If both duelists involved would kindly let me know that they are ready, this duel can begin. If one of the dueling parties does not report in (ready or otherwise) before Wednesday [1/9/2013], they will forfeit the match. If neither report in, both will forfeit.

Whether you are ready or not, please make it known in an ((OOC)) post here in this thread.

This duel was concluded [1/14/2013] with Twilight at Dusk as the victor by majority vote.

((Yup, I'm here. Also, Razor you didn't put the rapier in his equipment section.))

Sol walked into the arena slowly, quickly scanning the area for his opponent or anything out of the ordinary. Satisfied with this, he pushed his glasses up on his face before sitting down and staring ahead blankly. First one here. Not sure who opponent is. Well, better not fret over it.

602245 "HEYYY!! PONY!! UP HERE!!!!" Archimedes yelled to the unicorn

((I'm here, and will be ready to begin this evening after work. Have to leave in about half an hour, and will be back at about 10pm. I've got enough time to write my entrance into the arena, so I'm going to do just that.))

Twilit smiled as she trotted into the arena, her light armor clinking lightly against the metal staff across her back. Upon sighting her opponent, and making sure that her bright amber hair was secured in its braid for the match, she approached and offered a hoof in greeting.

"Hello! I'm Twilit Blaze, your opponent! I hope we have fun!"

602316
602337 ((Why aren't you in the roster?))

Sol spared but a glance to the spectator. He didn't recall him at all and thus didn't deem responding that important of a matter. He turned his attention to the opposite side of the arena, where his opponent had finally arrived.

As she approached, Sol stood silently, his eyes never leaving her form. Her hoof would hang there for a moment before he tentatively accepted the greeting. "Hello. Name is Sol Brightflame. Pleasure to meet you." After his greeting, he took two steps back.

((Does the stage change in each match? Does it have a certain theme to it or is it just a flat arena?))

602822 "GOOD LUCK!! IM COUNTING ON YOU WINNING!!!" Archimedes shouted again

602224
((It will be added.))

602224, 602337
((I am opening this duel. You may now fight one another. Please follow this link to see the list of judges.

You must conclude your duel, either by killing blow (judge's rule), forfeit, or voting decision. A vote will be held by default in the event that the duel is not completed by 12:00 a.m. [-5:00 GMT] on Saturday [1/12/2013].

Fight with honor!))

Aurus rose from his seat suddenly, drawing a hush over the crowd and ready combatants alike. His smile was one of excitement, and it was clear from the tone that ventured forth from his throat that he was just as eager as those in the stands who were barely repressing their words to hear him speak.

"It is clear that you are all excited to see this match, and I an right there with you! Lets not delay, and commence the battle, one which I am sure will be monumental. This duel between Sol and Twilit should not be taken lightly. Not now, or ever in the future, as this will be a moment of history to be remembered gloriously for ages to come!"

The crowd roared in excitement, stilling once more for Aurus' final words before the unleashing of this once-in-a-lifetime event.

"Begin the match!"

The deafening roars that followed drowned out the trailing of even his mighty voice, and any hope that the clash of steel or a blast of magic had to be heard.

Sol barely flinched from the onslaught of sound the crowd released at that moment. His attention was placed solely on the mare in front of him, who would now be waiting for an attack. Just to test her ability, Sol's horn began to glow a bright yellow, drawing the rapier from his left side and swinging it quickly, but in a controlled fashion, at Twilit's head. Reflexes first.

603505
((Approved by Nathan Traveler and Crafter))

Twilit smiled as Aurus stood and announced the beginning of the match, and wasn't bothered by the roar of the crowd. Her mental state quickly shifted from her usual hyper state of mind, focusing completely on the duel. She took a step back as the announcement was made, preparing for Sol to make his move. As her opponent drew his blade and slashed, Twilit ducked her head, allowing the blade of the rapier to whistle over her head. 'That seems too slow. Is he testing me?' She thought to herself. 'Well then, lets give him something to test.'

Twilit quickly drew Spina from her back, twirling the staff expertly in her hooves as stood up on her hind legs in a fighting stance. She quickly twirled Spina around to the front of her body, over her head, and attacked from her right with a nearly horizontal strike at Sol's open face, using the momentum from the spin to add force and speed to the blow as it rocketed toward her opponent.

