"You got it. Count us in, Phoebe?"

"Three, two, one, GO!"

Kay explodes into motion, springing backward and tossing a handful of steel balls into the air. She launches them forward at Bys like shots from a rifle, and sweeps her left hand at the ground.

Charge. Don't dodge just charge. The computation orb can take a couple hits at a time, a blaring noise and grid of light appearing as the attacks are deflected.

Shit, she needs to overwhelm that shield if she's going to stop this girl. She completes the hand-sweep, hauling a wave of water up to wash Bys from her feet, then pulls out two handfuls of bullets, readying them to launch.

She reacts without thinking, starting the transformation to a longer, tougher dragonbeast form and trying to push through the water that way.

The wave batters at her shield, keeping the pressure up, and then a shotgun blast of twenty steel bullets burst across the distance in an earsplitting crack.

The shield catches the first two and slows down the next two.

The rest batter her hard. The dragonbeast form is tough, yes. But not enough to just ignore that. They crack scales and dig into joints and one takes a chunk off her horn.

It hurts. A lot. She screams/roars.

It's really hard to keep a clear head through disorientation and pain. So it takes her a moment, but she's through the wave now, mostly, and uses a cone of ice in Kay's general direction and then tries to go with her original plan of summoning the hammer for a surprising blow - detransforming at the same time, she's at least gotten decent at thst.

Kay charges forward, bulling through the ice and counting for her Garment-turned-gambeson to insulate her from the freezing chill building up on the plates of her armor. She lunges into a powerful uppercut, enhancing the blow with her Metallurgy, not quite noticing the materializing hammer through the cloud of ice crashing over her.

This giant hammer is weightless in her hands. She swings with all her strength anyway. Down. From overhead.

The armored fist that still hits just after her own blow knocks her back again, and hurts more, and shes getting pretty pissed off, and her hammer is falling to the ground with an enormous thud a few feet away.

The hammer rings Kay like a bell, clanging through her helm and only barely not concussing her. She only manages to keep the uppercut on track through momentum and magically puppeting her gauntlet.

She stumbles backward, not sure if the ringing is in her ears or from her helmet. She sweeps her left hand up her right arm, levels it at the draconic girl. Six steel spikes form in her upraised palm, the steel of her gauntlet peeling up and reforging into ammunition. It sweeps in an arc, left to right, as the spikes launch — elbow-bicep-shoulder-shoulder-bicep-elbow. 

She-

She- Lunges forward with all her strength despite the pain. The frustration and pointlessness and throwing her life away for fucking magic drives her to furious half-insane action, advancing and spitting ice despite the accumulating damage.

Damn, this girl doesn't quit. Kay dives to the side into a roll. She sweeps her hands as she springs back up, pulling an enormous wave to bash into Bys from behind.

She gets caught up in the wave and flung. Tries to stand up again but it's not happening. The anger of a few moments ago feels ... Tired now.

"Yield. Yield! Ugh." And she starts coughing.

Kay slumps, then starts laughing as she walks over to Bys.

Phoebe gestures sharply, and the arena resets, water vanishing back into the pond, Kay's armor resetting to its original condition, and Bys's injuries disappearing.

Kay holds out a hand to Bys to help her up.

"Girl, that's the best fight I've ever had from a newbie," she says as her cackling dies down. "That was better than some people I fought in the last tourney."

"Haaaaah. Still lost. I swear I had a really cool line but I can't remember it." She groans and, eventually, accepts the help and stands up. "That was intense."

"Yeah, it was. That was a hell of a hit with your hammer. I'm impressed. And good job summoning it behind the cover of your ice breath. Caught me off guard there."

"She shouldn't have been able to surprise you with that, Kay," Phoebe says as she floats down from the stands on her broom. "I've told you to be more careful."

"Yeah, yeah. You're right, Phoebs." She kisses the other girl on the cheek when she gets close enough.

Phoebe blushes shyly, then says, "Seriously well done, though, newbie. Usually nobody gives Kay a good fight before they've been here at least a whole cycle."

"I'm glad. Maybe I have the instinct for it. Dravir and all. I have no idea how any of this works, though... I mean. I know bits and pieces by now but it feels like a whole 'nother world. Because it is."

"You'll get there." She dismisses her armor and turns her Garment back into a bikini top and a red skirt, then conjures her Hat and reaches in for a few sports drinks, tossing one to Phoebe before offering another to Bys. "What would you do different, looking back on this fight?"