She tried her best to observe the movement of their enemy that stood before them, but to little avail due to her lack of knowledge with magic. Zuri's attention went from the fight to Travis when he called out for her. She wanted to know what Travis had in mind, so she replies with "I think I can, but what do you want me to do in that form?".

"I have something that may help us take this guy down. However, its current design only work up close, like point-blank. Do you think you can..."

Travis' voice trailed off upon coming to a sudden and alarming realization that he and Zuri were once more under attack. During the ongoing conflict between Raiya and Rutger, Travis was able to catch the Father creating and unleashing a spread of explosive bolts with a few aimed directly at them. Not wanting to have Raiya loose her momentum and mana protecting them again in addition with protecting herself too, Travis quickly leapt past Zuri to respond.

"Shit, hold that thought!" yelped Travis as he hot-generated a pair of his lightning runes fired them the mere moment they were ready. Two streaks of ionized plasma surged out from their magic circles and quickly connected with Rutger's attacks moments before they could reach their targets. While his reply was likely enough to neutralize the blasts via premature detonations, Travis' considerable timing wouldn't prevent him from getting knocked down from the force of expected explosions.

Raiya used her Izanami no Hogo to block the mana bolt, but as she landed she was met with a shock wave that pushed her back 10 feet, rubble shrapnel scraped her skin as she was pushed back but she remained standing. A few trickles of blood came out of cuts on her arms and from her forehead but these wounds were quickly sealed up by her empowered form's healing factor A manaegis with real weight? How is that possible? Manaegis is supposed to be close to weightless. Unless... Is he using gravity magic in tandem with the manaegis to give it weight?"

Raiya couldn't afford to focus on her teammates in this fast paced battle. She quickly threw out two softball sized white manabolts that zipped through the air with a sound of rapid vibrating like an electric razor. The bolts were made of the same type of spell that the Izanami no Hogo was made from, they shredded other magical spells and would cut through most barriers as well as pierce flesh and were headed straight for the right arm and leg of Stockton. She flicked her left wrist towards the ground, opening up a white portal a little larger than the bolts she just fired and then fired a third into the portal. The portal was connected to the wall just behind Stockton and would pierce through the small of his back.

Rutger charged a barrier to block Raiya's twin attacks. Despite the mana-shredding capabilities, they weren't able to fully break through Rutger's advanced defense spell. However, possibly due to his aging eyes he missed the third attack. Just before it hit him, he seemed to sense it coming and tried to move out of the way. He was too late however, and the bolt pierced his latent barrier and gored his flesh. Even while trying to dodge, he suffered a moderate slash to his side.

Angered, Rutger telepathically slid his massive hammer towards Raiya to try to sideline her, afterwards at the end of the swing he let go, causing it to spin wildly towards Zuri and Travis like a extremely heavy frisbee. Once it would crash to the ground the hammer would dissipate

Raiya saw the hammer and immediately blinked upwards, the hammer flying harmlessly under her. It wasn't until Raiya continued to watch the trajectory of the hammer that she realized the hammer's true target was Travis and Zuri. Raiya gasped, the hammer would cause an immense amount of damage even if it missed and hit near them. Raiya had to act fast; she dropped her sword into her inventory in an instant, and blinked right in front of Travis and Zuri as the hammer drew very close to slamming into the group. "IZANAMI NO HOGO!" Raiya shouted as she ejected her hand forward, she pumped twice the amount of mana into the spell than before, creating a stronger version of the runic circle shield. It's not enough! Raiya thought as she exerted herself, the hammer stopping at the shield. It was dissipating much slower than the other spells she stopped before, the shredding effect of her shield was not efficient at dealing with manaegis.

Manaegis was a solid dense form of spell, having physical properties while being made entirely from raw mana. The density was too great for Izanami no Hogo to shred through without expending an immense amount of mana that Raiya couldn't afford to expend. She grunted under the force of the hammer being pushed upon her spell, her feet slid back on the stony ground as she was pushed back. I've got to do something fast before I burn up most of my remaining mana Raiya's mind raced. She had a risky idea but it would take some finesse. Raiya dropped her Izanami no Hogo, and instantly the hammer resumed its initial trajectory. Raiya would surely be struck point blank if she didn't react within that second, immediately she flicked her wrists opening up a large portal in front of her which swallowed the hammer. She didn't have time to think too hard about where to place the other side of the portal which ended up being created above them faced upwards. The hammer smashed into the ceiling raining chunks of debris upon them. Raiya activated a white physical dome barrier around the group, which held up against the raining chunks of rock. After about 15 seconds the rocky precipitation ceased allowing Raiya to drop her barrier.

