[Quarter Finals] Bandit & Kerrigan vs Skeletor & Kuzuru

[Kuzuru]

Serenity. For the first time in several millennia Renji’s world was silent. Standing atop a skyscraper the scene before him was one of tranquility and despite the battle of titans raging below this moment was one of calmness. Kuzuru was silent. The countless souls captured in his cursed blade ceased their incessant wailing. Now unfettered by the demon’s constant influence and unburdened by the countless lives he had slaughtered, Renji found a kind of clarity reserved for the dead. He smiled and cast his sword aside. There was no gnawing desire to keep it close, no aching temptation to bath in its unholy embrace. Freedom tasted sweet.

But he wasn't free, was he? This was just a larger prison. Sure Kuzuru was buried, but he was just that -- buried. Soon enough their bout would be over and Syntech would strip him of the only thing that had managed to keep the demon impotent since he had come to the Omniverse. His life sans Kuzuru was measured in minutes and the hourglass sand was running out. Renji sighed. Were he capable he would have stretched those few precious minutes out until the heat death of the God-damned Omniverse.

“YO KUZURU CATCH!” Bandit bellowed.

Renji’s introspection was cut short as the belligerent woman ripped a streetlamp from the ground and chucked it like a spear. Fired with as much force as a harpoon from a cannon the lamp skewered the top of the building and exploded into a cloud of rubble. A stream of water followed the length of metal and drizzled onto the concrete below. Bandit shielded her eyes from the sun. Even with her newfound abilities she couldn’t pierce the haze of debris now floating down from the top of the skyscraper. She didn’t have to wait long as the water coalesced into a vaguely humanoid form. Renji’s body materialized in a matter of moments, but he did not move to strike.

“You’ve got me mistaken, I’m not Kuzuru,” he said, flicking some loose droplets from his fingertips.

Bandit chuckled and answered, “could’ve fooled me, you look just like him.”

“Looks can be deceiving,” Renji answered, “how about we sit down and smell the proverbial roses? I’m not in a rush.”

“Nah, I don’t really got time to fuck around with you and this split personality shit.”

With that said the dreadlocked vagrant rushed forth, summoning Sledge’s ridiculous hammer as she did. Her hammer screamed as the built in engine revved up and spit fire from its exhaust. Renji stumbled back and moved to defend himself, but the woman slammed into him with blinding speed. A dry crunch reverberated through his skeleton as Bandit’s hammer connected with his upper arm. One moment he was standing and the next he was sent sailing end over end across the battlefield. The swordsman’s world became a flurry of snapshots as he tumbled through the air. Just as he had begun to register what had happened his ragdolled body slammed into a parked car. Warm blood trickled down the length of his shattered arm and his eardrums rang with the after effects of a point-blank shockwave. With a groan Renji peeled himself from the metal sarcophagus and stood on a pair of trembling legs.

“No wonder Kuzuru likes her so much,” Renji muttered.

Twisted and mangled, his right arm hung useless at his side. Every moment sent lightning bolts of pain coursing through his body as bone fragments scraped against one another. Renji slapped his hand against the wreck of a vehicle behind him. The metal pulsed and began to flow like liquid as it burrowed into his flesh. It was hard to say which sensation was worse, that of liquid metal snaking through your body or the pain of a pulverized limb. Underpinning the sound of shearing metal was that of bones snapping and cracking back into place. Violently his ruined arm writhed as the metal fused with what remained of his humerus. Renji gasped and stumbled as the final joint snapped into place. Pain receptors screamed at him as they scratched against the foreign object embedded into his skeletal structure.

A glint of light caught his eyes and he glanced up just in time to see Bandit come crashing down from above. The roar of her hammer tore through the air as the business end threatened to tear through his dome. Renji’s body flickered and the weapon phased right through him, burying itself into the tattered remains of the car behind him. Stepping aside and reaching out with his mind Renji grasped what was left of the vehicle. Bandit grunted as she tried to tear her weapon free but found that the steel husk began to  collapse around her weapon. Steel and aluminum twisted around the hammer, knitting itself into an impossibly tight cage. Renji smirked as the last knot was tied.

“If you were a real warrior you’d fight me without a weapon,” Renji baited.

Relinquishing her hammer to its tomb she turned to face him.

“That a challenge?”

“I’m not sure what else it’d be.”

Bandit spit on the ground and raised her fists, “Not that it matters much either way righ’ now. Fist, weapons, either way you gonna lose some teeth.”

Renji raised his infused arm and responded, “it isn’t me you should be worried about, but I appreciate the sentiment.”