Of all the characters that I have created and rolled with over the years, three have remained closest to my heart. The Warrior Assassin, Shin. The Great Defender, Sterling. The Divine of Wrath, Baron. And of those three, only one really and truly embodies what I believe is the perfect balance of ability to writing. That is The Baron. And of all the fights I have, The Baron's fights have always been the most entertaining, the most captivating. I'm requesting a battle against The Baron, any character is welcome. Lower tiered characters in number or a one on one of high tiers, it doesn't matter. I've just been itching to use The Baron again since [@Seed] let me unleash him over five months ago. [Hider= The Baron] [b]Name:[/b] The Baron, child of the Divine of Wrath [b]Tier:[/b] High [b]Race:[/b] Shard of the Divine [b]Racial Descriptor:[/b] Divines and Occults, opposing sides of the same coin. These entities are mirrors of the higher levels of existence. Gods, taking control of a concept and making it their own. Manipulating it within their own realm to best suit their purposes. Titans, representing the concept in its entirety, never altering but always controlling. They are lower on the food chain, but they can attain power far greater than those of gods and titans. Divines and Occults are lower beings than Gods and Titans, they do not control or represent per-say. Instead, they are like leeches. Feeding off of the concept itself. Powerful entities with bizarre and unique abilities that serve only to create more of the concept that they embody. No two Divines or Occults look the same, though they do have some universal features. They are all metallic lifeforms, comprised of various metals. They do have a diet that consists mostly of metal. They also universally do not have any orifices aside from a mouth, or many mouths. Despite this, they seem to have heightened senses, some more than others. Rarely they have orifices for other purposes than feeding their physical form. They are significantly stronger than any natural, non-enhanced lifeforms. With tremendous physical prowess. There is no such thing as a society of Divines or Occults. Just a universal respect of their own kin, and a universal distaste of their opposites. Every Divine and Occult has a profound psychic connection to the concept they embody. [b]Sex:[/b] Male Form, genderless [b]Age:[/b] Ageless. Long predating the birth of the universe. [b]Height:[/b] 12'4" [b]Weight:[/b] 15,110 lbs [b]Personal Description:[/b] Incomparable to mortal minds, The Divine of Wrath and all its "children" are beings of pure concept. They function in ways unlike those of mortals, their thoughts immune to confusion and uncertainty, they are divine in their purpose and cannot be dissuaded or convinced. They are pure, confident, strong and pious. The Baron is the most talkative of the children of wrath, and with good reason. As a walking mountain of war, it carries itself with a certain pride. A certain finesse, despite its tyrannical appearance. Its true personality is veiled beneath a blanket of snide violent tendencies, with infuriating backwards beliefs and a smug sense of self importance that feeds into the hatred of his very being. Why does he behave this way if he is so different from humans? Wouldn't these personality flaws make him more human than he would like to believe? No. The Baron feeds on war, bloodshed, confusion, wrath, and all things that could be considered negative. To him, you are food. Your conquest, your desires, your frustration and your hatred. All of your strife and hatred for him is but sustenance, his infinite hunger can only be sated by his immense connection to all living within the multiverse. Where infinite war reigns between the great and the small. The Baron is but a fragment of the Divine of Wrath, and its purpose is to strike fear into lesser beings. Its domineering ability and personality are but a means to an end. That end is to breed anger. [b]Physical Description:[/b] A colossal thorny beast, rising twice the height of a man. Its body is thin but broad, its features are rough and cruel, as though the product of nightmare and fairy tale. It is persistently draped in a black fog that dances around its body in slow circles, no matter how vicious the winds this fog never leaves his side unless commanded. Beginning from his most basic feature, his skin. The Baron and all children of wrath, have skin that is a shade of red so deep and dark that it is near unidentifiable from black. Their skin is rough, jagged, like sandpaper and razors, no matter what direction you come at it, it grinds against flesh painfully. The skin is near totally uniform in its color and roughness, though as all biological beings it is uneven in some parts. This skin appears as scale, smooth and sharp scale that mirror the appearance of snake-scale. The scales run different directions based on which body part they adorn. Close inspection of his body would reveal that it is made from metal through and through, this metal is a complex alloy of all the metals his physical form has ever ingested. Its head is a long rectangle with one long horn on top above the jagged line that is its mouth, and two below