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Septette Arcubielle      For the first time since its grand opening, Septette arrives at the Shrine of Adversity. She's dressed as she usually is when she wants to avoid undue attention: a floor-length purple shawl to mask her skeletal silhouette, earmuffs to cover her chrome ear-fins, and opera gloves for her sharpened fingerss. She even manages to buy a figurine of herself from one of the merch stands on her way in without being recognized- score!

     Once inside, she sets up a soothingly verdant sparring area: lush grasssy hills interspersed with man-sized boulders, and ancient Greek-style collapsed ruins to provide cover and harder footing. Normally she'd consider subtly rigging the arena in her favor: denser floors, disorienting lights, perhaps lower oxygen content. But this is a friendly match, not a competition, and rigging it would hardly give her a fair picture of Lemeza's capabilities.

     With her work done, she leans back against a rock and draws a simulated silvery rapier, getting a feel for its balance before her adversary arrives. Once he does, she'll greet him with an amiable wave. "Was there anything in particular you were hoping to learn, Mr. Kosugi? Or were you just hoping for a hard bout to shake the rust off?"
Lemeza Kosugi It's not hard to spot Lemeza approaching. He's wearing his trademark fedora, button-up shirt, and khakis, and kitted out with his usual whip and revolver. In fact, he's practically /always/ seen in that exact outfit, invariably, no matter what he's doing. Does he even do laundry? (Yes he does. He's got backup outfits for when the others get dirty.)

He'd hoped to arrive before Septette, to set the sparring arena to his own preferences, but this will do. There's plenty of terrain to work with, and his sparring partner for the day is already prepared to start up. "A mix of both, actually... RQBL, did I say that right? Anyway. To answer your question, I wanted to both get a good fight in and see what you had to say about an artifact of mine. You mentioned you know a bit about life magic?" He looks off to scan the battlefield before the bout starts, gauging how best to use its quirks.
Septette Arcubielle      "Not life magic specifically, but... I think I can tell you something about it. Appraisal and analysis of magic is quite a distinct skill from using it," she replies, still rolling the rapier from one white-gloved hand to the other. "That's quite similar to how one says it, yes- though that feels rather formal. Just 'Septette' is fine."

     The boulders, pillars, and scattered ruins naturally suggest themselves as both potential cover and ricochet targets; the hills are too gentle and smooth to meaningfully constitute 'high ground'. If it has any borders or boundaries, they're far enough away to not be readily apaprent. Unless Lemeza happens to have a grass allergy, it seems quite uncomplicated and even-handed.

     When Lemeza indicates his readiness, she'll sink into a bent-kneed stance, turned to present her narrower side profile with her rapier held in a standard neutral position. She knows the theory of fencing, but that's unlikely to help against a handgun, and her grip on the sword seems distinctly unpracticed. For all her belligerence on the radio, this isn't the look of a practiced combatant.
Lemeza Kosugi "I already know all there is to know on the background on the crystal of life. How it was created, what powers it most likely has. Using it is the primary problem..." His tone drifts into disappointment for a bit. "Unless you can analyze the magic directly and give me information based on magical signature. That might still give me insight. But first, sparring."

Lemeza's first choice of weapon is not his gun, but his whip - he unbuckles it and gives it a good CRACK before giving a clear ready signal. "Ready when you are, Septette!" The terrain doesn't offer him much in the way of crazy Indiana-Jones-style whip stunts, but he really hasn't had a good chance to use it against a proper opponent in quite some time. At the very least, he's not counting his brash attack against August as a 'good chance', since that was just an angry strike without any technique at all.
Septette Arcubielle      "I'll do my best to exhibit the full range of my capabilities, then. I put faith in myself to press you into doing the same." Her eyes narrow slightly, then glow a brilliant purple as she studies his stance.

