Match of the Millennium

Description: The final rounds will be pre-determined, as my duties as arbiter have, as I've said, drawn mine attentions... elsewhere. Of all, this round you will be battling for stations, of which there are six... The winner of the title of SPIDER will battle WASP."

[EADNI]
The Spider And The Wasp.

The dangerous hunter, fallen prey to another hunter. The natural order of things always has one consuming another. Flow to flow. Soul to soul. That was the intent of the Mortal Kombat tournament. That was the nature of the Elder Gods, of Shang Tsung, of the fighting. The reflection of that natural order, the circle of life.

And it was corrupt.

It was unnatural. It was vile and foul. It was a twisted mockery of the Earthrealm. Natural orders were just that. But this? This was only empty words from empty immortals. Earthrealm would be the bulwark, it was the last bulwark. And the final person would need to face their greatest champion. THey would be stopped. And then, the opportunity of balance would return.

And Eadni would set everything in balance again.

Eadni was in the heart of the Courtyard Arena. The small arena was located just outside of Shang Tsung's castle. It was fortunate, in that it was the site where one could sit and watch the tournament; the crowd was mostly the followers of the sorcerer. The arena itself was a stone platform, surrounded by four pillars at either corner. In the center is the yin-yang symbol, obscured by old blood spatters from previous bouts. An empty throne sits to watch over the arena. The wasp and the spider would fight here. But this was not the end yet.

Soon.

The witch was in her crone form; she wouldn't need to be a child. Her opponent was... an unique man. Someone who would see through her, in a manner of speaking. A blessed man, a cursed man. The crone's long nose reaches nearly to the ground, the witch hunched over in rags of woad, tan, and grey. Her gnarled hands were wrapped around a satchel at her side, idly fumbling with the leather flap that vaguely looks like a series of stitched-together faces. Her eyes were black pits, with a yellow light burning behind both eyes, drifting between each one far in the depths. The power of the crystal was boiling forth. The shard was burning. The murmur of souls were running around her... it was pleasing. It was precious.

It was in service to the witch.

[KENSHI]
Row upon row of hooded figures stand silently among the benches, staring down at the witch who has claimed at least two of their champions. At her beck and call are many souls. Souls that she has fought for, earned, and bent to her own devices. Souls that burn in her eyes like golden fire. It is a menacing display of power. Nobody can deny that the old crone has a certain presence.
As if to contrast that, the arrival of her opponent is an under whelming event.
The soft 'thunk' of boots meeting stone cuts through the murmuring hiss of souls, growing louder as a tall figure makes its way down the paved path into the palace. The man, for it is a man, is tall, with a short greying beard and messy grey-streaked hair. A sleeveless crimson coat flaps loosely behind him like a cloak, exposing the simple black and leather armor he wears beneath. And, across his eyes, a tattered crimson cloth has been tied. It was not so long ago that he fought in this vary arena, earning the title of Wasp.
Kenshi, the psychic ronin.
The swordsman's katana is sheathed in his left hand, weapon resting comfortably in his fingers. Nothing about him suggests worry. There is no hurry to his step. No nervous twist to his lips. Only the slowly ambled pace of a man on his way to an appointment, secure in the knowledge he will be early.
Reaching the base of the platform, Kenshi tilts his head to one side. Seeming to observe the hunched crone through his blindfold, he twitches his lips into a sad little smile.
"Earthrealm has chosen its champion." The ronin calls toward the witch. "It was not you."
Message delivered, Kenshi steps up onto the platform and wanders forward into a loose combat stance, sheathed sword held low at his left side and right hand forward, head cocked as if listening to Eadni's murmuring entourage.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Kenshi           0/-------/-------|

[EADNI]
Her opponent was here.

The underwhelming arrival was nothing to her. Eadni merely moves away the flap of her bag, and begins to rummage in it. The warrior was just that. A mere warrior. Eadni had faced swordsmen before. This one though... this one was different. The presence of him was... will be of some trouble.

But as he speaks, his all too human nature reflects.

