Crownless Cup: Arashi vs DosBox

The evening is calm and temperate. A gentle breeze wafts over the city of Shibuya as sunset slowly approaches. Tournament attendees sit in the stands, waiting for another battle to begin... And Borywick "DosBox" Rockborer is standing outside the ring 30 minutes early as if it were his first date and he didn't want to be late.

He nervously adjusts his wizard hat as if to make sure that it is securely fastened to his head. Asuna just HAD to make that comment about the tournament, didn't she? And now, the possibility was rolling around in his head like an idea parasite, leeching away any other thoughts.

'Plus who knows, maybe you'll hit it off and make a friend.' The flash insinuated. Her teasing expression hinting at the possibility of MORE than friendship.

Dossy was, unfortunately, severely weak to such fun-making, and as such, he has had the thought bullying his mind since she had said it, and it did not help that the match, he had learned, just so happened to be against a girl. Now, Dossy cannot help but be nervous about the whole situation. So he spends the 30 or so minutes before the match impatiently waiting for his opponent to show up, plagued with stupid thoughts that his friend had placed in his mind.

Vertina is here to watch the fights. She's also here to work as it were, selling drinks and yakitori skewers to the various audience members. Power Pwny vs Rock Gnome. Huh.

Vertina holds one hand up to her mouth to amplify her voice a bit. "DON'T LET THE SILENT TREATMENT PSYCHE YOU OUT DOSSY!" .. and then gets distracted by more hungry viewers.

    Tournament Time again? Hmm. It had been a long while since Arashi had been seen around here, or anywhere for that matter. The 'power pwny' as some put it, had been on another kick of solo play. Their short venture into the Palace Lands were... not fruitful for their objectives, and as such, they vanished from the war, back to the lands surrounding the tower and all the floors inside.

    Truth be told she lost track of time, back on the hunt for shards of Starshadow. The one thing that got her attention was the tournament sign up pinging her comms. She signed up, of course, and that's why DosBox has to fight a GIRL. .. a draft-horse werefang that rarely shapeshifted into something folk would consider 'normal'. Huh. So. There she be, across the grounds from Dos, a new face to the soloist's eyes. "You alright? You look a little anxious!" Gasp. WORDS. .. It's Vertina's fault!

    Asuna's match is done. She's had a chance to recover, eat, rest, eat. Pela's cafe is here. Have you -tasted- that cake?! Still, she makes sure to get some food from Vertina, too. And drinks. Just not alcoholic ones.

    Asuna is in the stands with Yui, after all, and she doesn't drink alcohol around her child. Yui is settled in her mother's lap, looking at Dosbox curiously.

    "Mama, he seems a bit afraid. He's going to be okay?" she asks.

    "Oh yes, don't worry. It's only a duel. You saw how things were for me! I just got a few little knicks. No problem!"

    The Flash shares the yakitori with Yui. There is no doubt the child is loving every bite of it. "All your friends make the best food, mama," the child observes.

Dosbox has been noticed by senpai today!!!!! The Rock Gnome blushes, as he smiles nervously, "Oh! Hi! Yeah, I am a little nervous. This is my first official duel, so... Hah!" He clears his throat. "Ah, you look nice. Your outfit suits you?" AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! WHY THE HECK DID HE SAY THAT!? This is A DUEL, NOT A DATE! "I-MEAN-MAY-THE-BEST-DUELIST-WIN-AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!" DosBox rushes to his corner, squealing in embarassment the whole way.

    Blink. What??? "Uh. Right. Thank.. you?" That was a little .. awkward. Shrug! Arashi was already standing where they wanted to start from. When Dos goes scampering to their start area, Arashi simply draws Starshadow about. Still not fully forged but the weapon is unique. There isn't another like it. She is ready when Dossy is. . . . Will they ever be?

Dosbox swallows hard and focuses up. His brow furrows. His nervous frown becomes serious. It's go time. He throws his hand up into the air, and a myriad of small, sharp pieces of metal jet out of the ground around him, and with a sweep of his arm forward, as if he were a general commanding an army, the little metal bits go soarding at Arashi.

'Okay, that looked super cool.' He says to himself as he quickly pulls out a gas grenade in preparation to throw it. However, the ignition switch catches on one of his baubles, and he ends up spraying himself in the face. "AWGH!!! PEH!!! PEH!!!!" He tosses the gas canister to the side and spends a couple seconds coughing uncontrollably. Smooth.

Vertina can't help but cringe a little when Dos lets loose with his attack... and accidentally attacks himself in the procees. She's done a few accidents like that with her own alchemy, but not in the middle of a fight.

