A Duel of Sorts - RPG

The sound of snow and dirt being crushed by the soles of his shoes hung in the air with the prominence of a force of nature. The atmosphere was tame, forsaken by precipitation, and only occasionally disturbed by gusts of wind that grew cooler as the sky became grayer. Sosuke, the Samurai Saint, walked. An expression of calm, of cool confidence was held by his perfectly proportioned features. A white, three-piece, form-fitting Gucci suit adorned his lean, athletic frame. His raven looks were smoothed, awarded a flair of wicked swagger that seemed to compliment the mystique, the panache cultivated by his black, Gucci aviator sunglasses.

Gripped by his hand was the sheathed blade of a sword. A Japanese katana, its blade was comprised by a steel-obsidian alloy with a subatomic structure fortified by an increased amount of gravitational binding energy. Reinforced by a powerful alternating current, it resonated at extremely high frequencies. This oscillation? It was fundamental to weakening the molecular bonds of anything it cut. It was the Kenjutsu King's newest blade, a temporary replacement though, for his previous sword that now rested in the hands of a certain Y-Intercept. Plugged into his ears as he ventured deeper into the open, snow-pelted plains all about him, were a pair of Skullcandy earphones.

Keeping him entertained with the indietronica sounds of Cherub's 'Doses & Mimosas', they conjured the illusion that time passed without delay. Gradually slowing the pace of his steps and ultimately bringing them to an anticipated halt as his gaze rested on his adversary for the impending, competitive bout, Sosuke met Flash-Fire's eyes with measured composure before, stylishly, drawing out his sword, his earphones' tunes now shifting to the hip-hop inspired beats of FKA Twigs' 'Two Weeks'.

@fraga:

The ergo-kinetic speedster stood unusually patient as he waited for his adversary to arrive. He wasn't nervous, but more or less excited at the thought of clashing with such a skilled opponent. When he clashes with someone of greater skill, his sole purpose is to improve from that, if possible. If he could memorize the style of his competitor and find a way to integrate it into his own form, Jaired would definitely improve, something that excited him more than anything. He could barely keep himself standing in one place, however forced himself to keep a resolute aura, at-least until the battle had already gone underway.

Flashfire wore a simple red collar up jacket with matching pants, his 7-foot long odaichi resting at his side, the anti-matter and metal sword seemed gave an orange shimmer, even while in its sheathe. Around him snow fell and melted around the plains that seemed to stretch on into the distance. The night-sky accompanied by the falling white made for a wonderful scene and watching it put the speedster into a sort of happy mood. Jaired clenched his blade at the sound of foot-steps ahead of him, and soon entered Sosuke, his fellow member of S.T.R.I.K.E and for this evening, his adversary.

They drew their swords at the same instant, no words to be had, for the clash of their swords would suffice for a greeting. Orange lightning arc'ed around him as he readied himself, and his blade reverberated with energy as the Speedster composed a stance. He wasn't going to use ragnarok form for this fight, he'd purely use his sword, his speed, and his energy based attacks.

The nanosecond he drew his sword, the speedster rocketed off towards his opponent at high- hypersonic speeds. Appearing a mere 6 feet in-front of him, he the thrust downwards with his blade, however it was merely a feint, and he circled to the back of Sosuke at maximum speed the instant his adversary either saw or attempted to counter his first " attack, " and brought his blade downwards at a curved angle towards Sosuke's shoulder with the same speed and momentum he started with. Tossing his blade in the air, he finished off his attack with a close up blast of pure energy from his palms carrying an immense amount of kinetic energy and heat, back-flipping up and catching his sword at the same speed and putting distance between the two of them.

Jaired was fast. Extremely fast. And in a sense, he was perhaps, even too fast. Sosuke however, was by design, the perfect opponent for those blessed with the gift of blistering speed. His was a skill and power-set that rendered him a difficult match-up for a multitude of adversaries, but none more so than the archetyptical speedster. He was a counter-striker with an extraordinary form of sensory perception that enabled him to anticipate and correctly respond to his opponent's maneuvers by virtue of his virtually instantaneous reflexes. In truth, the Snow Lotus counted himself fortunate, otherwise he would have surely been cut down by his teammate's opening attack. Instead, in this instance, he couldn't have been more ready.

