Pride's Herald

A cloaked figure was running at full speed away from a charging group of Tyrannosaurus. They roared at her, hunugry mindless beast, unaware of their position on the food chain. "Fat Chance" She said to herself with a smile. The Avatars's gaze darted around, looking for somewhere to hide. There was no way she was going to get taken down by beast who were inferior to her, but as an avatar she was not allowed to kill. Not now anyway. The Prideful girl spotted a stream up ahead and dashed toward it, her pride lending her speed. The closer she came, the sooner she realized that the small stream that she had seen in the distance was actually a moat that looked pretty deep.

Unfortunately she was going to fast to stop herself so suddenly and ended up slipping into the water. With little avail, she grabbed at rocks, trying to stop herself from being pulled away by the gravity of the situation, but then she stopped and released her abilities. Once she had released them she simply flew out of the moat, looking down on the mindless beast she sighed as she felt that her Herald candidate was waking up from his slumber. "It is time to test my next human" She laughed as the dinosaurs stood at the edge, not making any attempt to chase after her, not that they would attack her while near the tree of eden anyway.

The Avatar morped a wooden staff that was strapped to her back into her hand and used it as leverage to force the dinosaurs away from the tree, zapping a beam of light at each one of them that teleported them to the other side of the planet. She focused her energy into her hand and sent magic into the ground that dried up the moat revealing hundreds and hundreds of dead bodies all crammed into the bottom of it, the air was quickly filled with the scent of her victims. A stone jutted up abruptly, pushing the Avatar slightly and on the stone were several tally marks. On one side of the stone there was the word wins and on the other side of the stone were the word losses. The win side of the stone had several tally marks while the loss side had none.

The avatar then went over to the coffin and opened it, to see the face of the new person, that was to challenge her. A male with medium brown hair, short and unkempt lay there naked, dead... but not for long as the winds of life came into him breathing life into him. His heart started beating again as the Avatar pressed her head againt the males chest listening to it. "This is indeed the heart of a fighter" She then ran to the tree and picked up an apple, unlike all the other apples this apple was silver in color. A special apple indeed, as its purpose was different then the ones seen before.

The avatar smiled, setting the apple on the males chest. A suit of armor covered his naked body, made of leather and cloth for quick movement, but sturdy enough to keep him protected from the environment. It came with boots and gloves, the full assortment. The avatar spoke a single command, "Rise Alexander... prove to me that you are worthy of your title" The Avatar of pride then removed their cloak revealing her true appearance. Pale skin, surrounded by white cloth, and snow white hair.
Image

His eyes flickered open, blinking slowly as sunlight bathed a pair of irises such a deep russet they were almost black. For a moment all he could see was a blur of blues and greens, but soon everything came into focus and he realized he was staring up at the sky through the spreading canopy of a large tree. Wordlessly he sat up, placing a gloved hand on either side of his casket as he turned his head back and forth and took stock of his surroundings: forests and green fields stretching to the horizon, a great tree hung with bitter-smelling apples and surrounded by coffins, and a young woman with argent hair.

Outwardly he appeared calm and expressionless, but inwardly his mind raced as he tried to recall how he had come to be... wherever this place was. The last thing he remembered was bedding down in a cot on a Russian freighter bound for Sakhalin; after that he had no recollection.

"The name is 'Hatch'." he corrected, his voice the gravelly baritone of a habitual smoker, with a faint Russian accent that made his name sound like "hetch" with a rasping "h". No one had called him "Alexander" in years, and that was how he preferred it--Alex was the name of the boy who had seen his family torn apart by poverty and corruption, who had practically been a slave for three years. That boy was long gone, and Hatch was glad to be rid of him.

Looking down at the apple that had rolled down his chest and come to rest between his knees, the assassin became aware of his bizarre adornments. A thin leather jerkin covered his torso over a white cloth tunic and black trousers, with thicker layers of leather forming a round spaulder belted over his left shoulder and faulds that hung down over his crotch and thighs. Matching bracers and greaves protected his forearms and shins, providing ample protection without being burdensome. Hatch had never worn anything like this in his life, nor seen anyone do so outside of a renaissance festival; the very idea was almost ludicrous, but somehow he was glad to have the armor.

Picking up the apple almost unwittingly, Hatch pushed himself to his feet and turned his full attention to the girl at his side. His gaze was dark, his brows furrowed over his sharp black eyes. "What do you want of me?" He didn't ask where he was, or who she was: neither mattered really, it was clear that he'd been brought to this place for a reason: that reason was the only thing that was meaningful, and if the argent girl knew who Hatch was and had gone to the trouble of abducting him he could already guess what she was going to say... or so he thought.

Pride had felt as though she had been going in circles for what seemed like centuries. Hero after Hero they all fell to her and each one waking up with the same questions. Despite being so experienced with them she could never deliver a message that gave her what she wanted right away. Normally her explanations would lead the way to argue with most of her challengers. Not to say the hero was wrong, he had to be always right or else he would not be worthy of Pride. Pride liked the look of the male, she had been sizing him up to be quite the challenger. It was like nothing that she had ever seen before in Eden.

In her hand appeared a bokay of lilys The plants were lovely and she collected up many of the flowers. "Be careful which ones you touch" Pride explained. "Not all plants are good, Some might be poisonous" She warned him. Pride then asked for the male to place a single flower in her head. Leaning over she began to explain... in a rather slow and drawn out matter. "You have died once before... and because of forces that are beyond my understanding you have been brought here after your death... I am an avatar, more specifically I am the Avatar known as Pride. There are seven-teen more avatars each one different in many ways, but as a collective we all govern this place, our rule is final... and if we so wish it we could come together and destroy this world at anytime" She paused for a moment to see if the male had picked one of the flowers of her bokay yet, waiting for him to put it in her head.

