[Holiday Tourney - FINAL!] Darksaint vs Bentley

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Philosophía
https://ci.memecdn.com/11854737.jpg

Darksaint:
- Absorbing Man
- Max Lord
- X-O Manowar

https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_super/11121/111216631/4651925-2672954724-26158.jpg

Bentley:
- Coldcast
- Colossus
- Quicksilver

Battlefield will be a merger of non-populated DC/Marvel Earth but with no tech other than what you have on you/what participants can create .

Prep: 1h prep. You can build stuff, put up defenses, prepare offense etc. You can run around the globe, you can teleport, you can fly, in that time. But you can't affect the actual battlefield - once the match starts it resets so you only have what you carried/created on you. When the minute is up you go through a portal which takes you to the reset battlefield.

Standard tourney rules: 0.5km starting distance. No BFR. No CIS. Posters are in control.

Philosophía
Bentley's opening post:

I have a weird but still pretty safe game plan all in all. It would seem that my team is rather mediocre at prep when compared to that of my opponent's, but the fact we are limited to technology we are currently carrying makes it less of a crafter contest and more of a time to set up the winning strategy. I have more speed and more raw power. But I have also ideas.

1st part of the plan: Colossus made me do it

First of all, before we randomized the location for our prep time one of my suggestions was Melbourne and this is part of my plan. I'm going to the Australian Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants (ALEC) (https://alec.science.unimelb.edu.au/#tab17) , because it happens that Australia is a rich country that's part of the Antartic treaty and has a big natural environment so it only makes sense that they posses a sample of one of the worst contaminants known by modern science: Antartic Vibranium. Let's not forget this is a Marvel/DC Earth amalgam and that while tech is unavailable, materials are still there. Hence I'm going to procure myself this probably small sample of vibranium.

I'll be able to locate this sample with documentation through my super speed https://justpaste.it/img/c10ad92cd0636ed54fc76560ccc0432f.png and no physical barrier can resist Colossus's strength. I do have a build in way to prove the sample found is anti-metal since Piotr has an adverse involuntary reaction to it:

https://justpaste.it/img/40d6df5fa96b3176be24e1c8d32af686.jpg

2nd part of the plan: Piggybacking

Quicksilver remains the fastest threat in the field so it's time to make him the most dangerous threat too. I'm going to shield Pietro and Coldcast together so they are cozy and protected:

https://imgur.com/my8JUub

But Coldcast will be riding on Quicksilver's back in a way that no adult with self-respect would do, but this is a plan of Bentley's and self-respect is irrelevant. This shield will be pretty specific, it'll be set so Pietro can run by carrying Coldcast at high speeds and it's mostly there so Coldcast doesn't suffer any ill-effect from QS exerting his power. An the same time Pietro's and Coldcast's hands will be able to leave the shield if extended five centimenters or so from their initial position, the idea is that Pietro can get his hands out of the shield or move Nathan's arm outside it, so it delivers a shocking painful death:

https://imgur.com/TWUDkpj

So this time around I'm not just twisting the neck of an undefended opponent, I'm downright plowing through your armor before you get to think. Energy will be flowing into Coldcast hands and upon touch will vaporize the opponent immediately.

And I will use half an hour of my time to practice so that this shield "horseknight" set up works as intended, first at lesser speeds then with more and more potency.

3rd part of the plan: Crystal Clear

I'm assuming my opponent will use his prep to set up some passive defense that will prevent us for carrying this plan without opposition. I'm guessing it'll be a permutation of setting up shields and using cloaking. Since I'm cost effective I'm simply going to pick up some colored glass and put it inside a pouch. By throwing it at high speeds towards my opponent at the beginning of the match I'll gauge where they are even if invisible (since the glass will bounce off them or off their shielding). and I don't even really need to slow down massively since from the starting position I'll a good guess how far the opponent should be (if any of them is visible it'll be a death giveaway, if not I can easily cover the perimeter of 500 meters and throw glass with no problem)

If my opponent is shielded I'm not going to try to have Coldcast touch him right away and I'll have him use the array of attacks I'll list further down during my offense.

