World's Strongest: Contest of Champions 5

Previously on Contest of Champions: The Setup, The Land-speed Competition, The Strength Competition, The Tournament Bracket

 I see Wrath as being played by Ronda Rousey,
with her hair dyed a deep red

This is the first day of the main event, and there is not an empty seat in the arena. All the competitors are down on the field even if they aren't going to fight on the first day. They don't want to miss this either and nothing beat gathering information on the person you might end up fighting in a future bout. The Judges stand outside the ring, ready to jump in should things get out of hand. The first matchup is two fan favorites. Wrath has built up quite a reputation in the hero community with her strength and determination. Through raw training she has pushed the human body further than should be possible, channeling her chi into her muscles, striking like a triphammer. She is using this opportunity to advertise her Dojo, letting everyone know they too can break all limitations. Storm Eagle is an up and comer in the hero world but her charm and poise have made her Coast City's sweetheart. There are numerous banners egging her on to victory.

Storm Eagle would be played by
Neha Sharma, in her super form

The ring is a square of white stone, fifty yards to a side. Should either opponent set any part of their body outside the ring they will lose. Wrath steps into the ring, and slowly reaches down to run her hand along its surface, studying the terrain and preparing for the fight. She stands nearly six foot tall and is well muscled. Her every action seems slightly restrained as if she had never faced an opponent upon whom she could truly unleash her strength. Storm Eagle slowly descends in a halo of lightning in the shape of an eagle. She stands a little uncertainly across from Wrath and begins gathering electric energy around her hands. The crowd grows silent as Horus steps up to the edge of the ring. His voice booms out over the expectant silence and he counts down to the start of the fight.

Wrath

Vs

Storm Eagle

As soon as the fight starts Storm Eagle hovers up off the ground. Lightning courses out from her body, arcing in chains down her arms to form a spiral beam of pure electricity. Wrath is driven to one knee by the lightning bolt. She pushes back to her feet and, still smoking from the blast, and rushes her opponent. In a couple of seconds, she flies across the intervening distance and body checks Storm Eagle, driving her almost out of the ring in a single blow. Both opponents are winded and injured and take a moment to catch their breaths.

Wrath rapidly moves to grab Storm Eagle and throw her out of the ring before she has a chance to fully recover, but storm Eagle manages to push Wrath out of the way and shots up twenty feet into the air. Storm Eagle looks around wildly for a second and attempts to fire another lightning bolt. Her panic seems to have affected her aim. She cuts a furrow into the stone blocks that make up the ring, shattering them one by one in a line blasting up stone dust into a white cloud. Wrath erupts out of the cloud, well above the height of storm eagle and slams her into the ground with a powerful ax kick. Storm Eagle bounced off the ground and many in the crowd wince in sympathetic pain. She manages to roll to her feet rapidly and as Wrath falls toward her Storm Eagle lets fly with her most powerful blast of lightning, reversing Wraths descent for a moment and then dropping her to the ground smoldering and bloody. The Judges call the fight and the medics rush in. The crowd Goes wild. 

Here is how the combat went without all the details added.
Melee 1
Initiative: Wrath rolls a 2 add in her +1 bonus, her initiative for this round is 3; Storm Eagle rolls a 20 so she is going to start out. Wrath has five attacks per melee as does Storm Eagle.
Round 1
Storm Eagle Starts big, hovering slightly off the ground and launching a full force electrical ray at Wrath. She rolls a 5 to strike. Wrath uses an action to roll to dodge and manages to roll a 1. As it was a lightning bolt she gets a -4 to dodge it and gains none of her bonuses. She gets hit by the lightning and takes 30 damage.  The roll to see if she is knocked down is successful(20 % r less for this amount of damage) she is flat on her back in the first 3 seconds of the fight.
Round 2
Wrath rolls back up t her feet and moves rapidly up to Storm Eagle and attempts a power slam to drive her opponent out of the ring. She rolls a 16 to strike. Storm Eagle Attempts to dodge and uses a future action, she rolls a total of 6, no good. Wrath does 49 damage, is driven back 44 feet, loses initiative for the rest of the melee, is knocked off her feet and loses 2 actions. She is now out of actions for this round and is prone near the edge of the ring, but not outside of it. However, this attack used up all four of Wrath's other actions this round s the next Melee begins.

Melee 2
Initiative: Wrath rolls a total of 17; Storm Eagle rolls a total of 6.
Round 1
Wrath Seeks to grab Storm Eagle and throw her the remainder of the way out f the ring. She rolls a 14 to grab and throw. Storm Eagle attempts to parry the grab, she rolls a  19 and manages to push Wrath's hands away.
Round 2
Storm Eagle takes this round to fly up 20 feet off the ground and then tries another Lightning ray. She rolls a 3, its a miss.
Round 3
Wrath  Leaps up the twenty feet easily(her maximum running high jump is 44 feet) and attempts to kick storm eagle back to the ground. She rolls to strike with a total of 17. Storm Eagle only has one attack left in this melee and does not have any martial arts training so if she attempts to parry she will not get an attack. So her plan is just to take the hit and hope she has enough SDC to keep going. Wrath rolls for damage, 51 damage, which drives Storm Eagle back to the ground.
Round 4
Storm Eagle gets up and tries once more to blast a lightning ray. She rolls a 20, a critical hit! Wrath tries to dodge and rolls a 1. No good. Storm Eagle hits for 100 damage. This pushes Wrath beyond her SDC into her HP.

Storm Eagle 

Wins

Fights in Palladium's system can end up being pretty short in the number of melees, but due to the number of attacks and how many separate defenses can be used, this leads to combats feeling like a slog on occasion. The next fight in the tournament will be between Whirlwind and Geostorm. That one might take a little longer than this one as it will be a character with a boat-load of attacks per melee versus a character with a lot of natural defenses and SDC. I am not sure how that one will go, but I am excited to see how it turns out. I have a feeling Whirlwind will go far in this tournament, but we will see. I thought that Wrath was going to win this fight, but the dice were not with her on this one.

Also, +Megan Bennett-Burks and I just finished a Kickstarter for A Far Off Land, A Fate RPG in Two Worlds. It is a game about special people chosen by Eldritch beings to travel between the worlds and protect or destroy both. They are shapeshifting masters of primordial magics, and they hold the fate of two worlds in their hands. If you missed the kickstarter and would like to check out the game, you can still get it. Check out the Beta Document.