Match of the Millennium

Description: Still hungry for a shot at Outworld's elite on her own terms, Alexis is afforded an audience with none other than Lord Mordread, King of Hel in China's Lin Kuei Forest. All she has to do NOW is survive the towering knight's fury as she looks to come to terms with her previous brush with Kombat.

[LORD MORDREAD]
In the woods sits darkness, save for what moonlight filters through the dense foliage. Until suddenly, there is bright light, and out through a filter of Helfire comes a collection of people. Servant girls, royal guards, and a collection of slaves pulling a massive black iron throne with chains, even as it drags along the floor of the forest.

On it sits a giant armored warlord, and in the torchlight provided by his servants, his crimson red armor is glowing with menace. Two yellow eyes glare out through the darkness of his helmet, regarding this world with hostility and contempt. He was in a bad, bad mood.

[ALEXIS]
==*== SOME INDEFINITE TIME EARLIER ==*==

'To sleep, perchance to dream.'

A cold, bleak landscape seemed to stretch out for eternity. Mist engulfed Alexis as she awoke within it - engulfed and became her. She rose up to her feet and gazed at the infinite emptiness.

To cross the veil was to sleep, and something like a distant voice was calling her to wake, but at the same time, something pulled at her, bidding her to stay and rest.

After all, she was free.

==*== PRESENTLY ==*==

Alexis sits upright with a gasp as she awakens in the Lin Kuei forest. Her hands clutch at her head, her chest, her knees - seeking confirmation that her body is once again whole as air fills her lungs once more.

It is.

Her clothing, on the other hand, isn't.

Somehow, the tattered remains of a sports bra and heavily-distressed black leather short shorts, along with a pair of black leather shin-high boots, are still in the same state that they were in after facing down the God of Thunder - which is to say, as one might expect, badly damaged by electrical burns. Whatever mystical insurance her body had cashed in on apparently didn't cover clothing damage. As a result, the silver runic tattoos running over her form are on nearly-full display - and the hybrid guitar-battleaxe she brought to this competition is lying next to her on the forest floor.

She picks it up, rises to her feet and hefts it over her shoulder as she looks around at the trees.

"Alright. Real fuckin' stereotypical, eh? Why not just gimme a plaid shirt while you're at it?" she shouts to the heavens - before noticing the sound of an entourage passing nearby. She turns toward the group and their enthroned Lord.

"Oh, are we on round two already? Should I guess which one of you I have to fight, or are you all just here to spectate?"

Her eyes turn toward the figure in crimson armor.

"I hope it's you. Anybody who can't even do their own damn walking's gotta be an easy goddamn knockout."

She twirls the axe-guitar around in one hand, letting the head drop down into the dirt as she leans on it, the metal skull pendant pierced in her belly-button swishing lightly with the motion.

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread has started a fight here.

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Lord Mordread    0/-------/-------|

[LORD MORDREAD]
"Your hope has been granted, harem girl. How tragic that you hope for your own despair."

Instantly, a row of skeletal figures rise from the dirt, bugles in hand as they are played loudly, and a group of what look like peasants run toward the right side of the throne. They all were carrying a massive sword in a massive sheath, and it took their combined strength to even carry it overhead with trembling arms as the armored figure slowly rose to his sabatons. After stretching and moving his wrists around, he turned to regard them as he grabbed the handle of the blade and placed one armored foot on the chest of one villager. In one motion he pulled his weapon free and kick/shoved the majority of them down into the dirt, and then and only then did he start moving toward the axe-wielding girl.

"Prepare thyself, peasant!"

It was all the warning he gave before suddenly lunging forth, blitzing so fast along the ground it looked like his feet were sliding instead of moving. He was charging one of his massive spiked pauldrons right for the face or chest of Alexis, anything to help ring her bell a little and help her realize the predicament she was in.

COMBATSYS: Alexis has joined the fight here.

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Alexis           0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0    Lord Mordread

COMBATSYS: Alexis just-defends Lord Mordread's Chariot Of Steel!

