[Quarter] Second Bracket: Ryu vs. Snow

As soon as the swordsman stepped in, he was not too happy with what he saw. Vaguely he recalled a forest fire he'd been in when he was fighting against someone back in the past, and the outcome of it didn't feel any better than it is being in here. He quickly made amends to get this whole round started.

At once the swordsman, once he reached the position where the judges assigned them to be at, unsheathed both his blades quickly, the lethal edge glinting in the pale light casting through the forest grounds. Not certain as who or what his opponent would be, he isn't risking any chances of being caught off guard this time; Glass-like ice forming beneath his boots and spreading throughout the ground slowly, its near-transparent state hiding its presence rather well against a keen or observant eye.

And there he waited, shifting to a left side stance with the left blade tucked into a reverse dagger hold, and the right held lazily to his right, ready for response if today's opponent wants to play sneaky.

(( Well, so much for ice cliches. domokun ))

The icy surface was getting rather slippery and hard around the swordsman. With the ice spreading at an ever increasing pace, not only did it act as a hampering - should the foe rush in or when the foe decides to attack in which the swordsman does yet know how - it also acted like a sensor, the terrain being mapped out through his ice and giving him just briefly a slight advantage. Should any unnoticed attacks arise out of the ground itself.

But not wanting to waste any precious water or moisture there is in this arena, the damp dews and what water there is in the trees, the grass or the grounds... Started to dry up, being assimilated into his presence and being harness into dense materials which he can use later on.

By then, he responded, two consecutive clicks making itself audible just beneath both his bracers hidden inside the cloak.

"Let's skip the formalities, shall we?"

And with it, the swordsman stabbed the frozen ground with his left blade, a dull burst of wind exhaling out of contact.

Oh, the needles were a bit unexpected. But moving away from them?

Why should he do that?

The shifts within the ice foretold him of a presence rising out of it prior to execution. And - having acute thoughts that nothing good would come out of something that's coming out of the ground...

His stab, although spat out by the earth-like object, already did what he was planning to do in the beginning; have his blade come in contact with the ice. Like a triggering mechanism, the contact was what the swordsman needed; anything else other than the objective is just excessive use of his strength. So as the blade reeled back from the earth-like pillar, the ice which the sword had come into contact with rose up like a small shell and --

Whoosh!

The bombarding needles impaled not the swordsman's cloth nor flesh, but was instead deflected within the concave curvature of the small object towering over it.

Earth user, is it?

It's still premature to use what he'll have to do to improvise, but he'll gather up the remnant energy during the process. With more caution in his voice, he barked a brief command;

"Let's go."

And with it -- The frozen surface of the ground reeled itself up into the sky, forming what seems to be a rather large creature, quite a few meters or so in length made of ice - a snake-like form - before it suddenly careened towards Ryu with rapid haste. With the swordsman surfing right on top of it. Deft motion with his left blade gave the implication that he is manually navigating the creature to slam straight into Ryu. And with the front end of the creature's form bared like a snake ready to strike...

He'll have to start his round of deception in order to build up the momentum to fight Ryu with ever increasing power.

Oh. Combo breaker. So that's how the foe wants to play. Fine by the narrator, who finds the interruption...not amusing at the least. But just because the needles are packing explosive forces doesn't mean that the narrator would just sit idle and let Ryu take the initiative.

No. If the swordsman's move is broken, then the narrator would give the appropriate response to regain the balance in this round.

In this context... Ryu's little play did surprise the swordsman. But what impacted the swordsman wasn't ice. No. The explosion, instead, caused the ice to melt partially, just splashing the swordsman with nothing more than ordinary water. The shell wasn't designed to be dense in the beginning - just enough to deflect, halt and get the job done. Under the cover of the explosion, the water was being absorbed back into the swordsman's cloth. But as he felt what the needles were packing, the swordsman instinctively did what was needed when he took a step back from the buffering blow --

More icy curvatures were erected like an defensive egg shell immediately during the explosion before the ice around him suddenly thickened, the pillar base being snapped off like a twig from the force of the ice surrounding it. The swordsman was pretending to be at the disadvantage by retreating a few more steps, erecting multiple barriers of higher elevation that would severely buffer the onslaught of explosive needles in front of him and some - perhaps - from the sides while the frozen ground beneath kept any hidden surprises Ryu would throw at him at bay. At the same time, the ice which was spreading on the ground throughout this time gave him the distance needed to do one thing; While Ryu is focused on the swordsman's reactions and being distracted - or gloating, under the swordsman's act in having his gestures filled with distraught or grimace, the ice has already crept beyond the foe's position, spreading about, lurching suddenly and --

Firing a sudden, large viper-like form immediately from behind, fangs bared towards Ryu's blind spot; straight at his back. The intent? To take a nasty bite right at Ryu's back without the opponent noticing it or hearing the silent sound of its attack.

