Bytan Brass and Thor - the Frenzy Fort
Though dull and damp, the old man's eyes remained sharp enough to see the hooded figure running straight toward him with relative ease. As Thor approached, the size difference between the two wizards became obvious; the lightning mage's five-foot, three-inch height did not stack up against Bytan's 6-foot flat. Thus, when Thor went to kick the man, even when coated by lightning, her lack of range made it easy for Bytan to step back out of its sweep.
He watched, mildly intrigued, while Thor made as if to run away, only to circle back and attempt to kick again. This time, Thor's Lightning Body had fully taken effect, and it was not a hooded girl that Bytan faced but a bolt of electricity coming straight for his back. Fortunately, the man was well versed in the turning-around department, and as he pivoted in Thor's direction he quickly pondered the situation. Knowing that he'd take a hit anyway if he tried to evade again, he brushed his hand off his shoulder, and a yellow shimmer briefly shone beneath his fingers.
The air in front of Thor's bolt thickened into a yellow-tinged circle, which shielded Bytan from the blow. Before the old man could retaliate, the fleet-footed lightning wizard was off again, and this time somehow jumped twenty feet to the Frenzy Fort's first floor ceiling and stuck there. Apparently, she was trying to gauge the effectiveness of her attacks. Bytan sighed, and touched two fingertips, that of index and middle finger, against several tattoos all over his body.
"Grand Almanac: Engage."Suddenly, the tattoos vanished. Around Bytan, several figures began to appear, manifesting at equal and opposite speed to the departure of his tattoos. Two of them appeared to be himself, although younger, and with fewer tattoos. The
third, however, stood taller, and with no semblance of humanity save for bipedalism. It appeared to be a sort of dragon, though smaller, and made of earth. Bytan also brushed a tattoo that depicted a fireball before extending his arm upward, and a fireball zoomed up to slam into Thor from below.
-
Thor was quite surprised when the old man simply stepped back and avoided their kick relativly easy. The old man didn't seem anyway impressed about her and it even looked like he didn't even give a crap about Thor's attack. The second kick didn't seem to harm him either. Thor could barely see why the attack didn't hit Bytan. The old man was protected by some sort of barrier that came out of nowhere. Thor tried bursting through it by tensing up the electricity in their foot which also resulted in a bright light coming from the traction between the barrier and Thor's foot, but no harm was done anyway
"Tsjh" Thor jumped up but still couldn't figure out what kind of magic he used. The barrier didn't say anything about his magic but it was clear to Thor that things needed to go the other way around.
Thor felt quite irritated by the sigh of the old man. He just didn't care in any possible way. He was finally preparing himself to do something back to Thor. Thor stand guard on the ceiling and carefully watched what the old man was doing. Multiple figures came flying off his body. No to be exact he used his tattoos to summon them. Were they illusions or real? This might have resulted in a slight problem for Thor. If Thor can't even hit the man and only fight the creatures for distraction how is it possible to beat him. In deep thought Thor could only barely evade the fireball that was being thrown at them by quickly walking along the ceiling. Thor's magnetism to the ceiling wasn't that big however and already made them fall down after the second step.
As Thor fell down Thor cast another spell at Bytan
"Lightning Ball" The ball flew off straight towards him. Thor could use this bare moment to safely land on the ground and immediately roll towards them. As soon as Thor was near them Thor casted another spell
"Lightning Shock" This was ideal for multiple targets. Thor quickly stood up again and only made their feet out of lightning with
"Lighting Body" to dash towards the man. Thor tried punching the man with three quick strikes that probably didn't help much since their strength wasn't all too great but would at least hurt him a little.
-
Any disappointment in himself Bytan might have felt for whiffing his fireball was drowned by disappointment in Thor as she seemingly failed to recognize the dragon's constitution. He made no move to defend against either her Lightning Ball or Lightning Shock, and his two copies echoed his nonchalance. The electricity arcing through the air toward them suddenly diverted into the earth dragon, attracted to ground as all electricity was wont to do. Bytan had specifically chosen his earth dragon for this occasion in order to test his opponent's versatility, but it seemed she hadn't too many tricks to offer.
