Description: "One of the major tenants of Scientology is a belief that each human is inhabited by alien spirits, what L Ron Hubbard dubbed, " The Space Opera". It is a basic belief of Scientology that a human being is actually an immortal spiritual being, termed a thetan, that is presently trapped on planet Earth in a "meat body." The thetan has had innumerable past lives and it is accepted in Scientology that lives antedating the thetan's arrival on Earth lived in extraterrestrial cultures. Descriptions of space opera incidents are seen as true events by Scientologists." (DKO)
Never underestimate the lengths the SNF officials will go to create matches unlike anything seen before. The work done on the most famous fighting arena in the world is impressive. The standard raised platform in the center is a veritable ice rink, slicked over from end to end with a glistening, reflective surface. Mist rises up off of it into the slightly warmer air, but giant array of generators off to the side of the platform are doing their part at keeping the temperatures in the center of the arena remarkably cool. Metal lining around the edge is covered with layers of frost and a dome over the center of the arena keeps the freezing temperatures contained. It's a magical, frozen fantasy a few months too early. The bill for this elaborate setup is unimagineable.
And there, skating around in circles atop the giant ice slick, her hands clasped behind her back, is the leading attraction for this extremely difficult challenge. Kula Diamond, clad in violet leather and a underlying black body suit, is easily one of the youngest regular SNF contenders just based on appearance alone. Stepping out of obscurity months prior, the girl, barely a teenager, has risen through the ranks quickly. The source of her training is a mystery. Investigative reporters have tried to get to the bottom of it, but all that has been ascertained is that she is brought to each match by a small gaggle of people, and when the matches are over, she's wisked away as uncerimoniously as she arrived. Who her family is, what country she is from, or who the group is that brings the young menace to her matches remains unknown.
One thing that is known for certain is that she fights using ice and that her capacity to control it seems almost unlimited. Rarely does she strike but that jagged, deadly element is there, backing up the threat of each attack. As she skates blissfully around the ice with all the grace of an Olympic champion, she skips into leaps, spins, pirouettes, and aerial flips without skipping a beat.
Watching the girl in motion, it would almost be easy to forget how ruthlessly cruel her style of fighting turns out to be in practice. But the officials who arranged this match didn't forget. Nor have they missed the fact that when placed in extremely cold, ice laden environments, she seems to get even more dangerous, as her ice manipulation becomes even more effortless. It's no wonder they've stacked the odds. Push the young prodigy only seems to push her to deliver even more impressive results. This should be a Main Event to remember for all parties involved, assuming they live to reminisce on it...
It's cold here.
Stupid as it may sound, that's the one thing that Flora just cannot get out of her mind. It's pointless; she knows perfectly well it's cold, she knew it was cold before she came, so why can she not stop thinking about it?
Flora is in her kyudo uniform: hakama, gi, the works. There is only one thing different about it than usual: her usual footgear has been replaced with ones with tiny cleats. If she's going to be stuck on the ice, she's going to be /stable/ on it.
Flora steps out, holding her bow carefully as she does. She looks nervous. This is not in the least unusual for her.
Oddly enough, this is not the first time Hakuya has fought on ice. Though the '07 Christmas SNF matchup between Pacific Resistance and the Guardian Kings hadn't really been fought entirely on ice, the footing hadn't been entirely trustworthy, with frost and ice just about everywhere. He'd even been wearing a fat suit to add to the fun, but it didn't really help him fight any better that round. It was hard to keep your footing on such! So, when the young Suigetsu heir had learned of his match this week was to be upon ice, he'd come loaded for bear, so to speak.
Hakuya didn't know how to ice skate, so he felt more comfortable just in his sneakers. But even so, he'd been here at the arena as early as anyone, trying to get his 'frozen sea legs' so to speak, carefully edging around the ice and getting used to keeping his balance as he slips and slides about. It ended up in many, many comical falls to begin with, and slowly he had gotten better, to the point he could comfortably slide himself across the ice with his sneakers, but he's still not all that comfortable.
As demonstrated by him, again, falling on his ass. "Owww..."
Getting up, the teen brushes himself off, looking good naturedly embarrassed. He wasn't annoyed he kept falling down, but rather saw it as pretty fun. Each fall he learned better to keep his balance. He was getting the hang of it, he was sure! And it wasn't like the cold bothered him all that much. The only addition to his ensemble was a long red scarf wrapped around his throat, the tails extending out behind him.
When Flora arrives, he casts a glance back towards the girl - and looks up and up. Whoa! Tall! A moment is spent marveling at the girl's height, and then he simply waves to her, smiling happily. "Good afternoon!" he cheerfully calls out. Yeah, he doesn't know anyone at this fight which was, for once, different. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to be iminently cheerful and overly optimistic. Kula, too, had gotten the same, though he had been as mystified at the young ice-wielder as he'd just shown to the tall Japanese-Italian, though for entirely different reasons. She looked a little odd... and there was something oddly mysterious about her as well.
Oh well. It was sure to be fun! ...And just as he's thinking that, he falls down again. And he wasn't even moving. "Ow ow ow..."
Wow.. it's all icy. Mignon, dressed in her normal, rather heavy cloth.. you know, the mega-hyper-duper-super WITCH gear that allows her to move, providing firm, comfortable clothing with an inclusion of warmth? That stuff! And Mignon is currently holding her hands together, shivering, much like the time on the mountain.
ON THE MOUNTAIN.
"M-Mignon is c-cold again!? D-Do they like M-Mignon being c-cold or is i-it something e-else..... M-Mignon's not s-sure.. OH!" She gets it. THEY'RE A PERVERT. Whoever is doing these SNF's, Mignon is ON TO YOU! She'll provide nice justice and heroics.. and get you straightened out!
All is well! .. Except now, Mignon is currently still in the ice-rink, looking around at her allies.. and then looking back .. and forth.. first there's Flora, in her little uniform. "Mignon likes your clothing, it looks nice!" She notes to Flora, and then to Hakuya, waving. "Mignon's happy to see another! But Mignon... isn't sure how you're falling down that much, geeze!" She notes, sliding over slowly, making little baby steps. "You'll have to do better than that, because Mignon..." She looks to Kula.
Wait. Kula.. that wom-OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She cries out, flailing and falling back onto her OWN ass. "AAAAH! Mignon isn't ready, MIGNON'S NOT READY!" She cries, remembering the last time she was a bit skewered by the Kula-tronic. "O-Okkay .. Mignon you can do this right? .. Just don't let her touch you YES! Mignon can do this!" She hypes herself up, and brushes off her rear, before looking to Hakuya.
"Like Mignon was saying, you'll have to get used to it because she .. uh .. I think Kula her name was .. is REALLY REALLY dangerous! She's like a .... a FREEZER! Except with sharp pointy ice bits that can poke your eyes out!"
But then, Mignon backs up, looking to Kula. "Uh mm .. It's nice to see you again Kula!"
She's all cheerful because Kula might be mad otherwise for fearing her.
.. Look even Mignon has some self preservation.
COMBATSYS: Flora has started a fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Flora 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
COMBATSYS: Mignon has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Mignon 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Hakuya has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
Around and around Kula skates, her long, frosty blue hair trailing out behind her as she makes circle after circle, moving so naturally it's as if she was born with skates on her feet. A quiet smile crosses her lips, her crimson-hued eyes half lidded as if her thoughts are elsewhere. As one studies her, it becomes clear that the young thing has a perpetual swirl of ice crystals localized around her figure, as if she, herself, were a source of some of the incredible cold contained within the transparent dome of the arena center.