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Alexis           0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[ALEXIS]
The Canadian fighter's fists and teeth clench as she watches the mistreatment of the servants at the hand of their armoured master. A faint, stale breeze wafts through her long bangs, giving fleeting glimpses of the aquamarine eyes behind them. And as the metal-clad monstrosity bears down on her, she maintains her stoic expression - and in the space between flutters of her bangs, a glow emerges from her eyes - then runs outward through the patterns tattooed along her body as she lifts the guitar by the neck, then SLAMS the body into the ground.

The wave of sound released by the impact is distorted as it warps in the air around Alexis, creating a bubble of potential energy that bursts a moment later - disrupting the attempt to charge into the punk rocker as the ground cracks beneath their feet and leaves are blown loose from the nearby trees to scatter.

"Not a harem girl," Alexis cracks matter-of-factly as she slings her axe around into guitar stance in a single smooth motion, winking at Lord Mordread as she does so, "Sorry to disappoint you."

She pouts her lips into a pucker for a brief moment before hammering down on the strings of her weapon violently, unleashing a devastating F Minor that explodes toward Mordread as a blasting sound wave that sends her own hair and clothing flapping in the breeze!

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread blocks Alexis' Power Chord.

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Alexis           0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
The secret chord was plaid, but it did not please the Lord.

With his head down, and his glowing red blade raised in front of him as some sort of lightning rod, he stepped through the sonic sound as he stepped ever closer and towered over the rock'n'roll nerd.

"Things can always change."

With that ominous threat spoken, he slung that massive sword over his right shoulder as his left hand swung out in a backhand aimed right for Alexis' face. Usually more of an insult than an attack, when delivered by Mordread it counted as both.

COMBATSYS: Alexis just-defends Lord Mordread's Swift Backhand!

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Alexis           0/-------/------=|=------\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[ALEXIS]
As the sound of the chord echoes through the forest, yet her enemy persists forward, Alexis stands her ground. The crimson gauntlet swings toward her -

*KLANG*

- and smacks right into the body of the battle-guitar as the Earthrealm fighter raises it to intercept the blow. Her boots skid back through the fallen leaves from the force of the impact, but Alexis remains disheveled, yet unharmed, the ample curves of her figure bouncing lightly with the motion.

"So, what's up with the headgear, eh?" the punk-rocker muses aloud as she swings the guitar by the strap around to her back, freeing her hands. "Is that an Outworld thing, or are you just too ugly to show your face in public?"

Whirling around, Alexis whips her left leg up in a high, superhumanly swift arc, a faint howling sound like wind on glass accompanying the motion as she aims her boot up at the helmet - and should it connect, a more powerful ringing would be unleashed, sending a bone-rattlingly loud note through the metal armour and the area around!

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread interrupts Hammer-On from Alexis with Disemboweler.

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Alexis           0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
Alexis throws out her barbed insult, and as she approaches, Mordread's only response is to slightly tilt his helmeted head. Perhaps in confusion?

Or, perhaps he's waiting for the perfect moment to strike. As Alexis leaps up to connect with that skull-rattling kick, the armored tyrant takes one step backwards to end up more sideways even as his left hand grasps the middle of that glowing red flamberge, to treat it like more of a spear. And at the apex of the rocker's kick, as it glances off the side of that helmet, the King of Hel stabs the pointed end of his mighty Flamberge down into the woman's stomach, a quick rapid-thrust before he quickly pulls the weapon free, and stands over the woman. There is no expression in that helmet, and impossible to see beyond the shadow that the helm casts. But it's easy to imagine the grin on his face.

"Bards and their words. Amazing how they can create the illusion of value...it's why I have them whipped to death."

[ALEXIS]
As Alexis is left exposed, the flamberge sinks into the skin, sliding into the side of her stomach. Her eyes go wide with shock at the sensation - one less unfamiliar than it should be, but still a horrific realisation. She falls down to the ground, landing on her knees as she cradles the wound to try and stop the blood seeping out as her breathing becomes heavy.

"F-fucker..." is all the cheek that the Canadian can muster as she grits her teeth, shock giving way to pain. Her eyes close...

...and as they do, a keening sound can be heard throughout the forest - one that may give rise to fear in the lesser minions of Lord Mordread, as the sounds of damned souls join together in a howling chorus that rises up around her, whipping leaves and dirt around and away from her as the aura of aural power grows toward crescendo.

