Re: Cleric in the Valley of Death [Open]

[Professor Velox]

However, before Gwain and Jensen could go far, the King made another announcement. "There, uh, there has been a ch-change in plans. One of you...um." There was a pause, as if the King were trying to decide who he was talking about. "The one with the blood red eyes, yes you, will face a new contestant. This is a special round, wh-which means yo-you will have full access to your armory and it is highly re-recommended that you go all out in this ma-match or you might regret it." Unlike before, where his voice was joyous and carefree, there was definitely a nervous edge to it now.

Shirou walked into the arena. He was wearing a torn up and dirty tunic. His face had dirt on it. He looked around the arena. Murmurs of uneasiness and confusion spread through the crowds, confused by the King's sudden announcement and different attitude. His eyes then landed on Gwain. Emerald met crimson.

"You better do as the ol' King says," Shirou said, his tone was mocking. Though, not towards Gwain but rather towards the King. He put on a smirk, as if it were all some game and not a slave fighting ring, where people were forced to fight or die. A guard would bring Gwain all of his equipment.

"Be...BEGIN," the King would yell once the arena was clear of everybody but Gwain and Shirou.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain took the arm of his partner and stood up, laughing just as much as he did. That was a way to end an epic fight and it really couldn't have been done without the combined effort of the both of them. Much like Jensen, the king cheered loudly and was quite glad the escapade was over. Now all they had to do was fight a griffin and some third thing immediately after.

"Yeah, good team work, good team work. Now let's get ready for the next one!" The crimson-eyed man said towards his fellow gladiator and started towards the armory. However, something interesting happened. The head honcho of the arena seemed choked up, scared even. He singled out Gwain and explained to him that there was going to be a special round for him. Raising an eyebrow, the man knew that this new match wasn't apart of the deal, but something in his gut was telling him that there was something more going on at the moment. He was permitted his full armaments and was allowed to fight at his full strength.

"Ah, really? Then give me back all my shit! I've been fighting practically naked at this point!" The king announced, laughing after doing so. The man who operated the arena nodded nervously and Gwain went on to get suited up. After doing so, he'd appear to the mystery fighter in his armor, armed to the teeth with his weapons and a big grin on his face. When crimson met emerald, that was when the sparks started to fly.

Activating his Burden, Gwain was prepared to start dealing out the pain. He punched his fists together and got into his stance. Taking it calmly, it was only the king and the green-eyed man. What the ebony-haired man was doing now, was expecting. He was anticipating what sort of move the opponent in front of him would start off with. Spell or initiating close to mid-range combat at the start would give the man a better idea, of how his opponent liked to fight.

[Professor Velox]

The gladiator equipped himself fully, showing armor and weapons. Shirou remained in the dirty tunic, choosing not to get any armor. He couldn't even if he wanted to, because he didn't have any armor. He wasn't really a fan of it. It restricted his movement, and if he moved fast enough, he didn't need anything to project him. Unfortunately, in this situation, Shirou wasn't fast enough and lacked armor. Shirou wasn't even sure if he was capable of winning. After all, this would be the first time he properly fought here, in his new body.

Cautious approach first. Shirou moved his arm as if he were throwing something, and at the last moment, a small throwing knife was created within his hand before letting it fly towards the gladiator. He quickly let loose three more before Eizo, his weapon, formed in his hand, waiting for Gwain's counter.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain continued to wait in his stance and placed his dominant fist behind the fist that he was weakest with. Once the knives were loosed towards him, the man nodded and took careful hops to the side to avoid them as they came. His speed would be rather hard to track, given how fast he was to begin with. After avoiding the knives, the king shot off and aimed to close the distance between he and the man who wore nothing more than a dirty tunic. Gwain bobbed and weaved every now and then as he came close. When the distance between them had closed, the king pulled back his weaker fist with the intent to punch the man square in the face, however, he faked this move and quickly strafed to the side of him, to deliver a spinning roundhouse to the back of his head.

