Match of the Millennium

Description: Earthrealm savagery is always a treat for some of us here. It is seldom we have occasion to see Earthrealm warriors with the will to do what it takes to truly win. However, today one warrior seems to truly wish to be here and one does not. In this, there is opportunity. I've taken the liberty of preparing the beachfront. But will you, JURI HAN, change your mind once you are placed in a true kombat with AKUMA? After all, if the task ill fits you, there is always one opportunity to rest.

[AKUMA]
Waves crash against the shore, battering against a string of moored and abandoned ships. This was the battlefield, near one of the piers set up for the island's gracious receipt of new arrivals. It is just after dusk, and the eerie moon blooms full overhead, shining a pale light down onto the beach, ringed by the sturdy rock. Warm, but getting colder.

There were no people here, no members of the guard, and no silent witnesses. He would know if there were, but he had ceased to pay any attention. At the critical moment, he was the only one here. It was expected. After what had happened to the Pit, his attentions were called elsewhere, with all potential bystanders sent away. At the very edge of the island, ironically not far where he had chosen to make camp. For the "master of the fist," the exact choice of battlefield mattered very little.

Akuma stands ankle-deep in the tide, the froth rinsing stray threads of blood from his ankles. He faces the sea, focusing on it keenly. There is a feeling suffusing the demon--something that makes the air heavier and the throat tighter just by entering his presence with intent. That is the importance of the thing itself. The man in the dark gi has no interest in anything but the next battle. His breath is even, his shoulders squared and his fists tensed at his side. Nothing without intent will bring his attention to the fore.

"The killing hour has arrived..."

There is no room for reason or morality.
Nothing but battle brings him here.

[JURI]
Pinching the grape between thin lips Juri tugs and the barren stem and simultaneously crushes the fruit between her teeth such that the juice explodes; Syrupy sweetness trickling down her throat and spilling over her lips and rendering then glistening and bright. This whole island was one big buffet and she'd been pacing herself and nibbling only here and there rather than gorging herself all in one sitting. There were beautiful, desperate and fearful people all over the island, the food was decent and the drama and stink of death was first rate.

Warriors were dropping like flies, people were dying for causes real or imagined. And then... there was Juri.

She was treating the island like a resort. Bullying weaker fighters who were almost beneath her notice and generally making herself a nuisance. Until her scheduled fight with this unknown guy, she'd kicked her feet in the surf, stretched out on the beach to soak up some of the failing sunlight, which eventually became moonlight. As tireless and meditative as Akuma was, Juri has was meandering and bored with proceedings, the premise of a fight and curiosity kept her nearby, even when she grabbed a snack.

She didn't know what they were waiting for and as such is like a stalking predator, endlessly circling and sniffing at the air, growing emboldened yet never quite working herself up to interact with, too entranced to actually leave. She could smell the blood in the air; the scent was strong and tantalizing, mostly coming from him but at the same time he bored her with the stoic meditative crap... probably contemplating existence or one hand clapping or something.

She sits herself up on the beach and takes notice when he finally animates, she was beginning to picture him as just another rock although significantly spikier and with harsher angles.

"It's about time -- you woke up from your nap or whatever!"

The girl lifts her feet back toward her chest and with a rippling wave the runs up her core and to her then springing legs she catapults herself to her feet and resumes a slouched stance. She had no killing intent, no murderous bloodlust present but there was something there in the background, buzzing and discordant like an out of tune radio station.

Juri tosses away the stem, littering and making an unladylike swatting and patting of her derriere to dust away some of the sand with both her now free hands. The ruby-red glowing red gem hanging from the white corded belt of her pyjama bottoms glares a fine red colour she rather liked and found quite exciting, she twirls it in a carefree manner while making her approach. She didn't want to have to keep raising her voice, that was too much effort.

Sizing up her opponent, she was starting to read the danger signs, take in the aura and otherwise do everything an actual fighter should long since have done. Juri wasn't a normal fighter, hurting people brought her pleasure and it was a talent she was incredibly gifted at. The carefree spinning of the gem ceases and she begins to rock it back and forth like a pendulum. That musculature was absurd, such definition was beyond insane. And the look on his face was pure inalterable death, harsh and unforgiving while probably incapable of smiling.

"Why hello there handsome, are you the main course?"

Oho, That look in his eyes was glorious, were they actually glowing!! Wow, AHAHAHAHAH! After that last sham of a fight she wasn't even sure there'd be anything this good. That guys like this even existed! This island was the best.

[AKUMA]
Akuma was vaguely aware of the woman's presence somewhat nearby--the sage could quite possibly count the heartbeats of every man and woman on the island, had it been his interest to do so. But her form and mind were not enough to drag his mind from the reverie of atrocity that cuts into his mind like blades of wind into a mountain. Truthfully, he had just barely survived his last battle--it was glorious, a clash that claimed the bridge between castle and tower, life and death. He had fought the goddess.

