The Games of Saberhaven
Bariloyn Eloh vs. Bleche
        Today's tournament fight is the subject of great speculation and argument among the spectators. Slightly more of the audience favors Bariloyn Eloh, more commonly known as Barbie, to win, due to his Arena experience and his mastery of both sword and spell. Many, however, favor the underdog, Bleche the kobold, based on the extensive amount of magical items and weaponry that he carries.
       As the doors open at both ends, the crowd expects to see Barbie fly out with his winged boots, as he usually does. This time, however, it is his opponent who takes to the air, as Bleche flies up and forward. Before he can get far, though, Barbie steps onto the dusty floor of the arena and whispers a prayer. A highly concentrated beam of the sun's light spotlights the kobold. "Welcome above-ground, worm!" laughs Barbie. "A bit too bright for your tastes, up here?" Bleche makes no noise, but noticeably slows in his flight, holding his hands over his eyes; it looks as though the beam of light has blinded him.
        Barbie now takes to the air himself, climbing high into the air and racing above the field of battle toward the drifting Bleche. The kobold is gliding unsteadily toward the ground, but within seconds, he takes his hands from his eyes and looks around, blinking. Apparently satisfied, he looks around, and finding Barbie drawing his swords more than 70 feet above him, Bleche drops the few feet to a soft landing.
        Seeing a now stationary target, Barbie grins and begins a steep dive. Meanwhile, Bleche is fumbling for something on his belt apparently a brass trumpet. He doesn't quite get it to his lips before Barbie comes screaming down from the heavens - and overshoots him by about 10 feet, but pulling out of his dive at the last moment. Bleche spins around and sounds the horn with a tremendous blast that knocks Barbie out of the sky, and the big barbarian tumbles to a dusty halt. Besides the bruises he surely suffered from his crash landing, Barbie is holding his head in agony, apparently from the horn-blast.
        Taking advantage of his opponent's momentary distraction, Bleche runs toward him, pulling a coil of rope from his belt. "Siccam!" he cries, and the rope springs from his hand to wrap itself securely around Barbie, completely enveloping him in its strands. Barbie curses and flexes his mighty muscles, but to no avail.
        "Do you submit?" asks the kobold with a strange accent. Barbie spits toward him and tries to get his boots to fly him from harm's way, but as he cannot get his footing for a proper takeoff, he merely scoots forward in the dust a yard or so. Bleche walks up to the helpless human and puts a small foot on his head. He slowly swings his pickaxe down like a croquet mallet, taking aim at Barbie's skull. Bleche looks up to the judges' box, and the barbarian wriggles under his instep, frothing and cursing. There is a long pause, then the judges announce, "The victor is Bleche." Wisely, the kobold waits until the arena guards and healing priests arrive before releasing Barbie from his bonds. Humiliated, the barbarian shaman shrugs off the attentions of the clerics and storms out of the Arena. Bleche walks calmly to his exit to the cheers of the crowd.

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