Match of the Millennium

Description: It's Germany vs Gun-kata down at the ole Bullfighting Ring (reformed).

[ALBERT]
Even after all the rapid hopping between mediterranean locations in the first stretch of this entire tournament, Albert still feels kind of out of place moving so much between geographical locations in such a short span of time. Sure, the last match was at least in the same country this time around, but it's still much more than the farmboy had been used to through basically the entirety of his life beforehand.

But at least he takes it as something exciting and new, rather than something exhausting for the time being. New places in the world to see! New people to meet! A chance to get a real sense of just how big the world is!

But right now, though, he actually feels kind of apprehensive. Not something he's been feeling... really at all prior to any of his previous fights either. He's always so pumped up normally! But now he's actually hesitating a little bit while he's peering ahead at the massive bullfighting ring waiting ahead of him. So what gives?

He isn't entirely sure about it himself, truthfully. But even if he is confused about it, that feeling is still there. He sure as hell knows he has never had any issue with facing everything the NFG has had to throw at him head-on before!

So why is he suddenly so nervous *now*?

"Come on..." The german mutters to himself while the faint, impatient sounds of the audience beyond ring through the hallway. And he actually has to slap himself on the cheeks with both his hands too. "Get it together!"

Just like any other time, right? Just run out there, full sprint ahead with a big leap and make some boisterous declaration for the spectators and the opponent both, right? Easy. And Albert does, after steeling himself, go for the dash...!

...But by the time he's actually out in the arena proper and in view, his speed has reduced to just merely walking again. The most he does on the way is pull out his sword from the scabbard at his hip and give it at least a bit of a flourish in his hand before propping it's (blunt) blade up against his shoulder.

And he stops then, upon reaching what he approximates to be the center of the arena proper. Even the usually-bright smile he now sweeps towards the crowds is more faint and nervous than anything else.

He just has to wait for his opponent now.

It'll probably be fine, right?

[ARISA]
MEANWHILE:

Albert's not the only person who's been having conflicting feelings about things, relating to the tournament AND this match. While Arisa is of course pleased to have come out of her match with Henry the winner, part of her really felt for the stunt-swordsman, given how he was talking toward the end of the match. If everything hadn't been such a whirlwind, she'd have liked to talked to him more... especially since he's one of the only other competitors so far that seemed to actually be nice to her!

Plus, the other demon-hunting elephant in the room. Arisa can't tell if she's relieved or disappointed that her parents didn't come to find her after her match, and settled for a congratulatory text message before heading back to Austin. Probably a little of both, she decides.

Then the brackets for the next round come out, and things get a little... more... complicated.

Blessedly, while Mexico City is close enough to Texas that Arisa's parents could justify attending in person, Colombia is a different situation entirely... because if she had to worry about her mom in the audience AND fighting Al one-on-one, that might have been just a tiny bit too much.

The extra arena being set up so the fighters aren't on the sand means that both Albert and Arisa have slightly longer walks than normal to get in the ring, and the NFG crew -- wanting to highlight local artists -- has been picking things like entrance music. But it does not help that as Arisa appears at the entrance gate on her side of the ring, Karol G's "Watati" starts playing on the speakers, which she gives a furrow-browed, annoyed glance at until she gets to the ring itself and stares across the distance at a distinctly subdued-seeming Albert.

A long silence, as the entrance music starts fading, before the Texan is the one to raise her voice first. "I mean, I know it's just Tom and Lou, but they're talking about us online, bro," she says, unable to keep from smiling a little bit. "You think we have an AO3 tag yet?"

[ALBERT]
Albert does at least maintain some measure of a smile when Arisa comes padding into the ring. It's still more subdued than before (and she'd definitely be able to tell as much from her vantage point), but still. The farmboy is reasonably glad to be seeing her still, clearly, though...

It is kind of a weird feeling. By some twist of fate, they hadn't been a single occasion so far where they had been put into the same ring, and he'd only met her on entirely social occasions prior (including a B&E into a swimwear store but nevermind that right now).

The nervousness in his expression is replaced, though, at least for a little bit, by some visible confusion once she's broken the silence.

"What's an eeh-ou-tree?"

Oh, you sweet, innocent farmboy. He actually seems pretty clueless about all the other 'talk online' too, for that matter. Maybe he hasn't been listening to any of those casts from the commentators?

"Well, honestly, I was kinda hoping I'd see you again before we ended up here, but... here we are, huh? Aheh..." Oh no, he's even giving an akward laugh and everything now. Only thing missing is him scuffing his foot against the ground! But thankfully, rather than doing that, he taps his sword-hammer lightly against his shoulder and comes stepping forward. In an entirely casual kind of manner, mind you, since the match hasn't been actually signaled to start.

