6601/MECC: Riku vs Katt

MECC: Riku vs Katt
Date of Scene:	30 May 2019
Location:	MECC Arena 2
Synopsis:	Riku and Katt have a fight.
Cast of Characters:	6928, 6860
Tinyplot:	MECC 2019

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Riku (6928) has posed:
Welcome back to the stage of history.

The MECC arena is hopping with the crowd anticipating the next explosive battle. That explosive battle happens to be the match between Katt and Riku.

The arena itself seems to have shaped itself into a stone bridge with a large waterfall behind, the walkway a mere two feet or so in width. Several stone pillars just up around the area out of the mist-shrouded depths.

Riku steps out onto the field, clad in his tight purple combat suit as he strides into place at one end of the bridge, looking the environment over. "Hmph. All right." He says, shaking his head as he turns it over towards his opponent. "Let's get this done." He says simply, watching Katt carefully to measure what she does.

Katt (6860) has posed:
Transcending history, and the world... wait, no, probably not.

Katt has thoroughly enjoyed her time in the MECC and this is no exception. Her excitement is infectious; as soon as she drops in, she waves to the crowd, and the crowd reacts. They were pretty high on excitement and anticipation to begin with, to be fair. It doesn't take much.

And then she turns to her opponent, lowering her staff down and resting its butt against the stone bridge. This feels pretty at home to her; in her original arena she might have had a log instead of stone, but narrow quarters is just fine by her. Her tail flicks as she watches Riku, judging.
Hernce she's satisfied, she gives a very slight nod to herself. Should be good, she thinks. "Let's have a good match," is her response. "But if you think it'll be easy, well..."

Katt grins, showing a hint of slightly pointed teeth.

But that's all she has time to do before someone rings a gong. That's a sound wired in Katt's soul; she's off as soon as it sounds out, going low to avoid the automatic swipe or thrust that many people give to a running target and trying to hook her staff in equally low, smacking at the inside side of Riku's leg below the knee to see if she can get an early off-balance strike in.

Riku (6928) has posed:
Well, this isn't exactly a tale of swords and souls eternally retold. More like darkness darkness friends hearts keyblade light hearts. But Riku looks over the staff and hums. "Huh. So that's going to be a thing." He says to no one in particular, apparently paying more attention to Katt's weapon than Katt herself. When she addresses him, his gaze snaps up. "We'll see."

A moment later, she's bolting in and smacking at Riku's leg. She hits it quickly and with great effect. He's tumbling already!

No, wait, it seems like he was already tilting off before she hit him. The impact hit, but Riku is already flipping to mantle along the side easily as a shadow whips out around up from the other side, a massive shadowy clawed hand smashing up from the other side to try to clock Katt one by surprise!

Katt (6860) has posed:
Katt reverses from her strike as she turns to follow the side-bound Riku, her staff scraping along the stone as she turns. "What, this?" she asks. "I guess you will - "

There's a claw reaching up from nowhere. Katt has already planted her staff; now she puts her weight on it, leaping and using it as a pivot and anchor. Her entire body lifts off the ground, parallel to the bridge - and then she *springs*, using arm strength alone to push away from the bridge and toward one of those side pillars.

Which she lands on, cat-like (appropriately), though only for a few instants; she bounces back off it, returning toward the bridge with intent to kick downward and try to prevent Riku from climbing back on. If he falls in the drink, that's a victory, right?

(It's not, unless he can't get back to her afterwards. And she's not really counting on that.)

"Nice trick!" she calls. "Come on, what else do you have over there?"

Riku (6928) has posed:
There's a small grunt of frustration from Riku as Katt lives up to her name and deftly dodges the attack. The rebound gets a louder yell as he gets goomba-stomped right off the side of the bridge. With that yell, he plummets towards the drink... But the water never takes him. A gaping hole opens up below, and Riku vanishes. VICTORY FOR KATT! RING OUT!

Unfortunately, however, before she can get too enthusiastic, Riku shows his soul still burns as another hole opens up suddenly beside Katt, Riku plunging out in a shoulder tackle that quickly gets followed up by another arcing slash, the Heartbrand advancing aggressively with Soul Eater to pressure her. "I've got plenty!"

