Having parted ways with the Black Rose Witch for now, Ryuu found Taiki and the two of them found of the participant's entrances which was connected to the tournament arena via a tunnel. Sticking closer to the back of the entrance tunnel so he had a clear enough view of the arena to see if Kurisuna entered while knowing that neither she nor anyone outside of Taiki could see him put on his mask.

"This is going to be oh so very fun. I can hardly wait." Ryuu said to Taiki joyfully as he checked to make sure that his grenades and mask were both secured. "Wait a minute Ryuu. You have a bunch of seeds on your back." Taiki said to Ryuu upon seeing his back. Holding still Ryuu allowed Taiki to wipe the seeds off of him while he watched the arena to see if Kurisuna had entered yet.

Kurisuna looked herself over. No longer was she attired in such captivating clothes, the likes of which had been replaced by a wine-hued robe that hung off her person beneath the all-encompassing cloak. She felt the bag slung across her right shoulder, and the pair of whips attached by her waist; everything had been set into its proper place.

Everything but her opponent.

As his companion took upon himself the presumably meticulous endeavor of removing from Ryuu's person the seeds that would've otherwise spelled out a probable demise, Kurisuna stepped out from the blackness of her entryway. The crowd met her arrival with unmitigated cheer, and she felt enormous relief, in tandem with an even greater sense of excitement, at the deliverance of her reiatsu, spiritual power that she set to work forthwith; her foe would shortly enter the fray, this she knew, but he was not there yet, and several seconds were all she needed to cast a questionable concoction of seeds across the terrain with a single broad stroke of her arm. Some found soil within the recesses of Hiroshin's folly; most didn't.

''Come out come out,'' cooed Kurisuna to the man in the tunnel, giggling, positively murderous behind that porcelain mask.

SPOILER: Click to show

Good luck, Crazy. Let's make it a good one.

My God do I like small text.

Finding that Kurisuna had entered the arena and began to throw seeds around, Ryuu realized what they were for given the nature of her powers. "Very tricky. Taiki make sure you get every last seed okay?" Ryuu said with a laugh. Getting an nod from Taiki, Ryuu would find himself waiting about 15 minutes before Taiki managed to remove all of the seeds from his back, hair and from the collar of his shirt along with double checking to make sure that he didn't miss any seeds.

Safe in the knowledge that Kurisuna wouldn't be able to see him given the darkness of the tunnel, Ryuu took the oppurtunity to observe the arena and took careful note of where her seeds landed along with what weapons she had and where they were kept.

Snickering from a combination of excitement and from how stressed Kurisuna would be from waiting for him to come out Ryuu was overjoyed when Taiki said, "All done. Sure you don't want to wear something underneath the mask in case you lose it midmatch?"

"Might as well. Thanks for catching those seeds" Ryuu said to Taiki as he took off his mask and quickly tied a piece of cloth over his mouth. Checking to make sure the cloth was secure, Ryuu replaced his mask and once again made sure that his bombs were secured. "And that should be it." Ryuu said to himself.

Kurisuna wasn't stressed. She knew he'd come. If he didn't show, it would indicate that something had happened to him, and surely the Smiling Bandit would be replaced as her opponent; not a course of events she'd be losing any sleep over tonight.

So long as she got to rip a motherfucker apart... the present couldn't be better. ''I think... I'll go for the throat.''

''You can't surrender like your teammate if I bar your exit and render you incapable of speech, right? Look how low you'll have to stoop... '' This had gone on for a while, with Kurisuna whispering sweet, sadistic nothings he would not be privy to; more so out of boredom, though her time was definitely not ill-spent. She could feel the network of roots writhing beneath her feet. Time and attrition had always played in Kurisuna's favour, and come several minutes (mind, she could've done this much faster), the entire arena was a mine field—all due to a single seed. ''... just to get away from me.''

Alas, ten minutes through, her patience had finally waned. She sidestepped to the edge of the arena, away from Ryuu's line of sight, and figured she'd play his little game, too. ''It appears my plaything had more pressing matters to attend,'' she told the crowd sternly, and then playfully: ''But that's quite all right. I can wait.''