604263
((Approved by _Medicshy. Oh, and I promise they won't all be this long. :\ ))
Once Twilit had stood with her staff, Sol raised an eyebrow. Unicorn, but using staff physically? Could be style-specific... or magic is less than extraordinary. Not enough data yet. He draws his rapier back in a form that allows him to stab, though it was still in a downward form.

Now that she had deigned it time to attack, to say her speed surprised him would be an understatement. In all his years of detective work, Sol had never happened to come across a unicorn that held such speed without some sort of amplification. Still, he was able to react quickly, his rapier zipping over to point the blade in the direction of the staff. It would move as though he were aiming to stop the attack with a thrust, but instead would move slightly underneath it. The action would knock the staff upward slightly, he hoped. Just in case, he would duck his head whilst the thrust commenced, not moving from the spot he'd started the match in.

Once the attack would have passed, Sol's rapier would whip down to slash Twilit at her left thigh while he began to strafe to the same direction. He knew that he wouldn't be able to get out of the staff's range before she managed to bring it back around and crush him. He wasn't even very good with defensive spells. That left him with offense and wit. Time to see some more techniques.

604404

((Approved by _Medicshy and Cyberfire22. This is also my last post until sometime after 6pm central time. Have work in the morning.))

Twilit saw the rapier moving to redirect her blow, and allowed it to nudge the staff upwards, passing over Sol's head. A smirk began to form on her face. This was already getting fun. She allowed the staffs momentum to carry it around her body, preparing her for whatever move she planned next. When Twilit saw the rapier whipping towards her left hind leg, she spun quickly, moving to the right of where Sol has started as he strafed left, while being careful to keep her footing on the uneven ground.

Twilit allowed the staff to slip slightly outwards in its spin as she continued her movement, extending her reach by at least a foot and adding to the force behind her planned attack. The staff whistled through the air, driving at a forty-five degree angle down towards Sol's unarmored back with much more force than her previous strike, due to the greater centrifugal force and the fact that the tip was moving faster than before.

604569 ((Approved by _Medicshy))

Sol took his miss in stride, continuing his movement to the left a bit faster now. He could tell that Twilit's next attack would come from a round-a-bout manner since she kept spinning, leaving the only area open to attack his right. This would prompt him to raise his rapier by the handle with his levitation and have both the handle and cross guard collide with the bottom of the staff so that the staff would pause and allow him time to move. With that time, Sol would leap further to the left and out of the staff's range.

With Sol's rapier being knocked to the ground by the attack, he needed to improvise before Twilit could go on the offensive once more. Thinking rapidly, the unicorn's horn flares and a bright yellow glow appears on Twilit's hind legs. He then pulls backwards to knock the unicorn either off balance or to the ground. If she did fall to the ground, his next step has him using telekinesis on her staff, wrenching it away from her.

607892
((Approved by Razorbeam))

Twilit, feeling her legs being wrenched backwards by what must have been telekinesis, began to fall forward. Acting quickly, she threw her weight at a 45 degree angle to her right, tucking her head as she went into an over the shoulder roll. She flattened Spina on the ground as she rolled forward, keeping her grip on the staff, and as she came up, brought the staff with her, settling into a ready stance as she turned to face her opponent.

Seeing the rapier laying unattended on the ground a few feet away, Twilit quickly ignited her horn, taking hold of it and attempting to hurl it at the opposite end of the arena, away from Sol, and hopefully depriving him of his weapon. Twilit watched carefully, preparing for his reaction.

609273 ((I can roll with this post... but how are you falling forward if your legs have just been taken from underneath you? With the way I did it, it seems like you'd fall flat, with no forward momentum.))

609574 ((She threw all of her weight in the direction she wanted to go, and curled in on herself at the same time so that she had enough forward momentum to continue rolling. Did I explain that well enough?))

609649 ((Yeah, I got it.

Approved by Nathan Traveler))

While Twilit recovered from his attack, Sol's horn flares to cast a control spell on his sword. With that, he could move the sword with his mind, rather than levitation. The control wouldn't be with as much finesse as with his levitation, but that was negligible since his horn did not have to glow in order to use it. So, when Twilit threw his sword away, he wasn't worried.

