[Round 1] Whirda & Yuuka vs Dongja & Marisa

[Karl Jak]

“Hello, ladies and Asian man.” Karl scowled at another missed opportunity to tap into that lucrative sub-section of Dataverse culture.  “We’re getting down to the last few of our contests, but I know this will be a lovely one.”
 
A gong sounded.
 
“Smooches!”
 

Word Limit: 850
Posts: 2
Time Limit: 48 hours
Random Elements: On
Damage Meter: Off
 
Time limit starts at 8 am CDT
 
Fight Area description is available in the Fight Area Reveals thread and the Round 1 Discussion thread.

[PepsiWhirda]

Whirda fought back a surge of anxiety as she stepped onto the raised platform of the arena.  It rose like bile from her chest into her throat, caustic and bitter.  She curled her toes to prevent any outward sign of weakness.  She felt no fear of the battle to come—never had Whirda Windstrom, in her decades of combat, shied away from a fight.  Rather, it was concern for the welfare of her opponents that gave her pause.  The other Whirda, over whom she held no semblance of control, had proven herself a vicious and unsentimental killer.

At Whirda’s side, Yuuka seemed to sense her discomfort.  Her green-haired ally frowned and muttered under her breath, “Are you okay?”

Before Whirda could respond, their opponents appeared at the opposite side of the arena.  Whirda’s eyes narrowed as she examined her newest prey.  The pair of Primes seemed even more mismatched than Whirda and Yuuka—a girl, blonde curls spilling down from beneath a wide-brimmed black hat, carrying a broomstick; and her ally, caught somewhere between man and beast, wielding an unusual staff.

“I’ll take the girl,” Whirda whispered, a slight rasp edging her voice.  She assumed an expectant stance, arms bent slightly at the elbow, left shoulder thrown back to reduce the plane of her exposed torso.  Her fingertips twitched inches above the hilts of her daggers.  As she spoke, two umbral serpents coalesced around her wrists, wriggling and writhing in anticipation of bloodshed. 

Yuuka twirled her parasol idly.  “Look at them,” she said with the hint of a sly grin, “they don’t stand a chance.”

As the resounding boom of the gong echoed throughout the arena, Whirda wasted no time.  Her daggers hissed from their sheaths, the umbral blade already leaking an eager trail of opaque ash.  Taut muscles moving in perfect harmony, she darted toward the magician, readying her first spell.

Whirda’s opponent did not falter.  Two glowing orbs appeared at her flanks and surged with bright light, unleashing a pair of luminous projectiles.  They hurtled through the air with frightening speed, leaving Whirda little time to dodge. 

Whirda vanished with a thunderous crack, having anticipated an attack.  The projectiles passed harmlessly through empty space.

Whirda was upon her then, exiting her teleport within melee range of her startled opponent.  To her credit, the girl brought her broomstick in line with Whirda’s first blinding attack routine, giving ground in the wake of the plagued woman’s ferocious assault.  Whirda twisted, a deft jab of the shadechill dagger bypassing the girl’s defenses and slicing into her side with a spray of blood.

The girl screamed, more from anger than pain, and thrust her broom forward deceptively, sending Whirda’s attacking blade out wide.  The orbs at her sides flashed again, and this time Whirda truly had no chance to counter.  The projectiles caught her in the shoulder and chest, the stinging strikes setting her back on her heels.  Whirda growled, bullying through the pain and surging forward.

As they approached the edge of the platform, Whirda’s slashes and jabs showed no signs of relenting.  Each combatant knew the terms of victory in this fight—to fall from the platform meant elimination, and now the girl’s heels rocked on the edge of that very precipice. 

Whirda pushed on, enacting another spell from her diverse repertoire, this time foregoing the abilities of the shade and calling on the magic of her past, of her mother, from Faerûn.  A gust of wind separated the two combatants, hurling the girl off the edge of the raised platform and into open air.

The girl, her vision clearing as the brief effects of the shadechill toxin wore off, maintained the presence of mind to flip one leg nimbly over her broomstick, enacting the power of flight.  Instead of hitting the ground and losing the battle, instead she soared up and over the platform, laughing when she took note of Whirda’s surprised stare.

But Whirda, no stranger to flying foes, had feigned the reaction.  Three umbral daggers coalesced before her outstretched palm, soaring toward her airborne foe.  Two of the daggers soared harmlessly wide, but the third sliced across the girl’s cheek before dissipating. 

The girl faltered in her flight and Whirda seized the advantage, slipping her daggers into their sheaths.  A second gust of wind launched Whirda high into the air and she caught the tail-end of the girl’s broomstick, dangling in midair.  Flexing her wiry muscles, Whirda twisted on the broomstick’s axis, planting both feet into the girl’s side and shoving her off the flying object.

