[1st/10th] Week ---: Round Two: Adelaide Pierce versus Ilsa Maruyama

Time Lady Katie · Aug 13, 2013

The underground training field operated by the Initiative Orpheus was like a shooting range on steroids. Targets of all sorts slid around the room on rails hanging at various heights from the tall ceiling of the chamber, and the actual size of the chamber itself could easily house a small town or really extravagant shopping mall. Instead, it housed a lot of targets, and two masters of the arcane.

The Captain, again, was clad only in the normal shihakushou of any ranked shinigami, wearing nothing that indicated her station had changed in recent months. She was now Captain of the Tenth Division. Well, her uniform did have a slight difference to it from normal, and that was the beautiful silver necklace the Captain wore. Other than the necklace, though, it was normal Adelaide. Her hair was up in a jagged ponytail; her green eyes surveyed the space. She was trying not to think about her ribs, which hurt like...

It wasn’t important what they hurt like. The important part was that they hurt.

This was something of the default state of being for the young Captain. Denying either emotional or physical pain and pushing passed it until she let it become crippling and fell. She knew winning her last match was a fluke. It was a bad decision about tactics on Kyuto’s part. Ilsa was seasoned. She managed to be a badass when Prometheus had cut her height in half, Adelaide was almost intimidated by the notion of fighting her now.

The first time the Captain had met the Vice, it was when the redhead was an unseated member of the Enchanted Blades. Ilsa had been so commanding and powerful and beautiful to the new recruit’s eyes back then. The only thing that really changed since then was Adelaide got to know the mystery woman and appreciate her more as a person than as some abstract idea. And Adelaide knew that in an unfair fight, she probably could bring to bear enough raw power to win. But this was a fair fight. Unlike Tsubaki, Adelaide didn’t participate in unfair fights.

She was sure that honesty of character was about to screw her rather hardcore. But surprises happen. Maybe she’d win?

Optimism was new to the Briton, and she took a strong distaste to it immediately.

385 Words
375 Total

Valkyrie and Succubus

Nekomata · Aug 14, 2013

Ugh, an underground arena. Ilsa couldn’t help a bit of a grimace as she walked toward her opponent. Ever since she achieved bankai, the sky called to her... which made the vice-captain slightly uneasy in this kind of environment. In a normal building she could at least console herself with the knowledge that she had the power to blow through the roof if necessary, but there was way too much ground between this room and the sky above for Ilsa’s tastes.

Suck it up and deal, self. At least you’re not being snowed on or baking in the heat. And she even got all her wounds patched up between rounds! Ilsa would have been at a severe disadvantage with her leg mangled as it was by Kagetoki’s shikai. Between the healing and the fresh uniform Mariko brought, the only sign of her previous bout was a bit of fatigue and some blood on the tip of her long blonde braid; there wasn’t enough time for all of her reiatsu to replenish itself. She would just have to be smart about using what she had. The captain of the Tenth was no pushover, even if she was less experienced than Ilsa. Such power and rank, in so short a time... I wonder if this is how the veterans in my division felt when I made vice-captain? Well, it wasn’t as if Ilsa wanted a captaincy. She was just fine with her armband and jinbaori, thank you. The haori came with far too much responsibility for her tastes.

“Hello, Pierce-taichou.” The tall arcanist stopped just short of her opponent for this bout. “Good to see you again! This should be an interesting match.” She frowned slightly. “No haori? You worked so hard to earn it...” Ilsa didn’t think she had ever seen a captain without their haori in public. Training, yes; working in the privacy of their office and presumably relaxing in their quarters, yes; but not wearing a haori in front of this many people? Odd, to say the very least.

340/340

Handicap and such

Time Lady Katie · Aug 14, 2013

It took all her composure not to wince at the honorific. She had no love of titles even before becoming a Captain and the insecurity she felt over her status did nothing to quell that disdain. “Ilsa, we’ve known one another long enough that I think ‘Adelaide’ is perfectly appropriate, don’t you?” she asked with such an upbeat tone.

She could see Ilsa looked a bit worn, but her outfit was absolutely pristine and her body seemed unmarred. Either her last fight had been taxing but not too violent or she just hadn’t slept well and had utterly crushed her previous opponent. Then again, other than looking a little roughed up with scrapes and so forth Adelaide didn’t look too bad either. The ribs weren’t something people could see.

