Tournament Finale: Yuuki vs Mikage

    Wisteria walks out onto the announcers platform to the cheers of a packed arena. Lander, Adventure it doesn't seem to matter, shoulder to shoulder they've packed the stands. Merchants can be seen walking up and down the stairs and along walkways with their boxes of food, drink, and yes, paraphernalia. Small flags, noise makers, and there even seems to be some facepaint out there...must be adventurers. The tall albino girl with the black geometric bun tattoo on her neck lifts her hands letting her sleeves fall back to expose her white skin. "HELLO! Are You Ready?! Can you feel the tension in the air? Do you hear the creaking of fate as the scales tip into balance? Who? Will? Leave? VICTORIOUS!?" The roar of the crowd somehow manages to grow louder. The rumble of the crowd can be felt out in the streets surrounding the arena.

    "First, you know her, you love her, she's climbed the ladder and proven her worth! She's the white haired wild girl! The Were Fang to bring the pain. She comes to you all the way from the Estal Free League! She's a Silver Sword and looking to see the world! Let's hear it, give her a warm welcome to the sands and show her how much you want to see her walk away with the grand prize! Iiiiiiiit's MIKAGE!" The crowd explodes, the sound somehow managing to swell even further before dying back a little as the door to let Mikage into the arena opens and one of the 'cameras' focuses on her, broadcasting her to half of the large magical screens around the arena.

    The girl on the announcer's stand smiles brightly, one screen focused on her and the other focused on empty sand in front of another door. "And the last to be announced, but far from the least, she's famous for her speed, she's a dueling master. The Imp with with the shining blades, the swords woman with the flashing smile. A laughing devil if you've ever seen one! She comes to you from Eastal as well, but she represents the Sleeping Knights! Let's hear your love, let's see your admiration, give us a mighty greeting for YUUKI!" again the crowd roars. Small flags flick back and forth. The door opens exposing Yuuki and half of the screens light up with the Imp's smiling visage. "When you're ready! Start the Duel. May the Scales balance Grandly!"

In the stands, a long haired figure slips in, sitting down quietly to watch the matches. She had been very preoccupied with other problems to participate in the tournament herself. But she didn't really have any interest in fighting for the sake of showing off in the first place, so that point is moot. She knows both fighters at least, so might as well come watch the crowning match. Popcorn and drink in hand, Reika hms as she gets ready to watch. Everyone around her is pretty excited at least!

    It's the final showdown! The big finale! The grand shebang! The ultimate altercation! The beginning of the end!

    If Yuuki is nervous, she doesn't look it as she makes her way out from her side of the arena as she is announced. She strides confidently towards her starting position near the center of the large open space, looking around with a grin on her face as she waves to the audience. It's been great that she's been able to make it this far. Though with all the awesome fights she's had, she wouldn't have any regrets if she was to lose at this point.

    But that doesn't mean she isn't going to try her hardest to win!

    Once she reaches her starting point, Yuuki turns to face her opponent, studying her for several moments. Yuuki recalls the name, having crossed paths with Mikage a few times in recent months. But now they have an opportunity to fight not alongside each other, but against each other! Yuuki is expecting this to be a very exciting match. Not to mention the potential start of a fun frivalry!

    Merek makes a way to watch the match, seeming a little bit like he will be content to listen. The man wears the dark attire with the belt he often does, blade along back while he begins to settle about into a seat to cheer.

It has all come down to this. Mikage had joined the tournament on a whim, not really having any expectations of getting this far. There were others who had far more experience with PVP within the world of Elder Tale. Yet, perhaps by luck, perhaps by skill, here she is. The little-known truth of it is... this isn't her first tournament. In another world, another life entirely from this one, Mikage had stood with this same, familiar, anxious energy.

Rama bumps his head against her hand, drawing her thoughts back from the past. "I'm here, buddy." She looks down at the lynx, rolling her shoulders to ease her own tension. "Win or lose, we got this far, right?"