"Choice, my child?~" Eadni responds sweetly. "Do not be so presumptuous. Men always have chosen men when it comes to deciding the fate of the Earthrealm. The earth herself does not choose those who defend its fate, but only shifts and turns and shapes and devours~" The nature of the witch was unassuming, short of the sudden flare of energy upon her eye, flicking with an invigorating force. But Kenshi could feel it, would feel it. The pulse, the shriek, the shudder.

The spirits were already moving around.

A swirl of necromatic ghosts were moving unseen around the arena, their spectral chains rising from within Eadni. Shades and shadows begin to crawl around, dragging themselves across the arena, hidden from sight. There is a shudder, and the shapes are clear. Three horsemen, four horses, galloping beyond the sight of mortals, collecting the chains, coralling the fell spirits around Eadni. A plume of energy surges around the witch, as something rises in her hand. A conduit of spiritual force, burning with background energy.

And there Eadni holds up a human skull.

It swirls and burns with emerald fire, as the jawless bones begin to flash and flare. Eadni holds it level at Kenshi, as she continues to speak. "I heard of the precious young ladies, my dear~" She coos. "What they are, what they are doing, their whispers reach even my old ears." And very naturally, very smoothly, the skull erupts into a jet of verdant fire, blasting straight for Kenshi with elemental force. Not missing a beat, Eadni calmly begins to ask the swordsman her questions.

"Do you trust them?~"

COMBATSYS: Eadni has joined the fight here.

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Eadni            0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Eadni equips a lustrous Flaming Yellow Soul Shard.

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Eadni [E]        0/-------/-======|-------\-------\0           Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi blocks Eadni's Shut Your Eyes.

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Eadni [E]        0/-------/=======|-------\-------\0           Kenshi

[KENSHI]
The straining groans of chain souls are not unheard by the swordsman, his ears attuned to a level even his fellow sightless can not reach. The clop of hooves, and wail of the damned wash over him. Yet, he does not falter. He stands, ear cocked and lips quirked in a wry little smirk.
Does he trust them? The scheming woman who so loves pulling strings. The honest but unimaginative man wrapped around her finger? The allies she has gathered? Can he trust them to be enough?
Kenshi's coat flows out behind him as he lunges forward, snapping his sheathed blade up into a firm vertical block. His left hand has drifted down to grip the hilt, right braced against the leather of the sheath.
The skull barrels face-first into the ancient weapon and explodes.
As green flames fork to either side of him, the psychic ronin takes another casual step forward, not 3 meters remaining between them. His greying brows quirk, combining with that wry little grin to create an expression that says, 'Really? We're going to have this talk?'
"You know." He replies casually, lightly accented English equally calm, "It was not so long ago I was providing wisdom to Cyrax while we fought. How strong you must feel your position, to attempt such with me."
Allowing his brows to drop, Kenshi sweeps his sword down and out to his left, right hand thrusting forward in a dismissive 'stop' gesture, fingers spread. A purple glow radiates from his palm, while simultaneously an equally vivid purple shell begins to form across Eadni's front, psychic force slamming into her chest in an attempt to send her over backward and skidding across the decorated floor of the platform.
It is only once the psychic warrior has accessed his powers that they can be felt. Two masses of souls, one noble, one sinister, warring within the weapon he carries. Two armies clashing, struggling for dominance. A riotous wealth of power just waiting to be unleashed. But for now, it is contained. For now, the swordsman stands tall, feet braced and hand extended as his coat begins to settle once more around him.

COMBATSYS: Eadni endures Kenshi's Off Balance.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Eadni [E]        1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0           Kenshi

[EADNI]
"Child, when you come to my age, all you have left is wisdom~"

As the ashes of the skull fall trickle between Eadni's fingers, the witch stares across at the proud warrior, as he cleaves her attack with the blade. A trained swordsmen. But trust them to be enough? That wasn't what Eadni was suggesting. The suggestion was far more insidious. After all, Eadni was on the side of the Earthrealm.

It's people, however, was another story.

As the psychic warrior power becomes unleashed, the hidden souls raise their hackles. Eadni herself stands fast, stands in place. She does not flee. She does not run. She holds as Kenshi erupts with a singular, overwhelming palm blast of energy. She should have been sent away. But there is a cracking sound. Kenshi would not see it. But the witch's feet were twisting their way into the stone, cracking and digging in like roots.

