Tournament: Yuuki vs Mizuki

    Mizuki walks out into the arena... honestly, it's a bit intimidating to Sam. There's a huge crowd and... THERE ARE GIANT TV SCREENS?! He'd be astounded at that if he hasn't seen Miyako do a similar trick. Then he realizes he's staring. Okay, Sam. MIZUKI is a cheerful Ninja. Would SHE be fazed by being on stage? Of course not!

    Mizuki's shocked expression turns into a smile. She waves to the crowd as she walks out onto the arena. At the moment she's in her town clothes, the blue jacket and pants. She smiles and nods to her opponent, then looks to the crowd again, opening her menu and positioning one of her hands over the equipment window. She snaps her fingers with her free hand while equipping the 'pirate outfit'. "Mizuki!" She switches to the desert outfit, loosefitting white shirt and pants and hood and mask, and tries to do a 'cute' pose with her hands at her sides, then spins around while switching to her ninja outfit, midnight-purple gi and pants and purple belt and long, flowing red scarf. "Ikimaaaaasu~!" Then she drops into a flashy fighting stance, one hand out in front of her to block with palm flat, and sort of bounces back and forth like a fighting character's idle animation.

    Yuuki makes her way out from her side of the arena. At the cheering crowds the grinning imp gives them a wave, looking around at the sight. It's not her first time in a tournament or an arena such as this one. In fact she seems rather comfortable as the center of attention. Enjoying it, even.

    Yuuki doesn't have any flashy outfit changes like her opponent. Not that she doesn't have any flashy outfits. She just doesn't feel the need to make any changes as she's already wearing the one she usually uses.

    Instead, Yuuki simply opens up her menu. She selects the challenge option, the rule being first into the red. She then sends the challenge to Mizuki.

    While she waits for her opponent to accept the challenge and begin the countdown, Yuuki draws her dark blade from its sheathe, before slowly moving down into a ready position to charge. She's not hiding her intentions!

    But Yuuki does give her an opponent a grin, saying, "Good luck!"

    Mizuki smiles back. "You too! May the best... woman win!" She draws her own daggers and charges at Yuuki, ninja-running... this is way too obvious, right?

    But then she stops, a little beyond sword range, and ROARS, trying to startle Yuuki... but will it be long enough for her to activate a Sword Arte? The catgirl holds her arms out at the angle to activate Twin Darkness, her blades erupting with dark-elemental power before she swings, one blade low to try and make Yuuki jump or dodge and then trying to pounce her for a stab with the other!

    As the countdown ends and the match begins, Mizuki charges towards Yuuki. And Yuuki charges towards Mizuki.

    The two quickly reach roughly the center of the arena, Mizuki stopping short to unleash that roar. Yuuki winces a little at the loudness of it, causing her to falter in her steps for a few moments.

    Mizuki uses this opportunity to get the first hit in, one blade sent down low to try and make Yuuki evade before following up with a second strike.

    But Yuuki doesn't evade.

    Mizuki's dagger slices into the imp's leg, drawing out a line of red. She doesn't have an opportunity to pounce the dodging Yuuki, but does still manage to land another strike against Yuuki's shoulder. Both have taken a chunk of out Yuuki's HP bar. But now Mizuki is faced with an aggressive Yuuki right up in her face.

    Yuuki attacks quickly, flames flaring to life around her blade as she brings it up in a slice towards Mizuki's chest before quickly bringing the sword around from another direction for a second burning strike.

    Mizuki looks shocked when Yuuki takes the hits and is right in her face... and then realizes what she fell for. Damn it, characters pull that in anime ALL THE TIME, she should've seen it coming! She makes a hand sign as best she can while holding the daggers, activating the Energy Coat ninpo, which seems to blunt Yuuki's strikes, though they still tear through her gi and leave her with the bleed status effect.

    "Gnnh!" she growls, and leaps backward with superhuman agility, backflipping in the air and sheathing her daggers, kunai out as she lands and throws them at Yuuki one after the other, trying to put her back on the defensive!

    Yuuki watches her opponent closely. Seeing Mizuki pulling out those kunai, the imp quickly starts running to the side. She zigs and zags with each kunai launched, throwing off the aim enough to cause them to only glance her, leaving shallow red lines behind. It does look like Mizuki's move worked, putting Yuuki on the defense for the moment.

    But not entirely.

    As she zigs her way through the thrown weapons she closes the distance to Mizuki. Until after the final throw, Yuuki leaps forward towards the Were Fang. She brings her sword up, tip shining in the sunlight-or perhaps as an affect of the Sword Arte-as it lances towards Mizuki's chest to try and pierce her defense.

    Mizuki's hands are empty, she's bleeding. It's all happening so fast... The cat tries to leap out of the way, but it's not fast enough -- Yuuki's sword plunges into her chest. It hurts, but not as much as it should. There's no blood, only glowing red light. She grunts through clenched teeth, reflexively tries to grab Yuuki's arm to yank the sword out of herself -- but then realization flashes across her face, and she grins at Yuuki, a look in her eyes that says 'my turn'.

