Round Four: Falkan VS Kihaku

[Jimmy Claymore]

Match: Falkan VS Kihaku
Final Score: ? - ?
Location: Guardinia
Starting Date: Saturday, 21st October
Ending Date: Thursday, 2nd November
Judge: Jimmy

Reminder - Be sure to be well informed of the Rules and Format of each match. Be sure to include your surrounding area; remember, YOU ARE NOT FIGHTING ON THE TOURNAMENT GROUNDS! The first person to post can set any additional conditions, such as the weather or the exact location of where the two are fighting, to further the environment. Also, be creative with what you do, and be sure to have fun!

[kihaku]

(I have stolen this match's virginity. Best of luck to my opponent, whom I believe I've wanted to take on for a very long time. )

The air was chill against Kihaku's heated skin. There were advantages and disadvantages to preparing onesself physically for a match, and warming your body to prepare was certainly one of the downsides, especially coming to Guardinia. It was a diverse island nation to be sure, tropical forests at one end and a frozen, desolate tundra wasteland on the other. Right now, they seemed to have sent the Chaos Spirit to neither extreme, but picked a middle ground so to speak. There was a gentle slope to the ground, forming a bowl of sorts, large enough to house half of the arena's audience. The grasses were brown from the oncoming chill of winter, and a few pockets of ice had collected from past insignificant flurries.

At the base of the half valley was the start of a dense forrested area, the trees were already starting to become bereft of their foliage, leaves littering the ground to create a crunchy underfoot should anyone deem it necessary to step amongst the quiet sentinels. It ocurred to Kihaku that this might be a perfect spot for hunting game in the spring and summer months, and if that was the case then there might be the possible danger of a hapless civilian wandering into the battle zone. He prayed that wouldn't happen, but one could never be certain.

Giving a deep, breathy sigh, the escaping air retreated from his face in a misty cloud. The receeding light was nearly touching the upper lip of the valley bowl with not a cloud in the sky, an unmistakeable harbinger of a starlit night. Wrapping his arms around his chest, it wasn't that he was cold, but rather he was getting impatient. He'd already been here five, maybe ten minutes and his opponent had yet to arrive. The chill air was bothersome, but it didn't irk him the way the thought of another default win managed to. He was resentful of Ryan for not having shown up, the fight having so much promise and potential for something... epic.

No matter, it was in the past and he'd jumped ahead five points. Kudos. Taking quick stock of what he had, Oblivion was retracted into a simple black staff strapped to his back, the Nirvana sitting still and silent in it's supple, lustrous sheath. In his belt pouch on his waist, the twin glass talismans of Yin and Yang were comfortably situated within reach. He supposed now that the rest of the match was resting on the broad shoulders of the Va'lacan warrior, whom he'd had the fortune to meet on several occaisions. Of course, on much less jovial of circumstances.

[Garoten Reklor]

(Oh yes...I've been waiting for this one! Good luck to you, Kihaku!)

The tournament officials wasted no time in ending the match between Falkan and Hakuto and whisking him off to the next round. In fact, it happened so fast that the V'alcan Warrior didn't even know the outcome of his fight with Hakuto. He arrived on Gaurdinia already in a defensive stance, prepared for anything. His initial notice of the battlefield was favorable. The air had the chill to it that the mountainous V'alcans preferred, and the patches of ice on the ground made promising realm-bending material. As the sun slipped further behind the edge of the horizon, Falkan scanned the area for his enemy. Finally he spotted him...

Kihaku...

He remembered the name well. One of his allies in the battle against the Saiyan invasion, Kihaku was one of a growing list of Dragonian fighters that had earned the respect of Falkan Reval...no small feat. There he stood, a mirror image of Falkan in his black cloak, with the same expressionless face as Reval.

Back in the stadium, many in the stands sat up and took notice of screen number 5, on which the two claoked men faced off. Kihaku was already a known and respected fighter to tournament goers, if only by virtue of sheer scariness. Meanwhile, Falkan had made a name for himself in his first round fight with the silent and deadly Nishaio - some of the more sensational stories about that match had him coming back from the dead! At any rate, a match that would have been ignored a few hours before was now commanding the attention of thousands of fans. This would be a fight to remember, and everybody knew it.

