[PvP/Dwarf] There Can Only Be ONE!

[Deleted]

510 words Tobin HP 100%		Active Skill: Niten-gorin MP 100%
Ah, Sarum. With its golems and tumbleweeds and rocks and rocks and more rocks... almost every damn day, there was nothing interesting in it. Ever since the Sarum Expedition Camp all but packed up, ever since the adventurers moved on to a different camp which was closer to Sarum City, there was nothing but landers and golems all around. How exciting was that anyway? People of the Land usually ended up as cannon fodder, save for the really strong ones who had somehow grinded their level up to a magnificent Level 20. Just enough to take on golems and their big boss, all of which had been defeated by parties of adventurers a few months back. In this desolate place, there stood a lone samurai garbed in full plate armor. It was not the usual plate armor either; it looked more like bone than metal, and was fitted quite closely to the wearer’s body. If anything, the adventurer looked less human and more like a bipedal centipede. The Pale Rider, she called that armor which she made with her own hands. Caerbannog, the wolf-hair samurai, had gone out to Sarum in search of prey- and what did she find? Her mortal enemy of course... DWARF. There was something about his look, the way that he spoke, the way that he walked, and the way that he combed his beard that annoyed the little samurai. Most of all, he was a brewer. And how was that related to anything? Well, let’s say that Dwarf was part of a drinking game but had kept it under the table that he was a gods-damned brewer. And what was wrong with that, you ask? BREWERS DO NOT GET DRUNK. What is the point of a drinking game with someone who does not get drunk?! It was not about winning... it was about getting wasted! And so in the here and the now, in a place where the data is so messed up that both adventurers synched to a Level of 71, something legendary was about to take place. Heads would roll (hopefully, golems’) and the crowd would gasp in awe (AWE, NOT AWW!) as the fight of the hour ticked closer. Caerbannog toggled on her Tier 2 Bushido skill Niten-gorin; there would be a slight disadvantage when she used samurai skills for their animation time would be increased by one, but hey... white ninja samurai. The wolf-hair, with the ninjato Geri on her right hand and the kama Freki on her left hand, awaited the arrival of her opponent. Will he answer her call? Probably. If only she did actually call him. Will he rise to the occasion? Probably. Depends on how much yeast was used. Perhaps, after the fight, they could sit down for some bacon and gin, but in the meantime, Caerbannog’s focus was the downfall of the dwarf. He had touched Hyzenthlay inappropriately, and had looked at Foreman Mukade IX weirdly, and had... well, he only met Hrairoo once, I think; not much to say about that. ANYWAY. IT’S TIME TO D-D-DUEL!

[Tobin]

(OOC: The U's in armour isn't a typo. Also I am aware my armour hasn't been approved yet, but it probably will be by the end of this thread. This post may require further edits depending on whether my condensed armoury works.

I know you been keeping it vague, but since this is set in the future, wouldn't it be cool to fight in the graveyard of a collosis? Heheh Hopefully it lives up to expectations. Need to work on my actions more.)

HP: 97% Mana: 89% Word Count: 1040

"Well, I'm finally here."

The Dwarf felt his gaze strain across the horizon as he rode onwards upon his mighty boar, bringing his noble steed to the edge of the flat lands that was destined to be the dueling spot. Somewhat appraise really, as it was where the great Stonehenge had been confronted and lain to rest along the central most location of the Sarum highlands. The pillars of stone scattered sparingly along the landscape was the final memorial for the greatest sentinel of the high planes, as it was dawn the moons rays still basked the field in a monochrome light even as the sun began to reclaim the sky with a deep crimson hue. The great foe hadn't been easy as the legends would dictate that the battle had raged on for seven days and six nights, and it was only then, when the Dwarf had shoved the tiger echo fist right up it's-

OI DWARF, STOP LYING ABOUT EVENTS YOU CAN'T REMEMBER AND GET ON WITH IT!

-Why can't I-

String theory

-Please, don't author! You made this gag too ma-

Because that thread- *Dons sunglasses* was cut short. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

The dwarf sighed, the world had moved on since then. Now the broad fellow had returned to the silent grave of the great sentinal for a different battle of a entirely different nature, no not to pay respects for a creature a blasted creature that had killed so many, if anything he would rather deciscrate it's corpse and form a hyeroglifh with it's remains in the shape of a dwarf to taunt the gods. No, for Caerbannog had called him out for a duel of destiny for she had expressed great desire to flip the dwarf face down and turn him into a trap card. Her reasons for doing so were unfathomable, was it repressed memories of being submerged with a Black Lagoon? That time

Compared to Caer, the dwarf came lightly armed and armoured in his Quickstep ‘Sway’ Overalls, the monk gab allowed the dwarf's arms to be exposed to the elements and show off his refined cuboid body. However the dwarf wasn't entirely unprepared as he had several items that enhanced his preformance while making him look swagtastic, the Tobin’s Ascot Tie of Gentle Greeting –Lv30 sat upon his chest to make him look dapper, his boots were refined with a solid plate, all the better for kicking people with. Perhaps the imposing item on his person was the Gauntlets of the Morally Ambiguous Knight , the black gauntlets hued a faint sliver by the early clicked softly as the fingers flexed in the anticipation for action to come. The cufflinks were of course equipped, though the final, perhaps flamboyant item on the dwarfs person was the gold trimmed sunglasses with a pink tint. In terms of quality items the champion of Aeryn had an advantage, but Dwarf had a couple of cards stowed away that would greatly even the odds.

The dwarf raised his eyebrow at the distant, white Silhouette of the samurai, the stare reminded him of a rabbit in that even as their sharp teeth cut the grass, one eye would always be focused on the assailant. That stare sent a shiver of fear up the dwarfs back as frightful memories of being airborne and punched recalled to his mind, a slight shiver that reverberated up to his arms as a small moonshine flask materialised, which he promptly downed the entire contents, the relief from the shivers was immediate, materialising in a slow rasp of potent air, the detox cleared his head, though it still triggered –drunken monkey-.

“You stay here. If I summon you, you know what to do.”

“Dwarf, why you do this? It’s not as if beating her here will advance your status.”

The flask was tossed aside as the dwarf returned the gaze back to the Gerald that he named Swagtusk, a raised eyebrow as a little rumble erupted from his throat. Indeed when animals fought they fought for good reasons, such as mating rights, food and shelter, here? There was no material reward for winning this battle, just a little pride and probably a little title if anything. The dwarf liked the lass but she had abused him enough over the months and while he liked the lass, well, the opportunity to really pay her back was too good to pass up. In any case the reply wasn’t immediate, they had arrived too close to one golem that had started to thunder at him at some speed, that even the tusk got concerned when the dwarf turned his head back to the white and snorted a simple reply.

“Peh, I’m immortal, when have gods ever needed reason?”

With a roaring laugh and –drunken monkey- activated, the dwarf, a casual weave neatly avoided the mighty blow, his broad arms wrapped around the limb as he twisted and tossed the construct with sheer strength alone. Then, with mighty bound and magnet grip, the squat hitched a ride upon the stone bodies back, and then rose to stand erect with his yellow belt bellowing in the early morning’s sky as the improvised projectile thundered towards the Samurai. Yes! That annoying grin was on his face as he bellowed his response.

“CEABANNOG! I Tobin will accept ye challenge! Et be the final round in tis drinkin’ game!”

At this point several things happened quickly, -eye of the tiger- activated and the dwarf grappled the golem as he triggered the –suplex-, the two became a blur as the dwarf redirected the golem directly at the short from an angle and released the stone missile, whatever happened to the golem it’s death would doubtlessly be spectacular! The dwarf would land on his reformed boots with a continuous skid, taking minor fall damage, as the distance closed fist drew back for a -battering ram-, the air around his fist trembled with a heatwave as he flung a vicious body blow in just under a second, a rending wound inflicted directly into the armour itself. If at all possible he would then grapple her as he slid, tackling headlong into the base of one such fallen column.

“Tis time t-ta get ya g-g-game on, kyuu!”

