2302/Xiaomu vs Fayt - Revenge of the Rematch!

Xiaomu vs Fayt - Revenge of the Rematch!
Date of Scene:	23 May 2015
Location:	Njorun Station - Ring of Philosophy
Synopsis:	Xiaomu and Fayt mix it up once again in the Ring of Philosophy, and things get somewhat weirder than they were the first time around.
Cast of Characters:	319, 578, Reiji Arisu, 707

---

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
After finishing supper (in one of Akihabara's famous meido cafes), Xiaomu made her way to Shibuya, through the warpgate there, and a nice leisurely stroll through the warpgate network brought her to Njorun Station, eventually to the Ring of Philosophy.

The 'ring' itself has been set up in the form of a boxing or wrestling ring, albeit one that's considerably more spacious - both of the fighters will benefit from extra room to move, after all - and Xiaomu's Buddhist monk-staff is currently secured along one of the corner posts. The sage fox herself is currently doing some warm-up stretches as she waits for Fayt to show up, and has a relaxed-looking grin on her face.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt arrives right no time, showing up in his usual cloths, his staff already pulled off his back as he makes his way towards the ring. perhaps unsurprisingly, he looks more than a tad nervous. "Hello? Xiaomu?"

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu finishes stretching, and moves to fetch her staff from where she left it. "You all set, or do you need a chance to warm up first?" she asks, parting the ropes for Fayt to climb in. Unless he wants to climb *over* them ... which would be fairly badass of him. Perhaps atypically so, for Fayt.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Reiji is taking a break from the endless slog of paperwork by watching his partner punch a mage. It's a pretty decent way to pass the time! He's parked outside the ring, seated on a bench in Xiaomu's corner of the arena. He may not be fighting with her today, but he can show his support!

Of course, he also remains mum while the fighters go about their business. No need for the peanut gallery to interrupt, after all.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    "I'm about as ready as I could hope to be, to be honest." Fayt says as he climbs in through the ropes, "Thank you."

     He makes his way over to a corner of the ring, calmly holding his staff out in front of him. "So... are you hoping to put another wager on this fight, or no?" Despite how nervous he looks, his voice is suprisingly clam, steady. He's honestly trying not to freak out.

Freya (578) has posed:
Freya is here to to watch Fayt and Xiamou battle it out. She sitting a bit of a distace away form the area of battle. She got a good view being 50 feet tall and all. She brought a really big bag of popcorn with her!

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu shakes her head, moving to the corner across from Fayt as she answers, "Nah, I can't really think of a good wager for this time. Besides, in a sense, this is the real payoff from last time - you showing me how much you've picked up, how well you can apply the basics of whatever you've learned."

She twirls her staff once, rings jingling as she does so, then again when she snaps the staff to a halt behind her. "Because really, if you've had time to pick up more than just 'basics,' you gotta show me how you sped up time enough to get that much practice," she grins almost-wickedly. "So. Ready?"

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    "Ready? Well close enough at least." His voice once again makes it REALLY hard to tell if he's joking or not.

    That said, holds his Staff out, pointing it towards Xiaomu. Curiously, unlikel last time, he doesn't looke like he's about to run for it.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu nods, her grin fading to a more serious look. First things first: don't stay in front of the probable business end of Fayt's staff. (Actually, she wouldn't put it past him for BOTH ends to be 'the business end' ...)

She sidesteps parallel to one edge of the ring, staying on the side of Fayt that the mage/trader is holding his staff along - and then charges in, ducking low and bringing her own staff up to knock his off-kilter. It's probably not enough to break his grip on it, though.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    AS Xiaomu sidesteps, Fayt naturally turns to keep his staff pointed at her, Though she's easily fast enough to keep ahead of him. When she swings though, his responce is to lean in, turning his staff to the side to block Xiaomu's.

    Then he start's casting. "Misfortune." of course, wih this staff turned to the side the spell fires off in the compleatly wrong direction, a small bolt of black energy flying away from the duo, but he's quick to fix that. "Turn."

    The spell suddenly turns about in midair, heading straight towards Xiaomu. If it hits her however, she won't feel a thing. instead she'd find everything she does getting harder, her attacks don't hit as hard, it's a bit harder to move quickly... it's as if everything just doesn't want to work properly, as Fayt spell tries ot push things towards the worst result possible.

    in other words? big luck debuff.

    for Fayt meanwhile... as the spell turns there's an odd buzzing sound, as multicolored electricty startds to dance around his head. A sign that a surge is starting to build.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu is already pretty well-acquainted with the fact that Fayt can steer his spells - it's one of his better tricks, and honestly, if *she* could do that, she would gleefully abuse it in any fight where it'd be a help.

