2017-07-18: Xantia vs. Arleph Ardan
- Log: Xantia vs. Arleph Ardan
- Cast: Xantia, Fei Fong Wong, Arleph Ardan
- Where: Lacour - Arms Coliseum
- Date: June 18, 2017
- Summary: Xantia and Arleph fight a battle of punches against magic! Will Xantia be able to stop almost murdering people in her battles? Find out!
=========================<* Lacour - Arms Coliseum *>========================= Situated immediately adjacent to Lacour Castle, the Arms Coliseum is a temple to the pursuit of perfection in physical prowess. Built more than three centuries ago by King Etienne I, the Coliseum is laid over with ancient Symbols that blunt weapons and protect combatants on the brink of death, allowing competitors to fight to the best of their ability without fear of killing their opponents. The Coliseum is the site of the annual Lacour Tournament of Arms, a competition that fuels the spirit of martial artists and weapons merchants both. The Tournament is a spectacle that draws visitors and competitors from across Filgaia, and is the major event on the continent while it is running. A series of smaller tournaments are organized throughout the year; entering as a combatant is free of charge, but spectators pay a nominal fee that nonetheless provides a significant boost to Lacour's coffers. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s8YkgEYlvY
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has become a bit of a problem for the tournament organization. They gave her the moniker of Innocent Primeval Breaker, billing her as a simple-minded, instinctual but extremely strong fighter (which she is), but her recent actions have called the 'Innocent' part into question. After all, her last two matches ended up with her opponents severely injured. Once is coincidence; when it's happened twice, one has to wonder if maybe a villainous rebranding is in order.
With that decision still pending, the only noticeable change for now is that the announcer introduces her with just her name, and no less gusto in drawing out the final letter. The title is being left out, for once. Xantia doesn't take notice of it, entering the arena the same way she usually does: waving at the spectators with a bright smile. Looks like nearly killing a man didn't leave any permanent scars, outwardly at least.
Inwardly... she worries. She worries a lot. She never meant for those injuries to happen. It just... kind of seems to happen, when she's pushed hard enough. She's wondered if getting involved in a tournament while having no idea of everything she's capable of was a mistake. And yet, the very notion of giving up feels... wrong. Something always seems to stop her whenever she's about to. So this fight is happening, misgivings or not.
Reaching her spot in the arena, she starts her regular series of stretching exercises while she wait for her opponent. Just stay calm, Xantia, she tells herself. Just don't get too worked up, and everything will be fine.
As if 'Xantia' and 'calm' belong in the same sentence.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong is in the stands, but Yarodbeleedt still exists. He is concerned about Xantia who didn't end her last fight in the best mental straits, but Yarobeleedt still exists. He knows that Xantia will only get pushed harder and harder in the tournament so the odds of a mishap happening are ever increasing, but Yarobeleedt still exists. Fei keeps hopeful because Xantia went out anyway despite having a clear understanding there may be problems which may help, but Yarobeleedt still exists.
Fei relaxes faintly. Sometimes keeping your current problems and troubles in context of the greater picture helps a lot.
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph have seen one of the matches where injuries happened because of this young woman. Recovering with his fight with Alisha, the symbologist spent most of this time observing the other fighters, the other matches in the colliseum. This is, after all, a pretty auspicious time to hold a tournament in the middle of all the problems with Metal Demons declaring more or less war upon creation. So, he's seen what she is capable of. This troubles him. This will be tricky.
Whenever he entered the arena, Arleph never really was the sort to show boat, even when he wasn't in the loser brackets. When called to join into the arena, he steps it at a slow, leisurely pace. The announce calls him straight, making a deep emphasis on the 'Doctor' part of his name. Perhaps going with his real name might've been a mistake. Ah well. There's not much he can do about it now.
Arleph adjusts one his runed gloves, tightening it around his finger, wriggling them to get them tight and snug inside of them. Behind him, his coat moves with the wind, stopping at his preordained place at the other end of the arena. He gives Xantia a measuring look, peering into her eyes with a piercing gaze. It is not a judging gaze, merly one that observes, measure.
