Tournament: Cyrus vs Jurou

It's gotten a lot better since the early low celcius days. Cyrus remembers his wild hair protecting him from some of the sub-zero temperatures. And now, he's here, comfortably standing with his coat partially opened up, the various bottles jingling on their various clips, standing under the covers, behind the grated door. He can hear the audience cheering outside. The Holy Empire Westelande's people are always excited for a tournament, and it seems the Adventurers are no exception to that rule.

Over the noise of the crowd, no doubt using some kind of magic, or an enormous horn, comes the sound of an announcer:

"Over at the north gate, we have the Cait Sith from the New World Alliance! My people tell us that he used to be a prevalent raider in the Silver Swords! It's the Regal Astrologian, Cyrus!"

The gate lifts, and the tall feline steps forward. His feline ears bouncing with each step he takes, and his spotted tail remaining close to his legs as he uses his cane to slowly step foward.

"And over at the south gate, we have the Salamander from the Scale Emblem Alliance! Not much to find about this one folks, but let's let this one prove themselves through deeds, and not by words! It's the Justicar, Jurou!"

Another cheer, as the gate on Jurou's side opens as well - giving both participants way to the center of the sand arena. Multiple pillars erected that hum with magic.

The south gate cranks up to unveil a girl in black armour and red hair, Salamander scaling on the exposed skin of her face and hands, and an ornate greatsword strapped to her back. She pauses for a moment in the shade of the waiting area, then steps forward into the arena, a small but sturdy metal shield already strapped to her left arm.

There's a look of nervousness on her face and in her gait as she walks across the sands to the centre, and as she gets close, she pauses to give a quite formal bow to the Cait Sith, and then pulls her blade free from its clasps on her back.

Like in previous matches, there are definitely people who have chosen which combatants they want to side with. Neither is a local favorite, but as the Holy Empire is a land of Salamanders, there is a group of Landers with distinctively colored scales who have picked Jurou as their champion.

Amongst the crowd is one familiar face, with a shock of blue and white hair from where she stands near those officiating the match. Kita sits forward as Jurou is announced, when the Salamander emerges, she can't quite contain herself and stands up, waving a hand frantically before calling out her support. She might normally show a bit more reserve, but when it comes to Jurou, all of that goes out the window. "Go Jurou!"

The Cait Sith politely touches his cane's silver handle to the leather hat he's got on his somewhat untamed looking mane, before he places both hands on the cane, looking up towards the announcer. Then, he looks to Jurou. He slides his hand along the menu, and selects the PVP option. This results in a 'do you wish to accept' prompt for Jurou.

When accepted, it starts a polite count down.

5

4

3

2

1

<< START >>

The youth immediately takes a single potion from one of his belts. A small metalic set of rings on his fingers serve as small scissors to cut the cord that holds it there, before he jumps back into the air and flings it in an arc straight for Jurou's position, before he begins retreating and force Jurou to approach him, rather than the other way around.

As the potion bottle tumbles towards her, Jurou plants her feet and swings her shield up to meet it, the shield lighting up with a red flicker before it impacts, and then where the two meet, a gout of flame bursts out of the shield, sending flaming glass shards and liquids spraying into the air and the sands.
Noting Cyrus's preference for ranged attacks, she throws herself into a charge, kicking up sand with her heavy steps, and her blade sweeps out in a wide waist-high arc as she turns with it.

The Cait Sith notes that the melee combatant is following him as expected - the sudden gout of flame following him due to him hitting her was also somewhat within expectations. Still - the girl is fast! And being a Salamander, he's feeling confident that this will not be the last fire based technique he will be seeing. One hand on his hat, the other on his cane, he runs for a little longer, making sure that she has to chase him into that swinging arc, trying to time things right.

A bottle is thrown to the ground, and he taps his cane onto it the moment the swing is about to come in. A sudden brilliant blue light forming around him, protecting him from some of the blow - a red line showing across his figure to indicate that Jurou had harmed him. The youth then grabs a second potion and flings it at Jurou's body before pointing the bottom of his cane at her...

And touching a little trigger at the cane's handle, and sending a brilliant blue mist at her as well, before he smiles at her and attempts to... run again. What a coward! A few of the crowd members are no doubt boo-ing the Cait Sith at this point for such underhanded plays!

There are definitely those in the crowd who are not a fan of Cyrus' idea of fighting. Theere are a few people who 'boo' at him, but others who seem to acknowledge that the cat may have some sort of master plan. Felines are wiley like that.

Kita, unable to stay in her seat, walks to the edge of the officiator's box, giving up all pretense of actually being impartial. It isn't as if she's actually required to make any rulings, so it's fine. "Be careful! He's got all kinds of those potions! They could be anything!" Her words are probably drown out by the crowd, but she still tries to help however she can.

