Hot Rocks (R, NDE)

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Thread Title: Hot Rocks
Participants: Yetsuna, Kaen
World: Soul Society
Death Setting: Non Death Enabled
Rating: R
Location: Generic Training ground, 200 foot diamater flat and clear area for shinigami to fight in. Squad 4 off in the corner to treat injuries. Nothing really special about this place.
Special Conditions: Zip, Zero, Nadda
Circumstances: As the new VC of Squad 3, Alex thought it would be a good idea to send his underling to train with one of the more prestigious vice captains, Kaen. Yetsuna doesn't know too much about him besides the fact hes a fairly brutal fighter and his power has something to do with fire. Kaen would likely know just as much about her as she does him.

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Yetsuna, the former green haired woman, sat leaning against her great sword-style zanpaktou in the middle of the ring waiting for her opponent. It felt kind of weird being ordered to fight someone to train with, she normally hunted down her own partners and fought them on a whim, this just awkward to her. Despite the feelings she had no objections, she always enjoyed a good fight and apparently her opponent today was almost legendary status in terms of his combat prowess as vice captain, some rumors even said he could take down a lower level captain if her actually tried.

She had two feelings on that rumor. The first was that this guy sounds like a GREAT challenge for her skills, the other was that she had a feeling that she wasn't gonna be getting away from this fight without a half dozen broken ribs, singed hair, and a few burns. Despite his reputation Yetsuna knew very little about Kaen, she knew that his power had something to do with fire, but not much beyond that. Her gut hunch was that he was a elementalist like she was, he made whatever element he used and could shape it as her desired, just like almost every other elementalist, including herself.

Even though his power, assuming she was right, was straight forward, it didn't make it entirely predictable. Knowing what someone CAN do doesn't mean you automatically know all the tricks up their sleeves, like Yetsuna had a few of her own that most people wouldn't be able to guess just based on her powers. The little bit of knowledge she had wouldn't really matter too much though, chances were Kaen knew just as much about her as she did him.

She opened her eyes a took a glance around the training area. A sizable crowd had actually turned out, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Whenever Yetsuna fought she normally drew a small crowd of people who wanted to ogle her, more so lately with her wardrobe change, but this time she had a feeling it had more to do with who she was fighting. It wasn't everyday two vice captains clashed, so such a odd occurrence was something a lot of people were probably going to wanna see.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Stats}
Type: Perma Release level 2
Shikai Class: 3

Strength: 250
Speed: 200
Spiritual Pressure: (400 x 2) 800
Reiatsu Strength: 50
Light Aura: 80
Dark Aura: 20
Instinct: 150
Senses: 100
Energy Sensory: 50
Healing Expertise: 0

SKP: 11/16 (7/8)
Pain Tolerance - 2
Martial Arts: Muay Thai - 1
Strength of Will - 2
Weapons: Swords - 2
Damage Recovery - 2
Battle Analysis - 2

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen was running late. But despite this, the shinigami approached the soon-to-be battlefield with all the haste and vigor of a particularly sleepy tortoise. He'd garbed himself up in his battle gear all the same. While he'd left the flame stetson at home ('twas a lovely gift that he didn't like getting damaged in mere sparring matches), he was wearing a chainmail vest hidden beneath his shinigami uniform and his Esteemed Hammer hanging from his belt. His zanpakuto, a short sword, was strapped to his back. The sleeves of his uniform had been torn off, and the leggings of the uniform fit less loosely than many other shinigami. It was a customized uniform to be sure, though not nearly as different as some shinigami opted for. The emblem of a flame was emblazoned on the back of his uniform, the symbol of Kaen's family, and the only clue one would get from looking at him, that Kaen hailed from nobler routes than most. Besides that, Kaen had a sleepy look about him, even yawning as he arrived on the battlefield some ten minutes later. His hair was a mess, and he was carelessly rubbing sleep out of his eyes, as though he'd just been awoken from a nap. A cross-shaped scar was visible on the shinigami's cheek, as he took his place opposite of Yetsuna.

Finally finished rubbing sleep from them, Kaen focused his eyes on his opponent today, revealing startlingly blue irises. Sky blue was an apt word to describe them, as they were a bright azure in color. Full of an energy and intensity that did not belie his labored appearance. He noticed a crowd had formed around their site. "Geeze... shoulda come earlier. Maybe coulda wrapped this up before people got here." He noted before looking at Yetsuna, seemingly sizing her up. "So, you're Miss Yetsuna? Pleasure to meet you." He remarked. Despite his lazy demeanor Kaen was picking up what he could from her. The great sword indicated a preference towards physical strength. A power fighter perhaps? Kaen had met enough power fighters lately, to recognize though, that powerful rarely meant slow. Kimiko and Kubi had both managed to find a potent balance between strength and speed, and although neither of them had been quicker than Kaen, they had still been fast enough to pose problems. And besides. This was a Vice Captain he was facing. The same rank that Kaen had. Underestimating an opponent was a fatal flaw some of Kaen's contemporaries had, that he tried his earnest to avoid. Her outfit was.... revealing, to say the least. Armor in all the wrong places, and highly reminiscent of that female video game armor, many feminists in the Human World criticized (though Kaen was relatively unfamiliar with video games and wouldn't make the comparison). That said, he supposed he approved of the mobility provided. Besides if you were strong enough, you could really get away with wearing whatever the hell you wanted to. And he supposed it was provocative enough to unnerve opponents who weren't used to seeing the bare skin of a woman. Fortunately, after a century of combat training, that sort of thing didn't get to Kaen. At least not in a fight (out of a fight may be a different story). Even Kimiko had all but stripped down during their battle without it necessarily fazing Kaen. But that didn't mean it went unnoticed. No, much to Kaen's chagrin, it most definitely did not go unnoticed.

"That outfit is divine! Perhaps you should ask this one out for lunch later too! Or at least ask her to tie her laces!" Sigh. "Gramps, if you keep this up, at this rate I'm going to have to stop training women. You've done this EVERY TIME." "And you've taken them out to lunch every time too~" "THAT IS IRRELEVANT! .....I swear.... I am gonna kick your ass all across that desert you call a home if you distract me in this fight. I am trying to look professional here!" ...... "If you're trying to look professional then why do you look like you just got out of bed?" "........" "Maybe you can invite her back to bed with you after?" "Alright that's it. I'm going dragon slaying when we're done here." Gritting his teeth, Kaen turned his focus back to Yetsuna in the real world, and pulled away from his argument with his Zanpakuto.

"Seems I'm late. Sorry 'bout that. If you like we can get started as soon as you want." Kaen said, taking a moment to survey the battlefield.It was a flat plain. No obstacles to fight on. Not even sand, like his recent bout with Kimiko, which he still heard the odd whisper regarding, behind his back. Nothing to disrupt footing or mobility. It'd be a straight and clean fight, that was for sure. Kaen folded his arms in front of his chest and straightened his posture. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do. Being a Vice Captain at such a young age is pretty good." He remarked, though made no motion to begin his attack yet. That would have been rude. He had no qualms letting Yetsuna prepare herself and get in stance. "Anyways..." He began and turned his head slightly so that he cracked his neck one way, then the other. "I'm ready when you are. Try not to disappoint me." He taunted, with a mischievous grin. Kaen was rarely one who was much for talking before a fight. Chatting could be done after a battle, when there was something to talk about. At least with other people this strong. Besides, fighting would help wake the Squad 7 Vice Captain up a bit, he seemed a little drowsy still.....

