stabby hollow vs. dumb magician

[kingsroads]

Who: Strange & Zangetsu
Where: Training grounds!
When: Day 170, in between the "don't fuck this up" post and the "don't fuck this up" dinner party
What: FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT
Warnings: probably none, will edit if needed

In retrospect, this was a bad idea. But really? Strange probably won't be able to do any sort of fun, big showing off type magic when they were in the Prince's castle, so he might as well get it out of his system now. Granted, having a quick sparring match probably isn't the best way to work the magic out of his system, especially considering that Strange's track record in these things is horrendous, but that hasn't stopped him before and certainly won't stop him now!

Besides, he's finally figured out how to get his full smoke form working. If worst comes to worst, he'll simply turn into smoke! Have fun trying to stab that Zangetsu!

Strange actually arrives at the training ground before Zangetsu because he's a cheat who can travel through reflections and walking is for chumps. He definitely looks like someone who popped over in the middle of getting ready. Strange's hair is brushed, but he's still wearing attire that's a little too shabby. And, as the other man arrives, Strange steps forward, giving him a little nod...and then realizes where he's seen Zangetsu before.

"Oh! You were one of the people at the ritual in Portland, weren't you?"

Yes, he just now realized this, it's hard to match voice to faces sometimes, okay?

Comments

[moonfang]

You are a cheating piece of shit, Strange. The fact that the magician is there before him, even with his Sonído step, gives him a bad taste in his mouth. But hey! When he feasts on his flesh and soul, all that bad taste will be washed away.

Zangetsu flashes into the training ground, immediately removing the sword as long as he is tall from his back.

... Really? Even voices as unique as his? Zangetsu folds his rabbit-ish ears and lifts his lip in a snarl.

"Yeah? What about it?"

[kingsroads]

Strange is such a cheating piece of shit and will only further prove that he's a cheating piece of shit as the fight goes on.

"Nothing," he remarks, as he stretches slightly, stepping into the training ground as he looks Zangetsu over, matching his snarl with an annoying smirk. "But it does tell me what I should expect from this fight."

Granted, all he knows is that he should expect 'huge fuckoff sword' which all in all, isn't that helpful. But he could find a way to use his magic to deal with the sword, right? Right! "Shall we begin?"

[moonfang]

Say what you will about the crazy sword spirit, but at least he fights with honor. Most of the time. He's not totally opposed to the occasional cheap trick, but he tries not to make a habit of it.

The snarl turns into a smirk of his own, and Zangetsu cants his head to one side. "Oh. Well, if that's what you think."

Cause if that's all you've seen? Honey, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Without another word, he seemingly disappears, accompanied by a sound like a stereo speaker blowing out. A moment later and the sound happens again, this time, right behind Strange, accompanied by a slash with the impossibly large sword.

Well, he wasn't kidding when he said he was fast.

[kingsroads]

As soon as Zangetsu disappears, Strange mutters a quick phrase, calling forth a fireball which hovers over his had. When he hears the second sound, right behind him, Strange instinctively turns around, right as Zangetsu slashes at him with his sword. The slash cuts into his chest, sword tearing through his shirt, though there's an odd 'clink' as the sword scrapes over the patch of mirrored covering a fiar amount of his right shoulder.

Letting out a yelp of pain, Strange releases the fireball in Zangetsu's direction. Hopefully this hits him. Because he's a combination of bleeding and annoyed right about now.

Though, Strange has his wits together enough to realize this might have been a bad idea. Stubbornness keeps Strange using his actual magic at the moment but really, practicality might win out fairly quickly.

[moonfang]

Well, a hit is a hit. The smell of blood fills his nostrils, and Zangetsu realizes he probably should have gone for a killing blow, right to his neck. But if he does have a major weakness, it's his desire to play with his prey. Like a demented cat.

The fireball connects, and there's a smell of burning cloth and flesh. The fireball hit him on the left side of his chest, searing through his clothes and burning his skin. A direct hit! ... That doesn't stop him at all. He doesn't even seem to flinch as blue ichor-like blood weeps from the burn.

Zangetsu reaches out with his injured arm, black, knife-like talons bursting from his fingertips and makes a grab for Strange's face.

[kingsroads]

Most people would have stopped if they were hit by a fireball directly to the chest. When the fireball hits, Strange comes to the terrifying realization that Zangetsu isn't most people. As the talons reach for his face, he just has one thought: he needs to be smoke, right at this moment, so he won't get scratched.

