The Crater

[xClashx]

Four seconds into combat.

Gripping Yusuke's spiritually-charged wrist is like holding onto a live wire, and it's all he can do not to let go. His own ardor tears through his body like a lightning storm, fortifying his resolve and indirectly wedging the conflicting energy outward from his palm. He's surprised to see Yusuke returning the favor, but as the guy's fingers close around that menacing arm of Clash's, three indistinct black shapes jet out of the opening in the synthetic palm and coil tightly around both Clash and Yusuke's forearms. Are they tentacles!? Now Yusuke can't let go, and as the manipulators continue to tighten and cut off circulation, blood brims to the surface while the rending barbs sink into flesh.

He acts even as both of Yusuke's sneakers leave the ground, widening his stance as he scoots slightly more to the left, then pulls down fiercely on both of the captured limbs to interrupt the upward kick and spike his foundationless opponent's head into the earth.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

Yusuke couldn't help but notice these black appendages shooting out of Clash's right arm, the tentacles themselves suddenly wrapping tightly around his left forearm, causing him to wonder what the hell that was. The ebony bindings were squeezing tight, as if they wanted to see Yusuke's hand explode from built up blood. The spirit energy spraying about the squeezing limb would grow greater in power, calming down until it concentrated into a firm foundation along Yusuke's skin. In short, it would suddenly make his forearm alone much more durable, the muscles being fortified and fed energy that made them much more stronger. Though demonic tendons lied underneath already to give increased durability, a little more wouldn't hurt. Ironically, that little more would be just the thing from keeping his arm from becoming a toothpaste bottle being squeezed, and also keep the sharp pointing ends from going through his arm like a pencil striking through a single sheet of paper.

Just what was Clash trying to do to his left arm as it was feeling like he was in the sharp jaws of a shark wanting to chomp his arm off at the elbow. All of these feelings pass through his mind as he is suddenly pulled to his right, now falling toward his right side, with his head slightly leading. Landing straight into the snow, the upper right part of his skull hitting into the softness of the white fluff until it bounces up with his right shoulder and side resting against the ground, Yusuke would take quick measures to continue his movement as snow shot up a little from his body pressing against the ground. If he gave Clash even one second of free time, he would regret it. He knew how vicious his attacks were, so he was going to have to keep up with his own.

"Gargh!"

As soon as he landed, he swings his legs in a manner similar to starting a helicopter spin in some break dancing maneuver. The right leading, its only purpose would be to face Yusuke directly at Clash, so he could extend his legs and smash the bottom of both of his shoes into the gut of Clash. With a pull on the grips that encased his right wrist and his left forearm, Yusuke would roll backwards on his back so he could suddenly throw Clash overhead into a monkey flip. The throw itself was meant to send Clash striking onto his back behind Yusuke, but in the process, because of the fortified grips, Yusuke would be going along for the ride, the momentum good enough to bring him into a backwards roll to where he would now be standing over Clash, with both feet planted on each side of his body.

Looking down at the man, not caring that both of his arms were captive, Yusuke would suddenly drop himself onto his knees, which would have him mount him. And from this position, he does what any person without use of their arms or legs would do: he headbutts, his forehead aiming to strike right into his opponent's own. "HAAA!"

[xClashx]

Yusuke Urameshi

As soon as he landed-

Clash, stance widened for balance and firm base, took advantage of that tiny moment of impact and stomped on the back of Yusuke's neck with a heavy right boot. There's little room for Yusuke to squirm with all of the two-hundred-pound man's weight on his fragile trachea, no matter how much he thrashes his legs, and Clash pulls up on both of the guy's arms to hyperextend them in their sockets and hold him in place.

He grimaces as tubule-like ports jut out of his symbiotic arm in brief gouts of dark ichor, letting Yusuke choke on snow as he presses dangerously down on the youth's throat with the heel of his boot.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

Yusuke would have been eating snow, but he did land on his right side instead of fully on his front. If his face had landed like that, then he would have had to turn his upper torso more toward the ground. But with his arms captured how they were, he wasn't going to try to twist his right arm, at least, out of the socket, or at least his body's inner muscles would not allow it unless forced. That is why the boot would instead strike down against the left side of his neck, though he would show great resistance by keeping himself balanced on his right side alone, straining against the downward force applied by the foot.

