Tenport Arena [Anyone]

OoC: Since the contest of my next post will depend entirely on whether or not Mathias' potion can dispel Dark Kartkaikian, I'm going to wait for Et Cetera to post a response before I do. Shrub has stated that she will be waiting for me before making a response.

As Dark Kartaikian poured fire from his sword, a glass vial thrown by Blackharrow crashed into his shoulder, splattering a pearly liquid all over him. Kartaikian ceased with the fire attack, confused about what the effects of the potion were meant to be. His dark shadow shifted behind him, growing even darker for a moment.

It's a magical composition meant to dispel magical enchantments. I think he misunderstands our nature, the shadow whispered to him before fading.

After determining that the potion had not had any negative effects on him, Dark Kartaikian noticed too late that Mathias, his speed increased twofold apparently, was nearly upon him. Kartaikian desperately lifted his shield, and it collided with Mathias' shield, which had much more force behind it. Dark Kartaikian flew back from the collision, barely missing being crushed by Blackharrow's mace. He landed in the sands, and knew that Mathias would likely be quick to approach.

Kartaikian jumped up to his feet, casting a bolt of solid green force at his foe, hoping to keep him back until his presumably temporary enhancements wore off.

ooc: due to the nature of Psychizo's magic, Dark Kartaikian is not a presence that can be dispelled, but rather a part of Kartaikian's whole soul and physical being.

Tierra followed along Mathias as he charged the dark Kartaikian (whom she had affectionately dubbed Blacky), using the former of the two as a barrier against the flames. For the most part, it worked. Her clothes did the rest of that work, but were singed badly, exposing some of the wire cords and metal plates that truly kept her protected. The warrior and the magess burst through the blast of fire as a unit, and Tierra sidestepped to Mathias' right in time to see the potion splash against him. She didn't know what it was for, but she could judge from the dark Kartaikian's reaction that it didn't do as much as it was meant to.

A moment later Mathias' shiny mace slammed down atop Blacky's shield and sent him flying to the dirt. With her spare hand, Tierra reached into the satchel on her left hip and drew a handful of stark white powder. Blacky leapt to his feet in an inhuman display of strength, resistance to pain and agility, but she had expected as much. She threw the handful of powder at him as he rose. Blood was her preferred medium for this concoction - a mixture of powdered salt and some highly acidic alchemical nasties - though in this pinch, she knew Mathias' potion would work just fine. She glanced to the side at him and asked, "Need you healing, Mathias?"

Mathias called to her through clenched teeth, "No! No, not yet!"

Tierra didn't take the time to nod, but dropped the bec de corbin in her grasp and grabbed it by the haft above the metal ring and below. With a series of quick, heavily practiced movements, she separated the polearm into two parts - a warhammer and a quarterstaff. The quarterstaff she slid into a special weapons harness between her tunic and her cloak, and tightened her grip on the haft of the warhammer. With her left hand, she retrieved a targe from the left side of her hip, behind one of the many capes that covered her. In the five-sided design of the classic medium shield, much like the Lucent Shield of her shaping magicks, it was crafted from hardwood bound in thick suede, with white metal studs in a spartan array on its front face. The strap that held it to her arm was simple yet effective, and she secured it in the same motion as grabbing it. Despite busying herself with a change of arms, she kept her eyes on the Kartaikians, waiting for them to make a move at her. She reasoned she'd be safe from the Dark, so most of that attention was centered on the light Kartaikian (also affectionately dubbed, this one Whitey).

Gray’s attempt to shower Ren in more ice only turned to another shower of water. His aura was still burning, though not hot enough for flames just yet. The ice would strike the hot air before it could his body. Thus melted and splattered him with more water.

Though his head butt hadn’t done as much as he had wanted it to, it was still very satisfying to do. He kept his eyes locked on him, but decided there was maybe a better way to get this ******* back.

See? Look at the thinking somewhat clearly despite how horribly pissed off he was. Yeah, Ren knew rage and anger weren’t the best thinking tools. Yet it was often something he learned to work with a little more lately instead of just letting it blind him into trying just to smash whatever it was that angered him like a big mean—heh—dragon.

Besides, he didn’t kill people anymore, right? Yeah … right … He had to have some self-control. He couldn’t afford to do useless actions that only made him feel a little better and would probably end up getting him killed or just stupidly injured.