One by one the three teammates arrive, having to step out into an environment that might not favor them all that much. She casts them glances occasionally, but as she skates, she keeps her distance. Perhaps she's just shy. No known friends on record, no one has any idea who her family is or how she learned to fight the way she does. Social skills might simply be lacking. Flora is observed. Tall for a girl that seems to have Asian heritage, her choice of style seems obvious by the weapon in her hands.
Hakuya has been observed as he's worked on getting used to the slippery ice slick that seems to hold no trouble for Kula. Only once does she venture near during one of the times Hakuya has taken a spill to skid to a stop and offer a bit of advice, "You should probably not move around too much once we get started." It may sound critical, but she seems sincere enough in her tone as she up and skips back off across the ice.
And then there's Mignon. Poor Mignon. Kula recognizes her from their bout upon the mountain, of course, crimson eyes studying the elemental chi user. Magic she had called it. Her own eyes widen a little as Mignon seems frightened to find out who her opponent is. It looks like she didn't get warned who she was going up against this time. Poor Mignon. She looks away as the pink-haired girl warns her teammates of the danger ahead, resuming her circuit around the rink, hands clasped behind her back with a slow shake of her head. She doesn't have a very friendly reputation, she ponders. But NESTs keeps getting her put into these matches week after week. And her job is to lay waste to every opponent of every style of every skill level she gets pitted against. "Is it?" she asks of Migon as the girl says it's nice to see her again. Batsu had said the same thing at a prior SNF, but had clearly not meant it. She can't help but wonder how sincere Mignon's greeting is.
Circling into the center of the rink, Kula comes to a stop, breaking and sending a spray of ice out to her side as she stands up straight, peering at her three opponents each in turn. The announcer's voice is only vaguely audible within the dome and even the cheering of the audience seems muted in this frosty fantasy. But one thing is quite clear - the call to start the fight. And Kula Diamond doesn't waste a second.
Speeding forward toward the three teammates, slipping over the ice at dangerous speeds, she zeroes in on Hakuya first. As if trying to test if his footing has gotten any better, the girl draws her right arm up. White energy surges along the limb and ice is visibly drawn up from her feet to encircle her arm, forming a horrifying, swirling drill of frozen matter as she barrels toward the young man. She skids to a slowdown as she comes in close and swings that drill-shaped mass of ice and energy ice directly toward the Gedo student's chest. It's just an idea she got from a recent match against a certain SouthSynd killer. And now she's going to test it out on Hakuya!
Flora's brilliant idea to wear slightly studded-sole shoes seems to be working. She crunches on the ice as she walks slowly across it, preferring not to go very fast even with them, but she stays up. This is a plus, as Flora is often a little clumsy at the best of times and standing on ice is not exactly 'the best of times'.
She seems to realize Hakuya is looking at her, and Flora flushes just a little. Yes, she's tall, but people keep staring... at least he didn't do it for very long. She isn't sure what she'd do if he did. Mignon at least is complimenting her (rather standard) kyodu unfirom, but...
"...well, they did warn us that she was skilled in the cold," Flora says, thoughtfully, at Mignon's paniced response. She sort of wants to protect the girl, and Flora stays close to Mignon, allowing her to hide behind her if she wants - Flora's big, she's easy to hide behind.
When the signal to begin comes, Flora draws one of her blunt-headed arrows, draws back, and fires it at Kula. This wouldn't be so interesting - it is, after all, just an arrow - except she has managed to aim it just so that it's coming in right at a pressure point in the shoulder.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Hakuya with Fierce Punch.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Hakuya with Fierce Punch.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|=------\-------\0 Kula
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
It would seem Hakuya has some odd team mates. On the one hand, he had the bowyer who was extremely tall, probably taller than any female - heck any /male/ - Hakuya had ever seen. On the other, there was... Mignon. Who comes in to declare this and that, noting the Suigetsu heir's lack of coordination on the ice, and also that apparently their opponent is not only dangerous, but REALLY REALLY dangerous! Glancing from the 'witch' to the blue-haired girl over yander, a big ol' question mark might be formed above the Suigetsu heir's head, if this were an anime or movie. Translation error: Kula didn't seem 'dangerous'. He had no doubt she was a skilled, able fighter (otherwise why would she be billed to have three other fighters against her?) but she certainly didn't look dangerous.
This is proven to be an incorrect assumption in short order.
Though Kula had given some good advice (and when she'd mentioned it, Hakuya hadn't even let it pass his mind that Kula might in fact be insulting him, in fact he nodded eagerly to the advice and smiled by way of thinaks), it doesn't seem to help any in the blocking of this attack. Seeing her skate forward like an arrow towards them, and then moving in to attack him, specifically, the Suigetsu heir slides a foot backwards, attempting to plant his feet as best he can on the slippery ice, and raises his arms in an 'X' over his upper torso, where Kula seems to be aiming. Though normally he wouldn't even have considered the swirling particles of ice could even be so devestating, when the 'ice drill' impacts on his arms, he instantly realizes his mistake. He tries to hold his guard, teeth clenching firmly as the ice rips at his bandaged arms, but the force of the strike is too much, and he simply gets socked, forced off his feet, and sent flying several feet backwards, before he lands hard enough to crack the ice, and begins to slide backwards over the ice. He only manages to stop his inertia by rolling over and gripping with his fingers.
"Ow," he repeats for definitely not the first time today. That /hurt/. And Hakuya wasn't exactly made of tissue. Slowly getting back up, the Suigetsu heir turns his gaze back towards his opponent, actually smiling (even if it's touched with nervousness). His usual compliment is then dispensed: "You hit hard!" And not an ounce of ill-will is placed into this comment. If he says that... he usually means it! Still, this just makes him want to fight all the harder. So, pushing off with his feet, he begins to charge forward towards Kula again, not letting a little thing like a punishing punch slow him down. Whereas Flora fires that arrow high, Hakuya comes in low. When he approaches close to Kula, he suddenly dips down, balancing his weight on one hand and one foot, letting his momentum slide him forward, while he intends to swing his other leg out and try and sweep Kula's leg from under her.
Kula skates, Mignon watching as she goes around and around.. the quiet smile and the eyes.. Mignon knows it's just a plot .. just a ploy! She's felt that before. Kula .. Kula is downright SCARY, and Mignon doesn't say that often. She's not all MOOHAHAHA YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO MY EVIL TRAP! Or really evil LOOKING.
It reminds Mignon something scary too .. you can't ever tell.. some people are really bad.. and you'd never even know! Not all of them run around with women wrapped in rope, or biting people's necks! .. To Mignon, that's far scarier. And with Kula asking her, the girl, pink hair and all, bobs it up and down. "Y-Yes! Mignon's happy to see you again Kula! You're really nice .. but uh .. Mignon's just being silly!" SCARED silly.
The fight starts.. and Kula is already upon Hakuya, a drill shaped mass sliding towards him! SHE DOESN'T WANT TO SEE IT!
Yet she can't close her eyes... and it's going .. going .. Back? Mignon glances at the sudden back, before Flora moves in her view. Mignon is both happy, and yet, scared. What happened? "Mignon doesn't think she's just skilled .. she's ... totally like ONE with it!" She mentions to Flora, from behind but Mignon slides out, looking on .. OHHH.. He's against the ground. Not good, not good!
"No no .. don't try and protect Mignon .. you'll get hurt.. I'll be fine .. MIGNON WILL DO HER BEST! .. Because otherwise Mignon isn't going to be able to help work towards world peace and she'd be sad...BUT NOPE!" She adds in, and suddenly, is skidding towards Kula!
That is, before she kicks off the ice, flipping about in an attempt to land upon Kula with her TERRIBLE FEET! "Ooooop sie-doodle~!"
"Weeeeeeeee!"