To Whirda’s astonishment, while the girl cried out in pain, she remained aloft, the flight spell maintaining its effect.  Whirda plummeted, reorienting herself and landing on the platform.  A jolt of pain lanced through her feet and ankles.

Whirda looked up just in time to see a flask, hurled at her by the grinning girl, strike the ground a few meters in front of her.  While not very painful, the sheer concussive force of the resulting blast sent her skidding painfully across the platform. 

She growled and vanished once more. 

849/850 words, no super moves used.

[Dr. McNinja]

Dongja watched the shadowy figure warp into and out of existence, squeaked, “I’m coming, Marisa!”

Before he could respond, however, a scatter of prismatic orbs was approaching him at rapid speed. Dongja barely rolled out of the way as they landed on the stone. Upon making impact, the bullets detonated slightly, spraying the calligrapher with bits of dust. The woman with the parasol floated menacingly.

“Child,” the woman with the parasol mocked, “You have no idea what you’re facing.”

“That’s absolutely correct,” Dongja shouted back, gripping his staff tighter as an arcane circle appeared over his head. The glyph glimmered brightly as smooth brushstrokes painted themselves on top of it.

“Hwa!” Dongja hollered, invoking the spell as his fingers tickled freshly ignited flames.

The girl with the parasol sneered as she fired another barrage of bullets. As the projectiles soared towards him, Dongja flung the fireball towards the lady and danced away, one of the pellets scraping his shin as he flipped. The lady tried to float away, but the fireball landed. She let out a small yelp as she tried to deflect the incendiary attack. The lady scowled as she briefly noticed the slight singe marks on her parasol.

With an offended grunt, the lady twirled her parasol again. Dongja jumped, managing to avoid all of them this time. As he did, he began forming a second arcane circle over his head. More brushstrokes flitted over the magical canvas and it formed a more complicated character.

Noticing this, the floating lady opened her parasol, shielding her body from whatever was to come.

Dongja whipped Yeo-Ee-Pil behind him, then thrust forward with one end of it. The glyph complete, the calligrapher hollered, “Chun!”

From the tip of the staff, arcs of lightning started scratching at the lady’s parasol. Smoke flickered from where the electricity singed the umbrella’s outside. Dongja, his own mind crackling from concentration, wasn’t sure if any of it was reaching his opponent.

Dongja let go of the spell, spinning his staff to shed some residual arcane energy before looking at the parasol lady. She was still floating, scowling more intensely than Dongja knew faces could accommodate.

“My, my, what a distasteful thing to do,” the woman spit as she brushed off her weapon.

Dongja grimaced. “Sorry?”

Another swarm of bullets flew towards Dongja as he deftly leapt out of the way. Out of the corner of his eye, Dongja noticed that the other lady had reappeared and was flinging daggers at Dongja’s teammate. The sorcerer gritted his teeth before jumping again, but the lady predicted his jump. A triplet of energy pellets crashed into Dongja’s torso, causing him to double over.

"That's it," Dongja grunted, glyphs appearing over his head, "Lahb!"

The lady had opened her parasol again, expecting another direct attack. Instead, the parasol lady found herself suddenly lurching towards Dongja.

"What are you-"

The woman's eyes widened as Dongja leapt up towards her, mouth wide open.

"Chi!"

Dongja's teeth extended into long needles of horrifying fangs. His jaw unhinged, the boy's lower jaw swinging down alarmingly low. Just as quickly as the jaw unhinged, the mesh of incisors snapped back into place, clamping onto his opponent. Dongja dangled for a bit as his oversized teeth crushed the parasol lady. She started shrieking in pain and writhing to escape the horrifying rows of teeth.

...which suddenly shattered into dust, leaving Dongja to fall anticlimactically to the ground. He landed deftly before patting at his tongue. "Why is there always this much sand in my mouth-"

Before he could finish talking, a parasol clubbed him in the back of his head.

Dongja skidded painfully face-first in the stony floor. The calligrapher pulled himself to his feet with a groan.

"That really hurt," the sorcerer whimpered.

"That was an umbrella," Yeo-Ee-Pil snickered.

The boy flipped onto his feet, narrowly dodging another swing. The woman was in his face now, throwing blows to Dongja's head and caution to the wind.

Wind.

Dongja swung his arms at the parasol lady and bellowed, "Poong!"

A blast of wind billowed forward, tides of air washing over the parasol lady. She grunted as she attempted to fight her way through the wind current, but she tumbled briefly towards the ground before barely catching herself.

From a distance, Dongja heard his teammate cry, "Dongja! You feel like helping?"

The boy wordlessly dashed away and sprinted towards the sound of Marisa's voice. He saw the shadowy lady throwing another pair of daggers at the girl. Two more glyphic circles appeared over Dongja's shoulders as he slowed down to focus.

"Sorry, miss," Dongja mumbled, "Juh-Sohk!"

A strange energy trickled between Dongja's fingers as he continued sprinting, seeming to slow time around it.