Raiya turned back to the other two, "Sorry about that, I didn't have enough time to think about where I would put the hammer after I opened the portal." Raiya felt her mana quickly falling below the halfway point, "I hope you guys have come up with some sort of plan, because I don't have much more time left in this fight. This bastard is tougher than I thought." With those last words, she turned back to engage her enemy once more.

"Enough is enough, I am going to show you why they call me the Dragon of the Yakuza." Raiya planted her feat squarely on the ground and crouched into a stance, her face stern and convicted. She began to channel her mana into her right arm, her white aura filled the flame colored tattoo of her right arm. She held out her right hand in front of her and exclaimed, "Yamata no Orochi ittō! (The first head of Yamata no Orochi)" Immediately after she released the spell, an immensely hot flame in the shape of a massive sleek snake burst forth from her arm. It was slightly larger in width than Raiya's body and was about fourty feet long. Its trajectory was hard to read as it weaved its way through the air but it was becoming increasingly clear that Raiya was controlling its movements through the air. There was no dodging away from this spell, and the flames were hot enough to melt through reinforced steel. Even as it passed over the rock below it, it melted a path, leaving a molten trail as it found its way to its target. It was moving fast and coming straight at Stockton at about twenty feet per second. Even if he dodged, Raiya could change the path of the spell in a moment's notice.

Zuri noticed the explosive blasts that were aimed directly at both of them when Travis leapt past her. She raised her right arm and created the motion similar to a slam dunk as she manipulated the shadows around her as a large shield pierced the ground in front of Travis and herself right after he finished casting his spell. The shield quickly solidified when Zuri poured a bit of energy into it before running up against it and prayed that it would hold against the explosion.

While the force of the blasts was enough to offset his balance considerably, Zuri's unexpected barrier protected them both from the main brunt of Rutger's violently dissipating attacks. Travis fell flat on his rear and covered his face until the brilliance of the attacks finally faded. Taking a brief moment to recuperate, Travis quickly returned to his feed and faced his teammate.

"Thanks Zuri, I could've been blown in to something unhealthy back there," he complimented Zuri as he brushed the last bit of dust from his coat.

Though they were seemingly out of danger for the moment, Raiya and Rutger's fight would drawn them back in yet again. In one swift motion, Rutger had allowed the failed swing of his hammer to fly out from his grasp and in to a death spin right towards Travis and Zuri. Travis himself barely took notice of the attack until it was right on top of them. However he only managed to consciously acknowledge it just after Raiya had intervened once. What shocked him further was how destructive Rutger's had brought with it as he watched even Raiya struggling to stop it. Travis only saw a glimpse of Raiya redirecting the destructive tool through a portal before she encased them in a protective barrier. With everything happening so fast, Travis was only able to surmise that the debris that suddenly rained down upon them was the result of the hammer colliding with the now-destroyed ceiling.

When the results of the attack finally settling, Travis finally reoriented himself once more and turned to their encoring savior, "thanks again for the save, Raiya. Just give a little more time."

He was truly grateful for her repeated assistance but given that there was so much riding on them now, Travis couldn't seem to form enough gratitude in to his words. At this point though, he knew not to expect appreciation for the sentiment and only results mattered now as they were struggling to ensure their lives as they fought someone whom was not giving them any breathing room to coordinate. It would be only a matter of time before Raiya would be unable to protect them any further if her own efforts faltered.

"Okay, where were we..." Travis began as he returned his a portion of his gaze to Zuri while keeping an eye on the battle just in case of any more surprises from Rutger, "...right. Zuri, what are you capable of doing when you assume that form of yours?"

Father Stockton's eyes raced as he thought of a solution to Raiya's attack as fast as possible. Judging by the way it changed direction there were probably no easy ways to dodge, leaving only one option left. "Ghiaccio alito!" (Ice Breath) He shouted before extending his hand out. A glowing blue rune appeared in the air that spewed fourth a immense gust of snowy tundra wind. It collided with the fire serpent, creating a massive amount of steam as the two opposite elements cancelled themselves out. Only once he was sure that the attack was entirely nullified did he stop the spell and let the steam dissipate.

