2867/WMAT CQ1 Noble Six vs Setsuko Kaminagi

WMAT CQ1 Noble Six vs Setsuko Kaminagi
Date of Scene:	21 August 2015
Location:	WMAT Arena - Devil's Hand
Synopsis:	Noble Six and Setsuko Kaminagi battle it out in the WMAT qualifiers!
Cast of Characters:	38, 255
Tinyplot:	WMAT 2015

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Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The Devil's Hand is a location that Noble Six fought in the year prior. She remembers it pretty well. She's honestly a bit surprised that the two spires that are still standing have managed to survive this long. She is currently near the stands, sitting with her legs crossed, waiting for her opponent to arrive.

    There are several crates bearing the UNSC logo scattered around the battlefield. On her HUD she can see each of them marked with a waypoint so she can keep track of where the stashes of weapons are. She does wish she had the ability to teleport weapons to herself, but since that technology doesn't exist, at least not in her world, she has to do things the old fashioned way.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    The events of the past few weeks have been strange, and on some level have taxed Setsuko - both as a warrior and as a person. Witnessing death tearing apart a group of people thanks to a leader's poor decisions, fighting an enemy outside space and time, forced to face her own divinity's nature, meeting with the beating heart of another's world... so much that goes beyond the bounds of what most people can handle. To a certain degree, stopping to attend a tournament, to simply do battle with her opponent, is a vacation.

    So Six won't have to wait long before the demigod descends out of the sky, settling to a stop a bit further from the stands than Six has seated herself. There is little to be said, and so the swordswoman doesn't bother; she simply gives Six a simple, respectful nod, her left hand resting loosely on Zanjintou's scabbard.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Once her opponent has arrived, Noble Six gets up to her feet, and then kicks open the case that was next to her. She returns the nod of greeting and then grabs something out of the box, pulling the assault rifle out and leveling it at her opponent.

    The trigger is squeezed, the weapon aiming center mass, as her built in crosshairs guide the weapon towards it's target. She's not much for chatting mid-fight. She's no good at witty one-liners or taunts. She'd rather let her actions speak for themselves.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    For the longest time after her arrival in the Multiverse, Setsuko Kaminagi's style of swordsmanship had no real quick-draw techniques, beyond a single, very rudimentary one for drawing and striking in the same movement. Slowly but surely, she came to realize that it was a gap in her style; Kaminagi-ryu kenjutsu had been developed for a battlefield situation, but many of the situations and enemies she was encountering fell outside her family style's focus. And so, she sought a swordsman who could help to fill that gap. It is still not a type of attack she resorts to often. But it has its uses.

    When Six picks up her assault rifle, Setsuko lowers herself just slightly, dropping her center of gravity. She turns her body to the left, her right shoulder forward, and tightens her left hand's grip on her sheath. Her right comes around, taking a firm hold of Zanjintou's grip - and then the instant the assault rifle fires, Setsuko draws. The movement is blindingly fast, and sparks flare in the space just in front of the swordswoman; one bullet's halves split around either side of her face, nicking a pair of thin red lines on her cheeks, while the others miss her cleanly.

    In the next instant, she's running forward at full speed, a speed that would earn her a ticket on most highways, and swinging Zanjintou around in a pair of quick flicks. Each unleashes an arc of blue-white energy, projectiles that can cut through metal just as easily as her sword itself.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Thankfully for Noble Six the armor she wears is equipped with energy shields, designed to take impacts from energy weapons. The energy slashes do strike at her, and the gold shields around her flare up. She really doesn't like melee combat, but she's capable of doing it as needed.

    The gun fires again, this time unleashing al arger burst of ammunition as Noble Six jets backwards, armor equipped with directional thrusters that allow her to maneuver in short bursts forward, backwards and to the sides. No enhanced jumping, though.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    For a second time, Zanjintou whips up and around, parrying one of the shots entirely and splitting a second one in half. Three more, however, get by, one of them clipping Setsuko's left side just enough to open a somewhat deep gash. She doesn't even seem to notice it. She's too busy closing the distance, and when Six takes a short hop off the ground, Setsuko does the same.

    Being in the air, however briefly, allows the swordswoman to put on just a bit more speed, pushing her powers of flight to briefly surge forward, just hard enough to finish closing the distance. And just as she comes down, she brings her blade around, unleashing a quick one-handed strike to force the SPARTAN on the defensive and make opening fire more difficult.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The closing in on her makes Noble Six step back, taking her rifle and tossing it forward. Usually you don't throw ranged weapons but she's doing it in an attempt to distract her opponent, and knock that sword out of the way.

