Duelist's League - Ayame vs Kauchemar

A low melody plays through the streets of Carmina Gadelica, a prelude of things to come in short order on this morn. Hey, Kauchemar is a bard, this counts as warming up before a fight. At it makes her easy to find. As if a 6+ foot were fang equine of midnight colors was hard to find. Fingers idly plinking at the strings of her instrument as she waits leaning back against a wall, tail giving a casual swish back and forth to help keep the rhythm.

Not as tall, nor as overt, Ayame is still something of a notable figure as she trots along. Her shield is slung to her back, and her gloved hand twirls and fidgets with a slim, neat, practically starter-gear wand. Arriving in the square, she looks around for the other adventurer; finally resting eyes on Kauchemar.

Her left arm brings her shield down, gripped in the centre of the curved metal, after it pats her own corset over a trim, neat shirt. There's enough similarity in the two's attire to denote at least something of a similar class, and she gives a nervous smile as her heeled boots click over the stones.

"Duellist" She offers politely. Then grins, just a very touch, those expressive sylph ears sliding back to rest horizontally back, betraying her nerves "Hope you're not a one-trick pony."

An equine ear flicks at the sound of footsteps upon cobblestones and Kauchemar pauses in her playing to look up. "Ah, you're a punctual one. That's always nice to see." There is a faint snort at the one-trick pony remark as the string instrument is stored away and she pushes herself up from the wall. "Oh, don't worry, there is no shortage of tricks here~"

Hooves clack a bit more loudly on pavement as she steps forward, and then sweeps down into a graceful elaborate bow, arm across midsection while the other is out to keep her cloak from flopping over her awkwardly. "Kauchemar Tenebrae, Midnight Muse of Plant Hwyaden, Court Messenger of Castle Eas, and all-around Duelist League rival, at your service." She rises back to her full height, and issues the duel challenge. Then settles back into a ready stance, a flick of the wrist unfurling a long dark whip in her right hand.

"Do put on a good showing. We're likely to attract an audience. Good PR for the League as a whole and all that."

"Can't promise that" Ayame smiles "Shitsuyona Hagosha no Tate Ayame. Sentinel and Guard to practically half the people I meet, it seems" She dips a momentary curtsy; using the second to flick a ribbon from her pencil skirt, loosing it and opening up a kickslit to give her more fluid movement.

"I look forward to seeing, as well as learning more of my own. For the lesson you're about to offer; thank you" There's an easy politeness, as she readies her shield, and her wand, before prodding the Duel: Accept button.

Her eyes narrow, her breathing slows, as she watches the Nightmare.

Then, as the counter ticks down, she keeps watching. Waiting. Another moment; and then her wand springs up, summoning a flashing portal in the air as she trails a ragged sign. Another breath, and she pulls a streaming hailstorm through it, to pummel the nightmare

"At least you can't get cold feet" She offers, taunting

As the Duel is accepted and the countdown starts, Kauchemar resumes what could almost be an 'idle animation', tapping a hoof and flicking the fingers of her free hand, tail swaying. This time there is no playing music though, just her starting to actually sing.

" o/~ It's time to get down and dance for your doom
'Cause the Nightmare Bard is comin' for you soon
Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run
You better watch out when the show's begun o/~ "

As Ayame initiates the actual fight her eyes glow ominously, recognizing an elemental portal when she sees one. Without missing a beat in her musical opening she unleashes a burst of dark energy at the woman. This is followed by the sudden surge of water around her hooves as the Nightmare leaps into action. The hydroplaning defense allows her to quite literally skate through the icy assault, though not completely avoid it since Ayame had the foresight to use acane precision to guide it.

" o/~ You can't escape this Nightmare
She'll twist your mind with musical flare
It's time to get up, get ready to fight o/~ "

Kauchemar twirls to a stop, cracking her whip as she does. The weapon isn't the attack though. It's the pack of skeletons that rise from the crackle of ghastly green energy across the ground, which promptly swarm towards Ayame with their boney limbs flailing to the summoner's tune..

