From being an Abandoned who had rarely left the Hollowed Grounds, to embracing the call of adventure, to dying and being reborn first as an Ascended and then as an Ancient, Maea has gone through quite the amount of changes in her life. One thing remains common, though, in her attempts to find out just where she belongs; she’s always had a craving for knowledge which has brought her to so many places and to meet so many people here in Caido. We can’t wait to see what else is in store for her!
Congratulations, Maea!
Credits
Court of the Fallen was created in October of 2018 by Odd, Honey, and Crooked.
Skinning and hosting by the epically talented Kaons, and functionality fanciness by the coding magic of Neowulf. If you ever see either of them around, make sure to show them some love!
The doors rumble and grind as they rise up. Torchlights flicker upon the walls of what is best described as an underground coliseum - walls that are steep, and high. At their very tops, spectators can be seen peeping over the edge and cheering as they spot the latest combatants. Ah yes... before you is your opponent. The doors grind shut once more. Good luck!
Please post your entrance into your trial and your first action! (e.g. attacking instantly, wondering wtf is going on, saying hello to your friend, all of the above?)
dont know where the lights are taking us but something in the night is dangerous
The door begins to open and until it fully does so, Wessex plasters herself against one of the side walls, pulling her bow from her back as well as an arrow from the quiver; she nocks it in the string, leaving it pointed down and at the ready. When the door is full open, she pulls her bow up and into a position to fire, then darts as quickly as she can into the arena, back up against the same wall as it turns from the tunnel to the arena.
Not wanting to kill whomever her opponent is, when there’s a sign of movement, she quickly lets an arrow fly at lower limb height, hoping to trip or throw the person off balance, or even just startle them with an immediate beginning. Another arrow is pulled from her quiver and nocked - smoothly, rapidly, as if she were trying to track the progress of an animal through the forest and predict where it will be next, versus putting an arrow where it was.
Then the Wraith waits, curiosity putting her next move on hold until she knows who she’s fighting.
Stone on stone, the door began to rise, light pouring onto him. Hefting Emmett's axe on his shoulder, Ronin took a deep breath and prepared to do something probably really stupid. And so with a pulse of willpower, he ran out into the arena.
Two of him did, in fact.
The astral version of himself ran left whilst Ronin ran right, eyes peeled already for his opponent. And of course it was his fellow queen, looking ferocious and as though she'd sooner put an arrow through his eye than say hello. (That was probably accurate too, so he didn't feel so bad thinking it).
Either way, he'd work to try and dodge the arrows, both he and his decoy, aiming to get close enough to force hand-to-hand combat rather than this bow and arrow nonsense.
This one is a quick one, in a strike of true luck skill. The duo split and run and dart and dash, and an arrow flies, quick and true. It strikes... not the decoy, no, but the real Ronin, catching him in the lower leg with enough force to likely trip him to the ground.
And as blood flows, the crowd goes wild.
"FIRST BLOOD!" a Fae voice roars. "Wessex is the winner!"
And that is that.
Wessex has scored first blood on Ronin, knocking him out of the tournament! Congratulations, Wessex!
dont know where the lights are taking us but something in the night is dangerous
Skill, indeed. She’s been practicing with the bow.
And while the Wraith is surprised to see her fellow King in the ring with her (and holy shit, is that two-person thing cool), it doesn’t stop her determination. If it hadn’t been this surprise, it would have been another. First Blood, however, isn’t what she expected… nevertheless, she is grateful that for this round, no one has to seriously get hurt.
Wessex offers Ronin a courteous bow, but then turns to the spectators and catches the eye of one. Beckoning her to the edge, the Ascended Queen yells up a question. “Do you truly intend to honor a non-Fae with the Guardian of the Greatwood title?” she asks, still very conscious that almost their whole audience is Fae, the competition is Fae-designed, and well, this is the very first time they’ve like Outsiders in, let alone Ascended.
Ronin was beginning to think that he was utterly useless in battle these days. Every occasion he'd had to seriously rise to the occasion, he'd ended up failing magnificently.
So he was only half surprised at the bite of an arrow in his leg, the hunter going down into a clumsy roll instead of the clean dodge he'd attempted. His decoy flickered and disappeared, leaving him flat on his back and panting as he gazed up at Wessex.
Unable to bow, he merely offered her a lazy salute, glancing about to see who she was calling to.
