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 Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:02 pm
"The day I am preached to by the filth of the Underground will be the day I die." Yuuka's posture didn't change at all. She lifted her arm towards the bouquet of flowers. Petals began to fall from them, littering the surface they rested upon. "I will release you from your hell...Katrina."
Outside the shrine, roots began to grow and entangle themselves around the building, their tips poised to attack and pierce the wooden structure. Inside, Yuuka lifted her other arm, matching height with the first. "If there's one thing I can hold over you, Katrina, it's experience. I met you when you were still a child, and even now, you're still a child in the eyes of Youkai. Power is useless unless you know how to use it. Your body may have changed into this perversion of humanity, but your mind is still very much the same. You still think like a human. You still act like a human." The thick roots began to wrap around the shrine, its organic tendrils beginning to pierce wood. "And you will die like a human."
A massive root burst forth from the floor, directly behind Yuuka. Thorns erupted from its body, as did several roses of vibrant color. The roses began to glow, and release petal-like danmaku in waves of crimson in a large, twisting pattern, its center aimed for Livid.
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 8:11 pm
Livid looked to the side as the plants begun to appear, completely surprised by the sudden vines. She looked towards the dieing flowers later, and then back to Yuuka. Her eyes had frantically searched for a reason for this to happen, and as she remembered Yuuka was the youkai of flowers, it was obvious that she was the cause of this. "Aw, come on! I just cleaned this place up!" The demon chuckled, her stance tense and hands out ready to block.
She had expected danmaku, but what she got was a giant-plant-to-the-face. The shrine maiden, darted out of the way, sustaining flight inches from the floor, hiding the sligthest gulp when the vine that had headed towards her impacted where she once stood. Perhaps, she had bitten too much!
The sinful youkai laughed, trying to shake off the impending doom,"I think that If I where to die human, I would be dead already right?" She made her spear appear, spinning it in her hand, and standing ready. "I think I will make you pay for destroying my shrine!"
What a bluff, she knew she was done for if Yuuka wasn't even sligthly merciful. The aged youkai was right, Katrina had been a young human, and now was a young Youkai still. While the constant calling of her human name still probed her, the actual thorns would stab her even more was she not careful!
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:29 pm
Root upon root burst into the shrine from the floor, walls and ceiling. Yuuka motioned her arms, controlling the razor-thorned vines with surgical precision. She intentionally aimed each attack slightly off target, so even if they were to connect, it would be a grazing blow at best. However, striking livid was turning out to be more challenging than she thought; she managed to dodge the first wave of Yuuka's attack unscathed.
Behind her, the massive main root's tip blossomed into a large venus flytrap-like creature, sporting a deadly gaping maw of sharp spines. The roses altered their bullet pattern into an erratic spread, meant to impede Livid's range of movement within the shrine. Meanwhile, Yuuka stood still in the center of the organic chaos, nearly motionless aside from the arm movements made to control the vines, with her gaze never wavering. "Is this all you can muster, Katrina? Your power wastes so much energy, it expands and dissipates with no guidance or purpose behind it. Tell me, Katrina, is this all Sin can be?!"
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Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 9:38 pm
She may be facing an opponent with pressision, but even Livid knew Yuuka was going easy on. The chaos of plants in her shrine and shots of danmaku where hard to avoid even with her swift wings and ocasional spear -blocking. The gardener taunted her, still using her human name mockingly.
"Well not quite! But like I said I just fixed this shrine,and you messing it up is really pissing me off," The demon laughed, narrowly escaping one of the bigger vines. One more dodges, and a second, but the third got her square in the hit box, and she hit a wall, quickly bouncing off it and regaining flight,"Alright enough."
She aimed her spear, and with ancient pressison launched her spear right at the flytrap head. The spear erupted in black fire, the embodiedment of all the raging emotions in Livid.
While the speard cut through anything in its way, the demon landed with a grin,"You are right, I am a young youkai, and even like this, I have much to learn about this new body of mines." She lifted an arm sideways, a trail of black fire blazing straight in the direction she had pointed, before moving to point at the vine before Yuuka,"Sin is more powerful than many think. It has dragged saints to the verge of hell. How do you like Hell's fires?!"
