Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Oh, hey!" She'd reply back, having to shout some over the rumbling murmurs of the crowd at her back. Completeing this rather odd moment would be a cheerful smile and a thumbs up at the man, indicating that Hoshiko was totally happy to be up here and fighting him. Mind you, when she grinned like that she also closed her eyes. And when she opened them, she would catch a glimpse of the man hefting up the massive keyboard from infront of it's bewildered player.

"Hey...wait...wha?"

Hoshiko managed to sputter out, confusion setting in. Wasn't he going to come down to her so the two could fight it out? Did he really hate this music that much? Oh...wait. The realization of what exactly was going on finally hit the fighter. He was going to just start tossing whatever was handy at her. Now, normally this would be a pretty legit tactic in the woman's mind. There was only small problem that, as far as she could tell, she'd noticed while he hadn't.

The stage ended inches behind the one armed warrior. And when the stage ended, the crowd began. Huge numbers of innocent bystanders that could be hit by a stray attack. Or, in this case, a stray hunk of equipment thrown by a man with superhuman strength. There wasn't much choice about what to do. She couldn't just dodge the attack and let someone else take the hit.

Gritting her teeth, Hoshiko would shift her feet so that her right side faced towards the center of the stage where Krausse was located. From here, she merely brought her only arm up and braced it against her side, the skin along the length of it seeming to shimmer for a moment.





The keyboard would collide dead center with Hoshiko's upper arm, knocking the woman backwards into the crowd once more. Unfortunately, this almost meant that the follow up mic would go off sailing into the wave of faces. Someone was going to be leaving on a stretcher. There would be no crowd support this time. No helping hands. The ninja would land with her back on the cold cement, the thud from her impact rising through her body.

1

Mind still with her, she knew that this meant she was 'out of the ring'. A ten count was surely being given, the sound of it drowned out by the roar of the crowd. Blinking, Hoshiko faultered. They were cheering for her still. Begging her to get back up on the platform. This was the highlight match of the round. Two crowd favorites bound to give a good fight. The masses didn't want it to end too early.

2...

3

With a grunt, the fighter would climb to her feet and back onto the stage. She could only hope that he didn't have much more to toss down at her, so that maybe this fight would get going in earnest.

She wouldn't have it any other way!

The two fighters were here to brawl it out in front of all these people. Whatever their feelings were outside of this impromptu ring were, they had no sway on the events inside it. No, on top of this platform they were foes. Rivals. And to be honest, Hoshiko didn't like to lose to her rivals.

Krausse charged at her, having jumped from the DJ platform. Her emerald eyes watched him intently, even as she finished pulling herself up and standing up on the edge of the stage. One of the man's hands had reached behind him, no doubt going for a weapon. Instinctively, Hoshiko did the same. Her right arm coming across her chest to grip the handle of her own blade. Her sword strapped to the remaining stub of her left arm.



Krausse came in swinging.

His baton would be, once in range, brought in as a bashing attempt on her left shoulder. Swinging diagonally, it was brought in in such a direction that made Hoshiko's next move oddly possible. She drew her blade, partially. Lifting the handle up and towards the man's face. When Krausse's weapon came down, it would impact her blade rather than her shoulder. And since it was still partially sheathed, the blow's force spread out between her gripping hand and her other arm.

She could only assume that the man's weapon would then proceed to bounce off. Or, more likely, glance downwards along the blade and hilt, deflecting off towards their waists and outside. Meanwhile, Hoshiko would continue to draw out her weapon, fully removing it and hopefully bashing the man in the face with the bottom of the handle.

Hoshiko matched Krausse in his revelry. The woman was never much of a woman, having always preferred wrestling around to playing dress up. Toy swords to dolls. But where her opponent had a sort of violent feel to his enthusiasm, Hoshiko just lacked it. She fought with all the intent to inflict pain, but it didn't appear on her visage. She looked like she was having a good time...like she was at some party.

Then s**t went wrong.

First thing, her hit landed. Her blows never landed! Or at least, her experiences thus far in the tournament and implanted such a thought, time and time again. Hell, she even made the man bleed! Her look of calm pleasantness turned to one of utter shock. Disbelief. She'd made the man bleed.

Perhaps this surprise was what cause her reaction to Krausse's quick retort. Or rather her lack of a reaction. Just like any intelligent martial artist would do, the man managed to salvage the energy of his deflected swing and bring it back around and down. Down towards her footing, and sweeping it out from under her. Meanwhile, the man shot forward, seeking to tackle Hoshiko to the ground.

Two problems arose.

The first being her weapon being stuck between the two of them. With her only arm brought in front of her chest during the tackle, his forward momentum would, at least, push her weapon up and out. The point of the blade being extended meaningless over her left side shoulder.

Problem number two was a bit more severe than having her arm pinned to her chest. That being that Hoshiko was already standing on the edge of the stage. When Krausse tackled her backwards, there was no more arena to land on. So just moments after managing to avoid getting too high on the ring out count, Hoshiko was flung from the ring once more. At least her opponent was coming with her this time.

Thud!

The beast with two backs hit the hard concrete, with the unfortunate Hoshiko's back taking the majority of the blow. There was the possibility that Krausse, in his football like tackle, might have hit his head. But let's be honest, there aren't too many people with necks that long. The blow from the impact, coupled with the man's shoulder driving into her chest and diaphragm, was enough to elicit a pained grunt from the one armed fighter as the air escaped her lungs. Didn't seem like it was too eager to return, either.

But she had to push through it!

Hoshiko's weapon would be abandoned, her hand simply letting go to let it fall to the floor with a clatter. Her vision swam, but she didn't need it. Not for this, she could feel her target. It was pressed right against her after all. Just like Vince the dragon had felt so many times before, Krausse was about to feel the wrath of the guillotine choke! But wait, Hoshiko only had one arm. A slight problem. She would shove her arm down and around the man's throat all the same, assuming that Krausse didn't do something to prevent this. Then, she would brace it against the stub of her left, which basically tapered off a little bit below the middle of the bicep.

Ready for the kicker?

Assuming that she was able to get into this choke, her squeezing arm braced in the blood choke fashion, she would activate her metal skin ability once more. Essentially, locking her arms in this position.