Scene #6420: Dragoness vs. Yggdroid

Owner	Pose
Septette Arcubielle	On occasion, Septette finds herself with a few spare scraps of free time. It's a testament to how squeezed for time she is that she walks into the Shrine with fresh red blood spattered on her purple shawl- "it isn't mine," she jokes when anyone expresses concern, her distinctly filtered and synthetic voice providing the punchline. That and the silvery ear-fins aside, the short young lady who enters the arena opposite Cordelay seems superficially human. The lay and wrinkles of her cloak hint at an abnormally angular physique underneath, but only on keen examination. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Ms. Levail. I go by Septette Arcubielle." She pronounces it like a string of letters: R-Q-B-L. "I hope to give you an introduction to the stranger aspects of the Multiverse. Stay light on your toes, and please, do teach me what uniquenesses you have in turn." With that, she turns to her side in a fencer's stance, both arms still inside her shawl, and gives a nod. The arena shifts to a large hexagonal room, its floor and walls made of textured gray metal.
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay nods and draws her short swords, settling into her own stance - one blade held out in front of her, the other back near her shoulder. "I appreciate your kindess, Miss Arcubielle. I must learn all I can of the Multiverse if I'm to become the warrior I strive to be." She smiles gently before breaking into a sprint, rapidly closing the distance between herself and Septette. As she closes to melee range, Cordelay whips the chain on one of her swords to wrap around her opponent's arm and attempts to pull her off-balance. The other blade, however, aims directly for Septette's chest in an attempt to strike an early and decisive blow.
Septette Arcubielle	"It isn't kindness," Septette replies in a brisk tone as Cordelay closes the distance. "The more we know about each other, the cleaner our outcomes can be. Less collateral, fewer-" The chain wraps around her arm, but utterly fails to pull her off-balance: it's like trying to pull a car without any leverage! Under the shawl, her talons dig into the softer metal of the arena floor. "Surprises." The blade passes into her chest, sinking through where flesh ought to be effortlessly after piercing the shawl, and then glances off of something hard near the location of a human heart. Septette yanks on the chain wrapped around her arm, trying to pull Cordelay into reach herself, and throws a jab with her other, gloved hand. If it connects, it'll hit like a hammer despite her slight frame- just how dense is she?
Cordelay Levail	Taken off-guard by Septette's incredible and unexpected solidity, Cordelay follows along with the other woman's pull on the chain. In fact she steps in quicker than would be expected for someone being pulled along, causing Septette's punch to glance off the leather vambrace on her arm rather than striking her center of mass. Of course being hit in the arm with a hammer still hurts - Cordelay grits her teeth against the pain and decides that if she can't be stabbed, something else needs to be tried. Swinging herself around Septette, Cordelay tucks both of her swords behind her opponent's neck and wraps the chains around her throat. Surely even this super-durable young lady still has to breathe, right?
Septette Arcubielle	Septette tilts her chin back as Cordelay tries to strangle her. Her face looks human enough- but the throat, now that Levail has a decent look at it, isn't there. There's just a black metal spinal column connecting her head to her shoulders, and constricting it doesn't seem to do much of anything- it doesn't even stop her from talking. "What does being a warrior mean to you, Cordelay? To what end do you seek power?" Grabbing Levail's hand with her gloved claws, the little killbot leaps into the air with her unwilling passenger, sheds her shawl in the process, and tries to wrangle the dragoness to slam her against the ground and bury a skeletal-metal knee in her abdomen on impact. "If you don't know what you want, you'll never get it."
Cordelay Levail	Having her offense negated again causes a growl of annoyance to rise from Cordelay's throat, and she only gets more irritated when she's bodily lifted into the air. "My reason..." She hisses as she realizes what the now obviously inhuman woman is planning. As Septette descends with her in tow, Cordelay twists her body violently to the side, the two of them crashing down on their sides rather than with Septette atop her. The landing is still painful and the robot's knee still strikes, albeit with less force than intended due to the awkward positioning, but Cordelay remains undaunted. "I will live up to my lord father's name. I am the daughter of the Dragon, and my strength must reflect this! For the sake of my father and his legacy, I must become strong enough to overcome any obstacle!" She shouts out her reason defiantly and attempts to roll Septette onto her back in a reversal of their intended positions, both her blades rapidly stabbing at her neck and shoulder joints - anywhere there would normally be a chink in armor, anywhere there might be a weak point for her to exploit.