The black fire consumed anything it caught, but it burned it in the oddest way. Vines that where caught would wither into oblivion, and the fire would rage on, it fed off the life things carried.
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Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:36 pm
The flytrap shrieked as it was pierced by Livid's spear, its giant maw gnashing at the magical weapon in a vain attempt to remove it, however eventually succumbing to the black fire that enveloped it. It withered and died, detaching from the main stalk that pierced the floor. Yuuka cast a casual gaze back to the fallen underling, making a quick mental note of its death, then returned her attention to Livid.
By now, Livid had begun to cast a ray of the same black fire, swinging it around to strike Yuuka. The beam of magic cut like a hellish laser, disintegrating all it touched into a lifeless ash. Quickly assessing the danger, Yuuka shut her eyes and wrapped her arms across her chest tightly, clasping her own shoulders; this signaled the remaining vines and roots to lash out and instantly cross in front of her, acting as a large, web-like shield of plant life. The beam cut through them, and each severed vine snapped and lashed out like a steel cable under high tension, before turning to the same decrepit dust.
The organic shield fell apart, revealing Yuuka to have disappeared. In actuality, she had leaped into the shrine's rafters, grasping a sharpened thorn taken from the main stalk like a sword. "Perhaps I misjudged you. I've never seen such focus of ones hatred, strong enough to snuff out all life in an organism. It's a shame you never had such force of will in your waking life, Katrina." Yuuka dove off the rafter, slashing downward at Livid with the sharpened thorn; the blow would be strong enough to splinter the wood beneath her, should it miss.
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Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 8:37 pm
Livid's fire attack slowled to small patches caught on fire around the shrine where any plant remained, she was content to see Yuuka retreat behind a shield. As the shield left though, Livid only bared a superficial smirk at Yuuka, she was quite angry (and Yuuka probably felt the pressure of the wrathful emotion) that she hadn't hurt her guest even more.
"Waking Life is a waste when you don't know where to walk, dear," Katrina gave a mocking yet sligthly saddened smile, as if exposing an undying thruth. The gardener lashed out, and while most would think the devil would attempt to dodge, she actually bent foward.
The demon's wings folded into their usual compact reclusion, and one of her legs slid to the side (as in a sideway lunge), while using her hands for support. She made it so that her body was safe in the small triangle between the thorn and Yuuka's body. The shrine maiden seemed to giggle gleefully at having loop-holed her guest's attack. Once more spreading her wings, she shot foward, trying to take Yuuka along for one of her usual pins.
It seemed the devil enjoyed having her prey in a submissive hold...
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Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 5:27 pm
...But the devil would enjoy no such pleasure today.
Yuuka's attack did indeed miss, thanks to Livid's evasive contortion. The organic blade struck into the wood below her, deep enough to splinter the wood and become lodged within the floor. Before Yuuka could react and remove the blade, Livid rushed her with grand demonic force, shoving the gardener back a number of yards. Instinct took her, and Yuuka dug her heels into the wooden floor, slowing their advancement almost to a halt. She tilted her head and smiled in a sneer, quickly grasping her hands around Livid's torso, twisting, and using the combined force of Yuuka's strength and the devil's own momentum to toss her up and across the room with a supplex.
Yuuka rolled one hundred and eighty degrees on the ground, righting herself and quickly returning to her feet. "You're strong, I'll give you that; but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before, you worm." Another vine snaked into view, this time wrapping itself around Yuuka's hand. She snapped her wrist, severing roughly nine feet of the vine from its source with a sickening CRACK!. Gripping it tightly, Yuuka lashed out with the impromptu whip, aiming for wherever Livid had fallen.
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Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 5:57 pm
The demon was surprised at Yuuka's quick reflexes, and when her attacked was stoped in such an easy way, she was twice as amazed. But the aged Youkai wasn't done, Livid got flung right around and into a sicking strong impact, landing right where Yuuka had placed her.
