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Challenge of Champions [2v2]: Ambrosia/Atticus vs. Max/Mara


I think I am here.

Predictions and Thoughts!  

17 members have voted

  1. 1. Who do you think will win this fight?

    • Ambrosia/Atticus (Ark1002)
    • Max/Mara (Itiah)
  2. 2. Would you like to see more 2v2 battles?



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Isaac the Intern slowly chewed his crispy, golden double bagel. The rich crunching sound reverberated around the stadium. Unnoticed, a tiny drop of freshly melted butter rolled down the grill-kissed side of one bagel, plunged downward, and fell atop the face of the other bagel. It was heavenly. 

"Oh, hey," he said, noticing Riathor. "Want some?" He pulled his spare double bagel from the paper bag at his feet and threw it to him. "Tell your friends, bro. Caasi's Double Bagels, the best bagels at the arena.™"

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Isaac was unfazed. "Yeah man, take as many as you want." He gestured to the double bagel food truck in the seat beside him. Someone had painted a mustache on it to sneak it into the arena. Isaac was too desperate for a sale to worry about the motivations of his customers.  

 

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11 hours ago, Ark1002 said:

Ambrosia tapped speed, literally jumping on to him. Then she pulled out her knife and stabbed it into the eye hole, clicking the button to release the chalklings. They had a command to eat the target they were stabbed into.

***

Atticus felt a tooth fly out. A lot of teeth fly out. And his jaw, his jaw was broken. That had hurt. And that made him angry. He couldn't talk, so he just made a rude hand gesture and pulled out one of his extra lenses. Shamefillers lense. He focused it on her. It filled a victim with shame until they literally explode. She shouldn't have done that. She needed to die for that.

Max screamed, not for the first time this battle.

The knife didn't hurt nearly as much as the torturer's lens thing did, but it still hurt. Max felt the very tip of the knife stab into the side of Max's eye. Shouting and screaming, Max head-butted Ambrosia off of him. He took out the knife from his helmet, and saw the dozen's of chalklings escape from it, cascading up his arm to his face. They were savage, with vicious teeth and sharp claws. They all made their way to his helmet, and Max wondered what to do. They snapped, covering his helmet completely, desperate to get in. He only had one option left.

Max took off his helmet and threw it far across the arena with his enhanced strength. The chalklings would be attached to the helmet, and thus also thrown. It would probably be a while before they got to Max again.

Max turned to Ambrosia and attempted to pick her up. He Rioted her Hopelessness, her Laziness, her Lethargy. He enhanced it, he didn't want her to dodge. As he grabbed her, he attempted that back-breaking move he'd seen in that batman movie.

***

Mara shot a coin at Isaac.

Mara felt shame. At first she thought it was emotional Allomancy, that Max was Rioting her emotions. But it wasn't zinc that was doing this. It was her conscience. (wait) She deserved to feel shame. She'd point-blanked Aon Sheo'd someone! (stop). She'd used one of the deadliest Aons to exist on her opponent, and she'd even broken a jaw. Atticus hadn't broken her jaw, had he? (stop). He'd only torn a few muscles, but that was nothing compared to knocking out all of someone's teeth. Mara felt bad. She felt the guilt and shame bubble up in her stomach. She knew she had done something wrong (wait a second). She knew that she deserved whatever thing was happening to her (wait this is a duel!). She understood she'd crossed the line (you're meant to hurt each other!). The bubbling in her stomach only expanded (wake up!). She felt like dying (WAKE UP). She felt like exploding. And she d-

(WAAAAAKE UUUUUUP!

Something changed. Mara felt like her insides were going to burst. She felt guilty, but she was going to die. Did she deserve it? She felt her helmet's calming Aon's trying to tell her she was being manipulated. But... she felt... guilty? She looked at the source but tried not to see anything. Her eyes came on the lens Atticus wore. It was maroon tinted, and Mara's minds warred while she felt like exploding, but, she... just had to -

Her hand crushed the lens just as she felt like exploding into a million pieces. She didn't feel shame anymore. No, she felt anger. Max had sometimes played with her emotions when they were kids, and Mara had hated it with a passion. And now, it was being used against her, by a Spiked, of all people?! She could see the spike right now, right up close. That throbbing thing of hate.