Then, as she is introduced, Mikage takes a deep breath and steps forward. The Were Fang raises a hand towards the audience, offering a greeting while Rama circles around her legs, excitedly. The mass of faces in the audience is an overwhelming sight, so she focuses on what is in front of her.

She would be a fool not to know just how skilled her opponent actually is, behind her exhuberance. So, upon seeing Yuuki, she places one fist into her cupped hand, and then bows forward. "I've heard so much about your skill, I'm looking forward to testing it." Her lip quirks, showing a hint of one fanged tooth.

Then, her hand goes to her sword, readying herself for the fight ahead.

     If there's one thing to being a regular fighter in the arena (Because she fights her patron there), it's that you can get away with things you might not normally! In this case, it means that Fukasa Yuri is getting away with sitting on the edge of the arena itself, rather than the stands. One leg crossed over the other as she leans in to watch intently with a small smile on her face. "My my, this will definitely be a lovely fight indeed." She comments to herself. She lifts her hand to her ear, murmuring into her Chimlink. "Good luck, dear guild member."

The main MC has the final matchup covered, so Kauchemar gets to just watch as another spectator this time. She's seen both of these competator's fight, it's going to be a wild ride having them up against each other.

With everything going on in Tolbana, Prophylaxis hasn't had too many opportunities to actually watch any of the tournament matches. It may not be the best look for a member of the Alliance hosting this whole shindig, but hey! He's been busy!

But today is special. Today, someone special is about to take part in the finals, and Prophylaxis is...

Very, very, /very/ biased.

There's a banner out in the stands, it's... it's got a cartoon Yuuki face on it, and great big bubble letters that read: YUUKI FOR VICTORY!

And the person waving it, a certain Doctor Prophylaxis, yells at the top of his lungs: "KICK HER ASS, YUUKI!"

    Yuuki blinks for a moment as her opponent bows to her. Yuuki tries to return the bow, though it's not a very smooth one. It's not something Yuuki does normally. But as Mikage speaks of her skill, Yuuki laughs a little, rubbing the back of her neck as she says, "I think some of it is a bit exaggerated. It's not like I'm some super focused martial artist. I'm just out to have fun and I guess I have gotten a little good at it in the process!"

    Anyway, it's time they get this match started. Yuuki swipes her finger in the air, sending the duel request to Mikage. Soon enough the duel alert pops up in the air above the two and a countdown starts. As the numbers begin to tick off, Yuuki calmly draws her sword, lowering her body a little forward as she shifts into a ready stance. While she's focused, she doesn't miss one of the calls from the audience. Oh. She definitely intends to!

    Yuuki's eyes glance from the countdown, to Mikage and back again as she patiently waits to begin. As it starts to get close, Yuuki briefly focuses on Mikage, saying with a smile, "Good luck, have fun!" Her eyes then look to Kama for a moment as she adds, "You too, little guy!"

    3... 2... 1... START!

    Yuuki is off and running as the duel starts, quickly dashing across the space between her and her opponent. She's obviously trying to close the gap quickly and early, to keep her opponent from having too much time to think. As she charges, her sword begins to glow with a sickly green aura. A telltale sign that something unpleasant is coming.

    Once Yuuki is in reach, she sweeps her sword upwards at Mikage diagonally, before quickly bringing the weapon down and across for another strike horizontally.

"Good. I'd rather have a fun match than one that gets too serious." Mikage replies, chuckling to herself. The pale Were Fang does have that nervous sound to her voice, even if she looks relatively collected. Rama, gives a feline sound as he is addressed, but then backs off towards the edge of the arena. It seems that the cat isn't a front-line combatant for this Ranger.

Unlike in previous matches, Mikage does not react first to the start of the match. It is, perhaps, a sign that Yuuki has just that much quicker reaction times. That renown speed isn't for nothing. It does mean that the Were Fang ends up on the defensive in that first instant. It's the sword strike that Miki reacts to, moving quickly on her feet, but not quickly enough.

A slice of that green glow appears on one of her legs, showing a poison status effect. "I should be used to this by now, but that status effect hurts!" Still, there's some amusement in her voice. As a Ranger, she has a mix of both melee and ranged abilities. In this case, with speed still on her side, she slashes twice in the air, seeming way too far away to actually come close to Yuuki.

