Match #3

Located on an island in the East Blue there is a town or village. There are signs that it was once a warzone. Smoke rises from some of the ruined remains while another house just next door appears to be untouched. The village isn't anything fancy; houses line the streets in the northern part. In the west there is a market district with all kinds of shops and eateries. The shops seem to focus on weapons; there is a blacksmith on nearly every corner. In the south part of the town lies another residential area. The houses in the southern area a bit simpler than their northern counter parts, some of the housing in the south is even makeshift huts. Finally in the eastern part of town, in this section there is a port, or what's left of one. Over the town a feeling of gloom is magnified by the storm clouds. Rain is starting to fall as the storm moves in. It looks like it's going to be a wet one all day. Base: 10mph winds and half an inch of rain. +5mph and 1 inch of rain per five posts.

A young adult strolled through the streets of what seemed to be remains of a warzone. Some of the houses were in great state, others were destroyed or burnt. He didn't recognize the area at a glance, since he hadn't been there before. A gloomy area surrounded the buildings and it was starting to rain, although the winds weren't that bad; he had seen worse at sea. This man was wearing gray sport/sweatpants and a navy blue long-sleeved shirt. Black shoes and a thin gray cotton jacket string along to the previous, the last one being left open. The shirt and jacket seem to be bulked up in the area of the chest, shoulders and arms, allowing to recognize the guy's somewhat builded muscles.

[Gale Senter]

"To think that the rain can do you as much good as it does you wrong."- he thought out loud. -"Sometimes it cleanses the wounds, other times it infects them."

Gale touched the ground below him, picking up the wet soil between his index finger and thumb. Somewhat sticky, although not excessively. That indicated an average amount of clay content in the soil below them, much better than a totally arid desert or beach. Gale liked the smell of wet soil, it reminded him of his infancy.

Dante had a Mohawk with his sides and bottom half of his head shaven off. He wore, today, his black jacket with black fur on the hooded area. His Mohawk had hairs sticking out of the sides, instead of moving straight up. It looked like gelled hair was mixed around on top of his head and forced to move into their natural positions on his head. They didn't look spiky. His pants were jean-like and black. Dante was In this town for a supposed brawl against an unknown opponent. His partner was an old friend of Cat, his younger brother. Dante hadn't seen him in years, so company like him was appreciated.

At the moment it looked like rain was going to increase as time went on. This was only a guess, but a very large grey cloud was approaching. Dante felt the rain hit his skin.. if he was supposed to fight today he'd have to stay dry. Dante walked inside a bar and quickly went tot he bathroom, where he dried himself up with a towel. It didn't take long because he wasn't outside for longer then a few seconds, and that was only because the rain caught him off guard. Dante washed his hands after drying himself in the bathroom; all of these areas were contaminated these years, especially in towns like this.

Diana strolled the empty streets with a sense of melancholy.  This gloomy atmosphere was her kind of weather, but the task at hand left a pit in her chest.  She gave a tug of her worn jacket's hood to make sure it was still protecting her head from the rain as someone crossed her path.  The young man was scanned by her eyes from his head to his toes.  It didn't look like he was the one she was partnered with, and from that she deduced they were supposed to eliminate each other.  If her partner had arrived already, Diana hadn't been able to find him.  Hopefully it wouldn't be long now.  As she stopped a few yards behind the man, she leisurely scratched an itch that had started to tickle the back of her neck.

"I get the feeling we are not allies this time around,"  Diana softly stated, barely loud enough for the stranger to be able to hear.  Her stance was relaxed and had no intent in harm for the time being.  Surely the man would have a companion as well, so Diana was perfectly content to wait if he desired.  It wasn't hard to see from her demeanor that she was in no hurry.  She could gladly wait all day in this sort of weather without a fuss.  Patience was not a trait she was short on. "Begin if you wish, sir."

Gale looked up, dirt left between his fingers. He threw it to the ground and let the rain slowly wash his two fingers of the left hand. He looked around, he didnt see he who was supposed to be his companion. The only thing he had been told was that he was his friend Cat's brother. That supposed news for Gale, as his old travelling partner had never mentioned a brother.

As he thought about this, he saw a woman appear. She was, in his opinion, definitely beautiful. He didnt know why, but he appreciated a smooth, soothing and fragile aura from her. On the contrary, her muscles seemed to be rather toned.

"Milady, I'm afraid I share that feeling as well."- he responded quite softly and with an air of disappointment.- "It would be very wrong for me to make the first move, when a lady like you is in the area."

He smiled lightly, as the rain hit his face. If this was the enemy, she sure looked sure of herself. She wasnt taking any fighting stances and even inviting him to attack first.

"Ladies first"- he subsided his smile, but kept grinning with his eyes. He contracted the muscles im his arms.

