Shin V.S. (Open)

[Shin]

( An epic battle destined to take the course of many moons! Hopefully. )

Diamonds against a vast black curtain, their light memorizing to Shin Shiden. He laid on his back, arms outstretched as the wind gently rolled across the hills, giving the tall grasses a rolling effect. Laying amongst the grass that normally came up to waist height he was virtually invisible. He lay immobile, taking in the sweet and comforting scent of a battle completed.

Despite the serene and calm nature of the night it had been anything but that mere minutes ago. Bodies lay around Shin Shiden, a bakers dozen dressed in armor native to that of a Cizokian Samurai, many of them gripping their weapons even in death. Shin had to commend the fallen warriors, not a one had begged for their life and not a one had screamed out in pain while Shin executed them.

The smell of blood was comforting to Shin, it brought him peace in the sort of way a monk might find it meditating or a armor smith who lost himself in the work. In Shins outstretched arms, still gripped tightly in each hand were his own weapons, two katanas that shimmered under the stars and full moon still wet with blood.

Shin should have know better then to travel back into Cizokian lands, he was still a wanted man and with his abnormal blue hair he was an easy man to pick out of any crowd. Still, the chances he would happen a large patrol were rather slim. He decided it was a testament to his bad luck.

[Paroxysm]

Offtopic: 'Dunno if you're still up for this (and this is rather delayed, I admit), but I was bored.

“Unnecessary!”

A woman’s voice echoed through the area from everywhere and nowhere at once; it was a young voice, but did well in hinting towards a lifetime’s worth of experience behind it.

“Really,” the young, blonde woman appeared to walk from out of space, itself; her eyes were a blaze of fury and judgment; it was quite obvious that she did not like the carnage around her; and it definitely did not help that it was her job to be an avenger, either.

“These men had family,” she remarked with the utmost scorn behind the words. “Families that are now without their brothers, their sons, their fathers, and their uncles; it’s pathetic,” she spat and took another step forwards:

Her chest and legs were covered in armor, quite foreign to the armor that Cizokians wore, of course, and it incorporated a dress-like design; she did seem to be unarmed, however, but Shin would surely know better than to take another at face value; at least, that’s what the woman figured.

“The bounty on your head is quite large, Ser Shiden, but I doubt it was worth,” she gestured towards the fallen bodies, disregarding whether or not Shin was paying her any attention, “their lives.”

The bodies of the men would slowly begin to vanish, all that remained would be the weapons, previously held in their death grip, and those would quickly fall to the ground, making not a sound.

“Your skill as a swordsman is obvious,” a compliment, perhaps, but she continued: “But what of your worth as a man, Ser Shiden?”

A large blade manifested within the woman’s gauntlet-encased grasp, her fingers curled around the hilt, and she effortlessly kept the bastard weapon lifted above the ground, its tip dipping just slightly downwards.

“You can lie or tell the truth,” a small smile formed at the edges of her mouth, “but I must ask, Ser, did you enjoy it?”

Despite Shin’s answer, a fight was going to ensue, but it was, at the very least, slightly impersonal; ultimately, the woman had no actual problem with Shin, but she was here to avenge the deaths of the fallen; that was her lot in life, now. She was a Spirit of Battle and Shin, Shin had a lot of fallen enemies in need of avenging.

[Shin]

( Might be slow to respond, but im up for it.)

Shin was lost deep in his own world when he first heard the womens voice booming around him and like a coiled snake the Tenken snapped to his feet in one quick motion with both blades at the ready. Shin was quick to pinpoint its source as soon as the women stepped out of thin air and with that act Shin already deemed the women a threat if that wasn’t enough she knowingly faced against him, alone, something not many warriors did.

“They are Cizokian warriors.” Shin stated as if that was an answer to her question. It did not matter what families they belonged to or who was waiting for them, all knew the truth of their station they would live and die by the sword. To many Shins answer would mean little if nothing at all, killing was killing after all and if Shin had wanted he could have ended the fight with little or no casualties.

He watched as the bodies vanished, leaving behind their weapons and continued to stare as the armored women who seemed to know about him brought her own weapon into form. She could use magic, or something akin to it Shin told himself. He hated magic, almost as much as he hated firearms.

