2020-03-11: A Test Of Worth
- Log: A Test Of Worth
- Cast: Pearl, Kaguya
- Where: Meria Boule
- Date: March 11, 2020
- Summary: The masked attacker in the Meria region meets her match, and the her intended victim gets some answers.
DC: You switch forms to Shadow Dragon Assassin Pearl! DC: Pearl switches forms to Shadow Dragon Assassin Pearl! DC: Kaguya switches forms to Damsel of Distress Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The City of Meria seems to be- by and large- a peaceful place. There are threats to the city, sure, but they rarely seem to impact daily life. The item shop sells it's wares, the inn is busy, and the bakery lures people across the city for their delicious foodstuffs. It's idyllic.
It's also getting dark. Atop the roofs on Meria, someone wanders, waiting as the sun sets and night takes over. She watches the streets, looking at the routes through. The city is fairly open, and it's hard to funnel people around. Hard, but not impossible.
The figure takes aim at a wagon, piled high with barrels, and something fires from her wrist into a wheel of a cart, a thin rope leading back to her as the grapnel digs in. She grips the rope with her other hand, and breathes out. A burst of purple energy goes from her hand, and runs along the rope to slam into the wagon wheel, destroying it. Barrels fall over the street and break, leaking substances across the road. The grapnel retracts.
That leaves the main route cut off. So now the figure has to hope she's guessed right.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Meria is a large, peaceful place. Sure, it's under threat by Odessa like everywhere at this point, but it's a nice night in the city now. Night, as of recently, in fact. The routes through the city take on a different cast from above, to be sure.
So as the wagon ahead breaks, Kaguya, some distance behind, scowls. She isn't really looking all that hard at it at the moment, sitting as she is on a carriage travelling through the city. "You know what," the small Veruni says, getting out a stack of coins and putting it in the hands of a surprised driver--Kaguya being halfway out of the carriage already as it's stopped. "It'll be faster at this point walking. Enjoy being stuck here for a while, at least you're making cash off it."
Hopping down, Kaguya looks around the city street as she approaches an alley that she judges as a shortcut around this closed-in area.
She isn't to look at her armored; ordinary enough clothes, though as always she's concealing a few objects. And in moments, she's turned into the darker part of the alley on her way through. A side route...
But one without witnesses. Despite her small size, the blonde girl seems unperturbed by this.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
And the trap is sprung.
The assassin waits a few moments, ensuring that her target is firmly within the alley. Shadow consumes the figure, and they are seemingly gone. Seemingly, but not actually. There is the faintest sound of footfalls as the darkness cloaked attacker. It's the tiniest detail, but that might be enough. There is no cry of battle or flash of presence.
Instead what's there is a hand reaching from behind to grab Kaguya's neck from behind with a tiger claw grip. It glows with a foul purple ki. The shadow falls as the attack begins. The attacker is not unmasked, but it's obvious who they are. An assassin of the Shadow Dragon Cult.
GS: Pearl has attacked Kaguya with Night's Wrath! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Kaguya completely evades a hit from Pearl's Night's Wrath!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
The alley stretches wide and long enough that it would be a distance to reach either side, here in the middle, and Kaguya does not notice a figure on the rooftops at first. Not until she hears a sound, just a little bit wrong against the muted noise of the city--
And feels the difference behind her of that foul ki. Kaguya drops in an instant, ducking down just before the blow that could've been crippling grips the air instead of her neck. She hits the ground in a crouch and then pushes upward, striking for the assassin's center mass with an open hand shove too powerful for her size. "You--"
"Shadow Dragon," she identifies, whatever is happening in the next moment.
GS: Kaguya has attacked Pearl with Satellite Break! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Satellite Break for 81 hit points! GS: FP up!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The speed with which her target moves is unexpected. Perhaps the assassin had underestimated her, and the following blow reinforces that thought. Even as she twists away, the strength of Kaguya's is clear. Grazed as she is, the assassin feels the power that COULD have connected. Unexpected, for one of her size.
The assassin moves back as she reassesses the situation.