COMBATSYS: Mignon successfully hits Kula with Defoliation.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Hakuya's Waning Dawn.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula reflects Strong Shot from Flora with Counter Shell.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/-------|
Her horrifyingly destructive strike delivered, Kula draws her right arm back, the rest of the ice screaming forward off of her hand, still spiraling out as it shoves the young man along the ice. Kula, for her own part, seems to have to actually work at correcting her own forward momentum, slamming one foot down hard, skidding to a stop, a small surge of ice coming to rest in the wake of her extremely fast speed. For all the ruthlessness of the attack, she doesn't seem to be regarding Hakuya with any particularly visible ill will. Her expression is neutral, eyes studying his condition, revealing neither concern nor anger. That's just... how she fights.
Mignon says she's really nice and that she's glad to see her, and suddenly Kula flashes the pink-haired girl a smile. It's so nice to have someone glad to see her! Such a nice girl that Mignon, she decides. Maybe if her stuffed animal collection wasn't /slaughtered/, she'd offer her one...
And in the next instant, she finds herself harried from all three opponents at once. Dealing with three coordinated attacks is a challenge for any fighter. It almost always becomes necessary to ignore one in order to deal with the other two. In this case it is Mignon's boot-first assault that Kula risks looking away from, just trying to keep track of the other attacks coming her way. Ducking down a little to try and avoid her, she ends up just getting booted in the side of the head with enough force to nearly knock her over, arms flailing for a moment, left foot raised in an attempted counter balance.
But there's Hakuya, ducking low, attempting to snag her with a leg take down when she's already off balance. Forced to bend her right leg and spring up off the ice, she avoids his attack and comes down spinning just a yard over to the side. But she can't just avoid her opponents indefinitely. There is the need to retaliate. And it's Flora's incoming arrow that the girl opts to use for just that very purposes.
Coming out of her spin with her hands out in front of her, she waves her right hand first, creating a field of frozen energy that shimmers into existence between her and Flora. Her left hand draws forward second, planting against the other side of that reflective surface before she pours a frightening amount of energy into it, causing the barrier to explode into the arrow just before it would have hit...
The result is that the arrow is sent flying right back at Flora, covered with pulsing, pure white energy. But as the arrow passes over the surface of the ice, even more frozen water is drawn up from the ground to cake onto the flying projectile, imbuing it with even more menace and leaving a visible /rut/ in the ice over the direct path it screams back toward the bow user. For her own part, Kula lowers her arms to rest against her sides, coming to a slow stop and gazing back at her opponents, seemingly content to wait to see what they intend to try on her next. Her hair seems to move as if driven by currents unseen, a localized weather phenomenon focused just on her.
COMBATSYS: Flora blocks Kula's Reflected Strong Shot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/----===|
Flora was sort of expecting to have things shot back at her. That's positively normal, really. What she wasn't expecting was her own arrow... and what she /really/ wasn't expecting was her own arrow, surrounded by ice and picking up more from the ambient chill in the air and the crust on the ground.
She can't even really put up a defense against it. Oh, she tries; she brings up her arms and covers her torso, and the arrow smashes into one of her arms, numbing it from the cold and sending broken chunks of ice - and metal arrow - in random directions. Flora feels blood, and she uses blunt-tipped arrows, so she's sure it wasn't her fault...
Flora keeps her distance. She draws another arrow, pulls it back and just holds it without shooting, taking a deep breath and trying to clear her mind, to ignore the plight of Mignon and Hakuya just long enough to get her focus back. She needs it - badly.
COMBATSYS: Flora gathers her will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 1/-------/=======|
The sweep misses, and Hakuya's form skids along on the ice. He can't keep his balance, and ends up falling onto his rear, though at least he's expecting it and also low to the ground, so doesn't end up hurting himself or losing much time to the loss of balance. Kula was crazy-fast on top of being strong, apparently, and despite the fact the hoodie-wearing teen has been pitted against much stronger opponents his last three attempts at the SNF, he rarely finds things disheartening. Instead, he finds them challenging, and also... fun. So it might not be too much of a surprise to find the Suigetsu heir looking happy as his sweep is dodged altogether, breaking into a smile as he skids to a halt.
Pushing himself up on his hands, he twists around into a push-up position, then hops back to his feet, keeping stable footing once his sneakered feet touch the ground again. A moment is taken to make sure he indeed isn't going to go sliding onto his face or something, and then he pushes off again to rush at Kula. This time, as he leads the attack, he intends to try and grab the young girl by her front, and then rather than trying to keep his footing while he attempts the complex maneuver, he puts himself into a slide across the ground, picking the light ice-wielder up and twisting her around in a circle, using her centrifugal force to keep himself balanced.
Unfortunately for her, this also adds to her momentum, should she actually be picked up, and Hakuya throws the girl once he's built up enough force, aiming to spike her into the ground - but not entirely leaving it at just that! Once he releases her from his grip, Hakuya pushes off the ground, leaping into the air, and twists himself into a sommersault, all so he can try and kick Kula into the ground all the harder, himself leaving the icy ground together so he needs not bother with the slippery terrain.
Until he lands on the other side of Kula, anyway, where he more than like ends up scrambling on his hands and feet to keep from falling on his face. Poor Guardian King.
The boot strikes, and Mignon slams her foot into Kula, bouncing off as she flips off of Kula. The smile is nice! .. If Mignon could only get past her crippling fear of Kula, they could be friends! But no. She cannot do that so easily .. especially as she watches Kula easily slide out of the way.. or well, from what MIGNON sees, at least. It looks easy compared to that.
Watching, Mignon gasps.. look at that go, especially the power and energy put into it!
And as Flora gets nailed already, Mignon gasps. "Are you okay, are you okay!?" Mignon asks to Flora. "Mignon knew that that would happen! She's really strong.. so be careful you two!" She adds once more, slipping backwards on the ice, trying to stay in control .. AHHHH Mignon is just going with the flow, actually, and it's working quite well for her!
Sparkling energy courses about her hands and legs, where the baubles are, as she skids along, her boots SPACE boots, ones that allow movement!
And skid she does, watching Hakuya keep on going. She can't just let him charge forwards and end up struck again .. what can she do!? Oh .. OH! "Look out behind you, Hakuuuuya! MIGNON'S MAGIC WILL HELP!" And as she slides towards Kula, Mignon raises her hands.. BAMF! A shot of burning flame, a sphere, is launched! "FIRE! WAAAAAAAAAOH!" Her movement is REVERSED COMPLETELY.
THUNK. That's Mignon against the edge. "Wheh.... glad I didn't fall off! Maybe I should stay still next time..."
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Mignon's Fire Ball.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 1/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Hakuya's Blind Crescent.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Flora 1/-------/=======|
This time Kula is standing still, waiting for those who intend to attack make their move. Crimson eyes glance over her opponents as they regroup after the last round of chaotic frenzy. She knows Flora managed to fend off the worst of her retaliation for the girl, but then is forced to pay the bow user no further heed. Hakuya and Mignon are making their attempts now.
Sub-conscious combat algorithms spin up to full speed as she surveys the trio facing her. All available information on how they have fought thus for being compiled by those routines NESTs scientists have programmed into her mind during her short life thus far. Coupled with her remarkable speed and incredible power in an environment such as this, the girl seems to be a serious threat to the also-young fighters against her.
She watches Hakuya charge towrad her, getting ready to skip out of the way of him just like she had last time. But Mignon swoops in behind, her shrill cry impossible to miss as she promises support for her teammate, and without even actively thinking about it, the young assassasin changes gears on reflex alone. Rather than avoid Hakuya she spins to the side, sending up a sheet of ice about her feet that cascades back down but for the portion melted by the passing fireball.