     Septette's weight shifts onto her front foot in a clear telegraph of a lunge. A moment later she leaps forwards, crossing the distance between them in a single smooth motion as she draws her rapier back to the side. For a split second her shawl presses in against her side from the pressure of the wind, revealing the impressions of individual ribs and angular joints- then she's upon him, and bringing the sword around in a whickering chest-level swipe at uncomfortably close quarters.

     Septette's calm and smiling face reveals little, but there are hints that something's wrong: her clumsiness in holding the rapier, the strange twitches she makes with her off-hand as if gesturing to no-one in particular, the fact that it's a weapon designed for stabbing rather than cutting. Any of these might alert him to be on his guard before the sword comes to life mid-swing with a noise like a thunderclap, shrouding itself in crackling electricity! She's trying to strike him with the flat rather than the edge, but even that could deliver an ugly shock if it hits his ribs.
Lemeza Kosugi "I'd expect nothing less from a training match." Lemeza's focus shfits entirely to his opponent as he notes both her apparent species (robot? alien?) and her fighting style. It's... sloppy. Won't be hard at all to handle.

The professor's stance does show some seriously unusual traits of its own. Despite wielding a flexible whip, he's poised as if he's carrying a rigid longsword instead. Further, the way he moves to deal with the incoming rapier slash -- he doesn't even consider the fact that Septette is misusing the weapon -- cements the idea that he's using a swordfighting style. He leaps backward to gain enough space to sling his whip to parry, in the same way one might use a sword, and it actually succeeds. The tip of the whip bounces neatly off the incoming rapier...

...but instead of recovering neatly like Lemeza intended to, he ends up getting zapped by a couple arcing bolts of electricity. The jolt is enough to disorient him slightly, delaying his counterattack enough that he's telegraphing the strike: a downward flick aimed straight for Septette's scalp.
Septette Arcubielle      Normally a strike against the tip of the sword like that would swat at it aside, thanks to Lemeza's superior leverage. One might expect even an experienced opponent to be jerked off-balance. But Septette's arm doesn't waver at all- the rapier simply bends and then shatters after the whip-parry, as if its hilt were immovable rather than merely held in hand.

     Her eyes widen in surprise at the unconventional defense, but she tosses the broken sword aside without hesitation. Her other arm comes up in a smooth motion that starts the millisecond Lemeza begins telegraphing the overhead strike to take the blow on her forearm instead.

     There's something distinctly uncanny in that response: she doesn't seem to be faster than an ordinary human, but her movements are perfectly and immediately responsive to Lemeza's own. Rather than the familiar lag of stimulus-response, it's as if his attacks are a direct, instantaneous cause of her defenses.

     The distinctive crack of a whip comes from its tip breaking the sound barrier. That doesn't seem to put it beyond her ability to react: as it wraps around her arm, she seizes it in an iron grip before yanking on it with disconcerting strength. Hoping that he'll be pulled within arm's reach by the maneuver, Septette pivots into a gut-punch with her free hand!
Lemeza Kosugi Well, at least the attack caught his opponent off guard for a bit. Lemeza barely registers that his attack is being blocked before Septette yanks him in for the punch! It's a clean shot, knocking him quite some distance away and taking the wind out of him to boot. Thank the Philosophers for those sacred orbs, because otherwise that would've cracked some ribs!

Needless to say, Lemeza does not keep his whip. He does, however, keep enough wits to draw his revolver and start firing... seemingly wildly. Six shots, and none of them are even aimed at the person he's supposed to be fighting! He's not even looking directly at Septette as he fires, rather placing his shots at seemingly random boulders around the arena before ducking behind a couple of those Greek pillars for cover from the impending ricochets. It would seem that wasn't his best plan. It would seem that way, except a keen eye would note that he was perfectly lucid and sober in his actions, and an even keener eye would note that every bullet bounces /just/ right, and /just so happens/ to target Septette, each from a different angle.
Septette Arcubielle      "Either you're tougher than you look, or that getup's made of something better than canvas," Septette says with a little wince. She wrings her hand as if in pain, content to allow for a lull in the battle... and then perks up as soon as he fires off those shots. Her eyes glow brighter again, flickering and blurring as they track the supersonic slugs in flight.

