Duel Of Fate

    'In three suns time'

Those were the words that were used. Giganpor had three days to prepare himself for a dual. A fight between himself and Auther; Alone.

Should Giganpor win, he may get an audience with the queen, but what if Auther won? What would be the victory there? What would Auther gain?

    Either way, the massive trees gave shadow over the grassy field below. The creatures were silent, a gently fog rolled over the grass, giving it a gentle misty covering.

There leaning against one such tree was the dark armored figure, gently rubbing the snout of his armored horse. Those glowing red eyes the only thing exposed of whatever face may be behind the helmet.

He speaks gently to the beast and one could almost swear, there was a chuckle to the horses gentle bobbing of its head.

    And Giganpor is at least not too late. Even if he has the Fey Mood still on him, he knows his task is almost done. And that Miho can handle the rest. Now he was here as promised. The Nightmare mount was his choice of arriving, and he had his armor on as well. Fully prepared for a fight.

    Not to mention not a soul to be seen anywhere else it looked like. Shifting to his Were Lion form, the man dismounts. And actually plants his pole axe in the ground, using it to make sure the Nightmare stays put before equipping a hand and a half sword at his side.

    Walking the rest of the distance on to the field, the keen Were Fang eyes begin to scan the surroundings carefully. Taking note of everything it seems.

    He waits until he's in the center of the field before speaking as he puts on his buckler. "Sir Auther, I am here as we agreed." A frown is given as he looks carefully once again, "I see that we both took the coming alone seriously."

    "I am a knight of my word." Auther says calmly, before standing up fully, he gives a few clicking sounds. The Horse rears up, before seeming to sink into the ground.

"Even though I know her highness will be most displeased," He draws out the sword from his side, giving it a few twirls as he does. "I need to know and so, I am glad you also kept your word as well."

Those eyes glow brightly for a moment, as he rumbles his next words. "Just means I may have an excuse to spare your life." He steps toward Giganpor, his sword moving into a defensive position. "Now then, adventurer. Show me your courage..."

    Drawing his sword, Giganpor seems to hesistate for a moment, then moves his sword to an honorable, almost salute vertical position, "Courage is not something I have found myself lacking here, Sir Auther. Not when my real body can not do half of what I can here."

    The words of Auther has Giganpor looking at the man, raising what passes for an eyebrow, "So you do this without her knowledge? That is a bit unusual."

    Settling back into a stance, he seems to be judging the defensive stance of Auther before he moves in. His cloak is currently shifted in colors to a deep, calming blue as he steps in to the attack.

    No real elements added, just a simple fierce looking two handed slash. It's not anything fancy yet. Which may or may not be Giganpor himself being on guard.

    Auther does not further comment to what Giganpor has to say. Instead the knight stands calmly, though as Giganpor moves in, the knight quickly shifts his weight to block the attack with his own sword.

The massive weight of the two handed sword slams down on the other blade, sparks fly as the two swords connect. There is followed by a minor grunt, before Auther drags it away to free the blade and quick steps around, before making another defensive position.

    A frown is given as Giganpor notices the rather defensive movements. The sword being moved has him free up a hand to ready a defense with his buckler before twisting to keep an eye on Auther himself.

    When no counter attack comes, Giganpor brings his weapon around again, one handed as he tries to come in from the side this time in a back hand. And this time he adds a bit of earth magic to it, trying to break Auther's defense and see how he handles that.

    "How long do you plan to test your defenses?" He asks after the swing.

    The knight continues to stand his ground calmly. Those glowing red eyes observing as Giganpor makes another move. Once more there is a shift in the knight's stance as the Were Lion comes in for his attack.

As the next strike comes in, he attempts to parry the blow once more, but the force with the earth magic causes the knight to be slid back and have to regain his footing for traction. While Giganpor may ask his question, Auther gives no answer.

    What Giganpor may notice is a slight tick in the monster's HP bar. He managed with that magic to get a slight hit in, but there was little time for wondering of how.

Instead dark fog washes over Auther as he seems to move from one point, then suddenly to another, using the fog like a mage's blink magic. From there he leaps out, bring his sword down with a cleaving strike for Giganpor, before stepping around with speed to draw out a shorter blade from his backside and swinging out with another strike.

    The blink-like effect is surprising to Giganpor. He shifts to a defensive stance, and just manages to bring up his sword to block the first one. He's too slow for the second as an angry red line appears on his torso and a good bit of his HP bar goes down.

    Instead of withering under the assault, however, Giganpor attempts a quick back hand with the shield, adding in some earth magic again to try to get Auther away from him.

    Taking a little stock at what happened as he settles into a better defensive stance, the Were Lion gives a bit of a grin, "That's more like it. Blink spell and dual wielding, huh?"

