Tournament: Giganpor vs Arashi

    The battles are getting intense! Well okay, they've been intense the entire tournament so far. Fukaziroh's slowly hitting her stride though, and is having a grand time announcing fights.

    "People of Eas, visitors from beyond, duelling fans of all ages and nations!" calls out the small sylph. She's loud, but of course her voice is being amplified so it reaches the entire arena so she's not actually screaming. "Welcome once again to the second round of the Journey to the Eas! Two blooded warriors come before you now. One will be going home in defeat, the other moving on to seek further glory!"

    She turns to her left, gesturing. "In the first round, this warrior fought a guildmate and convincingly demonstrated peerless skill and power. The master of Grandeur's forge, the Golden Fang Knight, the BIG GUY, GIGANPOR!"

    The crowd erupts, save possibly for some people who still hold a grudge from him defeating their champion in the first round. Those people only erupt in boos, fortunately overwhelmed by cheers in general.

    Turning and gesturing to her right, Fuka waits for the crowd before beginning again. "AND HIS OPPONENT!" she bellows, momentarily quieting the crowd somewhat. "In her first match she destroyed a vicious samurai bun-bun. Er, werefang. She's used to fighting on her own, but can she match the fury of the Golden Lion!? Ladies and gentlemen I present... the punishing power pwny, Kowareta Arashi!"

Giganpor, heading out to the field, blinks at one of the titles. He shakes his head, "People still remember that one, huh?"

Moving over to the starting positions roughly, he checks the straps on his buckler and pulls out his poleaxe that he's been fighting with since his training in the forges.

Just to be fair, however, it's well noted that Giganpor is in his Were-Fang form already, the snow white fur easily visible as is the mane despite the colors being given off by his cloak of a warm looking blue-green. He's certainly calm at least.

"Hope you are ready, Arashi. I don't plan on holding back!" He declares towards his opponent.

    You know, when the brackets were posted, Arashi actually didn't take a look at them. She had come, just like last year, to test herself against other players in a controlled setting without risk of dealing with PKers or otherwise. Wisteria? Good fight, annoying curses, but in the end, nothing wrong with that. Today? Giganpor? Hmm. Unexpected. Very unexpected. Deep breath. Exhale. Mental note to herself: Don't kill him.

        Just get reaaaaaally close.

    That aside, his announcement is met with no reply, not even a nod. Just a thousand yard stare that probably speaks volumes over anything she could say: No, she didn't forget. No, she didn't forgive. She does, however, give a 'ready' indication to whomever is to signal the start of the match.

    Fukaziroh hadn't actually remembered Giganpor's titles. She's met the guy a time or two on raid-level activity but they haven't exactly been introduced. The only question is whether she made it up or was told the title when learning whatever she could about fighters for her role as a tourney MC. Given it's Fuka... could be either.

    She reaches beneath the table, set to deliver the opening blow of the tournament. One to the fighters' dignities. She pulls out a pair of plushies, one of each fighter, and sets them up before her for a play-by-play. Of course this is likely to be a big melee dustup so there will be mostly both plushies smashing their heads together, but that's okay!

    Fuka watches both fighters in turn as they move to the marks, gauging when they're set, when all preparations have been made, and most importantly when the crowd is well-psyched. "Ready, set, BEGIN!"

Giganpor apparently decides to start off big after indicating he's ready. And gives off a sudden, loud roar at Arashi.

That roar turns into a blast of sound aimed at her as he settles himself into a stance with his poleaxe held ready.

And to make things more interesting? There's the tell-tale green glow of some sort of buff on him, too.

Ding. Ding. Metaphorical of course. With Gigan being the first to act, Arashi's quick to take off in a burst of speed, trying to avoid the brunt of the roar that's sent her way. She may miss a step or two, but once she settles, she'll go rushing in with Starshadow in one hand, and an oddly plain sword in the other. Both of them are stabbed Gigan's way in a series of blows, one in particular trying to stab further than the rest.

    "And the fight starts off with a roar!" Fuka exclaims, perhaps predictably. "And Arashi charges in before her opponent mouths off too much. That kind of speed is unbelievable! Unnatural! And one of her strikes lands! But it's going to take more than that to beat the BIG GUY!"

Bringing up his custom buckler, Giganpor starts to block and parry the strikes, even as his poleaxe glows a sea-like blue and begins to flow to try to block a lot of what is coming his way, both one handed and two handed as he shifts his stance around.

Despite it all, he is pushed back steadily and marks are scored on his chest and shoulders, leaving bright red on the otherwise dark red of his armor.

In response, however, his poleaxe comes around in a sweeping swing to try to force Arashi back as well, still glowing that bright blue, "Mystery of Steel." Giganpor says calmly.

At the same time, his foot comes up, and down to shake the very ground with each step as his boots give off a green glow.

Hmm. Interesting. There's some familiarity here. For one, that amount of defense is certainly going to be an issue, but that fierce stab into Gigan's defense seemed to leave a mark. The swing of that polearm results in Arashi activating a freshly learned technique from a friend, the warhorse, dashing to one side, seemingly atop a flow of water to help her avoid the sweep of Gigan's weapon. In response, Arashi then comes around and thrusts with Starshadow, twisting the blade in a rather violent fashion before slicing away.

The twisting around has Giganpor bringing his buckler up, his poleaxe going one handed as there is first a bright flash of flames, then another flash of light. It at least holds a bit, serving to cause a red line on the Were Lion's shoulder.

This close, Arashi can notice the change on the Were-Fang, however. The growl that comes from him even as the flames seek to harm her in response to harming him. Giganpor's eyes and mannerism take on the look of a slightly enraged looking lion as he prepares himself to strike back it looks like.

