We Live to Die -I-

The day dawned, soft and beautiful in fiery reds and sunny yellows, mixed with pink fluffly clouds that slowly dragged themselves through the morning sky. The birds began to sing and chirp on this cold crisp fall morning. It was slowly making its way into winter and the chill was in the air. People of the city were just starting to get themselves up and moving. But for a select, dawn was just something they always saw since they were up before the sun's light touched the horizon. The stars vanished as the sun slowly pulled itself over the horizon.

Kitsume was the first on the training field before dawn's early light. She was dressed in cut off shorts and a tank top. It was typical of her though even in the crisp morning air, when her breath came out in little puffs of cloudy air, she wore shorts. The temperature didn't seem to effect her so much. Her hair was pulled back in a service ponytail and her weapon of choice this morning was her white staff. It was a simple bo staff, but instead of wood, it was made out of a solid metal that was lighter than it looked. The same metal that resided in her body, from what she believed. She had had this same white staff the entire time she had come crawling out of the Core. But that was another story.

She stood in a training circle with another soldier. One who was stronger than she was and bigger by far. Those around them laughed as she sized him up. They thought it would be easy for the dark-skinned man in the ring with her. Staff to Staff. He should be able to knock her out of the ring in one shot. But since the first crest of light, they had been circling each other. This man had years of experience of soldiering on her and it showed. She was bruised and bleeding, but the fact that so was he had drawn an even larger crowd.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched the man for moment. When it came it was slow, showing how much energy he had used since this match started. As he lunged, she flipped the end of the staff up and charged towards him. At the very end, she jabbed the pole down into the earth and used it to pole vault the bigger man. She kept her grip on the staff so it would come with her and in midair she flipped to land facing his back. This movement was shocking to the bigger man and his charging attack met with air and unbalanced him. So she swung the pole in her hands and smacked his legs. The unbalanced man fell to the ground with his head outside the circle drawn in the dirt. A shout arose from the crowd, the winner being Kitsume.

The Dark-skinned man sputtered and rose up to his feet, covered in dust matted to his skin from the sweat pouring off him. He grabbed his staff and looked like he was about to renew the attack even though Kitsume had come up the winner. Poor sport obviously.

-558-

soldier
10/15

The member 'Kazakura' has done the following action : Dices roll

'10 (aka Steal) Roll' : 6

Belmont was getting his moring excersise out of the way. Whateveer you can say about the Mare Maris military at least they provided good facilities for their soldiers to train in. Belmont ws at the moment just doing some basic weight training after completing a circuit of the city walls. It was his daily training regieme, and one he planned to kep up for as long as his corpse continued to walk. He knew that Kitsume was out doing weapons training today. And once he had finished up with the weights. He would be heading out to see just how she was progressing. It had been a few weeks since they had recruited her now and she was doing well. Still a bit spirited but then she hadn't really seen first blood as a Remnant yet. But that would change in time.

The commander finished off the weights and placed them back down on the rack before heading over to his room and grabbing his sword. Sheathing it onto his back he headed out to where Kitsume was supposed to be doing her training. And it seemed that he was walking right into a battlefield. He watched , and as the fight progressed it appeared obvious that Kistume's superior dexterity was winning out against the raw force of her opponent. But the man seemed to have a lot of stamina, as after being knocked down he stood right back up. Belmont wondered how Kitsume would face against someone like himself. He didnt use a two handed pole arm. Her sweep would be countered with a shield block from himself. A fortress of iron that couldn't be toppled. But. He wasn't going to mar her as a one trick pony.

" Don't let anger blind you"

He shouted to her opponent, announcing his presence. " Kitsume, keep up the good work"

EXP:337

The sparing match should have been over, but the man still wanted to come at her. Breaking the rules of combat. She smiled at him as he attempted to charge. Her opponent wasn't a Remnant otherwise he would have been smart enough to heed Belmont's words. Kitsume just chose to ignore him. It had been a week since meeting the young kid and she had been training hard. She wasn't even breaking a sweat yet, the man had begun to grow angry and just like most his size, his anger meant he would act like an enraged bull.

As he charged towards Kitsume, something coursed through her system and pumped up her abilities. (Cybernetic Upgrade. Stats +1) Soon it was evident that she was moving faster than a normal human as she dodged out of the way and used her pole to try and trip him up. Again it worked and he went rolling out of the drawn circle and into the crowd, which parted and let him roll on in a collision course with Belmont. If he hit Belmont. If Belmont dodged then the man would roll into the wall and lay there stunned for a moment.

