Tournament: Kauchemar vs Cyrus

    June has arrived to MC and you can tell... mostly because she's taken the position. Otherwise she looks like she normally does. The small middle aged woman in her best Red Sonja cosplay. She has a large mug of beer and it's anyone's guess which number this is. "Hello, and thank you for your attention! Your attendance here in Eas is appreciated and we love you all. Now on to why you really came, Adventurers beating the crap out of each other for fortune and glory... or at least glory... and maybe snacks later... I know I was promised snacks if I'd MC so I'm sure the fighters get snacks."

    The woman lifts her arms for crowd reaction, which is mostly confusion and mumbling. She then motions to one end of the fighting field "And in this corner, wearing the gold shorts is Cyrus! Semifinalist of the balancing of the scales, the Noble Alchemist. Feline with the meanline, the Cait Sith with no flee! And in the opposing corner, in hair metal pink! Stands the Nightmare Bard, the Nightmare Were with the whipping metal hair, the most with the ghosts, fresh off a win against Schnieder! Kau-che-mar!" she lifts her hands again for actual applause now that she's introduced the fighters. "We'll get this fight started, are you READY?" she points at Cyrus. "Are YOU ready?" she points her beer at Kauchemar.

Kauchemar is here, but as usual she's heard before she actually makes a visual presence, music welling up shortly after the opening announcement for the match is made.

"o/~ There's only two types of people in the world... The ones that entertain, and the ones that observe
Well baby I'm a put-on-a-show kind of girl... Don't like the back seat, gotta be first o/~"

There's a plume of darkness at the end of the arena, from which Kauchemar steps as if parting from the shadows physically. As if to make one wonder how long she had actually been lurking there, waiting, before striding onto the field.

"o/~ I'm the ringleader, I call the shots!" She whips up an arm to snap her fingers, then does a turn to wave the hand to the crowd. "o/~ I'm like a firecracker, I make it hot!"

"o/~ When I put on a show... I feel the adrenaline moving through my veins.
Spotlight on me and I'm ready to break...
I'm like a performer, the dance floor is my stage."
She turns a bit, smirks at June's pointing, and stops to bow low and respectfully towards her opponent (though that mane does certainly flip and whip as she does so).
"Better be ready, hope that you feel the same o/~"

It had been over a year now, had it not. Cyrus still has fond memories of the Tournament, which had served as one of the catalysts for him meeting and remaining as a group with Mikage. Where he'd shown some unusual combat techniques that had driven him near the top of the game, even though he is a support build. That had been in the Holy Empire Westelande.

Here, he's been enjoying his time in a very different kind of way. This place, though it is populated by Landers, is largely made up of Olympus Alliance constituents, what with the ownership of these lands. As a member of the Fourland Dukedom himself, he's been following the political maneuvering of the region rather closely.

The youth is patient as he steps forward into the arena proper. Using a cane to step forward, his hand clutching the device closely. Those who've fought with Cyrus in the past would note that this device hasn't seen much use. In fact, the last tournament had seemed like the only time it was on display -- and the lack of this man in most raids meant that his battle tactics are a fair 'unknown'.

Once at his starting position, Cyrus touches the cane to his forehead, and then presses it to his chest before making a wide bow, one hand outwards. "May this battle favour us both." He remarks to the Nightmare before him, before touching the UI before him to activate the Duel between the two of them, and waits for Kauchemar to accept the invitation.

The man then takes up what looks like a very passive stance. Calmly waiting for the time to tick down, with this patient smile on his face. But the moment the timer hits zero...

His thumb hits what looks like a device on his cane, and a sudden burst of light blinds the region, perhaps even some of the audience with the intensity of light from the enchanted trigger. Amidst the light, Cyrus moves across the battlefield in rapid sweeping motions, darting with the speed expected from a monk or other kind of melee combat class.

A potion falls from his coat, amidst the blinding light, and as it enters his fist, he places himself before Kauchemar, kneeling low as to go unnoticed for a moment longer. Right before he calls out; "DETONATING CHAINS!" As he tries to slam the potion into her chest, before moving away from her again, skidding along the ground as the burst of speed end, sparks of flame flickering around the Cait Sith. "Detonating Chains." He then dutifully explains. "Chains which continue to explode and make movement difficult as the battle proceeds." He then explains to her, touching his cane to his cheek for a moment.