SPOILER: Click to show

{STATS AND ABILITIES}
•[Martial Art- Karate] {4}
•[Pain Tolerance] {3}
•[Martial Art-Jiujitsu] {3}
•[Analyzing] {2}
•Hakuda {3}
•Zanjutsu {1}
•Iaido {1}
Total: 18

[[Strength - 300 Points (600)
Speed - 375 Points (750)
Spiritual Pressure - 200 Points (150)
Reiatsu Strength - 400 Points
Light Aura - 45 Points
Dark Aura - 55 Points
Instinct- 175 Points
Senses- 100 Points
Energy sensory - 50 Points
Healing Expertise - 0 Points
Total: 1600 SP]

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Her opponent arrived while Yetsuna had her eyes closed and was relaxing, she had felt him coming from a decent distance away, but she was too comfortable and didn't care to open her eyes. Once he spoke though she'd open her eyes and looked at him and see fairly sleepy and lazy looking shinigami talking to her. Despite appearances his eyes betrayed him as someone with conviction and power, someone who was normally bored and relaxed, but once things got rolling he'd be right at home, though that was just a guess. She chuckled lightly at his formally, "Just class me Yetsuna, I'm guessing that you're Kaen?" she asked knowing the answer.

As she tried to verify his identity she would begin to rise to her feet, she could feel his eyes on her as he examined her attire, though she didn't exactly feel the sense of desire she got for most males when they did the same. She was kind of disappointed by that fact actually, she liked using her looks to mess with guys, seemed like she wasn't going to get the chance with him, oh well. He mentioned that he was ready to engage in combat as soon as she was, his timing almost perfectly matching up with he taking her sword out of the ground, "I don't plan to, but what's the rush? you got a hot date?" she teased as she slide her sword into its sheath.

After Kaen gave his response she'd have another question for him, though this one was a bit more realistic, "Mind if just skip to the interesting part and use our releases?" His devilish little smile as he got ready for combat wasn't lost on her, she had a feeling that he enjoyed fighting as much as she did, though this go round she had a feeling he was going to have more fun then she was. "Also any ground rules we should establish?" she didn't have any in her mind, but she didn't know if the other vice captain may have something so she was being polite.

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen gave a short nod the head. "That'd be me. Kaen Youji of Squad 7." He said with a cheerful, if a bit tired, grin, observing Yetsuna draw her sword. Her question regarding his hurry elicited a low chuckle out of the Vice Captain. "No, not presently, but I could be convinced~" He teased at her with a wry and appreciative little smile. He certainly acknowledged that Yetsuna was attractive to be sure, he just wasn't going to let it get in the way of the fight. "Well, I don't know the kind of person you are. Sometimes I get impatient folks, who hate waiting. So I always give the benefit of the doubt and assume they want to get started right away~" He said. "Besides, we seem to have attracted a crowd. They probably don't want us to just chit chat, right?" He commented, eyes flitting about the crowd that came to watch. Truthfully, Kaen didn't care THAT much about what the crowd thought. It was possible they wouldn't even get a show. Kaen had learned that Vice Captains came in all sorts of power tiers, though only a handful had ever forced him to actually release his Zanpakuto. Still, if Yetsuna was of the power level of Kubi, he doubted that the show would be much more than a savage beatdown. On the other hand, Kyousei and Kazuko had been formidable enough that it would be worth the watch. Either way. Waiting for the fight wouldn't change anything, for the purposes of spectators. But it was a good way to gauge Yetsuna as well. Did she care about the opinions of others?

Now Yetsuna asked him if he wanted to just skip ahead and release. Kaen looked at her thoughtfully. "Hmm... Appreciate the sentiment, but... No. If you want to release you're welcome to. Excuse me a bit of arrogance, but I want to see how far I can push myself without mine." Kaen stated. "Besides, my Zanpakuto isn't so great if I'm trying to avoid killing someone." He said. "I want to be certain you can handle it before I use it." He remembered Raygin in their match and nearly shuddered at the memory. Kaen had no qualms delivering devastation to his enemies. But to get so lost in the thrill of the fight that he had maimed an ally to such an extent... He had been sickened by his action in that battle for weeks thereafter. It had been that battle that had begun to mark his reluctance to use his release in fights. Besides. With the crowd around it could get dangerous for them. "As for ground rules? Common sense should dictate most of them, unless you've something in mind." He added. "Obviously I'm not gonna try to kill you or anything, and would hope the same for me. That said, while accidents might happen, I'm still going to fight hard, and I'll be counting on you to keep yourself from getting hurt too badly." He added. "I won't kill you, I won't try to maim you, but anything past that I can't guarantee. Hope that's fair enough." He warned her, stretching his back and hearing a few audible pops from his spine. "Aaahhh.... there we go.... Anyways. That work for you? Are you ready, Miss Yetsuna?" He asked, shifting his weight a bit into a more balanced stance, but otherwise making no move to draw his sword.

For Yetsuna that might be surprising. But Kaen was a hand to hand fighter. It was unknown how much research Yetsuna had done on Kaen prior to this fight. It was known throughout Squad 7 that in hand to hand martial arts he had almost no equals. He was fast and strong and tough. For someone as quick and hard to hit as he was, he could take a hell of a beating and dish just as savage a beating out as he took. Somewhat lesser known was that his Zanpakuto manipulated fire, and that he had defeated the former Captain and head of the Kawada House, Shade Kawada in single combat, without suffering a single wound. And a secret that almost nobody was aware of, was that Kaen had unlocked his Bankai. The pinnacle release of Shinigami, only a small handful in Soul Society knew of Kaen's ability to use Bankai, and most of them were dead or missing(though through no action of Kaen himself). Kaen had made a note to never employ his Bankai where watchful eyes could discern it, though he never outright denied possessing it, therefore while a handful of people knew of it, it was still not very well known at all that he possessed that frightful power. Kaen was fishing for reactions from Yetsuna to read what he could from her before the battle began. How much did Yetsuna know about Kaen's abilities?

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Yetsuna laughed at the man's response about having a hot date, "Oh you're a smooth one aren't you? Don't think I have noticed you eyeing me though, looking down my top when I was sitting. You're the one who will have to do some convincing for a date," she said teasingly. "You do have a point though, not a good idea to keep the crowd waiting," she continued, her tone shifting to one of sarcasm showing that she, like him, didn't really give a damn what the crowd thought, though she didn't really see a point in delaying the fight at all. They could chat when they actually had something to talk about.

The dirty blonde was actually quite surprised at Kaen's response not to release, even with his explanation she found it to be an interesting choice on his part. "I'll take you up on that offer, I'm a bit better off with my release then without," she said massively underselling how vulnerable she was to people of a similar power level without it, "And those rules are fine, just don't worry about me too much though, I think you'll be surprised how tough I can be," she said in a playful tone. Overall, based on Kaen's reputation, she didn't have too much personal hope of winning, but she could at the very least put up a hell of a fight.

Kaen took a fighter's pose and Yetsuna did the same, but just as she finished taking it up she flashed the black haired man a smile and simply said "Ishio." Immediately she slammed her fist into the ground sending fragments of earth outwards in all directions, but none of them got far, and none got close to hitting Kaen, before they froze in mid-air and reversed direction. All the chucks of earth converged on Yetsuna, covering her completely in stone, seemingly burying her alive, but after a moment a distinct crushing sound would come from the earth as it fell away into dust.

The female shinigami rose back up to her full height now fully clad in armor her shikai fully released. With a slashing motion in front of her she used her overall to materialize a earthen version of her sealed Zanpaktou in her right hand. From a distance it looked like a normal weapon rather then being made of earth and chances were slim that her opponent would be able to realize that the blade was a result of her powers instead of part of her release. She took up her fighting pose, left side facing the enemy, left arm extended outwards slight with the right arm behind her ready to strike, "So....who wants to go first?"

