Duel:Shishi v Jinfeng, Round 1, 2019 Hero of Freedom Championship
Duelists: Shishi vs Jinfeng Duel: Traditional 3 rounds with final defense, 15 minute posting limit. Stakes: Auto-hit to the winner. Judges: Kharnus, Natianara, and Meri
Larket Concert Hall
A magnificent hall stands before you. Constructed of an elegant mahogany with tasteful gold trimmings, it is one of the marvels of Larket. Created a long time ago for the ruler of Larket and his court, it is now open to all who can afford the ticket price. Concerts usually play in the evening and are usually performed by grand orchestras. Sometimes however, more modern music is played, and the hall becomes a disco. The stage on which the orchestra performs is huge, necessary for the amount of musician in an orchestra. A large number of benches are set out on the floor with comfortable cushions on them. For those who really want to splash out, a number of balcony rooms are set into the rooms, heavy red curtains can be drawn around the box for a little more privacy, and the seats are luxuriously comfortable. The only way out is to the south.
Environmental Challenge
The Larket Academy of Magick has been charged with magically setting the battle arena for all the duels across Larket. Headmaster Percival is the officiant of the duels. Today’s duel takes place in Larket’s Concert Hall. The battle is to take place on stage and in the orchestra pit. Intentionally leaving the stage and orchestra pit is a disqualification. If a duelist is accidentally knocked off, the duelist must immediately make an effort to return to it. Painted on the stage floor are long strings like those of a cello arranged lengthwise from upstage to downstage. The strings lead into the orchestra pit which has been raised so that it is just two feet below the lip of the stage. It’s easy to climb on and off between the stage and orchestra pit. In the pit is a single grand piano. Percival asks the duelist to stand in two very specific places on stage. He steps over to the piano and activates a rune and a tune. An arcane circle glows on the piano seat and suddenly a jaunty, heroic song fills the hall. From the fly system above the stage (the system of bars that hold lights and large backgrounds and curtains) giant hammers drop onto the painted strings that momentarily become real strings that rise up out of the floor, posing a taut tripping hazard. The hammers strike each string to strike a note. When the hammer withdraws back up into the fly system, the real string melts back into the floor into paint. Recap: Each time a note is struck, the corresponding string rises, fabricates into a real string at knee-height, and the hammer viciously strikes it with enough force to crush melons. The hammer withdraws, the string sinks back into the paint. Repeat. Multiple notes may be played at the same time. The magical piano carries the tune. It’s a well known song, at least in Larket it is. Many spectators start singing the lyrics. Percival informs the duelists that if someone plays the piano, they will override the magical tune. The piano will respond to outside force on the keys, then resume its song once the outside force stops. The piano has also been magically enchanted to withstand various physical and magical attacks. It isn’t indestructible, but destroying it wouldn’t be a quick process.
Optional Introduction
Shishi, as one of the competitors, gets to enter through the back of the concert hall. He actually is required to enter this way so as to not get a peek at whatever twist has been added to the hall by the tournament committee to spice up this venue. He's ushered back stage where he'll wait, clothed as he has been for a vast majority of his previous fights; white shirt, black neck tie, black pants, cool boots. The audience is getting the classic version as represented by the first addition Titan Action Figure that Prince Guillem definitely has multiples of.
Jinfeng had actually had a bit of a different arrangement made, having been told to wait outside the venue until called in. He had an idea the narrative that was being built here, and smiled to himself, adjusting the frog-style fasteners on the uniform he wears. After all, he was not only a challenger, but a foreigner, and entering the area of combat from outside, as an invader, would fit both interpretations. Perhaps he would play this up. After all, it was the narrative those inside were expecting, and such things were as much spectacle as combat sport.