So when the Misfortune spell goes flying off in the wrong direction, Xiaomu doesn't discount its existence, particularly when Fayt follows up by turning it. On the other hand, since she KNOWS he has that trick, she's splitting her attention ... and just before the spell would hit her, she drops to the mat, rolling away from Fayt -

And hoping that his own spell hits *him* instead.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    The truth is, Fayt can't quite stear his spells. He can redirect them, but it's not like he's got constant control over them. If something goes wrong, he has to issure more commands. so when Xiaomu suddenly ducks, he's surprisingly quick to speak up again. "Turn."

    There's another buzz and more electricty around Fayt's head as the surge grows, but the spell also turns around again, just missing Fayt as it heads back towards Xiaomu.

    With Xiaomu backing away, Fayt also takes a moment to do something else. focusing for a moment, his scarf disapepars in a blur of movement, only to be replaced with what appears to be a pair of blue and green wings attached to a harness Fayt's now wearing. Yep, he remembered he has wings this time.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Well, it was a gamble to try faking Fayt's spell out like that - and he's fast enough to redirect the misfortune curse that it hits Xiaomu while she's down ... and despite the curse taking hold, she grins up at Fayt. "Not bad, not bad at all .... one point in your column."

She vaults back to her feet easily enough, save for overcorrecting a bit thanks to the misfortune spell slowing her down ... and then she just takes a big ol' swing with her staff, trying to power through Fayt's guard, preferably before he can get airborne with those wings he's sporting.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Powering through Fayt's Guard is pretty easy, Fayt's not all that strong. There's a pained yell as xiaomu's staff smashes into his side, causing the mage to double over. "GAH!" It hurts, but he's not down yet. Quickly he takes aim at Xiaomu again. "Soundwave."

    What happens next is... well Fayt might owe Xiaomu an apology for this if it works. A wave of something barely visible fires from Fayt's staff, and anyone watching the fight would barely hear something. for an outside observer, it'd seem like barely anything happened. For anyone inside the spell, namely Xiamou if she doesn't get away quick enough, they'd here this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deyGuidXHAU except it's really, really, REALLY loud. Painfully loud, the spell's ment for stunning people, though for someone like Xiaomu it might end up a bit worse than that. Though Fayt would dial it back a touch to avoid being overkill... hopefully.

    Fayt needs an opening to take off, hopefully this is it.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Fact: Behind the shapeshifting, Xiaomu is a fox. A sage fox, as she frequently refers to herself - but still a fox.

Fact: Foxes have considerably more sensitive hearing than humans.

As Fayt expected, this also applies to Xiaomu - and with the big fat luck debuff already holding her back, there's no way for her to get away from the Soundwave attack; it leaves her dropping her staff, clutching her hands over her ears, and screaming in pain.

If Reiji recognizes the kind of pain that Xiaomu's in at the moment, he may be the one person in the Ring of Philosophy who understands how utterly Xiaomu is going to wreck him when (if?) she recovers ...

Reiji Arisu has posed:
Reiji waits warmly for the fireworks.

He hopes there are fireworks. His partner must be having a pretty awful day if something like a sonic attack could take her out of the fight permanently.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt actually recoils as Xiaomu starts to scream. "Damnit." He know she'd be sensitive to it, he was even banking on it, but also madea point of dialing things back to try and AVOID this.

    It was supposed to scare her, not utterly wreck her!

    Going airborn, Fayt aims down to Xiaomu and says quickly. "Positive ennrgy burst." Yes, he's firing a healing spell at her, a big one. "You alright down there? Gods damnit, that one was supposed to be dialed back!" He actually sounds pretty upset right now, upset and more than a tad shaken up. "You alright? Maybe we should stop this..."

    He's going to have to rethink a few things when this is over.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
The Soundwave spell is presumably terminated, and the healing spell actually helps quite a bit - her ears stop ringing and the headache goes away pretty much completely, allowing the sage fox to grab her staff and get back to her feet, actually using the staff to pole-vault onto the top rope nearest to her ...

And she uses it to boost her leap up towards where Fayt is hovering. He might have long enough to realize just how pissed off she looks before she tries to whack him on the head with her staff - accompanied by a particularly loud (to him) jangle of the rings affixed to the staff's headpiece. Of course, to do that, her staff has to pass right through the 'cloud' building up around Fayt's head.

And the staff is magically conductive. Maybe not HUGELY so, but Xiaomu channels power through it with some regularity. She's also muttering a brief chant when she swings her staff at Fayt's noggin.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt is...

    Fayt's kind of having a breakdown here, holding his staff close and rambling to himself. "Why did I have to get all worked up? Why did it have to be such a big deal about not holding back I HATE firing the nasty stuff at allies I-wait what are you?" His eyes suddenly go wide as he sees the staff headed towards his head, he starts to fail wildly. "Wait what are nonononon not at that DON'T TOUCH IT!" *THWACK*

    Fayt comes crashing back into the ring, landing face down on the mat. He's sort of twitching.