"How about..." He murmurs, eyes tipping down towards the floor for just a brief moment before he gets close enough to... hold his free hand out, curled into a loose fist and knuckles presented to her. "Winner pays for dinner?"

[ARISA]
She really, REALLY wants to say 'I'll tell you when you're older' but something in Arisa's head suggests that the fresh-faced German will not at all get what she means by that. Thus, when the Texan is asked about AO3 -- and a 'loser buys dinner' wager proposed -- her reaction is to, instead, put up her hands in a what-can-you-do?-ish gesture and roll her shoulders. "I'll explain over dinner, apparently, but you better fight hard, 'cause the food here is REALLY good."

In truth, Arisa herself had ALSO hoped she'd had some time before the match to talk to Albert, but the two of them were a little busy getting redacted... and the NFG really barreled past the events on Horny Island [frantic backspacing] Tropical Island as fast as lawyerly possible, so there haven't been many opportunities. Plus, the events back in Mexico City meant there was a lot going on for her anyway.

Now, though... normally she'd admire the proverbial ripple on Albert's muscles, but she'd really rather admire them from farther away, in a combat context.

Then the bell rings and, well... she has no choice in the matter.

A sweep of the arm as Arisa produces a hefty sheet of origami paper, eyes locked onto Albert's even as she folds it rapidly without even looking. "Good luck, and if you take it even a little bit easy on me, I'm never gonna forgive you."

By the end of that little exchange, the paper has become a closed wagasa -- a Japanese paper umbrella, and once her point has been delivered, she gets around to delivering her point; that is to say, the Texan leaps at Albert umbrella-first, like a spear, a swirl of red-orange chi spiraling around the blow.

COMBATSYS: Arisa has started a fight here.

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Arisa            0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Albert has joined the fight here.

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Arisa            0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0           Albert

COMBATSYS: Albert blocks Arisa's Nanten Jutsu - Tobihi.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Arisa            0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0           Albert

[ALBERT]
Well, now Albert is going to be left wondering about that for the rest of the day!

Or, at least for the next couple of seconds before their attention is very strictly demanded by the incoming fight. And you know, generally it's not good to spend your time thinking about "what is this strange site that your friend was talking about" while you're also in immediate danger of getting smacked in the face by a magic origami umbrella/spear.

Thankfully for ALbert, he's quick enough on the uptake even with that brief pre-fight back-and-forth. The moment she's unfurling the origami, he's turning his own sword out off of his shoulder. And with her coming in thrusting her weapon out like a spear, he quickly has his own there right in front of him, with free hand braced against the slant of it to help steady it there right as the point of the spear-umbrella impacts into it from the opposing side.

The physical blow itself doesn't so much as phase him. His feet are firmly anchored and his posture doesn't so much as wobble. But--

The energy spiraling around the umbrella-spear overflows past his sword, and it actually sparkles around his own forearms for a split second. ANd that? Oh that one makes his eyes actually widen out a bit, before making him instinctively snap his feet and hands both back with an uncharacteristic "Wah!" Almost like he had just accidentally laid his hands onto a stovetop that was blasting at full heat.

"I think I'm gonna have more problems than that if I hold back...!" the german faux-knight mumbles while shaking out his free hand to try to get some of that lingering sensation away from him. All while he's actually still bouncing back a couple more step's worth. That stung in an entirely unfamiliar way and he's suddenly feeling awful wary about that!

The further retreat does leave him well out of sword-range from her. But the last of his retreating steps turns into him pushing his weight forward to force his momentum to stop from that retreating path.

"Alright-- let's have a good time then!!"

WIth that, much more in-character, energetic declaration, he sends a wide grin back to her before suddenly POUNCING! Right up forward, and into the air, guiding his body to flipping over once in the air before coming falling down towards Arisa -- and swinging his sword down towards her with the further assistance of gravity!

COMBATSYS: Albert successfully hits Arisa with Gutsy Leap!.

[      \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////////////////   ]
Arisa            0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0           Albert

[ARISA]
It's maybe for the best that Albert's whole schtick is GUTS!(tm) because if he were just a slightly DIFFERENT kind of nerd, Arisa hears herself think as she watches the German wannabe-knight descend from the sky, he'd be shouting 'ALBERT METEOR' and the result would be absolutely intolerable, rather than simply frustrating.

