610/Honor Duel for HONOR!

Honor Duel for HONOR!
Date of Scene:	18 October 2023
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Hannah and Chrono have a duel... but... not all is as it seems and the concept of honor might... not... be as present as was originally believed. Chrono tries to put her on ice, while Hannah tries to drag him back to earth.
Cast of Characters:	Chrono Harlaown, Hannah Steiner

---

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown was ready. He was seemingly in meditation, outside and away from the city. Since, well... Belkan. There was no telling what kind of destruction she'd cause. Also, it meant less people would be... disturbed by the barrier.

Also, because Belkan. He, meanwhile, was bracing himself for what was to come. An honor duel. For his honor. No, not just his honor.

For his family's photo album. DAMN IT HANNAH!

And he was in meditation, in henshin, sitting on a rock, legs crossed, doing slow, gentle breathing exercises. He'd sent the location and the time... now he just needed to know if she'd show.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah, of course, is right on time. There's this.../sound/ as a blonde armored figure crashes down into the dueling area, blade already drawn, and a grin on her face as she lands with a dramatic float that has her cape fluttering behind her!

"HERR HARLAOWN! Mein great FREUND!" Comes Hannah with nothing but excitement in her voice! Such /enthusiasm/. And volume. Lots of Space German volume that is quite the obstacle to staying peaceful. It's like getting punched in the face with outgoingness.

"I, Countess Palatine-Apparent Hannah Emilia-Lina Araki-Steiner the XIVth, am here to meet your righteous und honorable challenge at the appointed hour! Are you ready!? Shall we begin und bare our blades und hearts in this most holy of rituals, our pride on the line as well as thsoe adorable baby pictures!?" She does a Duelist's salute, ever the drama queen.

"May the Sankt Kaiser witness our deeds, to the victor go glory und the loser grace und honor in defeat, one's honor maintained!" She does not lower her voice even as she takes on that pious mien!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown just sighed. Oh. He could FEEL the meteor that was House Steiner's heir crashing into his enery with all the force and grace of a drunken orbital body that had been launched from its home planet.

He got to his feet slowly as she... explodinated gushing enthusiasm at him, keeping his face a calm, firm, steady mask of indifference. His eyes leveled on her.

Until she mentioned the baby pictures. And she'd see his eyes twitch. The corners of his mouth move a little. Eyes narrowing slowly on her. He lifted up his device, S2U, the rod aimed at her. "I will hold no mercy on you, belkan. As a representative of the midchildian's, I cannot allow myself to be defeated by any belkan." Then, slowly, a small smile formed on his lips. "Even if you are a talented meister, that will earn you no mercy here. I am sure the Sankt Kaiser will forgive you for losing to a superior mage. Because I *cannot* allow myself to lose on this battle." He flew up, hovering about ten feet in the air and looking down at her. The wind blowing, making his suit billow slightly. "I would ask if there were any special mercies you wished for in this..." He held up his device and the world shifted around them, a barrier forming.

"But I imagine the last thing you would desire, Hannah of House Steiner, is mercy of any kind."

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah outright /laughs/ as Chrono proudly speaks his superiority! She looks happy as a peach! "Well of course not? If we do not come at each other with all our might, then how shall we prove whom is superior, hmmm!? No mercy! I want your EVERYTHING und I shall give the same mein freund!" Comes the young woman happily!

She takes up her blade, and points it directly at Chrono!

"Now then, have at you! On your bewachen!"

After a quick Area Search to inload the local terrtain data and Chrono's location into her brain? Hannah leaps forward, her blade held high!
<Fluss: Anlocken> Comes her Device!

A minor gravity well appears just below Chrono's feet, trying to drag him towards the ground, or at least, keep him in place! Then she lashes out with a /hard/ sword blow, aiming for the young man's neck!

She has the anti-murder property turned on in Blauer Greif, of course, but she's certainly being vicious in her strike!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown didn't move. Though the moment she called 'bewachen', he moved. While she did the area search and the gravity well... He was weaving spells of his own. Standard cowardly midchildian magic. Lacing traps throughout the battlefield, simple binds to stop, delay and trap her. Worse, they were delayed ones, harder to detect, and his specialty.

The same kind that snagged her when she went for the book.

... The same ones she countered with, ahem, strategic percusive skull collissions.

