Match of the Millennium

Description: Up in the snowy Germanic mountains, a ghost comes across a demon. Their battle triggers an event.

[AKUMA]
The mists curl below.

Hands settled at his knees, the man in the torn gi remains close to the earth, sitting atop a mountain in the Zugspitze mountain range along the border of Austria and Germany. The summit he's chosen is not the highest in the range, but one of the more dangerous crags, a more recent frost heave created almost entirely from ice. To reach the location, one has to scale a sheet of frost hundreds of feet in sheer vertical. To date, he has not received any adventurous tourists.

Perched on the prominence of the ice sheet, the sage overlooks the country with closed eyes, his sharp teeth exposed in an unconventional expression. Most of those who meditate reach a state of calm. A state of peace.

When he meditates, the sky twists up over him, churning with ill intent. There is no peace where his mind goes. His is a vast iron chain, holding down the mountain with pure murderous intent. Reaching oneness for those who toil at the forge is a different path from those who espouse peace.

[SCORPION]
The man had been here once before, and the ghost still remembered. Whereas before the journey had been long and exhausting, now he scaled terrain like this without any difficulty. When he'd been here last many years ago, it had been to end a man's life, but now? Now he was looking for something different.

When he finally reaches his destination, the black and yellowclad ninja made no sound, and left no trail behind him, stepping on the ice as easily as he were stepping on stone. And yet, as he saw the form in front of him, his milky-white eyes narrowed, his thick black eyebrows furrowing as he spoke out from behind that yellow facemask of his. His voice was something distant, as if it came from somewhere a lot further away than inside his own body.

"These mountains are treacherous, there are not many who would brave this journey."

He finally stopped walking when he was a good couple of yards away from the figure he stood behind...giving them the inherent respect that distance communicated, but even still the ninja stood ready. Even though he did not know the name 'Akuma', he could look at the figure in front of him and know instantly that this was a creature of violence. And that was something Scorpion understood all too well.

[AKUMA]
One eye cracks, revealing a fierce, pupilless red eye.

Those teeth like daggers grit in barest restraint as the violent sage notices the disruption in his meditations. It takes an admirable skill to get close to him without his notice... but the glory is a dubious one, given the beast's response to the interruption.

"I did not come here for chatter."

There is a seething, violent pitch to everything he says, the heave of words spat upon the ground with the same derision as blood. Akuma stands, pressing weight into his hands and into his knees until the straw of his waraji cuts into the frost. A crown of hair red like flames shakes free a thick sheen of accumulated frost with the motion. His back still faces the shinobi spectre, the rough fabric of his gi showing wear, the lines and vague scorching showing the Japanese script for 'heaven.' It may be time for a new gi.

"I am here to find the souls of those who spit at fate... those who throw their lives away against a true killing force...!!"

His hands ball into fists, the rough hemp wrapped around them creaking audibly even above the howling blades of wind, the frigid cut enough to slay a man in and of itself. "You are from somewhere beyond the veil..." Akuma notices, even before he turns.

"If you cannot fight, then get out of my sight!!"

COMBATSYS: Scorpion has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Scorpion         0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Akuma has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Akuma            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0         Scorpion

[SCORPION]
Here in the freezing cold, with bone-chilling winds whipping around them both, the spectre in the black hood and yellow mask should have been shivering, given his lack of sleeves. But there was an eerie calm to the man even as he tilted his head to regard and study the opponent in front of him. The ninja was taller, heavier, but both of these men lived in a world where technique transcended physicality. Still, it seemed that whatever Scorpion saw in the man standing across from him, it wasn't enough to get him to reconsider. A challenge was thrown down, and the ghost had to accept it.

"You are perceptive for a fool. To Hell with Heaven...and to Hell with YOU!"

As he spoke, all around them the air which was once cold enough to freeze a man to death in minutes, now started to heat up, especially the air directly between the two men which started to almost boil. Scorpion's own right fist was clenched, as flames began to crackle out from between his fingers. Suddenly, with many yards between them, the ninja pivoted and spun in place. Going for a kick?

By the time the sole of is tabi-boot was aimed to connect with Akuma's stomach, Scorpion had somehow, impossibly closed that ground between them. A trick of the light? Did he somehow run that fast, or use some ninja trickery? Or did his journey from beyond the veil leave him with some otherworldly ability?

COMBATSYS: Scorpion successfully hits Akuma with Back Kick.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Akuma            0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0         Scorpion

[AKUMA]
This is something the demon sage forces all those who stand before him to understand.
No one may speak to him without being strong.

