Match of the Millennium

Description: When iron will and a troubled past meet, death is just around a corner. All the world's a battlefield, and some enjoy it.

[AZUMI]
11:45 p.m.
Chinatown.

A light drizzle blankets Southtown, cooling things off just enough to make it a pleasant. By this time of night, every single diurnal person had long since left, leaving the night owls to stay up and do their things. Carts that sold fish and fruit by day were converted to sell dinners and treats by night, and plenty of stores were still open.

Azumi, thanks to her appearance, didn't generally like to make too many appearances in public. There were totally some who would treat her with less suspicion, but there have been quite a few times to where she hadn't been let into shops, either by word or by gunpoint. Even so, the darkstalker kept a nice little book of which stores allowed her to shop there and which ones didn't.

Currently, the werewolf sits on a one-story restaurant, dressed in a hoodie and long jeans that she likely pilfered from one place or another. Bandages were strewn across her body in random spots, though most notably, her hands and forearms bore the most. She's writing in that small black book, jotting down yet another store that would see her, but only apprehensively. A clothing store shopping bag sits behind her.

She didn't seem to mind the rain that much, but she did keep the hood drawn up to prevent anything from getting into her ears.

[MINGHAN ALKH]
A great beast in the night chuffs. Water streams from the destrier, a great horse of the kind of ancient breeding still practiced in the farthest corners and fields of the world. The drizzle doesn't bother it at all, but the scent of labor animal grows more robust with the moisture. Tied to a lamppost, the creature chuffs, leaning down its great head to lap at water pooling on the ground. The creature is barded in great furs and leathers, bones and trinkets hanging from it, s well as great sacks and scabbards.

Though it is the only creature visible in the light, many more eyes reflect in the dim light.

The first indicator of his arrival is the scent--wet, raw, animal hide and though not as bad as a tanner, the intertwining scents of hide, animal and sweat is not exactly pleasant for polite company. Not that he is polite. You see, there is a fourth smell.

The door smacks open to the restaurant, violent and sudden. He has to duck down to enter. A massive man, skin as ashen as it is darkened from the sun enters, all leather, muscle and fur linings. He wears a curved sword at his hip bigger than some furniture. And judging from the network of scars crisscrossing his body, the fierce scowl on his face, and the fact that he is dragging an unconscious cop by the head with him, he is none too friendly.

Furtively rubbing his thin bearded chin, the barbarian growls absently as he thinks, the sound of stone grinding on stone. He scans the patrons, finally settling on the nearest staff. His demand is to the point.

"Who's in charge here?" The barbarian's words are a tumbling avalanche. "I come to kill him, and feed at his trough, drink at his waters, and take everything that belongs to him."

[AZUMI]
Azumi notes the smell first. Thanks to that excessively stupid sense of smell, the stench came through like an air horn in an orchestra. The werewolf rankles her entire nose, leaning over the top of the restaurant's roof to look at where the...horse...was..parked?

"Who the hell still has a horse in this day and-"

The demands cut her off, prompting a furrowing of her brow. She stealthily shimmies down the roof, careful not to scratch the building or leave any mark of her presence. She lands in the alleyway to the right of the building, creeping along on the ground in silence as she makes her way towards the door and leans in, trying to get a good look at this guy. Upon spotting the man-handled cop and his excessively large appearance, she gulps a little bit. The furs were a serious stressor, as was his demeanor and the fact that this guy indeed still had a horse.

She speaks under her breath. "Guys like this still exist? What history book did he step out of?"

[MINGHAN ALKH]
His hand encompasses the entirety of the police officer's head.

The cop isn't dead, though judging by the amount of teeth he's lost and the soft groaning sound he makes, he very likely wishes he were. Disarmed and with his radio crushed by being driven some inches into his ribcage, he's leaving a healthy trail of blood where he is drug. He doesn't make any attempt to fight, in the punch-drunken haze he's been left in.

At this point, most of the staff has retreated due to the man's sheer size. There remains at least one chef willing to tell the barbarian to take a hike, judging by the heated discourse. Quite heated, judging by the length and the amount of profanity. For a time, the barbarian is silent. And then he drops the police officer.