This leaves her unable to avoid Hakuya, however, and the Guardian King manages to get a grip on her jacket, keeping the speedy girl from skipping out of the way. Spun rapidly, she starts to reach for his arms, intending to retaliate for holding her so dangerously close, but the young man releases her just in time, sending the young fighter speeding back to the ice. Before her back even connects with the rock solid surface, however, an explosion of snow fluffs up right at the point of impact, and rather than a painful crash into the slick surface, the girl lands a pile of soft, cushioning snow from which she immedately rolls just before Hakuya comes down to land the impromptu snow drift.
Rolling up to her feet off to the side, the girl sweeps the battlefield in a quick turn, eyes narrowing as she takes in the state of things. Flora is keeping distance, preparing for something... unfortunately, Kula's ruthless routines are only drawn toward that kind of focused preparation, leading her to zero in on the Seijyun student next. Crouching slightly, a surge of white energy spirals up around the ice user, bringing with it ice from the ground, augmented even more by frozen matter she continues to create, forming a blizzard around her as she finally springs into the air in a high arc toward Flora.
At the apex of her leap, the girl flips forward, arm sweeping out to collect all of that frenzied energy into a giant, concentrated storm before kicking out with her foot and sending the churning, swirling sphere of ice down toward Flora with all the menace of a comet entering the localized atmosphere of the earth. Descending rapidly, the collosal sphere of power is not only destructive as-is, but at the moment of impact, it explodes violently into a maelstrom of jagged shards of ice, razor edged rings and needle-sized shrapnel flying out in every direction around the targetted girl.
For her own part, Kula drops back down from her flip, landing lightly on the ice in a half crouch, once again free of that impressive energy for the moment since pretty much all of it just got sent Flora's way...
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Flora with Diamond Shoot.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Flora 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Flora had been going to prepare, and then take her shot. Generally people leave the archer alone, especially when she's not even shooting; she's not entirely used to people who don't. If this is some sort of new trend, she's not sure she likes it.
Flora is not a very experienced fighter. She doesn't always do what she should. What she /should/ have done was hunker down against the cold and the impact, to take the worst of it on her arms or back rather than letting the razor ice whirl around her and slice her to ribbons. It would be handleable, if painful.
What she actually does is yelp and throw herself to the side - and not far enough away. The iceball impacts just to her side rather than on her, but it's not even close enough to save her. Flora is blown away by the impact of some of the larger pieces against her unarmored torso, the chunks shredding her uniform even as they dig into her flesh.
When Flora finally /does/ get up, she's badly slashed up across her stomach. Her upper torso looks okay, as does her face, but she's barely standing, she's so cold she's shivering, and there are shards of ice peppering her legs. She has her eyes squeezed closed, and only grudgingly opens them, looking at her team. She's shivering too badly to take an accurate shot, in fact.
So she doesn't. Heedlessly - recklessly even - Flora charges forward, letting movement warm her up as she comes in with a sweeping swing of her staff-bow, trying to use the curve to hook Kula off-balance before pummeling her with a series of rapid strikes and other hooks, yanking her around into the path of her follow-up blows. If she's successful. It's kind of wild... but it does make it hard to tell precisely where she's aiming.
The degree to which Kula can manipulate this cold energy with her chi is quite frankly surprising for Hakuya. Even though the behoodied teen is familiar with chi-users, since the remaining parts of his team rely heavily on such attacks - other than Stasya, who used some other sort of energy he wasn't quite sure on - the King never was introduced to someone who seemed to literally /bleed/ this much chi energy. This is demonstrated in how the girl evades the fireball by letting it smash into a sudden formation of a frozen block of ice, and then how she lessens the impact of his own throw by means of creating a soft pile of snow. Not to mention the girl was brutally fast. It was a little boggling.
Clearly, he'd have to change gears in order to be effective this fight.
As he lands from the aftermath of his throw, Hakuya scrambles back up to his feet, managing only to remain on the ground for a few moments. Standing back up, he adopts his usual fighting stance of legs spread, hands held outwards, palms open and facing the opponent... and... then he doesn't do anything. Instead, he takes a moment to just calm himself and try to focus. It wasn't something he did often, but if he wanted to be any kind of useful in this fight, he'd definitely need to keep his head, and study Kula's motions a little bit. How could he get inside of her guard? How could he move faster than her? Certainly it was a tall order, but unless he did something drastically different, he wasn't going to be much use in this fight!
COMBATSYS: Hakuya focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/--=====|
It's .. interesting. Here comes Kula .. there goes .. Kula. Watching, Mignon's knocked to her butt as she ends against the wall.. yet Hakuya is safe, it seems, as the sheet of ice is melted.. yet Kula deals with the attack rather well, the girl landing near the snow.. and Kula's up again? Mignon can hardly believe it, watching the icy-girl turn towards Flora. "WATCH OUT!" Oh no don't stand still, DON'T STAND S-
Wincing, Mignon looks away as the clattering of ice, edges, and the sound of terrible terrible pain.. especially with Kula's .. penchant for certain things.
Violence, that is. But as Flora tries to move, Mignon cheers. "YAAAA-oh my my my ..." Her hands come to her mouth as she watches the shrapnel shredding into her, and worse. Oh no, oh no! Mignon can't just let her charge in there!... And looking towards Hakuya for some help, Mignon eyes him. "Help us! Come on.. if we don't go together! Mignon isn't sure we'll be able to..." And then Hakuya takes a moment to ..
"No no no Oh no no no .. Ahhh... Mignon WILL HAVE TO DO IT ALL THEN! She'll put herself on the line for others! Yep! .. Oh Mignon hopes this works.." And pushing herself off the wall, Mignon slides, helplessly towards Kula, spinning .. spinning .. SPINNING.
And then tries to latch onto her.
Trying to hold Kula there for Flora's onslaught, she also attempts to get Kula's attention on her for a moment.. AWAY from the others. And her hands begin to spark .. and spark .. and if all goes well? "Lightning BOLT!" There will be a crackling blue light, spinning Kula and launching her away.
Oh boy, she's sweating bullets here!
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Mignon's Lightning Bolt EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Kula with Hunting Mantis.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|=======\-------\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/--=====|
Standing up straight, it takes Kula a moment to regather her storm of chi, having expended a lot of her resources in attacking the girl from Seijyun. Remaining still, crimson hued eyes half closed, head slightly bowed, she concentrates as she builds up another small storm of icy chi around her. It takes a but a moment before her eyes snap open and she takes quick stock in the situation she's forced to contend with next.
Once again Mignon comes speeding in, this time to assist Flora in her all out assault on the leather clad assassiin. And again Kula is forced to move out of the pink-haired girl's path, kicking down with one foot to spin out of her way and right into Flora's incoming assault. Mignon's distraction works, however, for even as Kula comes out of her evasion, she's caught by surprise as the bow is suddenly turned against her in the form of a staff instead. Not expecting the ranged fighter to close distance quite like that, the girl is stuck trying to fend for herself against a rapid flurry of attacks from all manner of angles.
She does manage a modicum of defense all the same, weaving her hands through the air, creating an occasional ice barrier to ward off a strike here and there even as she finds herself unable to block against the majority of them. Finally she falls, beaten too rapidly for her to keep balance, slipping along in a bit of an uncontrolled kneel across the ice for a ways. She rises back up to standing eventually, whirling back around to figure out what her tenacious opponents are up to.
This time, Hakuya is hanging back. Flora is in awful condition. But Mignon is doing fine. She glances over all three again, forming her next course of action quickly. Her combat algorithms snap to an immediate conclusion. Mignon needs to be attacked now before she's allowed to interfer anymore. Kicking off the ice, Kula zips suddenly toward the self-proclaimed witch, drawing her left hand up. Ice raises up in her trail, following the violet-clad girl as if drawn by a powerful magnet.
