I'll let you designate any rules or anything like that. And the location.

Your move, Slice.

(OOC: No rules. Field’ll be basic thunder, rainy field. No hold’s bar!)

The problem with semi-long hair was that it simply got in the way. Sure, it may look cool when you’re designing your character, but without any forethought, the coolness factor becomes a wet mop on your head. Not the most pleasant sight or even mental image.

The field Slicer was currently standing in was a basic one involving rolling plains. A couple hills here and there, though none were tall enough for an advantage to be gained by standing on top of them. Trees were scattered about, some of them having been blasted by an unguided shot of lightning. The remains of stone buildings were also about the field, though less plentiful than the digital vegetation. A storm was currently rolling across the field; no end to the dark mass was in sight. It was going to be a very wet battle.

Wet T-shirt contest. Eww…

Though he had only stood in this field for a minute or so, Slicer had been soaked clear through. His normally spiky blue-green hair was matted against his face, causing him to look like Peter Parker in the third Spider-Man movie. Talk about ancient movies. His jacket had become water-logged, but he had decided against taking it off, since it was able to insulate against the cold and possible sword strikes later down the road. His jeans were dragging him down, but he wasn’t about to go streaking across the field, either.

Slicer’s current weapon of choice was the Life Sword, which would probably be what he was using for the entirety of this duel. His armor was all Rue element equips. Half of them were rare. They weren’t his, though, and he was unfamiliar with them. His hands were covered in his black gloves, but there seemed to be a thin layer of blue surrounding him. Also, fur had sprouted his jacket, causing it to look very feminine. What people did for looks.

Now, the Heavy Blade was going up against another user of the giant sword; the co(?) clan leader of the Swordbreakers, former leader of the Figment Raiders, etc., etc. Yeah, she was pretty famous and had bashed the Heavy Blade around for a while. Well, this time the fight was just a practice for her to warm up for a tournament that was occurring soon. Slicer was just a boy toy. Hopefully he’d at least get a treat by the end of this thing.

SP: 98/98

((OOC: Consider this revenge for passing me in post count. Darn you! *shakes fist*))

The tournament was still a few days off, but Lyra had known from the instant she signed up that she needed to train for it. It had been over four months since her last official tournament, and two of the last five unofficial ones she'd tried to enter had ended in disaster when one of the many factions of Knights had dropped in and removed about half the competitors.

She'd been subtly hiding from the unofficial tournaments ever since. At least until a few people there forgot her name.

It was training time now, though, and so she'd rounded up... well, the only clan member anywhere near her level who was also foolish enough to take her on. Well, perhaps not quite so foolish, really, but she liked to over-dramaticize this sort of thing; it gave her more confidence, and with enough (but not too much!) it would be easier for her to bring about Slicer's doom.

She knew him about as well as she knew most the higher-ranking clan members, which was not as well as she probably should have. At any rate, she knew his level, knew he, like herself and the leader, wielded one of the oh-so-pretty massive Heavy Blade swords, and she'd palled around with him for a couple of fields in the past.

None of those fields had ever been rainy. Maybe if they had been, she would have been able to contain her laughter at the way his hair hung tight against his face, like a dark octopus had been dropped on his scalp. But she wasn't able to, and so there she stood, a few yards from Slicer, not even bothering to cover her mouth as her laughter echoed across the field (and eventually caused painful feedback on her headset).

When she finally stopped, she shook her head and smirked. “Sorry about that,” she called, though part of her wanted to snicker again. Of course, by now, the fur of her ears and tail probably looked equally absurd, a sight that she was able to ignore by the simple fact that she couldn't see her own appearance without switching viewpoints.

And first person, in her opinion, made battles far easier, and was less cheap then the extra area the third person view allowed. Well, that and she'd spent her first fifteen or so levels unsure how to change POV, and so had gotten used to the perspective.

“No rules, right?” she called. That was what he'd said when they'd met an hour earlier, in the Mac Anu tavern the Swordbreakers called home. He had the right to change his mind, though; she liked to give the advantage to the lower level player. If only more opponents were willing to do the same for her...

But everything was set now, and she had a new sword to test out, courtesy of her boyfriend.

Hot diggity dog.

Lyra sprang the Moumokuteki from her back and tightened her grip on it, racing in with it cocked to one side, classic battle form. Slicer was too high of a level for her to take out in one slash, but hopefully she could get the jump on him with some creativity.

“Ap Ruem,” she whispered mid-stride; the pale blue glow that sparkled around her was a dead giveaway that she'd done something, but hopefully he'd be confused enough by it to not remember to get out of the way in the next few seconds.

And with any luck, the fact she suddenly planted her sword into the ground less than a yard in front of him would only further confuse him. Using her momentum from the run, she leaped skyward, hurtling over Slicer's head. The arc of her somersault was arced miserably downward by the weight of her sword, though, minimizing her clearance; part of her worried she'd be yanked down before making it to the ground again.

That was why she attacked now, not with her weapon, but with her now slightly strengthened Rue Zot, her cursor pointed squarely at his feet, just at the edge of her view. If it worked, he'd be too busy having his feet mauled to knock her out of the air; if he took her down with him, though, she'd be hurt as well, albeit not as badly thanks to her Ap Ruem.

Either way, though, this whole acrobatics with a giant weapon thing was officially easier when she was using a skill. Maybe she should have thought to bring her wings...

--------
SP: 85/114

(Edited because I can't count SP at 2AM...)

The Heavy Blade grumbled as he heard the laughter of his opponent. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was that she was laughing about. If it was Slicer’s hair, then the female Heavy Blade had nothing to laugh about. She herself didn’t look much better than him. In fact, Lyra looked far worse. Her entire body was composed of fur, which was basically the equivalent of hair. And with all the rain that was pouring down upon the field, she looked like one of those animals you found on a picture of LOL-cats. The laughter caused her body to shake, causing her to even look more comical. Still, that didn’t cause the Heavy Blade’s mood to raise much.

“Sorry about that.”

For some reason, Slicer didn’t think she was all that sorry about laughing.

“No rules, right?”

It had been a simple thing to say. Since this was a practice match for the female Heavy Blade, in theory, she shouldn’t have to over-exert herself. However, the only way to improve was to not hold back in any way, shape, or form. Thus, Slicer, against the better judgment of his own well-being, decided that the best rule was to not have any rules. Besides, he wasn’t going to hold back, either.

Lyra drew out her blade, sending bad images to flash through Slicer’s mind. He remembered going against his clan leader, Kiwi, long ago and he had used the exact same blade. Slicer hadn’t thought that there was another blade like it, since through his journey in The World he was never able to encounter another that even looked remotely like the Moumokuteki. Momo, if you wanted to be cute about it. The blade, however, was far from cute. It was a giant black sword. Scarrrryyyy.

So, the fight started. Lyra began it with a charge towards the waiting Heavy Blade. Having pulled out the Dryad’s Sword, he prepared himself for a physical brawl. The thing that stopped him from being completely focused on the physical aspect of the fight was the blue glow that began to surround Lyra. The Heavy Blade had been in enough fights and used enough status increasing spells to know that what surrounded the female Heavy Blade was a strengthening spell. The color of it gave it away to be Ruem. Water and ice.

That spell right there had been a mistake on Lyra’s part. She had used it early on to give Slicer enough time to use an Ap Ruem himself. Though Slicer was inferior to Lyra in the form of levels, it was highly doubtful that he was inferior in the department of Ruem. The Slice was a Heavy Blade, and as such, would not normally dabble in the spell department. He also wouldn’t normally be affiliated with Ruem, since his character class didn’t give any weapons that had water properties.

No one in the Swordbreakers would be what you called normal.

Slicer was outfitted with all water type equipment. Though it wasn’t smart for someone to a hydro in a land filled with pyros, the Heavy Blade liked water too much. Why else would he even bother with a land filled with cold rain?

Back to the story of Slicer and his cunning defeat of Lyra.

As previously mentioned, Heavy Blades don’t have any water elemental blades. The Momo was a weapon made from the darkness of Hades and it was doubtful there was water there. So, the only liable explanation to Lyra’s use of Ap Ruem was to power herself for a water spell. Simple, enough. The planting of the blade in front of Slicer was absolute proof of that. Though he was in fact trying to defend himself against a sword swipe, the striking of the Momo against the earth allowed the Heavy Blade to focus more on the environment around him.

As Lyra tried to hobble over Slicer, like an ostrich trying to fly, he noticed the ground underneath him being to freeze. Though he wasn’t sure what kind of Rue spell it was just yet, he was going to launch a counter-attack. He wasn’t willing to allow the foxy lady to get out of this one without a scratch.

