Magic Bracket - Match One: Zephiros VS. Connor Murph

Zephiros would emerge from one of the tunnels into the huge arena. Immediately he was struck by the size of it, "Huh, I didn't think it would look bigger on the inside," he shrugged slightly, moving towards the center of the arena to await his opponent as he had been instructed. 

The blonde-haired challenger wore light clothing suited for the warm weather of that particular day, with a striped shirt cut with a low neckline and light tan pants made of a cool fabric. He wore an interesting looking necklace as well with a few colored beads hanging from it. Over all this he wore a darker tan windbreaker. 

His clothes were not armored in any places, nor did he carry any physical weapons. It seemed he would be relying on his magical prowess only for this battle. He would shuffle his feet somewhat impatiently as he waited, glancing around at the gathered crowd. The Crowd was quite large, in fact the largest he had ever seen. He was used to doing things in front of large crowds of people however, usually performing though. This would be the first time he engaged in combat with anyone for a crowd. This made it somewhat of a strange new experience to Zephiros.

Eventually however, his opponent would come out to meet him, and Zephiros would look over at the red-haired man as he approached with an analytical gaze at first. His opponent seemed to be friendly enough however, waving to the crowd and jogging over energetically. This would considerably lighten Zephiros' demeanor and he would grin warmly as the man approached, much like he would in the presence of a friend. 

"Hello, nice to meet ya Conor. I am Zephiros," he would shake the offered hand with a firm grip before adding, "Yeah, let's have a good fight!" Zephiros would turn and walk towards the opposite side of the arena a small distance before turning on his heel to face his opponent. Zephiros would not have any visible weapons at the ready to indicate his readiness to fight, but unseen to observers, he was just itching to begin drawing mana to set in motion the plan he already had in mind. The only thing that was needed was for the referee to begin the match.

As soon as the gong sounded, Zephiros began to move, starting with widening the distance between himself and that chain the other wielded. As he did this he would immediately begin channeling magic for his first spell. His eyes would not leave the man as he did this, and should he begin a charge he would quicken his pace to widen the gap between them. 

Zephiros was not looking to be entertaining in this bout, at least not yet. After all it didn't matter to the crowd if you were entertaining if you lost. He would have to handle things like these one step at a time. 

(charge 1)

So it seemed that Connor would not rush after Zephiros for now. Zephiros was fine with this, as Connor undoubtedly had the advantage early on since Zephiros was defenseless without any built up charge to use his only weapon, magic.


Watching the other man intently as he gathered mana from a distance he would note the chain dragging through the sand. For now however, Zephiros was not aware the chain was in fact growing in length, only that a portion of it was unseen beneath the sand given the initial length of it he had seen. The extended length of the chain could in fact come as a surprise to Zephiros later on in the match and potentially pay off hugely for Connor. 

Soon however, once Zephiros felt he had gathered enough mana he would enact his first move. A bright aura of magic, light yellow in color would emanate from Zephiros' hands in that moment and winds in the large arena would begin to stir. These winds would quickly kick up in speed until a considerable portion of the arena was enveloped in a sort of miniature sandstorm as the magical winds began to kick up sand. 

Visibility would quickly begin to decrease as Zephiros channeled more magic into the growing winds and more sand began to be blown into the air.

(1 charge used - back to 0)

The sandstorm was no quite as strong as Zephiros would want it to be yet, and so he would continue to concentrate, the glow of magic every present around his form as he continued to channel magic into the winds. Soon, even the glow of magic around Zephiros would not be seen in the sandstorm as now even stronger winds whipped through the arena, and sand undoubtedly would sting when coming into contact with bare skin. 

Zephiros himself was mostly untouched by his own sandstorm, given that he controlled the winds themselves, and now with visibility so poor he would use this cover to try and confuse his opponent and buy him some time. Once the wind mage was sure he was out of sight, he would change the direction he had last been seen moving, undoubtedly slipping away to some other corner of the large arena in the confusion of the sandstorm.

(No charges gained this turn while channeling magic into sandstorm)

The sandstorm was in full tilt now, enveloping the entirety of the arena's interior. Within the dust cloud was a transformed world, a world the where the sun's rays did not penetrate the veil of sand formed by the rough winds. One would not be able to see more than a couple meters within the sandstorm, and the sound of the crowd seemed to have disappeared along with sunlight and visibility. All that was left was a dim tan colored light and blowing sands.

Outside of the sandstorm in the sands, it was very likely the crowd was displeased by the current match as it went underway, but soon those spectators would hear it, a sound emanating from within the sand cloud in the arena. Within the sand storm, Connor would hear this sound as well as he searched through the sands with his silver line in search of Zephiros. He would not find Zephiros as of yet however. Silverline moved through the sands much as a snake would, threading it's way through the sands with its 1mm thickness would make it very unlikely to find Zephiros by running into him in the expansive arena. As such the tune would continue on unimpeded by any strikes from silverline, and Zephiros' position would remain a mystery.

It was the sound of an instrument of some sort, most likely unknown in it's sound to Connor himself. Soon it would be joined by others forming a symphony within the sand clouds. The notes were long and drawn out in their bassy tones, no doubt drawing emotions of sadness in some, or despair. The sound of the dark tune could not be pinpointed as emanating from any exact location within the arena to Connor, and would simply sound as if it was coming from all directions at once. The ponderous melody would seem to be building however as it went along…

--OOC--

General gist of what Zephiros' song sounds like here - from 2:10-4:07

(Charge - 1)

Zephiros, in his attempts to stay away from Connor Murph and his silverline as he charged his magic, was positioned along one of the walls of the arena. He would arrive at the wall just as Connor would change up his tactics of searching to whirling silverline. This was the farthest he could position himself from Connor Murph's last known position and it was for that reason why he had chosen this spot. Unknown to Zephiros however, this would be somewhat advantageous as the spinning silverline would undoubtedly encounter walls as Connor blindly walked around the sandstorm.

