they understood the Red Magister's approach. Even after Babel's advisor was gracious enough to allow the the armorclad individual an untimely retreat from a point-blank simultaneous counter-attack, something that was already an impossibility given all the variables considered at that point in time, and even after the lord of flames managed to activate a simple yet delayed conflagration with all odds against him... The fact of the matter was that the man's offensive had been cut short by the Pnoe Petras. Even when they were regular flames, even when they suddenly turned into spectral flames, and even when they attempted to devour whatever supernatural energies they touched, Ignis had done nothing to tackle this cold, hard fact, with his approach remaining exactly the same throughout all this time.
As aforementioned, time did not go back for those that failed to make the right decisions in the heat of battle.
Ignis had done nothing but repeat the same mistake time and time again, and he was punished for it.
In the first instance, due to the committed thrust of his spear and the Red Magister's movement, which had his palm directly in front of Ignis' face the moment the spear's thrust reached its apex. The simultaneous counter came with the release of pressurized clouds of gas particles and dust possessing the effect of a supernaturally forced phase change and a petrification effect on both matter and supernatural energy each particle touched, given the Red Magister's nature of targeting the material, the spiritual, and the astral. The Pnoe Petras had cemented the first mistake the exiled emperor had made.
In the second instance, the exiled emperor's 'impossible' movement coupled with the fact a 'gigantic torrent of screaming flames of a mythical coloration' burst forth from a series of wards warped over from the distance. Flames that were ultimately lathered in the particles of Pnoe Petras emanating from Vincent's silhouette and palm. It mattered little where the flames came from, given the entirety of the Red Magister's immediate area was coated in these gas particles enacting the forced phase change and petrification effect. As such, when the flames burst forth, they rapidly invaded the Pnoe Petras' area of effect and suffered the consequences of that act.
In the third instance, the attempts of the exiled emperor to inject additional properties to the flames, something that barely mattered, given the approach had already been ineffective to repel the Pnoe Petras from the very beginning. The petrification of the flames was a fact, one it seemed his opponent was bent on not accepting. Unfortunately, it mattered not whether the lord of flames could accept it or not; the truth often hurt.
In the last instance, there was the fact the exiled emperor did absolutely nothing to prevent the onslaught that followed the petrification of the flames. Vincent had been allowed free reign to continue his offensive, employing one of the many variants of the Sagitta Magica series of spells and attacking Ignis without any form of retaliation. All he had gotten were more delusions coming from the exiled emperor's mind. Perhaps there was a reason he had been exiled to begin with. Perhaps the fact he had clung so much to a singular offensive without attempting to deviate from it had sealed his fate in this encounter. It was a shame, really. Babel's advisor expected something much better than this.
However, even if the exiled emperor's delusions did, indeed, come to pass, there was the fact Vincent was shrouded in a pair of his most employed defensive spells - Deflexio and Reflexio. While it was certain these were magically constructed barriers, the effect of both could not be ignored even by Caitlyn, the Voidmistress, a being who could nullify magic by simply being in its general vicinity, and many a creature had suffered defeat by tackling upon the barriers without attempting to soften them up first. In the unlikely scenario - in this case it was practically impossible - that the flames had managed to reach the anti-physical and anti-magical protective shields, the amount of energy and the raw force that the entire attack possessed would be reflected back toward its source with uncanny precision. The mirrored force would seek out the target without delay and without fail, delivering not the flames, but rather the 'power' that the flames generated into a direct, homing strike toward the executor of the attack - in this case, Ignis.
All in all, regardless of the exiled emperor's approach, the Red Magister had every possible situation covered. Though that did not particularly matter when the flames had been petrified, the Series Sabulonis and the Ensis Exsequens executed, and both the shrapnel and the mist had rendered Ignis a broken, frozen man clad in battered armor. Perhaps he should have reacted to what was in front of him instead of getting stuck in an unbecoming time loop from which he could not break free. Be that as it may, he would most likely remain living his own delusions time and time again within the gelid stupor that enveloped him, with the Red Magister simply deciding to step away from the center of the construct of petrified flames, all to return to the top of the tower yet once more.