Three...

Dongja blasted forward from the floor, jumping in the air as another barrage of energy bullets scattered where he was standing.

Two...

The calligrapher was soaring in the air, twisting to try and make it closer, before hissing, "Jun!" He shot forward unexpectedly quickly, down towards the shadowy woman.

One...

"Marisa said knock you out!" Dongja bellowed, throwing a punch at the rogue.

850/850 words. Using T1 Super Utility - "Slowness: Juh-Sohk" on Whirda
EDIT: All edits approved by Karl Jak

[PepsiYuuka]

She had been in pain so, so often before. She had been upset so, so often before.

But the dull, deep pulsing of blood through her head still overtook her ears like the fervent beat of a drum.

Wordlessly she staggered forward a foot or two, simply gazing at what was going on near the edge of the platform with one hand over her savaged shoulder. Leaning down on her parasol as if a cane. Breathing in, then out. Evacuating pain from her mind. Pulling all of her energy into herself.

Blood, the color of rose petals, dripped to the concrete ground below her feet.

Soon, rose petals dripped as well.

Sprouting as if in time lapse, budding, blooming, leaves unfurling all in mere seconds, revelling in her wounds, crimson roses consumed her flesh where it had been torn. Her hair, too, seemed to part and bud at the tips itself- not with roses, but rather with a great variety of wildflowers. Though still in pain, still soaked with blood, at least her mind felt a bit clearer for having done so.

Her hearing came back to her around the same time her eyes refocused on the brawl that was now suspiciously lacking her.

She lifted her parasol and flicked her wrist.

The bullets hit the ground near the confrontation in a chaotic fashion, causing each of the three fighters to scramble outwards and away from their fistfight amongst each other. One bullet scorched into the now slowed Whirda’s thigh, and another into her torso. Yet another glanced off of Marisa's right shoulder as she scrabbled for her broom, singeing sleeve but not breaking skin. Dongja, though struck in the lower back as he fled, hardly seemed to falter at all because of it, only wincing. Unfortunately, all three had enough sense not to step backwards and to their disqualification. A shame.

Marisa, now rearmed with her broom, had a smug grin painted on her face despite her wounds. “Hey, waitcher turn, why don’t ya! You were next in line!” This was punctuated by a snap of her fingers as the two orbs of light by her sides repositioned themselves slightly to face Yuuka.

Being well aware of how this typically went, the Youkai sidestepped a few inches right, smirking as two lasers burned into the ground where she was previously standing. Though before she even had time to reply with a snappy comeback, she found her stomach and left leg suddenly stinging in pain- now impaled with obsidian daggers. A third struck the ground to her left, before all three dissolved into ash- though the wounds remained, now too dripping blood and rose petals.

Lip curled, she glanced to Whirda- figuring she had gone wide on one of her shots. However, when Yuuka caught sight of her, the young rogue was instead now mirrored, both copies drawing ever closer to a nervous Dongja, knives in hand. So instead she glanced back to Marisa, whose arm was still out, smile still wide, as she was now seating herself on her broom yet again.

“I would’ve thought someone your age would recognize the ol’ bait and switch.”

“I would have thought someone your age would be taller.”

Somewhat taken aback by such a childish insult coming out of the mouth of such a middle-aged woman, the witch paused- not too long, but long enough. Sensing an opening, one of the two Whirdas turned away from Dongja, instead dashing further inward and towards Marisa. Dongja, for his part, caught on quickly, choosing to ignore the Whirda left near him as he instead found himself in pursuit of the one aiming for Marisa.

This was in his favor, as the one that was now behind him suddenly detonated, pushing him further into the ring.

The noise of said explosion startled Marisa into turning towards the action, towards a now winded Dongja rubbing the small of his back due to the force of the explosion, but most importantly, towards Whirda. With a disappointed click of her tongue, the rogue jumped backwards and vanished again, leaving the witch blind as to where to shoot. All the meanwhile Yuuka stepped forwards, slowly but surely- clearly aiming to bring Marisa into a melee.

“Perhaps I should teach you there’s more to a battle than your little tricks-”

“Hwa!”

Yuuka was barely able to pull her free hand over her face before she was blindsided by another fireball, this one hitting her square in the face.

Her head whipped towards the offending party, eyes full of malice, smile abandoned. Charred and blackened flowers fell from her hair, a pungent smell of incense now overpowering her floral aroma. Dongja, one hand still on his stomach as he reeled from the explosion, smiled sheepishly before retreating further into the ring the moment he saw Yuuka draw her parasol upwards yet again. She didn’t blame him for that one- anyone not aiming to lose would do the same.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t still seething with rage, though.

838/850 words.

Activating her T1 Transformation, Inflorescence, for a round. 2/4 SP left.

