Spar For The Course

As part of their mutual training, Fukaziroh and Uta have been going dungeoneering together a lot together, as part of their mutual training. With the Palace Landers attacking Adventurers in Yamato, one must hone their skills at the best. As a member of Crescent Moon and a former newbie herself, Uta feels it particularly important to make sure everyone develops their abilities, no matter their current skill level.

Therefore, an appointment has been set up off into a secondary square in Carmina Gadelica. It's a smaller one, nestled among a few buildings, definitely no main square material, but with enough room for movement. Not many people are around, and the place is quiet. Perfect for a private practice session.

Uta, staff held in one hand, flicks her menu open, and sends a duel invite to Fukaziroh. "Okay, here comes the invitation. We're going with whoever goes yellow first, as per Duelist League standard."

    Fuka's been interested in getting back into duelling for a while now. She used to be quite the duellist before the Apocalpyse, getting out of it during her general hiatus due to uncertainty about her place in this new world. That and, possibly, a certain duellist curbstomping her confidence.

    She trusts Uta though; to be a smart and helpful partner, to have good advice, and not to mock Fuka in a way that actually stings. Also to be strong enough to be well-worth training against of course! Besides, Uta's fun. "I'm ready!" Fuka calls out, settling her axe against her shoulder in a semi-ready position. "Just warning you, I am *not* a nice duellist! I may adore you as a friend but I fight nasty and I fight to win!"

"That is what duels are for," Uta replies. "And everyone fights to win." Uta spins her staff and takes a step back. "We all fight to win here. I will not hold back either. That is how we ensure we really push our limits, and become steadily stronger."

She inhales as the start countdown reaches 'one', slams her staff on the ground, at 'zero', and begins to intone a powerful anthem. Each note makes helical tendrils of light and magic dance on the handle of her staff, which pulsate as the rhytm compels the listener along. They coalesce into the gem at the top and a beam of golden light shoots towards Fukaziroh!

Uta stares in disbelief, slack-jawed.

Silence.

With the slightest sliding of her thumb and index, she low-key pivots the staff to turn it 180 degrees.

She clears her throat, loudly, and then begins an aria that keeps rising, higher and higher in pitch and louder and louder in volume. Circular, obsessive, it creates helixes of light and magic on her staff, which coalesce in her gem, and when the last note is hit, a powerful blast of Sound and Magic is shot forward with the final note, so devastating the air ripples visibly as the shockwave travels!

Haru has a... history... with dueling. With the War being already on the doorsteps, its a touch naive to think he can just live his best life (tm) without coming across it any more. As it so happens, two people he knows are going through the paces. Its enough to find a comfortable place to sit and plop down there.

    Pulse pounding in a not at all unpleasant way, Fuka waits for the duel to begin. The rush of combat is a fine drug, whether it be PVE or PVP. While Fuka's not at all interested in ganking, she loves a good duel, almost as much as she likes telling the stories afterwards!

    She laughs in delight, feeling the energies flood into her from Uta's first spell. "You're that cocky!" she teases, having seen Uta's expression and deducing she mistargeted. "Well I don't mind if you cheer for me!" she says, feeling the magic add strength to her arm as she moves Chopstick to interpose against Uta's followup attack. She's able to block the sonic assault, more or less, and is ready for more.

    "I'll have to let Chopstick do my cheering for you then!" she says, lunging quickly forward and launching a quick flurry of precise strikes, all the while chanting runewords of air to enhance her strikes with air mana. Enough to cause little shocks of energy that, while not in themselves damaging, add a bit of significant distraction to her main attack!

Uta darts towards Fuka, "I thought I'd level the playing field by... uh... giving you an advantage. Yes. Yes, that... that is totally what happened." Those dark fairy wings flattened against her back tell a completely different story. It's like playign poker against a puppy.

Fukaziroh's distracting blows are met with an equally confusing set of dodging maneuvers, erratic, unprecictable. Uta ducks, dodges off to a side, cartwheels, pole vaults and spins on her staff in mid air, before doing a somersault and once she lands at such an angle she looks like she's about to fall forward, after absorbing the shock of the fall she lunges forward, staff spun forward and pointed at Fukaziroh. Her eyes wander all over her opponent, making it hard to foresee where, exactly, she's going to jab the pointy end.

    It's a bit annoying, not being able to hit her opponent. "Did you train with that Zettouki girl?" Fuka asks between swipes. It's high praise, honest! Then suddenly Fuka's forced on the defensive as Uta not only ignores her defense, but seems to understand exactly where Fuka will be swinging and where she'll be dodging.

    She takes several hits, enhanced by the accuracy of Uta's deductions, and tries summoning flames as a defense. Probably to little effect, as it seems the attacks will plow on through regardless. Maybe they'll singe Uta a little in return. But Fuka IS able to respond on offense, a little. A subtle little surprise cast in between evasive maneuvers and getting hit that *might*, if she's lucky, land despite Uta's seemingly preternatural awareness...