However, where her sword had sliced, the air seems to be rended along with it. Blades of air sweep across the arena floor in an arching pattern towards her opponent, trying to attack at range and give her enough time to react to whatever might come next.

Reika stands up and cheers on as the fight starts as well, letting herself be swept in with the crowd. She doesn't want to take sides though, that's not fair to either side, since both are companions of hers. As long as they don't get hurt seriously, it's a competition, a sport.

    Yuuki grins at her opponent's sentiments regarding fun, replying, "Absolutely, me too!" After all, what's the point of being in a game if you can't have some fun while you're at it?

    Yuuki is not pulling out all the speed she has just yet, cautiously testing her opponent. For example, Yuuki isn't sure how Mikage's pet is going to play into this battle. This gives Mikage the opportunity to get a little distance and fire off that pair of air slices. As she runs, Yuuki deftly plants her foot into the ground to push her to the side, letting one blast of wind slice past her. She then charges forward again towards Mikage, facing the second blast head on.

    At the last moment, Yuuki skids to a stop, raising her sword between herself and the blast. She braces it with her other hand and lets the slicing air strike it. The blast is split in two by the defense, rushing to either side of Yuuki. She can still feel the edges lightly grazing her, but it's not a direct hit. Quickly pushing forward again after the blast, Yuuki lunges the remaining distance to Mikage, her sword arm moving quickly.

The moment that Yuuki raises her defenses, Mikage can feel the backlash of it flow back towards her. It's subtle, but there is a slight dip in her health and a couple of small scratches that appear along her forearms. "Wow. I've never seen someone knock part of that back at me." Shaking her arms out a bit, trying to clear the dull pain.

However, Yuuki is already closing the distance. Remaining quick on her feet, Mikage uses those same nimble movements to try to avoid the worst of the sword lunge coming her way. However, there is no real way of avoiding getting up close and personal.

"Rama!" She calls, perhaps hoping for a distraction. The lynx, who had previously been lurking around the edges of the arena, comes running. He snaps his jaws towards the back of one of Yuuki's legs just at the same moment that Miki does a quick, subtle movement over her sword. A potion bottle is tossed back behind her, likely lacing the blade with something.

Then, she lashes out towards Yuuki, her own blade-strikes quick, "One of my friends works with poisons, too." She explains.

Kauchemar whistles a little to herself as poison comes out at the start. Looks like people have been taking notice of that status effect as of late.... But Mikage should be use to it by now, after she fought one of those alchemists earlier in the tournament. "Don't let that slow you don't girl. It's just a little toxic love!" This is already fast paced, she's kind of glad she doesn't have to try to keep up with a play by play this time.

    Wisteria stands on the announcers block and when Yuuki gets things started she announces. "And THERE WE GO! Yuuki the quick is first off the block!" She grins as the screens snap together so that both fighters are on the screen together. Then Mikage is countering the blades of air smashing through the intervening space. "And Mikage is NOT taking it lying down! Watch those air blades go!"

    "Show these girls how much you want to see some action!" she calls out. The crowd exploding before the fight really kicks into high gear. "Watch those blades work! These girls are really going at it as expected of champions!"

    This is what Yuuki had been concerned about, getting double-teamed by the master/pet combo. And sure enough, it looks like a bad spot to be in. From one direction, the painful bite of a lynx. From the other, the painful bite of a sword coated in poison.

    But Yuuki isn't known for her speed for nothing!

    A soft aura of light flares up, covering Yuuki's body. Her movements suddenly accelerate as she quickly kicks off from the ground. Kama's jaws snap down on empty air in the spot where Yuuki's leg had formly been. Mikage tries to take advantage of that opening her pet had created, but with Yuuki's boosted speed it's only partially successful as the poison coated blade cuts lightly into the Imp's passing arm. And amidst that fast acting response to the twin attack, Yuuki takes advantage of the speed to quickly lash out at Mikage's gut, dealing another DOT to her.

