A Worthy Rematch [Sly vs. Liana]

So, we were doing this again? Were the first thoughts that came to mind, as Liana soared over to a nearby island. She could already hear the beginning of the song starting to play. The same song she had heard just moments before her capture. And the dance... OH it had been so well rehersed, and yet she had forgotten the steps. And now he desired an encour? Oh, how daring of he. To fight a god! Wll, of course I won't use my full strength. I could kill this whole world in a snap If I wanted... But, no. I would dance the dance of death with Sly, if but one more time. Just for the thrill.

With a quick swoop, I flew down to land on the beach. My toes touched the warm sand as I looked around, a relaxed expression on my face. Just so I would avoid any conflict with... outside sources, I decided. The abilities I decided to keep were my tentacles, my demonic, clawed form, my ability to summon weapons, and my fire magic. Let the best , or, creature, win this battle, I thought with a chuckle.

The beach was spread in either direction as far as the eye could see, curving slightly. The sandy part of the beach stretched out in every direction for about fifteen meters, before it was met with the starting underbush of a forest, which quickly rose into a high jungle. Liana was right by the ocean, her wings spread out, currently in her demon form. It was a high tide now, and the water was splashing around her legs, the water up to her knees. Her back was currently turned to the jungle.

(Short post is short)

It could not be helped. Seeing how the convicted had escaped her prison, it was probably expected that she would want her revenge against those who put her behind bars in the first place. Even if she was a goddess. The Coliseum had opened and Liana was the first to issue a rematch against him. At least the $50,000 was not on the line and she did not seem like she want anything else if he were to lose.

Sly had taken the first round when he defeated Liana before. He feared that she may had gone stronger and had learned how to counter all his tricks. At least most of them. Even worse, she decided to choose some deserted island for the fight, which made him felt like some sort of survivor from a shipwreck, with not another island in the horizon. COMMs were outside of signal range here, meaning he could not call for help from anyone in Dragonstorm. Even if he could, he had no idea where he was. It could take them days to finally find him.

He was early in this island, hiding deep within the jungle and manifesting a few doves to watch along the coast for any signs of movement. One dove returned to him. She was here. Klu left his small campfire and trudged across the dense brush, feeling his heart hammering against his ribs. There, he saw her, not 20metres away between the leaves in the dense shrubbery. And so it begins.

She picked quite a poor spot to wander and wait, standing in the way of the dying waves and her back turned against the most obvious place Sly would be hiding. Then again, Sly could not approach her unseen. He estimated there was 15metres of clear space between the very outskirts of this forest to where she was standing, with nothing left and right along the vast stretch of gold sand. All he could hear was the roaring waves, and the thunderous wind blasting against his cheeks. The smell of salt filled his nostrils, as he eyed the goddess carefully, seeing how her hair fluttered against the merciless breeze.

After calling back his doves and returning them to his pocketwatch, it was time to begin his strategy. His pocketwatch pieces were gold-like themselves, so it would be very difficult for Liana to see them or where they were going. But that plan would only come much later. Looking up, Sly found 3 palm trees that were the nearest to the edge of the forest. He formed 3 small marbles and tossed each one of them on top of every tree. There, with a bit of concentration, the marbles began to open, expand and manifest into a very small stand, suited to hold onto the tree from the wind, as they each mount a giant crossbow, all pointing towards Liana. To finish this, Sly tossed a dark potion and broke it against the middle sentry, turning it completely black and giving it immense penetrative qualities in exchange for its maximum ammo capacity.

Now that that was done, Sly took another deep breath. He doubted the same trick he used against Liana in their first encounter would work. Her back was still turned against him, but Sly would not take that chance. He checked and cocked his sniper-pistol in his right hand, the left, another rapier. Or actually a sidesword this time. He cracked a Water potion against it, and the blade widened, turning completely blue and silver. The blade seemed to have waves inside the blade, similar to the blue seas, and they emitted a few gentle streams of blue magic that orbited the blade.

His preparations were done.

Sly aimed his pistol at Liana and, giving time to focus, held his breath and steadied his gun. When he was confident in his aim, he pulled the trigger. Like the snap of a gun in the Olympic games, the first shot was fired.

And so the battle commenced...

--

Health: 100%[Time Magic: 100%]
True pieces Available: 5%
False pieces Available: +0%

Active structures:

1x Dark Sentry (Ammo; 1/1)
2x Sentry (Ammo; 6/6)
1x Sidesword (Water element)

All was mostly quiet. I walked around the beach as a slow speed, the waves splashing against my feet. All I could hear was the sound of the ocean, but I knew that he would be coming for me. But nonetheless, my guise was semi relaxed. Though a part of me was still tense and ready to fight, should the moment finally arrive. But this was nice. I hardly had moments like this anymore, to be alone, by myself. The tranquility knew no bounds, but still, something wasn't right.

