[center][b][h2]Karliah v.[color=black]s. Makoto[/color][/h2][/b] [center]Brought to you by Darkmoon Angel, Dead Cruiser, Savo, and a teensy bit of KaiserElectric[/center][hr][hr][/center] Makoto set out into the arena, arms held at her sides in a posture of power and control. As she took her designated starting position, she eyed her opponent. She was actually quite cute, even Makoto had to admit, and she felt a small pang of trepidation over the fact that she was about to brutalize someone who was so adorable. She shook herself of such thoughts, remembering that this was more important. Once she managed to make a name for herself at the world stage, then she could concern herself with flirting. Her crimson gaze never tearing away from her opponent, Makoto gave her a stiff, formal bow, and dropped into her stance. The Kuroi Hoshi style focused on mobility and adaptability, and so it was high-set and light-footed. One hand readied and outstreched to deflect, and the other coiled and ready to strike back and punish her opponent. Makoto carefully studied her opponent's stance in turn, ready to analyze it to determine her fighting style and weaknesses. Karliah bowed back to her opponent and took uup her fighting stance. It was a kin to that of a boxer, with both hands positioned in a way that she was ready to block any incoming frontal attacks. She studied Makoto's stance and took a deep breath, this was a decently experienced fighter she was facing, nevertheless, she wasn't gonna go down easily. She waved her hand at Makoto, taunting her to make the first move, if she could get her into a sufficient range, then she could proceed to take her down quickly with a few hard hitting punches. A boxer, eh? Makoto smiled cruelly, her red eyes giving her expression an air of true malevolence. If she wanted Makoto to make the first move, fine, but it remained to be seen if she could handle what Makoto was ready to dish out. With speed that ripped through the air like a thundercrack, Makoto cleared the entire distance between herself an her opponent in a single dash. Once she was practically on top of the other girl, she immediately unleashed a Black Star Strike. Makoto willed enough power into the blow to destroy her opponent in a single strike, just as she had always done. Even if the other girl was fast enough to read the attack and block, Makoto would power forward and break through her defences with sheer force. She wasn't worried about a counterattack; if this attack went through, there would be no counterattack. There! She fell for the taunt perfectly. Though her speed surprised her, Karliah could see where the attack was coming from. Rather than block it, she shifted to the side and smacked Makoto's fist away before delivering a swift strike to her gut. And before she could even recoil from the counter, Karliah hit her with a quick one-two before kicking her away. She didn't expect it to do much, whoever this girl was, she clearly had unnatural speed and strength. The deflection of her attack caught Makoto by surprise, but she was able to learn much from her opponent's movements. Namely, that she had almost no training. Her strikes were slow, clumsy, and clearly telegraphed. Makoto was able to brace herself enough to withstand her counterattack without much difficulty, and she had recovered from her missed punch by the time the followup attacks came. However, when her kick came, Makoto was ready ready to punish. She caught the kick in the crook of her arm, and then locked the girl's ankle in place. Now that she was immobile and helpless, Makoto brought her other arm down in a hammer-blow on the girl's knee. A decisive strike here would completely disable her, possibly even breaking her leg. As she thought, an uphill battle, only this hill turned into a mountain. Makoto had braced herself for Karliah's attacks and had even caught her kick, Karliah couldn't move. Makoto then delivered a blow to Karliah's leg, pain shot through her body causing her to cry in pain. "Let... Go!!" charging her ki, she released a massive shockwave that would at least knock Makoto away. Karliah laid on the ground, gritting her teeth from the pain, at present, there was no way she was moving. She sat up and charged ki into her fists, she needed to keep Makoto at bay. She started throwing punches with rapid succession, sending fist shaped blasts at Makoto. The blast of ki had sent Makoto flying away, but such a desperate, uncontrolled blast was more disruptive than damaging, and so a quick roll in the air was enough for her to land easily on her feet. Seeing the state of her opponent, unable to rise to her