[Professor Velox]

Gwain feinted and quickly, Shirou leaned back, narrowly dodging the roundhouse kick. At the same time, he brought up Eizo in a vertical arc, attempting to have it slam into Gwain's leg, knocking the man off balance.

[Gwain Darkson]

Once Gwain had seen that his attack had missed, the man would quickly use the momentum from his spin with the roundhouse, to come over with his other leg and aimed to the back of the man's neck. This would be done as the man attempted to come down upon his leg with his curved sword.

[Professor Velox]

The gladiator's leg bashed against Shirou's neck. He then Accelerated himself, using the force of the kick, to speed himself up, causing him to roll forward several feet again from Gwain. Shirou stood up, rubbing his neck and turning back around towards the gladiator. His head was ringing and his vision was blurry. "Too new," Shirou grumbled to himself. The gladiator was too fast and strong for Shirou. He'd just have to adapt a strategy to keep him away.

He raised the temperature of his body to a heat that is comparable to that of an open flame. He closed his hands and knives were created between each of his fingers. The blades were engulfed in flames and Shirou moved his arms forward, throwing eight knives at the gladiator.

[Gwain Darkson]

The man bounced on his feet, always ready to move. He watched as the man before him only rolled several feet away, which allowed him to strafe around to his back again, when he attempted to throw the eight flaming knives at him. During the strafe, the king got into a low stance, spun on his heel, then sharply pointed his elbow outward, aiming to strike his opponent right in the spin with the built up momentum and force from his previous spin. If successful, this attack would send the man flying a bit, as Gwain wasn't holding back at all during this fight.

[Professor Velox]

The gladiator wasted no time getting behind him, avoiding his attack. Shirou turned his head, seeing Gwain behind him and where he was aiming to hit him. Shirou Solidified the space before the area that Gwain was going for, causing him to hit that. Shirou wasted no time, ducking down and rolling forward as the flames from the knives he had thrown earlier had left the knives and were shooting towards the gladiator. Shirou jumped to his feet, spinning around and creating as much distance as he could between him and the gladiator.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain smiled when he felt himself hit the solidified space between his strike and the man's back. The king didn't want it to be too easy after all and was quite glad to see some sort of defenses set up. The crimson eyed man felt the fight too one-sided to his liking, but wouldn't dare insult the man before him by going easy on him. Gwain rolled to the side, able to avoid a few of the fires that aimed towards him and had to quickly shield himself by crossing his arms over him and allowing his gauntlets to take the heat. After taking a deep breath and removing his arms from his face, the king was off again.

The man removed the blade, Avalon, from his back, a large greatsword that he was easily able to carry in one hand and still move as fast as he did. The emerald eyed man attempted to put distance between them and the king picked up on this, knowing that his opponent probably wasn't too savvy at close range fighting. Using that to his advantage, Gwin would have effectively closed the distance between them and came in with a quick, two-handed upward swing of the sword, which was swung at an angle and left the blade hanging overhead for him. The strength behind the attack was massive and due to his immense strength, the king was able to unleash the strike without losing much speed behind it. Should his opponent block, he'd be sent reeling quite nicely, but if hit directly, he'd take a terrible slash and be launched high into the air.

[Professor Velox]

As the gladiator swung his blade up towards Shirou, he quickly dodge and rolled to the gladiator's side, breathing in deeply. He then exhaled, blowing a large stream of flames directly towards him, with the intention to engulf his opponent in them. Shirou definitely couldn't go head to head, physically, with Gwain, so he'd have to rely on his inherent abilities. Even then, he was unsure how much damage he could do.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain anticipated that his opponent's first instinct was to roll out the way of his attack. Due to that thought, the man was preemptive in readying his blade overhead. The minute he caught his opponent getting up from a roll and readying to attack, Gwain quickly and efficiently came down upon the man with a powerful vertical slash. He decided to also tank the stream of flames, but knew that in the process of the man performing it and the small distance barely put between them, that the sword would easily hit its mark and cleave the guy from his shoulder down to the rest of his body.

[Professor Velox]

Shit.

