Zekken vs Black Swordsman

    It's not hard to find the location where the one called Zekken has been challenging Adventurers. North east of Alne, amongst the grassy plains, sits a lone hill that's covered in flowers with white-pink, rosy petals. It stands out amongst the green of the area. This is the rumored site of the duels.

    But that's a given, with the small crowd that currently form a circle around said site. The sounds of steel clashing can be heard, two fighters going at it hard. One manages to overwhelm the other, forcing them to the ground and their HP into the red. The match ends!

    The victor? Likely the rumored Zekken. Although the rumors aren't precisely accurate. For one thing her outfit is more dark purple than black. Easy mistake to make. Another thing though is that they failed to mention she's a petite young woman, probably only around eighteen!

    "Phew!" Yuuki takes a moment to breathe before grinning at the poor Adventurer she'd just defeated, "Thanks for the battle. That was fun! Come back anytime." As the defeated slinks off in, well, defeat, Yuuki turns to the crowd, "So! Anyone else up for giving it a shot?"

The crowd had formed to watch the mighty 'Zekken' defeat another challenger sent before her, the undefeated champion of blades continuing her reign of innocent supremacy. But as she calls for anyone else to give it a shot, the crowd may fall silent as a player, clad in black, approaches.

To those who know of him, they would know him as someone who built, and continues to build, his tale as the Black Swordsman: Kirito.

He helped dominate SAO as one of the beta testers for a game that never came to an official launch, but now he's here, a smile on his face as his black eyes fall on Yuuki. "I'll give it a go, if you don't mind." he doesn't look scared, but rather he sees this a challenge of his own skill.

Gwen has caught wind of this duel and had to see it. She had heard the name of a player she recalled from before the dark times? She was shocked yet not. Given anyone who pushed that hard? Would have been playing Elder Tale, she had no idea where Kirito was from until now. The towering Holy Knight is just keeping back to watch the duel leaning back on something nearby. She has to see this, the purple-haired woman just watches with interest.

    Yuuki turns to face Kirito as he steps forward. Yuuki's smile switches to an expression of curiosity as she tilts her head a little bit. This one looks familiar to her... She can't quite place it though. Oh well. Maybe she'll figure it out through a fight!

    To that end, Yuuki grins at Kirito, "Okay!" Yuuki moves towards one side of the circle formed by the watchers. She spins around to face Kirito again as she says, "Rules are pretty simple. It's 1v1, no help from anyone else! And no killing. None of us want to spend an entire day asleep. First that gets their HP dropped into the red loses."

    Yuuki slowly moves her foot back as she lowers her stance. She raises her one-handed sword up in preparation, the dark blade rather unique looking. Yuuki eyes Kirito closely as she says, "If you're okay with that, then let's begin!"

     Kirito listens to those rules very carefully as Yuuki lays it out in lamens terms. "1v1, anything goes, no help, so long as there's no killing. Understood." Kirito draws his longsword, then the other. If he's going to fight her, he's going to honor her by giving her his best, just as he no doubt suspects that she'll come at him with everything she's got.

     He takes a more open stance, and as soon as that timer reaches zero, Kirito moves and moves swiftly, bringing his blade in a pointed stab directly for Yuuki's chest, if he happens to be successful.

    Wynfei heard of the sparring that was going on here and figured it would be fun to watch. He wasn't all that sure of his abilities yet, but he wanted to see how things would play out. Leaning back against the tree he was sitting next to, he looks between both warriors and he smiles a little, wanting to see how this plays out.

    Yuuki's eyes sparkle with excitement as she watches Kirito prepare those two swords. Being a dual wielder isn't easy, which suggests that this is going to be a good fight!

    Kirito acts first, beginning to rush Yuuki's position. But Yuuki doesn't wait for him to reach her! She moves forward too, the two quickly meeting at the center of the makeshift arena.

    Kirito lunges with one of his blades, but Yuuki is quick to raise her own, deftly maneuvering it to push Kirito's to the side so that it just barely scratches the side of her arm.

    Yuuki then counters quickly, pushing Kirito's blade away from her own before she quickly ducks into a spin, her blade flashing out towards Kirito's midsection.

Gwen says "Look at them go and this is both of them nerfed by the wave."

