It would be silly to copy/paste the usual "both players report in by X date, or face destiny in hell" opening post because:

1)I am already here.
2)I am talking to Socratic on Skype right now, so I don't think he's offline.

Our duel begins today. Both of us will be following all rules and judging guidelines from previous matches, so this should prove entertaining while I try to work around the limitations of my own rules.

This duel will be concluded by a killing blow one way or the other. It has no definite end-date, since nothing really depends on it ending at all. The arena decided upon via the announcement thread was chosen to be a giant clock-tower of sorts, with myself and Socratic battling inside amidst whirring gears and swinging pendulums.

I anticipate one hell of a match.

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((In a hilarious reply to myself, I am also ready.))

812496>>812493 ((I stand braced for the oncoming epicness.))

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The crowd's roars stammered in confusion as the shadows that hid beneath the wall of the arena seemed to waver, as if they were made of dark, inky water and were disturbed by waves. Like looking into the depths of a dark pond, and knowing that the ripples are caused by life within, unseen yet real.

The shadow beneath the box where Aurus and his kin were seated with Virgil's daughter seemed to shift more violently than any other area of the shadows, dancing like a wavering flame for a moment before the shadow seemed to stretch and reach out towards the center of the arena. Like a band pulled too taught, a piece of the shadowy mass seemed to break away from the rest of the shadows, and slowly took a form. Though it had no body to cast such a shadow, the dark form of a robed creature walk along the sand, it's shape shifting slightly with the many imperfections in the ground where it was forced to lay as it moved.

Then, as if simply climbing a set of stairs, the being who owned that shadow slowly became revealed, rising from his shade. Every step he took out of his shadow diminished it, until at last he was standing fully-formed in the arena, the shadow he had risen from completely vanished, as if it had simply been another form of his being, rather than a meager reflection of it.

The crowd's hesitant, confused silence broke suddenly in a violent roar of cheers and shouts, changelings near the wall practically leaning over it in their enthusiasm.

"Hello, Virgil," Malik said simply, giving the older pony his classic, strangely unnerving smirk. As always his body was hidden beneath his endlessly black cloak, with only the green of his eyes and the white glint of his fangs visible under the shroud of his deep hood.

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"This battle is actually at my request," Malik said, laughing as if it were all a very simple, funny story. "You see, it's not often I have the opportunity to test my skills against someone of your calibur, and when I do it is not normally a friendly affair," he pointed out, his smile still in place.

The smile faded slowly though as Malik continued. "But this will not be quite as friendly as other meetings we have had, I'm afraid. After all, I take my battles very seriously." Malik's green eyes were fierce beneath his hood, his expression grim from what little could be seen of his thinly-drawn lips.

"Aurus has offered you a very high honor, watching over the young prince. But yours is not the only set of eyes on him, and not all eyes are friendly," he pointed out darkly. "Though I claim to protect Aurus, the truth of the matter remains that he is stronger than I am. In reality, it is his family and the people that I protect, and none more diligently than Archon."

"I have seen you fight in many battles, Virgil. Enough to know you are a valiant fighter, with a noble heart. However, there are things that even you, with your years and your mastery, do not know enough of to face. As the prince's chosen guardian, you will be his last line of defense. If ever you must fight for the prince's life, you can know for certain that you are facing an enemy even I could not stop. To reach you, an enemy must first strike me down," he said gravely.

"No amount of trust can be sure enough, save the trust of warriors. To know that the prince's life would be safe in your hooves, I must fight you for myself," he said sternly.

"The whole world now knows that you can fight creatures like them," Malik said, gesturing about and indicating the arena, and all of the champions Virgil had fought by extension. "But I have to know that you can fight someone like me."

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Malik dipped his head in respect, and held his empty hoof out to his side. Though nothing was in his grasp, the shadow of a weapon painted the ground next to him, where his own shadow was vacant. The long, sinister curve of it's blade was starkly similar to the two long fangs hanging from it's master's jaw, the spike at the end of it's grip as formidable as the head of any spear.

