"Ah, shit!" Travis yelped as he frantically launched his entire mass out of sights of the golem's destructive counterattack.

By a mere second, Travis had managed to propel himself out of the way as he felt the sting of the intense heat from the stream of pure energy casted by the golem. As Travis scrambled to pick himself up from the ground, he nearly missed the clear transparent fumes that radiated from his coat, signifying how close he was from the beam that nearly incinerated him.

Just as he heard Nemo called out his "insurance" of handling the situation and seeing his comrade distract the golem further, Travis turned to Raiya, still feeling edgy about being nearly vaporized. "Any better ideas than a full-on assault?"

Raiya jumped back in time to see the wall of flames erupt in front of her.

The flames weren't subsiding, Raiya, assessing the flames as a problem, drew her sword.

"Kaze no kenjutsu: ryuu no tsubasa! (Wind style: Dragon's wings)" Raiya recited. A white aura briefly enveloped her. Then the white aura traveled down and focused in the sword. She then slashed a horizontal slash at the wall of flames, sending a crescent shaped burst of wind at the wall, which dispersed the flames immediately.

She sheathed her sword and turned back to Travis.

"If Shiro-san (Mr. White) wants to take this on his own, we should let him." Raiya replied, as she sat down on her knees, placing the odachi across her lap. Raiya was more interested in seeing just the extent of Nemo's mana absorption ability. She would not waver from her goal, and being a part of this group for very much longer was preventing her from completing it. She had to figure a way, a weakness to Nemo. Watching him fight was the best way to gather information.

A being as large as the golem was easy for Nemo to predict it's physical attacks, he swiftly dodged to right with a enhanced dash and shuffled out of it's range from what he had gathered. So there's no absolute physical barrier between me and the paragon. That makes things easy. He noted.

Nemo used the reprieve to look back to his teammates, seeing Raiya sitting down seemed to spark his thoughts. It was just a joke, I didn't mean I was literally goi- He cut off, his blank faced expression turned more unhinged as he looked at her. No... no-no no-no, nothing that innocent, this isn't ignorance at play her, it's quite the opposite. She's doing three things all at once: She's trying to get me killed by neglecting my well being. She's trying to gauge my capabilities to defeat me later. And all the while showing me as little of her own magicks, conserving her own mana. How impressively vicious. At this point Nemo had begun to grin uncontrollably, letting out audible chuckle as well.

Fine, fine fine fine, if it's my abilities you want to see, then I'll have no choice but to oblige you. Nemo thought as he cupped his hands together and brought them up to his mouth, whispering some phrase hidden to the rest of the group.
@ShiningSector
Nemo turned away from her and glanced to Travis. "Travis! I need you to do something to momentarily disrupt the construct for me." He declared with an upbeat tone. To anyone paying attention, the X on Nemo's glove now gave off a feint glow after he uncupped his hands.

Travis raised an eyebrow as he stared at Raiya, responding to her unusual gesture and remarkable calmness as she casually sat on her knees and observed Nemo and the golem have at it. It was almost as if the presence of the monstrously sized construct didn't even faze her despite its appearance taking the group by surprise and awe moments ago. What exactly was Raiya even thinking allowing Nemo to engage the golem by himself? Travis on the other hand however was still on edge as he helplessly watched the fight; unsure of Raiya's words in not assisting but at the same time hesitant to get stuck in without a game plan.

It was then Nemo that grabbed his attention by vocally requesting the he distract the golem. "O-on my way!" nervously replied Travis has he rushed around the golem's flank.

The idea of getting anywhere near the Paragon-powered construct in all of its intimidating attributes was something Travis really didn't want to do. As he closed distance behind the golem, the larger it became and the more dreadful the situation Travis was personally interpreting became. Once he got himself in positioned, he looked up at the stern of the golem, Travis frantically brainstormed how he was going to "disrupt" the rocky behemoth as Nemo earlier suggested. Large spells were definitely out of the question due to expensive mana requirements and some of his more trickier arts demanded time that he clearly didn't have. So what could he do?

His backdraft rune spell could work; it had plenty of power and with such little mana requirements, he could effectively cast it more than once. But then again, what good did a spout of fire have against earth? The attack would of likely just darken the golem's minerals hide in soot. Overall; not very effective. Anything else?

