TEAM SHADUO VS TEAM SEGA
(Co-Written w/ Shen)
Barrel rolling away from the stalagmites, Sonic skid to a stop. Irnane exchanged with him her reason for being here, to seek information that could save their world from the end. Information that could be gathered from this fight. Sonic's eye muscles perked a bit. "Oh yeah? Well I've been told my fists are a great teacher," he snarked back. "If you're here to learn, how about a surprise lesson!" Sonic grabbed ahold of the ground, revving up. His feet became blurs as smoke came from the ground. Then, he unleashed himself, rolling into a high speed spin-dash with the goal of smashing into her.
The film of light that enveloped the Nerevarine vanished, and before it could fully fade, the dark elf burst forward.
BA-THOOM!
The tunnel rumbled and shook as the two collided, Sonic and Irnane's forearms slammed into one another, the air on either side of them distilling with highly pressurized air from the speed they'd just moved. "Faster... again?" Sonic grinned, pushing against his opponent. "Keep this up, you might get faster than me!"
"I may," Irnane replied, shoving his arm away. Sonic quickly spun into a kick, Irnane's blade coming up to block it. The hedgehog's shoes kicked from the metal, Sonic diving backward and tucking into a ball, before zeroing in on the Nerevarine, homing in on her with multiple attacks, the blue blur getting faster with each burst forward, but to his surprise, the dark elf kept up, knocking him back with the flat end of her blade again and again. They must have done this at least twenty times in a little under a second, before Sonic uncurled, skidding to a stop on the ground, one hand catching himself as the other was held back in balance.
"Then again, I may already be," Irnane claimed, and this time, she moved on the offensive, on the hedgehog in a moment, one hand acquitted with the Blade of White Woe, the other with the Fang of Haynekhtnamet, a flurry of attacks coming for Sonic, Irnane quickly zipping her way around her foe with her attack.
Slick! Slice!
Several gashes struck the dodging Sonic's body, his evasion times getting harder and harder to pull off the faster she got. Soon, the weakening sword began to strike his body multiple times, the hedgehog grimacing in response. There wasn't much he could do but counter attack to stop her. As she kept striking from different angles, Sonic stuck firmly on the ground and kicked up where he would presume her to go, hoping to knock her out of her rhythm and out of the dangerous slicing habit. It worked, at least for a moment, as he knocked her blade away, and leapt backward with a wince. This wasn't a situation he was fully accustomed to - sure, Eggman tried obsessively to find ways to overcome the hedgehog's speed, but in a single fight, this woman had surpassed him. Like all of her other magic, though, this was probably on a time limit. He just needed to wait it out, make some distance, if he could.
Irnane, however, had different plans. Her strategy with the blade proved effective as Sonic attempted to sprint away, only to fall to the ground with a sharp intake of breath. He'd stepped on his left leg, which had taken some hits from the sword, but the damage hadn't been all that bad. Yet the bone felt brittle, shooting pain up his leg when he'd put pressure on it to run.
This left him open for Irnane, who was already lunging forward. By the time Sonic had registered her-
He opened one eye, noticing the blade stopped a millimeter from his neck. She'd stopped herself from delivering the final blow, though he could feel the tip grazing his esophagus. His gaze traveled up to her face in mild confusion. "This doesn't have to end in death," she said simply. "You are beaten."
Sonic paused, a smirk growing on his face. Laughter followed as he looked back to the face of the woman he was fighting. "Guess I really must be a good teacher. I think you pass my class," school puns aside, he put a hand to the blade, gently moving it to the side. Stretching the same hand out to her, Sonic gave the elven traveler a wink. "Don't think this means I'm done with you yet. I'll see you again in the finals."
“The likelihood of us both reaching the end of the-“ Irnane paused, and her cheeks darkened in slight embarrassment, before she gave a small smile. “Oh, I get it.”
Her hand found his gloved one, and she pulled the hedgehog to his feet. “I feel like you were still holding back.”
“Maybe a little bit,” Sonic replied, putting his arms behind his head as he balanced on the balls of his feet, trying not to put much pressure on his bad leg. “Fight’s still not over yet, bee-tee-dubs.”
Irnane’s scarlet eyes widened a little. She’d been so wrapped up in this awkward though strangely touching moment (at least from her perspective) that she’d forgotten her vampiric ally was in dire need of her support. “Right!"
At that very moment, Dracula exploded in a flurry of holy radiance. The ground shaking with the force of a mighty explosion. It seemed if both sides had finished their end of the fight near the same time. "Well that guy took a bit longer than I thought," the jester dusted off their palms before putting them on her hips. "Wonder how ol' blue is doin- oh!"
FINAL BATTLE - START!
