Combat Exam #3

[The Designer]

After the botch that was the second exam, the Academy had to wait for a while before acting. This time. the heads decided to do three exams, all of which were very close to each other in time. While none were on the same day, they were still close regardless. After taking out names at random, the heads decided the Exam Number Three participants.

They are Nanashi and Tristan.

The match is being held at the Main Arena, with a huge crowd awaiting the start of the next set of combat Exams. The two combatants would, right now, be located in their opposite locker rooms, preparing themselves for one hell of a fight. In the middle of the arena stood none other then the Headmaster of the Academy itself, Maedallus. He wore a grin, stretching from ear to ear, while in his hand was a small microphone.

In the judge's side were four watchers, overlooking the fight. They were Azrael, Kenji, Isis Stone and Winklewood, all judging and making sure this exam was clean, and to grade each of the fighters.

Suddenly, the Headmaster raised his arm, causing the crowd to cheer. In the distance, the two doors from the locker room opened up, as Maedallus smiled and looked high into the sky.

"LET THE EXAM BEGIN" He yelled, causing the audience to yell back with exuberance.

[Nanashi]

Something like a combat exam was bound to attract people like Nanashi. Nanashi loved combat. So he was naturally attracted to a combat exam.

A combat exam was more than just combat, Nanashi soon learned. It was a huge event, with four teachers supervising, and the Headmaster as the announcer. And a huge crowd, too. Like Nanashi and his opponent would be doing something only they could do. They would be putting on a unique act that nobody could replicate. In a certain way, this was true.

His opponent's name was Tristan Knightrhode. Nanashi was entirely unaware that he had in fact met this Tristan, who had only given him the name 'Knight'. But he would find out in a few moments. He was currently in his locker room, and the doors were opening...

"LET THE EXAM BEGIN!"

The crowd roared, and Nanashi stepped out toward the center. When he saw his opponent (which he surely would), he was surprised.

"...Knight?"

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: sorry for the lateness, currently moving.

Tristan walked out from the surprisingly clean locker room, rather exited. [Ahh, a combat exam] Is what he thought to himself as he strode out into the arena. [And Kinkatsu Nanashi as my opponent. This should be fun. I don't even remember the out come of the last fight we had.] The crusnik walked out with purpose to the center of the arena, he looked to his right to spot the ever illusive headmaster of the school, a supposedly insanely powerful master class mage.

A smirk grew across his face as he saw the surprise of his opponent. "Yea. It's me. People used to call me 'knight' 'cause of what I do, and my last name. So I introduced myself as such." He stopped a few feet from the center, and put up a gauntleted hand to signal 'hold on'.

Tristan then put his hand up to his dragon leather sword harness. He pulled it up and over, slowly. The hunter stabbed his blade into the dirt, underfoot, and began to undo his black dragonhide coat. He slid the somewhat protective clothing off, and tossed it to the side. His experience with Kinkatsu Nanashi proved that he'd have to be more limber than what his coat restricted him to.

Shireiutz was placed back over his, now bare, shoulder and he slid back a foot. His handguns, exact replicas of that of a video game character, gleamed in the sunlight. An armored left hand slowly rose to a prone drawing position for his sword and his lips parted again: "Ready when you are."

OOC: Igneus is not there.

[Nanashi]

"Well. How interesting..."

Knight was actually Tristan. And Tristan/Knight was now removing some of his heavier clothing. Most likely for mobility, but that meant his chest was now vulnerable. Nanashi was signaled to attack first, and that he did.

Nanashi drew his sword. With two muttered words and a twisting motion, he 'split' it, revealing both blades. Tristan was aware of Nanashi's swords 'secret', but Nanashi knew he was going to need both blades...

But to start with something simple. Nanashi lifted the sword over his left shoulder, and muttered another word.

"Cut."

He swung hard, both blades creating an arc of air flying at Tristan. Both arcs would cut fairly badly if they hit, and would be followed shortly by Nanashi himself, charging straight at Tristan, sword ready to thrust forward.

OOC:
Sword rotation: .5
Wind blade: 3
Total: 3.5
Remaining: 21.5
Status: None.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: correct me if im wrong, but i thought your sword rotation took break and repair of the pegs, totaling a 1 point drain.

