It would be a damned shame if Shin could watch her every movement and see what she was doing as it was happening. It would be a shame if Shin didn't notice how much probing she had been doing. It would be a shame if Shin could intentionally sever the connection between parts of the Black Staff.

Sure would be a shame if all of those were factors in this battle.

It was also a shame that the battle was about to come to a sudden and jarring close.

A literal close as she had, in her overconfidence, put herself in the middle of his death trap. Right in the middle of around twenty feet of spikes and blunt tendrils as they were closing in on her. She had one thing right, her spell would have totally disrupt The Black Staff. Had it had made contact with it. As she swooped into her dive, as her blade was thrust towards his barrier, Shin opened a hole before her. Allowing her blade to pass through the bulk of his construct and towards himself. Like a camera's rolling shutter, it rotated open as her weapon came down.

Why?

Isn't it obvious? She had put too much faith in her ability that she didn't realize she was trapping herself. No matter how fast her movemnts were, she had willfully thrust her weapon arm forwards to shatter his own weapon. She had done a number on him, yes. Broken a few ribs, his right arm was gone and his face had been fractured by the weight of his mask slamming into it. His right leg had a hairline fracture, and he had actually been stabbed by a shard of rock from her concussive blast. But she hadn't dismembered him, she hadn't broken every limb, she hadn't killed him.

And that was enough.

Shin was prepared for her stab, that's why he was prepared to move. Shin vaulted backwards, using the nearby spear as a springboard. Shin raised the entirety of his body upwards with a sharp backwards leap, pulling his center of mass up like a pole vaulter in reverse. Her blade passed harmlessly beneath his body as he vaulted away, but he wasn't nearly done with her. He extended the makeshift arm to push himself further away from the body of his weapon. All in one fluid and catastrophic motion his devious machinations unfolded.

She didn't notice the similarities? Shin thought to himself.

The Hydra's the bastard child of an Iron Maiden and a Bear Trap, as her weapon passed through the barrier. As Shin gave the illusion of his Staff collapsing from her spell, her stab would continue forward. Why? Because she put too much speed behind it. The staff would snap forward and downwards like the jaws of a Goblin Shark. Right around the arm that she extended with the blade. Hopefully, though not a certainty, to repay the arm that she had taken away from him.

But that's not all. Remember that he was closing it around her anyway? Remember that he had raised it upwards so it could spear her as she moved away? No?

Shin raised the backside up to strike at her before, and she had countered with her defense of myriad blades. The entire bulk of the entity had not simply stopped moving, and this was her great folly. She had thrown herself at great speed into the center of it. The rear end had already been raised, the barrier that he had raised between himself and her was brought up to create a pseudo jaw shape. The size of her blade and her own body made this whole contraption the perfect size for ensnaring and spearing a human sized body. The remaining bulk of the contraption would snap shut around her like a bear trap, consuming and impaling her from all sides.

But Shin had one more weapon to ensure that she wasn't going anywhere.

Corban had even eliminated her own escape route by not cutting it off. It was still overhead. Shin didn't rid himself of the claw, and so too had it a purpose in his incredibly convoluted plan. The claw was the roof of his three pronged prison. It dropped its weight on top of the entire construct.

As he vaulted away and held himself aloft with the extended makeshift arm, he sneered behind his mask. Shin had even put himself outside of harm's way just in case she managed to escape his devastating plot.

Edit: For Grammar.

Of all his carefully made mistakes, he made a single correct assumption; she was certainly probing. Had he not morphed his weapon in close quarters when he stole her expensive contact lens? Did he not morph his weapon against her blade barrier? Did he not examplify its morphic strength with this Hydra beast? She had found a series of patterns - of rules that Shin preferred to play with. Furthermore, she never forgot details.

She expected point blank feints

With the world ticking slowly by like the hands of a grandfather clock, she witnessed the barrier dialate and open like a blooming flower in a surprisingly high definition that plasma screens could only immitate. This would be no matter. All of her stores were still stocked, and they would be released like a spear into the Kraken regardless.

The moment the tip of her sword passed through the opening the ghostly blue charge would be released in wide, reaching branches that would lash out at all of the space beside and afront of her before fizzling out in a brilliant burst of violet starfire. No matter how careful his eye, most humans --ascended or not-- had trouble reacting to stimuli within a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second. That spoke nothing of his Hydra, which contained far more surface area than the measly Shin by comparison.

This action would once again leave them free falling, as originally intended. His staff arm, which was fused with his shield would be destroyed by the same processes that stopped the Hydra, given it was the object closest to the discharge. the rules still applied; if he did not let go, he would be subject to the ionized wrath as well. In a seccond flat, she'd be upon him like a bat out of hell.

In mid-air, and subject to the laws of a free-floating environment, Shin would find himself assaulted by a total of nine Guardian Edge Claymore's, and nine accompanying strikes. They would come to perform his enneasection infernally quick, so quick that she disappeared between each cut and stab. Instead of a single warrior assaulting with a single weapon, Shin would instead see the faint flicker of her apparition over each sword as they cut. It would all come to a head when she'd reappear a final time above him with an overhead, two handed cleave downward. The blades would reappear with her, alligned into elegant blade-wings. From this position, her back would be to the sun, but staring directly into Shin's eye.

If he saw her sillhouette, she may have truly appeared to be an angel of death.