Now he will fight a vicious nymph.

"Looking at me with those eyes..." the chaotic sage mulls absently, a deadly sliver of blood red glowing from over his shoulder, the only part visible in or of his eye. A droplet, a flash of blood in the dark. He slowly lifts a hand, weathered grip loosening so that he can pull tight the rope bindings around his fist, the faint whine of tightening hemp catching the ear between the crash of waves. A row of razor teeth reveals itself, a savage growl raking free from the demon's chest.

"They don't match your spirit..."

He can read killing intent from miles off. And the lack thereof, the warped cicada buzz that emanates from her spirit, it's deafening to him. There was something wrong there. Something that is completely different from those who struggled against the true lethal will, the banal day-to-day that consumed most fighters, doomed them to mediocrity. The woman twirled the gem as she spoke, her voice dripping with barely restrained sadism. White froth churns around his sandals as he steps around, turning to finally face her. His own jewel flares angrily, replacing one on the string of wooden beads encircling his neck.

"You step onto the field of your own fate..." the man begins, visibly seething. "Pain. Death. Chaos. All are the scourge emanating from the might of my fist. Fight me, and hold nothing back, or I will paint your remains across the edges of every cliff the birds see."

COMBATSYS: Akuma has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Akuma            0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Akuma equips a warm Magenta Soul Shard.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-------|

[JURI]
A widening of those mentioned eyes is some measure her initial affront at someone just making nebulous claims about her -spirit? She tucks her chin back and narrows just one eye to cast a meaningful what-the-fuck back at the 'fighter.' When did this devolve into talking about spiritual bullshit rather than the here and now? Did he think he knew or saw something in her eyes?

What a coincidence!

An abrupt shrug as he delivers his threat to her life is accompanied by an unnatural glint in her eye. Slim shoulders that would in no way support the kind of weight or prowess, the depth of training the other could bear. The girl was slim like a reed while her opponent could have been chiselled form the side of a mountain. Juri however is the one who adopts the aggressive posture when provoked and reels herself in forward like she hadn't quite caught that.

Huh? Was that another threat to her life on yet another day of the week? In her eyes he was just a little diminished, this monster of whatever hell wasn't on the same wavelength as her.

If he thought her hell and pain came from or into the ring? Nonsense, this was pleasure!

Life itself was more honest and enjoyable when the violence wasn't dressed it up with concepts like honour or sport. Both were a sham that told people they were great when they weren't, and it encouraged them to stop well before the limits of what they were capable of.

"Tell you what old timer"

The buzz surrounding her intensifies and a whistle adds to the noise as a device lodged in her skull flares to life. Glowing violet light blinks into existence, the waves of energy pouring out and into her limbs is of such volume it seeps out of her pores, she can barely contain it.. but she's in synch with it. She BURNS with it rather than being consumed by it.

"How about I give you a nice show.. And then PUT YOU TO BED!!"

Permanently.

The soaking cuffs of her pyjama's rise up her leg and she lifts it and whorls around into the extension that is a side kick, it snaps back into place with the thrust. She's obviously testing him and probing rather than giving it all she had. Damnable woman would refuse to listen to good advice or instruction even on the principle of the thing.

COMBATSYS: Juri has joined the fight here.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0             Juri

COMBATSYS: Juri equips a warm Ruby Soul Shard.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Akuma instinctively blocks Juri's Thrust Kick.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0         [E] Juri

[AKUMA]
The cobra coils before the strike.

A respectable power wells in the violet sadist, gaining only the faintest of imperious glares from the master of the fist. He bears no visible interest in the obvious disparity in physicality, evincing more care towards the pinnings of her stance, and the motion of the sea as it cuts across his own stance. Truthfully, there is something different about the way he speaks, though it would take some time to consider. There is an endless violence in his words, beyond the cut of his stance and similar to the way he moves.

He does not threaten.
He speaks a simple truth.

As her power bucks her lithe frame to life, she is on him in an instant, trailing water with a kick that hits like a thrown spear, crashing into Akuma. She crashes into him, and in an instant, he assumes a battle stance. In that moment, the javelin cracks against the broad span of a shield, his arm raising to absorb the drive-powered kick into the square of his body. The force is enough to cause the seafoam to rip away from him in undulating waves, and a soft grunt escapes from the red-eyed titan. It is the only concession she will receive.

And then the water is churned into a whirlpool.

The energy and force of 'Satsui no Hadou' comes cutting across his body like a great scythe as the demon comes alive, launching into the air with a return kick of his own. His is not a thrusting kick, but a great whirling scythe of a thing, folding three blows into the space of a heartbeat. The waves of force emanating from his three piece whirling kick are enough to rip a grown man limb from limb, and if she was even slightly weaker, her life would be in peril from that much alone.