"Well, young lady." Arleph intones, in his fake southern drawl he's entertained in the last few months. "We've both made it this far. Keep focused and it shall be fine."
Arleph lowers a hand, snapping a finger. A brief burst of invisible wind makes his jacket flutter a moment to it's tunes. "Now, show me what you've got!"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
As usual, Xantia has failed to extensively study her opponent beforehand, having learned what little she does know through hearsay. She knows the most important part at least: that she's dealing with someone who uses magic. Not exactly her favorite match-up. She usually manages to predict the movements of physical fighters to some degree, but magic... magic can do anything, and she doesn't know what words or hand motions cause what to happen. All she can do is pay close attention, and hope she's able to notice what's going on quickly enough.
Despite being unsure of herself for multiple reasons, her greeting to Arleph is cheerful enough, offering the man before her a wave and a smile. "Hi, I'm Xantia!" Superfluous information, but never mind that. "Before we get started, if I end up hurting you... no hard feelings?" It might sound like a taunt, but it's not. She'd genuinely feel better if she could be forgiven for anything that might happen in advance.
Regardless of the response, she continues, "But, if you want to keep this simple..." And then she's gone. Not really, but she moved incredibly quickly, trailing afterimages as she circles Arleph in no time at all, finishing her statement: "...then don't get up!"
In the same instance, she seeks to wrap her arms around Arleph's waist, lift the man who's almost got a full foot of height on her, and drop backwards with him, to plant his head into the arena floor. That's new. Xantia was never much of a grappler before. Maybe Fargo gave her some ideas.
She's actually hoping there might be a chance that her 'offer' would be accepted, genuinely thinking others might agree that it would be for the best. A strange perception to have in a tournament, but then, Xantia's mind tends to work differently than most people's.
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Surprise Suplex! GS: Xantia has completed her action.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong watches intently. Did that man just use symbology to make his jacket flutter dramatically? IS THAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WEAK AND THE STRONG??
"I guess she's mostly back to normal...?" He murmurs.
GS: Arleph Ardan takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Surprise Suplex for 48 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
As it is usual with Symbologists, or any magic users for that matter, the show is part of the game. What could've been taken as just showing off, was activating his personal defenses spells. If it makes him look a little more dramatic, that's all the better.
Arleph's hard expression softens for a moment, smiling at his opponment. They've been pretty young, so far. Except for Ethius and that Janus fellow. Well. Actually, that's been pretty all over the place, now that he thinks about it. No matter. "Hello, Xantia. I am Arleph Ardan. Good to meet you, even here." He says, tilting his head to one side. "I've seen what happened. I don't know what takes you over, but it is clearly a problem. I shall try and see it does not come to that. But not hard feelings."
Then, the fight begins in earnest. Arleph remains stationary, turning around and facing the circling fighter with his gaze upon her. "But I wont make it easy either!" He intones when the shorter young woman charges at him, lifting him up and slamming him into the ground. That part goes pretty much just as planned, without a hitch.
It is the landing that is pretty much different.
Arleph remains more-or-less straight despite being upside down, a good thick shield of interlocked squares separates him from the ground, bulged inward from the sheer impact of it. Arleph still looks pretty surprised.
A symbological circle forms below him, his gloved hands working, interlocking together before he thrusts it out against Xantia then rolling off his current predicament to give himself some room. A large blast of ice shoots out of his hand with heavy concussive force, hovering in the air before crashing into the ground.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Frost Wave! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Arleph Ardan's Frost Wave for 48 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
This seems like a nice person, Xantia concludes, which isn't really a big shock since it's her default initial impression of anybody who she doesn't immediately see trying to do something bad. Still, her smile is genuine enough. She's understood, the possibility of something going wrong is understood, and it doesn't seem to be a major issue. That's a huge relief!
Of course, this only brings her more confidence to slam Arleph's head into the ground as hard as she can! But something's wrong. Things don't go according to plan. "Huh?" She notices the barrier for the first time. Heeey, that's cheating! She might have said that out loud, but then she sees that magic circle, and drops Arleph like a rock, fleeing immediately. She's not about to be at point blank range of whatever's about to happen!