     From the robot's perspective, time slows to a crawl. The world fades to monochrome as the first bullet leaves his revolver. As soon as she processes that it isn't going to directly hit her, she plots out the course of the next bullet, and the next. It isn't until the first bullet strikes her in the back that she realizes that the 'misses' are fully intentional- but by then, it's far too late to move out of the way!

     Lemeza would be able to hear the distinctive sound of bullets striking metal from his hiding place- all six hit home, followed by a slow decompressive hiss. A second later, Septette shoves over the pillar he's hiding behind and takes a swing at him with a wickedly curved, three-foot-long tan blade sprouting from her forearm!

     Black liquids stain her purple shawl around the bullet-holes, but her smile- and amiable tone- remains. "You sure can keep your wits about you, too. I admire that."
Lemeza Kosugi "Sacred orbs. Gotta love ancient artifacts." Lemeza clarifies for his sparring partner his secret to survival. And then, once those bullets hit home, "whoa, those HIT!? I thought for sure you'd--" He does not get to complete his sentence. The pillar that had just a moment ago provided him cover was now crashing through the ground, and he now had to deal with a blade of doom coming right at him!

Septette was right about the wits, though. Lemeza had his Angel Shield ready enough to place it between him and the blade... for what good it'd do. The shield survives the impact. Lemeza survives the impact. The ground below Lemeza does not. He's pummeled through the once-solid ground and sent catapulting downward into what is revealed to be a cavernous underground area, with a floor of primarily lava. There's a few rocky islands dotted around the arena, large enough for maybe one or two people each, but otherwise it's lava all around.

So. Back to Lemeza. He's definitely worse for wear from basically getting struck square in the chest /again/, and he's falling nowhere near any of those islands. At least the fall isn't too far. He barely has enough time to take a breath, Ice Cape fluttering as he falls, before SPLOOSHing right into the lava. Strange; he still looked aware enough to try to land on his shield and float on top of the lava. Why didn't he?
Septette Arcubielle      Septette walks to the edge of the newly-created sinkhole and stares down for a good two or three seconds, searching for any sign of Lemeza surfacing. Lava is liquid rock. Humans are less dense than that, so they ought to float on the surface and burn, right? But in the instants before he was fully submerged, he certainly wasn't burning to a crisp...

     There's definitely something strange going on here. There's no point in assuming that Lemeza's dead because if he is, she's already won. So even without hard evidence, the only sane course of action is to continue acting as if he's alive.

     Tentatively, Septette drops down onto one of the rock platforms. It almost immediately starts to sink under her weight, so she raises her hand and conjures up a crystal of magical ice that hovers above the lava's surface. Its cooling effects swiftly freeze a larger rock platform into existence- one that seems much more suited to bearing her weight.

     She doesn't stop there, though: a half-dozen other ice crystals materialize in a distant circle around her, starting to freeze over the entire surface of the lava-filled cavern! If he doesn't shatter them or somehow counteract their effects, he might get trapped under the surface! "Come on out, Kosugi. Your goose is cooked."
Lemeza Kosugi Between Septette's quip and the fact that the lava's temperature seems to be dropping, Lemeza figures it's time to surface and resume fighting in earnest. His first move is to poke his head up and retort, "Cooking it was the point!" And then he notices the reason for the drop in lava temperature: the ice crystals around the room. "So you're gonna un-cook my goose? That's a terrible idea. Tsk tsk."

