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Come to the Valley of Dragons If You Want An Asskicking (Az)
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 10, 2016 14:01:16 GMT
It was a risky way to get out of the steel storm Alicia had set up around him, but ultimately it had been his best option. Unfortunately for the Strikedramon, this time Alicia had seen what he was going to do ahead of time. There was no fooling her this time around. The only problem was that she was starting to slow a bit from the surprisingly hectic fight. As such, instead of evading the hit, which would've been most ideal for her, she had to take it head on. His feet impacted on her arms as she tried to shield herself from them blow, but the extra momentum he picked up from his charge had amplified the power behind his attack.
The ShadowArmsdramon was sent flying back from the blow, slamming back first against another boulder and stumbling a bit, shaking her head. "Oof... That had one had more kick to it then I expected...!" Alicia admitted as she took flight, wings beating heavily to lift the ninja dragon skyward almost as an unintentional jab at Elliot's grounded state. Truly she could sit up their for a while and just bombard him from above with shurikens, but where was the sport in that? If this was to be a fair sparring match, she couldn't use her wings for more then position, even if she had a more ideal option.
This was a friend she was sparring against, not an enemy she needed to pull out every trick in the book to defeat. She'd save the ruthless and 'underhanded' tactics for actual life-and-death situations, and instead swooped over Elliot's head, diving down at him from above and flinging herself into a new spiral. "Night Shredder!"
With such a huge wind up, it would be pretty obvious what Alicia was going to be doing. However, what he wouldn't be able to notice immediately was that she had a part two to this attack in case he dodged it. Seeing as she would hit the ground still spinning, she'd make use of her rotation to throw herself into a flying kick at the Strikedramon while he was recovering from the initial dodge.
All that, of course, was dependent on him actually dodging and not doing something crazy like counter-attacking directly.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 10, 2016 16:07:13 GMT
The hungering steel was starting to take its toll on Elliot. He knew there was no way he'd be able to take many more direct hits after such a powerful attack. For that reason, he knew dodging Alicia's drill of darkness was top priority. As she descended from high above he hopped back, taking advantage of the time earned from him quick response to try and come up with an answer. He could let her land, but if he did he'd risk letting an agile opponent hit the ground and likely spin into a far better fighting position. Reapplying the Commando's Lock or going into a counterattack would be far harder if she stuck the landing this time. He didn't want to risk letting her pull such a move off. However, she was also building up dangerous amounts of force from the spin. Would trying to interfere just hurt Elliot even more?
Maybe if he got a power boost first, it'd be okay. His metal plates and chest markings glowed a bright red as he shouted "Burning Inner Strength!", a burning intensity giving him a second wind. Alicia would be landing soon, and he had to make his decision now or risk never getting the chance to strike. When the diving dragon was about chest level with Elliot he charged forward, flinging himself forward in a flying tackle to spear Alicia right out of the sky. The twisting shadows sliced at his body, further weakening him, but he hoped knocking Alicia out of any planned method of attack would help force her on the defensive once more. On the offensive, she was far too dangerous.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 10, 2016 19:35:25 GMT
Okay, so maybe he was a little crazy at this point. Elliot's tackle, empowered as it was by his unleashed reserve of power, struck the ShadowArmsdramon hard. Easily harder then her drilling attack had hit him. Steel was heard snapping as Alicia was thrown back from the impact of the two dragon spirit users, tumbling head over heels and unable to control her landing. Crashing down hard, the dizzy Steel Spirit User rose shakily, the thin armor under her suit noticably cracked, and one of her claw blades had indeed snapped off as the earlier sound implied. She was far from de-fanged, of course, but the loss of a blade would hinder any further Night Shredders she decided to pull.
Where was that blade any ways? Isaac would know, considering it took him only a slight turn of the head to see it embedded into the ground fairly deeply. It was a testament to just how powerful the clash had been. Was it any surprise, then, that Elliot had managed to get exactly what he wanted? Dazed from the impact, Alicia had taken a defensive stance, keeping her distance for the moment as she tried to get the metaphorical ringing out of her ears.
The advantage belonged to the Strikedramon now. If he was willing to risk contending with her follow up, there was a juicy opening right there for the taking.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 10, 2016 20:37:46 GMT
Alicia was disarmed and de-armored. Elliot's hands still burned with the power of his inner fire. The girl was dazed and struggling to her feet. In a real fight this would be a perfect opportunity, one last Rolling Start letting him wallop her with a powered-up punch right to the jaw. It would've been the perfect finishing move.