“GiRue Kruz.”

Considering how horrible Heavy Blade magical attack can be, the spell wouldn’t seem like overkill, when compared with a Wavemaster. However, he was fighting against another Heavy Blade, which meant that their magical defense wouldn’t be the most stellar in the world, either. A level two spell was also nothing to laugh at. Even if it was coming from a normally non-magic user, the power of such a thing wasn’t weak. It had been targeted to be in the arc of the ostrich. If she was able to change her path, then she’d be able to avoid the attack completely. Otherwise, it’d be a concentrated force of ice that would meet the Momo user.

Now, there was still the problem with the Rue Zot. As soon as Slicer finished casting the spell, he knew it was time to try and save his own hide. Since his Rue element was so high, even if the spell hit, it wouldn’t cause that much damage. Level was taken into consideration and Slicer knew that it would make up for most of the help his Rue equipment gave him. But this wasn’t going to be an easy fight and it would be best to try and avoid any unnecessary damage.

Stepping around the area like a professional B-boy, Slicer was able to avoid the biggest pieces of ice that came up. He was, however, unable to avoid all of it. The area that the Rue Zot had come up was expansive enough for him to be unable to just get out of the way. That would have to be props to Lyra for her ability to target well with a spell. The damage was minimal, but it was there. Hopefully the damage that Slicer caused was a bit more. He turned around to prepare for another counter if needed.

SP: 69/98

(OOC: Editing because I seem to have gotten the SP bar wrong. Well, I blame the fact that I haven't dueled in two years! Well, it evens the score a bit that way, anyway.)

One of Lyra's favorite phrases came to mind as the air began to glow blue around her, and below her Slicer's eyes seemed to take a devilish glint.

'Oh shit.'

There was nothing she could to, though; she was in midair, and that made it nearly impossible to dodge. She had only one option, the one she wanted to avoid using in the tournament, but she needed to minimize damage here if she was to survive long enough to get a good fight out. She started to flap her wings...

Only to remember she didn't have them on her. Damn't.

By then, she'd taken too long thinking about everything, resulting in a rather painful barrage of ice blocks that made her landing about ten times lousier than it already would have been. She performed a poor excuse for a barrel roll, her world spinning three times before she came to a halt on her hands and knees. Her face contorted as she spat out the grass that had accrued in her mouth. She checked her HP bar before standing up to brush herself off with one hand and ready her weapon with the other. It was still pretty high, but in the end the encounter had left her slightly more damaged than her opponent. Her lip curled into an amused snarl.

From what skills Slicer had used so far, he had at least some of the same armor on as her, so Rue in general would be useless. That was fine by her; her spells were just one tactic she could use, and it didn't surprise her that another of Kiwi's clan had similar battling techniques. The idea of focusing on magic rather than her weapon in duels against heavy classes had come from the bird himself, and was probably taught to many of his members, either directly or through observation. None of them, though, including Lyra, had the sort of rare equipment necessary to really make the tactic viable – except for the leader himself.

While there were rivals she hoped to meet and beat in this tournament, mostly other Heavy Blades that she'd been in long competition with, Kiwi was the only opponent she truly feared.

But it looked so far like Slicer had learned well. The fox remembered now: she'd fought him once before, in a two on two duel. He'd done much better than she'd expected from his level. So far she'd been underestimating him again.

She couldn't afford to continue doing so.

Lesson one was relearned: anyone can fuck you up. Don't be deceived by level.

Unless, of course, that level was one. Then they were just fresh meat.

Her feet dug into the slightly soggy ground as she rose to her full height, only to shift into a sideways stance. She thought of calling to Slicer, getting him to come to her, but then he'd probably just fire off another spell. So she needed to charge him, and this time, use her sword for real.

The Moumokuteki was a marvelous blade. It had the advantage of raising your Physical Attack power for the entire time it was equipped. But power came with a price, of course; the blade ate at your mind, made you waver... your accuracy was reduced whenever you tried to swing it.

That was part of why she'd chosen Physical Accuracy for her increased stat for the upcoming tournament. Because with it, the Moumokuteki's curse was cancelled out, allowing her to reap the full benefits of increased attack power, and that lovely critical hit chance.

She'd take that chance now.

