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Post by Nightshade on Jun 11, 2017 9:42:02 GMT -8
Nightshade face turned grim. "I warned you, missy."
He deflected the blade with his forearm, before launching himself at the girl. For each blow he recieved, he dealt one back. His calws slashed all over the girl's arms, withering her strength away blow by blow. He blocked the fire slashes, he had no time to avoid them. He gritted his teeth as the searing pain hit his body and the burning sensation of the fire left two deep cuts on his forearms. However, he did not speak meaningless words.
The girl was predictable.
When Inori lunged at him, he high kicked her arm again. Then, this time, the clawed roundhouse kick was aimed at her knee. He hooked the back of her leg with his foot and threw the girl off balance. Then a swift knee strike to the gut to bend her over and smash her face into the mud relatively hard, enough to stun her he hoped. Then he kicked her away.
"I am done playing your game."
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Post by xoDeathy on Jun 11, 2017 13:08:23 GMT -8
Battle 7/10When Inori lunged, her arm was thrown up once again. She expected this, however, as her decaying data sprinkled like a fountain from her palm, imitating the pain of 'acid rain'. Nightshade then swept her off her feet, and smashed her gut in. As he kicked her away she spun like a corkscrew, causing her blade to slash the air more.
The little window once again has a change in message as it continues to orbit:
[WARNING. REGULATION BREACH, LEVEL 3. PLEASE FIND A SAFE SPOT TO REST. DO NOT ENGAGE IN COMBAT]
"This isn't a game. This is life. You fight, or you die. Survival of the fittest and all that. Perish little cat, like a pig in a slaughterhouse."
Inori spins her blade in front of her and then held it perpendicular to her side a second time, this time the blade facing backwards. Inori taps the edge of the handle with her pinky, causing a tiny burst of flames to escape the blade. Within a moment, her decaying core grew large enough that there was a small hole through her, but that wasn't the concerning bit. In this moment Nightshade could feel a sharp wind whizzing by his face. Following that one, they ambush made itself known. Inori's random slashes from earlier left decayed data in the waiting, hidden to even the keenest of eyesight. They all were already en route to their destination when they made themselves visible, and there were more than enough to be more than a simple attack.
... I gave him enough time to avoid enough to survive it.. but is he skilled enough to.. is the real question..
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Post by Nightshade on Jun 11, 2017 13:44:06 GMT -8
"There is always another choice."
An explosion of black and purple happened, raising up in the digital sky in a pillar of darkness. The shockwave was enough to instantly blow away all the flying data Inori had created. Standing right in the middle of it all, Nightshade barely raised his head, showing two pulsing deep red eyes focusing onto the girl. He was...different. Wildly different.
The undersuit it wore had changed to a deep nebula purple, something that you would commonly see on any Darkloid. The diamond shaped gems on his knees and forearms had changed too: they were now round, smooth and oval.
The cat tail was gone, replaced by deep black armor and an armored reptilian tail instead. It arched left and right slowly, twitching with life from time to time. All the highlights on the suit had turned to a vibrant red and connected to the gem-cores. Nightshade's helmet had changed too. It was a full on metal mask.
The most unsettling details of his new form were the claws on his forearms. They had changed into some sort of glassy-crystal material while the smooth edges had turned into serrated ones. No longer they would cut. They would rip and tear.
Nightshade was completely silent. The only thing that could be felt was the insane amount of energy seeping from him. He slowly raised from his hunched, aggressive position upright. The death stare he shot at Inori would be enough to make Nebula Gray itself flinch.
Yet, not a single ounce of Darkness could be found in his heart. Nothing at all.
He stepped forward, proudly showing his new self. Anyone would have recognized it by now. Chaos Unison: the perfect and seamless union of light and dark.
He stared at her, but didn't attack, yet. He was coming up whith a plan, moving himself into a new stance he never used before. It was rather exotic looking.
He barely glared at the girl, waiting for her to attack before really going in.
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Post by xoDeathy on Jun 11, 2017 17:16:32 GMT -8
Battle 8/10... I see.. So he does indeed have a Chaos Unison.. That makes me wonder.. Would mine be Chaos Unison..? No no.. don't be silly, self.. that'd make me a darkloid..
Inori smirks. In an instant, white flames arose from her feet and engulfed her. The flames melted themselves into a pink color. The flames exploded into a similar pillar of energy as Nightshade's transformation had yielded, but dissipated shortly after and revealed Inori's full power.