    What happens next is interesting, Fayt doesn't surge, the coud sorto f hags there as xiaomu attempts to deal with it. she's probably getting a good look at it right now too. It's definatly chaos, wand while weak, it's pretty nasty, though probably not too much for her to handle.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu lands a second or so behind (above?) Fayt. Fortunately, she's not stepping on him.

On the other hand, she has a cloud of chaos clinging to her staff right now, and as inherently unstable as that kind of phenomenon *IS*, she has to ground it out the rest of the way in a hurry. She plants her staff's butt against the mat, unwinding the prayer beads from her wrist and looping them about her staff near the top, then begins chanting again, something longer and more focused as she works at dispersing the chaotic energies quickly but gently, trying to smooth them back out into the ebb and flow of normal fortune and misfortune.

... which could have hilarious results of some kind, if the misfortune curse from earlier is still in effect.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt starts to move again. Slowly, he sits up, mind racing as it starts to take in some new information. He can't sense any surge build up on him, and it's way to soon for it to have dissipated on it's own, "What happened? Where did..." his eyes narrorw again as he sees xiaomu's staff. "W-what did... did you? Oh gods damnit." he suddenly aims at Xiaomu again "Fortune."

    This time, a small bolt of white energy fires at the sage fox. Unsurprisingly, it's misfortune's opposite, helping to push things towards the best result possible.

    At the very least, it'll stop whatever was left of misfortune's effects on Xiaomu.

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Although the spell hits Xiaomu as intended, she doesn't react to it this time, except maybe to lose some of the tension that marked her incantation. Once she's finished dispersing the chaos effect to the best of her ability, she lets out a breath and turns her attention back to Fayt himself.

"Okay, so ... you cheated."

And she punctuates that observation with a *HUGE* grin as she adds, "Which I almost told you that you should do, so you get high marks for fighting dirty against a nominally superior opponent. I just had to wallop you to get back at you for making my ears hurt that much, and as for the rest of it ..."

She twirls her staff, partly for flair, partly to make sure the chaos 'magic' has been dispersed, grounded out, neutralized, whatever. "Looks like instead of running out of MP, you build up an overload gauge instead," the sage fox otaku continues. "And when that meter maxes, bad stuff happens. Now, my question is, what if you could drain off that 'chaos overload' and dump it on somebody else? Because we HAVE just established that it's not like it's completely stuck to you."

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt...

    Fayt's sitting on the floor, looking up at Xiaomu and very slowly, very carefully, backing away from her, dropping his staff in the process. He's actually shaking. Between all the prodding going into this fight, follwed by his spell massivly backfiring and thne xiaomu actually removing the buildup around Fayt's head. It's a lot of information and confused, conflicting emotions to take in and it's proving to be a bit much for the little guy. "It wasn't supposed to... and you... I um..."

Xiaomu (707) has posed:
Xiaomu lets out a breath, pushing her bangs back with her free hand, then starting to re-wrap the prayer beads around her wrist. "Think I broke him a bit, Reiji, any suggestions?"

If nothing else, she can dig out a smallish package of fried tofu and hold it out to Fayt, as a genuine peace offering. "For the time being, I'm gonna call it a good sparring session ... I *think* I'm gonna say you won on points."

It also wasnt' really a test of Fayt's staff skills so much as his overall skills, but like the sage fox said, she kinda wanted him to cheat to make up the difference. And boy howdy, did he ever.

She's still kind of approving of it.

Fayt Ravus (319) has posed:
    Fayt continues to sit there, looking more than a tad out of it a muttering to himself. "I... I um..." The tofou gets his attention. Though likely not in the way Xiaomu would like. Fayt very abruptly yelps, recoiling away from her. He then starts to wobble, eyes rolling back in his head untill... *THUD!*

    Fayt lays sprawled out on his back, unconcious. A few moments later, his wings suddenly disappear, turning back into a scarf in a blur of motion.

Reiji Arisu has posed:
SUGGESTIONS!?

    Well, truth be told, the match was over pretty quickly. It wasn't so much a sparring match as a spell-slinging mixup that ended with Fayt having a minor emotional breakdown. But that's okay! That's what the school of HARD KNOCKS is for.

Or rather, that's why it's nice to have some kind of third party observer.

    "Hm." Reiji grunts from his position outside the ring. "Yes. Actually." He rises from his bench and wanders into the ring, his hands crossing over his chest. "First of all. Fay--"

Nope. Fayt has left the building.

"...Well." Reiji frowns, "I guess we should get him to medical, huh."