But it IS frustrating, because the Texan's attempt to juke out of the way did not account for one thing: Albert and all his gear have more MASS that Arisa would have anticipated, which means he is going to fall faster than she calculated. The result is that he barrels into her, hard, sending Arisa stumbling back more than a few steps with a sharp grimace and a hiss of pain.

She knew that was gonna hurt, but she was clearly not prepared for how MUCH it was going to hurt. Still... one exchange of blows does not a fight make by any stretch of the imagination, and like Henry, it actually matters to Arisa that this is a fight with someone who seems to respect and even like her: the sort of thing she actually signed up for and there has been precious little of in the NFG so far.

"Hey, don't be pushy," Arisa teases, as she kneels somewhat, recovering from the hammerblow force of that attack. The fingers on her right hand flex slightly, and then as she rises, they're suddenly holding a stoppered bottle of a light blue liquid, which Arisa swings upward with her arm as she stands, the liquid making a glittery arc in the air between her and the now quite close Albert... before bursting into blue-white sacred fire, because it's genuine holy water in that there bottle. "A girl needs her space!"

COMBATSYS: Arisa successfully hits Albert with Tequila Sunrise.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Arisa            0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\0           Albert

[ALBERT]
THUMP goes the ground when Albert's feet land with all the weight of his own non-trivially-muscular mass with all the other gear added on top. It's weighty enough to send some faint hint of leftover dust (and a faint layer of sand that was probably brought there by wind and whatnot) blowing out in a shockwave-like effect.

There is a faint hint of concern in his eyes after that landing though. He does understand the whole concept of people getting into this expecting to get hurt to some extent, and even accepting that on his part! But he does still feel just a bit of lingering guilt whenever it seems like he might have actually hurt someone, and for some reason that just feels stronger here now. It doesn't quite get to hte point where he might try to do something as insulting and ask her if she's okay though.

But what he does do is let out a flabbergasted "WHuh-huh?" at the particular form her banter takes while she's bringing herself to a rise. "I didn't mean to--!"

Whatever apologetic defense he was going to offer as a result of apparently taking her words at face-value for some reason, despite being SO OBVIOUSLY just friendly banter, it's all cut short by the sudden realization that: 1) There's some kind of liquid getting splahed his way 2) The aforementioned liquid has been set aflame.

"Oh shi--"

All this leads to Albert being, frankly, altogether pretty damn unprepared for this form of assault she has chosen to level on him. The holy water splashes across his armored front, and what bits of cloth are peeking out from underneath his chestplate, and more or less the entirety of his shirt's sleeves, they all catch fire as a result!

"GAH! AWAWAWA--!"

And this, in turn, leaves ALbert instinctively staggering back again, and flailing his arms at nearly cartoonish speeds in an effort to pat the flames down into extinguishment. "HOT! GAH! HOTHOTHOTHOT!!"

Thankfully, the sheer speed at which he flails his arms seems to manage to force the flames down to just embers. Maybe he actually created a miniature, localized whirlwind there to help douse them? Who knows. But still, by then, he's felt the burn of the flames a bit too closely, and there's several holes burnt open into his shirt -- and one of his sleeves has been obliterated completely to the point of fully exposing an arm rippling with thick muscle!

"D-didn't think you were into drinks *that* strong..." Albert mutters afterwards, still instcintively patting at his other arm to try to chase off the last embers there. Quite flustered both from the pain and the rather embarrassing display he put up with his reaction to being hit by such a thing.

With a bit of a huff, he burts up forth again, trying to quickly regain the distance that was pushed between the two of them at the end of that last exchange. Not going for anything fancy-- just a quick, jab-like swing with his sword towards her shoulder -- though with all the muscle behind him (some of which can be seen now too!) even such a thing has quite a bit of heavy weight behind it nonethless! It's a good thing there's no actual edge in that fake sword of his.

COMBATSYS: Arisa dodges Albert's Quick Strike.

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Arisa            0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1           Albert

[ARISA]
It's... well. It's not exactly FUNNY when you kinda sorta set your nobody's-really-sure potentially-boyfriend on fire (specifically holy flame used for exorcisms; perhaps Albert has the devil in him?!). But somehow, Albert's REACTION to... well, being set on fire, causes a swift-moving weather front of emotions to sweep across Arisa's face in a very brief amount of time. Amusement, surprise, and guilt sweep through at speed, the Texan seeming to experience all of those in short order.

Blessedly, Albert is... singed, obviously, but none the worse for wear afterwards, which IS a bit of a visible relief to his opponent. Fighters are tough by nature, after all, and Albert's a particularly tough cookie even by those standards, but there's 'shrug off a punch' tough and 'that was intended to burn demons' tough. Fun fact: Albert is tougher than the the average low-ranking demon or devil!