And then there was the question literally everyone asked. She would’ve thought her answer would be published in Seireitei Communication at this point. “My new house cost me quite a lot of kan. Any idea what the repair and cleaning costs on haoris are? Me either, but I’m guessing really high, and you know it’ll get taken out of my pay. If you’re going to zap me with lightning or Sokatsui or something along those lines, I’d rather be wearing my nice, cheap, mass-produced shihakushou, thanks.” It was a lie. It was hard to see it as anything but a lie. But it was her rote answer to a question she wasn’t even entirely sure she could answer honestly.

Her tone, which was a practiced calm discussing the haori, became the excited and hastened sound of a schoolgirl thought only a second later. “I look forward to this a great deal, Ilsa! It isn’t often I get to find someone who can give me a challenge in the Demon Arts! I’m excited to see the differences in our styles!” This, unlike her other remark, was entirely true. She was so far beyond most shinigam in kidou studies that she didn’t really learn anything from fighting them. She had to rely on her own experimentation. Ilsa might give her a decent run for her money, especially with Adelaide’s Limiter active.

358 Words
728 Total

Because my first post's wordcounts make no damn sense.

Bish · Aug 14, 2013

With his match being the last of the bracket, Toride had free reign to attend any of the fights preceding his. Even if this had not been the case, there was no way that he was going to miss Adelaide's next match. This would be his first time seeing her fight as a Captain, and it was against the second-in-command to the Soutaichou! The Mystic didn't think he could ask for a more entertaining match up than this one, unless the world saw fit to pit Adelaide against Tsubaki. Frankly, that would have absolutely made his day.

Sighing with regret and pushing the fight to the back of his mind, Satoru sat in the control room observing everything on the screens provided by Orpheus. He briefly wondered if the human marksmen were in alliance with the other hunters who shared their penchant for accuracy, the Quincy. Guns, arrows, they were all the same to him in the end. Just different ways of putting holes into people.

Although, the Mystic thought, guns do have much more interesting and intricate mechanisms. Perh-

The sword spirit residing in his tanto made a strangely gruff yet scratchy sound. It was as if he was attempting to clear his throat. Well, as much as a giant bat could clear its throat.

Damn it, I really need to stop getting distracted! Thanks Dia, the Inquisitive offered as he refocused his attention on the bout ahead.

Nekomata · Aug 15, 2013

Laundry costs. Right. Ilsa gave the other woman a look, the kind that says ‘Yeah, I don’t believe that for a second’. As it happened, she knew how much the division laundry charged to wash the Soutaichou’s haori, given the fact that the division budget was one of the major headaches in her life, and it wasn’t an exorbitant amount. But that was a discussion for another time and place. Fight now, weasel the real story out of Adelaide later. Maybe with some post-tournament booze; she liked the British stuff, right?

“The feeling is mutual, Adelaide... taichou.” A hint of mischief glinted in her pale gray eyes. It was just too tempting to poke at Adelaide’s obvious rank issues. Ilsa drew her zanpakutou, saluting her opponent. In a real fight, she would jump right in. In a tournament, it was polite to let Adelaide draw her sword before attacking. “Shall we begin?”

152/492

Stats

Time Lady Katie · Aug 15, 2013

“Do well, Maruyama Ilsa,” Adelaide smiled playfully as she drew her blade. Before it was completely drawn it was bathed in white light and by the time the ‘sword’ was truly free of its sheath it was a pole, held in two hands by Adelaide, and with a black curve at its top, silver edged sparkling in the light. She wasn’t here to play.

She considered both of her fights sufficiently polite, especially in the light of some matches she had seen her subordinates partake in. The downside was, the damn limiter was getting more constraining in each match. She felt its draw, diminishing her ability with her blade, reducing her agility, even making her casting downright sluggish compared to its normal lightning speeds. She wasn’t entirely sure she knew how to adapt to how this limiter sapped her strength and couldn’t imagine coming to Earth with it at full power. This was only half the device’s strength, and it was a machine the shinigami had willingly accepted. She doubted she could even handle Deadly Pillows again at the reduced capacity the limiter was able to inflict.

But this wasn’t about Deadly Pillows. It was about Ilsa.

She leaped backward, letting one hand leave Lashiel as she shouted “Shakkahou!” before using a flash-step to put distance between herself and Ilsa. A quick first strike, nothing too fancy to Adelaide, but to Ilsa, who the Mystic was unsure had ever seen Hellfire, the smell of sulfur in the redhead’s wake was certainly going to be explained when that orb of red light found a place to burst.

265 Words
993 Total

Stats

Woah, you used one that wasn't Soukatsui?

