432/WMAT AF Vervi vs. Ariel

WMAT AF Vervi vs. Ariel
Date of Scene:	17 August 2014
Location:	Papaya Island - Stadium
Synopsis:	The WMAT Bracket A finals are here! Ariel, the magical construct, fights Vervi the technological construct in a battle for supremacy of the adorables! Things don't quite go as planned.
Cast of Characters:	37, 106, 135, 168, 192, 219, 231, 395, 545
Tinyplot:	WMAT

---

Ariel (219) has posed:
The stadium! Ariel has fought here before, and it was pretty unnerving. All those people! And the finals, too! It's going to make her even more nervous, especially right after the disturbing thing she just saw. But... she is here for something to prove as well now!

"Right!" The unicorn girl nods, wearing a cloak and tunic as a sort of adventurer's gear. Her hood is down, and the humanoid unicorn's horn glows briefly as she claps her hands. "Let's do this, Miss Vervi! Ah... and good luck!" Mixed signals, a little bit?

Serori (37) has posed:
    Serori is in the stands wherever Amalthea isn't. Previous matches have taught her this valuable lesson. Do not sit near Amalthea. Do not look at Amalthea. Watch the fight, and cheer, but do not cheer where Amalthea can hear you.

    For once, she's not got food in her way. She's come to focus on the competition -- to see what it is Vervi and Ariel can do when the heat's on.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    Yuri Stinson is here and he's totally shooting fireworks into the air. Well, not fireworks so much as flares from a flaregun, but the principal is the same! The Supernal Exalt traipses around the edges of the Arena, "What an exciting match! Two great competitors that both are trying their hardest. Two polite young ladies that want just as much to have fun and be good sports as they do to win. This won't be the most high-powered match in this tournament, but it is definitely a clash of two amazing sports."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi has fought in this arena before, as well! Though her response to the roaring crowd was something less like nervous anxiety and more like showy cheer. It must be a shinki thing, they are somewhat designed with the idea of being show-fighters.

    The tiny robot girl swoops into the arena in full armor, trailing twin contrails of glowing blue behind her that form a smooth arc with her movements. Approaching the square arena floor itself, she banks and circles the ring, raising her empty hand to wave to the crowd throughout the entire circuit.

    Once she's back where she had first entered the ring, the shinki swings her legs forward and adjusts the angles of her engines, bringing herself to a hover. Her beam rifle is raised, then swung downward at an angle, trailing glowing blue mist.

    "Okay, miss Ariel!" She nods briefly as well, "And good luck to you, too!"

    The closest thing to a handshake, given the size difference, must be pleasentries.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila is in the stands, in a new dress and looking much better. She still has circles under her eyes, but just getting a good drink and food has done wonders for her. And... she has a voice. A very shrill, loud voice.

    "GO GET HER, MOM!"

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea is here. Serori was right to choose to sit somewhere far away from her. For the unicorn is settled in her seat, tofu dog in one hand, a big gulp of beer in the other.
    Her eye is glowing and her very body is radiating a menacing fighting aura.
    It is rainbow colored.
    And to think she's only just watching.
    Waiting...
    From the distance ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE STADIUM...
    That glower seems to linger on the Saiyain.
    C-could she have seen Serori from that far away?
    Nah couldn't be.
    One loppy ear flit-twitches as Lila uses the M-word so soon.
    It deflates her aura entirely as she chokes on her beer.

Ariel (219) has posed:
MOM? Well, Ariel did say she adopted Lila. Now she has to deal with it. "Eheheh..." Ariel shrugs and gives a little wave to Vervi, returning the semi-salute! "Right! Here we go!" She gets into a fighting pose then and there, tucking her Magius Wings back and prepping them for battle as well! But she doesn't use them, or any other punching or the like. Not from the start.

The unicorn girl focuses, concentrating hard... then whips out two fingers and makes a gesture, sweeping downward. Abruptly, the air around Vervi will blur a little as it's compressed by the gravity trap beneath the Shinki, trying to overload her flight and stress systems with enhanced gravity.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi straightens where she floats, eyes scanning across the stands. She does recognize several faces and quickly understands the number of friends that her opponent has made. Rotating in place, she scans some more, searching for at least one very specific face. By the time she's rotated back to face Ariel, though the smile stays on her fac,e Vervi's earpods droop slightly, "Ah... Y-yeah."

