Re: Between Darkness and Light (Altamira)
I slipped my gauntlets off and slipped them into my jacket pockets, almost breaking my own rule before the fight had begun. I rubbed the back of my head, a bit embarrassed, and looked at her. She'd asked me something, but I had been a bit preoccupied with the fact I had almost started fighting a weaponless battle with weapons. Wow, sometimes the stupid things I nearly do. "Sorry, what'd you say? I was caught up in the fact I was about to break my own terms."
The woman narrowed her eyes at me and asked again, obviously not happy that I'd let my mind slip in what could be a very deadly battle to come. "What are the rules on magic? Only enhancements to our attacks and speed, or full array?"
"Use whatever magic and skills you want. I find it makes things more interesting," I said, smiling at her. That was mostly the truth, but I also had a new skill I wanted to try out, and this seemed as good a time as any. Anyway, the only reason I had suggested we fight in a manner I knew I would be defeated in was to test her.
Unlike Johnny, she wasn't stronger then I was, but she was definitely faster and more agile. Unlike Rain, she didn't have an array of close range attacks, but a mix of close and long range. Unlike Tsuukai, she didn't need shadows to hide. Apparently, she had become the living embodiment of shadows. I wanted to know just how true that was.
I stood on the edge of a knife, halfway between life and death. She was stronger then me in almost very way, but I had two edges: I had battle tested my trump cards and I still had slightly more physical strength then she did. Whereas Johnny was slower then I was, but stronger, she was faster, but slightly less physically powerful, I guessed. However, if that guess proved to be wrong, I would only have my trump cards left. Still, those were fun enough to do something.
I opened up my left hand from a fist and gathered a small bit of aura into the palm of my hand. I turned it into a small ball of pure energy and thought about what I had been working on. One of these wasn't any threat to her, but a whole lot was dangerous to any temporal being. Not to mention creating these balls of aura took almost no effort or thought. I felt the energy rush into my right hand next and let the two balls float from my hand, moving into position. She wouldn't notice. It was too dark to see dark green balls of condensed energy floating around, right?
Well, I have been wrong in the past in these assumptions, but still, it didn't mean anything now. "Ready?" asked I as I lowered my body slightly, getting ready to attack. The gypsy merely waved me on, and I took off like, as pathetic as this is, a bullet from a gun, only faster. My body blurred forwards and I stood inches from her, thrusting a fist to the side of her face, missing on purpose. I created two more balls of aura and released them behind her as her gaze remained fixed on me.
My body skidded back hard as I held my gut. Cadenza's hand pulsed with shadow energy, and that punch hurt through my armor. Knowing my luck, the shadow energy probably buffered her hand from any pain. Much to my disdain, I always found myself on the wrong side of fights with shadow and dark magic users. Well, it didn't matter, I just wanted to speed up this process.
I lowered my arms to my side, creating and releasing several balls of aura in the next few seconds as I slowly rose. I could move each one a bit with enough focus, but I couldn't control them all at the same time. Well, unless it was to put them to good use for what they were for. Moving them into position was the trick.
Anyway, I had my honor to obey in that punch anyway. She had struck me, so now I could fight with all my might. I stood up slowly as my almost twenty balls of aura continued to gather. Now then, to give her a real test of my skills. I rushed again, covering my fists in aura, and using the slightly trail of aura that was created as they moved to create a few more orbs of aura.
The shadow mage and I exchanged strikes quickly. She'd dodge a quick series of punches, and then throw her set of attacks, normally a mix between punches and kicks. I found some of her kicks harder to evade, and took a few hits, getting one or two of my own, gaining some ground eventually as I finally managed to get a series of hits, only to take a few shadow added punches.
Finally, she managed to break us apart from the close, heated combat. A particularly strong uppercut to the chin sent me rocketing backwards and landing on the ground, rolling over myself and into a lamp. She looked down at me, not looking too impressed. Still, it was ready.
"Zorlo, after all your waiting for this battle, I can't say I'm impressed by the fight you're putting up. After all, it doesn't seem like you're giving me your all," she observed.
In fact, I hadn't been putting all of my strength into it. As I normally did, I held back just enough to move her into my trap. "Yeah... I won't lie," I said as I stood to my feet and dusted off my jacket, "I wasn't fighting you with ever thing I had. Well, not yet anyway. However, look around you," I told her. She looked around, seeming to finally notice my small balls of aura that I had surrounded her with.
"I picked up this skill from a bounty that I saw fight once. He could condense explosive energy into balls and could set them off by snapping. Same idea, except my aura doesn't blow up. Instead, it releases built of force and strikes a person, kinda like my punches. Now then, I want to see how you get out of this," I told her as the orbs formed a dome around her. About one hundred in number. I snapped my fingers, and the balls all expanded, releasing their pent up force towards her. I knew she'd escape, but it would prove if she could truly hide where no shadows exist.
"And I call that move: Aura Bombs!" I said with a smile as I waited to see how Cadenza would respond.
Last edited by Zorolo; 12-28-2007 at 01:56 PM.