Battle Rondo Round 2 -- Saiga vs Tora

Time to finally get this show on the road. Fortunately the waiting and anticipation has only been making Saiga all that more eager to get back into the arena and dish out another throwdown worth watching.

"Just remember," Tesla remarked calmly as she picked the Shinki up off her shoulder and set her hands down to the visualizer table, "To utilize her greatest strength she has to risk your greatest strength."

"Yeah, this fight is gonna be one of those double-edged blade type things." Saiga replied as she stepped down and, once clear of her Master's hands, accessed her Slipway and fully activated her combat gear. "But that just means it wont be boring!"

<2X-Supplemental> Deelel says, "Greetings, ladies, genntlmen welcome to another excisting Shinki battle today with Saiga verse Tora tonight. A battle of the tiny titans is about to start here tonight here at the Busou Shinki Battle Rondo. My name Deelel and I'll be your announcer for this clash tonight, lets get to a live arena feed now shall we?!"

        Meanwhile, Shizune's last-minute advice for her own shinki is somewhat more utilitarian; Tora has good combat sense, at least as good as her own and possibly even a hair better. So her advice tends more to the psychological side of things as they head out into the arena, giving the crowd smiles and waves.
        "Just remember, she's in the same position you are. She got here by beating at least one other person. It's better you take her seriously and have an easy win, than fall for any ruse she might try and get punished for it." Not that she expects an easy win even if Tora /does/ take Saiga seriously. This is pretty much certain to be a hard-fought match.

Tesla Armadia activates the Visualizer on random. The light and color swirls chaotically, before resolving into a Battle Field:

CANNON CASTLE
        This battle field consists entirely of a large stone castle surrounded by a river and woodlands. The castle itself doesn't seem to be based on any real fortification, but rather follows several key fantasy archetypes with tall walls, numerous towers, and a terraced keep with multiple defensive parapets. What sets this castle apart from typical fantasy is the massive array of fully functional artillery and anti-aircraft guns mounted on the battlements. Though these can be manned and utilized by shinki, they also fire for effect when left alone, filling the sky with shrapnel and gunfire. The field has the noise and appearance of a true warzone.

        Tora doesn't have to be told twice. Her last match was against a medical-type shinki and it had still gotten really dicey near the end. A construction shinki still isn't a dedicated combat type, but it's a lot closer than a healer for sure, and this one has a master who doesn't look terrified at the mere thought of fighting. The Strarf twists her lip a little at the selection of field from the virtualizer. She knew it was random, but it hardly seemed like the Castle layout could favour the Grapapp more, given that her opponent's main weakness was extremely poor anti-air firepower.

        "It's not like I was going to just stay out of her range the whole time." She mumbles more to herself than anything. "That'd defeat the whole point of a tournament." Admittedly, the automatic cannons everywhere seem to have taken a little of the wind out of her sails. Normally she might find that kind of thing exciting, but now it just looks like she's /forced/ not to abuse her advantage over Saiga rather than getting to demonstrate her honour! In fact, she is so busy silently fussing over it that she almost misses the light!

. . . 1

. . . RIDE ON!

        /Almost/. There's nothing that gets Tora's attention quite like the sound of a battle starting after all. Nearly simultaneous with the starting signal, the Strarf is enveloped in a coruscating bubble of light, deploying her battle gear straight from the slipway at the same time she leaps over the edge of the crenellated wall that is her starting position, diving straight down into the winding passages down below where she expects Saiga will want to head as well, trying to anticipate the Grapapp's first move before she can really dig in. The first sight of her she gets, she rounds the corner with her revolver cannon at the ready, firing upward into Saiga's cover with a pair of explosive plasma bolts, blowing the simulated masonry to pieces in order to try and knock her down.

Tora does 8 damage to Tesla Armadia with a Direct hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her I-it's not like I wanted to fly anyways! B-baka! weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>


The sounds of cannon fire thunder through the air as the battlefield manifest around them, changing a clear view of foes into one obscured by walls and corners, with the weapon placements thundering overhead. "Well this will be interesting," Tesla muses mainly to herself as she steps back to watch intentively.