As she approached him, her feet aglow with brilliant sparks, Bytan issued a command to his copies via gesture, and they stepped away to allow Thor to close the distance. The old man crossed his arms in a defensive position just in time to catch Thor's punches. Their electric infusion was not good for his raw nerves, and for a split second he was paralyzed. In that second, however, Bytan's two copies stepping back in, and Thor found herself surrounded. The two reached for the lightning wizard's arms to restrain her.
-
Thor smiled a little before looking at all the damage they had done to the opponent but to her surprise none of them seemed harmed at all. Thor stared a few moments at them and had only just noticed the dragon standing behind the group. The dragon didn't look like anything special at first glance but he seemed to have absorbed all of the electricity. Thor was taken off guard after just punching the guy for a few times and was locked in place by the two copies of the old guy. Thor struggled getting out and even tried raising the power of the electricity that was automatically emitting from her body. After a few more moments of struggling Thor spoke a few soft words knowing that the two copies were holding onto Thor tightly
"Electrocution" Thor was starting to get slightly mad about being taken so lightly.
This time, without the dragon in close proximity, Thor's lightning took effect. Bytan, recovered from paralysis, was able to move backward fast enough to avoid some of the punishment, but received a nasty shock nonetheless that caused his withered heart to beat painfully fast. His copies, meanwhile, were not so lucky. Supercharged with voltage, their skin crackled and burned, and they melted away into mist. Already, however, the old man was working on his next move. He rubbed his shield tattoo again, and a yellow barrier formed that he then thrust outward to bash into Thor and make some room.
Bytan crossed his arms and shouted in a guttural voice,
"To be a soldier it is not enough to throw around power with no direction. One must also use the mind. Just as water trumps fire, earth diffuses electricity. I have not shown you the full extent of my power, and I do not intend to. If you figure out a way to defeat my earth dragon, however, you will prove yourself worthy of training, and I will concede. Go!"The dragon growled and charged forward. When it got close enough to Thor, it swept its long, orange-pointed tail toward her.
Thor felt the grip of the two fade away as they disappeared into a thin mist like form. This was almost fair and square again. As Thor wanted to land another hit against the old man his face Thor widened their eyes. The Yellow shield appeared right in front of their eyes and thrust Thor backwards. Thor could barely shield themself with the side of their arms. Thor left a long dust trail under their feet and straightened theirself again. Thor felt a little startled after the man raised his voice. Thor carefully listened to the man, it was more like a lecture then a real fight. But it was true the man himself must have been an S-class in his young years. He hasn't moved a finger since they had started fighting. In his serious mode Thor would probably not even be able to scratch the old geezer. Thor gave a small nod accepting the challenged and turned around to face the dragon while not keeping the corner of their eyes of Bytan at the same time.
Thor immediately felt the large orange tail sweep their feet away, Thor released a small gasp out of their mouth and used their hands to push theirself away from the ground. Thor made a handstand and jumped up with their hands to stand on their feet again. As soon as Thor was on solid ground again they dashed forward towards the dragon. Thor didn't have as much of a plan in mind yet but Thor was sure electricity wasn't gonna work. Although Thor didn't use much other fighting styles apart from their electricity it was still possible
"Lighting Body" There at least was a way for Thor to move faster. The body of Thor was surrounded by lighting once again as Thor tried to strike the legs of the dragon. To surprise they were harder then Thor had originally thought.
The physical integrity of the leg did not, however, mean that its owner didn't feel the attack. Though the electricity of course dissipated on hit, Thor's blow staggered the creature, causing it to nearly stumble as it moved left, trying to maintain its balance. Bytan raised a snowy eyebrow, wondering if Thor had figured out that the two-legged dragon was top-heavy. Angered, the dragon swerved back toward Thor, and lashed its tail at her. For a creature with such a large head and jaw, it didn't seem very eager to attempt to bite its opponent.
Thor had already noticed the body of the dragon was way to big for those legs to properly fight on. Despites of his lack of balance he was still pretty hard and was way to heavy for Thor to kick over just as simple as that. The weight of the creature could clearly be felt as Thor was hit in the stomach by the creature. Soon Thor found themself flung towards a nearby wall. Thor coughed up a little bit of blood as Thor hit the wall. As soon as Thor got back to their feet Thor immediately used the wall to jump towards the creature with great speed to get momentum and use the bottom of Thor's shoe to kick on one spot so that the creature would be thrown off balance. Thor immediately jumped again and two times more on the walls around them to get to the other side of the creature. Thor used the same method and gained momentum again but this time used Thor's full body to tackle the creature's upper body.