She doesn't respond to Kaguya's identification, remaining silent in the face of her apparent enemy. She seemingly starts to retreat, backing up. But then with one larger step, another assassin springs from the shadows where she was. Then another, and finally a third. Where once was one opponent, now there stood four. And as one, they leap forward, positioning around Kaguya, only to launch a flying kick from all directions. Which one is the real attacker?
That's a trick question. For the purposes of pain, they're all real.
GS: Pearl has attacked Kaguya with Needle Kick! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Kaguya takes a solid hit from Pearl's Needle Kick for 97 hit points! GS: Break! applied to Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Nothing to say," Kaguya repeats, and watches the woman seem to retreat--until there is another, and another, and another. All four approach, and Kaguya quickly judges the distance--which disturbs the dust along the ground? Which is affected by the night breeze? Unfortunately--
It isn't just a trick, and so Kaguya's defiant step into the move impacts her arm with the sound of something cracking and a growl of rage from the small Veruni. She moves back from one with the blow, and then jumps. She kicks once off the wall, then off of the other side, and then launches herself down with a handspring to crash down towards Pearl with stonebreaking force. "You're starting to get on my NERVES!"
Someone attuned to pain as a Shadow Dragon Cultist is might notice--she's strong, fast... But using these moves is itself painful, and that pain is translating quickly into anger.
GS: Kaguya has attacked Pearl with Meteor Stance! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Meteor Stance for 61 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
How very interesting. The assassin almost has time to admire the artistry, but she can't afford to gawk here and now. She darts back out of the way, only for her leg to be caught in the stone shrapnel kicked up off the ground from the sheer impact of Kaguya's attack. There are tears in her clothes and flesh both, blood dripping to the ground, but no reaction of pain.
The only part of the assassin visible are her grey eyes, but there's something in them now, a slight fire. "...Good," comes a distorted voice from under the mask. "Let us continue."
Ath that, she charges at Kaguya, another claw hand grip. But where last time the ki was sickly and disgusting, the this is sharp and cutting and corrosive all at once. It follows her hand as she swipes, slicing through the air, as ready to carve through Kaguya as much as it might the walls of the alley.
GS: Pearl has attacked Kaguya with Inverse Claw! GS: Pearl has gained 2 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Kaguya guards a hit from Pearl's Inverse Claw for 93 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Blood, but no reaction. The Shadow Dragon's stoicism contrasts Kaguya well here--or perhaps one might rather call it un-wasted energy on the assassin's part. Power practically rolls off of Kaguya's moves as stone bursts beneath her strike. But she sees, now, gray eyes.
"...That's what you want," Kaguya realizes. "You want me angry."
The asassin rushes Kaguya again; sharp, cutting, and corrosive, Kaguya swings out an arm to block the blow outright, putting force into it easily equal to that of someone twice her size. Her arm remains, when the slash is gone--
But a spray of blood hits the assassin and the ground as her sleeve is torn through and so is some of the lean flesh remaining on her bone. "Ghh," she vocalizes, that glint in her eyes growing darker still. But with her other hand she's instead pulling something from behind her--the assassin may notice the plastic glint of an ARM.
But it's the bloodied arm in front that acts first. Sickly ki of a different kind abrubtly gathers in Kaguya's hand, not corrosive but infected somehow, as ill as she is--and it becomes a point blank blast of energy meant to demand space.
The temperature is dropping precipitously even as the noise from her arm is another crack with the force of her power.
GS: Kaguya enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Kaguya has attacked Pearl with Reaper's Toll! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Break expired! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Reaper's Toll for 135 hit points! GS: Jam! applied to Pearl!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
The blood spurts across her, and she shows no concern for it. Black helps hide the stains of such deed. The assassin seems to relish in it, as though this was sport to her. The blood seems to amuse her, and the visage of the pained, violent Kaguya seems to almost set her smiling.
"I want you strong!" She yells, voice still distorted. If that requires anger then I will be sure to fill you with rage unimaginable!" She laughs a short cruel laugh, even as the air begins to chill. "Embrace your rage! Use it to kill me, if you can." Her eyes narrow as she stares at Kaguya. "Prove you are not weak."
She sees Kaguya reach for the ARM, and scowls. "Patheti-"
And then there is a sudden blast of ki of Kaguya's own, and the assassin is caught flat footed. The blast consumes her. Sickly, infectious and foul. It's as if a disease had been given form to kill. It's foul in the assassin's body, and she drops to a knee, bleeding from the impact of the blast. She might be down, and ready for the coup de grace.
