Match of the Millennium

Description: While the monstrous invaders are shocked and awed by the NOL attack, there seems to be more to these forces than is obvious at first glance. That much becomes clear when a spy, Lotus, is caught scouting the areas at the base camp's flank. Retreating into the forest around Illyria, the freelance Brother Grimm has intervened in the matters of monster and man. He is in hot pursuit, tracking down Lotus to eliminate her, before she can reach whatever nobles that it serves.

[LOTUS]
Dark night in a dark forest. It's almost.... too perfect for a dramatic battle!

Which is EXACTLY what is shortly forthcoming!

A shadow within the shadows, dull red in color, zips from tree to tree as it goes. Few of reasonable skill would even be aware it was there, let alone catch up to it at this pace in such an environment! All that reveals it's presence is the occasional faint rustle of leaves as brances are pressed upon.

In truth, Lotus despises these jobs. She wants to spill blood! To cover everything in a fine red mist! MAKE IT RAIN!

Instead, the powers she currently is on loan to by Jedah see fit to send her to spy and scout on the pathetic human invaders. SCOUTING AND SPYING!

How boring!

Of course, while getting in was easy, getting OUT again was not, and while not caught, she WAS witnessed and an alarm raised by a sentry. Luckily she had a headstart. In brighter news, at least the sentry in question made for a nice red smear. REALLY bright news, actually! ALL OVER THE WALL!

[BROTHER GRIMM]
One might question the matter of luck in this matter. The sentry may be down, but the call went up. And in pursuit.. well, let's just say that individual isn't having a whole lot of trouble keeping up. The red shadow is followed by a mostly black one, though his pale skin and golden hair a shock of brightness even in this darkness. And with how he's keeping up, this one is likely going to be harder to shake than most.

Most of the time he hates his curse, but the stench of blood clogging his nose. Well, that does serve as an excellent way to follow this particular shadow. He almost can't help but smile. If this spy had not shed blood he might very well not be able to keep track of them quite as well as he currently is. But the blood is like a perfume, and all he has to do is trace it to it's ever moving source.

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm has started a fight here.

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Brother Grimm    0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Lotus has joined the fight here.

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Lotus            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Grimm isn't the ONLY one hunting. Just as he can smell her, SHE can smell HIM! Also hear his faint steps. Minor as the sound may be, it's consistancy gives him away to her trained and heightened senses.

Eventually, she judges that they are far enough ahead of other persuers to confront about his following her. Once whatever unseen line she judges as being far enough is crossed, she abruptly changes direction leaping towards HIM instead of the path ahead, daggers descending towards Grimm coupled with a maniacal grin!

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm blocks Lotus' Catch the Prey.

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Lotus            0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
*T-ching!*

The sound of metal against metal resounds through the tree tops, as the priest snaps his own dagger up in time to catch the brunt of the sudden sttack. His expression is placid in the same way as a dark, bottomless pond can lie still. No anger for a slain comrade, no joy taken in this sudden fight. He is a man doing a job, a surgeon about to perform his bloody work.

"Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.." His German accent gives an odd sound to the sing-songy words so at odds with his expression. "Who is your master, I wonder?"

But he's not here for stimulating conversation. The attack delivered is soon returned. He breaks away from Lotus with a back-flip, a soft *shnikt* sound the only hint that the blade hidden in the toe of his boot has been extended, rising upwards to slash across lotus as he retreats the few feet with his acrobatic maneuver.

COMBATSYS: Lotus interrupts Aschenputtel from Brother Grimm with Slice and Dice.
-*- DEVASTATING HIT! -*-

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Lotus            0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
It's a fast attack, and against a normal opponent would have worked nicely.

Lotus is hardly normal. In more ways than one.

Her abnormal regeneration, for once, is NOT what saves her however. She pushes in fast due to velocity, and her prenatural speed allows her to twist at an odd angle as the kick comes in! The blade strikes, BUT due to a mix of angle and clothes it doesn't manage to do nore than shred cloth and make a pressure line in her skin.

