Summer Tournament: Darius vs Marigold

[Community Moogle]

First Round: Darius vs Marigold
Summer Tournament, Round One.
Location: Twilight Town; Tower Plaza
Conditions: Sunset; Cloudy

“If the participants would please pick heads or tails, kupo!~” the fluttering moogle would say, flipping a small coin into the air.

[Drake Pathos]

"I'll take the heads of all sallies and stuff in them in the down-unda. So, Heads."

[Marigold Darkson]

"What other choice do I have besides tails? Tails."

[Community Moogle]

The moogle caught the coin, slapping it onto the back of its hand as the two combatants called out their claims. Lifting its hand, it revealed the coin to be, "Tails, kupo!~ Marigold gets first move. Good luck, kupo!~"

With that, the creature vanished in a glimmering warp of space, leaving the two to begin.

[Marigold Darkson]

Without skipping a beat after they were announced as first, Marigold and her crew were prepared to start. They were several good meters away from their opponents and in a plaza, so there was much that could be done from here.

Schwartz was eager to start first and what she had done, was prepare herself with the skill, Faster, Faster! Her body went into overclock mode and gave her a slight increase to her overall speed. After doing so, she performed a few hand-signs and summoned three, perfect clones of herself. This was her Graceful Duplication spell and added more members to Marigold's army. Once the clones were summoned, they each shared in Schwartz's stats and immediately charged off towards the three opponents. Darius and company had to deal with Schwartz's now at this point. Two of the Schwartz's immediately went towards Tsubot and Ellis respectively, with the other charging towards Darius. They each performed a hand-sign of sorts, creating an obvious telegraph of a skill usage of some sorts. What it was, was unknown, but they had something in store for the group.

The Schwartz clone that headed for Tsubot, skirted and strafed around the robot, getting behind it, before ducking down low and coming in with a speedy assault towards it's very disproportionate body. Her strikes were rather fast, due to the shared speed between the original assassin. The Schwartz that went after Ellis simply came over to her left side (Schwartz's left, meaning Ellis' right) and attempted to come in with a series of fast strikes to the flame sprite. The original Schwartz, alongside a clone, had constantly shifted positions with one another, daggers drawn. The original quickly took a position  a few meters behind Darius, while the clone stayed in front and came in, using a low stance, to attack the entirety of the boy's lower half.

Ysl'Dae, once Schwartz activated her, skills, had immediately cast Reflective Shell, over the rest of her party members. After that, the young woman quickly spread vines across the battle. Plant turrets originated from the vines and their numbers came in the form of how many allies and opponents were on the field. The vines counted clones as being among the number, which in turn helped it reach the maximum of 16 plant turrets that could out all at once.  4 of these turrets took root on the clock tower and would work as the snipers of the rest, while the remaining 12 sprouted along the edges of the arena, spread out a bit from one another. After being set up, all four plants on the clock tower immediately started taking pot shots at Darius, with their projectile speed being rather fast and hard to dodge, given the current set up.

Marigold herself, already had her plan set up. The vampire woman pulled out both her sickles and attached them together, to reveal her double-bladed, double-sided scythe, Ticking Clock. Afterwards, she stomped the ground and had Darius as her main focus. The ground quaked momentarily, as ice spikes, infused with Mari's blood, tunneled their way underground. They traveled towards the boy, who was no doubt busy with one of the Schwartz clones and when they got in close, quickly shot up from the ground, with the intention to stab into him. While all of this was going on, the aura effect of her Bloody Domination was at work. Given the distance between them, the boy was still in her sphere of influence, which was perfect for her.

---

Skills used:
Marigold: Queen's Wrath, Bloody Domination active.
Schwartz: Faster, faster!- Schwartz invigorates her body, by using the Lightning element on her body. When she does so, her movement speed is increased and she becomes slightly faster than before. The increase lasts for 3 turns and has a 5 post cooldown.

Graceful Duplication- Schwartz creates three, perfect clones of herself that are unable to use skills, but can physically hurt the opponent and also have access to her stats. The clones last for 3 post and the skill goes on a 5 post cool down.

Ysl'Dae: Reflective Shell- Ysl'Dae crouches behind her towershield and chants to create a reflective barrier, that absorbs harmful spells. The limit the barrier can take is 3 spells. 3 post cooldown.

