Duelist League: Viviene vs. Uta

"Wanted: One Duelist. Must be winged or otherwise capable to survive falling off Fort Ouph."

The announcement, posted on the bulletin board of an inn in Fort Ouph, is followed with contact details, time, date, et cetera et cetera. It seems to be by a certain Uta Furore, a name which people who are into monster handling might recognize as having published a book on slimes.

It would appear that this Uta got a very busy schedule, and is trying to fit a duel between lunch and catching a ship to Ezzo. Why anyone wants to go to Ezzo, these day, is a mystery, and probably an interesting conversation starter. Hey, beats talking about the weather.

As Promised, Uta is to be found in the main square of Fort Ouph, at the correct time. She's holding onto a staff, white, sculpted to look like a snake is curled tihghtly all around it. At the top, the reptile coils wider, and holds the focus gem, which is a red jewel shaped in an anatomically correct representation of a heart.

Having seen the notice for a duelist. A small spriggan with a massive sword on her back which would imply an insane strength stat, and a katana at one hip, and a Falcata, a rather unusual blade to be seen within the lands of Yamato, as it certainly did not hail from a land like Yamato. "I'm looking for an Uta. They want a duelist? They got one!" she said, as she was strumming a guitar, using a touch of magic to announce her presence with a decent guitar riff. "Cmon out, and lets have a duel to give everyone an awesome show!" Viviene might know of Uta's fame, but she doesn't seem to make note of it, instead looking around with an excited grin, cracking her knuckles in preparation.

"Oh, hey!", Uta waves, all enthusiastic. "You're lucky! I am an Uta! And I am looking for a duelist myself!" She swipes her menu open, and sends the duel invitation to Viviene. "I'm glad my announcement at the inn worked. This is about the announcement at the inn, right? Nice sword by the way."

After sending the invitation and making sure it has been accepted, she sprints immediately into action: a tap-tap-tap running start, leaping forward, and a flying roundhouse kick at the diminutive Spriggan!

Viviene accepts the invitation to the duel, and the fight begins, and as a flying spinning kick coming for her, she immediately has to focus on the defense, as she recognizes the threat of such a powerful blow! A coat of energy subtly forms around her, offering protection. Still with a guitar in hand, she endures the incoming kick and manages to swing her guitar as she plays a beat, using the guitar to parry the incoming kick and send it off course, only afterwards creating some distance and drawing out her katana, storing away her Guitar. "Quite the nasty kick there, nice move!"

"Thanks!", Uta exclaims as she, foot deflected by the instrument, slides sideways land on her feet, staff still clasped tight. "I learned it from Yeowang. It's the first time I got to use it in a duel!"

"You play the guitar? Nice! I also like music!" That might (or might not) be the explanation for the double-note-shaped hairpin she's wearing. "We should play together some time or other. Oh, that reminds me!"

She begins to intone a catchy J-pop tune, and as she does, tendrils of light and magic intertwine along the coil of her staff, each of them matching the color, length and pitch of the sung note. As they start to coalesce into the focus gem, Uta begins to skip here and there, erratic, tapping the ground in random spots, and leaving a circle of light there, appearing as if it appeared out of the tip of the staff. Once she's been around enough, the verse of her song ends, and she slams the staff on the ground.

A shockwave of magical energies washes all over the place, and from each of the circles, a slime pops out!

They might be low level monsters, but my GOODNESS are they a massive number! The whole square is pretty much flooded by them, and they all seem intent to go annoy Viviene!

Viviene is beset by a hoard of slimes, which, seem to pile all upon her, but a resounding move of her huge sword with one hand, has her rupulsing many of them in one single push, so much so it sends a shockwave recoiling back towards Uta, only for her to point her katana towards Uta at shoulder level. "Stinger." Arcane shadowy wisps of dark magic flare around her sword as she suddenly zips straight through the incoming slimes at high speeds, it was no lunge, propelled forward by magical prowess and kept incredibly precsise by clear physical prowess and skill, shooting straight through perhaps a dozen of the slimes before she managed to get to Uta, it still slowed her down a bit, and that earlier kick had still chunked her HP bar pretty bad, but she only fights harder. "Alright, guess I gotta give it all I can right now!"

As soon as she spots the first hints of the return shockwave, Uta activates her Lightningstep -- a quick leap, a sonic boom, and crackling lightning in the wake of her legs. "One!", she exclaims, as she does a flip in the air.

"Two!", Uta exclaims, as she, with a second sonic boom and streak of lightning, jolts sideways -- but not just quickly enough to evade the -whole- attack. The Stinger grazes the Nurse, as the glowing red gash there testifies. "Ouch!", she exclaims, with a wince, as she lands again. "That was a nice technique! I had never seen it before," she comments. "But let's go back to singing...", she begins, and intones-

...a melody...

People who have come across the Sirens might recognize it: it's one of their songs, the ones who have the power to keep Adventurers spellbound, requiring massive amounts of willpower (or disruptive counter-Songs) to overcome.

The gem of her staff, in this case, looks more than just a focus. It resonates and attunes with the song so tightly it might appear it's the heart itself that is diffusing its magic around the area.

Once Uta seems convinced the singing has been enough, she steps forward to just... smack Viviene with the staff. Pure and simple.

