[IC] [Ranked] 2 v 2 battle! Reapers Vs Champions; A Dance of Blades!

[GreivousKhan]

Tordor grimaced when his ally was sent flying to the far side of the room, but he trusted she was resilient enough to recover from such a blow. As the knight landed the gravewalker was passing a little over fourteen feet from the knights far left side placing him at the giants 7’o clock given the trajectory of the giants leap.

Ahead it seemed the second warrior appeared to be an elf, creatures Tordor was not unfamiliar with for their dying kingdom existed in his home plane. He’d never fought many before, but knew of their mastery of magic and their inherent nimbleness. Perhaps that truth remained for this one too? Time could only tell. Instead of immediately attempting to close the distance, however, she maneuvered behind a pillar, apparently in an attempt to block line of sight or take cover. Which was fine for Tordor, for he didn't need to have eyes on his target to see them when they came. The elf had no way of knowing of course about Tordor's ghostly visages tied to his own soul. All she accomplished was breaking line of sight for herself.

Tordor took that moment to slid to his left with his left leg as his freehand weaved another sign of the younger soul. At just seven feet with knees bent as his right shoulder and leg twisted around he turned into his apparent strike, Blood Drinker leading as he stepped into a false strike with his palm up so that the tip of the blade pointed down at an angle to his right. The path of the blade resembling a rough horizontal swing, aimed for the giants leg. Depending how quickly the giant recovered from his landing in order to shift to this new threat, Tordor would either aim for the back of his left thigh, or if he turned in time the right leg where the knights armored joints met.

Seemingly relying on the momentum of his swing along with the true edge of his blade. If the move went unmolested the swing had the strength to sunder through solid stone or rend steel, it’s effectiveness on the knights armor though were yet to be seen.

[MelonHead]

Judgement’s momentum carried him back to the ground after his successful strike launched his opponent into the far wall. He was showing considerable agility for one of his size, an advantage he often pressed in battle when one expected his movements to be cumbersome and slow. He was focused on eliminating the first of his enemies before dealing with the other, showing the single-minded determination of a focused warrior, relying on his ally to distract or even eliminate the other foe.

In regards to the second enemy, who was now strangely attempting to rush him and strike at his legs, a poor target at best, he somehow got past the huge sword in Judgement’s hands which was currently pointed off to his left and behind him after his initial swing. However, Judgement was unwilling to turn and face him, rather relying on his greater speed and momentum to outrun the strike, avoiding it simply by moving his entire body, including his legs, further forward than Tordor’s sword could reach. He was still pursuing the smaller enemy he had struck, with complete control over his momentum and movement still his there was nothing stopping Judgement reaching the stricken foe half a second after she slammed into the wall.

Could she stand before he delivering a killing blow? Inconclusive. Still, Judgement wanted to test her to the last, with no space left for her to flee backwards her method of escaping the slicing crescent of his great blade were limited at best. Coming from the opposite side this time he struck as she stood. his left foot forward and his body turned, his sword threatened low at waist height, the point of his blade potentially skimming the wall behind her such was the closeness of his strike. Judgement’s great strength gave the heavy blade a frightening swiftness, the Divine edge set to rend her fragile body in two.

[DJAtomika]

As she stood her opponent came running right in, leveling another sword swing at her waist, aiming to cut her straight in two.

However, though he was fast for a man his size, she was faster.

Reacting to the strike, she rose from the floor and immediately hopped into the air, tucking her legs in and letting the sword blade swing past right below her.

With swords out, she landed after his initial strike. The sword was away, and so were his hands. The big armoured fighter's legs were still a danger though.

Gathering her strength, she crouched and leaped in a split second, feinting a high leap but going low instead to get inside his guard. With a twist of her body to the left, she swung first her left sword then her right sword at the armour on his left side. Sei would most likely clang off harmlessly, or maybe scratch the plate armour, but Akuma's monomolecular blade was designed to cut through metal. The extent of the damage, she was not sure, but her attack was swift.