With a smirk, Stockton generated another manaegis hammer, this one much more proportional than the last, and propped it up on his shoulder. "Face it Mamushi, you're spells are no match for mine. My mana pool is much larger than yours, my experience is much greater than yours, and my spell library is much more numerous than yours. For every spell a low rate magi like yourself might think to cast, I already know three different answers to. Your only advantage on me is that you could win a physical battle, but I have no intention in engaging in such a barbaric mud-roll with you." Stockton explained, his usual deadpan voice showing a hint of self satisfied hubris now. "Your only hope would be to stop me from casting altogether, and your only way of doing that is currently preoccupied." He finished, referencing Nemo's anti-magic capabilities.

The hammer crashed against the wall of the cave as debris started to rain down upon both of them, Zuri covering her head with both her arms but realized after a few seconds that there was a force field surrounding them. She looked over to Raiya with a smile and said "Thanks for the save~" even though she most likely couldn't hear it.

After everything settled down, Zuri remained to pay close attention to Rutger's actions as she replied Travis' question. "I'm not that certain myself, but I can cast spells a lot more efficiently and I become more nimble and physically stronger if I remember correctly from the last time I took that form.." she paused for a bit to recall what Travis said before and asked "So you want me to activate some sort of rune when I'm up close and personal with that Mage over there?". Zuri wasn't familiar with how runes work, including the methods used to activate them. "...before we go any further.. h-how do you activate a rune?" she blushes a bit from embarrassment of not knowing.

"...okay, fair enough. I can work with that," Travis replied.

While it wasn't a descriptive answer Travis was looking for, if gave him enough of an idea on how Zuri could perform. But given her mysterious background and her reliability in previous encounters, he remained uncertain if that was going to be enough. Before he could dwell of the detail further, Zuri followed up and asked how she would case a rune, specifically the one he had referenced earlier.

"What? You? I didn't mean-"

Quite frankly up to this point, Travis had intended on operating the rune himself once the opportunity presented itself. But Zuri's query did however remind of another advantage he possessed; Nemo's shotgun. Indeed, its presence had nearly eluded him, even though he had carried the weapon around him via its leather sling for some time after traversing the chasm from earlier. With its shells in mind, it made perfect sense how effective it would be in a fight such as this against someone, whom was versed in the ways of magic, was also nearly dependent on it. After quickly thinking about it, he had then found a new plan.

"I-I mean, yes, you! Sorry, I had a different thought process going on..." he apologized, almost sounding sheepish in the process though he tried to recompose himself in appearing that he knew what he was doing and talking about.

Technically speaking however, he didn't.

"Anyway, don't worry about casting or activating runes; I'll teach you that if we make it out of this alive," Travis said with some required assurance as he held out the clear icosahedron-shaped case that held the imprint of his rune within it, "this rune I have here is stored in an encasing that responds to mana. All you got to do is channel your mana directly in to it and then it will activate. Simple."

"However, getting close won't be easy. That Rutger guy has been able to keep up with Raiya this entire fight," he continued, "if we're to try and beat him, we're gonna have to attack him together and hopefully getting in to range for that rune to work..."

Travis then pulled out one of the red shells for his loaned-shotgun, "or if I am lucky enough to slam him with one of these. Same result, just messier. But I'm counting on that rune however."

Looking back at the fight, he could tell that it wasn't going well for Raiya as he witnessed Father Stockton neutralize another one of her impressive spells, one that likely drained another fair amount of mana from her. He knew it wouldn't be long until she would be completely zapped unless she managed to finish off Rutger through the process. It was a hope that was now fading more and more.

With a sigh, Travis then turned to Zuri, "Think you're ready? I'm sure as hell not, but if we don't make this count, we're history."

Zuri was a bit overwhelmed by all the things Travis said, jumping from one thing to another, but she got most of what he had to say. The current situation was getting more dire as time goes on as Raiya becomes more worn out the longer she remains fighting against that mage. She knew that both of them had to do something to at least help, if not straight up ending the fight. "I'm ready!" she said with a nervous but confident tone. "But first.. I need the case with the rune on it.." she says, placing her palm out as she let out a giggle knowing that she might not be in the best of shape after this fight.

"Of course," Travis replied as he placed the small case within Zuri's grasps.

However before he retracted his right hand, Travis unexpectedly took gentle hold of Zuri's receiving hand and turned it over so the back of it was then showing. His left hand then hovered over and with a brief incantation, a rune slowly materialized into her skin. The process was however painless and hardly anything could be felt from it.