"Made it myself. Its from my first and only video game I played!" She kept as close as she could behind the other spriggan, opting to close the distance with a single leap that cracks the ground beneath her, as she opts to move at high speeds, grazing past incoming blows that deal some damage, but don't slow her momentum much, at least until The Siren's song was enough to distract Viviene some, it threw her off, leaving her defenses open for a bit, making her reaction to the incoming attacks slower than usual, but she mounts a defense to the best of her ability, and still continues her intended onslaught: A brutal, full power punch to the stomach that might possibly send Uta flying with the force of someone who has clearly put way too much time into their strength stat. "Yeah, I do the guitar, flute, 'n Vocals. But.. my real heart is in the FIGHT!. Not even music can throw me off for long!"

Uta's wind is knocked clean out of her. Well, that's one way to stop her from activating her Song magic.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a Spriggan!

Uta flies right through the sky, and *SLAMS* into a nearby wall. Were it not for the sturdy construction of Root Cities, she'd probably formed a crater and have sent a radial crack through that vertical surface.

Instead, she slides right down, slowly, with a wheeze and without some HP. She takes some time to be able to breath again, and once she is certain she is, in fact, breathing again (which she ensures through medical palpation), she springs to stand again, and rushes towards her opponent.

"You know? Elder Tale Online is the first and only videogame I've played!"

Step, step, step, splash, slide! Uta materializes a current of water she rides towards Viviene, and as she's close, she veers abruptly, sending splashes her way, splashes which, halfway through, freeze into sharp ice shards!

Viviene dodges around the raining ice shards with a classic: Rolls and careful evasion bolstered by her boistrous song, giving her a speed and precison in her evasion, while a few graze her she comes out mostly unscathed as shadows had followed in her wake, only for her to vanish within them then appear again from an angle, coming from behind a building where the shadows were heavy, Her katana is gone and this time she has a knife in hand, a long curved knife Uta might recongize as a Kukri, seeking to slash right for Uta's midsection with the knife, waves of dark shadow flowing behind her as she had essentially rode a dark wave out of the darkness, the attack serving to be a distraction for her real intent: wearing Uta's ability to retaliate with attacks down with a cursed Dark wave!

It isn't easy for Viviene to get to Uta-- the Nurse leaps, dodges, ducks and tucks and rolls and somersaults and backflips and cartwheels all around, but after many missed attempts, one hit strikes true.

Or, reather, slashes true.

Uta staggers backwards, and clenching at her midsection, she looks down. A red, glowing gash with wafting coils of Darkness.

"This chill... your Dark skills are impressive.", she says, as she, herself, sweeps one hand with an ominous chant to temporarily keep the Darkness at bay. "I will deal with you later," she mutters.

Steadying herself despite her luminous 'bleeding', Uta replies, "That's funny... to me it's the opposite. Not even fighting can keep me away from the Song. It's what I am."

As Viviene might be aware, 'Uta' is Japanese for 'Song'.

Uta clasps her staff and begins to intone another melody. An anthem, powerful, compelling, which she pairs with a similar slashing motion, meant to retaliate by equally slashing Viviene's midsection.

Viviene was a sneaky combatant, her physical prowess probably bordered on insane or mythical, but it was a show, and it guised the variety of sneaky attacks she otherwise possesed, earth wreathed within darkness that leaves acid that burns away at the body, weakens the spirit to keep fighting, while using a defense that punishes melee combatants the most. If Uta has an understanding of it, an actual application of real world martial arts is applied to about everything Viviene does in melee combat, and to a familiaritiy that shows someone who has commited much of their life to such. A commitment to vicious, sudden attacks with little coregraphy behind them gives a dangerous vibe to her approach to combat as each strike is aimed where it would be a lethal killing shot should the game not be confined to its rules. Uta remain's a step ahead of Viviene in a variety of ways, as what Viviene lacks is experience in dealing with game mechanics. The whittling of her health from small bleeds or life draining left her on the brink, She was about to hit red, but she continues fighting on even despite that, giving her full effort into one last swirling set of blade attacks empowered by the wind before her HP ticked into the red. "Crap, that HP Drain... I'm not going down without a fight though, heres one last showing!"

Uta's techniques, overall, are rather eclectic and come in varying degrees of orthodoxy. From impeccable martial arts techniques like the flying roundhouse kick to just smacking people with a stick, it is always hard to tell what's coming up next.

In this particular case, it was beating people up with a stick . Massive, relentless smacking with her staff, and slashing with its crystal's sharp edges.

As the victory fanfare plays, Uta, still panting, relaxes, and wipes her brow with the back of her begloved hand. "Wow, that was a good fight. I certainly wouldn't want to be on your hit list," Uta says, limping forward with the assistance of her staff as a crutch while still covered in glowing red gashes, with an especially massive one on her midsection. "How's your healing skills?", she asks. "I specialize in healing, maybe I can patch you up a bit before we go?" She looks in the distance. "Maybe we should also go for a dinner at some inn... it's nice to have a good dinner together after a duel..."

"Healing skills? Hah.. Ain't a one. Sure I know how to bandage and treat a soldier with a gun shot wound, stab wound and so on, basic field treatment.., but on here? I can't, not even got a magic capable of it. How it is." Viviene admits. "I'll take you up on the healing offer.. and maybe the food, that fight worked up an apetite - it was a good fight, for sure. Next time I promise ya, I'll be even stronger, at new peaks. - Stinger is only my first baby step into figuring out makin' custom sword artes." Vivivene's speech patterns have changed through the course of the encounter, once well thought out and well mannered speaking is more thuggish, and even though her words are translated, it defiently doesn't come across as having a native japanese accent. "So hey. Lets get that food yeah? I'm starved.."