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[img]https://i.imgur.com/kNmO8zV.png[/img]
[b][color=DarkOrange]wordcount:[/color][/b]  1,637 (+3)
[b][color=DarkOrange]Location:[/color][/b] Forbidden Kingdom - Esaka’s Low Tier
[b][color=DarkOrange]Amaterasu: level 8[/color][/b] EXP: [color=DarkOrange]/////////////////////////////////////////[/color]/////////////////////////////////////////////// (44/80)
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After the light fated, Amatarasu found herself in a rocky canyon. A small bright red painted bridge reached across a babbling brook on one side of her, which passed by a similarly painted Torii gate accessed by a much simpler wooden arch of a bridge. Smooth river stones stacked atop each other, a stone bench, and red wooden standing lanterns also dotted the vista.

That was all to one side. To the other, a still glowing void where shadowed shapes could be dully seen, just visible enough to show that she had an audience, but not visible enough to be distracting.

Here, in this holy place, she would face herself. Or, well, another Amaterasu anyway. This one was human shaped, wielding a bow and her own floating sundisk hovering behind her back. She briefly wondered about what this meant about the nature of all worlds, that the… idea of her was present in more than one of them. She also wondered what Galeem’s influence was doing to the other goddess to prevent her from being as uncomfortable with this situation as she was.

Then again maybe her opposite was just as good at hiding her discomfort as she was as well.

At any rate, she didn't get much more time to ponder, as the voice of Anubis boomed through the area, declaring that the fight was “Amaterasu VS… Amaterasu” which prompted her opponent to twirl her sundisk and notch an arrow while saying something out of which the divine wolf only caught the word “Okami”

She was a bit too busy being confused/incredulous about how her ink pots were for some reason locked to a single full container, and that the rest weren't filling up. 

She was interrupted by a cough and a shout-whispered “You should show off a little before we start. It’s tradition” from her opposite.

The wolf cocked her head to side, and then promptly howled to the heavens, at which point, the match begun, and [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoaTNWnqiok]music began to play[/url]

The woman immediately opened up by firing the notched arrow across the field, a golden aura shimmering around it as it flew. In response the wolf tried to dodge to the side, only to slam into an invisible barrier that made the image of the shrine to the side shimmer and wobble. It was all an illusion, rather than any sort of true transformation or transportation.

The divine wolf was a bit too busy being shot and hit stunned by the arrow she’d been unable to dodge to be aghast at this paltry parlor trick being used by these ‘gods’ and then too busy being smacked by the long lower end of the woman’s bow. The woman then finished her little combo by flicking her sun disk forward and used it to ‘grab’ the wolf, raising her up before her before tossing her forwards.

The wolf slammed into the ground, but quickly picked herself back up. As she did so she growled in frustration that apparently they had failed to mention that her godhood, the barrier of protection that usually shimmered around her, would be disabled for this fight as well. Thus those three hits, that would normally have been absorbed by said godhood, had been actually hit and actually hurt her.

She was more frustrated at the limited movement than hurt however. There wasn’t going to be any circling around this foe, as her wolfish instincts desired. It was going to be face to face, goddess vs goddess, with only blocks and strikes.

And jumps.

As the woman closed in, she ducked down low, sweeping her bow in a low sweep, prompting the wolf to hop up over it. In response the woman shot an arrow up, again briefly hit stunning the wolf, before also performing a rising kick, wreathed in flame, that resulted in her also doing back flip as the wolf slammed down.

Maybe not so many jumps then, the wolf corrected. As she rose again the woman closed in again, leaping into the air and swinging her bow again in a wide sweep, perhaps anticipating another attempted jump dodge.

Taking a leaf out of her foes book, she fired her own projectiles in response to this aerial, blasting fourth not one arrow but a machinegun barrage of prayer beads that slammed into the foe, disrupting her strike.

Then, before she could even land, she closed the distance, sun disk flicking down and then up in a rising strike that slapped the woman up just enough that she wasn’t allowed to touch the ground, before bodily ramming her, knocking her back and away to tumble to the floor.

