The Nobody Division Preliminary

[Hades]

The roar of the crowd, the trembling of the stadium, the grunts of the pita vendors... All of these things filled the Olympus Coliseum today, for today would start the revival of the Hades Paradox Cup. Our favorite Lord of the Dead stood on a cloud high above the Coliseum, looking down upon all he had created for this new tournament. There were many reasons why he had decided to revive the tournament, but primary among them was the fact that so many powerful warriors would be coming to try their luck in the battles that lay ahead. There were bound to be many that he could manipulate into becoming his minion.

He disappeared from his cloud and reappeared at the throne he had previously created atop the Coliseum. He looked around at the growing crowd and addressed them and the warriors that stood on the field below him, his arms outstretched, "Welcome one and all to the revival of the Hades Paradox Cup!" A powerful burst of cheers filled the air once more. Hades gave the applause and noise a second to calm down before he continued, "Have I got a treat for all of you! Due to the turnout this year, we've had to create a couple preliminary rounds to weed out the competition, so the first round is a team battle between our competitors! You must all work together to defeat," With a quick wave of his hands, a giant ball of energy appeared and hurled itself to the middle of the field. From it grew and took form until it finally became the Wind Titan. The fearsome beast roared and reared its head, ready to rampage. Gasps and hushed whispers were heard across the Coliseum as Hades spoke to the silence,"A MIGHTY TITAN! However, there is one tiny catch. Only the top four will advance. So, work together, but stand out among the crowd to gain acceptance to the next round! That's not going to be a problem, is it?"

The Lord of the Dead laughed evilly as he emitted flames from his hands, igniting various fireworks placed at either side of his viewing box. As the fireworks exploded in the sky, he shouted, "BEGIN!" He sat down on his throne and lit a conjured cigar. He was ready to see what these warriors could do.

-Okay, the rules of this battle are simple: You are all a team, and you need to work together to defeat...wait for it...The Wind Titan! However, only four survive each preliminary match. Therefore, you need to work together, but be better than everyone else.

After three rounds of posting the staff will judge this thread and determine which four participants proved to be the bigger assets in this battle. They will judge on damage dealt, teamwork, realism, and creativity. Each entrant has 72 hours (3 days) to post, to help speed things up.

Posting Order: Vanitas, Squall, Wind Titan, Claire, Tseng, Fang, Wind Titan, Balthier, and Hayden-

[Vanitas]

[atrb=style,border: 2px solid #000000; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 20px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 20px;][atrb=background, i52.tinypic.com/2zghpbb.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,442,true][atrb=height,450,true][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true] Evil tastes the tears of fear! tearing down your helpless fate Theme: Hunter of the Dark Tagged: Vani, Leon, Titan, Claire, Tseng, Fang, Balthier, Hayden Comments: Forcing Vani to play nice. You are truly Evil Hades. It had been by pure chance that Vanitas arrived in the world of the Olympus Colliseum when the signups had been starting. He hadn’t been able to see the names of those involved, as it was still early in the signups when the boy in the mask had arrived, face obscured by his mask. But when he heard the description of what lay ahead for those in the tournament, Well, Vanitas couldn’t pass it up. So, a bunch of losers and posers want to get together and try to prove themselves tough? he had thought as he added his name to the Roster, Well, then I’ll just have to put them in their place. And maybe if I’m lucky, that loser Ven might show up. That had been when the signups were. As it stood, the actual competition was beginning now, with a sort of Preliminaries to guage people’s skill and decide on who would continue into the actual competition itself. No problem. Vanitas had fully expected some silly little test to prove himself that he would pass. When he had arrived out on the field though alongside six others though, one he even recognized as the girl Claire, Vanitas was at least a little curious as to what was going on. That’s when the big man himself appeared, Hades, lord of the dead, and his pompous attitude. For someone who was supposed to be a god, the man was clearly very overly flamboyant about his attitude and actions. Still, if Vanitas had any hope of getting further in this tournament, he had to apparently “Play Nice”. Nobody told me I’d have to piggyback some losers through a test of skill.

[/I] he thought, his mask covering his face to hide his identity from view. If anyone actually knew of the boy, he’d clearly be distinctive, with the black and red armor that conformed to his body, and the black opaque helmet that concealed his entire head. Only Claire might actually recognize him out of the bunch, and only because she’d seen him before. For now, he’d simply remain the masked boy, kept hidden from the world and a mysterious enigma.

