Jane let off a barrage of energy shuriken towards Delilah while closing the distance with her, making a series of quick slashes in quick succession before rolling behind her and using a wrist energy blade to make a quick jab at her. Though, as Jane came down with her attacks on Delilah, Gregory would throw himself in between them. He rose his walking stick and spoke.
"Detonate!" Slamming the base of the staff into the dirt at his feet, a blast of force and rocks would leap upwards with a bang, throwing the initial wave of energy shurikens wide. As Jane attacked directly, a blade would appear in Gregory's hand, and he would deftly counter every attack aimed at him and his wife.
"That's three," Delilah remarked, Gregory shook his head solemnly.
"Four, Split Shadow: Arcturus!" One of the few magics Gregory had actually taken the time to master, and he made a few, unnatural, stretching movements as his shadow detached itself from him and formed into a humanoid shape. Heavily armored and equipped with a spear and a massive square shield, it stood half again as tall as its master.
"Hold off the other guy with the spear. Maim him if you absolutely must, but don't kill him unless you have to. Assuming you can, of course," the almost golem-like being nodded, before bringing its shield and spear to bare against Karl. It was undoubtedly slower than the small man, but its massive armaments would probably more than make up for that.
After Arcturus had formed fully, Gregory moved between Jane and Delilah.
"You challenge my guild, you challenge me. Back down, and I can promise you'll live. If you keep attacking, I will do whatever I must to defend my family."
As Joslyn, Zen, and Mithera made their way through the foothills and roads they would suddenly hear a voice off to one side.
"Ice Make: Floor!" Ice spread rapidly under their feet, causing Mithera to yelp and fall flat on her face. She would slowly slide across the ice, muttering 'ow,' before it disappeared and Mark came into view.
"Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but we're kinda in the middle of something. Come back later, if you wouldn't mind, and we'll kick your asses then," he had a casual stance, but that didn't mean he wasn't ready to fight.
Zen stepped forward while Joslyn helped Mithera up, his face adorned with a scowl.
"You're awfully full of yourself, aren't you? Jack asses like you piss me off." The wind was kicking up around him as he prepped a spell and after making sure that Mither was alright, Joslyn joined him, and the pair nodded in unison.
"Wind Make: Wind Knight!" A knight made of wind, and Zen's most mobile animated Maker spell, appeared, wielding a broadsword and a kite shield and held both at the ready.
"Wind Make: Torpedo Barrage!" Shortly after, thirty torpedoes made of wind flew at Mark that would explode and knock the maker mage into the air.
Joslyn, on the other hand, was focusing while praying her teammate could keep his temper in check. However, when Zen cast his torpedo spell, she spoke and unleashed a series of Water Make spells in quick succession.
"Water Make: Thrusting Lance, Water Make: Dancing Blades, Water Make: Titan's Fist, Water Make: Charging Lion, Water Make: Geyser Burn!" As each spell was spoken, the item mentioned appeared, first a four lances that charged forward, destroying any trees they made contact with, then six blades in a circle with the hilts towards the center sun towards Mark, unleashing a series of slashes in record time.
Following those, a giant arm and fist struck at him, punching where he was standing before making a slapping motion to send the young man flying through the air, where he would be intercepted by a lion charging with it's claws extended and fangs seeking something to sink into. Finally, as he would finally hit the ground, or wherever he landed as he dodged, an eruption of burning hot water would shoot up underneath him, leaving him open for a slam from the Wind Knight's shield.
Jane smirked, holding her energy blade expertly and watching Delilah and Gregory.
"I've faced guys a lot stronger than you, buddy. And they had intent to kill that you lack. Don't waste your breath," spinning her blade, Jane unleashed an Energy Spear, aimed at the pair before closing with them and exchanging blows, blocking, dodging and countering with the pair. Part way through, Jane cut the flow of magic into her hilt, causing Gregory to get caught off balance as his own attack passed through thin air and she delivered a kick to his gut before backflipping out of range of anymore melee attacks. As she flipped, she unleashed a flurry of energy
giant shuriken, one per flip. Upon stopping, she threw two more and reactivated her blade, the silver curve humming with life.