[Marisa Kirisame]

As Marisa saw the knife user disappear once more she pulled out her Mini-Hakkero finally done with this charade and getting cut up. “Well if I can’t hit you I'll just have to hit everything.” She smiled as the magical furnace revved up the noise becoming the primary sound as the iconic noise was heard and a laser started to take up a good portion of the battlefield. Anything that was left in its wake started to smolder and smoke due to the heat.

She smiled wider as she saw Whirda get hit on her flank for a few seconds at most and burst into motion to push her advantage; only for a few prismatic bullets fly in her path causing her to whip her head to the side. Yuuka was dealing with Dongja and had a look of pure malice in her eyes. Marisa shuddered at that look and was glad it wasn’t her that was dealing with the Youkai.

In her moment of rumination, she felt pain erupt on her right flank causing her to wince in agony and started to backpedal as Whirda spoke with a calm voice. “Your opponent is here not elsewhere.” She formed a couple more knives while giving a slight smirk.

Marisa smirked as she fished out another flask retorting the rouge’s claim with a playful remark. “Who said I was even fighting? Maybe I'm just toying around with you?” She tossed the flask purposely weakly at Whirda to emphasize the words she said. The orbs started to spin around as she floated in the sky and aimed at Yuuka before snapping and causing a bullet hell to be unleashed upon the sleeping terror.

The Danmaku caused the old maid to fight on two fronts though the hits seemed to only momentarily stop her assault on Dongja before she remarked casually. "You know Kirisame that you're making a terrible mistake..." Marisa knew that but knew that Dongja probably couldn’t deal with a serious Yuuka for fairly long.

Marisa Landed with another flask in her hand before tossing it. "I know but I've beaten you old hag before so shall I make it another feather in my proverbial hat?" she laughed as she kept Yuuka busy giving Dongja some space to breathe. "Dongja I'll Yuuka from here on out!"

Her partner nodded before running off to deal with the shadowy fighter. Marisa shrugged as she did what any normal person would do in her case; run in and punch it in the gut. Unsurprisingly Yuuka didn’t falter and just smiled gleefully as the magician of love-sign smiled back with a bit of a worry-filled face. “So nice weather we are having huh Yuuka?”

The Beauty of Everlasting Darkness nodded and smiled before speaking with a slightly venom laced voice. “Quite beautiful weather if I do say so myself.” The Youkai grabbed the Witch’s dress to keep her from escaping, before showing Kirisame what a real punch felt like.

To anyone that was watching could see the punch break through the skin like wet tissue paper, and then hit the many organs in the stomach causing blood to start running from the wound onto the assailant's hand and the duo’s clothing staining them both.

Pain … that was the one feeling she felt as she coughed up blood and felt herself go limp. Yuuka tossed her opponent to the side like a rag doll as she looked for Dongja. Marisa in her clouded vision heard someone scream her name as she stubbornly got up with pain flaring up as she held one hand to her stomach and the other fishing for her Hakkero again finally feeling the wooden box in her hand.

Breathing quite slowly, she raised it up into a position with the Hihi’rokane glinting in the sunlight.  The magi-canon slowly revved up once more with the sound causing the three primes to turn around with Dongja and Whirda moving out of the way. Yuuka hadn’t moved whether that meant she just didn’t care or was feeling lucky Marisa didn’t know, but she was going to make Yuuka pay for the pain she caused her, and the fact that she was ignoring rules she knew  Yuuka was informed about.

Marisa’s voice rose above the noise of her magical cannon as she screamed at the top of her lungs. “LOVE SIGN MASTER SPARK!” the multi-colored laser was fired at the flower youkai with an ice-cold glare from the witch.

Word count is 744 Marisa used Love sign master spark on Yuuka 3 /4 sp left

[PepsiWhirda]

In the span of a minute, the budding battle had blossomed into an all-out brawl.  Whirda now squared off against the magician’s enrobed companion, her cold confidence starkly contrasting his anxious stare.

The plagued Prime stalked her prey, walking a wide circle around him.  She twirled her daggers in nonchalant arcs.  Attuned as she was to the emanations of power growing in the air, she sensed the young girl preparing an attack that would dwarf any unleashed thus far in their encounter.  Pausing with her back to the girl, halfway between both of her opponents, Whirda initiated the silent preparation of a spell.

“Well?” she taunted.  “This is fun and all, but you don’t strike me as much of a dancer.”

At the same time the magician’s scream of “Love Sign Master Spark!” echoed through the arena, the man brandished his bizarre weapon, glimmering runes appearing above his head.  

“Hwa!”  The fist-sized fireball flared into being and he flung it at Whirda, charging behind it with an overhand chop of his staff.

Whirda chuckled.  “Will they never learn?”

The fireball and the staff passed through Whirda’s now-vacant position as she teleported, reappearing beside her injured partner.  The girl’s huge, rainbow beam closed in, but the errant fireball, brought cleverly in line with the exposed back of the man’s unwitting ally, exploded into the girl and engulfed her in flame.

