345/WMAT A4 Vervi vs Zephyr Windstar

WMAT A4 Vervi vs Zephyr Windstar
Date of Scene:	04 August 2014
Location:	WMAT Arena - Gizard Wasteland
Synopsis:	WMAT semi-finals match between Vervi and Zephyr Windstar!
Cast of Characters:	162, 192, 524

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Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr, as has been her shtick for the entire tournament, comes in with a lot of flash and pomp. A spell seal draws itself onto the ground, filling with kanji and formulae, before the mage herself appears with a flash of light. She's in her off-duty attire, but that soon <span class=" bold_fg_m bg_n ++ hanges.

cm"><STANDBY. READY. SETUP!></span>

    The mage's form becomes awash with purple light, her clothes changing to her Barrier Jacket in the span of a few seconds. <BARRIER JACKET, BREEZE MODE. DEVICE SETUP, WINDSHEAR FORM>

    Zephyr flicks her right wrist, sending a small coin into the air, that then glows brilliantly, expanding into a large battleaxe which Zephyr catches with her left hand, allowing the haft to rest across her shoulders like some shounen protagonist.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi meanwhile arrives in her usual style as well. As a point of blue light from the arrival deck, trailing the glowing blue contrails from her flight pack's engines. As this is the Wasteland rather than the Stadium, she merely does a flyby over the floating grandstands, waving her arms in greeting before banking away with a rolling motion to circle the starting point.

    Swinging her legs forward, the tiny shinki arrests her momentum and pulls herself into a hover, wings and engines shifting to allow such. There's a flash of rainbow-fringed white light when her laser rifle appears and she holds it up, then sweeps the weapon down to one side into her nearly-trademarked starting posture, the same pose she'd been striking since the first round.

    "Let's please have fun, okay?"

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul says, calmly. "It seems our two competitors like big entrances. A good way to put one's enemies guard off. At first it seems to me that this must be a mismatch. A human with miraculous powers facing off against a tiny autonomous robot. But to get this far in the WMAT, I do not think either is to be underestimated."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr grins as Vervi comes showboating in. "Yeah. I'm expecting some good things from you." she then shrugs her axe from her shoulder, letting the blade chop into the ground below just slightly. <IMPULSE CASCADE!>

    That arc of the axe falling? Suddenly comes to life with dozens of small motes of light which then grow to about a ping-pong ball in size. They then lash out, gunshot-like bursts marking them hurtling out toward the Shinki. "Fuki sends her regards!"

Vervi (192) has posed:
    With a burst of blue thrust, Vervi rockets into action immediately, accellerating and ascending in the same smooth arc. She's not quite fast enough to fully escape the fusillade of magical munitions, score marks appearing on her armor and flight pack by the time she shoots free of the energy blasts.

    Twisting herself into a roll, Vervi jettisons four small objects which surround themselves in orange light and start to pursue her in a loose formation. Reaching the apex of her ascent, Vervi brakes into a hover again and thrusts her arms out to either side. Panels open up on her armor, then erupt with smoke as she fires off a salvo of missiles. While those arc towards Zephyr, the shinki throws herself into a rolling descent and accellerates again to make herself a more difficult target.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul says, "Windstar opens with an arc of multiple energy projectiles, saturating the area with them to minimize the chances of her opponent evading them. It is an effective tactic, seeing as Vervi has sustained damage. Vervi responds by deploying drones and missile salvos, accelerating into a spin to present a more difficult target to Windstar. The saturation fire does not seem to work as well for Vervi as it did for Windstar, however."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr watches the Shinki, eyes narrowing slightly. She spots the jettisoned items, then come the missiles. Divine Wind is on the ball, however. <COUNTER CHARGE, WINNOWING PULSE!> The gemstone emitting staggered pulses of purple energy, shooting down the missiles before they get in range to do damage.

    "That was a pretty fancy shot!" calls Zephyr, as she stoops gently, bracing herself to launch into the air herself. Four purple 'wings' form from her back, fluttering slightly before she leaps into the air. "Here's an easy one!"

