1141/The Black Fox vs The White Dragon

The Black Fox vs The White Dragon
Date of Scene:	13 December 2014
Location:	TARGET: Phase Rock (PR)
Synopsis:	Priscilla fights Kagenashi over Phase Rock
Thanks to:	Kagenashi
Cast of Characters:	Priscilla, 85

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Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla is not the type of person to order soldiers to evacuate. It's been a long time since last she hit a target zone, but her motivations are multifold. First, is that learning to use her new weapon will crystallize only with true experience. Second, is that the Union has just about lost its entire grip on the target zones. Third and finally, cutting through hordes of regular troops is a quick way of re-accumulating the souls she'd used to forge her new blade. It takes a significant amount of time before someone finally catches on to the other guard units disappearing and puts an end to her invisible rampage with a distress call, quickly evacuating the island of non-essential personnel.

    Priscilla is left standing in a scattering of corpses, holding a pristine sword of softly glowing cerulean metal, shot through with twisting spirals of gold. The souls of the recently departed swirl around her, drawn in by some sort of inexorable, personal gravity, before being absorbed into her flesh.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    It doesn't take very long for someone to arrive after that distress call. Even then, Priscilla has enough time to slaughter the guards lingering at the zone before any retaliation arrives, leaving more than enough time for anyone there who could have been of assistance to be cut down by that beautiful sword.

    Kagenashi arrives floating through the air, Munashi dashing along the ground instead as a swift, darting shadow. The masked nogitsune hardly spares a glance toward the corpses scattered around Priscilla before she alights on a nearby jagged rock; instead, most of her attention is focused on the obvious threat of her soon-to-be opponent. Priscilla only seems to have one weapon on hand, but judging by the death surrounding her and the souls swirling into her, there must obviously be something more to both her and the weapon she holds. Kagenashi takes note of this as she stands on the balls of her feet on that stone, her posture as upright and elegant as it is prepared for any sort of sudden movement.

    "I kept you waiting too long, it seems," Kagenashi remarks, her tone smooth and serene as she keeps her gaze fixed on Priscilla. Munashi hops up onto the stone, curling around Kagenashi's legs and mirroring her stare. "I did not realize the Union had soldiers so eager for bloodshed. Who are you, and what is that weapon you weild?"

    The nogitsune pauses, then, reaching back behind her to pull Nageki from its position tucked against her back. The long, cursed sword isn't drawn yet, however; instead, she grasps it by the sheath as she holds it down at her side in a posture that seems relaxed, but which gives her enough space to grab the handle and draw the sword quickly if she needs to. "...or are you the sort of person who would rather not waste breath and instead move straight into conflict?"

Priscilla has posed:
    For a rare occasion, Priscilla catches sight of Kagenashi before she enters the range in which she can sense her by her soul, owing to travelling through the air. The crossbreed turns to face who is obviously going to be her elite opposition, but for the time being, she leaves her sword at her side, in no kind of ready position whatsoever. Rather than cool and collected, tense with anticipation, or arrogantly bored, she seems entirely relaxed; as if having just been deep in thought while taking a meandering walk.

    "I wouldst not name mineself a soldier. I hath an arrangement with the Union, and as such, occasionally protect their interests. I wouldst say death is simply the way of war, but even moreso, it is the nature of existence." She says in her usual quiet, stilted tones. "I am Priscilla, of no titles worth mention. This blade possesses no true name as of it. It is newly forged of a most unique and powerful soul, and so I must learn its use in some fashion."

    Apparently, Priscilla isn't the type who minds sharing words before using lethal force, but she also isn't the kind of person who wants to start a conversation. The moment she has replied to Kagenashi, an execeptionally long dagger of etched and twisted silver drops from her sleeve and into her hand, which she hurls with a well practised flick of her wrist. The blade flies straight like an arrow, without tumbling, aimed straight for the nogitsune's heart. A single cut is all that is really necessary however. The slightest injury will lock the Lifehunt's sights onto her soul.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    The sudden appearance and toss of the knife manage to catch Kagenashi off-guard enough that her reaction is slightly delayed. She twists and shifts her torso to the side to avoid the strike, but it doesn't work perfectly. Her heart is not struck; instead, the knife buries itself into the meat of her left shoulder, drawing out a brief, pained hiss as blood seeps from the wound. The nogitsune stands her ground, however, moving her hand to take hold of Nageki's hilt and drawing the curved greatsword from its scarlet sheath.