    June blinks "UHm... I guess that's a yes...?" she says when the fight just starts she shrugs "UHm... FIGHT!?" She looks at her beer and switches to Quenya but not turning off the announcer's 'mic' so it just gets broadcast anyway. "I mean... is there really a reason for you to be here, Junie? If they're just gonna use system commands did they really NEED an MC... not like I can adjudicate... the system is doing all of that... oh well guess I'm here to make sure they don't accidentally blow up the stands or something since we don't have the wards they have in the root town arenas?" she shrugs, shifting to her ironclad bull woman form. She snorts out a green fog that turns the adventurer next to her into a stone statue for some time and then chugs her beer. "UHm so Cyrus comes out of the gate with uh... he called it Exploding chains, I assume chains that explode or something." she shrugs, the fight announcement coming out in Japanese.

Kauchemar accepts the Duel... and instinctively steps back at the flash moments later. But it's not far enough to prevent the potion from striking her. The magic is released to manifest into a visage of fiery chains wrapping around her. "Huh. This would fit on the cover of a metal album." She shifts a little, as if testing how much give the chains have. "Clever trick, right from the start. I like that." Her eerie eyes flicker, supernatural flames crackling from the edges. And then she opens her mouth, not for one of her screams, but to unleash a surge of darkness in lieu of moving her partially bound hands.

Her shifting served another purpose though, as she manages to wiggle enough that the sword slides free from her back.. and instead of hitting the ground floats up, points itself at Cyrus, and lunges forward!

Kauchemar herself jerks forward again, and once more using her mouth, this time trying to clamp her snake-like fangs into the Cait Sith while he's hopefully distracted defending against the Binder Sword.

Cyrus was expecting rough competition from Kauchemar, and he wasn't wrong to expect it. The darkness that bursts from her maw is quick to erupt over his position, blinding him from the incoming attacks. He quickly shatters a potion to the ground, in the hopes to protect himself. But the flaming burst isn't enough to hold back the blades that cut through the darkness itself, slicing through his arm and leaving that typical red shine of damage behind, before the youth finally manages to get out of the way and tries to block the sword between his hands.

Some of the blow is caught, but he ends up on his knees before Kauchemar, the blade digging into his hands as he holds it. A potion lazily falling from his belt, rolling forward... and then detonating point blank, creating a sizable fireball effect. The shockwave seperates the two, allowing Cyrus to fall back a bit, but he realizes immediately that he's on the defensive at the moment, and that isn't a place he wants to be in.

    June watches first back and forth. "Ooh Kauchemar returns with a death metal breath weapon? or is it black metal? viking metal? I dunno but horrible black smoke is always a bad thing. And Cyrus retaliates ? with bottles of boom? Splody potions? Uhm.. Alchemist's Fire would be far too on the nose? someone go get me more beer? and bring me one of the Yakisoaba Pan while you're at it." she announces to the crowd before turning back to the fight.

Fortunately for Cyrus, with the cursed chains binding her Kauchemar can't hold on for very long. "I anticipated this would be one of those kind of fights." She wiggles a bit more, finally working a hand properly between the chains. Which she manages to hold out and grab the Binder Sword as it returns to her. At the same time she is just about to release one of her actual dread cries...

But that's when the fireball potion abruptly goes off.

Reacting in the mere split-seconds possible Kauchemar snaps her jaws back shut, getting a bit of a ring in her own ears instead as she has to cut herself off, and focus on defense. Water surges to life beneath her, moving with a rhythm of it's own as it catapults the Nightmare back from the conflaguration, avoiding the center and the worst of the explosion by just barely. Shame she didn't have time to actually strike back at her foe, but you can't expect every performance to off without a hitch.

As Kauchemar begins to step back, water surging to life around her, the male slowly rises up properly and twirls his cane, from the left hand to the right as he moves with her, forcing her movements in subtle manners. Waiting, as she avoids the center and comes to land...

