The Pirate steps forward and makes a courtly bow toward the bookkeeper. As courtly a bow as he is capable of, in any case.
Me dear man, I yield. I am givin' up th' fightin' life an' will retire t' th' seashore. To th' younger men go th' glory. So therefore, in me friend th' Arquebusier's honor: 2146 gold on th' Runekeeper.
About as unlikely as us pulling off our shenanigans unnoticed. But we still tried it anyway, we still tried it
I had to wake up at stupid o'clock to do that!
Nonsense, sir. The courtesan has proved herself in the arena. I, however, have not.
And to be honest, I haven't exactly set the scoreboard alight, either. So effectively, I've journeyed all the way here from the harsh Illian wastelands that I call home in order to do jack squat.
{ OOC: Sorry guys, I know you're all dying from anticipation, but I'm really busy right now and need to work for another hour or so. I have the writeup from LF in hand so I'll get the update up in a while, not to worry... but you'll have to wait. Hope it won't kill you. }
{ OOC: Sorry guys, I know you're all dying from anticipation, but I'm really busy right now and need to work for another hour or so. I have the writeup from LF in hand so I'll get the update up in a while, not to worry... but you'll have to wait. Hope it won't kill you. }
The Runekeeper was silent as he walked out. He had a shiny hammer in tow, so at least now he looked somewhat like a stereotypical mining dwarf. Somehow he had turned deadly serious over the course of the competition. He’d probably turn up like the Monk at this rate. He glared daggers at the crowd, the arena, Perpentach, even the narrator, who felt justifiably unnerved and quickly scribbled some words on the paper to avoid his gaze.
The Dragonslayer, meanwhile, did his best to keep everything lighthearted. Maybe he wouldn’t have been this way if he wasn’t so confident, but the crowd ate the showmanship up. He twirled his sword, tossed it up in the air, spun around, and caught it. “You’re going down, shorty!” he even had the nerve to yell, which just inflamed the dwarf’s eyes even more. A hostile aura was definitely coming from the diminutive figure.
Cymbals crashed, and the two were in a simple arena. They were standing on a square. This square was up in the sky. One slip and they’d have a long way to go before they hit the ground, and the observer would be able to observe the Doppler effect.
Somehow, the Runekeeper managed to summon an earth elemental even without any earth to build from. It emerged from the middle of the square, looking none the worse for the wear since the last fight, and it immediately began lumbering towards the Dragonslayer, who merely laughed.
“Come at me, beast!” he cried. He really was putting on a show. It swiped down with his paw, and the Dragonslayer nimbly leapt aside and nicked its arm just enough to annoy it. He ducked under the return swipe and leapt over the riposte, then ran up the elemental’s arm and struck it in the crown jewel, right in its forehead. It fractured, and the Dragonslayer nimbly did a backflip off the beast while it writhed in agony, clutching its head, feeling the worst migraine it had ever had in its life. It started breaking down, literally, bits of stone flaking off as it had a midlife crisis in the battle of the battle.
Undeterred, the Runekeeper came hurtling through the rubble that had been his elemental with his hammer. Divine energy crackled along the hammer hilt and tinged it blue. He swung down in a vicious, powerful arc that would have been great if it had hit. Instead, the Dragonslayer sidestepped. The dwarf scored a critical hit on the ground! It was super effective.
The Dragonslayer smoothly kicked the Runekeeper in a pretty badass fashion, like he was breaking a door down, which caused the Runekeeper to become separated from the hammer. He rolled dangerously close to the edge. The big warrior walked over, whistling, to the fallen dwarf. This rightly infuriated the Runekeeper, and he got back up and sent a huge stone hurtling at his enemy by the grace of Kilmorph. The Dragonslayer broke into a run at this point for the theatrical value and sliced the rock neatly in half vertically so that each half went by either side of him.
He was there! He planted his right foot right on the ground and swung. He was, however, just short of the dwarf, who had leaned back to avoid the blow. Unfortunately, this lapse in balance was just what the Dragonslayer was hoping for, and with a grin, he rammed his shoulder into the dwarf, who toppled backwards off the edge.
It was a long drop, and a nasty but somehow anticlimatic THUMP when the dwarf hit the ground. Somehow the Runekeeper turned to stone on the impact, joining Kilmorph's earth in afterlife. From his stony remains rose the spinning coin everyone had expected, a stylized S marking him the third and last of the Serpentine Mark.
Spoiler:
The Runekeeper was a Mark!
The Runekeeper was worth 1400 gold. One third, 466 gold, will be given as spoils to the Dragonslayer. The remainder is split among the survivors of the Defiant, 466 gold each.
Gold and points won and lost from betting:
Spoiler:
Final odds for Dragonslayer to win: 0.57:1
The following contestants have won gold and points from betting:
Berserker +3 gold, +103 points
Lizardman +0 gold, +100 points
Beastmaster +914 gold, +1014 points
Arquebusier +1227 gold, +1327 points
The following contestants have won points from voting the Runekeeper into battle:
1st voter: Lizardman, +1000 points
2nd voter: Pirate, +500 points
The following contestants have lost gold from betting:
Pirate -2146 gold
As reality reasserted itself, and the partly broken statue of the dwarf was carried away, the pompous official entered the stage once more. This time in his hands was a larger parchment than previously, clearly holding more than just the two names of the upcoming combatants.
"Dear contestants, and audience, I have the immense pleasure to announce to you that all the Marks have been found! The innocent team is victorious! And we have a winner!"
Congratulations to PaulusIII! A big thank you all for playing, I hope you enjoyed yourselves! Thanks a bunch to LightFang (and sometimes Diamondeye) for the narrative! I will post more thoughts on the competition in a few days' time, but for now, let the post-game discussion commence!
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PaulusIII - Beastmaster 
BananaLee - Arquebusier 
Kulko - Lizardman ![[party]](/images/smilies/partytime.gif "Party [party]")