Katt (6860) has posed:
Katt doesn't assume that's a victory. She could get up from that, so she assumes he can too - maybe if he was more battered he'd stay down, but two quick hits isn't going to take anyone down but a novice. She knows how hard she hit him, and it wasn't enough.

And indeed it wasn't! Though the mechanism of Riku's return wasn't the one Katt expected. Flipping up? Expected! Jumping up? She'd do that! Teleporting up through a black gap? Not so much.

"You really do!" Katt attempts to hold off the Soul Eater with her staff; said staff is sturdy enough to not break trying to deflect or stop a sword, so she assumes it will work on a weird-looking blade too. Riku does manage to sneak in a few hits despite Katt's best defensive efforts...

...which is why she doubles down, breaking her guard to attempt to shove Riku backwards, following up not with an attempt to push him off the edge (that clearly doesn't work) but rapid strikes to arm and torso to put him on the defensive instead. She's grinning, still - it's not that she's not taking this seriously, she's just having fun, too.

Riku (6928) has posed:
The sudden clash on the bridge causes the pair to begin to strike back and forth, the thin ground causing them both to focus on footing as much as the clask of blade and staff. He flicks and sweeps with an uncanny speed, working to probe and strike against Katt's defenses. Black sparks fly in all directions as he pushes her guard harder and harder... And then she strikes hard and fast.

Suddenly, it's Riku who is on the defensive, the pair fencing as his own guard is tested. His blade proves to be just as capable of defending as Katt's staff does, though he does take a few hits to the sides and chest. "You're not bad." He grunts. "Haven't had this kind of workout in a while."

As he speaks, Katt might not notice his shadow extending along the ground beneath her... And a moment later, it erupts, a large dark creature bound by white wraps, eyes glowing with golden light. Its arms are huge and clawed, the chest wide open in an empty silhouette of a heart.

The shadow creature smashes upwards, attempting to knock Katt into the air as Riku leaps forward, synchronizing his attack as he slashes back and forth through the air, bouncing off of the darkness in order to cleave through Katt's position multiple times. "Guess I have to kick this up a notch."

Katt (6860) has posed:
"I used to be a champion of Coursair. I don't fight there anymore - but I know what I'm doing!"

Against one - or, as it turns out, two, as Riku makes the fight more uneven. Katt didn't notice the shadow creeping, but she certainly notices when it erupts outward. Just not fast enough to avoid going airborne...

Since she can't avoid it, Katt moves into it, controlling her ascent and going a little more horizontally and less vertically than the shadow creature might have expected by the simple virtue of kicking off its head to change her angle. She's harder for Riku to chase down, but not impossible - she can react, but she can't hold him off in the air.

Her altered flight path takes her back to the ground faster, though she hits the bridge hard, skidding with her clawed feet trying to dig in for purchase and causing an unpleasant-sounding scraping. It's worse for Katt, like fingers on a chalkboard. "Gaaaah," is her response to that, shaking her head rapidly as she follows Riku's movements down to her -

And there! She sees an opening, just as Riku descends himself. She lunges forward, whipping the butt of her staff up in a rising vertical strike, leaping after it to add extra force; she's trying to bounce Riku off of her 'uppercut' (or whatever you call it, when it's done with a sturdy fighting staff) and send him flying down the length of the bridge. Katt yells once and loudly, a wordless noise to focus her power at the moment of bone-rattling impact.

Riku (6928) has posed:
"Sounds like a fun place." Riku replies. The speedy battle in the air seems to pit them both against each other, but Riku has an advantage with his Eidolon... and his unnatural mobility in the air, as well. He seems to be zipping all over the place!

Riku hammers down right after her, trying to keep up the pressure only for her to respond with that deadly anti-air assault. He takes the first shot right in the face, providing Katt with a satisfying CRACK. A moment later, Just befor she can follow up on the combo, however, the Eidolon whips into place and takes the hit, Riku suddenly air-cancelling and hitting the ground in a skid away from Katt. "Ggggh! You recover fast." He says, wiping blood from his puffy split lip and face. "DARKNESS!" He yells, clenching a fist. There is a flash of flame, his open hand igniting with a black fireball. He hurls it directly at Katt, the Eidolon coming in moments later to deliver a axe-handle smash down upon Katt's position to try to guard-break her moments before the flame hits and detonates!

But that's not over, as Riku leaps backwards off of the cliff, falling through a Corridor to slash in from Katt's side, striking at her with relentless attacks with his blade!