The grass bounced back to its full height as her feet left it, as once more she aimed a forward charge at Slicer. He'd know she wasn't going to pull the same trick twice, so she didn't even bother pretending she had anything in store except an attack. But with just a few feet to spare, she darted right, rushing past not even a foot further than her blade's reach away.

And the moment she caught site of his back from the corner of her eye...

She threw her weight to the left, pivoting on her right foot and locking on her aim. Before her left foot could even finish setting down, the words had left her mouth, and she was airborne again, in a maneuver not terribly unlike her first attack.

“Ani Smash!”

Except this time, she was aimed to land atop his head instead of behind him, with her weight backing the already hefty slab of sharp obsidian headed his way.

And unlike Rue, there was almost no one who had extra defense against Ani.

--------
SP: 57/114

Bueno.

It seemed that the Heavy Blade’s tactic had worked out just fine. Normally, his attacks seemed like random flailing, but in the last tournament he learned that it was best to make it look like you had a strategy, even if you didn’t really have one at all. As long as you didn’t allow the audience to realize that, you would get some better points according to the dueling judges. Slicer decided it would be better to seem like he knew what he was doing. Fluid grace.

There seemed to be a renewed sense of passion within Lyra’s eyes. Guess she had just been playing around and now she was about to get serious. Well, that was good for her, since the Heavy Blade had been going that one gear this entire time. Even if he was going to die in this fight, he could still pull a stunning victory if he was to make the female dance to his tune. The side of Slicer’s lips began to turn upwards.

Lyra’s damage didn’t seem to faze her nearly as much as the Heavy Blade had hoped. The spell had been off target by just a little bit, but that little bit caused the spell to not become nearly as damaging. Well, he would just have to keep on trying, it seemed. The concept of try and try again was something that Slicer was very good at.

Watching his opponent sprint towards him, Slicer realized that he hadn’t been moving much during this entire duel. He hadn’t needed to. Lyra had always been coming towards him, which honestly wasn’t the best tactic to take when facing an opponent. Letting them come to you was a far better tactic as you used less energy than your opponent. Ah, the beauty of Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

The height of the grass was able to cover the fox-like maniac’s movements well enough that Slicer wasn’t able to judge the time when she turned, allowing her a split seconds more time than Slicer. This was enough for her to get behind him and unleash her Ani Smash.

The unique use of a “Death Bringer” type skill was something that the Heavy Blade had seen a number of times. It had even become a part of his every changing set of skill uses. That was why he was a little less than surprised to hear the attack being used and then being greeted by an animal-lady with a giant sword coming at him. The Momo had the only darkness skill for Heavy Blades, but that wasn’t what he wasn’t surprised about. Lyra was using tactics too much like Kiwi. He understood that there was good reason for that, but because he had seen Kiwi fight so much, he had learned how to dodge and counter such skills. No, he wasn’t seeking a death match with the kamikaze bird. It was just one of those things you analyzed because it looked more like art than fighting.

The good thing that was going for Lyra was that he had been expecting another feint attack combined with a spell, so he was expecting that a bit more than a sword strike. The time it took for her to get behind Slicer, though, caused him to shift his perspective into a more physical attacking style. So, when the Ani Smash came down, the blue haired Heavy Blade wasn’t there to greet it. He was half a step away. That, however, wasn’t enough space to avoid all the dark energies that surrounded the Momo when it went on a blood-rage. The power of the skill knocked the Heavy Blade backwards. As he flipped through the air, however, he was able to balance himself and plant his feet towards the ground.

“Rue Rom.”

The spell was little more than a whisper, but it wasn’t meant for Lyra. There wasn’t really any need for her to hear the spell or see the effect it would cause. It was something that a lot of people seemed to do with Juk spells. Using the wind in the spell, players would seemingly cause a cushion of air to stop a hard fall or to brace themselves for something. The Rue element one that Slicer used was a bit more forceful. The tornado was focused at the feet of the Heavy Blade, causing him to slow down. It did, however, also cause a bit of minor damage to him. That would be fine, though. Condensing and controlling the spell, Slicer was able to turn it into a spring. The force from the Smash had propelled the Heavy Blade backwards. Stopping him was the spring. In front of him was Lyra. Do the math.