And grins.

A second later, the entire storefront shatters as one of the chefs comes flying bodily through it, crashing violently into the ground and rolling to a stop.

The barbarian strides back out into the rain. Even now, mass panic is likely starting to grip the little retaurant as his attention shifts away from it to the man in the mud in front of him. "I like a person with spirit...!!" he calls, laughing. "It's a shame you don't have the strength to back it up...! Such a crime will get you flogged."

A few screams come from the back, and hearty laughter. Azumi might notice that the massive man is not alone, and the scents of several other animals much more--exotic, taint the air around the retaurant, as the wind shifts. It's probably making for a problem with several of the people trying to escape.

[AZUMI]
...There are days where it felt good to be the hero.

Today was not one of those days.

She could disappear. Pretend she never saw anything and just be gone. Poof. Later. She wouldn't have to fight this huge dude and her injuries from the LAST fight could stay gone. But her morales did indeed say that yes, she should probably help the poor cop who was probably just doing his job and now has to eat mashed food until his teeth get replaced. She should probably help the chef that flew a few inches off from her face, as he too probably took this job because it paid marginally better than his last job and he has a family to feed. And most of all, she should try to stop this guy because he's just going to rip through Chinatown and cause quite a bit of damage.

This had to stop. Now.

Any good ninja knows to weaken their opponent before engaging him. And while he probably did have any sort of way she could get the upper hand physically, she could hit something else. The stealthy ninja quickly moves back to the side of the restaurant, parkouring her way back up to the roof, sprinting across it and hopping across a few buildings before she drops down. She makes her way to the horse and spinning out a kunai, slices the rope that kept it held to the lamp post. She slaps the horse on the hindquarters hard, hoping to drive it off down the street, though making sure to steer clear of being behind it, as double horse kick was not a good way to start this fight.

As soon as the horse makes it's move she draws out a small stone held in her hoodie and launches it towards Ming's head, hoping to get his attention. The ninja stands in the main street out in the open, her arms crossed over her chest. She speaks in a loud boastful tone, the ninja taking a deep breath before doing so.

It's go time.

"Hey you! Big asshole! Yeah, that's right you! Who do you think you ar-actually? You know what? I don't care. What I do know is that you are going to put that guy down, leave that restaurant alone and get out of here before things get real nasty."

[MINGHAN ALKH]
The beast is overgrown, huge. Large enough to carry a large man, but it obeys the same rules as all beasts do. The horse whinnies, and as the thick leather thongs making up its lines are cut, begins to run freely. Though the horse will likely be caught later, it does remove it from the equation.

Shorn in leather, a heavy boot drives the chef into the mud of the gutter, weighing him down with the full weight of the barbarian. "Now..." he says, mulling the punishment. At least, so his train of thought goes before he notices his horse running off into the distance--this is what catches his attention first. The rock that bounces off of his head and skips impotently across the street is the next.

"I'll drink the blood of your children," Minghan promises succinctly, turning slowly to face the lone hero. He doesn't seem angry--not exactly. The barbarian is slow to rile, but then, there is not much that is outside of his capacity. "Or maybe you want to be tied down to the pole, and take the lashes for this one as well as your own. That is the only way you get to own this man."

Facing Azumi now, he grins, revealing rows of off-white teeth.
He sniffs the air once.

"But a man must eat. And I have a score of them in this neighborhood alone. This place is mine. If you want it, then you'll have to take it..." Though he doesn't outwardly withdraw when the light falls on Azumi just so so as to reveal her dark nature, he does notice.

"Oho. Maybe we will just strip you and have you trained as a ride beast. Your body is scrawny and undernourished...but a hard life under the lash would build you up and find you well!!"
He doesn't seem to be joking--a whip is coiled up tightly by the sword at his side.

[AZUMI]
...Let's just not lose this, okay? That would be bad for everyone. Just...everyone involved.