She notes watching as the pair of high speed fighters are just /going/ at it pretty hardcore. "Geeze, makes me miss having Grand Cross..."

She really missed that move right now as she watches the two duel it out.

    A black-haired spriggan girl in something that looks like a cross between a martial artist's gi and a nurse uniform wanders into the area, eyes shielded from the sun with one hand. "So, let's see. First rule of orienteering: find a landmark. A landmark is what I need right now. Something like... a mountain, a tower, a spire... oh, hey, there's a Gwen! That'll do!" She trots over to the audience, able to navigate the confusing uncharted territory of the gathered small crowd, reaching to where the only face she knows is. "Hi Gwen."

Kirito lets out a slow exhale as Yuuki manages to clash with him in an impact that would probably knock most other fighters down, but not these two. Kirito lunges with his blade, but Yuuki manages to swiftly use her speed toh er advantage, scratching her arm. A hit is a hit in Kirito's book.

But he miscalculated.

Yuuki is a speed-fighter, and Kirito was unprepared for just -how fast- she happened to be. When she pushed Kirito's blade away and spun for her strike, it struck true, catching him across the abdomen while his blade managed to lessen the impact, it was just too slow to stop all of it.

But he doesn't back down: he stays in this fight. In fact, he advances, one of his blades glowing with a magical energy as he rushes forward, intending for another sharp strike with one of his swords, and blasting an arcane blast of energy with the other, both aimed for Yuuki's sword-shoulder and stomach, respectively, if he can find purchase.

In addition, he notices the status effect under his healthbar and he narrows his eyes. This was going to be tough.

    A Bunbun were fang... (can bunbun even BE were fangs?) is wandering a bit after having spent some time in town. Then she notes the distinct sound of combat. Combat means progress! This is a truth she knows. The albino fluffy bunny girl dressed as a samurai has learned this since the black wave.

Shaskur heard the rumours of an undefeated duelist, Zekken. It wasn't a name she could recall from the major guilds that the Silver Swords would challenge. Still, there was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that she heard that name somewhere. It was enough to investigate. That's why she was here.

The wide open plains did make her feel a bit wary - it was so open. Even so, there were still places to hide of a sorts even in a place like this. She pulled her hood down a little further as she moved further into the group, both to keep the sun out of her eyes and to hide herself a little further. Not like it helps much when someone can inspect her and see her name, but it still made her feel better. She eyed both the ongoing duel and those around her. The duelists were skilled, perhaps the rumour had some truth to it.

As she moved among the others gathered to watch she heard someone mention something about having Grand Cross. Curious. She didn't mind moving a little further in that direction as she watched.

    The crowd in general is getting pretty excited as the duel plays out. It seems that the opponents that faced Yuuki earlier weren't quite as skilled as Kirito is turning out to be.

    Yuuki recognises this too, as she manages to quickly dive out of the way of the strike from his sword. However, the magical blast as a follow up is well aimed, striking Yuuki in the shoulder as she comes out of her roll. Red light shines from the impact. But the hit only makes Yuuki's smile widen.

    As Yuuki pushes up from her crouch, she presses the attack. She quickly strikes with one fast blow, intended to force Kirito's blade away to create an opening for her. Her blade then glows with darkness as she quickly follows in with a pair of quick strikes, the darkness leeching into Kirito with each hit.

    And as the two battle, Yuuki starts to get a familiar sense about the twin sword user. Like she's seen his combat style somewhere before.

Gwen watches the duel with a keen eye but what might be notices i sshe's really watches the pair's form and movments.

"These bodies are something else..."

She flexes one hand and then watches the fitht go on with itnrest.

"I bet at my peak I could crack open an IFV or take a tank round."

She then says much louder.

"YEAH COME ON PUSH IT HARDER!"

The battle grows more intense with each oncoming strike, each successful defense, each swift dodge, each spell cast. Kirito knew that Yuuki was going to be perhaps his toughest opponent yet, but he appears pleased with himself that he has managed to survive this long when so many would have already fallen by now.

His attention is not on the crowd. Its not on the commentary or cheering, its on each movement and action, each -reaction- to his opponents movements. It helps make Kirito a talented duelist, removing distractions from his perception and maintaining as great a focus as he could muster.

