A Test of Skill: Chadwyck versus Sem

[Chadwyck]

OoC: Obviously this was invite only, it is a battle between Sem and myself, so sorry if you were hoping to be involved. Anyway, here we go!

BiC:

Chadwyck walked silently down the crowded city streets, the people around him went out of their ways to make sure he had plenty of space, the young man was a less than inviting figure. He was dressed comfortably, in a white tee shirt beneath a light, black denim jacket. On the back of the jacket was an inked drawing of lightning striking, and mixing with, a fire. Though the picture was unseen, hidden behind the large silver blade of his sword.

The sword was like a work of art in itself, beautifully engraved with black flames down the flat side, sometime in the not-too-distant past he had to reforge the blade, now it was jagged like the fangs of a dragon, and it was glistening in the moonlight. On his hands he wore fingerless, leather gloves, to give him a better grip on his sword. He had short brown hair, red and blue Converse All Stars, and black rimmed glasses in front of his hazel eyes.

People persisted in explaining to him that, while obviously illegal, carrying a weapon of that size so blatantly was unnecessary. While maturity had taught him a sort of silent strength, when he felt like answering he simply responded, "You never know when you might need it." He felt like tonight may fall under that category, he felt it in the air. But he did like the feeling, it kept things exciting. For now, however, he kept his mind on his mission.

Chadwyck turned down an alley that had been coming up on the right side of the street, and with a quick look around to confirm he was alone, he jumped up and seemed to float to the top of a ten story building. Close examination would have revealed a slight glow around his person, made up of an electric current. He stood atop the building, staring out at the city spanning beneath him, even at night it was a busy city. That would make things a bit more difficult, he was looking for someone in particular, luckily he didn't expect this person to be roaming the streets.

Instead of scouring the city for his target, he decided to migrate to the center of the city, now all he needed was a sign that would lure his target to him. He heard about a rather powerful elemental, and the lure to test his skill was too great, and he was drawn like a moth to the flame.

He had been searching for some time, led only by the few facts that he knew about the person that he sought, he'd been searching for so long that he was getting very annoyed. He didn't know where to find his target, he only knew that this elemental was within the city somewhere. He had no idea what the exact location was, but he had an idea that would mean that he wouldn't need to.

He let his expressionless face shift, ever so slightly, into a smirk as his eyes closed and his energy was focused. If anyone had been standing near to him, they would have been hit by a stray bolt of discharging energy. Chadwyck's eyes snapped open, they were glowing a pale blue, and suddenly a huge bolt of lightning struck him. He channeled it through himself into the building, causing it to catch fire, with another force of his will it spread even more quickly than it would have. The fire swirled around him in a spiral, the building wasn't burning to a crisp, but the fire continued to rage. This should be a sufficient sign, come out and play. Sirens rang in the night, his smirk disappeared almost immediately; it was replaced by the expressionless silence.

While he waited for his target, he supposed he could have some fun. He reached out with his mind, taking control of the flames raging on the building. The flames leapt down onto the street, wrapping around the street, blocking all paths that the police cars would have to take to get to the building, lashing out at any vehicle that got too close. The building was the perfect beacon, a candle burning in the darkness. There was no way that the elemental wouldn't see it.

 

[Sem]

"I don't care where it's from, that's too expensive even for me!" Sem heard the much taller than he, and much older than he, woman say to the shop owner.

"Getch'yer magic dirt somewhere else then!" the man retorted.

Sem looked around at the people walking by. Not too many were out at this time of night, mostly because most of the shops weren't open this late. He was drawing a few looks - he and his friend were quite the spectacle. Sem himself wasn't human, or even remotely humanoid. He instead looked very much like an otter, albeit, with fins of a color between cerulean and cobalt atop his head, along his back, and at the end of his tale. His fur was gray, and he had a pair of black eyes at resembled the deep abyss of an ocean. Clothing-wise he had on a sleeveless black top that zippered up the middle, with zippered pockets on either side and decorative buckles over the shoulders and the back. The top had a slit down the back for his dorsal fin. Around his neck he wore a raindrop pendant that seemed to glow very dimly.

His partner was human, though she was dressed in a black gown, with silvery-white hair flowing out from under her large witch's hat.

"I told you that you're the only place in town that sells what I need," Sorena insisted, her lips pursed. "I bought that whole shipment of myrrh and animal hairs last week! Give me a discount."

"And it was much appreciated, but I'm not going to show special treatment to anybody!" he yelled, slamming his hand down onto the counter. "Now either you be a happy costumer and buy what you need, or leave."

"Oh, I'll a happy customer!" Sorena glared, her fist clenched.

Sem reached up with his three-digit hand and tugged on the witch's loose sleeve. The otterfish was mostly invisible to the shop keeper, his three feet being a foot and a half shy of the counter's height.

