Duelist League: Uta vs Yuuki

    The crowd is abuzz with excitement! The turnout for the kick-off fight for the Duelists League exceeded even the best expectations, with great excitement of everyone involved: the organizers first of all, but also those who man concession stands or go around the seats selling merchandise. People still trickle in, packed, excited; crowds from all kingdoms, Landers and Adventurers alike, are in a stated of elated excitement. If one asks around, there seems not to be a clear answer as to why this specific pair of duelists was picked for the initial match, but the general consensus is that advertising the "Yuuki vs. Uta" duel would result in an enormous success, due to most people's reaction being "You had me at 'Yuuki vs.'".

    And so, while waiting for the MC to officially kick off the event as the last people are let in and the gates start closing, the most vocal fans on the front lines cheer wearing scarves and waving flags. Among them, one particular person stands out, unique among many, for a reason that will become clear soon.

    A certain musical kung-fu nurse, in fact, is decked in full Yuuki fan gear. "GO YUUKI! GO YUUKI!", she screams from a seat just behind the short wall that separates the audience from the fighting grounds. She turns to the person next to her. "When I saw the artistic posters for this fight at the guild hall, I /knew/ I had to come her to cheer on Yuuki. First of all, because she's a great inspiration to me. Second..." She turns to GLARE towards the fighting grounds. "...I hope she bashes in the Game Mascot real good. That girl keeps stalking me, tantalizingly showing me glimpses of herself, but HARDLY facing myself directly. I hope Yuuki teaches her a lesson!"

"Uta, Uta, Uta...." It's no sooner that the Spriggan has said such things that a certain Nightmare Were Fang leans over the other side of her. "You do realize that Yuuki is not fighting the 'Game Mascot'. But someone that looks like her." Well at least she's being nice and not trying to break the illusion (it's impossible if it's gone on for 6 months as is).

Instead that is followed by her grabbing the back of Uta's nurse outfit-gi, picking her up due being both much taller and natural strength for her species, and carrying her down to the Square. Sets her down on the pavement. Even though she's probably still not quite going to get it. And walks over to the center of the Main Square being used for the arena. Doesn't bother with any boosting enchantments as her natural voice is easily enough to provide both volume and clarity. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Gather 'round for the main event of the weekend, the inaugeral match crowning the implimentation of the Duelist's League! Tournament Champion Duelist Yuuki vs the combiner of musical, medical and martial arts -- Uta!"

    When Yuuki had been approached by the forming Duelist League with the idea to kick it off with a match, Yuuki was so excited she agreed without actually even asking for anything in return. So unfortunately she's not getting any of the profits from today's match. She doesn't mind!

    Then when it came to finding an opponent, Yuuki pulled up the list of duelists who had signed up so far. She then put one hand over her eyes and raised her other in the air. She then jabbed a finger down onto the table.

    'You missed.' Said the organizer. Yuuki tried again. 'Alright, Uta it is!'

    And thus here we are today, Yuuki having entered the square. She's waving excitedly to the crowd as she looks around. Until she suddenly stumbles in her step. She squints into the audience, before blinking in confusion at the cheering Uta there.

    Of course, at that point Kauchemar proceeds to carry Uta into the fighting area and place her down in her spot. Before proceeding to announce the fight. Yuuki's just laughing though.

    Uta, still decked in full Yuuki fan gear, looks confused at what just happened. "Wait, wait, I'm taking part to the fight?!" She looks up, a finger tapping her lips, "Uh. That explains the 'YUUKI VS. UTA' caption on the posters. Yes, makes sense. I wish I had paid attention when the duelists league approached me." She reaches into her jacket and pulls out a handwritten piece of parchment with a seal. "Oh, yeah... uh. It turns out it identifies me as a duelist. That... that explains why they led me into that strange room and it was so hard to find the audeience's area..." She shakes her head, flicks her menu open, and after some navigation, the document shimmers out of existence, the shimmering light reshaping itself into the silouhette of Uta's caduceus-themed staff, which appears shortly after.

    "I- I can't believe it. I am dueling the great Yuuki..." She bows to her, wings flattened against her back. "I- It is a honour to share these fighting grounds wth you. Good luck, and may the best duelist win- ok, sorry, I've been a bit hypocritical there. I don't really wish for the best opponent to win. I'm wishing that /I/ win. But, you know, politeness."

    Uta shifts her stance, her wings spring up, straight, and her stare goes to one of utter determination. She twirls her staff, and begins chanting an ominous melody. Subdued, yet oppressive. Tendrils of darknes grow from her staff, and soon, a sphere of blackness explodes out of it, headed for her opponent.