Overrun- Ysl'Dae sends vines throughout the field to set up plant turrets on any part of the field. She plants x2 of the vines, based on the amount of allies and enemies on the field, up to 16 plant turrets. Every turn the plant turrets will shoot out quick, spear-like projectiles, that aim to stab into opponents. The plants stay out for 4 post and the skill goes on a 5 post cool down afterwards

[Drake Pathos]

Darius was equipped with his OGF Suit, his hand weapon slots filled by the Sunfire Blade in both. His chest weapon slot is filled by the Mortar. One of his modular slots were occupied by Don't Throw Me in Space and his right shoulder weapon slot was filled by Stay Down. He had Wildheart strapped to the back of his armor. His visor was closed. Ellis stood at his left and Tsubot at his right. Tsubot's mouth had the Salamander MK I and her fists were equip with the Hydraulic Punch. Inside the Armor, Darius' left arm is wearing the Nitro Fist

---

Darius immediately started as soon as Marigold's troupe made their move, targeting Marigold, Schwartz and Ysl'Dae with his visor. His body burst with fire, triggering his Heart of Ember, Burn, and In Your Heart Shall Burn simultaneously. Darius had Ellis grant him flight, swiftly zooming through the sky just as fast as Ellis could vertically. They rose high into the air to avoid the ice spikes and dodging the mundane bullets as well as separating themselves from the battlefield. Aligning his chest cannon with Marigold's location Marigold, Darius fired his mortar upon her, hoping for the molten shell to strike her. Ellis would use her firebolts to rain down 5 bolts on the leader. Tsubot released her steamy aura immediately, causing damage to all those within range, which the clones and the companions of Marigold had. In fact, even Marigold was within the area the steam consumed. Tsubot, while unable to do much against the superior speed in terms of reaction, would blindly release flames from her mouth. While Darius and Ellis were saved by the speedy flight Ellis granted.

Tsubot, if she could, would try to slam her fist downward into the companion ducking underneath her, using her Hydraulic punch to pin the companion into the ground from the force. Darius would be high in the air from the recoil of the Mortar, Ellis teleporting to his side. Also, the wooden projectiles would prove ineffective against his armor and blazing body, and Ellis would prove to be an extremely hard target to hit from her small size. While everyone wanted to be extravagant on the opposing team, Darius would keep his actions short and sweet and to the point. He'd keep distance with his wisp companion in the air. By the end, Darius has his Sunfire Blades revealed, mounted to his hands and shining brightly with great fire.

---

Heart of Ember: Moderate damage on contact + Equal to Base from Embers + Embers is applied twice
Tsubot MK I: Steamy Presence Causes Moderate Damage with an area of  30 Meters + Moderate damage from Hot and Steamy
Mortar is buffed by Heart of Ember and its augments and is a heavy projectile
Ellis' Ellis' Skill Tree: Her Last Tier 1 Skill deals damage equivalent to 15 MP per magic tier and is esoteric. Can fire 5 times a post. Currently dealing pure fire damage equivalent to 45 MP with Tier 3 Magic, which falls under Mod-Low

Currently Nitro Charger has 5 stacks
Currently Nitro Fist has 5 Stacks
Currently Shining Bright Like a Diamond

120 MP  - 30 MP = 90 MP

[Marigold Darkson]

It was pretty obvious that her opponent focused their attacks on her, rather than spreading out their crowd control to the rest of the party members. This made it easy for Marigold to read and react with counters of her own. Tsubot, while she was indeed dealing passive damage to them with her steamy aura, was in the range of Marigold's own aura, which dealt constant moderate damage the more she stayed inside of it. Of course, this would prove difficult for her to navigate from, as the Schwartz clones kept her busy.

Marigold flung out her hand and tossed out a glob of blood, that suddenly expanded and opened up to form a mouth of some sorts. This glob caught the Mortar shot out by Darius and immediately, its temperature became that of absolute zero. Everything within and on the outside of the glob was frozen completely and simply fell to the ground. Her retaliation to this, was throwing 4 quills of feathers into the air. For now, that was all she'd do.

Ysl'Dae, seeing the fire fairy attempting some form of attack, stabbed her blade into the ground and brought up an iron dome. The bolts that the creature tried to land upon Mari, had been met with easy resistance and protected her from harm. Meanwhile, her plants all turned towards the Tsubot and started to bombard her with the spear-like projectiles. These hit relatively hard in large groups.

