Scene #6531: MECC: Wandering Dog vs Arthur Lowell

Owner	Pose
Arthur Lowell	Arthur's music plays in the arena: https://iodbc.bandcamp.com/track/new-broom-extended Arthur's entrance and approach are much like entrances of old. Thickly stacked rows of tiny fission magic constructs suddenly activate, carving a brilliant path of upward-facing lights. Like a vast, tall screen, the motes of light display Arthur's symbols, his green ampersat, his face, his spacey spirographic whorl, in their black-and-white patterns. Vivid green lines carve a half-circle pattern like a rising sun from the ground, and more fireworks gush from within as the GATE opens to reveal Arthur Lowell. With wide, swaggering strides, he approaches slowly, his hood trails dramatically, and he trails stars through the air behind him. He leaps into the arena with a stylish twisting flip, prompting tiny magic rockets to go off in spiraling patterns behind him and explode near him the moment he lands. A projection shows his name in lights: "ARTHUR" and "LOWELL", flashing repeatedly in the background. There's plenty of CARAPACIANS and IGUANAS from Afterus in the crowd today, and they're easily whipped into a screaming cheer as he makes a wide, arms-out gesture, raising his palms to encourage more and more screaming. And once the cheering reaches its peak, he points dramatically to Wandering Dog's end of this. "COME ON OOOOUT!" He shouts. "I'm 'boutta turn WANDERING DOG into a WANDER-AWAY BITCH!" He spends a few seconds himself whipping the crowd into more of a furor. "Don't you wanna SEE IT!? Don't you want some BLOOD!? I wanna hear you SCREAM, not WHISPER! I brought you the BIGGEST GODDAMN DOGFIGHT of the CENTURY! I wanna hear you HOOOOOOWL FOR THIS DOOOOOOG!" The crowd is going fucking insane. As the fireworks begin to fizzle out, Arthur's videogame logic begins to get into things. "ONLY THE BEST OF THE BEST IN THIS BOUT!" Declares an SNES-era sixteen-bit voice. Hanging above the field of battle are a pair of marked HEALTH VIALS and ASPECT GAUGES, though Wandering Dog's are probably estimated. "GET READY!" Arthur takes a dramatic pose with his metal battle-broom at the ready in both hands, light on both feet, shifting weight and ready to go. His spellcircles that pop around his body like bubbles are a vivid green. "STRIFE!!"
Wandering Dog	As the competitors enter the stage, people are obviously getting pumped, groupies in the audience for the competitors. One of these champions is Wandering Dog, the martial artist in his silk tunic, giving two thumbs up to the crowd as he moves into position. He turns to Arthur, moving to give him a nod, baffling a bit still at his entrance. But pumping himself up. "You want a fight? I'll give you a hell of a fight! Good luck, you'll /need it/!" Wandering Dog was absolutely not prepared for an introduction this big, but he's trying to hype up the crowd too, and what better way to do that than get the first attack in? Getting into martial arts stance, once the bell rings, Wandering Dog does what he needs to do to be first. He enhances his speed by channeling essence through his body, and then rushes forward, moving to throw a flurry of fists into Arthur's torso, enhanced with strength but otherwise a basic attack. Arthur's some sort of god, so Wandering Dog's starting out with a bang. Mid-attack, he shouts out. "You should be able to take this, right?!"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur moves in just as fast, meeting Dog in the middle. "HELL YEAH!" He shouts, maneuvering his broom and elbows around close to batter away some of the strikes, and taking some of them dead-on as well. His HEALTH VIAL chips away as he does, but he keeps in close. "I got the STRENGTH on me to take WHATEVER YOU GOT, homeboy!" He shouts. His broom begins to rev up more and more as he accumulates strikes, though. "But you best not bring that MILQUETOAST NINJA-SWARM BULLSHIT up in MY HOUSE OF FIGHTS, I want you to bring out some BIG GUNS! Where you gonna go with THROWING SOME HANDS?!" There's an abrupt roar, as his broom sweeps behind him and he catches the next strike on the handle of his broom straight-on, like piercing meat with a toothpick. "Show me that REAL SHIT, before you lose the chance to get it out in front of the CROWD!" He starts matching Dog's approach, swiping with his broom, but each strike is enhanced by rocket-blasting engines that gush out raw starlight and hit with tremendous gravity. Each strike is meant to accumulate gravity on Dog himself, weighing him down harshly as he strikes mercilessly!
