To dine in hell(HH, and all of his characters)

"If you want to fight the weirdo with an over sized sword and delusions of grandure be my guest, " Kaze said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I guess I'll take on..." The giant Dragon like beast turned and rorared into the face of the Archmage blowing his hair back in a frenzy, "...A dragon I guess, jeeze how long have you been fighting this guy? he kinda smells." With half of laugh the Grand Archmage did a mid air cartwheel dodging the beasts snapping jaws. "Go Zach enjoy kicking his ass, just leave some left for me after I melt this robot's ass into the worlds largest doorstop."

The Strings of wind that had been turning Kaze into a puppet just minutes earlier subsided in a huge gust in all directions blowing dirts and dust into the air, "I've been wanting to try this," Kaze said outstreching his right hand, "By the Laws of nature I shall impale the weak, by the will of nature destroy the meek: Lightning-Spear of Zeus," Dark clouds suddenly found themselves overhead, stretching out for miles in all directions. A streak of light burst forth burning the air with a white light; catching the bolt in mid-air Kaze stepped forward a large bolt of lightning(that was buzzing and shaking rapidly as if it was not expecting to be staying static) in his hand. The beast barely had time to react before it found itself with a hole in it's head as the spear passed through, melting metal as it streaked back into the sky.

As the beast lunged forward in retaliation -ignoring the gaping hole in it's head- Kaze swore he could hear the faint humming sound of thousands of machines at work. The things false teeth, as it was in fact a false dragon it's teeth must have been false, caught themselves between a newly created spear stopping them from devouring the Mage of Wind. The Mage's gloved hand held the spear tightly, his connection to it was the only keeping it in a physical form. Then again, with enough force it could still...

Snap

"****!" Kaze leaped backwards holding his badly bleeding right hand as the beast looked on it's false teeth skill crackling from the electricity. No time to think, Kaze had to move quickly sliding to his right as a large claw extended towards him crushing the ground where he once stood. Retaliating with one hand on the ground a spike burst through the beasts claw and spread out in all directions like a fountain covering it completely in a tomb of rock.

Then there was that humming sound again, the claw disintegrated before Kaze's eye turning into something that looked like an acid trip. The strange glob of metal move from beneath the rock and reformed again into the claw that once threatened Kaze. "Going to need a new plan,"

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Tsuukai senses the bullets of blood long before they reached him, closing his eyes he could see them moving towards him clear as day. A sixth sense of sorts, but always effective at picking up an ambush. Before the rain of blood could begin the intrepid warrior through his heavy cloak over his head, and then was torn to shreds as the bullets tore through him. At least that is what he hopped Skif would think.

In reality Tsuukai took the time to not only escape into his own personal shadow realm via his own shadow, but also create a shadow clone of him that took the entire attack. The clone fell to the ground face first, hiding the only recognizable feature that differed him from the real thing.

Meanwhile the Real Tsuukai was running fast past the wavering building that mirrored the real world, even without running Tsuukai could move in split seconds thanks to the time difference but The aptly named master of shadows wanted to get their quickly enough to take his worth opponent by surprise. Rising from Skif's own shadow like a child's nightmare he stabbed upwards with a dagger aiming to pierce underneath the ribs to reach he heart...

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

The Perfect Assassin Charged forward without even a millisecond of hesitation. Following Monroe of the wall was perhaps the easiest part of the battle before, with a single leap upwards he was halfway up, and by planting his foot on a window sill and pushing again he was able to land cleanly on top of the roof without even dropping a sweat. Looking forward at his opponent he couldn't help but notice the strange glow he was emitting.

Silver flames engulfed Lhaeo's hand as he pressed it against his chest, the holy fire steadily closing the wound there. His back rested against the tree trunk he had been pinned to a moment before, but his eyes continued to watch the two men atop the broken stone pillars. There was a brief exchange of words, and then Kaze flew away. A moment passed, and then lighting filled the sky in the distance, the cackle of electricity pitted against the roar of an unknown beast. But none of these things currently concerned Lhaeo, for the red-haired warrior still stood on a broken pillar, gazing analytically at the priest.

"Zachary, isn't it?" Lhaeo asked, the silver flames dying away as the wound closed completely, leaving nothing a but a tattered hole in the priest's jacket and tunic.

"It is. Why do you ask?" Zachary responded, another spear materializing in his hand.

