Trifling Steal: Something Awful

[Kalseng]

Landric saw everything fly at him at once. It was crazy. Crazy like a Star Trek convention going on in the same building as PAX. Landric stomped on the ground and thrust his palms towards the sky. Rocks and magma from Yoshimitsu's attack flew over towards Landric, forming a barrier above his head. The magma was tricky to control, dripping and moving randomly as Landric tried to control the liquid rock. It wasn't an exact science. The knight's hands moved quickly and unstably, pushing on any parts that were beveling towards him.

The ice crystals hit it pretty hard, but that cooled it enough to the point that it became solid rock, making it easy for Landric to control. After the barrage stopped, Landric slammed his palms on the warm earth.The earth shot up in cylindrical segments, firing bullet-shaped segments at Sorena. They fired off in approximately a dozen large bits, until Landric was left with a bare amount of earth left. Landric twisted his hand into a fist, and the earth mixed and shifted, becoming a boulder the size of his torso. Landric let it fly towards Chadwyck. The boy had been trying to smash Yoshimitsu's face in.

And it's a very nice face.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck blocked the vertical attack, sidestepping as he glanced Yoshimitsu's sword off of his own. "What is it with you trying to take my head off?" He was now beside Yoshimitsu, a boulder was heading towards him, after blocking Yoshimitsu's attack he positioned himself so that Yoshimitsu was in the path of the projectile. One of Yoshimitsu's glowing white tendrils blocked the incoming boulder.

"Well, at least it's gone." Chadwyck sighed when he saw the boulder wouldn't make contact with Yoshimitsu, "Guess I'll just have to take care of the rest." He gripped his sword and blue flames encased it's blade, he began a series of rapid slashes. The air around the two began to heat up as he continued to attempt to slice through Yoshimitsu, every slash sent a wave of flames over the ground. The sword became a silver blur, he was attempting to leave Yoshimitsu with no where to dodge. Though many of the attacks were also aimed unnecessarily high, poised to decapitate the blue haired teen.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"I dunno, the head's just a good target," Yoshimitsu replied, raising his sword. Chadwyck's attacks were fast and definitely very strong. Each blow met his guard with amazing impact, only intensified by the flames that missed Yoshimitsu by inches. With no chance to strike back, Yoshimitsu felt himself beind pushed back to the edge of the arena and the long drop that came with it. The drop didn't scare him, but the speed with with Chadwyck was attacking did intimidate him slightly.

Then a wave of fire caught all the left side of his body. Swearing, he jumped back, off the cliff face. Instead of dropping, he hovered, the left half of his shirt dancing with flames. Almost uncaringly, he tore it from his body and examined the skin underneath. The burns were not serious, thankfully. Nothing that would restrict him too much after a quite blast of healing. Green sparks dulled the red and made it a lot less painful for him to move.

"I liked that shirt," Yoshimitsu said, mock-angrily. He raised his sword and suddenly blue and golden flames erupted out of the dragon's mouth, covering the blade entirely. With another powerful leap, he shot at Chadwyck and unleashed a flurry of strikes, hopefully moving too quickly for the other boy to defense against properly.

 

[Chadwyck]

"I know the feeling." Chadwyck said looking down at the various cuts and the missing buttons of his own shirt. He held his sword at the ready, prepared for whatever counter-attack Yoshimitsu had planned. Or at least he thought he was prepared, until Yoshimitsu copied the same attack pattern he had just used. He started moving back, each one of the strikes was powerful and, to make matters worse, incredibly fast.

Chadwyck could barely keep the attacks from striking him, and he just wasn't quick enough to keep them all back. He leapt back, kicking off of the ground and suspending himself in mid-air, he had two deep gashes on his stomach and chest. The flames were spreading along his shirt from the cuts, he looked down at them and they flickered out.

"I was lucky to get out of the way of those ones." Chadwyck said as he ran his right hand along the cuts, he winced as flames in the palm of his hand cauterized the wounds. "You're still too fast, I guess it's time to up my game." He returned his sword to the clasp on his back and closed his eyes. All the air in the area around him began to heat up and spark, he was drawing in the energy, taking it straight to his core. When he opened his eyes, they were glowing purple from the two energies combining within him. Sparks crawled along his skin, "Let's see you all handle this then," Orange smoke escaped from his mouth when he spoke.

