Lazers and Lace

Levi stretched, breathing in the crisp, cold mountain air. He was on one of the many mountains in Japan, days before the Overseer meeting. But he had been sent a request by Akutore to have a sparring session in a remote location. I guess it's better than her usual way of asking for a fight: just appearing and challenging me to a fight then and there. After his preliminary stretches, Levi sat down on a tree trunk that was lying on the ground, lighting up a cigar. I guess all I need to do is wait for her now, he thought, the tip of his cigar burning red as he took in a breath and exhaled smoke.

From halfway across the top of the mountain, Akutore shot out a single thread, aiming to pierce Levi's cigar and then cut it in half. "You should know, those things could kill your brain. Well, what remains. I know you're going for 'sexy but stupid', but please, stop trying to put yourself into a coma..." She said with a chuckle, ready to stab through the cigar again if need be.

The thread cut through Levi's cigar, and he sighed as he looked in the general direction that the thread came from, sweeping his eyes across the treeline until his sharp eyes picked up Akutore. "Figures you'd get the high ground." Levi relit his now shortened cigar. "Let's get started, all right?" In an instant, Levi unleashed his ability, bones jutting out of his shoulders. He shot out his blasts, focusing on the treeline in front of Akutore, thinking that will all the trees exploding and falling and whatnot, she'd have a blocked view of him. He strafed to his left, not wanting to enter the treeline itself. Who knows what thread-based traps she's set up in there? I'm probably better off just staying put and letting her come to me.

Hissing at Levi's actions, Akutore thrust her left hand forward, sending about ten threads shooting through the slight openings in the trees, aiming them to where she felt Levi to be. With her right hand, she began conjuring a large number of threads, poolng them behind her, should the man come near. "Come into my parlor, Levi. I promise, you won't feel a thing..." Akutore spoke with a chuckle, reciting a line from an old story.

Levi saw glints of reiatsu coming straight for him, and he attempted to dodge the threads. A couple scratched his cheek and his upper arm, but he managed to escape the rest. He looked back in Akutore's direction. I don't think she's coming for me... and I hope she doesn't think that I'll be going in that forest. Maybe she needs a little motivation? Levi continued his barrage, this time focusing on the trees in Akutore's general area, attempting to force her to move and dodge falling debris, and maybe even take the offensive and come to him.

"Oh, Levi, this brutish assault won't work, you should really know better..." Akutore taunted, quickly making a sweeping motion around her with her left hand. As it arced over her head, she became surrounded by pitch-black threads, looking like someone had painted over her with a very large brush. As she kept her defense up, she poured more energy into the threads coming out of her right hand. Amassing them, strengthening them. "Just because you're wasting your time attacking doesn't mean I am..."

Levi strained his eyes to see that the trees that had been falling were now being held up, seemingly by themselves. However, he knew better. I'm always surprised by how strong those strings are... Levi's cannons began to rotate as he activated his Gunslinger technique. In a moment, thousands of reishi bullets would tear their way through the forests, obliterating everything in their path. Now that Levi had an area to concentrate his fire - the trees that were being help up - his accuracy would be greatly improved.

With a good amount of charging time behind her, Akutore collapsed the shield and quickly swept her right hand out toward the cowboy. Following her hand, one could see a typhoon of black thread aiming to engulf the foe. If Levi had the time to count, as well as enough fingers and toes, he might have gotten up to about ten thousand before losing track. Of course, he would have needed a lot of luck, because all of those threads were trying to wrap around him, ready to immobilize him completely. Mixed in with that assault were six gold-trimmed threads, signalling her Master Threads were at work here.

Levi immediately saw the strings shoot up in the air and then aim for him. Ah crap. He began zig-zagging all around the opening, dodging bunches of strings and shooting others in the air and being cut by others, but it was not a battle that he could hold out long in. His barrels now fully rotating, he made sure to focus some of fire in Akutore's direction, attempting to mess up her concentration and maybe even injure her a bit.

"Silly Levi...Shooting at me when I'm behind a flood of string?" Akutore said with a laugh, doing a flip backwards to further hide herself behind her ebony wall. As the strings on her fingers twisted, so did the mass headed toward Levi. They all began spinning, acting more like drills than water. Despite her dodge, the threads kept moving at their original pace, closing in on the brutish man.

This is not good... she's going to surround me with her strings if I don't do something. Levi sprinted into the treeline, dodging clusters of threads as he barreled into the underbrush. At least her strings won't have as much room to maneuver in here. Levi sat himself down into a bunch ob bushes and took a puff from his cigar. Hmm... what's the best way to deal with her? I'd best think of something quick before she finds me.

"Oh, Levi...You've gone and trapped yourself..." Akutore said with a laugh, directing her threads to spread out like a dust cloud, reaching into every part of the trees they could. Then, she caused them to fray about ten feet from the end, leaving each thread with four or five 'feelers' with which she could search out her foe. Hide and Seek always was her best game...

Levi opened his eyes as he felt Akutore's threads now move into the forest. Well, here goes nothing. He was working up a bit of a sweat; his shirt was dampened in some places and smeared with dirt in others. If there's one thing about Akutore, she really does know how to give me a good workout. With a grunt, Levi began to sprint through the trees, zigzagging this way and that and trying to avoid the clusters of threads that were spreading through the forest. With any luck, he may get close enough for his blasts to actually do some real damage.[/i]

A laugh was heard throughout the area as Akutore felt a tug on one of her seeker threads, proof that Levi had just stepped on it. This told her pretty much where he was, as well as where he was heading, judging by the angle it was crushed at. Expecting an attack, she shot out a dozen small, almost invisible threads. While they wouldn't do much damage, she was hoping to at least snag a few around Levi's neck to trip him up.

Levi continued to barge through the brush, the steep climb beginning to make him breathe heavily. He was almost certain that Akutore had laid sensor strings all over the place; it was likely that he had set off at least one of them in his dash up the mountainside. Therefore, he was very vigilant for a sign of Akutore's threads. As he ran, a movement caught his eye. A branch had shifted when there was no wind.

Over there!

Almost immediately, Levi crouched down, narrowly missing being snagged by one of the hard-to-detect strings. However, a few more caught him by the neck, and he grunted as he was nearly pulled forward. Grabbing onto where he knew the threads must be, though he could just barely see them, his cannons rotated and fired a short burst into the area in front of him, effectively cutting the threads tied to his neck. Gasping for breath, he continued his trek upward, his eyes open for any more signs of the threads.

"You really ought to move a bit faster, Levi...You should know by now how dangerous it is to let me set up my web," Akutore said with another laugh, shooting a large number of threads at the top of the trees surrounding Levi, making a cloud of sorts. All it'd take would be one more turn, then she'd have him surrounded and, in the words of Robert, up a shit's creek without a paddle.