The end of her dress changed from a full circle to six, long 'tails' of fabric, with black pants underneath. The accent of red throughout her dress instead became pink. Her crown of roses de-materialized and reassembled itself into a four 'feather' crown, similar to the new ends of the dress and hanging off in four different, diagonal directions.
All decaying areas of Inori seemed to heal, save her core, which only worsened. Her core crackled, and small revolutions of lighting could be seen happening occasionally in the swirling decay of data. It also left a large hole in her chest, reaching down to her stomach area. Her blade was twice the size it was before, thanks to all of the decaying data attached to it. Rings of decaying data also orbited the blade of Inori's sword and Inori's own arms.
The message orbiting Inori now begun to flash red:
[WARNING. REGULATION BREACH, LEVEL 4. PLEASE JACK OUT IMMEDIATELY. WARNING. REGU--]
Until Inori finally grab the message window and crushed it to close it.
From the massive power spike of a Hyper Fusion and a Chaos Unison, it seemed to rain even harder than before. Thunderstorms boomed in the distance, symbolizing the final stage was set.
... You fool..
"You've finally shown your full power.."
.. You shouldn't have held back..
"..yet it still won't be enough.."
.. Maybe we could have became friends..
".. Only one of us will end standing.."
.. I wish I would've met you when I wasn't on a mission..
"..and I intend to be that one."
.. Goodbye Cat...
".. Perish."
Inori erupts into a burst of pink and charges Nightshade at full speed. Though larger, her blade work was even nimbler than before. She assaulted Nightshade with an array of slashes, bashes, and stabs. Every so often between giving and taking strikes, she'd fume out pink flames, and blast her corrupted data from a distance towards Nightshade since its powerful burning could decimate his coding. She's reached the point of no return. Even if she were to vanquish him, there's no guarantee she'd make it out of the net. Of course, she didn't care. She would put any one who sided with the darkness in there place. Inori couldn't win this once she entered Hyper Fusion, she had to aim for a draw.
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Post by Nightshade on Jun 11, 2017 18:04:21 GMT -8
Nightshade blocked the blade with his claw, not even flinching. He simply stared her down. He wanted to say something, but didn't. She wouldn't listen to him anyway. He shook his head in disappointment.
He let go of the blade and dodged every single one of her attacks. Her predictability would be her downfall. He had figured her patterns long ago, now it was just a matter on how he could stop her before she killed herself. Her corroding attack were useless. Every time Nightshade sunk his claw in her he sapped away her strength and regenerated completely.
The more he dodged the faster he accelerated. He had been holding back for another reason. Stamina. One of the great fundamentals of fighting. You can't win a fight or launch your powerful attacks if you are out of breath. And it really looked like the girl was ready to destroy herself just to kill him. This battle however, was already won on his end as soon as the girl began blabbing about the one man standing clichè stuff. He had his ace in the sleeve yet to be played.
The more she attacked, the more his counters turned vicious and bent on total annihilation of the opponent, while keeping a non lethal approach in the end. He would break her, sure. But he would not kill her. He had to show her that good willed shadows existed.
He would make sure he would show her his very own shade of light and darkness. She did ask for it not long ago. After all, what is the Nightshade if nothing but the moment where both sun and moon are present? The end, yet also the beginning of a bright day. The moment where the only thing that matters is where do you want to look, who do you want be and what do you want to do.
His name was just that. He stood at the Nightshade, able to decide for himself what to do. His path was not set in stone. He always had a choice. Would he turn to the light and spare her? Give her a new day to learn what he failed in teaching her? Or perhaps choose the night, and erase the threat to his life and those of many others innocent shadow navis?
Besides, light cannot shine with no shadows to define its glorious glow. Yet shadows would not exist without light to cast them. As long as one existed, the other would too. Fate had created them as sisters, unseparable.
He grabbed one of her arms and twisted,snapping it like it was a twig. With all the raining, both were soaked wet. However, she did not know that a storm was his perfect weather. He was both water and electricity.
At that moment he realized that he could use that to his advantage. He would turn nature against her. That should do the trick. He forced her to step back and get some distance from him. If she kept this assault he would simply keep dodging or regenerating.
This battle was at its final stage indeed. Their final destination, however, still unknown.