The girl, seeing another potion flying at her, ducks her head behind her shield while maintaining her speed, and a gout of flame tries to incinerate another bottle of mysterious liquid. This potion, however, proves inflammable and merely shatters on her shield, splashing something viscous and bitterly cold onto her sword arm and leg, and slowing her swing as she turns into a lunging stab with the tip of her blade, giving a slight cough as the blue mist disippates around her.

There's trouble in the benches! Kita's voice passes through the announcer's system, and there's a quick commentary between the two of them. A pause, right before one of them gets up and puts Kita into their seat. "Everyone loves an underdog! Go on, cheer her on." The announcer declares.

At the same time, in the Arena, Cyrus is in trouble. Jurou shows that she isn't a Salamander for nothing. With her war-like strength she chases him through the arena. He can see the flames of the lady's shields flare away at the mists of blue, weakening the icy mist that should have formed. Skillfully, this 'newbie' has resisted one of his traps.

The youth quickly lifts his cane with one hand in an attempt to divert the strength of that blow, while incanting some of the magic he usually leaves to enchanting his potions - causing a sea of fire to burn across his coat for a moment and flare back at Jurou's swung blade, though she can see she carves a good chunk of his health away.

Right before Cyrus sheaths his cane and touches her shield. Then his foot... stepping over it and trying to acrobatically jump over her while dropping a remarkably red glowing potion he tries to douse her with - a fierce maelstrom of flame bursting up in the spot she was just in moments ago.

When her voice starts coming over the magical announcement system, Kita blinks and claps a hand over her mouth. She isn't so much embarassed about it, as surprised. Where others would wilt under the attention, the blue-haired witch just laughs to herself, "I don't think that would be fair, now would it?" She does, however, take the microphone.

"Come on, everyone, let's hear it for both of our fighters!" Some of the crowd joins in with this, raising their voices. "We've got fire versus fire! But who has the brighter flame to come out on top?" Looks like she's been roped into taking a role as an MC. Oh boy.

Gasping in surprise as he hops over her and drops a potion almost directly on her head, and it bursts into flames around her - she panics and does the only thing that comes to mind, she clenches her shield and sword tightly as a wave of crimson heat washes over her and the sands in all direction in a brilliant shower of flames that hides her for a few seconds before it mostly dies out, though a section of the sand now glows and smoulders in a circle around her.
She seems as surprised to be unharmed by his flame potion as the crowd is, gasping in shock as she takes a step backwards, clearly still stunned by the near miss, and it takes until a familiar voice cuts over the crowd for her to remember she has a fight to participate in, she takes a long tense breath and locks her eyes on Cyrus once more. Tricky little cat.

Cyrus feels the burn from Jurou's defensive shields. It's definitely digging into his health totals. But Cyrus knows he can not relent now that he's got some of the momentum in the fight. Even as he has to hold his hand before his face to avert his gaze from the fire, he uses his other hand to pick out the next bottle on his coat.

Landing back on the ground, he quickly grabs his cane and rushes forward, trying to slam the tip right into Jurou's forehead, before applying the bottle and shattering it towards their torso and tries to kick her up into the air, so the Bubble within can attach to her shield more easily and make it harder for her to get away. He then immediately follows this up with a quick motion of his hand coming down from the air towards the ground.

Cyrus meets eyes with Jurou for a moment, smiling. Not arrogantly, but rather; recognizing her ability to stay up the way she is. He then immediately draws a line for a simple spell to ripple from the skies and course through Jurou's body to hopefully slow her movement while he gets ready for the next attack.

Nope, the original announcer is not getting the mic back. "It looks like the Salamander fighter has gone on the defensive. Her powerful shield keeping the cat at bay. But how long can her defenses last?" Kita leans forward, giving a play by play as she lightly taps one foot on the ground, her other hand lifting the witch's cap as she calls out what she sees in the fighting pit below.

"It looks like the Cait Sith is pulling out more tricks! Just what we would expect from the potion-wielding Astrologian. He has powerful status effects, but can Jurou push through them?" Excitement radiates in her voice, drawing the crowd as cheers erupt from around the Arena.

Coming back to her senses as Cyrus comes close to smash another potion on her at close range, the redheaded girl swats at him with her shield, batting away the cane strike and trying to bop him in the face with the same swing.
The potion slams into her chest while her guard is extended, and the floating bubble that forms from it takes a grip on her shield and tugs it, and her, up into the air. In the second or two of involuntary flight, she has to decide between keeping her shield and keeping her footing, and she decides she'd rather fight Cyrus than fall damage. So she unbuckles the shield and thuds back to the sands, backing up towards the pillars while she waits to see what he does next.

