Duelist's League - Uta vs Kauchemar

Uta continues her tradition of challenging the Tournament rankers, starting with the Semifinalist Nightmare Bard.

Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

It was a quiet day in Carmina Gadelica... Though that was likely about to change. The square had been cleared of the venue from the debut duet to make plenty of clear space for the next event. With the Journey to Eas Tournament over it was time to get the Duelist's League back into action.

What better way than with the winner of the semifinals throwing down with the singing kung-fu nurse before Uta goes off to face the Champion herself. Besides, Kauchemar is suppose to be the Rival here, time to check up on the people she didn't fight in the tournament to make sure they're still improving.

While waiting she's leaning against a post, idly tweaking the strings of her lute. Great performance instrument, not so much for using music in battle. She had plans to work on that, but everything in it's time and place, and now was not the time for that.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

In walks Uta from the opposite corner of the square. Staff firmly clenched in her hand, she waves to the cheering audience. "Thank you, thank you beloved audience! I would like to thank every single one of you! If I made it on time, today, it was thanks to the excitement of being here to fight my opponent, the great Kauchemar Tenebrae, and enhancing my boots with the Sole Traction Enhancement Potion from Merek's Elixir Emporium!" She flicks her menu upen, and holds up a bottle of said product. "Merek's Sole Traction Enhancement Potion! Significantly Enhances Traction on Slippery Surfaces, like smooth sidewalks, ice, bloodstained stones, and even soap! Merek's Sole Traction Enhancement Potion! Go try it today, you won't regret it!"

A short pause, she then faces Kauchemar specifically, and with a big smile, she begins, "Oh, hi! Before we begin, I would like to state that- wait a minute, I forgot a thing-"

She turns towards the audience again, "And don't forget to tell Merek that Uta sent you!"
Fukaziroh
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square


    Wild horses, or in this case even nightmares, couldn't keep Fuka from coming to see this fight. Her two song-loremistresses, duelling it out! Once and for all deciding who is the better musical duellist!

    Of course nothing about this is final. It's just a duel for fun. Friend will beat up friend, and they'll still be friends afterwards, one going away with temporary bragging rights, the other going away vowing to train harder.

    Unfortunately, she isn't MCing today. This might be because the duellists don't want an MC... or it could be because she doesn't have an Uta plushie. Fuka will just have to cheer instead of announce! Or groan perhaps, as Uta goes all-in on product placement advertising. Oh well, it's not like her friends don't deserve to make as much money as they can, however they can. Money is good! This is just a little shameless, that's all. And Fuka can respect shameless!
Goldenblade
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Goldenblade is here in the audience, which is unusual for her, she doesn't usually watch the duelists' league fights. She rarely participates anymore, come to think of it, but she's here to see how her friends Uta and Kauchemar square off. Will it be more like Rocky or Battle of the Bands? She's also paying attention to the weapons the NPCs may carry. What styles, what sorts. Because on top of her being a builder, she's a weaponsmith, and she never gets much credit for that, and she's intent on making her mark in that somehow.

She watches Kauchemar and Uta enter, and peers skeptically as Uta plugs Merek's potion shop. Well, that's an exepected bit of RL thrown in. You can never get away from /all/ the commercials.
Merek
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

    Merek takes the time to look about the place, and will find where Kauchemar as well as Uta will be duelling. The man wears a spiky ponytail and will begin to settle in while he watches, waving a little.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Kauchemar raises a brow at Uta's entrance advertisement. "What, you're doing sponsorships now?", she teases as she sets the lute aside. Followed by a nickering chuckle. For as clueless as she might seem at times Uta definitely learns. Using traction enhancements knowing how water and ice come into play with the Nightmare Were Fang? It is clever... turning it into an advertisement to work it in is just amusing. "This would be a lot more boring if it wasn't for the lovely audience to cheer and shout, yes."