Throughout the perimeter of their ring, the ground shook and the concrete split and rose on earthy mounds where Hiroshin had fissured it prior as the plant sought to exploit every cleft, every flaw, to facilitate its growth skyward. Gnarled roots carpeted her half of the arena, and stems as large as the trunks of small trees were erected as high as 30ft (time permitted as much), barbed and tightly intertwined. No one was getting anywhere near her without a good deal of effort.

And because she was so fucking thoughtful it hurt, she even had it bloom a plethora of fragrant, pitch-black roses.

SPOILER: Click to show

Good luck to you too Gaara.

And because all fights need a good battle theme...here it is

Watching with interest as Kurisuna made the roots grow up, Ryuu had to admit that he was impressed. Giving a nod to Taiki who promptly went off to watch the fight, Ryuu stepped out into the arena floor and gave an audible whistle. "Looks like someone has been busy. Sorry it took me so long, but I had to take a quick bathroom break. Thanks for the roses though, really brightens the place up." Ryuu said with a chuckle.

Taking out his cleaver and stepping onto his side of the arena, Ryuu kept his eyes peeled for the seeds that were thrown and assessed the plant that was grown. The plant was large however odds were that it moved slowly and it's movements would be obvious. There weren't any visible ways that the plant could track him which meant that he had either missed something or it was dependant on Kurisuna. There were multiple stems which should be the places that he should focus on if he wanted to get through the Kurisuna. Given the size, Ryuu could assume that it probably it wasn't the easiest task to maintain if it could even recover from any injuries.

Assessing his own advantages, Ryuu joyfully wondered if it would be enough to obtain victory. He did have plenty of combat experience and thus knew how to pace himself. He had the ability of shunpo in order to move in circles around his foe. He finally had the use of his power back. However his most important advantages were his ability to heal which given the reishi content of the island would be more powerful than he had ever seen it, and the ability to summon dolls.

"I love it." Ryuu murmered to himself as he stood in the arena. Here he was facing a powerful foe. He had no idea if he would win or if he would lose this battle. He had no idea what types of pain he would inflict or be inflicted with. He had no idea if he would even make it to the next round or if his team would be defeated already. However none of that mattered at the moment. All that mattered was the fight. The violence, the uncertainty, the strategy. Every aspect of it exhilarated Ryuu and he couldn't help himself. The fight hadn't even started and already he wanted more. More bloodshed, more pain, more everything. Grinning wider than he had for years under his mask, Ryuu couldn't wait to see what happened next.

''It's about time. You should know better than to keep a lady waiting,'' remarked Kurisuna from within the growth, scarcely discernible as is; she, however, could no doubt see the whole of him through the breaks in the plant's stalks, although these could be fastened at any given moment; she'd seen what he had bought. This guy wanted to burn her down.

Shame it wouldn't work.

Ryuu stepped forth, and from behind and all about the bandit emerged the roots and thorny canes of the plant, whose reach extended a little beyond the perimeter of their stage; it was a truly gigantic thing, and lest her foe not only acted fast, but kept on the move, his legs would most likely be caught, and subsequently ground against the plant's perpetually writhing limbs. The spaces wherein he could escape to in absolute safety, however, were rapidly diminishing, and the stalks encroached from the edges inward in a fashion that would prevent the male, were he to detonate his explosives, from eluding the blast unscathed.

"I am quite sorry then. We'll just have to make up for lost time." Ryuu said to Kurisuna. Taking note of her position, Ryuu observed his surroundings and found that not only were the vines on the floor advancing on him from the front, but the vines had even surrounded him on one side and behind him. Grinning at how the odds were stacked against him and how it was as if the entire arena was attacking him, Ryuu knew that his only option to avoid the vines was to stay on the move.

Coming up with an idea for how to do some damage while he was on the move, Ryuu hardened the bottom portions of both of his legs and created two sharpened shields which were at an angle on each leg. Forming a shape similiar to a Y, Ryuu took a few steps in order to adjust to the shields and began to move toward Kurisuna.