Shirou couldn't block fast enough and he couldn't Solidify another barrier that could stop it. However, he wasn't out of options. He still had tricks up his sleeve. Before the man's blade could touch his body, it suddenly stopped, all momentum of the swing vanished in an instant. Shirou quickly jumped back, away from the blade while inhaling once again. He exhaled another stream of flames towards Gwain.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain felt the momentum from his blade stop and he raised an eyebrow. However, he just let the blade crash to the floor afterwards and swung it back onto his back, latching it back into place. He decided that he was better off merely closing the distance and slowly boxing his opponent in. The king started off again, moving fast and hopping to the sides as he dodged the stream of flames. Once again, the distance between them was only about his greatsword's length, which wasn't too big of a distance to begin with. When he closed the gap, the man would come in with a strong, fast uppercut to the ribs of his opponent, after stepped to the side of them. All the while, the length between his opponent and the wall was steadily growing closer together.

[Professor Velox]

Shirou gritted his teeth as Gwain threw the uppercut. It came into contact with his ribs, and Shirou felt them crack. However, this was intention. Shirou grabbed Gwain's arm and heated it up to match his own body heat, which was that of an average Bunsen burner flame. At the same time, Shirou controlled the stream of flames he had shot off just before, arcing them around and having them completely engulf and swallow up Gwain.

---

Conduction: The user is able to instantly heat up any item they come in contact with and heat it up to the same temperature as Energy Creation allows, regardless of the materials the item is made out of. This also burns any connection the item has with the owner (meaning the owner is unable to call upon it).

[Gwain Darkson]

The king felt the burn (ba dum tss) and boy did it hurt. Having his body start burning beyond that it was normally supposed to hurt him a bit, but the stream of flames that came back around burned him even more. Despite the damage he took, it could have been considered no more than moderate thanks to his armor and sturdy body (this is referencing the stream of flames, not the Conduction bit). His opponent was foolish to grab his arm, however, as the man quickly used his free hand to grab the arm that captured his own, then twisted free his capture arm. After doing so, Gwain exercised his superior strength by keeping an extremely strong grip on the opponent and with his dominant hand, would start rapidly punch him in the head region. His punches aimed to break his nose, dislocate and crack the man's jaw, while also disorienting him by hitting him in the back of the head. The king fought through the burns and everything, just to make sure he could keep his opponent rooted in place and continued to deliver his flurry of strong punches to the man's face.

[Professor Velox]

With his armed grabbed by the gladiator, he was stuck and he knew it as he pulled back his arm to punch Shirou in the face. Before the punch could reach him, Shirou suddenly disappeared and reappeared in the center of the arena.

"Apologies," he said with a sigh as there was a flash and a small key appeared in his hand. He twirled the key in his hands and shrugged. There was a flash of light again and the key turned into a keyblade. "That was, unfortunately, the only option I had that was humane and painless. I will try my best not to use such a cheap trick again."

He raised his arm and pointed his keyblade at Gwain, beckoning him to continue the battle.

---

Relocation: The user is capable of sending themselves or any item of his to another location. He can also perform this on another person, though it requires direct contact. There is no range, however the user must have experience in the destination. No cool down. Must relocate entire person or object.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain had lost sight of his opponent momentarily, only to see him return to the center of the arena, drawing a new kind of weapon, one he's never seen before. The king sighed and gave a light chuckle. Having to use Avalon again, the man wrapped his hand around its hilt and drew it with even more conviction. A smile was on his face and he looked towards his opponent.

"Don't be holding back on me now. That'd only work against you after all." He laughed and struck his stance, blade in hand. Tightening the grip upon his blade, he dashed off towards the emerald eyed man, holding the blade in one hand. When enough distance was closed between them, Gwain would get low and went into a spin, delivering a full-powered horizontal slash, going towards the man's waist.

[Professor Velox]

Shirou chuckled and said, "In my opinion, lacking the intent to kill is not necessarily holding back."

