"N-No, I don't think that's how it...works..." Touka's words trailed off much like Ami did, the girl already disappearing into the dark forest. Since the lake was taken, this was to be their battlefield for the night. With little else to say, Touka glanced over at her own partner before following suit, still shivering from the evening's cold. Only when they each reached a large enough clearing for their bout did Touka sigh out a hot breath into the night air.
"R-Right then. I g-guess you don't need me to help you out at the start, right?" She asked this to Alannah; before she could get an answer, Touka had already leapt up to a nearby tree branch, dangling precariously from the height.
"T-Then let's have a good time, everyone!" she said, though it was clear she had no real intention of throwing down. Yet.
Alannah barely paid attention to the exacts about what Ami was saying, let alone Touka's replies. She most certainly
heard the words and her trying to sound confident, but in one ear out the other as they say. A smirk was already plastered on her face as she turned following Touka to where the fun was gonna happen. Of course, to let them know what's gonna happen, she gave a quick peace sign after turning and let her own remarks fly.
"Wishing you luck would be good, but why wish for something that can't help ya two?" Not too long after, they reached a nicely large clearing. It seemed like the place was more or less abandoned to a degree, which is for the best. Less green meant less chance of fire stick starting a brushfire by accident. Stopping as she looked back towards her soon-to-be defeated classmates, it was easy to see her hand was already glowing. As her partner took more tactical measures towards the fight, Alannah didn't look at her, only turning to face Ami and Maiko.
"Who wants a piece first?" She said, the tats on her palms finally giving off those familiar little streams. And after came the
magic show tune and transformation number, for 45 seconds appearance of the longer haired magical girl herself, as she gave said hair a flick with her hand. Tattoos glowing with power and extended, it looked like the hammer finally dropped.
"Who knows? Ya might actually-"That smug attitude, Ami absolutely loved it. She would love driving it into the dirt even more. Alannah was in the middle of saying something when Ami exploded into action, quite literally as fire erupted from her feet and pushed her towards the girl with the tattoos.
"Talk is cheap!" She swung her blade out at Alannah, a wave of fire erupting towards her as Ami suddenly stopped and burst to the left, using the wave of fire as a cover to try and strike from an unexpected angle.Boom, boom, boom, every few seconds Ami was changing direction to make it as hard as possible to keep up with her movements. Suddenly, one more burst. This time Ami was coming straight at Alannah from the left, her sword swinging down at her from above while Ami laughed.
"Speak with your actions, unless you find your mouth planted firmly to your own ass!" In other words? Kiss your ass goodbye.
It rushed through her body like a virus, tearing open skin and flesh as the black carapace, the armored growth that was at once organic and inorganic, formed over her. It all turned to ash, from ashen hair to ashen eyes, and under the night sky, even what flesh remained on her face became ashen. A twisted metamorphosis, so far removed from the beautiful transformations of the children who still played nice, but it felt at home with Maiko. Something real. Something concrete. Something painful. No wind. No light. No love.
Maiko stepped into the clearing, an Asura in all but divinity, her hair trailing like a ghost behind her. A part of her wanted to poke some fun at Ami’s manic giggles, or how being the president of the club wasn’t even a good thing to begin with, considering all the administrative bullshit Touka had to drag her face through, but a larger part of her was now colder. Freezing over in a way that only time could. She breathed, smiled, and clenched her fists, the only response to the pre-fight trashtalking. It wasn’t hot enough yet, not fiery and dangerous enough to spark her imagination and set her pierced heart ablaze.
The Black Knight was fast, but Asura was faster, crossing through space in a silent second to appear behind Stained Scatha. As the swordswoman set the world ablaze with her hellfire, the martial artist’s fist was already tearing a vacuum through space, towards the ink-mage’s spine.
It seems that trying to show a bit showsmanship, mostly for the inky girl's own benefit, doesn't always work out as planned. Before anything could be said after "actually," Ami rushed her, telling her that her little sentences were for nothing. Immediately, she had her ink shape and shift to come forward to defend her from getting the blade through her. That was, until a second surprise came to make her now annoyed face go into shock. The black coming from her barely reacted in time as a second fist from Maiko, now Asura, nearly slammed into her back. Cracks were even forming in the shield, what with them not able to be made more solid in time to give her a more proper defense. As her friendly little bodyguard kept her spine safe, Stained Scatha had a more difficult problem in front of her as she caught the sword, using two large inked blades to stop it a few steps in front of her. Usually this would just mean "beat the hell out of em" except it's hard for that ink to do when it's being weakened not by a regular sword, but by a flaming sword. The ink was quickly getting weakened, the only saving grace being that it's particular density let it stay together long enough. It seemed like those two weren't going to hesitate to go for the throat and take their win...But that didn't bother her.
