Duelist League: Yuuki vs Prophylaxis

    It's a beautiful day here in Breg Epona. It's warm, the sun is shining, there's few clouds in the sky. A perfect day to beat up your friend in a fight! Which is why we're here at one of the many arenas offered by the root towns. This one in particular is quite sandy, surrounded by stands covered by large tarps to provide sun protection for the audience.

    Yuuki is already here, warming up for the fight she had requested. Mentioning something about some Super Secret training to improve her skills as the reason for the request. She is of course wearing her usual patented outfit, with the Absolute Blade resting in its sheathe at her waist. Yuuki stretches for several moments, then starts to jog on the spot while waiting for Prophylaxis to be ready for the duel to begin.

    It should be an interesting one, folks!

You know, considering how long these two have known each other and given that they're both actually a couple of absolute maniacs underneath facades of varying depth, you'd think that this would have happened way earlier!

But it didn't. So nyehhh.

Prophylaxis is of course totally onboard with Yuuki's Super Secret Training, and is frankly just happy to be part of the montage that will eventually lead her to being champion of the world. Again! The doctor appears across from her, emerging from beyond the distand portcullis looking every bit like he's maybe melting just a little bit from the heat. But that's why he has such a nice broad hat all the time, isn't it? It helps to keep the light out of his eyes, and the sun off of his face...!

"Yuuki," Prophylaxis says with a little wave, his staff... Not sheathed. Because it's a staff. You try to sheath a staff!! It looks like he's done his level best, though. The whole thing is wrapped up in cloth and looks every bit like an oversized Q-Tip. It looks like he's finally replaced his busted old model and traded it in for... For...

...An oversized Q-Tip!?!?!?

"I hope I'm still up for the challenge. These old bones haven't fought a whippersnapper like yourself in aaaaages," Prophylaxis groans, rolling his sore shoulders. He's only playing the role of the WISE OLD MENTOR FIGURE though. Yuuki knows exactly how old he actually is. "Now then, shall we get this started?"

His eyes seem to glow under the rim of his hat--

No.

Wait. They're actually glowing!!

His staff strikes the earth, and the ground rumbles for the briefest of moments before a massive stone pillar erupts out of the ground underneath Yuuki's feet, aimed with absolutely pinpoint precision...!!!

He's going strong right out the gates, folks! Or maybe he's just... setting things up so that Yuuki can jump dynamically at him from off the top rope!?!?

A certain Musical Kung Fu nurse is sitting in the stands, decked in full Yuuki fan gear, appropriate for the climate: light scarf (it looks kind of like silk, but it's likely to be some cheaper knock-off), hat, hankerchiefs, headbands, the works! She's even waving fans with a simlpified Yuuki portrait on it. She is cheering as hard as she can, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"GO DOCTOR! GO TEAM MEDICAL! Show her how good the Disciples of Aesculapius can be at applying podalic concussive action to an opponent's coccyx!"

    Yuuki waves happily, before eying the staff that Prophy is holding, "Ohhhh! Is that a new staff? Nice! Can't wait to see it." Yuuki assumes the cloth its wrapped in actually comes off and is not part of the staff's appearance. Although if it is, that's cool too. Not judging!

    Yuuki grins at Prophylaxis's roleplay, "Oh, you better be up for the challenge! I expect you to last against me for at least three rounds. Or I'll have to disown you. I can't have the doctor of the great Zekken being a pushover!"

    When Prophylaxis asks if they should start, Yuuki nods enthusiastically. A few finger swipes and a duel request is sent. Then as Prophylaxis accepts and the countdown begins, Yuuki draws her blade. She gives the weapon a few test swings before settling down into a ready stance, "Let's do this!"

    The countdown finishes, Prophylaxis starting out strong. Feeling the ground beneath her rumbling, Yuuki leaps backwards! It's not enough to avoid the quickly incoming pillar of stone. But it does buy her enough time to bring her sword up. She braces it with her other hand just as the pillar strikes it! Yuuki is carried upwards, before the pillar finally stops, sending Yuuki into the air a short distance.

    Yuuki performs a mid-air flip, before coming down to land standing atop the pillar. Yuuki grins at Prophylaxis, "Starting strong right out of the gate. I like it!"

    Yuuki steps to the edge of the pillar then starts running down it! She quickly reaches the ground, keeping up the pace as she closes the distance to Prophylaxis. She sweeps her blade out to her side and just as she reaches the doctor, there's a blur of movement!

