A Duel (Open)

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Standing quietly in the middle of an Arena, Ethan stared about for opponents to dual. This entire arena was his for the using... and he intended to trained with a warrior until his time was up. He hadn't yet used his string style for a long time, and yearned to use it against a capable and willing opponent. However, standing alone and silently in the arena did not look good...as people were at odds at how such a man could be alone and by himself in the arena. Others, particularly the young students, thought why was such an old man here? Old? He was merely 28..... Yet looked a bit younger then his true age. Regardless, he soon found himself alone....no one wanting to spar with him...

"Pity" He said, staring at the lights above him ."I suppose no one wants to fight with me after all... All i can do now is continue to wait I suppose"

And with that, he waited.... His eyes open and ever vigilant for a opponent to come to him. However, his face remained cool and calm....relaxed while battles raged about him. Silently yearning to refresh his string techniques, he continued to silently awaited.....his hands clutching the strings he was holding.....

"Any time now" he thought to himself, trying to keep his spirits up...

[Setsuna]

“A man who searches for a fight, will invariably find one…” A dark voice spoke out from behind the oriental clad individual. “The question is… Can he step up to the challenge that is presented to him?” Setsuna slowly approached, dirt crunching under his leather shoes. In his right hand was a sleek, expertly carved black scabbard; with a recognizable bend in it that was the trademark of all Japanese Katana. “So tell me… Just how confident are you in your fighting ability’s?” His eyes were dangerous and burned with a passion for combat.

Without another word. He took his left hand and grasped the hilt of his sword with a firm grip. The kind that was proof that he knew what he was doing. And in one swift motion, he yanked the blade from it’s home, an explosion of purple smoke following the sword as it’s energy was finally released from it’s tomb. A streak of light skimmed across the sharpened metal, glinting in the sunlight, the eerie black steel was like nothing else on the earth. Extending his right hand, an owl swooped down and grasped the scabbard firmly in it’s talons before flying off, perching itself in a nearby tree, watching the two silently. This man had wished for a fight… Well now he had found one in Setsuna…

[Ethan Yukimaru]

"Confident enough" Ethan replied slowly, as it was his nature to take this relaxed at a time. "In your eyes... I sense danger, and darkness lingering with in it's vast dark iris. You seem a worthy opponent indeed..."

With that, Ethan slowly raised his arms, the sleeves pointing to both sides of the arena.. Suddenly, and without warning, the strings he had shot out, hitting the ground and walls nearby as he set up a sort of web. Just as quickly as he raised them, the Weaver lowered his arms, gripping a few strands of silk and steel wires in his palm. His face, meanwhile, remained ominously relaxed and calm...even while staring down this dangerous opponent. Ethan had come here for a battle, and a battle he will not back down from. This man, who's name he does not know yet, is indeed powerful... he could sense it from what he saw of him. His stance, the way he walk, the way he drew his blade.... They all indicated to that he knew what he was doing....

Anyways, Ethan soon stared the man before him dead on, his face remaining cold and at composure as he stared him in the eyes. Not once did his face change...not once did it go from dark to laughing or anything else.... Indeed, the Nobleman had faced combat once before, and was not unnerved by this at all. Quickly raising his hands, he stared at his opponent while silk wires were all about him...ready to strike at a moment's notice...

"I am Ethan Yukimaru...pleasure to make your aquiantance... You may make the first move good warrior"

[Setsuna]

“Very well…” Setsuna then lowered the sword to his side… And just like that, he launched towards the mage with dangerous speed… Two slashes were delivered with great precision. However, his opponent would not feel anything other than the wind it produced. The sword’s aim was to cut clean through the wire that he had webbed either side of himself. And so, he would then proceed to continue his ark to bring his elbow back, slamming it hard against the Japanese man’s chest with enough force to send him careening backwards. “Come on… Prove to me that this is worth my time…” He said menacingly. It was clear that unless his opponent fought with all his power, he wouldn’t last long.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

While the aim of the blade was to cut clean through either side of the webbing Ethan had produced....Setsuna's simple cuts would not be enough. They were made of very durable metal alloys.... Which were powerful enough to weather many, many things. If Setsuna wanted to cut them, either more strength would be required, or he would have to spend time repeatedly trying to slice the wires. Enough of that though..... Ethan soon looked at his opponent, realizing that he was coming in toward him still..... Staring carefully at all his movements, the man came to a conclusion of what to do.... As Setsuna's elbow came toward his chest, Ethan, before that, had already moved to the side to avoid it. While this man was faster then him, his movements were not that complicated or well hidden.... And as such he was able to predict them coming....

"Very good speed....but his movements require a bit of work" He said to himself, as he nimbly avoided. "He is arrogant though... And i need to teach him that just like me, we are simply to small fish in the big ocean.."

As he said that, possibly distracting the man, a huge amount of the wires the Weaver had webbed around them came toward Setsuna, the ends of them anyway. They all glowed a bit green..as Ethan was using his magic to control them to send at his opponent. Their speed was great of course, equaling that of arrows...and perhaps even bullets. Regardless, they were all coming down like spears would come down on a person after being thrown. Ethan, with that, then quickly moved back away from his opponent, guiding the movements of his strings yet keeping an eye on his opponent.

[Setsuna]

As the wires fell down towards his body, Setsuna grinned a little. He attempted to avoid the attack, though the wires hit him regardless, as his left arm received the brunt of the attack. As they plunged into his body, he didn’t even flinch. “Interesting power… My turn…” He then charged the wires with his dark lightning, sending it down his opponent’s own weapon faster than the blink of an eye. Not even the fastest of warriors could evade the shock, and since his opponent did not know him, pre-emption would not be a possibility.

Though the charge would only last a second, it held the same effect as being struck by any other lightning. It would shock his opponent’s heart and cause all his pain receptors to scream out. With his free right hand, he gripped the wires and yanked them free from his flesh, causing blood to trickle down his arm and onto his weapon. “It’s an exhilarating feeling to be struck by lightning…” He said, now slowly approaching his opponent. “But to be struck with this… The blade of 80 days…” He twisted his arm to show the blade’s side as his own blood slid down its surface. “That is a far more chilling experience…”

He then charged towards the man, and if he could not be countered, he would appear to be readying another frontal attack, however, he would at the last second spin his body, allowing him to pass by his opponent, and swing his dark katana into the man’s side. He would not deal a lethal blow. He just wanted him to feel the cold sting as the katana grabbed at his spirit, clawing at his very life’s essence.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

As Ethan had his opponent struck by his wires, a small sense of satisfaction came to his face. However, it seemed the man took all the damage to his left arm, pity that he couldn't have been hit more. Suddenly then, Ethan felt a huge electrical spiral in his body. Indeed, the pain was very much great... But a life time of conditioning had made him not cry out. Regardless, as the wires flooded with electrical energy, The Weaver grounded them...so that instead of feeling the huge shock of it all as he initially did, a far less painful, but still painful, shock would come. With that, he regained himself, a bit of blood flowing from his mouth somehow. His opponent said something, but he didn't hear it. Instead, all he saw was the movement of the opponent. Looking at his body, Ethan was able to tell that he was going to go into a spin by his walking patterns and what not....

So as Setsuna spun and sent his blade at Ethan, the man caught it with his wires. However, this time, upon realizing the mistake he made, he used ceramic wires. These wires were made out of ceramic materials and were not able to conduct electricity at all, making them perfect weapons against the man.....of course, Silk wires would work well too, but he didn't want to risk anything. Anyways, Ethan had the blade of the man wrapped around his ceramic wires. With his free hand did he shoot out another ceramic wire, this time try to grab at the opponent's leg. If it work, he'd have grabbed the leg, it it didn't... Then oh well. No, he was not trying to sever the leg, merely hold it...

Looking at his opponent the moment he caught the sword and possibly the leg, six symbols suddenly appeared around Setsuna, each one a symbolic symbol. Indeed, they were the art of Symbology, something he learned here at the Academy....

"Impaling Prison" He silently said to himself, watching the show...

With that, six spears from the circles which appeared like portals around Setsuna shot out six spears, each one black with a silver end to them. The six spears would then Peirce the body if Setsuna is able to save himself. Keep in mind though, that Ceramic wires are still just as durable as his Steel Wires, and that a few good minutes of cutting them are needed. And given the time that Setsuna has, only a few brief moments to avoid the spears, he would need to think of something quick and on his feet. Of course, just with Setsuna's previous blow Ethan avoided, the spears were not meant to kill...merely painfully trap Setsuna...

[Setsuna]

Setsuna felt the resistance of the wires, disallowing his strike on the man’s side. But before he could react, another wire fired out at his leg. It wrapped around his shin, putting him into a position that seemed to make escape impossible from the next attack. Six symbols appeared around the mage, as he uttered a spell. “Heh…” With that, Setsuna did two things… The first course of action was to change the direction of his blade. Now, he drove it directly up at the arm it’s constraints came from. Even if his opponent were to move his arm, the ceramic strings would simply pull and redirect the attack again, giving the mage two choices… Risk losing a lot of blood from a large gash to his arm, or release the sword.

His second course of action would be to use his superior speed to reach up and grab hold of his opponent’s clothing, yanking him forward and into the path of his own attack. This would also give his restrained leg some freedom as the string would then receive slack, giving him the room he would need to fall down onto his back, and drive his feet into the mage’s stomach, delivering a painful blow, made worse by his refusal to let of his shirt, and his continued pressure on the man’s stomach until the symbology attack had ended. If his sword were still wrapped in the strings, he would then prove something about the blade of 80 days that his opponent had not realized… It was a lot sharper, and a lot stronger than anticipated… He would exert his full strength into the strings, slicing them from their target.

Getting up, Setsuna would notice that from the kick, his shin had been cut up somewhat from having the string ripped off after he launched his opponent off him. It looked to be in a bad way, but he shrugged it off. A man like him who had been stabbed through the chest and lived, was able to ignore such pains… But it would put somewhat of a time limiter on the fight, as even he could only loose so much blood. And so he decided to make sure that his opponent would loose just as much… “Your turn…” He said, slowly cracking his neck.

[Ethan Yukimaru]

As Ethan watched the symbolic circles appear around and began to hit him. he quickly saw that something was wrong... Setsuna was moving toward him....and soon enough, he felt two hands grabbing his robes as a kick came, very painfully one might add, to his stomach. The pain was high....but he too remained calm and relaxed...not letting it get to him. Instead, he quickly moved some of the ceramic threads on him to his opponent, using dousing to secretly move the ceramic wires between the lining of his robes and try to wrap around his opponent. He would not no this...for the threads were practically invisible... And the spear attack would probably give enough pain to distract anyone. Regardless, with that Ethan moved back, counting that he planted at least a dozen wires around him his opponent, and then had that one around his sword. Suddenly, however, he saw in a violent demonstration that the sword was sharper then a regular sword... Go figure...

Well, to counter this, all Ethan had to do was pour mana into the blade to keep it from being cut by the Sword of 80 days....seemed simple enough. Anyways, as Setsuna prodded The Weaver to make a move, all he did was raise his hands, the strings that should be connected to Setsuna secretly pulling up parts they have wrapped themselves around. Of them, Ethan had counted the wrist of both hands, the ankle, the torso, the elbow, the neck, the thighs and some on the torso if his opponent had not realized this attack. But how could he, Ethan had yet to pull so the enemy would feel nothing, the ceramic wires were practically invisible unless Ethan was controlling them which he wasn't, and the stress of battle would make them hard to see. Anyways. it was not that Ethan planted all those strings in different places as Setsuna grabbed him...but rather he moved them from the arm, onward. Anyways, if this worked, Setsuna should feel a very powerful tugging sensation on those body parts...pulling him very painfully and restriction his movement...

With that, The Weaver dropped his hands from he air...yet the strings were still up there, supported by his mana of course. The strings, still floating, began to move all around the man.....tugging possibly painfully on him as he was not the center of the strings...as some pulled forward, backward, left and right.... With that, Ethan raised his hand and looked at Setsuna, in his hand a ceramic wire..... Charing it up, one could see that Ethan had some mana in it... And without another word, the string shot forward.... Trying to hit the man Ethan fought into some non-lethal area... Like the left area of the torso, so long as he didn't hit a lung.... Regardless, of this did was drain Ethan of his energy and concentration, controlling his strings was difficult. However, for him to have to use such serious moves...they should end it soon...least one of them get hurt badly by all of this...

[Setsuna]

As Setsuna found the ceramic string resisting his attempts to cut it, he quickly changed his method to a sawing motion that would quickly eat through the wire, regardless of the manna. Once freed, he noticed that his opponent had retreated back, and it was at that point that he felt the other wires yanking his limbs every which way. The immediate pain was excruciating, but staying in turn with his opponent, he showed none of it. “You’re good…” He said slowly. “But I’m better…” He then, using his superior strength, yanked his left arm in the opposite direction to the strings pull. This would give him just enough leeway to do what he had planned next. He swung his blade, seemingly randomly with great speed. But what would not become immediately obvious was that the blade, with it’s great speed and its perfect craftsmanship, was severing each of the strings with the utmost precision.