What did bother her, however, was the sheer insult of what they did. Attacking and name calling are fine, it comes with the territory. But interrupting her just to get a blow? No, no, not a single person is gonna be allowed to cut her off. They even had the neve of a sneak attack at the same time.
No one is allowed something this ridiculuous. Her face and brain quickly cycled through emotions after each event. When she was talking? A proud happiness. Ami attacking? Annoyed surprise. Nearly getting a broken back? Shock. Realizing how they disrespected her? A face slowly contorting to teeth gritting rage...before relaxing with a chuckle. Fine, the game's begun. Time to enjoy it, no?
"You'e actually right. Good reminder course you did there. So how about my own lesson for you two?" The ink stopped blocking both attacks in mere fractions of a second, before letting out an explosion of inked energy to send the duo flying from her, and give her time to show them her lesson.
The ink flowed under her, gathering as they made a pillar going upwards. The shape seemed rather intricate despite it being thin and quite a few feet in the air. As it did, it was joined by two giant shifting inky tendrils. Her smile was right back as she rose up in the air, looking down at the two combatants. The pillar was very quickly done shaping as she crossed her legs over another and extended her arms. The tendrils turned into large hands, soon becoming large fists, while the top of the pillar became a black throne for its redheaded creator. The hands extended upwards over the two girls as she rose her own arms.
"You never disrespect your queen." Her fists went down, and so did her newly made ones.
Ami flew backwards from the force of the blast, she flipped a few times in midair before stabbing her sword into the ground. She skidded to a halt rather quickly, the flames of the blade instantly turning the snow into steam as she glared at Alannah with a vicious smile. Her gaze flickered to Maiko for a moment, checking her over for injuries, before she refocused on Alannah. Good, she was taking this seriously. If she had done anything less than Ami would have torn her to pieces like a wet paper towel. As the ink gathered beneath Alannah, Ami crouched slightly, almost in an bestial fashion as she bared her teeth in a vicious and malicious grin. The pillar finished forming and Ami's smile quickly morphed into a frown. A throne. How... ornate.
"If you don't take this seriously, we're going to tear you apart you know?" Alannah's fists slammed down and Ami burst into action once more, her instincts screamed at her to press onward but she knew it was the incorrect choice. Instead she jumped to the side, slashing at the fist as it came down at her to try and destroy it. Ami could already see the flow of the fight. If she moved towards the throne, she opened herself up for more attacks from the ink that comprised the throne. However staying on the defense would get them nowhere, so something needed to be done to get Alannah back on the defense. She looked at Maiko, then looked at a nearby tree. Maiko, tree. Maiko. Tree. If you looked closely you could practically see the lightbulb flickering to life above Ami's head as she rushed over to a nearby tree and chopped it in half with one swing. Another quick movement and she was behind it, kicking it towards Alannah with all the force she could muster.
"Climb!" She shouted at Maiko as the tree slowly began to tip towards the throne, quickly throwing out another wave of flame at Alannah to pester her while Maiko continued the combo.
Maiko did not climb.
Gravity, after all, was much too slow for a fighter like herself, and the telegraph of those hulking ink hammers even more so. Perhaps it would have been cute to play along, to set up a scene, to dodge that blow in a meaningfully dramatic fashion but in a situation like this, where her blood still hadn’t heated up, where her opponents were still playing so cleanly, Asura had no intention of going along with theatrics. Her blood was still cold. She couldn’t get it all the way up.
So she teleported again, nary a word or a gesture before she presented herself before the queen. Her form was unscratched from the ink explosion and her countenance was unbothered by whatever grand pedestal Scatha had raised herself upon. No pause this time, and no single strike. With the efficacy of a barbarian, she clenched her fists and delivered twelve blows within three heartbeats.
