beardo vs. Crudblud
beardo was a cowboy. He wore a cowboy hat, a dusty parker, and an old-fashioned revolver at his side. He didn't hold with none of the fancy technology and futuristic gadgets that some people were introducing into the wasteland. He was an old-school guy, accustomed to an old-school world. Power armor and energy weapons didn't fit into his vision.
Some people disagreed with him. People like Crudblud.
"Throw down your weapons, foolish herder of cattle!" Crudblud shouted, clad in his power armor and waving around his advanced plasma rifle. "You are beaten! There is no place in the left in the world for you, you myopic Luddite! Not unless you renounce your backwards, technophobic ways and shun the path of regression forever!"
beardo spat and defiantly set his rugged jaw. "Don't know what those big words mean, but I know you and your kind ain't takin' our land. Best get back to where you came from."
"You fool!" bellowed Crudblud, raising his plasma rifle.
beardo rolled to the side to avoid the blast of green energy and landed on one knee. In the next second, his revolver was out and raining lead down on Crudblud, who snarled and staggered backwards. But the bullets didn't seem to be hurting him. In the next second, his gun fell quiet, and Crudblud raised his rifle and began blasting at him again.
Ducking under the plasma bolts, beardo sprinted for the cover of a large rock. Once there, he frantically reloaded his revolver and tried to figure out what to do. Perhaps he needed a different weapon. But could any weapon get through that armor? Unless...the trick wasn't to target the armor at all.
Meanwhile, Crudblud laughed at his cowering foe. "Come out and end this, beardo. You know there's no way you can win. None of your pathetic weapons can penetrate my armor!"
beardo poked his head around the rock. "Heh heh, you said 'penetrate.'"
The speech check was passed, and beardo earned 50 experience. Crudblud roared in anger and raised his rifle, but at the same moment, beardo threw a lit stick of dynamite at the exposed weapon. The resulting explosion didn't hurt Crudblud much beyond knocking him off his feet, but his rifle slid off to the side, ruined in the blast.
That was all beardo needed. With a roar of his own that put Crudblud's to shame, he charged straight for the armored warrior as he slowly staggered to his feet and jumped on his back. Crudblud swung his arms wildly, but beardo slid around on his back using cool climbing techniques to stay out of his reach. Then he drew his combat knife and attacked, stabbing at the joints and seams of the armor, hoping to find a weak spot.
Sparks and crackles of electricity appeared wherever he struck, and eventually he found a soft target in the middle of Crudblud's neck armor and drove the knife in as far as it would go. Electricity surged from the impact throughout the suit of armor and up beardo's arm, forcing him to let go. The next thing he knew, one of Crudblud's arms had seized and flung him bodily.
beardo crashed to the ground painfully. Crudblud removed his helmet, now sparking so much it was useless, and threw it aside. Ignoring the pain in his ribs, beardo climbed to his feet and drew his revolver, only to discover that it too was ruined, probably in the surge of electricity. He let it fall.
Crudblud sneered. "So, now we're both weaponless. Doesn't bother me. This suit amplifies my strength enough to allow me to kill you in hand-to-hand combat."
"Ooh, hand-to-hand combat, ain't you special." beardo raised his fists. "Well, I got something better than that. Good old fisticuffs."
Before Crudblud could react, beardo was on him, raining his fists down on his exposed face. With a growl, he lunged at the bearded cowboy, but beardo slid under him and between his legs, giving his metallic crotch a kick as he went. Once he emerged on the other side, he continued his barrage on Crudblud's head.
"Enough of this!" shouted Crudblud, lashing out with an armored arm and knocking beardo to the ground. This was followed by seizing the cowboy's throat with enough force to choke the life out of him.
"That was the worst display of martial arts I've ever seen in my life! You had no form, no technique, no posture, no real strategy, no -"
beardo finally saw his chance. His combat knife was still lodged in Crudblud's armor, and now that his enemy had him by the throat, it was within reach. He grabbed it and yanked it out, and another burst of electricity erupted from it. Releasing beardo, Crudblud collapsed to the ground in agony. beardo angled the knife at his throat.
"You win," Crudblud gasped. "Finish it."
After a moment's thought, beardo decided not to. "No. I'll let you live."
"Why?"
Another speech check appeared, and beardo earned 80 experience. "Killing you wouldn't fix the rest of your gang. They'd come looking for you, they'd find us, and we don't want a war or nothing here. But now you know from what just went down that we ain't to be fucked with, and you can go back to tell your pals that it would be best for everyone if you all went someplace else."
"You are both merciful and wise, cowboy. I thank you for my life." With that, Crudblud limped off, and beardo returned to his village, the day saved.