The RPG Duelling League


Season 22, Week 1
Raine Sage (Tales of Symphonia)			White Rose (Saga Frontier)
Teacher, loving sister, fighter, and soon, a Middle champ. This is the Professor, Raine Sage, half-elf and magician extraordinaire. After Lloyd's spectacular run last season, it's time for the smarter half of Symphonia to make her bid for dominance. Holy Lance will provide the bulk of her offense here, especially powered by the devilish Heart of Chaos. Raine's plethora of other support spells, including Permaguard to lessen White Rose's physical blows and Restore and Anti-magic to block her whorish status attacks, will prove useful as well. And if all else fails, the promise of Sacred Shine during overlimit will surely tip this battle in her favour. Knocking some sense into White Rose shouldn't be too hard for the Professor - after all, Colette and Lloyd were two of her students, and even they learned something under her guidance.	V	S	Enter White Rose, everyone's favorite floral-themed Mystic (okay, so what if she's the only one?). A comrade-in-arms of Asellus, she may not be inclined to combat by nature, but she has seen her fair share through circumstances. Her debut promises to be a simple match indeed compared to taking on the minions of Orlouge. White Rose has a bevy of status options to choose from, none of which Raine can protect herself from: charm, petrification, or even instant death are all at her disposal to shut down the half-elf quickly and permanently. And should things come to a straight-up fight, there's always the old reliable Glass Wall to null whatever Raine might throw at her, dishing out some pain in return as well. Truly, this is but the first step for White Rose in fighting her way to her half-human partner in Heavy.