There is not a word that emanates from the whirling dervish, but when he stops, one single leg rips out mid-air to knock the taekwondo spider away from him with all of the aplomb of a knife to the throat, taking the place of any retort any other person would make. Though he does not yet return to the sea from his aerial maneuver, water regardless sprays away from the demon in all directions, absorbing the excess of crushing force surrounding him.

The question is.. is he testing her as well, or does he truly mean to kill?

COMBATSYS: Juri parries Akuma's Tatsumaki Zankuu Kyaku!

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Akuma [E]        0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1         [E] Juri

[JURI]
A second cog meshing into one another and being sped along at the same pace set by the first. Rather than mesh they grated, jumped and sparking as the first bounces upward to escape being broken. Juri Han rather than smirking or mocking was focusing intently; there was no room for error in reflexive leap into the air and actually manging to push herself off that first initial kick and into the air rather than taking the full brunt of it was already near miraculous.

Not even the Feng Shui engine was able to get a read on what was going on right now, she was running on instinct and the enhanced telemetry the device was piping up with. The forces were off the charts, she was courting death even remaining this close rather than having hurled herself backward, no assurances she wouldn't be drawn down into the attack as it continues.

Her curled forearm rotates around into the path of the blast first, clapping painfully against a spinning shin she maintains the hold just long enough to alter her trajectory and wrench her lower around. The cog's mesh neatly and his power sends her into a gravity defying and whizzing spiral, imparting to her enough power to switch it up from desperate defence to furious offense with her own series of alternating kicks at her foes head and chest.

The translucent red fabric she wears floats around the woman as she hangs in the air, pale blue moonlight turns the colour purple like she were a purple or violet fluttering butterfly.

"SOREYH--- HYA!! HA~Aaah"

One without the voice or manners of the delicate thing she appears to be. The barefoot kicks second impact and third strike are the prelude to kicking herself back up into the high flung arc which would carry her away to safety.

Juri was MUCH warier opponent for now!! That sudden explosion of power could have been a one off trick or trap but she wasn't willing to entertain such positive thinking. Her life didn't lend well to her believing in miracles or things just happening to work out in her favour.

She was of couse however totally pissed. The fucker was actually stronger than her? She'd kill him for being stronger thasn her!

"You! ..what the hell are you!?"

COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Akuma with Shikusen EX.
~~ Alluring Hit! ~~

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Akuma [E]        1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1         [E] Juri

[AKUMA]
As the gears gain purchase, teeth grinding against one another, the master of the fist looks up, the violet spider rolling herself around his great scythe, dancing against the razor's edge with relative impunity. The karate master bears it little heed. The Tatsumaki is a kick focused on its strong rotation. Her evasion was the simplest expression of such--anything even slightly more complicated and she would not have had to time to avoid being cut to pieces on the blade of his leg.

But a certain level of skill is required, and complex feat of acrobatics required to evade fully his Tatsumaki and then strike him down is of no small feat. The demon only gets the barest glimpse of the red fabric being cut to a shade of orchid over him. The last thing Han sees of the whirling demon is a razor-toothed sneer, just before he is knocked into the surf.

The solid blow slams the demon into the ground, his body splashing loudly as it smashes against the water like a badly thrown rock. One fist pinions the sand beneath as Akuma's skull bobs above the waves, a very focused sort of rage wrapping across his face as he rises from the waves, little more than a red-eyed shadow set across the night. The woman stands some ways away, but Akuma bears it no mind, moving within range, purpose in his eyes. As he goes, he lifts a hand.

"I am AKUMA!!" the demon rages. That dusky hand balls into a fist. As it does, curtains of black force concentrate into it, the rope squealing as power surges all around it. It is enough to cause the clouds to churn above the center point.

"My fist knows NO EQUAL!!"

And when he strikes, he doesn't even strike Juri directly. The force in his fist slams into the earth, and then power shunts directly from his body, nothing short of absolute intent spearing the earth. A great shockwave of force, anger and power spreads out from the impact point. It is not something seen so much as felt, and it is as if the entire earth recoils from his blow, felt deep in the sands. He hits the ground, and for one soul-churning second, it becomes very clear what it feels like to hear the earth cry.

In the next, mayhem reigns.

The sea surges up around Akuma as the coral and sand beneath his feet simply shatter, blasting away earth and cracking through what must be a fairly decent portion of the beach and the landmass beneath it, opening a massive rent into the ground, bucked on either side by walls of water that shatter ships, trees and cliffs alike. Shocked, for seconds thereafter, there is simply no ground to go to, as energy and force flay the water into walls. The concept of earth and sea become very mutable concepts. If this spider wishes to dance, then Akuma will leave her no ground to go to.

The pile of sand and stone he is standing on in the center of the impact radius has been all but annihilated, leaving Akuma to calmly straighten himself atop a perch of shattered and ruined rock, with a wall of water from a sea freshly split. The walls churn, standing for at least 90 feet on all sides.

