Duelist League - Kauchemar vs Xander

o/~ It's time to get down, and dance to your doom. 'Cause the Nightmare Bard is coming for you soon!
Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. The end will come when she starts to strum.
You can't outrun this nightmare, when she twists your mind with musical flare.
So time to get up, time to fight... But better watch out when she's out of sight! o/~

Don't mind the ominous and slightly foreboarding tune, it's just Kauchemar occupying herself and maybe attracting a bit of an audience while waiting for her opponent to arrive.

    It wouldn't be to long after Kauchemar been entertaining the crowd that the Holy Knight of the Scale Emblem at last made his way toward her. His cape slightly moving in the colder winds of winter, as his golden fiery eyes pierced out from under the shadows of the helm.

He places out his hand and simply goes, "Yo." In her direction, before his hand comes to rest at his side. "Sorry for the wait, had some trouble on the way here I had to deal with." He gives a light shrug before he summons his sword and shield from his inventory. "You ready for this Nightmare Pony?"

"There's our lizard of the hour. Such is the life of an Adventurer." For all anyone knows she Divined that Xander would be delayed and that's why she was providing a time passing entertainment. Kauchemar rises to her hooves and snaps her fingers. Her shield rises from where it had been resting while she sang and float her side, simple gems set in the shield emitting a faint supernatural glow from the Binder posessing it. The matching sword can't be far, but for the moment she doesn't appear to draw it. "As long as these folks get the Duelist League show they came for, it's all good. So, as they say... Engarde!"

A bubble of frothy water forms in her hand, which she promptly throws at Xander's head. Then snaps her whip into being, a similar surge of aquaphilic energy rippling along it's length as she cracks it at him.

    Xander watches as Kauchemar gets herself ready. His eyes narrow and soon as the countdown hits to zero, he charges directly for her.

The water tries to slow him down as it moves to surround him, but he doesn't stop. The whip cracks as he raises up his shield to take the crack against its armored surface.

He fights past the water trying to suffocate him. Fighting past his instincts, to strike her with his sword glowing like the sun as silver runes flicker along its surface.

The knight just tanks right through her opening moves... Though by the lack of disappointment in her expression it's about what Kauchemar expected.

The enlightened sword strikes hard!... Against the Binder Shield as it deftly moves in front of it's master to take the blow, and the ghastly ringing sound it makes in return is blood-curdling to say the least. "Oh good. With how little we see of you as of late, I was worried you'd be getting out of practice." She takes a step back, pulling the shield with her. "But you're still in form... if a little outdated. Now then, shall we," her eyes flicker with a spellcaster's glow, "heat things up a little?"

Cue the blast of flame erupting like hellfire from the ground at his feet as the spell is cast. She may not be that kind of fire and brimstone Nightmare, but that doesn't mean she doesn't have Fire at her call when needed!

    The trouble with when water forms around you, is it makes things eventually hard to focus when you need to deal with it. In this case, Xander got to that point where he had to, which was done by suddenly slamming his foot on the ground.

A rune flashed under his foot as a massive fire wall spread out from around him to burn away the water and dry himself back off. He only gave a low growl to Kauchemar's words; It was the best she was going to get.

However, his own flame wall hid the fireball that Kauchemar sends his way and he doesn't catch it till the last moment, as some of it scorches across his enchanted armor. He lets out a draconic roar, before he charges back in once more with that blazing sword for her yet again.

When Xander growls at her Kauchemar just uncurls one finger from the grip of her whip to waggle it at him. "Now now, don't let me get under your scaley skin that easily. We're only getting started~" She deftly steps aside, practically dancing, away from his strike with grace and poise and only a slight nicking from the attack to show for it.

There's a distinct rhythm to her steps and it doesn't stop just with the dodging. She steps and twirls to her own tune, the crack of her whip as it lashes out in sync, and the shield just sort of drifting along until it's needed again.

    Xander continues to stand his ground, at least the best he can. As Kauchemar talks, she just gets the stare from him. The man never has been a very talkative sort while in battle. Always taking it very seriously.

