Duelist League - Mikage vs Uta

This may not be the 'main' square of Mac Anu, but it is spacious, has picturesque buildings with porticos and large balconies which allows for safely housing spectators, canals and bridges all around to provide variety, and pigeons.

All the ingredients for a nice Duelist League match are there, except for the main ones: the duelists!

Add a pinch of Uta, who turns the corner, strolls through the tables of a cafe, and reaches one corner of the square, staff clenched in one hand as she scans her surrounding. "This is such a nice place for a fight... I'm so glad that who invited me here chose it. Or that I chose it. Not sure of who did it. Still, kudos to them."

It seems that Mikage had likely chosen the spot for this particular battle, if only because of it's location close to the Western reaches of Yamato and easy access to boat travel. It's likely that the Were Fang had been readying to return to the Palace Lands, meaning that this is a good spot to catch a boat after the battle. Not that Mikage likes boats.

Standing at a relaxed stance in the square, the Ranger already has Rama at her side, the feline giving himself a shake. She inclines her head, seeming far more 'herself' than the show that she puts on in the arena. "Hey, Uta." She offers, socially. Oh, there are a few people who might be watching from the sidelines, but it's nowhere near the sort of crowds that the tournament had, meaning Miki's nerves don't play up nearly as much.

Reaching back, she draws a bow from behid her, the arms of it extending outward as it flickers to life. Dawnbreaker is a familiar weapon now, at least for some. "Looking forward to having a match that isn't in front of thousands of prying eyes. Should be fun."

Then, she slips into a more defensive posture, an obvious sign that she's letting Uta make the first move.

Uta bows in response to Mikage's greeting. "Mikage, it's a pleasure." Uta herself looks pretty relaxed. "Oh, you mean the tournament?", Uta asks, as she takes position. "Funny you mention that. Someone from the Duelist League had tried to contact me like last year, probing for my interest in dueling the reigning champion of the tournament on this exact specific day. Of course, I'm not insane! Me? Dueling the reigning champion? Ha! No way. So I made up some excuse about having another duel /right that day/ and, when I remembered that, long ago, you had offered to spar with me, I thought, hey, you know what? I'm gonna go with good ol' Mikage. I still remembered how we met shortly after the apocalypse, and you mentioned how you were merely passable, and would be up for a spar... so I thought to myself, why, yes, that's more like it. Someone closer to my level. I'll take her up on that."

After taking care of sending the invitation for the duel and waiting for the response, unless something strange happens and/our Mikage refuses, Uta will bob a little in place, then darts for Mikage.

"KYAAAAAAAH-",

What starts out as a martial artist's scream turns soon into a gurgling melody which progressively straightens out, and as Uta launches into an attempt for a punch, grab, pull, and re-punch combo, her staff covers in chilling blue tendrils of light in sync with the melody -- ready to send icicles down the body of Mikage, in case the impact is successful.

There is a moment where Mikage opens her mouth, raising a finger in the air. It's one of those '... I should probably tell her...' moments, but then she closes her mouth again, clearing her throat. "Well, I'm sure you'd have given the champion a run for their money, either way." She comments, inclining her head. "But, I do enjoy practicing against people of all sorts. It helps me to hone my skills."

Rama gives a confused wuffle, as if he somewhat understood the conversation, but was confused, looking between the two with some measure of uncertainty. She leans down, patting the cat on the head briefly before turning her attention back to Uta.

It's quick, the attack that comes her way. Enough so that Mikage is forced, briefly, into a more defensive position. There is a flicker of electricity at her heels as she dodges some of the force of the blow from Uta's staff, though likely not all of it by a long shot.

Drawing an arrow from her quiver, Mikage loads it quickly and takes aim, firing just as she rolls up from a crouch. The attack seems to draw energy from the elements around them, pulling water and wind into a swirling vortex that moves around the arrow as it flies. Where it impacts, it explodes with the force of a tidal wave.

    Merek will take the time to find a place to settle in and watch the duel. It looks like he's wearing the dark attire he often does with the sigils on it, taking the time to relax while he takes a drink from the tea with him.

Uta makes her own valiant attempt at doding the arrow with the help of lightning around her feet, but to no avail. A sonic boom blasts Uta across the square, into a nearby bridge, and the impact is so violent the Spriggan's whole body turns all red as she's sandwiched between the wall and the elemental boosting, skewered in place by the arrow like some sort of sub sandwich of pain.

The scream alone is itself so powerful to blast through the air, rippling, and possibly impacting with the violence of a shockwave.

The scream is enough to cause Mikage to take a step back, her hand lifting to her ear as the sound rips through her system. A tiny bit of damage registers, likely to her ear drums. Even Rama whimpers at the sound, his ears tucking back.

Shaking her head, the Ranger takes a step, but seems to find that the result of the sonic assault is her balance being ever so slightly off-kilter. "Rama, you're up." She commands, trying to clear her own head.