Gray skirted around, sword coming in, but since his ice wasn’t very effective this time, Ren blocked it very easily. Metal chimed together. One thing was for certain: he was faster than Gray Boy. So when he came in close for this, he blocked, slammed a fist toward that he knew would be met with the shield arm. Of course, he had been careful to avoid the spike in the center. The steel gained an inch deep dent, wood splintered and cracked under the pressure. His hand and arm must have felt it too.

Ren’s vaguely did, the white-hot throb in his knuckles, but it wasn’t important at the moment. It pushed the gray warrior back. While he struck the shield, he went forward for a sharp kick to the gut with his right leg.

Before Dark Kartaikian had a chance to approach for further attack, a white powder flew into his face. Kartaikian cursed and instinctually dropped his sword as he went to cover his eyes with his arm. Unable to see, he quickly backed away from his opponents. Dark, as it happened to be, had the unfortunate inability to heal himself, so he did his best to wipe the powder from his eyes with his hand.

Gray Kartaikian was not managing to have much of an effect against his opponent. As he moved in to attack with his sword, considering that his ice attacks were melting before they could do anything, Ren parried with his own sword. Suddenly, Ren's fist came forward, crashing into Kartaikian's shield. Kartaikian heard the gray steel plating on the shield dent, and the inner wooden core splinter and crack. His first thought was all the work he would have to put into repairing it, but that thought quickly vanished when the pain filled his arm. The blow had knocked him back, and his arm was now feeling quite numb from the blow. Before he could summon up his healing magicks, Ren's foot crashed into his gut, sending him flying into the sands.

Light Kartaikian found himself in a moment of ceasefire. His three opponents were concentrating on his Dark and Gray forms, leaving him alone for the time being. As Gray fell to the ground in pain, Light ran across the arena, his sword glowing brightly white. First he passed Gray, healing magic from his sword traveling over to his fallen form as a beam of light. He then passed behind Dark Kartaikian, whose sword was still on the ground. Healing magic again jumped from Light's sword, removing the acidic contaminants from Dark's eyes.

Healed, Gray quickly jumped to his feet, rushing towards Ren. Using his now-damaged shield, he swept his arm across the shape-shifter's face, hoping to bash him with the sharp point. Dark, now able to see, noticed his opponents nearby, on the verge of attacking. With a flick of his wrist, his sword flew up off the ground and into his hand, ready to meet the weapon of his antagonist. He dashed towards the enchanted Mathias, slashing with his flaming blade. Light went in to attack Tierra, using his shield as a bashing weapon and following up with his blade.

Kartaikian realized now that he had underestimated his opponents. When he joined up for this arena battle, he hadn't expected to be pitted against such powerful fighters. It was too late to join up and turn this back into a four person battle, certainly he would be outnumbered as his opponents remained joined in teamwork. If all else failed, and defeat seemed imminent, he could flee the scene. For now, he would do his best to defeat his enemies, either one-by-one or all at the same time.

The sight of Ren taking the fight to the splitter brought a brief smile to Mathias' face. As he saw one version fall to Tierra's powder, he concidered charging the downed opponent, but knew it would put him at odds with the firecaster that stood between them. Overall, it was an unfortunate situation.

But after the split second of peace, the battle started up again. As the dark one rushed at Mathias, he saw in the corner of his eye that they were being flanked on the right by the light one as well. He was relieved, however, to see the other going after his ally, and not double-teaming him. That would have been a wise choice for his opponant; even if one of them is wounded from behind, at the end of the skirmish, it would have been three against two.

The incoming blade was not difficult to stop, but Mathias anticipated that his foe would expect a shield block. In light of this, he switched it up. Swinging his mace, the haft of it slammed into the blade of his enemy's sword, throwing embers from the flames. He knew the weight of his mace smashing against the sword would make for a very difficult and unbalanced recoil by his opponent-- he would not be able to just pull the blade back and swing. In one swift movement, Mathias moved his arm over the top of his shield, and hooked his pommel behind the edge of his enemy's. With a mighty pull, he intended to yank the foe's shield open, and then shove foreward with his own, impaling the dark copy on Mathias' eight-inch targ spike.

