[IC] ImportantNobody vs. LeeRoy NoW Rnd 1

[LeeRoy]

Seek and Destroy.

To merely think of battle and be transported to the battleground, what a novel concept. If Shin were a bit more insubordinate, he would have questioned why his god didn't utilize such a technique to displace him to various targets of questionable motive. Though he isn't, and he entirely respects his god's decisions. These are just musings.

It was almost immediately after the announcement that Shin was teleported to his field of battle, a small wasteland that reminded him of home. This might actually be his home, and in fact, he was concerned that he had been transported back home for coming off too maniacal. It wasn't until he spotted a small wooden shack that was far too different from his temple that he found relief from this concern.

It was a rather nice day, comfortable temperature with a delightful breeze. Nothing like a nice sunny day for killing, eh? The Assassin reached into his coat pocket, searching for his Black Staff. A hot wave of embarrassment flushed over him as the realization struck. "I left it back at the island." The ashamed assassin patted himself down, trying to find any sort of weapon on himself. Fortunately, he had left the Kusarigama hooked to his waist. A reliable tool, though nowhere near as reliable as his weapon of choice. It would serve the purpose of dispatching his unfortunate first foe.

Now, in the distance he could spy a tower of stone. Likely where the battle was intended to take place, so Shin withdrew the weapon from his hip and pulled the chain free. Letting the blade dangle slightly to his side, it swung back and forth like a pendulum.

The road lead down to the tower and away from the house. Wherever he was supposed to go, it was likely this direction.

[ImportantNobody]

Upon desiring for the battle to start, wasting little time in this endeavor, she found herself in a new location; a seemingly abandoned hick town, if it could even qualify as such. Trees obscured most of her vision, but there was a dirt road at her feet and a rooftop peaking over the small trees and shrubbery a little distance away, which the dirt path would logically lead to. She grew up in a large, overpopulated city for most of her life, so had only just recently been within landscapes such as this upon abandoning her home world due to a lack of interest remaining there. Well...this landscape held even less interest to her, but at least her opponent should put up a good fight, given the high quality of the combatants that appeared to be taking part in all of this.

For now she didn't see him due to her obscured vision, so she carefully surveyed what she could of her surroundings to get an even better feel for them. Entering the tower could give her an advantage over gun users, should one show up, and she could make use of her diamond abilities very effectively in tight corridors where they couldn't evade her easily. Very few match-ups would make entering the tower unsatisfactory to her, but her opponent could surprise her. She admittedly lacked experience when it came to fighting outsiders.

For now she played it safe, moving towards the entryway on it's left side about three feet away. From there she continued to be on the lookout for any movement, hoping to spot them first so that she could perhaps gleam their combat abilities to better prepare for should she decide to rush inside or not.

As she waited a small gust of wind blew at her hair, causing strands to get in front of her face that she brushed aside with her left hand. Long hair had it's disadvantages, although she didn't care enough to bother cutting it. Plus, nobody had managed to take advantage of this allowed weakness yet anyways, the same going for her lack of armor. Her abilities were her armor, and should they wish to get up close and personal to mess with her hair, she'd welcome them to try.

[LeeRoy]

It was an unnerving sight seeing an armed man trot so merrily down a dirt road, far too cheery for such an occasion, Shin was honestly excited for his first encounter of this tournament.

Now, he knew of some sort of reward, and obviously there was some deeper meaning behind all of this. However, Shin couldn't be fucked to care about this personal war of the one known as Skallagrim. In the initial hallway, Shin had overheard something about some dark entity known as Ghoukas. Sounded like something real big and important, consuming worlds and what not. There was an entity that served no god or master that Shin had met before that consumed worlds as well, and his fight with that being didn't end too well.

Involving himself in their war was not any of his business, and Shin had no intention of helping either side. Yes, Shin was here to kill and prove his worth to higher entities, and be damned the consequences.

Now, back to his jaunty little stroll along the dirt road. With such a nice calm breeze and great temperature, it was almost too good of a day for the maniac. Slowly but surely he made his way to the stone tower, just before he made it around the bend he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a woman who had positioned herself by the entrance, she hadn't seemed to see him yet. Her hair was in her face, so there was a slight inconvenience for her. It put him in a good position as he backed away behind a tree.