"Just being proper. It'd be terribly uncouth to fight someone without knowing their name first." There was a brief glow as Amatsurugi reappeared in Lhaeo's hand. "Almost as uncouth as attacking someone from behind." Zach laughed bitterly, gripping his spear in both hands and Lhaeo slowly floated towards him.

"All's fair in love and war."

Without warning, a gleaming disk of whirling silver whistled through the air, slicing through Zachary's left ear and cheek. Lhaeo caught the kodachi deftly, turning the momentum of its flight into a showly twirl.

"I'm glad you think so."

<====}=0 - 0={====>

Time slowed for Skif as the knife stretched up from his shadow, Tsuukai's arm behind it. The blade reached unerringly for the minish's heart, and Skif knew that he had no way to avoid the blow. But he could reduce it. The minish let his leg slip to the side and leaned back and to the left. The knife reached his chest, and with a metallic screech, pierced the chainmail there to dig at the flesh beneath. The the flesh was not that of his heart, but several inches to the right, above his sternum. The knife grated on bone and flicked away, leaving a shallow cut in its wake.

Skif rolled backwards and threw out his hand, blood flowing from it to engulf Tsuukai's arm. The warrior tugged at the blood as it hardened around the shadow master's arm, pulling him into empty space. Retaining his hold on the blood that confined Tsuukai's limb, the elementalist let loose a st-ream of acidic blood from his other hand. The shadow warrior guarded himself with his left hand, blackness spreading from it to form a shield as the demonic blood washed over him. Skif bisected the stream of blood with a flick of his hand, the flow surrounding Tsuukai on either side and constricting around him as it hardened into something akin to titanium.

"You're mine now, shadow warrior!"

Blood ran down the blade mage's face as he looked at the man. The small cuts bled a bit, but the man didn't seem to really notice. In fact, if nothing else, he began to laugh as if he had just heard the funniest joke ever told by someone, alive or dead. If nothing else, this elemental guy was a good comedian. Tricks like that, however, only get people so far.

"I've gotta say," Zachary commented as he spun his spear and smiled, "you're a funny guy. After all, if you think tricks like that are enough to beat me, then you've got no idea who you're up against. Unlike Zorlo, I can't mitigate your magic, and unlike Monroe I can't weaken you using intelligently crafted stuff, but I do have one thing they don't."

The god vanished. For a second, the ice mage almost felt worried. A moment, but no longer. A loud crash echoed as the kodachi met with a red blade held firmly in the sorcerer's left hand. Zachary smiled as he thrust the spear at the elementalist, adjusting his grip to extend his range, but missing as the man bent back and pushed away.

Spinning the spear in his hand, the red haired boy felt a glint of excitement. This was a little more exciting than fighting a robot. Fear, shock, and anxiousness. These things were the mark of a human, and also kept people unpredictable. "Unlike that other guy, you are very human. You might be from another realm of some form, but you're still limited by your very humanesque emotions. That isn't your fault, as it isn't anyone’s fault, but it makes a fight more exciting."

Zachary's eyes opened from what seemed like a long blink. Had Lhaeo been paying attention when the two had clashed, he would have noticed then, but if he hadn't, he surely noticed now. Zachary's eyes seemed to glow a bright blue as he stared at the god. This is a gamble. Enhancing my vision... I'm not sure what it'll do if I use it for too long, but for now I need it. I can't adequately predict what he's gonna do without some kind of idea where he's coming from. Even wind isn't as fast as Monroe.

"Care to continue now?" the blade mage said as he spun his spear and moved it parallel to his body behind himself, holding his short sword firmly in his left hand and readying to strike. Surely this guy had more than just this. This couldn't be it!

o=)----------------- ----------------(=o

The glow faded as Monroe stared at Derrik. "Sorry to make you wait," the enhanced human said. "It isn't like we're done yet. After all, this is a fight between two defects for a simple thing: purpose. We don't exist simply as machines of war anymore, but we live by our own free will. By that logic, we shouldn't fight each other... but we will, because we have no fear of death. After all, if our lives are artificial, then what does death mean?"

A question that humans were faced with once in a while. This question of life and death. Did people really have a purpose? Did death really have meaning? Does any of this thought have any point aside to attempt to provide a deep, philosophical meaning to otherwise senseless violence? Perhaps, but that deeper meaning seemed covered by the thick layers of blood that were yet to be spilled, or perhaps already spilled.