It is with her right elbow that she strikes first, swinging for the side of Mignon's head, her lips pressed tightly together, her mind leaving almost no room for any thoughts outside of churning through combat routines constantly. It's her left hand that is the menace though, as Kula swings it forward secondly, palm toward Mignon, and drives all that collected ice into the poor girl's torso in an attempt to blast her away decisively!
Flora is, as judged - correctly! - by Kula, in very bad condition. She can't keep doing this for very much longer; she's on the verge of dropping out of the match as is, and to be damned what people will say about her doing so. Her everything hurts. She didn't expect /this/ when she signed up, not so fast or so...deadly.
She doesn't. Flora forces herself to stay in. She might feel better /now/ if she leaves, but she'll feel horrible about abandoning her team later, not to mention dealing with her father... that more than anything else steels her into staying.
Flora goes for another sweep, seeing as the first one worked so well - but this time it's an upward hook near the end, trying to literally launch Kula into the air. Then she swings the staff the other way, pounding back down with the other end of the curved weapon, letting her breath of air out at what she hopes is impact.
Sadly, Hakuya didn't disagree with Mignon. They did indeed need to fight, attacking her all at once and trying to take her down with sheer overwhelming force. But he didn't think that the status quo of just trying to hit the really fast assassin was all that good of an idea, either. He'd fought plenty of opponents much stronger than he the past few weeks, and had learned one thing. Speed is king. Anybody can put power into their attacks, but to actually connect with that power is something else entirely. So he had to focus. He had to get her moves down. He had to -- hey, Flora hit. How 'bout that. And even after she got horribly maimed in that last attack.
Shaking his head, the behoodied fighter can't hold back any more. Mignon was indeed right: they needed to fight together. So, rushing forward, he tries to time his attacks to take advantage of any recovery times Flora or Mignon's attacks may force Kula into. As Flora sweeps then attempts to strike with her staff, Hakuya will charge in and attempt to grab the little ice-user, either out of the air or picking her up with an arm about her waist, and simply run a short distance away from the other two fighters. He runs /fast/ so that he can try to stay ahead of tripping himself on the ice, and then simply, using all that built up momentum, swings around in a mighty 180, and attempts to spike Kula into the iced floor roughly once more.
COMBATSYS: Mignon reflects Medium Punch from Kula with Water Shield.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|=======\=------\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/---====|
KRAKOW. Do you see that? That's the POWER OF THE -awwww. Kula slides away from Mignon's path of destruction, before Kula is struck about.. Mignon phews! At least she helped out, even if it wasn't as apparent as striking Kula! .. Mignon seems to have a re-occurring trouble in that regard.
"BUT NO MATTER, Mignon shall push forwards! Yes. She shall push forwards, and FIGHT ON!
Oh wait, Mignon is watching as Kula gets back and out and .. OH NO. Come right at Mignon! "GAWK!" Mignon cries out, a bit in unsure notice, not really ready for the assault.. but it's when Kula ZIPS, raising a fist towards Mignon's head, and .. and .. OH NO! THEN THE TORSO!?
This had failed before, but SECOND times the charm, RIGHT?
It's kind of terrible, the strength and speed Kula puts into it. "A-AH! W-WATER SHIIIIELD! RISE UP!" The water erupts upwards, around Mignon. But is it fast enough!?
The water shoots up.. and Kula's frozen elbow meets resistance .. but the palm strike is the problem .. as Kula goes to launch towards Mignon, the palm slamming towards her chest.. Mignon's watershield does not freeze this time.. infact, it follows the ice energy, before pulsing outwards, to send Kula backwards, albeit perhaps not AS harmed.. Mignon's just a beginner witch.
"W-WOAH! Mignon did it, MIGNON DID IT! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!" She cheers for herself, jumping up and down! "Mignon thought she was a goner for a little bit.." She adds in, with a little phew!
COMBATSYS: Flora successfully hits Kula with Double Clutch.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/--=====|
COMBATSYS: Hakuya successfully hits Kula with Tidal Crush.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \\\\\\\ <
Flora 0/-------/--=====|
Her charge against Mignon is stopped short as the pink-haired dynamo manages to correct for previous mistakes and creates a very effective, reflective barrier not unlike the stunts Kula has been capable of pulling off herself at times. It catches the young killer off guard, eyes widdening just a little as she staggers back, rapidly trying to re-evaluate Mignon's combat potential. That particular talent didn't register with her before. She'll have to rethink things with that in mind...
The solo fighter doesn't have much time to consider it as she finds herself attacked in a well coordinated manner by Hakuya and Flora at the same time. The staff user sweeps in, knocking the featherweight off her feet, provoking a sharp gasp of surprise as she's struck hard. Swept into the air, she finds herself hooked and slammed back toward the ground only to be caught up by Hakuya before she can even recover. Carried along, dazed at the combination of strikes, the girl shakes her head, trying to get her bearings... only to get spiked right back down into the ice hard enough to spiderweb the frozen surface at the point of impact.
Rolling to the side and up onto one knee, arms raised defensively in case any counter attacks come her way again, the girl narrows her eyes as she quickly begins to evaluate how to eliminate targets as quickly as possible.
Flora is eyed first and it is with blinding speed that she kicks back to her feet, a violet blur that accelerates toward Flora with frightening speed. Her right hand extends out to her side, fingers and thumb straight as a short blade of ice is made manifest extending past the length of her hand...
And then she's swooping in, swinging out with that single, bladed hand, attempting to slash right across Flora's side, hopefully through the armor, and give her a complelling reason to get out of the fight.
COMBATSYS: Flora fails to counter Jab Punch from Kula with Slide Step.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
[ \ <
Flora 1/------=/=======|
COMBATSYS: Flora can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
Flora doesn't really have armor. Oh, she has some thick cloth in places, but that's about all she has; nothing real fancy, nothing thick enough to stop a dedicated blow from something sharp and long.
Flora makes an attempt to parry it with her staff instead, sliding to the side almost faster than the eye can see. It doesn't really work. Kula catches her mid-slide and drives her down and to the side, opening another wound to go with the others.
This time Flora stays down. She rolls over, though. Not dead! Just...out.
Now that's how it should be! He connects with his attack, apparently timing it just well enough with Flora's that the ice-wielder doesn't have any chance to fully recover. She's swept up, ran with, spun around and slammed right back down again in a short period of time after the tall Japanese-Italian girl's attacks, and Kula is left in a cracked spiderweb of ice. Hakuya almost winces and feels back for the girl, but he remembers the difference in what his grandfather taught him and what the friends he's made since he came here have taught him. His grandfather was a chauvanist who disdained fighting women, even if he would if he had to. He never thought highly of their skills and always thought they were inherently weaker.
Hakuya's female friends have proven to him muchly to the contrary.
So he doesn't feel any sympathy, simply because they were both fighters, and Kula had probably taken worse in her life. He does give her just a minute to get back on her feet and then try to attack Flora - only for the speed of the punch to completely dissolve his team mate's guard, and the big girl goes down. Oh my. No more time to waste! Rushing forward, Hakuya attempts to leap forward and drive a kick towards Kula's head. If it succeeds, he simply leaves the foot there, and then pushes off of it in order to reverse his direction, sweeping his other foot upwards into a spinning cyclone kick, his first foot also joining in to make a double whirling corkscrew kick that forces him to leave the ground for a moment, before he drops back to the ground - probably on his face, sadly. Damn ice!
