Darkness from Darkness

[Deleted]

Description: This thread is not closed, but it is the middle of the night, somewhat deep in the woods. You better have a legitimate reason to join.

After a hard day of mind numbing work, Torin was relieved to have a nice rest. He cooled down drank water, and acquired his tome from its hiding place. The moons were bright, the ring just at the edge of the horizon, it was quite a beautiful night, perfect for practicing his arts. Torin isn't a particularly stealthy person, but he did not wish to be followed, and tried to watch for any who might do so. After a good half hour trek into the woods, he came to the clearing where he would oft come to practice.

He had yet to master any real spells, for now he was working more with concepts while he attempted to decipher Teachers formulae. He still needed to learn to draw the magic to him, to offer up something equivalent to what he was receiving. Learning to channel the magic in the world around him seemed like a decent place to start. All around him were shadows of trees and bushes, he himself might even make a potential source of magic. He needed to learn what was suitable to draw from and what was not, especially for the type of magic he was attempting to master. He had the potential within himself, the mage-hunters had said as much, his teacher the same.

Torin stood in the clearing and focused on the world around him, trying to draw in the darkness from the world around him in a meaningful way.

Practicing Channeling:

[Khamat]

Khamat stalked the woods, he was making his way back around the long way to have a look at the human village. He had been interested to see if they had anything worth raiding for, or if they would be any threat to the clan, they were rather a long way off though, it'd taken him several days to get to the village, and for it all he'd found nothing particularly worth the work, although he had seen some things that vaguely interested him which might lead to him bringing a small force back later in the month and seeing what they could do.   

Khamat was using the woods to track his position, climbing up the smaller trees whenever he could to look up at the moon and check that he was on the right track to get to the clan's current abode, and he had been on the right track now for some while, it looked like as far as things went this could be a fairly easy job.

Seeing as it was an easy job he didn't need to devote much attention to it so his mind wandered to other things, a mental checklist was being made in his mind about what they would need to somehow get hold of if his plans were to work. For one they'd need some decent iron for weapons, and preferably a decent smith to make them as well, but that would be hard to come by as they didn't have one in the clan meaning most likely they'd have to kidnap a human. They also needed more food, more water, better shelters, preferably a place to settle down permanently , if they settled permanently and created themselves a strong enough position then surely it'd be fine, a few small villages wouldn't bother them and they could expand and grow more, but at this particular moment in time that was nothing more than a dream.

And due to the fact that he'd been paying very little attention to where he'd been going, Khamat wandered into a small clearing.....already taken up by a certain human....Instantly he froze for several seconds in shock, he hadn't expected to find one quite so far out from the village as he was, it had caught him by surprise.

Khamat recovered quickly and dropped low, holding himself tough as if he were preparing for a fight, which considering it was him, it was very strong possibility although it would depend on what the human did, maybe he would just drop dead from fright right there and then.

[Deleted]

Torin was so focused on his sorcery that he failed to notice the lumbering creature that entered into the clearing, also he had not really expected anyone to come from deeper within the wood so the little attention he had given to keeping alert had been focused in the opposite direction. When it entered the clearing though, the creature quickly came to his attention. A lanky, but massive bipedal lizard thing, he vaguely recalled reading about something of the like in the past, but he couldn't be sure if it was in fact the same type of creature here.

It was wearing shorts, clothing then, a sign of intelligence; but it was also crouched low as if in anticipation of a fight a sign of aggression. Torin was unsure how much the beast had seen, how much it understood of what it had seen, or if it was even capable of conveying what it had seen. The creature certainly wasn't a mage-hunter, perhaps he could be reasoned with. The claws and teeth were rather intimidating, but Torin was not without combat skills if it came to that. He quickly recovered his book and placed it on his person. Then making his best attempt at being unimposing he called out to the creature, "What's your business here?"

[Khamat]

The human made no move to attack Khamat, it seemed that as things currently stood they were at a stalemate of sorts, neither wanted to make the first move incase it would be the one that enraged the other and began a fight, the winner of which would be unpredictable.

Khamat looked closer at the human, it seemed he had interrupted something that the human had been doing, when he'd seen Khamat's arrival the human had hidden something, what was it he had been doing and why had he hid it as soon as Khamat had emerged. That was of little consequence though to the Skaldi chieftain, he was more concerned with how this particular encounter was going to end. If he was to bloody his claws tonight he would rather it were over with quickly considering he had to get back as quick as he could, he had people waiting for him back in the clan's current camp.

The human seemed to back down, it looked very much like a display of submittion to the Skaldi, as if the human was trying to look weak in hopes he'd be left alone, was it an act or was the man seriously to weak for Khamat to even bother wasting the time to kill him.

