Scene #7736: Shaking off the Rust 1

Owner	Pose
Count Kord	Kord waits for Staren. He's been training regularly among the virtual fields to get back into tip-top shape, and now he can be found seated in a virtual castle wall, in a royal-looking chair. He has a small side-table, and a metal cup in one of his hands that he's sipping from as he waits. His strange flat tail sways and flicks behind him like a cat anticipating its prey, looped out through the back of the chair and around one of the chair legs. His own legs are crossed, one ankle resting on the opposite knee, his foot idly bobbing. His scythe sits nearby, resting on the back of the chair. The environment he chose was a large, ornate castle lit by stars and moonlight. It's surrounded by a dark, ominous forest, creaking with the distant sounds of... Pokemon. Yeah, he's a stickler for the homemade noises. An ideal setting for him to utilize his own abilities.
Staren	Staren opens the door and is briefly given pause. She expected an arena... he's sitting in a throne outside on a wall? ...Ah, the castle IS the arena. She recovers and strides in, trying to look confident. The long coat and scarf add a little bit of dramaticness, at least. Then she offers a friendly wave and a smile! "Count!" She has to speak up in the big open space. "Good to see you again!" She calls out, eyes flitting around, taking in the arena, making note of tactical layout. "So... how do you want to start this, just...?" A bit of awkwardness as she's not really sure of the coolest way to start a duel.
Count Kord	Kord smiles when he sees Staren step into view. He gets up, and casually reaches back to pick up his scythe, sliding it around the chair and into his right hand, where the bottom end of the haft rests against the stone at his feet. He cocks his head to observe the door automatically slide closed behind the cat girl, and returns his strange gaze to rest it on Staren herself. He gave just enough time before his answer for her to feel he was processing this physical change now that he's gotten a chance to see it. "The field is active. So, like this:" He lifts his off-hand, like a conductor demanding a lift in volume. The shadows surge from the stone at Staren's feet, then abruptly turn into spikes with a sound like a metal spear trap emerging from the stone. At the same time, the wall around Staren's feet seems to crack and buckle, the damage surging with red light and electricity. It is, frankly, an extremely edgy attack, and also kind of a cheap shot. But Kord was never really that nice of a guy, at least he gave ample warning that they would be starting immediately.
Staren	Staren blinks as Kord stands UP. It is briefly disorienting that he's now so TALL, when he was only slightly taller than her before. She was kind of expecting something like this, though! Certainly, she didn't walk in defenseless -- Thrusters in her shoes fire as she leaps to the side, but the wrong way to dodge the spear. It seems to hit some kind of invisible armor, but she still gives a short, surprised grunt of pain as her movement's thrown off and the followup energy eats away at whatever that defense spell is. But she doesn't look put out by this way of starting the battle. Instead, she's grinning! "I like your style! Hold nothing back!" She starts flying around him in a circle-strafe motion, keeping her distance, and holds out her hand dramatically as if giving some sort of signal! "My turn!" Camera drones warp in and spread out across the field... and as she pulls the matter manipulator off her belt, so do missiles! A lot of missiles. So many missiles! She deploys cylindrical metal barrier wide enough for her to hide in and drops into it, a forcefield covering it as the missiles conjured in the air nearby start to fall and then kick on their thrusters, homing in on Kord and airbursting if they lose him, Staren trying to just... saturate enough of an area that he can't possibly dodge!
Count Kord	Kord lifts his gaze to watch Staren get launched in the air by the immediate attack, eyes flickering over the shield. "Mm." He frowns briefly, recalling this particular trait of Staren's. He also recalls that Staren has a tendency to throw down metric fuckloads of explosives on her problems, even before this change, and in this environment... Yeah. He turns his hand to hold up his palm, as if the rapid approach of Too Many Missiles can be blocked that way. It isn't. A shadow wall comes up to mitigate some of the blow, but he is forced diagonally through the stonework in a massive cloud of dust and fire. Then he appears, cinders dancing off his cloak and his hand holding the scythe, as if leaping out of the darkness he just formed like it was a portal. The shadow ripples and dances around him like fog. He's very close, and right in front of Staren. He smiles through the clear battle damage across his body. Fine then, he'll try to hit Staren directly as hard as he can. He swings the scythe, and what happens next is very violent. Destructive energy evaporates all physical matter in front of Kord like a cone, dilineated by the swing of his weapon. There is no explosion, no impact, just a sudden shockwave of black and red energy that rips through the air and renders the stone to nothingness. The actual noise comes from air, suddenly experiencing a vaccuum, imploding inward in a catastrophic-- BOOM!!! Now there's a lot of dust and debris. A lot.