She closed her eyes once more waiting patiently and continued explaining herself. "That explains where you are... now as to why you are here... you are here to make a choice that no one else can make... you can either go back to where you came from... or you can stay here... start a new life... this choice does not come easy as you must earn the ability to go back home... and that is only after you prove yourself worthy to live on this planet at all" Her once bright innocent smile vanished as a cold and distant emotionless visage appeared. "Now in order to do that... you have to kill me... before I kill you... and to stand a chance at doing that... you better take a bite out of that apple before I decide to kill you" As she spoke every word the environment around them grew more foul as the mold and decay from dead bodies began to fill the air.

The once subtle dirt they stood on soon became swamp like, covered in blood, that was pouring out from the tree. The blood would fill the moat up and then over fill. Thus causing the blood to stretch outwards into the land and into the forest drowning the tree line. "So... did you get me a none poisonous flower?" She said with her eyes still closed, and her hand reaching back for a blade.

Upon the argent girl's request to bring her a flower Hatch simply continued to stare her down with his dark, unfaltering gaze. He tucked the apple away inside his belt and crossed his arms over his chest obstinately. Whatever mind games she was trying to play with him he'd have no part in them. Objectively he could see that she was indeed a beautiful creature, human or otherwise, but to put it bluntly he simply didn't care. While the average man might be swayed by her allure and charm the assassin was all business, and he wasn't about to play along with her little romantic facadé.

"You did not bring me here for botany lesson, devushka. Get to point before I lose my patience." His voice was calm and emotionless, but the threat underlying Hatch's words was as plain as day.

He listened intently as she told him that he had died, which he didn't believe in the slightest, and that she was the embodiment of Pride--that he could believe. The way the argent girl spoke, the way she moved, she clearly very sure of herself; almost conceitedly so. But to claim that Hatch was dead? It was ludicrous. However, instead of interjecting with his disbelief he kept his peace and continued to hear the avatar out.

She spoke of a choice between living in whatever this place was or returning to his homeland, a choice that hinged on the assassin's ability to win a duel with her. The moment she said "kill me before I kill you" Hatch looked down at the coffin at his feet, raised his right leg, and slammed his booted heel down on the edge of the casket. With a sharp crack the five-foot wooden side plank opposite the hinges snapped free, taking several bent nails with it. Hatch immediately bent to retrieve the board and hoisted it onto his shoulder.

"So... did you get me a none poisonous flower?" The avatar asked as the landscape began to drastically change, causing Hatch to revise his earlier dismissal of the claim that this was some sort of afterlife: the blood-drowned scenery was far too surreal to be anything of the world Hatch knew.

Always one to have a clever retort on hand, Hatch's reply to Pride's question was to pivot on his heel and violently swing the coffin board at the side of the girl's head. Flowers were for lovers and corpses, and she was not his lover.

The snow blonde rested a gloved finger to her chin and rested the same knuckles against her other elbow and began to mutter to herself. The man, she had done nothing but show respect for his abilities had slammed something into her head, she wasnt exactly sure what. Waiting for Hatch suddenly seemed 'not' worth the trouble any longer. He was supposedly the man who could indeed, 'get the job done' but this young, naive attempt to do her harm and the attitude that came with it was not so promising. A pale hand slid from her robes revealing a silver blade which Pride did not reveal right away. Her mind wondered why the male hadn't gone and eaten the apple before attacking her. If she was human the damage to her skull may have done her very well, she concluded. However, she was not human... not yet anyway.

She sighed, "Now did I say it was time to start... that was actually very rude of you... but I figure these are the qualities of a hired hand... I am after all still a woman would you show no mercy on my gender" thus that ended her questioning of today. Letting go of the blade that was behind her she reached over to her head and quickly pulled out the impaled splinter of wood. The male, take it or leave it, was looking to assassinate her as if she were some guy who had it comin' and she knew it. For Pride, this was an immature way of looking at it and female intuition did not help her in this case.

Her head gently turned and she popped her neck the blow having quite a bit of force behind it. "Last chance... eat the apple first so it will at least be closer to a fair fight then it is now..." A gust of wind came through before the dead bodies that surrounded them became reanimated, the blood that was everywhere pulling their bodies back into being. "Ostagar." Pride repeated this word softly, as one single corpse ran up on Hatch from behind but before Hatch could react the corpses head fell off, and the blood running through it began to spout upwards like a fountain. Slipping on the blood more and more corpses began to crawl walk and run towards Hatch as this was her first attack. "Fights on" She let out a deep sigh, to her it was all a game, she pulled a mask over her head going back to how she looked before revealing herself. It was only when she was concealed that she was vulnerable, purposely vulnerable to a virtual form of death.

[mask]

(Switching it up to fighting format so my post will possibly be shorter... I know you said you don't mind and to be honest I didn't expect you to mirror me... didn't know what to expect honestly... just hoping this isn't an issue)

((OOC: It's cool, I don't give a fig about post length. I know you've got a lot of people to respond to so don't feel like you have to churn out a masterpiece on my account. Most of my posts in 1v1 fights are only a paragraph or two anyway once it gets going))

Hatch let out an annoyed "Tch-" when the coffin board broke over the avatar's head without even dazing her. He'd underestimated her, he realized, and it was apparent now that she was not as human as she looked. If he didn't take her seriously he might end up dead.

