Grey Fox vs. Ammaranth -MB Title Match Pt. 3-

[Jushiro Ukitake]

Z-Udgey, clad in his judge's garb, stepped out into the sunlight. Again, the stadium, packed to capacity with spectators, never failed to give him a rush.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Today, two swordsmen will face off to see who is the better! The two have chosen to fight on the Urban field!

The Sand field is an urban setting, full of buildings, a catwalk, and stairs aplenty - not to mention hard asphalt below. Competitors can use the field to their advantage.

And now, give a warm welcome to the competitors!

At the east is Ammaranth!!" The crowd then cheers, anticipating a good fight from the newcomer.

"Today Ammaranth will be fighting with medium weight sabre, and a pair of daggers. The sabre, plus one dagger, have basket hilts. The other dagger has a simple cross guard with side rings. For armor he will utilize some thick leather for the body and a pair of gauntlets with sturdy cuffs.

"And then, from the west, is Grey Fox!" The crowd cheers even wilder. It was a surprise no one had gotten deaf, much less lost their voice from the past two matches.

"He's now sporting a katana/wakizashi duo, the high-frequency dual blades Minshuto and Kyowato!! He also has on a power suit that provides "superhuman motor skill capabilities" and increased durability - not to mention his trademark Mandalorian iron wrist gauntlets - disarming him will be impossible!"

[Technical = The suit has an integrated accelerator which leaves a trail of fire behind after the user and is also supplemented with tentacle-like "snake arms", which can be used to grab, crush or suffocate enemies. The "snake arms" can also fire missiles. The suit utilizes much of the technology developed for Metal Gear RAY (most notably the artificial muscle tissue).]

"And Fox will stow a modified FN P90 submachine gun equipped with explosive armor piercing rounds, in extreme cases."

"Now, swordsmen, shake hands.... DUEL START!!"

[Ammaranth]

Ammaranth surveyed the scene for a moment. The sound of the crowd had gotten so loud that on the one hand it was deafenning, but in muting out everything else, even it's own noise seemed to disappear. The skyline was no quieter -- the angles of the buildings, their varied heights, the jagged edge of rooftops against a clouded sky -- all seemed to be shouting something.

After looking around for some minutes, he went over to the nearest set of stairs, and climbed up to the roof. The sound of footfalls on the metal steps became pronounced as the crowd went hush. He went right for the catwalk, and crossed over to the other side, far enough away from the staircase to let the Grey Fox climb up without being threatenned. He took out his sabre, and the dagger that matched it, and waited.

[Grey Fox]

Frowning at the crowds and paying little attention to Ammaranth and more to his surroundings. Fighting above near the catwalk would be rather more constricted than he'd like. Remeberiing that stealth would be his best weapon(for al the means of death he was paacking) And used his right 'Snake arm' Just to rise above the low street he was in and make a 'come over here' gesture with the arm. Turning around instantly he darted into the building on his left. it was small inside and only a staircase filled the building. Jogging up it quickly he found himself on the first floor of the building, it's roof and higher walls missing and a solitary Cardboard box saying "No place to hide", He decided to conceal himself, but also lure Ammaranth in, firing his P90 once into the air to give away his posistion, seconds later the only thing on the roof was the box, and a single shell on the floor beside it.

[Ammaranth]

Ammaranth watched the Fox gesture, then turn and disappear into the building.
"Hmm, you try and give someone what they want..." he mumbled.
One thing he'd learned, a long time ago, was that if your opponent wants you to do something, it's usually a good idea to do just the opposite. Maybe the Grey Fox had learned this too. Either way, Ammaranth wasn't about to just walk through that doorway. Scanning the horizon, he noted that the building in question was missing it's roof, not to mention most of the rest of the building, for that matter. He picked out another, more intact highrise nearby, and sheathing his weapons, turned to a shower of bats, that fluttered in several different directions before reforming on the taller building's roof. He didn't intend to use any of his "abilities" in actual combat, but making everyone wait while he climbed the stairs seemed like a pointless waste of time.
Looking over the side, he could see right into the first floor of the building. There was a set of stairs, a cardboard box -- and no Fox. He reached over and took up a loose brick, but set it down after seeing the nice decorative pattern that ran along the edge of it.
"Too nice to break", he said to himself.
Finding a plainer brick, he held it out over the side of the roof.
"Let's see if Jack's home," he said, and he let the brick go. It fell, and Ammaranth watched it and the box intently, expecting to see Shin spring out at the last moment and do, well, something. Instead the brick hit the box with the force of a small explosion, sending a red splatter all over the inside of the room.
Ammaranth looked disappointed.
"That was over much too soon."

