The difficulty may be that I don't necessarily understand what he looks like. Is he just a floating crystal?
A crystal floating inside a shapeshifting mass of Kzich. Without the Kzich surrounding it, the conduit would be rather vulnerable; plus, in order to manipulate the Kzich, Ijok has to have it either directly contacting the crystal, or connected to the mass of Kzich that surrounds the crystal. If a 'bodypart' gets cut off, as long as it doesn't vaporize, he can pick it back up - but he cannot manipulate it in any manner until then.
Okay, I will need to ponder a character for Ijok. The character I had been intending to use would likely struggle against them, so I'll either need to modify a bit or use a different character.
I could use a different character myself, if you'd like me to. There's two i think would end up slightly less powerful - or at least less tricky to deal with - than Ijok, and i already have their powers thought out; all that's left is to write them.
Ijok’s existence in the physical plane is assured by a magical artifact that conducts his mind and energy from spiritual plane. The conduit itself is a grapefruit sized ball of crystallized mana – a substance created when a mana storm in the spirit plane is strong enough open a rift to the physical dimension. Such crystals are not an incredible rarity, but few can connect to one by themselves, as that either requires highly advanced technology and deep knowledge of how both dimensions interact, or enough raw power to enter the raging storm itself and establish a link with the crystal while the rift is still open.
Being the connection between him and the physical plane, it allows him to transfer a certain amount of his own energy through it, and also doubles as an eye, allowing him to see the full electromagnetic spectrum (with the option to filter out certain wavelengths) - while the rest of his sensory information is received from a different source. He also has the natural ability to perceive energy moving through the spiritual plane, effectively detecting a majority of the existing magical signatures.
Breaking it into more than one part would sever his connection, and this isn't too hard of a task for somebody of comparable strength, the ball being just as hard and only slightly less brittle than diamond.
Kzich
Kzich is the physical manifestation of Ijok’s personal energy – the result of filtering raw mana through his spiritual body, making it the most straightforward of his powers to use. By gradually pushing this energy into the physical plane through his conduit, he converts it into Kzich, and as long as it remains within Ijok’s own sphere of influence, the substance remains stable and can be freely manipulated by him. However, creating Kzich is a rather lengthy process, taking several days to generate about a ton; plus, there is a maximum amount that he can hold at once, prompting somewhat limited and cautious use. The aforementioned sphere of influence is an extension of Ijok’s spiritual body, propagating from within the conduit and measuring about 8 meters in diameter; it is essential for the creation of Kzich, and any amount of it caught outside of this area immediately dissipates back into magical energy. Moreover, direct contact with the conduit itself is important as well, as only then is he able to take control over the substance; otherwise, the substance would remain intact, but completely unusable until it touches either the conduit itself, or any other mass of Kzich that has contact with it. This is because the aura emanated through the conduit is too weak to support the amounts of energy required for the process of manipulation, whereas direct contact allows for a much wider channel, thus, higher energy transfer.
When the Kzich remains stabilized, though, the range of manipulations he can perform is rather impressive: he can detach and reattach parts of it will, decrease its density, turning it into a gas expanding as far as the sphere of influence allows, or increase it to the same level as lead, measuring at around 10 g/cm3; likewise, he can change its hardness, either making it comparable to boron carbide, or slightly softening it, in favor of the substance being tougher and less brittle, such as steel. Its structure can also be changed by Ijok, shifting between amorphous and crystalline, or on a larger scale, between bulk, porous, fibrous and etcetera. Finally, he can telekinetically move the substance around, at a rate of 3 m/s, regardless of mass.
However, there are certain aspects of his Kzich that Ijok cannot control: its combustibility and electrical resistance. At temperatures of 1500 celcius and higher, it starts burning, slowly whittling down his mass, while something as hot as 6000 celcius could take out big chunks of his body, destroying dozens of pounds with a single swipe. And while his body does provide a certain amount of electrical resistance, he cannot make it completely insulating, half a million volts being strong enough of a current to spread across a whole limb.