As he leaps away in a backflip, upon turning right side up he would find her grinning face staring into his in a leap of her own to match his! Still in descent to the ground, her arms blur, her arms blurring as she stabs at areas of his body where she thinks he'll be most likely to bleed nicely from! In her zeal, she gets dangerously close to an artery or two!

[BROTHER GRIMM]
There's no chance for him to bring up his guard. The priest takes the slashes directly, blood pouring from the wounds. Though perhaps to Lotus' displeasure there's not even an outcry from the man beyond a grunt. Nor does he do what most in this situation might, which is to put some distance between himself and those slashing blades.

The wound is inevitable his body seems to say. Accept it and move on.

As the blades sink into his flesh he lashes out with his own knife, attempting to sink it into Lotus while she is in so close.

She may have tasted his blood, but he seems intent on returning at least some strike in kind.

COMBATSYS: Lotus blocks Brother Grimm's Random Strike.

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Lotus            0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Being so close and moving at these speeds, physics makes even someone of Lotuses dexterity unable to actually dodge at the moment! As such, she brings up her daggers in response, another resounding CLANG of sound as when he blocked her initial attack just seconds ago! While a LITTLE put off by his lack of reaction, the gushing of red IS reassuring and comforting to the lunatic!

With a quick spin, she ducks low. Spinning her weapon around in her hand, she attempts to pommel-strike Grimm in the face in an attempt to disorient him, and make it harder for him to potentially follow up!

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm interrupts Random Strike from Lotus with Dornroschen.

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Lotus            0/-------/=======|=======\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
It would likely be hard for any but skilled combatants to keep an eye on the quick sudden exchanges these two combatants are making in such close proximity to each other. Even the sharp blades being no reason for them to seemingly put distance between each other. Grimm raises his arm as the pommel strike comes in, keeping the hit from his face, but it's the soft glimmer of metal in his other hand that the spy chould likely worry about.

A needle isn't much of a weapon, except in the hands of someone who knows exactly how to use it. It's precise. It's exacting. It's poisoned. It's sinking right into a bundle of nerves and setting them alight like a splinter of fire into a basket of tinder.

"Tell me. Name your master." His voice is still flat. Even bleeding out from several nasty wounds.. which actually look like they are stitching themselves back together even as the seem to threaten to tear open wider. One might wonder if this man is just used to pain, or else dosing himself with something.

[LOTUS]
As the needle sinks in, Lotus spasms for a moment, a loud "TEEEEEEEEE!" escaping her lips as the nerves are driven mad with pain signals. This seems to halt as fast as it happens as the lunatic woman leaps back a bit, eyes boring into Grimms.

Slowly, she raises a finger, wagging it back and forth "Ah ah aaaaaaah! That would be telling, and I'm a GOOD girl!". Another giggle can be heard, almost from the back of her throat, as she seems to just stand there a moment. A small dribble of what looks like green saliva seems to make its way down from the corner of her mouth....

It's the only real warning of the coming attack as she abruptly leans forwards, belching a green, acidic cloud from her mouth towards Grimm!

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm full-parries Lotus' Toxic Miasma!!

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Lotus            1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
With the needle finally putting a little distance between them, Grimm touches one of the wounds across his chest. He raises the blood stained fingers up in front of his eyes, examining the sanguine humor. "Good? I think not. But you can be. No creature is so in the dark it cannot come to the light."

He turns his attention towards Lotus with a tilt of his head. "Mercy can be shown to any."

From stand still to full run, the brother takes off with speed once that cloud comes pouring out of Lotus' mouth. He's not trying to get away, he's trying to close in. His feet kick off the ground, hit the side of a tree, momentum carrying him up and over the cloud as he moves up the side of the tree and launches himself back downwards from the underside of a branch.

Nor does the knife lead the attack as one may expect. It's his other hand. The one that delivered the needle. But somewhere in his forward flight it has become misshapen and deformed. Large and beastly with long, gleaming, wicked claws tipping each of the monstrous digits, those fingers still glistening with his own blood as he attempts to slash them right across Lotus without any hesitation.

COMBATSYS: Lotus parries Brother Grimm's Allerleirauh EX!