    Someone like Priscilla would no doubt be able to sense the blade's nature as it's released from its sheath. By all appearances, it looks menacing enough, with its cutting edge replaced by nine curved hooks meant to tear and slice, with trenches carved into the blade from each point all the way to the hilt. The way it /feels/, however, is even more blatant. It lingers in Kagenashi's hands like a rabid, bloodthirsty beast yanking at its chains, begging and howling for its thirst to be quenched on the blood spilled across the ground and the life held in the tall, pale woman in front of it. In complete contrast to Kagenashi's composed air as she tucks the sheath onto her back and takes the sword in both hands, Nageki seems to have no wish to hold back.

    "Priscilla," Kagenashi echoes, lifting Nageki's blade to the wound at her shoulder. Her blood trickles down onto the weapon as she speaks, each droplet gathering in the trenches of the sword and starting to make them glow with a dull scarlet. "A pleasure to meet you. I regret to remark that you may have chosen a poor place to learn how to use a weapon...but, nonetheless, I wish you good fortune, for however much longer you stay standing."

    Suddenly, Kagenashi's wrists twist, swinging Nageki through the air in front of her. An arc of cutting crimson energy flies off from the blade, hurtling through the air toward Priscilla in a straight rush to cut through her waist. A moment later, Kagenashi crouches, a second's preparation before she leaps through the air to follow through on her earlier attack with a straight, downward cleave of her own weapon.

Priscilla has posed:
    "Perhaps. Perhaps not. I hath met strong Confederates and weak ones in equal measure. I shalt see where it is that thou lie thineself." It's true. She can sense the sword's killing intent as easily as she can hear Kagenashi speak. It's rare that she faces an opponent with such a fearsome weapon. It's perfectly clear from the design of the blade that it isn't meant to quickly kill, so much as to rip through flesh to cause as much pain and bleeding as possible. It also appears to siphon power from, at the very least the nogitsune's, blood.

    As the baleful red wave of energy flies her way, Priscilla swings her sword up from her side, collding head on with the cutting arc. The blade rings out like the chime of a silver bell, its inner light flashing brightly for a split second on contact, destroying the crimson light with its anti-magic properties. Anticipating Kagenashi's followup, she raises her sword overhead, but her placement is poor, leading to Nageki only sliding down its length until her grip weakens and the hooked edge bites down straight into her upper arm; tearing through her dress with an alarming ripping sound and sawing down to her bone. The spurt of blood that comes out is rather underwhelming, despite the fact that such a hit should have severed a couple of arteries.

    Biting down on her lip, Priscilla uses her failed guard to swing the heavy, golden pommel of her sword straight into the side of Kagenashi's head, yanking the dagger out of her shoulder, reversing its grip, and then thrusting it into the nogitsune's belly. A direct hit would cause an explosion of excruciating pain, both physical and deeply spiritual, and one of blood from the already existing wound. Any kind of defense that makes contact with the blade would only lessen the effect, rather than preventing it completely.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    Underwhelming or not, Nageki doesn't seem to care. It drinks like a beast dying of thirst, gorging itself on even the smallest drops Priscilla has to give. As it continues to drink, the glow of its blood-soaked trenches gradually intensifies, its power steadily growing in proportion. Kagenashi, however, isn't in a position to make use of it just yet. It's a long and unweildy weapon in its current state, not one to be used in such close quarters. Fortunately, she has enough other options available to her in its stead.

