Description: In yet another display of extraordinarily grainy video for a Neo League encounter, the infamous terrorist Ryouhara kidnaps one of Neo League's own fight reporters and sets his sights audaciously on the Emperor of Muay Thai himself, Adon! But is the ninja wily enough to put down the God of Eight Limbs!? (Winner: Adon)
"JAAAAAAAAAGGAAAAH!"
The sharp crack of the man's chest told Adon that he was done putting up the half-hearted defense. With a thud, the fair-haired Muay Thai warrior fell to the fighting ring's floor. He was not picked for his skill. No. He was picked for his looks. His was unlucky, really. He was invited to Adon's private sanctum under the guise of 'special training.'
Unfortunately, it was right after Adon's loss against Alma.
Stomping the look alike to the ground, the Emperor howled in rage. His fury had yet to end. He tore through the women dressed as Sagat, the men dressed as Cammy, and even the young boys that were dressed as Hotaru. How he tore their hair out from the roots. Their pigtails were HIS! And yet, he was still angry. He wasn't supposed to lose. He had to WIN! Hissing, he scanned the small band of guards placed. "MORE! The EMPEROR of MUAY THAI demands MORE VICTIMS! I crave... I CRAVE VEGA!"
"BRING ME A VEGA!"
It's at about that point that the ceiling vaporizes.
Well, not so much vaporizes as 'explodes outward into the sunny sky.' The effect is just enough to carve a chasm in the overheads, letting a bit more of that chaste light stream onto the grounds, bathing the raging emperor in light. One could easily imagine it the immediate vector of attack, a hail of arrows, or stones. But the only stuff that falls is the transient debris, bits of still-cooking rubble making hollow sounds as wood and mortar meets earth.
The would-be attacker, a boy of no age greater than 20 or so, instead walks in from the entrance, as a gentleman might. Ascending stairs and coming from the grounds as with time. But when he enters, a 'force of pressure' warns away any guard with mention and method less than the titan of Muay Thai from touching his pristine white silk. Not that anyone who might have been distracted from the explosion would hear his entrance at all.
The light from above is distraction from the tawdry things that make life dull. It delineates--purpose. Limning Adon with that clean unblocked light as it were.
He is no Vega.
A body hits the ground, an unconscious man wearing the Neo League uniform. He is roused with only one touch to a pressure point, before the boy stands in the presence of the Jaguar. But when he looks... "The Emperor of Muay Thai." Seishirou Ryouhara addresses Adon. He announces his presence just then with a trace of deadly bile in the smoothed voice of youth, unblemished by the drink.
"If it's a fight you're craving. I'm going to give it to you."
Holy crap ceiling blast. R
Adon glances up at the sky first, confused by what was unfolding. The emperor recoils, tensing his body up as the debris clatters to the ground around him. It was an attack. Adon knew that Shadaloo wanted revenge. But was this it? After mocking Vega, defeating Cammy and some red-haired MILF, there was only two people left that would truly be capable of assassination.
Bison and Balrog.
But the sound of the voice was neither. It was too delicate. Adon's confidence was building to a head. He sensed... another opportunity to smite another Shadaloo agent. "SO! You have ARRIVED!" Adon calls out, not even looking over his shoulder. He knew someone was here. Slowly, the Emperor untensed, dropping his fists to his side. "I have been EXPECTING you!" Turning his head over his shoulder, his burning eyes fixed straight on the boy. Flashing a feral grin, his gaze drifts down to the collapsed NL member. Oh, the freaking poser. Adon puts together the pieces all too quickly. "You may think you are BAD. A BAD DUDE to CHALLENGE the LEADER of the NEO LEAGUE." Turning around, he snapped a finger right to the heart of the man, eyes still locked on.
"But are you a BAD enough dude to defeat ME!? THE EMPEROR of MUAY THAI!?!"
"Aa."
An affirmative.
The shinobi doesn't even twitch with the voice that fills the hall with such force. His eyes shoot a cold glare from underneath the deadly cut of his brow. His agreement comes momentarily to Adon's announced suspicion, after some thought. He has no reason to disbelieve Adon, because he has no preconceptions concerning his own ability against those he's chosen. Were his preparations really seen through?
"What is this voice that fills me with such dread..."
He speaks, but his expression is erased; there is nothing to see in his face, no fear, no weakness. Only those eyes, and the burning force that still threatens his space. His eyes hood shut in one blink, and it becomes clear he doesn't blink all that often. You see, it doesn't matter.