Without time to celebrate, Whirda enacted a defensive spell.  The umbral leylines thrummed around her, shadows gathering in thick layers around the two companions, coalescing into a solid, protective cocoon.  As darkness closed in, they felt the girl’s rainbow beam smash into the barrier with frightening force, the elements battling for supremacy.

The cocoon held.

“Are you all right?” Whirda asked, taking note of Yuuka’s injuries.

“More or less.”

Whirda laid a hand on her partner’s arm.  A surge of black energy flowed from her hand into the woman and suffused her wounds.  Almost immediately they showed signs of improvement.

Yuuka breathed easier.  “Thanks.”

Whirda nodded.  “Time to end this.”  While she would never admit it, fatigue seeped into her consciousness.  Sustaining her fighting style for too long would drain her completely, she knew, and leave her defenseless against their formidable foes.

The cocoon dissipated.  In that moment, Whirda recognized the folly of her defense.  It had given their opponents time to prepare a new attack.

No sooner had the exposed combatants’ eyes adjusted back to daylight than one of the troublesome magician’s explosive flasks shattered at their feet.  The girl soared overhead, cackling, her robes and wide-brimmed hat smoldering but her eyes dancing with mirth.

Blinded and disoriented by the explosion, Whirda hurtled end over end through the air, struggling to regain her bearings.  She twisted herself into what she hoped was a landing position, preparing for another jarring meeting with the raised platform—that is, until a massive hand snatched her out of the air.  Locked in the iron grip of the phantom limb, Whirda was brought face-to-face with her green-robed opponent.

“We found you a new dance partner,” the man’s staff said.

The hand smashed Whirda down, the bone-crushing impact ripping a scream from somewhere deep in her chest.  Multiple ribs splintered and cracked, her nose splaying out across her face with a sickening crunch as she met the ground.  She groaned, rising to her elbows but too battered to regain her feet.

The man and his sentient staff laughed and jeered.  “Who’s not a dancer now?” they quipped in unison.

Whirda lifted her head and spat out a mouthful of black-tinged blood.  “Does everyone in this tournament run their mouth this much?”

Her enrobed foe’s celebration, Whirda realized, would be short-lived.  The contagion roiled and surged within her, fighting for dominance.  In her weakened state, drawing breath in ragged gasps, she was in no position to argue.

“Now it is my turn,” she whispered, her voice emerging as the rattling hiss of her alter-ego.

Whirda stood, the exposed veins on her forearms pulsating black.  The very air seemed to darken around her, a palpable aura of power.  When she lifted her head, throwing back the cowl of her cloak, the stare meeting that of her nemesis was no longer Whirda’s, but that of Ahn’thrix—sclerae flooded black, irises burning an incandescent, electric blue.

The man paled visibly, taking an uncertain step backward.  Another copy of the dangerous woman swirled into being, mimicking her advance.  Then a second, and a third.

“Well, that can’t be good,” the staff murmured.

For lack of options, the fighter spun his staff and shouted, “Poong!”  A sudden gust of wind lifted him high above the four Whirdas, new runes flashing as he started a second round of spellcasting.

“I can do that too,” the real Whirda smirked, conjuring a gust of her own.  One of her clones launched at her airborne foe, detonating when it neared him.  This time, instead of a concussive blast, dozens of wriggling shadow serpents swarmed over him, disrupting his spell and bringing him crashing back to earth, pinned.

The real Whirda pounced, daggers flashing.

[spoiler] 847/850 words
Whirda used Umbral Cocoon - T2 Super Defense, 2 SP.
Whirda healed Yuuka, 1 SP.
Whirda activated Umbral Form for the remainder of the fight - T1 Power-Up, 2 SP.

Remaining SP: 0/5

Stats for the rest of the fight:

ATK: 4
DEF: 4
SPD: 5
TEC: 5[/spoiler]

[Dr. McNinja]

Dongja lifted himself up weakly, leaning on his staff briefly. Another arcane symbol appeared over his head.

“Lahb!” he yelled, and the parasol lady suddenly lurched towards Dongja. When she got close enough, Dongja snatched her out of the air and attempted to use her as a meat shield.

He was partially successful. The terrifying woman was quick enough to withdraw her daggers, but despite her quick instincts, couldn’t stop herself in time to prevent tackling her teammate. Dongja cackled in surprise before a parasol jammed into his gut.

The sorcerer went flying, looking desperately for a way to stop himself before he made contact with the edge of the arena.

“Soo!” Dongja yelped, and another gray hand erupted from the ground behind him. The hand caught the sorcerer like a ball, throwing him to the ground unceremoniously.

“I need to figure out how to make that work better,” Dongja grunted in pain.  

He only had a moment of respite, as the shadowy woman continued to charge him as the two youkai battled overhead. Dongja focused again as a new spell entered his mind.

