Scene #6327: Information Exchange

Owner	Pose
Septette Arcubielle	Septette waits for the dragon in the middle of a slate-gray arena. The walls and floor are textured metal; indented honeycombs lend a bit of grip to the feet. Her characteristic purple cloak is pulled tight around her shoulders. Less characteristic is the gladius-like shortsword held in her white-gloved hand. She's no swordfighter, is she? Of course not. Septette doesn't fight for practice. This is pure information transfer: learn more about Bahamut than he learns about her. (Most heroes make that easy. Some of them even name their attacks for her.) So when Bahamut arrives and the pleasantries are done with, she assumes a stiff and bland fighting stance and beckons for him to swing first. After all, she is the challenger- it's only polite.
Bahamut	When he asked for an opponent, Bahamut was not expecting the murderbot known as Septette to respond. But, he has a grin on his face. He knows she is a formidable opponent and there is little a proud warrior likes more than testing himself against a worthy opponent. "Septette. I remember your exploits against the Defenders of Man. Hopefully I will prove more challenging than they did." he says to her, standing tall with his arms crossed over his broad chest and his wings spread wide in a regal display. He takes note of her stance, but isn't sure if that is just her typical stance, if she is hoping to make him feel like she is not taking this seriously, or if she actually doesn't use a proper fighting stance much like himself. After all, arms crossed is not a good stance either. She offers him first strike, and he accepts. The big, slow, metal dragon rarely gets the first hit in. He lets out a deep, dangerous-sounding draconic rumble, then he jumps and with a couple of flaps of his wings closes the distance rapidly. Nothing fancy to start out, just his usual raptor strike. All four sets of dangerous metal talons are aimed at Septette like an eagle pouncing its prey.
Septette Arcubielle	"I don't recall any 'exploits'," Septette replies with just a hint of amusement in her voice, "but I'll do my best to ensure that you're challenged as well. No promises." She rolls her wrist over, holding the gladius up in a menacing point. It isn't even particularly well-made- what's her game here? Bahamut might get an inkling of that through her response to his attack. Rather than trying to use the sword to ward him off, she simply takes the talons directly to her chest, puncturing the violet cloak and shoving her back several feet; her feet dig furrows into the metal as he flies past. It takes her a split second to regain her balance. Then she leaps into the air, sword forgotten for a moment, and attempts to grab Bahamut by the tail with her spare ahnd. If she succeeds, she'll use her improbable mass to yank him out of the air and slam him into the hard ground.
Bahamut	Improbable indeed! Bahamut is no lightweight himself, but when he is yanked by the tail yet lets out a surprised "What the..?" before smashing into the ground, creating a small crater thanks to his bulk and Septette's strength. That hurt for sure, and one of his eyes is closed against the pain of the impact. But, he has strength of his own! He takes advantage of the momentum on the way down and flexes that powerful tail, aiming to smash her into the ground right behind him. He also smirks at her words. "You do not recall, hm?" he says with a bit of amusement himself. "Well, perhaps it was not worthy of praise. It was rather reckless. Still, I find it hard to believe a being such as yourself forgot, even if the exploit was nothing in your eyes."
Septette Arcubielle	Again, Septette makes no real effort to avoid Bahamut's blows. She raises her left arm over her head to intercept, and the tail-swing smacks her right down to the floor next to him. She lands on her feet, bends her knees on impact and springs into the air over him- sword held point-down. It may just be a sharp piece of metal, wielded without any particular skill or grace, but with her just-demonstrated weight behind it... "Recklessness is proportionate to danger. I am rarely in danger."
Bahamut	Bahamut is not exactly a hard target to hit, and the sword pierces his thick metal hide enough to draw blood. He growls from the hit, then rolls to dislodge Septette. "Thinking oneself to not be in danger at any given time could be considered arrogance. As I do not know your limits I cannot say whether it is honesty or arrogance." This time instead of another claw attack Bahamut builds up power in his right hand before motioning at Septette. The tempurature around her raises suddenly and rapidly, and a moment later an explosion of magical fire erupts around her. "One is almost always in danger from something, especially on the battlefield."
