Yuuki and Giganpor do SCIENCE!

    Northeast of Alne. That's the location that the rumours speak of. Not particularly precise. But it only takes a little bit of searching to find the one distinguishing landmark in flat, green plains. A hill, covered in a mass of flowers with white-pink, rosy petals. It stands out for quite some distance, which is probably why it has been chosen by Yuuki for the spot to conduct her duels.

    The imp herself is currently sitting on the grass amidst the flowers, legs out, leaning back on her arms. Idly humming to herself as she stares up at the large tower structure rising up out of Alne.

    Yuuki is currently the only one here, apparently having no duelers call by yet to test her. And themselves. Which is good, as that likely means there's an opening slot in her schedule!

    Still unsure, but wanting to test how well he does with an actual shield over the usual overgrown weapon style he was using. For that reason he comes moderately armed towards the dueling grounds. It's obvious he had a little trouble finding this place, but now that he has? Well, that's not much trouble.

    Walking up, the giant of a man looks around. And blinks a bit as he sees the imp. Then looks around again. "Ah, excuse me, do I have the right place? I was told there was someone that engages in duels near here?"

    The real indication of his being at least experienced is that he's got his sword set opposite of his shield, and the shield's definitely... not a normal one. Unique in it's own way. The only other armor he has is a simple breastplate, gauntlets, and boots on. The giant obviously looks more used to moving around and at least wears the armor with a bit of pride.

    Yuuki turns her head as someone approaches her and asks about a duel. Yuuki smiles and raises her hand, "Yup! That's me! You're looking to do a duel?"

    Yuuki rolls back onto her hands, pushing herself up into the air to flip over and land on her feet. She smiles, "Rules are pretty simple. It's 1v1, no help from anyone else. No killing each other. Loser is the one who first has their HP drop into the red. Sounds good?"

    Yuuki looks Giganpor over. He seems capable enough. Maybe not top of the line combatant, but in Yuuki's experience most people can still put up quite a challenge. And as long as both sides have fun, there's no problem! Still, Yuuki tilts her head as she asks, "Can I ask why you want a duel?"

    The giant shrugs, "I'm getting rusty sitting in the forges, plus I kinda have something new to truly test out." He taps the shield on his arm as he pulls out a large hand and a half sword. "I figured since I made it, might as well use it."

    Said sword looks to be more thick and heavy, actually missing a crossguard completely as he hums at the rules. "To the red, huh? I can agree to that... what about summons?" He asks. "It doesn't matter to me if you don't want them. I tend to keep my skills as equal as possible."

    Wisteria has her new sword and she's been out and about testing it on monsters. She spots Giganpor and heads on over. Things to discuss and whatnot. She's in human form, and a tall young albino woman in onna-bugeisha garb just out for a walk or so it seems.

    Yuuki lights up a bit as Giganpor mentions that he made the shield, "Ohhhh? You made that? Cool!" Yuuki reaches down to the one-handed sword at her waist. She pulls it from its sheathe, shifting herself into an attack stance. She grins as she says, "I'll have to make sure I go full out then, to put it through its paces!"

    At the questions of summons, Yuuki pauses for a moment, then shrugs, "Summons are essentially skills, so that's fine." She smiles, "Ready?"

    Once Giganpor signals he is ready, Yuuki quickly dashes forward. A dark aura surrounds her sword as she raises it above her, before bringing it down in a quick diagonal strike. She swiftly follows up with a second from the other direction.

    Giganpor raises his shield up to block the attack. "Huh... nice to know they're considered skills." The second one is caught on the edge of his sword as he pushes back.

    Then both sword and shield suddenly ignite into flames. A literal flame shield and sword combination, although it's only to ward her off it seems. The next part of his attack comes with a fierce stomp to the ground.

    The literal ground rumbles and roils outwards, seeking to unbalance her. Followed by his bringing the sword up and shouting out, "Holy!" As a blast of light attempts to blind her for a moment or two.

    "But yes, I made it. No menu at all. Not bad for a first hit on it. At least you weren't sent flying like my earth elemental." He says.

    Wisteria just stops and looks "Ooh.. uhm duel... I hope." she says and heads on over to watch. Heck maybe she'll get in on this as she needs to see how her new sword works against Adventurers and not just monsters. Never know when that knowledge will become necisary.

    Yuuki definitely seems wary of those flames backing off a bit. She chuckles at the burning weapons, "Things are heating up!" Yuuki seems to have reconsidered keeping her distance though as she charges in again.

    Giganpor gets off a stomp though, causing the ground beneath Yuuki to shift. The imp looks to be having trouble keeping her balance as she closes in. But seeing Giganpor raises his sword up, Yuuki dives at the last moment. She hits the ground feet first, skidding beneath the larger man. It allows her to avoid the direct blast of the Holy, but the bright light still causes her to wince.

    As Yuuki skids past though, she lashes out with a quick strike. Not very strong, but fast to get through Giganpor's defense. And it also seems to cause a DOT.

