Friday, October 22, 2010

First Round! Ninja vs. Pirate!

And now we come to the final fight of the First Round of my eventual Halloween Showdown! Whoohoo!

In this corner lurking from nearly any dark shadow - LOOK OUT! - is the Ninja!

Strengths: Moves extremely quiet from shadow to shadow, silently and patiently waiting for the right moment to strike his target. Then once in action, he is extremely fast with a sword or throwing star, often killing the target before the target can even react. You can't defend against what you don't see coming.

Weaknesses: Works best when there are dark corners or shadows to work from, so a lot of modern office buildings make for poor ninja stalking environments. If he misses with his first strike (which won't be often), then his main offensive strategy of striking from stealth is already blown. And despite his speed, even the fastest of ninjas can't outrun a bullet.

And in this corner, from all parts of the seven seas is the Pirate!

Strengths: Very strong and very skilled at swinging a sword. Also, because he is often at different stages of intoxication most of the time, he has a high tolerance for pain. Despite the fact that he might be missing an eye or limbs, that only heightens his fear factor, since it demonstrates just how much punishment he can take and still keep going.

Weaknesses: Because he is often at different stages of intoxication, this means that his movements are not as fast as they could be if he wasn't loaded up with ale. And of course, the more intoxicated he is, the slower he is going to move. His attack strategies are basically attack until the other guy goes down. Works well for the Pirate when he has the upper hand, not so well when he doesn't have the upper hand.

If these two were fighting in a standard office building, then the Pirate would have the upper hand since most office buildings are brightly lit with few shadows to hide a ninja in, but since the Pirate often fights in dark places such as bars, he is fighting in an environment that favors the Ninja. Fortunately for the Pirate, he also has many weapons at hand, such as the broken beer bottle, steins, chairs, tables, and his smaller fellow pirates.

So even if the bar environment favors the Ninja, he won't have a quick, easy fight due to the amount of weapons and defense that the Pirate can put up. Plus, if the Ninja hasn't taken down the Pirate with his first strike, then the Ninja's cover is already blown. It will be a good fight, with many objects (and people!) being thrown. However, while the Ninja isn't likely to take down the Pirate with his first strike, he can still wear the Pirate out by continuing to strike from the shadows, thus preventing the Pirate from being able to react as quickly as he would like.

Plus, while being intoxicated may help the Pirate endure the many sword strikes that the Ninja delivers, it also slows him down to the point that he endures more sword strikes than he would have otherwise taken had he not been intoxicated. This also messes up the Pirate's aim for when he tries to shoot the Ninja with his pistol. Bottom line, the Pirate is too drunk and the Ninja simply moves too fast for the Pirate to get a good, solid hit on, so it will be the Ninja who wins in the end.

TODAY'S WINNER: THE NINJA!

This ends the first round. Starting next week will be the second round, which will determine who goes on to the Halloween Showdown! Make your bets, folks! Halloween will be here before you know it!

No comments: