Description: In war, you need footholds. When invading enemy territories, strongholds are required in order to have an effective bastion against your target. It's a simple fact of war. And in all his wisdom, Igniz, leader of the NESTS Cartel, has deigned Gedo to be the chosen holding ground of his and Shadaloo's army. Impovershed, rife with gangs and hooligans... should they not be blessed with the touch of the divine? Yet Gedo High is a proud school, brought up by a proud man; they will not fall easily. So, what happens when the full wrath of a man who would believe himself to be a god comes to punish the wicked for their stubborn refusal? With his trusted agent Kula Diamond at his side, Gedo High will be graced by the deific presence... and its lands will be scorched with his fury.
For days, weeks months NESTS has been stalking out Gedo High, manuevering into a position for this fateful strike. Many days suited men in armor could be seen skulking around the perimiter of Gedo High.
Now, the current day seems a lot less secretive. Men in full suits of riot gear, some of the most technilogically advanced armor and weapons to date begin to march down the central courtyard of Gedo High with the holy orders of Igniz placed down to them in their own crusade to bestow this land to no one but the god of NESTS.
Gedo High's finest would even have a hard time keeping them at bay, as their sheer numbers and equipment makes up for their rather lackluster fighting style of pure brutality. Days are filled with kiais and gunshots ringing about, and even more with the numerous wounded that cry for aid. The fighting on Gedo Street has been hard fought for Gedo High. The numerous combatants, presumably clones and other tests are pushing Gedo back even as they push outwards. The days of fighting has led up directly towards Daigo's front stoop, the courtyard of Gedo High.
Days of fighting and yet still Gedo High continues to resist the many men that Igniz had sent his way as the man sat miles away on a pearly throne. Today, there is no man upon the throne. He has gone elsewhere. The light dips in softly, carressing nothing as the absence of the god makes the very room weep once more for his return.
Instead, Gedo High would witness his power. His emaculate grace that he carries with him wherever he goes. Igniz has mustered his strength, and in turn head towards Gedo High to quell this resistance that Diago's dogs continue to carry on.
Through the wanton destruction that is delivered by Gedo student and NESTS opperative alike, a man in a vermillion cloak comes flanked with another by his side. For Igniz was not foolish to go alone. He enlisted his most trusted assistant.
"Do you see this? Among the debris and strewn bodies there is a purpose for this bloodshed." Igniz pauses, "But it is not a matter now, is it? I am sure I will be able to trust you to do the right things as you see fit."
The blue haired girl, Kula Diamond.
The god of NESTS has come to deliver his own righteous fury amongst the nonbelievers. Those that resist shall be burned as a heretic in holy flame. Even in Gedo High, his touch will cleanse Southtown of the rat infestation.
She always knew there would be a day like this. Anyone at NESTS would. The talk of the day the Cartel would be able to step out of the shadows and see its ultimate goals fullfilled. The day when all their preparing, experimenting, research, and investments would pay off, landing on glorious triumph for the man who would be god, Igniz. Of this day, Kula had mixed thoughts. Not a stranger to violence, she had never seen it on such large scale until now. There is something reaffirming in seeing the forces of NESTS move forward - confirming that she wasn't wrong to stay loyal to the Cartel's leader.
Even as she walks alongside the cloaked figure, Kula Diamond appears as calm as can be, hiding on some level the uneasiness she has at the sight of so many injured. None of them mean anything to her on their own - but it does mean, perhaps, that girl Shurui could be among the wounded, and that would trouble her.
"Yes," she answers Igniz as he speaks. There is a purpose to it. She isn't filled in on the particulars. Her job description doesn't require her to know anyting beyond that Igniz knows what he's doing. He need not fear a lapse in her loyalty here. The showy violet leather she wears to her publicized fights is replaced with black, her frosty blue hair resting against her shoulders as she keeps a degree of her power restrained, saving it any need to actually fight at the man's side.
"Why do they still fight when it seems they can't win?" she asks at last. "Is surrender not an option?"
/Three Days Prior/
The cold winter winds of Siberia's harsh tundra whip at Daigo Kazama's face as he stares out towards a vast nothingness. He doesn't remember how long he's been here. He doesn't particularly care. His fingertips feel numb as they curl into the cold, furred hide of a dead bear slumped beside him. Claw marks run along his chest and face; the cold snow stings the wounds. He still doesn't notice. He doesn't care. He came out here for a reason -- but it isn't important anymore. He knows. He doesn't know how, but he knows--
"... It's time to go back."
/Two Hours Ago/
Daigo had come back too late.
When Daigo Kazama arrived back at Gedo, the streets were overrun by violence. Not by gangs, not by hooligans or idiot chumps thinking to make a name for themselves -- this was different. Organized men, soldiers, running down people in the streets. The sound of shots fired assaulted Daigo's ears, the smell of gunpowder invaded his nostrils with the stink of violence. A man trains his gun on the large gang boss, steady, threatening. Daigo frowns.
"Surrender now, or--"
And in a brilliant flash of fire, any words or ultimatums come to an end.
/Now/
The courtyard of Gedo High is in ruins. A devastated gloom settles over the high school and, amidst the chaos, there is only desolation. Yet, the students still fight. Do they know they can't win? Is surrender not an option?
It's as Kula speaks those words that a charred body is /thrust/ out of the doors to Gedo's main hall, striking the ravaged ground with a deadened thud.
"It is -- for you," comes Kula's answer. Daigo Kazama, gaze cold and foreboding, stares at the leader of NESTS and his agent, hands curling into tight fists with the creak of leather. His voice is controlled -- the only sign of his rage is in the fire that crackles across his hands.
"You can leave now, or I can kill each and every one of you.
"And don't even think for a -second- that I'm not being generous."
Over the discordant noise of bones breaking, guns firing, and battle cries of all flavors, it's easy to miss the insistent rumble of a motorcycle engine being pushed to its logical conclusion. Which makes the sudden appearance of Akira Kazama all the more jarring to those who weren't paying attention.
Ramping off of a nearby roof, clad in full motorcycle gear, Akira puts the X Games to shame as she launches over the rooftop's edge, clearing the distance between it and Gedo's courtyard easily. The reason is simple -- easier to soar /over/ a cadre of NESTS goons than /through/ them, although 'through' ends up being an inescapable option anyway. All the more remarkable is that Akira does this while saddled down -- a few heavy bags, clearly whatever messenger bags, backpacks, and laundry sacks happened to be available, are filled to the brim and hanging from her shoulders. When she lands, her bike nearly bounces; the heavy load she carries nearly knocks her forward over her own handlebars. Still, with failure not being much of an option, Akira endures, zooming through a crowd of NESTS subjugation forces, lifting one leg up to kick at one who dares get too close. Within moments, she's behind the tenuously held front line, and brings her bike to a dead halt via the tried and true method of toppling to one side and letting the bike skid away and hit a wall.
A few students and teachers help the girl up, and quickly divest her of her load -- food, water, medical supplies, all in heavy demand. Akira hopes that the pharmacies and supermarkets she had to rob will forgive her later, considering the circumstances; that said, with Southtown in chaos, it seems like everyone was getting in on the looting spirit, so she feels lucky she got anything at all. "You need to rest," one teacher says, helping Akira limp along.
"Nnn," Akira replies, the most she's said in 24 hours. "Daigo--?"
"He went to--" The teacher doesn't even have a chance to finish before Akira shoves him away, letting him land on his ass roughly. The girl has found the strength within herself to break into a ragged, desperate dash, practically /lunging/ to her brother's side. As he makes his proclamation to NESTS, she raises her fists, leaning back on one hip. No matter how tired she is, she'll still fight by Daigo's side. Kazamas, after all, stick together.
When Gedo High is under siege, if there's any group of people guaranteed to be out in force trying to protect it, it's the Guardian Kings. In the absence of Daigo Kazama during his long training, with the lack of Gan or Edge, or even Acacia, it's often fallen to the shoulders of Tenma Kiryuu to keep things in line as best he can. The Gedo swordsman, a veteran of the fighting during the supposed Jinchuu 'tournament', as well as the hellish rescue mission underneath Capital 7, is sadly much less of a stranger to this sort of violence and oftentimes guerilla warfare than he'd prefer.
The worst part, at least from Tenma's perspective, is that he's been separated from the rest of the Guardian Kings.
But don't think the King of Blood has been idle; wherever the fighting has been the hottest, Tenma has made his presence felt, struggling defiantly like he always does. It's who he is, really... Stubborn and completely refusing to yield, even in the face of superior strength and numbers. Whether the fight is just for show or, like now, it's truly life or death, Kiryuu doesn't know the meaning of surrender, and no small number of NESTS goons have gotten slashed open with a blade of blood and chi.
Just his luck, then, that Tenma finds himself in the very eye of the storm, as Daigo and Akira Kazama face off against Igniz and Kula. Honestly, Tenma doesn't know Igniz from a hole in the ground, but he sure /looks/ important. And besides, the Boss is there.
"Hmph," comes that strident voice, as Tenma Kiryuu pulls himself up alongside Daigo on the other side as Akira. His left hand hangs at his side, thumb hooked into the pocket of his uniform slacks, while his right holds his bokken negligently, resting the wooden blade against his shoulder though its aura of red, blood and chi mingled together inseparably, rages in a violent, blade-like shape, rather than its usual misty, smoky form. "Nice timing, Boss," the Guardian King says, dark blue eyes flickering over at the NESTS elite. Tenma is battered and worn out, but like he'd give up in the face of /them/? "You heard the man, get the hell out," he offers towards Igniz and Kula, brash as always. "I think it's past Smurfette's bedtime," he adds, jutting his chin out towards Kula.
Igniz strolls casually through the debris laden battlefield. A lot of fighters have fought over the last twenty four hours, theres no doubt. The carnage and litter that begins to pile the streets gives it a rather different sort of look. It isn't rustic, nor is it anything you would consider to be.
Kula, besides him, asks a question. Igniz isn't even able to speak before Daigo appears, and answers it for both of them. Well, its rather quaint. To ask a god to surrender to a mere human? Igniz chuckles beneath the robe, his trademark smile devoid of any feeling or emotion save for the only emotion that the cartel leader can muster. Self importance.
Voices chime out in defense of their precious High school. Daigo threatens, Akira comes in through a group of NESTS men, scaterring them across the ground as Igniz simply steps over them as if they were trash. Then there is Tenma who speaks up about Kula. He should order Kula there and then to give the Guardian King a run for his money, but he makes no premature movements. He stops at least a good yard or two away from the accumulated Gedo Highschool. His gaze passes among them as he makes no movements at all.
"I shall have you know that it is not in fact Kula's bedtime." Igniz quips, "She will be home much earlier than expected, as it seems." Igniz adds to Tenma before turning his hooded visage over towards Daigo. "Very well then... I surrender." Igniz exclaims there and then.
This is not what is ultimately expected, nor is what actually happens. The cloak upon Igniz twists and bends as it warps around him, being sucked into his visage and twisted about into a cape, the man taking into the air as he mildly floats as if there was nothing amiss, his jetblack armor and flowing blonde hair only mildly belay the fact that he isn't pulling any punches. A heavy presence seems to have come with Igniz, for as he lifts into the air, revealing his true nature, the air itself feels thick. There is a definite power that is held by the Cartel leader.
His vision passes across towards the Gedo High defenders across from him, a soft smile held even now.
"There is nothing I can say that will persuade you from leaving this place, so I will not speak it. Kula," Igniz announces, "disuade them, will you?" Igniz says, as common as if it was an everyday conversation. Even as behind him a war roars in the heart of Southtown.
This was going to be the start of a very, very long week.
COMBATSYS: Igniz has started a fight here on the left meter side.
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Igniz 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Daigo has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Igniz 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz calculates his next move.
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Igniz 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Tenma has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Igniz 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tenma
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Akira has joined the fight here on the right meter side.
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Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|-------\-------\0 Tenma
> //////////////////////////////]
|=------\-------\0 Akira
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Kula has joined the fight here on the left meter side.
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Kula 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Tenma
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Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> //////////////////////////////]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
A body flies from the halls of the main building as Kula speaks and the girl barely bats an eye. But for the man responsible for the act, it wouldn't have merited her attention in the slightest. But as Igniz stops so to does she, staying lock step with the leader of NESTS, fixing the imposing figure of Daigo with a cool, crimson eyed gaze. The next move is Igniz's to decide, but it isn't hard for her to guess as to what he is going to do. The man isn't about to be deterred by words alone and she doesn't believe the lone student in front of them has what it takes to stop either of them...
The situation changes quickly, however, as he is joined by not one but two of the more noteworthy defenders of the campus. But one looks practically beatup already. Does she even constitute a threat? She stays quiet as words are exchanged. Even Tenma's taunt provokes barely more than a short glance cast his way, as if evaluating him for an immediate attack. But until Igniz gives the word, she isn't budging from her spot at his side.
But as Igniz gathers his power, she responds in turn, taking in a breath then exhaling softly, unsealing her combat level chi manipulation. While the air resonates with the power Igniz controls, it also drops in temperature as her full combat potential becomes available; evidenced by the small crystaline debris drifting around her. The order is given. Igniz wishes engagement. If this is the last of the strong fighters Gedo can muster, than it just might be worth getting their hands a little dirty.
Taking a step back, she draws her arms up, signiture yellow, insulated gloves creaking as she clenches her hands closed. On a personal level, she'd love nothing more than tear into the young man with the wooden sword. But her combat algorithms dictate that going for the obvious leader will yield the best results. Scatter them into defending the one they all look up to then figure out how to deal with them from there!
She springs forward into a spin, right foot whipping out, a thin blade of ice shimmering into existence along the sole of her foot as if aiming to slash right into the tall student's chest. But it's a miss - a close one, but a delierbate miss all the same. The second her left foot touches down, the agile girl spins out of her trajectory, aiming a forceful right fist for Akira's center of mass. That's something else her ruthless instincts tell her: take out the one that looks hurt already and reduce their numbers quickly!
She'll spin out of the punch if possible, consuming the last of her angular momentum, as to avoid being caught dead center right in front of the three Gedo students, already preparing for her next course of action in the precious moments in which they would have to act.
The facial features of Daigo Kazama hardly twitch an inch as Tenma moves up to his side. The Gedo boss doesn't say anything; nothing really needs to be said. The feeling here is palpable in the heat beginning to simply emanate from the large man.
He is not happy.
It is that cold, stoic rage that falters as soon as his second 'support' arrives. The bike suit, the helmet, everything is unmistakable, even if the face is concealed. Surprise takes over Daigo for a brief minute.
"Akira...? Why are you--" Daigo only stops when he realizes the severity of the situation. This is her home too, after all. "... We'll talk later. Just be careful."
Slowly, the eldest Kazama analyzes the situation. The man seems to be in charge -- perhaps in charge of all of this. The big boss of Gedo's lips curl distastefully at the man's words, his dark eyes looking towards Kula. And who is she? Some kid soldier? He listens to Igniz, and even though he doesn't look at the man, Kazama's anger is scarcely concealed in the pressure that starts to fluctuate around him.
"... Fine," he finally decides. "I'm gonna beat you into the earth."
Kula dashes forward at phenomenal speeds. Daigo's eyes widen, and he steps back -- but the girl's foot goes wide. Too wide. Instantly, Daigo's shuffles backwards a single step, booted feet scraping across the harsh earth. He didn't forge Gedo High with his fists to not be able to recognize a faint, but where is she--
The second that Kula aims for Akira, Daigo's eyes narrow to dangerous slits. The second after Kula attacks, Daigo lunges, aiming to grip up the young girl by the back of her head.
"Don't touch her."
A second later, Daigo will pivot on his heel, aiming to chuck Kula into the nearest wall with hardly a second thought.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Akira with Fierce Punch.
- Power hit! -
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|-------\-------\0 Tenma
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Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Daigo's warning comes too late -- Kula Diamond, fresh from her vacuum-sealed hibernation pod (or whatever), is that much faster than a sleep-deprived, physically drained Akira, and the punch strikes the lithe Seijyun teenager directly in the stomach, so hard that Akira actually lifts off of her feet for a moment when it impacts -- landing, roughly, on her stomach, sprawled out like a stuntman. "Ough," she groans, but quickly pushes past the phenomenal pain.
Akira sees Daigo going for Kula, but the young woman is fully prepared to get her own back -- going so far as to say, as tersely as she says anything, "I can handle this."
Intent on proving this so, Akira swoops in as Daigo tries to throw NESTS' lovable mascot. Should he succeed, she'll try and pop Kula out of the air, and it can be called a glorious team-up maneuver. Should he fail, she'll just try and sock the icy tween right in the freaking jaw. Either way, her fist surges upward in a swift, violent uppercut.
To Daigo and Tenma, without looking at either, Akira says: "Handle the big one."
"Yeah, whatever," Tenma says, shrugging his shoulder at Igniz. "Last time I remember some freaky weirdo chick showed up at this school, I just about kicked all the ugly right out of her before I tossed her off campus. Aislinn or somethin' like that." Does Tenma actually know about any connection there? That he does not. But the whole situation has a vaguely similar vibe to it.
The quick exchange as Kula goes after Akira isn't lost on the Gedo swordsman, but there's not much he can do to intercede there. Especially since Daigo already is, and Tenma would rather not get in the Boss' way. Akira's instructions, then, suit him just fine, as the Kiryuu demon hunter turns his attention directly to Igniz.
"So hey. You're that guy who came knockin' on our door before 'bout Chiang, aren't you?" Tenma says to Igniz, tilting his head slightly to one side. He was warned, Tenma was. About how powerful the man going from school to school was. About how there was no chance, if he faced off against him. But you know... Something like that isn't going to deter Tenma Kiryuu at all. With Kula presumably all tied up, the leader of the Guardian Kings takes the opportunity to bolt past her line of 'defense', fully intending on taking the fight directly to the 'god' of NESTS. The difference in strength, the disparity in overall caliber between himself and Igniz don't enter into Tenma's thoughts at all.
There is only one thought: Win.
As he closes with the cloaked figure, Tenma's run turns into a lunge, his bokken coming down off of his shoulder in a diagonal swing aimed across Igniz's torso, both hands on the hilt. At the bottom of this first slash, Tenma reverses the blade, and swings back /up/, sketching a narrow V-shape in the air and, ideally, on the crazy dude who's trying to take over a high school. "URYAAA-!!"
COMBATSYS: Igniz counters Ungyou from Tenma with Void Genocide.
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Igniz issues the assault upon Gedo. The second one, if you count the monsterous theater of Gedo High churning behind them as they vye for the same street, the same block, the same school in the same turn of events. The once hidden NESTS cartel shadow leader no longer is hiding beneath a mountain range as he sets out for his own goals. It would be preposterous to keep such power unkept. And to keep it, you will have to hone it, perfect it, use it.
This is one of the many reasosn that Igniz is here today, his entire cartel strewn across the warladen Southtown. The only immidiate thought on his mind is currently this simple chain of events, one of the many brushfires that started that would soon catch all of Southtown ablaze with this, from innocents to South Sydnicate members. All would be enveloped.
Kula lunges into the fray, Igniz needing only to watch the beginning of the assault, awaiting the solid crunch for her connected assault against the winded Gedo High student.
