Gunpowder and Thread

Levi sat on the top of his favorite hill in San Francisco that overlooked the San Francisco Bay. Beautiful, he thought as he saw the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance absorbing the warm glow of the sun as it set in the west. He took another puff of his cigar and let a couple of smoke rings billow out of his mouth. This is the life. Levi began to lie down on the soft grass to take a nap before he heard a twig snap. Son of a... He sat back up and turned towards the noise. "It's always the same. Just when you get some free time..."

"Sunsets here sure are amazing, aren't they? The perfect backdrop for a fight between Superhuman Overseers, eh? I wonder how long it'd take before your clothing was cut clean off and left glistening in the last rays of the sun, shall we try?" Akutore asked the man, twisting the amethyst off of her bracelets and toying with the black threads hidden inside. She'd come to such a place looking to spar with Levi, looking to refine her skills against someone with as much explosive power as he had. Not to mention, he did have a slammin' body, in her opinion.

Levi sighed deeply, his irritation clearly shown. Now that Akutore was here, it was impossible to enjoy the peaceful and quiet solitude that the hill had previously provided. He got up and turned towards his fellow superhuman. "You want to fight again, Akutore? Fine then. I guess I'll have to wait for another sunset to enjoy." Levi put his hand on the butt of his revolver by his hip, and waited for Akutore to draw.

As her reiatsu flared slightly, Akutore activated her powers. Her master threads fused with her fingertips, embedding themselves into her fingernails. As she fanned her fingers out and held her arms to her sides, hundreds of threads formed, barely visible. The first thing Akutore did was coil up the threads on her right pinky finger and had them assume the shape of a long staff, the reishi around them hardening to give it the strength of steel. "Now, let us begin," she said with a smile as she swung the staff at Levi's legs with her one hand, shooting out threads from her other hand at him.

Levi was once again surprised by how quickly and impulsively Akutore can just join or start a fight, catching him slightly off guard with her attacks. You'd think I'd be used to this by now. Levi jumped out of the way of Akutore's staff, but had a harder time shifting his head to avoid her strings. The strings lashed past him, cutting his cheek a bit and slicing off a fair amount of his hair. "Lady, if I wanted a haircut, I'd ask for it." Levi drew both of his revolvers in a flash and shot 1 round from each round at Akutore's staff, aiming to break it apart with his reishi-covered bullets.

"But those locks really are trashed, Levi," Akutore said with a chuckle, sidestepping the bullets and flinging the staff at Levi like it was on a chain, which it kind of was. As it flew at him, she swung her arm around in an arc, the master thread tied to that weapon causing it to also perform that wide swing. Under the disguise of that attack, Akutore wrapped the threads on her left hand together, forming makeshift claws about three feet long. With a smirk, she twisted her body and swung at his shoulder with the weapon.

Akutore is not someone to get in a fight with, Levi thought to himself. Her ability is diverse enough to keep one on his toes. Levi lifted his main revolver up, using it to deflect the staff while he ducked under it. However, he was caught off guard by Akutore's claws. Since when could she do that? She's been practicing, hasn't she? The claws hit Levi's shoulders, but he grabbed Akutore's left hand with his own right hand. He flipped the revolver in his left hand and pistol whipped her, aiming for her now vulnerable ribs.

Akutore flicked her left wrist down, sending the threads that once made up the claws into a type of shield over her ribs. Due to the little time she had to change them, though, they weren't quite hard enough to absorb the whole impact. "Dammit, Levi. Go easy on a woman," she said, her face turning serious. She twisted her wrist so as to try to grasp onto Levi's wrist and sent her threads down her fingers, seeking to stab through his arm with a large number of them. Then, with her right hand she directed the staff once more, bringing it around from behind to, she hoped, wrap around Levi's legs and then knock him over.

"Don't you believe in Double Standard, Akutore?" Levi's slight smile disappeared as he saw the threads. That's not good, he thought right before the threads dug into his arm. Grunting with pain, Levi dropped the revolver in that hand, and then noticed the staff coming around to take out his legs. "Oh no you don't." Levi planted his foot on Akutore's torso, using it to push himself away and over the staff. He grimaced a little as his momentum pulled his arm away from Akutore's threads.