[Deleted]

670 words HP 95%		Active Skill: Niten-gorin MP 75%
Dwarf, do you spell-check? Probably not. This mattered little, or not at all, as Caerbannog waited for the arrival of her opponent. When Tobin appeared in all his glory, it seemed that he was intent on announcing his arrival without any degree of wariness. He rode in on a massive boar, for crying out loud. But it seemed that it was not just the wolf-hair who found the Dwarf obnoxious for on his way to the duel area, a golem had stirred and attacked the bearded adventurer. Just to be sure that the creature would not get in their way, the samurai activated Denkosekka to boost her movement speed. She remained in place and pointed her ninjato Geri at the dwarf and the incoming golem. As expected of a monk, he moved fluidly and was able to redirect the attacking beast to the samurai. Caer raised her right arm for an overhead slash and brought the weapon down while using Izuna-giri. It was a quick attack even with the penalty of Niten-gorin for it did not require a point blank range. Instead, the vacuum blade that the ace move created traveled forward and collided with the golem to destroy it in one strike. As soon as the second chain was completed, Caer used the curse Muramasa on the kama in her left hand, Freki. INCOMING DWARF! Caerbannog’s mind screamed as the Dwarf moved in quickly. At the same time, the curse slowly crept through the kama’s blade. She needed a few more seconds before she could strike, and so the samurai steeled herself and accepted the blow to her torso when the Battering Ram was thrown at her. Her armor was dented by the attack and the samurai herself was pushed back with minor damage, but at that point, Freki was ready. Caer’s blue eyes flicked to a golden yellow color when the armor-damaging attack hit her squarely. Sexual harassment. He was so getting sued. The Dwarf could argue that it was consensual, but would the court believe him? That tie did make him look slightly trustworthy, but having something named “Morally Ambiguous Knight” for equipment name cancelled that trustworthiness so that Dwarf was back to square one. If he wanted to bury his head into that column so badly, then that was fine by her. Unlike the samurai who had a barbut to protect her head, Dwarf was practically naked compared to his opponent. However, she was to ensure that her battle momentum up to that point was not in vain. Caer flicked her left wrist to make Freki’s blade face the Dwarf’s torso right after his Battering Ram. Instead of accepting the next attack, the grapple, the samurai used her ace move Kodama-kaeshi as soon as Battering Ram pushed her backwards. The samurai was able to move to a counterattacking position as the opponent rushed in to grapple her and when he was in striking distance, Caer flicked Freki towards the Dwarf. If he had moved in quickly, she would slash his torso; if he moved aside, the distance would still be within the range of Freki’s chain so Caerbannog would simply release the kama blade from its handle and slash it towards the dwarf. As soon as the blade cut him, even with just the tiniest strike, the corrupting runes of Muramasa’s curse would be transferred from blade to Dwarf. Either way, or even if the runes remained on Freki, Caer flicked the blade back into its handle and put her left hand down her left side. She then placed Geri on that same side as if she was sheathing it, and put her head down. Using her fourth chain Yabouzan, the samurai dashed towards the Dwarf but then she disappeared for a second... her next appearance was five meters from where she originally stood. Rocks and debris along her path would have been destroyed, and if the Dwarf had not ducked out of the way, or countered her somehow, then he was in for a whole lot of hurting.

[Tobin]

(OOC: Sorry if this is really bad @dindeen. The fevers messing with my sense of thought, I will leave it to you to apply what Debuffs you want, I find these status effects make for encumber some writing, so it’s probably better you to apply them for whatever’s most climatic.

Also, it occurs to me that I misread cross counter. @_@ Though since I got hit by the mark of death in the end anyways, I imagine it’s not too much of a bad factor.

Summary: Dwarf dodges first attack due to high agility and a counter attack, doesn’t have time to dodge the second so he takes a hit to freeze Caer in place, he then uses the upper cut to reduce her physical defences then proceeds to whale on her with a high damage multihit move, before flinging her away with a echo fist. If successful, he will proceed to get smashed and remove his gauntlets, favouring the sheer power of his fists over fancy effects. He may or may not have a debuff applied to him, though due to not being able to feel pain at this moment in time, he likely hasn't noticed if he's been poisoned.)

Word count: 862  HP: 62% (After assault) Mana: 52%

Did Kyuu even lift? Probably. She had lifted many things in her life, many of those things were dwarf.

The first attack connected firmly, the dwarf felt a grim satisfaction in the glare and for a moment, even as the samurai staggered back and prepared and direct the Kama toward him, there was a sense of feeling that her defeat was a possible. Yet as the Dwarf strode as his eyes perceived a spike of dread stepped in. The dwarf didn’t understand what those runes meant, the squat could barely even English sometimes, never mind read runes, yet one didn’t survive so long as he did without instincts homed on the field. Subconsciously the dwarf thought “DODGE!” and for a brief moment every fibre tensed in the face of this inevitable blow. Cross Counter was activated and with a speed even the dwarf couldn’t perceive his left arm lashed out to strike the hand of the kama to push it in towards the lass. In the same motion his entire body twisted hard to the left to twirl his body around the blade while giving strength. The end effect was that the dwarf stepped in, diverted the Kama hand with a lighting fast and tumbled past her, barrel rolling once, twice before with a summersault he regained his footing, perspiration flowed unhindered by the confounds of skin.

Now, normally the dwarf would have found time to utter a quip in English, if English was an abused red headed stepchild. However as he glanced back up, Kyuu had already prepared for the next stage of her attack. Instantly the dwarf knew that the only chance he stood was to play chicken with the Samurai, the dwarf tensed his fist as he activated Fist of Boreas the wind picked up as his fist glistened with a unearth white glow and the chill picked up. The Dwarf’s gaze a fiery crimson through that of his shades of rose.

Then suddenly, as the lass went to take her first step forward the dwarf thrust his palm forward as he released the cone of blizzard from the palm of his hand, wind and blade met icy winds as an immense slivery storm erupted out in every direction. Certainly the winds would have many tales to talk about this meeting of strength, of how the grass, the stone cracked, but largely about the restraining order that they popped on the squat fellow for violating them in such a manner. All the while the Boar watched on from afar with an intrigued expression, while he munched upon elder berries. When the winds finally subsided, two figures still stood, the Dwarf with several openly bleeding wounds, the runes began to stretch from the wound in his stomach. The lass hadn’t faired any better, the cold damage was fairly minor as he had not the time to charge it, yet she was immobilised in an ice block. The dwarf glanced down and gave a sharp curse as his face reddened in silent fury, there few things that genuinely angered the fellow; being marked for death was one such thing.

“You, how dare ya! YA DURTY WULFHURRR”

Heated Combat was triggered as the dwarf grasped his fist tightly as flame gripped his hand and he launched the lass up into the air with a brutal upper cut and, as she tumbled the dwarf flicked his ascot tie as golden flame erupted from his body within the last second of the freeze the lass probably witnessed the most horrifying sight known to the Cear-Bear.

Dwarfs, Dwarf Doppelgangers everywhere! Only Incarnated Assault could produce the sheer terror of that nightmare! A dropkick from two of them brought her crashing down right in the middle of 8 fighters as they proceed to throw a barrage of punches and kicks into the downed lass as the thaw wore off, the black gauntlets of the dwarf sobered in an unearthly red hot glow as the combos racked up, if she hadn’t broken free of the combo by it’s conclusion, the dwarf would immediately try to follow up with a –Tiger Echo fist-, sending the lass spiralling off into another column. By this point he would only have 9 seconds left on his –eye of the tiger-, though a combination of gauntlet and asicot tie enabled the worst of the bleeding to be stemmed. Or so he thought.

-God damn it, I wanted to enjoy this, though I guess I will have ta take it seriously, if I am ta make tis curse removed back ta the citadel.–

“Gahhh! That’s it! The kiddy gloves are COMIN’ OAF. I'm not dyin' alone!”

With a grunt the dwarf decided to reveal his secret weapon, with a sharp tug both gauntlets were removed, for the dwarf was a level 71 monk, that meant his fists were level 71! Though the tradeoff was that he would no longer be able to take blows quite as heavy as the one he just had without his extra hp recovery. To that he would pull a -Lv20appletini- out of his pocket and swiftly consumed it, taking the moment to regain his –drunken monkey- agility boost.