With the appearance of the Wind Titan, Vanitas lowered his head a little. Well now, this might prove interesting. It’d be easy enough to summon at least ten Unversed to help widdle away at the creature, but Vanitas wanted to keep the knowledge of that little trick a secret for now. Claire knew of it, but with luck, she wouldn’t spill the beans. Regardless, there was something more important to deal with right now. He’d seen Claire fight before, and knew she was at least capable. Come to think of it, she had fought someone who was fighting alongside them. Sephrioth had summoned the brown-haired man before with the coat, he remembered that. If that puppet he summoned was anything like the real one, they’d both prove helpful somewhat. The others were all potentially, but he could not guage much of their skill on looks alone. The girl in blue with the shaggy hair, for starters, looked tough, but who was to say she was in fact such? And the others too. Well, he’d find out soon enough. Dropping into stance, Vanitas summoned his Void Gear, holding it over his head and grinning beneath the concealing mask of his. “Let’s take this Blowhard down.” he mused, Dark energ coursing around him and his key blade.

As soon as the energy had formed, Vanitas had sudden;y appeared high up and beside the Wind Titan to it‘s left, feeling the force of the wind as he appeared, his After-Image still left behind with the others for only a few moments to try and confuse the Titan. The Gale-force winds nearly knocked Vanitas off-kilter when he had teleported so close, and he could only hope that any physical attacks on this Beastie might work. Truth be told he doubted it might, but best to find out now. He struck with his key blade three times in quick small strikes, and if the physical attacks actually did work, well, it’d give the rest of the combatants an idea of how to continue and work. Whether the strikes hit or just passed through the giant blowhard, Vanitas quickly began descending and once close to the ground, landed by falling on one knee and a hand, then jumping back and taking a defensive stance. With more luck, he’d have also just distracted the titan, and given others a chance. If he had to play nice, he’d play nice… for now.[/div][/td][/tr][/table]

template by synchronicity

[/center]


================================

Abilities:
Dark Embuding - Vanitas empowers himself with Darkness, increasing his power [4 Post duration]
After-Image - Vanitas Teleports, leaving behind an After-Image of himself and strikes either in three quick successive attacks, or once with a Downward strike [2 Post Cooldown] [1/2]

[Squall Leonhart]

This tournament was just another means to uncover Rinoa's trail, and that was really the only reason Leon had decided to sign up, solely because he felt that if there was anywhere Seifer was bound to be, then there was a chance that she might be around there as well. Leonhart knew Almasy like the back of his hand, having grown up with the blond and endured his company for so many years, it was hard not to memorize anything about the spiteful gunblader's personality. Seifer was known for his cockiness, as well as his unwavering confidence in his own abilities, and that of his romanitc dream of being a Sorceress Knight. It was true that he desired to show everyone who said different the capabilities and power of his skills, and what better a place for the former servant of Ultimecia to do that then in front of a crowd full of people? Much to his dismay though, Squall had not seen the names of either Rinoa or Seifer in the lists, yet there were several names which did ring a bell.

Sora. Tifa. Roxas.

They were the only names that immediately had some kind of an effect on the Proud Lion, and while he hoped he wouldn't have to fight Sora or Tifa, he knew that such a thing would be unavoidable if it were to occur. Leon remained passive about Roxas, for all he knew about the youth was that he was Sora's Nobody, after the latter had informed the Lion of Radiant Garden of this when they had run into each other at Edea's Orphanage not too long ago. The grim lighting of the coliseum grasped the features of Leon as he entered the massively populated arena; his steel blue eyes taking in the surroundings of the remaining members of the Nobody Division as they all made their entrances. He knew none of them, yet that did nothing to ease the tensed sense of defense he continued to hold about himself. He remained standoffish, and did not do anything to change the demeanor of his attitude, which would continue to come across as anti-social and cold as the Lion remained silent.

When Hades made his appearance, it was filled with the grandeur and shenanigans expected of someone in suspected power over others, and Leon could only watch on with a silent, stern gaze as he listened to how these matches for the tournament would play out. From what he took of it, this was different from other played out competitions, and would not feature one on one fighting, at least not for the preliminary. 'This guy's a bag of hot air,' thought Leonhart to himself as he continued to listen to the God of the Dead, paying no mind to the other members of the Nobody Division. Leon knew that teamwork would be essential to progress in this round, and while he often preferred to work alone, he remained certain in his abilities when it came to helping others. These different individuals were nothing like his friends from Archipelago or Radiant Garden though, so he would be sure to watch his back for any back stabbing traitors.

Suddenly there was wind, and a lot of it. The leather and cotton of Leon's attire became beaten with the furious breeze that emitted from their opponent, The Titan of Wind. Blue eyes widened with surprise as the massive tornado beast rose to its full stature, then narrowed at Hades as the God made a disappearance with a puff of black smoke. From beneath his billowing brown locks, Squall watched the Titan for a moment, feeling as though he were the only one to stand against this great phenom of nature. His courage never wavering for a moment, Leon held out his right hand, and in a flash of light his Revolver gunblade appeared firmly clenched within its gloved grasp. "Hm. No choice but to blow ahead. Let's get this over with then." Looking up at the seemingly impossible to conquer foe, the Proud Lion's gaze narrowed, just before he burst into a full out sprint at the swirling entity.