Nekomata · Aug 17, 2013

Light flared as the orb bore down on Ilsa. Hinometori flashed in her hands, extending to cut the hadou once, twice, thrice. It swelled, preparing to explode... and sputtered out like a candle flame in the wind. Ilsa grinned, spinning the transparent crystalline glaive that had replaced the katana in her hand. Releasing her zanpakutou just before she countered Adelaide’s attack had been risky; a split second too late and she wouldn’t have been able to form the reiatsu for Ijou Ittouryoudan in time. But part of the reason Ilsa had entered this tournament was to test her skills, to push herself and see where she needed to improve. You could only do so much to improve your reiatsu, but you could always work on your timing.

“Tenrai Chikaku.”

The world snapped into gloriously clear focus, every whisper clear as temple bells- and sulfur flooded Ilsa’s nose. Coughing, the vice-captain shut off her sense of smell. “What is it with people and stinky attacks today?” She blinked tears back from faceted crystal eyes. Sulfur wasn’t nearly as bad as the horrible reek from Manzou Kagetoki’s zanpakutou, but still not fun with enhanced senses.

Time to see if Adelaide was any good with that scythe. Ilsa leaped forward in a burst of shunpo, aiming a diagonal slash at the other woman’s right shoulder.

222/714

Tech and shikai

Time Lady Katie · Aug 17, 2013

Well, it seemed at least that Ilsa knew what Adelaide’s Hellfire did. That was going to make this much more interesting. Under normal conditions Ilsa’s speed and precision wouldn’t have ben a problem for Adelaide, but the limiter’s effect made her scythe feel slow and clunky in her hands. She brought it up to parry the attack and the effort felt only barely adequate. Thankfully, Adelaide was doing more than parrying.

The force of the attack made Adelaide lose footing and stumble backward, but the clash of steel on gemstone assaulted the vice-captain’s senses again and this time not just red fire burst forth, but blue and yellow as well in a swirl of chromatic horror.

The stumbling Adelaide, however, was a prime target. She couldn’t help but be unnerved, even surprised, by how sluggish the Limiter made her response, and how totally overcome she was with Ilsa’s attack. Adelaide, who normally had no troubles effortlessly wielding her scythe, now elected to try and keep this fight at a range, because she couldn’t trust her abilities to match up.

Toride Satoru was far from alone in the observation area. A figure watched the camera feed from the other room in silence, his masculine form clad in something closely resembling a shihakushou with a cowl worn over it and black gloves hiding any skin that might be shown, though instead of the white layer under the outer black, his uniform appeared to be entirely black with the exception of his obi. Nothing was said, he simply watched.

256 Words
1249 Total

Sanjukageki

Nekomata · Aug 17, 2013

Crystal met steel with a clear, high sound. Ilsa tensed, preparing to press the advantage, when something caught her eye. Almost imperceptible to ordinary senses, three tiny streaks of flame formed upon the blade of Adelaide’s scythe, swirling into a spiral. Red, yellow, blue.

Oh shit.

Enhanced senses did not mean enhanced speed. Ilsa turned and frantically flash stepped to her right, but the fiery spiral was already roaring out of the blade, bigger than any Sanjukageki Ilsa had ever seen. She barely managed to get her arm up to cover her eyes as the edge of the flames seared her left side, choking off a scream. Not fast enough, ithurtsithurtsithurts! Tenrai Chikaku muted the pain somewhat as Ilsa deadened her sense of touch as far as she dared, but the skin of her hand and wrist was bright red and forming blisters; parts of her shihakushou were smoking, and the parts of her face she hadn’t managed to shield were hot and tight. Her left sock was almost burned off, the sandal was a lost cause, and the almost-pain of her foot promised incredible pain once she had to reseal Hinometori.

“What am I, a Hollow or something?” Ilsa glared as she kicked off the remains of the burnt sandal. She was all for pushing the limits, but a Sanjukageki at point-blank range? Seriously? If it wasn’t for Tenrai Chikaku, she would probably be on the floor with third-degree burns everywhere as opposed to what looked like second-degree burns on her arm, hand, foot, and probably other parts she couldn’t see at the moment! “You want to play it that way? Fine.

“Bakudou number sixty-three, Saju Sabaku. Hadou number fifty-five, Hyouheki.”

Glowing purple chains materialized in her burnt hand, whipping toward the Mystic captain. Ilsa brought back her arm and shot it forward as if punching the air as the chains sought to bind their target. Enormous chunks of sharp-edged ice erupted from the concrete, ripping through the floor in a line toward Adelaide.