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen laughed at Yetsuna's retort. "Can't help but appreciate the finer things in life when you see them, right?" He continued to tease. He caught her tone though and gave a short nod to show he understood. "Alright then! Whenever you're ready." Yetsuna assured him that he would not have to worry about her much and Kaen gave a smile and nod. "That's good. I've had accidents with my sparring partners before. I don't want you to join them. Your face is far too pretty for that~" He joked as he lifted up his arms into what almost looked like a boxing guard. While deception did not play a huge factor in Kaen's fighting style, it was still useful in places. As a Karate and Jiujitsu specialist, Kaen could at least fake Yetsuna out on the martial art he intended to employ against her. He watched intently as Yetsuna released her Zanpakuto. Ishio. That was it's name. And from the look of things, it was not hard to guess its abilities. Or at least the general theme of them. Some shinigami, especially those of the elemental variety, had difficulty masking the properties of their release upon activation. Yetsuna's, based on her release, was unquestionably an Earth-element release. That armor also provided evidence to make an educated guess as to her abilities. Combined with her statement about being particularly tough, Kaen wagered that her abilities were probably defensive in nature. Of the four elemental abilities, Earth was best suited to a defensive power set. But how?

Kaen had fought another Earth user in the past. Kazuko. Another Vice Captain. He'd employed the natural defensive benefits of Earth while launching potent earth-related attacks. Until Kaen could gather further evidence he would assume that she was doing the same. Judging by her arm swing as well, generating that sword, it seemed likely that earth shaping was a prominent feature of her Zanpakuto, just like Fire Shaping was a prominent feature of Kaen's. As far as her armor was concerned.... Let's see. Probably is quite strong, I'll need to test out exactly how strong, but it's fairly likely I won't be able to just punch my way through it. Her head is exposed, but that could be a trap. Her sword is big, and her swings are going to be telegraphed with it. Her power set suggests a power fighter though. I don't know how fast she is though. I'll have to test that out. Kaen smiled at Yetsuna at her comment. "Oh please. After you. Ladies first and all that~" He told her, shifting his weight as he watched Yetsuna closely to analyze how she fought. "I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do."

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Yetsuna chuckled approvingly at the man's acknowledgement of how nice her breasts were. While it was kind of shallow of her the female shinigami took a great deal of pride in them, not too big not too small, firm, but still soft to the touch, she enjoyed showing them off where she could, there was a reason the neck line of her top was so low after all. After another exchange the man issued her another compliment, it was a cliche line without a doubt, but the way it was delivered was smooth as hell and that was something she liked. If the man kept this up he might not have to try too hard to convenience her to go on that date. With their little back and forth finally concluded the dirty blonde unsealed her blade and got ready for the fight.

She asked Kaen who would like to go first and he gave her the first move, though whether it was due to his chivalry like he claimed because he knew he could easily beat Yetsuna was a topic that was up for debate. Yetsuna pondered her options for a moment. She could try and play coy about her powers and try not to reveal too much until a good time came, but her release didn't leave too much to the imagination about what she could probably do. On the other hand she could go full power and try to catch the man off guard with overwhelming force, but she doubted that was going to work against such a seasoned opponent. She knew her chances of winning where in the "slim to none" range, with her best bet being to try to out smart rather then over power.

The female shinigami had two main tricks up her sleeve. The first was her ability to summon earth instead of just controlling it, this gave her a good way to surprise an opponent, but generally only once. The other was that the earth she uses is far stronger then the stuff she typically stood on, but even then it still had its limits and could be broken. She'd want to keep the former under wraps until the right moment, but the later might be useful if she played her first attack right. She smiled at Kaen and with a playfully sarcastic tone replied, "Awww, you're so sweet."

Just as she finished talking she expended 125 reaitsu to convert a 5x5x.5 foot area under into a powerful stone, like the kind she normally summons. Immediately the stone would jump up and grab a hold of his legs coating his lower leg, up to his knee, anchoring him into place. The stone could be broken if he was stronger enough (approx 400 strength), but even if he did break it the brief moment was all she needed. As the stone overtook his legs several large chunks of earth, about the size of a basket ball, would fly out of the ground and towards Kaen. Each projectile could easily be destroyed, natural earth wasn't very durable by spiritual standards, but even so each chuck carried 800 striking force which meant it was going to hurt. 

As the final part of her attack the dirty blonde would use a shunpo to step behind the man, her step finishing with her mid-swing to cut him from his right shoulder across to his left hip.

Reaitsu: 7875/8000
Shikai Class 3

[Kaen Youji]

Things were getting underway and Yetsuna was prepared to attack. Kaen briefly considered how the attack would come, but ultimately it was unimportant. He'd deal with it as it came. He was liking Yetsuna's company so far, but that was not going to stop him from focusing his efforts on defeating her. Yetsuna also seemed to be considering her options. She didn't take long, shooting off a quick one liner, in answer to Kaen's earlier tease before coming at him. Kaen felt the earth shift under him and grab hold of his legs. So that's her power is it? Geokinesis. The control of earth. This was not the first time Kaen had fought such an ability. The former Vice Captain of squad 9, Kazuko Shiba, had also been an Earth user in his shikai. Elemental Zanpakuto always made Kaen happy for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. Maybe it was simply that in this world where every other Shinigami or Arrancar had some abstract, manipulating ability, facing something as straightforward as control of earth was refreshing to see. From a glance though, it seemed Yetsuna had a greater control of earth than Kazuko had. Or perhaps she was merely more creative with it. He was sure he'd find out, but for the moment, it seemed she had taken no time in following up her attack-- launching several projectiles at Kaen.

But an instant before Yetsuna had launched her stone projectiles at Kaen, she had vanished. Shunpo. That was easy enough to read. It was a very effective plan that Yetsuna had thought up, its sole weakness being that it was also extremely predictable. True-- there were a myriad of angles Yetsuna could have attacked from. Left, right, above, behind. But really there weren't. Yetsuna's plan was to pincer attack Kaen between two points. A strong move. But this was a predictable strategy. Yetsuna was approaching this battle as fighting someone of comparable ability to her-- or so Kaen believed at least. That meant she wasn't going to settle for a simple bombardment. And what would Kaen had done in this scenario? He'd have followed up the barrage with an attack. Yetsuna's Shunpo said she was going to trap him with an attack from another angle while his legs couldn't move. So really, there was only one angle that maximized her chances of pulling that off. She was going to attack Kaen's back at the same time as her projectile attack hurtled towards Kaen. She was going to force Kaen to choose between the two moves. Kaen, for his part, intended to take a third option.

With his legs trapped, Kaen gathered up his focus, maintaining attention on Yetsuna just long enough to see her vanish into Shunpo, before he activated his Barrier Stance technique. Since Kaen was incapable of moving anyways, his Barrier stance maximized his defensive capabilities. Barrier Stance was a technique that Kaen had practiced long and hard-- a Hakuda technique that allowed the user to maximize and concentrate their focus into a small area around them, an area only slightly larger than the reach of their arms. While the world beyond that region passed into an indistinct blur-- unable to read anything but the most obvious of forms and motions, within that space, Kaen's focus and perception was unmatched. Besides a lack of spatial awareness beyond this region, Barrier Stance's second drawback was that to maintain this tight focus on the user's immediate surroundings, someone applying Barrier Stance was incapable of moving around very much (in fact unless mastered, one could not afford to move around at all, and was largely limited to mainly turning in place). But with Yetsuna's stone holding his legs, that secondary drawback barely applied for the moment.

Hearing Yetsuna's Shunpo, and already anticipating that the opposing Vice Captain would be attacking from behind, Kaen shifted his stance hard and aggressively, activating his incredibly strong core and leg muscles to turn himself sideways. Actually, he'd hoped to have shattered the stone entirely with this and open his options, but he wasn't entirely surprised to find that as he turned his body, the stone only cracked, and loosened. Kaen had spent over a century mastering the human martial art of Karate. He knew every technique, every stance, intrinsically. And it was more than that. He had practiced transitions from and to every possible position. A high speed, aggressive shift from Kaen allowed him to instantly apply force to the rocks binding his legs as though it were a short range strike. As mentioned above, this resulted in Yetsuna's non-reinforced earth to crack and fragment, and allowed Kaen to turn his legs and hips so as to orient his body sideways, facing Yetsuna's left-- the same direction as her slash.

