Multiverse Crisis MUSH - User contributions [en]

3041/WMAT C1 Setsuko Kaminagi vs T-elos

2015-09-18T19:25:14Z

Sirocco: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/09/17 |Location=WMAT Arena - Diablo Desert |Synopsis=A battle android fights a demigod in the desert. The closest WMAT match yet! With comment..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/09/17
|Location=WMAT Arena - Diablo Desert
|Synopsis=A battle android fights a demigod in the desert. The closest WMAT match yet! With commentary by Fiora.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=255, 785, 824
|Tinyplot=WMAT 2015
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Good evening, denizens of the Multiverse! Bracket C has moved out of qualifications, and into elimination! That means that these competitors are now fighting to remain in the tournament outright, to keep their aspirations of becoming champion intact! I, Fiora, shall be providing commentary on this particular battle, between Setsuko Kaminagi, the 'God of War', and T-ELOS.. What purpose or goal might this android woman have, as her name suggests? I hope, for tonight, that it is victory. Will technology triumph, and prove a god can bleed? Or will the determination of flesh and blood overcome cold, ruthless machinery? Tonight, we will have our answer." 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' Whatever goal T-elos has for being here, she's not telling. Though, honestly, it doesn't take a genius to figure out: she was bored. The WMAT is not boring; she gets to fight people, and she gets to show that she is, in fact, as good as she says she is. There is no surprise that she shows up early. She /always/ shows up early to these. T-elos doesn't seem to mind the sun and heat, because she's been standing on top of one of the mushroom 'trees' rather than waiting under it like most people would have done. It gives her a good view of the area - though, honestly, it was so flat and open, aside from rocks and mushrooms, that there wasn't much to overview. Which suts her fine; she's the one with guns. When Fiora calls her name, T-elos simply steps off the mushroom tree, dropping a good thirty feet to land on the sandy, rocky ground. She steps a little further away from it, spreading her arms. "Well?" she says, to nobody in particular. Maybe the audience. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     With Setsuko, unlike T-elos, it's a toss-up as to whether she will arrive 'early' or 'precisely on time'. The swordswoman is never late, but beyond that, the life she leads makes her arrival times somewhat... 'flexible'.     And today appears to be a 'precisely on time' day. Her arrival is nothing ostentatious or showy; no vehicles racing across the desert, hoverbike streaking through the sky, or anything of the sort. No, she arrives quite simply, soaring down out of the sky entirely unassisted, floating over the desert for a moment until her eyes fall on her opponent. Then the demigod turns slightly and heads downward, bringing her feet around at the last second so as to plant them lightly on the desert ground.     "Setsuko Kaminagi," the demigod says simply, reaching to her side to draw the blade sheathed there and bring it around into a ready stance. "You look rather impatient to start." 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Both of the competitors certainly appear to be ready to fight. T-elos, indeed, almost seems a little eager to do so, having arrived earlier. And her opponent, Setsuko, seems.. something of the opposite. Ready to do battle, but a little more collected. Hm, one has to wonder how these mindsets might affect the outcome?" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos rolls her neck before she looks up at the other woman. Up, because T-elos - despite everything - isn't actually all that tall; with her heels, she's maybe five and a half feet tall. She smiles, just a little bit. It isn't a very pleasant smile, all things considered; it's more smug and self-satisfied than actually friendly. "T-elos," she replies, leaving out the longer description of her name and unit code. "And it's what we're here for. It would be a shame to come all this way and /not/ fight, don't you think?" T-elos stands there, looking up almost challengingly - until Fiora finishes speaking and the actual signal to begin sounds. Then she's in motion almost immediately, bounding backwards a good ten feet. She's now in the shade of the mushroom she'd been standing on to begin with, though she's not using it as cover. Slightly more offensively, her revolver has found its way into her hands. She fires a pair of shots at Setsuko's legs, one after the other; the shots carry a pink energy shroud but are quite physical bullets, as she is likely to find out either by being hit with them or when they leave furrows in the sand behind her. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     As soon as T-elos is leaping back, Setsuko is in motion, and her feet carry her across the desert ground far faster than an ordinary human. She could keep up with cars on the freeway, and it gives the robotic woman only precious seconds to act. As soon as those shots are fired, the sword in her hand whips downward, deflecting one cleanly aside; the other clips across the inside of her left leg, opening a hole in her pants and grazing a shallow cut into the side of her calf. That doesn't even slow her, either.     Instead, she leaps up, giving herself a few feet of height to close the last meter or two of distance, and so that as she comes down, she can bring Zanjintou down on T-elos for an overhead slash. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "T-elos is quick to brandish a firearm, and goes straight for the swordswoman's legs. A smart move, perhaps, but goodness. Setsuko is certainly quick, and her blade serves well as a defense. I don't believe either shot found their marks. No, there's a scratch, but nothing more. Setsuko, in kind, responds swiftly, charging her opponent with impressive speed and a leap, intent on bringing that sword down upon her android opponent!" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos adapts to the speed. She, too, is faster than a human, though she didn't know her opponent had that kind of speed. Well, now she knows. Setsuko delivers an overhand slash - to T-elos' armoured bracer as she brings her left arm up to block her face. It's jarring; she feels the impact through her entire body, and she actually slides back a pace under the blow, sand building up behind her heels as she digs them into avoid being thrown back further than she already is. Pushing back to stop Setsuko from following up, T-elos realizes she can't immediately create distance between the pair, and doesn't. Instead she takes the fight to her opponent, darting forward before going into a butterfly kick, spinning her entire body and striking with each foot in turn. She ends up doing a momentary stand on her palms before flipping herself back upright. Surprisingly, though, when her feet contact Setsuko - if her feet contact Setsuko, anyway - there is a flash of light as the tiny laser emitters on T-elos' ankles fire, discharging bolts straight past her heel and into whatever she just kicked! 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko turns out to have good instincts. There is a moment of lock-up, of blade and bracer holding each other still, and then when T-elos pushes back, Setsuko shifts her weight in just such a way as to make dodging easier - something that allows her to avoid the first kick, but not the laser in it. The shot scorches her cheek, leaving a visible burn, and earns a moment of alarm from the silver-haired woman. In the split second she has, she shifts her head just far enough aside to avoid the second shot entirely, but at the very least, T-elos has surprised her, made her more wary. Less likely to attack aggressively.     And indeed, Setsuko's stance is more wary, holding Zanjintou in front of herself in a rather defensive posture, and watching her opponent cautiously for a moment or two. But she doesn't leave T-elos long enough to go on the offensive; there's a sudden lunge, and then a rapid-fire trio of sword strikes, one-two-three, each accompanied with a forward step, a physical advance to keep the gynoid under pressure. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Oho! It seems Telos has more armor than it appears, as she uses her /arm/ to block that sword strike. She follows up, as well, demonstrating some impressive hand-to-hand techniques, lashing out with her feet as she flips forwards. Naught a part of her isn't weaponized, either, as blasts of energy erupt from her heels! Full of surprises, this one! But, Setsuko doesn't seem the type to be taken by surprise. She shifts almost perfectly, evading the blows, but not those energy beams. They graze against her shoulders, and.. oh my! Standing still one moment, and lashing out with a rapid series of strikes with her blade in the next! Setsuko is definitely on the offensive, now! How will Telos respond!?" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' "What's the matter," T-elos asks, apparently amused as she lands on her feet. "Haven't seen lasers before?" She probably should not have opened her big mouth judging by the results. T-elos isn't bad, close-in. She's far stronger than a human is, she's tough, she's well-equipped for it - but there are better. Setsuko, as it turns out, is better. T-elos manages to deflect one of the strikes with her bracer, again, though this time there's a hint of purple shimmering from underneath it, as if she was powering something up without letting her opponent see what it is. The other attacks dig in more deeply, elsewhere - she isn't armoured everywhere. T-elos' flesh is unnaturally tough. The blows don't shear through as well as they would on someone normal, but they hurt; they leave deep wounds even if T-elos doesn't lose a limb or take a wound that forces her to abandon the battle immediately. She snarls, and the purple glow from under the bracer becomes more intense as she punches, straight, at Setsuko's stomach. Somewhere along the way, a weapon extends from inside T-elos' left bracer. It's extremely dark at the core, not quite black but a shade of purple so dark it's difficult to clearly discern; the cutting edges are a brighter glowing purple, and it leaves a wispy trail of light behind it as she drives it like a giant punch dagger at Setsuko. But because it is a sword, if she manages to drive it home, she yanks it out sideways, leaving a slash behind as well as a stab. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Once again, Setsuko's instincts save her at the last moment, but this time they're not fast enough to prevent her from taking more serious injury. Her body shifts, something about the blow telling her not to take it head-on no matter what, and as a result her abdomen is turned aside when the L-Blade snaps out - but the blade itself still manages to tear across her stomach, opening a long, deep horizontal cut across her abs. The swordswoman hisses with pain, but doesn't slow down a bit, instead going on the counterattack immediately.     She drops low, and then pushes forward, shoving her shoulder at T-elos in order to push the robotic woman off-balance with sheer physical force, and then a turn in her body transforms that shoulder check into a rising slash, as much intended to drive her opponent back and open some room as it is to cause injury.     "Gh... your construction is impressive. Ordinary metals are easily split by my blade. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Definitely more resiliant than she appears, as Setsuko's blade has a difficult time cutting at Telos. The advantages of not being human, and made of metal, I suppose! Still, that sword /is/ doing damage. I would hope Telos has a plan, and.. oh my, it certainly seems that way! A powerful punch, to Setsuko's solar plexus.. Wait, a blade! A hidden weapon, from her wrist, stabs and slashes quite viciously at the swordswoman. It doesn't slow her, and she counters right away. A wide slash with her sword that, unfortunately misses her opponent, though it does give her some room to move." 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' Striking T-elos doesn't actually feel all that much like metal (well, except for smashing against her bracer; /that/ is definitely metal). It really does feel like cutting flesh... tough flesh, very resistant flesh, but definitely something yielding rather than something rigid. Nanomachines are weird. T-elos breaks into another one of those self-assured smiles. "Yes," she says, very simply. "It is." She's proud of her construction. And why not? It's /hers/. She didn't design it, but she certainly maintains it... T-elos moves with the shoulder check. This keeps her from going off-balance as Setsuko intended, though she has to pace backwards rapidly instead - but she'd rather give up spacing than take a blow. There's space to spare around here. It's just so... desolate. She springs away before the slash lands, leaping straight up into the air about thirty feet. T-elos' right arm shimmers, light surrounding it as the limb from the elbow down is covered with a sleek-looking cannon, the barrel as thick as her wrist was. She fires almost, but not quite, straight down. The kickback actually lifts T-elos back up slightly; the angle she gave herself means that she is launched slightly away from Setsuko but mostly gains height. The shell hits - either Setsuko or the ground, it triggers whenever it impacts anything reasonably solid - and explodes with the force of a grenade. T-elos lands about ten feet away. She has the sword projecting over her left hand, and her lower right arm concealed in the cannon's machinery; she seems inclined to put neither weapon away and points at least the blade at Setsuko. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko's nature in battle is one of taking the initiative, of maintaining pressure; even against an opponent she must be more wary of, such as T-elos, she'll maintain some semblance of that. When her foe leaps upward, Setsuko moves to do the same, as if to pursue, with the result that the explosion goes off right beneath her and completely upsets whatever attack she'd planned. The explosive force and energy of the blast are enough to shred her pants to tatters from knee to ankle, and aren't terribly kind to what's underneath either. And more than that, she's sent into a tumble in the air, turning and flipping until she can right herself, coming to a complete stop and floating there for a moment or two.     And then she gives T-elos a faint nod of acknowledgement, the combination of ranged and melee capability giving her an advantage over Setsuko for the moment.     But if T-elos has been researching her opponents, what happens next might not be much of a surprise. Otherwise, it's going to be a bit alarming when the swordswoman shifts Zanjintou to the side... and both the handle and crossguard expand, her grip becoming more than twice as long and the tsuba widening to well over a foot across. A thin ribbon of blue light shoots upward, leaving behind a much broader, /much/ longer blade. Fully twelve feet long, in fact, twice the demigod's own height.     Without skipping a beat, she darts down towards T-elos out of the sky, swinging the now-massive weapon around towards the gynoid with incredible speed. "Haaaaa!" 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Telos is certainly durable, for being so nimble and acrobatic an opponent for Setsuko to face. Evading that last strike, she makes some more room and.. ah, another hidden weapon, it seems! This time, a ranged one.. one that fires an explosive projectile, no less! That seems to have staggered Setsuko some, but not stopped her. .. Oh my! That.. is a very large sword! It seems Setsuko's sword has lengthened itself, this longer blade made of some sort of energy! And she's swinging it down at her android opponent quite swiftly!" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' It's fortunate for T-elos that she has in fact been watching her opponents - she doesn't know /everything/ about them, but keeping track of earlier matches at least gives her the high points. She knows the blade can change size, but it's still a bit of a surprise to see in person. Along with the flying; T-elos has defenses against someone who's flying around (it's not really any harder to aim a gun upward a little) but it does give Setsuko some mobility that T-elos just doesn't have. She can't fly. T-elos tries to deflect the blade with her own, but the other one is honestly just too big. It slides down the length of the L-BLADE and impacts T-elos' opposite shoulder, because strong as she is she can't get the leverage to push against something quite that long. The sheer impact of it slams T-elos to the ground. She rolls to avoid being pinned under Setsuko's Zanjintou, leaving something dark that could very well be blood behind. Injuries or not, though, she forces herself to rise, dismissing the cannon as she does. Instead she summons a gun. That's kind of an inadequate word for what shows up in another cluster of sparkles. It /is/ a gun, if your definition of 'gun' includes multibarreled rotary cannons; there's three clusters of three barrels, arranged in a roughly triangular shape. The weapon is painted gold and purple and black, T-elos' colours. The ammo magazine is more like a box, as long as T-elos' leg from hip to knee, and about as thick. She empties the entire thing in about three seconds of firing. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko floats back a few feet and drops to the ground, holding that immense blade behind her and angled slightly upward; the ground beneath her feet limits the range of that huge weapon somewhat, but she's still holding it in a fairly effective ready posture. Unfortunately, the other drawback it has is that it can be difficult to bring into a defensive posture when she's got two feet on the ground, and T-elos has a weapon perfectly suited to taking advantage of that. The massive blade comes around, levered into place to serve as a shield and outright deflect the bullets upward...     ...but when she lowers it, numerous bullet wounds and grazes are visible across her body, already starting to leak blood onto the desert sand. The tautness of her muscles and the tightness of her lips gives away the pain she's feeling, yet even that doesn't seem enough to slow her down. That fact could be explained, however, by another fact - the wound across her abdomen has stopped bleeding already. Her regeneration might not be instantaneous, but it's fast enough to keep her going long past when she ought to stop.     And apparently the swordswoman is willing to brave a straight-ahead charge even after that barrage. Her feet push off, lifting her just above the ground, and with her flight she cruises right over the sand towards T-elos in a straightforward advance. At the last second, she suddenly turns in the air, heaving that blade around for a diagonal attack that doesn't seem to care about the presence of the ground... largely because it goes right into the dirt, Setsuko bringing it around and out of the ground on followthrough for a second, horizontal slash, stopping it behind herself and then bringing it overhead for a vertical chop, then finally turning the blade and swinging it into another horizontal slash, as if to catch T-elos dodging the previous strike. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Another firearm, and this one is /much larger! Telos seems to have an endless supply of tools, to take on the task of defeating Setsuko, as that large gun unleashes a hail-storm of firepower at the swordswoman. With that large blade, Setsuko attempts to use the breadth of it as a shield, but now that she isn't airborne, she seems to be having difficulty blocking all of it. Both combatants are definitely wounded, with signs of the battle's toll showing. Just how much longer will they last, and more importantly, who will falter first!?" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' There's a moment where T-elos is open directly after emptying the entire ammo box at Setsuko. It only lasts for a few instants; she ejects the emptied container, which lands in the sand with a soft thump. Then she inserts a new one, slamming it home with a click. She actually manages to finish the process during the time Setsuko charges at her, but she doesn't have enough time to start shooting again - and at extremely close range, the rotary cannons are not an optimal choice at all. T-elos loves making a mess - but she likes winning more, and she's not going to use a losing strategy. So she lets the F-GSHOT vanish. T-elos thinks she sees a mistake by Setsuko and lets it happen, the blade impacting the ground and giving T-elos an opening. She produces something new from the left bracer, an almost polyhedral energy projection over her clenched fist, and steps forward when the blade hits the ground. But it's not a mistake at all. The blade shears /through/ the ground in a move that even T-elos has to admit was both effective and impressive. She flips to the side to dodge the first strike, but - as Setsuko figured - the second one impacts her. T-elos managed to twist to take it partially against the flat, but it still causes a short burst of blood, and it still does some serious damage. T-elos actually /does/ go flying this time. She arcs about fifteen feet through the air before she finally regains control of herself, though all she can manage to do is touch down on her uncovered hand and both feet in a crouch. She gives Setsuko a grudgingly accepting nod. And then she rushes her. It's straight. Obvious, almost; T-elos is trusting that Setsuko is going to think that she's planning something tricky, but she isn't. All she does is leap the blade if it comes at her horizontally, or push off the ground and add some sideways momentum if vertically. T-elos doesn't seem to feel the pain of her injuries - well, if she is an android, that might make sense that she could ignore it. They don't bleed for long, either, though the injuries remain - just dry, and slowly closing. She doesn't really /regenerate/ on combat scale, but she certainly doesn't need a bandage. T-elos swings her left fist, covered in the polygonal energy block, in a wide arc. It has far more power than her fist alone would, because if she manages to hit, the energy explodes off it, causing a shockwave that is strong enough to blow sand away from the two, building up into a ring-like dune around them. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     If there is one thing that can be said for Setsuko, it's that she has learned to use a ridiculously impractial weapon to a surprising level of effectiveness, helped in no small part by her own inhuman strength and the impossible sharpness of the weapon itself. But then, that level of skill is to be expected of a demigod, isn't it? She is at least not the sort to make a show of it, simply adopting a ready stance and returning the nod... and then falling for the bait hook, line and sinker. Sometimes 'a complete lack of trick' can be a trick in and of itself.     Around comes Zanjintou, a horizontal slash as predicted, and it looks as if she's going to use that momentum to bring a second attack around, but she never gets that far. At the last second, Setsuko lets go of ther sword with her left hand, bringing it up to try and shield herself, but the blast hits her hard enough that it's her turn to go flying. "Gh-!"     'Ass over teakettle' is the phrase that best describes Setsuko's tumble, silver hair cascading around her until she's able to plant a hand and get her boots in the sand. She lands in a three-point crouch, her right arm holding the massive sword... and then suddenly roars out, "ZANJINTOU!"     And then she begins to spin.     "DAI!" Around the sword comes, swung into a broad circle around her, reshaping as she does so into a blade that's more aerodynamic. "SHAAA!" Faster and faster, both hands on the handle now, building speed and momentum in an incredibly short space of time. "RIIIIIIN!" And then she releases it, and the Zanjintou goes hurtling towards T-elos like the world's biggest, sharpest boomerang, banking around towards her from one side while Setsuko herself runs at top speed straight towards her opponent. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "I'm truly impressed, with Setsuko's uncanny ability to maneuver that huge blade, and not simply because it takes strength. A long weapon is hard to move around effectively, and is somewhat easier to read. But, the speed and skill she does it with are certainly throwing Telos for a loop, as she's able to cleave away at her android opponent, numerous times. Still, something must be said of that opponent's durability, not to mention her agility. She always seems to be just out of reach of a blow that Setsuko is hoping to end this contest with. Telos is knocked up by that blade, though, but comes rocketing back down, and.. what a blast! That's certain to be a very painful blow, as the impact is backed up with another sort of weapon. Telos is trying to keep up the pressure, but Setsuko isn't backing down. She's /thrown/ her sword, end over end, at Telos! She's going in after it, too! Oh my, how exciting!" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos manages to bowl over Setsuko with her first strike. She shakes her hand once, stretching the fingers out as she turns to face Setsuko. She looks confident, again. She's damaged but she can still handle this. But while a lack of a trick might be a trick - and T-elos certainly appreciates the direct route - having techniques you haven't shown off before also count. T-elos hasn't seen this particular maneuver. She can't tell what Setsuko is doing at first, and maintains her distance, not wanting to get ripped into by the whirling sword. That works a hell of a lot less well when it ends up being a boomerang. T-elos' eyes widen slightly in surprise when she sees it arcing around, and she throws herself forward, rolling. It might have been enough if Setsuko wasn't there to block her, but she is and so it isn't; the blade impacts T-elos from the side, and she isn't braced properly to take a blow of that magnitude. But she's still moving. Not as easily, and not well - the damage is adding up, she's starting to take structural as well as superficial. But T-elos can pick herself up from it, though covered in sand and worse. She hisses, letting out a sound that's as much angry as pained. "Damn," she spits, without making it clear if she's swearing at Setsuko, impressed by Setsuko's skill, or something else. Reappearing the cannon on her arm, T-elos begins to fire round after round at Setsuko while backing up. There's nothing in that direction but rocks and sand for, like, a mile; T-elos' constant bounds backward eat up the distance but she's in no danger of running out while she continues to shell Setsuko and the area around her. Deal with /that/, she thinks to herself, a little viciously. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko, meanwhile, is bleeding from numerous wounds; the L-Hammer even managed to reopen her abdomen along with what is almost certainly cracked ribs. At this point regeneration is only serving to keep the demigod conscious. The only thing keeping her /going/ is sheer, raw pain tolerance, a momentous ability to keep soldiering on through pure willpower. She opts not to pursue T-elos immediately and instead keeps running, snapping out her hand at just the right time to grab the Zanjintou out of the air. In her hand, it returns to its broad, straight 12-foot configuration, and she comes around just in time to see the cannon trained on her-     And, in what might just be a bout of insanity, she charges.     The first shot lands close enough to obscure the demigod entirely, and when she comes out of it, there's a brand new and ugly-looking wound occupying most of her right side. But visible though the grimace of pain is by now, she just /keeps coming/, and this time gets the Zanjintou's width in front of her soon enough to prevent further hits. The sword eats a few more without so much as a scorch along its surface, and the force doesn't slow her down, either.     Her momentum doesn't stop until boots hit sand, and the massive blade whips around towards T-elos - only to disappear entirely, coming apart in a short-lived flurry of blue-white motes of light. Suddenly, Setsuko darts forward across that last ten feet or so, using the feint as a chance to charge in and get in striking distance of T-elos, where she can unleash a barrage of attacks with the sword that's returned to the shape of a katana. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Telos, despite being rocked around by that boomerang blade attack, manages to gain some distance. She makes immediate use, not to mention the fact that Setsuko threw her sword, and thus her means of personal defense, at Telos herself. The android is blasting away with her cannon, laying down a withering barrage of those explosive projectiles. But, Setsuko is intent on perservering! She charges into the fray, catching her blade, and .. my, I'm certainly glad I have the training I do. I think most of the audience here is scratching their heads, as they weren't able to follow that last attack. Setsuko's blade is swung about, in a flurry of blows, so rapid that it was difficult to see. Her blade also appears to have returned to its normal size, now. But again, how much punishement can these two deadly ladies take? Both look ever more worse for the wear!" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos continues to fire the cannon for the entirety of Setsuko's approach. It's not something she has to externally reload, so she can do so steadily, but it isn't instantaneous and she can't fire as fast as she can pull the 'trigger'. There is a momentary delay between each shell. This means that there is definitely an opportunity to get in, and Setsuko manages it, between taking advantage of the pauses and using her broad sword as a shield. T-elos' shots get slightly more frenzied near the end, slightly faster and more aggressively placed. It's not enough to keep Setsuko entirely off her, and the feint really works; T-elos reactivates the L-BLADE and interposes it, parrying nothing at all while Setsuko keeps moving. With another snarl, T-elos tries to reposition her blade, but it's too little too late. She manages to hold off one of the blows, but there's a lot more than one of them. T-elos stumbles as the last of the slashes hits her solidly in the hip. She doesn't manage to stand immediately; she's taken enough damage that it's starting to give her trouble moving. She ends up on one knee, head bowed slightly. If she was breathing, she would be breathing hard, but she doesn't seem to need to at all. "I don't yield," she gets out, before finally managing to push herself up to her feet. In the same action, she does two things; the L-BLADE-equipped fist lashes out again, trying to embed it in Setsuko's stomach. She aims harder this time; she's risking it all on one strike rather than a flurry, because this is something she only gets one chance at. Second, all over her body, every one of the violet crystals is shimmering with light. Each and every one of them is a laser emitter. The six on her chest, the two on her shoulders, and the two at the sides of her head, covering her ears (if she has ears) - those are the brightest. But the others light up too; a trio at each hip, a couple wrapped around her thighs or on her gun holster, three on the back of her bracer, even the two on the sides of each ankle. "I DON'T YIELD! Keep fighting, damn you! I'm not done yet!" T-elos is not a berserker, not quite - but there is an unfortunate overtone of madness in her voice. She needs this. She /needs/ this in a way she can't explain. Every one of the glowing points fire simultaneously, a beam of blue-white light. If 'beam' is the right word; it's more of a streamer, as they all meet at a point just in front of her, building into a white-hot star of heat and light. It's just that she's trying to hold the (hopefully) temporarily impaled Setsuko right at ground zero of the light show. She's not trying to kill Setsuko, only render her incapable of fighting. Probably. 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko is a gracious enough opponent to back off a bit after an attack like that, at least in a tournament setting. On the battlefield, it might be a bit different. But she's willing to take a few steps back and give T-elos room to gather herself, if she's still able to fight. To be fair, it also gives Setsuko a chance to catch her breath, so to speak. Her own wounds are pretty bad by this point, so any opportunity she can take to let her body work on that is welcome.     But seeing T-elos rise up, she brings Zanjintou down to her side again, re-expanding it behind herself with a snap-WOOSH. But the suddenness and viciousness of that stab comes faster than she can defend against, and this time the blade is /in/ her, outright, drawing an alarmed, pained gasp from the swordswoman. "Ugk-!" She manages to push herself off it, but the wound is painful enough that she doesn't go far, and she's still right in range of that converging-beams attack. She brings up an arm and a leg, shielding herself as best she can, but-     Setsuko's entire world becomes nothing but light, heat, and pain.     The ground is seared enough to smoke, the sheer heat of the attack created enough outward force to kick up dust besides, and between that and the bright light the crowds will probably need several seconds just to find out what happened to Setsuko. T-elos will get a much more prompt answer, however.     "...As you wish."     Her voice is taut with pain. The dust clears to reveal a badly-burnt, bloody woman who should by all rights be completely unconscious by now if not worse. She looks like she's barely on her feet. She /is/ barely on her feet. The Zanjintou has returned to its katana form again. And yet, despite being riddled with injuries that should cripple her for life, the demigod brings her sword up and around, lowering it into a simple, classic kenjutsu stance. She takes a single breath.     And then she lunges, closing the distance again with one last burst of strength and speed, raising Zanjintou high over her head to bring it down in one last slash aimed at the center of mass. "CHEEEESUTO-!" 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "Telos is definitely going all in, for this next attack.. Proving she's truly a deadly opponent, by using what seems to be.. her whole body as a weapon! Multiple emitters of some kind, that all fire powerful beams of light, that coalesce into one devastating blast. A blast that, if Setsuko is unable to weather, will no doubt result in the end of this match! ... I honestly don't believe it! Somehow, she's still standing! I can't see through the smoke just yet, but I heard.. yes! She's still on her feet. And, gathering what strength she has left, she charges at Telos, sword raised high! The blow strikes true, and.. I don't think Telos will have much fight left, after this!" 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos extends no particular quarter to her opponents, tournament or not. She fights hard - extremely hard, even. Basic politeness never occurs to her. She was made less than a year ago; perhaps she just hasn't learned it. Or, more likely, she just doesn't care. But she had expected her blasts to have put Setsuko down. If it had been almost anyone else, she's fairly certain that it would have; only the unnatural durability of the demigoddess is enough to keep her up and moving. But she /is/ up and moving, and having just discharged the majority of her running power at once, T-elos is open for just a split second. The split second is enough. Setsuko's slash strikes home. It doesn't cut T-elos in half, because she too is unnaturally tough, but it does cut deeply into her. There is one last spray of blood, cut short by T-elos' automated recovery systems. But they can't keep her up. T-elos collapses to her knees, and then further, to the ground entirely. She struggles to rise, and there is a strange whirring sound from somewhere inside of her as she forces one of her entirely mechanical parts to strain in a way it isn't meant to. T-elos doesn't even manage to get to one knee and hold it before she collapses again. She's not unconcious; she's still processing. She just can't get up. T-elos tries to fire the laser emitters again, but is rewarded only with a shower of sparks from one that Setsuko sheared through to hit her body. It is the first complete defeat the battle android has /ever/ suffered in her life, and she hates it. 

