RPB - Vicarious Contention - [open]

[Travnia]

[Travnia Biography]



Vicarious Contention


The Tauris Empire
Emerging from the dark ages of magic and sorcery, the young Empire represented the new age. Looking to the stars for scientific reason and meaningful existence, the Imperial council doctrine preached a socialist message of collectiveness. Tauris had forcefully brought all under its banner reigning peace in its territory. The Empire now looked to conquer the Kingdom of Haldus promoting itself as a superpower.

The Kingdom of Haldus
The declining power still held nobility to King and Country, immersing itself in centuries of magical history representing the olden age. Built on the legacy of heroic warriors and powerful magic, the Kingdom struggled to strive in the new age. Threatened with the power of the Tauris Empire, the Kingdom lacked structure and unity - looking only to its past for courage.


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10,000 soldiers of the Tauris Empire launched a scathing invasion campaign against the Kingdom of Haldus reinforced by decades of imperial domination. The 100 year old peace treaty of Osmarion, preventing war between Tauris and Haldus, had expired plunging an ever aggressive Tauris Empire into war.

In no uncertain terms, the war represented more than the strife between two mighty tribes; it brought the clash of cultural era’s. Both nations called upon people of all trade to reinforce their war efforts, from their own continents and beyond. To the victor the spoils would culminate in the complete and utter destruction of their adversary, eradicating their way of life from the face of the earth. For they would consolidate and have dominion over these vast continents.

Legions of Tauris berserker warriors comprised the first wave of attack, aiming to reclaim cities fallen to Haldus under the treaty of Osmarion. Slaughtering and maiming all in their path, these marauders aimed to smash through Haldus defences paving the way for Tauris infantry to advance. The city of Crown Evavdura, in the frontier regions of Haldus, became the frontline for opposing forces as the hammer blow of war came into full swing.

The outpost city of Crown Evavdura, built from limestone rock, was a sprawling derelict necropolis. Among the stone built buildings littered hundreds of tombs of falling Haldus soldiers, from the grandest captains to the lowest infantry-men. The winding streets and alleys produced no structural order, making for difficult defence of the city. The city had already suffered the early artillery techniques of Tauris at the outbreak of war causing much of the city to fall into ruin.

Frenzied by bloodlust, the berserker warriors unleashed a savage act of barbarianism, putting to the sword dozens of Haldus soldiers. Under the grim bleak skies of the Haldus continent, the blood flowed as swords clashed, armour smashed and magic was met with the harsh reality of steel.

Embedded within the chaos of war, Travnia moved from victim to victim. Not aligned to either faction, Travnia had come to fulfil the satisfaction of challenge. The close fighting and volume of the battle made any non-uniformed warrior hard to distinguish from their chosen side. Tauris or Haldus, it made no difference to him as their corpses scattered the stone laid streets of Crown Evavdura.

Splattered with the blood of his victims, Travnia could feel the cold blood on his face as well as taste of blood on his lips. Hair soaked in blood, overcoat stained in blood, the expression on his face was one of utter fury. Armed with a pair of dual sickles he fought his way through the battle slashing, stabbing, impaling and inflicting horrible wounds. Faced with a Captain of Haldus, Travnia inverted his sickles and viciously drove them through the Captain’s armour into his chest. Hoisting his body into the air, Travnia charged his sickles with fire, as the burning element sunk into the Captain’s body. Screaming in agony, Travnia retracted his sickles dropping the Captain to his knees, before mercilessly decapitating him, in a cross-armed slice at the neck. This was the scope of his murderous rampage.

On this battleground lay a warrior who would not yield so lightly against Travnia. Whether they fought for the glory of Haldus, the concept of Tauris or even for their own gains, the challenge they brought would be recognised ensuring this conflict would be remembered.


[OOC: No rule restrictions apply. Challenge open to all]

 

[Valkyrur]

[OOC: I'll take you on! Though, I must say I don't mind losing, but please don't kill her ]

Character: Unity Ilf

Again, Unity couldn't help but wonder why exactly she was on this battlefield. This was a path meant to have led her down to some town - as she had initially hoped - but as it turned out, it wasn't as she hoped. The two side didn't seem to understand that they shouldn't be hurting civilians either, and so Unity found herself involved soon enough - unclear as to who exactly to side with.

Snapping her fingers, she looked away as an armored soldier burst into flames. His scream of death rang loud and true amidst the cries of war, but did little to stir Unity's emotions. It somewhat reminded her of the previous competition she had once taken part in quite some time ago, but nevertheless, the conditions then were different from now.