    Zephyr holds forward her right hand, sweeping her axe back behind her as she gathers energy in her palm. <IMPACT BULLET!> calls the Device, as Zephyr fires off a wide area pulse of magic. More about the area than sheer force.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi casts a glance over her shoulder when Zephyr takes to the air, nodding briefly. In the air, it doesn't matter how big the target is. All she has to do is find the weakpoint. And she can already see a promising target. Wheeling around in a wide arc, she rides out the rattling edge of the pulse with no visible damage, only some internals shaking around uncomfortably.

    But no, she spotted a promising weakpoint in this combat mage already, and her instincts have already zeroed in on it, filling her vision with analysis and probabilities. When she glances back again, her vision zooms in on the gemstone forming the center of Zephyr's device, Divine Wind. After a few moments, all the text dialogues swimming through Vervi's sight disappear, replaced by a single flashing red prompt:

DESTROY THE CORE

    This shrinks down to the upper corner of Vervi's scanners when she whirls around, now flying backwards. Lifting her free hand, Vervi procures one of the gunpods from beneath her wings, now attached to her wrist, and unleashes a spray of high-caliber (for her) machinegun rounds aimed not at the mage, but at the gemstone forming the center of her Device. Spent brass shell casings join the pale blue thrust exhaust trailing behind her, clattering to the ground of the Wasteland below.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul continues... "Especially with anti-missile capabilities. Windstar removes the maneuver advantage Vervi enjoyed with wings of her own, taking to the air. She fires off a spread of shots again, grazing the mobile fighter robot... What are _you_ doing here?"
Jax-Ur smiles as he takes the other seat. "The General felt your commentary was lacking. Mmm... now this promises to be /exciting/. That's quite a fast little robot there, and she just went in with a hail of gunfire at Zephyr, landing a few good hits. That's going to sting quite a bit."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    <WARNING! CORE FRAME TAKING FIRE!> cries Divine Wind as those bullets pepper the gemstone and the surrounging blades. Zephyr herself shifts her grip and moving her Device out of the line of fire. "Status report." she asks, as she gets herself mobile now, surging off into the giant spires of the wastelands. <CORE FRAME DAMAGE. CORE SYSTEMS UNDAMAGED. CORE DEFENSE MATRIX AT 65.>

    "Good, you still good to go?" <YES. MY MASTER.> "Right, lets get in there... Tempest Saber."

    <TEMPEST SABER!> announces the Device, as Zephyr swings in, trailing the purple energy from her axe blades like someone drawing sparks from the ground. She rounds a spire, and aims right for Vervi with a heavy sweeping chop.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    The tiny Shinki tucks her gunpod back under her wing and then pulls out a tiny device, like a flashlight scaled for her own use. Losing sight of an opponent who has demonstrated strong melee power in previous matches puts her immediately on the defensive, and as such she's ready when Zephyr suddenly rockets back into view.

    A blue beam blade erupts from the device in her hand and Vervi sweeps it up defensively. There's no way she can turn aside an axe so much bigger than she is. Rather, she pushes off so that the axe turns HER aside. It pushes the shinki into an uncontrolled tumble, though, with the surrounding magic battering her frame.

    As she struggles to regain orientation, Vervi's eyes snap to the crystal in the axe head's center, flying past her vision as she rolls through the air. Calculating to the split second, one of her wingpods unfurls, aims, and then fires a carefully calculated point-blank blast of shrapnel and energy in a dense cone.

    Still trailing smoke, Vervi recovers and then rockets right back from whence she came, zipping over Zephyr's shoulder.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-ul seems flustered. "Windstar flees the scene, maybe to get her bearings? Vervi must have rattled her with that strafing run. And she... retaliates with a heavy-handed chop. Camera is having a hard time keeping up..."
Jax-Ur oh ho hos. "That was a nice hit by Zephyr. I think... oh, there she is. Zipping along- there it goes. Mmm... shrapnel wounds are unpleasant."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    <CORE DEFENSE MATRIX WEAKENING. CORE SYSTEM DAMAGE. BEAM COHESION SYSTEM OFFLINE.> the revelation that her main damage output is broken makes the mage tch in annoyance. "Right, looks like we're doing this the hard way... Mistral Mode, Setup."