Either way, Kitsume set her staff end into the ground and leaned against it, a sinister sneer on her face for a brief moment. Her eyes darkened and if it was caught, there was a glimpse of the cold hearted killer that resided in her, just under the surface of her playful nature. "Dain, luv. Stay down this time. I wont hold back the next time." It was a soft crooning voice that exited her mouth for a moment, a voice that was devoid of emotions and just all business. This was the voice most of her marks had heard just before dying. In just a blink of an eye the glimpse of the killer was there and gone, replaced by the playfully Kitsume again. Most here would shrug it off as nothing more than the trick of the light. The others would feel the chill in the air caused by her sadistic glance at Dain.

Smiling and all flirtatious again she looked around the crowd, "Anyone else want to give it a shot?"

-391-
+1txp (10/19) 250exp

Kistume was moving at a pce hee had not seen from her before, a pace that he had only ever seen matched in demons, and of course. Some of the higher level Remnants. It was a pace that exceeded human expectations. And honestly it sent a twindge of something akin to fear up the Remnant commanders spine. Was it because of those experiements that had taken place upon her? The answer was likely yes. It would make her a powerful spirit hunter to be sure. But could she be controlled? Belmont was but a mere human. A powerful human certainly. But if she ever went berserk due to some latent commands within her inner hummuculi. Then would he be able to stop her? He didn't know. Her opponent came flying towards him, the man had in his rage tried to harm Kitsume. He was a soldier of Mare Maris. Yet that didn't mean much to Belmont. His sword drawn he ran the man through. His strike however was careful. Avoided vitals. He quickly withdrew the sword and yelled for a medic. The man was left sobbing on the ground bleeding out slowly as the men arrived. They didn't need to ask. Training accidents. Sometimes they happened.

Particularly around Remnants. He grabbed one of the nearby training shields and moved into the field.

Belmont stepped forward and removed the shirt of his uniform as Kitsume issued the challenge to those around her. " If its as you wish". He used the shirt to wipe off the blood of the other opponent. His eyes began to glow around the iris. Like a halo of blue light. Indicating his grave senses had been activated. The sign of a Remnant entering battle.

EXP: 319

Kitsume watched Belmont skewer the man and shook her head. The smell of fear was in the air and as Belmont approached (Scent) with his practice shield and the sword she had ended up having to buy, she could smell the scent on him. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the man enter the sparing ring. It was a simple, wide circle drawn on the ground and now everyone was ready to watch the commander give Kitsume a good beating. Kitsume noted his eyes and knew he was ready.

For a moment she got a good look at his bare chest and smiled, "I have been trying to get under that shirt all week, if I had known a spar would have gotten me what I wanted, I would have offered sooner." She pulled up on her staff and moved to center and waited for him to be completely ready. The staff twirled in her hands and around her back before finally coming to rest in a position that could be called either defensive or offensive. She watched him and recalculated her movements and strategies. He wielded a sword and shield, much different than a staff or just a sword. The good thing is that she was quite certain he had never felt the metal sting of her staff and would assume it was wooden like the others. He had to have weaknesses in the armor. "Commander, a true spar or will it be first out of the ring?" The first option was for a total amount of critical hits and was harder since you had to keep your weapon from actually hitting the other person. The first out of the ring was usually for beginners since you didn't have to control your swings and strikes. And actual true hit would result in immediate loss.

-320-

Belmont stared Kitsume down, keeping in mind the Remnants philosphy. Dead men. They were dead. Whatever fear that had been in him before was at this point banished. Filled with a void of absolute nothingness.Accidents happened, if Kitsume accidently killed him with her strength. She was only returning his body to the dirt. " Full spar, do not hold back ". He said blankly. She commented about how she had been trying to get uner his shirt all week. Had she been making advances towards him? He didn't know. Didn't think so. Perhaps it was just to throw him off balance. Likely. But she wouldn't get that much from the dead man. At that point on his chest a mark lit up. It was slow at first, phasing in and out. Glowing a transendant blue. The image of a snake eating its own tail. The Uroboros symbol.