SageAcrin "Look at them all, buying all the tickets up just so they can plot. God, don't they give up?" Edge said, watching the massive line of people, monkies, unicorn, Dragoons, Dezolisian, and Menodix at the ticket box for Raine and White Rose's match. "Heh, like you give up, Edge?" Yuri said, watching. "I also don't get flattened every time I try anything, unlike them." Edge said, nodding his head towards Zidane as he walked past. "Hey! Just because you're lucky, doesn't mean you're that much better at planning than I am." Zidane said, offended. "A rock is a better leader than you are." Edge and Yuri said simultaniously. Then they glanced at each other and burst into laughter. "You..." Zidane growled, reaching for his knife. Right before he was shoved aside by a red-headed man. "You know, you're right. He is as dumb and masterful as a rock-." "Hey!" "-But he's useful. I'll need all the manpower I can get for this plan, and it'll be a beauty. I've always wanted to see that belle out there...well, never mind." The man said, ignoring the still-protesting Zidane entirely. "Why don't you two help? You've built up quite a legend around here, you might be useful." "Might? Who the hell are you, anyhow?" Edge said, glaring at the man. "Master Swordsman and Master Lover, Zelos Wilder, at your service." Zelos said, bowing. "...Who?" Yuri said, crossing his arms. "Oh, wait, I've heard of him. He's one of those new guys. Was in a talk show or something." "It was a-" Zelos tried to cut in. "Look, I don't actually care. If you think you can just walk in and pull off some grand scheme here, you're mistaken. If nothing else, all the women here are on guard against it. You really need to be original to pull anything off, and I doubt you have enough upstairs to do that." "Hmm. Well, we'll see. Maybe my own legend will surpass yours. Maybe soon." Zelos said, wandering back to get a ticket. "You're going to show him up, aren't you." Yuri observed. "Of course. Now, to figure out who I need to show something shiny to in this group to get them to tell me his plan..." Seven days later. "And now, let the battle begin!" The announcer called out. It was a battle of holy magic, of healing and weak light blasts. It was also boring. However, a much darker chain of events was going on elsewhere... "So, do you have the potion?" Zelos said anxiously, watching the fight from his vantage point near the ground-level arena entrance. "Yeah, yeah." Zidane grumbled. "Lexis made me pay upfront for it, too." "Hmm, I could wonder why." Yuri mused, listening to the microphone in his ear. "So, why are we up here anyhow, and how do you plan on making it look like you're not interfering from the middle of the stands?" Edge shrugged. "Smoke and mirrors." "If you don't give me a real answer pretty fast, Edge, instead of that damned line for the hundredth time, I'm going to see how well you handle being shaped into a pretzel." "I'm telling you the plan. Look, just watch." Edge said, shrugging. "Hmhmhm. This will be perfect. A love potion that vaporizes instantly on contact to air, and is odorless and invisible. That Lexis is a genious." Zelos said, hefting the bottle. "Now, all I have to do is toss it in..." "Now, watch." Edge said, lobbing a small bomb into the arena. As other Edges did, as well. In different disguises. One with a long tail, one covered in red fur... "How the hell did you do that?" Yuri said, watching one smoke bomb go off where a dozen fell. "You learn to improve your techniques, after a while. Images are more useful when they look like other people." Edge said, grinning." "They'll never know where that bomb came from. Now, watch." Zelos, hacking and sneezing along with a dozen other helpers, realized that if he didn't act now, he would lose his chance. "Achoo! Ugh, time to get out of here. But not before I at least get something to look at on the news later." Zelos said, as he threw the bottle of potion towards the opening to the arena he couldn't see... "...you...just closed them inbetween two doors?" Yuri said, impressed as Edge pressed a button. "Yep. With a shattered bottle of aerosol love potion." "Isn't Seigfried in there?" "And?" "Nothing at all." Yuri said, pulling the microphone out of his ear. "I don't especially want to hear that. Still, this has been kind of boring." Yuri said, stretching. "You showed him up, but no one else will kn-" Yuri cutoff abruptly, as a massive gush of whipped cream smashed into the arena in front of him, knocking both of the coughing combatants into one side of the arena. "...Oh, didn't I mention that? Sheena's over at the Creamonade." Edge said, chuckling, as he looked down at the aftermath of the blast of high-powered dairy goodness. "...Damn, he's a good shot." Yuri observed, looking down at the unconcious White Rose and the incredibly red-faced Raine Sage staring down at White Rose's cream-covered body underneath hers. And then staring up at the massive amount of flashbulbs going off from the crowd's cameras. "Well, he could have been better and had White Rose win. She's more...interesting." Edge noted. "Ah, well, you can't have everything." Raine Sage: 29 White Rose: 17 Dunefar "Hmph...I'm going to need a strategy to beat her..." Raine's considerations were long as she watched the snows of Flanior fall. From her view on the famous balcony of love, the entire city sprawled out below. Leaning on Heart of Darkness as she considered her upcoming battle, Raine began to note the children playing in the snow banks. How happy these children were, playing in the banks of the fallen snow! Making burrows in the icy slush, often vanishing from site for long stretches. A virtual hiding pla... If one happened to be at that balcony right now, they may have been scared as Raine began to laugh. Quite scared indeed, as, "Of course! But snow won't do for cover there, I need something that can cover me..." Ignoring the sinister pulse of her evil staff, Raine's thoughts began to spread out. "Like a blanket, or a sheet, or...a box..." One did not need to be on the balcony to hear the peals of insane laughter. Somewhere, the ruins of the world breathed a sigh of relief. At least this wasn't directed at them this time. The next day, in the arena: "You're on, sis!" Genis sat in the arena stands, looking down at the hard packed dirt floor of the battle ground. Pockmarked and battered already from the epic clashes earlier today, one could easily miss a simple cardboard packing box. "Got it," Raine hissed back, surrounded by darkness. Unseen by most, a headset was placed on her head, in place of her normal defensive ribbon. So slowly a box on that field began to move, towards the Princess White Rose. Really, this is a tried and true tactic by sneaks and snakes alike, so Raine was quite confident. However. Looking about for her opponent, White Rose frowned. How uncouth to be la...hm? A cardboard box, inching towards her? It took only a second for her memory to kick in - the memory of many a warrior from the regions of Saga. A little box, breathing flames and biting away. "MIMIC!" Doing what came naturally to a mystic, White Rose tapped into her mystic absorptions! Leaping high, a phantom blade flashing...! "Huh? Did White Rose just attack a box?" Lloyd scratched his head in confusion, even as blood and guts soaked the box! Genis gasped and went wide eyed, yelling out: "Raine? Answer me, Raine! RAAAAAAAIIIINNNEEEE!" CmdrKing It was a beautiful day in the arena; the grass was green, the birds chirped, White Rose was in full bloom... Something had to go wrong. Universal Law of Things-Are-Going-Too-Well. To say no one was shocked when the steady tremors revealed themselves as a white-topped, red-robed, 50-foot tall mecha appeared to fight the Mystic Princess would be a lie, but certainly no one was shocked at the scale of the oddity. Lloyd Irving, naturally, was a bit oblivious. "Say, that enormous robot looks a lot like the professor." Genis Sage had skipped shock and awe completely and gone straight on into dismay. "Oh lord, she's done it again..." Describing the battle would be like describing the effects off tossing an watermelon carved to look like a pumpkin from the top of the Empire State Building; it might make some interesting and poetic motions in the process, but the end result is blatantly obvious to anyone who actually knows what a watermelon is. All that said, no one is entirely sure why Raine was willing to risk this sort of disqualification, but suffice to say, it was thoroughly memorable.

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