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Lotus            1/------=/=======|=======\===----\1    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Grimm is fast, gotta give him that!

His opponent is fast too. This makes for interesting, and entertaining, clashes like this one!

Even while the cloud leaves her mouth, her eyes STILL track Grimms movements. She gives a quick wolfwhistle, or starts to, as the claw appears. The sharp tips are knocked aside by her own weapons, coupled with a precise lean to the side, and followed up with a blurring dash past, her weapons aiming for the stretch of torso across the lower stomach in a move that may threaten to disembowl the good Brother, or at least open his gut for the lifeblood to leak throug!

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm dodges Lotus' Exsanguinate EX.

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Lotus            1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
Claws dig into the deflecting blades, a benshee like screech eminating as the tips scrape across the metal. He doesn't have time to be bothered that the strike didn't make contact. In a fight between two combatants, seemingly perfectly matched in their speedy combat styles, missed blows are to be expected. Even the well timed response from Lotus is unsuccessful.

Right as the blades would slash through Grimm he's not there anymore, spinning low and under the attack.

The evasive maneuver is quickly repurposed into an aggressive one. He pops right back up as Lotus and her blades pass, momentum still carrying him in enough of a rotation to aim a powerful roundhouse kick at her now temptingly exposed back. For that seems to be the flow of their fight, immediate reprisal for each over attack sent in kind.

COMBATSYS: Lotus dodges Brother Grimm's Strong Kick.

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Lotus            1/-----==/=======|=======\====---\1    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Indeed it is. Like two chipmunks on speed. With knives.... and other sharp things!

In a blur equal to Grimms own movements, Lotus too isn't there anymore!

In a move mirroring his own, she ducks the kick, the leg and foot sailing over her! Moving in, she attacks with a series of stabbing strikes with her knives, ending in a slash with the sharp tips of her filagree gloves that cover the last three fingers of each hand!

COMBATSYS: Lotus successfully hits Brother Grimm with Armed Combo.
-*- DEVASTATING HIT! -*-

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Lotus            1/---====/=======|=======\======-\1    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
Well, there's one thing to be learned about the man this time around. He can show emotion. It's also not quite what one might expect. He smiles. As each of those blades drives into him, his smile gets just a little wider. Too wide. A human mouth should not be able to part quite that wide, nor should it be filled with quite that many sharp teeth.

Each stab meets with just a little more resistance. The muscle underneath the skin bulking up with each blade driven into it. The pain only seems to drive him on further and further. His curse is being unleashed even as he takes abuse from Lotus, he tortures and twists his own body out of it's human form into something altogether.. not.

The claws on his hands are perhaps the least of the worries, for the moment he's packed on quite a bit of muscle in a short amount of time, and should anyone think that would slow him down, they would be sorely mistaken. Much of the alteration seems to be focused into his legs, which coil up and send him blasting full speed right into the spy who, if she doesn't move quickly, will suddenly have well over two hundred pounds of muscle, bone, and beastial anger driving it's full weight right into her with crushing force.

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm successfully hits Lotus with Eisenhans.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-

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Lotus            2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Lotus quickly brings her blades to bear, stopping the INITIAL attack, at least in theory!

She is lifted off her feet due to his velocity, and the force of the impact driving her own arms and the flats of her weapons into her chest, from which a loud CRACK can be heard as her ribcage is compressed inwards! Blood spews from her mouth as she is sent flying once he stops moving, her body impacting a tree with intense speed! This prompts yet ANOTHER loud CRACK as parts of her spine AND ribs are crushed and damaged even moreso! The maniacal grin on her face intensifies to match the look Grimm has, sharp teeth and mouth too wide, yellow cat-like eyes wide with intensity both due to madness as well as her madness.

The difference? She EMBRACES hers, while he does not!

