Olivier was quite surprised at the discovery, not as much that the girl was from the same state as he was, but that she could trace him back there. During his life, he had only met two space wielders so far, and neither could do tracking quite like that. And track wielding it was - the girl was probably not aware of his infamy; otherwise, she'd be much more reluctant to offer her friendship. [color=ff0000]"Nova... beautifully suggestive name. It is, indeed, quite unlike home. But when we will be mercenaries, we won't have the luxury of fighting in bearable weather, so this place is a mixed blessing of sorts. And I full heartedly agree that stopping for the night is a horrendous idea. Not only is finding a suitably safe place for a shelter a waste of time, but whomever has endurance pitiful enough not to endure two days of sleeplessness scarcely deserves to enroll."[/color] As he was talking, glancing at the thoughtful girl, she yanked him by the arm with surprising force, pulling him into the water. A ball of blue flame passed right over them.

Dismayed by the wetness of his new garments, but thankful for Nova's good reaction times, Olivier helped himself up and her aswell. [color=ff0000]"I believe some hot shot new guy fails to make a difference between being able to kill other students for strategy and for kicks. Either way, we shall deal with him as he deserves."[/color] Saying such, Olivier set himself into fighting position, which for dark users like himself meant eyes half squinted and the gloved hand waving arcane symbols.

The next blue fireball that came their way turned black slowly on its trajectory, withering away into nothing. This was a rarely used technique of Dark Wielding - a Dark Wielder could intercept the creations of other wielders, corrupt them, and fade them away, similar to a functional counterspell. It was rarely used because the energy it took for the Dark Wielder to counter the opposing ability was roughly 50% higher than that expended by the aggressor, which rendered countering all but useless in attrition or long battles. However, since dark wielders themselves were quite rare, Olivier was hoping the student who attacked them simply didn't know those facts, and would be intimidated by what he just did. Also, rather than taunt him, The Contractor spoke thusly, intending to make the situation as little bothersome as possible: [color=ff0000]"Beyond being outnumbered, out-supplied, and likely out-sustained by us, since you've been yanking those balls of blue mild heat for a while now - it's pretty audible - you're attracting enough attention to yourself that you're only going to get even mre outnumbered, out-supplied, and exhausted soon. Do yourself and us both a favor and get lost. I assure you we won't follow, it's too wasteful."[/color]

After this longer taunt, Olivier scanned the area, both for previously unnoticed threats and other fireballs. He saw an unusually short middle-aged man with shoddy clothing approaching them, and after a second, crouching between a bush to avoid the fusillade of flame. Recognition dawned on him. [color=ff0000]"Oh, greetings. I quite recount you, albeit not your name, to be completely honest. Arguillan, debtor, mayhaps? Don't bother hiding, by the way, the guy that's targeting us will be out of steam soon."[/color]