After Jane's first few blows exchanged with Gregory, she'd probably realize he's using magic to enhance his swordsmanship. His movements were too sloppy to be as effective as they were, though her ploy to throw him off-balance worked, causing him to grunt and cough some as she kicked his gut. As she threw the shuriken, however, Delilah stepped in.
"Hungering Dragon!" The tattoo wrapped around her stomach suddenly came to life, similarly designed to an eastern depiction of dragons. It leaped from her and seemed to consume each energy weapon as it came near, before lunging at Jane herself. It would easily be beaten, however, by any kind of physical blow. By the time Jane was done throwing shuriken, Gregory had recovered from the kick in the gut.
"Five," Gregory said with a sense of finality under his breath, and watched Jane with intent eyes for a moment, before seeming to disappear. After a moment, he'd appear next to her and slice quickly at her side, before disappearing again. The strike was slow enough she'd be able to avoid it, though after a moment another one came from a different direction. These were all illusions, and wouldn't be able to actually hurt Jane, but they looked convincing. Truthfully, if Gregory really had the ability to teleport, he wouldn't of gotten kicked in the gut. His illusions were however, good enough to fool all but the most keen observers, at least for a few 'attacks'.
Jane moved in a way unexpected, dashing to the side while slashing the dragon's neck with her blade, dispersing it. She was already back in a defensive position when Gregory disappeared and so when he appeared to her side, she rolled forward, past him, and struck, only to find the blade pass through harmlessly.
Illusions, huh? Easy way to deal with that. Slashing the next false Gregory down as well, Jane focused her magic into her palm without the hilt.
"Energy Blade: Ranged Style: Rain of Blood!" The orb of magic that had formed in her hand shot straight up into the air and exploded a few hundred feet up, raining down a shower of
throwing needles and
kunai that somehow avoided all of Jane's allies. If she'd played her cards right, she had just forced Gregory out of hiding. However, while her Rain of Blood was active, she closed with Delilah once more, delivering a precise set of cuts that were aimed to disable the Iron Enigma mage.
Luna watched as Damian charged her, and her countenance changed from confused to something that indicated this fight probably wouldn't be particularly healthy for anyone.
"Eclipse Armor, Blades of the eclipse," her weapons were the same ones as always; sword in her left hand, halberd in her right. She planted the staff of her poleaxe into the ground and used both hands to hold the weapon against his first attack, knowing that chances were that his weapons would break before hers did. Though she doubted that would matter; she figured he was using requip magic, so he would summon more. When the blades hit the staff of her weapon, she flinched slightly, her arms not having fully recovered from the games.
As he attacked with his next set of blades, Luna jumped backwards out of their immediate range, making Damian have to charge her if he wanted to attack again, and giving Luna a moment to think.
"I don't care if she wants to come back to the guild, I just want to see my friend again."Damian squared off with Luna.
"Then there are better ways to do so than turning it into a man hunt. Or did you choose to believe whatever your guildmates told you because it saved you time?" He attacked with a quick series of Piercing Blades and then a Blade Whirlwind, which he used to keep her too busy defending to notice his flank. He brought the Hercules Blades down in an arc that she could easily intercept and then switched to his Hermes Blades, unleashing a flurry of blows from both the sword blades and the dagger blades on the pommel, leaving Luna with little in the way of offensive and defensive moves.
Against Damian, Luna was more than happy to square off rather than actually fight. She knew she didn't have the skill to beat him in a straight up fight, at least judging by his Day 1 match at the games.
"I'm actually the one that found her, and pushed for us to come and meet her way out here instead of waiting for her to get back to Fiore where we might lose her again," the sixteen-year-old mage explained, bracing herself at the sudden flurry of attacks coming her way. She did her best to deflect the piercing blades thrown her way, though several caught the edges of her armor and left scratches and cuts in it. One, on her right shoulder, filled with blood as the blade passed. As the whirlwind came, however, Luna knew she couldn't keep up.