It wasn't long before the perfect assassin made his move. Monroe had to be on his toes to avoid fighting in close quarters, as Derrik took the initiative to do at that moment, since to do so meant almost certain defeat. Dodging, blocking and deflecting a furious series of blows, the Quincy stepped back with each move, nearing the man towards the edge of the building.

He was almost there. As soon as Monroe could feel the edge of the building, he knew this would be his only chance. Quickly spinning around and driving a powerful heel into Derrik's back, the assassin stumbled slightly and fell from the building. However, like any good assassin, this didn't stop him.

A gun came from the man's jacket and fired off two bullets that the dark clad man narrowly evaded as strings stretched from his fingers. The long, thin green wires wrapped around the man's neck as the former assassin pulled the strings firmly between his fingers as he felt the tension strike. Now all Monroe had to hope is that the man's neck snapped... and that such an action would kill him. That was about it... but who really knew?

Derrik was very lucky. He was very lucky that despite the fact Monroe had put a lot of slack on his noose that his head didn’t just pop right off, and he was very lucky that his next didn’t snap at the impact point. Of course when you are being hung it very hard to consider yourself lucky but I am certain that when he looks back on that moment he will consider himself very lucky. Assuming he has a chance to look back, once again he is being hung like a pirate.

The Perfect assassin for the first time in his life felt as if he was going to die. Every other time he was confident that he would survive, no matter how many times he’d been shot, beat u, thrown down, and blown up he was confident he would survive. This time however his confidence seemed to desert him –and who can blame him?-. Sure Derrik may say that he was only kicking and flailing because his brain was losing oxygen but don’t believe him, the truth is that Monroe had thoroughly, and decisively shook the perfect assassin to his core. If nothing else, Monroe should hold that fact with pride. The white clad man’s first reaction was to try and pull the rope off his neck; as it was an energy rope this clearly wasn’t going to work.

It’s a strange feeling…being hung. You don’t even notice the burning sensation around your neck; all you can think of is how your vision is blurring, how your brain is failing, and how life is slowing being sucked out of your body into the abyss. It is as if you can hear death whisper in your ear “YOUR TIME IS NOW” and you can do nothing but fall into line among the dead as your cross the river styx. It takes a remarkable man to take this feeling of inevitability and shake it off enough to find a way out: Of course the Blond Haired Assassin was more than remarkable.

Shaking of his first taste of fear he slammed his fist into a window behind him, grabbing as the pieces of glass that fell. Then quickly with his remaining strength lifted his arm and cut the thin strand, the energy disconnected and faded allowing him to drop to the ground below.

Tearing the cord from his neck Derrik was greeted with a hacking cough as his body took in much needed air. His body was shaking, and his stomach convulsed threatening to let go of his lunch, but Derrik stayed strong coughing up only flem as he tried to come to grips with what happened. Having skin like iron is all well and good, being trained in countless martial arts if okay to, but even with all the skills in the world if you can’t breath you can’t live and Derrik realized this with stunning certainty. For the first time in his short life, he came to the conclusion that he was not invincible.


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“You’re Mine now Shadow Warrior”

Tsuukai didn’t bother to struggle. Such an act would be childish and responsive and only help to tighten his own bonds. As the blood began to suffocate him the Shadow master could feel his ribs cracking under the pressure, but Tsuukai’s faced looked as calm as it ever did almost as if he didn’t notice the unbearable pain on all sides. “Infernal Shadow Binding,” Tsuukai Sneered as Skifs own shadow betrayed him.

Vines of shadow emerged from all around the Demon ensnaring him before he had a chance to react –and who can blame him? Few people expect to be attacked by their own shadows. Though I suppose now Skif should have been used to the prospect- as the tentacles wrapped around his legs and chest constricting his movements and tightening against his body in a similar fate to that he led Tsuukai into.

“It seems we share a similar fate, you and I” Tsuukai said, contemplating his predicament as his prison closed in.