It was a good ploy; by making his mace the shield, and his shield a weapon, he was sure to surprise his opponent. Mathias was not so foolish to expect his foe to fall from this attack, but he knew the odds were in his favor. From what he had seen so far, this splitter was no stranger to the fray, but Mathias was certain from what he had seen thus far that the man's prowess had not been harshly tested by a true flesh-and-steel warrior. The man could no doubt handle any magical challenge thrown his way, but Mathias got this feeling: when it came to sword and board, Mathias was more in the element than he was.

Hopefully, his feelings were right.

In a bolt of white light, the acids were cleared from Blacky's eyes. 'Fortunately,' Tierra thought, 'I was only aiming to damage his armor, else I'd be annoyed at that.' She turned her attention over to Whitey, who was charging on her. From the look of it, he was going to shield bash her, and then follow with his sword. It was a fairly normal strategy for a sword-and-shield warrior.

An idea donning on her, Tierra let out a breath and flicked the spike of her warhammer to the back of her head, undoing the knot and tearing the scarf off her head and onto the ground in a single motion. It felt good to let her hair down. She turned and matched the light Kartaikian's charge, sidestepping the bash from his shield as she dropped the warhammer into her weapons' loop. Whether disarming herself had surprised the fighter or not, he slashed wide at her and brought his sword down across her right thigh. The blade bit through a layer of cloth, severed one of the wire cords beneath and skittered both on and through the molded plate of her armor. She winced at the pain and lunged at him, already too close for even melee combat, and threw her left arm around his neck, pulling the boy's head down as her soft lips met his in a sudden kiss. Some of the crowd was stunned, others went wild at the action. Surely, this Kartaikian would be taken just as off guard.

As the two met in a kiss fueled by the passion of the fight, Tierra flicked her hand forward from the hammer's harness and, with the same motion, drew her gun and attempted to slide it up under the warrior's hauberk, against the boy's diaphragm. She would not hesitate. Had she the chance to pull the trigger, the sound of the would fill the air as a sharp crack joined by the trilling cry of two screaming children that was the sound of a soul being torn apart, muffled only by Light Kartaikian's armor. She'd used the gun before, once, and knew that its bullet had enough power to stop a charging, hundred-foot long demon serpent in its tracks. Should he manage to escape her ploy, however unlikely, it would be little loss for Tierra; she could keep the bullet, and she'd found (she believed) the source of his power. In switching between gun and warhammer again, she might have to dodge smartly or suffer his blade, but it was a chance she was willing to take.

The next step came in finding a way to separate the light Kartaikian from his sword. Most likely, she'd try to use the dagger-blade topping her warhammer to sever the tendons on the inside of his wrist. If even the man's wrist was armored, the smith-woman had no issues with beating it out of his hand with the armor-piercing hammer of her favorite weapon.

When it came to magic, Kartaikian was no expert. However, when it came to the arts of swordplay, archery, and melee combat, there were few who could best the ashen warrior. As Dark Kartaikian moved in with his attack, Mathias knocked his sword away with his heavy mace. Kartaikian was momentarily thrown off balance, and Mathias moved in and tried to yank away his shield. Still strengthened from the hale enchantment, Blackharrow was able to pull away Kartaikian's shield arm, leaving him wide open.

Mathias then attempted to impale Kartaikian with the spike on his own shield, but Kartaikian used his foot to kick away the shield. He wasn't able to stop the shield attack entirely, but the kick threw the spike off center and it narrowly missed him. Syriax quickly stepped back, slightly stunned by the shield bash. He then moved in for his own attack, charging with his shield. He was planning on knocking hard into Mathias' shield, pushing him back and stunning him long enough to bring Psychizo down upon Blackharrow's neck.

As Light Kartaikian charged Tierra, he saw her remove her scarf from her face. He noticed that his own scarf had come loose sometime during the heat of the battle, but thought little of it. Tierra sidestepped Light's shield bash, and then disarmed herself, putting her warhammer away on her belt. Kartaikian assumed she was preparing for more witchcraft, and quickly slashed at her to deter her from doing so. His blade hit its target, slicing across Nena's right thigh and cutting through her outer layer of armor. He didn't think it actually met flesh, but she winced in pain.

