Let us have some sparring, Nishkis new initiation sparring ((Closed))

"Oh yeah?"
Tlaitha hissed, her typical childish attitude on her face.
"You know what? F*ck you!"
She took a step forward, in her hybrid form right now... and tripped.
She looked up to Mary, still with that angry look on her face. Inside, she was burning with anger. She wouldn't get defeated by Mary! That was... humilitating!
"Damn, you give up!"
That might not have come out right, seeing as she was the one lying on the floor right now. She got up on all fours, very carefully, and changed back into lynx mode. Somehow, it made her feel safe to at least be able to locate just about where those wires were... Not that it'd help evading them...

Mary did not pay heed to the insult. She focused on the battle. In truth, these wires limited her movement quite a bit. However, the element of surprise was her key to this battle. In brute strength she could never beat Talitha, but in tactics and intelligence, she knew she could win. She had planted two wires, near to where Talitha was standing right now. One was two steps in front of Talitha, the other was a step to the left of Talitha.

Talitha sniffed and hissed quietly. There was something metallic in front of her... something to the left... But this whole damn ship was filled with metal! How was she supposed to do this?
Carefully, she set one of her paws in front of her, as if testing the ground.
Nothing happened. Even her human side was annoyed. Getting to Mary like this would take days... But jumping was too risky, she knew.
Just as carefully, she took a second step ahead.

MAry then pulled. the tripwire activated a mini explosive which covered a small radius of exactly where Talitha was stepping. Mary was able to move at least one of her fingers now and that was decent. Mary waited to see the aftermath.

"Mreow!"
Talitha hissed and jumped away as soon as she smelled the slightest hint of an explosive. Explosives were nasty, really nasty!
She landed on the deck, and immeadeatly jumped up and forward, towards Mary. still, her back pads and part of her tail got burned. But other than that... well, it could have been worse. But she didn't know where she'd land next, and with that jump, she wouldn't make it to Mary at once.

Mary then noticed, there was four wires where Talitha was now. One was three steps behind her, the 2nd one was four steps to the front, the 3rd one was 5 steps left and the 4th one was 2 steps to the right. Mary was now confident, she just had to time everything exactly to win this battle.

The lynx looked around. No wires, at least not where she was standing right now... But there was some metal close by.
For a few seconds, she thought about waht to do next. then, being Talitha, she (well, her human side, at least) shrugged and decided to just do what seemed right.
So she decided to take the chance of landing on one of those wires again and jumped.

"She's a real fighter, isn't she Chujo?" Vince watched the fight before him with what might be interest, if he had any expressions to indicate. The one called Mary was only one rank below himself, but probably deserved to be a Rear Admiral more; she was intelligent, composed, and tactful. She was an excellent strategist, and he would be happy to try his hand against her.

Still, Talitha had a spirit that burned so intensely he could see it through the mechanical eye that fed him the pictures and images that made up his world. Her foe could have all the upper hand in the world, and she clearly wouldn't stop fighting until her body couldn't move an inch. It was clear that she was putting her all into it. Though her melee combat style made her susceptible to Vince's own unique powers, it would be fun to face her as well.

"What a spirited fight," Vince stated at last, watching the two dart around the deck of the ship. "This crew has such strong members...it is my privilege to be stationed here with you all, chujo."

Mary did not think Talitha would jump , but then it was talitha she was talking about, she then pulled the wires in front and the one on the right of Talitha that was mentioned earlier. The explosions were apparent, Mary mainly did this for intimidation effect. Talitha was sure to feel some sort of hazard before moving any further. But his meant only 7 wires reamining.

Talitha landed slightly off where she had planned to land. Why would mary let bombs explode when she wasn't even near them anymore? Slow reflexes?
Her cat ears twitched. There was a high ring in them from the sound of the explosions. Very uncomfortable.
She changed into hybrid form, careful not to change the position she was in too much.
"Okay, I get it, you don't want me to come too close to ya."
Her feet were still hurting from when they got burned in the first explosion... Even kneeling like she did now hurt...
She drew her saber and looked at it almost apologetically. what she was about to do wasn't really her style...
"Guess what? I don't have to come closer to attack!"
She threw the saber at mary, watched it spin in the air, and knew, even though she wasn't a good thrower, that it would at least not miss her entirely. Somewhere, it would hit her.
Too bad she only had this one chance.... She was completely out of things to throw.