    Yuuki rises again once past Giganpor, spinning around to face him as she admits, "Impressive! Making a shield from scratch this quickly. I'd try making swords but I've never crafted anything!"

    Yuuki notices the human-bun walk up to watch. She gives Wisteria a smile before saying, "If you'd like a duel, I'd be happy to once the big guy and I are done!"

Seems a duel is one way to draw attention of wandering adventurers of all sorts. Shiruba was on her way to the Marina to head back to the Ninetails capital when she caught a glimps of the flashes from Fire and Light spells. So the wolfgirl wanders over to investigate, and seeing another familiar face waves to Wisteria. "Huh. Giga testing out his work on gear or something?"

    "More like testing how far I've come so far." Giganpor says to the two observers.

    The poison has him reeling a little bit, but he quickly finds his footing after the sliding Yuuki. At least whatever she did doesn't seem to do much.

    Stepping back himself, he brings his sword up to lay on the shield, edge first as he sights along the pair of gear it seems.

    Then he steps forward and pushes off with the shield to set the sword in motion, not taking his eyes off the elusive Yuuki as he brings the sword down in a diagnol swipe at her in an attempt to do some serious damage.

    "Especially as I'll be leaving this area for long stretches of time after this." He says.

    Wisteria smiles, showing... regular old pearly whites, she's just in human form after all. Her red eyes still track the fight as she nods. "Sure we'll see how things go." she says with a laugh and settles in to observe, watching for zanshin and other such nuance.

    Yuuki bounces from one foot to the other in excitement while Giganpor prepares his next assault. She grins as she says, "Testing yourself is great! Gotta figure out where you're at before you can figure out where you're going!"

    The big man steps in to his attack, raising his sword. Yuuki pushes forward again, charging to meet it. Oddly she doesn't actually try to dodge the blow, instead taking it full force as the blade cuts across her chest and leaves a big glowing line of red. Risky.

    But the move puts Yuuki in a great position to attack back, bringing her sword up to strike at the side of Giganpor's shield. It's not going to be a strong blow. But is instead meant to provide an opening for Yuuki to reverse her blade and get a second slash through Giganpor's defense.

Shiruba aaahs. Then tilts her head to the side, ponytail swaying a bit with the motion of her head. "Where are you going? One of the other Kingdoms?"

    The first swing goes against the shield, but the second is caught by an off hand skill that's probably unexpected.

    A sudden barrier of light pops up as Giganpor says, "Shield."

    The powerful arte pops into appearance, stopping most of the blow but getting a scratch combined with the DOT.

The rest of the energy is turned into a burst of light from the sword itself as it attempts to push Yuuki back.

    Giganpor takes a few steps back after the exchange, or tries to anyways. "Ninetails Dominion. I plan on learning more from the Tradesmen. Still need to tell my Alliance, though."

    Yuuki does look a little surprised as her second strike is stopped. Darn magic skills. As focused on Sword Artes and swordsmanship as she is, she sometimes forgets they exist!

    The imp doesn't let the solid defense disuade her however. She jumps back, raising her sword in front of her as a minor defense against the burst of light. She lands again, before saying, "Ohhhhh! I was over there not too long ago for that Wave thing. Things are looking pretty nice. Especially since the orcs didn't get a chance to wreck it all."

    Yuuki bursts forwards once more, quickly closes the distance with her sword raised up beside her head. It begins to glow, before Yuuki pushes the blade point forward towards Giganpor's shield.

Shiruba ahs, nodding her head again. "That's okay, a lot of the Alliance has been working on stuff over there already." She jabs a thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of the Marina. "I am going to head over there as well, but caught a glimps of you guys sparring and came to see what's up."

    Giganpor is pushed back by the attacks, taking step after step back and to one side before he suddenly swings with the buckler itself, attempting to bash Yuuki away from him.

    At the same time the large sword is raised into the air. It's probably an effect of a spell of some sort as he swings it around overhead, creating a mystic circle that drops over him.

    And enlarges the giant just a bit. The enlarging is due to a bit more muscle, but also fur. And the lion-like head as his eyes focus on Yuuki.

    "The least I can do before then is to go all out. I hope you're ready." He adopts that stance with the sword on the back of his shield, the edge causing small sparks as he sets himself.

But yes, the crafting giant just turned into a lion-headed were fang. That's starting to glow gold from behind him. He's definitely up to something it looks like.

    Wisteria crosses her arms over her chest and just watches. She's smiling, she feels tourney vibes and that gets her pumped up.

    Yuuki is definitely doing what she can to keep the pressure up, pressing the attack against Giganpor. But that shield bash smashes the imp the side, sending her flying a short distance before she flips in the air and skids to a halt on her feet. She rubs the sore glowing spot where she was hit before grinning at Giganpor's announcement, "Ohohoho? Of course. Feel free to. It just makes things all the more fun. I certainly will do the same!"

