Setting:
Spoiler (Click to Show)
Oh yeah, and the workers once tried rebelling against the Mother AI of the plant, causing a huge explosion in the west wing...bringing quite the icy breeze into the facility, doubling it as a refrigerator unit. Power is shot and will occasionally flicker to life but not enough to sustain heat from within the factory.[/spoiler]
Handicap: Chance (Chamel) can control blood...which the factory is thriving with. It's also freezing...which Todesberührung (Shadowkirby) is weak to.
Antes :
***Antes are Extra Challenges that add twice the points wagered if successfully pulled off. They come in 3 Flavors (Easy Medium Hard). No two participants can have the same kind of Ante.
Shadowkirby has initiated a Medium Ante: In addition to beating Chance, Todesberührung must also take on the Factory's Rogue AI (who will try to kill both competitors) and disable or destroy it.
Chamel has initiated an Easy Ante: During the battle, Chance's bi-curious sexual orientation must be explored, including why or how he is that way. Todesberührung must be made aware of this fact.
Bonus for this Round: Early Bird / First to Post their entry
Scoring:
- Votes are worth 5 pts. each.
- CNC-ing an entry gives you 10 pts. Detailed ones get an extra 5 pts. Maximum 3 CnCs per participant.
- Bonus for the Round is 20 pts.
- Fulfilled Antes give 10, 20, 30 pts. and lost 5, 10, 15 pts if failed depending on difficulty
- Judge's Blessing gives 15 points if entry caught the Judge's eye.
Here are the entries:
Todesberührung[spoiler=Shadowkirby's Entry][CENTER]Date: June 30th, 2025, 11:34 PM
“Congratulations newcomers and latecomers alike! You have just pledged your entrance fee of... your lives!”
That was the last he heard, he can still hear his voice echo within the vacant mind, then there was a flash, a sudden burst of light came, and he didn't time it right to see what caused it. Everything else was an outright blur, a fog of mystery that has hidden the answers he needed to understand, a feeble memory flying away like snow in the winds....
Our unlikely protagonist, Todesberührung, or Deathtouch, has awaken from his dreamless unconsciousness, only to reveal himself to be somewhere on an unknown frigid tundra in a middle of a heavy blizzard. Blanketed with endless snow, all he sees is the everlasting field of white sleet. Todesberührung, with limited eye vision due to losing his right eye to a bullet which caused his death, couldn't see through the endless rain of snowflakes, it has shrouded his only vision to identify his surroundings. All until then, he catches a faint and distant figure through the snowfall; seeing no other places around him to provide some sort of shelter, he ventured on to the mysterious building in hopes to find answers, the only thing that has evaded from him since the start.
The blizzard has begun to diminish as Todesberührung came closer to the shrouded structure, only to reveal as an abandoned slaughterhouse; the exterior of the factory is worn and rusted, the windows are cracked and fogged, and bordering the area are frozen decayed limbs and bodies, robot pieces and screws, and miscellaneous items, mostly buried within the snow of the frozen wasteland.
What has happened here? he thought.
This place is unknown to him, and if this is some kind of an ideal location for him to fight his competitor, then the Host has another thing coming. Todesberührung is unsure of himself if he should even enter the factory, noticing that it has been left untouched for years, but if the Host wants him to enter in order to achieve victory, then he has no choice but to enter. Before reaching to the handle of the door, he can faintly hear machines being operated within, not only that, he hears somebody within the premises. Hoping to get this “round” over with, he set foot within the interior of the factory.
He followed a bloody hallway with rotting corpses lying on either the floor or against the wall; there must be some kind of massacre occurring, and his opponent must be a crazed gladiator who's joy is to slaughter the innocent minds that are left working here. This theory seems implausible in which the factory was abandoned years ago, and the bodies are decaying with flies and maggots feasting on their flesh. He did see robot parts scattered around, so it's possible that a revolt has happened here before. Now this theory makes sense once he thought about it.
Todesberührung finally arrives in the main base of the factory; robotic butchers are seeing cleaving, gutting, and skinning animals carelessly, and stashing them onto conveyor belts that leads to another spot in the factory. Catwalks are seen above the robots and the machinery, hencing that there were once guards that watch a close eye on the workers, making sure that they don't either poison or possibly start a fight. Fresh blood drips from the conveyor belts as they make new stains onto the cold, blood-stained concrete floor; mercilessly chopping away as the robots were intended to do was a horrific sight.