Septette Arcubielle	The killbot gets the message when Bahamut starts to roll, neatly hopping off of him and landing back in that unpracticed fencer's stance. Her sword's looking substantially worse for wear after piercing his metallic scales: the point is obviously blunted, and a crack runs from one edge all the way down to the handle. It, and her cloak, fare even worse as she's engulfed in flames: the fabric burns away completely, revealing her skeletal ceramet substructure. An ordinary person would panic; howl in pain, or roll on the ground. Septette responds quite differently. She holds the red-hot gladius aloft and hurls it at Bahamut's hand, as if aiming to impale him through the palm! "I mean what I say. I understand fighting. I understand it. It's a puzzle to be solved, not an unpredictable beast."
Bahamut	Bahamut lets out a roar as the red-hot gladius becomes part of his hand. He doesn't try to remove it yet, just lets out a growl as blood drips from both ends of the blade. "But, one can only predict such a beast if one knows all the variables. And knowing every single detail is next to impossible." he says, taking a moment to look down at his hand. "Quite a brutal attack. Was it meant to intimidate and disarm? Such an attack on a target like myself is more inconvenient than dangerous." Energy starts to build up around him as he speaks, and soon it forms into a trio of grey-white energy orbs. They swirl around him before launching at Septette. They explode around her in pure non-elemental energy, and may even slow her movements.
Septette Arcubielle	'Pure elemental energy' doesn't seem to faze Septette too terribly much- she skids back a decent distance, dropping into a three-point stance, but seems otherwise underwhelmed by the attack. It isn't until she tries to dash in to melee range again that she notices its side-effect: her movements are distinctly more sluggish, forcing her to break into a slow-motion sprint to close the distance. If his goal was to make her easier to track, he can safely consider it accomplished. Unfortunately, most of the impact of her attacks is undiminished, with so much of her momentum coming from the weight of her metal rather than speed. She makes no effort to go for her sword, and instead simply throws a haymaker punch at Bahamut's kneecap! "Predicting every outcome with certainty is unnecessary- and impossible. But a strong flowchart, and a pinch of improvisation, tends to suffice."
Bahamut	Bahamut grunts as that haymaker connects, buckling that knee and causing him to end up on that knee. But, he uses the positioning to his advantage, lashing out with his massive talons backed by his powerful body. Sparks are no doubt struck as metal collides with metal, even if the sparks come only from him. "Even that does not mitigate all danger, and even if you did know every possibility that would not guarantee that one is completely protected from all risk. It is possible to do everything right and still lose."
Septette Arcubielle	The claw is certainly telegraphed enough- but Septette's sluggish movements prevent her from adjusting her stance in time. It sends her lurching off to the side, collapsing onto her elbow. "Lose, certainly. I know when I'm beaten. Sometimes there's no path to victory." She doesn't stand up: instead, she sweeps her leg behind Bahamut's, trying to further push him down from kneeling to prone! Her elbow comes up simultaneously as she rises, aiming to strike him on the jaw if he falls. "But there's a difference between that and danger. Bloody my nose, and I'll back off. Risk of death- that's far rarer."
Bahamut	The leg sweep lands solidly, but with so much weight on his legs and such a sturdy frame Bahamut isn't tripped. There is however a noticable dent in his plating where that kick hit him. He winces, then chuckles. "Well, even if a burning high energy rocket caused you little harm, hopefully this will!" he says with a grin, then kicks hard and backflips through the air. The big dragon lands on all fours, then firmly plants each limb. Talons dig into the ground like anchors, and Bahamut growls as the golden gyro above his back starts to spin. Gold-white lightning starts to arc over it as it spins faster and faster, and that energy starts to arch around to his open maw. There it collects quickly, building up into a brightly glowing mass of swirling blue and white and purple energy. It gains a roughly spherical shape as it grows, soon as broad as Bahamut himself. The energy vortex pulses...and Bahamut fires a beam bigger across than himself. The massive pillar of pure, raw destruction swirls with the same colors as the orb that is spawning it, and it burns a furrow through the land as Bahamut tries to engulf Septette with it. The beam itself lasts for several seconds, and when it finally passes the energy saturated landscape explodes upward in a geyser of pure white, carrying flames and debris with it!