Her world was still spinning when the whip lashed her right across. The shrine maiden let out a surprised Uf! snapped back to her senses by the strong strike. Before Yuuka could hit her again, she rolled foward to her feet, twisting to face her opponent. That last impact was enough to take the breahnout of her, and so she panted sligthly letting her shoulders hang losely as she tried to cling to her energy. Livid knew she would need it if she wanted to get out of this one alive.
She hardly paid attention to the small trail of blood the last vine had produced, and much less to her wings that pained her from the impact. Her wings where sturdy but just as sensible, hitting them the wrong way was very dangerous. Now that she had her breath back, Livid straigthened out.
She was unsure what Yuuka's emotions read to, but it was hard to use something you couldn't understand. Due to Yuuka's feelings being so alienating to Livid, the sinful girl found little use in them, nevertheless, she figure that if the gardnenr could make a whip and a sword out of her vines, Livid may as well make use of her own abilities. It took her a small thought to think of how to counter the whip, but she made a shield in one arm. It resemble the wolf tengu's shield in shape, but it was a pit of black nothingness. She made her spear reappear, her most trusted weapon. But, the stetically simple design shared some diffrent color engravings this time, vivid red marks. Soon the shield had similar red marks before the entire thing was a blood red.
This was easily identified in Livid, who wore a solem face that did its best to hide her anger, though in a bit the grin cracked her serious face." Thanks. You aren't too shabby yourself, old lady." Yes, the anger in her voice was glazed with sarcasm and double sensed words. The once-gypsy, stood ready for Yuuka's next attack, defensively placing the shield before herself and the spear behind ready to trace a diameter.
While her attacks were about to turn much more vicious, her grin doctated that she was now not going to rush into attacks head first.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:06 pm
The Sinful Youkai's new arsenal didn't deter Yuuka at all. However, her stance did intrigue her: Such a defensive stance was common among certain human soldiers, particularly those skilled in group tactics. The infantrymen would move and attack together as one, protecting themselves and each other with a tightly woven defense with their shields, while fending off attackers with their long spears. Even a lone soldier could defend himself from wayward attackers with enough skill and finesse.
But this was no trained soldier. This is a young demon, desperate to gain an advantage against a strong opponent. How well will her defensive tactics and aggression (which in and of themselves are conflicting perspectives) hold against experience?
Yuuka smiled and held out her whip, a surge of magic energy flowing from her hand and coursing through its entire length. The whip began to gain numerous buds, and each bud began to bloom into a beautiful flower and glow. She lashed out with her whip once into the air; when the whip cracked, the flowers exploded in a shower of petal danmaku, and new buds regrew in their place. Once these flowers were fully grown and glowing once more, she lashed out for a second time, this time aimed for Livid and her shield. The whip's flowers would explode once again upon impact.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 3:38 pm
The whip cracked out again, it was another shower of Danmaku, Livid grazed back to keep Yuuka in her sight, but fall out of any danger area. So long as there was flowers around, there was a definite danger there. Livid had no idea how to over come Yuuka. If only her master was here, she would show this youkai the power of undergroun entities.
The second snap of the whip was blocked by the shield, making Livid shrink back behind the shield, but she kept her eyes over the edge. When she felt the back-kick of her shield taking the impact, she took the spear and tried to fork the whip with it, making it light up with a flash red fire that crackled in its own rage at being insulted in its own home.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:39 pm
Yuuka's second whip strike was surprisingly caught by the split end of Livid's spear, trapping it within its prongs. She pulled the whip taught against its entrapment, and the flowers along its length stopped blooming. "I pity you, Katrina. You were a lost soul when I met you, and you remain a lost soul even now. What do you hope to achieve against a naturally-born Youkai like myself? If the great Hakurei Shrine Maiden cannot defeat me, a lowly demon like yourself doesn't stand a chance."