"... It's nothing. nothing at all," he answers himself.
A title like Emperor? A faint smile cracks the grim facade.
Ryouhara wouldn't be convinced--can't be convinced, not in that way.
"I'm going to give you what you never had. A chance to prove it."
Even the recovering League recorder is starting to get what Seishirou's driving at. It's really a shame Seishirou left the guy's cameras at home. That blurry cameraphone will have to do!! The ninja's raven hair shifts when he moves his head. The scintillating hiss of steel fills the grounds, punctuated by the shining edge adorning a night-black hilt at his shoulder, which lengthens to accomodate the steel's draw--elaborate, calculated, deadly. "And for that reason alone, I've come a long way..."
"You're going to die if you don't measure up. Come."
Adon stares at the child-like man. Like Alma. The Emperor mulled about the glut of boy-children that were imposing fighters. Yes, Adon was calling this stranger an imposing fighter. A fool would consider Seishirou nothing more than an arrogant youth, one well over his head. But that was Adon, once ago. He knew that those who charged deep in his sanctum were competent... enough. He listened to the words of the man with that sick grin, and finally, as the threat comes, he responds.
With a high pitched squeal of laughter.
"UAAAAAA HA HA! " The screeching rattles across the room, and the Emperor walks towards the ropes of the ring, stepping on a staggered Cammy of his previous rendings. "What are you TALKING ABOUT? PROVE WHAT? GIVE ME WHAT? You are SMART and CUNNING, YES! But you are UNCOUTH! CRUDE! How DARE you TREAT the EMPEROR of MUAY THAI, a LIVING GOD, in SUCH an OUTRAGIOUS FASHION!" Adon gripped the ropes tightly, leaning over, leering at the ninja. "PERHAPS you should rethink your PLANS. I am not the one to be TESTED here."
"YOU ARE!"
The Emperor hurls himself over the ropes, flipping himself over. With a snap-reaction momentum, the Jaguar pounces, rocketing from the arena with a fairly slow twist. He was bringing his leg to bear, hammering it across. His intent was to simply bowl over Seishirou, slamming his limb from his shoulder to across his chest. A blow that would dislocate a normal man's arm, and likely drop in just as swiftly.
But how would a ninja react?
COMBATSYS: Adon has started a fight here.
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Adon 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Seishirou has joined the fight here.
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Adon 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 Seishirou
COMBATSYS: Seishirou counters Medium Kick from Adon with Kawarimi Suicide.
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Adon 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
The sheer noise hurt his ears.
The shinobi affects a disdainful expression, a frown cutting across his face fast and hard.
"...You're so noisy."
Seishirou dislikes three things most of all in life; silliness, bad engineering, and noisy people. At this point, all Adon would have to do to secure a place in Seishirou's personal hall of fame for distasteful people is draw too much attention to his haircut. Other than that, we're getting off to a fabulous start.
The shinobi arches a brow as Adon literally explodes over the ropes, a literal cannon of human energy, and for a moment at least, it seems the boy's reaction times are too lazy to catch up. But it's quite the opposite--Seishirou moves, fast, flicking his blade into the air behind him as he leaps back with equal momentum to Adon's slashing kick. That level of attack would have been dangerous for any man, even someone like Ryouhara. But the boy is fast, and disarming himself allowed him to use his hands to slip forward into the attack arc that would have damn near took his arm off, engaging Adon's slashing kick in midair. His fingertips will find purchase at the ankle. Or they won't. It matters little.
Because the discarded blade punches through Seishirou's chest and on through to pierce Adon as well, running him through the heart from the back, running him through the heart even as he moves to stop Adon's momentum cold.
He begins to flicker, and melt away, as if he were made from little more than vapor.
Holding the crackling energy reproduction of his own drawn sword in his right hand, Ryouhara is standing in the shadow of his own duplicate. He caught the blade, and then used it to run his own clone through while that clone moved to check Adon's assault and in so doing, also attack Adon while he's off-balance. The youth is dour.
"Test me then. I will prove--as you prove."
Adon's kick slams down hard. Adon was off-balance, but he made contact. Or not. The Emperor is confused at first. There was something alien about the whole thing. Sei caught him in the air, and... impaled himself? Then Adon was impaled on the blade. The Emperor fell to his knees, torso bleeding light. And then, he realized what was going on.