He jokes about strong drinks, and Arisa actually gives a light little laugh, slipping back into a fighting stance and fighting readiness. "Alright, if you can make jokes about my drinking habits, you're fine," she throws back. "Besides, legal age in the States is 21." This is a safer joke than 'I'm not sure what drinking holy water would do', certainly.

Jokes are one thing, and sword jabs are another, however. Arisa's already taken one 'punch' from Albert and blunted or not, she has 0 interest in feeling what that's like a second time... which is probably inevitable, as the fight's just started, but she's gonna put that off as long as humanly possible. Seemingly counterproductively, when Albert starts taking off to dash at her, Arisa decides to do the same to HIM. Perhaps she has simply been entranced by his even more visible muscles and has given up on competing to rush into his arms?!

Possibly, but unlikely, since just as the two are near to colliding, the Texan suddenly gets low (gets low, moves side to side)... baseball slide low, in fact. With her speed and comparatively diminutive frame, Arisa literally slides *between Albert's legs*, slipping under and past him, just as he strikes out for her.

Tom and Lou gonna have a FIELD DAY with that one in the match recap.

Sliding to a halt opposite her opponent, Arisa plants a hand, using it to pivot into a kneeling turn so she's facing Albert before getting to her feet and producing another sheet of origami paper, swiftly folded into... a tanto, a short Japanese sword. "Okay, Al-kun... it's time we literally crossed swords." Ducking forward, she looks to do... exactly what Albert just attempted to do to her. A folded origami tanto -- hardened by onmyoujutsu or not -- has no more of a cutting edge than Albert's dulled blade, but it still might sting a bit if he takes it on the shoulder!

COMBATSYS: Arisa successfully hits Albert with Quick Strike.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            0/-------/-======|=======\==-----\1           Albert

[ALBERT]
"Twenty-one? Really?" Albert seems genuinely surprised by hearing that! He didn't really even get a chance to think about the differences in drinking age laws between countries before now, not even on the cruise ship, since it was probably still sailing under some kind of european flag. But, he is German, and for them, well... "It's sixteen for us! That's kinda crazy!"

Not that Albert really seems the type who would joyfully gorge on alcohol at a young age just because he could. But nevermind all that for now.

What's more pertinent at hand is just how Arisa avoids his attempted counter-attack. He actually lets out a bit of a yelp of a surrpise and jumps a bit by instinct, almost as if his body was reflexively warning to watch out and try not to get hit in the crotch by the head sliding past so dangerously close underneath it!

Thankfully though, Albert is too innocent to really properly comprehend just what kind of akward imagery that could have possibly lead to. Maybe he will learn if someone makes him listen to the after-fight commentary, though...

Quickly spun around to face after her, he gets treated to the sight of her forming her origami into... a short sword? No, a tanto is probably considered more of a dagger in the more official circles, but Albert himself can't really tell the difference. Either way, his eyes light up with some measure of excitement thanks to the declaration she has made in turn, and he actually slightly adjusts his posture to try to mimic a more proper fencer's posture. "Let us, then...!"

Oh yeah, he's absolutely into it. Even if his attempt at swiftly deflecting the swing of her origami-blade is just mistimed enough that it slips past his own weapon and smacks straight on to his shoulder. His other eye squints shut briefly in a wince of pain, but... as it turns out, he is much better at gritting his teeth through blunt force trauma than he is in doing the same through waves of energy and *freakin' holy fire*. He migth stagger back a bit from the impact, but only an inch or so -- and his body is immediately recoiling right back after forward, instead of letting her push distance between the two of them.

"Here I come--!!"

And there he comes indeed. Seemingly intent on pushing right into her personal space while her sword arm's still extended out in the aftermath of her own attack, he brings his hammer-sword swinging diagonally from down low for her side again. But not just that -- be it blocked, evaded or even taken straight into her side, the rebound from the hit is used to carry his sword hand back to a different wind-up, for another followup-attack. And again! And again! Five total times, from different angles, in a relentless series of quick attacks!

"DORARARARA!!!"

COMBATSYS: Arisa fails to counter Gutsy Swings! EX from Albert with Chouten Jutsu - Mitsuboshi EX.

[               \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            1/----===/=======|=======\==-----\1           Albert

[ARISA]
Oh this was SO COOL in her head, Arisa thinks to herself, moments before it all goes wrong. It was going to look SO COOL on camera. It fit the dramatic energy Albert was bringing.

The problem is that it relied on the Texan making a very dramatic and effective blade-clashing parry of Albert's first strike which she manifestly and completely DOES NOT DO.