He smiles a bit in good sport and competition when his strike lands, though he's immediately back on the defensive. He notices his status effect continue to affect his HP, but Yuuki's piercing blow is blocked with an 'x' block of Kirito's blades. The next, however? Manages to just barely strike him across his shoulder, having shifted the blade's tip to try and minimize the damage.

In immediate retaliation, Kirito swings his blade in a swipe, aimed for Yuuki's chest, to try and force some distance between them, or at least buy him some extra time to push a counterattack.

    Uta's attention is not on the battle. It is not on the powerful attacks, the skillful dodges, the cunning strategies. Truth to be said, she's probably not even noticed there's a duel right now. It helps make Uta a crummy spectator.

    Noticing that the person she addresses seems to be too engrossed in... something to reply to her, she clears her throat and tries again. "HI GWEN!", she repeats, louder. She flicks her menu open, and after some swiping and tapping, a vegetable materializes into her hand. "I BROUGHT SNACKS! DO YOU WANT A CARROT?"

    It is only then, only at that moment that she notices what should have been obvious. "...oh, hey... bunny... girl," she says, to the other person next to her. "...was this insensitive? I... I didn't mean to make racist comments. Specieist? Sorry, it's just that I have a condition where I completely miss the most obvious things and- wait, are those two people dueling?"

    Yuuki proves to not only have quick reactions, but quick speed as well as she's able to bring her blade up to block that strike at her chest. But the impact from the blow is strong, Yuuki feeling it as she is forced back some distance. She also notices it managed to drop her HP a bit still.

    With a little bit of distance separating the two, Yuuki takes the moment to get in a little talk. She dances from one foot to the other as she says, "You're pretty good! Definitely not a newbie. Have we fought before? I usually remember everyone I fight against, yet you still seem familiar..." Yuuki then realizes she never actually introduced herself. So with a flash of a smile she says, "Oh! I'm Yuuki, by the way."

    Yuuki immediately rushes back in at that point, likely giving Kirito little time to answer right away. Maybe as they cross swords once more!

    Yuuki moves her sword in preparation to strike, but it turns out to be a feint as her free hand is clenched into a fist and moves to strike Kirito in the gut. Hoping that throws her opponent off balance, Yuuki follows through with another pair of quick strikes from her blade.

    Wist turns her head "Oooh hi, uhm my name's Wisteria." she offers "Yeah they're dueling I'm pretty sure since no one is like running around screaming about PK." she says and smiles, her lips pulling back from far too many ragged razor shark like teeth in uneven multiple rows.

JAzz, aside from a brief effort alongside Mizuki and Wisteria, has been lurking close to Aine for the last few days. In fact, she's largely kept to herself so her efforts at mapping wouldn't be interrupted. She's on her way back towards the township in question when familiar sounds and words catch her larger, pointed ears. She cocks her head to one side, head-tentacles lifting in the direction of the noise she's turned to before she rolls up her hand-inked map and sets in a scroll case, heading that-a-way.

Gwen says "I'll happily take one if you are offering." She looks over to Uta for a moment.

"Yup and one of them was a pretty big name in Sword Art Online, Though I had no idea he was here."

She points to Kirito.

"He's fighting the guild master of the Sleeping Knights. One of the three big guilds in Olympus."

She grins widely at this.

"Hell of a fight I'd have paid gold to see this!"

She waves to Jazz and Wis s they arrive.

"Check it out! Look at them go!"

Speed that Kirito is slowly warming himself up to, through trial and tribulation in the most sincere use of the phrase. Kirito seems to be exhaling lightly. Not from tiredness, but from his mind refocusing after a wild move managed to find some measure of purchase in pushing Yuuki back. Though as she bounces from foot to foot, Kirito keeps his stance solid and firm, a sword on either side of him.

The 'style' in question is what Kirito calls the 'Aincrad Style', but as Yuuki introduces herself, the name sounds very familiar to Kirito. "Kirito." he introduces himself, before he asks. "Were you apart of a game called Sword Art Online?"

Before his question is answered, however, Yuuki charges him. Not expecting the feint, Kirito eats that fist fully and while he tries to defend himself, he suffers multiple cuts from Yuuki, depleting his health bit by bit. In retaliation, Kirito charges forth, aiming two fast strikes in quick succession, both aimed for Yuuki's chest.