Yeah, -none- of that statement from Uta surprised Kauchemar by this point. She just rolls with it. Though after her first announcement Kauchemar steps back a bit, and leans towards Yuuki as she does and lowering her voice. "We want a good show to get interest in the League. Try not to curbstomp her... -Too- hard."

It's a good thing she backed up, because it's a bit of a surprise as Uta comes in swinging. Or casting may be more accurate.

"Would you look at that! Our underdog realizes (maybe) what she's gotten herself into, and goes straight for trying to keep her opponent from setting up at the start. Let's here some applause for how brave and questionably crazy she is for taking on the Champ!" Kauchemar at least does her job of getting the crowd worked up.

    Yuuki recovers from her laughing in time to catch the end of Uta's words. Yuuki simply grins in return, raising her hand towards Uta and offering her a thumbs up, "Hey, as long as you have fun, that's what matters!" And it's true. Yuuki doesn't mind whether she wins or loses, as long as she has fun doing so!

    The duel countdown begins, during which Kauchemar briefly steps over to ask Yuuki to go a little easy on Uta. Yuuki nods along, "I gotcha. Don't worry about it." Yuuki then draws her sword, lowering her body as she watches the numbers drop.

    The countdown hits zero. Uta gets her spell off, the ball of darkness streaking towards Yuuki. Yuuki dashes STRAIGHT for it, quickly meeting the magic projectile. There's an explosion of darkness.

    And Yuuki comes bursting out the other side! Small blotches of red light shine across her, her HP bar already down a chunk. But she's quickly approaching the caster! As she gets close she leaps into the air, raising her sword above her. It begins to glow, light trailing behind it as Yuuki comes down towards Uta. Yuuki then swings, unleashing the powerful Sword Arte that creates a shockwave of air on impact.

Kauchemar is here to have fun too! And make sure they build a good reputation to get the PvPers' attention. Both things she can do very well in this situation.

"And Yuuki takes the opening attack head on -- literally!" It's hard to not get excited when the Duelist is in action. "She takes the hit like, of course, a champ and immeadiately applies pressure to her foe -- air pressure! And you thought that sword was just for slicing and dicing!"

    Nobody can have any doubt that Uta is thoroughly impressed by Yuuki's ability to take damage. Her hands clench on her staff, while she exclaims, "OH BY THE THREE GODDESSES I'M TOAST- Wait- do we even have toast in this world? I-AAAH! WHAT AM I DOING!"

    She hurries to begin chanting another song, but she's too slow. Yuuki's sword strikes true, and Uta gets a very visible, glowing gash traveling through her side and arm, as she staggers back, unable to complete the spell, it seems.

    "Poison...", Uta mutters, her legs trembling. "...well, in that case, take THIS!", Uta exclaims.

    What she does next is rather confusing.

    First, she reaches into her gi, and pulls out a bottle. A bottle which is immediately hurled in Yuuki's general direction.

    Second, she slams her staff on the ground, and begins singing a clear, melodious aria, with celtic vibes. Colorful tendrils of light interwine with the music. As they reach uta, she shimmers with a golden light.

    Third, the bottle- uh. It's /empty? Like, just a glass bottle with nothing inside? And if that wasn't enough, it's even aimed to somewhere where it's pretty much going to do no damage at all? Like, the best protected spot in Yuuki's guard, and the one where any incoming item is best deflected.

    Fourth, as the song completes... it doesn't. This version of the Fairy Healing song might be familiar to some people, and yet, Uta does not end it at the appointed point. No. She keeps going, higher and higher, louder and louder, a creascendo which goes from forte to fortissimo to OH GOODNESS WHAT IS THAT to-

    Deafening.

    Downright air magic powered deafening energy hammering into anyone around, grabbing onto the bottle and SHATTERING it into smithereens, shrapnel which flies all around the well-protected spot, to impact all over Yuuki...

There it is. There's the realization. Kauchemar feels for the girl, but to say she wasn't a bit amused by the reaction would be lying.

An empty bottle is thrown. "Looks like she got so worked up she forgot what bottle contain--"
She's cut off mid-sentence by the rising pitch of the song. As a skilled musician and singer herself, Kauchemar abruptly makes a connection between the bottle and what was happening. Evident as she quickly pulls her shield off her back and holds it in front of herself just to be on the safe side.

As the bottle shatters. Turned into sharp glass shrapnel.