His initial idea in the stab was to trigger a form so he can ride on and judge later using the blade as a trigger. But with the things being improvised... Same method, but different action.

And the ground that was to be the swordsman's downfall? Well...let the narrator simply say that things would not be in favor of Ryu's expectations.

Ryu Blazer Wrote:

> If this were a game of chess, this would be where Ryu were to call out "check!" Ryu was not fool hearty enough to gloat over just having his opponent on the run. No, whe he was pinned down and submitting would be when he would indeed start to gloat. The smile continued to play on his face as the swordsman retreated. In some ways he had him on the... bloody hell. The earth would scream to him as the snake rose from ice that had crept behind him, something he had first thought to keep in mind but let it slip from the forefront of his brain. He didnt need to do much however, being that the ice was ontop of his sensory element. Feeling a rising substance from the ground, he immediately went to guard his rear, his foot pressing down upon the ground, sinking into it as a wall of earth shot up behind his back. His enhancer helped him with his quick reaction time, allowing his mind to process and faster execute the commands that he gave out to his limbs and their extentions. The snake rammed into the thick wall of earth, its fangs sinking into it before the wall ----

Unlike Ryu's special ability to cause things to explode, the swordsman has other ways of getting past...defensive parameters erected in front of his attack. The bite sank in, digging deep into the defensive wall Ryu had erected. But it didn't push forward with blind brute force.

No. The snake started to revolve while relentlessly pushing onwards, the front end of the snake's form morphing into a drill-shape after contact -- Suddenly drilling straight through the wall in a short few seconds, the force now focused onto one small focal point in front of the swordsman's attack; reducing the amount of resistance it faces instead of hitting like a sledgehammer, and also channeling the momentum to burst straight behind Ryu's back for a possible impalement.

While the gun turret may be employed during the meantime to take care of the swordsman's unguarded rear, the question is - Is it really unguarded? Certainly the swordsman knew better than to leave his rear undefended.

But in all reality, there were other means for him to detect and foresee what Ryu is hiding beyond the outskirts of this forest. How can he tell? Because of the water he'd been draining off from the grasses and the trees just before the fight started, and so on since then. Their connection, faint as it may be, allowed him to gather more intelligence and information on the surrounding terrain.

It was during the little show that Ryu did with the earth-like needles did the swordsman notice the uneven lumps just beyond his visual range. Uneven changes that were not natural or followed the flow of the natural terrain. Did Ryu forget that the swordsman too, was an elementalist? Just in the content that he only specializes in the use of water manipulation and its relative connection to wind and ice - his trademark being the uses of ice and water...

If and should the gun turret fire, the swordsman already had something prepared for it. It's much easier to counter against an attack that follows the route one has given purposefully; in this case, the intentional lack of guard in the rear.

But that is, if Ryu still wanted to have the turret fire when the snake is seconds away from burrowing through the earth-like wall, and straight through Ryu's body.

Oh, he isn't forgetting the elemental thing anytime soon, the narrator suggested. By all means, the explosive use of the needles made of simple soil has given the swordsman enough information to use.

Long story short - being on the ground is a killing field for the swordsman. Vaguely he wondered if each and every shot of Ryu's is packing an explosive punch like the needles... Bah. No use in worrying over things he can't predict.

If he can only get a clear shot at Ryu...

The swordsman twisted his left hand to be parallel to the ground quickly in compensation, the snake which Ryu had ducked past not stopping and reeling about to try another attempt to bite the sucker; But instead, have another set of bared fangs burst out from the icy body - another version of the snake itself careening straight down to bite on Ryu's head suddenly, without warning. Or whatever body part is available to it.

This would be one of his surprise attacks with elemental manipulation - using sections of the main attack to deliver another attempt without loss of timing if the main assault missed. And whether or not the attack would land was of no concern to him by then -- for he sensed the disturbance beneath the soil from his ice - the seconds before the lump of dirt fired at his back. Assuming that the projectile would explode like the moves Ryu had shown, he immediately hopped into the air -- Ice rising beneath him, slamming straight onto his boots and hurtling him high into the skies before it too rose up to follow its master into the air later on, the sound of the bullet then reaching his ears as the projectile passed far beneath where he was just a few seconds back. Cold sweat broke on his skin, but he tried not to show it on his face or expression.