This wasn't a real fight, though, was it. Upon hearing the snap any and all will Elliot had to fight was sapped, and seeing how banged-up Alicia looked almost made it worse. When the Strikedramon came charging in, maybe Alicia would've thought it to be an attack and tried to launch a counter. However, instead Elliot simply wanted to look his friend up and down, worriedly checking for damages and trying to make sure she wasn't too hurt.
"Oh gosh, are you okay?" he asked as he stopped before Alicia. "I took this way too far, didn't I? I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Even with the lower tones of Strikedramon's voice and his imposing draconic physique, this worrying and fretting was unmistakably Elliot in nature. Whether his kindness would be answered by a powerful adrenaline-driven attack or a pause in the match remained unclear, but for the time being Elliot really didn't want to keep going with this spar.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 7:55:43 GMT
Fortunately for Elliot, Alicia had that handy little voice in her head that was more then focused enough to notice the change in outlook. "Kid, loosen up a bit. He's not swinging for an attack." Sol mentioned to her as soon as she saw Elliot rushing up to her. It was enough to get her to not chuck a set of shurikens at him and instead settle herself to put a hold on the match.
Hidden under fragments of her mask, the ShadowArmsdramon smirked to Elliot. Raising a hand to rub the back of her head, Alicia chuckled a bit as the adrenaline from the fight started to die down. "Yeah I'm alright. Trust me, even this wasn't as bad as getting the side of one's body gouged open by a stupid large steel arrow." Alicia sighed a bit as despite her assurances the worrywart of a dragon before her started apologizing heavily.
"Oi, Elliot, really it's fine. This is actually about what I expected would happen. Can't have a match to really push yourself if your scared of getting bashed around. Better to rough it out with friends who know when to stop then with an enemy that's planning to hit you while you're down." She assured him again with a smile. "I mean, you got me good with that last hit but in a real fight I would've still be able to keep going for a fair bit longer. May have had to switch forms but you certainly didn't take it too far at all."
The ninja dragon hummed softly patting Elliot's shoulder lightly. "It'll be nice to not have to worry about you two as much, that's for sure. We've all come a fair way since that day at the Trailmon Station, haven't we?"
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 11, 2016 11:38:10 GMT
It seemed Alicia was less injured than Elliot had originally feared. The boy found himself sighing in relief at her words, although he still wasn't entirely sure how much more he wanted to push a fight before a risk of injury arose. "Yeah, you're probably right on that," he admitted, the tone to his voice somewhat bashful. "I just heard that huge crack and got a little bit scared I hit something that I shouldn't have." If not for that noise, his approach to Alicia would've likely been far less gentle and far more adversarial. It was little things like that which really helped snap the boy out of adrenaline rushes, especially when dealing with a good friend and not with an opponent.
He turned around and noticed the claw blade, reflexively cringing when he saw it sitting on the ground. Oh god, did that come off of her hand? And it was just kind of there? That didn't help with his worries about destructiveness at all! Still, he figured it wouldn't be right of him to just let it sit there. He walked towards it and gingerly picked it up, trying to keep himself from going faint at the sign of the dismembered member. Alicia was made of metal. Could she just screw it back on or something? What if she ended up losing a finger when they regressed back to human form? No, it was just an extra blade. At worst she'd maybe just have a bit of a bruise. Still, he was nervous.
"I think you dropped this," he finally said as he approached, clearly uncomfortable with being anywhere near the broken claw.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 12:25:48 GMT
Alicia smiled a bit, rolling her shoulder a bit to work the muscle and loosen it. It was jarred pretty badly from the impact and actually a bit sore. "Yeah, I actually got a bit spooked with the cracking sound too. When I didn't feel that anything essential was broken I realized it wasn't nearly as serious as I first thought it was." Shrugging it off, she blinked as Elliot turned and seemed to balk over something.
Following his gaze as he walked and bent down, her eyes went a bit wide as she watched him pick up her lost blade and return to her with it. How had she not noticed the missing blade? Well at least it wasn't too important to her current Digimon body or she was sure she'd have to bite back a scream from the pain. She didn't know for sure and she certainly didn't want to find out. Either way it was awkward to be handed back what was essentially apart of one's own body.