“Suk!” the sorcerer yelled, and he leapt into a spin in anticipation as a boulder dropped into his kick.

The rogue barely drew her daggers and jammed it into the boulder. While the rock’s momentum flung her the other way, she was able to draw much of the damage it would have done into the hilts of her weapons. Dongja jumped after her and punched the boulder, driving her knives deeper into it and the boulder into the rogue’s face.

“Alright, Yeo-Ee-Pil,” Dongja muttered nervously as he watched the furious woman watch him fall back down, “She can make exploding clones and ‘Suk’ barely slowed her. Whatcha got?”

“I’ve got a metal body and a sassy attitude,” Yeo-Ee-Pil snapped.

Dongja whacked the boulder with Yeo-Ee-Pil, launching it directly downwards. But by the time he had sent it on its way, the identical rogues had already spread out and was preparing to attack the sorcerer.

Dongja then realized something rather smart.

“Soo!” he cried as one of the rogues - a copy, Dongja noted - leapt for him. The hand gripped her just as she exploded, sending his own hand rippling shocks of pain.

Crying loudly, he landed softly on the boulder, the rogue’s two daggers still embedded in the stone. Grinning wide through the pain, he raised his palm.

“Let’s see how you fight without those knives,” Dongja chuckled, “Dong.”

He slapped the boulder, and like a horse, the boulder took off. Dongja somersaulted as the boulder rolled away from under him, switching directions erratically.

The rogues laughed as one of them lifted her hands. She summoned three floating daggers, each of them seeming to hungrily drink the sunlight. The two clones sheathed their weapons. Dongja sighed, eyes welling with tears.

“This is hardly fair,” the boy quietly whined.

The daggers flew towards him. Yelping, Dongja tapped his wrist.

"Bang-Pae!"

A large shield with two arcane characters engraved upon the surface extended from it. Dongja leaned against it as he heard a long stream of thuds and six pathetic clinks.

The shield faded into dust as Dongja’s mind felt that familiar pressure again.

“I didn’t know I could cast that one,” the calligrapher chuckled.

“It was mostly me,” Yeo-Ee-Pil snapped again, “Don’t get distracted. Only two of them left.”

The two rogues charged forward. Dongja brandished his staff in response, not knowing which was real.

The presumably real rogue grappled the sorcerer and, in a complicated maneuver, threw him to the ground. Dongja lay on the ground, wheezing, as the clone rogue exploded into coils of shadow. He was completely bound and prone.

“What the hell,” he managed to say.

“You’re coming with me,” the rogue spat blood as she hissed in Dongja’s ear. 

Darkness swirled around the pair in a way Dongja had never witnessed before. The shadows were so oppressive that Dongja found that he could hardly breathe. When Dongja woke up, he was high in the air, watching the rogue vanish into shadows again. The sorcerer yelped as he tried to focus on spellcasting despite his hacking cough. 

Fortunately, someone caught him.

“Marisa?” Dongja groaned.

“Hello, dear,” the parasol lady cackled.

Dongja tried to spin in a panic, looking around wildly for his teammate. The parasol lady caught him by the throat and held him in the air.

“You’ve bothered me long enough, I think.”

“...ck...”

The parasol lady frowned. “Hm?”

“Chk...”

“Speak up, boy, I’m an old lady, you know.”

Dongja grinned a toothy smile.

“Chi.”

His jawline erupted from the youkai’s grasp and he once again clamped onto the parasol lady with his teeth. The woman screamed in pain, smacking Dongja again with her parasol. He fell to the floor.

“You’re coming with me,” Dongja growled as he gripped the youkai in his fall.

He lined himself up, aiming for the collection of rogues throwing daggers at Marisa.

“Ji-Jin!” he hollered, holding an enemy with one hand and punching the ground with another. The beginnings of seismic activity began rumbling in the earth.

850/850 words according to Google Docs 
Used T1 Super Defense Bang-Pae for basically no reason
Used T1 Super Offense Ji-Jin

1/4 SP remaining

[PepsiYuuka]

What possessed Dongja to think he wanted to be hurtling to the ground underneath a 180 pound, rabid and provoked punching machine was anyone's guess. But Yuuka didn't look gift idiocy in the mouth, even if it came with a side of being in a headlock.

Grabbing the calligrapher's wrist with her free hand, she struggled violently in his grasp. Quickly deciding that this strategy was not removing her fast enough for her liking, the Youkai instead popped open her own mouth and bit down into the man's forearm. While her teeth were quite human and not, at least at the moment, in any shape for this attack, she still thrashed her head with her lips curled back as if she was some sort of great predator.

This really just resulted in Dongja being screaming as the earth shook, AKA it had no real consequences and solved absolutely nothing but grudges inside Yuuka's head.

