The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The magic of the ring recognized challenger from challenged and responded to the dragon's thoughts as she paced a quarter of the way around the circle before entering, changing to her natural form as she went. A meager 22 feet of dragon stepped into the arctic valley she had created. Tall spires of ice glittered in the sun in opposition to the mysterious dark voids of their sister crevasses plunging deep into the heart of the glacier. Here and there peaks of granite, resistant to the sanding away the glacier had performed on the rest of the landscape broke through the snow like grey ships riding a stormy sea. Mel stepped easily onto the blue glacial ice, unfurling her wings just a bit in preparation to take to the air as well as to momentarily enjoy the pleasing change in temperature. She slunk to the edge of a tall icefall to look around for the glossy black of her opponent while readying a volley of magic.

[Angel]

Sylvie did manage to block the strike to her left side, but the knee to her right was successful. She fell with the attack to avoid excess damage, and broke her fall with her shoulder. But she wasn't done yet. She began to rise, smirking at Ian. "Glad you're okay with it," she said, spreading her hands on the ground and muttering another spell. Multiple vines came up to snare Ian's legs halfway up his calves, while Sylvie quickly got up and aimed another strike at the rat's head.

[lucas marcone]

What ever the elf was strikeing with it hit Ian's pipe hard enough to make a dent. He then swung his pipe around to her left. "If the rules didn't allow it it wouldn't be so!" He said with a grunt mid swing "Would it?"

[Stygian]

Again, the man reacted without looking directly at where the attack was coming from. He threw himself out of the way and upward, along the wall. Yet he still received a splatter of hot tar over the right side of his face from the last of the projectiles. It caused him to hiss and snarl, but did little to stop his ascent. Taking a set of stairs five steep steps at a time, and then kicking off the wall to reach the other side of the ruined platform, he began blasting off upward as soon as he got a steady foothold. Shots ricocheting off the narrow angle, he directed his attention downward for a moment.
   The hole that the tumbling bell had torn in the bottom of the tower had, unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you looked at it, done nothing to destabilize its structure. The church seemed built in a rather new style, meaning that it was both large and stable and nothing of the flimsy structures of old, with reinforced mortar and a number of tricky architectural designs to stabilize its structure. This of course meant that in order to topple the tower, one would have to take out its bottom, and knock out a considerable hole in the side. And determining from the amount of free space available, and knowing one's physics, Stygian could immediately tell that the blast from one of his cylinders would be completely insufficient to take out that support, seeing as how it would be deflected inward by the wall. There would be a lot of noise, just like from his guns which even then were hurting his ears, in spite of the plugs he'd inserted, but very little bang. However, there was one possible shot; a pile of rubble that was left of that first level he was standing on and the floor. If he could drop that cylinder into that rubble... It was a last way out, but he knew every option should be considered.
   The man let up firing when his clips ran out, and ejected them, slipping them quickly into his coat pockets. What am I going to do when I run out, here? he thought. Four clips left. The other gun's out; I'm going to have to clean that later... Idly, he felt the side of his face. The skin was badly burnt, and he felt a stinging sensation in his right eye. Shit. I guess I'll have no choice but to do things the hard way. S.A.H.L.EN.A's got all the heavy guns right now... So I guess that means demolish the tower, or go up close and personal. He slapped two new clips into place.
   'Give it up, golem. You've only got a couple of minutes left, at most. Why don't you do yourself a favor and quit now, before I tear some real chunks out of you?' Stygian said loudly, coarsely and with a hint of smugness to his voice.

[TheGreyRonin]

 The Queen stepped into the ice valley and for a moment was taken aback, before anger flushed through her. Her kind despised cold, and though they could survive in it, it was not their ideal habitat.

Digging her hind talons into the ice to anchor her, she began casting about electrically and psychically for her opponent. Small puffs of warmer air plumed from her mouth as her arms unfolded, ready to grapple or rend as needed.

There! Her opponent was atop an icefall, too far away for a direct attack yet closer than expected. The Queen noted the wings and new form she faced, and remembered older battles with beasts of the air.