"Don't worry, its harmless and will fade in time. Think of this as a bit of insurance so to speak," Travis explained before continuing, "Its a recall rune if you must know. In case if things get too dicey or if an opportunity presents itself, I can either quickly bring you back into my vicinity or me to you via my decamp spell which the rune is linked to."

Travis released Zuri's hand so she could expect it though he continued on with his explanation, "The spell process however consumes a lot of mana that I don't have much of, even if I'm drawing mana from one of my crystals. Therefore, we won't have many uses and I am expecting to burn through most if not all my crystals through using other spells. Best we keep on our toes, okay?"

Zuri held onto the case as Travis marked the back of her palm with a rune. She was then given a quick explanation on what it does before he let go of her hand. Zuri retracted her hand and inspected both the rune that was marked on her hand and the case with the rune.

She looks at Travis and asks "So all I have to do is get close enough to touch him, aim this rune at him, pour mana into it and something good will happen?" with a raised eyebrow, grinning with excitement. "If that's the case.." Zuri turns around and looks straight at the mage that Raiya has been keeping busy for what feels like an eternity, "...It's time we try to put an end to this.."

Zuri begins to transform, dark beams started to twirl around her before lifting her off the ground and after a few seconds, the beams bursted, revealing her in a completely different outfit than what she wore before, with dark pieces of armour made out of pure energy that covered crucial parts such as her chest, shoulders, arms, legs, along with a skirt and helmet. The armour was held magically in place, so she doesn't feel any added weight. However, the magic tore up her clothing in the process, which made it look very revealing.

She slowly hovered back onto the floor after her transformation, inspecting herself and noticing that this wasn't anything like the last time. "I.. I-" Zuri notices that nothing but this magical armour was covering her, but this was no time to feel embarrassed. Zuri visualizes a white cloak that covers her shoulders all the way down to her waist before creating it as it slowly falls onto her.

After securing her cloak, she turns around, facing Travis and says "Y-You didn't see anything, right? Well, it doesn't really matter.. I'm not sure what this is but I'll find out soon enough." She comments on her current situation, referring to how she didn't transform into the dark shadowy entity but instead, remained as herself. She does however, feel more in control with her mana and her abilities, both mentally and physically. Zuri could feel this form slowly draining away her mana, so she doesn't have that much time to stand idly around.

Raiya grunted in exhaustion and anger. The spell she had just cast wasn't her most powerful spell, but at the current level of mana she was drained to, it was the most powerful spell she could use and she at least expected some results. Soon after Stockton negated her spell with his own, she felt a powerful burst of mana behind her. She turned around to see a naked Zuri in what looked to be a black manaegis, it might have been a different spell than the manaegis, but it held some stark similarities compared to Felix's own suit of magical armor, the only differences being that it looked more sparse than Felix's full-body armor. Soon after she assumed her form, she also conjured up a cloak to cover her new armor, which made Raiya cock an eyebrow at but didn't say anything. 'Well, it seems like they do have a plan after all. That's a bit of a relief,' Raiya considered, 'I'm not sure what they are planning, but I would suppose these teammates of mine will be looking for some sort of opening, I better not keep them waiting then.'

Raiya was now down to a little less than a quarter of her total manapool, at the current rate of descent, she would only have ten more minutes in her God Slayer form, even less if she was casting spells. Raiya was angry at not figuring out her enemy's tactic sooner. Her current form specialized in defense against offensive spells, while it did provide her with an offensive boost, the idea behind her form was one of a form that could negate miracles and curses to slay gods and demons. The only spell that she had that could truly stop Stockton was her most powerful one, the 8th head of Yamata no Orochi, a spacial spell that traps the user and the enemy inside an aether spacial field that prevents all magic from being cast. With Raiya's combat ability, most enemy's would die within that space, but it was not something she could use on a whim. It would wipe her entire manapool out in a single cast, leaving her absolutely defenseless against a strong foe and it only lasted fifteen minutes, as soon as it ran out, Raiya would be too exhausted to continue a battle against a tenacious foe. She had the perfect tool to end this nuisance, but she had no way of knowing that this was the perfect fight to use it in. Now it was too late.

Raiya had a decision to make, to act fast and create an opening in her current form, betting everything on the plan of her teammates, or drop her current form and conserve her mana for a longer battle. She decided the former was her best shot. She dropped her sword, and stretched out her fists, whispering, "Izanami no Ken," as she channeled her mana to her hands. A white ball-like glow surrounded her fists, empowering them with spell-shredding capabilities as well as concussive kinetic shockwaves that would emanated throughout whatever she struck. After she empowered herself, she used another blink technique to quickly get behind Stockton. She took an offensive stance known as the horse-stance in gungfu, and as she threw out a quick snap-punch, she twisted her body to give it extra leverage and strength. The punch wasn't enough to kill someone with a barrier, but certainly enough to disorient them and wind them for a short time.