Behind the tree, he peeked around to see what she would do next, making sure to conceal most of his form behind the oak. There wasn't too much about her that was impressive, in fact, she didn't even seem armed. Martial artist? How well trained? Not like it matters, but these questions are actually pretty important.

Shin opted on waiting to see what she did, whether she was going to head inside or continue waiting outside.

[ImportantNobody]

So the opponent was playing the waiting game, huh? Or perhaps the area was just too large or her opponent too stupid to find her after this length of time. Whatever the case may be, this was beginning to wear her patience thin, and God knows she didn't have much to begin with. Holding her right hand up into the air, she focused inward upon the ki coursing through her body up into her arm, the natural energy found in living things that her people had learned to use to manipulate their bodies in certain, amazing ways. In her case...

Diamond began to form out of her palm, sparkling majestically in the sunlight as it extended upwards into a sharp, pointy chunk that began to look more and more like the blade of a longsword as time went on, but she didn't need too much time in order to complete an object the size of a sword 35 inches long, which would only take slightly over three seconds, handle and all, to complete. Due to it's basic shape and familiarity through tons of practice, it hardly took an effort to make it that shape, thus not needing any extra time concentrating on it's form. She had control over her sword the exact same way as her body as long as it remained attached to her, so should they assume she created just an ordinary sword made out of ordinary diamond then they'd be sadly mistaken...if they ever even bothered to show their face!

If she was interrupted during her sword making process, which would be hard to do before she got it completed given the short length of time it took and the distance they'd have to travel to reach her, if she realized it was a threat where she'd need the sword completed in time to resolve then she would retreat backwards into the tower to buy her all the time that she'd need. Otherwise she would stand her ground where she was until it was complete. Afterwards she'd issue the challenge in a calm, effortless sounding yell, "Well now, do you plan on making me forfeit out of boredom or do you have some other plan? Or are you a simple coward?"

If he still didn't show himself after all of this, intentionally at that moment due to there being no way he wouldn't hear her unless he was also deaf or long gone, she'd have no choice but to come up with another plan. He could still have a gun and snipe her if she got too careless. She didn't mind some carelessness if it meant for an interesting fight, or at least starting the fight, but that was too big of a risk at the moment. In the meantime, through all of this, she was still scanning her surroundings intently for any hint of his presence.

[LeeRoy]

With a simple display of power this woman had proven herself worthy of a warrior's death. With a mere movement of her hands she had begun to form a crystalline blade, no ability that he had seen in the past compared. The pure application of being able to manipulate and generate crystal? Literally limitless.

If this one was anywhere near as competent as he was, she would be a terrifying target for him to attempt to eliminate. As it stands, his knowledge of her ability was rather limited.

From cover he emerged, letting the heavy ball of metal drop to the ground as he did so. Shin began walking towards Ruchette at a slow pace, his singular bloodshot eye darting across her visage. The pupil narrowing and expanding repeatedly as he glared at every square inch of her body, attempting to make out anything that he can about her. Maybe a leg that she favored? An arm that she kept behind her back? Her hair was already a clumsy battlefield mistake, keeping your hair cropped tightly is the only smart decision.

With every step that he took towards her he was intentionally kicking the metal weight, giving it a bit of prepared angular momentum. Should she go on the offensive immediately, he'd be prepared. Like a smart man, he also realized that not everyone is a barbaric madman who'll charge into battle at the drop of a hat. Calculating individuals exist too, he was living proof of it.

The distance between them slowly drew shorter and shorter, Shin only barely needed to raise his voice to speak to her. Never stopping his stride or casual kicks of the metal weight as he spoke. "Hello, warrior. I am to presume that you are my first foe? Seeing as there is not a soul aside from us two." Even with the most forced sincerity, a distinct tone of disgusting sadism wrapped around his words. Only thinly veiled by a pleasant tone and cheery pop in his words. "I must admit, I didn't expect to be matched against a woman."

[ImportantNobody]

So the man revealed himself rather than attempting a surprise attack. At least he had some balls. Or rather a giant metal ball that he was clearly threatening to use as a weapon should she advance into his range. Thanks to her ki her diamond could withstand blunt force impacts far better than normal diamond could, which would fracture instantly despite its very high level of hardness, but heavy impacts was still the best option to break through her enhanced diamond defenses. She'd have to be careful in blocking with a diamond sword of the thickness that she had created unless he was only of normal human strength, but she couldn't count on that until she had more information. That should be her first priority against a strange new opponent. She could tell he would agree with her based on the way his unusual eye was searching over her entire body.