As Zephiros was channeling his magic the music would continue in its ever growing volume. The entire sound of the song seemed to be shifting from a somber tone to one of anger and intensity quite quickly. This would be mirrored in Zephiros as he continued to channel magical energy, and a magical aura would become visible in the air surrounding him and the glowing mana coalescing around his hands glowed brighter. Zephiros, now feeling confident he had enough magic built up would begin to dissipate the sandstorm by drawing energy away from it, this would also helpto charge himself up more; Visibility would begin to improve due to this. Unfortunately, It was around this time that Conor's chain would finally catch up to Zephiros. 

The Chain would come from Zephiros' left, and he would only be alerted by the incoming chain as it scraped along the wall in the very last few moments due to the music he played. However, this audible range was still enough to turn his gaze towards the oncoming chain, and this movement couple with his dissipation of the sandstorm would be enough to give him time to react. Zephiros would immediately jump into action once he heard the sound, diving towards the ground as his eyes spotted the incoming chain coming high.

The chain would narrowly miss him on that one pass, and had he not been along the wall he would have been hit by the chain without a doubt. Zephiros would lie on the ground for a few more ticks, watching cautiously in the direction the silverline had come from to see if it made any more passes, he was now alert as to where it would be coming from and be able to react more easily as the sandstorm began to die down and visibility improved slightly.

Connor too would notice the visibility improving by the moment, although he did not yet have enough visibility to spot Zephiros, and neither did Zephiros have enough visibility to spot him. Once the silverline had passed, perhaps to search other parts of the arena, Zephiros would stand, eyes wary of the silverline in the somewhat increased visibility as he continued to channel mana in preparation for spotting Connor.

--OOC--

General gist of what Zephiros' song sounds like here - from 4:07-6:23

(Charge 2)

Zephiros would make sure the silverline did not spin above him anymore when he stood up again, still drawing leftover energy from the sandstorm into his own magical reserves as the tempest died down. While hiding in the sandstorm Zephiros had charged a gigantic amount of mana, and as the sandstorm died Connor would once again be able to spot Zephiros, and vice versa. Around the same time the music Zephiros had produced through manipulating the winds within the sandstorm to produce the unique sounds fade away as the piece came to an end.

With the music now fading to silence and both combatants revealed once again before the audience could only hear the crackling sound of pure energy radiating from Zephiros' form, and the wisps of winds that seemed to be attracted to his form by the sheer power of the mana gathered by the mage. 

His plan would be revealed now to Connor in full now, as he looked upon his opponent who stood across the arena from him now. Zephiros had hid all this time in the sandstorm to buy time to charge enough mana to unleash one final attack to end the fight once and for all. Zephiros would raise his hands then, glowing wisps of energy trailing through the air with that movement. He would be poised to attack Connor now, and seemed to be quite confident he could hit Connor before he closed the distance needed to get Zephiros back in range of silverline.

Zephiros would grin lightly as he regarded Connor, not making a move as of yet, "I hope you enjoyed my music, sorry I couldn't really give you much of a fight though. This next spell I've gathered the energy for will hurt very much, and it is very unlikely it will miss, so I'm giving you the option to just end the fight now," he said casually, all the while still charging even more energy.

(Charge 3)

Zephiros' gaze would glint in disappointment for a brief second as he watched the wall of sand kicked up by silverline fly towards him. Of course his words didn't work, he wouldn't have given up so easily either. Even though the sand obscured Connor's position, this would not matter much given the amount of power Zephiros had at his disposal now. 

Zephiros would unleash his attack then mere seconds after Connor kicked up the sand to obscure his position, centered on the last known position of Connor when he made that particular move. The sheer amount of energy released in that moment would no doubt be felt by all in the air as Zephiros cast his spell, literally. The air in the arena would rush inwards, a gentle breeze in the stands felt even by the farthest observer as the air rushed inward towards the center, yet still perceptible.

Zephiros would sweep his hands before him, engulfing the entire arena in front of him immediately in an unstoppable tempest of wind. These winds were unnaturally strong, and would easily blow back any sand that was thrown his way, along with all other sand upon the ground, and would send any who stood in its way flying. However, this attack would also have another function, as within the winds that engulfed the entire half of he arena Connor stood in, thousands of invisible wind blades would have formed, slashing through every possible square inch of air, everywhere. These air blades would be invisible and innumerable, and would leave hundreds of cuts upon any who stood within the storm of blades.

Of course, the magic put in place prior to the match to safeguard against any serious injuries would prevent the spell from actually cutting Connor's skin and possibly killing him, but it would surely still be painful and end the fight.

(3 charges used)

As the winds subside, the referee approaches Connor where he lies near the wall. The most cursory of inspections reveals that had the protective magics not been in place, Connor would likely be little more than a wet smear at this point. Such impressive force. The crowd is already on their feet, cheering ecstatically. These sorts of very flashy duels involving magic are often much more interesting to watch than the relatively mundane swordplay ones. Even though the majority of the action was obscured by the sandstorm, it was still more interesting to watch than the thirty-second flashes of metal.

Raising a hand to gesture across the sands to Zephiros, the referee's voice booms across the arena, half drowning out the cheers for a moment as he announces, “Connor Murph has been incapacitated! The victor is Zephrios!”

Leaving Zephiros to do whatever bow-making or hand raising he pleases to, the portly referee stows his tall shield on his back, and offers Connor a hand. Even though he hadn’t quite become a smear, he may be somewhat sore, and may choose to accept some assistance in retreating off the field.