In all honesty, she wasn't really expecting them to get hit by her hands. They moved fast enough to take care of most, but it was fairly obvious that the hands were just a few paces too slow to take them out. Instead, they rose back up from where they smashed with just lumps of snow attached to them and puddles of ink where they once were. The one going for Black Knight was cut rather badly up however, which with the fire sadly meant a large part of its power was now lost. It simply melted into a puddle that slinked back into the pillar, though it didn't seem to increase in size much. A lost hand didn't mean much in the grand scheme, but it was annoying. As the fists came down however, she had one more separate idea. That spine punch easily showed Asura would be a bad experience if she got too close, which she could easily just do with another teleport. Well...What would a warrior on their throne be without armor. Ink from the throne began to cover her body as she prepared for the next inevitable strike. On one side, Black Knight seemed to be rather wrapped up due to being kept at a range. With the armor too, advantage would be right back in her hands and staying there with them both running or getting hit. Advantage and victory would easily be in her hand.
"Climb" was the simple word that ruined nearly the whole plan.
Hearing this word didn't surprise or worry Stained Scatha much, as all she had to do was extend either the pillar like a spike and take out...whatever she was going to climb on, or just spike up the pillar if she was really climbing it. No, it was the wave of fire right after that threw it all in disarray. The armor wasn't completely hardened and thick yet to resist the heat better, so portions of it simply faded away. Worse, the heat of it hit her eyes, distracting her for just one simple second. It was all the other girl needed. Her eyes opened up to see clenched fists come towards her.
"Oh fu-!" The ink and her both tried to bind the arms near immediately to try and stop the oncoming onslaught. While it
did work, it wasn't a clean stop. 4 blows overall had hit. 2 were to her left leg, which wasn't too detrimental as she had alternatives to walking on an injured leg. It was the 2 to the stomach that nearly did her in there and then. Spit flew out. The wind ripped right out of her felt horrible...But it wouldn't stop her. Not that easily. She gritted her teeth as she looked back to where the flame girl shouted...To see a tree coming at her. Oh joy
Wait, [i[actually[/i] oh joy indeed as she smiled at the tree thrower.
"Thanks for the assist." The ink throne collapsed into a puddle as she let herself fall at a good enough angle. At the same time, she pushed and chucked the armored girl right toward the incoming tree, with Scatha being just out of the way of its path. Of course, why stop there? She wanted her to be serious after all. Falling still, she shot off 3 black blasts right at Asura and the tree. To break her fall, two tar-like spider legs sprouted from her back to keep her from hitting the floor and getting even more beat up, though she stumbled a moment catching herself. She panted from the blow still, but she was far from done. The ink covered her up as it helped her descend back to the ground. Her face also changed, now with a far more...menacingly happy grin. They turned to tentacles in seconds, going high up to prevent aerial attacks, forming a circle almost water-splash-like shape around her, and staying close to stop anymore teleporting surprises. She scoffed, also saying a word in a different language. Those who miracously did know would know it's the gaelic word for "bitch."
"Your 'serious' is pathetic." Most of the new "arms" of Scatha flailed wildly to prevent and discourage anyone moving in, but a few in the front decided to be less spastic. 2 of them turned into what could best be called petals like a flower and shot a pair of ink blasts towards the Black Knight, while 4 others tentacles sprang at lightning speed towards her as well, arched in a way to try and make dodging from the front very, very difficult. And as they did, the remaining ink tried to recover and shape into armor once more.
Ami roared as her flames burned ever brighter, the heat of her flames melting the snow around her and instantly turning it into a smokescreen. The ink blasts shot through the smokescreen, however they came out the other side and just hit a few trees. The four tentacles would whip into the smoke screen, but Ami had no intention of dodging these. No, far from it. Ami leapt towards them as a matter of fact, taking the hit from one while she sliced at the others. She hit the ground rolling, but once again she was on her feet within seconds as she stared at Alannah. Another swing of the sword, another wave of flame, the snow along the ground melting at a rapid pace and slowly filling up the area with fog. Ami burst forward once more, uncaring of any tentacles that lashed out at her. She would simply smash them to pieces, every single one as she ran straight for Stained Scatha. For that was the essence of the Black Knight. To charge head first at her problems, burning down anything between her and that which she sought to behead... Not that she was trying to behead her in this case... well maybe just a little. What? She was feeling fired up!
Speaking of being fired up, the flames that had encompassed her sword were definitely burning much brighter than they had been at the beginning of the battle. Everything about Ami seemed brighter, probably because she was on fire. The Black Knight rode, her flames ready to torch the little girl before her.
"YES! MUCH BETTER, GET ME FIRED UP!" A pillar of flame erupted from underneath her, sending her straight up into the air as she swung her sword wildly in Stained Scatha's direction. Three waves of flame flew at her from above, hopefully Maiko would be able to capitalize on this distraction like she had before.