Uta offers Gwen the carrot. She stayssilent, taking in all of Gwen's words, taking some time to mull over them, looking sure to 'look at them go', as Gwen put it. "They sure display impressive amounts of skillf" . When she's done ruminating, she turns up to Gwen again and asks, "...What's Sword Art Online?"

At this point it feels impolite to leave someone she's just met and maybe offended out of the conversation, especially someone whose teeth are so impressive (not to mention concerning), so she extracts a second carrot and offers it to the bunny girl. "Name's Uta. Mine, I mean, not the carrot's. I don't like to name my food, otherwise I develop personal attachment and the whole story gets complicated. I like to keep things professional." Catching sight of the newly arrived Undine, she smiles a bit and tilts the carrot in her direction. "And the ridiculously cute one over there is Jazz."

Shaskur has slowly drifted closer to the purple haired sylph. She listens to the ongoing conversation the slyph is having with the dark winged Spriggan.

Her eyebrows reach for the sky when she hears the details about the combatants. A former Sword Art Online pro of some kind named Kirito, and that must mean the petite imp girl is actually Zekken. Zekken is a guild master of the Sleeping Knights?

Shaskur scrunched her brow in thought, wondering why this guild master was dueling on this hill in the first place. Well, she might be able to get a little more info about that.

Already close, she moves just a bit closer to Gwen and looks up at the tall sylph, "Um, did you just say that is the guild master of the Sleeping Knights? Why is she dueling here on this hill? I had only heard rumours of an undefeated duelist."

    Wisteria tips herhead and chuckles. "Thanks, ooh hey Jazzy, getting stuff done? Or did you just hear the duel and come to check it out like me?" she asks obviously familiar with the undine. She waves the carrot off "Uhm nah thanks I usually eat apples..." and raw fish on Ezzo rescues, maybe she'll try that tasty rat meat Miz keeps talking about sometime.

    Yuuki looks pretty happy as she manages to get some good hits in. Though that doesn't last long as Kirito comes back with a quick pair of strikes. They're fast. Too fast to dodge. And Yuuki doesn't seem to use her blade to stop them, the tip of Kirito's sword piercing her twice through her breastplate.

    Even as the lines of red light from those two hits begin to fade, it becomes clear why Yuuki didn't use her sword. It's glowing with light, the start of a sword arte.

    Yuuki leaps into the air towards Kirito, blade sweeping up over her head before she brings it down towards the Black Swordsman in one punishing blow.

    After the strike, Yuuki ohhhhhhs as she seems to remember the name, Kirito, "Yeah, SAO! Didn't we fight a floor boss or two in the same raid? Wow, that was so long ago!"

"We've met before," says Jazz of Wisteria to Uta, giving her a slightly sour look at having the title of 'ridiculously cute' foisted upon her ... even if it's probably accurate by some accounting.

Gwen is greeted with a wave of ink-stained fingers as she pockets the jar of ink she'd be using to draw and the quill along with it, her own long purple locks wafting a bit in the night's breeze.

"I heard noises," she offers by way of explanation to the bun. "Thought I'd come have a look in case someone needed help. Seems it's not needed." Her voice, as she speaks, fits her apperance: annoyingly, adorably, anime-cutesy. Like her Voice Actress wanted to be /extra/ twee.

Gwen says "The last VR MMORPG before the Pluto's Kiss. I was logged on fighting when it happened myself. I'm thankful it didn't scramble my brain like the second coming of Deadly Flash."

She notes to Uta and she'll take the carrot and start munching on it.

"You'd almost think they both actually had some actual training. I'm still eager to see what I can push mine to with this new body."

She notes and she then laughs at the mention of Jazz.

"You are pretty adorable yourself Uta."

Idea for paired themed costume fill her mind on that front. She snaps out of it at Shaskur's question.

"That I did and she's fighting one of the top players from Sword Art Online."

She waves to Jazz as she chomps the carrot fight the urge to impersonate a certain bunny.

"They are not fighting to the death."

Its a vicious back and forth between these two great fighters. While Kirito performed Kendo in real life, its mainly just experience from playing VRMMOs and putting everything he has into it. He retorts from her stabs with a quick flurry of his two blades, striking through the breastplate and entering back into a ready position.

