Glories of the Arena I

[Kale]

Fall 45, 511 A.V. Kale winced as the toes of the boot found his fibs again. Nothing was broken yet but that did not mean it did not hurt. He closed his eyes in an attempt to make the pain go away. No matter tightly shut he pressed his eyes the throbbing in his ribs refused to go away. Just as he was beginning to think he had succeeded in driving the pain away he felt agony bloom in his side yet again. Kale balled up into a fetal position in an attempt to protect him from more harm. He heard laughter around him just before more pain shot through him from various points throughout his body. Questions began to run through his mind. What was going on? Why were they hurting him? Then he began to return to his senses. His name was Kale. He was a gladiator. He had been scheduled to fight today. The match had been changed at the last minute to a handicapped fight. When he had entered the arena he had been glad that neither one of his opponents were much larger then he was. Upon entering the coliseum the guard’s at the gate took his short sword from him. This match was to be a bare hands fight only. He was glad that it would only be his fists and not some weapon that he had not had formal training with. He had gone down quickly as he closed in on them. One of them had a sloppy guard and he had pressed the attack. A few of his blows had connected but he could not get out of the way of the second opponent’s fist as it sailed in and impacted the side of his face. The blow had dazed him long enough for his two assailants to move in and begin delivering more. He managed to blow a few but one had gotten lucky and struck him on the tip of the chin. His vision had swam for a few moments before the second blow had come in and everything in the world faded. The next thing he knew he was being kicked about in the ribs. The two men did not seem to be in a hurry to kill him. That was a mistake. If he were in their shoes he would have never woken back up. If for some odd reason he had allowed someone to wake back up he would have ended them right then. Every moment he kept breathing was another moment their lives were in jeopardy. Kale adjusted his body slightly to guard hit vitals better as the two men continued to kick him. They did not seem to notice that they were no longer doing much damage with their strikes. They had taken his movement as another feeble attempt at trying to get away from them. one of them said something to the other that elected a harsh laugh from the other. The gladiator did his best to lay still as they continued to strike at him. Under the cover of his arms Kale clenched his teeth. It did not matter if he was protecting his vitals. After this he would be bruised for days. That of course was if he survived. Soon enough his chance to get out the dire situation he was in presented itself. One of the men stopped kicking him. "Is he dead?" he heard one of the men ask the other. The other man stopped his kicking. That was the best moment he could have hoped for. With the speed of a serpent he uncoiled his body. His arms shot out in both directions. Each of his hands found its fingers wrapped around one of the men's ankles. Kale yanked on both of the ankles causing the two men to fall on top of him in a jumble of flailing limbs.

[Kale]

Kale was the first to untangle himself and reach his feet. The other two men were able to rise to their feet before he could manage to move in and do any damage to them. They were both around the same height as he was. Both of their bodies could have matched his as well if none of them had scars adorning their skin. The most notable difference between his combatants were that one of them had blonde where while the other one had black hair. Kale swore to himself under his breath as they dropped into fighting stances he recognized. The both had a grin on their faces as they advanced. He moved back cautiously to not give them an opening to exploit. He was going to have words with Shale after this. Had his first successes simply been a fluke? As they moved closer he began to notice things that in his surprised state he had initially missed. There were little oddities about their stances and how they moved. It was true that they had both had some form of training in hand to hand combat but neither of them seemed to be totally at home with it. It was a result that likely was caused from not progressing far into their training. Kale ducked under the first fist that was thrown his way. Before he had a chance to retaliate, another fist came racing in from another direction. This fist almost managed to find its mark but he managed to knock it away at the last moment. The gladiator took a step back. He could not allow them to attack him from opposite directions. If he let that happen it would not matter if he was better than they were in martial combat or not. What had happened when he had first arrived was a testament to what would happen if he let them circle him. Kale's eyes darted back and forth between his two opponents as they moved after him. He brought his wrist up to knock away another fist. Kale dropped to a kneeling position to avoid the next series of attacks. He used his left leg for balance as he pivoted around. As his body twisted in a circular motion he extended his right leg. His right foot came sweeping in for his two opponent's legs. The black haired one managed to move out of the way of the attack. The blonde one once again managed to not fend off Kale's attack in time. He went crashing to the ground. Kale moved in to finish the man before he could recover but his companion fended him off with a quick combination of punches and kicks that made Kale move back a few steps.