Mary had no choice, she had to move her body, her standing there meant she would be impaled. She then dashed to the side using soru and as she did, she activated 5 of the tripwires without meaning too. This caused an explosion around the area and the five bombs were not too far from Talitha.

Mary then looked up, there was only two tripwires left. She was completely out played by Talitha and she was now severely not in the mood. She sent a rankyaku with her feet and activated one of the tripwires while doing so to create a diversion for her to soru the other way. Knowing the beastlike reflexes of Talitha, she would sure look to the explosion and try and dodge the attack, leaving Mary to hit her from the side.

Talitha grimaced and covered her ears. Those explosions hurt in her ears...
And their stench was almost unbearable...
She was hit against the mast by the blow of the explosions but couldn't remain there when she felt the soft vibrations of another explosion coming. That wasn't all, Mary was also attacking her again.
She jumped to the side, away from the explosion and the attack. when she landed, she was in full lynx form again. Even though her feet hurt as much as her eyes and nose did, she would have to use the abilities she got in this form if she wanted to win. And damn, did she want to win.

Mary blindsided Talitha from the left. It was a wide opening and a particular trait of Talithas she had noticed over time. She then released a punch with all her might and weight behind it. She shouted "JYOGAN!!!!!" Aiming at the cheek of Talitha from the left side.

Talithas ears twitched. She could hear something. Mary!
She turned around and jumped backwards. That was a mistake. The attack might not have hit her fully, but it hit her straight on the nose. The pain! Lynxes, or cats in general had very sensitive noses.
She was knocked back and whimpered a little. Ouch. Getting your leg broken was nothing compared to this...
Had she been a human, there would have been tears forming in her eyes. How highly out of character. It was so out of character that it, combined with the pain, made her furious!
She jumped forward, ready to bite, scratch or however hard, hurt mary. If she dodged one attack, there would always be room for another. If she dared to attack back... then Talitha would not guarantee for her safety anymore.
She knew this feeling. It was like the feeling she had right before her brain shut off... Only that her brain was staying intact... How highly curious. She'd worry about it later.
Right now, it was mauling time!

At this sort of range only attacks that matched would apply. Mary had not been sleeping all this while, she was training as . She then used shigan to match the claws of Talitha if they were coming. By doing this she would block all of Talithas attacks at this range. It would take more movement, but there was no way Mary would back down, this was her battle too, she wanted to win, she wanted to reach that place in her dreams, the role of an admiral.

The marines nearby murmured "My god, this fight is crazy, the best match of the tournament..." Another marine then snorted "Of course, its the two captains, the two leaders below Vice Admiral Nishki, it was destined to be like this.." Nishki who was standing above did not smile. He had a solemn look, he really hoped neither of those two would get hurt.

Blocked. Blocked again. And again.
Talitha jumped back, steaming with anger, only to change into hybrid form and charge at Mary again. If she had a strategy, she had forgotten all about it the secong her nose was hit. It still hurt in this form, although the pain was numbing, slowly, taking her smelling sense with it.
And her ears were still ringing from the explosions.
This fight was like hell for a cat! It was fighting without her two main senses! Relying on her sight! Unthinkable.
She hissed and kept low to the ground in her attack.
"Arashi no tsume!"
It was a desperation attack, but she would never have told anyone! it was also payback for that damn attack Mary had fired at her earlier.

Mary then used Soru, if Talitha was going lower on the ground, that made her a perfect target for a vertical downward Jyogan. Mary roared a battle cry as she went in to attempt to slam Talitha vertically and squarely on her head to send her to the floor.

Talitha rolled off to the side, but was still hit on the left side of her back. She hissed as she pushed herself off the ground and up into the air, changing positions with Mary. Now she was the one up in the air. She could feel her side. It hurt as hell. Just like her nose. The pain made the animal inside her furious, and also stronger. Somewhere, deep inside her, the human her wondered how much the animal would take before knocking her out of its system. She wondered if that could get her disqualified...
For the second time today she was about to use a special technique, and so very shortly before the first one. Oh, her muscles would be aching so badly tomorrow...
Still, she thrust down with a two thousand pound strike. Her strongest attack... She hoped it wouldn't hit the ship...