Back to non-basics

Having a small silver of vibranium is cute and all, but what I intend to do is to have Coldcast copy the vibration produced by Anti-metal and reproduce it on a much wider range. By definition he can manipulate and sense the Electromagnetic specter and has been able to mimic energies in the past:

https://imgur.com/kXwKTUr

I have Colossus and his aversion to vibranium to test that I'm 100% copying the vibration as intended so if this doesn't work I would just scrap this part of the plan. But otherwise it presents me with a clear path to defeat Creel: any techonolgy he copies, I'm melting, any energy he imitates I'm dissipating with my manipulative abilities.

I'll take ten minutes of rest before heading into the fight.

The start of the fight: Speed Kills again

Colossus is in metal form and carrying a very big rock that he'll throw with full strength at the biggest threat. Coldcast and Quicksilver are shielded as described above, imprevious to energy attacks, carrying a pouch of glass (I'll also place my vibranium in there just in case). Coldcast has previously charged his extended hand with enough energy to blow up a small moon. As soon as the bell ring he throws a EMP blast:

https://imgur.com/LRTmlhX

Then he manipulated any shield if there are any still standing (if there are he'll stop charging energy in his hand) and then he bursts out a AOE blast that shuts down brains:

https://justpaste.it/img/e89c000bd839fded01ea52beaef1d864.jpg

As you can see his every ability is in no need of aiming so during that time Pietro can be using his movement for defense and offense depending on what he has gauged from.the glass I sent as DS's team. Ultimately we will dispose of Maxwell and Aric in the first moments of this battle and the only one who probably struggles before going down is Creel, but our superior mobility and versatility will seal the deal for us at that point.

Philosophía

DarkSaint85

Bentley
Man, I brought a bunch of glass for this fight and somehow that's less brittle than Darksaint's points. But enough trashtalk let's get to it.



I'm so powerful DS needs me to beat myself


...It's not happening though. First of all let's check a few details of my post that were missed by my opponent:

Colossus is in metal form and carrying a very big rock that he'll throw with full strength at the biggest threat. Coldcast and Quicksilver are shielded as described above, imprevious to energy attacks, carrying a pouch of glass (I'll also place my vibranium in there just in case).

At the start of the battle the vibranium is in QS's pouch nowhere near Colossus so he is not in human form and he is instead carrying a boulder he'll use to either distract Creel or kill one of the remaining fighters of the team. Now that I've clarified that Piotr is going at full steam DS is clearly outmatched, ggs

This also dispels the notion that QS is not a threat. After shields go down Vibranium will go through the Manowar armor like butter:

https://imgur.com/PQjBlAt

When thrown fast enough it'll also plow through Maxwell's skull. In the same vein, despite him being a though son of a b_tch Arin won't last much against random rocks thrown at him at match speeds.


https://justpaste.it/img/156ff39e3760b2e9f21eefac01b248e2.png

He might even be able to tear appart Creel:

https://justpaste.it/img/c287a5df5baf320a0dcf35948e2807e8.png

Imagine Pietro soloing QS's team after he claims he can't do much to them lol



Who's shield is it anyways


So, in a scan interpretation worthy of Alberto's, my opponent brought two scans claiming that the shield that protected Manchester Black and Coldcast in this two scans was done by the Hat:

https://postimg.cc/LnKnsL2q
https://postlmg.cc/F7y1kzHT


His logic being that the shield dropped after the Hat was koed and I assume that in his mind the winds at five hundred miles per hour conveniently stopped at that very point to keep Nathan and Manchie safe. Also dismissing that if the Hat was able to cast the shield over himself instead of just facing the wind he'd have been alright. The justification: a line where Coldcast says he's not able to blister the whole moon ... While implying he might be able to match Kal if he gets to grab him. The Hat's powerset is pulling off magic things off his hat and invulnerability, he's obscure but just check his powerset.

I mean, it's even Coldcast who says they are "lockdown" while in the other hard the Runefield makes the Hat physically invulnerable, he's more or less explaining why he didn't also shield the Hat. Manchester realizes first this was a mistake.