Lurching to her feet, the frothing around her mouth can be seen again, and she breaths that green cloud again, this time at the ground, making a thin sheen of green smoke between the pair. Visibility is not hampered however, so her next actions are plainly clear to those with the speed to react! Reaching back behind her body, Lotus pulls out six small throwing daggers, three per hand, and with deadly accuracy flings them THROUGH the cloud towards Grimm. While the amount of acidic poison that coats the weapons is not so much that it would eat through flesh or armor, it IS enough to cause severe poisoning once entering the bloodstream, to say nothing of the barbed points!

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm full-parries Lotus' Poison Rain!!

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Lotus            1/-------/<<<<<<<|======-\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
The beastial Grimm is getting back to his feet, blue eyes stained gold staring right at Lotus. As she exhales her cloud and the daggers fly his way he lets out something between a roar and a howl, knocking those blades out of the air one by one, each ringing against his claws. The last, coming directly for his chest instead has something thrown towards it. A small glass vial that when broken by the blade unleashes a cloud of inky darkness that suddenly shrouds the monstrous Grimm from view.

It's only a moment though that no trace of him can be found, as a mere couple of seconds later he's behind Lotus. Once again perfectly human, knife in hand, attempting to slide it into her back, right between her ribs. For a member of the clergy, he certainly manages to act and move like an assassin.

COMBATSYS: Lotus parries Brother Grimm's Rumpelstiltzchen EX!

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Lotus            1/------</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0    Brother Grimm

[LOTUS]
Lotus has read a suprising amount of comics, and watched a lot of old kung-fu and martial arts flicks in her spare time. Enough to suspect that when someone vanishes entirely, it means one of two things: They are running away, or they are gonna somehow get behind you. Deciding to not take the risk, she abruptly turns around just to make sure, and sure enough there's Grimm, knife in hand!

This, coupled with her supernatural reflexes, are literally the only things that save her in time, as she brings up her own daggers to knock aside the knife. Following this, she moves in, flipping both weapons so she can stab downwards with them, and attempting to impale Grimm in each shoulder, right in the small gaps between the bones just below the collarbone. One dagger in one side, one in the other!

COMBATSYS: Lotus successfully hits Brother Grimm with Spider Bite EX.

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Lotus            0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1    Brother Grimm

[BROTHER GRIMM]
There's no effort on Grimm's part to move out of the way. He knows a lost fight when he sees one. He also knows his own body well enough that when he sees those daggers descending he just.. stands there. The blades sink into his shoulders, likely even grazing a few organs but as much pain as he's in, he just stares Lotus right in the eyes.

His still haven't returned to blue. The bright golden orbs that seem to glow in even the faint light of these woods meet the cat-like ones of Lotus.

He knows had things gone a little differently he very likely could be sinking his blade into Lotus, not the other way around, and he's almost certain she knows it, too. Blood dribbles from the corner of his mouth as he speaks calmly but firmly, his German accents adding a hardened adge to the words. "You are dengerous. I'll be keeping an eye on you, tuefel."

The agony it must cost him to raise his arm, but he does, another vial in his palm. He crushes the glass in his fist releasing another cloud of jet black inkiness that conceals his escape. No doubt Lotus could track him down if she wanted to, but that's the question, does she want to?

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm takes no action.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Lotus            0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Brother Grimm can no longer fight.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Lotus            0/-------/-------|

[LOTUS]
Once she stabs his shoulders, when he doesn't move to react, she doesn't press further, merely standing there meeting his gaze with that crazed grin and wide intense eyes. She indeed does know this could have gone differently, and she just managed to wear him down faster than he could do likewise. When he speaks, she gets the idea: he plans to run. At this point she actually pulls the weapons out of his arms, and backs up. Her eyes remain locked on him, but the message should be obvious.

He intends to leave, and she intends to just..... let him go?

Her eyes narrow, the expression of madness becoming one of insidiousness. A quick giggle preceeds her next words "Oh, i hope you do brother! Your fun! I have to wonder just how long it will be before you accept your TRUE nature, however? Teeheehee...... It's going to be even MORE fun finding out!".

Once he is gone, she resheathes her weapons, retrieves what may still be left behind of hers, and continues on her way!

Log created on 21:49:21 03/28/2018 by Brother Grimm, and last modified on 01:08:24 03/29/2018.