And then he started speaking, it was a language the Skaldi didn't understand, presumably human language, a strange combination of sounds all jumbled together at once, so it seemed that regular speech wasn't going to work to well for them as communication. Khamat snarled at the human, partially as annoyed with himself as he was with having met the man, they couldn't speak the same language, he (or someone in the clan) should probably make the effort and learn their language, it would be absolutely priceless for a million different uses....especially for situations such as the ones that were occuring at that particular moment in time.

Khamat stared at the human, taking one small step forwards towards him, trying to do so in as non-threatening a manner as he could, if he was going to have to attack the human then at the very least he should make it look like he wasn't so that they didn't see it coming, and at the best then hopefully he wouldn't have to.

[Deleted]

The creature was clearly intelligent. It recognized Torin's body language, a good sign if there ever was one. It had not responded to the inquiry, perhaps it did not speak cruic, or perhaps it had ulterior motives that did not involve communicating with the human standing before him. Torin did not drop his guard if anything he tensed up as the beast stepped towards him. Unconsciously he aligned himself with the beast, creating a smaller profile in case it rushed him. He was unsure how he would stand up to such a terrifying creature, his nerves were on fire.

He should have acquired a blade, he would feel much more confident in this situation. As it stood, it appeared as if he would have to go at the skaldi with his bare hands if it came down to it. Fists vs massive claws, 6ft vs 7ft, thick skin vs unprotected flesh, Torin sized the beast up in his mind and the results of a confrontation did not seem very promising for the Torin. He himself returned the step forward towards the Skaldi. "Do! You! Speak! Cruic?"

[Khamat]

The human seemed to be readying himself, Khamat had been in enough fights that he could see what was happening, the human was sizing him up, considering his chances and weighing up the odds of him coming out of the fight with either a win or a loss. Personally from Khamat's point of view it didn't look like the human had much chance as he looked unarmed and appeared to have considerably thinner and weaker skin than the Skaldi. He fancied his chances in all fairness, things were looking as if they'd go in Khamat's favour although one couldn't always be sure of it. 

The human took a step towards him, this time forgetting the weak appearance and looking slightly more emboldened, it was interesting as it almost appeared as if the weakness earlier was a facade, it almost appeared as if the human was trying to challenge Khamat to a fight. What kind of chief would he be if he backed down, then it would be the pride of the Flametongues that would be on the line. 

And then as if that wasn't enough, the human started shouting at him, four distinct syllables said rather loudly, was he being insulted, it sounded as if the human was asking a question but that could have been anything between, "Do you want Dragonfruit chips?" to, "Fight me now motherfucker" It could mean so many different things.  

In response to this, Khamat decided to growl slightly at the human, it seemed like the best thing to do considering the fact that they couldn't properly understand each other. It would hopefully scare the human away, humans that were running tended to be much easier targets. 

---

Khamat uses Intimidation I to try and intimidate Torin into fearing him more or something....you know what i don't really know imma just try and be intimidating now. 

[Deleted]

The beast continued to press forward, and didn't seem to respond well to Torin's shouting at it as the beast growled in return revealing a set of dangerous teeth. It seemed to be threatened by Torin, a good sign in his favor. Torin also knew not to turn his back to an animal with bared teeth, better to face it head on than to give it your back. Torin no longer saw this encounter ending peacefully, perhaps it was for the better, whether the beast was intelligent or not, it had possibly witnessed him in the process of using dark arts.

Might as well attempt to get in the first blow against the beast. What Torin wouldn't do right now for a sword, a dagger, any sort of blade really... Oh well, he would have to make do with his fists. Torin closed the distance between himself and the Skaldi, attempting to punch through the beast as he got in range. Then he prepared to dodge the beasts retaliation.

---

|STR:10 V:10 AG:10 CH:10 ST:10 T:10 D:10 EN:10 P:10 K:10|
|300/300HP|2/20SM|110/110MP|
Combat:
Action 1: Close distance
Action 2: Punch (duelist I)
Action 2.5: Dodge
Action 3: Dodge

(Stamina, -3 for posts, -5 for moving, -5 for attacking, -5 for dodging)

[Khamat]

The human moved in much closer to Khamat, closer than was necessary for much other than attacking, and seeing as how things had been going before he pretty much assumed that he was about to be attacked. The first punch came in aiming for the Skaldi, it appeared as if the man had fought before from his fairly solid stance. 

Khamat ignored the fact that this human was punching him, surely the human couldn't actually do much damage to him anyway, their fists were quite fleshy and what wasn't flesh was bone, bone that was fairly easy to break all in all. Khamat instead opted for a much more vicious approach, forgoing defence in face of the human attack and instead going for the attack. As the human launched his first punch Khamat launched his own several seconds later, a strong punch that if all went to plan would crack into his forehead and hopefully do some damage. 