Seeing Sonic warp out before their eyes with the sound of defeat ringing through the zone, NiGHTS cocked their head, knowing Irnane was the reason. "Knocking out needlemouse, did we? Now that makes me curious! Alright, you and me, one on one!" Spinning into a drill drive, NiGHTS shot forward, missing would make her ricochet and bounce and bounce off of walls, the drill seeking Irnane out.
Quickly shifting back into her combat mode, Irnane’s speed advantage hadn’t left her yet. While she had lost a boon of an edge with the fading of the Fortify Attribute charm fading just moments ago, she still had Sonic’s own speed, stacked with her own and the Forged by War spell. It wasn’t fading quite yet. Using the Sword of White Woe, Irnane slid to the side, slashing upward with the blade, attempting to use her carried momentum against the nightmaren’s own, carving up the side of the drill. The dark elf would follow up by keeping pace with NiGHTS, skimming along her trajectory to keep landing glancing blows with the enchanted blade.
When the latest blow hit, NiGHTS gripped the sword with her teeth, swinging herself around to the anchor point. Yanking around, her feet struck out while the sword was immobilized, going in to drop kick the owner despite the weakness inflicted. The kick landed, knocking the Nerevarine slightly back - though her enhanced strength and durability for the duration of Forged by War’s charm didn’t produce the effect NiGHTS had been aiming for, as Irnane was quick to push back with her sword, either end sticking out of the ends of the nightmaren’s mouth, and a quick shove was made to force it across the jester’s skull lengthwise, risking bisecting NiGHTS’ head horizontally.
A rather brutal and deadlier approach than what Irnane had taken with Sonic, but the dark elf deemed it necessary. After all: NiGHTS didn’t seem to be affected by concepts like “pain,” so concepts like “death” probably didn’t hinder her much, either. Defeat would have to be dealt with a more serious hand. To top that off, Irnane simultaneously rammed the shortblade upward to plunge into the jester’s chest, before being ripped upward to carve open her opponent until the blade stopped upon clashing against the longblade, or stopped by an outside force, Irnane capitalizing on the brief moment of NiGHTS keeping herself close - and wide open.
Crack!
The sides of NiGHTS' face were shattered open like ceramic, the toothy jaw now visible, floating inside of the ceramic shell that seemed to make up NiGHTS. So Irnane took the sword out of the cavity and drove it up to NiGHTS' chest to impale the Jester when
Tink!
The red crystal on the chest refused to break. The sword bouncing right off of it. The red crystal, the Red Ideya it was called. It was shard from one of the most courageous dreamers in the waking world, and was the hardest point on their body due to their sheer resolve. The Ideya ended up outliving the owner, and it still lived on brightly within NiGHTS.
The old dreamer's essence protecting NiGHTS, the Jester took the advantage by suddenly crawling down on the blade, hissing with a serpentine tongue before sliding across it like a fireman on a pole-
Loop!
A paraloop was enacted, completely severing the Sword of White Woe into two parts, the first half disappearing into the lava nearby while the shattered hilt remained in Irnane's grasp.
Irnane barely seemed to register the loss of her championing weapon, nor of NiGHTS’ greatly weakened integrity, having been in contact with the enchanted blade for so long. It was the ideya that had attracted her attention. However, she recognized she was in conflict, and instead shoved the blade hilt down NiGHTS’ exposed throat.
This creature was one made of dreams. Irnane knew of creatures like these. In fact, the dark elf was one. It wasn’t common knowledge back home, most of those learning they were merely the products of a sleeping god’s dream going mad, but Irnane, Vivec, and Dagoth Ur were very aware of this “reality,” irony aside.
Her own hand partially inside of NiGHTS with the stab, Irnane summoned her magicka, releasing an explosive fireball in to blow up the jester from the inside-out. Upon Irnane shoving the hilt down NiGHTS's throat, the jester was surprised for a second, but quickly adapted. As heard by the following sound-
CHOMP!
NiGHTS's razor sharp teeth were like a shark, biting straight down on Irnane's vulnerable wrist, though struggling to break the skin. This happened barely a blink before flames began to spew into her mouth, causing the Jester's eyes to bug out and their face turned red hot.
They rolled like a crocodile in the air, the razor sharp teeth finally cutting into the skin, but Irnane was quick on the uptake, rolling with the jester, disallowing them from digging any deeper, but the flesh was still rendered mangled, and soon after, NiGHTS coughed and hacked. The hilt, small bits of flesh, and billowing smoke escaped her mouth as their chest heaved. Keeping their jaws open wide to have the heat vent, NiGHTS gave a long exhale, catching her bearings, and leaving herself wide open.
Despite any damage dealt, Irnane was far from letting an advantage go to waste, and coupled with her superior speed, even as its enhancement waned, the dark elf took the opportunity to begin darting in from all sides, a mere blur to even NiGHTS' perceptive eyes as a small flash of green light split the world around them. It was as though getting assaulted from every angle, the fang coming in from every which way, it was nearly impossible to tell which Irnane was the true one, which one was the current one. However, some of the dark elves dealt no damage, appearing to plunge their blades into NiGHTS as well.