She's still running when ice comes crashing down, covering her head as if that would make much of a difference. Somehow, she manages to avoid a direct hit. She doesn't avoid the ground around her becoming tremendously slippery, leading to an involuntary somersault, and an embarassing pratfall. "Owww..."
Xantia doesn't remain in one place for long, scrambling off the ice as quickly as possible so she can get back to her feet. "...I guess it'll have to be the hard way then," she mumbles to herself, still thinking her earlier suggestion was sensible. Ah well, she can do that!
Being a bit far away from Arleph, and a straightforward change into magic doesn't seem like a great idea, Xantia rushes forward while gathering energy in her palm. Once she gets within decent distance, she thrusts said palm forward, causing a sharp displacement of air. The violent gust is strong enough to literally blow a person away, yet ultimately is mostly a distraction. She can do the most damage while up close, getting back to melee range without being exploded is the primary objective.
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Massive Shockwave! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Massive Shockwave for 45 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph straightens himself. It's a bit of an odd process, a mixture of trying to right himself inside an inertial barrier that is slowly fading apart. Still, he manages with with a hefty dose of moving a knee, slamming a foot to the ground and willing his shield to correct itself. Of course, after the initial abuse it just recived, it is pretty useless by now. Ah well.
As he recovers, Arleph keeps an eye on Xantia, returning to his previous stoic, peering expression upon the young woman. What caused her to go berserk like that, last time? Is it some sort of mental conditioning that was inflicted on her? Some symbology of some sort? Or something far more sinister? He do not really have the means to figure it out at the moment, but it does bring some curiosity into him to figure it out.
The massive shock wave is thrusted out, reminding the Doctor that this is a fight, not a magical study. He thrusts out a hand outward, slamming straight into the depression of air. He slides backward, gritting his teeth as his clothing billows around him. "Grngt!" He grunts, struggling to close his hands around the displacement to not slam into the wall behind.
With his free hand, however, another Symbology circle is born, wriggling and covering his forearm into a thick, flowing aura of energy. It extends outward into a long trashing tendril of water that he brings back and swings it at the far away fighter. It cracks in the air like a whip, leaving a trail of water in it's wake. Keeping her away might not be as much a great tactic he realised.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Water Whip! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia critically Guards a hit from Arleph Ardan's Water Whip for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
So far, that vicious streak Xantia displayed in previous battles is completely absent. But that doesn't have to mean anything. This is much the way she acted in the early stages of her previous fights, too. It's only ever happened when she was in serious trouble, held immobilized with no obvious means of escape. In those cases, desperation seemed to play a part, but whether that's the actual and only trigger, who can say.
For now, the fiery-haired girl searches for the best way to approach. Which, in the end, she still decides is the most straightforward way, rushing pretty much directly at Arleph. Not the most brilliant tactical mind, she just goes with what works. At least her shockwave provides decent cover, if having the side-effect of increasing the distance she has to cover too. Whoops.
There's plenty of time for the symbologist to conjure his next trick, the flowing water tendril lashing out towards Xantia. This attack resembles an attack with a weapon strongly enough for her to react instinctively, bringing up her right hand to block the strike with her bracer. Not only does this work, the end of the water whip scatters upon impact. Does that accessory possess some form of magical defense? All signs point to yes.
Xantia wastes no time, powering through to close the rest of the distance in no time flat, searching for an opening. Her aim is simple: to dart in and try to cleanly land one precise strike with a flat palm, aimed for Arleph's abdomen, before hopping backwards again, staying close, but not too close.
The strike itself is aimed for a major conduit of chi within the body. Xantia's chi-disrupting technique has served her well against her previous opponents, greatly impairing their fighting ability. She has no reason to assume it will work just as well against magic, but she might as well try. Magic doesn't actually quite work the same way, but she isn't wrong in that it may work to impair fighting ability all the same. Mostly because it hurts like the dickens, definitely a pain that'll linger.