While he wasn't moving at full speed, Ryuu was still able to move quick enough to avoid being caught. Taking note of the damage that was caused, Ryuu was pleased to see that a few ended up getting severed although sadly most of the cuts went about halfway through the vines. Making sure that his movements would be harder to predict by going in zigzags, Ryuu decided to test how effective the wall of vines was and took out an incendiary bomb. Knowing that he would be out of the range of the blast, Ryuu threw it at Kurisuna. Landing barely past the first layer of vines, the bomb exploded and while it wouldn't be able to light the plants on fire like Ryuu had hoped, the force of the explosion would doubtlessly tear any nearby vines into pieces.

''... Yeah...'' Kurisuna lifted her dominant hand, forefinger grazing the tapered end of one of the rose's prickles. She saw—no, she felt—her opponent skid across its gnarled roots, severing them as he went, and in her perpetual madness swore to confer upon him similar injuries. ''Don't you worry,'' she told it, murmuring. ''He won't get away with this.''

When she saw the Bount withdraw the highly anticipated incendiary bomb, the witch's grin broadened immensely; little did the bandit know that it would prove to be more detrimental than beneficial as he stalled his advance, and predictably enough threw it toward her, though his explosive would not reach its intended mark.

''Send it back.'' So it was written, and so shall it be done; with a brandish of one of its canes, the thing struck it hard and fast, sending the shell whence it came and promising a world of hurt for the male who, at this point, had very little room to elude the blast and ensuing inferno. Sure, her plant would suffer some, too; but Kurisuna had but to duck.

[/size]

Moving as far from the grenade as he could, Ryuu would use a shunpo directly upwards to dodge the blast. Hearing the explosion, Ryuu would quickly glance at the area where the explosion hit. Noticing that the vines were not healing, Ryuu wondered if Kurisuna was simply choosing not to regenerate them or if she is unable to.

Realizing that his grenades would be useless unless he could catch Kurisuna off guard, Ryuu knew that he would need to make some modifications to his strategy. Quickly throwing a smoke bomb and his cleaver below him, Ryuu would say under his breath "Zieg Dich." as he braced his legs for the fall into the smoke.

Concealed by the smoke from the grenade, Garandou soon took it's true form and prepared itself. As Ryuu entered the surrounding area he would quickly move onto Garandou's back. Gripping part of his armor, Ryuu held on as Garandou quickly took off and flew straight up.

SPOILER: Click to show

Edited to fix post error.

While the damage inflicted by the blast had been less widespread than the flames bursting therefrom, the destruction was plainly visible among the thin, low-lying canes that couldn't possibly have endured the brunt of it. All things considered, however, it could've been worse; compact as the plant had been, the explosion hadn't carried too far, and the creature's largest stems had held, though noticeably scorched. Still, this was all at ground level, and as soon as Ryuu had begun his descent, the barbed mass had reacted by ejecting every thorn that faced the Bount—let it be from above, behind, underneath or right before him. He would not escape unscathed.

By that time, the flames had subsided, and Kurisuna rose to spy her opponent ascending upon the back of some abominably large insect. ''A fly, huh... Oh, Smiling Bandit, why so eager to get away~?'' called the witch after him playfully, though she doubted he would hear; truth be told, she had a good idea of what would transpire next, anyway.

You can't bomb me. You can't reach me. What are you planning up there?

"Interesting." Ryuu muttered to himself as the thorns were launched at him. Quickly allowing his legs and the shields on them to revert to normal, Ryuu instead his left arm and used it to create a shield. Simultaneously scrunching up both his arms and his legs, Ryuu managed to shield most of his body with the shields or with Garandou who was directly underneath him and well protected by his exo-skeleton. Feeling the thorns bounce off of his shield, Ryuu gritted his teeth and exhaled heavily as he felt several thorns connect with the unprotected portion of his lower legs and back.

As he took to the air, Ryuu made sure that Garandou didn't stay in one place for too long and after letting his arms return to normal took the time to remove the 5 thorns that had entered his legs and the ones that had stuck into his back. Having removed them and devoured enough reishi to heal them by the time he and Garandou were ten meters above the top of the wall of vines, Ryuu took a deep breath and grinned under his mask. "Definitely a nice improvement over my normal healing powers although it still hurt a lot. Stay on the move and try to get me close." he muttered to himself as Garandou moved so it was on Kurisuna's side of the wall of thorns.