[kihaku]

The wind changed direction as the stoic Spirit waited for the arrival of Reval. His own power level diminished to nothing at all, to all but sight and smell, he seemed to not even exist. His black clothing wouldn't be of any use now, unless the world decided to suddenly spin faster to make the sun set. The grasses were brown from cold and lack of useable moisture, and the pockets of ice might prove detrimental. Though he'd never sat down and watched the V'alcan fight, he'd heard that his swords had special abilities that neither the Nirvana nor the Oblivion possessed. No matter, the time to compare weaponry would be during the battle, not before it.

Turning in the big warrior's direction, he gave a curt nod out of respect. "Long time no see, Reval." His arms were crossed over his torso, his red gaze falling upon his commrade to gently assess him physically, though it was a futile effort. He knew better than most that physical stature meant nothing in terms of battle, for hidden strengths in both ki powers and other such techniques could end a battle as easily as start them. No matter, they'd both of them gain a fairly good scope of prowess during their match.

"I'm gladened to see you alive and well, now that the invasion has ended, I'd been searching for a way to keep myself sharpened. I guess going toe to toe with the great Falkan Reval, V'alcan warrior would be a marvelous way to do so." Kihaku turned and dropped his arms, stepping forward lightly, leaving hardly a footprint behind him. His breath misted before his vision, a fluffy white cloud in the chill air. He continued forward until he was three feet from the warrior, not a single threatening gesture made. Reaching out, he held out his right hand for a sportsman-like handshake.

"We are both of high skill levels, a clash of titans it may seem to the viewers back in Esperanza. Just know, I do not wish to give them a show. If they find our fight lackluster, I do not care." His breath ceased to mist, even though his words rang clearly in the grand valley. "I fight for myself. I can only ask that you do the same." His blood red eyes seemed to be looking everywhere at once, but one could tell that his faze was trained squarely on the warrior and once commrade before him.

[Garoten Reklor]

Falkan listened to Kihaku's greeting and gave a slight nod in return. His own power level was as low as ever, as he allowed an ally from not so long ago to approach him.

"I'm gladdened to see you alive and well, now that the invasion has ended, I'd been searching for a way to keep myself sharpened. I guess going toe to toe with the great Falkan Reval, V'alcan warrior would be a marvelous way to do so."

Falkan quietly returned the handshake, along with a slight bow - an old gesture from his homeland - and met Kihaku’s gaze with his own, unflinching stare. In some ways, he and Kihaku couldn’t be more different…or more alike.

"We are both of high skill levels, a clash of titans it may seem to the viewers back in Esperanza. Just know, I do not wish to give them a show. If they find our fight lackluster, I do not care. I fight for myself. I can only ask that you do the same."

The V’alcan Warrior very nearly smiled.

“I couldn’t agree more. May the best man win.”

In the stands, this battle was already gaining the attention of more and more fans. Two combatants exchanging greetings and backing away to start a match honorably was a rare sight indeed – and a refreshing one. As the massive screen, just right of the central screen in the arena quickly flashed the known information about the two warriors, along with their current scores in the tournament standings, Alyanna, now accompanied by a growing group of Reval fans, cheered the nobility of her favored fighter. Somewhere in the cheap seats, someone began chanting:

“Re-val! Re-val! RE-VAL! RE-VAL! RE-VAL!!!!”

The chant swelled to a roar, even sweeping up fans whose attentions were on other battles. A counter-cheer sprang from another section of the stadium:

“Ki-ha-ku! Ki-ha-ku! KI-HA-KU! KI-HA-KU! KI-HA-KU!!!!”

As the screen flashed back to a scene of the two slowly backing away from one another, eyes still locked in a silent battle of wills, the chants erupted into cheers and whistles. Round four was on, and this match was going down in history.

Oblivious to the cheers in the stadium far away, Falkan continued to stare down his opponent, determining who would make the first move. He had been slowly backing up for about twenty paces…finally he felt there was room to move. ‘Revallian’ style, as his comrades in the Realm called it, was a relentless, explosive form of fighting, and he preferred to open with overwhelming force. He knew Kihaku wouldn’t go down easy, which made it all the more challenging. The key difference between this match and the last was he didn’t hate his opponent beyond all reason this time.

In a flash, Reval made four moves. First, he unfastened the heavy cloak from his shoulders. Before the weighted garment even began to fall, he had let fly three of his numerous daggers, with nearly a dozen more to follow, aimed at various critical points on his opponent’s body. He finished his opening volley with one large ki blast, then quickly used his realm-bending to raise a wall of earth behind Kihaku, hoping to cut off any escape from the attack.