There is a dread moment there that it is genuinely unclear exactly when normal physics will return to the great waves.

COMBATSYS: Juri channels the spread of the lightning nerves.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Juri dodges Akuma's Kongou Kokuretsu Zan.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-----==|=======\==-----\1         [E] Juri

[JURI]
The Korean taekwondoka was already on edge, the fact that her opponent referred to himself as a devil. On some level it almost seemed to make sense, at this kind of level you had to be madly obsessed with fighting to the point you were a broken and incomplete human, a heavy price paid for the time and effort devoted to becoming stronger... or you were actually a monster. It didn't matter which. If he was a mad and broken man, far gone enough to think himself a demon or if he actually were? This power he had might've been worth the price.

Heavy prices were paid for less power than he was showing off.

She bites back on her sarcastic retort about him having to come on over to her and out of the waves to prove that. His fist had no equal, what kind of prideful nonsense was he spouting now after she'd kicked him into the drink, And ONLY his fists? Rather than cool his head he seemed to be heated up and furious because of it. Yeah, that would have pissed her off too, but having a pretty impressive looking tantrum over there wasn't going to-

The pressure wave stinging her skin, she raises an arm to shield her eyes as it had picked up and carries the sand with it that stung so, as he strikes the ground it's enough to alarm and then throw her into a hurried assortments of leaps and back handsprings. She doesn't know what this was; Her senses can't make heads or tails of the noises because who the hell has ever been in this situation before?? The ground under her is rumbling and cracking, sloughing and falling away at a rate faster than she is falling back.

This was stupid. It couldn't happen

When the outer radius of the attack catches up with her she winds up staggering and then finding herself caught atop a pillar of sand falling into the abyss below, it rolls away beneath her feet and she's beginning to slide down the decaying wall of sand. The water approaching from both her left and right was carving away what little soft sand remained as well as all that remained of her footing. Was this attack even meant for her or was the guy half shark and intending to finish this in the water, she'd seen those teeth.

"Tch."

If she couldn't defend and evade, she'd simply attack. Removing some of her choices made her more comfortable with the options remaining to her. She was a creature of action, when it suited her. She'd come to him. Ceasing her sliding recovery and struggled for footing the girl throws herself out there and begins to run down the wall towards that darkness the moonlight hasn't even had time to render yet, it looked bottomless; But for the figure waiting for her down there, that was all she needed as a reference point�c a target.

She kicks off into space and with a writhing mass of violet energy gathering around her leg she Kicks it away and down with a warped trajectory as though it were a curveball. Without her footing she couldn't really fling it straight. The madwoman was charging and attacking in an arena that was probably second's from collapsing and crushing the two of them.

COMBATSYS: Juri successfully hits Akuma with EX Fuhajin.
- Power hit! -

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1         [E] Juri

[AKUMA]
The walls of water surge high all around. This was just a moment, a breath in time between attacks, but for that choking heartbeat, Akuma did not lay siege to the spider from the island, but from the vacuous wound cut into the sea. He looks up coldly, the walls of water causing a chaotic spray across the void cut between them, but little else. Ripples and waves shudder across the vertical surface of the walls of water, the ambient creak of timber above telling a dire tale, drawing the demon sage's attention.

As Han weaves into and out of the chaos he has wrought, she shows no fear in approaching him inside the womb of water. As she pierces layers of force with her body, she feels most directly the reason as to why the water does not collapse in that heartbeat; his will alone surges, beating the water back with pure intention. It is choking, the intensity a crushing vise to thin lungs used to the air of the normal, orderly Earth. There is nothing about the devil sage that is satisfied, not yet tasting her blood in the spray. Something different... but when she cuts loose a writhing cord of that ephemeral orchid force, he meets it head on, his body ripping into it as he attempts to cut it in twain with the blade of his hand as means of guard. But that force is the same that he had tasted before, the evil force that counters even his own killing intent. The scything butterfly cuts into him, great beauty hiding fangs that bite deep into his flesh.

Akuma may have, in some other time, deigned to respond to the foreign energy snapping and crackling across his biceps. His attention now is gained by the shadow that casts over him, one of the ships inevitably being sucked into the breach cut by his fist. A rickety wooden schooner, one of the ones used to transport the fighters to the island, tumbles over the edge of the furthest waterfall, sails and masts splintering against the twin fall on the other side. The sage is forced to vacate his perch, leaping and cutting a bloody trail against the spray as his sandals cut into the edge of the fall, his leg flexing as he gains purchase, and leaps into the shadow of the falling ship.

The heartbeat ends, and it feels wrong somehow.