Staren	The forcefield seemed different this time. Reacting like an invisible, metal suit of plate armor, rather than a ball of force. After DESTRUCTION RAINS FROM THE HEAVENS, Staren pops out of her now-crumbling defensive position -- staying in one spot, even behind a wall, is just BEGGING for some kind of powerful wall-piercing attack. And with Kord wielding some kind of disintigration energy, which she hasn't fully understood yet being used in this form, that's probably a pretty wise move! "Damn!" she comments appreciatively at how COOL he manages to look stepping out of the smoke like that. And then he's close. She twists out of the way in midair -- but even being caught in the edge of the cone is still BEING CAUGHT WITH A DISINTIGRATING CONE. Visibly, parts of her coat, scarf, and hair that are caught in the cone and aren't fairly close to her body just instantly disintigrate. The defense spell struggles, cracks of blue-white light briefly giving shape to the invisible field: A suit of full plate, pieces of which break off as blue-white sparks; her clothes getting ragged where the armor's developed holes, and skin reddening as if starting to scrape off beneath... Before she can finish crying out, BOOM!!! The implosion sends her tumbling forward through the air (flight spell still intact), in pain, unable to breathe from the air being sucked out of her. Medichines begin emergency repairs and release enough drugs to keep her going, the pain fading to something withstandable as she gasps air in. She turns and looks at Kord... Not hurt or hate in those eyes, but planning, seeing opportunity. He's close! She's suddenly air-dashing towards him, one arm pulled back and suddenly wearing some kind of gauntlet with wires and bits of jade and red gems attached that's just been warped in. There's a flash of that blue-white light and then it's crackling with energy. Staren seems to be going for a punch as she flies forward... but then there's a sword warped into her hand TOO, covered in its own matter-shredding energy field as she stabs right for the center of mass! And if she makes contact, the magic lightning in the gauntlet conducts through the sword, and just to add insult to injury, protrusions on the gauntlet turn out to be a pair of high-energy particle beam cannons which attempt to violently impart enough energy on what's in front of them to turn it into high-energy physics!
Count Kord	Kord isn't expecting someone as seasoned as Staren to be taken out by that, so he simply squints into the damage and frowns to himself, his body still but for his eyes flicking to seek his target through the haze he just kicked up. When he spots Staren lunging forward for her counter-attack, once more throwing an awful lot of weight into it, his manifested wings appear, and he beats them at an odd angle to try to swerve out of the way. He manages to avoid getting struck in the core by that blade, and by the insane burst of electromagnetic force, but there's a key problem with this situation that is apparent: His wings crumple like paper when the lightning hits him, and the blow sends him careening through the air, slamming into the core structure of the castle like he'd been hit by a moving train. Right, Pokemon weaknesses, a physical reminder on both of their parts. So he stays at range now, and grasps for his scythe, which he dropped when the shock weakened his grip. "... nnh," he grunts, spotting it glittering in the courtyard below, embedded in the ground. Okay, new plan. He's gonna play 'background boss throwing ranged attacks,' and lifts his hands to swipe his digits through the air, and carve blades of wind toward Staren that further demolish the stone wall before him. Not nearly as badly as the previous attacks, mind. "Rusty, still," he breathes to himself.
Staren	Staren looks surprised by the WAY that hit Kord so hard. He's... weak to lightning? Ah, right. Well, landing that hit has lifted her spirits more, further helping push back the pain that, fortunately, the Shrine will reset away before drugs wear off. She just has to finish this! Her mind is entirely focused on winning now. Forgetting about going easy on someone rusty, helping them learn, or how it looks, even if part of how the fight goes is luck on her part. Fitting that she's fighting Kord, then. He won't go easy on her either, after all! Fly As The Eagle still active, she flits back and forth, narrowly dodging the air blades which do suitably destructive scenery damage to the wall behind her. It sure LOOKS really cool! And then she grins the grin of an inventor type who has thought of some clever idea and is now determined to try it! Another wave of an arm, a few more missiles warp in behind her and shoot up into the air. A coppery canister that fits in her hand warps into her left palm, and she slots it in somewhere on the gauntlet, which begins glowing and crackling with more and more lightning. Missiles AND melee? That doesn't seem like a sensible combination! The missiles rain down. These aren't conventional high explosives, instead superheating the air to make incredibly high-temperature fireballs. They cover a roughly linear, snakey area between Staren and Kord. And before they fade, Staren PUNCHES the part of the fireballs closest to her. The explosions conduct all the stored lightning energy, which goes right for Kord! Probably. Staren's not 100% sure it won't conduct into the ground or something, but it's MAGIC lightning so... maybe? It's an experiment, and it'll be DAMN cool if it works! Afterwards, the gauntlet is absolutely fried, smoking and scorched. Any dramatic comment Staren's about to make is interrupted by realizing it's burning her arm and having to yank it off while going 'Ow ow ow!'