As she spoke he cleaned the blood off his blades with the flick of a wrist and sheathed both of them his cold azure eyes staring hard at the women who seemed to be here to judge him.

Shin wouldn’t satisfy the women with an answer to either of her last two questions, instead he crossed both arms over his chest and remained silent waiting to see what she was going to do. Would she attack with the large sword, use another form of magic… or perhaps something else? His mind was calculating how easily she held the weapon, its reach, her arm length and a dozen other factors that would aid him if it came to trading blows with the girl.

[Paroxysm]

Offtopic: No problem as mine'll be delayed (occasionally), too.

“Irrelevant,” the woman snapped. “I, too, live by the sword, and as did my family; a tragedy, no matter how common place, is still a tragedy, and in this day you’ve stripped families of their loved ones,” her facial expression changed, she displayed sorrow in open, and did little to hide it: “as have I in the past.”

The woman’s grip on the hilt of her blade was tightened, but she didn’t attack just yet; no, now was not yet the time to initiate an offense.

“I am not here to judge you,” she admitted, “yes, no matter your crimes, or whether or not I agree with them, it is not my place to judge you, but that does not mean you’re not to be judged, Ser Shiden.”

The woman’s lips curled into a smile, a small glint of ivory white betraying her teeth, but it temporarily vanished, as she further elaborated on her words:

“You judge yourself,” she proclaimed and raised her blade a bit higher, reversing the dip, as the blade pointed towards the sky, but the sword, itself, despite being inverted, was held in much the same way as before. “I’m just a test,” she said, “a trial by fire under the gaze of a watchful God.”

“And before the day is up,” her smile returned and the area around her body warped; space, time, and reality twisted and contorted around the woman; it was a sight to behold, that was for sure. “You’ll find yourself in the Graveyard of Swords,” she almost laughed, “guilty or innocent; dead or alive.”

Several hilts, belonging quite obviously to swords, appeared around the woman, a few feet from her person, all around her, but also did not obscure any of her movements, they were hazy and intangible.

“You needn’t answer me, Ser,” she took a few steps forwards as she spoke, casual steps, rather than cautious, and her left arm reached upwards, removing a lengthy blade from one of the ‘pockets’ above her.

“Your silence speaks plenty,” the sword in her left hand’s grasp was firmly jabbed into the ground, to which she walked away from, and yet another appeared to take its place.

“Ser Hilda Ansgard of Albion,” she announced her name; she wasn’t sure of it was customary in Cizok to give one’s name before they entered single combat, but she did so none-the-less.

The woman and her swords vanished from plain view, she had made a straight dash towards Shin, the initial blade, held firmly in her right hand, was reared back mid-ways, and would come down towards Shin the moment she came within an arm’s length of the man; however, it was quite obvious that she had purposely made such a simple first-strike and that this was simply meant to be an opener; that greater things were to come.

I Gladius.

[Shin]

Shin sneered at the word ‘god’ and that stoic mask was washed away under one of obvious disgust and anger. He held no love for deities, regardless if their standpoints and ideas matched his own. No being should be revered or worshipped, one should simply revere and trust in themselves. At least, that was Shins style of thinking.

“Your god has no place here.” He spat through tight lips and watched as she began to manipulate the battlefield around her. Azure orbs passed over the swords she brought into the air around her and once again he was digesting the information.

He had to wonder what deity she was speaking of and if he would even know, there seemed to be many different beings worshipped and revered as deities and yet Shin only knew of a handful in any detail. He could see no markings on the women that would display her faith, no holy symbol that he could identify.

Yet she claimed to be a test, a test for what? Was some god planning to use him in some grand scheme, some master plan to gain more power? He told himself that there was no way of knowing, not now at least. If this Hilda Ansgard wanted to cross blades with the Tenken then so be it Shin told himself.

Her movements were swift and gave insight to her ability, like Shin she could move at an incredible speed but if this was some sort of technique or actual power of her legs propelling her Shin didn’t know.