[Deleted]

870 words HP 55%		Active Skill: Fuurin Kazan MP 63%
In a not really stunning turn of events, Dwarf cross-countered Freki. The corrupting runes of Muramasa moved through the blade and made their way to the body of the willing target. In short, Dwarf cursed himself. Scrub. He will die in seven days. Actually, it was more like two minutes and a few seconds. Caerbannog continued her chain though and in the monk’s haste to prepare for the next attack, he had not noticed the runes that crept through his body. Both fighters then rushed towards the other for an attack and the result was not too kind to nature. Verily, it might be the lands of Sarum that suffered the most from this ordeal. Caer would have had a whimsical retort to being called a dirty wolf-hair if she had not been frozen. And then she was sent flying… WEEEEEEEEE~ good thing the samurai did not have a few of heights, else she would have died of a heart attack. In the back of her mind, she thought “Dammit, I knew I should have put ice resistance on this armor”, but that was reserved for another time. She could at it in as a reforge once she increased the armor’s level. The one thing that did grab her attention at the moment was the sheer number of Dwarves. Seems Tobin gave birth… ah wait, he was Naruto! Well, it was fine as long as he was not running around naked while pretending to be a wee lass. While in her armor, the sensation of being attacked repeatedly was kind of like being hit by pittered boars from all sides. It was horrible and it stung, but somehow it made her want to eat some bacon. Once she was back on solid ground, though in a less than lady-like appearance, Caerbannog hopped right back on her feet. She then ran towards a column and jumped on top of it all the while fiddling through her interface. The Dwarf had a change of equipment and so did she; from a pale white, Caerbannog’s armor was changed to the pure black Niddhogg. Her hit points increased, as did her passive HP regeneration. The wolf-hair toggled off Niten-gorin which removed the increased animation time penalty as she put away her dual blades. Instead, she equipped the nagamaki Nottulfr, sheathed in its saya as she bit her lip, took out her Level 10 Impure Poison and drank it right up. The girl’s hit points dropped by a hundred points off the bat and she acquired a minor poison debuff, but to Caer, it was a nice trade-off due to her sword’s Miasma effect: the poison damage was halved and her physical defense was increased by ten levels. Thanks, Maya-chwan! Around her left arm, Caer had her iron chain accessory: Notthoggr; the other end was wrapped around the handle of the nagamaki and most of the chain dangled to her side. The samurai drew her weapon and pointed the tip of the sword at the Dwarf while her left hand was raised over her head: Samurai’s Goddamn Challenge. Caer flipped the bird to anyone and everyone who could see her up in that column while the skill skin Rude Pumpkins was toggled on, and mostly that meant the five golems which wandered around the area. Some floating pumpkins appeared and blew raspberries at the golems around the area and between that and the bird flip, the stone creatures felt some indescribable hatred rise up within them. They rushed in towards the arena in a fit of rage, only to be disoriented for as soon as Caer jumped down from the pillar, she activated her ace move Dokuganryu. A thick smoke erupted from the samurai and she vanished within it; her armor being black, she moved like a shadow within the covering. One of the obvious give-away her position was the iron chain which clinked as she walked, but Caer had removed it from her person and had lodged it into the hip joint of a confused golem. Now the creature made a clinking sound as it walked while Caerbannog circled around the Dwarf away from that golem. Ten seconds counted off slowly as the girl sheathed her sword and took out her bow Notthrafn. Seven seconds. Her sight set on the Dwarf, she pulled an arrow and let it fly; almost immediately, she pulled the bow again. Five seconds, and another arrow flew loose. She only aimed at the Dwarf’s torso- something that was easier to hit or at least less likely able to dodge. A graze might be able to slow him down with Notthrafn’s debuff to cripple the barrel-bodied one somehow. Before Dokugaryu ended, Caer put the bow in her Quick Swap slot and a flaming aura enveloped the samurai’s body: Fuurin Kazan. She then dashed towards the Dwarf, or at least to where she’d last seen him through that smoke cover that slowly faded, and careened towards him like a small car. Once he was within her range, Caerbannog chained Toragari Shura while she was under the effects of Fuurin Kazan; if timed incorrectly or if Dwarf had a counter, it would be a really awkward move for the samurai. Either way, the smoke would clear away to a fiery sight in the midst of some very confused golems.

[Tobin]

(Summery: Dwarf gets hit by arrow, slowed, he improvises an attack of Caer by ripping a column down. He vaults along the column and with a mixture of bullet punch, acupuncture and heated combat attempts to drive Caer against the column, where he will use basic attacks (1 second punches basically) to rack up the damage, if fully successful, he will use battering ram to punch her through the column. Accupuncture essencally weakens the area struck or increases the chances of critical hits. I will tidy the post later to include all the relvient information @dindeen)

WC:997 HP: 57% Mana: 77% -Ongoing Skills: Acupuncture, Heated Combat.

The Dwarf frowned as she sprang away and changed armour, his efforts to strip her defences away NO, NOT IN THAT WAY fruitless. Still, the physical damage debuff would likely linger for a little bit. With the extra time afforded to him, the dwarf took out a -lv 50 mana potion- and downed it, recovering most of his stamina in one, salty gulp.

-Shit, she changed armour every blow I had stuck before had felt like striking Stonehenge still- The dwarf had begun his advance as the potion was tossed aside –without the gloves, my physical attack will still be better compared to her armour. I still have a chance.- Yet, as he closed, the samurai dropped down and his sight was robbed from him. Yet the jingle of the chain made the chuckle erupt from his lips, with a wyvern kick the stocky fellow flew in and stuck something hard, it was only when it crumbled and the golem toppled over, and the sharp jab of pain caught him in his back side that he discovered his folly. That he uttered a single iconic line as he tore the barbed shaft out his body.

“Clever girl.”

The dwarf twisted his body to face the mist, the lass had already been long gone and even the Dwarf knew that chasing her was pointless. Perhaps all the more concerning was that his actions felt heavier, as though gravity had bore it’s weight around his form, hindering his momentum. The squat cursed, despite his resistance to magic, the slow status effect had landed. Almost immediately the dwarf ducked the rumble of the irritated golems fist, and answered it with a –summersault attack- on it’s arm, breaking it clean off. All the while his stare penetrated into the mist around, there was little point in mindlessly charging at her, instead attention turned to tightening his defences, ready to bolt at a moments notice

“Come on lassie, ya sureleh don’t intend ta play hide and sneak tis entire tim-"

A sharp whistle cu the dwarf off, the fellow had barely registered the shafts existence before he had sharply ducked to the side, the arrow skimmed a light gasp in his shoulder before it struck the piller behind him, his eyesight now fixed upon the figure who stood omiously with the crisp ring of the drawn sword. The unspoken challenge was obvious as with a bound she closed the distance from her column to him rapidly.

-If she comes at me now while I’m slowed- Bugger it, lets go for epic-

With a tensing of his fist and powerful blow from the -battering ram- shattered the buried base of the column and, warping his stout arms around as best he could, the gave a bellow as the column was toppled and guided towards the diminutive samurai. Though typically wielding a gigantic beam of solid stone was WAY above the capabilities of even the strongest, the dwarf wasn't wielding this column; he was merely using all his strength to redirect the beam right down onto the lass as she shot towards him. The sight of the black armour immediately reminded him of one such insect.

"TAKE THIS YOU COCKROUCH! TEMMMBBURRRRRRRR"

Would the attack work? A thunderous earspiltting crash accompanied the toppling pillar as a mist of dust rose that could be seen for many miles around. Some encampments even swore that day that they felt the earth quiver under them, though whether that itself was a fact or myth would remain uncertain forever. To the dwarf however the ground quivered under him and he toppled backwards as he staggered from the moment, though he soon sprang up on shaky arms, without the eye of the tiger his arms, no, his entire body throbbed with a deep seated pain. With a grunt the dwarf activated –Acupuncture- and forced himself back up to his feet.

-This isn't enough. Move body-

The dwarf felt the -slow- debuff begin to wear off as with a bound he vaulted up darted down the length of the column, his eyes gazed into the darkness. if he spotted the lass, then his angle of attack was simple the Dwarf would lash out with a blindingly fast zoom attack, aiming to hit her in the leg, before he bounded to attempt to place the lass between himself and the pillar and, a single breath, the -bullet punch- was activated with a single bellow.

“Falling Avalanche style!