    A sudden attack from below starts pulling her down. With a squeak of surprise, Vervi increases her thrust to ascend back to her previous altitude, stressing her airframe. A fighter who can attack indirectly is something she'll have to be wary of! A second burst of thrust hurls Vervi out of the gravity trap and into the air, ascending in a smooth blue arc, accented by a rolling motion. Numerous ports open up on her armor, jettisoning small objects. Four of those adopt an orange glow and follow her while the rest--shaped differently--suddenly erupt with thrust out the back end and arc down upon Ariel.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    Yuri is by the side of the ring with a mic in his hands now, "Oh and the battle kicks off! Vervi is scanning the stands for any sign of someone, and seems very disappointed. The poor girl barely notices the opening attack from Ariel pulling her down. She looks startled at this and quickly moves to compensate! She wants to come in with a volley of her missiles, opening with a peppering of explosives."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel can guess who Vervi is looking for... and she does feel sorry for her, but also happens to have a good idea of WHERE Nathan is. But right now she has to try to block those missiles! The wings on her back whip around to try to block... but not at the right angle, resulting in explosions that batter the girl and send her tumbling back with a startled squeak! She actually flips over, rolls, then comes up on one knee with one hand on the ground.

"A-ah... don't worry, Miss Vervi, he's doing something important to save lots of lives, I think. In Aunt Priscilla's home. I'm sure if he could Uncle Hall would be here cheering for you. You know how much he cares about you." It's an attempt to... er. Encourage her opponent. Maybe not the best idea.

A flash of light bursts from her hand then, and from the ground below a crackling arc of electricity lashes out. It's not very strong though... Ariel's still a little new at using her powers in that manner.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    For someone so small it's about comparable to being struck by lightning. Especially when one is comprised largely of metal. There's a crackling and a popping sound when one of her primary fuses blows, hurling smoke out a vent on the back of one of Vervi's engines and she falters. She wants to scream but instead holds it in, grip tightening on her rifle's stock.

    He said he'd be here!

    Shaking her head, trailing black smoke mixed in with the glowing blue of her own exhaust, Vervi banks sharply, reaching under one wing with her free hand. There's a click, and when she brings it back forward, her under-wing gunpod has affixed to her forearm. Aimed downward as she circles Ariel at a respectable distance, Vervi opens fire with a stream of high caliber (for her) ammunition, spewing brass shell casings out the back as she flies.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "What an incredibly nice girl! Ariel takes time out of the match to encourage and bolster her opponent's spirits, easily telling the sadness in the other girl's figurative heart. What amazing sportsmanship that we have here! But not to seem TOO soft, she also blasts Vervi with electricity."

    Yuri winces, watching Vervi get struck by electricity, "Ouch, and that zap looks like it hit Vervi a little bit too hard to react to Ariel. But the thought counts! Just like those smatterings of bullets will hopefully counter her towards victory!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
Two of the bullets connect. Ariel was faster this time, more prepared, her wings curling around to act as a shield against the stream of projectiles and deflect them at odd angles, kicking up stone chips around her. When the wings whip back to reveal her, she's clutching her shoulder, but her own chitin and toughness has absorbed most of the shock of what got through. On top of the burns though...

Ariel does see Vervi's upset, so she decides maaaaybe she shouldn't try to cheer her up. It might make things worse.

"Ah... sorry!" Why is she apologizing? Well, she's fumbling a little now, remembering at the last moment to keep moving with a darting dash to the side. Her hand comes up and casts another crackling bolt, this time directly, but it's poorly-focused and disippates some before it hits. If she's lucky she hit square on.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    All Vervi can do now is look good for the recordings. She accepts that much, at least, rolling in flight and accellerating with a burst of thrust that causes the hastily-aimed lightning bolt to fly through where she had been rather than where she is. Even her trailing Option drones zip out of the way, flanking her to avoid the bolt rather than following immediately behind.