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Disrupting Palm Strike! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Disrupting Palm Strike for 48 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Arleph Ardan!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Is it because she get pushed? Is there a particular trigger? Is it a response to being 'threatened'? The questions still flows in Arleph's mind upon the key of Xantia's complete change of attitude she have shown in previous fights. Desperation is certainly a factor. Is it the only one?
Arleph grits his teeth, pulling back his whip hand as the water is shattered. That's certainly a first time in this tournament that someone smashed it apart. Ah well. Water is water. Water is a cycle. Water in this form may vanish, but will return sooner or later. This still leaves him open for the incoming charge from the martial artist. The palm slams straight into his chest, but again she can feel she don't touch him nearly as long as she could have, an invisible shield pushing her hand back after a few brief moments. Still, this seems to have the desired effect, the Symbologist stumbling back with a gasp, slamming a foot into the ground to steady himself. That WILL be a pain that lingers.
The scattered water begins to stirr when he snaps a finger, intoning out, ignoring the burning pain in his chest. A symbological circle spins out beneath Arleph as he steadies himself from the blow, water pooling above them, taking on an unclean, transparent color, before exploding on down above Xantia. A heavy trickle of rain pours down. It is cold, terrifically cold... and yet, burns as well upon contact on the skin. It leaves an heavy feeling upon touched limbs, disrupting the muscles beneath.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Acid Rain! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Arleph Ardan's Acid Rain for 46 hit points! GS: Cripple! Statuses applied to Xantia!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia frowns as her strike hits home. She's already gotten used to the feel of a barrier enough to realize that some trickery kept her from doing as much damage as she had in mind. Even if it was still effective, it's frustrating when she keeps being stopped by things that she doesn't understand. How can she deal with these shields? Just hit them hard enough and hope that they break is about the best idea that she has.
She flinches when Arleph manages to start another spell. She briefly considers trying to interrupt it, but she could be running straight into a fireball, for all she knows. She'll just have to brace herself, and deal with it as it comes.
And what comes is... "...rain?" With Filgaia's general drought problem, and Xantia's memory loss, it's a wonder that she even knows what it's called, but apparently she does. It's something most would welcome in this climate, but this rain... this rain is most unpleasant. "Ahh, it hurts, why does it hurt?!" Somehow, she fails to consider that this might be some form of attack.
Though she may look hapless, flailing as if she could somehow fight the drops of water, her body reacts. A soft white glow within Xantia's body moves outward, until it completely surrounds her. Almost immediately, she stops struggling. "...is it over?" It's not. But now she's the one being shielded, the burn marks on her skin slowly vanishing.
Arleph isn't given much time to ponder this development. Xantia is immediately upon him again, delivering a powerful spinkick aimed for his head. "Was that you? Did you do that?" Yes, she is... only figuring this out just now.
GS: Xantia used Mystic on Xantia! 100 Temporary HP gained! All statuses cleared! GS: Xantia has activated a Force Action! GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Whirlwind Kick! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan has activated a Force Action! GS: Arleph Ardan takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Whirlwind Kick for 58 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
There is a pang in Arleph's heart at the sheer confusion of Xantia displays. Rain IS pretty rare on this planet, it's not hard to understand that it would take some moment to understand what it is to a native here. What is her issue? More importantly, the glow she displays upon being wounded like this is far more interesting to him. Again, there is much that this woman does not know about herself, it seems. It didn't seem to be a concious effort.
What IS a concious effort is that kick. The Symbologist hurried spins a spell, dispelling the Acid Rain to focus on his defenses. There is a pool of water below the slides him along further to the left, bending his body in that direction. It's not quite enough, still sending him spinning on his created river below him... and send his hat sprawling off in the distance, for the matter. The tanned man straightens, gritting his teeth his pain and ignoring the throbbing on the side of his head. So. A reactionary shield, her body reacted and created... that. How interesting.
"Yes." Arleph finds no reasons to lie to her, lifting another gloved hand, symboligcal circles appearing at his fingertips. "Yes, I have done that."