    YES MASTER. DEVICE SET. MISTRAL FORM! The axe changes, one blade vanishing into motes of purple light, while the other becomes a bit longer, more angular and sharper. The weapon shortens as well, making it a one-handed weapon now. The biggest difference is likely to be the pair of turbine-like drones that now orbit the mage, before they suddenly begin to rapidly spin and lash out to about 100m distance from the mage, creating an 'arena' of sorts where the wind doesn't behave how it should. The mage uses this to try and smash Vervi into one of the nearby spires, the air itself suddenly gusting harshly in that direction. <MISTRAL SQUALL. IMPACT SHIFT>

Vervi (192) has posed:
    The boss pattern changes. And as soon as Vervi thinks that, she wonders WHY she thought that. Giving her head a shake, the little Vic Viper wheels around to face the mage more directly, swinging her laser rifle up to aim. And then the wind starts screwing around. With a surprised noise, Vervi is thrown aside. Righting herself immediately, she increases her thrust to counter the oncoming wind, managing to avoid being slammed into the stone spires dotting the Gizard waste.

    That isn't to say she gets out of it completely unharmed. A piece of one wing, already damaged, tears free and flips end over end until it slams into the stone, cutting into it like the blade of a knife and just sticking out.

    Shielding her face with one hand, Vervi squints over her own forearm, looking not at Zephyr or her Device, but the source of the hurricane winds she's currently fighting. After a moment to zero in on it, she lifts her laser rifle again. The barrel splits open, wispy glowing blue smoke thrown backward by the gale to reveal the seething laser core within the cannon. It charges, the glow intensifying briefly, before launching a thin blue beam at the most immediate of the turbine drones.

    She then twists, the beam still firing, sweeping the beam across Zephyr and into the second of the two drones like a cutting laser.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Jax-Ur mms. "Seems very close, yes?"
Faora-Ul snaps back. "I would expect it to be, both of them have gotten this far in the WMAT competition, Jax-Ur.
Faora-Ul squints at the monitor. "What are those? Drones? But what are they...? Looks like something is trying to knock Vervi off-course... Shifting winds, maybe?"
Jax-Ur shrugs. "Looks like it. See how the dust is whipping everywhere within the area of those drones? Oh my. A sweep of laser fire from Vervi managed to catch the drones /and/ Zephyr. I hope the medics have something for those burns."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    The drones are rugged, but they still shoot off sparks and spin less quickly as that laser rakes across them. Zephyr's Barrier Jacket smokes and shows a nasty melted scorch mark across the chestplate as well, the mage 'skidding' back in the air a little.

    "I knew you got this far for a reason." she says, grinning brightly. The mage then shifts her stance, the turbine drones speeding back up again and causing the wind within their radius to begin rapidly spinning, like a highly localized and contained cyclone. <WIND CONTROL. CYCLONE SHIFT!> states the Device, the wind itself attempting to overwhelm Vervi's jets. <COMBINATION CHARGE, CYCLONE SABER!> She's not done though, more compressed winds form along the solitary blade of her axe-device, and with a little 'dance' of bladework, a pair of spinning, boomerang-like purple energy blades spall off and angle in to strike the little robot.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi's laser rifle clicks back closed and she swerves to face Zephyr directly once more, making headway with the winds being weakened. When they suddenly spin up to an even more intense gale, the shinki is overwhelmed. She lets out a surprised shout when one wing outright tears off and she tumbles backward, striking a stone spire a few times before she can dig her laser sword in to anchor herself. Shooting a glance upward, she frowns at the incoming attack and is promplty engulfed in dust and debris.

    The burst of blue light from within the cloud, already dispersing under the wind, is plenty indicator that Vervi is still in the running. But that blue wasn't her thrusters.

    A lance of blue shoots out of the obscuring debris, aimed straight at Divine Wind's central crystal. It's soon accompanied by four ADDITIONAL beams clustered around it, all directed at the same place. She'd use other weapons, but bullets and missiles are a lot easier to throw off course with wind.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Jax-Ur hmms... "Zephyr's armor has taken a beating from Vervi's assaults. Look at those winds whip! And the little blades! Oh, it looks like Vervi took a real beating from that."
Faora-Ul hmhmhms. "It seems that Vervi has found some sort of weakness, overcoming the wind and cutting loose with beam weaponry from herself and her drones. I wonder if Windstar's weapon can survive that?"