Illusions.
The Emperor kneels there, blood trickling to the ground. He took a single, long breath. Illusions. This man was... tricky. Adon considered his options. He needed to us his brain. And there was only way he could. With overwhelming offense. He needed to break the stranger, and get top belly.
"If you INSIST..."
The Emperor launches upright, charging Seishirou with the same speed. "I! The EMPEROR of MUAY THAI, will GRACE YOU with his WISDOM!" He was practically hurling himself into the man, giving the kind of raw force most martial artists know to redirect. Except Adon was bringing this with Muay Thai. Instead of a wild punch, he stomped down his back foot, stopping his charge short. In tandem, both of his arms snapped out, one high to the face, and one low just above the groin. A pair of fists were seeking to strike his body, rattling it to the very foundations. Sei might be able to deflect one, but both would be a challenge... or at least a painful gambit.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou dodges Adon's Fierce Punch.
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Adon 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
Seishirou is a specialist of constructs. There are few things in the world he can't make, be they made from steel or energy. Illusion, after all, is the expression of will on the world. Adon, however, was used to things vastly more direct, born in a brutal world where strength was defined by Muay Thai. Though he barks loudly, Seishirou can appreciate the sentiment of Muay Thai, a brutal, unrelenting simplicity that cannot be taken for granted.
Sagat is one of the biggest examples around.
And, loud or no, Adon was, at one point, his pupil.
Seishirou takes a step back warily, the phantom blade dissolving in his hands, and only leaving the pure steel one, settling the flat against the shoulder and putting his neck at a dangerous angle to the edge. But more importantly, Adon was rushing him bodily with a move coming from almost a kung fu discipline, with muay thai sensibilities applied. Using 'Kaitaijuzu' here would be risky, with the penalty being a nigh crippling blow. A different method would be needed.
The boy slips to the side.
He moves like the wind; as difficult to grasp as air. The basic nature of ninjutsu, only Ryouhara's taken it to its logical extreme; he is barely perceptible in motion, seeming to elect existing in a different location every time he's attacked, standing as he's always had. A hand lifts.
Katon - Kagensana. Juu.
Though Adon would never see it, a seal releases underneath his coat, the source being the ninkou obi he wears, Shukubi. And when it releases, the drape of his voluminous haori sleeve fills. Seishirou indicates Adon.
And then a man-eating bearded snake made of black fire and molten slag blurs from his sleeve to curve around Adon. The scent of sulfur taints its arrival, as does the pop and hiss of steam, sounding all too like the real thing. Limned in a peculiar white encircling pattern that forms the basis of its containment, it curves around Adon, cutting off both many potential avenues of both attack and retreat in an instant. It bares rapidly hardening fangs made of melted earth longer than some knives, just before it goes for Adon's shoulder, to sink white-hot burning cutting force into him.
And then, as a snake might, inject boiling force into his veins.
COMBATSYS: Adon dodges Seishirou's Kagensana.
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Adon 0/-------/-----==|===----\-------\0 Seishirou
Illusions were the best way to describe Seishirou's style, at least for Adon. His own technique was very much like Sagat's, with a few subtle differences (outside the full mastery that Sagat held). He lacked projectiles and the range that his former teacher had. Instead, he was actually somewhat faster and more agile, and much more insidious in his methods. Those who faced him expecting a weaker Sagat often were surprised by his overwhelming aggression. Even Sagat may have been surprised in their last fight.... when Adon managed to bring him down.
But this time, he was simply an inferior Sagat.
His double strike is evaded with agility beyond Adon's own. He could not move in pure blurs, and the ninja could very well come and go like distant memories. The Emperor snarls, his face tensing into a grimace. And then, it snaps back in a more nervous smile as the man unleashed his next attack.
A flaming snake.
The Emperor's options are somewhat limited. He couldn't just parry the attack, as he could feel the heat off of the illusion. As the snake prepared to coil in, he saw the fangs, and realized there was one thing he could do. Desperate, difficult, and required focus, but it was the only true avenue of escape. As the snake lunged forward, the Emperor made his move.
Adon leapt.
Bounding from the heart of the coil, he clears free from it, moving in a smooth arc. Gliding over, he evades the snake as well, with a little more grace and much less agility than his opponent. But it was the thought that counted here. "MORE MAGIC? This is a FIGHT, not a CHILD'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!" The Emperor fell back towards earth, aiming for the direction of Sei. Hoping to take advantage of the shock that he actually evaded the ninja's technique, he smoothly dove past at the man, attempting to grab on his shoulders as he sailed over him. If successful, he would simply whip the boy off his feet, using his body as leverage as he hurled him from the floor...