Right where he'd placed a trap in the midst of the flash that had began it all. That blinding flash had not just served a purpose to hide his attack, but also to hide the various traps throughout the arena. Cyrus halts his movement just as she lands, and then declares;

"ICE TRAP." Right as the device triggers. She can hear the shattering of glass beneath her feet, as ice immediately creeps up, using the water she'd used to propel her to further freeze her feet to the ground. "A technique that freeze's one's opponent. And giving me the opportunity to do... this."

Turning the cane, aiming its tip straight towards her, he flicks his thumb to make the handle turn into something akin to a trigger. Rippling magic shining across the tip, as he uses one of his enchantment charges to create a rapid set of darts rip forward at lightning speeds. Electric sparks follow them as the two bolts rush straight for her chest, before the man returns the device back to its original configuration and flurries the cane down to lean upon it.

    June watches the match, someone coming up to her with a big mug of beer and a yakisobapan. "OOh perfect thanks so much." she says taking a big bite and a swallow of beer. The woman watches several passes of attacks before remembering she's supposed to be announcing the fight. "Ooh hey right uhm? so those chains seem to be a real pain in the ass, and uhm? quick water charge then ice prison? and really who builds a magical taser? I mean really you didn't even make it into a rifle ? for those of you who don't know taser is an acronym. It stands for Tom A. Swift Electric Rifle. Tom Swift is the protagonist of a series of books written in America in the early 20th century. The Taser weapon itself was designed by a man who really liked the Tom Swift books and so he took the name from the books and used it to make an acronym for his electric incapacitation projectile."

Kauchemar finally manages to work herself out of the arcane bindings, shaking her head with a snort to try and clear it a bit. That was less than optimal, but maybe her opponent will see it as an oppritunity... Sure enough, Cyrus moves to capitalize on it with more magic and trickery with that cane. Man, is this how other people feel fighting her? It feels like the sort of shenanigans she'd do if she could. But the show must go on!

She channels some of her own magic through the Binder Sword, causing it to ignite into flames... if only so she can stab it to the ground. This causes an erupting of fire in front of her... Which immeadiately starts to fizzle out as Cyrus's trap activates at the same time. That gets a surprised look, which turns into a snarl of pain as while one dart is smoldered by the dying flames they still hit with nearly full force, making her stagger backwards. The Were Fang narrows her eyes a little. Alright, play time is over, though the show is just starting. The frustrated look turns back to a smirk, and she goes back to doing what she does best as a Bard.

o/~ It's time for the mane attraction, the story must be bold
It's time for a chain reaction, that never gets old
Some bards seek satisfaction breaking the mold
Some bards are just distractions... But this bard is just cold! o/~

There's something in the haunting way her bellowing voice rings that almost makes your blood run cold.

Cyrus lifts the cane back up and watches as the Were Fang narrows her eyes. "Ready to get serious?" He asks her with a soft smirk on his face. As she begins to song, the young man begins to... dance with the tune of her music. Jumping up and down on his both feet for a bit, then begins to step in with a long gait, his feet touching down on each note of her music;

But the moment her words end, he suddenly picks up speed, slamming down a potion of fire that gets pulled in the moment she inhaltes in order to start her bellow. Flames rushing towards her maw. And before she gets her call out, his hand touches to her shoulder and he flips over her.

His hands come together, forming strang magics into his hand. Many believe the Alchemist only to be able to use his potions to cast magic. But he shows himself to be a bit more variable than that. The attack flows like a martial artist's, his body coming down, one leg sweeping low along the ground in order to stabalize him as his hands come up towards her back and he sends a sudden pulse of dark magic through her in the midst of a two-handed palm strike! Her health doesn't drop an inch...

But she'd no doubt notice the black 'wires' that flow along her body, starting to restrict her movement.

    June nods her head and eats her yakisoba pan, she pulls a chair over to sit in and puts her feet up. Where the chair came from is uncertain? probably it's the same person who brought her beer and snacks. She doesn't actually announce anything, however the sound of slurping and chewing gets broadcast along with several yummy noises.

Okay, that was pretty impressive moves for someone that's more known for their potions.