Yes, Round four was on.

[kihaku]

Kihaku was silently awaiting Falkan's move, as he had done for the various other fighters in his three previous matches. Musashi had opened up with a series of Ki attacks, Kiruna with a vicious telekinetic barrage, and now Falkan with whatever he might decide to throw out at him. There were very few times when Kihaku was unable to avoid an attack, the most recent one being forced to take an uppercut from Musashi, but this was Falkan Reval, much stronger, and from all stories told, far smarter in battle.

A bird twittered overhead as it sensed something amiss, immediately flying off as it sensed impending danger, as did several other flocks within a mile of the pair. One heartbeat... the cloak was removed and dropped, several daggers were loosed in Kihaku's direction; two heartbeats... an earthen wall reared up from behind the spirit, cutting off any land-bourne exit; three heartbeats... a ki blast followed the daggers, which themselves were barely beginning to whistle as they sliced through the air. The bright white flash was the only signal Kihaku needed to know that Reval was serious about this match, and it very nearly made the pitch-black swarthed man smirk.

His arms hung loosely at his side, but as soon as the daggers were loosed, his hand was back in his belt pouch, pulling out a small elliptical glass talisman, inky black and carved into it's surface, the symbol for darkness. The familiar indentation on the outside of the little trinket made his soul feel at peace, and his sense of battle lust ignite. Kihaku jumped upwards to avoid the dagger-ki combo attack, and continued in a wide ark over Falkan's head.

Reaching a 25 degree angle from the ground to Reval, he threw the talisman into the air, and whispered the name of his favorite attack. "Hail of Arrows" The black Yang Talisman spun so fast, it appeared to be a perfectly round disk. Like turning on the tap in a shower, hundreds of black slivers shot out of the glass charm, ripping through the air straight for Falkan.

When the hail ceased, Kihaku was already back on the ground behind the V'alcan, the exact same distance he'd been earlier, only now a little higher for being on the hill. The yang talisman flew back to his hand, and drawing up a little more energy, a ring of black negation sprang op around his hand, which was raised striaght up over his head. "Dark Halo" The edges of the perfectly round circle were jagged, and a sound like a sawblade spinning all on it's own emanated from the attack, waiting for Falkan to make his move.

[Garoten Reklor]

((I'm using a little variation on the 'earth upheaval' technique. If it's problematic let me know.))

As Falkan expected, Kihaku wasn't about to be hit by the first strikes of the match...but neither was he. He watched Kihaku leap over him, tracking his arc with an outstreteched right hand. The arrows tore through the air toward him, but Falkan calmly continued to trace Kihaku's trajectory. The arrows finally made contact...but did nothing to the after-image left just in time by Falkan Reval.

The V'alcan reappeared in the air, balancing on the spinning talisman. From his unexpected new position, he fired the ice cannon he had been charging, hoping to freeze Kihaku in place for just a moment. Quickly he charged two ki balls and let them follow up the ice blast. Even as he fired, his opponent was preparing a second attack. Falkan dropped lightly to the ground as the talisman returned to its owner and started spinning. Falkan smirked and drew Rhiannon, then quickly cut two identical circles, each about two feet across, out of the ground below him. He sheathed the sword, then made upward motions with his open palms. The two discs shot upward, then in response to Falkan's concentration, began spinning in opposite directions.

The earth spread out and hardened into three foot across, razor sharp discs, ready to match the Talisman's attacks. Falkan looked up at his enemy, his eyes now a cold blue, and nodded.

The first disc, from his right hand, shot forward, aimed for Kihaku's neck. The second, flying along so close to the first as to be hidden completely from view, dropped at the ast instant in a move for the warrior's knees. Hit or miss, unless somehow destroyed the discs would return to Falkan for aother go, provided he could keep concentrating on the technique. Which might not be easy, considerng Falkan was leaping forward in the shadow of the second disc, aiming to kick for Kihaku's stomach when the two weapons split.

[kihaku]

((I would've liked permission before you used one of my Class II equipments as a stepping stone, but I won't make a fuss. Just don't do it again. ^_^))

Kihaku wasn't prepared at all for the ice attack, only able to dodge to the side of the charged ice cannon by the narrowest of narrow margins, sliding just to the right to avoid the ice then the ki blasts. The Halo spun above his head, and the oncoming disks were an unexpected addition to the strong attacks. Kihaku brough down the disk to meet the rock blade, the sound of rock against metal grinding together grating on his nerves and reverberating about the immediate area.