A second later, Travis recalled his cryo spell he was still orchestrating. Much of it was still incomplete and how it would be casted would still a rough idea. In fact, the completed work was merely a rough draft and that was about it. But what if it did work? It was an extraordinary long shot but it if did work, it was theoretically possible to affect the golem in a big way. What was here to lose aside from a backfire or being squished? Travis then quickly produced his notebook and aggressively turned the pages so he could see his work. As he gazed over the notes, the more looming the thought of wasting time was as he stared at the pages

Screw it, he though as he stretched the notebook open and placed his palm on the page containing the experimental rune. With a mental verse, he then imprinted the markings to his own hand before kneeling down and applying both palms to the first and gravle beneath him.

"Here goes nothing!" Travis announced to Nemo has he charged the rune with a supplement of mana.

If this spell was like its fiery counterpart, the slightest application of magical energy would immediately set it off and it was at that moment Travis braced for the sudden shift in casualty to occur. Seconds would tick on by and Travis would soon open one of his eye to examine his surroundings, only to find nothing had occurred. Nothing had chilled in temperature, nothing frozen. No spell.

"...Well, fu-"

Before he could finish openly cursing his frustrations did an unexpected spark of mana jolt from his fingertips. Travis only has a second to observe the strange phenomenon before everything in front of him, including the golem, vanished in a huge plume misty and cold white.

The golem utilized the Paragon of Espial the way it was meant to be utilized, in order to gather information through observation. Its immediate assessment of the group were that the only two threats were Raiya and Nemo. This was the flaw in the formula that programmed the golem that would eventually lead to its ultimate defeat.

As Travis approached, the golem kept its eye Nemo, predicting his moves. It did not, however, predict the scholar and his usage of a mana efficient deep cryo-storm spell. The rune burst forth with a blizzard tempest that quickly froze the giant construct in its place.

The quick freeze spell momentarily disabled the construct, but it quickly rebooted and assessed the damage. Noticing it was frozen, it began to prepare an ignis spell to thaw itself out, the spell would take only a half a minute to activate and fully thaw out the construct.

Raiya raised an eyebrow at Travis and the new rune that she had never seen before. If he ends up taking a liking to Nemo, he could be trouble. Raiya mentally noted.

Nemo took action as soon as Travis' spell activated. That'll do splendidly. He released his own spell underhand, emitting a football sized ball of white energy traveling as fast as he hurled it. The spell didn't seem all that impressive until it reached about halfway to the golem, speeding up and transforming into a giant X mid-flight about one third the size of the golem itself.

As it approached, the remainder of the blizzard covering the golem seemed to be dispersed by the energy emitting from Nemo's own spell. Sensing the oncoming danger, the ignis spell was overcharged, breaking it's arms lose at the last second. It attempted to generate a magic shield backed by it's massive arms, but Nemo knew it would be pointless. The spell he used was the same type he defeated the late Garvian Stellos with, and one of his strongest. It combined both his raw power and his anti-magic capabilities.

The spell collided with the barrier, instantly shattering it and continuing onto the golem itself. It exploded once it connected with the golem, transferring all the energy forward, ripping through both its arms, and it's body itself. While the front of the golem sustained heavy damage, most of the energy expanded outwards, completely hollowing out the back of it.

Nemo himself was already on the move, he closed in on the golem while it was weak like a jackal. Once in good range he used his warp spell to transport him to the paragon as quickly as possible. Without it's arms, and still reeling from both Travis' and Nemo's attacks, it had nothing left to stop Nemo from plucking the gem from it's socket in time.

Nemo surgically removed the paragon from it's rocky setting, immediately causing the body of the golem to collapse. He dismounted from it before it crashed to the ground, crumbling back into rubble.

After getting back onto solid ground, Nemo strolled back up to the group. He eyed the gem in his hands much like a jeweler would, fascinated by its power but more so by it's beauty. He eventually looked to Travis. "That was a wonderful display, Travis. Very avant-garde. Here, how about you hold it." Nemo complimented him before suddenly tossing him the paragon.

"And you" Nemo continued as he looked over to Raiya, holding his hands up and giving a light but frantic clap for a few moments as he shifted over to her. "I'm glad to see someone can still take it easy around here. High strung people can really start to give me a headache." Nemo explained as he began to almost violently hit himself over the head a few times during his last words. "It's not often I get to have a real audience, so I hope that I can really surpass your expectations, hmm?."

A chill ran down Raiya's spine. The display of raw power from Nemo, was in a way awesome, but also completely terrifying. And the way he spoke afterwards, him hitting himself in the head. Raiya was dealing with a certified lunatic. Nemo didn't even appear to have broken a sweat after all he had done. And the worst part was, Raiya knew that Nemo had figured out her plan to have him die in an accident.

This could have easily broken Raiya. Leaving her to cower and run and never look back. But instead, she kept composure. Only allowing a hint of wavering in her voice.