    Yuuki rushes in once more, trying to pre-empt whatever it is that Giganpor is building up. She unleashes a quick flurry of three strikes against the big lionman, trying to batter his HP down before he has a chance to get off his next attack.

    Giganpor instead of staying in one spot, attempts to move to the side. The resulting slash gets him quite good, leaving a red line along his side. Followed by two more even as flames sprout up again to surround him this time and trail behind him.

    The final one sends him stumbling back, but almost like an angry lion he opens his mouth and roars at her. It might leave him temporarily wide open, but it does look, sound, and feel fearsome. Especially as it's an almost solid wave at her.

    Yuuki is being yelled at! What gives!?

    But really it's more of an attack rather than verbal abuse. The imp raises her arm out of instinct as the lion roar buffets her with oppresive sound waves. After it has finally passed, Yuuki shakes her head quickly as she tries to clear it, moving her free hand to tug on her ear, "Wowww! That was loud! I don't think I could scream that loud even if I tried." It looks like Yuuki is contemplating trying... Mmmmmmmm no. Maybe another time.

    Instead she raises her sword, tapping it on her shoulder a few times as she grins at Giganpor, "Looks like you're getting pretty close. Let's finish this!"

    Yuuki dashes towards Giganpor and then leaps into the air. She manages to gain quite a bit of height as she brings her sword up over her head. It begins to glow as Yuuki reaches the peak of her jump, before she comes streaking down towards Giganpor from above. It's just one solid blow as she swings, but it's a heavy impact, enough to cause a light blast of wind to ruffle the flowers around them as the sword strikes.

    But Yuuki isn't finished there. The blow from above was meant to shift the focus of Giganpor's defense. Yuuki lands on the ground once more in front of her opponent, her sword quickly flashing out in a quick but potentially deadly strike to the lionman's gut.

    The giant grunts at the impacts, even as his shield comes up and enflames again. That brings him to his knees, even as he calls, "Healing Light!" To heal himself as he moves to stand. The final blow that pushes him back into red is that strike to the gut unfortunately.

    Glancing at his HP bar, the lion man laughs, "I am definitely out of practice. Thank you. Yuuki, or should I say Zekken?"

    The massive sword is laid over his shoulder as he hits the surrender button to avoid any accidents. That healing light is probably the only thing that kept him from going almost too far from the looks.

    "I kept wondering why you were out here whenever I was seeking that person out, but it does make sense. Didn't expect an actual one-handed duelist." He states as he shifts back to his human form.

Shiruba hmmms. "I think that's the first time I've seen a Were Fang actually start a fight in their human form and change during battle." Cants her head towards Wistera. "Unless you've done it and I've failed to notice. But I'm pretty sure seeing you as a human right now is a rarer occurance."

The albino girl laughs "I spend a good bit of time in my human form... mostly I switch to caerbannog form when I'm fighting to get the extra speed, leaping power, and of course strength." she chuckles "I haven't really done anything with fighting other adventurers since the change and not really before that." she says with a shrug.

"Me either," Shiruba replies. "I'm mainly an explorer and dungeon adventurer. Sometimes a raid if they need the extra DPS or there's a really cool monster or boss mechanic I want to study."

    Yuuki jumps away after her attack to land again, just in case the lionman had a trick up his sleeve. But it turns out not, as he indicates her to be the winner. Yuuki grins as she moves her sword to rest of her shoulder, "Ehh, don't feel too bad. I'm not exactly a slouch when it comes to VR combat."

    Yuuki walks up to hold her hand out to Giganpor to shake, "And Yuuki is fine! Zekken is more of a title that others have given me. I like it, of course. But I don't hold people to calling me that."

    At the mention of her style, Yuuki swings her sword a couple of times for show, "Yup! One-handed is one of the fastest weapon styles. You only really get faster with daggers or unarmed. And neither are really my style." Yuuki sheathes her sword once more.

    But she then looks at Shiruba, "I know, right!? I've seen one other Were Fang do it. What was his name... Uhhh... Shin? I think of him as Bugman though. Cause he uses his Were Fang form more like a transformation into one of those anime superhero suits. But like, a bug form of one."

    Yuuki turns to look at Giganpor, "But your lion form is MUCH cooler!"

    Giganpor shakes his head, "I actually know what he's based off of. My grandparents showed me some old videos. I kinda based myself a little off of it. It's a type of thing called tokusatsu. Basically some live action stuff. I'll admit he got lucky finding the belt. I just got this cape." He taps the clasp to his cloak.

    "Also, I tend to keep the lion form in reserve. I'm more comfortable as a human, but I don't mind pulling it out just to use the whole enhanced strength or the roar like I did. Sometimes the senses as well. Those tend to be more handy these days."

    He shrugs, "Definitely shows I've got some training to do, anyways. Particularly on my shield arm and getting in blows rather than taking them all the time."