Bort (Houseki no Kuni) vs Pearl (Steven Universe)

[BitVyper]

Swords only. Standard Khazan battle.

[Melchior]

Well, I know how the fight starts.

Because someone said, "My Diamond."

Anyway....

Not watched enough battle scenes in Steven Universe to say for definite, but I think I favor Bort. The gems in "Land of the Lustrous" are really as hard as their namesake, which makes Bort a diamond. And she has a fair turn of speed, strength, and jumping ability. Unless Pearl can casually slice through diamond, the only way she is hurting Bort is by striking at the cleavage angles of diamonds on a skilled opponent. Which I expect Pearl to be able to do, eventually and requiring many attempts. On the other hand, the Lustrous gems can take a ton of damage before you mission kill them - you basically have to take off all the limbs and then the head, because even partially cut limbs leave a cutting edge that an aware gem can use.

Not certain about Pearl's durability, but I give Bort a good shot a chance at damaging a Universe gem enough to "poof" her. At least before Bort takes too much damage herself.

[Captain Morgan]

I don't know much about Bort, but does "swords only" preclude other powers? Because Pearl can do stuff like spam holo pearls with swords to act as distractions or fodder.

[BitVyper]

Mm, go ahead and answer for either if you like. I was mainly talking about how they're geared here.

[Captain Morgan]

Mm, go ahead and answer for either if you like. I was mainly talking about how they're geared here.

Well, powers Pearl has busted out include holograms, solid light construct clones, energy blasts, and most recently the ability to store physical objects inside her mind. I need to review the latest episode to see if she can pull that off in combat, but if so that's probably a win right there regardless of durability.

She's also durable enough to take hits from Garnet fused with Amethyst. Garnet strength feats alone are pretty damn significant, and the fusion represented a major upgrade.

[BitVyper]

That doesn't seem feated well enough to be a combat ability. She didn't do it on the fly or anything, and Steven was willing. Plus it's not good for a ten count even, since that seems to put Steven in Pearl's mind, so there's no saying Bort couldn't just start running roughshod over Pearl's mind, at least enough to qualify as still being in combat, with both of them being immortal.

As far as taking hits goes, ultimately Pearl's problem there is that as strong as her image is, her Pearl is still a Pearl, and Bort is made of diamond, and the actual gems themselves don't have a lot for durability feats. Amethyst's got cracked from a bad fall off a cliff, which I don't even think would have happened to an actual piece of quartz. IIRC the only thing we've ever seen that was targetted directly at a gem was the Breaking Point, which never actually hit a gem, so we don't know how they would have held up to it, but wasn't really THAT impressive of a weapon.

[Captain Morgan]

That doesn't seem feated well enough to be a combat ability. She didn't do it on the fly or anything, and Steven was willing. Plus it's not good for a ten count even, since that seems to put Steven in Pearl's mind, so there's no saying Bort couldn't just start running roughshod over Pearl's mind, at least enough to qualify as still being in combat, with both of them being immortal.

As far as taking hits goes, ultimately Pearl's problem there is that as strong as her image is, her Pearl is still a Pearl, and Bort is made of diamond, and the actual gems themselves don't have a lot for durability feats. Amethyst's got cracked from a bad fall off a cliff, which I don't even think would have happened to an actual piece of quartz. IIRC the only thing we've ever seen that was targetted directly at a gem was the Breaking Point, which never actually hit a gem, so we don't know how they would have held up to it, but wasn't really THAT impressive of a weapon.

I don't necessarily disagree with any of this. But I will point out that she did it reasonably quickly. She zapped Steven with what essentially acted as a tractor beam, then sucked him in. It certainly seems like something that needs an opening to pull off, but Pearl could potentially generate that by having holo pearls dog pile Bort, for example.

We also don't have any evidence to suggest something locked inside her head can cause her damage, at least in the literal fight sense. We in fact have some evidence otherwise; her demonstrated capacity for compartmentalization makes it seem like she can just lock someone away in some corner of her mind to never deal with again.

That seems like it probably would have a long term negative effect on her mental being, and probably explains some of her neuroses, but I think it still qualifies as a win. It isn't like she's going to want to let Bort out and then subconsciously self sabotage like she did with her phone.