Scene #6599: MECC: Katt vs Kirito

Owner	Pose
Kirito	Some people in this crazy tournament have chosen to make flashy wrestling-style entrances. Maybe with some theme music and special effects thrown in. Not Kirito. The arena chosen is an amped up version of the famous Colosseum as it may have looked in its prime, except larger and with nicer amenities. The barren ground of the combat stage is pristine and untouched... All until one of the entrance gate portculli rises with a rattling of chains and ancient metalwork, and through it strolls the young... elf? A young man garbed in a closed black longcoat that would seem more suitable to cold weather than the matter at hand, with a youthful, soft-featured face far from what one might expect of a warrior. A sword is sheathed across his back, both the scabbard and the hilt the same black as his hair, eyes, and outfit. The scabbard does bear a strange insignia of a wyvern, though... Kirito steps forward to a designated point in the arena... where he poromptly reaches up with one hand and smoothly unsheathes his blade, ignoring ALL of how physics says this shouldn't be possible. Afterwards he stands there in a loose, open stance... waiting for his oponent to enter.
Katt	Katt also does not believe in music. She never needed music in the Colosseum of Coursair, and she doesn't need it here! She does believe in a showy entrance, though, which is why - as she often does - she vaults through the entryway, doing a flip before landing on her feet, raising her staff toward the crowd as if to try to get them to cheer. (People do. Katt may not have a good record in the MECC, but hey, it's exciting.) Resting her staff across one shoulder, she turns to her opponent and sizes him up. Well, she thinks to herself, he looks like less of a jerk than the last guy. (She might be biased.) "Well!" Katt grins, showing the hint of one tooth. "Let's have a good match, okay?" She's just excited to have one... she's not a sore loser as long as nobody cheats. Which, she hopes, is not going to be a problem in the MECC - While she's thinking, the bell to start rings. Katt immediately loses her train of thought in favour of a fast approach. Kirito has a loose stance, so she tries to sneak in some jabs with the butt of her staff, keeping him guarding low until she snaps it up to try to catch him in the gut. "Here we go! Can you handle it?"
Kirito	Kirito... at first blinks a little at his opponent's appearance, to say nothing of the showy entrance. His interest is piqued. He's facing a beauty to be sure, but... "... Part tiger...?" He murmurs under his breath. She's no Cait Sith, that much is immediately obvious. He takes quick note of the claws... but something about his opponent's immediate, gutsy sincerity gets him cracking a grin. And so the Black Swordsman matches it by dropping into a battle stance the very instant the bell goes off, one hand forward, sword out behind held at an odd angle... The stance is weird to say the least, but the motion's far from clumsy. This guy knows what he's doing. What follows is a spectacular display of parries. The black blade he wields one-handedly (no shield or side-arm?!) is kept close to his body for easy twisting about this way and that. The flurry of jabs is caught and deflected one after another, the exertion squeezing increasingly-strained grunts from the youth as he works to match Katt's speed with his weapon of far inferior reach. And yet... "Ghuuuuf!" He wasn't expecting her to use it quite like that. The butt of the staff slams him hard in the gut and sends him bowling over backwards... a hard, solid impact. However, he recovers with a freakish show of agility, transitioning the tumble into a BACKFLIP with a quick stomp of a leg. "I've faced plenty of spear users, but a bo's new. This is gonna be interesting. However, it's way too soon to be asking me about my limits!" Smiling mischeviously, the boy leans forward and... becomes an absolute blur of motion, whipping forward with that blade in almost a repeat of Katt's strategy. He attempts to duck in under her staff's reach and begins a frenzy of thrusts and the occasional slash at her side!
Katt	One-handed sword with no second weapon or shield is a perfectly valid fighting style. It's not one Katt is particularly fond of - though honestly since she doesn't use any swords that's not a surprise - but she's seen it before. That's not the interesting part. The stance he uses it in, though. That's newer. Katt likes to meet good fighters with new tricks; she's pleased by it. "I should hope it's pretty early - " Katt interrupts herself to spin her staff in front of her, rotor-like. It catches most of the thrusts, but does a less good job against the slashes; one sneaks in against her side, forcing her to hop quickly to one side and leaves her open for a follow-up. Or that's what it looks like, because she turns the sidestep into a sudden powerful whirling blow, slamming her staff with a full-body swing to smash into the small of Kirito's back and send him reeling. And that's backhanded at that - she'd be stronger doing it the 'right' direction. Well, Katt certainly has power on her side as much as speed. It's just a question of whether she can apply it properly.
