Crowvette

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

I'll try and get my post in today! I've been busy this last week unfortunately

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Io at Terauchi Temple

Io gave a nod to Shizuka's introduction, and the quick explanation of events from him and Kerry. She had to take in account the rather quickly developing situation. It was at least happening faster than she expected - but Io knew at this point that the living always moved faster than she would prefer. For a few moments, she seemingly froze, lost in thought about the situation.

She snapped out of it when Gringor crossed her vision. Now this was already a groundbreaking finding. Without missing a beat, she threw open her grimoire, dictating notes in her native tongue. Her eyes seemed to glow with fascination as she scanned the monsterboy, taking steps around him from a distance as if she was observing a museum piece from all angles. Her grimoire's pages fluttered, being magically filled with writing and turning to the next page in moments. After a moment, she quickly realized she didn't introduce herself. "Ah. I'm Io."

It also didn't occur to Io how her rapt study of this newcomer would appear in the view of others, but even if she did it wouldn't matter to her. This discovery alone made her trip the island worth it. Io had barely managed to finish dictating her physical description and series of questions before Gringor had already taken off, handling an issue that one of the locals had described to him.

For a moment, it seemed like Io might take off after him, but she simply closed her grimoire. She turned back to Shizuka. "That one... Is part of the task force?" The excitement in her voice was noticeable even to the people she had just met. "This island is already beyond expectations."

"I saw a terrible battle near Kuta Farmstead, yokai. Bandits and Varjans killing each other. I probably shouldn't worry about scum tearing each other apart, but their fighting might put someone in danger.

Please, can you take a look?"

"Two enemies of the village fighting? I will take care of it." Io banked on the situation being a good fit for her abilities. Worst case scenario, the villagers would likely not care much about dead bandits temporarily being raised to ward off the Varjan threat. With that in mind, Io strode off towards Kuta Farmstead, the lightest note of a smile on her face. She had originally planned on simply resting, but this development had put her in a good mood. An energetic mood, even. How rare, she mused to herself.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Andras and Michael's Brief Chat

Andras sat in an empty booth near the corner of the bar, trying to sort out what the night had become. There was a distinct berth around her booth, with the spectators giving her plenty of space. Andras didn’t know if it was because she threw around such immense force in her match, or just because it was clear she was upset.

She didn’t care. She really wanted to curl up and wait for her throbbing bruises to stop hurting. She was at least able to stop herself from crying, so she considered that a little victory. The entire night had gone sour in an instant. She only stuck around because she had won, and it’d be an even larger insult to Vera to win and then drop from the tournament.

Well, that, but also Andras was brimming with frustration, sadness, and a feeling of powerlessness. Maybe giving someone a super haymaker would cheer her up.

She sighed aloud. “I’m definitely not in the right place at all…” She rested her head on the table, enjoying its cool surface against her cheek. “What was I thinking…?”

The sight of a newcomer who had shaken up the tournament sulking like that could easily be seen from across the bar. It stood out like a sore thumb.

Michael wandered the bar, turning his head side to side as he searched for Andras. If he recalled, she did not leave her match with the highest of moods, nor with the best of health. He was worried about her, and couldn’t imagine what she was feeling.

Fortunately, she wasn’t too difficult to find, finally spotting her at a corner of the bar. It seemed she was still not feeling well after her match. At the sight of her, Michael put a hand on his hip and sighed. Michael realized he would have to take it upon himself to make her feel better, or at the very least, try to.

Taking a seat next to Andras, Michael gave her a light tap with his fist on her shoulder. “What’s got you so down, Andras? You’re supposed to be a winner.” he asked. “I’m guessing something, uh, not great happened in the past between you and that girl back there, huh?”

Andras quickly snapped up in her seat. “Oh! It’s just you.” She calmed down considerably upon seeing her friend’s face. “No… Um, well… It’s more of something that didn’t happen…” Andras put her head in her hands.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two before Andras realized she was breaking character. Quickly fidgeting, she began backtracking what she had said: “I-I mean! T-There’s no history between her and I, Andras, except the history of… Battle…? L-Like-”

Her stuttered lies were interrupted when her fidgeting caused her bruised knee to hit the table above it, causing her to wince in pain. “Y-Yeah. Like that. Ow…” She added ‘embarrassment’ to the wide range of feelings she was experiencing, just below ‘pain.’