    The new stance at least shows that he's a bit more serious. The sword is balanced along the buckler, a small scraping sound given as he has both arms ready to respond to an attack now. Perhaps most intimidating is the slight sound of metal on whatever the shield is made of. A low, slight scratching of steel on something like it and not at the same time.

    The earth magic backhanded shield strike, once again breaks Auther's ability to fully block the strike with his blades. Once more his health is ticked away at by the sheer impact.

Auther skids back a bit from the hit and his eyes examining the warrior before him. He twirls both blades in his hands, as Giganpor takes on a more defensive position.

Then with a quick stride he races toward Giganpor, but instead of striking, he attempts to skid down low across the grass to slide past the Were Lion, in order to try to come up from behind and leg sweep his opponent.

    Giganpor is a bit surprised by the legsweep, having brought his sword around in an upward blow on the opposite side and ends up on his back. Only long practice in VR has him rolling away. Combat skills that were underused against boss fights and raids as he spun to get on one knee.

    Coming up from the spin to his somewhat kneeling position, he brings his shield up before slamming it down on the ground point first as it glows green. The very earth around him trembles, cracks, and rolls as tries to literally return the favor of going prone to Auther through a spell.

    Then he moves to stand slowly. The lack of words so far has him going silent. And Giganpor settles back into that stance again.

    This time there's a tell tale obvious glow of blue as his cloak shifts more towards a red coloring. And he actually growls a bit.

    Auther gets ready to move back in for another attack, as Giganpor rolls back up to his knee. What the knight was not expecting was the sudden magic attack from the ground.

As the earth below rumbles and starts to crack, break, and shift. This catches Auther off guard and he has to not only back flip away, but is nearly knocked off his own feet once he lands.

The ground comes around on him, trapping his foot under the soil, causing him to fall down on his knee, planting his sword in the ground and then trying to break his foot free. It was enough injury to actually make a noticable dent in the monster's HP bar.

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    Walking toward the two, as they fight comes a figure in white robes with golden trim. Strands of black, coal hair hang down past the hood that obscures the fact. Finger tips, with claw nails gently glide across one of the trees.

    Giganpor is given pause as he sees the knight's foot stuck. He tilts his head to one side, then waits for Auther to free himself. "Sorry, I had no idea Tremor could actually catch someone like that. You still good to continue?"

    Giganpor adopts his stance again, sword balanced on the shield. He's not about to attack while Auther is trapped like that. Not from an unintentional side effect of an attack. Nope. Not at all.

    Apparently even the Adventurers have some form of honor, despite what Auther and others might think. And winning like that in a duel... it doesn't sit well with Giganpor it seems.

    Auther's head tilts gently as Giganpor shows actual concern. He had a free chance to take a heavy hit. To possible win. Yet, the adventurer is not...

"... Why are you withholding your blade." Auther asks, as mist curls around his fingers. "I am still the /enemy!/" Then he uses the dark energy to bolt a dark project that forms into a throwing knife right for Giganpor.

In that time, Author breaks his foot free as he murmurs something, causing the ground to loosen. The knight quickly gets back up fully on his feet with both swords in hand. "You had the chance to strike me down. To win the match. Why did you hesitate?"

    Giganpor's body becomes covered in a layer of frost. He couldn't tell where the knife was going for, but the frost armor should be enough to deflect it hopefully, or lessen the damage considerably. Either way, it drops afterwards as he keeps his stance.

    "Because, despite being an enemy, you are also a potential ally against what I can see is coming. And, I did not wish to win that way. From something that is an accident more than anything. Tremor is just supposed to cause an earthquake, not trap someone's foot by whatever fate caused that." Giganpor explains.

    Giganpor frowns a bit. "I guess you could say I've gone a bit soft since the days I would have taken advantage of that against more powerful foes." He shrugs a little. "Sitting behind the crafter's bench all day will do that to you, though."

    "They say strength comes from those who know how to stay their hand. When to fight. When not too. That a simple word can be ever as powerful as the blade to the throat." A woman's voice comes out from behind a tree.

She walks around with an unnatural grace. Her finger tips pale in color and robe, along with hood hiding most of her features. Giganpor may pick up on the fact the material is made from fine silk. "I hope I am not interrupting. It seems one of my hounds has gone astray, as he did not come home when called." Her attention slowly looking over to Auther.

Who, at this point, has not lowered his defensive stance, but shifts the blade ever so slightly. His eyes moving between her and then back to Giganpor, before back to her.

    Giganpor keeps his stance, but he does shift a little to look at her. He otherwise remains silent for a few moments. The sword remains balanced on the shield, obviously ready for him to go back into battle.

    He looks to Auther, then to the woman, "I take it you are Sir Auther's Queen, then?"