    She pauses herself mid-roll and swings up her beam rifle, the barrel splitting open. At the shinki's current velocity, the billowing blue smoke from within is blown back, adding a third trail of that color behind her and exposing the rifle's glowing inner core between the cannon's protective casings. This weapon is lifted, then thrust downward at an angle, directed straight at Ariel while Vervi circles.

    Her smile is gone, her face neutral now and lit by the bright blue of the beam that lances from her weapon's muzzle, sustained for several seconds until the rifle's barrel closes once again.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "While it doesn't look like she did much damage, she certainly caught Ariel off guard with that maneuver! And both of these girls seem very kind-hearted, despite the quietness of Vervi in contrast to her more talkative opponent who is apologizing for feeling like she hit the Shinki a bit too hard!" Yuri narrates, holding his mic, ""Ariel blasts back with more lightning and Vervi weaves herself out of the way nimbly, moving to roll and then come in with some laser fire from her rifle."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Uh oh. Ariel is moving, but she can tell something else is on its way regardless. The girl quickly holds up a hand to deploy a shimmering barrier... and that's what keeps her from getting hurt even worse. The beam burns right through the shield, but it gives her time enough to brace and let it lance across her arm... which crackles with energy. A deep scoring burn cuts right across her arm, giving rise to a short cry of pain... but it's not nearly as deep as it should be.

In another moment, Ariel huffs and starts to charge forward, dashing in several steps before jerking to the side, returning some of the absorbed energy that weakened the lase by blasting it toward Vervi in a brief, crackling and more focused bolt of electrical and mana power. "Ah... you're so small I um..."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi squeezes her eyes shut when she's electrocuted again, flightpath faltering. Something blows in her already damaged engine and the glowing blue contrail is suddenly blotted out by black smoke. Armor crackling, she cracks her eyes open. Flexing her arms, the girl pulls out of her dive and accellerates again, banking sharply.

    "Small..? I got this far..." she mutters, "..I won't give up..!" Ports flip open across her armor, "Not now..." The sharp bank becomes a swift roll, jettisoning another mass of missiles in her wake, "...Not ever!"

    The flare of thrust from this latest salvo reveals it's somewhat larger than her initial volley, all arcing around in smooth curves and zeroing in on Ariel's body joints rather than her center of mass, targeted in clusters.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Things are really getting intense here. Ariel is moving quickly to try to deal with this laser attack, but still takes some damage from it. She focuses in and fires back a bolt of that same shocking attack, but more concentrated. Still, her soft nature seems to be holding her back from going all out," Yuri notes, watching the fight carefully, "Vervi seems determined and serious, but I'm beginning to wonder if she might be in her head too much. I hope she doesn't miss the forest for the trees and lose out on enjoying a good fight in her rush to win! Still, she fires back with several salvos of missiles."

Ariel (219) has posed:
The mass of missiles is a little too confusing for Ariel to bring her wings to bear... at all effectively. She lets out a short, shrill cry as she vanishes in an explosion... well, several explosions. This is going to leave her scorched, battered, and leaking a little silver fluid when the smoke clears. "W-well, yeah. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to fight you."

Evidently it wasn't meant in any negative manner, Ariel is just botching her socials tonight.

She's also leaping though, jumping straight up, then rebounding in midair to launch herself toward Vervi. One of those dark, paper wings swipes out, attempting to smack the options and Vervi aside hard enough to smash them into the rock. She knows how tough Shinki can be, so there's no need for her to hold back too much.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea's BATTLE AURA has returned between slugging gulps of her beer and scarfing another tofu dog she has acquired.
    She emphatically rises to her feet, sending glitter -EVERYWHERE-.
    "ARIEL REMEMBER! THE FLYSWATTER TECHNIQUE! USE THE FLYSWATTER TECHNIQUE!"
    The one she tried teaching Ariel specifically to eliminate pesky fae.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Struck in midair, Vervi rolls from the impact, losing altitude perilously fast. She recovers herself before she hits the arena floor, however, and zips across the red tiles in a weaving fashion, scarce inches from touching the stone-covered arena floor. Glancing back over her shoulder, through the billowing smoke from her damaged engine, her expression is shown to be suddenly much more intense and focused.