[ImportantNobody]

The man didn't reveal himself around the pillar, apparently ignoring her almost entirely, which was somewhat annoying to her but at the same time gave her a great opportunity to smite his evil behind to kingdom come. He double deserved it now. She didn't hold back much on speed as she skidded tightly around the right side of the pillar, spotting him slashing at her armored ally's leg, who continued charging forward with reckless abandon as if he wasn't getting attacked from behind either. Funny how these two men were similar in that regard.

She covered the remaining distance at a near 50 miles per hour, a mere blink of the eye, and swung her blade from right to left where the man's neck was once she got into range, hoping to behead him with a single slash. She didn't care much if she'd slam into him due to her shield easily taking the damage of such a collision and she'd end up on top of him with her melee weapon in hand while he'd be laying on his stomach unless he managed to turn around in time, putting him in a highly compromising position if he simply decided to duck her blade and got knocked down, especially if he wasn't prepared for her sudden "tackle" that would also add disorientation to the mix.

It would take longer for him to sidestep dodge her, which she wasn't sure he'd have time for after just completing his slash, now having to readjust his footing and momentum. If he had time to get his sword into another slash against her so soon after the previous then that would be her biggest problem, but he just got through with a heavy slash to try and damage her armored opponent. Surely the momentum of that swing would cost him some time in that regard. Besides, she'd have her shields to rely on to block a single attack before she'd be able to get her sword ready again and take a better stance to defend herself, the exact nature of which she couldn't tell until it she saw his moves.

If any. She was light on her feet and quick while he was seemingly focused on the armored guy. Perhaps he wouldn't even notice until it was too late, but it wasn't like she was relying on this to be the case in order to succeed.

[GreivousKhan]

As expected the giant’s leap had taken him beyond the reach of his own sword, but the true target of his strike had fallen for his faint. With the elf rushing toward him without hesitance. Perhaps he shouldn't be surprised his second attacker had not seen his maneuver for what it was. Eyes closed shut Tordor braced on his left foot as it came to a stop, it’s heel facing the direction of the giant while his right leg still faced the direction of the entrance his second opponent came from.

The elf rounded the pillar moving with impressive speed, moving in fact faster than natural human sight could hope to follow. So Tordor tapped into the preternatural awareness granted to him by his spirit companions and connection to the nether, the soul of the Drowned child the only forewarning he needed. Granting him an alertness unmatched by his mortal perception. With a simple twist of his wrist from palm up to around and down again as he rotated his shoulder, Tordor turned the inertia of his false strike into a powerful upward swing in a counterclockwise path. From right to left and up to the right again; skilled enough to know not to fight against the momentum of his own swing like many novices. Thus turning the faint into a real attack. The path of Blood Drinker would came up toward the elf's mons pubis and cut upward toward her left shoulder. Given her own momentum and speed it was unlikely she’d be able to avoid the blow before it hit. The impact strengthened further as Tordor flicked the trigger on his sword's hilt. Causing black fire to envelope the weapon. It’s aura drawing strength from the aether pulsing in the women's own magical armor.

Using the momentum of his same swing allowed him to deliver an even greater strike that could very will rip the elf in two. The only sound heard was a harsh whistle as Blood Drinker cut through the air. Tordors own blade effectively striking the elf at a range of roughly eight and a half feet, markedly outranging his opponent's own reach. Even so Tordor pushed off from his crouch as he weaved the last sign of power. Thus assuming the elf had any strength left in her swing after nearly being bisected, the cut would come around to the center of his chest length wise. All this in the time it took Judgment to finish his second swing against his ally.

[MelonHead]

His opponent was indeed fast, more agile than the giant in armour at any rate as his sword whistled under her jumping form. However, she kept sacrificing her formidable advantage with acrobatics that may have worried a less experienced warrior, but not Judgement. Her speed was limited now, limited to what gravity could provide in dragging her to the ground after she hopped clean over a mid-height sword slash. Judgement could exploit this.

