The demonstrations were going to begin soon.
Lidda watched the festivities pass her by, her figure out of the way and hidden against the far wall. Her eyes turned from each busy group to the next, studying them all with a bored expression. She was in her faun form because it was one of her favorites, mainly for mingling as it caught the imagination and the walk was attention getting. Though she wasn't an attention hog, she did enjoy being looked at often. Though currently her mood was anything but her usual pleasant self. In truth, her mind and heart were at war with each other.
Her head turned to see Tyrael, Lucilia, Joseph and Justine wrap up their combined demonstration while Satori provided the music in the background. The sound was calming and soothing to those within the room, something much better than her demonstration last year, where several students were mentally scarred. It hadn’t helped the psychomancer students learning under Satori were either met with suspicion or hatred for the first several weeks.
Inhaling deeply, Lidda flashed a signal smile at Satori and gained the woman’s attention. Her mind informing the psychomancer teacher it was time to begin then stepped out from her position against the wall, her spindly legs trotting toward the earth made arena. Her hooves clipped-clopped with each step during her climb in, stretching her limbs while she felt eyes snap to the stage for the event.
Shortly after, Val too stepped up. Her arms were covered in a few runic designs that the vitamancer teacher knew though the actual effects were still a mystery. In her hand was a sword engraved with a few complicated noxomancy and vitamancy runes, making Lidda wary about allowing it to cut her.
"Ready?" Lidda asked the dwarven woman as she bowed at the waist.
"Wen ain't I?" Val replied in a sassy tone, returning the gesture then rushed forward, leading with her left foot.
It would take some time for Lidda to fully change even at a master level, her figure going from humanoid to something else would take time. It would take Val six to eight seconds to reach Lidda. By that time, Val knew her transformation likely complete by then. To speed things up in her attempt to reach the vitamancer, Val's hand brushed a rune on her bracer's under side mid way. It glowed white depicting it was a vitamancer based rune then abruptly spread to outline the dwarf's stocky figure. Her size increased notably while her speed, strength and agility grew to another level. The other hand tightened her grip on the sword then swung at Lidda's face in a horizontal slash.
Lidda was focusing on her spell before Val attacked. Her mind following the same steps she had taught her students as she divided the body up into four areas: bust, torso, limbs and additions. Taking a brief moment, her mind instinctively popped up a mental three dimensional image of a beastie she knew well:
a furia.
It was a native to Djarkel and feasted on lone travelers in the cursed flatlands. Unable to digest raw meat, the creature was able to mix chemicals produced by its body to create an intense, brief electrical charge that could rival a novice Electromancer's power. Through it could easily be redirected and manipulation by them, providing a ideal electrical power source that Tyrael’s batteries possibly had originated from.
Imaging her changes, her spine shifted first. It grew and cracked, lengthening as her arms came out to catch her and prevent her from going face first into the ground. Her skin grew bluer by the moment and the waist narrowed, her chest becoming more barrelled while her feminine features melted away. She had barely enough time to start on her lower half when she spotted Val fast approaching. The vitamancer's eyes snapped up in time to spot the dwarf cutting her distance by half with the rune. It didn’t help that already by this time, Lidda's figure had grown to double its original size when the changes began which made her an easier target.
Pausing her spell, the vitamancer jerked her goat legs back as she barely cleared the blade. The whistle of the weapon sliced the air inches from her skin. Her balance was difficult to maintain through the odd cross of faun and furia. It was awkward movement and completely unsuitable for its shape. Lidda grunted in pain while she redirected her focus into a smaller section, her right arm, then started again.
This time it was much faster while she swiped a two hooked claw at Val who blocked with her sword, slicing off the end. Lidda hissed then curled back noticing the stump looked off color. Instead of the normally electric blue coloring, it had greyish hue to it. “Clever Val...a Noxomancer rune?”
Val smirked, her eyes twinkling as she spoke. “Aye, tis is. Yore pesty ’ittle healin’ magic isn’t gonna win you the day tis time!”
“We’ll see about that,” Lidda countered and focused on her legs, her goat feet melting away, while hobbled back with her stump squishing across the floor. It left grimy, discolored marks across the arena surface along side the fresher blue blood pouring out. She had to be more careful from here on out. Her vitamancy could’ve mended the damage easily but that would’ve slowed her changing, a fact that put her at risk and did more harm than good.