The Schwartz clones watched as Darius took off into the air, with the three of them all focusing on Tsubot after that. They took advantage of her attempts to try to hit the initial clone, whose agility and speed, were honed to the point of where she was able to out maneuver the prototype without many problems. Even the flames were dodged easily, seeing as they were sprayed in a haphazard, yet predictable manner, were dodged quite easily. The three Schwartz clones had all swarmed in with tactical shots. After the Tsubot tried to utilize her Hydraulic Punch and missed, the other two Schwartz came in with furious and powerful strikes towards the upper body and head of the robot.

The original petite assassin, who had signed with her hands earlier, waited for her moment. The minute Darius was blown back by the recoil of his Mortar, she unleashed her Slow Field ability in the spot that she predicted where he'd recoil to. This would cause his speed to be reduced by a moderate amount, making him slower than what he currently was. After this, she wasted no time in activating her Queen's World. This froze time completely in the entire area and halted all forms of movements, that didn't belong to Schwartz. She then hand-signed extremely quickly in this moment and activated her Izayoi. The assassin summoned around 50 or so knives that had surrounded the young boy, as he continued to remain in the air. However, she bumped up the number x3, creating 150 knives that choked off any form of escape for him. When this death trap was set up, time would resume, which would also mean that Ellis teleported into the array of projectiles, that flew with an astounding amount of speed and power, that aimed to impale and kill anyone trapped inside.

---

Skills Used:
Ysl'Dae: Iron Wall- Ysl'Dae stabs the ground with her broadsword and brings up a large dome of steel, to shield her allies from harm. The wall lasts for one posts and has a 3 post cool down.

Schwartz: Slow Field- Schwartz designates and instantly creates a warped area of time 50 feet in radius. Opponents caught in this will have their speed cut by a moderate amount and whatever speed taken from them, will be transferred to all of her allies her pass into it. 4 post cool down after use

Queen's World- Schwartz stops all time within the area and activates her Izayoi ability. She can triple the amount of daggers, for a +5 on the cool down of this skill. When the knives are in place and time resumes, they will seek out and aim to deal damage to all opponents in their range. All of this is done in the span of one post. 10 post cool down

Izayoi- Schwartz summons 50 daggers that are suspended in time around the battlfield (50 feet in radius). At her given command, she can unfreeze the daggers and allow them to converge towards  many targets or one. This move has a 7 post cooldown.

[Drake Pathos]

Seeing as Darius was caught as soon as the recoil would knock him back, Ellis would immediately, as soon as she could, teleport to Darius' side and use that to her advantage, calling Tsubot to do the same. When she would, she would use her massive size to hug the two and would take the entirety of the daggers. While a normal person wouldn't be able to switch concentration, she was able to ignore the damage already present on her. Afterwards, Tsubot would drop near Marigold, letting her steamy hit the area around them once more. Darius would use this to his advantage to take Ellis to fly even higher so that they could exceed the range of the aura afflicting them. Unsheathing his Wildheart, Darius would send out two Wild Raids at a time with no definite aim. Ellis would fling her bolts at the plants, hoping to destroy them with her fire. Tsubot, while took some dage damage, would be near Marigold and would try to fire her fist at her as she was far from being downed. If the iron dome was still up, the fist would bounce off and Tsubot would spin her arm hard to sledgehammer Ysl'Dae. At the same time, Tsubot would release fire prepare for the Iron dome to release so it could consume Marigold.

---

Mortar - 2 Posts Remain

Wild Raid - Used twice

90-30 = 60

Nitro Fist has 9 Stacks
Nitro Charger has 9 stacks

[Marigold Darkson]

The iron dome around the two had broken down and decayed away, which revealed that Schwartz's attack whiffed, but not entirely. The giant robot had been damaged quite badly and the fall only served to bring it down next to the women once more. It attempted to swipe at them with another punch, but that would only serve to be its downfall in this case.