The result is still pretty dramatic, but -- and her bias could be forgiven on this one -- probably not as cool, from Arisa's point of view, because her origami tanto gets knocked out of her hand and ends up flying into a nearby wall with enough force that it's *embedded in the concrete*, and that gives you some sort of idea what kind of force is behind each one of Albert's followup strikes, of which there are, dear reader, multiple. The same lithe constitution that let her baseball slide past Albert's strike means that she goes tumbling across the arena to the other side after the German's final blow, landing in a crumpled heap.

AND YET.

Hand slamming palm down on the mat, Arisa levers herself back up to a standing position, looking bruised and battered but very definitively NOT unconscious. "'Dorararara', huh," she mutters, mostly to herself, with a faint grin, getting back into stance. When she speaks next, it's a little louder, an obvious to-be-heard voice. "Alright, I can Shounen Jump it up if needs be," the Texan declares, pointing dramatically at Albert. "This isn't even my final freakin' form, so come at me, bro!"

[ALBERT]
The final swing - the one that knocks Arisa away - comes with an energetic stomp down onto the matted ground on Albert's part, and a deep huff of air expelled through his nostrils. It's a good thing that she was knocked away, too, because he's a little winded after that -- and the final swing was hard enough that his arm's left going wide with the rebound too. Gives him time now to recover from all that.

But that little thing she says, purposefully loudly, once she's back on her feet actually makes Albert glance off to the side sheepishly and mutter, "I have no idea what you mean..." Sure he doesn't. That is definitely the look of someone who has absolutely no idea what Arisa is talking about.

The *second* thing she shouts out, with the fingerpointing and all, makes him blink at her then -- before his lips twist into a wide, toothy grin all over again. "Alright--! Better be ready to show me what you got then!!"

ANd like that, he kicks himself into gear again! Pouncing one step's forth forward before suddenly making a small bounce forward -- and landing right after, with his shins first on the ground in just the way that sends him sliding like a massive bowling ball right for Arisa's legs!

You know. In a move that is definitely legally distinct from Ky Kiske's Stun Dipper. Absolutely no relation.

COMBATSYS: Albert successfully hits Arisa with Gutsy Slide!.
- Power hit! -

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\====---\1           Albert

[ARISA]
Hmmm.

It's pretty clear at this point that this fight is not exactly going Arisa's way, bravado or no. Her intention, when Albert comes sliding at her, is to backflip away and let his inertia bring him to a stop well short of her position. The problem is that she appears to wait a little too late; Albert's extended leg clips Arisa's ankle, which doesn't seem like it should be a problem... except for the part where it throws the balance of her flip off, so not only does she not travel as far and thus gets hit by Albert himself, but when she lands, the back of her head slams onto the mat extremely painfully.

It takes a second for her to get back up, long enough that the NFG folks are starting to look more than a little concerned that she might not at all, but eventually the Texan hauls herself to her feet, clutching her head with her hands for a little bit before turning back to Albert with a weary smile. "I'm gonna regret saying this when the clips come out," Arisa says, voice a little thick, "but I'm not giving it away for free, Al. Even if I go down, I'm going down fighting the entire way, so you better get ready."

Then she jumps.

What she's about to do is going to get very, very complicated, so much so that there's no way she can just stand there toe to toe with Albert while she prepares. And while her performance so far might make it clear that physical resilience isn't her strong point, what the Texan DOES have is speed and precision.

Which is how we find her on the ropes of the secondary arena. Literally: running on the ropes themselves, two hands reaching into whatever ninja-like dimension she keeps her gear and producing both an ofuda sealing charm, and Blue Topaz, one of her mother's guns, complete with blue topaz charm in the shape of a star hanging from the grip.

"You who watches over warriors," the Texan yells breathlessly, one hand folding the ofuda into a shape familiar to NFG watchers, "descend here now!"

All done *while running on the ropes*.

The ofuda, now shaped into a bullet, suddenly gets thrown into the air, which feels counterproductive... until Arisa moonsaults after it, so that she is upside down... and her own thrown bullet slips into the custom top-loading ammo chamber made for this exact purpose.

Upside down, flying through the air, one eye squinted shut for aim, she yells a familiar line -- "Kyu kyu nyo ritsu ryo!" -- before pulling the trigger.

The curse bullet, trailing streamers of purple-blue-black, screams across the distance toward Albert. It's do or die time.

COMBATSYS: Albert blocks Arisa's Hybrid Jutsu - Tansei Overdrive.