Duel
Shishi looks across the stage at Jinfeng and puffs out his cheeks while Percival explains the workings of this piano death trap over the sound of the crowd going wild with either cheers or jeers meant for the reigning Titan of Winter. The vampire readies himself as the headmaster steps away and the Larketian song begins. Shishi doesn’t know the tune, and even if he did, he doesn’t know musical instruments well enough to predict where the next hammers will fall. His oceanic blue irises go through their accursed color change to that of a glowing red and a familiar pulse moves through the shadows within the venue. Gingerly Shishi steps forward and is immediately forced to dive sideways as a string rises up at his feet and a hammer comes crashing down towards him. A quick roll has him springing back to his feet and any timidness is gone from the assassin turned celebrity. He gets low and bolts towards the foreigner hands held in front of himself with fingers wide open like claws. Darkness given life by the vampire’s family curse chases after the Blue Demon, black wisps getting smashed and diverted by falling giant piano innards, but many of the shadows reach Shishi’s hands just as he reaches Jinfeng, giving what appeared to be a harmless and childish display real teeth as the darkness engulfs his finger tips and solidifies into razor-sharp claws like those of a giant lizard (or razurath?), which he uses to swipe out at his opponent. It is just the luck of the two time Frostmaw champion that when he takes his lunge, a hammer and string are appearing just a few feet behind Jinfeng, preparing to strike at what, for the moment is unoccupied space…
Jinfeng stood on his mark, eyes mostly closed, and before the fight had started in earnest, he'd repeat the bow he'd done for the queen some nights before, hand clasped over fist, bowing to his opponent almost as much as he had to the queen, which may be a little odd, but then again this was a champion he was facing. "I look forward to our fight, Shishi. I shall honor you by not holding back, as I hope you shall me." At that point, the fight itself begins, and he raises his arms before himself, hands open, yet somehow knife-like, his posture relaxed, yet somehow seeming ready. Were the Vampire trained to detect qi, or able to see supernatural forces in general to some degree, he would know that a flower-like blossom of the energy had spread out around him, blooming like an enormous lotus. It was nothing special, the most simple of secrets, a qi technique that allows one to feel the movement of energy and matter within their reach, enough to provide forwarning against many attacks. In fact, the Practitioner was surprised to not feel such a presence from his enemy, so used was he to fighting those with mastery of their inner force. At the same time, he did not quite recognize the energies gathering around the man, yet he knew that they were dangerous, if only for being created by him. When he grows close, he knows that the rumors he had heard, of Shishi being Vampire, what he knew as Jiang-shi, were no lie, though he lacked many of the outward effects of those loathsome creatures. Perhaps a cousin, or a superior specimen. The claws come, and the Practitioner answers, one leg sliding forward, body turning, his arm reaching up to deflect Shishi's claws down and across the Assassin's body, taking a small scratch from the claws as they form, unfortunately, but hopefully pulling the creature off-balance, where he can deliver a punishing, Qi-enhanced blow with a knife-hand to a point just under his shoulder, unleashing a spike of Hard Qi to break and disrupt the creature's internal energies. If he was right, such a blow would be rather painful for the creature, the vibrant and potent life-energies of the practitioner like to burn the creature from the inside, for from what he had researched, while such creatures do feed off the qi of others, they do so by way of conversion, and the intake of such concentrated life-energy, infused with a will to disrupt and damage, would greatly disrupt the blighted qi which flows through his being, as if a fire were burning from inside. That is, if his knowledge even applies to this creature, as strange as it was.