Perhaps Babel territories would be attacked again. Perhaps not. Only time could tell, though one thing was for certain; the frozen statue of the exiled emperor would serve to warn those wanting to make a name for themselves that this was not the region they should be attacking if they wanted fame and fortune.
All they'd get was a quick release from this mortal coil. |
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Post by Lysander on May 26, 2019 21:40:38 GMT
As is my more potent manner of judging, I will be taking each post and breaking them down accordingly – pointing out flaws, faults, and misshaps from both sides to come to a final ruling based on a point system which will include everything from strategy, to how well the story was told. The actual rubric is a bit more complex than that, and while I could go into drastic detail on the point system alloted to each variable of an ongoing RP fight, I find it both tedious and tiresome (as I’m sure everyone else who read it would as well).
As such, the judgement will begin here – from the very first post and will conclude with the final post. Things I point out may be said coarsely, rudely, or just outright condescendingly. Let that not fool you, for my personal opinion has nothing to do with the actual ruling and only suffices to help you fully understand the ignorance of your flaws.
Vincent Introduction
This section would have flowed better, if you’d asked “Can’t any of you guys”, but that’s nit-picky honestly.
All sighs are audible, nerd. You meant a loud sigh.
Okay, Sephiroth. Chill the fuck out.
The palm remained against the forehead for a moment, and the only thing coursing through his mind was how incompetent these Babel fools were. Or, well, just the one that he'd been witnessing from the top of the tower. He'd been brought in as an advisor by Miyazaki, the current mastermind behind the entire company, and even though Babel Corporations hired contractors from all over the Multiverse to handle less-than-savory matters, the quality control was at an all-time low for the time being, according to the crimson-clad individual.
A more accurate line of dialogue, you’ve never spoken. I sincerely don’t need trinkets or money.
Already ready to strangle the passive voice out of you.
Watch out guys, we have a bad ass over here.
Dialogue flows poorly again, not sure if it’s you intentionally making Vincent speak like an inbred, or just nit-picky shit on my end.
The words traveled through the air like acid through flesh as a pair of bladed weapons materialized to his left and to his right. The two floating blades possessed an apple-sized ruby encrusted within the guard, golden runes shining vibrantly along their length. These two blades were nothing more than lambs to send to the slaughter, and considering there were thousands of them in the advisor's pocket dimension, something he'd employed as a storage more often than not, it wouldn't be a great loss if they turned out to be obliterated in this little battle. That said, the silver haired advisor merely awaited to see what the exiled emperor would do after dispatching the hunter. Defending the territories of a corporation that could barely stand on its own two feet was boring work to him, but it had to be done regardless.
Ignis Introduction
Your eyes have been liquified by heat? Hopefully you don’t depend on them to see, because that’d be impossible.
Your writing could be better, you could include what kinds of words – you could stop trying to prose and just write plainly, and well. It makes your posts far less straining to deal with, and makes you look like far less of a dunce when you mess it up.
Several improper uses of Its and It’s throughout your posts, a common mistake a lot of people make honestly. You should take more time when writing your posts, I understand you probably don’t take the writing as seriously as the fighting – but both of these things are the attempt to tell a story, if you cannot tell a story well you cannot do either of them to the degree you probably want to reach.
So, are they spinning on the X, Y, and Z axis or are the inner and outer ones spinning in the same direction? In telling a story, you want to paint a picture – you want to write it so that the reader can envision what you’re doing, see what you’re doing in their mind, and then that picture becomes a reality to them. Here, you have three circles that “spin in opposite directions”, but what is the opposite of the third one? Is it rotating vertically around the other two, or within them, while they spin clock- and counter-clockwise?
If you don’t know what they mean, then how can you even be sure they’re the correct ones? Or what they do? You brand these sigils, with no understanding of what the sigils represent but somehow maintain you know exactly what they can and can’t do, despite not actually knowing what they are? Highly illogical, and a character flaw that – while you could have made it interesting, you just Mary Sue through later on.
You can’t know something’s actual purpose without understanding that something, you know what you think their purpose is – what you’ve seen them used for – but for all you actually know they could be used to cook popcorn.
