Pierce Veil VS Horo Whitetail [Tournament Battle]

[Horo]

Horo stood boastfuly in the middle of the stage. She had trained hard for this, working through the nights and days to reach this point where she would finally begin her take over of the school. Who better than Pierce Veil, the Student President, to be her first opponent. She looked around and declared to the crowd.

"I am Horo, I will soon be the student leader of this school and one day the world! Know me and be amazed!"

((Lets make Horo's defeat slow, and painful)

[Johnathan]

With a slow and confident step, Pierce Veil entered the arena. As he was noticed, the students in the crowd erupted into a thunderous cheer. Smiling amiably, he turned and waved to his many fans, blowing occasional kisses causing the girls to swoon. With precise movements he tightened his dress gloves, straightened his cloak with it's many awards and medals and finally tightened his tie as he stepped into position directly across from Horo.

"Hello there, Miss Whitetail." His words which flowed like the smoothest satin directed all attention to himself. "I hope we can have a good clean fight here today. As much as I would hate to injure a beautiful young lady such as yourself, I won't shame you by holding back." With a large happy smile, Pierce tilted his head slightly to the side. "Let's get along, okay?"

[Horo]

”I wouldn’t have it any other way. No hard feelings, but I’m aiming for your job, Pierce. So yeah, let's get along.” Horo couldn’t help but feel flattered by Pierce as he complemented her on her appearance. She spun around, assisting with playing up the crowd and looked out among the students. ”Let’s all cheer hard for our schools leaders!” Pierce was intelligent, but Horo was smarter, or so she thought.

With a smooth gate that wasn’t possible by humans, a tall grey alien walked into the center of the stage meeting Horo and Pierce. He(?) was tall, and had three fingers on each hand the right of which held a microphone. ”Students, parents and happy fans I welcome you to the QiLong Tournament of Champions! I am Eli, your announcer and ref for this match. To the left we have the young and spunky Horo Whitetail! She is Captain of the Quickstepp club and a student activist with dreams of greatness! Watch your seats, her powers of Pulse are the same as Professor Giovanni, albeit, much less powerful. And to my right, we have the prince of the Academy. Voted most handsome 9 years in a row and he’s only been here for 8. Student Council President, tutor and the leader of the Academy’s Students for Rebuilding Savale Club, Pierce Veil! Don’t look away, you’re not going to want to miss this. “

Eli rose his hand high, looking at Pierce and then Horo before dropping it down.

HAGIME!

Horo created a pulse shield off the bat and formed a ball of air in her hand. She began moving forward and threw it at Pierce as had as she could.

[Johnathan]

With a confident smile, Pierce gracefully sidestepped the ball of air. Continuing his momentum, he walked forward, straight into Horo's charge. As he reached the shield of pulse, with a knowing smile as it should have impacted him, instead Pierce stepped right through it into Horo's guard. Lowering his left shoulder, Pierce stepped into Horo's guard and attempted to Judo throw her over his shoulder.

[Horo]

Horo flipped over Peirce and landed with her feet on the ground in a bridge position. She took a moment to take in a deep breath as the questions began to race through her head. ‘How did he do that?’ Horo lifted her legs back up and wrapped them around Peirce’s arm and tried to twist him onto the ground and into an armbar.

With little resistance, Pierce was trapped by the arm bar, laying back on the ground. He made a show of being in pain, and the crowd began to boo angrily. “Horo dear,” he called out. “Would you allow me a moment to remove my overcloak. I believe it’s getting in the way.”

Horo was tuning the sound of the crowd out of her ears, but Peirce’s request was... interesting. It wouldn’t do well for her image to deny it, but she would lose her strategic advantage if she did. Horo sighed and relaxed her grip before rolling over her back and placing her feet gently on the floor. “Sure. Wouldn’t want you to lose because of something small like that.”

Smiling gratefully, Pierce stood up and dusted himself off. Removing the cloak in a sweeping motion, he tossed it to the side and it fluttered into the waiting arms of the crowd. Laughing, he waved to them and called out. “Let’s not be poor sports okay? Booing because my opponent gained the upper hand is not something I will tolerate.” Even though he was chastising, his tone was still amiable and the crowd cheered regardless.