She does not yield.

"But I know how many times before in the past, when power was given to those who promise to save you all. You know it as well, swordsman." Already, the woman's arms distend as they lash out, the shuddering crack running through her chest and down to her legs. It was not flesh. It was not natural. The rich stench of turpentine fills the air as the lengthening limbs arch out. "I have yet to meet her though, so maybe you can answer: Is she pure? Is she a precious girl?" She would wind them around Kenshi, wind them around the swordsman's body. And there, with her feet dug into the stones, she would pivot, whipping herself backwards to slam the swordsman hard into the stone.

Without uprooting her feet from the stones.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi equips a shining Light Red Soul Shard.

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Eadni [E]        1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi blocks Eadni's Medium Throw.

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Eadni [E]        1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[KENSHI]
Far off in another place, red-eyed warriors bellow in fury, their hoarse voices rising above a low murmur of throats. A war chant, deep and ominous, begins to build, just audible to those with the ears to hear.
Kenshi says nothing.
With the slow, balanced movements of a dance, the aging warrior draws his palm back toward his chest and focuses. The air around him begins to shiver, as if a fist were attempting to pound its way through from the other side, and the purple glow rolls back from his palm to cover his arm up to the elbow. Deep in that other place, the chanting voices grow stronger, leaking through to fill the space around him.
Whatever he has done, it is enough. As Eadni's arms lash out, he tilts his empty palm to the left, then the right, causing her flailing limbs to fetch up against his manifest will. With flashes of purple light they are rebuffed before they can contact his physical body, his lips pressing into a firm line as he hardens his resolve against the pressure of her grip.
Having bought himself a moment of time, the psychic ronin turns his face toward Eadni and appears to fix her in his invisible gaze. Then, features stern, he clenches his free hand into a fist.
The faintest taint of misty purple can be seen to gather around the witch as his mind bares down upon her, telekinetic power attempting to close about her form in imitation of his fist. Then, with casual power, he attempts to haul her up off of the ground. To drag her higher and higher into the sky, either through the stretching of her legs or their destruction, until she is suspended nearly 10 meters in the air. Then, with a flattening of his hand and a sharp, downward motion, he attempts to slap her to the ground and hold her there pinned, while he steps forward to join her. He is not smiling. He does not appear to be in the mood to chat.

COMBATSYS: Eadni dodges Kenshi's Lost Way.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
Eadni [E]        1/-----==/=======|=------\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[EADNI]
Let his silence bear down on him.

Eadni's own army was falling into line, the spirits falling into their ranks, their prisons, their homes. The roots and trees and bones and blood are their shelters, their jails, their end. The shades commanding them, driving them into their places. The chains lash around, lashing towards the other army, daring to bring them into their ranks. A war of souls, a war of wars.

As the witch gets to her location.

Her feet wind deeper and deeper into the stone slab. Her limbs were driven back, blown away by the psychic pressure. And the pressure was not yielding. The power was within, the power was without. The psionic force was rattling against the witch's limbs. The purple mist engulfs around the witch. The faintest pull, to uproot her. To draw her into the sky, to send her back down. The pull comes as her legs stretch up and up, the witch caught in the force. And then, it comes in a flicker. A flash. The witch goes empty.

And shoots straight down into the stone.

The grip is broken. And the stone tournament floor cracks and shudders, as something, as Eadni bores through it. Her arrival is telegraphed by the cracks, the sounds, the groans. Rising back up on the opposite side of Kenshi, she rises up with a lanky, trembling form. The spectres were flickering into sight. The stone was moaning. And the witch was speaking. "The Outworld will not take her power lightly.~ If she is pure, then she will endure their temptations. If she is impure, well..." The witch lashes out her gnarled arms, slamming them again and again towards the swordsmen. Power pours from the witch, as she hammers at Kenshi with starling strength. All as she grows taller and taller, gradually building herself over the blind swordsmen...

Looming over him.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the glare of the vicious eye.

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Eadni [E]        1/---====/=======|=------\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the veins of the burning blood.

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Eadni [E]        1/---====/=======|===----\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi interrupts Fierce Punch from Eadni with Rising Karma.

