Virtual War Drome 2: City of the Dead

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

A foot flew past Nada, barely missing his head. Nada looked down to see that the skeleton was quickly regrowing his 'lost' limbs/ Drat. I forgot about his regeneration.How am I supposed to beat this? Suddenly, Nada had an idea. As his lifespan was nearing its end, Nada roared "I'm not going down that easily! HF! Pzl! U! Pu!" Nada repeated that cycle again and again, hoping he would last long enough to win. Radiation and acids. A combination of what I know will work against him.

[agoraoptera]

Another actinic flash of light burst out at him like a vengeful spirit and Agora abruptly changed direction, dodging and diving behind another building, running away from his foe, crossing one junction, then two, then looping around so that the two were separated by nothing more than the dilapidated structure.

I could wait him out, Agora pondered, But even one such as I can get more than a little impatient. He shrugged and focused his thoughts, reaching out, reaching out for what was once a part of him. Yes..

Deep in the soil, under the layer of bone still spreading downwards, blind and bloodless maggots writhed in response to the psychic call. Numerous eggs, nearly a hundred, spread across the streets began to swell and hatch, bursting out the wriggling maggots, multiplying their numbers immediately by many times. Surging forward in a mass that caused the ground to shift and tremble ever so slightly, the maggots swarmed towards their master's target, intent on nothing more than to consume, devour and reproduce.

Though Agora could not see where his many spawn were, he knew that his foe would not be able to survive them. In addition to their imnumerable little jaws, his minute children also bore his mark, also carried his biological venom about them. Agora himself did not need to be around the gunman; only the maggots had to.

[Genndy Oda C.O.G.]

All of the energy expended from the chemical equations finally wore Nada out, and he collapsed, left to be eaten by the maggots, and giving Agora a new skin.

[Lordxana0]

Victory

Battlefield reset

Next match coming soon

[Endless Sea]

Oh, goddammit. Walking Corpses. Freaking wonderful.

From his perch atop the ruined fifty-story tower, its infrastructure so ruined it was a marvel the building still stood, Alaki surveyed the broken city beneath him. The roofs of the lesser buildings around the tower were completely obscured with masses of grey flesh and discolored clothing; the roads around said buildings were similarly obscured. Somehow- maybe whatever had resurrected them had given them psychic senses?- the undead had noticed his arrival.

Alaki considered spraying the corpses with plasma barrages; he'd never been fond of the smell of long-decayed flesh, and the moaning that managed to reach his altitude was equally irritating, if not more so. Then again, his opponent apparently had powers that varied between battles; probably better to conserve his power for the time being. Besides, considering the nature of his plasma powers, irritation wasn't necessarily a bad thing...

[Pixelmage]

Persona Selection Summary:

• Jack Frost: He absorbs Ice, which means, I'll be pretty hyper in a frozen battlefield as long as he's active. He's weak to fire. Fairy type glamour means some light healing for that extra second alive if I get hit on my weakness.
• Pyro Jack: Reverse of Jack Frost. Also a Fairy type. This time, dishing off fire and getting active with more fire, but weak to ice.
• Seiryu: All around big badass snake dragon. He's strong to Fire, Ice, Lightning and Curse/Mystic. Weak to Force (Wind) and neutral to physical damage. That said it's the though cookie in the selection, he can dish out elemental spells and is though enough to go hand to hand, but isn't immune to anything, so while I can take hits with him, there's still damage being caused.

Resistances not listed are neutral.
Images included for reference, but they're not visible. I'm fighting alone while channeling them and their powers. They flash into existence in a ghost-like appearance when I cast theirs spells and channel greater skills, you might see the ghostly shapes then. How your character will deal with the images is up to you, but I'm myself alone, they being visible is just visual effect during the spells.

----------------------------------

"What the hell are the the arena masters thinking?" Pixel wondered, talking to himself while taking the stairs up. "Pitting two arena champions against each other..." He sighed. "Well, all for the audience, I suppose. If there even is such a thing here."

His opponent was the forest champion, or so Pixel had been informed. Don't go in carelessly! He's strong! You'll die on this one! Didn't matter, or didn't seem to matter, he was used to navigating the city mazes and avoiding the zombies by now. Unless there was a big commotion or he wanted to draw their attention, he could get to the fight without the trouble he had the previous time. And his opponent was apparently doing what he had intended to do against the angel, perched atop one of the buildings. He didn't notice Pixel going in, which was disappointing.

"Guess he wanted to dive and kill, uh? Not very attentive I suppose... Well, let's get this started." He reached the doorway to the rooftops, taking one deep breath.

