Two lucky and/or talented Commenters have their work featured on this week's RPGP Winners page - send in your best Comments at the Arena, cross your fingers, and YOU could join them! HYUGA RICDEAU vs LUCA BLIGHT Sromero@DigiPen.edu: Hyuga began the match by casting Kaseii on himself to protect against Luca’s fire slash attack. Although Luca didn’t have that attack in mind as he charged with a series of triple slashes and thrust attacks causing immense damage to his opponent. Though Hyuga was faster, he found himself healing his wounds every chance he could get under Luca’s onslaught. Luca eventually made the mistake of attacking with his fire slash, which did little damage to the doctor. No longer forced to heal himself, Hyuga wasted no time and began his assault with a series small attacks followed by a devastating deathblow. This attack dropped Luca the same as any other of Hyuga’s opponents. With this match seemingly over, Hyuga held his hand over his chest to cover the bleeding from an injury and started to leave the arena. “You Pig!!!!! You dare wound me!!!!!” Hyuga looked back to his opponent and saw Luca charging with his sword drawn. Luca made a high slash trying to decapitate the doctor, but he was able to duck underneath it, move behind him, and push Luca away with the handle of his katana using Luca’s own forward momentum. Hyuga wasn’t sure how Luca was still standing after taking a powerful deathblow at full force, but if this fight was going to go on, he needed to heal himself. Standing at a distance, the two stared each other down with their weapons ready to strike at any moment. When the look on Luca’s eyes became more focused and aggressive, Hyuga knew he was ready to attack. Both of them ran toward each other. When they met, they each took one swing at their opponent as they ran past each other. After that, both fighters just stood there staring forward away from their opponent. The audience wasn’t sure who was hit. All they could see was blood on the floor where the two met. Their questions were answered as Luca suddenly dropped to both knees then fell face down on the floor. Although Hyuga didn’t get past this incident without getting hurt either. He fell to one knee and was bleeding bad. He then used the last of his EP to heal himself to at least half strength. Able to stand up now, he took one last look at his opponent. All he saw was a pool of blood on the floor where Luca had fallen and not the fallen warrior himself. He didn’t have time to think as he suddenly heard someone coming from the side. He lifted his sword just in time to block Luca’s. Hyuga started to feel a little scared as he looked at the fire in Luca’s eyes and saw the insanity and the determination of someone still ready to fight even after the damage they had taken. Hyuga knew he wouldn’t be able to last much longer in this fight and had to finish it quickly. As a last resort effort, he used up all of the AP he had built up during the match into a massive combo attack that linked three powerful deathblows. Luca had been taken down with an attack that no normal person would be a! ble to survive. However, Luca is far from normal. “DOOOOOCCCCC!!!!!” After taking a few steps toward the exit, Hyuga was stopped by the sound of someone calling for him. He turned around and saw Luca still lying on the floor starting to move. Hyuga had the natural reaction anyone in his position would feel and was very annoyed at the fact that he had beaten this man three times and he had to do it once more. But he couldn’t back away from this match. Luca slowly staggered to his feet. His face completely covered in his own blood and showing signs of injuries everywhere, he managed to lift his sword up ready for one final duel. “Idiot!!!! Is that the best you can do!!!!” With that, Luca charged forward and attacked Hyuga. Hyuga was able to defend, but did take some damage. “Hah...hah hah hah... Fighting is my life.....” Hyuga wasn’t going to wait for him to attack again and went on the offensive. This time, Luca had been defending. “Pathetic!!!! That's what you call power!!!!” Hyuga was starting to get frustrated and had to finish this match. He put all of his strength into one final deathblow he was sure would defeat his opponent. Although Luca was ready to defend against such a wild attack and was able to evade it unharmed. This, unfortunately, left Hyuga open for an attack. Barely able to hold up his sword, much less his own weight, Luca managed to get in one last thrust attack that impaled the doctor through the chest. Lacking the strength to pull it out, the sword fell to the ground along with Hyuga. Luca just stood there for a while staring one of the strongest opponents he had ever faced before leaving. He took only two steps before he collapsed from all of the injuries