[                     \\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////              ]
Arisa            0/-------/---<<<<|=======\=======\1           Albert

[ALBERT]
The sliding, completely-original maneuver on Albert's part did end in a stamp of palm against the ground to anchor and pivot him around to facing the knocked-over Arisa all over again, and simultaneously sweep him right up onto the bracing of his feet proper. Once again, there was a brief, faint look of concern for the state of the Texan, but then, right after, with her declaration of renewed resolve, he does flash a wide smile.

"Wouldn't want it any other way. Come on, bring it!"

He might regret giving her that encouragement. He certainly didn't expect her to go leaping and running along the ropes surrounding the arena! With a rapid series of surprised blinks, the faux-knight turns himself along to make his best effort at tracking her with a deep frown of attempted focus.

"Aren't those supposed to bend under weight?!"

With a huff, the german farmboy bursts into motion, sprinting up to attempt to follow after her now. He's keeping up surprisingly good pace and tracking, despite needing to curve himself quite a few times over to keep himself from colliding into the parts of the ropes she isn't at the time.

"Wait, what are you--" He manages to let out when the bullet goes flying up. Doesn't she need that? To shoot and stuff? He looks very much confused-- for the 1.1 seconds before it falls straight into the chamber of her pistol.

And more importantly, gets shot at him.

There's a lot of stories where a master swordsman deflects a bullet with his sword. Guess now it's time to see if Albert manages to emulate that at all. The fraction of a second he realizes she's about to pull the trigger, he swipes his word out in front of him. Just in time--

To bring the very edge of the blunt blade colliding into the bullet.

This, miraculously, does result in it deflecting off the metal instead of getting embedded into his chest. But it does also happen to cause a good chunk to get broken off of the sword--

And unfortunatley for Albert, the trajectory created by the deflecting maneuver isn't *quite* high enough to send it sailing completely clear of him. It flies to graze right along the curve of his left shoulder, enough to not only scrape off a good bit of fabric from his shirt, but both snap off the shoulderstrap of his breastplate - and send the piece of armor ajar and hanging loosely towards the opposing side of him - *and* pierce into flexing muscle there before colliding into bone and bouncing off to go past him. It is still *significantly* better of an outcome than completely facetanking it but oh boy does it *hurt*, and it shows in Albert's wincing face.

But it's still not the worst physical hit he's taken. Oh no, not by a long shot. He doesn't stagger back. He doesn't even stop running after Arisa.

"Hey, getting shot isn't as bad as I th-!"

THUMP.

"...ought?"

Albert is suddenly down on one knee. So suddenly that his momentum actually continues in such a manner that his knee and other foot are sliding forward -- and in a bit of a comical fashion, he has to slap his free hand down against the ground again to keep himself from toppling over again just when he'd realized that something is, in fact, *wrong*.

"Wha-...?"

Sure, there's blood dripping down from his shoulder, and it stings *a lot*, but he was pretty sure he was going to be able to shrug that off. There isn't anything visibly wrong with him, is there? But there's something he feels beyond just that physical injury. It's like there's something otherworldy throbbing inside him?

"What was *in* that? Guh."

Stabbing his sword down against the ground to use as extra support to push himself up with. He's probably given Arisa a lot of time to reposition herself with already. He can't give her even more room! So with an outright stubborn burst of energy, he launches himself up from that single-kneeled position, and forces himself back into motion in spite of that alien feeling thrumming through him.

"It ain't enough to put me down!!"

And trying his damned best to prove that to her, he comes dashing in after her, in an almost desperate maneuver meant just to bring him back into range of her with a wild vertical swing of his sword from above to down.

COMBATSYS: Albert successfully hits Arisa with Random Strike.

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Arisa            1/-------/<<<<<<<|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2           Albert

[ARISA]
Shrugging off bullets would not particularly shock Arisa. After all, even beginner fighters are (by normal human standards) superhumanly resilient, and jutsu reinforcement or not, it IS paper. Deflecting them like it's nothing is a different situation, and that gets a raised eyebrow and then a little whistle from Arisa of appreciation. Yeah, it's not exactly great that her attack didn't land clean, but you have to give credit where credit is due.

Albert's seeming confusion about the rest of it, however, does make a slightly puzzled look cross the Texan's face as she stows the gun she just used, stepping back a bit and circling Albert warily. "I mean... it WAS glowing pretty colors, Al-kun. Don't take this the wrong way but that should have tipped you off, probably?" Also there was wacky Japanese chanting! Come on, man, you KNOW Al's read Naruto.