His gaze fell dangerously upon his opponent. ‘I will finish this in one blow…’ He thought to himself silently. Pulling his right arm behind him, he charged a ball of black lightning in his hand. It pulsated as the energy attempted to free itself from the restrictive orb Setsuna had placed around it. Suddenly, he hurled the ball at his opponent, giving him very few options. Jump to the left? To the right? Suddenly, as he would easily evade the attack, he would find himself facing another ball of black lightning flying towards him as the previous would explode somewhere behind him. This time, the ball came from a closer position, as it became evident that Setsuna was now closer, and closing in at an alarming speed. Now he would find the true difficulty of evading Setsuna’s assault. No matter where he leapt, the much faster Setsuna would close the remaining gap, spinning his blade in his hand, and jamming it’s hilt against the mage’s chest with his full strength. A hit powerful enough to crack one of the mage’s ribs. If this hit home, the fight would be over. But what else could the mage do in the situation. Where could he move without leaving himself open to the attack? It was now or never for both of them. Setsuna’s endurance was beginning to wane, just as it was evident that his opponent’s was. Neither of them had long to go…

[Ethan Yukimaru]

Ethan watched coolly as Setsuna broke his strings, looking as he was able to get out of the finely crafted Prison he had created to ensnare his opponent. However, he had underestimate the Blade of 80 Days.... A mistake he would not have in the future. With that, Ethan watched as a black fire ball came rushing toward him....streaking on. Ethan had only three options...left, right or duck. Since ducking is stupid, Ethan decided to move naturally and went to the right, dodging the ball. However, with that a second ball came...roaring in after all. He couldn't exactly dodge once more. It seemed he was pinned, but however, he had a ace in the hole. Regardless, from Setsuna's perspective it seemed the ball would hit right on contact...causing dust to come up where the impact was made... With that, his opponent would then come forward to stab him in the chest...only to find that was not the case...

Instead, the dust cleared away, to reveal a giant cloth/plate which intercepted Setsuna's black ball and blade. Apparently, the black ball did do some damage to Ethan, as blood dripped down his left arm, but other then that no major damage. The sword of 80 days was now stabbing right into Ethan's shield/cloth..a small budge could be seen on the other side. His hands were behind this shield, as strings wrapped around his fingers apparently made this cloth shield. Staring at the man, he soon moved back....the cloth shield suddenly unwrapping itself as he stared on at the opponent.... With other strings in his hands to be used as weapons in case of attack...

"Those, were the Strings of the Yukimura Family" Ethan spoke, his tone commanding yet cold. "Blended together with the magical blood of countless Yukimurians from centuries of death, this string is just as durable and probably as powerful as your sword of 80 days"

With that, Ethan soon dropped his hands, signaling a draw. After revealing one of his trump techniques and weapons, he did not want to continue any longer. After all, once one sees a secret technique that was not to be seen, the watcher needs to die. However, since this was a spar where killing was forbiddon... He could not do so, and as such does not wish to spill more secret techniques and what not of the clan.

"It is a draw then" Ethan said, his tone quite calm and relaxed. "We both will kill each other if we go on, and there is no point in killing, ergo there is not point to go on..... Perhaps we'll meet one day again Setsuna.... Until then"

With that, Ethan began to walk out of the arena, as students from all around watched in amazement over the wonderful technique and skills these warriors showed. Perhaps in the future, they will duel once more...

[Setsuna]

“Feh…” Setsuna drew back his blade as his opponent retracted his strings. Indeed he had been right. If the fight had continued much longer, one, if not both of the fighters would have died. Something Setsuna knew he would need to avoid, for there was no bounty on the man’s head. He announced the technique, and suddenly things began to make sense. As the mage left, Setsuna mused to himself. “So that was Ethan of the Yukimura clan… Interesting…” And with that, his owl swooped down out of the sky. Setsuna spun his blade in his hand and as the owl closed in on him, he drove the blade deep into it’s home, grabbing the scabbard with his right hand. “Interesting indeed…” He added before turning and walking the opposite direction.