I thought that might happen . . . I had no inspiration for that mactch, but the fire adds something to the venue. Good round Ryoko
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"Much . . . much better."
Cucumba spat some blood out from his mouth, the light green pearlized fluid dripped on the ground and hissed on contact. The ancient horror looked about him and stared at the conflagaration that, in finer times, had stood as a beautiful forest. From the other side, he heard a log explode from the heat as it's water vaporized inside it's scorched wood. This refocused his attention on the Outlaw.
"I haven't even begun to show you what you've got coming you lumbering vegetable," spat Ryoko, who was grinning with a twitch in her eye as she pulled herself to solid footing.
The space pirate pulled her blade across her face and stepped into a deep side stance. Cucumba pulled his blade across his forearm, pointing his free hand out to the she-devil, fingers flared. The two warriors circled in the heat of the inferno, the flames robbing the air of it's life giving aether. Both warriors maintained their stances as they moved around, eyes locked; each searching for the spark of a hint of inner fire, a commitment to explode into combat.
They would not wait long. In the distance, a branch, glowing red with embers waiting for release, dropped from it's bough, no longer able to cling to the tree which it once fed. Death was in the air.
All that remained of the earth where they stood was an explosion of debris once stuck to their footwear. Now, those debris followed them in an arc that lead to the place of agression that they had created. Each warrior swung their colorful energy blade from it's readiness, and terminated that swing at a point between them. Their inertia and power brought them to a standstill, and their muscles fought to win this contest of unstoppable forces. Ryoko smiled at the admin, showing her canines and the cool assurance of victory not yet won in the world of the real, yet known so well in the mind and soul. In contrast, the admin kept his stoic face cast in stone to those on the other end of his stare. Ryoko tightened up, and flipped back, narrowly dodging the admins exploratory strike and kicked him in the chin for his efforts. The mighty administrator fell to the earth, and quickly flipped up. Daylight was waning, and in the shadows of the dying sun, the warriors once again squared off.
Ryoko landed lightly on her feet and stifled a laugh behind her wrist. Cucumba eyed the she devil, deciding on a course of action against this new assault form. The two rushed eachother, Cucumba roaring as he brought his lethal weapon to bear against the smaller, but clearly more powerful, demon with a wide swing. Ryoko parried his lethal horizontal slash and rolled quickly to the side, preparing a sweeping counter. The mighty admin saw her plan and lept, pulling his abdomen and legs up, narrowly evading certain evisceration as her glowing energy blade neatly sliced off a bit of his duster. Cucumba fell to the floor, and knew he was prone to any attack she might follow up with. Ryoko smiled, it was a valliant effort, and a truly amazing dodge, but the tyrant's time was up. The space pirate lifted her energy blade high overhead and swung it down with deadly precision, missing the rolling admin by a hair's breadth. She growled and swung again, missing the admin once more. As she reared up for a third strike, the admin spun on his side and kicked out the pirates legs, giving him enough time to take a defensive stand. Ryoko cartwheeled to stable footing. Ryoko smiled, she didn't want to beat him on the floor. She wanted him to see it coming.
More fires erupted from the smoldering wounds left in the earth, and Cucumba stood defiantly , eyeing his foe. That's when she assaulted him with everything she had to offer.
The green machine could not see her, or hear her coming; even his command over the force and ki failed him. The pirate rammed into his face with her elbow, and spun, leveling her deadly blade to slice him in two . . .
. . . but the jade behemoth instinctively blocked, despite the reeling, despite the pain, he blocked the impossibly fast blow. Ryoko spun backwards, this time slicing for his leg. The mad old one tried to dodge, but his leg was cut deep. Ryoko quickly disarmed him with a skilled spin of her energy blade, sending the ban saber deep into the fire. The green devil fell to one knee, and shuddered with rage.
"Your game was well played, but the cards were always in my favor . . . any last requests?"
Deep inside, Cucumba quelled his rage, pulling on every internal reserve to keep his anger in check . . . he could not answer, death was better than letting it free . . .
"Nothing? No big fancy words, no soliloqy? No witty retort? Hell, no resistance? Fine."
The space pirate slashed at her foe mercilessly, the jade behemoth must be finished decisively. But much to her suprise, the mighty admin hed his palm up to the blade, stopping it's deadly momentum. The blade crackled from exertion against the invisible force Cucumba used to stop it. Ryoko flipped back and rushed in for a stronger attack, but even the added momentum would not be enough. The green machine had calmed and a peacful look spread over his face as he stood.
Even as the forest around them died in a conflagaration of chaos, the admin and the pirate both found clarity in the truest and purest state of mind: the absolute calmness of the mind focused on combat.
Ryoko sank beneath the ground with a smile as the admin looked on in terror. When she was gone, the terror look faded immediately.