But true to his energetic nature, Albert comes careening back at her at... no shade intended, but a wobbly, unsteady pace. It SHOULD be an easy evasion, a quick step out of -- appropriate for the venue -- a charging bull. But luck, or perhaps the kami, are not on Arisa's side; her 'easy' juke gets fully and totally interrupted by the arc of Albert's downward swing, though perhaps fortunately the blunt blade plus the change in angle means that it slams into her shoulder rather than somewhere worse... but given the egregious physical strength he has, that's more than enough at this point. Clutching her shoulder, Arisa stumbles back, eyes briefly squinted shut and hissing through her teeth.

When she steadies herself, however, she looks back at her [choose one: opponent, rival, love interest, other (please specify)] and opens one eye, giving a wolfish grin... hardly what you'd expect from someone who just lost a fight. "I guess it wasn't in the cards this time... curse your weird minotaur strength and my frail, sexy body."

Arisa straightens a bit, however, opening her other eye and bringing a hand up holding another ofuda. "But a Texas girl never, ever goes out quietly... and you better believe the next one's gonna go differently, so look forward to it."

With a flick of the wrist, the single ofuda is revealed to be a fan of seven of them, which start to glow with a silvery light. "The calm mind reflects the full moon," is all Arisa mutters, before throwing the ofuda into the air. Not even AT Albert or anything, just... into the air.

This makes more sense when they hit the arena floor and Albert is suddenly surrounded by eight silvery-limned Arisas, only one of which is real.

"See you at dinner, Al," they chorus in identical words, before all eight rush Albert, striking with supernaturally-summoned blows formed of pure spiritual energy.

After all's said and done, however, the 'real' Arisa -- who's on the other side of Albert from where she started -- has a seat on the arena floor. "Okay. Siri, start looking for a buffet."

COMBATSYS: Arisa can no longer fight.

[             \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Albert           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|

COMBATSYS: Arisa successfully hits Albert with Chouten Jutsu - Hakkekyou EX.

[                    \\\\\\\\\\  <
Albert           2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|

[ALBERT]
Albert is, indeed, a bit on the wobbly side. Enough so that, even after his blunt hammer-sword has collided with Arisa's shoulder, he still is wobbly enough on his feet to send him stumbling two steps along forward thanks to the force of the swing's rebound. He's even panting audibly by the time he steadies himself again to look after Arisa. He might have an outright herculean ability to shrug off purely physical blows, but the farmboy-turned-knight-to-be is clearly not used to handling anything more supernatural. Blunt force trauma, cuts, even gunshots? Sure, no biggie. Magical fire and curses made manifest? Oh hell no. They hurt in an entirely different way, in a kind of quality that his body is simply not used to.

Either way, the faux-knight takes the chance to simply watch how well Arisa is recovering from taking that hit. And her initial 'complaint' does bring an uncharacteristically shy smile from him. "Aheh... I mean, I dunno about 'frail'..." Nothing to say about the other qualifier she gives her body though. Wether or not that might be counted as agreement is up to interpretation. Not to mention that he notably also doesn't have any kind of protest to offer over being compared to a minotaur.

Her following, defiant declaration then makes him take one step back in preparation, and sweep his sword to the side in a flourishing display. "Alright, then! Show me how bright you can shine!"

Of course, he didn't really expect her to throw her paper amulet - or no, wait, amulets, plural? - straight up into the air. He even mutters audibly, "Wait, what are you doing?"

Of course, that confusion was *before* the amulets landed and turned into Shadow Clone Arisas.

"...Oh."

The farmboy's head turns rapidly this way and that, and his eyes flicker from one Arisa Clone to the other, clearly having a bit of a hard time figuring out just how exactly he's going to get himself out of this particular jam. Eventually, he ends up deciding on just swinging his sword randomly into one of the clones, in hopes that he might catch the real one and disrupt the technique enough for him to mount some manner of defense!

Unfortunately for Albert, his sword just goes through the spiritual energy of what turns out to be just another clone.

"Scheisse--!"

There's a brief moment where Albert's silhouette is nearly entirely concealed by a flash of light from the concentrated spiritual energy of Arisa Times Eight smashing into him. And once the light - and the Shadow Clones - fades away, what's left is a very, very unsteady Albert. Wobbling and swaying on his feet, arms limp at his sides and head even tipped back a little with his eyes rolled far enough back in their sockets to just leave the whites of them exposed. His breastplate, with the last remaining supporting strap burnt off, finally gives away to the force of gravity and falls completely off of the poor boy, the front and back pieces both landing onto the arena floor with a loud clatter. And with his shirt already burnt and torn up earlier from the burning holy water and what have you, this effectively leaves his muscular self even more exposed than before, with almost the entirety of the lower half of his shirt burnt and frayed off and roughly one half of his chest also left bared from amidst it all. Truly a vision of a battle-worn, wounded and battered hero.