Todesberührung searches around for his opponent so he can put a quick end to the round, then he heard some commotion up on the catwalk; a man in a classy tuxedo is evading attacks from a rogue robot, which it was attacking. He has seen this man before back at the warehouse, he seems to care less about the serious, yet life-threatening situation and just laughs it off, always smiling and chuckling, like a clown of some sort. He is seen telepathically pulling fresh blood from one of the vats stored under him and made himself a polearm-like weapon.
“Is that the best you can do? When's the last time you were oiled?” the red-haired man chuckled.
His eye caught the sight of Todesberührung watching them fight.
“Hey there, it's about time you've finally showed up. Heheh... I've been waiting around this dreadful place for you to come until this bucket of bolts appeared rogue and slashed at me, and now that you've shown up, we should introduce ourselves! But first...”
He hesitates and trips the robot, then using the blood from the vats to lower himself down. He then smiled and introduced himself.
“My name, good sir, is Chance Downtown. Most people call me Fox, but I'd prefer to be called by my first name.”
Chance skims the undead for a bit, circling him around to get a better glimpse of Todesberührung. He kept a cautious eye on Chance to make sure he's not about to trick him. Chance then recognizes who he is and chuckled a bit.
“I see, you must be the infamous undead known for its touch of Death, what was the name again? Todes... Teedos... eermm.... gosh, it's hard to remember considering how long and complicated your name is,” Chance laughed.
“Wait... I got it!” he exclaimed. “It's Todesberührung! Now I remember!” Chance continued chuckling.
He finished chuckling, then continued chatting. He seems to appear more of a chatterbox and a fighter, but that's not going to let his guard down.
“It is an honor fighting a powerful zombie like yourself, especially the one whom everybody is chasing after! I'm quite thrilled, sir, but I am going off-topic. Since this is a tournament, I will tend to do my best to take you down to advance to the next round. It's my only purpose here, so I apologize for once we duel, I have to retire you from ever fighti-”
Chance was suddenly interrupted when Todesberührung set his hand onto his left should and rapidly threw him aside just in time when the rogue AI leaps onto him, landing the cleaver into his head. Todesberührung grabbed the robot and threw it across the factory, landing against the other working robots. The undead reached for the implanted hatchet that is lodged within his head, and slowly pulls it out; the wound that the hatchet dealt slowly healed up, but not noticing that Chance had the opportunity to strike him with his blood-made polearm. Using his instincts, he barely escapes the weapon, making a big cut on his side. He then dodges another swing from Chance, then takes a few steps back from him.
“My, you're quite fun to challenge, sir. I would applaud to your efforts in evading my attacks, but you see, I'm not quite done yet,” Chance chuckled before proceeding his barrage of attacks.
The AI rises back up to its feet and grabs the closest weapon he can hold; a meat-hook. It then charges at the zombie with rapid speed. Todesberührung sees both AI and Chance launching their assault against him and, at the precise second, he narrowly moves away from the middle as the two clash; the AI gored Chance's right shoulder while he knocks the robot back as he uses the polearm to push it away. They both collapse to the ground as Todesberührung ran somewhere around the facility; Chance got up, chuckling feebly, and cautiously pulls the meat-hook out of him.
“Heh... this guys... smarter than I thought...”
Chance skims his surrounding and there was no sign of Todesberührung; he must have hid himself somewhere, but he hasn't gone far enough. Chance quickly got up to his feet, holding the wound and struggling to get himself off the ground. The crisp air isn't aiding his wound at the slightest, each breath of wind sends his nerve cells wild; his own blood trickles down from his tuxedo, soaking in the fabrics. Despite his pain, he's still smiling, hoping that once this is over, he'll receive medical care from the Host, if he does hopefully. Unbeknownst to him, the AI has already left, possibly searching for the walking dead.
Todesberührung goes through hallways to other rooms, seeing an animal farm; pigs, cows, and chickens are seen freezing in the cold, some are bony and thin with barely any sufficient meat. A sad sight to say since this place was abandoned, no one cared to save the animals that were slaughtered in the hand of the AIs. Todesberührung ventured forth and came across the West Wing of the slaughterhouse; the wreckage is blanketed in snow; caused by the blizzard outside. It's doubling the refrigerating unit, making the whole factory freezing cold, which isn't good, even for him. Even though he can't feel the chill, ice or anything crystallized can be a big disadvantage for him.