Her crest raised in the cold air slightly, and warm blood pumped into two ducts alongside her throat, swelling them with fluid. With a wet organic sound, she also deposited a single egg on the ice beneath her, her tail curling around to keep it steady as it froze in place.

It was time to test her opponent. she opened her mouth and let loose a massive echoing hiss-roar, hoping to crack the ice and perhaps bury her enemy beneath.

[Boog]

"Cowards talk in place of action," came the gargoyle's reply, wincing as more bullets peppered his hide. Echoes in the tower made it difficult to pinpoint his location... for one with average hearing, "Warriors take action and say nothing at all." With that a hoof dislodged yet more support beams and stone, followed swiftly by Siolen.
His wing had been damaged by Stygian's bullets, and the insubstantial not-wings that he could call upon where scaled-up replicas of his own, but surprisingly that worked in his favor. Whirling down through the air like a child's toy spinner thanks to the chunks missing from his left wing the gargoyle zigzagged downward like a dervish, firing off a few more blasts of tar as covering fire. He fell through the hole the bell had smashed, dismissed the ragged wings, and vanished into the darkness below. I'll have one chance at this. I shall have to thank this Stygian fellow later. This shall make for an excellent story.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel spotted the alien form just as it let out a screech. Tossing a bolt of lighting at the creature as a distraction she launched herself upwards and away from the cracking ice. Once airborne she began using her magic to stir up a storm. Wind filled with stinging sleet roared down the valley, coating everything it passed over in a glaze of ice.

[Stygian]

Cowards. Heh. Nicely said, but not accurate at all. Sorry, construct, the man's thoughts went, even as the creature he was fighting descended in a flurry of burning tar. Holding his fire and making a dash, Stygian dodged the steaming sprays by passing under the line of fire. Siolen was falling fast and spinning more slowly, which left gaps in his firing range. Some are just giving an impression.
   When the flying gargoyle had just passed the hole at the bottom of the tower, Stygian leaped down along the wall and crouched atop the rubble, quickly looking at the interior of the cathedral from an angle. There didn't seem to be very many places, save a few alcoves and a balcony off to the right, to which he could make his way. So it came down to either showing off just how easily he could break a fall and chasing Siolen down, or using a bit of his abilities to get to a high point. Seeing as the latter was in his own interest, he made up his mind in that split second there was. He slipped his guns back into their holsters, practically ripped his gloves off and stuffed them in his pocket, then timed the grenade and deposited it in a crack in the rubble, and threw himself against the other side of the opening. Grabbing the stone ledge was hard, but once he'd gotten a grip he began scaling, until he could safely leap and land at the balcony leading to the organist's entryway with a small flip, a bit clumsily with his boots but steadily enough. From there on it was a tumble, as the explosion behind him rattled the place and peppered the surroundings with rocky shrapnel, blowing a considerable hole in the structure above. The man scrambled forward practically on all fours, his coat flowing like a ragged cape. He would only have seconds, if even that, if the tower did collapse, and didn't keel over in the other direction as it should.

[Boog]

The whole structure groaned like a thing in pain, mortar and gravel falling this way and that as the bell tower slowly drifted to the side as it fell. Based on imperfect memory though the place was, gravity still held sway here until otherwise informed.
Siolen looked around, briefly. He watched Stygian's leap, heard the blast of the grenade...
... Saw the spattered burn on the man's face. Aha!
He reacts before he sees me.
His bullets find me by instinct.
He finds me with no light or clues beyond sound.
AND HE MADE THAT JUMP WITH NO DEPTH PERCEPTION.
He was right. Now to see if that would help him.
The bell had smashed through the floor of the bell tower and slammed into the bishop's throne, crushing it. That was a shame; Siolen remembered it as a well crafted work. However, he had no time for such thoughts. He scrambled out of his own hiding place in the choir seats and leaped for the bell.
CLONNNNNNNG! One hoof connecting with the bell toward the top, audible throughout this whole structure over the scream of failing masonry. After all, it had landed in the one place where the speaker was meant to be heard by the entire congregation. The bell fell to the side, opening facing away from the cross behind the twisted wood, stone, and precious metal that once made up the throne.
CLONNNNNNNG! Another hoof, punching a hole in the other end of the bell. More rubble fell from above, which Siolen raised his arms against as he stepped up to the bell and leaned forward.
A bell with an opening at the small end, in the once place in the building that was meant for sound to carry to all. An amplifier from hell, for an enemy with so little concern for their eyes...
Siolen growled, letting the sound carry through his makeshift megaphone to every corner of the cathedral. His voice rose in volume, culminating in a roar that shook the entire structure to its foundation. It was heard over the avalanche of the ruined bell tower, booming through the cathedral...

