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Official Phyrexian Arena Experiment!
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@Spookoops . I may penalize in originality points but I'm being very flexible here.
Hiro, Sneakspell Adept
( @Pepperoni, If it's OK, could you reffer to him as Hiro and not Hero? Otherwise people might confuse him with the Hero of the Capes, who is a completely different character)
Gender: Male, probably
Age: ehh? He never seems to look the same the second time he catches your eye
Hometown: Ravnica! (used to be a double agent for the Dimir inside the Simic)
Race: ehh? Like, a shade/shapeshifter, maybe? Vaguely humanoid, except when he isn't
Occupation: Sneak, Spy, Environment and perception mage
Colours: Blue/Green/Black/Artifacts sometimes
Power description: He has a natural abiltiy to shift the landscape and mindscape of everything around him, usually to make him more sneaky. His invisibilty powers come not from actually not reflecting light, but from hypnotising people into thinking he's not there.
He does have some secret weaknesses
Me too!
So far I had no problem with the spells of:
*KOR
*SHADOW123
*BOWLER218
*DRAKEGLADIS
*HEROKP
I can't seem to find the new spells of:
*SPOOKOOPS
*MONKEYPIRATE
*MEMORYHEAD
*TOMMIA (I did find yours in my mail, but I can't see the message to remember the targets nor strategy)
I remember that some of the missing ones did send them, but I will ignore them for now, only TOMMIA will participate in the first part of the hue battle unless anyone else rememebers me their spells.
ACT 1...
The dark looming clouds covered the skies, leaving little visibility on the canyon, the mages couldn´t see each other with the thick humidity and this gas that will eventually suffocate them, they all ponder their best course of action to hunt their equals.
Lucas is the first to look for a prey, the Ice mage wanders the canyon´s howling cracks until they hear something that crawls up their spine like an insect, footsteps that are clearly coming from behind them, missing not even the moment their cold sweat touched the floor, they create an ice spear and turn around pointing it to the origin of the sound.
Shadow noticed the Ice mage's weapon and created a blade of their own, much smaller, yet emanating power in a more dense volume. Shadow ran towards Lucas, moving their bade in swift grace.
Before the blackthorn dagger could reach them, an alarm bounced in every wall of the canyon, it only distracted the two for a split second before continuing their attempt of destroying each other. the ice mage took the opportunity to create a wall between the two and virtually divide that section of the canyon in two.
There is an emphasis in virtual, shadow was agile enough to climb the uneven sides where the canyon touched the Ice wall, this was but a small slow-down.
"MISSING MAGE; DO NOT ATTEMPT ESCAPE; TERMINATION WILL BE INMEDIATE" The alarm repeated over and over in the background while phyrexians looked at the edges of the big stage, looking for Ytsix, he had been hidden from cameras and eyes for quite some time now. Wandering in the middle of messy metallic trash, Ytsix saw another fur-covered mage, casting a self directed spell, he decided not to attack yet until it was clear what the mage was doing.
This must have been Nahri, amid the darkness of the area, Ytsix did not recognize the opponent, it was obviously hunting someone else and did not use much mana in that evolutive pump, so they might have something else up their sleeve, Ytsix was cautious and allowed Nahri to take flight in serach of their prey. This was also decisive for Ytsix to create his own self protective means.
Only able to fabricate his armor and half-make another device of unknown purpose, he was located by a phyrexian guard on the top of the canyon. "HEY YOU!" The guard yelled, Ytsix ran out of sight before the guard could climb down and follow him.
Flying in the narrow and broad spaces of the Canyon, Nahri was looking for vulnerable mages, like a vulture going in circles in the sky, eventually, a moving figure was visible in what looked to be a vehicle of some sort, ready to strike, Nahri cast a second self-directed spell
Descending on the moving vehicle, Nahri realized it was not a mage but an artifact, created by one. Regardless, this should be reason enough to suspect a mage was nearby, listening carefully, he stopped on top of an elevated rock to sharpen their senses and find the mage, the sound of the artifact creature was annoying and distracting, they decided to attack the thing in an attempt to trigger any trap or call the attention of anyone looking.
The mummy attempted to attack Nahri, this one easily avoiding it with its flying abilities, this however, did call the attention of the mage that set up that decoy. Kor, the moment Nahri took flight again, left their hiding position and struck Nahri on the left side. Nahri did not go there unprepared to be attacked, the two released their best spells to battle in a fierce display of claw, arcane blasts, fang, kicks and blocking motions.
The battle prolonged, the mummy was able to tackle Nahri and Kor synergized, slamming Nahri against a wall, the combined attack did hurt them, but Nahri had directed all of their mana towards pumping themself, it would take a LOT of hits to defeat them.
The canyon was big, but not big enough, the Nahri and kor had battled a long time and drifted away from the original place of encounter, at some point, their feet touched a soft spot of land, Nahri's hair follicles stressed, they inmediatly jumped and flew to a safe distance, confused, Kor tried to lift their feet from the muddy land, only for it to reveal an ineffable abomination below them...