"Zettouki? You mean the Ultimate Knife?", Uta asks, while doing an Illusion Turn dance move. "Wait, no. The Definitive Stabber? How did it g-OH! The Absolute Blade!" This time she avoids the incoming hit by grabbing onto the shoulder and high end of the haft, and letting herself be swung around for one hit, letting go to land a bit further back, her soles sliding on the ground to consume the last of her momentum "You mean Yuuki, right? Yuuki is cool. I'm a big fan. I got to fight her as part of the duelist league once! I showed up in full Yuuki fan gear! It was amazing! I-" She frowns. She leans on her staff as she scratches her head. "I can't remember how it ended, but she probably won. She's amazing. Anyway." She inhales, and taking advantage of the distance, she intones another bouncy song, highly rythmic. The usual show of colorful spinning threads of light and magic takes place on the handle of the staff, and soon a large number of slimes bubble up from the sewers, all slithering and blobbing and bouncing, homing in on fuka as if propelled by the rhythm. Simultaneously, a small vortex of clouds spins into existence above Fuka, crackles with lightning, and begins to rain down spiky ice projectiles.

    "Yuu-kun's okay I guess." Fuka says as she frantically evades, the cool words belied by a grin. Fuka likes Yuuki, of course. They have a rivalry, at least in Fuka's mind. Mostly one that results in Fuka taking losses in any competition and the pair of them trading banter and sometimes treats.

    But Fuka has to buckle down. She's taken several hits and hasn't managed to land anything of any particular value on her foe. The honour of the Fuka is currently Ziroh! That must not stand! Summoning all her cleverness and deception, Fuka intones a quick spell softly, sweeping her axe low in an attempt to cut Uta's legs out from under her in a way reminiscent of chopping flowers. Well, cutting flowers, at least when your cutting implement is a great axe. Chopping trees, perhaps. It's hard, because she still seems to be under the effects of some kind of mind game shenanagans. But perhaps Fuka can play a mind game or two of her own yet!

Leap, leap, jump, lots of swinging no impact. Uta dances around Fuka's swings as if it was nothing, at some point even balancing upside-down on the rim of the eye of Chopstick for the briefest of moment, before pushing herself off and landing, to continue-

*SLASH*

To compensate for all her misses from before, this swipe *SLICED* both of Uta's legs off neatly, sending her torso to fly off to one side, two bright red circles at the end of short stumps, while her disembodied legs, with corresponding red discs, topple to the ground like pins, and shatter into polygons shortly after, leaving only a pair of empty boots in their place.

Uta screams until her impact with the ground shoves a bunch of dirt into her mouth, and she leaves a ditch where her face leaves a ditch as part of the process of slowing down.

Eyes shut tight in a grimace, she clutches her staff. "G....good hit, Fuka. But if your goal was to force me to practice my shielding techniques, there are... less... GHHH... -extreme- methods...", she says.

She attempts to intone a flowing, flourishy aria while white and blue tendrils dance on her staff -- given her condition, however, it doesn't come out that great, and soon, a massive blast of water departs towards the Sylph.

    Fuka would feel terrible about delimbifying her friend but this is just a game to her. Even as real as this world is, as horrifying as it can be, deep down she knows that the duel system means it's still a game, that nothing done here is permanent, and she hasn't truly chopped her friend nearly in half. So despite the momentary pang of guilt she snarks back a reply. "What, I need to work on my pharmacy skill too!" she says, smirking. "Let me touch it and see if you need medical aid!" she references. "Actually Chopstick needs some experience too!"

    She steps up, reaching out a hand, meanwhile casting a quick series of subtle spells. It's more than likely Uta will see Fuka's preparing something excessively nasty, but there's no way to tell just what. Though her grin and the poised axe may well suggest some idea. Fuka quickly layers effects, then.... brings the axe down with a yell, seeking to end the duel quickly!

"I don't trust it!", Uta yells, hurtling her halved self off to one side to dodge the blade that plants itself on the ground shortly after, "It's a hack doctor!", she retots. During her rolling, she occasionally tries to jab at Fukaziroh with the pointy end of her staff, until, finally she grabs her staff in her teeth and pushes herself up with her arms, glowing red discs pointing up while her HP drops quick, compatibly with the massive bleeding this would entail if this was more like Real Life(tm) as the adventurers know it. She flies off much farther than earlier, lands on one arm while the other holds up the staff, and under these condition, she begins a powerful operatic aria, reminiscent of the one she sang at a beginning, but with a crescendo at a far, far louder volume than earlier. Her own powerful voice harmonizes with her staff, and blast pulses of magic that interwine and entangle with the song depart from it, shockwaves of air and magic ready to impact an unsuspecting target!

Or a suspecting one, really. They care not.