[Stygian]

Stygian only had a short blink of a moment to get up from his forward dash, before a head-splitting toll rocked the entirety of the cathedral, and made the man clasp his hands around his ears. He could filter out the background noises of a city, or withstand the high-pitched whines of gates, tracks or treads, or even turbines or jet engines. But the bell's crushing, reverberating ring passed right through his earplugs and made their way right into his head. The man raised a screaming roar that split the moment in before the next banging toll, and then the irregular growl that caused him to dig his fingernails into his very skin. You son of a bitch! SON OF A BITCH! he cried out in his head, words that did not really translate to his throat. Half Stygian's world was shaking, the other half, the one he could still feel reliably, was still shocked and disoriented. Frantically he began searching, black eyes spreading fine veins around them and his mind scanning the surroundings as well as he could, as he pushed himself to his feet, defying the dizzying pain in his ears.
   Where?! The podium! From the side...! High...! Wall...! Hard, can't...! Aaaaargh...! The thoughts rushed through Stygian's head, and daring the pain, he removed his hands to swing himself down from the balcony. He had to get around, out of the way of the noise. Thus, attacking Siolen from the side or behind was the only possible option. And to get around, he had to go around the wall, circumnavigating the podium in less time than Siolen could react in. It would have seemed an impossible task to a normal man. But Stygian didn't even hesitate.
   The hard stone plate took the man's high fall from having jumped right over the balcony and down off the side of the wall mutely, yet it still trembled a bit under his feet. Hard boots not stopping, Stygian whipped out one gun as he dashed forward and to the right, beginning to fire off a volley of strafing shots. He actually ran up onto the wall and then kicked off it, leaping fast and high over Siolen's head before he came down right beside the bell with a smash, and then kicked the thing aside so hard that it flew off the podium, rolling and tumbling down into the benches below. With the gargoyle right in front of him, he spun and continued the kick with his other foot, aiming for the stone creatures chest with a kick that would lift the construct off the floor.

[TheGreyRonin]

 The Queen barely had time to register the bolt which hit her, sending writhing blue-white tendrils of energy across her body. She roared in pain and anger as her opponent began working her magics, and began to move, plumes of warm air coming from the four rib-like spines on her back.

As the ice storm built, then swept over her, she lifted her tail high, curling it at an odd angle at shoulder height. She raised both of her upper arms high, and went immobile.

Within seconds she was glazed in ice, a thin shell of it encasing her massive form. She remained still, only allowing her senses to range outwards, feeling and tasting for her enemy through the unnatural storm.

[Cogidubnus]

 To the surprise of his other two companions, Cog walked out of the bar and into the area outside, following the dragon and stopping around the edge of the circle. And almost instantly took a step back as the arena there took on the characteristics of a glacier, the cold almost knocking the wolf over.

So far, Mel seemed to be doing very well, keeping far away from the alien queen and using her range to her advantage. The slinging, stinging sleet that the dragon had summoned was covering everything in a layer of glittering ice - including the queen herself. Cog raised an eyebrow at the Queen's sudden contortion. She hadn't even tried to dodge it...

The wolf looked again for the dragon, trying to spot her through the magically-produced storm, and wondered what she might do next...