The lynx takes the opportunity to race across the battlefield, his paws gripping against the stone. Some of Mikage's own abilities seem to be loaned out to the cat when he joins in the fray, causing bits of frost linger behind him as he races towards Uta.

The cat lashes out with claws and teeth, the freezing cold of the attacks seeming to seep in where the blows land, making the freezing effect linger over time.

There is a clatter, and Uta is on her knees, catching her breath, while her staff lies discarded nearby. That arrow is still sticking out of her chest. "Let's see, *pant*, arrows are tricky. There is a correct procedure to remove it. If I remember correctly, one is supposed to-"

When Uta notices Rama approaching, it's a blur. She somehow instinctively performs the correct procedure to remove the arrow, and after the obligatory grimace, she grabs her staff, and while swinging the latter to keep Rama at bay (without much success -- obvious red claw marks appear on her), shivering, she trows the arrow in the air, with a spin, intones a song which makes tendrils of light dance on her staff, and as the arrow comes spinning down, as if she was a baseball batter, she SMACKS the spinning projectile right on the tail, sending it flying back at Mikage, but this time enhanced with a blinding aura of elemental magic.

All of this without stopping her grappling with Rama. "Bad kitty! *smack* Bad kitty! *smack* No cardboard box for you! *smack* Wait, have we already invented cardb-WAUGH!!"

And down she goes getting clawed.

Mikage is just getting her balance back when her own arrow gets sent back towards her. It's not often that she faces another archer, so there is a moment of hesitation where she seems uncertain exactly what to do in regards to it. Luckily, her instincts are relatively strong and she rolls at the last moment, taking the arrow to one of her legs rather than a more direct hit.

Wincing, she pulls it out, with all the grace of someone who has no idea how to properly treat a wound. Afterall, she has Cyrus for that, under normal circumstances. Rama, swatted at and concerned over his companion, backs off on the attack and retreats, coming back to check on Mikage, nudging her up onto her feet.

"I'm okay." She reassures him, then looks towards Uta, a faint hint of a grin forming onto her features. "Seems... someone remembered one of my favorite attacks. Luckily, I still have it, myself." Miki explains, grabbing for another arrow.

And, as seems appropriate for this slug-fest of a fight, she returns an Empyrial Arrow right back at Uta, the arrow flying through the air, trailing light particle effects behind it.

Uta beams, with that 'Sempai noticed me!' kind of face. "I did, in fact, learn of this technique from you. During a duty, if I am not mistaken," she begins, as she spins in place to avoid the arrow and-

Another scream, but this time it's muffled -- she was prepared, and knew that dodging an arrow was quite the tricky affair, so, like Mikage, she moved just enough to get it in the leg instead of a more vital spot.

"I also learnt this technique of getting an arrow in teh leg instead of a more vital spot! Just now, as a matter of fact!"

Once again, she removes the arrow with a wince. "Wait, this is not gonna fly. I mean, both metaphorically and literally. I'm more the melee type, you see...", Uta says, and running towards Mikage with a limp, still shivering as the claw marks Rama created shortly before still pulse red (even if not as intense), she rushes up to Mikage, to stab her with her own arrow.

"Hah." Mikage breaths the sound more than actually laughing, seeming as if she were both amused, yet also obviously taking this quite seriously. The girl always fights her hardest, never known for taking it easy on anyone. "There's... always more to learn. It's a huge world, and we haven't experienced even a fraction of it." That is why she strives to explore and experience things.

With her own arrow being used as a weapon, Mikage manages to almost flicker a little, as if she were turning into a bit of mist. Likely, some of the blow would get through, but it is enough to make sure she isn't quite where Uta would have expected.

As soon as the Kung-Fu Nurse gets close, though, Rama snaps at her injured leg, trying to take advantage of the situation. Mikage, on the other hand, draws a hand upward, pulling water from the air around them and hardening it into icy shards that begin to rain down over Uta's path.

"Oh, hey! That's a cool move, how did you do the mist-AAAARGH!"

And there Uta goes, instinctively twisting at the resounding success of Rama attempting to snap at her leg, and slipping away on the icicles soon after. She has to spin her arms multiple times and wiggle like a worm at the disco to regain a semblance of balance.

Look, it's a completely legit martial arts move, okay?

The Nurse might not have Fire, but she has Air to spare -- and so, lightning bolts around her feet form soon after, to melt the ice where she stands, and gain, hopefully, at least a tiny bit of fraction. "Look, if we're fighting by proxy, two can play at this game!"