When she leaps into the air however, Kirito lifts his blades in a perfect block as electricity forms around him, as if he cast a spell to help him move far swifter than he should, but he takes no damage from her attack. -However- he does take a small amount of damage from the status effect she inflicted on him earlier.

In reply, he moves one of his blades back, preparing a wave art as it shines green.

"We certainly did. I'm surprised you remember me a bit, but lets give the crowd a strong finish." he smiles, before he swings his blade upward, a shard of earth rising out of the ground to strike at Yuuki in the midsection, if successful.

    Mizuki is wandering the plains, exploring, but is now lost in thought as her mind drifts back to the incident at Ezzo.

    Those cat ears pick up the sound of a fight, though, and she hurries to investigate, catching a snatch of conversation from people she recognizes at the edge of the crowd. She walks right up to Uta, Jazz, Wisteria, and Gwen, giving the bunny a quick hug in greeting, then turning to look at the duel. "So those are two of SAO's top players? Man, before ETO came out I always thought it'd have been so cool to get into the Fragment or SAO betas..."

Uta launches into a long oooooh of understanding. "Oh, yeah, I remember that. The Flash of Death. Got hit by that one. Well, more like, scratched. I got off pretty lightly, I just got some minor neurological damage. Kind of makes me a bit scatterbrained, they say. Missing obvious things, losing tracks of conversations, going off into tangents, and then getting back to the main topic only long after- which reminds me. What is the 'IFV' these people 'could crack open'?" She realizes she's piling too many questions, and lets Shaskur ask. She's more clueless than her anyway, and it's better to let the pros of information processing have the first go.

    Uta reaches into her uniform again and pulls out a small burlap bag of nuts, something between pecans and peanuts. "Hi, Jazz! Don't be so glum, have a nut. It's on me. Sorry they're unsalted, but I don't want to risk them exploding," she says, extending the container. Noticing the ink on her hands, she asks the Undine, "You part squid?" And to Wysteria, a simple, "What about nuts?", offering the bag. She turns to watch the duel again.

    "Oh, man, right. There's a duel! This... this is pretty exciting, how could I forget about it?" She ask-exclaims, popping a nut into her mouth. This happens before Mizuki arrives.

Shaskur uses inspect on the sylph and spriggan beside her. Gwen and Uta the information said. She would remember those names. There was also an Undine and Bun-bun were fang, she inspected them as well. Jazuhanzu and Wisteria.

She looked back to Gwen, "Thanks." And it looked like she was about to say something else when she tilted her head, then used her chimlink talking quietly. "What is it, I'm kind of doing a thing." She listened for a few moments. "Fine, but you owe me."

She again turns to Gwen, "Sorry about that, thanks again for tell me what is happening. I have to go I guess." And with that she gives a slight wave and she heads back to Alne.

    Yuuki lets out a brief laugh, "Hah! Your style was kind of a big thing back then. Of course I remember." But as Kirito prepares his wave arte and suggests a big finish, Yuuki grins in agreement, "Let's!"

    The pillar of each quickly rises towards Yuuki, but the Imp moves fast, backflipping into the air, causing the pillar to pass harmlessly through the spot she used to be in.

    Yuuki flips in the air, landing atop the angled pillar. But only for a moment. She crouches, moving her blade across to her other side as she pushes off the pillar. In a flash of purple hair and clothing, Yuuki quickly crosses the distance between the two and unleashes a single horizontal strike at Kirito.

    Wisteria does take some nuts, and then she notices a wild Miz appear. "MIZUKI-CHI!" she says in a bright happy tone and hugs the feline girl with all her caerbannog strength. Then she's just hanging on the girl instead of squishing her and she watches the fight. "You've missed most of it, but it's a really good fight. I never really thought about PVP but I guess it's not really any different than competition if no one get's hurt."

Kirito looks at his health as Yuuki manages to slash him perfectly across the chest, though the blade strikes against one of his swords, it shoves him back, giving him a status effect even as he takes a breath. "It may have been a big thing back then, though now I don't know. I have a feeling I'm not going to win this one." Though he seems to be very satisfied that he has lasted longer than anyone else.

