3kul vs Kat_05: Mantis Challenge

[Kat_05]

Kat_05 enters the room in her canine form, showing off the grace ( yes everyone, Kat IS capable of being more than a clutz) of her animal form. Trotting to the center of the room, she nudges a table from the far wall over and carves a shallow circle around it. Transforming into her original human form, Kat sets a water clock on the table. The clock will chime after 10 posts by each player, signaling the end of the challenge.

Kat checks her person for several weapons, such as the classic hand blades (or tiger/panther claws) and what looks like a small squirt gun with a sealed chamber. Kneeling to show proper respect to a mantis black belt, Kat calls upon 3kul to test her skill, in the form of....

Sao'tal!

[3kul]

(( I can already here Shaon's cries of glee at the prospect of me being forced to dig up these usually unused characters ))

Sao'tal enters the room, taking a few moments to warm himself up - for some reason he feels like he hasn't been doing much at all for the past few months, even though he's been busy enough helping the Saviour with his research. After scraping his Arm Scythes together to test their sharpness as he adjusted the funnels attached to his back to make sure that it was still flexible, he was finally ready.

The Protector's four legs shifted out to the side, so that his stance was not unlike that of a bull ready to charge a matador. Arm Scythes raised, Sao'tal let loose a small series of brief jets of steam directly upwards, more for show than anything, as this Protector was the boldest of his siblings, and liked the prospect of a good fight.

"Let's do this thing!"

[Kat_05]

(( Weapons over brawn my sensei, is that not part of the Mantis style?))

Still kneeling, Kat grins as she aims the squirtgun. Tar mixed with a thin clear (as of yet unknown) goo sprays towards Older Brother. Leaping towards the hulk and aiming more clear goo at Saotal's sythes, Kat yells out her battle cry:

"You've got it pops!"

[3kul]

((True, but Sao'tal himself is a weapon - his exoskeleton armor can give as good as it gets (I hope ), the arm scythes are a superior version of HollowEyes' arm blades, and the jets on his back can double up as a steam gun (not that I've ever used them like that though, I'm just giving examples of how I could use him). Despite the fact that he doesn't look like it, Sao'tal is a surprisingly versatile character.

Besides, this is for you to show off your abilities with weapons, not me ))

Sao'tal didn't wait to see what exactly his opponent is shooting at him, quickly leaping directly upwards. He wasn't used to having to do brainwork on his own, so it seemed that the best strategy was to not get hit by anything and beat his opponent ((yep, he's a smart one )). Thanks to the high pressured steam jetting out of the cylinders on his back he got a hell of a lot of thrust in almost no time at all, which allowed him to move damn fast for someone as heavy as himself.

But sadly he wasn't quite fast enough, the sheer bulk of the Protector was too much for him to avoid such a speedy attack, and some of the mystery goo splattered on his front legs and the bottom tip of his left scythe. To top it all off, since he used such a hasty maneuvre he hadn't had much time to calculate the distance or height of his jump, so he ended up colliding with the roof pretty roughly.

Not that this fazed him though, you could hit Sao'tal in the head with a sledgehammer and he probably wouldn't notice. He simply twisted his steam-jets upwards and changed directions so that he was now hurtling back down, aiming to smash Kat into the floorboards.

((Now to find out what this mystery goo does...))

[Kat_05]

Kat grinned as Sao'tal hit the roof after getting hit. As he came down, parts of the flimsy roof stuck to the exoskeleton, as if glued there. Come to think of it, they probably were. The guy at the hardware store did say the extra-strength superglue would bond anything after all! Though debree stuck covered most of the tar/glue mixture, areas like the inner legs were still sticky. Now to get Sao'tal to hit himself...

((Basically, Sao'tal can cover the glue or stick to himself. Flexibility=none!))

"That's right smarty! I know you're stuck on me, but a free dinner would be nice first!"

Kat simply waited to be smashed, shooting more of her mixture at Big Brother. The difference from her last attack? Kat had her lighter ready. She also had a bag of itching powder, but she wasn't sure how much effect it'd have. Maybe if she got some in his eye...