paralleling its enormous teeth. There are no eyes on The Baron, however, there are two holes that leak a black mist in the same place that eyes would be. Its mouth is terrifying in shape, as the skin pulls itself over the enormous fangs that run top and bottom of his jaw that runs all the way past his "eyes." Its mouth is so wide and long that its head is nearly bisected by its jaw. The teeth that fill this mouth are hooked and curve inwards, except the four at the end of its mouth. Like the teeth of a saber tooth tiger, except on both top and bottom. They point straight up and down and are placed just so he might close his mouth normally. It does have ears, though they are not visible. They are actually small drums on the side of its head that process sound on a much wider scale than human ears. His hands are strange organic contraptions, normally they are long claws. Each of his eight fingers is a nine inch long blade of metal, smoother than the rest of his body, these claws are also razor sharp. They function as basic weapons and are capable of fine manipulation of the world around him. However, these claws can withdraw and several smaller fingers can emerge from each of his fingers. Allowing him to grip smaller objects and manipulate the world on much smaller levels. Its feet are large and connected to its legs like those of a theropod, with one longer claw at the base of its ankle and three longer claws at the end of its feet. These do not retract, however they too are sabers in and of themselves. Its chest has three holes, much like the holes that are its "eyes" these three holes pump out that black mist that swirls about him. All of the holes in his body lead down to this well in his stomach that produces this black fog. Other than this singular processing organ, his body is comprised almost entirely from muscle and bone, each harder than steel. His flesh is made of flexible metal that moves as fluidly and naturally as flesh, his bone so sturdy that a loaded train colliding with him cannot bow him, his muscle of tightly wound steel-like thread so dense that even with his thin body he weighs as much as a class 4 truck. Adorning his body at most of his joints are spines, at large joints like his knees and elbows they are about six inches in length. They too are as sharp as his laws. His fingers and toes each have spines that are about an inch each, as the others, they are blades. Down his back run a series of spines that start at his neck at an inch and grow out to a foot behind his shoulders before shortening slowly down to his waist. The only article of clothing that The Baron wears is a floating garb of cloth that swirls with his black mist, this cloth is a dusty orange color, it wraps around his waist and neck and the remaining cloth seems to flow in the winds around his body. This cloth is incredibly hard to tear, though that is just good craftsmanship. The Baron's voice echoes from all directions, booming as a theater of drums. Thumping distantly, rumbling like an inclement hurricane. Its thunderous roar shakes loose pebbles and leaves, those of lesser constitution are filled with dread. [center][b]Skills:[/b][/center] Unsettling Motions: This is a tremendously complex psychic ability. It utilizes the passively exhumed black fog that constantly flows around him, as well as his own physicality. The ability is an incredibly tenuous exertion of willpower that accomplishes two primary tasks. [center]Feinted Fog Strikes: Focusing a chunk of his psychic prowess onto the fog, using this fog he can shift around his outline and even create fake limbs that lash out at his opponent. The fog cannot actually harm anyone in this form, and so it proves to be a terrifying feint, but otherwise harmless.[/center] [center]Profound Momentum Control: The other half of his ability is dedicated to enhancing all of his physical movements. This is where it gets tricky, The Baron divides his mind into several tasks at once. Focusing a portion of his psychic energies into controlling the momentum of his body. Stopping himself instantly by forcing his body to lock up and loosen up, ignoring his biological limitations by moving psychically instead of chemically. The effects of controlling his own body are three fold. His strikes are decisively stronger, relying on his mind and his muscle, his punches are twice as strong as they should be. He can immediately move from one swing into another without recourse, halting a punch in motion to shift it into another punch. His flexibility and balance are both tremendously improved while this active.