Description: Sada and Flora fight in dumb armor. Flora wins :( (Winner: FLORA?!)
COMBATSYS: Flora has started a fight here.
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Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sada has joined the fight here.
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Sada 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Flora
Flora feels like she looks like an idiot.
This is not unusual. She often feels embarassed because of the way she looks, and the comments she gets a lot of the time don't help. Normally, however, it is not because she is wearing an authentic (so they claim) legionary's breatplate, helmet, apron... She hopes she can draw the bow in this. At least it flattens her chest back and doesn't have any protruding shoulder guards.
And the Coliseum, Flora has to admit, is actually kind of neat. She's been in it for a while, just looking around, carrying her bow/staff around so she can get used to moving in her armor. It's hot, but not that uncomfortable; she must be stronger than she looks.
Sada doesn't like wearing all this ironmongery, and Italy stinks of white people. That is her considered judgment, although she has to admit that the buildings are kind of pretty for stone.
Most of her 'warm up' had been in the form of doing some light jumping around, slinging around her kusarigama to make sure she can at least do the moves she needs to, and then sitting down in the shade to drink a little tea. Now, of course, the time draws nigh, and she clanks upright, stepping out into the colosseum itself.
"It's amazing any of them wore armor, if it was this annoying," she says to Flora, conversationally.
"It's good at protecting you," Flora says; by now she's comfortable enough to talk around Sada more casually, at last when Sada isn't in a Mood. Fortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case tonight. To demonstrate, she brings up her fist and raps it against her chest; it doesn't seem to hurt her any.
She steps away from the edge of the building, where she was looking at a wall. The crowd is now visible, which /does/ makes her nervous; she tries to ignore it as she steps out.
Sada WAS in a mood before, largely over the pageant. On the one hand, third place! On the other hand, out of three.
Now she's seemed quite cheerful. She raises an eyebrow (which isn't armored) at the rattling tap and moves a little closer, stepping easily as she says, "Still... they were using mostly weapons back then, so I suppose it's appropriate. I bet a good fist-fighter would be able to get around this; and I suppose we, too, have the benefit of experience..."
Then, the Italian sun! Sada squints. "You ready?" she says, twirling the weighted end of the kusarigama at her side in a casual, easy looping motion - on the side that isn't facing Flora, at least for now. "With this armor, we won't have to take it easy..."
Flora didn't enter that pageant for a very good reason.
Flora pauses a moment to make sure her quiver is on the outside of her armour and easily accessible. It's not quite where it normally sits, so she needs to be sure. "I'm ready," she says after that, sliding it around so it's pointing the right way.
She briefly wonders if she should have tested her blunt arrows on things /first/, but elects to not worry about it... any more than usual.
Sada says, with a sweet little smile, "Then may the best lady win!" And then the whistle is blown, indicating that it is on, as they say in Naples.
Sada is already in a good position, and with the armor on it's hard to tell if her stance changed very much. She does, however, spin the kusari much faster as she takes a step towards Flora, watching carefully as the taller girl positions herself and her bow. Hm, Sada reasons, we both have the ranged advantage, but hers is greater than mine... and she's going to carry that armor better with that horribly deformed, over-sized body. It's a shame...
"Huah!" Sada shouts, whipping the chain and its length forwards with a sudden overhand sling! The weapon snaps out, aimed to wrap with sudden squeezing tightness around Flora's arm and yank it out of alignment. The armor can't help with the tension of joints that can be broken, after all! Right? Right.
COMBATSYS: Sada successfully hits Flora with Odani Foundation Art.
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Sada 0/-------/------=|==-----\-------\0 Flora
The armor cannot, in fact, help with that - and Flora might be able to carry the armour better by virtue of her size and strength, but she's still not used to it. Her arm is tangled and pulled toward Sada, making her stagger to avoid having it pulled out - but her other arm, holding the staff, is still free. As are her legs.
Flora brings her staff around in a wide arc, trying to strike Sada while it spins in her hand; an awkward-looking thing to do, to make it spin around and around and around like a propeller, but it seems effective enough as she finally delivers one pounding strike with it to Sada, to try to get her to let go.
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Spinning Staff.
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Sada 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Flora
The staff comes down with brutal force at Sada's helmeted head, where there is a resounding 'clang'. This of course keeps Sada from experiencing quite as much pain as she might, and she jerks back a half-second later than she might otherwise...
But the kusarigama does come loose, Sada jerking it back as she says, still hearing the helmet ring, "Not bad."
What comes next feints towards the side with the kusari, the weighted chain end slinging towards her - but Sada dashes inwards as the weapon spirals loose, slicing upwards with the kama itself! She's using a metal one today, perhaps for the sake of SNF or for the sake of dealing with metal armor; either way, the strike is aimed up and beneath the torso armor, trying to hook beneath it and hopefully against Flora's /tender flesh/.
COMBATSYS: Flora blocks Sada's Medium Strike.