This was not to secure the honor of her home. This was just interest, almost a blood lust. As much as she detested doing so, she couldn't resist entering into the battlefield ultimately. Her journey thus far had been a quiet one, and now she couldn't resist a chance at a battle - and a fierce one at that - now that she's came across it.

Pointing a finger at another soldier, she quickly blast an arrow made of rocks into the man, piercing right through his heart, promptly ending his life in an instant. As this soldier fell away, she noticed another warrior.

Now, this warrior was very unusual, much unlike the others whom she had been killing off. An aura of death hung about him, and it wasn't because he was dead. He was dishing out death almost as if he were a personification of Death. A grotesque sight - in Unity's opinion - indeed, but one that captured Unity's interest.

"Greetings," She called out, loud enough for the man to hear, just as she snapped her fingers again to explode the area around her, creating an empty space with her at the center.

"I am Unity Ilf. Perhaps you would be interested in a greater challenge than these people?"

With another snap of her fingers, she cast on herself the Mark of Fire, as well as the Wind's Blessing. Her eyes shifted from white to Grey just as she did so.

"I know the answer though. Come."

 

[Travnia]

An unusual voice drew Travnia’s gaze. Above the last cries of the dying, the voice was spoken with confidence and boldness.

“Greetings”

It was accompanied with an irregular blast bearing the hallmarks of magic. The blast formed a clearing in the battle, at the epicentre lay the origin of the voice.

“I am Unity Ilf. Perhaps you would be interested in a greater challenge than these people?”

Travnia’s yellow eyed gaze sunk into the female standing afore him. The main battle-force had begun to move from these winding ruined streets further into the city, leaving only a handful of skirmishes and the female challenger; Unity. A short distance, less than 15 paces, separated the two with Travnia’s fierce gaze never having veered from Unity. It wasn’t her beauty nor her eccentric attire that transfixed him, it was her audacity. Peering a hole through her, Travnia’s aggression was saturated as he ground his teeth ready to explode in a fit of rage. Clearly under the power of magic, she cast various spells on her own unarmed being.

“I know the answer though. Come.”

Clutching his blood stained sickles in either hand, Travnia returned the dialogue, typical of his fashion.

“Stupid bitch! I do not care for your name nor your prowl…”

The voice was harsh, dark and aggressive.

Travnia immediately opted for a more unconventional attack. Reaching outward, his black overcoat fluttered open violently, unleashing a flurry of razor shrapnel. The small metal fragments gleamed with a crimson flash as they fused into matter. The wave of razor fragments hurled toward Unity at a ferocious speed with the intention of inflicting minor cuts to the face and body. The attack was generally reserved as a defensive approach, yet the effects would be consistent.

Aiming to strike first blood, Travnia looked to the grim skies whilst releasing a deafening primal scream. The horrific high pitched screech trembled the very ground emitting a psychological shockwave of terror.

 

[Valkyrur]

Although unexpected, Unity dodged the waves of fragments well enough with the Wind's Blessing enchantment - albeit just barely. However, it was really the fearsome howl that caught her attention. For a moment, she was wondering to herself about what exactly she was faced with. But this mattered little to the girl.

"For what do you battle?"

Snapping her fingers, she raised from the ground sharp rocks which somewhat mimicked the projectiles that had been coming at her.

"I don't know you, nor how you would have came to be here, but here."

Waving her hand at the man, she sent the stones towards the man at pretty much the same speed as the fragments did. Her gaze fixated on the man, curious to watch his response to this attack.

Up to this point, she had only been keenly reminded of a babarian, but merely found it too rude for her to say explicitly. Staring back at the man's yellow eyes, Unity smiled softly.

 

[Travnia]

Travnia looked on, unsurprised, as Unity out manoeuvred the razor shrapnel, with the aid of unseen magic. The scream looked to have rattled her, to a lesser extent. She began to speak once more.

“For what do you battle?”

Casting more spells, she brought about the coming of stone as vile rock was elevated from the torn ground under her sphere of power. Again she threw subtle taunts toward Travnia.

“I don’t know you, nor how you would have came to be here, but here.”

Controlling her magic by hand, the elevated stone took velocity in Travnia’s direction, aiming to pulverise, cut and scar him. Travnia took focus beyond the advancing projectiles onto Unity’s arrogant smile, their eyes locked in bitter contest.