    Giganpor's obvious curious look probably betrays him at this point. But he's not about to continue the fight if Auther's not. That much is obvious. He looks to Auther, "If you are, this duel may be a little pointless. I did not mean for you to offend her, Sir Auther, simply for my chance to talk with her."

    The woman tilts her head gently, her hands coming to rest clasped in front of her. "I am his queen and he is my knight." Her eyes move to Auther. "Who needs to heel and not go chasing cats up trees."

The knight narrows his eyes gently and slides both blades into their scabbards. He walks over to the woman, before bowing lowly to her. "I meant not to--" Before Auther can finish, she raises her hand, and the knight falls silent. Taking his position beside her.

"So, you desired to speak with me, warrior made crafter. Then speak." She motions her hand toward Giganpor. "Tell me what it is you want from I, Queen Helena Lethe, that my knight was so willing to disobey orders so you may get an audience with me."

    "A bit of truth, perhaps, would be best on my part. I, like many Adventurers, am not from this world but trapped here. My intention is to gather allies from those outside of the people of the land, or Landers as my kind know them. Ones that can help both the Landers and us defend this world from invasion by a third world. If you have been active for a while, are you familiar with the Wave of Calamity?"

    He hesitates a little, then puts his sword away, sliding it along the mouth of the scabbard before doing so. "I have fought two at the same time, others in my group have faced the two before it. One of which was on this continent."

    He looks considerate of more of what he should say for a moment, "I also want to find out the story behind all of this. To find out if we can have peace and gain allies against the Waves."

    Helena Lethe listens to what Giganpor has to say. Her eyes becoming visible as they glow gently from under her hood. Those eyes never leave his own or at least never leave his figure.

"Story behind what? Your waves of calamity or the story behind why I do as I do?" She asks raising a brow softly. "More importantly, why should I care about your problems, Sellsword? After all, that is what you adventurers are in the end. Sellswords."

She then goes to step up toward Giganpor, but she does keep some distance between them. Each of her steps do not make a sound and they barely move the ground mist. "You have no country. No loyalty, but to your own... If even that. So tell me," She tilts her head faintly to one side. "Why should I. Queen of the forgotten lands. Queen of those lost to history. Care what happens?"

    "Not all of us are like that. And it is not just us at stake." Giganpor states. "Our loyalty is to ourselves, yes, but also to what we define as needing it. Some do it for money because that is the way we were used to it. That's changed for a lot of us. Myself especially. In my world, I was a crippled person. A simple disease took my ability to walk. I was not even capable of standing up to one such as your knight."

    "Here? I am what you see. My power is something I have earned, the respect of my peers I have earned and despite my unwillingness I lead the crafters of my Alliance. At times it seems I do even more than that, but I do not wish to." His words are quite calm, solemn in a way. "That is my story."

    He turns his gaze to her, looking her right in the eyes. "I ask you for yours, and if you know what is behind the Waves, I ask for either. Your story may help me put an end to this foolish war. I do not care that you were forgotten, I care that you have brought war to people who are not soldiers, who are not fighters of any sort. I seek to try to turn that force towards something more worthy of such and to put a stop to the fires of war."

    Helena listens but her facial expression remain neutral, up until the end where her eyes narrow ever so slightly. Yet her hands remain resting in front of her.

"I know not what is behind these waves you speak of, nor do I care. They bring about monsters and that us /very/ useful to me in my own conquest." Helena steps closer to Giganpor, now in arms' reach. Auther standing where he was, reaches for his sword, but she motions for him to stand down.

Her eyes look directly at Giganpor. "Let me be clear. my dear sir. There /is/ no stopping the wheels that have been set in motion. These wheels have been turning for fifty some odd years and they will continue to turn until every inch of my remaining land is returned to me."

"And with that land, every soul that /belongs/ to me and my kin. I have mouths to feed, just like any person of the land. I have citizens that want their homes back... and when our kingdom was challenged, in our life, my husband accepted the challenge in full. On the battlefield and he fought nations that /dared/ to take away what was ours, even then."

    "This kingdom," She explains, "Was always small, but it was always strong." For a moment Helena grows quiet, staring him still in the eyes. Her vampiric fangs exposed as she sneers at him in frustration. "They always /wanted/ what we had. They took advantage of us when our lives were darkened. Now it is /our/ turn to take back, without mercy, what they so lucrative been living on since that time."

Helena then goes to step away at last, before turning to face Giganpor once more. "I gave up my child for that sword that sellsword friend of yours carries on his back. I /gave/ up my dignity to the rumors that spread like wildfire in those /other/ nations of how I was /poisoning/ my stepdaughter."