As Hilda’s sword began it’s descent Shin Shiden pivoted his body on his left foot turning so her swing would strike only air and to accentuate her miss Shin would use his right hand to guide her right arm away and would use Hilda’s own momentum to his advantage, likewise pushing her arm further from him would make it hard for her to strike out with her left arm and possibly knock her off balance.

The true attack would come as he guided her arm away, Shins left arm would reach over his left shoulder and pull forth his Unnamed Katana in a devastatingly quick and powerful one handed strike, his target was Hildas right arm and he intended to sever it between the elbow and shoulder. It was a makeshift Iaijutsu attack and not in the standard from the hip approach, though he still wore the Shiden Blade there, and Shin would execute it with the skill and speed he was known for.

[Paroxysm]

The woman’s forward movement immediately stopped, she stamped her right foot, her dominant leg, down onto the ground, turned on the balls of her heels, partially aided by Shin’s maneuvering of her right arm, though not entirely, and reached her left arm to the side, grabbing onto the nearest ‘air-sheathed’ sword, and instantly reversed the spin, bringing her body low in the process; her right arm went down, the sword vanished even as her fist still remained clenched around its hilt; and now, bringing the left hand’s weapon into form, she held it underhanded, pushed upwards, and clashed with the Shiden’s own blade.

The output required by the woman’s overly flashy block spoke leagues of her physical fitness, she was no magic user like Shin might have thought, but she definitely had something about her, something different; at least, no mere human would ever have moved in such a way, not without fear of error, or death.

If Shin attempted to push down with his sword, he’d find that Hilda’s physical strength matched that of her speed, that she was an unyielding force on the battlefield, at least in so much that she held a larger-than-normal short sword near-over her head, against his advantage in leverage, and still did not budge.

Behind her, the area begin to ignite in small, faintly glowing orbs of crimson red and a duke’s blue; they were numerous, randomly placed, and while obviously connected to the woman, she paid them no attention.

Her hold on the short sword’s grip would switch, even against Shin’s own blade, as her hand and fingers twisted around, mid-air, and she pushed up and away from Shin’s sword, bringing her body into a stand and backwards leap, putting some distance in-between the two.

“V Gladius.”

She announced, but did not attack further; the orbs of light would begin to take shape, however.

[Shin]

The display of martial skill Hilda displayed was not something Shin was expecting from his latest adversary she certainly possessed an otherworldly quality in skill and confidence to match otherwise she never would have attempted such a technique against him.

Shin pressed down with only one hand, his non dominant hand at that, and while he had a strength greater then what his lithe form displayed it was not so great as to catch any opponent off guard. Certainly Hilda’s strength surpassed that of Shins if he left it unaided, but this was something common for the Tenken and he relied much more heavily on his speed and chi abilities then strength in arms.

He did not resist his weapon being pushed back by the powerful women and even as she stood to leap backwards Shin also took a few steps back sheathing the dragon looking katana over his left shoulder and crossing both arms over his chest in a similar fashion as before.

He carefully watched the crimson and blue orbs, doing the best he could with his ability to sense the life energy other beings had and sometimes used to see if he could identify what they were or the technique behind him, if they were created by Hilda’s Chi then Shin would have a much easier time understanding them but if not then he would consider it magic and outside of his realm of knowledge.

[Paroxysm]

Perhaps to Shin’s surprise, the orbs did not turn into fiery death, and nor did they make any sort of advance towards the man; they were neither spiritual or magical in nature; they had begin to reshape themselves, what had originally been orbs, elongated, and became considerably more broad; and they jutted from the ground, still retaining their color of crimson red and duke’s blue, but as more and more time passed, it became obvious what they were: swords, five of them.

The woman casually tossed the short sword behind her, which shattered upon contact with the ground, and the pieces slowly sunk into the earth; that is, they appeared to sink into the earth. In fact, they did nothing of the sort, and were instead returned from whence they came.

With Shin’s intellect, it would no doubt become obvious what the woman’s technique truly was, she did not specialize in a single sword discipline like one would think, but focused on using a multitude of blades; in this case, five, as she had previously announced, and the newly shaped swords were testament to this fact.