She showed no signs of discomfort over this, only shifting her weight nonchalantly onto her right leg, her left leg bent slightly, and her sword, now firmly in her grasp, was lowered to point towards his chest. The first reason this was no big deal was that it was a battle, so of course your opponent would look you over if they had any common sense. Second, she was completely comfortable with herself, exuding a ton of confidence in her gaze, so had nothing in the slightest to be shy about. She never got what the big deal was about all that embarrassment stuff, but perhaps some people just weren't as confident as she was. This line of thinking reminded her of that dragon girl she met earlier. Perhaps they had more in common then what she might have originally thought?...yeah, no.

"Odd you say that, seeing how we both must have seen plenty of women in the great hall," Ruchette countered. "Or are you just making useless comments to try and upset me?" She let out a little, sophisticated sounding giggle, like that of a noblewoman. "The odds of you facing one was around 30% or so...now what are your odds of winning here, I wonder?"

As she spoke she held out her left hand towards him as well, a jagged diamond chunk forming in the palm. After a second of forming what would amount to around a handful of diamond, she began to charge it in preparation to turn potential energy into kinetic and fire it off. It would glow white while charging and would be as powerful as an average pistol after a second; not as powerful of a bullet the size of her diamond, but the diamond of this size having the same overall power that the much smaller bullet would have. It wouldn't be as good at penetration due to it's larger size, but that wasn't a big deal. What she was really wanting to do was test his abilities. Should he do nothing different during this time then she'd fire it off towards his center of mass. Should he try to do something then she may need to hold on to it a bit longer to use as a countermeasure.

[LeeRoy]

It didn't fall on blind eyes what this woman was doing.

Posturing herself, attempting to come off as a bit more highborn than she likely is. Puffed out chest, strongly held stance. It was all pretty normal for those who aren't truly confident on the battlefield. Some incredibly convoluted fighters actually do this to make themselves seem weaker than they actually are, and it was often hard to tell the difference between the two. Assuming that she was the former was safe enough.

"No, I genuinely believe that women don't belong on the battlefield. Mostly due to their inability to control their emotions." Behind his mask he sneered, quickening his pace to close the gap more shortly. Shin's vest and cuffed pants were starting to flutter in the wind as he began moving quicker and quicker. "You see, even though men have more latent violence in them, women have much more potential violence!" As he finished his sentence he was practically shouting, as well as practically sprinting. The gap between them had cut to a meager twelve feet. Shin's visage of politeness was almost immediately shed, something about the atmosphere of this tournament had made him too excited to engage his first opponent.

With both of his feet he hopped forwards somewhere between a skip and a long jump, bringing his left leg upwards more sharply than his right. Twisting himself just before he lifted off of the ground, Shin made sure to turn his head to pace with his spin, keeping a sharp eye on whatever movements his foe made. The metal ball rolled along his toe and rose up faster than his leg to a slight tug of the chain from his right, allowing it to rise up to shoulder level. Snapping his left arm outwards he captured the length of the chain in his hand and brought the total momentum around his body. With all of the weight being thrown to his right by the spin, he swung his body and the weight around in a massive arc.

Once the spin had made almost a full revolution, he released the chain with his left hand and shot out his right arm. Keeping a tight grip on the handle, it forced the chain and weight to arc around towards the connective tissue between her eye socket and temple. Intending to snap the bone holding her eye in place with one colossal swing of the weight. As well as keep himself at a safe distance from that diamond blade. As the chain shot out, as well, his right foot planted sharply on the ground before his left followed more softly.

[ImportantNobody]

Where she came from everyone was treated like dirt equally, man or woman. They had to get by through whatever means necessary despite one's gender, which often was resorting to violence, the very first resort in many cases as far as her personal experience was concerned. Weren't all humans like this? After all, war could be found and enemies to be slain on every planet she had visited with human existence on it. Perhaps in more peaceful areas, should they exist, he could be right, or maybe he was still full of crap. Not that anything he said could rustle her jimmies, at least nothing he said as of yet. If he did manage to strike a nerve then that would surprise even her.