" o/~ Death embrace the bass that drops tonight! o/~ "

"Are you dropping the bass or going fishing?" Ayame asks, her foot tapping in time to the music of the Nightmare, spiling despite herself. There's a brightness to her eyes as she twists from the whip, buffetted by the water bashing into her shield, and rolling back under the clawing hands.

She has tricks of her own, though. The roiling waters push her back, boots skidding on the stone, sufficient to draw sparks.

And more sparks

Which she then flings forward through those waters at the nightmare and the skeletons, pushing back forward as she hunkers behind the shield, rushing the Nightmare "I always saw you more of a solo artist"

"It's not a club dance without a mosh pit!" Kauchemar replies with a cackle. There's sparks and bright light being thrown around, and darkness itself seems to consolidate around her to help counteract it. The woman brings forth her shield and charges towards her, plowing right through said mosh pit without relent. Having to break several bones -- literally -- may slow her down a little but it isn't going to stop that bull rush.

Which is why Kauchemar gives a ominous whistle, and the sheild literally leaps from her own back.... Not to be caught, but to be sent forward with a sweep of her arm directing it. The two shields collide with a crashing boom, and up close Ayame can see the ghostly aura glowing around Kauchemar's animated shield. It's actually another monster, posessed by a Binder Spirit!

The opposing force slows Ayame down to the point Kauchemar can step up behind her shield minion, and this time the whip is indeed the attack as she cracks it several times at the other fighter while slicing streams of water arc about it's length.

"Hey, there's a show, and then a show you pay for!" Ayame yelps, the sylph retreating under the battering from the shield to feel a flick of that whip to her back, a sharp sound of shock slipping from her lips and a crimson blush as she twists to swing her defences about to keep the shield off

"Stop trying to give them the latter!" But there's a grin, as she drops to a knee to drag the spilled waters up around herself, thickening and taking a moment beneath the protection, before she twists her wand and shattered the bubble with a blast of magical power from her wand

"The whip is technically for handling monsters." Kauchemar grabs her Binder Shield. Which turns out to be a bit of a feint as instead of using it against the attack she simply leaps out of the way of the energized strike grazing past her. "But I suppose with this outfit people get... ideas..." Hooves scrape on the cobblestones as she skids to a stop, she digs in with them as she leans forward a little, bracing herself.

The Nightmare opens her mouth wide. I mean, -wide-. Not just wide enough to show off her sharp viper-like teeth. This is wide enough to be inhumanly unhinging ones jaw to do so. The fun of monster based biology. It serves a purpose though, amplifying her powerful voice even farther. Into a horrible gastly whail that would put banshees to shame, the auditory assault infused with dark energies in the sonic blast.

Ayame reels back under the barrage of sound, her hair mussing from it's prim pinning back and her HIP taking a tick or two before she manages to get her shield up. "What, with that much of a loud mouth?" She asks, her own voice weak a moment, gathering strength as she fights to recover, taking a moment to shoot a blast at the screaming horse, which is amazing, attempting to distract as she recovers and prepares

"I would not have thought you the type to imply anything you didn't intend" The laugh bubbles up from her, dry and rasping. Dry enough that, as it reaches her lips, she spits it out, fire leaving her lips and wrapping around her shield, the previous water flashing into a blinding steam as the flames rage

"The only thing you need to know about me," Kauchemar grins, even as the Nightmare's eyes glow ominously, the crackle of supernatural flames around them almost looking like a pair of spectacle frames as well. "is there is always more than you can see." A more suble dark arte is cast to put a hindering Omen upon her foe. Whom seems to have a knack for dazzle-and-charge tactics. She quickly moves back and away, but the charging shield still catchs against her arm as sidesteps, turning the otherwise graceful move into a stumble until she catchs and stablizes herself.

"The tides are changing, and there is little you can do about it." A brief swell of water is conjured, then blasted out at Ayame with considerable pressure. Enough to push the woman back even if it doesn't punch through her defenses.

