Description: Rolento, peacefully stirring up trouble and recruiting for his evil army, just happens to be in the same general area as the evil-hunting monk Sokaku! What sort of punishment will the holy man bring to the table?!
When one spends months improvising recruitment, unexpected occurances are impossible to avoid. It cannot be called a mistake; Rolento Schugerg does not make mistakes, he allows minute odds for unwanted circumstances. The dice of fate gives Sokaku the dubious pleasure of being within his proximity...
Within one of the worse off districts in Southtown, Rolento is literally standing on a soapbox. The faded label shows it as having once housed an off brand. Yet he bears a rather regal and obviously charismatic stance, shoulders back and head high as hands sweep with an artists' flair. About twenty people are watching, milling around on the sidewalk and street in a haphazard horsehoe. Four other men hover at the fringes, dressed in similar garb of uniform with crimson beret. They twirl simple knives, tools easily underestimated in the hands of grizzled veterans.
"The world governments have broken the common folk, represented by decadence and heartless business! And they wish to fix it by preying on the common folk yet again! There is an alternative. There is a WAR." Rolento clenches a fist, leather half-glove creaking. His other hand rests on the handle of his sheathed baton. "I wish to tear down the chains of oppression, and form a few country, independent of this obsolete system!! All who follow me shall have good bed, good food, and the spoils of my campaign!"
An arm sweeps out. Bundles of money scatter into the ground, and people scramble to pick them up. "This sum is less then nothing to me. I have liquidized funds for troops in the hundreds of millions. Keep your sins, and give me your strength. You want women? Buy the best! You want drugs? Buy the best! You want murder? Do what you will to our enemies! Join the United Soldiers for the People's Liberation!!"
Sokaku is walking down the path, for reasons known only to the mysterious old monk. Had the die been cast just slightly later, perhaps, Sokaku would not have heard such condemnations - perhaps Rolento's spiel, his pitch, his charismatic recruitment...perhaps it would've succeeded without even a hitch.
But the old monk had been fishing in a lake up nearby, and was heading in to town with four fish hanging from his monk's staff. It was simply luck, or perhaps the gods of fate - if one believed in such things - that brought the old man there. His staff rings jingle against each other as he stops, listening to the cries for murder and sins.
The wide-brimmed hat is pulled down a bit, and he moves to the back of the group, listening to the man's speech. Sokaku didn't like this, not a bit.
He starts moving forward through the crowd, and they give him a wide berth, his staff jingling with each step, six heavenly rings clashing and four fat fish hanging from makeshift cords. His homespun, home-made robes, tied sandals, and woven hat seem to command a holy respect from those around him, and the crowd, after a short moment, disperses, hiding from the strangely imposing old man and his eerily ringing staff. It was as if his simple presence forced them to look deep into their souls, stare at the sins the man was telling them to keep, and decide that they didn't really want to add to them too much with such a man around.
The monk raises his staff, lowering it to point at Rolento. "An evil man, spreading his illness through the world," he declares, his deep voice a rumble that seems to silence the rest of the world's everpresent noises. His staff spins once, the fish forgotten, flopping to the ground at the feet of a hungry villager - who promptly snags them and runs off - and falls under his shoulder, ringing again. "I will save you from yourself, black one, and purify your sickness before these innocents can grow diseased from your foul soul."
COMBATSYS: Sokaku has started a fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Rolento has joined the fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Rolento
There did not seem to be any sign of Rolento registering Sokaku, but such is only to the eyes of the blind. At his first approach, he would of felt starkly tagged, although there was nothing clearly visible in his words or gestures to mark such. An almost transient wariness, which one might assume to be an oblivious opening... but to leap at him now would be the equivalent to trying to surprise another person who's staring directly at you. When they begin to disperse, many drop the money they held. Many more keep them, clutched almost protectively to chests. A statement fades away to silence, Rolento seeming more intent on watching the backs of those leaving as opposed to the monk before him.