"Good. Disarm enemy, leave him more vulnerable to attack. You're doing well." After this, he suddenly takes off to the left. "But you'll have to do a bit more to win." He remains careful of the staff's range, but he isn't really worried about that either. He knows that, with her fighting style, Twilit is unable to attack him on the go. At least, he figured so. He's still ignorant to her full capabilities, so Sol is still taking precautions while headed for his sword.

609943
((Approved by Nathan Traveler and Cyberfire22))

Twilit smirked at his comment. “You’re only making this more and more fun, you know.” She dropped down to four hooves as he took off running. Putting Spina across the back of her neck for a quick draw, she held it there with a flicker of magic, and took off after Sol across the battle-field.

Once she drew close to where Sol’s rapier had flown, Twilit slowed and reared back up to her hind legs, taking Spina in her hooves once move. She advanced slowly towards Sol, not knowing what to expect and ready for anything.

610299 ((Approved by _Medicshy))

Sol remained where he was once he'd gotten close to the sword. After this, he set himself and his horn started to glow. "Nice to know. Trying different strategies to keep things interesting." He removes his coat and balls it up using levitation. Now, it appears to look like a compressed, brown ball. "Think fast." The coat rockets toward Twilit's chest, being released from Sol's levitation immediately. He then waits until it is dodged or blocked to cast his controlling spell on that as well, before he exhales deeply from the strain of rapid casting.

610556 ((How far apart are we in feet? Doesn't have to be exact.))

610571 ((However long your staff is plus about 2 feet.))

610556
((Approved by Razorbeam))

Twilit saw the balled up coat coming and batted it to the side with a horizontal flick of her staff.

With quick twirl of her staff to pick up momentum, Twilit spun, moving in towards Sol a bit, and allowing the staff to slip further out as she had earlier. She swung the staff towards Sol at a slight ascending angle (25 degrees) from his bottom left ((Her right)), aiming at the barrel of his chest. There was an important difference to this attack as opposed to her earlier ones, however.

This time, her horn flared a brilliant orange, and symbols towards the end of the staff lit up mid-swing. As the staff grew closer to Sol, a blade made of brilliant orange energy, similar to that of a bardiche and totaling three feet in length, snapped into existence, coming from the side of the staff. It covered the last foot and a half of the staff, and extended another foot and a half beyond Spina’s end. Twilit’s grin widened slightly. This would be interesting.

610784 ((Sorry this took so long. The judges kept leaving D:
Anyway, Approved by subjekt omega))

The blade is close enough to cut his maw in half. It's a very unpleasant image, to say the least. Sol falls to his right to avoid the swipe, but that leaves one problem; he's defenseless.

At least, that's how it appears. While Sol is falling to the ground, the coat is already flying back up, unraveling simultaneously with the intention of covering Twilit's eyes to blind her for at least a moment, allowing Sol to get on his hooves. If the attack works then Sol raises his sword fifteen feet into the air by using the control spell he placed on it earlier.

612489
((Approved by ShadowBro and subjekt omega. I wouldn't feel bad about not posting quickly. You literally posted a couple of moments after I finally got on for the evening. Was at work all day, though I do admit to checking on my phone periodically in case you did post. More time to plan a response and all that...))

Twilit’s smirk slipped as she missed her target. The spin continued further than she meant it to, but this turned out to be advantageous on her part, as she saw the balled up coat she had batted away flying towards her, unraveling. Instinct caused her to jump back a few feet and slash at it with the blade on her staff as it unfurled. ‘Wait… There’s no aura around that… If that's a spell, and he can do that to anything, then… The rapier!’

Twilit quickly back-pedaled several meters further, putting more distance between her and Sol, and his weapon. She dropped into a defensive stance, looking around warily when she saw that the rapier was no longer on the ground. “So that was what you planned, was it? Almost had you there.” Twilit bantered while keeping her eyes peeled and searching the air above the arena.

612860 ((Probably should have asked which side it was sent to... Approved by ShadowBro and SwiftEthan))

Sol brought a hoof firmly to his face. "Too eager. Should have waited." He brings his hoof down and the coat floats over to him. He frowns before he rips it into two pieces. Using telekinesis, one side is balled up again, while the other is held by his tail. "Time to try something else."