The circles spins themselves into a spiral, crystalising into icicles. They spins water upon itself, weaving an increasingly smally point forward and forwad until it is not quite visible anymore, growing as small, as thin as it symbologically possible, thinner than needles, firmer than steel.
"So is this!" Arleph exclaims, the icicles firing off with loud crackling at the martial artist.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Monomolecular Icicle! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Arleph Ardan's Monomolecular Icicle for 175 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"That glow..." Fei says.
..........
"I don't know what that means." He leans back in his chair, looking moderately puzzled. "But at least she's back to normal..." Even if the fight is rather nailbiting so far.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Absolutely none of Xantia's behavior is an act. She looks just as bewildered as she is, unable to pretend to be any other way than she is to save her life. And yet, displaying unnatural strength and one mysterious ability after the next. Whatever it is that she's doing now, it certainly isn't any kind of magic common to Filgaia, if it is magic at all. And Xantia having little idea of how she's doing any of it. Small wonder that this would get out of hand one day, perhaps.
But there isn't any evidence of her losing control at the moment, mercifully. She's in control enough to be pretty indignant about suddenly springing rain that hurts on her like that. "Well stop doing that! ...please." Because asking the nice mage you're fighting in a tournament to stop casting spells at you is extremely likely to be effective.
The next spell isn't much better - in fact, it's many times worse. There isn't much she can do to defend against a storm of shards too tiny to counter, and she's too confused by what's happening this time to be able to get away from it in time. She can only attempt to weather the storm, which works alright at first, but all too quickly, the glow surrounding her body fades away, and she's forced to deal with the tail end directly.
She doesn't recover from that one right away. Most of the wounds are on her legs and abdomen - having shielded her face with her arms, she managed to keep it untouched. Icicles getting close to the bracer on her right arm evaporated on their own before getting close. And her left arm... her left arm is the only part of her body that's still glowing. That's a bit too small to be a very functional shield. But that wasn't the idea. There's a mere moment to react, before Xantia breaks her defensive stance and throws her intended punch, and the gathered light bursts, energy exploding outwards in a massive eruption.
She needs a moment for a breather, afterwards. That was... not a fun spell to be caught in the middle of. She's starting to feel her exertion.
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Exploding Fist! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: Arleph Ardan guards a hit from Xantia's Exploding Fist for 84 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Arleph would certainly like to stop being punched. In fact, at the rate this is going, he would very much like that to happen. In fact, he voices this concern! The explosive fist slams into the symbologist. The eruption sends him sliding backward with a growl, his arms crossed before him in an attempt to control the damage. This mostly results in him getting the sleeve sof his coat burned off. She can see his skin, the tatters, glowing circles beneath, making intricate, complicated patterns within patterns. He seems to have a lot of them.
"Only if you stop punching me." Arleph hisses behind the pain. "Then I might think about it. You can also give up. You do have several reasons to, don't you?"
To be honest, he's gonna need a breather too. As expected, the young woman hits like a freighter at Full Warp. Arleph takes a deep breath lowering his arms, his fists tightly balled together as he makes a wide circle around him. She can see one line on his tattoos on his arms, a simple line curved with another square glowing. If she knew symbology, this might be telling of what he is about to do. Even then, it is one thing to see and one thing to react.
"HYAAAH!" The Symbologist shouts out, thrusting out a gloved palm, firing off a large ball of energy that twists on itself as it soars at Xantia, exploding upon contact.
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Magic Missile! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia guards a hit from Arleph Ardan's Magic Missile for 56 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia is just going to go cross-eyed if she keeps staring at all the defensive magic Arleph is bringing to bear. So she forces her eyes away to give them a bit of a breather too. She's having a hard time judging how well this is going. She thinks she's landed some good hits, but the magic makes it hard to tell.
Really, Arleph has a point. She could stop this at any time. No longer have to worry about all this magic, and more importantly, she can stop worrying about possibly losing control. She got what she wanted out of this, her name should be pretty well-known after managing to get this far. Just perhaps not as universally positive as she would have liked due to her... mishaps. But is trying to correct that worth continuing for?
