Board Thread:Roleplaying/@comment-19164168-20161212045904/@comment-25073873-20161212160418

Iorilei Fontaine frowned as she leapt back from her foe. Or rather, just her opponent in a sparring session. She had made it a point to travel the whole of High Rock to seek out Fontaine after Fontaine, pitting her skills with a sword against them one after another. Quite happily for Iori, she had won almost everything, and her swordplay was enough to even draw against the General Fionn Fontaine, christened the "Fontaine Sword God", although it was likely he was giving some chances.

Ther opponent was none other than "Shadow Reaper" Syaran Fontaine (he got blue eyes tho). Said to be the best swordsman in her generation. It didn't help that Emilia had tried to fight Syaran earlier, and was knocked out in less than five moves, after she was simply hit in the head with the pommel of his blade. Iori frowned as Syaran came in fast, his sword cutting a deadly horizontal arc from his left, which she parried vertically, then proceeded to move in to punch him. The fact that Syaran had easily recovered his stance, and brought his sword down made Iori instinctively dodge to her left, as she tried to bring her sword in to cut Syaran, cutting from her right to left.

Her hand was stopped by Syaran's fist punching her wrist, but Iori had a firm grip on her sword, and she never dropped it, instead leaping back. With a frown, Iori used her body enhancement, and sped forward, performing a downward vertical slash. Syaran uncharacteristically turned anticlockwise, and brought his sword above him, as he used the flat to deflect Iori's strike from hitting him. Sliding his weapon off, his blade again went for Iori's neck for yet another attempt to slash at her. It caused Iori to lean back just enough to let the blade pass over her.

Syaran turned his sword and slashed back rapidly to target Iori, who was off balance. Iori teetered on one leg, leaning back, and pressing her sword against Syaran's to keep her balance, as she smiled with a wink, leaping back so Syaran's blade passed below her, as she kept it pinned with her sword. Landing with a flip on the other side, Iori immediately launched for a step, assuming her opponent to be slower than her.

It didn't help, as Syaran came forward fast and deflected her strike away with the pommel of his blade, the weapon pivoting naturally and lashing out for Iori's face. It didn't take the girl even a milisecond to know her life was flashing before her eyes, and she threw a trio of papers down, activating them, the blue runes glowing as she leapt backwards. Syaran knew what was up, and with his gravity alteration flew backwards, just moments before the papers exploded violently with a fireburst.

Syaran frowned and raised his sword against Iori, as he surveyed the panting girl. He was not even tired, and his sword's blade seemed to collect black energy that flowed down his arm, as the whole weapon became a black rod that devoured light itself. He was angry, as he said "you used your magic. Hmm, if we aren't just going to fight sword to sword, might as well. You have been defeated in a sword fight anyway. I slowed my strikes to let you live."

Iori huffed angrily, and raised her weapon, the edge distorting as she channeled her sword as well. She swung the blade three times, and three crescents of air seemed for form, flying at Syaran, who shook his head, casually swinging his sword across in a diagonal. Whatever happened next caused Iori to leap sideways with a squeal, as her three sword beams were devoured by an enormous black wave of inky darkness which distorted even gravity. Syaran looked angry and insulted, almost.

Iori didn't give in, though. They had went through multiple bouts, and she was getting very tired. Syaran seemed fine, but Iori knew she was not. And with a battle cry, Iori leapt forward and swung her blade multiple times, firing wave after wave, causing Syaran to deflect and destroy each wave with swings of his blade. And then she lunged when she was close enough, flying at extreme speed through the air.

Syaran smiled, and seemed to almost teleport to his left, as he stretched out his sword and knocked Iori off course. Iori's eyes widened as she landed on her feet, seeing a black orb form in Syaran's left hand, heading straight for her face at high speed. The gravity was there, and it was the natural instinct of a young woman like her to scream ... and so Iori let off a ear splitting "Aieeeeeeeee!".

Iori's eyes were shut tight, but nothing happened. Then Syaran simply closed his hand and rapped her on the forehead with his knuckles, causing Iori to squeal in terror, drop her sword and fall over quite unceremoniously on her rear. When she realized nothing happened, Iori opened her eyes, and saw Syaran with a smile, his sword already sheathed, his hand extended to pick her up.

That moment, Emilia woke up with a start, probably startled by the scream, and she very angrily leapt for Syaran. He simply sent her crashing to the ground by slapping her face, causing the other girl to crash just beside Iori with a squeal, followed by a grunt. Iori herself yelped with a high pitched "eeek!"

Syaran dragged Iori to her feet, before he leaned down and ruffled Emilia's hair, saying to her "I told you, one day I would surpass you. You shouldn't have beat me up so much when we were kids. Now, every single time we duel, I'm beating you in one less move. I'll make it three the next time, ok?"

Emilia looked like she was about to cry, but held it in due to pride, as Syaran turned to walk away after stretching. There were hardly any spectators, other than Iori's younger brother, who obviously didn't even have the guts to try to fight Syaran, or even challenge any other main liner with pure sword combat. Iori helped her relative off the ground, and sighed, picking her sword up to sheathe it.

"I really messed up, didn't I?" said Iori as she shook her head. She was the third ranked in sword skills overall, and was quite glad she lasted a grand total of thirteen minutes against Syaran, exchanging nearly 87 sword strokes. It was pretty much an achievement when she noted Emilia was mercilessly crushed in less than five.

Emilia visibly frowned more, pulled Iori's ear and shouted "ARE YOU MOCKING ME IORIIIIIIII!!!!!!"

Aeorin winced as he heard the girl scream. Syaran turned to look back, but shrugged and went on his way with a short laugh.