As Yetsuna had only launched her projectiles in mid-Shunpo, as opposed to before her Shunpo (which made perfect sense-- had she launched her attack BEFORE she moved her Shunpo would have resulted in her smashing through her own projectiles. A painful proposition), her slash would land a hair before the first boulder would. Kaen's nearest arm snapped up and his hand clashed against the side of Yetsuna's blade, not unlike Karate's outside chest block. Yetsuna was using a broad bladed weapon and with Barrier Stance augmenting both his perception and ability to read her movements, hitting the flat of her sword was an easy-enough proposition. Yetsuna might have been quite alarmed to see the speed at which Kaen had snapped out to strike her blade. Kaen was attacking with a total speed of around 400-- twice as fast as Yetsuna. Yetsuna might have expected this motion to deflect her sword aside from Kaen but she would likely be surprised to find that wasn't the case. Rather than hitting Yetsuna's sword with the back of his hand, which would have facilitated a full deflection of her weapon, Kaen had struck Yetsuna's blade with his palm, and then immediately closed his fingers over the back of her blade, trapping it like a vice. It wasn't a perfectly proper fist, but it was still a very strong grip on the weapon. Notably, it allowed him to hold onto Yetsuna's sword blade with minimal actual contact with the edge. The palm strike itself would completely shatter the momentum of Yetsuna's sword and Kaen's high speed allowed him to quickly grab onto the edge before Yetsuna could retract it. For all her strength, which was considerable, this would likely be Yetsuna's first taste of Kaen's physical strength. Yetsuna wasn't weak herself, yet she would not be able to pull her sword free of Kaen's hold with strength alone. Kaen's hold on her sword was strong, and it was unlikely, Yetsuna would be able to do little more than wiggle it.

She wouldn't even be able to cut Kaen's hand with it. Kaen was extremely capable at dealing with sword-wielding opponents. Hell, both Karate and Jiujitsu were designed to fight against weapon wielders. Although Kaen was only a passable swordsman himself he had a good understanding of the mechanics behind a sword. A sword needed leverage to cut. Merely placing your blade against something and pushing would not cut. Such attempts were almost always accompanied by a pushing or pulling motion to slice through one's target. With Kaen's grip on Yetsuna's weapon so tight, she would be unable to generate that slicing motion. While Kaen had not yet moved at his maximum speed, he was employing his full strength. He was more than twice as strong as Yetsuna. If Yetsuna could generate leverage, or could somehow weaken Kaen's grip she may have had a chance of reclaiming her weapon. But she would scarce have time for that. She likely wouldn't even have time to do much more than acknowledge that Kaen had grabbed her sword and stopped her swing. But that is getting ahead of ourselves, for Yetsuna had unleashed a barrage of attacks at Kaen at nearly the same instant she had tried to cut him, and Kaen did not intend to leave that attack unattended.

Yetsuna's rocks were now hurtling towards Kaen's side. Kaen's eyes suddenly snapped to the crowd observing the battle. "Dammit." Kaen cursed. His shoulders tensed up for a fraction of a second before he made his move. Kaen could have deflected the boulder. The basics of Karate's defense was rooted in deflection, rather than hard blocking as martial arts like boxing often expressed. A Karateka would turn attacks aside rather than meet them head on. Because of this principle of redirecting an opponents force, a sufficiently skilled Karateka could defend themselves confidently against the attacks of a much stronger opponent. Indeed, because of his training this was Kaen's instinctive response to the boulder. And his physical strength, his speed and his timing? These were sufficient that he could have done so if he had chosen to.

But Kaen couldn't deflect the boulder. Or rather. He wouldn't. The tensing of his shoulders was slight, but it was possible Yetsuna might have observed it. It was Kaen fighting his natural, in-built instincts to simply throw an outside block and knock the boulder aside. If Kaen did that. If he struck the boulder aside.... It could fly off into the crowd. Yetsuna had launched this attack at him, and Kaen had no reason to believe she was holding back. A Vice Captain-level attack flying errantly into a crowd of people? Someone could get seriously hurt. So for Kaen there was no choice. It didn't matter if they were Squad 7, Squad 3, Squad 9... whoever it was. Kaen wouldn't endanger the crowd. His only option was to take the boulder head on. And that hesitation had cost him too. He could no longer intercept the boulder with a proper strike to try and shatter it, or at least reduce the impact force. All he could do was try to defend. Kaen lifted his shoulder, and brought his arm up, palm open and facing the boulder. He caught the boulder with his palm, only slightly outstretching his arm, experiencing the force behind the blows immediately. 800 strength was beyond Kaen's ability to completely block. So he didn't try. Not exactly. Kaen was a Vice Captain as well, and an experienced one at that. He did not try to stop the blow, but merely mitigate its force. Only delivering enough resistance to slow the boulder down. Not much. Just a little. But even a little was enough. The striking force of the boulder drove back Kaen's arm, slamming the back of the hand into his upper ribs, but Kaen rolled with the force of the attack, and simultaneously attempted to leap away from the direction the projectile had originated from.

He was not ignoring Yetsuna's rock trap though. Far from it. A striking force of 800 had just been channeled through his whole body, and Kaen was simultaneously leaping backwards. Combined with having previously weakened Yetsuna's hold on his legs with his stance shift earlier, there was no way that the rocks trapping his legs could withstand the combined forces involved. They blew outwards, and allowed Kaen to not only fly back, but to spin. That spin was important, in absorbing the force of Yetsuna's stone. And it was important for another reason. Kaen was still holding Yetsuna's sword. Therefore the spin served two purposes. The first was to assist in absorbing the force of the blow. When Yetsuna's strike had struck Kaen's palm Kaen had allowed it to crash back into his side at a slight angle, towards his back. As his side was facing the boulder this had a similar effect to striking a sign on one side. If you strike a sign on a single side does the whole sign fly back, or does the side it was struck on move backwards first? By turning like this, it helped Kaen to mitigate and absorb the force of the stone, and also allowed him to safely redirect its force behind him, where it was less likely to hurt someone than if he'd knocked it off to one side or the other. Especially after he'd already absorbed the brunt of the rock's impact. The second, and far more notable reason, was to fling Yetsuna into her own attack.

As Kaen spun, he did not release Yetsuna's sword, instead yanking it fiercely and forcefully towards the oncoming stones, only releasing it at the apex of the throw, to hurl Yetsuna into her own projectile attack. There were three likely outcomes. Yetsuna was likely not inclined to simply release her sword because Kaen was holding onto it, nor was it likely she'd release it just because she'd pull on it. So the most likely outcome was that Yetsuna would attempt to hold onto her blade. And she was absolutely strong enough to do it. She wasn't weak. Far from it. Her grip strength must have been inhuman. And Kaen knew this. He knew that from the moment he seized her weapon. And if she did. If she attempted to hold onto her sword, and refused to let go, she would be lifted up off the ground and hurled forwards, and struck by the rest of the attack she had meant for Kaen, literally becoming a living shield for her own move.

The second most likely option was that Yetsuna would release her weapon. That was fine as well. Kaen could still hurl it like a projectile to intercept at least one of the boulders. Was it sharp? Was it strong? When thrown by someone with as much physical strength as Kaen, it would unquestionably at least divert or slow the incoming attack. And although Kaen did not know how strong it was, if Yetsuna had focused her full spirit pressure into this sword, there was no question that it would split the boulder it struck like it was made from cardboard. At that point, Yetsuna would then have to move out of the way, lest she be hit by a living projectile in the form of Kaen slamming into her. Which leads us right into possibility #3.

The third, and least likely (at least in Kaen's mind) possibility was that Yetsuna would somehow find a way to not only retain her grip on her sword, but also not move-- or fail to move. In which case, while Kaen would certainly fail to throw her sword, the sudden and vicious movement would certainly risk causing severe strain on her sword arm. And Kaen would crash into her side, and send her sprawling. Kaen was much, much stronger than Yetsuna. A collision between the two, despite Kaen being in mid-motion, was far more likely to knock Yetsuna aside than Kaen, and Kaen was travelling at Yetsuna with a lot of force.