"Corona!" A hemisphere of fire formed around Luna, forming a barrier too hot for Damian to get close, and too solid for the blades to cut through casually. She used this moment to pull back and recover, before breaking it with a powerful horizontal slash at Damian with her halberd, though the attack was clearly held back to give Damian a chance to avoid it. He flipped up over it, landing on his feet and instead opting to shoulder check Luna. As she stumbled, he dispersed one Hermes Blade and grabbed her halberd, wrenching it free of her grasp with an expert move and throwing it to one side before dismissing his other Hermes Blade and drawing Durandal from it's place on his back.
"I can think of three reasons she didn't want to be found in the first place, Luna. And they're all family." Rather than charging, Damian unleashed a Three Pronged Strike, three sword blades emerging from him and flying at Luna in a triangle formation at high speeds, leaving her only up or down to escape. After she dodges, he leaps into the fight, bringing Durandal down at her in a heavy vertical strike.
"Meet Durandal, the Dragon's Fang Blade. Don't count on it or it's coating breaking anytime soon."
Karl didn't hesitate as Gregory's shadow golem loomed. He feinted, as if to charge it head-on, but insted, juked to it's shield side, keeping close to it, but far enough to avoid any attack with it's shield. He ran around the golem, forcing it to turn to keep him in sight. As he did so, he lowered his halbard to the ground, and drug the tip through the dirt. Where it touched, the ground froze and ice grew. The ice formed a wall, and within seconds, it became a dome with the golem on the inside, and Karl on the outside. Once completed, Karl formed a fist, and the ice crackled, as it began to constrict. The dome was too small for the thing to swing it's spear, and it was only growing smaller and thicker with each passing second.
Meanwhile, Arcturus seemed unphased by Karl's movements around him, and as the dome began to form around it simply charged forwards, its size, strength, and heavy armor all providing added momentum, allowing him to bash through one wall of the dome. As he came out, he turned towards Karl, and made three wide, powerful slashes with his gargantuan spear at the 'Blizzard God' Valak had summoned. The spear moved fast, despite its wielder's slowness, and getting hit by staff or blade would prove awfully painful, but only fatal if one was unlucky or poorly positioned. After these strikes, careful not to hit any of the other combatants, Gregory's shadow backed away from the others so that he and his opponent could avoid friendly fire.
Arcturus swung his spear in vain. Karl dodged and weaved like a snowflake in a blizzard. When Acrturus drew back his spear, though, the head was covered in a layer of ice. Karl grinned, as it, as he wordlessly held up a finger and blew on it. Evidently, he had touched the spearhead, midswing. Whoever, or whatever he was, it was obvious that he was very familiar with combat, and highly skilled.
"Well, you're not the strongest enemy I have fought, but it would be an insult not to go all out." Karl said to it. He gripped his halbard in both hands.
"Blue Demon Claw!" He shouted. He thrust his halbard forward, and a massive horizontal column of ice formed, and quicky grew toward Arcturus. It had a pointed tip, and looked like it was ment to pierce. One it landed, Karl would point his spear at the sky, and after a short pause, a rain of sharp ice spikes began to fall with enough force to piece armor.
Mark reacted quickly to the barrage of maker magic came at him.
"Ice/Light Make: Lance Wave!" He shouted, using one maker magic with each hand, and launched what was just short of a wall of spears, each one colliding with a wind torpedo and dissipating. The last two remained untouched, however, as Mark rolled out of the way of one, then another, of Joslyn's water spears. The spears would take down a number of trees, and the two surviving torpedoes would explode behind Mark, throwing him forward. He'd roll onto his back and shout,
"Fire Make: Pillar!" A pillar of fire would rise from him, seven feet tall at most, and wide enough to evaporate the water swords swinging down at him. It would dissipate as soon as its job was done, and Mark would only just have enough time to get out of the way of the water fist slamming down, and countered the slap with another spell.
"Fire Make: Tower Shield!" A shield formed over his arm, it was as tall as he was and covered in nasty blades and spikes. The sharp points weren't what the maker mage was after however, the fire was, and the heat weathered the impact of the slap greatly, though Mark still slid backwards a good distance. The pouncing water cat, however, met a more gruesome fate as Mark turned to face it, the shield dispelling.