feet, Makoto grinned again. This battle was over. With the same blazing speed as before, she strafed around the other girl, forcing the majority of her projectiles to miss. The few that nearly hit their mark, Makoto was able to swat out of the air with a few ki-infused punches of her own. Once she had circled just about to her opponent's rear, she charged in, a massive concentration of ki welling up in her fist. The coming attack was at once both obvious and something of a ruse; her strike would be powerful and obvious, but its power would come not from the impact of the punch, but the explosion of ki that followed: the Black Star Pulse. At this point, Karliah was running out of options. The difference between their skills were obvious and it seemed like she wasn't gonna win this fight. Gritting her teeth, Karliah turned around and crossed her arms in front of her, forming a barrier of ki. Unfortunately, she was expecting to block a punch, but instead she ended up blocking a ki infused explosion that came from the punch. The barrier blocked the attack, but Karliah was sent flying back. She hit the ground hard. "Agh... No... Way..." she was out of options, she needed to end this now, even if she took severe damage. She staggered back to her feet, falling back to the ground a couple of times, before finally standing up, however with a pained look in her eyes. She had to use her Berserker Rage. She started to focus ki throughout her body. *thoom* The moment that her opponent staggered back onto her feet, Makoto was on top of her again; she was far from the kind of fighter that allowed her foes a chance to recover. If she could end the fight now and put her down for good, the absolutely would. Merely using her natural physical strength and speed, Makoto wailed on the girl with a constant barrage of attacks, never for a second relenting. She focused her attacks on the other girl's weaker side, forcing her to stress her injured leg in order to brace herself, or commit more energy to defending the already damaged extremity. Always, Makoto watched for an opening; if she could get in a solid kick to the injured knee and break it, the fight would be truly finished. *Thoom* Karliah took blow after blow, gritting her teeth as she kept focusing her ki, pain continuing to course through her body. Her heart beat becoming more rapid as time passed. Eventually, her mind finally snapped. The pupil's of her eyes vanished in a glow of ki and caught one of Makoto's punches. She quickly slammed a fist into the fighter's face, and started to wail on her with a barrage of her own. She became relentless, continuing the assualt and not even letting up, before she delivered a full force ki fist. *THOOM* Makoto began to grow frustrated as the rising aura of ki around the other girl blunted her attacks. Just as she was preparing to force her way though, her opponent snapped and delivered a powerful blow into her face. Makoto's head snapped back and she was sent skidding some feet away. That... hurt. Wiping blood from her split lip, Makoto grinned again, and roared savagely as she met her opponent's charge head-on. Not bothering to defend, she traded blow for blow in an all-out assault, holding nothing back. [i]*THOOM*[/i] Makoto and Karliah's heads both turned to the ground as they felt the ground shake, their final blows whiffing past one another by inches. The crowd's ecstatic cheering fell to silence like a sheet of ice when the shudder was felt, a shudder violent enough to be heard over the driving rain. Someone shouted about an earthquake, but it was much worse. [b][i]*THOOOOOOM* *CRUNCH*[/i][/b] There was a burst of stone shrapnel as a massive fist erupted from the ground next to the two fighters. As the newcomer pulled himself from the earth, the sound of shattering stone echoed through the arena, quickly joined by screaming as the walls around the compound broke and fell over, letting massive dark figures swarm over the walls. Makoto and Karliah looked on as the figure before them emerged from the ground, holding its club over its head in triumph. A lightning strike illuminated the horned face and sneering grimace of the stone Oni as it unleashed a war cry. [hr] As the Oni roar sounded over the nearby hills, a cloaked figure making her way through the town towards the arena looked up sharply, her icy blue eyes shining from under the hood. [color=0072bc]"[i]Søren[/i], I may already be too late..."[/color] The figure broke into a run, the rain around her turning to snow and sleet as she dashed by, before making a light skip and summoning ice beneath her feet to carry her towards the Oni attack faster.