She stamps a hoof on the ground, causing ghostly sparks to fly. Flames briefly rise in a ghastly greenish hue, then die down as the posessed shield she often utilizes rises up to hover at her arm's side, the sword tucked against it's back for the time being. Does this count as using weapons, when the weapons weild themselves half the time? Up for Goldenblade to consider. "So lets make sure these people get a proper show~"
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

"I've been doing sponsorships for a while, now...", Uta explains. "Started with the Quick-Feather Peko Ranch a while ago, and, well, turns out it helps beef up the income. The Slime Labs has been nothing but expenses for a while, and we're starting our revenue-generating programs only now. In the meantime, I had to pay for research and the partially paid intern who eventually became a fully paid intern, and our whole management..."

That would be Setsuna and Potpourri the rat, of course.

"So, anyway, yes. Anyhing that can bring a few coins into the coffer is welcome. Even before the Apocalypse, my family was... not exactly rolling in it, and we did all we had to- wait, where was I? Oh, right!"

As soon as the formalities of starting a duel through the menu system, accepting it, et cetera are taken care of, Uta will begin vocalizing a staccato tune, and tendrils of colorful light will begin to dance in helix patterns, in sync with the tone, intensity, and pitch of the song. Eventually, at each note, a blast of colorful energy is shot towards Kauchemar.
Goldenblade
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Goldenblade is less concerned with the magical and self-weilding nature of weapons as whether they're claymores or flails or aspergiliums. Aspergilia? She just makes the physical bits, the magical parts are someone else's problem. As are the punctuation and conjugation and plural forms. And Uta's got a pretty unique weapon, also, not too many Landers using one of those.

And when the fight begins, Goldenblade is not sure if it's begun. It seems more like a concert. Possibly a battle of the bands? With a lightshow, like those Pink Floyd kids everyone got excited about, back in the day.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

"Which one's the fully paid intern, the rat?" Kauchemar retorts with a cackle. "Did the other one ever bring you that kibble?" But that's all the time we have for the pre-battle witty remarks, because Uta is getting right down into business. As soon as the duel command is made she accepts, and leans back a little into a ready stance.... as sure enough Uta jumps on the oppritunity. She has dueled the Nightmare Bard before, she knows it's dangerous to give Kauchemar the chance to set up too soon.

"Well look at that, you learned to make a light show!" Kauchemar guides the shield in front of herself, and stomps a hoof to the ground. Both to send more of those ghostly flames surging across the ground towards Uta as she attacks, and then push off to launch herself into motion with the attack to keep the shield plinging the magic bolts away as best she can, the darkness shifting and swirling around her making it hard to see the one that manages to glance past the shield and zing across her shoulder. "You've got the oontz, so I'll bring the wubs!" she retorts as she stops, and fires one of her pulsing screams at the Spriggan.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

"No, the rat is management. And yes, Setsuna came late," Uta replies as she Weeks late. "But it's okay. You know that Manticore I captured? I delivered it while he was gone, and as soon as he came back, let him panic about the monster under his responsibility having escaped /and/ chimming him I was coming over with the customer." She sighs. "Ah, good times."

The incoming blast arrives, and Uta does, as Uta is wont to, the thing that appears least sensible at this point, but once again, as it is typical for Uta, it somehow works.

The Spriggan lunges right /into/ the sonic blast, harmonizing her voice with what Kauchemar referred to as 'the wubs'. This somehow seems to empower her own song, and the helix-shaped colorful tendrils of light that dance on the staff coalescen into two massive beans, a red one which shoots towards Kauchemar, and a green one that engulfs Uta herself.

The downside of this move is that Uta is pushed backwards a long distance. She lands with a roll, dusts herself off, and still glowing green from the side of the beam that engulfs her, she begins to run towards Kauchemar, to engage in some melee punching.