Mara outstretched her hand and attempted to pull it out.

Edited by I think I am here.
Edited the Chalkling emotion attack out
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Was that...? Riathor? At the duel? That rusting git was back without telling Devaan! Devaan ran over to Riathor.

"Maaaate! Where've you been for the past 6 years?" He asked Riathor, his half-brother had gotten a whole lot stronger while he'd been away. He noticed that Riathor's weapons now hung comfortably at his sides instead of clutched in his hands. He seemed more confident then before.

"What do you think of the twins? I trained them myself" Devaan said proudly.

***

"Devaan just left us." Astiel said to Silphio

"Yup, he just saw someone he hadn't seen in 15 years"

"Who?"

"Riathor Hasting. Your Uncle. He's also a mistborn"

"He is? so that's where I got it." Astiel wondered about the man, similar angular features to Devaan, but he was taller than the terrismen. Astiel absentmindedly flipped a coin.

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8 minutes ago, I think I am here. said:

Hey. About the Chalklings, the Chalklings in the Rithmatist are scared of the gear-coins when Joel shows them, so I assumed they felt emotions, and therefore could be manipulated.

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I'd dispute that. The chalkings that were afraid of the gears were wild chalklings. They appear to have different properties than regular ones. For example, they can act more independently. The chalklings Ambrosia is using are basically robots with standing orders. I don't think they'd have enough sentience to be rioted. (I can't be positive about this though, since there aren't many WoBs on rithmatics.)

 

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Hmm. Well, the main problem with both arguments is melody's relationship with the chalklings. I'd say if you made the emotion be something that follows their nature, then sure. I don't think they are capable of fear. Archer is the mediator of course, so his judgment is the final one. 

 

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I won't respond to the post from Max's perspective, but I can still respond to Mara's, right?

Atticus watched the gauntlet-clad hand shoot toward his spike. And that made him angry. That could kill him! So he did the only thing he could think off. He pushed her as hard as he could and ran toward Max.

***

Ambrosia was lifted off the ground, but she had pewter and steel. Tapping a lot of steel and flaring pewter as high as it would go, she twisted in his arms, and punched toward the middle of his chest as hard as she could while she dropped to the ground.

Edited by Ark1002
Forgot to respond to attack... :P
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Nice.

 

8 minutes ago, Ark1002 said:

Ambrosia saw him take of his helmet. That was a weakness. She didn't have a helmet, but he would be used to not having a helmet. Tapping speed, draining about half of her remaining reserves, she drew a line of revocation on her knife and stabbed it toward the exposed back of his head while activating the line of revocation.

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Wait a sec, I think you have to defend against my attack first before doing your own.

Unless you don’t want to defend :P

(plus, knife is somewhere on floor)

 

Edited by I think I am here.
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Thanks, both of you, for being so flexible. 

Atticus: 64 HP

Ambrosia: 89 HP

Max: 58 HP

Mara: 66 HP

Knife to the eye does 5 HP of damage. Chalklings do 14 points of damage. 

Shamefiller's lens attack cooks her squishy bits, doing 15 HP of damage. 

EDIT: For Ambrosia's move, I'll just call no harm, no fowl. She avoids having her back broken, Max's pushed back just enough to let go of her, but no one's hurt. 

 

Edited by Archer
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15 hours ago, Ark1002 said:

Atticus watched the gauntlet-clad hand shoot toward his spike. And that made him angry. That could kill him! So he did the only thing he could think off. He pushed her as hard as he could and ran toward Max.

***

Ambrosia was lifted off the ground, but she had pewter and steel. Tapping a lot of steel and flaring pewter as high as it would go, she twisted in his arms, and punched toward the middle of his chest as hard as she could while she dropped to the ground

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Fun fact: I originally planned Rashan to be a Steel/Pewter Twinborn, and then one day I said ‘storm it’ and made him a Leecher.

Also, does Atticus get any damage from the broken glass right above his eye?