Kirito	Kirito frowns the moment he sees the SPIN MANEUVER. He's all too familiar with that trick himself... and yet, he's not blindsided by the fancy maneuvering Katt pulls on him. Instead... INstead, something STRANGE happens. His blade glows, wreathed in a shimmering blue light. His whole body moves rapidly from there, blade coming DOWN at a diagonal to slam into the offending bash! The weapons meet and-- There's an EXPLOSION of sizzling icy energies, quite chilly indeed! It may leave some frost on Katt's weapon, but since it didn't strike her... it's not such a big deal. The real problem is... tthere was a TON of force. It blunts the blow.... but nowhere near what Kirito was hoping. Her weapon's superior reach still gets around his parry and smacks him good, knocking him a full ten feet sideways. He hits the ground, rolling to a stop, spitting out dust! "So much for that idea..." Frowning, he rises... and makes a strange gesture by tapping and swiping at the air with his free hand rapidly. One 'poke' as if pressing a button later... Filmy blue light flows across his back as a second weapon manifests. A blue gleaming sword that would seem made of ice, crystal, or some other impossible material. It's a stark contrast to the black blade he's been using, which might be suitable for some would-be demon king or a dark knight type. And just like that, he draws the extra blade. Inhales slowly... and narrows his eyes on Katt. "I wanted to see how far I could get with just one weapon... but you're pretty ferocious." There's some warm admiration in his tone, but it's mixed with a building battle spirit. Whatever the case, he lowers to a battle stance... and dashes in like he means it this time. A strange, asynchronous assault of slash after slash is his strategy, blades ALMOST but never quite coming in at the same time or at conflicting angles. A dual wield style is very difficult - and what he's doing woulde be IMPOSSIBLE if he weren't, quite clearly, superhumanly strong and speedy. The balance just wouldn't work... but in his hands, the two blades form a wall of flashing edges!
Katt	As soon as she's delivered her blow, Katt is on the move again. She bounds - backwards, not forwards, clearing some distance between Kirito and herself. She grins again, showing more of her slightly fangy canines, and swaps her staff to a one-handed grip while subtly shaking out her hand to try to get the chill off it. And then... Katt makes a 'come on' gesture with the hand not holding her staff, ears flicking back as she does it. Kirito is being called out. And he steps up to the challenge when he appears his second blade. Nice trick, Katt has to admit; she can't do anything like that. Maybe she can learn that trick? But now isn't the time to try, because damn, he's almost as fast as she is. "That's why I'm the old champion of Coursair," she calls back. "We woren are known for our fierceness!" And then he's on her. Katt doesn't spin the staff wildly as a counter this time because it's not going to work against the double assault, and she knows it. She moves to block the first couple strikes with solid blows from her own staff, then rolls past Kirito. Not fast enough to avoid being hit, unfortunately - though that would have been nice - but fast enough that he can't pin her down. Even with that strange style... She leaps, bounds off a side wall and ricochets back toward Kirito, putting her triangle-jump speed and momentum to good use in a powerful, impressive-looking maneuver. "HAI!" she bellows, on her approach - and she might be small, but Katt is loud.
Kirito	Thankfully for Kirito, this young man's not terribly impetuous or traditionally hot-blooded. He does, however, smirk mischeviously at Katt's antics. Trying to goad him into losing his head? Seems like... not a chance. She'll have to get personal to crack his composure! After the exchange, Kirito's tracking Katt's motion carefully. He was expecting to be parrying another staff blow, but... Instead, Katt lashes out with HER FOOT in a maneuver he's only seen in TV shows. His eyes go a bit wide with some disbelief... but he reacts quickly regardless! Namely, by bringing up both weapons and.. crossing them in the path of the kick? This shouldn't work. This doesn't make ANY sense from a physics perspective or even a tactics perspective. But the technique 'Cross Block' activates, his swords gaining a faint glow a moment before the strike connects against the flats. BANG. The impact's much more thunderous than it has any right to be. The ground cracks underneath Kirito, screwing up his footing. SOMEHOW, this maneuver has absorbed a TREMENDOUS amount of force.... but... But not quite enough. Like a spring that's been compressed to the limit... and then beyond, Kirito's launched backwards as he loses his footing and slams hard across the ground again in an ungainly display. SOMEHOW he slams his black blade into the ground again to slow himself down and stabilize... but now the boy's scowling, his mind going overdrive to think up a way to win. Because this isn't working. His opponent's a little too fast, and -WAY- too strong for him to tussle with pure weapon play. He's going to have to go all out, or this is simply not going to work at all. He'll get thrashed into a wall. A quick glance at his HUD shows HP is still... salvageable. And so he puts his plan into action! Kirito levels a blade horizontally at Katt. It glows a freakish EMERALD color and then... WHOOOOOOSH. In an instant he's crossed that distance, right behind her, and may have managed to slash her with a blade that howls with razor winds. The next moment his blue blade ignites with crimson flames and he whips around in a frenzied flurry of slashes that sends flaming bursts everywhere! Just as soon as THAT's finished, his black blade again shines... this time, purple. Electricity arcs and sizzles all over it as he THRUSTS with the weapon straight for her! All the while, with intense concentration, he's looking at her stance for some weakness he can exploit...