    Priscilla's counter is quick enough to catch her. The pommel cracks against her head, jerking her to the side and leaving her open to have the dagger yanked from her shoulder in another spurt of blood. Even through the daze she's endured, however, Kagenashi manages to react before she comes to further harm: in a reflexive jolt, her left hand releases Nageki and her arm comes up in front of her to brace against the crossbreed's arm. The sheath mounted on her forearm, equipped with a razor-sharp blade along its edge, is aimed to strike right against Priscilla's own thrusting arm, backed by a twisting shove from Kagenashi to add some more force on her end. Whatever the result, she at least manages to spare herself from being stabbed /again/ and learning the effects of that crippling power.

    For now, at least.

    At the same time, Kagenashi uses the momentum of her shove to yank Nageki free from its place embedded in Priscilla's arm, and, if she /does/ manage to ward off Priscilla for a moment with that unusual block, takes the opportunity to leap back and open up the distance between them again by a few feet.

Priscilla has posed:
    The forearm blade slashes just below Priscilla's wrist, splitting her skin and letting blood ooze from the hole in her sleeve it opens up, though it is obviously made of no normal fur, because the blow hasn't gone as deep as it should. As Kagenashi jumps back, Priscilla swings for her, but is too slow bringing her arm into position, letting the blade clip through the air just in front of the nogitsune instead. Thinking swiftly, and realizing she is still holding her dagger, Priscilla pivots on one foot and casts it out with another flick of her hand; sending a streaking blur of silver for Kagenashi timed to hit her before she touches the ground. The results will be far worse than the first time should it find purchase.

    Recollecting herself, Priscilla fights against her instinct to keep using the weapon that is familiar, consciously rejecting the urge to draw upon her scythe. She takes a step backward, retracts her sword, and then settles into what at least appears to be a legitimate stance; blade held at eye level, point aimed towards her opponent. It's simple to forget training in the chaos of actual combat, but she hadn't come here just to cross blades the usual way, but without the aid of her invisibility. She fixes Kagenashi with a much more focused stare.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    It's a clever tactic. With her ability to move through the air that she clearly demonstrated, she could possibly maneuver herself out of the way of the thrown blade before landing if she had time to register it. With Nageki's continued influence gnawing at her thoughts, however, and the swift thought Priscilla displays, she doesn't have much time to do more than jolt to the side in midair before the knife strikes her. This time, it cuts through her short kimono's fabric to bury itself in her stomach, spurting blood not only from that new wound but from the earlier one in her shoulder as well. The burst of raw, deep-seated pain that comes with it only makes it even more of a shock to Kagenashi, and her landing is far less graceful than it could have been otherwise.

    A pained cry hollowed out by her mask snaps out of her as she lands in a stumbling crouch. Blood stains her clothes a darker red, and her grip on her sword tightens as she pushes that explosion of agony out of her mind. Calm is reinforced, even as her breathing becomes more noticable and heavy.

    "...impressive," she remarks, her serene tone slightly disturbed by her words being hissed through clenched teeth. As she speaks, a strange, ghostly ectoplasm seeps from the mouth of her mask, glowing with a greenish-blue light. "So this is the power they spoke of, then? The power to consume life itself."

    Right after she speaks, that ectoplasmic shape jolts forward as a ball of ghostly flame rushing straight for Priscilla. It's immediately joined by another that slips around to her side before turning into a bolt of green-blue lightning, and a third bolt that comes around from her other side, and finally a fourth flame that hurtles straight for the crossbreed. As Kagenashi assaults with fox fire, she brings Nageki along to her own wounds again, making use of the heavy bleeding to let the sword drink more and more, its entire surface gradually becoming suffused in a thick, bloody steam.

Priscilla has posed:
    The barest flicker of a smile ghosts across Priscilla's lips. It isn't often that anyone actually compliments her on that. Perhaps it should be expected from someone so obviously malevolent, but she thinks it amusing all the same. "I am surprised that they still speaketh of me. I had assumed they had forgotten. For now, however, I think, thou shalt be spared of it. I didst not cometh here to ravage the soul of a Confederate as I used to. This blade is not the death of all things, but moonlight. It shalt be far kinder to thee than the scythe of mine." Apparently she doesn't mind engaging in some trash talk either.