Daigo's announcement is left behind even as Daigo's anger fluxuates, Igniz giving him a soft smife in return. No words, however. Not this time. Not this initial contact. He has to deal with another student, Tenma, who dances loudly among Igniz's presence. "Ahhhh. Her. I see."
So then Aislinn had encountered Tenma before in a battle. This wasn't too unexpected, but it proved a small detail that will enevitably recall an important facet of information. Tenma speaks continously before he makes his move, hurling himself upon Igniz with his bokken, attempting to brig a V strike against him. The chi, however, never gets off. And outstretched hand of Igniz gets there before Tenma's sword does, beckoning an amplifier upon his cape to stand up at attention, poised towards Tenma. Before the blade even gets close, an outstretched pilliar of white chi rips into the boys right shoulder, firing him back at such a speed it would take the wind right out of him, leaving him feeling as all the air had been taken out of his lungs, only multiplying the situations tiring effects.
"Yes, I was looking for Shurui." Igniz exclaimed, "She is my daughter after all. It is only right for her to return to her origins." The god of NESTS exclaims in answer rather than retort.
"Tell me, who are you in relation?"
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Daigo's Quick Throw.
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Kula 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|===----\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Akira's Gate Elbow.
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Kula 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Her feint pays off, leaving Daigo not able to counter attack her and catching the winded girl's defenses wide open for a crushing strike only to spin out of reach of the larger young man before he can get a grip on her head. It leaves her facing Akira directly as the other girl springs right back from such a punishing hit, asserting that she can handle Igniz's most powerful operative.
Her right arm comes up to intersect that socking fist, driven back a couple of steps by the force of impact, a soft exhale escaping her lips. "You should convince them to stop fighting." she replies, her voice calm as she digs her feet in to regain traction. The black leather jacket sleeve absorbed the worst of the blow, keeping the admittedly more fragile thing safe from a degree of intended damage. But it also gave her a measure of Akira's striking power. She might not be so easy to deal with after all.
"We just want to use the school. You all should just leave it behind. You're fighting over bricks and concrete, nothing more." Breathing in deeply, a shimmer of white energy courses over her body as she brings her right hand to her mouth, palm up. "Nothing that matters in the long run." An exhale sends a breath over her gloved hand, unleashing gale force wind laced with sleet, sharp icy needles, and rings of frozen matter as she attempts to keep Akira at bay, avoiding hand to hand combat with her.
All the while, her attention is sharp, not forgetting that there are two other threats present. How many of them divert to contend with the leader behind this particular invasion force remains to be scene however. That protective edge Daigo exhibited as she swung for Akira was also not missed.
"Hn," Daigo grunts out has his meaty hand swipes out at nothing but air. He does not pursue, for two reasons: one, his sister's words reach him just as she slides forward with that sudden, thrusting punch. And two... the bigger threat here is obvious. That man -- the man currently bludgeoning Tenma like a ragdoll with angry god chi. That's the real problem.
Turning sharply on his right heel, Daigo plants both booted feet deep into the earth. His teeth grit, his legs are braced. Kula gathers up that cold energy, but Daigo has refocused himself. "You," he breathes out, staring at Igniz. "I don't know who you are. I don't care who you think you are."
Succinct words back up succinct action as Daigo Kazama suddenly /springs/ off the ground with such force that the concrete cracks beneath his heavily booted feet as he pushes off it. Long overcoat billowing outward wildly as the large man hurls himself forward at surprising speeds for a man of his build, Daigo channels his internal reserves of chi as he attempts to catch Igniz just after his assault on Tenma, swinging his left foot outward in a wide arch to smash the sole into the side of Igniz's face. Hard.
"Get out."
A second roundhouse kick will follow, before Daigo's foot /smashes/ into the earth, the left rising to boot Igniz straight into the chest. No more words are offered. The Boss of Gedo prefers to let his actions do the talking for him.
COMBATSYS: Akira blocks Kula's Diamond Breath.
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Kula 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Akira isn't scared of Kula -- as the young girl makes her suggestions, the tai-chi kamen rider refuses to respond. Verbally, anyway. Her body language conveys the defiance she doesn't speak -- it's clear enough that she refuses to back down from the skinny ice-wizard.
Of course, this strategy has its disadvantages. Akira is lucky she wears motorcycle leathers, because even with them, she can still feel the chill of Kula's attack all the way to her bone. An arm is thrown out to take the brunt of it, causing her leather sleeve to become crusted with thick, jagged ice. It slows her down, but Akira doesn't stop.
In total silence, the masked fighter lunges toward Kula, a graceful tai chi stance flowing directly into a sharp, nasty kick to the kneecap, a brazen attempt to hobble the preteen terror.
That went less well than Tenma had honestly hoped.
The Gedo swordsman's bellow as he attacks turns into a different yell as Igniz' overwhelming power slams into him, sending him flying and impacting the ground rather painfully, coughing as he tries to catch his breath. Bloodied but unbeaten, the Guardian King starts to get back to his feet, aiming a glare through his bangs at the self-professed 'god'.
"/Daughter/? Don't make me laugh, you freakshow," Tenma replies, spitting out a gob of his own blood, which steams faintly as it hits the ground. "Where were you when she was locked up and getting tortured by that Grudge wannabe, huh, Daddy Dearest? You people... You come into our home," that statement delivered perhaps as much for Kula's benefit as for the world at large. The Kazamas might not be particularly chatty at the moment, but Tenma Kiryuu? Well, shutting him up is pretty much a feat in and of itself.
"You come into our /home/, and you act like it's nothing. You come after our friends, and you pretend it's natural, you can't figure out why we're getting upset?!" Tenma's grip tightens on his bokken, until his knuckles whiten, and his teeth grind together, lips peeling back in a snarl. "You want to know who I am in relation to Chiang?! She's one of us! So, I'm more her family than any of you assholes are!" He's changed a lot since the first day he set foot in Gedo High, moreso since the rescue of Stasya Voronkova and Shurui Chang from the grip of the so-called 'Devil of Koga'. More, maybe, than he even did in the wake of Jinchuu. Tenma isn't the same person he used to be.
But there is one universal truth that remains unchanged about him, immutable: His utter rejection of any limits placed upon himself. His absolute refusal to acknowledge that he /cannot win/.
So from that perspective, it's hardly surprising that he throws himself at Igniz once again; but this time, he stops short as Daigo goes after the self-styled 'god' himself, sweeping his bokken through the air in a wide arc, too far away to possibly strike the head of the NESTS cartel; but in the wake of that slash, something else comes to life. A crescent of roiling blood and chi is born, tearing through the air towards Igniz. "People like you PISS ME OFF THE MOST!!"
COMBATSYS: Igniz blocks Daigo's Phoenix Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz dodges Tenma's Dharmapala.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Bricks and concrete? That is exactly what they are fighting over. Kula proclaims it so well that Igniz can do nothing but agree. It is only bricks and concrete, but in turn, the people that have lived, trained and worked here would be tosses towards the horribly mangled streets. The buidling would be transformed by Igniz's men in days, turning it instead to a supply station as well as the main base of opperations.
Directly after the assault upon Tenma, Igniz turns to face Daigo, a man who's attention is hard to miss, especially if he is coming down upon you quickly, as if a tornado had decided to drop a house on you all at once. Igniz in an attempt to slow this assault, four forcefields of chi beckoned at once as they rise up, willing to do their masters business without qualms.
They resonate, causing Daigo's strike to be much less effective than he originally hopes, the assault slowed down before the kick finally catched Igniz's armored frame. Connecting heavily, the god of NESTS is driven backwards, but his jet black armor barely shows wounds upon it. There is, however, a massive dent caused by Daigo's strike. If it had connected fully, Igniz would been much worse off.
"Ah. You must be Daigo, the principal of this school. I have heard much about you. Would you care to validate these claims?" Igniz asks in the hea of battle, breaking off contact with the man immidiately, firing himself into a retreat in hopes to give him enough distance to outpace Tenma's assault. His hesitation in declaring who 'Shurui' is to him is more than enough time for Igniz to pace himself, even if the assault, when it comes, is much faster than he had anticipated. It comes only with the battlesuits tendencies to give entire reports of the assaults towards the NESTS cartel leader does he manage to escape the rolling wave of blood and chi tearing towards him. It barrels out by, destroying the ground towards his side.
"If she was so easily kidnapped then it was her fault," Igniz simply dismisses it, "There is no place for weakness in my family. I imagine your 'family' only continued to magnify this weakness as a faux strength." The god of NESTS moves, once more pivoting towards Daigo, grasping hold of a sword that materializes into Igniz's hands, even as he still speaks towards the ever talkative Tenma.
"This 'home' of yours is much more important to me than it will ever be to you. I require the use of this building for greater things than you could ever imagine." Speaking to Daigo and Tenma at once, the god of NESTS strikes out with the blade, where it quickly seperated revealing its true, barbed chainsword nature as it clatters towards Daigo, attempting to rend and tear as its very nature is dedicated to.
COMBATSYS: Kula interrupts Light Kick from Akira with Crow Bite.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Akira
> ///////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
She encouraged Akira to back off rather than fight it. This battle to claim new territory for NESTS; this front in the war against the man who rules from the center of Southtown... it isn't going well for those trying to defend against it and she can sense it. Inspired by early successes, perhaps inspired even further by the presence of Igniz himself, the air feels alive with energy eager for the taking. The chi radiating from Igniz's battle armor resonates readily with the living weapon, lending strength and speed to her attacks and making it easy to shape that energy into a deadly weapon.
She can tell that for all her words and for all the violence going on around them, Akira isn't scared of her though. Perhaps she just hasn't been hurt enough yet. Lowering her right hand from her mouth, clenching her now ice encrusted glove, Kula sends flakes of frozen energy falling to the ground in front of her. "Is this place worth dying for?" she asks, her tone quiet, an almost inquisitive edge to her voice.