"Fufufufu, maybe if you're lucky, you shall bear witness to my incredible new power...!" That is, if Prophylaxis' back doesn't give out first. Or if he breaks a hip. OR ANY OF THESE OTHER THINGS that are all great reasons for why he probably shouldn't be taking the advance of old age lightly. "But no, this is simply a wrap to conceal its true nature until I have the right opportunity to reveal it. You know, dramatic tension!"

His eyes narrow. "Indeed... Truly, I must yet prove that I am spry enough to make you sit still and take your medicine. If I was not, then clearly I'd have no place being your personal healer! My pride is on the line! Three rounds, minimum! I can promise you that, at least!"

The countdown finishes. Prophylaxis' first maneuver... Is defeated!! But to be honest, he expected that. Yuuki is nothing if not adaptable. To be able to move so quickly, so seamlessly, is the result of countless hours of ceaseless training and the peerless hand-eye coordination that results. This... Is the strength of someone who spent all their time playing video games!!!

(For good reason.)

What Prophylaxis does not expect is the speed at which her blade leaves its sheath-- nor how rapidly his HP plummets even so soon after the bout begins. But he can't simply roll over and die to a single bloody blossom. There is at least one person out there cheering for him in the crowds...!

And so when Yuuki's blade makes contact, it also... triggers a spell. A little spark of electrical light seems to have latched itself to her sword, and the moment she cuts clear-- FLASH! It bursts in a blinding pattern of strobing light!

Prophylaxis takes a step back, a book of all things finding its way to his empty hand. Arcane gobbledegook rise from the turning pages as a torrent of glowing letters, weaving their way... into the stone pillar Prophylaxis had raised only a moment ago. The entire structure shakes, it trembles, it cracks and finally tears loose from its foundations. With a sweep of his staff, he sends the pillar hurtling towards Yuuki...!

But when it draws near, something seems... wrong. The cracks are widening. Light and heat are blazing out from between the spiderwebbing crevasses. Prophylaxis snaps his book shut-- and in so doing, transmits a wordless signal.

...The stone pillar bursts! Its center had been hollowed out, transformed into a chamber like a sealed crucible, within which nothing less than a dozen fireballs had detonated repeatedly, building heat and explosive force! The wave of flame and shrapnel and concussive power barrels towards the Zekken as if it were some manner of shaped charge...!

A new spell to go with a new book and a new staff...!!

    After Yuuki's attack, it seems that her sword has picked up a hitchhiker! Before Yuuki has a chance to even realise there's nothing she can do about it... Short of throwing her sword away, which she'd never do... The mote of light flashes and catches Yuuki in the eyes.

    Yuuki cries out in surprise, taking a few steps back. She then stands there for a moment, blinking. She looks around blankly. She then waves her hand infront of her eyes a few times, before looking confused, "I've been blinded by magic!" Yup. That's a blind debuff.

    While Yuuki is trying to clear the blindness by rubbing her eyes, blinking lots and even bumping herself in the side of the head a few times, a magical cannon has started forming behind her. It's only once the cannon has formed and the fireballs are starting to crackle inside it that Yuuki realises something is wrong, "Wait... What's that?" Yuuki turns in the rough direction of the cannon she's hearing and squints.

    The cannon explodes!

    Yuuki is struck with the full force of the blast and shrapnel, sent flying backwards. She hits the ground and skids to a stop in the sand with a groan. There is a LOT of red across her chest, concentrated in the center with smaller dots surrounding it. And her HP bar has lost a huge chunk as well.

    Yuuki climbs back to her feet again, blinks a few times, then woos, "I can see again! If only a little." Things are still a little fuzzy...

    But that won't stop Yuuki! All she needs is a rough direction and she's good. To which she spots Blurry Prophylaxis and starts running towards him. As she does so, her blade starts glowing with light. Yuuki doesn't get flashy lights and giant magic cannons, she just gets a sword. That occasionally. Glows. But it still hits like a damn truck when she wants it to! And right now she's swinging the weapon at Prophylaxis hard. And the glowing is not good either, the resulting impact creating a concussive blast that sends a puff of sand flying away from the two.

"That, my dear Yuuki, is the power of INNOVATION!" Prophylaxis says with an amused smirk... Though it's probably hard to hear him very well over the earth-shattering KABOOM of the cannon going off. He smiles, satisfied, into the ensuing explosion. "Ah," the doctor sniffs, "I love the smell of brimstone in the morning."