It's like an on-off switch with him. No middle.

    As the whip cracks in time with her steps. He raises up his shield, a bit of fire still linger about flashes toward her with eat hit against that defenses stance.

Then his armor flickers, before the shied lights up with runes. Her next hit, causes a bright flash, as not only reflecting the hit back at her, but sending a wash of magical light as well.

"Ah yes, the man of few words. Well at least now you're focusing and not letting me provoke you easily. Can't have this be over too quickly." That's okay, Kauchemar can chew the scenery plenty for them both.

The initial backwash of energy gets a snort out of her as it catchs her. But her own form flickers with energy, save dark instead of light, to counter the burst of holy power that follows it.

She skids back from it all the same, then hunchs a bit as she digs her rearward angled hoof into the ground to anchor herself. Frost billows from her nostrils as she snorts, drawing on both her strongest element and one of her strongest monster traits. With a sharp inhale and then Kauchemar opens her maw inhumanly wide, unleashing a blizzardly blast of snow and ice and literally screaming winds!

    The hellish ice scream blows out from the Nightmare Werefang and heading directly for the Salamander. Xander grits his teeth and races forward. He brings his shield to bare as he goes right into the 'storm'.

The runs flash red as flames ignite, to melt against the worst of it. He continues to run right at her, and it isn't till he is nearly on top of her does he drive that sword of his for her; Yet this places him at a problem.

With sword being shoved in a piercing strike, it leaves his guard down and the rest of her blast, this close, rings hard into his ears and covers exposed face with ice flakes across his black scales.

There's some blastback as the fiery defense evaporates part of the frigid blast into hot mist, but Kauchemar holds her wail for as long as she can and appears to be ready to stand her ground against the Salamander trying to charge through the screaming snowstorm. She even calls her shield to her directly and holds it ready...

Only for it to be a fakeout in itself, as Xander reveals what his attack actually is, that the nightmare erupts into motion with a swell of water sloshing in her wake. Pun intended. As she avoids being shiskabobbed.

She hydroplanes for a bit of distance, but isn't about to let up and give Xander a chance to recover from his forceful strike. The whip is dismissed as she instead raises her arm overhead and finally call the ghostly sword companion to her shield.... And several of it's friends by the looks of it floating in the air around her. She snaps her arm down dramatically to point towards Xander, releasing a pulse of cursed darkness that is followed by the phantasmal swords all hurtling towards Xander!

Except the real physical one, which Kauchemar grabs and lowers to her side to have ready to use.

    Xander watches as Kauchemar moves away, he snorts to the side maybe in frustration that she is backing off. Just means he'll have to give chase yet again.

Which he does with no hesitation at all. Even as the darkness swallows him, he continues to move with a roar of defiance in the face of it all. The blades come in the shadows and he raises his shield. There is a flash of fire, another flash with each strike the flames burn.

Then out from the shadows, even as the purple haze follows his body, he leaps up, his sword ignited with the fires that burn bright as he swings the blade. Not to impact her, but to send a flaming retribution for the Werefang.

This time Kauchemar does ready the Binder Shield, which bursts into ghostly flame of it's own as she does. But there is something more sinister being wound into motion.

"o/~ This is a tangled mess, totally a distress o/~"
Because she's actually singing again.
"o/~ But not as much as you will be when I compress
Your little head inside the darkness that I reside... So bring forth the fear.. o/~"
And releashs the dark magic she had been focusing, causing the world around them to seem to go black and white inversions. "NIGHTMARE SPHERE!"

At the same time bring up her Binder Shield to intercept the flaming sword, causing sparks to shoot wildly as fire and hellfire collide, and a several streams of fire manage to arc back over the shield to scorch the Nightmare's already dark hide.

All the same she pushes forward, thrusting the ghostly shield forward to ram into Xander, followed by a swing from the ghostly sword, in a concerted effort between Summoner and Monsters to push their foe back again.

    When Kauchemar starts to sing, you know something bad is probably about to go down when you are on the receiving end. Xander has been on enough missions with the Werefang to know that.

