Cataclysm Tournament: Gamber (Randium) vs Freya (Otomos the Crazy)

As you step into the arena the viewing screens overhead offer you a glimpse of the playing field you will soon be engaged in. The dense jungle leaves little in the way of visibility through the thick unergrowth and ivy ridden trees. A river cuts through the area, with a wooden bridge extending across it from one side to the other. The river itself isn't particularly deep, and capable of being waded through.

Once you take your place in the designated circles you will become fully synced into the virtual playing field.

As Gamber entered the circle, he found himself in the middle of three giant jungle trees.

I don't like it here, the man thought. It's too... crowded. I can't see what's around me. It's way better in the wastelands, where everyone who approaches you can be heared from miles away.
I didn't get affected by the radioactive waste over there, so I could use the environment as an advantage. But over here, I won't have that advantage. Have I made a mistake not thinking of that?

The beast looked around, sniffed at some flowers and left some carvings in one of the jungle trees. Useful for finding its path.

Good here, the beast caught himself thinking. No radio. No food. Need food. Find victim! Kill! Kill victim!

Gamber tried to oppress its feelings for laying down on the ground and releasing the spores on his back that were ready to release their seeds into the wilderness. He didn't walk away from its beginning area, but tried to remember the environment, to use it in its advantage.

Freya was very interested in what this place had. So much so that people had to guide her over to the circle in order to keep her from staring at anything for too long. The sensation of entering the virtual world was strange, but not entirely unexpected. Freya knew well about the possibilities of strange and foreign things. Still, when she opened her eyes, she had not expected to find herself in a jungle. It was so realistic. From what she had been told, everything inside would be false, but she could have mistaken it all for reality. The birds flew around, the ground animals scurried or stayed as still as stone, and the trees were tall and wild. The insects darted about, and there were even spiders with webs to catch all manner of prey. The jungle, no matter where, was always a mysterious and dangerous place.

Regardless, Freya was in a tournament. A fighting tournament. So she had to be on her way. She lifted the large, blue sack up and over her shoulder. It was the same weight as it was in reality, so it was still somewhat easy for her to carry. She walked on through the jungle, searching for her opponent, which happened to have been a vety strange man in and of himself. He kind of reminded her of an old companion, but perhaps a bit more violent-looking, if that was even possible.

While the circles that Gamber walked in became bigger, he started to think about his opponent. He heard she could do something with... puppets? Let's hope she's not a voodoo-like person, or, even worse, that she's got a doll of him.
The beast still leaved some marks behind and set up some soft spots with leaves. Soft good. No harm.

It was at that moment that Gamber heard someone -or something- walking his way. If it was a person, then that person tried not to make too much noise - but Gamber heard him anyway. What he didn't know, was whether the sound was his opponent or just a distraction.

Gamber made a huge roar and waited what the response of the other guy would be.

As Freya walked through the jungle in her search, she reached into her clothes, beneath all the oddities that protected her body, and pulled out a doll. Her thumb caressed its simple, tattered dress. It was like a good luck charm in that sense. It was very important to her, even in this false world. So much so that when she heard a roar, she stopped walking, and placed the doll back to where she had hid it before. The roar was not like one she had ever heard before, so she had a few guesses as to what it belonged to. Regardless, this was as good a place as any to prepare and treat her opponent with honor, just like some of the travelers from her childhood had done in their journeys. She placed her blue sack onto the ground, and opened it. Pieces of a set of heavy armor were splayed out, and she began to use her magic to let it move.

As she did so, she spoke out in order to honor this battle. Whether it was a beast or her opponent, it mattered not. All that mattered was respect and honor. She would have done it beforehand, but she was somewhat forced to hurry up into the circle.

"Let this be a match to remember! Let us begin!"

Gamber turned towards the sound of a woman nearby. It seems like she said something like a match or something...? Doesn't matter! Kill the girl!
Before the man could think of what to do, the beast rushed towards the spot of the noise.

When Gamber saw the girl busy with some armor, the beast stopped and hesitated. Hiissssss.... innnoccent girlllll...
As he was looking at the girl, Gamber couldn't hold his fungus instinct anymore, and he ran forward - let's just see what happens.

Maybe the girl IS as weak as she seems...

Funny thing about the jungle, if you're not careful anything can hear you heading towards them. Such was the case with Freya and her opponent at this moment. She heard the man rushing through the leaves in one direction, giving her awareness of his location. It didn't help the man that he allowed a moment of hesitation to give her a moment longer to prepare for his eventual attack. In that moment, Freya had been able to assemble her puppet. By the time her opponent continued its charge, the armor's pieces had been pieced together, and it stood as a bulwark between Freya and the man-beast. The armor puppet held its greatsword in front of itself, as if praying for victory this day. In reality, it was simply Freya showing that she and her puppet were ready for battle.

