@BlueJayBaseball
Griffin shrugged. She was right. But it would take time. He doubted that the fight would last that long. The girl didn't seemed to have noticed his shadow wolves. He wasn't sure what to think of yhat. No one had completely ignored his creations. Maybe she assumed that they were like the axes. But they werent. "Did you know that there are creatures that libe in the deep shadows?"

A door at the back of the guild slowly inched open, anyone paying attention could see a eye peek though before slowly opening further. A man clad in leathers, cloth and bronze snuck through the door trying to avoid everyone's gaze. Careful so as not so slam the door Stepney closed the door and made his way further into the guild and tried to look like he'd been there all along, He'd been late to the last one of these and he'd rather not have his ear chewed off for it.

@olcharlieboi

Nendo raised his eyebrows, this Shikigami magic could be a danger, but he'd get to that whenever he was able. "Golem Pact." Nendo bites his index finger, and swipes blood across each of the knight's backs, the blood glows, before disappearing, as the knights begin to march, their weaponry ready. "And I might as well lay another trap.." Nendo once again forms a molding magic stance, as a magic circle appears. "Clay make: Fort tower." Nendo pushes his hands below him, as a tower of clay rises from under him, giving him a good vantage point.

@NachoBachoPacho
He would chuckle "like two generals observing their armies" he states "only difference between us.. I go for quality not quantity" he states as his two knights charge forward, they was nearly twice as big as one of Nendo's clay knights. they would give a huge swing of their blades at the knights.

Ava folded her arms once more, raising a brow at the shadow wolves. Her ice blue hair swayed as a chilly wind blew. She watched the wloved come up at her, and she didn't move. "Griffin, they are shadoes. Yes, they are stronger then your pathetic axes, but they are still shadows." She reminded him, stepping back onto the frozen floor. "How about a bone?" She joked to Griffin.

"Really? Are you sure?" Griffin asked sarcastically. Yes they were shadow but they weren't like his axes. Hell he hadn't even been trying with the axes. He just wanted to see her reaction. He could have made them stronger if he had wanted to. He was running out of time but he wasn't out yet. As long as there were shadows he could attack. He just had to make his attacks count. Both wolfs jumped at her. They would be much more solid then the axes. "The shadows are deeper now."

@KatherinWinter
Ava watched both wolves for a moment, letting them attack. "It's also becoming night. You won't have a lot of time, and neither will I. Once night falls, you won't have shadows. Just darkness, and darkness is a different power." Ava noted, once the wolves finished attack. She glared at them for a moment. A bite mark on her arm, but it wasn't strong enough to give her any harsh pain. She gritted her teeth at Griffin, before aiming a new idea of hers. She still had some sunlight left. Quickly, she raced into a different direction and started rebuilding her ice walls for lighting. If the light caught the wolves, it might work.

Taking a few more steps into to guild it quickly became clear to Stepney something was up, for one the hall seemed empty save for one or two guild members floating about. Where was everyone? Even the old man seemed to have buggered off some where, its not like they had days off and the usually bustling hall's silence left him uneasy.

"Shit..." Stepney let out a sigh as the memory of what was on today came rushing back to him, with a stretch of his arm he slowly made his way through the mostly empty guild and out the front "Better get a wriggle on or I'll be left in the dust"

In no time at all Stepney was racing down the path towards what he hoped was the first challenge, trust him to forget about an important event like the tournament even after all the reminders leading up to the day. When he arrived at a small pack of mages that he recognized to be fairy tail, this obstacles must be a rough one if its kept them here this whole time. Looking it over is seemed to be nothing but a simple riddle, I guess thinking was still one of this guilds weaker suits.

The riddle was a bit of a classic, nothing as iconic as the sphinx's what walks on however many legs one but still held enough presence for Stepney to recall this riddle and it's appropriate answer.