Into the ring, where this fight deserves to be.
COMBATSYS: Adon successfully hits Seishirou with Jaguar Carry.
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Adon 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
Kagensana was the art of illusory realities. The strength of the jutsu was that it offered an vast tactical versatility--in this case, the ability to prevent Adon from simply attacking him directly by menacing him with chi while still allowing him to mount his own offense. However, the weakness was that it required a great deal of energy. The limitations of commanding the massive snake to move was shown as Seishirou looked up, following Adon and not really, in the end, truly understanding what Adon meant to do.
Until the boy slammed hard into the ground of the arena, the light frame of his body tumbling roughly with the motion until he finally manages the point of his blade into the dirt. It allows him to leverage his momentum against a right angle, bringing the boy to his feet quickly, his foot braced against the flat of the sword while his body rests against it at an angle, his sleeves hanging limp at his sides, his hair shrouding his eyes. He is shrouded in smoke, from the attack that disrupted his control over the matrix basically causing it to fracture into heat energy that still warps the ari around the boy. He stands slowly, bringing all of his weight off of that weapon onto his feet with swaying limbs before the strength returns to his whiplike body, the fire to his spine. His hands raise.
He grasps his fingers, forming a cutting hands position to regulate his chi. Two fingertips hover just in front of his lips. "Santei." A single beat passes, as Seishirou looks dead forward. In an instant, he commits everything he sees before him to memory--a relentless cataloguing of detail that is one of the reasons why he can engineer things on such a great scale. In an instant, the 'physics' of the battle are just mnemonics, attached to various running calculations in his head. All focusing around one variable. And with that, his hands lower, white silk draping his hands and concealing them from view.
He lifts his head.
"Until you've fought me," Seishirou explains it plainly, "you have no idea what a fight is."
Heat continues to warp the air around the youth.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou calculates his next move.
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Adon 0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
Distance was a dangerous thing for Adon. His lack of long-ranged attacks meant he had to move into position. This would arguably affect his tier placement if it weren't for a few factors. Most importantly, his speed. As he hurled the ninja towards the ring, he already was charging after him, closing the distance. "Come on, BOY! You need much more than THAT to FACE the TRUE JAGUAR STYLE of MUAY THAI!" The screeching of the Muay Thai Warrior telegraphed his approach, but Adon had too much confidence to encourage more subtle approach. Besides, his loud nature made his more insidious moves all the more silent.
Grabbing the ropes of the ring, the Emperor hurls himself through the air, landing in the hot aura around Seishirou. More comparisons to Alma occured. Adon drops dead beside him, standing in the midst of the heat. He was in the perfect position for a counter attack, and he was prepared to receive it... if weren't for a simple variable. As he fell into place, there was a twitch. A spasm, so to speak. As the Emperor dropped down besides the ninja, he let his arm slip forward. A single punch was unleashed right for Sei's head, but with no weight behind it, no real force. It was a simple jabbing buffet, aiming not to stop Seishirou cold. No, it was aiming for something more akin to Adon's nature.
To break his concentration.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou counters Jab Punch from Adon with Kawarimi Shroud.
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Adon 0/-------/---====|=======\-------\0 Seishirou
As Adon throws his fist out to Seishirou to clobber him in the face, the shinobi.. raises an eyebrow. Right before he's punched into dust and wavering force on the wind. Knocked down, his body sprawls with the resounding thunk of body hitting the ground. At that point, Adon might realize his fist is the epicenter of the heat distortion now. The body flickers, and vanishes.
And then the air itself attempts to crush Adon.
The air turns to fire in every fashion but the literal, making it hard to breathe, hard to stand, hard to think straight, hard to talk, boiling the sweat off muscle and searing the mind.
Break Seishirou's concentration, indeed.
"You dance around and throw half willed attacks a lot for someone who wants to test me," Seishirou mentions idly. His voice sounds far away in the humidity you could just about swim in. He stands now, on the other side of the arena, the blade still left embedded in the ground where he was prior. "An inglorious attempt to rile me is worth nothing. Come. .... what do you want to face next? Ninkou kaitai? Shunshin? Perhaps I should just wipe this place out... Maybe then you'll get it."