Katt	Kirito might not be impulsive or hot-headed, but that's fine; Katt has enough of that for both of them. She feels her foot slam into the crossed swords and attempts to push harder into them. Her leg tenses, but without anything to brace against, she can't actually add any more power to her blow than she's already delivered. She tries, but - As Kirito is thrown backwards, Katt bounces backwards from her perspective, away from him, to do a backflip and land on her feet. She lands surprisingly well given the force of the matched blow, only hopping once to catch her balance. Kirito is right that his original plan wasn't going to work. Fortunately, he has more plans. "Ah, what!" Katt has seen sword-mages before, but nothing quite like Kirito's multi-element assault. She isn't sure how to block it; she works entirely on instinct. Unfortunately, this isn't the best for her; she takes the wind slash with enough force to buffet her backwards, then blocks the flaming sword and causes an explosion right in her face. It singes her face, scorches her fur and hair, and leaves her more open for the follow-up electrical blast. She never quite falls over, but Katt has definitely been put on her back foot now, mentally as well as physically. "Hey! I've got tricks too," she calls in Kirito's face, as she tries to jab her staff in past his guard, pointing the tip of it at him. "Want to see one? I learned this one myself!" Katt is not what anyone would call a talented mage. She's more throwing a whole bunch of power out at once and hoping it sticks than doing anything that requires finesse or any form of restraint. Nobody with training would do it like this. But for one shot it's enough, and the tip of Katt's staff glows red, then white, before ejecting a flamethrower-like stream of fire at Kirito! She tries to keep it pointed at him while it jets out of the butt end of her staff, not slowing down - she may not be able to get it to stop until it runs out of power on its own. "Surprise!!"
Kirito	'Surprise' is right! Kirito's certainly not unfamiliar with weapon-focused elemental powers. His own assault's quite a thing! But PROJECTILES... up front, that's another matter. He has a split second decision to make, with that staff glowing and Katt OBVIOUSLY intending to shoot something at him. Thankfully... his instincts prove correct. Moving with speed and precision that would be ASTOUNDING in any normal person, he whips his black blade forward. It shimmers blue-white, and... And his wrist turns into a freakish blur of motion, spinning that blade like a propeller until it's a wall of shiny black between him and the RUSHING FLAMES. There's NO FREAKING WAY that will work. That shouldn't do ANYTHING to fire. And yet... And yet, this somehow, against ALL sensibilities, does work. The stream of fire's caught on the blade and spreads, splitting every which way. This is NOT at all great for the arena... as chunks of ground turn molten hot, melting into a glassy mess. Kirito's not faring too well either. The sheer HEAT and force pushes him back, but this time... he remains standing, even as his HP plummets from burns raking up on his arms and his lungs start burning from within under the intense heat. Finally... HIS technique runs out of duration before Katt's wild unleashing of power does, by a mere second. This results in a faceful - an EVERYTHING-full - of flame. Flame to the everything. He's scorched, sizzling, smoking... and somehow still standing through it all. No, not standing. Right before the flames die down, a burst of OTHER COLORS combats it. Blues, whites, and purples, all swirling around the edges. And then... And then Kirito's blades chop through the dregs of the flames, both alight with something other than elemental fury. Torrents of wispy aurora lights swirl around the blades and gleaming sparkles like distant stars trail the slashes as he LUNGES forwards with a strangely coordinated cross-slash that transitions into a ferocious onslaught of hyper-speed slashes with inhuman force and precision. Each blow, whether it strikes flesh, weapon, or air, unleashes a spectacular barrage of blinding lights painted in all the colors of the evening and night sky, and these strikes utterly disobey the laws of inertia, rapidly turning and changing course to return to the flurry without any overextension. "Right back at you!"
