Ignaz vs. Yang

Ignaz was blacking out, he couldn't tell which way was up, let alone what was happening, why he felt this way. Everything was spinning, it was like... he was moving?

Then, he hit the floor with a thud, it was sandy, but not hot. It didn't feel like a desert, more like a floor someone had covered in sand, people's voices from all around cheering. For what? One voice was above all the others: "For our next bout, we have the Blonde Brawler, Yang Xiao Long, versu-" The voice was proud, boisterous, and echoing until it wasn't, and it became low and quieted, but still heard. "Who is that? Are they on the roster? What should we do?"

Then, another voice, closer, more personal, fiery and excited. "What's your name? You know mine, so it's only fair I know yours before we kick this off!" And feminine. If Ignaz would open his eyes, he'd see an athletic and toned blonde woman pumping her fists together, waiting for him to get up. She had a competitive grin on her face, her blonde hair seemed to go on forever, her outfit covered her legs but left her midriff open, she had strange gauntlets on her hands, it was all a lot to take in at once....

The cloaked and masked figure picked himself off the ground and looked around, ignoring the blonde's question for the moment, finding himself in an unfamiliar location. He tried teleporting away to a magic circle he had set up in case of emergencies, but found that he couldn't, meaning that he was either in a magic nullifying zone or something something served his tie with it. He tested out the first case by starting to spread dozens if not hundreds of translucent magic circles into his surrounding that only those with the keenest of eyes could spot or those with a high attunement to detection magic could sense, and since he could do that, it means the latter case is what happened.

With all he could figure out in a brief time, and some past knowledge, Ignaz figured that he had been captured by the demons and thrown into an arena for their amusement, where he'd either have to fight another capture non-demon or a demon to the death, although he couldn't tell if his opponent was an athletic human or a type of demon, an ogre or an oni perhaps, but it didn't matter as he wasn't planning on dying. He finally got around to answering his opponent's question, simply saying, "Ignaz," as his gloved hands came out of his cloak and blades made of purple energy formed in them.

"Oh, crazy weapo- are those cat ears?!" Yang said with all of the excitement and curiosity of a high school girl. She jumped towards Ignaz with her guard lowered and took a close look at his ears and hair with sparkles in her purple eyes. "I have a friend with ears JUST like these! Hey, you two might get along, wanna hang out after our bout?" She asked him, and her carefree attitude and lighthearted request maybe hinted at Ignaz's dark assumptions being inaccurate to the truth of his situation.

Also, every single person in the audience was a human who seemed to be enjoying themselves like they were watching a sporting event, half of them weren't even watching the fights and were just hanging out and eating refreshments.

Unsurprisingly, a hooded cloak meant to hide the wearer's features didn't work that well with an pair of ears on the top of a head. "You are friends with a Tabaxi? And what kind of arena is this where we are both leaving alive, and has a human audience at that?" Ignaz asked as his guard stayed up. While it looked like the audience was made out of humans, that could just be a simple illusion meant to mess with his head and drop his guard, just like his opponent's carefree attitude could be meant to do the same.

"What's a Tabaxi? My friend's a Faunus. Are those just two words for the same thing? Animal people?" Yang asked with a hint of confusion before getting even more confused. "What kind of arena? You signed up, didn't you? It's a sport, not a duel. And, what other kind of audience would there be? There aren't enough Midara to fill the seats." The Huntress tried consulting her brain for an explanation, and she went with a simple one that explained everything.

"Oh, you're just playing a character, right? I get it, puts on a better show. Me, I prefer to put on the show with these!" Yang said as she took a few steps back and took a fighting stance, raising her fists as she got ready to brawl.

"That's right, folks, Yang Xiao Long versus our new mystery contestant! Will her win streak hold despite the unknown odds she faces?" The announcer asked the audience, which seemed to get pretty excited.

He was now certain that this was all to mess with his mind before the fight starts, especially when she through out completely made up words like faunus and midara, which would mean she was either a demon or a human desperate to survive. Not waiting for his opponent to attack first, Ignaz disappeared from her sight to only appear right behind her, not that she could see that, as he thrusted one of his manifested blade straight at where her heart should be, planning on finishing this before she could make a single move.

Psychic Teleportation Attack, Heart Attack

Heart Attack (71,83) Fail
Rising Dragon (58) Success, Downed (57) Fail

Ignaz thrust his conjured blade at the blonde's back, only to find that she his turned on a dime and thrust her fist into his gut instead, taking the wind out of him for a moment. "That was close, and hey, you weren't trying to kill me with that, right?! I get you're role-playing but the rules still apply, dude." Yang scolded him as she flourished her fists and steadied herself for the next strike. If she was telling the truth, lethal force wasn't allowed in this arena. Also... it was pretty damn impressive that she reacted so quickly to his teleportation... and she packed quite a straight...

