HollowEyes/Caton V Endorphine

[Swix]

The Arenas forcefields and holograms activate in preparation for another fight, the large spectator seats surrounding the colossal structure aren't as filled as much as they sometimes were, as many Dojodians had had other business to attend to. But the challengers would soon have a lot more to worry about than the lack of onlookers outside, as inside the Arena the previously bare area changed.

The Arena looked to be the inside of a large and abandoned stone temple, as huge cracks in the roof let in shafts of blinding brilliant sunlight that illuminated the humid soil and broken stone paving that barely covered the ground anymore. Vine like plants crawled up the walls and small flowers and grasses appeared to be taking over the ruined floor. Dominating this sorry sight is a statue so eroded from the ages and weather getting through the cracks it is impossible to see or guess what deity this place might have once belonged to.

In front of the statue is a long dirt path that leads outside and abruptly ends at the sheer drop of a cliff, as though there was once land where there is nothing but air and at the bottom, a swiftly running river.

In the midst of the large area between the statue and the sheer drop stood, if you could call resting on several hundred vine-like tendrils standing, an alien who went by the name Endorphine. His large and insect like eyes being the only facial feature he had, it was rather hard to tell what the Krkrln was feeling or thinking at this point. The dark green plant alien had his two-way radio strapped to him as ever, allowing him to communicate with others in the common tongue, as he had yet to meet anyone bar Utopia that spoke or understood his native language.

[3kul]

Upon entering the arena, HollowEyes made sure to carefully take in his surroundings, mentally noting down every significant detail that he could think of. To most people, it may seem somewhat stupid to allow an opponent to chose the arena that they would fight in, but to HollowEyes this was one of the best ways he knew of to scope out an opponent's strengths and weaknesses. It was only natural to choose a place that maximized your chances at winning, but HollowEyes had come to learn that in revealing their strong points people often revealed their weak points too.

"Bleh, so damp." Caton complained, leaping up to his master's head. As a creature with a rather strong affinity to fire, he didn't particularily enjoy being in places like this. "Yes, but it's also quite earthy too." HollowEyes commented quietly to his pet, shifting his feet in the warm soil that had come to replace the once stone floors of the temple. The Parasitian preferred not to judge based solely on appearances but given how this arena looked and felt it seemed like the perfect place for plants to flourish, which led him to the conclusion that his opponent at the very least had some plant-based abilities, maybe some earth-based ones too. "In one way it gives us an edge, but in another it kind of limits us..." He thought aloud, not able to set on any particular strategy just yet. "Caton, ready yourself, I'm guessing that I'll most likely need to call upon your abilities first." Caton nodded and hopped over to a nearby stone slab, focusing his attention solely on their opponent. "Okay Boss."

Speaking up, HollowEyes addressed the large creature before him. "I am HollowEyes, your opponent, and this is Caton, one of my weapons." He spoke in a calm and collected manner, not letting even a hint of concern make his voice waver. HollowEyes believed strongly in keeping a level head in any fight, as it helped him to better analyze his situation, an almost essential aspect to his fighting style. With a noticably stiff movement of his four arms, several charms suddenly appeared in his hands and he was ready for his opponent. It had been a while since he'd had to get charms out like that, and he was feeling a little rusty, but he was confident that it'd all come back to him soon enough.

"The first move is yours, Endorphine."

[Swix]

((Ah, I see you noticed . I needed a change from the forest-y scenery anyway ))

Endorphine blinked his large black eyes slowly and deliberately as he watched the two animals approach, noticing the difference between them and the sentient animals of his home. Utopians looked as though they were made of rock, but these twos skin appeared much less hard. Perhaps they would acquire injuries easier.

Endorphine then turned his attention to listening to HollowEyes. Of course, the entire time the Parasitian spoke to him his radio was translating, an odd assortment of quiet clicks and rustles emanated from the machine so Endorphine understood what was being said to him. The plant alien briefly turned his head to look at the 'weapon' named Caton before turning back to HollowEyes and waiting for him to finish.

Endorphines tendrils shifted beneath him before they began to produce the strange noises heard previously on his radio, albeit much louder. Soon after the clicks and occasional rustle started on his part the radio translated it into common loud enough for the two to hear.