Michael looked down at her knee and placed a hand on his chin, thinking about what Symbols to use to help her out. Getting down to one knee, Michael gently grabbed Andras’ leg and said, “Here, hold still.” He then proceeded to apply a Symbol to her leg, a vertical line with a coil around it, reminiscent of the Rod of Asclepius.

Standing back up, Michael then raised his finger and drew a red cross symbol onto Andras’ forehead. Tapping the center of the cross, Andras would find her wounds healing up, especially around her knee. These Symbols would draw on her own energy in order to heal her body, as all they did was accelerate the natural healing process. She might feel a little drained, but a little rest before her next match would be enough time to make a solid recovery.

“There, that should be better,” Michael said. Sitting back down, Michael would proceed to seriously address his friend, “Alex, please be honest with me. You’re my friend.” He then quickly muttered to himself, “One of the few I actually have,” before continuing on, “I hate to see you like this, and I wanna help you, but I’m not sure I can if I don’t know the details.” He took a deep breath and steeled his resolve, then proceeded to ask, “What really happened between you and that girl?” He knew he was risking his friendship a bit by asking Andras this, but he had to know. Too much had happened to simply brush it off at this point.

Andras groaned, clearly torn between her desire to shrug things off and her desire to respond with the truth. She thought back to some of the times that she had leaned on Michael, even literally, and now she was being propped up by him again. The thought made her want to curl up even more.

After an uneasy silence, Alex spoke up. "Um. She and I used to be friends." Alex sniffled, wiping her eye preemptively. "Really good friends. But we haven't seen each other since I was... Hospitalized. She didn't ever visit after I woke up, and I..." She paused, searching her own feelings. "I... guess I never looked for her, either, after I woke up. But it had been so long that I... Never..." She choked up. "I don't know why I didn't."

She grabbed the end of Michael's shirt and looked up at him with a teary eye. "Why wasn't she just happy to see me?! Why did she want to fight?! And why didn't I stop her when she tried to?!" She crumbled, hiding her face and hunching over the table. "What's so wrong with me that this happened...?" Her muffled voice wavered.

As Alex poured her feelings out onto him, Michael’s mind raced through a million possible answers he could give. However, none of them seemed right to him. He didn’t know what he could say to make her feel better. The only thing he thought of to do at the moment was to awkwardly pat her on the back. Michael may have said he wanted to help, but he certainly wasn’t a psychologist or anything. It was the best he could do.

“Hey hey, it’s- it’s alright,” Michael tried to console her. He thought about giving her a hug, but he wasn’t sure he was willing to do that yet. Especially not with a crowd around them, watching the entire scene unfold. Instead, he continued to say, “I’m sure you did the best you could. Tensions seemed a little… high at the time.”

Alex let out a long sigh once more. She was going to need a long break after all this. Maybe she’d skip classes for a day or two. Depending on how roughed up she got in the next fights, she might have to skip classes. Teachers would ask questions. “She’s always been… We’re going to talk it out. Things will work out...” She turned back to Michael. “Thanks for helping. I feel better… Actually, way better.” Alex stretched her legs, surprised at how quickly her bruises disappeared. “Looks like I owe you… again.”

Alex wanted to stand up to hug him, but she didn’t want to cause any more of a scene than she already had done. She resolved to give him one the next time they met without a crowd watching their every move. Plus… Demons didn’t give out hugs. Or at least, not the kind that get into underground fights and crack the concrete foundation of a building with their bare hands.

“Eh, don’t worry about it,” Michael said, giving her a smile and a thumbs up. “You just do your best in the semifinals… Lady Andras.” It seemed appropriate to him that a “demon” be given some proper respect, after all. He flagged a bartender over and ordered a water, and was soon chugging it down from its tall cup.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Io at Terauchi Temple

Io gracefully descended from the teleport. It was not her preferred method of transport, but given the circumstances she accepted it. She was met with the still air of a temple, as Lady Kyouko had described she would. Notably, the ones inside the temple were not attacking her - not something that could be said of every temple she had entered in the past.

Io quietly watched the fight unfold outside of the temple, analyzing each minute detail of the Mikos' actions. There was much to learn already about the development of magic here. Whispering in her native language that the surrounding refugees would not understand, Io's grimoire glowed, her whispered words inscribing themselves into the page magically. There was much note-taking to be done.

