Scene #6704: MECC: Nova Terra vs Starbound Flotilla

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Moonfin, the soft-blue fishman, arrives with an activation of the MECC's systems that's quite stylish. Water crashes dramatically at the edge of the arena. Only the Starbound Flotilla could pump a small lake's worth of knee-high water into the facility, reality-warping zone or no. Moonfin steps dramatically out of it, ascending a staircase built below. Around him, several tiny, sandy islands rise, and trees rapidly grow from the earth using esoteric technologies until they bloom into cherry blossoms and begin to cascade their fresh flowery payload onto the field. This isn't even the MECC's field stuff, this is just the Starbound Flotilla doing homemade theatricality. He raises both arms out wide, calmly encouraging the crowd to cheer. His armor is a stylish mix between a samurai's armor and a diving suit, an aesthetic that matches an elegantly-crafted katana sheathed at his waist in what looks like a diver-style piece of industrial equipment. He draws it in one clean motion, whips it just barely above the surface of the water such that it stays dry while still kicking up a stylish slicing wake, and then steps to his corner of the arena and takes a ready position. "Hmph. A sniper? How barbaric, and how lacking in artistry. I hope you have prepared yourself to learn the pain of missed shots." He says, tauntingly. "For you shall not find your chance to strike through my blade and my armor." The katana is pointed dramatically at her, a direct challenge, and his visor fills up with the cyan light of a HUD. "Let us test your aim in the direst of circumstances. Can you make such a strike beautiful? Artistic? Can the craft of your blow be seen and loved? I doubt it. Prove me otherwise, or you shall not grasp any victory tonight." The bell strikes, and it's time to go. Moonfin kicks off first; microthrusters and heavy armor enhancement let him kick up a huge sandy wake behind him as he rockets straight towards Nova Terra with a brutal series of katana thrusts, insisting on ensuring she can't get any distance, and forcing her on the backfoot to avoid getting impaled.
Nova Terra	Nova walks out of the waiting room towards her starting position. She makes no show of her arrival, nor even acknowledges the audience. She seems to be taking a more serious tone than some of her previous fights, judging by the look on her face. As the countdown proceeds, Nova rolls her eyes at the words from her opponent. Finally saying moments before the start, "Shut up." She reaches up and pulls her visor down onto her face. She pulls on the bolt of the canister rifle in her hand, loading around just as the match bell rings. Nova is off and running. It doesn't take long for Moonfin to reach her though and soon enough she's on the defense. Nova proves deft on her feet as she jumps backwards a number of times to avoid a serious blow from that sword. It still manages to get a few hits in, Nova's suit protecting her from much of the damage. The final strike goes weirdly though, Moonfin finding his blade pushed to the side at the last moment by an invisible force. The weapon still cuts into Nova's side, drawing forth a little blood. But it gives Nova an opening as she steps into Moonfin's attack. The butt of her rifle comes up as she swings it around for the side of the Hylotl's head.
Starbound Flotilla	"No, I think not." Moonfin speaks in harsh, aggressive tones. "First Sea Hylotl Style: Unbroken Ice." He moves slowly, keeping his momentum as he sets his own blade between himself and the strike, bracing it against his grip and the flat of his palm to blunt the damage. "I told you that you have no artistry." He moves in close, yanking the butt of the rifle with a free hand to bring Nova Terra in for a knee to the gut as best he can deliver it. "I am a connoisseur, and while your form may have considerable lethality, it has no /artistry/. Surely there is, somewhere in your efforts, a love of the craft, a passion for the art form. I will draw it out, or I will draw your blood, but I will not be denied." From this angle, he can step forward, keeping a steady march of violence directly in Nova's face, but his blade swipes are only able to be shallow at this distance. It's a good moment to recover, by preventing Nova from recovering.
Nova Terra	Nova takes a knee in the gut, though it doesn't look that bad. It does cause her to stumble after her blow, allowing Moonfin to return to the offensive. The blows begin to rain down on Nova. She begins using her large rifle to block the attacks as best she can, "I'm not an artist." The weapon starts to take nicks, with a few strikes managing to get past it and land on the Ghost's arm, cutting through her suit once more to draw blood. Nova does appear to be struggling during this flurry of katana swipes, continually forced back, "I'm a killer." During one of her more successful attempts to block Moonfin's attack, Nova releases a grip on her rifle to throw a punch with her fist towards Moonfin's face/visor. It's no simple punch though, the blow enhanced considerably by the artificial muscle fibers of her suit. "And I don't try to hide it."