Stone hurled toward him from a short distance, Travnia rotated his body rapidly and repeatedly as he ascended from the ground to a moderate height above. His long black hair and overcoat trailed his rotating movement. The rocks cast by Unity continued on their trajectory pulverising against the soldiers further-a-field, breaking limbs and ceasing any further involvement from them in the on-going battle.

Majestic above the killing field, Travnia under the guidance of his own floating miracle hung in the air. Peering down onto Unity, the blood stained Angel suspended some 25 feet from the surface, had ceased his rotating motion. Dispersing of his dual sickles the weaponry took on a quick red glow as they silently and calmly evaporated from sight, leaving in either hand a recycled aura of crimson energy.
Rapidly bringing his hands closer to his chest the energy reacted more violently as his hands came almost into contact with each other. Before the hands could touch a bright cataclysmic, yet short-lived, flash of red and white light radiated from the raw aura of energy engulfing him. Again it was accompanied with a horrific primal scream echoing against all walls of Crown Evavdura.

As the flash of the energetic light faded, Travnia had brought about a plague of locusts that descended upon Unity. The swarm of black vile creatures originated out of the flash, buzzing from the heights above clattering their sharp metal teeth. The locust were used to envelope, gnaw and bite all regions of the victim, primarily aiming to eat through and erode the armour of their victims, however if no armour was present their voracious craving for stripping flesh and skin from the body would cause more than minor injury.

Immediately following the summoning, Travnia fell from the sky to his original position across from Unity. His black boots thudded on the ground kicking up a small dust cloud from the ruined environment. This cruel miracle, he hoped, would wipe that smile from Unity’s face and bring about a new expression; one of agony.

Observing the descending swarm, he extended his arms out once more, fusing the dual sickles into matter back onto his possession. Unity's initial question went unanswered, instead met with a look of wicked insanity upon Travnia's face.

The magical abilities of both Travnia and Unity had gained notice from the remaining Tauris and Haldus war crowds. They scattered from the vicinity fleeing for their lives under a guise of terror. Leaving only the dead to play host for Travnia and Unity’s collective destruction.

 

[Valkyrur]

Unbelievable.

That was the last thing Unity managed to think before Travnia - whose name Unity still didn't quite know - unleashed upon her his spell. A swarm of black emerged, the sort that Unity would probably not be too interested in. But to come at her in such numbers disgusted her, more so with the fact that she had no escape.

The only way out of this unscathed was to meet spell with spell, but there was no spell in her known list that could swat away these menaces. Which left her to a somewhat desperate final option.

It came as an instinctive reaction. Her eyes quickly shifted to the color of blood, and as soon as she did, all around her, furious flames erupted. These flames were so intense that as soon as it subsided, the wind that stirred naturally formed a black trail of ashes in the air.

Unity stared at Travnia, her crimson eyes almost a glare. It was a close escape. Although all the locusts were incinerated in the magical blaze, there were a few that successfully bit into Unity's arms, which she had to raise to evoke the so-called spell.

Travnia merely looked back, clearly showing an expression that could only imply madness. Here before her was someone so ruthless, someone here merely for the kill. He wasn't a personification of death - not so much as a seeker of death, as well as a deliverer. And this only tapped into what Unity could only know as fear.

This was a battle not to be taken lightly, Unity thought to herself, smiling at Travnia to conceal this thought.

"Impressive. But it really is disappointing to meet someone this rude - so rude that he would only respond with such furious attacks."

She quickly ran forward as she said that swing her arms in a criss-cross motion. Following this, a magical gust of wind blasted from the girl towards the man, lighting up its trail with a soft sparkle which provided the most obvious indication of its imminence. She quickly sprinted forward, her 'Wind's Blessing' spell propelling her forward faster than usual.

Reaching out, she stretched a hand towards Travnia, hoping to at least touch him, as the other hand snapped quickly to summon an Earthen Spike.

A reckless move that capitalized on the suddenness of her escape from the locusts, but who knows whether it will pay off?

 

[Travnia]

The black locusts had caused only minor damage before they were reduced to ashes. Emerging from a ring of fire, still grinning across the way, Unity again could not hold her tongue.

“Impressive. But it really is disappointing to meet someone this rude - so rude that he would only respond with such furious attacks”

Unity began to advance on Travnia emitting an array of colours as she again tapped into her magical essence. Enhanced by these properties she bravely charged forward reaching with an open hand that brushed against his arm. Before he could strike a defence swipe with his sickle, the bizarre contact was prelude to a seismic event at Travnia’s feet. Barely catching even a glance at the extrusion from the ground, a spiked object impacted on him centre-mass. The impact was intense enough to cause a spark of light as the force blasted him backward some 12-15 paces. Crashing onto the ground, his hard landing caused dust to rise up off the ground. Unity’s attack had been successful.