Stockton's manalysis was able to track Raiya through her blink, locating her behind him. He quickly spun around and analyzed the oncoming threat. Rutger used his two hands to block her punch and grab her arm to lock her in place, but it wasn't at no cost. His barriers were completely shredded from contact with her fist, as well as receiving quite a bit of pain from the shock-wave. He was rattled, but quickly able to shrug it off. "I-if you planned on getting this close, you should have hit me harder, hard enough to finish this. But don't worry, I have no problem with drawing out your punishment as well."

"Frantumare." Stockton said, casting his own kinetic shock-wave spell through his arms and into Raiya's body. Frantumare was a spell used primarily for torture. It couldn't kill or cause someone to pass out, only create an immense amount of pain in one burst.

Travis admitted to himself that it would've been best to have request Zuri to transform into the initial phase for their impending conflict with Father Stockton, that way there was less focus on his teammate. Just as Zuri concluded their plans that he laid out, she then assumed her previously dark and intimidating form. However the transformation wasn't exactly as Travis had remembered it the first time though he had honestly happened upon it at its ending phase. Instead of a shadowy looming figure dethatched of any recognizable features of Zuri herself, she, perhaps unintentionally, departed from her attire in poltergeist-like fashion. Travis would argue that the 'armor' she now wore didn't appear practical protection-wise as it only covered certain areas of her body. However he couldn't determine the attributes or qualities of each fabricated piece that held to Zuri's anatomy therefore, it was currently beyond him how effective this new form was.

Travis eventually snapped out of his dumbstruck state just as Zuri sheepishly asked if he had glimpsed any aspect of her briefly bare transformation to which he replied with quickly shaking his head while widened eyes and a frown still illustrated his surprised of the incident. Apparently, even Zuri expressed her astonishment of the sequence that has transpired which lead to Travis wondering how much of her power did Zuri know or comprehended. It seemed clear she knew how to call upon mana and use it to channel spells but thus far, the artes she performed seem to have unintended or different results. Was she casting the wrong spells or did her power have its own will? A fascinating topic to research but other developments required their attention.

With Raiaya now taking note of their newly established readiness, Travis watched as she unexpectedly engaged Rutger yet again despite her obviously low mana reserves. Be her attack didn't carry any lethal weight to it and only operated to stun an opponent; a maneuver he didn't think Raiya would utilize. The tactic seemed to work as it neutralized Stockton's barrier and even caught him off guard for once.

This was now the time for he and Zuri to finally enter the fray.

"The fight is on, Zuri! Let's go!" he called upon his teammate with irresolute dynamism; he really wasn't looking forward to this.

Having inserted a number of his remaining mana crystals with several specialized of his coat though his discussion with Zuri, Travis could feel a large flow of mana synchronizing with his own well. With a topped off and a enhanced supply, Travis quickly casted several runes around him but delayed their discharge. Through the motion, he charged forward with Nemo's shotgun in hand, loaded with two buckshots he hoped to further harass with Rutger with, even whittle down preferably if he could. It was then that Rutger finally replied to Raiya's non-fatal ploy with a spell of his own. After seeing Raiya recoil, Travis gritted his teeth and slid into position and took quick aim, wanted to pay his target back for harming his comrade yet again.

With a prefect shot lined up, Travis wasted no time and pulled one of the triggers of his shotgun and witnessed the brilliance of the custom shell's firing.

Too much was happening and the time was ticking down. Zuri didn't have any time to think about anything other than to focus on taking Rutger down. Without wasting any more time, she takes the rune that Travis gave her and placed it in her non-dominant hand, which is her left. Zuri made sure she had a good grip on it before she started to run towards Rutger at a curved angle.

She kept a close eye on Travis's movement and action, and as he takes out the shotgun, Zuri stops and aims her right arm directly at Rutger's center mass, swiftly throwing up a rune in front of her palm before a shard, the size of a baseball bat bolted out at a very high speed with a barrier-piercing tip, flying directly towards Rutger in a straight line.

Zuri follows up with another attack, this time taking a little bit longer than before as she creates three small crystals, a little larger than marbles, infused with mana along with the effects of the curse that she has been living with for so many years.

