The sickly green pulsing of the water is reflected in Nekokaburi's eyes as they widen in surprise. Twin points of jade to stand against the venomous deluge, they disappear as Nekokaburi drops to his haunches to await the flood. As he coils, a flourish of his hand releases the silken cord holding his sword in place across his broad back. He rests the sheathed sword across his knees, protecting the precious heirloom from Shou Ren's corrupting magics.
The flood races toward Nekokaburi... it reaches where he stands, and the warrior springs into the air, foul vapours curling in his wake. At the zenith of his leap, he marks the path of the streamers of light from deep below the waters of bay, noting their origin. He lands on one knee, one hand forward in a defensive guard, the other holding his sword his sword in the small of his back. As the geysers erupt from the broken earth, the warrior begins to nimbly flit from space to space under the acid shower.
Nekokaburi darts among the deadly shower of drops, somehow finding a space from moment to moment to provide sanctuary from the deadly emerald rain. Stepping from point to point. Ducking and rolling under a great splash of acid. Somersaulting over sections of ground still hissing angrily as the sorceror's acid etches away stone and earth. Cartwheeling through breaks in the rain little wider than himself. Nekokaburi moves with great agility, but without apparent haste. The falling death about him is merely decoration and embellishment to a dance he knows through instinct.
<font color="red">* the claw prances above the plain, wards off the chi of the feline*</font>
At first, his expression shows only resolve, his reflexes leading him to safe footing on the treacherous ground. It slowly turns to wry amusement and a mocking grin. His shoulders begin shaking with suppressed laughter, then finally it erupts with a force to rival Shou Ren's tsunami, his booming laughter challenging the quaking of the earth itself.
<b>"Yellow is a more fitting colour for you, sorceror! You fear to face me in combat, and must bring the ocean against me to hope to defeat me! Even if you could stuff the Bottomless Well full of this sickly corruption you attack me with, you would not have a sea vast enough to vanquish my spirit! If you are unable to free yourself from the might of my Cleaving Chi Attack, you had but to say so!"</b>
Nekokaburi's laughter skips a beat as part of the cliff face peels away from the bluff to plummet downward. Riding the section down, his stance solid, he looks to where the cliff will fall... too far from Shou Ren. As the section of cliff continues to fall, Nekokaburi unsheathes his sword and cuts away a section of the falling earth, kicking it further across the bay, then jumping to this new and smaller section, as all of the pieces continue to plummet to the bay.
He does this again and again, creating a series of stepping stones until the last section is barely large enough to pivot on. As he turns, he smoothly returns his blade to its saya, and as it slides into the scabbard, he runs his hand along the razor sharp blade for only a moment, opening a cut which quickly covers his hand in blood.
He turns to face the cliff, and with both hands throws his sword in a high arc toward the cliff. Nekokaburi arches back into a graceful dive, and at the moment he breaks the waters of the bay, his sword nestles in one of the crevasses worn into the cliff face by the acid waters. Plunging to the bottom of the bay, Nekokaburi corkscrews once to survey the murky waters. The silhoutte of a vast, shape glides toward him menacingly, tracking his descent with soulless black eyes. <i>Good,</i> he notes. The plan is working.
Something almost too great to be called a shark hunts him - one of the fearsome predators that prowl the Bay of the Endless Well.
Nekokaburi reaches the bottom of the bay, and with timing that can only come through great preparation and the luck of the gods, snatches up the trident that is now Shou Ren. The great trident still pulses with the same sick green light of his watery attack. As the shark comes upon him, Nekokaburi throws the trident into the water above him, flattening himself against the sea floor.
Momentarily confused, the beast's great jaws come crashing down upon the trident. Sparks float gently to the sea floor, briefly illuminating a picture both beautiful and fearsome. While Shou Ren is stunned, the creature bites again, and the trident disappears into the vast blackness of its stomach.
<i>If it is acid that Shou Ren has a fondness for, then let the wizard be digested by the fearsome sharks of Endless Well Bay.</i>
Allowed only a moment's respite by the shark's confusion, Nekokaburi grasps the great tail of the beast as it glides over him, its momentum dragging him along. The shark takes the sweet scent of blood again, and turns to come at him a second time.
As it comes, Nekokaburi places a foot on the leathery skin of the bottom jaw of the beast, and kicks up toward the surface of the bay. Moments behind, the shark comes streaming toward Nekokaburi with speed that seems inconceivable for something so great in size. A second kick at the top jaw of the shark gives Nekokaburi the speed to leap into the air as he reaches the surface.
As he reaches the water again, a well-placed Blackfist snap kick propels him forward across the waters of the bay. A technique devastating against the shins of a humanoid opponent, his foot slaps against the water with enough force to allow him to jump forward, skimming along the water like a stone. Enraged by the scent of blood and its immeasurable hunger, the shark follows each splash, erupting from the waters of the bay with its vast maw snapping at empty air where Nekokaburi was but moments before.
Nekokaburi continues to lead the shark toward the cliff face, his feet beginning to smoke as he jumps through the remnants of the coppery water which still pools closer to the cliff face. Now all but mad from pain and hunger, the shark crashes full-force into the stone of the cliff, as Nekokaburi leaps up to his sword. The shark falls back into the water, its crumpled jaws now locked together in a ruined cage of splintered cartilage.
Flush against the cliff wall, pauses for a moment. As he catches his breath, he glances at the nearby stone - the ravages of Shou Ren's tsunami have clawed at the stone in ways that suggest kanji, and he sees the following markings in the spirit of the stone:
<font color="red">1: The scorpion glides atop the ruins and moves facing the blade; protects against the efforts of the elements!
2: The chimera sings next to the well; reduces the kick of the wind!
3: The northstar breaks the forest; quells the pain of the ice!
4: The scythe leaps within the labyrinth; dodges the touch of the blade!
5: The fox overwhelms the rapids and in addition it punches the iron; shields the chi of the lash!</font>
Inspired, he now faces his opponent with new techniques.