    As soon as she throws the weapon, she ignites those thrusters again and rushes forward, not backing down but instead charging in, leading with her right elbow to try to strike her opponent in the head with a powerful forward elbow strike.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    There is good news, and there is bad news. The good news is that Setsuko is distracted, and her sword is moved out of the way, by Six throwing her rifle. The bad news is that this is because the demigod reacts almost automatically to the thrown projectile by attempting to cut it in half. And the Zanjintou is a blade that can cut through metal quite easily. So there's one weapon down, even if it is just a minor inconvenience.

    The upshot, however, is that Six manages to land a hard elbow to the side of Setsuko's head, staggering her back a step or two. However, this puts Setsuko within arm's reach, and she's quick to capitalize. Rather than bring Zanjintou to bear, she drops low and lunges forward, seeking to get an arm around the SPARTAN's waist and slam her to the ground. And it is here that Noble Six will discover that Setsuko is inhumanly strong; she could lift and throw a Warthog almost as easily as she could an armored supersoldier.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    It does take a lot of strength to throw a half ton of armor like a rag doll, but her opponent manages to do it. Noble Six goes for a ride, slamming down hard. The shield protects against ranged attacks and energy but not against impacts like that, and she crumples.

    She manages to free herself, however, and roll off to one side. She has a knife attatched to her gear, and she draws it quickly, swinging in a wide atc at her opponent to try to slash her and get some distance between them as she backs off. She's going to need to go for one of her weapon caches soon, if she wants to advance this fight.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Setsuko is immediately back and away from her foe, but not quick enough to avoid taking a slash across her arm. It begins to bleed almost immediately, and the swordswoman takes a second to confirm that it's not going to hinder her performance before she's prepared to dive back in again. But perhaps sensing what Six has in mind, she's not willing to stay back very long at all.

    So, with her arm dripping red at steady intervals, the demigod lunges back in. She has superhuman speed, and the agility to make it work; she means to keep herself in the SPARTAN's face, so to speak, applying pressure and forcing the supersoldier on the defensive before she can make a run for a weapon cache. But for the time being, she's sticking to one hand, lunging in with a quick, precise slice aimed at Six's left bicep.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
The blade is more than capable of slashing through Six's armor, her defense not designed to deal with melee. But you play with the cards you're delt, so she shifts to her right. The blade cuts into the armor and she feels the pain of the strike.

    Her opponent is strong, fast and highly trained in melee combat. Six is also all of these things, but possibly not to the same level. Still, she's going to have to try. She quickly strikes out again, feinting with the knife before kicking low, trying to take out Setsuko's knee. If she can hinder her opponent's movements, it'll help her gain distance.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Setsuko shifts away from the knife, moving to fend it off with her blade; falling for the feint entirely, her left leg is forward, and the kick slams into her knee. But on top of being stronger and faster, she's also a fair bit tougher than an ordinary human, though perhaps not quite so extreme. The boot finds purchase and she grunts in pain, but even that doesn't seem to slow her down much.

    And the swordswoman finally seems willing to start pushing harder, for that matter. Her first move is to lower her shoulder and lunge in, seeking to shouldercheck Noble Six; not so terribly hard, but just enough to push the SPARTAN away and give herself some breathing room. That's all she needs to take hold of Zanjintou's grip with her left hand, below the right, and then to step in with a single, vicious diagonal slash, that has a lot more cutting power behind it thanks to both her two-handed grip and the forward movement. "Haa!"

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The two handed slash strikes true, landing clean on Noble Six's chest plate and slashing into it. She pulls backwards from the force of the blow, armor desperately trying to pump bio foam into the wound to try to seal it off.

    She turns around, trying to clear some space to get to one of her weapons, but first she has to get her opponent off of her. A glowing blue sphere appears in Six's hand, and she tosses it towards Setsuko. Attempting to block this will result in the sphere getting stuck to the sword, or her, should she not be able to dodge. Six breaks for one of her weapon crates after the toss, regardless of the outcome.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Instinct screams at Setsuko to get out of the way. She leaps backward, the blast going off just as she does so; it's enough that she gets away with little more than light scorching, but it has the intended effect of forcing the demigod back enough to let Six rearm.

    Unfortunately, as soon as the swordswoman's boots touch grass, she leaps again, this time forward, in a high leap that soars longer than gravity dictates should be possible. It's an application of that same power that allowed her to quickly close the last of the gap just moments before; but she doesn't even wait until she hits the ground to attack, bringing Zanjintou up and then slashing downward with it to unleash another of those bright blue arcs of cutting power.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The arcs of energy cut into Noble Six, armor shielding flaring and collapsing from the force of it, as she falls back. At least she finally got her weapon crate. She pulls something out of it, and then rising to her feet, charges at Setsuko, barreling down upon her opponent while weilding a shotgun.