"Very well, Hollow Eyes and Cat On. Then I shall try not to waste it"

If Endorphine had had facial features, he would have frowned. Utopia was right, this language did theirs no justice. Endorphine stuck the ends of each of his many tendrils into the ground and proceeded to pull his main body below the damp soil, albeit far faster than any of the non-sentient plants growing around them could put down roots. Both Endorphines head and his long tendrils were soon lost to sight below the soil as he replaced it, leaving nothing but freshly turned ground where he'd once been.

[3kul]

HollowEyes frowned slightly as he watched his opponent dive into the soil, like watching a shark fin disappear beneath the waves it wasn't a very comforting sight. He had expected a more visible assault to begin with, 'though it's nothing I can't handle' he thought to himself. Now was as good a time as any to test out if he was on the right track with some of Endorphine's weaknesses.

"I'll be using Reflecting Waters charm first Caton, you take control the Liquid Flames charm that I'll throw closest to you. Make the lava surround and protect about four of me, I want to check something out."

Caton nodded, understanding what was expected of him. He didn't have a particularily strong grasp on the english language, but he was a fairly intelligent creature. "Alright Boss." He remained on the slab of rock that he was standing on, hoping that it would somehow act as a bit of a barrier between himself and their alien opponent, despite the fact that Endorphine was much bigger than the stone itself.

Twirling his arm blades, HollowEyes released several charms - two stuck to the roof, one at Caton's feet and one just beneath the Parasitian himself. The charm quickly activated, the water molecules in the humid air around them along with those in the rich soil beneath them coming together to form a dozen clones. Nine of these clones looked like HollowEyes with the remaining three resembling Caton, and all of the clones quickly moved closer to their flesh-and-blood originals. "Don't forget to cover yourself too Caton, there's always a possibility that our opponent could be aiming his next attack at you."

"Yes Boss." Caton replied in a slightly irritated tone, shooing the clones away from him. The fact that they were made of water was bad enough, but if they got too close when he started using his abilities the fact that they were fakes would be too obvious. He held his paw out over the charm by his feet, opening and closing it in a pulling manner. Rather than spraying lava everywhere as it usually did when activated, the charm was instead being manipulated by Caton, allowing him to extract as the boiling magma that he then directed towards a small group of clones. It slid about in an almost serpentine manner, coiling around the clones as close as Caton dared to make it go without making the watery minions bubble and boil themselves.

HollowEyes didn't speak up, but he was not in that group - he along with the remaining five HollowEyes clones began to move around the temple randomly, dashing about without any particular destination in mind. The Caton clones on the other hand were standing on seperate stones a little distance from the real Caton, mimicking his movements perfectly. It was almost exactly what he'd intended, and he was interested to see how Endorphine would react to this.

What HollowEyes hadn't intended however was the slight inconsistancy in the illusion that soon appeared. Caton was holding a ghostly flame in his other hand, ready to protect himself from Endorphine with that if it was necessary, but the Caton clones were unable to mimick this - the best that they could muster was a swirling orb of water to replace what should have been fire.

Neither Caton nor HollowEyes seemed to notice this minor flaw in what they considered to be an otherwise perfect plan, as they were both too busy trying to guess where Endorphine was going to strike.

[Swix]

Below the ground, Endorphine experienced quite a large amount of confusion as two enemies spontaneously multiplied into many. Three of them didn't send quite such heavy vibrations through the soil, so he guessed they must be quite small. The ten others he could feel were far larger, and his confusion became even greater when they began dashing around. Had they brought in reinforcements now he was down here? No, that would be against the rules. There had to be another explanation.

The plant alien also found his original intent to have gotten harder, as the heat given off by the lava flow had not escaped his notice. The heat had started very close to the animal-weapon, but it was on top of one the rocks and for all the plant alien knew Caton could have turned around so an attack might not go as unnoticed as he'd like.

Endorphine instead headed towards the heavier creatures he could feel dashing about, carefully avoiding the area of lava surrounding some more of the 'extra' creatures. There wasn't any sense in him going too over the top right now, but this way he might be able to find out just what sort of a threat these things were.