    Those eyes dart across Ariel's figure, picking out weaknesses in her defenses. She uses her wings as shields, but has trouble maneuvering them at certain angles. The missile salvo showed her that much. The monitor's eyes narrow and she banks into an ascending arc. The beam rifle disappears in a flicker of light from the Slipway and she reaches back, collecting her second gunpod. The bank deepens, the shinki's ascent canceling out until, quite suddenly, Vervi is diving straight for her artificial foe.

    Raising the initial gunpod, Vervi opens fire with another spray of bullets while she approaches, strafing Ariel with gunfire. This is a feint meant to get the pony girl's guard up, however. Vervi's actual goal is to zip right past Ariel, still rolling, and fire into an unprotected spot point-blank with her second gunpod--which is not a machine gun. Instead of bullets, it fires a dense cone of energy and shrapnel, ejecting two smoking red cartridges out the back immediately after.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Ariel is focusing in on this fight. She doesn't quite know how to deal with the incoming screen of ballistics and takes a bunch of pretty hard hits for it. That did look like it stung. She's still trying to get her opponent to relax and enjoy herself a bit, though, it seems. She goes to try to ground the Shinki with a shot from one of her wings." Yuri says in a now-hushed tone, watching the match.

    "Vervi is still only speaking when she has to, silent and focused on her fight. She is definitely playing to win here tonight and wants to bring as much as she can to the field. She might be trying to weapon-swap to keep a much larger opponent on guard and make herself less predictable. It looks like her next attack is a high-speed shotgun blast."

Ariel (219) has posed:
The wings come up, but that's a mistake this time. Those wings need to be tuned to take various attacks, and a shotgun blast is different from a beam or high-velocity projectile. The blast hits... and tears through, shredding one of her wings. It doesn't seem to HURT Ariel, physically, but it does deprive her of that wing and shield, and some of the blast bucks against her arm to make her flinch, popping it back into place. Steam vents from her shoulder, steam that condenses with flakes of silver to say there's some kind of internal injury there.

Ariel has nothing to say but a heavy sigh this time, her tail flicking before she ducks aside now, moving to spin about, charge Vervi, and... fling glitter into the air before her. Shiny, reflective glitter.

Which she then pulses with a jolt of electricity to make a sudden crackling cloud of lightning, trying to keep Vervi occcupied while the damaged wing regrows. "You're being way too serious about this..."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Banking away sharply as she usually does is Vervi's mistake. It carries her right into the electrified mist and, from within, there is a shriek of surprise and pain. When the shinki emerges, she's tumbling, hitting the arena floor with a clattering and sliding to a halt where she remains for a moment, shuddering.

    As she picks herself up, her damaged engine emits a burst of flames and black smoke. The blue thrust returns, then putters out completely as she stands, "You don't understand. All I have is Master."

    Her remaining engine flares to life, battered wings angling to carry her aloft once again, though slower than before. Forming up on either side are her Options--missing one from the formation due to the lightning storm she'd just flown through. Floating up to about eye level, she pushes her hands out to either side, panels opening on her armor once more, "He's not here and I don't have everyone cheering for me, so I have to try my hardest!"

    Another swarm of missiles erupt from her launchers. This time, they're accompanied by similar salvos fired from her Options, all launched outward and then converging on her larger foe from multiple directions.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Ariel, bless her heart, is still trying to get Vervi to open up her heart through the magic of martial combat! It's just like one of those animes as she makes a heartfelt plea, telling Vervi that she is taking it too seriously. Trying to get the small robot girl to relax a bit, while still keeping up her lightning-based offensive," Yuri says into his microphone.

    "And Vervi is slowly opening up. She's fighting for her Master, who couldn't make it today, so she's fighting all the harder. Can Ariel make her understand that more than victory, her Master would want her to enjoy having made it this far?" Yuri Whispers into his microphone, "For what is a victory if we do not enjoy the journey? What would the tournament be if she fought so hard she couldn't appreciate her final match? Truly sadness. Equally sadness for Ariel are those swarms of missiles coming at her."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Missiles everywhere... and Ariel's wing isn't finished regenerating! The little unicorn is vulnerable, and though she leaps away and tries to block, one side of her is utterly exposed. The explosions rattle her and slam HER into the ground, rolling a few times before she skids to... all fours, bleeding now and with definite scuffs and darker marks of bruises. Chitin doesn't bruise like flesh, so it looks a little weird.