Starbound Flotilla	"First Sea Hylotl Style: Still Waters." Moonfin moves inches. They're optimized inches. The few, meager inches necessary to move out of the way as fast as possible, as gracefully as possible, and no other motion. It's like he barely moved at all, and yet, Nova only manages to shave the surface of the glass, tracing a crack through the HUD visor. Moonfin dispels its display and looks directly at Nova with crimson eyes. "Third Sea Hylotl Style: Crushing Waves." He moves in, pommel first, going for a strike to her face, then a series of brutal slashes to drive her back, trying to force her to endure a barrage. "Hmph. And so, what? You will aspire to nothing more? We of the Hylotl are no killers. We are pacifists, each of us. We tame violence and make it our own in skill and grace, so that we are not ruled by it. Because we aspired to something greater, because we had such a vision, we could become greater than those who still were under the heel of their own death-dealing." Slash, slash, slash. He won't give Nova a moment to breathe. "You say, 'I am a killer'. You say you do not hide it, as if it is some unchangeable fact. But for so long as you are ruled by violence, and refuse to seek /mastery/ over it, you shall not be able to defeat a great missionary of the Hylotl such as myself." He goes for one particularly hefty swing meant to clear some space, and give him room to speak, to pace around Nova. "Shall I demonstrate for you? Will you believe the truth when it is undeniable, in front of your face? Or will you continue like this, writhing and wallowing in a refusal to take control of who you are and what you do? For you are no killer. A killer could strike me down, after all, it is what they do, and you cannot. You are only someone who so little understands mastering violence that you believe it /cannot/ be mastered. Violence has told you the lie that you cannot command it, and you have taken it for a fact. Will you not aspire to test the claims?"
Nova Terra	The pommel strikes Nova's visor. It saves her from taking the blow straight on, though it is naturally still quite effective. The visor's optics are smashed in. Nova quickly pulls the broken device away from her face, revealing a line of blood running down the side of her face. Throwing away the visor, Nova raises her rifle once more in another desperate attempt to try and block the Hylotl's swings. Clang. Clang. Clang. Nova is continually forced back, step by step, as she barely holds back Moonfin, "I live in the real world." A strike smashes the scope of Nova's rifle, "I have a job-No. A duty. To protect the Dominion and its citizens from the vast threats of the Multiverse. I don't have the luxury of trying to better myself. You might have no responsibilities. No connections. Nothing keeping you from 'mastering violence'. But we don't all live in such a fantasy world!" Backing off and giving Nova some room is a big mistake. She doesn't even wait to listen to Moonfin's words as she quickly shifts her rifle into firing position. She has no visor. She has no scope. It doesn't matter. Nova pulls the trigger. Fully aware of the skill displayed so far and expecting Moonfin to move, or maybe even try to deflect the bullet with his blade, Nova doesn't actually aim dead on with her shot but rather to the side a little. But then, at the last moment, the bullet's trajectory changes, curving back in towards Moonfin with deadly accuracy.
Starbound Flotilla	"Second Sea Hyl-- GHHHK!" Moonfin starts, arrogantly, before the sound of a CRASH! His blade moves to intercept, but the automated systems he uses to guard against bullets can't quite interpret the trajectory properly, and it winds up planting hard in the armor, at the chest, crunching through it and provoking Moonfin to grab at the wound and fall to one knee. That one hurt, and it went deep into the flesh. He plants his sword in the ground, summoning up a brief high-intensity low-duration energy field to halt further attacks. Mercy invulnerability, one might say! A time for his armor's automated systems to inject medical foams and such into the wound. "Hmph. You say you cannot master violence, for you have responsibility. No. You have a responsibility to master violence. You have a responsibility to the world, to nature, to the balance of reality to confront those threats, not as a channel through which violence acts out, but as a master artist commanding their tool. Your inadequacy is your own, not the responsibility of the world." His field is running out, and he winces from the pain of his wound being treated. He gets onto his feet again. "There is nothing done better by being mastered by violence, rather than mastering it." He says. "And I shall show you. Three strikes -- no more, no less -- are what I shall rain upon your body. Upon the third, you shall be defeated, or at best, doomed to it. Are you a killer? Then strike me with all your lethality, and stop me before the third attack is launched. But the violence is your master. And I have /conquered/ violence. The proof you need will be found in the third blow." "Do not dare to blink; I will not forgive you if you do not see it." "Fourth Sea Hylotl Style: Tossed Upon Waves." This strike comes from below; as soon as the field falters, Moonfin rushes out, blade at the ready, moving so fast that he's almost parallel with the ground, his motions more like /climbing/. He goes for a low, rising sweep that turns into a jumping strike simply by virtue of needing more upward speed than gravity can handle! Something meant, presumably, to disorient Nova, jar her legs, and keep her from moving in the middle of whatever comes next, though that still leaves her arms quite ready and able.
