The Welcoming Battle

[Deleted]

Carmine stood slack-jawed and stunned as Ryota unleashed his full power. His display had gone from showing him numbers to simply flashing the word 'WARNING' in red letters. He tried to keep his cool and hide his shock, even as systems began to register the strain of Limiter Override.

"Impressive, Captai-OHGOD"

Suddenly, it was all Carmine could do to deflect and block Ryota's sudden barrage of fists and feet. He could feel dents forming in his chassis. He needed to fight back, if even just a little. He did his best to slip in the occasional jab or knee, but he couldnt get any real leverage behind them. He needed to change it up, and taking bold risks had done him a lot of good so far.

He dropped to one knee, ducking a punch but taking a kick to the left shoulder. He felt the joint pinning snap and a couple of gears grind to a halt. His left arm was useless. His right arm, however, shot out and grabbed the hilt of Ryota's sword, and he stood, backing up and delivering a not-entirely-graceful but not-too-shabby spinning slash at Ryota's midsection.

[Deleted]

Ryota was a bit confused by what he felt every time he manged to land a good hit on Carmine, it was like he was... denting him, his fist would sink in but the 'skin' would sort of just slightly conform to his strikes rather than reacting at all like how a body should work, even if he wasn't an expert on human physiology he'd fought a couple already and knew what it felt like to get land a good solid hit on one and this was completely different.

Ryota raised an eyebrow in confusion as he landed a really good punch on one of Carmine's shoulders as he'd only managed to do so because Carmine had fallen to one knee. Then he heard the sound of his sword being drawn and knew something was up, Ryota barely moved to react due to his confusion as Carmine took a spinning slash at him. Ryota braced himself as the sword impacted his midsection producing a result that more than likely Carmine had not expected, the hit had caused a decent amount of pain as Carmine had a lot of strength to throw into it but didn't actually cut into Ryota despite the fact that the blade was very obviously quite sharp.

"Nice try, unfortunately that won't really work on me. That's my sword, to a non demon that'd probably just be a sign of ownership but for a demon's sword is more than just property, its apart of them from birth. You'd be better off hitting me with a rock or part of the railing because my sword wont hurt me much more than that." Ryota said with a shrug before taking a quick swing at the arm Carmine was wielding the sword in hoping to knock if free from his grasp. Even if his sword wouldn't harm him much he didn't like being without it for very long.

[Deleted]

Carmine's face was a mixture of fascination and indignation. He'd HAD him! Oh well, he hadn't really expected that to be the end of the fight anyway.

Wait, a part of them from birth? Carmine had an idea - crazy, reckless, and uncertain, but an idea nonetheless. Ryota took a swing at Carmine's right arm, shattering the right elbow pinning, but the wiring was still intact. His grip remained like a vice - kung fu ain't got shit on robots - even though his forearm hung limp. Carmine hopped up onto the railing. His left shoulder sparked and started to smoke a bit, and he felt a cooling fan inside him start to sputter. He couldn't push this much longer.

He grinned, and twisted his body, releasing his grip on the sword and tossing it off the side of the Galleon.

"Fetch."

[Deleted]

Ryota groaned in mild annoyance as rather than his attack causing Carmine to release the sword it seemed to actually cause him to grip it tighter. As Carmine hopped up on the railing Ryota couldent help but stare at his sparking shoulder in confusion. It was rather obvioust that those weren't because of Carmine's energy output as they would be all over him much like the sparks the aura produced. "Are you a rob- MY FUCKING SWORD" Ryota's eyes bulged as he watched Carmine drop his sword off the side of the ship. Deep inside his mind part of him screamed not to go after it, screamed that he KNEW the shield would keep it safe.

That part of his mind was quickly punted away in favored of another part of his mind telling him to get back his damn sword before the void swallowed it up. Terrible stories were told of what happened when a demon lost there sword, stories of madness or perhaps worse weakness. Ryota simply couldn't let his sword be taken away. His aura erupted around him as he launched himself into the air and over the railing at his top speed trying to catch up with the sword.

Within a few second Ryota was able to reach out and snag the blade out of the open 'air' letting out a sigh of relief Ryota returned his gaze to the railing where he hoped to still see Carmine, making a quick note to prepare himself to close his eyes just in case he tried that photon flash thing again. He was NOT about to let himself be blinded again.