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    <W-W-WARNIN-IN-ING. CORE FR-RAME COMPROMI-I-IZED.> stutters Divine Wind as that laser slams into the crystal, making cracks form along it and radiating out through the material of the weapon. Zephyr grits her teeth, and levels a harsh glare at the Shinki as she dismisses the axe to Standby form, the Drones vanishing as the Device is shut down to recover. "Just rest, Dee... I'll finish this fight." she says then gathers her mage in her hands, forming spell circles around both wrists, as well as under her feet.

    "I call upon the great winds. Ragios, Razgriz, Lethim." she incants, focusing on the spell, before she slams her glowing hands together, draws them back behind her. "Maelstrom Buster!" With the announcement, she thrusts her hands forwards, emitting a purple beam from her palms!

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Smoke starting to clear around a battered shinki is suddenly compounded by a violet laser beam impacting and exploding again, carving a crater into the spire's side. As it starts to collapse, Vervi shoots out of the debris cloud. Battered, scored with black marks, and trailing black smoke from one of her engines, the shinki descends and then levels out, zipping along at ground level.

    Vervi throws herself into a roll, shedding another salvo of missiles as she starts to ascend again. Behind her, the Options likewise discharge clusters of missiles, all of them arcing upward towards Zephyr.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Jax-Ur ahhs... "It appears not! Zephyr has banished the drones and her weapon and is taking matters into her own hands!" Faora can be heard groaning at that terrible pun and Jax-Ur mumbles something about it being unintentional. "I think this is called magic, right? I suppose she is named well. Windstar indeed! She blasts Vervi with purple winds!"
Faora-Ul intones "Not to be outdone, the shinki emerges from the dust and smoke, firing a cloud of missiles at the... mage?. Seems to be quite effective."
Jax-Ur hmms! "Yes, Zephyr is looking quite worse for wear compared to her opponent."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr pants from the exertion of using magic without the buffer of her Device... it's not something she really wants to do, but she'd rather put herself in harms way than risk her friend being damaged further. She watches the smoke trail, then spots the incoming missiles. "Damn..." The mage gathers to surge out of the way, but is caught by the first wave of that salvo. She jinks, and rolls through the next two, taking only glancing blows from the proximity explosions, before the final wave zeros in on her and slam dead on into her chestplate. R-R-REAC-C-CTOR P-P-PURGE! calls Divine Wind, as the chestplate detonates, sending Zephyr clear of the blast, only to slam into one of the spires, obscured by dust and debris.

    "She's tougher than she looks..." RECOVERY! notes Divine Wind, as it gleams brilliantly. "No, don---..." she sighs, then grins. "You're as stubborn as I am... c'mon then, lets show her how we do it on Mar<span class=" bold_fg_m bg_n ++ h."

    cm">WINDSHEAR FORM!</span> states the Device as it reforms, cracks and damage seemingly gone, though the internal damage is still there. IMPULSE DRIVER! PULSAR SHIFT! The Device splits open, and the dust surrounding Zephyr is blasted harshly away, as dozens upon dozens of compressed packets of wind-element magic surge forth, sounding like a machinegun firing as they spray the Shinki's path with airburst explosions.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi wheels around in preparation for another pass, her laser rifle held back under her remaining wing. Weaving through dense clusters of bursting 'flak', battering her armor and flight unit. A close burst shears off her right tailfin, throwing the shinki's flight path askew until she recovers with additional force from her nullgrav assist. This cuts her speed, though, just as losing a wing had earlier.

    But something important has happened: The weapon has returned. Along with the reappearance of Divine Wind comes the pulsing red prompt in the upper corner of Vervi's vision.

DESTROY THE CORE

    There's a clicking sound against both of Vervi's arms as the gunpods fix to both of her wrists. Kicking her legs forward, she starts to hover sidelong through the fulsillade of incoming fire while adding some gunfire of her own from the gunpods on her arms. Twin streams of high caliber rounds and twin streams of smoking brass casings littering the ground far below.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul seems smug. "It seems that we both underestimated the woman mage. Her weapon has returned to the field, though her armor seems to have detonated or has been destroyed. And there's saturation fire again. There's a lot of that, seems that both combatants have decided to deal with the other's speed with such measures. Airbursting rounds too!"
Jax-Ur scolds Faora. "You're sounding too clinical again. Hmm... I think we've seen this earlier. Is Vervi really autonomous or is she just following attack patterns? More machine gun fire, aimed at Zephyr's weapon again."