Leon's eyes caught glimpse of Vanitas as he made his attacks on the foe, intending to test whether or not it was susceptible to physical attacks or not. Leon didn't know who the masked youth was, but he had to admit that his strength seemed formidable, especially if that really was a Keyblade he was wielding. Deciding to waste no time that could prove useful to their attack, Leon rushed in with a darting weave in his step, intending to get close enough so that he may chain his own techniques with that of Vanitas. First the Proud Lion's hand extended, unleashing a blast of Thunder upon the Wind Titan, followed by a leap several feet into the air. Once he was at a decent enough height, Leon rotated his gunblade around himself in a vertical fashion, creating eight red orbs of energy around himself. As the Wind Titan would be close enough to perform it, Leonhart ignited the energy of his Aerial Circle to chain the damage dealt to his Thunder spell. At the conclusion of his technique, Leonhart landed but a few feet away from Vanitas, though he readied his gunlade in a rest upon his right shoulder, before making a careful examination of what damage had been dealt to the colossus before him.

~~~~~~~~~

Abilities Used

Thunder - Squall raises a hand to the air, and calls forth a bolt of lightning to be cast down upon his target(s). Inflicts minor damage. 1 post cool down.

Aerial Circle - Squall swings his gunblade around him in a perfect radius, creating orbs of energy around him vertically. The orbs are then detonated to explode upon the radius, inflicting moderate damage to any caught within it if successful. 3 post cool down.

[titan]

-Sorry about the late reply-

The furious howl of the wind echoed throughout the stadium, even without its ceiling. He had been summoned by his master for... fun? He was a fearsome beast that only two others had been able to best, both of which had been Gods. Why was he being used for his master's amusement? Perhaps it was a test for him as much as it was a test for the puny creatures before him. Regardless, the Titan of Wind move forward, slowly, taunting the creatures beneath him. As he moved, the sand in the Coliseum whipped up beneath him, causing a sandstorm that quickly surrounded the pathetic "warriors". He would not be hindered by this, but the fools would soon find themselves in his grasp, unable to see the trap closing behind them.

In fact, it seemed that two of those fools already wanted to die. Foolish mortals, physical attacks would not... Surprisingly, that first warrior was able to injure the Titan, though only slightly. He was confused until he saw the key that the warrior held. A Keyblader? Perhaps this would be interesting after all. Without a moment's hesitation, the second warrior also launched his attack, focusing more on magic. The bolt of lightning did not phase the Titan(For Zeus' Bolts were far more powerful) and a strange, choppy, gasping sound was heard from within the fearsome beast's core. The chilling sound was that of laughter, but it stopped quickly as the second attack took hold, causing explosions around him. That one actually hurt a bit more, but after only a second of faltering, the Titan was back on track and ready to retaliate.

A brief glow eminated from the Titan of Wind before he unleashed a fierce Aeroga spell against everyone in the battlefield. He couldn't keep his focus on just the two that attacked first. That would not be wise. After the spell finished, he continued his charge, hoping that soon, the pathetic mortals would all be gathered around him and fall right into his trap.


----------------------------------
-Spells:
Aeroga - Cooldown: 2 posts-

[Claire Lovelace]

Claire arrived at Olympus Coliseum and went inside. This place didn't look to impressive to her but she had heeard about the tournament that was taking place and she decided to enter and have some fun smacking around some pathetic losers. She signed her name on the roster and then waited for this shin dig to start. She didn't have to wait to long before her name was called and she entered the main battlefeild. She thought that she was going to be going up against one opponent but it seemed like there was going to ba a battle royale between herself and six other entrants. She recognized two of these people immediately. One was that pretty boy Squall who Claire knew from the stories people told about him at Balamb Garden that he was a very capable fighter. Even though she didn't like the guy she at least respected his abilities. The other was Vanitas, that spikey haired kid she'd met in the Keyblade Graveyard. So, he decided to have some fun too eh? Claire looked forward to seeing what he could really do. She didn't recognize anyone else and she really didn't care about who they were so she waited patiently for the bell to ring so she could start knocking some head together.

She didn't have long to wait before Hades showed up in quite the flashy fashion. He said a little speech about how this round was going to be run wihich apparently was going to be a team battle against a common foe. Just as Claire was wondering who this foe would be Hades unleashed a ball of energy lowered itself into the middle of the arena and turned into a giant tornado, except that this tornado had a face. Claire thought it was actually quite comical and let out a short laugh. Finally Hades started the battle and Claire was offically in combat mode.