However, soon both the fields were set. He moved his device down, aiming it below and forming a small shield beneath his feet. Halting his fall, and grinning down at her. Oh, it wasn't going to be that easy, it seemed. Remaining in the air and making her come to him!

Of course, when she did... the moment she was within a few feet...The shield broke and he *dropped* like a pebble, shooting at the ground and launching himself away.

Except, as he went? He left a new, fresh delayed binding, trying to make her run INTO it. And while he fell, holding his rod down (up technically?) towards her.

            <Stinger Blade!>

A more powerful assault than he normally unleashed, against her? Worth. Four blades appeared below him... spun through the air once, then three lanced up at her.

The fourth went down, towards the center of the gravity well, attempting to blast it away before he hit the ground.

Despite his words to the contrary... he knew this was going to be a difficult battle. She was a gravity mage and a meister. His specialty was temperature control and binds, but primarily as an AERIAL mage. Fighting someone who could alter gravity itself was... definitely not something he was the best at.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Slice! Through the air goes that blade as Chrono drops like a rock, the young woman grinning! Really, Chrono is so inventive, and despite how much she teases about it? She can't help but admire his tactical acumen. Hannah...isn't really a tactics person outside of finance. She's more the brute force kind with a degree in gravity heckery. And so as those blades come for her?

Well she's not going to waste magic by saving her gravity well, letting it get smashed out of existance. The three remaining ones rush towards her. The first one is met by her sword, the Countess-Knight parrying it aside, the thing slamming into the ground and exploding in a crater. A grin. The second is met by a hand that comes up, her Device's sheath floating aside her.

<Turmschild>

A large shield appears, affixed to her free hand, a magical tower shield that takes the first with a visible crack. Hannah whistles, knowing that she doesn't want blowback, and not entirely sure if her shield will hold on the second. Dismissing it, she simply spins about, the final Stinger Blade missing her cheek by the smallest of margins.

A few beautiful blonde hairs drift off, and she lets out a pleased sigh of pure bliss. This is the kind of combat she /exalts/ in!

"By the Sankt, you ARE good!" She praises openly.

"But let us see if you can overcome the might und pedigree of House Steiner!" She challenges, even as she works up her next attack!

<Fluss: Fluss: Erhöhen>

She leaps up, trying to outrange Chrono with a truly titantic jump from her powerful legs, assisted by some gravity manipulation. She grabs her sheath, angling herself down and /rushing/ towards the young man as she suddenly chains the two together. Her own gravity field grows, and tries to link with Chorno's own, a tether trying to bring them together. Violently.

And worst of all, it tries to wrap around his arm, too, an invisible gravitic chain trying to gum up his ability to move that staff of his!

Sheath tries to crack him in the knees, while her blade goes for the stomach!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown did a loose L turn once the gravity well was destroyed, still facing her but flying backwards horizontally along the ground, not abandoning his momentum for a moment. Parry. Shield. Dodge. He expected her to try to shield the third one. There were mere fractions of a second between each blade, yet she had masterfully switched her defenses for each one, her defenses flowing like water itself. He would have been proud to have her as a midchildian mage, let alone a belkan.

"I've been trained by the best and sharpened my teeth against the greatest," Chrono said. "And now I find myself challenged by the worthy." Praise of his own, if an arrogant style of it.

And then, gravity again. He found his momentum dulling as he was pulled towards her. He tried to resist, but it was too much... and...

Instead, he flipped his style in a moment. Within a few feet from her, rather than trying to escape, he reversed direction and instead LAUNCHED himself at her. He gripped his staff in BOTH hands, shifting his body horizontally so he dove at her. The sheath swinging harmlessly beneath him and his rod slamming into her blade. The sound of magical blade grinding against the midchildian metal of the rod filling the air.

Inches from her, his free hand slammed out to... He tried... to slap her? Although, if it struck her cheek? She'd hear that spell moments before a bind spell tried to go off.

            <Break Impulse!>

Parrying her blade with his rod, in order to attempt a close range bind on her, and give him a few seconds for his break impulse to gather power and launch her. A dangerous, reckless attack. As if the bind didn't hold, then she'd easily be able to pull back in the warmup for the break impulse. But if she didn't manage to escape, the power from such a strike could... well... it wouldn't be enough to win. But it would, hopefully, force some distance between them. Gravity well or not.

