@ Erebor, since we've only ever had the pleasure in meeting in the Field, I figured I'd make formal introductions. Care for a battle between friends? Allies that scrap together stay together after all. If I lose I'll drag my sorry self to the Chamber. If you lose perhaps you'll visit the Valley. You can even bring some of Straia's birds if she'll allow it (not that I could prevent it).
Terms:
2 posts each
650 word suggestion (this is a suggestion, feel free to ignore it)
1 attack and one counter attack per post
No limit on blocks, do what feels right
Traits? Up to you.
I have no problem going first, but also up to you.
No time limit between posts, but lets try to keep it to 3 days.
Sounds good?
Stats:
Fennick
Hybrid (warmblood build)
5
16.2
Cellular Replication
Stats (although they're in the post too) :
Erebor
Hybrid (muscular warmblood style build)
6
16 hh
Heat manipulation
some are lost in the fire some are built from it The day is bright and clear. It is early yet, but the heat is already climbing – not that it matters to Erebor. Environmental control is of the nicer side effects of heat manipulation, really. On a pleasant day like this, the environment will fade into the background: there will be no sun to blind the participants, no oppressive temperatures (save what Erebor might generate), nothing but the two of them on a plain field of contest.
He finds the challenge grounds easily enough. This is his first true fight, but he's had many a skirmish, many a practice with his father and with others. He's drilled for years waiting for this day, practicing both his physical skill and his ability to use heat manipulation to his advantage. His is a wide ranging power, a kinetic control over atoms that allows him to bring heat up or down in any material he wishes, in any way he wishes, at any time he wishes. It's very handy.
He finds his opponent and offers the stallion a nod. "Acceptable." With a word, he agrees to the terms. "Let us use our gifts." He is somewhat disappointed that this is only a friendly match. Traits may be allowed, but he will have to keep his in check: Fennick is of the Valley, and the Valley is allied with his home, the Chamber. He is not at all sentimental, but his devotion to the Chamber means that cannot kill Fennick and risk breaking the alliance. And that will limit his options.
He considers Fennick, circling as he sizes up the stallion. He seems to be around Erebor's own age, and the both of them are in the prime of their fighting lives. They are roughly the same height, and of a similar build: powerful and muscular, more warmblood than lean Thoroughbred. A well matched pair – they're even both black, although Erebor breaks the symmetry with the strange dark blue and dark green of his mane and tail, and the red tattoo-like marking on his left foreleg.
As he circles, planning his attack, the Chamber prince superheats the layer of air directly above his skin, forming a kind of hot-air armor an inch or so thick around all points of his own body. This is no attack; instead, it's a trap, one that will burn Fennick quite badly should the other stallion choose to attempt a direct physical assault. But Erebor himself has no intention of touching Fennick during this round, and so considers the heat armor nothing more than a pre-emptive counter to any physical attack the other stallion might try. Defense in place, it is time for the attack proper, and Erebor continues circling as he makes his move.
His choice is a simple one: he reaches out with his mind to superheat the air that Fennick breathes and keep it superheated as it travels down the stallion's windpipe and into his lungs. And the word superheat is literal – Erebor makes the heat extreme enough to easily boil the water in any wet tissues that it touches.
He had discovered this particular method while experimenting on a certain poor, dying raccoon. He had been trying at first to boil blood, but had discovered that doing so took an extreme amount of heat and had uniformly lethal results (he wouldn't know this, but blood boils at an extremely high temperature due to the natural pressure it exists at within the body. Boiling blood itself can't kill you, because you'd be long dead from sheer heat damage before the boiling ever got started).
When Erebor had tried superheating the air a creature was breathing instead of the blood in their body, the results had been promising. Typically, animals who were exposed to superheated air and had it quite literally forced down their throats were uniformly in incredible pain and could die eventually, but were not absolutely marked for death – provided that he pulled it back soon enough.
The boy is well aware of the exterior impacts of his attack. He's done it enough times to know the pain that Fennick could be suffering. But Erebor cannot know the great deal of hidden internal damage that can be caused by his superheating of the air within the respiratory system. As water within all exposed tissues boils away, the cells in those tissues cannot function: protein synthesis, energy production, and everything else grinds to a halt, swiftly killing the cell. Alveoli, the cells in the lungs responsible for the actual transfer of oxygen into the bloodstream during the breathing process, are no exception to this rule. If Erebor is completely successful, every bit of water in Fennick's lungs will boil, and the stallion will quickly become unable to breathe.