[Kale]

Kale could feel the crowd growing displeased with his actions. They had come to watch people die. Not some person trying to run from his fate. In this type of sport the crowd could make a man live or die just as easily as the actual person he or she was fighting. When he thought about it, it really was not the crowd that caused him to growl in irritation at having to retreat from his opponent. It was the retreating itself that coaxed such negative emotions from him. He felt that retreating meant he was losing. He did not like to lose. We refused to lose. He halted his backwards retreat with an abruptness that surprised even his dark haired assailant. He was done retreating. Not only did he not move another step back, but as his attacker moved in he took a step forward. With smooth and practiced movements he managed to side step his opponent's punch. The gladiator took a step in, keeping his opponent's body to his right. Kale slid his right foot behind the man's left and drove his heel into the ankle. As he did this he hooked his arm around the man's waste. Kale's actions caused the man to be launched into the air momentarily before his body slammed back into the ground. The man's eyes went wide as the air was forced from his lungs. The blonde man chose that moment to make his appearance. He swept in from beyond Kale's area of vision and almost landed a hit on the gladiator. He managed to twist out of the way of the man's foot before it could strike him. He did not retreat though. Instead he stepped back in after the man's foot had passed by his head. The blonde one seemed surprised that his prey had decided to go on the offensive. Until now Kale had kept on the defensive since he had made that mistake upon the outset of the match. The blonde one did not have enough time to raise his arms to defend his torso as Kale's first punch landed in the man's gut. It was not that this was a place that sheltered vitals. Kale simply liked starting in this place for his combos because it was difficult to guard without moving your whole body to do so and yet it could still do allow him to do the damage necessary to slow down an opponent enough for him to continue go into the next sequence of combinations. Kale's uppercut impacted with enough force to cause the man's eyes to widen and spit to go flying from his mouth. As he felt the man's body slump forward slightly he took a step back. Before his opponent could recover or move he gripped the man's shoulders. Using that as leverage he brought his knee up into the man's stomach again. The knee drove into the man's gut with more force than the uppercut had. The man began to gag softly but Kale did not let up from his assault. The gladiator brought his knee down and then back up. This time the knee drove into the man's chin. He released his grip from man's shirt. His feet moved gracefully as he danced back from his opponent. The man swayed back and forth as his body tried to keep its self from falling. Kale twisted in a circular motion and brought his heel into the side of the man's head with a roundhouse kick. The man's body fell to the ground with a dull thud. The body did not move after it came to skidding halt in the sand. A thin line of blood began to leak from the injured man's ear and drip down onto the arena floor. Kale had no idea if the man was still alive or not. He doubted the man would ever be able to fight properly again after the blows he had just been dealt to the head.

[Kale]