That heat. That choking heat. Adon's strike is met with something far fiercer than what he could normally bring. Weakness would have consumed somewhat with far less endurance than the Emperor, but that came at a heavy cost. Adon drew in that hot air in full force. His body turned erect, his mind actively raging against the threat. All came at the cost of eating away at his body, wasting away his force. However, there was an exchange with that gambit.
He was not fatigued.
"I, the EMPEROR of MUAY THAI, does not CARE about your POK-E-MON!" Adon screams, stomping right towards Seishirou. Sweat was rolling down his body, the Emperor turning a brighter, more clammy red by the moment. And yet, in almost a blind frenzy, he was attempting to overrun the boy. There seemed to be little finesse, he was simply diving in, and attempting to place him in a clinch. Should he get a grip, Adon would drag Seishirou up, and slam his knee hard into his pelvis, attempting to shatter the smaller man's bones in the pure Muay Thai might...
Before hurling him aside.
COMBATSYS: Adon successfully hits Seishirou with Jaguar Slam.
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Adon 0/-------/-======|=======\=------\1 Seishirou
Ryouhara frowns.
"Pokemon...?"
There is something to be said for a brutal style. There was no artistry in any move, no refined genius, even in simplicity, of the way Adon moves. Brutal, relentless, he approaches Seishirou and at last gets the kind of respite that can only be bought with blood. The shinobi folds in half underneath the vicious knee of Muay Thai--a trademark of the style, and it shows, as arcs of crimson trail off of the boy's lips like a voice all their own. He's thrown roughly to the side, twisting to try and save his body, but for the diversion of momentum, still impacting the dust as if he simply didn't matter.
Discarded like a little girl.
It would seem he has some internal damages..
... Seishirou grins.
"That's more like it."
Standing for Seishirou is something of a sight. He doesn't struggle to stand, though his body aches already from just a taste of the Jaguar. Instead, Seishirou stands as if the world is made of clouds, gathering a leg underneath him before nimbly leaping into the air, and his haori--the Byakuren Hagoromo ninkou--flutters gently as he slowly alights on the ground. He stands next to his discarded blade, still upright in the ground. The redirection of momentum and that one leap carried him back exactly to that point. He breathes evenly, but substantially. "The only way you're going to stand a chance against me is by showing me what that --" he indicates the blood on his sleeve, wiped from his lip, "-- is all about."
He braces a foot against the flat of his anchored blade, his body frame lowering dangerously.
"I'll show you why."
Then Seishirou closes the distance between himself and Adon--an arena's length--in one blurred step. The ground cracks underneath that one step, and that's the only sound that betrays the shinobi's movement, beyond even the white flash that obscures the boy's exact movements--an effect that in retrospect is the reflect of light off the silk of his haori flying in the wind under the hole he made prior.
As slim fingers dart out of the voluminous white bloom for the Emperor's throat.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou successfully hits Adon with Shunshin Reaper.
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Adon 1/-======/=======|-------\-------\0 Seishirou
Being inside the envelope of acceleration from Seishirou's 'shunshin' technique is an earsplitting, agonizing affair. The speed at which shinobi can move generates a certain kind of friction that for normal people may in fact even be arguably lethal. If and when Adon is caught by the throat, Seishirou seems little apt to slow down. Instead of using the technique merely to close the distance, Seishirou uses it to drive an opponent ahead of him like a train's cowcatcher down the railroad. Normally, he'd settle for using this to drive Adon through one of the great pillars supporting his arena and leave it at that--but the shinobi has been shown some of Adon's moves, and is now convinced.
He doesn't just hit the pillar--he pistons up it, his legs gaining traction against the pillar enough to drive Adon up it, the force of the chi radiating off of him manifesting as incinerating the air in his wake. In the end, Ryouhara drives Adon up the wall, and across the ceiling, temporarily ignoring the flow of 'physics' by the simple fact that this all happens in the space of a single second.
Seishirou's leg whips forward at the apex of the roof he crashed through only minutes ago, until a boot lands against the deadly man's throat. And then the shinobi leverages all his weight underneath it to drop down t othe earth, and slam Adon through it. Into the epicenter of his technique--the Ryuuouin explosion seal, a sigil that lights up across the arena floor, whose dead center is marked by--and has always been marked by--the ponit of entry in the ground for that seemingly discarded sword.