Considering her own tendancies to go for the back, Kauchemar knows better than to leave an opponent behind her for long though. She twirls with all the grace one would expect of a dancer, spinning to face Cyrus as he lands. Her eyes flash, and while his motion to attack is not directly harmful, her own familiarity with curses sees it for what it really is. However, she did succeed in putting him back on a defensive.

She feigns an 'oof' with the contact and takes a quick kippup back, as if it had been a real strike, but that's as far as the act goes. As she switchs tracks so to speak, and raises her voice into another haunting resound even as the streaks try to wrap around her.

"o/~ I'm in a tangled mess, totally in distress
But not as much as you, will be when I compress
Your little soul inside, the spells of my design
And then melt your face... as I DROP THE BAAAASS! o/~"

The finale of the verse is punctuated as she follows it up by sending the Binder Sword hurtling towards Cyrus once more, this time spinning end over end like buzzsaw!

Cyrus flips back the moment he senses danger. Being rather risk averse for the most part, being somewhat of an Overly Cautious member of the Isekai crew, he senses... something about her tone. Something tells me that trouble is brewing.

The man grabs into his pocket... and suddenly throws something down in front of the Binder Swords! There's a sudden POOF of sand, as a...

Merchant's Cart suddenly stands right in the middle of the Arena, with Cyrus on the roof of it, using the kinetic momentum change of being /launched/ by a small pocket-sized cart turning into a proper caravan sized one in under a second! Once in the air, he spins about and grabs a coin from within his pocket, and launches it straight for Kauchemar like a railgun shot, creating a burst of sand behind her if she manages to avoid it. The cart then begins to move on its own, aimed at catching him!

It's like it's being led by an invisible Peko.

    June continues to watch the fight eating and drinking and not really comentating on anything until there is a Cart on the battlefield. "Really? This... okay WHO let the wandering trader into the fight?" she says and takes another swig of beer.

*THUNK*

Alas that is not the sound of the sword piercing a catman. Rather it is the sound of a blade hitting the side of a cart suddenly in it's path. The Binder Sword rebounds off, and ends up point down in the ground. The way it wobbles around, it can't quite pull itself free.

Kauchemar... lets out a sigh. "Really. NOW with that gag?" Annoyance at her companion monster overshadows the impressive at the maneuver, but that doesn't mean Kauchemar has taken her attention off of her opponent. Anything but, as the forces of the tides answer her call once again. Water swirls around her hooves as she, for all intents and purposes, skates out of the way of the coin hurtling through the air via hydroplaning. Her maneuvering banks so she can grab the sword and pull it free of the ground with her momentum. Her other arm flares with summoner magic, as she finally calls the shield that matchs it to her as well. She watchs the cart move on its own to catch her opponent... And that's when she kicks off the ground, using the current's force to launch herself at Cyrus with the shield forward like a battering ram!

Cyrus comes down, bringing his cane to bear and slams it to Kauchemar's sword. The two clash in mid-air, the Cait Sith's cane trembling against the fierce blow from the Nightmare, but it looks like his defenses are still holding! Grimacing while looking her right in the eyes. "You're as good as I expected you to be." He tells her, as he starts letting her blade slide along his cane and kicks his foot out towards her side to knock her away, before landing back on his cart and grabbing a very specific looking thin white flask from his coat.

"Let's see if this guy is past its expiration date or not!" As he throws the potion forward, flickering it. Shining as its brightness begins to rise rapidly. A whine starting to sound as the potion comes to activate. The young man twirling his cane in the air, grabbing two more potions, and snapping them apart, throwing them ahead of himself, forming two large sigils ahead of him. "ENHANCE ENERGY!" He calls out, the hex sigils flowing and tracking Kauchemar as he then catches his cane, and slams it forward at the spinning pale potion.

"Take this!" A sudden burst of light blasts out, as the alchemist calls forth a high level Holy attack, tearing like a laser towards Kauchemar and erasing shadows across the field! The various mages putting up barriers having to strain as the light sears across the battlefield, ripping a red mass across the ground, before the ground itself detonates with light!

