Scene #6652: MECC: Kirito vs Starbound Flotilla

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin, the soft-blue fishman, arrives with an activation of the MECC's systems that's quite stylish. Water crashes dramatically at the edge of the arena. Only the Starbound Flotilla could pump a small lake's worth of water into the facility, reality-warping zone or no. Moonfin steps dramatically out of it, ascending a staircase built below. Around him, several tiny islands rise, and trees rapidly grow from the earth using esoteric technologies until they bloom into cherry blossoms and begin to cascade their fresh flowery payload onto the field. This isn't even the MECC's field stuff, this is just the Starbound Flotilla doing homemade theatricality. He raises both arms out wide, calmly encouraging the crowd to cheer. His armor is a stylish mix between a samurai's armor and a diving suit, an aesthetic that matches an elegantly-crafted katana sheathed at his waist in what looks like a diver-style piece of industrial equipment. He draws it in one clean motion, whips it just barely above the surface of the water such that it stays dry while still kicking up a stylish slicing wake, and then steps to his corner of the arena and takes a ready position. "Soon it shall be a year since our efforts in 'Interstellar Frontiers Online'. I wonder if your swordsmanship has advanced since? Without great improvements, there shall be little to elevate you over the strength and prowess over the Flotilla's greatest duelist." Moonfin says. "No years and no reflexes shall exceed the strength of spirit and purity of understanding the beauty of the dance of blades." He shifts his stance wide and ready, like an animal prepared to pounce. "En garde, Black Swordsman!"
Kirito	"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm." Kirito, having strolled in at the tail end of Moonfin's dramatic entrance... has nothing but his own slim profile to offer to the crowd, apart from an engaged, singsongy pondering noise. There's mischief in his eyes as he regards Moonfin opposite him in the arena... and reaches up to draw his blades of choice, Elucidator and Dark Repulsor. The shining golden sword, Holy Sword Excaliber, has not made an appearance in this tournament. despite it being Kirito's best piece of gear. "Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be as good as I was when I was trapped. But.... all this time since the world changed has been spent reaching for that! Hunting countless monsters, and grinding up my new Skill... well, an old one that came back, almost." He shows a confident smile that's almost a smirk, and twirls Elucidator up to rest behind his head, across his neck. Dark Repulsor's held out as a showy guard... but it's Elucidator that Moonfin ought to watch. Because Kirito KICKS THE GROUND, carried across the brief distance by a burst of strength. The moment his feet touch down in front of Moonfin, the obsidian blade shines crimson... and Kirito brings it forward in a diagonal slash of impossible speed. Two more slashes follow from different angles, followed by a strange backflip-in-place slash that leads into three back-and-forth horizontal slashes, each gleaming with a painful burst of crimson energy!
Starbound Flotilla	"Hmph!" Moonfin takes the slashes dead-on, shifting into a defensive stance and taking the slashes harshly, willing to bear the pain of jarred arms and strained shoulders to keep his position and footing. Where Kirito's attacks can be partially automated, it's not just attacks but /defenses/ that Moonfin partially automates; his stance is clearly enhanced by a zero-delay defensive system in his armor. "You have cultivated many things, but strength is not among them!" He says, lashing out during one of his moments of enhanced combo attack to try to kick Kirito's back while he's backflipping. it's brutal enough to send him flying several feet, but it's not the main attack. "Fifth Sea Hylotl Style: Blade Cast Beneath Waves!" He rushes hard, moving so fast that his body goes low to the ground and enables powerful rising slashes and thrusts intent on getting past traditional guard stances! "To idealize the most base form of skill, the skill of survival, shall reach no heights in the dance of blades, Black Swordsman! It is the search for beauty in each arc of each edge that grants one strength, not the desperation of death at one's back!" Moonfin calls out, suddenly doing a rising strike so graceful and beautiful that the subsequent flips and twists in the air would make a professional gymnast and a professional dancer both green with envy.
Kirito	Thankfully for the Black Swordsman, he's not an easy one to taunt. His face barely twitches at Moonfin's browbeating, instead, wholly focused on dealing with the strange maneuver of MOonfin's. Interrupting his maneuver with a mere KICK is difficult. The impact causes Kirito to wobble weirdly, but the glow of his blade remains and his gaze remains focused. Just up until... The Sword Skill's interrupted only by that last strike, which gets in a clean cut right across Kirito's everything. A glowing gash across his ENTIRE BODY, beginning at the waist and ending at the shoulder, and with enough force that he's flipped off his feet and flung backwards with a scraggly yelp. How very undignified. But instead of collapsing in pain, Kirito hits the ground with both feet, hissing sharply but with eyes full of purpose. After things switched to the Augma, pain - real pain - became a thing. It's no wonder that he decided to spend a large part of a year training and honing himself. If you've never felt pain in a sword fight before... But those words... they ought to sting. They ought to, but Kirito just furrows his brow at Moonfin. "You're not wrong... but you're making a dangerous assumption if you think that's all I'm putting behind my blade!" Kirito evens out his stance... and dashes back into the fray, blades whirling in a series of cross-slashes. It's VERY DIFFICULT to wield those two weapons at once without using Sword Skills, but Kirito manages it with a not-always rhythmic fashion of wild but perfectly-aligned slashes. Speed? He's got speed. POWER? He's got power. If there's anything lacking it would be stylish flair... and using two blades probably doesn't leave any room for that.