:'''{{#var:824|Fiora Laurent (824)}} has posed:''' Fiora Laurent says, "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is most definitely it. With injuries too severe to continue, Telos is down for the count! Setsuko, by the skin of her teeth, has managed to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat, and advances to the next round of competition! How very exciting, and my congratulations to her, on her perserverence and tenacity. Likewise, in the case of her opponent, as well!" 

:'''{{#var:255|Setsuko Kaminagi (255)}} has posed:'''     Setsuko turns in place. Despite her pain, she has the energy to return Zanjintou to its sheath, and to turn her head far enough to look over her shoulder. Something in the gynoid's demeanor, her attitude before and after that final gambit on both their parts...     "...loss is painful," she murmurs simply. "It can hurt more than any wound, by far. I know it all too well. But you can use it to your advantage. Choose to learn from it. Let it strengthen you for the future. You're only truly defeated when you let the weight of your loss crush you."     There is no question that the soldier is too battered to walk back to civilization. So she simply lifts off the ground to fly off. But even that happens slowly. She's been pushed right to her limits, and that doesn't happen often. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos is capable of responding. Words, at least, have not entirely failed her. She does not. She is too busy burning with fury to do much else. She does not manage to even get to her knees until several minutes after Setsuko has left. Anyone who tries to help her - official or otherwise - has merely been glared at; T-elos accepts no help. 

}}

2992/WMAT B1 Dorotea Grahn vs Reina Kinney

2015-09-09T23:21:22Z

Sirocco: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/09/09 |Location=WMAT Arena - Yunzabit Heights |Synopsis=A berserker and a Guardian walk into a mountain range. The punchline is punches. |Than..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/09/09
|Location=WMAT Arena - Yunzabit Heights
|Synopsis=A berserker and a Guardian walk into a mountain range. The punchline is punches.
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=391, 742
|Tinyplot=WMAT 2015
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' It's cold here! This pleases Dorotea. She missed the chill. Having to do a fight in the desert was no fun at all. It's windy here, and chilly, and kind of dark; she can deal with these conditions. There's an awful lot of sheer ledges though; she'll have to watch out for that, because it'd be dangerous to fall off. She can't fly, after all! There's no crowd here, which she is slightly less fond of, but Dorotea has to admit that it would be pretty hard to get them here. There's helicopters with cameras. Helicopters will have to do. Dorotea actually got dropped off by one of those helicopters. She is currently on a particularly big piece of broken ground and is warming up by ... doing nothing at all. Well, if she's that confident, strolling casually around and looking off the sheer side probably can't hurt her. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Cold weather doesn't affect Reina too much. Nor does hot weather either. The only elemental thing that really bothers Reina is lightning. And fortunately there doesn't seem to be any of that around here in this cold spot. It's perfect for fighting, though, as Reina loves having elemental challenges that don't overly hold her back against her opponents.     Unlike Dorotea, who arrived via helicopter to this location, Reina teleports in from her ship, arriving in a nearby spot. She shivers a little as her body feels the cold around her, but as a member of GUARDIANS, she has learned to adapt to just about any sort of weather quickly. She jogs in place a little to get the blood flowing before doing a few arm and leg stretches to prepare herself.     Then Reina spots Dorotea, and she smiles a little. "Looks like we're gonna have a real cool experience today," She says with a sly smirk. "I hope you're ready for a good battle, because I sure am!" 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' No lightning here. It's windy, not stormy. (This suits Dorotea fine; she doesn't really want to get rained on. Or snowed on, for that matter.) Dorotea seems completely insensible to the weather despite wearing an outfit that really isn't suited for it. Then again, she's a Shivan. She's lived in colder places than this, and without the promise of a trip somewhere warm afterwards. She grins at Reina, broad. "Always!" Dorotea says, with good cheer. She walks away from the cliff's edge, rolling her neck a little bit. "I know there's nobody right here to watch, but I'm going to make it good for everyone who's going to see it anyway. And me!" She waves up at the camera helicopter. Dorotea can't see if anyone in it waves back. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Reina, meanwhile, rolls her neck around and cracks her knuckles. "Doesn't matter who's here right now, it's all about the two of us having one cool battle! And I can tell you it might be cold here, but down in THAT place, it's nowhere near cold, so don't expect me to lose that easily!" She stretches her legs one last time before assuming a fighting stance that is similar to a hybrid of traditional martial arts and possibly CQC styled combat.     "You're going to see how I fight. Part street brawling, part CQC, part martial arts, and it's all coming out as one!" Reina slowly advances on her opponent, watching around her as the wind whips at her exposed neck, before attempting to open with a swift left hook. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea takes a couple moments to try to parse that. "Wait, did you just tell me to go to hell?" she asks, a little confused. "Because I know I didn't tell /you/ to and that's what that sounded like!" Fortunately, she's much better at combat. Even though... "I don't know what CQC /is/," Dorotea objects, as Reina comes in. Rather than even try to dodge the left hook, Dorotea brings up her arm to block it - she may not know the word but she certainly knows how to fight. She feels the impact jar her arm and drive her back a step, but it barely slows her down as Dorotea takes a step forward, getting uncomfortably close to Reina, and... drives her head directly at the other woman's. Sure, she could use magic. Or she could use finesse. But why bother? Hitting things real hard always works, right?? 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     A headbutt? Is this girl some relative of Zidane?!     It doesn't matter who she's related to, a headbutt like that HURTS like hell. Reina is hit square on and stumbles backwards, gasping for air as she clasps her stomach and pants a few times, wincing as she realizes just how hard she was truly hit. Once she recovers, she straightens herself as best as she can. "Cheap shot, but you did get me there, I'll give you that." Reina's voice is slightly sarcastic as she speaks. "But I'm only warming up, so you better be ready."     Reina starts towards Dorotea, then stops suddenly as she nearly loses her balance, having stopped very close to the edge of a cliff. She stumbles forwards and shakes her head. "That was just a blooper on my part. THIS time I'm ready for real!" She attempts to emphasize this point as she spins around and attempts to deliver a swift roundhouse kick. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' "That wasn't a cheap shot! It was after you punched me, that makes it fair." Dorotea is grinning - she's not actually annoyed. She wants to have some fun with this match. The hesitation is noted. Dorotea doesn't mind fighting on the edge of a cliff, but she is slightly battle-crazed sometimes and she realizes not everyone is. She backs away from it, giving Reina more room to move. The roundhouse kick isn't blocked like the hook. She takes it in the side, hard enough to stagger her several steps, but Dorotea can handle that. She tries to grab the offending foot with her gauntleted hands and heft Reina by it - and she's a /hell/ of a lot stronger than she looks, picking up someone the size and weight of a human is not too hard. "Hup!" If she manages it, Dorotea goes through two full rotations to pick up speed, then throws Reina! She has aimed away from the edge - she'll land safely, if a little painfully because she's going to hit hard rocks when she does it. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Safely, maybe. But not harmlessly. Reina hits the rocks and yelps a little as she hits them. Granted, it's more of an annoyance than anything, but it's still a noticeable pain. She gets up and rubs at the spot where she hurt herself then nods a little to her opponent. "Nice tactic. Grappling can be useful in close quarters if you know what you're doing."     Reina approaches again and this time she attempts to grapple Dorothea as well. "I know a few tricks myself too. Let me show you one!" She attempts to grab Dorotea and trip her while throwing her to the ground in a traditional CQC takedown! 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea tends to prefer striking to grappling, but she certainly knows how to do both of them. As long as she can get her hands on her opponent, she's doing pretty well. Unfortunately, a moment later, her opponent gets her hands on /her/, which isn't nearly as useful. Dorotea hits the ground without entirely realizing what Reina just did, and she rolls away rather than let Reina stomp on her, getting back to her feet... a little more slowly than before. "Heh," she says. "If that's all you've got I'm not worried!" Dorotea lowers her shoulder, and her muscles tense. It's as if she was storing energy - And then, suddenly, she charges, a crazy rush toward Reina! Dorotea literally just tries to trample over the other woman, knocking her down and charging past, possibly sending her flying with a shoulder-check! "Hraaaagh! Come on, keep fighting!" 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Whoa, Reina DEFINITELY was caught off-guard by that. If this had been GUARDIANS training, then Laia would've chewed Reina out good and made her run the De Rol Le Simulator ten times in a row! Although that's preferable to being knocked down like that. Reina uses a kippup to quickly return to her feet, and then rubs at where she got shoulder checked. "Damn, I really let my guard down there. I need to be more careful," She mutters to herself, silently cursing her lack of common sense.     "Keep fighting? You got it!" Reina rushes in quickly, this time not caring about the potential consequences of doing such in a cliff area, before attempting to drop down and administer a foot sweep. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea is currently so pumped that she's not actually paying a lot of attention to things like 'not getting hit back'. Reina comes in, fast, and Dorotea tries a straight punch to keep her away - but the low sweep means that the punch is well over Reina's head, and she misses entirely. She also goes down like a ton of bricks. This time Dorotea rolls - right off the cliff. Reina might think she wins because there is no way Dorotea can fly up from that. But she doesn't have to; she only fell about five feet before catching herself. Fingers dug into the side of the mountain, Dorotea literally flings herself up, launching herself about fifteen feet into the air. Mid-jump, Dorotea shimmers with blue energy, sparks of it drifting away from her. "CATCH!" she yells, before flinging two things that just appeared in her hands at Reina - two objects that explode into woody shrapnel as soon as they hit the ground, chunks going everywhere after the sudden explosion. They leave a faint greenish haze behind which is blown away by the wind in about five seconds. On the plus side, the battlefield is now pine fresh! Dorotea lands about fifteen feet away from Reina after throwing the things. She's starting to look a little bruised and battered, but her expression suggests she's still not giving up any time soon. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Getting caught way off-guard by that really stinks. Or it did until the pinecone bomb exploded, causing the air to smell more fresh, but hurting Reina all the same. "Ugh... what the hell? I'll never look at pine forests the same way again!" She snaps as she wipes the sticky pine tar off of her body. Then she looks at Dorotea and says, "That was a real cool trick, but it takes more than that to put me down! In fact, I'm surprised you were able to keep yourself from falling so far."     Reina wipes the last of the tar off of her. "Talk about a sticky situation, hmm?" Then she attempts to go in with an uppercut. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Most of what the pinecone bomb leaves behind is explosion. They /are/ magic. Smells good, though. Dorotea lands after throwing the bombs, turns, and gets uppercut. Right on the chin. It's a picture-perfect uppercut and it sends Dorotea staggering, half-dazed from the impact. "Guh," she manages to get out, a little too stunned for much else. Shaking her head, Dorotea slaps her own cheeks, which seems to revive her at least a little bit. "That's because I'm great!" Dorotea turns and runs - away from Reina. What is she doing? There's a cliff behind her - one that goes /up/, not down, about ten feet. Dorotea leaps, pulling herself up and taking the high ground. From there, she picks up a particularly big chunk of rock (it's probably two feet across; she needs both hands to lift it overhead) and throws it down at Reina. "Come get me up here if you're as good as you think!" She gives another half-salute to the camera helicopter while she's up there, post-throw. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Thinking quickly, Reina takes off after Dorotea, climbing up the rock face quickly. She shifts to the side as the rock comes at her, and it barely even grazes her. "Come on, was that supposed to tease me or hit me?" She asks sarcastically before continuing her swift climb up the rock face, then pulls herself up to face Dorotea face to face again.     "Well then, I think it's getting too cold. What say we heat things up a bit?" With that, Reina points at Dorotea and calls out, "FOIE!" A small blast of fire surges across the ground towards Dorotea! 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' There's a lot less room up here overall. As you go higher, the flat regions get narrower. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Suits Dorotea fine. At the taunt, Dorotea's expression shifts from enjoying-herself to anger. "What's that supposed to mean," she gets out, before a fireball jets across the ground at her. She tries to leap it, but it's just a little too high; it singes her feet. Dorotea yelps. That hurt! But she doesn't let this stop her from landing next to Reina, already winding up for a punch. She draws her fist back and holds it there for a moment before driving it forward with sufficient force behind it to crack stone! "Would you rather have my fist than some rocks? Because I have tons of knuckles!" She pauses, at least verbally. "I have ten knuckles!" she corrects, which is still not actually correct. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Being a fighting specialist means you have to know how to defend as well as attack. Reina raises her arms and deflects the punch as best as she can. Well, that's also due to her shields popping up, but mostly because of her arms. It barely even fazes her, although it does remind her that this is a serious fight and not just a sparring match. "Most of us humans do," She replies to the comment about ten knuckles. "There are other beings out there who have more or less, but we ain't any of those."     Reina tries to move but finds she's slipping a little in the snow. That causes an evil smirk to pop up on her face. She then uses the ice to slide towards Dorotea while attempting to deliver an elbow strike with the momentum given. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea Grahn does not actually have ten knuckles. Seriously, go count them. Dorotea is, however, not an academic at all and can't be bothered to do that. She has ten /fingers/ and that's close enough. Right? Right. Dorotea catches the sliding elbow. Unfortunately she catches it with her (unarmoured) chest hard enough that she too slides backwards, digging her feet against the rocky ground to avoid going down a level of cliff. Sure, the next tier of ground is only about ten feet down, here, but she doesn't want to fall ten feet anyway! That one stung. Dorotea grunts rather than actually responding with words and, probably at the same time as Reina, starts to kick it up a notch. Seeing as Reina is right there, Dorotea tries to grab her; rather than go in for any particularly fancy hold, she swings her around, trying to slam her into the ground before tossing her down the ten-foot drop to the level they started on. "I'M QUEEN OF THE MOUNTAIN!" Dorotea yells, while she's doing this. All she has to do is stand tall and make it true! 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     "Aaaaaaah!" Reina can only cry out as she finds herself going down rather quickly. And a ten foot drop is not very pleasant. Especially in this situation! She finds herself hitting the ground hard and feeling like her ribs are trying to break free. She moans and curls up, trying not to let the pain get the best of her. "Damn it, why me?" She thinks as she forces herself up yet again. "So you really got me there. But this battle is NOT over yet!" She points at Dorotea and says, "Mark my words!"     Reina attempts to grab Dorotea and pin her against a nearby cliff wall, before attempting to use her knee to drive her into the wall. "I mean it!" 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea jumps down after Reina after a brief moment of celebrating on top of the ridge. A ten-foot drop is fine if she's prepared for it. That turns out to be a mistake. Reina slams Dorotea right back into the cliffside she just jumped down. It's not fun. At least Dorotea escapes the pin before the knee hits her; she's already bruised enough without taking an additional slam. She breaks the pin by raw strength, simply pushing back against Reina to hold her off. "Hrrrgh..." In Dorotea's life, she's learned she can get away with a lot by brute force alone, if only because she's so good at it. Levering Reina off of her before she gets kneed hard, Dorotea follows it up with another flare of Blue Magic. Momentarily surrounded by a blue aura that radiates away from her in wisps and sparks, Dorotea starts whirling. She lashes out as she does, her fingers hooked into claws; she doesn't actually /have/ claws, but the magic lets her tear as if she does, slashing several times around her before coming to a slightly dizzy stop. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     The shields pop up again and Reina finds herself getting defenses against the incoming attack. It barely even fazes her, and she smirks as soon as the attack is finished. "Was that your best?" She hmmphs and shakes her head. "Come on, I thought that would be more capable of doing some real damage against me!" She runs a hand through her hair and chuckles, before doubling over as she remembers she's sustained quite a few injuries. "Damn it!" She curses softly.     Then Reina looks up, albeit rather weakly. "Looks like the damage has been done, but I'm still not done though!" She raises a hand as she steps backwards and calls out, "ZONDE!" Surprisingly, lightning comes from her and at Dorotea. Kind of ironic given that she's weak against it. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea Grahn is getting kind of annoyed by the shields. /She/ doesn't use shields! But this is the WMAT, so there's nothing wrong with using them; Dorotea just gets mad sometimes. Actually, she's a berserker so she gets mad when she's fighting a lot of the time. Right now she's more 'pumped' than 'furious', which is probably a better option for a tournament anyway. "That's not my best. You want my best?" Dorotea slams her fists together. "I'll get it to you! I - agh!" The lightning bolt hit her while she was talking. Dorotea jerks backwards because of the electricity and actually falls on her rear, her hair frizzing up - the tails she normally keeps her hair in have puffed up to staticky balls, at least until she shakes her head rapidly. That hurt. A lot! It's actually hard for Dorotea to get up quickly after that one. But get up she does. "Fine! You want it - check out what I learned in the desert! One... two..." Dorotea is glowing blue again. That's a warning. The other warning is when she hunches over slightly, slamming her fists together one last time. "THOUSAND NEEDLES!" Little spikes start spraying from Dorotea. In every direction. She isn't bothering to aim (if she even knows how) so some of them stick in the ground, the snow, the side of the mountain. They come in waves, giving Reina time to partially dodge if she's quick, but there's a /lot/ of them. Obviously. It's in the name. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Reina finds herself getting hit by a thousand needles. That's a lot worse than things she's been subjected to in her years as a member of GUARDIANS! She finds herself yelping as the needles pierce her body, leaving her down on the ground and in a hell of a lot of pain. She even feels like she's bleeding quite a bit. Which would explain why she's having trouble getting up now. In fact, the only thing that's allowing her to get up is her raccoon-fox like creature beside her bobbing up and down rapidly. It's Ryulikon, her MAG, which can sense when she's in danger, and provides her with a one time burst of power.     Reina gets up and starts to glow. "I'll show you something of my own. My Photon Blast, which I use in situations like this!" Reina holds her hand out and a circular symbol appears in front of it. Lightning begins to crackle within it and it gets bigger and bigger. "You pushed me to the limits, now it's time to show what happens!" With that, numerous blasts of lightning shoot out and seek out their target! 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' They're actually cactus needles, which probably makes it worse. On the plus side, they all vanish in a few moments, so Reina doesn't have to pick them out; magic is helpful that way. This was not true when Dorotea poked a cactaur with a stick until it used it on her. Ow. Dorotea straightens up as the blue energy ends. She's running low on magic - not out, but low enough that she doesn't really want to use much more and couldn't do that again even if she wanted to. "How about thaaaaoh crap - " Dorotea can't outrun lightning. Running in a circle means that none of them actually hit her directly, but she keeps getting shocked as they explode on the ground and cliff walls around her. She kind of wishes she didn't have metal boots and gauntlets after a couple of those. "Agh! Too close, too close!" Turning at the last bolt, Dorotea keeps running. But now she's running toward Reina, to do one of two things. One, 'accidentally' make the last bolt of the Photon Burst hit her instead, but that's unlikely. Much more likely is two: punch her in the stomach. She follows that up with three through seven: more punching. Dorotea gets determined after nearly being fried by lightning, apparently. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Sensing what's going to happen, Reina tightens her stomach as best as she can. The punches barely faze her, even though she's critically injured from the previous attacks. She's struggling to keep herself going though, and the will to fight is diminishing fast. But Laia's words of motivation still ring within her, that you never give up no matter how tough it might seem. And Reina's definitely not going to give up. Her willpower seems to act as a reserve tank of fuel to keep her within the fight just a little longer. "Mmmph... pretty good..."     Reina struggles to get back into her fighting stance, but all she can do is double over a little as she struggles to breathe. "Not good here... unngh..." Reina slaps her face a couple of times before getting up and attempting to go in with a spinning elbow strike, although it's obvious she's having some trouble keeping herself steady as she does this. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' It's mutual. Dorotea has been battered around enough; she's run-down, barely on her feet, and being elbowed is not helping. Dorotea doesn't really recover from that strike so much as struggle to push through it. She ends up with her hands on her knees for a moment as she braces herself. But if there's one thing Dorotea has - more than strength, more than her magic, definitely more than her intelligence - it's endurance. Endurance and determination; they go hand in hand. "Still got a chance," she grunts, more to herself than Reina, as she shoves herself up straight. She's about to drop and she knows it - but before she does, she uses one last bit of magic. This one's an old standby. It was one of the first Blue Magic spells she learned. With a final surge of blue magic... ...Dorotea tries to punch Reina right in the face. The only magical effect is that it makes a burst of energy when she does it. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     The burst of energy barely even fazes Reina this time. Her shields pop up in the nick of time and she barely even feels it. But the lack of energy in her body makes it overwhelming to her. "Dammit, not now," She says aloud as she struggles to keep from doubling over. "Not gonna quit now!" She glares at Dorotea and says, "This fight has gone on long enough. One of us has to win and the other lose. Whoever it is... doesn't matter now..."     Reina grunts a little as she tries to keep herself from passing out due to the injuries she's sustained. "I've been through worse than this! I can take it!" She lifts her leg and attempts a kicking attack at mid level. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Apparently, Reina can take it. Dorotea is surprised that her Goblin Punch did not, in fact, take Reina out. In fact, she looks, confused, at her own fist. It's always done the job before! Where did she go wrong?? The distraction is sufficient for Reina to plant a foot right in her stomach. It picks up Dorotea and throws her about ten feet; she hits the rocky ground, rolls, and ends up staring at the sky without a whole lot of understanding of how she got there. Dorotea tries to get up. It fails. She ends up right back where she started but on her front this time. She tries a second time, but though she manages to get to one knee this time, she can't get any higher. The helicopter up above is the one that makes a sound rather like a foghorn, indicating the end of the fight. Even as Dorotea keeps trying to get up, it's pretty clear /she's/ not in any shape to continue, even if Reina is. 