Ayame's defences are starting to falter under the Nightmare's barrages. Sprays of water are jetted into the crowd, hissing from her flaming shield as it's drenched, but one catches her full on the torso as she twists to set the ground grumbing under the light-stepping were fang, bouncing and twisting like a trampoline

Another few ticks of health, and a sodden and soaked shirt that makes Ayame hiss, ears flicking back and horizontal "I didn't think you were the type to put it all out, it's true" She notes, breathing hard, retreating to gather herself; but lifting her shield in her fist again, preparing ... something

Kauchemar feels the ground start to rumble beneath her... and quickly conjures a layer of water beneath her hooves again to give herself a cushion against the shaking. The vibrations ripple in the liquid, but the coating allows her to glide away from the brunt of Ayame's charge once more.

And then that water is pulled back to herself, turning glittery with tiny crystals as she does so. "o/~ Run, run... but you can't run away
Casting spells to cast down my enemy
Divination, Curses, Corruption... from Absolute Zero I summon o/~"
And unleashes it in a blast of crushing, crippling cold!

Which is followed by her summoning another Binder, this one animating a large sword, which she sends slicing at Ayame with it's darkness enervated blade.

Ayame twists, punching the attacking blade with her shield as she enchants it with a murmured word, releasing it to parry the attacking blade before she sends a blast of light towards the prancing pony, and withdraws, taking a breath in the soaking wet clothes - before she grins

And turns her wand down to the ground, describing a line between the two of them and flashing up a wall of flame, before she calls her shield back to her. Her wand pushes wet hair from her eyes, as she calls out, through the fire and the fury "Cold, water - if you need a hug, it's a long way to go for it!"

The Binder Sword strikes... And controlling monster is no easy feat. It takes considerable willpower, especially when you want to keep a summon focused in their strikes and not lashing wildly. The Nightmare Bard is focused on doing so to capitalize on the weakness made by her cold snap that she doesn't notice the flames until they snap up right in her face. She yelps, the Binder Sword flicking away from Ayame as Kauchemar prances back from the flames. Not before getting a bit on the scorched side. Sometimes it's not so great not being the fiery modern iteration of nightmares.

"That was a clever move," Kauchemar admits. "I'm not easy to catch off-guard like that." The Binder Shield comes back into play, glowing with ghostly flames as it intercepts the energy strike. And then Kauchemar.. does what Kauchemar does best, this time raising her voice to a painfully obnoxious, yet extremely hard to ignore, pitch.

"o/~ I'm a Nightmare Girl, in a dre-am world
Life with Magic, it's Fan-tas-tic!
I'm dropping bass, in the database
Imagination; musical devestation! o/~ "

"... you have no idea how much I'm starting to hate you" Ayame laughs as the song earworms her. She begins to hum it, even, before she shakes her head and taps her wand on her shield - a sleek, metal helm sliding around her head from nowhere, armor following a moment later, ghostly and transitory, cutting out the taunting sounds

"I guess you're a proper magical girl. Do you do ribbons?" She asks, lifting her wand and setting a globe in the air between the two; starting to pulse with light. Waiting. Quickening.

"The whip is close enough," Kauchemar replies, having at least the decency to not do the -entire song-. She's not THAT cruel. The damage has already been done, anyways. Though it looks like her opponent is charging up something else though.

"But I think it's now time we play on -my- turf for a bit." Followed by "NIGHTMARE SPHERE" as she stomps a hoof to the ground, runes flicker briefly around it, and then turn pitch black. Which ripples like a dark ooze out from that point, quickly reach out to all sides and then up, around the combatants, casting the fight in darkness like the peak umbra of an eclipse.

Darkness that Kauchemar disappears into, with only the slosh of water in her wake to remind one she had been there. Between the darkness and her speed the Nightmare swiftly moves at the edges of awareness, between sight and unseen.

Until she's right behind Ayame, stepping from the shadows, and unleashing another powerful pressure blast of water as she does so. "Now DRINK FROM THE FIRE HOSE!"