The singular wing folds in, and the battered unicorn peers at Vervi. Then she stops still and says, "Unless my opponent wants me to resume and finish, I forfeit."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    If Lila calling Ariel 'mom' killed Amalthea's BATTLE AURA... ... This kills it faster.
    For a beat, a perplexed look flits across the older unicorn's face. But. She doesn't take it poorly.
    Amalthea leans back in her seat arms folding across her chest.
    She is smiling.

Al Azif (135) has posed:
    "WHAAAT?!" Al is in chibi form, the tiny girl jumping up and down in the stands atop an inverted cup. "No no! You're supposed to hit back harder! What have we been training for?"

    Grumpily the girl sits down on her cup, fuming. "I don't understand Master at /all/."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Obscured by smoke for several seconds, Vervi remains where she was when she opened fire, revealed as the smoke dissipates to still be holding her arms out in the initial pose she'd struck. The look on her face, however, has changed from determination to shock and surprise. She even looks a little hurt.

    "...You're just going to give up..?" Lowering her arms to her sides, the shinki floats closer, flanked by her Options, "But why? You came so far. I don't think you want to quit now." Eyes closing, she raises her hands to clasp together in front of her chestpiece, "We both fought hard for the ones we care about. I think Master would be sad if I gave up. Even if he's not here to see me, I still want to fight for him."

    Eyes opening, Vervi's nearly on the verge of tears, "Did you really come so far just to give up?"

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    Yuri Stinson finally steps foot into the ring from his position on the outside. It's a dramatic action that seems to echo across the arena and stadium a single bootfall signalling a halt to all things for the Master of Ceremonies is present. He walks towards the center of the ring purposefully, "Ladies and gentlemen, what you are witnessing here is truly worthy of note. Ariel, who was willing to concede this match rather than let Vervi become so engrossed in her obsession to win, has finally managed to break through to the tiny combatant."

    He sweeps a hand sideways and the entire Arena goes PITCH BLACK. With a snap of his fingers, two spotlights turn on on, one framing Ariel and the other framing Vervi. Yuri himself is completely vanished in the blackness, "Here, in this arena, Ariel has made Vervi understand. It is not that you win... and it is not that you lose. It is that every battle is an experience. A meeting. A relationship. Every battle that two people fight forges a bond that they can never separate from. A fleeting instant in time where they saw eachother in the purest possible sense. Where they knew eachother not by the trappings of a society or by the masks we wear to speak. But as two, raw beings locked in a struggle, communicating nothing but their desire to move forward."

    He can be heard pacing the arena as he talks, "Ariel, whose heart opened, willing to forsake victory for the sake of Vervi's dreams. Vervi, stunned by the realization that perhaps she did not appreciate the moments of the fight, begs Ariel not to give up."

    All the lights come up at once, igniting into technicolor strobes that flit across the arena before it all settles out and Yuri walks towards them both, "So. Will you two continue your match, or will this be the end?"

Ariel (219) has posed:
The appeal gets Ariel to smile. "I just needed to know you wanted not just the victory, but to see it to the end like that." Her ears splay. "All right... I'll finish this fight with everything I have. Please get ready!" She doesn't want to seem lke she's using that plea to her advantage! "I'm going to continue now."

She'll thus wait for Vervi to look ready to resume, and for Yuri to step aside, before moving again. And when she does... she's moving fast. On all fours now, her speed is boosted, and the thundering leap carries her up high. Her horn angles down to release a much more focused stream of crackling mystical lightning, restarting the battle with a crackling *THOOM* that lances through the stone, regardless of if it hits Vervi.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Amalthea sips her beer and places a hand atop Al Azif's head. "You picked her as a Master, you're going to have to get used to the fact that this is what my daughter does."
    Her tongue sticks right out.
    It's black, for the record.
    Oop, there's that BATTLE AURA again.
    "NOW GET BACK TO FIGHTING OR I'LL BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THE -/BOTH/- OF YOU."

