SOLSTICE TOURNAMENT PRELIMS : Miyoko Vs. Geraldine

OOH, ARE YOU READY GIRLS?
OOH, ARE YOU READY NOW?

Miyoko had to admit, while her first impression of Domhan Tir had been one of a backwards state with nonsensical rules and where the one thing that determined your path in life seemed to be a question of what was between your legs, the mercenary was pleasantly surprised and oddly happy to be proven wrong about one thing at least - these people knew how to have a good time. Granted, the place was still a bit basic for her own tastes, but it was a far cry from what she had been expecting when her boss had brought news of the tournament to her. Originally the idea had been to attract clients for their business - much of their work ironically came from mapping out dangerous areas and escorting people across said areas, but with the recent turn in events with the gangs back in Aquavia business had been slow as of late to say the least with people either too afraid to leave their homes for one reason or another.... or because they had already left the cities in their entirety. Not exactly good news for her paycheck or that of anyone else in the company, but this tournament was an opportunity to correct that - a place where influential people from all of the nations would gather to watch and participate, and a perfect chance to attract attention. The fact that people were basically too busy to keep an eye on her just was a bonus on top of that, plus there was one other perk to this place that wasn't available in Aquavia - no speed limits to get her into trouble.

As with all things, though, it eventually had to come to an end, and after a handful of days essentially spent living life in a way worthy of a college freshman on their first spring break without any supervision the woman had been pulled back to reality by her coworkers, and it was directly following the act of being collected that Miyoko would find herself briskly striding down the corridor leading to the arena. Already probably a few minutes late, and with that realization Miyoko admittedly felt a small twinge of guilt as she retied her hair into a tighter ponytail, wrapping it around her neck and over her shoulders as she reached the end of the hallway to suddenly emerge into bright sunlight. Far, far too sudden - she wasn't drunk anymore and the headache was gone, but godsdamn that was a bright light to be subjected to so quickly. Squinting against the sunlight as her eyes took a moment to adjust, the mercenary would only pause as she saw, to her surprise, that she was the first one there.

Unexpected, but as Miyoko blinked in mild surprise she had to admit that it wasn't too bad as surprises went. It'd definitely give her time to properly wake up, along with a few other things - after standing in place for a moment Miyoko would simply take a few steps away from the door before bending forward and reaching down - of all things, starting to stretch, moving to touch her toes for several moments only to repeat the motion and then beginning to move on to calf stretches. Probably something she should have done during her party induced haze an hour or so ago, but no time like the present. Besides, she had a bit of time before her opponent hopefully got there - for an unaugmented or otherwise normal human that was a long run of at least several seconds from the opposite door, and even as she stretched the mercenary was beginning to use her gift in a subtle fashion, pulling electrons from the ground beneath her feet to "charge". Not something the other person would be able to see, but it would be apparent soon enough. Or not, all Miyoko really cared about was having a good time with this, what the other person thought really didn't figure into that.

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OOH, ARE YOU READY GIRLS?
OOH, ARE YOU READY NOW?

Continuing to both mentally and physically prepare herself for the arrival of her opponent and the start of the even proper, Miyoko's mind refused to simply stay still. Part of it was the fact that she still had to keep at least a small part of her mind focused on soaking up power from the ground and building up the charge she was carrying, but a lot of it was genuine curiosity. What kind of person was she going to be up against? Hryst, Domhan Tir, that new nation she'd been hearing about in the news? Male, female, something in between for the lulz? More than that, what kind of fighting style? She might have looked like a bit of thug, but that wasn't to say she didn't have at least some degree of intelligence - and with said intelligence came curiosity. Granted, probably one of several things that she should have done before even stepping foot into the arena - looking up her opponents and seeing who they were and what they could do - but the other problem was that there really wasn't any fun in knowing ahead of time. Spontaneity was one of the things that made life fun, and a moment later the door on the opposite side of the arena would open and allow another woman to step forth.

Domhan Tir from the look of it, and probably military judging by the weapons she was carrying - all in pretty good condition, and the way the woman held that bow showed she meant business. Specifically, the bow that would be held up and aimed at Miyoko after only a moment of fanfare from the stands.