Letting the broken plank fall into the crimson mud, Hatch clenched his fists and widened his stance as the bodies began to rise around him. The scene was like a nightmare come to life, but the assassin stayed calm and focused even as blood sprayed across the back of his neck from one of the fallen that had rushed at him from behind.

The avatar's chiding remark about the apple rang in Hatch's mind, and almost unbidden his left hand took hold of the strange fruit and drew it from his belt. He didn't want to eat it, he couldn't trust anything in this bizarre place, least of all Pride, but it was like he was entranced. In spite of his reservations he brought the apple to his lips and bit into it as the first cold, bloodstained hands wrapped around his arms, his legs, and his throat.

In that instant time seemed to stand still, the bitter juices of the apple suffused the assassin's body, filling him with a sensation unlike anything he'd ever experienced. Every cell in his body burned like a furnace, agonizingly inundating his brain with white hot fire that nearly overwhelmed his senses. He could feel his heels lifting out of the mud, his back arching and his arms being pulled back in the grip of the undead as they prepared to tear him apart.

In less than a second, but one that had felt like several minutes to Hatch, his consciousness snapped back to normality and the blinding glare faded from his eyes. He became aware of the freezing, rotting hands clawing at his body and he fought back with everything he had.
Hatch's feet hit the ground hard, sinking deep into the mud with a much greater impact than should have been possible for a man of his size. He wrenched his arms forward, against the pull of the corpses behind him, and not only succeeded in freeing himself but also sent the undead clinging to him hurtling a dozen feet away with a single motion.

Wide-eyed, Hatch stared at his arms. They felt... heavy... but he didn't have trouble lifting them. It was like he had a fifty-pound weight strapped to each wrist but gravity seemed not to have noticed; every slight movement he made was exaggerated, as if once he started moving his body didn't want to stop. Hatch didn't realize it but he had unconsciously increased the inertia of his arms. They were harder to move, but once they got to swinging they built up so much force it was like they were made of lead.

Sharply turning his head to the right as a pair of reanimated sprinted at him, Hatch swung his right arm in a wide horizontal arc and slammed the back of his fist into the head of the first corpse. His hand burst its skull like a melon and passed completely through it to plow into the second corpse, sending it careening into a third standing behind it.

"Neveroyatnyy!* Such power!" Hatch exclaimed, unable to keep the grin from showing on his face. In two heavy, thunderous steps Hatch reached the next reanimated and drove his left fist upward into its solar plexus. The blow completely caved in the corpse's ribcage and lifted it off its feet, sending it ragdolling through the air. "Come then, dead men! I will teach you why they call me the Spade!"

((*Incredible!))

As the male ate the apple pride began to smile, she would refuse to get her hands dirty, unless the male was going into this fighting fully committed to beating her. With that in mind she unsheathed her sword and threw it into the tree. Where it stuck, now that he ate the apple the gap in power was a tad bit smaller and Pride did not feel as bad for what was about to happen. She noted his power had given him what she perceived as a form of super strength but that would not stop her from taking it lightly. She observed the way he was fighting taking note that he was indeed a close range fighter. This would be an issue for him against long range combatants so that was what she wanted to test out on him first. The undead all became cautious as they all began to act organized. It was of course to no avail as they could not overwhelm him even with their numbers.

When none of them were left, Pride was ready and waiting as the blood in the area began to take shape. This time it hardened and formed a colossal creature with horns. It was massive in size, towering over the tree itself. Pride sat atop the beast shoulder wielding her magic staff in hand, as she summoned several dinosaurs back to this location. A total nine Tyrannosaurus-Rex circled the male. "And now for his obvious weak point" She then called forth the almighty dragon. It was small in size, but that is what made it a threat. It had four beady eyes, and green and blue scales. It was not the generic fire breathing dragon but more of the acid breathing kind. The ensemble of creatures would all work together via orders from Pride as he had defeated them all and earned that right.

The Colossus was the first to attack, as its large fist cam slammed down towards Hatch from the above, this would be followed by the Dinosaurs circling around him to catch him from any angle he could have slipped out from. It ended with the Dragon diving underground rapidly digging its way around to come up on his corpse and devour him if he were to try and escape the dinosaurs. They mobilized in perfect sync, to be sure to catch the male off guard.

Pride was still sitting atop the colossus’ shoulder. No worries in her head, if the male somehow climbed the colossus and avoided the dragon then she would be at a disadvantage, it was clear she was a summoner in terms of offense… using the people she defeated over time. In any other case she was a swordsman but she left her sword stuck in the tree. She wafted her hand in the air as blood from the golem collected in the air, she held it there as a defensive measure just in case all of her beast failed at once.

With ruthless efficiency Hatch dispatched at least two dozen walking corpses: snapping necks with elbow strikes, breaking backs with roundhouse kicks, and driving them into the muddy ground with shoulder-throws. Covered in mud and gore, the assassin panted from the exertion and stared at Pride amid a field of crushed and broken bodies. He took two steps toward her before he noticed all the blood soaking the ground was being drawn together into a single mass.