Immediately, his senses screamed at him. The subtlest vibrations, the mildest shifts in ambient airflow, the insignificant generation of electric fields from the movements of Jaired's muscle fibers, all from the very first twitch that began his run, were all detected by Sosuke. His extreme dermal sensitivity to atmospheric phenomena alerted him to the vibrations and airflow, while his omni-directional x-ray vision or 'ambient energy' sight remained fixated on the electric fields produced by his adversary's muscle fibers. Then and there, the Snow Lotus responded with immediacy by attempting to first 'disarm' his opponent. The disadvantage of being a speedster was that unless one was able to 'see' and process visual information as fast as they moved, they would essentially be moving too fast for them to see. They would be running into all manner of objects and walls that they couldn't see fast enough.

This was what Sosuke attacked first, and he did so by virtue of his photokinesis. He seized the photons bouncing off of him and redirected them several meters to his left. Those were the photons that would hit the back of Jaired's eyes and provide his brain with the physical information for him to visually interpret Sosuke's image. The Samurai Saint was essentially, relocating light's visual projection of his image with the intention of preventing Jaired from seeing him and restricting him to seeing where he 'thought' Sosuke was. Meanwhile, the Samurai Saint would watch as his foe attacked nothing. Sosuke was elsewhere, readying himself to again disarm his opponent. This time by hoping to exploit the rigors of high-velocity movement on the body. It was obvious that Jaired's body was adapted and modified to resist the harmful effects of these velocities.

Osteokinesis was the power to manipulate bone and the earthen elements in the body. With it, Sosuke could accomplish many things. Among them, was altering the calcium deposits in the bones of his adversaries. It was this application that he made use of now, attempting to decrease amount of calcium in Jaired's bones, his knee joints in particular, which are the mechanical support for the entire body's weight, with the goal of decreasing bone density, enough that the moment Jaired dared to move at his iconic, hyper-speeds, his bones would break from all of the violent, physical forces that came with such velocity. And as he hopped onto his back-foot and circled out of range to avoid his adversary's energy blast, he countered. Though being in such close proximity to the blast, the Snow Lotus didn't escape unscathed. His flesh was burnt at the surface by its heat but through durability and will-power, he continued.

Continued with the execution of a cutting technique. It was an intricate motion made possible by the arms and wrist during a descending strike. Swinging downwards, the sharp edge of his blade targeting the exposed wrists of Jaired's extended arms, Sosuke's elbow joint extended at the final instance as he popped his sword into the strike. The motion subtly twisted his grip with the purpose of impacting Jaired's targeted wrists with sharp force to break the initial resistance that would be posed by the bone which if Sosuke's earlier attempts proved successful, would be less dense and weaker. From there, if successful, Sosuke would continue, smoothly along the motion, his arms following through with the stroke, dragging his blade through before completely slicing off both his opponent's hands. Whether or not he proved successful would not save him from the fact that then and there, his skin was being scorched to the bone as he winced in agony, exposing himself to the heat with the hope that his counter would deliver.

The speedsters attack slashed air, much to Jaireds dismay. His opponent was extremely skilled and capable, the very reason he managed to escape the Jaired's initial move. However, the ergo-kinetic swordsman guessed Sosuke didn't account for Jaireds own ability to control energy in nearly all it's forms, and the very second form of energy the speedster learned to manipulate was light itself. While he wasn't nearly precise enough to manipulate purely the light entering his retina, there wasn't a problem detecting it being altered.

His eyes flickered red, and he was given supernatural true sight. It was a technique of demonic nature he used during his mission in Alcatraz prison, enabling him to see without any light. It would also give him perfect, though albeit red hued vision of Sosuke. However the speedster took a second to activate this ability, and it was that second his opponent used to deliver his next attack. The speedster, in short had a physiology unlike and stronger than many beings he encountered, his bones were no different. While they were indeed similar to a regular bone, they contained different minerals and chemicals. His mutant inner physiology coupled with his regenerative factor lessened the effects of the attack, however it was successful in making the speedster weaker.

The key aspect of the attack however was to make it impossible for the speedster to fight at his usual speeds, this was the only part of the attack that failed to work. The same reason Jaired could hit super-hard objects at incomprehensible speeds or move at velocities that put supersonic to shame without producing a single sonic boom if he so chose was the same thing that made it impossible for his inner or outer body to be effected by the same speeds. Momentarily after, Sosuke followed up and preformed an intricate move towards Jaireds wrists. Even though he possessed reactions that would make light seem like normal pace and ultrasonic speeds, it caught him off guard to the extent that he could merely move his arms forward in an attempt to block it with his vibranium composite arm gauntlets after his wrists had been deeply cut.