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Post by xoDeathy on Jun 11, 2017 18:44:30 GMT -8
Battle 9/10
The heavy rain splashed against the trimmed grass, beginning to flood the soil. Inori panted heavily. The arm Nightshade had broken was her right arm. As he twisted it, the arm had easily de-materialized away, leaving a slow stream of decaying data pouring from her arm; a sight similar to a raging sink in slow motion. The decaying data would reach about her hip area before disappearing.She hadn't gone through such an ordeal since she first begun preaching her faith. How ironic to find herself now, in the rain, in the dark, being torn apart. A light in the dark only makes the shadows larger. Like a kid walking through a dark house, the candle they carry only aids to their fear. A weak light is just as corrupt as the darkness. Yet, it's not the darkness people are afraid of. It's what lurks inside it. Sadly, youth and the delusional cannot see it this way, and usually get themselves into more trouble than they bargain for. Inori always knew this, because this was always her case. As she stood against Nightshade, was she the candle the kid carried? Were her efforts to bring peace of mind only a catalyst to the unbridled strength of what lies in the shadows? Or perhaps, Nightshade was the candle, guiding innocents through the shadows based on his own experiences. Maybe they both were candles, and right now they both were flickering against the rain outside the window of an old house, sitting on a high up table. Each time the lightning struck and the thunder boomed, both lights flickered more, but persisted to hold onto their will to be lit. Inori wiped rain from her face with the soaked remnants of her arm. She tried lifting her blade, but her left arm truly wasn't her dominant arm. Using rewritten coding from her right arm, she used it to be able to lift the blade. It was a secret ace Inori's operator had installed to trick opponents into crippling her left arm, and then proceed to be assaulted from a surprise barrage of blade skills at maximum potential from her true, blade-dominant arm. Her left arm was more for the purpose of blasting enemies as she charged at them. Anything Inori could do now she felt would be fruitful. The blows she does land seem to have no effect after a while; she figured Nightshade's Unison must've given him enhanced en-durability. Except.. maybe one more thing could do the trick. Would it be crazy? Of course, that's the essence of her 'Havoc Festival' after all; decaying pain for all. Inori ran towards Nightshade, but started to shimmer before disappearing. Nightshade would hear a recollecting of data before a rustling of leaves behind him. If he turned around in time, he could see Inori's lower left leg coding splashing into a large puddle of water before decaying away. Inori hid within the burning forest, more specifically the burning leaves. She didn't move from branch to branch, it'd be unnecessary for what she planned to do. Based on what he said earlier, from how he predicts her attacks, he sat in the flames, waiting to see if Nightshade would draw closer.
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Post by Nightshade on Jun 12, 2017 0:27:47 GMT -8
Nightshade slowly turned around and grinned. The first mistake she made was predictability. The second mistake she made was stamina conservation. The third mistake was strategy and preplanning.
The fourth mistake was situational awareness.
He snapped his fingers, and the bombs he purposely left unexploded on the ground, the ones she didn't mind at all, ignited. The three spheres had been sitting there since the beginning, charging up. Their black and green blast completely leveled the zone around Inori. Incinerating everything but her. A small throwing star made of electricity flew through the smoke and landed at her feet. It crackled and dissolved into nothing. The sky above began rumbling even more.
Electricity is but a game of plus and minus. Throwing a negative charge at the ground would attract its counterpart to the surface as it gets absorbed. Namely, his attack aimed at changing the polarity of the field around her feet by gathering positive charges around her. The real attack would come in a flash, faster than any of them could ever move.
The huge lightning bolt that discharged straight through her and into the ground travelled through the air at lightspeed. The sky roared as millions of volts cracked the soil and exploded it. It would instantly paralyze anyone under or near it as it arched from the clouds to the ground.
Nightshade stood where he was, looking at her. She should have figured out that his strength wasn't overpowering the foe through sheer strength. He was a tactical genious. He could use the situation and even the environment as a weapon against his opponenent. He always questioned his own moves, and by doing so he would move forward to success. Case and point, the bombs he purposely set up way before their actual use. The cat warrior could think at least 5 steps ahead.
He hoped she couldn't move after nature had struck her with its unbridled and unrivaled power, but he knew that it would only gimp her movement. He lowered himself down into an offensive stance and waited. He waited for her final approach.
Their next clash would be the last.
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Post by xoDeathy on Jun 12, 2017 4:48:51 GMT -8
Battle 10/10The sheer force of the events following were devastating. When the smoke cleared and Nightshade continued to look upon the forest, he'd find that as quickly as Inori was in the forest, she was just as quickly out. The only thing remaining from her destroyed hiding spot was was her lower right leg data, pulsing with electricity before breaking down.
