Let Them Fight

Ayame moved with the shield gripped to her forearm, swinging it back and forth and giving Kuroyuri a little look "I keep hearing about this Gwen, you know" She muses, moving towards an open area of the square "You going to tell me more about the little job you have lined up?" There's a small note of challenge, an amused smile across to her sister, as she trots with neat little steps in her heeled boots

Kuroyuri laughs a little, and gives a gentle shrug. "What I said before is what I know - she runs a shop, she - like me - thinks crafting and fashion are important parts of the game, and with everything going on she wants to see if we can combine stuff in new and exciting ways, basically." They click their tongue, walking alongside Ayame, hurrying perhaps a little.

She muses, and then nods at that "I'm sure you'll find something. Let me know if I can help, though it's not really my field of expertise. A few people have suggested I meet her, though" And then a thought, tilting her head "But I have been meaning to find out more about the mechanics. I've been watching a few duels lately; care to try one?"

"Sure. My 'reject duel' finger is getting wearied out, so maybe if I actually deal with the PvP aspects...." Kuroyuri agrees. Looking over their sibling. "I can see why people think you should meet her. She's pretty cool. And friendly, too!"

Ayame grins, stepping back and twirling the wand in her fingertips "Sounds good. It'll be good practice. And yes, I know what you mean - people throwing their weight around is getting to be a thing" She sighs, tapping the wand on her shield and stepping back, opening up the duel offer and raising a questioning brow to her sister

Kuroyuri takes a step back, sweeping out their conductor's wand, which, as they begin making symbols in the air, starts leaking eerie, dark musical notes before them, as a sinister theme starts playing when the notes burst like bubbles.

It may sound vaguely like some sort of boss theme from an 8-bit adventure game.

Ayame nods; smiling a touch as she leads with the shield and with blasts of holy light, against and for her. There's a certain elegant joy to it, as she drags up ice and fire to coat her shield

It's a hard fought duel - Kuroyuri isn't exactly focused on defense, relying mostly on bursts of rapid movement and short teleports, but they're hammering at Ayame constantly, with a wide variety of attacks. Sure, there's two favourites that show time and time again - when they twirl around to turn their wand into a shadow-blade that they dive in to plunge deep - and of course, the little thrown bolts of utter vanta-black VOID WHERE PROHIBITED that turns whatever they touch into glitching unreality for a second. It's almost enough to make the sudden appearance of an earth pillar be surprising, when Kuroyuri yams their wand into the ground and sends a rumbling, crackling shockwave towards their sibling.

Ayame parries. She blocks. She smashes them aside with the shield and with pulses of flickering light. She summons lenses in the air, curling it into focusing crystals before shooting blasts of painfully flickering slashes in the air, dancing in the purple afterlight of vision, but ultimately, the she's pushed down under the weight of attacks. Her HP bar flickers - just a sliver of red left. There's a loooong string of numbers trying to tug it down, all the same. Just a duel. Just a duel.

Kuroyuri gets carried away - it's a thing. They hammer home a few more arcane bolts, then pause, breath ragged, hands on their knees as their skirts swirl around them. Hair hanging into their face. Biting their lip. "...A-Ayame? A-are you ok? I got ca-carried away..." Lightningsteps leaves you a little ragged, but they're stumbling forward towards their sibling nonetheless.

"I'll be fine" Ayame groans, standing as she flicks another small pulse of healing light up, wincing as it slowly helps recover herself. Standing, she takes Kuroyuri's hand, grinning weakly and blinking back something "Well" A short cough "Your defence wasn't much. It didn't need to be, though."

"Best defense is a strong offense, as they say - the Nightmare Sphere into Double Strafe combo is pretty nasty." They admit, patting at the collapsible bow now tucked into the quiver at their belt. "I originally went for an Enchanter-primary class to prove to myself that I could do it. Everyone said it was one of the more complex classes," They explain, giving Ayame a hug. "Your defenses were really strong. I was worried I wouldn't get anywhere, but - well. Enchanters have some of the strongest debuffs."

"I could have just kept blocking, trying to figure out how to break your own. We were both wearing down. I just picked a bad moment to stop" Ayame chuckles weakly, as her HP starts to tick back up. She squeezes Kuroyuri gently, and makes a smallf ace "But seriously, you fight dirty, you know that?" With a pained nudge

"I got lucky." Kuroyuri admits. "...But better lucky than good." They nudge at Ayame's freshly-healed ribs. "...Hey, how 'bout I cook you something nice. I think I still have a cube of Sphere-Cow meat after the other day. And I still think it's someone's messed up sense of humour that sphere-cows drop cube-steak."

"Sounds far too good" Ayame admits "And that's a sign of a sick mind. I'd love to find which idiot thought that up" She sighs, and winces, rubbing at her ribs "Let's move. And I definitely want a rematch sometime."

"Yeah - I can't wait for you to overwhelm me with all the shield and do some sort of ultimate attack that knocks me on my ass," Kuroyuri offers cheerfully to Ayame, looping their arms together, and wandering off to go find somewhere to cook the cubesteak.