Shishi’s facial expression changes several times over the course of the split second where Jinfeng reacts to his strike. He draws blood, only a small scratch compared to what he wanted, but for a vampire this is enough to get him hyped, so a wicked smile starts to form. Then his balance is disrupted and he is led to stumble by the martial artist. The assassin could not be less aware of qi or any other mystical force being employed by his opponent, so he cannot see it, and he is not anticipating the type of damage the empowered strike is about to do to him. Confidently, although being this much off balance he doesn’t have much of a choice, he decides to tank the blow. It finds purchase and the vampire is sent stumbling backward as a hammer slams down in the vacated space between the two combatants before magically disappearing just as it came into being. Shishi looks confused at the pain he’s feeling inside his chest, although it doesn’t seem to affect his accursed allies, the shadows, which swirl ominously around his feet for the time being. He clutches his chest and hams up the harm being done to him, glaring at the qi man. Meanwhile, offstage: Some type of dark simulacrum of Shishi, composed completely of living shadow now stands before the piano in the orchestra pit and flexes abnormally long fingers in preparation for its performance. It extends a black hand and presses one key a the far end, creating a delicate ‘ping’ that’s mechanism is recreated on stage. After that experiment, the Shadow Shish must think it understands how this works, because it proceeds to go hog wild on the keys.The music stops and is replaced with chaotic noise. The Blue Demon on stage grins wildly as the massive hammers start chasing Jinfeng across the stage, but that smile quickly fades as it becomes evident that his shadowy minion seems to have just as little care for the assassin’s well being as it does the monk’s. Shishi must now join Jinfeng in this awful dance across the stage, set to the worst music of all time, the disruption to his life force, making dodging hammers all the more difficult, causing one to catch his heel and send him stumbling and rolling onto the floor as the chaos caused by his shadow intensifies…
Jinfeng does not expect Shishi to do what he did. Of course, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. A chaotic, wild piece, without rhyme or reason... and yet as if it was as simple to follow as his breath itself, the Adept simply, perhaps cheekily, begins to move forward in a movement almost like a waltz, his stance shifting to the side, one hand extended, the other brought in close, still held as if blades, and yet it was a silent message, a secret jest shared between him and anyone who had been at that party, but especially the Governess of this place. In truth, he was not listening to the song, instead feeling the surge of energy as it flows through the marks just as they extend, his practiced footwork weaving his way around the wires, finding his way over to his opponent. Then, he sees, as if in slow motion, the hammer coming down on his enemy's heel, knocking him forward. He had gotten close, but surely the whirl of wire would keep him from his enemy, would it not? No, in fact, it would not, as he pauses for a moment before surging forward, a wire rising up under him and bearing him into the air and forward, clearing the last distance between himself and his foe, and even going further beyond, his back arching as he flips up behind him, launching a second blow, this time open-palmed, to the place where the Vampire's shoulders meet, striking directly at one of the points where qi flows most heavily through the body, driving another stake of his burning life-force into the creature's chest and directly into his heart chakra, should he succeed at landing his blow. This would be... rather disorienting. First of all, it would disrupt his balance, making keeping his feet difficult, as if he had been struck in the ears and his equilibrium shattered. Secondly, it would disrupt his mind, making thought more difficult, senses dulled, and peace of mind foggy.
Shishi’s dark copy vanishes from the piano, thinning impossibly and moving up onto the stage at great speed, as if sucked through a huge invisible straw when Jinfeng goes in to strike at the assassin. The Blue Demon is on one knee as the palm comes forward and this time he throws up his arms, crossed in front of him to catch the brunt of the blow. The shadows at his feet are joined by those that made up the chaotic simulacrum, and rise to meet the strike as well. The powerful force, both physical and mystical, from the martial artist send the shadows scattering, (seemingly in pain?) and Shishi flying, tumbling backwards until he slams his back into a hammer that has just struck a chord.Those that know Shishi beyond the fan-idol relationship know that he and the shadowy forces produced by his family curse are fairly separate entities, and that disrupting the assassin will not similarly harm the darkness, on the contrary, it will only serve to allow the shadows to rampage more violently and freely than with a fully functional Shishi to keep them in check. Now those in the audience will see what this looks like. Darkness swallows up the red eyed vampire, who stands with one hand pressed against his chest, nursing his spiritual wound. Shadows take shape and solidify at his sides into four additional appendages that seem to pierce his flesh near the ribs, staining his white shirt blood red. Two of the new limbs grow long and spindly, and become the only things touching the ground, as his body is lifted off the stage, and two grow large and muscular, like a gorilla’s but only three or four times as large. One of the large arms reaches behind and grabs the hammer, snapping it and taking it as a weapon. The thin, dark legs skitter and move the assassin in and out of falling hammers towards Jinfeng, while Shishi is more or less limp while the accursed new body parts fight for him. He narrowly avoids another falling hammer and that one too is snapped and grabbed by the other large hand at his side. He then springs forward and the massive shadow arms swing in an uncontrollable rage, bringing the hammers down over and over and over towards the monk in a wild display of force that doesn’t seem like it will ever end….