Cyrus' magical assault does not halt. The man throws another bubble potion right for her as she comes in towards him, trying to trap another piece of her equipment, before bringing his cane up and thrusting it towards the shield-swat - sending a gout of flame towards her. Then, another quick motion of his finger, trying to ripple through her.

He knows he's got to hold onto his momentum, but he can tell he's losing it. This girl may be a 'newbie' fighter, but she's got an intensely good 'talent' for battle. He can tell that her moves aren't as practiced as some of the Elder Tale Online pros he used to hang around. But it's like a shadow is chasing him. A shadow named Talent. And if he doesn't blot out that shadow, he will most certainly lose here!

"Oh no! Jurou seems to be without her shield, ladies and gentlemen! Will Cyrus be able to capitalize on this new weakness?" Kita continues to add commentary. "The cat has more of those unusual potions of his! It looks like they might be starting to overwhelm the Salamander. Can she turn things around?" At this point, the announcer has given up trying to get his role back. She is, at least, being remarkably fair, despite her own biases on who she'd like to see win the match.

This time, she has enough time to evade the bubble - he may have stolen her shield (which is now floating many meters above the battlefield) but she's keeping hold of her sword. A quick dive roll to the side puts her clear of it, and she hurries back to her feet. She's definitely faster than you'd expect for someone in armour, a strange mix of leathers and plates that give decent maneuverability while defending well from the front.
She breaks suddenly into a run, kicking up plumes of sand and holding her greatsword, flat side out and braced against her other hand as she tries to slam into him and barrel him over.

Jurou goes on the offensive. Cyrus seems to have lost his momentum in using too many tricks, and now is on the defensive. He immediately triggers another one of those blue shields that Jurou had seen earlier, while trying to fend off the fierce assault with his cane. It's certainly no blade, but it seems sturdy enough to take the heavy blow that comes for his chest.

As the greatsword makes contact, he interweaves quick gouts of flame in order to cripple Jurou's defenses, while keeping his enchantments up. But he's quickly being put on his back foot. "Damn, you're good, Jurou." Cyrus grimaces. "No wonder you got invited to Scale Emblem Alliance. Seems a good place for you." He grunts as the blow launches him back a few paces.

"It looks like our two fighters are having trouble doing significant damage to each other! We haven't seen a powerful hit land in a while. The question is, who will tire and make the first mistake?" Kita's voice encourages the audience to stay involved, even as the two seem to both exchange blows with little change in health to show for it.

"Let's give them something to fight for, ladies and gentlemen! Can I get a cheer for Cyrus! Lend that cat your strength!" She calls out, the audience answering with shouts and woops. "Now let's hear it for Jurou! This is Salamander country, let's lend her your strength!" A deeper sounding set of cheers follows, lead by a cheering section of colorful scaled audience-members. "Woo!"

Now on the offensive, and lacking her shield, Jurou plunges onwards, steading her footing then taking a step forwards while bringing her sword down towards Cyrus in a heavy overhanded attack - bursts of flame batter her chest while her arms are extended and a spattering of red damage markers glow over her body.
"You think?" She sounds genuinely surprised, "I've probably got Kita to thank for that, she helped me figure things out." her eyes flick momentarily to the announcer's box in the crowd where, inexplicably, someone has given her the microphone and she seems to be running with it. The redhead gives a quirk of a smile at that.

Cyrus is forced to remain on the defense as Jurou starts pushing him. He glances at his display, but all of his cooldowns are coming up at the wrong time this battle. He's forced to attempt to retake the momentum through rather haphazard maneuvering. Motioning himself into the swing of Jurou's and use the fact that the blade will partially pass through him in the midst of the attack while sheathing his cane and grabbing not one, but two potions with his hands.

He's remaining in melee, knowing that running at this point will likely get hit hacked in the back. "I don't know who this Kita is, but you've got a great tutor." He notes as he pushes both potions straight for her belly like a monk might try a palm-strike through the heavy attack - while grimacing through the sudden blow to his healthbar.

"Will you look at that! They heard your cheering! Look at those flames from Cyrus! Jurou is taking them right on the chest without even flinching." Kita's voice pitches upwards as she points down towards the field, drawing people's attention back to the fighting. "Oof! And Cyrus takes a hard blow back in return! These two are really battling it out, folks!"

There are roars from both sections of the crowd, each seemingly spurred on by the success of their chosen fighter. "Can they keep up this pace? Or will the incoming damage overwhelm one of them? Things seem to be heating up on the Arena floor. Cheer on your favorite fighter! Let's go!"