"What... what is this madness?" Hatch could only stare in shock as the blood congealed into an enormous humanoid figure. Adding to the insanity, dinosaurs--real, honest-to-god dinousaurs--began to appear around him, as well as a dragon straight out of a fairy tale. This was way out of Hatch's realm of expertise: he made a living killing men, not creatures from fantasy and ancient history. The reanimated were one thing, they were still men even if they were dead and Hatch knew how to deal with them--but dinosaurs? It was just too surreal.

The colossus' fist descended and Hatch couldn't even move, he was terrified. He couldn't fight something so inhuman, no one could. All he wanted to do was run away but there was no way to escape. Too late, he finally got his body to start moving but by then he could already feel the wind being displaced by the giant's enormous arm as it shot toward him. The air currents pushed down on Hatch and... blew him away?

Once again Hatch had tapped into his powers without realizing it: his desire to flee had been so great he'd subconsciously reduced the inertia of his body. For all intents and purposes he was almost weightless and was buffeted by the wind like a sheet of paper in a tornado. The colossus' punch slammed into the ground where Hatch had been standing but he was whisked away from the impact site by the shockwave and now whirled through the air riding the wind, totally out of control and with no idea what was going on. All around him the tyranosaurs lunged and snapped at him, but like trying to grab a feather that was floating through the air all they managed to do was push him around even more erratically.
That's not to say, however, that Hatch remained unscathed: not only was he being whirled and spun so rapidly he became dizzy and disoriented, but he was also getting knocked around by the snouts and thrashing tails of the dinosaurs. If it weren't for the armor Pride had deigned to give him out of her misconstrued sense of fair-play Hatch would have gotten quite a few cuts and bruises from the ordeal.

A scant few frightening seconds later Hatch bumped against the great Tree and managed to latch on to a branch nearly forty feet above the ground and just out of reach of the dinosaurs. His inertia began to return to normal once the shock wore off, but it was still much lower than normal. By now the assassin had realized he could move in two ways, either slow and heavy or light and fast, but controlling it was still beyond his scope for now. Regardless, light and fast seemed to be his best bet at the moment.

Hatch looked over at Pride, trying to guess what she might do next, but he had no idea. He didn't know what he should do next either, for that matter. When he gazed down at the dinosaurs the sight of Pride's sword sticking out of the trunk of the tree below him caught his attention. If he could get ahold of that he'd stand a much better chance of getting out of this alive...

Pride scoffed at the male evasive tactics, his ability to do that was completely beyond her imagination. "That was rather amazing" She thought unsure if it was skill or dumb luck she knew the bottom line of the matter was that it was needed for survival and it played in his favor. She was still unsure what his ability was as she had to judge it by looking at it, and to an extent one could almost think that this was all natural skill rather than the power of the fruit. She grew slightly peeved that he had decided to hide in the tree. It was after all sacred, so fighting around it would be rather difficult. This would not stop her as she pointed to the tree, commanding her servants to do her bidding.

The Dragon was the first to reveal itself considering it had completely dropped the advantage before. It could not use its abilities but it was easiest for the dragon to climb in the tree and attempt lethal attacks. It dived down in the tree as best as it could and used its feet to reach and claw at Hatch, The Dinosaurs on the other hand were at a disadvantage, unwilling to climb and damage the tree. The Colossus was far too big to do anything that would be of use, without harming the tree. Pride gleefully hopped off the Colossus in midair, she knew she was durable, and the only way she could figure out what his power was really all about was through first hand experience. She held out her leg as she came down with her heel. "This tree doesn't need all its branches" Her speed increased as she attempted to take out the branches that were protecting Hatch, but to no avail as if by magic she was rejected and her attack send her flying back.

Using magical properties on the tree was forbidden after all. She would have to fight fair inside the tree, hand to hand with no special abilities. She jumped into the tree bushes thinking she could use this against Hatch, as he would try to use his abilities on her and the tree would reject him as it did her. She stood in front of Hatch holding her hand out as if she was still waiting for him to give her a flower. This time however she was not smiling. "Why didn't you give me a flower" she said disappointingly. It was as if she was inadvertently taunting him.


The Colossus began to break himself apart falling over outliving his usefulness and instead broke into several small versions of himself, they all stood at three feet tall and their numbers were massive. Once Hatch jumped out of the tree, they were planning to bombard him as he should not have been able to avoid something in its liquid state as easy as he avoided the tact less dinosaurs.

Hatch pulled himself up onto the branch he'd been blown into and balanced on it with one hand on the trunk of the Tree to steady himself. The trunk felt oddly warm, and touching it filled Hatch with a sense of serenity and peace. That didn't last long, however, as the dragon was soon trying to snatch him with its claws as it struggled to push its way through the branches. Fortunately the limbs of the Tree seemed to be stronger than those of a normal tree, snagging and slowing the dragon enough for Hatch to avoid its claws.

The assassin looked down again, trying to spot a way to get the sword. Regrettably it didn't seem possible: the blade was stuck well below the lowest branches, which meant if he dropped down to retrieve it he'd have no way of climbing back up. Going back to the ground wasn't an option now either, with all the little blood golems waiting for him below.

"Why didn't you get me a flower?" Pride's voice, coming from not five yards away, startled Hatch and drew his attention. He hadn't even noticed her dropping into the Tree.

"Because I do not like you, demon." Hatch replied simply as he bent his knees, taking up a combatitive stance while balancing on a branch. "But I will be sure to give you a rose, once I bury you!" Leaping toward Pride Hatch grabbed onto an overhead branch with one hand, swung toward the avatar, and kicked at her chest with both feet. Unfortunately Hatch didn't realize he was still in "light" mode, so his kicks would only be at around half-strength.