Due to his sword being double edged, unlike those of his foe, he did not have to waste precious time reversing his sword on the return slash, stopping his sword’s momentum dead, he sent it back the way it came from right to left. His left leg came back somewhat as he did this so his right side could turn to add additional force instead. It didn’t look attractive, but it was brutally effective.

Now his nimble foe was forced with a dilemma, she would be caught just before she hit the ground with the edge of a Holy Greatsword cleaving through her waist and up through her abdomen at an angle, unless she was willing to finally contend the brute strength and defend herself with her swords.

[DJAtomika]

As Judgement's swing stopped and reversed direction, her jump was just finishing. As she landed, the huge sword came screaming in from her left, and she reacted by bringing up her swords, upward and downward to provide the most pushing resistance and blocking the blow in a loud, heavy crash of metal against metal.

The sheer force of it blew her backwards again, but she stayed upright as she skidded to the far end of the chamber, her boots skipping and digging into the stone as she steadied herself after the heavy hit, a hand to the floor as she slowed to a stop just ahead of one of the room's many statues. Her arms and hands were tingling from the ringing clash of swords, but she stood firm as she regained her footing and set back into her stance.

[ImportantNobody]

If it wasn't for her quick reactions provided to her by her elven heritage, Listia would have had little chance to avoid the swing that was sent her way so soon after his attack against her ally, meaning that the initial attack was likely a fake all along and she was his true target. Otherwise he'd have no chance of matching her speed, and even still he was just a tad slow with his timing, but just fast enough to be a major damper on her original plans. She could have traded death blows with him had she kept charging forward, getting into range before he could land his blow with his superior reach, but instinctively and with no time for decision making, she went for another option that could allow her to come out on top without sacrificing her own life so easily.

She pushed off with her left leg to adjust her path forcefully to the right, his left (while still going forward as well thanks to her previous momentum), away from the direction his sword was incoming, but this alone wouldn't be enough to avoid him in time. She had no choice but to twist her body sideways to the left as she did so, causing the blade to no longer be between her legs but instead off to the left of her rotating hip which soon turned to the front, the flame scorching her magical armor but not destroying it thanks to not directly impact. Basically, she was now moving through the air with her feet only slightly above the ground, her body parallel to the side of the sword rather than perpendicular.

She would very quickly fly past him to the left, far too quickly for her to take advantage of any opening but also likely too quickly for him to do anything to her either. If he did try to stop her then he'd have to get whatever body part he used slammed against her, which wouldn't be very good for him or easy to stop her regardless of such efforts. Only a few feet after passing by him she would land with her right foot facing sideways, crumpling her leg underneath her and send her tumbling sideways until she came to a rough stop around six feet behind her armored ally's position.

Eyes flicking between both opponents, she would scramble to her feet and decide the best course of action.

[GreivousKhan]

Tordor watched as his opponent sailed by him just avoiding his strike. In a heartbeat Tordor’s eyes met his opponents as if time itself halted without warning. A moment later his opponent had bypassed him moving to his left directly in front of him. It was then he unleashed the power of the spirit of youth and time. The raw energy sweeping through him granting him new vitality. It seemed he was going to need it against this adversary.

“Time alter: Triple accel!”

Suddenly time seemed to slow as Tordor’s perception and agility accelerated exponentially. As his opponent came in for her landing seven or so feet behind him, Tordor spun his blade palm up and turned to the left sharply. Shifting his left foot so it slid out to the left and bracing himself on his right leg he redirected his attention back to the left again. Now a blur of movement Tordor gripped his blade in two hands as he came in while his opponent recovered from their landing. His left hand taking hold of the blades fulcrum to allow even greater control and strength behind his strikes.

He swept the blade in from his right, aiming for his opponent's torso on their left side right above the hip. Should his opponent send her weapon into parry or contest the blow, Tordor prepared to quickly flow into another strike or guard. His accelerated agility now granting him the advantage in both reach and speed over his opponent. Should the attack hit, the wash of black flames would grow in strength as they fed off the energy in his opponent's shield. In all likelihood cutting through her defences.