With a sudden movement, Yuuka yanked on the whip while kicking off with her feet. The combined momentum that was exerted rocketed Yuuka forward at Livid, where upon reaching her, she struck Livid's shield with a strong punch, with every intent of either breaking it or knocking it loose from the Sinful Youkai's grip.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:56 pm
Livid had no way to stop Yuuka's pull, and upong having her shield attack when she was yanked, all she could do was brace for it.
Her shield broke like a spell would, and Yuuka's punch went through sending the demon into one of the pillars of her home. She slid down, sitting crumpled, her wings even limp. How could she hope to beat Yuuka? while physical damage was scrapes and bruises, Yuuka wasn't even trying!
The sinful youkai, made yet another spear, this one turned green, display her own jealousy at Yuuka's superiority. The demon stoof using it at first like a crutch and then as a staff. If there was no physical end in sight, her mental state was already on its last draw.
Once more she shifted to a defensive stand both hands on her spear.
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:30 pm
Yuuka couldn't help but notice that Livid had chosen yet another defensive stance. Was the demon already wearing down? "What's wrong? Have you lost your nerve already?" Yuuka held up her still-clenched fist, aching slightly from the impact moments ago; the bones within let out an audible crack! "Look at you: Groping around in darkness for power that isn't there. Your so-called 'god' isn't here anymore. She has left you, cold and alone, and without power."
Yuuka stepped closer with each word. Not a single spell was prepared, nor were any defenses. In this moment, her words were her weapon. "The truth hurts, doesn't it Livid? Nobody wants you; nobody cares about you. If you died today, the world would keep turning just the same. Your existence means nothing. You are nothing."
Now upon Livid, she grabbed the tip of her spear. Its dark energy burnt her hand, but she ignored the pain. "Katrina ill needs a savior that enslaves her. Break her influence! Katrina!"
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 9:51 pm
What? Yuuka wasn't attacking? Well she was, with her words. And though this was a speech she had heard, and much shorter, it really did hurt. Yuuka too her spear ignoring any sort of power running through it.
Her knuckles turned white from her grip on her spear,"I was nothing to start. The world kept turning when I disappear from its surface. At least here, I die like the animal I am, but I drag no one with me. My god didn't desert me, she was taken from me."
"The world spins. It would spin even without saints. It would spin withou devils. It would spin without anyone."
"Whose influece? The one of the god you just told me isn't here? I am cursed, not that kind of curse. As you said yourself, my changes fit me well, don't they? I am just an infection on society, why would I want to change it, when I can slowly kill what killed Katrina?"
She grinned in the face of her possible death bringer, putting her face to Yuuka's, with empty crimson eyes, and a smug smirk. "Why would I want to suddenly be bound to humanity again? I owe it nothing. I owe nothing to my god who betrayed my trust. I owe nothing to no one."
"I will die on my own, and the world will never know. What? Do you think your death being something worthy of being noticed will change what you did, Miss Kazami~?
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Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 10:38 pm
"I suppose you're right. The world would indeed keep turning without any of us" Behind Livid, a larger root slithered into position up through the broken floorboards, its tip honed to a fine edge. "But you're wrong about one thing." She reached out with her other hand, grasping Livid's throat with her own demonic strength, her nails like claws. "Humanity did not kill Katrina, nor did your god."
Her face bore a twisted smile as she stared straight into Livid's cold eyes. "I did." The root lashed out, and with Livid having nowhere to go, pierced through her chest. Blood splashed upon Yuuka's face. She licked her lips free of Livid's blood, releasing her grip on both the demon and her spear, letting her own weight break the otherwise fragile root, leaving its tip embedded in her chest.
Yuuka turned on her heel and walked a few paces away. She stopped, turning to Livid. "Die or live, do whatever you want. I came here to investigate these flowers, and nothing more. There's nothing else of interest in this shrine." She knew full well that such a feeble attack wouldn't produce a fatal wound, but she also saw no reason to continue the fight any longer. Katrina was dead, and Livid's fate was in her own hands. A hint of sadness could be seen in the aged gardener's eyes...
"I wish you had listened, Katrina. At least then your death would have been natural."
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