She thought it was fairly obvious that this creature would be using wind attacks so she junctioned Aero to her Elemenatal Defense and Blizzara to her Elemental attack so she would deal Ice damage with her physical attacks and she would be protected against wind damage. Immediately after the Go. Vanitas and squall started their attacks. The attacks didn't seem to do much but it also seemed like this creature could be hurt physically. Now Claire had something to work with. The sandstorm created by the Titan reduced her visibility by a fair amount but she couldn't miss this enemy even if she was blind. The Aeroga spell that the Titan cast pushed Claire back a good distance but She didn't take much damage from it as she charged the creature.

Claire launched one chakram. It's intended target was the creatures left eye. Her other chakram was aimed at it's right arm. Bothe dealing ice damage if they hit as well as they're physical damage. Then she cast Blizzara at the titans core. She knew that tornados had hot air in them so she figured she could lower the titan's temprature it might have the effect of slowing the creatures rotation. That was all just a hunch of course but it was all Claire had to go on for the moment until she learned more about his enemy.

[Tseng]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, width:450px; background-image:url(http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z476/MistressRosalyn/Textures/grunge_dots.jpg); border: 4px solid #000000,bTable][atrb=vAlign,top] Cooldowns: Quake 1: 1 Post

Tseng is Sexy... The noise and sudden light was blinding to him as he entered the coliseum. There were crowds of people cheering. It was an experience like nothing he had ever been involved with. Normally, his missions were quiet and done very quickly. This was new. His eyes surveyed the arena that he would be fighting in. There were a number of others in the area as well. However, the only person he recognized was Leon. The two had met before in Radiant Garden. But before Tseng could think anymore into that, another voice appeared. It was booming tone and echoed throughout the stands. The man explained the name of the Tournament and that there was a lot of people involved. He continued on saying that they needed to work together to win this tournament. That is when this giant Titan appeared. It had the shape of a tornado and seemed much like the wind. How was he supposed to fight someone like that? That's when the rest of Hades speech continued, stating that only four people would move to the next round. So work together, but stand out. That was almost an oxymoron. However, Tseng decided to sign up for for tournament because of an annoying centaur telling him that he couldn't handle it. So he would stick with it and try his hardest to make it to the next round. When he heard the Fire God yell that they could begin, that is when Tseng turned to the two people that were near him. This being a younger girl with a Chakram, named Claire, and another woman he had seen before, her name being Fang. If the three of them managed to work together, then it might secure their spot in the next round... and maybe even keep them all from getting killed in the process. There were a few attacks from Squall and a keyblade wielder before the Titan lashed out. The sandstorm that whipped up caused Tseng to shield his eyes. It took a moment for the storm to calm down as the Titan cast a wind attack on the first two people to attack him. That is when Tseng shifted to contact the two woman nearby to him. "We should try our best to work as a unit rather than sporadic. We might have a better chance of making it to the next round." He stated to the two. Maybe they could figure things out, test the water to see what could affect the Titan. He pulled out his gun and fired a few rounds into the Titan. However, it didn't seem to do that much. "It seems that physical attacks don't work on his body. We should focus on magic attacks. Maybe it's weak against a certain element." Tseng decided to test his Earth Materia. He put out his hand, casting Quake 1. There was no reason to use anything more powerful till he knew the outcome. He was also curious as to if the two woman would be willing to cooperate with him. He would see in a moment. And he knows it.

made by Rosalyn of BTN

[fang]

When Fang had stopped in this world, the last thing on her mind was competing in a tournament. She had more important things to do, of course, like appreciate the fact that she was no longer crystallized and that there appeared to be even more strange places out there. However, it hadn't taken long to convince her. Excitement? Fighting strong enemies? Crowds cheering her name as she took them out? No, there had been no need to attempt to twist her arm n the matter- she'd signed up willingly, hoping at least for some fun. Her whole life strength had been necessary for survival. Of course, that much was obvious during her time as a fal'Cie, but even before that it was a given that you had to know how to defend yourself in Gran Pulse. Food and safety were basic needs, and Fang had sparred with some of the other children in the orphanage every now and then and while she was pretty sure this wasn't the same thing, it reminded her of it nonetheless.