Mary did not read far enough,her legs were near its limit and her attack was not planned properly, she was really hoping that the one attack would have ended all of this, but instead, she only could hit the arm, Talithas reactions trumped her.And then the strike hit her straight and Mary smashed to the ground, not moving anymore.

Nishki then saw it, this surely was the end of this match.

Talitha was clearly out of breath. She looked down at Mary while changing back into human form.
"heh... told ya I'd win..."
This fight had taken a lot out of her. And even though she wouldn't ever admit it, Mary had earned her respect.
She stood up, her legs a little shaky and looked at Nishki. Then she looked at Kalamity...
God, what'd she give for a pause before she had to fight that guy...

Tero had gotten bored sitting at the back of the ship and he took a risk to check out the fights. He was surprised by the battle between Talitha and Mary. It was so...vicious and yet beautiful. Both were excellent fighters. Tero stayed back, watching the battle from a distance. When it was over he jumped down onto the battlefield next to Mary. Tero checked to see if she was still conscious before he looked over at Talitha.

"Are you alright, captain?" he asked her. "Sorry, I didn't come in time to watch most of the match."

"Aaah! Tero!"
Talitha turned to Tero, and her grin was far too wide to mean any good.
"And how was you fight? Oh yes, I remember! You lost!"
She grabbed him by the collar and got her face close to his. How could so much she still manage to be so viciously sadistic while being so exhaustic? She was captain Talitha Blythe, that was how!
"You know what that meeeans?"
She looked right into his eyes. Scary, with no understanding of private space.
"Training! With me as your personal tor...trainer. Just there, watching over you."
A slight shiver seemed to go through any marine soldier standing close enough to hear. From the others, who could tell what was being talked about, Tero got pitying looks.
Finally, she let him go.
"That aside..."
She looked at Kalamity with that feral look and that vicious grin. A provocation, obviously.
"I am very well... Could just go on fighting."
A lie. But who could tell, right?

((Hmmm...who can tell?))

Tero smiled. That was the Captain Blythe he knew. Except... "Captain," Tero said. "Your legs are shaking. Your heart rate is still accelerated to unusually high levels, probably due to your fruit ability. You are sweaty, burned, exhausted, and...you know all this better then I do. You are not in good condition right now." He turned to Mary and picked her up. As he passed by Talitha on his way off of the battlefield he said, "Don't get yourself killed. I need my training."

Kalamity stared for a moment as the fight ended with that one powerful blow, the hectic exchange that had last so long drawing to a point with a punch powerful enough to seal the victory. For the third time this tournament, he'd successfully predicted the victor of the fight.

The fight had been long, exhausting, and painful for both participants. It was clear that there could be no fair fight with Talitha so worked up from her last opponent and Vince fresh as a daisy. However, something told him that she'd be the last person in the world to accept somebody else's charity. Using his super amazing powers of quick thinking, Kalamity found a compromise.

"I will not fight right now," Kalamity stated plainly. "I am too hungry. It wouldn't be fair to make me fight on an empty stomach, Captain Blythe." Turning his head to Nishki, Vince pointed to the cabin.

"I'll recess for lunch now," he stated. "We can continue the fight this evening." Remembering his place, the cyborg rear admiral snapped to attention and saluted Nishki.

"At your pleasure, of course, chujo." Vince remained locked in salute, waiting for permission to depart the battlefield for the mess.

Vice Admiral Nishki then said "Ok , the final will be held after a4 hour break, i expect everyone to be present remember whats at stake here, for one of you, a gift of your choosing and the other one, a promotion into rear admiral rank, with that in mind, go to your rest. And medical team, treat the wounded now" The medical division picked Mary up and began treating, Nishki knew somehow Mary had fought to her best ability, but when it came to battle, Talitha had way more experience in the front lines, and sometimes that was a decider. Nishki then jumped down and piked Talitha off her feet. "Your not doing quite well Tali, but you put up on hell of a match as usual... why do you always end up with so many bruises..."