Duelist League: Michio vs Uta

Having been summoned to Carmina by the Sultana of Slime herself, Michio arrives at the designated time. He looks around, hmming softly, then shrugs and leans against a building, arms folded across his chest, doing the broody male anime thing.

Yeowang is in Carmina Gadelica herself when she finds that there is a dueling exhibition about to start. She makes her way there, with several other spectators. She, curious to see what this is all about, most, there for the excitement. A show-fighter in RL, she hasn't expressed any curiousity about it in the game. But she /does/ admit to some, just to see how it goes, and so here she is, quiet in the stands where others cheer, watching intently. The crowd are much more into it, here to see adventurers really go all out.

Michio's opponent walks into the square from a side street.

The staff is instantly recognizable, a white affair, shaped like a caduceus; Uta is not: instead of her newbie gi/nurse's uniform affair, today she'd decked in a white cheongsam mini-dress with shimmering blue floral decorations. And earrings.

By studying subtle body language cues, Michio might notice that Uta is blushing profusely, and is kind of stiff in walking, meaning that- ok, someone would need to be blind to notice that she'd love to dig herself into a hole and disappear. "G-Greeting, Michio! It is a honor to be dueling you, today!" One thing you can't deny: she upholds the national tradition of proudly pushing on and doing your best to carry out your duty, no matter the circumstances.

Looking up from his broodish gaze, which was focused on the street, Michio is now focused intently on Uta, mouth slightly agape and eyes open. "Nandayo?" (What the...) he says to the Spriggan.

Clearing his throat, the Ki Master stands straight, places his palms together, then bows to Uta. "Ah. Is this why you were heading to the shop of Gwen the other day?" the salamander inquires. "You look... well I thought you wanted to spar." He looks down at his own stained and disheveled clothes. "If I'd known this was a date, I might have... well, honestly, I don't have anything better. But you are stunning, Uta-chan."

Yeowang eyes Uta curiously as she enters. That outfit doesn't look like the most practical thing for fighting in, at least not Yeowang's style, which involves a lot of high kicks, but if Chun Li could get away with it, she's sure Uta will be fine. She doesn't know much about either players' style, so this is entirely a new thing for her. The crowd love it, though, and seem to find Uta's embarassment endearing.

Psychological warfare, engaged! It is super effective. Uta flushes a shade of red which complements the outfit nicely, and the tension shows that she's off balance already. "THIS IS NOT A DATE!", she snaps.

And then catches herself.

She inhales. Exhales. Flicks her inventory open, materializes her squishy red stress ball, tortures it a little (by strangling, squeezing, stretching, twisting it), and once her surplus of murderous instincts has been disposed of, she puts on her best showtime smile and radio announcement intonation, to declare, to the crowd in general, "But of course, garments crafted by a MOONLIGHT TAILOR like Gwen Pendragon cannot but be stunning! A perfect choice for meeting that special someone, or simply an elegant evening on the town!" She projects her voice to make sure she's heard by the audience that has gathered around them. "I am /so glad/ that my wardrobe is taken care of by the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE, the number one fashion choice in Alne! And the prices will surprise you! Choose THE CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE, in Alne's Main Square, where elegance meets affordability!"

She sighs, in that 'There, we got it out of the way!' tone, then her bloodshot eyes fix on Michio. "ANYWAY."

Michio full on sweatdrops, and it's his turn to pull a color-change worthy of a chameleon as even his verdant-scaled hands and feet seem to take on a slightly more pink shimmer, the Ki Master blushing from head to toe.

"I'm sorry! I... well... uh..." he just stammers and looks around as though looking for an escape, and finding none.

Instead he goes down on his knees and kowtows, "Of course, this humble wanderer is not worthy of the attentions of the Kung-Fu Nurse! I meant no disrespect! I just..." He looks up from between his arms, confusion plainly etched on his features, "Why are we here?"

Yeowang blinks as Uta's fashion show becomes an advertisement. She's seen the shop before, but she doesn't buy off-the-rack. Ever. Well, almost ever, and certainly not on her own. But the number of bespoke tailor shops and dress shops in-game is small, so maybe she ought to give them a shot. The rest of the crowd are cheering wildly, for Uta, for Michio's kowtowing, for Gwen's shop. Just to shout until they're hoarse, it seems for the moment.