Having just paused in her preparations to hold up a hand in relatively friendly greeting, the grin on Miyoko's face would disappear nearly as quickly as it had been slapped on as the other woman drew and notched a bow - aiming relatively low, but frankly speaking Miyoko had never really been a fan of pain to begin with. Having already been drawing up an electric charge from the ground to begin with and well aware that attempting to dodge the arrow of a pro the old fashioned way was probably a bad idea, the mercenary would focus her mind to mold the charge in the ground into a vague path leading off to the side before "gluing" a positive charge to both her feet and the ground directly beneath it and sliding said charge to follow that path - in effect, the same trick that maglev trains used in her country. Purely mental, the action only took all of a moment to complete, with the only visible effect being to suddenly yank Miyoko sideways across the loose ground as the arrow shot foward, barely missing as it tore through the edge of her pants.

NOPE. FUCK THAT.

Still holding much of the charge from before and reabsorbing much of what she had just expended as her feet unglued from the arena's floor, Miyoko instantly made a note to avoid sitting still at all costs. Doing otherwise was not going to end well here, and putting on a burst of speed that heavily borrowed from the momentum generated by the earlier movement she would turn and dash off to the side as the second arrow cut through the space she had been standing a moment before, the quick movements of Miyoko's legs doing quite a bit to throw off her opponent's aim. Well, just enough to avoid taking a hit at any rate - it wasn't going to be something that Miyoko could keep up forever, and this was frankly where her irritation came from. What kind of bullshit was this where guns were apparently banned but bows were allowed?! Not a question that she would have much time to answer, though, as her opponent was already moving to close the distance between them.

Alright, fine. She wanted a serious fight, she'd get one. Pivoting on a foot, Miyoko would turn to allow the other fighter to begin closing the distance between them - with any luck the other woman had no idea what Miyoko was actually capable of, and that would play to the mercenary's advantage. If the Domhan Tir guardswoman wanted to go for a physical tackle, Miyoko would allow it - any sort of physical contact would horribly backfire with the slightest touch, and with that thought in mind the Aquavian would let an electrical charge start to circulate over the surface of her body and clothing. Not enough to kill, but definitely enough to induce a tazer like effect - loss of muscle control, temporary paralysis, that sort of thing, and contrary to popular belief electricity was not as visible as the movies made it out to be. She'd have no warning, and that was just the way Miyoko liked it.

"Want some? COME AT ME, BRO!"


Summary:
Used her ability to yank her feet sideways across the ground to barely dodge the first arrow. No electricity visible.

Used the momentum from the previous maneuver to dodge the second arrow by foot.

Allowing her opponent to close the physical distance - nonvisible electrical current with strength comparable to a tazer to be delivered on physical contact.

@tag

OOH, ARE YOU READY GIRLS?
OOH, ARE YOU READY NOW?

COME ON. Really?! Was everyone packing something sharp and pointy in this tournament?! From what Miyoko had been told this was supposed to be a friendly gathering, if somewhat competitive - certainly nothing anyone was supposed to die during, and shit always happened when you played with fire, so to speak. Miyoko knew she wasn't one to talk, admittedly, or rather she wouldn't if she hadn't effectively sacrificed any semblance of social life to make sure she didn't zap someone by accident - the only reason her opponent hadn't been lit up like a lightbulb yet was because any jolt powerful enough to jump those couple of meters from her skin and clothing to that little metal object would be more than strong enough to stop a human heart. In any case, she didn't feel like being stabbed or cut - nope, not today, and definitely not by a damned toad sticker. Redirecting the charge from her skin to her nerves instead, the mercenary would instead kick back with greater speed and strength than a human would normally be capable of to put another meter or two between herself and that nasty little knife the other fighter was carrying as they swung, at least having the presence of mind to aim for Miyoko's arms instead of attempting to shank her.

And then, apparently, right back to the arrow, and at this range she highly doubted that dodging was going to be an effective option. That being said, there were still plenty of tricks up her sleeve and while it would be a dead give away to being something a little different from your average human being it was still better than having a stick lodged several centimeters deep in her shoulder. Deliberately allowing herself to stumble, Miyoko would drop and roll in the sand, picking up yet additional charge along with something of a passenger - essentially just an amplification of static cling, much of the sand would come up clinging to her clothes. Coming back up to her feet, Miyoko would finally pause to devote quite a bit more than her usual degree of attention to control, even further amplifying the static charge her body was giving off and the difference between that and the sand causing it to compact - not really true armor and something that would fall apart the moment she attempted to move, but enough to stop an arrow. Maybe. Probably.

