KOV: The First Round - Aztek verus Midnight Lantern

King of the Vine, a title Aztek had heard often yet never once seen attributed to anyone. For a third time he was a contestant in this, as of yet unfinished, tournament.

In a desolate wasteland, known for its arid climate, the sun bakes the rocks and clay beneath it and Aztek stands upon this hardened earth.

Aztek awaits the arrival of his opponent in the first round, a man called Midnight Lantern, a man Aztek has fought before.

"Hello Eddie Rix...we meet again." Aztek smiled, "Though this time you'll find a very different opponent." Aztek laughed as he swiftly fashioned a tornado that he sent after the insignificant child.

The King of the Vine, An honour that Midnight had merely heard of once before, A collection of Comicvine's finest warriors sent to battle to rip each other apart in the hopes of being engraved as a legend. A crown would be set upon the winners head, and he....or she, Would be forever more known as the King or Queen depending upon gender.

The desert like wasteland had set a backdrop for one of the first fights, A white clad man stood in the distance with two six shooters in his hands. Thuding the ground with his snake skin white boots, The small he walked closer and closer to Aztek, The metal spur spinning round as he kept going foward.

Aztek had already set the mood for a fight as a sadistic grin wept across his face, "Hello Eddie Rix...we meet again." He said with a cold darkened tone.

"Though this time you'll find a very different opponent" Aztek laughed demonically.

"Well, The last oppenent was kinda of a sissy, Sorry but somebody had to tell ya'" Midnight quipped as Aztek formed a tornado from his hands and sent it flying towards the Cow-boy known as Midnight.

ML simply turned Intangible and let the tornado just phase on through him, Upon returning to tangibilitly, He took a long draw off a cig and blew the smoke into the air before flicking it away.

"C'mon Aztek. Let's dance"

He chuckled as he fired off four bullets from his guns.

As Aztek banters with Midnight he is surprised to find the foolish kid insulting he, this boy would either learn respect or have to pay the consequences, Aztek was hoping for the latter option.

As he casually sent a small twister at the cocky little bastard he smiled when Midnight casually avoided it by allowing it to phase through himself. The white cowboy then took a puff of his cigarette only to throw it aside. With a little laugh, he fired four rounds at Aztek.

The Master of Shadows watched in surprise...bullets? Did Midnight forget who he was messing with, what were bullets to do against the Star of Darkness. The power he could wield was far beyond anything mortal man possessed, what would a weapon crafted by foolish humans do to him...nothing.

With but a flick of his wrist, shadows shot out from him, forming a shield that easily deflected the bullets, however, the devious Aztek had secretly created a dimensional tear invisible to the naked eye and allowed a single bullet to pass through it. As it traveled between dimensions, no one could have ever known it had not suffered the same fate as the other three rounds. So it was that Aztek hoped Midnight would be caught off guard when the speeding bullet hit him in the back of the head.

The Son of Chaos then let down his shadow shield and rushed at high speeds for Midnight, transforming his genetic make-up as he did. Pre-expecting the man to go intangible should he survive the impact of the bullet Aztek was already two steps ahead. Instantaneously he transformed his entire body into a highly radioactive cloud of radon, invisible to ML but if inhaled, likely to cause death. So it was that he waited for either of his two attacks to take effect...

His hat tipped to the side and sun glistening off his white face mask, The gloves were off and hell was to be unleashed tonight. Two men coming from completely different walks of life.

Midnight, A man who barely even understood what he was or why he had his powers, was now trying to kill Aztek in cold blood, Versus, Aztek, the Star of Darkness, The horsmen of war and the Accursed Blade.

The bullets escaping from the Barrel with smoke flying behind them, but the Fire-arm's attack had done nothing to even scratch The Lost one. Shadows would now shoot forth from Aztek himself forming a shield that easily deflected the bullets, However only visible to those with a trained eye, The bullet would fly through the darkness and began tearing through dimensions and space, A portal opened up behind his head and was ready to hit him when suddenly Aztek would charge at great speed for the Lantern, Changing his appearence as he ran...Finally assuming the shape of an invisible cloud of Radioactive Raon Dust.

Turning Intangible and Invisible, He dodged both the bullet and the noxious dust, He now utilized the Intangibility power and sunk into the very ground below.

As Aztek waited for his unstoppable attack to take effect he found himself surprised, despite all his preparations when ML went intangible and then simply, disappeared into earth, Aztek began to hope that perhaps the cowboy would become visible while still beneath the surface so that the fool would die instantaneously.

What a coward, Aztek thought, the fool was simply trying to escape his inevitable defeat but Aztek knew there was nowhere Rix could hide, he would perish and for this insolence he would die screaming. As he thought these Aztek slowly reverted to his human form, awaiting ML to come to him.

Readying himself for Midnight's attack he transformed into pure adamantium, wearing an armor of shadows, and making dozens of vacuum-like portals that would kill all who got sucked into their depths. He was ready...

With a deep long breath and whilst being underground and Invisible and Intangible, Midnight had to keep up with Aztek and so he began forming a plan within his mind...

He's just outta my leauge, Raon Dust, Twisters....What am I gonna' do?

Slowly, He phased through the ground and looked for anything around to help him in defeating the Star of Darkness known as Aztek, But alas the sand baked sun kissed desert setting had nothing to offer but dry earth...But perhaps that was the answer? He did'nt have time to contemplate an idea because the Vine Villain had turned into a body of adamantium that proudly wore an armour of dark, Dozens upon dozens of vacuum portals opened all around, Aztek obviously thought that Midnight was going to turn tangible the second he arrived back on soil and get sucked up. But Midnight knew wiser, Once again, He sunk down into the earth and stood exactly underneath Aztek's feet. His arms reached up as his hands slowly solidified to where only his hands were visible and tangible outside of the ground.

With a fluid movement, The cowboys hands attempted to reach around Aztek's ankles and pull him down into the earth.

With a deadly cackle he shouted "Get down here!"

Aztek stood, the man seemed to be far above anything Midnight could throw at him, and so he awaited the coward's arrival, knowing that there was no one the fool could survive this trap set for him, Aztek was controlling this man's fate and there was NOTHING Midnight could do about it.

Suddenly he heard a voice call out from the earth as two hands reached up for his legs and a voice shouted out, "Get down here!"

Aztek felt himself being pulled down and though he tried to fight it with air currents he found this effort to be to no avail as his intangibility caused him to be unable to move himself.

But at that point the thought dawned on him and he swiftly became a cloud of helium, swiftly rising into the sky he found himself to be intangible by his own will now and immune to Midnight's powers.

Yet he realized the only way he could get Midnight is if he breached the barrier of intangibility, it is then that he realizes he must use the shadows, for they grasped the soul.

Aztek's eyes went black as shadowy tentacles burst forth from his body and grabbed at the half exposed Midnight, they were going to wrap themselves around him and pull him up, up to Aztek who would feast on the soul of this foolish innocent.