[MelonHead]

Impressive, only one in ten warriors survived to this stage when facing Judgement, flawlessly adapting to his immense strength and surprising agility and even parrying his sword while remaining standing. It seemed he had a real fight on his hands, and with a brief moment of respite was able to note that his ally had also engaged another figure in a clash of swords. He had of course turned to face his foe’s new position off to his left, still close to the wall with a statue behind them and a window off to their left side. With his ally’s new position, strangely, the battle had moved so that his force held the side of the room with the staircase, with the opposition on the other side. Though Judgement was a more significant distance from his own opponent, not currently engaged.

Still, the distance favoured the gargantuan warrior and his far-reaching weapon. Noting that his opponent was somewhat constrained on her left, with the statue and the wall blocking further passage, he took one step forward and diagonal to his left and then approached, sword remaining in its previous grip at his left side in the guard of the same name. It took Judgement perhaps two of his gargantuan steps to cover the fifteen feet or so between them, cutting it down to eight feet, more than sufficient range for his weapon. He decided to see how his opponent dealt with him switching up his style.

At range, he brought his sword across and then slashed horizontally at a diangol from the left at his foe, aiming to cleave through the middle of her torso. However, as he committed to the move he released the sword with his left hand essentially finishing the strike one handed with no significant change in the power or speed of his blow. The sudden usage of his huge blade in one hand would no doubt be a surprise, but it would also provide him with a sudden burst of additional reach, as he then drew the blade down. The end result was a simple horizontal strike transitioning into something that covered a speedy low approach from his foe, while also cutting off an easy retreat, and overall threatening them with potentially being cut in half.

[DJAtomika]

Now that she had distance, Itsuki could at least have some form of advantage against her foe. He was huge, extremely fast but still huge. She could use his ponderous bulk against him if she could figure out how.

The hulk took a step forward, then another, then readied his sword and chopped it straight across horizontally. Though he aimed low since he was so tall, it still left her with a lot of leeway to dodge.

As the sword hurtled in from her right (his left), she made her move. Before the blade reached her, she ducked down low, bracing her hands on the floor as she took a single step forward and lowered her entire body into a pounce-like position, extremely low against the floor as the sword soared right over her.

What she didn't expect was the sudden downward shift as the blade passed over her. The huge sword suddenly chopped down towards the floor and she yelped and pulled her left arm and leg out of the way as the sword passed her by. The wind from such a powerful hit messed her hair up, and as she regained her posture, she made her move.

While the huge hulk was suddenly one-handed, she had to be careful of his other arm now being absolutely free. If she jumped, he could grab her (and probably would from how big those mitts were), and if she kept her distance he could punch her or something.

Her wakizashi in her left hand, it took but a moment to switch her grip from a forehand to a backhand grip. In her pounce posture, she sprung forward and to the left, inside the great warrior's range as she veered towards his sword arm. With both her swords, she performed a sort of X-shaped chop right at his shoulder. Her katana would come down from a diagonal, her high right and end up down left, while her wakizashi would go the opposite way, its blade starting from low left and end high right.

[ImportantNobody]

Lisitia quickly swung her hands, clutching onto the handle of her weapon, upwards and to the left in an arc motion, angling the mostly horizontal blade slightly downwards to clash into her opponent's just in the nick of time, her reactions swift enough to allow this much but she could tell that he had gotten a lot quicker with this latest strike, spelling trouble for her if her body couldn't quite keep up with the attacks to come should they keep up with this intensity. Because of this she didn't want to stay on the defensive where she could be worn down and defeated. She needed to counterattack, and fast, to have the best chance of success, especially with her 30 seconds of battle time with her shield not lasting for too much longer, all things considered.