Suddenly she did something beyond unexpected. Kartaikian had learned to expect the unexpected, but this was slightly more unexpected than Kartaikian had expected he'd have to expect. Tierra put her arm around his neck and pulled his face forward, kissing him on the lips. The crowd suddenly went wild, roaring louder than ever. Kartaikian was only fazed for a moment, though, and quickly recovered from the surprise. He felt her put a weapon against his hauberk, probably a firearm. He quickly brought his knee up into Tierra's stomach, causing her to double over, and he tore his head away from her grasp.

She fired her weapon, a loud crack filling the arena. Light Kartaikian dropped his sword at the shock of the gunshot, stepping back several steps trying to keep his balance, and finally falling on his back in the sand. The closely fired bullet had more than enough force to break through the tightly wound links of his maille armor, but it luckily missed his vital organs. Light's healing magic expertise would have the wound closed rather quickly, and he rose back to his feet, looking to recover his dropped weapon so he could use its magicks.

Luckily, a harsh knee to one's armored gut wasn't half as difficult to recover from as being shot. Light Kartaikian had stumbled back as Tierra forced herself to her feet, and was falling over as she removed the targe from her arm. She had seen how the dark Kartaikian had recovered his sword, and made preventing that her first priority, by firmly planting her right foot over its handle and guard as she put away her gun. She expected that if he tried summoning it, it would tug hard, and readied herself for that event. When the light Kartaikian had recovered his bearings, but for the livid pain that must be filling his body, Tierra had just drawn her quarterstaff, the weapon with which she was most proficient in a block-and-counter style. She readied herself into a defensive stance and narrowed her eyes at the warrior, jeering at him, "Looking to heal yourself, dog?"

A thin line of blood trailed slowly down her leg from what little blade that had managed to break through her armor moments before, but it bothered her little. As long as her enhanced ally and the half-dragon kept their Kartaikians busy, fighting this Kartaikian would be easier, however little, than it had been before.

The kick was just enough to throw Mathias' shield off-center, and he snarled as the point of his bash missed its mark. He followed through, intent on knocking the foe down again, but his enemy replied in kind. Unfortunately, Dark had much better footing at the time than Mathias thanks to his kick, and Mathias lost the battle of brawl.

Jolted from the hit, he tumbled backwards into the sand. The leather padding on the backside of his shield was not enough, and the edge of it had opened a gash on his chin, just below his lip. He was down, but certainly not out, however; he intentionally released his mace from his hand as he hit the ground and, by the time he landed, had his own pistol out. Hearing the crack of Tierra's firearm reminded him that he, too, had a secret weapon.

He fired three shots, all head-and-chest in the less-than-a-meter range. After the crack of each shot, the barrels rotated and another round came forth. He trusted the shots would at least stop Dark's movement, and allow Mathias enough time to scramble to his feet. Tucking the pistol back into its clipped holster on the backside of his right hip, he grabbed his mace and came to stance again. If Dark were still standing after the three high-velocity led balls, Mathias would again rush him, shield up and targ spike forward, this time with more power and much better footing.

"Looking to heal yourself, dog?" Tierra mocked, holding down Light Kartaikian's sword with her foot. He was standing despite the pain from the gunshot wound, which was beginning to bleed quite profusely. Assuming that Tierra wouldn't want to remove her foot from the blade, he took a few generous steps away from her, all the while still facing her. He then reached back to his quiver and retrieved his recurve bow. He strung it, and nocked a white-feathered arrow in place. Ignoring the pain, he pulled back the bowstring and aimed the arrow at Tierra Nena. She would have a split-second to decide: dodge, and thus remove her foot from the sword (in which case it would immediatly return itself to Kartaikian's hand) or let the arrow hit her, because at this distance he couldn't miss. He released the bowstring.

Meanwhile, Dark Kartaikian was able to knock Blackharrow to the ground, but before he could finish him with his sword, he'd pulled a pistol out and aimed it at Kartaikian. Dark scowled at the weapon. Firearms were beyond the current technology of his people, and he considered the cursed things as cheating. Dark was not so unlucky as Light Kartaikian, and was able to throw up his shield in time to stop the three bullets that Mathias fired from his pistol. The metal projectiles dented the shield as they glanced off it, and flew off into the sand somewhere.

Dark lowered his shield just in time to see Mathias charging him again, and quickly dodged around him. Now behind Blackharrow, Kartaikian brought the pommel of his sword down hard upon his back.