[Boog]

Finally! Visible results; the man bellowed in pain at every sound. Siolen roared louder, shaking the room further...
The man was still mobile. Wasn't letting the pain crush him. He was trying to get around the blast of sound, and moving fast. The gargoyle spat a few blasts of tar, missing by inches. And then Stygian was before him, shunted the bell aside, and aimed a kick at the Defender's chest.
Siolen did come off the floor, yes. However, being made of stone, he didn't go very far off of it. Landing and digging his hooves into the tile below them as the force of the hit carried him a little further. The sounds of destruction took over the cathedral again as the bell tower fell, the ceiling crumbling in greater and greater chunks. Cracks spiderwebbed across the gargoyle's torso, the bell he'd been able to make some progress with as a weapon lying discarded behind his enemy. He had no plan. No traps left to set. No place to retreat to.
Siolen grinned, tar-stained fangs glistening. Finally, the kind of fight he wanted to have.
The gargoyle charged, one last desperate rush against an enemy who had shrugged off everything thrown at him, aiming to grapple the man rather than going for the impossible bell. Arms wrapping around Stygian intending to crush, the blade on the tail scything over the gargoyle's shoulder like that of a scorpion. The black eyed man, the crumbling cathedral's degradation speeding up by the second.
"What a story I shall have to tell! My thanks, Sir Stygian!"

---

Boog kept his eyes on the dragon, sparing the other circles a glance as the other fights went on. Ian and Sylvie's use of their respective weapons was rather nice, and he could only guess how the other two had managed to bring down the whole cathedral. Then again, I've never seen him be all THAT subtle, even when just 'limbering up.'
However, he liked what he saw in the fight of the alien and the dragon. He remembered Mel fondly from... other events, but also remembered seeing little of her true form. She really was quite graceful. When she was, you know, manipulating the very elements to rain doom upon her enemies.
And then, clever Queenie playing possum. Oh, this would be interesting.

[Stygian]

Stygian's obsidian eyes widened in fury and incredulity at the gargoyle's reaction. Was he insane?! He had to be thinking irrationally. Probably he was too gripped by the surroundings and the rush of the fight. Or maybe he was just an idiot. Either way, it was nothing that Stygian really thought about. What he was concerned with was getting out of the grip of that demented stone thing.
   Before the two had entered the circle, they had agreed to fight until either gave up. Now, with the tower and ceiling caving in right above them, it looked as if they were both going to end up dead. Stygian did not know what happened if you died within a circle. But he knew exactly what the golem was doing, and he was furious about it. And you have the guts to talk about cowardice! he fumed in his mind. But he was not about to be defeated by some lowly creature like this. Throwing his head back, he took one last glance at the crumbling ceiling. And then he snapped forward.
   The man's head hit Siolen's stone brow with jarring speed and surprising hardness, and the strength with which he resisted the grip was decidedly inhuman. A dark line splitting on his forehead and equally dark blood beginning to seep out, the black-eyed man snarled, and then thrashed backwards again, putting his boots to the gargoyle's chest. He pushed, and flew backwards, landing and tumbling hard on the stone floor. And fueled by rage and adrenaline, he ran, fast and hard, to escape the destruction.

[Boog]

That last kick did it. Siolen's endurance was at its end. More cracks spread across the gargoyle's brow and chest, green light of the spells that animated him glowing through in places.
This is how a fight is meant to end, if you fail. Lying there and wheezing, throwing your weight to try to land upon your enemy when you know you're going to fall. It's how warriors fight.
This Honor Circle... I'll never lack for stories again!
"I concede."
The cathedral faded away, remains of falling timber going insubstantial and passing through both fighters. The circle returned to normal size with one man standing and one lying on the ground.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The dragon landed on a spire of granite, a small distance behind and to the left of the creature. There was a better landing spot in front, but there was no advantage to looking face on to a thing with no readable face and which was so alien that it's body language meant nothing. Presuming that it jumped forwards better than it did backwards behind and above was a much better place to be. Keeping the storm winds blowing their icy needles across the valley Mel launched a few spears of magically enhanced ice at the Queen to see just how frozen she really was.