More improper use of It’s, to explain it’s is a contraction meaning it is. I.e. It’s hot as fuck outside, means “It is hot as fuck outside”. The word you meant is Its, without the apostrophe. This shows an ownership form of the word.
Your head has a set of hind legs? Never mind this also implies it has forelegs, which is just a weirdly shaped head, imo.
Now, not only are your eyes liqufied by heat they’re also glazed over with fog and stars? How are you actually seeing anything right now?
Not only are they liquified from heat (probably because they burn like hot coal), and covered in fog – but they also have emotions and feelings of their own? Jesus H. Christ. Your eyes are probably the only bad ass thing about your character so far.
Three sentences is not rambling, I don’t know who told you it was but they probably rambled when they explained the how of it to you.
Your metal shoes have claws? That’s..actually kind of cool, I like it.
The sound of what? Your body running? You’re not moving fast enough to create a sonic boom, you’re not even close to breaching the speed of sound. 50 meters in .5 a second isn’t even over 400 MPH, no where near the 761 MPH you have to go to create a sonic boom.
So, I’m assuming you mean the sound of your foot falls – which would make you probably heavy as fuck to be that loud as you ran, which is counter-productive to you trying to move so fast, but whatever.
Prepping and attacking in your introduction post, while a man is trying to have a conversation with you. Do you have no sense of honor or diplomacy, child?
Finally, we get to the meat and potatos of what this is all about. Let’s get it, boys.
Solid defense/counter attack, honestly. Interested to see how Ignis handles it.
Ignis Post 1
First, and foremost, you should explain what battle instinct is in relation to your character if you intend to reference it. Also, two brains is kind of boring.
Furthermore, the “all according to my plan” act is overdone and cliché, stop it.
I’m going to need to see imperical data on this subject before I take you at your word.
“This thing can kill you basically instantly by just you existing, but it isn’t a weapon” < am I the only one who finds that sentiment utterly asinine and ridiculous?
Could be a fair assessment, we’ll have to see.
How were you gone? Did you teleport, did you run away super-fast? You have to be clearer, because logic dictates that with the speed you’re moving forward to strike that there’s very little likelihood of you turning and running the other way, without some kind of detrimental effect to your body.
This makes zero sense when paired with the previous excerpt quoted from your post. They contracted fully there, but now they’re contracting (compressing) gradually as you run away? They’re already at full contraction, you can’t say one thing and then completely contradict it in the very next set of sentences.
You created magic eating flames made from magic, and you also say that they take out the most powerful magic they can find around them (without any direction or control on your part, which you go on to say later is because you –can't- control them. That makes them a mindless, craven beast of their own. You can’t control them, presumably neither could Vincent.
Therefore, the moment they spring to life as this super powerful magic-eating well of magic, they become nullified by their very own existence. A mindless beast, working on instinct and hunger will always go for the easiest target – look at animals in the wild, whose whole life is governed not by cognitive function but by base instincts.
Your flames would, in fact, be dangeroust to Vincent at the beginning – they would even be not so great to his magic immediately around it, but by their very nature they nullify themselves nigh-instantly by turning on themself and eating themselves. If you can’t control them, you can’t determine their target. Logic, however, can. Logically, they would attack themselves at the first opportunity – because they are mindless, they have no understanding of self-preservation. They seek only to eat magic, and yet are the most powerful source of magic in the area ( according to you ).
Blah blah blah. Exposition for the pure sake of exposition. Then you reinforce that you can’t control them, ergo you can’t make them target anything or anyone specifically.
[quotePredictability begets predictability.[/quote]
Thank you, Captain Obvious.
The most long-winded way of saying: “I don’t breathe” I’ve ever seen. Kill yourself.
Not a bad defense, I personally prefer the mindless beast analogy but that actually works too – and is founded in years of RP and combat which are used as reinforcement for this type of magic.