Too much focus on landing the attack nearly had him forgot about whatever sneaky plan Ryu was planning.

As he was in midair, the swordsman would then slam both his blades together - a deep chime reverbrating throughout the arena and grabbing the attention of the uninterested spectators before he -- Ran in midair.

Not down, nor falling. But running in the middle of the air, icy blocks forming underneath where his boots would land and giving him some leverage for motion. Only for a short while, of course. As he can't just simply stand in midair without falling like a brick due to gravity, his hopping from one point to the next was putting him directly out of immediate threats that Ryu might be planning.

While also letting the swordsman charge up more on the surrounding moisture in the arena and the atmosphere.

Damn. The sneak attack got intercepted. But what the attack failed to do in damage, at least the shards of harmless ice was now mingled into the earth that Ryu has then wrapped himself in. He might not know what the hell the foe is planning, but he'll at least have a heads up with the mingled ice acting like his sensors to warn him about Ryu's actions.

More water gathered about, moisture in the sky being dragged towards the swordsman's cloth and body in general. As if having some means of aerial mobility, the swordsman was freezing small pockets of moisture in the atmosphere to act like stepping stones, resisting the tug of gravity for as long as possible as he climbed higher in elevation, making him a smaller - and harder - target to be hit by with projectiles or speeding bullets.

As soon as he saw a projectile heading towards him, he did by then have some seconds to react. Short as it may be, the longer distance meant that there was more time to react to the incoming....pudding missiles. He changed direction in midair almost instantly, kicking off to the sides and going at a perpendicular direction in which the projectiles were aiming at.

He saw what happened to his sneaky snake when it got hit by the bullet. And he certainly can confirm that the sucker has explosives wired on everything that can be fired as a projectile. Somehow, one way or the other, but that's not the main problem of concern he's facing right now.

Seeing the pudding-like missiles miss him by some meters or so, slabs of ice was forming in curve-like formations surrounding his presence, acting like some means of defensive wings in case those things were...well, homing. And explosive.

With the cloth fluttering violently in the wind, the bracers whirred to life as he pointed his left blade towards Ryu's position, ice which followed him from the ground up impacting the swordsman's body -- And being drained straight into the gears themselves, especially the blades.

The swordsman is preparing something big. And just like Ryu, the clash in the next post is going to go with a deafening bang.

Ah, but the swordsman wasn't so blind to perception this time. Like Ryu, the swordsman has much of his attacks centered around projectiles or some form of beam - connection - from one point to the next. In such cases, it was like fighting an opponent that uses similar tactics that he would use, should the situation be reversed. And predicting what he would do in given cases, his suspicion would be confirmed when the bullets changed trajectory and careened towards the swordsman's back with frightening speed.

The defensive curvature on the wings were there to prevent such problems from becoming a reality. In almost an instant, the orb impacted the curved surface of the wings, which quickly revolved around the swordsman's left and expanded outwards immediately - away from the swordsman's position - after contact for a few reasons. One, most obvious, is to prevent another explosion from occuring by creating a slope-shape curve to diffuse the blast, and the next -- As the damn thing is a pudding in general, is the fact that - like his uses with water, the thing can stretch and improvise against defensive structures.

The swordsman planned to jettison the defensive wings immediately after the bullets impact it, to prevent collateral damage should things turn wrong to a serious degree, or should Ryu try a combo breaker here like he did with the needles ---

The swordsman pointed towards the ground with his left blade while he fell for the time being, a bright blue light illuminated the sharp edge of the blade. Ryu may be out of sight, but the spread of the ice scattered around Ryu gave the swordsman a rather good position on where his foe is. And with a shout - the sky turned deathly still.

**"必殺!" ( HI-SATSU!)

BOOM!**

A bright beam of illuminated light blasted straight from the skies, and down towards Ryu's general position in what seems to be - in the spectators viewpoint - a split second. The area of impact was unbelievably small - no thicker than a common pencil, but the reason behind it would become apparent when it strikes a bit too close for comfort in front of Ryu's position.

It tore straight into the ground like a knife through hot butter; Drilling straight through the rocks and dirt by at least a few feet before ripping it apart with an icy explosion.