From earlier, Marigold had infused the four icicles that went after Darius with her blood. During the time of which he dodged and left them alone, Mari manipulated her blood in the background and caused it to melt the ice and form a rather large pool of blood. This blood continued to build and build, the more the ice melted into it, until it eventually became an asset that Mari could utilize effectively. When Tsubot attempted to utilize her punch, Marigold strafed out the way using her speed, which also allowed her to avoid the impending flames and followed-up immediately. She used blood that traveled to its host during the time the robot fell from the sky and shot out bloody tendrils. These blood like tendrils would wrap around Tsubot's arm and hold it down, while the rest of the blood that traveled continued to bind it, until it was coated in the liquid. From there, the blood continually battered and infiltrated the inner-workings of the immobile prototype, before it started to freeze to absolute zero and hopefully halt the robot for the rest of the match.

Now, with the current set up, Mari had expected Schwartz's attack to whiff. She didn't rely on it completely and that's where the feathers came back in. She released them some time ago and now, they had fell from the sky. Since Darius attempted to throw a spell/spell-like ability at them and Ellis rained down five of her bolts in attempts to destroy five of the plants, they wouldn't be aware of the incoming attack. The four feathers that the queen released, fluttered over and touched upon Darius' body. Since they touched a solid object, their AoE known as Devil's Air came through. Each petal formed a 30 foot field around the boy, so essentially, they all compiled around him. They'd violently start slashing away at him and Ellis, if she were caught in it as well.

5 of Ysl's Overrun plants had been destroyed, the ones on the edges of the arena more specifically. But the one's on the clock-tower continued to pepper their assault towards Darius specifically. The ones at the base of the arena all turned their attention to Ellis and Darius, after Tsubot was taken care of and started to shoot their fast projectiles towards Darius specifically. From where the two were right now, Ysl could only watch as her projectiles put in work.

Schwartz, on the other hand, since her clones had a bit of time left on the field, all started to scale the building. They were quick and fast, utilizing their quick movement and buff from earlier, to scale the clock-tower with almost no sweat. Given that Darius and Ellis never moved out of the radius of Schwartz's Slow Field, they were still having their speed dumbed down, thus making avoiding the plume of feathers and the projectiles a bigger chore. The clones only added to this chore, as they quickly jumped off the top of the clock-tower and aimed their daggers towards the boy, while his back was turned to them (since they focused on Mari and the other plants). Two of them came in with a flurry of quick attacks towards the aerial boy, while another aimed specifically to maim the fairy with her precise strikes, given her current abilities.

The original Schwartz remained on guard and at stand-by, keeping up her quick movements on the field and also able to see how well her clones were fairing up in the air.

---

Skills Used/Activated:
Marigold: Devil's Air- Marigold points the palm of her hand into their, then releases four large feathers into the sky. After 2 posts, the feathers will land on the ground and when they do, a large circle, 30 feet in radius will appear. Whoever is in the circles, will be risen into the air by a violent wind and slashed by a razor sharp wind. The circles disappear after one post or if one catches the opponent.

Bloody Domination: Since the beginning of the battle, Marigold has been consistently sapping stats from Tsubot at a slight rate and giving them to her own stats. At the same time, she has been affected by the Moderate damage being dealt with through the aura, by being close to the queen.

Ysl'Dae: God IS the Queen- Ysl'Dae's drive to protect Queen Darkson from any harm, fuels her strength and endurance. The more her queen is hurt, the more her strength and endurance increases relative to the amount of damage received by Marigold. This was constantly activated since the start and due to Tsubot's steamy aura, she's been adding more and more to Ysl'Dae's over all STR and END.

[Drake Pathos]

Darius would watch as the minions would make their way to the clocktower and climbed it. While certainly they had speed, the tower was tall and there was enough time to use evasive maneuvers. Moving away from the tower, Darius and Ellis would rise further, flying as fast as they could. Darius noticed the projectiles coming for the two so he had them use evasive maneuvers to lead the projectiles onto the attacking minions. Ellis would again use defensive fire to destroy the plants around the tower up to 5. Darius would use Wild Raid to attack the clones. Tsubot would warp to Ellis' side, however should immediately fall as Ellis was moving and was already away from the robot. The plan now was to get as high as they could to keep from the reach of their enemies for as long as they could. This would mean they wouldn't do damage once they reached a certain distance, but it would hopefully be a mutual thing. The fields of wind weren't that hard to maneuver around, likely overestimated in their width.