he had sustained in this battle, but not before being awarded the victory. HYUGA: 151 LUCA: 154 MoogleEmpMog@Laguorok.org "I am somewhat concerned about this coming encounter," Hyuga mused. "Although I was indeed victorious in the past, that is by no means a guarantee of future performance, as my inconsistent record against Fou-Lu and Sephiroth attests." With that in mind, he went in search of some method to deal with Luca's obscenely high HP. With lightning speed, he rifled through the RPGP library in search of high damage techniques for katana/martial arts attackers. Precisely 14.7 minutes later, the good doctor arrived at the nearest tavern. "Ah, Master Kazan," he said, greeting the wizened (and drunk) warrior slumped at the bar. Several moments passed. "Master Kazan?" Hyuga frowned. He reached out and shook the older man awake. "Whaddaya want?" Kazan demanded. Despite his inebriated state, he had somehow managed to grab Hyuga's green robe and simultaneously twist his arm behind his back into a classic capture position. "Ahem," Hyuga said. "I mean you no harm, great and venerable -" "I'm still young at heart." "Yes, but your experience precedes you," Hyuga said quickly. That seemed to quiet the master martial artist. "As I was saying, according to my research, you have the key to several extremely powerful sword techniques, and are also a master of the martial arts. That combination would be very useful to me." Hyuga managed a smile. "Perhaps we could make a deal of some sort? Mutual exchange of combat techni -" "You're from Xenogears, right?" Kazan asked. Hyuga nodded. "And your apartment here at the Arena... where is it relative to, say, Elly's?" the old master asked. "Um... I really couldn't say," Hyuga said. "I could. It's right overhead. And the showers line up, too..." Kazan grinned. "Tell you what, young man -" Hyuga frowned at that, but kept his peace. "- I'll trade apartments with you, and teach you how to make hash of that Blight guy." Although there were certain ethical issues that rendered that an unacceptable bargain, Hyuga decided he wouldn't worry about those. "That sounds like an excellent arrangement." Just as Kazan was about to depart, he stopped. "One more thing. Could I borrow your drill?" -*four days later*- "That's gotta hurt!" chorused the crowd as Hyuga finished a devastating Deathblow-AND-Arts combo to send what was left of Luca's broken form flying from the arena. Sadly, Master Kazan was mysteriously absent from the stands, and wasn't able to take pride in what he'd taught. Who knows where he could have gone? Or why the shower in Elly's apartment always seemed to leak whenever the one above it was employed? No doubt, both constitute forbidden knowledge not fit for mortal minds... Lord Scimitar Hyuga is so damn fast! But, did we mention Luca also attacks three times around? Hyuga's magic is worthless. Luca's is deadly. So, Hyuga's advantage: Faster than lightning, great damage. Now, Luca's advantage: Faster than lightning, great damage, awesome fire magic, can take more damage than most planets. Winner: Luca Blight neoelfboy@hotmail.com Citan began the battle by casting Suiseii on himself, greatly reducing Fire-elemental damage. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" cried Luca. "You may have nullified by flame slashes, but even my regular attacks will be enough to kill you long before you can even cause me the slightest bit of pain!" "Indeed," said Citan. "Your defences are impressive. Yet, that can be changed..." Citan cast Suiseii again. On Luca. "Ha ha! You've gone as insane as that punk wind mage I gutted last week. What's that supposed to do?" "Didn't you know?" said Citan calmly. "That spell doesn't just raise Fire-elemental defence, it creates a weakness to Water attacks." He smiled, then launched himself into the first of many Crystal Water deathblows. Sac@sachw.cjb.net Hyuga looked at the hulking prince throuh his glasses. "So, Prince Blight. It seems we were destined to meet again. A shame, is it not, that you are also destiend to lose to me once again?" Luca didn't reply with words. Instead, the Highland Prince just laughed as he drew his large broadsword. Not a normal laugh mind you, but a manical laugh. The laugh of someone who wasn't quite right in the head. Hyuga shuddered, then quickly drew his katana. The instant his blade was free of it's sheath, Luca was upon him. Hyuga yelled in pain as not one, not two, but THREE firey slashes bit into his flesh. Hyuga did not waste time in quickly unleashing one of his deathblows on the white armored maniac, happy in the knowledge that greater oppoents had been finished by less. However, Luca Blight was not to be defeated so eaisly. "Fool! Impudent PIG!!! You cannot defeat me with moves so weak! DIE!!" Luca ruished forward again, and