Malik pulled the weapon from the shadows and into reality, the same way he had brought himself into the arena. And, just as it had been with its master's shadow, the shadow of the scythe vanished as it at last solidified in Malik's grasp.

"Don't fight me as a brother," Malik said quietly, standing on his back legs and readying the scythe, his balance unnatural, yet flawless. "For this only time in your life, fight me as an enemy. As a threat to everything you hold dear," he said darkly, his eyes locked in a glare of fierce determination. "Know that the only 'mercy' you will receive from me in this fight is Rem." His grip on the staff tightened, readying himself for whatever came next, whether his own experience urged him to make the first move or his opponent struck first.

As the two combatants fell into their readied stances, Aurus rose from his seat, his horn flaring with the familiar green light all in attendance had come to expect at the beginning of a round. However, no creature even spared the king so much as a glance as they watched the sands erupt around the arena's edge, enormous spires of black stone arching high above and crossing between themselves, twisted to form the framework of a massive stone-strutted hourglass.

Inside, great bronze and golden gears rose from the sand around the two experienced fighters, filling the hourglass from base to top with mechanical wonders: the clockwork of titans. The entire mass of gears, chains, and great pendulums hung motionless as all pieces fell into place, completing the masterwork clock.

Sand began to pour from the top of the great hourglass, and its mass was caught and pooled in great silver buckets which weighed a mighty chain. As the sand began to fill the buckets, the chain began to turn on its many spindles, and the clock came alive. Great thuds of massive clockwork ticking and the loud swoosh of gargantuan pendulums were dulled by the gold-tinted glass surrounding the pair as they slowly turned circuits around one another, the great gear at the hourglass' bottom their starting platform.

"Fitting that this battle of the ages will be fought in a place made for time, but beyond it," Aurus muttered quietly. A place that he had envisioned with the help of his friend, Gearrick. A clock unlike any other, driven by endless sand that never pooled in the base of the hourglass or clogged the gears. A place with a spectacular name, a place unreal beyond the great dreams of a master tinker and a mighty mage until this moment.

"Welcome to 'Eternity'."

813355>>813285((The dawn of the final day. 20 hours until both of you are DQd for inactivity))

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((Yeah, I'll get right on DQing myself. And actually we've both readied and posted in the last 48 hours, so we're technically in the clear. ))

817105 ((you have 20 hours. I was giving you a timer.))

817105 ((I'm bored MAKE STUFF HAPPEN ALREADY

oh remember I'm still a judge ))

817226 ((good luck!))

Judged by: _Medicshy
Health: 100% Mana: 100% Stamina: 94%

Reaction:

Malik's grip on his scythe tightened as he noted Virgil's slow, measured motion. The old pony had never doubted his abilities in previous rounds, prefering to charge in and risk dealing his heavier blows to an opponent, allowing his fortitude to become the lynchpin of his strategy. Virgil didn't seem quite as confident that he could simply grapple with Malik and come out on top in direct combat.

When Virgil swung for Malik's head, he pushed out with the shaft of his weapon to block the simple horizontal swing. However, as the feint began to play out, Malik recognized the manuever for what it really was. Using the momentum of his forceful block to the right, Malik released his grip on the top of Rem's handle, turing the weapon in a quick spin back to his left, the flat of the blade coming up underneath Virgil's swing on the opposite side and forcing the blow to fly hamrlessly over his head without halting it's momentum.

Action:

With the business-end of his scythe above and slightly behind his head, Malik would be forced to improvise. A strike from that angle would be too obvious and take too long to execute, especially considering that Malik had only deflected Virgil's attack rather than hindered it, leaving his seasoned opponent still armed and with a solid defense.