The horror tried to catch Kor, altough kor did barely escape the thing's limbs reaching for them, it catched their mummy utterly crushing it and consuming it.
"what's up with all these traps? fight up front, godamn!" Nahri yelled at everyone. Kor attempted to leave the horror's reach only to face another foe.
The assassin threw a knife at Kor and managed to hit their shield, visibly loosing strength. Now vulnerable and only with their fighting abilities, Kor was able to see the Samurai Musa behind the assassin, both of them ran to deliver a death blow to Kor. Knowing they only had enough energy left to kill Musa if they managed to hit the head, Kor gathered all the power they could in their fist and responded to the assassin's and samurai's sprint with the same vehemence, going for Musa with a glowing arm. Musa revealed their palm, holding shiny object and intercepted Kor's punch with it.
The punch's kinetic energy was entirely absorbed, and Musa grabbed the weakened Kor by the arm, bent their body against its will with a martial lock, exposing their torax, it was an easy kill for their duo, Nataly, who used a second knife to finish the mage.
The alarm started by Ytsix stopped for a second to leave room for a deafening blowing horn. "MAGE DOWN" the screeching voice of the masters was heard accross the canyon.
With a Battery-key secured, Musa looked at Nahri, still battling against the metallic horror a few steps from there, he considered helping for a second but couldn't risk loosing their key for a moment of heroism, he looked at his old friend Nataly's mana replica in the eye and said "I'd be a dead son of a ***** if not for people like you. Go help them" he ordered the assassin to aid Nahri while he returned to his cell to activate life-support.
Nahri was able to break one of the creature's legs with their enhanced strength, but was still struggling when Nataly came to the rescue, damaging the creature's outer layer before it borrowed back the ground and escaped, leaving nothing but a scar of sunken soil behind. Nahri was somewhat happy to be saved by an opposing mage, they thought to themself "Maybe we can do more working together, hell, maybe we don't have to be here" as they symbolically thanked the assassin and left...
____________________________________________________
Ytsix still wandered the canyon, hidden from both his opponents and the phyrexians when he heard movement nearby, he quickly hid himself as best as he could with that heavy armor.
The mage seemed to be only wandering the place, looking for prey as well, all of their artifacts intact and waiting to be used. The alarm was heavy on the ears and Ytsix could walk without fear of his footsteps being heard. Ytsix followed the mage calculating and recalculating over and over his plan as if he, deep down, did not actually have the guts to murder another brilliant mage but swallowing these thoughts in the stress of the situation. The observed mage began to cough as he climbed and moved accross the place, Ytsix had been somewhat protected from the suffocating fog thanks to his mask, but it was hard to see the mage struggle to breathe and get visibly tired as minutes passed, as Ytsix did his calculations once more, it was undeniable, this was the optimal moment to attack, yet his hands were shaking, he took a deep breath and ran with a treasure in hand and used his devices at full efficiency to blast the mage of only one shot.
The mage's back was instantly broken with the impact, the smell of burned cloth filled Ytsix's nosetrills and reminded him of the horrible scene that was defeatig Faiths_Guide back in the arena. This was horrible, all this talent destroyed in a moment, he needed to survive but he also was conflicted with these feelings. a phyrexian soldier found him soon enough and saw the scene, the alarm of missing mage was stopped inmediately. Ytsix grabbed the Battery-Key from the dead body and carefully walked back to his cell with a hollow feeling in his stomach.
_________________________________
Lucas walked through the canyon now with a deep silence since the alarm was lift off. He knew Shadow was fast but couldn't allow himself to run too much, it would raise his breathing speed wich would reduce his respiratory capacities and die to this gas like some animal. He also had to find another mage to kill soon.
The horn was sound again, "MAGE DOWN" who had died was of little interest now, the important thing now was that HE was alive and there were battery-keys left. When his breathing began feeling difficult, Lucas saw a wandering mage in the distance, Farona, he had seen his powerful invocations before, Farona obvioulsy wasn't the most prodigious fighter, if he could fight them one on one, maybe he had a chance of killing them, his spear could be sacrificed to counter whatever invocation they were to summon. Lucas had plenty of mana left, he should be able to kill this guy with a shard of ice given that their spell was cancelled. Lucas jumped, sprinted over the mage and tried to kill them but Shadow was already mid air with their own dagger by that moment, they each grabbed one arm of Farona, leaving them helpless.
"FARONA'S KEY IS MINE, RELEASE THEM!" Screamed Shadow
"You let them go!" responded Lucas as they both almost ripped Farona's arms from their body.
Right when Farona's left arm's bone were breaking , the floor broke once more and revealed the metallic horror from before, it ate Farona's body whole and sent both Shadow and Lucas flying at least two meters away.
"MAGE DOWN" The voices announced again, while the monstruosity attacked the mages.
The hole in the ground created by the creature began destabilizing the canyon. A whole section of the walls broke down and fell, calling the attention of everyone and leaving the battle visible at almost any point in the canyon. A huge line of energy was left exposed under the rock, Ytsix could see it from afar and cam closer (but not too close) to inspect.