[/center] [center]The control given to him by Unsettling Motions is the true nature of his strength. Without it, he can bend steel girders with a single blow, however, wtih Unsettlig Motions he can split a steel girder in half with the same strike. [/center] Tooth and Nail: With steel-hard teeth and claws, The Baron can utilize a very bestial style of combat. Slashing and ripping at his opponents, cutting them open and tearing them apart. He can easily wound an opponent of comparable or greater strength, simply because his body is made of much more dangerous materials. His claws and fangs are tough enough to cut through steel with a bit of effort. Divine's Eye: While they don't have eyes, per say, Divines have a unique sensory organ at the front of their faces that allow them to see. This eye has telescopic vision, and is profoundly clear. Their eyes contain five rods instead of three, meaning that they see far more colors than humans can see. (Though less than a Mantis Shrimp.) However, despite this eye's clarity, it only provides a 90 degree field of vision. Making it terrible for actual use, outside of singular tasks. Filling Gaps: Since their sight is limited to a comparably small area, Divines make up for it with three new senses. A combination of Echo-location, Infrared Sensory, and Electro-Sensory. Divines have a 360 degree field of "visual" sensory input. Allowing them to track the movement of any organic object by the heat output or absorption. Making long distance vision of biological, mechanical, and mystical lifeforms easier as well. As long as they have some sort of electricity running through them. They also have perfect "vision" in dark locations, simply by humming or speaking they can "see" everything around them in a huge radius. As well, their hearing and sense of smell are tremendously strong. 450x stronger smelling and 1000x stronger hearing than a human. What would normally be a profound downside is actually covered by their own psychic ability, Divines can tune out particularly abrasive noises and sounds. As well, any being that is manipulating or experiencing the concept that the Divine embodies can be sensed by a long thin trail of energy from their head that leads off towards the Divine itself. In the case of The Baron, this trail of energy travels directly vertical into space. As The Divine of Wrath is always looming above. Incredible Wit and Intelligence: As an incredibly ancient entity, The Baron is tremendously wise and intelligent. With knowledge passed from generation upon generation, wisdom spoken on dead worlds, and eons spent meditating on singular topics. The Divine is a fantastically knowledgeable being, knowing his own limitations and the limitations of others. He is devious and clever, using his knowledge of mortals and an encyclopedic knowledge of events to narrow down the best possible taunts to garner the greatest response. As well, he uses his knowledge to assume and sometimes predict the next movements of his opponents. Remarkable Reflexes: Not a lot to tell about his reflexes. This is how he keeps up with entities that are significantly faster than he is. The Baron's reflexes and mind are capable of keeping up with objects that can move well past the speed of sound. He can react to objects coming at him at Mach 3, demonstrating this by catching a sniper round from the air with the tips of his claws. His dexterity is nothing to be laughed at as well, this too is demonstrated by his ability to catch a rifle round from the air. [center][b]Powers:[/b][/center] Omniversal Psychic Connection to the Emotion of Wrath: As described before, Divines have a deep psychic connection to a concept, like Titans and Gods. Divines, however, have no control over this concept. They are instead fueled by the concept that they are connected to. The Baron is connected to negative emotions such as wrath. Divines manifest the psychic energy that they absorb in strange and disconnected ways, these abilities aren't designed to fit together. Rather, they are designed to propagate and duplicate the concept that they are connected to. In the Divine of Wrath, these abilities manifest as tools of destruction and war. As violence leads to anger. In the younger years of a Divine, they passively grew stronger while they were in proximity to their concept. The Baron has reached the absolute pinnacle of his potential. While other Psychic Entities use their latent abilities outwardly, Divines utilize their latent psychic potential inwardly. Rather than trying to use their power to range their opponents, Divines prefer a more direct approach. Instead choosing to optimize their own strengths, rather than create new strengths. Psychic Flight: The Baron, unlike its lesser counterpart, can fly. Lifting itself into the air with its latent psychic ability, it can force itself to fly at the speed of thought. Which is surprisingly fast. Considering its mind can work fast enough to catch sniper rifle rounds from the air. While in flight, The Baron is capable of fine turns and incredibly high speed aerial combat. Though it is preferable for him to remain on the ground, as his abilities are more useful with only one viable escape route, rather than an omnidirectional one. [b]Abilities:[/b] Physical Ability: A being born from a godlike entity to propogate war, The Baron is an unmatched Shock-Trooper. Dropping from above the atmosphere with intense force, their bodies sustain no injuries from the fall. They are unscathed by the fires of re-entry and even the gravities of gas giants cannot crush it. They are capable of withstanding entire trains running into them without bowing. Going so far as to derail the train with their bare hands, or a single kick. They slash buildings to ribbons with their claws, disemboweling men with a flick of their wrists. They clash with