Regardless of which option was taken, these things WOULD be accomplished by this improvised maneuver: Kaen would indeed be struck by Yetsuna's boulder, he would almost undoubtedly break free of the leg restraints, and it would put some distance between Kaen and the subsequent boulders, allowing Kaen more time to discern how to react to them. Indeed if he was successful in hurling Yetsuna at them, he wouldn't even need to dodge it. In short, how he would continue to react from this point on, was entirely contingent on how Yetsuna would react to his attempt to throw her. He was far from incapable of avoiding the remainder of her attacks, but it would have to be seen how Yetsuna's reactions would impact whether or not he even had to, and indeed, the options for evading them, for each of the three possibilities mentioned above opened and closed avenues of defense against them.

The above is quite a lot to take in, so for the purposes of a TL;DR-- Kaen rapidly and aggressively shifted his stance, weakening and cracking the 400 strength stone binding his legs with his much greater 600 strength, only prevented from shattering it by the fact that he could not break it efficiently at that moment. This allowed him to turn his body sideways, and react to both Yetsuna's attack at his back, and her rock projectiles at the same time. Although the attacks were very close in timing, Yetsuna's slash was closer and would land first, therefore Kaen defended it first. He used a combination of Barrier Stance and 400 speed movement to Yetsuna's swing by striking the side of her black with his open palm to break its forward momentum, and then grabbing hold of the blade to trap it. Addressing the incoming stones, Kaen had intended to try and deflect them, but realized that doing so would endanger the crowd of spectators and was forced to take the first boulder head on. He absorbed the force as best he could, and used the impact of the first rock, combined with a powerful springing motion with his legs to break free of Yetsuna's stone holding his legs and fly backwards, attempting to use Yetsuna's sword as a lever to throw Yetsuna into her own attack.

The entire sequence of events happened in an instant, and due to Yetsuna's own impeccable timing with her attack, the time frame between Kaen grabbing her sword, Kaen being struck by the and Kaen throwing her would be nearly instantaneous. Yetsuna would have almost no time to react to Kaen's blade grab, or analyze anything, save for possibly a realization of Kaen's immense physical strength before he tried to throw her.

But it wasn't all sunshine and daisies for Kaen. Regardless of the outcome, even the best possible outcome for him now did not leave him unscathed. He had still taken a heavy blow. 800 striking force was not a joking matter at all, and though Kaen had withstood worse blows from his own Captain in battle, that didn't make him immune to them. His experience and martial knowledge had allowed him to avoid the worst of a blow, but damage was clearly visible. Underneath his shihakusho, there was a large bruise where Kaen's hand had slammed into his torso. The underside of his forearm was bleeding where the boulder had scraped across as Kaen had spun-- not a serious wound, to be sure, but a wound nonetheless. And Kaen's hand was trembling, still numb from the impact. It would likely be a little while before he could use it properly again. Time that Yetsuna, would doubtlessly not allow to go to waste. Also, having been blown well back and his environment radically altering, Kaen's Barrier Stance was broken by his drastic movement.

As for the rest of Yetsuna's attack, that would be dealt with following the moment Kaen understood how his attempt at throwing the opposing Vice Captain would go. "Very nice moves there, but are you sure the audience is safe?" Kaen asked her, combining a compliment to Yetsuna's abilities-- which had certainly impressed him, with a genuine point about the people watching. It was another contributing factor to why Kaen was reluctant to release. A zanpakuto like his.... a destructive force indeed, would be VERY badly suited to a fight in which he wished to minimize collateral damage. But, regardless of what happened here, the fight would go on!

Barrier Stance: 1/2
Barrier Stance: Ended

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

(OOC: sorry for the long delay, RL killed me for e bit so I could post for a few months, on that note I also might be a bit rusty so bear with me)

Yetsuna much of a person for half measures, when she was going into a fight she wasn't going in to pull punches, and that was exactly what her fast attacked had shown. As far as predictability went it it was on the high side, using a shunpo to move around behind a target wasn't exactly original, but it did tend to be effective when paired with the right moves. Pinning his legs to the ground by using her powers and launching a multi angle attack was designed to do just that, but Kaen was surprisingly well prepared to deal with what she was dishing out.

As she appeared behind him he blade poised to strike he shifted his position, not fully managing to free his legs, but loosening the grip on the stone enough so that he could address her attack. Her blade started to fall, a large heavy object designed for damage, but with weight and damage size tended to follow, which meant her weapon was fairly easy to track, especially for someone like Kaen, though she didn't know it yet. She was about to draw first blood when the other Vice Captain managed to smack the blade away and immediately followed up by grabbing her blade. "Shit he's fast," she thought to herself as he moved to block her attack.

Yetsuna wasn't exactly a speedy fighter, her speed was just below the cuff of where most high level shinigami were, but she was still fast enough to at least keep up in most cases. This was one of the weird cases where she could track and process what was happening, but lacked the speed to react. She saw Kaen's hand come up to grab her sword and she told her arms to move the blade before he could, but she couldn't move fast enough and his hand clapped down on the blade, trapping it. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to pry the blade from him hand by force. But that was of little concern to her in all honestly, she had a fall back plan and Kaen still had her stones to deal with.

Being to close to each other it was easy for her to suddenly see his eyes lock onto the crowd before he cursed and stuck his free hand out to catch one of the stones being hurled at him and braced for impact. He caught the stone in his hand, but it's speed and force seemed to be bit more then he had bargained for. His hand shot back into his chest, causing him to recoil, but at the same moment he spun, breaking free of his bonds and at the same time minimizing the force from the impact. It was a good move, but he wasn't entirely done either. As he was sent backwards from the attack He attempted to use his strength to pull on Yetsuna's sword.

Kaen definitely had more then enough strength behind him to do everything he wanted to do, but he didn't know that the sword Yetsuna was actually just crafted from some earth she had summoned, so losing it was of little problem to her. When she felt the pulled she released the blade letting him fling it towards one of the other oncoming rocks, but before the stone contacted the blade it sword would turn to dust and the rock would go flying through it, still hell bent on hitting Kaen. They few remaining stone closed in quickly, while Yetsuna used the moment to reestablish some distance between herself Kaen.

While she moved back she used her powers to move the sand that was formerly a sword towards her, having it resume its normal shape as it reached her hand. If she had chosen she could have followed up with another attack, she seemingly had the advantage, but that exactly a gamble she wanted to take. Kaen's speed and strength were both surprisingly high and were going to prove problematic. She was well designed to take on high strength people, but high speed tended to pose a bit of a problem to her because her lower speed. To some extent she relied on her stone to help compensate for this by having it do most of the moving instead of her, but she felt that that wouldn't work well against this man, he was obviously a seasoned combatant, not that she really expected much less but still.

After Kaen did whatever he did to deal with the remaining few stone he would address her, she could see his hand trembling from the impact of the stone, that normally would have told her she had just given herself a good advantage, but considering how he had reacted to the attach she didn't intend to rest on her laurels just yet. The black haired man then issued her a compliment as well as a question, which suddenly made his glance at the crowd earlier make more sense. "Personally I've always kind of seen it as a known risk for watching. If people want to watch high level fighters duke it out they should know something things are bound to get sent their way at some point," she replied with a shrug.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't just disregard their safety, I don't just hurl things into the audience, but I'm not gonna pull too many punches just because some people wanna watch me fight, and I'd expect most others to act the same if I was in the crowd," she continued. Her voice was blunt, not in a cruel way, but more just that she felt like she was stating a fact, probably not scoring her too many point with Kaen for her nonchalant approach, but the next bit might appease him a bit, "But that's the reason that I also keep squad 4 around when I fight, so in case someone does get hurt they can get some treatment."