"OK, you'd better be ready Akutore. I'm going all out." With that, Levi released his ability, causing a shockwave of energy to sweep along the grass on the hill.

Akutore faltered slightly in her attacks as she felt the staff return to its prior form in her hands, realizing Levi had only just released his true power. With a low growl, she formed two pairs of claws over he hands with her threads and ran at Levi, slashing at his legs. In her mind, if he couldn't stand up straight, he couldn't aim very easily, nor could he dodge her next technique.

Levi scoffed a bit as Akutore actually ran at him to fight him at close range. Not that I can blame her. She knows I'm a long-range fighter, and she wants to take away that advantage. But Levi had other plans. He aimed his cannons at the ground in front of him at an angle, firing so that the kick-back of the blast knocked him back a bit and out of the range of Akutore's claws. The blast gave him some minor burns, but he could survive with those. He began firing at her with his blasts, aiming multiple rounds at her general direction. I hope I don't have to use my other techniques.

Akutore quickly shifted her claws into a zweihander, large enough for her to deflect all of the bullets by placing the broad side of it against her body. Then, as soon as the assault passed, Akutore took her left hand off of the weapon and made a large sweeping motion with that arm. "Threads of Binding," she whispered, the master threads on her index and ring fingers shooting out toward Levi with a few hundred of her other threads aiming at Levi's shoulder area, seeking to tie them together behind his back so as to throw off his aim with those annoyances.

Levi quickly turned his attention to the mass of threads coming towards him. He recognized that there were two of Akutore's master threads among the strings, and he concentrated all of his firepower on those. He wasn't sure if his attacks succeeded, because Akutore's threads reached him before he could see how much damage he had caused. He jumped to his left, but the strings managed to wrap around his right wrist. This isn't good. Levi shifted his attention towards Akutore herself, using his Cluster Bomb technique and firing a wide arc of concentrated blasts at her.

Akutore cursed as she felt one of her master threads snap, and leaped to the left to dodge the attack. As she did so, she directed the remaining master thread to creep alone Levi's arm and at least tie him down, with any luck. "You seem to have one limb inside my trap, now. I wonder, how much longer will you last before you're completely covered in them, burrowing into your skin and sapping your energy, hmm?" She said with a chuckle as she thrust her right hand forward and sent hardened spikes at Levi.

Levi was a bit happier to see that one of Akutore's threads had been severed, but it did not improve his situation much. He was now trapped by Akutore's Thread of the Binding, and he racked his mind for an idea. She does have more strategy than I do, but I am stronger than her...

Levi saw the thread fingers extending towards him, and he was able to shift to his right and dodge them. As they passed, he grabbed them with his left hand and grabbed the threads attached to his wrist with his right. "Akutore, don't underestimate me." With a yell, Levi yanked on the threads, aiming to lift Akutore off her feet and slam her to the ground.

Shaking her head, Akutore released the reishi coating the threads so they went limp in his grasp, leaving him hanging onto them for nothing. "You underestimate me as well, Levi. You think I'd let my own weapon be used against me? How very foolish," she said with a laugh as she concentrated on the threads once more. This time, she forced them to split apart where he held them, leaving the frayed ends inside his fists. Once that was accomplished, she had the very tips attract reishi and stand out, acting like the thorns on the stem of a rose when held too tightly, pricking the fingers of any too cautious.

Levi's face was impassive as he saw his attempt to unsettle Akutore fail utterly. I could be napping in the sun about now. But now I'm caught like a rabbit in a tunnel with a rattlesnake in the entrance. Levi's eyes widened as he quickly realized what Akutore was going to do. But it was too late. He let go of the strings in his left hand, but his right hand was pierced by the sharp ends of the threads. Wincing with pain, he did not let go of the threads in his right hand. "You're not getting away that easily, Akutore." Levi's bone cannons brightened as he shot another volley of blasts at his fellow superhuman.