There was a problem with Nanashi's logic. His chest wasn't bare, it was still covered by the kevlar 49 vest, with its' enchantment, to which Ebony and Ivory were strapped along side their spare clips.

Tristan drew his sword as quick as possible and swung vertically, not bothering to utter the spells name. Being that this spell was one of his most powerful and one he used often, he could easily recognize Nanashi's own version of the wind blades. The hunter's spell of dense air met with Kinkatsu's and the three began to cancel each other out. The reason he didn't say the spells name was because he didn't need it to be strong, only strong enough to delay Nanashi's spell for "Ignite."

Granted, with wordology you could predict what that would do as Seeker had once displayed, but this wasn't for offence, merely what happened. The three blades of dense air exploded, most of the force going straight up, but the smoke went out ward. The hunter put his single bladed long sword away and activated his alchemy, forming his gauntlet blades. His Kamataichi was nothing but a diversionary tactic, and as the smoke began to clear, Tristan lept toward his opponent, where ever he may have been.

Being inhuman, he could jump to extraordinary heights so the hunter was a good ten feet in the air. Once Tristan was upon his opponent, he'd make a stomping kick with his left foot. If that was blocked, Tristan would use the blocking medium for a stepping stone, to make a neat aerial back-flip and make an upward arc with his gauntlet blades for a dual slash.

OOC: my teacher won't shut the fuck up about random shit so if the quality is lacking, you know why.

[Nanashi]

OOC: Damn, you're right...

Well, it seemed that Tristan knew a few wind spells of his own. But what was the use of sending a blade of air into another blade of-

Oh.

Now, since Nanashi was at the moment charging headlong into an explosion, the obvious thing to do was to make the explosion go away rather than stop, turn around, and start going the other way, which would likely get Nanashi... hurt. But moving the whole explosion would be much less effective than simply parting it.

So, continuing his dash, Nanashi held out his sword vertically to help him focus, and parted any fire that happened to be in the way. Nanashi soon came out on the other side, expecting to see a surprised Tristan good for attacking with something like the wood scroll, but no. Tristan wasn't there.

The first reaction was a quick spin to see if Tristan was behind him or to either side. He wasn't, so the next assumption was up. Tristan must have either seen Nanashi coming, suspected, or only have jumped a moment ago, because he was right on target as to Nanashi's location. But his attack was overly simplistic, and he had put himself in midair with no way to move in any direction except the arc that had been determined when he jumped, unless he was assisted by magic or wings. So his landing spot, the end of the arc, was also predetermined, unless he moved himself in midair.

Taking advantage of these facts, Nanashi made two simple sidesteps, first crossing his left leg behind the other and then stepping out with the right, and the moment before Tristan landed made a thrust for where it could be assumed his leg would be. So unless something crazy happened, which it very well could, Tristan would have a bleeding leg and slowed movements.

OOC:
Other half of rotation: .5
Fire movement: 1.5
Total: 2
Remaining: 19.5
Status: None.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: again about the lateness, moving sucks so much ass.

To be expected, Nanashi had moved. The boy was a good fighter so it wasn't a surprise when he knew where the hunter had gone. Tristan adjusted his leg positioning and pivoted his hips to compensate for his opponents new location. He didn't completally move through the air, as that was just a waste of mana and or chakra so Kinkatsu's attack did make some contact.

The blade passed through the material of the hunter's pants on the inside of his left leg. ((if you moved to my right PM me and i'll correct.)) The sharp blade made a cut that wasn't too deep, but it was deep enough. A wide trickle of blood dripped down Tristan's left leg before he finished landing and shot back a few feet.

A momentary retreat was this movement before Tristan shot back in and made a sort of rushing stab with his left blade, the right one positioned to be able to block if neccecery. The attack was aimed for the shoulder holding the double bladed sword.

OOC: getting back into form so quality may be lacking.

[Nanashi]

Well, Nanashi had succeeded in stabbing Tristan. But now he seemed to be about to be stabbed back. Scroll time.

Tristan had already seen Earth. So this time, Nanashi used metal. Reaching inside his robe, he pulled out his metal scroll, and promptly had an idea. Without even thinking it through first, he threw the scroll, and muttered a word.

"Wrap."