[Grey Fox]

Grey Fox looked On As the inside of contents of The Cardboard box, A pile of Watermelons it seemed, splattered across the walls. He himself Was Hiding in the corner of the room to Amm's right. He was invisible per se, but using the Otacamo function of his suit it had resgitered the patterns of the wall ad assimilated it to provide camoflage, not invisible, just unnoticable, unless something near him caught amm's attenion.
Seconds after this occured to him half a watermelon rolled into his left leg, tuning the camo to represent a watermelons outer layer.
Deiding to act before Amm noticed him, Fox sent the two Snake arms towards Amm:
The right one grabbing Amm By the shoulder and spinning him to face Fox, the left one pulling Amm By his Arms into the wall behind Fox.
As he span around to swing Amm towards the wall, Fox Leapt backwards the second He'd let go of Amm, Sweeping his Katana and Wakizashi vibroblades, Minshuto and Kyowato(Democrat , Republican) Vibroblades from their holsters and landing in the polished practiced Jar'Krai stance he always used, as the huge flock of Doves he had spent half an hour planting in the arena, although that moment seemed awefully nostalgic, He watched Amm Use his legs to Rebound of the wall and land in a roll on the edge of the building, with only a small alley seperating them.

[Ammaranth]

Ammaranth did not seem very concerned at being picked up or roughly handled. The whole time he just laughed, a strange, inhuman laugh.
"Mwa-ha ha ha, this is fun."
He watched the shower of doves go up, and in no mood to be outdone, sent a telepathic message to his wolves, who immediately sent up a chorus of howls.
"Ah, such music," he said, drawing his weapons and stalking out to the center of the roof, where there would be more room. He settled into a middle stance, the sabre hovering in the air out before him, the dagger drawn slightly back, ready to help its bigger brother.
"But -- watermellons?", he said with a smirk, "Perhaps you'd be better suited to Mutsumi. Leave Motoko to me!"

[Grey Fox]

Fox Smiled himself at this ridiculous notion. Give up his shot at the champion title?
Maybe he would.
Forfit the fight?
Never.
Nonetheless thoug Amm's behaviour was seriously unnerving him, Fox certainly didn't enjoy the company of vampires, to his recolection the last 4 he had met had met their ultimate fate either by his hand or by the influence of him, strangely though the latter had not been deliberate. Then again it was bad enough he had to share his body with the spirit one Vampire, among others, But fighting another was certainly pushing it further. Although he had to admit that the wolves were certainly a nice touch, he remebered the time he had spent in Alaska and fondly remebered the Huskies there as well.
"Nice touch with the Wolves i'll give you that. Did you know that in yupik, the word for wolf is kegluneq. And the Alluets revere them as honorable cousins."
Without giving any hint of what his next move would be Fox took a single step to his right so Amm was digonally on his left.
His next immediate action was to use his suit's integrated Accelerator to sweep straight past amm, the trail of fire spanning from his origin point to his current posistion.
Clearly did not see the point in this, but two more dashes later and it was apparent that the aim was to create a triangular arena of flame. Before his path would of lead into the first flame wall, Fox leaned to his left as he started a third dash which also became a shoulder charge into Ammaranth. The blow was fast and hard enough for Ammaranth to skid almost completely into the fire.
As soon as he had shoulder charged Amm, Fox Angled his blades straight down at the floor And span in a circle, his blades sliced through the roof like warm butter and landing inside a more cramped Room, with 4 pilars near each corner and what appeared to be platic explosive clustered inside each of the Metal Support Pillars.

[Ammaranth]

Ammaranth used celerity to quicken his motions, and turn with the Grey Fox as he rounded each corner. He moved so fast he didn't appear to be moving at all.

"Boxing me in, is it?" he thought, "Oh, here he comes." Actually, the Fox was moving a bit faster than he had anticipated, so that Ammaranth didn't have time to make much of a cut with his sabre, so he settled for punching with the handguard. He struck at Fox's face with the heavy metal basket, letting its weight and Fox's momentum do most of the work, all the while warding with the dagger against any sneaky sword techniques the Fox might have been planning.