With a smile, he turned back to Horo. “Shall we begin again?” He said, as he lowered himself into an elegant stance.

Horo nodded and took up a strange stance. Her hands were lowered and she bounced on her feet, looking Pierce up and down, trying to find an opening. ‘there’ she thought as she dashed forward. Horo lifted her hands and pulled two pillars of stone from the floor of the arena towards Pierce and with a kicking motion she shot a gust of air at him. Horo spun around finally and kicked the top off one of the stone pillars, launching it at Pierce.

With as pleasant a smile as always, Pierce spun forwards fluidly, his hand wrapping around one edge of the stone disk as the blast of air passed harmlessly over his shoulder. Using the spin to his advantage, Pierce redirected the momentum of the disk and in a swooping motion, pitched it straight back through the center of the two columns.

Horo rolled to the side just before the stone block smacked her in the face. She gave Pierce another good look over. This man wasn’t attacking, only reacting to her actions. She would have to do this differently. Horo crouched down low and rushed forward, she lashed out at Pierce with wide motions of her arms, legs and tail. Each missed blow pressed a black of air forward. Horo used these attacks as a distraction however as she formed a ball of water from the vapor in the air behind Pierce. Soon he would step into it and she would have him trapped.

With each step backwards, Pierce spun gracefully out of the path of each strike. Feeling the wind breeze past him, his smile crooked slightly into a faint, plotting, grin. He continued to retreat, flowing gracefully within each of Horo’s attacks. To the untrained eye, it would appear as though he was being overtaken rather spectacularly. In reality, the dodging motion was as easy and simple to him as stepping out of bed, or sitting in a chair.

With a final spinning slide, Pierce was backed straight up to the sphere. Following through the momentum of the spin, he reversed his stance. The carry through made it appear as though he was aiming a palm strike for Horo’s chest. In reality, his hand would stop a few inches short. At that time, with a faint gesture of his fingers, every blast of air that Horo had thrown at him in her advance was shot back simultaneously from point blank range.

Horo’s light body was flung backwards with the gust of air feeling more like a gale. She landed hard on the ground and roll a few extra feet before pushing herself back onto her feet. The blast had made her lose focus and the water returned to the air as vapors. Horo could feel a small trickle of blood sliding down her arm as she gauged Pierce’s abilities more. He was toying with her, she could feel it. Horo began walking forward towards him with a confident smile. “Hey, I have an idea, let’s swap positions. You take a few swings and I’ll go on the defensive. Let’s give the people a show!”

Horo let her arms hang at her sides for a moment before raising them up to her face in a boxing stance. “I’m ready for you!”

With an agreeable smile and a slight bow, Pierce continued. “If you insist.”

Charging forwards quickly Pierce stopped just shy of Horo. Planting his left foot into the ground, he spun with the momentum of his charge. Curled to spin quickly, Pierce’s right arm flung out at the end of the turn. His hand was curled into a shape reminiscent of a bird’s beak as he lashed out with great speed. The strike was aimed straight for the nerve that ran through Horo’s right shoulder. If it connected, her arm would be unusable for quite some time.

Horo’s hands shot up and caught his right arm at the wrist. She spun with him and attempted to throw him over her shoulder in a manner similar to how he had tried to throw her earlier. She released his wrist and waited for the thud of his body hitting the ground.

Spinning easily with Horo’s throw, he reversed the hold to grab her wrist instead. Pulling her arm behind her, he continued the flow of his momentum; flipping forward onto his left hand as he attempted to wrench her joints with the motion, and aimed a guillotine kick at her left shoulder.

Horo gritted her teeth and fell to the ground with a thud as his foot came in contact with her shoulder. She felt a slight snap in her right arm, coming to the realization that Pierce had pulled it out of socket with his motion. “Well... That didn’t go as planned.” she commented as she attempted to roll away from him, only to feel the tug of his hand still holding onto her right wrist. “Crap” Horo tried sending out a wave of pulse energy to push him away, praying it would work.

Pierce stepped through the wave of pulse as it parted harmlessly around his form. Maintaining the torque on her arm, he stepped up and planted his right foot harshly onto her dislocated shoulder. Using it as a fulcrum he continued to bend her arm.

