Gremory Territory

[Apollymi]

"Sou ka..." there was nothing else for Miyuki to say. The boy in his state of hypnosis didn't seem to realize what he'd done. And she supposed he likely wouldn't while he was like this. Still it seemed strange enough to her, considering he hadn't moved much at all since they'd arrived here. While this happened, Izuna found himself in the company of Cinder Fall, and Eira watched as he prepared himself for battle, and released a single tail as he did so. She sighed, knowing he would do this, but still holding out hope that one day, he'd change his mind. "Oh well, maybe one day..." she thought absently, seeming to not be bothered by this one way or another. True enough, Cinder Fall had the title of Strongest Queen, but Izuna could have that title himself if he wanted it, by Eira's own approximation. Given his unwillingness to use his full or true abilities, she had a more than reasonable understanding of how this fight would end. Even so, it'd be worth watching, and she could do nothing but respect the fox boy's wishes.

Cinder Fall eyed the battlefield and soon enough found herself standing before, Izuna. "Izuna, I hoped it'd be you," she said her eyes glowing with power even the designs on her dress seemed to be alight. "I'm always bored... though that last fight was worth watching. You're not going to disappoint are you?" she asked, raising her right hand and moving her fore and middle fingers towards herself, as if imploring this young man to show her what he had going for himself. Like the other members of Sirtreize's peerage she didn't seem to have any fear of this interaction. But unlike them, she didn't seem content to give this boy the first shot at her, in moving her fingers, she created a flame but just as soon as it appeared it disappeared, during into an orange dust which floated in the air. A smirk crossed her face and she snapped her fingers, causing a series of chain explosions which rapidly approached the fox boy before her aiming to engulf him in flames.

[Bloodedge]

"Gomen, gomen," Izuna stated to start his retort. "I'm always a disappointment." With that said, his continuous floating became more of a sway from one side to another. Cinder went on to prove her boredom, or perhaps even a lack of patience, being the first of Sirtreize's peerage to emerge with the first attack against her opponent. Izuna's eyes narrowed when it seemed she would be attacking him with fire, but the very flames she used disappeared in a way after forming. A snap of the woman's fingers turned the dust - which came as a result of her fire's disappearance - into a chain of explosions encroaching upon Eira's Queen. Izuna responded by extending his right forefinger, drawing a series of three symbols in the air not with his Demonic Power, but via a form of spellcraft known by Youkai. This energy appeared as a teal glow before the line of explosions appeared to phase right through the young male as if they were passing through water. His form returned to normal immediately afterwards, and a set of nine blue flames appeared at his backside. These fires boasted heat the likes of Dragon flames, and were sent in a series toward Cinder. Beyond this, though, another series of nine blue flames encroached upon her from behind. The image of Izuna where he originally floated was nothing more than an illusion spawned from Youjutsu at this point, though its flames were just as real as the ones approaching Cinder from behind, stemming from the physical - yet hidden by a separate illusion - Izuna.

[Apollymi]

"Oh? Are you normally such a downer, Izuna..." questioned Cinder Fall. She found this young man's explanation a bit lacking, but that was something to be dealt with at a later time. Right now, he'd launched a counter-attack which resulted in nine blue flames coming towards her from the front, launched by an illusory version of Izuna while the true Izuna seemed content to launch another nine from behind her. They would all converge upon her, in a moment and she didn't seem too concerned with moving out of the way of the coming flames. Instead she held out her hand, constructing a series of magical circles in all directions around herself, at the last possible moment. Doing so would let the flames get as close to her as possible before they were dispersed by the barriers she used. "So, you've got some different magic from the norm..." said Cinder as she held her hands together sparking electricity between them, before pressing them back together, doing so created a large purple crystal which she held up in the air as if inspecting her surroundings. As she turned her crystal she eyed her surroundings, deciding that Izuna used illusions made her simply want to away with the game of hide and seek they were playing. "I'm not fond of hide and seek," she mentioned casually as she flicked the crystal with her finger above her head doing so caused dust to spread from it, in an instant before she allowed a single spark to come from her finger. Doing so would cause the electrical energy to disperse from the crystal and the dust, making from the point of the crystal a large burst of blinding light, while sparks of electricity flew off in every direction around the crystal. Her aim of course, was to hit Izuna in his hidden state with this attack, which if it made contact with him would paralyze him.