"I... I guess I did..." Alicia mused, taking the blade back. Turning to the side, she flicked the incomplete set of claw blades out again, looking at where the broken blade went on her gauntlet. "One second." she told Elliot as she turned the rest of the way, putting her back to him. The ninja dragon fidgeted with one of her suit's pockets a bit. A few seconds later the brothers would here a flame ignite, and then the distinct crackling and sparks of welding began, the light being blocked off by Alicia's own body.
It didn't take long for the welding to stop, and Alicia turned back around, pocketing the mini canister that was visible for only a second. Blowing on the cooling blade, the ShadowArmsdramon shook her hand a bit and grinned, retracting and extending the claws a couple times to test them. "Good as new!" she chimed happily, retracting the blades one last time.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 11, 2016 12:36:32 GMT
Elliot felt a little dizzy as he saw Alicia basically weld on one of her own body parts. This was weird. Digimon were weird. Elliot didn't even know he was squeamish until he saw something like that. In a way it made him feel supremely lucky that he hadhad only broken the knuckle blade, and not something more actually essential. He couldn't help but worry, even as Alicia proudly retracted the blade back and forth to show that she was as good as new. He couldn't help but wonder if being able to do that would make an untreatable injury all the more jarring. What happens when your ability to fix that kind of problem just stopped?
After a long, long hesitation, Elliot dropped into a shaky fighting stance. "W-well, ready when you are." He was not ready, but that wouldn't stop him from trying his best to look ready. Alicia wanted to train, so out of respect and care for her he was going to make himself train! He'd just be a little bit more squeamish about it. Maybe a lot more squeamish.
For now he simply stood and waited, volunteering to stay on the defensive this time.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 13:16:38 GMT
Alicia glanced away as she saw the minor reaction to her revelation of simply welding a lost piece back on. Now that she thought about it, it actually was a bit chilling. Digimon were stupidly resilient it seemed. Her digimon forms seemed especially resilient for that matter. As Rustdramon she'd shrugged off a partial hit of three fire balls from champion level mons and didn't even get a burn mark on her human form to show for it.
Seeing Elliot settle in to resume their match, Alicia quirked an eyebrow at both the sloppy stance and stuttering. "No you're not." she said simply, calling him out on his understandable squeamish reaction. He was in no condition mentally to continue this match and she wasn't about to push him into something he wasn't comfortable continuing. Besides she should save some strength to give Isaac a turn to shine. There was one more reason though.
"I should probably Slide Evolve and get some work in on one of my other new forms as well anyways. Elliot, I suggest you tag out and let Isaac have a turn while you settle down from what I do understand was a very disturbing turn of events." Alicia mentioned, grabbing her D-Scanner and taking a glance at it. "This isn't going to go well if your that shaken up."
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 11, 2016 14:09:48 GMT
"Oh, thank goodness," Elliot cheered, promptly dedigivolving back into a human. With Alicia's blessings on the matter he felt way less guilty about sitting this fight out. He was sore all over from her attacks, individually weak yet vicious and present in great number. If he had to keep going he would've gotten overwhelmed incredibly fast, especially with his fighting groove so broken. He hobbled over to the rock that Isaac was sitting at before, the other boy rising up to take his place.
"Capricious demon of the woodlands. Arise, Yasyamon!" Isaac shouted, raising his Digivice high into the air intensely. Mist seemed to wrap around Isaac, leaves scattering around him in a circular motion. Then a pair of swords burst from the mist, dispersing it and sending the leaves scattering. It appeared all this time, Isaac was planning his transformation sequence. What a huge dork!
"Slide, you say? Guessing this isn't the one we helped you find last week. Got more up your sleeves?" While Strikedramon's voice was lower and growler than Elliot's, Yasyamon's seemed almost distant and whispery compared to Isaac's. It was certainly strange coming from such a direct person, and sounded almost as if the voice wasn't even coming from the Digimon. Still, right now it was time to stand at attention and prepare himself for Alicia's new form. When it came to ingenuity, the woman never disappointed.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 20:01:44 GMT
Alicia chuckled as Elliot immediately took the offered reprieve. She had been fairly certain he was feeling guilty about wanting to back down for a break. He just needed an okay to go running off to recover his strength. She took the moment to calm herself and focus on the other side of the metaphorical coin she had right now. It was a good way to look at it, her two Human Spirit forms were counterparts of each other.
