Gladiators - Raiden and lazy man's battle (because I'm bored, dammit!)
 

They claimed it to be an arena. It was a place where great duels had been completed, and the ground was enriched with the blood of the vanquished. In reality, it was nothing more than a large, now empty, city. The buildings were rubble. The streets were ripped up. In some strange places, a bone could be seen poking from some piles of rocks. It was a place of sadness and death.

They called it an arena.

In the very center of this ghost city was a large circular clearing. This is where the players would start. They always started in this same spot. It was an open spot. It wasn't unusual that one player would be slain before they could even move from that area. Not unusual at all.

Today, another game would be played. Another event for those sitting at homes watching their televisions could view. Another battle for them to watch with greed and blood lust in their eyes, while they could watch and never be in danger. After all, that's what the players were for.

The game started. In the clearing, two square cubes rose up from the ground. The cubes were really small elevators, each holding a player. In the cube on the left, a man waited. He placed his hand on a pad. The pad made a buzzing sound as it checked his identification and gave him access to the playing field. A small computer screen popped up.

Name: Thomas Allgood
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Appearance:
-Hair: Blonde
-Eyes: Blue
-Clothing: Boots, slacks, shirt, and a leather coat. One metal shoulder pad attached to the left shoulder, and a shield covering his back.
-Identifying Marks: Scar over left eye
Weapons:
-One Murasame Blade (Ability to launch blades of energy at the target)
-Magical Prowess (Can manipulate Fire, Electricity, Dark, and Light)
Misc. Items on person: Bottle of vodka

A small bell was heard as the elevator confirmed his identity and opened the doors. Thomas walked out of the device, the bottle of vodka raised to his lips.

"Another day, another dollar."

OOC: Sorry Raiden. Soul Calibur. Nonstop. 7 hours. Dizziness...

IC: The second player let out a sigh put his hand to his own little panel, being processed quickly afterwards.

Name: Eric Warren
Gender: Male
Age: 21
Appearance:
-Hair: Brown
-Eyes: Green
-Clothing: Jeans, a plain old blue t-shirt, a worn in denim jacket, boots, and a pair of knuckle gloves. Several short chains hang from belt loops.
-Identifying Marks: Dragon tattoo on left bicep
Weapons:
-Force Controller ( Located in gloves. Changes amount of potential energy in an area, then releases it quickly in a burst of kinetic energy)
-Composition Reconstruction (Can take parts of things around him and meld them with his body. Example: cover's him arm in metal for a bit of extra hurt)
Misc. Items on person: music player

After the normal buzz and the opening of the door, Eric walked out into the arena. He could be heard in the quiet humming a tune of some sort of song, and it was rather obvious that a headphone was in his ear.

(OOC: S'alright. Been spending my time writing a term paper.)

Thomas rolled his shoulders, the large shield hanging from his back clinked lightly. He unsheathed the long katana from his left hip, and rested it on his right shoulder.

"So, they sent a kid out here, huh? Didn't think they let players as young as you in. But, I've got bills to pay."

A small camera sphere floated nearby. A loud beeping sound was heard that signaled the start of the fight.

"3...2...1...BEGIN!"

The moment the machine finished its statement, Thomas leapt forward, his katana held high.

Eric smirked at the sight of his opponent charging him. He couldn't really hear what he'd said thanks to the headphones, but this was obvious enough to know what to expect. Maybe he'd even have some fun with this one.

When Thomas was almost to him, Eric flexed a hand and small lines of light flared up and down the glove on it. Shortly afterward, a bit of energy softly shoved him to the side, which allowed for a quick and easy sidestep with no effort. It was easy to dodge this way, and he always had fun saving energy with it.

Thomas stepped back slightly after his sword sliced into the air. A hint of a frown appeared on his face.

"So, you're a fast one."

His Murasame blade began to glow slightly.

"Well, dodge this."

Thomas gave a quick slice from his katana, and a blade of fire erupted from the sword. It flew quickly at Eric.

Eric's eyes widened for a second before his glove glowed again for a second, sending a more powerful force to his side. It was alittle more obvious something was pushing him along as his body looked like something impacted it and his feet slid against the ground from the extra force he'd put into it for more speed. When he stopped, he was smiling widely with an excited look in his eyes.

"Oh yeah, this'll be fun," he thought aloud as he pulled off his headphones. "Guess this calls for a little extra kick, too."

Yanking a chain on one of his belt loops, the piece of metal came off with ease, showing that it was probably made to do that. Whirling it around his hand, it looked like he was using it for makeshit brass knuckles. But something completely different happened, as the metal seemed to literally melt into his hand, and any skin exposed took on a metallic sheen.

"Heh, now I'm ready!" he announced as he did the same with the other hand.

"So, you can assimilate metal into your body? Interesting..."

Thomas raised his hand, and it glowed with an electric shine.

"Metal is a good conductor."

Three orbs of electricity floated from the sparks and hovered in the air. Thomas pointed the palm at Eric, and the three electric orbs shot forward.

"Ah... shit..." Eric muttered, irritated.

Reacting as quickly as possible, he focused the metal on his hands to one point to form a small ball of metal in each hand that seemed to seep through his gloves. Throwing them quickly toward the orbs, he managed to get two of them to at least slow down, making them rather easy to dodge. The other was still a problem, though.

Doing possibly one of the stupidest things someone might think of, Eric ran stright at the last one. It was moving a lot faster than him, but he somehow managed to duck under it, with something pushing him along the ground to make him go fast enough to slide on the ground.

With a smirk on his face, he sent some energy up under his back, propelling him up into the air straight toward Thomas. He was once again doing something very stupid in the front, but really had a plan.

Lighting up the glove he wasn't using, Eric began building up energy to the side of Thomas while he was falling for the punch. If anything happened, he would let that loose on the unsuspecting man.

"You're a fast one, I'll give you that."

Thomas's form began to faze. His fingers had made a few hand gestures behind his back, and his light magic was already beginning to work.

"But I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve."

Before Eric could get anywhere close, Thomas vanished from sight. There was no trace to be found. He had used his light magic to bend the light around him to make himself invisible.

In a new location to the side, a blade of fire was flying toward Eric.

Landing with a thud on the ground, Eric let loose the energy he'd stored up on himself since it was nearby. He ignored the pain from the force since he was used to this kind of thing, but he went flying maybe twenty feet away, well out of the path of the fire disc. It would have been tough if he hadn't been doing that, but really it was luck at this point.

"Hmph. I'll get you at some point," he said out loud, intending for it to be heard.

Taking a deep breath and sighing, Eric shook his shoulders out, cracked his neck, and, seemingly out of place, started stretching. Of all things he could have been doing, he was stretching. It seemed so out of place with an invisible enemy.

"You should know, who ever you are. I'm a cocky bastard. If you ever wanna get rid of me, you'd better kill me now," he announced with a smirk to Thomas as a camera swirled around him. It wasn't really intentional, but doing this seemed to be good for the crowds.