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Liao Jiyu the One Man Army: Soul Artist. Wanderer. Grump. Hero? Possibly. Trained by Aline the renegade and Cado the master, and a disappointment to both, but still probably in the top 10 most powerful soul artists in the galaxy. Jiyu disdains the political nature and comfortable lifestyles of the Soul Artists of Soul Sanctum and instead spends his time traveling the frontier, bringing the light of hope to people in danger everywhere he goes.

Let's plot out some threads with him.

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"You're really going all out on this, aren't you?"

Jiyu chuckled, slightly, like this was a game. Which...it was. To him, anyway. "Alright."

He spun his spear around with a flourish and jammed the pointy end into the ground. It cut through the cement like butter, without making so much as a stray crack. Then he gave her a overly formal bow of his own.

"I am Liao Jiyu. If you are truly a soul artist than surely you won't see any problem with a friendly match."

"Thank you for this opportunity. I accept your challenge."

Just a formality. Even if she wanted to turn him down, she couldn't do so without giving up on being a soul artist.

After the brief formalities preceding the fight, Stacia charged directly towards Jiyu, opening with an onslaught of consecutive attacks. She had speed and strength - enough of both to suggest body reinforcement, but not enough to prove it beyond doubt - but her technique wasn't far above the level of a novice. Her strikes were simple, her stance uneven and full of what amounted to massive openings against an artist of Jiyu's level.

Once this nonsense is all over and dealt with he could go back to doing something important. Honestly, now that he thought about it he was kind of annoyed he had bothered with this pointless diversion.

Jiyu read her moves easily. She was reasonably fast, and did know how to fight on a technical level, but that didn’t mean anything here.

He didn’t block or dodge any of her attacks at first. He just stood there and took her first blow, judging her strength. Body reinforcement alone was enough to resist that without blinking.

Or so he thought. Jiyu blinked. That didn’t feel like a punch from a standard issue android. She must have some kind of upgraded strength suite installed. After the first attack, he started dodging and blocking. Not attacking. Waiting. If she said she was a soul artist, she must have SOME kind of trick to back it up. That, or she really was malfunctioning.

Not going to attack? After the minimal effect her first punch had, she knew better than to assume that he was defending himself out of fear. Just showing her the faintest modicum of respect. Enough.

After jumping back to open distance and re-evaluate her approach, Stacia redoubled her offense. She varied her attacks more, trying different angles and techniques to see if his defenses had any weak points. If he wasn't trying to attack, then she wouldn't waste any energy on defense.

He realized what she was doing, quickly enough. Adapting to your opponent's style was smart, but leaving yourself open was not.

"Just as I thought," he said, weaving between attacks. "This was a waste of time."

No matter how close Stacia watched, she couldn't see him strike. It wasn't a strike done with a mere flesh and blood hand. Jiyu remained in front of her but she still felt something strike her from the side. Looking revealed the faintest trace of an outline of a second person, quickly fading away into nothing. It wasn't even a particularly strong attack, by Jiyu's standards. Probably comparable to what Dantes could manage.

If Dantes was doing it, she could have likely blocked it. As it was, the pressure from Jiyu was fraying her nerves and her focus. She didn't see the strike coming, and it knocked her across the yard, hitting the ground and bouncing twice before skidding to a halt.

Stacia got to her feet, a bit unsteady. Even one hit had her joints groaning from the stress. For the moment, she abandoned her assault, for the moment bracing herself for Jiyu's counterattack.

Whatever soul art that was, he wasn't using it again just now. Instead he crossed the distance between them in an eyeblink and unleashed a combo of his own, a blisteringly fast rain of blows delivered with scientific precision. The last blow actually had his whole arm sheathed in an aura of pale blue soul flame.

But...there was a split second of hesitation before the last strike landed. He WANTED to give her one last chance, though he would deny it later. He wasn't sure why. Maybe he just found the universe a little to explicable right now, and in his heart he wanted something new and exciting to come into it that wasn't just Another Battle.

Whatever the reason, Stacia didn't have long to take advantage of this opening.

All pretense of being able to block Jiyu's attacks was cast aside the moment the first struck. Her eyes and mind couldn't keep up with him. If they could, she wouldn't be fast enough to raise her guard. If she was, she wasn't strong enough for it to make a difference.

Each blow was like getting hit squarely by a massive hammer. Metal bones cracked, joints snapped, her frame barely holding together. By the time he was ready to deliver the final blow, she could hardly stand.

If she didn't act now, she never would.

In that brief moment of hesitation, Stacia extended the arm that could still move properly. As she did, a perfectly straight ray of pale white light erupted forth, aimed at Jiyu's chest. It was a feeble attack, not even an above-average execution of it by Stacia's own standards, and something Jiyu could almost just ignore, if he wanted to.

But when she hit the ground, white soulflame still burned faintly around her right hand.

Jiyu deflected the bolt out of habit, but the match was forgotten almost immediately. That last blow of his never landed.

Instead, he was right in her face, holding her up by one arm so she was actually at eye level with him, looking at her with intense eyes. His eyes were always intense, but now they were more so.

"How did you do that!?"

Well beyond the point of being able to resist, Stacia hangs limply in Jiyu's grasp. However, despite having lost so completely that it could barely be called a fight, she smiled.

"The same way you do. I drew it out of my soul."

"You were built in a factory! You don't HAVE a soul!"

He sounded certain, but he always sounded certain. That didn't mean he WAS. The automatic response of what everyone knew to be true rang hollow against the evidence of his eyes and ears. Jiyu had traveled much of known space and he had never seen any manufactured weapon that behaved exactly like soul arts. In all the stars, the power of the soul was unique.

And that was soul arts. There was no mistaking it.

One of Stacia's eyes had gone dark. Her voice wavered with static from damage to her voice box. But still, she laughed.

"Are you so sure of that... that you'd ignore what you saw with your own eyes...?"

After a moment, Jiyu dropped her and turned to start striding away. He stopped before leaving the area entirely, and spoke without turning around.

"...I need to think about this. Figure out what to say to Soul Sanctum. I suggest that you don't go too far."

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