Moving around so it would be harder to hit, Garandou let loose several gobs of it's loogies. While it wouldn't be accurate the loogies would disperse around the area that Kurisuna was standing and quickly harden upon hitting the ground or Kurisuna if Ryuu was lucky enough.

Truth be told, Kurisuna wasn't suited for aerial foes. At the height Ryuu was sustaining, her roses couldn't reach him, though they still, in spite of this inability, fired sporadic bursts of their thorns toward Ryuu and his heavy-armored insect. Granted, she did possess an answer to this predicament—she was simply reluctant to deploy it.

The witch was mad, certainly, but she was not daft. As the doll drew close, she had the plant shift in a way so naught but stems would be visible to him from overhead; its gobs would hurtle into these and harden, binding the vines in question together, nowhere near her person.

Neither party could see one another, now, though this was not to her detriment as she moved from her half of the arena to the corner of his, the brambles parting as she went; he couldn't stay up forever, while she could camp out indefinitely.

[/size]

Watching as the thorns that were launched at him fell short of their target, Ryuu smiled a bit under his mask. However that was when the plant spread it's vines over the arena so Garandou's Loogie attack was not very effective. Sad that his Flying/Insect doll wasn't super effective against the giant plant, Ryuu did have to give credit to Kurisuna's tactical thinking.

Deciding that he didn't have any good way to go through the vines, Ryuu instead had Garandou fly near the outside of the arena area and descend so he could see where he thought Kurisuna was. Keeping his guard up, Ryuu would have Garandou strafe the side of the arena while he searched for Kurisuna.

Realizing she wasn't there and had most likely moved to the other side of the arena, Ryuu had Garandou move away from the vines before moving along the edge of the arena so he was on the same side as Kurisuna. Quickly scanning the area, Ryuu caught site of Kurisuna and had Garandou move towards her. Going in zigzags, Garnadou havd it's scythe like appendages and it's feelers ready to fend off any vines as it unleashed it's charge attack. Sending several more loogies at Kurisuna, Ryuu would also aid in distracting Kurisuna by throwing a flash grenade to his side where it would detonate after Garandou and Ryuu's backs were to the explosion.

The thing about such a large familiar was that, try as Ryuu might, he was not going to approach the Lady undetected. Of his maneuvers, she kept track every step of the way; and as he strafed left and right, she retrieved from her pouch the bulb of an amaryllis, allowing it to grow no taller than a foot and a half as she brought its flowers to full bloom. The smaller, the more practical in these circumstances; reiatsu was a thing to be conserved, not expanded thoughtlessly.

Its roots, fleshy and white, coiled around her forearm, and the amaryllis reared its stem from those of her signature plant as she backed several yards, each stalk parting just enough as to not snag her garments along the way. Not a process any outsider would be privy to, again; there was no way of seeing what was going on within the mass, which brought to question how fortunate Ryuu was when his doll, as her plant perceived it, ceased its search as if it'd found her.

From Kurisuna's lips hissed a sharp, tutting noise; so deep, she could neither spot nor hear him in turn, which left her with what basic information the plant could feed: just where the prey was in regard to its massive frame. Good enough, all things considered. She was so close. So close to tearing apart a fellow criminal of nationwide renown.

The insect burst forward, and Kurisuna did not dare discard this opportunity in favor of interrupting its lunge; the wall of thorns would split where the doll had been so close to impact, with its charge instead carrying the creature into the bowels of a much larger predator where it would, presumably, slam into the plant's inner stems, snapping a couple but ultimately failing to progress much farther than that before the whole thing closed up behind the Bount.

That was all the retaliation she needed to put forth. There would be a very slight, very short-lasting margin of freedom for Ryuu, should he dispel his doll, but none for the latter as it was, by his own intentions, swallowed up; certainly, it could try to put up a fight, but its scythes would simply not find the room within which to acquire the requisite amount of momentum for its strikes to sever each cane. Had he something else in store?

Whatever it was had better be set into motion real fast; the plant was, through no great effort of its own, bearing down upon the pair with a great deal of weight.