When she agrees to finish this properly, Kirito nods, and replies to her attack with both of his blades, charging forward, intending to strike Yuuki across the knee with one blade, and intending to stab Yuuki in the shoulder with the other in a quick strike. He thinks on his feet, attacking where he thinks his opponent won't be.

This is going to be very close, Kirito suspects. Its a chance...but he's taking it.

    "Ngh!" The catgirl grunts as she's squeezed. That almost hurts a little...
    Uta describes her encounter with the Flash of Death. "That sounds like ADD... Infantry Fighting Vehicle?" Sam's played the occasional RTS.

    She looks to Jazz. "Wait, is that /your/ ink?" She looks at the tentacles quizzically.

    As Kirito rushes towards her, Yuuki doesn't stand around and wait for him. She moves to meet him too. As Yuuki charges towards Kirito, she reverses her grip on her sword, now holding it backwards.

    Just as the two fighters get close, Yuuki dives forward into a roll, ducking under the blow that had been aimed for her shoulder. This means that Kirito's strike for her knee is actually more effective, a red streak lighting up across Yuuki as she comes to a crouch right in front of Kirito.

    The Black Swordsman will have barely a moment to react to that though as Yuuki pushes up from the ground, spinning herself as she does so, unleashing a pair of strikes from that reversed blade as she launches into the air before back-flipping to land on her feet again.

Gwen says "You did get off lucky. I have heard horror stories about it from people who worked in IT at the time."

She nods to Uta s they admit it.

"Oh? Infantry Fighting Vechlies. These people I'm talking about Adventurers like us. Think about this if someone had combat training from before we ended up here? Now they have all the power, speed and endurance? Of their current bodies? It pretty much would be full-on Anime."

Wait nuts?! That gave Gwen ideas she'll have to try to find some nuts? That could be another thing that doesn't taste like soda crackers.

"Look at them ... wait? Jazz where did you get the ink?"

Jazz is staring at the on-going battle with a slight frown on her face. Definitely, as the back and forth goes on and on. Then Uta is talking ... and talking. And then she's handing her a peanut. She looks down at the nut in her hand. She has a peanut now. It may not be salted, but it's a nut.

She looks down at it, and the ink on her hands, before turning to stare bemusedly at Uta.

"...nnnnno? I don't think so? I was just making a map, is all," she offers.

She peers at Gwen. "They sell some on the vendors for the scribes trying to level scribing. I just repurpose to draw maps on the parchment."

    For some reason, Gwen's words make Mizuki kind of slump, her ears and tail drooping. "We're trapped in a videogame. No 'would be', life is /already/ an anime." Then she perks up again. "But hey, maybe if we find out enough about what's happening and work to solve it, we can be part of the main cast!"

Kirito manages to get that strike in, making a laser of red across Yuuki's knee and torso if the path of the strike is followed. However, it leaves him wide open to the counterattack. Kirito has perhaps two seconds max to recover.

He manages, in a last ditch effort, to raise his sword and create a sort of barrier around himself with his form, blocking much of Yuuki's attacks...but one gets through and marks his shoulder, forcing Kirito back as he notices his health is literally one inch from being in the red zone.

He sighs. He knows his fate.

But he's gonna make it hurt if he's going down. So, he lunges forward, attempting to catch Yuuki exactly as she lands on her feet with a lunge aimed dead center for the chest.

"ADD, yes. That would be it. And as you said, I got off pretty lightly. I'm fully functional and can lead a perfectly normal life. Well..." She looks around, and gestures at her surroundings. "...if you can call /this/ normal."

    Uta, lost in thought just stares at Jazz, apparently following some internal train of thought. "I honestly don't know about being adorable," replies Uta after turning to Gwen, out of the blue, distractedly. "Honestly, have been meaning to look into a mirror since joining the game, never really gotten around to. But as far as training the new body is concerned, I'm getting quite a lot of that. For instance, I've found this nice old man the other day..."

    While Uta tells her story, the screen ripples to a flashback: a large used cart lot in a swampy area. A squat, balding, elderly Spriggan with large pointy ears sticking out sideways, a squished egg-shaped head, kind but intense eyes and a sort-of-but-not-quite-goatee points at Uta with the walking stick he's propping himself up with. "And remember you must, young one: wax on, wax off."