In contrast to her casual observation, Saiga is pumped up even more by the randomized arena. Good, plenty of a terrain she can work with. As she stomps along the survey scanner affixed to her head occasionally clicks and bleeps softly as it takes in readings of the walls and cannon locations. Though it doesn't help tremendously when both her and Tora step around corners into the same passage at opposite ends, and the Strafe being quicker on the draw to pelt her with a couple of plasma bolts.

"Oof.. Guess there's not time to waste to bringing down the house." One of her large power arms swings up, slamming the clenched clamp into the ceiling of the passage. Cracks split across the surface down the passage, and until it and part of the walls crumble inward towards Tora.

Tesla Armadia does 4 damage to Tora with an Average hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her This arena just screams 'Collateral Damage Potential' weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>

        Saiga is pretty big. Strarf types are known for having fairly good armour, but even Tora can admit to herself that she's probably out of her weight class here when a pair of direct hits from one of her heavy guns don't result in her opponent seated firmly on her keister. Bulldozing such a heavy opponent out the opposite end of the mid-level corridor seems an unlikely prospect, so Tora makes the wise decision and hops backwards as the Grapapp swings one of those big, dangerous hydraulic arms in her direction; narrowly avoiding a big fat chunk of ceiling squishing her like a bug as she skids just out of its reach. The arm of her exoframe comes up to intercept the wall caving in on her, slamming her against the opposite side of the passage from the weight of all that virtual stone knocking her to the side. The other arm points straight down between her legs and fires point blank at the floor, blowing it out beneath her so that the chunks of wall crash down and cover up the hole left behind to stop Saiga from pursuing her.

        "Nice try!" Tora yells from the floor below, sprinting down the corridor towards the open balcony with her gatling cannon raised behind her; aiming over her shoulder and letting off a withering string of high-velocity shots that punch through the ceiling like paper, spraying up and around Saiga's feet to keep her occupied. For a Strarf, Tora seems to be playing remarkably cautiously. Does she have something in mind?

Tora does 2 damage to Tesla Armadia with a Graze hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her Catch me if you can, nerd! weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>

<1X-Supplemental> Deelel says, "And there our two combatnats go not holding back as they hit the groudn running. Tora's already bring her plasma weapons to beat laying downa  torrent of fire seldom seen in maches like this.  Saig isn't one to take things lightly as she keeps voing right for Tor and she's trying to bring the house down on her while Tora's playing like I did back in the arena. A dangerous game of keep away!"


So for the moment she's keeping her distance and trying to take advantage of the fact that she's faster then the power-loader based Grapprap is. Probably a smart tactic on her part. On the other hand, trying to shoot through the ceiling without being able to fully see your target doesn't work extremely well. Having to punch through that material takes a lot of the sting out of the shots, so the ones that do actually hit Saiga afterwards mainly just ding and dent off her armor as she's stomping down the passage. Until it comes to a wall at the end of the corridor.

A wall that comes to an end moments afterwards as Saiga simply plows right through it, dropping down into the same open area that Tora just ran into getting to that balcony. The larger arms drop to the ground to stablize her landing along with her legs.

At the same time Saiga pulls out one of her generic shinki pistols with one hand and pops off a couple of quick shots after the Strafe before Tora disappears out of immeadiate sight again.

Tesla Armadia does 6 damage to Tora with an Above Average hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Pew Pew Pew weak attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        Geez, Saiga is faster than she looks! Or rather, this castle is nowhere near as good at slowing her down as Tora thought it would be! Outmanouvering a big, heavy, ground based shinki through a lot of winding corridors doesn't work when they just keep making their own shortcuts! Even if they're low caliber shots, getting shot from behind is never exactly pleasant; sparks flying from Tora's flight array where the armour is significantly thinner, causing her to turn reflexively and cover her back. "Here already?" Even as stony-faced as she is, Saiga can see a little bit of surprise on the other shinki's face.