Septette Arcubielle	"Nothing could have survived that" is an adjective which applies to Septette's circumstances alarmingly frequently. From the Abyssal God's malice to the fusion reactors of alien war-machines, what hasn't killed her has filled her with almost solipsistically suicidal confidence in the invincibility of her steel. When Bahamut charges up and fires, she doesn't get out of the clearly-demarcated luminous killzone. She wades forwards. The etheric beam washes over her skeletal plating. "Tank" is a title that's bandied about, but a real tank might've been vaporized by the elementless energy or crunched by the shockwave from the ensuing explosion. Septette is not. She rides the blastwave out from the glowing column, a wickedly-curved blade extended from her arm, and tries to drive it into the floor of Bahamut's mouth before he closes it. For a split second, she locks eyes with the dragon. Her left iris is dark- and then it flickers hesitantly, and powers back on. "I didn't plan for this. But I planned around it."
Bahamut	'Nothing could have survived that' is a phrase Bahamut does not use. He may be arrogant, but he is no fool. Still, very few things could survive that in his experience, and when Septette walks out of ground zero looking like she is no worse for wear than if she has simply been hit by a wooden sword his eyes widen a bit. "...impressive." is all he says. She aims to give him a new mouth piercing, but Bahamut brings an arm up just in time to catch the attack on the massive plates of his forearm. It still cuts into them, but spares him having a speech impediment for the remainder of the battle. However long that might be. Probably not long given how Bahamut has to remain in his current position rather than trying to stand up. "You planned well, it seems." he growls, grinning despite the situation. "I could not have asked for a better test of my abilities. Whether I win or lose this contest, I must thank you for accepting my challenge. That said, he musters his energy and aims an open palm at Septette. He doubts he can handle another blow, and so pours as much as he can into his strike. The same swirling energy builds in his hand as had built up in front of his mouth, though in a smaller quantity. Even so, this orb still explodes violently in pure destructive force when it impacts.
Septette Arcubielle	Septette digs in her claws, raises her arm, and weathers the searing white flare with the side of her body. The left half of her form is covered in superficial soot; her eye flickers again as it's jarred by the shockwave, and this time stays dim. "I ought," she says slowly, "to retreat here, if this were a real fight. You've bloodied my nose enough. I have too many irons in the fire to not keep myself at peak performance." Her hand wraps around the gladius embedded in his palm and yanks it free; she lifts it over her head once more. "But let's play this one to the end." The gladius comes down towards his forehead... pommel-first. Even a clumsy, half-broken weapon like that can sting with the force of a freight train behind it.
Bahamut	Bahamut flinches and growls as that sword is yanked from his hand, where it had basically seared and welded itself to him. Then, there is a resounding sound of metal on metal as Septette brings that pommel down. Bahamut's head is snapped downward and he grunts heavily from the blow as his chin impacts the ground, creating a visible imprint in the floor of the bottom of Bahamut's head, not to mention the dent in his metal skull plate. Exhausted and battered, Bahamut chuckles to himself. "All with your raw fortitude and strength." he rumbles, then gets back to one knee. "Thank you again. I have learned much from this."
Septette Arcubielle	"I think we both learned something," Septette replies brightly. (Even if she hopes she learned more.) She takes a respectful step back, inclines her head slightly towards Bahamut as if in a microscopic bow, and snaps her fingers. The arena around them dissolves into a bland whitespace, and their respective injuries fade away as well- even her much-abused gladius returns to pristine condition, and her shawl rematerializes as if from nothing. "Your memory may be longer than mine," she says over her shoulder with just a pinch of dryness, "but I'm sure that we'll have opportunity to review the material."