The Aegis Zoo of Wonder - Ka VS. Julius

Julius stood in the middle of the Zoo, briefly perusing through the directory to see where most of the animals were, and which would cause some of the greatest damage. "Hmmm... The Tremor Raptor. Completely forgot about that thing. Well, lets see... The Phoenix, the Dragon habitat... Wow, I really need to get back to this place more often." Julius smirked, roaming through the Zoo. It seemed that he had made it here before his opponent, which gave him time to find a suitable location to hide if it was needed, or even places to sneak up on his opponent. It wasn't too long before he was sitting underneath a tree, looking through the cards he had been given. "Alright, lets see here... Two trump cards, a Bubble card, a Flame Breath card, an Upgrade card and an Illusionary Copy card... Wow... This is a pretty sweet hand here." Julius grinned as he tucked the cards away into the back pocket in his jeans.

"Alright Ka! Come out, come out... Wherever you are!"

Ka arrived behind a large tree trunk, and immediately pulled his deck out. He would need to know exactly what kind of strengths he had over his opponent, Julius would be no pushover.
He felt the stirrings of magics within the cards, one to unleash a fiery breath... It would be hard to resist that one for long, it called to him to release his own magics into it. The Wither card, a strong advantage in a close in tousle... Disease, that would be a wonderful long term effect. Upgrade, that was always nice, especially if he would be using a hand made weapon from the arena itself... The last was increased speed, a great effect for escaping a dire situation. He stepped out from behind the tree, which promptly started walking off. He looked up at the massive elephant, many times larger than any terrestrial mammal should normally have been. It had a strange deformity to it, clearly not a normal elephant face. At least it hadn't pissed on him. Ka took off through the zoo, observing and waiting for his chance to spot the opponent first. He passed the reptile house, then doubled back and ducked inside. This would be perfect... He could take his time selecting one of these fine specimens to use as the final blow, while his opponent sought him out at a decided disadvantage.

Julius quickly got bored of his hiding spot, like most of the things he had owned or claimed throughout his life, and decided to head off to search for his opponent. He slowly poked his head into the Gorilla enclosure, finding nothing but a swift punch to the jaw by a Silverback Gorilla. He checked the aviary, where the birds seemed to swarm him from vast hunger. He decided now would be the best time to stay away from the animals that could actually attack him. The left side of his jaw was now swollen and slightly discoloured from the punch by the gorilla, and he was still picking out feathers from his flesh, leaving a slight trail of blood that slowly stopped as he entered the dragon enclosure.

"Ah... Such wonderous creatures these beasts are... So very majestic... So very loyal... Able to withstand any pain imaginab...Wow, those scales could make a pretty decent decoration to my flail." Julius began thinking of some of the great possibilities he could use to destroy Ka in this battle... Carnivorous birds, Gorillas that will get pissed off if you put in any limb whatsoever, and the materials on the dragons. Julius smirked as he made his way into the dragons den, before trying his best to rip the scales off a teal dragon.

"Come here you little devil..." Ka had tried unsuccefully to coax the snake out of it's hiding place. This one was incredibly venomous, and better still the poison was magically inclined. The only problem was, if he tried to go in through side A of the wooden log, it would bite him. If he tried to go in through side B of the wooden log, it would bite him anyways, since it's head and it's tail were perpetually in the same place. Damnable Orobouros. He had attempted to grab it somewhere in the middle, but the slippery bastard just kept running in it's circle, right through his hand, and by the time it got around to seeing him it opened it's mouth and tried to get a piece of him to take with it.
"Fine, play it your way. I was going to let you bite him and be done with it, but if you insist on playing sides like that..."
Ka focused on his deck of cards, and when he looked back the self-eating snake was significantly slower. He reached down, grasped it's lightning fast head, and snapped it. Somewhere out there, another legendary Orobouros would be born as a mundane snake was born biting it's own tail. He looked at the eggs in the copperhead pit. Yeah, it wouldn't take too long. He removed the lower jaw of the snake, a spurt of blood oozing out, and grasped the back end tightly. He now had a whip, and with a little luck he could use it to effectively end the match with a well placed strike. He looked down at the sharp fangs of the snake, dripping a caustic blue tinged liquid. Time was running out...

Julius was sent crashing through the window of the teal dragon's enclosure. Sure, it was safety glass, sure, it was unmeltable, but with enough force from the dragons tail hitting Julius in the mid-section, and Julius having a fairly muscular body... You get the picture. Julius glared at the single scale he had managed to rip off the beast. It wasn't enough to cover his flail, but if it landed a completely successful blow, then Ka would be out of the fight. "Well... I guess it's better than nothing." Julius swiftly moved out of the reptile habitat, and took refuge once again in his little hiding spot. Unbeknown to him, that he had left yet another small trail of blood, this time, tracking him to his exact location.

