BlackSand Tournament Champion

https://wizzypedia.forgottenrunes.com/The_BlackSand_Tournament

Recovered Runes by MarcoFine

little is known of Cartillen the mutated turtle

The BlackSand Tournament I: Round I, Duel III

Gadreel was comforted by the night. Hiding in the shadows. Creeping under the dim light of a full moon. That made for a solitary life. But he didn’t mind it. He preferred being one with darkness. Being free to carry out his destructive instincts.

Gadreel always wore his spiked helmet, fully covering his face and only letting a glimpse of his shadowy eyes through. Folks were easily scared by his sinister appearance. But most of all, they were intimidated by the loud chainsaw he carried with him. Sometimes held in his right hand, sometimes hung on his back, that chainsaw had seen hundreds of fights. Gadreel’s brutal strength meant he could easily handle it as it if was a light sword: with impressive speed and precision. Afterall, he was a Fronod fighter. A warrior trained in the distant Forgotten Lands.

And fighting he understood. That was the reason for his quick journey to BlackSand. A couple of days earlier he had heard about a tournament with gold prizes for winners. Not that he needed additional incentives when it came to ripping apart someone’s arms with his chainsaw, but a few gold coins wouldn’t hurt.

Gadreel reached a small hill from where he could get a good view of BlackSand. Cold wind was hissing through his helmet, carrying dust and sand. In front of him laid a vast plain covered by a thick layer of dark black sand. Scattered detriments of something Gadreel didn’t recognize glittered under the moonlight. On the left side he could admire the Salt Sea, its tall waves braking loudly against the black shores. On the right, the Mountains of Light were hugging the entire plain, casting an even darker shadow onto the dimly lit city.

He glanced approvingly at that view. That place almost felt like home: a dark, lonely place. Left alone to the mercy of nature.

Gadreel decided to camp there for the night. Under that beautiful moonlight. Cartillen, his loyal mutant turtle laid next to him, and they both fell asleep.

Loud stomping woke them up shortly after. The moon almost gone behind the horizon. The sun rising. Gadreel stood up, calmly. Nothing could really spook him. Yet, he was curious. The stomping continued in the distance. As he looked towards BlackSand he saw a group of several large beasts running towards the city. “Those are not horses…maybe ceratops?!” he asked Cartillen, not really expecting any answer. He had never seen ceratops from this close, but plenty could be found where Cartillen came from.

Awoken, Gadreel decided to march on the city to learn more about the tournament. As he reached the wooden city gates, he found several flyers pointing towards the fighting pit. Everything was dusty and covered in dark, thick sand. After a few minutes he reached the entrance of the fighting pit. Wooden bleachers and fences delimiting its perimeter. Once entered, he signed up for the tournament. The wizard taking down his name informed him to comeback in three days time for his fight.

What he saw when he returned to the arena three days later slightly surprised him. A fairly sizeable crowd was already in attendance, almost filling out all the available seats. The ground of the fighting area seemed extremely wet. A few wizards dressed in white were running around. Two of them were carrying someone out of the pit on a stretcher. “Interesting…”

He then heard a loud voice calling for his name from the bleachers, inviting him to the middle of the pit to start his fight. “Let’s do this” he yelled as he run towards the center of the arena.

Duel 3 recounted by Azazel

“A fight between darkness and light. A fight between Sun and Moon!” Azazel shouted to the crowd. “May the fight begin!”

The excitement of the crowd was growing with every duel, bringing more and more folks to the bleachers. Azazel was pleased. “This is working” he smiled.

The fight commenced. On one side of the arena Gadreel Creeper of the Moon was holding a large, loud chainsaw. On the other side, Rogue Disintegrator of the Lost City held his golden sword and shield.

As soon as Azazel initiated the duel, both warriors started charging towards each other, thirsty for violence. Gadreel was the first to swing. He raised his chainsaw high and hurled it downwards aiming at Rogue’s right shoulder. But Rogue raised his sword and parried easily. Gadreel retracted the roaring chainsaw and tried another hit, this time to the left of his opponent. But Rogue was fast and stopped the attack with his shield.

The two exchanged a few more hits, but always evading the enemy’s strike. The crowd kept holding their breath as the two warriors tirelessly continued their attacks.

Suddenly Rogue jumped to his right, gaining a few feet in distance from his opponent. He then crossed sword and shield in front of his chest. He shouted what sounded like a prayer and a beam of light erupted from the rune on his shield, targeting the opponent. The attack was so fast Gadreel had only enough time to lift his shield. The beam of light hit with extreme precision. Gadreel's shield started to melt, but that gave him a split second to throw it away and jump to his left. The beam kept bursting for a few seconds, flowing into the wood fences in the other end of the arena.

