Pilelia vs. Elisah

[TheBlackSoul]

Elisah's muscles tensed as she walked into the place they called "The Arena" for the first time. As she looked around the stands surrounding it, she noticed quite a few people-too much for her liking.

For most of her time spent here in the Dojo, all the battles the Chinese Wind Sorceress had fought weren't in arenas and without spectators, and were completly unexepected.

This fight was diffrent-it was schedeled, judged (or so she'd heard), and was going to be watched by many people.

All that worried Elisah and made her feel sick to the stomach. The way she felt right now made her think she'd throw up mid-battle.

As the Arena's holograms and such went into effect, she watched as the ground became covered with various types of grasses and turned into soil, turning into a plain-like area.

To finish the change off, a large, Mayan-style pyramid sprouted in the center of the arena floor.

The first thing she noticed after the transformation was finished was the silence-the shouts of the crowd in the stand had gone, and she wasn't able to see them anymore. The only sound was of the wind blowing.

While it made her feel slightly better because the watchers were gone, the eerie silence was just as bad. It made her think some monstrosity was going to leap out of nowhere and attack her-which she dearly hoped wasn't going to happen anyway.

While she was waiting for her opponent to arrive, Elisah decided to go into the room at the top of the pyramid, as she could see-from her point of view-there were 3 flights of stairs leading up to it.

Climbing the stairs, she thought about the creature she was to face. What did she know about it other than its name and gender? Absolutely nothing, that's what. So for all she knew, it could be an extremely powerful monster that was immune to the power of the winds.

Torturing herself with all the thoughts of the things her foe could have, Elisah barely noticed she had reached the top of the temple.

Catching her breath after climbing the stairs, she checked over herself, seeing if she had everything she needed.

She was wearing her typical brown, long-sleeved shirt and dress of the same color. Attached to a belt around her waist was her supply pouch and the sheaths for her throwing daggers and her longsword. To protect her upper half, she had her armored vest, with two plates over her shouders and laced up at the front.

She didn't pull her hair back, seeing as it probably wasn't needed, and it reached down to her shoulder blades and draped over the shoulder plates of her vest.

After making sure her daggers were withen easy reach should they be needed, and she drew her 4-foot longsword, with it's distinctive, leaf-shaped tip.

After that, Elisah scanned the room she was currently standing in.
For being hundreds, if not thousands, of years old, the room was in surprisingly good shape. The only light was coming in through the 4 doorways at right angles to each other.

The room was devoid of objects, except for what the chellengers themselves brought in.

Trying to deal with the worries building up within her, Elisah faced the doorway opposite to her, waiting for the arrival of her opponent.

[3kul]

"Ah, is this on?" A voice came through a series of loudspeakers, echoing throughout the arena. It was none other than Dr. Eugene Serpells, the brilliant and somewhat seclusive scientist who specialized in Parasitian DNA and it's applications. Alongside him were his three Protectors - Sao'tal, Pilelia and Tausk. "Ahem. Good day to you Blackstar Dojodians, my name is Dr. Serpells and today you will be witnessing the results of my many years of research."

He continued into a long and boring speech on the many applications of his research, making sure to emphasize that he was the only one to have conducted such studies, though Pilelia did not hear any of it. She'd asked her two brothers for advice on how to handle the match, but they'd both been fairly useless to her, and she was really worried about how she'd handle something like this.

Sao'tal, who was usually a rock, appeared to be suffering from nightmarish memories of what had happened during his last match* here. "Fireproof your eyes." Was the only bit of advice that she could get from him that made any sort of sense, not that it really helped. She remembered the horrible shape that he was in when she and Tausk had come to get him, and it really wasn't making her feel very confident about herself. Tausk was equally unhelpful. He was too busy focusing on how glad he was that it wasn't him in this fight to bother sharing any sort of strategy with her.

"Let the fight BEGIN!"

Somebody had managed to wrench the microphone out of Serpells' hands for long enough to actually have the fight start, figuring that Pilelia's opponent had been kept waiting long enough.

Pilelia very meekly slithered her way towards the large temple that stood before her. It seemed like the most obvious place for her opponent to head for, although they may already be waiting there for her... She began to wish that she'd been paying attention at the start of the match instead of worrying about everything and anything.

"H-hello?" She called out inside the temple, not really knowing how else to get her opponent to show herself.

((*For those of you wondering what happened to Sao'tal in his fight, check out Kat's Mantis Challenge))

[TheBlackSoul]

Elisah looked behind her, down the flight of stairs that she had walked up, seeing if her opponent decided to take the same way up. She had no idea how long it had been since she first stepped into the Arena, but it certainly had felt like a while.

I swear, if my opponent doesn't show up, I'll-

Before she got to finish that sentence, she heard a voice call out. She knew that must be the person she was to face-and to her surprise, her foe sounded just as worried as she was.

Elisah looked around the room she was standing in, but it was empty save for herself. She walked over to the doorway opposite and looked down the stairs over there. No opponent.