Nova Terra	A defensive shield. Nova holds fire. The Ghost is confident she could break the shield eventually. She's dealt with shields before. But she gets the feeling she doesn't need to. Given that it's coming out only now, Nova suspects it's one of those emergency use types. Very powerful. But short lived. This is supported by the fact that Moonfin isn't capitalizing on the heightened protection and is instead using it to recover. So Nova takes these precious few moments to recover a little herself, taking in some deep breaths. She also uses it to question Moonfin, "Why? Where does this responsibility to master violence come from? Was it the words of some wise man? No man is all knowing or all correct. Was it handed down from the gods? My world has had more than enough with gods. They can get fucked. There is no such thing as a rulebook for life. So I'll live mine how I damn well please." This brief break in the fight is quickly coming to a close, judging by the warning that Moonfin presents. Three strikes? The way she's feeling, Nova isn't sure she can survive even two. But the gauntlet has been thrown. Nova throws her rifle away, the weapon clattering across the arena floor. Her eyes stare down Moonfin as she slowly reaches for the weapon on her back, "Very well. Let's end this." Nova draws forth the psi-blade that was attached to the back of her suit. A concentrated field of psychic energy flares up around the weapon's form, honing into a molecule thick blade. The weapon can cut through Marine armour in once swing. Nova hopes it's equally effective against Moonfin's as she waits for him. Moonfin rushes forward. Nova is no expert swordsman, so doesn't try to block or parry. She instead relies once more on her greater psionic powers, using her telekinesis to put pressure on the blade. This keeps it from slicing in too deep into her as it rises. It does leave a cut in Nova's suit, once more causing blood to drip out as it just manages to penetrate to her flesh beneath. But now Moonfin is at the tail end of his move, giving Nova the opportunity to make her move. Nova lowers her stance and then leaps upwards to join Moonfin in the air. Heading straight for him in fact. Her monomolecular blade is plunged forward as Nova attempts to drive it point first through the Hylotl's armour and into his body.
Starbound Flotilla	"The responsibility comes from you." Moonfin says, amid his combat. "You are the one who will know best. You who see crisis and feel ill at ease with problems unsolved." He turns mid-air, moving to engage Nova directly. He whispers something, gently; for a moment, the arrogance is a little less present. "There's something wrong inside, isn't there?" The blade plunges in. Something is /wrong/. It is like seeing a man fall over on stage in theater, clutching his chest; it wasn't supposed to happen this way, and any observer knows it. "GHHHH!" He lets out an inarticulate noise of pain. The gap that the bullet punched in his armor lines up perfectly with the blade, almost by coincidence, and leaves the path into Moonfin's body clear and open. What happens next is best left without graphic description. Moonfin goes nearly limp from the pain, writhing just a little as he slams into the ground, kicking up a burst of sand. That wasn't supposed to happen. Perhaps even Nova didn't intend for it to get quite like that. Like watching someone break their neck in boxing, the logic is all sound, but there's the expectation that... what just happened isn't supposed to happen. Thank goodness for the nature of the MECC's stages in the Shrine of Adversity, stabilizing Moonfin already.
Nova Terra	Nova lands with Moonfin, but on her feet. She pulls her blade free with all the care of a samurai who just killed his target. Nova barely bats an eye at the sight of Moonfin on the ground, looking like he might as well be dead. Was she actually trying to kill him? That wound is certainly one that could be lethal outside this arena. Depending on who you are, anyway. Or maybe Nova just knew that the Shrine would keep Moonfin alive, no matter what she did. She doesn't give away either possibility though. The Shrine begins to recover Moonfin, along with Nova's own wounds. She lets her blade fizzle out and returns it to her back, before giving Moonfin a hmph, "There's something wrong inside all of us. Fighting it is a waste of time. Better to use it for your own purposes." Nova turns away, beginning to walk towards her exit. She reaches a hand out as she does so, her heavily battered rifle whipping up off the ground and streaking through the air into her grip.