He raised his hand in the air, and an electrostatic cloud began to form above the arena, blocking out the sunlight. Blue energy moved through the cloud, as if they were eels snaking through the ocean that was the blue-black cloud. Lightning struck out at all of the combatants, not just Yoshimitsu, even though Chadwyck was sure that those tendrils of his would block the incoming lightning. "As for you," He said to Yoshimitsu, "Get ready." He reached down and tore his ruined shirt off, it burst into flames as he tossed it aside. He flew at Yoshimitsu, moving as little more than a blur, he stopped behind him and attempted to impale his claws through his opponent's stomach.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Yoshimitsu looked up just in time for one of his elemental tendrils to darted across the sky and absorb the incoming electricity, the tendril glowing briefly before dimming again. Then he saw something out of the corner of his eye, through the smoke that Chadwyck had created. The blur moved past him, and Yoshimitsu realised what it was just in time. Spinning on the spot, he raised his sword in defense. The blade slipped through the blades of Chadwyck's gauntlet, meeting his guarded fist. The tips of the blades, however, pierced Yoshimitsu's chest. With a grunt, Yoshimitsu forced the gauntlet away from him, the blades sliding out of him uncomfortably. They were not deep enough to be fatal, luckily.

"When did you get so fast?" He asked, jumping back again. "Or, more importantly, how do I get rid of this cloud? The electricity's making me uncomfortable."

The blue haired teenager rubbed his jeans with his free hand, watching the static electricity jump from his palm to the denim. When the cloud was gone, he mused, he might make use of it. However, it was more likely to just trigger another round of lightning strikes. Instead, Yoshimitsu raised his sword again, the flames intensifying as he ran at Chadwyck. He vanished as he ran, reappearing meters to the left, then right, then left again, then straight on course before vanishing completely. He reappeared in the air behind Chadwyck, aiming an aerial roundhouse kick to the boy's head.

 

[Sem]

Sorena growled to herself as Landric prepared his next attack. She took a wide stance against the bullets, both her free hand and her sword crackling with lightning magic. Sticking her hand straight at them, lightning burst from her fingertips. The electricity reduced many of the incoming projectiles to rubble, and with a slash of her blade the wave of electricity took care of the rest.

"If you want the book you'll have to fight like a man!" she taunted. "Come here and get it!-" Sorena paused. "Wait, scratch that, hun. I was coming over to you anyway. With that she rushed at Landric, feet not even touching the ground as she approached him. She swung her sword as she neared and made a motion to suggest that she would slash him.

But she didn't. As she swung she purposely came up just a little short and continued to rotate her body around. The woman clasped her blade with both hands and it began to glow and morph, turning into a large mallet that was still made of the same enchanted steel. The sword she carried had all sorts of tricks and quirks, one of them being to transform into an array of other weapons. They were all very light, to her anyway, due to a spell; the mallet especially, was certainly not light in the least to anyone that wasn't her.

Her continued spin brought her back around as she made to bash Landric in the side with the hammer.

 

[Kalseng]

Landric was barely able to keep track of all of the rapid, almost random movement going on. Fire and lightning were flying overhead, the attractive teenager battling the one with white hair. As they fought, the blue-haired teen eventually tossed off his shirt, revealing his toned body.

"I liked that shirt," the boy said. I didn't.

Sorena moved quickly, swinging in for a slash at Landric. The knight pulled his claymore up to block, but the woman kept going, magically shifting her sword into a large mallet, of a definitely high mass. Landric brought up his Claymore in a swing-ing motion, slamming the sharp bit of his blade into the flat bit of the mallet, with a resounding clang. The mallet swung backwards, and left Landric with an opening. Landric's feet ground against the rocky floor, and a set of rocks jutted up to stop the man from sliding back any farther. The mallet swung backwards, and left Landric with an opening. The knight took a brief moment to let his swing end, and then reversed his strike, aiming for Sorena.

"Give me that book!" He grunted.

 

[Sem]

"Careful!" Sorena teased again, lurching back to avoid the swing. "I might just decide to block an attack with the book, which would effectively ruin your chances at reading it." Landing on the ground she rushed at him, the pole on which the head of her hammer sat got longer. She held it very firmly at the end and swung, the extra length adding to the power of the swing.

Following up, she used the momentum of her attack to leap up into the air at Landric, aiming a kick at him. Again, it had a magical burst in place for if it hit, only a much more powerful blast would follow than whatever had hit Yoshi.

 

[Kalseng]

Landric had very little option. The symbols on his arm flared up again, and a large pillar of earth shot up in front of him, covered in similar runes. After it formed, it faded from sight again, and the hammer swung straight at him. A veil of brown light formed a shield-like substance in front of him, slowing the mallet considerably. It passed through easily, though, and got Landric directly in his chestplate. Roughly a third of the force went through, enough to knock back Landric a small ways, but not enough to dent or seriously injure him.

The flying kick was defended less well.

The witch slammed her leg into Landric's arm, which had flown to protect his face. The armlet absorbed the physical blow, with the veil covering it to reduce the impact. The magical force practically exploded in Landric's face, sending his head flying to the left, and effectively the rest of his body. The knight slammed to the ground in a clamor of steel and flesh, scraping them both. After a moment of recollection, the knight stood, and spit out blood from his mouth.

"Witch," Landric started, pulling the Claymore back behind his head like a bat. "You need to teach me those tricks." The knight swung the claymore hard, and a wave of brown power surged outwards, expanding violently. For a brief moment, there was complete silence between the pair.