Helena's eyes begin to then glow. "I gave... and I /gave/... and /no one/ ever tried to help us. /No one/. They deserve this fate they are now in. They deserve those waves you speak of." Her raged was there, and yet her voice while carrying it, somehow remained still calm and precise. "But, I should /thank/ you and yours alike. While I do loathe a particular gentleman who gave me that sword... I admit, I am also very fond of his gifts as well... and if it was not for your lot doing what you /do/ so best, I may never had the luxury of meeting him again."

    The queen vampire then turns away and starts to walk back over to Auther. "I am sorry my dear sir, but peace was never an option and it /never/ will be an option. Blood must be spilled for the price to be paid and I will see that my kingdom, and any other monster kingdom will rise with it."

Once at Auther's side, she turns to face Giganpor. "So fight, little adventurers. Fight us monsters and creatures of the dark, because these nations /deserve/ what they have coming for them and what /I/ have waiting to be unleashed."

    Giganpor shakes his head, "Because of a people long dead, you seek vengeance."

    "If it is the sword's taking that offends you, should let me know now. We may be able to convince Merek to part with it. Your husband accepted the challenge, yes, but did he do so to defend his kingdom only rather than suppress others?" Giganpor says.

    Frowning, Giganpor looks at the two evenly, then turns his gaze to Auther. "Sir Auther, I apologize. You are a being of honor. You sought to test your skills against me and I did the same. If we should meet again, let us not hold back on any account."

    He turns his gaze back to Helena, "And you, I apologize for what we must do. While I understand monsters and Landers both are a part of this world, unless we can have them live in peace then I would rather go with the Landers on that side of this war. You have shown me that despite everything..." He trails off, seems to consider, then laughs.

    "Despite it all, you make me feel that I am not so bad as a leader. Your people trust you, far beyond what they should. Your people look to you for guidance and protection. Yet, you come back and beckon them from their rightful rest to go to war against the living." He raises his shielded arm up to his chest, looking at it. "This world is full of possibilities. If I could, I would work to solve this without war. If you could be brought back to life, to do it over again I would gladly see it done. But the way you have lead your people makes me think that you would continue this."

    Giganpor looks at the two, fist clenching behind the buckler. "If you want a fight, you will have it. But when it is said and done, when you are nothing more than dust forgotten remember that I tried to offer that peace. Tried to get you to help people who could have been yours, perhaps if things had gone differently. Enjoy your unlife while it lasts."

    With that, Giganpor backs away towards his Nightmare. Then pauses, "You mentioned someone's gifts. And the sword was given to you. That sword may as well have been cursed before hand. The one who took it is unable to get rid of it, even remove it from his body and drop it. Who is it that gave you that sword?"

    Helena Lethe listens to everything that Giganpor has to say. His words attempt to cut like a knife, and her hand slowly clenches, as it moves to the side.

Auther however says nothing, only slowly looking over to Helena, as if waiting for an order to be given, no words though shared back to Giganpor.

    As Giganpor goes to mount, her head lifts ever so slightly, her face with gentle features and pale skin seen. Her eyes cold as ice as they look at his own. "A man of mystery who does nothing for free. A monster that is /always/ willing to work a bargain for the right price."

A dark smile crosses her pale lips, her fangs almost showing, "Mayhaps you should make a deal with Demiurge as well..." Her eyes then glow brightly, before a dark energy pools around her arms. "Should you think you'll survive!"

She throws her arms forward and a dark energy is unleashed directly for Giganpor. "You have chosen your side! Now die like the rest!" She howls out in anger, "For there will be no mercy from this point on!"

    Giganpor was about to mount, which means he's completely unprepared for the incoming blast. The dark energy throws him off of his feet quite well, behind his Nightmare.

    He's heard muttering to himself, "Great... make the boss monster mad, good idea..." He gets up a bit slowly, but makes sure his shield is ready this time. Concentrating a bit, he looks to where he knows the two were at least after the sudden attack.

    And he seems to make a decision, "Fires of the world, heed my call! Come forth, Flaris!" A summoning circle appears as his shield glows red. And out comes a cat made of fire. "Flaris, flame pillar, follow."

    At his command, the little fire cat suddenly lobs out a fireball like it's a hairball towards Helena. Or at least that's what it looks like it's going to do. Either way, it's going to erupt into one big pillar of flame to hide Giganpor hopefully so he can try to break away from this two on one and get the hell out of there.

    The fire erupts between the two and Helena growls, before she turns to Auther. "Auther! Seek and destroy!" She commands as the knights thumbs his arm against his chest plate, "As you command, your majesty!"

As Author summons up his horse and goes to take ride, the Queen narrows her eyes, before closing them. "May this world run red... and their sins... never be forgotten." Before she turns to walk off.

While Author does give chase, Giganpor managed to get the lead and eventually the knight will have to break from the chase as the New World Alliance gets away...