As much as she manages while dealing with a Lynx sinking her teeth into her limbs, and numerous cuts from the razor-sharp shards of ice raining down on her, she intones a bouncy tune; as she slips around in a sort of... ice skating number where blades have been replaced by continuously crackling lightning bolts, Uta keeps jabbing rhytmically at the (possibly frozen) ground with the bottom tip of her staff. Each time, the point of impact ripples in a circle of light. All those circles of light soon turn out to be summoning circles, and a downright massive number of slime disgorges from them, still in tune with the music, and bounces towards Mikage!

Granted, due to all the ice there's a number of them that just slides around aimlessly in what some might describe as the most adorable instance of bumper cars, but hey, given the circumstances, it's still pretty impressive.

"It's something I picked up... from watching the way the monsters hide in the mist... up in Ninetails." Mikage explains, with breaths between each sequence of words. It's not easy to have a full conversation while in the midsts of fighting, but she can, at least, try to explain where some of it comes from. "I can teach you, if you want."

The offer seems strange in the middle of the fight, but Miki has never been one to take any kind of spite against anyone she fights in the duelist league. It's all about growing as individuals to be better fighters.

As the slimes begin to spawn in, there is a look of surprise on Mikage's features. It's likely she's never seen this kind of summoning spell used in this way before. Enough that she takes a step back. Rama goes on the defensive, trying to bat some of the slimes away from them while Miki uses her speed to dodge between them.

It's not a perfect defense, and one gets a hold of Rama's leg, causing him to yelp and shake at it, nomming on slime in an ineffectual way.

However, it seems that the Were Fang isn't quite done with her use of this elemental onslaught. The icy rains continue, raining down on the monsters and Uta alike. Then, in the middle of it, she draws a hand back and slashes it through the air. The motion might seem strange, but the flash of her eyes suggests this somewhat plays into her identity as a Were Fang. A large claw made of ice emerges from the storm and slashes at Uta, trying to drive her back from her familiar, melee range.

"Oh, I'd love to learn-GHHHH"

Uta is, indeed, slashed back away from her familiar melee range. Her song suffers a transient iterruption: the rhythm skips, the pitch slides, and the choreographed number is thrown in momentary disarray. She has to bend over in pain for a bit, but she's quick to recover.

The show must go on.

Still with her body marked with a grid of glowing gashes, her singing voice trembling because of those obstinate chills that claw through her flesh and bones, she continues tapping. And tapping. And tapping. The slimes keep coming, to the point that now the whole square is covered in them and a second layer is beginning to form.

Good thing for the Root City protections, or there'd be a lot of concerned Landers right now.

Fighting against a bard is certainly a strange experience. Mikage has no such musical talent, so it seems as if she isn't so easy to sweep up in the music. Rama's tail does seem to twitch to it every now and again, though.

More and more slimes continue to appear, enough so that Mikage gives them a more than wary expression. Rama throws off one, only to be grabed by some others. With their shared life-link, it's enough to take down a chunk of her health, despite her attempts at dodging.

Bow still in hand, Mikage tries to get enough space to draw out an arrow, her magical energy slurping up a couple of the slimes that may just happen to be water-elemental connected. She fires, the force of the attack blasting through some of the slimes as it travels towards Uta, sending out ripples like tidal waves through the square.

Fighting a DPS is certainly a strange experience. Uta has no massive damage output, and her defense is... not a proper match for all the incoming attacks, so it seems as if she's going to be used to sweep the floor with.

She tries her best to keep some sort of dodging going, minimally empowered by magic, but massive chunks of HP get docked over and over. And once again -- that arrow comes, and blows her further away from the comfort of the melee zone.

"...Look," Uta says, panting, heavily, now that her HP is getting dangerously close to the elimination tick. "...I know how they say that..." *pant* "...those who live in glass houses should not throw rocks..." *pant* "...but..." *pant*

She approaches a purely decorative vase next to a cafe, about the size of a kiddie's swimming pool, and reaches inside it. "...I don't live in a glass house."

Oh, she's grabbing rocks from the vase, and tossing them at Mikage now, it seems.

While Uta may not be as strong a damage-dealer as Mikage, the closeness of their health bars certainly says a lot about just how skilled she actually is. Enough so that the current tournament 'Champion' is hovering in the orange zone. The two had traded heavy blows back and forth all match!

What Mikage doesn't expect, though, is to have random rocks chucked at her. She raises a hand, trying to ward them off. "Ow, hey! What the..."

Grabbing a potion from her belt, she uncorks it and tosses it down at Rama's feet. The cat makes sure to neatly dip his paws in the purplish liquid before he charges at Uta. It seems she has poisoned the little feline's claws, so that if he manages to get in a hit, it's likely to tip that damage over into the red.

In the mean time, Mikage goes on the defensive, just trying to swat away the rocks being thrown her direction.

Uta's covered in claw marks all over, and as if that wasn't enough, Rama is slashing some more in.