[Bloodedge]

Izuna's methods were a simplistic method in his own repertoire, meant only to keep him out of harm's way while staging attacks against an obviously stronger force than he could manage against normally. His opening attack would see no fruition though, as Cinder erected an omni-directional defense that stopped even the flames sent toward her blind side. What came next was the claim that Cinder was not fond of the little game he decided to play, followed by a very different use of this strange substance she fought with. It first caused a bright flash which stunned the young Queen, but that was far from the worrisome aspect of it. Before he could recover from the temporary blindness, Izuna was made visible again by way of paralyzing electrocution which left him floating and convulsing in place several meters behind Cinder. "Not fair, not fair!"

[Apollymi]

Cinder waited for her attack to come to fruition and found a bit of amusement as the young man fell from his previous hiding space. The fact that her attack was deemed unfair by the lad now on the ground and paralyzed made her chuckle. "Kukuku~ Sure... because being invisible, hiding in people blind-spots while attacking, and using illusions is fair," managed the ashen haired woman as she finally turned around to face the boy on the floor. "Surely you realize what this is by now," said the woman whose lack of patience was far more ingrained into her person than one might have thought. "So, what do you do when your tricks won't get you past something? Is what I want to know..." she said, being strangely straightforward about what she wished to see here. Curiously enough this entire Rating Game seemed to be about the fitness of Eira's peerage. Given this, Cinder Fall basically just wanted to see what her Queen had going for him. Obviously, she'd prefer to see this at its maximum output, but if that wasn't possible, she'd be satisfied by a show of skill. She simply wanted to see something that made sense of the sort of pair Eira and her Queen were rumored to be. As such, she waited for the paralyzing effect of her magic to subside and for this boy to do something.

Meanwhile, the crimson-haired lass had slowly inched towards the edge of her seat, watching as Izuna faced Cinder Fall. This was obviously one of the most troublesome of the match ups, and obviously one she worried for. She knew Izuna to be much better than he presented himself, but, even the stuff he did was well beyond the norm. She sat watching with narrow crimson eyes, hoping for something as well, if not a full show of his power, then at least something to satisfy the curiosity of her sister-in-law. 'Yare yare, my little fox boy causes me so much anxiety...' she thought. Even knowing this, Eira wouldn't have traded this lad for another, they'd been through too much together and still had so much farther to go.

[Bloodedge]

Even whilst paralyzed, Izuna retained access to his magical abilities. As such, he used the time of his brief chat with Cinder to coat himself in yet another illusion to show the appearance of him remaining paralyzed. It was during this time that Izuna resorted to an ability known as Touki, accessible to him via Senjutsu mastery. Beneath the illusion he'd made, he coated himself in an aura of his own life force to break free of paralysis earlier than he normally would have. His devious nature as a fox Youkai showed itself - or rather, didn't - then, as he invisibly crept to Cinder's rear again, leaving the image of his paralyzed self behind. His movements made no sound, and his true self was capable of being sensed by few. From right behind Cinder, he raised his right hand over her head, palm facing downwards. It would seem then, as if a great mass of blue flames hotter than Dragon fire were erupting from right above Cinder, cascading down to envelop her in its extreme heat.