The ground exploded suddenly, sheets of rock flying in the air, pebbles flying as if sent by jet engines, columns of rock shooting for Sorena. As if the landscape itself were trying to kill the old witch.

 

[Sem]

"What did call me?" Sorena yelled, offended. "Oh... wait, nevermind!" Sorena had jumped back, being farther away from the earth-mover. Her eyes shifted in the silence, looking around awkwardly before raising an eyebrow at him as her weapon re-assumed its regular sword form.

Then the ground exploded again.

She held up her hands , a faint blue orb surrounded her, the ring on her hand glowing. Slowly she shifted control of the shield to the hand with the ring and used her sword hand to conjure up another spell. Winds howled again as they enveloped her, forming a much smaller, more centralized tornado that spun at speeds that tore the still-incoming rock apart. The columns acted as if they were a fruit a vegetable being thrown into a blender, shredding apart with mighty cracks and snaps. Using the leftover rubble she sent it into the ruined ground, causing sharp spires to rise up directly under Yoshimitsu and Chadwyck.

Sorena rushed at Landric again, her death-twister around her. Her shield vanished, she no longer needing it. As she approached she fired shot of lightning at the boy from her hand.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Before Yoshimitsu's kick could connect, a spire of earth shot up from beneath him. Using what little control he had left, he dragged his leg back to his body. The spire opened a jagged cut on his shin, causing him to wince slightly as he landed. Green sparks played over the wound as he raised his palm. The tendril in the centre of the arena suddenly moved, cutting down at the lightning, wind and stone that threatened Landric's life. Sweat formed on Yoshimitsu's brow as the tendril moved, but he wiped it off and stood up perfectly straight. A spark jumped through his hair, and suddenly it turned golden, shockwaves rippling from his body briefly.

Then he was gone. Whatever speed he had shown before, it was nothing compared to this. Not even a second had passed before he reappeared, much too close to Landric. He had moved underneath his guard and appeared, his body pushed up to the bulkier boy's, his bare chest pressed against the body armor, his breath warm on Landric's neck. In that instant he was stood there, he brushed his lips along Landric's neck, taunting, before he vanished again with a smug grin.

"Don't think you're safe yet," Yoshimitsu called to Chadwyck, running at the boy, his hair restored to vibrant blue and his speed decreasing to his normal levels. He vanished and feinted left, right, left, straight, left, all over again. This time, however, he shot at Chadwyck from the side, and attempted the same roundhouse kick he had before.

 

[Kalseng]

Landric was ready to take the twister and the lightning, his power flowing out into the earth, grabbing at two sections of earth to protect him. Then, the teenager was there suddenly, right up against Landric's body. The attacks, however, were not there.

Landric's breath became shorter, and his heart rate suddenly increased. The warmth of Yoshimitsu up against his chest, even though covered, made him warm all over, and brought a red to his cheeks. The teen brushed Landric's hot neck with his lips, sending Landric's heart even higher up than it had already been. The teen only remained for a few seconds, and then vanished.

"Don't... go..." Landric said after the blue-haired warrior had vanished. The knight felt recharged, a little more confident, even. The knight's arm flared up again, and a confident smirk replaced his surprised expression. "Ready for this, Sorena?" Landric asked. "This will be a bit trickier for you to counter." The man inverted his grip on the claymore, and slammed the blade into the ground, digging a good seven inches into the rock

"Mother Earth!" the knight shouted. A violent, brown glow rushed up the blade and covered the teen's body completely. His original brown glow expanded upwards, becoming a brown, lighted beacon among the ragged landscape. His eyes became a pure amber, and his pupils became a deep brown as compared to the regular black. The knight re-sheathed the claymore behind him, and shoved his palms towards Sorena. A round platform beneath him separated from the mountain and carried Landric up to Sorena. The knight began swinging his arms upwards at Sorena, with the earth beneath him rippling. He controlled it like water, large discs of earth the size of queen sized beds flying towards Sorena. As he came in close, he made a punching gesture with his hand, a huge spire of earth rising from the ground. It was easily twice as large as Landric, and shaped with a sharp point.

"Not done yet!" Landric shouted. With his other hand, he reached out and send a wave of brown power towards Sorena's sword, finding the bits of metal and purified earth inside of it. Once he located them, which took no time at all, he gripped the blade and removed it from the witches possession, embedding it into the ground beneath them.

"Block this!"

 

[Sem]

"Bloody earth elementals," Sorena growled as the her sword was ripped from her hand. Quickly she began uttering magical words, her body began to glow blue, vibrantly before quickly concentrating into her limbs. She met the first bed-sized rock with a smack of her hand, sending it tumbling away in some random direction. The woman back handed another and rolling-kicked the third. This continued on, the witch protected herself with her much enhanced strength and endurance, her limbs aglow with a sapphire blue aura.