"Light/Fire Make: Great spear!" The spear would form and impale the water-creature solidly through. What he wasn't prepared for, however, was the explosion of water throwing him up in the air, and the knight knocking him down again with his shield.
"Ice Make: Slide!" was all he had to break his fall, and the ice sculpture collapsed as soon as he rolled off of it, stopping by rolling sideways into a tree.
Standing up and rubbing his head, Mark looked at them. He was panting slightly, and didn't look at all enthused.
"Geez, if I didn't know better, I'd think you two were trying to kill me," He roll his neck and cross his arms.
"It's no fun if everyone just gives there all though, can't we just have a friendly spar? I'd hate to have to try to kill people in front of a pretty girl," he'd mean Mithera with the last statement, and it, almost ironically, would come off as more of a casual complement than him being a sleazy douchebag.
"If I have to though, it'd be a shame, but I will. Ice/Fire Make: Lashing Floor!" He put his hands on the ground, and a surface of Ice would form as before, but this time, spears of fire would stab upwards around Zen and Joslyn, appearing and disappearing wherever convenient. Getting hit by one of these would leave burns and cuts, though they always seem to give out whenever they're about to score a direct hit. None of the spears bother Mithera however, as she was just an observer to the fight.
Zen and Joslyn moved in unison, both rolling the opposite direction of the other as the wind knight leapt to a tree branch, and all three managed to avoid the rising spears. Zen was already moving, his next Maker spell decided on.
"Wind Make: Battleship Barrage!" A large battle ship formed behind Zen and opened fire with all it's cannons, the shells flying directly towards Mark and making lining up another spell difficult, though the other Maker mage managed it anyways.
After a dozen or so seconds, the fire/ice floor would dissipate, and Mark would attack again.
"Light/Fire Make: Piercing Lances!" Six spears would launch themselves from Mark's hands, the edge coated in fire to try and cut through any Water in the way, and the rest made of solid Light. As the six lances launched forwards, the Wind Knight leapt from the trees, catching the three meant for Zen on his shield, pushing against them. Meanwhile, Joslyn was already throwing out another set of spells.
"Water Make: Liquid Defense, Water Make: Striking Viper, Water Make: Aqua Ninja!" Three things happened in rapid succession, all of which served to act as a cover to the previous one. The first spell raised a wall of water that flowed packwards as the lances pierced it, and a small hole opened that allowed the water viper to slither around the spears and strike directly at the caster. The final one summoned a
ninja that dashed to the right and around, unleashing a series of razor sharp water shuriken towards Mark, a ninjato on her back ready to be drawn in an instant.
Zen took the initiative once their opponent's spell had worn off and took another stance.
" Wind Make: Dragon Blast!" A giant dragon appeared and blasted Mark with a large breath attack of razor sharp wind. Joslyn turned to Mithera as the attacks were unleashed.
"Keep going, we'll keep him busy."As Zens and Joslyn's attacks came to a short stop, Valak rushed Mark from where he had been sitting in wait. He crossed the distance between them in an instant, and as he did he swung his sword, aiming at Mark's neck, intending to kill. But at the last second, he changed his mind, and twisted his hand, so the flat of the blade would hit the side of Mark's head.
"Scarlet shield!" Delilah threw her left arm over her head as Jane's latest attack came raining down on her, and she closed her eyes and pulled her head to the side as she watched Jane run at her. Gregory hadn't reappeared as Jane had expected however, nor had her raining weapons found a spot where they mysteriously didn't land, and as she moved to slice up Delilah his voice rang out, calm, cool, and collected.
"Detonate," Gregory would appear, as if from thin air, directly in front of Jane and place the move the end of his staff towards her. The resulting blast would have enough force to send the girl flying, and enough range that'd it knock her off balance if she managed to avoid being hit at point blank. After this single attack, Gregory would roll his shoulders, looking at Jane intently.
"Stop, now."