As Prides feet went flying at her chest, she did not flinch or hesitate, it felt kind of strange to her... The impact had felt as if he had done it all in slow motion, but he didn’t, something that should have at least been something she could tease at but this was beyond teasing this was just baffling. It was almost difficult for her to hold her composure, as the thought of marshmallows filled her head. His feet were now sinking into her chest; it was as if her breast were trying to devour him. She could not help but to lose her composure, and let out a fit of giggles. "A rose... would be so sweet... that is if I could truly die" She playfully smacked his legs away now more amused with him than before. Almost to the point where she did not truly wish to kill him as she had not had such an entertaining battle in quite some time.

The dragon had been trying to spit its acidic breath at the tree, but its magic properties constantly negated this. It began to screech loudly in frustration still trying to find a way to claw its way into the tree. At one point it slammed its head into the bushes just barely able to use its snout to graze Hatch. When it saw him it fired another blast of acidic breath only for all of that acid to come flying back at the beast and into its own eyes. The beast would screech more as it went blind from its own foolishness.

Her plan to bait him into an attack had failed, but with all that in mind she quickly regained her composure. After doing so she lunged at him with a full body tackle confident in her ability to get him at the least out of the tree. If successful, she could have the blood minions trap him, and the dinosaurs eat him. That or use the dragon as a means to his destruction, she knew a part of her was underestimating him, but she was more focused on winning at this point she had to lose her curiosity now or risk that which was most important to her.

When Hatch's kick did little more than bump against Pride's funbags he swung backwards and landed on a branch a few feet away, feeling a mixture of shame and rage when she laughed at him. He was about to respond to her comment about not being able to die when the dragon nearly took his left arm off with a snap of its jaws. Hatch flattened himself against the trunk of the Tree as the dragon sprayed acid at him, fully expecting his skin to be melted off by the degenerative fluid. He could only stare in shock when the Tree protected him from the attack... or perhaps it was only protecting itself. Either way its magic was impressive.

Immediately realizing he'd allowed himself to be distracted from his fight with Pride a second time, Hatch turned to face her just as she tackled him and bowled him off his feet. Normally he would never make so many mistakes during a confrontation where his life was on the line, but so much bizarre shit had been happening in the past five minutes he couldn't really help but be off his game. However, when all was said and done Hatch was still an exceptionally skilled fighter and although he did get knocked backward he still managed to hook his legs around one of the branches as he fell and hung upside-down with Pride's arms wrapped around his arms and chest. With his arms pinned and his legs busy keeping him from falling from a very terminal height the only thing he could think to do was curse at the avatar and attempt to butt her with his head.

"Glupo shlyukha! Let go of me, demon!" His first headbutt was only a light tap, but as his rage--and equally his inertia--grew, the second headbutt was a stronger hit and when he swung his head forward a third time the blow would be strong enough to crack stone.

After her successful tackle, she let go of him after he head butt her, as it was mostly just a means for him to lose balance. She then grabbed him by the skull upon his second head butt which sent her flying upward in the motion his head was going, the empty blow making no contact should have made him fly forward and lose his balance even more causing him to fall off the tree branch with Pride still holding onto his head. She took his head and slammed him into the tree, using her own magical properties in the process to be sure they would be rejected from the tree she had enhanced her strength. Upon impact they were ejected from the tree as if magnets of the same polarity were towards each other.

As they began to make their decent towards the ground she let Hatch go as the blood on the ground sprouted upwards to save her from her fall. She smiled, "Consider that as payment for the chunk of wood you put in my hair" As she watched Hatch descend towards the Dinosaurs opened mouths and the army of blood golems waiting to rip him to pieces. They were ready and waiting as they all positioned themselves in a different location based on where they thought he would land, They began jumping in hopes of swallowing him with one go. If that wasn't enough to ensure that he would die, the blood golems began to solidify the blood mixing it with the earth to form spikes across the ground.

Pride had high hopes of winning in this case, if the male could find a way to survive this then she would surely deem him worthy of her. She was not exactly sure if he had any reason for fighting for his life... after all surely by now he knew he had died based on all the odd things she displayed to him. 'Does he really think he has a second chance at a decent life...'

When Hatch fell out of the tree he could feel the rage building inside him. Normally he was very diligent about keeping his emotions in check, but things were going so badly he just couldn't seem to keep a leash on his fury. He'd been wrenched out of his own world to be the plaything of an arrogant deity who offered him a chance to return home, only to throw him into a duel he had almost no chance of winning. It was more than he could stand, far more enough to make him lose his composure. All he could think of now was grabbing Pride by her stupid cloak and beating the pretty off her aggravating face. He didn't care in the slightest that she was a woman, that wasn't going to stop him from putting her in the ground.

As had been evidenced by his lack of control of his newfound "miracle", Hatch's manipulation of his own inertia was currently tied to his state of mind. When he sought to flee his body instinctively became lighter and easier to move, and when he wanted the power to crush his enemies his body grew heavier and stronger--and right now he REALLY wanted to do some crushing.

During his freefall Hatch built up the inertia of something equivalent to a freight train; when one of the Tyrannosaurs tried to catch him in its mouth the force of his impact quite literally tore its jaw apart in a shower of blood and saliva while barely slowing his descent at all. He hit the ground with a crash that shook the great Tree to its very branches, scattering the blood golems with the shockwave and shattering the muddy spikes on the ground.

