destinystrings | The Duel's Rebirth

Entry tags:

!duels,
!open log

The Duel's Rebirth

▼ Fighting Tournament

Who: Tournament Fighters and those who wish to watch them.
Where: Aries Arena & Televised
When: 22nd of March!
Summary: Let's bring back hope to the people...by beating the crap out of each other!
Warnings: D-D-DUELS!

▼ And now, back to you, Jay!

It wasn't the excitement of the Grand Prix that had occurred a year ago in January. Even if it had been over a year, it was something that most citizens would never forget.

But hope, it seemed, could never truly die. And so with the stadium finally rebuilt… and improved, came the question of when a new tournament should be organized. The answer: as soon as possible.

With most of its champions out of commission, and last year's winner dead… it fell to the Visitors to help with this monumental task.

Last minute preparations, and whispers of the Grand Prix happening this year had driven up the city into high spirits. For the ten warriors involved, it was quite a load on their shoulders. Five matches. Not a true Grand Prix, it was announced, but rather a demonstration, to get people excited again before it became a quarterly event as before.

What can they say? The show must go on. And the ratings must be high. Tonight depended on the Visitors. As did the security.

The entire place was filled with cheering spectators, surprisingly for a last-minute venue and the risks of last year repeating themselves. The time to get in had taken longer; now there was much more security walking around, a grim reminder of what had to be changed.

For those who couldn't attend the sold out event, the usual channels promised to stream the entire event life. Pay-per-view had extra side shows and cameras, interviews of normal civilians and asking them who they thought would win. Pubs were filled with rowdy after-work men and women passing sake around and drinking towards the future winners.

Gambling wasn't allowed… publicly. So naturally, it flourished underground. A few visitors were well known, but the newcomers faced lower odds; which meant a bigger payout should they win.

From their viewing box above the entire stadium, "Jay Queen" and "Bob Sternhammer", the two ringside announcers, excitedly begin the pre-game talk.

After all that's happened, what an amazing crowd today Jay! You can feel and hear the energy coming right off of 'em!"

"A stadium of ten thousand filled to the brim! The tickets were announced just a few days ago and looked at the thing, everyone's scrambling to be able to make it tonight!"

"Tonight's matches are sure to be interesting! Ten Visitors, along with a few usuals from last year warming up. This may not be a Grand Prix, but the crowd sure is actin' like it is."

"Can't blame 'em! Hinoto-Ri's future is looking better than ever, and this just proves we won't take this lyin' down. Now for those unlucky souls watching at home, we're gonna remind you of the few ground rules."

"Tonight's matches are primarily Visitors. Ten fighters, Five battles. Different skill levels. Seaside Dragoon, the new Arena chairman, is overseeing the entire affair himself."

"Names are drawn based on known skill. Randomization is under the supervision of the Hinoto-Ri Lotto Society."

"Contestants pick their own Evoker ten minutes before the duel, and are asked to fire a blank shot in the air to ensure security before it is scanned. Contestants then are brought into their isolation zones and are kept there until they are ready to be brought up to the ring."

"Turns are taken, each allowed only one command from their Personas, and one attack from a weapon of their choosing. Because this is a Visitor match, this weapon attack may be switched to a 'native' skill."

"Spells and items they had before coming to Hinoto-Ri basically! I've heard of things like Pocket Monsters myself..."

"As usual, Instant Death Spells are forbidden. You may not kill your opponent. If your opponent is knocked unconscious, they have ten seconds to get up. You are only allowed to attack your opponent’s Persona, even with your weapons and skills."

Someone walked the center of the stage, as the crowd began to scream.

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Last year's Grand Prix was a dark moment in our history. Instead of the national anthem this year, we have decided on a moment of silence for the victims, including last year's champion please..."

The feed went silent for a minute, panning to various crowd members. Everyone stood up. Some had closed eyes, others were crying.

Once the minute was done, the announcer blew a kiss towards the sky. The crowd followed his movement.

"AND NOW! THE MAIN EVENT!"

The sudden shouts shook the stadium, becoming louder and louder.

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THE HINOTO-RI ARENA TOURNAMENT IS PROUD TO PRESENT THE OTHERWORLDERS! A SERIES OF BATTLES WITH STRICT SET OF RULES TO SHOWCASE THE AMAZING ABILITIES OF HINOTO-RI'S HEROES!"