On the outer edges of the town a man walked. He was wearing a white shirt with shorts, which wasn't optimal considering the rain. The man had his hair combed back and was shiny, probably because of the over use of hair gel and other hair products. The man's eyes looked piercing sharp, and full of resolve. ''KNUCKLES IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!'' he yelled as he ran around looking for survivors of the seemingly battlefield. Looking around he appeared to be somewhere in the northern parts, since there were blacksmiths everywhere. And as there were abandoned blacksmiths and weapon shops, there were weapons for the taking. Nothing the great knuckles would ever require though! Yelling with enthusiasm once again he ran throughout the streets seemingly searching for a villain, or at least a nemesis to defeat in order to restore peace to this town, even if it was but a delusion since the town was abandoned.

After shouting once more and hearing its echo reflect onto the deserted walls knuckles noticed some people standing in one of the nearby streets. ''So you must be the one who did this huh, you look villainy enough! I shall give you my fists of justice and make you pay for what you did to these people! As is my name KNUCKLES!''. Constantine, or rather said his persona knuckles, yelled those words whilst clearly pointing at Dante with his tough looking mohawk. Doing a few test jabs Constantine almost seemed to ignore his would be partner.

1/15

Dante walked outside and saw his partner confronting someone. Dante watched as his partner was about to fight the opponent. Gale seemed like a good fighter, he should be able to take of it.. but chivalry in battle was a weakness even Dante didn't possess. If Dante had to fight, then he had to fight. These thoughts were interrupted by a man that claimed to be the other opponent. Dante looked at the man up and down.. he didn't really look dangerous, but those types of things could never be judged just by looking at someone. Dante looked around, there were too many people in this area. He had to fight smart here. He wasn't wet, so he might have a chance.

Dante nodded and looked at the enemy for a brief moment. He looked like he was going to try to punch Dante, and his nickname hinted a boxer. However, Dante didn't want to take any chances. "I'll be your opponent then. But do you want to fight here, in the middle of all of these people.. or in a more private area." If the opponent answered that he wanted to go to another area then Dante will walk out of the fight between Diana and Gale and head to a building nearby that had nobody inside of it; if Knuckles decides to fight in that crowded area then Dante will run towards him almost immediately and attempt to grab his neck with his right arm. If this contact happens Knuckles will be half dead on the floor with little water in the body. He'll need water within some posts or he'll die.

Diana was at a total loss of words.  She blinked, her face frozen in a blank state of utter bewilderment.  Was that boisterous fellow supposed to be her partner?  Why did he have to be so loud...  and enthusiastic.  As he got closer, she absentmindedly scooted in the opposite direction.  It wasn't anything personal, his outgoing personality was simply off putting to her.  Luckily he and the second exotic-looking stranger that appeared seemed to ignore her completely.  She wanted to chime in and say that she doubted these two individuals had anything to do with the state of the town but decided against it.  This Knuckles person didn't exactly seem like the type of person to take other opinions into consideration.  Her attention returned to Gale with a lingering hesitance in her expression.  She didn't want to make the first move, but he specifically stated otherwise.  

"If you insist...  I wish you the best of luck," Diana responded, her tone genuine.  It was likely they could have gotten along, and she wasn't keen on causing him harm; but it was what had to be done.  She gently extended her arm to give the man a soft pat on the shoulder.  Chances were her opponent wouldn't see the seemingly innocent gesture as a threat, and she could catch him off guard.  If contact was to be made, her frigid hand would entirely freeze his limb.    

((Sorry for the late response, I didn't realize that Youri/Crow had posted.  I'm dumb.  My apologies ;_; ))

Gale showed slight confusion in his face as he saw the guy that called himself Knuckles yell and sprint through the village as if he was some kind of savior. He looked at Diana with a look that evidently asked: "Is that supposed to be your partner...?" And then shrugged. He also had enough time to look at the other guy that was around there, and as Knuckles was directing himself to him, he noticed that he had a slight resemblance to Cat, his old friend. From the information he had, it was most likely that he was his partner.

Redirecting his thougts back to Diana, he started thinking that it was a pity that this girl was his opponent. She seemed to be pretty docile, but for what he knew and observed in the security she had in herself, she could be very dangerous too. Focusing on this last part of her, he decided that his goal was more important. When Diana extended her hand towards him as she talked to him, he made a clay quicksand pit under himself and stood of it as if it was solid, taking a step away from her.

"Dont touch me."- Gale said, a little reluctant.- "For what I know, you could be trying to latch a bomb on me."

If Diana attempted to touch him anyway or didnt step away from him she would fall into the clay quicksand pit.