    Beset by a volley of foxfire, Priscilla stands her ground, using her exotic senses more than her sight to track each bolt in turn. The sword flips down from her shoulder to cleave the fireball in half with a pealing chime, then sweeps around to the side to deflect the bolt of lightning. Following the swing through rather than stopping and reversing its direction, she whirls around to hit the bolt on her opposite side, but is just slightly too slow to intercept the final projectile; exploding against her chest in a ball of eerie fire, burning her through her clothes.

    No sooner has the fire washed over her than does Priscilla lunge from behind it; patently ignoring the pain of the injury for the sake of a lightning swift thrust towards Kagenashi's mid section. Advancing forward to keep up the pressure, she rams the sword in as deep as she can, before flicking it sideways back out. The blade itself doesn't cut, so much as it burns its way through everything it touches; incinerating whatever it hits with an unbelievably intense furnace of raw, magical power. If Kagenashi has any sense for it, she'd be able to tell that the blue-white haze drifting along the slicing edge is the aura of a soul so powerful that it burns.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    "What a mercy," Kagenashi retorts as she rises to her feet, a hint of sarcasm slipping into her tone. Nageki is twirled briefly in her hands, leaving behind it a trail of bloody mist and light before she holds it in front of her again while Priscilla handles the swift assaults of her fox fire. Her posture is composed again, at least as much as she can make it under the circumstances. "Unfortunately, Nageki seems to be craving more of your blood, and I cannot simply leave it unsatisfied. You have more to spare, surely?"

    Priscilla leaps through the lingering flames of that last orb, and rather than attempt to dodge again, Kagenashi instead does something perhaps unexpected. She does move out of the way slightly, but her primary focus is toward using Priscilla's momentum against her as she simply brings Nageki down and forward to run the crossbreed through with her own lunge. In the process, it's shown that the sheath of mist around Nageki isn't just for show: it seems to be a similar cutting aura to that arc of energy Kagenashi threw earlier, sheathing the tearing and ripping blade in energy that could eat through metal.

    As expected, Kagenashi herself doesn't avoid the strike, but only makes it less lethal than it could have been if she had done nothing. The magical longsword buries itself in her stomach, closer to her side than the knife had embedded itself earlier. The burning sensation is agonizing, particularly as it simply blazes itself through her side with sheer magical power once Priscilla flicks it aside. A nasty gash is torn through clothing and flesh, but even in the face of that, Kagenashi only tries to drive Nageki even deeper into Priscilla, letting it gradually consume her as it remains lodged inside her body.

Priscilla has posed:
    Maybe Priscilla doesn't see it in time, maybe she just can't react to it in the middle of her forward movement, or maybe she thinks she'll get the better of the trade, because she falls almost right on Kagenashi's blade; only twisting her body so that it rips along the outside of her midriff rather than plunging straight into her navel. It's a good thing she isn't much of a bleeder, because she's already pretty torn up; no doubt Nageki's specialty. Her sword is exactly the opposite of the nogitsune's blade, slashing with clean strokes utterly devoid of resistance, exiting out from her side with little difficulty.

    This close to Kagenashi, with both of their swords extended away from their bodies, it looks as if tthe two of them may have to break off against to gain space enough to fight, but Priscilla doesn't seem to be about to let up. Continuing forward until she's almost face to face with her opponent, she takes one extra step forward and physically headbutts Kagenashi's mask; colliding her much sturdier skull with the other woman's, and most importantly, driving her horns into her like spear points. Anticipating that the fox will reel back from the blow, she leverages the lower hand on her hilt and brings her sword through in a tight, close-bodied arc intended to sever the nogitsune's spine.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    Those horns haven't gone unnoticed. Kagenashi wasn't certain about the amount of damage they could do, all things considered, but any small detail she can notice about her opponent that may be used against her is always considered. This is one time where it pays off.

    At their close range, there isn't much Kagenashi figures they can really do to each other. Priscilla, however, hasn't shown herself to be the sort of person to manipulate distance and her opponent to her advantage, but instead to make the best out of whatever situation she's been given in combat. Kagenashi's quick thinking narrows down the likely options Priscilla will take moments before she chooses, and, fortunately, she predicts the right one.

