Zenrai vs Arial

[Shockingcat]

A match between the Zenrai the Crimson Dawn and the Ninetail Fox Arial Silversong

Arena: is a 50 foot radius wide dome made completely out of stone. Two Exit and Entrance are located at opposite ends and are completely open, leaving through those entrances result in a forfeit, willing or unwilling.

Time Limit - 50 Posts  

[SpiritArcanis]

Zenrai stirred from his meditation, he had been working out a new technique, and a new form for his mind blade to take, an act of utmost focus. Slowly he rose to his feet in response to a subtle sound around the room, one that intoned a signal indicating he had another match. Long white hair was tied in a puny tail down his back, hidden as he pulled on the loose robes he preferred to fight in. The robe itself was a creamy white with golden trim and a golden sunburst covering the hood. The back of the robe was emblazoned with a crimson sun burst the same color of the pants he was wearing. Cream colored boots and cream gloves adorned with red crosses made up the ensemble of the six foot six inch tall Soul Knife. Carefully Zenrai made his way to the door of his waiting chamber, and out into the hall through which he could enter the large stone dome.

Zenrai proceeded slowly down the length of corridor, his sharp blue eyes easily adjusting the light within the arena. About ten feet into the arena he stopped placing his feet in a neutral stance his arms hanging loosely at his sides, his eyes drifting just far enough closed that he hid the color of his irises while he waited for his opponent. His mind cleared, his focus sharpening into hyper clarity his senses falling into alignment with his mind. Slowly one by one his reflexes were triggered briefly by his thoughts in order to tune them up for the fight.

Around him a swirl of what would look like wind caught the edges of his robes. In truth the energy was far from wind, it was force drawn from psi energy, similar to telekinetic energy. The energy was generated both by the mind, and by the body as an adaptive mutation that the Soul knife had been born too. With a gentle caress his mind touched the other consciousnesses that resided within the Soul Knife, those consciousnesses used to shape the mind blade known to Zenrai as triumvirate. A section of his own mind was also sectioned off in a similar fashion, it comprised the largest portion of the Soul Knifes mentality from before his psionic training, including his child hood mentality. All switches on, all lights green, the soul knife, was now all systems go for a good battle. Zenrai attuned his focus externally now, waiting for the appearance of his opponent. For now the soul knife remained unarmed at least at a glance.  

[Arial Silversong]

Arial waited patiently in the competitors lounge, waiting nervously for her name to be called up. She walked from one end of the room to the other, repeatedly while she tried to imagine who her opponent might be. This would be the first time participating in such event. Normally she would stay at her family's manor, afraid to venture out, even when her brother, Lucius, offered to take her on a adventure. But she was deathly nervous, for she never actually wandered out of the manor before, for the family always placed an restriction on her, even when the restriction was lifted, she had already stayed too long in the manor.

Continuing to pace up and down the room, her fuzzy ear twitched at the first sound that entered the room. A man, appearing to be one of the staff, came in to notify her that her match was up and she was to proceed to the designated arena. Done with his job he left the competitor's lounge, leaving Arial to be even more nervous than before.

Arial quickly began to check her appearance of her red, silken top, then her eyes shifted to her red socks and sandals. Once that was done, she checked on her hair, it was as if almost she was gonna meet the queen for the first time, while her nine tails slowly waved back and forth. Was she was done with her self check up, hey eyes shifted to the red orb. Giving the orb a slight toss upward, her mind took control, making it float for a bit before dropping it back to her hand. She knew now that she would as ready as she could be.

Exiting the lounge, she walked down the hallway where it eventually lead her to the Stone Dome Arena. Upon entering she spotted a man at the opposite end. Her tails moving again, she took the hand with her orb to make sure she still had it, the match was starting. Taking a quick bow just to be polite she made her orb float slightly above her hand ready to take action.

"My name is Arial, its a pleasure to meet you."

She introduced herself, the nervousness she once had was now gone, it was clear she was ready for battle.

Taking her free right hand, she pointed a finger toward the man, and then turned her whole hand around and made her finger move in a "come here" motion.  

[SpiritArcanis]

”My Name is Zenrai Rhay, may you fight with honor.”

Zenrai spoke his tone deep and resonant an eerie tenor for a man with such a large frame. His eyes were cracked and through his lashes he could make out his opponent. A woman, at least part kitsune, or fox demon, red tails, and red hair of nearly identical shades. She was significantly shorter than the six and a half foot tall soul knife. Around her hovered a sphere one either self directed or mentally directed. The woman made a come hither gesture with her hand and Zenrai felt inclined to take her up on the offer to make the first move. Carefully he unlocked the first set of restraints his mind put on his body. Those restraints would have kept him at a purely human level until released.

As the restraints came free his mind sharpened and pristine icy blue eyes came into sharper focus. Then he moved, though it would not seem so to someone with human perceptions. If her eyes recorded information and processed it at the same speed as a normal human that she would miss him actually moving. Her eyes would register a slight shift in his stance, then nothing, then he would flicker into place about eight feet farther forward. If the woman could see the movements they would appear completely fluid as he continued forward. If her perception was human she would catch glimpses of him every second roughly in jumps of eight feet forward.

Zenrai would come in from his right, the womans left hand side his gait wavering sort of shifting back and forth. As he approaches his actions are going to shift all of his momentum through his right fist pivoting on his right foot as he flicked his hand open palmed towards the woman creating a buffer of force from psychic energy in his hand. If the strike landed, was blocked, or diverted that buffer of force would shunt into the point of impact assuming it was Zenrai's hand that made contact and not somewhere on his arm.