“Ser Shiden,” her tone was respectful, but her facial expression was one that showed just how much she enjoyed battle. “A God’s influence can travel wherever it so wishes,” belated as it was, she didn’t seem to care of Shin’s opinion, and just as well, he probably didn’t care much for hers, either.

In disinterest, she turned away from the azure haired samurai, almost as though she had given up on fighting him, but that was not the case, nobody could have mistaken it for that.

She walked towards the group of swords she had formed, several more orbs had started to transition into the area, near the bulk of the previous five, but spaced somewhat; they would also begin to take shape, as time went on, and the pattern would repeat itself throughout the fight; with no discernable stopping point, at least, not one that would present itself anytime soon, but that would not become immediately known.

“Are you curious about my technique,” her question came as she grabbed onto a new sword, this one would be immediately familiar to Shin, as it had a dragon motif, a sword eerily mirroring the one he had just sheathed, but differing in one or two areas. “Maybe? It isn’t anything like what you’ve seen before, I’m sure. To be honest, Ser, I don‘t quite understand it myself, and it's kind of frightening.”

The blade was hefted from the ground, held in front of her, as she turned to face Shiden, but her gaze was on the blade, itself.

“This is a nice sword,” she said. “Cizokian craftsmanship was quite amazing, really, but the steel is sub-par. Sad, but they served their purpose.”

Immediately after speaking, Shin’s instincts would be the only indication he’d have of the woman’s attack, as her body vanished, and reappeared behind him, the weapon she had picked up was carried into a thrust, attempting to pierce his back, to sever his spine in a single attack, or to force him into a dodge, to move him closer to where she had been prior to the sudden attack.

For a single second, Shin would feel an expanse of Qi; though a bit more neutral in nature to what he was used to being around, or perhaps inert, maybe; regardless, the ‘territory of Qi’ would quickly vanish by the time he realized the woman was attacking from behind.

[Shin]

Shin watched his opponent carefully, he truly didn’t know what to expect from her. The fact she was forming weapons made him curious, all swords at that, what did she plan to do, wield all of them? That would be near impossible, unless she could mentally control them and if that were the case it was surely take a lot of concentration. She had proven herself to be quite skillful in the art of Kenjutsu already but Shin did not believe she was on his level.

Unlike his opponent Shin wasn’t feeling very vocal, not when his opponent already knew more about him then he knew of her. After all she had known who he was and he hadn’t even introduce himself, his reputation had preceded him he was sure. It was while she was picking Cizokian sword from the air that Shin felt the need to draw on his internal power source, his life energy, his Chi.

He was thankful that he had for nothing more then his warriors intuition an instinct that pulled from the knowledge he already had of his opponent, the fact that she had simply vanished, that Shin did not believe this women could move at speeds he couldn’t register, the hairs standing on the back of his neck and the feeling of impending doom he knew of her location the moment she arrived there. These instincts combined with Shins greatest assets, his amazing speed and perfected skill, could very well make it appear like he had precognition.

Shins form spun to the left, the sheathed dragon looking katana on his back would catch the weapon perfectly so that when he turned her blade would ride the sheath and be harmlessly deflected as he spun. This action would bring Shin inside of the women’s reach where her superior strength could be used, Shin wasn’t worried. His left arm was shot low palm down to deflect or block and kicks or knees she might throw and his right arm would do likewise with her non attacking arm all the while he would snap his head foreword, his slight height advantage lending to his leverage as he attempted to break his opponents nose with a simple but well placed head butt.

[Paroxysm]

As fortuitous as it seemed, Shin’s conveniently positioned sword and sheath would probably save his life, as the woman’s blade collided with them, perhaps aided by the man’s instinctive maneuvering, and her own weapon would raise, along with her hand; it would be flung out of her grasp, however, and sent sailing behind her, stabbing into the ground as though guided by an unseen force.

No further attack was pressed, despite Shin’s preemptive stance, but she did make it a note to side-step, while his leverage gave him an advantage, her small size in comparison also helped, and she easily dodged his head-butt, if only slightly.

She moved only as needed, however, and nothing was wasted, even despite how flashy she may have seemed to Shin Shiden.