Hyuga, unprepared, caught the bloes full force. Dropping to his knees, he quickly healed himself, but as he got to his feet, he saw Luca's blade swinging towards him once again. "STOP!" he shouted. "I SURRENDER!" Luca did indeed stop, but the look on his face was of outrage. "This fight is pointless. I don't know how but...you have me beat. To continue would be pointless." "Pointless?" Luca asked. "Killing you, would not be pointless at all! DIE PIG!" A short while later, Hyuga fell to the ground, his blood pooling around his limp corpse. Looking up into the ground, Luca could see many people staring at him, hatred in their eyes. Sephriroth, Indalecio, Dark Force and many others. Luca looked at each of them in turn, then bellowed. "ALL OF YOU! YOU'LL ALL TASTE MY BLADE SOON! BWAHA. BWHAHAHAH. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!" tylorh@hotmail.com As the match began, the two warriors charged at each other, not a word having been spoken between them, and only Citan having spoken at all, casting a quick Haste spell. The two of them met in a flurry of swords, blade meeting blade in a dance barely slow enough for the audience to make out as the Highland Prince put Citan on the defensive. For a short while, it looked like Luca would eventually crack Citan's defences while the Guardian Angel of Solaris got a feel for his stronger opponent's style. And then Citan broke away quickly. Luca, refusing to give up the initiative, lunged after his retreating foe. Only to find that it had been a strategim on Citan's part. Having saved up some strength during the earlier fighting, Citan now had a full combo meter. And having pulled back, he knew that Luca would rush headlong after him. Having his anticipation of Luca's moves proved entirely right, Citan attacked. In a move of such utter poetry, mixing man and blade in such a manner that the crowd held their breaths, the beauty of Citan's moves indelably being etched upon their memory. And, he kept that style as he released deathblow upon deathblow, never letting up until, with a final cry from the Highland Prince, it was over. The cry of 'PIG!' was just beginning to fade in the open air arena as Citan's headless corpse hit the ground. Luca, having endured Citan's blows, had simply taken advantage of his lack of defence to simply decapitate him in an ugly, but brutally effective blow. Randomrabidworm1658@myway.com The official Luca Blight writeup Hi, this writeup is all about Luca Blight, THE REAL LUCA BLIGHT. This writeup is awesome. My name is Robert and I can't stop thinking about Luca Blight. This guy is cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. Facts: 1. Luca is a mammal. 2. Luca fights ALL the time. 3. The purpose of Luca is to flip out and kill people. Weapons and gear: Sword Armor Beast Rune Testimonial: Luca can kill anyone he wants! Luca cuts off heads ALL the time and doesn't even think twice about it. This guy is so crazy and awesome that he flips out ALL the time. I heard that Luca was sitting in a fortress. And when some soldier dropped a sword Luca killed the entire fortress. My friend Mark said that he saw Luca totally triple stab a kid just because the kid cast a healing spell. And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you don't believe that Luca has REAL Ultimate Power you better get a life right now or he will stab you!!! It's an easy choice, if you ask me. Luca is sooooooooooo sweet I want to crap my pants. I can't believe it sometimes, but I feel it in my heart. This guy is totally awesome and that's a fact. Luca is fast, smooth, cool, strong, powerful, and sweet. I can't wait to start yoga next year. I love Luca with all of my body (Including my pee pee) Q And A: Q: Why is everyone so obsessed about Luca? A: Luca is the ultimate paradox. On the one hand he doesn't give a crap, but on the other hand, Luca is very careful and precise. Q: I heard that Luca is always cruel or mean. What's his problem? A: Whoever told you that is a total liar. Just like other mamals, Luca can be mean OR totally awesome. Q: What does Luca do when he's not cutting off heads or flipping out? A: Most of his time is spent finding more stuff to kill, but occasionaly he stabs. (Ask Mark if you don't believe me.) Dragonflashed There are three rules to follow when fighting against Luca Blight. 1. Don't hit on his sister before the fight. 2. Don't look or smell like any pork related product. 