Mt. Alexander

DragonierMan snorted as he wringed his clawed hands. It is true that he used any edge in Net Battles before, such as Battlechips and NaviCust. Wouldn't this golden armor be considered similar to those? "You may be right." Drago conceded as his face became flaked in small scales and his hair grew out. "This armor is the same as all the other weapons in a warrior's arsenal. And any edge a warrior can acquire makes them that much more dangerous."

His eyes slitted as his own armor began to be subsumed into his body. His hair grew longer as his jaw distended out. He reached up and unsnapped the 'eyepatch' with one clawed hand and threw it on the ground. "Let's see how you handle without it." He flexed his arms in front of his chest and curled his chest towards his knees as giant leathery wings erupted from his back. The Navi began to grow in size as his transformation continued. His nails growing into talons as he doubled in size, then doubled again. Soon he was a great beast of a dragon. Smoke wafted from his mouth as he spread his wings wide and roared to the heavens.

The dragon looked down upon Alex with eyes glinting. Then he stomped forward and swiped a huge claw at her, attempting to grasp her in his talons. He swiped again and again with his front claws until he could grab her. If he managed to grab her, he would grasp her with both claws. His mighty wings would sweep the air until he was airborne with his prize. Hurtling straight upwards as far as he could go. He was determined to see how high Alex could survive a drop from.

Yasu clenched her teeth and watched silently; Alex did the same, but her teeth were shown in a grin rather than a scowl. "Wonderful! He really is a dragon!" she laughed in surprise. The glow fell off of the armor of both girls as the eyepatch came off, split from its source of power. "Look what he was hiding underneath that codpiece!" she snickered, licking her lips.

"Vulgar..." Yasu spat, raising both fists at her sides.

"Now now, we're all adults-" Alex chuckled, then was promptly scooped up from the ground and carried into the air. "Ha ha! How exhilarating!" As they climbed higher and higher into the sky, Yasu became a speck beneath them, and eventually even the large, mud-covered summit began to seem like a smaller target. "Now now, you'll give yourself a headache if you try to climb into the net sky. Is there even an upper limit to the net? It's not something I've ever had an occassion to ponder," she mused, not sounding terribly affected either by the altitude or the claws that should theoretically be crushing down on her.

If Yasu had any words for her ally, it was impossible to hear them; they'd long since left the range where it was possible for her to shout up. "Say, while we're at it, why don't you and me fly off and discuss an agreement? I've decided it would be fabulous to own my own dragon!" Alex offered. "We can leave that gorilla there on the mountain-top with her two eyepatches and make off like lovers! Although, I'm not doing any loving why you're still a giant dragon," his enemy cooed.

"Of course... there's another way this can go as well," she continued with a smile, then opened her mouth and rolled out her tongue. The short spatha manifested inside her mouth and she clenched down on its handle with her teeth. "But that way's a lot more painful," she sighed; her words were only just possible to make out with the weapon in her mouth.

Yasu: 100%
DragonierMan: 106%
Alex: 120%

The glow faded from the armors as Alex became amused at the transformation and was swept up by the dragon. As the dragon took off, the curses of Yasu trailed behind him like his long tail. The rain beat and stung the faces of Alex and DragonierMan, as the dragon carried the damsel further, and further into the sky. Alex made another attempt to sway Drago to her side. And while Drago was tempted by the offer, he had already made a commitment. And though the damsel was charming, she showed her claws soon enough.

In response, the dragon released his captive and let her fall. He only watched her slip from his claws before turning ground-ward and, pulling his wings to his body, dived. He hurtled toward the ground, using his larger mass to propel him faster than Alex. His aim was to get to that broad, man-made pillar that was a part of the battlefield. If he reached it with enough time to spare, the dragon would level out and land. Then attempt to move the pillar so that it was right under the falling Alex. No soft mud would be her landing place. Only hard, unyielding stone.

If Alex was continuing to taunt DragonierMan, it was impossible to tell; the distance and velocity were both making it hard to understand anything she said. DragonierMan raced to beat her to the ground, then dropped a big pillar to de-cushion her fall. She gradually came into view, smiling and holding her sword out in front of her. Fire began to build around her sword as she held it away from her body, pointing it towards the ever-approaching pillar.