Endorphine stopped quite a distance away from Caton and the lava, spreading his tendrils all around him and putting them just beneath the surface of the ground where the rock paving wouldn't obstruct him too much. He waited there for one of the heavy dashers to get too close.

Once one did, three of his tendrils broke the surface and attempted to wrap around the things legs, stinging barbs at the ready. Whether or not he'd gotten lucky or this was all just a trick of some kind the plant alien was fairly sure he'd soon be finding out.

[3kul]

Endorphine's three tendrils lashed out as a HollowEyes passed over the vegetatious foe, his sharp stinging barbs skewering into the leg of his prey. The thorny appendages sliced right through the clone however, as once it's surface tension had been broken there was very little for Endorphine to hold on to.

Caton noticed the clone's destruction before HollowEyes did, as the Parasitian wasn't very close to it. "Boss, look! His attack... Vines!" The clones continued to mimic his moves perfectly, so all four Catons pointed towards the attacking alien. HollowEyes quickly looked over, just missing the destruction of the clone but he did manage to catch a glimpse of Endorphine's tendrils. They looked quite painful, and if they had thorns like that on them they probably had some kind of poison in them too.

Still, it wasn't enough just to see the first attack. He had learnt that Endorphine could somehow sense where they were from underground (even though he couldn't tell which of them were the real ones), but he'd already assumed that much, so it wasn't a very helpful discovery. It was a start though, and HollowEyes was willing to wager that what he learnt next would help to tip the scales in his favour.

"Caton, direct the lava over to where his vines came up from, I want to see what he does." Caton gave HollowEyes a quizzical look, curious as to why his master was treating this match so casually, but did as he was told anyway. Having never seen the Parasitian stumble in battle before, the nekomata had great faith in HollowEyes. All four Catons swirled their paws, directing the lava flow towards where they believed Endorphine to be.

Three of the HollowEyes clones didn't move, though one followed after the lava stream, keeping as close as it could to the magma. HollowEyes himself continued to run about with the other clones, making sure to keep an eye on the lava that Caton was directing. Now things were going to get interesting.

[Swix]

Endorphine pulled his three tendrils back into the ground as the creature he'd tried to grab disappeared the moment he'd touched it. So these things were some sort of trick! Then how did he figure out which were the real ones without having to attack them all?

Rapidly approaching heat soon caught his attention as the lava flow got closer, too close. Endorphine pulled his tendrils further underground and closer to his main body before hurriedly moving out of the path of the lava, for once thinking it fortunate that his species couldn't involuntarily cry out in pain as many animals had. The vines that he hadn't pulled out of the way in time were singed and almost cooked.

These were concealed within the mass of other tendrils to protect them from any other harm, before Endorphine moved again. Since they seemed to be aiming the mass amount of heat at him, and the animal-weapon had been so much closer to where it had started, Endorphine had begun to think that perhaps Caton had something to do with it.

So the plant-alien moved over to where he'd seen the cat creature and where the heat had first emanated from, though giving that a wide berth until he'd moved around behind it. Four tendrils burst from the surface a little way away from Caton on the opposite side to where the lava had started, followed by the top of Endorphines large head. His large black eyes took in the four Catons standing on rocks, and the multiple HollowEyes. The plant alien brought more of his tendrils up out of the ground and aimed them at all the Catons he could see.

[3kul]

The sounds of three clones splashing out across the dirt alerted Caton to the attack, but not nearly soon enough. Having no time to react, Caton was seized by the tendril, it's thorns piercing his skin quite easily ((correct me if Endorphine was not using thorns or meant to do something other than grab Caton)).

"Boss!"

Was all he could think of shouting out, more to alert his master of the location of their enemy than to ask for help though. Caton was feeling incredibly foolish for having been caught so easily, especially after HollowEyes had warned him about the possibility of it happening, so he was still holding on to the hope that he could free himself from this predicament.

Moving fast in the hopes that he could strike before whatever Endorphine had planned for him kicked in, he held the ghostly flame that he'd been keeping in his other paw directly beneath the vine-like limb, attempting to burn it off of him. The Ruby Dagger in his back glowed as the flames intensified, Caton being of the rather stubborn mindset that if this flame didn't burn his captor then he'd just keep making it hotter until it did.