Yes, indeed, her spell was fired off inside of the gap. Just as her sword breached and Shin had bodily vaulted away from her sword's menace. It blasted out in a wide arc and struck itself against the walls of Shin's barrier and blew out the other side like a beam of electricity. A semi-tangible stream of bright blue light erupted from his barrier's porthole. In that moment, in that single moment, he realized something. Something that the both of them should have noticed from the start. Shin, with his knowledge of his own weapon, and the learned knowledge of Crystalle. For the first time since the fight had started, Shin's eye showed genuine confusion and sudden realization in two quick eye motions.

The realization hurt more than anything so far.NOTHING ESCAPES THE TOUCH OF THE BLACK STAFF! The assassin screamed to himself inside of his mind, imagine the loudest scream you can. Yeah now imagine it a thousand fold, that's about how loud he was screaming at himself.

In all their motions, Shin hadn't even noticed just how little he had utilized this ability. The staff was fully capable of deflecting objects of any property, even if they were on another plane of existence. No form of matter or energy was immune to this effect, Shin had always subconsciously avoided making contact with gaseous and fluid materials. Obviously it makes moving the staff around feel natural, he had so little use for the ability that he often forgot he even had it. It was not just a normal forgetful 'oops' either, it was something that came up so rarely that it had been shelved like a bottle of whiskey.

An ethereal blast of energy existed on the ethereal plane, it may as well have been as hard as steel itself when it made contact. Everything on the ethereal plane was energy, and the staff can make contact with anything. Regardless of the plane of existence. The energy ricocheted off the inside of his barrier and ejected violently out the other side. Anything that it made direct contact with was incinerated, and let me tell you something. That hurts, any idiot who says that emotional pain is the greatest has clearly never felt one's soul get the equivalent of a brand. Even as he was put outside of the line of fire and out of immediate danger. Shin was lashed with what felt like a thousand whips from all directions, coupled with the busted up state of his body, this was not a happy day for Shincoco.

Aside from the fact that his offense was not only unaffected by the spell, but still in progress. Corban had even less time to escape, as well as pull her hand out of the line of fire for his Goblin Shark bite.

This was all starting to seem awefully familiar. A single warrior facing against unspeakable beasts... and slaying them? Why, with the way she carried her sword and felled his Hydra, she was beginning to truly feel like the kin of Beowulf!

His weapon could have stopped the likes of dragon curbstomps, but that would not stop its monstrous foot from touching the staff. Even if it repelled water, unless it possessed some form of intangible and invisible barrier, it would still get wet. Despite however many bells and whistles it could tote, this would not change the weapons supernatural condictivity, nor fully blunt the charge. What was reflected would only be a minimal fraction of what still coursed through the surface of the Hydra.

The weakened beam would split upon her outstretched crystal sword on its return trip, dissipating into a harmless gust of radiation at her sides. The magical echo and crystalline structure would make it naturally non-conductive on both a spiritual and mechanical level. Shin would be far less lucky on his end of things.

With the tables once again flipped in her favor, she'd follow up exactly as she would before save a single change - this time she brandished two blades at once. Her strikes would come in uneven time and would fall upon his cardinal axes where it would be hardest to parry. If he attempted to somehow course-correct, she would as well.

Utilizing her superb memory, an indespensible tool for the learned mage, her last spell was metaphorically loaded into a cartridge; the ethereal bolt and her swords respectively. At the first sign of his weapon re-emerging, she'd be primed to strike it down once more.

In mid air as his entire structure was demolished, Shin severed the connection with his staff directly. Leaving only the component surrounding himself as method to maintain his position in the air, he folded his legs and raised his left hand. The reduction of his mass allowed him to drift slowly downwards, he had resigned himself after the failure of his offense.

Magic was not his strong suit, and he was pretty certain he'd avoid fighting another mage without proper preparations next time. Shin only spoke two words as he drifted downwards. "I concede." With his pride hurt, and his offense broken, this fight was lost. Even with his love of combat and bloodshed, there was no reason to continue a lost fight.

Whether or not his opponent struck him down before he touched the ground, this fight was over for Shin.

The point of her leading blade was only centimeters from his heart when he finished his resignation. She pulled back sharply at the last second, transitioning into a jerky backward mid-air somersault. They would both land on opposite ends of the arena into patches of prestine foliage. How amazing it had not been destroyed in the battle! By intention or nature, neither of them seemed to want to ruin what beauty there was to be had here. That required restraint.

In a flash of light Crystalle split into the sum of her parts. In her place was now a dark robed mage, this time all man, and a platinum haired woman. Her skin was pale-blue. He may have thought it familiar. "Very well. I'll be forthcoming and say you've earned my respect, Shin. I was beginning to think planning three steps ahead was a wasted effort. You've given me hope."

With a smirk and a curtsey from the man and sort-of woman respectively, they stood upright and Corban pointed to the sky with his fingers curled into the shape of a gun. He cocked the 'hammer'.

"I hope we meet again on friendlier terms." He pulled the trigger, and they vanished in a cryogenic blast that left behind an icy wind and beautiful glacial spires. A cerulean blue jetstream streaked through the afternoon sky like a comet.

Shin had bowed his head and that was the end of his response to her farewell, this time he had been defeated. For this moment he was filled with an unholy rage, but he kept it concealed. Even behind his mask he kept his face totally placid, no emotion showed. It was not until she had sailed off into the distance that he spoke.

"It will not be on good terms. Magic is my single weakness and it was exploited." In this moment he spoke of his own weakness, realizing his own shortcomings were not pleasant. It was not something one could readily train for, but Shin would find a way. Evading simply wasn't enough, and neither was his staff. It had been created as the ultimate weapon, but a single weapon was not enough.

As he muttered to himself he raised to his feet and walked over to his right hand. Now very greyed from the blood loos. "It will be on very poor terms."