335/1049

Kidou

Time Lady Katie · Aug 17, 2013

The face of the Mystic Captain was one at first of understanding, and then awe, and by the time the chains wound around her she had the biggest smile on her face someone being wrapped up in chains while still fundamentally lucid had ever had. Outside of certain interpersonal activities, anyway.

“Banshisei, Ruzai.” Breaking the chains was way, way too easy for Adelaide, and she wondered for a moment if she was missing something. Surely it couldn’t be the same, right? Right? She easily evaded the ice with a shunpo once she had secured her release and the smile didn’t fade for a second when she exited the hastened state a few meters from Ilsa.

The way she had seen the Signature of the Arcane handle the energy of kidou was exactly the same as how Taidan handled thoughts. Exactly. The mineral Lilith used in her tattoos must’ve been the same, which made a lot of sense since the Arcanist tattoo was once a property of the old Tenth Division. But if it worked, oh sweet Sappho. Oh sweet Sappho! Adelaide Pierce could chain casting of spells the way the First and Fourth did, if only for a short time.

Oh, this was too good to be true. Deciding that there was no better time to test than now, Adelaide lifted her hand, pointed it at Ilsa and with a kind of insane joviality shouted “Okuasen!”

The Captain wasn’t being hard on Ilsa because she was taking the tournament too seriously, she was being hard because she hadn’t been in a fair fight with kidou in nearly a year, and she was relishing this opportunity. Especially now that she had been able ti learn the most destructive ability of the Arcane Specialists. Oh, how good Adelaide felt as the yellow light lanced from her hand.

305 Words
1554 Total

Okay, I can feel you judging

Nekomata · Aug 23, 2013

Mahoubai? Ilsa dove behind a massive chunk of ice as the yellow flames impacted more ice behind her previous position. The miniature iceberg exploded into fragments and a huge gout of steam, not so coincidentally hiding Ilsa in a rapidly expanding cloud of mist. She couldn’t help a tiny smirk as she shifted her weight off of the injured leg. More fire, just as I thought. But how had Adelaide learned Mahoubai? She had never been an Arcanist! How had she managed to copy... oh. Oh yeah. The Tenth had a copycat ability! That is so unfair.

Fair or not, it was what it was. Time to demonstrate that knowing an ability was not the same thing as mastering said ability, and that there was a great deal more to kidou than flame hadou. Ilsa squinted up at the ceiling, trying to gauge its height through the mist. Might as well give this a try.

“Washi no Ome.”

The bird engraved on Hinometori’s blade glowed and rose up from its home, shooting up toward the ceiling at high speed. Up, up, up... and it came to an abrupt halt just shy of the concrete. Ilsa exhaled, relieved. She had never used Washi no Ome underground before; normally it rose a full kilometer, but apparently Hinometori did not care to send the eagle construct through who knew how many meters of earth and possibly get it stuck there.

“Finesse of a god, hand of a puppeteer,” she whispered. “Give me power over all that lives and breathes. Grant me the will to make and break the dreams to which I see fit.” Ilsa shifted her vision to that of Washi no Ome, double checking Adelaide’s position.

“Bakudou number forty-nine, Control Doll.”

Another Ilsa materialized beside her, complete with a replica of Hinometori and the crystalline eyes of Tenrai Chikaku. The clone charged out of the thinning mist, slashing at Adelaide’s right arm.

321/1370

Ability and kidou

You're being watched.

Washi no Ome (Eyes of the Eagle) – By paying 500 reiatsu, Ilsa can create an eagle-like construct that she can send anywhere within the range of her Reiatsu Noukan. This construct initially starts exactly 1 km above her, but she can move it anywhere within the technique's range by paying an additional 100 reiatsu per movement (rotating the eagle on the spot costs nothing). This construct links its view with Ilsa’s, her mind processing what it sees to give her a consistent mind map of whatever the construct views in addition to her own sight. As with Tenrai Chikaku, Washi no Ome pierces all illusions.

By focusing her mind on the eagle construct, she can fully link her senses with it and assume control of it directly to search out specific objects or beings. She forsakes her own senses in the meantime, leaving her relatively vulnerable. Any damage to the construct instantly ends Washi no Ome.