"Evil? I grow tired of that ignorant label." That is not... entirely what is visible within him. But he is ruthless, heartless, and knows no limits. A black tapestry of death, horror, and pain sweep across his being like a carpet, but seem to not taint him, worn like a belt of tools, a means to an end.
...of course, there is a spark of madness, far out of sight...
Slowly he draws out his baton, spiraling it once and slamming the end upon his other palm. "You have ruined my efforts in this region for the forseeable future. Further investment of funds and personal time will yield reduced manpower, compared to finding another location. This is an unacceptable hampering of my agenda!!" He crouches down, placing a palm upon the box and semeing to go fluid. Suddenly, the lines of his muscles go lax. There seems no way to predict where he might go, and no limitation on the ease of his escape left, right, or even up and down. "Still, this loss can be offset by supplemental exercise..."
With that, he lunges forward. Curled into a tight ball, he twists and lashes out a foot. What should of been a harmless arc a couple meters over Sokaku's head turns into a downwards diagnal kick, attempting to slam the end of his boot upon the monk's chest and send him skidding backwards.
...Violence. There's lots of violence in his soul as well. Just as impossible to miss!
COMBATSYS: Sokaku blocks Rolento's Light Kick.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Rolento
The old man swings his staff around, a quick deflection well-suited to evading damage. "Hn," he says calmly, "Your agenda is of no concern to me, dark one."
The old monk's hand slides into his pouch, withdrawing a long scroll and flinging it to the sky. He raises and lowers his staff three times, each time the rings jingling together like a churchbell tolling the end of the evil regime. As Sokaku's massive chi reserves burn upwards, the rings push apart, hovering away from each other as though repelled by some hidden force.
It's with a heavy gravitas that the old man speaks, intoning a chant of ages past handed down through his style for generations.
"Om ni ri tan so no ra ma ki bi li ma shu ra," comes the rhythmic pulse, matched to the jingling of the staff-rings. The intonation hangs there like a bird ready to fall, and the scroll's kanji lights with flame, burning through the ink first, then the paper, until it's gone.
And then the second Sokaku emerges, striking one-two-three-four quick blows, five blows, six, a kick, a slash with the staff. It's spectral, it's ghostly, but it's solid and it's real and it's oh-my-quite-painful.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Rolento with Makibishi Masher.
Glancing Blow
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Sokaku 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Rolento
Rolento lands in a deep crouch, splaying on the ground before lunging backwards, backflipping in a rapid manner. He lands upon a tree trunk, crouching into it. Yet he does not advance, unaware if such is a trap. And finding it to be unexpected, even within his wide range of awareness. White eyes widen slightly at the advancing Sokkaku, but he lunges up and the first combination misses. While airborne, the second is squirmed away, heavily glancing across chest and shoulder before the final staff strike smacks him across the face. Spiraling like a misthrown football, at the last moment hsi foot kicks out and he lands harmlessly. "Hrrmph." he offers, rubbing a smear of blood from one lip.
His baton is slammed into the ground, and he leans back, bowing it into a frightful curve on the point of breaking. Before he snarls, "Go!" and vaults forward. He tightens into a ball, bouncing twice before pushing off the ground to send the Rolento cannonball hopefully slamming into the old man's torso, attempting to send him crashing backwards with a surprising amount of force...
COMBATSYS: Sokaku fails to interrupt Mekong Delta Attack from Rolento with Lightning Staff.
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Sokaku 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Rolento
Sokaku swings his staff up to the sky. The air around him humms and throbs with power as the rings of his staff jingle in a mad frenzy, and the wind whips up, a hurried frenzy of the elements gathering dark clouds above the sorcerous avenger of justice. The clouds roll together, spinning into an ever-shrinking eye just above the monk's staffpoint, and rain begins pouring down, whipping at the two fighters as though the sky were weeping at the display of mutual power.
Sokaku's staff slams to the ground once, then rises back into the sky. The lightning bolt crashes down into him, guided by the old man's chi and the staff's metal, and he swings it around to deliver the fury of the sky to the evil, evil Rolento.
