[VS] A Challenger Approaches (Closed)

[Flame]

SPOILER: Click to show

{Read Me (Click Me)}

The idea is simple, since I don't know who is going to be fighting me, I've chosen five of my characters and depending on the opponent you'll fight one of them. Which one is chosen will depend on which I think will make the most interesting match up. Basically, if you're 300 XPz I'm not going to throw some C Class+ character at you. Likewise if you're high up you likely won't fight one of my low XPz characters.

---

There it is, a clearing of sorts, well one might call it that. If that one was so inclined, upon entering that is what is seen. It is for the sake of reasonableness fairly circular and nearly half a mile in diameter. A path, covered in perfectly cut stone, leads across it bisecting the ... arena, if you will, coming from what looks to be one entrance up to the center and then off to the other end, it'd be visible all the way if not for the distance. Though perhaps one with good enough eyesight might be able to see a similar entrance on the other side.

Either way, the entrance behind, is a dark arch coming out from a wall of some material. Its material is unknown, to hit it would be to no regard, there is a doubt that there is a person in the world that could break it. No matter it is not the purpose.

Looking forward, the land changes in rings towards the center. There at the edge it is a field of short grass with the occasional tree sprouting out. The trees are few and far between but tower like giants. Moving inward, one comes to a river. A keen eye or coming closer one would note that the river forms a ring, concentric to this arena itself. It is thirty feet wide and much too deep for testing. But beyond it is flat unadorned earth, save for at the center. Perhaps fifty feet in from the river lies a near perfect circle of stone, it is also one hundred feet in diameter, and is placed at the center of this arena. And at the center of the circle of stone a giant flame roars, its fuel is unknown but it burns all the same.

But that is not the part that should turn the attention. Instead it is the five pillars sat equidistant from each other on the edge of this stone stage. Each rises two stories high and is the diameter of a normal grown man. And atop each is a figure cloaked in shadows. Though they stand so high up something can be noticed about each.

The first seems to wear a hood that hides the face. They seem to be peering over the edge of their pillar.

The second is of a more relaxed stance, two things bulge from this one's sides, they don't seem to be sheaths though, not straight enough.

The third is equally relaxed and seems to be inhaling from some item. What looks to be a tall weapon is stabbed into the rock itself beside that one.

The fourth is rigid and quiet, this time what definitely look like the hilts of blades hang over the edge of the tower. Looking up one might note the sheen of something upon their eyes.

And the last, the fifth one wields two items, these could also be sheaths, but its hard to tell. Smoke rises from where the mouth would be, its interesting to note.

But together they speak, as one, for many. Their voice echoes into any comer's ears.

"Who Challenges?"

[BlacKitten]

Koneko Miu - 1

A ball rolled across past the dark arch, tailed by a kitten who energetically tried to chase the spherical object. Upon catching up to the bouncy toy, the grey feline with a white underbelly swiped her snow-white paw against the object, knocking it further down the arena as it rolled across the stone path, slightly deviating off into the short field grass.

This kitten went by the name of Koneko Miu. Despite her cutesy, playful, and harmless appearance, she had a bounty on her fury head of sixty million beri, distinguishing her from the other felines of this world. But like many cats, she loved to murder and consume fish to the point where she had discovered many ways of torturing their corpses to maximize the flavor of their fleshes. In other words, she knew how to cook them.

She swiped the cerulean ball across once again as the object bounced and rolled into the waters, releasing a subtle ripple. Her yellow eyes widened a bit at the blunder she had just made. She was one of those cats who wasn’t too fond of swimming. Judging by the distance river’s width, she estimated ring of water to be around sixty-two kitten strides long or twenty-eight kitten aerial flips.

In a single leap, the daring feline landed on top of the ball with all four of her paws converging towards the top. She bobbed up and down with the buoyancy of the hollow object. With extraordinary balance, her paws began rolling the sphere forward; like a circus animal, she walked backwards while wheeling the ball onwards across the river. By the time she made it across the other side, she hopped onto a flat land made of stone, and with her tail, she whipped the ball out of the water as it bounced and dripped water along a trail.

Having eyed on the ball for so long, she only now took notice of the five pillars that stood sturdily, equidistant from one another. On top of each one was a shadowy figure, and in unison, they all said: “Who Challenges?”

“Meow?” The grey and white kitten mewled in response, looking rather perplexed.

She grabbed the ball with her forepaws and stood on her hindlegs as she raised the object over her head for the people up there to view her blue bouncy toy.

“Wanna play catch?” the kitten spoke the human tongue, innocently and playfully asking if any one of them wanted to play with her.

[Flame]

The shadows looked down and then among each other for a moment. Then stared into the sky as if expecting something. Then in the blink of an eye four shadows turned to flame, the first, third, fourth, and fifth. The third reacted for a moment in some kind of confusion but paused and stopped reacting, as if to say the flame was doing naught to him. He glanced down at the newcomer and shrugged as he was consumed in the miniature inferno.

They're shades disappeared until only the second remained shaking his head. Yes, his head. The light of day touched him revealing his height, pale skin, and black hair.