Unfortunately, it was a gamble. As his device now had a small notch cut into it from her belkan blade. HE was a multi-facetted fighter who used a wide range of maneuvers... but his device was still a midchildian device. It wasn't reinforced for martial fighting.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Smiiiirk! "Hah! Then let me sharpen your teeth to mere bloody points, mein dear Enforcer! Allow me to show you just how worthy I....KARK!" All her own bluster in response is a bit shattered by Chrono's strike! A slap to the face...

"What are you doing!?" comes Hannah, absolutely /beside/ herself at the breach of protocol. She...alright, she forgives him. He's a Mid Childan. He doesn't know proper society. But it still stings!

"You slap BEFORE the d..."

<Break Impulse>

....Oh.

The bind works! She really, /really/ hates binding attacks, despite knowing one herself! She struggles, squirms, and then with an audible /flex/ of muscles? It /snaps/ as she puts all her efforts into it! Just in time for there to be a pico-second before that blast goes off.

<Fluss: Anlocken>

And what does she do? With her Device's help and a little /hiss/ from Lyra? A wall of hard gravity appears behind her. She's SLAMMED into it, left coughing and losing her hat as her Knight Armor shudders, but holds. It /hurts/! Chrono is powerful, and he proves it. She very nearly blacks out for a second after her own desperate gamble to not get blown away. Which for the most part succeeds as she pays for it in getting smashed between Break Impulse and her own spell, that worrying lack of regard for her own health surfacing once more.

And then, she just howls, pushing off of it with a two-handed sword-strike aimed straight for Chrono's middle, horizontally! No subtlety, just a Belkan with skill and training and a whole lot of 'her brain rattling in her headcage' strength lashing out at her opponent!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown just smiled at her. That calm, infuriating smile of a midchildian who knew what he was doing. And how he was doing it. And had everything under control.

And it only got maaaaaaybe a tiny, itty bit bigger the moment she realized 'wait, oh no'.

And seeing her get blasted back was satisfying.

Then she only goes back a short distance and hits a wall. His eyes go wide, first with confusion, then alarm. Then worry. "Hannah?" he asked, his voice filled with concern. Not just concern. Worry. Who would do something so foolish? So reckless? Who would--

OH LAWD SHE COMIN!

He had barely enough time to hold his rod out and form a shield... and...

It held.

His flight spell, on the other hand? It didn't. He was sent FLYING by the blow, rocketing away from her like a tiny black missile. Spinning and flying through the air, he struggled to regain his control, and...

BAMF!

She'd see a tree shake in the distance. Followed by a groan. And then... laughter. A moment later, Chrono rose back into the sky... bruised, battered, covered in leaves and... and some berries splattered across his uniform. However, he chuckled, his eyes narrowing on her. Slowly he stretched his head to the left and then the right. "You... heir to the Steiner name... do the belkan name much justice."

He held out his staff towards her. A magic circle formed under his feet before he took a small, deep breath. In... and out... in... and out...

"It has been... a long time since I used this spell..." he said gently. "Please... don't mind the windup..." And then a second and third seal forming under him...

Okay, so maybe he took 'being launched like a rock bouncing across a lake and then slamming into a tree' a bit personally.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
As soon as she floated back down to the ground? And her brain started to once more swarm back to vague normality from their clash? She took pleasure in their meeting and how /far/ she had flung him. In fact, a second Area Search was required to find him, but her voice certainly rings out!

"I...should certainly hope so! In the name of mein House, I shall strive for martial perfection, honor, und deigning to living up to the legacies of those left to me! Should I do otherwise, may She Upon the Cradle strike me from this und any other world!" Her words weren't just fervant or zealous, but outright /desperate/! An outpouring of emotion from the clash, Belkan Honesty coming out when a blade is up!

Once more, it was /not/ a healthy statement from such a young heiress.

A flick of her hair, and her locks fluttered out behind her. A laugh, and a nod!

No, she didn't bother trying to interrupt whatever chaos Chrono was planning. She simply raised her own hand, and did similarly. She could appreciate putting in your all, and clearly planned to do the same!

"Do as you will, mein freund." Came Hannah warmly, even as suddenly the whole world seemed to just /tilt/!

"I am the center of gravity!" She proclaimed fiercely!

Fluss: Akkretion>

Everything fisheyed as she called forth the purest, most elemental expression of gravity to her waiting hand. Pumping magic into it with gritted teeth, wave after wave of overlapping gravitic catastrophy wrapped itself into a tightening sphere no bigger than her own hand. It shuddered with every new effort, Hannah visibly sweating as she worked such a masterful spell, and soon weaved a gravity-chain around her own arm and shoulder to stop the two from departing as her very muscles creaked from such an action!