She charged forward with max acceleration, sliding her blade along the inside edge of his as she went. If she managed to close the remaining gap she would joust the tip of her blade forward, coming from the left and angled to the right toward's his groin. He wasn't getting away with his own groin attack attempt without expecting one used against him as well. Besides, with the angle of her blade and the height she was locked in with his, she couldn't really aim higher. This was the best target she had to debilitate him quickly. She hoped her shield would hold up to any attacks sent her way as she closed in.

[GreivousKhan]

His opponent met his own strike with one of their own. Tordor felt the vibration of the blow travel up his arm, his own sword giving just slightly to absorb the majority of the impact. Suddenly the elf pushed down on his sword unintentionally as she slid her blade up his own as she bolted forward. Tordor didn't waste a moment, gripping the fulcrum of his sword firmly he used it as a lever; pushing it forward as his right hand went back while he simultaneously charged forward as well.

Thus sending his sword to point at an angle slightly down and the right of him. Thus forcing his opponent’s sword to the right side with his own blade between it and him. Smoothly transitioning into a straightforward pommel strike aimed at his opponent's throat. Both were now too close to effectively use either of their blades, but Tordor knew that every part of a sword was a weapon. A fact that his opponent was going to learn the hard way.

Thanks to the fact the elf had pushed her sword against his in an attempt to slide along it, this simple manoeuvre would be almost impossible to avoid. As she wouldn't be able to pull her sword back around in time to defend herself. Given that both were moving toward each other at frightening speed, there was nowhere for her to go to avoid his pommel strike. The kinetic impact of his accelerated speed combined with her own forward momentum would grant the blow the kind of power to cause catastrophic damage. Whether or not her shield would be enough to save her was yet to be seen.

[MelonHead]

Judgement knew the strike was coming, there was naught he could do when his nimble foe got past his guard and his sword was on the wrong side to protect him. However, he had one last option; open only to someone with a complete faith in their armour’s ability to protect them. In conflict with swords there is actually a fair amount of difficulty involved in avoiding harm while dealing a strike if your opponent neglects their own defence. As Judgement could quite easily neglect his defence and leave it to his armour alone, he hastened to the bring his blade back into play, bringing his gauntleted left hand round to rest two feet down the blade. He was effectively half-swording as he swung around, simultaneous dragging his left shoulder away from the incoming strike, her blades cleaving grooves along the edge but finding poor purchase in a simple slash at the metal. If there was more meat behind her target the result might have been far different, and now Judgement’s strike was coming in as a return.

He thrust his sword spear-like at his enemy’s mid-section, rushing to meet her as she made her own strike. If his attack came in through her side or front would depend on if she fled backwards in time or not.

[DJAtomika]

Itsuki saw the move as it happened; the giant yellow armoured man drew his shoulder forward and his underarm away from her strike. Her swords dragged themselves across his armour, Akuma leaving a groove in the metal as sparks flew as her strike was deflected. Then the giant drew back, grabbed his sword by the blade and thrust it at her like a spear. It was long enough to give him lots of space to avoid whatever she might've thrown at him.

But she had a semblance of a plan.

From her initial strike, left arm crossed high and right over her right, which was down low and left, she brought her right arm back towards her right, bringing Akuma's blade across her body as the broadsword's blade drew close. Another clash of metal echoed in the chamber as katana met broadsword, and even though she wasn't as strong as he was, his forward momentum was easily shifted into sideways momentum as she parried his stab, taking a step backwards to avoid any more forward movement.

That was part one.

Part two involved her left arm and Sei. With the giant's left hand gripped tightly onto his blade, he left his whole left side open. She knew Sei's blade wasn't as sharp, but she had confidence that her strike would find some sort of chink or open seam. The wakizashi still in a backhand grip, she drew her hand backward, close to her face. Then she took a step forward and to the left, avoiding the broadsword's blade as it stabbed by, and returned the stab, driving Sei straight towards Judgement's side with all her strength.