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin weaves among the cross-slashes. "Second Sea Hylotl Style: Still Waters." He mutters, taking shallow slices and gashes to armor power-systems, ablating layered defenses. "I make only the most dangerous assumptions, those that pierce to the truth of the matter." Sparks fly, like spraying blood. "You have speed. You have power. But what you lack is grace. Beauty. Elegance in each act. Seeking only the defeat of your foe, you leave yourself unprepared for the nature of battle. You treat the dance of blades as a means to an end. This is the fundamental fault that is found in what you do." "HOH!" He lets out a kiai the way most people release a gunshot, then slams his blade into a perfect intersection of both blades, locking them against it, then forces himself closer to Kirito. He looms over the younger, shorter swordsman, and clears his visor of obfuscating HUD for only a moment. "For in each encounter, there is an opportunity to learn, to grow, to hone yourself beyond what you understand. You find it sufficient to cut through the bone, but I, no, I find it all the greater to trace great art upon merely the surface of the skin. What power do you think this grants me? What strength? Come and see, Black Swordsman, and learn the strength of beauty. Fourth Sea Hylotl Style: Tossed Upon Waves." He twists the blade, glancing the reflection off its flat right at Kirito's eyes. Then his microthrusters fire, forcing him into a high flip over Kirito, slashing at him from above. Then a low slide from below, swinging the blade at his knees. A heavy stomp, and a shoulder charge that moves to a choke-gripped barrage of thrusts. He intends to get Kirito from angles he's rarely been attacked from, and he intends to do it with unthinkably gorgeous style. The man uses his power armor to move like a dance.
Kirito	"Cutting through bone, bleeding your opponent to death, there's not much difference if you ask me." Kirito banters back through the blade lock... and struggles to maintain his footing when things progress further. An assault from one direction after another leaves him scrambling to keep up. The first slash is blocked by a strange crossing of his blades, but this leaves him open to the following low strike, body slam, and thrusts. With each strike hammering home, Kirito tumbles backwards in a spray of blood and pixels, doing everything in his power to not cry out in pain. Yet this is an outdoor-styled field with provided light. His wings appear where before there'd been just a normal back. Translucent dragonfly-esque black wings glitter with fairy dust and thrum up into an insect-like blurt. The balance issue is immediately solved, with the Black Swordsman holding his blade ou at an angle... the starting position for a Sword Skill. Elucidator ignites with crimson light again.. but this time, jets of flame circle around it! And... the weapon comes down at blinding speed at Moonfin. The flames certainly make vision hard, and the blade moving in a freakish zigzag of strikes isn't helping matters. But even so, once that flurry's over with... Dark Repulsor frosts over and howls with blue-white energy. it's thrust forth with great speed for a blow that will unleash an explosion of ice fragments on contact, and transitions into a deep slash across the body. Elucidator then takes up the slack again with a sizzle of electricity, glowing purple as a swift four thrusts attempt to deliver shocks to Moonfin! "Yeah... that kind of elegance isn't my style. There's an elegance of pure pragmatism you've definitely never seen!"
Starbound Flotilla	Kirito lashes out at Moonfin with a blast of blinding fire and a blade of terrifying sharpness. But Moonfin is undaunted. The freakish zig-zag is held back with a blade slammed hard against it; Moonfin kept his third eye closed, and only opened it at the exact moment he needed it! The attack is halted, and the blastwave of fire is enough to boil some of the water left behind by Moonfin's entrace. "Fist Sea Hylotl Style: Still Waters." He says, seemingly suffering no more than a strained arm and a few bits of singed armor. The SKILL CONNECT is almost enough to land a solid strike on him, but he weaves and leans out of its way with elegance and grace, suffering only a shallow impact, and his body seems to almost automatically shift into the shapes that take him through the storm of random ice shards. "There is no elegance in pragmatism." Moonfin says, parrying aside ice. Then comes the shocks. The shocks seem not to deter him; he's managed to blunt them enough that he might be even /harvesting energy/ from them! "No beauty in ruthlessness. No grace where grace is not sought. You are not even brutalist, merely lacking style." He makes an arrogant "hmph" sort of noise. "If you take a pragmatic approach, then let me provide you a demonstration of the superiority of beauty in practice. I shall give you a countdown, the same as I have given all the others I have defeated. Three strikes shall pass, and then I shall defeat you. ONE!" With a swift rush, he moves past that fourth strike, parrying as he goes, intent on preventing Kirito from launching into yet another skill. Part of his parry means that he has to strike with his pommel, going right for Kirito's face, intent on knocking him back and dazing him! It might be harder to see, if he lands that. "And when I do, you are forbidden to blink. Do you understand?"