    Yuuki lands again after her evasive jump, nodding in response to Mikage, "It's a solid staple for PVP!" Yuuki sweeps her sword out to her side, a small gust of wind swirling up around the blade.

    The swirling wind then turns black, flowing up Yuuki's arm to engulf her entire body. Standing there amidst the rapidly swirling darkness, the Imp grins at Mikage, "But it's not the only tool a dueler needs!"

    Yuuki pushes off the ground towards Mikage, covering the distance between the two in a near instant. The dark-enshrouded Yuuki flashes past Mikage, lashing out with a strike as she passes. She then stops, before kicking off the ground and flashing past Mikage from another direction. Then another. And another. In a dizzying display of speed, Yuuki strikes out at Mikage with her blade in four rapid strikes before she finally skids to a halt once more.

Keeping up with Yuuki's speed is difficult, even if Mikage has some measure of speed of her own. It's enough that the Were Fang is left breathing quickly, "There's still a lot to learn." She acknowledges that Yuuki probably has far more experience in the realm of PVP. "But I think I'm starting to get the hang of it." Her lip quirks again.

Seeing the way that the wind swirls around her opponent, it is enough for Miki to respond with a low impressed whistle. It's not a technique that she is familiar with, and it is enough to leave her wary. But in that instant, perhaps, not wary enough.

Unknowing what she's stepping into, Mikage raises her own defenses, a shimmering aura of light forming around her and trying to hold off some of the incoming damage. It but those continued attacks are likely to leave some glowing red lines of damage.

Wincing, Miki grits her teeth and then stabs her sword into the ground. It isn't the first time she'd abandoned her main weapon in the tournament, and usually it meant something powerful coming. This time is no different. Holding out her hand, the light magic aura around her solidifies into the form of a weapon: a bow. Reaching back, she draws out an arrow, aiming it towards Yuuki. "You're fast, but can you dodge this?" She asks, challanging.

When the bow string is released, the arrow of light zooms across the battlefield, leaving ripples of energy in its wake.

    Wisteria gasps "Look at that speed folks, Yuuki living up to that speed imp reputation! Looks like Mikage still got a good swipe in there and you can never underestimate poison! Trust me I use the stuff constantly." she laughs as the pair go at it. "Oooh and a barage of blows, you can't just tank those with a bit of Wave arts, you need metal in the way!" The tall albino girl smiles "Ooh we've seen this folks, that is one nasty little wave art there!"

    Yuuki watches her opponent reach out to summon that bow from thin air. Even as Wisteria announces its familiarity, Yuuki is thinking the same thing. And as the darkness swirling around her fades after her last attack, she also thinks, 'Probably not.'

    Just as Mikage is firing that arrow, Yuuki spins her sword around to stab it into the ground, she then crouches down behind it. The arrow of light fires, streaking through the air towards Yuuki. It strikes her sword with a flash, a large forceful blast of light engulfing the Imp and carving a path of destruction across the ground behind her.

    As the light fades, Yuuki is still kneeling there, though now much of her body is shining with red light. And her HP bar has taken a solid dip. The pain on her face is visible, but only for a few moments before she stands up once more.

    Yuuki lets out a long whistle, "Impressive! That one always hits hards." Yuuki then dashes forward once more, her dark blade starting to glow with a black sheen that makes it even darker, "But I'm not down yet!"

    Yuuki closes in on Mikage once more, unleashing a pair of quick strikes from that black blade. It's not a strong offensive, but rather designed to keep Mikage on her toes. Yuuki apparently still recovering from the heavy hit.

Still breathing hard, Mikage doesn't seem surprised to see that Yuuki is still fighting, even after the hard hit. In fact, she almost seems to be encouraged by that kind of formidable opponent. "It's one of the first techniques I was able to re-learn after the Apocalypse." The bow, however, vanishes from her fingers just as quickly as it had appeared.

"Most people turtle down. But you're still fighting." She grins at that. "I like that." Rather than reaching for her own weapon, Mikage just steps backwards. Though some forms of her magic get channeled through that sword, others seemed to call upon raw druidic artes. Each time she steps back, her hand lifts, a bit of stone shooting up from the arena floor to block the sword slices.