For a normal horse, there is virtually no way to avoid this (really pretty gruesome) attack. But luckily for Fennick, he's not just a normal horse, and his capacity for cellular replication will likely be his salvation.
Out of habit more than necessity, Erebor is still circling just as he had been before making his attack, just in case Fennick has decided to try any kind of physical attack or other shenanigans. On the move, alert, heat armor still firmly in place, he's ready for the next round.
erebor heat manipulating lord of the chamber warship x straia 
the darkest nights produce the brightest stars Only on the battlefield did Fennick feel a connection to his body. He did not have a soul, he was a soul. He had a body. But, in truth, Fennick had no real form, just a strange purple blob of goo that could be shaped into whatever his eyes could see. Most days, he chose to be himself as he saw in his mind’s eyes, a large black stallion. He could shift from memory, but he had limited success. He didn’t see it as a loss, not when the world was filled with such wonderful things. He did, however, take a moment to drink in his surroundings. Everything was a tool he could use, that he could become. The stallion smiled. Yes, he could work with this. Hell, he could even become Erebor, if he wanted.
At Erebor’s approach, Fennick felt jolts of adrenaline, like little shocks of lightening, race through his body. He also felt his power, popping and crackling within him. He was ready to attack, ready to change, ready for whatever Erebor could throw at him. He couldn’t help but feel that this was his moment, this was his chance to prove himself. He was a lousy diplomat, but this, this he could do.
Fennick met Erebor’s eyes. He didn’t know the full extent of the stallion’s power, only that it had something to do with heat. He did, however, expect a magical attack, rather than a physical one. Why else agree to use their traits? Fennick didn’t waste energy on words, he studied the other stallion’s expression, the shifting of his body, waiting for the first attack.
When the attack did come, it took Fennick a minute to realize it. He felt his eyes go dry, and this lips chap. Fennick jumped a little in surprised realization, but less than a second later he sprung into the air. The next time the opened his mouth a hawk’s scream came out. He felt his lungs fill with burning hot air, his eyes went so dry they couldn’t even water. Every breath was an agony, but soon he was high in the air, circling and dipping to try and stay out of Erebor’s range. He wasn’t sure what that range was, but it would need to be large to keep up with him.
Fennick knew he couldn’t spend much time in a delicate, living form, not when his opponent had the power to cook him from the inside out. No, he needed something that wasn’t made from delicate, liquid filled tissue. Inside his skull, hawk Fennick grinned. He knew just the thing.
Suddenly, with the grace only a bird could have, Fennick dove toward his opponent. He needed to be close enough to aim, but not close enough to get burned. Most importantly, it had to be a surprise. When he was about 30 feet away, Fennick shifted. Instead of a bird, he was now a horse sized stone hurtling towards the other stallion. He trusted Erebor could get out of his way, at least a little bit. He would however, have to move pretty quickly. Fennick was counting on Erebor to stand his ground until it was too late to to dodge him entirely. After all, why would he run from a little bird? He didn’t want to kill the other stallion, but he was left with few options. He needed momentum from the dive, and he couldn’t stay on the ground to get a running start, not when he was surrounded by burning hot air.
But hell, if Erebor was going to cook him like a fish, Fennick would try to squash him like a bug. Fair was fair. The only problem, with being a stone, was that he had no way of aiming himself. It was an all out blitz attack, all brute strength and power. He may be reminiscent of a caveman smacking his enemy over the head with a rock, but sometimes the old ways were the best ways. Fennick Whale and Rea's amorphous, ever-changing son
some are lost in the fire some are built from it Erebor watches his opponent carefully when Fennick takes to the sky. He can't keep tabs on the boy with his eyes, but he can sense his heat signature easily enough. When that heat signature finally wheels back around and comes toward him, Erebor is not so silly as to give Fennick a stationary target. No he wouldn't run from a bird, but it's always harder for your enemy to aim when you move, and it's always better for you if it's harder for your enemy to aim. A moving target is hard to hit. And so it is that when Fennick shifts into a stone, the black stallion is already moving and has no plans to stop – that's simply what any good soldier does in battle.