"Weapon? Why the hell would I bother with one? I'm all natural, buddy." Miyo would reply, standing again and facing her opponent - at least, thankfully, her ability probably looking more like that of a geokinetic or something else. Brilliant thing about electrokinesis, as long as you knew what you were doing with it Clark's Third Law was in full effect - "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Granted, the full measure of that irony was not lost on Miyo since she very highly doubted anyone but the gods themselves had any idea how their gifts worked, but without a proper explanation here it was very likely that the guardswoman would simply take the ability at face value and not look any deeper than that. Or if she did, so what - without actually being able to know for a fact that Miyoko was effectively working with ideas she was pulling out of her ass there wasn't anymore to go on beyond what she saw. Regardless, the arrow fired hurt like a sonuvabitch - the feeling fairly similar to that of being punched in the foot, but while the projectile managed to knock the thin sandstone loose it failed to penetrate her skin.


Summary:
Charge transferred to muscles/nerves to leap back and out of range of the knife.

Static cling used to pick up sand from the roll.

Charge amplified to condense sand into a thin armor.

@tag

OOH, ARE YOU READY GIRLS?
OOH, ARE YOU READY NOW?

Gods damn it, that stung! Just as with her foot Miyoko would feel something akin to three rapid punches as the arrows fired by her opponent slammed into the thin armor that the mercenary had managed to whip up, each arrow tearing off sand from where they hit to expose the skin and clothing underneath. Miyoko was just happy that her opponent hadn't fired any at her foot again, a fact that she was more than thankful for - the armor wasn't the toughest in the world, and the only thing that had given her the idea to begin with was that there was generally no better defense against a projectile than the ground itself. There was a reason that bunkers were a thing, and water was just a step down from that. That being said, metal tended to be tougher than most silicon based solids, and like with dodging this was only going to work for so long until the guardswoman managed to break through her defenses. As it currently stood there were three options - keep trying to rebuild the armor, a losing game since it wasn't a simple thing to beat out the speed of the other woman's shots, try and get close and taze her ass into the ground or try and go for a distance attack. Not something she really wanted to do, though, since that kind of bullshit wasn't her style - she'd gone into this looking for a fun fight between friends, not something capable of putting the other guy into the hospital for a while. Her boss had a lot to answer for.

"Oh, don't you hide behind that. You came at me with an arrow when I wasn't holding anything and was a normal person as far as you knew, then you pulled a knife on me after that." Miyoko responded, although the other woman's comment did more than piss her off a little. It was frankly the same hypocrisy that she'd come to expect from this nation as a whole - they were so focused on their dogmatic views of their faith that they failed to see that they were, in fact, violating it. Bows, arrows, knives.... all of that had to be forged somewhere, and by the very definition of technology they were going against their god every time they so much as used a wheel. The very way this tournament had started was proof enough - bows and arrows were apparently allowed, but any other projectile weapon that could conceivably be made from the same techniques as their metal weapons was banned just on principle alone. What happened if someone got injured to the point where they needed proper medical care, care that only one of the other nations could provide because they had bothered to develop their medicine to a modern level? 'Whoops, sorry, it would've been blasphemy to save this man's life'?

In any case, Miyoko was doubting that the other woman had any interest in listening to words - the guard had been so hot to skewer her foot earlier that she hadn't even had the chance to utter a greeting or wish her opponent luck. So much for sportsmanship, apparently. For the time being, however, Miyoko would simply focus on gathering even more power to herself, building up the electric charge her body was storing to an even higher level just in case she needed it. Which would probably be soon.

Asshat.

"If you're going to bitch about wanting a fair fight, drop the pointy things and I'll be glad to go fist to fist, no sand or other mystical BS. Hell, I'm only here because my boss wanted the advertisement, beyond that I'm just looking for a good time."


Summary:
Shots blocked by armor, holes left when stricken.

@tag