OoC: I'm very much looking forward to this fight, namely the ending, after reading Vere's character. I hope I'm not wrong by calling him by his last name - Kyrias doesn't know that Vere is the name of the ring yet. Oh man, I can't wait until later in the fight.


When nothing happened, Vere stepped closer, close enough for his grey eyes to be visible to Kyrias. They had a remarkable sheen that pierced through Vere’s long bangs that Kyrias had not noticed. In this proper light, he could peer into Vere’s soul, and see just how troubled the boy truly was. Although Kyrias could not truly peer into souls or read minds, he knew, and not just from the fangs and the vampire-esque clothing, that there was a deeper trouble concerning Vere.

“Why don’t you move as well?” Vere stated, rather bluntly.

“There is no point. If you plan to eradicate me, you will do so. What resistance should I provide to stop you from achieving your goal? I did not come here of my own will, and you are clearly not who I intended to see at the door. Therefore, if there is no use for me here, and if you think there is no use for you here, be done with me.”

“You’re bluffing! No man would cease resisting in a fight.”

“True; very true. Then I shall resist you. But before I do, I would have you know that killing me will not get you out of here. The Dome is everywhere. I believe it was your voice that told me so. If you manage to leave now, you will simply be pulled back in later…” and with that, Kyrias held his staff in front of him. “You know, I thought I could leave once. And then I remembered that this staff had a home. That home was here.”

But Vere had had enough talk – already he was attacking Kyrias from behind, a move which Kyrias spotted and blocked with his staff. Vere, taking advantage of his speed, continued to move around the completely still Kyrias, attacking with his jaw and fists. There was, however, no apparent retaliation from Kyrias until one of Vere’s attacks struck him on the shoulder and caused him to bleed slightly. To this Kyrias faced Vere, who was infinitely proud of himself for striking an infamous Dome teacher. His smirk, would it be allowed, would have breached the width of his face. His teeth, in perfectly alignment, showed themselves to Kyrias – they were all ready to attack again with full force.

Vere dived towards Kyrias, who quickly made a sweeping motion with his right hand. From this hand came a wall of fire that, before Vere had the chance to hit Kyrias, burned Vere’s eyes and face. However, it barely scathed him. What little damage there was has occurred to his eyes, which quickly glowed red for a short moment and then returned to normal appearance, unharmed by the blaze.

Kyrias was slightly stunned at this, and was, for a moment, unsure how to deal with such a character. Not many could resist his Flame Wall, but he needed to fully understand who he was fighting. Until he knew, he would never be able to defeat him. As a test, Kyrias held his staff in both hands and charged at Vere, who smiled even wider now, and struck his neck with the staff. Vere flinched – or pretended to – and then looked at Kyrias from above, still smiling.

“Nothing!” Vere said, and struck Kyrias on the face with his open palm. Kyrias fell backward, and then picked himself up quickly enough to avoid another assault from Vere. Now Vere was freely dismantling the structure of The Dome, gnawing at tiles and scraping up grass, which was still blowing, a sea of green, in the lush, cool breeze.

Each of the six hundred rows of bleach white tiles, and each of the ten bleach white tiles that made up one bleach white row and the width of the bleach white pathway, had inscribed in them one or several names. Vere had just consumed and destroyed “Leighn,” a proud healer and medic of The Dome’s past, as well as “Nessa,” a huntress and bowman. Seeing these names torn from their location and dismantled, Kyrias knew he had to move the battle out into the green ocean. The vast expanse he had intended to visit all along.

He led Vere there, out from tile to sea, resisting Vere’s attacks with his staff. The man seemed mentally unstable, and never ceased to attack. His hell, Kyrias thought, might have been his own instability. Perhaps it was up to Kyrias to discover what Vere’s Hell truly was. But there was no time for that immediately – Vere was taking a different approach now that he had tested Kyrias. Now underground, Kyrias could no longer see where Vere was.

“Cybele’s Blessing!” Kyrias cried, putting his hand to the Earth. The ground shook, and ripped apart. Vere came out, covered in grime and dirt, scrambling for safety from the torrent that surrounded him. But it followed him. The Earth was ripping apart below him, and moving above him. Finally, when enough mass had collected above Vere, a swift flick of Kyrias’s hand released the Blessing from its prison in the air, causing the rock and debris to collapse upon Vere. It was where he had wanted to be all along; in the ground, as a dead person would be.

The ground repaired itself, even as Vere crawled up from under the mass, patching and repairing itself until every uprooted clot of dirt was as it had been before Vere had burrowed underground. Vere stood upright without much effort, and clenched a fist. Kyrias could still see Vere’s eyes, whose pupils had shrunk, and whose irises had become a pale multicolor. The grey in his irises was separating into a dull rainbow of colors, but the most prevalent color was green – the same green that now surrounded them on all sides. The structure of The Dome was now a small element in the background of their competition.