This first punch would then be followed up (whether it hit or not) by Khamat firing off a solid uppercut that would aim to hit into the upper chest of his opponent, followed by Khamat trying to grab his opponent by the neck 

---

1st action: Punch aimed at head
2nd action: Punch aimed at chest
2rd action: Attempts to grab opponent 

10 in all stats
HP:200/200
MP:110/110
SM: 2/20

[Azuloth]

Sequence of events:
Torin misses.
Khamat Misses.
Khamat Hits: 10 Dmg on Torin.
Khamat Grabs Torin.

Torin: 190/200 HP

[Deleted]

Torin managed to miss the lithe beast with his punch, it had reach on him. He dodge the first blow that would have knocked him pretty good in the head, but failed to notice the blow that knocked the wind out of him until it was too late. Reeling for breath, Torin was unable to avoid the beast as it reached for Torin's throat. Torin was choking in the beasts grasp, his energy spent almost entirely in that first burst of his attack he was hardly able to resist.

It appeared that his foe was in a similar situation, they were both horribly out of shape it appeared. It appeared the fight would be over before it even began, a draw. With his sword he doubted that would have been the case, he needed to continue working on his physical abilities he felt quite pathetic for already reaching this point of exhaustion so early in a duel. Were his opponent not equally weak, Torin would very likely be dead in the next few moments. He still may be with the beasts fingers wrapped around his throat. He pulled almost helplessly at the beasts claws, trying to remove them from his throat.

---

|STR:10 V:10 AG:10 CH:10 ST:10 T:10 D:10 EN:10 P:10 K:10|
|190/200HP|1/20SM|110/110MP|

Flail around in the skaldi's grasp -1 stamina.

[Khamat]

Khamat had succeeded, he'd missed his first punch, overextending and the first punch swinging wildly and missing the human by a fair amount, the second one hitting exactly as planned, knocking the wind out of him so that he was unable to respond as Khamat grabbed him by the neck. It was incredible the rush he felt from fighting like this, he hadn't been hit yet so as it was he was enjoying this fight but there was one major issue which was holding him back a lot and which seemed to be effecting the human rather a lot as well.

Khamat and the human were bother shattered, both seemed to have spent most of their energy in their first blows and as such were now completely spent, both not realising till now apparently just how unfit they were exactly. It was incredible really how Khamat seemed to have let himself go so much after defeating Savrak, that fight had been much more vicious and yet he'd felt nothing coming out the other end of it. Yet this time he was almost done from just a couple of punches, he would need to work on that, it was slightly embarrassing. 

The only good side of this is that obviously as the human was in the exact same state in terms of neither of them looking as if they could carry on much longer, so neither of them could judge the other particularly. Khamat released the hand around the human's neck, allowing him to flop whilst Khamat himself wheeled backwards for a few steps, eyes boring daggers into the human. Although he couldn't say it as they had no way of verbally communicating, the look he was giving his opponent was one that he hoped he would understand. They would finish this at some other time. 

Khamat wheeled backwards yet held himself up, unwilling to be the first one to leave, he would not be the first one to back down. 

---

10 in all stats

HP:200/200

MP:110/110

SM: 1/20 -1

[Deleted]

The beast realized their mutual predicament casting Torin aside. There was nothing they could really to one another at this point, and Torin was not one to let pride get in the way of his survival. He took what little energy he had left, walking to the edge of the clearing and disappearing into the woods, where after a few steps he collapsed, just out of view of the lizard man. As his vision faded he merely had the thought that he really, really needed to exercise more, despite his wood cutting endeavors he had let himself go in the previous weeks.

Perhaps his night time forays had simply left him exhausted when taken in the context of his wood cutting. Perhaps a better sleep cycle would be more conducive to his survival in the future. He needed to acquire his own place and his own wealth, perhaps in that way he would not have to work so hard to conceal his nature.

---

|STR:10 V:10 AG:10 CH:10 ST:10 T:10 D:10 EN:10 P:10 K:10|
|190/200HP|0/20SM|110/110MP|

Walking into the woods -1 stamina and unconsciousness achieved... hopefully my body will not be ravaged by the beasts of the woods before I awake and make my way back to my shed

---

Torin Out

[Khamat]

Khamat waited until the human was successfully out of his view then retreated backwards through the trees, trying not to look to weak in sight of the human, he had to maintain the appearance of strength for the pride of his clan, even if on the inside he felt as if he could drop at absolutely any second.

It was infuriating to always have to keep up appearances, it was a part of being in charge that he didn't like, people tend to judge a people by it's leader, and so he had to keep up appearances of being a strong leader who wont falter for anything, he had to look strong even if he felt weak, he had to keep it up. Khamat trudged backwards, standing still by only sheer willpower, but he barely got 10 metres before he dropped to his knees, having just enough strength left in him so that he could pull himself up to the base of a tree and partially rest himself on it.

And then his eyes dropped, and his vision faded to black, he knew that he would wake up eventually but it was anyone's guess as to when.

---

0 Stamina, unconsciousness achieved, thread is over