Instead, they would find the highly excited particles vibrating within their area of effect coming together and solidifying no sooner had they touched the gas. The newly solidified construct of flames shimmering with vibrant crimsons and oranges, found itself contrasting heavily with the rock and dirt beneath it. Lastly, there was the issue of the Red Magister's killing intent, something that was merely the manifestation of a mere portion of his power unleashed on the landscape. This was not spiritual pressure, and it certainly did not carry with it the connotation of magical energy; it was simply a direct byproduct of his raw power, much like the gravitational pull of a planet or the forces elicited by a black hole amidst nothingness. As aforementioned, it would have no real effect on the exiled emperor, and only lesser, weaker creatures would find themselves paralyzed by the psychological effect of merely sensing such a presence. That said, if Ignis did want to bathe the entire area in fire, then the gas particles exuding from the Red Magister would simply solidify the flames around him in the midst of his opponent's timely retreat, all without even moving from his current vantage point, until a beautiful and immense construct birthed from his opponent's very flames.
Had he wanted to extend his sphere of influence throughout the entire area, Vincent would have done so. Alas, that was not the case in this particular instance. Regardless, the massive amount of petrified fire did, however, allow him to segue into his next move without shifting up his strategizing all too much. Focusing on twenty spots along the entirety of the crimson and orange construct of stone, Vincent shattered the rock in these locations only to turn it into minuscule particles of dust, which shortly after bundled up together. These pockets of dust and sand hovered around the outermost edge of the petrified fire, as though orbiting it. With Vincent at the very epicenter of the construct, Ignis had provided him with both a means of additional defense and further attack, and now the Red Magister simply awaited for his opponent's next move, if he had any. His internal systems merely focused his own energy, further reinforcing the aspect of a 'closed world' inside him, as he readied himself for any further plans the exiled emperor could concoct.
Ignis Post 3
How about we don’t do the whole time-weaving thing, where your defense was good before but not fight-ending, so you get upset and go back and start changing how they work without any reason or justification. If you want to change them, you have to enact some kind of power on them to make it happen. You can’t just say: “Oh no, they were actually this all along” If it isn’t in the post, it doesn’t exist. Your original post detailing the flames had none of these connotations on it, and you can’t go back in another post after the fact and just completely change the way they operate, without doing something that changes them.
I.e. using magic to reinforce them, asking God’s favor to make them stronger, etc.
The ”lol no because now they’re something completely different than they were before and do different things than I said they did before” doesn’t work.
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No. Again, you don’t get to do that. You don’t get to go back and completely change the nature of your attack/defense just because you’re butthurt it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to at first. The way you describe them when you summon them is the ONLY way in which they function until the moment you give justification to them having a new type of power. I.e.e adding something to them with your own power, not just pretending they had that power all along.
He didn’t have to move. He adequately defended against your attack as you launched it, and the flames as you described them when you launched them.
In this post, you’re effectively launching a new attack (albeit with zero justification or reasoning for how the new attack exists in the first place) by modifying the nature of your flames from what they originally were, to something entirely different. Ergo, what you do here in this quoted section is an auto-hit, you connect an attack you relaunched in the same post you launched it. Asinine, ignorant, and just outlandishly horrible.
Don’t ever call yourself a warrior again, not when your entire concept of a fight is launching an attack and when it doesn’t work pretending the attack you launched isn’t what you said it was when you launched it.
Reading through the rest of the fight, it just turns into a back and forth of “no fuck you I’m right” from the both of you, extending out from this central point here. Where Ignis blatantly tried to cheat and break the rules we use in this server to win the fight.
As such, I have no desire, need, or reason to continue the judgement with the remaining posts. As they are rendered entirely useless and invalid as they are based around the central idea that he can simply time-weave his attack into something it wasn’t before, without any justification or logic backing the play.
Had you, at any point in your reassertion of the flames, used an enhancement effect on them, a glyph or a rune that somehow empowered them to be this new thing you claimed they were, you would have been perfectly valid and within logical reason to turn them into what you did. However, you did not. Your entire reassertion is you saying: “A’HA THEY’RE ACTUALLY THIS THING I NEVER SAID THEY WERE ALL ALONG”.
As such, every post following it where you try to wave your tiny little cock around and pretend you’re something special isn’t even valid, because it relies entirely on something that was never valid to begin with.
The two options from this point are as follows:
The fight will continue from Vincent’s first petrifying of the flames, and you will either A.) Find a way to enhance them, which seems implausible given their petrification, or B.) Continue the fight with another method of trying to win.
The second option is you just take the L, and move on. Because you did it to yourself.
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