Ice and dirt froze in place as the water elemental tornado condensed into what could very well look like a solid ball of ice. When it was at the densest it would be, the sphere expanded outward, causing Slicer to shoot towards Lyra. If his calculations were correct, she would still be recovering from her last attack. If not, well, then he might still be able to get in a strike. The Heavy Blade was about a foot off the ground, but his wings kept him that way. His plan was to slam his blade into the neck and shoulder area of Lyra. If the attack connected, he could use the sudden stop and flip over Lyra, turn around, roll backwards, pull out another sword, and prepare for another attack. If the attack didn’t connected, he’d fall flat on his face, roll forward, turn around, and prepare for another attack. Simple.

The Heavy Blade had a childish grin on his face. It wasn’t because he thought he had won; the match was far from over, but rather that he was enjoying himself in a fight against a stronger player. And unless Lyra changed her tune, this match would be going to him.

SP: 61/98

Rue Rom spring board.

Okay, yeah, she'd have to give him creativity points for that one. And later she'd have to figure out how the hell he'd done it. But for now, she was just concerned with avoiding losing her head, literally.

Lyra quickly turned her hands, putting the sword straight up and down, broad side out, in front of her face. It was just enough off to one side to see him as he collided into the weapon; but before she could think to throw him away or off, he'd already used the strength of his wings to flip over her head, landing somewhere behind her.

“Really, really should have brought those along,” she grumbled as she spun around. If she'd realized ahead of time that he had a pair of his own, she would have in a heartbeat; but she'd beat winged opponents before, without any of her own, and it was good to have a strategy for any opponent.

As she turned, she twisted her sword to be edge-out again, though it was still mostly vertical. 'Memo to self: things to work on before tournament: preparation, soundtrack, and patience.' But she knew the last would forever be thrown out the window, and that was just the way she was. She needed to charge, needed to make sure she still knew how to fight human opponents.

'Memo to self 2.0: Stop sounding so paranoid during your self-narration.'

She'd waited only long enough to see if he was going to move before she started running again, this time sticking with the good old head on approach. If nothing else, all her stats were slightly higher than his from sheer level advantage; she'd inevitably eventually win any head-on clash, which made it worth her time to slam into him again and again, waiting for an opening. Every blow that hit would do more damage than his did.

The vixen aimed for the arm closest to her as she charged, edge out and aimed slightly downwards to get gravity on her side. The actual attack was less a swing and more a lunge, putting all of her weight behind the blow rather than just her arm strength. Her right foot and arm both lead, the sideways stance giving her better stability if he were to push back against her.

If she struck, she'd try to use the moment to turn over the grip of her right hand, using her right elbow to push her blade deeper into him, then twist her blade downwards as she backed away again; the motion would likely take a sizable chunk of flesh from him, hopefully disabling an arm but no matter what cause massive bleeding. There was a good chance he'd try to strike her while she took the time to cut him, though; if he did, she'd be forced to back away again.

Of course, that was assuming she didn't miss. But she didn't plan on missing.

--------
SP: 59/114

((I'd like to note that it's been pointed out to me that the Momo's auto effects only kick in once HP drops to critical levels. Go me for having no clue! So yeah. Disregard previous thought of that.))

Still no point for the good looking Heavy Blade. Ah well, that was the problem with dueling against high leveled players. They had a lot of stat points going for them. Of course the experience on the dueling field didn’t hurt. The Heavy Blade would just have to keep going at it until he finally got some results from these quick, bone-breaking encounters.

When the Heavy Blade had gotten back into position after the previous clash, Slicer saw a very wet, furry, and angry animal come at him. Well, she wasn’t exactly an animal, but the hack had a slight purpose in making that statement truer. Try imagining a cat that was about your height coming at you with a giant sword. You would have to be scared out of your wits also.

It was a good thing that this hadn’t been the first image that Slicer saw, or else he might just be running for the hills. But now was where Lyra stopped being fancy and just started using her raw ability. This was where the duel would get interesting.

A distant thunderbolt shot towards the ground, quickly followed by the ever flowing raindrops. In this field, there was no end to either, as they were what made this field unique in its composition compared with other elemental fields. Because of this, the ground itself was soft and gave way under the weight of a player and their weapon. Though the grass helped to cover this up, Slicer could tell that he sank a bit with each new step across virgin field. The place where Lyra had stepped off from was the area where her own Rue Zot had erupted from. The mixture of ice and soil helped to give her enough stability to come charging towards the male Heavy Blade.