    "But Master Miyoda, this lot is huge! I'll never be done before evening!" "Done you will be. Because after that rocks you will have to lift." "...with my mind?" "With a pedal-operated crane lift them you will, you goof. Leg day never skip." "...but Master Miyoda, we're both Japanese. Why do you speak in that weird way?" "American movies I really like, mmm."

    "...so, long story short," finishes Uta, "...I'm getting a lot of physical training."

    "Oh, Mizuki! Hi! Yes, the fight was very good." She turns to watch the grand finale. "Well, it still is!"

    Mizuki blinks as Uta says she hasn't seen herself. "But you can just look at your reflection in water, or a window. ...Or even in your weapon." She draws one of her daggers and holds it up between herself and Uta, looking at her own reflection. "Isn't it weird, how quickly our minds adapt to recognize it?" She turns her head back and forth slightly, holding up her other hand and pulling at her cheek and lips a bit. "But I guess it's fortunate..."

    Yuuki is definitely feeling the pressure here as she sees the status of her HP bar. It's getting low...

    So why is Yuuki grinning like she's having the time of her life!?

    Kirito goes in for one last strike as Yuuki lands. It's a good moment for it, Yuuki still recovering. But her movement is strangely natural and instinctive as she raises her sword up, pushing Kirito's jab away from her chest and through the crook between her neck and shoulder.

    Sparks fly as the swords clash, Yuuki's parry not perfect as Kirito's blade still manages to sink a little into her neck. But it's not enough to bring her HP into the red.

    Yuuki counters quickly, pushing Kirito's blade up while ducking down. She spins around, guiding Kirito's blade over her head with her own before she lets it slide off and unleashes a quick counterattack to the side of Kirito's chest.

Gwen looks at Mizuki for a moment "More Tron really." She looks to Jazz for a mment and then tilts her head at Jazz and relaxes. "Okay I never rolled that type of Undine I had no idea." She looks sheepish at this and then she looks back to Mizuki. "You know there's an experiment I we still need to run."

Then she looks back to Uta and says "Really? There's one back at the inn, Let's do that later."

Kirito manages to only meet the tip of his blade against hers, before its moved to the crook of her neck and shoulder, and he watches onwards as Yuuki prepares that final strike, his sword parried and leaving him wide open for a strike.

<damn.>

Kirito thinks to himself, knowing that the end draws ever so near....but as if, in a last ditch effort, he brings both of his blades inward, both glowing in response to a wave arte, as he intends to blast Yuuki with both a Arcane blast from one sword and a firebolt from the other. If he's lucky...both strikes will hit at the exact same time, even as her blade strikes him into the red, does his strike true as well?

"...seems like Undines are a little rarer but like I've said before that's probably just because underwater content usually is ass in video games," replies Jazz.

She stares as the fight just... continues, trudging towrds it's inevitable end .She can seqe the hitpoint bars on both of them through the menu, obviously, but she just... doesn't seem all that excited by the closeness of the match, herself. Mizuki is greeted with an absent wave of her hand in her direction.

"Ehhhhh," she mutters, "Someone's waxing on again," she mutters to herself as Uta's tale continues. She still has a nut in her hand.

    Wisteria crunches a nut, hug/hanging on Miz. She is half listening to Uta but mostly she's watching the fight, what Kendoka stuck in a fantasy game could turn down staring at a duel?

Uta swipes through her menu. "Windows aren't /that/ reflective, and as for my weapon..." Tapping the final button, she materializes a staff shaped like a caduceus: twirling snakes, biting an oval structure at the top, surmounted by wings. It's white and polished, but not reflective. "...it's a stick." she deadpans.

    "Wait, that's me?" she exclaims pointing at the blade. Insert obligatory Groucho Marx mirror routine, except it's mostly making faces and jabbing at her reflection with a finger. "...this is-" But before she can comment, the duel climaxes. Forgetting about her newly discovred facial features, she turns to watch the final moments of battle, "...egads, I've /never/ seen anything like that! That's..."

Boggle. Just boggle.

She turns to Mizuki and Gwen to continue her sentence "...probably because I don't watch much in the way of anime. Which... it turns out, have now become an essential survival skill?" She grumbles. "...once more, I am the /wrong/ kind of nerd..."

    "Is it still ass, though? Since you've actually been underwater." Mizuki asks.