        Before much can come of it, Tora hops up onto the balcony railing behind her and kicks off into a flying leap, deftly getting out of the line of fire and right above her opponent. Right at the apex of her jump, the revolver clutched in her frame's fist bursts into a scattering of light particles, replaced by the much more intimidating, oversided sword unique to her model. "Ancient Chinese Secret!" Tora yells out, suddenly much more enthusiastically. A flash of black and red, and the massive longblade comes cleaving straight down through the scenery, missing Saiga by a hair, only to completely sever the balcony ledge from the castle wall behind it. "The bigger they are, the harder they fall!"

You suffer 13 points of damage.
Tora does 13 damage to Tesla Armadia with a Direct hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her Sun Tzu -pg198 moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>

<1X-Supplemental> Deelel says, "Saiga seems to be letting up just what sort of plan does she have in mind here? She better watch is as Tora is now just bringing the pain with her heavy artillery and I have to ask how do you make a weapon that does that in that size? Cause she's making it like a Kaiju movie here right in down town tokyo! Cause there goes the some of the arena."


When the blade comes slicing from above Saiga releases the stability locks in her joints to hunch down to evade the slash... That was never aimed directly for her in the first place, and the defensive attack turns out to be a self-hinderance as the balcony falls on top of her before she can extend her legs again to move out of the way.

Tesla winces a little in sympathy from her observation point. Even for a shinki as strong as Saiga was with her rig that was never pleasant to get part of a building structure dropped down on top of you.

After the passing moments that always seem to follow such crashing scenery one of the large grapplers clamps onto the largest remaining portion of the balcony and lifts it up far enough for the other to follow suit. Once she's got a full grip on it Saiga stands up from the rest of the rubble, hoisting the balcony up over her head. "Hah! That's more like it, I actually felt that one."

Mechanical systems hiss and buzz as Saiga heaves what remains of the balcony at Tora. "Don't think ya escape me just by flying toots!"

Tesla Armadia does 13 damage to Tora with a Direct hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Broken scenery just means more junk for me to throw at you moderate attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        Once again, Shizune finds herself sitting in her seet with hands subtly clenched, trying her hardest to keep the tension of just watching from the sidelines under wraps while her shinki has a /chunk of balcony/ hurled at her.


        SMASH! Screw the cannons, the /scenery/ is what Tora has to worry about here! As fun as it is to knock Saiga on her ass, having objects so large that she can't shoot them down thrown at her is a serious problem, especially when her flight booster decides to crap out instead of starting up correctly after being shot! Tora's back unit flashes and sputters flame before cutting out entirely, giving her just about a quarter of a second to go "Wha-" before getting slammed over the head by several pounds of balcony.

        The Strarf is much less deliberate about crawling out of the remains. The point of her sword abruptly spears up from the pile of rubble, and then a split second later, rends the entire thing apart in an explosion of dust and debris, leaving Tora crouched at the epicenter with her odachi in one armoured fist and her naginata in the other, looking much more fired up than before. "Escape? This is a battle. I don't win unless I take you down!" And with that, Tora explodes across the open ground, forgetting her earlier caution and hurling herself into close combat with the lifter-type like a bolt of white thunder, lunging outward with her spear couched under her arm as she draws back for another slash.

Tora does 13 damage to Tesla Armadia with an Above Average hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her HONORABLE BATTLE COMMENCE! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>

<1X-Supplemental> Deelel says, "Saiga is not taking that last hit laying down as she ciomes back with a heck of a counter attack as she's usi9ng some of the wreckage for her own ubran renewal project with Tora as the target. Now that's what I call tax dollars at work ladies and gents. Tora's not having any of this as she turns about and falls like a colony on her foe and gets right to the point is close combat!"


"Oh good, I've had too many foes run away after getting a part of a building thrown at them, and that's no fun!" Saiga may be exaggerating a little, but what's an epic battle without a little bravado to throw around too? For being a model originally designed for labor she certainly seems to enjoy a good brawl as well.

Metal shrieks against metal as Tora leaps in and her blade slashes down Saiga's front, leaving a trail of sparks and gouging in its wake. Good thing she has that extra piece of armor over her chest!

