Minato"So it was. And yet you prevailed still."The headless Bodhisattva paces in place, hands resting behind its back.
"You are dismissed. You are more than they say you are, Minato Kumon. One of the better contenders for Yukari's legacy... Yes, we will watch your development with interest. Now if you will excuse me, I must reincarnate."And with that another truck fucking crashes into them and explodes.
ShefShe flashes her phone. There's some sort of social networking app on it
3 friends nearby. Complete with locations too. One of them vanishes. A text message pops up.
wtf?
MinatoMinato: 4
Endeavoring Swordsman: 6, Hyper[6]
"<Returning Blade - Skysplitter>"A blade returned to its sheath. A single step forwards. And then, a flash of light that cleaved apart the world. A piercing shriek. A plume of dust. A monoatomic blade screaming toward your throat.
Iaido is, flashy. It's pretty damn anime too if you're into that. And perhaps most importantly, it's a little on the impractical side. Generally speaking there's little reason to sheath a sword after drawing it, combat-wise anyways. But such inefficiencies are what rituals thrive on, a little drawback as tribute for services to be rendered. In this case, it manifested as speed. It was manifested as power. One and the same really, faster it move the more kinetic energy it has, the more it hurts when it strikes something. This attack? A lot of power. Funny thing about iaido though - it's a little
predicable. You can only strike at so many angles from drawn position. It's all geometry really, all swordfighting is at its heart. You rush forwards not because of your reflexes, because of your strength, no, you rush forwards because of your guard, your positioning, your footwork. Position yourself right and geometry does all the work for you.
And what is in the blade's path but a forgery? Once a blade, now an explosion, now ruin. The katana shatters. The difference between them and you, is that your weapons are expendable. More than theirs at least. They can recover of course, that wasn't really their Regalia, no their Regalia was only the hilt, the blade was a product of it. He could replace it quickly enough, just need to return it to his sheath. A bit of difficult task now though, now that Durandal has pierced his chest.
Blood splatters across pavement and you kick him off your blade. It's nothing personal, but if he something up his sleeve he might've tagged you on the way out. Even in a fight between normal humans, a fatal strike rarely kills in an instant. There is always time, time for the vanquished to drag their killer down with them somewhere in that haze of adrenaline and action. For the purposes of most duels, that would still be a mutual KO.
His bracelet flashes and he's teleported out.
Two people rush you from behind. They're out too - just needed to lign up the forgeries and they impaled themselves. A bullet pings off your armor, that, that's beneath your concern. You look for more fruitful targets, more pressing threats.
Such is the situation you've found yourself in, a free-for-all of sorts. Sure, the general rule's that you won't just accept fights from any Tom, Dick, and Harry, there aren't enough hours in the day really, but you gotta break in your new techniques
somehow, and there's no substitute for a real living thinking opponent. Besides, here in another realm long repossessed from the Earth you're not Minato Kumon, at least few would recognize you as such. Here, you're just a man in some fancy armor, just another duelist come to enjoy the festival. It makes things a little easier. At the very least, the spotlight ain't entirely on you.
And hey, you didn't sculpt that body of yours just by reading did you?
The arena is a floating city square recreated from sand. You're somewhere near the center now, a bloody swathe carved behind you.
There's no helping it really, Godslayers are well, they're a bit of a cut above most Awakened. So what would pose a threat to you should probably be whoever's wreaked just as much havoc someone such as say... ah, your gazes just met. Yeah, that mage is a threat.
She is dressed in a robe plated with black metal, her Regalia seems to take the form of long slender gauntlets inset with purple gets. An amplifier or catalyst type most likely. The unadorned staff, you're pretty sure it's just a summoned weapon. Effective enough in the right hands, but well, it's something you could destroy, just like that sword.
She, doesn't seem to be doing a lot of fighting though, not personally at least. That centaur cosplaying as a Tron character or something, the one at her side? Yeah... he's doing a lot of fighting. Lotta people getting pinned down by arrows of starlight.
You're guessing she's some kinda summoner. General trick with these is yeah, fucking gank the summoner.
"<A seven ringed shield? In that case... Chiron you are dismissed. I summon thee, Abraxas!>"Okay yeah, definitely a summoner. So Chiron goes away in a puff of blue flames and with a swipe of her staff the Urbane Evoker conjures a new figure clad in mechanical armor with an almost chimeric appearance. Okay. No big deal, just a representation of the thing Basilideans credit with the creation of all intelligent thought and the bootstrapping of 365 heavens bearing down on you.
Right, they're a ways away still, other side of the square. Gonna have to blast through a dozen or so people to really reach her. Her summon doesn't have to worry too much about that, no, he's got a ranged attacks. A silvery orb gathers in his palm, fragments of burning metal precipitating out of the growing orb in a lattice-like pattern. He lets it loose. It's aimed a little short? Okay, probably some kinda AoE and aimed to discourage your approach. Move forward fast enough and you could probably duck under it, move too slow and it nails you. Hang back and you could probably dodge it.
Minato
Status: Fine, Durandal, Rho Aias (moderately damaged), 17 stockpiled units
World Line: 1 3 3 3 1 3 4 2 6 5
Alterations: 4
Resolve: 0
Endeavoring Swordsman
Status: Defeated
Urbane Evoker
Status: Fine, Active Summon: Abraxas