The air itself between them quivered with the violence of a blinding flurry of eight (not Neun) body blows, a couple of random pressure points hits were hopefully enough to cause the Samuari. With the strength of the heated combat behind him the dwarf would cartwheel to follow up with an overhead –Amazon Tornado-, twirling into an overhead kick that was directed into the pressure point of her left shoulder, likely ripping a chunk of the column behind her. This would be followed with by a basic body blow to the stomach, with which he would flow with another, another, another, another. The falling avalanche wasn’t so much a technique, as it was about stealing the momentum of the combat and completely overpowering the foe with a continuous stream of blows to pressure points, the desired effect would be to pin the Samurai against the column while using heated combat to make every following blow more powerful. Needless to say if she hadn’t broken free within 7 seconds after the attack started, the dwarf would swing in with another battering ram, pushing her clean through the stone while ripping off her face panel, that he would causally deposit behind him with a careless flick of the wrist.

While all this was going on, the golems would begin to surround the adventurers, though their attempts at doing so was clumsy. They were clearly no match for the adventurers, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t try and drive them off their ancestors grave.

1 minute 40 seconds until death.

[Deleted]

520 words HP 45%		Active Skill: -none- MP 60%
Taking a boulder to the face was a sure-fire way to destroy an opponent’s momentum. Instead of completing her chain all the way to Toragari Shura, Caerbannog was stopped dead on her tracks. Her flaming buff was still up though so with every physical attack that she received, whatever hit her also took damage. But the attacks, even the stone to her face, was not what made Caer glare at the Dwarf before her. No. It was the thing that he said before all that. He had used that word. Of all the words that he could use, he used THAT word. Something so small and vile and loathsome; how dare he address her as THAT?! The Zoom Attack hit her right on the leg for the Dwarf seemed to have gotten rid of the Slow debuff. Caerbannog’s mind was somewhere else though. He used THAT word... THAT word! “I am...” the samurai muttered as she activated Rokutenmaou. It wasn’t called the “Tyrant” for no reason, and the ace move played well on the weakness of Bullet Punch. Much like the dragoon, also called derpoon, in Final Fantasy XIV, a monk was locked in the skill animation when he used Bullet Punch in battle. After the first two punches, Caerbannog intercepted the next punch as her ace move was activated. She lost her momentum, which was another thing that pissed her off, but an unblockable splash damage was thrown right at the Dwarf. Moreover, the samurai did not use the Tyrant to counter with her own attack just yet; instead, she used it so that she could grab the Dwarf’s right arm as it moved in for a punch. Her left hand, which had a tighter grip both in the real world and in Elder Tale, gripped the Dwarf’s right wrist. She pulled it violently to her left side and flicked her wrist so that the Dwarf’s right wrist would be snapped backwards. “...NOT a cockroach!” the wolf-hair screamed through her gritted teeth. Caerbannog still had her tight grip on the Dwarf’s wrist. At that point, if it still was not broken, she would twist the whole arm around until it snapped off his shoulder blades. The Dwarf was a respected opponent, even though at times her actions said otherwise, and in the battlefield there was only one way to honor a respected opponent: you neep them up without mercy. The samurai sent her armored legs flying up towards the Dwarf’s crotch. Was she going to resort to THAT? For sure. The samurai kicked up so hard that, unless the monk moved out of the way, his balls would retreat so far up his stomach that he’d feel as if they were ovaries instead. At the same time, Caer still held the Dwarf’s right arm as if her own left hand was a vice grip. He’d have to cut it off to back away from her- or he could charge forward right into her awaiting blade, still held tightly by her right hand. If he did something funny, she'd intercept it and Gonosen his attacking body part right off the rest of his Dwarfness.

[Tobin]

WC:789 (LOL)    HP:2 3%        Mana: 56%

Dodging had been possible, though unlikely with the heavy armour, a direct counter attack might have worked though it was just as likely that any attack coming directly from her would be directly weakened from acupuncture and likely he would force her back through sheer volume of attacks. The last thing Tobin had expected however was for her to block right in the middle of his attack, even less so to be grappled in a counterattack immediately afterwards. His natural response? For his right arm to grab his left and harden-

WHAT ARE YOU DOING DWA-

-I’m using Iron Body , STFU Author!.-

Oh.

Locked in a vicious tug of war, Tobin’s face began to turn a metalic crimson. Yes, he might have been the superior bare handed combatant but submission holds made such skill irrelevant for such holds were designed to nullify the strength of the other. As such he couldn’t release the vice grip on his left arm, with a snarl the fellow forced his body weight against her and pushed her up off into the samurai off her feet as the wrecking ball charged straight through a flailing golem, then with a bound he rammed into a column, after that the momentum ran out as her foot firmly connected with his clangers. The black clad samurai persistence was rewarded with a pleasant, wet snap and an extra implement to play with. <3

“GAAHAHHHH!!! TIS IS JUST A FLESH WOUND, STUMPY!!”

Of course the loss of an arm was a significant event but the Dwarf didn’t have the leisure to completely comprehend that. After all, being a tank meant a life full of grievous wounds and indeed the lass herself had shattered his body on more than one occasion so rather than falter, the fellow delivered a –battering ram- as dwarf forced himself to rise back to his feet to connect firmly with her face with the flat of his palm, the helmet rended from her face with a quick twist. To seize on the momentum the Dwarf surged forward with a bellow and, in a distinct absence of gentlemanly conduct, proceed to drive his knee up right up into her neither region with a force that lifted the lass off her feet.

*THUNK!*

Needless to say, he didn’t need to have acupuncture active to know THAT hit would hurt! This was followed by a grab of b the scruff of her neck as Tobin proceeded to launch her at a golem. Perhaps extremely unfair, but the dwarf was frantic at this point that he really couldn’t pull his punches. The author meanwhile prepared himself to the onset of child abuse claims and in typical Mounty Python fashion, followed one low blow with another of a more verbal nature.

“I’m surprised ya not a little boy, ya that scrawneh!”

With a thunderous crash the dwarf shattered the earth with a sweeping Terra Orbital Kick that he proceeded to launch sizeable chucks of both earth and rock with a blur of punches and kicks. Not to be out done; the fellow used magnetic grip on the largest to hitch a ride as it passed overhead to spring down with a Wyvern Kick followed by a Somersault Kick as he bounced on the air to deliver another sweeping kick into her back, which as he landed just behind her the fellow twisted his body as he spun around and smashed his foot into the ground, smiting both golem and Cear with an Aura Kick , that characteristic laugh erupted from his throat.

“Gahh, just so ya know, ya might hav’ got one, but tis as they say a man can do a lot oaf things one ha-“

With a stride he began to attempt to close the distance again, yet the dwarf suddenly wavered as he clutched at the bloodied stump and his footing suddenly became uneven. Now the shock had passed and the pain came in its full, the dwarf’s life blood had been scattered everywhere after all and even the most relentless of characters couldn’t maintain a continuous assault for that long without pause. Not to mention it was only now that he had noticed he bore a deep wound on his remaining arm, it was only his use of Iron Body that prevented that from being hacked off, though it was painful enough to make him almost wish she had hacked it off.

“Ah shi- Ya little… Ya didn’t drink ya milk when ya were little! Is this what it’s about?!”

With a grunt the dwarf frantically fished through his inventory to produce another appiniti, the healing, no matter how minor would probably stem the bleeding enough so that he could better concentrate on the fight.

(OOC: Wild Dwarf Used Struggle! It wasn’t very effective! After getting arm ripped off, Tobin proceeded to use battering ram and ungentlemanly conduct to throw the lass. Dwarf then launched an Arial assault at the lass, but lost momentum as the blood loss from losing his arm caught up with him. The Gonosan had probably taken the impact out of battering ram, though I figured his iron body probably prevented it from rendering his limb useless.

Additional note: Since Tobin has lost an arm, he can no longer use moves that use both arms. Namely bullet punch and suplex.)

