OOC: My bad RG.

IC: Orpheous recovered briskly again, as always. He was starting to get used to the searing pain and the burning sensation. He was wrong though. He thought he might have to tap into his magic well thrice, but he only needed to access it twice, including the life spell he just used. That is, should his next plan work.

He had it all figured out. Most likely, it would all come down to the next two moves. Of course, there was room for error as always by the ever cruel law of chance. He would have to be doing a lot of kissing up to chance if he was going to win this fight, he just wished that chance was a female, because that would make the job easier. Hopefully a hot female with ...

Then he had to remind himself to concentrate. Plus he already had the perfect girlfriend. This was his opportunity to go for the victory, and hopefully he wouldn't mess up. He gazed over to the crowd, seeing all the total strangers, and even now his friends, cheering for him because they thought he stood a chance. With this last bit of inspiration, he said a quick little prayer to his God and Savior (once again, for the last time, being that Orpheous isn't from around these parts, he has heard of Christianity, and he is a Christian). If he was correct, God still had command even in this realm. Muttering a simple statement to a point where no one else would hear it, or understand if for that matter, seeing as it was in English, he stated, "Oh gracious God, may the best man win. Please shield me, a humble and weak scribe from being creamed by Alpha's attack should my plan not work. And above all else, may your will be done." Then he focused in on Alpha.

"Get 'em, Orphy," shouted Silna. "Yep," added Simon, "show him what your made of." Then, the rest of the crowd decided it was safe to interrupt his deeply spiritual moment, adding there cheers too. This including his other friends and colleagues.

Finally, Orpheous raised his both of his hands, which were clasped together. His index and middle fingers formed in a way that looked like a gun of sorts. Not that many in Hyrule would know what a pistol was. He did this mainly for his own sake. Finally, he spoke. "Hey Alpha. FINGER BANG! (YYH:TAS reference)."

With this a saved up orb of light shot from the four fingers pointed at Alpha. He then added, "Elemental Burst: Light." The orb, or burst, of light rocketed towards Alpha at high speeds. Orpheous had muttered a few more words, during his prayer, which should have helped bind Alpha to one spot (that was purely for RP purposes, and for making this attack do double damage). One thing was for certain, since Orpheous had exposed Alpha's weakness, the attack should be twice as effective no matter what the final outcome.

OOC: Oh and YYH:TAS = Yu Yu Hakusho: the Abridged Series. This is done by a genius guy by Lanipator. To those who like a good laugh on abridged series, you might be interested in checking him out. Well, as I already dicussed with Alpha, we both agreed that this fight came down solely to chance, and that both our main characters are pretty much evenly matched when it comes to stat fights.

EDIT: And the runner-ups to "Finger Bang" were "Cain Laser" and "This is my shotgun" both of them more of Lanipator's work.

OOC: Rolling the dice now...and...

IC: [6+20(SPI+Roll)] Somehow, Alpha manages to avoid the deadly attack. Whatever the mage does, it suffices to say that the crowd went insane. The little fanboy children were waving their sign around like crazy and shouting the Sheikahn's name. "What a great display of talent from Alpha!" Tarlen shouts, as several young women sigh and swoon as they look upon the mage. "This match will be continuing for a while longer, it seems! I can barely contain my excitement!"

Alpha: 34 HP, 26 SPL
Orpheous: 13 HP, 10 SPL

OOC: Alpha, you are one lucky...At least I made the crowd adore you to make up for it.

OOC:

Royal Guard wrote:OOC: Alpha, you are one lucky...At least I made the crowd adore you to make up for it.

. . . Anna, you know how much Alpha hates that kind of stuff . . .

Either way, though, I'm more than happy to be lucky. It'll probably come back to bite me soon, but . . . whatever.

IC:
'Finger bang?!' Alpha's concentration would appear to falter at this moment, but the truth is that only an amateur would not recognize such an odd statement as a trap . . . either that, or Orpheous is weirder than he'd been led to believe, but either way, he chooses to keep focused while allowing his outward appearance to tell a slightly different tale. His hands each drop ever so slightly as a confused expression masks his facial features. His own body also seems to grow a bit more relaxed as the confusion sets in, the final step needed to hopefully lull Orpheous into a false sense of security . . .