..But to use her greatest strength she has to face *your* greatest strength..Tesla's advice flashes back through her mind even as Tora lunges at her and hacks her blade across her front. Saiga hisses as she draws back from the blow... But as she does the two smaller actuator arms flip forward over her shoulders to grab onto the other shinki while she's up close. "You're gonna be quite a handful. Good thing I have extras!" With a laugh Saiga uses the smaller arms to throw Tora towards one of the cannon placements, hopefully into it's path as it fires!

Tesla Armadia does 5 damage to Tora with a Graze hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Taking Advantage of the Field Hazard! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        Ack! Extra arms?! Tora finds herself caught by the wrist right before she can drive her sword into the opening presented by her spear, the ground cracking under her exo-armoured feet as her momentum is suddenly arrested by her lead step. It comes as no real surprise that Saiga is able to hurl her like a caber. Strarf models are big and tough, but Grapapps are literally /built/ for lifting and manhandling, and so Tora winds up hurtling into the path of one of the stage's recreated historical howitzer pieces while her boosters are still spluttering with the effort of starting up.

        What she does still have however, are her sword and her reflexes, neither of which seem practical in the face of a simulated artillery shell flying at her, but which prove to be more than enough yet. Just as it seems the two are set for a head-on collision, the Strarf's powered armour whirls about in midair with an almost catlike gyration, righting herself and swatting the side of her greatsword into the leading edge of the cannon shell in the same, instantaenous motion. There is but a shrill screech of descending artillery, and then the ground all around Saiga explodes from the redirected impact, throwing dirt and masonry sky high with the pillar of virtual fire, hopefully strong enough to take even such a heavy model off balance.

        "And you'll need about a hundred more to handle me!" Is the line that briefly preceeds Tora coming flying back through the towering cloud of dust, boosters finally flaring at full capacity as she barrels straight into Saiga, giving her a high-velocity flyby strike from the edge of her katana, aimed high up to take advantage of her balance.

Tora does 13 damage to Tesla Armadia with an Above Average hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her You can't handle /me/! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>

<1X-Supplemental> Deelel says, "And that's what you need to watch for when our foe has a trick like having an extra set of arms and then comes the canon but Tora isn't taking any of this! She's just going go employ some of the basic laws of physics along with her Katana for a vicours counter assault!"


Well that didn't work at all as she had intended.

And then the Strafe is coming divebombing back into the fight faster than Saiga could ever hope to keep up with. The best she can do is just brace herself, heavy feet diging into the floor of the castle. One would almost get the impression that she's not even bothering with trying to be evasive.

Which may very well be true as she readies herself, and just as Tora comes screaming in she lifts the loader arms up over her head. The katana digs deep with the momentum behind its strike, helping it penetrate the Grapprap's bulk.

But at the same time as the blade strikes Saiga brings both massive mechanical arms down on top of Tora.

Tesla Armadia does 19 damage to Tora with a Direct hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Rock Crusher strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        The shower of sparks that gushes from the powered blade meeting armour looks more like a spray of molten metal than shearing steel as Tora's sword proves to be as ridiculously overclocked as it is oversized, carving through super heavy plating with consummate ease. The sheer amount of damage it does in the instant the edge makes contact with Saiga's mechanized arms, slicing over both foregrips like a knife through paper, suddenly makes the prospect of trading blow-for-blow seem much riskier. After all, the Strarf wouldn't have gotten this far if her near-suicidal fervor was only to her detriment.

        With all her her strength thrown into yet another reckless attack, Tora is left relatively unguarded as Saiga's massive grappler fists come straight down on her back, not /quite/ managing to sever the pincers straight from their wrist mounts. With the literal explosion of sparks, dirt and thruster flames that the dual impact kicks up, it's impossible to tell who got the worst of the exchange, and yet it seems to matter not at all to the Strarf. The brief glimpse of her dirtied-white armour confirms that her thruster array has been completely destroyed, and yet Tora still holds to one knee as the shockwave crumples her back boosters; simply purging the useless equipment with a flash of explosive bolts rather than rolling with the impact and hitting the dirt with her face. In the blink of an eye, she leaps back up, smashing one of Saiga's pincers aside with the butt of her heavy sword as her hand dives to the blade mount at her hip; drawing the normal sized katana in a fluid streak of glowing red light, aiming to take off one of the Grapapp's hydraulic arms completely. She doesn't back off, she doesn't clear space, she doesn't even pause for breath; throwing the full weight of her assault on Saiga regardless of the damage she takes, hellbent that her opponent buckles first.