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    Zephyr doesn't let those bullets strike her weapon. She turns, showing her back and protecting Divine Wind's central core with her own body, crying out in pain as those bullets sink through the tattered remains of her armour. Blood runs from the wounds, but once the stream abates, she turns and fire burns in her eyes. "Ragios, Razgriz, Lethim. I summon forth the Great Winds." she begins, leveling her Device once more, like a cannon. The blades open, revealing the gem once more, before they begin to rapidly spin up, drawing in the local air and compressing it just in front of the gems tip. "Parijium, Gralith, Horaph. Deliver unto me a Maelstrom."

    The Device chimes resonantly, then a trio of constriction rings appear in the air before the device, forming a 'barrel'. The gem gathers magic for a moment, then 'fires' it through the conflux of gathered wind-element, expelling both in a boiling torrent of cutting winds and burning plasma. <MAELSTROM BREAKER!>

Vervi (192) has posed:
    The shinki twists herself around and dives, accellerating and still trailing black smoke from that damaged engine. It's not quite enough to get out of the mage's firing arc, though. She manages to avoid a front-on direct hit, the beam of energy searing through the armor on her damaged side, ripping off a sizable piece of her flight pack, and sending the shinki spiraling down to ground level, tracing black smoke in an attractive corkscrew on the way down until she impacts.

    On the ground, with dust clearing around her, Vervi hauls herself to her feet. Her armor is barely operable and her flight unit is just downright missing half of itself. Sparks and smoke shower from the ruined equipment and Vervi simply sheds off her flight pack completely. The gunpods from under the right wing are salvaged, fixed to her arm, and then she ascends much slower than before. Behind her, her Options still follow along in a loose V formation.

    The Gunpods, however, wink out into the Slipway as Vervi ascends. In their place, on both arms, she materializes a new weapon. Large, bulk, fitted directly to the outsides of her forearms as well as sporting support grips for her hands, these long weapons also feature elongated split barrels with visible internal electromagnetic plates. These are raised, crosshairs dancing through Vervi's vision for a moment before finally crossing over each other and turning red.

    When the cannons fire, it's not with an explosive report but with the dull TH-THUMP of displaced air. Because these are railguns, gifted to her by an opponent she defeated a long time ago. They're also normally called in fixed to her wings. But Vervi doesn't have those right now.

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul is heard smacking something /hard/, sounding a lot like a monitor being smashed against a wall. "We seem to have lost the feed. There was a rush of wind and plasma and then the camera cut out. Windstar seems to have unleashed a hurricane or similar."
Jax-Ur mutters "Patience Faora! We'll just patch in the Black Zero's sensors to our HUDs." Jax-Ur's smug voice returns after a moment. "There we are. Oh, that's quite a swath of destruction. I'm having trouble spotting little Vervi through all that dust. Let's see... There she is! On the ground! Looking much worse for wear. That was an EMP burst, a rail-gun shot!"
There's a moment of silence as the two commentators wait to see the result of the shot.

Zephyr Windstar (162) has posed:
    <RAMPART AEGIS!> calls the Device. A transluscent shell of energy appears, and flares brillantly as the railgun slugs strike it. There's an intense moment of concentration as sparks flare like fireworks from the slugs... then the shell cracks, shatters like glass, and there's a scream as the slugs punch right through the mage, knocking her clear out of the air and into a death spiral to land in a heap at the base of one of the spires.

    MASTER! EMERGENCY! WARNING! ALERT!

General Zod (524) has posed:
Faora-Ul ahems. "It seems that Vervi has knocked out Windstar, and has won the match. From the WMAT grounds, this is Faora-Ul and Jax-Ur. Good day."
Jax-Ur uhs... "Shouldn't medics be checking out Zephyr? That looked like it could have been quite nasty..."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Panting, Vervi lowers her weapons to her sides, eyes following Zephyr's descent. Those weapons wink back into the Slipway. Finally giving out, she floats down in an erratic pattern until she can settle on a rocky outcropping, surrounded by her Options. Eyes closing, the little robot gives out a soft "Whew..."

    Lifting her face, she fixes a tired but happy look on the nearest of the cameras and calls out, "Master, I won!"