Rather than focus any more on his words, she focused on his quick advance towards her and the shift in weight leading towards his spinning jump. She shifted her head back and away from the direction that the swing would have to be going in based on his own spin direction, stabbing the ground to her right side with her diamond sword to act as if an extra leg that would stop her from toppling over backwards as she pulled off this leaning dodge. Pulling back in this manner while he was doing his spin would indeed help her get some distance away from him as his attack came in...although she suspected he might not necessarily be alive to consciously keep the swing going.

Her left arm charging the diamond was still held out and had roughly seven seconds or so of charge time since he started is spiel, upgrading it's offensive power closer to a 50 caliber sniper than a pistol, although not all the way at that full power. It was more accurate to claim it to be more on assault rifle level at this point, and all this power getting close to point blank on him while he was busy spinning in the area, having little to no chance of dodging such an attack. She let loose just as he was turning to face her, her aim directing it towards his heart.

Should he be incapacitated by this then he'd certainly tumble forward and knock her down but his initial swing of his weapon would miss due to him no longer able to adjust for her dodge. Even fully conscious he would still have trouble doing so.

[LeeRoy]

It seemed that Ruchette's plan went off flawlessly, the steel ball swishing past her head harmlessly and her shot firing off cleanly into Shin's exposed body. The only problem being, that she fired halfway into his spin and he was facing away from her shot. It slid across his chest at tremendous speeds, shredding his vest and slicing deeply into his pectorals. Blood shot from the wound and oozed slowly from the newly formed gash. Both of his feet planted on the ground after his spin, however he was still spinning. Twisting his hips and letting his right foot slide towards her body.

Extending his right arm with the hooked blade aimed forward. The momentum from his leap and spin carrying through into his next movement. Ruchette had put herself back and with her body turned away from him, with the intent to dodge his weight she had also put herself at an offensive disadvantage. See, with her left arm raised and her right arm simply hanging by her side. With it being in her right hand, she would have to raise it up and across her body in ther short amount of time needed to block his attack.

Now, with the hook at roughly chest level and being raised upwards towards the side of her throat, he was also shifting his weight onto his left leg and turning his body away from her right arm. Preparing himself to shove away from her guaranteed reply by putting her left arm near or at his back; Depending on how she moved. With the time that it took her to form her first weapon, Shin noted that she wouldn't have enough time to form a secondary blade by the time his hook had met her neck.

The long and short of his attack is that he's aiming to shove the blade into her throat and sever both major lines of blood too and from the brain in one devastatingly quick slice. If she wanted to attempt to kill him quickly, it would be his pleasure to end her swiftly in response.

[ImportantNobody]

Ruchette held back a smile as blood burst out of his gaping wound, but despite taking what should have been instantly fatal damage, it was apparently anything but when he managed to land on his feet rather than crumble down into a rolling heap of worthless flesh that would have been the desired outcome. She missed his heart from this range? This guy was good to force such a miss as a result of her rushing her shot by dodging and attacking at once to beat him to the punch. She had thought he had drawn close enough to negate this problem, but apparently that was not the case, and it put her in quite the predicament. To think that she has subconsciously underestimated someone yet again and not gone for a different, safer approach like she knew she should.

Having faith in her ability to take him out quickly like most enemies before, she didn't have as good of a follow-up plan should she fail in her attack. The sword stabilizing herself from falling over was useless where it was, and even with the sword able to move upwards as if it was a part of her own body, it was still just as limited in speed, so could not go shooting upwards fast enough unless she had charged it up like the previous shot (although even then it would shoot up too fast to reliably block). In hindsight, it would have been best to create a weapon or shield in her left hand to begin with, but of course now was not the time in the slightest to mull over such details. She only had a split second to react instinctively, her eyes widening at this sudden change of fortune.

She let herself continue her dodge from the ball, only now accelerated into a freefall backwards as her sword slide out of the small cut it had made in the dirt. Her opponent's blade slit the skin of her neck open, spraying blood across it but not cutting deep enough to hit the major blood vessels that had been his intended target. Her back hit the dirt with a thud a second later. Her right arm began to swing her blade as quickly as possible to take out his left leg right below the kneecap.

[LeeRoy]

It was like clockwork, though he hadn't managed to cut her throat entirely open. With the woman falling back and away from his body, she was totally exposed in the short second that it takes to fall to the ground. Even more time was granted to him like a gift from the gods when she tried to stabilize herself during the fall.