:'''{{#var:391|Reina Kinney (391)}} has posed:'''     Reina is still hunched over, and can't believe she defeated her opponent. Still, she doesn't want to seem like a braggart or anything like that. She walks over, albeit very weakly, then kneels down and smiles a little. "That was a tough fight. I was really well challenged. You've got potential too." She gives a thumbs up. "Keep training and next time you'll do even better!"     After the brief pep talk, Reina stands up and begins to walk away, limping heavily and still bleeding. She may have won, but there's no joy in victory for her for some reason. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea Grahn does manage to get all the way up after that. Barely. She's still definitely not in any condition to keep fighting. Her everything hurts. She rubs her chin, where she took more than one rattling blow. "I've got more than potential!" she yells after Reina as she walks off, before plopping right down on her rear. "Pfoo." Maybe she should have done more training, though she's in school so often.... ...well, she'll just have to MAKE time, won't she? 

}}

2840/WMAT CQ1 T-elos vs Sarah

2015-08-20T02:13:02Z

Sirocco: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/08/18 |Location=WMAT Arena - Northern Mountains |Synopsis=A WMAT qualifiers match between a deadly android and a powerful Runebearer! What cou..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/08/18
|Location=WMAT Arena - Northern Mountains
|Synopsis=A WMAT qualifiers match between a deadly android and a powerful Runebearer! What could go wrong?
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=316, 785
|Tinyplot=WMAT 2015
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' The Northern Mountains are cold, but it's an arena that Sarah has come to like over the years. The presence of alpine lakes create a small but useful advantage for her, and while she's never been fond of overly mountainous or cold terrain, there is a certain rugged beauty to this place. It's remote and quiet. She's always been a fan of quiet. That probably explains why she can be found in one of the valleys beside a lake. To all appearances she stares down at the clear water as though transfixed; a slim and almost colourlessly pale woman, laughably fragile in light of the tournament. Appearances are terribly deceptive things, though. This quiet, seemingly fragile woman radiates a power far out of proportion to her weak appearance. She also radiates a preternatural calm. Come what may, it seems to exude; unconcerned with the audience's excitement on the viewing platforms, or the action about to come. For right now, she's a bastion of calm and serenity in the midst of the tournament's high energy and spirits. Her greatstaff leans gently against the crook of her right elbow; her right hand is clasped in her left, the thumb of her left hand absently rubbing at a mark over the top of her right hand. For now, she waits, eyes half-closed as she stares into the pool of clear water -- alert, but seemingly inattentive. Some prepare by practising manoeuvres, equipping themselves, or maintaining their equipment. Sarah of Crystal Valley practises for a pitched battle much more simply, and that is to find a nice, quiet spot and clear her mind. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' In complete contrast to Sarah, T-elos has never been to the Northern Mountains before. She did not bother to go to all of the arenas before her matches and this is one of the ones she missed. She's seen pictures, of course - it may be remote, but years of WMAT use have ensured that there are so many pictures and videos of the area typically used for combat that she could have made a rough map out of what she saw. It's not quite the same, but it will do. But she hasn't come to like the place. T-elos has no particular opinion of it except that it is remote and, aside from the city visible in the distance and the crowds loading up the viewing platforms, largely uninhabited. The planet she was constructed on had places like this. She'd never been. In another contrast, she isn't that calm. She's excited. T-elos has not fought this person before, but she's been informed that she drew a tough match. She found herself eager to find out. That's why she entered the WMAT, after all; she had no master plan, no grand strategy. She wanted to fight, and maybe be recognized for doing so. Maybe that makes her simple, but T-elos knows what she enjoys, and she was - quite literally - made for this. She drops. T-elos had apparently been concealing herself on the underside of one of the hovering viewing platforms, nestled in there; she drops a couple hundred feet like it was no particular distance, landing on her feet, and strolls out with her heels making surprisingly little noise on the rocky mountainside. She is aware this is making the cameramen on that platform work for their pay to actually get her in focus. "Are you going to look at the lake forever?" T-elos' voice breaks - well, it's not silence. Crowds make noise even if they aren't actively cheering yet. But her voice carries over them, strident until she lowers it again. "I suppose if you'd rather go nature-watching..." 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' The pale woman shows no sign that she senses the anticipation rippling through the audience, but she does raise her head. The movement is so faint it could be missed, setting her jewelled earrings to clinking softly, turning to face T-elos in the same movement. Sarah says nothing at first; merely tilts her head, ever so slightly, studying the... no, she isn't human. That much is blatantly obvious to her senses and to the True Rune. "You would not understand," she says simply. Her voice is soft; almost whispery, without quite being an actual whisper. "I will not bother to explain to you. You are T-elos, then." It's a statement, not a question, one of quiet satisfaction. "I have been waiting for this match. Shall we begin?" The Runebearer shifts her grip on her greatstaff. It's a pretty thing, wrought of polished ebonwood and bright silver, claws clasping a large crystal sphere at its head. The silver almost forms a petal pattern. It, at least, looks more formidable than its wielder. T-elos will receive precisely thirty seconds to give her answer. The instant those seconds are counted, Sarah moves with startling suddenness; snapping a command in a language eons dead and stepping aside, swinging her greatstaff. She's too far away to have any hope of striking T-elos, but that doesn't seem to be her intent. A large shadow falls over the combat android and the Runebearer both. That's because there is quite suddenly a large wave hurling itself at T-elos from the lake. It's a fairly big wave, too, meant to knock down and crush; but Sarah, curiously, makes no move to get away from it. Indeed, the water parts and flows around her as though a magnet repelling iron filings. In the midst of the roaring water, the pale woman smiles. "I do in fact enjoy watching nature. Water has many things to tell us, if we would only but listen to it." 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos doesn't feel human, no - she feels like something related, but definitely not the same. Like an artificial sketch of a human, but one that the designers didn't know how to properly finish, and so just got it into a state that could run. Spiritually, she feels incomplete, an artificial mind with a hollow spirit. She also has a tendency to stare right back when she's being looked at - stare, and scan, which is enough for her to detect the power of the Runebearer, if not make sense of it beyond seeing it exists. Her lip curls up slightly. It makes her look cruel, not happy. "I am T-elos," she agrees. "And /you/ must be Sarah." She seems interested in the other woman now in a way she wasn't before. "If you want to lose that badly, I suppose I shouldn't disappoint. Apparently I have fans now." The appointed time comes about two thirds of the way through Sarah's wait. T-elos is moving by then, but the water outspeeds her, crashing down as T-elos lets out a surprised bellow. It slams her against the stony ground, carrying her down the mountain as it impacts the ground and spreads. T-elos is nowhere to be seen for a moment. It can't be that easy. And it isn't; T-elos leaps out of the water, trailing droplets behind her, as soon as she gets her feet on something solid instead of being washed away. She has her pistol in her right hand and she fires it even as she arcs through the air; she doesn't /really/ fly, as it turns out, but each jump carries her a good hundred feet back up the mountain toward Sarah, and each jump has enough time for her to fire a couple shots, each one causing a pink flash of energy that discharges a terribly solid bullet. Apparently the sucker-punch (sucker-wave?) made her angry. Even if it was completely legal (and it was; T-elos was trying to get close enough to Sarah to stab her when it happened) she doesn't like being made a fool of, and being washed down the mountainside counts. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' Water is the magician's specialty, and that is what she senses -- and what T-elos has in her body is coolant, antifreeze, and stranger things she can't name; things that do not belong in a human or organic body. T-elos feels alien to the True Water Rune's senses; and to the memories of all of its past bearers, spanning generations into the dim antiquity of her world. "Hmmm." It's a quiet sound of both acknowledgement and mirth, as though the idea of losing so trivially amuses her. She shifts her grip on the greatstaff, even as the water does its work, washing T-elos over the cliffside in a torrent of supernaturally-charged water. She lifts her chin as her opponent comes surging out from the wave, unsurprised. She had heard T-elos was strong; to have overtaken the combat android so easily would have aroused her suspicions. What she didn't expect was such a quick recovery. Those colourless eyes immediately narrow at the sight of those pistols. While not intimately familiar with how such machines work, firearms being the specialty of the Howling Voice Guild, she does know their danger in skilled hands. No sooner has T-elos leapt to altitude than Sarah raises her staff, snapping off another command and hunkering slightly behind what appears to be a barrier. Pressurised water, to look at how the light passes through it; fortified here and there with ice, to look at how the rounds crack and shatter against it. Such a barrier must cost her dearly; sweat beads on her forehead as her shoulders hunch, throwing ever more power into the shield. And then, with a sidestep, a flourish of her staff, and another command in that liquid quicksilver tongue, the shield simply explodes; into shards of deadly-sharp, high-pressure ice. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' There's some water in there. But mostly not. T-elos has biological parts... but they're artificially reconstructed, so intertwined with nanomachines that it's almost impossible to tell where one ends and the other starts, and don't make up her entire body. Some parts are missing, simply replaced with something else; other parts are changed, and changed drastically, to do what she needs them to. Some are simply added, things no human has an equivalent for. She does not have the same life processes as a human. You couldn't reasonably call her one, though you could call her alive. But again... an artificial sketch, not quite the same as what it describes, not entirely complete. It is certainly alien to the True Water Rune. T-elos lands after one of her jumps - on a tree, which she balances on the branches of for a split second. It's enough to shelter her partially from the spray of ice and water, but not enough; icicles pierce her armoured suit (such as it is; she's a little underdressed for a mountaintop battle) and her skin. Blood, or something like it, trickles from a visible wound on her face. T-elos reaches up a hand to it like she didn't know it could happen. It gets on her gloved fingers. She looks at it in momentary surprise before her hand clenches into a fist. "Interesting," she says, but the word covers anger more than actual interest. She's been wounded before, in the Multiverse - but never in a one-on-one battle, for the simple reason that she's never had one. And not with ice. T-elos returns her pistol to its thigh holster and swings herself on the tree branch. She goes around once, twice - and then throws herself off it, using momentum to get the rest of the way to Sarah. It's not as far as it was before and this time she has the spinning wind-up on her side. She comes in with a two-footed kick, trying to slam into Sarah before she can bring up another one of those shields. She springs off (either off Sarah, the shield, or the ground, she's not picky) and tumbles, trying to get uphill from Sarah so that it's harder to wash her away. She is less amused now. The crowd can probably tell; she's not fighting to kill (that would get her thrown out of WMAT) but she's definitely pushing a little harder than she was. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' Clutching her greatstaff with both hands, Sarah watches her opponent carefully. Agile, that much is certain; and that makes her opponent dangerous. In spite of her calm expression, Sarah is keenly alert, observing every movement T-elos makes. Observation is key in a battle of speed. Circling warily, she shifts her grip on the greatstaff, watching as T-elos throws herself off the tree. She has only a fraction of a second to react; but that fractional second isn't enough to bring up a shield. The result is that Sarah is kicked square in the gut, sent sprawling, but her fingers grip the staff like iron. She uses the weapon to eventually stop her wild spinning, jamming the spike-shod end into a crack between two stones. Using the leverage and momentum, she swings herself upright, studying T-elos carefully; snapping off another one of those illegible commands. A torrent of water sprays, seemingly harmless as it lances for T-elos. While it looks like it might not do damage, it's pressurised, the kind of stuff used to cut steel -- or harder things. Mostly because anywhere it touches the rock, the rock is left with a clean and extremely /precise/ score-line through it. And it cuts /deep/. Ouch. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' Agile, fast, and strong; T-elos was built beyond human parameters and it shows. Not unstoppable, though. Sarah is showing that quite clearly; T-elos is accumulating injuries and damage from the fight. She seems to have the upper hand for a moment as she springs off, and she reaches, preparing to pull another gun. The spray of water catches her off guard. It's too thin to knock her over; it's not a wave, it's not even a fire hose. It's just a... beam? She doesn't quite ignore it, but she doesn't pay it as much attention as she would something obviously more dangerous. She pays for it. The beam catches T-elos in the left hip. It hits the small plate she has there and pretty much rips it off, carving down and to the side; though it misses bone, it's still an obvious gash down her leg. It's enough of a pain to get her to stagger - not fall over, whether by design or chance, but the injury is obvious. She is starting to realize she's underestimating her opponent. T-elos hisses. "A water witch. Interesting. But do you know how to fight without water? Or is that all you do?" T-elos lunges, ignoring the wound on her leg for the moment; it fails to buckle, though she gets a damage warning every time she puts her weight down on it. T-elos' left gauntlet/bracer extends a blade, projecting it forward, more an extension of her arm than anything else. The weapon is dark, almost black on the inside, and edged with an unpleasant-looking dark purple; it tends to leave violet streaks across vision as she moves it, slashing at Sarah with the laser weapon. It's not a terribly powerful hit because she's aiming at the staff; she's trying to see if she can jar it out of Sarah's hands, but even if she can't the sheer force of impact is unpleasant - especially because T-elos kicks, too. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' The android is slowing down, but so is her mortal opponent. Sarah is looking bruised and battered; where she holds her greatstaff with one hand, she keeps her other arm folded tight against her stomach, where she'd been kicked. She's reluctant to give T-elos the satisfaction of knowing it too blatantly, but that hurts like the dickens. Sarah's pretty much the epitome of the 'squishy caster.' While she might command awe-inspiring powers, she's still very much fragile, physically. "Witch?" The pale woman's nostrils flare, in a subtle expression of clear distaste, and she shakes her head. "Hardly. That is an uneducated guess. I see no harm in educating you; doubtless the information is in the Confederate systems already. I am a Runebearer. I am no witch, although I have been called that in the past; and I have never been one." That momentary annoyance fades, though, buried deep beneath the placid surface. "You are correct; that is all I do. Rob me of that, and I may as well admit defeat." She's taken quickly; although she twists to avoid being kicked in the gut again (because that's still very much painful), it costs her the greatstaff. The weapon is well-made, and rather than crack in two, it's sent spinning, end over end. Sarah watches it go, and sighs a reluctant little sigh. She's going to have to go down and look for that, later. "Bother," she says, tone one of disappointment. But she doesn't admit defeat. No; what she does do is lift up her left hand, and the sigil of another rune glows in bright yello-white -- the Cyclone Rune, a wind rune, and in the same breath she snaps off another one of those arcane commands, summoning slashing blades of wind to assault T-elos from what seems to be all sides. Maybe that can keep her busy; in the meantime, she risks a glance over the edge of the cliff, to see how far her staff's fallen. Pretty darned far, and it's not done yet, still spinning violently end over end as it plummets. She'll be able to retrieve it -- but not until she can distract T-elos more thoroughly and keep the android off her for a few seconds. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos can sense weakness - not out of some supernatural sense, but merely because she was quite literally designed for combat. She knows she's hurt Sarah even if she's not entirely sure how badly without popping her visor down, and she doesn't want to take the time to check while she's in melee with the other woman. She doesn't really care what the other woman calls herself. Witch, Runebearer - she understands there is a difference, but she doesn't know what it is without looking it up. It doesn't really matter. Now that T-elos scents blood (figuratively speaking; literally speaking, she's the one bleeding) she's back into the fight. And the crowd can probably tell; she's eager. Having disarmed her opponent, T-elos tries to follow it up. The slashing wind slows her down; it tears at her, but she plants her feet and hunkers down. She's heavier than she ought to be; heavy enough that she isn't thrown about, though the blades lash at her, tearing at her flesh. Her hair whips every direction as she retracts the blade on her left arm. With a few sparkles, and then a flash, T-elos' arm is surrounded in violet light to the elbow. When it fades, there is /something/ there - a gigantic pincer attached to a blocky piece of equipment that covers her left arm from the elbow down. "You may as well, then. Unless you want to get /hurt/, Runebearer." T-elos' grin is almost uncomfortably eager as she pushes through the wind, using her strength to advantage even when she's caught in her own personal razor windstorm. She swings, trying to use the oversized clamp to grab Sarah's arm, preventing her from going after the staff and crushing with the amplified strength in those pincers. Apparently it's only strong on the compression, though, because T-elos opens the pincers a moment later, trying for another crushing grab, higher up on the arm. "Or I can crush you like a bug!" She is playing risky - going for offense instead of defending herself from magic, but then again she's not sure /how/ to defend herself from magic without just dealing with the physical effects as they come. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' "I have died twice. Your threats do not frighten me," Sarah replies with a slight bow of her head. It might be a calm and serene delivery, if not for the fact that she's panting like a bellows, and holding her stomach more tightly than before; the tightness around her eyes shows her pain. "Besides which, it is illegal to kill one's opponent in the tournament." She staggers back in an attempt to gain some distance, shaking her head as she does. "Somehow I doubt that you care--" She doesn't have a chacne to finish; her arm is suddenly seized by that clamp. She sucks in a breath through her teeth at the pain, and again, when the clamp repeats the process. There is an uncomfortable-sounding crunch, and Sarah's face blanches -- paler than usual, somehow. Apparently that struck a nerve, or maybe she's just desperate. With a rasp of those incoherent commands, there comes another blast of water. It's wilder, this time, and less controlled; but more powerful for its lack of direction -- a simple and desperate attempt to shove T-elos away through sheer force. She won't complain if the combat android winds up half-drowned, though, either. In the same breath, while T-elos deals with the water, she'll take an opportunity to reach out -- and simply teleport her greatstaff to her waiting hand, whirling to face T-elos with wariness in her eyes and a slight frown on her face. "I am no mere insect to be crushed underfoot. So sorry for you that you did not try to look up what you'd gotten yourself into. Allow me to educate you." And again another blast of water -- mixed this time with chunks of ice; and riding the forward edge, a cloud of steam hissing like a dragon as it bears down on T-elos. "As I told you," she snaps, voice a bit harder this time for pain, "water is a versatile thing. And perhaps I lied. It does not matter whether I carry a weapon or not," she adds, shoving the wave forward with a gesture. Arms swinging up and then violently down, she raises the entire swaying mass up, and then attempts to crush the whole mass down, right on T-elos' head. "It simply has sentimental value to me." 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' Sarah's blast of water caught T-elos when she was opening the pincers to try to get another grab - she's trying to get Sarah in a grip steady enough that she can pick her up by it and throw her around. She doesn't think the arm will do. It doesn't /hurt/, precisely, but it is a sudden enough push to get T-elos to back up a step to avoid being knocked over. The pincers close again - about six inches from Sarah, slamming together with a metal-on-metal clatter. "I won't kill you," T-elos promises, with an almost purr in her voice. "I don't need to kill you to beat you. Isn't that the whole purpose of this event?" She snaps her arm to the side; the L-DRAKE vanishes in the same lights it came from. "And I'm learning. Oh, I'm learning a lot about you, and people like you." Sometimes it's hard to remember, even for people who know her, that T-elos is so damn young. The second blast of water is about as effective as the first - more so, in making T-elos move. It's half the impact, half a dodge; T-elos leaps backwards and goes into an extremely low crouch about ten feet back, letting the bulk of the water pass above her. She's still sprayed by water falling out of the blast, and the steam is uncomfortably hot in comparison to the environment; it's not real good for her laser emitters, either, though none of them actually entirely short out. But by then she's moving, sliding forward across the rocky slope, picking up momentum as she barrels back downhill towards Sarah, even if she's moved (unless she's teleported herself, anyway) - T-elos remains low for the impact. It's a tripping kick; T-elos tries to slam her heel into Sarah's ankle. The heel isn't normally sharp, but as soon as it impacts (if it impacts), there's a flash of light from the gem on either side of her ankle, a small laser blade like her sword but much smaller forms into a short spike. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' "No, you will not." Sarah's response is confident, but where T-elos seems to grow increasingly enraged, her regard is more thoughtful -- and just a little harried. She won't die, and the rules of the tournament forbid it, but that doesn't mean that she enjoys being in pain. In fact, her pain tolerance threshold is pretty terrible. That leaves her with two choices; to try and win this battle of attrition, or to go on the offensive. She regardes T-elos warily, circling with the greatstaff clutched in both her hands. Despite her long skirts, they don't seem to get in her way; accustomed as she is to wearing them. Her eyes narrow as she watches. The steam seemed to be effective against the android's joints; that, perhaps, might be a strategy to capitalise upon. And suddenly OW BAD THINGS HAPPENING TO ANKLE. Predictably, Sarah crumples like a string-cut puppet, with a sharp hiss of pain. At the same time, though, she lashes out with her greatstaff, attempting to ram the spike-shod end into T-elos' gut. Or what passes for her gut. Will that even do anything to her? Maybe not, but she can hope for that, at least, as she goes down. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos is working herself into a destructive rush. She's not a berserker - but she likes breaking things. She likes hurting people. And right now, she's been given a target and allowed to go after it, as long as she doesn't kill them. It's a pleasure. T-elos rises. Or, well, she starts to rise; the staff in her gut interferes with that. Her midsection is the only part of her with visible external armour, but - honestly - T-elos is much tougher than her outfit is. It doesn't actually provide that much protection because she doesn't need it. The spike impacts. If Sarah is of normal human strength, she'd normally have to work to pierce deep - but T-elos was moving, and Sarah took advantage of that. The spike digs in deep enough that she can feel it against her flesh - into her flesh. She snarls, sinking back down from the impact. "Damn you! I'm going to /enjoy/ finishing this." T-elos no longer rises after that kick. She stays on the ground for a moment, then rolls away from Sarah, tearing the spike out as she goes. She leaves blood, or something dark like blood, behind, but when she rises she's stopped bleeding - a corrective system, her cheek isn't doing it anymore either. (This doesn't mean she's healed. She hasn't. She's just not leaking anything from the cuts.) More importantly to Sarah, the emitters all over T-elos' body are glowing. Three set to either side of her chest, two on each arm, three on each hip (though Sarah removed some of those earlier), one to either side of her head; they're all pulsing deep inside the crystals. All of them emit simultaneously a stream of light, which forms into a ball in front of T-elos. It drifts forward, toward Sarah, before exploding in a shockwave and beam blast. It's more than just her, too; it blasts at trees around them, sending showers of pine needles, turning some of the water to steam as the lasers hit them. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' Fortunately for T-elos, Sarah is of less than normal human strength, and the blow is more of a reactionary movement than a targetted attack. Otherwise, it might have been a seriously threatening attack; a literal chink in T-elos' armour. "Struck a nerve, have I?" Sarah pants, with a cold, calm smile. "Oh, my, yes. I have indeed." Lack of blood means little to Sarah; she can tell that there's still damage, and she seems satisfied by that. At least, she might seem satisfied by that if she weren't so busy not being struck. That glowing probably isn't a good sign, though. No sooner does she raise a barrier of hardened water than the light converges into a sphere, rupturing in a shockwave of lasers and concussive force; splintering trees and scattering pine needles, and sending Sarah sprawling -- she'd managed to raise a barrier, but that doesn't stop all hundred pounds of her from being sent hurtling through the air and into a particularly stout pine tree. She hits the trunk with a satisfying 'CRACK' of displaced wood, slumping to the ground as though defeated. Not so. She rolls to the ground and pushes herself to her feet, spitting a gobbet of what looks like blood; possibly from cutting her cheek during the impact. "Not bad," she praises, spitting again to clear her mouth. "Not bad at all." Another swing of her greatstaff brings another torrent of water; but this time, it hisses almost immediately into steam, flash-frying and assaulting T-elos in a hissing, scalding cloud, heat waves shimmering above it. Sarah, meanwhile, stands back with her greatstaff planted, panting as she leans against it; ready to run at a moment's notice as she watches to see what happens to T-elos. Terrible things, if she's lucky. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos is environmentally protected. She is suitable for being sent into space, underwater, or onto any planet known to the Galaxy Federation, from freezing cold to literally boiling. She can do all of these without additional exterior equipment, except for mobility purposes - but for pure survival, she's fine. That doesn't mean she's invulnerable to them. And the sudden changes are the worst: she can handle a steamy, smoky environment. She could stand on Venus, though she might want some anti-acid coating. But she can't do it all at the same time; the sudden shock of the change is enough to cause damage, tough as she is. The steam causes T-elos to recoil reflexively. That saves her from getting cooked, but not from getting hurt; water beads on the exposed emitters, her flesh reddens (inasmuch as it's visible through her skin tone; it certainly darkens) and unpleasant things happen in water-filled regions. Like her eyes. To protect them, T-elos' visor drops down. It covers her eyes, locking into place and giving her a rather different view of the environment; now she's seeing in multiple spectra, with several different scans popping up as she examines the area. "Clever." Her regard remains on Sarah, the visor giving her the impression of having one large cyclopean eye because of its shape and positioning. Something under the crystal shifts, irising like a camera focusing. "I think we've had nearly enough playtime, though; don't you?" T-elos' holster literally pops the pistol up as if it was spring-loaded. She catches it out of the air. Now braced for the heat, T-elos walks forward, slowly advancing on Sarah through the somewhat more cleared region of the slope; she fires the pistol repeatedly and consistently. It's a six-shot revolver but she doesn't stop after six shots; the gun starts to smoke visibly around number ten, and by twelve she's had to stop firing because the barrel is starting to hiss when water touches it. This time, she's not moving fast. But also this time, she doesn't seem like she's going to stop advancing. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' Although her abilities lend her inhuman reaction times when operating in a misty or otherwise damp environment, Sarah has little experience with technology this advanced. She's able to shield a number of the shots from striking, but several of them manage to either skim past her shields, or simply punch right through the hardened, pressurised water; one shot slams into her forearm, eliciting a faint sound of pain. It's not quite a whimper. She's too proud to whimper. But it /is/ unspeakably painful, and it sends her reeling backward, clutching at her arm and hissing in agony. As she's recoiling to protect her arm, another slams into her side, bringing her to reel backwards. But she doesn't stop. Where T-elos possesses something of a berserker's rage, the Runebearer is a cold, inexorable sort of fury; slow to build and slow to release, but the kind of which can move mountains when galvanised. "Quite enough," she agrees, but there's a hard edge to, and a catch in, her voice. "I must say, this has been a most educational experience." Abruptly, a sharp gesture of the greatstaff recalls all of the steam and mist hanging about the area. More of it begins rising from the ground. Thickly; like a cold, wet winter morning. It boils up, and then, with another sharp command from Sarah, it freezes. With another final command -- it /bursts/, glittering shards sent lancing in every direction. Hopefully some among those hundreds of thousands of shards find their way to T-elos, too. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos's cruel smile grows when she lands a hit with the revolver, and then a better one, but she doesn't rush. She takes her time. She's not playing around but she's not rushing either; she's going more for constant, inexorable. With the gun smoking, T-elos fires it one last time and then puts it back in the holster, where it begins to cool down almost immediately. It's probably a mistake. Sarah does have time to react before T-elos gets there at a steady pace, and react she does. Mist starts to rise; T-elos walks through the winter fog, letting it swirl around her legs, then her torso as it rises. If that's the best she can do now, it's hardly worthy of her time. Sarah can't hide in it; with her visor down, T-elos has senses that can penetrate it like it didn't exist. Unless, of course, there's more water magic involved. That's always a factor. The ice, though - that shouldn't be a surprise but it is. T-elos realizes it when rime starts to form on her metal plates; thigh, hip, bracer, holster. It's /cold/, and she snarls, starting to move faster so that some of it is dislodged. "Enough of this - " The ice explodes. Sarah doesn't have to worry about hitting T-elos with the shards. It would be hard not to, given some of them are forming on her metal; they rip into her, some spikes penetrating and others tearing across and ripping but not lodging. There's so many of them that T-elos is almost pinned in place for a moment, as the metal sides of her boots are freezing to the ground. She shatters herself free with a sound like a frozen river cracking when someone walks on it, then a thousand tiny tinkling sounds as smaller pieces of rime and ice fall. Some of them are red-stained. T-elos has never fought a wizard, a witch, or a Runebearer before. Magicians surprise her, and she doesn't like being surprised. Taking two steps, T-elos begins to skate across the icy rocks, leaning back slightly so that she slides on her heeled boots. Her balance is incredible, even injured. "Do you think that's going to stop me?" she roars. T-elos has a new gun in her hand - actually, on her hand, formed around her left hand and sleekly continuing from the elbow. The weapon is as big around as her upper arm is, and when she fires it, the shell detonates in an explosion. The recoil is enough to stop her forward skate, her heels squealing as she ends up locked in place for a moment. If the shot hits a tree instead of Sarah, the trunk explodes into splinters, sending branches flying - it's not a weapon of mass destruction, but it's not weak, either. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' A flick of the greatstaff clears some of the ice shards away, once the damage has been done; Sarah strides forward through the maelstrom, calm and inexorable as a glacier. She is looking worse for the wear, considerably so, but she has no intention of admitting defeat. 'I have died twice,' she had told T-elos, and she had spoken truly; not simply that she had come close, but that she had in truth fully ceased to be, and only through the mystery and strangeness of the multiverse had she come back from that threshold. A little pain doesn't frighten her, not in the scope of that. Besides which, this tournament has become a yearly tradition. Even if she doesn't win, she will do as she always has, and conduct herself with dignity and elegance. She is the bearer of a True Rune and, although there are times she may have wished she weren't, that has to count for something. So she strides forward through the ice, untouched by the maelstrom, and she meets the combat android with her head held high. "No," she agrees, voice soft as ever. "I do not. But I think that it will slow you down, and that is all I require--" Whatever else she has to say is swallowed by an explosion, and only quick reflexes saves her from becoming as splintered as the trees around her. She calls up a shield, cowering momentarily behind it; wincing as debris is sent skittering and glancing across its surface. The mere act of calling up a shield is exhausting, but it was a choice between draining her already-flagging energy reserves, or winding up like that tree... well, she'd rather exhaust herself. No sooner does she throw the shield aside than she immediately counters, summoning another lash of high-pressure water. This time she targets T-elos' hands and arms, trying to disable her, and disarm her in the most literal sense. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' The L-CANNON probably wouldn't have done that to Sarah. (Probably.) It's not exactly never-lethal weaponry, but it's certainly well within the range of things people are allowed to use in the WMAT. She's not trying to kill Sarah, not really. She /is/ trying to hurt her, though; that's a little different. T-elos leaves the L-CANNON active, which at least means that Sarah is not likely to get stabbed immediately; with it in place, she can't pop out the L-BLADE, and though she has the little spike emitters on her feet, she doesn't have a bracer on her right hand that could possibly hold one. She's apparently decided to hold her ground on a particularly flat chunk of rock nearish a cliff that rises behind her, one that's surrounded by the odd tree and a lot of scree. She doesn't even move off it when Sarah lashes out with high-pressure water. "You're not going to slow me down like /that/ - " Well, she doesn't go far, at least. T-elos does try to evade without getting off her flat 'platform', and is at least slightly successful; she ducks, hunkering down to protect her arm and using her shoulder plate as a shield. Sarah starts to pry it off with the high-pressure water, but T-elos gets to keep her arm - even if she can't always keep the plate in place, and Sarah tears up the area around the plate several times as T-elos tries to reposition to keep herself safe. In her kneeling position, T-elos also does something that is a little hard to make out. She fires the L-CANNON after switching its loadout - not directly at Sarah, because she's tired of that shield, though it may look like that when she first takes aim. It's actually aimed at the ground near Sarah. The shell hits scree and broken rock and does absolutely nothing, which T-elos is hoping Sarah reads as a miss and a dud. About three seconds later, /then/ it explodes, sending a pillar of broken rock and debris into the air like a fountain. It starts raining down moments later, shards of rock impacting over quite a broad distance. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' The pale woman approaches with the inexorable finality of a glacier; laughable, perhaps, for someone so fragile-looking. A stiff breeze looks as though it could send her tumbling end over end. Fortunately, appearances are terribly deceptive things, especially in the multiverse. As a noted Confederate once described her, she is All the Water of the World; she carries on her right hand the very embodiment of water in its purest, most elemental form. If one might draw comparisons, it is one of the twenty-seven founding elements of her world; comparable, perhaps, to the power of a god, although she is still human. Mostly. With the satisfaction of shredding T-elos' shoulder armour, Sarah allows herself a moment to breathe -- although she immediately throws another shield into being as the L-CANNON is fired once more. In the half-second it takes to confirm that it doesn't hit anything, she lets that shield down. Too soon. To her credit, her reflexes are good. She brings the shield back up to keep the worst of the debris from hitting her, although several moderate pieces still manage to cut deep. The shards leave streaks of red across her pale, pale skin; shredding into both skin and layered dress alike, drawing a hiss of pain as Sarah sucks a breath in through her teeth. That is exquisitely painful. No sooner has the debris settled than Sarah conjures another blast of water -- but this time, it's enough of a wave to go roaring through a canyon; all the power and fury of white-water rapids, bounding and rolling and leaping as it surges over the valley and towards T-elos, seeking to overwhelm her with raw power where finesse has failed. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos can be clever, especially when it comes to fighting. In a lot of fields she's inexperienced, but here she is in her element. That her trick worked pleases her; she straightens from the half-crouch she'd been in, rising to her full height. Which actually isn't nearly as tall as people assume; she's about five and a half feet, and that's with heels. Pretty small, for a war machine. Either way, T-elos raises the cannon arm again. She's sighting on Sarah, hoping that the showering rock is a distraction, and she fires - but the shot goes wide, thanks to a sudden blast of water. 'Blast' is kind of an understatement. It hits T-elos and slams her against the cliff she'd placed behind her; she manages to grip against it with her hands (unsummoning the cannon to do it) and bracing her legs, but that only means that debris picked up by the whelming wave slams into her, battering her. One of the rocks cracks her leg in a way that should have broken it. T-elos can't even speak because her mouth is full of water. But she's heavy, heavier than a human would be, and she feels comfortable dropping into the wave and digging her feet into the ground to stay in place. She still has to crouch down to present less area to the water, and she keeps getting smashed up while she does it - but she /is/ doing it. From the white-water rapids comes a spray of bullets. It's not the small gun this time; T-elos has summoned an almost ludicrously large vulcan-type gun that appears to be three three-barreled rotary cannons stuck together in a triangle shape; the ammunition box is about the size (and length) of her upper leg. It takes her about five seconds to go through the entire box, which ejects automatically afterwards. Sarah gets a slightly easier time dodging it because T-elos is underwater until the rapids clear, firing out of it; as a result she's sweeping the ridiculous gatling, trying to hit /something/, rather than focusing her fire on one target. The bullets that aren't going towards Sarah tear into trees and ricochet wildly off stone; there is a momentary pause as T-elos shoves another ammunition box into it and repeats the process, sweeping the opposite direction this time. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' All that shielding is starting to add up. The Runebearer is beginning to look more than a bit ragged around the edges and a thin trickle of blood from her mouth is tracing its way down her chin; her nose also seems to be bleeding, a little. Shields take tremendous power to call into being, and they take even more energy to sustain under pressure. Where she lacks the energy, the True Water Rune will demand its price all the same; from her own body, if it must. Never mind that conjuring such volume of water also exacts its price. No sooner does the water sweep away T-elos than there are bullets spraying forth from the water, which Sarah is pretty sure isn't supposed to happen. Once more she calls forth a shield, but not before several rounds find their mark, grazing past her, chipping stone around her, or finding their mark in her unprotected arm. That draws her to bare her teeth in pain, hissing again. The shield holds, though it seems to cost her almost more than simply taking the bullets might have; the trickle of blood from her nose and mouth grows visibly, and there is a hollowness beneath her eyes. Her eyes themselves seem bright; almost fever-bright, as though she were holding herself together purely through willpower. Well, that's not entirely a lie. She may seem weak, but willpower counts for much, particularly for the bearers of True Runes. A weka-willed person would be consumed by the rune; unable to resist its pull and its lure, or perhaps drawn into conflict and war that the runes draw about them like iron filings to a magnet. Sarah weathers the storm of bullets, though, and though she staggers once the bullets stop, she manages to keep herself upright with the help of her greatstaff. And then she starts to speak. Whatever words she may be saying are lost to time; the twisted, liquid, quicksilver tongue of the long-dead Sindar. Roamers and wanderers, drifters and dreamers, they were the unquestioned masters of magic and runes in her world, so potent in their craft that even thousands of years later, some of their creations have still survived... and the pale woman, the fragile soul with the might of the ocean behind her, is descended of them. Whatever she's doing, she's planning something big. Words spill over themselves, here soft as silk; there sharp as steel, and always in a tone of command. The sigil of concentric circles at her right hand flares in blue-white light, even as she pauses in her incantation to cough blood to clear her mouth. The sky darkens. Abruptly, the sun is swallowed by sudden clouds, leaden and looming with the promise of a storm. The wind rises, cold and pitiless. And with a triumphant note in the woman's voice, chaos erupts around her. The sky opens, and with it comes the torrent of a thousand-year flood; no lightning splits the sky, but wind howls and torrents of water are thrown in the face of her foe. Water turns to hail, and soon turns to hailstones; great lumps of ice thrown from seemingly every direction to buffet T-elos and attempt to beat her into submission. Through it all, Sarah stands untouched, braced against her greatstaff and still chanting -- audible, somehow, even over the roar of the storm. 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' T-elos starts to wade through the horrible flood as it recedes. She does not reload the F-GSHOT a second time; two barrages are enough, and she releases it, letting it fall and vanish in whatever pocket she keeps her spare weapons. "I see you, Runebearer," she says, almost sing-song, since she's no longer breathing water. Her visor slides up again, revealing her actual eyes, tinged slightly with madness - she sees the end of the battle at hand. There are probably crowd members who are looking on eagerly to see the explosive conclusion! It is almost not explosive at all. Even inexperienced, T-elos can tell Sarah is doing something big, and she tries to clear the distance between them before she finishes. But fast as she is, she doesn't teleport or fly, and the darkened sky is all the warning she gets. The downpour stops T-elos' approach dead. She's caught midleap and battered to the ground, sending her rolling through the very scree she blew up with a cannon shot not all that long ago and leaving chunks of armour and some flesh behind. The hail doesn't help, cracking down on her with the force of bullets. Some bounce. Others leave dents on her helmet. More would leave bruises if T-elos could bruise, or broken bones if they weren't all reinforced. T-elos roars into the storm. Her voice is carried away by it as wind whips her hair, sending it billowing when the torrent isn't plastering it to her body. She forces herself to move through it, pushing against the onslaught, always pushing. She's hitting her own limits: they weren't kidding when they said that Sarah would be her equal, and possibly then some. But T-elos does not like to admit defeat. T-elos will go to almost any measure to avoid it - including ignoring some of her own danger warnings. T-elos forces her way to Sarah even as she chants. The last few meters come in a rush, and T-elos has her blade out for them; she stabs at Sarah's midsection, trying to get a solid strike with the weapon. Sweeping slashes can be intercepted by the staff; that happened once. Stabs... it's harder. Not impossible, but harder to deflect, especially with her strength behind it. She knows she's stronger than Sarah, physically; if they arm wrestled it wouldn't be a contest, that's not where Sarah is strong, and T-elos knows that well enough to try to take advantage of it. "Yield!" she screams at Sarah, mid-stab. It's not what she wants to yell, but it's what she has to. 