Turns out that little blow to the gut caused a little chain reaction with his woulds, causing more blood to spill out of them than the last time. But Julius didn't care, he was thinking of other options. "Maybe if I grind up the scale into a fine powder and place the powder in one or two shotgun rounds..."

Ka heard the sharp crack of the glass shattering, and was off like a bolt towards the sound. A trail of blood lead from the rear entrance of the reptile enclosure, out towards a large tree with plenty of shade. In moments, Ka was across the lot, readying his whip to deliver a lethal dose of poison. He thought briefly to his cards to assist in a decisive victory, but it just didn't seem sportsmanlike to be superhumanly fast, well armed, and still be slinging spells around like a madman. He tore off around the tree, launching the snake's head around towards the backside of it, where he estimated his opponent would be.

Julius looked at the spot that he had discarded yet again because, simply, he got bored with it once more. Now it seemed that he was going to stay bored with it after watching Ka severely beat down the tree he rested against with a dead snake that seemed to be secreting some sort of lethal poison. "Hmmm... Glad I moved away from that tree... Alright, he already has a weapon from the environment... But lets just see how he fares with it's head squashed." Julius grinned as the large flail ball rested in his right hand, as his left hand rested against the tree trunk which was in just the right position to see the snake slowly moving back to Ka's hand. With one simple toss, the flail ball moved out of Julius' hand, moving rapidly towards where the snakes head was closing in on.

"Lets see how quickly it will be until he notices the giant ass flail closing in on his chance of victory..."

Ka looked around, trying to spot the trail of blood. In that instant, his stance changed. Now he was the hunted... He yanked the snake back out of the way of the oncoming missile, a spray of blood lightly spattering his arm as the head was scratched by the flail.

He took off towards the tree, but he could feel the effects of the speed card wearing off... He threw the snake. It was a desperate move, but if he caught Julius with it the match could well be over. He was nearly halfway to the tree now, but his human speed had returned with full force. His legs couldn't keep up with the momentum, and it almost sent him face first into the dirt... He only just managed to stop in time to avoid a pratfall.

Julius' eyes widened as he watched the dead snake coming towards him at an alarming speed, he went to try and block it, before hearing the clinking noise of his chain. "THE FLAIL!" Julius realized that he would be far to slow to pull off what he had planned, so he reached into his back pocket and pulled a card out at random. His luck was shining as a devilish smirk came across his face. In the blink of an eye, his flail came hurrying back towards him, shattering the tree branch he was standing on and then reaching out to grab the snake. He fell to the floor, clenching two weapons in his hands, his giant flail, and the snake that had been thrown at him.

"Well then...It appears you made a terrible mistake... It seemed as though I also had a Speed Up card... Thanks for the new weapon... It will be used..." Julius grinned as he began stabbing the snake with the pointed spikes on his flail. "...To end this battle of ours."

Ka watched as his weapon was attached to the spikes on Julius' flail. This was going to suck... He raced towards Julius anyways, knowing full well he was too slow to do anything useful. Maybe, just maybe, his cards could put that advantage back in his court. He launched himself towards his opponent, ready at a moment's notice to dodge if that flail shot out towards him. When he got in close, he would exhale a torrent of fire and try to wound Julius cripplingly.

Julius grinned as he used his temporary speed boost to move out of the way of Ka's oncoming attack. "Foolish Bartender, or fire spirit... Or whatever you are... You think a simple move like that will stop me?" Julius chuckled half-heartedly as he swung his flail, making it curve to the left a little, hoping that he would of put enough momentum behind it for it to swing around and lock Ka in his place. "I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed... I would of expected this match to last much longer than this, but it appears that this may be your simple demise." Julius' teeth were gritted, all of them showing, as the flail began to curve.

And there it was... Ka immediately dove to a roll, and breathed hard towards the chain. To be fair, he didn't put his own heat into the card's spell... But it would be a concentrated blast nonetheless. He hoped the heat would weaken, maybe even break the chain altogether. Possibly heat it so badly that Julius was forced to drop it... Ka exhaled everything he had at it, then finished his roll just out of reach of the closing circle of steel.

