Hale of Blades (Hitokiri Chibi)

Portals! His secret weapon is portals! He's opening them so he can move from place to place without me being able to see him. That's a pretty dangerous thing to fight against, so I'd best be a little bit more careful, otherwise I'll wind up being a bit more wounded than I am, the Replicator thought as he stumbled back and gained his footing. This blue haired man was on the offensive and gave rise to defensive for the ice innate.

The red haired warrior braced himself as the daggers crossed his swords and pushed the ice mage back a few feet towards a wall. Although the two stopped just a few steps from the wall, Zachary was still on the defensive. The sorcerer smiled as he continued to hold his defensive. Now then, it was time for a counterattack, of sorts.

The Replicator rolled to the right and left Joker stumbling forwards and falling head first into a piece of the wall. The amateur sorcerer smiled as he leapt back and skidded to a stop, holding his swords ready to attack. "You're not the only one that can be tricky. You just have an easier time doing it!" Zachary commented as he started to rush forwards and slashed Azul towards Joker.

There are times when reflexes take over the body, moving it into a set path that the mind barely processes. Even as he turned, Joker knew he wouldn't be able to dodge the sword swinging towards him. His arm automatically rose in an attempt to ward off the inevitable fall and he felt it slide within a portal he didn't remember creating.

Then Azul bit deeply into his arm, the sharp edge cutting through as though through a fine mist and Joker and Zachary both stared as his arm fell to the floor.

"Well damn," Joker stated, staring at his tattered and empty sleeve. He tried to wave his arm but it felt odd having only a stump waving in the air. At least it wasn't splurting blood, that would have been an overkill.

Zachary hadn't moved much except to back away a bit, staring at the arm that was still clutching a dagger on the floor. Joker picked it up and held the hilt up to where his empty shoulder was, focusing a bit and the blade reshaped itself into an arm. Then he kicked his fallen arm up into the air and held it like a club.

"You. Cut. Joker's. Arm... OFF!!!" he wailed, leaping towards the still shocked ice innate, hitting him with the limb. Each smack was aided by a 'donk' a sound reminiscent of wood hitting a hard surface.

Disbelief had set in. In all of his many battles, this was the most terrifying and hysterical thing that had ever happened. Zachary had never severed any limb from any person that was powerful enough to fight him. Yet now, he found himself being beaten with the severed arm that Joker was now brandishing like a club. How does one even respond to that?

Zachary raised his right arm and blocked the severed limb with his own arm and leapt backwards. He didn't really know what to say or how to put what he wanted to say. He felt horrible. After all, what he had just done with little more than dishonorable. He was a sham of a warrior to take such a measure, but it had been an accident. How does one apologize for an accident.

Well, the Replicator was about to try. After all, trying was about the limit of what he could do. Not like he could say much else but "I'm sorry." Aside from that, the amateur sorcerer bowed his head and upper body and looked at the man. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I wish I hadn't done that. I'm very sorry, I do hope you'll forgive me," Zachary said, sounding as sincere as possible. This was all he could do... for now.

Joker paused his attack, narrowing his eyes as he looked down at the bowed head of the mage. Really, that apology came quicker and the sincere regret behind it made Joker's lips twitch with amusement. He really was fighting an honorable guy.

"Ara, what does one expect, 'tis a battle after all~" shrugging, he propped his limb over one shoulder and pointed his metal arm at Zachary, "But you're regret is more than enough for Joker to forgive this... event."

Smiling he threw his limb away and dragged the metal arm off, revealing a real arm beneath its metal. Joker flexed it and sighed happily, glad that his tricks were still well and workable. He hadn't pulled a 'limb cut off' prank in awhile.

"Come on then, that was enough comic relief," Joker grinned and twirled his blades. Nothing better than a stunt to break his opponents rhythm after all. So thinking, he began to cheerfully whistle as he began to attack once more.

Zachary looked at the reattached arm and couldn't help but laugh. "So... it was some kind of a trick?" the ice mage asked as he laughed harder than he had moments before. "So you got me with an interesting trick that you've used as a joke!" The laughing once again rose as the amateur sorcerer began to pace about. Slowly, the hysterical laughter died down and Zachary spun his swords idly in his hands as he looked at Joker.

Zorlo had once told Zachary that humor was the spice of life. The Replicator now found himself feeling much better. "Okay then," the ice mage said as he slammed his fists together and took a combat ready stance. The red haired warrior burst from where he had been standing and slashed his blades quickly.

The dual short swords struck hard against the blades of the daggers and pushed the blue haired man back a few feet. Zachary's feet skid as he, himself, had been pushed back from the attack, but he still continued onwards. The second attack wasn't a continuation of the first, but rather, an effective slash with Rosso. The left blade struck Joker's right blade and forced the portal master back a few inches.