Putting his weight on his left leg and pulling his body backwards, as well as jerking both of his arms back. Pulling the chain back to his left hand and the blade away from his foe, Shin raised his right leg upwards and shot it forwards. Above the blade that she was swinging towards his shin, the assassin aimed to deliver a devastating kick to her chest as she was falling. Aiming to kick her into the doorway of the building that she was standing in front of, as well as potentially break some of her ribs with the full force of his kick.

This offensive tactic followed the rule of; The best defense is a good offense. By raising his leg above her swing, he was putting himself out of harms way. And by raising his leg, he was giving himself an opening to deliver a devastating follow up on his foe.

As all of this was happening, the skin around his chest had already begun to scab over. The disgusting greenish material that comes before the hardened brown scab was forming slowly across its surface. The edges of his wound were still bleeding quite heavily, and the area around his chest was quite cold to the touch. For him, the wound wasn't the problem. There were hundreds of scars just like it. The problem was the damage to his clothing, and whether or not this Skallagrim knew how to work a textile.

[ImportantNobody]

As his shoe connected forcefully with her chest, she felt the strength that his body possessed, a strength able to send her tumbling backwards through the doorway, her barely able to maintain her grip on her diamond weapon during her jarring trip. However, while the kick was strong, her body was more durable than the average human so it hurt her but did not do any severe internal damage.

He would almost surely have noted her unexpected weight when he knocked her back. She was infused with diamond, after all, so weighed 655 pounds at the start of this battle, only weighing less by what she had fired off and what was in her sword. This meant that, to move her in such a way, he could clearly work with weights at least that much. Most men had trouble budging her more than an inch.

She now found herself on her stomach when she came to a stop. She pushed herself up into a kneeling position, her right foot and left knee on the ground, before going up onto both feet should she get the time, while her sword was aimed with the point just past the doorway to serve as a decent enough defense for any rushing attacks he might attempt to get to her. Once her left hand was free from pushing herself up she would begin to emit diamond from it as well to form a circular shield that would expand slowly but surely for however long he gave her up until it was 2 feet in diameter and 3 inches thick at the center, tapering off to thin, sharp sides. She'd want it to be bulletproof if she was to stand a good chance at deflecting his full power.

[LeeRoy]

It was surprising how much this woman weighed, she weighed almost as much as his punching bag back in the mountains. It seems that her diamond abilities ran much deeper than he had initially theorized, perhaps she is diamond given a human form. The details weren't exactly important, he smiled widely at the sight that graced his eye. Her back to his face, body almost parallel to the ground, and on her hands and knees. It was almost too good to be true. Shin took two running steps towards her, raising the handle and weight above his head, straightening out the chain between his hands. With her leg sticking out, Shin raised his right leg up and aimed a heel-kick directly on the softer muscle on the back of her calf. Intending to slam his weight on this to cause pain and weaken the leg, as well as keep her on the ground for a little while longer.

Now, inside of Shin's mind as all of this is happening, runs a train of sadistic thoughts that would make any normal man cringe with discomfort. Thoughts of how he should finish her, thoughts of how he should keep her alive a little longer. Every thought causing slow ripples of dopamine to flow through his veins, as well as hot waves of adrenaline. It was this sensation that he fought for, the energetic rush of forcing the life out of another being. With all the time in the universe, Shin always felt a distinct pleasure in knowing that he was going to experience this ecstasy for the rest of eternity.

If this followed through well enough, he would hook both of his arms up underneath her neck and bring the chain straight upwards into her throat. Then he would follow by pulling back with all of his strength, keeping his weight on her leg while doing so. Putting her into a fatal stranglehold that would only be made worse by the slice in her throat. The pain and risk of suffocation would be more than enough to make her fall into panic, and with no way to stand up or defend herself, it was almost guaranteed to succeed.

Shin's smile couldn't be contained, this was just the first victim of many.

[ImportantNobody]

Ruchette let out a pained yelp as the chain dug into the wound in her neck, cutting off any further sound as it constricted around her and cut off her oxygen, but ironically did help stop the bleeding. However painful and life threatening such a situation was, she wasn't one to start panicking so easily, and she wasn't the only one to show signs of overconfidence here. Strangling someone of her power was far too risky of a move, and she would hopefully teach him a lesson for sadistically toying with her.