“The art of banter is lost on you,” she frowned with a following leap, backwards, and held both her arms wide away from her body, palms facing Shin, and fingers stretched straight.

“A shame,” she shrugged and slowly started to close her fingers, one by one, but only partially; the act was done for both hands; and a crimson and blue light begin to form, deliberately slower than her previous constructions. “But is fine, I ‘spose.”

Two swords, from where she had vanished from, would appear in her hands: one sword had a serrated blade, each individual tooth retaining the quality of a razor, and the hand-guard came down over her hand, though mostly out of the way; the second blade was a companion, it was shorter and sleeker than a short-sword, and looked more the part of a wakizashi; and yet, it was straighter and less sharp than such, but also had a design specifically meant for thrusting or stabbing, a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone capable of closing great distances instantaneously.

Hilda, instead of charging into another attack, started to walk in a circle around Shin, casually, but with her eyes fixated on the man; it was a predator’s walk, as though she were looking for a weak point, or to confuse his senses when she finally did go in closer.

Despite Hilda’s dance with Shin, if the blue-haired man took a moment to look about himself, he’d notice the orbs of light beginning to increase faster in number, taking their shapes faster, even, and increasingly becoming more and more spaced out; in fact, they were beginning to creep across the battlefield in all directions, widening.

In Cizok, this would be known as Hilda’s kyuukyoku ryouiki: ultimate territory, her Graveyard of Swords.

Some preparation was still required, however…

"X Gladius."

[Shin]

Shins head struck nothing as his opponent deftly moved out of its way and in truth Shin didn’t expect the strike to hit, not after seeing how agile his opponent was. But like any good martial artist one attack leads into another and Shin was going to push himself to take the offensive and refuse Hilda any time she may have needed.

As Hilda leapt away from Shin he brought both hands down on the Shiden Blade at his side, the left hand grabbing the sheath and the right grasping the hilt firmly. His body turned to face his opponent, his feet spread and body lowered to the ground, Shin took up an Iaijutsu stance.

As Hildas feet touched the ground Shin unsheathed the Shiden Blade and sliced out at his opponent with one quick and powerful strike. Kenkaze, it was the name of the technique Shin used and unlike many of his Chi abilities this one was made possible by skill alone.

Shins attack created a powerful air current that would close the distance between him and Hilda within but a moments time. The attack, while being capable of tossing a heavily armed man on his ass, was more specifically designed to create large and painful gashes on the target.

Nearly as quickly as Shins blade had been drawn he sheathed it and dashed towards the women prepared to alter his course based on how she responded to the near invisible but tangible current of air coming at her, regardless, his hand was once again on the Shiden Blade prepared to strike out.

[Paroxysm]

The slow construction of her blades immediately sped up, a loss of showmanship, but a gain of defense, instead; it took her only a fraction of a second to respond to Shin’s attack, but it still was not quite fast enough; her weapons were brought into a defensive stance, crossing one another, and protecting the majority of her body; and yet, gashes still spread across whatever skin was left unprotected and her clothing was shredded somewhat.

“Nnh,” she flinched as her body felt itself pushed back, she managed to stay standing, but her feet slid into the ground, as a result.

Blood, from a fresh cut on her cheek, covered her neck, and her shoulder was raised to allow the material of her clothing to soak the crimson liquid up, as though it were nothing more than a nuisance.

First blood had been drawn by Shin; it didn’t particularly make Hilda happy, either.

Regardless, Shin’s utter refusal to play nicely with Hilda’s plans had finally reached her patience’s limit, and, as he sprinted towards her, he’d find her gone within an eye-blink, and that, instead, she was beside him, in the middle of his sprint, and her sword was coming into sideways slash, leveled near perfectly with his chest.

If he blocked, dodged, or parried the attack, he’d find the larger of the woman’s weapons falling to the ground and a short sword being brought into a thrust from his left side, with her moving from a crouching leap; the power and speed of the attack was great indeed and the weapon would shatter if it struck Shin or his blade, if he somehow blocked; still yet, however, was the sheer damage it would inflict on Shin, if it made contact.