    Having finished some training of his own, Wynfei quickly maade it to the arena to see who was fighting today. He already knew who he was matched up with, so he waas taking his time to prepare. Upon finding a good seat, he watches teh combatants as they go at one another.

Jurou is taken by surprise by the close-up attack with his potions while she's still recovering from her heavy swing, and through she tries to bring up a wave of flame to force him back, it's unfocused and rushed - as a result it's more pyrotechnic than damaging. It does look cool though.
The female fighter aims a kick at Cyrus's midsection to put some distance between them, the problem with having a huge sword is that if your opponent gets too close, you can't really swing at them. Then she aims a scything blow at his head that ought to encourage him to give her a little personal space.

Cyrus remains in close proximity like that. Almost too close. It sure does look flashy to the people watching though. The cane comes up, pushing harshly against that blade's flat, pushing it out of the way with a sudden burst of magical force, before he kicks his legs sideways - using one of the potions attached to his pants to hook-kick for Jurou's shoulder and try and affect her with another poison potion.

"I once played a Martial Artist alt, when I was still trying to really figure out what I wanted to do. Can't use any of their techniques. But you pick up a thing now and again. I don't know who is going to come ahead in this tournament battle. But I promise you, if you meet other fighting styles, you will learn a lot from them." Cyrus promises Jurou.

"And another big hit by the Cait Sith!" Kita calls out, the crowd answering a cheer. "Looks like they're dead even, ladies and gentlemen! Can Cyrus keep up the momentum he's earned from those last couple of attacks? Jurou's has the armored scales and the powerful sword, so only time will tell."

There is a brief look of worry that crosses her features. Just a momentary break from her announcer persona. Just a moment where she has actual concern about Jurou really being hurt. But she is very, very good at keeping herself in performance mode. So, she is back at it quickly enough.

She just can't get him out of her face, and she gets a faceful of the poison potion, stumbling back and coughing, before covering her face with her free arm and swiping at Cyrus, trying again to get enough distance to allow her to defend correctly. Then, she hears a metallic thunk nearby and glances over at it, hopefully - it's her shield, now standing and residually humming with the impact as it landed edge-first into the sand by the stone pillars. Taking one last swipe at Cyrus to delay his following, she breaks into a sprint towards the shield, the wind at her heels.

The youth swings underneath the strike, skidding on the Arena sands, leaving a blasting potion right where he stood. The blade cuts through that potion, which bursts into a new flame. By the time Jurou looks Cyrus' way again, she may note he's holding a different potion that before. A color she's not seen used before during this battle.

"A special concoction. I'd hoped to keep this one a secret until I got later into the tournament. But it looks like there is no way I can't pull out every secret I've got against you." Cyrus remarks, as his rings cut the cord and divest it from his longcoat.

He raises the bottle to the air. "PILLAR OF LIGHT!"

And jumps, swinging his cane about and shattering the bottle in mid air, before pointing his cane at Jurou as white energy wells up around his cane. A laser of light soon cuts from it, a fierce swath following after Jurou and making the sand turn hot where it touches... only to suddenly detonate in multiple rapid explosions not even a second after it cuts through its path - trying to cut off her path to her shield!

"It looks like Jurou might have a chance at reclaiming her shield! Go for it Jurou!" Kita shouts, bouncing on her toes slightly as she raises her free hand into the air, the other still clinging to the magical microphone.

"Our fighters look like they're getting tired. It's only a matter of ti--" She is then cut off, raising a hand to shield her eyes slightly as a series of explosions seem to light up the Arena floor. "What was that? It looks like the cat still has a few more tricks up his sleeve. That one is going to have us all seeing stars for a while."

    Wynfei sits there in his seat, he isn't getting hyped. Now don't get him wrong, he is enjoying the fight, but he's anaalyzing what he is seeing and what each fighter is doing.

Her sprint carries her forward, fast, and she's pushing herself hard to make it in time. She's not going to make it, so she dives towards the shield, propped up and waiting for her, and snatches it in front of her as she lands on her side, putting it between the beam and her chest, she deflects the beam of light off the metal shield, and the ray is reflected off into the sand, the pillars and even swiping near Cyrus as she struggles to hold it steady against the power of the beam.

Cyrus swings his hand as he descends back to the ground, pulling his coat up and letting the beam hit one of his potion bottles - which detonates into a flaming defensive wall that quickly spreads like a snake along the reflected pale light and tries to encroach upon Jurou's body. The moment he's hit the ground, he quickly runs towards Jurou, trying to catch up and flings two potions her way as he keeps coming towards her. He's got the momentum for now, and he won't let go of it so easily this time!