"Y-yeah. That was really something. I've never seen any magic quite like it." Raiya replied as she stood up, clutching at the scabbard of her sword hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

"Good... good. I'm really glad you see it that way." Nemo replied, his tone and 'sincere' smile he gave afterwards had a fake feeling to them, only elevated by his white eyes which seemed to be methodically watching her reactions.

What a familiar feeling in the air... fear. She compliments me the same way you would try to get on the good side of a maniac with a gun to your head so he doesn't pull the trigger. Just feeding me what I want to hear, it's a disgrace. I really had hopes that a gang leader would be different, but she looks at me the same way everyone else does. Just wants me to die, disappear.

The only action Nemo made during his inner monologue was his right eye twitching once, something might have actually upset him. He reached over and patted her a few times on the shoulder with his left hand, causing her metal decorated jacket to faintly jingle a bit. "That really is a lovely jacket you've got." Nemo commented before resting his hands in his pockets and shifting back in the middle of Travis and Raiya.

Despite the odds of the prototype runic spell failing or worse; backfiring, the spell fired and performed as expected, save for the minor delay. Rune projected a raging blizzard that quickly consumed the earthly construct within its thick cryogenic atmosphere. The golem, caught of guard was almost instantly encased in frost and ice, preventing the golem from moving or responding any immediate threats.

Once the mist of cold and saturated ice particles dissipated, Travis found himself looking up to the golem's figure frozen in place, "Huh, that worked better than I expected," replied a satisfied Travis who was also relieved to see the threat temporarily immobilized.

It was then a minute later that the golem stirred attempting to at first move before concluding its inconvenient state. With a Ignis spell now being casted, Travis naturally gulped in worry, fully anticipating the golem's new target would be him, now that his attack proved to be a liability the construct could not ignore. But the time it took to freeze the golem and its efforts to thaw itself was apparently enough for Nemo to launch his counterattack. Being behind the golem, Travis could only make out a bright light intensifying its silhouette before hearing a loud blast that soon followed with the golem's violent deconstruction.

Sensing the danger, Travis instinctively went prone and tightly covered his head has debris of the construct's natural makeup flew over him. He didn't have to wait long as Nemo took the advantage of the golem's helpless state and relinquished its position of the Paragon, condemning it back into its primordial elements as the rest of the body crumbled away. Once the dust had mostly settled, Travis slowly and carefully arose to see the once intimidating golem now reduced to nothingness with Nemo atop claiming vistory with its confiscated Paragon in hand.

Travis sighed, now fully relieved that they had survived the menacing encounter. Nemo approached him and congratulated him on his efforts in halting the golem. Travis would have openly appreciated the comment and decried his display as luck given the incompleteness of his spell but instead, he nearly yelped in surprise as Nemo tossed the Paragon to him. It was such an unanticipated movement, Travis scrambled in catching and even holding the Paragon as it slipped through his hands more than once. He quickly ans surely secured their prize with wide eyes and exposed clenched teeth, still almost panicking of dropping and expecting the Paragon to shatter. That was, of course, if it was truly fragile.

As Nemo talked to Raiya about something almost personal sounding, Travis removed his attention from the scene and refocused on the Paragon in his hands. The ungodly-saturated mana-infused gem within his grasps bore a asymmetrical shape as it emanated a very luminescent light from within. While it wouldn't have been noticeable from a distance, the light that glowed within the Paragon's crystalline form seemed to move and mutate as it would if it were reflected from the surface of a body of water. It was almost a wonder if this mystical object was alive to some degree. Whatever the case it may be, it was evidently clear of the immense power he could feel throughout his body just by even holding the Paragon. It was almost alluring for him to exploit the crystal's potential and use its power for his own. But he knew better than to stoop so low than to expand his own gain and satiate the desires created by his own weak mana reserves. If anything, his true satisfaction would be the Paragon's eventual full inspection and examination once they get back to Felix's mansion.

With Nemo and Raiya finally done and now regrouped, Travis openly commented on their accomplishment, "Now that we have our Paragon, I think its time we head out and get it back home."