Count Kord	Kord tries to get a bead on Staren's position after that last attack on her. She... didn't move much, narrowly dodging the wind magic as if it didn't mean a whole lot. He tries to teleport into shadows, but there's a distinct problem with that strategy: As the missiles rain down, they project light from all directions, snuffing out any easily-accessed shadows in the process, and the lightning that comes through the flames as he tries to break his way backward through the castle hits him in the dead center of his chest and sends him backward through the castle with a lot of loud sounds of shattering stone and furniture, and the side of the building collapsing inward. Then, after a few seconds, the simulation ends, rewinds, and resets. Kord is laying splayed on his back, his helmet knocked off, in a blank canvas of a battlefield. He stands up with a strained grunt, and walks up to pick up his scythe from the ground, hefting it into the air and resting it on his shoulder. He waves his off-hand, and the shadows flow over to pick up his helmet and gingerly place it back on his mussed head, while he brushes his crimson bangs out of his face. "A hearty lesson, Staren, thank you," he says, with a patient smile. "If you could, try not to spoil my elemental weaknesses to Hiromi. She is sure to figure them out if she is perceptive." He checks his cape, mindful of any damage-- ah, right, simulated. It's fine. He adjusts it, closes his eyes, and decompresses for a second from the adrenaline rush of such a quick and vicious spar. He could be mistaken for a statue by how still he can stand. No breathing, no shifting. It's eerie. His adventures in the Multiverse have had a permanent effect on him visible even now.
Staren	"Ow ow ow ow ow ow--" Staren reaches to grab the gauntlet with her OTHER hand to pull it off, then yanks her hand back as THAT's burned, and finally uses her coat as an insulator to get a grip and pull the gauntlet off, and it clatters to the ground smoking and making an expensive-sounding shattering noise as magically-overstressed gems break and that coppery cylinder cracks apart. And then the Shrine's effect rewinds personal time, and Staren is healed and anything she warped in or placed is gone. She stands there blinking a moment, relieved that the pain and stress are gone... Her ears perk at the sound of Kord getting to his feet and she turns to him. "You alright?" She smiles, approaching and extending a hand to shake. "Good match. That disintigration trick is scary. I dunno how to block it, so... I just had to hit you with everything I could in hopes of taking you down before you just disintigrated me away!" She considers the upcoming match with Hiromi. "I guess she might count as a rock-type, or maybe ground? She can manipulate the earth, and make her body as hard and tough as stone. AND she regenerates. It's pretty nuts! I think it's some kinda Chi thing." Staren rubs her chin, "So maybe that's... Fighting?" She shakes her head and shrugs. "I'm not sure, it's weird." While he relaxes, she stretches, and then matter-manipulates up a chair to sit in, letting out a breath as she plops down to rest.
Count Kord	The handshake is accepted. Kord's hand is warm enough, so he's not undead, he's just a peculiar and supernatural creature. As always. He opens his eyes again, and picks up his helmet to set it aside on a table made of shadows near him, and idly adjusts his hair so it won't hang in his face. Then he sits down in a chair also made of shadow. "I will keep all of that in mind." He closes his eyes and rests back in the chair for a while. He doesn't have much to say about that. His ego is pretty bruised by the thorough stomping he just received. He's trying to process it without flipping his shit about it, which takes time and mental juggling. "Perhaps several more spars. This will require thorough training to get back to my peak." Heavy sigh. "Very thorough training."
Staren	Staren isn't bothering to have AI analyze Kord's emotions, so has no idea how hard he's having to work to not freak out. She just thinks he's a good sport! "There really are plenty of people willing to fight, it just seems like they've been... quiet lately." Staren considers. "You've challenged Hiromi. I dunno where Vegeta is. I'm sure Note would be easy to provoke into a fight..." She hmms. "Rean's back, so same deal with him. Reyes is apparently pretty easy to goad if you do it right, but I don't understand how to think like that." She stares through Kord. "Hook would know... hmm. Would be interesting to see you fight Hook." Staren stands, still cheerful, and pats Kord on the upper arm. "Hey. I've got... I've got my weaknesses out there. I'm still finding my new path, and... sometimes I don't know what to do. Sparring like this..." She waves a hand at the arena around them. "It's a white room, where many of my weaknesses don't matter... and neither do some of your strengths, I bet. When it counts, outside of sparring and tournaments, fighting is more than just burning through--" she looks thoughtful, "--several hundred thousand credits of resources at the other guy. That trick with the gauntlet was neat, though, I wonder if I can protect it from overloading so I can do that WITHOUT destroying it AND an expensive magic battery... Good thing I tested that in HERE, come to think of it..." She suddenly realizes she just avoided putting a very expensive line item on a research expense report...