Dramatically, the announcer leaned in closer, raising his hand as the crowd's enthusiasm broke into an even louder frenzy.

The crowed cheered, as a series of fireworks and music tore off into the sky.

"This is the start of a new era, Jay I can feel it!"

"I've never felt this much excitement before. Here's hoping that tonight's fighters are gonna give it their all! This is Bob and Jay live from the Otherworld Tournament!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

BATTLE 1

Dressed up in their fighting best (no special fighting outfits for you today), they could hear the crowd as they were slowly brought up.

"And welcome once again to the greatest tournament in Hinoto-Ri!"

"Right you are! For those just coming in today, know that due to the new privacy rules voted in last December 9AC, the private names, arcana, ages and zodiac signs of all fighters, both from Hinoto-Ri and Otherworlds are strictly prohibited."

"You'll need to check out Teenbeat Magazine if you want that stuff, folks!"

"Very little is known of both contestants, but word is one is a newcomer, and the other is a returning Visitor!"

"And what a way to say welcome back or just hello than to beat the crap out of each other! Wooo!"

"Calm down, Jay."

"Not to mention, one's a robot. You know what this means..."

"Featherman Parody?"

"No no… eye lasers! It's kinda like knife eye attacks… but better!"

"..."

"Oh and I guess rumors are she may be part of the people who saved the mayor a while ago…"

"But eye lasers, right?"

"RIGHT!"

"And the guy?"

"THAT'S A GUY?!?"

"..."

"Huh. Well he is. Didn't think, with that perfect hair and almost divine angelic grace…"

"Well word is he's been going around asking all sorts of strange questions."

"Like what?"

"You know the stuff that makes you wonder if he's a time traveler."

"..huh."

"But we have some information courtesy of Hinoto-Ri's fairies! According to them he's 'totally coool' and 'sooo dreamy' and 'like a total babe.'"

"I can't blame them."

"..."

"Why are you always so surprised, anyway?"

"You know...I don't know."

"Well, with both contestants mostly a mystery, it does promise to make this match exciting."

"Your first matchup tonight! From this corner! FROM OUT OF THIS WORLD, A ROBOT BUILT FOR BATTLE! Combat's Steel Chariot!"

As she rose upwards toward the stage, more fireworks filled the coliseum, echoing into the night sky. An image was being displayed on all the telescreens, the nickname overlapped in special effects.

They cheered on for a minute before the lights dimmed again, and the crowded hushed.

"Aaaaaand....THEIR OPPONENT! FROM OUT OF THIS WORLD, THE HONORABLE SAMURAI! The Evanescent Blinking Star!"

From the other side of the stadium he rose, to the cheering crowd.

▲ VS ▼

"Aww man, I'm getting pumped already! If you've just come into this special, this is Otherworlds division matches. Currently we're at the start of the first battle, and it already promises to be interesting. Samurai vs Robots, it's like a manga over here!"

Both were raised into the air, the ring around them beginning to close, forming a metal mesh between all two, inside a very large area for their safety, but big enough for them to use all their skills. A team of three healers stood by in the wings.

"Those new to the sport watching we'd like to remind you that Contestants start close to each other, back faced. After that, they take ten steps, Evokers in the air."

"Reminds you of old American Wild West duels! Crowd loves to count down until they start."

"After that, it's the first who shoots allows their team to begin first!"

READY? GO!

[OOC: Jonathan won the coin toss, so he goes first.]

Edited 2014-03-23 00:41 (UTC)

...Alright, exactly what kind of introduction is that? He would be burying his face in embarrassment now, if not for the fact someone else was waiting for him. (Angelic grace? They're kidding, right?)

He didn't even want to be here. He filled up the form, sure, but it was someone else who turned it in. He still arrived, it would be in bad taste not to, even though it technically wasn't his promise... but that announcer...

...Oh well. Okay, he's already kind-of used to Evokers. ...His robot contestant (???) hopefully wanted to be here, because he wants to do anything but beat up someone who's been forced into this.

Welp.

"Good day," he does greet her, maybe not a good decision. After their backs were faced- uh, ten steps, right- oh, the first one went first. Quickly, he jammed the Evoker to his head after the tenth step and summoned a-

"Samson!"

-Persona ripping a beast in half. That's certainly something...

"Tarujaka." Hell, if he's gonna fight, might as well try... it's not honorable to just give a half-effort if everyone's watching. Fighting for entertainment leaves a bad taste in his mouth, but he does pull out his Samurai sword and strike at MiRA's Persona, whatever it was.