"Ha... haha... hahaha!" The laugh billows from her, even as she feels like her whole body could start to turn against her. "This is what I was hoping for! Bring all you have to bear!" She stands, a fire in her eyes. "For I will do the same."
And then she breathes out. She focuses on her hand, and purple energy starts to surround it. The signature of the Shadow Dragons, the power that turns one's ki in on itself. A disease of the spirit, one could think. And with a sudden burst she moves with an open palm strike aimed for Kaguya's midsection. It's simple, straightforward, and full of a terrible power.
But perhaps the thought of a part of you getting turned against yourself is not unfamiliar.
"Shadow Dragon Palm!"
GS: 2 Combo gained from Boost! GS: Pearl has activated a Force Action! GS: Pearl spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling! GS: Pearl has attacked Kaguya with Shadow Dragon Palm! GS: Pearl has gained 1 Combo! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Kaguya takes a solid hit from Pearl's Shadow Dragon Palm for 192 hit points! GS: Cripple! applied to Kaguya!
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya remembers that kind of sport. She remembers the ease which which fragile human bones break, the rush of utterly destroying a foe. And she remembers that kind of strength, and power. The same that she recalls when she met Sin for the first time.
The assassin's voice is distorted, and Kaguya's eyes grow dimmer still. But she lets loose her blast. Kaguya does not immediately move to finish off the assassin when she drops, however--and then, she laughs.
Kaguya watches her. The small Veruni's blonde hair ruffles in a quiet breeze. "You..."
Bring all she has. The Shadow Dragon surges forward; time seems to slow, for an instant, and another. A disease of the spirit crashes towards Kaguya indeed, and the Shadow Dragon hits flush. The open palm strike does not move her, but it thuds into her form, and the crackling energy that marks her own ki moving to turn against her is there. Kaguya emits a wordless cry, and steps back, hitting one knee. She can feel it working; this maneuver can kill the healthy in one strike. How much more does it crash through the sick? ...One already on the verge of death? Its terrible power continues to surge through her.
"Prove... I'm not weak, is it? ...Prove... I'm better..."
Kaguya is deathly pale, as she coughs up blood that hits the ground, and lifts her eyes. "...Heheheheheh... That's... That's what you want, is it? You want my anger? You go affter a couple close to me... and now me. You're asking... Heheheheheh..."
There is no sudden flush of Ether. Nevertheless, a stone nearby shatters instantly. The wood of a roof nearby begins to buckle, groaning as it rots all at once on this side, stones tumbling to the ground and breaking. A puddle bubbles, becoming foul.
"All I have... to bear," Kaguya says, and her voice distorts, as well, but differently. It is as if two speak instead of one.
She rises, but does not stand. 'Rise' is indeed the correct word, floating above the air as her eyes cloud over as if unseeing, but still sharp. "It comes down to that, doesn't it? No matter how nice I try to approach it, it's power that changes the world. It's power that lets you do anything at all."
She does not pull her ARM. Instead she breathes in, and the rock around her starts to wilt, somehow; the shadowy, deathly ki of the Shadow Dragon Palm begins to drain out of her, shadows funneling to a cloud at her feet. She setss her feet on the ground, and looks to the assassin.
The too-pale Kaguya lifts her hand, and does not smile. "Do you feel it...?"
The aura of decay and ruin around her is invisible but palpable, now.
DC: Kaguya switches forms to Calamity Embraced!
GS: Kaguya has activated a Force Action! GS: Kaguya has attacked Pearl with Transference Factor! GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo! GS: Kaguya has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Kaguya's Transference Factor for 111 hit points! GS: Disease! applied to Pearl! GS: FP up! GS: Pearl enters Critical health and gains 25 FP! GS: Infect!! All debuffs' duration extended by 2 rounds!!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
When Kaguya drops to a knee. She watches, and waits to see if Kaguya will get up. "Is this it?" She asks, disdainfully.