Wincing, Mignon watches as Kula is struck .. and struck! And struck. "Oh are you okay!?" But Mignon can't worry about that, Kula causing a lot of ice cracks. "Uh oh..." But she .. gets up? And she .. oh my. The Witch looks on, awestruck, a bit out of breath, as Kula goes on to jab a dagger of ice into Flora, dragging it and slashing .. and .. oh no! Poor Flora.
Mignon rushes over, but it's too late.. Too late. "Uhm .. just rest there, okay miss? Thanks for trying to protect me .. but Mignon's sorry she couldn't protect you!" But then Hakuya goes on to push .. and Mignon is the selfish one. "Ahh... Ah.... M-Mignon needs to just take .. a moment okay?" And Mignon certainly DOES take that moment, shaking her head and getting back into things!
Which involve focusing on Kula, finally. "Alright Mignon .. you've gotta help them! Yeah! You can do it .. don't worry about a thing! Just go out there and help! But where is she going to have a weakspot? Mignon is sure but hmm..."
She stands there, tilting her head, watching.
Sorry Hakuya! This time, Mignon hangs back!
COMBATSYS: Mignon focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Hakuya 1/-------/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Hakuya's Rising Dusk.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hakuya 1/------=/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
Kula draws her hand back from slashing at Flora, moving on as if having already calculated with absolute certainty that the poor girl isn't going to be continuing any further into this fight. Flicking her right hand, she breaks the bloodied ice blade loose, letting it fall to the arena floor where it shatters. She has Hakuya charging her again, however, the young man proving very persistant in his constant flow of attacks that leave her feeling pressured. Not moving away this time, the girl leans into his incoming kick, her right arm rising, her leather armored jacket absorbing the worst of the kick.
His follow up cyclone kick is caught by her left arm, the girl demonstrating a fair amount of sturdiness under constant attack. Exhaling as she lowers her arms, she slips around the final double kick, going low and to Hakuya's side much the same way she had avoided Flora. The young man will have only a split second to recover from his landing as a gloved, clenched fist slams out toward his right rib cage with punishing force...
The real menace, however, is what Kula is doing with her left hand. Palm down at first, she twists it up, and lifts her hand just a little. The motion seems to bend the ice beneath Hakuya's feet to her will as out from behind him a large spire of jagged, punishing ice explodes up for Hakuya's back with the intent to savagely skewer into him as the girl tries to crumple the boy over her right fist from unbelievable kinetic force!
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Hakuya with Behind Slash.
# Disabling hit! #
[ \\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hakuya 1/=======/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
Unfortunately, the 'split second' given to recover is simply not enough due to the treacherous footing the ice makes. He'd earlier seen that Flora had on spiked cleats, and now wonders if he shouldn't have gotten a pair of those, too. For when he lands, he manages to do so on his feet, but he slips - and it's this that makes it impossible for him to effectively mount a defense. Instead, he just tries to tense up and ward off the pain, but that's really a tall order for what the ice cold assassin has in mind.
The fist drives into his side, and the blow itself nearly makes him fall again. But 'fortunately' there's those sudden spikes of jagged ice lancing for his back, and rather than falling over backwards, he gets speared by ice. His eyes widen, and the sheer pain of it causes his breath to seize up in his chest. Or perhaps, due to the sudden coughing of blood, what gets exhaled is not his breath, but rather the blood in his system. The spikes lance him, and it's no wonder that he has absolutely no mental faculties to even consider keeping his feet. It does literally crumple to the floor, sinking to his hands and knees with ice spikes jutting from his back and also his front, blood coming from his mouth in choked gasps. That /hurt/. And it seemed, somehow, to make it impossible for him to summon up strength. Was it the cold filling his body, or had he seriously been injured? He can't even tell, his vision's so blurred.
Slowly, though, he gets back to his feet. He's not done yet! Pulling a shard of ice from his back, he tosses it away, and slowly turns to look at Kula. No, he couldn't attack right now. He couldn't... had to focus. Had to get through the pain. One eye closed, his breath suddenly ragged from exhaustion simply from pain inflicted in him, blood staining the front of his hoodie and about his mouth and chin, Hakuya looks like an absolute mess. Which might amount to be a little disturbing when the boy /smiles/. "C'-C'mon, that... that wasn't as bad as that first hit! I said you were strong, didn't I? Don't give me that weak stuff!" Maybe his impersonation of Tenma last week was still with him... or maybe he'd just taken a few more hits than he should've. Either way, he pulls another ice spike from him and tosses it away. "Come get me!"
COMBATSYS: Hakuya focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hakuya 1/=======/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
It's really terrible. But the strikes that Hakuya try, all end up the same way, being struck by the jagged and punishing ice! It's .. terrible! Simply terrible, Mignon thinks, as the boy is skewered by the strike! .. Ew. That doesn't look too good, from what Mignon can see. Wincing, she looks to Kula.. how will they ever conquer her!? "Ooh.. Mignon doesn't like where this is going.." She notes, mostly to herself, as she watches Kula.
But now, she'll be able to leap out .. AND STRIIIIIKE!
But what to do? The witch is perplexed, this magic that Kula wields.. so strong, it is! "Ahh.. wow look at that Magic .. But Mignon knows how to counter magic!" And SHE CLEARLY DOES! Which so far, involves Mignon now, suddenly rushing towards Kula! "Here she comes .. LOOK OUT, NYAAAAAAAAAH! KITTY CRUSHER!" Go after Hakuya? CLEARLY NOT. Because Mignon is making herself a massive target. "NO! Don't you dare go after him because HERE COMES MIIIIGNON!"
If acts of heroic potential all include stupidly THROWING yourself at a large, strong, and threat filled one like Kula .. perhaps now, even now, Mignon .. WILL SUCCEED! She leaps off the ice, sparkling all the way, as the baubles are aimed towards Kula's frame! "YAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Mignon's Strong Punch.
[ \\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Hakuya 1/=======/=======|=======\====---\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
Kula's combat algorithms had determined that Hakuya shouldn't be able to fight. THey determined that after that punishing combination of kinetic force and savage chi manipulated ice spire he should simply keel over. Perhaps after a desperate attempt at getting a hold of the swift girl. But all in all, he should've been finished by now. In fact, she even starts to slip away, turning her attention toward Mignon...
Just in time to skip out of the way of the formidable Kitty Crusher, crimson eyes widening as she slips just out of Mignon's path, sparing herself a kitty-beatdown and sparkly bauble combo! Coming up, the girl focuses on Mignon at first, ready to charge the pink-haired girl who seems possessed with remarkable, endless gusto. She is quiet, her combat algorithms still crowding out other thoughts - and those algorithms are given a jarring surprise as Hakuya speaks up from the side. He's... still in it.
Whipping toward Hakuya, Kula narrows her eyes, trying to make sense of it. Watching him pick ice shards and spikes out of his body even as his blood drips to the slick ice at his feet before refreezing. He's still standing. And more than that, he's provoking her to come fight him. A step forward is taken, the girl seemingly ready to answer the challenge. But her instincts, programmed as they may be, decide that she's being set up. There's something not quite right with how the young man is posturing...
In the end, Kula takes a step backward, extending her right hand out to her side, palm down, drawing up a significant portion of the ice on the ground up into a swirling sphere of slush floating beneath her hand. A deep breath is taken and the girl draws the energy up into her arm as it converts from ice into pure energy that vanishes into her body, mending injuries and providing her with additional strength to continue. She doesn't take her eyes off Hakuya, staring back at him as she seeks to study every little detail about his condition. Just how much longer can he hang in there?