She's barely started to consider throwing in the towel, before she shakes her head, rejecting the thought strongly. "No, I won't give up! I'll keep fighting, no matter what!" There's no logical reason. That's just the way she feels once she's started something. It's always like this. And then she thinks to ask a question that, she now realizes, she's failed to ask the other people she's fought, despite curiosity. "...what about you? Why are you in the tournament? That's not a good idea if you want to avoid being punched!"
Xantia's demeanor makes it obvious that she's about to act again. Arleph beats her to the - let's be fair, probably literal - punch, launching a ball of energy just as she starts to move. Her bracer is raised again in a reflex, but its limitations are made clear: it can stop a ball of magic, but it can't stop it from exploding. Right hand violently knocked aside, Xantia staggers briefly in her approach, but she's not stopping. Her mind is dead-set on delivering that punch she had in mind, one way or another. It doesn't matter if it's left-handed: as proven previously, she can punch just as hard with that hand as she can with her right.
Compared to the previous, this one is actually fairly normal. It's just powerful, precise and going straight for the solar plexus.
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Focus Punch! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Arleph Ardan takes a glancing hit from Xantia's Focus Punch for 101 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
The shielding, whatever it might it, is clearly faded at this point. The faint distortion of air around is wobbling, barely visible in his movement to begin with. He's getting exhausted to keep the worse from happening to him and frankly, he should've stuck with the previous way of just taking them in the chin, or taking cuts. Blood have power, after all. It is not sinister, as many would make you think. It simply have water in it. Thick, filtred water with many conponment to make solid artifice.
Arleph smiles at the answer, shaking his head. "I have my reasons, Xantia. It involves seeing how people fight and testing a few theories of mine about the people of our world." He almost said 'this world'. That would've been bad, even if he don't think Xantia would have caught on the difference and implications. "But what about you? Why even risk out here with what happened before? Is it just for the thrills, or is something deeper pushing you on?"
The punch, this time, unceremoniosuly slams into the Symbologist's body. It hits straight into his solar plexus, as plannet, making his stumble back and interrupting his question. There's a moment where he struggles with breath, his eyes bulging out before narrowing with focus. His gloves tighten, falling to a knee as he sucks in air.
Then he speaks, a fist slamming into the ground. This voice barely sounds like the same before, reverbating with trends of magic. From the impact of his fist, a symbological circle glows outward, thick and dense with lines. The tattoos visible on his arms also blinks in and out with light.
"THE UNSEEN MOTES IN THE WIND, CAREFREE OVER OUR SHOULDERS!"
There is a sudden change in the arena. The air grows thicker, harder to breath, much like a bad swampy day. Then it get worse. And worse, the air grows heavier around them, Arleph apparently unaffected, the weight of the water in the air crushing down upon Xantia. If she is so unfamiliar with water, it is unlikely she is to recognise the pressure large bodies of water might have on the human body.
"MAKE YOURSELF MANIFEST UPON OUR LIVES!"
Then, a bubble grows outward from between them, obscuring the view for people for a moment, before condensing around Xantia, making it all worse
"ATMOSPHERIC CONDENSATION!"
GS: Arleph Ardan has attacked Xantia with Atmospheric Condensation! GS: Arleph Ardan has completed his action. GS: Xantia guards a hit from Arleph Ardan's Atmospheric Condensation for 95 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Last time fire, this time water, Fei thinks. He hopes this time Xantia's better prepared for it, or at least disinclined to unleash that red flash again. His hands are shaking just thinking about it.
But even so, it'd be nice if Xantia won. Why is that? Well...why IS that actually? Is winning this tournament making Xantia happier?
Fei wonders about that. Wanting to finish what you started is noble and all, but...
"This is tight..." Fei murmurs.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia, in a big ethical faux-pas, rushes to punch Arleph before answering his question. Super rude. But then, she doesn't remember ever learning manners. To Xantia, this may just be practical, to talk while the other person is busy catching their breath. At least she gives a proper, calm and lengthy response.