Max got pushed a slight distance and dropped Anbrosia. He heard something to his side so he turned his head.

***

Mara landed on the ground as gracefully as she could as Atticus ran away. But why? It didn’t seem at all like a move for someone as protected as Atticus to make. Had he been scared off by the punch?

That was before she saw where he was running to. Max and Ambrosia. They were going to gang-up on him. Mara couldn’t let happen. Especially not with that spike sticking out of Atticus.

With a growl, she sprinted forward, activating her Aons for more speed. Throwing a coin, she pushed herself onto Atticus’ back. With another heave she tried pulling on the power pack again with all her strength. If it wouldn’t tear off she hoped it would distract Atticus. At least before -

Max looked at them.

***

Max looked at Atticus, and saw the spike. Almost immediatly, memories came to him. Memories of that night, 16 years ago.

Abominations. Spiked with powers beyond Max’s undestanding. They splashed the walls with blood. Max had seen with his own eyes. Looking at that spike, the one Atticus held in his eye, and Max couldn’t help but see a thing that had killed so many of his friends and probably his family.

He froze, his muscles locking in place. He no longer had his helm to keep his mind calm, and the screams of men long dead ravaged his brain.

He looked at Mara, on Atticus’ back. Oh, how she had always tried to get him to stop freezing up. She’d always tried to calm him and it had worked for the most part. She’d been protective of him. She’d even tried to talk Max out of this duel.

His eyes moved to the crowd, and he found Master Sheonar in it. He too had tried to help Max. Countless lessons and talks, he’d taught Max to deal with his fear.

Somewhere in Max’s brain, a piece of him screamed to move, screamed to no longer be bound by his trauma. It was quiet, and small, like a candle in an ocean of darkness. It grew, and Max’s memories tried to fight back.

But more and more, Max felt support. He remembered his lessons with the Ghostbloods. Weakness was a problem for an assassin, and they’d tried hard to rid Max of his.

He remembered his therapy lessons with other trauma victims. He remembered running away from Siplhio time and time again, until he finally came to terms with the spike. That’s where all of this was leading to, wasn’t it?

He’d always thought the solution to his trauma was to fight it back, like he’d done with everything else. It’d worked in the short-term, sure, but it only spelled pain later.

No, if Max was to really deal with his trauma, he had to accept it. It would be painful. It would hurt, and it wouldn’t be nice. But if Max was to really, really get on the track to fix this, this would where he’d start.

The screams and flashbacks swarmed him, but Max took a deep breath, and stepped forward to greet them. His muscles followed his command, and for the first time in a long while, Max unfroze himself.

He took a step backwards, and stared Atticus in the eye as the armoured man charged. He felt like hell inside, but he took a deep breath,

and supertapped an entire metalmind to Riot Atticus.

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Note:

I don’t know a thing about trauma or how to recover from it. I may be completely wrong, so don’t take this seriously.

 

Edited by I think I am here.
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21 hours ago, Nohadon said:

Was that...? Riathor? At the duel? That rusting git was back without telling Devaan! Devaan ran over to Riathor.

"Maaaate! Where've you been for the past 6 years?" He asked Riathor, his half-brother had gotten a whole lot stronger while he'd been away. He noticed that Riathor's weapons now hung comfortably at his sides instead of clutched in his hands. He seemed more confident then before.

"What do you think of the twins? I trained them myself" Devaan said proudly.

***

"Devaan just left us." Astiel said to Silphio

"Yup, he just saw someone he hadn't seen in 15 years"

"Who?"

"Riathor Hasting. Your Uncle. He's also a mistborn"

"He is? so that's where I got it." Astiel wondered about the man, similar angular features to Devaan, but he was taller than the terrismen. Astiel absentmindedly flipped a coin.

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WHAT??? HALF BROTHER??? UNCLE??? WHAT???

Riathor munched on the double bagel. "Yeah, they're pretty good," he said. "I'm cheering for them. You told them who I am?"