The armour had absorbed what impact it could preventing any penetration, yet a spurt of blood shot up this throat. For a moment he struggled to breath as he rolled onto his side. Gaining his composure he raised himself to his feet and spat the blood to the ground. His right arm clutched his chest shielding the painful stimulation. He felt the faint tingle from where Unity had brushed her fingers against his right forearm, leaving a dim distinct mark, yet for now this was second to the painful impact cast by Unity’s earth spike.

Voicing his denunciation in an almost demonic biblical fashion, his voice was distinctly foreign and twisted.

“Cunting Bitch! Curse your name! This day may you bleed upon me! Know now henceforth you will suffer under the hand of Archangel Travnia!”

The conflict had taken on greater substance and Travnia now called upon a truly terrifying conjure.

Amassing his power, the angel ascended from the ground; arms extended fully outward and head tilted to the skies. The grim dull skies began to succumb to a gathering darkness, as the clouds began to violently churn and darken. The dead who lay slain began to abruptly rise parallel to the ground, their bodies jolted and twitched violently as their chests pushed outwards. Before the Valkyrie’s could claim these souls, Travnia would reap them for his own possessive will.

From their chests burst their screeching souls, moving swiftly in all directions. The armoured bodies crashed back to the ground. The skeletal resembling souls emitted a haunting dark red hue as they began to converge and encircle Travnia. The spirits trailed haunting streaks as they engulfed him. Crying out to the spirits, Travnia sent forth his bidding.

“Pacify this mortal! Take from her, her strength, her life-force! This I command of you!”

The spirits and Travnia began to scream to a constant deafening high; so strident was the cry the surroundings began to crumble. The spirits gathered as one, forming a fist-sized black sphere of unholy energy suspended in front of Travnia’s floating celestial body.

Travnia’s bloody face once more looked down upon Unity as he blew from his lungs causing the black sphere to hurl toward Unity. The sphere descended from above as loose spirits swirled around the black domain. As the black sphere made its final approach the sphere imploded releasing all the falling spirits on an endeavour to pass through Unity’s body taking with them as much of her life-force as they could thus draining her physical strength.

Travnia again fell from the sky after performing another immoral miracle, only this time to one knee. Momentarily dazed by the effects this powerful summon had consumed on his energy reserve, he stood to watch what affect the decaying spirits would cause Unity.

 

[Valkyrur]

[OOC: Just a lil' heads up. My character just invoked two of her more powerful spells... Which are somewhat complex... Not very complicated, but anyway, I'm not going to explain in detail within this post, so here. The spells are well elaborated upon here.]

Finally, the man spoke, but when he really did, Unity listened rather closely... Which only disappointed her when she realized it was more curses than anything else polite. She was about to brush the remark off with a comment when suddenly she shuddered. Travnia was invoking another spell, and this one reeked of darkness.

All around, corpses surrendered their unclaimed souls to Travnia, gathering to form a disturbing mass of spirits which encircled her adversary. He didn't wait long to send them after her.

“Pacify this mortal! Take from her, her strength, her life-force! This I command of you!”

A blood-curdling scream followed soon enough - by now something Unity was used to when battling this man. In one strong breath, he blew the mass of spirits at her, which, upon closing in on Unity, diverged into numerous spirits.

It didn't take her much thinking to know her death would be certain if she stood against this attack, but it was, like with the Black Locusts, far too late for her to escape this, even with the Wind's Blessing. Which only led her back to yet another act of desperation.

"The silence rings ever so clear-
Oh so clearly as the skies rain tears.
The darkness advances upon me,
But we wouldn't surrender, will we?"

The spirits began rushing through her, and Unity quickly felt her strength draining away. Nevertheless, she quickly continued with her last resort.

"No. We stand firm in defense.
For defense is the best offense."

Just as the spirits ran through her, her spell invoked itself, gathering all the magical energies she possessed to circulate around her, attempting to act against whatever the spirits were meant to do.

It did help somewhat, compensating for what might have been a lost in physical strength and life energy with mana. However, it still didn't completely block out the spirit's abilities.

Unity collapsed, landing forward as she struggled to get back on her feet. Her Wind's Blessing faded away just at this instance, which only made her curse under her breath.

"It's not over. Golem!"

It was reckless, but Unity wasn't prepared to lose here - she wasn't ready to die here. Here before her was a man who would most probably kill her, and perhaps relish every single moment of it as well. She wasn't going to let that happen easily.