Ayame opens her mouth to give her a smart remark back, twisting her head - and then splutters as the water blasts into her face, sending her skidding back and gulping for air. Her hair is now a sodden mass, the darkness still wrapped around her, as she fights for her breath, blinking and staring at the taunting nightmare.

"You quite done?" She asks, breathing hard and trying to find her footing, lifting her shield back up

"Actually." Kauchemar holds up one hand. "No, I'm not." And snaps her fingers.

First it goes dark. Then it lights up in the dark as several will-o-wisps are summoned, flashing in a disoriented array of colors at different speeds. The contrast between dark and colorful light is as close to the feel of a frenetic dance club Kauchemar has manged to get in this world.

And somewhere in that sensory overload, Kauchemar grabs her ghostly sword, and just up and out tries to stab Ayame with it.

Ayame freezes as Kauchemar tries to stab her. In the middle of that whirling darkness, of the flashing colors, the Sylph freezes in place, apparently stunned and shocked! Then the blade connects; and no, no she wasn't shocked. Just frozen. Because the ice rime flashes up that blade to chill the Nightmare's hand, and Ayame brings her shield down on the striking arm, dancing away afterwards and grinning

"You're not bad" She agrees "I'd offer you a bet as incentive, but I don't think even that would encourage you to go in harder. You're doing this for kicks, right?" A glance down to those hooves, and a chuckle

"Huh," Kauchemar muses as ice intercepts the stab, making her hand feel a bit numb as well. "That was anticlimatic." She shrugs, pulling the Binder Sword free of the icy defense, and quickly backstepping from her opponent. "Am I? Maybe a bit. I'm an obstacle. A rival for the League."

Then she brings that damned posessed shield back into play, intercepting the counterstrike. "I'm disoriented. Misleading. Complicated.... You learn to fight me, and you can fight almost anything."

And follows it up with another of those pontent, abiet not overwhelmingly powerful, but still disoriently beastly screams.

Ayame shivers, as she stumbles back again, bringing the shield up under Kauchemar's assault, and weakly parrying - before she uses the exact same trick as last time, freezing in place and letting the ice creep up and around herself

Then the horrifying, the unthinkable happens, as she brings up an orb of light, which fades into view from nowhere; and then fades back into herself.

And her health freezes, having ticked into the yellow. And then prepares to tick back up, into the green.

"Yeah, I'm sure you get people complaining about anticlimatic a lot." She offers with a taunting grin

Ayame freezes in place - AGAIN - as the sonic barrage comes on, ice shattering away from her as the Nightmare lives up to her name - flicking and splintering at the werefang as it batters and rattles her, before she's forced back out of it, her health bar slowly ticking up

Managing a grin, she chuckles, as she continues to drop and breath heavily, lifting her shield and leaning into it grimly "Oh, can't forget the important things" She says with a grunt, letting out a breath "I mean, what did you forget, a sense of decorum?"

"You are the one who thought I was just playing around." Kauchemar actually pulls out her lute rather than a weapon. "So I guess that means it's time to crank it up to 11!" She starts to strum up a heavy staccato rhythm, so fast and intense it's not flames but sparks that crackle up and down the strings. Until she plants her back hoof and shifts her stance, turning to point the head of her instrument at Ayame. The intense riffing that follows takes those sparks and turns them into a powerful blast of electricity at the woman.

At the same time that ghost sword moves of it's own accord and hurtles itself at Ayame while she's being thunderstruck.

Ayame is flung back, under the reeling assaults from Kauchemar, electricity crackling around the remains of the ice armor. She barely has time to lift her shield, spit out an enchantment to try to block the second attack; and not managing, the blade cutting deeply as she stumbles back, again and again.

Her health ticks back up. A tiny amount.

She coughs, her mouth pinkish and eyes wide under the assault, gritting her teeth and trying to find her feet again; responding with a summoned lens of power sitting between the two, and then firing a series of rapid blasts at her "You been saving that?" She coughs "Or is that your best comeback?"