Wait... that isn't right. Gamber stopped again in hesitation. She seemed to control the armor... okay, no problem, maybe he could get past the armor and cut his nails into her chest.... but something wasn't right.
As Gamber was dashing forward, he expected either the armor or the girl to prepare for impact, as most of his victims did. But this girl seemed to... she seemed ready, but instead of getting ready for the fight, it seemed as if she was challenging him. No thinking. Kill! The man didn't trust it. Is it a trap? Does she want him to touch the armor? Did he feel... fear?

The man controlled his bestial feelings, and tried not to hurry. Instead of running in on the armor, he pulled a big tree root out of the ground and threw it at the floating armor, waiting for how the armor would response.

The magical connection between Freya and her puppet lightly pulsed as she responded to the root being thrown. Her armor puppet leapt toward the man beast, the root bouncing off of its body as the two met half-way. It mattered not to the puppet, as it was heavy armor controlled by a puppeteer. Freya raised the armor puppet's arms and greatsword above the rest of the set, poising it so that it would cleave downwards in the direction of the opponent. The greatsword was swung down upon the opponent.

When the root hit the puppet, Gamber managed to take over his bestial mind completely. Now it was only the man who controlled the beast. That's why he didn't jump into the puppet, but managed to jump aside before the sword would have split his skull in two.

It seems like the girl is controlling the armor, huh? Maybe I can act as if I'm still a mindless beast, and secretly melt his sword. It will slowly become blunt, and then the puppet won't harm me anymore....

Trying to look savage, the man kept a distance from the puppet, while throwing more roots at the puppet and roaring loudly. That would make it look like the beast was hoping it would scare him away at some point. At the same time, Gamber was praying that the girl wouldn't notice that he was secretly melting the sharp edges of the sword away....

There was something off about the way her opponent was acting. The way he roared sounded like it came from a beast, but at the moment, it didn't feel like an encounter with one. He wasn't acting aggressive, nor cunning. If anything it felt like she encountered a more docile animal that was trying to ward off a predator. That wasn't like any beast she had encountered in her travels. Something was going on, and she had to put a stop to it. The only problem was that she didn't know what she had to stop.

So, in response, she decided to play a different angle. While her opponent was focused on her armor puppet, Freya herself snuck around the two, part of her concentration still on controlling her puppet, and part of her readying her knife. The armor continued the assault, ignoring the roots thudding against its heavy, metal body, and attacking the the opponent again. This time it would use a follow-up attack. It made a great leap toward the opponent, and attempted a helm-splitting vertical cleave once again, but this time it would follow it up with a spin in its step so that it would make a horizontal slash.

There! Gamber blunted the sword enough to make it harmless. Getting a blow from it would definitely hurt, but it wouldn't be able to go through his thick skin anymore.

It was not a thought, but his instinct that alerted him that something was happening. The man didn't have to oppress his fungus feelings anymore, as if the girl was --- gone. Where did she go?! This moment of hesitation made him not see the sword coming from above. He still tried to kneel and take the blow with his back, even though he knew it'd be too late. But surprisingly, the attack didn't come from above, but from aside. This gave Gamber the slight moment he needed to get into the right position.
BAM!
That hurts. Let's say a painful spine is always better than a head split in two. Good thing the sword isn't that sharp anymore.
Gamber tried not to become too angry while accepting the pain. Having forgotten the girl completely, he fully dashed into the armor's chest, holding his nails ready to cut through the plates.

When Freya saw that the great sword had been blunted, her options had been whittled down. She was surprised, and slightly angered at that, but it wasn't the first time it had been made useless, and it was all false anyway. She would either have to strengthen her control over the armor, allowing it to swing hard enough to force itself through, or...

'That's it!'

Freya focused on her puppet once more. This wasn't part of her plan, but then again she didn't really plan things out anyway. To those who could see or sense magic, they find that hers pulsed once again...

The puppet didn't react to Gamber's charge, but rather seemed hesitated when its sword was blunted. This gave Gamber the opportunity to attack with its claws.

With more effort than he hoped it would, Gamber made a big cut in the puppet's chestplate. It was almost cut in half, when Gamber thought it would be better to cut his arms off first.

Seeing her armor puppet get so heavily damaged was a sight most unsatisfying to say the least, but Freya had to continue. The beast had done much damage, but seemed to have switched its attention. It didn't matter much in the end, as the armor was still her puppet, and she could still control the pieces regardless, but it was still not quite something she wanted to see. In any case, her magic and control had been focused, and now she could retaliate in full. The pulse of her magic grew stronger, and the armor puppet, as well as its dulled sword separated and started floating about as if a poltergeist had possessed it.

Her plan was to put the pieces onto her opponent and have him concede. The only difficult part would be putting the pieces on him. Still, he was only one person, whereas her puppet was many parts. She had them swarm and circle her opponent, sending a few ices at a time in order to force themselves onto his body. The gauntlets, the greaves, and the sabatons shot at him during the flurry, aiming at their respective areas. Though the sabatons and the greaves would need him to lift his legs, Freya would still have them make the attempt.