Gwain rushed towards him, slashing at him horizontally towards his waist. He crossed Eizo and Calamity, aiming to block the attack. He also Solidified the space right before his blades. Gwain's attacked easily broke through Shirou's solid space he created, however it slowed it down enough for him to block it successfully. Gwain would also find that the weight of his blade would be double than what it would normally be.

---

Solidification: The user is capable of altering the space so it gains the hardness of steel. The user is able to make 1x1 an inch away multiple times without cool down time, however it has a weaker structure, one that resembles titanium.

Heavy: Every time Shirou strikes something with Calamity, its current weight will be doubled. This does not work against himself.

[Gwain Darkson]

That exchange was something Gwain definitely wanted. The moment his opponent had blocked his blade, the king, with a quick hand, tapped the man's intricate looking weapon (Shirou's keyblade). Immediately, the man would be able to feel that his weapon would have doubled in weight and more than likely would have felt just like the giant blade Gwain brandished himself. Not only that, but he would have been able to feel a slight increase on his body as a whole. After that, the king would spin in the opposite direction and came around to his opponent's other side, with another powerful upward swing. The sword this time around was extremely light, lighter than before and this would allow the crimson-eyed man to swing the blade fast enough to the point of where his opponent might have not been able to block or dodge it fast enough.

---

Density Swap: Gwain can swap the density of metals that he comes in contact with. An example is that Gwain touches a rusted piece of metal with one hand, then touches a titanium piece of armor with his other, which causes the densities to swap and makes the titanium armor as weak as the rusted piece of metal. This ability goes on cooldown the post after the first swap is made. (This will also include the fact Shirou doubled the weight of the sword, so now his keyblade is just as heavy as the greatsword, x2 now).

Burden of the King: Gwain possesses a unique aura that has developed into an influence over the natural laws of mass. After every third strike on an enemy, be it their body or blade, Gwain increases the weight of the person x7 pounds. The weight can be stacked four times, adding a total of 195 extra pounds upon a person.

[Professor Velox]

Calamity was suddenly much heavier than it should be and Gwain moved in a way that indicated a light weight weapon, when it should have been the opposite. Gwain spun. Shirou couldn't naturally move fast enough to dodge it. As soon as Gwain had lifted his blade from Shirou's blades, Shirou moved back. he was suddenly boosted backwards, in the direction he was moving, narrowly dodging the upward slash. He dropped his keyblade in the process, as it was too heavy for Shirou to properly maneuver with.

"So, what are the chances where I just win by tiring you out?"

[Gwain Darkson]

After his swing missed, the king simply placed the blade upon his shoulder and grinned. He even let out a hearty laugh when his opponent asked him such a silly question. Smirking, the man shrugged and knew that something was definitely going on with this guy. He struck nervousness into the ruler of the coliseum, summoned an odd weapon and even came to the place unprepared, wearing nothing but tattered clothing. Gwain narrowed his eyes and his smirk disappeared.

"What's your angle, stranger? A sudden match with you and here you are able to stand up to my might quite easily? I don't know about all of that. You're an odd one and I can tell you're much stronger than you're letting on, so tell me, what are you getting out of all of this?" The crimson-eyed man asked, his eyes meeting the emerald of the opponent in front of him. Despite the banter, Gwain hadn't let his guard down not one bit.

[Professor Velox]

The gladiator found Shirou's joke amusing, but the smile dropped and Shirou knew his facade had been seen through. It was to be expected, if this guy was capable of thinking for himself and was more than just a brutish fighter. Shirou smiled, innocently as he relaxed his stance, effectively dropping his guard.

"I was gauging my own limitations," Shirou said with a shrug, Eizo suddenly disappearing, evaporating into darkness. "I am capable of powerful things, but I am not powerful myself."

He turned his head, looking around the coliseum around them. "I was in the process of...cleaning a mess left by somebody else when I discovered this...curious little business. Before I continued my cleaning, I decided to take a break. See what this body can do."

Shirou returned his gaze to the man who faced him, his emerald eyes focusing on crimson eyes. "I forfeit the match. I have no interest in fighting to the death. I don't care for killing much," he said. "If you ever want a rematch, feel free to pay me a visit. I'm just over the river and through the woods."