Vervi (192) has posed:
    "It's not winning!" Vervi barks out, "It never was!" Her remaining engine roars to life and hurls her backwards from where that lightning bolt strikes, electricity crackling over her armor but mostly dispersed at this sudden range. A second burst of thrust brings her to a halt and she thrusts out her free hand. The beam rifle materializes in her grip.

    "Master would be disappointed if I accepted that! Not just in me, but in you, right? He's your uncle, after all." Her eyes close, still teary, but there's a small smile on her face, "But just because I don't care if I win or lose..doesn't mean I won't do my best, because Master wouldn't want me to fight any other way!"

    Her eyes snap open in the same instant her beam rifle's barrel separates, its core obscured by glimmering blue fog hissing from its interior. There's a pause and then it fires that searing lance of blue light, sustained in a beam that she sweeps in a swift but narrow arc. Around her, Vervi's three remaining Options also open fire with the same beam, each one turning in a different direction.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    And just like that, Yuri has dashed out of the ring. Athletics stat. Learn it.

    His mic is back up to his mouth, "And we're back into the second half. What a tense first half and the second only promises to be better. After giving her opponent time to get back into position and prepare, Ariel comes out of the gate swinging! And Vervi seems like an entirely different girl. They're swapping attacks now, but you can feel the difference in these two now. This is the fight it should have been all along."

Ariel (219) has posed:
The fight is on in earnest, and Ariel is getting pretty serious about it too! She slams into the arena on all fours, skidding around with her horn still glowing. The beam is charging up, so she knows she needs something to stop energy. Which means...

"Elder Sign," she incants, lowering her horn toward the Shinki. The beams lance out... and strike a shimmering barrier of white energy, formed in a twisted star shape. Energy crackles along it, but does not penetrate the ultimate defense. "It's the finals! I guess we don't need to hold anything back!"

Such a defense can only be held for moments, though. The timing was just right. It fades swiftly, leaving Ariel thundering through to kick off the ground and shift back to humanoid form in midair, thrusting her hand forward for a sudden burst of mana and lightning to explode toward the options and Vervietta Shinki.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    The shield is a surprise, but one that Vervi adjusts to quickly. She sweeps her free hand to one side, scattering her Options into a wider formation. This does make her stationary for a split second, and though she tries to accellerate again, it's not enough on a single engine to evade a thrust like that. Her reflexes take over, placing the shield on the back of her rifle in a defensive position to protect her body and face.

    One of her tailfins snaps off, however, and part of the damaged engine housing sears off with it in a shower of sparks.

    Trailing smoke from the shield and her damaged engine housing, the shinki ascends in a swift arc, rolling overhead with a laugh, "I wouldn't want it any other way~!" She flips in midair and thrusts out her free hand, with the gunpod still mounted to her wrist. This immediately opens fire with a spray of rounds, brass casings pouring out the back. In their locked positions, her Options also open fire with similar shot, all coming from multiple directions, "All we can do is our best! Even if I lose, I lose knowing I tried my hardest and didn't give up! And that is how I want to make Master proud!"

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "OH MAN." Says Yuri, slipping back into his goofy announcer mode, "Ariel Invokes the strongest of projectile defenses, as anyone in the community will tell you: EX Green Fist. The regular green fist, not that good, but once you get the bars to throw the EX version it just has amazing frame advantage and is just a great punish on projectiles, as veterans will tell you. So many options for comboing from that, too. If Ariel were a bit faster, I feel like she could have turned that into a 720, or at least an SPD. It's just a great move. You don't normally see it from someone her size, so that's just splendid." Yuri is leaned over the side of the arena, calling this match directly into the mic as he watches.

    "Vervi takes that hit HARD, but doesn't give the link to Ariel, causing her to drop combo potential and that is gonna be a wasted bar of special. Still good damage on the board. Vervi on the other hand is going to move into zoning tactics here. She wants to play footsies, because that's where she's best. Keep the opponent at mid-long range, keep them out of melee, and she will just keep throwing that projectile spam out, trying to deny Ariel any chance to close in."