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Eadni [E]        1/---====/=======|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[KENSHI]
For a moment, with his fist raised and witch stretched high above him, the taunting dare of her own army of souls appears as if it might go unanswered. But then, as her twisted form crunches into the stone, arena floor quaking with her violently burrowing progress, the swordsman drops his right hand to the hilt of his sword.
His army is unleashed.
A boiling mass of purple energy streams out from Sento's sheathed blade, flowing past his hand before spreading out across the trembling arena. Red and blue separates,pure drawing away from tainted, as the souls trapped within his weapon begin to take shape. The bluish souls of Kenshi's ancestors form into the shapes of men, each holding their own copy of Sento. Some wear the robes of monks, others the armor of samurai. All of them share a striking family resemblance to Kenshi, though no two are quite alike.
Forming a circle around the outer edge of the square platform, six warrior souls fall into ready stances. Between them, the crimson energy has condensed into the image of towering black forms in barbed samurai armor. Like walking shadows, each clutches an enormous scythe in both hands, eyes glowing bloody red through the holes of their helmets.
As the ancestral warriors chant a grim war chant, the black shapes between them throw back their heads and shriek their hate to the sky. They will not be daunted. They will not be stopped. Let the souls of Eadni's army tremble before them.
Whirling on the spot, Kenshi is just in time to face the witch as she bursts out of the ground, lanky form looming ever taller. His chin is tilted up toward her face, expression as hard and grim as the chant that now fills the courtyard.
He does not wait to hear her talk.
The whipping blows of limber arms snap down to hammer at him, and he lunges forward, allowing the strikes to pound into his armor and bounce away, while he sprints through them, head lowering and posture coiling into a stance made famous by samurai flicks the world over. One fist clobbers him between the shoulders. Another whips in to crack against his left upper arm, but he powers forward directly beneath the torso of the towering witch.
Then, he uncoils.
The jagged, shattered blade of Sento flashes free of its sheath faster than the eye can follow, cleaving a shimmering line up, up, and through the body of the witch. Kenshi's boots leave the ground as he leaps, the force of his strike carrying him a good six feet off of the ground. And there he hangs , katana angled up over his head in his gloved right hand, dark metal and crimson crystal glittering as droplets of the witch's foul ichor spray from the tip. Low in his left hand rests the now empty sheath. His coat flares out around him, flapping in the wind as he begins to plummet back toward earth.

[EADNI]
The swordsman's army was strong.

As Eadni reemerges, the counter-attack of Kenshi was not his alone. Blow after blow comes from the witch. But the assault does not finish as intended. The artful fighter intercepts in mid-swipe, the slice of his blade carving into the witch, cutting through her body entirely. The upper torso falls to the stone floor, as black tar pours from the wound. The legs stand fast for a moment, not falling. The upper torso lays on the ground...

And then crawls back to the legs.

"Insolent child~" She coos as she scurries up her own legs, gingerly twisting her lower torso back onto the lower half. And there, she pulls hard with both arms, as yellow energy floods around her. "You think you have enough?~" Another pulse of yellow energy floods, as the spiritual figures shunt into reality. The stone slab erupts in writhing vines and roots, rising and falling as serpents into the stone. She clutches her arm into a fist, as yellow majick floods her form, heightening her even more. Feet still deep in the stones, she winds one of her arms around herself, tightening her lower limb more and more. This was dangerous. She had to resolve this danger. With a snap, she whips her massive arm around with a ferocious backhand, attempting to knock Kenshi away.

To begin showing her true power to the swordsman.

COMBATSYS: Eadni channels the veins of the burning blood.

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Eadni [E]        1/-======/=======|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi dodges Eadni's Medium Punch.