A few small gashes do get through, but it leaves her still bare-handed when the defensive motion ends. "Time to test magic verus metal." One hand shoots skyward then, causing the air on the arena floor to chill. It is enough to make Mikage's breaths hang in the air. As if she were seizing hold of moisture from the air around her, freezing it into small shards, as her hand descends downward, it causes a storm of fine, sharp blades of ice to rain down from the sky, turning parts of the battlefield into shrapnel.

    "See what I mean folks? If you haven't seen that little wave art before, it's a real beast." Wisteria says "Of course if any of you have seen Yuuki in action you know she's kind of like push car, the harder you push the faster she goes!" she nods "And it looks like Mikage is going to start leaning on those Wave arts, it's not a bad plan against a melee artist, but Yuuki's speed is a real foil for some of those spells."

    Yuuki is slashing away with those dark strikes as she replies, "No one ever won a battle but only playing defense!" Yuuki briefly stops as she feels the air around her chilling. At first it's not clear what Mikage is doing.

    And then the sky begins to rain ice! Yuuki's sword slashes through the air several times to strike at those falling shards that get close to her. Some get destroyed by the blade, others make it through to dig into Yuuki. Realising that she's not going to be able to keep that up, Yuuki turns her focus back on Mikage herself.

    The Imp darts forward, looking like she's going for another slash. But at the last moment she flips her sword, grabbing the pointy slashy end in her gloved hand. She then swings the blunt handle end towards the side of Mikage's face.

"Heh." The soft sound of amusement comes through, "I agree. But I fought a few who certainly make it hard to break those defenses." There were moments during this fight when it felt as if Yuuki had defenses just as strong as theirs, but between her speed and her offensive capabilities, Miki knew that she couldn't depend on her opponent giving in to the impulse to go full defense.

Seeing the sword coming her way, Mikage throws up another of those defensive shields, the light of it flickering in the air around her. It holds for only a brief second before the handle of the sword comes down and slams into the side of her jaw.

This sends Miki reeling backwards, reaching up to touch her jaw and lightly move it with a wince. The Were Fang's eyes flash once, then she spits blood. "That... really hurt." She admits.

Still without her weapon, Miki instead crouches, touching her hand to the sandy floor of the arena. Cracks of light seem to form underneath the sand, moving beneath the ground towards Yuuki. At the last moment, they surge upwards, trying to surround the Imp in a pillar of light, the force blasting from below.

    Yuuki chuckles a little as she takes a step back after her strike to recover for a moment. She replies to Mikage, "I know-"

    The ground beneath Yuuki begins to crack, before a large wash of light suddenly pours upwards at Yuuki from below. The dark-loving Imp is engulfed by the light. Given how low her HP was, could this be it? Could this be the end of our heroine?

    Yuuki suddenly comes rolling out of the light, her HP bar getting close to the red but not quite there yet. As she comes up one knee, she starts to swing her blade again, still holding the sharp end in her hand as she says, "Amalthea hit me with it twice!"

    And just like Amalthea, Yuuki swings the blunt end of her weapon towards Mikage for a second time. This time from below, aiming for an uppercut to the Ranger's jaw.

    "Look at those girls go, it's going to be a drop down drag out, I don't think either of them knows what turtling is, and they're dropping big bombs. It's going to come down to who can maintain zanshin it's right to the wire. Screw your courage to the sticking point and let them know who you want to see walking away with prize!!!"

The name of the Scale Emblem tank causes a slight widening of Mikage's eyes. "Why am I not surprised." She manages to say, despite the soreness in her jaw. "You would practice against one of the toughest tanks I've ever run into." Wiping a sleeve across her mouth, the Were Fang is obviously trying to catch her breath for a moment when the sword swings out at her a second time.

Both of their HP bars are low, and any hit could be the last one, so Miki shifts her feet, a bit of electricity flowing along her feet as she tries to use wind-born speed to get herself out of the way. It's a defense that doesn't fully succeed. Exhaustion and the force of the attack causing her to mis-time it just enough that the hard handle of the sword clips her right under the chin.