[Apollymi]

Cinder kept looking at Izuna on the ground, even after he'd freed himself. She already realized the boy enjoyed illusions and attacking blind spots, but she didn't know about his use of Senjutsu, nor his complete silence. So, she had a general expectation of the amount of time it would take him to free himself. As she stood seemingly open, Izuna created a Fox Fire Ball above her head, and unleashed it. She felt intense flames, before her amber eyes closed seemingly annoyed. Strangely enough, she didn't move or actively stop this fire as it rained down. Instead the dust connected to her clothing seemed to spark to life, outward from person faster than she would have had to react. The orange flames seemed to create an active burn around herself, keeping the flames from encroaching upon her. "You can't do the same thing twice. Though, you did get up faster than I expected..." she said thinking about it further. "That fire was also stronger than I expected. A bit hotter than Shira's actually..." she said knowing it probably wouldn't be obvious why that was something special. "But you're Queen, so... diversity," she stated as the flames died down they turned back into dust, but instead of reattaching to her clothing she held out her hands, creating what appeared to be two moorish scimitars. She pivoted, quickly... and moved with the speed and precision of a knight as she aimed to slice at the air before Izuna, downward with the right blade. Doing so created black dust, which she ran her left blade upward. The contact would cause a gravitational explosion between the pair, without her ever having to actually cut Izuna as she prepared to knock him away with the concussive blast created by the weapons.

[Bloodedge]

Cinder spoke of Izuna repeating tactics, but the former Youkai had other things in mind. He had no clue who this "Shira" person was, or why it was notable that his flames were hotter than theirs, but that didn't matter at present either. If it was diversity Cinder expected, Izuna was already en route to showcasing it. Izuna's use of Touki while invisible did more than allow him to break free of paralysis; it also generally amplified his strength, durability and speed in a manner comparable to invoking the Queen Evil Piece. Using this power, he was nimble enough to zip around Cinder's slash in an opposing arc, quickly enough that he was able to avoid the concussive burst of gravity produced by her dust this time.

Izuna knew he was outmatched as a Queen, and as a fighter in general. Perhaps things could have been different by now if he'd ever committed to using the strengths he was born with, but he dreaded the day he would be forced to do such a thing. Still, he had a trick up his sleeve that would get him as close to maximum power as he could manage without some grand reveal. His Touki was as much of a boon - if not more - as his Queen piece in its ability to augment everything he could do in combat. But... he could easily use both, and that was exactly what he chose to do against an opponent of Cinder's caliber. With his Touki still active, he invoked the Rook trait of his Evil Piece - while also coating his fists in fox fire to guard his hand against the burning defense Cinder previously used - as he threw his entire body into a right jab toward the woman's lower back. "Diversity? I'm a fox. You get what you get when I give it to ya'," he spoke, continuing to maintain his invisibility utilized when he was under state of paralysis.

[Apollymi]

Cinder was confused by the lack of physical contact and an obvious avoidance of her magic. The invisible fox child seemed to really enjoy his privacy. Even while in fights, which was something of a problem. In response to this issue, Cinder rubbed the two blades she held together, spreading dust across the battlefield and immediately around her person as well. As she did this dust of an almost lavender color seemed take up residence. There was also the matter of the hit aimed her way, but Izuna was kind of predictable in his attack pattern and as such she expected some kind of attack from her rear. At the point where she was still playing a strange game of hide and seek with Eira's Queen, Cinder decided it was best to ready herself. She focused her Rook Trait solely on her physical defense, and within a few seconds, she felt the full weight of a fist covered in flames upon her. And though her own flaming defense was enough to cancel the flames. His hit rocketed her forward, but a large grin crossed her face. But she did nothing else, her body would simply roll further forward in a sea of this pale dust, which was surprisingly undisturbed by the fire used by the pair of them. "Ouch... that actually stung a bit," she mentioned as her body came to a stop righted but not bothering to try and visually place this boy.

[Bloodedge]

Cinder was repelled by Izuna's flaming fist, yet whatever sort of fire she created around her managed to snuff out his own flames again. He wasn't going to bother trying to figure out the specifics of this, but now that he'd created some distance, the invisible Kitsune stood his ground with his Touki intact. His right hand, already extended, opened to point its palm toward Cinder from afar. He avoided yet another use of fire. This time, he focused pure Senjutsu - his life energy itself - into a blast of pure concussive damage at Cinder's head. Like Izuna, this blast was also invisible. Such a thing normally would have been channeled through a melee attack, or at least close-range, but Izuna creating the amount of distance he did while staying invisible left him enough time to focus on compressing his ki, and thus making it capable of travelling at a greater range. Cinder had made the claim that his previous attack stung, but Izuna knew better than to stop at that level of offense.