“I sincerely hope not”

“Indeed, I would hate to die here with you,” What’s the opposite of a flash of light? Well that would be a flash of darkness, and like a flash it suddenly engulfed the entire area in black, however unlike a flash it did not go away. A square kilometer around the entwined pair became as lack as the darkness night, no light could seem to penetrate the dome of blackness that surrounded them. “It is a shame, I had hoped to defeat you without using such a powerful spell, but you proved to be a worthy opponent. I have no doubt the Valkyrie will come for you tonight, and then you shall feast” A voice came from behind Skif. The Minish turned around as his bonds suddenly dissolved, “Did you ever wonder what a world of shadows looked like, or how I see your domain. Total blackness, engulfing all…alluring isn’t it? This pleasant darkness? At night, in blackness…that is when our most primeval emotions take hold…where we become truly free. Do you feel liberated in my world? I will let you take a hole of it, to feel it, these chilling shadows; you will not be around much longer to experience it. Do you think you can dodge a blade coming from every direction? Can you run from something that never tiers, or hide for something that can see everything. Do you think I am bluffing? Well let us see. In the world of light I am but human, in this place I am a monster. So do not fear killing me if you can. Take every precaution, try to escape if you must! But do not expect to survive. This is my domain, where shadows rule.”


OoC: I want to make clear what happened here. Tsuukai used his powers to create a dome of pure shadows stretching 1Km in diameter starting from his location. Since their is now light he is unable to use any spells, however he can still use the shadow for transportation meaning he could be anywhere, also given his cloak he is very hard to spot. So skif can either fight tsuukai and use Magic to overpower him (assuming he can catch and stop tsuukai) or he can try to escape to the light. Have fun =D

Skif slowly turned in a circle, peering vainly into the darkness. Tsuukai's voice continued to drift towards him from a multitude of directions, but all was utter black. All light had been stolen from the world, even seeming to take the heat with it, the air feeling noticeably cooler to the minish. Yet the anxiety that the Shadow Master expected of the minish did not take hold. Skif did not grow fearful in the midnight dark, but rather calm and peaceful. Tsuukai taunted him, launching into a vain monologue about the nature of darkness, but his words fell on deaf ears. Skif already understood the dark, as none but a few did, and certainly more than Tsuukai presumed of him. Skif knew the Void well indeed. For many months, the elementalist had been trapped in utter blackness, confined within tight mental walls in the most secluded corners of his own mind. For months, his sole companion had been total emptiness, with a constant fear of the evil entity that lurked just beyond his tiny self-imposed mental prison. But time had passed, and with it, Skif's fear. he had grown to understand more about the darkness, as well as himself. His receded courage returned, greater than before, as he came to know his enemy and himself alike. A quick breath of movement brushed against Skif's side, a line of blood seeping from a cut on his cheek. A whisper caught against the warrior's other side, ripping into the chain mail covering his torso. Another slice tore into his bicep, but the elementalist remained rooted to the spot, barely leaning each way to diminish the depth of the attacks. He did not fear Tsuukai or his shadow magic, and refused to flee. People feared the dark, because of their ignorance of what hid within it. But Skif knew the darkness, and found peace in it. Because now, he was what hid in the dark, free and unconfined.

There was a whoosh to the minish's right, and Skif instinctively threw his hand up, a piercing arrow of acidic blood launching into the void. But it caught nothing, Tsuukai already carried away to safety with a short bark of a laugh. The Shadow Master responded with a new assault, invisible blades marking Skif all over. Undaunted, the minish drew both hands across his chest, clawed fingers clenching in the air by each shoulder. His limbs snapped out and released a torrent of bloody ribbons, the swirling arrows weaving through the darkness but catching nothing.

"You can hide, Shadow Master," Skif warned, "But you cannot escape!" More blood vectors exploded from Skif's back and chest, filling the void around him with a crimson web. Unseen branches and leaves were cut through mercilessly, the blood flowing through the thickest of trees with ease and reducing the forest to matchsticks. Skif's demon eye pulsed with crimson saturation, and the blood vectors swirling around his body in a protective net, even as they multiplied and expanded into the darkness.