It was a terrible collision, with so much force that both combatants jolted back from it. Seemingly unphased, the Grey Fox used his swords to cut a hole in the floor, and disappeared through it. Ammaranth cautiously peered through the hole, keeping his guard up against what he thought could be a trap. Was Fox wounded, and just running on adrenaline? He couldn't tell. It had certainly been a fierce blow. Then he saw the explosives at each of the supports.

"Not good -- unless . . ." Ammaranth smiled. With the heavy clouds all around, it had already been threatenning to storm for some time now. It didn't take much to change the already unstable atmosphere. Just a little more -- he could feel the static building -- a little more -- there! And the charged air triggered the plastics in the columns, setting off a tremendous explosion. The whole block shook as the charges went off. Ammaranth didn't even try to get away. He let the blast carry him upward, and rode a piece of the wreckage almost all the way down to the street, slowing himself at the last moment so as not to hit the ground TOO hard.

The building, meanwhile, was coming down in pieces everywhere, in some cases landing several streets away.

"Fox! Come out of there! I know that little blast didn't kill you. Why don't we try using our swords for a change!"

[Grey Fox]

Fox's hid in the shadows. He had certainly not expected any ailities such as this From Ammaranth.
"Ah GOD, DAMN YOU AMM! i thought we agreed No Special abilities." Fox Voices rang out clear as summer lightning eerily shaking through the very soul of everyone around.
"but if you want a sword fight, I'll be most happy to ablidge."
Footsteps could be heard Approaching and Grey Fox appeared right above Ammaranth, his FN P90 in hand. The calculated stream of bullets from the four corners streamed towards the center of the street, and right to where amm was standing. Imedietly after the last bullet had been stopped by Amm's blade, Fox's boot connected with Amm's face as he Flipped backwards off of Amm, But he wasn't finished yet. His left snake arm attatched itself to Amm's Neck as the right firing a low yield Missile into the small of Amm's Back. Landing low in a crouching posistion His Voice rang out again.
"However i'll meet your challage Blade to Blade Later."
Fox flipped Backwards again this time Flipping high into the air and seemingly stopped dead in line with the sun. He Decided that Since Amm, one of the many chosen by the totem of the Bat, Was using the power to his advantage that he would do the same.
The Two Totems that he Weiled the power of were the Fox And The Raven.
When he landed on the roof of a building dead in front of Ammaranth, A swarm of Ravens had already Gathered, which immediatly soared Straight into Ammaranth, circling him and pecking him from all sides. Fox leaping swiftly from Roof to roof, approaching once again the Old Catwalk, a slight gold and sliver trail of mist behind him..

[Jushiro Ukitake]

[Ref: Fox planted plastique - C4, to be exact - on those pillars. atmospheric charge won't set those off.]

[Grey Fox]

OOC:/Well i didn't plant them and it will mean that they are resistant to being shot beaten or burned and evidently run off of a Radio De equipped witha scrambler if the atomsphreric charge is enough to interere. ordenance is not for amateurs.

[Ammaranth]

(Note on the explosives: Actually, my idea was to use atmospheric changes to get an electrical discharge, and let that set them off. It would obviously be a high level trick, even for a very old vampire, but my real goal was just to get rid of the building and the explosives. I'm trying to have a SWORDfight here: What's with the bombs?

Ammaranth would have turned to mist to avoid the attacks, but mist has been done in so many movies, he thought it might seem a little cliche. So instead he turned to dust, floating in the moonlight as it broke through the clouds. Mostly, anyway. He retained enough tangibility to keep a semblance of his form, mostly in his cloak, which was being ripped to shreds. "And it was such a nice cloak, too. That particular weave hasn't been done in nearly a century."

When the flurry of ravens subsided, he made his way, slow and deliberate, back to the catwalk he'd waited on at the beginning of the fight. "You know, I don't recall ever seeing Motoko fire a gun, much less a missle launcher. Is this really the kind of fight you think she'd like?"

Ammaranth paused to level his sabre, pointing it directly at the Grey Fox. "I said at the beginning that it was my intention to leave my "abilities" out of this. I want to fight YOU, Fox. Not a suit."

And he resumed his original guard, the one he'd taken at the fight's beginning.