Rogue grunted in disappointment, but quickly repeated his prayer to invoke a second beam of light. But this time it was smaller and slower. Gadreel had time to evade it and charged back as Rogue was busy maintaining the beam’s flow. The move brought him back to fighting distance. He swung his chainsaw hard, aiming at Rogue’s left leg. Rogue rushed to regain a fighting stance, but had to quickly lower his shield to prevent damage. The chainsaw loudly hit the shield launching it off Rogue’s hand. The crowd gasped in surprise!

Rogue had to jump back before Gadreel could strike again. Shield-less, he was now only holding onto his golden sword. He pointed it straight to his opponent and with another prayer he called upon another light bean. This time faster. The beam rushed towards Gadreel and hit him on his left shoulder. Gadreel screamed in pain as his flesh started burning under the heat of the sun beam. But he didn’t desist. Gadreel charged again, this time running with his Chainsaw held high.

Before Rogue could reposition his sword, Gadreel stroke and hit Rogue right on his helmet. The hit was hard. Rogue’s visor scattered in pieces. Gadreel didn’t stop and swung the chainsaw again, this time piercing through his opponent armor right below the rib cage. Another hard hit. Rogue lost balance and screamed in pain. He then fell to his knees, and threw his sword to the ground, in a sign of surrender.

The crowd went wild as Azazel announced the end of another great fight: “Congratulations, Gadreel Creeper of the Moon. Darkness has prevailed today.”

Round 2

BlackSand was blossoming. After years of hard work, Azazel finally felt like things might be working out for the city. The Tournament was advancing smoothly. The new racing championship had started. And now a new idea around a sports league had started to float around.

“Interesting times for BlackSand” Archmagus Crowley said as he spotted Azazel’s smiling face. “Indeed very interesting, my dear friend” Azazel answered before lowering his death eater mask over his face. Nothing forced him to wear it, but it had become second nature.

The two wizards made their way back to the tournament grounds to initiate the second duel of Round #2. “Exciting to be so close to the semifinals. I can already taste the crowd’s…” Crowley started, but Azazel interrupted him. “Not now. Let’s focus on this duel.”

“May the fight begin” Azazel announced, as the crowd exploded in cheers.

On one side of the arena stood Gadreel, holding his heavy chainsaw as if it was a light, wooden practice sword. On the other side was Valen: in his hands a massive axe, and a round, wooden shield.

Both warriors had won their first duel thanks to their resilience and brute force. They had managed to absorb heavy hits, to then strike back with impressive violence. Azazel was eager to see what their strategy would look like in today’s fight.

Gadreel was the first to attack. As soon as the duel started, he sprinted, hurling his chainsaw forward. Valen was ready. As Gadreel’s chainsaw approached, Valen raised his axe to intercept. A loud clung erupted as the two weapons collided.

Valen was quicker to react, he lunged and with a swift strike he aimed at his opponent legs. Gadreel did not move fast enough and Valen’s axe hit.

Gadreel yelled in pain but immediately found the strength to push his opponent away with a violent punch. It was now his turn to attack. Gadreel charged, almost as if unaware of the open wound and blood spilling from his right leg.

Valen raised his shield and assumed a defensive stance.

Right before striking, Gadreel swung the chainsaw towards the ground, into the black sand of the pit. The impact of the running chain lifted a massive amount of sand that hit Valen. Surprised and with his vision blocked, Valen lost balance in attempting to take a few blind steps backwards.

“Clever!” Archmagus Crowley observed. Oddly, Battle Mage Hothor turned his thumb downwards in disapproval of the seemingly unfair attack.

Gadreel followed through with his plan: the blinded opponent was an easy prey. Gadreel swung the chainsaw aiming for a fatal hit close to Valen’s neck. Valen managed to move, but not to evade.

The chainsaw hit. Valen screamed. He had avoided a deadly hit, but the chainsaw cut through him, severing his left arm right below the elbow.

The crowd went silent.

“My arm!” Valen yelled in a mix of pain and disbelief. A grin appeared on Gadreel’s face.

Not yet satisfied, he moved to finish his opponent with another strike. He hurled the chainsaw forward and this time Valen wasn’t fast enough. The loud, rotating chain hit Valen’s chest piercing right through his armor.

Valen eye’s bursted wide open in shock. He started coughing blood and gasping for air. But that hit had wrecked his chest open. Valen let go of his axe. “I…will not…” but before he could finish that sentence his energy gave out and he dropped to the ground.

Cries and scream emerged from the crowd: “Is he dead!?” “Someone do something!” “Help him!”

In triumph, Gadreel raised his chainsaw, now drenched in Valen’s blood.

“Gadreel wins!” Azazel hurried to declare before turning to Hothor. “Hothor get the Necromancers. NOW!”

Azazel had contemplated the scenario of participants dying on the pit. But he wasn't expecting that it would actually happen. “We have tens of Attendants that should stop this from happening!” he yelled in frustration, punching the wooden bleachers in front of him.

“Hothor, NOW!”

Entered by: 0xe999…719B