Match of the Millennium

Description: Ky Kiske faces off against a different badguy, who's also a goodguy. Dash's Kusanagi flames prove formidable indeed. (Winner: K')

[KY KISKE]
Ky Kiske, First King of Illyria, commander of the Sacred Order and all around Swell Guy finds himself on the set of a movie. Not just any movie, a B-rated horror film that wishes it had the script, effects and raw terror value to be a classic. It...doesn't. Nowhere near. Though, they may just get some usable special effects for the low cost of absolutely free. Why? Simply because there's about to be a ''wicked'' fight here.

"I still don't understand why I'm here," Ky says to some less than helpful official. "I never signed up for anything. I am a ''very'' busy man."

"Don't know what to tell you, uh, Your Majesty? We got the form. Properly filled out. Signed and everything."

"I have told you a dozen times, I did ''not'' fill that out."

"Well," the official replies. "Who did?"

ELSEWHERE

Sol Badguy cannot stop laughing.

HERE

Ky sighs. "Fine. Fine. I'll do it. Check the ID of whomever submits these forms next time!" Thus, Ky awaits the one who he will be facing, Thunderseal in hand.

[K']
"Fuck off." He's said it more than once. 'Dash', his ever-so-subtle public persona, has a reputation with this company by now. No one pushes too hard, but still, K' has to repeat himself. It starts an experience he'd just as well skip off on the right note, to be sure. The living weapon doesn't care about the script, doesn't care about the costume design, doesn't give a rat's ass about whatever these alleged people are trying to film. He's here for a paycheck, and makes no pretense otherwise.

K' is here to fight, to get paid, and to disappear back off the grid, irritating the people hunting him all the more, while easily funding his antics. It's a hell of a troll job, not that K' tends to spare a grin for it, especially not on camera. He strides out languidly, intentionally delaying past his cue, and peers at Ky from behind red-lensed black shades. Despite the dim ambience, K' can see just fine, his gaze burning behind the obscuring lenses.

The prototype smirks-- he's every bit the inverse of this alleged exorcist, black leather and silver to offset Ky's white, blue, gold. They always at least manage to pull a show out of the irritable firestarter, and tonight is starting no differently.

"Well shit." K' observes, with a measure of presumptive condescension. "Aren't you a pretty one. I hope you didn't spend too long on your hair, Princess." The Beast of Flame immediately affords Ky the respect due his station, as he tugs the gunmetal hoodie down around his face, and over his own, ironically, luxurious platinum mane.

[KY KISKE]
Ky, still frowning as the official retreats, turns when he hears Dash speak. He does a double take. The voice isn't the same, but the tone is pretty well spot on for his erstwhile rival and sometimes pal Sol Badguy. He manages to not look disappointed when he discovers it's not Sol.

Hey, it's been a while and he's like to see and/or beat the hell out of him.

Fairly used to being derided, Ky simply straightens with a snort. "If you believe me to be all looks and no substance, you are going to be sorely disappointed." The knight sweeps into his ready stance, lightning starting to crackle and dance along the blade of the Thunderseal and across his body.

HEAVEN OR HELL
LET'S ROCK!

[K']
Really, K''s rival and only BFF in the world isn't too far removed from Ky's ideals, either-- but with substantially less polish and pomp. It's a mystery if parallels are apparent to K', however, who just scoffs at the response. "Fight well, fold like paper, I really don't give a fuck."

The chi that the Beast of Flame wields is immediately noteworthy to a sensitive artist or those with extensive experience in such things-- he's not a Kusanagi, dark skinned, white haired, but that's the Kusanagi flame. The Celestial Fire that's channeled into this world to purge one of its greatest darknesses, something special even among talented elementalists.

It veritably -pours- from this foul-mouthed kid, surging in the grasp of his armored red right hand, the chi modulator affixed to it only marginally more able to contain the flood than the prototype himself. K' grins wickedly. "Either way you're going to /burn/!!"

A flare of napalm, a blur of motion, the Beast of Flame more lunges than sprints at his adversary, lashing out with primal instinct as that ember of a hand whips upwards and projects a long, superheated plume of ragged flame at, across, and perhaps right through Ky, as still more fire surges forth like a furnace suddenly stoked beyond the living weapon's control. He seems used to going with that, though, teeth gritted, tensed like a predator to strike again.