"...I have to find out who I am. I just... have the feeling that I have to keep fighting to find the answer. What I did before... that wasn't me, I don't want to believe that was me. So, I'll prove it. What happened before won't happen this time. I'll win, and I'll do it without anything bad happening."
It's not something that she feels she needs to prove to anybody but herself. But proving it to herself, only now that she said it aloud does she truly realize how important it is to her.
But Arleph isn't about to make things easy. It feels almost like he's the one who lost control all of a sudden. But no, despite all the sudden shouting, he seems to know exactly what he's doing. And Xantia... Xantia does not. She waits for something to happen in a ready stance, but she's not ready for what actually happens, grasping her throat, and slowly dropping to her knees as... something invisible is pushing down on her, it feels like. She tries to push back, but as she ends up trapped within a giant bubble, it seems like there may be no escape......
Xantia's eyes fly open. She remembers her own words just now. Nothing bad is going to happen today. She won't let it. She's going to stop this, and she's not gonna lose control this time. Everything will be fine.
Such thoughts are as much as she can prepare herself. Slowing her breathing, she stretches out her right arm, opening its palm. A wave of sparks briefly cascades over her hand, travelling across the bubble before fading away. She's doing it. It's doing what she wants. With a smile, Xantia clutches her palm shut.
Waves of electricity burst forth from Xantia's abruptly closed hand, scattering through the bubble, and lancing outward, dancing across its surface. Until the bubble can't take it anymore, and pops, electrified water scattering everywhere.
Xantia thought that she could do this without coming to harm, but that was a bit of a miscalculation. As it turns out, being in the midst of electrified water is still a very unpleasant sensation. But... that nasty shock was merely unpleasant, in the end. The water pressure did the greater number on her, she does seem to be somewhat resistant to the effects of electricity. But what of Arleph?
GS: Xantia has attacked Arleph Ardan with Thunderstruck! GS: Xantia has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Arleph Ardan takes a solid hit from Xantia's Thunderstruck for 244 hit points! GS: Arleph Ardan has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!
<Pose Tracker> Arleph Ardan has posed.
Well, what about Arleph?
There is a limit to the shielding he had brought to bear earlier. With the amount of energy he deployed to cast his High Spell, it does not make it easy to respond to the sheer ferocity of the martial artist, even if she don't know what she is doing. The electrified punch slams into the Symbologist, the first direct, firm blow she dealt on him without anything blocking her and it have quite the effect. He lets out a scream, stuttered by the shock through his body before slamming backward from the sheer blow.
He slams into the wall, the symbological circles fizzling out around him as he was about to begin casting another spell already. He's apparently still concious, an eye half way open and his hair on end, his clothing quite visibly frayed and cooked.
He slowly lifts a finger, pointing at Xantia, mouth hanging open. Gasping in for air, his one good eye twitching, he rasps out.
"Do not... forget what you just said."
Then, without much of a peep, he passes out.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Man," Fei says after a long moment. "I thought that guy was gonna be an asshole but he's actually a nice guy."
He stands and applauds the fighters politely with the rest of the audience.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia remains on her hands and knees a moment longer, soaking wet and feeling pretty miserable after that whole ordeal. Until she realizes... she did that, just now. She wanted to do something, and she did it. It wasn't a super smart thing to do, given the circumstances, but she still did it. She didn't lose control.
She raises her head, suddenly worried. What did end up happening to Arleph in all that? Well, he... doesn't look great, but he seems... relatively okay? He doesn't appear to be crippled, or bleeding to death. Good enough...?
And he can still talk. Somehow, that is reason enough for her to be reassured that everything is fine this time. With a smile and a nod, she replies, "Don't worry. I'll never forget anything anymore."
Slowly, Xantia manages to pick herself up, and get back to her feet. As the announcer officially declares her the winner, she waves cheerfully, much as she did during her introduction. Maybe she doesn't need a villainous rebranding, after all.