Tora does 14 damage to Tesla Armadia with an Above Average hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her Counter strike! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


From her point of observation Tesla just smirked a faint bit to herself. Just as Taro's last opponent had said the Strafe has gone into an all-out offensive. Nearly bloodlust. Now it would be a matter of her own shinki being able to capitalize on it or not...

If there is one down side to how big and powerful those arms are, its the fact that it's a constant balancing act to keep herself stable. Sure her heavily reinforced legs help, but still it can be tricky at times. Shoving one aside is enough to throw Saiga off-balance long enough that, while she doesn't fall over, Tora has a clear shot to tear into an opposite one, cutting away plating and tearing into the mechanical hardware beneath. It's only by its own shear bulk that the power arm isn't cut off entirely, but it hisses and something grinds as it jerks back to her side, clearly damaged considerably.

"Hah!" Despite how much that hurt Saiga still has a grin, despite a bit of a clenched teeth one. "That didn't help my last opponent and it won't help you either!" Taking a step to regain her balance Saiga swings her other arm up and around again, this time trying to grab Tora around the neck and then follow through to smash her into one of the castle walls.

Tesla Armadia does 5 damage to Tora with a Graze hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Mega Chokeslam strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        Tora isn't taking these attacks one at a time. Rather than hitting once, waiting for the counter and going back in for the exchange, she seems only to be thinking of attack after attack after attack; already planning her next strike the instant the first one has landed. It's actually kind of offputting for a shinki, to see that kind of battle AI with such low regard for self preservation. Shinki are supposed to be coded to put on a fun show during a fight, not go straight for the metaphorical jugular!

        That means that despite her last swing's failure to pay off, Tora isn't stymied the slightest bit, twirling her sword around in her hand to reverse her grip on the smaller blade and ducking into a crouch just low enough for the more ponderous swing of Saiga's massively powerful crushers to swoosh over her head, clipping the edge of her thermal sensor headpiece. The moment it passes, she springs back up again, vaulting into the air solely by the power of her exo-frame's limb assist and coming crunching down on Saiga's shoulders, drawing her smaller tanto with her offhand and plunging both normal swords straight down at the joints in her armour, hoping to spear both points into her hydraulics such that she loses use of her grapplers!

Tora does 14 damage to Tesla Armadia with an Above Average hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her MUDADA!! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        There's a vibrant shower of sparks as the blade drives through, taking off one of the smaller shoulder actuators and the spotlight attached to it as well as digging deep into the 'backpack' that helps Saiga operate those multiple heavy-duty limbs. That's enough severe damage to get Saiga to actually yowl a bit from the painful feedback, though she's doing her darn best to not outright scream in spite of it. Mentally she's repeatedly reminding herself to be strong and soldier on until she can't anymore. But not by giving into the sort of blind aggression her opponent is expressing.

Normally the arms operate just by control of thought, but with the damage Tora has managed to do that isn't going to be an option. To make up for the damage Saiga shoves her normal hands into the inner sides of the arms to try and make up for some of the control. Out of sheer determination she manages to keep them working, even the badly damaged one, to reach up and try to grab Tora off of her shoulders. And then squeeze the grapplers together as tight as she can and just crush her foe in the vice-like hold.

Tesla Armadia does 14 damage to Tora with an Above Average hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her Trash Compactor strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        Tora herself can't help a "Gahk!" of surprise as she is yanked right off of Saiga's shoulders, too busy driving in the twin blades with the grim satisfaction in her eyes mirror by the reflections of sparks all along her chassis. She was so close to taking those pincers, by far Saiga's deadliest armament, out for good! Now she seems to have wound up in absolutely the /last/ place anyone wants to be fighting a Grapapp; in their arms!