The series of attacks on the speedy lightning wizard's part took a toll on the earth dragon, but not as much as it would have had Thor not been so small and light. Her second, full-bodied assault, caused the beast to topple to the floor with a crash, but aside from being knocked down it didn't seem too much worse for wear. Its head, however, lay on the ground, momentarily stunned by the impact. It snarled and began to rise; if Thor planned to act, it would have to be soon.
Thor gave a smile of triumph as the creature fell down towards the ground. For a few moments it looked like the fight was over but before they could celebrate the creature rose again. Thor was a little dumb founded when the creature was almost happy and about again. Thor had to act quick or else everything that was done up till now would have been wasted and would only make Thor more tired. Thor jumped up towards the ceiling again and had to quickly come up with a critical spot before dashing down again. The legs would only delay the beast from standing up again. The body would take too much force and the arms. Well the arms weren't as much of a target. Thor dashed down again aiming their legs at the head of the creature. Thor braced themself for the impact and striked down on the side of the head of the creature causing it to bounce towards the ground again. Thor immediately fell down along sides the creature and immediately started to heal their legs out of reaction of the pain.
Thor's downward kick did little damage in itself, but fortunately the sudden collision of head and ground was another story. As the dirt dragon's chin smashed into the sturdy training-room floor, it crumbled, and the lightning mage's do-or-die attack had paid off. The earthen body slumped to the ground before dissolving into mist. From the other side of the hall, Bytan's voice reached her. [color=A45A52"A bold move. If it had failed, you would have been destroyed. A wiser option would have been to target its eyes first to guarantee it couldn't see you coming and dodge. That is what I did when I slew the real version thirty years ago, and had a tattoo of it made to immortalize the memory. A promise is a promise, however. I concede."[/color]
Another dignified round of applause circled the room, ending with Zander. The knight had seated himself during the battle, and rested his chin on his fist.
"An admirable job, recruit. If Lieutenant Brass thinks you have potential, I will echo the sentiment, and promote you to B-rank. I would not, however, advise that you take on an A-rank tester just yet. The only A-rank currently in our training hall is the noble Hyun..." he indicated a somber-looking woman, clad in a formal, violet garb of foreign origin. "...And judging by the attention you're paying to your legs, you've developed a serious weak point. Hyun's own skillset, I fear, is far beyond your own. Will you accept your worthy accomplishment, rest, and improve yourself for next time, or squander a winning streak on your first day?"Thor rolled around on the ground a little full of pain trying to heal their own legs so that it would hurt at least a little bit less. After a few short minutes of healing Thor's legs seemed to have healed at least a little bit. Thor slowly tried standing up and headed over towards the tattooed mage, Thor showed the paper of her notepad to him
"Are your arms hurt?" Thor heard the old guy out and started writing again to follow up on his last few sentences
"I know but I would never try to hurt someone permanently." Thor gave a stubborn look and bowed short after showing another note
"Thank you for the fight." Thor smiled slightly at the man and faced Zander again.
Thor felt glad Zander had taken a liking to the fight they just had and the old geezer did some serious damage to Thor that would have a big impact on the next fight. Thor shook their head a little as Zander gave the option to rest a few days and take the A-rank exam once Thor would be ready for it. Thor walked closer over towards Zander and showed a note to him
"I came here for an A-rank exam. I'm gonna finish the A-rank exam today." Thor didn't look overconfident or anything like that but was just sure that this fight could be won with every drip of sweat on the line. Thor stumbled over towards the ruby line again and waited for the other mage to stand across Thor.
Hyun strode, with immaculate posture and graceful step, to the ruby line across from Thor. Her face was drawn in solemn resolve, and with a practiced hand she removed two katana from their
saya on her waist.
"In time, Lieutenant," she told the exhausted lightning mage in a faint but distinctive Sevenese accent,
"You will understand why you have lost. General Zander, I await your command.""Be merciful but firm, your former highness," the Ruby Knight advised. Where there had been whispers about Bytan Brass, there were none concerning Hyun. Only one outcome seemed possible.