Jinfeng is a little concerned about the shadows gathering around the creature. Well, that was new. That was very new. He seemed... ah, that attack may have been ill-advised. Well, then, best deal with that. The Adept takes a single step sideways to avoid a string rising for a note in the original song, and he closes his eyes. This seems ill-advised, not being able to see the rampaging shadow-vampire bearing down on him, but perhaps he had his reasons. from here, he takes a deep breath, his hands widening, as if ready to accept the blow, drawing back toward his body. In truth, there are many things that one expects when an attack comes. One is to step aside, another to step back to attempt to avoid the blow, perhaps to block, or attempt to go over. What few people expect is for someone to step into an attack, bring themsleves closer to danger... and yet this is exactly what Jin-feng does. He seems to slide forward, past the hammers in a moment between blows, his body blurring as qi surges into a heel, launching him forward, before surging into a hand, transforming flesh and blood into a thing like unto steel, and with a sudden and sharp Kiai he would launch a punch toward the chest of the creature, then another, and another, seemingly quite small, and yet each one uses the weight of his entire body, along with the fire of his Ki, striking point after point where inner energy gathers. If those in the crowd can sense his qi, they would see, should his blows land, spike after spike of luminescent, blazing qi emerging from the vampire's back, scattering shadow wherever they pierced. He would keep going, even as his muscles scream and his bones creak, his nerves wailing in pain at the over-exertion that they were in no way meant to withstand, but he kept going, as much to end this before his enemy got any more possessed as to win the fight.
Shishi, now the picture of monstrosity that his fans have come to know and love, commits to it and bares his fangs as the martial artist zips forward to meet him. He seems as wild and feral as the augmented limbs he’s added to himself for the conclusion of this fight. The spindly spider-like legs dart here and there, propelling the assassin’s body left, right, up, and down to avoid or lessen the impact of the flurry of blows being unleashed upon it. Some of the strikes are reduced to glancing hits that see that mystical energy slicing through solidified shadow that twirls around the pair of fighters, but many still find their marks despite the vampire employing his own natural hands and arms to try and deflect as many of the attacks as he can, causing Shishi to double over and convulse from the continuous impacts while still being held up by the shadowy limbs. Once a number of the qi empowered strikes have landed, the ape arms manage to push the other fighter away just as multiple hammers slam down between Shishi and Jinefng, creating a pause in the fight while they are separated on the stage, allowing the vampire to try and catch his breath, despite not actually needing to breath, being dead already...
Winner: Shishi
Auto-hit Stake
Shishi takes in a deep, unnecessary breath as the hammers rise between himself and Jinfeng, and the thin legs skitter across the stage, propelling him forward, stepping on raised strings as easily as a spider would its web. The Blue Demon now unleashes his own flurry of blows onto Jinfeng, but this one has two extra arms. The monk’s expert reading of qi is enough for him to avoid the blows of the vampire, as they’re being concocted by the mind of a man that’s only been on this planet some 50-70 years, but the strikes that come from the shadowy limbs are controlled by something unnatural and unknowable, and those are the ones that start to land, devastating punch after devastating punch. Then, with damage done, one of those massive black arms reaches out and grabs the fighter around the torso, lifting him into the air and flinging him into the seats, past the orchestra pit, the people’s champion, tossing a souvenir to the fans...