Round 2; Captain Ryota vs Carmine Cypress

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Ryota raised an eyebrow as Carmine's hand became the Galleon Buster, an odd thing as normally he should have been well acquainted with the fact that Carmine could do such a thing. The blasts flew straight and true each crashing into him and causing a small cloud to form around Ryota. As the last blast impacted Ryota stepped out from the now dispersing cloud looking no worse than he had been before. Ryota sighed as he stepped out from the smoke and ever so briefly taking a look around once more as if trying to see if there were any other attacks coming his way.

When he seemed to realize there there were not any other attacks Ryota took off running at top speed to close all of the distance between himself and Carmine. "I'd forgotten.. your not even a mortal. Your just a machine acting like one." He said with a smirk as he took a few quick swings at Carmine with his blade his aim intentionally drawn away from what would on a living creature have been more lethal areas. "Quick question, do you even feel pain? This won't be nearly as much fun if you don't but I suppose I can always find some way to entertain myself." He asked while taking his swings.

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Carmine had been almost incapable of processing the speed with which Ryota closed the gap between them. The man had grown in power since their last fight, but this was worse than Carmine could have imagined. He was barely half as strong as Ryota was, if his sensors could be trusted, and he knew he couldn't last forever in his Override state.

As Ryota began his onslaught, Carmine dodged, ducked, and sometimes even leapt and flipped over and under the blade. It was all he could do not to get cut, and even then he found himself getting nicked and scraped more often than he was completely clearing the attacks.

"Captain, what the hell's gotten into you?"

Carmine had to think fast, he needed a plan. He looked around himself. He wasn't too far from one of the four pillars. He began to lead the fight back towards it, deciding to engage Ryota in a bit of light conversation to distract him.

"And for your information, I don't quite feel pain as you fleshbags might. It's not so much of a sensation as it is just information transferred to my core processors. It's quite the same process, but the result is less messy, less hindering. I'm aware of all damage, but I can't really truthfully say it hurts."

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Ryota chuckled as Carmine asked what had gotten into him seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was being lead toward the pillar. "Oh yes, he's been playing pirate hasn't he. Your 'captain' is gone. It's almost funny actually, before this fight he was starting to get to a level of power and mental fortitude that he would have no longer had to worry about me. But thanks to you I am back in the drivers seat so to speak." Ryota said with a chuckle.

Ryota seemed rather disappointed by the fact that Carmine didn't quite feel pain like a normal being did. "That's quite unfortunate, I love to see the looks of pain and anguish on my opponents faces, most of what I HAVE seen has only been through his eyes but it's been enough for the most part. With any luck my next opponent will be more than just a boring machine trying to pretend it's something more." Ryota said with a chuckle before making a few quick strikes at Carmine's chest with his sword hoping that perhaps Carmine had simply been lying and that he really could feel pain.

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Carmine gritted his teeth - he might not feel pain, but he could feel emotions, and right now his emotions were somewhere between confusion, fury, and betrayal. Ryota had been open about his demonic nature, sure, but he never mentioned having something so...malicious inside him. This creature wasn't Ryota, not really. He'd been replaced by something cruel and petty, base and evil.

Thankfully it was boastful and easily goaded, and when he finally made his slashes at Carmine's chest - one of which struck deeper than was healthy, a shower of sparks flying from Carmine's robot chassis - he knew it was time to strike. The demon was extended, cocky. Carmine leapt back, executing a quick double backflip. He Typhoon Kicked directly into the pillar, and the resulting explosion launched him clear across the arena, where he landed with a tumbling roll in front of the opposite pillar. He heard a deep, resounding crack from behind him. He hoped it meant what he thought it did - that he'd managed to break the pillar.

The plan had been twofold, after all - putting some distance between him and the demon, and with any luck dropping the massive pillar on the bastard.

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Ryota couldn't help but smirk as his slices ripped Carmine's chest open and while the man didn't bleed the sparking was a rather new and interesting result which as almost as good. Ryota raised an eyebrow as Carmine leapt back and instantly raised his arms to defend himself when Carmine did his back flip and came in for a Typhoon Kick. He was certain the attack would have little effect but it was still enough of an annoyance that he chose to defend. But then the attack didn't hit when it should have, and rather than hit his arms Carmine hit the pillar that he hadn't even realized had been there.

