PP/NK - F16 Beachside Dueling (Jomei / Open To Invite)

[Calrex 0]

ID: 66039
Craft Dice: 1 (Quick Strike)

With yet another attack successful Calrex gave a small sigh of relief, but it appeared that his brief respite would be cut short as Jomei came at him once again, "If one thing's for sure, he's certainly tenacious. Guess it just might be a characteristic of strikers? Heh."

Even though the attack appeared strong, the bluenette figured it might be best to attempt striking first to preemptively end the attack before it could begin. Lowering his stance he shot forward, quickly rotating around once before coming up with a quick jab at Jomei's collarbones. The two ends of his sticks closed in on the connecting point between the ginger's shoulders and neck, but it appeared they wouldn't make it in time.

Before Calrex's attack could connect, he felt Jomei's stick collide with his shoulder, forcing his arm to clamp down, breaking the momentum he had from his advance. Being knocked to the side by the force he quickly turned so that he could keep eyes on his opponent, a smirk on his face, "Nice shot Jomei!"

"Alright, looks like he's getting into his stride. If this is going to be anything like the last time we dueled, that could mean that the tide of battle is about to change. I'll need to be ready."

Duel Count:
Calrex: 3/5
Jomei: 1/5

[Jomei 0]

ID 66048
CD 3 (Quick Strike)

Jomei watched Calrex's quick approach as the ginger went, instead for the hard and heavy attack. He half expected Calrex to easily avoid his obvious attack, but it seemed the power behind his swing was just enough to catch the blunette off guard. As the stick collided with a crack into Calrex's shoulder, it knocked him over to the side, just out of Jomei's reach. He knew he could not stop after that one attack, or Calrex could easily take the fight back into his own hands. Using the backwards momentum created from his stick bouncing off of Calrex's shoulder, the Irishman brought the stick back in a circular direction with two hands, around the top of his head, and quickly struck from his opposite side, this time going for Calrex's hip.

 

[Calrex 0]

ID: 66049
Craft Dice: 7 (Strong Blow)

Calrex looked as Jomei's followup attack came close, the Irishman planning to take advantage of the change in battle rhythm to strike once again. It was a fairly quick strike that came from the other direction, aimed at a lower angle to try and take advantage of a person's immediate response to getting hit, raising their guard to block for other incoming attacks. However, many battles in SAO had trained his senses that he could tell certain attacks to be incoming, as well as overriding his instinctual response to block from the same direction where a successful attack was previously inflicted.

Flipping both of his sticks into a reverse grip the bluenette gave a quick exhale, crouching low into a coiled leaping position. Right as the swing from the ginger's attack reached about a halfway point he leapt at a low angle forward, his weapons intersected in a horizontal scissor in front of him, aimed for Jomei's abdomen.

Duel Count:
Calrex: 4/5
Jomei: 1/5

[Jomei 0]

ID 66316
CD 6 (Strong Blow)

Knocked down again. Calrex had, pretty much flawlessly, blocked another of Jomei's attacks that he was sure to be able to land on his blue haired friend. The ginger took in a deep breath, taking in the oxygen into his lungs that Cal had quickly knocked out of him with that strike to his abdomen. There was not much fight left in him for the day, both physically and mentally. Raising to his feet, he took in one more deep breath before taking his stick in two hands and looking across at his opponent. Just one last strike, he thought to himself, Let me land just one more strike on him. Jomei released his weapon with one hand, and spun the stick in his right hand, as he normally would with his rapier. Pulling his arm back, Jomei took off in a dash to the man who was only a couple of feet in front of him, for he wanted to get as much behind this attack as he could. Once he was up close and personal with Calrex, he thrusted his arm forward, aiming right for Calrex's chest. 

[Calrex 0]

ID: 66320
Craft Dice: 10 (Counterattack)

As Jomei's advance and attack came forward Calrex's eyes widened for a second as the amount of power behind the approach. His opponent had rocketed forward almost as if he had triggered the <<Charge>> skill at a grandmaster level, but it wasn't assisted by the combat system implemented into SAO. It was a testament to the strength of will behind the ginger's attack. He felt a competitive smirk form on his lips as his head gave a quick nod, "Well, this is a battle, so I should only respond in kind!"

The incoming strike came forward towards his chest, but right as he drew only inches away from contact the stick was pushed upwards, just barely missing Calrex's face as it was forced upwards by the bluenette's rising X-guard, being knocked out of harm's way. As his arms reached their maximum extension the Ultramarine Knight quickly dropped his weight, bringing one leg back as he forced his twin sticks back down. Right as he knee touched the sand they slammed into both of Jomei's trapezius muscles.

With the last strike connecting the bluenette gave a calming breath getting back to his feet as he gave his casual smile, tossing the two sticks aside, "I guess this makes us even, heh. That was a great sparring match. You definitely haven't lost the touch with a weapon Jomei."