Kauchemar peaks around the shield floating in front of her. "--Well I see she's learned to improvise at least. Wonder how the Champ will handle this!" She may of been a bit thrown by the strange tactic but it doesn't slow her MC stride too much.

    Yuuki jumps back after her strike, readying herself for whatever Uta has to throw at her.

    Uta throws an empty bottle.

    Well, that seems harmless... WHICH MEANS IT'S A SERIOUS THREAT! Gamer logic.

    And sure enough, the bottle shatters into a rapidly expanding field of shrapnel. Yuuki reacts quickly, her blade glowing as she swings it up into the cloud. The glass fragments vaporize into pixels of light, though not just the ones that her sword strikes, but a wide swath around it too. This leaves most of the shrapnel to pass around Yuuki harmlessly, only a few pieces embedding themselves in the Imp.

    Yuuki grins at Uta, "Nice surprise! Didn't expect that."

    Yuuki then starts running once more to close the distance to Uta. Though she's zigging left and zagging right as she does so, trying to throw off the caster's defensive preparations. Before quickly darting past Uta along the side with a quick cutting strike.

"And Yuuki sweeps aside shrapnel swifter than a swiffer!" With no stray fire coming her way Kauchemar steps back out, though the shield remains floating at her side. Just to be safe. This was an advantage of having a posessed weapon, she could still focus on other things like commentating. "Both the combatants are quick on their feet, but Yuuki is putting it to use to try and disorient her opponent before she finally goes in for a strike!" Disorient works. She'd say confuse but that's too easy with Uta.

    Uta half collapses, panting, after the exercise. "T...Thanks. First time I use it. Well, on purpose. Already used it by accident. It-AAAAAAAH!", she staggers sideways. She takes two long leaps back, spinning in the air for extra show. "Oh goodness, I seriously need to start paying attention to people who charge at me with a sword!"

    Landed again, grimacing, a gash on her side, fighting stance resumed, her dark singing resumes, and her gem shimmers black. She keeps her eyes closed as she does so, but somehow, a black tendril links the staff with Uta's forehead. This feels eerily like the quiet before a storm...

    Yuuki stops running and spins around to face her opponent, expecting a counterattack. One doesn't immediately come. Instead Yuuki watches as the caster does magic things. Yuuki doesn't know what magic things. She's not a magic person!

    Which is why the Imp decides to press the offensive before Uta can pull out whatever trick she's hiding.

    Yuuki charges forward once more, this time straight on. Her already dark blade grows even darker, taking on a black sheen as she raises it. She then proceeds to launch into a series of four strikes. The first two are light, meant to unsteady Uta.

    After which Yuuki follows through with two much heavier strikes, pressing her offensive to try and disrupt the caster's spell.

To be quite frank Kauchemar does know magic, and even she's not entirely sure what Uta's doing. But that's okay, her job is to keep the crowd on the edge of their seats. "Look at them go! That furious exchange of blows and they're both at it, despite what is probably a handicap of inexperience for Uta! Keep that cheering going people, that's how they know you're enjoying the show!"

    Uta opens her eyes. The first blow is dodged effortlessly, and an expert twirl of her staff blocks and deflects the second.

    When the third comes, her gash from earlier glows again, and her wincing is enough to make her lose focus for the split second that's sufficient for Yuuki to pound into her with the third blow, and the fourth one...

    Cut to a section of the audience. They stare in amazement, a subdued choir of "ooooh" growing in intensity as their faces collectively look up.... and then down... and then focus on a central point above them...

    ...and they rush away from a central point, where a shadow grows...

    *THUD*

    Uta lands face-first onto the vacated place. As she sticks up upside-down, a few members of the audience, who must be Adventurer, comment, "Wow, it's a home run!" "What a blow!" "Impressive!" "...is this like with baseball balls? Like, can we keep the duelist, or do we have to throw her back into the field?" "...I don't know, let me check the rules... *small booklet is whipped out*"

    WHile the small crowd is clumped together off to one side to decide on her fate, Uta crawls to her feet, and makes her way into the main fighting grounds. "...that was a nice one," she says, face still kind of swollen and glowing red because of the impact. She staggers, gash on her side still glowing. She takes a few tentative steps towards her opponent, steps which accelerate into a walk and then a run, staff held at the ready for a mighty impact.

    "CHAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!", she yells- no, /sings/, she even starts modulating it operatically, and her staff crackles with electrical energy as a whirlwhind forms around its head...