    A weapon like this is perfect against someone who can dodge and deflect bullets. There's lots of shots in one single one, and it spreads out enough that you'd have to be extremely fast to evade everything from it. She racks a round into the chamber, and fires from the hip.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    That's definitely something Setsuko can't dodge. She lunges to one side, but that doesn't save her from having her entire left side peppered with slugs, most grazing, but a few embedding. Inwardly, the demigod grimaces; having those come out later is going to drive her nuts. But even here, even being shot doesn't seem to bother her, and perhaps it may be starting to dawn on Noble Six just why she seems so unperturbed - the cuts on her cheeks have all but closed entirely, the wound on her side from that initial graze has stopped bleeding, and the cut on her forearm isn't far from that either. She's healing fast enough to be noticed in a short fight.

    Between that and a high pain tolerance, it's little wonder she's learned to fight at full strength even through painful wounds. And she puts it to full effect, turning her sideways movement into a sudden spring forward, using her shoulder to press right in against Six and shove - and turning that movement into a rising slash from below.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Great. Someone with an enhanced healing factor. Six will really need to up her game to deal with that. She will need to break out the tactics she uses against Brutes.

    As the demigod comes in, Six shifts her weight and slides around the upward slash, sliding behind her opponent and moving to wrap both of her arms around Setsuko's waist. Hoping her opponent will be off balance, Six falls backwards, the intent being to haul Setsuko head over heels and drive her head and neck into the ground with as much force as she can muster.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    Despite her inhuman physical attributes, Setsuko is no heavier than one would expect of a six-foot woman in excellent physical condition. Nowhere near as heavy as Noble Six, to be certain. So with her weight put into her attack like that, she's entirely off-balance, and has neither the momentum nor the inertia to resist Six's textbook move.

    WHAM.

    But no sooner do Setsuko's head and shoulders slam into the ground than there's a sudden yank, as the swordswoman uses her flight capability to simply wrench free of the SPARTAN's arms, and pop up a good ten feet or so. It's here, while her opponent is gathering herself and standing up again, that the swordswoman takes an opportunity to up the ante.

    Zanjintou's handle doubles... no, triples in length, and the crossguard expands outward to accomodate something much broader than the katana blade. And with a sudden shimmer of divine power moving upward, that's exactly what it has - a thoroughly outrageous blade, twelve feet long and more than two wide. Setsuko swings it around herself in one quick flourish, and then simply allows herself to drop from the air, bringing the immense weapon down towards Six from above.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Great. She knew her opponent could fly, she flew into the arena, but there's no way for Six to keep up. Even if she had a jetpack, it'd be limited hovering capabilities at best. She watches the blade grow in size, the ability quite impressive. She'd take the time to admire it more, were it not aimed at her.

    It strikes home, hitting the SPARTAN with an impressive amount of force. She's lucky she wasn't cleaved in half from the hit, but her armor is screaming at her. Figuratively, of course. Alarms warning her of damage and the impact. The thruster system on the armor is severely damaged, she figures she has enough thrust left for one more use. So she'll save it for now, in case it explodes when she uses it. She still has her shotgun, though. So she'll have to use it. She fires again, racking a second shell into the chamber and firing a second time, trying to fill the air between herself and her opponent with lead shot. She's going to need to get out the big gun after this, no doubt.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    No sooner has Setsuko's attack landed, than she takes a quick hop back, turning a flip that brings the Zanjintou around with her. Once again, no sooner do her boots touch the ground than she is in action; only this time, it is defensive rather than offensive. Rather than swing that immense sword around and dodge, she puts her weapon to the kind of aggressive use that only comes with experience. It swings around in front of her, held forward and at an angle, and the width of the Zanjintou makes it enough to shield her entirely from the slugs. They deflect off into the air, about the same time as Setsuko begins another forward charge.

    She's smart enough to keep her blade in front of her until the last second, even though it interferes with direct line of sight. If anything, she could close her eyes and still be effective. But once she's close enough to reach Six, the demigod tilts the blade, shifts it to the side, and turns her momentum into a broad spin that swings her massive sword around in a horizontal whirl that comes in straight towards the supersoldier's arm... or, rather, her armament. She's aiming for the shotgun. But the sheer size of her blade makes it an attack on Six as well.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The force of the blow destroys the shotgun outright and slashes into the armor once again, sending Noble Six flying. She lands hard, tumbling over a few times before rolling to a stop.