Uta continues, "...Duelist league. Remember? We had an appointment. I think." She pauses. "...I forgot to send you the invite, didn't I," she mumbles. Menu is flicked open, options are selected. Away goes the little stress ball, and an invite to duel is sent Michio's way.

Seeing the notification, Michio just blinks, "But... oh, oh yes of course."

Jumping to his feet, Michio presses the accept button to start the countdown timer before responding. "You had messaged me about duelist league, some time ago, yes. I just... didn't think you'd be fighting in..." he nudges his chin towards Uta and then gulps so hard it looks like he's wallowing a softball, and the audible *GLORP* can be heard across the square. He looks around at the spectators, then back to Uta. "Even looking as lovely as you do, Uta-chan, I cannot hold back in a fight. I hope you understand."

3...
2...
1...

FIGHT!

And the Ki Master wastes no time at all in engaging Uta, unshod feet carrying him quickly across the 'arena' to throw a punch at Uta that then hooks back into an elbow attack.

Yeowang watches curiously as Uta does ... whatever that is? Some magical move? For all that she's supposedly got magical powers, she does poorly with them, and doesn't recognize when things are happening. Is that some kind of pre-fight buff? Finger moving up and down in empty air? So confusing. The crowd is finally settling, waiting for things to start. And then it starts! There's a cheer as Michio leaps to the attack.

That compliment reinforces the blushing, and stiffens Uta further. It's no surprise that Uta's usual impredictable dodging suffers from a lacka of concentration: the punch is /barely/ avoided, but the elbow attack hits full-on, right on her nose, that red light associated with damage now glowing across her face.

In such a pattern that, having affected the nose-and-cheeks area, looks like she's blushing so hard she glows.

She leaps back, staggers, and taking the smallest fraction of second to plan her next move, she slams her staff on the pavement, and starts to intone a growling, ominous chant, which sounds like she's swearing in some eldritch language. Swirls of darkness dance to the melody around her staff, flow inside its gem, and after collapsing together into a writhing dot of black and purple, SHOOT at Michio.

Taking the shot full force, Michio grunts softly at the impact, but doesn't relent on his attacking. Instead, he brings his hands up to his forhead, palms facing Uta. As he pulls the hands apart a glowing third aye appears, allowing Michio to assess the Spriggan's weaknesses.

The Ki Master nods once with a soft grunt, then leaps towards Uta and brings both hands forward right above her head so fast that air is displaced in a concussive blast. Being prepared for this, Michio crosses his arms in front of him and slides a few feet back, waiting for Uta's next move.

Yeowang watches thoughtfully now as the fight is joined in earnest, and the initial surprise attack is met with a .. that's got to be a magical attack! She continues to watch quietly in counterpoint to the crowd are screaming. They're loving the hard fight, roaring as blows are struck and as the damage mounts.

There is not much the nurse can do. The blast SLAMS onto her and pushes her on the ground, dragging her all across the square, until her head delivers a worrying blow on a building.

Luckily for the building, it seems like Uta is the only one to take damage, as shown by the red glow on her head, and the << Immortal Object >> on the building.

Or perhaps the latter didn't happen. Who knows.

Uta staggers to stand, blinks, re-focuses. She seems to remember something, and frantically checks her back. "Oh, how glad I am I chose the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE for my fashion needs!", she exclaims, still in that projected-radio-announcer voice. "For the expert choice of fabric and unparalleled manufacture make their product resistant to even the harsher conditions Adventurers are bound to encounter! Look! Not a scratch!" Uta does a pirouette to prove her point, exhales (with closed eyes and the little anime cloud), and frowns again. "Now, about /you/!", she says, and repeats a similar chant; She swings her staff back, rushes towards Michio, and then, while still holding tight onto it, she thrusts her staff towards him; a different blast of darkness departs this time, with appendages that look suspiciously like thorns, like a shot wire, ready to wrap around Michio. As if this wasn't enough, Uta continues her rush to hit him. "Mornin'! A nice day for fishin', innit?"

With a *WHOOSH* of air, Michio backsteps from Uta's attack, only half realizing he's ensnared in her thorn hold. Because of this, the attack manages to connect with his noggin, if ever so lightly, sending one of his maneuver spells out of his repetoire for this pass.

"Fishing?" Says Michio, and then a playful smirk, "You must be fishing for compliments with all that talk about CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE."

Then the Ki Master makes a waving gesture with his arms and dark thorns spring up from beneath the earth to grasp the Spriggan, as well! The salamender makes another gesture, preparing for some sort of subtle attack at his opponent.