"You've got the spunk to keep up the disses after that drop? Now I might actually be impressed!" Kauchemar's mane and tail flail wildly both from her vigorious strumming and from the surge of wind that briefly whips around her to absorb part of Ayame's assault. As does her skirt, but magical girl costume logic keeps it from becoming publicly unacceptable. "You don't like the hot licks? Then how about some cold hard bars!"

She doesn't stop playing, but tempo shifts, as does the tone of the music. The octaves drop (that's got to be Bardic magic somehow, making a string instrument variate like that) into cold ominous tones. Which are brought forth manifest in a burst of frigid shards hurtling at the woman, seeking the weak points in her otherwise potent defenses.

Ayame twists her shield around as she summons a breeze, sending the majority of Kauchemar's flung icicles into a whirling shield - and then simply flinging them back, grinning through a pained look

"Great idea! How's a cold reception sit with you?" She asks, managing to start advancing once again

Kauchemar doesn't respond, at least not vocally. She's too busy jamming... Which is an issue in itself for her opponent, because it's reaching that point where it's very hard not to resist the disorienting effects of the intense bardcore. Of course, Kauchemar is focused entirely on her musical mastery.

But that's what she has the summoned armanents for. The ghostly shield snaps itself in front of her, igniting with hellfire to intercept the reflected ice shards. They go up in steam.. and it's out of the mist that the shield itself hurtles at Ayame, moving with the same intensity as Kauchemar's playing to try and repeatedly slam into the woman.

"Ah, tha - OW!" The flames lick at Ayame's hand, and even as she uses her shield to keep them away, they burn her fingers through her gloves, the leather pixellating away in a flash as it takes enough durability damage"I'd call that cheating, but I think we're starting to get our tactics close to one another"

Recovering a little, Ayame withdraws, flinging her overheated shield at Kauchmar - then flinging a spell, as the shield is snatched from thin air and used to attack the Nightmare, as a ghostly horse simply attempts to trample the werefang "Learn from the best, I say" She laughs, following up the assault with bursts of sparking electricity, bouncing between the pools of water left by the two summoners

"Pff. I've already had a kelpie try to drown me. Repeatedly." There's water, and flames, and electricity... it almost is a crazed concert stage show at this point. The ghastly horse charges, slams down it's hooves.... on nothing.

Kauchemar is just.. gone. The music, too, has stopped, which is only all the more ominous.

Until right at that moment she's -again- somehow suddenly right behind Ayame, a crack of thunder echoing as she aims one of her own hooves in a fierce kick at the woman's backside.

Ayame sprawls forward with an undignified yelp as a hoofprint glows cleanly on her backside. She rolls, but when she stands, lifting her shield, her cheeks are just as scarlet.

There may be cheers from the watching landers

"Nice to know you're targetting your attacks" She responds tartly, dragging up a spectral tendril from the ground to tug down Kauchemar's striking hoof, and then responding with a short, aimed blast to try to keep the nightmare off balance.

Her health is definitely wavering now, as she fights against the various status effects piling up onto her health bar

Kauchemar grunts as the thorny vine grabs at her. "Wasn't expecting that," she admits, even as she does her best to deal with the matter. "But I think you're about washed up..."

She can't move very far with the vines grabbing onto her, so instead she just uses her liquid agility to spin in place and twist away from the strike that tries to hammer her. The spinning motion also has an effect akin to a water spout, sending that surprisingly frigid water splashing at Ayame as well.

Kauchemar grunts as the thorny vine grabs at her. "Wasn't expecting that," she admits, even as she does her best to deal with the matter. "But I think you're about washed up..."

She can't move very far with the vines grabbing onto her, so instead she just uses her liquid agility to spin in place and twist away from the strike that tries to hammer her. The spinning motion also has an effect akin to a water spout, sending that surprisingly frigid water splashing at Ayame as well.

Planting her feet, Ayame performs the same dratted trick! As the strikes rain down on her, she lifts her shield, whispering and summoning a series of shimmering ice walls that ablate away under Kauchemar's assault...