At that moment, Nightshade could feel a weight load itself onto it's back. Inori panted, but smiled as she looked at Nightshade's head. Her core was overcharged, the lightning strike Shade planned to use against her did hinder her speed, but also inversely empowered the vortex of decaying data. Immense sparks and flashes of lightning flew through her core, some slightly extending beyond to the rest of her body, symbolizing that she was near her limit, but at this point, it wouldn't matter. She had Nightshade where she wanted him. She just had to wait until he would least expect it.
Inori laughed before saying:
"Tag, you're it."
Inori released a massive cyclone of disruption energy from her core. The cyclone spread faster than water freezing over. It enveloped everything: the forested area, the river, Nightshade, and herself. However, it wasn't pain it sought to deliver. Instead, it brought restoration; a reset rather. The energy was soothing, calming.. it actually did bring peace. The flames engulfing the forest dissipated, and any injuries Inori left on Nightshade that hadn't regenerated on their own were fully regenerated now...
But why?
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Post by Nightshade on Jun 12, 2017 5:31:08 GMT -8
Nightshade's eyes widened. How could she have moved that fast? It is nearly impossible to avoid the fastest thing in the universe. That attack she did though...it didn't hurt? He tried to dodge it, but to no avail. But the attack didn't hurt?
It really didn't. In fact the decaying navi had just healed everything. He couldn't understand. She had tried to kill him, she forced him to almost delete her and now she was willy nilly laughing while piggybacking on him?
He released the Unison and retuned to his normal self. He slowly walked over to the epicentre of it all. Did she reall blow herself up? Did she healed too?
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Post by xoDeathy on Jun 12, 2017 5:50:08 GMT -8
Outro 1/1 Peace had returned. The clouds broke away as the sun fought to shine through. A small fading of a rainbow made it's appearance in the sky. Birds tweeted and fluttered as if everything was fine.
Inori lay with her head down and her back against her crimson sword that was slightly angled, with the handle lining up with the sun's nearly midday positioning. Nearly her entire legs adopted the same decaying stream as her right arm had. Even more of her right arm had decayed away, nearly up to her shoulder. As for her rampaging core, it had settled down as well. It returned to its original slow, washing machine-like spin, but expanded nearly to her sides. Anymore and it looked like she would break in half.
She looked up as Nightshade walked over. She smiled and signaled him over with the only thing pretty much still intact: her left arm.
When he arrived, she notioned him to kneel. She struggled to lean forward more, panting heavier with each attempt. She gently lay her left hand on his right cheek.
"I made a mess.. huh..? Heh.. wouldn't be the first time.."
She gasped to speak before continuing. What remained of her legs began to de-materialize into the air, rapidly taking the rest of her body with her as she spoke.
"Maybe.. maybe next time.. we meet.. it can.. be different... Goodbye Cat.."
Inori's hand was the last to decay into the air, followed by a common message found by those who let history repeat itself:
[Inori.AXA DELETED]
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Post by Nightshade on Jun 12, 2017 6:27:46 GMT -8
The black and green navi gently held her hand as she vanished. He gently scooped her up, resting her back against his chest. She seemed to have understood his intentions. He gave her a small nod, still baffled by her actions. He could feel something from her now. A wound she couldn't heal on her own, but he could. He did say he would make her see that he was good willed. And he was a navi of his word.
Then, as she withered away, he softly whispered something to her.
"My name...is Nightshade."
He remained there, watching the data disappear. He then sighed and slowly stood up. It was too late for him to do anything. He would just jack out and rest. Still, he couldn't help but wonder if he would really meet that strange lady again. Just like the Nightshade darkens and lights up with the light of a new day, roses wither and fall down, before flourishing once more. He would search for her, when he will have the chance. There was still one thing he had to do.
Next time, he would make sure to know his new friend's name.
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Post by Kman on Jun 18, 2017 19:43:13 GMT -8
Inori:
Style: 24/30
Articulation: 16/20
Balance: 18/20
Length: 10/10
Emotion: 10/10
Judge: 8/10
Total: 86/100
Nightshade:
Style: 27/30
Articulation: 18/20
Balance: 10/20
Length: 9/10
Emotion: 9/10
Judge: 7/10
Total: 80/100
=========
Winner: Inori
If you want specifics on why things were graded specific ways, feel free to DM me on Discord.
Inori: 135x/1350z Nightshade: 105x/1050z
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