The spire came more quickly, which Sorena tried to defend herself from by using a blast of lightning, though it came too quickly and she only managed to take off the sharpened point. The column struck her from an angle, sending her flying up. Her rag-doll figure came to stop suddenly, before she had flown too far. She ran a check, making sure nothing was broken and inspected her side as the blow glow of her body began to fade.

"You hit like a girl!" Sorena shouted down at him. She teleported then, reappearing on the ground. "You're not a queer, are you?" she sneered, holding out her hand and flexing her fingers. Her sword moved and wriggled, coming out of the ground and returning to her hand. The witch took a stance, waiting to see what would come.

 

[Kalseng]

The last few seconds of Mother Earth's immense boost were winding down, leaving Landric with little more to do. He thrust his palms upwards, and kicked the platform down towards Sorena. Spires jutted out in a ring around the woman, as well as beneath her. The platform, however, was aimed from above. As Landric felt the last few drops of Mother Earth fade from him, the runes on his arm lit up again.

"Vengeful Child!" A pillar appeared on the ground beneath him, symbols written over it in random patterns. As Landric fell, he aimed for the column, and hit it hard. The rock magically didn't collapse, and Landric drew his claymore again. His hands clasped the hilt, and he felt himself quiver.

Girl? Queer? His thoughts were nagging and difficult to control. Am I weak? Am I not worthy to bear the name of the Terra Knights? Landric's head drooped, and his eyes closed. Maybe this was it. Maybe he wasn't fit for the title. Maybe it just took an old witch with a magic book to tell him that.

No. This wasn't it. Landric had been working too long, too hard for this to be it. His head slowly rose, new resolve filling his eyes.

"Go to hell!" Landric shouted. He kicked off from the column, leaping towards Sorena. "I'll even give you a ticket!" He swung his sword as hard as he could, every ounce of strength trained on that witch.

 

[Sem]

Sorena jumped, sending out a wave of magic around her, taking out the spikes. Still airborne, she swung her sword at the incoming slab from above, turning it into a hammer once more and effectively smashing the stone. While descending she spoke more in the arcane language, blue magic forming in her hands before turning brown like Landric's and flowing into the ground, making the spikes recede.

"Been there, dear," Sorena chimed as she began walking forward, her hammer turning back into a larger version of her default sword. "It's nothing special." The witch threw up her sword in a block, gripping it with two hands. her magic flowed in from the sword, reinforcing her arms and giving them strength.

CLASH!

The sound of metal on metal echoed. Sorena gritted her teeth, holding up against the attack but not expecting the strength. She slid back, her boots grinding against the gravel. Thinking of what to do, she realized she couldn't pull off any magical attack or if would just be absorbed into the rock Landric had summoned. His power was about to overtake her when she made the decision to teleport.

When she reappeared she was beneath him. "How's this for intimate?" she asked while going to knee him in the stomach. Teleporting again she appeared beside the rock that was vengeful and childish. She let loose a weaker lightning spell into it, causing it to vanish like the one before.

"Didn't mean to make you so upset, Sir Knight," she bowed and curtsied. "You're so stuffy, though. Lighten up!" And with that she pointed her finger at Landric and fired a condensed ball of flame.

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck tried to follow Yoshimitsu's movement, it was too late by the time he noticed his opponent behind him, and he braced for impact. Suddenly the ground shifted, Yoshimitsu changed his course, and for the moment Chadwyck was safe from the incoming kick, but not from the spires. He jumped sideways, attempting to get out of the area that the spires were rising from. He wasn't quick enough.

One of the spires caught his arm, it was nothing fatal, but it was painful. Another deep cut on his left arm, just above the metal of the gauntlet. In the cut, energy could be seen flowing to the area from within his body. In his current form it would seal the wound as best it could automatically, though not entirely, at the very least he'd still be able to use his arm with relatively no pain.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Yoshimitsu!" He called out as Yoshi attempted to attack him again, Chadwyck followed his movements, then turned and blocked the kick with his gauntleted forearm. Luckily he tried the same move again, I suppose sometimes making assumptions has its benefits. He thought as he slid back from the force of the kick, his arm stung beneath his gauntlet, it was indeed a hard hit.

"Now how about you try this one on for size?" He smirked as he extended his arms outward and then drew them in to his chest in a tight 'x' shape in front of him. The cloud, along with all the energy in it, immediately zeroed in on Yoshimitsu, rapidly imploding in the very spot he stood.

He kept his left hand extended, controlling the ball of energy attempting to enclose Yoshimitsu inside of it. He turned with a karate chop motion of his right hand and the ball of flame that Sorena had fired split in half, one continued to fly toward Landric, but the other changed direction and headed back toward Sorena. "Sorry! Just didn't want you to forget about me!" He called as he exhaled even more orange smoke as he spoke. The energy within him was wearing thin, he'd have to replenish it soon.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

Yoshimitsu used the force from the impact to kick himself off Chadwyck and back across the arena. As Chadywck spoke, he knew what was going to happen. Without stopping to think, he threw his palm up, pointing at the elemental tendril, and spun in a full and graceful circle. Immediately, the tendril reacted and curled itself around him, shielding him almost entirely from the cloud attack. The particles still within the tendril's shield shot through him violently, causing his body to spasm and his focus to almost drop. However, he kept his defense strong and avoided the brunt of the attack.