He senses the change as Fennick goes from hot (a living bird producing heat) to cold (an inanimate stone), but it's instinct rather than anything rational that causes him to jump forward, and instinct which causes him to give himself a little push of hot air forward for extra distance. The horse-shaped rock misses Erebor completely as it thunders to the ground.
Fennick had been counting on Erebor staying still and standing his ground, but Erebor had not stayed still at any point, and had not stood his ground. And even if Erebor had stayed perfectly still, scoring a direct hit would not have been easy: a diving bird moving at speed has limited ability to change its trajectory without unfurling its wings and breaking its momentum – in other words, the more effectively Fennick targeted himself, the more he would break the momentum of his dive, and even then without fine last-minute controls that all birds of prey make in the moments before they strike, there's no guarantee of accuracy. Aiming for a moving target without any ability to change trajectory for the last 30 feet? It's no surprise it's a total miss.
As Erebor continues forward, he instinctively strikes out with a pulse of heat, aimed at the horse-sized rock that had just fallen. It's just a pulse, clumsily aimed and not his strongest as he's more focused on dodging out of the way, but it still has the potential to cause a crack in the horse-sized rock or weaken its structural integrity. He isn't making a carefully calibrated, surgical strike, not right now – he's simply following instincts honed from long practice with heat manipulation.
Fennick's dive is a miss, but it is a near miss (after all, the other stallion is a very fast-moving horse-sized rock), and when Fennick hits the ground the impact kicks up some smaller rocks and shrapnel which dig into Erebor's hind pasterns, fetlocks, and the lower part of his cannons. It's just a flesh wound with the occasional superficially embedded small rock, and it will heal in time, but for the moment it’s quite the annoyance, and if theirs was a physical contest it could prove a hassle.
But theirs has yet to be a physical contest, and Erebor doesn’t intend to change that. Continuing to move, he makes wide circles around his opponent. The wounds in his legs burn slightly, but it is no great hindrance – he is not charging, merely moving so that if Fennick tries anything, he's a harder target to hit.
He hopes that Fennick continues to seek safety in the shape of a rock, because that safety is no safety at all. That's one of the beauties of heat: nothing is immune, not if the temperature is hot enough. Even stones can melt – that's where magma comes from. And luckily for Erebor, unlike most conventional ovens he doesn't have a maximum temperature. He's perfectly capable of hitting the 3762 degrees Fahrenheit required to melt Aluminum Oxide, a common stone material and the stone material with the highest melting point. He hardly knows the physics behind it, but being the curious sort and having spent years secluded and playing with his power, he knows that he can melt rocks and about how much heat it takes (you'd try it too, if you were a heat manipulator). He has the knowledge and he will use it.
The temperature around Fennick is instantly raised to a rock-melting, blisteringly hot 3762 degrees Fahrenheit. But this time, it's just the temperature around the boy – in other words, Fennick's interior core won't immediately turn molten, and he'll melt like anything else, from the outside in. This is a deliberate choice by Erebor: he doesn't want to kill Fennick, and so although he could melt the other stallion instantly if he chose to, he decisively avoids it. This way Fennick has warning. This way, Fennick has time to react.
And Fennick's reaction would almost certainly be the same reaction that had saved the Valley stallion before: some form of shifting. Should Fennick persist in being a rock, he will eventually melt. But should he shift to something else, he could perhaps escape the localized area of high heat. And should Fennick be inclined to turn into anything else more heat sensitive prior to Erebor's next attack (say, changing back into a flesh-and-blood horse immediately upon landing) Erebor would simply adjust the heat of his attack to achieve the same nonlethal effect. It would be so much easier if he could just kill Fennick outright – it's keeping him alive that's the real challenge.