Mikage's head rocks backwards, her feet becoming momentarily unbalanced. Then, she drops to one knee, giving a faint growl of pain. Two hits to the jaw is enough to make talking hard. "Ow." Is all she manages, blue eyes locking on Yuuki.

Where before, she had summoned wind blades using her sword. This time, Mikage only raises her fingers. She slashes them through the air, causing a graphic like two claw swipes to appear. Perhaps this is some sort of hint as to her true Were Fang form? The claw-marks seem to flicker with a combination of air and water magic, summoning up the energy from her surroundings. Then, with a flick of her hand, they lash out at Yuuki.

    Yuuki is clearly breathing pretty heavily at this point. Her HP bar is almost gone. She's no doubt tired from the exertion. But she still manages to smile. She's doing so as she responds, "Yeah, we had a duel a little while back. She's a tough nut to crack."

    Yuuki spins her sword back around to hold it the right way again as she watches her opponent summon two phantom claws. It's not something Yuuki's familiar with. Which just makes her excited. She doesn't know where this is going to go. As she faces down those menaces, Yuuki says, "I'll give you a spoiler-"

    Yuuki darts forward just as the claws strike. She leaps through the air, twisting her body around to let one claw-mark to swipe over her while the other swipes under her. With bit a graze for the attack, Yuuki twists back to land on her feet again before charging up close to Mikage. Her blade shines with darkness once more as she finishes, "-I won."

    Yuuki unleashes another quick pair of dark strikes.

As the attack comes towards her, Mikage simply raises her arms in defense, allowing the blow from Yuuki's sword to strike against that block. It isn't the most powerful defense she could offer up, but right now, it doesn't seem as if that would matter.

The fact is, Yuuki seems confident that she has won this match, and that may very well be the truth of the matter. Still, Miki's lip quirks. "Maybe." She admits, blood still lingering on her face where she'd taken those blows earlier. "But at least... I'll go down fighting."

With a roar, Mikage channels up a glowing sort of amber energy from the earth around her. Bits of rock floating around herself. She moves her hands in the air which causes water and earth to solidify together. Instead of wind blades like before, this seems to be some sort of amalgamation of earth and ice, creating discs which hover around her.

"Win or lose, this has been fun." Miki confirms, despite the ache in her jaw and the exhaustion looming. Then, she launches the two blades forward, each coming from a different direction.

    Yuuki's smile upgrades to a grin as Mikage announces her desire to have fun and go down fighting. Yuuki shifts down into a ready stance to take what Mikage has to throw at her, nodding along quickly in agreement, "My thoughts exactly! However this ends, I feel like we're going to be good friends!"

    Yuuki's eyes focus on those two discs. And just as they are launched towards her, Yuuki's body is surrounded in the same soft aura of light from before. As her speed is boosted for one final time, the Imp rushes forward to meet the discs.

    The first disc she dives over, letting it just barely slice through the air beneath her. Yuuki hits the ground in a roll and comes up onto her feet again in one swift movement. After which she keeps running. The second disc comes spinning in from another direction. Yuuki summons what strength she has left to swing her sword towards the disc. The two strike, Yuuki feeling the impact as the force of the meeting blow is enough to knock another sliver off her HP bar. Just one more before the red. But Yuuki is able to send the disc flying away from her and she continues her run towards Mikage.

    With the Were Fang Ranger's attacks dealt with, all that's left is for the Gladiator Imp to leap towards her, sword outstretched in front of her as she tries to drive her blade point first towards her opponent's gut.

Seeing the attack coming her way, Mikage pushes to her feet, lightning crackling where her boots touch the sand. The reaction is sluggish, though. In that instant, Rama begins to move. The cat rushes towards Yuuki, ready to pounce upon her with his claws.

Then, the blade pierces Miki's side. It's just a scratch... but it is enough. The poison surges into her system and her health drops into the red. The fight is over. Rama, already mid-flight, can do little about his tragectory towards Yuuki, and rather than attacking, ends up bumping into the Imp, then flopping backwards onto his butt. The little cat gives a confused expression, then meowls.