As Carmine flew across the arena Ryota couldn't help but laugh. "I'm rather disappointed, you missed me at point blank range when I didn't even bother to evade! How he even thought of you as a credible challenge is beyond me!" Ryota said as he let out another laugh. However his laugh was cut off as a loud cracking sound came form behind him. Confused by the sound Ryota turned to see what had happened and all of the joy was drained from him as rather suddenly the massive pillar started falling right on him.

Acting quickly Ryota slammed his hands upward and pushed with all of his might against the weight of the pillar however even with all of the power provided by his aura he was only barely managing to keep the pillar in place. Taking a few deep breaths Ryota began channeling his energy hoping that perhaps if he focused a bit more he could exert enough power to either blast the pillar away or at the very least create a hole in it. Regardless he'd need a few moments so with any luck his display of strength would be enough to give Carmine pause.

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Carmine clenched his jaw. He'd hoped that Ryota would be pinned under the pillar, but he knew it would be a long shot with the kind of weight he was throwing around. Instead, he was holding the damn thing up!

Carmine felt a spring pop in his left leg. Nothing crucial, just a part of his shock absorption systems, but it would make things a bit more complicated if he didn't end this or forfeit soon. Soon his cooling fans would go, then his processors, then he'd be of no use to anyone until his repair systems could get him back online.

So he decided to make one last desperate stand, one final gambit. He pushed with all the strength he had, running full bore at his mighty opponent. He was certain that he was about to be slag, but the sad truth was that he'd never be able to outlast Ryota in Override, and if he turned his Limiter back on he'd be stone dead in seconds. So he ran, and he charged his Galleon Buster, and he prepared to split all the energy he could spare between it and his foot.

He ran PAST Ryota, not to confuse him or misdirect him, but because the cracked base of the pillar was the best vaulting point for his jump. He pushed up with his right leg, leading into a high-arcing backflip, arms (or what was left of them) spread straight out as if he were on a cross. As his arc reaching it's apex, he turned, transforming the flip into a dropping corkscrew.

He started to careen downwards face first towards the pillar, where it was held up by the demon. He held the Buster forward and fired his charged shot, blasting into the pillar. At the final moment, he righted himself, foot and face trading places - a third flip to his jump in order to build the most potential centrifugal force into what he shouted out as the, "FINAL STAND TYPHOON KICK!"

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Ryota growled in frustration as he continued building his energy, he was so completely focused on his work that he only vaguely noticed Carmine zip past him, his mind however was registering the imminent threat of the pillar as far more of a risk than Carmine could possibly be. Once he felt he'd built up enough energy Ryota let out a shout as he launched a wave of energy into the pillar causing a massive hole to form. Ryota's triumphant smirk quickly faded however as he looked up just in time to get smacked in the face with a powerful blast of energy.

"AGH! YOU SON OF A-" Ryota shouted in anger as he covered his singed face. Preparing to fly up through the hol Ryota removed his hands from his face and looked up once again. "NONONO" He said as his eyes almost comically bulged as he spotted Carmine flying right at him shouting the name of his attack. Ryota didn't even have enough time to raise his arms in defense as the kick connected with his face slamming him into the now fallen Pillar due to the force of the kick and the resulting explosion. The shrapnel from the leg's explosion cutting up his face and chest.

Ryota lay there slowly but surely his vision fading. "No.. cant... lose.. control... so... close..." he mumbled to himself as he struggled to pull himself back to his feet. Just as he managed to pull himself up he quickly toppled face forward into the ground letting out a groan of despair as his demonic aura faded. A few moments would pass with Ryota simply laying there. "Ugh.. why does my everything hurt... " Ryota said with a groan as he slowly rolled himself onto his back. His voice had now lost all of the darkness malice from earlier and likewise the fear and despair from just moments ago, and was now back to normal. Tilting his head to see his surroundings Ryota only grew more confused. "The hell happened here? Why do I feel like I just got Typhoon Kicked in the face." Ryota mumbled before finally spotting Carmine and could only assume that he'd been right. "Hey asshole I think you knocked something loose I can't remember shit." Ryota said with a grin and without even bothering to try and get up.

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Carmine wasn't in much better shape. His right leg had essentially exploded, all that remained were a few stray wires hanging from his hip. His left leg was incapable of supporting him, and thus he was on his hands and knee, looking at his friend. A loud POP sound followed by some sparks echoed across the arena, and he turned his limiter back on.

He was on emergency backup power, half his systems had shut down, and his hardware failure was nearing 60 percent.

"I'll tell you everything later. Now come over here, I'm going to fucking punch you."