However, there was a problem: only one disk made contact, whilst the second disk was nowhere in sight. There could be only one solution, and that was that it was hidden from view. Kihaku jumped at the very last second, the second disk whizzing just under the toes of his boots, as Kihaku floated slightly in a tight crouch. As the disk went by, so did a random leg, aimed for where the Spirit's midriff had been. Kihaku gave a grunt and a mighty shove, the Dark Halo shattering the already runied rock and brought it in a swift and dangerous arc downwards, at the V'alcan's back, the angry buzz like a saw blade persisting even now.

Hit or miss, Kihaku released the Halo to simply continue straight in it's path, Kihaku's aura suddenly smoking from his body, a deep, violent purple misting off of his person. Quite suddenly, several shadows shot out from underneath him, as if his silhouette had suddenly been ripped apart. However, they all made sharp turns and nearly two seconds after the release of the Halo, six Shadow Forms aimed kicks and punches for various vital areas of both physical and chi related points. A kick from above to the neck, two punches to either kidney, another to the base of the spine, a kick from in front to the solar plexus, and the sixth remained behind, both arms now razor sharp, night-black blades.

The final one dashed towards Falkan as the chest shot receeded, entering a crazy spin like a top, slashing blades aimed for any part of the body they might meet. Meanwhile, Kihaku lowered his energy signature to absolutely nothing, floating in mid air and out of sight, sound, and sensing. It was slightly dishonorable to have others fight for you, but then again this was a test of overall skill as a fighter, not hand to hand combat.

[Garoten Reklor]

Falkan's attack, surprisingly enough, went as planned for only a few moments. Then Kihaku somehow managed to figure out the ruse and barely avoid the second disc, as well as Falkan himself. When he sensed this, Reval adjusted, literally on the fly. His unique fighting style would come into play again, and as usual, it wasn't going to be pretty.

When his kick missed, Falkan dove into a tight leftward roll, missing the jagged edges of Kihaku's weapon by the smallest of margins. In the interest of maintaining his concentration, he fired the Talon, allowing the powerful little grapple to pull him forward in a flash, clearing any more incoming attacks, while he guided the still flying second disc around for another pass. Meanwhile, Kihaku was creating shadow forms of himself.

As the Talon fully retracted, the V'alcan Warrior instinctively kicked off the tree he had pulled himself to, his body functioning solely on reflex. Kihaku disappeared completely, leaving six copies of himself, all moving in to attack Falkan. As the various kicks and punches closed in, Rhiannon hummed to life, fulfilling its duty to protect the wielder. Instantly an energy shield surrounded Falkan, with only moments to spare before the Shadow Forms' attacks made contact. As soon as the last impact glanced harmlessly off the shield, it disappeared.

While the Shadows were attacking the shield, Reval had poured his concentration into the disc, which would now be all but on top of the nearest Shadow form. He aimed it's path to cut through all six, then let the stone crumble and dissipate to the earth from whence it came.

Gone, is he? Fine then. He'll have to come back when he's out of puppets...

With the real Kihaku vanished, Reval turned his attention to annihilating however many of the shadows survived his disc attack. Leaving a Zanzouken after-image to take any incoming attacks, Falkan teleported a good thirty feet away and took a moment to transform to his rage state. With the increased power, he could manage faster, stronger realm-bending techniques without exhausting himself. But first came a flurry of seeking beams, each targeted at a specific shadow Form. Depending on the numbers, each copy of Kihaku would have no less than three seeking beams to deal with.

Now Falkan bent his energies to realm-bending again. His energy flared as he brought his right hand, palm open, in a wide circle. Immediately, the air around the Shadow Forms supercooled, creating an icy sphere. The plan was to trap the shadows inside. Once the globe was in place, he closed his palm into a fist. In response, the sphere imploded into itself, doing massive damage to anyone or anything trapped inside. As shards of ice and dust scattered across the battlefield, Falkan boosted his power even more and carved a ring in the ground around himself, ready to raise a defensive barrier on all sides if need be.

[kihaku]

This was getting very very interesting, and Kihaku was finally enjoying every minute of his fight. The first match had been far too flashy, the second against too arrogant an opponent, and the third not at all. Kihaku was matching wits and prowess against a warror supremely physically endowed, and with powers to match his imposing physique. His reflexes were second to none, his instincts had thus far led him true. The remaining disk hadn't been his biggest worry, but it was certainly high on his priority list, the main one being spotted and surprised. Kihaku worked most of his magic on surprises, and if he didn't turn from prey to predator in a moment's notice, then most of his arsenal was useless.