    She pushes herself up to her feet, shields not getting a chance to recharge, as she tries to figure out a gameplan. She's not going to win toe to toe, so she'll need something else. She clears the rest of the grenades she has on her person off, two frags and one more plasma grenade, and throws all of them at Setsuko, turning to run, or at least hobble, towards a case nearby, a black one.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    This time, Setsuko is able to safely deflect the frag grenades entirely thanks to her sword - but though it is much lighter in her hands than anyone else's, it still has its mass, and she can't quite avoid the plasma grenade. It essentially goes off in her face, far enough away that it doesn't vaporize her entire front but close enough that the burn damage is going to hurt like hell for a while. It also serves to give Six a chance to open more distance, buying precious seconds.

    But once again, that doesn't seem to stop her. Even with the Zanjintou at full size, she isn't without ranged options. Shifting the weapon in her grip, the swordswoman adopts a stance with her sword behind her, and another thin ribbon of energy passes over it. "ZANJINTOU!" The blade's shape is rewritten by that line of blue-white light, shaped into a much more aerodynamic form, a bit shorter and much more curved at the end.

    And then her body heaves, every muscle straining to begin a rapid spin. "DAI!" Faster and faster, like a propeller picking up speed. "SHA!" And then without warning she hurls it, imparting all that spin to the weapon itself - which flies out in an arc, banking around to curve towards Noble Six like a boomerang. "RIIIIIIN!"

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    She has no idea how to fight against a shapeshifting magic sword. Noble Six really needs to work on how to fight magic users. Generally they go down when you shoot them, but this one seems too stuborn. Maybe she's just not shooting with something big enough.

    The armor is close to scrapped at this point, and the person inside is held together by bio foam and determination alone at this point. Thankfully Noble Six has managed to get her hands on the contents of that black case. A large, shoulder fired weapon of concentrated photonic energy. The SPARTAN laser. She rises up to a knee, the best she can manage at the moment, and angles the weapon towards Setsuko. This thing can penetrate tank armor, so it should be able to do SOME damage, she hopes. When she fires, the weapon lances out with a massive beam of red energy.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    With the Zanjintou still spiralling through the air, Setsuko starts in at a barehanded charge, looking to close the distance and let her sword return to her in the process. It's that kind of weapon, in its own way. Of course, this leaves the silver-haired woman completely unarmed for her dash towards Six, and completely without a way to defend herself. And she's not familiar with the SPARTAN Laser, no knowledge of its capabilities or output, so all she can do is watch her opponent, watch the trigger, and throw herself to the side at the instant the SPARTAN-III fires.

    It's not enough.

    Pain lances through Setsuko's body, her left side scorched badly. It didn't even hit her square-on, and it's easily the worst hit she's taken the entire fight. That dodge turns into a tumble, a roll, and for a moment the silver-haired woman lies there on the grass. At this point, she's hurting pretty bad from all her injuries; but there's still enough fight left in her that she's quickly up on her feet again, and from there she takes another one of those high, soaring leaps, on a perfect arc toward Six.

    "ZANJINTOU!"

    Her weapon returns to her hand in mid-air, and the blade reshapes in the blink of an eye to its twelve-foot configuration.

    "SHIPPU DOUTOU!"

    She takes it in both hands, tenses her muscles, and as her jump comes down towards the supersoldier, she swings, adding the force of the descent to the force of the swing. There is, however, some pulling involved; this is a strike ordinarily capable of cleaving armored vehicles clean in half. But it will still be more than enough to do considerable harm.

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    The laser is dropped to the side once it's fired, and Noble Six tries to push herself up to her feet as the massive downward strike comes in. She brings her hands up, twisting her arms and catching the blade on the armored gauntlets. The force pushes her back down onto her knees, the blade cutting through the armor and digging into the flesh and reinforced bones below. She cries out in pain, but it seems that she's had enough.

    "It's clear to me that I cannot beat you. I concede to the stronger opponent." She states, loud enough for both her opponent and the judges to hear. This is, after all, supposed to be a friendly competition. She has no problem conceding when the situation calls for it.

Setsuko Kaminagi (255) has posed:
    The blade halts instantly, Setsuko's entire body going still; and then, with a soft 'fwoosh', the weapon disperses in several slender streamers, motes of blue light. She flourishes Zanjintou briefly, then returns it to its sheath, before stepping over to hold her hand out to help Six up onto her feet. "An opponent who shows neither disrespect nor bloodthirst is an opponent I'm quite pleased with, Noble Six. And I may have won, but you gave as good as you got. If the tournament brings us together again, I'll be glad."

Noble Six (38) has posed:
    Six gets back up to her feet with the help of the offered hand, "Even if I don't make it out of the qualifiers, I wish you the best of luck in your future matches. I do believe you have what it takes to go all the way, if this match was any indication." She takes her helmet off, since it was cracked anyway, "Now I'm gonna head over to the medical tent and get stitched up."