[Stygian]

The end of the fight shocked Stygian, as much as he wanted to deny it. The swift, dizzying change of environment and then his stumble forward out of the ring to a stop, followed by him spinning around and narrowing his eyes at Siolen, all betrayed his thoughts. He took a few seconds to settle, then sighed and straightened his coat. Lastly he pulled out his pocket watch, and glanced at it. Eleven minutes, twenty-four seconds. Good time, for that sort of opponent, he thought. But it was not really all praise. Especially not when seeing how things had ended.
   'I guess that is it then,' Stygian said, finally, sparing a few moments to glance at the other battles that were taking place. 'Thank you for the match.' He made a minimal, hasty bow toward Siolen, then picked up one of his gloves which had fallen out of his pocket during the maneuvers, stuffed it in his pocket, and turned sharply on the spot, walking up and back inside the bar. Scowling, he took off his coat and threw it on a stool, extracting another pocket watch from it before seating himself next to it, and ordering up another drink. 'Jägermeister and Red Bull, please,' he said with a tense jaw, and then set about looking at the two timepieces in his hand.

[techmaster-glitch]

   As the cloaked hunchback walked through the hallways of the sleeping rooms, he kept an eye on the going-ons outside, through the wooden wall. He stopped at Room 5, and reached out through the middle fold of his cloak to the handle with a pure-white furred left hand, but didn't open it. He stood there, watching the battles outside on levels of the electromagnetic spectrum, and a few other things besides, that normal eyes certainly couldn't. He could even hear most of what was happening with one ear, though it was still difficult to make out any dialogue.
  Eventually, one of the fights came to an end. It was the battle between the strange man designated as [Stygian] and the gargoyle designated as [Siolen]. To the cloaked hunchback's dissapointment, [Stygian] won. For some reason, [Styian] just rubbed this man the wrong way. The man just shook his head under his hood, then opened the door to Room 5, and entered, to see what kind of accomodations the [Honor Circle In] had to offer.

[Angel]

Sylvie was caught for a moment when her staff hit Ian's pipe with a loud clang. She wasn't so surprised she didn't notice the swing to her left, though. She jumped back from the rat's strike, finding her balance before she answered.

"I guess not," she responded. "But it's become clear to me that fighting with someone who can't move is a little boring. So..." At this she paused and aimed her staff at Ian's feet again, muttering a spell to unwrap his legs. She changed her hand position so she was holding her weapon like a bo staff, and crouched into a defensive stance. "From here on in, I'll try to keep it a fair fight."

[lucas marcone]

"Ok with me i guess." Ian in an unexpected move of either utter brilliance or stupidity threw his pipe with all his might at sylvie. He ran up to her and was in the middle of the drop kick that would provide the answer.

[TheGreyRonin]

 As soon as the next attack was launched, the Queen made her move. Using the weight of the ice to give her momentum, she cracked the shell around her with her tail, bringing the deadly blade sweeping down and from the right to where her opponent was.

At the same time she leaned right to both give herself more leverage and to cause the fresh assault to strike only glancingly. Thanks to the ice storm, her upper hands were now full of jagged, fresh ice, which she whipped in a double handful to her left and rear at the dragon.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel snarled and leaped upwards, wings straining. She had miscalculated the length of the monster's tail and had a slash across one forearm as the penalty. Dragons were supposed to have impenetrable hide, why the hell was she always coming across beasts who didn't know this? The ice bounced almost harmlessly off the dragon's chest as she rose above the battlefield. Angry at the pain in her arm and the bruise on her chest she sprayed the area with her ice breath before rising high above the nearby peaks. She circled once. Spotting what she needed she plummeted. Mel hit a ledge of ice hard, wings and flight magic burdened with the effort to pull her back up again as the edge of the glacier split away. Heavy chunks of ice tumbled towards the valley.

[TheGreyRonin]

 The ice breath affected the Queen more than she liked, slowing down her reflexes. Instead of following up her attack with another physical assault, she shook off the effects.

The rumble from farther up the valley caused her to whip her head up, and if she had possessed eyes, they would have widened. Her own tactics turned against her!

