The Great NYC Symphony-Clarinet & Drum's Duel
~*~
Two armies had stared at each other all morning. The Magical Army of
Sforzend, perched on the walls of the city- and the Dragon Army of
Genrio Drum, perched just out of reach of those damned cannons. Neither
army was going to budge- and that was the problem. Even an army of
demonic dragons needed supplies- and they were running short. Sforzend
was running out of supplies as well.
Clari glared across the field from his perch aside one of the cannons,
unsure of where among the ranks Drum actually was. Sforzend was in the
worst position here. Soon, Drum's dragon ship would be arriving. He had
to goad Drum into attacking before he was ready.
From the other side of the "neutral zone", Drum glared at the figure
silhouetted against the castle. He was certain that was Clari..has to
be. Who else in Sforzend had hair that long? That would be allowed near
the cannons at any rate. Even Drum could figure that one out. Just a
day...and the Dragon ships would arrive and help him get rid of those
cannons. But it was so /dull/.....
Clari nodded to himself suddenly and started down for the ground, after
instructing the men to keep an eye on the Mazoku ranks. Then he slipped
out a small door by the huge gates, walking for the field. If he can
get rid of Drum, then the Dragon Army would likely dissolve into
internal fighting until another Hell King could take control. He walked
half way...then simply stood and waited. If anyone other than Drum
tried to take up his challenge, the cannon would take them out.
Hopefully /before/ they got close enough to Clari to put him in danger
from the cannon too.
Drum growled. So Clari wanted to fight, did he? What little
intelligence Drum had urged him not to take it up. All he had to do was
wait and be patient. Then Sforzend would fall and he could kill Clari
at his leisure. But...well, Drum never was noted for being intelligent.
Both heads smirking, the dragon lord strode out onto the field,
confidently approaching his much smaller opponent.
"Have you come to beg for mercy, little commander?" Drum sneered down
at him, making Clari wish breath mints existed in Hamelin. Either that,
or that Drum would stand a lot further away from him.
"Hardly." Before Drum could inflict his bad breath on him again, Clari
released the spell he'd laid into place while Drum had spent a good
fifteen minutes on deciding whether or not he should take up the
challenge. The ground exploded upward, sending Drum onto his back-
Clari soon landing on his chest to "gently" apply that staff to his
left head.
Drum roared in pain and rage that he fell for one of Clari's tricks
(again). One day, he may learn to not try to match wits against the
grand commander of Sforzend. Now, however, he was in an element he knew
very well. He surged up, trying to grab Clari, but caught only air as
Clari went with the motion, easily getting out of range. Then the
smaller priest darted in again, hoping to down Drum before he brought
his dragon arms into play.
-Back in the Castle-
Horn simply stared. If the messenger hadn't told her Clari's plan, she
would have thought her dear friend had lost his mind. He was gambling a
lot on this fight. Still, it did seem he was doing alright...until Drum
truly did bring those dragon arms into play. Horn's eyes widened and
then narrowed as her friend was driven back, simply fighting to stay
alive. Beating Drum right now was secondary, since he couldn't do it if
he was dead. Now it was her turn to interfere. She sent her attendants
away, preparing a spell to help down Drum.
-Back in Hamelin-
Bass frowned, also watching Drum and Clari's duel. Horn would soon try
to interfere. Drum was taking far too long to dispose of the girly
pest. Perhaps a bit of help was needed- before Horn offered her own.
-And now we take you back to the Main Event-
Clari was starting to get desperate. It seemed Drum hadn't been too
amused by the opening move....He dodged a few more times, then gave up
on getting near enough to attack. He back pedaled quickly, raising one
hand from the staff, a runic wheel of red light forming in his hand.
Drum roared again, expanding his arms for what he considered to be the
impressive final strike- and then three spells collided with /him/ as
the access point for two of them, only one aimed at Clari. The spells
had to cross paths to arrive at their destinations however..something
shown to both sides in a spectacular display of red and blue fireworks.
Dust enshrouded the two, hiding them from the view of both armies while
the two leaders of the warring countries looked on. Whose champion had
won?
Apparently..neither of them. As the dust settled, one thing was made
very clear...both Priest and Demon were quite gone from the
battlefield.
-And now on to the Real Fun-
"Lt. Barrens, please report to Central Park. We seem to have a
publicity stunt in progress."
Melissa Barrens sighed. Welcome to New York City...home of the unwanted
from everywhere else and glory seekers who couldn't make it to L.A. Oh,
well...maybe this one would prove amusing. That bit with the dinosaur
impersonator had gotten a few cheap laughs.
"I'm on my way. Want me to pick up anything on my way back from dealing
with these clowns?" She'd be off work then. Plenty of time to run some
errands for her friends, then go home and let her cat take over her lap
while she surfed for something interesting to watch on the tube.
The usual bad and overdone jokes about coffee and donuts were made as
she turns into Central Park- then they're suddenly cut off as Melissa
yelled in surprise- a young woman with long, gorgeous blond hair- and
no kidding about that long! It made Melissa's short cropped hair ache
in jealousy- and an odd purple and white dress having just slammed into
her wind shield. She only gets a moment to gape as the girl is suddenly
dragged off her car by a...giant lizard?
"What the- we really /do/ have alligators in the sewers?!" She jumps
out of the car, running towards where the girl is now being hoisted
into the air. It isn't hard to trace the lizard to it's source..and
even bigger and uglier lizard with two heads. "This is one hell of a
publicity stunt- STOP OR I'LL SHOOT!" She pulled her gun out, aiming at
the odd monster. This usually stopped these jokesters. In this case,
however, it only got the girl hurtled at her. Reflexively, she caught
hold of the woman as they fell, hands coming to grip on the front.
"Sorry miss!" Then they slammed into the pavement, leaving Melissa
sprawled and trying to breathe.
The attack doesn't continue however. All she hears are two incredulous,
male voices saying "/Miss/?"- accompanied by howling laughter from one.
-End Part One-
*sung slightly off key by author* Three spells a-clashing, two dragon
arms attackin', and a Clari in a Central park tree!
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