:'''{{#var:316|Sarah (316)}} has posed:''' Yield, the combat android demands of her, but the Runebearer can't respond. Breathless and still chanting, she watches T-elos with lowered head, spitting every so often to clear the blood from her mouth. It stands out starkly against her pale skin. Frail and quiet as she may be, Sarah is just as stubborn; willing to absorb pain and injury to avoid admitting defeat. At the limits of her strength, Sarah doesn't even try to avoid the blade seeking her midsection; it bites deep, for she wears no armour, and the force of the blow knocks her back, but the blade arrests her from actually making a getaway. Although she tries to summon up a response to T-elos' demand, she can't; all she can do is cough up more blood, baring red-stained teeth in silent defiance. Rime crackles and creeps up the staff she's holding. A thick coating of white cracks and creaks, sounding like breaking glass as it creeps its way up the weapon; when Sarah twitches it in T-elos' direction, more ice breaks. The storm still roars around them, but now it changes to ice -- crackling and clashing as it falls; raking and clawing at all that it hits, except for its mistress. As the staff moves, the ice swirls in more thickly, seeking to slash and scratch and stab at T-elos. Blades of her own, it seems -- even if Sarah carries no sword. But the storm gutters, and finally fails; blue sky shines through. Sarah takes a staggering step forward, before crumpling in a pool of her own blood. She manages to crack one eye open, looking up at T-elos... before coughing wetly, and managing a shaky half-smile. "Well... fought." 

