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[color=f49ac2]Sakura Level 10: 61/100[/color] 
[color=fff200]Karin Level 7: 37/70[/color] 
Location: Arabahaki
Word Count: 1762
Points Gained:  6
New EXP Balance--- [color=f49ac2]Sakura Level 10: 67/100 [/color] 
[color=fff200]Karin Level 7: 43/70[/color] 
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—

	Just as the damage had started to really add up, Sakura and Karin felt their bodies bolstered by Sandalphon’s magic, and Karen had taken a hit. The battle began again in earnest. It was a proper one on four, but Sakura felt like they were finally getting the edge on their opponent.

	Sakura and Karin were both blasted to the floor by Artificial Gravity, but at least Karen got hit as well, though it didn’t seem to slow him down at all. Sakura was focused intently on her battle with Karen Travers.

	Karin, however, saw out of the corner of her eye, that Roxas and Midna were both dead, with Geralt looking to follow after. Sandalphon, as well, had suffered lethal injury. This was an unmitigated disaster. Even if the Seekers succeeded at this point, the losses incurred here would never be recovered from. She saw Sakura, watched her face, saw the intensity in her eyes and movements as she rounded on Karen with a heavy kick. He blocked it, but the blow seemed to knock the last of his Pyrokinesis out of him, and she backpedaled away from his counterattack. Karin had been sure they were going to win. But now, no matter what happened, there would be no such thing as a victory. 

	A part of Karin wanted to cut her losses and run. Let Nox have his twisted fantasy. Come what may, at least this battle would be undone. But Sakura wouldn’t run. And Karin could never convince the remaining Seekers to retreat, she knew that much. In this moment she briefly met eyes with Giovanna, who looked like she was going to plunge headlong into this battle. A battle that, at this point, Karin could tell they were going to lose. Every time they lost a Seeker, their ability to deal damage and sustain themselves lessened, and their opponents had not grown weaker in the interim. In retrospect, Karin calculated they probably lost the battle the moment Goldlewis died. 

	For her part, Giovanna hesitated for just a split second on the outskirts of the battle, looking around with her brows furrowed. “Hey, where’d Goldlewis fuck off to? Old fart…” But nobody could really hear her over all the noise, and the question was rhetorical, anyway.

	It didn’t matter. A Kanzuki did not retreat. There was peace in accepting the inevitable, and Karin redoubled her efforts, preparing to unleash some of her stored power upon her opponent. If nothing else, she could bring about the humbling of Karen Travers.

	Sakura dashed in, feinted right, and then slammed her elbow towards Karen’s side, ducked and kicked out at his ankle, and just as fast followed up with an EX-fireball point blank, slamming her palms against him. Normally this would give her an advantage, and if he blocked it, she reached out to grab his hand and shoulder, looking to hook her leg behind his ankle and topple him to the ground. [color=f49ac2]”Seyah!”[/color] 

	“Hmph!” Karen grunted as he hit the floor. Even if most of his abilities were on cooldown, allowing his opponents to dictate the pace of the fight was unacceptable. He activated SAS, switching on two powers at once.

	Should that unbalance him or not, Karin would swoop in from behind and try to slam her elbow directly into his spine, whether she was assisted by him falling over or not. After that she would shoot upward with an EX-Ressen Ha, looking to launch Karen into the air as she spun, arms vertical, like a sawblade, before slamming him back down to earth. [color=fff200]”Ressen Ha!”[/color] 

	Her combo dealt a chunk of damage, though thanks to the healing from Mephisto, Karen had plenty more where that came from. Naturally, the instant he landed, both street fighters closed in to apply pressure, accompanied by their allies as they rushed in to capitalize. Rather than face a four-way mixup, he chose not to wakeup at all, instead vanishing in a blink. If his attackers looked around to see where he’d warped, however, they wouldn’t see anything; only someone with uncanny powers of perception would have already internalized the visual difference between Teleportation and invisibility, both of which featured blue effects. “Enough of this,” Karen deadpanned, his disembodied voice coming from somewhere among the Seekers. They couldn’t see him, but they could hear electricity building up, and they could smell the ozone in the air. Too soon, Karen reappeared in the instant that he delivered a fully-charged electrokinetic blowout, the explosion blasting back everyone in a surprising radius. Thanks to Invisibility, it was a critical hit.

	As the sparks flew, Karen pulled the cord at his collar. His hid flipped up, hiding his face in a darkness that then blazed with a set of orange jaws, and all across his outfit imaginary cables began to glow. Alight with the power of Brain Drive, he lifted his hands once more. “This is what real power looks like,” he declared, ready to finish this.

	Karin lay on her side, supporting herself with her hands, electricity zapping and crackling around her. She couldn’t breathe, and she gasped shallowly, looking up at a foe that had only gotten more powerful.