"Begin.""In a single drop of moonlight I seal your fate. Mundane Spark."The swordswoman drew her katanas across one another, and a pure white gleam appeared from beneath them. It darted toward Thor, homing in on her at a rate, while not quite lightspeed, nevertheless proved impossible to dodge. As the splash of white touched Thor, however, nothing seemed to happen at first. Already tired, Thor would not notice a weight settling over her heart when her focus was distracted by Hyun charging straight for her, blades ready.
Thor's breathing was heavy already before the fight had started. There was already some sort of haziness developing in the eyes of Thor, everything was harder to see and Thor's reactions also dropped dramatically. Maybe Thor shouldn't have taken the fight with the next mage. There was always plan B Thor could just be a stationary turret on the roof and beat her that way.
Only a few seconds later the opponent mage began making less room between the two by charching at Thor. It was an easy dodge for her, Hyun could be seen coming to her from a mile away and Thor simply activated Lightning Body. As Thor wanted to dash away Thor had noticed that absolutely nothing was happening. Thor scammed their eyes over their body to see what in the world was happening. Did her magic pool run out? Thor started panicking and tried dodging the now pretty close girl who was about to strike Thor with her sword.
Thor didn't succeed in getting anywhere far away from the girl and tried a few more spells
"Force Field, Lighting Body, Lighting Ball, Shockwave" Thor rapidly waved their hands around not to being cut by any of that. This was not what Thor was suppose to be doing now. Acting like a clown in front of her toughest opponent up til now in this guild. Thor couldn't do any more moves and took the risk to have one cut at the very least.
Hyun allowed herself the briefest of smiles at Thor's confusion, and delayed her sword swing. Instead of attacking, Hyun followed Thor's dodge, and when the lightning mage's momentum trailed off, the swordswoman swept in to place one katana each in front and behind her neck.
"Surrender now, Lieutenant. I will not kill you, but it will hurt if you do not comply. In this guild, wins and losses find all of us in equal measure, and you must greet both with good grace. I do not require one of your notes to inform me; a simple nod of the head will suffice. Do you surrender?"Thor was found dumbfounded by the girl her next move. From one moment to the other Thor found themself stuck between the two swords of the girl. Thor wasn't able to move in any way now without hurting their own neck in the progress. The girl began her speech basically saying if Thor didn't surrender that it was sure that Thor wouldn't leave this match without a single cut. Thor their feet were just able to reach the ground from this position so it wasn't all to comfortable staying like this the whole time. Thor shook their head in denial, such a match couldn't simply end just like this. Thor grabbed ahold of the arms of the girl and lifted their own legs up towards the girls neck. Thor could quickly clamp the girl her neck between Thor's two legs. Thor immediately began crushing the girl her neck between their two legs. The girl couldn't simply cut Thor's throat without receiving punishment from Zander or any other members so Thor would simply have to take that blind guess for now and win this fight with her own strength instead of relying on her own magic the whole time.
So it seemed that she'd be taking the 'firm' route after all. It had been a mistake to assume a position typically meant for fatal threats, but not an irreparable one. She had expected retaliation, but the reply she'd received astonished her only in its lack of forethought. Thor's move was to try and choke out a woman in armor, with her petite, already-wounded legs nonetheless, while holding onto Hyun's arms to avoid falling onto the floor in a heap.
"Perhaps your mind...is not as developed...as the Lieutenant guessed." Thor's was a compromising position.
Hyun descended to her knees. Now Thor's head rested squarely on the floor. When the swordswoman raised her arms, the lightning mage was forced to hang on to them to keep her purchase. And when Hyun dropped her arms, Thor's head smacked against the hard, wood floor.
"Burns...force trauma..." she recapped as she repeated the action, beating Thor's head against the floor once again. With every repetition, the girl's hold grew weaker.
"You chose poorly when you defied me, and you chose more poorly when you decided to use your damaged legs in your last-ditch attack. A soldier must know when to yield!" Bonk. With that, it was done. Thor's misfortune, audacity, and refusal to admit defeat resulted in a limp, robed form lying on the floor. Whether unconscious or not, Thor had lost against the queen from another land. This hardly surprised the onlookers; Hyun's personal style capitalized on opponents who were physically weaker than she. Morimato Tsubano, one of the guild's healers, approached Thor as the crowd dispersed and Hyun stalked away. Leaning over the girl, mask and bear fur clad, she inquired if she needed medical attention.