Know thyself, . . . , thought Cucumba as he searched for her presence with the force and his ki abilities. Ryoko popped up, slicing where the admin had been just milliseconds before. The green machine began his descent from the canopy,
and Know thy ENEMY. She knew she was in mortal danger and instinctively rolled back, narrowly avoiding the green devil's windspear strike. It was aimed directly at her head, but now the admins hand was elbow deep in earth. The Pickled One ripped his hand from the earth's embrace, and sliced at Ryoko.
His hand stopped dead in front of her, and the pale orange shimmering of her force feild could be seen. The admin struck again, and gained nothing more than a luminescent display of sparks as his ineffective attack failed.
"Not going to be that easy, Pickled One," said Ryoko, "you'll have to try harder."
"As you command . . "
The admin stood legs apart, shoulder towards Ryoko's shield, and a severe green glow began in his palm. The light grew larger and larger, much to Ryoko's dismay. When the ball completely engulfed the ancient horror, it suddenly and rapidly shrank into a small fleck of intense light, no larger than a marble.
"Pikka . . .
FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH," roared the admin.
The minauture ki attack raced to the demoness' shield in the speeds rarely achieved by light, slamming into the invisible barrier with the force ten times that of the Big Ban attack. The woods exploded in the aftermath, and everything beyond the impact area for miles in a 300 foot wide stroke was nothing but blasted and scorched earth. Far in the distance, a mountain was blasted open, the peak perilously resting on the apex of a cresent shaped scar. The smoke began to clear, falling from the sky's embrace. Cucumba let out a sigh of exaustion, knowing his energies were nearly spent. Then, when the remnant energies of his attack had faded, he knew that the fight was nearly over. The she-devil's shield had held.
"My, my, that was impressive, but utterly useless. Good try though, keep at it, someday you might just succeed," said Ryoko as the last bits of smoke cleared between them.
With that, the pirate raced in, energy blade swinging. Cucumba barely dodged each attack, the fatuige he suffered was manifesting itself visibly now. The beast he hid well within himself began to claw at his psyche, if he did not finish this now, the true ancient horror would be set free. The admin blocked one of the blade stirkes, coming from overhead, and began a rapid combo of light pressure point strikes, hitting her all over her neck, chest and arms. Ryoko's eyes widened, and the spam bane clapped his hands together, tracing a line down her center from neck to knee, then rapidly split his hands apart, striking a pressure point in each knee. Ryoko's legs felt funny, and the knees buckled slightly, but nothing else happened. Then Cucumba hit her solar plexus with his open palm.
"Windspears' southern cross . . . make your peace with what ever god created you," Cucumba grinned.
The space pirate began contorting in pain, almost convulsing, even held her arms out and wrenched her back. Cucumba let his gaurd down, falling to one knee, his energies utterly spent.
"Too bad I'm not human, and I don't have their pressure points," Laughed the demoness as she kneed the Admin in the face. Ryoko pulled the admin up by the collar and head butted him, then landed a vicious spinning kick to his stomach. The jade behemoth flew into the heart of the inferno, and lie quiet.
"Heh, not to bad," said Ryoko. "Still, I expected more than that."
She nursed her wounded left wrist, it was still holding. Luckly, the big green jerk hadn't figured out her weakness. She turned, and walked a bit, looking down at her wrist, then stopped. Several ghostly druids had appeared in the moment she was looking down, and they did not react to her. They all walked by, each in turn, casting not a glance at the she devil. Their tattered, moldy green robes smelled of rot and corruption, and the very air grew rank and stagnant with their approach. How had they survived that blast? They walked to the edge of the fire and began their ceremony. She thought she could smell seawater on them. Ryoko could only sense bad things from this display, and charged the head preist, only to slice at thin air . . . the phantoms were nothing more than illusions. As Ryoko suffered in indecision, the chanting started . . .
Cucumba was burning alive, his skin bubbled and his corporeal body screamed with pain, even if his mouth did not. But even now, he struggled with a greater battle, one that might alter the future of forumscant if it were lost.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cucatoth P'kyl wgah'nagl fhtagn! So from the wells of night to the gulfs of space, and from the gulfs of space to the wells of night, ever the praises of Great Cucatoth, of Cheeseyhothep, the crawling cheddar, and him who is not to be named. Ever there praises, and abundance to Hsu Mamabearath, the black bear of the woods. Iä! Hsu Mamabearath, the bear with a thousand young!"
Deep in the fire, an ancient evil began to stir, and the thing that was once Cucumba was once again what it was before . . . the battle was lost.
"And it has come to pass that the lord of the woods, being seven and nine, down the onyx steps, and past the plateu of Leng, tributes to him in the Gulf, Majin_Youathoth, he whom of thou has taught us marvels! . . ."