Without waiting for a reply, Shirou disappeared. His keyblade that had been lying on the ground disappeared as well.

[Gwain Darkson]

Gwain sheathed his gigantic blade once more and chuckled softly. He would fold his arms across his chest and nodded along with the words the man spoke. His opponent was eccentric at best, from what he could tell and seemed totally disinterested in what was going on. However, he was surely powerful and it was something that excited the king. The emerald-eyed man extended a rematch to him, should he ever want to step up to the challenge. Smirking, Gwain nodded and watched as the man simply disappeared.

"I expect to get healed after all of that! This wasn't apart of our deal!"The king said angrily. After all of that, Gwain took his tired body back to the ready area. That was an unexpected match and the man really did want to be healed after that, seeing that not doing so would be cheating on the leader of the arena's part. While inside the man looked for his partner, Jensen, who more than likely was watching his special fight. But even more, a man who was extremely religious, had to put to the sword innocents. Gwain spotted the man grieving over the dead.

Normally, a person like him was used to war. He spent five years in it constantly and had to do a lot of killing. The man made machines alongside his family members, that rained down death and destruction upon those who stood against their idea. Gwain wasn't a good guy, but he wasn't a bad man either. He held sympathy and went over to his partner, placing a firm hand over the man's shoulder. The king had a feeling the fact that he had to kill was sending all the wrong vibes through him.

"Jensen. You're not looking so hot. What's on your mind, partner?" The man asked casually, being the soft voice that the religious worshiper more than likely needed.

[Jensen]

While the two battled, Jensen briefly watched with an arm to the fence. He smiled while still in the trance of victory, but his old self quickly came rushing in. His smile would fade, and his eyes would have a shade of solemn. Dropping his arm from the fence, Jensen turned around and leaned against it. Looking at his hands, he shook in frustration as he realized that he had slain people this day. Humans. He was forced to, but he ended up doing so without resistance. Even using the oil of passage, he still felt terrible on the inside. It churned within, and he was going to pay one day for taking the lives of innocents and not showing mercy to the demons. Jensen slowly made his way over to the corpses. Kneeling before them, Jensen said a prayer for the innocents. He looked at the boys' wounds, knowing that he was the one who caused them. The healer put a hand on Jensen's shoulder, shaking his head. "Damn shame." Jensen nodded, hearing footsteps behind them. "Gwain." Jensen stood up, turning to his mate.

"I killed innocent children. I could feel in their hearts that they weren't evil, they were pure and good. They were likely torn from the surface, and I killed them. Ended their hopes of victory and glory. This arena has none, it doesn't even pale in comparison to Olympus Coliseum. But yet, many lives are lost here and for what?" The healer stepped back, noticing that some guards were tightening the grip on their weapons. "Jensen, calm down." Jensen looked at the healer with rage, but sighed as he realized he was speaking a bit too loudly. "I understand, but they don't, and they have weapons." "Listen to me, Gwain." Jensen leaned in, his eyes intensifying. "We're gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch that runs this." Jensen took a seat nearby, hanging his head in shame and awaiting the next match. "Maybe I should explain why I'm here a little more clearly. I actually came to fight in the proper arena on the surface. I wanted to train to fight properly because I only know the little I was taught. I'm a cleric, I focus on words and blessings. I am less compelled to fight, but I need to know how to strike down the beasts that lurk." Jensen remembered the heartless, the monsters and the bandits. All beasts that lurk in shadows, waiting to take people in their weakest moments.

He was ready to take the head of a demon king when he was weakest. "Once we kill that Griffin, I can use its bladder to make a bomb. For our, uh, next match." Jensen slid his eyes over to the medic before looking back at Gwain. The healer acted ignorant, but knew the intention. "It'll help us in victory." Jensen was moderately versed in the ways of alchemy, and knew a griffin had enough sulfur and other explosive wastes in its bladder that it could be extracted and made into a chemical bomb. Jensen needed to escape before the land of the dead corrupted him further, and he knew exactly how. "Do you have a plan yourself?"

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