However only a moment later Hatch was repelled by the Tree a second time, upward and outward at a forty-five degree angle. The Tree was just as protective of its roots as it was its branches, so when the assassin hit the ground that force was repelled just as all the other attacks on the Tree had been. He rocketed back into the air, angling his body so that he would fly straight toward Pride.

Although he was battered, bruised, and bloody Hatch had one more surprise in store for the avatar: as he came within striking distance of Pride a gleam of silver arced around his body, revealing the sword the avatar had stuck in the Tree at the beginning of the fight. Hatch had grabbed it as he fell and now he swung it at its owner's chest at terminal velocity backed by several tons of inertial force.

(OOC: Well played, I was tempted to end it the post before but Rping with you so far has been the most enjoyable combat based RP I have done in a long time, I think I should end it here, so I am going to do that and from there we can move on to other targets)

The sword went flying towards Pride as she honestly had nowhere to go being in midair and suspended. She could try to deflect but the force behind it would be far too great as the blade impaled her flying through her chest and into the horizon. Pride would refuse to let the male, go once she had him. She was still unfazed for the most part but the force from the blow was strong enough to send her physical body away from the tree in a slow a fast descend towards the ground, if she were human and she somehow died from the blade she would surely die from the impact towards the ground.

She went flying diagonally towards a few rocks flying through those she had managed to make it all the way to the tree line where the forest had started. Her back was further impaled by one of the several branches. It went through her back and out of her chest widening the hole that the sword had left. Pride let loose another sigh as blood dripped from her skull, mouth, and nose. "Well... I most certainly died..." This was of her own judgment, as it would only be fair to let the male have this one... she was foolish to underestimate his abilities and she got way to careless when it came to how hard he could hit once pushed.

Her pride ate away at her as she grunted removing herself from the branch, her blood soaked it, and she fell towards the bottom like a lifeless rag doll possibly hitting every branch on the way down. Once she hit the bottom she weakly tried to stand up and began to crack all her bones back into their proper places in the process. She was now covered in blood bones protruding from her body, but as she began to make her way to the sword that impaled her, her wounds healed. She took off her hood and reverted back to her more humanistic form, once again a bouquet of flowers in her hand. "Well Hatch, you won!" She shouted in the direction of the tree not really sure if the male heard her or not.

She began to make her way to the tree and her score board and began to weep a little as the male had certainly tarnished her record forever. Taking her finger she scratched in a single tally mark to show that she was genuine of her defeat. "It was nice being mortal... always has been... you could never get a thrill like that as an Avatar..." She thought as she held her hand towards the crater her body had created, as if she was calling for something. The blade in which hatch through at her then appeared in her hand. "You dirty little traitor" She said laughingly as if scolding the blade. She then waited patiently for Hatch to make his way down to her, dead or alive she had a gift for him, afterall she had grown fond of him and considering he had bested her in a contest, she wanted to make sure he knew it.

She was feeling a bit frustrated because of her defeat so she did have one last hope that maybe he would fall to his death. On the other hand if he made it down safely she would indeed finally have a champion for the war… and while she did lose this battle in the end it was all just another part of a bigger and better game to her.

The feeling of satisfaction Hatch felt when he managed to drive Pride's sword through her chest was incredibly cathartic; he'd been playing against the odds throughout the fight with an entire army of monsters ready to rip him apart, and now that he'd finally managed to land a solid, potentially lethal strike he felt his rage give way to relief and triumph. That of course led to his inertia returning to normal again, which subsequently meant he had nothing protecting him as he fell out of the sky.

Hatch backflipped once in the air, rebounding from his midair collision with Pride, and dropped to the ground with a crash. When he landed his right leg gave out painfully, his ankle either broken or seriously sprained, causing him to go down on one knee and sink his fist into the mud to steady himself. He gritted his teeth as the pain throbbed throughout his entire lower leg, but in spite of it he tried to push himself up onto his other foot. Even if Pride was dead--which he doubted--her minions were still a potential threat; he had no choice but to keep fighting. Slowly, painfully, he managed to get his left leg under him and stood up again, limping heavily to favor his damaged ankle. His whole body was sore and he was bleeding from his left side where a dinosaur tooth had punctured his armor and broken off under his arm. He pulled the fragment of tooth out and tossed it aside, carefully watching Pride as she approached and carved a tally on her scoreboard.

"That it then?" The assassin asked through gritted teeth, "Is that enough 'proof' for you, avatar?" He shivered, suddenly aware of how cold he was, and wiped the mud from his hands. "Heal yourself as many times as you want, I'll just beat you down again and again."

((OOC: I'm glad you enjoyed it, I had fun too. Though I was worried my posts were a bit boring and long))

As her champion approached her she slowly walked towards him holding her bouquet of flowers sashaying from side to side with each step as a breeze blew by her brushing her hair forward. As the breeze continued the dinosaurs would break down on a biological level. First their skin, then their muscle, then their organs, the nerves, and then it ended with the skeleton as if fell to the ground breaking down into dust and blowing where ever the wind took it. The blood vanished, as the flowers all began to break apart and the petals covered the ground around her.

She stood next to the man smiling, she wanted to reach out and touch him but instead, feigned from doing so in case he would retaliate while still being cautious of her intentions. "Indeed you would just beat me down and down until your last breath... but that is not what you want..." She said, as her fingers slightly readjusted her hair. She placed the last flower from her bouquet in her hair sighing, at how pitiful she must have looked after trying so hard to get Hatch to do it.