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[KENSHI]
Kenshi's boots strike the stone with a soft crunch, the force of his landing driving him into a crouch beneath the weight of his armor. But even as he stoops he slams Sento back into its sheath, lowering the weapon once more at his side. He does not look up as the horrific witch drags herself back together. His attention is not grabbed by the sudden surge of yellow energy pulsing through her. Throughout the entirety of her looming windup, he is still, his head bowed.
Only once the vicious backhand is in motion does he react, suddenly dropping fully to one knee and bowing forward so that his chest is braced against his thigh. Above him, Eadni's hand flies past.
And then he is gone.
Where once the greying swordsman knelt, a lambent blue figure now kneels, sword resting against the stones and robes flowing around him. Lifting his cleanly shaven face, he twitches a familiar sad smile before tossing his long ponytail over his shoulder.
In the sudden silence, the witch may become aware than the chanting and yelling has stopped. The only sound not her own is the series of rapid footsteps that announce Kenshi's arrival as he charges past her from behind, sword lashing out in another running strike meant to cleave across the back of her knees from left to right. And, hit or miss, he does not stop running.
As the aging warrior hurtles past, his kneeling replacement lunges up from the ground in an attempt to drive his spiritual sword deep into Eadni's lower stomach. At the same moment, one of the black figures appears above and behind her, shadowy scythe cleaving down toward her right shoulder. Another scythe arcs in toward her lower back, while a rising sword strike from a second blue warrior comes in from her left.
The army, it seems, has teeth.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the beat of the tireless heart.

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi blitzes into action and acts again!

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Eadni channels the spread of the lightning nerves.

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Eadni dodges Kenshi's Blind Swordsman.

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=====--\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi successfully hits Eadni with Blind Fury.
- Power hit! -

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[EADNI]
She has reached her peak.

But was it too late?

As Eadni reaches her full height, the backhand is unleashed to no contact. For a moment, Kenshi is gone. The witch looms, face nothing more a stump. Her lean, trunklike body was weaving and winding, its bark-like skin slick with tar. The long limbs snap like snakes. Where was he. Where was he. All there was the blue warrior, all there was-

The chanting stopped.

The entire body of the witch twists as the swordsman erupts out of nowhere, blitzing from the flanks. A flash of yellow overcomes the witch, as the shrieks of death rattle across the arena. The witch pulls the whole of her body as Kenshi comes slicing through the air. It connects nowhere. A ruse. A feint. So much was-

And then the rising sword strike arrives.

Eadni is leaning hard into the upwards strike when it comes. The witch takes the pain wordlessly, as the deep, rending gash is torn on her body longways. First bisected one way, and now bisected another. The deep, ripping slashes tear richer and richer, heavier and heavier, with escalating violence beyond violence. Eadni lolls hard to the side, daring to collapse. Her body splits.

And then comes the howl.

A cacophony of souls erupt as the bones manifest overhead. The souls are forced into reality, the sky becomes alight with emerald skulls. The witch, body forcing itself together with it's turpentine blood, lifts her arms in the air. And there, her conjurations take place. The heavens open up, and down comes the burning skulls. Blasting down, down into the bones and bodies and pieces of glass. Burning skulls to carpet the whole of the army, the platform, the stone, the arena.

And the swordsman too, with the barrage of burning bones.

COMBATSYS: Eadni channels the strength of the killing fist.

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Eadni [E]        2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Eadni successfully hits Kenshi with Down Came The Rain.

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Eadni [E]        1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\==-----\1       [E] Kenshi

[KENSHI]
Once more the swordsman's boots scrape across stone as he slides to a halt, sword flashing back into its sheath while the spirits hack into Eadni a short ways behind him. His chest rises and falls with soft pants. he wont' be able to keep this up indefinitely.
Perhaps it is fortunate then that the witch has decided to bring the fight to a head.
Kenshi's crimson coat flaps as he whirls about to face her, jaw clenching at the massive release of power. He may not be able to see her standing there, body healing and arms raised to the heavens, but he can certainly feel the danger descending from above. His right hand falls once more to his sword, gripping Sento's hilt just a moment before the first skull ploughs into his position.
But the swordsman has vanished.
All around the arena, skulls rain to earth like ghoulish meteors. The entire courtyard bucks and trembles beneath the onslaught, several monks being crushed where they stand. It is deafening. Horrifying. And when the smoke finally clears, it is revealed to have been effective.
Off to Eadni's left, at the far northern edge of their crumbling platform, Kenshi kneels with his left hand braced against the ground and his right extended toward her. There is a smoldering rent across the chest of his armor, and greenish flames still burn along the tattered remains of his mostly destroyed coat. His blindfold has been lost somewhere, and now his eyes are revealed, glowing milky white in the dim flames of the scorched arena.
Chest still heaving with breaths, he bares his teeth in something that is not a smile, as Sento comes flying in from behind the witch, the shattered blade guided by his uplifted hand on its plunging path toward the center of her back.
All around the fighting pair, the dimly illuminated forms of Kenshi's spirits watch on, weapons held in ready positions as they stand amidst ghostly fire.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the beat of the tireless heart.

