Spar fight: Alexyana vs Dawnika Snow

[Dawnika Snow]

-Fight intro-

Dawnika and Alexyana stand to oppose each other in battle before they head into the colloseum tournament. The fight is being held in a grassy feild spotted with a few trees. Their mounts both took steps back as the two began. Dawnika's face turned pale of expression. "Do not expect me to go easy on you. I need to be ready for that colloseum, as do you." The aura that held Kagetsume behind her dissipated as Dawnika drew him. She took a few practice swings against a tree to warm her arm up, spun the blade a little fashionably until it was held in her hand under handed. This way the blades point faced behind Dawnika and the hilt faced her opponent. Dawnika assumed her fighting stance for the elder gets first strike, and she was 24 years older.

-Fight begins in next post-

[Undyne]

Alexyana watched her Kumdo and Konlal to ensure that they were far away enough from the battle to not be affected, even if things got a little wild. Then she returned to face Dawnika, keeping her battle-ready stance and nodding at the other's words. "I'm ready and waiting. Don't hold back... if you knock me out before the tournament starts I don't deserve to be in the tournament in the first place. I'll give it my best as well."

Again, a smile curled her lips for a brief moment. It had been... very long, since she had last experienced this thrill, the thrill of battle, even if it was "only" a training battle. Her heartbeat quickened and each of her breaths was deeper, taking in more air, readying her body for the upcoming fight by pumping oxygen through her system, getting her blood flowing and her adrenaline built. Although she had some minor flaws in her battle-stance and her claws would need a little sharpening to be at the peak of their strength due to that she hadn't fought in years, her muscle memory helped things along and got her into an at least semi-proper stance as she watched Dawnika draw her blade.

Only now did Alexyana think of the other one as an opponent. Before that, she had been interested in her, certainly - but it had been the curiosity of finding out new things. Now it was different. She had only a sword, no cuirass or shield... yet if she was as old as she claimed to be she had to be battle-experienced. And the lack of armor also meant less weight to carry around when she moved. She probably relied on speed to dodge, or on technique to block blows and counter... her priority thus was to force her way past Dawnika's blade or get into a stalemate and she would have a chance. It was a good thing that she was to go second - she would have the opportunity to study Dawnika's moves a little.

OOC Thread here.

The fight begins with Dawnika's next post as she gets the first turn.

[Dawnika Snow]

-Battle Start-

With the blade in her right hand and her left foot forward Dawnika assume her orthodox stance. Her feet tensed in the grass just before she took off toward her opponent. Just as Alexyana presumed, Dawnika was fast. Just before Dawnika was within range of Alexyana, she used a burst movement to semi-surprise the dragoness. Her sword met Alexyana's left arm, for there was no way she could have moved out of the way. The scales on her arm made it difficult to get a good cut on Alexyana. "I expected you to be quite tough. That will not make me falter however. You're going down."

Alexyana reached in on Dawnika with her claw and grazed the side of her chest with her attack. Dawnika backed up a little bit and took a breath as her opponent came in for her next attack. Dawnika knew a big attack was coming, so she stood still as her oponent neared her. Alexyana wound up her tail for her heavy slam and in that three second time Dawnika was able to get Kagetate up. Her tail met the metal of Kagetate. Most of the pain landed in Dawnika's left arm but it was much better than taking the hit dead on. Luckily she was able to bring the tail to a halt. With Alexyana immobile Dawnika reached in and bashed Alexyana with the shield, sending the dragoness rolling back. Alexyana landed on her back, although the attack was not very powerful it did have a good punch to it.

She has a shield? It looks like she can only use her shield by giving up her sword. It also took a few seconds to summon so I should be able to predict when it will be here to block my attack. Dawnika had already summoned Kagetsume and was charging her opponent once more, this time over handed. Again, Dawnika's speed was too fast to dodge, so she would have to endure then counter.

Dawnika came in with a flurry this time. Her sword came from every direction. Left, right, spin into another right slash, from above. Alexyana's arms sustained little scratches. Dawnika switched to Kendo stance next. In Kendo stance, Dawnika held the sword with both hands and threw her whole body into the attack, giving her attacks a little more strength. Finally, her sword met blood, Alexyana's arm dripped red. On the down side, Alexyana's tough scales had caught her sword in her arm. Dawnika couldn't move so Alexyana took her chance. She gave a good punch to Dawnika's stomach with a mindset of trying to slow her attacks. Dawnika rolled back with Kagetsume being freed. A coughing fit erupted from Dawnika but she stood anyways and readied herself for Alexyana's turn.

[Undyne]

Alexyana tried as best as she could to observe Dawnika's movements without giving away too much of herself at the start, hoping to surprise her opponent. When Dawnika then backed away to get a moment of breathing the dragoness's lips curled into an evil grin. "I'm only just getting warmed up. Now it's my turn." She bent forward then leapt to cover the distance between them and brought down her claws in two vicious slashes.