Halting the spin on his scythe, Malik thrust forward with the opposite end of it's shaft, the jagged spike at the based of the weapon racing for Virgil's exposed shoulder as Malik's deflection of his swing exposed his side.

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Judged by: _Medicshy
Health: 97% Mana: 100% Stamina: 91%

Reaction/Action:

Malik just grinned as he felt the small blade at Rem's far end graze Virgil. As he had expected, the old pony had excellent control, even managing to dodge the brunt of the blow despite his lack of balance. Unfortunately, his next move was not unexpected enough to catch Malik off-guard.

Following the thrust of his weapon with his body, Malik moved further into the downward swing of Virgil's staff, closing the distance between him and the old pony and entering the range where the force of the staff's swing would be greatly diminished. As he moved into position, he pulled Rem's blade over his shoulder and braced for impact.

Virgil's staff collided with the blade of Malik's scythe and skipped away from the angled surface. If the staff had come from any other direction but upward, Malik would have run the risk of being cut by his own weapon, but the direction of the swing pulled the blade out and away slightly, preventing the brunt of the damage. Still, even with all of his preventative measures, Virgil was strong, and the strike still stung his shoulder as it hammered the flat of Rem's blade against him.

Judged by: Medicshy
Health: 97% Mana: 100% Stamina: 87%

Reaction:
As Virgil's hooves went up in preparation for his next attack, Malik saw his opportunity. Following Rem's handle from when it had glanced off of Virgil's shoulder, Malik spun along the length of his weapon, keeping the blade in close proximity to himself, and the handle to Virgil's right.

Putting his back to Virgil, Malik continued his spin, moving forward all the while, and turning himself out to Virgil's right, keeping both himself and Rem out of reach of the rapidly descending trap. Sadly for Virgil he would experience no other sensation but the brush of Malik's voidcloak against his hooves as he narrowly avoided the staff.

Action:

That was, of course, until Malik struck. With his staff in front of him, Virgil would be hard pressed to defend his hind legs, Malik reasoned. Dropping Rem from his shoulder, Malik ran down the length of this weapon, hardly holding the shaft of the scythe while the blade slowly scraped along the ground.

As he neared the end of Rem's handle, and cleared Virgil's body, he grasped hard, pulling the curved blade behind him, and tugging it straight for Virgil's rear-right leg as he sprinted past his opponent. Virgil had cost many creatures their limbs in the games, and Malik was not opposed to pushing Virgil towards a similar injury. After all, Rem's enchantment would ensure that he did not suffer.

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Judged by: Nobody, this post is just a boring old descriptive/setup post.
Health: 97% Mana: 100% Stamina: 87%

Reaction/Action:
Grinning to himself, Malik spun Rem in a quick circuit at his side. The tip of the scythe's blade flicked easily into the gap in a chain link, and Malik's foreleg that held it rose alone until the force of the chain's rapid ascent jerked him upward rapidly, his cloak flapping quietly in the resulting breeze. He knew that Virgil's mechanical knowledge would serve him well in this place, but the grinding gears and whirring chains masked many sounds and housed many shadows.

Following Virgil on his own chain would be foolish. In the time it would have taken Malik to reach it and pursue, there was no telling where Virgil could have gotten off of it. Fortunately Eternity was filled with many chains, though not a single one shared any clear destination. Malik knew better than to assume that Virgil was running away. So far they had proven to be very nearly evenly matched, though Malik had refused to use his illusions thus far.

Virgil was a clever pony, and he knew that the tricks which would fool normal creatures would not likely be of any use. It would take an uncommon level of tact to beat him, one he did not have to employ often. Malik grinned as he scanned the arena below him, his sharp gaze cutting through the gaps in gears and buckets of sand traveling on chains of their own that powered the massive clockwork hourglass. Timing his leap perfectly, he kicked away from his chain, landing on a small gear that was spinning rapidly for a brief moment before bounding through the teeth of a much larger gear.

For a very short while, this would prove to be an interesting game of hide and seek.