[EVENT} Fairy Festival Battle: Althea v. Kumi [Contestants Only]

A devilish grin made its way to Kumi’s face as she saw her portrait shine above herself in the sky and her name called. Her picture didn’t quite match her current appearance however, not that it mattered. She had only changed her hair to be a burgundy pink shade, while her tails remained their natural blonde colour. While she avoided most of the festivities in fear of having to deal with people, she had been inclined to sign up for the chance to fight on of fairy tail’s wizards. They were after all a well known guild across Fiore, for various reasons, not all pleasant. She had learnt quite a bit about the guild’s dark history while researching possible competitors so she prepared herself to fight a formidable foe.

However, as she waltz into the arena she was a little confused to see a little girl as her opponent for the match. Did they underestimate the kitsune? No… Kumi relaxed herself, feeling the aura of the blonde before her, there was something strange about her, not quite… human? She wasn’t sure. They had called her ‘The Sea Dragon’ making Kumi guess she used some sort of water magic, something she had only seen a few times before. “I’m also looking forward to this match.” Kumi responded almost questioningly to the girl’s excited tone, now that they were closer she could feel the power of her opponent, she had so much spiritual energy. Kumi had never versed someone with an aura this strong before, this would be a good test after all. She would not underestimate this little girl that was for sure.

Normally she’d let her opponent strike first to help size up their power, but seeing as it appeared the girl was ready to go anyway, Kumi saw no reason to make the crowd wait any longer than necessary. She didn’t want to waste too much magical energy straight up though, so for now she thought she’d test out the reflexes of the blondie with just a simple shot of energy. Kumi stood still, eyes focused on her target, narrowing slightly as she felt the power build up within her left fist. Closing her eyes for but a second she felt her own aura turn a bright blue, the ball of energy in her hand shining the same bright blue, "Let's begin then." Kumi spoke calmly before raising her left hand sending the ball of pure spiritual energy flying towards Althea’s chest.

Kumi's eyes widened as the girl came flying towards her. So fast. The kitsune managed to evade the obvious punch by stepping out of the way, however, she didn't have enough time to react to the second attack and Kumi soon felt Althea's foot dig into her side as it came sweeping by. "Damnit." Kumi muttered to herself, angry she had taken a strike, a rather painful one at that, this girl was definitely a lot stronger than she appeared at first glance. Well she would be sure not to take too much further damage from her physical attacks, Kumi decided it was best to reposition herself and give herself some distance in order to have the time to properly counter attack. The fox maiden relaxed her body, forcing her aura to push her forward at a blinding speed, to general onlookers it would have looked as if she had teleported just over twenty meters away from her original position.

Kumi still wasn't entirely sure just what kind of magic her opponent was using but that kick had certainly hurt far more than any regular one, that was for sure. Not wanting to waste too much more precious time she instantly created a wave of energy, that shone like a rainbow out from her position directly towards Althea, Kumi would then wait for her opponent to attempt to dodge before sending out another small ball of spiritual energy towards their chest once more. Kumi then concentrated on solely on the strange aura of the little girl, as long as she remained aware of it, she would have a much easier time evading future attacks.

Kumi braced herself as the blonde little girl leapt towards her once more, well she wasn't exactly expecting a repeat of their previous scuffle. Kumi's keen eyes danced as she watched the girl's aura move with such grace and timing, this time around the fox maiden wasn't going to let herself be so easily tricked into being hit. Kumi relaxed herself, controlling her spiritual energy and allowing her to teleport backward once more. This ensured she was able to dodge any incoming melee attacks, sure enough, Kumi's prediction was correct, well sort of. It appeared she had gone for a double kick this time, rather than one punch, one kick. Regardless, Kumi had successfully dodged, however, the girl soon leapt into the air and cast down a cascade of water down upon the kitsune who was now unable to move out of the way fast enough. keeping her cool, Kumi quickly swirled her hands forcing a quick barrier of spiritual energy, surrounding her body completely and allowing her to block the incoming damage, but not without the shield being affected. While for the most part, it was still intact, it wouldn't last more than another hit or two from the young girl should she attempt to strike Kumi directly again.

"Indeed this is quite the workout. You're much stronger than your appearance would suggest." Kumi responded with a small smirk. She was rather enjoying this battle, however, her attacks and defenses were beginning to take their toll on her spiritual energy levels, she had never gone one on one with someone for as long as this, usually, her opponents were pushovers. Needless to say, Kumi wasn't sure how much more she would be able to withstand if the fight were to continue much longer. If the kitsune was going to have any hope in beating her young opponent she would need to strike fast and as hard as possible. Kumi put her left hand behind her back, obscuring it from the view of the young girl while steadily growing a large ball of aura energy in her fist, much larger than her previous shots. Meanwhile, she attempted to cause a distraction by forming two small bursts of spiritual power that formed the shape of daggers, sending them flying towards the direction of the small blonde before releasing her more powerful shot, attempting to aim where she predicted the girl would move to.

Kumi could feel her energy draining from within, even when she wasn't casting, was this Althea's work? Regardless she needed to be a little more careful, she'd wasted so much of her magical power with her last attempt and while she had hit her opponent it wasn't exactly the way she had intended. The vixen would have to use a new technique if she was to out fox the child, that was certain, but she wasn't entirely sure what to do about that. However, before she could even start attacking again another huge wave came crashing down onto Kumi followed by fist sized droplets of water that nearly broke through her shield, and caused the fox maiden to feel weakened. She had never felt such a strange sensation and she wasn't entirely sure what the spell had done to her to be honest, regardless she had decided upon her new trick, hopefully this time she'd be able to catch the girl unawares.

Kumi felt the particles of energy swirling around herself before pulling them apart, creating a copy of herself out of pure energy. The clone appeared almost identical to the real thing, in fact it would be impossible to tell them apart once they started moving, but before she did she cast another ability, allowing both her clone and herself to recreate even more copies of themselves. Now there appeared to be four of Kumi on the field. The vixen then began moving along with her clones, running about to make it difficult to tell which was which before four of them sent a ball of energy flying towards Althea, the real Kumi teleporting as close as possible to make it harder to miss before firing her own. "Boo." Kumi whispered before running off to join her clones once more, circling around to make it difficult to tell the real thing from the fakes.