"Uh... Thanks. It's my Hebi-kai Oyabun jacket. It's not that every Oyabun has a leader jacket, but I thought the rugged look suited the New York scene a lot better, so it was really my decision and design. Most Oyabun don't walk around with a symbol of their status. In fact, most of them try to keep their Yakuza ties as much of a secret as possible. No tattoos anywhere that would be exposed when wearing a business suit. That kind of thing. But I figured the Japanese business environment was best suited for... well, Japan. To blend in to America I thought it more prudent to be a bit more... liberal." Raiya explained. She offered a real smile for the compliment on her jacket. She genuinely loved her jacket. It was the first taste of wardrobe freedom she had ever really had. At the Arcanocracy she had always had to wear the robes. And after that, at the Yakuza, she was forced to wear a kimono most of the time. Though she did have the opportunity to wear disguises when needing to go undercover to assassinate or gather intel. But those opportunities were few and far between. It was obvious that individuality was reserved only for the higher ranking officers of any military style organization. And she had fantasized many times what she would wear if she had a choice. And the image that she had in her mind became a reality as soon as she was offered the Oyabun position in a new sect.

I wonder how Tsukasa-dono would react if he knew what kind of mess I am in. Would he strip me of my title? Raiya wondered.

Raiya's thoughts were disrupted after Travis suggested they leave.

"I am sure if we could get in contact with Felix, he could extract us. But being around that Paragon, I don't think that's possible. Though I suppose I could run out with biribiri no sokudo and tell Felix we need an extraction and run back. Raiya suggested.

"THAT... won't be necessary!" A voice called out from the passageway.

Raiya spun around to face the passageway just in time to see a lanky androgynous man in Arch-mage attire step from the shadows. Yes, Raiya knew who this was, she knew him all too well, from his snide smirk all the way down to his arch-mage boots.

"THADEUS!" Raiya shouted, as she drew her sword, pointing the tip at the tall dark blonde arch-mage.

"Thadeus Morningstar, in the flesh." Thadeus took an exaggeratedly flamboyant bow, tucking his left arm in and extending his right arm out, palm facing up wards, dipping his left knee down and bending his torso slightly. All the while still smiling the snide smile he always wore, as if he were in on the best joke, but only he knew the punchline. Raiya gritted her teeth and then spat on the ground in disgust at the gaudy sight.

"You have some nerve showing your face in my presence, Thadeus. Especially by yourself. You may have been too powerful for me to attempt to fight you before, but I've grown a lot since then." Raiya spat angrily.

"Ah, little Raiya, is that you?" Thadeus held his hand to his mouth gasping dramatically, "My my my, how you've grown. It's simply been a coon's age since we have last seen each other, darling." Thadeus paused and eyed Nemo, his grin turning into a full blown smile, and almost to laughter on the spot,"And, is that? Could it be? Xero the Devourer!? So you two are on a team together now! Interesting, very interesting indeed. Oh, it's been too long, much too long," His eyes grew dark, his smile still maintained, "So long in fact, that it seems you have forgotten my power." After he finished that statement he raised his arms outwards releasing the full pressure of his aura upon the room. And while it did not hold a candle to the paragon's mana level, the paragon's "aura" if it could be called that, was not pressurized. Those that are experienced in mana manipulation are able to pressurize their aura. It did little more than intimidate most mages, but people like untalents and non-magi would find it hard to move against a powerful well of pressurized mana. Although, the pressure of the Thadeus's aura was great enough to shake the cavern, and even weigh Raiya down.

Raiya gasped at the overwhelming pressure. The aura was dark yellow, like his hair, and had an undeniable sense of malicious intent, blood lust, saturated throughout it.

After about a minute, he allowed the pressure to subside, containing his aura once more.
"Unfortunately, though. I could not visit you all alone. The Arcanocracy forced me to bring a team with me." Thadeus stepped aside and waved his hand, in a presenting manner, at the passageway. Four new faces stepped out into the fray. The first being a 6'4" rugged man, with short black spiky hair, and stubble from a five-o-clock shadow. He wore a set of red-hemmed grand-magi layered robes. The next was 5'9" blonde-haired blue eyed woman, also with red-hemmed grand-magi robes. The last two were almost identical in appearance, they were obviously twins. Both were around 5'5" with short shaggy hair, and blue-hemmed magi robes. The difference was that one had black hair, and one had white hair. Though, through what bodily features that could be made out of the robes, it was clear the one with the white hair was a female, and the one with the black hair was a male.

Thadeus introduced them in the order they arrived in.
"Meet Nevar, Alya Summers, and Dominick and Dawn Fullbright. Since I was forced to bring them I might as well use them. After all, our squad numbers are the s-" Thadeus stopped himself. He then started squinting his eyes, and held his right hand flat up above his eyebrows, as if dramatically searching for someone.

"Tisk tisk tisk. This won't do! It seems you're missing a few squad members. Where's the blue skinned one? And most of all, where's that..." he gritted his teeth and spoke slower, "traitor, Felix!?"

