Open Challenge

[Kou]

(ooc: I used to rpb here but took a small hiatus for a while from TFF, but I've temporarily returned hoping to have an rpb that someone will stay for more than 3 posts for, so if you do not plan on finishing this, do not waste my time and do not post.)

This is disgraceful. How could the standard of battle drop so harshly? These are nothing more than amateurs, pathetic children.

Disgusted, Kenji looked around the current level of fighting, dismal was an understatement. The days of real battling have since long passed. Kenji had been missing for 2 years since his grand final battle in the fabled Tournament of Arms. He had made his way past opponents he had originally considered his superior but when faced he aptly defeated them. Then the pinnacle of TOA came around which was to be a 3 man free for all battle. Chickenballz was unable to participate in the fight and it was turned into a standard 1v1 against Spike. The battle began and it became apparent that both Spike and himself were quite evenly matched and they battle would be nothing short of spectacular. Then it was cancelled. The pinnacle of all that Kenji had worked for cancelled. The reason was never disclosed to the angered participants so in anger Kenji packed up a small bag of supplies and weapons and left.

For the last two years Kenji’s home had been the neighbouring Ladun Forest. The forest was uninhabited due to the amount of bizarre and quite often violent creatures that resided within it’s darkened reaches. Any that tried to attack Kenji were soon disposed off by either Kenji’s masterful sword work or his vicious elemental capabilities. Through a series of events when Kenji was of younger age he became adept in controlling the four main elemental balances. Fire, Ice, Wind and Earth.

After two years of lone living he decided he would return to the town he was once so disgusted with. The only thought on his mind was to fight. To fight another human, to have the rush of battling another warrior. The need to spill to blood of another drove Kenji to accept a challenge from a rather small man in the town. The man’s abilities were pitiful. As soon as it was realised that Kenji had the advantage the man fled. That was the final strike in Kenji’s mind. I’m going to start destroying everything and everyone in this town. They can flee or they can fight, maybe someone here has the capabilities to fight for their own life.

Sword still in hand from the previous battle Kenji walked over to the nearest person. A man who had been watching the now disbanded fight. Without warning or hesitation the sword was driven through the mans throat and then twisted to sever his spinal column. That was the beginning of the slaughter. Any person be it man, woman or child who came into view was disposed of by either sword or burnt to death. While disposing of all the towns inhabitants he also focused his inconsolable rage onto the buildings, igniting them and slowly turning the town into a devastating hellfire.

[The Welsh Paddy]

Degra was staying in this town. The people seemed to be peace-loving folk; not wanting to be part of any form of violence. This, she accepted, for her reasons for fighting were to make this world a much better place. A place where violence would not be needed. Maybe then she would find her own inner peace, despite seeming to live to fight. So, after the first day of staying in this village, Degra liked it here. But, quite unexpectedly, things took a sudden change for the worse, with the arrival of a man of considerable fighting prowess.

But his skill wasn't put to good use. Having observed this man, Degra came to the conclusion that he got pleasure out of killing people. Well, she thought, she would put an end to all this needless killing.

Degra watched the brief scuffle between this man and one of the villagers. It really was a quick fight, which came to a halt when the smaller man fled. Out of anger, the man thrust his sword into the throat of an unsuspecting villager, who had merely been at the wrong place at the wrong time and had stopped to watch the commotion. Degra felt angered by this dishonourable action, and felt the need to take matters in her own hands. She would take on this "warrior" in one on one combat, and she will make him think twice about abusing his fighting skills. Either that, or she would resort to killing him.

Degra knew this man was about to go on a rampage and utterly destroy everything in this town. Men, women, children and buildings would all be destroyed by his hands if Degra didn't do anything to stop him. With a smirk, she slowly walked up to him. This man was not the only person who enjoyed to battle. Degra was a warrior by rites, trained under the great warrior Ajit. If this man was looking for a challenge, then Degra would give him a challenge.

She spat on the floor and then fixed her yellow-green eyes on the man, grinning rather evilly. She then stopped several paces in front of her opponent, her hands hovering about the hilts of her twin axes. "I am Degra," she said. "I have observed your behavious upon coming back to this village, and by your actions, you no longer deserve to live."