Duel Count:
Calrex: 5/5
Jomei: 1/5

[Jomei 0]

At the last possible moment, Jomei saw Calrex's sticks, forming an X, push upwards, knocking the stick that he held in his hands flying skyward. His olive eyes did not even have the chance to follow his weapon before Calrex brought his weight back down, right between his neck and shoulders. The ginger dropped to the ground quickly and forcefully with a thud, leaving the defeated man laying there for a moment before turning onto his back with a groan. He had lost this duel, which only proved to Jomei he needed to improve his skills before he could even think about rejoining the front lines. "Guess you have a point, that does make us even." the Irishman said with a grin. Pulling his knees into his chest and slightly rolling back onto his shoulders, Jomei threw his legs forward, propelling him upward and landed in a standing position. 

Jomei brushed the sand off of his body with both of his hands before turning to the blunet, "Thanks Cal, I needed to get off my ass for a little bit." he chuckled. "How has everyone else been since I have been gone. We.. We didn't lose anyone else, did we?" He could not help but think that, during his absence, another of their comrades lost their life. 

[Calrex 0]

Calrex was ready to offer Jomei a hand getting to his feet, but it appeared the Irishman had taken the initiative and kicked into a standing position. Their duel was over, and even though Calrex was the victor, it seemed that his opponent had gleamed a lesson from it, one that may help benefit him and keep him alive. The bluenette's face gave a calm smile and a nod, "We can always train again whenever. Self-reflection is a good aspect to have under your belt, as it's a quicker way to recognize weaknesses in your defenses, and what better way to do so than in a controlled environment, heh."

However, it seemed their conversation was taking a slight downturn, as Jomei had asked a question that Calrex was expecting to come from him. The question if anyone else was lost in the floor raids. It was understandable, as the ginger-headed fencer hadn't been in a few of the recent battles, and he was on good terms with most of the people there, much like the Ultramarine Knight himself. However, the recent battles were certainly ones that were a hard pill for Calrex to swallow, especially with the fact that his own wife had struck down two players during one. The bluenette understood the background of what had happened, but he was sure that the act itself had caused more than enough of a ripple effect for people to change their opinions of her.

"Well, yeah, you may want to lean against a rail or something, heh. Unfortunately, more lives since the Limbo fight had been lost. The floor just before floor 17 was unlocked was against a large four armed ape named Akusumaru. During that fight, Manta and Ebony were both lost, so we're now down a healer and a striker."

[Jomei 0]

Jomei nodded in agreement with what Calrex said about self reflection. Jomei definitely had learned some things from this fight, not only about his fighting style. It was a wake up call for Jomei to get back out there, before he gets left in the dust and would have to start from the beginning again. But more importantly, he wanted to be there to protect those his friends and fight by their side. 

Asking such a question, Jomei knew immediately he was going to regret it. The bosses were getting tougher, and everyone was getting more on edge. And he could see it in Cal's face that he was not going to like the answer. His shoulders slowly dropped as Calrex went into explaining how they had just fought against the ape beast, Akumasaru. However, during that fight, they had lost both Ebony and Manta. Given, Jomei was not very close with them.. But he could not say that he did not care or know them. The gaze of olive orbs fell to the sand as he sighed, "You've gotta be kidding me." he said in a solemn tone. "I can't believe they are both gone too..." He clenched his fist, "[censored].." He knew that Zandra was close with them, so he knew that she must have been taking it pretty hard. But the fact that a healer died.. that could have been Zandra. A fire began to burn inside of Jomei as he looked back up at Calrex. "I am coming back. No doubt about it. We can't keep losing people like this.."

[Calrex 0]

"Yeah...I know what you mean..."

As he had guessed, Jomei had received the news as any person would expect. From what the bluenette knew, while Manta and Ebony were not close acquaintances with the Irishman, they were still comrades in arms and fellow frontliners. To have two contributing individuals be eliminated in the blink of an eye was a loss, no matter how one tried to spin it. With the man's voiced resolve to return Calrex gave a confident smirk as he gave a nod, "You know you will be welcomed back, heh."

Putting his hands into his pants pockets the bluenette gave a small sigh as he calmed his senses back down, "There should be another floor raid planning happening soon, now that we have cleared the seventeenth floor. Once that happens I will be sure to let you know so that you can be present as well. I don't know just yet when it might happen, but I will for sure be there. As you already know, there's likely going to be some kind of tension, with everything that's happened. I know it's been a short time since you were gone, but be prepared for that as well."

With that he stretched his arms with a friendly grin, "So, in the meantime I've got really nothing going on today. Any other ideas for stuff to do? Unless you're up for another round."

[Jomei 0]

((Realized this wasn't completed. Figured I'll close it out))

Jomei chuckled and stretched his right shoulder, making circles with it. "Well, I already know you can kick my ass again. So I'm going to pass on that one." he said with a smirk, looking over at his friend. As he thought, things were getting worse on the front lines. Were they not as prepared for these fights as they were? And the increase of player killers as well was too much. The pressure of this world was getting to them, and all of them would really need to pull together to fight it off and make their way back to the real world. Jomei looked up at the sky above him. "I think I need to do some thinking.. and some preparations for the next boss raid when it comes about." He looked over at his blue haired friend again and smiled, "Thanks for coming by. Really helped me realize what I have to do." Jomei was determined to make his comback and join the front lines once again. Nothing would get in his way of that.

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