"Do jack from dragon fang, Lazarus from Phoenix Wingn, Zander from frenzy plant, Mark from Iorn Engima, rose from Phoenix wing, Pakuna from tough love, Soren from Pirate lord and Lucas from Riders hlade" Jessie shouted eagerly, "well done! And now we move towards the battles, something we have all been waiting for!"
Damian Vs Hyun battle one
All eyes were on the large screen, as names flickered over it, the teams below waiting to see who would be battling. Games Master Sheldon grinned, and twirled, and performed, before shouting out, "Damian, from Phoenix Wing Team B! And Hyun from Frenzy Plant! Get ready to RRRRUUUUUMMMMMBBBBBLLLLEEEE!" He ushered the teams from the grounds, leaving Damian and Hyun behind.
Damian regarded the person across from him as the rest of the teams, as well as his, were cleared away from the field. Smiling to himself, he turns to face the oriental woman in front of him. She wielded two swords and wore traditional oriental clothing. It seemed the clothing would give her optimal movement but at a sacrifice of most forms of protection short of her blades and her magic, whatever it was. This will be interesting. Been awhile since I crossed swords with someone versed in swordplay. With a nod to himself as he finalized an approach, he focused on his opponent and summoned his Ares Blades. "This is the first time in a long time I've crossed blades with someone. May the best swordsman take the victory."
While Damian observed and spoke, his opponent scrutinized him as well. Her sharp eyes swept over every line on his face and contour in his armor, filling in the abstract, glorified tales she'd heard of this legendary swordsman with the living, breathing being that they represented. She felt some trepidation, certainly. Only a fool banished all fear from her mind. A person could not run faster than possible, strike harder than possible, and utterly triumph without he most basic impetus of fear. When the man began to speak, Hyun listened, but her eyes were done with his body. They drifted over the sea of spectating faces, taking in the throng of humanity while Damian said his piece. Once he finished, a moment passed before she spoke. Her voice was quiet, but bore an immense weight, and the colosseum's magical amplification made sure all heard those words.
"Do you hear them, Blade?"
It was a simple question, but its strangeness made it complicated. How could Damian not hear them? How could anyone on Fiore not hear them, they were so loud. Hyun continued, "No...I'm not talking about the ones you can see, not really. Thousands of eyes, thousands of ears, thousands of voices. Not just those in Fiore. The first Games in a long time draw the eyes even of those in other lands. In Seven, where I was born, they watch me...the queen deposed." Hyun turned back to her opponent, and looked him in the eye. No grimace passed her face, and her eyebrows barely tightened, but all the same her expression was fierce. "I was defeated and cast from my homeland, from my throne. I found solace in a bottle, and then in a guild that appreciated my skills. These are games for some, but for me, they are very real. If I can defeat one of the most celebrated swordsmen on Fiore, my reputation will be reignited, and the path back toward my throne...revealed."
Damian listened to Hyun speak, taking the time to note her high sense of self worth even before she started in on her life as an queen in exile from the land of Seven. He himself had heard stories in his travels after leaving the Royal Army behind, of a land where wars were waged but lives were spared and that the nobility was civil with each other and it was at their behest that the wars were waged. Being a man who'd lived war from a young age, he didn't believe in a land where you could fight a war and not watch the life drain from the eyes of a man spitted on your blade. Still, she was from this land, so maybe it was true, but he'd save questions for another time.
As she drew her katanas, Damian slid into a ready stance as she tossed the scabbards aside, waiting for the inevitable charge. Already his blood rushed through his veins as the adrenaline surged into it, his body sliding into a position that was more muscle memory and instinct than actual thought.
She drew her twin blades slowly, very ceremoniously, and threw the scabbards to the ground. "I am not telling you this so that you may pity me. I am not telling you this so that you might let me win. I am telling you...so that you know why it is that you must lose. It is that I aspire..."
"To a greater purpose."