So I have shields and even if I didn't during my prep time I clearly stated that we were going to try this piggyback experiment progressively so I'm not incapacitating my teammates, I made this plan to be safe. Let alone the fact Coldcast already teamed up with a speedster and has been proved to be fine after moving at the speed of light:

https://imgur.com/Vzp8c0H

Now after dispelling all of DS's second post, let's put him into trouble:


Not your dad's Manowar Armor

My opponent brought the Gafti showing where Arin's best friend kamikazes himself to destroy an Alien armada:

https://justpaste.it/img/76e8196eea...0209648690f.jpg
https://justpaste.it/img/30ea099b2b...9309f4ac884.jpg
https://justpaste.it/img/b2553ddf59...bdcb56ee5c4.jpg

That is pretty much the best showing that anyone other than Arin has ever achieved with his armor: flying in a straight line and dying. By giving this armor to an unexperienced Maxwell Lord he just got rid of every cool ability this machine has because this is not just a tool, it bonds with the user and it's 100% certain that sharing feats through users is misleading.

The Gafti showing happens really early in the series but he also brought much modern armor feats so we know he is using a late Manowar armor. The process of bonding has been going on further since Arin ever donned the suit, this is an ongoing plot point of the Manowar series. Let's hear it from the armor itself:

https://imgur.com/dVItksE

"We are bonded. Aric, you and I. Unlike you... I can be with no other"

Can Maxwell even wear the armor now? Can you prove it'll bond well enough under an hour so he has bullet time reflexes?

So yes Darksaint, one of us lost this battlezone through sheer will, but it wasn't me.


---


The battle: Maxwell and the armor are gone before managing to do anything (will develop in my last post)

We kill Arin real quick as soon as Maxwell goes down, either rock to the head by Quicksilver or Coldcast knocking down his neurones will work. We are then three on one against Creel and Colossus is actually putting up a decent brick on brick fight at the moment. Pr bought this issue twice already because it is that exciting. Kaiju Creel is pretending I don't have a guy who casually destroyed a chunk of a moon and that can vaporize his city form.

We eventually do vaporize his physical form through sheer power and I use my speed to keep him from even attempting to regenerate. If Coldcast feels he's too low in battery we can go hang in a different city, take a good rest and get back whenever since at that point our mobility is so beyond Creel that it isn't funny. He can't do anything to us by himself, we have shields, power and he never accounted for the Vibranium so it's not really a threat.

Philosophía
/Flashback

*Bent is reading through Darksaint's opening post for the first time*

- Holy Sh_t, I win

/Flashback Ends

---

OK, so we made it to the final post and yet another KMC tournament is completed. It's incredible to think that Battlezones managed to survive 2020, huh? Thanks to Phil, Darksaint, Dambo, Mr_Mind and to all the judges. It's time for me to wrap of a few loose ends on what we saw and to explain, to prove to you, that even a Colossus can win.

Whose shield is it Anyways Part 2

Reading upon Darksaint's opening battle plan you will notice that he decided to carry Booster Gold's shields to this battle:

Max then raises his forcefield which he stole from Booster:
https://justpaste.it/img/508275576b3efa4f255432b4fbf72ed1.jpg

Then he goes his way to show how Booster's shield is entirely pwned by an EMP blast:
https://justpaste.it/img/d2420d9422e112c0ade3e93b00222d09.jpg

I'm going to explain why that doesn't work here:

He explicitly brought the shield that gets beaten by my attack. And this is going to net me the win, because the teleporter will go down with the EMP blast leaving Maxwell with the crippled armor he can't use vulnerable to a quick Vibranium bullet to the brain or my neuron attack.

But hey, Darksaint said Maxwell's own shield did not get broken by EMP! What about that? Well, the problem is he misreaded the scans in two critical ways. Let's correct that:

https://justpaste.it/img/d2420d9422e112c0ade3e93b00222d09.jpg

That's the Electromagnetic pulse that shut your suit down at the J.L.I. Embassy in New York