To his credit, despite the Youkai treating his arm like a makeshift chew toy, Dongja's attack seemed to work just fine- knocking Whirda flat onto her butt and away from Marisa. This, however, also just seemed to make the shadowy figure even angrier- an even deeper growl welling up from her throat. Yuuka, having twisted to land on top of Dongja, was mostly unscathed- though still wobbly enough. But she at least had enough pent up anger to shakily rise to her knees, grip the now grounded sorcerer around the mouth with her free hand, and slam his head into the ground. Once, then again.

Blood spattered out onto the already scorched ring below, like yet another rose.

...Yuuka and Whirda weren’t exactly the best at things distinctly meant to be non-lethal, were they?

Thankfully for Dongja, before Yuuka could permanently dislocate his brains onto the concrete, Marisa swiftly decked the Youkai in the face with her broom. This knocked her away at least enough for her victim to shakily jump to his feet and remove himself to the precise location of 'anywhere that my skull is not being manhandled.' At this point that was a couple feet behind Marisa, whom was still pointing her broom bristles-side at Yuuka.

"Payback." Yuuka was wheezing a bit as she spoke, regaining her balance as she stumbled her way upright and onto solid ground. "Unfortunately for you- I can read!" The way she enunciated this was oddly smug, almost playfully so. Like she was truly enjoying herself, despite the vertigo and the fact that her toothy grin now sported a missing canine and second incisor from the impact.

"Great," Yoe-Ee-Pil grumbled as Dongja caught his breath, "you were about five seconds away from being brained by a woman who barely passed first grade."

The moment of respite ended quickly, unfortunately; too quickly for a still somewhat dazed Yuuka to even think up a sassy reply to the talking weapon. Whirda regained her footing and rose to her feet, this time launching herself at the still-wobbly Dongja. First dagger not quite finding purchase in his torso as he backpedaled, she lashed out with the second-

Based on the following scream, Yuuka would presume she'd hit him, and would have looked to make certain- had her senses not suddenly been hit by a magical flashbang.

Though the pain wasn't terrible, as the attack hadn't hit head on, the Youkai still flinched and fumbled, covering her eyes with her arm to shield them from the dust kicked up by the explosion. Despite her situation, and despite the pain, the magician chuckled seeing this reaction- and Yuuka couldn't help herself, cracking another gap-toothed smile in response.

Ah, wasn't it wonderful that they could have all the fun they wanted in this game, without worrying about killing? (Well, worrying too much, anyhow.)

Maybe there were some perks to this world, after all.

Dizzily, the woman took a few steps forward and back, as if finding a rhythm, before she eventually 'stepped' clear off the ground. This way, when her senses returned, she too was aloft, matching Marisa, who had returned to her post atop her broom, in a low altitude flight. Ah, good old times, dealing with Marisa. And so, just out of old habit, she sniped, “you won’t get anywhere new just by copying old tricks.”

“I prefer to think of it as learnin' from other people’s mistakes.”

“Learning, hm? Then, let’s have a little test- we'll see how you deal with this.” Yuuka's parasol levelled at the arena, a thin beam of light tracing a line through the very center. As if suddenly parched of energy, each petal and flower on her person in turn withered and died, dried foliage like potpourri falling away to the ground- revealing her open wounds, and places where her hair was now burnt or pulled out and uneven in length.

Whirda could handle this, right?

Breathe in.

"Master-"

835/850 words.
Keeping the transformation through the end of this post. 1/4 SP left after that.
And then casting Master Spark. 0/4 SP left.

[Marisa Kirisame]

As Marisa heard those words coming from the plant youkai’s mouth she sighed pain erupting from her torso as she straightened out. She knew that the spark was going to be slow but she didn’t want to dodge it, no she was going to show Yuuka that her own spark was greater in most if not all aspects. She muttered her spell to the Hakkero before the magical furnace sparked like a fire. The two magic users spoke with determination in there voices as they both sought to outdo the other. “SPARK!”

The two lasers rammed into each other with sparks flying from the collision as the two sources sought to beat the other. Then to much surprise to both spark users, the lasers faulted causing both primes to be hit with immense heat. A scream could be heard as Marisa crashed into the ground smoking, and burnt. The ground upon impact rumbled when the black-white witch landed on her back with a groan of pain.

Not soon after Yuuka was careening to the ground before landing with an equally if not greater crash. The two primes worked there way to standing or in the case of Marisa bent with her body shaking with exhaustion and pain but her status kept her from staying down.

“Oh looks like the witch is still standing, oh how fun!” Yuuka clapped her hands together with a simple smile as she walked forward. Marisa saw that Yuuka was spinning her parasol slowly as she went to finish off the little thief. Yuuka fired off some danmaku which came flying at Marisa's wound causing her to react in a way she hadn’t realized she could do.