Khaz was on the edge of his seat, the crowd around him roaring their praise of all the action down below. It had shocked him to see Ren go into Tejison so soon, but then he quickly saw why as the other fighters continued their advances. Magic users of high calibers and they all seemed to know their way around their weapons. Perhaps he truly was sheltered as Rontu said. There were so many strange people in this world. Yet it meant so many dangers and at the moment he simply feared for Ren, yet not too much. It had been his own idiotic fault for getting into this. Khaz didn’t want to come to the arena anyway, but Ren insisted. Boasting that it would be over soon anyway.

Well, it looked like it was going to be later rather than sooner. Or maybe only soon for Ren if he wasn’t careful.

He did have to admire the man with the mace and shield. The way he charged through that spout of fire had awed and impressed him. Such bravery. Khaz’d never have that kind of courage on the battle field. Of course, that’s why
he wasn’t in the arena with them in the first place.

He had never seen anyone who would split themselves into three either. Khaz didn’t know that kind of magic existed. He’d have to ask Leita about it sometime.

The other fighter seemed to be extremely talented in magic himself. Fire and shields of light. He had watched Leita at practice enough to know this was top-notch skill.

“Well, for someone who doesn’t like to watch others die, you seem to be enjoying yourself.”

Khaz looked over at Rontu, who was watching the battle with cool observation. He scowled, turning his face away. He wasn’t enjoying himself that much.

“Excuse me if I’m concerned about Ren’s safety.”

He was looking back just in time to see the fighter, whom he had thought to be a man, expose her hair, throw an arm around her opponent’s neck, and kiss him. Then there was a bang and scream of the fire. Khaz’s mouth dropped open as he jumped at it. The people around him shrieked their encouragement of this.

“A—a woman …! She … she kissed him and then shot him!” he exclaimed, staring with wide eyes at the arena.

He heard Rontu chuckle next to him.

“A woman’s greatest weapon—sexuality. Don’t be so surprised. The women of my race kill their mates once they bore of them.”

Khaz whipped his head around to stare at Rontu in shock and disgust. The Drow were so violent, but he didn’t realize their women were dominant over the men. Even so, no sex should be exposed to such a threat with their lovers. Khaz couldn’t really imagine anyone treating Rontu that way. He always believed him to have too much self-respect for that. It was so hard to place his companion with the society he had supposedly been raised in.

He turned his head back to watch the fray closely. This is why he didn’t do things like this. Ren must be the biggest idiot he ever knew.


He managed to jump back enough to miss the spike in the shield being swung by Gray Stormcloud. The rest of the edge made contact with his face. Pain seared in the side of his face were it met with metal, but Ren merely grinned at it in defiance, grabbing the arm attached to it and thrust Akane forward toward the ashen torso in front of him. He pulled his opponent closer as well, to shorten the distance from his sharp blade faster. As he did, the spike on the shield scraped across his cheek, bright red blood oozed out from his pallid skin.

Tierra watched Light as he backed away from her, then she cursed, "Hell." He'd pulled a bow on her. The mesh of steel cords in her armor was designed specifically to resist arrow punctures, but she still didn't like the prospect of being shot at. She dropped her quarterstaff as he fired the shot, leaning to the side, but taking the arrow in her left shoulder. Her armor absorbed most of the power behind it, but the arrow had still gone through and pierced her skin. She grimaced at the pain, sliding her left foot back so that she would not lose her footing, and took advantage of the time it would take him to fire another shot.

She took a pack of paper strips tied together with a weak string out of the pack on her leg and tore them apart from one another, pushing them through the air while making a series of gestures with her hands. The jewel on her collar shook violently against her skin and glimmered with light. She was in a heap of danger, but didn't really need the demon's help to know that. This, aegis circle, was one of her shorter spells to cast and required no language, but everything seems to take longer when you're being shot at. Just as the magess finished, three things happened in rapid succession. First, an arrow flew at her out of Light's bow and pierced through the armor on the front of her left hip. Second, the runed papers came alight with an eldritch, violet fire and darted through the air to the edges of the globe, encasing her in a barely visible ward that would keep other arrows, and most other things, out. She dropped down on one knee from the impact of the second arrow, teary-eyed from the pain, but managed to keep her weight on Psychizo. She looked up at the archer, the pain evident on her face as she kept herself from crying, and began to pull out the offending projectiles from her body.