As the loogies and the flash bomb went through the opening that Kurisuna had created and covered part of the ground, Ryuu was about to follow it when he noticed the shifting of the vines which were about to enclose around both him and Garandou. Taking out two incendiary bombs while he still had the chance Ryuu said to his doll, "Good luck." before using a shunpo to move on top of Kurisuna's dome of vines.

Landing safely on the vines Ryuu would notice the flash bomb detonate under him and wondered if it managed to do anything. Once again hardening his legs, Ryuu formed the shields in the shape of upside down Y's. Moving along the edge of the dome's top, Ryuu's shields would manage to cut through several vines and make large gashes on the others. Throwing one of his grenades toward the middle of the roof of the dome it would fall through a few vines and get caught about a foot below the surface. "Let's see what kind of damage I can do to this thing." Ryuu thought to himself as he kept on the move.

Garandou meanwhile would find itself facing a rather large and thorn filled problem. Moving forward with all of it's strength it would find that the vines had slowed it down a lot. Grunting in pain as the vines hit him, Garandou counted itself lucky that it's armor had dulled part of the strikes. Using it's acidic spit to sever multiple vines which were in front of it, Garandou would have enough room to use it's scythe like limbs to cut through the vines and attempt to make it into the dome.

Unfortunately for the witch, it appeared, for she had highly anticipated his capture, the bandit held the means with which to escape the barbed predicament his doll now found itself in, even maneuvering to the top of the dome. She knew more or less where he was, the plant perceived him; furthermore, she knew he kept in his possession explosives, and, as with before, would be damned to let him damage her plant any further. Yet, she had to do nothing—the construct Ryuu was treading upon was a sentient organism, capable of processing orders, of learning, and while it did rely on Kurisuna's guidance, she had told the monstrosity as much: small, spherical shapes meant hurt, and were best as far as possible from her person (primarily) and itself. So, as Ryuu tossed the bomb, the mass acted as it had with the other; by, in the stead of allowing it to breach its stems, curving inward, and then springing back, effectively striking the orb heaven and wayward where it would detonate, the flames rising harmlessly, the damage to its flank minimal, though the bandit might not have been so lucky.

Within the dome, what could be said; blinding flash or not, Kurisuna had already been deprived of her sight, and while Garandou's acid would no doubt gnaw at the vines before it inch at a time, this would not affect the ones pinning and constricting it from just about everywhere else, not to mention the plant's crushing weight bearing down from above.

''You can't keep this up,'' murmured a sequestered Kurisuna, eyes shut, lips a broad, horrifying smile. She felt the toll on her body, but her thirst for blood, his blood, refused to let it hamper her. She cackled, ''I wonder how these guys will go about saving you then... Maybe they won't get to you in time...?'' Her grin widened. ''Or will you flee beforehand...''

Continuing to struggle against the vines that were all around it, Garandou used all of it's strength to beat back the vines that were surrounding it. However in the face of the vine's dreaded crush attack, Garandou fainted. Turning back into it's cleaver form, Garandou would slip through the plant's vines and hit the ground.

Keeping on the move, Ryuu continued to move around the exterior of the dome. As a result he was also far enough from the explosion to sustain no damage. However by this point he was running low on energy. Surveying the situation, things were not in Ryuu's favor. Not only was he starting to get tired, but the only possible method he had for damaging the plant wasn't effective and in addition to these problems Garandou had been defeated. However the biggest problem was that the fight was starting to lose it's flavor. While he did enjoy fighting a new type of foe it was quickly becoming old.

Using a shunpo so he was near Garandou had fallen Ryuu called out, "The match is yours." Allowing his legs to go back to normal, Ryuu didn't completely lower his guard yet. For now he would observe Kurisuna's reaction to his surrender.

With the insect neutralized, reverted to a form the plant could no longer strive to crush, Kurisuna had the construct part its stems enough for her to verify that, indeed, the doll appeared to have succumbed. A ploy? Whatever.