    Just as Priscilla comes down for a headbutt, Kagenashi jolts aside, avoiding the powerful strike entirely as it passes her by. Now left perfectly aware, Kagenashi can react to the slash that follows, twisting her body in a flexible duck that spares her more than that magical blade grazing over her shoulderblade.

    The moment the blade passes her, the nogitsune acts. Several strikes follow one after the other in a whirl of scarlet fabric, each one practiced and precise: a strike to Priscilla's gut with the butt of Nageki, followed by a spin that slashes one of her forearm blades along that same spot. As she rises, Nageki follows in an upward cleave that leads into her leaping up and back into the air, and with a graceful, powerful twist, her heel comes around mid-spin to slam into the side of Priscilla's head in passing.

    Assuming Priscilla doesn't counter her right there, Kagenashi lands several feet away in a low crouch, one hand pressed to the ground while the other keeps Nageki held in a firm grip.

Priscilla has posed:
    Someone anticipated the headbutt?! Nobody anticipates the headbutt! Priscilla is actually so astonished that she almost stumbles right over, having committed too much to her forward momentum based on the assumption that she'd be transferring it all into Kagenashi's brain. She arrests her forward motion in time to prevent herself from falling over, but not quickly enough to regain her balance for a counter assault. The hilt of the nogitsune's sword slams hard into her somtach, serving more to drive her back than to drive any unnecessary breath from her. Her dress rips open again as more warm red spills from her skin, dripping down her now thoroughly streaked dress. She recovers quickly enough to interpose moonlight against nageki, showering sparks over the ground as the two edges collide; but as she swings for ther opponent mid-air, she flips out of the way, and connects with the heel of her foot straight into the side of the crossbreed's head.

    Priscilla reels backwards in much the same way she had expected Kagenashi to, visibly stumbling from the impact. The point of her sword taps against the ground from her loss of balance, rasping over the stones. As she drags it forwards, scraping over the ground to bring it back to bear, what looks to be a simple return to stance turns into a full-on swing; uppercutting the air in front of her well shy of reaching Kagenashi.

    Blue embers shoot from the tip of the sword as it carves into the earth; a split-second's forwarning of the true purpose of that swing. As Priscilla's sword swoops upwards, the sparks flare into a dazzling explosion of cerulean light as tall as she is, flashing through the space between her and Kagenashi in an instant, and detonating in a cataclysm of screaming soulfire. A well executed fake out. There isn't any way to jostle Priscilla simply by attacking her head.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    Whereas her earlier evasion had been all thanks to skill, the only real reason Kagenashi avoids becoming cloven in two or exploded from magic is sheer good fortune. She's always been trained to move out of the way of anything coming at her that looks remotely like an attack, even if there's a chance it may not hit. Especially now, when she's taken so much damage, a risk like that just isn't worth taking. So, when she sees the scrape of the sword and the start of a strong upward rush, she tumbles aside from her crouch.

    The blue magic cleaves past her, carving right through where she was a moment before, singing along her leg in passing to explode over the stones further away. A fate that only gains a glance aside from Kagenashi to note its effects before she turns back to Priscilla.

    No time is spared for banter or comments: in the opening she feels she has while Priscilla is recovering from that swing, Kagenashi rises and, in the motion of her stand, swings Nageki up in front of her. The trail of mist coalesces into another cleaving arc of bloody energy that rushes straight at Priscilla almost in a mirror of her own attack a moment prior. Unfortunately, however, Kagenashi's doesn't explode.

Priscilla has posed:
    It seems Priscilla really is still getting used to her sword's abilities, including when and where to use them. It's certainly an extremely powerful blade, but she's clearly much less experienced with it than Kagenashi is with hers. She inwardly curses herself for taking such a risk while deliberately fighting with unfamiliar equipment in an unfamiliar style, especially as the slashing red mist cleaves through her front and splits her already wounded stomach across. There is a much more significant spurt of blood with that attack, but no gorey entrails to be seen; simply some kind of nebulous red with seemingly indestructable bone underneath it if it hadn't been cleaved apart by that attack.