There's a long way to go, there...
Goldenblade
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Goldenblade is trying to follow the progress of the fight, but between the music and the magic, there's way too much she just doesn't understand. When Goldenblade read fantasy stories, back in the day, they were always about mundane heroes who fought -against- magical people, who were always bad, bar the occasional advisor, like Merlin or Gandalf, who almost never actually did anything magical. So, the world of magical people doing magical things is wildly confusing. It's a bit like cheating, really, to do things with magic. But she watches anyhow, she may learn something. It could happen. There's a first time for everything, after all.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

That explaination gets a laugh out of Kauchemar. "How mischeviously Spriggan of you." Seeing the sequence to engage Uta's syphoning move brings a mischevious smirk back to Kauchemar's lips. "Oh, I don't think so~"

Not that she can stop Uta from using the technique. No, but what she can do is summon up some water of a very unpleasant brackish color in one hand. "I didn't get to the Finals by not learning to be prepared for distinctive tricks!" She thrust the palm forward for the beam to connect with... and sacrifice the bit of health she loses to get the contaminated water drained into Uta as well! It's not the most practical move, but it certainly looks badass and shows off her ability to plan against people's specialty moves.

Then Uta is charging, and Kauchemar simply lets her come to her. Only to move at seemingly the last moment with her dance-like motions, the shadowy effect around her making her hard to look directly at, and thus aim for. The graceful motions make a little space between them.

And then with the other hand she forms a stream of water, using the element in itself as a whip to lash sharply at Uta with quick punctual strokes. "Have a taste of a bit of riptide!"
Fukaziroh
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square


    Fukaziroh more or less understands both magic and music, but she's somewhat befuddled about the conversation about rats, Merek and Setsuna. She's not sure if Uta's calling one or both of those people rats, and she doesn't particularly care. So long as Uta isn't complaining too much about them, it's all good.

    Spotting Merek in the audience, Fuka makes her way over to him. Jabbing the poor picked-on guy in the ribs with an elbow, she greets him in a friendly-enough fashion. "Did she just call you a rat?" Fuka asks with a grin.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

"Gah. Cough. Blargh."

One notable thing about the green/red beams is that, apparently, they're currently sucking HP off Kauchemar, and replenishing Uta's own bar. But people can now see Uta's HP bar swerving downwards as she sputters some of the Dark Water she's just been force-fed.

"Ptooie. This tastes terrible. And I'm not sure which ingredient is worse -- the rip or the tide."

Shaking her head, she attempts to focus again on the Bard.

And understanding strikes. "Oh, wait, you made it to the finals? Dang." She frowns. "The tournament must have had terrible standards this year."

Without giving Kauchemar much time to react to a rare instance of Uta making a quip, she lungest towards the Bard once again -- and with a complex swinging of her staff, she'll attempt to hit her with the staff in various spots, expecting to produce differently-pitched impact sounds -- in such a way to produce a bubbly song she'll sing along with, and use it to, once again, trigger her staff's magical tendrils and summon a bunch of slimes, out of colorful shimmering circles of light, which she will then unleash on the Nightmare.
Goldenblade
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Goldenblade is not sure what to watch, with all the magical effects hurling back and forth. She'd only just got a sense of the swords business not that long ago, wrapping her head around the wizards is going to twist her head all around. "What did .... how did ...?" But the answer is always and only, 'It's magic' and there's not much she can do about that. Well, not for players, who seem immersed in the magic. Maybe she'll have an easier time dealing with the Landers. Though, they've got casters, too, so who can GB turn to for sanity? This world is so complicated.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

That remark gets a split-second pause out of Kauchemar -- Did Uta just... yes, she did -- And then a laugh. "Oh, good, you've finally honed your Witty Repitoir as well as your magical one. Though you still lack some of the... harshness needed for a real insult."

But if Uta wants to keep this a close fight, so be it. Kauchemar turns to the side, raises a hand and snaps her fingers to create darkness that quickly spirals out from the snap to condense upon the fight. "NIGHTMARE RAVE" The shadows become almost literally thick, digging their sense of foreboding into the Spriggan even as she's leaping into battle. And Kauchemar lives up to the 'Rave' part herself as she's little more than a flickering form with her rapid movements to dodge or block Uta's rampant swings.

Though somehow one of the slimes, but skill or fate, manages to land -on her head-, drawing an oof from the mare.

The fight continues it's dance battle though, as Kauchemar uses her own beat to beat on Uta thanks to the physical presense being a monster species gives her.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

A Spriggan rushes into battle.

Darkness thickens around her, but she pushes on.