"Felix?" Raiya attempted to sound genuinely ignorant.

Thadeus's tone grew a bit indignant, "Oh, my sweet little rice-ball. Do not try to play dumb with me. We knew Felix would be around here through narrowing down the previous places he visited with his old manadial. Though we couldn't find his hideout, we did stumble across you zipping through the forest, and I just knew we were close to findind Felix. So..." Thadeus sweetened his tone, "I need two things from you, and then you can leave." He held is finger up signifying the number one, "Tell me where Felix is," He then held up his second finger signifying the number two, and then pointed at Travis, "And two, I will need that Untalent to hand over the Paragon slowly and quietly."

"You won't let us just leave. I know your heart. You razed piccola village, incinerating all its inhabitants. Your lies won't work on us. If you want what we have, try and take it from us! " Raiya growled, her eyes beginning to glow a light grey.

Thadeus let out a high pitched chuckle, huddling over as if he had heard a side splitting joke. His laughter subsided, quickly, and he wiped his left eye, flicking an imaginary tear away.

"Oh, very well. But since Felix isn't here, I will refrain from joining the fight, until you have beaten my team. Though, I estimate the chances of that happening are less than 3%. Also, you'll have to fight 3 on 4. We thought there'd be another one of you, and it just wouldn't be fair if we didn't let everyone participate!" Thadeus waved his hands and bowed his head, and walked backwards into the shadows of the passageway. The team of Arcanocracy magi stepped forward.

The one known as Nevar spoke, "We do not care who we fight, so we will leave it up to you. But choose quickly." Nevar's gruff voice broke the silence.

Raiya used manalysis and examined the players on the field. Although the twins were only Magi their mana pools were well above the level of a grand-magi. Nevar had a massive a strong mana well, but less than either one of the twins. His aura felt more analytical, more discerning. That coupled with the fact that he was the point leader of the group, as he was the first to come out of the passageway, It was clear his role was as the tactician of the group. The blonde's aura was blue and had the feeling of serenity, Raiya guessed that her role was the healer. That left the assault roles, and those had to be the twins.

"I'll take the twins on." Raiya said, "If I could make a suggestion, I would suggest that you take the one known as Nevar, Nemo. And Travis, you fight the one known as Alya." Raiya suggested.

The twins, Dominick and Dawn stepped up closer to Raiya, an Nevar moved closer to Nemo.

Alya remained silent as Thadeus had his dialogue with Raiya. 'Her claims against Thadeus can't be true. Murdering an entire village? I know he has the tendency to be ruthless at times, but that is a bit much.' She thought as Thadeus and Raiya conversed.

As the beginnings of a battle begun she respected her opponents wishes and faced Travis. "I do not wish to fight you, but if you will not surrender the Paragon I have no other choice." Alya stated with a confident and firm tone in her voice. As she did this she produced what looked like a metal stick from her robes. With a swift flick the stick fully extended metal staff. The staff stood at 5'6" long and had ornate runes engraved through out it. After a few moments the runes began to glow light blue with magic.

Alya took a step forward towards Travis, as she stepped forward Alya made a quick motion with her hand and she was enveloped by a nearly transparent barrier with a light blue tinge. The barrier was obviously a magical ward, though if one were to analyze it more thoroughly they would discover that very little mana is currently being channeled into it.

Alya held her staff next to her with a single hand and waited for Travis to make a move.

Tattoos? Nemo thought as he glanced back to Raiya. Tattoos had always fascinated him, and the thought of them had somewhat distracted Nemo from his earlier musings, as did her more open ramblings about her jacket. Before he could reply, Nemo's thought process was interrupted by Thadeus' arrival.

Instead of turning around, Nemo bent himself backward so far he could see behind him, clearly using some minor gravity spell to stabilize his awkward position. He let his hair hang down as he eyed the newcomers silently. This is turning out to be a really exciting day.

Nemo straightened himself out and faced the enemy group. He still seemed rather calm despite the circumstances. Not giving much of a reaction to Thadeus' aura or anything he said, even the things concerning him.

"That sounds fine." Nemo stated after Raiya's suggestion. He said it with a rather soft and serene tone. With his hands still in his pockets, Nemo stepped closer to Nevar. "Do you know who I am?" He asked him, despite Thadeus spewing out one of his nicknames earlier.