A couple swaying, uncontrolled steps. And then finally, he loses the center of his balance outright, and tips over forward...

"Guh!"

At the last second, Albert manages to force his right foot forward and stomping down onto the ground underneath him with enough force to send a small cloud of dust billowing out. A last bit of effort to keep himself from outright faceplanting while he's already tipped over nearly into 60-degree angle. His body shakes there in that uncomfortable position for a couple seconds, before he manages to forcefully push himself up with that foot's leverage back the other way. He damn near ends up tipping too far back to the point where he'd probably just end up falling over to the opposite side, but he manages to just barely sway himself forward again and steady himself to at least some extent.

"Grrraaaaah!"

He's still wobbly, but he manages to turn over to look to where Arisa has sat herself down at least. A few seconds of heavy, panting breaths, and a studying look made to assess just how likely it is that she might be getting up from there... and ultimately he simply slips his sword to it's sheath at his hip, and moves to slowly to her with slow steps.

"You were really bright back there, Arisa," he offers, in spite of all the wear and tear he's gathered now, to the point that he's still keeping one eye squeezed shut from some lingering hurt. But that doesn't stop him from offering a warm smile down to her anyway. Along with a hand extended down towards her, in a more nonverbal offer.

COMBATSYS: Albert has ended the fight here.


[ARISA]
It'd be extremely easy for Arisa to be a poor sport about this. Lord knows it would give Tom and Lou something to do (and perhaps ironically keep the Inventing Things they do to a minimum), but the Texan didn't come here for drama. She came to compete, and that's what she did. Yeah, she wasn't able to take the win this time, but it's not like Albert came out of this pristine, and, well...

As she takes the offered hand -- while she's not exactly in fighting shape, she seems in relatively decent form, otherwise, not in any danger of unconsciousness -- the Texan grins at her opponent. "Compliments and chivalry aren't gonna save you from the severe asswhupping you're gonna get whenever we rematch, Al-kun," Arisa says, grinning, grey eyes bright with what could be described as 'mischief'. "Count on it."

For a moment, they're just standing there in the ring, hands clasped, with nothing to do but look at each other. Arisa seems to realize she's grinning like an idiot, then suddenly blinks and stops, eyes going wide, before she ABRUPTLY turns from Albert's stupid face and towards the broadest arc of the audience all around them, yanking her hand (and by extension, Albert's) upward. "MAKE SOME NOISE FOR YOUR BOY, HUH?!" she yells.

The crowd obliges. How could you not in this situation?

After a few moments of applause, she brings her arm down and takes her hand back, grinning again at Albert... and then producing her phone. "Oh wow, I was just doing a meme but my phone was listening. Apparently there's a fritangas--" her Spanish pronounciation being pretty strong, considering where she grew up "--place not that far from here? And I'm legal in this country. Fried stuff on sticks and some sort of fruity drink wtih an umbrella in it sounds good to me."

[ALBERT]
"Aheh... I wouldn't dare to try to get you to go easy on me or anything," Albert insists with a toothy grin meeting the mischievous look from Arisa. "I'll look forward to it, okay?"

And just like that, they're left in that akward moment of just... staring at each other. Holding hands. Albert's expression even takes on a slightly shyer tone while he mumbles, "So..." Yup. Someone's definitely snapping a photo of *this* exact moment from the stands and sending it to Tom and Lou to keep the rumor mill rolling even more.

He finds his hand swept up into the air, though! And he might react int he first second or so with wide-eyed surprise, but then he's at least trying to lean into it in his usual kind of bright-eyed fashion, and just grinning as bright as the sun up to the spectator stands.

ALthough she does also grasp his attention pretty quickly afterwards. He tilts his head in a distinctly puppy-like manner to the side, but... even then, he still offers a warm smile. "I don't know what a 'free tanga' is..." Oh god, he *completely* butchered that pronounciation. "But sure! That sounds good!" He does find himself almost *immediately* wobbling a bit when he tries to take a step forward though. "...Oh, um... Maybe after we've had a sit down though, huh?"

[ARISA]
"No!" Arisa barks, grabbing Albert's hand (again) and yanking him after her out of the ring if she has to. "No sit. Only piña colada." Didn't these two just beat the heck out of each other? Where is this energy coming from? How many blocks is this restaurant anyway? What is Drunk Arisa going to be like?!

Faito, Albert.

Log created on 10:44:30 12/15/2024 by Arisa, and last modified on 13:17:31 12/24/2024.