The twin weapons shivered against his body, almost whining in their want to be used. Kihaku could feel the Nirvana's sweet song of righteous battle lust in his head, and the deep, malignant growls and hums of the Oblivion shook his chest. Mind torn between which kind of attack to use, surprise or gung-ho, he opted for a middle ground: both.

The spirit paused to sense and observe what would become of his Shadow Forms. Kihaku himself could only do so much for the clones before his control over them was moot; eventually, they would attempt to preserve themselves in order to acheive their goal set for them by Kihaku from their genesis. Right now, they were doing magnificently.

The disk had managed to nearly completely behead one, the poor creature falling from the sky to thud sickeningly against the ground, a second nearly sliced in half, but still mostly whole. The remaining four remained unharmed, the kickback from hitting shield and not V'alcan enough to remove them from the anger of the disk's path. They turned just in time to watch the many seeker shots fired at them.

Kihaku was nearly overcome with the urge to shout at them to move, but it was not his call to make, they were out of his command now. At the very last moment, they fell. Like five rocks to the ground, they fell, though unlike their beheaded commrade, they did not splat, landing instead on all fours, and shooting off in Falkan's direction. The many seeker shots did a 180 degree turn, following right behind them, but instead of hitting black chaos energy, they instead impacted the sudden wall of ice that'd sprung up and encased the five clones, helping the shattering process along.

Kihaku winced as his Shadow Forms were shredded, almost able to picture what the mangled bits of clone looked like just before they dissapated into the air, black dust that simply disappeared after a moment free. Kihaku felt the lost energy replenish within himself, and finally decided to let things get fun. There was a flash of black mist and the sound of an impact, Kihaku teleporting himself right into the middle of the battle ground, facing down Reval with a small smirk on his pale face, crimson eyes glaring at the rage filled V'alacan, drawn hood gathering the gloom about his face in an almost literal sense.

His arms were crossed over his chest, and his legs were shoulder width apart, neither the Oblivion or Nirvana to hand, the Yin and Yang Talismans nowhere in sight. The grin on the Spirit's face was very obvious a mocking one, though there was a glint of respect within his blood red eyes. "Well played Reval. Let's get serious now." Raising his right hand and dropping his left, his palm upturned to the sky, his fingers twitching back in an unmistakable motion of challenge. "My turn again."

There was a flash of white, and a pure white glass trinket flew to his palm which suddenly clenched around it, black glove grasping the pure white of the Yin Talisman. His right arm wrapped itself around his chest, while his left grasped it's twin, the black Yang Talisman held easily in his left, which was curled around the small of his back. In opposite motions, he swung his right and left around to the opposite sides of his body, a slash of black and white encircling one another to form a perfect circle, which simply hovered around Kihaku's midsection, spinning silently.

Out of the air came an unexpected thud, directly behind Falkan. The beheaded Shadow Form was now standing perfectly erect behind the V'alcan warrior, head fully attatched to it's shoulders. At that same moment, the Talismans were pocketed, and twin orbs of black energy formed in either of Kihaku's palms, who was now rushing forward at the warrior at increadible speeds. There was the unmistakable sound of a vacuum, as the Spectrespheres in either hand were removed from their shields, and thrust forward towards any kind of counter measures or movements Reval had in store. The black negation would certainly eat through any kind of energy or material attack, as they had so many times before.

The motions of his hands had brought his arms crossed before his chest, which he now flattened against him, palms against the black cloth of his shirt. Jumping into the air, he brought his arms downwards to his hips, crouching in the empty space fifteen feet in the air. Another vacuum tugged at his hands, now forming a third sphere between them, this one far bigger than he'd ever attempted. With a grunt of effort, he fired off this one too, screaming air rushing in to be swallowed by the greedy ball of black desires.

Panting, he knew that things weren't yet over, and with a sharp tug, managed to pull Oblivion free from it's moorings on his back, the straight six foot, polished black shaft humming malignantly in his hands, which were quite suddenly on Falkan's left, shadow transmission bringing him within striking distance, which he did, a strong, stiff blow to the warrior's midsection. The distance between them prevented any immediate physical lashing out, but he was certain Reval would find someway to counter all he'd done.