When Alexis' eyes open again, they are aglow - irises mismatched in topaz and ruby hues. Staggering up to her feet, deafened to the pain as she gives in to the control of the ritual magic, she shouts at Mordread:

"Come on! Is that all you've got?!"

COMBATSYS: Alexis surges with the power of rock!

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Alexis           1/----===/=======|===----\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
The damned bellow out wails of agony, and Mordread's royal subjects indeed start quaking, the dancers and the peasants looking around nervously, even the Lord's personal wine server looking around at the trees warily. But the man in the crimson armor merely stood in front of the girl, watching the blood upon the tip of the sword boil and smoke and sizzle away, and at the apex of the girl's demonstration of power, when she screams out that question, Mordread responds. Not with words, but with the sole of his sabaton. As he lifts up a leg, and smashes a powerful thrust-kick aimed at the rocker's sternum. If he was lucky, maybe he'd hear bones crack from the impact.

COMBATSYS: Alexis blocks Lord Mordread's Fierce Impact.

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Alexis           1/=======/=======|====---\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[ALEXIS]
As Lord Mordread raises his sabaton with violent intent, the noise in the air continues to build. It's only at the last moment before the metal sole descends on her, though, that she raises a bloodstained arm away from where it's holding back the sanguine flow to defend against the more pressing danger - and her other hand alongside it, letting the wound air. It's not running quite as severely as it was a few moments before, at least - and is forgotten for the time being amidst the deafening crash of Mordread's sole against the sonic aura protecting Alexis, which scatters debris from the forest floor around them and flattens the low grass, leaving a smooth surface in a meter's radius around the fighters' feet.

As that collision occurs, Alexis' chest swells with a deep inhalation.

A moment later, the exhalation is unleashed as a banshee scream, her yellow eye glowing brightly as scarcely-visible waves of focused sonic energy emanate forth from her, each filled with white wisps that join in the damned keening chorus - a wall of scything sound emitted at near point blank range toward the crimson Lord with enough force to sunder surrounding trees.

COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Lord Mordread with Shredding Solo EX.

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Alexis           1/-------/<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
Mordread looks down at the wailing banshee, mistaking the calm before the storm for helplessness. As he was preparing his sword for an executioner's swing, the truth is revealed, and the Lord's armor rattles violently as the trees behind him disintegrate, birds and bugs screaming silently against the soundwave as they are turned into puffs of red mist.

Perhaps that should have happened to the armored dreadnaught, and indeed he dropped to a knee as the onslaught was something he found disorienting beyond belief. His entourage all flee to the four winds, some of them caught up in the shockwave of sonic sound, and Mordread would have them beaten later when they returned. But right now he was focused purely on Alexis. His eyes gleamed with resentment, as a plan formed.

While she continued to make some noise, Mordread decided it was time to pull the plug. While on his knee, he leaned down and shot his arm out to try and grab her ankle. If he managed, he'd immediately stand to his full height and slam her down on her ribs, or face, or head or back against the ground. And moments later he'd do it again. And again. And again...

COMBATSYS: Alexis endures Lord Mordread's Repeated Slams.

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Alexis           1/----<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1    Lord Mordread

[ALEXIS]
As Mordread is made to kneel by her unleashed fury, Alexis loses herself in the moment of ecstatic pain, the suffering channeled through her form by the ritual magic that inscribed the metallic tattoos she bears - and in her moment of focused chaos, she leaves herself open to the hand grasping for her ankle.

*WHUMP*

*WHUMP*

*WHUMP*

The sound of soft flesh and hard bone against the forest floor is brutal and pierced through with cries of pain and anger that are swiftly cut short each time by a fresh impact. It's only in the midst of a fourth slam that Alexis, her bare skin now covered in scratches and bruises along her back, manages to find some purchase for her fingers to claw at the ground as she's about to be lifted up again. Swinging and pushing herself over, she twists in Mordread's grasp and rears back her free foot, aiming a ringing sonic-infused kick at the top of the Outworld noble's helmet as he's raising her up, intending to double him over with the blow - and, if she manages that, she'll swing her leg down to trap the Lord's helmet between her thighs. Strange, silvery ice-like crystals would rapidly start to form around the headwear - moments before Alexis would force her hips down to smash Lord Mordread's helmeted head into the ground, shattering the crystals with a devastating shockwave of sound...!

COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Lord Mordread with Drop D EX.

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Alexis           1/--=====/=======|=======\===----\1    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
Lord Mordread was so focused on smashing 'The Rocksteady One' against the forest floor, that he was blindsided by the kick across the side of his helmet, the sound of that impact echoing off of trees for miles on end. He's vulnerable as she grips her thighs around his crimson armor, and he's smashed so hard into the ground and those crystals, that there's a crater from the impact.

He lays there for a moment, perhaps beaten, perhaps ready to give up the ghost. But from the way heat gathers around him, from the way his mighty Flamberge catches ablaze even as he slowly rises from the earth, it's doubtful that this is going to be the end.

There are droplets of blood dripping down that helmet, sizzling as they hit the ground, but after a moment the bloodshed ceases and the Lord stands tall again. Shaking his head, he glares down at the woman, as he speaks in a mighty bellowing voice.

"It is time to cut the strings of thy harp, little cherub. Look upon the end of your life, and despair."

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread folds his arms across his chest, and looks very smug.

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Alexis           1/--=====/=======|=======\======-\1    Lord Mordread

[ALEXIS]
So caught up in the instinct of survival combat and the accompanying rush of adrenaline is Alexis that she doesn't notice the strange sensation running through her thighs from the resounding impact of metal on the ground reverberating through them until the yellow glow in her eye has faded to aquamarine and her senses have begun to momentarily clear. Lying a few feet away from the impact site, she props herself up on her elbows, wincing faintly at the onset of bruising and the exacerbated pain in her side. She's the first to her feet, but the unsteady feeling in her legs and need to cradle her wound for a moment give Mordread the opening he needs to rise back up to his full stature. Alexis looks him up and down as he speaks, seeming to take in his imposing aspect for the first time.

"I'm a long way from a cherub, asshole. And you wouldn't even be the scariest motherfucker who's killed me this week," she says hoarsely.

Then, with a sudden burst of battle-drive, she rushes the armoured warlord like a wildcat or ghoul, springing up with supernatural speed to try and crash in a cross-body splash against the crimson breastplate - an ambitious contest of flesh and metal were it not for the burst of vibrating noise that would accompany it. Then, attempting to avoid the pauldron spikes of the crimson plate with agility, she would try to swing herself around so that Mordread's helmet is hooked under her arm before throwing herself backward to drive him head-first into the ground, potentially unleashing another ground-cracking blast of distorted sound!

COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Lord Mordread with Stage Dive.

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Alexis           1/-======/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2    Lord Mordread

[LORD MORDREAD]
There were many advantages to being as armored as Lord Mordread was, but visibility was not one of them. Alexis breaks into a sprint and by the time the tyrant catches sight of her again, she's leaping up to slam herself against the chest of his breastplate, sliding him backward from the sonic-empowered impact. He's easy to maneuver around as Alexis turns it into an improvised bulldog, and driving him helm-first into the ground. Or, mostly. Mordread's Flamberge is stabbed down deep into the earth to help halt the descent some, and his left forearm hits the ground in a way that prevents him from being fully concussed. Still, it's a heavy impact, and the sudden whiplash is nothing to sneeze at.

Still, perhaps Alexis was expecting the Lord to stay down for longer, instead of springing to his feet the second he saw an opening. Perhaps she wasn't expectng that sword, ripped free of the earth, to now stab for her stomach, and probably wasn't expecting to be lifted high into the air by that weapon. If all this actually happened, and wasn't dodged, being impaled would be the least of the rocker's worries...

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread knocks away Alexis with An Offering To Asmodeus.

