[1v1] Shall we dance? (Candace v Shun)

[Blade Kuroda]

Oh great. The Haunted House. Shun wasn't entirely thrilled to be showing up here at the moment. Yes, there were times where he did want to come here for one reason or another. But today wasn't one of those times. Grimacing, he looked around, trying to pick up signs of life in here. So far, there was none. Experience with this place told him that it wouldn't be like this for long, however.

It was incredibly rare nowadays to show up in the haunted house without a hunter being around too.

And in those rare times... the house usually threw some sort of wacky challenge. He twitched slightly in the memory of Lizzy and himself seeking this place out as a place for training only to be thrown into a rapidly flooding bathroom.

Shaking his head, he quietly stepped through one door, finding himself on a sort of balcony. The room below looked to be some sort of run down ballroom. The chandelier was busted, barely hanging on a hinge. The floor was cracked. Dusty. Obviously it hadn't really been used in some time. He tensed as he heard the sounds of a piano playing. Sharply, he looked to find the instrument. It was off in the corner, but there was no one playing it.

WHY

Rolling a 2: ALL DAMAGE DONE BACKFIRES ON THE CHARACTERS THEMSELVES (ie if you do 6 damage to the opponent, you take 6 damage). All your log seems to take second place as a voice calls to you, vague, agitating. It pressures you to attack relentlessly, brashly, without caring about your own wounds or damage done to your allies.

 

[Eight]

Candace had also been attracted to the piano, except she stood just under the balcony that Shun stood on. She had been stuck in this room for oh...two hours now? It was pissing her off. These rooms that didn't let you out until they wanted to let you out. She hated this house, how it didn't act like how a house should act. The piano started to play and she backed up against the wall, already putting on her gloves and narrowing her eyes at the thing. That wasn't right.

She heard a slight creak on the floor above her and looked up. She hadn't heard the door open..but it was entirely possible the house didn't want her to hear the door. She stayed silent, her eyes on the balcony above her. A board creaked under the heel of her foot as she pressed back against the wall. s**t.  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun heard that board creak. Narrowing his good eye, he remained silent and summoned his daggers. Now, it could have just been a noise the house decided to make, just as it was doing with the piano, but he could never be too certain. Furthermore, it sounded like it had come from under him. Another student? Potentially a horsemen?

Or was it a hunter?

Either of the former options meant that he could potentially work with them to get out of the house. The damn place was tricky with things like this. But if they were a hunter? Well. He was going to have to fight to get out. Usually that was how it went. He had few qualms about stabbing hunters too.

Slowly, he let out a breath. There were two ways to find out. One was to speak up. The other was to look himself. In the case that it was a hunter, speaking would also give away his position. Dropping down, he might be able to have the advantage of a surprise attack.

The decision was made. Swiftly, he swung himself over the balcony railing and dropped down, ready to attack just in case it was an enemy. Sure enough, he saw a hunter standing against the wall. Not just any hunter too.

Candace.

He didn't hesitate to shift forth to strike.

HP: 45
Damage: 5  

[Eight]

Candace was waiting, expecting any moment for something or someone to come down. If it was another Hunter who thought she was the enemy they might attack her before they realized who she was, she had to be prepared for anyone to come down. Staring up through small cracks in the floorboards, Candace could faintly see someone up on the balcony.

And then they came down, and her reaction was immediate.

"Why hello~." She raised her arms and summoned Atropos without hesitation, fully expecting the strike against her. "Nice swing. Didn't expect to see you here, darlin'." She pushed off the wall and spun on the ball of her foot, raising a leg to strike at Shun.

And just as she did a plank of wood from the flooring of the balcony above her, the very floor Shun had been standing on, fell from the balcony and landed square on her head.

She cursed loudly, stumbling away and raising a hand to the top of her head. DON'T LOSE FOCUS!