"Form, Tentacles of Kraken!"

The two spells began taking effect, the soil from the ground began to gather to form a shape of a gigantic humanoid. It wasn't complete, but perhaps it might distract Travnia long enough for her four magical tentacles of water to form to return her the capability to compete physically.

 

[Travnia]

Sadistic joy gleamed in Travnia’s eyes as Unity fell to her knees sapped of her strength. The forsaken spirits had dispersed claiming a percentage of Unity’s strength as trophy.

Muttering inaudible spells from her knelt post, she continued to fight on.

Unity had summoned to her aid a colossal Golem. Drawing attention from herself she looked to rely on the Golem as a shield against Travnia. Erupting from the stone laid ground the Golem emerged somewhat disfigured. Attempting to capitalise on the summon, Unity began casting yet another spell; only this time she would suffer a delay in bringing about its creation.

Unity’s Golem had not fully formed nor was placed to press any current advantage. The Golem did not yet throw any attack toward Travnia. From the angel’s eyes the female had been weakened and was attempting to cower behind her subordinate. Molding her water spell, long broad tentacles began to form around her vicinity, oddly wavering during their summoning.

Somewhat perplexed by Unity’s defensive approach, Travnia wasted no time in unleashing another attack. Choosing to avoid confrontation with the newly forged Golem, he targeted Unity; she was the true foe. The Golem would yet play a role in Unity’s assistance.

Travnia set aside his violent miracles momentarily he opted to strike at the very heart of Unity. Now aware of her tactics, strengths and weaknesses Travnia changed the dynamic of the battle. The tempo had increased and so to with it had the rate of attacks.

Still grasping to his sickles, his fists tightened around the handles. Peering through the black hair strands covering his blood stained face his adrenalin coursed through his veins. Travnia brazenly began to walk with speed toward Unity - some 15 paces away. His heavy steps trampled through pools of blood as he arrogantly expressed his disdain.

“Is this all you can muster?! Subordinates and elements….”

Approaching closer Travnia ascended only slightly from the ground and used a floating miracle to rush Unity. The charge was quick, very quick, key to his physical attacks. His person became briefly blurred of motion from the extremely fast rush; hoping to use speed of movement to startle Unity.

Aware that Unity was summoning aided physical assistance, Travnia’s short-term tactic was to strike physically up close with personal malice, rather than be out ranged by the long whipping tentacles. Observing from the beginning her lack of physical weaponry and armour - save her cloak - the attack could result in spectacular success. This would remain to be seen.

Imposing on Unity, Travnia, ceased his advancement and released a combination of synchronised slashes attempting to cause grievous bodily harm. The slashes were fierce. With his left sickle Travnia attempted to viciously slash from her left side abdomen up to her face, while dragging his right sickle he slashed downward across the left thigh to swipe the legs. Aided by his rushed miracle and his own momentum Travnia veered outward from Unity away to her right, following from his attack. His black overcoat trailed his retreat. Now standing some 8 paces from her, Travnia was close enough to cause further strikes, yet also close enough for any backlash from Unity’s tentacles.

So fast was his attack, he himself had not concluded the extent of any immediate damage caused. Turning to face Unity, he raised his left sickle to head height, his arm kinked, his right sickle he spread across his own abdomen in a defensive manner.

 

[Valkyrur]

Admittedly, Unity had already figured something of this sort was coming her way, but she hadn't expected it to be this painful. Having just only picked herself up, she was in time for Travnia as he ran through her like a shadow. She went down almost as soon as she got up.

Falling to her knees, she gripped her new wounds. A badly lacerated left abdomen, and a just as badly cut thighs that made standing difficult.

"Perhaps so. I am not as strong as I think I am, it would so seem... But I'm tenacious, that much is certain."

Pressing against her abdominal wound, she struggled onto her feet, ignoring the pain in her thighs as she smiled. Her spell was now complete; the fully formed Tentacles swung about dangerously while the Golem stood at it's full height, advancing towards Travnia menacingly.

"Ultimately, we Magic users are highly disadvantaged in battle against melee attackers like yourself hm? Have at thee."

Without stopping to pause, she sent a tentacle to attempt to grab Travnia, and another in sweeping motion to force him up into the air. The Golem continued on it's slow advance, slowly gaining speed and then breaking into a clumsy run as the earth shook with every step. A furious flurry of assaults, but one Unity hoped would incapacitate.

With her newly sustained injuries, she knew she won't be able to last long. This battle must end soon.