In the end, the ground itself will turn vicious.
The Emperor hurls the ninja away, his knee strike landing true. And there, at that very moment, he held steady. His mind had to be alert now. He was completely off balance. He knew a counter-attack was coming. And when Sei charged, he already prepared several ways to intercept it. The first was to parry the blow with his arms. His body tightened, and he swung his arm around, attempting to knock the- no. Too fast. The Emperor gurgled as his neck was snatched up. He felt the post coming behind him. His body slowly began to tense up, hardening right in Sei's hand. He was to endure the impact of the post, and rebound back, attempting to follow through with his own attack.
But he then tore through it.
The Emperor body went limp in the grips of Sei, a ragdoll for the following assault. He couldn't believe what was happening. More illusions? No, this was raw speed, raw power. He didn't even understand what was happening until he fell to the ground... and into hell itself, an explosion consuming all around him. Sei could feel the emperor under his feet, and might have felt that slight twinge of defeat.
And then, like a ghost from the crypt, the Emperor erupts up, a new light consuming him.
To say that Adon was broken would have been a correct observation. The amount of damage that the ninja sorcerer (and what else would Sei be with powers like that?) inflicted upon the Emperor was staggering. He was literally scrape art, a single abrasion replacing most of his open skin. The lingering heat exhaustion was choking his body to boot, his sweat burning the open wounds. He had a fracture somewhere in him. A rib. An arm. It didn't matter. The raw brutality that Seishirou had observed was coming a head now.
And of course, with a grin.
Somehow, through the entire massacre, the Emperor's teeth remained flawless. Gleaming porcelain cut through the air as the Jaguar erupted in a orange light. He didn't give Sei a chance to recover. He couldn't. He just shrugged it off as his body oozed with deep wounds, the effects of the rending obvious. He doesn't speak. He doesn't hesitate.
He just screams.
Fist after fist, kick after kick, the next three seconds was but a blur of activity. The Emperor of Muay Thai was putting on a showcase, so to speak, of the Art of 8 Limbs. Wreathed in raw orange chi, he brought an unstoppable flurry of punches, elbow jabs, shin smashes, kneeings, and straight out round house kicks. Soon, he was just leaning back, unleashing but a one-handed flurry of punches, aiming to rend the body of the boy. He was charging into Sei, proving more than his raw power, his raw ego. He ignored the pain. He ignored the energy sapping away from him. He ignored everything for one thing, and one thing alone.
To spite Seishirou.
To prove he was nothing compared to Adon.
The scream dies down as his jabs slow down to a painful halt.
COMBATSYS: Adon successfully hits Seishirou with Jaguar Thousand.
-+- CALCULATED HIT -+-
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Adon 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
The shinobi scion of the Ryouhara clan stands in the clearing smoke.
The arena, as can be said normally of any place Seishirou really cuts loose in, is a crumbled vision of its former self, fissures in the earth drawing long tongues of steam in the aftermath. Some spots might still actively be on fire. But that 'pressure' -- described as nothing less than the shinobi's force of will -- still lingers in the air even long after the heat of the flame fades.
The blade which formed the epicenter of the attack and surviving the detonation by nothing less than a miracle of planning, is taken up by Ryouhara. It slides slowly back into the sheath at his back. A blade that was drawn without cutting anything. He never made a single stroke with it. That's the way of 'his' methods.
His sleeves shift in the wind as he breathes slowly, his body beginning to tire, to fade.
But Adon rises, and his white grin is like a beacon in the dust curtained, simulated dusk. Seishirou blinks once. Adon leaps for him, his shriek filling the air. The boy truthfully has no time to say anything poetic, or even truly, to speak at all, but as he steps back, his body tensing to move out of the way, he already knows this much is pointless. And for that, he is pleased.
Finally, Adon's physical acumen wins through. The Way of Eight Limbs is attacks from every angle, without end, relentless and brutal. Seishirou is pummelled like no man has been brutalized today in Adon's palace, his slim body crumpling underneath the barrage. It is enough that some of Adon's prior targets may even give him their pity, as the apparently suicidal boy is taken to school. His bones are the only thing that can hold. Skin splits. Nerves are torn open. The wind is knocked out of him cleanly, his shoulder dislocates, his temple cracks, his tendons twist. He is hit hard enough that the shockwaves of the blows can be felt even behind the boy, making the steel in his sheathes rattle. The boy is rightfully destroyed in that three seconds. But the thing is? His eyes.. even as they go flat and lose their luster in the haze of that beating--they never leave Adon's own.
