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Nanaki (Final Fantasy VII) |
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Now this is more like it! It's taken until the Middle finals for Nanaki to finnaly get some competition worth mentioning, but a fight like this is more than worth slogging through all the earlier trash to reach. Taking a look at Arnaud, who dispatched his half of the field as easily as Nanaki himself did, he can only savor the thought of the battle that awaits him. While his powerful physicals will be of little use against the ever-evasive drifter, Red XIII still has his Fire materia to draw upon, and its burning magic will not miss even one as skilled in the art of dodging as Arnaud. While the fire magic is not quite as strong as his normal attacks, it's enough to put the pressure on Arnaud. See, the drifter likes to draw out his battles, but with the constant pounding of Fire 3 from Nanaki, he can't afford to do that. He has to go for the quick kill. And that means risking a nearly perfectly accurate Limit. Even something as simple as Stardust Ray should be enough to put the physically frail drifter down for the count. So what's it gonna be, Arnaud? Death by fire, or death by Limit? |
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Ipsa scientia potestas est. Knowledge itself is power. What better way to describe Arnaud's flawless strut through Middle this season? Every foe he's faced has fallen to his fabulous combination of cunning and magic, and the mere dog he faces as an opponent in the finals won't stand in his way of upgrading to Heavy! With his razor-sharp intellect, Arnaud can employ tricks that not even a trained dog could see through. With his Sleep spell, Arnaud can send Red off to dreamland, buying himself enough time to toy around with his other fantastic tricks. Quick shots of Slow Down and Fragile will turn Red into a sluggish kitten, while a casting of Hyper will allow Arnaud's deadly feathers to tear up the little pup in seconds. Of course, Arnaud can also employ his magical Hi-Blasts to rip Nanaki apart as well, or even his Deadly Stinger feathers to kill the mystical wolf without provoking his limit attacks. Whatever the trick, Arnaud's ninja-esque evasion will keep him alive while his mind does the work. It's all in the head, people - mind truly is superior to matter. |
Gatewalker After Arnaud's little issue with interfering in Kresnik's match, extra precautions were taken to ensure that the finals match would be free of all such foul play. The match orchestrators really didn't need to bother, though. Nanaki wasn't the type to cheat, and Raquel wielded the ever potent 'couch' threat against Arnaud should he even consider it. And in her case, 'wielding the couch threat' had a double meaning in both making him sleep on the couch, and in beating him black and blue with it. Being freakishly strong has it's perks and all. So, as this was a rather important match that needed to be closely monitored, the judges decided to do something a little different with it. Rather the a simple fight, the two would first have to reach the battle area, which was resting atop the fearsome Barrel Volcano. First the combatants would be air-dropped from the Highwind, with no parachutes to save them, only their own reflexes. Assuming a successful landing, they would then race to the top of the volcano, avoiding the hazards and monsters within in an attempt to get to the battlefield first. The first one to arrive would be healed of their wounds while the other would be forced to fight as they were, worn down from the fall and race. Aboard the Highwind, as the bell sounded the opening of the race, the two fighters acknowledged each other with a solemn nod, and then leapt, wasting no time in getting started. Plummeting towards the volcano, Nanaki curled himself into a ball to reduce his surface area, hoping to fall faster and simply roll out of the landing and spring into a run. Once he landed, he would be relying on his quadrapedal advantage over the quick drifter to eat up the ground faster and make the top first. For his part, Arnaud spread himself out, trying to increase his surface area and slow his fall. It seemed like an odd tactic at first, letting his opponent get a head start at him, but his reasons for this made sense in only a few moments. As Nanaki hurdled past him, Arnaud prepared a single spell, and waited for the right moment to cast it. Just before the red wolf-critter hit the ground, the drifter threw down a Hyper spell...on Red XIII and teh section of ground he was about to impact. With the added oomph of Hyper, Nanaki hit the ground with an insanely powerful impact, nearly breaking every bone in the poor creature's body and leaving him in a state that best resembled roadkill. Seeing his plan succeed so well, Arnaud threw down a series of Slow Down spells to pass through on his decent, and landed rather lightly. Without even taking a moment to gloat(he had nothing personal against Nanaki, after all), the canny drifter had a casual stroll up the volcano, and enjoyed the benefits of a full healing as well as a nice few hour break while the ever-determined Red crawled and fought his way up the volcano, finally, after nearly dieing a dozen or more times on the way up, reaching the top. Where he promptly got Hi-Blasted and dropped before he could so much as sigh in relief at making it up. Despite his valiant effort, it seemed that once again ferocity and perseverance were just no match for a Razor Sharp Intellect. Nanaki: 32 CLOUD
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