He continued on and stumbled across a staircase, up to the second floor of the slaughterhouse. As he's about to climb, the AI leaps on to his back, bashing his head with a crowbar it found. Todesberührung struggled to remove the robot off, grabbing the head of the AI, then threw it off. It quickly got back to its feet and swung at him. Todesberührung barely misses the swings the AI is dealing as he ascends up the stairs.
Chance examined his surroundings in hopes in finding Todesberührung. He's slowly getting weaker by the minute since the cold air slowly inflicts the wound on his shoulder.
“Where could he be...?” he thought.
He searched thoroughly, hoping that he doesn't jump on him out of any suspicious hiding places.
“Come out, come out, whereever you are!~” Chance sang. “You can't hide forever.”
Chance then hears a disturbance upstairs, he peeked and saw Todesberührung fighting against the AI. He seems to be preoccupied in dodging its attacks that he never notices Chance from below. Both fought onto a hanging catwalk, hovering over big vats of blood; the same place that Chance fought against the AI.
“That is surely some irony I'm watching, but why wait?”
Chance liquefies his polearm into a small javelin, light enough to fly far in an accurate rate. He carefully observes their fight, watching where they're fighting, in hopes of striking at the dead man. He closes his left eye to earn an accurate shot, and patiently waits for the right moment. Todesberührung pushes back the AI from him to give himself some room. He hasn't been using his Death Touch ability yet, and possibly saving it as a last resort; no need to waste it.
At the perfect moment, Chance sought his chance and threw the javelin at Todesberührung, nailing him right at the knee. The crystallized blood javelin has weakened the undead, causing him to fall to his knee. Chance shout out in excitement as he caught him in a weak position.
“Haha!! Gotcha!” he exclaimed, then heads towards the stairs to finish him off.
The AI got back up, once again, and deals a blow to the head, knocking Todesberührung down on the catwalk. Chance finally reached up to the catwalk and observes the scene in front of him. It wouldn't be fair if the AI killed him, so Chance took the matters in his own hands and conjured a quarterstaff from collecting blood from the vats below. The AI notices Chance coming and strike him across the face, knocking out his tooth.
“Ouch... you know that hurts...” Chance smiled as he spat out blood.
As the AI got closer the Chance, he transformed the quarterstaff into small crystallized spikes and launched at it. The spikes burrowed deep within the robot, causing to malfunction, while Todesberührung pulled the javelin out from his kneecap. The wound regenerated and, from behind the AI, he pierced the javelin into the robot's head. Malfunctioning and shaking, the AI threw itself off the catwalk, falling into one of the vats of blood; the electricity from the AI caused the blood to burst into flames.
Chance got up and sees Todesberührung, standing and glaring, which got him to abruptly chuckle.
“You have really outdone yourself, fine sir! Truly, a wonderful performance you have done! I must say that you are truly bold. I'd applaud in your efforts, well done.” Chance smiled and applauded for him.
“Although,” Chance added, “since we've only taken care of the robot, we still haven't finished our battle. So, if you would ever so kindly, let us continue, and may the best man... or undead, win.”
The two stared each other off, and the fight continued. From under, Chance conjured spikes from the vats, and launched them up to the catwalk, right where Todesberührung is standing. He quickly moves away from them as Chance got closer to him. He forms the blood into an axe and swings wildly at Todesberührung. He fought back by dealing two heavy punches to the face and chest, knocking some of the wind out of him. Chance coughs and laughs as he sees him at the end of the catwalk.
“You fight bravely, but I don't think you can take me down like that. Look around you, there's blood everywhere, and once there's blood, I have full advantage against you! This is clearly my match to begin with! I'm sorry to say that you have clearly lost this round, and as for that, let's end this!”
He then charges at the undead in full speed, leaping over the spikes he made. Todesberührung looked around for some way to halt his attack, then realize that he's on the catwalk, if he can take it down, it will throw off Chance. So Todesberührung positioned himself and hangs his Death Hand in front of him. Chance stopped running and viewed his bizarre position.
“Todesberührung, mind if I ask what are you planning to do...?” he questioned.
He looks at Chance with his always deadpan expression, then answered.
“Winning.”
Todesberührung strikes his Death Hand down on the catwalk, causing to rust and break in front of him. The bars that are supporting the catwalk grew weak and brittle to hold it up, causing it to casually tilt and fall. Chance sprints back and attempts to reach for the stairs, but ends u