[3kul]

((Oh snap! This is going to hurt... Sao'tal's movements don't really involve much rubbing together, so I can't see him sticking to himself, but I can see him about to be engulfed in a massive ball of flame.))

Blissfully unaware that the mystery goo was composed of such flammable contents, Sao'tal both failed to notice the bits of debris sticking to some parts of his body and allowed Kat to hit him with more of the stuff, totally under the impression that his opponent's frantic squirting was a result of them recognizing how well and truly smashed they would soon be.

Extending his front legs forwards moments before impact, Sao'tal was mentally praising himself for having such forsight as to plan for a lunging attack moments after he lands, just in case this 'Kat' is quick on her feet.

((It's like watching a train-wreck in slow motion! No Sao'tal, nooooooooo! ))

[Kat_05]

((Trainwreck indeed! Though I do forsee pain in Kat's future, should the inferno keep charging...))

*flick*

Kat held the lighter under the stream of tar/glue she was shooting, and the fire traveled straight into Sao'tal. Time to get out of the way! Kat quickly stepped to the side, wincing as she got a bit burned from the flaming inferno that WAS Sao'tal. Hoping her opponent wasn't about to charge her, Kat aimed the sqirtgun directly at his steamvents (or guns, for lack of a better word), since tar is pretty waterproof and clogs like no other.

[3kul]

((Damn you're being smart with this match Kat...))

Sao'tal was incredibly shocked to suddenly find himself engulfed in flames, having thought that his opponent was totally incompetent he was now worried that he'd be up against someone who was much smarter than he was.

Fortunately for Sao'tal, his body had been built to take extreme temperatures, so whilst he was currently covering in fire it wasn't really all that painful. His internal organs were more like the inner workings of a machine than a living creature, and he was able to contain, create and release high-pressure scalding hot steam at will. The fact that his skeleton was on the outside also prevented him from feeling a lot of pain, which helped him still pull off his landing and spin around to face Kat.

Unfortunately for Sao'tal, his eyes were not very fire-proof at all, and he quickly and painfully was rendered blind. This ensured that he was too busy screaming in pain and trying to scrape the flaming tar off of his eyes (which, when you have scythes for arms, undoubtedly makes things worse) to notice that Kat managed to clog up his steam pipes.

He lunged forwards to where he last knew Kat to be, slashing outwards widely with his now burning arm scythes. Thanks to the clogging he now found that he was forced to rely on his regular speed to leap about, though considering that the room that they were in was fairly small this wasn't such a huge loss.

((So, yeah, um, thanks for burning my characters eyes out Kat

Keep in mind though that you'll need to show me your preferred weapons at some stage during this match. I mean, the glue gun's not exactly your usual weapon, is it?

I'll also be stepping out for a bit, I'll probably be back in half an hour or so, so you can take your time with your next response if you like.))

[Kat_05]

(( And here I was ready to run for my life! As you've so wisely stated, body parts can count as a weapon, and Kat's tail certainly counts as a favored weapon!) Nothing fancy now, but I'm amazed you have't glued your eyes shut, clawing at them like that!)

While Sao'tal was screaming (hopefully in agony), Kat figured it was time to take advantage of her other talents. Leaving the squirtgun on the floor to keep the tar/glue flowing, Kat transformed into her camoflouge canine form, using her tail to begin siphoning energy off Sao'tal.
While (mostly) dodging the flaming scythes of Sao'tal, Kat began to see one small flaw in her plan. While being in a small wooden room was all well and good, wood tends to catch fire. Kat would either have to turn tail out of the building, or run out of places to hide!

It was just a shame talking would give away her position, since another chance to poke fun at such a high-rankng belt might not come along too often.

Waterclock: Drip, drip, drip. The water is half gone!

[3kul]

((Glue tends to work pretty badly when it's on fire Kat

Sorry I took a little longer than I said I would btw))

Still screaming in pain, Sao'tal continued to swing his arm scythes out widely - he was a fairly big guy, and covered most of the room with his swipes. The only problem was that he was also fairly blind, and was now swinging his arm scythes in the wrong direction.