Hyun forcefully brought her katanas together with an echoing clang. As their edges slid across another, they created a shower of sparks, most of them orange but one of them white. This spark flew across the open ground and touched Damian, a minuscule pinpoint of warmth, but one that prefaced the disappearance of his magical Ares Blades from his hands, leaving him with only Durandal.
Damian raised an eyebrow and opened his mouth to snap a reply but didn't get a chance as the woman brought her blades together, a little hard if anyone asked him. The edges slid across each other and sent off sparks, a normal thing for two blades, but one of them stood out from the rest, a white one that zipped at him. Instinct took over and he rolled to the right, intending to avoid the spark, but to no avail. As he came up from his roll, he found that the spark had caused his Ares Blades to vanish. Tch, I bet this is exactly what I think it is.
Sliding back into his stance, he tried to resummon the blades, but nothing happened. Just to be sure, he attempted to summon a Blade Rain, with no result. With a sigh followed by a light chuckle, Damian stood up straight. "So, you hope to reattain your throne, huh? Well, that's all great and good, but what about the bonds you've made with the other members of Frenzy Plant? Are they just a means to an end?" Damian reached a hand up and rested it on Durandal's hilt, but not yet pulling it free.
To this, Hyun made no reply. There were no words that would distract her from her goal. She had indeed, grown very fond of Frenzy Plant and her allies there. There was a time when she'd have thought them as nothing more than tools, but that time had passed. Now, however, was not the time to tell that tale. Her dark eyes lay, just as Damian's hand, on the hilt of his greatsword.
"Well, I guess that's a bit irrelevant. But those eyes, ears, and voices you hear? Learn to tune them out on the battle field. You see, I grew up in war, real war, not that prissy shit you do in Seven that's as good as a friendly competition. I grew up where when you saw the enemy charging you across the field of battle, you made damn sure that he was dying for his country so you didn't need to. I also didn't grow up using magic like I'm sure you probably think I did. I've only had it eight years and it's not something I prefer to use a lot. Our individual histories aside, you know what the first rule of war was that I learned, at just six years old? Keep your focus on the fight."
Hyun readied herself. The time had come. If this man thought that not taking the lives of fellow countrymen made her weak, so be it. He might underestimate her.
Even without magic, Damian moved incredibly fast, the large sword that had just a moment before been sheathed free and moving through the air. Damian had spent the last two months training more than his magic, he'd maintained the same martial training regimen that he'd used for the last eight years, though training in the mountains had allowed for new agility and reflex training that Magnolia couldn't offer. As he closed the distance, he feinted with a slash from the left before flipping over the Frenzy Plant mage and slicing low, intending to make her either leap up or dance back. He followed the low slice up with a rising slash aimed to rend the woman from hip to shoulder. Having finished this series of attacks, he back flipped away, landing and bringing Durandal up into a guarded position.
From his position, he could see that his fusillade of attacks hadn't served him as well as he might have hoped. With two blades, Hyun had been able to set aside one for the faint, wait for his needless acrobatic display to end, and block the ankle cutter with a vertical katana. At that point her other sword had been fully available for action, and it had served her well by providing a surface for Durandal to slide along and away from her body. The former queen of Seven was thirty-six years of age; she'd been pushing herself to her limits and beyond well before Damian was in diapers. Even in exile, she'd never stopped improving, fixated upon her obsession. More often than not, those fights had been against men, bigger and stronger than her, and often using larger weapons. A greatsword, even one that looked suspiciously like dragonbone, did not impress her.
As Damian was wasting time flipping, Hyun was moving. She dashed, low to the ground, to where he was going to land. The instant that he brought Durandal into a defensive position, he was called upon to use it. Using her right katana, she pushed the greatsword toward his body. If he didn't push back, he wouldn't have enough room to use it as anything more than a shield, and if he did, he'd be concentrating all his force in a single direction. The other katana swooped in from below, aimed at the side of Damian's knee to cut down his mobility.