"What?" she looked down at him.

He shot her a glance, raising his eyebrows, giving her a you-shouldn't-kill-the-shop-keeper look.

"Oh, fine!" she rolled her eyes and turned around, dragging Sem along by the arm. "And I wasn't going to kill him!" she said very loudly, allowing Sem to see the color fade from the man's face as they exited.

The duo walked down the street - the otterfish looked straight ahead with a glazed expression as Sorena babbled on about something to do with roof tiles.

They heard sirens in the distance as they came up to a shop window full of televisions. The reporter was at the scene of a fire within the city amongst many police cars and firefighters. "The firefighters are left to tame this fire alone as their pyrokinetic is still suffering from his injuries from last weeks incident. The flames around the building are not allowing anyone to get close enough to fight the blaze, lunging out at anyone who gets too close. It is currently unknown if there are people inside the building - and if there are, things aren't looking good."

The witch gave Sem a look. "Sounds like some punk elemental's enjoying themselves," she observed dryly.

"I'll go take care of it," the aquamor told her.

"Have fun!" she waved her hand at him. "I'm going to keep looking at the stores around here. I refuse to believe that he's the only one that sells that particular kind of dust." With that she continued walking on, her speech turning into a rant about how 'back in her day' it was easy to anything and everything wherever you were.

Sem looked on after her with a grim affection before turning his attention back to the televisions. Concentrating, he thrust his hands down at the ground, where powerful jets of water formed and propelled him up the side of the building. Once on top it wasn't hard to locate the building, so off he went.

-------

The scene was chaotic as people frantically crowded behind yellow tape, their faces aglow with the orange blaze of the building. Firefighters huddled in groups, trying to plan out their next course of action - a blackened fire hose lay not far away from them, its nozzle melted mess.

Using his power, Sem searched the building for any water sources. The air was too dry and there was little to no moisture in it. There were no larger, condensed bodies of water either, which meant there were no people inside: not alive anyway.

Breaking away from the crowd, he dashed on all fours between the legs of an officer, taking cover under a fire engine that was parked as close as it could be. Few would notice his small figure in this madness. He crawled to the front end of the engine where a group of firemen discussed tactics. Silently he got out from under the vehicle and hid behind one of the large wheels before going to work. First thing he did was call in air moisture from all around the city, condensing it into the area of the fire, making it very humid. Next he threw his senses into the building again, exploring the piping. In a matter of seconds every single pipe, faucet, and drain exploded with a rush of water. The building shuddered with this force.

The water was speed along into the house at a high rate. Sinks overflowed quickly, next were any tubs. Water hissed when it met flame, but the will of the water elemental kept the liquid in a cool state, not allowing it to heat up and evaporate.

Next he condensed all the humidity into water and assaulted the barriers of fire that stopped the firemen. The fire could not fight back against the amount that Sem had summoned and was quickly doused, allowing firemen to rush in.

Two nearby hydrants burst, as did piping in neighboring buildings. Using all of this, Sem soaked the building from the inside out, quickly putting out the flames and putting and end to it.

Lowering his arms, he felt his head. There was once a time where that would have knocked him out due to exhaustion, but no so anymore. After shaking his head he felt well again and observed the scene. The building was sufficiently blackened and charred. On-lookers, firemen and police all marveled at what had just occurred, though in their minds knew some water elemental had lent them a mighty hand.

Firemen went into the house in order to look for any people who might have been inside. Sem himself was more interested in other things, mainly the cause. Throwing out the barriers of his mind again, he located a large concentration of water in the shape of a person standing on one of the roofs.

Frowning, he began to wonder what he should do. Any amateur elemental would have freaked out and ran if they had caused a fire like that one. And the way the fire lashed out at people was definitely the work of a more experienced person.

Cautiously, Sem used people as cover as he rounded a corner and jetted up the side of a building, out of the person's sight. He walked very casually along the rim of the roof until he was directly in front of the person. If the man was looking for a challenge, the aquamor was rather certain that he didn't expect it in the form of a three-foot-tall otter. "Six feet if you count the tail," Sem grimaced to himself as he looked at the man and waited.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck frowned displeased as the building shook beneath him, water began dousing the flames that he had spread across the building. One by one, his will over them began to fade, until he was entirely within himself once more. The building was dripping water, despite Chadwyck's attempts to hold the flames in place, no matter how much heat he added to them, strengthening him in his mind, the water wouldn't evaporate. He smirked again, that meant that elemental was here.

He released his grip over the remaining flames, allowing them to be doused more quickly than they would have been had he continued to fight. He stayed atop the building, not moving an inch, he stood waiting on top of the rooftop for his opponent.