Yetsuna would pause for a moment as she stuck her blade in the ground, crossing her arms and shifting her weight on her right hip, "Was that the reason you took attack? You were worried about the crowd? Don't think I didn't notice that glance before you cursed," she said her tone shifting to a slightly teasing one. Yetsuna may not have been physically fast, but she had strong observation skills and processing speed, she might not have been able to physically react, but mentally she was able to see everything that had transpired. If Kaen did indeed fess up to taking the attack to protect the crowd she planned to offer him a chance to see squad 4 before they continued, she didn't exactly think that it would be fair to keep going after taking an attack he didn't need to.

[Kaen Youji]

(ooc: As am I. Sorry for taking a bit to get back to you)

Kaen watched as the sword transformed into sand as it struck the boulder, scattering into the wind, as the attack flew by unimpeded. I see now. Kaen thought, shifting quickly and quickly weaving his way through and around Yetsuna's storm of stones. He was keeping light on his feet, eyes flickering about at a high speed, to track both the ground and the incoming projectiles. Now that Yetsuna had shown her hand, the Squad 7 Vice Captain had to be careful not to let his legs be caught again, without an escape plan. He doubted Yetsuna would allow him to escape so easily twice. She'd reinforce her stone trap the next time it happened, so Kaen had to be ready to move if there was any hint that she was trying to trap him. There were other pitfalls as well. She didn't just have to trap him. Tripping him could also be a perfectly viable strategy. Kaen moved to his left to avoid the follow-up attacks, several of them flying to his far right, and the remaining stones, he was able to barely dodge and weave through, though one of them came very close, and seemed to clip the Vice Cpatain's side, ripping his uniform by the closeness of the miss, and leaving a small grazing bruise on his side. A few years ago that would have been very effective, but Kaen begun to get good at dealing with storms of projectiles as time went on thanks to the war with the Vandenreich. He'd built up experience and skill dealing with exactly that, given the Vandenreich's propensity for utilizing projectiles. His injury from trying to stop the first rock didn't seem to be affecting him too much presently, though it was still a clean hit, and could be an important factor in a battle of attrition.

Yetsuna'd read his intentions well. Kaen gave a sheepish grin. "Ah, you got me. Yeah. Squad 4 around or no, I've never felt good about endangering bystanders." Kaen said. "The entire reason I became a Shinigami in the first place was so that I could protect people. Seems a poor way to display my motivation by letting them come to harm, just because they wanted a good show." He stated. This was another reason he was reluctant to release his Zanpakuto. Hachiryuu was a versatile and effective Zanpakuto that had seen Kaen through many battles. However, many of its applications, that made it highly effective for fighting against multiple opponents, made it an absolute nightmare for using amongst large groups of lesser trained allies. Kaen had only used its abilities in one situation involving allies-- alongside Shade Kawada and Anastasia Solis, both highly experienced and trained Vice Captains, one of the two who had later gone on to become a Captain himself. Individuals Kaen could trust not to get themselves killed by friendly fire. Something he couldn't trust the group around them to do.

Yetsuna had honed in on this. It was a weakness. One that some Shinigami Kaen had known *coughShadecough* would have readily exploited to win the battle. There was a reason that Kaen had grown to view the Kawada name with disdain. Yetsuna seemed to take a neutral ground on the subject. Kaen could tell she wasn't going to directly aim to involve the bystanders, but if an errant attack went their way, she didn't seem like she'd lose sleep over it. Kaen understood the grounds on which she made her decision. She wanted to fight at full strength. Nothing more or less. He could respect that. Already, however, some of the crowd had gotten the hint, and had moved further back, so-as to give themselves more reaction time. Kaen focused in on Yetsuna. "Well I appreciate the notion anyways. Good foresight." He added. "But don't worry too much about me. I can handle myself, even if I have to keep an eye out for the audience too." He stated, keeping in a light stance that let him move freely and quickly accelerate at will. "And if things start getting too intense, I can deal with that in my own way." He added with a bright and cheery grin. "So with that in mind--"

Kaen vanished. This was Shunpo. No. That wasn't right. Because in the instant that Kaen vanished, Yetsuna would experience a heavy blow to her torso, as Kaen delivered a high speed palm strike to her solarplexis. The force of this blow was almost certain to send the opposing Vice Captain flying off the ground for about twenty or thirty meters even in her heavy armor. It hadn't been Shunpo, it was a barehanded variant of Senka. Senka was an ancient technique that had often fallen out of practice with the younger generation of Shinigami. Many considered it too restrictive in its focus, and that its advantages over Shunpo were minor. Kaen disagreed. Having fully mastered both Senka and Shunpo, Senka opened up possibilities for attack that Shunpo did not. Notably, that by training in Senka, one could attack in mid-Shunpo, while Shunpo itself lacked this focus. Shunpo was a single high speed movement and though it could be used offensively, it required the user to telegraph their attack in order to do so. Not so with Senka. Kaen could launch Senka from almost any position without indication and still launch his attack. At his high level mastery of the technique, Kaen didn't even need to apply the technique with a blade anymore. As Yetsuna had just felt. Kaen had opted for a palm strike over a standard punch due to Yetsuna's armour. It was dangerous to hit an armor of unknown strength with a fist, as it risked Kaen breaking his knuckles or hand. A palm strike distributed the force far more evenly, and when done properly, did not risk significant injury to the hand if it hit something unexpectedly hard.

Either way, Yetsuna was being struck by a blow by someone with almost three times her strength. As it was unlikely that Yetsuna weighed a literal metric ton in her armour, she was going flying, and the impact force would likely be extremely uncomfortable. Kaen was still in his testing phase. Working out Yetsuna's strengths and advantages. And if possible, her weaknesses as well. Unless she was heavily holding back, she was much slower than he was. How was her strength then? How were her reactions? In Senka, Kaen's already considerable speed advantage was massively magnified to the point that Yetsuna probably couldn't even have seen him move when he launched into the attack. One instant he'd been standing at a decent distance, and the next she'd be going flying. There was not a large window to counter or defend if she had not expected this level of speed. But perhaps she had. Perhaps she had. Kaen's eyes were sharp and studious. Despite his flippant exterior and his brawler persona in battle, Kaen was an academic when it came to fighting. He analyzed and studied, willing to take hits to learn about his opponents' abilities if necessary, and then would use that information to overcome them. This was no different. Yetsuna was still an unfamiliar force to him. He wanted to be certain of her abilities before he fully committed to a strategy.

Reiatsu Remaining: 1400/1500 (-100 for Senka)

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

Like she thought he would be able to Kaen did indeed manage to evade the rest of the stones that had all been sent his way, though one was such a close call is managed to tear his uniform. He was fast, and that wasn't going to bode well for her, she was a lot better at dealing with kido users and high strength, but relatively low speed opponents. High strength and high speed was something she was not overly adept at dealing with just yet. Her stone was fast, but if she couldn't track her opponents that high speed made little difference. Chances were she was gonna have to play this fight close to the vest and try to keep Kaen on the defensive.

Putting aside thoughts of strategy she address the black haired man about his concern over the crowd and it did seem like her hunch was spot on. Kaen politely refused her offer to get some medical treatment for the injury he had sustained while trying to protect the crowd, which either meant he was over confident, which didn't seem like his style, or he could roll with some high level hits. Something told her this was gonna end up being a tit-for-tat fight, where they each just tried to wear the other down instead of one of them somehow managing to land a solid decisive blow. There were going to be a lot of bruises by the time this fight was over.

Her sparring partner then shot her a grin and followed up with another small statement which managed to catch Yetsuna off guard. Suddenly he disappeared from her vision and less then a second later she felt a strong excursion just under her sternum. Kaen had used a Senka, an attack she had been at the receiving end more then enough time to identify just by where an enemies strike landed. What really surprised her about the attack, more then its speed, was how much force she actually felt. At that moment she had two forms of defense active, the first was her spiritual pressure, which dwarfed Kaen's and had this been a normal fight his arm (and part of his chest) would have been torn to ribbons, but this wasn't a normal fight.