        Any further vocalization is stifled by the sudden, /loud/ groan of stressing metal as Saiga's crusher winches armound Tora's body, pinning her arms to her sides as the joints of her exo-frame creak, threatening to give in and snap entirely as Saiga struggles to make up for the extra power lost from her hydraulics.

        Normally she might be able to crush even a Strarf unit like Tora like a tin can, but for the moment, it's a battle of wills as the two shinki struggle against each other, both attempting to compensate for the damage dealt to their frames. Tora's gives first; the elbow joint of one of her arms caving inward with a blast of electric static at the snapped wires, clamping her actual arm beneath the now-useless hulk. What happens however, is that as that mechanical hand goes limp, the heavy gatling attached to its wrist falls off completely, clattering to the floor beneath Tora's feet. Seeing her opportunity, the white shinki kicks with all her strength at the butt of the weapon, striking the electric hammer to force the motor into motion. The disjointed firearm sputters to life, jostling and shuddering as it dances erratically all over the crushed floor, spraying the last of its loaded belt of ammunition in all directions as it fires completely uncontrolled; most of which just happens to be right between Saiga's feet!

Tora uses THE FLOOR IS NOW LAVA! strong combo attack on Tesla Armadia.
The attacks resulted in a series of, Direct, Direct, Mild-graze, and Above-average strikes for a total of 20 damage.


Somewhere in the back of her mind, Saiga was well aware of just how badly damaged she was. Despite the all-out agressive offense her foe followed, Tora had been successful in crippling her primary strengths in combat. It had taken almost all her remaining effort just to move the power arms enough to grab her off and apply that crushing grip. She probably couldn't open the grapplers again if she wanted to.

As the gatling gun falls to the ground Saiga actually manages a somewhat pained laugh. "Oh no, you dropped your fancy little toy. Now what are you going to d--aaah ow ow OOOOOW!" She didn't see the kick because she was staring her opponent in the face, and thus the resounding burst of fire takes her by surprise, multiple shots digging deep into her legs despite their reinforcement due to the close proximity the weapon is going off at.

Smoke hisses from the preforations as the heavy machinery agumentations of her leg armor gives out, dropping Saiga down onto her knees, remaining partially propped up only because the large power arms land on the ground in front of her, with Tora still in their tight grip. Saiga pants a few times heavily, which really doesn't do anything other than being a programmed reflex to give shinkis that extra bit of life-like dramatics. Fumbling a few in trying to keep herself stable for just a bit longer, she finds the smaller actuator arm that had been severed off her shoulder. Fingers tighten around it and she picks it up. Followed by a click and a hiss as she unlocks the upper portion of the exo-frame so she can move her upper body free of it. Gripping the actuator arm in both hands she manages a tired, pained smile at Tora. "It's been.. a good fight... you're a good opponent... but it's not over just yet!"

With all her remaining strength she lifts the severed arm up, and tries to stab it into Tora's body. While not as strong as her loader frame is, Saiga is hoping how much her last attack crunched Tora's exterior will give her enough leverage to at least make this a very painful goodbye.

Though she is aiming lower than where the shinki's core would be. Don't want to risk what sort of damage that could do, even in simulation. She's just trying to give her one last really big hit before going down, fighting to the end.

Tesla Armadia does 29 damage to Tora with a Direct hit.
Tesla Armadia hit Tora with her From the Depths of Hell I Stabbeth Thee! epic attack! <Standard Mechanic>


        For a second time, Shizune is on her feet. This is that nailbiting moment where victory is decided, and it's looking extremely dicey for her partner. Her face conceals the tension of the moment... but her posture, her body language, makes it a bit more clear.


Despite the condition her Shinki is in, Tesla is still smiling. She's definately concerned about the shape Siaga is in. But at the same time quite proud to see her giving it everything until the very end.