The right doorway yeilded the same thing. But at the left doorway, Elisah swore she saw something bluish at the bottom of the stairs. If it wasn't her eyes playing tricks on her, that had to be her opponent.

((I am assuming Pilelia didn't bother climbing all those stairs.))

[3kul]

((That would be correct.))

Pilelia and her opponent noticed each other at the same time, and Pilelia reacted as though a switch had suddenly been flicked inside of her head. She quickly melted down into a large pool of liquid and began to flow up the stairs, making her way towards her opponent.

She was now acting on her instincts, something which Serpells had designed very well - as his personal bodyguard, she was quite literally programmed to go into a sort of 'attack-mode' whenever her foe showed up, as did all of his creations, though out of all of them only Pilelia's personality was so submissive that it would take the back seat at times like this. Sao'tal on the other hand was overly confident and headstrong, and normally ignored most of his instincts, whilst Tausk was a coward who ignored them completely.

It was a reasonable assumption, Pilelia thought to herself, that the topmost room in the temple would be quite small and closed off. The only way out should be via the stairs, which she could see quite easily, and thus her best chance at winning this match would be by cornering her opponent up top.

[TheBlackSoul]

Elisah watched as the pale blue thing started to go up the stairs. When it was about halfway up, she realized her opponent was made of liquid.

Oh great...

That rendered both her longsword and her daggers completely useless. You can't harm something made of liquid with a bladed weapon, so it was time for a change of plan.

The Chinese Wind Sorceress turned and quickly glanced around in the room she was in. The 4 doors were large, stretching from floor to ceiling. That meant she could use her power of controlling the winds.

Come to think of it, using blowing wind to fight a foe made of liquid made sense. If part of the other creature wasn't evaporated by a wind attack, she figured if she sent a strong enough gust at her opponent, it would blow her back down the stairs.

Spreading her arms, Elisah could feel the winds respond, as small breezes ruffled her sleeves and moved small parts of her hair around. Now the only thing to do was wait.

[3kul]

((Sorry to have forgotten about this one TBS, I've been a little busy over the past few days))

Pilelia was surprised to feel a sudden strong gust of wind pick up in an enclosed space like this, though it was probably for the best as her body reacted unconsciously - as the wind blew against her she became increasingly thinner, her body changing it's shape to become more and more aerodynamic. This wasn't her first time up against somebody who could manipulate wind before, Tausk had a similar ability, and though his was more biological and less magical than this person's, Pilelia still knew how to take it.

Stretching back a little, Pilelia continued up the stairs, crystalizing her front to allow for increased resistance to what little wind she had to face in such a slender form. From the right angle, she would probably look like a giant blade of a creature now, and though this wasn't exactly her intentions it could prove to be intimidating to an unwary opponent.

[TheBlackSoul]

((Elisah didn't attack in my last post, but what the hey.))

After letting loose her gale, Elisah realized a wind attack wasn't doing much good either. Her foe was merely flattening, thereby reducing the effectiveness of her attack.

Now that both her weapons and her Wind skills were useless, she had no other strategies-yet. And given what she had to work with, she wasn't likely to come up with one soon. So she had to escape from this beast before it managed to climb the length of the stairs.

[3kul]

((I figured that I'd save time that way.))

Pilelia continued to climb the stairs, though she was moving significantly slower as she closed in on her opponent, as the wind seemed to be stronger as she got closer. Or perhaps it was picking up? Maybe it was a kind of spell that took time?

Pilelia was unsure. Strategies were not her strong point, and neither was strength - for those things she had Sao'tal and Tausk. What Pilelia excelled in was simple flexibility, the ability to deal with any opponent or any situation that was thrown at her. Or at least, in theory that's what she was good at. She wasn't too confident about things working out so ideally in practice.

The stairs were what was causing her the most difficulty. Were this a ramp Pilelia could've attacked her opponent, but as things were she simply wasn't moving fast enough.

Sharpening her crystallized front, she continued on up the stairs - it would make for a painfully obvious attack but at least it would also double up as a decent defense.

[TheBlackSoul]

Dogs of Fo!

Elisah had gotten in a rut. She had no decent way to attack her foe, and now it was getting ready to launch its own attack. About the only thing preventing her from being charged to quickly to respond was the stairs it had to climb up.

Fortunately for her, the room she was in had 4 doors-each with a diffrent set of stairs. Unless it was omnipotent and could see what was happening on all 4 sets of stairs, the creature most likely would not notice anybody on the set directly behind Elisah.

Quickly crossing the room, she looked down these stairs. Since she had no idea how fast the liquid beast could move, it was a good idea to find a faster way down them than just running.

Somersaulting seemed to be the logical thing to do, and she wasn't unfamilar with it, but all the stairs she tumbled down were a lot shorter than these were.

But now was no time for self-doubting. Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do, and for Elisah, this was one of those times.

She crouched down, then lept in such a manner that her hands hit the stairs first. From there, she curled into a ball and rolled quickly down the stairway.