Water begins to flood across the ground in great crashing sheets as the absence of force at the ground level undercuts the walls of falling waves. The heart wrenches, twists, and the feeling of souls being flayed alive touches the ears. Then, the entire ship blasts apart at the middle, energy ripping the mid-sized vessel in half entirely, revealing Akuma riding the top half of the vessel, a dark and calamitous energy winding around him like fire. He cuts the ship in half with a blade of force that careens out and onwards. The discipline of 'hadou' -- a blast of power that descends in agonizing, fiery authority upon the spider. Burning like no other, the wave of energy leads the ship, the wall of water, and everything else crashing down.

Atop it rides the demon, who in this battlefield alone can feel truly, vigorously alive.

COMBATSYS: Akuma channels the strength of the killing fist.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/=======|=======\===----\1         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Juri fails to interrupt Shakunetsu Hadouken from Akuma with Kaisen Dankairaku.

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Akuma [E]        1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0         [E] Juri

[JURI]
This was too much, like�... a mural of some apocalyptic tempest captured right out of some disturbed nightmare. Revelling in this the entire time as a backdrop as she fell that twisted smile widens as her hasty attack finds its mark. How did that feel!? Good? Bet it stung. The grinning mania wanes and dies off only when she finally reaches the cavernous floor only for her opponent to have withdrawn.

"OI~ don't run away. I-came-all-the-way-down-here-to-play!!"

Her call was plaintive and mocking at the same time. If he had no intention of playing down here.. he shouldn't have bothered making it in the first place. She hadn't shown a great deal of wisdom, leaping right into the Lion's den and with the realization that she was the one who was now in the most danger of being smashed flat.

The lure of this once in a lifetime arena on the verge of - and now collapsing was and had been glorious. Without her opponent? it was met with near boredom. Well, fine then! She'd just escape this under her own steam. Anything that guy could manage he wouldn't let him outdo her in. She reacted to his passage only in so far as she follows his path up to the ship by watching alone; her hand resting on her hip she was merely craning her neck back to follow his progress.

The ships weren't really worthy of her attention, just obstacles or stepping stones to catch her prey. That manoeuvre didn't look unmanageable but she had a better idea. A surprise for him.

The colossal reserves of power she begins to drawn down on sends the Feng Shui Engine into a high pitched wail and then a screech. It pours into her muscles, suffuses and weaves it into fibre and cells while the lost excess escapes her body entirely, flesh simply isn't enough to contain it all.

If he thought he was getting a free ride out of here, he could go back to hell the fastest way possible. Straight back down.

She would strike the bottom of and smash that boat to bits from the underside, then spike him back down into a gravesite he'd prepared himself. It was positively delicious. Her dip low and bent kneed comes at roughly the same moment the walls break down and the walls rush in at her. Ding, enough strength gathered.

Her launch is met with a look of confusion as the boat starts breaking apart before she even- what the hell was that?? The blast sends her plummeting straight back down while tumbling end over end, into the turbulent and crashing waters below, where she vanishes completely.

There is no sign of the taekwondoka for the longest time, long drawn seconds where she is lost in the churning black sea..

Landing on the deck some distance from the demon the girl is completely drenched, soaked in salt water, with black sand clinging to skin and a strand of seaweed laying across her bare shoulder and simultaneously tangled in her hair.

That widening stance, the baleful glowing eye. She wanted to kill him, this vengeful Juri could have as easily passed for a spirit come back to exact that vengeance if it weren't for the sudden slump and falling to one knee. Her hand rising to her mouth there is a heave as she expell an unhealthy stream of seawater onto those already ruined and pitching decks.

Left gasping for air and with one knee down the look in her artificial eye was still every other kind of furious.

Son-of-a-whore! He had tried to bury her there down there, just like she had to him. A cute trick and the plan had a certain appeal to it she liked but that just added to the grudge she bore him.

Coughing easing she takes the time and opportunity to vulgarly spit, in part to get the taste out of her mouth and to show she wasn't fucking done; in the slightest. As far as she was concerned� the score was still 1 / 2 in her favour. She'd already knocked him into the ocean once, that.. was just a slight evening of the score.

Which still pissed her off.

[AKUMA]
"Your energy is strong... the same as the weak-willed goddess Athena."

Unshouldering again the shredded rags of his dark gi to pool over the rope securing his waist, the sage of the killing fist exposes sinew to the venomous spider, displaying the lightning-like network of bloodlines, wounds wrapping around his right hand side from where the cords of her vicious energy cut into his body. His hands, practiced and level despite the disparity in their relative positions, raise again, one turning to one side, and the other opening.

The devil spits blood to the deck of the ship.
"A strength capable of matching me...he who is called supreme master...is rare."

The deck of the ship, or at least the half of it they are currently standing on, lists in the water as its sister half crumples beneath the brutal wash of the sea, walls of water slamming together and sending geysers spraying into the air far enough to shimmer the light cast from the killing moon. Akuma has stepped down from his perch, to meet the drenched and viciously angry spider on equal footing. That ship's wreckage is flooding rapidly, sinking quickly into the foam, but the flame-haired killer bears it little mind, and the slow list of the deck has no bearing on his balance.