Katt	Katt's magical stream of flame doesn't end immediately. It's doubtful she can just end it on a whim, which is kind of a problem for her because it is also making her staff uncomfortably hot to hold; it's not really painful yet but she can imagine it will be pretty soon. She tries to keep the fire jet aimed at Kirito, playing it left and right as he actually blocks it, trying to get some of it through that spinning barrier. Mostly she manages to make a fire whirl, swirling around Kirito as he holds it off - barely, but he manages. And then, suddenly, the fire ends, though the staff still emits a trail of smoke as she whirls it back in front of her, defensively. Just in time, with the radiant aurora assault. Between the smoke and the spray of light every time Kirito strikes, it's not easy to see precisely what Katt (or Kirito, for that matter) is doing in there. It becomes a radiant cloud obscuring all details - Until Katt rockets out from one side, tumbling end over end, tail frizzed, until she manages to plant her staff against the ground and brace herself, causing a metallic squealing sound from the metal cap of the staff scraping against stone. Her staff is no longer smoking, at least, but she is, a side effect from either Kirito's powerful blows or her own magic. Katt is breathing hard, almost beaten, and she knows it. But she refuses to go down, forcing herself to remain on her feet as she gestures, another 'come get some' that's as much for the crowd as Kirito. "I'm - gonna - show you - what I can do!!" Because she sure isn't waiting for him to come to her. Katt advances. Slow at first, she tries to catch him by surprise by rushing at the last moment, running at him - and using her staff like a pole-vault to throw herself into the air. She bounces off a wall, the floor next to Kirito, a different patch of floor, and then back at him, striking with every pass with a sweeping blow from her staff.
Kirito	This... is bad. With Katt ejected from the confrontation, Kirito emerges similarly weary. His whole body's aching in ways it almost never has before from this beatdown. Only a rare few struggles have put this much raw strain on his body. Sure, many fights were down to the wire from timing, desperation, or staggering consequences. But not a lot of them have demanded such raw physical exertion. That would be, of course, because it's only a recent thing that his ACTUAL BODY was having to absorb some of this punishment. The transformation protects him somewhat, but he's feeling every blow. And if he hadn't spent the entire last year training heavily, having to deal with the pain would have been too much. As it is, though, Katt catches him quite flat-footed. His ragged breathing and tingling limbs after that jsut aren't able to keep up. He brings up his weapons in an attempt to block, but only manages to do so the first few times, battered this way and that until he's simply pummeled to the ground. And the last shred of his HP is withered away. With alarms blaring in his ears, and glowing red tinging his peripheral vision, everything goes red-scaled as a big message pops up that only he can see: <YOU ARE DEAD> His body takes on a strange luminescent glow and then.... SOMETHING shatters, flying every which way in several hundred glowing triangles that quickly fade. The swords are gone. Kirito's protective garb is gone. What's left is... Well, a boy with round, human ears, wearing a black jacket over a grey shirt, and black dress pants.... and black boots. Casual stuff you might see on the city streets. No scabbard, no swords... Although he DOES have this weird plastic-looking gadget worn over one eye. And he's COVERED in bruises and light burns, all of which have him hissing in pain. ".... I GIVE UP!" He shouts at the top of his lungs right then and there, before just collapsing onto the ground. How embarassing for him...
Katt	Well. That wasn't precisely what Katt expected to happen. "Huh, what??" Katt doesn't know of anything that can do this - wait, she's heard a story, in the bar, but she figured it was someone making it up. Also, she only sees one person, not Kirito and some other guy (or girl?) too. Well, she can figure it out some other time. Planting her staff to catch her breath, she bends down for a moment before raising both arms in victory, bowing to the crowd. Only after that does she go over toward Kirito to look at him. "Hey," she says, quietly enough that the crowd or the microphones can't pick it up. "You'll feel better once they turn this stuff off. So - good fight! You really pushed me!"
Kirito	Kirito - or rather, Kirigaya Kazuto - is not at all at ease with just taking this laying down. And so he gathers his strength, fights the pain and the exhaustion... and wills himself to stand, albeit shakily. "How is so much muscle power packed into that body...?! I haven't felt an impact like that since the Skull Reaper..." The boy wheezes out. As soon as the causality field's lowered though... his strength returns. The apparent wounds and burns vanish. And... he blinks a few times, surprised. "... The cooldown's up already...? LINK START." It's over in a moment. Blue-green-whitish energy surrounds the young man, and... his previous appearance is restored with a burst of light. "That was one heck of a match. I'll have to get creative for the next time we meet."