When Ryuu dropped outside the dome and announced his surrender, the witch nipped her bottom lip and narrowed her eyes behind the blanched mask; she couldn't just let him go, not unscathed, Kurisuna had expected him to yield and capitulate but it was just so... anti-climactic. ''Was there ever any doubt,'' she answered, her breathing heavy yet indiscernible to the bandit, who was so, so delightfully close... And there her calm, self-assured tone of voice shattered, replaced with one that brimmed with a manic, flustered glee as the plant, without warning, fired a dozen of its thorns toward Ryuu.

''... But I don't think I can stop...''

Grinning to himself as Kurisuna gave her response couldn't say that he was really suprised when she fired more thorns at him. It was a completely unnecessary move which would only cause pain to the enemy. "That's something that I would do." Ryuu thought to himself with a smile. It seemed that truly messed up murderers thought alike.

Bringing his arm up, Ryuu quickly hardened it and expanded it into a shield. Feeling the thorns bounce off his shield, Ryuu smiled underneath his mask and gave a chuckle. "You certainly know how to make me feel special with all of these flowers." Ryuu said as he allowed his arm to return to normal and surveyed the thorns that were at his feet. "I seem to recall making a bet with you that the loser would have to buy dinner. Shall we go or do you still want to play some more?" Ryuu asked Kurisuna as he observed where he thought she was for any type of answer.

Lips curving into a sneer, Kurisuna huffed past her teeth and narrowed her eyes intently, body inclining at the waist as she took a step forward unobstructed, heedless of what her opponent was saying until she caught the lone word ''dinner'' and, at that, grinned again. She giggled a terrible sound, one exuberant to begin with that then devolved into a weepy, almost sob-like gasp... and yet she continued to smile, though she had failed to hurt him thus far, the prospect of food, of getting something between her teeth, too delightful to pass up.

''Aaah... I am rather hungry,'' she said in that same half-laugh, half-cry voice, a little dizzy as she took another step and halted there, raising her arm, taking a good, long look at the appendage before unsheathing its length, tipping her mask back and biting down hard, her teeth easily gouging into the muscle...

It hurt, the pain was nigh-on excruciating, but she would achieve her sanguinary binge one way or another, and as her life's blood trickled down down her throat and she chewed at the wound, Kurisuna reflected on the fight, on how impotently he'd struggled. It dulled the pain, made her laugh, had the crimson fluid bubbling over the corners of her mouth.

[/size]

Ryuu smiled to himself as Kurisuna seemed to calm down enough that she wasn't sending large thorns his way. Sure he may not have won the match but all in all it was quite fun. Besides this fight had reminded him that he wasn't invincible. Deciding that he would need to put more effort into his training and activities, Ryuu was already coming up with some fun things to do once he got back home.

"So what kind of food do you want?" Ryuu asked, undisturbed by the change in Kurisuna's voice. As he recalled there were a few restraunts that he saw on the way to the arena that looked pretty good.

Appeased by her own donation of blood, Kurisuna no longer wished to dawdle within the perimeter of their arena. His surrender had been disheartening, and she hadn't drawn any screams from his throat; however, the witch had caught sight of his blade where the creature had succumbed, and a smirk crept upon her lips as she lowered the mask again. ''We'll meet later, I'm sure.'' Gliding across the roots, the way otherwise barred for Ryuu, Kurisuna picked up the weapon. ''Else you won't be getting this back.''

She turned, waved her available hand good bye, walked out whence she came. With any luck, her next fight would be more... satisfactory. This one hadn't sated her at all.

[exit]

Smiling to himself as Kurisuna stole his cleaver, Ryuu had to admit that he wasn't suprised. "That might make things interesting." he thought with a chuckle. Ryuu was curious to see what she would do with it and if he would ever get it back. Afterall it wasn't every day that someone had a physical manifestation of their soul stolen. Chuckling to himself as he thought about the possible consequences, Ryuu said to Kurisuna, "I look forward to it." before giving a bow as if he was giving a performance. Skipping merrily out of the stadium, Ryuu then began to wonder what he would do now that he was eliminated from the tournament.


[Exit]

Thread Rewards:

Ryuu - 15 Stats, 15 SP, 1 EXP

Kurisuna - 15 Stats, 15 SP, 1 EXP, 1 Exploit Point

Post for placement.

To Endurance, please.

All into Hand to Hand please and thanks.