Ignaz: 28 Willpower, PT Cooldown 0/5
Yang: 30 Stamina, 6 Ammo

"She was lucky that she counter attacked instead of blocking," Ignaz thought to himself, as trying to block a weapon made of pure psionic energy isn't an easy task, "And that reaction speed makes it clear enough that she is a monk, so unless she is anything like the one I'm used to and can spew the elements, this should be the best way to take care of her." Ignaz didn't give the blonde an answer to her question about trying to kill her as he jumped back with a flip in the air as he threw on of his psionic daggers at her.

Throwing Knife

Throwing Knife (94) Crit Success

"Hey, are you even listening to me, Ignaz?!" Yang asked angrily as she lifted a fist and tried to smack the throwing knife out of the air. But, that only ended up getting her cut on her wrist thanks to the strange nature of his blades. "Owowowo! Well... that didn't cut my hand off." The blonde shook her hand and seemed to get chill up her spine before she clenched her fists and prepared again.

Ignaz: 28 Willpower, PT Cooldown 1/5
Yang: 29 Stamina, 6 Ammo

He once again didn't give a response to Yang, but her slightly loud voice did cause his cat ears to twitch, showing that he could at least hear her. Seeing the effectiveness of his tanged attack, Ignaz decided to keep that up for the time being. The arena seemed to darken like some clouds were covering the sun for a moment, but looking up, Yang could see that it wasn't clouds but hundreds, if not thousands, of blades made of purple energy covering the sky, each one seeming to have its tip pointed at her before they started raining down at her one by one.

Soul Storm

Soul Storm (31) Fail
Celica Shot (100,40) Crit Success

"What the hell?!" Yang swore as she looked up and saw impending doom. It was cute how Ignaz's ear twitched, but there were more pressing matters at hand here! She knew that she couldn't block this, and dodging the rain was joke due to how impossible it was! She thought fast, and decided to target the source of the problem. The brawler pointed a fist at Ignaz, and from this angle, he could see what looked like a gun barrel attacked to it... uh oh.

A shell was discharged and hit the rogue right in the forehead, thankfully it was non-lethal just like his blades were to the blonde, but it shattered the focus he needed to keep up Soul Storm.

Ignaz: 27 Willpower, PT Cooldown 2/5, Stunned
Yang: 29 Stamina, 5 Ammo

The shell would of hit him on the forehead, if there wasn't a blank white mask in the way, which shattered just like his focus. With the mask broken, Ignaz casted it aside so he could properly see, revealing his golden eyes and handsome face that could easily be that of a cat midara or part cat midara. He at least knew now that she had ranged options, and seeing that it appeared to be a gun of sorts, she should have limited ammo or at least need to reload at some point.

(Ah, yes... dodging rain is a joke, just like my luck, 0 hits then a critical success)

(Sometimes the cookie crumbles like that)
Pets and Pats (13) Crit Fail

"Oh, wow! You're a lot more handsome than I thought, I thought you'd be on the cuter side. Well, I guess Blake is on the like, painfully gorgeous side so it adds up. You even have eyes like her!" Yang ran right up to the reeling Ignaz, only to geek out over his feline features again. She seemed far more interested in having fun and satisfying her own urges than fighting her heart out... but maybe fighting her heart out was part of the fun? She had a clear window to strike, but instead....

"Can I pet your ears? Pleease?"

Ignaz: 27 Willpower, PT Cooldown 3/5
Yang: 29 Stamina, 5 Ammo, Off Balance

"What? No. Don't treat me like I'm an animal at a petting zoo," Ignaz replied, shutting down Yang's request without a moment of hesitation, as, with the same lack of hesitation, he went to stab her in the head with a psionic dagger that just appeared in his hand. He had no idea why she would want to pet his ears, nor had he ever had them pet before, so he had no idea what kind of trickery she was trying to pull in the middle of their battle.

Mind Rend

Mind Rend (Auto)
Struggle (64) Success, Improv Combo (67,27) Fail

Yang groaned in pain and stumbled back as Ignaz exploited her hesitation to land a tough blow, and she seemed pretty dizzy before she shook her head and refocused. "Nngh, yeah, you're right, this isn't a petting zoo, sorry about that. It was probably rude to ask, especially since I'm a stranger." Yang admitted as she rubbed the back of her head and shrugged.