Control Doll - Bakudou #49, 600 Kidou + cost of Bakudou used (if any)

Description: A technique that includes two different variations that can be used at any time. The first ability is simple. Using their own energy, the wielder has the ability to form a doll that looks just like them. The doll can looks, talks, and even smells like the user of the spell. This makes it extremely hard to tell the difference between the user and the doll. The doll itself lasts for about 10 minutes and can be used for anything from a decoy to an espionage tool. However, the doll lacks zanpakutou and kidou abilities, so it cannot stand combat too long since its reiatsu is only 10% that of the caster's. This reiatsu only measures the doll's durability, and cannot be used to power techniques.

One surprise the doll has is that it can have a binding spell imprinted on its body. The user can cast a binding spell on their control doll which will be absorbed by the doll so that when it is destroyed, the spell will automatically activate on the attacker.

Whack the clone, get lightning kitties!

Gorogoro (Thundering Purring) - Bakudou #48, 800 Kidou

Description: Upon casting, a swarm of cat-shaped balls of lightning rain out of the sky around the targeted area. The cats thrum with power, making a distinct purring noise audible from several feet away. While not sapient, the lightning cats react to movement, immediately pouncing at anything that moves too much or too quickly, friend or foe. The cats will remain where they are for two rounds after being cast before dissipating -- staying still or moving very slowly may spare a person from attack. The kidou can be continued by paying the cost again. Each does 5% of the total damage, although most will usually swarm the same target.

Time Lady Katie · Aug 23, 2013

Making a split-second tactical decision, Adelaide brought the base of her scythe up from the ground in a way that, had Ilsa been male, would’ve been decidedly more cruel than was honestly necessary. She expected the force of her strike to knock Ilsa to the ground, or really, massively upset her. Instead, she hit the ground and became kittens.

“Eh?”

This was confusing to say the least, especially because Adelaide hadn’t realized she was striking a clone, but Ilsa was just... Gorogoro now.

Okay.

Thanks to her surprise and confusion, the redhead hadn’t realized she was dealing with Control Doll until she saw the figure of the real Ilsa in the clearing mist, and by then the thrumming kittens were positioned to prevent the Captain from any meaningful counterattack. Lateral thinking time, Addie. She needed to strike at Ilsa in a way that was fast, required no movement, and provided enough advantage as to mitigate the fact that Ilsa was versed enough in kidou to counter most of Adelaide’s own efforts.

When her answer came to mind, it prompted a lot of honey-sweet laughter in her mind, Oh, now you’re just fulfilling your own fantasies, child. It was kind of true, she did find Ilsa both physically and psychologically attractive... either way, though, it was time to lash out with Lash and hit the Valkyrie with Fallen Allure.

“Come here, my lovely,” a wicked smile flashed on the Captain’s face when she realized just how Gorogoro was about to be her friend instead of her enemy. They would leap at any movement, any at all. Including if Ilsa moved. Including if Ilsa didn’t have a choice in the matter. In the most seductive voice she could manage, the Briton added one word, which made a big black arrow form under the arcanist’s feet: “Daishou.”

304 Words
1858 Total

Dohoho

Nekomata · Aug 24, 2013

Ilsa went flying through the air, victim of one of her favorite kidou and soon to be victim of her own Gorogoro. I have got to stop using that one when I’m on the ground. Nice move, self. She managed to land on her feet, bracing for the impact of multiple cat-shaped balls of lightning. Sure enough, the felines leaped for her in multiple kamikaze attacks, electricity sizzling across her body. Escaped strands of pale blonde hair stood straight up- quite a feat considering how long Ilsa’s hair was- as a muffled groan escaped despite the arcanist’s best efforts. She couldn’t feel the attack on most of her body, but the burns on her left side were painful enough that the lightning definitely registered.

Hoist on her own petard. How humiliating. This whole fight had been humiliating thus far. Ilsa opened her eyes, formerly squeezed shut in pain... and froze. When did Adelaide get so incredibly sexy? That gorgeous red hair just begged her to run her hands through it, her voice sent shivers down her spine, those delicious lips! It took a supreme act of will not to step toward the seductive captain.

...wait, she’s a woman. Since when am I attracted to women?... but, those beautiful eyes...

Snap out of it, Ilsa! Hinometori’s musical voice was sharp, more like the crystal of his blade ringing against steel than the usual wind-chime sound. The spirit was pissed. It’s an illusion! Her zanpakutou is doing this to you! Rip the veil of illusion away, as you would a binding reiatsu with Fuubi!