COMBATSYS: K' has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
K'               0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
K'               0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0         Ky Kiske

COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Ky Kiske with Eins Trigger.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
K'               0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
This youth could be Sol's disciple. The attitude. The fire. The foul language.

Mostly the fire, though.

Dash throws his arm forward, and Ky poises to move, but his reflexes, his muscle memory from so many bouts with the Corrupted Flame are not exact to fight this young man. The knight is engulfed in superheated flames as he dive-rolls out of the way, his long tails of his coat and his hair smouldering as he hits the ground on his shoulder. Cloth rustles and electricity arcs to the ground in harsh *POPS* as he smoothly uses his momentum to get back to his feet.

"...Do you know a man who goes by 'Sol Badguy'?" Ky asks, the lightning starting to arc across his whole body in bright blue streams of electricity. "You remind me of him a great deal."

Thunderseal crackles violently as Ky rushes the youth. Quick and agile, the knight throws himself into a feet first slide that ends with him in melee range of Dash, taking a wide swing at his shins with the lightning charged blade.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits K' with Stun Dipper.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
K'               0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[K']
Ky crashes in low, and K' drops to meet him, braces his body, and finds himself instants too late as the blade slices his limbs out from under him, as electricity courses through his muscles with painful intensity. Gritting his teeth, the prototype battles on-- pain is standard operating procedure.

"Stupid name. Worse than Ky Kiske. Tonight I'm your Mr. Badguy." At least he has taste in rock. K' launches with the force of the impact into a surprisingly graceful, forceful backflip, inverting before he comes around above Kiske and kicks an absolute maelstrom of sacred fire down upon the Holy Knight.

It's like an airstrike, like the napalm that traumitized many a soldier-- it doesn't just impact, it surges, it lingers, it -roars- in a roiling mass of liquid flame in the technicolor oranges and reds of a vibrant autumn. The sheer force of it gives the living weapon lift, sends him more gently back as he drops earthward once more.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske just-defends K''s Air Trigger EX!

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
K'               0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
In a fluid motion, Ky goes from Striking K' down low to his feet. The young man continues to be rude and crass, and he continues to sling hot fire at the knight. The former just makes him frown, and the latter doesn't even make him flinch.

"Perhaps the next time I see Sol, I will tell him he has an impostor," Ky says sourly. The last thing he needs is ''two'' Sol Badguys running around. Even if one only wishes he could be as annoying as the other.

Fire rains, and Ky forces power into the Thunderseal. The sword blazes as Ky begins to swing it overhead in a circular pattern, lightning spiralling in a disc above his head. The sacred flame meets holy lightning and gets cancelled out in bursts of power, leaving Ky untouched.

Seeking to press what little advantage he may have, Ky keeps the Thunderseal charged, lightning seeming to rotate in arcs from the tip of the Thunderseal all the way up his arm and winding down his body to crackle into the ground.

"You have a long way to go to be anything like 'Mister Badguy'," Ky says as he hurls himself at K'. The Thunderseal moves, unironicly, like lightning as the knight lashes out, swinging a bodyblow at the fire-throwing young man.

COMBATSYS: K' blocks Ky Kiske's Lightning Edge.

[        \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
K'               0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[K']
"Hah." K' barks a single note of laughter. Derisive, but amused. "Have you ever got the wrong shithead." Crossed arms, a surprising resiliency for the lithely muscled youth greets that lightning lunge, the crackling impact driving K' further back, but only scarcely.

The prototype plants one motorcycle boot, smirks back at Ky, "I didn't mean to insult your fuck buddy." Sincere apology. Time to hug it out. In tandem with the authentic remorse, the prototype launches himself right back at the Holy Knight like a missile-- a bolt in turn, if you will.

The Beast of Flame's crimson fist coursing with Kusanagi fire, K' cleaves a direct, brutal path for Kiske's solar plexus, a reaving, fiery cross meant to make the burn quite, quite literal.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske fails to interrupt Second Knuckle from K' with Lightning Javelin.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
K'               1/------=/=======|=======\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
This crass young man is tough, strong and intensely annoying in a very similar way to someone else he knows quite well. All in all, this fight is very familiar. Still, it's different enough that Ky's own familiarity with That Other Guy (as opposed to an entirely different That Man), makes him misstep.