:'''{{#var:785|T-elos (785)}} has posed:''' There is a lot of ice. T-elos withstands it. Not by much; she's on the verge of collapse herself even if she is not going to admit it, even if she doesn't want to accept it. It freezes around her - on her, coating what was soaked with a thin layer of rime. It crackles and pops as she moves. It seems like Sarah's final storm is going to be enough to freeze both of them - T-elos with the weather, Sarah due to impending unconciousness as T-elos drives the blade in. But, this time, stabbing wins out. T-elos retracts the blade. If this was a real battle, and she had the time and opportunity, she might finish Sarah. Or maybe not; sometimes her motives are a little obscure. But this is the WMAT, and the decision is out of T-elos' hands - at least, if she wants to avoid being disqualified, and also not dogpiled by every fighter within a hundred miles who can walk, run, or fly to Sarah's side. If that even kills her anyhow. So she simply lets Sarah fall. She nearly drops herself, but forces herself back upright, ignoring the damage to her leg, her torso, her arm - everything. Not forever; she can't ignore it forever. But she can ignore it long enough to raise one arm in victory, well enough for the hovering cameramen - and the crowds on the antigravity platforms - to see it. She does not respond to Sarah, not directly. But she doesn't kick her or anything of the sort, either - and she does not interfere with anyone coming to check on her. 

}}

2747/WMAT BQ1 Dorotea Grahn vs Alice of the Dolls

2015-08-07T04:01:58Z

Sirocco: Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2015/08/06 |Location=WMAT Arena - Spinach Wastes |Synopsis=WMAT brackets begin! Alice of the Dolls faces off against Dorotea Grahn! |Thanks= |Cast ..."