As he sprinted forward at the limits of this restraint level his eyes which were wired to accept and process information far faster than the normal human eye would be trained on his opponent. His eyes and his mind would read every shift in her stance and her weight that was even slightly telegraphed, any movement from the sphere would shift through his vision, as would any preparation of a physical defense.  

[Arial Silversong]

Arial watched Zenrai wasting no time going into the offensive, which made her automatically get ready for a defensive counter. Even as Zenrai dashed forward in a series of blinks, Arial managed to keep her eye on him. It would appear most normal humans would not be able to keep up with such speed, but she was not human, for she was a ninetailed fox (well mostly), therefore she had heightened sense allowing her to maintain vision of the man.

Shifting into a defensive stance, by moving the orb slightly in front of her in where the blast from the Zenrai would impact at as Arial moved slightly back to get into a better posture. As the strike would apparently hit the orb, the hand would stop around an inch away as if something else was there, additionally at the same time of the impact a ripple could be seen from the point of impact revealing that the ninetail had set up a barrier, albeit a small one judging from how far the ripple went.

Quickly Arial went into the offensive, putting energy into the orb, it let lose a forward burst that would knock Zenrai back, if caught flat footed he would probably be knocked to the ground instead, but from quick assessment that would be highly unlikely.

Once she sent off the attack, though it was mostly for distraction to ready her next defensive action. Taking a few steps back, Arial sent some more energy into the orb as it changed from its red to a light green. Using her left hand she controlled the orb and held it out front as if ready to shoot it off. Now all she had to do was wait.  

[SpiritArcanis]

Zenrai felt the resistance above the sphere as his palm came into contact with the shield aura by way of a fifty pound shove of raw force. More important than what the psi thrust would do to the shield or the sphere was the momentum it imparted in reverse on the soul knife. As his hand reflected off the blow back towards his body he pivoted back one step on what was his leading right foot. As his heel came down on the stone surface of the arena his left foot pivoted stepping across the right side of his body the movement utterly fluid and carrying him out of the path of the stream of energy. While his shoulder and back were exposed to his opponent a shift occurred in his hand a tomahawk of crimson red energy flashed into existence.

The move was subtle a feint designed to hide the appearance of the weapon and the art of its creation. Once again his right leg now the same as his opponents right leg pivoted back around towards his opponents left leg putting him right shoulder first aimed at a slight angle towards his opponents left side. The pivot was coupled with an upward diagonal slash of the largish one handed tomahawk aimed at the orb, timed between the flash from red to green. If she didnt read the pirouette as a full pivot attack instead of as the original assumption most people would make of a retreating initial pivot.

Basically the woman had to distinguish weather this was a dodge, or a dodge feinting and pivoting back into an attack all within the first step that the soul knife took. This fighting style short to mid range against close range inside the woman's comfortable zone would serve the soul knife well aiming to unbalance the woman, pushing her back on her heels to rock her. Zenrai swung the tomahawk at the sphere with enough force to throw it across the room easily, and if it was connected to her by some physical force to send her reeling back.

Shield or no shield if the woman didnt withdraw that swing would ring her bell good. At the end of the swing one way or another Zenrai would roll the axe across the back of his hand into a reverse grip in a move that would look like slight of hand. At the point where the axe came into initial contact with the shield, if it did so, it would create a brilliant crimson flash more than bright enough to leave the poor woman light blind for long enough that the Soul Knife could go on the attack again.

((As a note the original series of steps takes maybe ten seconds to execute so its not really something which can be interupted given the established series of events.))  

[Shockingcat]

It was a smart move, to try and remove the orb from her presence, but unfortunate for him, he attacked at exactly the wrong time. The axe would stop only an inch away, as if the attack lost all momentum, as then a sudden blast from the orb would shoot out at the attacker with the same momentum from the attack but slightly more amplified. Not letting the counter go to waste, Arial took her orb and formed a spike and dashed straight forward with the spike leading the front, additionally around the orb another barrier formed, making like an umbrella, to prevent frontal attacks. But using this much barriers at once would prove to be quite greedy with the energy, therefore using such techniques again would be unavailable for a short time.  

[SpiritArcanis]

Zenrai felt the forces of his attack abating as they entered within the range of the sphere, his fingers reflexively loosened on the hilt as he spun out and away from the woman. As the burst of force occurred it would redirect through the axe as the source of the original forces. The axe would be thrown out and away from the woman in the opposite direction of Zenrai's newest pivot. As the woman charged forward it would be between the two angles of retreat. Once the tomahawk reached fifteen feet from the soul knife it would vanish. Meanwhile Zenrai would spin around behind the womans charge a small flat throwing knife materializing in his hand. Zenrai flung the knife with a short sharp gesture letting his hand carry through over his left shoulder as his hand reached the end of the arc a shuriken formed with three points between his fingers. A second sharp gesture sent the shuriken spinning towards the woman's back.

The thrown weapons would be in the woman's blind spot hard to dodge in the extreme and moving with enough force to ruin the woman's balance. Zenrai was using basic soul knife techniques and his speed and strength so far, but there were plenty of techniques he could reach for in an emergency. For now though Zenrai watched the weapons fly towards the woman odds were she would find some way to slip out of the threat. Zenrai smiled and twisted his wrist creating a long cable like weapon like a whip with a hilt. The weapon would get longer and longer at Zenrai's will. This was one of the five most complicated weapons Zenrai would conjure so he would take his time watching the energy gather around the hand.