He had managed it so far, and Kihaku always came back for more. He had to admit, he rather liked it that way.

[Garoten Reklor]

Falkan was glad, but not particularly shocked, when he handily dispatched the six shadow clones. He'd encountered a few similar attacks in his first hours on Dragonia, and had found such copies to usually be fairly weak. The cheers in the stadium went completely unheard and uncared for by the V'alcan Warrior. He was enjoying the challenge.

As expected, Kihaku reappeared when his copies were dealt with, staring Reval down, and then moving for another attack. The surprise came when one of the copies appeared behind Falkan, alive and presumably with the intention of limiting his means of escape from the incoming attack. Fortunately, the near-precognitave reflexes of the V'alcan people kept him one step ahead. The shadow would find itself immediately threatened by a dagger, insticntively drawn and thrust backward in Reval's left hand. Meanwhile, three deadly looking balls of energy were screaming toward Falkan, and something about them confused him. Normally, Rhiannon practically unsheathed itself to deal with incoming energy attacks, but this time the energy hungry sword seemed - disinterested. There was no way, in Falkan's mind, that could be a good sign.

But curiosity prevailed. In a quick, perhaps masochistic move, Reval stepped left, far enough to avoid the first of the three balls, and stuck his right hand into its path. Sure enough, the attack was more potent than it appeared. By the time the second ball arrived, Falkan had rolled clear of the area and slashed open a dimensional rift with Rhiannon, using his not-mangled left hand. Inside the world between worlds, where time ceased to exist, the V'alcan Warrior casually looked over what was left of his right hand. The skin had been nearly ripped entirely from the bone, which itself was broken...something accomplished only rarely in V'alcan history. A hit from a normal ki attack would heal in moments for Falkan...this one was moving slowly. Before his eyes, the bones began to shift back into place and repair themselves, muscle regenerated and took hold, and skin slowly covered the gaping wound. All this damage, and he had yanked his hand free from the ball after only a fraction of a second's contact.

Well, glad I know to avoid that from now on...

Once the wound was whole again, Falkan drew the Drail sword and powered up again, now to his limit in Rage state. A slash later, he was back in Dragonia's time and space, watching the massive black sphere of Negation come crashing down on his former position. Now he knew the damage such an attack could have done, he had a new respect for Kihaku. Finally he was fighting an enemy with the potential even to kill him. Not since Nishaio had he felt the thrill of real danger.

His eyes beginning to blaze with a bright blue glow, Reval launched himself toward Kihaku, amid a storm of rapid fire ki blasts, and tore into the spirit with both swords. Drail blazed with superheated flames, while Rhiannon charged with various types of energy, each potential hit carrying a different potential charge. Something would have to hurt Kihaku, sooner or later. Drail slashed for Kihaku's face, while Rhiannon stabbed at his chest. Falkan spun, bringing both swords across for his enemy's stomach, then twirled Rhiannon into a downward strike at the head. Drail followed up with a backswing at the neck, and Falkan finished with an old classic - he whipped his head forward in an attempt to slam it into Kihaku's face. Then he dropped backwards and fired an ice cannon, followed by two seeking beams.

He was just hitting his stride, and the Chaos Spirit Kihaku would have to keep up.

[kihaku]

There was the sound of an unearthly roar, and Kihaku instantly recognized the sound of negation hitting flesh. It was gone almost as suddenly as it arrived, and Falkan with it. The three spheres of power continued on, and the Spirit weighed his options. Originally, he'd intended to leave the Yin Yang energies to do a quick defense for him, but instead he decided to trip Falkan up, and add a new dimension to this confrontation. He didn't even blink as the second sphere passed through the Shadow Form without effect, and the swing of the silent Oblivion left him several feet from his original strike zone.

Kihaku let the white and black swirling energies disappate, and he stood there, just he and his clone for several moments, waiting for their opponent to return. One heartbeat... two... three... four... there! Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the super powered warrior spring forth from whatever strange pocket of reality he'd sequestered himself, guns blazing and temper flared. The Shadow Form, without regard for it's own saftey, jumped into the path of Falkan's ki blasts, pummeled far more than any person would be able to take, it's gelatin like body now horribly misshapen and useless. However, it remained just long enough to have it's face and stomach slashed, cleaving it cleanly through and disappating in a whisp of black smoke.