With that, he quickly reloads his revolver and plans out his next shots. He's got six shots and six ice crystals to deal with, almost as if Septette were expecting his next move? No matter. He fires off all his loaded rounds, this time in a straight shot, at each of the ice crystals in turn, then swiftly reloads and submerges once more once he confirms that the crystals have in fact been shattered and neutralized. The plan really seems to be mainly defense, though, as he's not mounting another counterattack yet...
Septette Arcubielle      "You've got to stay frosty, you know?" Terrible banter got him to surface the first time, so why not keep it up? Shattering the ice crystals has the desired result: the platforms they've solidified so far now collapse back into the lava, gradually re-melting without their chilling influence. But rather than curse her losses or fabricate more, Septette sprints across her one remaining platform and takes a flying leap across the magma sea towards Lemeza!

     A single new crystal materializes behind her and starts to condense a new platform as she splashes into the roiling pool seconds after Lemeza submerges. Her shawl, earmuffs, and gloves near-instantly burn off. Despite its cooling enchantments, her body rapidly approaches unsafe temperatures- she can't stay here for long. She doesn't need long.

     Gripping onto the underside of the rock platform coalescing above her with her foot-talons, she gropes blindly through the lava with her claws in search of the archaeologist. If she can just grab an arm or a leg...
Lemeza Kosugi Septette successfully grasps Lemeza by the ankle before he can get enough distance from his submergence point to avoid it. He wasn't expecting such an attack, either; he's yanked into striking distance with nothing but his gun for a potential counterattack. And he's oriented rather terribly for a shot. He does his best though to put a bullet toward Septette at point-blank range in response.
Septette Arcubielle      The point-blank shot blows out one of Septette's eyes, drawing an aggravated shriek audible even through the sluggish, dense lava. The searing liquid threatens to pour in through the open socket, forcing her to cover it with her other hand. She hadn't expected him to be able to hit her at all- surprised, firing blind- and arrogance led to vulnerability.

     Effectively denied the use of one arm, submerged in a hostile environment, and at risk of being slagged- Septette can't capitalize on the grapple just yet. She mouths a silent incantation. The far end of her platform is struck with a wave of arcane force, flipping it over like a pancake and effectively bringing them onto dry land. Septette throws her adversary down onto the solidifying rock island, and...

     And nothing. The lava covering her starts to turn into solid rock now that it's exposed to the air. Her movements slow to a crawl and then halt altogether, paralyzed by the stone that's hardened inside her open joints. She's frozen while looming over Kosugi, her remaining eye still gleefully staring daggers into him.
Lemeza Kosugi "Gah... ugh..." Lemeza flops onto the newly-hardened platform, taking the time to catch his breath as the attacks cease. He cranes his neck to get a good look at the rock that solidified and trapped Septette, keeping her in place--WAITAMINUTE. That eye does not look like the eye of one who has lost! Lemeza quickly springs back on his feet, grimacing rather badly but powering through. Outwardly, he's only got a few scratches and a bit of bleeding, but those powerful blows from earlier will take some bed rest to properly recover from. That, and his ankle's got claw marks. He'll need to end this fast.

Though... that solid rock looks like pretty substantial armor. Gunfire would do nothing but send the bullet right back at him, and a shield bash would similarly do little. On top of all that, his whip is still sitting up there in the idyllic meadow, inaccessible. So there's only one thing left to do. Lemeza decides to have a bit of fun, and clambers up on top of Septette, pausing and waiting until she starts breaking out of the rock encasement to LEAP straight up off of her!
Septette Arcubielle      Septette's single violet eye follows her adversary as he climbs on top of her- at least, as far as it can without necessitating she turn her head. If looks could kill... Fortunately, Lemeza gets a few seconds' warning before she breaks free. Her joints make unpleasant cracking and crunching noises like a car driving over thin ice, and then she bursts free in a small explosion of rocky shrapnel. Her bared spine arches as she howls wordlessly, clearing the last shards of stone from her throat!

     Now that she can look around again, the little robot reacquires her target swiftly. He hasn't demonstrated any aerial mobility yet, and his whip is still inaccessible- so his trajectory in the air is a simple parabola, which she quickly solves. Her hand traces an arc anticipating his path as a yellow magical circle materializes above her fingers, and a trio of lightning bolts lash out from her palm to hopefully intercept him! "Miscalculated viscosity," she states in an even tone. "Won't happen again. Catch."