Ilsa blinked. An illusion? Why hadn’t Tenrai Chikaku- oh yeah, Adelaide was a captain. Her zanpakutou was probably powerful enough to overpower Ilsa’s shikai. That would explain why Ilsa, who was most definitely straight, wanted nothing more right now than to march over there and kiss-

FOCUS!

Okay, okay! She gathered her reiatsu and concentrated. This is not real. This is not real. A pressure, barely felt, resisted for a moment... and popped like the Saju Sabaku she had cast earlier under the force of Banshisei. The attraction faded, and suddenly Adelaide was just Adelaide, no longer an irresistible seductress.

Ilsa was not annoyed. She was not angry.

She was furious.

“You call that an acceptable combat tactic against a fellow shinigami? An ally who will be working with you long after this tournament is over?” she hissed. Faceted eyes glared, cold and hard as the ice behind them. “We will have words about this later, Pierce-taichou. Mitsu. Hitotsu.”

The familiar pearly orb of Star Shriek Blast appeared over Ilsa’s head, a spectral violet arm appeared near the icy remains of Hyouheki, and the mitsudomoe on her left hand lit up through the burns. Ilsa stood stock-still, ignoring the cero-like whine of the hadou as she surveyed the remaining lightning cats. She had triggered maybe half of them; she hadn’t landed close enough to Adelaide to trigger all of the Gorogoro. “The skies break open and thunder pours down. Tremble and see the sparks lunge.”

The high-pitched whine suddenly ceased as the sphere exploded in a burst of light. To Ilsa, it was simply bright; to anyone else within the kidou’s radius, it would be blinding. The moment her Star Shriek Blast went off, her newly formed third hand picked up a chunk of ice and concrete roughly the size of Ilsa’s torso. It flew up, just short of the spell’s range, and hurled the makeshift missile at the captain of the Tenth.

Dodge or stay put, either way something will hit you.

595/1965

Stuff

Time Lady Katie · Aug 24, 2013

“Who would I rather use it on? Someone beautiful like you or a slimy Hollow?” the Mystic playfully responded. The question Ilsa asked made it sound like the captain had Hellfired Ittou Kasou at the lieutenant, not the rather more impish truth that Adelaide had afflicted her with something far less painful but far more personal.

A hurried and scolding voice rang in the red-haired shinigami’s mind: Pay attention, child! It snapped her out of playfulness in time to hear the sound that was the telltale only warning of Star Shriek Blast. Thankfully, though the limiter dulled Adelaide’s proficiency significantly, it did nothing to dim her near-encyclopedic knowledge of the demon arts. She knew what was about to happen and she wasn’t thrilled about it.

She was going to be blinded, that much was certain. She was bathed in Star Shriek Blast’s light before she was fully aware it was happening, and she could’ve kicked herself for not noticing the sound in time to react to it. She didn’t have to kick herself, as it turned out, since something else was going to handle that for her.

Aw, hell.

The pain of being knocked off her feet by what amounted to a freaking comet was nothing compared to being stabbed in the lung, though this time she was also getting electrocuted by cats who thought it was really just too much for Adelaide to be making friends with the ground and wanted to allow none of it. On top of being knocked backward, down, and electrocuted, she still couldn’t see, and Ilsa could maintain Star Shriek Blast long enough to make things even worse. The red-haired captain had no idea where the arcanist might be moving or what she might be casting.

That last part, at least, was exciting as hell for Adelaide.

She had the wind knocked out of her, but two could play at throwing stones. Adelaide lifted the rock with her mind, using it to knock the cats from her, and rolled to the side so she could push herself to her feet. She couldn’t see, so accuracy was out of the question. Something small and targeted wasn’t going to work. Adelaide had to bring the house down. “Homurahana.”

It wasn’t just the Arcane mistress keeping Adelaide from seeing suddenly, it was the Divine mistress as well. A cloud surrounded the Briton, beautiful elegant flower petals drifting in a rapidly-expanding plume. Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of petals blew out from the Mystic’s body, filling a full fifth of Orpheus’ training facility. And man were the humans about to hate her. Stand still or dodge, she unknowingly echoed Ilsa’s earlier thought, this is going to hurt.

There was a sound of snapping fingers, and then everything was on fire.

Using Ilsa’s own hunk of rock, Adelaide threw the blazing ball of rock and ice through the cloud of petals that yielded to a tidal wave of wicked flames, rocketing in the direction of Ilsa’s last known location. Adelaide, meanwhile, flash-stepped the other way, the exploding, burning destruction of the blaze of hell and the acrid smell of sulfur hot on her heels. From paper targets to metal rails, from rubber conveyer belts to wooden boxes, everything burned. Everything was ablaze. This was total and utter destruction.