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Atticus broke. He had been running, but know he was pure emotion. He was screaming, and crying, and laughing. But overall, he had one emotion, an emotion as natural to him as breathing. Rage. Rage washed over him, and he realized what was wrong with him. He was becoming another Hellbent, and this was not helping.

Stop crying and get up! This is a duel!

The rage didn't stop, it engulfed him, and he found he liked the feeling. Another Hellbent. He could be Hellbent's heir. Live up to the title. And he stood up, rioting and all. All he felt was rage, it burned away the other emotions. So this is how Hellbent felt. He walked forward towards Max, still screaming and crying. And grinning. He was grinning maniacally even through his broken jaw. Pain was there too. But he relished it. ANd he tackled Max, loving the pain coursing through his body.

***

Ambrosia looked on, terrified. They shouldn't have done that! They might as well have brought back my father! The only difference was power, and Atticus was still plenty powerful. Then it happened. He tackled Max. Mara wasn't expecting anything. So she tapped two weeks worth of steel, and used the opportunity. The world slowed to a standstill. She ran over and grabbed her knife, then ran behind Mara, shooting with her laser rifle at point blank multiple times, then stabbing down at lightning speed with her knife, straight toward her skull, which she hoped would be exposed from her bolts.

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Not with one spike. It was said it took three spikes for Harmony to control somebody in BoM. Also, if Itiah knocks out Atticus, he might want to kill him while he is down. The damage he just did would irreparably make him a second monster of destruction, like Hellbent was.

 

Edited by Ark1002
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Atticus: 63 HP [Itiah's right, I should have taken off one for the lens. Glass in the eye does some damage]

Ambrosia: 89 HP

Max: 58 HP

Mara: 66 HP

EDIT: Question: What impact does Max's attack have on Atticus?

Precedent:

Vin was able to free Marsh from Ruin.

Vin could control the koloss.

Ruin was able to trick Vin via her spike.

Spook is influenced by Ruin.

Lessie was brought under control via a single spike.

Marsh may have spiked Bloody Tan to allow him to ‘kill’ Lessie.

These examples are all very powerful beings. Ruin’s a shard, Vin’s the most powerful mistborn ever, and Marsh is Death. Their targets varied too. Lessie’s spiritweb was very weak, making her more susceptible to emotional alomancy. And the koloss and inquisitors had numerous spikes. Our example is someone with a single spike. It’s my opinion that his spiritweb isn’t too badly damaged. His space marine modifications altered his physical bod, but didn’t alter his soul.

An interesting note by a Reddit user (paraphrased): TLR likely controlled the Steel Inquisitors. They had a dozen spikes, he was a powerful mistborn, so it would have been easy. But, he only had indirect (emotional allomancy based) control. At the end of book 1, he had to yell something like "Inquisitors, to me!" to summon them. He also couldn't force Marsh to obey him later in that scene. So emotional alomancy doesn’t allow you to give instructions mentally, but can make the recipient very likely to obey your will when you do command them.

I agree with this. It’s my opinion that to control someone with allomancy, your rioting must overcome their will to not do what you suggest. If they’re conscious of it, it’s harder to overcome their will (case study: that girl Breeze was wooing. I forget her name, but she commented that he wasn’t very subtle.)

WoB time! Here’s the two most applicable ones I found:

 [Duralumin rioting someone’s complacency, then soothing all other emotions], ‘has a good chance of succeeding, depending. Remember, emotional Allomancy is NOT mind control. And a duralumin-fueled blast of emotion is going to draw a lot of attention to itself, but will still be stunning.’

While Max could only do half of this, the questioner was asking in the context of whether this technique would work to defeat someone using atium, making them vulnerable to a quick strike. Brandon thought it would. But as he notes, you can’t control someone’s thought, you control how they feel. The person’s likely to notice, but depending on the emotion you choose to riot, they won’t be in a position to stop you. This example was for an UNSPIKED person. The technique would work better on a spiked person because they’re more open to emotional alomancy. It’s worth noting that Brandon considers eye spikes(and central spikes) to be more connected to Preservation’s power than others, hence why they can’t be removed without killing you, but others can. This means Atticus is more vulnerable to alomancy than someone with an earing spike would be. (WoB source)

Here’s another interesting one:

‘TenSoon and the other kandra resist Ruin and are able to pull the spikes from their shoulders. There are a couple of reasons why they can do this.