Ryouto glanced down at the cat that seemed to speak, not that he could hear it from so far up. "Are you serious ..." He sighed as he looked down. A hand reached into his kimono rustling about for a moment before it brought out a thin pipe. He looked up at the sky, "If you don't mind?" At once smoke began to turn slightly from the pipes end. The marine nodded blithely to the sky.

"Why in god's name was I chosen ..."

He looked down the pillar quietly smoking at his pipe. Unconcerned he lowered himself down so that he sat cross-legged upon it enjoying the breeze-less air.

[BlacKitten]

Koneko Miu - 2

“!” The kitten grew alarmed when the other four silhouettes left the scene as if a magician had just performed a disappearing act, and like an awestruck audience, she had no idea how they just vanished from the spot. Even as her cup-shaped ears swiveled around, she could not hear them. Even as she sniffed the air a bit, she could catch their scent. Even as her large eyes scanned the surroundings, she could not see them.

Miu’s attention was drawn towards the only other soul in this massive circular arena. On the multi-story high pillar was a tall, black haired man with a thin build and possibly around twice her age. He lowered into a cross-legged position as he smoked a pipe as if to enjoy the silent peace while it still lasts.

Hm… maybe he can’t hear me.

Her feline hearing was certainly superior to that of human hearing. Being able to hear his words didn’t mean that he could hear her words.

Let’s see if he can catch this ball... 

Still standing on her hindlegs, the grey-and-white kitten jumped up a few inches before pushing her forearms up towards the sky, hurling the blue bouncy ball upwards as if she was partaking a volleyball game.

For a small kitten such as herself, she strangely packed enough strength to launch the ball up along the pillar’s height, but speed of the ball was nothing extraordinary had an athletic human done the same. As the parabolic trajectory led towards the man sitting on top of the pillar, Miu wasn’t so sweet and innocent as to simply toss an untampered ball at this man.

Within the hollow ball, there was a small, compressed orb of ghostly blue flames. Only with her mystic flames could she have slipped it inside the enclosed object, and have it dwell inside in a dormant state.

Only when the ball would reach a close enough proximity in respect to this man, whose guard appears to be down, would she release all that pent-up pressure from within the object. Doing so would rupture the bouncy toy entirely and result in an explosion as if a bomb detonated.

[Flame]

"Hmmm" Ryouto noticed the ball almost immediately as it was tossed up. As relaxed as he was, his eyesight was never really relaxed. There was no question of what he needed to do, there was no reason for him to let it even approach. No, he would defuse the situation before it happened. He'd been chosen for a reason, the judgement of whoever held the strings had chosen him. That was enough for he.

The marine shifted, his limbs thickened and his body grew taller, his skin even pinked up a bit. His eyes annoyed looked past his growing nose, he raised a hand forward. The half-tengu took a breath, Nahh, no chances. There was a beat, two black wings spread nearly a meter on either side of his body. In a single motion they beat together as one forming a powerful gust of wind that shoved itself down the pillar blowing the ball back down to the ground without a second thought.

With another flap of the wings Ryouto floated up skyward. Each flap of the meter long wings pushed air down to keep him afloat standing in the air slightly beside the pillar's top. He looked down to await the next move. In all honesty he was uninterested in starting something.

[BlacKitten]

Koneko Miu - 2

“Ooo!” Miu let out an awe as her eyes sparkled at the sudden transformation that the lanky man undertook. Black feathery wings that appeared oddly small for its increased size of perhaps eight-to-nine feet of height.

But when the kitten saw the extension of his nose, her paws quickly went to cover her little mouth, “Pfft!” What started out as a suppressed chuckle quickly erupted into a hearty laughter, “What’s with that nose!? It totally ruins any intimidation factor.”

Raising her paws over her head, she quickly caught her ball which have been blown back and she used the round object to shield herself from a wave of wind pressing her down until it dissipated. Soon after, she hopped on one hind leg to the next, dancing side to side, “Yay! You did it! You threw the ball back! So, you do want to play catch after all!” The dancing kitten cheered, brandishing her toy over her head.

Gently tossing the ball up into the air as she was ready to serve it once again, the kitten swung her little hindleg straight up, executing a swift high kick as her snow-white paw launched the ball back up towards the sky, aiming straight for the man who now looks like a bizarre fallen angel.

However, this time around, the feline knew a few more facts about this man. He seemed to have consumed a Zoan-type Devil Fruit much like herself. He was a larger target than before. Just like her master, he possessed wings that granted him flight and the ability to generate a gust of wind to blow back her toy.

But as the ball passed the hallway point between the gap in elevation, Miu flicked a paw upwards as if to make a commanding gesture, and in response, a bright orb of whitish-blue light quietly launched right out of the ball at an even higher velocity than the toy.

What slipped out of the ball was a concentration of what the kitten liked to call, ‘Ghost Fire’. True to its name, these flames possessed a special ghastly quality in that she can control its state of tangibility. For it to slip out of the ball, the orb of flames had to be like that of a ghost, emitting no sound whatsoever as it does not interact with the physical world for the most part.

If the long-nose creature were to blow a gust of wind back, only the toy ball would be sent downwards as the wind would slip through the ghostly sphere of light.

And of course, if the sphere of light were to get close enough within just a few meters, the kitten would solidify it and release all that pressure for an scorching explosion of flames.

Round Two!