“Feel free to submit at any time.” Pierce taunted happily, enjoying himself to the fullest.

Horo resisted the urge to shout out in pain. She had been through worse than this in the forest, much worse. Horo tried fighting against the pain and pushing Pierce off her back, but it was too great for her muscles to move. She needed a way out and fast. Horo took a deep breath and transformed herself into her bestial form. She let out a roar and shot across the arena placing as much distance as she could between the two. Reverting back into her humanoid form, Horo forced her arm back into its socket.

“Hey, do you use Pulse or something? Why can’t I effect... affect you?” Horo would use this time to question to catch her breath and devise a new strategy.

With a calm smile, Pierce released her as she transformed and watched in amusement as she rushed away. He could see in her expression something he was quite familiar with. Confusion. Walking in an arc around her, all the while getting slowly closer, he straightened his tie and adjusted his gloves.

“Well, I can’t say that I am a practitioner of pulse. As to why you can’t affect me, I haven’t the faintest clue.” With a shrug and a friendly smile, the blonde continued to draw slowly closer. “Perhaps you simply lack the skill required to hit me. I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. Your technique appears....unrefined at beast.”

Horo began to growl, Pierce had lost all of his charm and his lies were blatant. He knew why she wasn’t affecting him, but as her opponent or maybe just an evil man he refused to tell her. Horo decided that she would have to pull out all the stops to defeat him. “You asked for this.” Horo said angrily. She moved forward and punched at Pierce with all her might. The punch was meant to fall short so that she could flip and slam her foot into his face. She accelerated her body with pulse, made her move.

With a grin that turned a shade devious, Pierce stood in place, and simply raised his right arm to catch Horo’s foot. Horo cursed “Damn” What she wouldn’t expect immediately however, was the backlash from her own blow. The force that she felt as her foot connected with his hand was not equivalent to that of her strike. Instead, it was multiplied by a factor of ten and sent straight back through the striking appendage.

Horo’s joints reacted violently to the extreme pressure. It felt as her body had fallen from a great height onto concrete as she lost control of her muscles and went limp on the ground. Horo couldn’t hear the shriek she had released from the pain, only the sound of her heart speeding up as the pain set in. Horo looked up at Pierce, genuine fear building up in her chest as she was fading in and out of consciousness.

“I need to counter attack!” Hore began kicking Pierce’s lower jaw with her good foot, sending a blast of raw Pulse energy with every attack.

Batting away her desperate attack as if it were a fly, Pierce took a step back as a facade of concern swept over his face. He signaled to the referee.

“Excuse me, but I believe my opponent may have badly injured herself. I’m not sure if she’s able to continue.” Suppressing his urge to grin like a madman, Pierce listened to the humorous whispers of the crowd as they gossiped about how Horo had injured herself with her own strike.

Eli began moving towards Horo with a concerned look, but Horo held out her hand to stop him. “NO! I’m not done Yet!” Eli backed away as Horo forced herself to stand back up. The weight of her body, mixed with her injuries showed as she took a step forward. Blood began to stream down her legs as her skin had ruptured from the force of the strikes. She slowly inched towards Pierce. “I’m not leaving this arena unless I’m victorious or unconscious.”

It took her about 10 seconds to reach Pierce, she weakly lifted her arm and dropped it into his chest and with a bloody leg began to lightly throw low kicks. The only thing she was accomplishing was getting blood on his suit.

“Oh my.” Pierce said aloud as Horo stumbled towards him. “I urge you to rethink that decision!” He pleaded, his voice full of urgency. He stood still, his face to the ground as Horo attempted to attack him. Hidden from the watching eyes of the crowd, his face took on a look of disgust as she dirtied his suit. Switching effortlessly back to his guilty expression, he stepped forward, placing his right leg behind hers and his palm to her sternum. “You’ll regret that.” He whispered so only she could hear.

With a push, he knocked her over his leg, using his palm on her chest to direct her back straight to the ground. What appeared to be a simple trip was actually far more sinister. The friction of where his leg met Horo’s was amplified, causing her leg to grind in protest against his as she fell. When her back hit the floor of the arena, her whole body was struck with the force of being hit by a truck. Only she would be able to see his cold eyes glaring down at her in a mixture of indifference and disgust.