All of a sudden, the pain in Uta's eyes shifts from "Rama. I am sorry. I am very, very, sorry. I normally do not condone on violence on animals, and this might be a bit manipulative, but all is fair in war, love, and the Duelist League."

With a few dance steps, she skips around the lynx, twirling her staff like a baton, and then swinging it all of a sudden at Rama, as if the lynx himself was a golf ball to be shot at Mikage.

So, /that/ is what uta meant with 'manipulative': a projectile the target has an emotional attachment to.

If the shot is succesful, Uta will makes the most of the time left by the temporary respite in the attacks by singing an aria, which causes tendrils of light to dance on her staff, focus on its gem, and interwine towards Uta, raising her HP bar a little.

Rama gives a confused sounding 'rar?' just before the poor cat ends up punted towards Mikage. As he comes barreling her way, Mikage doesn't do anything at all to dodge. It's something that may seem unexpected, especially as she usually handles things with her natural quickness. However, this late in the battle, the tanks may be running a bit dry. Instead, she roars. The sound is followed with another of those flickers in her eyes, as if she were at the edge of a shift that never comes. The defense blasts backwards, slowing the attack and weaking it before Rama barrels into her chest.

Setting him down, carefully, she murmurs. "Between you... and Kauchemar... I've come far too close to shifting than I would normally like." Most people likely don't know or understand her reasoning for never revealing her monster side. Panting, the Were Fang clenches her fingers in the air, looking at them as if she were expecting them to be claws.

"I respect that." She takes a breath, drawing on that monstrous side of herself that is so often kept buried. The Were Fang doesn't change form, but she calls forth those combat techniques that are linked to that side of herself. Another of those strange, claws forms in the air, drawn up out of frozen particles.

It lashes out, sweeping the battlefield, likely catching a few last remaining slimes as it arcs towards Uta.

Uta manages to nudge her HP into an area whose shade of orange is such that, during the year where Altimit allowed the internet to exist again, there's been arguments as to whether it was actually orange or more like red.

Propping herself up with her staff, she squints at Mikage's comments. "...Uh? Why don't you just shift like all the other Were F-"

That sentence is cut short when uta is slashed through. A piercing scream is let out once again, and Uta slams against the ground, on the verge of consciousness.

As the HP bar moves into the red, the nurse whimpers.

The dueling system declares Mikage the winner, which draws a sigh of relief from Uta.

"It's over... it's finally over...", she says, rolling over.

As she attempts to push herself to stand with trembling hands, she addresses her opponent. "Hey, Mikage, you sell yourself short," the Spriggan comments with a cracked voice. Those chills are still adding a vibrato, and her muscles still shiver. "...you should consider taking part to the tournament. I'm pretty sure you'd have a chance to, like, make it to /at least/ the quarters!"

It seems almost a relief to Mikage when the fight ends. Though she enjoys the challenge of any competition, it is hard to bring any kind of pain to someone that she might consider an ally, if not a friend. Rama shakes his fur out, seeming happy enough not to be in combat, either.

"I... probably will. I'm sure I've learned a few things from you that I could take into the arena." With the fight over, much of the chill in the air calms, returning to the usual spring temperatures around them.

"As for why I don't shift..." Mikage crouches down, stroking Rama and offering him a few treats from one of the bags at her waist. "When I randomly rolled this character, the monster she was assigned was... ironic to say the least. Because when I used to play Angelic Layer, I modeled my Angel after that monster in ETO. And... my monster form looks just like my Angel." She explains, slowly rising to her feet again.

"Let's just say that people might have recognized who I was just from seeing my monster form, and I didn't really want the pressure of who I was in the real world, carrying into the game." The girl shrugs.

Uta approaches Mikage with a limp. "Oh, I've learnt a lot myself. Like, my strategy against heavy hitters is terrible. I need to put a lot of hard work into it."

And then, Uta mutters, "Ironic random character rolls. Story of my life. And of Rylen's. We... we'll need to have a discussion about that some time or other. Possibly in front of something edible and something potable, better if intoxicating. I like me some status effects in my drinks," Uta chuckles.

Mikage laughs then, the shy young woman seeming more at ease with the fighting done. There would likely be a few shop keepers in the area that might need some help cleaning up, but that's something she can manage. "Sounds like a perfect idea to me. Though, Cyrus and I are heading back to the Palace Lands soon. Lots to explore there, and... a lot of things I don't understand."

She doesn't go into the specifics, "Let me know if you head that way. Otherwise, I'll let you know the next time we're back in Yamato."

"I'm heading that way myself, yes. And if you need any help understanding things, hit me up. I think I might have a way to help," she says, cryptically.

"Of course, that might mean that my revelations might actually make things so much more inscrutable you get a headache," Uta mutters, mostly to herself, but barely loud enough that Mikage can hear her. "Sometimes, my sources even decide to skip the middlemen and give me a headache directly. Wait, what were we saying?"