Edited (GOD FUCKING DAMMIT HTML) 2014-03-23 08:27 (UTC)

MiRa had a few bones to pick with the announcers right off the bat. For one, her lasers didn't come out of her eyes. That would just be ridiculous. And how on earth were those rumors spreading?! Well, then again, she DID possess the key to that library. The higher-ups had probably already figured it out. So much for not disclosing one's identity to non-Riders. Well, right now, she was in her normal robot form, so no one would be able to point out the Justice Rider.

When Jonathan greeted her, she nodded and said back, "You'd better be prepared. I was designated as the combat unit for a reason." They took their steps, fired their Evokers... and Jonathan was first. Darn! She wasn't quite sure what attack it was using, but it wasn't anything that was directly coming at her. However, Jonathan himself presented a more pressing threat. She made the big, muscley-looking robot jump out of the way of Jonathan's slash (it was dang close, though), only to have it lunge towards Samson for a Bash attack. Mira generated one of her laser canons behind her and fired a blast towards the Persona, hoping to get a one-two punch.

Ow, that hurt. Also successful in snapping him away from dwelling on what the announcers said, for now.

Her being a... well, robot makes it a lot easier for him to fight. He immediately tries to get his Persona to feint to the left, sustaining a sharp burn on its right arm- okay, scratch that, lasers hurt much more. All the more to be a bit less of a glass cannon, and he casts Rakukaja quickly.

"Bufu!" Her Persona is... something, like those different Oni in Tokyo, except with... machinery on it. He's been exposed to much more in Hinoto-Ri, but it's still a bit jarring. Mystic relics and gadgets can easily be damaged with ice, so he'll just make his Persona give that a try.

The Bufu strikes true, and MiRa lets out a cry. Dammit, that's right, her Persona was weak to ice... wincing, she staggers and tries to have Talos fire off a Maragi. Cannons sprout from its back, and it shoots a rain of fireballs into the air. MiRa fires another blast from the cannon behind her, hoping that the pain doesn't skew her aim.

Aha, so Ice hits. It would be disastrous if it turned out to drain it- but now that it's shooting fire, it seems that the elemental weakness for both of them is pretty clear.

...Okay, seriously, fire always hurt more than other skills, so when the unavoidable blast of Maragi comes and there's no way to dodge an attack that wide, he's knocked back a fair bit. There's no way he can continue with Samson, if an attack like that can knock him off his feet. The lasers just add insult to the injury.

"Bufu." Getting up, shambling just a bit, he quickly casts Bufudyne on her Persona, though not looking to see if it hits (maybe a mistake)- because he's busy switching out his Persona. Hopefully, she doesn't have access to dark skills.

Might as well try it out, right? "Moon Rabbit!" And Samson disappears, to leave back- ...it's kinda cute.

Oh god that's a huge chunk of ice.

MiRa is left with a dilemma- either way, her Persona is going to take an unfavorable hit, so the less unfavorable option is of course the way to go. She has Talos take a dive out of the way of the Bufudyne, but it still takes the hit from the Bufu, sending MiRa reeling.

"This is getting ridiculous," she growls, and she switches out her Persona too- to Skadi. At the very least, Skadi will offer her a defensive benefit against all the ice flying around. And, of course, it wouldn't be MiRa in combat if she weren't shooting off lasers everywhere. So, off goes another laser blast.

She switched out too- and while looking at the Skadi and trying to dodge a Twin Shot, the tiny jumping rabbit gets blasted by the laser. Jeez, you're fighting a robot, Jonathan! Pay attention.

It doesn't help that most mechanical living things in his world are demons. That can't. Fire lasers.

Anyway, he releases a Zandyne towards her Persona's general direction, ordering Moon Rabbit to use Dia. Too bad he himself can't heal worth shit. MiRa's done a good number on him, but he's still adamant in leaving a dent and not leaving in embarrassment- so he backs up a bit, willing to play more defensive.

Well, Jonathan gets the opportunity to leave that dent. Talos is in prime position to take a whopper hit from that Zandyne, and MiRa lets out a cry as her sensors indicate the mystery damage. As she regained her composure, she noticed the light of a healing spell (well, she hadn't seen that many healing spells, but she guessed that it looked something like one).

Cheater! Not even my self-repair systems work that fast!