3. Don't try to outlast him without full healing and high defense. Sadly for Citan, he violates three, and after Luca's fiery triple attack rips him apart, he'll look and smell just another pig. babbwa@vcu.edu Nothing has changed since the last time they fought, and Doc is a lot more liable to learn something from their last encounter. Luca shouldn't get more than one or two hits in this time because the Doc is just too 1337 for him. Jojothecoward@hotmail.com Okay, a healer with attack power to rival most bosses, or a boss with no speed. If Citan doesn't have his sword, it's an even match. If he did have his sword, Luca is a good as dead. Luca would be hamburger after this fight. Now, if this was LUC versus Citan, the fight would be a different story. creamyjoel@hotmail.com luca blight is too ILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL angelicus85@hotmail.com Luca, instead of charging Citan, he slowly walks up to him. Citan, taken aback and wary at this new tactic, decides to go on the offensive. Luca, not noticing that he is being attacked, is still calmly strolling towards the edge of the Arena. Suddenly, in a move that surprised everyone, Luca stuck his leg out. Citan, expecting a sword slash or something from the Beast Rune, trips, and falls out of the ring. "NOOOOO!!!" Citan cries. He realizes that he has been outsmarted by Luca, who used a harmless childhood trick. Now, Luca runs Citan through, just to have blood on his blade. gorgy@adelphia.net Let's look at the facts... Hyuga has beat Luca before... Hyuga defeated Sephiroth in his last title defense, a man who boasted dedication and power that on a good day exceeds that of any other godlike contender... Hyuga is smarter and faster, a combonation that tends to be best for bringing down foes who boast little more than extreme physical prowness. So can Luca possibly win? Of course... at this level of competition anything can happen, and Luca is no joke. Furthermore, he has a score to settle, and Hyuga's reign on top has very possibly outlived itself. While the obvious advantage goes to Hyuga, this is definately a match where anything could happen. ANONYMOUS "REEEAGH!!" Luca shouted as he sliced at thin air again and again. However, it was obvious that Hyuuga had trouble evading constantly, and had little time to mount an offensive strike. Hyuuga took a moment to fall deep into thought again, untimely as it was, and stood there postulating on the matters of his's strength in comparison to Luca's. This developed into another long session of thought on the nature of the universe, leaving Hyuuga completely oblivious to Luca. Luca stood there wondering what Hyuuga thought he was doing. Then he broke out of his surprise and attacked. But Hyuuga at the last minute dodged and....."Myogetsu...." KOed Luca for a slim victory. You see, the advantage was Hyuuga's purely through intelligence, because Luca is not the sharpest tool in the shed. The only person who can dethrone Hyuuga might be Luc, Sephiroth, or Lezard Valeth, because spells are hard to dodge. But a physical fighter? Don't count on it. Hyuuga owns them all. starsickle@yahoo.com Well if Luca doesn't bother thinking then that truly is a weakness beyond weaknesses. and Hyuga will no doubt not even need physically attack Luca to win the fight. Which he will. GrandmastaBrick@aol.com I know this from personal experience: Broadswords > Katanas. Luca's broadsword, brought down on Hyuga's Katana, will most likely split it in two. And without his sword, Hyuga is NOTHING. Luca will win this. CainofSolaris@aol.com Luca is death to Bishie-faves (like Luc, Auron). And Hyuga has tons of fanart. So, Luca doesn't just rule, he reigns. ANONYMOUS Hyuga arrives at his match, ready to use his rediculous amounts of agility to pound Luca without taking a hit. But he forgot one increasingly important thing: Luca never misses. Gridlock Match! tylorh@hotmail.com: And so the first Gridlock Bonus Match has just concluded today after 63 hours of tedium. For those who didn't catch it all live, here's how it went. Andel was eliminated early on after incriminating documents surfaced showing his efficiency such that he managed to appear in not just one, but two games. Jess and the Mediators also appeared to be in trouble under repeated charges of efficiency for having survived their games until Jess produced sworn affidavits from one Riou Genkaku and Shu Silverburg confirming that he only lived because he was saved from his own incompetance by the Dunan Army, and the Mediators countered with the devastating argument that they were never placed in combat positions due to innefficiency. After the initial round was over, with Shahkhan and Dalton in the lead, things shifted dramatically, with Jess clouding the waters referring to several places which did not exsist such as "Jowstone" and "Northwind", and also bringing mention of the non-exsistant people of the Cyndar. Dalton, to his credit, immeadiatly countered by summoning a golem, and failing! A move that certainly would have cemented his victory had it not resulted in his being sucked into another dimension and thus no longer an impediment to progress. All the while the Mediators