"Look at you getting worked up. Get too flashy and you'll lose your focus in all the fighting." Knowing damn well Scatha would be hard-pressed in dodging direct blows from the Black Knight, her body would be yanked away backwards by an invisible force. A strength she could not resist, it would serve to effectively shove her out of the way from Ami's flames and sword slashes, skidding among the snow. The one responsible still lounged on her tree branch, although,
Touka's form had changed dramatically. It was rare for the Detention Club President to participate in active combat so she wouldn't have been too surprised if this was the first time some of her peers had seen her magical uniform. All the same, her demeanor had changed to fit the situation and the smirking face of
Red Wire greeted them in the snowy night.
Gone was the stuttering school girl, shark-like teeth now gleaming in the lowlight of the forest.
"Careful Ami-chan. I was talking to both of you," Red Wire called out from her tree, noting that Scatha had finally halted upon the snow, a safe distance away from her attacker. The same couldn't be said for the Black Knight, who was charging directly into an unseen trap.
"Like I said, get too flashy, and you'll wind up losing your head in all this," Red Wire mused, knowing full well of the string set in place between two trees, waiting for Ami to continue her charge. And with her momentum already locked in, it was only a matter of time before she'd decapitate herself using her own speed and motion. Assuming her partner was kind enough to do something about it after all, Red Wire glancing over at Battoru.
Repelled once more, Maiko tucked herself into a ball, somersaulting through the air before catching herself against the falling tree. Two toes grasped onto the bark with enough force to fracture it and dig into the flesh of the severed tree itself, and, every muscle in her leg becoming taut, the Asura used the wooden club as an extension of her own foot. It shattered into a million pieces as inkwell blasts tore its form, as its base slammed against the black barrier of Scatha. But for a transient moment, those countless slivers shone silver against the moonlight and the snowbanks.
Silver, not ashen, the final reminiscence of the holy sword and the resolve found in unbroken shadows.
She closed her eyes. Felt the second transformation, the beating of her heart, the quickening of her pulse, the fourth player finally making herself known. And with a blink, a flash, Asura reappeared behind Scatha as she was hurled away from the Black Knight by a single, nigh-invisible wire. Not her fist this time, but her elbow, supported by a foundation that drew strength from the earth itself. A flurry of snow burst as impact was made, but already, the silver haired was gone again, a high kick in motion to strike, no, throw Ami skywards. The black sun belonged to a black night, after all. And as for herself…
The first stance of Kamogawa-Style Martial Arts, The Magic Bullet.Open palms faced downwards as her arms intersected, one foot balanced on the thin, thin wire as the other rested against the hollow of her knee. Her eyes opened with the veneer of a god of war, and she smiled.
“Hey, Touka.”Most might be shocked to suddenly be carried away, but Scatha just had an annoyed expression on her face as she flew away against her will. Her ink quickly moved along with her, as if trying to make sure she was fine. It also seemed a certain nuisance was on the move again. With just a sigh and eye roll, she made a fist over her shoulder and behind her back, though it was open where the fingers and palm met, making an O. A large broadsword formed itself right behind her, near instantly, as she felt it take the blow of a familiar elbow. [color=darkgray]
Getting predictable She thought as Asura reappeared to seemingly get her teammate safer and get another blow on her. Once she finally stopped, that's when the broadsword was brought into an actual fighting stance as more ink poured in to fix the cracks. The rest of the ink settled as she ceased control of it momentarily. She didn't even need to look or have the girl talk to know who was responsible for the save. But she had other problems to deal with for a second.
Her aggressive and wide smirk was back as she sprung herself a nice pair of wings from her back. One flap from them sent dozens upon dozens of small but highly concentrated, dense ink bullets right at Black Knight. So many distractions for one girl could get her pretty badly harmed, as she was about to find out. Scatha levitated slightly in the air as she began flapping her wings preemptively, ready to move where she needed. Her ink also followed back to her location, like a puppy going back to their owner almost. Oddly adorable actually. It surrounded her again in the same tentacle circle from previously.
"Sure. Coming from the girl who loves ninja entrances." She said as she kept switching looks between Asura and Black Knight.