Active Persona: Seiryu.

"Knock knock!" He called, blowing the door to the rooftops outwards with a kick and darting to the side. Nope, not standing in a nice, straight corridor to begin a fight.

[Endless Sea]

Alaki's head twitched up as he detected movement in the stairwell leading to his perch. Zombie attack? No, this guy's actually got a mind. Mah opponent, I guess. Dammit, how'd I miss-

One loud crash later, courtesy of the door getting kicked in, and Alaki swore as he spun around, blaster already in hand, and fired an amplified blast of telekinetic energy in the direction of the sound, strong enough to rip the entrance to the roof to pieces, along with the room and top of the stairwell behind it.

[Pixelmage]

Pixel let out a whistle. As the entrance to the rooftops crumbled with a single shot that would crash in the center of his chest had he stayed in the corridor.

"Not bad! No one is getting out of the roof that way anymore." Glancing around and throwing a wicked smile. "Other ways to descend exist though." Raising his hand towards his opponent he chanted one spell. Seiryu wasn't his strongest while using fire spells, but even a weak spell would suffice for a test. They said he messes with elements... Let's see what he can do.

"Agi" A small blast of fire surged a short distance from Alaki and bounced towards him.

[Endless Sea]

Blinking as a burst of light flared up in his peripheral vision, Alaki spun again to notice his opponent standing well to the side of the destroyed roof entrance. He had enough time to take in the man's relatively, uh, alive appearance, the translucent draconic figure hovering behind him, and the small fireball that was about to make contact with his left shoulder before the fireball made contact with his left shoulder.

A small twinge of pain, and Alaki instinctively clutched at his shoulder, wincing as he did. His grimace quickly morphed into a bemused frown as he brought his hand away and glanced at the damage. Hm, not really any melting or anything. Weak-ass. Still smarts a bit, though. Huh.

He looked back to his opponent and grinned. "Ha! Way to waste an extra turn, dude!" he crowed before leaping into the hole where the staircase had been, firing amplified ice blasts as he fell. Right, time to get someplace with walls. Then the roof blows up in a whole bunch of ice spikes, yessssss.

[Pixelmage]

Alaki just dismissed the fire. Interesting, Pixel thought, no real damage, of course, but his reflexes seemed so slow compared to the shot. Alaki turned to him, only instead of attacking him directly he shot a number of ice blasts around the roof, while jumping into the hole to get inside the building.

Ignore me like that and I'll feel sad. Pixel snarked as Alaki started descending into the hole. "Freezing the rooftop? Really?" He sighed just as Alaki left line of sight.

Active Persona: Jack Frost.

The floor erupted in a mass of icicles, one of them seemingly encasing Pixel whole. The ice cracked, he was unharmed and sported a devious smirk. "How about we do things the other way?" He touched the frozen floor and whispered.

"Mabufu" And the icicles reversed on themselves, boosted by Jack Frost's power, freezing not the exterior of the roof, but the interior of the top floor. Ice still coated the rooftop, but the interior would suddenly begin to look like a frozen needle stack.

[Endless Sea]

Alaki felt something shift in the flow of elemental energy being put into the ice spikes piercing the roof, and suddenly the interior of the stairwell was freezing over, the ice shaping itself into more spikes, but not his own. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me," he muttered as he leaped to a lower section of the staircase. "Y'know what? Screw this, I'll go the direct route." With that, he pointed his blaster directly upwards and, after a moment of focusing, fired off a rather large plasma bolt. Well, the roof's screwed. Let's see if the guy standing on it dies too.

[Pixelmage]

Heat. From beneath. Pixel's eyes widened. He had barely cast his spell and his opponent was already countering it!

"Oh no no no no no no no no no no." As he abused Jack Frost's affinity to ice on the ice coating to dash, skating on the surface, like an insane creature to the edge of the building. He barely made it when a crater almost as big as the roof itself exploded upwards, hot and bright. It didn't hit him directly and even so it was uncomfortable. There was time to brace himself before the confusion settled down.

Active Persona: Pyro Jack.

Now to stand very very still until the ice finishes melting, falling flat on my face by trying to run on ice would be embarrassing. The momentum started to die down, and Alaki was visible scanning the opening for signs of his death. Pixel stood defiant, leaning on the edge of the roof looking unimpressed. "Gotta admit, you sure have one bad aim!" Laughing out at his foe's expense.

[Endless Sea]

...Aaaaaaaand that happened. Dammit, how do I keep, um, not aiming well? Come on... Alaki growled and aimed at the remaining section of roof- then stopped. Wait, hold on. He's staying on the roof. He can't fly.