So the EMP blast happened somewhere else, why would it hit Maxwell's shield? Then we have the fact that the shields that are clashing don't look the same at all, one is like a red pavisse and Booster's shields are round and blue. The shield is also round in the scans where Maxwell is explicit about using Booster tech:

https://justpaste.it/img/508275576b3efa4f255432b4fbf72ed1.jpg

And the red pavisse is pretty shitty as far as defense goes, in the very scans DS brought the gun Maxwell carries gets smashed by just being outside the covered area:

https://justpaste.it/img/9a57bba249b7a9d458480841ff921a4c.jpg

So bringing the pavisse means that you are not fully covered and the EMP blast hits you from the back, while bringing the round shield makes you explicitly weak to EMP blasts

---

Steady wins the race

Now, let's assume for a moment everything goes South and somehow Maxwell slips through the cracks and teleports away. He has changed the memories of people all over he world, but this is not an ability he has used for subtle chirurgical strikes nor to KO enemies in the other side of the globe. He's still dependant on the armor locating us with its sensors but that's an ability Shanhara deployed from orbit, is he going to self-BFR? Knowing that the armor has further bonded with Arin is Maxwell really able to pull off feats from its later comics such as shielding, cloaking or using those sensors (as Arin has never used them)?. Even the information download Darksaint showed on his prep happened after several days of wearing the armor which at the point was still not bonded as deeply with another user:

https://imgur.com/a/lonYjMP

I'm giving Maxwell some credit here, as a telepath he can manage huge amounts of information but downloading data into a brain you have barely bonded with could knock him out cold lol

So I think DS got a bit greedy with equiping Maxwell with Shanhara and making it so relevant to his plan, this is not an amalgam tournament. I've shown that I can disable machines at a huge distance:

https://imgur.com/LRTmlhX

And it's implied that schorching a planet is well within my capabilities:

https://postimg.cc/LnKnsL2q

Even if we buy that Maxwell within an hour will be equivalent to Arin who has bonded with Shanhara for years, and we willingly ignore the armor has said he can only be with Arin, his win isn't even guaranteed. What does that tell you of his overall plan?

I have the edge because my abilities are more staightforward, reliable and I used my prep to polish them.

----

The arguments

- I've proved Coldcast can hang at high speeds.

- The Hat is clearly not the creator of the shield that protected Nathan and Manchester as Darksaint claimed.

- If my speed was somehow detrimental to Coldcast, as per my prep, it won't be used. The EMP blasts and the shield will still happen and QS will handle things proactively with his reflexes.

- The impostor was DarkSaint's shield

- The Manowar armor has further bonded with Arin since Gafti donned it and that showing was not that impressive. We have no idea if Shanhara can bond with other people at this point.

- Save for the healing all the powers the armor showed happened days if not months after bonding with the user.

- Colossus was not carrying Vibranium, just a rock:
https://justpaste.it/img/d427bfeedff00c91c72a562ce7f9c643.jpg



The battle

- Maxwell might not be cloaked at all, might not have enhanced reflexes nor advanced scans. His brain is objectively not used to the armor.

- If he's defended with the Pavisse shield we just move around him and kill him with the piggyback hand-kill before he acts.

- His teleporting is dependant on a gesture, a physical motion, my EMP blast is called upon a thought.

- We have every reason to believe EMP will hit all his tech (no proof was advanced that Shanhara will resist this), Maxwell is not preparing an offensive mental attack so he'll be surprised when his whole tech fails and we'll take him down.

- Quicksilver will kill Arin before he tries to reboot Shanhara

- Colossus will distract Creel long enough for us to come back against him and pick him appart.

- If for whatever reason Creel went to copy Vibranium let's remember this is shitty antartic vibranium and not the cool, Doomwar reality warping Wakandian variety. I'll just vaporize him with my blasts.



I have quirky offenses like my Vibranium bullet and the glass but I'm not really dependant on them: when the EMP blast goes off we have the upper hand. Darksaint went in a direction that was very tech dependant and that plays to my strengths. I believe my plan asks for less speculation and thus is more likely to succeed.

And that's the game from me, thanks everyone for reading!

DarkSaint85

Philosophía
Before I post the verdicts - congrats to Bentley and Darksaint for a great match and thank you very much to the judges Martian Mind, Pr and Galan for taking the time to analyze and send the verdicts.

With that said..

Martian Mind's verdict




Pr's verdict:




Congratulations Darksaint, you are the tourney WINNER!

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