The Dark Sphere engulfs them both and as she races into him, he braces /HARD/. Her shield slams into his, as his boots slide back. His eyes meet hers dead on, as he grits his teeth. Those eyes however, they lack any light. They are eyes of someone who's seen too much and almost has lost any spark of desiring to live.

Eyes of a man who almost has lost all hope in the world. Yet there is a single thing, a single-- little-- thing that keeps him grounded, but that... That is for him to know.

    With a roar, he shoves back, as his armor lights up with runes, seeming to shove back to the tide of darkness, and with the shove back, also sparks out a wave of fire, before he almost staggers back. It seem to take a great deal out of him to withstand it all.

Kauchemar lets out a short whistle as Xander manages to bulk his way through even the amplified strike. If only she had been able to hit him a bit harder, but she's got her own defenses to keep in mind as well. Tried and true when another wave of fire washes over her, aggrivating the already present burns.

And yet through all of that she's still got some witty remark to make. "Yeah, that's the look of a man that's seen some shit." She releases the Binder weapons to remain at standby, and brushes a hand up through her mane to clear her face. "I guess it's time to start washing out this fight." Her eyes glow ominously as she holds out a hand, and a summoning circle of runes appear. She turns her hand almost as if adjusting a dial, and a frothing surge of water erupts from the circle to form into some manner of water elemental... But why is the elemental a putrid green color and hissing toxic fumes? Did she summon that out of the sewers?!
No real time to think about it as the monster surges towards Xander with it's contaminated form... While at the same time Kauchemar grabs her ghost sword and uses her speed to dart from view, and then behind Xander to try and literally pin him between her and the elemental.

    Xander watches as she summons the element. His eyes peer at it, but he continues to stand his ground, his foot only slightly shifting in place. His shield raising to the front, as he twirls his sword in his free hand.

He only has one thing to say to Kauchemar as she readies her magic. "... Bring it."

    Then comes the insanity. The ice comes, and his shield ignites on fire once more. The beast moves in of toxic fumes, and he brings his blade around as it glows to strike into it. What he wasn't expecting was Kauchemar to end up behind him.

Her dagger strikes into a weak spot of his armor, which causes him to roar out in pain, inhaling the toxic air around him, before he spins around and goes to swing the glowing blade in her direction as well.

Yet, his armor glows, as healing magic emits from it trying to heal the wound quickly after he is free from her blade. Darn enchanted armor.

This may all seem like unadultered chaos... But somewhere in the misleading counterattacks and trickery Kauchemar has a strategy. She just tends to be Xanatosing it on a level that others don't see where her moves are going.

Xander expends some of his healing capacity to deal with the poisoned water elemental's toxic nature. Less favorable but still useful outcome. His moment is shaking, and the frenzied nature of his counterattack is just enough for her to slip away with her waterskating technique once more. Her own burns still sting, but it's slowly fading, she's just got to deal with it.

She draws her whip once more, this time charging it with ennervating darkness before lashing it at him several times with the sort of frantic rhythm you'd expect at the escalating point of a climatic battle.

    Xander doesn't let her get away either. Instead the Salamander continues to persue the Werefang. He brings out a wall of flame ahead of him, as he sends it racing toward her.

The flames eating away at the darkness that lashes out toward him, as he brings his shield up to bare for the next. Though her next strikes get in, each one impacting his armor, and one striking across his face, leaving behind a red, digital mark.

    Yet, Xander continues to press forward, he turns his body, slamming his foot down on the ground, to suddenly send out a brilliant light that causes the flame wall to suddenly burst with light.

Then from the brilliant light, he leaps in and goes to drag his sword around, not to cut, but in attempt to gouge a piece of the Nightmare's skin.

With all the water and fire and ice being thrown around it's little surprise the battlefield has become a bit misty.

Once again Kauchemar counters light with darkness, drawing shadows around herself to resist against the attack. She twists away from Xander's direct strike, but not fast enough to keep from getting a nasty red gouge across her upper arm. Adventurers don't bleed persay but the red damage marks have a flickery effect to it to imitate dripping blood from the status effect.