"But it is fighting skill born from hate. In that, it is the same as any other!!! Lost and bountiless. Only when your grudge is against life itself will you begin to understand. And when you understand even the barest glimpse of the true killing intent.... then and only then will you become worthy of the ultimate death!!"

One horrific eye meets two.

Akuma raises one foot, entering a martial stance. In an instant, he closes the distance between them. Without moving his legs, it seems as if the ship collapsed between them, the intermediary space erased in an instant. Even as fast as she is, she has only an instant to react before he flanks her at the speed of a thought. In an instant, he moves behind her. And if she is slow, if she hesitates even to consider the feat itself, or respond to his words, he will attack without hesitation. Black energy crawls around his stone-ground fist, and in the same motion, he moves to cut into Juri's back with his bare hand, a line of force emanating from his strike, as white hot as it is black violence, and in separating the two, the master of the fist cuts through everything else, an open-handed blow that slices flesh and bone as easily as it does wood, stone and steel. Only the strongest body could even withstand it.

Executioner's axes have felled less people.

COMBATSYS: Akuma channels the veins of the burning blood.

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Akuma [E]        1/----===/=======|===----\-------\0         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Akuma successfully hits Juri with Tenma Shurettou EX.

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Akuma [E]        0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0         [E] Juri

[JURI]
Wiping the inside of her forearm across her mouth Juri gives those thin pink lips a rough scrub. She wanted to up and go even more, to go find something tasty to wash the taste out of her mouth. Her stomach was rolling but despite it she commits and hauls herself up and go, staggering to her feet with every intention of resuming this ridiculous battle.

The fact he was leaping down to join her on her level didn't sit well with her, she'd exhausted all the power she'd stored up just leaping up this high and he deigns to come down the last few steps. A fucking demon, descending from on high? Smug Bastard! She would break him or show him whole new levels of hell to add to his obcession

Wha-?

He's just gone, the view from the Feng Shui Engine just lost him, it swings left and right in the socket both in rapid succession but can in neither way follow what happened other than a disappearance. The pessimist in her wondering if the useless thing was defective or unable to cope with and follow foes at this level? Her curse about the technological marvel's inadequacy is lost as the blow carves into her back.

Blood splatters about on the deck as a slim girl with hardly that much meat on her in the first place to absorb all that damage begins an abrupt and silent toppling, falling to her knees with a jolt and then starting to reel backwards powerlessly, head lolling back to see the opponent behind her.

Tunnel vision. A dense fog falling across her thoughts pushes everything else out or obscuring it. There was only what was left of Juri with these grievous injuries; and that man. The shock that had been registering in her face was already fading, like her consciousness as she fell.

EAT IT? **A strong negative response, it looked tough and unappealing to consume, not worth the effort relative to how tasty it looked.**

FUCK IT? **Intrigue mixed with wariness; there were too many wounds and overwhelming amounts of pain for desire to take hold. She wanted him---*

KILL IT!

The beast inside the Taekwondoka wanted Akuma to die, was overjoyed at the simple solution. It didn't matter that he was the one who had inflicted these wounds, he was simply there. Her existence depended on proving to herself she was still alive, immersing herself in pleasurable activities and situations that caused her heart to race or flutter. This was not a creature that bore life a grudge; it was a different kind of monster, one whom voraciously consumed life. Endlessly and ravenously filling the holes inside her wretched and damaged soul by taking from things outside of herself.

Like a cobra she strikes upwards, uncoiling back and up to reach up for that face, so close she should almost touch and SMASH IT. Her face gone even paler with shock or blood loss it makes her monstrous smile and absent stare all the more out of place.

On seizing hold she would wrench herself around and throw down to smash the demons face into the deck right in front of her feet. Grinding it down into the deck with her fingers mashing into even stony flesh she lifts a foot and swings it back. The savage pin wheeling Senpusha would grind his face across the deck before she ever let him escape into the air, where even there she'd continue to hammer away until she was spent

DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE-DIE.

COMBATSYS: Juri channels the glare of the vicious eye.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////                  ]
Akuma [E]        0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Akuma blocks Juri's Senpusha.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Akuma [E]        0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0         [E] Juri

COMBATSYS: Akuma channels the veins of the burning blood.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
Akuma [E]        1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0         [E] Juri

[AKUMA]
There is no room for a discussion on the matter. He left no space for it. What Akuma had said was the only truth he cares to acknowledge. To open mouth to refute it was to be cut in half and thrown ingloriously to the ground. Of course, she is not that. Fortunately. Only pressing him this much--only the lightning whip wounds across his body--could be enough for him to even bother. Anything less, anything more reasonable or amicable than this and his time would be wasted.