[Apollymi]

Now that there was a considerable amount of space between her and her opponent, Cinder, took the two ends of her blades and slammed them together. The end result was something which looked a bit like a glass bow, but with no foreseeable string or method of usage. She didn't do anything about this immediately but instead remained focusing her eyes specifically upon the Dust all over this place. There was a rather sudden disturbance of it as she looked and she wouldn't be able to avoid it given the speed. Instead she decided to take this hit as it knocked her head around she spun in the circle and knocked her body back once more. "Ugh, that's a headache," she said with one of her eyes closed, but this was so she could see the where the disturbance in the dust led to. Doing so while holding her head with her unoccupied hand, she created within it, a broad head arrow, made of gravitational Dust. She'd quickly draw the bow and fire the arrow, seemingly at nothing well behind Izuna, but doing so as it floated through the air, it disturbed all the other dust. The lavender dust, was a combination of ice and lightning, and together they'd create a freezing pulse of electrical energy meant to make Izuna visible and freeze him in place, while the explosion of the gravity dust arrow behind him would send him rocketing towards Cinder. Given the strange sturdiness of the fox boy, Cinder wasn't all together sure this would work. But for her it'd be worth it to quickly figure how where he was and temporarily stop this game of hide and seek.

[Bloodedge]

Izuna suddenly realized he was late to catch up on something. His ki blast traveled toward its intended goal without interruption, but the blast itself interrupted the dust Cinder had left behind. He was remiss to think she was now using a method of her own creation to discover his whereabouts, even whilst he remained invisible. 'Ah, shit. I only went and screwed myself over with tunnel vision,' he thought. Whatever he was going to do, he had to act fast, as Cinder undoubtedly knew where to attack now. Anywhere he moved to hastily would give away his new position, but there was perhaps one thing he could do. Cinder had made it apparent that she would be attacking with some kind of arrow, so he figured it would be coming in his exact direction. With this assumption in mind, he steadied himself at ground level and let his Touki flare outward. It was taxing, but he cleared an area of a few meters around him, allowing him the freedom to leave an image of himself where he stood while backing up. Due to his clearing of the dust nearby, the ice and electricity from Cinder's arrow did not affect him, though it was strange that the arrow itself wasn't aimed directly at him. He'd expected to erect some sort of defense while making it look like he'd taken the hit, but there was instead an explosion of the arrow with a force of gravity leading toward Cinder as a result.

The moment he felt this gravity, Izuna knew his initial plan was null. He had to come up with something else, and the idea that came to him was the only one worthwhile. He pushed his Touki forward, extending it to the area around the illusion of him while moving it ahead at the same pace he was being forced to move. In doing this, he happened to also trigger the freezing and electrified dust, and had to force this to show as a reaction in the illusion. By the time his illusion reached Cinder, his final effort was to give it the appearance of being taken by the retirement system, while Izuna himself fell just shy of its location, exhausted of almost all his energy from the efforts he made alone. Still, he managed to retain his invisibility. While he still had something - anything - left to offer, he reached out with the intention of grabbing Cinder by her choker. If he did not manage this, he was likely to collapse on the spot. If he did manage it, however, he would make himself visible to offer a single statement while conjuring an explosion of fox fire from the hand which reached out. "Oi... I got you, right?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed Cinder Fall's plan had worked out, giving her knowledge of where the young man was. She couldn't know the things going through his mind, but she could know that she was soon to make contact with him. Strangely enough, her layered attack seemed to work exactly as she planned. She didn't have anything negative to say about the boy, he seemed to lack power but she could at least respect his resourcefulness as he faded due to the Retiring System, or so she thought. The normal green light that would have caused him to fade, instead led to a pull on the choker around her neck, her left brow raised and those glowing eyes of hers widened in astonishment as the young man spoke to her once more. He'd figured her out, enough to at least know that he had to be point blank to harm her, and even more so than that, she couldn't mount a defense quickly enough to forego simply taking the Fox Fire explosion from his conjured hand. Her face and neck would burn momentarily as she tried to back away, swatting at this boy. "Fucking brat!" she said. Though if she was being fair, he'd performed way better than she'd expected, actually even managing to get that close to her was a feat in and of itself. Whatever happened to this young man from this moment forward, he at the very least had the respect of the Strongest Queen.