Then, there was the third thing that happened when she cast the aegis circle. The spell on Mathias ended. Perhaps not visibly, but there was no way that Mathias would not be aware of the change. It was like going from breathing the bright aether of the gods to the air of the mortal world.

Mathias surged past Dark, but before he could turn to swing his mace, a pommel crashed into his back, pushing him forward. The pain was minimal, as a particular square of his brigandine took most of the force, but it brought the situation of his ally to his attention. She was pinned down by the archer, and Mathias saw her just before her ward went up-- she was hit.

Propelled by the pommel bash, he broke into a sprint to charge the archer. Just before imminent impact, he felt a chill run over his body, and all things in the world seemed to speed up. In actuality, and he realized this, he had just slowed down. By this, he knew that his ally's spell had just ended, and he was on his own for the moment.

He counted on the element of surprised. He approached the archer from his blind spot, and Dark would not have much time to shout out a warning. By the time the archer heard him, Mathias' mace would alraedy have crushed into the archer's hip. That swing was quickly followed up by a shove of his shield, again hoping to impale, before a step forward would bring another vertical slash, aimed for the head of his arrow-flinging enemy.

Ren managed to avoid the spike on Gray Kartaikian's shield, but the edge of the shield still managed to slam into his face. Ren seemed to ignore the blow, smirking and grabbing Kartaikian's arm. Ren pulled Kartaikian forward, getting cut with the spike on Gray's shield and thrusting forward with his blade. Finally Kartaikian had managed to draw blood from this enemy.

Not trusting his maille hauberk to keep him safe from the shape-shifter's sword, Gray Kartaikian used a pulse of bright force magic to push the blade away, and to free his arm from the dragon boy's grasp. Calling upon more force magic, he created a bright viridescent force explosion, throwing sand into the air and tossing his opponent several feet back.

Light Kartaikian's arrow hit its intended target, burying itself deep in Tierra's shoulder. As he readied another arrow, she readied a spell. It was most likely a protective spell, but before she could cast it, Kartaikian managed to cast another arrow. This one landed in her hip, causing pain visible on Tierra's face. Right after the arrow hit her, a protective shield of energy appeared, and surrounded her. Kartaikian had no doubt that firing arrows at this would be futile, and didn't bother trying.

Dark Kartaikian's attack against Mathias did little damage, but he suddenly noticed Light Kartaikian's attack against his ally, Tierra. He ran after Light, hoping to take him by surprise. Unfortunately for Mathias, Dark didn't need to say a word for Light to know exactly what he could see. Kartaikian shared the knowledge of all three of his components at all times; what one part knew, all parts knew.

Light blocked Blackharrow's mace with his shield, but a sudden pain washed through him on impact, due to his gunshot wound. Dark ran up behind Mathias, engaging him in combat to keep him from attacking the incapacitated Light. Kartaikian noticed that Mathias' hale enchantment had worn off, and hoped he could use the sudden weakening to overpower him. Dark attempted to bash Blackharrow's arm, forcing him to drop his mace, with his heavy shield.

Light fell to his knees, subduing to the pain in his side. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his sword. He could see it in his mind, he could feel it. He called upon the spirit that lived within the blade, commanding the sword to come to him. He reached out his hand, his eyes still closed, and felt the pull of the deep magicks within Psychizo. With a quick and sudden jerk, with forces that Tierra couldn't resist, especially with the pain of the arrow wound in her thigh, the blade leaped across the arena, crossing the distance between Tierra and Light in seconds.

Light Kartaikian opened his eyes, and stood up, his wound healed. He noticed, however, that his blade was beginning to run low on energy. He also remembered that his opponent was protected behind a magical barrier. To kill two birds with one stone, Light approached Tierra, and thrust his sword into the aegis circle. The blade dispelled the barrier, absorbing the magical energies that composed it in a bright flash of light.

As Tierra pulled the last arrow free from her body, she had found, to her relief, that most of the pain stemmed from the impact, and not from the actual wounds. she had no time for reprieve, however, for this was exactly when Light thrust his sword into the aegis circle. This was a strange thing, for two reasons. The first, her barrier should have kept his sword at bay, magic or no. The second, wasn't she standing on his sword? Oh, no. She wasn't. She must have lost her grip on it while she was de-arrowing herself. Her magicked papers fluttered harmlessly to the ground. With no time for healing, then, she'd have to move on in her plan.