But if that's all it took to put the Zekken down, then she probably wouldn't have proven herself the ULTIMATE SWORD. Prophylaxis' eyebrows creep upwards when Yuuki gets back up... Sooner than expected. And stumbles towards him... Faster than expected. And swings that GLOWING SWORD of hers... MUCH more strongly than expected!? Prophylaxis is barely able to raise a barrier, covering himself in a shield of pale, translucent energy. But even that is only enough to dampen the force of Yuuki's incredible blow. Prophylaxis staggers back as another red streak is carved across his chest, hewn at an almost perfectly perpendicular angle to the first. "I didn't expect you to get up so soon. Damn...!" His staff swings as if to bonk her on the head--

But what he's /really/ doing is directing the shattered fragments of his broken shield to rain down upon her like a shower of glass. He follows up quickly, hurling a vial of neon-green liquid straight at her center of mass. It breaks on contact, and...

T-that... that smell.

THAT SMELL.

"How do you like it?" Prophylaxis asks with the most terrible grin, "My special... Durian-scented corrosive potion...!?"

How cruel...!!!

    Yuuki looks pretty proud as Prophylaxis comments on her remarkable recovery, "You of all people should know that pain and I are old friends at this point. And that getting back up despite it is my specialty!" Well, that and swording things. And also dodging things. Which she does right now!

    Yuuki jumps away from the shower of magic shield leftovers, only a few bits scraping her. She skids to a stop in the sand, expecting that to be the sum total of Prophylaxis's assault. Her nose tells her otherwise. Yuuki groans in disgust as the vial smashes against her, coating her chest for a moment, "Ugh, you're terrible! What's wrong with sweet smelling poison!?" The liquid sinks in, the poison debuff appearing in Yuuki's view.

    Yuuki looks a bit queazy for a few moments, but forces the feeling down. No time for throwing up, she's got a fight to win!

    Yuuki charges in again, her blade swinging towards Prophylaxis with a couple of strong swipes. But there's something more to it! Her blade is glowing a sickly green. Looks like the doctor is getting a taste of his own medicine!

You see? YOU SEE!? It's not JUST Prophylaxis who wields puns with deadly force! Even if it wasn't spoken, and is instead just implied, Prophylaxis feels the smugness radiating from that glowing, green blade even more keenly than the poison that it injects into his veins! Though just before Yuuki manages to follow up with a second swing...

There's another rumbling from deep down below. Another stone pillar lances out of the ground-- but this one, underneath Prophylaxis! It launches the doctor backwards, safely out of the way as Yuuki cuts into the sandstone, leaving a deep trench where it passes. The doctor launches back, gripping his fresh wound with a grimace. "Oh, you know. I felt like it wouldn't be appropriate. You want poisons to smell and taste like poison so that children and thieves don't drink it by accident and get hurt themselves!"

And Prophylaxis is nothing if not very careful about what kind of chemicals he leaves lying around. Poor lab hygiene is one step removed from malpractice lawsuits!!

...But, is that it?

No! Light flashes from either side as suddenly a barrage of arcane bolts swing in a wide arc around the stone pillar! He might not have line of sight right now, but that doesn't matter! He cast magic missile at the crest of his jump, and that STILL COUNTS!

    Yuuki slices through a part of the stone pillar that just launched Prophylaxis away. A good move, for sure, the old man unlikely to dodge out of the way of attacks like Yuuki does. Like she so now, actually!

    The barrage streaks around the stone pillar towards Yuuki. She jumps back from foot to foot several times, letting most of the bolts explode against the ground ahead of her. But one does manage to strike her in the chest, sending her skidding back a bit with grunt.

    "Okay, that makes sense..." Yes, it would be bad for children to drink poison. Thieves... Not so much.

    "How are you doing old man, you need a short break?" Don't listen! It's a trick!

    Yuuki rushes forward. But she's not heading for Prophylaxis, not exactly anyway! Yuuki charges towards that stone pillar instead. And just before she reaches it she leaps towards it, her foot extended and starting to glow!

    Yuuki's foot strikes the pillar, unleashing a shockwave. It ripples through the pillar, before shattering it into a bunch of smaller pieces that fly all over to occupy Prophylaxis.

    Yuuki takes this opportunity to close in towards Prophylaxis again, although her blade is now on fire! Yuuki makes another swings towards Prophylaxis while rocks fly everywhere!

"I mean, if you want to give me a break, I'm certainly not going to say /no,/" Prophylaxis answers with ragged breath. His HP bar is certainly not looking particularly healthy at the moment, all things considered. It won't take much more to knock him out of the fight. But still, he clings doggedly to his staff, the cloth wrapped around its head still bound tightly. Is he not going to show off his fancy new staff today?

Apparently not. Now is not the time. Not that Yuuki has exactly given him enough breathing room /to/ do anything particularly fancy. Nothing that doesn't directly help him carve out just a tiny bit more life, that is. But...