Quickly, the ice mage swung his sword quickly sideways, aiming the tip at the dagger wielder. The attack missed as the man ducked back slightly, but the second slash, a horizontal one as a follow up of the attack that had just missed, continued onwards and crossed Zachary's arms. The Replicator smiled as he had weapon locked them again. "So, Mr. Funny man, having fun?"

Joker grinned, not bothering to answer. Instead, he fell back knowing that Zachary was no doubt stronger than himself and that his own endurance would fade quickly if they continued their struggle of locked blades.

The sudden lack of resistance pushed the red head forward and Joker aided him in his fall by snapping his legs up into his stomach and pushing up high. Rolling to the left, Joker whipped his dagger up in its whip like form, wrapped it around the airborne mage and again slammed him to the ground.

Sadly, it wasn't a hit strong enough to do more than lightly bruise the man as his armor took most of the hit, and he recovered quicker than Joker had expected, rolling on impact to get to his feet. Joker himself barely had time to scramble up and his balance was off when Zachary's next attacks came at him.

Joker managed to knock aside one blow, but turned awkwardly as he was, his left hand was unable to come up and block the next hit that Zachary aimed at his side. Joker tried to spin out of the way, following the swing of his right arm but only managed to evade a deeper cut.

He winced as felt the bite of metal on his flesh, not the cold feel had he had expected but one that told him his foes red blade didn't carry a flame image for nothing.

Jumping back a few steps, Joker glanced down at his wound. It had caught him below the ribs on his right, a wound that while not deep would still bleed freely.

"Ara... Joker is glad he changed from his favorite shirt now..." he commented lightly as he rushed forward then took a quick side turn into a portal as he swung his dagger, appearing to Zachary's left and swinging the dagger in a downward arc. As he did so, he willed his daggers to become sharper, sharp enough to do more than just glance off armor.

To the left, huh? the ice mage thought to himself as he moved Rosso to quickly block the attack. The Replicator stepped slightly to the side as the tip of the dagger pushed against the flat of Rosso. With a push, the ice mage leapt to the side and avoided the very sharp blade. The amateur sorcerer looked at the flat of the flame blade and noticed that it had cracked slightly. It was then it made sense what that man was trying to do.

He was trying to pierce my armor. If that had worked... he might have killed me. I need to be more careful... otherwise I might be the one who dies. The blue haired man moved again, and stabbed his sword again. The blade expanded towards the ice mage, giving Joker the range advantage, but Zachary rolled out of the way. The tips of his daggers are sharpened to a deadly point, and he can extend his range... I need something.

The Replicator tossed both of his weapons as he looked at Joker. The portal master smiled as the blades of both of his daggers lashed out and pierces through Zach's weapons, shattering their blades. The tips of the blade continued on, and quickly the red haired warrior rolled to the side and narrowly evaded the attack. The tips of the weapons pierced clearly through the wall as the amateur sorcerer stood his ground and leapt onto the wall.

Zachary held his left hand out and quickly called up his bow, holding it ready and aiming at Joker. The blades of the daggers retracted back to their normal length as the ice mage as the ice mage created an elongated main gauche and quickly turned it into an arrow. The Replicator placed his new arrow and mounted it on his bow as he drew the arrow back. The ice mage leapt to the side and released the arrow, watching it move towards Joker. This range would be his most effective weapon right now.

Joker stared as the arrow was pulled back. He knew that as much as he wished it to be true, he was not fast enough to dodge an arrow normally. What he could do was think of possible solutions as quickly as possible and hope to hell it worked. A skewered Joker was not high on his list of favorite states.

That being said, he retracted his blades and in doing so was pulled forward as they were firmly rooted in the wall beneath the ice mage. The arrow had been loosed and the speed with which he was tugged forward was enough that it didn't hit him in the upper body. It did, however, catch him in the leg and he cursed as he felt it break through skin and muscle.

No time to think on it, he thought grimly. Instead he slammed into the wall beneath the mage, commanding his right hand dagger to extend up, within the wall to shoot up beneath Zachary. The boy proved to be wily, quickly leaving his position to move and fire at Joker again.

"Ara, Joker doesn't look well as a pincushion!" the trickster murmured. One of his daggers was effectively trapped, the other he plunged into the floor, yelling as he did so, "Gravity Plus~!"

Nothing overtly happened, but when an arrow flew towards him it crashed down to the floor harmlessly. Grinning that his idea worked, Joker heaved on the hand that held his trapped dagger. It sliced clear through the wall and came down in a lethal arc headed straight for the Replicator at a quicker speed than one would have thought.

As he did, Joker released his mini-gravity field. He had enough to worry about without the adde pressure it gave him.