Clearly, the only thing to do was just keep fighting. This time, Skadi fired off a Magna boulder in the Moon Rabbit's general direction, while MiRa shot off her customary laser.

Hey, you know what Jonathan is pretty bad at doing? Both in his ~~game~~ universe and right now. Dodging things, that's it.

While a rabbit is nimble, it does not necessarily cover much distance fast, and the Magna boulder hurts pretty badly. His shoulder is definitely in a lot of pain right now! Also, getting used to laser stings is not exactly a... good thing, but not a bad thing in this context, too. The healing spell isn't helping much, with her taking off more health than he can restore; a failed gamble, then. Again. It's been too long since he used Dia...

"Aques!" He still has the idea that you have to shout out all your attacks, apparently. A ball of water shoots out from the injured rabbit's mouth, and he tries another 'huge block of ice' attack, to see if an 'Earth' Persona would be weak to any of the two. He never really found any 'Earth' demons in his world.

MiRa smirks (...not in the SMTIV sense) when she sees the water and ice attacks headed for her Persona. Skadi, while neutral towards water attacks, resists ice, which is why she picked it out of the Velvet Room: to cover for her Soul Persona's weaknesses. She was able to get the Persona out of range of the Aques, but Skadi still got hit with the Bufudyne due to it being a larger attack. It stings quiet a bit, though thankfully not as much as it would have if she had Talos out. If she had Talos out, she would almost certainly have been KO'd.

With that out of the way, she goes back into her usual volley: a Twin Shot from Skadi and another laser blast.

Might have fooled him, because ouch, that hurt.

Lasers are unfair. Perhaps if he knew a wider range of spells, he could've beaten her... but unfortunately, that's just not possible. This is what happens when you get signed up for a competition without your knowledge!

Anyway, the tiny rabbit eventually can't even muster a Dia, and begins to flicker out of material existence. Oooouch. "Nngh... it seems I've neglected my training."

Well, he's not gonna try anything now. Does the fight end here? Hopefully she picks up and doesn't deck him in the face with a laser, with no Persona to take it-

MiRa picks up on the cue to stop, but doesn't dismiss Skadi just yet, just in case. "All done?" she says, putting her hands on her hips and keeping a good eye on Jonathan. "You didn't do too bad. If I didn't have Skadi, I'd have been toast. Frozen toast."

"Ah... yes. It seems you've defeated me." He's a graceful loser, at least, which may not be said of some other contestants. Jonathan isn't sure whether to put on a smile or... something, because still, he's talking to a robot. A very human-sounding robot, admittedly.

"Congratulations. You definitely displayed your own skill as well." Notably, lasers. What.

"Well, I am designed for combat purposes. It'd stand to reason that I'd at least be skilled at what I do, right?" MiRa chuckled to herself. "Humans can't exactly be designed for combat purposes, but they can certainly be designated for them." She wasn't trying to be arrogant, but she had to be proud of being able to do the thing she was built for.

Being designed for combat...

...Doesn't sound very nice, actually. Being designated for combat, like passing the Gauntlet Rite, is a much different feeling from being... made for it. MiRa says she's a robot, but Jonathan is confused at how to classify her. Is she closer to machination, or human?

"Mira, was it? I haven't had a fight quite like that before," he finally says, reaching out to shake her hand. "I hope we meet again soon, then."

"Yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? Your magic's pretty strong. You'd make good backup... or a good frontliner, for that matter." MiRa accepts the handshake, making sure not to squeeze too hard. "See you around the city, then?"

Yes, definitely a friendly robot. Not anything like a demon.

"Alright. Have a good day." The fighting tournament... wasn't too bad, in the end.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Duel's Rebirth

BATTLE

PERSONA SKILL: Tarujaka | WEAPON ATTACK: Slash

(I'm so sorry for the delay!) Persona: Bash Native: Laser Blast

No prob! PERSONA SKILL: Bufu | NATIVE: Rakukaja

Persona skill: Maragi | Native: Laser Blast

Persona Skill: Bufu | Native: Bufudyne | Persona Switch -> Moon Rabbit

Persona Switch: Skadi | Persona Skill: Twin Shot | Native: More lasers

Persona Skill: Dia | Native: Zandyne

Persona Skill: Magna | Native: Mooooore lasers

Persona Skill: Aques | Native: Bufudyne

Persona Skill: Twin Shot | Native: Mooooooore lasers

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