How?

First of all, pressure. Highly compressed pressure restrained to a size too small to contain it. If Force equals the amount of pressure over an area, then the swordsman has created an overwhelming force that can pierce straight through nearly any conventional armor or defense easily - or, at the very least, cause enough impact to dent or bend most forms of defense to a frightening degree. But that's not the only problem. He was using the same technique he'd done against a fire user he fought back in the first GTB tournament, the beam which he'd fired at Ryu freezing up on the process after contact - And the ground tearing itself apart due to the fact that all that constraint in the beam has nowhere to expand but to the sides, ripping any soft areas of ground clean off like an explosion, ice left in its wake. When dense water is contained in a container - be it metallic or made of solid steel or concrete - and is frozen completely solid, the container either cracks or goes off with a bang just by the force of the dense ice pushing out from within.

Same principle - slightly different application.

And with the destruction raining down from the sky, he had his weapon fire off another short burst of concentrated beam towards Ryu while he continued to fall. Then another. And then another. In a few short seconds, the sky above is raining down with heavy, thick, pillar-like bombardments that is explodes after impacting the ground, many aimed to smash, bash, or render Ryu into a state of concern or bewilderment.

There was a bonus in how the beams would help the swordsman out...

But that is given only as a hint when large bursts of uneven air expelled out from each impact of his pillars, the charge-up from the time prior to the fight till now giving the swordsman an ample amount of energy supply to use for the time being.

((...I think I got carried away in my typing. x3o;; ))

Dammit. The swordsman hates it when he's right.

The pudding DID move like he'd expected, and would've been more dangerous if not for one small thing Ryu forgot to note; The swordsman took fall for the time being right after the pudding impacted the wings, as mentioned in the previous post.

Which meant that the pudding which tried to consume him alive from above - which, thankfully, it didn't - overshot pass the swordsman and beyond with safe margins to spare. But the audible rumble eminating out of the ground troubled him as he was just about ready to fire, interrupting his initial plan to fire his beams which he had taken so much time to charge up. One wrong move, and it would exploit weakness in his defense which he would rather not show until the end of this tournament.

If one thing was certain, it was that the foe didn't have that much authority or skills to use against airborne foes. A given advantage, but he dares not try to push his luck.

He'll need something far bigger with a bang...

And with it, the swordsman temporarily abandoned the attack for a short period, diverting small portions of the energy back to the atmosphere, hopping across pockets of moisture before redirecting his path up - climbing higher, higher, higher...

Higher!

Until he is but a small speck in the sky and still able to breathe easily, the clouds above darkening with content. He's changing his approach on how he'll be readying the attack. But in what form? In what shape?

Soon though, the skies glazed a shadow across the arena, a dull rumble echoing from above. Not as loud and clear like the rumble on the ground, but definitely a rumble; faint as it may be.

And hence, something far bigger, something with far more mass struck the boulder head on. Just with a pointed cone facing towards the ground, a massive pillar of highly dense ice falling straight from the sky, aimed to deliver the maximum impact it can towards the arena beneath.

With a deafening rumble escalating in tone, the massive pillar - stretching at least a few dozen meters in diameter and in height was coincidentially spinning at the direction the boulder was, the boulder-like projectile skimming past the surface and deflected to the sides through centrifugal force.

The intent seems to imply the obvious; To smash the pillar straight down onto Ryu, and crush everything underneath. And to top it all off - the swordsman stood on top of the surface of the pillar, one blade impaled into the ice as he grabbed hold of the handle to keep himself steady while he fell, shouting out with a loud voice for all the spectators and - especially - the foe to hear.

"HERE I COME!"

This would be, later on, one of the first stages in which he'll start the attack with, followed with something more unexpected when all hell breaks loose.

(( Crappy post, but I'll blame it on the cold. Dx ))

The swordsman didn't need to think beyond the necessary. He just did what is needed to fight hard in this tournament.

He had a sudden horrible feeling that something's wrong at once his own pillar smashed into the ground, already starting stage two of his attack. Not because he knew Ryu disappeared under the guise of the boulder, or because he knew of the Earth seal being removed - whatever the hell that was - But because of the shadow above him, widening over the surface of his own icy pillar in a haze of consuming darkness.

Alerted, he shifted his gaze to look up in the sky just as the icy pillar resonated with his body; The sight of the boulder, already expanding and ready to fire hails of lethal needles was poised to rain straight down on top of him.

