"Second, the gladiators will not enter from the usual gates. No, I will be teleporting them in here to places that only I know - and where everyone shall soon know. With all this being said, I declare this match to begin.... NOW!!"

A split second later, Whisper suddenly appears, about 15 or 20 feet west/southwest of the centre of the arena. His flaming eyes quickly scan the arena in search of his bald holy enemy. He does not have to wait long for the dwarf to appear. Dressed in dark red and orange robes, with his spiked chain wrapped around his waist, the bald dwarf materializes about 15 or 20 feet east/northeast of centre stage. The crowd roars, and the battle begins!

Whisper acts first, speaking these words aloud: "Thrae arcaniss!" He begins to flicker into a state of invisibility - but does not turn invisible after all. "What the...?!", he says as he stumbles back in puzzled disbelief. The crowd is filled with a mixture of cheers and murmurs. Ultrann looks over the Torgal and says with a smirk, "Oh, I guess I forgot to tell him that in addition to some fire protection, the ring will make him a little clumsy!" Torgal shakes his head and replies, "Ultrann, you are a devious man!" Crucibal laughs, and says to his enemy, "No disappearing acts for you, eh, dark mage? SILENCE!" Whisper feels a dampening energy beginning to surround him, but he resists its power.

"It's this ring, isn't it?!", Whisper yells, as he looks over to Ultrann. Whisper has to think fast, and decides to summon his power of darkness on the ground beneath him, and then he steps into the darkness himself. Crucibal approaches into the fringe of the darkness, but casts a divine spell of protection before entering. Whisper moves southward and stumbles out of the darkness. As sweat covers his brow, he invokes some more words of magic: "Lithrix vorastrix!!" With that, a crackling sound of a protective barrier is heard, but then it fizzles out. "Damn you, Ultrann! I will make you pay for this!!" Crucibal, not sure where his enemy is, exits the darkness on the west side, and casts another divine spell of protection.

Whisper steps 5 feet back, and attempts to summon a dark and fiendish wolf: "Baeshra kothar!!". To his surprise (and glee), one appears before him. Although he does not know that his enemy has exited the darkness to the west, he luckily sends his evil wolf westward. The wolf rounds the corner of the sphere of darkness and leaps upon Crucibal - only to be repelled by a divine force field. Sensing that his enemy is southeast, he moves south and summons a fiendish wolf of his own. Unfortunately for Whisper, he has no divine protection. The wolf leaps upon Whisper, knocking him to the ground and taking a big, vicious bite out of his right shoulder. Naturally, Whisper screams in pain, his eyes filled with unnatural fire. He calls his wolf to attack Crucibal's wolf as he stands up. Whisper's wolf jumps onto the other and gives it a solid bite. Undaunted, Crucibal's wolf again jumps on Whisper, knocking him down and biting at the area where the first wound occurred. More screams of pain come from Whisper, as Crucibal himself comes closer. "DO NOT MOVE!", the dwarven holy man bellows. Whisper feels a sudden tightness on his body, but shakes it off. Whisper's wolf then attacks Crucibal's, giving it a solid bite and also making it howl in pain, then disappear. With that, Whisper rights himself and runs back into the sphere of darkness.

Crucibal, knowing that his enemy is weakened, follows Whisper into the darkness. The crowd sees some flames leap out of the darkness, but no screams of pain are heard. Some other commotion is heard by the audience, but nothing is seen. Suddenly Whisper dashes out of the darkness, making a fast but stumbling beeline to the east and coming to rest along the eastern wall, with his crossbow in hand. He awaits the re-appearance of his enemy. He does not have to wait much, as Crucibal exits east, with spiked chain in hand, in hot pursuit of the evil mage. Nipping at his heels, but unable to penetrate his divine barrier, are the dark wolf and 3 dark fiendish rats. Crucibal stands about 10 feet from Whisper, whipping his chain around, waiting for the mage to do something. Realizing it will be hard to escape his enemy's reach, he fires off his crossbow, but the bolt misses. Crucibal spins his chain around in response to the missile attack, but as he is about to swing it fully, his left hand comes loose of the chain, rendering his attack wasted. "What in Kossuth's name...?!" Whisper snickers, "Well, well, looks like Ultrann had a little fun with you too!" The crowd laughs as well. With that, Whisper makes a dash southwards, near the circular wall.

Crucibal charges after Whisper, swinging his spiked chain that he has managed to re-grip. As he nears the dark mage, he lets the chain fly - only to have his right hand slip off, again ruining his attack. "Kossuth will curse you, Ultrann!" Whisper, confident that Crucibal has been rendered ineffective, summons another dark wolf in desperation, even though he sees his dire rats unable to damage their target. Crucibal attacks Whisper an instant after he casts his spell, but he right hand slips again. The dark wolf attacks, but to no avail. "Kossuth, do not fail me now!!" Crucibal whips his spiked chain around as Whisper giggles, but this time his hands do not slip. Whisper tries to dodge the blow, but stumbles and a spike pierces his skull, killing him instantly.

Ultrann stands up, calling the fight to an end. The crowd cheers the victorious Crucibal Atesh, but the victor does not look particularly happy towards his fight judge. With a wave of Ultrann's hand, the cursed gloves disappear from Crucibal's hands, and the ring on Whisper's finger disappears. "Well, I had fun and so did the crowd!", says Ultrann to Torgal. "Maybe in a few months the gladiators will look back on it and laugh...?!"

Whisper: Some bad rolls and your selection of spells helped do you in.
Crucibal: Despite your fumbles, you picked the right spells and hit your enemy when it counted the most.