    Stones, rocks, metal bits. DosBox is certainly what's on the tin being the Gnome that they are. Time for a new tactic. The Dire-shire takes a step backward, then is just -gone- with a shimmer of their appearence left behind. ITS AN OPEN FIELD WHERE COULD THEY GO? Up. They went up. Starshadow also went up, and with the lighter blade facing forward it can be seen glowing -brightly- as Arashi comes down with a vicious pair of slices, the impact of which clearly shakes Arashi's poise, but that's what the light green glow that follows is for. Minor healing to take the edge off.

Dosbox takes the first hit straight on, but manages to dart backward with the power of lightning to dodge the second. The massive red light gash is a testament to the solid blow to the rock Gnome's chest: and HP Bar.

He gets that last cough out of his lungs as he sets forth one of the tricks he designed himself: an Amethyst gauntlet appears right next to Arashi and grasps her ankle, restricting her movement. He shakes his head a bit to shed himself of the dizzyness of the gas... Will he be able to recover from his own stupidity? ...probably not.

    "Mama, is he alright?" asks Yui softly. Seeing Dossy's own stuff blowup in his face is definitely not what she expected to see. She looks legitimately nervous for the little Gnome.

    "Well, admittedly that was not the best move to open the fight, but it's just the beginning," explains Asuna. "There's still time for him to bounce back into things."

    She busies herself enjoying Vertina's food. "These skewers are so good! You're outdoing yourself as usual, Vertina!"

    Typically, Arashi's agility is her forte when it comes to defense. When Dossy starts to form their next attack, the warhorse is off like a -shot-, to try and avoid what's to come. The sudden grab by Dossy's attack catches her off guard, but like a moment earlier, she tries to vanish into 'somewhere' just after sending a slice at the grabby gauntlet, but not before taking the residual energy from her former attack into one hand, from the light blade, and sending it straight for their eyes. It doesn't seek to strike them, it just explodes right ahead of them. ITS BRIGHT.

     What comes next is a fierce slash from the darker blade of Arashi's weapon. While she didn't have shadows to hide in, she hopes to make use of that 'flash bang' of a wave arte to help with their defense to come.

After making a few more sales Vertina wanders back over to where Asuna and Yui are watching. "Thanks! It's hard work making enough for a whole crowd, but that is no reason to cut back on the quality." Considering there's a lot of people enjoying both skewers and the fight, it was time well spent.

She winks at Asuna. "It's also good advertising. Some of these people might not wander up to Tolbana without some form of draw." Then she turns her attention back to the duel going on. Winces a little again. "I've trained with Arashi before. She's very forward and pragmatic in combat. Looks like Dossy is at least putting up a fight though. I do like the gemstone Earth moves." Next to Fire, Earth was one of her preferred Elements.

Dosbox is prepared for the signal flare just about as much as he was prepared for being hit in the face with his own gas cylinder: which is to say, NOT AT ALL. He tries his best to throw up a defensive coating around himself, but the art he used has some warm up time, and swords are faster than that. The Rock Gnome gets decorated with 4 more bright red gashes.

Trying to squint through the blindness, Dossy attempts to hit Arashi with his very first Arte, the Gem Missile: it jets out of the ground at Arashi's feet and whizzes past her harmlessly, but the comeback very well may do a BIT of damage. Once his eyes clear a bit, he throws out the quickest spell he knows, a little number taught to him by a rock god he just casually knows. He throws his hands out in front of him like the end of a Kamehameha to lauch a burst of flame at Arashi, lighting her ablaze.

    "They are yummy," Yui says quickly, smiling up at Vertina. Way up. Her eyes always go a bit wide when looking at Vertina. It's the stature, mostly. The child is not very big and Vertina is so tall!

    "I imagine you'll get a lot of attention today. And people can easily make the trip to visit. Especially now that things are a little calmer." Asuna is relaxed as can be. Sure, she hopes Dossy does well, he's a friend, but no matter what, he's gaining experience, and that's the thing that counts most of all. #training4ever

    The Flash is not familiar with Arashi, though. They've never been on a quest or did a dungeon dive. Even when Asuna was doing her wandering Samurai thing their paths never crossed.

    Its likely that Dossy is learning that despite Arashi's size, she's quite agile. She's managed to make up for her 'lack of defense' by being very careful with what she's learned during her solo play, and now the results are on display for them and the crowd all around them. That's why when DosBox's attacks come Arashi's way, she makes use of one of the first cards she learned from a good friend. She seems to be -skating- along the ground, but its because she's atop a very thin sheet of water that she cast out so she could get to speeding along. It helps with avoiding the gem missiles, but the follow up attack wasn't as expected.