Her combat algorithms are adopting quickly on the fly; learning Akira's style, how to fight against it, and from what angles attacks are likely to come. Turning her left shoulder toward the other girl, Kula's right arm is awash in white energy for a split second, before that power solidifies into an arm length guantlet of jagged, spiked ice. Braced, ready for a counter strike, the young girl prepares herself.
"You had your chance," she whispers as that punishing kick comes in for her knee. Her right leg shifts, taking the blow to her shin before it becomes planted again forward from where it was. The girl's body twists toward the left, her right shoulder swinging forward, letting her tear into Akira with that spiked icy armor over her arm with a punishing uppercut.
It's delivered with the kind of force that ends up taking Kula into the air into an easy spin before she comes down to land several meters later in a half crouch. Writing Akira off in her mind, she quickly prepares to turn her attention toward one of the others pressuring Igniz. Why is this so important to them? Tenma's shout provokes a glance his way, crimson eyes narrowing on him. Would she feel this way if some force was invading a NESTS base? She suspects not. Home as they may be, she can't imagine it digging up the same importance to her as this campus seems to be for these kids.
COMBATSYS: Daigo blocks Igniz's Trans-Axial Slice.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\1 Akira
> /////////////////////////// ]
|=------\-------\0 Daigo
Tenma Kiryuu is angry, and probably justifiably so. Daigo can hear it quite obviously in his voice, but where he can see it more is in the rage and the carelessness of his actions. It makes Daigo frown, even as he skids backwards across the earth, slamming his foot into the hard ground to stop his backwards momentum. Standing up tall, he does not even look at Tenma as he slowly, methodically, begins cracking his knuckles.
"Kiryuu," the Boss of Gedo says, staring directly towards Igniz. "Remember what we're doing here." The implication is clear: calm down, or step back.
"Hnn. Not the principal." Daigo slowly rolls both of his shoulders as he speaks. His neck rotates with a slow series of cracks, dark eyes staring at his target. "But this is my school. Anyone touches a hair on the heads of the people in my school, I don't care if they're friends, family or God--
"I'll strike them down."
That's the end of that, especially as that chainsword suddenly whips forward, attempting to slice into and carve the unsuspecting Gedo Boss. But the man is not so unsuspecting; powerful arms snap forward, and literally PUNCH through the sword; his right fist is slight cut across the wrist, but little more; a fact that becomes less of a concern as Daigo's hand /bursts into flames,/ leading forward in one powerful motion to smash that flaming fist directly into Igniz's smug face. "HMPH!"
Akira's thought process is decidedly more simple than Kula's, a touch ironic considering both girls' penchant for navel-gazing introspection. Rather than ruminating on the nature of Gedo as a symbol or the connections one feels to what they consider their home turf, Akira has one thing on her mind: pain. Namely, the pain of Kula's ice-coated fist ramming into her with sufficient force to not only bruise her belly, but tear a jagged, frosty slash up the front of her jacket.
That pain, and of course, the pain she wants to deal out in turn. Akira's plan is rather simple, but she dares not speak it aloud. She figures she doesn't have much of a chance against this little frost pixie of a soldier -- but if she doesn't, she'll at least go out fighting. But she'll continue pressing, because if she /does/ go down, she knows that the outpouring of rage and emotion from Daigo will be enough to fell any attacker. That it may also fell friends is just a risk Akira feels she needs to take -- better Gedo die at Daigo's hands than at Igniz', in any case.
Akira can feel frozen blood, cold against her stomach. She hisses, as much to put the pain past her as to express it, her faceless mask covering the anxiety of her expression. She doesn't even allow herself a moment to recoil -- she just throws herself at Kula again, launching into a lashing series of stiff kicks, nominally pointed at the blue-haired girl's petite little head.
"Keh..." Tenma spits in irritation, opening his mouth to offer up probably some more shouting Igniz' way, but Daigo interrupts him. The Guardian King stops, looking over at the Gedo Boss silently for a long moment, looking like he might give Kazama a piece of his mind instead, and then something really weird happens.
Tenma backs down.
"I know, you don't need to tell me," the Gedo swordsman grouses, taking a deep breath and scrubbing his left hand through his hair. Calm, right. Get your head in the game, don't just rage uselessly; as it is, his wrath is at /best/ simply waves crashing against the bulwark of Igniz' power.
So Tenma straightens up, holding his bokken diagonally across his torso, the point towards the self-styled 'god', and his stance widens a little. Not his usual casual, dismissive stance. Control. He has to make his hits count.
COMBATSYS: Tenma focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Akira
> ////////////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Daigo successfully hits Igniz with Phoenix Fist.
- Power hit! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\-------\0 Akira
> ////////////////////////// ]
|==-----\-------\0 Daigo
Igniz can see the assault clearly as it comes towards him. He would, in turn, aim to shut it down any way he possibly knows how. The fortress like shields come up again even as his assault coils back. The sword never coils back in time, allowing Daigo to crash through Igniz's defenses, snapping it like a twig. The god of NESTS is taken backwards by the gedo's fist which burst into flames, crashing into the god as he's sent doubling backwards.
Igniz pauses, looking towards Daigo as he dabs his face. There is a small patch of blood as he rights himself, smiling yet still even with the solid blow landed. Igniz could, and would not be so easily persauded. If Daigo would attempt this, then Igniz would, in turn, also do such things. The god of NESTS, one of many faces, turns to face Daigo once more.
"You can do whatever you would like if it suits you," Igniz exclaims, bringing strength up about him even as he speaks. Towards Daigo, Igniz levels his gains. He had seen clearly into the future, into the assault and how Daigo leaves himself and moves to monopolize it as best as possible.
Daigo had thrown himself into close quarters with the god of NESTS. Everything changes immidiately, the cloak raising up with amplifiers that resemble snake like heads that level themselves upon Daigo. There, and then, they attempt a simple, stunningly powerful assault upon the Guardian of Gedo from four different quadrents, moving to hammer him a great deal backwards. Much, much farther than one would hope to be driven.
Tenma, while noticed, is left to his own devices.
COMBATSYS: Akira successfully hits Kula with Dancing Cyclone Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 1/-----==/=======|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ////////////////////////// ]
|==-----\-------\0 Daigo
Standing back up, Kula brings her right hand to her face, brushing long, skyblue bangs out of her eyes, shifting her focus back from Tenma to Akira. Her passive combat profiling was wrong. It had underestimated the other girl's resolve to stick this out even in light of possibly overwhelming odds. No display of power would be enough to disuade her, it seemed. In the end, she only seemed to rebound back with even more force than she had before the punishing technique was used on her!
Kula exhales softly, her breath a visible vapor in the air as she prepares for Akira's return fire. Both hands are brought forward, creating a inch-thick panel of solid ice between her and the avenging sister of Daigo. Her mistake was in thinking that enough to stop her, having not gotten a real feel of what a clean strike from Akira actually feels like. She finds out quickly enough, however, as the first kicks smash against the barrier and then through it, sending powdery, frozen debris flying as she finds her mark, delivering the final kicks to Kula's head.
The skinny girl doesn't hold up well under direct contact, as the remainder of that combination proves enough to knock Kula off her feet and over to to the side where she lands in a slide against the courtyard cement. Sitting up quickly, Kula shakes her head, blinking as she clears her vision, before at last pushing herself to standing. There's an urge to retaliate against Akira immediately, and as she crouches forward, planting her hands against the concrete, it seems that she might just be intending to do such a thing - countering from range, dealing with her for good.
That's before Tenma caught her eye. He isn't the best target, her programmed routines try to remind her. But he was the most annoying one... and in a fit of child-like rebellion against those cold, impresonal calculations, she shifts her focus to him instead. White energy, blisteringly cold in nature, churns over her, channeling mostly down her arms and into the ground. As the Kiryuu heir takes a moment to collect himself, he might just notice the ground rumbling beneath his feet, a herald to the attack to come...
Before without warning, a translucent spire of ice erupts up out of the ground lined with thousands of sharp, jagged edges along its frozen surface. A second explodes up from his left and a final one spears out fo the ground from in front of him. Each aim to not simply draw blood with crushing force and sharp ice but to pin him in as well should he not manage to avoid the onslaught!
COMBATSYS: Igniz successfully hits Daigo with Chaos Tide.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
+ooc :| http://motm.kicks-ass.net/logs/idx/0005786.shtml
+ooc :| http://motm.kicks-ass.net/logs/idx/0005786.shtml
"Enough talking!" Daigo bellows in a singularly commanding voice as his fist, charged with furious fire, cracks into Igniz's face. He realizes the problem all too quickly; the close distance, those strange amplifiers on Igniz's cloak. He knows what they do, he's seen them in action. And when they raise, he thinks he knows what will happen next.
And then the other amplifiers lift.
"Wh--"
CHOOM.
Daigo Kazama doesn't even stand a chance. One minute his feet are planted firmly in the earth; the next he is literally /blown/ backwards through raw, artificially amplified fury, blindingly powerful blasts consuming him from four different angles. He is enveloped by power and washed away as if taken in by the tides -- if the tides were violent enough to launch someone as large as Daigo into a wall like a human cannonball.
BOOM goes the deafening crash as Daigo smashes back-first into brick and concrete in the shattering of rusty-colored stone. His body smokes, his overcoat is largely burnt to a crisp. His skin is seared in several locations, and there is a distinct pain in his fingertips as they scrape across the earth from his burns. He ignores it. Slowly, he stands, expression grim -- but still so very controlled. His eyes narrow, his fists clench, and slowly, he takes a look at his surroundings. Kula advancing on Tenma, Akira left to recover -- his lips peel backward distastefully. He makes no move, he doesn't even say anything -- but the implication is all there.