Damian made a mental note to maybe bring his own twin blades next time, though he'd left the pair of cutlasses sitting back in his room in the guild hall. She was fast and took advantage of her ability to attack from two directions to his one and slammed one katana against Durandal's edge, trying to force it against him, while bring her other around for a strike at his knee. In this moment, time seemed to slow down for him as he considered all his options. Alright, if I try to push my way out of this blade lock, I leave myself exposed to her second blade. If I try to stop the second blade with my hand, that gives her leverage. But it's gotta go if we're going to be fighting on equal terms. So, let's try something.
Letting go of Durandal's hilt with his free left hand, and it was fortunate that he was both right hand dominant and able to wield most swords single handed, he caught the second blade while dropping to one knee. Doing his best to shift his grip around on the hilt of her blade, he did a quick twisting motion, using Durandal to leverage the katana locked against it towards the ground as he came back up to stand up once more with her arms crossed and their blades effectively locked downwards. With a grunt, he twisted the arm he was holding on to, giving her two options, let go of the sword and not have any broken bones or earn a broken wrist and let go of it anyways.
A small, frustrated noise escaped from Hyun's throat. Evidently, the Blade of Phoenix Wing preferred to use his hands. No matter. It had been a mistake to try and deprive her of one sword while only trying to push the other toward the ground. Hyun withdrew her right-hand katana from Durandal, leaving it in an awkward one-handed position, and executed a forward flip, using Damian's grip on her hand in part to keep her from falling down. Her left-hand katana flew into the air, thrown to keep her wrist supple for a second longer. When she landed, it was Damian's arm that was twisted, and hers that was straight. She spun away from him, yanking her wrist from his strenuous clutch and simultaneously bringing her right foot around to kick off the flat surface Durandal's side offered. Her backward leap put her a meter away from Damian and her left-hand katana -Kwang Gae- fell blade-first into the ground. In a fluid motion, she spun halfway around, drawing Kwang Gae, and returned to her stance.
Well that didn't work. Damian did his best to keep up with the oriental woman, but his entire strategy backfired, starting with when she moved the katana locked with Durandal and making him shift his right hand into a weird position to keep his grip. When she flipped forward, she forced him to follow and he ended up in the opposite position of what he had intended as she threw her other katana up into the air. Well, I take that back, it sorta-crap. He cursed to himself as she spun and pulled her wrist free before kicking off of Durandal which caused Damian to stumble a bit. He brought the weapon up into another guard position as she drew her other sword from the ground and sighed. Back to square one.
"Hm." The beggar queen began to spin as she jumped forward, bringing down one katana and then the other in an overhead, then diagonal slash. Her blades shone in the morning sunlight, but her face was drawn with stress.
Damian moved quickly, side stepping the over head slash and the bringing his own sword up to deflect the diagnal slash off to his right. Sliding a couple inches from the impact, Damian countered with a series of thrusts and slashes as he got in close again before bringing Durandal down in his own diagnal slash aimed once more to slice from shoulder to hip. As he came back from that, he spun a full 360 degrees to give his next blow, a powerful overhead slice, more force as he brought it down towards Hyun.
Seeing that her double attack had been cut off, Hyun moved to defend herself, but not quickly enough. She gritted her teeth as Durandal's arc sheared through her sleeve and nicked her skin before she could steer it away with Chon Ji, the right-hand katana. The wound burned on contact with the air, more than it should have been--a byproduct of the blade's material, perhaps? As Damian span, she landed and made a quick cut at his undefended knee, before hopping back. She backpedal swiftly, moving out of Durandal's range and a blow that could have split her skull. Instead, it bit into the hard-packed sand, and Hyun jumped. She leaped over Durandal, using the weight of her katanas to give her a backward spin, and endeavor to connect her heel to Damian's chin and possibly even knock him out if he didn't leaned back. Still, the kick-flip brought a slight cheer from the crowd for its style, and as Hyun landed again she brought both swords vertically upward, targeting Damian's upper arms.