Damian, as he pulled the halberd out of Luna's hand, would find the thing is boiling hot, and any prolonged contact with the weapon would result in burns on Damian's hands. It was unlikely he held on much longer than the time needed to rip it from Luna's hand, however, and she was pulled off-balance for a moment. Fortunately, Damian took that time to draw the sword off of his back and speak, instead of following up on his advantage. Luna stepped back and dismissed her eclipse weapons.
"Blade of Luna." A pale blue/white broadsword formed in her hands, and she held it firmly with both.
"I don't care. I just want to see my friend again, I want to know why she left..." Luna took a shaky breath, before refocusing on the fight at hand. As Jane's Blood Rain started, it seemed to simply bounce of Luna's magical armor harmlessly.
"Why do you care anyway?" Luna asked just as the triangle of blades came at her, Luna expertly slid underneath the highest one, though she managed to secure another cut across her arm this way. As Damian brought down his sword, saying what it was, Luna held up her sword horizontally to meet it, tilting it so that momentum would slide Durandal down the blade and away from her with minimal effort on her part to hold up the blade.
"Solar Flare!" She dropped one hand as she said this, holding it towards Damian chest. This attack was all force and little heat, she just wanted to get her opponent away from her.
Damian rolled to the side, avoiding the majority of the blast though it did spin him around slightly. Using the momentum provided, Durandal clashed against her Blade of Luna, throwing up sparks as the pushed against each other.
"Because I know she didn't want to be found. And she sure as hell didn't want to see her father, mother, or brother again." Pushing Luna back, he slams Durandal's tip into the ground, unleashing a Field of Blades. This unleashed dozens of blades fowards from the sword in a cone for about ten meters. Luna would have to think fast to get out of it.
Using the moment, Damian stood back up and rested the back of
Durandal's blade on his shoulder.
"You're still young, I get that. You wanted to get to see her one more time, but when someone drops out of existence for years on end? They usually have a good reason and know something you don't."
Mithera blinked as Joslyn said for her to go, and she nodded after a hesitant moment.
"R-right! Sorry, I was distracted," she blushed, before starting off to go get Melina. She decided to just walk at a quick pace, as she hadn't quite gotten the hang of running, and didn't want to get too many scrapes and bruises while trying to get to Melina.
Mark, on the other hand, was having a much less leisurely time, though he figured he could buy himself at least a moment of reprieve.
"Ice Make: W-wall!" He stuttered, thanks to a water shuriken slicing across his chest, but a seven foot tall wall of Ice formed anyway, cutting them off from him. The structure shuttered and large sheets fell off and vanished as the cannon barrage hit it hard. Mark was going to have to figure our how to go on the offensive.
As Zen's Dragon Breath finally shattered the wall, Mark moved to attack, but heard the bushes behind him rustle. As he turned, he only saw Valak's sword before his survival instinct kicked in.
"Light Make: Piercing Lances!" His body moving on auto-pilot, Mark released the spell just as Valak's sword hit him across the head. This, unlike normal, didn't stop the lances of light from leaving his hands, aiming for Valak at near point blank. As Mark fell over, he twisted to fall onto his back, still facing his attacker, who might have the tiniest moment to notice that the lances seemed to be extending from under Mark's sleeves, as if he were some common party magician.
It took a moment for Mark's vision to stop being double, and every moment it took he felt tense that he was going to be bombarded by another wave of deadly attacks. The training he had done with his magic, however, didn't let him release the magic powering the lances until he was sure that they had either hit their mark successfully or flown off harmlessly. He groaned as he began standing up, trying to get all of his opponents into view at the same time.
Zen and Joslyn knew that they couldn't move to intercept anything in time, nor any of their spells. That didn't stop the Wind Knight from trying, using the speed inherit to it's element to rush between what lances and Valak that it could with it's shield, but that still left the greater majority of them heading right for their mark.
Valak saw he had no chance to avoid the close-range attack, so he set his feet, and relied on his armor to take the blow. The spears hit him like a hammerblow, one after another. He grunted in pain as he struggled to simply stay on his feet. A moment later, it was over. Valak put his booted foot on Mark's chest, and pointed his sword at his neck.
"Stay down." He warned. He stared down at Mark with impassive eyes, his armor slightly cracked and damaged from the attack it endured.