For some reason, Sao'tal noticed that his arm scythes felt a lot heavier than usual, and he was beginning to feel drained. His boosted Parasitian healing wasn't working as well as it should either - his eyes had all but melted out of their sockets, and his exoskeleton was beginning to show a bit of wear. Although he'd been built to go for days of strenuous activity without any food or water, he felt like he was just about ready to give up...

"No! Sao'tal never gives up!"

The Protector heaved himself forwards, smashing his way through the door that he'd entered through. He might not have been the brightest of his siblings, but he knew that he wasn't getting tired from natural causes - Kat was doing something to exhaust him, and it didn't just involve him getting set on fire.

"Alright, Kat is not here, which means..."

Turning back to face the burning room, Sao'tal held his arm scythes out wide and charged back in. If he could just figure out where Kat was he could get in a few good hits, and if he moved this way he'd figure it out pretty quickly.

[Kat_05]

((True, true.... thanks for finding an exit though!))

Kat tried to follow Older Brother as he crashed outside, only to backpedal into the burning room as the parasitian started charging back. The room's roof looked like it would cave in pretty soon, and there was no chance Kat would be able to dodge forever.

Draining as much as possible with her tail, Kat jumped towards a flaming sythe. As Kat's fur burned, she hurt quite a bit, but if Kat could get over Sao'tal and out the door she'd be fine. Being in camoflouge mode meant it would be hard for Sao'tal to see her even if his eyes did heal, and as long as Kat didn't go too far she could keep siphoning energy while he wasted time looking for her. Meanwhile, all the extra energy would likely heal the burns before Kat was found.

Cringing at the smell of burning fur, Kat's body hits the scyth full force.

[3kul]

There she is!

Sao'tal allowed Kat to hit his arm scythe, using the force of her tackle to spin around. Not that he could've done anything else, once again approaching Kat had proved to be an incredibly draining experience, this time even worse than before. But now he knew more or less where she was, and that was the most important thing. Continuing to pivot until his back was facing her, Sao'tal aimed his steam jets at an angle that would have them aiming somewhere around Kat's body. Tar or no, Kat was about to receive a harsh blast of high-pressure steam.

Or so Sao'tal thought.

The tar, still molten, managed to contain the steam, giving the immense amount of pressure nowehere to go, which in turn placed a massive strain on his funnels. Not able to contain the pressure any longer, the boney structures exploded, sending exoskeletal shrapnel flying everywhere.

To Sao'tal though, it was as if he'd somehow managed to clear the blockage - the pipes themselves were made entirely of the plate-like armor that covered the Protector's body, and as such he couldn't actually feel much of what happened to them. Since he was currently blind as well he couldn't see much of what happened to them either. For some odd reason he couldn't release steam at such a high pressure anymore, but he could see the Saviour about that later, when he went to get his eyes fixed.

His eyes had only just recently stopped hurting, mainly because there was nothing left to hurt. The shallow sockets themselves seemed to be covered with a thin layer of exoskeleton, as one of the few things that his immune system had managed to alter slightly before Kat had begun to weaken him was seal off his optical nerves.

Figuring that his luck was changing for the better, the blind Sao'tal coasted back out the way it had charged in, where he assumed Kat to have escaped to. He was still feeling very weak, but having his steam jets functional again meant that he could move faster whilst using less energy.

((Yeah, Sao'tal's going to need a lot of medical attention after this one .

Anyways, the way his funnels have shattered, Sao'tal's pressure's down to at most 50% (though it's probably much less than that). He's not going to manage any major charging or leaping, but he can still pump out the scalding hot steam if he needs to.))

[Kat_05]

'EEEEEEEEWW.'

Right after getting clear of the burning building, Kat turned towards Sao'tal... just in time to get a face full of smoldering tar, hot steam, and bits of stone. The sheer amount of steam put out some of the fire on the molten tar, and Kat instantly rolled away from Sao'tal in an attempt to put the remaining fire out. The result? A gooey mess of glue, fur, grass, stone, mud, and tar. Disgusting!