[Deleted]

Carmine reacted as quickly as his damaged body would let him. Once Ryota was over the railing, he dropped off the side himself, spinning in a controlled freefall before thrusting his foot outward.

He didnt know if a third kick would destroy him at this level. He didn't know if he'd even hit Ryota at all. All he knew is that this fight had gone from a basic spar with his friend and Captain to something more. Carmine had decided that he had something to prove. He needed to show Ryota and everyone else on the Galleon exactly what he was made of - not metal and wires and fiber weave skin, but whatever else it was that really drove him. Whatever it was that made him enjoy technology and enjoy fighting and want to do things other than just be a robot.

As he fell towards Ryota in a finaly, silent Typhoon Kick he felt two distinct things. One was a complete cooling systems shutdown, indicating a necessity for minimum operating functions as soon as was remotely possible. The other was an intense desire to figure out what the hell happened before he was woken up in those ruins by explorers so many years ago, to figure out if he was just a very special machine built by a long-dead genius, or something more than that.

With his cooling systems down, his aura flared out wider and hotter, and his kicking heel started to actually catch fire as gravity pulled him towards the Captain.

[Deleted]

It took Ryota a moment to really recognize what was going on when he spotted Carmine and when he finally did he realized exactly what had happened, he'd let himself fall for an incredibly obvious trap. Probably THE most obvious trap to ever actually be used on him. He'd let his need to get his sword back cloud his judgement so thoroughly that now Carmine was using that god damn kick again.

Ryota moved to make a wide arc with his sword in an attempt to send Carmine flying elsewhere however just as he began making the arc Carmine made impact and the all too familiar feeling of explosive impact rocked Ryota once again sending him flying into the barrier causing the barrier to flash several different colors out from the point of impact and all the way around the entirety of the ship Ryota coughed up blood as his aura faded away after the smoke cleared. Ryota did NOT want to move after that and he wasn't even entirely sure he could.

However he noted that Carmine was gradually free falling, likely not conscious himself and with a ground Ryota pushed off of the barrier causing a spasm of pain to shoot through his body. He flew over to Carmine's falling body as fast as he body could carry him grabbing him around the collar. He felt an incredible temptation to just punch Carmine in the face to make make sure he wouldn't start moving around again and perhaps try using that kick a fourth time but restrained himself considering the damaged state they were both in.

Floating back up to the deck of the ship Ryota rather unceremoniously tossed Carmine onto the deck as the entirety of the crew watched in silent awe not having seen a battle quite like that since there last captain commanded the ship. Ryota then chuckled as he took a look around at them focusing in on Keyra. "You were right, this was interesting" He said with a chuckle that caused a small burst of pain. Ryota then proceeded to fall flat on his back, completely unconscious.

[Thread should be over with Carmine's post, I'll take PL]

[Deleted]

Carmine, flat on his back on the deck, had entered shutdown. For a minute, his entire existence was a flashing green cursor on a black background. Then an assessment began.

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE: 37%
DAMAGE ASSESSMENT: CRIPPLING
DESIGNATE "RYOTA" THREAT LEVEL: CRITICAL
LEFT SHOULDER PINNING AND WIRING DESTROYED, LEFT ARM OFFLINE
RIGHT ELBOY PINNING DESTROYED
RIGHT HIP PINNING AND JOINT DESTROYED
RIGHT KNEE PINNING AND JOIN DESTROYED
RIGHT FOOT STRUCTURAL ARRAY DESTROYED
RIGHT LEG STRUCTURAL DAMAGE: 80%
SYSTEMS DAMAGE: 15%
OPERATIONAL FUNCTIONS NOT THREATENED
ASSISTED REPAIRS REQUIRED
BOOTING...
BOOTING...

Carmine's eyes opened briefly. He had no access to major motor functions, but he could turn his head to look at Keyra.

"Gonna need some help here. Also go into my pocket and give the Captain half my zeni, it's from the tournament the other day. I'm gonna rest for a while."

Without another word, Carmine initiated his system's sleep mode.

((please transfer half of Carmine's Zeni to Ryota :3, and I'd like whatever PL would be rewarded here))

[Gray Callahan]

1200 PL rewarded each, zeni re-distributed.