As the attack stopped the tendril relaxed and returned to its former position, revealing Yoshimitsu looking slightly singed but otherwise okay. His new target, however, was not Chadwyck. After hearing a snippet of Landric and Sorena, he had decided to target the witch.

"I don't know about him, but I'm definitely queer," he snapped at the witch, shooting into the sky and building up momentum. "Let me show you just what queers can do in a fight!"

All of the electricity that had been stored up in his body from the time spent in the electrostatic cloud suddenly gathered and flowed to his sword, mingling with the fire as he soared into the air, Sorena far below him. He flipped in the air and sliced downwards. The flames and electricity exploded out of is blade violently, a powerful and wide arc blasting downwards at an impossible speed, sizzling through the air as it shot down at Sorena.

 

[Chadwyck]

"I. Don't. Think. So." Chadwyck said annoyed as Yoshimitsu flew off to start fighting Sorena. With a sudden burst of speed that expended the remaining energy he had absorbed, he was standing between Sorena and the fiery, electric burst. He extended his arms and let himself be hit by the incoming attack, diverting most of the powerful burst into energy he could use, absorbing the attack into his body.

Chadwyck's eyes began to glow again, and sparks danced along his skin once more. Even though most of the attack was absorbed, a large force of it still made full contact. There was too much power in the attack for Chadwyck to divert it all. After the attack cleared, Chadwyck fell down to one knee, smoke rising from charred skin. "You're welcome, Sorena." He mumbled as he stood there behind her. "I suppose if you want, we could try and fight these two off together, unless you'd prefer to fight two-against-one. I could just sit out and watch, seeing as I was sort of dumped by the one I was fighting."

He chuckled through the stinging of the burns, a few of his cuts had reopened. "Tch. That's just my luck." He stood again, ready to resume the fight, the energy within him already began to seal the wounds once more.

 

[Sem]

Sorena flicked her finger at her returning attack, causing it to fizzle out before even reaching her; she glowered at Chadwyck. The witch was about to say something when Yoshi changed targets, she having apparently offending him too and now had to deal with the embodied wrath of all queers flying down at her in order to destroy her.

Before she could even begin to figure out how to respond Chadwyck took the hit.

"Oh, you're such a dear," Sorena replied to his act of kindness. Her hand began to glow a purest white and sent it at Chad, going into his skin and veins. The healing spell erased the scars the the burns he had, relieving the boy of any pain. Of course she wasn't doing anything more, an energy boost to his stamina levels mightn't turn out so well for her in the end.

The woman walked towards Yoshimitsu, swinging and twirling her sword. "You lot are such a touchy bunch," she told him and stopped moving. "Come on then," she pointed her weapon at him. "Duel with me, and I'll have none of your speedy tricks," glaring, she continued. "A bit of fair play could be fun."

 

[Chadwyck]

Chadwyck felt completely refreshed from the spell. That's a neat trick, He thought as the pain left him, maybe that book wouldn't be such a bad investment, I bet there's some interesting spells that would up my arsenal. He smiled at the thought, then quickly pushed it aside. Now was not the time to be thinking of future training.

Sorena walked towards Yoshimitsu, the witch had chosen her target, which meant that Chadwyck could finally fight with Landric, he owed the boy for the attempts he'd made on his life, and was now going to return the favor. "As for you," He started as his feet lifted up from the ground again, suspended in the air just above the earth, "I owe you for those big-arse rocks you keep flinging at me." He drew his sword as he looked at his opponent with a smirk, once more his sword was enveloped in flames. At the same time his gauntlet was encased in electricity.

"Ready or not. Here. I. Come." He rushed forward at boy, spinning as he glided above the ground, the flames from his sword and the electricity from his gauntlet shot out in arcs of energy. He changed course and flew in a circle around the boy, dragging his blade along the ground, creating a ring of fire erupting up from the crust of the earth. He shot up and held his blade out in front of him as he flew at full speed down at his opponent, a fiery trail was the only thing left in his wake.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"You just insulted me and you expect me to fight fair?" Yoshimitsu asked incredulously, his face mirroring his tone. "Sorry, but you threw fair right out the window."

With a cocky grin, Yoshimitsu jumped high into the air, his right fist glowing pure white. A sudden chill covered the arena as he started to descend, much too quickly, and threw his fist into the ground. Instantly spires of ice shot up all over the arena, trying to skewer all of the combatants. Yoshimitsu was not done, though. Instead of waiting for a counter attack, he pointed both of his palms above his head, his hands glowing crimson this time. A massive whirlwind of flames suddenly blasted out of his hands, spreading to cover the air above the arena, ready to burn anyone who got caught in them to a crisp.

"Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice," Yoshimitsu quoted. "For you, though, I say your world ends in both."

 

[Kalseng]

Landric kicked up a section of the loosely packed dirt beneath him, which solidified and condensed into a shield. The fireball became a plume of fire before it disappeared, and the dirt returned to the ground. Dirt was easier to control anyway. Some banter was exchanged, and sides were shifted. All Landric really knew at this point was that he was on the same team as the less attractive one of the two, with the really hot one on the other team.

No, wait, he was on the same team as Yoshimitsu. Nevermind.

The fire and lightning came at once, and were met with another two clumps of dirt, the electricity completely neutralized, and the fire dispersed into the air. The ring of fire and magma, however, was a bit more tricky. The teenager continued to leap into the air, and started to fly down towards Landric quickly. As he neared, Landric drew his claymore. He could probably defend, albeit it would be very close.

Three... Two... Landric thought of another plan just before Chadwyck hit, and the earth began wrapping around his ankles, and crawling up his shins. It remained for a brief second, and then Landric was immediately drawn under, faster than gravity normally would have. He was dragged down a good twenty feet below the level of the crust, and found a cave to drop himself into. It was pitch black, and not very large. He heard the impact of the sword above him, rather, he felt the vibrations. Landric thrust his palms upwards, and jabbed a sharp spire of earth upwards immediately, attempting to skewer his combatant.

 

[Sem]

"What a poet you are," Sorena sneered again. She teleported, high above the ice and flame. "See, I wouldn't have done that in a fair fight!" she called down. She began a slash, teleporting again before she could complete it, though she did finished the swipe as soon as she reappeared, right in front of Yoshimitsu. In a continuation of her swing she went low, dragging her foot along the ground in a low kick.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"Weren't you listening?" Yoshimitsu snapped back. As soon as he saw the witch teleport, he immediately jumped back, the tip of her blade opening a shallow cut on his chest and the kick missing him entirely. He did not stop to heal this wound, though. "You're expecting too much courtesy. Sometimes you have to cheat to get the upper hand."

The blue haired teenager landed on a particularly large spire of ice, not slipping on the frozen surface like he should have done. He raised his free hand to his shoulder, his palm glowing a vivid blue colour. With a swift movement, he slid his hand all the way down his arm, past the bicep, the elbow, wrist and hand, along the blade. Following his hand, something formed instantly. It looked a bit like armor. Five plates, slightly overlapping the next, ran down his arm from his shoulder to his wrist. Each plate had three spikes on it, one on the top and two on either side. The plates ended in a dark blue metal dragon head, the mouth holding the sword, with two folded wings extending from the top of the neck. A flaming blue and gold aura surrounded the armour, burning brightly.

"Meet my friend, Bahamut," Yoshimitsu said with a smirk, flourishing the sword. The sword, curiously, was not help in place. It seemed to phase through the metal. Without warning, the blade erupted in blue and gold flames, much more intense than the aura. The blue haired teenager shot at Sorena and swung the sword expertly at her head, the strike having twice as much force than any he had made before.

 

[Chadwyck]

His opponent sunk into the earth before Chadwyck made contact, an explosion erupted from the point of contact, rocks and soil shaken from the force of the impact, a cloud of dust and debris. "Hm, just my luck, all that force and he doesn't even try to block it." He said as he let out a slight cough as the dust settled. A slight crater was formed around his blade, he pulled it out before he noticed a sudden shift in the earth around him.

"Uh-oh." He muttered as the spire shot up at him, he held his hands out toward the ground, a concentrated explosion was being formed within them. It chipped away the point of the spire, but the spire was coming up too quickly and it forced it's way through, the now dull end of the spire hit his lower jaw as he attempted to jump back. He wiped a bit of blood off of the point of contact. Chadwyck walked over to the spires point of origin, he stabbed his sword into the earth and shot a giant burst of flames down into the earth.

"Dear, Landric, won't you come out to play?" He sang, mimicking a song by the Beatles, he continued to send burst of fire down at Landric, "Things are going to get very warm down there if you don't." He smiled.

 

[Sem]

"Hmph," Sorena grinned. After muttering some words her limbs glowed blue again, her legs strong as she took as stance against the incoming attack. Her arms were also strengthened, holding her sword.

Another clank cracked the air.

This time the witch was more than prepared for it, holding well against Yoshi's fancy attack, gripping her sword with two hands level with her head, keeping it on her shoulders. She pushed away, back-flipping and landing a ways off. Her whole sword glowed and transformed, this time into a large scythe. The blade burned with her energy as she rushed at him, kicking off of the ground into a helicopter spin of sorts, the metal of her weapon singing as it sliced through the air and went straight for Yoshimitsu, a raised leg was right behind it, ready to hit if the blade didn't.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"A scythe?" Yoshimitsu asked, folding his arm around himself and crouching. The scythe met the Bahamut-armour but did not penetrate the defense, though it did force Yoshimitsu to skid along the ice slightly. The kick had no chance of breaking through. The blue-haired teenager jumped back, and the armour suddenly vanished. Despite his apparent 'powering down', Yoshimitsu still had a cocky grin.