As she walked into the arena with the other entrants in her group, the sound of the crowd nearly drowned out even her thoughts. Luckily they settled down as a strange, blue man began to speak. From what she'd been told this was the "Lord of the Dead," Hades. Well, if he was anything like the Goddess of Death, Etro, Fang had a feeling they weren't going to get along. Dryly she wondered if she should feel suspicious about a lord of death holding a tournament, but the thought passed as he continued his introduction.

Teamwork, huh? Lady Luck was good, because that was something that she had been working on recently. The smile that appeared on her face as the thought only widened at the appearance of the titan. It was hardly anything at all- just wind whirling around the center of the arena, although it appeared to have a face somewhere in there.

"Well ain't you sweet," She said to herself, eying the creature as she reached for the lance at her back, holding it at the ready. Before she had a chance to do much, some of the others had already leapt into action. Some kid in a mask with a key, and a guy that looked completely unamused. The limited effect from them made Fang pause, trying to think. It was a bit of a situation- how did you attack the wind? As if to prove her point the Titan raised a whirlwind around them, only adding to the sandstorm that it had created. Raising her free hand to cover her eyes, Fang realized someone was speaking to her.

Turning her attention momentarily from the raging wind titan to the man standing near her, Fang strained to listen above the howling wind. Working together? Well, that was what the guy with the head on fire had suggested they did. It only made sense to do it. If only some of them were getting into the next round, they'd better make sure they did this right to prove they could handle it. He also appeared to be speaking to another woman standing near them, who had sent a spell into the middle of the titan like the man proceeded to do.

"Alright, then." She agreed, eying the two with a thoughtful smirk. "Let's see if this fella can't stand up to a group." Attempting to follow the two's lead of shooting magic at the titan, she raised her arm and sent off a ball of magic, following the path of the other two's spells. Then, in an effort to try and take advantage of the thing's hopefully distracted state, she charged forward and leapt into the air, lance at the ready. It was hard to keep aim in the middle of a whirlwind (she found herself blinking hard against all the sand and wind, and she almost was shot off course), and she felt like the was slashing at nothing, but as she hit the ground once more her lance caused the ground to shake and debris to rise up and fly into the air. While she didn't think her actual attack would do much, she'd hoped that the end part might react with the man's magic spell somehow.

---ruinga: 3 posts
---highwind: 3 posts

[titan]

Things were starting to pick up, literally. As more of the warriors strategized to fight the malicious sack of hot air, the Wind Titan continued to pick up debris, this time moving from sand to small chunks of rock and various metals of the surrounding environment. This would prove to be in the titans favor as the warriors he'd been pitted against now had to dodge the debris flying around the arena while dealing with the beast's physical techniques.

More of the attacks continued with a pathetic attempt at a physical attack with a circular blade simply bouncing off his exterior. These fools would try to break through his massive gale force winds...what a joke! Since the beginning of time, no mortal had ever been able to pierce through the titan's aerial exterior. However, the young woman then sent an ice spell into the vortex.

The Wind Titan screamed in protest as a quake spell and another woman both entered the cyclone. While alone the damage from these techniques was insignificant, the titan had to make them pay for finding his lone weak point. He countered this by slamming his whirlwinds of fists into the ground and leaning forward. With a rumble of a roar, the titan proceeded to shoot a spread array of concrete at each of the combatants. Over a dozen bricks were launched at high velocity in combination with something else. The woman who'd decided to leap into the tornado, had she not been able to escape prior to the attack, would have also been launched at a speed of over 100 miles per hour!

The massive tornado beast quickly rose back to an upright position and stretched his two fists out from his body, pointing one at the suited man and another at the man with the weird key weapon. The cycling winds outstretched and he preceeded with an attempt to grab the two warriors within his high speed grasp. Next, the Wind Titan attempted to swing in three complete circles with his arms still outstretched. It would take expert acrobatics to dodge the winds. Of course, if the warriors had been caught in the winds they would not only add to the damage of the attack, but damage their friends before he released them from his grasp.

[Terra]

Balthier has failed to post in the 72 hour period. Hayden is next, he has three days.

[Hayden Katran]