There is swinging, kicking, hitting, but not one blow seems to impact against the intended target. And then. Then it's pretty much a slaughter. A fusillade of blows illuminates the darkness with red glowing splashes to represent impact points, until the final blows send Uta flying away, shooting like a projectile and digging a trench as the merciless ground slows down her almost-horizontal fall.

Now reduced to a glowing ember made of pain, she pushes herself up with trembling hands, and wobbles towards Kauchemar, to try, once again, to swing at her with her staff. She once again vocalizes a chant, harsh, angular, and as she does, thorns of shadow emerge from the ground next to Kauchemar, to grab at her. Meanwhile, the intensity of the song grows further and further, until the voice is discharged with the power of a sonic blast which causes the air to ripple.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

You have got to give Uta credit for pushing through like that, and trying to put her opponent into a tight spot. With the vines that have sprung forth from the ground at her call to grab in their thorny embrace and keep the Were Fang from her evasive moves. "Ah! Now you're getting it. Trying to counter-act the opponent's strengths... or, you being Uta, it's just blind random luck. Either way!"

Of course there is the matter of the bard also being a summoner, and summoners rarely fight alone. When the Binders realize their master cannot move so quickly, they react... well, monster are monsters, but they like fighting, and she gets them plenty of that, so they do their part. The shield floats protectively in front of Kauchemar, ringing like a gong as it's struck several times by both sound and Uta's war cries. And then the sword finally unsheaths itself from behind the shield, twirling in the air before pointing it's dark blade at the Spriggan and lunging for her!

Though the shouting is still enough to get Kauchemar to lay her ears back as the air pressure of the scream whips through her mane. Uta may not have her tremendous volume, but that ringing reverb she can put into the move certain makes up for it.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

For someone who just underwent so much damage, Uta can surely pack a lot of gumption. Those punches keep coming, and at each jab and swing of the sword is dodged just quickly enough to allow but a few scratches and gashes.

Uta leaps back, spinning in the air, and pants. Attack stance, staff held diagonally, she catches some air, before intoning another aria.

Those tendrils dance again, light blue, crackling, intensifying into azure-white lightning, and-

*** KER-THOOM ***

A massive lightning bolt discharges towards the Nightmare.

*** KER-THOOM!! ***

A second, even more impressive bolt departs the staff, bathing the whole square in blinding light.
Fukaziroh
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square


    Watching the tense fighting from the proverbial edge of her nonexistent seat, Fuka is concerned... but not entirely for the obvious reasons. Instead she's studying the two warriors, trying to figure out their feelings about all this. Are either of them angry? Frustrated? Gloating or just playful? Are they feeling desperation or are the fortunes of battle sliding easily off their backs?
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Kauchemar kicks up some water around herself, using the extra tidal force to pull free of the vines trying to hold her down. After the fight with Mikage she has no intention of sitting still while her opponent is starting to unload the bigger firepower. As she breaks free she grabs the Binder Shield that was still hovering near her, raising it as she skids across the ground to defend against the massive energy blasts. The first one she even catchs at the right angle that the shield sends several sparks arcing back at Uta to make her think twice about pulling a stunt like that again!
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Uta's incessant attacks meet an impenetrable defense.

Once she's recovered from panting after her last round, there is darting, there is singing, and there is summoning of slimes. Uta is starting to sound like she's running out of breath as her HP plummets further and further down, but that doesn't stop her. Along with the hammering of slimes on the Bard, comes a slashing swing of her staff, whose sharp, justting bits will, hopefully, leave a glowing red gash on her opponent.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Now that she's gotten moving again Kauchemar isn't showing a sign of slowing down. Shadows roll with her movements, again making her hard to focus on and several of the slimes simply miss the mark when they blort at her. Followed by the mare jumping to grab the Binder Sword by the hilt, and come down in a landing to thrust the blade at Uta... and follow it up by trying to ram the matching shield right into the Spriggan's face! In doing so she intercepts the staff, deflecting it away from a direct hit, but the edge of one of the wings still snags across Kauchemar's arm as it's knocked away.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Everybody was kung-fu fighting! Those kids were fast as lightning!