    Unable to stop herself from reflexively clutching her wound, Priscilla gathers her power again and takes a harsh, stomp forward; lashing her sword across her field of vision with another blinding wave of light. Contrasting to the previous attack, the new blade of magic is a wide plane of cutting force; too high to easily jump over and too low to duck under. All the same, it explodes with equal fury to the first, after carving a stone-splitting line into whatever it hits.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    Kagenashi isn't built for simply standing and taking a hit, as her struggles have clearly shown. She is agile, certainly, and powerful when attacking, but every hit she has to endure is one less she can afford. If she can't evade, there's little else for her to fall back on.

    The cleaving plane of magic is one such situation. With its size, Kagenashi doubts she has many options, and at this distance she doesn't have much time to think them over. So, in the hopes that her sword may show a similar effect against Priscilla's magic that Priscilla has shown to hers, she brings Nageki up to try and block the cleaving arc.

    It doesn't work out quite as well. The magic strikes, then violently explodes, catching Kagenashi in the blast. The nogitsune is sent flying, her smaller frame tumbling and rolling along the stones until she manages to right herself and come to a halt on the balls of her feet. It's not a comfortable effort, considering the damage she's endured to her abdomen, but Kagenashi has thrown out all concerns for comfort when it comes to battle.

    Before she rises, Kagenashi's entire form becomes consumed in black. It only lasts for a few moments, but as it does, two more shapes branch off of her and slip away, humanoid forms that suddenly fall to all fours. Their outlines stretch and morph, and once color returns to them all, Kagenashi stands flanked by two black foxes, each with eyes of gleaming silver and each standing almost shoulder-height to her.

    Without another word or motion from Kagenashi herself, the two foxes suddenly dash toward Priscilla with remarkable speed. Their mouths open, the opalescent orb in each of their tongues shimmering brightly, and in their maws they each begin to gather greenish-blue flames that lick at their teeth in curling, ghostly tongues.

    Rather than try to attack from a distance, however, the sprinting foxes instead both pounce on Priscilla with vulpine cries, aiming to bite and scratch at her with sharp claws and teeth made scorching by the fox fires burning in their mouths.

Priscilla has posed:
    Priscilla supposes that Kagenashi's sword must be more than a bloodthisty old relic if it both survived that blast, and also protected its owner enough that she wasn't incinerated on the spot. Swinging it twice in a row though, has temporarily exhausted her already low reserves of spiritual power, meaning that she can't follow up with a third, as much as she'd like to. She's forced to wait and watch as Kagenashi forms her strange, vulpine shadow clones, catching her breath as the wound across her stomach gradually stops itself from bleeding. Still only able to hold her sword with one hand, she attempts to stand ready against what she assumes is going to be a three pronged assault, despite clearly not having the stamina for knock-down, drag-out fights like this.

    She is swift enough to catch the first fox as it pounces; cleaving straight through the shadows with the blade of magic-repelling moonlight. The second gets to her too fast, forcing her to raise her arm to protect her throat, and let its burning teeth sink into her flesh. Audibly gasping in pain, she holds her arm out far enough that the creature is left dagling from it, before running it through as well, leaving her with only one opponent again. Not seeing any other way to end the battle if she simply keeps firing projectiles and summoned minions at her, Priscilla is forced to sprint the intervening distance, going for one swing, only to plant her heel into the ground and withdraw it into a tight spin instead, slashing out at Kagenashi's legs, and then her arms with a second sweep, and then straight at her neck, moving with significant though not incredible speed, but with precise, disorienting motions instead.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    The foxes are, in fact, quite real: clones of Kagenashi herself, as flesh-and-blood as the rest of her. Of course, that comes at a price, for dividing her body also divides her power, and none of the three are as strong as Kagenashi herself would be alone. The first finds herself with the blade burning into her side and sending her tumbling away with a vicious magical wound, while the second twists aside just enough that the blade doesn't just drive through her chest. The impaling wound is still dangerous, however, and that large fox finds it difficult to endure that grave injury and remain fighting once she lets go of Priscilla's arm and falls to the ground. With both of the clones left whimpering and struggling to stand, Kagenashi is left alone to deal with Priscilla for the moment.