[Deleted]

415 words HP 50%		Active Skill: Mawarufuusen MP 45%
There was no exact word for it. Caerbannog was beyond “pissed off”. She wanted nothing more than to tear the Dwarf from limb to limb, which she partially got when his arm was ripped right off the rest of his Dwarfness. The samurai was focused on her attack, so much so that she was startled when an unfamiliar feeling touched the lower part of her body. He wasn’t just a Dwarf... he was a perv too! Oh, Ryuu-nii was so going to hear about this! Tobin the Dwarf touched Caerbannog’s special place! And part of her helmet was missing too... the mask to be precise. The halfling had been able to pry it off its attachment to the rest of the helmet but most of the headgear remained intact since it was latched onto the rest of the armor. As Caerbannog was tossed around unceremoniously by the Dwarf, she was peppered both by physical and verbal attacks. The latter, a tank could take... but the former was a whole other matter. The samurai got up to her feet when the opponent paused his barrage. Her life was around a quarter by then and so when she noticed that the Dwarf was getting drugged up (with his own concoction?), Caer also pulled out something from her inventory. She chewed up and swallowed a Level 50 Medicinal Tablet... thanks Capsule! Her hit point pool was replenished but that could not save her from the aches and pains of the fight. The mean things that the Dwarf kept spouting did not help the situation at all. Now Caerbannog wanted to break his legs. “I’m lactose intolerant!” the samurai screamed at her opponent. A red aura then enveloped her body as Caerbannog used Ikusanehan to start up another chain of ace moves. She then tossed the severed arm aside and put both hands on her nagamaki, which she raised over her head. This move would have been familiar to the Dwarf: he’d been used as a “weapon” implement for it after all. Caer began to spin her weapon overhead as she executed Mawarufuusen. Golems and rubble were drawn in towards her, but her actual goal was to pull in the Dwarf. On one hand, it could give him momentum to pull off a very fast attack on her... but as soon as he was within range, the samurai would use her third chain which was not used before due to chain interruption: Toragari Shura, the ten slashes of ouch!

[Tobin]

(OOC: SANPAI NOTICE ME XDDD

Summery: Dwarf used stunt double to preform Asian magic, activating eye of the tiger while under the protection of it’s duration. He used this enhanced movement speed and pain reduction to launch a brutal counter assault on Caer, though the cost of activating two powerful buffs followed by the assault took a major toll on the Dwarfs stamina.

And sorry, it ended up huge. >_<: I’m sorry!)

WC:775 HP:28% Mana: 19% Viewer ratings: Eight out of Nuen Kats.

There was a grunt from the squat fellow as he eyed the oriental wind from the east as he felt the impact of the previous volley had been wasted. His health now sat at 30% and though it slowly climbed, so did hers. Tobin felt the cold fear spike of cowardice pierce as for the briefest of moments the unflinchable fellow considered the motion of fleeing. It wasn’t hard to see why as her attack’s had become more precise with the one blade and he had lost an arm to no real effect.

-No, Tobin, focus! Wax on, wax off-

The thought was dispelled with a frown as the dwarf raised his palm outstretched to the sky as though he sought the appraisal of distant crowds, the roaring wind seemed to buffet against fabric of reality seemed to ripple around him like an aura. Through his rose tinted spectacles the dwarf glared at Caer with a pink hued fire, even the burning curse that snaked up his body like an ivy couldn’t break his conviction! While before @dindeen had been an a untouchable peer, a figure who sent the brick sailing on the winds of toss. Yet now Tobin could see her movements to the extent that he could actually be a firm match, this was a test of spirit.

-Ke…. Even without muras curse, I have to resolve this with the next 30 seconds. I don’t think I should plan fighting beyond that, my body won’t last if I draw it out. I will deactivate acupuncture to conserve mana-

Even in this pitiful, cut up state it was apparent that the dwarf wasn’t done yet, his chi spiked at incredible level as he gathered his strength for another clash against the indomitable Caer a scene of clashing powers often repeated in many a clash. With a grunt of exertion the dwarf cast himself into the fortress as his technique completed, A single roar was bellowed into the strengthening vortex his mana plummeted by 20%, the observant spectator could see that something big was coming and that this last clash would be an epic climax. As such, this prompted an epic battle theme that seemed somewhat inappropriate.

“Kyuu! ‘ere, I will force you to acknowledge me! Tis is my ultimate form! But before I use this, I just have to ask one question!“

How exactly did he condense this immense amount of dialog within three seconds? Christ knows; most anime pull this stuff all the time.

The Dwarf’s body weaved the first blow as he bounded into the storm, Caer’s first strike drew blood, then reality peeled away as Tobin was replaced by a cell shaded, dramatic version of himself. . Stunt Double was activated.

“WHAT IS IT THAT WE ARE ACTUALLY FIGHTIN’ FO - Gaahhh! Mah arm! It wasn’t- NO, STO-“

Whatever attack he seemed to attempt crumbled as his arm was sliced clean off, before the dwarf was lost in frenzy of Samurai violence as the few spectators watched on in silence. It was only afterwards that the fellow stood silent before geysers of crimson erupted all over him from many deep wounds as he remained standing, silent. Yet the hp gauge didn’t deplete after the first hit as a soft laughter erupted from his lips, considering that the figure at this point seemed a bloodied patchwork scarecrow rather than a dwarf. Yet the Dwarf had apparently took notes from the author of Bleach as the stunt double faded away, the fellow had taken no visible injuries, bar the thin line across his chest.

“Ah, tis ya vision of victory? Peh, how Kyuute.”

The cel-shaded alter-ego was blasted away forcefully as –eye of the tiger- became active, most of the animation preformed under the activated under stunt double influence, a crackling laughter with a sudden burst of energy the dwarf bolted toward the lass, the stance pushed all the pain to the back of his mind.

“Time ta substitute ya reality with my own!”

As he closed within striking distance, the gold aura flared up again as Incarnated Assault was activated and one dwarf became eight fold to surround the lass in a blur of one handed punches and kicks. It wasn’t stylish to repeat the same move, but this was about power and not elegance, and as the attack ended the dwarf spun himself into a Amazonian Tornado kick, followed by a Zoom Kick his attack pattern relentless, bold reckless, though even in his pain numbed state, the dwarf felt fatigue creep in and though the attack was spirited, his absence of a left arm was a weak spot in his offensive.

[Deleted]

430 words HP 40%		Active Skill: Shunsen MP 37%
How annoying. The first hit got in but the subsequent hits seemed to have been either absorbed or nullified. Toragari Shura’s slashes had to be completed though; as Caerbannog was halfway through the prescribed amount of slashes, she readied herself for the next move. Noticeably, the Dwarf did not counter her ace move even as he took no damage. Was he unable to use other skills while absorbing an attack? Once Toragari Shura ended, Caerbannog dashed back and made a slashing arc movement with her sword. It was not meant to be an attack, but a defensive ace move that she had only ever hoped to use in a party setting. It was then that she noticed that the Dwarf talked a lot. Reminiscent of an anime fight, or Kumori’s monologues... as she slashed the air in front of her to activate Murakumo no Tachi, Caer partially paid attention to whatever the Dwarf was saying. What exactly was the reason for the fight? She did not know. But more importantly, why did he want to know? They were in a game, and games were meant to be played. In that moment if self-analysis, the samurai realized that she had become the very kind of player that she loathed... someone who found joy in causing pain to others, and at the expense of everyone else around them. A selfish, sniveling brat who thought of others as nothing more than practice dummies; upon this realization, Caerbannog fell down on her knees and cr- Not. “Becauuuuuuuse...” the samurai wondered out loud for a moment as the monk charged into Murakumo no Tachi’s glowing barrier, “We’re friends!” She was annoyed by all the mean things that he said, but she was used to people talking about that. Her height, her appearance, her lack of prominent boobies. The samurai only messed around with the Dwarf simply because she could, and there was nothing more to it. Murakumo no Tachi was able to defend against the Incarnated Assault for a good five seconds, but after that the Dwarf moved in for relentless kicks. Did she have to break his legs? Caerbannog took a tornado kick to the face, but the Zoom Kick was accepted not without payback. As the Dwarf’s kick hit the samurai right on the torso, she countered right back with Kodama-kaeshi and drew her sword up to her opponent’s leg. Being a counter move, its animation time was even shorter than the attack that hit her and afterwards, the samurai pulled her sword back and slashed horizontally in front of herself, using Shunsen.

[Tobin]

(OOC: Summery: Dwarf takes the counter in his stride and narrowly avoids taking the brunt of vacuumed blade. Dwarf proceeds to counter attack by shooting Caer with a wind bullet, a basic attack (1S) and his injuried leg gives out, which he uses to try and bait Caer into swinging at him and shattering her sword with a battering ram.

