Match of the Millennium

Description: A cold, English night, the ice queen Kolin, and the Lord of Makai, Demitri. What happens when a vampire meets a woman so totally devoted to a cause she doesn't have room for anything else?

[KOLIN]
After helping orchestrate and facilitate the chaos that was the Gear war--all, for her end, to sink the Illuminati's grip even deeper into the world--she has a new assignment, to investigate previously dormant figures who may pose a threat to the Illuminati. Men who cannot be bought, whose ideals would clash with those of Lord Gill. To that end, entry into the 'World Warrior' tournament was procured... and in order to investigate, she'll have to actually participate.

This isn't really her thing, though it isn't distasteful as such. Ostensibly, it's all about bettering oneself, providing motivation for those who need it to find their path to self-improvement... it isn't a war in the same sense as what just happened... which was distasteful... but necessary. Her distaste for the trappings of war is overridden by her loyalty to Lord Gill. But in any case...

Kolin is... not unfamiliar with the way these things work--these... tracking devices. Still, to come out here--to Stonehenge--almost on a whim... she isn't sure what she's going to find. Rumors, perhaps... still, there is a stark sort of beauty to the place, as she stands near the monument, observing it with those cool, ice-chip eyes of hers.

[DEMITRI]
The moon hanging over stongehedge is at once obscured by the black fluttering shape of a bat as it swoops down from the sky--landing in the very middle of the stones and elongating with a gout of blue flame into what looks like a hulking man--easily six-feet tall and with a hulking build, draped in a long black cloak and a royal blue suit. It had been so long--Demitri was not entirely sure just how long he'd been asleep, but the rousing from one of his bat spirit familiars of the news of World Warrior had been what it took to finally make him escape his own castle. It was very much like a person who has just awoken and is off-balance or disoriented, awkward. Though he seems to move with coherency, his eyes glow like embers in the dark as he turns toward Kolin, sweeping his cape back with a gesture of his right arm.

"Szia," he makes a formal bow of his head and torso at the waist, before looking up at her again. After a bit of silence. "Bonsoir? Ciao? Guten Abend?"

"Good evening," he tries again, apparently trying first in Hungarian, then French, Italian, German and finally English.

[KOLIN]
Kolin evinces no surprise as the bat swoops down and.. turns into a man. But that's her persona--calm and collected, with only the slightest hints of the fire that burns beneath. She offers the dark, handsome man--so obviously MORE than just a man, really--an amused smile. She recognized all of them--but English will do. A quick, almost imperceptible glance at her tracking device, and she looks up.

"You must be Demitri. It's so nice to meet you," she says, casually, as she straightens her posture, smoothly, casually, moving away from where she was--angling the path between her and him to be framed by the monument, cutting straight through the center of the ring. "It seems these devices are quite accurate..." She runs her left hand through her hair, then favors Demitri with another smile.

"I suppose I needn't tell you why I'm here. Surely you understand." The glimmer of chill sparkles on her gloved hands, as she slides her right foot back, beginning to assume a fighting pose, as the boxing arts call it, hands curled but open.

[DEMITRI]
"I am expected? Thank you," Demitri has already bowed, but he still takes the side of his cape with his arm and draws it about himself with another tilt of his head toward her.

"It's been... too long, since I have been awake, there are already many strange things..." his voice is vaguely Romanian accented, though it seems he can suppress it if needed.

"Well, you are to be my opponent, then?" he lets his cape go and cracks his knuckles, which echo audibly among the standing stones. He seems to be girding himself as well, settling his weight back on the heels of his boots.

"The night is waning, let's not waste it," and with that, he gestures quickly with both hands--bringing them together with a flutter of his cape behind him--a screeching bat encased in a fireball surging out to meet Kolin!

COMBATSYS: Demitri has started a fight here on the right meter side.

                                  >  //////////////////////////////]
                                  |=------\-------\0          Demitri

COMBATSYS: Kolin has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Kolin            0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0          Demitri

COMBATSYS: Kolin blocks Demitri's Chaos Flare.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////// ]
Kolin            0/-------/-----==|=------\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
The first move is Demitri's; Kolin measures speed, distance, and a whole host of other factors, calculating quickly, subconsciously; hers is not a mystical style of fighting, but a practical one, and everything says that it's moving a little too fast to avoid. So she raises her arms, a glimmer of that icy chi flaring up, and that bat-fireball bursts across them, lighting her up briefly, forcing her backwards a step. She lowers her arms, revealing her face once more...