She keeps her resolve steady, looking up towards the huge man, the werewolf drawing off her hoodie and tossing it aside. Underneath it she wore a simple tank top, though she seemed to have a small ouch that hugged her hip. Her bandages were a little more prevalent here, with her hands and forearms still quite well taped up. She had some bits of medical ribbon on her shoulders and back, but it didn't seem to be slowing her down much. Still keeping with her training, she tilts her head to the side, cockily smirking at him.

"Take it? From you? Easy enough. It doesn't take much to see that you are the kind of person who's head is as hard as a rock. So what happened in your childhood that turned you into such jackass? Daddy issues? Mommy forgot your birthday? Or maybe this is just how you get your kicks, beating up on poor defenseless people."

She cackles to herself for a moment before turning serious again. "So here's the rundown meathead. When you go down, because you -will- go down, you are going to wake up in a jail cell. Because that's where you are gonna stay. And nobody's going to be sad about it. Hell, the only happy ending that's going to be happening here tonight is that your horse is going to find a nice home. You are weak and I intend to prove it. So big man, what are you going to do now?"

[MINGHAN ALKH]
'Daddy issues? Mommy forgot your birthday? Or maybe--'

Minghan Alkh responds wordlessly, cutting off Azumi with the authoritative sound of Mongol steel sliding slowly from its sheath, unfurling a three foot long blade of ragged edge as he draws. The variegated hiss, even in the rain, drowns out any word not spoken with force. The exercise releases another noisome scent to the bouquet--the scent of rancid human fat, which sort of explains why the blade doesn't shine, and why the edge is so ragged. Because of his size and the complement size of the saber, it takes much longer than usual to display the full length, long enough for any silence to be completely uncomfortable. She can continue trying to talk over it if she likes.

Because the warlord is grinning bloodily from ear to ear.

"If the horse displeases me, he will be eaten. If you displease me, you will be eaten. If these police are what passes for law in this end of the world, I may just visit their fortress myself and swab my stables with their skulls. But you ask me what I am going to do?"

The saber cuts through the air with a deep bass sound from the heft of it. The arc of the blade points at Azumi, and the proximity -- his arm plus the blade itself goes quite the distance -- makes it clear that the putrid scent is coming from the blade itself.

"I intend to enjoy your attempts thuroughly. Come, little one. Test your mettle tonight. Seize your glory. Prove it, if you can. And pray to your Gods that you please me. Or I will spend the rest of my week making myself a new coat made from supple doghide..."

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh has started a fight here.

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Minghan Alkh     0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Azumi has joined the fight here.

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Azumi            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0     Minghan Alkh

[AZUMI]
Attach a search light powered by his ego and this guy would be capable of being seen and smelled from space. Azumi snorts at her failed attempts to rile the man up, shaking her head dismissively. Because of course it'd be done the hard way. She performs several handsigns in quick succession, locking her fingers in with each other for some, and splaying them apart for others. When she finishes, her hands are sheathed in blue energy. She reaches in a side pouch to draw out a kunai, gripping it in her hand. She narrows her eyes at the warrior speaks, her ears furrowing back aggressively.

"The gods left me long ago. So sorry, nothing but disappointment for you."

The werewolf charges the man, sprinting across the street. She brings her kunai to bear like she was going to either fight him head on or lock down his sword, but instead, she crouches down into a slide, using the wet concrete to slide through his feet. Once on the other side, she reaches up and attempts to grapple him, the ninja wrapping her hands around his neck and placing her feet on his back. If successful, she wrenches herself back as hard as she could, throwing the man off of his feet and flipping him over herself for a nice quick throw.

COMBATSYS: Azumi successfully hits Minghan Alkh with Medium Throw.

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Azumi            0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0     Minghan Alkh

[MINGHAN ALKH]
It's a little bit like throwing a building.

Minghan takes the bait, stepping forward into the charge, only to find himself circumvented, with the youthful werewolf rolling him over, forcing him to almost flatten a car with his heavy landing. The sheet metal crumples as the warlord lands over it, blowing out glass and sending bits of shattered glass into the street.

"Glory is never disappointing!!!"