"Son of a --"

But what came wasn't a barrage of needles or a massive explosion. And knowing nothing good would come out of Ryu's boulder like attack, it was then that the swordsman himself sank right into his own pillar, stage two of his strike commencing. He didn't have any attacks that can be called unmistakably strong while his ice consumed him alive, but in improvising on the spot... Be that he sank immediately after the impact to the earthen ground, gave him the necessary defense to withstand against most extreme attacks. Most. Not all.

The pillar illuminated itself briefly in a blinding light, his foe nowhwere to be seen on the ground. Did the foe hide himself, or -- The resounding smash of the bladed weapon directly above the dense ice protecting the swordsman caused him to take focus on Ryu --

How did --?

No matter. He has a clear target right above him, and saves him the unneccessary timing or hassle of unleashing wide-spread bombardment on a foe that isn't on the ground anymore.

With his entire surroundings being composed of his own element, there is one thing left to do;

Ice that lay beneath from the massive impact by Ryu's blade rose up to lock not only the weapon in place, but to ensnare the foe so that he can't make any large moves away from --

"必殺!" ( HI-SATSU!)

And the beam which he'd neglected to fire after the pudding shot would finally be unleashed at near point-blank range without warning or sound, a thin needle-like beam with unbelievable pressure packed behind it to pierce straight through Ryu's armor - near the torso, to puncture just one point on the armor through instead of hitting the defense completely.

Should the strike miss, no matter; he can swivel the beam to slice after Ryu like a homing beam, delivering somewhat the same effect of being hit by it.

Should the strike hit... Well. He'll give more details later if the strike pierced through.

Finally caught you basta --

His expectations fell short of disappointment, the sucker turning into some form of bile liquid suddenly. Eyes blinking at the spectacle, it was one deception after another, and the swordsman is forcibly being led into false assumptions without guise of where the hell the foe was actually. And already feeling the effects of stress and stamina ebbing away from him quickly, he can't waste anymore energy shooting at clones or false objects or whatnot, or else he'll be too tired to deflect or evade whatever damn thing Ryu is cooking up with.

Under his own tower, the swordsman was starting to pant, his vision getting blurry for a brief second.

Dammit. Dammit. Dammit...!

First explosive earths. Then puddy-like projectiles. Now clones and near invisibility against the swordsman? How the hell does he catch someone whom he can't see or know for certain that it's the main body? The swordsman had no means of detecting someone who can mas--

....Wait. There IS a way he can pinpoint where Ryu's main body is hiding. Why didn't he think of that sooner? Then again; Fight first, figure things out later.

Ryu might have something big coming. Something hellishly huge that would be deemed an Epic finish, or along the lines of that. But the swordsman, having his surroundings composed of his own element, has the ability of attacking without warning, Closing his eyes to use the dense ice around him like a surplus energy, the swordsman listened. Listened through all the chipping and the dents of the multiple Ryu's trying to break the tower; the ignorant attempt at covering the ice with the pillar.

He listened against all that is around him, stretching his senses beyond what he can endure while blood started to leak out of his palms, stretching his ability beyond what he is capable of.

To listen for...

Ba-dump.

"THERE!"

And without warning, before the earth-like dome sprawled down from his ice to connect with the ground, the tower shot out another beam this time, the same strike he'd used against the Fake Ryu as it careened straight towards the foe's actual body - The foe's cover being blown, from one vital source;

The blood, or the liquid flowing inside Ryu's body. Using the same method he'd done to act as sensors in the beginning of this fight, the swordsman stretched his senses to the limit, going beyond simple connection and using it like a submarine ping to detect the faintest trace of water there is through mounds after mounds of insurmountable obstacles in its way. Ergo, the rocks and dirts muffling the detection. He had to make sure when he fixes his lock on the target, since blood circulation within a person's body is usually slow, but moving constantly inside the blood vessels. So when he detects the unmistakable motion of blood within Ryu at some distance away - and making sure it's a valid target - he fired the beam which he'd created especially to penetrate defense, the massive pressure behind a miniscule needle-like area giving it the lethality of drilling straight through layers after layers of dense rock and heavy armor...

At the sacrifice of his own tower shrinking in proportion to the distance the beam traveled.

It was putting massive strain on his nerves though, and regardless if he is to land a successful blow on Ryu - in this case aimed for the right torso, the beam would swivel out to slice upwards and straight into the air, curving like a homing projectile before breaking off into smaller beam-like bombardments - raining straight through the multiple Ryu's and breaking the connection of the earth that is trying to ensnare the swordsman underneath the surface.