The situation rapidly escalated out of hand before Io could intervene, but perhaps she was not too late to help. Emerging from the temple's sliding door, Io stepped down from the temple steps, walking past the refugees and monks to Ayu and Shizuka. Her pallid skin and torn robes which fluttered and revealed ribbon-like scrolls that wound tightly around her body drew a bit of attention, but she seemed to not notice it at all. "Kyouko sent me," Io brusquely muttered, as if that would answer all potential questions levelled at her. Crouching down, she examined Shizuka's wound. Io knew that Kyouko expected her to help, and not solely observe, but she was surprised at how quickly she already needed to act. "Unfortunate." She said, not considering how bad that would sound to a wounded person. She added after a moment of study, "But not fatal. I will fix it."

Io whispered in her native language to cast a spell of healing. Drawing energy from her own body, and subtly leeching life from the nearby flora, she shaped the energy to heal Shizuka's wound. Ordinarily she'd draw life from the surrounding area without much care... but Kyouko had explained the importance of not defiling Shizuyama's lands willy-nilly. Kyouko had explained it multiple times, even, as if she didn't believe Io got it the first time. Io understood the concern, of course. A dead circle of grass following the area she walked on would likely not make her look the best in the eyes of the locals... especially since it was on a temple's ground. She took care to not overtax the life around her, fragile as it was, for the sake of relations between them all. Io had enough energy to spare... though maybe not if she had to do this too often.

Io watched intently, almost clinically, as Shizuka's wound closed. While she had plenty of experience healing living things, she was more comfortable with undead. Much more room for error with undead. The wound disappeared within moments, leaving no evidence that there was ever one except for the torn clothing and traces of blood.

Io stood after judging the healing was satisfactory, flatly gesturing to herself. "Io." She considered that enough of a greeting. "It seems things aren't as simple as Lady Kyouko hoped," Io said quietly, unaware of how much of an understatement that was.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

@Crowvette

I can't access the image. :(

@PaulHaynek

Interesting. Let me mirror it to see if catbox is the issue.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

Io

Appearance: Link here because the image probably will mess up the rpguild page.

Name: Io

Race: Lich

Magic/Abilities/Equipment: (There will be fighting in the RP so having combat-related abilities is encouraged. Nothing OP, of course.)

Ancient Caster: Io's casting comes from a long-forgotten school of study, in an ancient tongue that few others would understand or remember, likely from before she became a lich. She is most comfortable with necromancy spells, such summoning minions/spirits as well as directly draining life from enemies.

Encylopaedic: Io has a veritable wealth of knowledge about magic from her time studying. While she may not be able to cast every spell she knows off the top of her head, she can often recall with meditation the right spell for the job, even outside of her forte of necromancy. She also can usually identify magic just from witnessing it, recognizing its effects as it's being cast. Particularly strong, obscure, or specialized spells may elude her ability to cast them, though she'll be able to at least recall the details of what they do.

Scrolls: Io's scrolls that she adorns herself with carry various magical enhancements written in her ancient runes. She has to activate them to gain their benefits, so they're not always on, but she can also give the scrolls to others in order to bestow the enhancements on them. These enhancements are simple in nature, like increasing strength, speed, or toughness for the wearer of the scroll.

Inscriptions: Written in magical tattos on her skin are always-active magical enhancements that give Io considerable sturdiness to phyiscal and magical attack. There are also a few that offer non-combat uses, like to disguise the pallor of her skin and warm her body, in order to blend in with non-monster people, but she will only use these if necessary (Nobody's asked, but presumably she finds it uncomfortable).

Lich traits: Io doesn't need to breathe and various other little traits that are common to undead. She merely ignores anyone asking about her phylactery, but it's presumably something that exists.

Personality: Io is defined by her immense curiousity and desire to learn. To most around her, her nearly constant deadpan expression and mostly covered face makes it hard to get a read on what she's actually feeling. Her focus is unparalleled, being able to continue working on a single thing for days on end without fatigue and all while ignoring distractions. Despite having a seemingly broad vocabulary, she often speaks in brief, truncated sentences to communicate as quickly as possible. Her enthusiasm for jewelry, especially gemstones, often surprises others with how animated (pardon the pun) she becomes in their presence.

Background:

Io talks very little about her past, especially anything before she became a lich. Even her age in broad strokes is unknown, though there may be people capable of deducing her relative age from the writing she uses for scrolls.