Grinning evilly, he jumped down a few more flights of stairs, charging elemental energy in the meantime, until he'd descended about four floors' worth of stairwell. He then aimed to the top of the flight he was standing on and fired off another amplified blast of telekinesis, destroying a chunk of tower wall large enough to destabilize the floors above. That stage of his plan complete, Alaki charged up the remains of the stairs as fast of he could and jumped through the hole, turned around in midair, and dug his spear into the outside of the tower with both hands, hoping that the friction would guide and slow his fall.

Less than two seconds later, the tower began to collapse.

[Pixelmage]

Alaki looked at him. Took aim. Fire away and be surprised! And promptly ran off down the stairways. "What the fuck?" He stared at the empty space were his opponent was just a few moments ago, stunned for a second at his opponent's choice. "That guy is not right in the head. He can't be."

Then the building begun to tremble. Explosion sounds coming from inside. So that's how he likes to play? "Well, that settles it, I'm outta here." And with that he jumped back over the edge of the building. Directing one hand towards the floor many stories bellow and one at the building he was leaving even as he started to fall.

He heard a crashing sound, but didn't see it. Likely to be on the opposite side of the building, anyway, little time to wonder. Pyro Jack wasn't a very resistant Persona. He's squash like a tomato if he reached the streets at full speed. He called another spell.

"Maragi!" A burst of flames, wide and violent surged from his hands, propelling him away from the building that was about to collapse and slowing down his fall. The burst ended close to the ground on the opposite side of the street at the time the building began to collapse. "Gratuitous collateral damage I see..." Pixel sighed. Rubble flew around. His own clothing and skin with slight cuts that got past his Persona's buffer. Damage that he didn't notice until now. If this isn't a 'commotion' I don't know what is. The zombies were already swarming the block. With makeshift weapons like baseball bats and some odd martial weaponry like spears and axes, that they didn't realize were different from the clubs in their use.

Still Pixel was about to be swarmed in zombies. He had to wonder how his adversary fared, if he had died the arena masters would already have transported him back, so Alaki still lived. The question was how well could he still fight in the zombie filled streets, covered in the dust cloud from the collapsed building.

[Endless Sea]

A block or so away from the ruins of the tower, Alaki surveyed his handiwork. Fragments of stone, metal, plaster, and who knew what else strewn across nearby streets and rooftops; a cloud of dust fogging up the surrounding air; a three-story-tall slope of ice, cracked in numerous places from falling debris, connected to what used to be the base of the destroyed skyscraper, with a trail of frozen ground extending from the bottom of the curve to where the cyborg mage now stood. Just like the old days, he thought.

Then he looked around him, noticed the crowds of undead clustering around him, and thought, Well, uh, actually, those guys are new. Once more the blaster came out, as did his spear, and soon vast swathes of zombie horde were being skewered and encased by blasts and spikes of ice. The fact that his opponent was still alive was not lost on him, but was nevertheless pushed to the back of his mind as he blasted back row after row of the dead.

[Pixelmage]

"OOoooooohhhhhh to you too dead people." Pixel sighed. I guess I'm sighing a lot today... Matter of time until I start facepalming, I think. The dead moved all around him. It would be trivial to dispose of them, but any noise tends to attract more undead, in the end, clearing a block or ten didn't matter much. In minutes the would be overflowing with the undead again. If one got distracted they might find themselves endlessly engaged with the zombies and forgetting about the actual fight against their assigned opponent.

Noise also had another problem. Assigned adversaries are smart, or should be. Being flashy and noisy means you tell them just where to find you, and then you are in trouble.

"But, you know what, Mr. Zombie?" Pixel said sidestepping a spear swing. "That's one really nice spear, mind if I keep it?" Pulling the weapon from the undead and throwing it up in the air. It was a military grade weapon. The Arena Masters were not playing around with gear quality it seemed, leaving stuff like that laying around for the zombies to pick up. He spread his hands to the sides.

"I don't really care if he knows were I am. Last time I spent my time playing with zombies I almost died, so, let's get this over with. Maragi!" Fire, in a explosion of sound and light. Charring zombies and weapons, even the building seemed to groan at the blast. "Uh oh... Don't you fall on me. Not now at least, one building down is enough for the night." He picked the spear falling and paused to wait for his challenger. It would be a while until the next wave of zombies reached his location. Hopefully his opponent would be dead by then.

Active Persona: Seiryu.