Then lunges forward, despite that distance, pushing off with strong legs into a dash, hands cocked into stiffened spears. As she closes, she begins jabbing out with those hands, icy energy flaring around them as she begins the attack pattern, a spray of strikes intended to test Demitri's defenses and reactions--ending with a double spearhand thrust, high and low.

Starting fast, but testing Demitri is important--there are times to be passive and times to be active, and she can't let him control the pace.

COMBATSYS: Demitri endures Kolin's Parabellum.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
Kolin            0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0          Demitri

[DEMITRI]
"I sensed a strong heart and power within you--so you'll excuse me for not going light--nghh!" the full-figured lady lands her darting blows to his chest and shoulders--white ivory teeth with pronounced canines visible as he cringes in pain. She was alot faster perhaps than he thought, or he was slower than he expected. Either way--he is wracked by the blows--finding himself pushed back toward the center of the standing stones. He manages to weather the storm of blows and takes his time to setup his next strike--lashing out with a large muscled arm and fist, letting it sail directly for her temple in a deadly haymaker. He was bringing it down on her like a goddamn sledgehammer!

COMBATSYS: Kolin counters Strong Punch from Demitri with Frost Reverse EX.

[    \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////       ]
Kolin            0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
Demitri withstands the icy thrusts of her attack; she expected that. She wasn't expecting him to weather them so well, to bring his hand down to attack her quite so fast. She has to react quickly; fortunately, as with most martial artists, the plan is put into place, and executed, even before she's fully considered it. It's as if the suggestion that she needs him to 'hold back' is insulting to her, the way she reacts.

That hammering fist is trapped in a clever hold, Kolin partly absorbing, and partly redirecting, the momentum it contains, shifting it, with an iron grip on Demitri's arm, to whirl him around her in a full one-eighty, the grip on his arm intended to make the joint grind and twist painfully, before releasing him and bringing her stiffened right hand down across his back in a knifehand slash.

"Please," she says, almost disdainfully, as she takes another step back, "don't hold back on my account..." She does, after all, need to be able to report on Demitri's strengths and weaknesses as much as possible. A full accounting is only possible if he -doesn't- hold back...

[DEMITRI]
"Oof--I don't intend to," Demitri winces at the sickening crack of bone and he pulls his arm away, his cape flaring as he pulls back from her. The torn ligaments and fractured bone beneath the royal blue suit is already knitting itself back up, though he does have visible trouble moving it as he recovers from the manuever. The vampire was more somehow connected with the chi energy that ran through other things, it seemed--than some sort of truly dead revived husk.

Rallying some more energy and speed, he springs into the air--the cape furling about him as if it encases him--until he begins to spin, crashing down toward the earth with his feet and cape wreathed around him into the shape of a stiletto, or drill, reddish dark chi surging over him like electricity!

COMBATSYS: Demitri successfully hits Kolin with Entropic Chaos Cradle.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Kolin            1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
Now this is truly an unusual attack. Kolin doesn't like the look of it--and she understands exactly why a moment later, as she is caught up for just a moment too long trying to understand what's happening. She looks to backstep away from it, but finds herself caught, having underestimated the speed at which the vamprie was moving; the drill-like attack slams into her and hurls her down to the ground.

She bounces back up readily enough, however, turning the momentum into a push off the ground to gain a little more space, bouncing herself up and over in a backflip. Perhaps a little flashier than her trainers in the art of Systema would have done, but... needs must.

Demitri was concerned about the chi she wields? Well--he'll have another look at it, as she gathers power into one hand, then flings that hand up with an almost balletic twirl; a small, glittering thing flies into the air, then, above them, expands into a chunk of what looks like ice.

But it definitely isn't -ice-, Demitri can tell that, as it falls with unnatural speed and straightness of trajectory, plummeting down for his head and shoulders.

COMBATSYS: Demitri blocks Kolin's Hailstorm.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Kolin            1/------=/=======|=======\-------\1          Demitri

[DEMITRI]
"You didn't think you were fighting a human, did you?" Demitri calls to her as he unfurls his cape again and lands, turning to meet her. His tone is not really questioning one, though he seems to be trying to account for what just happened. His rather unearthly attack had tackled her to the ground.

"Very agile--and very beautiful," he grins broadly, the rows of ivory teeth seeming to increase in size now as his eyes glow white. The rain of ice-like shards rain down on him and he pulls his cape up and around him like a shield--inches back as each one impacted against the cape--which he seemed to be able to control every inch of, morphing and contorting it around him like a limb.