Hatch's blood began to circle around him and then it receded right back into his body. His wounds began to heal, sealing themselves as his body moved backwards in time, feeling as if it had never happened. Another voice could be heard in the distance but there was no face to put to said voice. "He did indeed do well if I do say so myself" Another Avatar appeared seemingly from nowhere. As fierce gales of wind blew outwards from where he was now standing. He was covered in silver armor, and his face was completely hidden by a helmet only two bright lights beaming outward from where his eyes should have been.

Pride scoffed, ignoring the voice of the other Avatar. She then smirked "So Champion, Hatch... what will you do now that you have succeeded in the first task needed in order for me to fulfill my promise to you..." She said congratulating him reached her hand out to him as if everything would be fine between the two of them from this point on. She didn't expect it to be that way, but she would try to make their interactions from this point on civilized.

The other Avatar gave her a look of astonishment, laughing wildly at her attempt to hold on to her Champion. "Surely Pride... you must think this man insane if he were to follow you after you tried to kill him!" He said teasingly, "Hatch was your name correct; allow me to introduce myself... I am Time... Father Time if you will the avatar he keeps things moving...” He said as he pulled out a stop watch from a holster on his belt. "Now from this point you have a choice to make... as this Avatar tried to kill you... you have the right to be guided by another Avatar... and thus I time have come to your aid" He revealed his sheathed blade and pressed it into the ground as if it was a cane to support his weight. In reality it was mostly a warning to Pride, as a means for her to back off.

"This one and I had a deal, old Father." Hatch replied to Time, crossing his arms over his chest and fixing the armor-clad avatar with a hard stare. "She offers me a way home, what can you offer me?" He turned to Pride, wondering if he could get something out of this if the two avatars were going to vie for his favor. "But first thing's first. I want a cigarette, a steak--medium-rare--and a clean suit. And I don't mean a suit of armor, I mean a suit: black, two button, thin lapels, matching tie and slacks; you get the idea." If she could make dinosaurs appear out of thin air and blood turn into monsters she could damn well get him some basic amenities.

Time chuckled "See, Pride... you offer him a way back to his old life... when this is supposed to be a place of rebirth and a new start... a chance to make everything the way you want it to be... not some go home thanks for playing bull crap..." He snapped his fingers as the armor Pride had given him vanished and as he had requested a suit appeared clothing his body. He was dressed in a grey button up shirt and a black tie. His shoes were loose fitting, not so loose that they could come flying off, but lose enough for him to breathe and wiggle his toes around. A pair of black slacks with a grey leather belt and a golden buckle surrounded his skin. Time smiled at his work, "How’s that... to your liking I hope" He nodded having forgotten the most important part, as a black long coat draped over the males shoulders.

Pride scoffed, looking him up and down, "He won't survive as well in rags like these... the heralds of life and death could both easily destroy him... and should I even mention rage... the point is to get him to find the mask... and he won’t be able to do all of that with rags like these..." She was angry but only because her sense of gear was different and proven to more effective. It couldn't really be helped though so she accepted it. "On the other note... you will have to hunt your food... I can make dead things just appear out of nowhere..." She pointed her finger to the ground as a pig with an outer shell appeared and ran off. Instead of hooves it had sharp appendages that stabbed into the dirt with each step as if it were a sword.

Time nodded, "Well with all that said he wants to know what I can do for him that you can't... well while this witch sends you off to battle after battle I instead take you under my wing... you become my apprentice and live as the Avatars do... albeit without my power of course... and under my teachings... you can not only leave and return through the worlds we live in... but great riches on both sides await... and in the end... all you have to do is kill a few people who get in your way... long story short... rather than send you home with nothing... as Pride is surely to do... I share my winnings with you in this game that we have all been forced to play..."

Pride let loose another scoff, "I can easily offer him the same thing... but more so on his terms..." She initializing a change in their original agreement, but the truth was they were both hoping to take advantage of hatch's ignorance in terms of the game they were playing. In the end they knew he had no clue how big the stakes of this game truly were.

Hatch adjusted his collar and cuffs, checking the fitting of his new suit while listening to Pride and Time. True it wasn't as protective as the armor had been, but it was also less bulky and Hatch felt much more comfortable wearing it. In this strange, alien purgatory it was the one thing that felt familiar, like a piece of home, and that was worth a thousand times more than a bit of leather and metal padding--plus it made him look damn good.

"Tell me more about this 'Game'," the assassin said, "If I am to be your pawn I would know the rules, and the stakes. And more importantly, what is this place?" Obviously there was a lot more going on here than he'd thought at first; he'd have to be careful about what exactly he was agreeing to. First and foremost, he wanted to go back to the "real" world, but it was starting to seem like that wasn't going to happen. If he was really stuck here then he needed to find out more about this world, and his Miracle.

Pride quickly dashed towards him and vanished right before his eyes. She appeared behind him and whispered, "Those answers come with a heavy price... knowing this information makes you more vulnerable... are you sure you want to go through with it" She held one of her small knives against his back. This wasn't a threat, but an attempt to deter him from digging any deeper. Pride wouldn't be stupid enough to kill what she deemed the strongest Champion to arrive here.