He was no fool to be sticking around on the ground any longer than it was necessary; it was like asking Ryu to take his life with each passing second he stays at the ground. Pressure is building up inside the tower.

An escape, or another form of attack, it is all up to the swordsman's diminishing strength as he tooks his stand against the earth user, Ryu.

Quite a devious countermeasure against his attack. But what happens if the pressure were to lose its form when it struck the needle, the dense properties of its composition freezing upon impact? This is not talking about a bucket of water compacted to the size of a needle, no; This is a massive, unparalleled proportion of volume of water compacted into a thickness no larger than a needle.

And when water freezes in such a compact state, explosive things happen. Most obvious, is that the spire which tried to deflect the pressure away - Broke under a new type of impact when the tip of the pressure was diffused to widen its impact area; rock solid ice that headed straight to Ryu in another form of attack which the foe would not expect -- A bludgeoning weapon, aimed to smash straight into Ryu's body and hurtle the for across the air before the beam would coil around his entire body immediately, revealing what the swordsman had used before;

Remember the snake?

It would leave a very chilly welcome for Ryu when the massive volume of ice constricts around the foe, the unforgiving pressure being channeled to deliver needle-like releases straight into Ryu's body like an Iron Maiden. Packing a much smaller punch from its main beam, but just enough to stab the armor from all sides and pierce through the armor just enough to enter the opponent's flesh by some centimeters or so.

But should something go wrong, and the flames were to be initiated still, the swordsman didn't need to worry about it much; Although the presence of fire is rather bewildering to see, especially when the user is an earth user.

Flames. He would watch the white flames pour down from above, his vision fading in and out of view as if his body is starting to seize up.

Flames. In all the times he fought Ryu, the presence of fire with earth...

Flames. Before he noticed it himself under his stressful gaze, his slowly paralyzing nerves and senses, the swordsman for the first time since this fight started --

Grinned.

*Flames. Flames. Flames. Flames. Flames. Flames. Flames..! Flames! FLAMES! FLAMES! FLAMES! FLAMES!*

*FLAMES!*

Something snapped on inside the swordsman's subconscious. The eyes dilated to glow a deep red, before the impossible happened;

The flames which rained down on him and his tower flickered out of existence; huge, vapor-like steams quickly eminated out of the chilly corners of the tower before it started to revolve around the swordsman like a foggy umbrella, doing something which he never would've thought of until this precise moment and time. The steam is interfering with the massive energy of flames. Gaseous vapor of water, although evaporated and highly steamed was thrown beyond the boiling point as it continued to puff the flames out of existence by sapping the energy out of it, bleeding the energy directly away from the swordsman and letting the boiling heat accumulate directly above the dome, pressure and gas building up like a tightly sealed steamer with no means of venting the pressure.

It didn't matter how hot the water would be as it acted like a shield and puffed out the flames continuously. It didn't matter that the dome is nearly sealed, the lack of vents giving the steams more area to build up and stop the flames prematurely from raining hellish fires of heat and destruction down on the swordsman.

His steam is turning ever so hotter from coming into contact with the flames. And soon enough, he didn't need to do anything much before Ryu would find himself in quite a situation.

Check? No. This is a counter-check, for Ryu just gave the swordsman a turning edge to retaliate against the earth/fire user. After all -- Almost all of his abilities were designed to fight against fire users with advantage.

There's a funny little thing that Ryu didn't pay close enough attention while everything is still underway. The swordsman has been using the steam like an umbrella, revolving it at an ever increasing pace with the water acting as a means of protective cover.

Snuffing out the flames and bleeding off the energy should've told Ryu for quite some time that the swordsman is using some means to diffuse the situation in an ever increasing speed, and being relatively unscathed through the intense heat permeating the steam.

How can it be? The answer... Lies in the dome itself. Without using much of his own strength, the steam was bleeding the energy directly into the earthen walls of the dome itself while the mist whipped and swirled in one revolving motion, keeping up the brunt and diffusing the heat to such an extent that - even as he was still in what is left of his tower, nothing stronger than a warm climate befell the swordsman's position while the brunt of the excited energy splashed against the walls and was absorbed into the earth.