Gamber didn't expect this sudden change of combat. It turned out that the armor wasn't her protector, but just a mere puppet in the girl's hands. Gamber started punching around himself to prevent himself from becoming one with the puppet.

And then he came up with an idea. The girl controlled the armor. So if Gamber could make her lose her concentration, then her bond with the armor would stop. It would make her helpless. Gamber was about to use his psychic power to attack Freya's brain.
But he knew this would be a great risk. He knew the psychic power would hurt him as much as it would hurt her. He knew he would have to bury his human self for a long time, and let the beast rise again. He also knew that, if it failed, he couldn't guarantee that the beast understood how to get rid of the armor. The armor could get an opportunity to close him in, maybe even to imprison him.
He had to take it. His pshycic power found the girl's location, and Gamber commenced the attack.

The last thing the man experienced before he disappeared, was that it felt like a thousand men were screaming in his ears. A knife was cutting through his skull and fire was coming out of his mouth. The world tossed and spinned and turned upside-down. He saw colours nobody had ever seen before. And above all, the man heard one loud scream, which turned out to be himself...
The man disappeared. Only the beast and the fungus were left.

Something happened. Something must have happened. Otherwise, she wouldn't be seeing these random, horrific images right now. Images of her sister's grave. Images of her family and acquaintances and friends all dying. All the oddities either being misused or destroyed. It brought about a great fear in her. A fear of possibilities. A fear of truths. A fear of what might happen and what may be happening as she fought. The images were unmerciful. They flashed through her head several times, and she just barely kept her focus on her armor. She so badly wanted to simply call the fight off, and run back to see them all again!

...But then something else happened. There was one image that caught her. It lasted for a single instant, but in that instant it felt like an eternity. All the images before and after were nothing in comparison to this. There was no blood. There was no pain. There were no screams of torture or death, or corpses or graves, or the eyes of her dying loved ones...There was only the doll. Her most treasured possession. It was missing a leg, and the stuffing looked to have fallen out a bit. It was in the mouth of a monster. A familiar monster.

'It's...my opponent', thought Freya. 'Why is it my opponent? Why would he do something to that? Why? Why? Why?! Why?! WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!'

That image dissolved away with all the others, and made way for the battle. Out of all things, that single image was what drove her to this level of fury. Before that imaged made it into her head she would have simply forced her opponent to concede, but now there was no mercy left in her now. She had forgotten about the doll being in her clothes, and truly believed that it had been damaged and almost destroyed by her opponent...No. Her ENEMY. She stood where she was and placed all her focus on controlling her puppet. With the chance available, the gauntlets forced themselves onto her opponent's claws and lifted him up into the air. The greaves and the Sabatons were next, forcing themselves onto the enemy's legs and feet. She had no control over the enemy's body, but she had full control over her armor, and now that pieces were on him, she sent the rest to do the same.

Anger. Hate. Kill. Crush. Murder. Kill. Food. Eat. Hatred. Live.

The beast turned into a true monster. It had drunk its potion, making it grow stronger. There was no man to keep him from drinking it, so the beast ate the whole bottle and spit the remainders out.
What's this metal on his hands? Off. Must go off. The monster tried to get rid of the armor, but it didn't lose it grip, until... it flowed off. The potion was slowly starting to work. Soon the potion would make the monster melt anything metal that would touch him.

If he were smart, he would've waited until his powers were at its best. But instead, the monster walked towards Freya, while trying to hold the metal from him, as if he was being bitten by hundreds of mosquitos. He was slowed down more and more, but also did he come closer and closer to Freya.
The girrlllll isssss angryy..... Let'sssss give her sssomething to relaxxxxx.....

The metal started melting, but this did not deter Freya. Her magic was still connected to it, it was just less solid. Her focus was completely on controlling her puppet, so forcing the melted parts to move was much easier than it would have been had she not have been so intensely focused. Truly, it was just like controlling the separated parts, only she needed to put much more effort in the control.

Her original plan had been prevented, but now the monster had created its end. The armor may melt, but it could still be used in some sort of effectiveness, the other pieces of the armor had forced themselves onto the body. The helmet, the cuirass, the vambrace, etc. The armor was forced on. As for the sword, it returned to Freya, floating at her side.

The monster did whatever it could, but the metal did not lose its grip. The beast was about to get caught, but the fungus was more alive than ever. Looksssss like the girllll isss angryyyy and carelessss.... Let'sssss make the armor go oooffffff...
Gamber now focused on its back, releasing every single spore that was growing to its back into the air. The spores were too small to see by the eye, so there wasn't much to see in the storm of flying metal.

Gamber was caught, but he knew his spores would paralyze Freya as soon as she would come closer.