Horo cried out in pain as she was flung onto the ground with ease. The crowd looked at each other with confusion on why she had decided to compete if she was so weak. Horo gazed up at Pierce with a defiant look. “I’m no... quitter. 我很里(wo hen li I’m very strong)！I’m... Strong. Very strong!” Horo rolled over and slowly pushed herself back onto her feet. Her head was facing the ground, her hair covered her face as she began to sway back and forth.

Horo’s movements began to speed up as she started using her pulse skills to their limits as if it was childs play. She formed a sphere of wind around her body and began to extract the water from it, creating a whip from both the air and water. Stones from the arena floated up and became intertwined with the whips as she began to strike out at Pierce with strange accuracy. Her body was moving as if all the pain had vanished. Actually, however, Horo had fallen victim to her single defect. She was now sleep fighting.

Pierce stepped back, moving from side to side to avoid each of the coming strikes. He regarded Horo with a faint interest for a moment, wondering about this sudden display of power. His interest only held for a moment however, and with a slight movement, his hand passed through the water of the whip. The water was instantly broken down into hydrogen and oxygen, which were pulled into the sphere of air. A stray spark from the stones was all it took to ignite Horo’s wind into a blazing fireball.

Horo took control of the fire, manipulating it via the oxygen that was feeding it and flung a tornado of fire at Pierce. She spun around and launched the small rock pellets towards him with bullet speed. Taking her next step forward, her hair moved from in front of her face and revealed her blank eyes to Pierce.

Sighing in annoyance as he came to understand the situation, Pierce stepped straight towards the fireball and vanished from sight. Passing straight through Horo, while not truly there, Pierce’s hand wrapped around her spinal column. With a slight adjustment of its physical structure, he tore apart her motor nervous system, stepping back into existence on her other side. With a disinterested look, he checked to see if she was still able to move. If she could, he would be forced to kill her.

Horo’s body dropped down to the ground as Pierce made his final move. Her head collided with the floor and snapped her back into awakeness. She tried to move, but couldn’t find in herself to move a muscle. She gasped for air as Eli walked forward and look at at her. “My dear, I think you are finished. Let’s-” Horo shouted as he tried to touch her. “NO! NO NO NO NO NO!” She began manipulating her own body with Pulse and lifted herself into the air.

Pierce regarded her with bored eyes. ‘How tragic.’ He thought to himself. ‘Anulupis girl kills herself when her own powers go terribly out of control.’ With a final thought, Pierce severed (temporary) the part of the girl’s existence that granted her control over pulse.

Horo’s body began to slid out of the air as Pierce took grip on her ability. As he ripped it out she fell full force onto the ground. Her face looked up at him, with tears falling out of her eyes from her mix of emotions. Without the pulse to focus her energies on Horo lost consciousness. Her body reverted to full human as she was teleported from the arena.

Eli stepped out and walked over to Pierce. Taking his wrist in hand he raised it high for the crowd. “WINNER! BY KNOCKOUT. PIERCE VEIL!”

Pierce stepped forwards taking the microphone. “Please my friends, let us pause the celebration to think of dear Horo. The poor girl never gave up even after badly injuring herself. Such drive is to be admired. Be sure to pay her a visit later on and wish her a speedy recovery.” The crowd cheered on Pierce’s good will and shouts of ‘We love you!’ could be heard from the female students. With a knowing smile, Pierce returned the mic to Eli and exited the arena.

Horo was now in the medical wing of the tournament grounds. Her body was being repaired by Chrystalline. Horo slipped in and out of consciousness as her wounds were being healed. Her cries of pain rang through the medical bay. Quickly coming to her side was Ilmiore and Giovanni. Horo’s worried father gripped her hand and spoke to her in their native tongue while Giovanni examined her with strange interest. “Her ability... Her pulse is... Gone.” Ilmiore began to weep as Giovanni spoke, but the old master looked over the child and thought. “I can restore it to her... but... it comes at a cost.”

Ilmiore looked at Horo’s battered face and with his best english replied “I’ll pay anything for my daughter’s happiness.”