When she and the pillar collided, that collision was immediately apparent; cracks ran across the sides of the stone and a cloud of dust and debris arose, along with a sound like an explosion. The pillar continued to crack and eventually broke in two. From out of the space, Alex rose up to her feet, dusting herself off (although the more pressing concern ought to be the mud caking all over her body, or, you know, the spine-shattering injuries she should have sustained). "A neat trick, but the actual limits of my endurance are fairly high... just as high as my strength. You're never going to defeat me in single combat, even as a dragon!" she laughed, wiping off the broad side of her spatha with one arm.

As if on queue, Yasu tackled Alex to the ground, pinning her spatha arm beneath her while chicken-winging her other arm behind her. "Our top priority is the armor, DragonierMan! We need to reclaim it above all else!" she reminded her ally, grabbing hold of the belt buckle on the front of her chest and attempting to loosen it off without actually breaking the belt.

Predictably, Alex began to smile again. Slowly, she pushed herself up with her pinned arm, then began to rise to her feet with Yasu still clinging onto her back, fiddling with the lock. Despite the size difference between the two, she managed to lift the Neo-Shogun general quite easily, much to Yasu's chagrin. "You silly girl!" Alex taunted. She slowly reached her free hand behind her, placing one hand onto Yasu's thigh and creeping up until she reached one of the silver chains. She snaked two fingers beneath it playfully, then smiled back at her adversary. "Wouldn't you call this a stalemate?"

"No, I wouldn't," Yasu sneered, still doggedly attempting to get the lock off. DragonierMan was free now to operate as he chose, with all eyes off of him.

Yasu: 100%
DragonierMan: 106%
Alex: 60%

His plan worked, somewhat. Drago could see that Alex was not in as good a shape as she was moments ago. Then Yasu tackled her from behind and began to wrestle with Alex. Now that Alex was distracted, she had left herself open. Drago took that opportunity to quickly revert back to his humanoid form in a flash of multi-colored light. He would need deft fingers for this next part.

Drago rushed forward and quickly crouched down in front of Alex. His hands shot out and attempted to grasp Alex's bikini bottoms... and tear them off her. His fingers working diligently on the locks and strings while Alex was entangled with Yasu. He had the advantage in that he had seen Arch up close and personal, and how she disrobed, so he attempted to recall the best way to liberate this thief of her stolen goods. He would continue to work on Alex's bottoms until he got them off, then he would quickly store the garment in his pocket.

If he was successful in removing Alex's bottom-half of the armor, Drago would stand up and work on helping Yasu remove Alex's top. Again, he had seen Arch remove her top before, so it was just a matter of finding the right way to pull/open/untangle the locks and strings that held it together. He would keep it up until he liberated Alex of her second article of clothing, storing it away for safe-keeping.

Assuming he had managed to successfully remove his opponent's garments, he would proceed to weaken her more, physically. He began punching at her gut, driving her back with blow after blow. He attempted to move her down the mountain, where the height advantage of moving downhill would give him better reach.

If there was one thing the armor Alex had stolen was, it was insubstantial. Whereas Yasu had ended up having a tough time thanks to her positioning, DragonierMan found it easy enough to get everything off, leaving Alex entirely naked. If it weren't for the mud covering her body, he'd be able to see everything. "So greedy! Then I guess you don't care if I...!" his enemy replied with a grin, yanking her fingers back with a sharp metal snap. The chain holding Yasu's lower armor together broke; she jumped back and held the front of it into place with an angry expression. No longer held, Alex turned and grabbed one breastplate, then yanked the rest away from the general's hefty bosom. Turning red now, the general clinched the remaining, loose front-plate of her bikini to her skin and kept her forearms in front of her naked upper body. "What's the matter? Still bashful around him?"

"Bashful? I'm not a whore like you are!" Yasu spat in response. She also didn't have the same generous slathering of mud that Alex did (not thay Alex would have it much longer either if the rain kept up as it was).