Thadeus and his goons' arrival was indeed an unwelcomed surprise. Just as Travis thought the danger had past, now comes a new and potentially even more dangerous obstacle. True to Felix's briefing and warning, they were out for the Paragons too. Throughout the spat between Thadeus and Raiya, and just as the opposing group's ringleader addressed Travis as an Untalent, he frowned as if taking the referred-to title of his lesser capabilities in such a manner personally. But through that, he carefully stowed the Paragon away into the inner pockets of his coat but not before summoning a unannounced amount of mana and tapping the crystal ever slightly away from any prying eyes.

Now that talks were seemingly over and a fight about regrettably about to ensue, Raiya directed Travis' attention to the more sincere-appearing member of Thadeus' team; Alya, whose name was openly introduced along with the other members by Thadeus himself. "R-right..." Travis unconfidently replied. While Travis had little worries about engaging the undead or earthly constructs, harming humans, even especially those who weren’t holding back their hostility, scrapped against his moral compass about such conflicts.

Ayla approached Travis until stopping several meters away from him. Just as Travis instinctively took a step back and leaned forward into a cautious stance, Ayla vocally expressed a disinterest in stirring up a conflict with him however reiterated Thadeus’ earlier demands once more in her own words, almost requesting him to giving up the Paragon. Whether or not her words held sentimental value, what Travis did know what that she was clearly more powerful than he was and would undoubtedly prove to be a serious threat.

As he made another brief advance, the runes on Ayla’s staff had then begun to emanate a sky-bluish aura in response to mana being summoned. Through the quick motion of her hand, a roundish and transparent construct matching the same aura had then materialized around her. There was no doubt in Travis’ mind that Ayla has summoned a barrier to ward against any of his attacks. It was a rather unanticipated play from his opponent; given his very low default amount of mana he could sustain, Travis was no stranger for previous adversaries to display their capabilities to comparatively intimidate him. He almost mused if Alya was treating him as a legitimate threat or if this was a common strategy for her to enact. Nevertheless, that barrier was now going to be a problem...

“I suppose that makes two of us...I'm not in the hurry to jump into a brawl,” Travis replied as he took a few more steps back as he began to slowly channeled his mana all the while making use of his mana analysis while he can, “but I can’t let you guys have the Paragon, especially not after everything we paid for in getting it.”

And then Travis came back with another reply, a response that even shocked he himself in letting loose, "If you really want, you're gonna have to come here and take it."

Great job you idiot, thought Travis as he imagined him kicked himself for actually goading a likely-to-be-very-dangerous opponent in coming after him, you are now a dead man if she comes after you for that.

Before anything else could happen, a rumbling could be felt coming from the floor of the cavern. Suddenly stone large walls erupted from the ground, closing off everyone into individual arena squares with walls 20 feet high. All the arena squares formed a larger square together, each of the 4 quadrant squares were 50x50 feet, making the arena as a whole 100x100 or 10000 square feet.

Raiya looked up out of arena she was in to see Thadeus up on a stone outcrop far above everyone, that he had turned into a makeshift skybox. Raiya reached down and grabbed a fist sized rock that she then hurled in Thadeus's direction. But as soon as it made it past the 20 feet tall arena square, it hit an invisible field with a sharp crackling noise, and was promptly sent back downwards with the same amount of force it was sent upwards.

Thadeus wagged his finger at Raiya

"I have created these arena squares to make it much simpler for me to view the action, as well as to keep you all separated to your individual fights. It's all topped with a kinetic rejection field as well, we wouldn't want the possibility of spoiling the fun by pulling dirty tricks like changing fighting partners, or teaming up together, now would we?" Thadeus announced with a snide voice. He waved his hand materializing a bottle of Cabernet and a fine crystal glass. He then poured the red wine into the crystal glass, and sat back in his stone seat, "Let the battles commence!" He shouted.

"Alright, sis, let's teach this apostate a lesson!" Dominick said confidently. He then materialized a thin metallic wand that was inscribed with runes in his right hand.

Dawn, the female twin, nodded and took a combat stance. She then materialized a book and a pen, which Raiya raised an eyebrow at.

Raiya took the opportunity while they were summoning their items, to store her sword in her mana inventory along with her leader jacket and grey hoodie, and fetch a different weapon more suited to a fight with two enemies.

She was now just in her black v-necked tanktop, with a long-sleeve fish-net shirt over the tanktop.

In a flash of electrical mana, a special weapon Raiya created herself, descended into her palms. The weapon looked more like two weapons than just one. It was two double edged daggers with 12 inch blades, connected together at the pommels by three feet of runic chains.

She took a combat stance, and held each dagger in each hand, extending them in front of her, and stretching the chain until it was taut.

"biribiri no sokudo!" Raiya growled. An electrical aura overcoming her.