@olcharlieboi

"Not a bad sentiment, but i'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone who wouldn't make quality work, i'm a perfectionist you see." Nendo grinned, as he pressed his palm onto the tower he stood in, watching the knights charge each other, the Shikigami knights were able to cleave through Nendo's knights, fairly easily, some turning into dust as they were destroyed, others falling. "Okay, your knights were stronger than I expected, but its alright, I can improvise." the fallen knights, began to stand up, some dragging their upper halves towards Nendo's opponent, others reassembling themselves. "That would've destroyed most living creatures, but my Golems wont stop marching, until I tell them to!"

@BlueJayBaseball
The sun was fading. He had no seriously hurting the girl. The good news was that she hadn't seriously hurt him either. If could dangerous but it wasn't the best weapon against him. The cold didn't effective much and she couldn't trap him. Which meant they were more or less at a draw. Unless she had something up her sleeve. "I think we should call it a draw. You have no way of hurting me and I have no way of hurting you."

@KatherinWinter
Ava nodded. "Agreed. Maybe later in the year we can battle again. I barely knew you or what your power was. Maybe the next time we battle, it will be more... Exciting." Ava told them. Her ice was melting and Ava was tired. She looked at cuts on her arm and looked back at Griffin. "Nice." That was the only thing she said. She then turned and headed for the way she came, before looking at him. "The ice will melt soon and then you can leave, if you don't have something to 'magically' get you out of there. I don't think you fly." She joked toward him. He'd get out of the ice himself, and Ava knew that.

With the confidence that there were people still to solve the first challenge Stepney slowed his pace to a jog, no need to push it if he didn't have to. If this was the bar for challenges he should make up the time easy, then again Gramps never did like going all out on his guild right from the start, probably meant that it was going to be a lot harder from here on out. Stepney's suspicions were confirmed when he saw the first of many walls lining the road. He watched carefully as other guild members waited their turn to try lifting the large slabs of stone, by the looks of the increasing strain taken on each slab they were getting heavier the further you made it along the road, additionally some would barely make it to 2 tons or so and continue on.

Stepney waited his turn and made his way before the first wall, he began lifting the stones for as long as he could under his own power, no need to bust out a jack on every one of these slabs. He didn't made it far past 220 pounds/100 kilograms before was panting heavily his bronze arm having reached its limit and his real arm had given up on even helping a few slabs back. Slowly catching his breath took a wide stance in front of the next stone wall.

"All right wall boy, kiddie gloves off" Stepney extended his prosthetic arm he and ran his real one along it until it rested on the back of his hand "Bronze Make: Jack!".

An orange magic circle appeared before the metallic hand and underneath the wall, slowly the stone began to rise as a bronze plate formed underneath it. When fully formed it looked similar a hydroponic press, a small rode of metal extended out towards Stepney with a cog on the end. A normal press would probably have a rode to be turned but it was a whole lot easier to let his machines do the work for him, dropping his stance he removed the hand from his mechanical arm. Stepney thanked the gods again that his arm wasn't directly connected to his neural network he attacked the strange cog to the stump where his hand was and let it rip. If he where to turn it by hand getting though this stage could have taken hours but with his hand he could get past each wall in less than a minute.

This pace however wouldn't be able to be sustained, the hydraulic Jack gave out somewhere after the 2 ton mark the forearm was shredded from the back lash when the stone came crashing down on the mechanism. His wall seemed as good as any having made it further then several members who walked on, content he continued to the next challenge leaving his arm in tatters.

"I'll fix it later" he muttered to himself.

It was horrible, tragic, stupid even! Stepney paced angrily back and forth at the lakes edge having thrown the remains of his metal hand into said lake, "Endurance my ass!” the blond man grumbled to himself.

To the metal mage, water was good for nothing except keeping hydrated, it’s not like he could just build a bridge... well he could but that didn't feel like it was the spirit of the games. He could swim; just not very well and his arm weighed him down more than it helped propel him through the water “well nothing for it I guess” he sighed sadly having concluded his little spat.

Stepney threw aside his jacket, waistcoat, shirt and started fiddling with the shoulder joint that kept the arm attached to him. With a hiss and thud the large metal contraption fell from his side and embedded itself in the dirt before evaporating. Throwing all his cloths into a bronze box he sealed the top that combined with another contraption designed to fling said box over the lake should keep his gear dry while he failed across the water. Making a motion as if to wind-up his non-existent arm he made his way slowly into the cold and unforgiving lake, he began to slowly paddle.