The scroll spun loosely around Tristan, forming a very weak cocoon. But that wasn't the full thing.

"Metal."

With the word, the scroll activated, and began to spew metal that quickly formed a much more effective cocoon around Tristan. This would effectively stop his forward progress, and if entirely successful and assuming Tristan had no knowledge of metal elementalism, could even win Nanashi the match. The metal scroll's interior was airtight, which meant that with sufficient time, Tristan could suffocate.

OOC:
Wrap: 1
Scroll of Metal: 3
Total: 4
Remaining: 15.5
Status: None.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

"What the fu-" Tristan said when the scroll wrapped around him, catching his momentum. He'd seen it before, the wrap attack, but it wasn't a full cocoon the first time. He readied himself to slice free as before with his gauntlet blades, but when he tried, his titanium blades wouldn't push through. [What the hell is this?] He thought to himself, now unable to speak.

Outside the cocoon, Nanashi would most likely just sit down and wait it out as it seemed that the crusnik had no way to escape. As the hunter struggled the metal twisted slightly, writhing about under the inhuman strength. [Shit, what the hell do I do now?] Were the to be expected thoughts. Things didn't look good: He couldn't breath; he couldn't force his way out; and though his crunsik forms wings could force their way out in an instant, he had no room to transform.

Time was beginning to run out and an idea struck him. The metal was much weaker than titanium, probably iron. That meant that this encasing metal had a lower melting point than Tristans armaments.

A sound began to eminate from inside the metal holding as Tristans mana fueled his fire magic. The hunter was taking his fire punch to the next level: Fire Armor.

The metal began to turn red as Tristan's energy flexed to its boundaries, he could probably only do this once, so he'd have to be more careful about such a situation again. "HAA!!!" Tristan roared, now bursting into his Crusnik form. As the metal heated up, it became more maeliable, and became weak enough for his forming black wings to peirce.

The cocoon bursted open in a hail of red hot shrapnel as the fire engulfed crusnik shot up toward the sky. "Nice try Nanashi, but you'll have to do better than that." He shouted down in his dark Crusnik voice, before angling his wings and body into decent and dive bombing his opponent. As he approached at speeds near forty miles an hour, he began to spin, making himself a flaming drill that would crash into Nanashi, full force, and send him crashing through the arena walls.

If the boy managed to move, Tristan would simply pull up and kill his aerial death roll, still a flame, and facing his opponent.

[Nanashi]

Nanashi smiled. That had worked PERFECTLY. But he didn't drop his guard. It was possible Tristan was planning something...

He was. The coccoon suddenly grew red hot, to the point of melting.

Idiot. He's not only going to eat up the last of the oxygen with that fire, he's going to roast himself. It takes really hot flames to hurt him, but molten metal qualifies as 'really hot'.

But Tristan wasn't done yet. Two black wings blasted through the collapsing coccoon, tearing it to shreads. In one great beat, the remnants of it were flying everywhere, every piece of it heated almost to the point of burning. Burning metal was very, very bad.

And then there was Tristan himself. Wreathed in the flames that had undoubtably melted the creation of the metal scroll, he now had a very different appearance. Besides the black wings, he now looked even larger. He resembled a vampire, yet was entirely different.

What the hell is THAT?!

Tristan shouted something in a voice entirely unlike his own, and then dived. Nanashi reached for his earth scroll, then thought better of it. This... thing would probably go straight through the solid rock wall like so much thin, cheap wood. Or paper. Before it was too late, he decided to move. Since Tristan was moving at such high velocity, he wouldn't be able to redirect and would hopefully hit the ground. But intstead, he pulled up, and hovered. It was now a stand off: flaming vampire-like-thing versus Nanashi. He pondered what to do next.

The obvious first thing was to get rid of the flames. They had melted metal, so the water scroll once would be unlikely to be enough, and twice would be a waste. Another thing that flame required was oxygen, as well as fuel and heat. Nanashi was unsure as to how the flames could exist without fuel, but the heat was supplied by the mage. The only other necessity was oxygen. Again, an idea for a new spell came into Nanashi's mind. Interesting how that had happened last time, too.