Katt (6860) has posed:
Like Riku, Katt is good at moving around. She tends to stay a little lower to the ground, though; scrambling across the bridge, though the side platforms are very clearly within her reach.

She raises her staff for a second blow just as Riku prepares his fireball. That's a good excuse for Katt to *not* do that; inshead she winds up, preparing to swing her staff at the incoming sphere of black flame like she was a batter with a particularly dangerous fastball coming at her.

It probably would have worked if Riku's shadowy partner had not joined in. Rather than smack the fireball away, she goes flat; this means the explosion doesn't hit her but the Eidolon smashes into her back hard. She lets out a sound that is somewhere between a groan and 'gkkk', without much air in there.

Riku's blow snaps her out of it. She rolls, realizes there is nowhere to roll to, and ends up right off the bridge - but somehow she's managed to swing herself around so that she's hanging on underneath. Crawling with it as cover, she gets *behind* Riku just in time to flip herself up, using the momentum of her flip to make a particularly flashy, flippy assault!

Katt is battered, but she's not yet beaten. She's really focused - her ears aren't wiggling anymore, pressed down harder against her head (well, hair). She's putting her all into this!

Riku (6928) has posed:
Riku doesn't let up, putting everything he has into trying to bring down Katt. While Katt takes her hits, she's certainly down but not out. The retaliation stops Riku's assault cold, smacking him backwards with another meaty impact... but again, the Eidolon sweeps into position and prevents her from following up and turning this back around. It's an almost oppressive presence, Riku and the dark monster strangling out Katt's options and working to simply overwhelm her.

Even as he falls backwards, Riku backflips, vaulting off of the bridge and diving into another Corridor. The Eidolon reaches out, slamming down into the pillar to send tremors through it...

And Riku slashes up through the rock, a dark arc of non-light ripping up through it and cleaving through the air! He vanishes into another, and repeats the attack from another direction, adding another hanging line.

Then he strikes again, and again, and again, and again, faster and faster as the air fills with lines of deadly black. A moment later, he flies out of the final corridor, slashing right past and through Katt's position... And with a flash and rumble, the entire area shreds in a single paroxysm of cleaving force. The pillar promptly begins to crack and tumble, crumbling under the rampant damage. It might take Katt with it if she's unable to escape!

Katt (6860) has posed:
Riku is agile. Real agile, between his air control and his ability to teleport through those darkness tunnels. Katt doesn't think any of that is cheating (she hasn't made up her mind about the Eidolon yet) but it's certainly giving him a tactic she can't match.

Or can she? Once she's back on the platform, Katt spins her staff around dramatically, pointing it toward Riku. "I've got a trick you haven't seen yet," she says, trying to track him as he passes off the platform, under it - she can't figure out how to shoot him *through* it, though if she just switches a little that won't be a problem...

There is a surge of magic from Katt as she starts to gather and then throw power - not in much of a controlled, efficient fashion but almost wildly. She's doing *something*, but she doesn't get to finish it before Riku literally carves through the stone. *That* she didn't expect at all, and it bowls her backwards, spell interrupted with a trail of light.

The light does not hold off the darkness, either from Riku's strikes or from his teleportation. When the pillar crumbles, it does indeed knock Katt off with it; she's agile enough to not get crushed, but she tumbles with it, landing in the water below with a splash.

This time she doesn't clamber out. (Don't worry. She can swim or at least float, even if she isn't a huge fan of it. And it's the MECC anyway - she'll be fine.)

Riku (6928) has posed:
As Katt shows that she's out of commission, the battle ends, the arena reverting to its basic flat plane form as the crowd cheers. Riku is announced the winner, but that doesn't keep the white haired swordsman from putting up his Eidolon and blade and walking over to Katt to hold out a hand. "Good fight." He says. "We should do it again sometime."

Katt (6860) has posed:
Katt remains flat on her back for a few moments. She spits out water in a comedic fountain, which apparently survived the MECC turning off; most of it hits her in the face again thanks to the wonders of gravity, which makes her sputter.

She accepts the hand up anyway, levering herself to her feet. She's pretty light. "Yeah!" she says, apparently in a decent mood despite her loss - she can accept a fair loss as long as it *is* fair. But... "Maybe you should leave your buddy at home, though."