Hayden had spent most of the fight up until this point making sure that he didn't attract the tornado's ire as he moved close enough to deal out an attack. In between brushing dust out of his eyes, Hayden noticed a lot of ice flying around, and the ice attacks seemed to do more than the quake spell. Granted, there wasn't much damage being dealt in general, but Hayden figured that ice was still the best way to go. Hayden's major arcana began revolving around him and he grabbed the Wheel of Fortune from the whirling cards. An image of the wheel appeared in front of Hayden, spinning, and cast a Blizzard spell at the titan. Then, Hayden's attention returned to the Titan's arms. They were each reaching for a combatant. The one nearest him was going for some guy with a giant gun-sword weapon. The Titan began spinning, and Hayden was caught in the whirlwind. Hayden could not see anything, but he knew that there were four pillars in the arena from what he had seen before. He didn't think the Titan was moving much, so he began spinning his cards again, grabbing the Hanged Man card. He shot all seven of the ropes outward, and felt them snag onto and subsequently lash themselves around one of the pillars. He didn't know if anyone else was caught in the vortex, but he called out anyway.
"GRAB THE ROPES!"
He took his own advice, grabbing one of the ropes, tying it around his waist in a bowline knot and pulling himself slowly out of the inner part of the tornado. He was still caught, but the winds were less intense and he could see well enough to fend off any more debris that the big bag of wind might pick up.

TAROT CARD STATUS:
Wheel of Fortune: Used, one post Cooldown.
Hanged Man: Used, Three post cooldown, ropes will dissipate on Hayden's next post.
ALL OTHER CARDS: In Hayden's pocket.

[Vanitas]

[atrb=style,border: 2px solid #000000; -moz-border-radius-topleft: 20px; -moz-border-radius-bottomright: 20px;][atrb=background, i52.tinypic.com/2zghpbb.jpg][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,442,true][atrb=height,450,true][atrb=vAlign,top][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,3,true] Evil tastes the tears of fear! tearing down your helpless fate Theme: Dark Impetus Tagged: Nobody Divison Comments: Hades you are Evil. From the moment the Titan of wind had appeared, Vanitas had anticipated the reaction from the surrounding landscape to potentially be a hazard in itself. When the Sandstorm had begun to whip up soon after Vanitas had launched his attack maneuver, he was glad to be covering his face in his helmet. While it was not magical or high tech in that it improved his ability to attack, it certainly kept the stinging sands from actually harming his eyes. In the midst of falling he had witnessed the Lightning and physical attack of the other warrior with the strange sword. The Lightning had seemed to do absolutely nothing, proving that this windbag had a few decent immunities or resistances at least. His own physical attack with a key blade had seemed to damage the titan, more than likely due to the nature of the key blade, but the followup attack with the explosions seemed to work effectively to some level. If that was the case, then they’d very likely be spending most of this battle just finding out what was effective against this hot air balloon. The release of an Aeroga spell had pushed Vanitas back, the boy barely pulling up his key blade in time to not be harmed by the wind attack. The shipping winds had begun to cause a pain in his side for certain, but the stinging pain was a sign of weakness: To work past it was a sign of strength. The other contestants were beginning to get in on the attacking as well now, Claire beginning with a round of an ice spell after launching her Chakrams into the eyes of the wind tunnel. The spell seemed to do something, but the chakrams themselves did little. But soon something did happen, and the Wind Titan had begun to wail. Debris was beginning to fly around the arena, and undoubtedly this Titan, unless taken down quickly, might destroy the very arena itself! Bricks were being launched as the ground swelled near the wind Titan. Earth magic, that seemed to do something. Vanitas, sadly, lacked that Technique, but he still had a few other tricks, and his own key blade seemed to do something. Turning to the man beside him with the Gunblade, Vanitas spoke loud and briefly. If he had hopes of getting into the real competition, he had to work alongside these losers. Damn that god of the dead for making him do this. “Looks like Earth’s the key, but Ice seems to do something too. If you got any of those up your sleeves, I suggest using it.” he said, turning back to the Wind Titan only to see a hand coming down for him. Vanitas reacted without thought, the dark energy pulsing around him as he looked to the Wind titan and suddenly moved forward in the blink of an eye, charging to the Titan and being lifted by the winds. He had moved away from the hand, but was putting himself at a Greater risk. He struck once with his Keyblade, following up with two move should the first strike connect, but then found himself unable to keep himself steady in the air. He was not falling, he was floating, the propelling winds keeping him aloft and out of control. GRAB THE ROPES! Vanitas had heard the call, and heeded it. How ropes had suddenly appeared Vanitas was not sure, but he grabbed onto one with his off hand, keeping his key blade in his normal hand, then getting an idea. He loosened his grip on the rope enough to get close enough to the Wind titan to physically kick it, then held out his key blade and struck. He forced out a swing that would hopefully pierce the wind barrier, and then kept it against the titan, dragging the key blade and letting himself spin around the titan with his key blade dragging. To finish, he let his Keyblade release a bolt of Ice to the creature and, had it managed to pierce the blowhard’s skin, fling the ice inside it. He could only hope the Manuever would work, letting his key blade temporarily fade away as he used the rope to pull himself away from the Beast.