As he pulls it away once it is over, Demitri advances toward Kolin, the chi not radiating off him as strongly as before now, bringing his right fist up again for a quick but hearty right cross to her shoulder.

COMBATSYS: Kolin counters Medium Punch from Demitri with Frost Touch.

[           \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Kolin            0/-------/-----==|=======\====---\1          Demitri

[KOLIN]
"No, I did not," replies the Russian agent, blandly. No human would have shown up by turning from a bat into a man, after all. The other things... well, they're within the realm of believability for a human, which, presumably, Demitri once was, but isn't any longer. But she isn't sure _what_ he is yet... rumors abound, but rumors are not facts. Still, ultimately, it may not matter... and yet.

He's trying to charm her, and that is, well... it is flattering. It's only too bad that her heart really belongs to Lord Gill--not in that way, but in a way that doesn't really allow for... anything else. It isn't love, but it's a devotion so strong as to outweigh such things. She'll even tolerate working for Urien, in charge while Lord Gill does the high-order things.

Once again, he aims a punch for her, and, once again, she traps it. Only, this time, her hands are flaring with that icy chi already, freezing that arm as she twists him around again, with more force, more insistence, perhaps audibly snapping the joint out of socket, releasing him with that forward momentum to be able to drive both hands across his back in a double slash, that icy chi flaring--it's like icy knives drawn across his back, really, and then a third for good measure, before she once again fades backwards to resume her ready stance--looking implacable, serious--and beautiful.

[DEMITRI]
"Worse at this than I thought," Demitri cringes, his mouth briefly brimming with needle-like teeth as he recoiled from the brutral and sickening arm snap she reversed his blow into. And then of course the bombardment by icy shards--which protrude from his caped back for more than a few seconds, before being pushed out by some force. It becomes apparent simply trying to deck the very large and full-figured blonde ushanka-clad lady is clearly not the best course of action. But damn, he's hurt. Time to do what vampires do best--and bust out some of that outrageous supernatural power!

"I don't suppose you would like to join me for a drink this evening, milady?" he says the last part with zero irony, there is no fedora here--really before his time. But what he does do is begins to move with supernatural agility--dashing behind and infront of her, a surge of high-powered multi-colored chi wreathing his body as he glides closer to her, trying to pull her into an embrace--or something far sinister?

COMBATSYS: Kolin blocks Demitri's #Midnight Bliss#.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Kolin            0/-------/--=====|-------\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
His mere presence--it's an almost overwhelming aura. So much so that Kolin actually even considers it. But though she doesn't _believe_ the rumors... she doesn't not take them into account. The world is a far stranger place than has been revealed to the public, even with such things as Darkstalkers, Gears, and Outworld being publicly known. So when he comes in, she doesn't attempt to avoid it, except to prevent him from biting her. Still, the embrace--and that chaotic aura of chi--is enough to make her gasp as she struggles away, long moments later.

It isn't until she gets away from him that she regains her center of mind, slightly shaken by the experience; she has no witty banter to the offer of a drink after, only a shake of the head. As if she doesn't quite trust herself to speak just yet.

That was.. dangerous. In more ways than one, really. Up close, she really got a good sense of the power in that frame, and of course the evidence of unnatural regeneration. This is not a fight she will win in the long haul... Kolin performs a backwards twirling step, a method of building momentum--as becomes obvious when she suddenly takes all that stored kinetic energy and turns it into a forward dash, skimming just over the ground, buoyed by the application of chi and pure speed, lunging with a spearhand, again covered in that icy chi, forming a blade around her hand.

COMBATSYS: Demitri dodges Kolin's Silver Edge.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Kolin            0/-------/---====|-------\-------\0          Demitri

[DEMITRI]
There is not the sting of fangs but that of the chi-wreathed rose that Demitri drops in a subtle gesture towards the ground--where it disappears, just as quickly as it had come into existance.

"Alas," Demitri announces in almost Shakespearean dramaticism, sweeping his cape aside as the almost overpowering surge of chi fades. She has eluded him--in some ways he is impressed, glad even--though with her silence she seems to understand just how close she came to feeling the full extent of his power.

He raises his cape again and wreathes it around himself--this time disappearing as the spear-handed strike--this time winding up teleporting up and into the air--coming barreling down on her with his arms and cape wrapped about himself--seeming intent on colliding with her!