Ryoko heard an inhuman howl mixed with the voice of the fallen admin, and she knew she must do something . . . She began to fire blasts of energy into the fire, hoping to stop whatever was happening. When the roar came again, she took to the air, and to her horror, the sun was eclipsed, and the moon was full in the east . . .
"
UNTIL THE STARS ARE RIGHT!"
What the hell is happening here!
The stars above were moved, or was it an illusion from the heat of the inferno? Had she lost her mind from lack of oxygen? Stars? It was daytime!
"Iä! Hsu Mamabearath, the bear with a thousand young!"
When she rose over the smoke of the ruin of their battle, she saw the ancinet horror, bathed in moon light, flying up, it's wings rapped tightly around it in some sort of inverted dive. At it's apex, the thing in moonlight opened its wings, and swooped towards her in a spin, parting the smoke clouds beneath. She could make out tentacles on it's back, each with a razor sharp spade shaped blade. She once again ignited her energy sword.
The ancient horror roared once more, the trapped scream of the jade behemoth and the roar of an elephant ending in a strange but chilling whale song . . it was the most unreal thing she had ever witnessed. She flew in close, and struck for the wings; the sooner it was grounded, the better. The mad old one deftly side stepped, and whipped its tentacles over its shoulder. The space pirate struck again, the horror now illuminated by her energy blade. It's inhuman face held nothing but contempt and anger . .
The monster once again dodged, and Ryoko felt her side get smashed with one of the tentacles. She fell as the ground spun up to meet her.
She pulled herself up, quickly, and gasped when the tentacle wrapped around her neck.
"Hey, I'm . . . not that kind . . . of . . . girl."
The horror observed her for a moment, confusion passed it's features briefly, and Ryoko used that moment to fire energy bolts from her hair, severing the tentacles. The pirate raced skyward.
Ryoko could see it below as she regained flight, and saw the tentacles racing towards her with their wicked blades. The blaze highlighted the creature below, a hellish site if ever there was one. The space pirate dodged the first few, pulling her body out of the way, twisting and ducking. Then the ancient horror flew through the tangle of his own tenticles and hit her with a right hand punch that knocked her teeth loose in their sockets. Her jaw fell open from the force of the second blow, a left hook to her ribs. She dodged back, firing a few rapid energy attacks, which the monster deflected with it's tenticles. She sliced into a tangle of tentacles chopping them free from the beast. The creature let out it's horrible, unearthly wail once again.
The forest below erupted into new fires as the wayward energy attacks ripped up the canopy.
More tentacles sprung from it's back to replace those that had been severed. And they now engaged Ryoko in a spectacular arial display . . . the dance of death had begun, and one partner would not survive.
The space pirate severed tentacle after tentacle, chopping at the beast's weapons with every ounce of strength she had. They began to learn her pattern of attack, and deftly dodged and countered themselves, nicking her face, arms and torso. Ryoko neatly dodged one that nearly scalped her, but two more ripped across her chest, carving huge gaping wounds there. Blood showered on the conflageration below, and the she devil gripped her chest in pain. The space pirate fell once more. The creature seemed intent on destroying her above all other destractions, and lumbered through the fires and broken trees directly towards her. She got to her feet quickly; despite the blood, the wound was not as deep as the creature would have hoped. It stoped thirty feet from her. The creature's tentacles whipped up and down, kicking up dust as it destroyed trees. Ryoko stood wearily, clutching her wounded chest with her free hand.
The beast unleashed it's attack; a single tenticle tore through the earth at the demoness. Ryoko sidestepped it with ease, and a tree, born thousands of years before, was felled by a single stroke.
The fires grew near this new place of battle, and dust still fell from the sky from the Green Machine's failed pikka flash.
Ryoko rushed in, dodging a few tentacles intent on running her through, hoping that she would score the killing blow. One tentacle followed her back. She exlaimed in suprise when the wretched, feotid smelling appendage wrapped itself about her head, and constricted. Before she could think of slicing at it, the tenticle tossed her carelessly to terra, and there she lie prone. When the demoness sat up, she knew that her stiuation had become perilous. She felt a tentacle rip through her abdomen, out her back, and wailed in pain as blood spurted from her mouth. The beast swung her through the air and slammed her to the ground once again.
Ryoko was still.
The beast lifted her up, and made its hands into a spear shape . . . aimed for her head. The creature stopped as Ryoko lazily opened one eye to the monster. It ripped it's tenticle out, causing her to scream with pain once more. The tentcles retracted, and the wings pulled in, and the horrible face was replaced with that of the jade behemoth once again.
" . . . "
"Go . . on . . . finish it," wheezed Ryoko.
"No . . I have use for you yet."
The administrator picked up the pirate . . .