    The crossbreed takes advantage of the situation, rushing ahead to Kagenashi to begin a direct assault. The cerulean blade flies, but fortunately Kagenashi remains alert. Blue meets red as Kagenashi is forced on the defensive, barely avoiding severe blow after severe blow as she twists Nageki into position to block the sword of moonlight, occasionally lifting her arms to make use of the blades there instead. Even then, Kagenashi can't yet find an opening to make an aggressive counter: all the attention of her main body is spent on enduring Priscilla's strikes while her two clones struggle to find their footing again.

    The last blow could easily kill her if she were only a moment too slow. She twists, lifting Nageki alongside her body and barely catching the shimmering blade against the base of Nageki's own blade and stopping it just shy of reaching her throat. The momentum, instead, pushes the sword of moonlight down along that cursed sword, letting it cleave a deep, burning gash of magic into her shoulderblade. Finally, Kagenashi gives a more direct expression of her pain, crying out more sharply and buckling for a moment under Priscilla's blow. She at least manages to keep the sword from moving any further, but she doesn't seem able to push Priscilla away.

    Fortunately, her clones at least have enough strength to lift their heads toward Priscilla from where they are. It's a situation Kagenashi hopes to take advantage of: if Priscilla thinks the two foxes are dead or at least incapable of retaliating, maybe she can manage to catch the half-dragon off guard with further trickery.

    Coordinated by a single mind, three motions suddenly come at once. All of the primary Kagenashi's strength is focused on pushing Priscilla's sword aside while she slips out of the way of the descending blade in an effort to get her off balance. At the same time, the two foxes behind Priscilla blast a bolt of burning, ghostly lightning each at her back, twin strikes meant to take away her stability even further.

Priscilla has posed:
    It seems that Priscilla has finally started to find her pace with that sword, but possibly too late. Forcing Kagenashi back on the defensive doesn't mean much as wounded as she is, and it's unlikely she'll be able to keep that pace up long enough to score a killing blow. With both of her arms damaged, it's the best she can do to keep the nogitsune pinned for those few moments, not having the strength over overpower her. As her opponent dives out of the way, her blade traces a cerulean arc into the stone below her, seeming to put her off balance just as she had expected. However, Priscilla doesn't need to be facing the two foxes to know that they're still alive. She doesn't usually divulge the nature of her extrasensory abilities, letting them instead appear as precognition.

    Just as if she had predicted it, Priscilla sways to the side just as the lightning bolts pass her; scorching a black mark through her side and impacting the crystal behind her. Clearly on her last legs, she ignores the foxes in favour of attempting to eliminate their creator before they strike again. In a strange move, she lifts her blade up off the ground, swings it once around her body, and then lets it go at the apex of its arc; sending it spinning through the air towards Kagenashi's back, having enough mass to fly a considerable distance.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    The magical blade strikes true. With her body split as it is, Kagenashi can see Priscilla's attempt developing even with her main body's back turned away. It does not, however, mean that she immediately has the strength or ability to counter in time. She turns, hoping to strike the blade away with her own, but the effort isn't made quickly enough. Priscilla's sword embeds itself in her lower back, and with a freely-loosed cry of pain, Kagenashi falls to the ground. Bleeding freely from many deep wounds, struggling as she is just to stand, there's probably not much more she can manage soon.

    Her pride, however, isn't going to let her back down at this point. She's been worn down, but so has Priscilla. If she can manage a few more strikes...

    It's an effort, but Kagenashi manages to push herself to her feet. Priscilla's sword remains in her back for the moment, embedded deeply but not running her through completely, and while she doesn't stand completely upright, she doesn't need that much space. With a sharp grunt of effort and pain, she pushes herself forward to close the gap between them. What she does is twofold, making up for her current weakness and exhaustion with versatility to make every move count.