    June swigs her beer "Ooh look at that, that was just cool wasn't it?" she looks at the person beside her. "What do you mean I didn't actually announce what happened?" she looks "I'm pretty sure I did... I mean why would I say how cool it was if I wasn't announcing it?"

It's a good thing Kauchemar summoned the shield as well. The sword slides off the cane, but at the same time the kick connects with the shield instead of her body. There's an audible clang as she rebounds off, hooves kicking up a bit more water as she hits the ground again. It's not much, but it's just enough. A little extra slide to her step... "The same to you!" she replies, and then the Nightmare is... Gone? The blast of light slicing across the ground where she had -just- been standing.

She didn't seem to be the type to turn and run, especially in middle of a performance. No, there has to be something else. But what? That is hard to tell, and that's precisely the point. To try and rattle the opponent a little. Keep them guessing what's coming...

In truth she isn't gone. But she is moving, through the combination of dark magic and her own graceful agility, in a way that shifts amongst the shadows, transposing just on the edge of her opponent's awareness.

Until she is abruptly behind Cyrus, trickery making it appear as if she emerged from his own shadow, even as she swipes the Binder Sword at him in slashes of rhythmic motion.

Just as she gets there. Just as she gets in position, passing him by, moving through the darkness and the erasing shadows, she'd see it. At the edge of his mouth. That little grin. The kind of grin that tells of a plan. "Detonating..." Her foot comes down on the cart and her Binder Sword comes down towards him. "Chains." Right as the chains detonate from below, grabbing onto her and snaring her sword!

A burst of flame blasts out from the Cait Sith's chains, blazing across her body as the blade reaches him and slices into his hand as it comes up - tearing into his health and ripping that telltale red light through his body as he comes to face her upon the Relic Caravan. The youth slowly turning towards her with his head tilting a bit. "It's time for the Second Movement."

Cursed chains erupt, flames spark, and while the later stings as tongues of fire lick at her it's not enough to stop the Were Fang from scoring a solid hit. As soon as her hooves connect with the cart Kauchemar pushes off, not wanting to be close to her opponent while restricted again. At the same time she's got the Binder Shield up against her body as the binds manifest, using it to keep them from completely tightening against her. But that's not completely obvious to the audience or hopefully her opponent, even as she lands a few meters away. Gives her head a shake to flick locks of midnight mane out of her face. "If you insist... Then lets see if you can fathom this!" The supernatural flames crackle to life around her eyes again, almost looking like flaming spectacles as she pulls deeply from her powers.

Her trick with the shield allows her to pull one arm free, but that's all she needs, as it is already crackling with both dark energy and swirls of water around it. She holds it up, palm raised, as the two start to swell into a mass above it. Her eyes narrow. "IRUKANDJI NIGHTMARE!" ... Wait, that's not an actual spell is it?

No, it's a combination of spells, as the bubbling black mass is hurtled towards Cyrus and it's not until it's close that one can see the small venomous forms swirling within the ennervated waters.

The Cait Sith's tail suddenly poofs, and his heckles rise as he feels something is off. "Whoa... a new technique again!" His eyes widen, but she can tell she's caught him off guard, as he doesn't know what is coming. He tries to put down a quick blazing potion, which bursts to life. The flames bursting along with the wake of her attack...

But the energy and waters tear straight towards Cyrus, sizzling out the flames and is pushed off of the cart. "Graaah!" He calls out, as his health rapidly depletes, and he's sent to the ground, falling with a painful blow to the ground. It's a good thing there's this much pain dampening.

Clasping for his chest, he quickly throws out a dart from his position, which falls at her feet and suddenly detonates into an orb of black cursed energy, grappling at her. But the youth is clearly just using it to get his wits about him.

    June "Oooh well that looks like it hurt... never piss off a nightmare I guess." she says stuffing the last of her Yakisobapan into her mouth. "Someone get me some dongo or ... like squid or popcorn or something... I seriously need nibbles for this fight." she swigs her beer "And more beer."

That combo was improvised on the spot, but it has done the trick on getting past his defenses. "If there is one thing I'm really good at, it's being unpredictable!"