He's preparing.
"Hrn."
COMBATSYS: Daigo focuses on his next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
Akira Kazama falls to her knees for a brief, less-than-triumphant moment. One palm braces her on the ground, as her frozen stomach wound begins to thaw, letting warm blood begin to trickle across her flesh -- making her very aware of the consequences of this battle. Behind her faceless helmet, the girl starts to wonder if she's afraid of death -- but, being Daigo's sister, she's more afraid of not giving her all, especially when the situation is this dire -- when everything her brother stands for is at risk, when everything he's given his young life to build is threatened. It's about more than Gedo to Akira; it's about family, which only drives her further.
Akira's gaze, masked by her helmet, turns toward Kula, and she thinks on this hard, gathering her nerve and her strength as she slowly rises, slouching into a weary but ready reflex stance.
COMBATSYS: Akira focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Tenma blocks Kula's Diamond Edge.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
Whereas for Tenma, 'Gedo' and 'family' might as well be the same thing. He's never been particularly close to his actual, biological relations - a situation fostered by the emotional distance his father maintained to a degree which would startle even the most stereotypical of Asian dads. With the Kiryuu clan, there is by and large only the expectation to conform. Tenma is the heir to hundreds of years of tradition, and his family has worked to see to it that he lives up to that... Even if it kills him.
But at Gedo, and especially amongst his Guardian Kings, Tenma has found some sort of acceptance for exactly who he is. There's more to family than just blood relation, after all.
"Ah, crap," mutters Tenma as the ground starts to move, and he feels the movement of that frozen chi towards him. There's precious little time for the Gedo swordsman to in order to mount an effective defense against Kula's powerful attack... But that's not going to stop him from trying anyway.
Shifting position, Tenma skids back a little and brings up his bokken, placing his free hand against the back of the blade to brace it, the red aura around the wooden sword flaring up as it intercepts the ice spire coming from his front; the other two, Tenma has to actually move to avoid, as the first spike splits around the cutting blood-chi blade of his bokken. It's a good effort, at least, but it's not enough to keep the Guardian King from harm... He's showered with spikes of ice, opening dozens of small cuts all over, slicing through his uniform to draw blood from his legs and torso.
But making Tenma Kiryuu bleed doesn't always have the effect you might want.
Dark blue eyes fall on Kula, and a smirk tugs at the corner of Tenma's mouth. Okay, fine. Who is he to disappoint a young lady when she wants to play rough? Still pained from the various tiny bleeding wounds on his body, Tenma nevertheless charges forward at Kula. And just when it seems like he's about to go for a slash of his bloody sword on the genetically engineered girl, the 'demon hunter' instead lunges forward, aiming for a handful of that icy blue hair, the better to then proceed to smash his forehead into her face with. "Let's go!!"
Igniz needed to repel Daigo. There was no other way. To the mans credit, the blow had cracked Igniz very powerfully in the face, almost planting and creating an imprint. Still, Igniz refuses to falter. Refuses to fall under such great strength. He rises like a god should, eyes poised even with the terrible pain thronging him consistently.
It goes away for seconds as Daigo explodes backwards into the brick and concrete like a cannonball ball fired from a cannon of chi. The most satisfying part of that, perhaps to Igniz, was that Daigo was leaving it entirely up to the god of NESTS as he slowly begins to rise from his fate. Igniz watches intensely as the man once more begins to rise.
"Does it pain you to watch your students flail helplessly even under your training?" Igniz asks, "Knowing fully well that if you do anything to help them... well... Nothing good can come of it. I will pounce, and it will all be over. Now, keep your atention entirely on me." Igniz says, walking closer towards Daigo even as he prepares. Igniz is fearless, approaching the snarling tiger as its fur raises high into the air.
There Igniz grasps ahold of his cape, manuevering forward towards Daigo even as he spins, leaving the man little room to manuever as he encroaches on the tigers territory, backing him into corner.
Many say that to do so would be to invite the animal to extinguish you. Igniz is a god, however. His only needs is to catch Daigo on the serrated edges of the cape and gut him like a fish with the glowing, chi infused cape.
COMBATSYS: Kula endures Tenma's Random Strike.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/---====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> ///////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
The triple-spire onslaught isn't nearly as successful in removing Tenma from the fight completely as she had anticipated. Having unloaded an imense amount of energy into that attack, she's a bit slow to push herself up from her crouching position, as if feeling just a little sore from the effort. Arms resting once again at her sides, she regards Tenma coolly, having noted the way he defended himself rather well against each angle of attack, sparing himself the worst of it.
His smirk is noticed. Smug, is he? Hasn't been hurt enough to learn his place in all this, perhaps? She bristles slightly, hands clenching at her sides, mouth curling into a narrow frown as the determined young man charges for her, perhaps recklessly so. In spite her earlier jumping and dodging around, the girl simply stands still, bracing herself, glaring back at Tenma but focused on something beyond him instead. The ice lingering from the three spires of jagged ice collapse as Kula once again takes control over the frozen matter.
It requires concentration, which keeps her rooted, to reduce the ice to a frozen slurry of liquid-like chi and snow-like ice, which leaves her standing still even as Tenma gets up in her face, grasping her hair tightly to keep her from going anywhere. Sacrifice plays aren't her forte, but it doesn't mean she doesn't know of them - to willingly let him smash his forehead into her face like that is hardly her first instinct, but sometimes a girl just has to make a point.
"Well, it's time for /you/ to go," she advises softly, just before his thick cranium strikes her square on, her right hand snapping out at the same time, seeking a grip on his neck in return. The blood that will trickle down her nose shortly is of no concern in the immediate moment, as all that driven energy advancing from behind Tenma rushes into place.
And with that, Tenma finds himself facing one of the experiment's most dangerous techniques as she seeks to bury him in all that collected ice. It would solidify in a snap to a translucent tomb, locking the young man in place behind a clear prison of diamond-like matter. For Kula, slipping free of the entire affair would be trivial as the ice molds readily around her arms, letting her step back should Tenma not manage to escape her attack in time. The ice wouldn't hold forever, but the several seconds of crushing suffocation has often been more than enough to rob many a fighter of what resolve they might have had left in facing the ice wielding terror.
COMBATSYS: Daigo just-defends Igniz's Cape Sweep!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=======\=------\1 Akira
> //////////////////// ]
|=======\-------\0 Daigo
While Daigo Kazama may seem still, his eyes are taking in everything. The subtle shifts of Igniz's stance, the ice that crackles and continues to swarm around Kula, seeming to chill the courtyard itself -- Tenma's perhaps suicidal charge on the NESTS agent. Slowly, Daigo closes his eyes.
"... Didn't I tell you? Stop talking. Only an idiot talks during a fight."
Fire trails across Daigo's fists. His eyes open, looking sidelong towards Akira, nodding once. The indication should be clear enough: follow his lead. Dark eyes turning back towards Igniz, Daigo frowns more decidedly; the leather of his gloves creak dangerously as he clenches them into tense, tight fists. He continues to wait. Waiting for that perfect moment--
/There./ The exact moment that Igniz lunges forward with the swirl of that unusual cape, Daigo suddenly /lashes/ out. Grabbing onto the edges of that strange cloak, he uses the -- assumedly dense -- fabric of the battle outfit to -launch- into the air with surprising nimbleness for his size, his position putting him just beyond the serrated edge of the cloak as his fists burn with almost blindingly bright chi fire.
"... /Real/ men talk with their fists. AKIRA! -NOW-!"
He doesn't wait; assuming his sister will know what to do next, the elder Kazama suddenly begins to descend, leading off with one titanic right hook aimed to smash into Igniz's jawline. From there, he follows it up with a brutal, fiery combo, deliberately letting loose the raging power within him for one brief, terrible moment. Each blow is aimed toward's Igniz's torso and head, kicks lancing for his ribcage, fists pistoning forward for his sternum, his nose, his temples, all before finishing with one massive, straight-arm punch aimed for the dead-center of the man's chest.
"GRAAAGH!!"
Akira is moving before Daigo can even finish calling her name.
Snapping forward into a deep lunge, the leather-clad teen dashes toward her brother. Any pain she feels from Kula's attacks is brushed to the side; so powerful and stirring is her brother's call to arms that she refuses to let anything else occupy space in her mind. It's as if she was gripped by a momentary second wind, body working to overcome its weary state. She doesn't say a word to Daigo as she moves, and frankly, she doesn't need to.
Akira bends her legs and leaps upward, showcasing what would be a rather astonishing vertical leap if not for the fact that all fighters are more or less capable of jumping three feet up from a standing position. Still, considering the still-bleeding gash running up her belly, it's an impressive feat nonetheless, and her leap lands her squarely on Daigo's back, in the space between his broad shoulder blades. Only for an instant, mind -- Akira instantly kicks back off, using her brother as a vault, to put her just inside Igniz' airspace.
Without a word, Akira draws upon everything she's been feeling since the siege of Southtown began. All the rage, pain and confusion is called upon -- all the dedication and defiance -- all the honor her brother has trusted her with. Balls of purple flicker to life around her, spiralling into greater and greater sizes. Akira's arms draw back, before snapping forward -- and these purple spheres of chi, imbued with glowing white death's-heads, lance toward Igniz.
In short, Akira shoots skulls like she's never shot skulls before.
COMBATSYS: Tenma dodges Kula's Ice Coffin.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
You ever get the feeling that you just made a terrible mistake?
No? Yeah, Tenma doesn't, either.