Beneath her trench coat on her upper back protruded a diamond in the shape of a spike about an inch in diameter. Keeping with her able to create a volume of 8 inches a second, she was able to expand this diamond bursting out of the clothing on her back at around 2.5 inches a second, which would cover the distance between the two very swiftly and he might not even be looking at her back to catch this move in time to do much about it. She also hoped that if he did manage to see it, he'd be forced to release her in order to get away from or block the spike. She didn't have a good view of him due to her position and circumstances, but she obviously knew he was directly behind her, so couldn't miss everything.

Her intention was to yet again go for his heart, given how the previous wound was already healing, meaning she'd need a very serious blow to him to have a better chance of winning before he could heal. If he spike went into her body then she'd remain controlling it as long as possible to arc it's way where the heart could be, aided perhaps by his grip on her releasing so she could turn her head and get a better view. Otherwise, even if she couldn't find the heart, a crash course around his body at 2.5 inches per second would be devastating should she manage to get in there as planned. Unlike the movies she wouldn't die within 10 seconds of being strangled, so as long as this was the only attack against her she wouldn't be dying any time soon and the battle would all but be decided before she ran out of oxygen.

[LeeRoy]

With the posture that he had taken to strangle the life out of her, he had full view of her back. As she began to form those spikes of diamond he raised an eyebrow in confusion, maybe he had strangled too much oxygen out of her already. It was a desperate attempt at defending herself, at least he hoped it was. There wasn't much that he could do about blocking from this position, however, there was nothing limiting his movement.

Previously she had demonstrated taking time to form her diamonds, so there was more than enough time to move out of the way. It wasn't as though she would fire them off like bullets from a rifle, though they certainly packed the same kind of punch. Showing off the sword gave Shin a wider idea of her abilities than she would have realized. See, with the second demonstration in her projectile she had shown that she was really limited in her ability. As every time she cast her spell, or whatever she would call her ability, she took a few seconds of time to properly utilize it.

To evade her attack, he raised his hands upwards and kept the chain taut between his arms. As well, he stepped off of her leg to free up both of his legs. Then he put himself to her left side and twisted the chain around itself to put even more pressure on her throat. Standing off to her side and strangling her would leave her without many options. Trying to stand up would warrant more pain, she couldn't use the sword in her right hand, and as the oxygen was slowly lost from her body, she would be left helpless for the next few minutes.

It wasn't particularly creative of him, no, but he had grown weary of this woman. In the starting moments he had promise for her, demonstrating such a useful ability and attempting to kill him with a swift assault. It was an intriguing ability and he had hoped there would be more show, but he had already put her into certain death scenario, and that meant no more fun.

Aside from watching her die, but the buildup is often more fun than the conclusion.

[ImportantNobody]

Her diamond spike felt no resistance as it jousted through what was now empty air as the two shifted into a standing position, him appearing to have moved over to her left side. So he could dodge that effectively while still managing to maintain a stranglehold on her? She'd see how long he could keep that up! Her spike shifted course like a snake jerking it's head upon discovering it's new prey, darting towards his apparent location yet again with an increased vigor, hungry to devour it's foe before it ran out of the oxygen fueling it. Could he manage to keep dodging the ever expanding spike until she ran out of time? This was quite interesting...

She was still far too calm for her current situation, which both helped and hurt her cause. On the bright side she could maintain focus on her diamond for far longer than one with a normal mindset, which would now be freaking out, could, but on the other side she wasn't exploring all of her options and fighting desperately to break free, instead going for a quick, efficient kill like normal. Surely the crowd watching on the view screens were taking note of this flaw and anticipating how this battle would soon turn out, chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

[LeeRoy]

Watching the shard of diamond death fly helplessly into the air was so amusing that he almost burst into laughter, but shortly before he threw his head back in a jovial taunt something terrifying happened. It whipped itself back around in the air, changing its trajectory and rocketing straight towards his face. With the force that her previous attack had carried, he was in no mood to take a shot like that to his one working eyeball.

Shin threw his weight onto his left leg and kicked his right leg outwards. Using the chain as a lever to pull his weight aside, and add an extra little tug of pain onto the helpless woman. The assassin threw himself backwards and away from the deadly projectile and turned his head to watch its path. His singular eye tracing it like a hawk monitoring its prey.