    "I'd say Giga's walking softly and carrying a big stick, but he's really not walking softly!" calls Fukaziroh, injecting some of herself into the matchup. "I don't think the forgemaster's found his rhythm yet. The Pony of Power is kind of having her way with him isn't she? Speed, grace... and I think she kinda wants to kill him!!! Is there something between these two I don't know about?" Fuka asks. It's a rhetorical question, and she's honestly just hyping the fight rather than reading true battle-lust, but... well, even a broken clock is right once in a while or something right?

Since Arashi's a were-fang as well? She may have an idea of what's coming. She was never a fan of tapping into that side of her race, but she'll certainly make sure to be on her toes for the next few moments. She can feel that flame shield lashing out at her as she moves in, but it is worth it in the end to get that debuff applied.

    Not about to back off because of the shield, Arashi goes into an absolute flurry of attacks.

First, Gigan may notice a familiar green glow as a buff wraps the war-horse up. The flurry that comes next? First, Arashi turns Starshadow to bring it down in a set of brutal overhead swings with the flat of the weapon's blades before followin up with two more diagonal slashes, one with each of the weapon's two blades.

Finding himself on the defensive still, Giganpor takes advantage of the rage to bring his shield up in an attempt to block. And that really stings whenever he ends up repeatedly getting beat on to it, then a sudden slash of the weapon in hand.

His answer is a backhand from the poleaxe, followed by sending what looks like snake-like vines out of the very ground at Arashi.

After all is said and done, Giganpor does not look good. There's two very large red lines on him from the hits. And it's obvious that he's not doing so well at the moment.

    "Oh the werefangity!" Fukaziroh cries out as Arashi starts carving lines into Giganpor. "Which, I have been informed since the first round is actually 'oh the Imanity'. Who knew?" she shrugs.

    The plushies haven't been entirely forgotten, but most of the fight has involved poor Giganpor's plushie staggering around as the Arashi plushie repeatedly tramples it. This exchange is no exception. "The smith may know the riddle of steel, but he's going to need horseshoes to pull out a win this time!"

Oh, hey, poison! Arashi knows about that debuff. The sting of it and the following strike from Gigan's weapon has the dire-shire trying to move in the right direction to avoid before she takes a step and then lurches forward in a Flash. Attempting to flank the smithy, Arashi once again comes around with Starshadow in a twisting stab!

Knowing he can't match Arashi's speed, the Big Guy instead decides to do something about that. But first, to make her pay for coming in close as another wall of flames rises up.

Seemingly it's a clean hit through the flames, at least until they die down due to a temperature change. Ice covers Giganpor's form, tanking almost the entire strike before bursting outwards leaving a large patch of it in the middle of the field for a time that is slowly melting, but making it tougher for his opponent at least.

Turning to look, the Golden Lion prepares to follow up possibly it seems.

    More flames, more fire! The temperature shock probably does a little damage too, but the poison isn't helping matters much. Fun times. Having a feeling she has Gigan on the backfoot again, Arashi comes in hard in another massive flurry of swings. This time, its slicing, dicing, turning Starshadow, doing it again, and ending with a -fierce- stab from her offhand sword.

Definitely finding himself on the back foot, Giganpor steps back a few more times, the edges of Starshadow causing more angry lines even as he tosses up another flame shield to block followed by his again bringing his glowing blue poleaxe around to block more.

At least he manages to block some of it, but not enough as there's more scores of red on him. It's a miracle he's standing tall at this point as it's obvious he's lost a lot of life, but he's not backing down as well.

In this case, it looks like attack has won over defense more than anything.

    "Giga tries to handle the Knight Mare... Samurai Mare? But his fire seems to be fading! Rashi cuts through fog and ice and lion! That sword is just devastating!"

    At least Fuka seems to be having a good time here. She's not without sympathy for the forgemaster's plight, but the fight just seems so one-sided to her that she has to call it as if it were a one-sided stomping. Which it is, even if she'd rather try to be fair about her performance. "Come on, Giga! Show her what you're made of! And I don't mean by letting her open you up!"

Battered, bruised, but still standing. Arashi -would- be impressed but, well, she still remembers, and that is the reason that even though she could just wait out the poison? She isn't. Instead, she has to deal with his swing first. There's a step, and like before, the war-horse flashes forward, around, trying to get behind Gigan this time. With her new position, she Starshadow lashes out, is spun to bring the other blade up, and is swung again... with a last -stab- from the plain looking blade to emphasize a fact.

        "For those that died."

Giganpor can only do one thing and that is try to strike back before he ends up down and out.

Sadly, for some, he's fallen.

For others, probably the Scale Emblem, they're happy to see him fall in this at least. Definitely he isn't exactly happy with the way things went, but he knows how to improve a bit now it seems. Perhaps. Or maybe he'll puzzle that out more whenever medics finish healing him.

    Lion down! Dare even Fuka say that pun? Perhaps not. She's thinking it though, as Arashi flashes in behind with a slash-stab combo that drops the smith.

    "Giga's DOWN! The match is over!" she bellows excitedly. "Rashi advances to the next round, and seems to have settled some kind of score along the way! Let's hear some cheers for the fallen, and for the victor!"

    The crowd, naturally, stomps and whoops wildly. No telling who's cheering for what exactly, but they're certainly hyped! There's some disappointment and cursing and such, probably mostly from those who had bet money on Giganpor, but ... for the most part, the crowd certainly got what it came for!

    Victory? Hmm. Well, alright. Though as it is announced, the crowd erupts, and Fuka re-enacts with those plushies, the warhorse does something odd. The plain looking blade that she lashed out with last? It's stabbed into the ground and left behind. Intentionally. It was the last blade she looted from Karluin.