Wandering Dog	Arthur's needling Wandering Dog to show cooler. That absolutely hits Wandering Dog's buttons, and so, he decides to ramp it up. After he gets hit, at least, as brooms smack against him, and gravity begins to weigh him down. Wandering Dog increases his strength to fight off the gravity, but the grazing blows of the rocket engine broom and the gravity blast hit against his sides and really hurt, forcing him back. Having to expend extra energy to fight against the gravity, Wandering Dog gets a plan in mind. He rushes up as if he's going to jumping kick Arthur, and then suddenly lifts his other leg up as well, moving both to grab Arthur around the waist with both legs. As he falls, Wandering Dog lands both hands on the ground, and uses his strength and mobility to pull back, moving to flip Arthur off the ground and flip him and slam him straight overhead. If it works, it'll hurt. If it doesn't...well, Wandering Dog's exposed.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur's snagged, yanked out of the middle of his maneuvering and striking, and is immediately tumbled over, slamming hard into the ground. He impacts it brutally, with enough weight that a rather abrupt shockwave of force tears out of the crater. He's knocked free, tumbling back. After that lengthy melee exchange and the heavy finisher, looks like his HEALTH VIAL is empty! But it's refilling once again. "ROUND TWO!" Comes that bitcrushed voice again. Arthur tumbles hard enough to land back on his feet, skidding to a stop. "THAT'S what I'm after. Couple MILLION VIEWS off that. You better know how to KEEP THAT UP, homie, otherwise you're gonna run into some REAL PROBLEMS. Now you've gone and earned..." He raises his broom. "THE RIIIIIIPPEEEEEER!!" The crowd begins to cheer, and begins to chant "RIPPER! RIPPER! RIPPER!" Arthur pulls the ripcord on his broom and the metal bristles start rotating, a dangerous, lethal blender at the end of the stick. "YEAH! YEEEEEAAAAH! HOWL for this SORRY SON OF A BITCH, 'cause he ain't got a GODDAMN CLUE what he just STEPPED IN! MAKE SOME NOOOOISE!" He takes his ready stance again. The bubbling SPELLCIRCLES take a darker green tone. "READY!?" His eyes gleam white. "STRIFE!!" He launches into another barrage. His blender-broom is enough to blend chunks of the arena, and leave behind black fire that marks zones of /dramatically/ increased gravity that Arthur himself seems to ignore! He sweeps the floor between barrages just to make it even worse!
Wandering Dog	As everyone screams 'RIPPER', Wandering Dog realizes a special attack is coming. When the Ripper launches, Wandering Dog just grins. "SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!" It goddamn hurts, as gravity blasts into Wandering Dog, sending him flying backwards. He channels essence through his body for durability, soaking the hit as much as he can, but even then, something cracks, and a small bit of blood comes out of the martial artist's mouth. He wipes it off, stands up straight, and then breathes. His breathing changes entirely. Wandering Dog lunges at Arthur and moves to punch him in the face. As he's doing so, his stance and breathing is still changing. For the crowd, this is ultra-boring. For a skilled fighter such as Arthur? Wandering Dog is charging up for something. He's got a show-stopper planned, but first, he needs all his energy, all his drive set up to really, really set the crowd on fire.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur takes the shot to his head, bouncing back but refusing to lose momentum. He pants, nodding and pacing around. "Alright, dawg. You wanna get that BUILDUP? You better bring some REAL FIRE. 'Cause you don't wanna get into a POWERUP COMPETITION with THIS HARDCORE MOTHERFUCKER." Arthur puts his broom in both hands, held in front of him with a white-knuckle grip. "HaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" He roars, as a rush of white and black fire pours off of his body. Even his fireworks go off again, accentuating the moment with streaks of light. It builds and builds and builds, and Wandering Dog will find that while Arthur may not be a match for him in immediate melee combat, Arthur is far and away one of the best beings ever, period, at the practice of building up energy. He's planning to force Wandering Dog to act fast and not spend too much time on building his showstopper, because Arthur intends to outmatch his built-up ASPECT! Even his bar is bursting with multiple layers and colors! "BRING THE HEAT, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOG!!" Arthur roars, unleashing a wave of gravity that threatens to destabilize the arena and anyone standing in it, and then blasts off with his broom for a long combo of heavy swipes that are accentuated by huge waves of area-of-effect black gravity fire and white stellar flames that make the environment a terrible hazard and make the impacts a body-breaking experience. This one threatens to bring Wandering Dog into round three!