And Seishirou remains standing, the furious scream of the jaguar fades to an anticlimactic end.
His arms are limp at his sides, as if he is a corpse who forgot to fall over.
His skin--what little of it hasn't been bruised instantly--is drained of color, as most of the blood that brought the flush to his face has been beaten out of him. His haori--once holy white--is now stained with great blotches of red where Adon's elbows and knees broke skin in his chest. His eyes can no longer be seen, dipping beneath the perfusive shadows cast by his hair. But despite his look as the walking dead, he is still standing. Still not out. And when he speaks, there is still yet steel in his voice.
"Even though you have taken that much damage... not even for a moment will your honor permit you to acknowledge it," he appreciates, though a long line of blood trails from the corner of his lip with the effort he expends in talking. "Is it because you're afraid? ... Or is it because you have no other choice?"
The ninja doesn't even bother to move away from Adon.
He doesn't even make an attack.
COMBATSYS: Seishirou calculates his next move.
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Adon 0/-------/-----==|=====--\-------\0 Seishirou
Adon's arms hang to his side, tight and tense. The Emperor takes slow, ragged breaths, the pain so suppressed coming to a head. In a full fight, controlling pain and damage was the most vital thing in the world. High level warriors could endure gunfire, broken bones, even displaced organs. It was almost as much as a mental game as a physical one. Adon was hanging by a thread. The pressure crushing him was slowly picking away at that fraying rope.
All it would take was a single flick of the risk to bring him down.
Adon stood there, inspecting his victim. He was standing. His first assumptions were partially correct, at least. He no longer thought this was an agent of Shadaloo. No. This was what happened when you became a top dog. The Emperor snarled a vicious grin, listening to the boy's bantering. And finally... he lashes out in an insult that would cut to the bone.
"You are just like Alma."
"... You do not UNDERSTAND what it means to FIGHT. TO WIN! THIS is what HERALDS the GREATNESS of FIGHTING!" The Emperor swung his arms around gingerly, showing that in fact a god could bleed, and feel pain to boot. "YOU came here for that VERY REASON. To PROVE whether or NOT you could CHALLENGE the TRUE GOD of MUAY THAI! You are an IDIOT to think this is FEAR."
"An IDIOT like ALMA."
"I have no other choice..." Adon begins, taking abundant steps forward. Twisting his right arm up, he curls it in, leading his elbow out. He brings it down hard and strong, attempting to crush the ninja right in to the ground, to throw his entire body down to simply smash him. HARD. And all to the final words of the infamous Emperor of Muay Thai...
"... Because I! ADON! THE EMPEROR of MUAY THAI! CHOOSES NO OTHER!"
COMBATSYS: Seishirou fails to counter Jaguar Crunch from Adon with Kawarimi Crisis.
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Adon 0/-------/----===|=======\====---\1 Seishirou
COMBATSYS: Seishirou can no longer fight.
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Adon 0/-------/----===|
And with that, he's crushed.
Seishirou doesn't suffer the compulsive need to explain it. Because he knows why. There was a surge of power he noticed in Adon just before the blow came--that speed that defied his calculations and his understanding of Adon's ability turned what was almost a sure thing into a loss for the boy. It isn't something he feels shame for.
When you're killing emperors, even the slightest miscalculation can decide it.
The boy is crushed to the ground, flattened like a pancake underneath the bloody, sweaty weight of the Muay Thai genius, in one martial blow, the fate of the fight is decided. The shinobi lays there, immobile.
"hn hn hn." "ha ha ha." "heh heh.."
AAAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
The haunting boy's voice sounds from everywhere at once, coming from all directions, even as Adon lords it over the body of the ninkougakujutsushi. Suddenly, Adon is surrounded by duplicates, copies of Ryouhara, though if he should strike out at one, none are truly material--they are as ghosts, of limited resolution. They are all bloodied, the exact iteration of the boy Adon has before him, but they all howl, watching him with haunting, eerie eyes, as if he has only succeeded in burning moths with that grandiose power of his.
One stands before him, before the crippled body, and it is this one who speaks, a moment before all the rest, giving the echo a focus. A solitary voice. But each echo--says things a slightly different way.