    She opens her mouth and fire comes out. A ridiculous amount of fire, a plume large enough to fry a whole group of adventurers or monsters, let alone Yuuki!

    She THEN tries to yank Yuuki's arm away from herself, backs away, and runs, leaping around the arena to keep her distance as she pulls anti-bleed potions from her inventory and guzzles them.

    Yuuki can see that look that Mizuki gives her. But the experienced PVPer doesn't seem particularly phased by it. And when Mizuki proceeds to open her mouth wide, Yuuki anticipates-if only partially-what's coming.

    Yuuki's free hand suddenly flashes up in the shape of a fist. It's aimed for Mizuki's jaw. And even if Mizuki jerks to avoid/soften the blow, it's enough to throw off the aim of her mouth and send the flames passing by Yuuki. The imp still receives a light burn along her shoulder, showing a pattern of red light. But it certainly beats being barbequed!

    Yuuki seems content to let her opponent take a moment to recover though, holding her ground as she watches Mizuki back off to chug some potions. Yuuki is smiling as she says, "Not bad so far."

    Mizuki's socked in the jaw. It feels /really weird/ to have a hurt muzzle, it kind of throws her off. Even after the potions, she's still 'bleeding'.

    Even with a bloody mouth, she smiles at Yuuki after putting some distance between them. "You neither."

    Then she takes a deep breath and spits fire at Yuuki -- this time it's a projectile that explodes into a giant fireball! She follows up with a burst of movement so fast that she almost seems to teleport in front of Yuuki, crouching in the Flower Cut sword arte stance... but it seems Yuuki had the same idea! Mizuki flash steps away while the sword is in mid-cut, another scar of red burning light on her shoulder.

    Still, she's got only smiles for Yuuki. "Nice one!"

    Another flame breath? But the distance is a bit too far... Ah. Mizuki launches it as a more normal fireball projectile this time! Yuuki suddenly starts running...

    ... Straight towards the fireball.

    At the last moment, the imp leaps, twisting her body around the firery projectile, causing it to just pass by her waist before flying off to explode harmlessly against the ground.

    Landing on her feet once again, Yuuki continues running forward towards Mizuki. But Mizuki meets her first. The two essentially mirror each other in a quick slice. One sword, one dagger. Both leaving behind similar wounds.

    Mizuki compliments her, Yuuki replying, "Same to you!" But she then charges forward, quickly closing the distance to Mizuki.

    But Yuuki doesn't stop as she reaches Mizuki. Instead she flashes past the Were Fang, sword lashing out in one strike at Mizuki's side. But once behind Mizuki, Yuuki quickly plants a foot against the ground, skidding for a moment before pushing off and flashing past Mizuki's other side with yet another quick strike.

    Yuuki doesn't let up! But it wouldn't be much of a duel if she did, would it? The cat responds to the charging imp with another ninpo, an elemental art that causes water to rise up from the ground and sweep her aside so the first strike glances and she's out of position for the followup.

    While the water moves her aside, she's already chaining another ninpo, this one a dark-elemental wave that surges towards Yuuki -- hopefully stalling her long enough for Mizuki to down another Bleed Cure potion!

    Yuuki definitely appears to be the aggressive type. And with her speed, it can be difficult to keep up with her. It's just a good thing that she isn't always hitting with the heavy strikes. She tends to save those for ideal situations.

    And this appears to be an ideal situation!

    After she skids to a halt resulting from her previous attacks, Yuuki quickly pushes forward towards Mizuki again. That wave of darkness washes over Yuuki. It doesn't cause any immediate damage, but Yuuki can see that debuff pop up in her view. She's probably going to pay for that later. But for now...

    Yuuki closes in on Mizuki, sweeping her blade down low to the ground. She comes in at an angle, also lowering her body as she prepares... She swings the blade diagonally upwards at Mizuki, jumping at the same time. It's a powerful upward blow. But it doesn't end there as Yuuki raises the blade above her at the peak of her jump, before bringing it down towards Mizuki from above as she falls.

    After the second powerful strike, Yuuki lands in front of the Were Fang in a crouch...

    But that's not the end! Yuuki quickly rises to standing once more, her blade quickly flashing out at Mizuki's gut for a third strike.

    Mizuki sees that SOMETHING is coming. It would take everything she has to block it and leave herself on the defensive.

    Or... she can answer in kind. Which is sure to please the crowd a bit after how slowly their respective HP bars have been ticking down!

    Determination sets in on the catgirl's face as she steels herself for the pain and enters the sword arte stance for Fierce Stab. Grunting in pain as Yuuki slices her once, twice, thrice... shock flickering on her face as she sees the poison debuff indicator. Damn!