Ariel (219) has posed:
Ariel turtles, or attempts to, with her arms tucking inward and her wings curling around. The shells just brutally tear through the wings, slamming several into her chitin to make loud, disturbing cracks, both the sounds and the seeping wounds that start to spread over her chest and arms. She staggers back a few times, amidst drifting papers, and sways briefly. The damage is really starting to take its toll, as seen by the limp.

"Ah... I guess not..." she breathes, dropping to one knee. She needs a moment to recover... and she decides to gain that by sacrificing the torn wings, which blast apart with a flutter of paper.

Paper that swirls, changes direction, and slices inward with unnatural sharpness and hardness to the pages, trying to slice through armor and floating options in a flurry of shearing attacks while Ariel assesses her damage.

Lila (545) has posed:
    Lila has a soda. Through the whole 'forfeit' and the stirring speech, she'd slowly started to pay more attention. Now she is staring HARD at Ariel, still trying to slurp her soda through the straw despite it being long empty. That's an intense look.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Once again, flying backwards this time, Vervi brings up her laser rifle to protect her body and face with its mass and its shield while she becomes surrounded by razor-edged shreds of paper. They cut like steel, slicing through unprotected housings and ripping both of her wings off. Her remaining engine gutters out with a flash of flame and black smoke, and the muzzle of her rifle is severed off cleanly, exposing the core, which explodes when ruptured.

    Her flight pack ruined, Vervi descends until she hits the arena floor with a clattering sound, bouncing and then sliding to a stop as a smoldering heap of parts. Hauling herself up, Vervi's armor slides off her battered, scorched body, sizzling in a heap around her feet. Only her headpiece, scratched, remains. Breathing out a low, soft breath filled with steam from what may be a ruptured coolant system, she raises her arms overhead.

    There's a flash of prismatic light from the Slipway as Vervi produces new weapons from within it, mounted to either arm at the wrist. Normally, these are called in mounted to her flight pack's wings at the bases, so on her regular body they look quite oversized. These are raised, braced, as the elements lining the twin barrels' interiors glowing an intense crackling blue.

    With a *WH-WHUMP* of displaced air, Vervi's gauss cannons fire twin 9mm slugs at supersonic velocity.

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    And Amalthea casts a sidelong glance at Lila from the corner of her eye. Wordless, subtle, and deep. Like she's constantly keeping the girl in the edge of her gaze while she, herself, starts inching closer and closer towards the edge of her seat as the fight progresses.
    And then Vervi blasts those gauss cannons.
    "J-jesus christ."

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Ariel is coming in strong. She wants to attack with paper! Those pages flutter around her and then come in to try to shear through Vervi's defenses and cut down the robotic opponent!" Yuri shouts, leaning in some more, "Vervi definitely takes some nasty hits, too, losing a rifle and taking some severe external damage. But she wants to come swinging with a big attack of her own. She brings out a gauss cannon and sends two big slugs right at Ariel."

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Uh..." Ariel is still trying to recover her mobility, so... she's frantically thinking up some defense. Her body is venting silvery steam even now, and she's forcibly putting her limiters back in place from where they're slipping again. Darn Hazel.

All told, she doesn't want to risk trying the Elder Sign again, as that may burn out too much of her body, and she's gotten too many injured joints to move fast enough. Both slugs slam right into her chest, just below the shoulders, and send out sprays of silver fluid while knocking her on her back.

The unicorn girl rolls a few times, then staggers up with an unsteady look. She can't actually get to her feet fully, but with a click of her eyelids her topaz eyes refocus again. "O-ow..."

She doesn't have much left to give. Her hand rests on the stone below, sending a surge through it. Not electricity, this time, but of another spell... flipping the gravity for an instant to try to lift one of the cracked stones behind Vervi and slam it down on the Shinki. It should embed her hard enough to disable, without having any chance of damaging the CMS.

If she succeeds.