From it, what appeared to be cracks in his skin spread out stopping at his collar bone and lower torso. These cracks too seemed to glow a blue light. Belmont seemed unphased by it all. His artifact reacting to battle with someone who was arguably as strong as a spirit. Someone who posed true danger. [Artifact activation]. Belmont didn't fear this moment. In fact he embraced it. He knew that humans had inner power reserves deep within them. Some natural magic, some of the other Remnants had this power too. He felt more powerful. Like a stone fortress. " Don't miss the dodge". He spoke the words quickly before turning his sword onto the ground.Stabbing it in. Literally as his sword entered the ground, mulitple sword blades would begin to rise up seeking to attack Kitsume. Their edges however were blunted. He wasn't seeking to kill the girl. [Gravemarker: Offensive]

EXP: 331

"Oh full spar, time to dance Commander." With that she knew his first move and had studied up on him. In the heart beat between his voice speaking the words, "Don't miss the dodge" To when his sword slammed into the ground, she slammed the pole into the ground, where it stuck (STR+1) and quickly climbed up to the top (MOV+2). It being longer than the swords, she perched on top of the pole, on one foot. She wobbled a bit, but smiled at the man before her as the swords missed their mark. The pole was slender enough to fit in between the thrusting swords. As soon as the retreated she jumped down, her hand coming around the pole as her feet hit the ground, Yanking the pole out of the ground and swinging it around into the position before, that could be either offensive or defensive. She was not a one trick pony.

Wiley as a fox, she whirled the pole around her as she came at him. Her swift movements almost faster than eye could track. Almost. She swung the top end of the pole at his head. Her body fluidly following through with the swing until the last moment when the other end came down and into the ground as leverage and it was actually her feet coming into his midsection as the top of the pole would sail harmlessly over his head. She had attacked on his shield side and in this the shield should have come up for the block of the pole, leaving an opening in his midsection.

Should he manage to block the kick, she would simple use the shield to push off of and flip back a few steps, pulling on the pole to take it with her.

-310-

He was impressed by Kitsume's dodge movement. but he had a few tricks of his own.

She made the move to rush in for an attack. And he waited for her to come at him. He wasn't sure what move she'd be pulling on him, but he'd be ready for it. He lifted his sword out of the ground, rose up his shield as she had expected him to to block the move of the pole. It seemed to be a feint for her real attack. A leg kick sprung by the pole. But this was a good thing, whilst he was left wide open for the attack by the lifted shield. He let his body for a split second be carried by the weight of the shield. Turning him in an akward arc. He slid past her foot, the toe of it striking his side causing the turn to be quicker, still swinging around the shield. Aiming to whack her on the back with the full weight of it pressing in his strength as he did so. [Shield bash]

EXP:175

So the attack followed through, but the old dog still had tricks of his own. And she was ready for it. As her kick connected and he spun in that awkward arc, she knew that it would be easy for the shield to continue as part of her own momentum. It was part of the cycle. Using the opponent's own momentum to fuel your own attacks, so she was ready as he spun, she used the pole in defense and swung behind her to block the shield bash. The wood against the metal of her staff could be heard with an audible clang. The force of his bash though, did cause her to stumble forward a step.

Using this awkward movement she tucked her head and instead of stumbling she dropped to a single roll, her pole still coming with her. As she ended the single head over heels roll with a leap to her feet, she spun around and looked at the man. "Nice one." She was starting to breath a little hard, since she had already had a fight before this, but this was fun. She smiled at him bringing the staff back around to that neutral position.

-205-

Belmont still had his breath in him, but the struggle of the shild against Kitsume's polearm. It had been more of a struggling impact than he had expected, that thing wasn't made of wood. It was solid metal. The density of it made all the difference. Still. That little tid bit of information would only help him adjust his attacks to each of hers. He lifted his sword and placed it slightly above the shield in line with his eyes, ready for her next attack. belmonts style of fighting was that of the tank. He would wait for an attack, endure its power and then dive in himself. Most of his techniques were defensive. To bring the enemy close enough so that he could strike a fata blow on them without expending too much energy in attacking.

" Thank you"

He said in response to her, but the emotion behind it was still blank, not that there was normally a lot of emotion from the dead man but there seemed to be even less at this point in time. Almost as if in battle he became more of a corpse than he was normally. Or was it the effects of his artifact activating? Cold logic there in his icy blue eyes. Sword dropped again, stabbed into the soil. Unleashing grave marker. Should she dodge this one and move into the attack, he lifted his sword out a couple of inches, ready to plunge in again for the defensive form of the attack.

EXP: 268

Again the man repeated his signature move and she, this time had more time to react. She moved out of the area of effect and chuckled. "I know you, Sir." She was referring to the fact that he was a tank, A shield and could withstand a lot. She was just beginning to learn moves that could help with defeating him. All she really knew at the moment was the mid range attacks and defenses. But it would soon change. He would be waiting to employ the defensive action against her, since his sword was still in the ground. He was waiting for her to charge so now she needed to do something extreme.