He can /feel/ it, the pace of the fight, now. He's got momentum, he's got a grasp of what's happening... What else does he need, except maybe a heaping helping of luck? The satisfying crash of forehead into face is enough to stir up the Guardian King's enthusiasm, confirmation of his baseless but everpresent belief that he's never complete outmatched, no matter how much stronger, faster or just plain better than him his opponent might be. Even Kula's quiet words roll right off of his back. Or maybe he didn't hear them, he was busy paying attention to something else.
He can feel the movement of the ice girl's arms, though... And the movement of her frozen chi that comes with it, and honestly he'd rather not find out exactly what she's intending to do with it. He twists, tensing his leading leg and releasing Kula's hair as he feels her gloved hand brush his neck... And he throws himself /forward/, past the girl, hitting the ground in a roll over one shoulder just ahead of that frozen tomb that she was planning to stick him in.
"Geez, not on the first date," Tenma chides as he moves by her, and then he's already whirling about as he gets his feet under him, fully intent on staying on Kula. If nothing else, he can hopefully keep her occupied while Daigo and Akira have a nice family bonding moment trying to smash Igniz into a gooey paste.
It's a Kodak moment for the Gedo High set.
Lunging at Kula again, the Gedo swordsman sweeps his bokken from low to high in a fast one-handed slash, aiming to catch the Anti-K' right across the face with hardwood and bloody chi. "Hua-!!"
COMBATSYS: Igniz endures Akira's Aerial Barrage.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz fails to counter Phoenix Fury from Daigo with Nega Genesis.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/--=====|=====--\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Igniz, immidiately proclaiming himself of his diving heritage gets a lesson from the real world of Gedo. And it happens lickety split all at once. Daigo Kazama fends off his serrated edged cape, sending Igniz into a terrible position. One that he isn't able to rip himself from immidiately or at all. Daigo powers forward, speaking words that do not correlate to the god of NESTS before coming forward.
Igniz manuevers, but to his surprise, Akira has also came after him. Two Gedo High gangbangers coming after the god of NESTS at once, crushing down against him with a terrible, terrible power. As Akira dances forward, Igniz attempts in the spur of the moment to use her snapping kicks chi skulls to thrust him forward enough to fend off Daigo's assault.
Both strikes hit at the same time, kicks and skulls crashing into his back while powerful punches and strikes ripping into the god of NESTS torso, destroying everything of the god of NESTS at the same time. Its entirely unfortunate that Igniz was on the recieving end, but there is nothing to say of failure.
Igniz isn't even able to speak as he crawls off the floor, pushing himself the ground on a pool of his own blood. A god he is indeed.
COMBATSYS: Tenma successfully hits Kula with Medium Strike.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> /////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
Her gloved fingers brush along the edge of Tenma's throat, but before she can get a tight enough hold to keep him rooted where she needed him, the Gedo youth has quite prudently moved out of the way. Her fingers close, Kula stepping forward, faced with her own built up storm rushing toward her, now without a target to be driven against. Crimson eyes widening, she extends her hands, palms forward, fingers outstretched, forcing the blizzard of terrible energy to part around her completely, covering the ground at her sides and behind her in ice, but leaving her, and unfortunately, her /target/, unharmed. The young man is proving more resourceful than she had anticipated.
Whirling around to face him, her long hair catching up a split second later, she prepares to contend with his counter attack. She misreads the strike, however, the vector of attack different than he had used with his previous swings, and her attempt at slipping out of the way of the swing ends with the sound of the chi infused wooden weapon resonating with the sound of a solid smack against the ice wielding menace.
The crack of wood against flesh is followed by the blue haired operative stumbling to the side, her hand coming up to rest over her eye, head bowed, standing still for a moment, coping with the shock of injury. Blood seeps between the fingers of her yellow glove but the girl remains silent, jaw set, mouth closed, biting back any sounds of pain that must assurardly want to escape her lips then. It's the sort of injury that would get most fighters to give up on the spot, concerned, perhaps, as to whether they were going to join the ranks of the maimed, one eyed fighters around the world.
But if that thought does cross Kula's mind, it isn't enough to get her to stop yet. A glimmer of white shimmers over her arm and glove as she turns quickly, her visible right crimson eye coming to rest back on Tenma, cheeks even more pale than they are normally. Slowly the girl lowers her hand back to her side, revealing a patch of ice covering the girl's face around her left eye socket. Her combat algorithms begin shifting to adjust for the lack of depth perception, but she isn't going to just stand and wait for that to happen.
Opening her mouth, she does nothing beyond taking in a breath as she charges Tenma right back. Her right hand clenches, a flare of white chi solidifying into a sphere of translucent ice. Arm bent back at the elbow as she cocks her fist, the girl slides to a stop a yard away, slamming her right arm forward, leaning into the attack as the sphere shifts rapidly, the half of it nearest to Tenma changing into three lances of various lengths as the preteen fighter attempts to skewer the Gedo boy through with steel-like spears, each one bearing a razor sharp tip. The time for talking is past. Daigo Kazama is right, she decides. She's done trying to convince anyone of anything except with ruthless, unreserved force!
Flames ripple with searing heat around Daigo's hand as he snaps it back. He snorts once, derisively, as the chi around his body dies. Taking in slow breathes, Daigo takes a brief moment to recover himself; letting go like that is not so easy to crawl back from. His dark eye focuses on Igniz as the self-proclaimed god collapses towards the ground. He looks back towards Akira, briefly. All he offers is a nod. That's all he needs.
Pats on the back can wait for when they're not all dead.
He says nothing as he walks towards Igniz. It is slow, due to the injuries the man has delivered onto him already. Rolling his right shoulder, and then his left, Daigo steps with the crunch of shattered concrete beneath his heel. His right hand pulls back. And as Igniz stands--
"Out. Now."
Daigo seeks to deliver one brutal haymaker straight to the center of the leader of NESTS' face as if intent to just -punch- the man out of /his/ school, restraining nothing -- only laboring with the recent expenditure of effort and the damages he's already taken in this fight.
As Daigo surges forward with his titanic punch, Akira lands, tucking into a roll to avoid smashing her head open after her barrage of skulls strikes true. She ends up back on her feet, her body winding into a highly adaptable stance -- one that sits near the core of her technique, as it provides a launching point for nearly any attack she could dish out.
With Daigo on the other side of Igniz, Akira reasons that he could use a hand in attempting to punch Igniz' head clear off the planet. Going high would just put her in Daigo's way, so she opts for the other path -- as Daigo goes to hit high, Akira goes to hit low. She swerves her body with painful grace, launching into a fluid kata sequence.
As Daigo charges, Akira attempts to strike directly after, using the momentum of her brother's strike, should it connect, to knock Igniz up into the air and leap after him, her movements flowing into a series of limber kicks before somersaulting away.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Tenma with Critical Ice.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 1/-----==/=======|=======\===----\1 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Akira
> //////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
You'd think by now Tenma would've learned better than to hit a girl in the face. Nothing good ever comes of it, at least insofar as him not getting attacked with some truly vicious technique. Case in point: Kula and her spears of ice.
This time, the Guardian King isn't quick enough; he tries to slip to the side, to get past Kula's attack to strike her while she's hopefully vulnerable... But instead, he ends up getting pierced with several of those razor-sharp ice spears, slashing through flesh and spattering blood everywhere. Where it stains the ice, Tenma's blood steams as though his body temperature were even higher than it should be, and the young man stumbles and staggers to one side.
"Ugh..." the Guardian King mutters, holding his side where the ice pierced through, looking up at Kula. "You're pretty scary, ain't ya?"
But it's not like Tenma Kiryuu is finished with just that. He straightens up, ignoring his body's protests, feet skidding to a shoulder-width stance, as he pushes his left hand forward, fingers contorting in a simple mudra position, an aid to concentration, and swings his right hand back, so the slightly curved blade of his bokken forms a horizontal crescent behind him. Stillness. Focus on a single point. "But you know..." Tenma starts, as the aura around the wooden blade intensifies, until it looks like he's holding a sword made entirely out of blood, his dark blue eyes focused directly on Kula, past his contorted fingers. "...I can be pretty scary too, sometimes."
Stillness becomes sudden motion, as Tenma erupts forward, rushing at Kula recklessly as ever. As he closes with the experiment girl, his intent look sharpens. Backing down is an impossibility, for him; not in the face of Kula, or Igniz. Not before Seishirou Ryouhara, or Ryo Sakazaki, or Kain Heinlein. If he's not strong enough yet, he'll get stronger. He'll get better. And in the meantime, he'll show them sheer bloody-minded tenacity. He'll show them what a refusal to acknowledge your own limits can do.
Once close enough, Tenma swings his bokken at Kula, a single powerful swipe with blood and blade... But if he should get solid contact, that's not where it ends, as Tenma's chi seeks to pass /through/ Kula, to disrupt the very flow of life through her tiny body. To sap her strength, steal her vitality. "--BE SEALED!!"
COMBATSYS: Akira successfully hits Igniz with Reflex Stance.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Akira
> //////////////////// ]
|-------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz counters Fierce Punch from Daigo with Brutal God Project+.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 1/-----==/=======|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Igniz 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Akira
> //////// ]
|======-\-------\0 Daigo
Even as Igniz faces the brutal realization that he errs critially in his ways, he finds that Daigo and Akira flank him once more, entirely ignoring Kula for the express purpose of getting closer towards Igniz. The god of NESTS isn't even able to get to his feet as he attempts to escape Akira, the heavy battlesuit weighing him down as she charges in, knocking him into the air, sending him rolling backwards, bleeding horribly. Here, Igniz is unable to float.
Crashing down once more, it looks like it would be the end of the assault here. Here, Daigo's monsterous punch would decimate the god of NESTS and end the assault there. There would be no more attack, and peace would return to Gedo High, his emaculate grace removed like a plague from this place, burnt away.