Damian afforded himself a small mental smile as the trade off of blows finally starting to show with a clipping blow to her left shoulder. he didn't get to enjoy it long as she caught him mid spin. The blow landed on his knee and he winced slightly. It wasn't a deep wound, but it stung, likely a little payback for the wound he gave her on her shoulder. He didn't know what inflicting a would with Durandal did, but he finally had real definitive proof that the edge would do it's job if ever needed. As the sword impacted the ground, much to the woman's credit, she used it as a spring board to land a kick to his chin. "Oof!" Stumbling back, he tightened his grip on his sword and the momentum helped him pull it free. He couldn't understand it, but something about the blow got under his skin. So he decided to be a little reckless. He placed both hands on Durandal's hilt and put the sword behind him, waiting as she came in to strike again, letting the blows to his upper arms connect, though his leather and plate armor helped keep them from going too deep. Now!
Damian used his shoulder to knock her back and off balance, building a bit of momentum to go with the strike. He swung wide and then up, bringing Durandal up and then down towards Hyun. As she brought up her twin katanas to block the blow, he turns the flat of the blade towards her instead, battering through her defenses and landing on her head, stunning her. Pivoting on his left foot, he balled his fist up and slammed it into her chest, sending her flying back towards the wall of the arena.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------^you^
Though the sand was hard-packed, it flew nonetheless when Hyun tumbled into it, a good half-dozen meters from her opponent. She slid along the ground, sputtering, until she sagged to a stop. It was a few seconds before she rolled over into her front and pushed herself to her knees. She stuck Chon Ji into the ground and leaned against it, breathing heavily. "I..." she coughed unsteadily, and composed herself. Her breathing normalized somewhat as she murmured, "I will not allow myself to be broken and cast out into the gutters to drown in a wineglass. Not a second time." As she regained her feet to the applause of the spectating Frenzy Plant soldiers, it was clear that her emotional restraint had lessened somewhat. Anger and fear had found their way onto her features, but they paled in comparison to a more brilliant spark: a desperate determination. "Until my arms and legs are as heavy as stone...and my mind crumbles for want of resolution...and this sand is red with every drop of my blood...I will fight with everything I have. I cannot let my legacy end here, Blade. You're a most worthy opponent, but I must defeat you. Round one was yours, but the final round remains. Mundane Spark!" Another white spark splashed against Damian; Hyun was ready to begin again.
Damian didn't try to dodge the spark this time, already aware of what it was. As she took her ready stance, he took one as well, sliding into a stance that put a little more weight on his rear leg and Durandal poised tip first towards Hyun. Seeing she had nothing else to say, he didn't wait, once more lunging forward to close the distance with the dual katana user and bringing his large blade to bear with a horizontal cut aimed at her waist. As he'd expected, she avoided the blow by moving back out of it's range. He blocked an overhead attack with the armor plates on his forearm, pushing the two swords back and bringing his own back around and clashing with both blades against his one. The exchange was brief and Damian slid back from it, reaffirming his grip on his sword's hilt before dashing forward again. He uses it to knock aside the twin katana's and then attacks in a quick series of thrusts, slashes, kicks, and punches, even throwing in a couple of pommel strikes to keep her on her toes.
Though her self-restraint had been shaken, Hyun remained very much in control of her technique. Rather than attempt to resist the torque imparted to her by Damian's initial pushblock, she allowed the momentum to move her around in a pirouette until she stood in her initial position once more. The next few moments were hectic and dangerous, but Hyun kept pace with Damian. Both warriors had been fighting from early ages, and what advantage the beggar queen could boast in experience, the Blade of Phoenix Wing could counter with youth, size, and strength. The two engaged in a delicate, lethal dance back and forth, blocking thrusts and counterattacking, answering slashes with two, and lashing out with her own extremities when moments presented themselves, though she did not deign to stray from swordsmanship as much as her opponent. In only a few short moment, both fighters gained a slew of new cuts and bruises, but nothing so debilitating as to prevent further exchange.
Throwing one last punch, Damian backflips away and comes up ready once more, waiting on her to move again.
Hyun ducked beneath the wild fist, and seeing that Damian was stepping off, took a moment to steady her breathing. A lifetime of dedication to the warrior's path had instilled in her a remarkable endurance, but against this calibur of foe even that wouldn't hold out much longer. More than ever, the eyes of the spectators were boring into her, those in the colosseum and those far beyond. It was time to finish this.