A reckless, powerful spell, wrought from someone given the best tutors and an /old/ Device that matched with her perfectly.

Lyra hissed out in fear, as if to call her owner back to better sense. She even started to leap out to stop her, just as that poor, battered tree was sucked into Hannah's vortex of pain.

A shudder from the young woman, and then? She stabbed her blade into that tree, before she launched herself at Chrono!

The tree went first, a giant log of pure /mass/ that she kicked at him to hopefully absorb whatever Sanktkaiserless sorcery he was cooking up.

And then she tried to simply punch him in the chest with a gravitic sphere that was already trying to unravel and lash out at /both/ of them. Promptly, it exploded, and Lyra ducked down as she was shoved back by the pure power of her owner's attack with claws ravaging the ground the whole way!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown looked amused... until she said that. It wasn't the words. It was the desperation. The need. The hurt. And for the first time since he met her... he felt like he truly saw her. His breathing stopped.

She may not have been trying to stop whatever chaos he was sowing, but she'd done it none the less. She'd see the magic circles beneath him go still, no longer rotating... And his head lower slightly, the face cloaked in shadows.

How long had she been on this planet? ... She knew the situation, didn't she? She'd come here. She'd...

She was in denial, wasn't she? And he wondered how he could help her? How could he...

Could he help her?

The tree was coming at him. If he wanted to help her... he needed to beat her, didn't he? She was throwing herself at him with the fervor of one who didn't care for their very life. One who only cared...

Who had nothing left to lose. How he had felt. How he had...

            <Subzero Boundary!>

He held out his staff and ice washed over them. The tree... was frozen in place. Then it shattered, the kinetic force of it going forward broken by the sudden *stop* of the ice holding it in place. The ice, however, wasn't stopping there. The air around them seemed to freeze, shards of ice forming around them... then washing over Hannah.

No. Not Hannah. It washed over her *attack*. For a moment, the ice enveloped the orb... then washed over Hannah. The explosion tore open...

And the explosion was catastrophic. Hannah could see it... and likely feel herself being pushed back by it. But she'd also likely realize that the ice over her?

It was *shielding* her from the blowback of her own strike. It couldn't stop the blast. But it could dampen it. Of course. He was a temperature control mage. He would know an attack for 'binding' something in more than just a magical bind manner.

However... when she was free from it, she'd also likely realize... he wasn't there anymore.

It might even take her a minute to realize where he was. Primarily due to the massive path gouged into the ground below, where the force of the blow had sent him cratering into the ground below... and he kept going. Having taken out a tree or two on the way, he now laid there, at the bottom of what almost looked like a meteor impact zone. His suit torn and beaten. His device almost snapped in half. Rasping, covered in ice...

He'd overestimated himself. Or underestimated her. He thought he could shield them both. He was wrong. He'd maybe been able to dampen it... but...

"I... yield..." he managed to rasp out.

He'd failed. Not in the duel. He'd failed to see the pain of his ally. He'd failed to help them. He'd failed to offer them the aid they required...

No, losing the duel was just... the least amount of how he had failed.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Sightless eyes went wide! She felt herself being wrapped up in that pure /coldness/ that Chrono was so adept in. Her very skin shuddered from the act, she felt as if her very self was made of frostburn! Her cry was made of frustration and the unusual feeling of that creeping power of ice! Born on a planet that was temperate even at it's poles? Truly, Chrono makes her cry out even as he shielded her from both of their consequences!

She ripped away the frosty flakes from her eyebrows, and re-engaged an Area Search. He was so far away. And as her Device inloaded the data?

Her Knight Armor was tattered, but not so much as she expected. Slowly, she replayed the last few moments in her mind, and everything hit her at once.

By the Sankt, he'd /helped/ her!

She wiped the crystals from her cheeks, and walked right up to the young man that deigned to yield!

And then, with the gentlest of touches, bapped him in the cheek with a knuckle. Because despite Belkan protocol, she couldn't find it in herself to slap him for how the Duel turned out.

"You...!!!" He yielded. And yet, she couldn't feel victory in it. Slowly, her gaze softened. And then a smile came upon her.