Lucas and Shadow battled both against each other and the horror. The ice breaking, weapons hitting and rock being displaced made a lot of noise and attracted every single mage in the stage. Soon, the fight was being watched by Nahri too, flying near the scene, hoping one of the mages became weak enough to strike, at some point Shadow fell on their back and was vulnerable, that's when Nahri dive into them and attempted to kill them. Shadow was fast enough and had mana left for this situation.
It was enough to protect themself, but Nahri had enough energy to keep attacking.
The ice and constant moving of the horror underground kept destabilizing the canyon's structure. another line of machinery was visible, Ytsix saw this and his eyes glowed with a sudden idea. It was dangerous, but maybe this was the right thing to do, there was no time to think, Ytsix screamed over the fight, "OVER THERE, EVERYONE STOP!" Ytsix screamed, trying not to have signed his own death. Luckly for him, Nahri, Lucas and Shadow all payed attention to him. "THAT THING" Ytsix pointed at the exposed lines, "THAT'S THE THING DIVERTING THE LEYLINES, IF WE BREAK IT, WE COULD HAVE FULL ACCESS TO MANA!!"
The three mages realized that Ytsix might be right, if they had access to mana again, they might be able to free themselves from the arena. They moved away from the horror and went to aid in Ytsix's plan.
"Lucas! Freeze the thing" said Ytsix. Lucas spent his little left mana to cover the line in ice.
"Shadow, order your shieldmage to cover the area, this will get messy" Ordered Ytsix, the shieldmage covered the everyone as best it could in an aura of protection. "This assassin was summoned by Musa, it follows me if it is of any use" pointed Nahri to help.
"Perfect! Assassin, take this and throw it to the thing. Destroy it at all costs" Ordered Ytsix, th assassin took the object and ran to complete the task.
The assassin used the potion as ordered, damaging the line heavily, the shields created simultaneously were insufficient to protect the assassin from the explosion that followed, but they were enough for the barrier of the shieldmage to stop most harm done to the four mages. Only Nahri suffered damage in the skin as pieces of metal flew from the broken line.
"ALL MAGES, STOP THIS NOW" One of the masters voice was heard at full volume "DAMAGE TO THE AREA HAS EXCEEDED OUR TOLERANCE".
Hiro, the controller behind the metallic horror, went to the surface, hiding from everyone's sight with a simple spell as little mana as possible, they needed to see the master's actions to know their own next best course of action.
The mana soon was felt by every mage in the area. The masters, however, were not playing. A grasping hand emerged below the mages, they all tried to escape the grasp, Nahri, however was too weak and could not run fast enough. He was dragged back to the arena.
Horrified by Nahri's death, the other mages grabbed all the mana they could and ran to the newly released leylines to protect themselves. Unfortnately, not only they had access to a lot of mana, the masters were ending this now.
The Ingester advanced towards the mages, looking unstoppable, they were not sure they could defeat it after so much damage taken and with so much of that gas in their lungs. Before the Ingester could get to the floor of the canyon, the metallic horror created by Hiro attacked it, piercing its mouths with its sharp legs, giving the remaining mages time to leave the area, for now...
The mages @Ytsix @shadow123 @herokp and @bowler218 go to Musa's ( @spookoops ) cell to ask for help in this attempt at leaving, the Digging aberration was able to kill the Ingester, so they had some time to plan a way to end this for everyone.
The masters were furious, they had to stop these mages at any cost. What they did next had no name, using the remaining pieces of Nahri ( @DrakeGladis ) and @Korandangels, they reanimated a monster with their combined magical capacities. This creature had only one objective: To leave none of the surviving mages alive...
For the final round:
- @Korandangels , @DrakeGladis you are a team and are the bad guys now. You each get 5 FAVORITES that may be spent in the store or claimed. You must create at least one spell to destroy the surviving mages. You can coordinate in any way or do it separately. You can even spend your combined mana in one super spell.
- @Ytsix @shadow123 @herokp @bowler218 @spookoops You each get 4 FAVORITES that may be spent in the store or claimed. You must create at least one spell to survive against the attack from @Korandangels and @DrakeGladis and, if possible, destroy the arena, you can do it separately or coordinate in any way. You can even spend your combined mana in one super spell.
-The phyrexians will send reinforcements to help, Drakegladis and Kor won't be completely alone.
-There are no restrictions this time
-Each cardsmith that survives the finale gets 8 favorites.
-As a reminder, here's the store:
Pay 2 favorites: You get 1 lotus token
Pay 1 favorite: You get 1 treasure
Pay 1 favorite: You get 2 scrap tokens
-The effectiveness ratios are the same. (Balance, Flavor, Originality, Clarity)
Thank you all for being patient, it was a headache, but this final round should be easier.
@Pepperoni, are we submitting cards through PM, or directly here?
@shadow123 Due to the effectiveness of your spell, you can set X in your shieldmate's casting at 1, I will recount your leftover artifacts tomorrow but you can count them meanwhile.