Jane once more did the unexpected and leaped forward underneath Gregory's staff, twisting and planting her feet against Delilah's shield and grabbing Gregory's shoulder's from behind.
"Not yet I don't think." Pushing off the shield and making Delilah stumble back, She used the moment to flip over Gregory and then fling him towards one of the walls, unleashing a quick triad of giant shuriken after him before turning back to Delilah, though more of a spin, and sending a single throwing needle in her direction, though it would land at her feet seemingly harmlessly. Afterwords, the energy blade mage was once more in a position to keep both her opponents in her line of sight, waiting after requipping her
armor.
Arcturus was not surprised at the smaller man's ability to avoid its attacks. It was heavily armored, which meant it could take and deal heavy hits, but not very fast. The golem saw the large spike of Ice beginning to grow towards it and, knowing it couldn't even begin to hope to completely avoid it, Arcturus decided to ask for help of some kind. He suddenly slammed the bottom of his weapon hard against the ground. Hard enough to catch Gregory's attention at least. After doing this, the Golem lifted its weapon backwards over its head, before throwing it with incredible speed at Karl. After sinking a significant distance into the ground, the spear would release a pulse of force into the area around it, before fading into nothingness. Arcturus, however, didn't fade yet, and Karl's attack collided with him, enveloping him in ice, but the spike itself proves unable to pierce the being's armor.
As the thing launched it's spear in what appeared to be a last resort move. Karl was unsure what it would do, so he jumped far to the side, and raised a small shield of ice. The spear struck the ground with incredible force, and it released a massive shock wave. Karl took the brunt of it, bracing himself with his halberd. After it passed, he rose, a little unsteady, but whole to his feet.
"Not bad." He said as he walked up to the frozen golem.
"You were a worthy opponant, but the fight is over." He put his hand on the side of the ice.
"Tremble!" He commanded, as he swung his halberd. On impact, the ice shattered, shattering Arcturus along with it.
"That is taken care of..." He looked around, and located the wizard who had summoned the construct. He was currently flying trough the air, in a one way trip into a wall. Karl sighed, and leaned on his halberd.
"He seems like he has a lot on his hands." The other girl was in coversation with one of Karl's allies, and judging by their faces, it was a real heart-to-heart. That left the woman. He charged her, and got between Delilah and Jane.
"Two on one is not very honorable. I'll be your opponent." He said, leveling his halberd at her.
After Jane had thrown him, Gregory didn't hit the wall with all that much force due to the difference in weights between him and his opponent, and he had twisted his body to try and minimize it, so he came out of the landing effectively unharmed. Then there were the the shuriken thrown at him. One sliced open his left arm pretty bad as he moved out of the way, but the other two he disengaged with another
"Detonate!" They flew harmlessly away from the fighters. After this, he saw that Arcturus had been defeated, and that the man that had been fighting him was now squaring off against Delilah. That wasn't any good, he doubted he could fend off two opponents from her at once, and he moved quickly to rejoin the fray, using his illusion magic to make it seem to Karl as if he had jumped down over him to get between him and Delilah.
Delilah, however, knew that the version appearing in front of her was an illusion, and stepped back, taking a breath.
"Fireball!" It was one of her older, less creative spells, but it had had its uses in the past. Turning her right hand skyward, the tattoo of a fireball on her wrist leapt to life as a fist-sized orb that sailed over the illusionary Gregory's shoulder towards Karl.
Luna felt herself wince slightly as Damian's Blade collided with her own again, but she managed to resist his attack, and mostly keep her ground as he pushed her. The field of blades, however, was something she wasn't prepared for. Initially, she tried to just move backwards out of its range, but as the blades kept approaching, she tried instead to dive diagonally over one edge of the attack, barely succeeding. Standing up, Luna watched Damian with narrowed eyes, bringing her sword up in both hands.
"L-look, I d-don't care. If she has good r-reason, then I doubt we could stop her from leaving again..." Luna swallowed, and shifted as if she was about to attack, then stopped.
A high pitch scream pierced the air, and she recognized it.
Luna took off running.