[Endless Sea]

A burst of red-orange light from the corner of Alaki's left eye drew his attention, and even as he skewered another round of zombies with ice spikes from a wave of his spear, he turned his head to face the explosion of flame behind a crumbling complex on the other side of the tower ruins. Welp, there's that, he thought as he fired another blizzard from his blaster. Might as well make my way to whatever the hell that building is, get on the roof. Always take the high ground, especially if the high ground is wide enough to not fall off that easily.

Switching to telekinetic attacks, he blasted his way through the zombie hordes to the broken building the explosion had been behind, grinning a bit as the undead arced through the air away from him, decaying limbs either flailing or blown off. Upon reaching the structure, telekinesis-enhanced sprinting and jumping brought him to the highest remaining portion of stable ground- at least, ground that wouldn't give way underfoot in less than five seconds (ouch)- and he quickly found a position from which he had a clear view of his opponent...

...who was looking directly at him. ...ooh. Maybe the third crash made a bit too much noise. Ah, well.

Letting out a short roar of laughter, Alaki leaped off of the building and dove for his opponent. As he fell, he began to spin around while surrounding his body with ice energy, turning himself into a frozen drill aimed directly at the Persona-user. Hopefully, the cyborg mage mused, even if the attack didn't hit his enemy directly, the shockwaves of ice spikes from contact with the ground would do at least some damage...

(OOC: And by shockwaves of ice spikes, I mean that upon hitting the ground, the ice drill blows up into a two-meter-radius ring of stationary ice spikes on the ground surrounding the point of impact. Just to clarify.)

[Pixelmage]

Alaki finally did what he was supposed to do. Pixel thought. From the beginning of the fight, having a top down view, diving for a kill. Of course, without a surprise advantage, that dive would never hit. He smirked holding his ground as his opponent dove spear-first towards him. Whirling his own newly acquired spear in hand. He could position himself to impale the diver. At his fall speed, it would be painfully easy to end that fight then and there. But, he has other tricks in storage, like that heat attack. Being crushed under his enemy's weight wasn't a soothing proposition, so he decided against that course of action.

Five stories to go, one second to impact. Pixel took one step back. His movement stopping just as the attacker's spear pierced the ground. One twirl of his stolen spear to thrust at Alaki now caught in a bad and open position. Before he could though, the floor froze, icicles growing through it, spreading outward ready to pierce Pixel like a spear would.

But, they are still Ice. And even if Seiryu wasn't immune to their touch, he was still familiar with that sort of attack, instead of piercing, the icicles that touched him broke on contact, crashing and hurting, yes, but unable to kill him outright. The opportunity was too good to pass, he accepted the blow and kept his attack. The snake dragon was strong after all, he could put up a decent fight in close quarters... And if that wasn't enough, he still had other cards to play. Fall a bit slower next time, I want my snark time intact.

[Endless Sea]

When, despite the cocoon of ice and thicket of spikes, the first thing Alaki felt upon hitting the ground was an extremely pointy object piercing his abdominal armor and entering the general vicinity of where a stomach would be on a human, his immediate reaction could be summed up as, "Oh, goddammit, not again."

This thought pattern quickly progressed into "How the hell did he actually hit me with that, anyways?", and then, less than a second later, into "OH JEEZ THAT HURTS OH GOD OW OW OW".

His brain quickly locking itself into a "get the hell out of here NOW" mindset, Alaki leaped backwards out of the ice formation, groaning as the spear broke in two in the process, the blade still firmly embedded in his body. He landed unsteadily on his feet several meters back, the ground in front of him covered in shards of ice spike, then fell to one knee, one hand limply holding his blaster, the other clutching at his wound. For a moment, the look on his face suggested he was about to throw up- and then he did, vomiting forth a great glob of plasma that he intended to, upon detonation, clearly convey a nonverbal message to his opponent: Fuck you- and for that matter, fuck this entire city block, too.

[Pixelmage]

And here comes the heat attack. Pixel expected his opponent to use that again at some point. He didn't move as Alaki flipped back.

Active Persona: Pyro Jack.

True to his prediction, his opponent's weak appearance and nauseous movements were a facade and there was a sphere of fire soon to blow up. The heat was invigorating. He felt revitalized. "Now now, don't play with fire if you don't want to get burn-" The sphere exploded.

Surely enough, the heat was not a problem, but the kinetic force of the explosion sent him tumbling down the street, collecting assorted bruises and scratches, only stopping two blocks down. "That. Was not fire." He mused catching his breath as the building where they were began to crack. Both his spell and Alaki's blast was too much. "Good lord, another one down? That guy has no sense of collateral damage." Good lord, my head hurts... So, not-quite-fire will be an issue, it seems.