And then the world around her starts cracking apart. The assassin quickly drops into a defensive stance, waiting to see where the attack is going to comefrom. It takes a moment to see the puddle, foul and putrid. Her eyes widen briefly. Wood rots. Stones shatter. The assassin continues to step back, watching as Kaguya rises into the air. "...What is this?"
But she stops as Kaguya speaks what are, to her, fundamental truths of the universe. She doesn't respond to it. Her eyes go wide as Kaguya pushes the ki of the Shadow Dragon Palm from her body. "How?
And then the disease is everywhere. The assassin can feel it in her lungs, and she starts to focus everything on herself. There are hacking coughs from within the cloud. It's all she can do to prevent herself becoming totally consumed by the virus. But when the cloud passes, there is someone still there. Her uniform looks ratty and worn, and blood is clearly dripping from one eye. But most noticeable is her mask, once sturdy fabric, has rotted away, the lower part covered in blood. It only takes the slightest breeze to loosen the weakened strands that held it together. It falls to the ground with a wet thump.
And there, in the aftermath, is Guardswoman Pearl, of Althena's Guard. Blood surrounds her lips, that trail of red from her eye continues. But she stares straight into Kaguya's eyes, her normal unexpressive self.
And then her lips change shape into a manic grin.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
No, it isn't it, as it turns out. Kaguya doesn't need to answer that directly. But she can answer a few other things, floating before Pearl and looking down at her as she does--for in these moments as the mask falls away she finally sees and recognizes the identity of her opponent. A few things fall into place all at once. "You?" Pause. "I mean, I used you as an assassin. But I wasn't expecting..."
Hmm. The shock and what could be betrayal are distant here; a part of Kaguya screams to have gengeance now. The rest of her answers a question. Hovering, the small Veruni tilts her head down.
"...Redirection of force. You're a martial artist; you understand the concept, I'm sure. It's just that I'm dealing with a much greater level of force than someone's used to. I have an entire planet wanting me dead, after all, as one of the Veruni. Can you feel it? The weight of a planet's worth of sickness?"
"...So," Kaguya says, letting herself lower until her feet touch the ground. She hangs onto the power for now, though. "I have one question, before I decide what it is that I will do from here."
"One detail escapes me. I can piece together a great deal; I knew that the Shadow Dragon had agents working in the shadows. But one thing about this... And my question is:"
"...What the fuck?" the blonde asks, her aura still replete with deathly power. "If it's just lust for battle, fine. But is that really all it is? What do you have to gain, going after me? I've made enough assumptions at this point as to the motives of humans."
"You clearly understand power. So what are you trying to change, by using yours?"
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
That grin never leaves. It's a frenzied sort of happiness, but happiness nonetheless. An emotion Pearl has not felt in some time. She doesn't rise. "Is it so surprising? Even that fool Ivan had his suspicions." Her voice is plain now, undistorted. "That said, they are all far more trusting than they should be."
She doesn't lower her head, but she is deferential now, ever so slightly. "What I felt must be only a fraction." She confesses, even as she continues to seemingly feel no pain. "But it was enough, for my purposes."
Pearl keeps her eyes focused on Kaguya. "As for why, you requested that I work with you. There is a price for my aid, and I needed to see if you could pay it. If you had been weaker than I, then there would have been no point. I am already serving two masters, a third would have to be worth my time." She lets out a chuckle that turns into a hacking cough, blood spattering against the ground. "It was a test, and you have not only passed, but you have fully exceeded them. You may have the power that I so noticeably lack."
But there is the other side to her question. "I have only one goal, and I do not care if that requires me to be a tool of another."
"I seek to kill the man that made me what I am."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Frenzy, sure--and when Pearl doesn't rise, Kaguya keeps looking down at her. She's still standing, instead of hovering now, listening to the answers she gets, since she asked for them. But now it's deferential... And... Hmmm.
"That's true," Kaguya allows, of how trusting the others can be. "They're too trusting for their own good, with people like you and me around. I've told many that myself. But this..."
Hmm. "That does make sense," Kaguya answers, "But I kind of appreciate the sheer boldness of trying it that way. It's because you knew I wouldn't show my full strength in a 'friendly' match, I assume. And that's true. That logic is why you're still here."