The sun was high above the trees, causing their shadows to move across the sandy terrain. This would be a helpful key to Liana's sneakup on Sly. If she saw any movements in these shadows, she would be able to act accordingly. Of course, the shadows were slightly hard to see in the water, causing her to frown. Maybe it would be a good idea to move....

I moved onto shore, the water lapping at my feet. The sand squishy between my toes, as I heaved a sigh of enjoyment. Not everyone had this chance. To be on an island, I mean. It really was beautiful here, even if the tan beaches were about to be stained in our crimson blood. But nonetheless. It was a glorious day. That was, until I noticed something in the shadows...

It wasn't immediate. At first I wasn't sure if I really saw something, then I blinked quickly. I had no idea where Sly would attack from, I said with a grit of my fangs, and had no idea when. So, with a quick flick of my wings, I flew backwards, hovering over the water. A bullet whizzed past my location, plummeting into the water with a loud noise. I growled, a smile on my face, though mostly masked with concentration. It appeared Sly had began the battle.

I would summon a sword, quickly, since I didn't actually know where Sly would attack from, or when his next attack would be. Then, with the sword in hand, I launched a fireball at waving trees directly in front of me. The fire was powered so that it would spread and explode once it touched the trees. Though if it didn't hit him directly, the explosion would still be weak. Hopefully the burning trees could flush him out.

After this, I prepared my demonic form. There was a whirl of dark energy, black and purple swirls surrounded my body. But I still needed to be careful. If he attacked me during the transformation process, it could be deadly. So I flew up quickly, perhaps dodging any follow up blasts he would make, and hovered roughly 10-20 meters above the ground, finishing the transformation.

Once I had transformed, I used my first hand to wield the sword, and my second hand to light aflame. Fire would trickle down my body, stopping at my elbow. My claws were sharp and ready to fight. Let's see how he fares with that fire.

--
Health: 100%
Magic: 95%

He was sure he had aimed correctly for her torso. The distance, the wind strength, the speed everything. It seemed he had forgotten to account for how she was moving. The bullet zipped past her, just as she decided to make a turn and walk. She did not cringe or anything, indicating that the shot had missed. Worse, he attracted her attention, the bullet landing in the water with a huge splash like someone threw a rock in it. He did not expect it would be this easy anyways.

Sly pocketed his gun and outstretched the same hand, forming another rapier with the last of his true pieces. He could only combine this with Anti-Life fire, but it would be rash to use his primary offense this early, like moving the queen chess piece out in the opening of a chess game. The rapier would be his secondary weapon. Range was no problem, as long as he could keep his sentries in play. This was probably the position he wanted to be in.

Liana manifested her own sword in her hands, as if to show she could just as well create weapons from her own magic. With one huge swing, she launched a ball of fire and shot it towards his direction. It certainly was not going towards where Sly was hiding, but he did not like the colour and how volatile the ball of fire seemed.

Sly charged his sidesword in the same instance and rushed forward. Just as he exposed himself, he took a huge swing at the fireball and extinguished it, the sidesword uttering a loud chime as it had connected with the attack and absorbed the impact for false pieces. It was quite a big attack as well, the sidesword still glowing in the aftermath. Sly presumed if he had just let it pass through, it could incinerate a huge area.

The sentries were protected. But he showed himself before Liana, perhaps far too early. It did not matter as much, she was still quite some distance away, at most 15metres. Sly took the false pieces from his sidesword and added them to his rapier. In the same time, he pulled the rapier back, as if preparing to pierce forward. In front of it, formed a glowing spell circle, and a white potion bobbed out. Quick as a punch, Sly stabbed through the potion, the entire flask splitting and shattering everywhere harmlessly, the contents turning the blade completely white and the false pieces shifting and condensing into the flintlock mechanism he needed.

In the same instance he lunged at the potion, he activated all the sentries with his mind. Twelve standard gold marbles were fired in total from the 2 normal sentries, followed by a highly charged black marble, all of which would open into thin daggers halfway in flight. The black marble was different, in that it was much faster and possessed dangerously high penetration values. It would connect Liana first, aiming towards her chest, followed by a volley of 12 daggers in an area around her.

As they were in flight, after completing the rapier into a gun-rapier, Sly quickly pulled the trigger and the ‘flint’ began to spin, firing 6 white marbles in rapid succession. These white daggers were no different to the ordinary gold, saved for its rate of fire, and Sly hoped that this 3rd volley would disorient Liana enough so she would be struck by a few.

--

Health: 100%[Time Magic: 100%]
True Pieces available: 0%
False Pieces available: 0%

Structures active:
2x Sentries (Ammo 0/6)
1x Dark sentry (Ammo 0/1)
Sidesword (Water element)
Gun-rapier (Light element; Ammo 0/6)

As the battle seemed to have seriously started, Liana floated in mid air, watching, and waiting, to see if her volatile blast would hit. Her wings beat with impatience as the fire flung towards the battle field. But then something rather surprising happened. Rather than the trees exploding into flames, the mysterious man, Sly, who she knew little about, appeared from the shadows of the trees, near where she had fired her blasts. He appeared to slash his blade at the fire ball, and... absorbed it? Liana didn't have to time question this, as suddenly, a variety of marbles launched at her at high speeds.