Time chuckled, "Well how about this assassin... I will lay down the ground rules here... Avatars... can not kill one another... but under special circumstances... Humans can kill Avatars... or even better... Humans can grant an Avatar the ability to kill another Avatar... none of that is important to you because as you stated you are just a pawn.. you want to know what's in it for you..." The Avatar, whirled his fingers forward as Eden began to flow forward in time, Hatch, Time and Pride remained constant as everything else around them changed. People woke up and people died, one could see a pattern as the Avatars would go back and fourth taking turns waking up their Champions in different orders and different ways. In the pattern some of the Avatars stopped showing up, time would move faster as the variety of Avatars dwindled down to two Avatars.

The two avatars were Pride and Time as they both sat there fighting, summoning more and more Champions with Hatch was the leader of one side, and on the other was a male covered in shadows, as if this persona had not yet been determined. "So as you can see... we have a look into the future... after first we did not know who would fill your spot hatch, and with each look your position would change from hers to mine... that represents alternate time lines in your decision... I could go further in time... but there are far too many alternate time lines for me to muster... needless to say this can all be altered right now... either you join me... and we will rule... or you join pride... and I kill you right now" Time had given the male his options as time flashed forward to the present.

Pride scoffed with an alternative solution. "Are you to say that if he joins you I wont kill him for doing the same" She wrapped her arm around him in a possessive matter and used her abilities to hold him down if he resisted. It was magical in nature, one would say she was using her omnipotence on him, knowing without it he could probably toss her to the wind. "Choose me and I won't let him have you" Pride yelled. Time did the same, choose me and I promise you, your health.

Hatch looked over his shoulder at Pride, eyebrows furrowed when she put her arm around him. It was obvious he still held much disdain for her, but at least he had a decent grasp of her objectives and her way of thinking. Time was more enigmatic, and thus siding with him would be more of a risk. Not that Pride wasn't just as dangerous, if not potentially moreso, Hatch just figured he might as well choose the evil he knew over the one he didn't.

"Like I said, the girl and I had a deal. As much as I want nothing to do with her I do have my standards; if I backed out of a contract it would reflect poorly on my business practices." It was a flimsy excuse even though it was true he never went back on a deal.

Time began to chuckle, "Foolish humans... the master of time doesn't take no for an answer" He then attempted to accelerate Hatch's life clock, but Pride was not going to hand him over without a fight. She took her sword from before and pressed the hilt of it against Hatch's skin. This made him immune to the effects of Time's powers as it was her Avatar Weapon and other Avatars could not use their omnipotence on the wielder. "Take this sword... use it keep it as your own" Pride had realized that she was putting herself in danger by disarming herself again, but she could still use her omnipotence to get around so it simply became a method of taking Hatch and running away from Time, as neither of them could successfully kill him as they were now.

Time appeared in front of them and grabbed a hold of the blade part of the sword refusing to let go. He then looked at Pride and began to rapidly age her instead. She could not die of old age but she could indeed become frail and weak to the point where she would not be able to do anything other than depend on her Champions and Heralds. She knew without the sword Hatch did not stand a chance so her only option from this point was to use her Omnipotence.

Hatch took hold of the sword, his eyes filled with cold fury. During his years as an assassin many people had tried to kill him, far more than he could remember. Some tried for revenge, others for money, perhaps a few tried just because they thought it would be fun. Those were all reasons Hatch understood well enough, and he didn't hate his would-be killers for it; but Time... Time just wanted to kill him out of spite because Hatch had spurned his offer. It was petty and vindictive, and totally unbecoming of a god-like entitiy. The fact that the avatars seemed to be totally amoral, and almost childish, was loathsome to Hatch. They held so much power but were no more righteous or pure than any base human.

"You are a fool, avatar." The assassin grated, bearing down against Time's grip on the blade with mounting pressure as his inertia rose. "Your power has made you complacent and vain. Do not presume to have any authority over me, or I will make you regret it."

If Time didn't release the sword it would begin to glow a dull red where he held it, the intense pressure being exerted upon the blade causing it to heat up at the point of contact.

Pride began to stand perfectly still as her omnipotent ability froze her in place, but on the bright side it made her unmovable and while she continued to age rapidly her physical capabilities remained the same. Her hair grew longer and so did her nails, her skin began to sag and she began to shrink in size as her age went further and further. She tried to open a rift to another area in Eden but they would close the second they opened due to Time manipulating the area. She then cried out as her body had grown so old that any form of movement began to hurt. She knew this was not something she would be able to easily recover. Knowing that Hatch wasn't in any danger she opened a portal beneath his feet allowing him to fall in with her sword. She then grinned as she summoned her dragon companion once more and the dragon devoured her entire being and took off inside of its own portal. Leaving Time in the process. Hatch would fall into the realm of the avatar for a brief moment before then falling back onto Eden to be caught by the dragon emerging from another portal. Pride was lying on the beast back; she appeared unconscious possibly even dead. Upon further inspection one could hear the heartbeat of the dragon as it pumped blood into her body. She had merged herself with it to keep her conscious. While one would think that this could be reversed by some form of power, the Avatars were not gods... they all had limited omnipotent abilities that were distinct to their names. Prides ability was to always be herself, more specifically to project herself on to other beings. If she wanted to continue to be able to fight in this war, she would from this point on be forever merged to her Dragon.

The Dragon was had already carried them away relatively far and as Pride thought about she realized she only had one champion at was at a severe disadvantage. She needed to enlist in some help in hiding herself she needed to find someone who hid himself better than anyone else. She weakly opened her mouth and out came a whisper as the dragon seemed to understand her. "Will" The dragon shifted its course as it began to search for other Avatars that were more so allies then enemies, or at least Pride hoped they were.