It's unknown how Io made it to Zipangu, though there is a legend that she emerged from the ocean in a leisurely stroll... as if she walked from one landmass to the next, completely unfazed by the ocean. Studying the islands of Zipangu, she found herself intrigued by the isolated nature of Shizuyama and warnings to not approach it, at the same time learning of Lady Kyouko's interest in it. Io proposed to help study the island for Lady Kyouko, a win-win for both of them.

(I think I gave away my favourite already but it's the Lich.)

Hopefully this is about right for a character. I also am not quite sold on the name but I wanted something extremely short since that'd fit well with how she communicates in general. Plus I just like how it sounds. But it may be subject to change if I can think of another similarly nice short-as-possible name.

Tales Of Shizuyama (Far-Eastern Monster Girl RP)

I've got some interest, I'm gonna take some time to read through what's been going on to see how I feel about it.

I've always liked the design of the Lich monmusu so that might be a good character base. We'll see!

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Alyona

@AtomicNut

Alyona's attempts at protesting fell on deaf ears. She'd much rather be with Cel than the spider, but it seemed like Cel had other plans. Which was, admittedly, par for the course. 'Impish' would not describe them well enough. In fact, had Alyona not known any better, she'd have pegged the youth as some kind of otherworldly entity meant to sow discord amongst man - Neither human, god, spirit, or demon. Such things appeared in the fringes of folk tales, after all. Especially where she came from.

'I should not rule that out, still.' Alyona thought to herself. 'At least they manage to keep things interesting. And... It's rare to find someone that can be around me without suffering. At times I don't know how to deal with it.' With that thought, Alyona realized that she was in direct contact with the spider. 'Well. Not my problem if she gets caught up in my aura.' Kiwi already didn't seem fond of her. No need to bother keeping that bridge standing.

Cel took off with their own plan in mind - or perhaps their own lack of a plan. It was hard to tell. Alyona felt the need to speak up. "Do you have a plan? Is Sea of Death a common occurrence at this place?" Alyona's free hand reached out, conjuring an inky black lance. Just in case.

'This doesn't even really concern me, but I guess if Cel wants to have their fun, so be it. I'll cut and run if things start looking ugly.' Alyona figured it was only a matter of time before that happened, but she could at least put on a show for Cel's sake.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Alyona

@KillamriX88 @AtomicNut

Alyona bristled at the two, clearly concerned that anyone would defend Kiwi, but dispelled the lance of negative energy in her hand after Cel's prompting for "diplomacy." "I would never dream of hurting anyone. It appears there was a misunderstanding. Where I come from, there are no large spiders in schools. Just small ones. And they are not treated well. It is unfortunate, but things are harder there. For everyone."

Aly considered the fact that the spider-girl had understood her speaking in her first language. She often lapsed into it to disparage those around her - she would have to be careful around this one. 'This is rapidly becoming not worth it other than getting out of the rain.' Alyona thought to herself, taking the lead towards the source of the scream. 'At least Cel showed up.'

Rounding the corner, Alyona was taken aback at how dark it had become already. It was overcast, sure, but the entire hall seemed to be devoid of any lighting. Unnaturally so. Alyona narrowed her eyes. There were windows, weren't there? Even if it was overcast, the hall wouldn't be this dark naturally-

The scratching sound on the floor grabbed Alyona's attention. A disembodied hand - No, rather, a hand of a body submerged in some kind of pitch-black mud - scratched the tile, before being covered by a surge in the thick black liquid entirely. The black slime kept encroaching closer, much faster than Alyona would have expected.

"It's the Sea of Death!" Alyona shouted in her mother tongue - she didn't know how to say its name in any other. "It wasn't something my tutors made up to scare my sister!" Alyona spun around, running from the creeping wave of black sludge. Barreling around the corner to where the others were, she slid - tripped - and fell, sliding along the ground. Of course, she was far more used to falling than the others could know, so it didn't faze her. She continued her warning from the floor: "It got her! It is coming!" She panted, this time in a language all of them would understand.

If the others who didn't understand her mother tongue did not get who "it" or "her" was, Alyona's lances of negative energy sparking into existence around her would signify that "it" was probably dangerous, and nobody would want to be "got" by it.

Royal Rumble: Rumble over the Heavens

Vera and Andras's Impromptu Midnight Fight

If Vera hadn’t really looked thrilled to be fighting, that changed quickly. She raised her arms up in front of her, the magic bolt breaking against her forearms. Behind her arms, her eyes narrowed as she glared at Alex. The blast had stung like hell, but she didn’t flinch from it.