COMBATSYS: Kula gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\ < > /////////////// ]
Hakuya 1/=======/=======|=======\===----\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
In truth, Kula WAS being set up. Hakuya wasn't much of one for plans, but his time in the mountains with his grandfather had impressed upon him the need to be fluid and changeable in his means of both offense and defense. Constant attacks weren't always the answer. Neither was always just blocking, or just dodging, or just blowing through attacks one way or another. Before, he would simply constantly attack, and he'd wear himself out quickly. He'd somewhat learned how to mitigate this, of course, but it was the different actions that he'd learned to try from his grandfather that were helping him the most.
In this case, he was focusing on dealing damage, and would've gladly endured any punishment, just so he could get a firm, solid grip on the fast-as-lightning Kula.
It wasn't to be.
As sad as that was, changing tactics had to keep changing sometimes to keep up with changing situations. So, as Kula awaits him, he simply nods. It's time. He'll give his all, with this! Lowering his body, the Suigetsu youth seems entirely focused on Kula, and as the boy charges forward, he displays something he hadn't quite yet: sure footing. Racing across the ice in his sneakers, he shows no sign of being in danger of slipping. And all of that comes upon the ice cold assassin as Hakuya rolls in like a freight train. Gloved hands reach out, intending to grasp Kula by her jacket once more, and then the hoodied teen sweeps into a full 180 turn, lifting Kula high over his head if he's able to, and slamming her back down into the ground. She's not left alone, however, as she's picked up once again, brought upwards, then over Hakuya's head, and back down again in a German-style suplex. Pushing himself back up to his feet, one more grab is attempted to the assassin, and this time he leaps into the air with her, only to slam her back down for a third time onto the ice, vicious blows all around.
Once it's done, one way or another, Hakuya seems... disappointed in himself somehow. Why couldn't he do 'it'?
LEAAAAAAAAAA-woah she movedohnoshe'sfallingAIEEEE. And So Mignon goes rolling out of the way, rolling rolling and coming to a stop. Mignon ends up done, hitting the side again, sliding a bit even then, before she slowly gets up a bit faster, Mignon pulling herself to her feet, and brushing herself off.
Looking to Hakuya, Mignon watches him charge forwards, and with that, SHE DOES AS WELL! "Okay here we go again, GOOD LUCK! Mignon is counting on you!" She notes, as the witchy one slides forwards, towards Kula. But she trips, and Mignon hits the ground, spinning.
Which isn't so bad, because she spirals as she heads towards Kula, still on the ground, attempting to make the best of this rather poor situation. "Ooooooooooh Mignon is getting dizzy!" She cries, flailing, but focusing on spinning with her legs.
Because otherwise Mignon will shoot past Kula, without striking.
"AIEEEEEEE! Why can't I stop!"
What is this 'control'?
COMBATSYS: Hakuya successfully hits Kula with Last Eclipse.
[ \\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|=======\=====--\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Mignon successfully hits Kula with Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/----===|=======\=====--\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
The answer to her pondering appears to be 'Long Enough'. Waiting for Hakuya to bleed out and collapse proves fruitless. The young man clings to every last ounce of strength left in him to keep standing in spite her expectations to the contrary. Crimson eyes narrow, the girl preparing for him to make his move as he comes charging toward her, hell bent on catching the featherweight up in his arms for a punishing combination of throws and grapples. Unable to stop his forward momentum on her own, Kula is hefted up, arms flailing as she tries to free herself a bit too late before she crashes back down against the ice.
No snow drifts to cushion that blow as Hakuya plucks her up off the ground and drops backward into a neck jarring suplex, leaving her dizzy and barely aware of her circumstances as he hefts her up into the air and slams her down one more time against the ice before she tumbles and rolls over, coming to a stop. Sprawled for a moment, the girl takes in a breath, her arms slowly starting to move, knee drawn in as she lifts her eyes to focus back on Hakuya.
Pushing herself up to unsteady feet, she's blindsided by the self-proclaimed witch, tripped up by her crazy sliding cartwheel and dropped back to the ground, this time in a seated position, and this time not really sure if she can pull herself back up to standing. Slowly she rises, gritting her teeth, exhaling another visible, frosty breath. Glaring after Mignon, she doesn't chase after her quiet yet, not even sure if she has the energy to do so. Her attention is on Hakuya now and it is toward him the girl bolts the moment she's gathered herself.
Her forward accelleration is incredibly fast as she speeds toward him, dropping into a slide from half a dozen yards away, slipping over the frozen, frictionless surface with frightening speed and absolute control. Her goal is clearly to plow into the young man, feet first, and send him back to the ice from which he shouldn't have been able to pry himself the /last/ time. She finishes in a sudden skid just a little ways past him, and should the boy fall, the girl will kick backward, driving her foot into the top of his head. She wants to make sure that he /stays/ down now.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Hakuya with Slider Shoot.
[ \\ < > ///////// ]
Hakuya 0/-------/--=====|=======\======-\1 Kula
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Mignon 0/-------/------=|
Quite simply, even though Hakuya powered through that pain and the devestating attack, he wasn't really feeling his oats, so to speak. He was tired, hurting, and could use a cup of strawberry milk. So when Kula gets tossed around like a ragdoll, and painfully so, he feels pretty content in that. He actually /did/ something to this obviously better fighter, this time around, and it was partly due to his new tactics. This made him feel a bit better. Almost good enough to think about trying some manner of defense against Kula. But no... as she comes sliding in on the ice as if it were somehow the most natural thing in the world, the hoodied teen can do naught but stand there. He attempts to take the blow on favorable turns, his body shifting so when the feet collide with him, maybe just maybe he might--
Nope. It wasn't to be. Toppling over like a barely supported Jenga tower, Hakuya is sent to the ice, painfully landing on his back, which doesn't feel like any manner of goodness. Teeth gritting, wincing, looking for all the world like he's probably just going to collapse, right then and there... the Suigetsu teen actually manages to roll over. Then, laborously, he plants his hands onto the ground. He pushes himself up off the icey ground, and even gets his feet under him. But when he tries to stand, he only makes it part way up, before he collapses back to his knees, slumped forward slightly. No, this young fighter can take a lot of punishment, and it's true he could possibly even squeeze that last ounce of energy out of himself, but... wow, was the ice spinning rapidly. And he was pretty sure that his sudden sensation of feeling /warm/ when he was in a field of ice was possibly not a good one.
Hakuya is out. And he'll just... stay there on his knees for now.
COMBATSYS: Hakuya takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Mignon 0/-------/------=|=======\======-\1 Kula
COMBATSYS: Hakuya can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////// ]
Mignon 0/-------/------=|=======\======-\1 Kula
With Kula rising, up to her feet, Mignon stops eventually, against the wall, and pushes herself up, shakily.. the witch has been going at it from the start, and has no signs of stopping! .. This could go poorly, in the end, actually. Because while Mignon has NOT been a favorable target.. she certainly hasn't been a THREAT either. "Ah... Mignon .. Thinks you should move now! LOOK OUUUT!" She cries, gasping, as Kula begins her onslaught.
She looks away, but turns to check once more .. and.. and.. Hakuya is struck. He topples over and oh no. He's down. HE'S DOWWWN! MEEEEDIIIC! But Mignon can't help him, and she even wants to try.. but there's nothing more to do but keep going. "J-juuuust rest, okay? Mignon has this .. allll .. uh .. taken care of..." She looks back and forth, looking at the fallen Flora and the fallen Hakuya, and brushes her pink hair. "Uh heh heh... Mignon thinks .. maybe you should .. rest a bit, okay?" She adds.
But the witch isn't ready to stop either. "But Mignon can't afford to stop, SO HERE GOES!" She yells, charging towards Kula, cartwheeling.. infact, across the ice, Mignon begins to cartwheel over and over, legs attempting to slam into Kula as she continues this forward rushing assault, without even thinking!
"Around and around and around and around and AROUND!" Oh, feigning courage isn't working any more! OH NOOOOO!