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Sada 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Flora
The armor is helping Flora, too, although she's still not entirely used to it. She leans forward slightly, and instead of sliding under the armour, the metal kusari-gama hits at about her navel and leaves a bright scrape up the metal up and towards her left shoulder. She felt the impact, but at least she's not bleeding. Bruised, maybe, but not bleeding.
Flora tries something she rarely does; she lifts her leg and delivers a straight kick. Due to the height difference she can pretty easily get it up to about gut level on Sada, although the armor makes it slightly awkward. "I think - it's going to make me sore later," she admits, once her foot is airborne.
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Heavy Kick.
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Sada 0/-------/--=====|=======\-------\1 Flora
Sada attempts to leap backwards. She does a little sort-of-hop instead. Then HER ASS GETS KICKD! Well, her forefront. She staggers back with a grimace, saying as she does, "Jeez! This armor's doing worse for me than for you -"
Of course, she reasons, if it's tangling me up, it'll do the same to her. The weighted end of the kusarigama is brought back and spun up, swinging -- over Flora's head! (Yes, /even hers/.) Then it's whipped back around, the telegraphed but high-speed maneuver aimed to wrap the chain and weight around Flora's legs and, hopefully, bring the vaguely feminine 'goliath' to the ground. And rattle her around in that tin can of a suit, too.
COMBATSYS: Flora catches Tangle Whip from Sada with Mirage Step.
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Sada 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Flora
Flora is slightly feminine even in this getup. They had to size the lower part of the armor to accomodate her hips.
Flora actually looks up when the chain whirls over her head, then jerks backwards, moving so quickly that she almost seems to blur as she does. She slides forward a moment later, but perhaps hampered by the unfamiliar kusari-gama and the unaccustomed weight of armor, her sliding thrust hits nothing but air.
Whoops. In her helmet, Flora's face reddens.
Embarrassing or not, it throws Sada off her vibe. She pauses for a moment, panting in unfamiliar exertion. It's like she's carrying a second Sada with her! Even with her toned physique, she'd have to learn how to do everything over again... and she is, perhaps, not THAT talented.
"Hah," she says. "I guess this isn't the best show they've ever seen." And then - she takes a few steps away? What the hell?!
She must be cocky. She raises her kama, gesturing towards herself as she watches Flora. "I've never seen you fight. Go on, show me your moves before we both fry in these things!" If it comes down to a shove match, Sada kind of expects to lose.
COMBATSYS: Sada focuses on her next action.
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Sada 0/-------/--=====|=======\=------\1 Flora
Flora has the advantage that the armor ways significantly less compared to her own body mass, and of course Flora is stronger to begin with in her upper body. When you draw a bow that has been made several times thicker than the usual so it doesn't break when you hit people with it, dozens of times in a row, you get one hell of an upper body workout.
Flora looks at Sada for about five seconds. She /wants/ to be shown what she can do? Well, Flora can manage that. "I guess we should pick up the pace a little..."
Flora switches her grip on her bow while simultaneously pulling three arrows out from her quiver, holding them between her fingers. She draws - with effort, it's very difficult in the armor for her, and she feels like it's going to smack her chest when she releases. Fortunately, she won't feel it if she does.
And then she does release, with a whistling sound. The three arrows in midair split, and split again, leaving a conical spray of arrows rushing toward Sada; three of them look normal, while the rest shimmer greenish and explode into sprays of chi when they hit something.
They are still blunted arrows. Flora didn't want to take the risk. They hit a lot like being punched with one knuckle extended.
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Split Pressure Shot.
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Sada 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Flora
CHI ARROWS?!
Sada is briefly irritated and brings the kusarigama up, trying to whirl it - but it's nowhere near enough! THe bursting wave of blasting arrows impact her armored body, shoving her into a toppling, spiralling fall backwards - she lands with a resounding clang! And doesn't rise again. Not right away.
"Not bad," she says, staying prone, perhaps, to argue the rest of the case. Then her arm raises, snapping the kusarigama to get it moving and then whipping it upwards, spinning it around as she pushes herself up on one elbow, using the kama's handle like an extra-long whip grip. "But how many arrows do you have?!"
The weighted end slings forward, its momentum powerful enough to pull Sada slightly forwards - she follows it, even as the thing arcs towards the tall girl. It's not enough to PULL her off her feet, at least. At least not yet!
COMBATSYS: Flora dodges Sada's Sling Whip.
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Sada 1/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Flora
If it hit, it probably would pull Flora over; she's notoriously kind of awkward on her feet.
But it doesn't; she moves back as fast as she can, four steps and then she's against the arena wall. There's nowhere else to go. "Enough," is her answer, which may be why she draws one more and fires it dead center at Sada's chest. It's moving pretty fast; it's a lot easier to fire really quickly when you're only using /one/.
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Strong Shot.
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Sada 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Flora
SHOT THROUGH THE HEART - and Flora's...
...