    Nageki comes across first, cleaving in a slash aimed at Priscilla's legs, but it's more of a faint than a direct attack. She expects it to miss, moving it slower than her usual force in an effort to fool Priscilla into thinking she has no strength left. In the middle of that swing, however, she lets go of Nageki with one hand and moves that back to the sword still lodged in her.

    It's a painful tactic, but one that Kagenashi hopes will catch Priscilla off guard. The crossbreed's options are already lessened without a clear weapon at hand, and hopefully, as Kagenashi yanks the sword of moonlight out of her back and drives it forward to drive it into the pale woman's heart, she won't be able to avoid the damage it will inevitably cause.

    Kagenashi hopes that this will end it, because if not, she has just left herself very open.

Priscilla has posed:
    For an instant, Priscilla thinks that she has already won. Her incredibly risky tactic seems to have paid off with a direct, heavy blow to Kagenashi's fleeing back. Before she even notices that the sword hadn't hit dead center in her spine, she can't /fail/ to notice that the woman's soul hasn't freed itself from her body. Knowing herself out-armed, she produces her long bladed dagger once more, reverse gripping it and bracing it at an angle to her forearm to deflect the swing from Nageki, only to fall for the feint; lacking the experience of a true swordsman herself. She sees the lunge coming, and is perhaps too slow to move out of the way.

    The sword goes in straight through her chest. Right between her ribs, dead center and out the other side. The crossbreed appears transfixed by the agony of the moment, impaled straight through. There's just one important fact that Kagenashi doesn't know about Lordran's dragons however. Many warriors have made the same mistake and died. Every single one of them can survive blows through the heart and lungs without incident. The organs are essentially obsolete. Perhaps she really had been too slow, or perhaps she had intended all along to suffer such a greivous injury for one last chance to strike back. Nobody but Priscilla will ever know.

    While Kagenashi is still close, pushing her body forward onto the hilt of the crossbreed's own sword, Priscilla instead plunges the length of her dagger into the nogitsune's thigh. Even should she suffer it in full, such an attack normally wouldn't be fatal. In that instance however, with her body already so badly weakened, there would be almost nothing left to resist the Lifehunt. Should she be so unlucky, the moment the blade breaks her skin, pain unlike any other would explode throughout her entire body as it is torn apart from the inside. Existing wounds would spurt blood and rapidly begin to turn black and dead. Worst of all, would be the sharp fangs of utter oblivion clawing at her soul; biting and rending in an effort to shred her essence, the very concept of her being, into tatters.

Kagenashi (85) has posed:
    Kagenashi is nowhere near able to hold up against an attack of that extent at this point. She has too many wounds already, and with an attack like this that seems to magnify them, it's only a question of whether or not she gets hit to survive. And, in her last desperate assault, she /does/ get hit.

    Blood flies. Wounds seem to lose their vitality. Agony strikes through her body and spirit. Even the fox clones of her experience the effects, and the air is abruptly filled with not only her own human scream, but the ear-raking vulpine shrieks of those two foxes as well.

    Between the injuries and pain, Kagenashi loses consciousness before she can even fall. Her hold on both weapons loosens, leaving the moonlight sword embedded in Priscilla's back and letting Nageki clatter to the ground before Kagenashi herself crumples into a heap, still and silent.

    Nageki, however, is not. Uncontent and ever-hungry, it seems to cry out in desperate need for someone to take hold of it. To satisfy its bloodlust, to quench its thirst with the lives of others, to feed it with shared power and cause rivers of blood that it can continue to drink and drink...

Priscilla has posed:
    Though disappointed in herself that she had to resort to using the Lifehunt yet again in the end, Priscilla can't feel too bad about it for the simple fact that it had saved her life. She barely remains conscious through the effort of wrenching her own sword from her chest, biting down the urge to scream as it comes out foot by bloodied foot, letting it clatter to the ground as she stops to try and regain her composure while the pain fades. She delays only just long enough to make sure she isn't going to pass out, and to retrieve her weapons, before turning invisible before the Confederate reinforcements arrive, knowing she is in no shape to fight them. She probably won't make it all the way back before she passes out, so delaying to finish Kagenashi off is out of the question.