"I was gonna save this, but it just seems appropriate now," he said, throwing his sword to his other hand. As he did so the skin on his right arm seemed to distort and swell, as though air was being pumped underneath his flesh. Without any hesitation, he cut the skin and peeled it away, revealing the limb underneath. It was not the mess of blood and gore it should have been. Instead, it was made of a blue crystal. Pure blue crystal, glinting in the light like a diamond, vivid like a sapphire. It seemed to be made of two plates and an elbow joint, his hand at the end with a small panel covering the back.

"Didn't ever mean to get this arm, it was a complete accident," he admitted, flexing his limb. "But I'm not complaining. It's pretty handy."

"Now, bring it."

 

[Kalseng]

Landric felt the heat start to build, and he sighed in irritation, hanging his head. As the heat became more intense, Landric began to expand his power, finding all of the easily movable concentrations of earth, and spreading them out in the ground around him. It took longer than a quick, rash movement, and Landric's urgency became accented by the glowing, red patch of rock above his head. As he heard the edge of Chadwyck's blade scrape against the ground above him, Landric pushed his magic upwards, dragging up spires of rock. The ground above him rippled briefly and then exploded into a radially expanding arrangement of spires and tipped columns of rock, clearing the way for Landric. As he saw Chadwyck dealing with the spires, he found the magic he had sent into the earth beneath him and forced the earth to twist around him, and then propel him forward. He moved within the column of earth, and dragged another column with him, spiraling around the mountain landscape within the first column.

He opened a small hole in the outside of the column, and found Chadwyck again. He sent the column towards Chadwyck, and hoped the boy would dodge. He opened up another viewing hole and spotted the boy on the edge of his vision. With another sense of urgency, Landric flew out of the column of earth he was in and gripped the hilt of the bastard sword on his hip. With one quick movement, Landric sliced at the fire-user and flew towards the other column of earth he had been bending around. The earth of that column rippled and accepted Landric into it, the knight pushing himself around the curving, winding pillar of earth easily.

From the air, one could see the two pillars twisting around in random directions at the top, with the spires of earth jutting around their bases. It almost looked like an upside down flower with a strange, double-stemmed base that curled around itself menacingly.

Landric might have been a little bit artsy with his geomancing.

 

[Chadwyck]

More spires shot out of the ground about Chadwyck, he jumped to avoid them and suspended himself in the air. "Bloody irritating things," He sighed as he watched the spires spread out throughout the arena. Then two pillars ejected from the earth and began twisting their way around the area. Chadwyck followed both of their movements, the one of them suddenly shot toward him.

He quickly evaded the incoming pillar with a mid-air leap to the side. Before he managed to finish the evasion, Landric sprang from within the pillar, Chadwyck had little time to act and barely managed to avoid a fatal hit. He did, however, get a long diagonal cut down his chest. Blood seeped from the fresh wound as the energy within him went to work, sealing the cut as best it could within a matter of seconds.

Chadwyck wasn't too busy with the wound to notice Landric return safely inside his other pillar of earth, he wasn't go to stand for that. He flew toward the ground with great speed and let out a stream of fire and electricity as he did so. The energy formed a dome in the center of the spiraling columns, and as Chadwyck crashed down in the center of it, the dome expanded. An ocean of energies spread out from him, anything in it's path was super-heated, seared right through, or simply reduced to a molten state in the case of rocks.

If nothing else, Landric's pillars would be reduced to ashes, and if Chadwyck had any luck, Landric would be caught in the middle of it. Chadwyck was stretching his current form a bit far with this attack, but he wasn't quite ready to show them all his best trick.

 

[Kalseng]

Landric grumbled to himself as he pushed himself out the back of his pillar of earth and leaped off. "Fire, lightning, fire, fire, lightning, lightning AND fire..." He knight pushed off just in time to watch everything directly in front of him melt into lava or flat out incinerate. Oh how weak minded his enemy was.

Landric took advantage of his new burnt earth and flaming ammo, grabbing it with his magic and constructing it into a large spear of lavaa and ash, neither greatly conflicting with the other. It looked an awful lot like a lance from where Landric stood, and he didn't mind. The fire and lightning was still surging in a dome in front of Landric, but he didn't care. The lava and ash would hold together well. It couldn't be MORE lava-y or ashen. Landric drove the lance of flaming hot material straight towards Chadwyck, and the second Landric anticipated it would have been where Chadwyck stood, he made the thing explode, carefully sending bits of the lava and ash away from his own body, of course.

 

[Sem]

After her scythe and kick failed to do anything Sorena flew back, twirling to face Yoshi who was again going through a transformation. She hovered mere centimeters off the ground, pondering briefly what to do next.