As Scorpion brings heat into the air with livid fury, the otherworldly cant of his words making his true body difficult to place, Akuma is content momentarily to stare at him, the only disposition of the inhuman fighter being to respond with action. As Scorpion scorns him, the master of the fist slowly settles into a slow kata, tracing through the motions of assuming a killing stance.

"Hell is the axe I will use to split your skull over the ice..."

Pure derision cuts into the master's face as the vengeant spectre cuts through the space between them, with no physical movement to match to the motion. His inhuman eyes are already focused on Scorpion. A kick fired off into his stomach spears into Akuma, the spectre's force and velocity driving him back a single, brutal step.

One hand opens, fingers folding to expose the palm.

He responds almost immediately. The strike that Akuma unleashes in that moment is like a battleship cannon. Stepping around to close the distance, Akuma locks his shoulder, muscle twisting as he fires the flat of his palm straight up, into the underside of Scorpion's mask. The fierce short is enough, left uncontested, to knock a bull into the air.

COMBATSYS: Akuma knocks away Scorpion with Tenha.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Akuma            0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0         Scorpion

[SCORPION]
It was effortless for Scorpion to spin back into place, landing on his feet with a bounce, ready for anything. Or so he thought.

The red-haired, red-eyed demon stepped in past the ninja's guard, and before he had any chance to react, the palm smashing Scorpion against that masked face of his, and sending him flying up into the air. The sheer power and velocity of the attack left him dazed with his eyes unfocused, his fingers twitching even as he struggled to regain consciousness right there in the air. It appeared that he now understood a fraction of the kind of fury Akuma could bring. But though he had Heaven across his back, Akuma was not the only one with Hell in his fists!

Instantly as Scorpion was in the air, suddenly he tucked into a ball and flipped UP even HIGHER, his right hand instantly throwing downward as he cried out loudly.

"GET UP HERE!"

His voice was bold with a fury and intensity behind it, even as downward traveled a kunai, with coils of brown rope behind it. Should this kunai plunge into its chosen victim, Akuma would be pulled UP with a great strength even as Scorpion descended.

Meanwhile, somewhere off in the distance, 'GET UP HERE' echoed back and forth across the snow-peaked mountaintops.

COMBATSYS: Scorpion successfully hits Akuma with Spear.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Akuma            0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0         Scorpion

[AKUMA]
He follows the first rolling step with a second.

Akuma braces, his hand closing after smashing the iron wall across the spectre's jaw. He can tell that something isn't quite right with the ghost, his eyes seeing much more than any human's at this point. There was an incorporeality to the thing, where bones did not break the same and the flesh did not split in the same way as a normal human's might. Beyond the art of the thing, and the fury of battle, there is mist in the creature's composition.

Akuma does not care.

The kunai slams down into his neck at the collar, the blade piercing deep and drawing blood. The blow would have been fatal, especially as he is pulled bodily off of his feet. But muscles lock tightly around the blade, staunching the flow and the only thing Scorpion can hear is the iron growl of the master of the fist resounding down the tension of the rope as Akuma lays hold of the line with a hand. Thrown into the air by the tractor pull of that blade, Akuma rounds end over end, his body less tucking into a compact ball and more into a full series of forward flips, his entire body a thrown axe. End over end, faster and faster, long spirals of line curtaining from his move as his speed begins to breach the original speed imparted by the spectre.

One fierce blow with the blade of his hand, directed down the centerline of that spectre's body. Behind it, a bullet train of momentum, trying to overtake Scorpion's own, and focused all into one blade of killing force.

COMBATSYS: Akuma successfully hits Scorpion with Hyakki Shuu.

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

[SCORPION]
This encounter was always going to be a difficult one. Scorpion knew that a warrior like the one he fought now was not going to be offput by the surprise technique, but to see the red-eyed demon flipping toward him and using that momentum to his advantage, it was quite a sight to say the least. That hand chopped into the muscular chest of the ninja, the smaller man's momentum and incredible power more than enough to send the ghost hurtling into the air, once again his body going limp as his heart threatened to stop from the sheer shock of impact, and from Akuma's killing intent.

But Akuma might notice that he was suddenly hurtling through ash, that the man he was attacking was instead a man-shape that was dissipating in the wind as all color drained from his form. In the midst of this, the red-eyed man might notice the ninja instead a few feet away from him, hurtling forward with a karate-trained straight punch, aimed right for the bridge of Akuma's nose and with enough snap to hopefully, send him the other direction.

This is because Scorpion would soon be coming from THAT direction as well, his fist all the way up to his elbow covered in broiling Hellfire, and aimed to punch him right back down to earth, with the ninja falling soon behind! If things went well, the ninja would land with a soft 'thud' even as the ice and packed snow showed a small thin hairline of damage from the hard impact. Would his opponent faire much better?