Instead, in that moment, it galvanized her. She’d made a snap decision to take over as Alex’s opponent, without having had any time to sort out her feelings. Alex, meanwhile, had hardly hesitated to start the fight.

Vera didn’t know what to make of that, and in the absence of a concrete answer, she had settled on taking it very, very personally.

“This is what you came for, isn’t it?” she growled under her breath and then sprang forward. Alex shouldn’t have been too surprised when Vera managed to close the gap between them in a flash. She’d always been the scrappiest, most athletic member of their little group, and time had only made her legs longer.

As soon as she was in range she swung a kick at Alex’s hands in an attempt to disrupt her ability to use her cards.

Alex was taken aback at how quick Vera was. She was always the fast one, of course, but it seems like things were different now. Alex didn’t have to curse her short stature before Vera was upon her.

Alex reflexively brought her arms up to protect against the kick, but she kept her spell at the ready. She grit her teeth as the kick shot across her arms, the sharp pain being something she hadn’t felt physically in what seemed like ages. However, Vera getting that close was the criteria she needed - to be touching the opponent.

“I’ve got more than just some bolts of light, you know!” Alex shouted, her spell casting on the touch between the two girls. It was a pale imitation of the mythological vampire - a spell that drained the energy of another to sustain the caster. She had wanted to play up the theatrics, but the swiftness of Vera’s counterattack made it clear - no time to play around.

Alex took a few steps back after the spell was cast, her cards ready in her hands, feeling the rush of energy stolen from Vera. She wanted to keep some distance, but that would be hard with Vera’s physical advantages. Alex readied another spell, hoping that the shock of the sudden drain would be enough to keep Vera off balance.

Vera felt a wave of fatigue hit her as she hit Alex. She stumbled back a step and took a deep breath, trying to recover. She grit her teeth. It was always like this. A straight-forward fight against someone with a proper set of powers was always so unfair.

It didn’t make sense to her what Alex was suddenly able to do, but it didn’t matter. Alex had powers, Vera didn’t. Of course, Vera knew how to fight and Andras didn’t, but how much would that matter?

The thing was, maybe she felt like she’d suddenly just run a mile, but she could run a lot of miles, and Alex wasn’t that far away. She grit her teeth and rocketed forward once more, not giving Alex another moment to prepare.

First, she cut off her movement by stepping down on Alex’s foot to root her, then her hand whipped out, grabbing Alex’s to torque her wrist, still hoping that controlling her hands might limit her powers. Finally, she cocked a fist back, ready to slam it into Alex’s now unguarded face…

Vera knew that if she could find the limit to Alex’s powers, that if she could stay up close like this, that Alex was screwed. Alex hadn’t known a damn thing about fighting in the past. Her powers had been borderline useless too. Vera had always done all the fighting.

Vera had never stopped fighting.

Vera couldn’t fathom that Alex could have learned how to fight anywhere near her level. Where would she have found the time? And why would she have bothered? She had powers.

The blow never came. Vera’s face twisted into a frustrated snarl and instead of slamming her fist into Alex’s jaw, she grabbed the smaller girl by the collar and threw her to the ground. It was hardly a proper throw, not even enough to really knock the wind out of the girl.

It was more like Vera was throwing a tantrum and chucking her toys around, but was still afraid of actually breaking them.

Alex was taken aback at the blow that never came. Vera let her off easy. Was it a warning? Or a flex? A signal to calm down? More so than anything, that attack left Alex conflicted. ‘Was I trying too hard by coming at her full force?’ Alex thought to herself. She didn’t really have time to mull over all the possibilities.

As Alex jumped to her feet, she couldn’t help but prod. “Vera. I thought…” She couldn’t quite place what to say. “Um. Maybe not the best time now. After all this, we need to talk.” Alex dusted herself off as she stood. “But for right now, let’s both put our hearts into the fight.” She felt a little bit better just bringing it up. Alex hoped Vera may have felt the same pang of regret for stumbling into the fight, and the two could finish it more as friends than combatants.

Alex picked a card out and quickly crushed it in her hands, the card’s glow suffusing over Andras’s body for a brief moment, concentrating around her legs before disappearing. This spell drastically enhanced her ability to jump. She had to keep that effect at the ready, for the perfect time to surprise Vera. She stood at the ready, waiting for Vera’s next move.