---

60 - 15 = 45 MP

Nitro Fist now has 11 Stacks | 9 -1 +1 +1
Nitro Charger now has 11 Stacks | 9 -1 +1 +1

[Marigold Darkson]

Darius had attempted to outmaneuver the Devil Airs that had descended upon him, however, what he didn't realize was that these little traps had hit their mark, when he attempted the previous action of trying to attack the group with his Wild Raid. This left him and his little fairy companion vulnerable to a mass of razor sharp winds that dealt slight damage to them. The Schwartz clones, who had closed in, had their times up. When he tried to use his Wild Raid once more, he essentially missed, since the clones had all but disappeared themselves. The plants along clock tower were easily destroyed but that was all fine and dandy, it really didn't matter much to the three in that case. Another thing the boy appeared to have disregarded, was the clearly open state that the Tsubot was in prior to its teleportation back to the fire wisp. Marigold had immediately retaliated when it tried to fight her and invaded its open areas with her blood. Not only did Darius call back the robot, but he also called in the amount of blood that hitched a ride in the thing.

This was a trial, but the Queen saw her moment of opportunity and the minute the robot was called back, the blood that hitched a ride sprung itself out of the prototype, at the behest of its controller. The blood aimed to ensnare the fire fairy within itself and seeing that she was no bigger than the palm of their hands, the blood would expand rapidly. Marigold was creating blood-cell, upon blood-cell, upon blood-cell at a rapid pace, due to her masterful and complete control over the substance. What Ellis had did, was extend the reach of Mari's influence. Her blood expanded until it was enough to block Darius' view of them, but even then, it wasn't done. The blood that attempted to ensnare Ellis, if successful, would trap her, become an iron-maiden esque attack and then freeze to absolute zero immediately, putting out the being for the rest of the show.

Meanwhile, that same mass of blood that was forming in the air, continued to shoot forth towards Darius. When it got close it attempted to stab and skewer him with a multitude of bloody tendrils (up to around 5 tendrils at once, three aimed for his body, with two going for his head). Should any of these pierce through his armor and get into his skin or anything of the sort, he'd be open to her Assimilation skill, which would allow the woman to do insidious acts upon the boys innards.

Marigold set to work with her own plan. The large puddle of blood that she had form some time back, had came back to her. Her sinister plan involved continually adding to the quantity that was being produced. Interestingly enough, from where they were, the two would be able to see an ever growing puddle of blood that threatened to swallow up the arena, as it continued to grow and grow. The Tsubot, was once again a nearly broken mess that was falling back down to the ground. If and when it hit the ground, no doubt it would be exposed to the rapid pool of blood that would aim to devour it next chance it got.

Ysl'Dae, at this point, had her passive, Champion's Venom activate. This reduced the cool downs of all allies by -1, for every sixth post she was out (max of two). She simply watched and waited, while the blood did what it did up in the air. There wasn't much she could do to lend assistance to the assault in the air, but settled for what she could get.

Schwartz was in the same boat and her passive had activated a bit ago. They were all now immune to time based attacks, that their opponents would attempt to use against them. She received a nod from Marigold when she looked over to her and started making her way back. The three were not packed together, but they were close enough to lend most forms of aid, should it be required.

---

Skills Used:
Ysl'Dae: Champion's Venom: After every 6 posts that Ysl'Dae is still on the battlefield, all allies cool downs are reduced by one post (max is 2 posts), while all opponents cool downs are increased by one (max 2). Passive

Schwartz: Gears of the Clockwork: If Schwartz has been on the field for more than 5 posts, all allies become immune to time based abilities used by opponents. Passive

[Drake Pathos]

To avoid  being trapped, Darius would distance himself from Ellis, and she would warp to his side. In an all-or-nothing scenario, Darius would summon his Nitro Cannon, diving down with Ellis in a way that would be an unexpected Kamikaze. Once he neared Marigold, Ellis would use her ability to enhance the damage Darius was about to do. Immediately as he came within a closer distance after dive-bombing, he'd fire the Nitro Cannon. A solid ray of plasma would burrow down into Marigold's current location given it had fired. Because of the force of the cannon and the length it would travel, its continuous fire kept Darius held in place. However, in return, the damage would be potent, given that it hit Marigold and anyone close enough in her vicinity. The cannon's ray would also be increased in size by 50%. "YOLO!". Darius' dive bomb would actually be used to change direction to avoid the attacks, however, when he reaches the point where he fires the Nitro Cannon, he would be very open to attack.