The power that Allomancers have to take control of them is the same power Ruin has. That control is exerted in the form of mental pressure through emotional Allomancy. As can be seen from Marsh's viewpoint, it is more than simply forcing the body to act as Ruin wishes. The extreme pressure on emotions changes the very way the mind thinks, tricking it into doing exactly what Ruin wants. The flaw in Hemalurgists leaves them open to this kind of manipulation.

Kandra, who only have two spikes, are far more difficult to control than koloss or Inquisitors. Vin is able to control TenSoon with ease in book two, but that's partially because he wanted her to do so. He would have been able to resist her. If she'd continued to push, she could have broken him, but it would have taken time.

Even Ruin's pressure wasn't enough to take control immediately. The kandra had a few moments during which they could overcome him and maintain their free will. Beyond that, they were in a cavern surrounded by metal ore in the walls, making it very difficult for Ruin to see what was going on and interfering with his ability to control them.’

So, to control Atticus nearly completely, Max would have to apply enough mental pressure to overcome his free will. As far as susceptibility to emotional alomancy goes, he’s about as vulnerable as a kandra. If he decided not to oppose Max’s attack, Max could control him. If Max attacked him persistently with the power of Vin (which I’ll say he can equal with duralumin), he could eventually take control, but he’d have to maintain the pressure on him to prevent him from breaking free.

Therefore, Max cannot control Atticus specifically. But what can he do?

Subtly rioting someone, so they don’t notice your altering their emotions, has a small, but palpable, impact on them. Atticus’ spike makes him extra vulnerable to this.

My best guess is that aggressively rioting someone can have the same impact as copious amounts of alcohol. The victim has trouble thinking straight, acts impulsively, gets tired and weakened easily, ignores small details, and their fine motor control becomes worse.

If Max riots him aggressively, Atticus should react according to his base impulses, not planning much in advance. He’ll have to expend energy to fighting Max emotionally, as well as physically.

If Max continues his assault, it will just keep getting worse as time goes by. If he continues his assault at duralium levels of strength, Atticus will get worse faster.

Interestingly, there’s a good chance Atticus will be severely injured at some point. The more energy he has to expend to keep himself together physically, the less he’ll be able to focus on stopping Max from controlling him. If he hits 15 HP or lower, and Max is capable of a strong assault, then he may be able to seize control.

But I digress. All that’s just a side effect of Max trying to brute force his way into Atticus. If Max tries a more specialized attack, even if it’s at a lower level of power, it will impact Atticus. If he riots complacency, Atticus will be disposed to being more complacent. He won’t magically become docile and give up, but his behaviour will change.

What is he tried this on Ambrosia? He could change the way she acts, especially if she’s unaware he’s doing it, but he couldn’t take full control of her in this setting, even with he training he’s got (which I do credit with improving his abilities to savant level, which allows him to do stuff at the same level as Vin could).

Instructions: Itiah, if you’re trying to take control of Atticus, generic rioting will do. If you’d like to have a specific effect, please specify the emotions you’re rioting.

Ark, in response, Atticus’ will should weaken. If this continues, I’d like to see him grow worse and worse at resisting the attacks. Max’s most recent attack wasn’t very subtle, so I’ll allow you to recognize it’s alomancy, but make sure it still has a noticeable impact on your actions. If Max riots aggressive emotions consistently, it could make him, as you say, a Hellbent-like monster. But if varies the emotions he attacks, or riots emotions like docility, he’ll become more like the drunk description above. It shouldn’t have the effect of making him a better fighter. Maybe a more aggressive one, but he'll be sloppier too. As tempting as it is to totally Hulk-out, I’d ask that you don’t. Keep the amount of manipulation hat he can bear to a reasonable level.

 

Edited by Archer
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10 hours ago, Archer said:

Instructions: Itiah, if you’re trying to take control of Atticus, generic rioting will do. If you’d like to have a specific effect, please specify the emotions you’re rioting.