Not a second later, he charges toward Twilit. The half of his coat that was being held by his telekinesis zooms forward while retaining the shape it has. Once it is within range of her staff, it begins darting around until in her face, where it would start to shoot around her face erratically. Meanwhile, Sol brings the other half of his coat to his forehoof once he gets into range of the staff. He stands on his hind legs, grabbing both ends of the cloth in preparation for an attack by Twilit.

613150
((Approved by Nathan Traveler))

Twilit was at a crossroads. She could either try and deal with the cloth in her face, or go Sol himself. Switching from her usual style to one more suiting her now more spear-like weapon, she held it at a thirty degree angle from the ground, the blade facing up. Twilit pushed forward on her hind legs, just as Sol moved into range, ducking her head to get away from the cloth for a moment.

She slashed upwards, driving the three foot, slightly curved blade towards Sol’s stomach and chest in an ascending slash, aiming to both strike him and bisect the cloth he held.

613481 ((Approved by _Medicshy))

Oh good. One position I can use. Sol leans to his right a bit, but simultaneously brings his right foreleg below and his left foreleg above the blade just prior to it landing a direct hit. To divert it, he pushes out with both forelegs to the left to knock it of course enough to not get hit. This isn't his main intention though. What Sol was actually planning, was to wrap the blade in his coat to nullify its ability to cut him. To do this, his forelegs follow the blades upward trajectory before his right foreleg flips over the blade, causing him to do a complete 360. The result would be the blade of the staff being wrapped in his coat and also pinned to the ground.

Following this slight disarmament, the other cloth moves to wrap around Twilit's eyes with the intention of blinding her.

614123 ((Hello, sorry to have to ask, but could you change your action phase? Upon reevaluation you may either attempt to blind Twilit or grab the rapier, not both at once. I am sorry for any inconvenience this causes.))

615960 ((Technically I was blinding her and then grabbing the rapier. Does that mean only one attack per post?))

616156 ((You get 1 reaction and 1 action. your reaction is stopping the blade, your action is blinding her.))

616163 ((Alright.))

614123

((Approved by _Medicshy and Nathan Traveler. Sorry I didn't reply earlier. Had work.))

Seeing that Spina’s blade was caught, Twilit raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, I suppose I should have expected that.’ With a thought, she cut off the flow of magic to the staff, letting the blade wink out of existence as she switched her grip on Spina, back to her staff fighting grip.

With the staff now free of the remains of Sol’s coat, Twilit pulled it back into a proper position, and dropped into a crouch to avoid Sol’s latest attempt to hamper her vision. As she dropped into her crouch, she spun clockwise, attempting to hammer the freed staff into Sol’s neck, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to move away this time because his front legs still appeared to be tangled in the piece of coat Spina had been trapped in.

616245 ((You know they wouldn't be tangled, right? He wrapped it once, so as soon as the blade retracts he'll literally be ready to go again. To get tangled, he'd need to wrap it more than that. Just saying... you've got the wrong idea.

Also, how'd she know about the coat trying to blind her from behind?))

616307 ((I did say appeared to be on the hooves thing. As for the coat... I thought it was still flying around in her face. You moved directly into staff range, and I only ducked for a moment to get a clear shot. I didn't actually step forward all the way, and then I pulled back when I drew the staff free.That would put the coat right back in my face, wouldn't it? (I say I and my... I mean Twilit of course.) Besides, you've been trying to blind her for the past 3 or 4 turns, why would she expect you to stop now?))

616349 ((I missed the 'apparently'. Also thought she'd moved forward enough that it was out of the range of the ball. Okay, never mind then.

Approved by _Medicshy))

Sol's forelegs snap out once the blade and staff retract from his grip. Finding his blinding strategy to be a bit lackluster at this point, he decides to switch it up a bit. While Twilit's staff is heading for his neck, his ball of coat heads straight for Twilit's face. Meanwhile, Sol lowers his head a bit before placing his left foreleg above and right foreleg below the staff's point of destination prior to it getting within three feet of his neck. His legs follow the staff at pace slightly lower than it before suddenly pushing the staff up with the intention of having it sail right over his head.

