Bored of the usual stealthy jaunts, I have decided to set up The Arena! Where random battle scene snippets will be posted, winners undetermined in the first post, and consolidated in thier kill with the second. Plenty of time for everyone to voice opinions of the classes, stereotypes, and god slayers that clash.

And no, I completely did not crib this idea off the old Battle of the Titans. At all.

And to begin, a suitably hot topic ; Mage Versus Warrior!

Thier set arena was simple, a disc of biege clay, dusted with sand, and ringed by waist high wall of cracked granite. It floated on a near literal sea of deep shadows, the soft splash of water echoing up from somewhere in the depths of the cavern, though spanning the distance to the disc were a pair of narrow walkways, from the northern of which came the soldier. His face was grizzled with a beard's growth of a few days, the grit and mud of his battlefield clung to his matted hair and steel enforced leather armour. His shield was battered, the emblem upon it's fore almost ground off of it, and a number of dings were cracked along it's top edge. His sword was the only truely notable thing about him, held exhaustedly in his right hand and made of fine crafted silver, it was drawn into a flaring crescent and glowed with petrenatural fire that glimmered down from the hilt to the tip of the blade in azure flames. It hissed in the dank cave, and he brought it up into a practised guard.

From the opposite entered a man that was almost as physically different from the Imperial than seemed possible for a mortal span. The other wore a gaudy golden-yellow robe that seemed fresh and pressed, and it strained over his bulging gut and onyx skin, a Dunmer hailing from the province of Morrowind. Sequins rattled against glass cut to appear as gems, while the cursed elf took the waddling, purposeful step of a well fed man. His staff and amulet, along with the way his face looked incredibly worn, and wrinkled, despite his girth, gave away his status as a magus, and by the glowing orb of the soulstone in his staff, a fairly powerful one.

The soldier made it to the ring first, and he could feel... something, as the mage approached jovily, resting a hand atop the worn blocks of stone. It siezed them. A pitched madness, instant paranoia and rage gripping both of thier minds in a black stew of hateful emotion. The specks of light that were the exits sealed, and the gentle luminosity of fungus was thier light, almost as bright as the twin moons during a clear night, and in this twisted light the mage's staff was an eerie orange, and the silver blade flickered translucently with it's enchantment. In that moment, they locked eyes, the soft green of the human, to the burning red of the mage, whose portly frame shook with barely contained rage. His blackened hand raised, fingers reaching.

Twitchy and adrenaline filled from the battle he had just left, his shield jerked up just before the splash of acid sprayed over the curve, and spattered onto the crest of his helm, boiling away the metal. The helmet was discarded a moment later with a panicked flick and bounced across the ground until it was reduced to a shining puddle. The shield fared better despite taking the brunt of the blow, the thick metal weakening the dissolving acid until it, with a last puff, ended it's fury.

The dumner went through a series of quick gestures, a globe of fire building between his hands, even as the Imperial waited for the acid to die, and just as he completed the cantrip, the raging inferno speeding forward, the warrior rolled to the side, letting the superheated air buffet over him before lunging with his blade, sure of a true strike to end this quickly, as his shield dragged behind him. It wasn't to be. The edge somehow hooked itself to the golden fibers of the magi's robes, and gashed through the fabric, spreading the magical fire to ravage the sleeve even as the sword fell short, missing the meat of the dunmer's torso and gashing across his back.

The caster scampered away with a speed that was beguiling of his hefty build, and the soldier wiped his scimitar against the dirty white of the tabard that covered his armour. The human stood, puffing up to his full hieght, a few inches more than the dunmer, but it was an impressive gesture nonetheless. This fight had just begun.

::Edit::...maybe if I had included a poll? Or maybe just a pool.

that was good. keep it up!!

Well, the idea itself seems a little odd, if good practice for combat writing. I can't say it would attract many fans, being that there is no plot to speak of, but that hardly matters if you're enjoying it.

I liked the descriptions in the first paragraph, though some could have been a bit more clear. I'm having a little trouble imagining the scene, though the word "arena" brings such an image to mind that we can get by without a detailed picture.

One thing I'm noticing a lot is that a lot of your sentences are trying to tell more than they should. What I mean is that you put so many commas and separate phrases in there that we begin to lose track of the original purpose. It's a decent method of describing, but the reader only picks out about half of what you're trying to say. It's not really a bad thing, but I think separating them into their own sentences would work better.

The next thing I really didn't get: why did they get so angry so suddenly? In the first few paragraphs they seem fairly calm, but then they are suddenly "siezed" by this rage. I suppose since they are about to fight it makes sense for them to be upset, but to have it be such a sudden transition felt awkward.

The pace seems very slow for such a fight scene, as you spend a lot of time with these lengthy descriptions. It can really take away from the suspense and drama of the moment to take the time to describe things in such detail. Maybe it's just the narration style, I feel it's a bit too far out for such a battle, and that might be because you just introduce these characters suddenly, without making one the protagonist.

In fact, I think it leaves the reader less engaged that neither of these guys have been characterized or made to be good or evil. I mean, the mage seems the more evil of the two, but we still don't know these guys. I know it's just a combat scene, but it lacks the feel that other stories have with protagonists and developed characters going into the fray. It's the fault of the concept, not the writing, and if that's not what you're going for then that's fine, but it just doesn't seem as engaging as a normal, plot and character driven story.

Now, something actually about the combat: you begin with the people entering from different sides, which gives us an idea of a decent amount of distance between these two. Next, the mage's spells reinforce that idea, because the warrior seems to be rather passive, simply defending, which led me to imply that he can't strike because he is too far away. But then we get to a simple sword thrust, the attack appearing without mention of covering distance aside from a roll. I would imagine the roll would be to the side, and thus have not felt his going through space. There wasn't any buildup to the attack, and it felt kind of stranded in the paragraph.

You focus a lot on these character's actions and reactions, which is the proper way to make a decently paced fight scene, but I don't think there is enough mention of where they are. Maybe if you described the scene a bit more, not only in the introductory paragraph but throughout the battle, we could get a better feel for the combat.

Other than that it was very good, overall I liked it very much. Thanks for writing, and keep up the good work

I thought that it wasd an intresting piece, pretty decripive althought it could have had a bit more story

but twas quite good ^^