As Dawnika had by now seen that the dragoness's large body wasn't just for show she knew better than to attempt to block the attack and instead leapt backwards to dodge both blows. She readied her sword to attack the dragoness while in the air if she tried to follow it up. Alexyana however used her momentum from the leap to throw herself further forward as soon as her feet touched the ground to not give her opponent any chance to recover, and as Dawnika didn’t want to trade blows which would likely have gone in the dragoness’s favor, she was forced to block her incoming headbutt with her sword instead of attacking. This sent her sliding backwards on her feet, though as she was already moving in that direction from her leap this dampened the force behind the attack, she thus didn’t notice it as much, it only threw her off balance a bit – she was able to. Alexyana then landed on all fours and was about to follow up once more, but a jolt of pain in her left arm, where the sword had previously bitten into her flesh below the scales, caused her to cringe and come to a halt instead.

"You got me better than I thought." she remarked as she returned to standing on two legs and dug two claws beneath her scales to pull them up, then with her teeth removed a shard that had dug into the wound. She spat it aside and returned the other scales into place, covering up the injury before she returned her attention to the battle. With her attack “chain” interrupted and Dawnika standing almost eight meters away due to the headbutt having sent her flying back, following it up with a long charge would just have given her opponent plenty of time to prepare a dodge or counter-attack.

Dawnika on the other hand drew her conclusions from this last exchange as she loosely shook one arm, then the other, to shrug off the force from the earlier headbutt that had traveled through her bones. She's not very fast... but she makes up for it by using the momentum of her own movements and dragging me into it. And she's trying to slow me down so I can't dodge her blows anymore. It was her chance now, however. She grasped her sword with both hands and readied herself.

[Dawnika Snow]

A drop of sweat dripped down Dawnika's forehead, which she wiped away. The muscles in her left arm screamed from the tail bash and her whole body was aching from the headbutt. Like she had explained however, she would not falter. Kagetate is useless against her. She'd break him easily. Kagetsume can barely get the cut through her tough scales, I'm gonna have to think more strategically if I wanna do some good damage to her. Dawnika took a second to observe her surroundings, and came up with a good idea.

Her idea was set in motion as Alexyana had grown impatient for her opponent to return fire. She was using her leaps once again to get another hit on Dawnika, who was completely doing something she'd never do. She was running away from her attacks. Alexyana was building the momentum in her attack. When it landed, Dawnika would be in a world of hurt. Suddenly, however, Dawnika had stopped running and as Alexyana approached with her attack, Dawnika used her burst movement to dodge. With all the momentum Alexyana built up, she couldn't stop herself from slamming head first into a big tree and tearing much of it's bark off.

Dawnika did not waste time. The dragoness was dazed from her collision, so Dawnika came at her and sliced a mark from Alexyana's right hip to her shoulder blade. Alexyana recovered soon enough to swing her tail at Dawnika who had moved out of the way by the time it would reach her. Dawnika stood ready for what was next.

[Undyne]

Dawnika's last hit gave her a fair amount of information about Alexyana's protection: while it cut deep, even cutting into the thin scales at Alexyana's hip up to ca. the middle of her back, beyond that the scales were progressively larger and thicker which resulted in the sword getting stuck and mostly scraping over the scales especially at shoulder level, causing little damage there. But Alexyana screamed with pain as the cold steel bit into her flesh and instinctively swiped her tail for a counter, which missed. Then she pulled herself to her feet as blood dripped from the injury on her back. Every drop sizzled and made a little smoke as it came into contact with the ground, leaving behind a round patch of burnt grass or dirt.

She turned to face Dawnika, baring her teeth for a menacing growl and attempting to mislead Dawnika into believing that she had forgotten about things being just training, with her feral instincts overriding her rational thoughts. She moved slightly to the sides to get a feel for the severity of the injury, and how it would affect her combat performance. It was rather deep, though luckily it hadn't cut into any organs, but the dislocated scales would cut into the flesh if she turned too much. She flicked her forked tongue out, passing it over her teeth, then walked toward Dawnika, who readied her blade.

As she got within reach the dragoness leant in very closely and opened her maw wide as if she wanted to bite her opponent, which caused Dawnika to raise her sword with both hands in an attempt to hit Alexyana on her unprotected snout. But the dragoness was feigning her feral rage and came well-prepared for the strike. She hadn't opened her maw enough to obstruct her own vision like she would have for a proper bite, so she could see the other's sword - and counter it. In a quick motion she brought her right hand forward and grasped the blade between her claws, keeping it from injuring her, and reached out with the left hand in an attempt to strike at Dawnika's now unprotected stomach.

However, while she had taken into consideration that her left arm was injured, she had underestimated its severity, and extending her arm out all the way caused a new jolt of pain which threw her off. Her claws pierced Dawnika's dress and into the flesh beneath, the index- and pinky-claws lightly scraping over two of her ribs while the other ones dug in between them, none far enough to get to Dawnika's heart but still leaving four slashes. Because of the pain however Alexyana withdrew her attack early out of reflex which meant that her slash mark only reached about halfway across the other's chest, not entirely as she had intended to.