template by synchronicity

===========================
Abilities:
Dark Embuding - Vanitas empowers himself with Darkness, increasing his power [4 Post duration] [2/4]
After-Image - Vanitas Teleports, leaving behind an After-Image of himself and strikes either in three quick successive attacks, or once with a Downward strike [2 Post Cooldown] [2/2]
Dark Spiral - Vanitas charges at an enemy and strikes, striking twice more if the attack connects [2 or 3 Post Cooldown based on attack connecting or no]
Blizzaga - Vanitas casts a bolt of Ice to be shot from his keyblade [3 Post cooldown]

[Squall Leonhart]

As Leonhart came to watch with anticipation the next series of moves from the various combatants, he raised his gunblade defensively to defend against the Aeroga spell released from the massive Titan, and found himself pushed back along the earth. As his boots skidded to a halt, kicking up dust as they did so, The Proud Lion made a quick slash to the ground to root the tip of the Revolver into the sand as he righted his posture from imbalance. Blue eyes watched the next series of strikes from the various combatants; a girl with chakrams, a woman with a spear, a man in a suit, and another youth who seemed to wield unusal cards to accomplish his tasks. The winds were beginning to pick up, yet Leonhart stood valiant before the great storm, his hair and clothes billowing with the force of the strong winds. The youth with the Keyblade had spoken loud enough over the gusts to mention some advice, stating that earth and ice were the most effective means of magic against this twister of malice and torrent. Leon knew just what he had to do to then, but as he was about to launch himself into action, the Titan itself had altered its attack pattern, resorting to an all out attack with wind and debris from around the arena.

Squall began a combo with his gunblade with a fierce horizontal slash with his gunblade, cutting through a third of a stone pillar that had been broken apart by the winds, then proceeded to dive forward into a roll to avoid more oncoming debris of concrete, as well as the Titan's massive rotating cyclonic arms. The speed of the winds was too much. It didn't work out as well as Leon would have hoped, for the heightened movement of the winds caused him to tumble to the right from his intended destination, only to be faced with more rubble and stone rotating closer and faster around the Titan's lower half. Leon found himself rising into a readied stance not that far from Fang, and shot a glance over his shoulder to nod at the battle hardened woman. In hopes that Fang would take the gesture as a hint to follow him, Leon turned his attention back to the Titan, just as more bricks were sent hurtling their direction. There was more heat emitting from the winds here as well, which according to the physics, would only rise with the increased velocity.

'Heated winds blowing flying bricks at high speeds...great.'

The thought registered in Leon's mind for but a brief moment, but he wasted no time to bring his weapon up for a defensive parry, which he combined into a two pieces magical onslaught intended for the Titan. The concrete chunks bounced away from the Revolver's blade with unusually strong force, and were almost literally thrown from the power that emitted from the weapon almost a second later. As an aura surrounded Leon from the ground up, he dipped to the ground to jump backwards as a large crystal of ice grew from the earth, and slowed the air around him as it began to chill almost instantly. The crystal then broke into hundreds of shards of ice, that soon seemed as though they were suspended in air around the figure of Shiva, emerging from her cocoon of frozen water. Taking a stand next to Shiva, the Proud Lion watched the Titan as the Guardian Force began to ignite a powerful amount of energy within the palms of her hands; an action that Leon too mimicked by charging a similar energy in his freed left hand. As Shiva raised her hands, so too did Leon with his own in unison, until both orbs seemed to be significant enough in energy. Without warning the two shot their hands forward, and the energy was released in the forms of Diamond Dust and Blizzard Barret in a unified effort. As the surge of ice burst forth from Shiva's attack, it paved and froze the way for Leon's as the two techniques attempted to freeze and then explode upon the Titan's lower half.

Though while the frozen debris would help the other combatants with the slowing winds, the ice would be picked up by the cyclones, and carried throughout the rising winds to deal a hopefully effective amount of damage to their colossal foe. As Shiva then disappeared in a flash of light, Leon raised his gunblade to his shoulder to retreat a few steps backwards with a small leap, hoping to give Fang enough room to cast something devastating upon the twister of titanic proportions.