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Eadni [E]        1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\==-----\1       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi successfully hits Eadni with Farsighted.

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Eadni [E]        1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\====---\1       [E] Kenshi

[EADNI]
Magic was coming too late.

As the witch unleashes the barrage of fire, the hellstorm of death and flame, Eadni was swaying. She had come online too slowly. And now, while she was at her peak, the reality was that she was being buried. If she had any artifacts, maybe. But as the swordsman remains defiant against her magic, the witch twists her head at the man. "Do you believe you could stop her, child, if she joins the Outworld in the promise to save her people?~"

And he moves for the slice.

The cut comes deep, ripping with incredible depth into the witch's torn form. The hag splits again, the splinters of Eadni trembling to the very foundations. Cut after cut, cleave after cleave, the witch was being torn to flinders by the mystic blade of the ronin. This last cut fells her, as the necromantic chains crack. It was in the air. Death. The witch was approcaching her limits. She lowers down, clawing at her own body, forcing it to stay together.

And she shudders, as she drags herself back at Kenshi.

The witch practically pools herself back into a cauldron, formed of hewn wood rising from the stones. The pot fills with her ichor, her tarry slime, as she struggles to keep herself together. She doesn't even guide the pot, as the vessel and the witch flies through the air, attempting to slam into the swordsman. She would not bowl over him; the pot would shatter on impact, whether with Kenshi or with the stone slab of the arena, spilling the tarry blood over the arena floor. The mangled, frayed pieces of the witch would splay out on the ground. Dragging itself together. Eadni would not die.

Not without a Coup De Grace.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the glare of the vicious eye.

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Eadni [E]        1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the glare of the vicious eye.

[                       \\\\\\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Eadni [E]        1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi channels the glare of the vicious eye.

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Eadni [E]        1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1       [E] Kenshi

COMBATSYS: Kenshi interrupts All Through The Night from Eadni with Scatterbrained.

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Eadni [E]        1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0       [E] Kenshi

[KENSHI]
Sento's shattered blade impacts Eadni's back with a sickening thud, its point erupting from her chest as it is driven all the way through by the might of his mind. Only once the weapon's guard thumps her back does it stop moving, lodged there as her mortal binds are cut.
While the witch is falling, crawling forward amid dancing sparks and the sound of Sento's blade grinding across the stone, Kenshi is slowly clambering to his feet. The psychic ronin's blank eyes stare sightlessly forward through the smoke and debris, glowing with a gentle reminder of the power he commands. With calm, grim motions, he tugs off what remains of his smoldering coat and casts it to the ground in a smoking pile.
"My path has been chosen, witch." the blind man replies, his usually relaxed voice low and intent. Where once his lips might have quirked with wry amusement, his humor coming forward to take the bite from bitter speech, there is only a bleak harshness in his baring. This is not the man who took the time to aid Athena. This is not the man who healed Zach Glenn. The figure that stands upon the ruined arena grounds, armor rent and smoking, is the bitter warrior who was blinded by a sorcerer. The warrior that has trained his entire life to kill the one who wounded him, patiently waiting. Tamping down his urges. Learning how to be a better man.
perhaps all that was just pretend.
As Eadni drops into her sloshing cauldron with a slick plop, Kenshi turns his glowing eyes on her. Lips pressed in a hard line, he focuses, grimly determined. And, one by one, the spirits he commands throughout the battlefield begin to disperse.Blue and crimson power flows like glowing vapor toward, then through the walls of the cauldron that now rockets through the air toward him.
Lifting his gloved hands, he slaps both against the face of the container, halting it a mere 2 feet from his chest.
"I have vows to keep. First, you will die. Then, I lay my faith in my allies. It is not the Crimson Dahlia that I have come to trust. She will play her part, but you will not be there to witness it." The words are stiff and oddly formal, but spoken with conviction while the cauldron hovers before him.
The floating pot explodes as if struck by an invisible hammer, its sloshing internals flung away from the psychic sage in a viscous wave. Bits of wood and slime arc away to thud against the palace walls, leaving only Eadni hanging before him, Sento glowing like a miniature sun where it is anchored through her chest.
Bringing his glowing hands together, Kenshi increases the pressure on Eadni's form until her bones begin to bend. Then, with an abrupt and vicious motion, he whips his left hand away. Mirroring the movement, the witch's body is hurled through the air to smash into the half-erect ruins of one of the arena's stone columns. Stone dust explodes in all directions with the impact, and is soon scattered as Kenshi whips the helpless witch away and up, then twists her through the air and drives her face-first into the ground once, twice, three times, brutally beating her to death against the earth.
Only after the third slam does he stroll forward and plant his foot on her shoulder, reaching down to grip Sento's hilt and withdraw it from her body. Then, with ruthless efficiency, he focuses his blind eyes on her black heart, and drives the weapon into her one final time.