Eira watched on the edge of her seat, and finally at the end of Izuna's last stand fell back against the chair. She was actually impressed as well, given he'd gone so hard not to reveal the depth of his actual power. The fact that he'd managed to get one up on Cinder Fall, even a small one, said much about his abilities and his understanding of his skills. "Sugoi!~ Izuna, you did so well~" she chimed. She couldn't wait to have her full peerage back so that she could cuddle them all for their efforts this day. She hadn't been disappointed yet, even though she could have done with Izuna showing off a bit more. She supposed he'd satisfied her need to see him work in a different way that suited his own needs, which she could only enjoy of him as a person.

[Bloodedge]

"Eheh... yeah. I got ya'," Izuna said with a weak smile for the Queen of Sirtreize, just before he was swatted away from her and his own explosive attack. He fell back, but the retiring system took him before he even hit the ground. Maybe he could have done more, had he used his true form. Not doing so had forced him to use Touki at a ridiculous level just to compete with this woman. Izuna had yet to become capable of using Touki and manipulating his own life energy at such a level, and had virtually placed himself in a near-death state when he could have seen a proper battle otherwise. After the retirement system took the boy, Cinder would be teleported back as well. Sirtreize would take a moment to speak only then. "Like I said. They could destroy themselves at any moment," he said, wasting no further time before dropping his own die into the bowl. This time, the number Sirtreize produced was...

6

Szavelneas hesitated from the announcer's stands, realizing one of two dice had already been rolled, and they'd yet to even comment on the battle. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems one of our participants is all out of patience. I'm sure our audience can agree; the two most recent matches have been more exciting than we could normally expect from a scrimmage game!"

[Apollymi]

"Tricky Foxboy," Cinder's eyes cut in his direction as he retired offering her that weak smile. Even she had to admit, his tactics made her think and that wasn't something she often had to do. As she was teleported back to the hub she belonged in, she was confronted by the words of her husband and she found herself shrugging casually as she went to retake her seat. "I don't know about all of that, but at least he'd take someone out with him. Deplorable tactic, but... I can't fault it," she said as she relaxed back where she had been the first time.

Meanwhile, Eira stood as well, going to roll her own die and feeling just as antsy as everyone else for these matches to see their true conclusion. She tossed the die and stared at it in the bowl. It landed flat, in a way which made Eira's eyes narrow.

2

"Impatient doesn't seem to cover it, but I can't blame them. These matches are building up and I can only imagine what will happen next!~" Elsa commented only to see that now both dice had been rolled so they had a set of numbers to announce. "Looks like the total is eight! Kings send out your next pieces," were the words of Satan Leviathan. Eira turned around to the remaining members of her peerage looking them over. It was more than obvious this was a test for everyone. She could either send out both Miyuki and Maiko. Or... she could send Takumi out alone. Her eyes traveled over the still hypnotized boy and back to her newest Bishop. And in this moment, Eira would strangely make a selfish decision but not one which anyone would argue about. "Maiko and Miyuki, you can both go~ I didn't want to send either of you alone really, Gambatte!" she said to the pair of them. Maiko slammed a fist into her open palm and grinned. "Hell yes! I've been waiting forever!~" said Maiko seemingly excited to even get to go. "Language, Maiko~" teased Eira who really didn't have much, if any, room to talk about the girl's word choice. Miyuki finally extricated herself from Takumi and nodded. "H-hai! I'll do my best!~" she chimed making her way to the platform with Maiko who was now, putting on those red leather gloves she'd had in her possession since before the matches.