"Alma? The hippie?" (the fool) (the knight) the bloodied, ghostly Ryouhara barks out a laugh. "You fought him? After that last, I was prepared to give you the title of Emperor... but don't insult me by invoking infantile men." (weak willed) (prehistoric) His head bows forward, looking Adon dead in the throat. "If you think just making me bleed a little..." (bleed blood) (blood that was meant to be bled) "...will give you the title of God, you're worse than a fool. You see. You're strong enough... but I've fought the God of Muay Thai."
He sucks his teeth. "....it isn't you."
"You cry tears of blood. And that much reveals you to me. Emperors are those who stand as warlords in great wars, those who command the flow of history. Gods command the flow of fate and destiny itself. Have you even tasted that war?" The one that gripped Thailand only moments ago, in history's eye.. The boy lands in his own silhouette, slipping from underneath Adon's threatening range. When it is done, every ghost is gone--but his. His breath is ragged, but it drips contempt.
"Against a man like Sagat, you're just a footnote."
"The next battle for history's favor will occur in Taizhou. I'm tired. Victory belongs to you--" he mentions, tossing a sidelong glance to the League official, who has been hiding behind guards this whole time "--but the only thing it earns you is the right to take the stage. Nothing more."
Ryouhara turns back on Adon--showing him that sigil at his back--and leaves.
Try attacking him. Even in this state...
A ghost can be deadly.
Speed and power. Muay Thai embodied the ultimate combination of raw force. This sort of power came to a head the moment Adon dropped his elbow, smashing through any attempts of defense that Sei might have erected. Adon had faced many opponents in his life, and he knew that the best tactic against all types was a quick, powerful attack.
And like that, he had won.
Or had he? As he leaned down above the ninja, he gasped for breath. Seishirou was defeated. He had to be defeated. As Adon grinned, there was a flash of movement. Adon reacts quickly. Standing up, he draws his fists out... and stares into the ghostly figures.
More illusions.
Adon knew these were part of the ninja magic. He didn't know whether or not they were aggressive, but he knew they were somehow part of the mystic magic of the ninja. But there was something more unnerving from this images. They we mocking him. Taunting him. Normally, such taunts would be empty... if Sei didn't understand the art of critical blows so well.
Thailand War.
Adon remembered it very well. He emerged from that the Hero of Thailand, a hollow title if there ever was one. Confronted with the prospect of getting his limb torn off by Vega, a deal was struck. The Emperor held back his Muay Thai armies, in exchange for a few staged 'victories' and 'heroics' for the Emperor of Muay Thai. Adon would get fame and glory, and Thailand would fall to Shadaloo. The only crutch was when Shadaloo was driven out; Of course, with it came a swift change in Adon's support.
Adon had never actually been a part of war. To remain neutral to such conflicts was paramount to him. Muay Thai was a tool, used for both good, evil, and for sport. Adon, selfish as he is, still couldn't see Muay Thai working for anything more than everyone. He was the leader of an art. Much like the bastard that Sei spewed from his ethereal lips.
Sagat.
"SAGAT is NOTHING but a MEMORY!" The Emperor screams, turning a brighter red. The pressure was still crushing and melting him, but the surge of rage broke through it. "I've DEFEATED HIM TWICE!!!" Technically. "HE is UNABLE to CLAIM MY THRONE! He is a WEAK COWARD! You only LIKE HIM because he is TALL and a FOOL! A BASTARD MOCKERY of the TRUE ART OF MUAY THAI!" Adon's frenzy was pure, his outrage unhinged. "YOU WILL NOT SEE SAGAT AT THIS TAIZHOU! YOU WILL NOT SEE HIM AS A GOD LIKE ME! HE HAS FALLEN! AND I! ADON! THE TRUE -GOD- OF MUAY THAI WILL BE THERE, to PROVE what is RIGHTFULLY HIS!"
Adon doesn't pursue Sei. He just stands amongst the ruins of his sanctum, broken bodies lying around him. He fell to his knees, the bloodloss and battle fatigue consuming him. And yet, he screamed. He ranted. He raved. He was no longer screaming at the faint dream of the ninja who attacked him. Who destroyed his fantasies, his dreams. No, he was screaming at the only thing more heartless, more empty, more cruel than any Ryouhara.
The truth about himself.
COMBATSYS: Adon takes no action.
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Adon 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Adon has ended the fight here.
Log created on 21:43:34 08/05/2009 by Seishirou, and last modified on 22:14:44 08/13/2009.