Ignaz: 27 Willpower, PT Cooldown 4/5
Yang: 27 Stamina, 5 Ammo

She either had a mind of steel to shake off a direct hit like that so quickly, or not enough of a mind for it to be effective on her, with Ignaz assuming it was the first choice with all the trickery he believed she had been trying to pull off. Despite her quick recovery from what must of only felt like a brief headache to her, Ignaz tried to use the small window of time to land two slashes on her.

Cross Slash

Cross Slash (54) Success
Blast Dash (18) Success

If Ignaz knew Yang better, he'd probably figure out that the truth was closer to the latter than it was to the former... He cut into her while she was still recovering, causing her to leap back before he got a combo going. "You're doing pretty good so far, Ignaz. Here I come!" Yang declared as she pointing her fists away from him. The rogue was probably wondering how she'd come from that far away.... until she let loose an explosion that propelled her right into him and punched him in the face, nearly knocking him flat on his ass.

Ignaz: 24 Willpower
Yang: 25 Stamina, 3 Ammo

"So her weapons and ammunition can be used like that too. That has been two shots from one and one shot from the other, and they don't appear to be connected in any way to share ammo, so her next shot should be from the less used one," Ignaz calculating mind thought as he used to force from the punch to his pant to send himself flying back, flipping in the air again as he threw another of his weapons at her.

Throwing Knife

Throwing Knife (96) Crit Success

Yang wasn't expecting Ignaz to manage a knife toss from such a compromised position, such as right after eating one of her punches with his jaw. But, he had managed it, and he struck the blonde right in her chest. The blonde staggered back, and as he stuck the landing, the rogue's analyzing eyes detected another crucial detail...

Yang had some amazing breasts! The perfect size and curvature, they bounced with nearly her every movement, and she wore a tube top that hugged them snugly and showed off plenty of her inviting cleavage.

Ignaz: 24 Willpower
Yang: 24 Stamina, 3 Ammo

With Yang's breast size, Ignaz settled on his initial thought that she was a demon, an oni specifically, muscular demon with the female variety mostly having hefty chest like Yang's. With the distance between them now, he assumed another shot from her weapons was coing his way, so he tried to make aiming that shot a difficult task.

Psychic Veil

Psychic Veil (16) Success
Rising Dragon (74,58) Success, Downed (25) Fail

Yang would've been flattered to hear that comparison between her and an oni, at least if Ignaz worded it correctly. But, there was no time for flirting, there was a fight to get back to, a Roaring crowd to satisfy! The rogue succeeded in creating his veil, and he could see how perplexed she was at the sight. The brawler sprinted right at him, and she threw a wild punch that struck his side despite the obscuring of her sight.

Ignaz: 22 Willpower, Veil 1/3
Yang: 24 Stamina, 3 Ammo

Ignaz grunted as her fist made solid contact with his side, but as he knew and as she could feel, under his cloak there was leather armor that lessened the impact to Ignaz. With his blurred appearance, Yang could barely make out him winding up an attack, but where that attack was coming from and where it was aimed wasn't clear at all.

Heart Attack

Heart Attack (55) Fail
One-Two Strike (84,32;68,36) 2 Success (Yeah, your luck's dogwater)

Ignaz would soon learn something about Yang... she wasn't easily deterred. Despite her being unable to rely on her sight, she still kept swinging out in his general direction. The Huntress was fast, aggressive, and forceful, and she landed two more blows while also preventing Ignaz from finding an opening to strike. "What's wrong, can't keep up?" The blonde asked as she kept rushing him down even if he tried to flee.

Ignaz: 20 Willpower, Veil 2/3
Yang: 24 Stamina, 3 Ammo

Ignaz didn't give the brawler an answer as he tried escaping from the range of her fists... at least that was what he made it look like, but he was actually waiting for Yang to go in for an attack to teleport and strike back at the same time.

Psychic Teleportation Decoy

Psychic Teleportation Decoy (Auto)
Booby Bump (Countered)

"Not even talking to me? I'm not a fan of the cold shoulder, Ignaz." Yang chided him as she ran at the Rogue. He was more than ready to evade and counter in one fluid motion, and his plan was executed with a hitch. There was only one thing that wasn't how he expected it, it didn't look like the busty blonde was trying to punch. It was like... she was sticking out her chest and reaching for a hug? What a strange attack...

Ignaz: 20 Willpower, Teleport CD 0/5
Yang: 22 Stamina, 3 Ammo, 1 Burning Spirit