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Alexis           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|>>>----\-------\0    Lord Mordread

As Mordread holds Alexis high into the sky, her blood running down the crossguard and the Lord's own armored gauntleted fingers, the trickle of plasma upon the ground, mixed with the Magick Holy Flame of the sword itself, caused a circular sigil to form along the ground that glowed with orange yellow light. The Lord bellows out a powerful evil laugh, and as he stepped backward, the circle in the ground opened up into a yawning chasm, with winged imps holding pitchforks flying up and around in a circular pattern while screams and screeches and horrible roaring could be heard. A massive giant red hand reached out, two somehow hoofed fingers and a thumb clawing at the air in desperate want of...something. And Lord Mordread would provide that something.

As he swung his sword and threw Alexis down into that pit, to be caught by the creature and immediately pulled down where the horrible sounds of Hel could be heard, the man in crimson armor merely sat down upon his black iron throne, his wine server pouring him a very fine vintage year in Mordread's favorite evil jeweled goblet. Taking a sip, the armored juggernaut nodded in silent approval as the sounds of chaos continued down below.

Moments later that arm shot up yet again, clutching the form of Alexis in its powerful finger-things, slamming her down on the now solid ground as if it were spiking a football. The Demonic arm sunk into the earth before the rift completely closed, even as Mordred looks down at the rocker with what might have been a smug expression underneath that great helm.

"That was the finest song you've ever sung, bard. How I wish for an encore."

[ALEXIS]
Once again, Alexis' eyes go wide as she's stabbed through the stomach by the wicked blade of Mordread, this time a much more severe strike than before as she's caught off-guard. Before the shock can fully wear off, the pit opens beneath her - and she's flung inside.

The screams that emerge from the pit are both hers and not.

When she's slammed back to the Earth, she lies on her side in the fetal position, blood pooling beneath her from the stab wound and multiple other cuts across her ravaged body after the hellish encounter of the pit. Her entire body quakes as she forces herself up onto one knee, coughing up blood.

She gasps for air before muttering darkly:

"I always give... a fucking encore."

A red glint in her eye is the only warning before the punk rocker launches herself ghoulishly at Lord Mordread on his throne, a final surge of supernatural speed carrying her as she recklessly ignores the blood that starts to spray violently from her wounds as her heart pumps in overdrive.

She would attempt to straddle him on his chair, her blood pouring all over him should she succeed, her intent to hammer punch after howling punch against his head as she screams with whatever air her lungs have left in them - perhaps one of the worst lap dances imaginable.

Or the best, depending on what floats your boat.

COMBATSYS: Alexis has reached second wind!

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Alexis           0/-------/-------|>>>----\-------\0    Lord Mordread

And somehow, for the moment, she's still breathing - the dark magic imbuing her body sustaining her through what should be mortal injuries - for now.

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread interrupts Beatdown in Three Four from Alexis with By The Throat.
-@- Dazing Hit! -@-

[                                <
Alexis           0/-------/--<<<<<|

COMBATSYS: Lord Mordread can no longer fight.

[                                <
Alexis           0/-------/--<<<<<|

[LORD MORDREAD]
Mordread drains the wine, then tosses the goblet carelessly to one of his servants who wordlessly catches it. When Alexis gives her threat and lunges forward, the Lord at first does nothing, simply watching her get closer and closer, and noting the red gleam in her eye, the promise of violence.

Only when she leapt did the Dreadnaught rise to his feet, lunging forward to grab the girl by the throat and squeeze her throat in his malevolent hand even as she rained down punch after punch after punch against his gleaming crimson helmet. The sound of bone knuckles crunching against powerful steel might have been sickening to some, but Lord Mordread simply gave another powerful evil laugh. This was nothing. Right?

Except, that wasn't true. The eight foot conqueror was a little woozy on his feet, perhaps a bit punchdrunk as he started to realize he needed to do something else, she wasn't dying quickly enough. And so he tossed her up into the air, and backhanded her across the face on the way down to let her fly off into the woods. Then he fell forward, landing face first in the soft forest floor. Seemingly, entirely spent.

COMBATSYS: Alexis takes no action.


COMBATSYS: Alexis can no longer fight.


[ALEXIS]
As the sound of crashing trees can be heard in the distance, a strange voice booms through the Lin Kuei forest:

"MORDREAD WINS. FATALITY."

Log created on 20:48:29 07/30/2022 by Alexis, and last modified on 08:20:39 08/03/2022.