As she's maneuvering Kauchemar unleashes a blast of frigid air from her hands, in a manner that could be mistaking as using it to boost her movement.

Up until it starts to freeze up along Xander's armor.

There's only split-seconds to realize what's going on as Kauchemar unleashes another one of this earsplitting hellscreams, trying to take advantage of the ice's weakening nature with some powerful sonic resonance.

    Kauchemar starts to freeze up his armor and Xander finds it hard to move. His determined eyes however got her locked on. The armor starts to show those runes once more, as steam rises from the places the freeze tries to hold him.

One step. Two step. The sword is now lighting up with silver runes. Once again, the freeze comes, and once more he moves.

Her scream comes and he roars back into it, as he shatters the ice fully. Shards of the melted ice fly around him, the armor seeming to deflect the scream around as he charges in and with the brilliant sword he goes to strike at her. Though she may notice a few red marks her and there from the freeze doing some damage at least; Maybe her screams in time. It's all hard to say.

Whatever that armor is made of and enchanted with, it's doing a good job of minimalizing her efforts in minimalizing it. So it's what armor is suppose to do. Noted for future reference.... mostly in knowing who best to stand behind in a fight because they're probably not going to do this again for a while. Defense vs Defense fights can be exhausting.

Xander manages to break free, roaring back at her own vocal bombast and charging towards her. Kauchemar conjures a a ball of bleak darkness in her hand, and lobs it at Xander even as she leaps away from his strike, even as the ovoid expands to try and engulf him in the darkness.

    Xander continues to press Kauchemar. The Salamander not giving the Nightmare an inch if he can help it. As she lobs the dark ball at him, he spins his blade around in an almost Legend of Zelda fashion to knock it right back at her!

Before once more, enchanting the area around him, sending out a brilliant light in her general directional. This time, he walks toward her now. Maybe catching his breath. Maybe to just intimidate. Only the Salamander knew the game he was playing.

    Kauchemar unleashes the elemental energies and the Salamander goes from walking, to suddenly charging right at her with his eyes almost seeming like they are glowing.

His armor lights up with red runes, as the armor starts to burn on fire and even his sword lights up with burning flame, as it seems the metal is fully engulfed in fiery rage.

    Each blast is met with a swing, as he knocks it aside, or raises his burning shield to take the hit. The water infused blade slams into him, as his hand then grabs for her wrist. Those fires burning even as the water tries to quench them. "... Game." He hisses to her with a low draconic rumble in his throat. "Set..."

Then he goes to move her to the side, before he brings that blazing sword down at her, as all the flames engulf into it like a bladed whip, "MATCH!" Then slams all that fiery fury down on the Nightmare.

For once in the fight, Kauchemar doesn't have something witty to say in response to the growling remarks. Mostly because she realizes she's in a really bad position.

Though she has one small advantage. Normally grabbing someone's arm puts a serious limit on what someone can do.... But most people don't use weapons like Kauchemar does, that can move on their own.

When she's grabbed by the arm, she lets go of them. The Binder pair still move as one would with such matched armaments, the shield pushing forward to intercede between them, then the sword actually flipping itself around to aim it's pommel at Xander's head instead of the blade to divert his attention.

It gives Kauchemar just enough wiggle room to wiggle free, using a combination of water and air to slip her arm out of Xander's grasp just seconds before the sword slams into her, though she still gets some burns from the intense heat emitting from the weapon even as she draws back.

For once in the fight, Kauchemar doesn't have something witty to say in response to the growling remarks. Mostly because she realizes she's in a really bad position.

Though she has one small advantage. Normally grabbing someone's arm puts a serious limit on what someone can do.... But most people don't use weapons like Kauchemar does, that can move on their own.

When she's grabbed by the arm, she lets go of them. The Binder pair still move as one would with such matched armaments, the shield pushing forward to intercede between them, then the sword actually flipping itself around to aim it's pommel at Xander's head instead of the blade to divert his attention.