And he's just a bit slow, misses by just a bit, and the ball crashes into his stomach, sending him flying backwards. Yes, the lightning discharges, erupting outwards with a thunderclap and shattering the tree Sokaku nearly hits, sending it falling down towards the monk's head.
He ducks out of the way, pulling himself up with his staff. That was...most unfortunate.
Rolento kicked away at the last moment, crackles of static and electricity licking across his body in a way not quite harmless. But he was airborne and thus missed any true damage. One leg extends, and he catches himself neatly. No words are forthcoming. He advances, coming in low with his baton trailing behind. Yet it was a feint, and the true assault comes from his free hand, slithering up like a coiled viper to catch Sokaku by the throat. Two steps past him would follow, before a brutal whipcrack of inertia intending to send him in an overhead slam right upon the ground, snarling like some predatory animal in the attempt. Trying to keep him stumbling and off-guard, cramping his space to make any preparation for such spells or assaults all the more difficul to successfully get off... His four men have fanned out, but are not interfering. Someone able to fight on par with Rolento will be all but immune to those thrown daggers... But they do cheer, loudly. "Schugerg! Schugerg!" He seems to enjoy the attention. Pride is one of his sins.
COMBATSYS: Rolento successfully hits Sokaku with Medium Throw.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Rolento
Sokaku does indeed stumble backwards, but it doesn't prevent him from leaping away from the man, banging his staff into the ground. More chi gathers in his hand.
"They say that pride goeth before the fall," the old man says slowly, swinging his staff in a horizontal slash as his two-fingered sign gleams behind the staff's path. Something fires out - a little yellow cloud being ridden by a brown monkey. But no ordinary monkey - no, this was the Great Monkey King, Sage of Heaven and Earth, a tiny little chi replica with a tiny little diadem and a tiny little Nyoi-bo. It was already expanding as the little monkey king soars towards Rolento, raising its staff to bring it slamming down on the black-hearted sinner's head. It was a simple trick, but it was one that would buy him some time.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Rolento with Wild Monkey Slash.
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Sokaku 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Rolento
"Without pride, is a man a worthy enough foe to mark them falling?" Rolento offers, remaining poised and prepared to strike. He's obviously rather patient at the moment, seeming calm and calculated to the point of being mechanical. But such doesn't work too well when someone can summon absurd creations of chi to strike him! Again an attempted defense fails, but this time fully. He's clocked one right on the head, reeling backwards and grasping his beret with his free hand as if it potentially falling off was more important then the internal damage. "Hnnngh..." But he catches himself, head shaking to either side to clear the cobwebs. "Interesting creations. I can make something, too..." A grenade is yanked off his harness, and the pin flicked away. "They are short lived, but breath fire and molten steel..." There's signs of irritation, but not at words in particular. He's not the type to be swung by taunts, but instead manipulated by his own failures...
COMBATSYS: Rolento focuses on his next action.
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Sokaku 1/-------/=======|=====--\-------\0 Rolento
Sokaku doesn't participate in banter. The old man simply rings his staff against the ground, closing his eyes beneath the wide-brimmed hat, and energy pours into his body. His staff rises again, falling, rising, falling, a hammer on the anvil of the earth. It's a simple motion, but one that allowed Sokaku to focus his chi and regain his strength once more, and that is far more important than any simple chi-spell.
"You are an empty man wielding the empty weapons of the faithless modern world." The monk's deep voice echoes across the grounds, and the last of the bystanders NOT part of Rolento's group scrambles away. "Do not fear. You will be purified. This, I promise."
COMBATSYS: Sokaku gains composure.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Rolento
"Have you ever considered..." Rolento wonders, before suddenly hurling his grenade straight into the air. It soars, seemingly out of sight, "That what I am, is already pure?" His fingers splay towards the heavens, before he suddenly snatches air and SLAMS down his hand. A glimmer of steel wire can be seen going taut, arching up to his heaven swallowed grenade. Literally whistling down comes the parcel, and a foot from contacting the earth hopefully mere inches in front of Sokaku, attempting to compensate for evasion, it would explode. One could fathom the supernatural display of timing this has; the grenade must of been traveling tens of miles per hour. Important to note is these are personally modified anti-vehicular explosives, and could shear away the hull of an armored tank. As such, they hurt quite a lot to even top tier fighters in many cases...