HollowEyes looked over to where Caton was and saw what he was doing, though he didn't make any moves to help. If he did, Endorphine would surely know that he was the real one, and may figure out the difference between himself and the clones. Caton had stopped focusing on the lava as well which had caused it to stop moving, something that Endorphine would almost certainly notice if it had been able to move to avoid the lava.

At the very least, HollowEyes knew that the nekomata could take care of himself, so he continued to move about as if nothing was wrong. If the flames that Caton had prepared earlier didn't work, the Parasitian had many ways that he could help his pet out.

[Swix]

((Don't worry, grabbing Caton was pretty much the intention))

Endorphine felt the creatures flesh give way to his stinging barbs as one of his tendrils found it's mark and wrapped around the animal. So he'd been right about them getting injured easier, well, this one anyway. The lava that gave off such a high area of heat that he'd been feeling through the ground appeared to have stopped as well.

Something else soon caught his attention though as the flame Caton had held beneath his limb caused it to catch fire and sent incredible pain shooting through it. Another thing his species lacked was a nose or sense of smell, so the smell of burning plant life that began to fill the temple was also lost on him. The limb that had been holding Caton abruptly let go of him, but this one was replaced by four more that revealed themselves from the ground and attempted to wrap around his legs. Endorphine intended to pull the cat creature into the ground so it wouldn't be able to control the lava flow anymore, which in his mind was worth any injury the replacement limbs might sustain.

All while this was going on, the vine tendril that had been on fire was rather forcibly pulled apart by more of his tendrils that showed up, and the still flaming limb discarded as the wound caused by this act of self mutilation briefly gushed out sticky green sap.

[3kul]

HollowEyes stopped running about the moment the four tendrils burst from the ground to grab Caton - this was too much for his pet to handle alone.

Caton was still inexperienced with his fire abilities, and he hadn't seen much combat yet either. Rather than simply cover his entire body with flames, an act that would not cause him any harm whilst ensuring that Endorphine would be unable to touch him, he was trying to pull the tendrils off and fight them with his own power, an instinctive act that was quickly proving to be futile.

"Let go, vine-beast!" Caton yowled, his legs now bleeding heavily from the many puncture wounds that Endorphine's thorns were giving him. "I not let you take me!" It seemed that the more he struggled the more painful things got, but if he just let it drag him he was going to be pulled underground. He suddenly slipped off of the small bit of stone that he'd been standing on, landing poorly on the soft earth. Now that he had lost his footing, Caton was quite easily being dragged towards where Endorphine was.

"Caton, heads up!"

HollowEyes shouted, snapping Caton's attention back to him, and then straight up - the two charms! HollowEyes twirled his arm blades about, flicking two more charms onto the two that he'd stuck on the ceiling earlier, activating all four of the liquid flame charms at once. He was thankful that fire seemed to be Endorphine's weakness, because this would have been a useless strategy if his guess had proven to be inaccurate.

Two torrents of lava were about to rain down upon the interior part of the temple arena, one of which was above Caton, along with the tendrils that were holding him, the other positioned to come crashing down in front of HollowEyes. The Parasitian took several steps back and directed a few water clones in front of him, though the rest continued to run about randomly. He'd been standing still for far too long though, it was probably fair to say that Endorphine must have pinpointed him by now, so just to be on the safe side he stuck one last charm to the ground behind him, kicking a thin layer of dirt over it to cover the spiritually charged piece of paper.

[Swix]

Caton's protest, while not entirely unexpected and translated through the radio, caused the Krkrln to slowly blink in disbelief. 'Vine-beast' had to be the least insulting name he'd ever been called, and the creature's struggling was rather weak but annoying as it had slowed down Endorphines attempts to bury him.

After the cat creature had slipped and he'd been about to pull him down, one of the HollowEyes that had stopped shouted and threw something. Rather than listen to the radio this time though as it took a few seconds to translate something that he may well find out just by looking, Endorphine did as Caton had and looked up... to see that horrible burning liquid burst from the two charms.

Without even thinking about it the Krkrln threw the bleeding cat creature and buried himself as fast and deep as he possibly could go, spurned on by fear and the fact the top of his head felt as though it was burning. He didn't stop until he was absolutely certain the soil above him was in sufficient enough amounts that it wouldn't be able to burst through and follow in his wake.