Her eyes are still glowing with unearthly luminense. "o/~ Run! Run! But you can't run away!
Casting spells to cast down my enemy!
Divination, Darkness, Deception
You can't escape the tidal inception! o/~" A smart person might realize that something is up as soon as she sing-chanting again, even if it looks like she's dealing with Cyrus' detaining methods.

Because when you're fighting a summoner, they are rarely fighting alone. Some of the water that splashed off her previous strike swirls on the ground at her conjuring, using itself to 'draw' a summoning circle. Up from which rises a water elemental, that surges forth to engulf Cyrus and toss him around like one would be caught in the vortex of a whirlpool!

Improvised as it might have been, she's clearly got Cyrus' attention. "You most certainly are. Nice." Even when he's starting to be on the losing end, Cyrus is a bit of a gentleman. Instead of shouting down his opponent, he rather congratulate them. "Let's see if I can pull something out to match that!"

As the water elemental rushes forward, Cyrus stuffs his cane right through it. "Frost!" And with a sudden burst of magic, the thing freezes before it can properly lay its hands on him. The frozen elemental shatters apart, some of the shards cutting Cyrus, as he then stabs his staff to the ground.

"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens!" Light suddenly beginning to form around Kauchemar, as Cyrus exposes himself for being just a tiny bit of a nerd. Glyphs forming in the air above the battlefield...

"~ call upon thee who would open the gates of hell..."

Light swirling around her en masse as Cyrus' clothing begins to move at the sudden rush of wind and energy being put into this. His mana pool rapidly draining!

"~ come forth divine lightning!!"

Those familiar enough expecting the final chant to demand; indignation.

"EMPYRIAL ARROW!" His hand lifting to the sky, and the heavens open up, bringing down a blast of pure light towards Kauchemar once more!

The counter-tactic works well, and while Cyrus gets some ice shrapnel it also stings the summoner a bit through their magical connection. Ears flick back as Kauchemar grits her teeth at it, but now she's focused on her course of action.

The previous musical interlude must of helped bolster her, because even as Cyrus starts to chant she's moving towards him. That swift and shadowy technique engulfs her, causing the view of her to ripple and distort as if shadow herself. The Empyrial Arrow flies through the air to connect, but the distortion makes it hard to tell just how effective it was. It definitely hit even if not directly though, as the Were Fang is showing a bit more red damage marks when she stops moving again. Kauchemar holds out a hand dramatically as she once more calls upon the depths of the sea for help. "Irukandji Syndrome!"

It's not the combination this time... but she switches it up by creating the summoning sigil in the air -above- Cyrus, so the water filled with poisonous jellyfish comes cascading down right on top of him!

"Sorry to disappoint the crowd." Cyrus remarks with a grin. "But I don't think I have the right class combination to actually cast something like that." As the blast zone settles and he sweeps his cane to the side and touches the ground with it, reaching his hand into his clothing and jumps back, fully expecting Kauchemar to immediately retaliate.

Looking to the ground, watching where she is stepping, as he suddenly throws a lightning potion which blinds the area and tries to jolt her body, as he stabs his cane into the ground and launches off of it with a footstep - using his both hands to throw multiple green flasks around into the arena. "WHISTLING POTIONS!" Preparing for the next assault as Kauchemar's spell reaches him, spoiling him with the poisoned jellyfish.

But on her approach, she steps into another trap of ice which grabs at her foot. Cyrus is clearly up to no good! Letting damage be done to him like this!

    June watching the actions shouts out into the 'mic' "DO A FLIP!" then she eats more and drinks beer. "Ooh also hey guys did you see that giant jellyfish summon!? Now THAT's crazy weird right?"

This is what happens when you put two people who love to fight through status effects and trickery against each other. Lots and lots of tricks.

Ice flashes from the ground, snaring Kauchemar's hoof and keeping her from advancing closer to Cyrus to put her equine physique to use. It gives him the time and the distance to work his alchemy magic, throwing a potion at her and giving himself another boost. Sparks crackle from the contents!... and are all that nip at her proverbial heels as Kauchemar has pulled her foot free and once again pulled her own trickery! This time it is very much close to disappearing, as she moves faster than any normal eye and even some magical ones can follow. Cyrus might catch a glimps of her from the corner of his eye, but try to look directly and there's nothing to see.