COMBATSYS: Sokaku fails to reflect Grenadier from Rolento with Jashin Kon.
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Sokaku 1/----===/=======|======-\-------\0 Rolento
Sokaku rolls out his scroll, forcing his finger against it and shouting out the chant like lightning. "Om ni JASHIN KON!" The scroll burns with white fire, disintegrating into ash and smoking into the sky.
The little creature that appears could be an imp, could be a monkey king servant, could be a kappa...whatever it is, the little demon wraps its hands around the grenade, reeling back to throw it at Rolento.
It...fails. Miserably. The demon reels back, but the grenade begins to explode in its hand, and the creature scrambles forward to protect Sokaku from the worst of it as he's knocked back against the tree barrier from earlier. He stands up on his staff.
"Your purity is strong, but it is evil. Evil must be destroyed. That is the way of the world." His faith doesn't seem to have faltered at all, despite the enormous blow he just took.
The length of wire is flicked off Rolento's hand, as he resumes a stance of his own. "Evil is a pointless label. If it means someone free of morality, doing anything to succeed with optimal results, then I will not argue!" His men are cheering louder, seeming to taste the proverbial blood in the air. Rolento breathes regularly, disguising the extent of his damage rather well from the other man. He begins to walk sideways, weapon poised and stance loose. Before he's suddenly flying forward, as if the intervening jump was skipped as an annoying liability. The air screams an angry chorus behind his baton, as it attempts to slam right upon the top of Sokaku's head, a split second before a snapping kick descends into a shoulder, both trying to crush him upon the ground. "GO!!" is roared again, far too late to be of any meaningful use.
COMBATSYS: Rolento successfully hits Sokaku with Mekong Delta Air Raid.
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Sokaku 1/-======/=======|=======\-------\1 Rolento
Sokaku smiles, and his hat tips up as he takes the blow, stumbling backwards and planting his staff in the ground. The wind howls for the blood of the two fighters, the rain pours down, beating against them like the waves of the sea, and the old man smiles. It's an eerie smile, made even eerier by those eyes - those now-visible-for-the-first-time eyes, piercing and sharp, like the lightning he called down only a short time earlier.
Sokaku raises his staff to the sky, and the lightning strikes it once more - but this time, the electricity stays not just in the staff, but within Sokaku himself, the thunderclap rattling the rings into a creepy jingling sound that somehow manages to be audible even over the howl of the storm.
And the staff falls once, twice, three times, four, the number of death, each smash on the ground ringing like a hammer against an anvil. The ground splits open a crack, and fire roars out of it, guided by the old man's brilliant chi and sorcerous ways, wrapping about the staff in a hellish aura born from the very bowels of the Earth.
He raises the staff again, and the lightning jumps, ringing his head like the diadem of the monkey king as his staff comes swinging down, cracking, exploding with power as it extends into a spiritual Nyoi-Bo. The monkey king's power - the great sage born from the Earth and equalling Heaven - embodied in this blow, ready to discharge against Rolento in a devestating smash. It was huge, huger than Rolento himself, wide and tall, a staff blotting out the sky as it slams down like a hammer of justice descending upon the judge's bench. It was the greatest of his techniques, the strongest, and it was now brought to bare for the soldiers to witness - though whether fearful or awe-inspiring, it's impossible to tell.
Sokaku spins the staff back under his elbow and resumes his combat stance, the ground before him shattered by the immense spiritual blow. His sandaled foot shifts forward in the rain.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Rolento with Sokaku Splat EX.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-----==|=======\======-\1 Rolento
Rolento had grown used to these techniques, if not entirely complacent. But the magnitude was beyond the breadth of his expectations. He could not truly sense the chi, beyond instinct. Sharp, hard instinct that kept him alive hundreds of times in the Mekong Delta.
Get away.