Dominick narrowed his eyes, then flicked his right wrist, AQUA SAGITTA!" Dominick shouted. From the tip of his wand, a thin incredibly fast projectile of water launched forth at Raiya.

He's trying to douse my electrical current with water. This kid's not that smart. All that will do is give me more to conduct through. Raiya thought.

She allowed the water shots to fly to her, and she cut them in half length wise, diffusing the blasts of water into droplets which covered her daggers, her clothes and boots.

Dominick smirked, and flicked his wrist upwards, shouting, MUTARE!

The water that covered Raiya instantly changed to thin stone which now covered her blades, her clothes, even some stuck to her face.

She attempted to move but found her feet were rooted to the ground by the thin stone as well.

"Tch!" Raiya let out a scoff. "I didn't expect a Mage to be able to transform their spell's attribute after releasing it. You two aren't normal Magi are you?"

Dominick smirked, "So you've figured it out right away? Yes, I suppose being Thadeus's proteges does have its perks. But if it you must know, we didn't want to advance in rank. But enough stalling. This fight is already over."

Dominick began to charge mana into his wand, preparing for a large spell.

"Oh, is that what you think?", Raiya smirked, "This fight is far from over! KAEN NO ORA!" Raiya shouted. Briefly a superheated red aura covered Raiya. The aura was finely tuned to be between her the rock and her clothing and skin. The heated aura protected her from heat as well as exuding an extreme amount of heat outwardly. It was one of the only defensive spells Raiya had any proficiency in. And she had specifically mastered it for this type of moment, to keep her from being immobilized. The thin stone melted into magma and slid off the aura onto the ground into red hot puddles.

As soon as she was free, she canceled the heat aura and launched herself out of the way just in time to dodge a massive fireball that flew from the tip of Dominick's wand.

Dominick scoffed.

"Now it's time for me to show you what I can do." Raiya said, her eyes glowing dull grey.

---

"I've been briefed by Thadeus, though to be honest, I have never personally heard of you before this mission." Nevar sighed,"I suppose we should get this over with then. Nevar said with a bit of reluctance in his voice.

Nevar reached his hand out in front of him, materializing a runic rapier out of a burst of black flame.

He then placed his left hand on the ground, letting out a bit of mana into the spot he placed his hand on. Then he charged Nemo as fast as he could, which was little less than the blink of an eye, thrusting his Rapier at Nemo's torso.

"That's disappointing to hear, to think I've fallen out of fame already after all that work-" Nemo warped in his own weapon at the last second, a two handed broadsword, to deflect Nevar's attack off with the side of the blade. Nemo dashed back afterwards and rested the sword on his shoulder.

His sword was made almost entirely out of engraved silver besides the blade, had a straight crossguard, and a ornate metal bead chain hanging off from the pommel long enough to wrap around the crossguard in a X fashion once. The whole weapon seemed quite heavy, but Nemo brandished it rather easily.

"Slow down there greased lightning... take it easy." Nemo commented with a chuckle. He glanced at his own weapon. "I love rapiers you know, they used to be one of my favorites. But if this is going to be a true spectacle, I might as well pick a complimentary weapon to match you. You are light, I am heavy, you are speed, I am strength. That will make it a real challenge for both of us, hmm?"

"...Have you ever heard of a sword breaker before?" Nemo asked.

Nevar was surprised at the last second reflection, and his enemy's backtracking. Nevar came to a halt, and leaned over, touching the ground like he did before, releasing a bit of mana once again.

"Yes, I have heard of a sword breaker. It' s a combed dagger used to catch swords and break them." Nevar brushed some dust off his robes, "But if you think you can break this runic reinforced rapier, you'd be wrong. And if you think you are fast enough to catch my rapier and remove it from my hands, you would be wrong again."

With that Nevar launched another attack at Nemo, this time slashing with the razor sharp edge at Nemo's lower torso.

---

Raiya ran to the side and gripped the chain, spinning the right blade in a fast circle to the side. She charged the chain with electricity and then tossed the chain outwards towards Dominick.

The chain's runes glowed, and extended as fast as it was thrown, extending from a hollow in the bottom of the pommel. It continued twenty feet until it reached Dominick, who attempted to evade. But, Raiya used the electrical charge within the chain to change the course of the chain at the last second as well. The chain wrapped around Dominick's left leg, and as soon as it came it contact, Dominick let out a scream of agony as the electricity in the chain coursed through his body, immobilizing him.