Outstretching her free hand, a crackle filled the air. Lightning snaked out of her hand, forming a long whip of electricity. Rushing at him, she cracked the whip, aiming at the crystal arm in hopes of ensnaring it as she approached. Sparks followed her as the scythe was dragged along behind the woman. She swung the scythe again, turning her body sideways so that the scythe was coming straight down at the teen.

Not done yet, the witch smirked. Last second the scythe turned back into the mallet as it came rushing down on top of Yoshimitsu.

 

[Chadwyck]

His dome did the trick, the pillars of earth that Landric was hiding in were obliterated from existence. Burned up into nothing but molten lava and ash. Unfortunately, Landric found a way to use this new predicament to his advantage, fashioning a weapon from the two materials there was now an abundance of.

"Great..." Chadwyck muttered, it was unexpected, but it wasn't unmanageable. Landric launched the weapon at him, the fact that the weapon was made primarily of molten earth didn't help Chadwyck either. The material was more earth than fire, and he couldn't control it. He leapt back and to the side, trying to stay out of the spear's path. Just as the lance reached the spot that Chadwyck had been only seconds before, it exploded into a mass of lava and ash. He tried to make a shield in front of him with fire, but it didn't stop the full force of the attack.

Several pieces of the superheated rock made contact, searing holes in his flesh. The wounds began to seal, but the pain was immense, Chadwyck clenched his fists and breathed in deeply. Flames became visible in the air, just as it was entering his nostrils. He opened his hands quickly, and a sliver of light shot across the battlefield, directly where Landric was standing. As soon as the sliver reached that spot, it exploded in a burst of white flames. Chadwyck raised his arms and blue light could be seen floating into the sky. Lightning shot down in a sea of electricity as close together as falling raindrops, he was anticipating Landric would jump out of the way of the explosion.

 

[Yoshimitsu]

"You're trying to trap something you don't even understand?" Yoshimitsu asked, completely amused by the whip of lightning coiled around his arm. With a flexing move, the lightning was torn from his arm as though it was paper. As he saw Sorena come for another strike the blue-haired teenager immediately threw a powerful punch with his crystal arm, the blue substance meeting the now-mallet with equal force.

"It's not just some optical illusion or trickery," Yoshimitsu explained. "It's actual crystal, this is my actual arm. My own stupid fault for getting my arm like this, but it has its advantages."

Yoshimitsu sheathed his sword and pointed his human palm at Sorena's face. With a grin, he released a powerful explosion of electrical energy from his hand, hopefully burning the woman's face clean off.

 

[Sem]

The woman immediately took hold of the electricity with her magic, directing it away from her face and twirling it around her body, adding more and more power to it as it spun, violently buzzing and crackling as she jumped away from the teen. Her lightning whip coiled itself into the mix, rendering the attack too bright to even look at.

"How can I possibly begin to understand it without testing and prodding at it, dear?" she retorted, face pure white from the light of the lightning. "I'm not going to learn much by just looking at it and wondering what it can do."

She took hold of the lightning again, halting its orbit around her. She condensed the long stream of powerful electricity into an orb the size of a basketball. Holding it up in one hand, she turned to smile at Yoshimitsu before vanishing. She reappeared directly behind him not even a moment later, aiming the ball at the back of the boy's head and unleashing the attack back at him, ten times as powerful as the one he had used on her.

 

[Kalseng]

Landric saw the strange white fire heading towards him. His body reacted before his brain, and he launched himself backwards. The fire exploded, sending hot streams of pain flying out in all directions. Landric kicked his foot up, and a shield of loose dirt and dust flew up to halt the fire. He let it drop, and laughed once.

"That all you've got, Chadwyck?" Then, he heard the thunder. A bolt of lightning caught the raised end of his sword, and sent a charge through his body. Thinking on his feet, he let his swords drop, and had the earth swallow them up quickly. Another lightning bolt struck his armor, amplifying the charge. He dropped himself into the earth, and created a small pocket of air. He unbuckled his armor, reducing his clothing to his shirt, pants, and shoes. He took a deep breath, and began shifting the earth around him again. He forced his way through quickly, feeling around for the metal of Chadwyck's gauntlet and sword. When he found it, Landric shot out of the earth, and appeared behind him.

"What's up?" Landric asked cockily. His arms reached out quickly, and he grabbed onto either of Chadwyck's sides. His power spread throughout the warrior's body, and he felt around for his bones. It took him all of four seconds to get a definite lock on Chadwyck, but that took much too long. He leaped backwards, and extended his palms. He focused in on the calcium residing inside the teen's bones, gripping it strongly. "Time for a bit of human dodge-ball, don't you think?" Landric spun around, and quickly spotted Sorena about to unleash an attack on Yoshimitsu. Landric swung his entire body around, his arms trailing behind him. With all the control he could give it without sacrificing power, he ragefully chucked the fire and lightning user straight at the witch.

"Stay off of my man, please."