...to reveal the Sylph charging from right behind them, hunkered behind her shield and heading right for the Nightmare "Why, offering to do the honors?" She asks as she runs, heels clicking rapidly on the stone

Once she's able to finally twist herself free of the viney thorns, Kauchemar just waterskates herself out of the path of Ayame's charge. "You know, the only problem you have, my dear, is that you seem to lack variety." Her eyes flash violently in their violet gaze as she executes a specific summoning gesture. "Sure, I do a lot of the same things."

A summoning circle appears, right over Ayame's head. Which drops a dire sized electric eel on top of her, already charged up and ready to shock.

"But there's an art to not doing the same things the same way!"

Dropping to one knee, Ayame lets out a yell - breathing hard as her shield glows, absorbing the majority of the shock, leaving her sparking and twitching, before she adjusts her stance to simply fling the eel back at Kauchemar, tearing the bones out of it with a spell and sending the skeleton of the thing careening for the Nightmare, to snap and growl and grab at her

"Oh, I know. A limited set of options, and all. They'll improve. For me, this is" Even as her health bar is slowly making its way down the red "Just giving me a good idea of what people are like. Even WHEN they kick my ass"

Kauchemar grins a little at that, though surprisingly not in a malicious way. "If you come away from a fight losing but learning something, that is arguably better than winning and learning nothing." A little bit of that Muse showing through. Only a little, because in middle of a battle is not the time to get highly inspirational and philosophical, at least to the opponent.

Kauchemar bolts from her spot, using her speed to simply charge through the skeleton being heaved at her and smashing through it. Then unfurls her whip, where has she been hiding that thing when not using it, and cracking it viciously at Ayame, loud enough to make a deafening shockwave in addition to the darkness coursing through it.

"Oh, now you're focusing on that?" Ayame asks, as she's forced to dance to avoid the whip, twisting to the side and yelping as it still catches her - right on the hoofprint! Her guard, the click of her shield, help, but ... but still. Ow!

Her health bar continues to slide down, as she pants, as flings more bolts of raw magic at the Nightmare, barely managing to keep focus, now, eyes glazing over "And how about you? Learning anything, aside from where your eyes keep ending up, if those blows are anything to go by? They say your shots follow your eyes ..." Taunting, still. Her mouth runs more than the biggest rivers.

This.... this is why you typically do NOT have two High Defense Adventurers fight each other. Sure, one was a shield tank, the other an evasive battle dancer. But in the end it came out the same... Attrition. Even the Artes that have retalitory effects hard a hard time putting the other at bay, and they just keep going at it in exchanges of ice and thunder and darkness and light, whittling away. Honestly if it was possible to drop from exhaustion instead of HP, they'd probably both be out by this point.

But in the end, being skilled at playing the Long Game (though normally not THIS long) lets Kauchemar edge ahead, tough out another assault to get Ayame into a corner, and blind her with a darkness spell long enough for her Binder Sword to strike hard and fast before she can get her defenses back up.

... And as soon as the Duel is signaled as over she slumps against the wall she had originally been leaning on, breathing hard. "Good grief woman, you are a tough nut to crack!"

Despite even a series of shiveringly violent cuts, it's not enough to pin the prancing pony down, and Ayame is soon pinned back to a wall, that binder sword through her gut, wincing, as her health hovers at just above zero - and then the Duel is officially over, giving the win to Kauchemar. Slumping down the wall, holding her softly glowing hands to the worst of her wounds, Ayame manages a weak laugh "Says you. You were so far in my head by the end of it I should be charging you rent"

"Sometimes that's what it takes to get through a tough physical defense -- Mindgames." After she catchs her breath Kauchemar gives her head a flick to shake some now very unruly mane out of her face. "Well, now I know one of the people to stand behind in a fight." It's somewhat tongue and cheek, considering she rarely does so in the first place. She manages to stand and make a short, somewhat tired bow. "It's been an honor."

And not nearly as easy of a fight as people probably thought it was going to be.