Kauchemar cringes a bit, ears splaying partway in sympathy. "Oh that is a nasty blow Uta just took! Yuuki gives a good reminder of why she's the Champ... But Uta is still in the fight so far! The hairs on my neck are standing on end!" Though that may be because of the kind of magic Uta is whipping up. "This ain't over yet folks!"

    Even Yuuki winces in sympathy as she sees her opponent crashing down into the audience. Even with the pain nullifiers in place, they're not one hundred percent and so that must have hurt!

    Thankfully Adventurer bodies can take a lot of punishment and still jump to their feet once more. Just as Uta does! Yuuki grins, happy to see that her opponent is still eager to continue the fight.

    Yuuki then blinks in surprise as Uta starts to charge her. The caster is going into melee! What a shocking twist!

    Yuuki steadies herself, readying to dodge the incoming blow. She's planning to do so and then get in a quick counterattack.

    But just as Yuuki is about to move, the crackling electricity jumps to her, briefly shocking her! Yuuki fails to move in time! The staff connects with the side of her head! Yuuki goes flying!

    Yuuki bounces across the ground several times at high speed, before finally skidding to a halt. She's still for a few moments, before groaning quietly and rising to her feet. She rubs at the large red glowing zone on the side of her head, "Nnngh, I didn't know they had trucks in this game..."

    Yuuki tries to shake off the impact, turning to face Uta. Is she seeing double? Whatever. Yuuki will just have to strike them both!

    Yuuki whips her sword out to the side, a gale forming up around the blade. But a darkness invades the wind, quickly turning it black as it flows up Yuuki's arm and then across her whole body. Yuuki leans forward and pushes off from the ground. Suddenly she's blasting across the arena, closing back in on Uta in a fraction of a moment. She then goes into a series of rapid strikes, so fast that it's hard to follow them with normal eyes!

Kauchemar chuckles a bit. The apparent caster going for melee always throws them off, even the expert fighter. It's a tactic she herself has used on occasion. "And Uta gets in a powerful blow! Somehow she got past the Champ's defenses, and I'm sure Yuuki found that to be a reVOLTing experience!"

That was painfully easy pun, but she's working with limited material if she wants to keep up with the fight itself. She's seen how fast Yuuki can get goi--yep, like that. Very much like that. "Well she's not blue but that is definitely a blurr speeding by. Did someone shove a bunch of gold rings in Yuuki or something?!" There's only Adventurers in the crowd that's going to get that reference, the Landers are likely bewildered. "At least it's not mushrooms."

    Uta somehow rushes /at/ Yuuki, and each strike being met by the staff, the clang of metal impacting against wood in a rhythmical way. Uta turns and spins to always face the opponent, with an impeccable, if a bit unorthodox, bo technique. Just one or two blows make it through, otherwise each of them is parried. "Oh, hey, all that wax-on wax-off exercise paid off!", Uta excalims. She pulls away to avoid an incoming blow, then parries the next with her staff again. "Oh, yeah, context. Master Miyoda trained me in musical marital arts at his Swampside Used Cart Lot and Martial Arts Dojo using the old wax-on, wax-off method, except he would keep throwing-"

    The sentence, it appears, was mostly a distraction. Right when the listener's interest is most piqued, her by now predictable parrying flow switches into attack mode, abrupt, going for a stab at Yuuki.

    "-cans of wax at me." Yes, you keep narrating, to uphold the distraction....

    The sudden jab from the staff strikes Yuuki in the chest, forcing her to skid back a few steps. Yuuki coughs a couple of times, taking a moment to recover from it, before grinning at Uta, "Throwing things at people is definitely a good way of training them!"

    Yuuki charges in again, unleashing more of that rapid assault. Until finally her speed buff wears off. After which she takes a step back. Is that the end of her onslaught?

    Of course not! Shifting her stance, Yuuki quickly steps back in to strike another couple of times. This time slower than the previous ones, but far heavier! Trying to force her way through Uta's defenses rather than continuing to rely on speed.

"And Uta puts some of her inscrutable randomness to use!... Somehow..." Is really all Kauchemar has to say at the moment as the two do the dance of block-block-parry-thrust-don't smack yourself like Daffy Duck.

    Now the battle gets to its most epic conclusion. Uta begins to sing again, vocalizing, a breezy, lively song.