She considers. "...The Shadow Dragon Master, I assume? Correct me if I'm wrong." She continues without waiting to be corrected. "So what do you want of me? To learn? To grow stronger yourself? Or to have me help you do it?"
"You do end up much more useful as an operative this way. I'm not fond of the Shadow Dragon; it would end a threat to a friend of mine to kill you, here. But I can't deny your effectiveness, and I need people like you in order to deal with people like us."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl simply nods at the comment about 'people like you and me'. "And now you could make them realise their foolishness, should you not destroy me outright." She seems eerily calm about that. "I would be replaced, of course. Most likely stealing an identity of an existing Guardsman. They may have already done so." She doesn't know, of course, but she's not the only infiltrator in the clan.
"And neither could I." Pearl states. "The Wolf Style itself is weak and pitiful against the Shadow Dragon style. But I could not use it openly if we were 'sparring'. This was the only way available to me to see if you were strong enough. Others have failed the test already."
And then she gives a firm nod. "You assume correctly." She looks down at her hands. "I want to destroy that man utterly. To see him fall. To rob him of everything, and then crush the life out of him with my bare hands." She pauses, as that terrible ki radiates around her hand as she seems to get... angrier?" "But I have never have the luxury of choice in my life. I will do whatever is necessary. Whether I have to make allies, find more power on my own, or take on a new master. I have sought someone to give me the means to kill him since she refused."
She finally lets out a long breath. "I have said my piece. You hold the power now. The right to pass judgment is yours."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"That's true. But there's no need to target them yet. Maybe at all, but..." She gestures. Kaguya can't entirely rule it out; there's too much up in the air for that. She files away the fact that there might be others. What Pearl indicates though...
"Hmmm. Yeah, I get that. Even if I said 'let loose', it would blow your cover." Others have already failed, then. She doesn't inquire about them.
"Oh, so," Kaguya answers, a little deadpan, "You like the guy." She sure does spot that radiation there. The anger in it is palpable, even to someone as typically self-absorbed as Kaguya comes off. "You hate him," she answers simply. "I respect that. I... understand hate."
Her decaying aura flares briefly before she shakes her head, that unnatural calm settling onto her again. "I do hold the power. The fact that you understand that tells me about how you must have been 'made'. Humans with nice lives don't usually understand the laws of power half as well as even the average Veruni. ...And not all of them understand them the way that I do."
"So I could draw this out a little while, but I won't. You get to live. I will attempt to train you; you won't be able to use all the things I can in the way that I can, but I'm confident at least that you can learn to apply the lessons to your Shadow Dragon karate; my martial arts involve a lot of redirection, too. If you can't..." She shrugs. "Well, that's ultimately your problem, sad to say. But I would see the Shadow Dragon master removed, myself. Heh. Sounds all dramatic when I put it that way."
"In return, same deal as before, except you get more out of it than feeling like a good Guard. And I think I'll have plenty of strong opponents for you to practice against in the campaign to come. I think this can be an arrangement that benefits both of us."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl is largely silent as Kaguya makes her assertions. "I could recite to you my past, if you so wish, but it does not particularly matter." And then she waits, quietly.
"Understood." She says finally, as Kaguya lays out her terms. "If I am not strong enough to handle your training, then I am too weak to survive, let alone kill him." It's a quiet assessment of her situation. Finally, her freedom to live given, she stands up slowly. It's clearly a little shaky, even as Kaguya's aura fades. How long had she been withstanding the sheer power Kaguya brought to bear.
"Very well. I am at your service."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
"Eh, not at the moment. I'm sure it's terrible but you're not excited about it and I don't feel like standing here that long."
She considers Pearl's respones, an assessment of the situation, and nods. It probably ought to bother her more that the Shadow Dragon adherent's philosophies are compatible... But that makes sense to her, too.
The decay ceases to spread, but does not heal. Kaguya rolls her shoulders, an 'ordinary' girl again, insofar as a Veruni is ordinary in the first place. She looks more fatigued than she was before, but her eyes burn brighter, somehow. If Pearl is particularly observant, she may notice that Kaguya's hair is actually longer than it was.
"Cool. No orders tonight. But soon... let's get you ready to kill an asshole!"
"The stronger you get, the more useful you are to me. Go put on your face or whatever, I'll see you soon."