And it was really, really going to piss off the humans.

564 Words
2422 Total

Burn with me!

Side note

Nekomata · Aug 25, 2013

Faceted eyes widened as the deadly petals of Homurahana floated toward Ilsa’s position. She seldom used that hadou- far too much collateral damage, which set a bad example for those who served under her- but she had dealt with it before. And to make matters worse, Adelaide was joining in the telekinesis party with Ilsa’s own oversized projectile. Shunpo wasn’t a very good option; Adelaide had enough arcane power to produce a positively ridiculous amount of Homurahana petals.

This was one reason Ilsa had started using Hyouheki.

“Bakudou number sixty-five, Radiant Run!”

The vice-captain held out her left palm toward a different chunk of ice. From her vantage point with Washi no Ome, she was able to quickly plot an escape route of shining ice, puddles of water from melted ice, and polished bits of metal and glass from Orpheus’ equipment. A beam of light shone forth, bouncing to and fro until it illuminated an unassuming patch of concrete outside the petals’ range. Ilsa vanished just as Adelaide’s flaming missile crashed down.

She reappeared a split second later where the light had landed, several spots on her uniform, hands, hair and face burning merrily away. Apparently she hadn’t cast quite fast enough to avoid all of the blazing petals. Ilsa hastily ripped off a piece of her jinbaori to smother the flames she could see or feel, dropping it on a clear section of floor well away from any flammables. Not that it mattered by now... Adelaide apparently had no compunctions about setting her surroundings on fire.

Well, Orpheus shouldn’t have offered their training ground for the tournament if they wanted it to remain intact. This time the glowing arm lifted a large, heavy-looking wooden box that was just starting to catch fire. It went flying through the flames, right toward Adelaide’s back.

303/2268

Obscure kidou

Time Lady Katie · Aug 25, 2013

It was the series of explosions that tipped Adelaide off to the fact that something was careening through the fire toward her. The flames were burning away the box when their intense heat and destructive power met the munitions inside, this one being high-grade explosives. Suddenly Adelaide’s own destruction seemed minor, as a crate marked with symbols depicting fire and explosions was set on fire, and exploded.

In light of this fact, Adelaide clearly picked the right fifth of the facility to burn.

The first large explosion burst open the box and as they fell out, an entire field of things exploding began soaring through the air toward the Mystic. She wasn’t going to be able to Soshi anything that would withstand that field of destruction – the ceiling, floor, and metal contraptions that survived Adelaide’s fires were already being blown to pieces after all – so the only option was to run like hell. Another flash-step, a long arching run away from the explosion but around, leaving her the third point of a triangle between where she had been (which at the moment was covered in dust from the massive explosions), Ilsa and where she was now. At the heart of the triangle was everything still on fire, its smoke and the dust from the explosives filling the air.

The collateral damage was kind of funny, in a horrifying 'blowing shit up' way.

She had to pace herself, if this fight was going to last as long as it seemed like it was, Adelaide couldn’t afford to go ‘glass cannon’ on Ilsa, so she withheld her desire to counterattack just yet, instead focusing on whatever the Arcanist would try next. It was really getting close to time to advancing an end-game strategy and Adelaide just didn’t have one yet.

298 Words
2720 Total

Nekomata · Aug 26, 2013

“Oh no!” Ilsa gasped, then cursed herself for giving her position away. She never thought that Orpheus would have left live ammunition in here, let alone explosives! They were supposed to be experts with that sort of thing, and experts were not careless with their equipment. High-powered shinigami, enlightened humans, vizards and/or Quincies would be mixing it up in the tournament sites; deliberately leaving things that go boom lying around was just asking for trouble. Clearly she had either overestimated Orpheus or they had had a very costly administrative error. Probably the latter. I’ve heard about Fujikawa Masato, he doesn’t sound like the sort who would be this careless.

Deliberate or not, Ilsa had to deal with the consquences of her actions. Time to see about putting these fires out; both she and Adelaide would be suffocated if this kept up. She took a deep breath and immediately regretted it, coughing on the smoke. “Poseidon’s rage, Leviathan’s anger. Lay waste to all that stands before me and wash away all sin until nothingness is reflected in your clear waters.” A large sphere of water began forming a few feet in front of her, rapidly swelling as she recited the incantation.

“Hadou number seventy-eight, Takitsuse!”