What Daigo does not expect is the sudden surge of power, of resolve that the Cartel leader gets in his weakned state. The brutal haymaker comes, Igniz pounces fiercly, faster than Daigo was able to land the haymaker, his own outstretched hand grasping a hold of Daigo's throat, squeezing terribly as he aims to slam the man directly against the brick and mortar the school is built upon.
There, Igniz floats back, bleeding and otherwise looking like hell. He would not, he would never. He could not accept he was nothing less than divine heritidge, even in the weakest times of his life. Gedo had put up a formidable assault, but Igniz would not be so easily persauded otherwise. Whipsword cracks out, tearing across Daigo's body as he recoils, arms over his chest, the very cape cutting forward towards Daigo and cutting into his chest.
What follows next is a two pronged assault, Igniz's four chi manpulators rise, expulsing gouts of white chi directly into the stunned Gedo High leader before Igniz raises a final hand, slamming the rest of the chi created in the assault directly into the chest of Daigo, leaving it to expand and engulf him before leaving him to his own devices.
"I ask the same of you."
COMBATSYS: Kula blocks Tenma's The Sealing Sword.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 1/---====/=======|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Akira
> //////// ]
|======-\-------\0 Daigo
Some might be satisfied with the spearing Tenma gets after having hit her in the eye so. But Kula feels no different than she did before she unleashed that skewering attack. He's still moving, which means her job in working at Igniz's side is not complete. Her mission to keep the God of NESTS protected and to help insure their victory over this incursion into Southtown foremost in her engineered combat routines and compelling NESTS greatest weapon to act on the Cartel leader's behalf beyond even her own level of awareness.
She snaps her right hand back, withdrawing it from that sphere of steel-like ice, allowing it to collapse to the ground, a pile of glinting shards. Reduced to watching the boy with one eye, an opaque patch of ice keeping her injury covered for now, Kula readies her defenses. She's hurt him bad, but she's sensitive to the build up within him. It churns, ready to be unleashed - a power unlike many his age can muster and impressive enough even to get the likes of her to take notce. He speaks, but she regards him silently. She's still there, in a sense, but she's operating on another level now - pushed beyond the perhaps borderline reluctant fighter into a ruthless killing machine when her failsafes became threatened.
In reaction to the boy's determination, young Diamond's own power builds, the temperature dropping drastically in the process. White energy cyclones up around the girl, starting dim but increasing in intensity with each passing second. The ice used in her previous attacks disintigrates into fine powder as it's draw up in the swirling whirlwind around the living experimental weapon.
The savage punishment unleashed against Daigo by Igniz goes unnoticed as the girl becomes locked in her intense focus. The power she's aiming to control is significant and will result in the strongest technique she has. Reserved for extreme situations where defeat is not an option, she bunkers down, crossing her arms over her as Tenma rushes in and swings. The crack of his bokken delivers a punishing blow against her arms. But her for her armored jacket reinforcing her thin body, her bones may have very well given way to the power of the strike... As is, she's slammed back by the force but manages to be spared the chi meant to disrupt her body's aura per Kiryuu's special family technique.
The girl's upper back slams against a wall, a breath of icy vapor escaping her lips as she pushes forward into a stumble. "You should have run," she breaks her silence at last. It's time to commit her all. It might be the end of her ability to fight for Igniz for sometime until she recovers, but at this point it's worth it... Lifting both arms over her head to clasp them together, the localized storm front swells, building in intensity to gale-like force, whipping at hair and anything not bolted down to the ground.
And then she drops her arms to extend out from her sides sides, unleashing it all. A blinding, blizzard of sleet explodes out over the area, with Kula at the eye of the storm. "DIE!" Frigid chi so cold as to make liquid nitrogen feel form blasts out, carrying with it ice shrapnel of all shapes and sizes as she literally tries to bury the defenders beneath an avalanche of tightly packed ice. A split second to make their defenses or suffer the consequences of their bold resistance!
COMBATSYS: Daigo endures Kula's Freeze Execution.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|==-----\-------\0 Akira
> ]
|=======\===----\1 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Akira with Freeze Execution.
Glancing Blow
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ]
|=======\===----\1 Daigo
That was a mistake.
And one Daigo Kazama pays for in spades. Igniz is brutalized, but not beaten; it's a fact that is proven the moment Daigo is stopped mid-motion and that grip squeezes around his throat. Eyes widening in a brief moment of surprise, Kazama is suddenly vaulted straight backwards like a ragdoll beneath the vicegrip of the would-be god of NESTS, impacting against brick with such a solid blow that his body literally indents into the wall. Dust and debris fall all around him, his world is a haze of red--
--And then Igniz brings it back to a searing white-hot reality. Whips slash across Daigo's hardened body, battering him further and further against that wall; blood soaks his bandages, his overcoat, fills the air with the stink of iron. He stares with one working eye in open distaste for the man before him.
It's just as Daigo spits that those chi blasts rend into his body. Saliva is evaporated before it can even hit earth, and Faigo is pummeled upwards across the wall, burnt and battered. As the chi fades, gravity overtakes him; Daigo Kazama falls to earth with a deadened, smoking thud, motionless, soundless...
... Except for the pulse of violet chi that surges around him.
Slowly, Daigo stands. His body glows faintly with that off color as he lifts again -- despite all odds. "Kiryu. ...Akira." Fists clench; blood seeps down Daigo's mouth. Some of his ribs might be broken; his right shoulder feels dislocated. He doesn't care. "...Get out of here."
A second later, the blizzard strikes, and Daigo? Barrels STRAIGHT through, his body a literal conductor of dark purple chi as cold winds whip around him. Hair and skin frost, chi and brutal cold battering him senseless, past the point of going on -- but he still continues to press towards Kula, regardless, facing her fully as he brings back one fist. "You should have, too."
And in one, final, desperate move, Daigo releases all that pent-up energy in one brutal surge of darkness, sending it pulsing forward in a skull-like mass straight towards the tiny NESTS agent.
COMBATSYS: Daigo has reached second wind!
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////// ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|-------\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///// ]
|=------\-------\0 Daigo
"Daigo--?!"
Suddenly, the fight stops, as far as Akira's concerned -- the rest of the world may as well have come to a standstill as Igniz crushes Daigo. She can do little but watch as the onslaught savages her brother, eyes widening behind her helmet's facade as Daigo is assaulted. Her voice catches before she can say another word, and her body tenses, mind unsure what to even try to do next. Fortunately, Akira is her brother's sister -- and where reason fails, fury sets a course.
"DAIGO--!"
Akira fails to heed her brother's exhortation to flee. She's intent on making Igniz pay for his deed -- no one manhandles her family like that and escapes unscathed. This swell of bravery is enhanced further by the anonymity of her mask -- but even behind her visor, her face is contorted into a scowl of unholy rage. Purple chi bubbles around her once again, pulsing outward into horrible, seething skulls. She launches them as Kula's ice wave freezes her back, ignoring the pain of having the back half of her body sheathed in a heavy, jagged iceberg until she can't possibly withstand any more.
COMBATSYS: Kula successfully hits Tenma with Freeze Execution.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Tenma
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > / ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///// ]
|=------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > // ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Tenma
> / ]
|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///// ]
|=------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Kula has left the fight here.
> // ]
|=======\-------\0 Tenma
> / ]
|====---\-------\0 Akira
> ///// ]
|=------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Daigo has left the fight here.
> // ]
|=======\-------\0 Tenma
> / ]
|====---\-------\0 Akira
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
> / ]
|====---\-------\0 Akira
COMBATSYS: Akira has ended the fight here.
Well... This can't be good.
Tenma is caught completely offguard by the sudden display of overwhelming power from Kula, the ice storm that washes over him. Truth be told, the Kiryuu demon hunter tries to ride it out, but he's simply no match for it. He's blasted back, off of his feet, crackling frost clinging to him. Some of his ponytail and bangs shatter off, brittle from the cold, but...
But...!
"No thanks," Tenma grits out in response to Kula's instruction. He staggers, getting to his feet slowly and carefully. Battered and frostbitten, the Guardian King sways on his feet even once he's gotten his footing, only staying up through a supreme act of stubborn, defiant will. Sometimes, and even Tenma Kiryuu knows this, you can't win. But you know what?
Sometimes, getting back up and spitting in the other guy's eye is just enough victory.
Maybe Tenma can't actually spit in Kula's eye - though he did mess one of them up a bit, so there's that - but there is something he can do, regardless. With all the speed he can still muster, Tenma rushes at Kula in one last act of defiance. As he gets close enough, if he gets close enough, the Gedo swordsman ducks low, holding his bokken low and diagonally across his body; from that position, he springs up and forward at the NESTS agent, twisting himself around in a rising, whirling strike. It might take Kula up with him, before smashing her down to the ground again.
If he gets really lucky, it might knock her cute little head right off.
COMBATSYS: Tenma can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > / ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Akira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Igniz blocks Akira's Skull Slice.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > / ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Akira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Daigo
Akira thrashes against Igniz even as she fights, her strength disappearing beneath her moment after moment. Well, this feeling is all too real is it not? Even as Akira attempts to destroy Igniz, eliminate him completely from this grounds he claims as his, Igniz is too well imbedded to leave. The battle behind is beginning to slow down a both sides begin to lose combatants.
It mimics the ground here.
Kula lets loose a ferocious assault of ice, a rather fine blizzard that shudders the very building that stands in its way. Igniz is unharmed, his cape fluttering wildly in the rather powerful winds. Igniz simply watches as his minion does what she does best.
Two still cling to like. Daigo and Akira. Tenma falters for a moment, and is quickly extinguished. Daigo shoots out directly towards Kula, something that causing Igniz to smile even wider. Was it because Kula is expendible, or the rage that welts up inside Daigo finally begins to devour him.