And there it is. Held within the Scribe's hand the Sheikah can at last sense the energy he has been waiting to pick up on since the start of this fight, and even more so since the scroll had been called forth and written upon. He had known - after all, tactically it was the best possible plan - that Orpheous would try to end it all with a Light Elemental Burst. The weakness of the Sheikah, even if Alpha could resist it in part it would have absolutely devastating results on his well being. But he knows his own weaknesses . . .

The only thing that had not changed position in his false reaction to Orpheous' words were his legs. Coiled as they had already been, it takes little effort for the Sheikah to spring forward, leaping straight at the attack with all his might. Those looking on would no doubt be in shock at this - even with the change in elevation the attack will still snag his legs and no doubt take him out with the eruption of energy that follows.

And as he reaches the peak of his jump, he brings his staff around and hurls it straight into the pathway of the Elemental Burst.

The shining bullet unleashes its full strength at the moment of impact, probably blinding all those present in the flash of light summoned forth by the unexpected burst. Alpha, however, having known what was likely about to occur, has his eyes shut, and he can only hope that Orpheous' reflexes were not fast enough to allow him to similar shield his sense of sight. Even if he had not the early detonation has likely thrown off the Scribe's sense of timing, which means that the Sheikah has only a few short moments in which to deliver the decisive blow.

He enters and emerges unharmed from the blast radius in all of a second, his hands already by his side as his crimson eyes announce his furious determination to finish this fight now. A rush of wind slips through the air all around Alpha, a sign of energy being gathered between his two palms, and all of a second later the foreseen retaliatory strike has gathered and taken on its classic form as a sphere of pure power, already pulsing with such strength that it seems ready to explode right then and there. In midflight, now only a few feet from where Orpheous has just finished casting his own version of this attack, he hurls it forth with all his might - a sharp contrast to the way he had casually flicked one Fire spell after another at the Scribe.

This one is meant to win it all.

"ELEMENTAL BURST - SHADOW!"

[3+7(SPI+Roll)] The burst of shadow energy consumes the Scribe, easily ending the match like Alpha had intended. The crowd cheered so loudly that Tarlen's words were lost as the medics began to rush onto the platform, ready to revive the fallen Scribe. The mage's fanclub was going berserk, waving their Alpha sign and chanting his name. As the last tendrils of the shadow spell wafted off Orpheous' frame, the roar dulled down ever so slightly, and Tarlen's voice became distinguishable. "And it looks as though Alpha will be going on to the next round! Don't move an inch, people, just one more fight left before the great clash between the two champions of Hyrule!"

OOC: gg Alpha. I'm-a gonna have fun with the fanclub in the finals...

He had hoped to dodge it, but he realized how futile it was. By the time the Elemental Burst: Shadow had set in, he was already out cold. Alpha, no doubt, had seized victory. Everything that he had hoped and dreamed for ... gone. His chance to prove to the world that scribes weren't that bad in combat disappeared with it. Oh well, should there ever be another tournament to decide the next Grand Champion of Hyrule, Orpheous would so join.

As soon as the medics had managed to wake up the passed out scribe, he commanded, "Off," as though they were a pack of hungry dogs. They didn't even get a chance to heal his injuries. "I made the mistake, I'll deal with the problem," he explained to them.

He slowly began to limp over to the mage who appeared to be completely fine once the fight was over. It was unclear whether he wanted to get a cheap shot in, or if he just wanted to say something, as he never did state his intentions. Hell, he didn't even need medics to recover him before he took off.

Once he had achieved the optimal distance,a few feet away, he got a good look at his opponent. It was unlikely that it would occur, but he didn't want to forget such a powerful adversary. There was no doubt that, like Kasei, he was holding back his true power for other intentions. He was probably one of the most enigmatic person in the world. After he had lingered on the face, a key trigger in the person recognition process. Finally, he spoke.