[EADNI]
Explosion.

The crash comes prematurely. Her vessel spills, and Eadni is exposed. And there, she was... a toy in the hands of the warrior. There were no bones to bend, only wood to splinter, to crack aloud as she is broken piece by piece. The witch is hurled into the ruin, leaving a blackened smear in the pillar. ANd again. And again. Each blow comes a shallower and shallower pool of black blood. And finally, as she is left on the ground, her towering form was nothing more than a heap of shattered wood and black tar. The foot comes down, shattering what was once the vague shape of a shoulder. Admist the remains was a stump; a head. The blade comes down. And a gasp comes.

A sigh.

"Then, my child, you deserve a gift." A squirt of black blood erupts upwards as the blade drives deep into her black heart. The chains around her were fading. But upon the stump, a singular yellow eye burns. A final trick from the witch? The withering gaze latches on Kenshi, and the presence pours out. There was movement in the midsts of the remains. A twitch. A quiver. And finally, the words come up.

"A mother's blessing~"

And the souls pour out.

The whirlwind of yellow light can best described as wet. The haze floods over. He could control them; the urge to control them was instinctive. But the mother's blessing comes with its chains: the chains surround him. Not to entangle him, not to bind him. But to give him control, he only needed to take command to take control. The flood of souls, to fill and empower the swordsmen. The remains of the stump of a head collapses in itself, the life energy winked out. All that remained of the foul flesh of the witch was now nothing more than a bubbling heap of black tar, inert. Dead. A blessing.

A mother's blessing.

COMBATSYS: Eadni takes no action.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Kenshi [E]       0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Eadni can no longer fight.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Kenshi [E]       0/-------/-------|

[KENSHI]
Black sap drips from Sento's tip as the weapon is withdrawn from Eadni's chest, bringing with it a wealth of new souls that wash humidly around him. There is no shutter or revulsion. No sense of disgust. Souls are well within the swordsman's realm of expertise. For decades they have guided him.
Reaching out with his will, the psychic sage takes hold of the chains and rends them, shattering the links. No grace in victory will be shown. No respect for the fallen will be granted.
"I do not want your blessing. I want only your death." Kenshi replies simply, though as the chains fall away from the gift he takes hold of the energy and channels it down, away from his body and into his sword. Into the crystalline wounds that deform it. The crimson material shines ever brighter, burning in the aging man's hand as he trudges through the woody remains of his opponent and steps firmly down onto the path leading back to the palace.
he does not look for his sheath. He will not need it. Everything that must be done will be done tonight. His milky eyes glow with purpose as he sets off toward the palace, and the end he has chosen.

COMBATSYS: Kenshi takes no action.

[                   \\\\\\\\\\\  <
Kenshi [E]       0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Kenshi has ended the fight here.

Log created on 21:49:43 01/10/2017 by Eadni, and last modified on 17:29:34 01/19/2017.