Literally, Uta's dodging maneuver leave crackling bolts of electricity in their wake.
It was a little bit frightening.

"Ha! You can't hope to-"

SLAM

Uta's hand reach for her glowing face, as she mumbles something unintelligible (hopefully nothing that would require a profanity filter).

Once she gets back into fighting, she slams her staff on the ground again and, hey, since we are going with the lightning theme, it's time for that double lightning attack again.

The Landers seemed to have liked it the first time around...
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Kauchemar keeps up her wave-like movements, giving people a good indicator of why Uta prepared with traction potions with all the water splashing about! If that's not some encouragement to help her advertisement.

But in these close-quarters not even with the speedy Nightmare can completely outpace lightning, and she takes a powerful jolt sheering through her body and leaving crackles of red in it's wake across her form. She groans, exhaling loudly in a very snort-like fashion flaring her nostrils... and proceeds to retaliate, slicing several times with the ghostly sword even as cutting arcs of water ripple across it's damned blade! "Keep up the pace girl, follow the beat. The curtain call is close at hand, victory or defeat!" It's not full on singing but it is a rhyme, close enough.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

There are gashes and slashes across Uta's body. She keeps being pushed back as leaps left, and right, and left, and right again, and while half of the time she manages to dodge the blow with a flourish, a pirouette in the air, or even more complex gyrations, the other half of the time, it's red gashes for her.

This doesn't stop her from intoning an ultra-fast bouncy tune, the kind that leaves the listener wondering how she can breathe at all. And when she's finally cornered, she slams her staff on the ground.

Discs of magic ripple from the point of the impact, and like bubbles, secondary circles materialize, both on the ground, horizontal, and on the walls, vertical.

And then- a downright MASSIVE discharge of slimes hammer at Kauchemar! This is not Grave Call (or ,as Uta calls it -- Sewer Call)... this is Grave Call on Crack. Each summoning circle machine-guns slimes at her opponent, and were it not for the intrinsic protection offered by the dueling system, at this point the crowd would be running away in panic and some Hollywood producer would be getting ideas for a 1950s B-movie: It Came From The Summoning Circle!!!
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Even Kauchemar has to stare at this as multiple summoning circles appear. "Moon above and tides below girl, I knew you liked slimes--" She brings up the shield for the first slimes to thump again when launched at her. It's magic defenses may be on cooldown still but it is perfectly useable as a normal shield, other than maybe annoying the Binder within a little. By the way the jewels set in the front shimmer like glaring eyes it doesn't like getting splattered with slime very much.

Yet it does, repeately, as Kauchemar holds it in front of her even as she uses her tremendous speed in combination with the tidal propulsion to rocket herself towards Uta, ramming through the barrage of gooy projectiles... and then using that momentum at the last minute to twist and fling the ghostly sword at her blade first!
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

"I... might have carried away a bit during my Strange Mood," admits Uta not without a hint of embarrassment.

When the blade tries to impact against Uta, Kauchemar will trigger a previously invisible magical barrier, which, with a shimmer, dampens the impact to the point that all the blade manages to cause is a papercut.

Uta's damage marker mockingly drops by just 1 HP.

Uta doesn't lose time. She swings her staff, catches the sword in it, and flips it.

"Oh, hey, that reminds me. I've learnt a song. It goes like this!"

Uta will begin to sing a song Kauchemar might recognize.

o/~ It's time to get down and dance for your doom... Cuz the Nightmare Bard is comin' for you soon

Wait a minute... something is off...

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to run... You better watch out when the show's begun
You can't escape this Nightmare... She'll twist your mind with musical flare

Oh, snap. She's moving the duration of the notes just slightly off. Like moving all the furniture of your house by a few inches in random directions.

"It's time to get up, get ready to fight... o/~"

And she's been adding /wrong/ passages! And singing it slightly off pitch the whole time!
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

...also, she's pausing far too long -- and at the /wrong/ position in the beat, she goes: "o/~ EMBRACE THE BASS DROPS DEATH TONIGHT! o/~" -- slightly off duration, slightly off passages, slightly off pitch -- and with a /slightly scratchy voice/.