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Ryota chuckled as he pulled himself up to a sitting position to finally get a good look at Carmine, evidently whatever had happened had been pretty big considering one of the pillars was wrecked, Carmine was missing a leg, and he felt like he'd just fought every member of the crew got set on fire AND THEN got kicked in the face by Carmine. Slowly but surely Ryota managed to pull himself to his feet.

"You sure you wanna keep going? Your leg looks pretty bad." He said as he grabbed his now normal sword and re-sheathed it before starting to make his way over to Carmine. Assuming Carmine had no intention of actually giving up Ryota would then take a swing at Carmine, even with only one leg he knew Carmine was likely serious about continuing especially since Carmine didn't have to worry about blood loss.

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When Ryota took his swing, Carmine dodged it half by luck, and half by being awesome. He dropped to one side and rolled, finding himself propped against the fallen pillar. He pushed up with his left leg to a sitting position - and then his knee shattered, leaving the leg useless.

He pointed his now-useless Galleon Buster at Ryota.

"Your face looks pretty bad, princess. That lightning bolt I hit you with did a real number. Look what you're not holding anymore."

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Ryota raised an eyebrow at Carmine's comment and then looked down at his hand. Once ne noted the complete lack of Carmine's hand his eyes grew wide. "Oh hell no! Thats bull! I KNOW I wouldn't let go of your damn hand even if I was knocked out!" Ryota shouted as he began frantically looking around for the missing appendage.

Slowly as he began looking the memories of his 'other self' began to rise up causing Ryota to pale ever so slightly before turning to Carmine. "Well fuck... That doesn't count. I didn't let go!" Ryota said finally after a few moments. "I can remember it now and what happened wasn't even really me so that shit doesn't count." Ryota said as he crossed his hands over his chest while preparing to dodge a blast from Carmine that would never come.

Ryota was really hoping for two things, first that what 'he' had said wouldn't cause any real problems between himself and Carmine and secondly that if Carmine wasn't bothered by what 'he'd' said and done that he would also not count that as part of the bet as Ryota reaaallly did not want to have to own up to this bet.

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"Well at some point we need to talk about WHAT that was. But for now..."

Carmine lowered the Galleon Buster, turning it back into a hand. He shook his head and smiled.

"But for now, we can call the bet a draw and forget the whole thing if you'll...um...carry me out of here and not mention it to the crew. See, I'm missing a leg and the other one is completely fucking broken, and I'm only working with one hand."

He scratched the back of his head and sighed.

"I was really hoping that lightning bolt would knock you out."

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Ryota chuckled as Carmine reveled just how bad of a condition he was in and gladly walked over to pull his friend up from the ground "Once this thing is over I'll give you as best an explanation that I can about it." Ryota said as he dragged Carmine up onto his one 'good' leg. Once Carmine was up Ryota would pull out his sword and slice open a rift leading just outside Carmine's room on the Galleon.

Ryota took a moment to chuckle over Carmine's comment on having hoped that the lightning would knock him out before walking through the rift."Can you get yourself back up and running or should I have Keyra come help you out." Ryota asked as he booted open Carmine's door and dragged the machine-man into the room and over to a chair.

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"I should be fine. If not, I'll drag myself around until Oda or Keyra find me. Just a matter of getting this left leg up and running, then I can hop around until I have an armature fabricated for the right leg, then rebuild the right hand, then rebuild the leg...I should be mobile by the end of the day at least, and with Keyra's help I'll be right as rain real soon."

Carmine shook his head.

"Hell of a fight, Captain, as usual. You going back?"

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Ryota nodded as he dragged himself over to Carmine's hammock and collapsed on it, glad to know that he hadn't done any truly lasting damage to Carmine. "Good to know that you'll be able to put yourself back together again though to make things move along a bit quicker for you I'll make sure to tell Keyra that you're down here." Ryota said as he let the hammock swing while he tried to get somewhat comfortable, it'd been a long time since he'd used a hammock as upon becoming captain he'd 'inherited' the captain's quarters and thus had a bed of his own without needing to buy it.

"I'm not sure..." Ryota said with a shrug as he finally got comfortable. "I mean the possibility for another good fight is there but I pretty much got exactly what I wanted from are fight. As well it's been a while and I really want to get back to work here. The ships actually completely up and running so we could start checking out a few of the other worlds nearby. As well there are a few things I want to do that can't really be done while I'm stuck competing in a tournament." Ryota said with a shrug deciding that even if he were to return to the tournament that at least for the moment' he'd stick around here and relax while talking with Carmine.