Kale let his eyes move from the prone body to the black haired man. The man was already rising to his feet and it looked as though he was angry with how easily he had been thrown to the ground. The darker man's glare all but spoke of the fire raging behind the enraged man's eyes. Kale's opponent did not spare even a look for his fallen comrade. His sole focus was on the gladiator that had embarrassed him in front of all of those in the stands. A hush fell over the crowd as the two men continued to scare at each other. They did not move. This was a test of wills and nothing more. The one that lasted the longest would be the winner. Kale had the advantage in this small contest. Slowly he moved his body sideways so that one of his shoulders was facing his enemy and the other was facing away. This was a stance meant to minimize how much of the body that was open to attack from a certain direction while still allowing enough movement to defend the parts of the body that were still vulnerable. Kale bent his knees slightly so that he could move them more easily and suddenly when the fight picked back up. His elbows locked at his side as he held his hands away from his body. He did all of this without peeling his eyes from the obsidian haired gladiator that was staring back at him. The gladiator's enemy launched himself at Kale. This man did not seem to be the same one he had been fighting but moments before. He closed the distance between himself and Kale so quickly that Kale mused for a moment that he might be fighting a fellow flux user that had simply been holding back until now. This illusion was soon proved to be false. The man's first punch was so filled with anger and emotion that Kale had to do nothing but knock it aside with the back of his hand. The man's next attack ended much the same way. It was almost as though he were simply smacking slow flying insects out of the air. His opponent’s attacks were not slow, they were simply not well aimed. He let the overly angry attack press in and over extend before he finally struck back. His enemy launched a rather quick punch at Kale's face that missed completely. Yet instead of backing away as he should have the man pressed in and tried to mirror Kale's earlier combination of knees. All he had to do with twist to the side to avoid the badly aimed knee. He recovered from his dodge before his opponent recovered from his foolish attack. His face held no emotion as he made the man pay for his missed attack. Kale connected an uppercut to the man's ribs. The man's face had barely transitioned from anger to pain before he was thrown from his feet by Kale's leg sweep He backed away from his fallen enemy. There was no sense in fighting someone that was this far gone. There was simply no fun in it anymore. "Just yield and we can go on about our lives", he said to the man. His voice held no malice yet the man's face grew even more crimson then it had been before. As he managed to regain his feet he put his fingers to his mouth and blew. The whistle that ensued was shrill and clear. It easily cut through the background noise of the spectators. Along the edges of the coliseum a small number of men stood up and dropped to the arena floor. The man had obviously brought back up in case things went south. Kale looked up into the stands and found one of the captains of the guard beginning to issue orders. He waved the man back. The man seemed to issue a few more orders and then nodded to Kale. It seemed he would honor the man's wish but afterwards if things went badly for Kale he would punish the ones that had broken one of the coliseum's few rules. Kale finally found a grin beginning to tug at his face. This fight had just transitioned from something trivial and boring to something that he would consider fun. Oh yes he would definitely enjoy this.

[Kale]