To top it all off, the combined stretch from bending forward and reaching out with both arms caused the scales around the freshly made wound on her back to pierce into Alexyana's skin, further throwing her off. Her right hand couldn't hold onto Dawnika's sword any longer and she slumped forward, only keeping herself from hitting the dirt at the last second by dampening the impact with both hands. In anticipation of retaliation she quickly shifted her weight onto her legs to get to a kneeling position and ready for a new attack, even if it caused more pain.

[Dawnika Snow]

The severe blow to Dawnika's chest made her whail in pain, but she did not stop. In fact, her eyes started to glow a brighter red, and Alexyana witnesses Dawnika's first inherent emotion: Anger. Instead of her normal routine for injuries, which would be to back away and catch a breath, Dawnika charaged in still only a few feet away from Alexyana.

"Ignore the pain...and use it against your opponent...!" She seemed to be yelling out something like an instruction. Maybe this is how she learned to fight. With Dawnika's shirt torn on her chest, her underwear could be seen. It did not seen to bother her however, for she still attacked like her shirt wasn't even ripped.

Dawnika's next attacks came in a huricane flurry. She was using her maximum speed now. Not only could Alexyana not keep up with her speed alone, Dawnika was switching hands, stances, and even adding spins into her attacks that made it impossible to judge how Dawnika would be attacking after each slice. Cut after cut accumulated on Alexyana's arms and legs. While still shallow, the cuts in multiple numbers set off a huge pain trigger in Alexyana's body. Counted up, at least 15 strikes drew a tiny bit of blood. If Alexyana did not retaliate soon, it could be bad for her, and Dawnika showed no intentions of slowing herself or backing off any time soon.

The rage was fueling her attacks, while not making her any stronger or faster she is simply using her limit on her strength and speed. Alexyana could feel the aura of anger radiating from Dawnika's person. It's like Dawnika was a living nightmare that was reaching out to take down anything it could with it. Her attack continued still, Alexyana needs to think off something, and fast.

[Undyne]

"She's going to use her anger...? Like I did?" Alexyana thought aloud just before Dawnika began to attack. Despite her scales, Alexyana was rapidly cornered into defending from the flurry of attacks, though rather than to defend against each strike separately she focused on covering her weakest spots where her scales were thin as well as the spots where Dawnika had previously injured her. She didn't move much either, to avoid more pain from the two cuts, and while of course it wasn't ideal that her arms were getting small cuts all over, at least she prevented a major injury.

C'mooon, think... she'll win if I don't make a comeback. Okay, I gotta break her attack chain first... She backed away one step and, as expected, Dawnika simply followed after. She made another step with the same effect, a third and fourth one, acting as if she was trying to gain some distance. But, she had something Dawnika hadn't, and on her fifth step she used it. Just as the enraged Akame stepped forward Alexyana swept her tail in a narrow arc around her left side, and because Dawnika was in the middle of stepping she couldn't back away again quick enough, so she leapt over it. Alexyana then brought her left arm around in a second sweep, but at around chest-height. As her attention likely was more on her right (Alexyana's left) because that's where the tail had just come from, she had to see the arm coming. The dragoness counted on that it'd get blocked, but the force of the swing would send the other flying backwards and separate them.

However, Dawnika surprised her instead by holding her blade so that it was vertical, with the sharp edge facing the incoming arm instead of using the flat side to block the blow. Alexyana's eyes widened as she realized her error but could only slow her swing down a tiny bit before the steel dug into her lower arm which was rather unprotected and almost got to the bone before the blade stopped. But, a minor consolation, the attack was stopped. With her blood coating the Akame's sword, Alexyana wasn't able to recover in time to prevent Dawnika from landing and pulling the blade from her arm, however just as her flesh gave way and the other was momentarily off-balance from the force of her own tug, Alexyana swung her right arm that had been guarding her torso all that time and knocked her away from herself. She made sure to hit the other's chest where her claws had previously dug into her skin in hopes of further weakening her. It would be hard to level the playing field now, though: with her left arm just about unusable and her right side constantly throbbing with pain even if she didn't move, the dragoness could only hope that Dawnika was getting exhausted or that her injury was debilitating her too. Otherwise she'd have to concede.

[Dawnika Snow]

Dawnika laid flat on the ground, she was coughing up blood from the direct punch that landed right in her wound. She tried to stand to continue the fight, but only tripped coming up and falling over. "Victory is yours...I concede." Dawnika could barely breath right now, still winded from the punch. Still she tried to stand using her arms to prop her up slowly but to all avail, the pain in her chest bothered her too much to get up. She laid on her stomach just trying to get her breath back, resfusing any help Alexyana tried to provide her.