Now, he seems to be at the end of his rope. Yuuki shatters his stone pillar with a singular kick, turning it into a rain of painful shrapnel... Then follows up with a deadly cleave, as if to bisect the man where he stands. The blade explodes, a flash of flame and heat sending him sprawling backwards. The doctor hits the ground with an oomph and rolls to a stop. He wheezes painfully, body smoldering, the fire eating away at what's left of his life. It seems... he's done. Prophylaxis stares at his opponent with defiant, and yet deeply proud eyes. Sucking in a breath, he lifts his staff as if to use it to rise...

No. No, something is wrong. The shrapnel is shaking. Is the ground rumbling again? Is something coming from below?

No. The ground is still. The /shrapnel/ is trembling. "One more time," Prophylaxis declares... As each one of those rock shards, big and small, begin to crack and split with firelight. He roars, slamming his staff into the ground. From all directions, each one of those stone shards erupts with a blast of flame and force... Even as twin suns ignite around the magus, and go spiralling in to try and land the finishing blow!!

But... will it be enough...?

    "Too bad! No breaks in duels!" Yuuki grins, tapping her sword against her shoulder as she starts to walk towards Prophylaxis as he stands. Her HP bar is low, but still has a fair bit of chunkiness to it. Though, a really powerful magic hit could knock her out!

    And that seems to be Prophylaxis's intent. Yuuki stops in her approach, looking around as the debris that they've been creating is now shaking. All of it. Yuuki actually puts a serious look on her face as the shards start to burn with bright.

    Yuuki raises her foot, tapping the tip of her boot a few times against the ground as an aura of light surrounds her. Yuuki then leans forward and-FWOOSH! The speedy imp is off!

    Yuuki starts running, fast! She's trying to close the distance to Prophylaxis, but she's forced to take the long route as the stones all around her are exploding in her face and blocking her.

    Even worse, those large fireballs come streaking in to try and strike Yuuki while she's distrated. She manages to zip to the side to avoid one of them. But the other explodes against her, briefly sending her flying. She bounces across the sandy ground, smoke trailing behind her.

    Is this it!? Is it over!?

    Yuuki plants a hand into the sand to flip herself up onto her feet. She skids to a stop, then presses forward again. She closes in towards Prophylaxis, facing just one more large, glowing stone ahead of her. As she reaches it, Yuuki puts her hand on it to vault over it. It explodes a moment later, sending her flying. Straight towards Prophylaxis! Her blade extended out in front of her, aimed for the doctor's gut!

The cataclysmic explosion is something else. Truly, a remarkable confluence of kaboom and catastrophe. And yet... Somehow, inexplicably, Yuuki dodges through it all. Somehow, she manages to come out the other side of that devastating onslaught unscathed.

And just as she launches herself towards him, hurtling downward to deliver that final, fatal blow...

                                BATTLE OVER!                                

...The poison damage ticks down the last of Prophylaxis' usable HP. He slumps back into the dirt with a tired sigh, just barely falling out of the way of Yuuki's last hit...!

"Damn," he huffs... huffily!? "And here I thought I had got you in that last one. Ah well, I still lasted three rounds. That was, after all, the goal...!"

But his real victory... Is in forcing Yuuki to win with chip damage!? Oh no!?!?

    Yuuki goes flying over a fallen Prophylaxis, only to fall flat in the sand on the other side face first.

    But Yuuki quickly pops up again, rolling over to sit up in the sand and laugh, "You almost did! I don't think my HP would have survived that huge blast. Except I had my Sonic Acceleration saved up. Just the speed boost I needed to avoid most of it!" That would be the glowing aura. Damn speed imps!

    Yuuki rolls back briefly to jump to her feet, sheathing her sword and then dusting off the sand. She then gives Prophylaxis a thumbs up, "That's true! You lasted three rounds! You get to continue being my sidekick."

    Yuuki offers a hand out to Prophylaxis to help him up with a grin.

Yuuki falls face-first into the sand. Prophylaxis claims victory in the only way that really matters.

Comedic timing.

"Hrmph, I don't think 'being your doctor' is exactly the same thing as 'being a sidekick,' Yuuki...!" Prophylaxis complains, but he takes her helpful hand up anyway. He rises a bit shakily, but then jabs a syringe needle full of HELPFUL CHEMICALS directly into his arm and... immediately begins to heal!! What cheatery is that!?

(It's called Having The Pharmacy Skill)

"Next time, I'll have to figure out a way to counteract that crazy speed of yours. But how...?"

Maybe... there /is/ a way...?

It'll hurt to try, but nothing good has ever been done without suffering for it!