He did not take his eyes off of his original adversary as his other enemies began to move in further into the arena. Finally Kale did look up. There were four of them total. With these new comers and the man that had whistled for the others that made five men that were trying to kill him. He let his eyes linger on these new men as they began to move apart and try to circle him. They did not move as smoothly as well as a trained fighter would. These men were no warriors. He doubted they were even skilled enough to be a simple soldier. From his vantage point Kale could discern that they were merely thugs. Hired hands that believed numbers made up for their lack in skill. He would show them how wrong they were. Kale pulled in a deep breath through his mouth and began to concentrate. Slowly he exhaled the air through his nostrils. Once again he took a deep breath and then emptied his lungs. He closed his eyes to keep them from trying to follow his new opponents. The men that had entered the arena must have thought he was crazy. He could hear a couple of them let out a chuckle as they continued to spread apart and move ever closer to the gladiator. Kale did not move from his spot. He seemed a statue more than a man at that moment. Even though he could not see the man that had called upon the others, Kale could feel the man's arrogant smirk burning through his closed eye lids. Kale reached deeply into himself. He began to coax the energies inside him. His djed responded as he gradually began to manipulate it. He could have forced it up through his body and into his limbs but he was still too cautious to do that. He prized his body. He would not waste it on something so trivial as lacking patience. So Kale didn't force it. He simply gave it small nudges as it began to flow in the directions he wanted. Now he did push it. He did not push it hard. It was more like a gentle prod in a specific direction. He pushed the flowing djed into his arms. Slowly a euphoric feeling began to flow up from the limbs he had concentrated the djed into. It was accompanied by a feeling that his arms suddenly held the power to do anything. As the djed pooled into his arms it began to affect them in another way. The blood veins in each of his arms began to darken as djed filled the nearby tissue. Within a few minutes the vessels would darken to the point that they appeared to be black. Those in the group circling him began to notice the color change and exchanged glances. The must have known something was wrong because they charged him almost at the same time. Unfortunately they had given him enough time to fill his arms with flux. The black haired man suddenly found himself apart from the others. He did not charge him as they did. In fact he had begun to move away slowly. Fear was displayed plainly across his face. The men had almost made it to Kale when his eyes shot open. For him time seemed to slow down as it always did when he got into a situation like this. Faintly he could hear his heart thudding in his ears. By now the veins in his arms were nearly black. The first man to reach him happened to be on his left side. His eyes snapped to the man as he intruded into Kale's bubble. If they had been trained gladiators his abilities in flux would not have caused such a difference. They were not well trained nor did it seem like they had ever fought someone outside of gang fights or perhaps as caravan guards. Judging from the one that made it to him first, they had likely never had to fight anyone but a fellow thug, surely no one as skilled or single minded as Kale. Kale grabbed the man's out stretched arm and pulled him forward roughly. As the man was propelled forward with the extra momentum he stepped back and held out his other arm. He slammed his outstretched forearm into the man's chest. The close line caused the man to do a half flip before slamming into the ground. Kale did not let his mind keep itself on the fallen man. He let out a breath so that he would not wind himself as the second man burst into his bubble of defense. Kale could feel the energy coursing through his arms as the second man moved in closer. At the last moment, as the man extending his arm in the best jab he could manage, Kale turned his back to the man. With a fighter's quickness he grasped the man's arm with both his hands. He gave the arm a forceful yank as he slammed his heel into the man's shin. Kale's flux fueled strength and the lever he had created with his body caused the man to be launched from his feet. Kale was not able to make the man fly very high nor was he sent flying very hard. The manuver did cause the man to go flying into another one of the companions that had just entered the unseen bubble. The final man had it the worse of the four. By now his companions were littered about on the ground. They mostly only had bruises or were unconscious. Kale might love to fight but he did not slaughter weaklings. What was the fun in doing something like that? This time the man did not even have to step into his bubble. Instead Kale stepped forward bringing the imaginary bubble crashing in around him. He feinted to the man's face. Kale almost felt sorry that the man had come up against him. The man fell for the trick despite how obvious it was. The man's hands moved up to guard his face as Kale's flux augmented fist crash into his stomach. The man bent over as his eyes seemed to glaze over. Kale brought his elbow down into the back of the man's neck to be sure that he would lose consciousness. That is when he turned around and began to slowly close in on the man that had caused such a ruckus. As he came closer and closer the man seemed to grow more fearful. He was nearly to the man when he pissed himself. The liquid ran down his leg and dripped to the ground unnoticed. His hands grasped both sides of the man's collar as he lifted the man into the air. He likely would have been able to do this even without flux aiding him but with djed filling his arms it seemed so easy. Abruptly the man began to cry. "Please don't kill me", the man pleaded as tears and snot found their way down his face. Kale looked up at the man in disgust. He had fully intended on killing the man for making him go through all the trouble wasting his time on those worms he had called in. He let the man drop to the ground and turned away. Before he moved away he addressed the weeping man, "I do not spare ye because you begged for it. I spare ye because some insects are not worth stepping on." He moved away from the man. As he passed the group of men that had attacked him a few of them were getting to their feet. None of them seemed to want to impede Kale as he moved for the coliseum gates.

[Cantrip]

Did you want something? Kale: XP Award: Unarmed +5; Flux +1, Intimidation +1 Lores: Playing Dead; Fighting a Mob; The Mercy of Contempt Rankings: 5 Points Rewards: +4gm * Additional Notes: Kale, I really enjoyed this thread. I don’t see many characters taking a beating, and I felt as though you were grasping at something beyond just a regular fight. I’d have given you more flux, but I wanted to see more manipulation of the djed streams. Needless to say, Kale would’ve certainly be limping around for a while after the beating unless he paid a visit to the Mercy. * Null if you decide to apply for the seasonal income, which I strongly suggest you do.