K' comes in, literally blazing, and Ky poises himself to retaliate before the other's strike can even land. Lightning rages around Ky like a storm, the small crackles turning to claps of localized thunder as the air itself is torn apart in its fury. Thunderseal rages with it, but Ky is placid until he moves.

Charging K', Ky draws Thunderseal back and swings, mistiming his retaliation utterly and being consumed by the Beast's flames. The knight is hurled away with it, his control over his magic failing, the lightning grounding out in a roar. Ky hits the ground ''hard'', tumbling across the movie set until he plows into a scaffold and knocks it over onto himself.

Things are still for a moment. Only a moment.

A bolt of lightning as wide as a man is tall bursts ''up'' from the debris as Ky rises out of it, his gaze focused. Determined as he drops back into his ready stance.

"This is not over."

[K']
K' isn't idle while Kiske picks himself up. No, the bioweapon takes a deep, steadying breath, and lets it all out. The conduits in the chi modulator on his hand and forearm light up like the fourth of July, molten veins of impossible heat as a bloom of ochre fire gathers and grows in the prototype's grasp. K' chuckles as Ky re-emerges, and the Beast of Flame nods his hooded head.

"Lucky. Because I'm just..." it's obvious, really, but no less true. "Warming... UP!!" No less dramatic with the Celestial Fire amplifying amidst the living weapon's fingertips, rolling up his arm hungrily. As if given time, it would simply consume K' entirely in its inexorable pursuit of its purpose, purging and purifying all its molten fervour touches.

K' curls about himself, tense, dense, his stance defiant and prepared, predatory and primal. There's no art to his technique-- and somehow, no lack of art to his own indomitable instincts.

COMBATSYS: K' builds up fiery energy in his gauntleted hand!

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////            ]
K'               1/----===/=======|=======\-------\0         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
Ky is ready. Power surges through his veins, blue arcs of electricity dancing all across his body and grounding out on nearby metal with terrible crackles. The young man blazes instead of coming for him. He blazes instead of unleasing burning wrath on the knight. Ky frowns a little. On one hand, the small breather is nice, but it makes no sense. When you have an advantage, press it. At the present, mostly neutral state, there is no advantage. So Ky will create his own.

Another bolt of lightning roars from the heavens, the shockwave of thunder blasting debris away from the knight. Electricity, thick as a man's wrist, wraps around Ky, arcing between his body, the Thunderseal and the ground. The next time Ky moves, he is a blur. He surges close to K'. heedless of the danger of the fire. He draws the Thunderseal across his body, thrusting his free hand before him, a strange glyph-like projection springing to life. Ky swings his blade across his body and through the glyph. As Thunderseal passes into the glyph, the blade is lost, seeming to become the very thunderbolt of Zeus in the knight's fist as he strikes.

Ky is not done. He follows this with his free hand darting out to snatch K' by the front of his jacket, twisting to toss him away.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske blitzes into action and acts again!

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
K'               1/----===/=======|=======\-------\0         Ky Kiske

COMBATSYS: K' blocks Ky Kiske's Split Ciel.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////             ]
K'               1/--=====/=======|=======\-------\0         Ky Kiske

COMBATSYS: K' interrupts Medium Throw from Ky Kiske with Empowered Crow Bite EX.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////                   ]
K'               1/-======/=======|=======\===----\1         Ky Kiske

[K']
Ky is fast-- relentless. The Holy Knight comes on, and the Beast of Flame stands his ground, step for step, impact for impact. The fist of a Greek god crashes against a flexed forearm, electricity struggling this time to find conduit through the prototype, his own remarkable power straining against the incursion.

It translates to a brilliant eruption of sparks and embers as gauntlet clashes with gauntlet, K' refusing to give ground before the onslaught. Instead, as Ky grabs the front of his nondescript, dark hoodie, K' throws himself into the tug.