When Yetsuna fought allies she kept a fairly hard cap on her spiritual pressure so that she didn't knock out her opponents arms, she wanted to fight and that was something difficult to do if you take someone out of the fight after they hit you once. For this reason she tweaked her reiatsu output so that it was just slightly greater then her opponent's, allowing her to push back against physical attacks, but not injuring the other person in the process. The other, plain and simple. was her armor, which, regardless of what was happening, always took a portion of the shock from a blow.

Between those two form of defense she typically wouldn't feel much of a hit, the effective strength of most people trying to hit her being cut almost cleanly in half, but Kaen was different. Kaen had struck her with a full 600 strength, something that was also reinforced by the speed at which he moved. The cutback effect knocked off a large chuck of his strength, but a heavy 450 still managed to hit her armor, and of that 315 managed to reach her. Yetsuna felt a majority of the air leave her lungs as the follow-through from his palm continued to press against her causing her to go backwards.

While only 315 strength had managed to reach her physical person her armor still took the full 450, which was more then ample to cause her to begin flying backwards at a high velocity. Flying almost parallel to the ground Yetsuna managed to push past the worst of the pain and lack of air to prevent herself from flying into a wall. Using her powers she crushed the earth beneath her and willed to up to catch her, and having it slow her gradually to reduce the impact of slowing down from such a high speed to almost nothing. With a heavy cough and inhale the sand would set her down on her feet, her left hand over the area he had just struck.

"Gotta give you credit," she said her voice slightly hoarse, but not missing it's trademark cockiness, "I actually did feel that one. Not a lot of people can hit me hard enough to actually cause me pain through my armor." There was a lingering sensation from the pain of the blow, but already the pain was beginning to dull, though it was going to be a few moments before she was going to be breathing normally again while her lungs recovered. She didn't know how man other tricks Kaen had up his sleeve, but she had "seen" him use a senka, which was one of the fastest technique developed to her knowledge, so she had probably seen as close to his peak speed as she was going to.

Senka was an attack that she had always had a particularly hard time with, at least when first executed, but now that she knew he had it she was going to be on guard for it, as well as other high speed attacks. That wasn't the only problem though, whether by accident or on purpose Kaen had hit a nerve cluster and while she could take some hard hits if he kept going after those she wouldn't be able to last as long as she normally could during a standard slug fest.....Kaen was going to be a tough opponent, but also a good opportunity.

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen had gathered a great deal of information from the blow. He'd not pulled that punch. He'd hit Yetsuna will full strength and while she seemed briefly stunned by the blow, she didn't appear to have been injured. This suggested either a constitution that was inconsistent with her physical capabilities, based on her sword strike from earlier, her armor's ability to absorb blows was remarkable, or possibly she had a high enough spirit pressure to stop his physical attacks from harming her. Of these three, Kaen considered the former the least likely, followed by spirit pressure. Cutback would have taken effect immediately if that were the case, yet his hand was fine. Not even numb from hitting the armor. If it were a result of her overwhelming spirit pressure, Kaen expected he'd at least be dealing with some bruising from the clash. Though this was certainly an aspect of Kaen to consider if Yetsuna could gaze into his thought process. He was fully willing to sacrifice an arm a mere two exchanges in, in order to discern the nature of her abilities. Advantageous too, for Yetsuna, as her restraint in applying her Cutback had temporarily deceived Kaen into believing that it had been her armor that had absorbed all of his attack rather than her colossal Spirit Pressure. With that said, however, Kaen never let any possibilities slip his mind. As his mind whirred to create a strategy, his strategy prioritized moves that fit his primary analysis, and only included lesser possibilities as realistically practical.

It was impossible in battle to always account for ALL possible abilities an opponent might possess. But one could certainly narrow the scope to create a general battle plan. For example, Kaen considered it extremely unlikely that Yetsuna was suddenly going to transform into a fifty foot tall, three headed, fire breathing dragon with a scorpion tail. And therefore he simply didn't factor that possibility into his strategies, where doing so would weaken a strategy to tackle what he DID consider probable. And what was probable, was based largely on what he'd seen so far. Kaen was running a mental checklist at all times as he fought. Considering and analyzing Yetsuna's options based on what he knew, and determining how to attack. What did he know though? Well, he could clearly see her powers were based in geokinesis, and that she had both a flexible and fine control of her abilities. It seemed she could manipulate the ground in a certain area, as well as manually create and shape stone, much like Kaen's own flames. Her precision was fine enough that she could manipulate sand, as well as shape her powers into the Claymore that she wielded in battle. Her physical strength and speed paled in comparison to Kaen's, while her armor was capable of reducing damage to the point that simply punching her anywhere except the parts she was unarmored was going to be a long slog of a battle. Kaen was therefore left with four options. Release his Zanpakuto and attempt to overwhelm her defenses with the heat of his flames, employ the Darting Swallow Cut to try to overcome her armor's defensive capabilities, target her head, or employ grappling techniques and joint manipulation.

Of the four, the Darting Swallow was a technique Kaen tried to keep under wraps. It was a secret weapon. A trump card. One he had only used once in battle, against Kimiko Shihoin, and that had been under the cover of a smokescreen. His release as well, would make things too easy. That left targeting her head, and employing grappling. Of the two, only one would negate the possibility of Yetsuna's defense being attributed to superhuman toughness or her spirit pressure.

Kaen grinned at Yetsuna, as she responded. "You've seen nothing yet~" He said, and lunged back into the fray. He was moving at around a speed of 300. Faster than Yetsuna to be certain, but not impossible to follow. However, this was an even, balanced speed that would not tax him in a long battle. And Yetsuna was unquestionably going to be stubborn and hold out for awhile. Kaen's eyes tracked Yetsuna and the ground, as he delved into his Flowing Water Stance, improving his reactive abilities. A state of hyper-focus, and an evolution of the Barrier Stance. Flowing Water Stance allowed Kaen to focus intensely on his opponent and his surroundings, so that he could anticipate and react as quickly as possible to an opponent's attacks, shifting out of the way of blows as if he were water. Because he did not restrict his focus, it did not provide the near omniscient awareness that his Barrier Stance provided, but it sharpened his instincts even more. Kaen had no doubt Yetsuna was going to make his approach difficult, and expected her to employ point blank attacks from underneath him. His approach was quick and light footed. He was not making himself an easy target, and there were frequent subtle shifts in his direction as he approached, making him a more difficult target than if he was charging head on.

If Kaen was able to actually close in with Yetsuna, he would move lithely and quickly. His left foot snapped out to catch Yetsuna's right ankle, and trip her, knocking her off balance with a short ranged sweep kick. Kaen would follow this up with a sharp knife hand strike below the ribs on Yetsuna's right hand side. Although her armor would absorb the brunt of this hit, the shock would likely still be felt even through her armor, as if Kaen was striking her with a mace. Kaen knew that carelessly grabbing at Yetsuna's limbs would leave him wide open to a counterblow from her. Time to test another theory... The Vice Captain thought as his right hand cracked out in a fast, but light blow to Yetsuna's face. This attack was similar to a boxer's jab. Kaen hadn't thrown much force into it, but with his immense strength he really didn't need to. Even with just a jab, he possessed sufficient strength to break Yetsuna's nose if he hit, and cause blood to spray. That is, if her spirit pressure didn't stop him. Testing his theory, while he looked for an opening to employ his grappling against her. Seeing if it truly was her armor absorbing his blows or if it was her spirit pressure.

Reiatsu: 1400/1500
Flowing Water Stance: 1 Post

Flowing Water Stance stats:
Instinct: 525
Maximum Speed when reacting to attacks: 825

[Yetsuna Yishnir]

With a deep breath in Yetsuna returned herself to her full normal height, most of the pain from the blow gone, but she knew there was gonna be a nice bruise forming there in a bit, probably not gonna want to get hit there twice. As she retook her fighting stance Kaen re-engaged her, moving far slower then she knew he was capable of considering just a moment ago he had used a senka so damn fast no sooner had he disappeared then she found his fist in her ribs. He was trying to conserve his energy for the coming fight, trying to avoid tiring himself out just in case he wouldn't be able to end this quickly, an option she wasn't inclined to hand over to him that easily.