The scalding tar stung, but the energy Kat had been stealing from Big Brother allowed Kat to heal most of the initial damage. Kat thanked the fates for her natural affinity to heat as she got up, still trying to drain Sao'tal as much as possible.

Until Sao'tal wasn't burning quite so much, Kat was going to focus on draining/dodging. Once the lug figured out he could steam himself to stop burning, there'd be plenty of time to come in with claws... and maybe that itching powder.

((Probably going to nap for a bit now 3kul, so don't expect more than maybe 1 more post for tonight. It's time for sleep!

Oh, and shame on you for getting a lady dirty! At least it's not another trip in the frozen north. I still don't get how a character that's supposed to be at home in hot places always gets stuck roleplaying in the Frozen North...))

[3kul]

((I guess the exoskeleton shrapnel didn't hit you then?

Ignore my complaining, so far you're showing me a lot of skill, I'm just struggling to keep up .))

This was undoubtedly one of the most difficult foes that Sao'tal had ever faced, but slow as he was he was beginning to figure out a strategy to get the better of her. By now it was very obvious to him that she was draining his energy somehow, and the closer he got to her the worse it seemed to get. ((I'm assuming that this is the case, let me know if I'm wrong though and I'll change my post accordingly))

Using this knowledge, he'd be able to roughly guess where abouts she was, but by the time he got there he wouldn't have enough energy left to attack her. This would be fairly problematic, and Sao'tal couldn't figure out for the life of him how to get around this seemingly inevitable outcome.

The tar-glue mixture that remained on his body was still burning, though the parts around his broken steam jets had been put out. Not that Sao'tal could really tell this - all that he knew was that some parts of his body felt slightly warmer than others for some reason.

He staggered forwards a little to test his theory to see if it worked, finding that the energy drain seemed to increase - Kat was in this direction. It was only now that he had what he considered to be a rather brilliant idea, a way to get around the problem of he'd previously been stuck with. Rather than force himself to go to his opponent and waste all of his energy, he'd make her come to him.

Making as if he meant to lunge towards Kat, Sao'tal tripped on himself and collapsed forwards, groaning whilst he letting out a faint steam, almost as though he were an engine shutting down. He seemed utterly exhausted, trying his best to appear as if he'd been totally drained of all of his energy - once Kat closed in for the kill, he'd have the opportunity to strike.

[Kat_05]

((I choose to blame tiredness 3kul! I was assuming that any shrapnel would be covered in burning tar. Any minor cuts would be instantly healed anyway, but if you would like I suppose I could make a slight adjustment to my last post...

Just don't forget that Kat's tail drains more effectively when she's hurt. I believe it annoyed EnD and Lordship in the EC Cave RP! And please don't tar...

*looks at Kat_05*

...well, don't feather me for talking about that. Since the dojo is getting a view of our lovely little RP, it's not taboo anymore!))


Kat almost jumped as Sao'tal fell over. Was the lug going to try and put his fire out too? The idea took long enough! Kat took a step forward...

only to fall flat on her snout. Apparently all the adreline and stolen energy were too invigorating to feel a proper amount of pain. Kat had a rather large bit of whatever stony substance Sao'tal was made of stuck in her front leg. Pausing to claw it out, Kat tried to cut the shrapnel (testing it's strength, you'll have to tell me if I can cut ya now!) before approaching Sao'tal. Her tail was draining all the while, and seemed quite content to obey Kat since she was letting it do what it liked for once.

"Run out of steam, Sao'tal? Holloweyes never had that problem when I fought with him. That was the reason I choose to be on his side, you know. I bet he'd be dissapointed that you fell to such a minor member of the EC. How can you stand the thought, rocky? Or can you even think? I suppose not, after all, you haven't shown a lot of thought so far..."

((Ouch. Kat's getting mean! Think Sao'tal will get angry or sad at the idea of his idol being dissapointed in him? Either way, I feel sorry for Kat. Maybe she shouldn't be so cocky.... nah!))