She expected the danmaku to strike her but was soon greeted with a parasol with the pattern of stars on its top. Marisa was completely quiet, then soon smiled widely before she shot a remark back at the flower demon. “Well, you know how I do things Yuuka.” Her body screamed that she needed to rest but Marisa heeded the warning with no concern. “I am looking to reach the top Yuuka and I will not take defeat as an answer. So tell me how do you face a truly determined opponent? You break them via whatever methods you need.”

Marisa grinned with a bit of a cruel smile as she giggled before closing the parasol and pointing it. “Ufufufu lets see how you deal with real magic you oversized plant.” Another multi-colored laser was flung at Yuuka who opened her parasol to at least mitigate some of the potential damage. "And to be honest why use one slow laser ever so often when you can fling many in a short period of time?"

At this Yuuka scowled at the fact that not only was Marisa making a fool out of her parasol by using a similar attack and style, she also has a point through the beauty of everlasting darkness would never admit it openly. The parasol crackled with energy as Marisa fired another Mini spark at the target. The youkai started to move at a fairly hurried pace to the side as the heat forced the air to crackle and waver. By the time it had reached the Flower of Everlasting Darkness it only grazed her side as she grunted as it burned her skin.

Marisa grunted as the pain flared up causing her to dip the laser into a harmless position. All around the fighters, it was a waste field as attacks that had gone haywire or missed the platform had littered the ground and backdrop with craters and holes. Marisa held her broom breathing heavily as she closed her eyes painfully before bursting into action getting into melee range once more. Holding the broom as if it was a two-handed sword she swung only to collide with Yuuka's parasol. "Are we playing this game again little girl or shall we say, child?"

Hearing this Marisa's face flushed with anger as she screamed in anger. "I'm not a child, nor a little girl!" She stamped her foot in anger as it was a trigger point for her. She knew she was short and didn't need people to remind her. This caused her to push her body even harder as she was blocked at most attacks. The witch jumped back digging through her apron for another potion among the many items in the hammerspace. Sighing as she felt no potions left she shook her head, they would be quite useful right now.

She plastered a smile on her face as started to fire danmaku at the youkai while keeping out of there melee reach since she wasn't willing to get a punch to the gut again. As the fight dragged on she could feel the urge to try and finish the fight, so she pulled her Hakkero out once more wincing as the pain came back much stronger this time. She floated a few inches in the air as the magi-canon started to glint once as she chuckled before speaking to the youkai. "LOVE SIGN MASTER SPARK!"

Word count is 850 on the nose and I used two sp on both blocking yuuka's master spark with a master spark (they both hit as said by karl) and firing upon her with another master spark upon Yuuka so I should have 1/4 sp left.

[Karl Jak]

Face to Face
#17 Whirda & #31 Yuuka Kazami vs #15 Ok Dongja & #03 Marisa Kirisame

Marisa’s desperation offensive roared across the budokai arena.

Exhausted, Yuuka lifted her parasol and grimaced as the beam crushed into her chest.  The ray exploded, bathing the arena in another kaleidoscope of colors as the tile buckled behind the woman’s heels.  She felt her breath leave her lungs, but her legs didn’t give out until the attack had faltered.

“You got nothing on me… little girl,” Yuuka groaned as she lurched forward, her parasol shaking in both her fists.

“On the other hand,” a voice to her left spoke, prompting Yuuka to slowly glance over at the approaching Dongja.  “Here’s something from me,” he boomed as he swung his staff at the older woman’s face.  A moment later, she crashed into the grass and rolled until she came to a rest against the brick crowd barrier.

Dongja grinned until he saw the shadow.

“Mistake,” a cold voice whispered in his ear as a dagger tore through his shoulder.  The sorcerer grimaced as the blade vanished.  His reflexes sluggish as the wound sputtered blood down his chest, he had nothing to offer before the dagger’s pommel crashed against the back of his skull and sent him tumbling out of the arena.

Whirda, dagger dripping blood on the floor, stared at the now unconscious form of the sorcerer.  He’d live—she hadn’t nicked anything too important.

“You’re forgetting something,” Marisa barked as she swung her broom like a claymore at the side of the other woman’s skull.

A smile spread across the face of the contagion-addled woman as she twisted and threw herself at her adversary.  Marisa’s eyes went wide, but her arms were too extended to do much as Whirda’s forehead smashed into her nose.  A dagger found the magician’s right lung.

The broom clattered to the arena as Whirda grabbed fistfuls of the other woman’s clothes, twisted, and threw the woman toward the edge of the platform.  When Marisa somehow managed to catch herself near the edge, a boot to the face finished the job.

Somewhere in the background, another gong sounded as wisps of light swirled around a still-grinning Whirda.

One step closer…

[spoiler]

Whirda (3.05) & Yuuka (2.7) defeat Ok Dongja (2.8) and Marisa (1.9)

Whirda & Yuuka advance to Round 2

Ok Dongja and Marisa move to Match B of the Redemption Bracket and will face the loser of Sasuke/Serraph vs Ahana/Eternity

[/spoiler]