The crowd had gotten bigger, it was hinted that this was match of the week. David versus Goliath. The crowd waited as they sized each other up. Bets were even being placed. So she began to think to herself. "So, care for a bet, Belmont? If I can kick your ass, you owe me lunch again." She circled around him slowly, trying not to get to close. If he kept using the offensive, he would tire from the drain. And she was looking for an opening in his defense. But with that sword in the ground he would be able to defend against anything she came at him with.

-231-
+1txp (10/19) 5 posts

" Thats a lot of ifs for such a small lady".

The tiniest smirk would appear on the edge of Belmont's face. Normally people would have assumed such a thing was merely a slight muscl twitch on the dead mans face. But no matter. Belmont knew that if he was going to beat Kitsume he was going to need to think out of the box on this one. The womans advantage in this was range. Whilst Belmont had the shiled to block her incoming attacks from touching him, she had that metal pole and would be able to strike out from a distance. A distance that h couldn't for the moment close. He thought that there was perhaps a possibility of doing something that would open her up. But it would mean sacrificing part of his defense. But then. perhaps that would not be such a bad thing. Kitsume seemed to be getting used to his combat style. Maybe it was time to bring in something that she wasn't expecting from him. break the norm.

He edged closer to her, shield up ready to block any attacks that she had coming for him. Soon he would impliment his plan, he just hoped that she acted precisely as he expected her to. He'd already bought lunch for her once. Albiet out of the kindness of his heart.

" Challenge accepted".

Belmont said aloud. There were more whispers from onlookers. Wondering if Kitsume was challenging Belmont to take her on a date...

EXP: 270

"I might be small, but I pack a punch"

With that she smiled back to him and nodded. "Before anything though, what do you get if you win?" Kitsume twirled the staff around her again her footsteps carrying her backwards and around to keep him at the same distance. She knew that she had the advantage as along as she didn't let him get in too close. He was doing something different, adapting to her movements. Kitsume couldn't allow him to get in close. So with the grace and movement of a well trained dancer, she continued to keep him far enough away from her with the constant circling.

The twirling of the staff around her, and the switching from hand to hand, would make it difficult to determine where she was going to strike from. Like a magician's magic illusion or the pea and shell game where you had to watch which shell the pea was hidden under, she continued. Every so often she would feint a strike just to pull it back, like baiting a bull to charge. The staff also still provided the ability to block should it come up. Thus she would wait for his move or his answer, both was preferable.

-222-

What would he be getting if h was to win, that indeed was a question. There was nothing really that Belmont did desire from Kitsume. She had already bought him his weapon and it was his plan to take care of the rest on his own at a later date. But he wouldn't have her buy it again regardless of the bet. So then, what was the reward to be? There was a simpler way to deal with this. He didn't much care what he recieved from her. So he simply called out. " You decide". There were more hoots from the local crowd. Them thinking that Belmont was inviting her into a sexual gesture once again after the comment of lunc. There certainly would be a lot of rumours floating about the base after this training was done. By the looks of things however she wasn't going to make a move to attack, so Belmont had to take the intiative on this one. Quickly he stabbed his sword into the ground, Grave marker opening up, as he did so he withdrew it. Charging towards her and opening things up with another slash that would hopefully find its mark as she was recovering from a dodge attempt.

exp:216

"Ooooo. Don't make promises your body can't keep, luv" By now most of the remnants would know that her term of 'luv' was a general naming device used for anyone. Much like 'hun' or 'dude' to some people. Again he thrust the sword downwards and she charged at that moment. This was for two reasons, one to escape the swords coming up from the earth. And to catch him off balance. She was still moving rather quickly as he pulled out his sword out of the ground and started his charge to her. Her mind tracked the moments and quickly calculated the proposed path of his attack and her body moved in concert to it.

As he slashed it wouldn't matter if it was up and down motion or a side to side slash, he would have to keep his legs open to steady himself. And she was small enough to accomplish the task set before. She would slip under his guard as a ball player sliding into home base. Against the ground she let her feet go between his legs first along with her midsection. He would be committed to the swing while she was doing this. And as he finished the swing she would pull the pole with her through his legs sideways using it to try and trip him up. If the move worked, he would be unbalanced. But he might be fast enough to check his swing and jump over her. There was always that possibility.