COMBATSYS: Akuma blocks Scorpion's Damnation EX.

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Akuma            0/-------/---====|======-\-------\0         Scorpion

[AKUMA]
Akuma moved quickly, flowing seamlessly from one blow to another. As Scorpion falls limp from his cutting blow, Akuma's eyes narrow, killing force cutting through the air behind him in a red contrail as he surges forward, his arm flexing as he draws his hand wide again, trying to continue on with a second stroke to fully cleave Scorpion in half.

At their level, swords are not needed.

But when Akuma slices through Scorpion again in the catastrophic midair exchange, he cuts the spectre into nothing but ash, embers glowing as they spray from the locus of his hurtling stroke. Knees curled and arm extended high in mid-chop, it takes Akuma only a moment to understand what has transpired, the suffocating force of that shinobi flying into him with a spearblow of a punch, thudding brutally against his flesh, the muscle of his arm bunching against the impact. It is like striking at a tree.

Hitting him from multiple vectors proves harder than expected. The sky burns with the cascading ash and flame of Scorpion's attack, Akuma's momentum being thrown left and right. But the hellfire wreathing that assassin's strike slams against Akuma's other arm, the master of the fist transitioning from one angle to the next with brutal speed, a slow haze of suffocating red building around the demon. An admirable power. But his patience flags.

"Foolishness... succumb to the uselessness of life!!"
And then, Akuma releases one iota of the Satsui no Hadou.

Ash is cut through by a wave of black and red. Hellfire and haze are forced away from the demon-made-man by the weight of his killing intent. The air is filled with it, the weight settling on men like a hammer laid on the chest. The ice cracks, and the sky churns. And Akuma falls through the air, energy crawling from every line of him, his body impacting the rime-tongued ground at three points, both feet and his fist hitting the frost earth as a trio of iron swords.

COMBATSYS: Akuma enters the iron horse stance, marshalling power...!!

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
Akuma            2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0         Scorpion

[SCORPION]
"Foolishness... succumb to the uselessness of life!!"

There had been a rumbling in the mountains, a slow churning consequence of Scorpion's earlier war cry. Akuma's power added to it and now that rumbling was deeper, an ominous sign of things to come. With the sky and the boiling humidity, it was yet another omen that this fight was going to have consequences.

Right now, the only thing that Scorpion could see was his opponent, the only thing Scorpion could hear, was his voice. The heat and humidity worsened and turned sweltering as Scorpion stepped forward, flames emanating from his very being, the snow and ice they walked on started to soften ever so gradually.

"You DARE speak of my life, oni?! Everything that was taken from me, I'll take from your hide!"

No ninja or spectre tricks here, instead Scorpion ran in, leaping up and coming down with a snapping kick to the side of Akuma's leg, before following it up with a flurry of rights and lefts, punches and kicks and elbows and knees. The wild, reckless kombination would continue until suddenly Scorpion was grabbing at Akuma's gi, using more of his physical strength and less of his martial ability to try and pick the fighter up...and hurl him away towards the edge of that melting cliffside. "HRAAAAAGH!" He screamed out to the growing sound of rumbling as bits of snow began to come down. This was a bad sign.

COMBATSYS: Akuma interrupts Brutality from Scorpion with Shouten Shoryuu.
- Power hit! -
*KNOCKED AWAY*

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Akuma            1/-<<<<<</<<<<<<<|>>>>>>>\>>>----\1         Scorpion

[AKUMA]
The next few moments pass as if caught in an eternity.

Akuma rises in slow relief against Scorpion. Unmitigated ferocity and anger welled behind the spectre, as he surged into Akuma's range. The demon's hands rise. What follows is a chain of exchange those percussion is felt throughout the valleys beneath the mountain. Akuma's leg rotates as it's kicked in by Scorpion's disabling attack, the demon's stance disrupted by the martial brutality of the rush.

But still, Akuma fights.

Scorpion slams his fists into him one after another, Akuma's face snapping to one side and the next in the momentum loss by the attack, his blood spraying across the mirrored frost ground. The atomic crack echoes throughout the mountainside, and he responds in kind. There is no guard between them, and the only blocking between them merely incidental from the crossing of cataclysmic blows. Wrists smash together and knees clash like sword against shield. The mountain is reduced to a warzone, as bodies crush against one another. The fist in this display is nothing but a brick used to pound flesh into meat.

Perfect.
"....use that strength," he seethes.