But as it is, Erebor simply continues moving, circling and waiting to see what his opponent will do next, knowing that the pinprick pain in his lower hind legs will only get worse if he stops.
erebor heat manipulating lord of the chamber warship x straia
Note: I managed to crash MyBB trying to post this (whoops) so my apologies for any irregularities!
the darkest nights produce the brightest stars Even as a rock, Fennick knew he didn’t hit anything worthwhile. He wasn’t really sure how he knew that. He was vaguely aware of his surroundings, but everything seemed muted and fuzzy. The giant ball of rock plowed into the dirt, showering bits of stone and sand up around him. Inside his rock body, the remnants of Fennick’s brain felt a little dizzy and dazed. Damn, that fall was really something.
As much as if would have liked to, Fennick couldn’t just lie around and recover. He needed to shift, or else he would spend eternity lying here as a rock. Around him, Fennick felt the heat start to rise. It didn’t hurt per say. A rock didn’t have nerves, but he worried about the damage it would do. Would he crack and shatter? Would that kill him? Or would he just be able to shift into something whole and unharmed? Fennick wasn’t really sure, but he didn’t feel like now was the time to test it.
Besides, there was no point fighting Erebor’s heat. It was inevitable. Better to work with it. As a rock Fennick was made up of several different minerals, and those minerals each melted at a different temperature. He began to melt in increments, he softened, and the edges of his consciousness began to blur. As a rock he was dying, but as something else he could live on. With a dramatic pop, Fennick released what was left of the rock and turned into sand. When sand was super heated it turned to liquid glass. Fennick sucked in the heat greedily as he became liquid. In this form he wouldn’t crack or break. That’s exactly what Fennick needed. As a rock he had stony and stoic. As glass he was hungry and fluid. If burning liquid touched Erebor, would he burn? The stallion could change the temperature, but if he was touched by liquid fire would his flesh crisp?
Fennick’s awareness as glass was crisper than it was as rock. He was faster too, fluid and pulsing, rather than immovable stone. He sluiced along the ground, racing towards Erebor’s legs. Greedy glass arms reached towards the other stallion, he would devour Erebor, burn him up until he was nothing but ash.
As a horse Fennick had empathy, compassion, as liquid glass he felt nothing but desire and heat. He tried to climb up Erebor’s legs, hoping to cling on and envelope the other stallion’s body in fire. If he was lucky, and if he was fast enough, perhaps he could wrap around his opponent’s throat. Fennick wasn’t sure, but he had a feeling the other stallion could super cool, as well as super heat. Fennick hoped that was the case. If he could wrap around Erebor, and if Erebor allowed Fennick to cool, he would turn to solid glass. If that happened, Erebor would have break his way out. Glass easily sliced through muscle and flesh. Erebor could quickly find himself in a delicate situation. Fennick Whale and Rea's amorphous, ever-changing son
10-16-2015, 01:54 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2015, 02:18 PM by Kyra.)
Winner: Erebor
He took more advantage of both the counter attacks and attacks allowed, and had just a bit more detail overall. But this was a pretty good fight on both sides.
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Erebor 6+ / 1o/ 1- = 8
Post I
+ Good job setting the scene/weather/general stats and such
+ Good counter attack, though maybe a bit more detail like is the heat kind of shimmery in the sun/is Fennick going to maybe have an escape of sorts from that, like will he see it and know?
+ Good attack, and I like the explanation here as well
Post II
o If he’s not running away from the bird, what is he doing? Trotting around, moving in circles still? I really that “running away” is more of a quip, but I would like some detail about how Erebor is moving
+ Good defense, and I like the explanation with it
+ Good counter attack
- You can’t assume that Fennick hit the ground, because he never said so in his other post, so this is a bit of power playing here – though I appreciate the attempt to take damage, for all we know at this point Fennick could have shifted right before he hit the ground
+ Good counter attack, though it’s also all kind of the same. No points off, because it makes total sense, but I like to be entertained too….can Erebor remove heat from something and freeze it instead? I dunno
Fennick 4+/ 2o / 1- = 7
Post I
+ Good intro
+ Good damage/defense to the attack
+ Good counter attack
o I feel like you could maybe have one more attack in here, since it’s one counter and one attack – the bird seems like a defense to me
Post II
- What about the pulse of heat that Erebor sent out? Did Fennick not feel it at all? Was it like an annoying poke? You just skip over that
+ Good counter attack
o What about your other attack though? Again, I feel like you missed an opportunity to maybe do more damage
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