Suddenly, the entire car shatters, bearing the brunt of Minghan's charge as he barrels into Azumi suddenly, with the weight and force of a freight train. The blade rips through the air, the heat an force of his passing leaving a brutal trail of fire with its passage. It will saw right through Azumi, if she isn't careful!!

COMBATSYS: Azumi parries Minghan Alkh's Burkhanshud!

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Azumi            0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0     Minghan Alkh

[AZUMI]
Azumi snaps back to her feet as soon as the throw was complete. His own weight would be his biggest weakness. She winces as soon as she hears the car being flattened as she had forgotten about that detail. Someone would likely be needing a new ride tonight. Though the werewolf can't contemplate it for long as the huge warrior is charging right back for her. Flipping her kunai so that the blade was sticking out of the top of her hand rather than the bottom, she spots the sword swing from a mile away and reacts with razor precision.

She angles her kunai so that the rotten blade only catches the razor's edge. Just as soon as it did, she gently but quickly guides it's overwhelming force away from herself, driving the sword down towards the ground. She lets out a fierce yell as soon as the warrior was exposed, jumping forward to grab him by the face and drive her knee directly into it. She follows it up with two heavy roundhouse kicks, one vertically slicing up and the other horizontal. Both had a hefty amount of foot-claw added to them for extra damage.

"Glory is fleeting."

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh endures Azumi's Double Dust Kick EX.

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Azumi            0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0     Minghan Alkh

[MINGHAN ALKH]
Just as the wolf catches the blade with a knife along the ragged edge, forcing him to bury the blade in the street, the weapon landing with enough weight to shake the earth. He looks over his shoulder, just in time to meet her knee square on. The sensation is a lot like hitting a brick wall, even the blood that explodes across her leg is not a huge impediment to the barbarian. The roundhouse kicks cut into him briskly, ripping huge bloody arcs into the air from his body. But the barbarian still doesn't move.

Right up until he dislodges his blade.
"Glory. Is. ALL!!!!!"

Suddenly, the barbarian literally explodes into an aura of fire that scents strongly of spoiled meat, roasted. Ripping his sword into a broad crescent, he attacks far before Azumi has the opportunity to put distance between them again. He tries to rip her open bodily with his sword, to launch her into the air. But even if she escapes, his pursuit is relentless, cutting after her with a brutal claw, trying to catch her about the narrow middle with one hand.

If he can, the inevitable meet with the concrete will shake the earth, and the stomp to her middle will break the streetlight above.

"To think any different is to be nothing but food!!!"

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh blitzes into action and acts again!

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Azumi            0/-------/----===|====---\-------\0     Minghan Alkh

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh successfully hits Azumi with Shined Wolf.

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Azumi            1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1     Minghan Alkh

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh successfully hits Azumi with Temur Cruelty.

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Azumi            1/-======/=======|=======\==-----\1     Minghan Alkh

[AZUMI]
It could never just be an easy thing. Because of course he had to be good at what he was going. Between some crazy metal man, a soul-sucking necromancer and now a guy who seemed like stepped out of the 1100's, the poor ninja can't catch a break. As he comes in again, she starts to do the same trick with her kunai again, but the heated blade not only catches her kunai, but slices straight through it, the blade ripping through her side. Just before she's able to spin herself back around to face him, she's caught around the center and body slammed into the ground, nearly shattering her vision. Just those two attacks alone had rocked the werewolf to her core, her still sore and bruised bones crying for relief.

A heavy whine escapes her as the boot meets her middle, flattening her further into the cracked concrete. But even while grounded, she still had a plan. Just after the stomp, she starts quickly performing hand signs, the ground around the ninja swirling with a blue wind. She narrows her eyes up at the huge man standing over her, sneering at him.

"You are a coward who couldn't find a battlefield of his own, so he decided to jump into a peaceful city. You make me sick warrior."

If things went the way they were supposed to, she accentuates her point by clapping her hands together just after her last word, the swirling blue wind growing into a funnel of wind. The tornado would be capable of picking Ming right up off of the ground and off of Azumi's battered ribcage. Just as he starts to clear the rooftops, a second tornado arcs in and slams into huge man, throwing him hard into the concrete about as hard as he had thrown her, likely sending him tumbling. While she usually preferred to have more finesse in her attack, getting the man off of her was top priority.