The flash of green light had in fact been an illusionary spell.
Dozens of Nerevarines assaulted the jester, and due to the true one's sheer speed, it might as well have felt like it. Cuts, jabs, slashes, all left as a frenzied assault, before Irnane leapt back, tucking the blade to her belt, the fang replaced by a potion, and a scroll was grasped in her other hand. She was quick to pour the potion over her wounded arm, the ligaments rapidly reattaching, the flesh sealing over. It may have been wiser to save such a potion for later, but Irnane valued her arm, and prefered to have it fully functional, thus using the entire potion on just that part of her.
As this happened, the scroll vanished in flames of azure, imbuing Irnane with more magicka, all before the illusionary clones even faded, leaving NiGHTS disoriented for a moment. A moment long enough for Irnane to raise a strange artefact, a star-like construct, a bright light glowing somewhere within.
"Azura, lady of dusk and dawn," Irnane whispered. The world seemed to stop moving around her, dimming. A great silence. A great calm. "Whisper your power through the star of your namesake. Turn the delicate... into the superior..."
The world appeared to resume around Irnane as a red glow shimmered from her fist, soaking into Azura's Star. Pulses of light came off of the star, a great heat beginning to wash through the tunnels. The waves of energy hummed from the star, before a swirling tsunami of magical flames washed through the tunnel, consuming the debris cast about, swirling violently over NiGHTS, washing over everything with a pure and cleansing flame.
The spell cast had been Fire Storm.
The storm persisted, barreling throughout the battlefield, ripping apart the land around the pair, enhanced beyond Irnane's power by the soul trapped within Azura's Star, consumed to give the Fire Storm enormity, though it seemed to wave off of Irnane, swirling around her body, almost as the storm itself was being generated off of her. Even the nightmaren found the heat to becoming increasingly overwhelming as it ceased in washing over them in an unending tidal wave of destruction and magic.
"Concede, and it ends!" Irnane called. "Claiming life was not my intent in coming here - but I will not shy from doing so. My desire is to learn, NiGHTS, but that doesn't mean I ever planned to lose!"
A lot of attacks had happened so quickly... was this visitor always so fast? NiGHTS winced, looking up at the fire storm funnel they found themselves in. Despite the shockwaves of pain from the inflicted wounds, NiGHTS felt something burning within them, and it wasn't the flames. Was it their heart? Or the red Ideya? Something came bellowing out of her gut uncontrollably.
"Ha."
Then another.
"Ha ha ha!"
Soon enough, NiGHTS was floating in the storm, laughed coming from them all the while. They cradled their stomach from his hard they were laughing.
"This is exactly why I came here! For challenges! I've never been pushed this far in a long time!" NiGHTS wiped a evaporating tear from their eye.
They raised a hand out to Irnane, their demeanor changing. They seemed to become a dash bit more formal, as if a flying trapeze performer that had just performed their final act to a crowd. While the flames did start to hurt the flame resistant Nightmaren, it seemed they valued this sportsmanship and the gesture more than the flames, as ceramic chips began to flake off the Nightmaren's body and get consumed by the fire, her body seemingly beginning to melt into itself, heat racing across the lacerations caused by the multiple slashes recently cause by her for.
"You performed excellently, madam Irnane. You've heard this concession." NiGHTS warmly smiled, her hand holding firm in the air.
Swiftly, the Fire Storm began to quickly die down, and Irnane's head cocked slightly to the side. First in confusion, then in suspicion, before she closed the distance with a gait, her red eyes searching the nightmaren's own. "You were taking that attack... as though it were nothing. You could have won."
NiGHTS shrugged. "I don't show it well, but that last one was tough! But, it was fun," her eyes glanced toward her still extended hand, drawing the dark elf's attention to it. Irnane pursed her lips, her brow furrowing slightly, before she grasped NiGHTS' hand with her own slender one. That simple shake of sportsmanship saw the world around them dissipate into nothingness, and quite suddenly, both were returned to the lobby. Irnane let go of the jester's hand, and her eyes darted quickly about, picking out Dracula and Sonic specifically.
"I admit," she told the nightmaren. "The experience was more educational than I'd originally expected. Thank you, both of you. My mind brims with new concepts and ideas to use in the effort of saving my world. And... well, it excites the imagination," in another slew of self-embarrassment, the dunmer's cheeks darkened again, her ears flattening along her head, before she conjured a well-worn journal in one hand, and a quill in the other.
"I need to catalogue my thoughts."
. IT’S A REAL [Show Stopper] KID, A REAL [[Buy One Get One Free]] DEAL!!”