"Grrr!" This was just great. Clash obviously had just brought him to the ground. All because he didn't expect his opponent's ace up his sleeve, literally, which was that weird right arm. As much as he wanted to be between a rock and a hard place, he just had to get things back into order here. And to make up for the mistake, he would do something similar to what Clash had did.

Whrrrr! A rising volume of some sound similar to how some generator starts up its processes occurs from the position of Yusuke's right hand, some type of power charging itself. And though his wrist was captured, his right index finger was mainly pointed at Clash's body, the chest mostly.

FWSSSSHHH!

A blast of spirit energy would erupt from the finger, the size of a soccer ball, as it goes to splash into his opponent's body. The light would stand out between them before the impact occurs, which would then cause a blast of spirit energy to erupt right in the middle of their bodies. The force alone was capable of pushing them both back, but if that grip remained on both of his arms, in the effort of keeping his arms from being ripped from his shoulders, Yusuke would go along for the ride.

Or it may just work in the reverse. With his back against the ground, he would pull and use the force of gravity to keep Clash against the blast to have him remain longer within the attack and possibly take damage that Yusuke had earlier evaded narrowly, while they go skidding along the ground, or at least, Yusuke's back like a sled being drawn by barking wolves.

Or, it may just stalemate, and have them both sit there and take a good amount of punishment. It was all up to how long the grips would be held.

[xClashx]

Familiar with Yusuke's attacks, he knows what the whir and building light at the tip of the guy's finger means. He simply twists Yusuke's wrist away from his body and increases the pressure on the youth's neck, letting the Spirit Gun fire off into the distance.

Here it is: Aerosolized Rage.

With a loud hiss, a thick musk jettisons from Clash's arm ports, blanketing their dueling circle with a dense, black mist that obscures the senses and snuffs out magicks and radiant energy. Yusuke's left on the ground, deaf, blind, and unable to channel his puissance. But there's a catch: Clash can "feel" though this cloud, and in that way he can see.

Stripped of his power, Yusuke's little more than a crippled human, and two of Clash's barbed manipulators--still operable on a more mundane level--break away from the forearm, extend, and coil about Yusuke's head and ribs each. Then the squeezing and evisceration starts.

Fourteen seconds.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

Damn it!

His attack was diverted. If only he had shot it off a second earlier, then maybe....but that was a mistake he had to forget. There was one more thing he was going to do, not yet wanting to go into more advanced tactics against Clash. He liked challenging himself whenever he could, so this type of situation was taken as a liking to him. It was like a puzzle, a way for him to grow smarter by trying and failing at different tasks in order to learn what worked and what didn't in a variety of situations.

When he tries to fire off another spirit gun, from his left hand this time, he suddenly felt it disperse. Somehow, his spirit gun was being...snuffed out! What was with this smoke. And then his senses started to dim. What the hell? But his spirit energy at least was kept safe within his body. The thing about Yusuke was that his spirit energy reacted naturally in keeping close within his body whenever something tried to get rid of it, since Yusuke's spirit enveloped his entire body. So, he may not be able to fire off a spirit gun any longer, he could at least keep the supply running within, as the form of his body acted like a barrier against the outside force trying to penetrate into him.

He was more like a down human who wasn't going to be crushed just yet under the power of the fog or the foot pressing into the side of his neck. He was feeling his sight, his hearing, his smell....everything was being dumbed down. It was like he was being knocked into unconsciousness, to be passed out into dream land. And maybe forever.

I'm not going to go down...so easily!

He had to rise! He had to stand up and fight! This wasn't him! He wasn't known for being pinned so easily like this! It was time to take drastic measures. It all started with his left foot striking parallel with the snowy ground. He does the same with his right foot. He would require the left to be his main stand point, which shouldn't be a problem. His head started to slowly rise against the foot, as Yusuke was suddenly tensing the muscles of his upper back, his neck, and his legs to begin to rise, and rise. He had a main force to use, which was Clash's body itself. If he was not going to give, then Yusuke could pull against the arms to help him rise even further. Nothing to lose but his pride at this point, so he had to keep rising! His left foot was forcing against the ground, using the right knee to push against it, too, to have himself continue to try to upright himself. His upper body would be turning more toward the ground, so he could further get a stable kneeling point.