While electricity does not damage the core itself, this can still be very problematic, as Ijok's combat ability is mostly granted to him by forming Kzich into strands of electroactive material - artificial muscle. While its performance varies over the forms and shapes he can take on, 150 m/s and 1500000 joules of force for striking speed, 5 tons of lifting strength and 100 m/s for running speed remain significant benchmarks, greater feats possible, but requiring a very specific body shape, focusing the entirety of his Kzich supplies on a single task. The muscles are controlled by electrical currents generated directly inside them, using the substance's own energy channels in place of nerves to conduct mana, which is then transformed into electricity. The currents are generally high amperage and low voltage, creating strong contractions, but never interfering with muscles other than the targeted ones. However, this ability can be weaponized, and in this case, Ijok can raise the voltage as high as 1000000 volts and the amperage as high as 100 amps, easily capable of boiling a normal human's insides.
The last function of Kzich is the sensory function: by saturating it with energy, Ijok can sense changes in pressure and vibrations passing through it, as well as perceive temperature by observing the kinetic energy of the molecules composing it. In combination with the core allowing him to perceive his surrounding visually, this serves as a replacement for all human senses but smell and taste.
Cognitive functions
Ijok has an incredibly high level of cognitive function compared to a human. His mental capacity allows for an astonishing degree of multitasking, even under the pressure of combat: once, he had been able to combat 10 weaker assailants at once, splitting his Kzich into 10 separate bodies to fight them all simultaneously - and even then, he wasn't put at his limit.
Magical Power
Being a rather powerful spirit, as evident by him successfully venturing into a mana storm in order to acquire his conduit, he can resist powerful magical influences by combating it with mana of his own. This means almost any attack that is based purely on magical energy, without having a physical form. A fireball wouldn't be effected, for example, but illusion magic, telekinesis, or pure energy blasts can all be countered by Ijok, more often than not, his mana supply being superior to that of his opponent.
This would be the more powerful of my characters; there are a couple slightly weaker than him, but Ijok is the only of those characters i have completed the abilities section for, as of yet.
I just don't have a lot of finished character sheets ATM, but most of my peeps are at a 'street' level of destruction, meaning that they would be capable of taking apart a car or punching down a brick wall, freezing objects to absolute zero by touch or shooting napalm off the tip of their finger, and outrunning a cheetah with ease.
btw, the latest tournaments have a noticeable lack of brutal, indoors combat, where both opponents are shoved face-to-face into eachother, with no crawlspace for either. not that i'm suggesting such a map for this battle, but oppressively tiny maps sound like an interesting (in a very cruel way) idea overall
Btw @Vordak, did you come out the side of the coach? If so which side?
Out of the window, on whichever side is further away from Loetta. Me and Empty kinda already agreed on him facing your character and me taking on Skalla and Important. :P
EDIT: to Loetta's right that would be, or Gernev's left.
I think that Melon's complaints are due to him forgetting that you don't even need to have the upper hand in battle in order to score well and win the tournament itself. If Tablurath remains dominant throughout the battle only by virtue of his powers being a hard counter to Metz's, then i think Skallagrim will have enough insight to notice that and adjust for it when he grades you.
Just do your best to kick Khan's ass; the rest doesn't make a bit of difference. :P
There it was - the sound of footsteps, quickly approaching from the other side of the bridge. Unsurprisingly, their intrusion didn't go by unnoticed - but at least it spared them of the need to creep around. Gernev halted, eyes quickly darting to the palace gates ahead, then down to the coach, confirming that neither of the positions were taken by archers; relived, he threw all caution to the side, breaking into a run headed straight for the coach.
The orc simply bashed down its door, ramming it in with the full weight of his armor-clad body, but then paused just before entering, turning round to face his comrades. Gesturing Phia to stay hidden, quiet and come inside the coach as well, he peered through one of its windows to capture the enemies' positions, and picking a safe moment to do so, hopped right through it, landing with a sharp metal clank from his plated boots. Setting his left foot forwards, heel in line with the right foot's toes, he took a bold, daring stance, mace hanging low, the arm holding it as if almost lazily relaxed, while raising his longsword overhead, in a manner similar to the Ox stance. Hopefully, by that time, Kirian would be making his entrance as well, and together, they could draw all the guards' attention, letting Phia slink into the coach unnoticed.
One of the slivers of his combat savvy, gathered over years spent in raids and military campaigns, told that the best use for a bow and arrow was ambush, and only second best was keeping the enemy at bay. If all went well, for all the hails of steel that felled the Black Talons from Xoni's walls, it would be the Silver Shields who'd be cursing archers in this battle.