What she held in the palm of her right hand was a highly concentrated cluster of crystal grenades that explodes when she triggers it instead of after a certain time or on impact to avoid it getting redirected and hurting her own allies. When triggered, it will release an explosion, similar to fireworks, a dark powder-like cloud that latches onto anything it can feed off. Zuri throws one of them directly at Rutger and triggers it when it's quite close to him, releasing a dark powder-like cloud that slowly creeps towards Rutger.

These grenades were something really special, as it contained a very experiential type of magic that has been long forgotten. Through many years of cultivation, this dark corruptive magic was infused into a mana crystal. Long story short, Zuri was jabbed and horribly infected by this curse and entrapped soon later in the large crystal she broke out of just roughly a week ago. Through the thousands of years, the darkness corrupted her mana pool and fed off it for a few hundred years before her body was able to overtake this curse and take control of it. As it was developed to be a magic suppressor, Zuri's power is still being suppressed to this very day, but she has managed to control it and to prevent its destructive nature from rising up ever again.

Raiya grunted a bit at the pain, but didn't cry out. She'd felt similar torture spells used by the yakuza before, and compared to her initiation into the yakuza, this was absolutely nothing. Still, though, the pain was effective enough to make Raiya recoil in Stockton's grip. Moreover, the spell she had just cast just about used up the last of her mana, which meant she wasn't able to finish the job. Raiya grunted a bit more in anger as she struggled against the grasp of her foe, which wasn't that strong, but Raiya was truly exhausted. As she struggled against the grasp, she saw them, her teammates rushing forward in an all out attack. Travis with a shotgun, and Zuri with some sort of crystal attacks. With Stockton's back turned from them and his focus on her, it was the perfect time to strike. Raiya didn't need to know the nature of Zuri's attacks to understand she was in the way and needed to move. With her teammates mobilized, Raiya shouted, "I'll leave the rest to you two!" Then Raiya dug deep down and used the rest of her remaining empowered mana to blink out of Stockton's grip.

Raiya blinked to a far wall away from the fight but still in full view of it. That was when her hair and aura began to revert back to normal. She collapsed backwards, her back hitting the wall as she slid down into a supported sitting position. Raiya was tired and it would be at least a few minutes before she could move again. Raiya could only hope that her teammates had a solid plan, or that Nemo would rush to their rescue, otherwise, they were most certainly dead.

Raiya's blink irritated Rutger, he quickly located her and prepared to finish the job, but commotion behind him drew his attention away. He spun around, seeing Travis and the shotgun first. Rutgur hastily prepared a magic barrier as soon as Travis pulled the trigger. After the shot rang out, Rutger went to use an attack of his own back, but found something unexpected and troubling had happened. He looked down, seeing blood start to stain his robes and trickle down.

Nemo's mana crystal infused buckshot shells worked just as he explained. The crystals ripped holes in his barrier and allowed the buckshot to continue on unhindered. Rutger was hit twice in the stomach, and once in the upper right thigh.

Rutger gritted his teeth through the pain that began to course through his body. "You shouldn't have interfered Untalent, because now I'm going to squash you like the bug you are." With one hand gripping his bleeding abdomen, Stockton raised the other and charged a massive glowing orb spell. "Morte magica." He spoke, causing the orb to only grow in size further.

As Stockton prepared to unleash his massive spell towards Travis, Zuri's own crystal grenades detonated nearby. The cloud of smoke obscured his vision and caused him to wheeze. He used his free hand to try to wave it away with mostly ineffective results. He tried to release his spell anyways, but found that after the powder had come in contact with him his spell had started to fizzle away against his will. The massive orb soon disappeared completely.

Rutger retreated out of the smoke cloud, trying desperately to regain control of his magic once more.

Zuri puts away the other two small infused crystals in one of the pockets on the inside of her cloak as she watches as the crystals seemed to be quite effective, even going so far as to stopping one of his spells. She starts sprinting directly towards Rutger with the rune Travis gave her in her left hand, ready to activate it when she's close enough.

She was closing in fast, each step faster than the one before it. Zuri throws herself directly at Rutger, fearless and reckless, hoping that everything will work out, extending her arm and aimed it directly at Rutger when she was near point-blank range and poured sufficient mana to trigger the rune. Even though Zuri didn't know, she had a huge grin on her face, her eyes glowing ever so slightly. The side-effects of using this form was starting to show, and the scary thing is that Zuri wasn't aware of it.