She drew out one of her axes and held it losely in her hand, still keeping her eyes on her opponent. "I challenge you to do battle," she continued. "If I defeat you, then you are to leave this place unharmed. If you do not agree to this, then I will have no hesitation in killing you and feeding your worthless hide to the pigs."

She remained stood where she was, with the smile fixed upon her face. She waited to see how her opponent would react to this challenge. She knew he was angry, and she planned on turning that to her advantage. This very well could be a great fight, she thought. But so far her opponent had shown no reason for her to worry about him. And besides, she had plenty of surprises up her sleeves.

[Kou]

Building after building and person after person collapsed under the unrelenting heat of the conjured flames, leaving nothing but charred remains. This was the punishment that this honourless town had brought upon itself.

But over the noise of screaming town folk and wood burning and disintegrating came a voice with a small part of authority to it. It was a woman’s voice.

"I am Degra," she said. "I have observed your behaviours upon coming back to this village, and by your actions, you no longer deserve to live."

“My actions are reasonable, these people would rather give into their fear and die than fight for not only their possessions but for their lives. I shall bring the death and destruction they have chosen to them. I am their end.”

Kenji’s mind was beginning to erode. The once compassionate warrior was becoming a crazed lunatic. Raving mad or not he still possessed fighting abilities that would challenge even the most accomplished combatant. He returned Degra’s grin with a smile of his own. She drew one of her axes and held it loosely in her hand. Kenji focused on the placement of her fingers and the way the muscles in her arms tensed and relaxed. He could judge by the way she held it and her callused fingers that not only had she used axes before but she knew how to use them against another person.

“I agree to your terms. If you somehow manage to defeat me I have found what I have been looking for and I shall leave this town but if you and your axes cannot stop what I have already started, then you shall either leave or burn along with this town.” He used his time talking to try and judge what other abilities she possessed apart from her axes, he knew there was something else but he was unable to figure out exactly what. Though whatever it was, it would have to be unveiled soon. He also had a few skills that he rarely unleashed but would if it came down to it.

Kenji tightened the leather strap of his scabbard that run over his right shoulder and across the left side of his torso. He wore a long sleeved grey shirt that cover his leather torso guards strapped to his body. Long black pants ran down to well worn black war boots. It was his battle outfit, though not conventional it was all he needed.

Without a noise of warning or thought of hesitation Kenji broke into a run towards Degra. Sword in his right hand outstretched horizontal to his body. As he ran towards her he focused on the ground beneath her feet. Using his elemental prowess forced the ground she was standing on to suddenly drop a two feet into the earth. The ground around he had dropped just as Kenji came within striking reach. He slashed his sword horizontally as her throat was now level with the oncoming blade.

[The Welsh Paddy]

Degra raised an eyebrow. This man wasn't quite as mad as she had first assumed. Or he was, but the thought of a challenge appeared to take a hold of him. Either way, he was potentially dangerous. They both stood there for a second before, without warning, her opponent suddenly charged at her. Degra had suspected such an attack, but she immediately knew there was more to it than this. The man's sword was drawn, and he appeared to be readying himself to just attack with his sword.

Degra drew out her other axe swiftly and braced herself, ready to take the force of her opponent's sudden assault. However, the ground around her feet suddenly sank a couple of feet, and she was faced with the threat of having her throat slit open by her opponent's blade.

But Degra had expected some form of trick from her opponent, and on instinct, she leaned back, the point of her opponent's blade just barely knicking the skin of her neck, drawing a slight trickle of blood. She hardly felt a thing, though, and continued with her motion, turning the movement into a cartwheel, aiming a kick to her opponent's face in an attempt to drive him away at least a couple of paces.

Then, as soon as her feet touch the ground, she pushed herself towards her opponent and launched a furious barrage of slashes with both her axes. Four, swift and powerful slashes, aiming for her opponent's torso. Though her attack seemed highly aggressive, she was ready to alter her fighting pattern in any way to fend off any counter attack her opponent may have.