Tierra snatched the artifact most renowned for power in any wizard's collection out of her leg pack - her wand. Deftly and swiftly, she scribed a pair of glowing, identical runes of blue light in the air in front of her. With a flick of her wrist, one of them flew into Light, inhabiting his hauberk. Then, with a slashing motion toward the arena wall behind him and to his left, she threw him bodily, by the armor, toward that wall, releasing the magic's grip on him before he could reach the end of the wand's motion and fly free of it. She called to her ally and the half-dragon, barking the words like orders, "Mathias, Ren! Their magic comes from their swords."

The blue rune hovering at the tip of her wand vanished, only to be replaced by another pair of runes, these markedly different than the last. One of them hit the sand beneath her feet, which lifted her from the ground and pivoted, flying swiftly toward the opposite end of the arena from these fighters in synchronized movement with the wand in her hand. Once she set down, she banished this pair of runes as quickly as the last and rapidly began scribing yet more, these similar in form to the first. …Four, five… six. Tierra was having some trouble remembering all of the different shapes for these runes that she had studied, but managed to produce a seventh pair, then began assigning them to different objects in the arena with tiny taps on one of each pair and flicks of her wrist. She didn't even fear Whitey stealing the magicks out of her targets, the magic was in her wand, not the runes themselves.

The far runes sped nearly faster than eyes could follow. Four runes hooked themselves to ball and chain weapon hanging from the half-dragon's belt, two of them to knives near that. The last rune attached itself to the dagger on Mathias' right hip. Tierra the conductor, she began her concert. Tapping and dragging runes in sequences of expert skill, she freed Isamu and the knives from Nevisu and directed them at the Light and Dark Kartaikians. The knives were bound for Whitey, to harass and stab him if he tried to use magicks, while the spiked ball of Isamu sped at Blacky, aiming to destroy his shoulder or head. For now, she left the rune of the Paladin's Dagger untouched.

She was prepared to fight this battle via her proxies. If Light proved adept in fighting two flying knives, she'd toss in Mathias' dagger for flanking stabs and slashes. If Dark tried casting, she hit him with the spiked ball, but there were four runes on Isamu for a reason - to wield it with precision. Her plan for now was to tie the weapon's chain around his neck, hand end up, and hang him by it like a noose, jerking him from side to side if he tried to break the chain with his sword. If Dark tried casting, the gust of wind from a blades of dust spell could be originated from his sides or behind him, and she hoped the pain of having one's skin parched open would deter him from finishing any spells. Finally, she could cast lucent shields, the shield shaped constructs of her own defense, in front of herself to stop arrows and streams or bolts of energy and materials from hitting her, although it might cost her a moment of concentration on directing the runes, and there was really nothing that kept her from dodging.

A frustrated snarl escaped Mathias' lips as the light one turned and blocked his swing, but he was glad to see he had caused some kind of recoil in him. He heard the sound of the dark counterpart running, and quickly turned to face him, trusting that the light one was indeed incapacitated. Their shields slammed together, but Mathias had enough momentum in his footing to deflect the brunt of the crash at an angle. Hoping it would throw Dark off balance, he used the oppertunity of his angled viewpoint to swing his mace down into Dark's back. Armor or not, he knew that, even with his human swing, this blow could snap his spine.

But he did not count on it landing-- he never did. In the hopes that their initial crash had knocked his foe out of balance, he sent a kick to his nearer right leg, which would send him down to the sands. If this succeeded, he would bring the head of his mace down into the crashed heap of armor to finish it off.

Whether all of the attacks landed or none of them, Mathias, feeling the wear of exhaustion, would back off for a bit, in hopes to remove himself from the fight and gain precious seconds to drink a potion. The cut on his chin, the burns on his knuckles and knees, and the wear on his shoulder from multiple shield bashes were beginning to get to him, and he needed the aid of his potions to continue the fight at full pace.

Well, he hadn’t quite been expecting that. He had been keeping note that Gray had been healing himself with magic, and obviously Ren had been attacked with ice twice now. There were other light shows going on around him with the other fighters too. Especially with Nena’s loud bang and fire of her pistol. Though he hadn’t been paying very close attention, since he was very focused on Stormcloud.