<====}=0 - 0={====>

Silver flashes filled the air, like flickering stars dancing around each other. Gold sparks erupted where the silver streaks met, glowing briefly in their short lives before disappearing. The light show paused for a moment as Lhaeo slammed Amatsurugi down against Zachary's spear, complimenting the move by stabbing in from the left side with Yaiba Kouyou. Zach caught the shorter blade with his own sword and diverted it towards the conflicting spear and zanbattou, locking all four weapons together. The two leaned in close, grinning at each other as was their nature. They remained so for a moment, but Zachary was considerably stronger, and threw the priest away with ease. Lhaeo spun away on one heel, holding his blades out to either side. he came to a stop facing Zach and tensed, readying for another charge. Then both were gone, once more vaporous forms flitting between the trees and collapsed buildings. Lhaeo was on the offensive, and his attacks were fierce. But for all the size and weight of his zanbattou, which he led with, Zach's superior strength defeated it every time. The priest continued to press the attack, increasing his speed. The sorcerer may have him beat on strength, but how well could he deal with his speed?

The Elemental Master put on a new boost of speed, zipping around behind the sorcerer. Zach spun around desperately, his spear just catching the zanbattou as it flew for his back. But the block was poorly placed and unbalanced, Lhaeo's giant blade shoving through the defense and pushing Zachary away. Unwilling to let his moment of chance slip through his fingers, Lhaeo abandoned the zanbattou and darted in after Zach with his single kodachi. A deft hand clasped the shaft of the spear as it came at him, and the nimble Lhaeo used it to propel himself even closer. Then the sword came swiping up, severing several of the holy man's hairs as his dodged it. But now the way was clear, and the kodachi was thrust forward like a silver and blue arrow aimed unerringly for Zachary's heart. Grunting, the sorcerer twisted as far as he could, the short blade scraping his dark blue chest plate but failing to cause any harm to the man. Lhaeo was still committed to the attack though, and he held his other hand back and above his head. Amatsurugi appeared in the waiting palm as the priest summoned the weapon back to him, and with a wicked grin, he brought the massive blade down. Zach quickly snapped his arms across his chest as the zanbattou slammed into him, rocketing him into the ground he had been sailing just a few inches over.

Dust engulfed the area as the sorcerer hit the ground, cracking the hardened surface and sinking into the softer earth beneath. Skipping lightly back, Lhaeo held his blades at the ready and waited for the cloud to subside and the blade mage to reveal himself. Silver flames flared along his arms and blades, slowly fading away as his divine spell left him.

"Your strength clearly exceeds mine," Lhaeo told the still unseen Zach, "But my blades hold the weight of the world and the determination of the gods." Without waiting for a response Lhaeo began chanting, silver flames surrounding his body as his eyes grew dark with the blackness of the Void, sprinkled with the shimmering light of silver dots.

<====}=0 - 0={====>

A myriad of images flashed through Kashet's mind as he regarded this new enemy. A thousand possible forms and patterns of attack appeared to him within the span of a few seconds, and from those the enhanced human chose the one he deemed most effective. Kashet's draconian head reared back, and with a mighty roar, he released his own bolt of electricity. Kaze curved his body as he dodged the cackling stream of energy, stray wisps of electricity snagging at his robes. The archmage rubbed at his eyes angrily, wiping away tears of agitation from the close-proximity flash of light. By the time his sight had returned to normal, the behir was gone. Elsewhere, in the shade of a tumbled down building, Kashet once again underwent change. His form was shrinking from that of the larger behir, and the man used the extra mass to strengthen the form he now took. His body was again humanoid, but only just. He was all angles and edges, and as thin as a skeleton.

His feet and lower legs were disproportionately large, ending in two large hooks that dug into the ground. His upper legs narrowed, taking on a four-sided shape like a sharpened diamond. The legs joined at an odd conjecture in place of the hip, seeming to consist mostly of a free-turning sphere set inside a sharp and pointed cage. His lower torso was almost nonexistent, made up of several ragged spines that flowed from the sphere-hip into a wider ribcage. The spines were shaped like the upper legs, being angular and pointed with four sides. The ribcage was like a short armor chest plate that continued around full circle. Jagged shoulders jutted into the air with several spikes. From the back protruded six large curved spikes, three to each side like web-less wings. Giant arms flowed from beneath the jutting shoulders, thick and heavy and lined with barbs and spikes, with each ending with three large talons. The head rose up like a weapon in and of itself. The front and back tapered to long and tall edges like an overgrown axe, the front larger than the back. The back flowed over the top of the head, continuing the blade to meet with the tip of the front blade. Green glowing eyes sat in the center of the head, facing out forward from either side of the front axe. The whole construct might have been described as a man turned into a blade, or a blade taken man's form. Kashet's sharpen frame was midnight black, with the sole exception of his glowing green orbs.