Crashing through the peaceful rainfall, Lyra was like a cyclone in an otherwise calm landscape. Her steps kicked up rain and dirt, while Slicer used a minimum amount of steps, trying to keep the earth as cleansed as possible. His style dictated flow in a way that went against unnecessary movement. Unused energy stayed within his body, while for Lyra, that energy was spilling out from every twitch of her body. Eventually, she would be tired out, but until then, the Heavy Blade would continue this fight.

The next attack that Lyra used was a lunge with her blade. It was a nice attempt at an attack, but the Heavy Blade had taken a fencing class in real life. They did a lot of lunging around. To deflect an attack, one only had to do a simple thing.

Spinning the blade so it pointed down, Slicer moved his right arm to the left of the blade while holding the hilt of the blade with his left hand, so the weapon’s tip rested gently in the ground. In one swift motion, the Heavy Blade threw his right arm against the blade, using his left hand as a pivoting point, causing the weapon to come up. It was also during this time that Lyra’s Momo reached Slicer’s personal bubble. With the weapon spinning in front of Slicer, the two weapons connected before the dark weapon could touch Slicer’s handsome facial features. While the metal clashed, Slicer’s free right hand moved into his Jacket’s second left pocket. During this split second, there should be a slight opening for the male Heavy Blade to take advantage of.

“Rai Don.”

And so, the lightning scroll disappeared from the Heavy Blade’s pocket and the roar of thunder came crashing down.

SP: 63/98

((See! This is why I needed a practice round! To get all this lateness out! And so that I remembered NOW, not LATER that the Momo wouldn't conduct electricity. Geesh.))

The two swords clashed in the classic overdramatic way movies always showed swords clashing, their edges scraping together, both blades twitching as their owners fought to push the other out of the way. Indeed, Lyra was slowly forcing Slicer's blade to turn, since he only had one hand's force behind the weapon. Soon he'd be forced to either get out of her path or somehow counter more effectively.

Which suddenly brought the fox to the question of where his other hand was.

“Rai,”

She wondered a bit too late, the delay in her foresight leaving her only with enough time to whimper, instead of finding proper language for her dismay at the thought of being zapped.

“Don.”

She had a split second to react between the time he finished the incantation and the moment the spell actually went off, and she used it to push herself and her weapon closer to him. Swords were metal, after all, and metal conducted electricity, so with any luck, the bolt of lightning approaching her head at a speed close to 2.99×108 meters per second would choose to disperse evenly between herself and her opponent via the union of their weapons.

In layman's terms, as opposed to those formed in the mind of a frantic fox, she was hoping that their swords would conduct the electricity and his spell would zap them both, instead of just her.

Lyra had forgotten, though, that her weapon was not one forged of steal, but instead was a legendary blade made from lava and encased in obsidian – neither of which was a particularly good conductor. Which, in retrospect, was probably the source of the sword's negative thunder stat.

Regardless of where the sudden shove had left Slicer, Lyra was now momentarily frozen in frustration as she pondered her new, slightly crispy state. But for now, she was only medium rare, so she still had plenty of fight left in her – around 410 HP worth of it, if she was reading the tiny text below her health bar right.

“Maybe I need glasses,” she sighed, charging forward again. Her arms were crossed somewhat awkwardly as she closed the small gap between them again; this time, her Moumokuteki cocked to her right and up high, just a hair off from the final angle of their previous clash.

But just as she should have swung, she pulled out another wild card, one she hoped would be effective for a change. The vixen dropped her blade's angle a good hundred and twenty degrees, sinking the tip into the soggy ground at an angle. The hilt was now a pivot point as she threw her feet out ahead of her, dropping toward the ground; her hands on the weapon guided her body's path, keeping it low to the ground. Indeed, the damp grass was quickly her slip-and-slide as she headed boots first for Slicer's legs.

The plan here was to knock him off balance, if not (preferably) clean off his feet. If she was successful in at least distracting him, if not sending him crashing into the mud, Lyra would use her grip on the Momo to rip it free of the ground again, swinging it in an arc over her head to collide with whatever of Slicer's thighs or torso happened to be approximately eye level. Or below, if she was lucky enough to have her clan mate sprawled on the grass before her, ready to be sliced open more ways than her biology project.

Of course, luck and Lyra weren't friends lately, so she did have a back up plan, one formulated in the seconds between when her feet left the ground and her ass met it. If Slicer was still standing, she'd use that same grip along with whatever footing the slick ground would afford her to pull herself back towards her weapon, rolling away and presumably out of the way of any immediate danger.