Ren was now able to very easily place the strangeness of his voice from earlier. Nena was a woman. Though, it didn’t matter much to him if Nena was a man or a woman.

For having told himself that he wouldn’t kill anyone, he had been a little vicious with the attempt to run him through with the sword, but he also knew Gray could heal himself so he wasn’t too worried about it. It hadn’t even worked anyway. Something shoved back against his blade, and then threw him with sand backwards. Ren tucked himself into a roll, which he quickly found himself up from his knees and then to his feet again.

Nena then cried, “Mathias, Ren! Their magic comes from their swords.”

One: How did she know that?

Two: How did she know his first name?

Three: He supposed Mathias was the first guy he fought, but how had she known his name as well?

He felt himself bristle with annoyance again. Ren was getting really, really sick of people reading his mind. But as much as he hated it, he’d have to push it aside for the moment and worry about it later. Especially because soon after, little glowing runes attached themselves to his other weapons, and Isamu was jerked from his clip on his belt and his two other knifes went flying away with him.

They flew off to go harass the Black and White forms of Stormcloud. Ren stared and then his red eyes narrowed quickly, his aura flared up again with some more heat. Those were his, goddamn it, she didn’t even ask! Even though Isamu wasn’t made of as valuable material as Akane he was just as attached to him. If she got him banged up and broken, he would be very quick to forget about Gray Boy at the moment. Nena also looked rather vulnerable too. She was working several different things at the same time. If she wasn’t careful and got Isamu hurt, Ren might just have to take advantage of her weakness…

So his magic comes from the sword, eh? He would have to see what he could do about that.

Ren charged Gray again, Akane extend out to his side. He made it look like he was coming in with the blade, but instead quickly slid in the sand, dropping down a little, foot aimed at Gray's feet to be knocked out from under him.

Light Kartaikian flew into the wall, thrown there by the sorceress's magic. When he got back to his feet, he saw that Tierra was weaving together another spell. Suddenly weapons were picking themselves up and flying around the arena, two knives coming to attack Light. He slashed at the blades with his sword whenever they came near, swinging his sword powerfully, hoping to be able to break the knives.

Dark Kartaikian dodged the blow to his back, but fell when Mathias kicked him in the leg. As soon as he hit the ground, he rolled out of the way of Blackharrow's mace, and it hit the sand. Mathias then stepped back, apparently worn from the battle. Dark stood back up, ready to finish off Mathias before he could recuperate, but suddenly an enchanted flail attacked him. Kartaikian blocked its attack with his shield, the force of the blow causing him to back peddle a few steps. As the long chain moved in, attempting to constrict Dark Kartaikian, he cast a force field of malachite energy around him, keeping the possessed weapon at bay. He then turned and began to approach the witch herself.

Gray stood back as Ren regained his footing, and watched as his weapons removed themselves from his belt and flew off to attack Kartaikian's other forms. Ren didn't appear too pleased at this turn of events, but apparently chose to ignore it in favor of attacking Gray. He came in with his blade, but at the last moment changed his footing, hoping to fake out Gray and knock his feet from under him. Gray saw the feign in the nick of time, jumping out of the way of Nevisu's foot. While he was still in the air, he bashed the side of his shield against Ren's face, hoping to knock him down into the sand.

A wave of pain washed over Mathias as soon as immediate danger was gone from him, and he quickly took the mace into his left hand. He yanked a potion from the pouch on his hip and shot the cork from the wooden bottle with his thumb, drinking the contents in two swallows. He dropped the bottle and took his mace up, feeling the artificial energy surge throuhg him, mending wounds more and more with each rhythmic beat of his heart.

Mathias wasted no time leaping at the dark one again. He knew there was a protective shield around him, but he hoped the sudden burst of strength from his Mulhallen healing potion would give him force enough to punch through it with his mace and engage. Even if it was not enough, he hoped to turn the enemy's attention away from his companion and take it upon himself.

Slamming his shield into the force field, followed by a massive swing of his mace, he gave a terrifying battleshout to draw attention. He pulled back, spun the mace in his hand and gave one last heave into the forcefield. The pommel-swing of the mace with the added momentum of the spin would have been enough to smash through a fully-armored knight; hopefully, it would be enough to crack the shield.