The battle, once dreamlike and cold, suddenly erupted into color and sound; delicate bells began chiming, their whimsical melodies a sharp contrast to the clanging of blades and panting of fighters; a yellow sun was born in the middle of the room, its rays stretching far and wide to fill the chamber and bring light to every desperate swipe of a sword and fierce punch of bronze. Louis became vaguely aware of two other living beings entering the room, facing off somewhere in this army of statues with an exact likeness of themselves, but he couldn't quite see them at the moment--he was too busy fending off the aggressive attacks of his own metallic doppelganger.

Sonic strikes met with sonic strikes, shattering the sound barrier and sending the entire lot of the statues reverberating like glass as humans throughout the whole cathedral were sent running and covering their ringing ears. Bronzed Louis swung for the soft brown hat perched on his flesh brother’s head—and instead struck a wall, rendering the stones into dust as the human rolled under the sword and used the momentum he had rebounding up to lift the weighty sculpture off its firmly-planted feet. Unfazed by the swift change in position, the statue swung its metal arms in a deadly pinwheel, but before he could land a blow, he was thrown and sent sailing through the musty air into one of his bronzed friends, and the both of them pitched forward into the fiery corona in the center of the chamber which melted their bodies in a matter of seconds.

Louis was so swept up in the motions of the fight that he didn’t even realize what he had just done until a river of liquid bronze collected near his boot.

“My lord, Louis, you’re a bloody genius!” he cried when the reality dawned on him.

Smiling, his spirits lifted and soaring, he clipped the legs of another statue and sent them tumbling to a scorching demise. “Sorry, my fellow, but one of us must go!”

Another charged at the human's back, bringing broad bronze shoulders to bear; but he was evaded, and met with the same fiery end.

The flames of the sun, stoked with bits of metal to conduct its heat, grew larger and white-hot. Some of the closer statues began to bubble just by being a meter or so within its presence.

As the fight went on, the minstrel’s jubilant exclamations began to draw the attention of the other fighters in the room; all at once, the keen brown eyes of a dashing, gypsy man, and the charming, mystic gaze of a rainbow-eyed elf fell upon him, first puzzled, and then pleasantly surprised to see what the cause of his joy was.

Flashing both a broad grin, he called out, “I really must thank whichever of you conjured up that brilliant sun—a better tool to eliminate these metal savages I could scarcely imagine!”

The words had just left the man’s lips as a squad of the statues descended upon him, their fervor in pursuing revenge for their fallen comrades almost like something that possessed human emotions. Before a blow could be struck, a clear barrier generated around the minstrel, sending the blades recoiling off as if they had just struck a mighty, steel drum. Once of the statues fell to the floor, and almost immediately Louis took notice of the insignia on the object’s boot—an old witch symbol much like that of the witches who were once banished in his own homeland. He could see that these statues were obviously cursed—and someone’s magic was the cause.

And judging from the intensity of the magic glow on the statue’s heel, he thought, this source couldn't be too far away.

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[BA Characters][R. I. P. Duke of Clubs (11/15/92 - 1/5/08)][DA Account]

[A timid shapeshifter with an unexpected, inner wolf "side".]
[Mahalia's Profile]-[Myth on the Moors]