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh fails to interrupt Zephyr's Domain from Azumi with Tsagaan Sar.
-* CRITICAL FAIL! *-

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Azumi            0/-------/-----==|

COMBATSYS: Minghan Alkh can no longer fight.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Azumi            0/-------/-----==|

[MINGHAN ALKH]
Standing over her, the barbarian king drives his heel deep into the wolven shinobi's middle, his red and white slavering grin the only thing visible of his face as a peal of thunder and lightning splits the sky overhead. The wind howls deeply, cutting icily past his furs. The cold wind only seems to invigorate him. He opens his arms invitingly.

"Cowards are those who think that peace is something that exists, furchild. There is no such thing as a land that isn't a battlefield. Thinking anything else is dull and drooling, cow-eyed navel gazing. Believing in any charade otherwise is only the mind of the GULLIBLE!!!"

As the barbarian king howls, the wind starts sucking him up, lifting even his massive frame off of the ground. But instead of going with it, he merely uses it to channel his own energy, cutting into the air with a wall of flame that whirls into the cyclone, flood-filling the cyclone with a firestorm. To a certain extent, this actually burns him much more than anything else he was planning--they can hear his cackling, raucous laughter for blocks off as he's shredded and burnt.

Instead of being cleanly smashed into the concrete, the warlord smashes into the top roof of the restaurant, caving it in at an angle, his meteoric impact barrelling through the front wall of the shopfront, leaving him esconced in a pile of stucco, plaster, glass, fiberglass insulation and douglas fir.

He shifts slightly, as if trying to get comfortable.

[AZUMI]
Azumi sits up as he goes flying, her ears furrowing as she listens to him laugh. She sighs when he hits the shop yet again, putting a nice hefty hole in their roof and missing her intended target. It takes the ninja a moment to collect herself, as the act of standing up was pretty hard. The extra huge slash wound in her side didn't help and slowed everything to a crawl. She blinks away a small amount of tears as she looks down and inspects herself, the werewolf shakily pulling herself into a standing position.

She really needed to stop getting into fights. She healed faster than a human, but that has it's limits and her last major stunt was probably enough to set her back a solid month or two. Also, there was no telling just how diseased that damn blade was. It actually managed to smell worse than him, which didn't seem like it was possible.

She reaches down and gathered her broken kunai, the sword having melted through literally half of it. She grumbles at the sight and starts making her way towards her ground bound opponent, watching him for a second before taking a deep breath and enduring the pain to speak to him.

"You...are a complete and total psychopath. And while I have no qualms about ending your sad pathetic life right here, I know how your type operates. You'd enjoy a warrior's death. So I'm not going to give it to you. But I do want you recognize something."

She flips the kunai into her hand and throws it, the broken blade sticking into the construction material a mere inch or two away from his head. "I -could- have killed you. But I'm not that person. Not anymore. So enjoy you either slitting your throat or rotting in a jail cell. We won't be meeting again."

She doesn't give the warrior much time to say anything back, knowing full well he'd likely spew out expletives or glory rhetoric and Azumi was just done with it and him. She slowly saunters back into the now decimated and empty restaurant and heads back behind the counter. THe restaurant in question was a buffet, with rows of food still steaming and ready to go. She walks behind the register, pulls out their phone book and the cordless house phone and tucks them under an arm. She then heads into the kitchen and pulls down the ENTIRE first aid kit, tucking it underneath the same arm. The werewolf then heads back out into the war torn front room and picks a nice booth table, sitting her three acquired things down. After a moment of consideration she heads up into the buffet and fixes herself a plate of food, using her other arm to keep the wound closed. She returns to her table with a plate full of rice, egg rolls, broccoli beef and teriyaki chicken and gives the food an appropriate sniff.

She pulls up a fork and draws open the phone book, flipping down to the 'A' section of the yellow pages.

"So where's the number for animal control..."

Log created on 02:51:53 07/11/2016 by Minghan Alkh, and last modified on 08:11:26 07/11/2016.