Fortunately, that focus wasn't actually disrupted by Isaac's... rather corny catchphrase for evolving up to Yasyamon. Did she come off like that to others whenever she uttered one of her pre-evolution chants? Well, the brothers certainly thought it was cool, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Maybe it wasn't all bad. Still, Alicia couldn't help but giggle a bit. "Cute, Isaac, quite cute. Now then..."
The ninja dragon took a breath and drew the light out of her current darkness, reforging her Steel to take a new form. "Clad in sun-drenched Steel, I stand as Light's Champion... Slide Evolution!" Tracing an "S" into the air in front of her, the D-Scanner left behind a rainbow holding the shape briefly before it twisted to envelop the ShadowArmsdramon. Forming a perfect sphere, the energy glow brilliantly for a moment, before a golden sword slashed through the shell, shattering it into hundreds of small shards.
Underneath, Alicia's alternate Human Spirit was revealed. Golden armor forged to reflect that of a gallant knight was fitted over her scaled steel body. Her blade was held in her left hand at the ready, while her right bore a sturdy shield. Her real wings had been traded out for armored props attached to her breast plate. Swinging the sword around a bit to get used to it, Alicia settled herself into a battle stance with her shield forward to prepare for battle as she announced the form's name. "SolSaberdramon!"
A close eye would show that SolSaberdramon was coming in scuffed up a bit, echoes of the damage Alicia had taken as ShadowArmsdramon against Elliot. Would that play a part in the upcoming match with Isaac? "Alright!" Alicia called, tensing. "Come at me with everything you've got Isaac! Let's make this a match worth honing our skills on!"
"Woohoo! This is gonna be exciting! I'm on the edge of my metaphorical seat just thinking about it!" Kisara chimed in happily, getting a slight roll of the eyes from Alicia.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 11, 2016 20:21:46 GMT
Oh come on! He finally thinks of a cool catchphrase and transformation pose, and the girl immediately debuts a way better, more dynamic one? If it wasn't such a nice pose, he'd almost be angry about it. Instead, he just found himself marveling at how cool it was, as well as the general knightly form of the dragon. It looked the closest to the knightly Rustdramon out of the three Champion level forms she had taken. Was this supposed to be her true form? Or was it just one of the many winding paths that she could take? Still, it looked like they'd be going blade to blade this match. He raised both of his swords into a battle-ready stance, looking Alicia up and down to try and see any weak spots in her stance. He had two blades and two shields to her one of each, so taking offensive momentum early would be key.
"Now that's a cool form! Of course, lets see if it's got the strength along with the look," he said, grinning behind his mask. "Swaying Strike!" The Yasyamon began weaving back and forth, making him a far trickier target to predict the location of. His writhes were paired with occasional twitches of his arms, feinting to try and throw the SolSaberdramon off of her game and bait out an early dodge. After a few seconds of writhing and twitching he unleashed a flurry of strikes, three on the left side of the knightly dragon and one on its right. Mostly the purpose of this attack was to test the waters, baiting out blocks while going for weak, opportunistic strikes.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 20:38:13 GMT
Alicia smiled at Isaac as the Yasyamon began to advance. In response to his weaving, the knightly dragon digimon tightened her stance up, pulling her sword and shield closer and lowering her over all profile. Where he had been aiming to bait a dodge for an attack that wasn't coming, he instead was forced to test a sturdy fortress of steel with his blades. The strikes came swiftly.
Yasyamon was an incredibly fast form, Alicia had to admit. In pure speed he easily bested her. Possibly twice or even thrice over if she was willing to make a guess. However, her tightened stance reduced the amount of movement she had to make to counter his swift strikes, nullifying his speed advantage while she was hunkered down. As such it only took slight swipes and shifts from her to parry his attacks with ease.
"Steel Prominence!" She called while she parried his strikes. The wing-shaped chunks of metal welded to her armor started to glow brightly. As his last attack was deflected by her blade, the SolSaberdramon suddenly used her tightened stance to leap back, putting some distance between them. At the same time, several beams of light lanced out, aiming to blast him back for his charge.