Not wanting to be in close quarters, Jaired propelled himself backwards at a range where he could use his sword's length to his advantage. Immediately he switched to a one-handed sword stance, his free palm at his waist. He planned on keeping sosuke at a distance, and with his free hand to bombard him with energetic pulses should he try and close the gap. Not wasting another nanosecond he retaliated at his usual speeds using the distance. Instantaneously, a circle of hell fire erupted from the ground Sosuke stood on, and anticipating his adversary to react to the supernatural attack, Jaired slashed sideways with his lengthy blade at the direction he would see Sosuke move to, the attack, if landed would gash his chest, and whether of not successful, he would jerk the blade back with both hands in a super-fast motion and thrust it back, aiming for his side, his wrists screaming at him.

Somehow, and Sosuke couldn't be certain how, his adversary's sight seemed to still function, even following his photokinetic attempt at disarming him. There rested no doubt in the samurai's mind, Jaired used a light source different from light radiation. That or his eyesight was simply of the supernatural. It however, mattered little as the speedster's wrists while still structurally intact, more or less, were still subjected to the force of the Snow Lotus' previous strike. And that was all that was required. Damage to the wrist. It would, hopefully, prove fundamental to Sosuke's potential success in the bout. If the wrists were weakened, then so was one's ability to generate maximum torque with a sword-strike.

At long range, the Samurai Saint would be at an obvious disadvantage. While possessing the power of pyrokinesis, it paled in comparison to the energy projection that was quickly becoming his opponent's bread and butter. Sosuke resolved to remain close. His entire game-plan, revolving around a hyper-aggressive approach with high offensive pressure. Jaired held an odachi, a nihonto used primarily for ceremonial purposes. It was in essence, a greatsword. And like all greatswords, maximum utility was only possible when wielded with both hands. Not only did it imply that Sosuke held the lighter, quicker weapon, but that Jaired would be unable to counter any grappling without relinquishing his grip on the odachi.

Soon, Cherub's 'Do The Math' indietronica melodies boomed from his earphones as his foe's conjured hellfire flared into towering heights. And the Kenjutsu King's resistance to fire came to a screeching halt in the presence of hellfire. This was no ordinary fire. And it was felt by Sosuke as its heat burned through his flesh to reach and threaten charring his bones. He felt his skin tighten as patches darkened, scorched. But he was quick. And slick as he escaped, every muscle fiber in his legs twitching with power as he vaulted over the searing walls of red. It was, by chance, that in leaping over the fire, he had vaulted over Jaired's sideways strike before the soles of his shoes touched the ground. Though his body burned from the pain of his adversary's hellfire, Sosuke, quickly, went on the counter-offensive.

Extreme dermal sensitivity to vibrations alerted him. He anticipate the thrust and responded accordingly. His footwork was cerebral as he circled away from the extended odachi before spinning, impeccable in swagger, and smooth in style as he generated centrifugal force from the spin's momentum. Performing an upwards, rising strike, Sosuke used his free hand, applying it to the back of his blade, adding even greater force before exploiting the explosive, kinetic energy of an upward jump as he sought to slice clean through Jaired's exposed wrists from below. Simultaneously, Sosuke, now aware that the composition of his adversary's bones was not entirely ordinary, sought to leave a significant drop in Jaired's bone density and structural integrity by severely decreasing its calcium deposits, thereby, if successful, reducing the resistance his sword may encounter when attempting to cut clean through his wrists.

In order to force his opponent into a reactive, defensive state of mind whereby all he would do is react and react until he reacted incorrectly, the Snow Lotus, immediately following either the success or failure of his previous strike, would make use of the opportunity his jump presented by combining his superhuman strength, speed and skill with the momentum of his descent to aggrandize the force behind what was now a two-handed overhead strike as he brought his blade down with the objective of snapping it deep into Jaired's exposed shoulder (from the thrust) before, cleanly sliding it through layers of flesh and bone, exiting from his armpit. Successful or not, the chained strikes served one purpose, to seize the pace of the bout and to fluster Jaired with a brand of stylish aggression.