The narrow body moved forward with astounding weight, each step crushing the ground beneath it. The hooks of his feet dug in with each step, and his long arms moved along with them like a larger ape would. A deep howling came to Kashet's unseen ears, followed closely by a wall of wind. Trees and buildings alike were shredded as the wind blades of the furious Kaze sent them every which way in search of his foe. Yet Kashet strode on unconcerned, the wind blades shattering against his blade-like body. His new form was too narrow and heavy to be buffeted by the furious winds, and the blades broke against him. Gripping his hooked feet in the turf, Kashet charged forward with surprising speed.

The cloud of dust was still floating as the blade mage sat quietly, looking around. The sword had cut into Zachary's armor, but hadn't quite pierced it. It had been very close and excessively dangerous. Well, it happened, and the follow up attack had connected. Still, Zachary had better knowledge of what he was up against now. This guy had some strange powers, but nothing that Zachary wasn't prepared to find a way to overcome.

Sure, Lhaeo's speed was otherworldly, and that helped the god, but the blade mage had his own advantage. Although it was taking some time for his eyes to adjust to the movement, what had once been blurred images were now clear as day. I can see his movements... so I can respond, the Replicator told himself as he extended his fingertips. His right hand rested on the shaft of his spear as he looked towards where he could only guess Lhaeo to be.

Weight of the world, determination of the gods. This guy has some tall order on what he's doing. Must be a small existence around us, if this guy can preach stuff like that. Zachary pulled the spear slightly closer and quickly tossed the spear at where he thought Lhaeo was.

The scattered earth spun around where the spear had been thrown as Zachary used the view to figure out where exactly where Lhaeo was. The elemental god had evaded the spear, but he had left himself open. The replicator quickly created Azul and Rosso and launched them towards Lhaeo. The master of elements quickly knocked the two blades away as the amateur sorcerer created a second set of blades.

The second set of short swords rushed at the god, the first set rising up and following them. It was, at that moment, for the first time that the red haired warrior recognized that his foe was covered in a silver colored flame. The four blades moved quickly towards the man as he spun his blades and struck the short swords.

The short swords erupted into magic and quickly began to spread orange and light blue ice over the blades and towards the man, stopping his flames as the tried to fight them off. "Good luck now. My ice will freeze you soon enough. No worries, though," the ice mage said as he created another set of Azul and Rosso and rushed upwards, "because you can't easily escape this trap!"

o=)------------- --------------(=o

Monroe had to give Derrik props. Surviving being nearly lynched, followed by nearly strangled to death even made Monroe shudder slightly. The key factor of that survival was that Monroe wasn't sure that if the roles were reversed he would have survived. With almost glaring certainty, the Quincy knew that his head would have been ripped off or he would have been strangled to death by that tactic.

Still, this survival instinct that both warriors seemed to have had kept them existing so far. Thus, as long as one stood, they had to continue to fight. That was how the dark clad man had figured this fight to be. The dark clad man stepped from the building and fell down from where he had been standing and landed on the ground, having the ground shatter beneath him.

The Quincy Knight looked at Derrik and reached his hand back towards one of his blades on his belt. "I suppose this fight isn't over yet. I'm kinda shocked you lived, but it makes me proud. If that had killed you, I might have been let down," the dark clad warrior said as he drew a Seele Schneider and quickly slashed it before pointing the blade at Derrik after simply swinging the blade for no reason. "Shall we continue?"

It was very rare to see anyone so confident in darkness. Tsuukai could see this man he was fighting was at a different calibre then most of his opponents so treating him lightly was not in the cards. Not only did the man not blink when day turned to night at the blink of an eye, he even managed to roll his eyes during Tsuukai’s well rehearsed darkness rant –Though Tsuukai was well aware of the cheesiness of the monologue he loved to watch people squirm-, then he had the audacity to strike back a move which even the world weary Master of Shadows didn’t see coming. To be able to catch the Dark Fencer off guard was an amazing feat few people had achieved and even fewer lived through.

After the first lash of blood caught his chest, tearing his cloak to shreds before cutting his body, Tsuukai quickly backed off to assess the situation. The master of shadows moved quickly to the other end of the shadow bubble. Watching half-heartedly as the Minish flailed around in his own bodily fluids Tsuukai decided it was time to work on his aim.