"We are not leaving." Igniz announces, "All that you have strove towards. This building, this neighborhood. This town." He pauses, turning towards Akira at the cry. He's unable to finish as purple chi bubbles rip out into skulls, sent towards Igniz in a rumbling fury that finds itself against an unlikely shield of ice, jutting out from the earth as Igniz brings it to stop most of the assault, few able to strike true into the gods figure and find purchase.
"This place... I find my eye here multiple time. Yes. I'm going to take your building from you, Daigo Kazama." Pushed backwards by the onslaught, Igniz is no longer in the mind fool around. Akira has earned his divine wrath, his hand glowing powerfully with a thrumming grasp of chi. "Just as I take your student!" Igniz cries, plummeting the energy into the earth, an errupting pilliar of chi following another errupting pilliar of chi, splitting the earth and terraforming the ground into a state beffiting a god as it seeks to devour the girl.
COMBATSYS: Kula dodges Tenma's Vajra.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > / ]
Kula 0/-------/------=|====---\-------\0 Akira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Daigo
COMBATSYS: Kula reflects Super Skull Aura from Daigo with Counter Shell.
[ \\\\\\\\\ < > / ]
Kula 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Akira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Daigo
Her attack released, Kula's arms drop to rest against her sides, an exhausted breath escaping from her lips. Hopefully that did it. Hopefully that stopped those stubborn enemies of NESTS in their tracks. She hasn't much left in her. The ice patching her injured eye can only numb the pain for so long before it's going to catch up with her. Her one good eye quickly sweeps over the battlefield, becoming aware even with her vision blurring slightly, that the largest threat in the mix is practically already upon her.
In her condition, no mere hastily created barrier is going to keep her on her feet against the surge of incredible power welling up from the proud leader of Gedo High. Eye widening, she retreats back a step, feet slipping easily through the frozen residue left all over the courtyard. Her algorithms warn her of another attack coming at the same time. Tenma is still moving, bearing in on her, the young man determined to finish the job he's come so close to completing already!
A sweep of her left hand leaves a swirl of ice directly in front of the smallest fighter, but it's when her right glove touches it that it takes on its true form - a shimmering mirror of highly reflective matter over two inches thick. A desperate defense even as she tries to figure out the direction Tenma is attacking without her peripheral vision to aid her. Even her good eye is blurring, her vision fading fast, the drain of her technique and the injuries sustained rapidly taking their toll. The mirror holds though, redirecting Daigo's dark energy around her and, in small part, right back at him, rather than simply trying to stop such an assault with countering force...
And the instant that seems to suffice, she does the only thing she can think to do. She ducks down into an extremely low crouch, tucking herself into a kneeling ball, hands planting on the top of her head as her reflective shield collapses. It proves to be just enough, Tenma's bokken slashing through the air without striking the girl with that punishing blow.
She doesn't even move immediately, simply staying put, hands over her head as the field of driven snow begins to melt all around.
COMBATSYS: Igniz successfully hits Akira with Ideon Blade.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|=======\=------\1 Akira
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|=------\-------\0 Daigo
Akira is mostly frozen. Kula's ice wave caught her fiercely, binding her somewhat, freezing her limbs into a fixed, painful position. Her helmet is frozen, as well -- more brittle than her leathers, it shatters, exposing the gentle face beneath. Said face, however, is twisted into a look of stress and agony, as she tries to exert whatever strength is left within her soul to break free from this ice-trap. Just as the ice starts to crack --
-- well, it's not fast enough, in any case. The pillar of raw chi explodes upward beneath her, breaking the ice /for/ her and causing the ground to ripple and shudder in a spastic psychokinetic fit. "Uuuaaaahhh!" Akira cries as she's sucked toward the ground sharply and then spat back into the air. She lands, crumpled, directly in front of Daigo.
Looking up, Akira weakly reaches toward her brother. "Dah," she whispers, blood streaming from her mouth liberally. "Dah-iiigo--" Her brother's face is the last thing Akira sees before blacking out, body going limp.
COMBATSYS: Akira takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Daigo
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Akira can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > ///// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Daigo
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Daigo blocks Kula's Reflected Super Skull Aura.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Daigo
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
And, just like that, everything goes to hell.
In the wake of that storm of ice, the tides change. Igniz's power swells noticeably, and the battlefield becomes an onslaught of overbearing, unsurmountable power. Even as Daigo forces himself through the blizzard, he notices those around him -- Tenma beaten down by the storm, barely standing. Akira, barely scraping past, suicidally charging for Igniz. He tries to stop her -- but he has his own problems to deal with.
Mainly, those problems come from the fact that his own power is being /redirected/ towards him in a sudden whiplash of frost. Dark chi pummels forward, faster than before; eye widening, he thrusts forward /both/ hands, intercepting the remnants of his own chi, and literally -battering- through it. Energy burns at his arms, but the rest is dispersed in one brutal forward motion, leaving him standing, staring ominously at Kula.
It's a look of unquestioning resolve that is shattered, however, the very moment that bright pillar of light consumes Akira. Once more surprise -- and for a moment, horror -- crosses Daigo's expression. "AKIRA!" he roars, perhaps the loudest he's been all night... only to stare in disbelief as she lands just in front of him. A smoking, bloody mess. She reaches for him--
--and instantly the entire courtyard becomes substantially hotter.
Daigo's hands clench. His single eye narrows into a dangerous slit as his fingers dig into the palm of his hand. Palpable amounts of chi fluctuate around him as he seems to almost literally catch on /fire/, waves of heat rippling off him. His lips peel back in a sneer.
... But slowly, it all begins to fade. That horrible sensation begins to seep away as Daigo reigns in that power despite his burning need to butcher both Igniz /and/ Kula. He wants to. He really does.
It's the protection of the people in this school that keeps him from tipping straight over that edge.
Pride would normally compel Daigo to keep fighting. But here, he has other things to worry about. Kiryuu, and more importantly, the safety of his sister. He can't last against the /both/ of them. Not now. Teeth gritting, Daigo spits vehemently to the side, launching forward to scoop up Akira. He'll leap towards Tenma next, to grab him by the back of his collar, before simply attempting to /bound/ away, swallowing his pride for a brief moment to force himself into a retreat.
Because being prideful doesn't matter much if you're dead.
COMBATSYS: Daigo takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ < > //// ]
Kula 0/-------/----===|==-----\-------\0 Daigo
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
COMBATSYS: Daigo has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/----===|
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Igniz 2/<<<<<<</<<<<<<<|
Igniz watches as his power consumes Akira, swirling her around like a ragdoll before finally depositing her directly towards the the ground besides Diago. It's a terrible thing to do, but the message is quite clear. If Daigo was to stay here any longer, then even his burning spirit may cost him greatly in the end, Igniz can eve feel it as he attempts to call upon a great power.
But then, all at once, it disappears. Dispelled in turn for a more smart, thoughtout plan than to bumrush the would be god. To his amazemet, Daigo drops his strength. Moving instead towards the bodies of his fallen comrades, Diago has thought better than to challenge Igniz... upon his current home turf.
"Kula?" Igniz announces even as everything seems to grind to a halt, foreground and backgroud and all about. Bleedings and bruised horrifically, Igniz stands his ground still, unwilling to leave, still thrumming with the same power he entered with. Dead set on his goal today, there were very few things that could of stopped him. Gedo was very close in their attempts, but quickly losing numbers, it does not seem that they will win the day.
"Escort him outside the perimiter of this building." Igniz declares, his cape and chi sealing themselves up at a moment as if bottled up rather than powered down. The god of NESTS turns away from Daigo, even as he begins to leave.
"Oh, I see that he is already leaving. Follow him to make sure he is gone." Igniz exclaims as he turns towards Gedo High, beginning to head in to 'check out' it for renovations.
COMBATSYS: Igniz has left the fight here.
[ \\\\\\\\\\ <
Kula 0/-------/----===|
For a few seconds, the only sound is that of Igniz's formidable chi being put to use against one of the other students gathered. Crouched, head lowered, she doesn't see any of it. But as soon as a few seconds pass, the girl stands, staring back at Daigo from a few yards away. There's something that comes over him... her field of ice retreats before him, melting into water and vapor, sending steam into the night air all around them.
She knows, on some level, that look in his eyes. That murderous hatred, that desire to kill them both. Her combat algorithms begin contemplating means of escape should that fire be turned against her. In fending off his last attack, she spent the last of her power. Igniz has consumed heavily from the world around the two of them, and while the living experiment was able to feed off that ambient chi for much of the fight, the effort has accellerated the rate at which she's exhausted herself as well. Nothing comes for free.
Her uncovered crimson eye blinks back at Daigo once. Will Igniz intervene if he goes for her with that renewed resolve? But something snaps in the Gedo leader as his eyes fall upon his sister and while he hovers on the cusp of the abyss, about to lose himself to the fire visible around him... he regains control and the moment passes. Kula doesn't budge, watching as he goes for his sister then subsequently Tenma...
Igniz, the victor, speaks up and she takes a breath, glancing toward him. Battle worn but triumphant, a transceiver in her ear tells her that many of the other battles taking place in and around Gedo are going as planned in spite a couple of extremely narrow, close calls. She nods once as Igniz gives his order then moves on to inspect his new holdings. Exhaling as she tries to pull herself together, the young operative will do just that - trail Daigo to the edge of Gedo, never getting within twenty yards, only to stop shadowing him once he reaches the edge of the campus. Pausing, crouched on one of the roofs, she watches him carry the two others with him, powering on even in his condition.
That won't be the last she sees of him, she concludes as she ducks down off the roof to return to Igniz's side. Of that, she's quite certain.
COMBATSYS: Kula has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:11:35 02/15/2009 by Akira, and last modified on 12:46:29 02/21/2009.