    It is subtle, at first. The dust around her describes a small circle, but as she moves, each step is an explosion of air, flinging the Spriggan in the air. The initial powerful blows are thus dodged with ease. "You know, back to what we were saying earlier. Why don't we have toasters in this world?" Another thunderous step, and up she goes flying again, leaving Yuuki to slash at thin air. "Ok, we do not have reliable electrical power. But bear with me." Fluttering her wings, she feather-falls a small distance away from Yuuki. "We just need to rely on elemental magic instead. Fire. We make a small box with elemental Fire magic embedded into it. That's all we need for-" Another powerful blow comes, and another boom, soaring, and fluttering down at a small distance, "-making toast, right? To reproduce the Earth experience, we just take a metal box, stuff some Fire magic into- no, wait." She looks up and away, finger on her lips again. "We need elemental Dark magic as well. That's why toasts become black if you leave them in for too l-"

    All that rambling about toast made her lose enough concentration that the next blow impacts, sending her flying against. She lands on her back and skids off for a distance, raising dust in the procees. She gets to her feet, rubbing her head while her whole back half glows a mighty red, as does the line of impact on her front and side. "Oooooww....", she moans. "Ok, that was good. Now it's my turn..."

    She clasps her staff, flips it over, and rushes at Yuuki, head of the staff pointing down and pointy end first.

    "TOOOOOOAAAAAAST SLIIIIIC- wait, that's not the name of the technique!"

    "Well we might not have toasters, but we can-" Swish, another of Yuuki's strikes miss as they have this conversation.

    "-Yeah. That's probably the easiest way to toast bread at this point, though it could be as simple as-" Fwoosh. Another missed strike.

    "-I don't think that's how burnt toast works... So that's probably-" Shick. One of Yuuki's strikes finally finds purcases into Uta's body.

    Yuuki holds her ground as some distance forms between her and Uta. Yuuki is still trying to recover from that jab to the chest, so don't want to press too much. Too risky. So Yuuki waits for Uta to come to her.

    Uta charges! She swings her staff. Yuuki is able to send the first strike passing by with a quick parry. She then dives into a roll to try and avoid the next. But she's still a bit too slow after that jab and the long fight, Uta's pointy staff cutting a line of red through Yuuki's body.

    As Yuuki comes back up on her feet, her HP bar lowers after that last blow, dipping just down into the start of the red zone.

    The VICTORY sign appears in the air above the duel, indicating Uta as the victor.

    Yuuki lets out a breath as she relaxes, before letting out a laugh and saying, "Nice work! Though I think I woulda had you with one more good hit."

The entire square goes DEAD SILENT when Yuuki reachs CRITICAL HP and the system declares Uta the winner as it blocks any more damage from being done to cause an accidental PK. Even Kauchemar, not known for every being at a lost for words, is staring quietly for a few moments. As if to make sure it really happened. Or maybe she remembers how close another fight vs Yuuki was and is just making sure that really was accurate.

It takes another moment before she snaps out of it, and back into the MC routine, smacking a fist against the ghost shield floating next to her to ring it like a gong. "THERE YOU HAVE IT! Somewhere between Dumb Luck and Dumb Skill, the underdog has managed to upend the champion in this duel! Let's hear it for Uta!" That gets the crowd back into cheering, abiet still a little awestruck.

Casually Kauchemar strolls over, grabs one of Uta's hands and holds it up over her head like they do at championship boxing matches.

Then leans down to whisper "You do realize now she's probably going to be after you for revenge, right?"

Maybe not, knowing Yuuki is mostly in it for the fun, but Kauchemar wouldn't be a Nightmare if she didn't get that little bit of dark humour in to pick on her friend and rival.

    Uta, at first, had no idea of what was going on. One moment she was holding her staff, in stunned silence, uncertain of what had just happened; the next she was snatched away, her hand held up while she scanned aa crowd. Up at Kauchemar. "Wait, what?" Her bleeding gash is still flashing, and so, even if mildly and slowly subsiding, is the point of last impact of Yuuki's blow.

    And, it must be said, she's /still/ decked in full Yuuki fan gear: woolen hat, scarf, the works.

    Her mouth opens and closes like that of a fish, looking left, right, at the audience, at Yuuki, at Kauchemar, at Yuuki again, as if for apologizing.

    The Spriggan, however, goes dead silent at Kauchemar's words. A chill runs down her spine, and she inches a bit away from Yuuki. "...hhhehehe... y-yes, you would definitely have had me with one more hit. It was impressive. Thanks for going easy on me..."

    Gulp.

    Yup. Someone has just taken the decision to to sleep with the oil lamp on.

    ...if it doesn't cost too much. Uta is, after all, a bit of a cheapskate. The actual plan involves doing some budgeting and deciding the cutoff point at which being murdered in one's sleep is preferable to squandering too much money on lamp oil. That thing isn't cheap.