It gives Kauchemar just enough wiggle room to wiggle free, using a combination of water and air to slip her arm out of Xander's grasp just seconds before the sword slams into her, though she still gets some burns from the intense heat emitting from the weapon even as she draws back. "Almost, but not quite there yet!" Damn close though, if she'd been a second off on that improvised defense....

    Kauchemar sends her shield minion after him and he manages to duck his head. This gives the Nightmare a little breathing room from the Salamander.

However, Xander is far over with the Werefang. For when the shield comes back, he does two-fold. One-- He sends a brilliant flash of light in her direction, the other is that he uses one of her binders.

How? When that shield dares to swing back in, he grabs it and gives it a good ol' heave throw right back at her! It's a dirty trick, but sometimes-- You gotta fight dirty.

"Now THAT is unfair." Kauchemar however summons the sword back to her hand, and holds it to deflect the shield. There might of been a "Sorry" in there but it's too soft of a whisper to be heard under the din of the fight. She also uses the sword and it's dark nature to reflect the light blast back at Xander!

"I bet you thought you finally had me, didn--" She stops mid-retort. Blinks. Makes a face. "--Oh moons damn it all, I forgot about the burns."

Cue the last bit of HP ticking down into the red, and with a groan the Nightmare topples over with exaggerated flair. "Oh, the pain. The agony of defeat. The sorrow of lose. You were just too HOT to handle!"

All the melodramatics almost make you wish the duels didn't stop before death....

    Xander gets hit with the light right back, which makes him duck his head away as he growls gently. However, when she goes to retort, then realizes. He chuckles softly, "Yeah... forgot about that huh?"

Then he watches her get all exaggerated and flops over. Playing dead really, which he places away his sword and shield. Walks over to her and extends his hand down to her to help her get back up on her feet, "Come on you.. back up you go, but it was a really good fight. Been awhile since I've allowed myself to stretch out my combat abilities."

With her theatrics over to remind people it is indeed just a duel and not a 'real' fight Kauchemar accepts the helping hand back up onto her hooves. "Yeah, it was. You were off being hermit and farmboy for so long I figured you could use some time smacking someone around. Someone that can actually think." She shrugs. "Monsters may be smarter now... but they're still creatures of instinct and routine. They don't... adapt."She snaps her fingers, and the Binder weapons come buzzing back to her.

The shield doesn't have a face, but there's something in the way the gems on it glint dimly at Xander as it passes that seem to show resentment over being thrown like that... but it is grabbed by Kauchemar and dismissed before the spirit can do anything more than faux dirty looks. "Eh, don't mind them. You know how fickle Spirit Monsters can be."

    The Salamander shrugs, "I was to worried about them, honestly. You did good though." He gives her a thumbs up before he goes to step away from her. "And yeah... I just--" Xander furrows his brows. "I don't know. I'm just tired of the rinse and repeat nature, you know?"

"Like I know its important we get home, but... There is not tatics thrown in. No real scouting. Most are... Kinda in it for themselves at the end of the day. Not everyone, but... some." The Salamander places his hand on his hip. "Hell, most of my guild, while busy doing grunt work, doesn't have any true support structure. It isn't healthy... Not for the long haul."

He shakes his head a little. "But, whatever. People will do as people do, you know? And I need to live my life /somehow/, even if its a digital one." He goes to give Kauchemar a mock salute. "You take care of yourself out there though. Catch ya on the flip side." Then he starts to walk away.

"Yeah." Kauchemar gives a bit of a nod. "It's been a year, some people still aren't grasping that this isn't just a fight you can hit the most effective combo of commands over and over again anymore." Then shrugs. "But that's why the Duelist's League is a thing. You can't fight another Adventurer like you do a Monster boss. Maybe eventually more people will learn... Important people, anyways."

She walks over to retrieve her instrument from before the fight. "See ya around the ranch sometime. I'd say Uta worries, but I'm not even sure she realizes when you're gone half the time. Take care."