Whipping out his bow, and drawing a single arrow Tsuukai measured distances in his mind, and aimed upwards. Though his aim was nearly perfect the arrow was slashed out of the sky by a stray…blood tentacle? Yes, I suppose that is what they were. Releasing the rest of his arrows one by one he amused himself as the blood-mage blocked his entire volley with startling persistency (of all the arrows the closest got about two feet from the mage before being eradicated). Growing quickly bored of this game Tsuukai withdrew his bow, and started towards the Demon. Having already formulated a strategy in his head, Tsuukai was almost to preoccupied to notice the blood mass to swirl into a single form. However, he was not to distracted to notice the blood form to burst towards him, closing their mile long gap well under a second. The Shadow Warrior was just barely able to get out his blade to block the attack, and even still the force knocked him clear through a wall. It seemed he was using the arrows to determine Tsuukai’s distance from him. Clever.

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“Why is it that every time I fight something, it changes shape into something possible more dangerous, and defiantly more disturbing. It’s like living in a nightmare, only without the pleasure of waking up,” Kaze commented to seemingly no one as he jumped back, dodging the giant axe by a hair, “Maybe I should take up demon hunting, it’s be an easier gig,” he quipped spinning horizontally to dodge a second strike. The intrepid hero then grabbed the un-spiked part of the beasts head and launched him behind the great monstrosity, “I bet if I wrote a book about this guy no one would believe me. Or…” Kaze landed hard on his feet digging into the ground a little bit as a sharp sensation flashed through his ankles, “It’d be so crazy it’d have to be true. Refuge in audacity, as they say. “ Kaze quickly flew into the air as the giant axe flew towards him, “Even still this guy is so wacky it’d be hard to take seriously. Perhaps I should write a book and use myself, as the author, to point out the ridiculousness of everything. Perhaps that would be enough to convince people I’m actually fighting a shape-shifting machine. “ Kaze dropped to the ground quickly, flattening his body as the axe flew back to it’s master once again missing Kaze by millimeters. Kaze was a lucky bastard, “I’m a lucky bastard in any case, “ Kaze commented dusting himself off, thoroughly amused with himself for his rambling monologue.

Getting back to business Kaze watched as his opponent charged forward, thinking of every possible way to combat this guy, and there was a lot of ways. Dodging the next attack kaze spoke directly to the beast, “For you, I’m going to try something I haven’t done, for your sake I hope it doesn’t work.”

Kaze flew backwards, giving him sometime to perform a quick incantation. Clapping his hands together he recited “Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice/From what I’ve tasted of desire/I hold with those who favor fire/But if it had to perish twice/I think I know enough of hate/To know that for destruction ice/Is also great/And would suffice-Ice-Frozen Touch-“ Kaze was an interesting person, his ability to adapt to battles was unparallel if not for his mind, but the almost limitless sues of his magic. In this example the Grand Archmage Of Wind use a trick Amadahy had showed him years earlier. By drawing in vast amounts of moisture for the from the world around him - to the point the humidity level dropped to near zero in a fifty mile radius- Kaze clapped his hands to his chest and formed around him a shield of ice. However, Kaze was not content with stopping their and instead crafted his armor to the size of over fifteen feet. The mobile ice sculpture was modeled after it’s maker –complete with cape- only with pikes coming out of his elbow, shoulders, and knee caps in a way it seemed to be mocking his opponent. In the giant ice mans hand’s was a sword capable of brining down a house.

“Two can play at this game, “ The statue smirked –Can statues smirk?- as it sued it’s blade to block an axe attack.

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“Don’t you dare look down at me,” It was rare for Derrik to talk. He hated talking, felt is was a waste of air. Sometimes, however, a scowl can’t get across the proper meaning. Sometimes, it is necessary to talk to make any possibility of misunderstanding vanish. Surely, this was one of those times. Kicking the blade from Monroe’s hand Derrik jumped to his feat took out one of his remaining guns and fired. Then he reloaded, and fired again…and again. Until The wall Monroe had hidden behind looked like Swiss Cheese, and he was out of ammo. Not content with simply taking out another gun Derrik ran towards the hiding place, kicked the wall on top of Monroe, and searched the debris looking for movement. His right fist twitched slightly as it impatiently waited for something to pummel.

OoC: Writing at 5:00 in the morning in an insomniac boredom. Ye be warned all who read here.