~~~~~~~~

Leon has taken moderate damage.


Abilities Used:

Blizzard Barret - Squall's hand becomes cocooned in ice, before he fires a bolt of ice at his intended target(s). It deals moderate damage, and has a chance to freeze upon point of impact. 2 post cool down.

Shiva – Leonhart calls to him the Guardian Force of Ice, who ascends from the ground in a large crystal of ice. After breaking free from her makeshift prison, Shiva holds out her hands, collecting a powerful amount of elemental energy within her palms. She then unleashes this energy in a powerful ray, which encases the intended target(s) in a field of ice crystals. After this the ice around the opposition explodes into thousands of pieces of frozen shrapnel, inflicting heavy damage. Shiva is dismissed following Diamond Dust. 3 post cool down.

~~~~~~~~
Cool Downs:

Thunder: 1/1

Aerial Circle: 1/3

[titan]

These fools were really starting to get on his nerves. That is, if a creature of pure wind actually HAD nerves... In any case, the fighters were struggling, and that made the Titan satisfied. He continued his onslaught, faltering slightly as not one, but four different ice spells struck his core. The fool with the gun sword even summoned the demon of ice, Shiva. He knew all about her and her ways. The fierce wind began to slow due to the cold, but the Titan wasn't finished yet. He increased his speed and not only removed the chill in the air, but also added to his vortex multiple ice shards, courtesy of Shiva.

Some fool had strapped ropes to different pillars to keep the others from being sucked up. That would not work, especially since he now had ice shards in the mix. He manipulated his body so that multiple shards would be shot from his right arm, aiming at each rope the fool attached to the pillars. Let them seek stability with those ropes now. If a fighter grabbed the rope at just the right time, they, too, would be pelted by the shards.

Now his attention needed to return to the two in front of him who seemed to dodge his grasp. They needed to pay for the damage they've done, but first, they needed to be trapped in his vortex with the concrete, ice, and other particles that were now spinning in his body. His whirlwind hands began to glow green as he cast Tornado across the field and against every warrior, specifically the two that were close to him. He was through playing around. Things were about to get worse for these combatants. Much worse.

[Claire Lovelace]

Even as Claire was pelted with small bits of debris and ice she would not be the one to be defeated here. She watched at the other attempted their own attacks. Each attack did varying amounts of damage but her own Blizzara and the Quake spell that hit the titan seemed do do some damage to the over sized wind bag. Claire weathered the hits she was taking from the bits of ice and other debris as she cast a Quake spell of her own at the titan's base. She cast the spell just in time before she was hit by the titan's Tornado spell. Claire was sent flying back until she hit a pillar causing her to hiss in pain and fall to the ground. [pink]"It's time to do some damage."[/pink]

Claire's eyes began glowing red as her chakrams began to levitate and spin around her. She chose Blizzara as her spell and a 10 foot by 6 foot tornado of ice began spinning in the opposite direction that the titan was as she launched the cyclone at the titan aiming for it's base. She knew that the freezing temperature of the cyclone would have an effect on the titian's rotation and she suspected that since her cyclone was spinning the other way that that might also have a slowing effect on the titan's rotation. This however left Claire weaponless for the moment and so she braced herself against the pillar she had hit and watched for the results of her attacks.

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Quake - 3 post cooldown

Chakram Cyclone - 4 post cooldown

[Tseng]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, width:500px; background-image:url(http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z476/MistressRosalyn/Textures/grunge_dots.jpg); border: 4px solid #000000,bTable][atrb=vAlign,top] Cooldowns: Quake 1: 0 Post Cure: 1 Post

Tseng is Sexy... The Earth ability seemed to be a critical attack, it did not do much damage from the looks of it, however the pained howl from the creature made it obvious it hurt. Tseng would have to wait until he could use his materia again and hit it with a level 3 spell. That would probably do the most damage as his bullets seemed useless. However, from the other contestant's attacks, it seemed that the wind titan's face was vulnerable to physical attacks. The Director also smiled at the fact the one woman near him had essentially agreed to team up. This meant that they could work together now. Tseng was pulled back to the battle as the titan turned it's sights on himself. The Turk was not fast enough to avoid the attack from the Titan, having pieces of concrete thrown at him. All the man could do was shield his face from the attack, dig his feet into the ground and lean into the wind. That would prevent him from being knocked back. He could not hear a thing over the rush of the winds around him as he felt a chunk of concrete hit his left arm, as well as the others smaller pieces nick at the uncovered parts of his face and hands. Thankfully, the damage wasn't too great as it passed over him, however, his left arm was possibly broken. As the winds calmed, the Turk noticed a hand coming to grab him. Even though he knew the pain it would cause, the Director essentially dodge-rolled to his left to avoid the grab, sending pains shooting up his broken left arm. The first thing that Tseng did was touch the green materia on his gun, casting Cure on himself. It quickly healed all the minor cuts on his body before healing his arm a touch. It wasn't broken anymore, but it still sent shock waves of pain if he moved it. He would just need to be careful from now on. The Turk now stood up, not wasting anymore time, attempting to watch everyone's attacks to see which damaged it the most. His eyes looked towards Fang. "Ice and Earth seem to be rather effective! Even physical attacks toward it's face seem to damage him. Be careful..." However, it seemed that the ice had backfired as it was now being tossed back at the contestants. Tseng did the best he could at dodging the larger shards as to avoid being impaled. Yet, was cut and hit by the smaller pieces. This was not the sort of event he had thought he had signed up for. The Turk raised his gun, aiming it with his bad arm at the distracted Titan's face before taking a few shots at the creature. It would hopefully do enough damage to the creature while his materia reset itself for his use. That's when he took a split second to look over at his comrades. Hm, with the amount of damage hitting his small group of teammates, he would need to attempt to heal them the next round with his summon. It was not something he enjoyed using, but it would be enough to heal the two around him. "You two! If you can, move closer to me!" If they were just close enough, he could probably heal them both with his ability. That is, if they were able to. And he knows it.

made by Rosalyn of BTN