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Sure. Also, great post!

Also Ark, I’m going to assume you shot at the head, because you said it would be exposed by the bolts.

Mara managed to hop off Atticus as he went beserk. Had Max done something? He’d taken a step back, which meant he hadn’t frozen up completely, and that hsf to be good, right? Mara took out her duel obsidian short-swords to help Max but -

Just as Atticus tackled Max a blur filled Mara’s vision and an explosion of power at the back of her head sent her flying into the ground. Her Shardplate Helm was shattered in a dozen pieces, and Mara felt a massive dizziness.

The blur returned again, with a knife, and Mara tried to unsuccessfully ready herself. Her Aons made her fast, but not nearly fast enough, and Mara only managed to hold her swords ahead of her as the blur charged into her.

***

Max was brave.

He’d done it, hadn’t he? He’d faced his fears! So why was he still trembling as Atticus sprinted at him. The man’s face was a melting pot of emotions, and the sheer feral nature of it only reminded Max more of the Abominations. He had to face the truth.

He’d faces his fears, but that didn’t mean they were gone. He’d stopped himself from freezing up, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t scared.

Atticus ran into him with a tackle, the duo falling on the compacted dirt that made up the floor. He seemed... angry. Had Max accidentally Rioted anger? He quickly tried to change his Riot. Submission, Hopelessness, Resignation, he tried to Riot these emotions.

Back in the Ghostblood lab, they hadn’t told him what emotions to Riot if he wanted to control a spiked, but Max assumed these were the way to go.

As was forced to the ground, Max tried to think of an attack but his hands were shaking. What could he do, what could he do? Mental attacks were one thing, but if M-

There.

Max looked to the back of Atticus’ armour. There was a backpack there. It looked damaged. Had Mara been attacking it? Why? She knew more about Space Marine tech than he did, what were the things she’d said we’re weaknesses?

Mobility, stealth, Power Pack. 

If Max remembered correctly, the Power Pack would lie on a Marine’s back and power the suit. Mara had been attacking it, and Max had to finish the job.

Laying a hand over the Power Pack, Max flared his Aons for strength one more time as he grabbed onto the pack and tried his absolute best to rip it out.

His mind was focused on nothing else, his arms desperately trying to finish what Mara had started.

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So, with three attacks on the Power Pack, can we consider that gone?

 

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Seems right. Power pack will require some serious repairs afterwards if it's ever to be used again.

Atticus: 62 HP

Ambrosia: 87 HP

Max: 50 HP

Mara: 33 HP

Atticus was infuriated. That makes the attack her chose more effective. Two fists, plus whatever elbowing and jabs he throws in as they roll upon the ground deals 8 points of damage. Max's is smaller, and he's focused on escape, so he'll only get one point of damage in as he grapples.

What's interesting to note is that at super speed, Ambrosia would be frustrated by how slowly the trigger of her gun moves, and how slowly it fires. As good as Mara's helmet is, a barrage like that will harm her, even if its just the shrapnel of it tearing apart. - 5 HP. 

I'm going to do damage for the knife attack now, even though it technically hasn't happened yet. But assuming Ambrosia stabs the knife downward, aimed for the top of Mara's spine. Mara's response to the sudden pain would be to flick back her swords, as if sheathing them on her back. That's just instinct. Ambrosia would get nicked, but the damage is done, Mara has a knife wound in her neck. 28 points of damage (because that's an important part of the body).

 

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I want to win, but I'm scared what will happen with Atticus if I do... so I hope to win with Atticus dead.

Atticus screamed, and howled, and twitched. He squirmed on top of Max, in a incredibly base and primal form, then it hit him. He froze, starting to become under the control of Max. He was weakened, nearly controlled, and pulled out his small handgun. Fumbling, he shot it at Max's head from point blank. Then he went still. He was under Max's control.

***

Ambrosia's knife flew true, sinking into the exposed neck, and she smiled. She pulled it out, blood gleaming. Then she saw Atticus. Spasming. Rust and Ruin! 

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