     Given the durability he's shown so far, she absolutely doesn't trust that to finish things. Another ice crystal materializes in the center of the platform. Its diameter gradually increases, and inward-slanted waist-high spikes of rock materialize at its edges! She's trying to keep him from escaping back into the lava!
Lemeza Kosugi Everything's going according to plan. Lemeza's got plenty of reaction time to spring off of Septette as she busts free, even if a couple of those rock shards nick him. He's up in the air, gun drawn and facing Septette when she predictably fires an attack of her own at his anticipated landing point. If unexpected bullet trajectory was able to catch her off guard, then...

Step one, get off a goddamned attack. He goes for another round of ricochets, this time aiming the shots at the ground in front of Septette. Probably too obvious a ploy, but it's worth a shot. Step two, get out of harm's way. The lightning bolts reach their destination, an empty patch of ground where Lemeza would have been had he not jumped AGAIN in mid-air! That second jump carries him the rest of the way to the cavern wall, where he executes step three of his plan: digging his grapple claw into the rock so he can hang there, several feet above the arena, and get a good overview of just what is going on.

"You do not do well when reality defies your expectations, do you?" A friendly taunt, as was this entire convoluted stunt. He could easily have just taken out her other eye and be done with this -- but it's a sparring match! That wouldn't have been very sporting. Hmm.... maybe he should've taken out that ice crystal though. He wasn't going to use the lava again, but the spikes it's creating don't look good for him.
Septette Arcubielle      Once again, Septette is distinctly unable to dodge bullets. She can make minute adjustments in the angling and positioning of her exoskeletal plates so they strike less vulnerable areas, but they hit home nonetheless, drawing fresh trickles of black hydraulic fluid from the muscle-like tubes wrapped around her skeletal limbs. One of the bullets looks as though it's about to put out her other eye- but then she shuts her eyelid, and it simply bounces off. Whatever those tan plates are made of, it's a lot tougher than the exposed components underneath.

     "Most things obey my expectations," she replies as he deftly avoids the coruscating lightning. "Elites do not. You'd think I would have learned that by now." She interposes herself directly between the ice crystal and Lemeza, hopefully preventing him from sniping it again. Her movements seem more sluggish now, significantly impaired by the damage and loss of fluids- in fact, she ought to be in a lot worse shape judging by the mixture of burn marks and bullet holes. "Let's see how you deal with something new."

     Her injuries don't seem to have impaired her magic at all, as she's able to conjure up a blue magic circle in front of her hand with a diameter almost as wide as she is tall. Daggers of ice materialize inside it despite the ambient heat- but before they're ready to fire, a subtle ripple of kinetic force projects from her hand instead like an unseen object distorting the air. The more obvious elemental magic is almost entirely a feint to hide the arcane guillotine headed for his legs!
Lemeza Kosugi Ooookaaay then. Lemeza completely and utterly expected that more obvious attack to fail as well. He's learned a lot about the limits of Septette's reflexes - specifically, that said limit is not /that/ far past his own - and how well ordinary lead fares against, um, whatever she's made of. The answer is surprisingly well, especially since she's been able to whittle him down throughout the fight.

So she's trying something new, eh? Those ice crystals aren't exactly new. If she's referring to flinging them directly at him, that's hardly an impressive feat. "Alright, what are you hiding?" Lemeza doesn't wait to find out before once again shooting down the frozen projectiles headed toward him. Without missing a beat, he launches himself back away from the wall, getting very low very quickly and landing on a solid rock platform in time to duck the kinetic pulse.