He steps backwards, head glancing about in all directions for the source. His face warps into a grimace, hand gripping the baton so tight the aged wood creaks. He is tensed like a spring, still hearing the dull echo of his spine, that ancient and primordial voice continuing to chant in his skull.
Danger! Danger!
Up!
His head raises. White eyes widen, and for the first time there is surprise. Oh, he made a valiant effort. What should of been a sure, inexorable strike turned into a knife's edge chance, as he lurched away in a tight ball. But he's caught, and struck into the ground with catastrophic force. Earth splits and churns up, raining down mud and stone from the sudden storm.
For a few long seconds, nothing happens. Only a dull patterpatterpatter that is not the rain. Nay, a sleek black helicopter seems to be approaching, flying low enough to be dangerous, suspicious.
And his men have not ceased cheering. As if spurred on by the helicopter. "SCHUGERG! SCHUGERG! TAKE NO PRISONER! TAKE NO PRISONER!"
One hand lifts from his crator and grabs the edge. Limply he pulls out of the lip, knees slipping beneath as he raises. Reeling back, he almost falls back in. The baton is gone; that arm is limp and useless beside. He should be broken, but he's not. No, his own eyes look to almost burn like a sun, one hand groping air for a moment. Then clenching.
"...Ready?" he croaks. The arm lifts, a fluid snap. The glisten of a steel wire, erupting through the mud, jackknifing up to catch him by the throat and strangle. "GO!!"
Were it to succeed, the helicopter would be in just the right place for Rolento to leap and snap it over a dangling hook, to take Sokkaku up and give him a very thorough strangling before it would snap and let him fall...
COMBATSYS: Sokaku fails to interrupt Take No Prisoner from Rolento with Genmu Jin.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Rolento
COMBATSYS: Sokaku can no longer fight.
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Rolento 0/-------/-----==|
Sokaku hurls his staff up into the stormy sky, scrolls falling open around him like a protective sheath. The staff is struck by the lightning - as would be predictable - as Sokaku's chant begins.
"Om. Da ma ka ra sha da so wa ta ya un ta ra ta kan man..."
The lightning roars down, exploding around his scrolls, consuming them. From where Sokaku was standing, an enormous creature pulls itself forth, raising its hand to swat at the helicopter, at the man, at the assault.
The bullets tear through the chi construct, summoned demon, or whatever it may be effortlessly. It explodes, a shower of energy falling down with the rain...but Sokaku is no longer there. The old man and his staff have vanished to parts unknown.
From the center of the whirling storm of power, a talisman flies out, smacking harmlessly into Rolento's head. In beautiful Kanji, it reads 'You Will Be Purified - This I Promise.'
But the old man's real objective - scaring the citizens away - has been accomplished. Now, all that remains of the hopeful recruits is a boy, and he runs for the rest of Southtown, scurrying away from the shattered, broken battlefield. Though Rolento hadn't been purified, his recruitment prospects had dried up, and maybe one or two of those soulless children of the new generation were examining their faiths a bit closer and looking less for easy money.
Maybe. But that would be an idealistic world, wouldn't it?
Rolento frowns, as his wire only destroys some manifested creature. He's hurt, but not bad. His shoulder is merely out of the joint. The four men approach cautiously as he eyes the kanji and drops it to fall in a puddle of mud. "He can get in line." is called back. Grasping his bicep, a savage jerk upward and twist downword causes a dull pop. All men cringe, but his expression doesn't change. "I will have this man's identity found. Begin observing Saturday Night Fight and tournaments. Someone so eccentric should be easily traced." He is a man who believes in getting even. He escaped the grim reaper this time, but to think Rolento will allow such slight and damage to go unreciprocated... is a dangerous thing indeed. There are few people who can be as wrathful an enemy, if properly motivated. Boarding the helicopter with his solders, they turn to flit away into the night once more...
COMBATSYS: Rolento endures Rolento's Grenadier.
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Rolento 0/-------/=======|
COMBATSYS: Rolento takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Rolento can no longer fight.
Log created on 19:56:42 11/07/2008 by Sokaku, and last modified on 21:57:17 11/07/2008.