-261-

So she was moving to press the attack, excellent, he’d lured her out. He hadn’t expected those precise moves, however it didn’t much matter, he ducked his body low, rolled to the side, using the sword swings momentum to help tuck in his body. Moving those close few feet that was required in getting his mass out of the way of her attack. As he did so, he twisted his body with that weight to face her. Unleashing the second movement over the Grave Marker technique. A defensive use. He tapped the sword into he ground and blades rose up instead of around her, around him. The small safe zone in between the blades only being in either the outer radius of he technique. Or those few points of where Belmont now crouched down. He thought for a moment about her comment on not saying things that he couldn’t really keep. It was strange. Just what did she mean by that, was there a task or reward that he would find unsuitable? He doubted it. This was a mere game of tests and wills. He was giving her the responsibility of picking his prize. A little secret Santa that was all down to her.

But his mind retracted back and focused on the battle, waiting her next move with the patience that could only be found among the dead. The tattoo on his chest continued to pulse as his first bead of sweat dripped slowly down his head, touching down onto the ground.

EXP:275
PWC:255

As he rolled out of the way, she used the last of her own momentum to leap up at the end of it. This put her back to him and she quickly spun around, the staff swinging around with her. When she saw his defensive move she chuckled. "Come on luv, We will be at this all day. You afraid to actually come out and fight me?" part of her tactics was to enrage or force the opponent to charge her or rather neglect their defense using her verbal assaults. There was no way to get through his defense unless she came in from the top. With that in mind, there was nothing in the ring to use except their weapons. It would be difficult at best to use the tips of the swords without them hurting her. Although she could balance on them with ease.

Then it hit her. She was small enough that she could possible get into the middle of that defense on top of him, but that would leave her open to his sword. Or better yet his shield. So she circled him and waited. He would display a weakness in all good time. She wanted to win just to prove to him that she was capable of fighting. She wanted to win to get in close to him, close enough to break that icy dead, exterior. But as it stood, they were fairly evenly matched. While circling him, she continued to keep the staff moving to keep him from knowing exactly where the next hit would come from.

-268-

Belmont wasn’t at all surprised that Kitsume was able to dodge his attack the surprise on this matter came from more the method of the dodging as opposed to the actual dodge itself. She had managed to do it just like he expected, but in a way that was possibly an over flashy show of her speed and acrobatic skills. He knew at this stage that it was a case of a wasp trying to sting a turtle. The wasp couldn’t penetrate the turtles shell and the turtle wasn’t quick enough to swat the wasp. So one had to think that the only way either of them was going to win was by abandoning all prior facts. Belmont had the idea that Kitsime was beginning to study his movements his fighting style and was beginning to predict what he was going to do ext. So therefore the only thing that he could do to counter that was to no longer be a turtle. To throw out the rule book and do things the way a remnant would do them. No fear. Even into death. Anything to win.

With that in mind Belmont raised his arm and tossed his shield at Kitsume, hopefully it would work as enough of a distraction for his next move, a rush toward her, picking up sand in his now free hand and tossing it at her face, towards her eyes. Then unleashing a spinning slash. He was playing dirty true, but when facing spirits a human couldn’t have any illusion of honour. It was live or die. Honour could be dictated by the winner.

EXP:282
PWC:271

At the toss of the shield, something seemed to activate inside Kitsume. Her eyes turned into that silvered metallic that denoted the latent cyborg powers activating. Already she was stronger, faster, better, than most of the population of humans. Different, but it was like all expression drained from her face. Inside her head, the words, "Combat Mode initiated." resounded across her brain and something took over. Like a second entity controlling her movements and her thought processes. The Pole came up as her body slid to the side. The tip of the pole coming up under the shield and hitting it directly in the center, pushing it with its own momentum into the air above them. The cyborg known as EX 55178 had deemed this a battle a risk at the life of itself and a switch had been turned over.

As the shield was flying over the heads of the others outside the circle, she was moving in on him. His hand came up, and out flew the particles of sand. Each one in Kitsume's new sight visualized. In a millisecond the path of the particles of sand were projected and her body reacted as it turned a complete spin. The sand hitting her back. She was emotionless and ready to kill as that pole came around with her. She would lean back to avoid the sword swing, the pole end sticking into the ground and her body pulled back at the oddest angle.

Like a gymnast doing a back flip on the floor, her back was arched and the sword slash would go directly over it. In the milliseconds that followed, her body would complete the back flip aided by the pole. Her legs coming up as she vaulted backwards away from him. Landing on her feet. The attack was her feet coming up during the back flip away from him, aimed for his chin. Her body was primed to continue as she landed and took another stance.

-388-