Pushing herself back to her feet, Jurou puts her shield down in front of her and advances on Cyrus, letting the flames flare off of the metal and flow around her, mixing with her flame red hair and her flame-tinted skin.
She tenses as he throws more potions at her, and she flares out her fiery aura, sending out a blast of flickering heat that engulfs the potions and reaches out to him, and it seems the fire even healed her, a little, as a couple of the visible red slashes and scorch marks fade away.

As Jurou goes on the full defensive and tries to heal herself up, Cyrus remains on the attack. He smashes another one of those brilliant white potions. "I only brewed a few of these. But I'm not yet out!" He declares, as another fierce laser connects from the end of his staff and seeks its way towards Jurou. "That shield may fail before this is over!" As he grabs a red healing potion and quaffs it, raising his health by a small fraction. Healing away the damage from the flames that reached him.

"Sorry, I don't think they accept draws in a battle like this. Don't worry, the system won't let us drop below red." Cyrus promises Jurou. "I am not going to do anything as crazy as trying to drop you below red." The youth has managed to get rather close now that Jurou is getting exhausted. And he's unrelenting. There's no doubt people still cheering for Jurou though. She's well on the back foot right now, but she's the underdog!

Everyone is hoping for that sudden turnaround. For her to slam that big sword into his Cait Sith face. Plenty of the Landers, Salamanders just like her, are cheering even louder for Jurou. After all, she's one of them!

Cyrus almost seems to dance as he gets into mid-range, throwing one potion, then another, then another. Snapping them off of his sleeves and letting them roll along the creases and the angle of his arm, throwing one after another at her!

One of the people hoping Jurou can turn it around is Jurou herself, and she sidesteps out of the way of the first potion, and steps into the second, using her shield to shatter it and absorb most of the blow, sending shards of smoking bottle glass into the sands around them. She takes another step forward and sends a heavy sweeping blow towards his legs, clumsy but powerful.

What follows is a very rough battle. Jurou using her shield to best avoid further damage, and sending flashes of flame Cyrus' way constantly. The Cait Sith keeps trying to get through her defenses. They clash with cane and shield multiple times as Cyrus starts to really press. Mighty flame bottles are shattered against her shield, following by a poisonous concoction.

Eventually, he even resorts to using his cane to try and wrest between her arm and her shield to open her up. There is no malice though, even amidst the fierce battle. The 'Regal Astrologian', as he'd been called, may clearly be straining, but he's not angry. He's taking this battle as a proper friendly match. Safe in the knowledge that the sparring system won't risk Jurou's life. Had it been 'to zero HP', he would never have joined this battle.

Eventually, one swing of the shield sends Cyrus back, and he resorts to grabbing for a potion from beneath his clothing. "Regal flame, know thy name! FIREBALL!" Actually resorting to hiding an arcane bolt in the midst of an actual cast Fireball, draining quite a bit of his MP in order to do so!

Engulfed in the flames of a fireball, Jurou is hidden from view of the crowd for a long few seconds. When the fire clears, she's fallen to her knees, exhausted, and her health bar hovers just above the red line. The "Winner!" announcement flashes into existence over Cyrus's head, and Jurou pushes herself to her feet slowly. She's tired, panting, and absolutely exhilarated. "Thatâ?¦ wasâ?¦ incredible" she says, her eyes coming up to meet Cyrus's.

Engulfed in the flames of a fireball, Jurou is hidden from view of the crowd for a long few seconds. When the fire clears, she's fallen to her knees, exhausted, and her health bar hovers just above the red line. The "Winner!" announcement flashes into existence over Cyrus's head, and Jurou pushes herself to her feet slowly. She's tired, panting, and absolutely exhilarated. "That... was... incredible" she says, her eyes coming up to meet Cyrus's.

Cyrus looks over his head as the Winner display comes up. "Wow... haven't seen that over my head in... a year now." The youth remarks, before leaning on his cane and letting out this long and exhausted sigh. "You really gave me a run for my money there." The Cait Sith has sweat beads dripping from his messy hair, and he reveals a health potion which he then throws Jurou's way. "This will help you get your health regeneration up more quickly." The tall snow leopard looking male then uncorks one of his own and quaffs it.

"Ahh... tastes like awful medicine. That's how you know it works." He grimaces at the flavor. The crowd is going wild - thanks to all the explosives and lightshow that had gone out in the last moments. Jurou got herself up, so the Cait Sith doesn't offer her a hand. "Stick around and watch the rest of the battles. You'll learn something. And maybe nest time, you'll be the one to come out ahead." And with that, the male touches his cane to his hat, turns, and wanders off.