Season 25, Week 4
Shion Uzuki
(Xenosaga Series)
 
Her whine cutting through the air and her clothes confounding everyone around her, Shion is a deadly fighter indeed. Though she won't have access to her hooker-bot in this battle, the Vector scientist does have a Fury that is to be feared. With her healing magic and modernized summons, Shion has both the power and durability to outslug the aging Strago. Or she could just duel in her own streetwalker inspired Xenosaga 3 costume, causing the old fuddy-duddy to keel over at the sight of a whippersnapper in such crazy clothing.

V

S

Blue magic's running wild over Middle! Strago Magus is pumped up and ready to go, to strike down a foul evildoer. Well.. okay, maybe not evil, but certainly a young woman with no sense of taste or respect for decency. This old fuddy duddy from Thamasa's got the perfect solution for a sour puss like Shion: Sour Mouth. A whole lot of status that Shion can't block will certainly teach the young woman a bit about how she should act, giving Strago an easy win.


Lurking Registered User
Shion almost had it in the bag: She had decent damage and a frail old mage as an opponent. One or two hits were all it would have taken to flatten Strago and go on to the finals... Except:

"Funny, isn't it?" remarked Strago as Shion began to take aim with her anti-Gnosis weapon. He continued by casting Dischord on himself, halving his level. Shion, ever the scientist, let her curiosity get the better of her, and lowered the weapon a bit so she could converse more easily. After all, he was inexplicably weakening himself, and she still had a gun.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, like how the way this tournament is set up can give contestants who have no chance at winning normally get a break." clarified the Thamasan mage, casting Dischord on himself again as he expounded.

"Oh, like anyone fighting, say, Squall?" replied Shion, now really interested in Strago's hypothesis and strange actions.

"Exactly my point. And as you know, contestants are given statistics commesurate with an average level upon defeating their worst enemy, such as Kefka or Albedo. But to make things easy, they tend to set things up with such nice, round numbers. Y'know, multiples of 10, that kind of thing."

"Uh, right..." replied Shion, not at all sure where this was going.

"Well," continued Strago, continuing his dramatic gesturing, "my point really is this: Lvl. 5 Death!"

Strago grinned. Being level 12.5 had its advantages...

Shion Uzuki: 45
Strago Magus: 60

Tide
I can think of many reasons why I wouldn't want to be Shion.

Below average durability, heavy reliance on ethers, low attack power, terrible fashion sense, annoying, dimwitted, rude...

And after this week, I can think of a dozen more as Strago smites her soundly with one use of Sour Breath.

Lance
What's this? Strago actually manages to make it past the Semi-finals? Hooray! The curse is broken!