Julius watched at the blast of flame turned the chain of his flail turn red hot. "Cheeky little shit..." Julius smirked as he pulled his flail back towards him, making sure that the ball would stop right against his feet. Both the force and the speed it was going whilst making its way back to him seemed to cool the weapon substantially, but it was still a bad idea to continue using it, so he simply removed the chain from his forearm and moves his hand to the left side of his jeans, where his second best weapon rested... His sawn-off shotgun.

"The Bartender thinks that a little fire will stop me from killing him? Perhaps he has been diving into his own business." With the cards effects slowly waring off, Julius slowly began walking over to Ka, randomly firing shots of the dragonscale enhanced shells.

Julius dropped the hot chain and went for his secondary weapon, the shotgun. That would hurt... Ka thought once more to his deck. Wither!
When Julius went to remove his gun, his arm would be weak... He would find that his entire body seemed sapped, as if dehydrated and half asleep. Close in combat with a shotgun, normally a great idea. When you can barely keep your arm up? Not so much. Ka launched himself at his opponent. He would twist, at the last moment, drive his elbow back and up, into Julius Aegis' ribcage.

With the effect of Ka's latest card, Wither, which drains the essence of the opponent to the point where they would simply give up all together, Julius dropped to the ground in pain in the blink of an eye, watching as Ka's elbow movement played out right in front of his eyes as he looked up. With one eager move, he managed to use all the strength he could muster to roll away from Ka, stand up, stagger over to his flail and place his hand into his back pocket, bringing out two cards. "I'll... Use a trump card to get rid of the effects... Of your Wither card..." The trump card he held in his right hand began to glow slightly before vanishing into thin air, and with Julius feeling much better, he stood up, with the flail in his hand.

"Heh... You had me going there for a while, Ka... But now I think I'll use this next card... UPGRADE!" Julius grinned as the card vanished upon uttering the word 'upgrade', and in but a few seconds, Julius stood there, wearing a far greater attire than before. The effects of the upgrade card allowed the users armor and weapons to become more advanced and more powerful, which was showing substantially for Julius. The flail he was holding in his right hand, still infected by the snakes blood, now seemed to be giving off a sickly blue aura. His shotgun, a standard sawn-off double barrel, now advanced into a shotgun with three barrels, with enough spread damage to destroy anything in the way.

Although the greatest advancement was his armor. Julius stood there in what seemed to be his regular clothing, only with a few armor advancements. It seemed as though his shoulders had been replaced with some spiked pauldrons, and his fleshy fists had now been covered by a basic pair of gauntlets, still easy enough to pierce, but it would be a while before Julius would of felt damage from it. "Let's see how you can handle me now!" Julius yelled as he swung his flail around his head, before launching it towards Ka.

"Disease." Ka intoned the word with a kind of curse like emotion. He rolled, being nicked lightly by the mace. His shoulder burned like fire... His mortal form automatically grimaced at the pain. "Well, you came equipped at any rate... Perhaps I can allow myself one small luxury." With that, his hand glowed briefly. Ka liked a fair fight, his mortal form and his cards the only strength he afforded himself against similarly handicapped opponents, but Julius had brought weapons. That mace and shotgun were just too much of an advantage, and Ka needed a bit of balance to keep this going for much longer. The glow in his hand stretched out to either side, catching fire momentarily before condensing. In his outstretched hand he now spun a lightweight, dense staff. It would be hard to break, strong enough to stop the mace with well timed deflections, but it wasn't anything special. Just a little odds evening... He flinched and nearly dropped it before switching to his left hand. That wound was going to piss him off, and with the Orobouros venom in it, it was a stage inflicted wound. It wouldn't heal properly...

He spun the staff and launched in towards Julius, preparing to strike towards the gun first, removing the less easily blocked bullets from the equation.

A slight burning sensation filled the chest of Julius as the effects of Ka's disease card slowly came into effect. This would cause a slightly lethal, yet unknown disease to coarse through the veins of the foe... And it was hitting Julius hard. He seemed to walk much slower than normal, this would slowly deteriorate, but the effects would still linger through the match. Suddenly, a swift blow to the shotgun within Julius' hand, knocking it cleanly off his hand. "Fucking bastard..." Julius coughed slightly, then looked at his hand. Blood wasn't a good sign from this cough, and if it kept up like this, maybe the disease would be the death of him. He swung the flail lazily over his head and launched it towards Ka, the blue aura slowly trailing behind the ball, with the spikes gleaming as the sun hit them just right.

Ka rolled to the side to dodge the followup, it was slow enough he could counter but fast enough that he couldn't put any real force behind his quick jab to Julius' ribs. The thrust would leave a nice round bruise on exposed flesh, or make a pretty bell sound on armor. Either way, he would launch from his crouched position with his hands wide on the staff, creating a horizontal bar across his opponent, hoping to knock him to the ground.