COMBATSYS: Demitri successfully hits Kolin with Entropic Demon Cradle.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Kolin            0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
It's gotten serious now, that's for sure. Kolin gets the sense that Demitri is not fooling around--and of course, she wouldn't want him to. Even a loss is information... and she doesn't care _that_ much about her 'standings' during this qualifier round. It's a way of assessing the competition... But that doesn't mean she likes getting hurt. She's not one of those crazies like Rugal employs. She's still sane. (Mostly.) So she does her best to avoid the descending vampire--but his speed and power are undeniable.

When she rises, she's slightly bent, favoring one side, and breathing hard; she's certainly exerted herself quite a lot. But... she can't let up. Even if she loses... she's got to fight to the end. That stubbornness is what let her survive the freezing cold wasteland of her former country for as long as she did. That undying desire to survive.

With effort, she banishes the pain from her mind, and focuses. For the moment, she feels as light and sure as she ever did--as she lunges, driving in close and planting her left foot, driving her right knee upwards in a sharp thrust, intended to drive Demitri backwards, to give her room to fire off a twisting, left-hand backfist, and to finish out the assault with a right knifehand, utilizing that icy energy once more, slashing from high to low.

[DEMITRI]
"I'm very impressed--it's my first night out in almost a hundred years and you have made tonight one to remember!" Demitri calls down to her, landing from his diving strike. He sweeps his cape aside and prepares himself for her next approach--she has not made this very easy for him at all--her speed even trumping his own at several points, to be sure.

He is more careful this time--trying to outpace her and dodging back after her last attack, now attempting to pull himself up into the air and into another spin to intercept her directly in a rolling drilling attack with his cape wreathed around him and focusing into a cruel needle sharp point as she moves in to strike him with her feet and knife-hand!

This is reckless, and dangerous--and will likely mean him great harm, but he doesn't seem to be able to continue without that kind of daredevil risk.

COMBATSYS: Demitri fails to interrupt White Out EX from Kolin with Demon Cradle.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////                    ]
Kolin            1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0          Demitri

[KOLIN]
Kolin plows through the attempt to break her rhythm, and while she isn't going to be so bold as to think she has the upper hand... she feels like they're about even. In other words... it could go either way. But she can feel the fatigue setting back in; pain and weakness can be ignored but not forever. Furthermore, it's dangerous to ignore them for too long--they're important indicators. She can't give up just yet, however.

She needs to capitalize on Demitri's miscalculation--she needs to press the momentary advantage she's created. So she keeps moving, advancing on the vampire, getting within range of her legs, stopping out of that range where he can use his longer arms to advantage, and, well... and using her legs to her advantage, long and powerful, throwing a high front kick, aiming the steel toe of her right boot for the center of Demitri's chest.

COMBATSYS: Demitri endures Kolin's Medium Kick.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////                        ]
Kolin            1/------=/=======|=====--\-------\0          Demitri

[DEMITRI]
Demitri goes one way and Kolin is able to not only avoid his attack but also send her booted foot into him with a bone-crunching kick! There is the sound of ribs snapping like pencils and Demitri is thrown--winding up in a heap on the ground, the cloak pooled around him like black ink.

"Urgh--unexpected--didn't realize you were so strong... I admit defeat," and he... begins crumbling away--dissolving?

It's rather disconcerting to watch, really--the skin melts like a wax figure exposed to a furnace and the large brown shock of hair withers and falls--the body seeming to crumple into the cape and be absorbed by it--until...

Poof!

Suddenly, fluttering in the air, is a rather large bat with dark blue fur and what looks like a large plume of silvery fur ruff around the neck and chest--the eyes white and gleaming as it capers around Kolin for a few more minutes.

It seems to be giving her a bit of a cross yet begrudging look of respect.

COMBATSYS: Demitri has left the fight here.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  <
Kolin            1/------=/=======|

[KOLIN]
That gives Kolin pause, but not enough to make her lower her guard. She looks up at the bat, then quirks an eyebrow. "... unexpected." Which it truly is. But she nods, after a moment, and gives a salute, a sketchy, almost sarcastic one, because saluting is pretty awful in her opinion, being something that soldier dogs do. Still... a win is a win. There is still a bit of thrill in moving up the rankings...

Finally, she lowers her stance to a relaxed pose, and flips her hand through her hair, pushing it back behind her ear. She turns to walk off-site, where a sleek, black car is waiting for her, but over her shoulder, she gives a last word. "Thank you for an... interesting match. I look forward to seeing your work in this tournament."

COMBATSYS: Kolin has ended the fight here.

Log created on 23:04:20 02/10/2018 by Kolin, and last modified on 16:39:25 02/11/2018.