---

4 DP - 4 DP = 0 DP

Nitro Cannon summoned
Nitro Cannon has 54 stacks
Nitro Cannon's Nitro Cannon Ultra Finish was used
----Nitro Cannon Ultra Finish - Expends all Nitro Stacks, dealing severe damage per 5 stacks. It is a solid beam of plasma with a width of 10 meters. It extends out to 10 meters per 5 stacks. However, this ability instantly consumes the summon.

Nitro Cannon travels up to 100 Meters and has its damage applied 10x, boosted by Ellis'  Let's Reach for the Stars and her Base Ability, making the 100 Meter length 150 Meters and the 10 Meter Width 15 meters, and the damage per 5 stacks is upgraded to Extreme from Severe.

Ellis used:
Let's Reach for the Stars: Ellis fuels Darius' attacks to rank-up their damage. I.e. from Slight to Moderate. | 5 posts CD

Taming the Wild: Ellis is a sort of conscience for Darius, able to persuade him into doing things or refusing things, which is the passive bit of this ability. However, Ellis may also actively add volume to his and her own flames by increasing their flames in size by 50% to the nearest meter. | Nitro Cannon is one-use, has no CD.

[Marigold Darkson]

Marigold raised an eyebrow at the child's apparently suicidal display. Thankfully for her, whatever sort of plans the boy had for the three of them, would likely be halted because of her immense stage control at this point. The blood that she sent out had pooled a great deal out into the plaza and covered roughly half of the entire area. Given how she rapidly made blood-cells, this allowed her to gain much control within a little bit of time. Either case, Darius had been flying fast to their position with a large cannon, obviously aimed towards them. All three managed to gauge the rate at which he was falling with the gigantic cannon and discerned what he was attempting to do with it (if it weren't already obvious).

The Queen, using the stage on her side, formed bloody tendrils that were had a great deal of buoyancy. When the tendrils smacked into the Marigold, Ysl, and Schwartz, it had enough force to clear them from the width of the plasma fire (50 feet or so of width wasn't much to dodge), sending them off to the sides of the arena.. Darius was had managed to destroy a good deal of the blood that had gathered in the spot where he originally aimed, the rest squirmed away to avoid destruction. Seeing as the boy and his fairy companion were stuck in that area, it was time for Marigold to make her hopefully final move.

From his position, Darius was now in the middle of being sandwiched between two large piles of blood. Mari never once stopped expanding the blood when it launched itself at the boy and when he attempted his suicide strike, it fell down much like rain, in order to pursue him. When it came upon him, the queen changed the composition of the blood to be very reminiscent of acid. This would effectively make her blood extremely corrosive. Coupled with the blood from the sky and the large pool of blood that formed below the laser shooting boy, Marigold snapped her fingers and fused both pools of blood together, to create a large, acidic maw of blood, that closed over Darius and Ellis, which attempted to dissolve them down to the bones and evaporate magical essence completely. It was like he was being digested into a form of food matter. This was Marigold's coup' de grace, to the first round of her tournament.

Ysl'Dae stood at the ready and prepared herself for whatever he may throw at them next. Her sword and shield were shown to be angled at a very protective, yet offensive angle. She watched to see if the young boy and wisp would be devoured by the onslaught of their queen's abilities.

Schwartz continued to take her low, crouched position with her blades in hand. She was more than ready to continue fighting, if she had to.

[Drake Pathos]

In the event of Darius being digested, his clothing and armor would be completely consumed and he'd warp to Marigold's feet before pointing viciously at her shoes. "WHAT ARE THOOOOOOSE! But man, this pussy got me like..." He would chant, before his body would completely turn to liquid. Ellis, due to her small size, just died and Tsubot decided to commit seppukku.

Fin.

[Community Moogle]

The moogle had appeared moments ago, feeling as though the match had reached a conclusion. It shook it's tiny head, the pompom on top shaking with it, as the boy and his companions died in a rather... interesting fashion. It was sad, but entertaining. The moogle Shyly fluttered to the woman, raising an arm to gesture to her.

"A-And the winner is Marigold, k-kupo!~ Congratulations!"

Marigold wins T2: Round One by means of... delicious disintegration..?

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