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![]() The Games of Saberhaven Barbie vs. Rraakkor
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The quiet crowd is bundled against the gathering storm. They huddle
together under their cloaks to ward off the passing squalls which arrived this
morning and have gotten much worse in the last few hours. The squalls bring
with them a cold biting wind and alternating rain and hail. For most the talk
is not of the impending fight but of the unusual weather. Today's two opponents are expected to bring a new meaning to the word ‘slugfest’. Bariloyn Eloh, known to his friends as Barbie, is a huge brute of a warrior, rippling with muscle and with eyes that betray a cunning intellect. A little known and rarely shown aspect of Barbie is that he serves one of the barbarian gods as a shaman. Even so, he is expected to win today through force of arms. Rraakkor is a wemic enslaved to two masters, one is Romus Todd, the slave master, and the other is his own feral nature. This is a warrior without a drop of civilized blood in his veins. But he has drained much of that civilized blood from others in this very arena. A unenthusiastic ripple of applause runs through the cold, wet crowd when the fighters enter the puddled arena. A chorus of whispers and murmurs follow when the audience realizes that Barbie is totally unarmed. Rraakkor roars his bestial challenge then quickly, gracefully moves to the center of the arena. Barbie appears to be ignoring the wemic as he paces towards the center as well. He stops a dozen paces from the wemic and announces in an unnaturally loud voice, "I am here today to demonstrate to you the power of the Stormlord. His whim is a fickle one and today it rests here. Before you will be demonstrated his mighty forces using this pitiful beast as a subject." Rraakkor is jolted into movement by a huge crash of lightning that strikes him, leaving his very hide steaming, and stunning the audience with it's flash. Slightly off balance, he leaps at the unarmed warrior, swords ready to strike. While in the air, still five yards from the human, he crashes into an invisible barrier and slides to the ground, shaken but mostly unharmed. Regaining his footing, the wemic paces the extent of the barrier. It seems that his weapons can penetrate the invisible wall but his flesh cannot. While he was circling around, the human has been casting a spell, which when finished, brings down a pillar of flame to strike the hapless wemic. It does appear that the wemic does have some protective magics helping him, as he has taken little damage from either strike. The lightly sizzled Rraakkor is tensing to pounce again when he is struck again by another bolt of lightning from above. He appeared totally unprepared for this one and does appear to have lost a great gout of fur from the discharge. The thunder crashes again around the arena, deafening the crowd, many who are covering their ears and somewhat shocked at the display of natures fury taking place here. The impassive Barbie, obviously in shaman mode today, stares at the unnerved wemic who is glancing around, wondering why the elements have turned on him. Rraakkor leaps high in the air, trying to enter the protected area from the top but he finds this avenue closed as well when he lands and begins to slide towards the ground on the invisible magical barrier. He lands with the grace of his feline counterparts and faces his opponent. The very ground around Rraakkor erupts in flames, singeing his paws, raising a cloud of stream, and drawing an annoyed growl from the veteran. He reaches behind his humanoid torso and brings out a length of rope. He swings it, in a large loop, above his head. When he releases it, it lands around a startled Barbie, who is attempting to leap away when the line pulls taught around his shins, splashing him helpless to the ground. The crowd finally comes out of their shock and begins to cheer for the wemic gladiator. Immediately the wemic begins to run in a tightening circle until the human is swinging at the end of twenty five feet of rope. The wemic braces himself and rotates in one spot, speeding up his rotation until, suddenly, he releases the rope sending Barbie crashing into the wall twenty yards away. The crowd goes wild at this display of ingenuity. More suprised than hurt, Barbie reaches down and rips the thick lasso apart with his bare hands, quickly standing to face the approaching warrior. While the wemic reels in his poor, hurt rope, he is blasted by yet another sizzling bolt from the sky. This one appears to have shaken him. When he recovers his flashblinded sight, he sees that his rope is charred and useless. He quickly draws his swords and concentrates for a moment, his coat regaining it’s luster and the spring returning to his steps. Almost immediately he is blasted by another bolt of the Stormlord’s power. Rraakkor bellows, "Fight me human! This disparages your honor as a great warrior." Barbie replies, quietly, "'He died with honor'.... That is a most excellent epitaph." Having said that, the human brings down another pillar of fire on the dodging wemic. He then points at the wemic and yells, "Feel the true power of a god!" and the hapless wemic is shaken yet again by a bolt of lightning. The cat-man screams in pain, frustration and anger and throws one of his shortswords at the towering human. It flies wide past his head and strikes the wall, blade first and quivering, it’s enchantment allowing it to sink deep into the stone. The wemic rears back and throws his other blade, which sinks deep into the barbarian’s leg, drawing some blood and a grimace from the human. As Rraakkor begins to sprint towards his other blade, the very ground seems to slow his movement, as if it were clinging to his paws and, once slowed, he then is engulfed in a spiraling wall of flaming death. The shaman of storms calls down the full fury of his totem on the last location where anyone saw the wemic. The noise is incredible, the light blinding, and even the most experienced, grizzled veterans in the crowd shy away from the scene before them. When the tumult lets up, and people look back towards the arena, they see only the great warrior known as Bariloyn Eloh, glaring back at them. The wemic known as Rraakkor is nowhere to be seen.
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