The black haired vice captain moved around the battle field at a relatively low speed for him, but still faster then Yetsuna on her best day, but even so tracking him wasn't that difficult, she could follow all of his motions without much difficultly. Yetsuna knew she lacked speed, it was part of the reason she tended to rely on her release, her powers allowed her to move earth so fast that it more often then not made up for this fairly glaring weakness. Her stones fast speed also forced her to train her mind to become adept at tracking fast objects as well as forced her to develop a fine tuned mental reflex so she could control her stone as she needed. As she was right now her brain reacted faster then her body could physically respond, which is why speedsters like Kaen and Shizu were such problems for her.

Yetsuna had actually developed a method to help her physically react faster involving her release, but it wasn't something she liked to employ, it tended to take a fairly large toll on her body due to the damage of the forces she had to exert on herself, though against Kaen she might have to. She watched Kaen intently watching for any signs of what he might try next, she could see the gears turning in his head, he was trying to find a way to take her down, she didn't know what he was planning, but she knew he was working on something. Yetsuna was fairly cognizant of where her weakness were, it was part of what made her such a good tank and fighter, but a weakness was still a weakness and Kaen seemed smart enough to try and take advantage of what ever he could find.

As Kaen closed in Yetsuna would indeed attempt to trip him once or twice by causing shin height partitions of earth to spring up, but it wouldn't take her long to realize that tactic wasn't going to work, time to try something else. Kaen was too fast and smart to fall for most of her usual bags of tricks and traps and unless she wanted to show her full hand already she was going to need to need to get closer to him to try and do any kind of meaningful damage. She watched as he closed in, her mind prepared to react to anything her opponent was going to try.

Once with striking distance Yetsuna watched his foot snap out and catch hers, he pulled tripping her, something she could have stopped by encasing her foot in stone when she felt his foot touch her ankle, but by going into the attack she was expecting Kaen's defenses to go done for just a moment as he would try to strike her, and that was something she could use. As she went backwards she saw his hand dash out in an attempt to try and strike her under the ribs again, but this time she was ready. Kaen's hand would be meet by several inches of stone that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, causing a large portion of the force of the blow to be lost, so by the time it went through her defenses the attack was more or less null.

Yetsuna seized the brief moment of his attack to launch her own. With a thought the blade in her hand disintegrated once more and dashed towards Kaen reforming in a large fist hell bent on striking the man's torso. Kaen would probably have three options at point; he could dodge her attack, but in doing so giving up his second attack which was aimed at her face. The second was to continue with his attack, thereby attempting to strike Yetsuna's face, an attempt that would be met with another stone block stopping the attack dead, and getting a nice stone fist to the chest, or finally manage to pull both off at the same time. 

[Kaen Youji]

Kaen knew Yetsuna wouldn't have too much trouble tracking him at this speed, but that was fine. He only needed to be quick enough to make himself a hard target, using unpredictable and randomized movements, while at a quick enough speed that she couldn't simply snare his legs or catch him with a sudden projectile or spike of stone. And she tried a few times, to hit him with a projectile, but missed each shot, due to his quick reactions. With Flowing Water Stance in effect, it was almost impossible to hit Kaen unless Kaen wanted to be hit. His leg sweep caught Yetsuna, throwing her off balance, but as he tried to hit Yetsuna with his knife hand strike, a piece of stone materialized out of thin air. Kaen's eyes narrowed. Ah. I see. He thought intrinsically understanding yet another aspect of how Yetsuna could wield her ability. If she could materialize stone out of thin air, instantaneously-- for Kaen had not noticed any lag time on the creation of the stone.... unless she had predicted his blow, anyways, then physical attacks would either have to come in so quickly, as to strike before she could create the stone, or be unexpected. And that also meant that his leg sweep had been allowed to happen. He hadn't breached her defenses, she'd allowed him to breach them. That meant she was trying to draw him in!

And there was why. Yetsuna's sword disappeared in her hand, and transformed into a fist-sized projectile launching at Kaen at point blank range. Without the aid of Flowing Water Stance, at this range he might even have been hit by it normally. The link between realizing he'd been drawn in, and Yetsuna's counterattack would normally have been too small a window for Kaen to avoid the attack entirely. But Flowing Water Stance vastly sharpened Kaen's instincts. Indeed, as Yetsuna surmised, Kaen was forced to abandon his face strike. Or had he? Kaen's arm still lashed up, likely prompting Yetsuna to shield her face with her stone. But that wasn't Kaen's target. If Yetsuna did NOT create a stone shield around her face, she'd instead, see Kaen had subtly shifted the angle of his incoming blow so that it slipped under her arm instead, missing her entirely! Kaen immediately followed this up, however, by turning his punch into a grapple, hooking Yetsuna's arm and taking advantage of her swept leg, to drive her further off-balance and downwards at a high speed, forcing Yetsuna's own body to shift into the path of her incoming projectile. Kaen had briefly raised his speed for this maneuver to his maximum, giving him the time he needed to do so. A quick, short burst of speed, to overwhelm Yetsuna.

But there was a hidden trick up Kaen's sleeve. It would be difficult for Yetsuna to stop Kaen doing this, as he was not delivering a quick and sudden impact with a punch to drive her out of position, but rather a constant force driving down on her shoulder. Even if she created an additional layer of stone, that force would still be pressed down upon her with Kaen's full strength. Unless Yetsuna could somehow use her stone to brace herself AGAINST Kaen's force, this maneuver would likely be effective. And even if she could? It would still be effective in avoiding the attack, for even if her attempt to brace herself did not already intercept her incoming attack, Kaen himself was staying light on his feet, and should Yetsuna prove to be a truly immovable object, his force would simply throw himself out of the path of her attack, driving Kaen to swing around Yetsuna and taking the woman's back. Either way, from his finished position, Yetsuna would be exposed to a follow-up attack. With his improvised underhook, Kaen would suddenly apply a short jolt of force to slam his elbow into the side of Yetsuna's head, to test just how well her Spirit Pressure truly protected her from his blows. There was genuine knock-out power at work here, and if Yetsuna's defenses were down, and this elbow landed cleanly, it would, at the very least, stun her, if not outright K.O. the woman. Even though Kaen was still in his testing phase, he wasn't pulling his attacks beyond the level that he did not want to kill Yetsuna.

At heart, Kaen was a hand to hand fighter, but Yetsuna had revealed to Kaen another facet of her abilities, that was concerning. The ability to freely create stone of out of thin air, was a hugely problematic ability. Kaen would know that full well, for his own Zanpakuto granted him similar effects. The ability to freely create one's own element in close quarters, meant that however far Yetsuna's ability extended, turned that entire zone into a borderline death trap. Kaen had to stay light, and ready to disengage at any moment, but he was willing to take risks in order to ascertain as much about Yetsuna's abilities as he could, while hiding as much of his own abilities from her as he could. Thus far, he'd revealed his high speed and strength. And his martial prowess too, he supposed. But perhaps Yetsuna would read more into his abilities. If so, there wasn't much he could do about it. He had to keep learning as much as he could about Yetsuna's abilities and how effectively she could use her powers. If his worst case scenario was actualized however, Kaen understood that he'd need to release his own Zanpakuto to counter Yetsuna. If her Spirit Pressure was as high as his worst case scenario considered, then even the Darting Swallow Cut wouldn't likely put her down. In fact, it might even backfire on him. As he considered these options, throwing his elbow strike, Kaen mentally relaxed a hair, allowing his Flowing Water Stance to cease.

Reiatsu Remaining: 1400/1500
Flowing Water Stance: 2 Posts. Ended