There was little room for error at this point. With her right where he wanted and totally prone, to lose now would be an unmatched humiliation. Now that the shard had passed he slid his right foot backwards and steadied himself, pulling his head backwards so that he could dart his eye back and forth from the shard and the woman.

"What an upset, you've managed to counterattack even while lain entirely exposed. You've still got a few tricks up your sleeves, girl." Those words carried less spite than before, there were very few things that actually impressed him. Fighting back while being strangled was, oddly enough, one of those exact instances. "I'll give you the privelege of knowing my name before you die."

With a dramatic pause, he returned to his previous spiteful tone. "I am Shincoco, the Black Iron Mask. Servant to the God of Form. I would ask your name, but you can't speak!" The cruel cyclops chuckled behind his mask, laughter was always unsettling to someone who was dying. Sometimes, people would be so confused by the laughter that they would forget to defend themselves.

It happens more often than you would think.

[ImportantNobody]

Her diamond missed again and she could feel her concentration fading fast. She had only a few more shots at this or else she would have little chance of escape. However, as luck would have it, his opponent began to taunt her, this overconfident babbling giving her a clear view of the exact location of his head. Abandoning the previous point of the spike acting as the spearhead for her assault, she shifted her focus onto a section of the spike that had passed near that position and from it sprouted off the newest point that would be where her powers wound advance from, sending it directly towards the underside of his exposed jaw with the intention of drilling through bone and flesh and into his brain; an unexpected and quick kill in his moment of glory as he least expected it.

She couldn't see how far she had gotten in her plan, however, as the strangling was beginning to have a major effect on her. Just at the crucial moment she could feel her mind numbing, her diamond crumbling to pieces and scattering to the floor at her feet.

Meanwhile, the crowd was on the edge of their seat, holding a collective breath to see what had happened in that brief moment.

[LeeRoy]

A moment of pride and success was suddenly cut short by an incredibly sharp pain in his jaw, a driving sensation forced his eye down to catch a scarce glimpse of the shard forcing itself into the softer flesh of his mouth. Spearing his tongue and forcing him to scream, a terrible gurgling noise left his mouth. It was traveling upwards and shredding the inside of his mouth as it attempted its killing blow. How could he be so careless?

Gloating was stupid! Shin knew this, and was taken by surprise when he chose to gloat!

In a blind rage, Shin raised his left leg and brought it up as high as he possibly could. Completely straightening it out against his body and lined it with her head. If she was driving something into his head, Shin was going to drive something into hers. His size ten custom made leather shoes with rubber soles. With all of his might, having expended no real quantity of energy in this fight, Shin drove his leg downwards at full strength. A tremendous axe kick aimed for the back of her head, while yanking back on the chain with both hands.

If he was correct, it was a kill or be kill tournament. Whoever kills the other first was the victor, and he could feel it driving itself through his tongue as he leveled his foot towards the back of her head.

This was the ultimate kick, a devilishly simple move that requires practice and flexibility. The full Axe-Kick. A downwards kick with killing power. A full axe kick carried not only the potential to kill, but the intent as well. Shin's pained mind was grabbing at straws, and with both of his hands occupied this was his only option for quickly finishing his opponent before this thing drove itself into his brain.

Down to the wire, Shincoco the Black Mask and Ruchette the Diamond Manipulator. Who will kill who first?

[ImportantNobody]

Just...a little...more...

CRACK!

Her head slammed forward against her large chest, her spinal column snapping clean in two at the cervical vertebrae, killing her instantly. Her amber eyes stared widely down at her feet that had fallen limp. Careful study of her face would reveal a mix of surprise and at state of being in awe at his power. Although she obviously couldn't speak, the face said it all; "That was quite the impressive show you put on. Unbelievable."

Her hands, which had been grasping futilely at the chains, fell to her side as the rest of her body slowly slumped down as if on a slight delay of her death, now held up only by her lolled neck. Due to her heavy body weight it would be difficult to hold her up for very long, impressive that he could keep so much dead weight in that position.

The crowd was in an uproar over this. She had been mere milliseconds from victory, only for the last ditch kick to spell her end. In all honesty it could have gone either way at that point, drawing out a lot of excitement as people either said their "I knew it!"s or "What the-?! No way!" Some handed each other money, shaking their heads in disappointment.