continued their assault in a strange dialect of the notoriously difficult to understand Ivalician known as Daravonese which is used primarily for exposition and education. However, things changed dramatically as Shahkahn started interrupting other's attempts to do anything with his forceful manner and Dolf began trying to exploit the shifting structure of the mediators, as well as the more open fractures between the groups. Thus the stalemate continued. In the 23rd hour things changed as people finally began to realise that those non-exsistant places Jess mentioned were merely different names for places that do exsist. With his main strength gone, Jess was soon run to ground. Dolf was the next to fall as he made a mistake 34th hour due to fatigue. The mediators avoiding this problem due to their numbers and their taking a shift approach to things. Shahkahn, then, in the 39th hour realised that he was beginning to get tired, and that no one man could produce as much red tape as a whole delegation. And so he then launched his now memorable filibuster, which has effectively kept the mediators from doing anything at all. However, after the twenty second hour, Shahkahn's voice finally gave out. He attempted to keep going for another two hours by having an aide shout for him, and filing as many papers as possible, but he couldn't keep up. Asked for comment, all the triumphant Mediators had to say was "This is the way!" and "I had a good feeling!": MEDIATORS 66 JESS: 59 DALTON: 51 DOLF: 29 SHAKAN: 27 ANDEL: 26 DragoonJay@excite.com You do realize that by the time this bonus match winds up, we'll all be dead, right? ValkyrieFreya okay...kinda hard but i like mediators. they get powerful enimies on your team like dragons in Final fantasy tactics babbwa@vcu.edu Shakan gets this one, because he's probably the only one of this bunch to ever accomplish anything... PumpkinSed@aol.com Not only will Dalton win. It will be funny. AshburnerX@yahoo.com Daravon is argueably the most boring and least intelligable speaker to ever (dis)grace a game. He is so unclear about his point that he would put Zig to shame. Let's not forget that many people simply can not stay awake anytime he speaks... Now think for a moment: What would happen if there were five Mediators (The FFT character limit) simualtiously delivering speechs in the Daravon Style? *shudders* It's just so cruel... ANONYMOUS Jess goes to the supply room, gets rope and duck tape, calls a meeting, starts picking off the other politicians and putting them in separate rooms tied up with rope and with duck tape over their mouths, then he puts IV tubes into their arms and leave them there. Then he decides to 'forget about them, when asked about the incident he says 'I really enjoyed the food at that conference, did you know that the finest chefs in the city state cooked the meal.' Thus distracting the inquiring people and then he follows up with a long winded lecture on how the city-state food today isn't like the food back when a certain true rune holder still hadn't betrayed the city state. Lakidaa Lakisda whee!Mediators! eeeee! .... *ahem* The Mediators can win, just by abusing Mimic Daravon(who, while not THE MAN, is the man) and converting who dare proposes an actual action that does -Not- include playing Triple Triad. I mean, come ON, they can make anyone they want thiers! zkoff@cyou.com The mediators shoot everyone to critical and then train them, while everyone is too busy filing court orders against them to do anything about it. They can't lose. ANONYMOUS Jess is the master of red tape, and he wears fasionably ochre pants. The others will be stuck dealing with irrelevant scenes and endless dialog boxes untill they go quite insane. GrandmastaBrick@aol.com Dalton > every other mini-boss in all of game-dom. Inuyashatachi@aol.com My vote for first loser in the Bureaucratic Gridlock Match is Shakhan because he manages to get things done, as long as Bart and the others don't get involved, while working in all 3 systems at once so that makes him ineligible. CainofSolaris@aol.com They all suck, but Dalton has the hottest boss. Jess could maybe keep up but not for long, and the rest are toast. ANONYMOUS Although 2 of Andel's foes had taken/nearly taken over a country, they forgot one important thing: Andel had a demon lord on his side. All he has to do is frighten them into stillness. And none of his opponents are particularly intimidating... Do you want YOUR comments seen at the RPG Playoffs Online? Just send them in along with your votes and Mr. Cranbud and the RPGP staff will review them for publication! Please refrain from using vulgar or otherwise offensive language in your comments, since Mr. Cranbud will only accept such language if it is used for genuine humorous effect, and only on a good day.