This was going to be a long one.

@BlueJayBaseball
Griffin snorted. He didnt need the ice to melt in order to leave. He wasn't trapped by any means. He didnt even have to move. The shadows were nearly gone but there was enough of them left for them for him to use them. Not as weapons. But to escape. He stepped into the nearest shadow and disappeared. At least that is what it would look like to those that couldn't see into the shadow realm.

@KatherinWinter
Ava turned and walked away. She had her hands on her pockets, cuts open, sleeves up, and a calm look on her face. She walked over to her friends, who had different expressions.

Roxian had an excited and mischief look on hers. "THAT. WAS. EPIC. YOU GOT COOL SCARS NOW!" She smiled, running over to look at them.

[color=a2d39c1]Willow was scared. "You're hurt!! Did you get him?? Be nice and careful!!" Willow squeaked, running and hugging the emotionless girl.[/color]

The water on the other side of the lake was calm, it looked like nothing could disturb the soft ripples that flowed up and down the bank. That was of course till a burst from beneath the waves and began clawing at the dirt, slowly and with now small amount of effort it began heaving a Stepney out from the depths.

Slowly crawling into an upright position Stepney opened his mouth and a torrent of water that couldn't have been contained in his mouth along gushed forth and back into the lake. The look on his face said it all, 'I hate water'. Coughing a little he hauled himself up to the bronze box that had been flung across the lake and opened it. At least no one had stolen his cloths, quick to dry himself off he got dressed and stumbled towards the final challenges.

Just before entering the stadium, Stepney took a moment to rebuild his arm though his bronze maker magic. It wasn't nearly as well put together as the one he had when he started, it’s not like he would have the time to spend tweaking it but if included all the necessary functions Strength, basic tools and it did look like it was going to fall apart.

Walking inside he took up a position near the ring, looked like they were wrapping up here he should probably find someone to brawl with.

@NachoBachoPacho
He chuckles "undying wills, useful, but thing is what use is it if they do enough harm to matter?" he say on the back of his griffon, as his knights continue to cleave with swords marching forward towards the tower, stepping on any golem that happens to be in their walking paths. "You need a heavy hitter if you want to take on pure metal with only clay" he states "granted Shikigami are fairly easy to defeat, you just have to be able to serve a big enough hit to do so" he says "would you rather I bring out one of my other 'friends'?" he chuckles.

@BlueJayBaseball
Having rested long enough Stepney pushed of the railing he rested against and made his way off to sign him up for both magical and physical rounds. On his way to his fight he made sure his arm was working to some standards, the gears rods and other systems in place didn't seem to grind up against each other in any detrimental fashion. Stepney took one last deep breath before entering the ground feeling his heart beat faster almost regretting signing up for a second round after this one.

@Pineappletumble
Roxian left her gathering of friends and made her way to the area. Her red spiked hair laid flat and she wore headphones. She was taller by a little, and didn't look worried a bit. Roxian folded her arms and examined who she was fighting. "Is this... What I'm up against?" Roxian joked, her eyes flaring. She was ready. Roxian was a strong girl. But she was even better, physical fighting.

@BlueJayBaseball
Stepney was a little taken a back by the red head's blunt comment, everything about how she carried herself oozed confidence and it was a little unnerving. Trying to stay calm he took a long hard took at her trying to place her face within the guild so he might better understand what she was capable of. Try as he might her face just didn't line up with anything outside of, she'd been there from time to time. Letting out a scowl Stepney cursed himself for not having paid more attention to his surroundings when in the guild hall. He'd have to end this quick, she looked a whole lot more capable in hand to hand combat then he was, hell she could probably overpower him easily if it weren't for the strength his Mechanical arm provided him.

"Don't look down on me!" roaring as charged across the area Stepney run his real hand through the dirt grabbing a handful and throwing it towards his opponents face. Not waiting to see if it had even worked he then brought his metallic arm to bear aimed for her right shoulder.