Nanashi grabbed his wind scroll and opened it, and said the word ('Wind'). The air started moving, targeted just to the left of Tristan. As it would have passed him, it quickly turned and started circling quickly, making a spinning wall of air around Tristan. The movement shifted slightly, making the whole structure become convex. The holes in the top and bottom were about the size of a fist, not nearly enough to supply the flames with oxygen when the air had no reason to move. In a few seconds, the flames would thin and die. Once that happened, the vortex's spinning motion suddenly accelerated, the speed of movement remaining the same, and Tristan would find himself assaulted on all sides by blades of air. Demonic dark-angel vampire of doom or not, unless he was now entirely impervious to attacks, he would be rather hurt.

OOC:
Wind scroll: 3
Vortex (New spell!): 2.5
Wind blade: 1
Total: 6.5
Remaining: 9

Holy crap that took a lot of mana...

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: Inventive >.>

Tristan hovered, flapping his wings at a steady pace. He was about to charge again and move to a better position, when a vortex of wind began swirling about. He'd heard the uttered word, but hadn't known what to expect, hence why he was going to move instead of just attack.

The flames shots about back and forth, and began to decrease. The Crusniks mana was strong enough to hold them alight for a while, but a lack of oxygen would effectively kill his spell, let alone while he couldn't manipulate air. He'd have to work on that. His wings pierced through the vortex, but to much aerial distress, and the hunter restricted their movements. [Now what?] Were his thoughts.

The vortex changed, moving faster, and a blade of wind struck Tristan's wing. The wings were extremely hard, and thus weren't damaged by the blade, but it spun the hunter around. "Shit!" He shouted to himself, before bringing his wings in to a defensive position. He wasn't entirely covered, he didn't have enough power for his wings to be that big. The small bits of remaining flame armor that had managed to stay intact with what air was moving about, came in contact with the next wind blades that came towards Tristan.

The dense air of the blades, and the flames reacted with one another, and like with the Kamataichi attack, they exploded. Tristan went flying backward, through the wind vortex, and crashing into the ground. The back of his pants were scorched, and his vest had gotten slightly singed despite the barrier.

The Crusnik wings had protected him for the most part, but slamming into the ground wasn't pleasant no matter who you were. Unfurling his wings, the Crusnik coughed from the impact and stood up. "Damn...Didn't think he could do that." He coughed quietly.

Time to play it defensive, use his senses, then counter attack. Tristan took a right facing Katate Ichi Monji no Kumae, yes he could still fight with martial arts in Crusnik form, and folded his wings behind his back, the Dragon fire armor now completely gone, the small amount of focus required to maintain it lost on impact.

OOC: almost posted that as Mantis >.>

[Nanashi]

The effect hadn't been quite what Nanashi had planned: it was better. Instead of just slashing, the blades had met with the still-alive-but-malnourished flames, they flared up, more so because of the new flow of oxygen when the vortex disappeared. The effect was similar to an explosion, with enough force to fling the Crusnik back and, hopefully, somehow, cause pain.

That would have been even more deadly if I had amplified it... An idea if it becomes relevant again.

Tristan had taken a battle stance. He had folded up his apparently impenetrable wings, and seemed to be reverting to martial arts. Nanashi had some sword skill, but his strong point was his magic. If he attempted to engage in hand to hand, he could only easily use his useless fire spells. His scrolls took maybe two seconds to use, and that was an eternity in combat. Best to keep a safe distance.

Nanashi, after a few seconds' consideration, grabbed his wood scroll, and preformed the routine.

"Wood."

The resulting 'roots' grabbed at Tristan's feet, and quickly crawled up his legs to bind the rest of him. Nanashi dashed, and while Tristan was struggling with the roots, Nanashi would be advancing, the earth under his feet moving like a conveyor belt to make him move even faster. When Nanashi reached Tristan a couple of seconds later, he thrusted for the shoulder, twisted, ripping the blade out of the shoulder in a very uncomfortable way, and thrusted with the other blade for the other shoulder. He would then repeat, stabbing and 'ripping' both thighs. All Tristan's movement would then be disabled, and the sword would find itself at Tristan's neck. The universal threat.

OOC:
Wood scroll: 3
Conveyor: 1.5
Total: 4.5
Remaining: 5.5
Status: None.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: sorry for the wait.

Tristan heard the word, and began to put two and two together. Unfortunately, the spell took effect before he could to more than square his feet and go to jump out of the way. The Crusnik glanced down and saw the roots, twining around his feet.