[Endless Sea]

Not dead yet? Alaki thought as he staggered behind some cover, still clutching at his wound. Let's fix that. Peering out from behind the half-shattered, partially melted wall, he sighted his opponent some distance away from where he'd been before the plasma bomb, knocked for a loop. He raised his blaster again and took careful aim at the still-recovering Persona-user, rage guiding his hand, pain fueling his power. The pain in his abdomen spiked briefly as he took a deep breath, and then six more bolts of plasma, each as powerful as the one he'd vomited up earlier, streaked from his blaster's nozzle, ready to detonate at Alaki's command.

[Pixelmage]

"Six this time?" Pixel watched as the spheres of heat and whatever approached. Six of them, each as big as the one from before. "Are you dancing fire now?" Not quite fire though. Can't get overconfident.

But still, the heat energy flowing from the spheres he could use. Pyro Jack was already feeling charged by it. Pixel smirked, taking in the growing heat of his opponents attack, and adding it to his own.

"AGIDYNE!" He cried in the direction of the spheres, a focused sphere of flame surged, intercepting the path of his opponent's attack, as big as a sports car and exploding towards Alaki. One explosion to counter another, midway between the two fighters. Now I'm the one causing gratuitous collateral damage here...

[Endless Sea]

Alaki ducked back down as his plasma bolts exploded- too early- and winced as another jolt of pain coursed through his wound from the sudden exertion. At his back, the broken wall shook perceptibly, scattering some dust onto the Forged's head and shoulders. Dammit, he blocked that or something. How the hell- ah, screw it. Might as well bring out the big guns now.

Closing his eyes and bowing his head, Alaki tensed up and diverted his focus entirely to charging up more power. A barely-visible cyan glow surrounded him as he channeled raw elemental energy from his surroundings into his body. Within his cupped hands, slightly trembling but kept suspended just above his lap, brilliant white and translucent light blue strands of power wove together as plasma and ice molded themselves into one.

[Pixelmage]

Boom. Shockwave. No spears flew out of the smoke. He's not taking a blind shot, then. "No time to play around." Pixel said taking mental inventory of his wounds. "This will have to end soon."

Looking at him, he appeared to be as if unharmed, a few shallow cuts and bruises, his clothing with the odd brunt patch, but in truth, he was human. A single blow to the head was all it took to kill him, if it got past his Persona's protection. And his opponent's combination of Ice and Fire powers was hard to counter, he had no immunity against both elements at once and even if he could predict correctly, it was a matter of time before physical blows got past his supernatural protection. That fight had to end, now.

Active Persona: Seiryu.

Pixel ran, an horizontal dive to reach his opponent. Ice didn't work. Fire didn't work. At least the snake dragon had the option of using thunder. His endurance was, hopefully, enough to survive such close quarters fight. All he had to do was get close enough to have the snake's power to constrict Alaki. A fraction of a second where he wouldn't be able to move, for one clear shot.

[Endless Sea]

A weak smile crossed Alaki's lips as he surveyed the product of his efforts: a small thistle-like cluster of ice spikes, barely three centimeters in diameter, with a core that shone with blinding white light. Judging by the footsteps, his opponent was charging into melee range; he doubted the Persona-user had any close-range attacks worth worrying about- that spear was just a fluke, right?- but the ever-present ache in his abdomen reminded him to play it safe. He prepared to toss the spike mine, predicting his opponent was still more than a second away from reaching him-

-only to catch a glimpse of a pale-skinned, skeletal leg shuffling into his peripheral vision, in the opposite direction of the footsteps.

OH CRAP THAT'S RIGHT WALKING CORPSES ARE A THING NOW, he thought, his smile vanishing. Um- uh- buh- oh, screw it, he's already probably too close. Shutting his eyes, Alaki leaned back and clapped his hands together.

Immediately, both of his arms were simultaneously torn to bits and vaporized from the elbow down as the spike mine detonated between his palms. The entire front of his body deformed as approximately fifteen seconds' worth of as much elemental energy as he could spare decompressed itself from its formerly minuscule volume. Seams and joints in his armor melted together; icicles punched holes into his torso and legs, only grazing his face due to an instinctive recoil. The wall behind him was doomed, as was the ruined building it belonged to and the surrounding city blocks; now that it had been released, Alaki's final attack was beyond his control, and everything in the way of its unfocused, indiscriminate power was bound to be destroyed, either by melting and crumbling beneath the explosive energies of plasma, or from being cut to pieces by icy shrapnel.