Vervi (192) has posed:
    Vervi lifts her gauss cannons, wobbling unsteadily from the weight and the lack of counterbalance her armor usually provides. The huge weapons disappear into the Slipway so she can move again, taking a quick step forward and out of the heap of wreckage left by her destroyed armor. She pushes a hand out, gesturing to her remaining Options, but the command never comes.

    The first thing she spots is the shadow spreading from behind her. Whirling in place, the shinki stares up at a GIANT ROCK. There's a squeak of surprise. She turns, leaps and promptly gets smashed.

    Like a bug that didn't quite get squished, Vervi's shot out from the crack between the arena floor and the stone she was squashed with, clattering to a halt and completely lifeless. The CMS is intact--they're sturdy--but the impact combined with all that mounting damage may just have knocked it loose and immobilized the shinki completely. Even her eyes are lifeless.

    That'll be fine once her vital components can be re-seated! Really.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Ariel takes a massive hit, but manages to barely stay in the game after it. The hit knocks her to the ground and you can really see the damage from that move showing. But she doesn't want to give it up yet, and she places a hand on the ground and..." Yuri pauses tensely, "And yes, Vervi is flipped upside down and has that huge stone dropped on her. She is down for the count and Ariel is the winner of the WMAT Bracket A!"

Ariel (219) has posed:
"Yaaay," Ariel mumbles weakly. She WOULD have more enthusiasm, but she's kind of woozy. The unicorn girl scoops up Vervi - carefully - and then shuffles over to place her somewhere safe.

Then Ariel sort of just... falls over. "Mom? Wake me up in three weeks. I think I need new parts." Which is kind of an exaggeration because Ariel is mostly organic, but hey, that doesn't stop Lest, does it?

Ellestaria (231) has posed:
    Lest is eating popcorn. Not a taco, but popcorn. When Ariel actually /wins/ though, she looks startled enough to stop and set it aside. "She's growing even faster than I'd thought," the Atlantean notes, standing up to pick her way down the stands. "Excuse me... excuse me. I do need to see to her medical needs. I never imagined she'd make it all the way this year..."

Amalthea (395) has posed:
    Though Amalthea has but one eye it is trained upon the match, the unicorn edges closer and closer to the edge of her seat until she is standing. Ariel took a horrible injury but... To Amalthea it is almost as though time slows down. Pupil dilates, and her breath is held, the elder unicorn's face runs through a myriad of expressions. Horror, excitement. Tension. Every piston and gear within her body locks, watching her child give that final last ounce of her strength.

    And she realizes: IT'S HAPPENING.

    And then there are just no words. Just a lot of squealing, and rainbows and glitter -EVERYWHERE-.

Yuri Stinson (106) has posed:
    "Congratulations to both competitors, their close friends, and family. An excellent match to capstone the Bracket A Championships. Ariel, I hope to see you back next year. You may not go on the way, but your heart prevailed this time. Vervi, since I know she will see this recording when she wakes up, fought valiantly and..." Yuri turns and looks right at the camera, essence flaring up a bit, "... whomever she was looking for should be deeply apologetic for not showing up."

    And then Yuri bows, "I've been Yuri Stinson, The Dark Hero. Your Master of Ceremonies for the night. I have a chess match with Ligier, so I will see you all later." And then he vanishes in a puff of smoke.

Nathan Hall (168) has posed:
    Where's Nathan been?

    Wherever he's been, he's here all of a sudden. Mixed in with the crowd? In a private booth nobody could see him in? Only just now arrived? Maybe it's not clear. What's clear is that now he's descended from above with a flare of artificial wings, landing heavily and skidding to a stop right where Vervi's landed.

    Nathan quickly and very, very gently scoops her up, even though shee's been deactivated, keeping her body softly cradled in his palm. "You did very well, Vervi." He says, simply, in spite of her deactivation. "I'm proud of you." Maybe he was supernaturally summoned by Yuri? Who knows. He immediately sets about making sure the CMS is okay, and he gives a quick and appreciative nod to Ariel as well. "Vervi certainly made you earn this." He says, eithr having seen what happened or simply seeing the look of her.

    He'll probably head out to give Vervi all the personal repair she needs in just a little while, though, yep.