“I’m happy to see you.” She added, in a lower voice to try and keep the crowd from hearing. She tried to wink… but obviously nobody could tell she did.

Vera… faltered at Alex's words. It was what she'd wanted to hear, but she still couldn't get past the fact that THIS was how they'd reunited. Nothing Alex could say at this moment would fix that.

At least nothing Vera could think of.

But still, the words slowed her more than any spell that had been cast so far, even as Alex urged her to fight her hardest.

Honestly, Vera wanted to beat her frustrations into Alex's face, and that urge was one she found deeply unpleasant. Disturbing, really. It was the exact opposite of everything she'd ever stood for as a fighter.

Fine then, she just wouldn't hit her.

All she had at the moment was a half-baked plan, a messy sack of muddled emotions, and shaky resolve, but she'd never been one to quit. She suddenly took an entirely different stance, more like a boxer and darted in again, quick as ever.

"Oh, we'll talk all right…" she growled as she drew close and fired off a lightning quick jab at Alex's nose. It would come short by a millimeter, even should Alex be too slow to react.

She wasn't hesitating this time though, just distracting her. If it worked, Vera would then slip behind her, bodily push her off balance, and then try to sweep her legs.

Alex had analyzed the situation perfectly. Vera would come at her. She would dodge just in time, putting Vera off balance, and allowing her to take the initiative. Her magic was flawless. But her reaction times were a bit lacking.

She was taken by surprise with how quickly Vera had thrown out the punch, and the perfect plan in her mind dissolved as she reflexively tried to protect herself from the punch - unfortunately playing right into Vera’s maneuver.

Alex fell to the ground, her legs kicked out from under her. Vera may have been holding back, but it wasn’t stopping her from showing Alex that she had a long way to go before she was going to be a scrapper.

‘M-Maybe I should have put more into it during physical therapy…’ Alex couldn’t help but think to herself. She quickly turned to face Vera - although she was on the ground, Alex was anything but disabled. That being said, she was running out of options. Even Andras knew trying to get to her feet with Vera towering above her would be foolish. She instead opted to start shuffling back, trying to get some distance between the two. All the while, her spells glowed at the ready in her hands.

Vera made no move to hit Alex while she was down. She just slowly walked forward, not letting Alex crawl too far away.

“Get up, Andras,” Vera commanded her. She would wait, allowing the girl to do so. If she did, then the second she had her feet under her again and her guard something resembling up, Vera would shoot back in, aiming a kick at Alex’s ankle to destabilize her and then a palm strike to her stomach to knock her down all over again.

Alex would either find a way to win, or Vera would keep knocking her down until she lost the will to get up again.

Alex’s blunder with reacting to Vera’s attack stung, but she wouldn’t let Vera keep the initiative. She’d have to do something unexpected. The spell to enhance her jump height was still active, so Andras put together a plan. It was anything but elegant, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

She rose to her knees, and then a low squat. Alex knew the spell enhanced her legs to drastically increase the height of her jumps - and she had measured it to about ten feet straight up last time she had cataloged the spell. Of course, if she directed that jump in the right way…

A split-second glow of light around Alex’s legs was the only sign of the coming attack. From her low squat, Alex jumped forward with unexpected speed, trying to directly tackle Vera. Though under ordinary circumstances the differences in stature and distance between the two would make a move pointless, Alex was banking on the magical enhancement and surprise to sweep Vera off her feet. Alex had to return the favor for the previous throws that had been given to her, after all.

Vera saw Alex gearing up for a tackle. What she wasn’t ready for was how fast and intense a tackle it would be. Vera had lowered her center of gravity, her feet skidding back as Alex crashed into her and she absorbed the blow. She let out a cough as the pain radiated through her stomach, Alex’s shoulder having plowed into it.

Vera had wanted to catch the other girl, and she had, but with the speed Alex had careened into her at, she’d still done plenty of damage and Vera hadn’t exactly been able to slow her down. That said, she DID still have Alex in her grasp again.

“OK…” Vera took a deep breath as she tightened her grip around Alex to prevent her from disengaging. “Now you’re pissing me off,” she said in a ragged growl as she fought to keep her knees from trembling. She hadn’t exactly caught her breath yet.