Unfortunately, this is not enough to dodge its effects. Sure, Lemeza doesn't get hit by the pulse itself. Problem is, his bullets do. They do the job of clearing out the ice daggers, but their trajectories get percussively adjusted to head back toward Lemeza as he lands. While he can normally keep clear of his own shots no matter how wild his aim, he does not have that luxury when something else changes their path. In effect, he's shot himself. "ARGH! Okay... that was DEFINITELY...*cough* new." He doubles over, clearly in quite a bit of pain and not getting up anytime soon. "Okay... I think *cough* that... that *cough cough* settles that. I yield. Good fight." With that, he rolls over on his back and waits a bit for the simulation to end.
Septette Arcubielle      The rock and lava shift to cold gunmetal gray as the simulation reverts to its natural state of a terribly drab metal box. Simultaneously, Septette and Kosugi's injuries fade away as if they'd never occurred- having not fought to the death, the worst they'll incur is a general tired ache tomorrow morning.

     The now-sprightly robot ambles over to Lemeza and offers him a hand getting up. "I'm pleasantly surprised. I've never met anyone half as good at hitting what he's aiming at, let alone what he isn't." She smooths out her shawl- fortunately reconstituted from so much ash- and then pretends to remember something, as if she were capable of forgetting in the first place. "So. That artifact of yours. Do you happen to have it with you?"
Lemeza Kosugi Lemeza's demeanor takes a bit to soften after the simulation ends, adrenaline still pumping. He does, however, gratefully accept the robot's hand as he stands up. "Well, this place really /is/ something else!" he remarks jovially as he pats himself down to make sure his injuries are taken care of as advertised. "And thank you. That's a solid five years of practice just testing angles of fire." He sounds rather proud of his accomplishment.

Ah. Yes. His artifact. The Treasure of Life that he wanted insight on. "I have it in my backpack. Just a moment." He rifles through pocket after pocket searching for it before producing an amber crystal for Septette. "Here it is. The origin of all life in my world." He tentatively hands over the crystal for closer inspection. "It's the leftover essence of my world's creation goddess. I'd like to be able to get it usable again, should the worst come to pass and my home end up destroyed by war. Anything you'd be able to tell me?"
Septette Arcubielle      "I think I can tell you a few things," she replies, taking the artifact in one hand with gingerly respect. She holds her other hand palm-up, and an abacus-like display of purple light materializes above her palm in much the same manner as her magical circles did. Glowing ethereal 'beads' dance along the horizontal strings almost too fast to follow, accompanied by a faint sound like an old printer or hard drive working overtime.

     "Fundamental principles of magic are similar, though not identical, everywhere. I find it useful to visualize quanta of magic like bits. Once you view it through that lens, structure emerges- language, almost, though not a language designed for readability. More like... 'programming'?" For a robot, that word seems oddly foreign to her. "From that, you can extrapolate function. For instance, thiiiis..." She pauses, squinting first at the crystal, then at the blindingly-fast abacus display.

     "This is not a tool. It's a battery. It contains some kind of power, but doesn't provide the means to use it. You'd need to learn how to harness it yourself, or develop some complementary ability." She stares at it for a few seconds longer after saying that, as if hoping it'll reveal further secrets- then shakes her head, fizzles out the purple display, and hands the crystal back very carefully.

     "Sorry if that isn't much help. I read the law; I don't make it." She gives a sympathetic shrug, as if to say "what are you gonna do?"
Lemeza Kosugi A furrowed brow suggests that the answer Lemeza received was less than satisfactory. "A language even my MSX can't read. No wonder I've been having so much trouble with the damned thing." A battery, huh? He collects the crystal back from Septette and puts it back in his backpack. "So, I need to put this artifact into another artifact that can draw out magic power. And then know how to use that second artifact so I can properly use the first one. That's... kind of a mess." He shakes his head in frustration, but offers a tip of his fedora in thanks regardless. "This has proven fruitful though. Both of us got good combat practice, and I did get useful information. I thank you! Now, I'm sorry to cut short our conversation, but there's a bowl of curry with my name on it..." He sounds kind of an addict when he mentions the curry. Ah well, it's probably nothing?