Also, the duration is wrong. And the tempo keeps oscillating slightly!
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Kauchemar just stops and stares at Uta, and it's not the magic barrier she used to stop the blade from doing more than nicking her health. It's hard to see from the sidelines, but up close there's a definite twitch at the corner of one eye. And the worst part is its Uta, so she can't tell if it's potentially meant to be wrong or the girl is just getting it backwards! That's even more annoying. Probably the most annoying part!

Musicians do not take their work being messed with very well. Kauchemar takes a few quick steps back, but it's not the blurring bursts she had been using before, her own groove has been thrown a bit off. Her tail snaps as she just takes it, and stares at Uta. "Well now, isn't that cute..."

Which turns into a blaring blast at the top of her lungs "BUT ITS WROOOOOOOONG!" The bellow so loud it makes the air visibly ripple... or maybe that's the elemental cold sent surging through the air with it.
Fukaziroh
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square


    Fuka's one of those in the audience who would probably be shrieking and running - or fireballing - if it weren't for the protection system limiting all damage to the duellists. As it is she ends up cackling at the slime horde.

    She still can't easily tell the duellists' emotions. Some are obvious enough, but at the moment it's the darker negative emotions she's searching for, and she can't see any. She hasn't been able to see enough to completely reassure herself of their absence though, save for her trust in these two's actual natures. Still, the question remains unanswered... for now.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Uta throws her staff in the air. It spins.

She crosses her forearms in front of her face, and as the icy front reaches her, she swiftly spreads her arms and makes circular motions.

The icy air /parts/ in front of her, and after describing a couple more circular shapes with her hands, she materializes a ball of ki which she EXPLODES around, the cold condensing into drops which patter to the ground.

"Fear me. I have Water now. I can do... THIS!"

She flicks through her menu, materializes a wooden cup, and with an elemental gesture, she fills it with water. Which she proceeds to drink.

"Aaaah! That was refreshing." She places the cup back into her menu, and resumes a fighting stance. "Now, for our duel!"

She rushes to attack, once again, singing that swinging song, heavenly aria alternating with an oppressive chant, and the two red and green beams shoot once again to steal HP from her opponent, and pump it into hereself...
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

Uta does not really have any negative emotions. People who have been following her for a long time will have noticed that this is probably the first time she's been taunting people properly. Before she'd apologize for /accidentally/ saying something which, by a long stretch of the imagination, could be construed as possibly insensitive.

She braces for the upcoming run, knowing how she has no elemental Fire, and darts for her opponent. That deals some damage, as does the scream. This doesn't stop her from singing that song again, slamming her staff...

And causing a second invasion of slimes.
Kauchemar
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

By this point the exhaustion is starting to show. Kauchemar is panting after that last round, even as she's reining her annoyance back in. "Ugh. I can't believe I let you actually get to me... Well, appreciation where due, well played." She backpedals away with a slosh of watery wake, but it's not enough to avoid the sheer number of monsters being thrown on the field once more, and she has to take it on the chin to knock several of them away.

"I guess it's time for the final number..." Kauchemar inhales, opens wide, and this time unleashing a reverbrating sound that distorts from the darkness empowering it, making it extremely grating on the ears as well as physically rattling the body.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Town of Beginnings

Uta does not stop. She rushes in, her feet tap-tap-tap on the cobblestones, they get closer and closer to the Nightmare as the Spriggan braves the incoming sound blasts with slitted eyes. Her HP bar, despite the healing effects, suffers from this, but Uta herself pushes on. She manages to modulate her voice over the darkness-distoring reverberation, and tap, tap, taps it on the ground as she zips towards her opponent. Each tap creates yet more summoning circles, which shoot out more slimes, to go on top of the already massive amount of monsters that are assaulting Kauchemar. And as a last movement, once she's close enough, she jumps in the air, spins a few time, and descends with a slashing motion of ther staff, its wing-like structure proving to be sharper than expected.
Kauchemar
Entrance to Aincrad

As if the field of battle wasn't already chaotic enough with more and more slimes slorping around, a few elegant motions from the Nightmare Bard bring waters sloshing into motion again. The current streams between slimes, pushing them away, while others provide a sluice for the Kauchemar to glide across. Except she's also using her shadow abilities at the same time, it's 'out of sync' sensation befuddling the simple-minded monsters enough that they can't home in on her as she weaves though.