She leaped for the walls of the valley, her talons digging deep into the ice and scrabbling tiny sparks from stone outcrops as she frantically climbed her way up to avoid the onslaught of ice.

She reached safety on the ledge above, but barely, and not without cost. Several of the smaller chunks had caused small cracks in her exoskeleton here and there, and one massive hunk had flown high to neatly clip the blade of her tail off like a runaway bus severing a parking meter.

Acid blood dripping from wounds already sealing closed, the Queen scanned the skies for her opponent.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel was swooping overhead, taking a moment to make some adjustments to her weather magic.  A thunderstorm was easy enough to whip up out of her freezing rain clouds and the winds were already ferocious, but it was taking longer to cool the clouds to the point where the freezing rain would turn into large hailstones.  While she waited for the change in weather to take effect she kept her opponent busy by throwing ice spears at her. Unfortunately they weren't particularly well aimed due to the cut on her arm.

[Angel]

Sylvie blocked the thrown pipe easily, the metal weapon clanging off her staff and spinning off to the side. She was still holding her staff out when Ian tried to kick her in the chest. She avoided any damage from the kick itself, but she was knocked backward. As she fell, she reached out a hand at the rat, and aimed a blast of pure magic energy at him. This wasn't quite as risky as it sounded; the most it ever did was knock someone backward and sting a lot. But it hopefully would knock him far enough for her to have time to get up and attack.

[TheGreyRonin]

 The Queen swept a few of the spears aside with a massive arm, though one managed to puncture her thorax just below her lower left arm, making her keen in pain and anger.

Snarling, she whipped the still-bleeding stump of her tail up and around, sending a spray of acid blood scything at her opponent. She roared and hunkered down on all fours, angling her chin upwards, gauging her opponent's movements.

[lucas marcone]

Ian was sent on his rear giveing Sylvie anough time to get up. However the rat was not without his tricks as well. He dumped a small cylinder on the ground. after that Sylvie saw nothing but white for a few moments, giveing Ian enough time to get to his feet as well. "Gotta love those Flashies, now let's see if those martial arts lessons paied off." His hands went high and in a position that would protect his vital points when needed. He brought a heel straight up to Sylvie's stomac.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel screamed as a few drops of blood hit her wing and burned through. Her graceful flight wobbled quite a bit, but she didn't crash. Most of her flight ability was magic based, her wings mainly for steering. Then the hail storm finally started and Mel wrapped herself in a magical shield to protect herself from the barrage of hits from the large balls of ice. She threw a lot more magical energy into the storm, increasing it's violence.

[Stygian]

Muttering under his breath, Stygian could not care less about the duels raging outside, it seemed. Not that he seemed to be paying heed to much else but those two watches in his right hand, and the drink that he occasionally lifted to his lips. After having studied the timepieces, if that was what they were, for some time, he finally put the one into his pocket while keeping the other in his hand. He twisted one dial, and then wound it up, dangling the golden thing from the chain as he finished his drink.
   Perhaps a couple of minutes had passed when the man turned a bit on his stool, leaning on the counter and saying the first coherent and audible words since he'd ordered his drink. 'Well. That certainly was less pleasant than I had hoped.'

[Boog]

Boog set out more of the demanded drinks, quirking an eyebrow at Stygian's demeanor. Didn't strike him as the sort to sulk after a victory, "Can't all be masterpieces Styggy. Sometimes the fighters just hit each other." With that reminder, he went out to inspect the gargoyle.

Siolen HURT. In the rush of combat he didn't feel too much of it (he'd be the first to admit he was a bit of a berzerker) but after the adrenelene had worn off he found himself wondering if moving his legs was really worth it. And then the barkeep was standing over him...
"The medical facilities cost-"
Not even letting him finish the sentence Siolen slapped some coins whose age rivaled his own into the barkeep's waiting hand. The effect was immediate.

"Hey!" Boog shouted back toward the bar, "Free round for whoever helps me get Gravel-Butt here inside!"