Septette Arcubielle	"Is that all that matters to you? Reputation?" Septette's shoved off of Cordelay unexpectedly- seems she didn't quite account for her opponent's alarming strength. With her left arm, she fends off some of Cordelay's savage blows- the rest don't seem to cause any injury regardless even where they find chinks in her plating, but the fact that she's bothering to actively defend herself now hints that she can be hurt after all. She takes a second or two to dissect Cordelay's movements- then her slat-like ribcage clamps down on Cordelay's arm mid-strike like a venus flytrap, trying to hold it in place. An oversized, curved blade folds out of her right forearm and glows red with heat. "Some obstacles can't simply be bulldozed with strength of will and arms, you know." She swings inwards with the curved blade, trying to bury it in Levail's side while the agile fighter is hopefully entrapped. Regardless of whether it connects, the momentum of the twist carries her to all fours, and then to her feet once more, pushing or knocking Cordelay off of her in the process. The blade folds back into her arm; she puts her fists up as if in boxing position. "You're in the middle of the ocean. A shark is circling. How do you win that fight, Cordelay?"
Cordelay Levail	A hiss of pain issues from between Cordelay's clenched teeth as the searing blade stabs into her side, Septette's twisting motion sending her rolling a few feet across the arena floor. "I've trained to fight men, not beasts. My skills are meant for the battlefield." She rises to her feet, a bit unsteady from pain but with determination blazing in her eyes. She grips both her swords and begins cautiously circling Septette. "But what I won't do is give in. I will not accept death, not accept defeat, until I can no longer move or lift my weapons. A dragon is the most powerful creature alive - a dragon does not submit to anything!" Her voice is thick with pain and fury as Cordelay charges once more, this time diving past her opponent's side and attempting to strike at what might be a gap between armor plates. Her desperation is evident, but she still refuses to give up.
Septette Arcubielle	"Every world has its 'dragons', Cordelay," Septette says in measured tones. The fighter darts in with unanticipated speed: Sept starts moving the instant Cordelay telegraphs her attack, but her inertia keeps her from moving too far. Whether through luck or desperate force, it finds a weak point in her shoulder after glancing off her forearm, wedging itself between the two sides of the joint with an uncomfortable grinding noise. "In my world, I'm it." Her expression stays placid as she wrenches the sword out of her shoulder-joint, leaps backwards over twenty feet in a spray of metal backscatter, and conjures up a glowing blue magical circle at her fingertips. It fires knife-sized icicles in an enfilading row at chest-height, but she discards the spell just as quickly to tack to the side with a blinding dash, deploy her arm-blade again, kick up another obscuring metal backscatter, and swoop in towards Cordelay in synchrony with the 'flanking' icicles with the speed and momentum of a highway car-crash. "You bloody the shark's nose," she continues in that sweetly calm tone of voice. "You're fighting for your life; it's fighting for its dinner. Make yourself not worth it."
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay watches and listens as Septette makes her move, following the ice spell out of the corner of her eye while keeping most of her focus on the robot's charge. "I see... I've always been focused on taking my opponent down at any cost. But if I can simply wear them down enough that they pull back, the objective is still complete." Cordelay smiles serenely as Septette and the icicles approach from different angles, then just before impact she drops to one knee, lowering her head below the icicles' trajectory and raising both her short swords in a cross to parry Septette's attack. "I thank you, Miss Arcubiele. This has been a valuable lesson for me in more way than one." The strain of parry such a mighty attack sends tremendous pain through her arms, but she pushes through it and wraps the chains around Septette once again, this time trying to keep her from dodging out of the way of her own ice spell.
Septette Arcubielle	Subtle adjustments to Septette's positioning ensure that the icicles simply pass through her body, as if this precise scenario were planned ahead of time: between her ribs, around her bare spine, under her chin. "Unfortunately for you," Septette observes dryly as she grabs Cordelay and tries to entangle her in her own chains, reversing the grapple, "I'm harder to bloody than most." Cordelay's keen eyes might spot a red magical circle forming on the floor behind Septette- her only warning before the tiny killbot tries to suplex her face directly into it. A fraction of a second later, the magical circle erupts into a pillar of flame that extends fifty feet straight up, liquefying the metal floor in a bubbling puddle and quite possibly doing a number on the dragon's face.
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay's eyes widen as she finds herself bound in her own chains, and despite her struggles she finds herself unable to escape having her face crushed into the circle on the floor. Then the flames erupt and, mercifully, she passes out from the pain quickly as the end-of-battle siren buzzes. When she comes to, Cordelay looks to Septette and grimaces. "I have much to learn, it seems. But this battle has taught me several valuable lessons. Thank you, Miss Arcubielle, for your instruction." She rises to her feet and clasps a fist to her chest in a warrior's salute, her expression much more demure than usual.
Septette Arcubielle	Sept just smiles a bit at the formality, and positively insists on shaking Cordelay's hand instead of some sort of salute. "Not at all! Just 'Septette' is fine, I promise. Titles are... fiddly. Everyone has their own idea of manners in the Multiverse, so it's best to project respect through one's actions and tone than through ritualistic behavior." By now her shawl's reconstituted, so she pulls it tightly around her shoulders and pats her leather satchel with a hand. "I'm afraid I ought to go now- but if you haven't already, I must recommend you peruse the merch stalls outside. The Priscilla action figures are particularly fluffy." A pause, as she turns on her heel. "Just don't let anyone sell you an invisible one, yeah?"