When DragonierMan started striking at her again, Alex took two blows, then backed up. "It's a little difficult holding back after all. If all you two are after is the armor, then I should let you know that all I'm after is a test of the NS's abilities. So far, I'm impressed with your pet, Yasu... You, not so much! What happened to all of your talk of vengeance?"

"I will have my vengeance the day our army unites the net against your insignificant attempt at a one-woman empire. My grudge is unimportant next to that," Yasu answered.

"Good, because you're certainly not going to beat me on the basis of that grudge!" Alex taunted. "I've learned a lot today. I won't go so easy on you when next we meet," she finished, speaking more to DragonierMan than Yasu. She jacked out, leaving behind the armor pieces.

"Pay no heed of her words, DragonierMan; your tactics won out today... although you didn't need to rip off her pants, those aren't actually part of the armor set. That aside, please gather up the armor pieces you've collected and attach the data along with your reply to the NS board. I will make certain your reward is given to you," she finished. The rain had begun to let up and light shined down, illuminating her almost naked body, save what little she covered with her arms and the single armor plate. Walking behind her right now might be a death sentence for any rewards he planned to claim, although, if DragonierMan had the kind of job security recent events implied, he could likely get away with anything.

After Alex left, DragonierMan picked up the armor pieces that were not Yasu's and turned around, facing away from her. This gave Yasu the space and privacy necessary to fix her outfit so she wasn't naked. "I suggest you reattach your armor before leaving. You wouldn't want to return to base disheveled like that." Drago might be a perv in his own way, but he still had a sense of honor to maintain in the General's eyes. And giving her this respect now would give him more leeway to do more questionable stuff later.

He stretched an arm out to the side and rotated the cuff, having been strained a little by the tough battle he had just endured. "It is unfortunate that you were unable to complete your one-on-one with Alex. We will just have to make sure that you get that chance next time." He held up the armor pieces he had picked up and let the light glitter off them. "But at least we have retrieved the stolen items without much trouble. A testament to your leadership no-doubt. Though I hope the others were just as successful. As we have seen, this armor is more powerful than our initial testing indicated." Drago took a moment to extract an expanding bag from a belt pocket and drop the articles of clothing into it. Then he collapsed the bag back into his pocket.

Assuming that Yasu had managed to reattach her armor so she was only half-naked, instead of full-naked, Drago turned around to face her. He smiled broadly. "I will be sure to send the data. But..." he said before quickly crossing the distance between him and Yasu, so that he was standing right in front of her. "Perhaps you can give me my reward early." He leaned in towards Yasu and pointed to his cheek. Clearly indicating that he wanted the maiden's kiss.

Although another part of him wanted her to slap him.

"Reattach my armor? How do you suggest? The chains are all broken due to that insufferable cur's meddling," the first general grumbled, not showing any of the appreciation she actually felt at getting some breathing room. "And my leadership contributed nothing to this cause. This was nothing more than a reminder that we must remain vigilant in our fight against malefactors who threaten the unification proposed by our lord, Neo-ShogunMan. I must redouble my efforts to grow stronger."

DragonierMan judged the better of turning around. Yasu was, after all, still pretty full naked. "You've performed admirably, though, beyond the expectations I hold for your gender. Your self restraint, what little it may be, is still impressive," she admitted. Perhaps DragonierMan had finally found the right combination of seeming interested and yet not offending her? That was the sort of thing one would almost want to write down a formula for to make sure they didn't screw it up in the future. "Please report back to the board and I will have your full reward waiting for you. If you were wanting anything else..." she finished, sounding like maybe she was gearing up to say something arousing. In the end, she didn't have Dee's sexual prowess. "Then remember your station!" she barked, then jacked out with the few pieces of armor she'd had in her possession.

It seemed almost weird to leave the mountain there, with Alex's visage still surrounding every pathway, but there was no point spending any further time on it.

DragonierMan looked around a bit before noticing one of Alex's statues that was off the beaten path. He walked over to it and pinned a note to it, then jacked-out in a beam of light.

((DragonierMan received 21 Yasu FXP and 8 Alex FXP))