Anyway, Sada recieves a powerful shot to the chest that might have cracked her breastbone if she had not been wearing armor plate. As it is, it staggers her, and she makes a noise best rendered as 'unf'. Her eyes narrow for a moment, and she lets out a sharp laugh! "It serves me right, to forget the advantage you've got at that range... You can fight me from fifty paces away, can't you?!"
And with THAT helpful announcement, she charges! Choking up on the chain, the kama is whipped around in a slicing figure-eight as she accelerates closer to the bigger girl, scything it around in a vicious two-foot arc directly in front of her!
COMBATSYS: Flora dodges Sada's Shinryukan Correction.
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Sada 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Flora
"Probably about that long," Flora says, perhaps thinking that she is going to get a break.
How wrong she is. Flora realizes a little late that Sada is running in, and does something she rarely does: she goes low, ducking under the swinging chain. (It skims her back, but she can't feel it very much aside from some vibration in her plate.
She comes up with the butt of her staff driving right at that dent she just caused, perhaps in an attempt to push Sada away as much as anything else. "Ha!"
COMBATSYS: Sada fails to counter Power Strike from Flora with Asai Harvester.
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Sada 1/---====/=======|=======\-------\0 Flora
Sada whips that kama up as the butt of the bow-staff slams towards her, trying to pull the weapon away - but while it hooks, it doesn't pull meaningfully. The strike hits hard enough to knock Sada back, sending her staggering as she screams, "What--!?"
A few deep, rapid breathes as she shakes her shivered arm out: "You're tougher than I expected you to be...!"
Flora is not entirely sure whether to take that as a compliment or not. Does she look non-tough? (Probably.) Is she being praised or subtly insulted?
It actually interferes with her focus for a moment; Flora almost drops out of her stance for a few instants, pulling back into it after a moment and using a light, fast hooking motion to try to trip Sada. The curved bow is useful for multiple things! "I - practice a lot," she says, slightly out of breath; blame the armor.
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Quick Throw.
Glancing Blow
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Sada 1/---====/=======|=======\=------\1 Flora
Perhaps it is the ancient art of damning with faint praise! Sada's body twists around as the staff hooks around and she gets her leg up in time to avoid being snapped over, but it still wrenches her leg and gets a cry out from her. She takes a step back, then, breathing deeply...
Before saying, "OK. You're doing well... but you're not going to get as far as you HOPE!"
The kusarigama is drawn back again with a whipping motion of the arm; Sada sinks herself into a steadier 'horse' stance as it whips around and past her, rolling one arm back to let go of the weapon for a half-second and catch it on its rebound. THEN she twirls it around, aiming the weighted end to whip past Flora, hopefully to entangle her. She steps forward as the momentum plays around, shuddering down to the kama; she steps again forward, letting the kama go to whip at Flora as she reaches out to catch near the kusari's end!
Hopefully this has completely enveloped Flora and struck her with that sharp scythe.
Hopefully...
COMBATSYS: Sada successfully hits Flora with Mataemon's Punishment.
- Power hit! -
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Sada 0/-------/-------|=======\=======\1 Flora
Flora apparently is not getting as far as she hopes, or even thinks she is. She thought she was doing well; she wasn't even out of sorts, and was doing pretty well.
That ends pretty quickly. Flora steps forward, perhaps to follow up with death or at least pounding, but that only lets the chain and its weight go past her, pull back, and tangle. She staggers, takes one step right into the kama side -
The armor saves her. It makes a sound that is probably closest to that of a bell or gong, and there's a hole in it afterwards, but Flora herself is more battered than anything else (although she /is/ bleeding, she can feel it making a wet spot in the armour's padding).
Flora almost immediately - well, she doesn't go berserk because it's quite calculated, but she does take the offensive; her first action is to shove at Sada so she has room to work, bringing her staff around in a flurries of smashes and hooks to take her down and then pummel her while she's down. It ends when she pulls something near the wound, and stops in a moment of pain, probably a little earlier than she meant to...
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Sada with Hunting Mantis.
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Sada 0/-------/----===|======-\-------\0 Flora
Sada raises up the caught kusarigama - which does her no damned good! That brutal strike leads in and it takes little time for Sada to get flung to the ground, curling halfway up to try and shield her eyes as the ringing, singing strikes hail down on her armored body!
Then the stop comes...
And Sada rolls over, reaching up to pull off the helmet. "Ugh!" she says, as the referee blows the whistle (taking off the armor constitutes surrender!!), shaking out her sweat-soaked hair.
She says nothing until she gets back up to her feet, shaking her hair up, and then squints up at Flora. "You did better - but one day we'll be fighting without this metal shit! Then we'll see just how well it goes, won't we?"
Is that a threat?! Maybe this means no use of the Wii for this week.
Flora would be sad. She likes the Wii.
Flora offers Sada a hand up. She's not being condescending; she just wants to be polite. It isn't necessary, though, so she stands up straight a moment after. "Sure," she says, a little surprised that it's being offered. "I, uh, that'd be neat. Really."
Log created on 18:55:45 08/01/2008 by Sada, and last modified on 17:15:02 08/14/2008.