Naturally, that wasn’t going to get close to putting her down, as the other Amaterasu rose up while saying that “ah, good, you do have some fight in you” with a grin of the fighting mad that was going to become oh so familiar over the next few days.

The wolf with no voice didn’t respond, but she did note that half an inkwell had filled up, which must be what Anubis meant by ‘divine power charging’ and that it must be done via dealing damage to the foe. Which raised the question of what it would mean if her opposite charged hers up faster. She did not want to be on the opposite end of her celestial brush techniques, or perhaps worse.

As such she closed in to try and regain the advantage, grasping her massive sword in her maw, heaving it back for a brief charge and then slamming it forwards. The mighty blade swung forwards, only for the woman to raise her bow and block the blow at just the last second, the weight and power behind the blade entirely nullified by the thin length of flexible wood.

A godly guard.

The retaliatory combo was another lesson hard learned.

Still, the wolf was a quick study, and in the middle of it managed to recover enough to thrust her divine disk out in front of her, which clashed with the woman’s own. The impact of divine metal on divine metal rang out like a chime of a golden bell that sounded loud as  a gong, before the wolf lunged forward, grasped the woman with her jaws, and leapt up.

The pair spiraled into the air, surrounded by swirling flames, and then flipped and came right back down again slamming the woman into the ground while the wolf landed on her feet.

The woman joined her there a moment later, still not looking too worse for wares. But the wolf was getting the hang of this. A feel for how this game worked. 

When they moved to clash again, she whipped out her divine beads in a long reaching chain, striking swiftly if weakly, lashing her foe with the surprisingly quick strike. Then she delivered a second, and a third, before switching things up and grabbing her sword for the fourth hit, charging it while the woman attempted to block the fourth whip that did not come. She then slammed the blade around in a powerful side sweep, smashing her foe back, before swiftly stabbing the blade forwards in a twirling dive that struck her once more before she hit the floor.

Then she backed off, gave the women a moment to stand, before blasting her with a volley of beads and knocking her down again.

The woman was certainly looking worse for wear when she stood a second time, and she certainly tried her best to fight on, but the wolf was simply too fast. Showers of blows rained down, the wolf mixing up her weapons and also throwing the odd claw, kick or bite, to keep her foe off guard and unable to perfectly block her strikes. 

In the end, the wolf filled the fourth ink pot, and then promptly showered the arena with a trio of two meter wide cherry bombs, using her beads to hit stun her opposite till the fuses burnt out, and then leapt back as the other Amaterasu vanished in the resulting spectacular lightshow.

As the firework glow faded, the other Amaterasu was on the floor, and, this time, at last, failed to rise.

This other Amaterasu might not have proved herself godly in combat ability, the woman simply too slow and clunky to keep up with the wolf’s smooth moves, but in terms of durability? Divine endurance indeed, the woman’s form unmarred by the blade blows, burning bashes and stinging lashes the wolf had rained down.

It wasn’t enough to win, even if Anubis did announce that “And winner is… Amatarasu!” before the divine vision faded and both Amaterasus returned to the worn down dojo with its piles of shrines

When they did, a [url=https://i.imgur.com/NwowEB9.jpeg]little angel[/url] fluttered over and dropped a trio of lovehearts onto the fallen god. They were absorbed into her, revitalizing her and prompting her to stirred from her spot on the floor with a muttered “thank you cupid” before picking herself back up, and then bowing to her opposite.

“You’re quick as can be, aren't you? It was a pleasure to fight you” she said, before giving a bow, which the wolf mirrored. She’d certainly learnt a lot, and she owed her double that at least.

“A quite conclusive match, after a turbulent beginning, I judge” Anubis said, to which Zeus agreed with a laugh and n “I’ll say!” and saying “welcome aboard, Amatera-two” which got him a glare from the wolf.

Not at all discouraged by Amatera-two’s wolfly stare, the god of thunder gestured a finger to the other side of the dojo and said “now, how about we see how your friend there is doing?” prompting her to turn to angel’s bout with interest. Though not before receiving her own gift of heart based healing from Cupid.