Ryu's own element ironically gave the swordsman something to use to help diffuse the heat faster than he can just with his elements alone. It gave two things that benefitted the foe, without Ryu even realizing it;

One. The inner surface of the dome which was splashed by the steam is softening, making it prone to act like a huge absorbing sponge that diffuses the heat directly into the dome, keeping the central area warm and just mildly uncomfortable. Two.

At the same time, the heat is weakening the interior structure of the dome through its muddy surface given by the steam - the liquid-like mud on the surface breaking down the rigid construct as it ate its way out of the dome at a speed proportional to the heat it absorbed. So the hotter the flames -- The faster it ate through the dome like a fork through soft pudding.

Which gave Ryu something to be distracted about, while his bludgeoning weapon - a huge physical mass of ice and water - broke through the weaker layers of the dome from the sides, and initiated the process which it was meant to do in the last post as it struck straight into Ryu's unguarded position.

Here's a tip which Ryu should pay more attention about in respect to the steam the next time he faces it. A thirty gallon bucket of water, when turned into steam instantly under high heat, can expand into a wide enveloping area that totals thirty thousand gallons.

So what about a volume of water that far exceeds just thirty gallons?

Ryu, trying to seal the swordsman's fate? He depended too much on his earth element as a defense. And now, the swordsman has just underminded the entire principle, and Ryu is now standing on top of a disfiguring dome that is going to lose its shape through the steam, with the icy snake bursting out from the side of the dome closest to Ryu's actual body --

To complete the objective it had in the previous post.

The fate has yet to be sealed. Because the fight between water against fire/earth is just getting good.

If Ryu thinks about crushing the heated, muddy dome directly on top of the swordsman - the swordsman would've suggested if he has the time... He has already thought of something to put Ryu at a very, very unsettling situation.

For steam is under his manipulation, and under his deadened nerves on the hands and arms, Ryu is going to have to play with the swordsman for quite a while longer before a glimpse of victory is even in sight.

The swordsman is fighting on Ryu's homefield. Of course he would be fighting at a disadvantage, but that is where he improvises and develops new tactics to keep the fight from going one-sided against him.

And Ryu, like the swordsman a few seconds past, made a vital mistake in one move which he would definitely exploit and throw Ryu into a catastrophic panic. If Ryu can recall back throughout the fight, the swordsman has been revealing two simple actions that he'd been using again and again and again, only in different methods. One, is that he's naturally manipulative with water and ice - from the snake to the wings to the beams. The second, is that most of his attacks are pressurized - from the beams to the mist, which means he's used to constraining massive amounts of pressure in one focal point or over a large area without much problems.

There is a third, which he has been using sparingly and not in the front gaze of Ryu... Is that he's able to leech energy straight off of the surroundings. Gathering it and accumulating it like a charge.

So in a place filled with beyond scalding steam and mist packed full of energy, plus an exponential rise in pressure... What will happen?

But before his little antic is revealed, it seemed like Ryu forgot the Iron Maiden tactic that the snake had in its objective - pierce past heavy armor with pin-point beams the size of needles which would burst through the defenses and into flesh - smaller variations of the main beam he'd used, but enough in short bursts. The smaller dome is but an extra layer of defense, and it would be well noted that the snake coiled around the dome, starting to disintegrate and break through the points in a rapid pace so it can reach the bastard held up inside.

It is, also in an unexpected way, trapping the opponent in one place so there's no misfires this time. Because in a simultaneous gesture, the steam and pressure inside the dome gathered into one focal point above the icy tower under the remaining strength of the swordsman's manipulation -- And in a split second, the energized steam/mist/fog and pressure blasted straight to the top of the dome in a thickness no larger than a baseball, eating straight through the earth and any spires in its way via the scalding vapor --

Coming directly up underneath Ryu's bent body, bursting out of the ground and straight into the insides of the small dome to smash into the foe's body at maximum impact, with one exception; Instead of cold or icy water, it was burning steam. Steam so hot thanks to the flames that it can easily shred the skin and any exposed areas into a pain beyond his wildest imagination.

The snake ensnares the foe's ability to dodge or run away. The blast ensures that it eats through the defense and hits Ryu dead center in the chest.

And finally, while spires launched from all sides towards the epicenter of the dome - the icy tower was there -- But the swordsman was nowhere to be seen within the tower. He knew the implications of a glowing orange earth when he saw one; the last one already told him what would happen. But...

Where did he go?!