Now deep underground and still in pain the plant alien breathed in the cool moisture through his skin. That was far too close, and now he was down here he could feel another area of the super high heat, very close to the Parasitian that had shouted.

Endorphine had an idea then, but it would most likely be pretty dangerous. On the other hand, he wasn't about to go back up there just yet. With this in mind, the Krkrln began to burrow through the soil towards the cliff, pushing it above and below him to compact it and create an almost solid tunnel. The main danger here though was that even as high above as the temple was, a part of the ground where he was doing the construction would bulge slightly higher than the rest of it.

[3kul]

Caton's suit was a little upset to discover incinerated the moment he was drenched in the lava that had poured out from the charms above him, but at least it had made Endorphine let him go, and the heat had sealed his wounds off to prevent any further excess bleeding, though he was beginning to feel a little light-headed. "Toughen up, Caton." HollowEyes commented as he noticed the expression on his pet's face. "There are more important things to worry about." He began carefully scanning the room for any indication of where their enemy had gotten to, hoping that despite the fact that he was underground he would show some indication of where he was going to appear next.

"Right Boss." Caton rose to his feet, and as he did the lava surrounded him. He was exerting a much stronger hold over it now, determined to get Endorphine back for making a fool of him in front of his master. "No, we won't need a barrier or anything just yet..." HollowEyes added, noting Caton's movements and predictable strategy. The Parasitian pointed towards a slight bulge in the ground that was heading towards the cliff and out of the temple. "Use the lava that's here to make a minion, we'll follow him for now."

The nekomata nodded in reply, gathering all of the lava in the room into a large blob that began to slowly ooze after the narrow trail of raised earth. Working his own pale blue ghost flames into the mixture, he quickly began to form a minion that would be big enough to carry the both of them but wasn't too complicated. As Caton worked, HollowEyes stuck another charm to the remains of the statue in this room. He wasn't sure if Endorphine intended to leave this temple for good or not, but if they returned he'd be prepared.

"It done Boss, hop on." The lava had taken on the shape of a large, simplified beetle. It was made entirely out of lava, with the exception of the blue flames running along it's edges, as these were Caton's own flames and he had better control over them. "A beetle, hm?" HollowEyes was curious as to why Caton had chosen such an animal, but he didn't give it much thought - there were more important things to think about, like what exactly Endorphine was playing at with this strange maneuvre.

A sudden splashing sound alerted HollowEyes to the fact that the water clones were still running about, but the large amount of heat generated by the lava beetle was forcing them to crash into each other. "Oh, I almost forgot about them." He said absent-mindedly, wondering what he should do with them now. He hadn't really forgotten about them, but he didn't really have any need for them anymore. "I think that it might not be a bad idea to cause Endorphine a bit of confusion, all of you go dive off of that cliff and into the stream below." The clones bounded around the molten minion and ahead of Endorphine's tunnel trail, leaping off of the cliff one after the other. What would be really confusing would be what happens when they hit the water - the force of the impact would break their weak bodies, but since they were made entirely out of water all that Endorphine would see (assuming that he could see anything underground) would be splashes, with no bodies to be found anywhere.

HollowEyes himself placed two beetle charms on his feet before leaping up onto the lava beetle, petrifying his legs. His now rocky limbs were reasonably heat-proof, and Caton reduced the heat as much as he could where his master was standing, so he was able to stay there without his legs melting off. "Follow him slowly Caton, we need to know what he's up to before we can really act."

EDIT: Ah, sorry Swix, I forgot one minor detail, the heat from the lava that drenched him has sealed Caton's wounds. That hardly means that he's all better, but he's not going to be bleeding all over the place now.

[Swix]

Endorphine didn't stop his underground construction even after the two areas of heat became one and started to slowly follow him, although this gave him a good indication that Caton hadn't been weakened enough yet. The vibrations of the HollowEyes clones running ahead though did, and the plant alien stopped just to see what they were going to do. It caused him a great amount of surprise to find that their footfalls didn't halt until they reached the edge of the cliff, although any splashes they'd caused once hitting the water below wouldn't make their way up to him, as where he was was still pretty high.