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun stared hard at the hunter, feeling the hatred bubble up within him. He also hadn't expected to see her here, but then again, any day where he saw her again was a day too soon. He brought his arms up and took a rather harsh kick, causing him to hiss in pain as he shifted away.. just in time to avoid having a piece of the balcony crash down on top of Candace. He could already feel some blood running down himself thanks to those damn blades on her feet.

"Can't say I'm happy to see you," he muttered under his breath before moving in while the hunter was hopefully distracted with the balcony chunk.

More ceiling pieces needed to fall on her. Hell. The whole house could come down on them both for all he cared.

As he moved in to strike, the piano music shifted to that of a waltz. He was only able to make a light attack when he felt a twinge of pain in his side where he had been kicked. Damn. She had gotten that deep, hm?

HP: 30
Damage: 2
Using: Beginner's dodge - If third dice is evens, next attack to Shun has -8 modifier. If odds, no change. (Failed)  

[Eight]

"Really? Aw, Shun." She dropped her hand away from her head and chanced a quick look down at her palm. No blood, good. Her shield was still going strong. Thank you, Atropos.

I've let you have enough concussions. Plus, this kid takes your encounters too seriously for me to let you get woozy.

Appreciated.

The next hit she blinked. "I get hit in the head and it's you who makes the pansyass attack? Seriously?" Without another word she swung a hard kick at the boy, her head swimming a bit as she did and stumble back away, bumping against a corner of the piano in just the right way that she had to hold back a hiss of pain. That always smarted.

HP: 30/60
Damage done: 10  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun grimaced as he took another kick but stared as she had ended up bumping into the piano as a result.

"I don't know. You seem to be keen on doing my work for me," he shrugged. She seemed to be the epitome of grace right about now and all. Glancing down to check his side, he frowned. It was going to be difficult to move about swiftly with a wound that deep. He was going to need to make due with what he had.

Gritting his teeth, he rushed forth before sweeping his leg to try and trip her up. Might as well help her fall around here. The movement tore at the open wound as expected, but he had to push on regardless.

HP: 16
Damage: 4  

[Eight]

"You have a ceiling land on your head and see how you feel. Or maybe you could ask Mitsu, I think she's got some experience with that." Candace actually laughed, barely bothered by Shun sending her to the floor. She was grinning up at him. She wasn't at all unhappy to be like this. Oh no, he just saved her a step.

She sat up and supported herself on her hands, sweeping Shun's own legs out from under him as he had done to her. Regardless of if he went down or not she stood again, bringing her leg up in a wide swing and bringing it down hard on him. The purpose had been to embed the talon on the heel of her boot into the boy. She was not playing nice, not with Shun.

HP: 11/60
Damage done: 15  

[Blade Kuroda]

"She's experienced far too many painful things thanks to you," Shun muttered. All of the sudden, he was on his back, but that wasn't all. A vicious hook soon sank in deeply into his gut. Grimacing, he bit his lip to keep himself from crying out in pain. That didn't stop the splatter of red that sprayed across the floor and all over her boot thanks to cutting him open like that.

He was hurt pretty bad now. And he could feel that he was on his last legs. Coughing up some blood, he stared up. If he was going to go down, he was going to try and bring her with him in the very least. And so he shadowstepped.

Well. He tried to. The plan was not to strike Candace, but the chandeliar above them. He wasn't sure if he had enough strength to bring her down himself.

It turned out that he didn't have enough to cut down the light fixture either. He had appeared on top of it, and was forced down to his knees before he could strike it once. It didn't drop down from his weight either. The only thing that did drop was blood.

"Kussoooo.." he hissed as he clutched his abdomen.

This had not gone as plan.

HP: 1
Damage: 0  

[Eight]

Candace actually raised her hands beside her head as if in surrender. "Hey now, I didn't want her hurt. S'not my fault Caelius and his band of merry assholes thought that just because I hadn't had time to visit her for a couple days meant I was done with her." There we go, properly throwing Caelius under the bus. Had the Death lead had anything to do with Mitsu being disassembled? Candace wasn't one hundred percent sure if Caelius was involved in that whole ******** mess, but she didn't care right now.