Frenzy Plant's champion ki-yied, a ferocious spirit yell and battle cry, and moved in. She leaped into the air in a spiral, and began to spin horizontally. Her katanas sheared through the air around her, faster and more lethal than a magicopter's blades, and in a whirring cyclone of steel she descended at a slight angle toward her foe.
Damian watched as the oriental woman ascended into the air and then began spinning at incredible speeds before descending towards him. If he had to guess, this was her all in attack or something akin to it. He didn't know why, but rather than risk one of their blades be shorn by the resulting clash, he tried to put as much distance between him and the attack as possible. And in the end, it prevented his defeat then and there. Her twin katanas sliced through the steel plating that he'd added to the chest of his armor quickly and easily and the leather even more so, and he silently made note to used hardened leather next time. In addition to the now ruined armor, he winced as he could feel the blades leaving a number of shallow gashes along his chest. And then she stopped, her blades in a position that left her wide open, Damian grabbed his chance to secure the win.
Bringing the blunt side of Durandal to bear, he slammed it into Hyun's side, knocking her away from him and off balance from the unexpected attack. He then charged forward, but rather than follow it up with a slash of his blade, he sheathed the dragon's fang weapon and used his fists, delivering a quick series of punches to her chest and gut and finishing off with a round house kick to the side of the head. His opponent did not idly allow this to happen; she dodged and dipped as much as her growing fatigue would allow, and even maneuvered her blades into the paths of his strikes several times. The final kick, however, caught her by surprise and caused stars to blossom in her vision. As she stumbled again, he drew Durandal once more and brought the pommel up towards her chin, intending to knock the Oriental woman off her feet. Whether the blow connected or not, he got inches from her, his blade poised to strike again. "Do you yield?"
On her knees. Could there be any more humiliating or crushing a position for a monarch, particularly one deprived of her rightful rule, to be in? She appeared to fight for breath, chest heaving. Looking like that, it was hard to believe even for her allies that her defeat wasn't imminent.
A few moments later, however, of Phoenix Wingers' wild cheering, Hyun permitted herself a slight smile. "You must not have heard. A blade flashed upward, throwing Durandal off and forcing its wielder back. The entire time that Hyun had been writhing on the ground, she'd been working her way to her dropped katana; her breathing, though admittedly heavy, had been exaggerated to make Damian feel secure. The champion of the Sasithom clan rose to her feet. "I would sooner die than yield. Without this victory, I have nothing left to live for."
Damian slid a couple inches back and gave the merest shake of his head. He should have known she'd be too damn prideful. "We're both bruised and battered and worse for wear, but this is over, Hyun. There is no dishonor in admitting defeat." Still, he could see that she wasn't about to give in, so he moved forward again, sheathing Durandal as she attempted a dual scissor cut, which he slid in beneath. Off-balance and too tired to correct herself, Hyun was powerless to stop what came next. As he came to a stop, he slammed one open palm into her left armpit just beneath the the joint, dislodging her shoulder and making the connected arm useless, all while doing his best to ignore her agonized scream. Pivoting on his right knee, he grasps her other arm and throws his weight into a throw as he twisted the arm. The result put her on her back with a mighty thud. He took the momentary stun this provided to knock both her katanas out of her reach and then plant his butt on her gut.
Once he was sure she wouldn't be able to use her one good shoulder to get free, he pulled Durandal free once more and put the edge to her throat. "I ask again. Do. You. Yield?" She was in need of medical attention, the inherent traits of Durandal's owner still uncertain and she had several cuts from it. For all he knew, she could be dying and neither knew it.
Tears ran over Hyun's face, upside-down. If she heard Damian's voice or felt the impassionate sting of his dragonblade against her skin, she took no notice of them. "It's all...come crumbling...down." As the pain wracked her body like so many red-hot, twisting knives, her fading voice dropped to a whisper. "Don't...wake me up..."
And then nothing at all.