When he did, something clicked. [I'm a fire element...He knows that...Why would he...-] Then it hit. Distraction. Tristan looked up to see his opponent speeding toward him, and he prepared himself. Both of his hands shot up as the blades came in, and his fierce grip, coupled with his titanium gauntlets, stopped both blades dead. The Crusnik then yanked the blades outside of his body, that is to say, he moved the left blade left, and the right blade right, away from himself (his own directions).

He also twisted the blades out, putting Nanashi in a comprimising position. The hunters fanged maw opened wide, and a massive stream of fire shot out. The flames were enourmous. They were large enough not only to engulf Kinkatsu, but to burn the root off of the front of his own legs. Because the flame was so expansive, the flames were mainly red and orange, with small bits of yellow. The lowest heat level for a flame.

[Nanashi]

Nanashi's blade was grabbed. Acting almost entirely on instinct, Nanashi attempted to twist it and slash at the palm in a way that would be very painful to the un-gauntleted hand, and in the same motion attempt the next thrust. Unfortunately, the plan backfired, and with a snap, the blade broke off. Nanashi flinched, but concluded that it could easily be fused back on later. The second attack was grabbed in a similar manner, and a counterattack was prepared for.

At the opening of Tristan's vampire-like mouth, Nanashi for a moment expected a bite. After that moment, he logically concluded that with five teachers watching, none of whom would be terribly pleased by such an action, Tristan wouldn't think of it. Instead, remembering the previous encounter, Nanashi prepared for fire breath.

Instead of dodging, however, Nanashi put his left hand in front of him, and with a great circling motion, stopped all the fire's forward progress, and with a push flung it back into Tristan's face. After it had passed over him, it dissipated, no longer mana-supported and lacking fuel. But it left some of itself behind on the wooden bonds holding Tristan in place.

Now, wood does not burn very quickly. Quite the opposite. So Tristan wouldn't be relieved of his still-creeping-upward constraints any time soon. Now up to mid-torso level, the top ends of the wooden 'roots' began to move away from Tristan's body. A few feet away, the ends curved, and they pointed themselves at Tristan's limbs. After reshaping in a moment to be sharpened points, the expected happened.

Tristan would then be suffering the consequences of having flaming stakes of wood forcibly thrusted into his arms and legs. Unless he was as fire-proof on the inside as he was on the outside, it would be extremely painful, not only from the piercing but from the burning. Not only that, but he would be held in place, and likely unable to move easily even without the restraints. Overall, unpleasant all around.

OOC: You accidentally posted your last post twice...

Fire movement: 1.5
Wood movement: 1.5
Total: 3
Remaining: 2.5
Status: None.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: fixed

[Shit, the flame wasn't strong enough.] Tristan wasn't all that surprised that Nanashi deflected the flame, as he'd seen shit like that before, and this particular boy was extraordinarily resourceful. Despite all that, it was time to bust out, as the roots were growing way too fast for comfort.

Tristan flexed his body, and forced out his wings. They didn't have alot of room, but the razor sharp feather like protrusions of the wings could force their way through. Another second and his wings shot out of the restraints, and flapped down to propell the hunter upward with a trophy, the one part of Nanashi's sword that he'd let go of to perform his deflection spell.

As he shot up, the flaming roots launched themselves and caught the Crusnik on the leg. The slice on his inner thigh had just fully healed, and now he had another one, this time on the outer part of his shin, same leg. It was closer to a scrape than a slice, something one would get from getting sideswiped by a club, but it still bled the dark red Crusnik blood.

The wound caused a fairly intense dull pain that throbbed as he hovered about thirty feet over head, or more so off of the ground. His next move was spinning the blade in his right hand around a full one eighty, and sending it flying like a short javelin toward its owner. Tristan had seen the boy extend the blade a good five feet, and he wasn't taking the risk of his skills being able to do it from some twenty four feet away.

There was nothing behind the throw other than trying to nail the opponent in the shoulder and giving it back to him. The being thought to himself, knowing that the blood not only healed him, but empowered him if he was in perfect health.

Now what was left was to stay in the air, and see what Nanashi would do before attacking again.

OOC: quality is a little botched.