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Mignon's One Revolution.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////// ]
Mignon 0/-------/-------|=======\=======\1 Kula
Kula remains crouching for a long moment after her backward kick. The enclosed, transparent dome is freezing cold, but that does little to stem the slowly mounting exhaustion evidenced by her breaths coming harder now. She glances over her shoulder, her right hand reaching up to brush aside her hair by reflex, eying Hakuya as he pushes himself back up slowly. She doesn't respond in turn, remaining crouched, her back toward him as she watches him. If he attacks again, she might not be able to cope with it. The stalwart trio has proven extremely tough. The fight was billed as the young NESTs project fighting against all odds, and while she has managed to last this long, there's a question as to how long she can keep going with one fighter still standing perfectly fine.
But the young man, having already defied her intinctively calculated potential can't make one more move. Not now. He falls back to the ice, leaving the brave witch all alone on the slick with the young assassin.
Slowly Kula forces herself to standing, turning to face Mignon. The Seijyun girl doesn't run, doesn't hide. She may need a second to get control of herself on the ice, but she isn't giving up, chosing instead to bolt back toward Kula with /another/ cartwheel. This one aeral to boot. The girl brings her arms up over her face and braces for the worst. Ice around her feet surges up over her shins, locking the frosty haired girl in place, allowing her to simply weather out Mignon's oncoming attacks without being bowled over.
The second she has a chance to move, however, Kula darts backward, freeing her feet from the icy support. Her strength is waning but there is one chance to overcome these difficult odds and she's going to take it. Even before her feet touch down it can be felt. That surge of energy around the girl. That swell of white, brilliant chi building up from arond her feet to swirl up into a column of pure white centered on the NESTs assassin. All the ice in the rink begins to budge, breaking loose and joining a swirling maelstrom with young Kula at the eye of the storm.
The dome overhead cracks in places, but holds true, as the ice is ripped clean off the ground, sharpnel, shards, debris whipped to a violent, deadly freny as Miss Diamond raises her arms slowly over her head, drawing forth every last ounce of energy in her arsenal, crimson eyes focused on Mignon directly. The bare ground exposed, the entire dome filled with white, blinding sleet, the girl finally lowers her arms swiftly and unleashes her ultimate technique.
And in that instant, no one on the outside can see anything but a dome of obscurring white. And in that instant, Mignon must make her defense, as an avalanche worth of frozen matter will collide in around her, attempting to encase and crush the poor girl and remove the fight from her entirely all in one horrifying, fell swoop. By the time a view is restored into the dome, the attack will have done all it can before collapsing into a harmless late-summer snowfall that drifts down from the containing dome.
The fate of the pink-haired heroine remains to be seen.
COMBATSYS: Mignon endures Kula's Freeze Execution.
[ \\\ < > //////// ]
Mignon 1/-======/=======|===----\-------\0 Kula
Mignon looks at the others, as she crashes into the arms of Kula, ice surging about, freezing, locking up and holding her in place.. Mignon keeps assaulting, her limbs beginning to wear from the assault that continues to be put against .. the ice begins to crack, or perhaps small ones, from Mignon's repeated assaults.. but she cannot break the assault.
But Kula is more than welcome to keep pushing forwards.. Mignon pulling backwards as Kula does as well, and as Kula takes her own odds.. Mignon has her own to deal with. There's a surge around Kula, and Mignon has a front row seat to see this energy culminated. "O-Oh Mignon could use a little help here...." She backs away, turning to look at Hakuya .. and then at Flora.. they .. she did this to them so easily .. and what she'll do to her..
The wind begins to whip up, the rink moving, the maelstrom moving through the assault.. the dome overhead cracks, but Mignon can't see through it.. debris and shrapnel beginning to whip about, eyes focusing on her .. it's a weird feeling.. and Mignon suddenly stops her backwards movement.. "Mignon can't just keep running from her.. even if she's scary ...." And nodding, the girl looks to Kula, and that swarming shrapnel, the shards, the objects, the white sky and atmosphere about them .. but the avalanche of frozen matter isn't the only thing moving.
Kula might be surprised that the pink haired girl is running TOWARDS her, getting clocked by one piece.. and then slashed by a flying shard of ice, being tossed aside.. but pushing forwards, ever closer, through the assault. "Ahh.. Mignon can't just give.. up.." But the frozen matter is all stopping .. and it's coming towards her. "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
She dives towards Kula, attempting to stop this.. but the pink witch is frozen.. stuck in the ice, the frozen matter flooding in, and crushing her .. from inside the little cocoon of ice and pain, Mignon actually screams.. and goes silent. The pain is horrifying. She had never felt anything like this .. and then she goes silent.
That should be the end.
From within the ice.. something sputters.. the ice cracking, a rather large, burning, churning mass being called upon.. breaking the prison open before being slammed into the ground. "M-METEO STRIKE!"
The chunk of earthen magic is slammed into the ground, before Mignon staggers backwards.. falling onto her back, completely unable to continue afterwards.
"M-Mignon .. t-tried her .. best."
COMBATSYS: Mignon can no longer fight.
> //////// ]
|===----\-------\0 Kula
COMBATSYS: Kula fails to reflect Meteo-Strike EX from Mignon with Counter Shell.
COMBATSYS: Kula can no longer fight.
The storm passes, going the way of all things; the blizzard ends, replaced with drifting flakes of snow that fill the enclosed dome. Some of the transparent plastic overhead, cracked in places, begins to collapse in, the once flexible surfaces frozen to a brittle, fragile state. At the center of it all is NESTs' little diamond, one of their most successful projects ever attempted. Her frosty blue hair is replaced with damp looking auburn locks, her eyes, opening slowly, no longer crimson but violet, matching her leather body armor.
She can barely make out the frozen block of snow, ice, and sleet that exists where Mignon stood. She had noticed the girl making a desperate attempt to charge into the storm, to fight the impossible and reach Kula before it was too late. She didn't make it. The girl lifts her gloved hand slowly and brushes idly at her jacket with a trembling arm. All three of her opponents left their mark, their impressions. Whether it was the tall Flora who hung in there after being targeted by that giant chi detonation or Hakuya who got up one more time than he was supposed to and made all the difference, or Mignon who, when left alone, refused to back down, refused to run, even when faced with having to fight Kula alone.
The girl shakes her head, exhaling, her breath no longer visibly frozen. There is a small sense of elation at having pulled off the impossible. Moreso than most of her victories. The challenge was intense, the power available at her fingertips unlike any opportunity she had ever had before. But now it's come to an end, the fighters having done their best.
She starts to turn away when a voice reaches her ears, a movement from within the mound of ice concealing Mignon from sight. The girl turns quickly, raising her left hand to wave it through the air in front of her, intending to create one of her defensive barriers and fend off Mignon's final attack. But the assault that stopped the witch took every last ounce of chi manipulation young Diamond had at her disposal - a fact driven home rather clearly when in the wake of her arm no chi is made manifest, no barrier or mirror to turn aside the shockwave that pulses out from the now shattered, icy prison.
Caught cleanly, the girl is knocked clean off her feet again, landing on her back in the now dampened dust that covers the arena floor, arms out at her side. Eyes open, she's left to stare up at the drifting snow as it blankets the ground all around her. Slowly she lifts her head, hands turning over to press down against the ground as she tries to sit up. But in the end, she just doesn't have it in her and the girl lies back down flat, content to simply lie still and wait for her handlers come to collect her. Winning wasn't ever really important to her anyway. She'll be wisked off by the NESTs group just as suddenly and secretively as she arrived - their pet weapon to be hidden away until next week.
Log created on 19:27:33 09/20/2008 by Flora, and last modified on 14:52:42 09/28/2008.