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2015/08/06
|Location=WMAT Arena - Spinach Wastes
|Synopsis=WMAT brackets begin! Alice of the Dolls faces off against Dorotea Grahn!
|Thanks=
|Cast of Characters=742, 807
|Tinyplot=WMAT 2015
|Tinyplot2=
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Welcome to the WMAT! WMAT matches are popular. Even in the Northern Wilderness, there are a /lot/ of people in the stands, even if you might not be able to see the whole battle from the stands (that's where there are viewing screens and cameras on hovercars). When Dorotea signed up for this, she knew there would be spectators. She knew it would be popular. What she didn't realize was how many, or how much - but when you invite the whole multiverse, even a small fraction of a percent adds up to a lot of people. She suffered a moment of stage fright when she realized that yes, the audience was here to watch her, and yes, about half of the cameras were pointing at her. Then she got exuberant. She waved. She would have signed things if anyone had asked her and is mostly disappointed that nobody got out of the stands to do so. The battlefield of choice: rocky mesas and plateaus. They are made of orange and brown stone, with some shrubby plants and a big flat area between them. Dorotea is already waking around on the flat area. She has a hat to keep the sun off but is already sweating - there's no shade here unless she goes and hides up against one of the plateaus. 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     The WMAT. A place Alice has only heard of recently but what better way to find out what is out there in the Multiverse. Arthur did say to go see what was out there after all. What Alice didn't expect, as she flew into view from over the mountain tops were about half of the cameras pointing at her, Hourai and Shanghai floating around her and the audience cheering.     Were these people there for her?     She shakes her head, giving a light wave back to everyone while Hourai gives a firm nod. Shanghai, however.... Shanghai was eating up all the attention. "HIII! Welcome welcome! Alice of the Dolls here to show you who's the best puppeteer! Cheer for her! CHEER FOR HER!"     It doesn't take long for Alice to land a ways from Dorotea, taking a look at the battlefield... she would possibly have the advantage of flight, but knowing little to nothing about Dorotea... she couldn't leave anything to chance. The Grimoire at her side glows just slightly and about ten cards could be seen slipping into her sleeves. Alice did, however, prepare for any encounter.     "Dorotea?" She curtseys, "Alice of the Dolls, its a pleasure." 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Some for Alice, and some for Dorotea, and some just here to watch a fight; WMAT spectators come in all kinds. (Dorotea's sister, for instance, is over there, cheering away.) Dorotea watches her opponent land, pulling her hat to shade her eyes. She wasn't expecting a flier. She wasn't sure what she expected. If she notices Alice stacking her sleeves with cards, she doesn't comment on it. Magicians do that sometimes. "That's me. I'm Dorotea!" Dorotea thumps her chest with one armoured fist. "Dorotea Grahn. It's good to see you here!" She was looking forward to this. It's been a whole week since she had a good fight. Maybe even two weeks. Dorotea spends a few moments looking over Alice as if she could judge her by doing so, then gives a satisfied nod to herself. She looks around, then, and waves to the ref, an official on one of the hovercars. /She's/ ready at least. 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice gives a light nod, no one she knows is in the audience today, but that's fine, less distractions and more focus. "Then Dorotea... three colors." she shakes her head, giving a brief nod to the ref on the hovercar. She was ready. With one card slipping out and a doll just appearing out of nowhere in one of Alice's free hands, her stoic expression is levied towards Dorotea.     In Gensokyo, there was no need for an okay from an official... in fact, there were no officials, spellcard duels were just... there. But this isn't Gensokyo. "Well then, Dorotea. I will show you that you will be no match for what you are facing today, your power is only equal to fourty two point eight five seven one percent of mine!     With this announcement, and the Ref giving the go ahead, Alice sprints forward, lifting that card in hand, "Spellcard! Demonic Posession: Return Inanimateness!" and with that declare of hers, she takes that doll in hand and LOBS it towards Dorotea! Regardless if it hits or not, it explodes into a giant plume of blue flame and smoke. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea is momentarily baffled by the comment. Three colours? She looks around as if to find something that makes it understandable, then down at herself. Eventually she figures it out. "What? I can have as many colours as I want. But the only one you have to be worried about right now is Blue!" The ref rings a bell (and his hovercar backs up, because come on, wouldn't you?). Dorotea already starts moving, but Alice is faster and has the advantage that she doesn't actually need to go anywhere to start attacking. While rushing forward, the doll bounces off Dorotea's shoulder. She ignores it... or would, except for the explosion. The blast singes Dorotea and gives her a face full of smoke; she rolls, picking herself up after the blast. Her shoulder, after all, isn't armoured. Dorotea may look silly with a face and shoulder covered in soot, but it appears to have made her more focused. She doesn't just run this time - she charges, putting her head down and trying to slam into Alice shoulder-first. Dorotea uses the other shoulder, at least. It hurts less. "You're not supposed to throw dolls! And even if you are they don't explode!" 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice shakes her head, "Worry about a color you lack?" she questions, "It is you who should worry about blue!" Alice slips out another card into her hand, recycling the one she spent and nods. The explosion elicits a small smile but as she sees the bull rushing woman ahead, Hourai steps in front and hefts up her shield and lance.     "I will not let you touch her." Hourai chides, ramming the shield right into the bull rush, but while it doesn't seem to have affected Alice, she twitches a bit from the feedback from the impact. Alice proceeds to take fight and land a bit away, taking a look at the card real quick, and slipping it back in, taking out a different one. She gives a light nod, lifting it into the air, "Spellcard! Spy Sign - Seeker Dolls!"     The card activates and eight strings shoot out in two different directions, four on each side with dolls attached to each end. "If you do not wish explosions, have lasers." the dolls activate, spreading out lasers in a crossed, wide angle spread, very few safe spots in the form of diamonds. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' "You're saying I lack blue?" Dorotea tends to get fired up when she fights, even in a tournament situation like this. She doesn't sound /mad/, precisely, but she does sound intense. "I'll show you all the blue I've got - ack!" Hitting a doll's shield isn't sufficient for Dorotea. She jabs at it, trying to either batter through it or simply move Hourai aside; Hourai is much smaller than Dorotea is so she doesn't expect much of a problem. But you know what they say about expectations. Of course, she can't /keep/ hitting it, because lasers. Dorotea has no particular defense against lasers; she might be a good hand to hand fighter, but she's not experienced with formations like that. She tries to wedge herself into one of the safe spots, but picked one she's just too big to curl up into, and it blasts at her shoulder and back. Again. Dorotea bellows. No words, this time; it's a combination of surprise and pain. "Right," she grunts afterwards, standing when it is safe(r) to do so. Her body does in fact flicker blue as she brings her hands up, the gathered energy dispersing into blue diamond-shaped pulses. From Dorotea's raised hand, a stream of magical fire blasts out! She tries to sweep it from Hourai to the other dolls to Alice, something it lasts just barely long enough to do; the sustained stream is more than a single bolt but it certainly doesn't last forever. "FLAMETHROWER!" 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     It actually takes a bit of effort to move Hourai aside, but the battering on the shield dents it and Hourai looks surprised, leading to her being moved out of the way, fortunately, Hourai doesn't have to worry much when the lasers come in. The bellowing of a successful strike sets Alice up for another, but the blue diamond-saped pulses catch her eye.     Oh, she has spellcards too. Or is it?     The gout of flames wash over Hourai, Shanghai and Alice and the Spy Sign dolls are burned away to a crisp, but Alice's face cringes from the heat and fire, putting out herself that gets caught aflame. "MMm... Y.. you have spellcards too, it seems. very well, I don't have to hold that much back."     Alice starts moving once more, looking for the best way to attack... she's melee, like Youmuu... but she doesn't use a sword. Let's do this... a card slips back into her hand and she slips it back in, pulling out something else, meanwhile, she tosses up a few dolls that seem to just float there. A doll here... a doll there. And a couple over there. A small glimmer could be seen with the sun shining on the magic strings connecting the dollmaker's fingers to the four and soon after, two dolls start dispersing bullets here and there, a mass amount with no real aim while two more try to pincer in Dorotea with lasers! 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' "They're not spellcards. I don't use cards. It's Blue Magic!" Dorotea doesn't bother to explain beyond that. The disadvantage of firing randomly is that you don't actually hit anything in particular very reliably. One of the plateaus rising out of the rocky ground gets peppered with shots, mostly because it's the biggest thing in the area. One of the camera hovercars makes a hasty reposition. Dorotea, however, does not. Her attempt to stay close to Alice means she's constantly in motion; she weaves around a number of the shots and deflects one of them with the reinforced back side of her gauntlets, only to get clipped by a stray cluster. They're not bad hits at all, and there's not a lot of them, but they're distracting. Unfortunately, in evading, Dorotea did get slightly pincered. Her reaction: Charge right through! Dorotea leaves herself open again when she rushes, which may give Alice the opening she needs - but as far as Dorotea is concerned, if she keeps up the punches Alice won't have the opportunity to cast anything. She needs her hands for that, right? Or... cards, or something? Maybe the dolls? Man, Dorotea should probably have done some research /before/ this fight. 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Blue Magic, huh? She might have to inquire about this later... For now, she's got her dolls set up, regardless if the shots were distracting or not, she's got part of her spellcard set for use. Alice, however, did come prepared for a close range fight. She pulls out one card, a red looking card with a talisman on it... and "Spir.."     The punches interrupt the Dollmaker's attempt, sending her back a bit of a ways, but with the punches continuing to come and Dorotea still coming in... she needs an opening. Just one second to send her flying into her trap. "Nngh, stop... hitting me! Spiritual Strike Talisman!" and with an explosion of forceful energy, she lets the energy of the skillcard knock Dorotea away from her, how far, she's not sure, she's never used it on anyone outside of Gensokyo!     With the opening procured, she slips out one more card, "Spellcard! Focus Power - Trip Wire!" the strings following Alice activate, sending lasers along them and to each doll, bouncing back and forth for a few seconds, hoping that the knockback was enough to send Dorotea into it. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' "If you didn't want to get hit you shouldn't have entered WMAT!" It's not like Dorotea is trying to kill her. Beat her up a little, maybe... but that's kind of a hazard of a combat tournament. "If you really want me to stop I'll let you give up..." Trash-talking never ends well. The talisman does in fact pick up and throw Dorotea. She goes flying, hitting the ground a good fifty feet away and rolling with the impact. She probably would have landed without injury if it wasn't for the Trip Wire spell; as is she rolls through one of the lasers and ends up in a slightly-smoking heap when she finally does stop. She's not out of it, though. Dorotea rises. All that nice positioning just got ruined by being launched away, and she feels momentary dismay - not enough to make /her/ give up, but enough to make her feel a little silly. The pink bird that has decided to come look at her while she was getting up doesn't help. "What are /you/ looking at," she growls at it, waving her arms to make it flee. Turning her attention to Alice, Dorotea considers for about a half second... and then she bends down. With a grunt, she picks up a flattish orange rock that probably weighs about twenty pounds; it looks like it fell off the closest plateau one of the other times there was a fight here. She uses it like a shield as she approaches Alice, holding it in front of her for about half the distance to prevent lasering before spinning, throwing it like a discus before advancing the rest of the way! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     "I will not give up. I entered for a specific reason and you're in my way." she chides back, a card slippin gout into her hand. "I think the bird likes you, Dorotea. Shouldn't shoo such a fragile thing away. After all, you're my opponent, not the bird."     Alice looks winded, she's not used to such physical combat and she's running out of spells to actually use against Dorotea. This isn't going well for her and she looks between Hourai and Shanghai, "Use it~" Shanghai cheers forth, Alice shaking her head, "Not yet... those two are last..."     The mini conversation between her dolls and herself was a downfall here, the discus rock slams right into the dollmaker's chest, sending her flying back from the impact and tumbling down face first and ass in the air, skidding to a stop about thirty feet. She coughs hard, the wind knocked out of her... and she can feel Dorotea still chasing...     Hourai and Shanghai move to pick Alice up and dust her off, the magician looks very winded but still up, her nose bleeding and face looks like it's been scratched up pretty good. "Nngh... Spellcard. War Sign - Little Legion!" she coughs out, shooting forth about six stings ahead of her, dolls appearing on the end with large razor blades and swords, spinning around and around into a wide arc.. "Hourai, get ready, you're up next..." 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea, on the other hand, is pained but not exhausted. She's the kind of girl who practically lives on physical activity; she's no intellectual juggernaut (as her grades at Alexander Academy will cheerfully remind anyone who looks at them) but when it comes to athletics, there aren't many students who can keep up. Which means that she can manage the long haul. At this rate, she might need it. "I don't want the bird to get hurt!" Dorotea is stubborn about that. She doesn't want to cause cheap chicken wings for the next event around here. (Or... whatever wings, because that wasn't a chicken; Dorotea just has no idea what to call it.) Little Legion forces Dorotea to abort her rush or run into a wall of sharp objects. In fact she /still/ runs into a wall of sharp objects, just not as hard; she brings her arms up in an X to absorb some of the impact, though she picks up some slashes for her actions. Her gauntlets also get dinged up. They're not perfect shields. Dorotea goes low. She tries to slide /under/ the dolls, springing back to her feet as she glows that blue again. Alice might know what this means by now: magic. But this time 'magic' is not a flamethrower, so she'll be disappointed if she tries to protect herself the same way. "PINECONE..." Both of Dorotea's hands are suddenly filled with pine cones. She throws them simultaneously at Alice. Pinecones are harmless, though - except when, on impact with anything solid (Alice, the ground, whatever) they explode in a greenish burst, sending fragments of rock-hard shrapnel everywhere. At least it smells good? "BOMB!" 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice doesn't have the physical dexterity... fortitude.. capacity.. well, the physical everything that Dorotea has. What Alice /does/ have, however, is an array of area denial spellcards... that somehow still let Dorotea through. Mentally cursing herself, the Little Legion comes back and the card's exchanged with something else. Hourai moves in front as if to prepare for the next barrage, however... "Pinecones?"     She tilts her head and Hourai moves to cover over Alice's head with her shield but the pinecones seem to bounce off... then explode in that wonderfully scented green explosion, sending her into the air and ... she stays there, looking down at Dorotea. Her dress is torn in a few places, nothing too bad, but exhaustion is clear on the Dollmaker's bodily expression.     "You just want to go further, that's what you want. Your ... magic is interesting, I may have a reason to come try to learn that. What did you call it again? Blue?" with the small bit of chatter, Hourai dives lance first in front of Alice and about six more lance wielding dolls come to spin around. "Spellcard. Curse Sign - Hourai Doll." The tips of the spears start glowing red, and, if this was any indication at all for Dorotea... that meant lasers.     As the dolls spin around Hourai, wide lasers start shooting out from the lances, making a helix like pattern to cut through the ground and hopefully around Dorotea, or through Dorotea... "You're good." 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea Grahn's response to area denial is to charge in anyway, full steam ahead. It's half-working; she's getting where she wants to go, but not without a price. Though Dorotea's /stamina/ is fine, she's starting to take a beating from all these cards, and she's getting to the point where the injuries are starting to add up. "Blue Magic!" Dorotea seems to be preparing something else - or maybe she's just actually defending herself for a change. No magical defenses here; she does it with her hands, throwing herself to the ground and rolling through the helix. It gets her a little burned even if the main blast didn't quite connect, but it means she can pop up again slightly closer. She's obnoxious like that. "It is the study of monsters and /their/ magic, /their/ techniques! And of course I want to go further. I'm going to win WMAT if I have anything to say about it!" Springing up, Dorotea leaps into the air, shimmering blue when she does it. She spreads her arms wide. "CLAW..." Dorotea lands. She is already spinning, like a top or a tornado; she whirls, claws made of blue light extending from her gauntlets' fingertips as she lashes out in all directions. She eventually spins to a stop - at least a rotational stop, because it ends with her pouncing again, almost feline-like as she rakes at Alice one last time. "CYCLONE!" 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice hmms, study of monsters and their capabilities. "I wonder... how hard is it to learn?" she questions, only to take the brunt of the Claw Cyclone with her stomach again, gasping for air as she's taken for a clawed ride, like a cat that was too angry to be pet... speaking of.. "Poor cat doesn't want any more pettings, huh?" she taunts, a bit out of breath. "Let Alice take care of that..."     The claw cyclone rips into her dress and drops her back to the ground, no flying spellcards today it seems, but that's okay, Alice has other tricks up her sleeve. One of them.. has her rushing towards Dorotea while a magic circle appears in front of the magician. "I hope you advance... but I will try my best not to let you! Spellcard!" that activation call once more, "Lance Sign - Cute Phalanx!" out of the magic circle, Alice advances forward, lance dolls shooting out of the circle and popping back in as she keeps up her forward pace, trying to rush down the rush down. The dolls keep their stabbing up, in and out, in and out until one final stab is made and a kick from Alice's heavy boot is given towards the stomach. Well, she hopes it hits anyways. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' The Claw Cyclone was in fact a technique adapted from a big cat of Dorotea's homeland, so Alice has /that/ right. Dorotea finishes her last pounce and immediately takes a step - backwards. Has she given up on staying too close to Alice? Not really; she just wanted some room to move. "You can try," is Dorotea's response. "I hope you do try!" She hasn't time to do much else, because the Cute Phalanx is on the move - and while Dorotea is getting ready for them, she wouldn't call her defenses perfect. The constant barrage of attacks wears on Dorotea. She's bruised, slashed; willpower keeps her up as well as natural toughness, but that's real blood. The crowd is getting what they paid for, that's for sure. (Except for Sylvi, who is currently covering her eyes rather than watch the screen.) The boot catches Dorotea in the stomach all right, knocking the wind out of her - but her hands grip the ankle before Alice can pull it away. Or that's what she's hoping anyway; if Alice is lucky or fast, she might get free. Dorotea has the strength advantage, and she knows it. She tries to whirl Alice around by that leg, once, twice - and then let go, sending her flying to slam into the ground! 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Perhaps this was not Alice's smartest move this engagement, finishing up with that boot of hers. Her ankle's grabbed and she tugs at her leg, trying to pull it away to no avail. "Then if I fail, I hope to meet you soon, outside of the WMAT." she comments, only to be swung around and thrown like a rag doll. She /was/ pretty light to throw and Alice goes flying far.     HOping to correct herself, she rights herself as she's flying but forward movement comes too late as the eject slams her into the mountain wall, causing the magician to gasp and let out a loud, pained cry. Hourai and Shanghai quickly fly towards Alice, moving to attempt to catch her but fail as she falls into the ground hard, bouncing. "ALICE!" the two dolls shout, turning towards Dorotea, then each other. "Spellcard..." the Dolls actually announce this time, pulling a card from Alice's sleeve as she slowly gets up. Hourai's face turns cold and Shanghai's loses its smile, something very hard to do. "YOu hurt Alice way too much! We won't let you hurt her any further! Shanghai, let's do it. Dolls - Lemmings Parade!" as the magic circle in front of the two widen, Alice moves to her knees, sitting in a maid like fashion... watching her two dolls perform her spellcard for her.     The magic circle finishes growing... and soon after, hundreds.. upon hundreds of dolls start charging out in a rush, running and hopping towards Dorotea. The small dolls are quick, but they aren't flying.. but the ones who are hopping, do hop quite a bit in the air, a good four feet. They all seem to be in a kamikaze run towards the Blue Magic Berserker, and, should any of the dolls find purchase in running into her, they explode... quite readily explode with a lot more punch than the opening card. 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea is flustered by the dolls talking. Sure, one of them did before, but she figured it was ventriloquism. This time there's different ones doing it. She's not sure how to react to that. "It's just a good fight!" she objects. Nobody is dying, nobody is getting even badly hurt as these things go - it's the WMAT. No death is kind of a rule. "Plus, I'm still going to win - oh that's a lot of dolls." That really is a lot of dolls. Dorotea has seen them explode before, but she doesn't have a way to stop them. They shower the area around her with smoke and fire, shrouding Dorotea completely from view as she hunkers down, trying to keep herself safe from the blast zone. Is she blasted away? That's an awful lot of smoke and dust. As it turns out, Dorotea is not. She comes out of the explosions trailing said smoke behind her in billows. One of her armoured boots has cracked up the side, her high socks are tattered - some of them must have hit her leg. Her hair is askew, and she has even more soot on her face. She is also yelling. Dorotea whirls, putting a whole lot of momentum in her single mighty punch on Alice - it just might knock her out of the park! Not that there's a ring here for her to be knocked out of, but... a ways, at least. The impact is jarring, good at making people lose their concentration and focus, which is what Dorotea thinks she really needs to win right now. Inasmuch as she conciously made that decision, anyway; Dorotea fights on instinct a lot. 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Apparently, puppetry bothered Dorotea. Alice would have to remember this in the future, however, she's struggling to get up, much less continue on trying to throw lasers, exploding dolls and other things at her. She seems slightly content to see the plume of smoke and dust from the exploding dolls, but the vision of Dorotea still up... and battered... causes her to frown.     Alice doesn't move. She can't move... she's exhausted physically, mentally and magically, how this woman does it.. she wishes she knew. Alice brings her arms up to block, Hourai brings up her shield, many shield dolls move into place from seemingly nowhere. Alice's turtles under a phalanx of shields but that punch breaks right through and connects with Alice's chest, breaking her free from the shield shell and back into the wall she hit before, and one last cry of pain is given, falling back and bouncing once more off the ground.     Hourai and Shanghai look towards Alice... then Dorotea... then Alice... "She can't get up." "Well fought. You did well." "Danmaku isn't something easy to stop... you were great." "Poor Alice..."     Alice twitches just slightly, rolling over and breathing heavily... "I... I concede." she whispers, "No more..." 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' Dorotea walks right over to Alice. She's breathing hard - no matter what she says, Alice was probably the hardest solo battle she's had since she got loose in the Multiverse. She looks pretty battered herself. She's up, and the victor, but not by much. She looks down at Alice. If she was an asshole, this would be a good opportunity to kick her when she was down. Even with the dolls there. Instead, Dorotea grabs her by the hand and tries to hoist her to her feet. She gets a smack on the back, too - but a friendly one. Dorotea just tends to be a little... physical. And then, Dorotea laughs. "You did good! So did I," she adds, "but it was good! I am glad to have had that as my first match in WMAT." 

:'''{{#var:807|Alice Margatroid (807)}} has posed:'''     Alice looks up, staring at the the victor. It was perfect to kick her while she was down but, what comes next is a nice change. She's hoisted up and the smack on the back causes her to cough some. "It's... my first real duel with someone outside of Gensokyo. You... did amazing." she comments, leaning on Dorotea for support. "Would it be that I could learn a few of the magics you used, I'm sure I can work on my dolls better with such capabilities."     Hourai and Shanghai are still on guard, who knows what Dorotea would do, but from what everything is going on, they slowly stand down, floating around the two, "For a human, you're good." "We should go have tea now!" 

:'''{{#var:742|Dorotea Grahn (742)}} has posed:''' "Probably not." Dorotea shrugs, then winces, having immediately regretted that particular movement. "Only some people can learn it. But you can try! Just go stand around in front of a monster for a while." There's a reason Dorotea is as tough as she is. Regardless, she holds Alice's hand up, signaling the victory for the crowd (more than she already had, anyway) with a slightly lopsided grin. "I don't do tea so much," she says, "but I bet you'd like my sister. /She/ likes tea." 

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