Season 20, Week 2
Rohde
(Shining Force 2) 		 
You might not be able to tell from his picture, but in combat the premier scholar of South Parmecia is a tank in the most literal sense of the word. As the most well-armored of the Shining Force's archers, this Brass Gunner is uniquely suited to take on Gryz's physical assault. He might not have the pure damage that Gryz does, but he has the defense to withstand axe blows for as long as it takes, and for once this sluggish archer he even has a speed advantage, allowing him to use double-turns to his advantage. It won't be pretty, but when are the remains of an artillery battle ever nice to look at?

V

S

 Gryz could easily just tear through his opponent this week. He might not be up to Chaz and Rika's standards as a physical attacker, but his axe is more than enough to cut through Rohde's pitiful HP, and with War Cry to boost his attack power, ripping through Rohde's tank to get at the cowardly archer wouldn't be any kind of problem. But why bother? After all, Rohde's defense isn't so pathetic, and Gryz has never been the quickest draw in a fight, so that might be a chancy prospect. So instead, he'll just use his trademark instant-death skill, Crash, to send this loser to an early grave.

The Axeman
Rhode sat in his tank, checking all of his readouts. Everything looked set. All the lights that were supposed to be on were on, and all the little lights that were supposed to be off were off. Except for the seatbelt light.
He fastened his seatbelt, and started his tank. It rolled into the center of the arena. His opponent was not yet here for the match, it seemed. Rhode decided to do a few crowd-pleasing laps in his tank.
After showing off like this for a few minutes, Rhode's tank sputtered and stopped moving. He looked at his readout, and it his gaslight was on.
"Now what in the heck is making that happen?" Rhode unbuckled his seatbelt and crawled out of his tank. He opened up his gas cap and peaked into it.
"Pingpong ball."
"What was that?" Rhode asked. He turned around behind him to see his opponent, who had just arrived for his match.
"It's a pingpong ball," Gryz said. Then he hit Rhode in the face with his axe really hard.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Having a really big tank is one way to get ahead in life, but it's hard to argue with an axe to the face.

Rohde: 13
Gryz: 38

thed
Rohde starts to get back to the Arena just as big globular raindrops, thick as golden honey, begin to splat into asterisks on the pavement, inviting him to look down to the bottom of the text of the day, where some footnotes will explain it all. He isn't about to look. Noone ever said a day has to be juggled into any kind of sense at the day's end.

Arriving at his destination he notes how it's a giant factory-state here, a City of the Future too full of extrapolated 1930s swoop-facaded and balconied skyscrapers, lean chrome caryatids sporting bobbed hairdos, classy identifiable airships of all descriptions drifting in the boom and the subsequent hush of the city abysses, golden lovelies abashedly sunning in roof gardens and turning to wave as you pass. It is the RPGDL.

Sighing at Gryz' disposition he remarked "Who has sent this new serpent into this, our, ruinous garden, already too fouled, too crowded to qualify as a locus of innocence -- unless innocence be our age's neutral, our silent passing into machineries of indifference -- something that Gryz had come to -- not to destroy, but to define to us the loss of ..."

"Enough! You may never get to touch the Master, but for now you can tickle his creatures."

Metal met monster, and Tim Chantilly notes: He plays the game to win.

Rohde is victorious.