The Dwarf will shoot Caer with his Wind Bullet if she chooses to try and stall out of his melee range. He is intent on keeping the heated combat bonus. He has taken a noted interest in protecting his remaining arm. Oh, and I imagine this exchange probably lasted a very short amount of time, so 54 seconds on the clock. @dindeen)
WC:411 Hp: 16% Mana: 14%
Ongoing Skills: Eye of the Tiger (I assumed it would be a one off payment of manner, roughly 10% made in the last thread) Heated Combat , Iron Body , Wind Bullet .

The dwarf grunted as his leg snapped back to him as he was showered with his own blood though even as the vacuum wave swept towards him, the fellow abruptly twisted his body sharply back and left to sprang aside of the powerful attack, his glasses snapped as a great shallow gash streaked across his face and chest. Yet he seemed unfazed by the attacks as he paused as he lightly brushed off his metallic chest, it wasn't as if they didn't affect him but rather its impact on him was distant. It seemed no number of flesh wounds could phase the fellow, well, aside from the significant dips on his hp gauge.

-That’s gonna smart later. Combo, it’s all about the...-

The dwarf didn't waste time with further pleasantries as in retaliation; as the squat made a gun gesture at the lass and with the softest of chuckles, the smouldering hand seemed to recoil slightly from an invisible force.

"Bang."

To the passive observer it seemed nothing had happened as though it was another of Tobin’s practical jokes, yet the observant could see a blindingly fast bullet of compressed air travel toward her chest, the  Wind Bullet was weak but it kept the timer ticking.

-32%-

The dwarf bolted forward after the bullet to close the distance; the fellow ducked low as he swung out his un-injured leg out to kick into her knee, then suddenly collapsed down onto a knee as the right gave out on him under his bodies weight. That moment of weakness hadn’t been expected but like all drunken monkey practioners the weak position became strong as he glared up as he tensed his fist, his intention to unleash a battering ram as Caer swung at him, with the intention of shattering her weapon with his fist as he rose up and possibly scoring a glancing blow on his forearm, a small cut on his central digit a small price to pay.

“Friends. Gahahah!”

Despite his desperate situation, Tobin laughed hard as he shifted his weight to his good leg and rose, in the same motion he twisted his arm away from the lass present his stump; a conscious effort to protect his remaining arm. The squat had really begun to enjoy this in the last minute of his life as gave a great grin.

“Aye, a good enou' reason, come a wee bit closer ‘n’, I'll give ya a firm handshake, in ta name of friendship of course.”

[Deleted]

430 words HP 37%		Active Skill: Missile Swarm MP 30%
At first it seemed that Shunsen connected, but the damage was not significant and in the end all it did was graze her opponent. One would think that the Dwarf would stay out of her range for a while, but because he was also a melee fighter and the clock was ticking on his curse- those were probably the reasons why he moved in again. The Dwarf made a gun gesture; to assist her next attacks, Caerbannog activated Tsurugibunshin. At that time, the samurai did not know what Wind Bullet was... but she found out soon enough. She let out a small “oof!” as the attack connected: that was a cool skill, she ought to use that too! The Dwarf then bolted forward but fell short (pun!) of his next attack. Caerbannog wasn’t about to move in though; she had the skill that she needed and soon the weapon too. The samurai dashed left and right with afterimages trailing behind as the Dwarf was poised to attack. The wolf-hair made a quick and sharp turn to her right side. It was not any kind of attack in particular, but something meant to confuse the opponent seeing as there were afterimages that followed her. As she came within range, the girl held her sword at its very end so that the Dwarf’s arm could not reach her body for an attack. Only the blade was within his reach but it seemed that was enough for him. Battering Ram damaged the sword as the main attack only managed to nick the Dwarf’s arm, however because of Tsurugibunshin, another attack swung up right as the monk’s hand connected with its intended target. The afterimage that followed the initial basic attack swung towards the Dwarf’s arm while Caer pulled back her damaged weapon. Staying on her spot, the samurai then used the item in her Quick Swap slot and swapped out her sword for her bow. She then pulled the string and shot an attack right at her target’s torso with Magnum Shot. Time was what Caerbannog needed though and as the seconds ticked, she whispered into her bow and shot a Missile Swarm at the Dwarf. Using mana to enchant the weapon, one shot from Caerbannog turned to a rain of projectiles that descended on the monk. “Honor a friend by seeing the fight through.” Whether by player-versus-player or by the Curse, the Dwarf would die and respawn at the Abbey anyway. She wasn’t going to bullshit some conversation or story to waste his time. The Dwarf was doing his best and she sure would too.

[Tobin]

(OOC: I hope this is a satisfiying end, I have been really struggling to write these last few days. >_<:)


WC: 843 HP: An ex-dwarf

The Dwarf found her sudden withdrawal unusual, though for most part he was content to reactive as he pinged at her with small, significant wind projectiles. Though Tobin couldn't quite figure out what entirely was going on. In any case it was apparent that heated neither body nor wind bullet would see use so both was dismissed with a twitch of his eyebrow. Despite his low health and mana, the dwarf remained immobile as his gaze tracked the samurai as his shallow breath rose in pumes of smoke in the chill of an early winter breeze. Tobin knew that from the growing cold within him there was only one more opportunity left, one last volley remained in him before death would come to claim it’s pittance, whether by blade or curse was irrelevant.

Then the stalemate came to an end with a blur of motion as Samurai and Monk clashed, the sky rumbled with a crash of steel as first they met before a second blow thundered in toward his arm, a slight curl of the lip welcomed the blow as the bulk shifted sharply into a twirl down as his arm withdrew in a blur as stepped around the samurai and used the momentum backhanded the afterimage. As it faded the dwarf surged at the lass with a grunt; by that point the dwarf ducked aside the arrow, dragged backward as it skimmed him before with a grunt the shaft was torn free as the distance closed again, it was then as the final attack was charged the dwarf and, rather then advance closer, the dwarf clenched his fist tight and began to focus, a rich laughter on his lips

“Fine, take this and acknowledge me!”

The immense chi began to build up in his hands as once again the cold winds billowed away from the Dwarf as he once again his ultimate technique, Fist of Boreas was prepared (perhaps a bit distastefully, since he had used this ultimate technique before. Noob.), though after two seconds the attack was not released and unlike before it took a very different nature as the wind abruptly ceased to blow. As the dwarf continued to charge, the air around the deathly pale figure grew sluggish in his presence in such a matter that even the wind around him had ceased to billow as the air became still. A scene of deadly serenity as he stood those few seconds, waiting even as the last of his mana trickled away, his eyes lost their edge as the vision dulled but there was only two sign’s Tobin looked for, movement or the arrows, the later of which he would invite upon himself until the last possible moment.

It would be then that the dwarf thrust his palm forward, the small condensed ball of white abruptly expanded, all in it’s path frozen, burnt and suspended in place as even the blades of grass crumbled in the following breeze. Though his footing was unstable, the dwarf let a slight, hollow chuckle penetrate the silent mists that hung around the grave like an ominous sign. This attack had been released after 4 seconds, with iron body that had been at almost half its original power again, it seemed unimaginable that one could take his power directly, unscaved.

“Did-“

The word was little more than a faint wheeze as the Dwarf’s knee buckled under his own weight as he collapsed onto all threes, the shafts quivered as the pin cushioned squat finally felt the attack (yes, even the knee received precisely one arrow.). Tobin hadn’t made any attempt to avoid the attack, rather he had welcomed it and had paid for it with his life to launch a final attack amidst her attack animation, a fitting end for a Dwarf that had lived by the fist and wraith alone. Yet, ever the stubborn bastard struggled to remain knelt as the last spark of life within him dwindled as Tobin drew a single, painful breath.

“A-always, look, on *cough* ta b-bright side - of life.”

With a slight gasp the remaining fist was pumped up to the early morning sun and with that the final sigh was released, a single thought on the dwarf’s noble mind, a grin forced onto his grey features.

-You bitches up there are next-

Oh. Right. In any case he remained there for five seconds longer, dead, yet rooted in place as the curse swept up around his body and turned the dwarf into metallic grey, before the statue crumbled into dust, soon to be lost in the mist.

---

With a loud gasp the dwarf jolted upright on the stone slab, before a great laugh erupted from the billows of his chest as though the greatest joke of all time had just been told.