She was optimistic her attack would work this time. Finally. Maybe.

--------
SP: 61/114

(OOC: See, isn’t it great having a partner that allows you to shove giant metal instruments at them?)

A flash of light came down from the heavens at a frightening speed. Considering how light was so fast that if you went faster, you would technically be traveling backwards in time, the lightning was pretty quick. Its decent was preceded by Lyra shoving herself in the Heavy Blade’s general direction.

That hadn’t been expected.

Slicer had thought that the female fox would have tried to back away from Slicer. That would be the normal response someone would have taken when there was something attacking them. Stepping towards the point of pain hadn’t been what Slicer had been expecting. With the blade being redirected towards Slicer through sheer force, his block had only been slightly effective. The blade went off target, but still tore into the Heavy Blade’s left arm. The cut was deep, but not enough to render the arm useless. It stung like a bitch, but that wasn’t worth mentioning.

Another problem that came with the forward movement was that the thunderbolt also moved with Lyra. The spell wasn’t exactly heat tracking, but it did follow Lyra to a slight extent. If someone had been looking from a far away position, they would have noticed a slight curve in the path of a descending thunderbolt. Slicer could feel the heat from the condensed energy strike the earth. Its power was had been concentrated on the female Heavy Blade, but a few sparks escaped, striking the person that had originally unleashed the attack.

During this time, the blue haired warrior jumped back, trying to get some space between him and Lyra. Though he wouldn’t be able to get much, he liked a bit of area to be able to come up with a plan. Before he could get that much further though, Lyra began again.

“…Glasses.”

That was the only word the Heavy Blade heard and it obviously didn’t make any sense to him. He wondered what it was that the fox had been muttering but decided that this wouldn’t be the best time to figure that out. Looking at the movement of the animalistic fighter, Slicer saw what looked like a strike across him from shoulder to opposing waist. Placing his blade up to block and preparing for a counter attack, Slicer reacted far too late to the change of plan.

Lyra swung her blade, but it had been too early for the weapon reach the Heavy Blade. His body could tell that something was up, but his mind hadn’t been able to catch up. When it did, Lyra was already base-ball sliding herself at Slicer. Her feet knocked up grass and mud as it traversed the sleek ground. Without having time to move out of the way, the only thing that could be done was to take the attack. The vixen’s two feet caught Slicer’s left, causing that side of his balance to be completely shot. When someone trying to lift a heavy object lost their balance, that item usually wouldn’t stay lifted for long. That was the case with the warrior’s Dryad’s Sword. The blade flew off a fair distance of ten feet, far enough away for Slicer to be unable to retrieve it without sacrificing an advantage.

The Heavy Blade tripped and fell forwards. Again, his martial arts training in Judo was going to come in handy. Placing his right shoulder forward, Slicer shifted his weight through his body as he rolled. At the last instance, he crossed his legs when they hit the ground, then pushed himself up, causing him to turn himself around in a complete one hundred eighty degrees turn, allowing him to face the battling furry lady.

He came up just in time to watch Lyra swinging her blade at himself. Moving both his hands up, Slicer was able to catch the blade between his hands. The act wasn’t without sacrifice, though. The Heavy Blade had just caught a piece of metal meant to cut through muscle and bone. The blade’s speed and power pushed Slicer’s elbow and shoulder joints into a locked position. He heard cracking, feeling both his shoulder joints give way to the power of the Momo. His legs had been bent as he caught he weapon, which caused him to be driven completely onto one knee as the force of the sword struck his hands. His hands had been damaged as the blade entered through the former gloves. The material that had been used to make them had been cut in pieces and the blade was now resting upon callused hands. Blood moved from the hand wound down to his elbows, one side hitting the cut that had already been letting out blood, before traveling to the broken shoulders. His body had turned into a complete mess because of an extremely well placed strike.

Right now, though, Lyra would have a hard time getting out of her current predicament. If she forced her blade backwards, the Heavy Blade would come forwards and throw a punch at the fox’s face. Pushing the blade away wouldn’t actually yield any results either. The only thing she could do was to abandon the weapon or do what the Heavy Blade was about to do. Cast a spell.

“GiRue Kruz.”

Now, what would the Heavy Blade do? Would she abandon the Momo? Well, Slicer had always wanted to try out one of these babies.

SP: 45/98