[ImportantNobody]

The force placed on her blade as it slide across his shifted off to the side as the enemy's point turned away, sending the hilt of the weapon forward in a blur of movement. Listia tried dodging the moment she was able, but it all happened so fast that the attack still managed to strike her on the left side of her neck as she tried jerking her head off to the right. On the bright side this stopped him from crushing her windpipe head on, resulting in more of a glancing blow instead, but she did not escape unscathed. Her magical shield was destroyed and a nasty bruise formed on the point of impact as a result of the remaining force that got through, which was still incredibly painful although luckily was not able to penetrate into her body to reach the major blood vessels. Had it been a sword point it would have spelled the end of her, but she had no time to count her blessings.

The blunt force directed on one side of her sent her spinning counterclockwise for one full rotation while still moving forward and to the right of her opponent, this spin naturally breaking her sword out of the lock and trailing behind her with her extended left arm the only one maintaining her grip, the right hand forced away. Her right foot had been spinning on it's heel for a brief moment, the one which she had happened to have been stepping with upon the moment of impact, while her left slammed down to try and stop her spin about halfway through, bending the foot inward at the ankle from the force. Her right leg swung around and took a large step forward at the end of the spin when she was yet again facing the direction she had started in, only she was almost directing behind and to the left of her opponent, from his perspective unless he had moved during this short blip in time.

She grimaced in pain but couldn't let that stop her from delivering justice. As long as she still lived he would not get away with such acts! Her right foot had planted down firmly but she still had a fair bit of momentum going. Risking her falling down, she twisted her hips to continue rotating in the same direction she had been sent, her right hand balled up into a fist to clock him on the back of his head. She would have rather used her sword but it was still rotating away from him in her left hand, so she would first have to get ride of all this momentum before bringing her sword back into play.

[GreivousKhan]

As the elven women mysteriously spun about in place, this allowed Torder to brush past her as she tried to regain her footing. He was not really sure how this woman had suddenly turned in place in such an awkward fashion yet still seemed mostly unharmed, perhaps her shield had really made itself useful, but he was not about to lose this chance to end this. His right foot landed and allowed him to brace himself as he draw his left leg back and around, allowing him to turn his body about. Using his accelerated speed to his advantage to follow the turn of his opponent, only without the lack of balance.

So by the time his opponent had regained her footing Tordor was ready. As the elf suddenly sent a desperate punch in his direction he made no move to avoid it. The blow would strike the left side of his face and twist it slightly to one side. However, the gravewalker was happy enough to trade that blow for his own strike. Using the sudden shift of his momentum from his spin to cut toward his opponents exposed throat, given the alignment from earlier the path of his sword was just right. Pulling his left hand back as his right pushed forward further up the swords grip. Thus allowing the fuller part of his sword below the edge to threaten to cut open the woman's throat in one blow. Unholy black fire still enveloping the sword all the while.

Given her awkward position and distance, she would have one hell of a time getting a sword up in time. Dodging would be another feat all together as she was in the middle of throwing a punch. He hated the very idea but, his opponent had given him no choice but, to use deadly force if he was to get to his ally in time.

[MelonHead]

Judgement’s purpose was simple, to carry out his God’s will. Such singleness of purpose was a dangerous force when imbued in heavy armour and equipped with a huge sword of Divine origin. However, even without those things Judgement’s complete devotion to a task would still make him a force to be feared, as his foe was to find to her chagrin. Half swording allowed Judgement to wield his weapon like a spear, and because of this his sword also took on a spear’s advantages. Namely, that the point could be moved at an advanced speed to menace a foe from different angles. It was this that made the spear a weapon that in most cases outclassed the sword.

As his point was driven away he quickly re-gained control of the weapon and returned it to menace his foe, but this time she was committed to the attack, and her sword could not hope to outmatch the speed of his own a second time. Her own strike hit home, but to his estimation his own was just as sure a strike, and when he thrust that great blade through her breast it would be a small matter to impale her utterly and tear her asunder, before her own blade could cut into his skin and spill his own blood.