        A flash of vindictive triumph springs into Tora's face as Saiga's gloating is interrupted by the defeatening cacaphony of gattling gun fire, letting out a breathless gasp as the heavier shinki collapses halfway to the ground, the jolt scraping the claws along her exterior, but placing her feet firmly beneath her on the ground. Tora's knee jabs upwards in a sharp kick to the bolt pivot holding Saiga's crusher claw about her waist, unseating it with with a clattering bang of metal on loose metal. Another kick has it bouncing in its stripped socket, just about loose. Just before she can manage the third one however, Saiga improvises her weapon at the last second, and Tora is cut off by a howl of simulated pain as the sharpened actuator blade punches straight into her abdomen, stabbing deep into her stomach amidst as looping spasm of electrical discharge.

        "I could . . . ghhh! . . . say the same to you!" Tora manages to gasp out, squinting with one eye before taking in a deep breath and finally hammering the bolt loose with one last strike of her knee, staggering back one step as the pressure releases from her frame, yanking the impaling actuator out from her midriff and casting it down onto the floor. Both her hands move to the empty space left on the hilt of her odachi, gripping tight around the vulcanized rubber to give her the power she needs with the loss of her other mechanized arm. "But this time . . . it really is over!" Then, raising the towering blade above her head, Tora adopts the pose of a samurai readying to cut down a bamboo stalk, one foot back, knees apart; and then strikes down for all she's worth, lashing the scarlet blade diagonally through Saiga's left grappler arm, followed by a flowing uppercut into her right, transitioning fluidly into a florish across her backpack unit, and finally a decisive, devastating strike straight down against her back; a cleaving overhand slash that should smash the battered frame right off of the weary shinki inside. A true armour buster!

Tora does 4 damage to Tesla Armadia with a Graze hit.
Tora hit Tesla Armadia with her Armour Busteeeeer! strong attack! <Standard Mechanic>
Tesla Armadia has been knocked out!


Her legs are badly damage, her power arms are immobilized; there is literally nothing else Saiga can really do at this point but grit her teeth and take it.

Somewhat ironically, the sword strike doesn't do a lot of damage. Only because there isn't enough damage left to do in the first place with how much Tora already tore those mechanical augmentations up. But it is just enough for the feedback shock to entice one final groan from Saiga as she slumps loosely in what remains of her power frame.

As soon as the system confirms that Saiga can no longer fight it shuts down the similation and declares Tora the winner. But before Saiga has a chance to slump any farther Tesla is there to pick her up off the table, letting the still limb mechanical limbs dangle out of the cradle of her hands.

Simulated or not Saiga still feels rather weak, but does manage a faint hint of a smile. It was a good fight, after all. "Sorry I didn't win, Master."
"Nonsense. You gave it everything you had, and you remembered your tactics even if they weren't 100 percent effective. You know I wouldn't ask any more from you than that." Then Tesla smirks a bit herself. "Besides, you made it farther than you did in the first compatition. That's still improvement!"


        And Shizune is cheering and applauding - even Tesla and Saiga get a broad, beaming smile. It was a fine, hard-fought fight, after all.


        At the sound of the match ending buzzer, Tora's whole body seems to slump with relief, her battlegear disappearing off of her with a hum and a flash of light as the virtualizer field lifts and her virtual damage along with it. Letting out a deep breath, she straightens back up at the sound of the applause, thrusting her sword up over her head with a wide, if exhausted smile as is the victor's pose, inwardly jumping as she only just now finally notices her battery indicator sitting at a whopping 3.

        "You Confederate shinki are something else." Letting her arm drop back down by her side, Tora bows towards Saiga with the utmost respect, hands on her knees. "First a nurse model, and now a construction type. I'd never imagined any of you would be this tough." Straightening up again, her sword vanishes into another bubble of light, letting her cross her arms beneath her chest with a huff of approval.


Saiga manages to sit up and give Tora a casual salute and a grin. "Just you wait if we ever cross pathes in the field~" But it's an promise acknowledging Tora as a challenging opponent rather than a threat. Then slumps back down in Tesla's hands after dismissing her heavy equipment back to her Slipway storage. "Whew, I'm beat. I feel like I could just drink a jellycan and sleep for a day or two."

Tesla merely chuckles a bit, giving Shizune a brief nod in return before turning to walk out. "Well you might get one day. Always much to do..."