He stands straight, cut from barely restrained force. Her blood soaks into the hemp wrap over his hand, joining the blood of dozens more. It drips from battle-worn and weathered fingertips, settling on the deck at his feet. Eyes glowing the same shade as a roaring fire consuming the forest narrow dangerously as the master of the fist stands over the vicious taekwondoka on the ground, barely sentient, a pained, reasonless animal. A thing that grins at him.

Yes.. that beast is the thing he wishes to fight.
Akuma says nothing else.

Her hand moves as fast as the viper's strike, latching onto his face and dragging him down. However, the demon is not so easy to break down; 'want' is not the same as 'able to.' He steps into and against the pull of the spider, bucking into her with one step, and flicking her off him, with force enough to list the sinking ship underneath them. When she launches herself into her wheeling attack, the sage enters into the iron stance, arms raising in martial composure.

Striking Akuma's guard is like drumming steel girders. As the energy rips into his arms, Akuma grunts, his momentum finally bleeding off, giving rise to the dark forces crawling around his body, murderous force building. As it does, he fires off a hand into the midst of her. If she isn't fast enough, he will roughly lay seize of one of the spider's outstretched legs with both hands, and unceremoniously flip her end over end into the air, crazing her own momentum.

But regardless of her ability to cope, if she is still in the air in the next eyeblink, she will be in massive peril.

In two rotations, he is on the ground. Somewhere between the third and the fourth, he is already above her. One could almost imagine that Akuma existed in more than one place at once, because there is zero transition between his position on the ground and in the air. He drops down on Juri, knees bent and hell in one hand.

His strike is like a thrown spear from the Narakas themselves, taking all of the rage and force and inimitable hunger of humanity and purifying it in consecrating force and fire. If he strikes anything, he will hit hard enough to split the sky into six portions. The churning clouds that blotted out the sun earlier part with the force of the blow, the shape of the consecrating 'HEAVEN' invocation appearing as a bright symbol, shining with light cast by the moon itself. And if he hits her, he will hit her with force enough to rival the kindling anger of the sun. Her body will be enough in itself to shatter the ship below into six pieces, the same as the sky above, and to seal its fate.

Such is the power of pure intentions.

COMBATSYS: Akuma knocks away Juri with Misogi.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /                             ]
Akuma [E]        0/-------/------=|=======\===----\1         [E] Juri

[JURI]
Juri rolls into the air with little resistance, even in this state she can fly, and twist like a viper! Already with a toe to the ground and was righting herself to follow the movement. She followed that move, when her mind was stripped of insulation and raw, she could follow his movement. She was running on unfiltered and pure instinct with that single minded fury compelling her to just meet that attack head on. The tiny girl pressing back hard and standing firm enough that it's the ship which first shoes signs of giving out beneath her.

There was so sense for the forces in play or the danger, no finesse; reason or thought in her action. He swooped down at her and then that was where her target was. When his had collides with her body her face is still rising toward him still fixated on her target and reaching of for his face with claw like fingers, she would tear him apart.

The splintering crack and shudder of both the ship and girl begin to shatter and give way; it's all compounded endlessly as the heavens and earth alike splitting above and below her, SHE GAVE NO SHITS. Juri could see it, what really mattered.

The gout of blood from her mouth scatters between them and interfered with her grasping at and taking revenge, the wound in her back paints the deck as pressure forces it out of her body. She is driven into the timbers and splinters them beneath her. When the deck gives way and she mercifully begins to fall that clawed hand closes as if to grab at him, he was getting away.. further than she could reach.

NO!!

Like hell if she would let him.

She should be dead already, instead she was furiously gathering energy, a hand seizing a handful on a large hunk of the debris falling alongside her. Steadying herself as she falls the girl violently hurls blast after blast of misaimed furious bolts of purple energy as she falls toward the water below. She had no saving graces or anything to give a shit about as final thoughts, she'd falling to her death and still intent on fighting and refusing to accept when it over or that she was well past her limits.

Fucking die!!!

She wouldn't die here! And she'd still find a way to drag him to hell. She absolutely would not quit. She would kill him and kill him until he stayed--

COMBATSYS: Juri can no longer fight.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Akuma [E]        0/-------/------=|

COMBATSYS: Akuma interrupts Fuharenjin from Juri with Tenma Kuujin Kyaku.

[                         \\\\\  <
Akuma [E]        0/-------/---====|

[AKUMA]
Even when her body is failing her, he must lean aside from her violent clawing, as dangerous as a drowning tigress. Someone who attacks with no hesitation, and leaves nothing held back. A trait held only by the enlightened and very young children who are not yet acquainted with death. Impressive, even to someone held as the supreme master of the fist. Even his catastrophic blow, the one which fells gods and titans alike, fails to fully cow her, the taekwondoka scrabbling for purchase in the shattered remnants of the schooner, broken in the force of his attack, but hardly without the will to continue.