Yeowang blinks as Uta gets plowed, but comes up, singing the praises of the clothing store. She knows for a fact a blow like that would be hard on clothes in real life, but in the game, it seems fine, apart from taking a damaged, stained, or dirty condition. Of the three, two are cured by menu-washing, the third requires a vendor to repair the item. This must be some kind of sales pitch? The crowd are apoplectic by now as the two fighters trade massive blows, no slap-fight here, these two are really letting each other have it hard. Hashtag: Worst First Date Ever.

Uta is also ensnared in a tangled web of thorns; the subtle blow of Michio would be devastating, at this point, but somehow, the mutual ensnaring seems to have awakened something in Uta. Perhaps a sense of symmetry, of being in the same situation, which replaced the feeling of being at a disadvantage? Point is, she knows how to deal with thorns; keep your techniques econimcal but powerful -- thorns hurt you each time you move, so make each movement count.

The subtle technique is detected, and dodged effortlessly, before the nurse leaps away.

Uta seems to have finally found her groove, and now each move segues smoothly from the previous one. "Yes," she retorts, whitout skipping a beat. "Shopping at the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE is the best way to fish for compliments! Everybody will praise your style, and you yourself are a living proof of this!" She seems to even have fun at this point -- mostl likely because she got to snap back at Michio.

Uta slams her staff on the floor. Her vocalizations swing in pitch, treble, bass, in between, repeat, but move the whole things a bit higher. The musical scale is climbed, red and green tendrils of luminous energy spin in a double helix around her staff following the melody, and once they reach the gem and focus there, two beams depart on opposite direction, a red one to engulf Michio, and a green one to engulf Uta -- and little 'blobs' of red energy will be scuked in across the beam; they would turn green as they cross the gem, and flow towards Uta, whose HP bar ticks upwards at the same rate as Michio's drops.

"Impressive. I've fought several people recently, and none were able to counter the heartseeker and thorn bind hostage combination." Michio inclines his head as he circles a moment, doing a chant as his health bar slowly ticks down. At the end of the chant it begins moving slowly back up again, "Ooollll repth!"

"Maybe speed isn't my best method of engaging you. Let's see if you can dodge this!" Here, the martial artist draws energy in from the world around him until his hands veritably glow with pure life energy. He steps his left foot forward, then extends his left hand, pointing it at Uta.

Then, the right hand moves to meet the left, retracting until it's even with his right ear. As he maneuvers, a bow and arrow of pure, crackling ki forms in thin air. Michio looses the arrow at his foe with a resounding *FACHOOM* and the bow itself vanishes.

Yeowang is trying to decide if Uta's continued praise of Gwen's shop is because she lost some other bet, or part of what got her dressed up in something that seemed, at leats earlier, to make her so uncomfortable. So, she's either gotten used to it, or she's so into the fight that it's slipped her mind. The crowd cheers as Uta tricks the spell attacking her, recovering for a few breaths while Michio continues to take the abuse.

"Kauchemar says that my greatest strength is my unpredictability," Uta replies. "You never know what to expect from me-"

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH

Uta lowers her stance and holds her staff, still pumping energy, in front of her, as a way to split the incoming flow of Ki -- there's no way to stop it, so she just tries to manage the damage by deflecting as much as possible. It sort of works, and the damage, while still massive, is less than it would have otherwise been. "...that was pretty cool, I have to say...", she says with a whistle. "Can I try?!", she moves her arms in a circular dance, then thrusts them forward, producing a similar blast of Ki, right back.

Michio has been the lower of the two on health since this encounter began, and keeping up the offensive has been tough. He seems satisfied with himself as his empyrial arrow connects with Uta, but when he sees her about to return the favor, he actually seems slightly worried.

Instead of attacking this round, the Ki Master does a dodge roll back. Seeing the arrow still heading directly at him he follows this up with a flash step to the side.

"Kuso." Michio says as the blazing white light still manages to connect with him, leaving a puckering digital hole in his body. With a dash forward at Uta he makes a single flat handed strike at her, like a serpent biting its prey, claws extended forward in a piercing strike.

Yeowang looks impressed as the battle rages on, it's hard to guess who will come out on top, they're both smashing each other so hard. That's not really how it goes in real life, unless one of the opponents is a total newb. The crowd cheer as Uta and Michio exchange the same attacks, that will show who the tougher opponent is! Or at least who's nerve will break first?