And then there she is aga... wait, she's standing right where she previously stepped on the ice trap, and just waving at him.

At the same moment the Fireball spell explodes right at his feet! She was moving so fast she cast her spell and then moved right back to where she had been to take attention away from it again, timed down to precise seconds!

Cyrus' head is on a swivel, trying to follow the movement of the shadows. Knowing she can show up anywhere at any time. Anywhere but the spot he trapped her. Kauchemar's gambit works perfectly, keeping Cyrus on his heel. The floating potions rapidly land around him in a pentagram pattern, creating a burst of flame around him to protect him...

Only for her Fireball to detonate right at his feet, sending him flying. The youth spins about, throwing one of his own flasks at her in order to try and put her back on the defense. But he knows that with this little health remaining, this battle is as good as over.

But he'd be a bad 'noble' Cait Sith if he just surrendered, even though things looked dim!

Kauchemar would be insulted if her opponent just gave up, so don't do that!

Despite being an equine-like monsters nightmares are quite predatory. In much the same regard Kauchemar seems to pick up on her foe being close to faultering, and she's moving in for the kill. Figuratively speaking, since we're not actually going to kill anyone.

The awkwardly thrown potion shatters, sending up whisps of dark energy to slink around her, but Kauchemar only pays it enough attention to know it's there if she does have to deal with it later. It's not enough to stop her advance though.

A quick somatic gesture, and she sends her own wave of darkness towards the Cait Sith. Following it with a short shot of water.. that just wraps around him once more. It doesn't do any harm on it's own...

But there's just the fact that water can -amplify- waves, which is what Kauchemar is really aiming to take advantage of as she stops, opens her mouth inhumanly wide and lets loose another of those horrifying screams!

Cyrus touches a potion to his chest, quickly sending a burst of health through him as he is assaulted by waves of darkness. The sudden burst of piercing sound has him clutching for his ears as the water tries to further wrap around him and take him apart.

The young man stumbles back, but still shows his defiance, even as he is forced to spend his time trying to break the bubble, rather than managing to actually attack.

    June gasps "Ooh that's close, I'm on the edge of my chair! We're dancing on the razors edge here folks. The end is neigh." (yes she makes that joke) "And I am HERE For it!" she pounds the last of her beer. "LETS GO!"

Kauchemar takes a moment to use her own cursed magic to dismiss the one Cyrus tried to lay on her. Then flicks her arm out dramatically to unfurl her whip that has gone otherwise unused for the fight. She gives her a dramatic flick, causing whisps of frost to crackle from it as she fills it with elemental ice energy.

Then she briefly bows to Cyrus. "You've been a phenominal opponent. But..." She rises, and with a flare cracks the cold infused whip at him lashing fast and hard. "It's time for the final curtain to fall on this show!"

Cyrus remains standing as the ice energy bursts across his body, and the cold whip lashes across his body. It seems he's out of defensive potions, grimacing at his health falls to 1 and halts. The system declaring Kauchemar a WINNER!

He touches another healing potion to himself, simply to be cautious, and takes in a deep breath, retrieving his cane and then bowing to Kauchemar. "It was a worthy battle. It seems I have fallen behind in my battle studies over the past year. Perhaps it is time I take a more active effort." He answers her. "Thank you for showing me that I have much to learn still."

The man raises from his bow. "You were the superior contestant. May we battle again in the future."

"The experience in the Duelist's League has helped me," Kauchemar replies as she recoils the whip, curling it back in her hand. Then bows again. "But if you've learned from the fight then my job as a Muse has been done as well as that of a rival combatant. There will always be next time." She rises again, whistling to finally recall her two Binders and return the possessed weapons to her back.

    June jumps up and down Cyrus' hitpoints drop to one and the WINNER pops up over Kauchemar. She makes a signal and there are FIREWORKS! that shoot into the sky. "KAUCHEMAR WINS! Look at that folks. She's gone and done it! No horsing around, she's really put her hoof down! She's the Caballo Diablo the outlaw up a top the Sierra Madre!"