The answer would be revealed when a blade shot directly up into the small dome, aimed to pierce straight into Ryu's torso in less than a second after the pressurized blast of viciously hot steam, the right hand holding the blade being... None other than the swordsman, who launched himself at the same time with the attack to catch Ryu off guard in a follow-up combo.

He was breathing in irregular breaths, the deadened senses on his hands giving him an odd impression of holding nothing in his hand while blood seeped through the damaged vessels and ruptured skin on his body - his energy unable to last much longer after this. Sweat beaded down on his face like a torrent of water, but he ignored the salty sensation to put down Ryu in this ambitious move.

True. He'll recieve collateral damage and get himself injured in the process if he doesn't manage it correctly. But to win, he has to fight against the injuries! To land a victory, he has to put himself in danger in order to achieve what is there! Even if it meant having both of them injured simultaneously, he'll drag Ryu down with him to the watery depths of hell if he must.

Because, with an ambitious goal... The swordsman's desire to win is viciously firm.

Problem. The interior of the upper dome is already heated to a ridiculous degree, in no part thanks to the excited steams diffusing it into the moldy structure itself. So when the spires exploded and sent earthen materials into the steam, the already heated surface of the soil added more fuel into the force of the steam - pressure from the dome's collapse causing the force to rise straight up to the dome's weakest point.

The now weakening top.

And the swordsman isn't just going to the top through the launch from his tower - nay, he's using the force of the pressure to ride the air straight to the top, everything that fell being redirected to slam that weak point -- That single point in which devastation is only the resulting end.

The heat may have dissappated through the use of the orb, and yet the remnant vapor that would now splash onto Ryu's unarmored body completely plus the pressure would be so strong that it can pin the foe right onto the top of the smaller dome without a second thought. It's a bad idea to break open a hole in a dome which Ryu had created so desperately.

One break, and the entire structure weakens like a building which has lost part of its integrity. The snake took advantage of that, spikes bursting right into the small dome from the top to impale Ryu's back right at the time the integrity slackened from the previous mention in the post before.

And with all the liquid that is flowing towards the swordsman from Ryu's armor, even among the dense that no doubt Ryu would try and use to either explode or strangle the swordsman alive with...

"If you want my wrath..."

With a blast of centrifugal force, water circling from inside the swordsman's body blasted out of his right arm and hand like a revolving cyclone, widening the sticky liquid out far enough away from his body and weapon to leave a clean shot for the blade to stab into Ryu's body when the foe is stuck on the dome with the spikes impaling the man's back.

"YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL!"

But wait. There's no killing in the tournament.

Tch.

The aim would be slightly off course, aimed for a non-lethal stab near the left torso, and give Ryu a taste of the swordsman's wrath.

And the blade struck home, stabbing straight into Ryu's torso without remorse. All the talk about crushing the swordsman's arm and strangling him alive -- But the non-lethal stab was never stopped at all. Even against the lack of pressure and the mythril cloth, he still carried enough momentum to get that stab into Ryu himself, piercing only one small section of the armor; The only thing he'll ever need, before the blade followed through into the flesh behind the armor.

Recall back to the point when the steamy pressure bursted right beneath Ryu's body. The stab came a split second later, and there was time to deflect the stab away for an entire post. But the foe never did do anything about the stab, even after the liquid armor that's dripping onto the swordsman's body in an attempt to ensnare and break.

He didn't care if he's gonna be severely injured or not by the needles or the crushing burst on his arm a split instant later --

Both of them were at a check. And now, the swordsman will ready a finale.

Puncturing through the armor by momentum and the force over a small area, the blade would most likely travel quite some distance into the flesh before it gets lodged inside somewhere in Ryu's torso. Water that swirled about his arms flowed up the weapon partially because of Ryu's balloon effect, flowing into the opening the blade had punctured through -- And freezing right inside the wounds as a last-ditch effort to tear the wounds apart even further, widening the injury and effectively maiming the foe through - well, let's face it -- a gaping hole on the flesh with ice frosted over it and inside of it. Prevents bloodloss and fatality, but it's an injury that's severe enough.

With the deadened nerves, the swordsman couldn't really feel his bones getting crushed under the liquid balloon. He can feel a sharp pain - though dull as it is, but he'd accomplished the strike that he's been aiming for.

Screw the needles that is going to be blown from all directions in a second or so. The snake bursted straight behind the weakened structure of the dome while the swordsman is being strangled, aimed to take Ryu out from behind.

If he's gonna get himself killed this way - He'll take Ryu down with him!