“That lass was right! Tis was just a flesh wound!”

With that a slice of Cheesecake materialised into the broad outstretched palm that was consumed lavishly. Fighting to the death had a strange side effect of awakening his appetite. How strangely anti-climatic.

[Deleted]

365 words HP 100%		Active Skill: none MP 100%
The Dwarf stood there, just taking the hits mostly. Anyone else would have thought that he was daft or stupid, but Caerbannog knew otherwise. He knew that he was going to die either way, from the samurai’s attacks or from the curse that she put on him. They’d only been fighting for a few minutes, but already the duel felt like two whole months. Time flies when you’re having fun! Wait, that’s not how that’s supposed to be used... Regardless, Caer pressed on with her own attack even as the Dwarf readied his own move. The animation was rather familiar; that annoying skill that had frozen her before. Her own attacks did not have something so flashy and scary, just the usual fire or wind damage. The spell had already been whispered into her bow though, so the samurai pressed on with her own attack and just braced herself for the incoming cold. The icy punch sped through the wind and to her body; it froze her for a few good seconds and notably hit her rather hard too. The Dwarf, on the other side of the fight, took arrows to the body and notably to the knee. Caerbannog’s hit points managed to hang on just a bit and the HP regeneration passive helped soak the damage. Fortunately, their ruckus had cleared the area of golems, mostly; once the Curse overcame the Dwarf and sent him to the Abbey, Caer had been freed of her ice prison and without the danger of incoming stone punches to the face. “I’M GONNA GET YOU!” the wolf-hair screamed into the Dwarf’s head via telepathic call. Caerbannog then used Call of Home as soon as the last bit of ice fell away from her and her weapon. The spell took a few seconds to take effect as some sparkly bits of animation swirled around the samurai. She soon found herself in Westminster Abbey, the home of their guild Aeryn. Nearby, the Dwarf had seemingly taken his sweet time to just nibble on some cheesecake. “RAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the samurai stood up and jumped towards the Dwarf; she aimed to land right on his face with all her weight on him, “I want a drink!”

[Tobin]

(OOC: @dindeen)

WC: 548

The stocky individual visibly flinched as his internal grey matter was violated by a sharp assault that a only a hyper active child could replicate. With a slight sigh the Dwarf prepared himself in only a way that was reasonable for his statue- he took a moment to finish what he had in his mouth, crossed his legs and assumed the budda position as iron body was activated. If Tobin had hoped to pass off as a strangely tasteful statue of the Dwarf, such things didn’t exist thus it didn’t work.

“RAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

*THUNK*

With the roar all light disappeared again. This time though, it was rather that an obstruction had jumped onto his facial region that consisted of two parts light girly wulf hur and three parts reinforced steel plate. Needless to say the Dwarf was the first to give way as he was knocked clean off the alter and onto the ground with a loud crack, his eyes hazed and twirling with stars and a fresh fountain of life flowed from the tap from the cracked nose.

“Alrite, alrite, I get it, ya win. Bahahah! I’ll get on tha’ request fa ya now.”

The squat waddled down to the cafe and, after taking a moment to ram a tissue up each nostril gathered a small variety of ingredients to improvise something up. A small number of coco beans, sugar, powdered chocolate and milk, in addition to that the Dwarf had a basic version of distilled vodka. The dwarf frowned slightly as the milk was pushed aside, it went without saying that the introduction of milk to alcohol was a terrible combination.

“I hav’ nu idea what I am doing.”

A soft chuckle emitted from his throat as the solution was poured into a small shot glass, then the fellow took a grater to the coco and began to grind it into a fine powder that he added into the spirits. The dwarf directed a blank stare at the glass as absolutely nothing happened.

“Errmmm-… Perhaps it needs tis.”

A light slit in the sugar bag let the crystallised powder trickle out which he added a small amount to the solution. Then there was a brief pause before he stirred the mixture with a spoon to allow the mixture to diffuse before with a swift pour he funnelled the content of the solution through a filter to ensure no tricky bits would remain. What he hoped would remain would be a rich bitter taste of coco offset by the sugar to create a flavoured beverage, though truth be told Tobin hadn’t been quite this experimental before so he decided to lean on the side of caution; he offered it to Caer first.

“Well, I dun’t know how good it is but any suggestions, grave? Too bitter? Too sweet?”

The Dwarf gave a slight rumble from the throat, though the entire situation felt rather queer, they had fought he had died yet he was here. That would take some time for the Dwarf to get his head around as his gaze settled on the stained window that offered a view into the early morning London.

“Hmm, so I guess being immortal wasn’t such a big myth after all. Guess lika bad ale ya can’t keep an adventurer down for long.”

[Deleted]

440 words HP 100%		Active Skill: none MP 100%
The samurai had dropped onto the Dwarf like a sack of flesh and metal. Technically, she was one. Content with the amount of pain that she inflicted upon the very same person that she just cursed to death (literally), the wolf-hair rolled away after she had screamed her further demands. Not to her surprise, the Dwarf actually obliged. Good! She wouldn't have to twist anyone's arms or break anyone's legs! While the vertically-challenged monk worked on the drink, Caer switched out her armor in favor of the more homey pink bear pajamas. NOW she was ready for a treat! The wolf-hair then watched in horror as the Dwarf made chocolate milk vodka from scratch. Oh... no no no! Bad Dwarf, bad! Caerbannog frowned as he was halfway through mixing the drink, but the brewer was focused on his craft and so she did not bother him. This was simple chemistry to her! Too bad her current crafting class did not allow her to do something similar; she would have to explain to him verbally then. "Eugh..." the samurai stuck her tongue out when she was offered the drink. Caer sniffed at the glass and then she tilted her head back and drank the thing in one go. There was the warm sensation from alcohol, and then... everything was bitter! "Ack!" Caerbannog then coughed and gagged and almost choked on the drink, "Terribad!" Well, that was one way to put it. Normally, Caer would not be so vocal about her opinions but this was Dwarf. He was like the uncle that she never wanted. BUT HE WAS THERE SO SHE WOULD DEAL WITH IT. That aside, now it was the time to point out where the Dwarf went wrong. "Everything!" she screamed at the shot glass, "Everything was bad!" Her blue eyes had turned gold as if the glass had done her a great wrong. She stared at it for the longest time until the words to express what she truly thought about the drink finally bubbled up to the surface. "Milk... will taste bitter if you add alcohol first," the samurai finally looked up at the Dwarf and spoke to him, "And you can't balance sweetness if the bitterness of alcohol is already mixed into the drink." Caer took out a bottle of mogu-mogu from her inventory and sipped a bit of it to wash down the bitterness. She made sure not to drink too much lest her taste buds become immune to sweetness. If the Dwarf was to do this correctly, then he'd need a tester after all. "Again!" the samurai slammed her hand down hard onto the Dwarf's shoulder, "Try again!"

[Tobin]

WC:332

The dwarf’s dense eyebrow quaked up slightly, alright; he hadn’t expected the first product to be serviceable since milk and alcohol was a combination that typically didn’t work. It was difficult to change out of a survival to a brewer mind-set, the fellow scratched his chin. The beast of @dindeen hungered for liquor, to deny her would likely result in another near death experience.

“Hmm, I just try a few things then. One mo”

With a show bipedal shuffle the fellow strolled out into the café and with a quick glance seized a handful of small, caramel chocolate bars. It was then that he returned into the kitchen and, after taking a moment to place the luxury item within a class jug, filled a pan with water and placed the glass jug within it. The principle would be that the heat would be applied more evenly and gradually to the chocolate and that Tobin, with a merry little hum would add vodka periodically and with time the chocolate would gradually dissolve. This slow heating was also designed to minimise the evaporation of the ethanol from evaporation. The downside was that this method would take about 20 minutes to dissolve the chocolate entire, in the meantime a delicious aroma wafted through the room.

“Hoho, with a bit of caramel ta bind the flavours together it certainly has quite the aroma, no?”

The other project that was ran between shifts of stirring was the addition of sugar to vodka; after all even if he was a brewer his experiences was affected by his lack of experience in actual manufacturing process. It wasn’t as if the author had access to google, did he? In any case, once it tasted sweat enough to offset the bitter the dwarf would add an light dash milk to the vodka and it they were both ready! A portion of each were poured into a separate shot glass for sampling.