    In a moment made more from reflex than planning, both of Starshadow's blades start to glow. The 'light' energy is cast out at DosBox -again- (SORRY ABOUT YOUR EYES) before the fighter turns the blade for a pair of swipes once they close. The first is for their HP, and the other is to knock them off balance.

It's a good thing Dossy is starting to research optics because his eyes are probably going to have irreparable damage. Dosbox can definitely feel the battle slipping away from him, and he was prepared from the beginning, considering this was his first duel. Absently, as he causes explosive spiked gems to form on his Gem Jitte, he complements himself on his pain tolerance as the hand grabs once more for her ankle. He grits his teeth as the blades cut into him once again. Then he smiles. Yeh. Pain tolerance.

    This anklegrabbing gauntlet is a bit frustrating for someone that relies on agility a lot more than shields. The -other- one getting yanked, twisted, and possibly stabbed at gets a loud wince from Arashi before they start trying to pull away. A few swings of her spare blade, and then Arashi is off again. They aren't as fast as they have been, but they're pushing through the pain just like DosBox is.

    Up close, the warhorse is feeling those grabs, but that's also why Starshadow comes around for a stab that's going to leave a lingering wound once it lands. "No hard feelings." *STAB*

Kaydon has been watching from the sidelines for the length of the fight, the weaponsmith keeping a close eye on Arashi's every move. He wants to see how she uses the weapon, his mind going over all the ways that the weapon could be tweaked. Perhaps that could be his next masterwork like the Jaeger before.

Vertina takes a yakitori out for herself and takes a bite from it. After some thoughtful chewing she muses to herself for a moment. "The little guy is putting up a fight, for someone more accustomed to being support. Making techniques out of the field he's most familiar with is a strong methodology."

Dosbox has more or less given up on defense. He knows he's going to lose. Arashi is just that much of a force to be reckoned with. A painful gash to the gut hits him hard. But he's past letting the pain affect him... He summons above him a familiar dark sphere of nightmare, which envelops Arashi's head, showing her worst fear to her... And then he WASHES HER FREAKING HANDS WITH SOAP SO VIGOROUSLY THAT THE FIRST LAYER OF SKIN COMES OFF!

    "This is hopefully going to help him put himself out there more often. Trying is the first step. Sitting on the bench gets you nowhere."

    Asuna's voice is casual, but she's not taking what she says lightly. She means it all. And some of this is for her daughter's benefit, too. She ruffles Yui's hair, which gets a giggle from the child.

    "And if you are going to be a brave little samurai, you will need to try things, too!" More softly Asuna adds, "Just not too dangerous, please.."

    What? What's all this?! The sphere? Hell. The sphere only ever did one thing to Arashi, put her in the void. Utter nothing-ness. The only thing that snaps them out of the sphere is ... having her hands washed? ... What? ... the.. ...... what? Ok no. Time to go.

    Unlike the other times, when Arashi slips away, she just Blinks out. Gone. Where? Behind DosBox. She looks a little irritated. Blame the Nightmare sphere. The strikes that come next are just vicious, flatside strikes. A trio of them. "Don't. Put. ME. IN. THE. VOID!"

Dosbox forgot how much people really don't like the nightmare sphere being used on them. He had even forgot his own promise to not actually use that one in a duel ever for that one reason. "S-sorry..." He says as he gets hit thrice in the face.

'No.' He told himself. Don't lose focus. This is a duel. Apologize later. Van Damme. He mutters to himself in quite possibly the most Chuuni voice one has ever heard escape Dossy's lips, "I am the Culet of my Gem..." Two Fist sized amber gemstones appear above Dossy, launching a continuous wave of slashing stones at Arashi.

    Thats a lot of shrapnel. There's a lot of little red pixels flecking off of Arashi, her HP bar losing little slivers at a rapid pace, but her health bar is basically near full while Dossy's .. well. isn't. The warhorse winces, considering options, before they seem to come to a conclusion. "I'll send you some gold." Eh what?

    Arashi is just marching forward against the brunt of the gemstones sent their way. She's soaking all of it! Starshadow takes a foggy sheen, one Kaydon may recognize. It's gone -super- cold to crack armor even better than usual! Then, with both sides glowing, light or dark depending on the blade, a massive assault is launched upon DosBox and any defenses they can muster. Looks like Arashi is trying to bring the match to a spectacular end.

Dosbox looks at Arashi as she is about to bring her swords down. In response to her words, he says, "Er... Thanks?" What follows is what could best be described as Cloud Strife using Omnislash on a rag doll. Yeah, Asuna, cover Yui's eyes for this. It's not pretty. DosBox stays in the air for the melee of hits until he just kind of... Plops down on the ground, his body covered in Red Light. Before he passes out, he mutters, "Ouchie..."