He felt like he couldn't exert his spirit energy. It must have had something to do with this smoke. It felt so....suffocating. But he couldn't let it bother him. It was temporary. He had to survive for these thirty seconds. He had to show that this time was nothing to him.

"Yaaargh!" With a sudden lead with his left shoulder, he bends his arms, since he could at least do that, though the left arm would be less efficient with that black tentacles stuff, as he pulls toward himself to suddenly rise and tackle himself toward Clash at the same time. The man's right foot would be going up with him, tossed aside, with a single leg balance leaving him vulnerable to falling onto his back, Yusuke just pushing with a heavy yell. He didn't know if this was going to quite work the way he wanted, but his only intention was to get back onto his feet with a burst of energy and try to turn the tables into his favor. His head was being enveloped, and his chest, too. But he did not care. He was going to use will and brute body endurance to wave his way through this.

He was going to conquer the dinosaur!

[xClashx]

His boot began to shake, and he felt Yusuke struggling to rise from beneath. Still got fight in him. Instead of resisting, he suddenly let everything go slack, removing his boot and releasing the guy's hands. The manipulators uncoiled and retracted at once . . . except the one around Yusuke's head. It pulled taut as Clash took a step back with his right leg, letting the spirit detective's head come up as his wide fingers closed about it like an NBA player palming a basketball, and as Yusuke burst upward, Clash drove his chambered right knee (prosthetic and metallic) into the bridge of the sightless opponent's nose.

Twenty-seven.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

WHAM!

He felt something hard hit into his face as the force pulling on his head directed him, causing a great wincing expression to appear on his face. Oh, what agony! The pain! The series of nerves reacting in his nose!

Okay, so it was overdramatic, but at least it was known that it hurt. No much of a nose break, though, considering Yusuke had taken hits harder than that to the face before. But Yusuke grips quickly around whatever had hit him, his arms hugging the shin, knee, and thigh of Clash, bringing both of his feet stably to the ground. He recognized what had hit him. A leg. Which meant, he could easily visualize how Clash's body was in front of him. And then, he pulls on it with his left arm solely to bring his body in closer, while his right fist would shoot forward, aiming an underhook right for the stomach of Clash, letting just his bare strength alone bring the pain. And letting go, whether the right fist struck or not, he would bring in a left uppercut for Clash's chin, depending on that right fist strike to distract him long enough to not see the simultaneous hit coming from the left. Even though he couldn't see much at all, just his imagination alone was good enough to steer him through his blackening mist.

[xClashx]

He tensed his abdominal muscles to brace for the impact from Yusuke's punch, then released his grip on the guy's head to bat the uppercut away. Then Clash is lost in the mist.

Thirty.

When the cloud dissipates, Clash is standing back-to-back with Yusuke, lighting up a cigarette. "I'm not all tentacles and mist, you know," he remarks, as if ashamed of his arm, which has since returned to normal. He'd have much rather gone strictly hand-to-hand with Yusuke. "Guess it just turned out that way."

His hand drops, cigarette still dangling between two fingers, and his sallow yellow gaze wanders to the edge of the forest.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

Yusuke felt the strong packs that was Clash's abdominal. And then he felt nothing, his left fist swinging and missing. When the cloud suddenly disappears, it felt like he was suddenly breathing fresh air, quite literally, too, with his spirit energy feeling just as relieved as it was allowed to flow freely once more. With his senses back in check, he felt Clash standing right behind him. Thinking the fight was still going, he turns around, his right hand glowing bright as spirit energy gathered into that single strengthened fist. He turns around...

"YAAAA......huh?"