the greatest of beings and come out victorious, even the gods shudder at the power of Divines in their unleashed states. They are unfaltering, remaining standing until their head is destroyed, they will fight eternally. Refusing to bow until they are limbless and slain. They are impressive on foot as well, able to run upright or on all fours. They can reach drag race speeds instantaneously from a standing position. Fog of War: From the Belly of the Beast, a huge plume of black smoke erupts. From his mouth and the holes in his chest, accumulating into a dense gaseous sphere. The Baron can fire this sphere at high speed, with the same effect as a cannonball. Plowing into the target location with intense force. However, upon contact, it has a violent reaction to the surroundings. The sphere rapidly rotates in place, growing spines as sharp as razors. These spines orbit around the edges of the sphere, slashing and grinding up whatever they contact. The Fog of War doesn't dissipate, it lingers in the location that it struck. It becomes totally stationary after a few seconds of spinning death. It becomes as intangible as the air around it, allowing people to pass through it. It is totally opaque, as opaque as if your head were buried in dirt. Making it a sufficient tool for blinding someone. The Fog only disappears if he sucks it back into himself, or if he fires off another sphere. They disappear in order of formation. With the earliest sphere disappearing first. [i](The size of the sphere is dependent on the charge. 1 turn = 5x5 feet. Each turn it increases by 2 feet. The speed that it fires is a static 215 mph. Only two can be fired at a time. Formation and re-absorption of the sphere are near-instant processes, taking a sum total of 1.4 seconds. The spines are a centimeter long, and do not serve as deep penetrative blades, rather serving to inflict pain and lacerate.)[/i] Black Fog Compression: The Baron can compress a handfull of the fog into any shape that he pleases, molding it into a weapon with a motion of his hand. Whatever weapon he forges from the fog is stronger than steel and upscaled to match his body's size. This allows him to use any weapon from any culture as a tool, and his mastery over his own momentum allows him to utilize this weapon to a supernatural degree. Frequently, he molds duplicates of the weapon his opponent is using, simply to taunt them. Black Crescent: The Baron weaves his hand in a sweeping motion through the fog, throwing out a blade of black mist that cuts as a normal sword. It flies forward at great speeds, slashing deeply into whatever unfortunate target it strikes. Cleaving flesh away from bone effortlessly, cutting through support beams and toppling buildings. Even armored warriors would find it difficult to withstand a single swipe of the Black Crescent. Though this isn't the greatest move in The Baron's arsenal. Colossal Black Wave Crescent: In a massive and sudden movement, all of the black mist around his body and from within are concentrated into an incredibly thin blade that is three feet long and variable width. The width is dependant of how much energy he wishes to expend, and widths greater than 100 feet are so taxing that he can barely move for a short time afterwards. However, this is only the first step. This blade is then forced in whatever direction he wishes at highway speeds, usually running parallel to the ground in a straight line about two feet above the ground. The blade bows itself into a long crescent, and anything that it passes through is utterly obliterated. On a microscopic level, this blade is made up of thousands of chewing teeth that grind anything it touches into powder. Not only cutting into it with how thin it is, any material that falls onto it is chewed up and processed inside of the mist. If a building is struck by this, the building caves in on itself. If a body is struck, it too collapses, however, a great portion of the body that made contact with the blade looks as though a grinder was taken to it. This attack, at its maximum ability, can level an entire metropolitan area. Killing millions in the process, all with only a minimum effort on the part of The Baron. It then slowly returns to the body of The Baron, allowing him to use other abilities that require the black fog. Roaring Death: The Baron concentrates all of its psychic energy onto its own voice, compressing into a singular stream of pure red-black kinetic energy. Obviously as fast as sound can travel, this beam of pure energy pummels even the hardest of stone into powder. Working almost as a drill, it can dig clean holes through the sturdiest of materials given enough time. Roaring Death is a sensory overload, dealing a crippling blow to the hearing of anything that is struck by it. If they are lucky, they will have permanent ringing in their ears. If they are unlucky, they will be permanently deafened by it. Other organs are also affected by this tremendously loud volume. While it will leave bruises on the tougher fleshy beings, it can penetrate through their bodies and have terrible effects on their internals. Shaking around their guts, possibly rupturing them if sustained. This can be sustained for a few