    Welp, that did it. There's a wincing sigh that comes out of Arashi, but after that, and with Starshadow put away, the warhorse waves for one of the healers to come out to take care of Dossy. "As promised," she muses, passing a few gold to the healer so they you know, do a better job than usual. Arashi actually did feel a bit bad about that particular fight. "You actually stood up to that pretty well, DosBox was it? Not bad at all."

    Asuna doesn't need to distract Yui. There's no blood and the child wants to be a samurai warrior. It's all good! She would race down to heal Dossy, but the tournament has people for that. And her healing kinda.. sucks compared to a dedicated healer, anyway!

    "Well, that was.. certainly one way for things to end," she says casually. The Flash frowns thoughtfully, "A few adjustments and he can get there, though. Need a bit more oomph to get the job done." She will set Yui on her feet, then gets up to make her way from the stands towards the defeated Gnome. With a crowd like this, she makes a point of carrying Yui rather than risking separation. Asuna reacts poorly to that.

Vertina nods in agreement with Asuna. "What he needs is experience, and that's what the Duelist League is for. Without having to risk your neck in the field more than typical for Scale Emblem ventures, at least." Then puts both hands up to her mouth. "GOOD JOB HOLDING YOUR OWN THAT LONG DOSSY!"

There's a grin from the gnoll were fang's muzzle as Arashi goes to town on Dosbox. That's the Arashi he loves to see, even if she has more of a wanderlust than most.

He moves over to her after the fight has ended, and gives her a pat on the back, "Amazing work out there. I can't wait to see how you look once the sword is back together. I already have so many ideas." He turns to DosBox, "You put up one hell of a fight, dude. You should be proud."

Dosbox is only momentarily out of it: It's not like he was ACTUALLY brought to 0 Aech-Puz. The healers slowly help him to his feet. "Weee.... That was a wild ride.... Soujiro-sensei, I understand now why you say Dueling is so much fun..." He is still a little wobbly. "It really didn't hurt as much as I thought, but... I guess maybe it's because I am a Rock Gnome? Earthy and all that." He notes that Arashi is still there, and he clears his throat. "Er... I had a good time. Maybe we can see eachother again soon?" Yes, Dossy is that dazed. He thinks they just finished a date.

    Asuna arrives shortly after Dossy's attempt at. She won't even guess what he is suggesting with the comment to Arashi. Perhaps he's got some weird lingering debuff? In any case, she sets down Yui and the child walks closer, nervous for a moment, then relieved when it's clear that Dossy is okay.

    "Hello Mr. Borywick! You did it! You are a duelist, now."

     The child's voice is excited and she has another surprise. In her right arm she cradles both her usual cloth doll (Soujiro), but her left holds the doll of Borywick himself. She holds that forward to show Dosbox.

    "See! You have a doll! Isn't it wonderful? And now we can pretend duel together when you come over!"

    "Hmm? Oh, sure. I don't see why not, DosBox. It was a good fight. I just.. solo play a lot and have managed to take down things that people shouldn't take down on their own. If you keep working at it and get some fight knowledge, you'll get better, I'm sure."

    Oh, Kaydon's here! "Ah, hey. If you have ideas I'd love to hear them," she offers before pulling a small dark cloth bag around. There's a slight glow to it to make sure the shards inside don't tear it open. She passes it over to the smith.. who will notice it is pretty damn heavy. "I've been busy."

Kaydon takes the offered bag, and tosses it up and down in his hand, "Hmmmm. You told me a while back you used to dual wield." He says, as he thinks back to when he let her borrow one of his earliest damascus weapons, "What if we could find a way to make Starshadow pull apart and go back together at will?"

He makes a few motions with his hands to kind of demonstrate what he's talking about, "You could go two handed, land a few hits, switch to dual wielding once you get their shield out of the way with the two handed form. Hell maybe we could do some kind of twin-blade staff mode too.." Uh oh..

Dosbox blinks a couple of times as the daze fades away, his face turns beet-red. His body suggests, 'Perhaps vomiting would help? That might help with the embarassment.' Dossy is about to take his body up on the advice, when Yui gives him something else to think about. "Oh! Ah-Yeah! We can play doll duels! Did they make one of these for every... One... of the combatantsdidtheymakedollsofUtaIhavetogosomethingjustcameup,byeeveryonetakecare!" DosBox rushes off in full tilt toward the merch stand. He... is probably going to spend a lot of money.

    Well then. Kaydon DID have some ideas. "That ... all sounds crazy. It didn't even do that before! Is that possible, you think?" Welp, the smith has Arashi's attention fully, now. Dossy taking off like a blur to the merchandise area doesn't really catch her. She may have offered to get them something as a consolation. Oh well.