"BROTHER!" Dawn yelled. She then wrote something in her book, and tossed the paper in the air, the paper burned up in a white flame, and suddenly a Great Arctic Wolf appeared in front of her. The wolf was 6 feet tall and 9 feet long, and as white as snow. It growled a low growl, its blue eyes glowed a bright azure.

Raiya bent over and drew a kanji for lighting (雷) in the air above the ground nextto her which burnt a circular rune with the kanji in the middle on the ground. She then jabbed the other dagger, which was connected to the other end of the chain, into the ground in the middle of the rune. This kept an electrical charge in the chain, keeping Dominick restrained.

Raiya took a defensive combat stance, with her left hand extended in front of her face clutched in a claw-like fashion. Her right hand was extended lower in front of her chest clenched in a fist.

"Very good! You know your stuff, huh?" Nemo commented before Nevar attacked again. This time he opted to attack instead of just block. Nemo hefted his sword from his shoulder and cleaved it towards the rapier's path. The two swords would cross before meeting any flesh, Nemo hoped to power straight through Nevar's opposition.

The ground around Alya rose to form an area; trapping both herself and Travis in a large enclosed space. However this caused Alya to lose sight of the rest of her teammates. 'Thadeus is treating us like entertainment... Why? Is the objective to retrieve the Paragon not more important.' Alya thought to herself with a slight frown. She quickly switched to a combat stance with her staff held with both of her hands and pointed at Travis.

"Someone died. I felt it when I entered this place; a fresh death. My condolences." Alya told Travis knowing what he meant by the price that their group paid. After a brief pause she finally stated. "I am sorry it has to come to this, but you leave me no choice to take the Paragon from you by force."

Alya quickly suppressed her natural calming aura and after a brief moment of focus she turned that aura into one of dread and exhaustion. To a regular person this would sap their strength and falter their will. Alya then struck towards Travis' legs with her staff in a downward diagonal sweeping motion, the runes on her staff shifted color from sky blue to dark purple as it traveled through the air. Contact the staff would greatly amplify the exhaustion effect of the aura.

"Oh, now what?" Travis groaned as he felt the ground rumble beneath him.

From the earth arose a multitude of massive stone partitions, each forming an enclosure around each of the commencing duels. Travis was completely caught of unaware of how Thadeus's intention on he saw these battles to flow. It was almost as if Thadeus was treathing this engagement as some kind of tourney almost however vocally, the didn't want anyone to coordinate with their respective allies; a troubling factor Travis would have to take in to account. He was all alone now, by himself, against a more powerful adversary. If he was going to make it out of here, he had to make the most of his reserves in the best way possible.

However, planning would simply have to be done on the fly, now that Alya was on the move. Whatever calming aura she had projected before, now became something more sinister than Travis has anticipated. Already, Travis could feel the sense of negativity and waning from this hazy aura, gripping at him and sapping him of will. Out of instinct or reactive reflex, Travis took several steps back, hoping to put distance between himself and Ayla. It was clear now that Alya was going to be more difficult to manage, now that getting to close would compromise his effectiveness to stand against her.

Speaking of which, whether she took Travis' goading seriously or not, she quickly closed the distance and swung her staff down to his feet. The glowing runes upon the staff were evident enough to Travis that he quickly surmised that they served as an extension to Alya's dark influence. With a brief yelp, Travis quickly leaped backwards, already having the slight advantage of already moving away to prevent contact from her runic staff. Anticipating a follow up, Travis extended his hands forward and produced the holographic images of his newly created backdraft spell within each palm. With the a sliver of mana pushing into each rune, the spells instantly detonated, vomiting twin torrents of surging flame that lunged at his attacker.

At such pointblank range, Travis would not think Alya would have have amble time to outrun or evade an artificial backdraft, but what damage his spell would cause was not of his concern. What was on his mind however was to keep to the building strategy in out playing his opponent. Just before casting the explosive runic spell, Travis was sure to leap backwards and allow the momentum of the detonations push him back into a more position where he could have plenty of room to make his next maneuver while he channeled more mana.

Nevar kept his stance low as he rushed his target, at the last second before getting within striking distance of his opponent, he brushed his left hand on the ground without stopping, releasing just a bit of mana where he touched, just as he did the two times before.

As he came within striking distance, he was met with a show of force. Just before the sword hit him, he whispered, "Saltāre!" Within an instant he was gone. Or more accurately, he had been moved. One moment he was in front of Nemo, the next moment he was thirty feet away from Nemo.

Releasing mana for another teleport jump, he jumped once more, this time from 30 feet away, to just outside striking distance of Nemo. Rushing him with a slash at his torso once more.

All of this happening within five seconds of when Nemo swung his sword.