"...Perhaps you have lost the Duel of blades, herr Harlaown. But should any dare say that you have not won a Duel of Honor? They shall face the full force of the House of Steiner." Suddenly, she shrugged.

"Come. You've claimed the foremost Honor." She added in a whisper, as she reached down to haul the young man in her arms, ready to offer him to the gentle mercies of the school nurse, and her own experties as a Meister!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown gave a light sigh, before shaking his head. "No, I haven't." He pushed her hands away and then, slowly, he got to his feet. Using his device as leverage, he gazed up at her.

And that wasn't a gentle, happy, or kind look. He looked *furious*. And he wasn't exactly the kind of person to show his emotions. "You damn, stupid *fool*," Chrono snapped. "This was no 'honor' duel. There was NO honor in this duel in the slightest. I thought I was facing Hannah, heir of House Steiner. A future monarch."

"I was fighting Hannah, child of the belkans. A borderline suicidal, traumatized brat. Worst of all? I failed to notice until it was almost too late. You'd have happily died out there, wouldn't you?" he asked. "You'd have sacrificed your body, your life, just so you could go out in a glorious fashion. So you could be 'worthy'." He started to lift an arm up to point at her... then let out a hiss of pain, clutching the arm. Was... it broken? At least sprained.

"... Your parents are dead, Hannah. You're trapped on this planet. And you honor *nobody* by throwing your life away into reckless abandon. Least of all them. The midchildian and the belkans are allies and I will treat you as such." He had to switch his staff to his other arm, his primary one moving to lay limp at his side. He held the tip to her nose, pointing it up at her.

"And as an ally who is *unfit for combat duty*, I will treat you as such. Get help. I don't care if it's your girlfriend, a therapist, your familiar, or whoever you can find. Until then, I'm done fighting against you... or with you."

The worst part? Might be if she realizes that fury in his voice, the anger? It's... not... directed at her. It's directed at him. For failing to notice the pain she was in. For accepting this duel. Then again, his words were... harsh. Cold. Even unfeeling. Worse, he then turned his back on her, the barrier collapsing... and tried to limp away on his own.

Hannah Steiner has posed:
Hannah's mouth worked silently. Chrono's words hit her straight in the head, and she tried to deny them. Try to say he was just a Mid Childan coward who didn't know what he was talking about! But then he dug the knife. Her family. Her honor. Her /everything/ that had made her rush to this black hole of a planet, and drown herself in the inevitability of losing her own magic. All through one single desire.

REVENGE

He started to limp away. She couldn't find it in herself to /deny/ the truth he was spitting at her. Shame filled her. She nearly toppled to her knees, only spared by Lyra as she helped keep her owner up.

"Kark off you Sankt Kaiserless heathen! We are not /trapped/! We shall..." She didn't deny it. Deep in her heart, she felt so /inferior/ to her parents. Like a brat. And as her Linker Core shivered from so much exertion?

She knew he was right, that she needed /help/. But sadly pride ripped out from her being. And suddenly she was vaguely limping towards him, only for her gravitic magic to sliiiide herself towards him.

Suddenly an entire /picture album/ was slapped into his chest with sheer disdain!

She knew someone who was lashing out and aiming into one's heart.

"Get karked. Take your winnings, Mid Childan. You...Whether you consider me ally or not, I do not care! Let us both not sink further into ignominy..." She snarled out, and simply tried to haul Chrono into her arms, still shivering with ice, before using her last bursts of magic to gravitic-slide them both towards healing.

Truly, this was the grumpiest Belkan alive! She had to admit Chrono was vaguely...

Right!

Chrono Harlaown has posed:
Chrono Harlaown blinked and took the book. And... he then sighed. Perhaps he'd been too harsh. Perhaps he'd... been too much. He yelped when he was picked up... being... tiny made that not as hard as it might have been. He did, however, store the book away because oh gosh he was NEVER letting that out.

The stoic, tiny enforcer giving a squeak. Cheeks burning...

And he'd fight tooth and nail to NOT be carried like this once other people were around. But for now? He was exhausted...

But he had one last thing to say.

"I miss my parents too," Chrono said softly. "And I'm scared of being trapped here as well. But... even if I am... it doesn't give me permission to give up or destroy myself."

"... They didn't make the sacrifices they made so their son could get himself killed. And I'm sure your parents didn't do that so their daughter could too. I have to take care of myself to honor them... just as you need to for them."

Yup. Boy had NO chill. Aside from the ice.