Dropping to one knee, the Were Fang's smile lingers, despite her low health. "You were right." She admits, "I bow to the better fighter." Miki tips her head forward, white hair dangling in her face as she acknowledges the loss.

"But, damn that was fun." She reaches up then, rubbing at her jaw, "And painful." With a good-hearted laugh, she pushes herself to her feet. Rama, just blinks up at Yuuki, twitching his nose in her direction. "She's a friend, Rama." Miki explains. The cat just gets to his feet, and starts trying do that cat thing of rubbing against Yuuki's leg while purring like a motorboat.

    Wisteria watches the back and forth. "Ooh it's coming down to the very finest hair! Who is going to shave off that last hitpoint before the system calls the match!?" she says sounding excited. The crowd is losing their mind by this point. Cheers and horns and other various noise makers. Beers are being quaffed the occasional yakisoba-pan snarfed. But almost everyone is locked on the fighters, either down in the arena or on the screens. Either way everyone is just waiting for that last announcement of the system.

    When Mikage's hit points drop finally into the RED the word WINNER pops up over Yuuki's head with a Rainbow of fireworks that fill the sky over the arena. "There we have it!" she says as the fireworks fan into the night. "Yuuki has pulled it out just a fraction above the red!" Wistera bounces up and down on her toes "Cheer for our champion!" she says with a wide grin, shifting into Caerbannog form and bouncing that much higher. Her long ears flopping while she is showing off all those ragged razor triangles she calls teeth. "I Said CHEER!" she says in a loud frightening yell that doesn't even require the arena's PA system to be heard by the crowd. Who explode in to even more furious cheering.

    Yuuki is at her limits. If that lynx is able to get its claws into her, Yuuki's done for!

    But then Yuuki's poison brings Mikage's HP down into the red. The duel ends with an announcement of Yuuki as the victor. And Yuuki finds herself getting hit by lynx body. Yuuki oofs as she is knocked onto her own butt, having been off balance from her attack. Her own HP is saved from going into the red only by the brief grace period at the end of the duel preventing damage.

    Yuuki blinks in surprise. Much like in the last battle, she couldn't tell precisely if she was going to win or not when it was this close. But once again she manages to get over the finish line with but a hair! And Mikage bows her head to Yuuki.

    Yuuki blinks again, before asking, "I won?" Pause. She'll get there... "I won! Heh... Hehehe... Hahahaha! I won!" Yuuki's eyes light up at the realization as she starts laughing happily.

    As Kama comes up to rub against her, Yuuki reaches out to give the lynx a hug, still laughing joyously. But finally her attention is drawn to the loud sound roaring around her. What is that!?

    Yuuki rises to her feet, looking up and around to see the crowd cheering madly. Yuuki feels a little overwhelmed as she raises her hand, waving to them excitedly.

In the end, she had fought with everything she had. Just as it had been in other battles, in other worlds and other lives, that would have to be enough. As Yuuki gets her well deserved accolades at the end of the fight, Mikage takes this as her signal to depart. She gives one last wave to the crowd, then gives a soft whistle to summon Rama to her side.

The lynx, after being hugged and then released by Yuuki, does one last twirl around the Imp's legs before racing after his partner. "Come on, buddy. Let's see if Cyrus has any of those healing potions on him. Huh?" Otherwise, she'll likely be feeling it in her jaw for at least a little while.

Before leaving the arena completely, she does make sure that the champion is tossed a friend request, and then the Ranger pair depart. The tournament is over. Now, it was time to look for the next adventure.

There is at least one person embarassing themselves in the stands with joy.

One of them is a certain doctor who is even now waving around his homemade banner like his life depended on it. The whole duel must have taken little more than a few minutes but felt like an eternity, and a not insignificant amount of it was spent nearly falling out of his seat.

But now that Yuuki's won and all the tension has evaporated, all Prophylaxis can do is scream and cheer.

He's probably going to be spending the evening celebrating and drinking himself silly.

It'll be a good night.