She then shifted her grasp, grabbing Alex by her hair. She cocked her leg back, clearly lining up a knee that would smash Alex’s nose and just the rest of her face in general. And… she couldn’t do it. Even as the pain still throbbed and she had to put an extra effort into breathing, she couldn’t hit the girl, not like that.

If anything, that pissed her off even more. She was already at a huge disadvantage without psyching herself out and holding back.

Well, for the moment anyway, the ball was once again fully in Vera’s court.

With Alex’s face spared for the moment, Vera twisted her grip on Alex’s hair and forced the girl to stand up, then further, forcing her to lean back to avoid having her hair torn out.

“In case you were wondering, this was how it felt…” Vera snarled. She made to swing her leg into the back of Alex’s, once more intending to take her feet out from under her, but this time she kicked a lot harder. Unless Alex found a way to escape quickly, she’d be left airborne for a moment before Vera slammed her palm down onto Alex’s solar plexus, violently propelling her back to the floor.

With that moment of exertion passed, Vera would then fall to her knee, coughing and trying to finally catch her breath fully.

Alex was at her limit - in several ways, but mostly physical. Her chest ached, her legs were unsteady, and her breath was coming in quick gasps. She had kept a few spells back, but she felt like if the fight continued, they’d be wasted anyway when she lost. So she conjured up her remaining cards.

She had to cast the spell she was holding back. The spell glowed and suffused around her arms and hands, consuming all of the other spells she hadn’t cast yet along with it. This spell would infuse her punch with superhuman force, and suffer no damage to her arms or hands.

The plan was simple: End the match with a single, unexpected strike. Even if blocked, the superhuman strength of the punch would likely finish Vera. Alex took a deep breath, and jumped to her feet. Then she reeled back for the punch. Her strength would more than make up for her lack of technique, at least in her mind’s eye.

And for a moment, it looked like it might work - but Alex caught herself. She realized what she was about to do. To her own friend! The knot in her stomach turned.

She couldn’t do it. Maybe that was what Vera kept feeling too. Alex couldn’t cross that line, even if the two had just spent their first meeting in years beating each other. She’d rather go back to her hospital bed and sleep another year.

What was she even doing here?! How could she even consider doing that to Vera?!?!

With a cry of frustration, Alex brought her fist down, but it landed nowhere near Vera, instead landing directly into the floor. The force of the impact cracked the floor beneath it and shook the entire bar.

“I can’t do it, Vera. I can’t have the first thing I do after missing you for so long be putting you in the hospital.” Alex muttered in a low voice, so quiet that only Vera could hear. “If you can do it, go ahead.” She sniffled, holding back tears.

Dust rained from the rafters and not a soul in the bar uttered a sound. The tiny girl had just set off what felt like an earthquake with a punch. It was a bit and then some beyond what most people expected from fights in the Midnight arena, let alone from someone like “Andras.”

Vera’s eyes just slowly panned over to the small crater formed by Alex’s fist, sweat dripping down the side of her face.

Shit like this was why she didn’t pick fights with people anymore.

She barely heard Alex’s first few words as her heart pounded in her ears.

“I-I give up…” Vera swallowed. She was good. As far as she was concerned, that was plenty for her to give Alex the win, and no one in the crowd was gonna argue with her after seeing that.

Alex wiped her eye with her sleeve. “W-What?” It took the girl a few moments to take in what had happened - or rather, what she had done. She looked down at the crater where her fist had impacted the floor. “O-Oh.”

She was frozen with shock for a moment. ‘I definitely overdid it!!’ She couldn’t help but think. ‘I can’t spin this as a total win… everyone saw her toying with me. I can’t even figure out what to say here!!’ Her brain whirred, trying to think of what to do. ‘I-I guess I should get out of the arena, at least…’

She wordlessly reached a hand out, offering Vera a hand up.

Vera hesitated for a moment before tentatively lifting her hand toward Alex’s. She trembled slightly as her hands inched toward Alex’s until their fingertips brushed against each other.

She recoiled.

She flinched before her expression hardened and she slapped Alex’s hand away. She forced herself to her feet on her own before limping out of the arena without sparing Alex another glance.

She couldn’t even explain her actions. She could tell herself it was to make sure no one would doubt that Alex had earned her win and that she was playing the role of a sore loser, but that didn’t ring true in her mind. All she could do was shuffle off to sulk somewhere while she tried to sort out what she was feeling.

And besides, she’d left her “product” unattended with her “friend.” She needed to make sure they weren’t choking on their own vomit somewhere…