Backlit by the cut sky and the light of the moon, Akuma can only rotate slowly away from the point of impact, burgeoned on by her raging blasts of furious energy, sprays of wild and aggressive violet breaking across his guard, arresting his forward momentum and sending him into a slow end-over-end tumble up and in a broadening arc away from the wreckage of the ship. Even then, the blasts do not abate, forcing him to cut several in half with his bare hands.

"An unrelenting and furious desire to kill... even impure. Do you understand it now?"

The meaning of 'killing intent.'
There is only one last lesson to learn.

Akuma drops like a hammer, in complete contravention of the physics. It is as if momentum was only a function of his will. He flies, arrow-straight, for Juri in her fury. Violet blasts rip into him at all angles, the tattered shreds of his gi flying back at his waist. He drops, heedless.

"Become one with chaos!!!"

The kick carries the blade of his foot like the guillotine's blade, aimed to pin Juri neck-first.. and to sink the both of them. Equal parts strangulation and strike, he is not attempting to pin her against the debris of the boat, nor the waves themselves. No. Akuma drops, and if she finds not a way to wriggle free, he will not stop until he has her against the sea floor underneath the island itself, the crushing weight of water vising out all weakness even from the purified. The salt of the sea will sting his opened, agonizing injuries. But he sinks. And the deeper one sinks, the further one is removed from the light. Eventually, all fades to black, except for the evil red in his eyes. He survives anywhere he pleases.

Ultimately, warriors do not need words. A glance is enough.

There is only one light source in the sky--that of the moon peeking through the cut clouds, sending the shimmer of that ominous inhuman and immortal kanji rippling off of the sea. All is silent and still, for moments. To break that silence, a geyser erupts from the symbol, sending a water jet high into the sky. And for minutes that night, it rains even far inland, spattering every cliff, every dock, and the sands.

The rain is as red as blood.

[JURI]
Collarbone creaking and flexing under the weight of the kick it invariably reaches the point the bone fractures, then suddenly it's crushed�! Then escalating further it's suddenly pulverised into fragments! The weight of the attack bearing her to the bottom while she still flailed and tried to turn the tables on this demon. Heedless of the environment around her a wordless scream and flaring eye waste all the air in her lungs well before he pins her to the seabed.

The clawing motions and attempt to wrestle free and continue her attack with her rapidly dwindling strength. The agonizing pressure in her strangled throat and her chest where her lungs were filling with cold seawater.

Basta-

Her brain was misfiring, still it tried to warn and sway her form this path of self-destruction. But she'd been here before, fought not as hard and struggled to live with everything she had. The hell that followed surviving that encounter with Vega had beaten and burned this lesson into her very soul.. Hardwired and etched in with a tool that left jagged gouges in a then wondrous mind and pure soul.

Survival wasn't worth giving up your pride for there were things worse than death. That Pride by itself was worthless. What you needed was power enough to make what you wanted reality.

Vega had shown her that. Breaking and remaking her to try and make a tool for his use but it was a tool that could only bend and be twisted, not reshaped into something new and perfect. He ruined what she could have become and in return set her on a new path.

Her hatred for the man swam into view while she was seemingly alone in the darkness. Grinning down at her while she twitched was falling still, red glowing eyes instead of those lifeless and featureless white. She would have given anything just to KILL HIM.

There was no way to see her frustrated tears in all that seawater.

The erupting geyser rocks the beachside to its core, the trembling earth shaking foliage and startling the local wildlife. When it's over however there is nothing but silence. The lapping of the sea at the beach eventually resumes, the remaining boat's creaking at dockside with one less of their number. The floatsam bobbing in the waves slowly being washed back onto the beach, planks and mangled barrels floating alongside an out of place pale bare shoulder, long black hair floating freely and disturbed only by the roll of the waves. Juri Han, face down in the water moving only as the waves push and prod.

"-A-BITCH"

Juri's swing and eventual passage through and past the raging demon was somewhat anti-climactic. Try all she might she could not harm him. Her complete and utter absence of power as a spirit hardly managing to stop her desire to continue.

She keeps trying right up until the moment she realizes; aside from the fury that was keeping her going. There was a terrible aching absence, though it too was fading everything was wrong. The more her conciousness and thoughts returned to her the louder and more all consuming they were. There were no muscles to feel pain, no simple pleasure inherant to flexing and moving muscles. No appetites to sate or physical desires to drive or motivate her, with the anger slipping away she's left with nothing a slow creeping dread. She was awake, aware and there was no sensation to the ground underfoot, no sense of being touched by sea breeze or water. She didn't even feel miserable or angry, not good or bad.
@time

She felt... Nothing.

Log created on 03:47:23 10/04/2016 by Juri, and last modified on 22:15:56 10/07/2016.