[3kul]

After struggling against the unnatural headwinds that she'd been pitted against, Pilelia found herself at the top of the stairs but without a foe to face. It was strange, as she'd seen her here a moment ago, though she had definately run away - this was an empty room, and there was nowhere to hide.

Thinking along those lines, Pilelia realized that much of this temple was built like that, and that if her enemy had sought to escape there were really only three sets of stairs that she could take.

Pilelia quickly took on her original form once more, losing the aerodynamic one as there was no longer any need for it, and fired three spines down each stairway one after another. The spines were only half solidified, and released a fine shower of liquid as they flew, but otherwise seemed to have been aimed too high to do anything other than make her opponent a little wet.

Hoping to get a lucky break, Pilelia proceeded to check each staircase from the top, looking for some sort of sign that her foe had chosen one in particular.

[TheBlackSoul]

Elisah got up after rolling down the large set of stairs. She was sore all over, not to mention slightly dizzy too, but at least she had prevented herself from being corned by this water beast.

Looking back up at the top of the pyramid, she noticed something fly from the doorway she had just made her escape from. It was too far away to see just what it was, but it went directly over her.

Suddenly, the Chinese Wind Sorceress found herself covered in some sort of liquid. Making a disgusted face and attempting to shake the stuff off, she just noticed the same sort of pale blue shade she saw at the beginning of the battle.

She swore in Chinese, realizing that she had just given her foe a greater firing range, and that she was now just a moving target. And there was nowhere she could hide.

She ran around the pyramid a little and away from the stairway her opponent was looking down. Hopefully, it hadn't noticed her before she noticed it.

[3kul]

Pilelia twitched as she felt several tiny portions of her body make contact with her opponent, who unlike the walls and floors moved about quickly to try and remove the liquid. Within just a few seconds she'd managed to work out where her opponent had gone, which was just as well as she now felt the small pieces of herself fall off of Elisah's moving body.

However, as the sensation of being in several places at once would be a most disorienting one Pilelia's creator fortunately had the insight to quite literally 'program' the small portions of her body used for this to die after only a few seconds. So before she even felt the droplets of herself hit the floor she'd lost contact with them and the others that were on the surrounding walls and floors, thus preventing Pilelia from having the kind of sensory overload that one might normally expect to have from such an experience.

Of course, to Pilelia this was merely second nature, and she didn't consider the amount of time or effort that went into creating this kind of biological brilliance, but she did know how to use it effectively. The Protector had roughly located Elisah the moment the liquid had landed on her, and it was easy for her to pick the staircase that she'd gone down now.

Pilelia slithered after Elisah as quickly as she could, hoping to catch her opponent before she managed to give her the slip once more. The Protector was not used to having foes that could hit her and thus she moved far too casually despite the position that she was in, not even considering the possibility that she could be running into a trap set by Elisah.

[TheBlackSoul]

Elisah heard a slithering sound coming from behind her, and she spun around to face her opponent. This was the first time she ever had a good look at it while it was solid, and now it was clear that it was a female.

She didn't spend too much time attempting to figure out just what it was-she was going to get attacked if she hesitated too long. Now that it was solid, she considered throwing a dagger at it, but decided against that. After all, it could change into a liquid, and she didn't want to risk getting her dagger stuck inside its body.

She finally choose to attack with wind again-she was on open plains, and any gale she could summon outside would be a lot greater than it would be up in the room at the top of the pyramid.

The Chinese Wind Sorceress called upon the winds again, and then moved her arms as if throwing something at Pilelia with two hands, sending a gust that could tear a healthy tree out of the ground at the Protector. This was really meant to slow the thing down, rather than to act as a full-blown attack.

[3kul]

Pilelia spotted Elisah just a few moments too late. The Wind Sorceress' powerful magic struck her like a runaway semi and sent her flying into a nearby wall. Thankfully Pilelia's complete lack of bones and muscles prevented this from being very painful at all, and it was really more of an annoyance as she had to reconstruct herself from the large splatter-mark that she'd left on the wall.

Quickly slithering to one side after having done this, Pilelia flicked three long tail-spines at Elisah. They hadn't quite had time to solidify entirely, but the tips would be hard enough to pierce her opponent's soft flesh.

[TheBlackSoul]

3Elisah smiled wryly when her gust smacked her foe into a wall.

Surprisingly enough to her, the creature seemed to recover quickly and launch its own attack by sending 3 spines in her direction.

To counter this, she quickly unsheathed her longsword and parried, deflecting two of the spines. The third managed to get by the sword, but the armor of Elisah's vest prevented it from harming her. However, it came very close to entering in between the spot where the two sides of the vest came together.

She didn't pay very much attention to this, and decided on her next move. Attacking with wind again would be a bit pointless, now that Pilelia could see her it was more likely she'd flatten out again and make it ineffective. And she still didn't want to risk losing a dagger.

For now, she backed off, but kept her eyes on her opponent, waiting for her next attack.