The coat that flew at Twilit's face would dart in front of her face twice before darting behind her. There it moves in front of her eyes, then to the other side, before finally flying down to the bottom of her hind legs. Once there, the coat would unwrap itself, circle Twilit's legs, and then bind them before pulling back.

616520

((Approved by _Medicshy.))

Twilit grumbled under her breath as the staff was deflected yet again. ‘Okay, now this is getting just annoying. I’ve got to do something about this damn coat! Not gonna happen at close range though…’ Twilit irritably batted the cloth in her face away with a spin of her staff, swatting the ball of fabric to her left.

Taking hold of the staff in its middle with her mouth, Twilit turned and, dropping to all four hooves, took off at top speed to her right for a grouping of rock spires she could hide in for a moment.

616753 ((Approved by SwiftEthan))

Sol draws the batted fabric to himself and takes the piece of coat he was already holding, placing one on the nape of his neck. The other, he lays out underneath a portion of the ground that was especially jagged to form the sight of an overhang, keeping it in shadow.

While watching Twilit make a run for the taller spires, he has the rapier, that had been floating for the majority of the battle, float back down to him. He lays it on the ground so that the tip of the blade points toward Twilit.

618759
((Approved by ShadowBro))

Twilit passed into the spires, and slowing to a trot, looked around. Quickly finding one near the edge that was wide and tall enough to hide behind, she passed around it. ‘Decent cover, good firm dirt. That shouldn’t smudge easily. Even ground too. Enough room to fight right here if I need to as well.’ Twilit thought to herself. There was indeed room to fight without being trapped here. The Rock to her back was a good 15 feet wide, rising high into the air. There was around 8 yards of space between it and next spire. She was still on the outskirts, and if things went bad, she could easily move further in or completely out of the grouping of spires.

Quickly setting to work with her staff in her hooves once again, Twilit began to etch symbols in the dirt with the skill of long practice. ‘He won’t know what hits him.’ She etched three smaller symbols, two identical ones, on either side of her, and a third symbol directly under where she positioned herself, different from the others. As she etched, she kept a close eye to both sides and above her, watching carefully for any type of movement.

619955

Sol stood in the same spot for a few minutes before sighing. He looked to either side of the large spires, finding that they did not surround him. He pushed his glasses up on his snout and sat down on his flank.

With this extra time, he'd decided to figure out what Twilit was up to. Said she wishes to get rid of my coat, but impossible at close range. Judging by fighting style, long range magic of Twilit either weak or unable to breach my own magic. Her staff uses glyphs. Glyphs not normally used by unicorns outside of experiments where time is not a factor, which explains why only glyphs she uses have been prepared prior to battle. If she still has not come out, she wants me to come after her. He snorted. Assumption that I would follow her after waiting ridiculous. She's probably setting up a trap. I'll just wait here until she realizes I'm not going after her.

620286
((Approved by Razorbeam. I asked him about your last post, and he agreed that because you stated that you were going to wait, I had enough time to do this.))

After a moment, when Twilit realized that she hadn’t been followed, she frowned. ‘Is he just waiting for me to come out?’ she thought. As she had time, she etched a scrying glyph on the dirt at her feet.

When she activated it, they glyph showed a circular picture of Sol sitting, waiting for her, and watching, with his rapier at his side. ‘He is!’ She thought with glee. Quickly setting to work once more, while keeping the glyph active to keep an eye on Sol, Twilit drew a larger glyph around the one she had created to scry. She connected the two, and adjusted the scrying glyph to improve the quality, adding to it and allowing the newer part of the glyph to use the scrying glyph to target the subject in view. The larger glyph was the most powerful sleeping spell Twilit had in her repertoire.

Twilit put Spina back in its holster. ‘Here goes nothing!’ She thought, and flared the flow of magi from her horn, pouring a bit under half of her total magic stores into the glyph at her feet, focusing intently on the unaware unicorn pictured within.

621051 ((A sleeping spell... Not something I expected. Will this spell come out as a beam of light sort of thing or just spontaneously happen?))

Voting:
Twilight at Dusk

Voting:
Shadeslayer