It just takes that thought. With a small poof sound, Strange's body changes, turning into a dark purple smoke. The smoke resembles something humanoid for a moment or two before it starts to disperse, going lower to the ground and spreading out into more of a cloud formation. A sickly sweet smell lingers in the air, coming from the smoke itself.

He's about to give a presentation, he can't afford to get his face all scratched up! Besides, Zangetsu's hardly playing fair!

[moonfang]

Scratch? Oh no no no. My dear magician, he was going to grab you and shove your head into the dirt. You should BE so lucky to just get clawed up.

-- woopsie.

Of course, all of that forward momentum just keeps going when the once solid man becomes a plume of purple, weird-smelling smoke. Zangetsu nearly loses his balance and has to put out one of his big rabbity feet and embed his sword in the ground to catch himself.

Once he regains his balance, he looks at the smoke along the ground and swipes at it, over and over, with his sword, leaving gashes in the ground as he does.

"You FUCK! You cheat!! TURN BACK INTO A PERSON RIGHT NOW! COWARD!"

[kingsroads]

Is this cheating? Probably! But is he going to turn back into a person? Hell no. The cloud of smoke stays where it is, though a few slashes from Zangetsu's sword do cause Strange to idly float backwards, as if that would somehow stop Zangetsu from slashing at him in the first place.

"Certainly not!" There's a brief pause because whoa, Strange had no idea he could talk in this form. It feels odd, like trying to say something underwater or like trying to talk with a head cold, and it sounds odd as well. Strange's voice is obviously coming from general area of the smoke, but there's an odd reverb sound to his voice that makes it hard to place precisely what part of the smoke his 'mouth' would be.

"You're hardly playing fair in the first place."

[moonfang]

The oddness of being spoken to by sapient smoke doesn't seem to bother Zangetsu, who continues swiping fruitlessly.

"ME? I'm being unfair?! I'm fighting the normal way! You're just weak and picked a fight you weren't ready for."

With a snarl he cloaks his blade in black and red energy, burning hot enough to wither the grass around it. He stabs it into the ground in the center of the smoke cloud. He knows he could burn the smoke with this pure nuclear energy, but gaseous forms are so infuriatingly slippery!!

[kingsroads]

As the blade stabs into the ground, Strange moves out of the way, smoke quickly floating away from the burning black and red blade. He's not going to touch that! Especially not now that he knows it can wither the grass around it, what the hell would that do to him?!

"We're sparring, not fighting to kill!" At least, Strange was under the impression that they were sparring and not fighting to kill. He's putting together the pieces that Zangetsu proooobably wasn't.

[moonfang]

The grass in direct contact with the flaming blade actually turns black and then to ash, so... probably a good idea not to touch it. "Hot" isn't the right word so much as just pulsing with pure energy. He keeps trying to stab the smoke, though, with increasingly frustrated growls.

"I said I was going to EAT YOU! How did you interpret that as 'friendly sparring', you idiot?!" Zangetsu finally gives up his stabbing and starts giving off small spurts of the same energy from his body in his anger. "HOLD STILL!"

[kingsroads]

"Surely you didn't mean that literally!" Strange whines. Because he didn't mean that literally, did he? That's cannibalism! And it's gross! And he's certain there's a carnival rule about not eating your coworkers in there somewhere (and if not, he's certainly going to petition the Ringmaster to add one in after this nonsense!)

As the energy spurts out from his body, Strange's smoke form just floats further away from the hollow, growing and shrinking to try and keep away from Zangetsu and try not to get barbecued. Some of the flames lick waaay too close for comfort and Strange knows that if Zangetsu actually gets a decent hit on him, he's down for the count.

So, running like a coward it is. He arrived here via a puddle near the outskirts of the training grounds, if he could just float over there, he could travel back to the main carnival area that way.

oops lost this notif somehow

[moonfang]

"I meant EXACTLY what I said!" And it's NOT cannibalism -- he is not a human. He is a sword spirit-slash-Hollow. None of those things are human.

Zangetsu isn't going to give up on this, and he chases Strange over to the puddle, not knowing he plans to use it to escape.

np!

[kingsroads]

This is going to be interesting. Perhaps he could say the incantation then turn back to human at the last minute? Because Strange knows that he wouldn't be able to fully use his magic if he's entirely smoke: there's something in the back of his mind that knows it to be true. He'll have to time this quickly and hope for the best.

Hoping for the best really has become Strange's default strategy. He needs to do something about that.

So, he floats back under the puddle muttering something under his breath. And then, he turns back into a human. There's a brief moment, just a few seconds when Strange is human and Zan can get in a hit. But after that? He's gone, sucker, this whole 'stand around and get eaten' thing is for the birds.