He heard the firefighters run into the building below him, no matter, they were searching for survivors, no reason for them to come to the roof. And even if they had, it wouldn't matter if they found him. He let a few sparks jump between his fingers, then he clenched his fists in excitement. Then he saw something on the rooftop directly in front of him, what is that thing? He asked himself.

He definitely wasn't expecting what he saw staring at him from the other rooftop, the creature was short, not even breaking four feet from the looks of it. Chadwyck stepped to the edge of the rooftop, staring at the small thing in front of him. He didn't stop at the edge, however, he continued walking; he was floating across the gap. He stopped himself, suspended in mid-air, about five feet away from the rooftop that held his opponent. That caused quite a stir with the people down below, cries of surprise and awe floated up to his ears, Chadwyck didn't even turn to look.

"You're the elemental?" Chadwyck asked almost unsure of himself. Now that he was closer, he saw the the creature was only about three feet tall, with a tail about equal length to its body. Gray fur, blue fins, and a black jacket. It looked like an otter, "I suppose that makes sense..." He trailed off as he examined the elemental in front of him, "You're every bit as powerful as I heard, that was some trick putting out my fire." He said calmly. He floated over and landed on the rooftop, a few feet away from the otter-like creature.

"I've been looking for you. I knew this would get your attention." Chadwyck looked around at the surroundings, "I've sought you out to test my skills, nothing more, nothing less. My name is Chadwyck," He said with a slight bow, "Are you prepared?"

Without waiting for a response, Chadwyck thrust his hands forward. A stream of orange flames spouted out from his right hand, gliding just over the ground like the rolling waves of the ocean, attempting to hit the elemental's lower half. From his left hand, a bolt of pale blue energy leapt, cutting through the air molecules with a loud crack aimed for the otter's head.

 

[Sem]

Sem tensed up the moment the figure began to move towards him. The hairs from the back of his neck to the base of his tail stood on end. He stood quietly as the man spoke, (he seemed the type that liked to talk) but did not say anything in return. The aquamor didn't even speak up when he had been asked a question, though that was because Chadwyck was trying to kill him.

Fortunately there was water everywhere now, since Sem had summoned it all to put out the fire. Quietly he drew it all closer to his location while his enemy was speaking. The humidity returned and water slithered up the building,

The fire aimed at his legs was doused without much trouble, and Sem caught sight of the spark in the other hand and immediately bent backwards, falling and being caught by a cradle of liquid. The bolt shot right over him.

The water under him pushed him up so that he was standing again, facing the floating man. "The name's Sem if you'd care to know, and I suppose I'm prepared now," he spoke clearly. His English was soft and fluid, very clear and easy to understand despite him being an otter.

At this close of range Chadwyck looked like a sitting duck for what Sem did next. With a quick flash a weapon appeared in his hand - a gunblade, an elegant yet modern blade attached to the black metal of a semi-automatic handgun with the word Strata engraved into the side of the barrel.

He pointed the weapon at Chadwyck and a round of shots was heard from everyone in the vicinity.

 

[Chadwyck]

The creature, Sem, did exactly as Chadwyck had expected. Not in the way that he had avoided the attacks, but in avoiding them at all. Chadwyck had thought that he'd have little trouble with those attacks, turns out he was right. Though making such easy work out of them wasn't totally expected, he avoided both attacks in one fluid motion; which was to be expected from a water elemental. Fluid as the water you control, eh? Chadwyck thought, though he didn't have much time to speak it aloud.

Sem produced a weapon, seemingly from no where. The weapon was beautifully crafted, a gunblade, Chadwyck felt a twinge of weapon envy; of course, he'd never trade his sword for anything.

Almost as soon as the weapon was flourished, Sem had taken aim. Chadwyck was on the move before the first shot had ever sounded. He drew his blade in a swift, fluid motion, using the flat edge of the blade to deflect several of the incoming shots. With his free hand, he clutched his fist tightly, the air in the immediate area around him began to spark; he created a field of electromagnetic energy. Sparks leapt between air molecules, and a clearly defined wall of the energy was formed in front of him.

He pushed his hand forward, causing the wall to move along the same path the bullets were coming. As any of the bullets met with the wall, their momentum was slowed by the energy's magnetic pull; some were stopped completely, others slowed enough for Chadwyck to easily deflect them with his sword.

He continued to move the wall forward, until it was directly in front of Sem. He enacted another force of will, grasping at Sem with his hand from where he was standing. As he did so the wall of energy changed shape, it attempted to enclose Sem within it. Chadwyck rushed forward, his free hand still controlling the energy field, his right hand clutched his sword. He dragged the blade along the ground as he ran toward the water elemental, leaving a long slice in the rooftop behind him. He swung his sword in a horizontal slice, attempting to slice Sem in half.