The entire mountainside upheaves as Akuma fires off a sledgehammer uppercut, his entire body leaning into the motion. He means to cut Scorpion clear into the air with one rising uppercut, the murderous Shoryuu of his style culminated to an eerie perfection. Where the revenant surged with hellfire, the dark force that churns around Akuma is something else entirely. In comparison to Scorpion's powers, it is cold, it is spite, it is wanton destruction itself.

"All of that hate.....!!! Embrace purity, reach down deep inside, and realize that nothing else matters!!"
That force gathers in his fist, a dark corona.
"ONLY THEN CAN YOU STAND BEFORE THE MASTER OF THE FIST!!!"

Blood draining from his neck wound, the red-eyed demon moves faster than a man should be able to, faster than most men have ever seen. He swings around with his other fist. The avalanche of his blow axes from above, a hammer thrown from heaven. He means to catch Scorpion on his unrelenting fist and drive him into the mountain, in a harsh crack and an explosion of force that sends snow spraying for miles into the valleys below.

[SCORPION]
His rage got the better of him, enacting violence when he should have been utilizing his training, his technique. When Scorpion went to lift the demon above his head, that left him completely open for the rocket of an uppercut to smash the soft underside of his chin, instantly launching the bigger fighter up into the sky while the practicioner of Assassin's Fist followed.

Scorpion's body was limp and unresisting as Akuma brought down that second hit, that fist plummeting down and smashing into his sternum like the hammer of the gods. The ninja was in rough condition, blood trickling from the side of his face, his body bruised and battered, and it certainly didn't help when their combined weight, speed and mass meant that they were breaking through the ice and snow entirely and going straight into the stone mountainside itself. Rock and debri flew up into the sky even as a rumbling, rolling white sheet of death was starting to pour down tallest point of those ranges. Both of these men were powerful, but leaving would be a wise option even for them.

Unfortunately for Akuma, he might not get that chance. If he were standing over the broken and beaten Scorpion, he might notice the ninja's mask and hood both pulled down...and a human skull looking up at him, jaw open. That was before the two black eyesockets lit as if there were fuses inside, and soon the entire head was caught in a brilliant orangeish yellow head of pure fire burning hotter than any star in the cosmos. And from that open mouth came a column of flame and misery and destruction, aiming at the demon who stood right above him!

"TO HELL WITH YOU!", was the bellowing cry.

COMBATSYS: Scorpion can no longer fight.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Akuma            1/-<<<<<</<<<<<<<|

COMBATSYS: Akuma instinctively blocks Scorpion's Toasty!.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  <
Akuma            1/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|

[AKUMA]
Ice and snow are beginning to slide past them, in great and grand sheets. But wisdom for men who embrace the calamity of the fist carries a different meaning. Especially not here, at the very precipice of that calamity, where lifeblood pools on the ground. Akuma, much like his opponent, is not unfamiliar with the sensation of a man broken beneath his fist. But when he stands over Scorpion, he finds not a defeated man, but a creature vengeant.

Even a demon must raise his brow when a man pulls down his hood to reveal nothing but a skull cut from equal parts bone and fire.

The flames cut across Akuma as he outstretches both clawed hands into the tide, channelling force of his own against it. The blast consumes him, a belching inferno that quickly overtakes him, spilling across his arms, churning red force pealing from it. Akuma's eyes narrow, as the hellborne conflagration envelops his dark visage, teeth gnarled and fettered against the pain.

"A creature of great hatred. Worthy of my recognition..."

The flames of misery burn against the mountainside, and for a moment, it may seem to be the story of a man who seized violence by the neck and wrung. But as the howling flames twist and cast embers into the air, a pair of red eyes open from within. A dark silhouette warps and shifts as the coruscating fire turns and bends it, a flame whose edges burn blacker, purer than usual. Those red eyes look at Scorpion, even as flames hotter than the sun burn through the mountainside.

"Hell should be what your enemies beg for when faced by your fists," the demon hisses, from somewhere deep within the field of hellfire. "You are a creature shackled to your life by meaningless things. If you wish to find the true strength of destruction, go to that tournament and cast your desire, your chains and your defiance aside. Let the reasonlessness and chaos of real destruction seep into your soul."

The flames twist and turn, leaving nothing left of the demon sage.
"Then, and only then will I use the true mastery of my killing fist on you.."

COMBATSYS: Akuma has ended the fight here.


[SCORPION]
Soon, the avalanche came down and swept across this battlefield with the fury of nature disturbed. The demon gone, the ghost swept away, it seemed this encounter was only the start of something larger.

Log created on 23:08:55 01/09/2018 by Scorpion, and last modified on 05:46:31 01/10/2018.