Uta chants, the gem in her staff glows.

Dark and purple smoke ooze out from the gem, and surround the Spriggan, who turns into a black version of herself, with white featureless eyes.

"And the best part is,", she growls, her voice taking an otherworldy deep edge in this form, "Gwen's creation look stunning even when encased by Dark Magic!"

Oh, yes. The cheongsam is now looking like it's made of shimmering balck silk, the flowers replaced by silver thorn-and-gnarled-branches decorations. "Lesser crafters would not even consider this scenario, but THE CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE takes the utmost care to make you look your best in any circumstance an Adventurer might conceivably encounter!"

Uta's concussive blow rings Michio's bell but good, sending the Ki Master rolling across the arena, despite his efforts to lightning step out of the way. Through gritted teeth the salamander chants a healing incantation, sending his health slowly creeping back up, even as he tosses a weak straight handed jab towards his opponent.

It's clear that the martial artist's offensive style is beginning to wear on him as the more experienced Uta manages to shrug off some of his most potent combos and come back swinging.

The jab impacts against the Dark energy shrouding Uta, and barely chips her HP. However, the jab was well placed to dispel the protection: the Darkness begins to evaporate right where Michio struck, and radiates out in increasingly intense wisps, revealing Uta as she was before underneath.

She leaps back, to interpose some distance between her and her opponent. She holds her staff in front of herself, slightly tilted forward, and vocalizes a catchy, bouncy tune. As it has done up to now, the staff is surrounded by dancing tendrils of light in a helix pattern, following the pitch and intensity, and the gem charges up with light and color. What is new is that at each 'bounce' of the melody, a beam shoots out, hits the ground, and leaves a circular patch of light in place. She shoots them never /at/, but /all around/ Michio, turning the square into some sort of luminous Swiss cheese.

"Creatures of the depths, come forth!"

Palm facing up, she curls her fingers, her muscles tense, and raises her hand slowly as if it was bearing the whole weight of dragging the weight of summons up from the grond. In response, monsters emerge from what turns out to be summoning circles, as if they were being raised on a stage by hidden elevators.

They're all slimes.

"SEWER CALL!", Uta exclaims, and points at Michio: "Get him!"

The slimes, which up to now had pretty much been looking in all directions, being their not-so-bright little selves, and in some case had even started wandering off, all turn to Michio.

They stare.

And then, they all bounce towards him.

When she's satisfied that enough confusion has been generated, Uta darts towards Michio as well, and raises her staff to just SMACK michio with it, as hard as she can.

Because no matter how magical it is -- a stick can /still/ work as a stick.

Sometimes a stick is just a stick.

Sometimes it's a weapon of mass destruction.

Today, it is the ringer of bells.

*BONG*

Michio's flashstep saves him from the advancing wall of slimes, mostly, but Uta's cadeuceus collides against his cranium with a clatter.

Again the Ki Master is sent sprawling.

Michio knows his situation is dire. His health is ticking up and down between poison effects and healing spells, even as Uta's health makes slow upward progress. Drawing deeply upon the reserves within himself, again he draws forth a bow and arrow of pure light energy, loosing the shaft at the spriggan in an effort to bring her low.

That blow was so hard that Uta took a moment to check the integrity of the gem in her staff. Eye pushed so close as to almost touch it, she runs a finger through the glistening surface.

"Stick and bones may break my stones...", she explains, apologetically, but then, as if suddenly remembering something, she snaps back to non-apologetic mode as she rushes back and leaps to smack Michio with her stick again: "...but words will never be able to express just how stylish the products from the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE are! The CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE, for a fashion statement nobody will be able to counter!"

The staff was already swung, but the incoming Empyrial Arrow has Uta widening her eyes.

"Snap!"

A burst of wind crackling with lightning pushes her out of the way in mid-air, leaving the Arrow to find only thin air, with no choice but disappear in the distance. Uta rolls as she hits the ground, and after a couple of tumbles, without breaking her momentum, she pushes against the ground to stand up in a flash of gratuitous acrobatics.

Ok, now she's just showing off.

"Sorry I wasn't home when you delivered your gift of pure energy," Uta teases. "To make up for that, I will come pick it up myself..."

Once again, she intones that swinging tune, and the two green-and-red beams of magic connect Uta to Michio, the former's HP bar ticking up as the latter is sapped.