"Now I see why people have so much to say about you, Alpha. Your skill in combat was amazing. How you went about the whole thing was extremely brilliant. And I really liked the part with the reversal attack; it may not have accomplished it's goal, but I still thought it was really nifty. But on a more serious note, I will remember you, and I will remember your face. And next time we engage in combat, be cautious, because I'll be ready. Then, we shall see who shall come out victorious. Pleasure to take you on in an honorable duel. I hope to see you in the near future because you are just that interesting of a person; I'm sure that if you were a talking person, you would have the most interesting things to say. Until then, chimo," he ended, holding out his hand for Alpha to shake, should Alpha be that kind of person. Then he had a quick expression of scolding himself. He added, "Wait, you probably don't know the definition of that foreign word. It means both good-bye and hello in an Cananian, the ancient language of the Canani." His hand was still extended, waiting for some kind of act, whether of acceptance or rejection.

OOC: Sorry, RG, about the medics. I didn't want them swarming all over Orpheous. If you've seen the new Batman movie, you see why Orpheous feels he needs to take care of his own wounds. But at least Orpheous let them bring him back into consciousness.

Almost as soon as the attack had been launched, Alpha finds himself skidding to a stop on the ground behind where Orpheous has fallen . . . and then finds the skidding take on the form of him tripping up and tumbling into several somersaults before finally coming to a halt in an incredibly open pose. With a groan he swiftly rolls onto his side, ready to intercept any attack - but none comes, and his eyes are quick to confirm that his opponent has truly been defeated by his last attack.

He lies like that for several seconds, letting his head fall back onto the ground behind him as he finally begins to acknowledge the beads of sweat dripping down his face, glistening in his hair, and aggravating his lightless scar. His fight with Saber had been long, but not half as difficult as this one had. From the very beginning he had known it would come down to Orpheous using Light Elemental Bursts; when he had chosen rather to conserve his SPL by using Fire it had thrown the Mage for a loop and he'd had to recreate his strategy essentially from scratch. The entire match, Orpheous' goal was to finish the Sheikah off with as many spells as he could get; Alpha's had been to deplete the Scribe's spell power and move over to hand-to-hand combat. Things had ended a bit earlier than he had planned, but he wasn't one to complain about a victory.

Of course, he wasn't normally one to complain about a defeat either . . . well, that's a technicality that he can overlook for now.

He slowly manages to rise up to his feet, cringing at the only thing that really is worth complaining about - the crowd is going wild, cheering at him and showering him with adulation. 'I swear to Din, if they don't stop I'll just obliterate this entire city . . .' The only verbal expression of his annoyance is the groan that he exhales for several long seconds as he wipes off his brow with the back of his hand. He glances around for a few moments while the medical team is rushing forward, gazing about until his eyes locate his staff a few feet away from the edge of the arena. 'My, Orpheous' blast certainly sent it flying,' he thinks as he staggers over to that side of the platform, taking note of a limp he seems to have picked up after that last attack. He really shouldn't have rushed in so quickly and blindly . . . had he put more thought into how he was going to land he probably could have avoided getting this new little injury.

Still, he is fortunate enough to have a little bit of SPL channeling through him, power which he swiftly puts to use forming a Wind elemental spell. Still, it is just a small tornado which levitates the staff up and into his waiting hand, after which he finds himself having to lean on it like a walking stick. He leans down to use a Life spell to repair his leg, only to hear Orpheous' first words after being revived. Even amidst the outrageous cheering surrounding the area, Alpha finds himself on the verge of laughing. 'I'd have responded the exact same way if his E Burst had hit me . . . well, either that way or I'd be on the run for slaughtering a few more royal officials . . .'

And then Orpheous himself stands, causing Alpha to do the same, even with his leg still not acting the right way. Never does it cross his mind that the man might be looking for a bit of vengeance for his loss; the Sheikah has faced him in fair and even combat, and therefore knows what is coming. As the congratulatory speech begins, he just sits back with an indifferent expression on his face, listening to what Orpheous has to say.

He chuckles as the Scribe ends his words. "I suppose it might be considered a clever move, but I think I'll practice a bit more before attempting to redirect magic again . . ." His hand shoots out, clasping Orpheous' own and shaking it firmly as he offers the Scribe a sight that few have ever had the privilege of seeing: beneath his hood and out of the sight of everyone else, he smiles. "It truly was an honor to face you, Orpheous. You have certainly done the name of the Scribe proud. And don't worry, you can be sure that I'll be cautious whenever I should fight against you in the future - I may have won today, but that may very well be luck more than anything else. I think we were quite evenly matched, wouldn't you agree?

"Until then, yes, I will look forward to seeing you again."