The watery sphere bulged and exploded, forming an enormous waterspout and drenching everything for several yards around it. Billowing steam joined the heavy smoke as the vortex raged through the training room, shattering and soaking everything in its path as it headed straight toward Adelaide. Ilsa watched its path through the remote eyes of Washi no Ome, thankful that she had a way to direct her creation. The smoke and steam still obscured things, but it was a better view than she was getting with her own eyes.

And here I was trying to limit collateral damage. Oh well, better this than passing out from smoke inhalation. I’ll have to apologize to Fujikawa-san after this is over... and let him know that some idiot didn’t secure the organization’s explosives properly.

334/2602

FWOOSH

Time Lady Katie · Aug 26, 2013

A big typhoon of horrible steam and water was bearing down on the Captain, and she was more than a little relieved she had been keeping note of her surroundings in light of that fact. With a flick of her wrist that was mostly for show, but partially to replace what concentration might’ve been required, Adelaide dragged a large steel plate from one of the machines torn apart by fire and force and jumped on it. It wasn’t a surf board, trying to surf a spell like this would’ve been profoundly stupid, instead she used Soshi in a way she quite enjoyed: since lifting herself was impossible, Adelaide lifted what she stood on, and used some clever three-dimensional thinking to evade most of the downpour.

She had trouble seeing through the steam and flood that Ilsa had caused, but that didn’t really matter all that much. Why? “Mage Eye.” A kidou tempest like that was surely putting out a massive amount of reiatsu, but it was also dousing fires, so instead of blue like Adelaide normally employed, her eyes blazed a bright red, allowing her to see through the waves and steam and spot her enemy. What she did from there was profoundly foolish. She jumped off her little piece of flying steel.

And once her feet hit the ground, she lunged into a flash-step. The waves tore at her even at her accelerated pace, and she would’ve given anything in that moment to have access to her full speed, but as it was she needed to run through the pain, and she needed to land a hit on Ilsa. She needed to close the gap the large spells were creating to tie their fates closer together. And she needed to keep her ferocity levels high. This was the first true test of her ability as a kidouist in some time, and she planned to be impressive.

317 Words
3037 Total

Used

Nekomata · Aug 26, 2013

Steel rang on crystal as Ilsa parried the blows, having seen Adelaide coming. The captain was fast, but not quite as fast as Ilsa with the limiter hampering her speed. Much as Ilsa would like a zanjutsu battle, there remained a risk of being hit with another Sanjukageki to the face. It was a shame that Adelaide had chosen now to close for melee, Ilsa couldn’t direct Takitsuse at her without hitting herself.

Wait. If I can’t bring Takitsuse to Adelaide, I’ll bring Adelaide to Takitsuse. A wicked smirk played on her face as she shifted Hinometori back to a one-handed grip. “Hadou number thirty-eight, Daishou!” The black arrow that had so recently knocked Ilsa into her own lightning cats appeared under Adelaide’s feet, pointing back toward the waterspout currently ripping through a conveyor belt.

Payback is sweet!

139/2741

Kidou

Time Lady Katie · Aug 26, 2013

Oh, no she didn’t!

“Daishou!” Adelaide said the word exactly in time with Ilsa. The Captain’s casting was faster, showing the kind of extensive practice that earned her the accolades that she was particularly fond of. And just like that, where the Captain went, the Vice-Captain was sure to follow.

In a parody of her lovely fire-related phrase, an apt remark might've been 'drown with me'.

66 Words
3103 Total

Shortest turn I've ever written.
Sorry it's so tiny, but I wanted to convey the fast-pace of the decision, and allow a response of either redirecting the spout, countering the spell or rocketing across the arena with Adelaide.

Adelaide's Points	Ilsa's Points
+200 Equalizer	+200 Equalizer
+200 Mana Burn	-100 Potion
+50 Haste

[Mana Burn] No Reiatsu bonuses from Release	[Potion] Heal all wounds
[Haste] All ability durations or persistent abilities reduced to one round

Arun Srinivasan (11:01:25 PM):	oh fun fact
Arun Srinivasan (11:01:34 PM):	because mystic signature was built off the 1st signature by lil
Arun Srinivasan (11:01:37 PM):	you can use the 1st techs
Arun Srinivasan (11:01:38 PM):	/funfact
Time Lady Katie (11:01:49 PM):	... really?

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[1st/10th] Week ---: Round Two: Adelaide Pierce versus Ilsa Maruyama

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