Wandering Dog	Wandering Dog charges up. But Arthur makes it hard for him. The gravity fire and white stellar flames boost Arthur's swipes, and bones crack when Wandering Dog is hit, forcing him to stagger backwards. As more blood drips out of his mouth, he...smiles widely. "PATH SIX!" His eyes turn into lightning, as suddenly, Wandering Dog vanishes. A trail of lightning follows in his way, as he suddenly bursts up to Arthur. In the process, Arthur can hear Wandering Dog shout again, right before he impacts. "PATH FOUR!" His arms becoming metal, Wandering Dog slams his fists into Arthur's face, over and over and over again, trying to bloody him up, possibly knock him unconscious, and just end the fight. Each hit is like being smashed with a truck. "THIS IS THE POWER OF SIDEREAL MARTIAL ARTS! I am Wandering Dog, the Multiverse's greatest martial artist! SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur managed to knock Wandering Dog about enough to smash him further back, and when he staggers back, Arthur even gives him some distance to do what he's going to do. Wandering dog's own estimated HEALTH VIAL is low, deep low, but Arthur's remains quite high, relatively, in ROUND TWO. He doesn't need distance, he needs the opposite, and Arthur can't begin to deny it to him. An entire shattered chunk of Arthur's HEALTH VIAL actually comes flying out of the hanging UI above the two fighters when Wandering Dog lands a punch square on his face, smashing him back and chunking a huge bit of health out of him. Each impact interrupts progressively louder and more ragged shouts of intense eagerness and energy. The final impact of the brutal punches winds up knocking Arthur back several dozen feet, crashing him against the arena and leaving him tumbling. But... His HEALTH VIAL is still inches above Wandering Dog's, as ROUND TWO times out. "ROUND THREE!" "SUDDEN DEATH!!" Arthur struggles to his feet. "Alright, BIG DOG. Congrats. You made it all the way to the FINAL SEGMENT OF THE SHOW." He pants, exhaustedly. "It's time for... SUDDEN DEEEEEAAAATH!!" He shouts, rallying the crowd. He takes a few steps around, pacing, making broad gestures with both arms. "LOUDER! LOUDEEEEERRRR! That the BEST YOU GOT?! SCREAM! SHOUT!! HOOOOOWL!!!" The crowd are going absolutely berserk. They don't need the showmanship and hype-building, but they'll take it anyway. "THAT'S RIGHT! YOU KNOW IT! WHO'S NUMBER ONE?! ARTHUR GODDAMN LOWELL!!!" He raises one fist. Some of the crowd are beginning to pass out from being unwilling to breathe between sustained screaming. "GET READY!!" "STRIFE!!!" Arthur slams his broom down into the arena. Geysers of starlight suddenly plauge the arena. Gravity in the entire place suddenly goes incredibly heavy, as if one was underwater and on the surface of Jupiter all at once. Arthur swings the broom back, screams a battle-cry, and blasts his rockets at the highest speed he can get with the safeties still on. He closes for a final barrage of wide swipes, heavy jabs, brutal blender-ripping, and massive overhead leaps that emit damaging gravity area-of-effect waves that could tear apart the bones of lesser men.
Wandering Dog	Wandering Dog doesn't get the KO he wanted. And as Arthur struggles, Wandering Dog takes a breath, drained. He knows what's coming. He continues to coat his body in more metal, trying to withstand whatever blow comes next. The ultra-high-speed broom gravity barrage comes straight at Wandering Dog. If he was a normal man and not in the Shrine, he'd be dead. But with all his damage reduction, he's just bruised, beaten, and knocked back. No more bone breakage due to the metal body, but it's enough of a drain on Wandering Dog's energy and health that that vial above plummets to zero and shatters. Wandering Dog, simultaneously, gestures the tap-out, exhausted. And then, he approaches Arthur to give him a handshake. "Good fight. You've got some insane energy. Reminds me of how I was when I was your age." The old man laughs, and then proceeds to head off, but not before shouting to the crowd. "I MAY HAVE LOST, BUT I AM PROUD TO HAVE FOUGHT! GIVE IT UP FOR ARTHUR LOWELL!"
Arthur Lowell	The crowd is going insane. Arthur breaks off the exact moment Wandering Dog taps out, and the announcer breaks in as well. "K.O!!" Shouts that bitcrushed voice once more. Arthur finishes, transitioning cleanly into an exhausted but still quite enthusiastic victorious pumping of his arms, rallying more explosive cheering for the crowd. Arthur's screaming is getting a little bit hoarse, but the crowd continues to go wild. Fireworks are going off everywhere around the arena. Arthur grabs Wandering Dog's hand with vigor that shouldn't be contained in someone as wounded as he is. "Yeah boy yeah!" He shouts, turning Wandering Dog's handshake into an elaborate, esoteric coolkid maneuver that involves a dozen or so pounds, daps, low-fives, arm-twists, and other such maneuvers. "You know I gotta keep that SICK FLOW! Rad fight to YOU TOO! You got some PUNCH in those FISTS for real, dawg." He may be kind of a trash-talker, but he's at least not a poor sport about winning, encouraging the cheering for them both with a raised fist and friendly gestures with Wandering Dog.