“I prepared two separate brews fa ya, which one you prefer? Ta homebrew or a bit of genuine chocolate?

[Deleted]

515 words HP 100%		Active Skill: none MP 100%
The wolf-hair, after she had seemed to have gotten her point across to the Dwarf, at first just sat down and crossed her arms. She had intended to wait for the brewer to whip up something else but she easily got bored. To alleviate that boredom of hers, Caerbannog took out her black rabbit plushie Kuromi from her inventory. It was the first item that Kumori ever crafted for her and also a reminder of everything that she left in the real world. There was that one time when the plushie had been damaged and she tried to fix it herself, but that turned out badly. Fortunately, Kumori was able to fix it and the plushie was almost as good as new. With the monk busy with his brewing, the samurai had no one to talk to and so she sat the rabbit plushie down on her lap and they watched the Dwarf together. Caer made the rabbit face where she was facing and whenever the Dwarf moved or turned, the rabbit followed his movements with its button eyes. Whenever the brewer made a gesture of some sort, the plushie nodded and Caerbannog nodded with it. She did not know exactly what was going on, but the monk seemed to be so serious and so she did not want to be a bother. Or at least, that's how she thought for the first few minutes of the Dwarf's crafting. The samurai easily got distracted from the sensitivity of the research and she began to converse with her rabbit plushie. "Why is the Dwarf short, you ask?" Caer spoke to Kuromi, "Hmm... probably because he does not drink any milk." The rabbit plushie shook its head and the wolf-hair seemed to listen in on what it was saying. "I beg your pardon?! Why am -I- short?" the samurai cried, aghast, "T-that's because I made this character short! It does not have anything to do with my real appearance!" Caerbannog puffed her cheeks up, clearly offended by Kuromi's imaginary question. Such audacity! But the rabbit plushie's questions did not seem to stop, and before long the samurai was speaking to it again. "Do I think Dwarf is a dwarf in the real world?" Caer asked the wind, "Of course not. Dwarves aren't real. Short people are though." It was then that she thought back to a fictional universe about elves and dwarves and humans and creatures which were even tinier than dwarves. An interesting diversion, but the brewer was shortly done with his crafting. Caerbannog hopped over to the Dwarf's shot glasses and she tasted each one, carefully to leave time in between to let her taste buds settle down. "Well... they're both okay in their own way," the samurai finally said as she could not really decide which one was 'better'. As a crafter though, she had one suggestion to the brewer. "Pick whichever is easier to brew," the wolf-hair said. Crafting was tedious, repetitive work and if the result of two processes was just about the same, then logically the shorter or easier process ought to be used.

[Tobin]

(OOC: The word count doesn't include the line of dialog that I had used from Caer. Dwarf being Philisophical, the world is ending!)

WC: 1180

As the dwarf continued his mega exciting research on the meaning of life, the conversation behind him proved a mild distraction from the seriousness of the study. That, or the intense weirdness of being stared at by a plushie and little lass in complete silence was unnerving enough not to look back. Yet a niggling curiosity that tempted Tobin to chance a glance back toward the conversation between the lass and her “Kumori”, before his gaze flicked back to the front as a chuckle was stifled with a heavy hand.

-I really gotta get out of tha’ habit. It’s gonna get me in deep crap one of these days.-

So continued to work, truth be told the things about height mildly irritated him; after all the height disadvantage for him had only been something that occurred to him months ago, all the more reason to be irritated by the loss of the unspoken currency. The subject turned to more amusing matters of greater (height) matters, needless it didn’t take the world’s greatest detective to imagine that the plushie was being rather short with @dindeen.

-Ahahaha, never thought I would ever see anyone maintain a detailed conversation with their plushie, then I again I have no actual idea how old she is.-

-Despite being the priest of their wedding?-

-Don’t remind me...-

"Do I think Dwarf is a dwarf in the real world? Of course not. Dwarves aren't real. Short people are though."

By that point the Dwarf couldn’t hold it his tongue any longer; as the drinks were served the fellow let his eyes roll back.

“Aye ya Kumori be right; I’mma a extra foot and three inches taller than tis, ‘n’ ‘bout four times less hairy. I’mma pretty tall midget ya could say.” The Dwarf paused momentarily, though the risks of this question were great the Dwarf couldn’t resist but ask the question with the obivious answer. it was rare the lass was this talkative and after his near death experience; he felt slightly bolder. “I imagine ya taller in the previous life?”

With that the Dwarf turned and grabbed the vodka; surely his life would safe as long as he appeared to be working! The advice given made sense however; while dissolving chocolate was quite authentic it was also a whole lot of effort for a simple drink thus the simpler procedure of sweetening the vodka was much more effective. To that he produced an exceptionally large, if plain bottle and put a funnel in the top, before pouring most of the vodka bottle in and necking the rest himself, before he muttered a simple phrase.

“I’m not drunk, I’m Scottish! Macro recordin’, start.””

And so he got to work on producing a beverage that a very brightly dressed Scotsman could be proud of! The dwarf first of all set down a set of scales and produced a note book from his inventory that he flicked open. The dwarf then took more of the cocobeans and ground it in a motor and pestle, that he weighed out in the scales (roughly one gram to one centerlitre) before he poured the brown particles into the vodka, his intent to infuse it with it’s flavour and pigmentation, which he added by sticking a stopper in the neck and giving the bottle a very firm shake between broad palms. As it was set down an copious amount of suger, roughly 2 grams to every 1centileter was measured up under the Dwarf’s stern eye and poured into the mixture. Last came the milk, that he measured out into a little glass cup to gain a rough estimation before it was added. The large bottle was once again sealed, shook vigeriously to mix once more before the bottle was placed down on the table with a slow sigh.

“Just gotta leave it for a few minutes to settle fa homogenisation to take place.”

Big words! Rather telling of a curious shift in the Dwarf’s behaviour as a result of this little project. Unlike normally where he carried an aura of tardiness or a rather lain back style, his demeanour had changed to be much more focused and professional. The expression he bore was stern, as his keen eyes probed every measurement intensely for any details he had missed, with every detail being recorded meticulously within that little notebook of his. It was only when the mixing had paused that the Dwarf had time to pause and gaze out of the apple stained window; his gaze distant as though the multi-hued lenses were a spyglass into another world. Brewing was the closest thing this life had to the profession he practiced in the pervious world and a combination of being killed and crafting lead to him being strangely talkative. Well, the yammering wasn’t entirely unusual but it was rare that the Dwarf seriously spoke about anything of substance.

“I used ta be a man of science you know, workin’ in a pharmaceutical chain of sorts, formulating painkillers and antibiotics fa mass production, rather than drinks. I guess you could say tha’ the mixing of depressants for drinkin’ and medicine hav’ something in common, both good medicine fa the body 'n' soul.” The Dwarf gave a short laugh though this was followed by a pause as a hand thoughtfully stroked his beard; rambling was another demon that a life change hadn’t slain. “Well, tha’ were then, I highly doubt that will be waitin’ for me when I get back since I’ve been ‘ere for so long. That life back on earth seems so far away now, so long ago I had almost forgetten.”

As he spoke, the dwarf took the funnel that he had used previously and popped in on top of another bottle he had drawn; this time a very rough cloth filter was bunged over the hole. It’s function became evident as the contents were transferred to its new vessel; the coco particulates formed a layer on the that was idly tossed in the sink. With that, the first proper bottle of chocolate vodka was completed as the bottle was sealed, shook vigorously and slammed down onto the table with that grin as the method was recorded within his crafting log. With that the bottle was uncorked and two fresh glasses were filled on the table with a slight flourish, the one of which the dwarf necked himself.

“Ahh, tis isn’t half bad, it just needs a name now.” The fellow mused, pouring himself another small glass that he necked, all the while his eyes rested on the window yonder until that too was gone. “So how ‘bout yourself Kyuu? Would you wanna go back if that window were a portal, right ovar there? Or ya one of those that prefers ta perks of tis immortal life ‘ere?

Oh my, how philosophical, but the dwarf didn’t laugh this time as his lazy half gaze rested on Caer's. While Tobin had a tendency not to maintain eye contact with anyone for fairly long, this time his gaze seemed probing; as the stocky individual was genuinely curious what someone other than he thought about the situation.