The plant alien then continued what he was doing, the tunnel sloping downwards all the while, until he literally burst out of the edge of the cliff three quarters of the way down, keeping many of his tendrils lodged in the ground and walls behind him so he wouldn't fall out. Curiosity made him blink his huge eyes again as he scanned below for any sign of those creatures that had jumped, but it still looked like an ordinary river with nothing amiss. Blinking again, the Krkrln pulled himself back inside the tunnel as there wasn't really anything out here of note or use to him.

Endorphine then made his way quickly back, partially burying himself so he moved as quick as he was able to until he reached the area where the tunnel had started. This time he started to dig upwards in a spiral pattern, although it was much steeper than the tunnel he'd made leading outside. He hoped that the Parasitian and the cat creature whom he hadn't been able to sufficiently disable would be too interested in following the tunnel outside to notice he'd come back to it's start.

[3kul]

HollowEyes and Caton followed the trail of dirt all the way until the cliff, noticing that it ended there. HollowEyes hopped off the lava minion, landing with a heavy thud (as now that his legs were petrified he weighed quite a bit more) and allowed Caton to lower himself with the magma beetle to check out where Endorphine had gotten to.

"Nothing here Boss, bit of tunnel but no alien."

HollowEyes raised an eyebrow, curious as to what Endorphine had gotten up to. "Caton, do you see any indication that he's lowered himself down?" The Nekomata looked down the cliff, checking to see if there were any obvious marks that would suggest that their many limbed foe, but it just looked like a regular cliff to him. "No footprints Boss." HollowEyes frowned, feeling even more puzzled. If Endorphine had climbed down here, he'd been very careful about it, though there was no way of being certain that he'd done that.

"Well, there's one way to be sure I suppose..." HollowEyes thought aloud. "Caton! Force as much lava through that tunnel as you can." "Right Boss!" Caton didn't need telling twice, and the beetle minion collapsed in on itself as the nekomata ceased focusing on his own flames, causing his creation to lose it's shape altogether. He wobbled slightly as he began to feel a bit fatigued, and a small amount of lava stabbed into the wall, cooling down rapidly until it hardened. The rest of the lava reformed into a large blob over the opening to the mostly filled tunnel, squeezing into it as quickly as Caton could make it.

The Nekomata was now sitting on the cooled lava platform he'd made for himself as he waved his hands to manipulate the lava with his pyromantic powers, and HollowEyes could sense his exhaustion. He'd been pushing Caton quite hard so far in this match, and he'd probably need to rest for a bit after this. "Caton, you keep an eye on things over that side of the cliff, I'm going to be watching the dirt trail from here." Caton mumbled something in reply that HollowEyes assumed meant that nothing interesting was happening over there, so he turned his gaze back to the trail of dirt, looking extra closely to see if he'd missed some sort of vital clue as to where their enemy had gotten to.

[Swix]

Endorphine got his tunnel finished by then, or at least that's what he thought. The plant alien had felt the ground vibrate hard with the extra weight of HollowEyes petrifiied limbs and made him reel off a string of aggravated clicks, curse words from his homeland that the translator didn't know what to make of.

The plant alien steadied himself before breaking the surface of the soil with his head again and blinking as he looked around. He could still feel the heavy HollowEyes but Caton had disappeared, the high heat had gone down the side of the cliff near where his tunnel had ended, but he could see nothing in here. He assumed the heavier one was HollowEyes since the cat creature had been the one controlling the fire anayway.

His tendrils burst from the ground once again and began collecting pieces of the destroyed rock paving and dragging them down underground until he was sure he had enough. Sure it would slow him down for a little while but he wasn't planning on dragging them around for too long. Endorphine then sank below the surface and made his way out of the temple, although not so deep as he'd been before. Just deep enough for what he was going to do.

The plant alien made his way to the much heavier pressure he could feel, with the tendrils holding the rock just below the surface and a short distance away from it. He'd heard of animals doing this sort of thing to other animals before but he'd never dreamed he'd have ever considered this kind of action.

Small bulges appeared in the ground barely a second before the rock paving the plant alien had collected emerged and hurled themselves at the Parasitian.