[Shin]

Shin had been prepared to alter his course based on how Hilda reacted to Kenkaze, he was not prepared for the women to simply teleport to his side. With her sword in mid-swing and her off-hand waiting patiently to strike out there was not much Shin could, not when he was at near a full out sprint. He hated revealing his more powerful techniques so early in a fight but he didn’t have much of a choice.

Nearly as quickly as Hilda appeared next to him Shin left her side, he could not teleport, at least not accurate or safe enough to use in a fight. Shin instead had concentrated the Chi into his feet and through the use of Shunpo took straight to the air above his opponents swinging sword and roughly another twenty feet into the air.

Shins body contorted and twisted while he hung suspended in the air for a brief moment, the momentum of Shunpo carrying him to the end of his path. When all was said and done Shin would be upside down in the air roughly twenty feet straight above Hilda. He had no doubt that she would see him before he could fully descend to strike at her so he began to focus his Chi as he fell head first towards the earth, straight towards Hilda. That stern look now replaced by a fierce smile, Shin was starting to enjoy this.

[Paroxysm]

Offtopic: 357 days, 5 hours and 50 minutes later ...

Ser Hilda Ansgard of Albion let out a sharp whistle in admiration of Shin’s footwork. As an experienced fighter, Hilda had heard more than a rumor of the samurai’s foot techniques and truly, Shin did not disappoint in that regard.

Hilda instantaneously ceased her attack, dropped the short blade, clasped both her hands together, and brought forth a larger, broader sword; it was not just large, however: the sword was gnarled, twisted with great knots worked into the design, and it had the appearance and texture of bone. To say the least, it was an outlandish weapon, indeed.

Hilda’s surprisingly light, but durable weapon was brought to her side, angled in such a way that it looked as though she was going to slash upwards at any moment, but she didn’t; at least, not yet: she begin to preemptively brace herself, considering and distributing her weight, but also taking measure for the weight of Shin’s own attack; she did not stop there, either, however; instead, she looked upwards and met Shin’s smile with both a show of teeth and unwavering eyes.

At this point, it would be obvious that Hilda had no intention of teleporting away, taking advantage of Shin’s lack of mobility in the air, or anything like that - no, that would be too easy. She would meet his attack on both an aerial and ground level.

Two can play that game, she thought silently to herself as she felt upwards, coaxing The Armory, the pocket dimension that armed her so, to open, and then allowed a slew of weapons to materialize above Shin, their path true and straight; it was a rain of blades, of swords and knives.

Although it made them no less deadly, especially given their position above Shin, the newly materialized blades were not unlike the ones Hilda had covered the field with before. They were breakable, normal and unmarked. The true threat, Shin would find, was the sword Hilda had brought out in response to his attack. This one was different, special somehow - and it showed.

[Shin]

Gravity did the work for Shin, pulling him down towards Hilda though he would by no means reach terminal velocity. But if Hilda thought Shins intent was to dive bomb the women directly than she was sorely was mistaken, Shin had not such intentions and as the distance between the two closed he reached for the katana on his back, it would be obvious to Hilda now that he was refraining from using the Shiden Blade and while it was not as easily identifiable as the dragon motif sword on his shoulder it was his favored weapon and worn the traditional way, the weapon he had made a name for himself using.

He did not want to kill the women, Shin silently pushed that thought out of his mind. He wanted to cause her as much pain as he could and that thought only made Shins smile all the wider. As Shin reached the half-way point between where he had been and where Hilda was he attacked with another Kenkaze.

The attack was identical to the one he struck with before but with two major difference, the angle of attack and the speed at which Shin attacked, which was slightly slower. If Hilda didn’t move she would find that the attack rather than create large gashes was designed to create dozens of tiny smaller ones, similar to paper cuts and second the pressure of the attack would push down on her making it as if her body and weapons weighed more than they did for a few brief moments, enough time for the gap between the two warriors to close within melee range.

As far as Hilda could tell Shin was oblivious to the weapons that materialized above him and in truth since the technique that formed them wasn’t Ki based he had no way of knowing beyond the mundane. Still, unless something propelled them at a greater speed Shin and Hilda would likely be clashing blades a moment or two before they would rain down upon him.