He's eye to eye with the Holy Knight for just an instant, that red right hand reaving around and upwards. It launches both men into the sky in a furious spiral of heavenly fire, K' blasting upwards in a molten surge of nigh-impossible force. A lesser man would be vaporized utterly, would be decorating the crew in charred, bloody bits.

Ky Kiske is everything the Paladin promised, however-- not that the prototype is keen to admit it. He twists violently about himself, plumes of ochre flame trailing the abrupt motion, but K' finds touchdown far more forgiving than Kiske, his gauntleted fingertips melting stone where K' lands in a three-point crouch.

[KY KISKE]
Ky...is taken for a ride. Dragged heavensward and then mercilessly hurtled to the ground, even his vaunted speed cannot keep up. The knight hits the ground, fracturing the pavement, his clothes somewhat on fire. With sooty face, smoking hair and a bleeding gash on his forehead, Ky Kiske is a sight. Most men would be dead already. The ones that aren't shouldn't be able to get up. Ky is still for a few seconds before he slowly, laborously, gets to his feet. He is shaky, using the Thunderseal to support himself as he catches his breath.

"Your power," he breathes. "Is impressive."

Once more, thunder rumbles. Ky seems to straighten, to regain some of his poise and grace as his magic once more surrounds him. Wordlessly, he hurls himself at K'. He comes in close, gripping the Thunderseal in both hands, driving it at the young man in a merciless two handed strike. "Greed Se--!" Ky starts to shout, only to stop in the middle and sweep his electricly charged leg at the Beast. Ky's honorable, but not a fool. Feints are entirely acceptable.

COMBATSYS: K' dodges Ky Kiske's Medium Strike.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
K'               1/-======/=======|=======\===----\1         Ky Kiske

[K']
"Glad you've caught up with the rest of the class." K' heartily congratulates Ky. "You warn a guy up front, but they never listen..." The Beast of Flame is entirely comfortable taking a paradoxically dismissive, sarcastic view of the fight, when compared to the performance he's putting on. Maybe it really just does come naturally; or unnaturally, as the case may well be, here.

The power built up by the Holy Knight is remarkable, the prototype's hairs standing on end all along his neck... and probably atop his head, for that matter. It's easy to expect a fearsome onslaught, rather than a feint, but the living weapon scarcely misses a beat in smoothly vaulting the sweeping strike. His deceptively high-tech gauntlet is whipped to his side, and K' chuckles lightly.

"Little late for tricking your way out too. You better have something damn impressive up your singed-ass sleeve, Princess..." The title is only proper. A furnace burns in a tightly clenched hand, this time, the prototype's corded arm braced, shoulders tensed.

All of K' is tensed, really-- where before he conjured a plume of flame, this time it's rumble and glow, a molten core surging hotter, and hotter, and hotter still. "Or you're going to fucking /explode/." You can't accuse him of being a dishonest fellow.

COMBATSYS: K' builds up fiery energy in his gauntleted hand!

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
K'               2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
Once more, the youth charges his powers. Once more, the heat boils from K' like a blast furnace. Once more, Ky Kiske is unimpressed. Power over flame is nothing special, and while the boy is strong, it is still nothing Ky has not face down before. Nothing that Ky has not faced down and won.

"It comes to this, then," Ky intones, almost with a tone of familiar reverence. "One final clash with all of our strength. Hold nothing back!"

Ky closes his eyes and holds Thunderseal aloft. His breathing slows as he calms himself and lets the storm rage around and through him. Lightning crackles and arcs, flashing from the sword to the ground and all across his body in excited flashes.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske focuses on his next action.

[          \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
K'               2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\===----\1         Ky Kiske

[K']
A fireball may be a dime a dozen. The celestial fire of the Kusanagi Clan? That sacred treasure is in the hands of perhaps two other living souls; at least, discounting other NESTS creations who may or may not have their own unique bloodline gifts from the Cartel's sick experimentation.

However crude and dismissive the prototype may be: he -is- impressed. Power like Kiske's is rare. Most do in fact ignite like paper kindling when exposed to the Beast of Flame. It's no relief to Ky, even if such were admitted, however: it just means there's no quarter given, no-- or at least, less laziness and nonchalance to the effort of seeing the fight through.