seconds, if sustained for too long it cannot be used again for a while. Obviously because his throat winds up in shambles from the exertion. This attack causes him physical distress, and actually uses up stamina. Oddly enough, while it may be incredibly dangerous to actually attack him during this. His Unsettling Motions is not active while he is firing Roaring Death. Meaning that for a few moments during and after Roaring Death, his strikes do not carry as much force. [i](This attack moves at the speed of sound, forming a sonic cone around the end of it. When it strikes, it carries enough force to uproot an oak tree and send it flying. It crushes stone and bone alike. It can be sustained for two turns, unabated. If sustained for longer, it cannot be used again for six. The longest that it can be sustained is four turns. As well, it can only be used again two turns after being used. If the beam contacts you from the edge, it pushes with the same force as the initial impact. If you are held inside of the beam, you are pushed to the end of the beam. Generally aimed down towards the ground, as most opponents are shorter than him. The maximum effective range of this is 250 feet. )[/i] Copycat Warriors: Pulling all of the fog from his body and the surrounding cloud that follows him, The Baron's most wily and cruel trick are the Copycat Warriors. The clouds form together into either an exact duplicate of The Baron itself, or several smaller versions of himself. The number of clones varies depending on the necessity. Sometimes it is just one clone that provides a second angle of attack, allowing him to attack from two sides. Other times, The Baron may need to raise an army in order to combat an army. Even he knows that a single soldier, no matter how strong, can be felled by an army of weaker foes. Pride is a death sentence. The clones are never as strong as he is. The singular clone that is a mirror of himself is only half as strong as he is, and even then, it can be torn apart by a mortal with a sword. The smaller clones are comparable to superhumans in strength, but they are small and weak. They cannot fly and do not have the same host of abilities that he has. Though any one of them can kill a human with ease, they are only puppets that serve as disposable fodder. If the clone is felled, it returns to the body. He cannot use any of his black fog related abilities while he has clones active. [b]Backstory:[/b] Divines are a product, a commodity for entertainment to the gods. Occults are products of entertainment to the titans. Much as the rivalry between titans and gods, there is a rivalry between divines and occults. The Divine of Wrath is one such being, born under a god of war, The Divine of Wrath is among the most ancient and powerful. Originally, it was a mere cell-sized entity. But as the multiverse aged and grew, and more war and bloodshed filled it, so too did the Divine of Wrath. Billions of years passing by, its mind and body evolved slowly. First taking a near human form, it had little power before it landed on a small forming planet. It lived like a parasite, consuming the metals and growing very slowly. Psychic growth proved to be much slower than physical growth, and so it consumed far more than it should have. It grew massive, it grew strong. Before it was even fully sentient, it had left its planetary origins to seek a closer source of food. Something stronger than a passive cloud of energies. It needed nourishment directly from the source. As it traveled the stars it consumed floating stardust and rock, growing ever greater in size. It was massive before it found another planet. Just as it approached the new world, its mind had expanded to sentience. Think of this in the millions of years, as our timescale is much smaller than his. This too was long before he could properly control his own power, and even though he had millions of years to try, he was unable to stop himself before he collided with this unfortunate world. Billions died because he was too young and unpracticed. It took a very long time for him to understand the depth of his power, and even longer before he realized how much he could manipulate the universe around him. Smaller bodies, born of his massive form, were tools he created to experience reality in third person. To influence the course of events to better suit his needs. As his intelligence and ability grew, he watched as the gods threw foes at him. With the time he was given, The Divine's connection to the universe grew into a connection with a collection of universes. It grew and grew until all universes were within his depth, his power was immeasurable. Even his weakest born creatures were the greatest of warriors, he realized that his power must be contained if he wished to live. The gods power was beneath him now, but he was one and they were many. Wrath now lives as a planet of war that roams the multiverse, feeding itself as discreetly as possible. Though from time to time, it indulges in darker fantasies that allow it a stronger feast. This is a summary of the lengthy story that is The Divine of Wrath and the Children of Wrath. Though to record the entire story would be of unnecessary length. [/hider]