Kirito	"That kind of bragging and showing off only works if if you can end a fight NOT covered in injuries." Kirito retorts. Again, the pragmatism. What good's trying to look superior when your opponent is making a mess of you, win or lose? Kirito's chain is interrupted and he takes a CLOBBERING pommel strike to the forehead, knocking him backwards and off-balance... but he then does something quite surprising. He reachjes to the side with his hand clasping Dark Repulsor, bumps a knuckle against... something in the air only he can see, and then releases the sword and moves his hand up to grasp Moonfin's weapon by the hilt - overtop of Moonfin's hand - all in one ALMOST smooth motion. Dark Repulsor glows then vanishes in a flare of blue-white energies as it's returned to his inventory, along with its scabbard. Normally, changing swords mid-battle isn't easy in the slightest. But the Quick Equip skill mod for One Handed Swords provides a shortcut, leading to stunts like this. It seems Kirito's not going to be changing his fighting style anytime soon. Which might turn out very painful for Moonfin, as Kirito attempts to use Elucidator - glowing with an unearthly light of a Sword Skill - for a clean Horizontal slash into Moonfin's EVERYTHING. And if that connects, he'll transition into simply KICKING his opponent away and re-equipping Dark Repulsor.
Starbound Flotilla	"First Sea Hyltol Style: Theft of the River." Moonfin says, taking a deep breath as Kirito snags his blade and goes for the slash. He leaps, stylishly, twisting and spinning in the air. He won't let go of the blade, and so if Kirito doesn't, he'll soon find his own slash twisting himself through the air as well, a rapid, dance-like horizontal spin! It's not enough to stop the kick, but it doesn't need to, all he needs to do is halt the worst of the strike. He skids back, yanking his sword from Kirito's grasp. He settles into a defensive stance. "You misunderstand the nature of beauty. It does not emerge from moving through battle unscathed. It emerges from moving through battle without your foe compromising the nature of your elegance." He stands, thinning out his stance a little and pacing around Kirito. "You will find your own defeat beautiful, regardless of whether I find myself /bruised/ by your insolent shenanigans. And that is because of the nature of my superiority to you, and what you are doing." "Now, understand this most of all. You and your spite will come to have a choice. You can try to strike me down before the third blow falls upon your shoulders. You can put all your force into defeating me as I make my grand magnum opus from your loss, and in this, you /might/ have a chance. Or you can do what you are doing, conserving your strength, taking the 'practical' approach. Perhaps when my third strike finds purchase in your form, you will stand after. And then, instead of granting you a beautiful defeat, I will have to show you the meaning of artistic brutalism." "So, if you'd like to make the most of this lesson, then you had better show me the so-called strength of your pragmatism before you can show me nothing, nothing at all. You will have your final chance after my second strike. TWO!!" He calls the next, taking a wide stance. "Third Sea Hylotl Style: Murky Depths!" He flicks forward, rushing towards Kirito, then vanishes in a short blip. Teleportation!! He slams down from above, thrusting blade-first! Blip, then he strikes with a wide swipe from behind! A stylish twisting twirl from the side! Suddenly appearing in Kirito's face, a choke-gripped heavy pommel-strike! It goes on and on like this, until Kirito can get an interrupt and force Moonfin back. He's trying to lock down Kirito's movement and motion, to feel out the nature of his defense, to recognize wounds and gaps and exhaustions that have built up over time, and to just generally wear Kirito the fuck out. This way, he'll strike now, or he'll realize he just won't get a chance to strike at all!!
Kirito	Crap, once again the fish slips away! Kirito reels back, once again holding both weapons at the ready... and squinting hard at Moonfin's strange style. By this point, though, Moonfin's banter is just drawing an ever-increasing scowl on Kirito's face. He's not having this for much longer. At first it seemed like there might be some wisdom to the fish's words, but... Well, regardless, Kirito bites his tongue. The Starbound Flotilla played a big role in averting a disaster for his world. He'll just endure the fish's ridiculous ego and focus on the fight! Although the barrage does a decent job at wearing Kirito down and pinning him... Moonfin might regret this. Halfway through the assault, Kirito steels his will and raises his blades. An EXPLOSION of color surges from the ground beneath him as a Sword Skill's activated... but this isn't anything like the previous ones. A pillar of purplish-white and streaks of blue - the colors of the night sky. That same color spreads down Kirito's arms to both of his swords. The eruption of power alone is enough to disrupt Moonfin's assault... and that's NOT NORMAL. Not for most Sword Skills, and not in general. What on earth just happened?! There's no words for this. Nothing but a ferocious look in Kirito's eyes. The look of a beast that has been awakened. With a wordless roar, the youth LUNGES forward with a mighty pair of diagonal slashes that happen almost faster than a blink. Huge arcs of golden energy extend from them, adding to the cutting power and ensuring that merely BACKING UP won't be enough to escape. Nor would moving sideways, as the first slash is followed by an opposite, and a horizontal strike. Kirito keeps advancing, and advancing with this pattern varying slightly. Criss-crossing, oversized energized blows that hit like a freight train! 27 strikes, in total, and every impact results in a burst of blinding light bursts. The special effects budget for this move is ridiculous, and getting out of this one will NOT be easy.