Shun disappeared and Candace instinctively took a few steps back away from where he had been standing, wanting to put herself in a position where he couldn't sneak up behind her. Where the ******** was he? She heard the creak and saw the dripping blood from above, looking up and spotting the boy on the chandelier. Not bad, not bad at all. She could see what he was trying to do too, he wanted to drop that thing down on her head. Nice try.

Smirking, she put her hands on her hips and regarded the boy with an arched brow, clearly amused. "Problem, little boy?"  

[Blade Kuroda]

"She still would have been better off without being taken in the first place," Shun hissed as he was trying to recover. She wasn't directly under the chandelier anymore so there wasn't much point in cutting it down now. That would only spell disaster for himself.

The name drop didn't really change his feelings too much either. Last he saw, Caelius was being ripped apart by Red. And well... all hunters could go to hell for all he cared.

In any case, he was going to need to plan carefully. He was bleeding pretty badly right now and he was pretty up high too. Shadowstepping costed a little more energy than normal movement. And jumping down seemed like a poor idea at the moment.

Being called a little boy caused his eye to twitch, but he didn't let that egg him on to make any brash movements. He was 18 dammit. Judging how some of the hunters looked, he felt like he was older than a couple of them.

"I hope you don't call your younger peers as 'little boys', but no. I'm simply enjoying the view."

He let out a breath, and tried to get his focus together. Clear his mind. Push out the pain. Today just wasn't quite his day, however. He wasn't quite able to get his fear together.

HP: 1
Using: y2 Eye  

[Eight]

"I do if I'm angry." Candace chuckled. "Kind of like an upset parent, you know? Listen boy, show some respect. That kind of thing." She shrugged, watching Shun as he seemed to meditate.

Come at me, bro.

Candace was not letting him get the upper hand on her. Her fear shield couldn't take too much more...but..just enough to handle one more attack, surely. No, she shouldn't risk it. Though she was curious to see what he would do. Candace braced herself for whatever trick he had up his sleeve.

HP: 11/60
Defended for: 10  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun could feel the fear fizzle away as he failed. Cursing lowly, he looked down at Candace, seeing that she was preparing herself for an oncoming attack. He was running out of options personally. He supposed that he could try throwing his daggers down, but if he wanted to make that count, he'd have to move a little sharply. He didn't know if his wounds could handle that.

No. He had to make this count.

"Better them than me. Can't say I'd want you as a mother."

Gritting his teeth, he shifted his feet as he knelt there on the chandelier, preparing to move fast. Really fast.

Jack this was going to hurt when he was ready.

HP: 1
Using: Beginners speed boost - +1 accuracy for 3 turns
.. HE HAS A PLAN OK.  

[Eight]

Nothing? Candace frowned. She didn't like this...he was up to something. "I wouldn't want me as a mother either. I hate kids."

Without warning Candace ran, jumping and grabbing the chandelier. She swung her body once, throwing her legs over and aiming as best as she could. She wanted to knock him off the chandelier, throw him down from his little perch above her. On her way up she scraped her leg against a sharp piece of metal, wincing and perching on the chandelier herself..which came crashing down while she was sitting on it. She went down with a surprised gasp, clamping a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

But at least she was conscious when it landed.

HP: 5
Damage done: 6  

[Blade Kuroda]

Shun had nothing to say to that. He was about to make his move when she suddenly jumped before he could get things in motion. Cursing lowly, he found himself losing his balance on the thing. Not that it mattered a great deal as the light fixture ended up breaking under the weight of them both and he found himself crashing down.

The Reaper hit the ground pretty hard and his consciousness was quickly fleeting. He fought against it, but as with most things today, it just wasn't going to happen. He couldn't understand just why there was this much difference in strength between them. He worked hard every day. Trying to improve. And yet...

He couldn't finish that thought as his mind slipped into darkness.

HP: -5