Val stroked another rune and three seconds later she faded. Lidda’s eyes widened in surprise only to spot movement from the corner of her vision, her body rolled reflexively to the side. The dwarf landed hard on the ground, her blade missing her target. Lidda’s tactics quickly changed while she focused on healing her stump. All her veins sealed shut in her stump, abruptly stopping the flow of blood and started to regrow a new limb. Her mind split into two tasks. One for healing her stump before she bled out and the second to counter attack, getting past the sword. Val had the teleportation rune, something Lidda hadn’t counted on, making the dwarven woman much more dangerous.
The Runesmaster seemed to have sense Lidda’s awareness because she went on the offensive. Her body vanished again and popped in just behind Lidda, who in turn had been prepping her offensive spell. Her head flipped about then activated her spell, slashing at Val’s calf. The stocker woman felt the tendon twitch and tighten, causing it to crumble underneath her weight. It was on the verge of bursting as Lidda’s fingers fisted in place creating more pain. Again, another three seconds and a brief flash had three Vals side by side with the same shit eating grin on their face. Lidda tried to retain her spell on the middle one, the last past she knew the dwarven woman to be, but it turned it was a doppelganger.
All three dwarves rushed forward.
Unable to tell which was the real one, Lidda’s eyes looked down at her stump. Damn it, she cursed. The limb was already over halfway healed but the claws hadn’t formed for a decent defense, meaning using it would’ve only caused her to start again with a newly chopped limb. Instead she envisioned a
Boamis in her mind. More specifically the long, scaly tail. It popped out in a few seconds, barely making when one of the Val clones reached her.
Whack!
All three were sent flying backwards, only the right one landing on her rump on landing, the others vanishing into thin air instantly. Val groaned, her thicker figure rolled over onto her side and was immediately mindful her sword was no longer within her grasp. Her head whipped about before she spotted it a few feet from her downed location. This caught Lidda’s attention too as both woman gave each other a pause then went for the sword. Lidda’s tail lashed out at the same as Val touched her rune and vanished. The sword skittered across toward the other side of the ring and out of Val’s hand, caught by Lidda’s tail tip at the last possible second. Val had just popped into existence just to watch it spin away.
Val flashed Lidda a frown who, in turn, displayed a slick grin at her victory. Not missing a beat, the vitamancer’s hind legs and right claw completed their change. Next came her other arm, the limb already altering its appearance into the furia’s left arm. Lidda hadn’t bothered to alter her face...yet. Not until she could defend herself against Val properly with an additional defense. Instead, she rushed the runemaster. Her three legs bounced across the gravel ground with great energy and speed despite the beast’s size. At the last moment, her right hind leg pulled back and her left spinned forward on the planted limb. It whirled her about while her long tail lashed out in a whipping fashion.
Most would argue why she didn’t merely use offensive vitamancy to take out Val’s tendons. That answer was rather simple: she needed hands to direct her attack. A simple slashing with claw wouldn’t cut it as she was already using arcanite to maintain shape and sharpness, so it was impossible to put more through it. Not without risking her hand twisting into something useless.
The dwarf clicked her boot heels then jumped up and over Lidda. In mid-air, her other hand touched the multiplying rune again to create three of her the moment Lidda adjusted her torso to slash her claw at the helpless teacher. Again, Lidda frowned when she missed her target and spotted the three dwarves thumping to the ground, each landing on a different side to surround her. Not wanting to give Val much of a chance, Lidda again circled in place bring her tail to slash at all three. The clones and Val leapt into the but instead of coming down, they hovered over the misshapen beast.
A bell rang signalling the end of the fight.
Val and Lidda, both having lost track of time, looked surprised to hear it so soon. Slowly Val’s clones vanished and the two bowed to one another, showing no hard feelings. Their heads turned to the ringer then both made their way off the arena, allowing Justine to dissipate it. Lidda paused long enough to return Val’s blade while they made their way to their seats. Naturally Lidda kept her monstrous figure since she enjoyed the shocked eyes at the battle damage and the creative use of multiple monsters for the fight.