	Sakura rose first, undeterred. It was time for Round Two. Unlike Karin, Sakura wasn’t thinking about defeat. Only the fight.  

	He wasn’t the only one with Brain Drive. And while the hit she had taken was big, it was more than enough to give her access to V-Trigger. She activated the Brain Drive, still wearing her uniform after all this time. Then she pumped her fists, and blue flame ignited from her fists and feet. Sakura Senpu increased her melee damage and combo potential, and Brain Drive increased her mental acuity and strength just like it did Karen Travers. 

	[color=f49ac2]”Shut up.”[/color]  She said, and then sprinted forward. Karin grit her teeth and rose to her feet as well. Sakura dashed forward at high speed, and then stopped just as suddenly before she got into range. An eruption of cubes went off in front of her, narrowly evaded. She span to the left and then lashed out with a quick light kick. If it hit, she would confirm it into a bright blazing spin kick, and if it was blocked, she would back up and shift, trying to get behind him. That was her game. Overwhelm him with speed, power, and skill. Karin advanced, keeping her guard up to close in. 

	With several foes on their feet, Karen couldn’t afford to fight just one of them. He teleported backward from Sakura’s initial assault, refusing to play her little game, and activated both Levitation and Blastokinesis. He rose into the air under the protection of a psychic shield, then created a carpet of dark cubes beneath and around him. Switching to Marksmanship, he fired off a fusillade of psychic bolts, then deactivated it in favor of Duplication. Shielded, the four Karens began to charge. “This is checkmate!” they shouted, and the next second, they shot forward like bullets.

	It wasn’t a question of which was real and which were illusions. Their fists were all tangible, their punches strong enough to crack solid rock. Only the Karen who went after Karin, however, remained after his assault concluded. “You’re checked out,” he told her, seizing her arm in a grab as she went to block. He pulled it against his forearm to break it. Karin screamed, eye wide. Then he grabbed her and teleported with her beneath the arena, where nothing but empty space between them and the depths of the Mako reactor. “Take a hike.” The Septentrion released her, and the street fighter began to fall. Karin didn’t know that teleportation could work like that. She gasped, her stomach lurching. Her grapple hook arm was broken. Her arms and legs trailing behind her, the Kanzuki looked up as the battlefield, her friend on it, got farther and farther away. It was a quiet fall. 

 	When he reappeared on the battlefield, Karen Travers was alone.

	[color=f49ac2]”...”[/color] Sakura’s knees wobbled. She staggered, like Karen had hit her harder than he ever could physically. Her V-Trigger ended prematurely, her fighting spirit snuffed out. In the brief interlude of silence, she had stared, wide-eyed, at the deaths of the other Seekers. Somewhere inside, rage bubbled, but it was underneath an ocean of shock and grief. Instead of a defiant yell, all that came out was a pathetic sob as Sakura staggered forward to meet Karen in combat one last time. What else could she do? 

	Her skill was still there but it was clear her heart wasn’t in it. She swung and dodged a strike and took a mighty frozen fist to the chest. [color=f49ac2][i]”Guh!”[/i][/color] She rose and threw another punch, only for it to hit nothing but psychic shielding. Another, another, a kick, and she was on her back. She yelled, pushed herself onto her knees, and fired a shaky Shinku Hadoken towards Karen. The sudden burst of power exploded violently, kicking up dust. If he hadn’t been prepared for it, he probably would have gone flying right off the edge to where Karin was now. Instead, Sakura’s arms dropped, her shoulders sagging as the energy cleared away and Karen stood with her arms crossed defensively in front of him, Sclerokinesis engaged after the breaking of his Blastokinesis shield just to show how little hope there was

	By this point, almost half the roster of Seekers had been eliminated, but there were still enough to pose a possible threat if Karen hesitated. He took no pleasure in this act, but executed it with military efficiency. Teleporting away from Sakura’s allies, he appeared in front of her and kicked her over. [color=f49ac2][i]”Oof.”[/i][/color] Sakura landed on her back. She brought her arms up in front of her.  But her mental state had been broken, and her mind was unprotected. The Septentrion reached out through SAS to force a connection. Visions of prong-tipped cables appeared from the ether and stabbed into Sakura’s body. ‘I’m dead,’ Sakura thought to herself bleakly. There wasn’t any time to think about anything else. 

 	A moment later, three huge ones lunged into the back of her head, and in one brutal assault he uploaded an obscene amount of junk data into her head. Her back arched, eyes wide and unseeing. The Brain Crush knocked her out instantly. She lay flat on her back with a little thud, eyes closing. As she hit the ground, Karen turned, his Brain Drive nearly out. This was a turning point. Victory was within his reach.