Clash was just standing there, now smoking a cigarette. Thirty seconds were over already, thought Yusuke? The spirit energy immediately died out, the teen relaxing himself, though he kept the fist lightly up, since all that adrenaline hadn't gone away just yet. He felt like just holding it near his abdominal, letting his muscles slowly release their tension. The expression on Yusuke's face was between calm and upset, showing that he somehow did not like that those thirty seconds was all he had. It felt like he needed to do more than what just happened. He wanted to continue and show that he was more than what those thirty seconds showed.

But he had to let it go. He wasn't here for a fight. He sometimes got himself lost in the thrill of combat, and that usually clouded his judgment during certain times. It was a negative attribute to his personality, but it could also be positive in the right situations. Right now, it wasn't appropriate.

The entire area they were just fighting in felt quiet again, the snow falling normally, with a few shapes in the snow showing where they tumbled and slid. The flurries start to create white specks in his hair and onto his jacket as he stares at Clash. Only to bring his right hand to his nose, which was red after getting bashed by a knee, rubbing it for a moment to relieve the pain until he speaks: "I still don't think no less of you. You're just the type of guy I need. So, can I trust you with helping us get to the finals....and winning, too?"

[The Machetero]

He stood at the edge of a cliff, tilting his head downwards towards the center of the crater. What was that? It seemed like there was plant life deeper into the crater. Of course, he couldn't exactly tell, this crater was so deep it could've been his imagination you know? Well, whatever. He turned around, he started walking... until...

~CRAAACK~

"What luck..."

The cliff he was standing on? Well there was no cliff -- at least not anymore. His weight had caused it to break, and fall down into the depths of the crater.

[xClashx]

He looks over a bare shoulder at Yusuke, taking a drag of his cigarette as his eyes flicker once and settle into a less saturated brown. "I can't promise anything. Knowing the way things play out at HoH, chances are-!!"

Some type of metallic disk comes spinning down from the heavens, settling on the ground to the right of the two in a whirlwind of snow as a dim hologram flickers into existence.

"Warmakers," the shrouded figure begins, "if you truly wish to regroup, meet me at the northeast edge of the forest. When you arrive, fire a shot into the air. I will be waiting." The projected message cuts off with a brief, high-pitched hum, then self-destructs Mission: Impossible-style.

Clash raises his right arm to shield his face from the shrapnel spray, grinding out his cig butt with the toe of a boot. "Hmm."

* * *

Meanwhile, at the crater's edge. . . .

Silhouetted against the gray sky, something vaguely humanoid stands at the top of the cliffs, watching the intruder's descent into the snow-blown crater.

[[Yusuke Urameshi]]

Before Clash could finish his sentence, a spinning disk caught both of their attention. Watching it strike into the ground, a hologram had suddenly appeared, making him feel like he was in a sci fi at this point. He watched and listened, hearing what supposedly was the name of some group called the Warmakers. Was Clash part of this group?

And then the thing explodes, causing Yusuke to shield his face with his right arm as he turns to the left. When the thing finally settles, he would give Clash a confused look. "What the hell was that?"

[The Machetero]

He continued to fall down the crater. 'Till he fell face down on a ledge, a large blastd be heard. He'd already fallen half the way down, and apparently he'd continue his trip. The collision had caused an avalanche. Down he went.. unconscious.

[xClashx]

"Your guess is as good as mine." A puzzled look crosses his face, gaze meeting the ground in thought. "But I'm about to find out." He heads north-northeast toward the forest, not quite directly into whoever's "waiting" for him, but then stops to glance back at Yusuke again. "What will you do between now and the tournament?"

Birds suddenly flock to the skies, as if something from far off has alarmed them. The being to the northeast? He doubts it. Maybe an intruding presence somewhere across the crater. The snowy flats carry sound well.

* * *

When the avalanche settles, the humanoid is there. The intense vibrations caused at the surface have obviously attracted the attention of something else. At least three sandwyrms, ranging from small to medium size, blast obscenely phallic trunks up through the debris, each smothering the area with three headed tongues. It waits, motionless, until they pass. One gloved, pumpkin-sized fist punches a hole in the snow, grabs hold of something, and comes up with the unconscious intruder by the scruff of the neck. It walks toward the crater's center, culprit in tow.