Sweat drips off of Michio's face now, his chest panting with his exertions. He steps back from Uta for a moment, placing his palms over his forehead, calling up a third eye to evaluate for weaknesses.

'Haha, you wish.' returns the display.

Michio just groans a bit, then makes a subtle feinting strike, trying to bypass Uta's defense, gritting his teeth as the parasitic link drains him further, and feeds his ki to Uta.

"Oh, look! My wishes are coming true!", Uta banters back while the magical link pumps more blobs of energy into bumping her HP bar up. Uta pirouettes in place to dodge the feint, and all Michio manages to do is barely grazing her as she dances along a little tune she's vocalizing. When the melody has a sudden upswing, the stone tile she's standing on springs up from the rest of the square, to to send her zooming towards the Ki Master. Just as the Parasitic Link dissolves after undoing the effect of Michio's earlier graze, the Spriggan tumbles in the air. When she lowers the pitch of her chant the tip of her caduceus is engulfed in a tangle of writhing tendrils of dark magic; without waiting, she swings her blade down to slash across Michio's chest.

And that's more than the Ki Master can take. As the blow connects, even before the bleed damage can begin, Michio is paralyzed as a notification window pops up for any nearby adventurers:

DUEL COMPLETE: Victor - Uta!!

Michio's head swims as he tries to raise himself to his hands and knees, the system slowly restoring his health bar now that the battle is completed. Closing his eyes, he begins a soft chant, drawing energy from the very earth beneath him to help the regrowth of his hit points, the energy slashes in his body disappearing.

"Well fought, Uta, well fought." Michio pants, raising himself finally to one knee, leaning on his leg for support. "That Parasitic Link is strong. I need to come up with a comparable ability."

Staff held diagonally in fron of her, Uta is also panting. She relaxes, getting up from her martial artist's lowered fighting stance, and she strolls towards Michio. "You were exceptional. So much damage. Such psychological warfare. Not gonna lie, you had me in the first half." She offers a hand to the Salamander, to help him to his feet. "I will be glad to teach what I've learnt developing that technique. It might need some adjustments to work with your style, but I'll offer as much assistance as I can."

Accepting the hand with a grunt of appreciation, Michio stands, still leaning over a bit to catch his breath. He shakes his head, "Imagine that... panting for breath... in a game?" But he doesn't stop for another moment, just recovering. As his health bar reaches its maximum again, though, he looks much better.

"I'll probably take you up on that, at some point. Though, I should probably get some new garb before hand. I wouldn't want to embarass you by association, looking..." He gestures, "Like that."

"Like what?" Uta's look of puzzlement is genuine. She looks down at herself. "Holy cripes! How- what- How did I get into-"

Realization delivers a delayed blow, but as soon as it impacts, Uta rolls into the (metaphorical) punch and segues into a seamless, "-such a fine garment? Why, thanks to the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE, located right in Alne's main square! Come, friend, and let's get you spruced up!" She makes a theatrically obvious beckoning gesture, "People won't be able to recognize you once the masterful Gwen Pendragon is done with you!" She get that vacant look for a moment. "Well, no, they will still be able to recognize you, of course, unless you buy a full body ninja suit or something. But! you will look far snappier!"

The Ki Master sighs. "Okay, I promise to go to the Chain Mail Bikini Plus One... just... not today, okay?" Michio rubs at the back of his neck. "Right now I just want some tea, and my bed. Thanks again for the fight. We'll have to do it again after I've done some training."

"Like what?" Uta's look of puzzlement is genuine. She looks down at herself. "Holy cripes! How- what- How did I get into-"

Realization delivers a delayed blow, but as soon as it impacts, Uta rolls into the (metaphorical) punch and segues into a seamless, "-such a fine garment? Why, thanks to the CHAIN MAIL BIKINI PLUS ONE, located right in Alne's main square! Come, friend, and let's get you spruced up!" She makes a theatrically obvious beckoning gesture, "People won't be able to recognize you once the masterful Gwen Pendragon is done with you!" She get that vacant look for a moment. "Well, no, they will still be able to recognize you, of course, unless you buy a full body ninja suit or something. But! you will look far snappier!"

Uta yawns and stretches herself. "Oh man, yes. Yes to all of that." She begins to walk home, and when she passes right next to Michio, she gives him a playful elbow in the side. "Hopefully I'll be done with my advertising gig next time, so I can mock /you/ for misunderstanding the social circumstances."