Though, it was an awkward swing. He wasn't used to aiming at such a small target.

 

[Sem]

Sem acted quickly, creating a blast of water to jettison him away from the energy closing in around him. As he land he threw his gunblade up, blocking the blade, though force of the swing was significant enough to force the aquamor to slide across the roof in the same path as the sword.

Gritting his teeth he made sure to keep his weapon up against the blade before jumping up. Twirling, he brought his tail around in order to smack the man across the face, and as he did so another gunblade, identical to the other, appeared in his free hand in a shiver of light. He swung the blade using the momentum from his tail slap, coming back around again to slice Chad across the face.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck didn't let up when Sem blocked his sword, he continued his swung. Sem was pushed in the direction of his swing, then he jumped. Chadwyck didn't see the otter-thing's tail swiping at him, so he was hit by the tail whip. It felt like being slapped, although a little bit more powerful. Powerful enough to slide a few centimeters across the rooftop.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the water elemental flourish another gunblade, continuing in his rotation and bringing the blade for a slash at his face. Chadwyck clenched his left hand, encasing it in a field of electricity. He blocked the incoming attack with the hilt of his sword, though the block felt clumsy. Sometimes I miss that hunk of metal grafted to my arm, that would have solved the problem much more simply. He thought with a grunt, as he managed to push back against the swing of Sem's gunblade.

Up until Chadwyck had found a spell that healed his arm, he had a black metal gauntlet grafted to it. It had knifelike claws that extended from his fingertips, and although he didn't exactly miss it, it was useful in a fight.

After Sem's attack with the gunblade, he was close enough for him to throw a punch, Chadwyck used the electricity wrapped around his arm to back his punch. If the punch failed to connect he could still release the power in his arm, and if it did connect he would channel the energy straight into Sem's body.

 

[Sem]

Time slowed to a crawl as Sem saw Chadwyck's arm rear back, fingers closing into a tight fist as electricity enveloped it, cackling as it did so.

One word formed in the aquamor's mind: shield. And while only being a mere thought, it was enough to rally his element. Liquid quickly formed from the humid air, rushing into the quickly closing space between the Sem and Chadwyck's fist. It froze almost instantly, forming a barrier as the otterfish fell away safely and time's flow normalized.

With his feet on a solid surface he began his counter. More of the humidity in the air condensed, much more, and after a moment there was a distinct chill in the air. The H2O was being brought down to a supercooled state - much below 0 C but still liquid, and would freeze the very instant it touched any surface.

Water floated all around the pyro-electro elemental in spherical globs large and small. The fighters' breaths were clearly visible as the damp rooftop began to glaze over with ice. Then, the water rushed towards Chadwyck all at once from all around, seeking to cover him in a cold embrace.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck's punch connected, but not with the water elemental. Sem had created a shield out of ice, which formed very rapidly, proving that the otterfish was indeed a master of his element. When Chadwyck's punch connected with the ice, the electricity in his arm exploded, shattering the barrier, but it had done its job and Sem was not hit by the attack.

Almost simultaneously his opponent began to condense the water from the air around them into different sized spheres of water. Not only was the water elemental planning something, Chadwyck had a fairly good idea of what it was by the chill that began to hang in the air around the fighters. Chadwyck exhaled and saw his breath, the ground began to freeze, but the globs of water remained liquid.

Chadwyck focused his energy even before the attack was launched, the spheres began to enclose on him from every direction. He leapt up, creating a burst of white hot flames around himself as he did so, sending the searing flames in all directions, trying to intercept the water before it could do its damage.

Most of the attack was fended off, the flames hot enough to render the water useless, but he couldn't stop them all. He created a small burst of fire in his hands, propelling himself backwards by the force of the explosion. Some of the water clung to his jacket, and his glasses frosted over from the chill still clinging in the air. Where the water had struck the jacket was now frozen, "That's a neat trick." He said as he carefully removed the jacket and tossed it aside.

He faced Sem and clenched his fists tightly, focusing for only a moment. Then, he began performing palm thrusts, and from his palms he shot various sized spheres of condensed electricity, at the center of the sphere a faint orange glow could be seen coming from inside. "I'm afraid I can't do that, but I have something a little similar," Chadwyck smirked after he had riddled the field with the electric spheres, they surrounded Sem. Then Chadwyck launched the attack, in the same way that Sem had launched his. "Let's see how you like it."

The spheres rushed toward Sem from every angle, only when they came near him, the electric barriers would pop as though they were balloons. This would release a super condensed explosion of flames that would rapidly expand. Usually he filled a battle field with these and used them as mines, now they were being used more like grenades. Hopefully it'd be enough to catch Sem off guard.