Dante grabbed the other man by the throat and sucked the water out of his body. The man, 'Knuckles', turned to sand and he was instantly killed. Dante's new target was the woman whom Gale hadn't attacked yet. Dante looked around, noticing that the people were leaving the rain since it was getting heavier. Dante smirked and created an orb of rapidly rotating sand in the palm of his hands. Dante walked towards the woman. "Gale. Get away from her. Now. Manners or not, this is a match.. there has to be a victor, with or without hospitalities." Dante immediately hurled the orb at the woman. But it was intentionally aimed to go behind her. This way even if Gale didn't move he wouldn't be hit by the attack that would soon follow.

As soon as the sphere reached a few feet behind Diana it drastically increased in size and a tornado originated from the technique. The tornado, if it hit Diana with her current stats, will leave her near dead and with a strong need for water. She'll be knocked out from the degeneration that Dante will give her if she is hit by the technique. Dante didn't keep his eyes away from the woman. The last thing he needed was for him to lose track of her in a fight. Dante also noted that he was wet from the rain. He'll have to do something about that soon.

This wasn't good.  Not exactly fair, either.  While she hardly knew the Knuckles individual, it wasn't a pleasant sight to see someone turned to sand before her eyes without remorse.  It appeared they both had devil's fruit powers of some sort, but besides that she had little information to go off of.  Note to self: don't come into contact with the darker-haired fellow.  He meant business.  She would have to keep her distance from him in particular.  That drying power of his did not seem friendly.  Even the other man caused the earth beneath his feet to change somehow.  The moment he spoke and altered the ground, Diana pulled her hand away and took a step back.  Mainly because he requested it, although the earth changing was certainly curious as well.  

As an orb of sand was hurled some feet behind her, Diana immediately dove forward and away from it.  She wanted nothing to do with whatever the man had created and simply wanted to distance herself from it.  It was a good thing she did.  The spontaneous tornado's winds caused her braid to whip around from the gusts.  After regaining her balance and poise, Diana carefully extended an arm.  A thread of ice burst from the tip of her finger and hit the ground a few feet ahead of her, freezing the ground and creating an incredibly slick surface on top of it.  The rink of ice grew until it reached from one end of the street to the other and extended 25 feet down the road; beneath both Gale's and Dante's feet.  The earth directly beneath Diana's feet remained unchanged.

Gale saw his own partner smash to other one into sand just by using his hand. He didnt know his old friend's brother, but he now knew that, for sure, he was one strong badass. He walked away from his opponent slightly as he saw Dante direct an attack towards her. He didnt want to get caught up in the chaos. It didnt seem very fair to Gale, but now the girl was facing a two versus one situation.

"You sure aren't in the best of positions right now!"- Gale said as he used his Nendo Nendo no Weapon technique to create three flying short swords that he controlled with his devil fruit powers. He noticed the ice extending below him and to prevent slipping he just stood on some of his clay. The three swords he had created hovered because of his devil fruit control, taking up most of his control, and he spun them around Diana pointing towards her at equal intervals between them.

He didnt attack just yet, he was waiting to see what Dante was going to do and attack in conjunction or use his swords as a way to prevent harm to his partner.

Dante threw his orb of sand at the opponent, but to his surprise the opponent dodged and froze the ground. Now Dante knew the type of opponent he was fighting; either a paramecia type or a logia with the element of ice (or just freezing?). Dante felt his grip on the ground almost immediately lose itself. He fell on one of his knees; he noticed that it hurt. The water was making his body solidify; this made most attempts at dealing damage successful ones. With the ice around Dante was going to have a hard time fighting in this battle.. he had to get rid of it, and the opponent.

While in the kneeling down position, with his right knee on the ground, Dante placed his palm on the floor. Almost immediately the ice and dirt underneath Dante disappeared and sand was left in its place; which then quickly turned to mud because of the rain. Dante looked up at annoyance at the water that started to pour a little more every few minutes. "Gale. Stay close to me. I'll have to finish this. Try and keep her still." Dante immediately created a dome of sand to cover both Gale and Dante. Dante then placed his right palm on his chest and sucked the water from his body while in intangible logia form (but with water around it). It didn't take long before Dante's body was dry once again. With Dante in the stadium, and the people in the buildings, Dante quickly went into action. He raised his arms up in the dome and a giant sand tsunami, about 50 feet high, spontaneously appeared behind the dome and grew upwards in an instant. The sand then moved through the dome, in a straight line, straight through the road where the group was fighting. This was meant to either force Diana inside a building for Dante to fight her easier, or crush her. If the attack hit then the opponent will be hurt by 8 tons of sand. At the same time the person will probably die from oxygen deprivation; since they'll be buried alive.

Dante opened a small hole in his dome, like a door, and watched the outcome of his attack. He was hoping that Gale forced her to hold still somehow.

((I concede))