Starbound Flotilla	Here comes the Eclipse. Moonfin is barraged. Twenty seven shining, absolute-assault strikes rain down on him. There's clashes of steel. Sparks fly. Ablating layers of armor are torn away. An entire segment of his shoulder armor is ripped clean off. A criss-crossed gash is torn in his helmet, a massive, stylish "X" marked right over his third eye. And it seems that Moonfin won't get to finish his count. But as the barrage goes, and goes, and goes, and winds up for its final horizontal slash... "Three." Moonfin is behind Kirito. He is drawing his blade along the Matter Manipulator that acts as his sheath, as if to clean something off of the blade, then gently sliding it in. And just before it finds its final resting place, he asks a simple question, with all the arrogance that would normally be found in his usual verbosity: "Did you blink?" Click. At that moment, and only at that moment, Kirito's health-bar will recognize exactly what happened. He was so fast and so precise with that singular, clean, majestic cut that it would have been hard for even someone with Kirito's reflexes to see it when it happened. Only now would one perhaps appreciate the profound, elegant, stylish nature of it. Mathematically precise, fluid like a dancer's stance, and gentle, the way a father might put their son to bed. "Sixth Sea Hylotl Style: Burial at Sea." Cue the spray.
Kirito	Iaijutsu. It's not as though Kirito hasn't seen it before. Being an avid gamer, and with perhaps his best male friend being a katana user... 'typical' is written all over Kirito's face as he sees what Moonfin's going for. But mixed with it is considerable worry. Iaijutsu style techniques are INCREDIBLY difficult to counter. Kirito's only got one move that can HOPE to compare with its speed... Sonic Leap. And so as he draws in a breath, he brings Elucidator up and spaces his legs out. As the blade's held horizontally, tip aimed at Moonfin, it begins to gleam with an emerald light and fills the air with a high-pitched whine as the Sword Skill's ready to-- Nope. Not happening. Kirito takes the finest aim, with the best possible timing - and launches himself forward at JUST the wrong angle. His finely honed reflexes and muscle memory, born of THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of repetetive countering of Katana techniques wielded by all sorts of Humanoid monsters betray him, as Moonfin's technique is something all-new. His gale-force leap thrust is angled a bit too low. It fails to catch Moonfin's blade by a mere two inches, the tip burying into the ground - as is always the case when he fails to block an Iaijutsu technique. And just like that... the swordsmen stand apart from each other. Kirito grimacing... as the moment Moonfin sheathes his weapon, a plume of crimson damage decals flare across Kirito's body, plunging his health straight to zero. He falls down to his knees, body glowing strangely. In mere moments, the avatar transformation shatters away - weapons, wings, outfit, and the pointy ears. What's left is a boy wearing casual clothing that's getting increasingly bloodstained as his myriad of wounds - all manageable in the transformed state - open properly and begin to worsen... "........" He can accept the loss. The tournament act8ually sin't important to him. And yet this stings for other reasons. "How many times am I going to make the same mistake...?"
Starbound Flotilla	"For as long as you seek only victory, and not perfection of the self. When becoming more perfect is your passion, and not the defeat of your foe, you shall find victory reaches your hands. Let go of your earthly concerns, and turn inward to find the channels within, those paths etched deep in the soul from which your strength is drawn." Moonfin says, keeping his back to Kirito. "You did well, to strike me with all your force, to assault me and not to spite me through simple blind resistence. It was not enough, but it was better than some." "If you wish to find the path to walk, look only to yourself. The path to strength is found in the mirror. Do not carve victory into the bones. Calligraphically mark perfection upon the skin. Take your reflexes, your strength, your experience, and forge them. Challenge yourself, and then achieve victory over yourself. Everyone trains to win against others, for there is little else one can do with life. Do you see what happens when you train to win against yourself?" Is there literally /any/ meaning in this wisdom? It's kinda unlikely. But either way, Moonfin, the arrogant jackass, at least bothers to help Kirito up while the Shrine's systems get to work on making him not be dead. Even smugly doing the handshake thing, maybe, before he strides off triumphantly.