OOC: Bit of a rush job, this is. :\

[Kou]

As Kenji followed through with his horizontal slash he also turned his body in a circle. For a brief moment his back was turned to Degra. At that moment a blow landed on the back of his head knocking him sideways a couple steps. Without too much exertion Kenji remained on his feet and turned back to face Degra. As he turned he immediately jumped back from a swinging axe aimed for his torso. He kept jumping back by summoning brief gusts of wind with tremendous power to enhance his backwards jumps, dodging the four aggressive attacks.

Want to get aggressive do you? thought Kenji has he ran his fingers over the small hilts of the two daggers he had strapped to his side. His fingers were inside the leather pouches which concealed the daggers, strapped to his waist belt. The hilts looked like regular battle style but the blades were far different. One was jet black and the other was completely white. They were not for battle but were ceremonial. Not yet, save the surprise for later

All of a sudden flames began to protrude around Kenji’s hands. The flames around his hand holding the sword shot up the length of the blade and covered it completely. The fire rose up his arms until they reached his shoulders were the stopped. Kenji felt no heat or searing pain as he was immune to the effects of his own magic.

He again began to charge towards Degra, flames billowing out behind him as he ran. Kenji focused on the ground beneath him and suddenly the earth seemed to crack and the area around him shot up a few feet into the air and than returned back down to it’s original state. Kenji now in the air drew his sword back behind his head and prepared for a falling vertical strike aimed for Degra’s skull.

As Kenji reached the apex of his elemental aided jump a monumental gust of wind blew from behind Kenji as he released his hold of the fire around him. The flames left his body and with the aid of the wind gushing from behind propelled the hellfire and Kenji towards Degra. As the flames would hit Degra and hopefully occupy her Kenji would follow through with his downward strike.

OOC: Mine is a bit rushed too and I haven't had the chance to edit it but it should do :{ (my smiley has a little goatee)

[The Welsh Paddy]

Degra wasn't surprised that her opponent had dodged her attacks. Afterall, she didn't plan on revealing too much about herself unless it was absolutely necessary. The man seemed to have no problem at all in dodging these attacks, which meant that Degra would have to take a different approach. She considered one possible way, but discarded that idea and decided against using that until a later stage. Countless thoughts crowded her mind, each one with different ways of battling her opponent. She stared at him, awaiting his next move, which should bring her to a decision about her next course of action.

To her satisfaction, the man already resorted to using some form of magic, even if it was a little, it gave her that much more of an idea of what to expect from him later on. Flames erupted from the combatant's hands, and spread up, covering his sword. He seemed highly tollerant towards the flames, which made Degra wonder whether this meant he was immune to fire itself, or if it was just his own magic that had no effect on him. Degra considered putting this to the test, but she still awaited her opponent to attack.

At this stage, it could prove fatal to perform another attack such as her last one. She had no idea what her opponent could do at this point. So she watched, as her opponent made yet another charge at her. Yet again, he performed a little magic, but this time manipulating the earth to throw himself up in the air. If her opponent ever grew tired from using such magic, she found that it was rather foolish in using it the way he did. Especially since he had no idea what Degra was capable of.

Degra made no move as she watched her opponent come down upon her, though she was using a little magic of her own. Her skin grew harder, taking on the texture of stone. As this happened, she brought both her axes up to block her opponent's attack and braced herself. This movement, combined with her Skin of Jade ability, would make her opponent's attack not even damage her the slightest. The idea behind the magic she used, was to highly increas her tolerance against the heat of those flames, and she was confident she could stop her opponent's blade from getting past her own.

As soon as the weapons clashed together, sending sparks flying, Degra cancelled her ability and then called upon the fire spirits, dwelling in the Umbra. Her axes began giving off smoke, and then started sparking a little, before suddenly erupting into flames. She smirked at her opponent. "Let's play with fire, then, shall we?" she asked.

The brief pause between both fighters clashing against each other would most probably have allowed her opponent to regain his posture. Degra could have taken the opportunity to attack him, but didn't relish the thought of being burnt. But now that she had called upon a little fire magic of her own, she had no worries in charging her opponent again, attacking with both her blazing axes. This time, Degra was aiming to really harm her opponent, while at the same time, test to see his tolerance against fire.

If he really was tolerant against fire, then she would resort to another tactic, but she would need a little time for that. She may very well have to power herself up to be able to use her additional abilities in battle. Things were getting really interesting now, she thought rather happilly.