    Mizuki shivers as Gwen mentions Tron. She'll let Uta hold her dagger for a bit if she wants to see her reflection in it; otherwise she'll put it away. She looks at Gwen slightly more intensely than her words seem to merit. "What's the experiment?"

    A gamer like him should really be focused on the duel, but... something Gwen said seems to have gotten to him.

    Kirito kicks up the heat, literally, as he unleashes a blast of fire from one sword. Along with that blast of arcane energy from the other. The two blasts streak in towards Yuuki after she had passed Kirito with her counterattack.

    But in another display of graceful movement, Yuuki leaps to the side. She twists her body between those two blasts, one passing either side of her slim waist before she lands on her feet in a low stance.

    Yuuki rises, looking like she's about to make another attack. It seems that she hasn't realized Kirito's condition yet!

Kirito is still struck, though the force of the blow was not quite enough to knock him back. Instead of combat Yuuki any further, however, Kirito suddenly sheathes both of his swords and stands up tall, even as Yuuki looks like she's about to attack again and he extends his arm forward, palm up.

"Looks like I wasn't good enough today." he gestures to his health bar so she could see. He was indeed in the red, even if Yuuki was just -barely- not in the red herself. He was close to making it a draw, but alas.

"It was a good fight though. I'm happy taking a near victory." of course, Yuuki can totally still attack him.

    The duel over Wist looks to the sky "I think I have time to get in some practice. We'll head off to ninetails, maybe tomorrow? Wana catch a convoy duty to make the trip profitable?" she asks Miz as she gives another squeeze and reddies herself.

    Mizuki blinks. "It's on another island, so it'd be the Ezzo duty... there's refugees headed to Ninetails as well. It'd be less selfish than just taking a boat straight there, I guess..."

    Yuuki actually manages to rise into a run as she goes to attack again. But once she sees Kirito sheathing his swords, Yuuki stumbles a few steps before coming to a stop.

    The purple imp blinks a few times in confusion, before her eyes dart up just a little as she inspects Kirito's HP. Seeing it at the point of red, her eyes light up happily.

    Yuuki laughs as she moves her hand to rub her neck, "Sorry about that! I was so totally focused on the fight that I didn't notice!"

    Yuuki returns her sword to its sheathe, before walking over to Kirito. Her devilish tail sways happily behind her as she holds a gloved hand out to Kirito to shake, "That was sooooo close! One more hit and you would have had me!" She grins, "Not many get me down that far." It seems Yuuki's reputation is well earned. Kirito's too.

Kirito doesn't move an inch until Yuuki comes to a complete stop and notices whats happening, only then does he lower his arm and approach with a casual pace. stopping just short of Yuuki and giving her a friendly smile. At her excuse, he actually chuckles, before he shakes his head.

"No, no. Its completely fine. It was a really intense fight." At the offered hand, Kirito looks slightly surprised at the sportsmanship on display, but he recalls that she was extremely friendly in SAO too. Either way, he extends his fingerless-gloved hand to Yuuki and gives her hand a firm shake, however brief the contact actually is.

"Very close. If my wave arte struck you, I would've tied. But, you're just too quick. Though that was really fun, we should do it again next time we meet to see if we can tie it up." he offers. A reputation from both of them, since it would appear that they are, in actuality or nearly, equally matched to a point where it could have gone either way.

Uta stares in awe at the end of the battle. "...this duel was /so amazing/. More engrossing than my face!"

    Yuuki shakes Kirito's hand with quite a bit of energy and perhaps for longer than he might find comfortable. But once she does finally let go, she considers his request, "A rematch huh?" Yuuki grins, "Of course! Anytime. It'll be great! In fact..."

    Yuuki waves her hand in the air, summoning her menu. A short time later, Kirito gets a friend request, along with a friendly smile from Yuuki.

    With the duel complete, Yuuki turns to the gathered crowd, "Sorry, everyone! But that's the last challenge for today. Come back another day!" The crowd begins to disperse, remarking on the fight as they do.

    Yuuki seems to be sticking around a little longer though. Once most of the people are again, Yuuki proceeds to fall onto her back, a puff of flower petals rising up around her. She's fine, just a little tired after that tense fight. Yuuki stares up into the blue sky for several moments before she curls up and squeals happily, "I love this place!"