"Still just... warming... up!!!" It's a -little- less true now: but K' shows no signs of abating fury just yet, every bit as vigorous and defiant as in the fight's first moments, if a bit more scuffed and electrocuted than those verdant days. His approach is unconventional, almost unhurried. Shoulders forward, -smoking- hand braced at his side, K' stalks ahead, steps tense; incessant.

Not a meter from Ky, with still no other sign of assault, K' would all but flash from existance, surging in afterimage in a fluid lunge -past- the Paladin. The moment the bioweapon's booted feet touched ground on the opposite side of Ky, however? In that same half an eye-blink, K' would prove true to his word, the clenched magma of his overcharged gauntlet released in a deceptively simple flick of the wrist, snap of the fingers.

The ragged, chaotic tower of flame that blooms into being behind K'-- all around Ky, for those keeping track at home-- is several times the height of either man, blowing the prototype's clothing wildly in its overwhelming convection. It's understatement to even call it an explosion, so suddenly is the burst conjured. One split second: no boom. The next: BOOM.

COMBATSYS: K' successfully hits Ky Kiske with Empowered Crimson Star Road.
- Power hit! -

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////                          ]
K'               0/-------/---<<<<|=======\===----\1         Ky Kiske

[KY KISKE]
Ky's eyes open as K' approaches. The slowness makes him wary. He readies himself, but he is not prepared. His world becomes fire. He tries to move, but even he is not fast enough to evade such a thing. The pillar obscures the knight, engulfing him in its terrible heat. No cry of pain or anguish comes. Could he be dead? Annihilated to ashes in the heat of the sacred flames?

Lightning ROARS from the sky, obliterating the holy flames, scattering them to embers on the wind. Ky Kiske, First King of Illyria, Commander of the Sacred Order still stands. Barely, but he still stands. Ky staggers, gritting his teeth against the pain, his vestments literally burning on his body as he regards the other man. "You demand all of my strength. The best I may be able to do is...take you down with me!"

Electricity engulfs Ky, obscuring his burned body in the light of blinding blue. It rushes through the set's lighting equipment, blowing out bulbs in sharp pops and bursts of sparks. Ky's silhouette rises in the pillar, thunder roaring as he prepares his last ditch effort, consciousness wavering, but will iron.

"Embrace the light!"

The pillar suddenly colapses, wreathing Ky in ball lightning as he literally hovers above the ground. He blurs as he blasts like a bolt from the thunder gods at K', the magic holding together for the last instants even as Ky loses the fight of staying awake. A shimmering barrier of thunder magic manifests in front of him as he tries to barrel right into K', his last words before passing out echoing in movie set.

"RIDE THE LIGHTNING!"

Regardless of the outcome of his last act, Ky hits the ground facefirst in a skid, inert.

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske can no longer fight.

[            \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
K'               0/-------/---<<<<|

COMBATSYS: Ky Kiske successfully hits K' with Ride the Lightning.
- Power hit! -

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  <
K'               1/-------/<<<<<<<|

[K']
Embrace the light. It's all K' can do not to get obliterated by the light, at the end of the equation. He braces himself for impact, stands stalwart in the face of Kiske's last-ditch onslaught: but that defense proves.. inadequate.

Electricity surges through his frame, throws the bioweapon clear. He's bowled over by the trainwreck that is this latest impact with the Holy Knight, hurtling violently in a sidelong roll off the top step of the Tresury, down to the next, and the one after that, and then another.

K' skids painfully off the ancient stone, nearly exorcised in turn, indeed. But in the moments that follow, as Ky crash-lands, the prototype pushes himself to a crouch, and then staggers, resolutely, to his booted feet.

An expectoration of spittle and blood follows, as K' corrects the sit of his shades and eyeballs the fallen Paladin, "That-- that it, huh?" Yea, no problem. He coughs and loses a little more blood. The veins in his glove burn like the embers of a recent campfire. The limb beneath? Don't ask what that looks like. Somebody cut K' his god damn check.

COMBATSYS: K' has ended the fight here.

Log created on 20:02:24 10/15/2018 by K', and last modified on 20:32:50 10/16/2018.