She barely had time to react. Emphesis on barely. With a quick swing of her arms, six large tentacles appeared from her backside, shielding her from the blast. She could feel the black marble make contact with her tentacles, before she was suddenly buffered by the following twelve other daggers. This would be tough. As she got ready to make her attack, another array of daggers launched at her, this time five.

This time, she decided to dodge to the side, grabbing and/or breaking the various daggers that flew at her with a quick stab from the various tentacles. Sly had now flown up to meet her. Now it was her time to show him how to throw various weapons.

Throwing her sword up in the air, she flicked her wrist, causing ten other sharp, steel blades, all about two-one foot long, to appear beside her, starting above her head, and going down beside her to her feet. Liana then caused five of these eleven sword-daggers to catch on fire, the fire glittering on their steel surface.

Because the blasts had caused her to have to become slower from before, it would have given Sly the chance to get much closer to her. However, when Liana had dodged, she had dove about ten five meters below her original location, so they were still about the same distance.

With a flick of her hand, the blades shot off from her in a curving pattern, so they could attack Sly from all sides. Then both her hands caught alight with flames. She shot two subsequent fireballs at Sly, though she was a bit tired. The blades were slightly rushed because of how fast she had to react in order to get away from Sly due to the blocking onslaught. But lethal nonetheless.

She shot the fire balls in two different directions, both looking as if they were heading towards the trees, perhaps to block an exit. However, as the blades drew near to Sly, she would quickly boomerang them back, both of them aiming for Sly at high speeds.
-
Health: 100%
Magic: 80%

Weapons summoned:

6x Steel blades
5x Flame-Enchanted steel blades
----

After firing the last dagger from his gun-rapier, Sly marched forward, walking gracefully towards the adversary. Liana. He had beaten her before, but that was when she was not a goddess. It would be rather difficult to beat her now, considering how much she had improved since the last encounter. She could react quickly with her tentacles. Thise tendrils were very annoying, able to combine both attack and defence in one motion. The flames were no different to before. At least she did not have her accomplice with her.

Using those same tentacles that burst from her, she curled them forward and protected much of her body from the volleys of daggers. The black one rebounded off them, much to Sly's surprise. Those tentacles had to be a lot tougher than he thought if they could withstand something as dangerous as a shot from the dark sentry. Nonetheless, all the daggers had connected despite being blocked, with one dagger being grabbed by the hilt in mid air by the tentacles. If she decided to throw that one, it would hit Sly but disintegrate against his skin without any harm. All the daggers, saved for that one, glowed as they broke apart and returned, carrying with them false pieces for ammo.

Sly prepared his sidesword when Liana summoned 10 blades, half of which were coated in flames. She hurled them towards Sly, but all of which followed a curved or straight pattern and attacked him on every angle. Sly then watched carefully at the 2 fire orbs she threw, both of which veeres past him and suddenly, with immense speeds, turned and aiming at his back.

Sly had to be honest he never saw her use this attack before. But it did not mean he came without knowing how to block something like this. Raising his sidesword, the weapon began to hum and glow blue, illiminating the entire beach in a blue hue as if they were all under a blue moon. Sly then brought it down and performed a 360 swing around him. The blade left a blue trail of water that suddenly burst outwards and merged at the top above Sly, forming a protective dome of water. As the blades and fireballs connected, they would either be absorbed or rebounded off, generating ripples across this dome of water and awarding Sly with more false pieces. This dome faded quickly in a few seconds and Sly charged at Liana, his two blades out and ready as he began to close the distance between them.

--

Health: 100% [Time Magic:100%]
True Pieces Available: 0%
False Pieces Available: +50% (-60% for dome cost; +10% each blade hitting the dome; +5% each fireball against the dome)

Active Structures:

2×Sentry (Ammo 9/9)
1×Dark Sentry (Ammo 1/1)
1×Gun-rapier (Light element; Ammo 8/
1× Sidesword (Water element)

(I will post here soons....)

Something peculiar happened, during their fight. Sly, using his blades, would absorb the energy from her summoned blades. Huh. So he could do that now, could he? No matter, Liana had no use for those. After all, she could simply pull them back. But then, Sly charged at her. Well, wasn't this a beautiful surprise, thought the goddess.

As he would charge at her, Liana would watch him. His spacing quick, Liana would suddenly charge forward, blade summoned into hand. Because of the way he had sped at her, he would run straight in to meet her blade, having darted forward as well, and at the last minute, closing the gap between the two of them with a quick swing.

In case he dodged, her tentacles would be prepared, ready to come up at the slightest notion.