The Chaos Spirit felt his reserves pile up just a little bit less, since this one had lived far longer than it's other five brothers, but every bit counted in this battle. Kihaku swung Oblivion forward and held it horizontally, stopping the crossed slash of both weapons. The heat from the Drail made him shy his face slightly, used to cool temperatures and dark places. He used the motion to bring up the staff, and give it a twil, simultaneously parrying the face stab to the right and the gut thrust to the left.

Kihaku's left hand darted down to his right hip, and with less force than it takes to bat away a fly, the Nirvana was free of it's sheath, the black blade with the deep, menacing purple gleam shone in the failing sunset light. He brought it up, perfectly flat to look past, right into the bright blue eyes of Reval. If his headbutt didn't make a sudden move away, he'd split his face upon the unnaturally sharp blade. Just to make sure that things stayed dangerous, the blade of the Oblivion suddenly shot outwards, springing to it's full four foot length and creating the scythe that often had others mistake him for the Grim Reaper. He swung it inwards, cutting off a backwards escape, leaving only up and left for movement, which became only left when the Nirvana spun in the Spirit's hand and was brought down lethally in an attempt to slice him from trapezious to right ribs. Of course, if that happened, he'd stop before he got into vital tendons, but enough to cause some serious damage.

[Garoten Reklor]

Falkan's initial assault at least succeeded in taking out the last of the clones, which was fine with him. The odds once again even, he could face off with the true opponent again. Kihaku parried and deflected his blows handily, but not without making one of those subtlest of moves which most people, and certainly the fans in the stadium, would never have noticed.

He flinched, just the tiniest bit, at the heat from Pravent's sword. Only the eye of a master warrior, like Falkan, would catch such a thing. Immediately a plan began taking shape in the V'alcan's mind, all contingent upon recreating that one tiny reaction. But first, he had a counter-attack to deal with.

His headbutt was disappointingly halted by the sudden appearance of a blade in his path. This was not one of those hits that Reval would take in order to accomplish a step in his master strategy - this was a deal-breaker. His unique reflexes functioning at peak capacity, Reval aborted the attack and focused on not being damaged himself. As much as he hated being on the defensive, sometimes it became a necessary evil. Kihaku cleverly made a point of cutting off nearly every way of escape for the Warrior of Reval, but only nearly. The left side was wide open...which meant it was not an option. Reval had learned long ago that when your enemy leaves one opening, that opening is the most dangerous place in the world to be, because the opponent would be focused on that one weak spot. So he chose the imposible option...straight down. A quick spin with Rhiannon, and he'd cut a ring just large enough to surround himself. Nirvana was coming in for a formidable slash, but it wouldn't find its target. Just as the sword began its downward motion, Falkan opened his palm snd pushed downward with his realm-bending powers.

In response, the circle of earth around him gave way, and he dropped into the ground just far enough to make his next move. The sudden disappearance of a target, he hoped, would throw Kihaku off balance, a problem he intended to compound by shoving Rhiannon into the ground a few feet below the enemy's position, then pulsing energy through in order to shove the earth beneath Kihaku upward. Whether Kihaku stumbled or not, Falkan launched himself straight up toward his foe, the superheated Drail blade leading the way, as well as the next flurry of attacks.

The spirit warrior had already shown an involuntary aversion to the Drail blade...now all Falkan needed was to exploit it. Making use of his tremendous speed and reflexes, Falkan relentlessly slashed at Kihaku with the flaming sword, all the while charging Rhiannon with his own energy. His eyes stayed firmly focused on Kihaku. The tiniest sign of an involuntary movement in response to the fire, and he would be there, whichever direction Kihaku flinched, to strike with the supercharged Rhiannon.

[Jimmy Claymore]

((Wow, only one I need to do, thanks for the covering Falk but time for Judgement!))

"Yes! I finally saw a match! Good-bye Cyanide pills!" Sounded from somewhere in the crowd when abruptly the match ended. The collective audience turned a highly annoyed eye to the announcer who looked very worried
"Well, you see, the budgets..."
"DAMNIT! Where'd my Cyanide"
"The Winner is...
...
Wait for it...
KIHAKU!"

((I still got the hardest match to judge, Kilix and Zolomon would have been easier! A lot of this match was so evenly balanced it was stupid. I almost gave Falkan the victory on merit of his inventive stepping stone alone but in the end Kihaku gained a tiny point of advantage for blocking two strikes with a slick maneveur. Actually, I might need Kilix for a second opinion I'm not so sure of my decision now)