The Spriggan familiar with her tricks is another matter. As she's rushed Kauchemar jumps back, hooves catching the ground to stabilize herself as the darkened waters swirl about. An arm comes up to intercept Uta's descent, leaving the girl hanging off to where she's essentially face to face with the Were Fang. "I know you're no longer deathly afraid of water..." Her other arm snaps back, clenching fingers as if grabbing some of the water still flowing nearby, and snaps forward again to bring it gushing forward into Uta. "But there's still terrifying things within!" Like all the tiny jellyfish in the deluge that grab with their venomous tentacles.

Though even as Uta is pressure sprayed away from her, the tip of the staff's wing-crook still catchs across her arm, at the moment overlooked in the rest of the chaotic clash.
Uta
Carmina Gadelica - Main Square

The gush of water slams into Uta and hurls her at a fair distance, our of Melee range. The surprise at being pelted with jellyfish stings quickly turns into a grimace of pain, and further shifts into resolution.

With the slightest wince, she plants one foot on the ground, and pivots around, redirecting the water all around her, and magically summoning a second layer of water just below the first, to create negative pressure and disorienting currents to mitigate the impact of the jellyfish. All through this, she never stops intoning an aria which Kauchemar might know even too well by now -- the ominous chant / holy choir call-and-reponse of Parasitic Link. The two beams materialize, and Uta resumes her energy sap, even crescendo the song into being too loud to tolerate, especially as she closes in to get back into melee range attempt to sing as close as possible to Kauchemar's ears.
Kauchemar
Entrance to Aincrad

"Hah! You're already learning to adapt that new familiarity." Despite being tired and sore a smirk of rivaleous amusement still briefly graces her expression. "Makes all those attempts to drown you worth~" .... Certainly she means pretending to. Surprising dunkings had been her contribution to the training after all. She probably meant that... hopefully...

In hindsight maybe she should of personally adjusted her tactics, instead of trying to give Uta the same 'tournament' experience. Too late for hindsight now.

Darkness congeals as the Nightmare moves like a living shadow, deftly avoiding Uta's attempt to get back into her personal space. Kauchemar knows she's only delaying at this point, but she's still got a show to perform to the finale. Water streaks around her, first flowing like the ribbons dancers use... then turning into whips of watery wrath as they're lashed at the pursuing Spriggan.

"Though..." Kauchemar skids to a stop, releasing the water whip as she pants. "... You still have... the advantage of being... Bucking IMPOSSIBLE to read..."

And that's when she goes faceplant to the ground as the trickle of HP loss from the repeat lacerations finally catch up to her.
Kauchemar
Entrance to Aincrad

"Hah! You're already learning to adapt that new familiarity." Despite being tired and sore a smirk of rivaleous amusement still briefly graces her expression. "Makes all those attempts to drown you worth it~" .... Certainly she means pretending to. Surprising dunkings had been her contribution to the training after all. She probably meant that... hopefully...

In hindsight maybe she should of personally adjusted her tactics, instead of trying to give Uta the same 'tournament' experience. Too late for hindsight now.

Darkness congeals as the Nightmare moves like a living shadow, deftly avoiding Uta's attempt to get back into her personal space. Kauchemar knows she's only delaying at this point, but she's still got a show to perform to the finale. Water streaks around her, first flowing like the ribbons dancers use... then turning into whips of watery wrath as they're lashed at the pursuing Spriggan.

"Though..." Kauchemar skids to a stop, releasing the water whip as she pants. "... You still have... the advantage of being... Bucking IMPOSSIBLE to read..."

And that's when she goes faceplant to the ground as the trickle of HP loss from the repeat lacerations finally catch up to her.