"Ey, miss ninja nerd?" She said, giving a giggle at her friend. Even in danger, there always had to be a little bit of teasing. Especially when Touka started it. It'd probably be a little funnier for everyone involved if she hadn't casually sent off another, much stronger blast at Asura from her sword beforehand, cutting her right off at the "Hey-" and the smile. Then another one right after that one just to really show she wasn't wanting to deal with her. If they wanted to interrupt her, they'll expect the same shit back. At least once. Her smile was still distinctly playful despite this though.
"Besides, flashy's too much fun, anyway." It was hidden well in the way she spoke, but Scatha was prepared for any more shenanigans from these two. Why make it easier to read what she might do?
The Black Knight and Asura were in perfect sync really. When Ami got in over her head, Maiko would be there to pull her out of danger, or in this case kick. When Maiko got in over her head, Ami would be there to pull her out of danger, quite literally in this case. Ami twisted in midair, feet angled to the sky as another pillar of flame burst from her feet to send her rocketing towards Maiko. The many ink bullets would find themselves cut in half quickly, some getting glancing hits on the Black Knight. She pulled Maiko out of the way of the blast and tossed her into the air, Ami continuing to rocket towards the tree Touka lounged in. She did a quick flip, angling her legs towards the trunk of the tree to setup for more aerial acrobatics. She was not there long, launching herself away from the tree and towards Scatha with explosive force, beginning the process of the tree burning down.
However this time Ami was prepared for any interference from Maiko, coating herself in fire to burn away any invisible wires Maiko tried to set up to decapitate her.
The flames coated every inch of her skin, its warmth made her blood boil hotter and hotter. The Black Knight was fire incarnate, nothing could stop her from raging out of control. The heat emanating from her also had the unintended side effect of whipping the wind around her into a frenzy, hot air rising with cold air quickly replacing it, only to be heated up further by the Black Knight's inferno. Ami's hair whipped out about wildly in the wind as she closed the distance between herself and Scatha, meanwhile Scatha would find her wings assailed by those same winds that tore through the area. While it wasn't enough to throw her out of the air, it would certainly require some measure of attention to keep herself steady in midair.
Regardless of what happened, Ami would reach Scatha quickly. Her sword swung upwards from the left, looking to bisect the Magical Girl diagonally with all the force Ami could muster. Her smile couldn't possibly be any wider, this was the most fun she had had in months!
The massive influx of fire and ink was a lovely reminder to Touka why she hardly got involved. This was all getting too dramatic, too noisy, and overall too flashy for her to be dealing with. In both responses from her partner and Battoru-assuming the latter girl could finish her sentence-she gave a frown.
"Can I assume you're looking to fight me?" she called down to Maiko, the two staring at each other.
"Honestly, this is way too crowded and I didn't think this'd be drawn out for this long. But at least you're not causing a ruckus and trying to one-up the others," she mused further.
"I'm a little envious of that. Don't know if I can say the same for me...."As she said this, Touka's gaze flicked over to the now bathed in flames Black Knight. It was a good tactic because her instincts were correct. In every corner within the forest, barely seen in the snowfelt air were tiny, miniscule glints. Each one glared back at their observer, appearing just in the corner of one's vision. It wouldn't take either Scatha or the Black Knight very long to realize that their entire clearing was now filled with razor sharp wires, some more obvious than others while some were hidden by the dark lightning. And the Black Knight would find each one was quite resilient to fire; whether Scatha was going to complain about having to dodge these too had yet to be seen because Touka soon looked back down at Battoru.
"Ah." Looked like the Black Night intended on returning the favor. Instead of the graceful pivot she had planned on doing, Asura accepted her partner's aid regardless, the two clasping hands before the martial artist was tossed out of the way. Grabbing one branch, she tucked her feet in and twisted, launching herself back in the direction of Red Wire. Her feet skid against the snow, leaving dark trails, and she stood there. Behind her, ink and flame and shadow and ash raged, ruining the quiet of the wintry night. She reassumed her stance, her expression resigned.
"Yeah, Scatha's a pretty boring matchup for me," Maiko smiled,
"Can't really brawl with someone that slow, you know? Don't think the other team can keep up either, so..."She closed her eyes again, hearing the vibrations of those taut wires as the hot wind passed through them.
"...was hoping you'd be fast enough to be fun, Touka. Let's keep it clean, ok?"It wasn't teleportation this time. It was sheer speed, the dozen wires read in her mind's eye as Asura disappeared, leaving naught but a wisp in the snow. Using the tension of the wires as acceleration, Asura crossed the distance at a velocity faster than a human's eye could catch up and brought an axe kick down upon the scarlet wire-user.
