[center][color=darkgreen][h1]Linkle[/h1][/color][/center]

[center][color=darkgreen][b] Level 7[/b][/color] - (9/70) + 2


[color=darkgreen][b]Location:[/b][/color] The Devil's Casino ~ Pirouletta's Dance Hall
[color=darkgreen][b]Word Count: 766 [/b][/color]
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Linkle looked around as she stepped into the room, her cucoos congregating around her feet. The ambiance was certainly different from the last room, but in its own way this was a whole lot worse. Being surrounded by a bunch of disembodied hands wasn't the height of comfort for her considering the circumstances. 

Her opponent was at least more comfortable to look at. Tall and sleek, made of shiny gold instead of weird brown plant matter. Really tall. at least twice as tall as Linkle if she had to guesstimate. The golden girl gave a short bow, one Linkle returned, before taking a dancers pose and moving across the surface of the table with a quick [i]one-two one-two[/i] motion of the feet that that let her gide over the green table-top as though it were made of ice. Linkle completely misjudged how fast the dancer would be coming at her, and there was very little room on this arena to maneuver. Linkle dashed to the side, her birds scattering in all directions with only one sticking close to her. One was unlucky, being caught by the swift toes of the dancer and kicked into a nearby stack of poker chips that collapsed around it. The dancer didn't seem to pay this any mind as she continued to pursue Linkle around the outer edges of the table, gaining ground with each deft movement. 

Knowing it wouldn't be long before she got trampled Linkle bent down and scooped up the cucoo running with her. She threw it fluttering into the air in front of her like a shot put, jumping up after it and catching it by the legs. She and the cucoo swung forward, sending linkle flying into the air like a trapeze artist as she pulled out her crossbows. The dancer stopped her movements, looking up to see Linkle flying above her as the cucoo fluttered down into the rim of her skirt. Linkle twisted herself, spinning as she unleashed a rain of arrows straight down on her. She raised up her noodly arms to defend herself but they proved to not be up to the task. Only a few bolts were caught in them, the rest piercing down into the checkerboard top of her skirt or leaving need nicks and scratches in her body. She bared her teeth, from where Linkle wasn't entirely sure, and then stopped moving. 

Or at least that's how it looked from Linkle's perspective. Linkle, though, was spinning. It took her a moment to realize but the motion she'd taken to be the dancer defending herself from Linkle's bolts was actually the preparations for a pirouette, and as she began to spin with Linkle she launched her counterattack. Ball appeared inside the dancers skirt and were launched straight up into the air at her. One slammed right through her bolt rain, catching Linkle in the shoulder and sending her twisting about. The another. Then another as she was juggled between them. It was like falling out of tree, sliding between branches as they all took their turn punishing you for daring to climb it. Then she felt something soft and feathery hit her in the gut and instinctively held on. 

That dancer had thrown her own cucoo at her! The shock of the hit sent her straight up, through. She was knocked momentraily out of the juggle, able to see down through the through the balls. The tip of one of her crossbows flashed red as she pointed it down and shot a bomb arrow directly into the divet atop the dancers head, as though it were made for that. The bomb exploded, blowing apart the dancers headpiece and stopping her attack. Linkle quickly holstered one of her bows and grabbed the cucoos legs with one hand, parachuting down amid the balls that still rained from above. 

The hit the ground and turned back to face the dancer, her golden body contorting back and forth ways metal simply couldn't. Her headpiece was a charred, smoking ruin. "I've got a friend you should meet. I feel like you guys would have a lot to talk about." Linkle said, trying to keep her opponent from seeing how much pain she was in. "So, do I win?"

The dancer stopped contorting, bolt covered hands gripping the crown of her head, and looked down at Linkle with black, angry eyes. "Nyet." she whispered, retaking a dancers pose.

"I guess that means no?" Linkle said, raising her crossbows again. She could already feel the bruises spreading across her body.

"Da."

"Okay. Say when."