Regardless of whether the beams hit or not, Alicia would go on the offensive, lunging at the demon swordsman with her shield held before her and her sword swinging down in a heavy overhead strike.
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Post by Elliot and Isaac Sunderland on Apr 11, 2016 21:01:56 GMT
It was true. Where Isaac's wide, wobbly stance allowed for his strikes to come from many unpredictable directions, it cost him natural speed advantage striking from such a far distance. At that point who won out between him and Alicia came down to pure reaction time and focus, and when a knight's mettle was tested it was always proven worthy. He realized it was going to take a better form of attack to throw the SolSaberdramon off of her game than the one he had planned, and he tried to back off to recalibrate his battle plan.
Seemed Alicia had the same idea as Isaac, because she leaped back just as he did. The main difference was that she already had another attack prepared, and by the time Isaac landed he found himself already having to move again in order to dodge away from the light blasts. Fortunately, Yasyamon was as limber as water, but it was just too much to react to at a single time. He felt his shoulder and side sear as a beam of light slashed across it, the boy giving him arm a few rotations to make sure it was still in fighting shape. It was tender, but nothing too debilitating.
Then came the heavy lunging strike. Alicia was really putting up a ton of pressure, wasn't she? However, with how quickly Alicia was firing off blocks and attacks, Isaac was starting to get into the tempo of the move. He whirled to the left as Alicia swung her sword, swinging his right buckler to try and knock the blade away as it fell. If timed right he'd end up getting Alicia into a far better position to attack, even if trying to sideswipe her blade made his already-sore arm further numbed. He'd need to open some space again after this attack so he could try and tense his arm back into full force, because repeated attacks or blocks against it would not let it recover easily.
However, Isaac wasn't quite done yet. "Imp-air!" he shouted, flaring out both blades to try and smash them onto opposite sides of Alicia's sword-wielding arm. If he was able to land the technique just right, the arm would be smarting way too much for proper attacks to be made with. Alicia would be forced to either drop the shield or drop the sword, either way taking out one half of the knight's very important toolkit. Whether the attack was successful or not, though, getting distance back would be essential. Letting Alicia come to him and trying to weave around her blows would be far easier than dealing with her admittedly stronger shield and blade.
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Post by Alicia Westfield on Apr 11, 2016 21:30:13 GMT
As she'd already noted thus far, Isaac's Champion form was much faster then Elliot's. Where before she held the speed advantage and was able to steadily whittle Strikedramon down, now she was in the opposite position, faced with a faster opponent that was trying to chip away at her strength until she could fight no longer. It was a jarring turn of events to be sure, but not one that she'd allow to shake her focus.
Still, the Imp-air Isaac was going for was a troublesome move. The name alone told her exactly what would happen to her arm if she couldn't beat it. With some quick hand work, though... The knight dragon twirled the sword around with a flick of her wrist, letting her brace its steel against her outer arm and place it in the path of one of Isaac's wooden blades. The Imp-air struck home merely a split second after her defensive measure was put in place.
Alicia hissed in pain, her arm stinging from the single direct hit she could do nothing about. However, the other half of the scissoring strike failed to properly connect, clanging uselessly against the sword braced against her arm. Her arm was certainly hurting, but she'd managed to prevent him from disabling it outright. She'd retained her full kit to bring to bear against Isaac, crouching down to consider her options in the time he took to pull away from her.
"Yowch! That looked like it hurt. I assume you're going to swap hands despite stopping the worst of that crippling strike?" Kisara asked in concern. Alicia nodded a bit, and took the moment to adjust her armaments. Her fresh right hand now bore her sword, while her shield was held by the injured left arm, passively guarding it from further attack while she tried to work the pain out of it.
"Your weapons certainly live up to your boast, Isaac." Alicia noted as she rose. "That wood is certainly something else to clash with steel and not be torn apart in the process. Lets see how it handles this though...!" Charging again, she raised her sword up as it began to gather light and glow. "Radiant Slash!" Alicia called as she started to swing. At first it seemed like she was going for another overhead swing, something Isaac had already seen. At the last second, just as she would start the downward stroke and prompt either an overhead cross guard or a dodge to the side, she swung the blade around, going for a horizontal swing from right to left. Heated steel blazed through the air, seeking to bite into the Yasyamon's body.
Would Isaac be able to notice the change in time to dodge or block correctly?
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