Only moderately surprised by his ploy, Akutore decided to exchange blows with him. She swung her right arm around as she spun clockwise, swinging the threads attached to that arm. As she spun, the threads all braided together into a large, thick rope. Halfway through her swing, the bullets hit her back and she let out a sharp hiss. Shaking her head, she refused to let that stop her attack and so she continued the swing. The closer to the full rotation she got, the closer her weapon got to completion. Right as she swung at Levi, long thorn-like assemblies coated the entire length like a whip made of rose stems and thorns.

Aw hell,that's not good. Levi was surprised to see that his blasts didn't do as much damage as he thought they would. I guess we'll see who's the most stubborn one here, won't we? But he couldn't delay for long if he didn't want to be sliced in two by foliage. He swung his revolver to clash with the whip, getting as low as he could at the same time. The whip cut into the revolver and sliced it in two, but in the time that it took to cut all the way through, Levi had pushed the whip slightly above his head, making it miss, though it did cut into his right shoulder a bit, slicing off a rather large piece of flesh as well as slicing the tip of his right bone cannon. He faced Akutore again and continue to fire. I'll have to use my Gunslinger soon, I think. Levi thus began to prepare his technique, his bone cannons slowly rotating while they continued to fire at Akutore.

Taking advantage of his pause, Akutore shifted out of the way of the cannons as a growl escaped her throat. Manipulating the threads stuck in Levi's hand more, she directed the thorn-like appendages to grow even more and then turn in the air, aiming to shoot at his chest. While she hoped his concentration was broken, Akutore forcefully cut the threads on her left hand, leaving only the master threads behind. As she began regrowing the threads connected to those fingers out, she had them absorb most of the reishi in the air so they hardened to the strength of ten feet of solid concrete, something she only did with this move. She focused upon the five lengths of thread, growing them out more and more.

Levi felt even more pain from his right hand, and he looked down to see the threads in the hand growing even longer and aiming to spear him. Sweet Joseph, this hand is gone enough already. Pulling his hand down and aiming his cannons down, Levi blasted the remains of his hand, his point-blank blasts also destroying the ends of the threads. He looked down at the stump. "Dammit Akutore! Look what you did now!" He looked up to see her creating a mass of threads for another attack. His cannons now fully rotating, Levi aimed at her, and unleashed his Gunslinger technique.

Amazed at his willingness to get rid of his own arm, Akutore flung her right hand around, sending the frayed ends of those strings to form a barrier against his attack. Behind that, she placed one of the long pillars from her ultimate technique, the ultra-hard pillar blocking most of the damage. Only a fifth of the power made it through, and that piece hit her right hand, fraying two of the five master threads there. "Threads...of Chaos!" She called out, launching the five large pillars into the sky, from where they began flying down toward Levi.

Levi quickly used his shirt to make a tourniquet and slow the blood loss from his right arm. Sheesh, this fight is getting bloody. And Akutore's not holding back at all, he thought, as he saw Akutore about to use her Threads of Chaos. He shot at them, but even his Gunslinger bullets just glanced off the gigantic pillars. "Son of a..." Levi began to run away from the pillars as fast as he could. focusing all of his energy into his final technique. I hope I can complete it before those things sap my energy. Good thing I've got plenty of it.

Seeing his attempt to first deflect the pillars, then dodge them, Akutore flicked the wrist connected to those pillars up, then pushed forward. The pillars angled themselves at Levi, inching forward slowly before Akutore made another motion with that hand and caused them to fly forward at the man she addressed as 'Stumpy' in her mind.

Levi still needed a bit more time to prepare his Ultimate, and he was trying to buy as much time as he could. He fired a volley of his Gunslinger bullets straight at Akutore. If I can't deflect her pillars, I might as well aim at her. He fired while straffing, shooting at Akutore from different locations while trying to outrun the pillars, though they were closing in on him. Levi stopped shooting and jumped down the hill, shielding himself from Akutore's view.