    And then comes her revenge! "HYAH!" the feline ninja shouts as she puts all that were-fang strength into a single strike, trying to skewer the imp right through center of mass on her dagger while she's recovering from her own attacks!

    Yuuki is used to being the one who sacrifices defense to put her all into attack. She was not expecting it to happen to her. Especially after such a punishing assault. As a result, Yuuki is thrown off balance. She tries to twist her body out of the way of the assault, but it still manages to pierce through her side, cutting a large swath of red into her.

    Her HP bar drops considerably.

    Yuuki's momentum keeps her spinning, looking like she might fall to the ground after that blow. But suddenly she shifts her foot, accelerating her spin as she sweeps her sword around in yet another quick strike at Mizuki.

    And as Yuuki's purple hair follows her movement of her spin around and reveals her face, there's a bright grin there, a sparkle in her eyes. She's enjoying this very much!

    Mizuki's expecting their HP bars to drop by about the same amount, moving this fight closer to its conclusion without actually giving either of them the advantage. (Well, aside from the poison damage she wasn't expecting, anyway)

    Instead, Yuuki's falls less than half as much, and her face falls as the fight seems decided.

    But this is an MMO fight. Not an RTS or Magic: The Gathering, where enough resource disparity on one side can make it unwinnable. If Yuuki messes up, and Mizuki plays perfectly, she just might still win this. It's a small chance, but a chance nonetheless!

    Mizuki is ready for the attack this time! With a defensive sword arte, she parries Yuuki's sword perfectly with the point of one of her daggers! The poison renews... but that just puts a timer on this fight. She hasn't lost... yet.

    Those cat eyes, iris and sclera an indistinguishable blue, look at Yuuki, carefully watching her next move...

    Even if her HP didn't fall quite as much as Mizuki had hoped, Yuuki is still getting pretty close to going down. A few good hits from Mizuki will be able to bring her HP down enough to reach the red.

    But of course, Yuuki knows this. Which is why she is being super careful at this point. Mizuki is even lower than her. Yuuki is confident that one more hit is all she requires. But she just needs to survive this fireball...

    The ball of fire streaks towards Yuuki. The imp quickly lowers herself, crouching down. The fireball reaches Yuuki's position. There's an explosion of flames!

    A streak comes flying out of the top of the fire blast. It's Yuuki! She's got several blotches of red on her legs, suggesting she jumped out at the last second. Her HP bar has dropped closer to the red, but not enough to reach it.

    The imp flips around in the air as she arcs towards Mizuki, raising her sword over her shoulder. It begins to glow with light. Then with a sudden blast of acceleration, Yuuki rockets down towards Mizuki, light trailing behind her. As Yuuki reaches Mizuki she swings the blade quickly towards the waiting Were Fang below.

    Mizuki ninjutsus up another waterslide -- Yuuki's cool, glowing swing ends up only doing chip damage.

    ...But as every fighting game player knows, sometimes chip damage is enough. Especially when poison is still eating the cat ninja's HP. Mizuki switches to her kunai and takes the stance for Double Strafe, starting to throw the kunai...

    And then the poison ticks her HP down into the red, the WINNER! banner drops, and Mizuki's face falls a little -- she was holding out that little but of hope after all and she ALLLLmost made it...

    ...and then Double Strafe's animation completes, because once you've started a Sword Arte you usually can't cancel it, flinging the kunai in Yuuki's direction, although the duel is already decided.

    Mizuki stands up straight, smiles, and walks over to Yuuki with hand outstretched. "Congratulations, well-fought! That was one of the most intense fights I've ever had."

    If allowed, she'll shake Yuuki's hand and then raise Yuuki's arm towards the sky while turning to face the crowd with a smile.

    Sam got a good fight and a challenge, and he met it with his all without being utterly overwhelmed and cubstomped. And in a game -- a proper game, not the 'game' that's become their real life -- that matters more than winning or losing.

    Yuuki only manages to chip a bit off Mizuki's health. Yuuki is quickly on guard for a counterattack. If she can survive this one, sure the next-

    < WINNER! >

    Yuuki blinks. Her eyes go wide at the realization, before she lets out a tripumphant laugh.

    And then sudden cry of surprise as a pair of kunai are flying her way. She manages to sweep her sword around to intercept one, but the other strikes her should. But thankfully it just bounces off harmlessly, the duel end briefly preventing further damage. Yuuki phews, before sheathing her sword.

    Yuuki approaches Mizuki too, the two opponents meeting in the middle. Yuuki is of course happy to shake Mizuki's hand, a grin on her face as she says, "Thanks!" Yuuki then nods quickly in agreement with Mizuki's statement, "That was pretty close, wasn't it? That's what I love about a fair PVP duel. It can be so thrilling!"

    Yuuki then finds her hand lifted and the crowd cheering. She waves happily to them all, clearly very excited to be going through to the next round.