'That little bastard...' Julius whispered to himself as he was knocked down to the ground, dazed that his opponent could of done it so easily. "Well done Ka, I underestimated you, but perhaps you also underestimated me..." Julius grinned as he grabbed Ka by the scruff of the neck, raising him high above him, ready to strike the final blow, when two things happened... Firstly, his Upgrade card had finally deteriorated, leaving him more vulnerable to attack, and secondly, the Disease card Ka had played earlier in the match began to take effect even more than before, as Julius' hand began trembling, releasing Ka from his grip as he began stumbling out of sight, not wanting Ka to attempt to destroy him so quickly into the match.

Ka felt the grip on his neck loosen as his opponent dropped him and tore off in the other direction with a slight limp. He took inventory of himself, a wound now oozing puss on his right shoulder, a staff that shouldn't break under normal stress, and the Upgrade card. He looked around for something to use as an environmental weapon. A large, ugly looking bird sat squatting in a cage over a pile of ashes nearby... His feathers would grow back soon enough, but for the next few days the Phoenix was a hatchling. Ka drove his staff through the weakened bird's stomach, watching it burst into brilliant flames of every color. The fires consumed his staff, traveling downwards towards his hands and weakening even the strong wood of his weapon. He focused his thoughts for a moment, and the upgrade card activated with a silvery glow. The flames, in that moment, became like glass. One whole end of his staff was now surrounded with clear, still moving, but very much solid, fire. It no longer advanced down the staff, but it would remain a dangerous force and an environmental weapon to boot. Now to find Julius and end this nonsense...

Julius was still weak from the effects of the Disease card, giving his position away with his constant coughing, and with all of the other cards that had been put into play, Julius couldn't take it at all, his body was drained of all life from the cards that had been played, and all he could do was lay down, dying on the ground. His eyes closed ever so slightly as he proceeded towards the light... In an instant, he was back to where he had begun, feeling as good as new, the disease card had just finished wearing off as Julius looked around, before looking up to the heavens. "YOU DARE SAVE ME FROM THIS JUDGEMENT! I HAVE KNOWN THAT HE WOULD BE VICTORIOUS WITH THOSE CARDS!" The speakers crackled again as Julius finished his outburst. 'Need we remind you that the only way you can die within this bout, is with a weapon from the environment, you have been resurrected because you died without the effects of any of these standards affecting you. The match resumes!' The speaker crackled again loudly before turning off. Julius glared at his weapons, which were now no longer imbued with the effects of the crushed up dragon scale bullets, or the snake venom surrounding his flail.

The ground began shaking wildly and the constant cries of the animals filled the Zoo, as the speakers crackled again. 'IT'S TIME! TREMOR TROUBLE HAS BEGUN!'

Ka looked around, more than a little worried. His opponent would be revived, as per rules, with a certain lenience of energy infused into his system to continue the match with dignity. The tremor, one of Julius' more exotic creatures, would only make this more dangerous. He looked down at the fiery implement he'd devised. He didn't have much time left... He followed after where the last of the coughs had come from, racing through the thin stand of trees at breakneck pace. If his opponent expected him to proceed cautiously then he stood a chance of surprising him. If he knew the headlong rush Ka would begin, he might be laying in wait to ambush him. It was risky, but he had never feared death before... The vicious cut in his shoulder was starting to swell, and it throbbed with each quick step he took. He launched through the trees, ignoring the rumbling and complaint that started slow and deep in the earth. Soon enough, both would become a real problem...

Julius' eyes darted around the Zoo of Wonder he had created long ago, there was danger everywhere now that the Tremor had begun its rampage. Birds deafening the other creatures with their incessant cries, the gorgons and nagas turning the other creatures to stone, as most of the birds shattered upon falling to the ground. The long, winding secluded path to the Tremor was a death trap on it's own, filled with enraged Hydras of all sorts, some that spew corrosive venom in the path of their prey, giant scorpions that can kill an enemy or threat within mere seconds, either with it's venom, or with it's large pincers, and not to mention the numerous dragons that filled the halls, now enraged with the threat of the Tremor. Julius sighed as he quickly decided that if he wanted to stand a slight chance of winning this battle, then he may need to enlist the aid of the Tremor, he had to act both fast and cautiously as he made his way to the entrance of the long, winding path.

"Here goes nothing..." Julius gulped as he looked through the little amount of cards he had, only one could help him out with this, but he believed that it would come in handy later on in the duel, as he began running through the path.