Well this is uncomfortable, Zachary thought as he watched the dagger cutting through the wall towards him. Quickly, the ice mage slid his back down the wall until he was sitting. Sadly, there wasn't much he could do right now, except block the attack head on. Still, the dagger cleaved through the stone wall as if it were nothing. Then...

Clank!

Joker looked at where the dagger had struck with a moment of interest and mild disbelief. His blade had clearly struck the Replicator's arms, and yet hadn't cut through them? That could mean only one thing. The amateur sorcerer smiled. "I keep forgetting, since I don't normally use them. Fenrir is generally just my medium for creating weapons... I forgot its a weapon itself," the red haired boy stated as he started pushing up against Joker's daggers.

The ice mage still held his bow firmly in his left hand as he spun the weapon in the palm of his hand. The trickster had little choice but to duck the attack then move backwards to evade the attack. That had worked shockingly well, the sorcerer noted, but it didn't really matter. The Replicator thrust the butt of the bow at the man and then spun around, swinging the bow like a close range weapon. For now, it worked. Still, the ice mage leapt back and dropped the bow.

"Time to get back to business," the ice mage said as he called up Azul and Rosso one more time. Sword fighting really was his best skill.

Joker smiled grimly, "Ara, you truly seem to have a vast array of weapons at your beck and call..." ducking beneath a slash with Azul, Joker deflected a blow from Rosso by swinging his sword up, thus leaving Zachary's torso open.

Spinning, he reversed his grip on his dagger and extended it rather than engaging in close combat. It wrapped around Zachary's torso and with Joker's continued spin, whipped the Replicator across sharply, releasing him to fly face first into a wall.

Standing straight, Joker staggered as the wound on his right side pulled sharply after that previous exertion.

Great, he thought, now I can't even use big swings with my right arm. Lucky Joker is ambidextrous...

Gingerly, he tested his left leg to see how the wound affected it. As he thought, the pain was sharp but if he ignored it he'd still be able to move quickly. Slowly, his body would not be able to cope and would slow down and limit his movements even more-

Zachary had gotten up and on the attack once more, seemingly alright after his encounter with the wall. Joker stepped forward with his right foot, his left dagger coming up to block Zachary's attacks. His right arm was used only when a quick jab or forward block were needed. Either way, Joker found himself slowly being pushed back. He needed to do something to turn things in his favor.

A fast overhead suddenly swung down and Joker spun himself into a portal. In one quick move he swiped his arm out, grabbing some items from a table in the Dream Realm before stepping back onto the battlefield.

"Time for Joker to even the odds~" smiling, he sheathed his right dagger and moved into attack with his left. He led a series of quick slashes, turning his body into each so he could spin and attack again smoothly. Zachary easily blocked them all, wondering why the icy haired individual was only using one arm to attack.

The answer was clear when instead of a dagger coming towards him, an odd cube did. Caught up in blocking attacks, Zachary realized too late and his sword cut into it smoothly.

A blinding flash lit up the ruins.

Bright. That God damn thing that had been cut in half with ease released a flash that was bright as hell. The ice mage blinked, barely able to see anything at all in the epic darkness. He recalled Monroe telling him something about bright lights at night affecting ones night vision. If so... then the Replicator had just been screwed by a most brilliant ploy. Well, with this little escapade, Zachary knew he'd have to be smarter than normal.

The amateur sorcerer closed his eyes and let them relax. A bright flash like that left light spots in the eyes for a few moments, so he'd need to let those wear off slowly. For now... he'd have to do something he'd only heard of Zorlo and Monroe doing rarely: relying on their other senses.

Unlike the Aura Master or the Technological Quincy, Zachary had no sixth sense. He had no sight beyond sight. He couldn't read or feel people's auras, or spirits, or whatever they emanated. This carried two distinct problems: figuring out depth and distance using hearing, or much worse, relying on touch to deal with your problems. Neither of which the ice mage had any practice in.

Since he can change the length of his weapon, I can't rely on hearing. He could confuse me and use portals to move around me, and then just lengthen his blades to strike me. Hell... he could just walk around... I can hear great, but I can't tell how far he is... I'm not blind, dammit.

This problem did indeed carry a great deal of risk. Either try to rely on hearing and probably fail miserably, or rely on touch and suffer wounds in the process. Actually... that second one would be fine shortly. After all, the Replicator knew he could just heal wounds after his counterattack. For now, he just had to get a grasp on where this foe was.

Well, the decision made it for itself. A blade pierced through Zachary's armor and out his back. The blade had hit his upper chest, above vital organs, below his collar bone. The ice mage's eye winced as he felt the blade pierce into his body and knew what he was up against. Like this, in a state where sight was limited, one couldn't do things too hastily.

The red haired warrior wrapped his hands around the dagger and quickly spun himself, the imbedded dagger, and Joker, all around and began to pull at the dagger. Once the blue haired man had a grasp of what the amateur sorcerer was up to, he retracted the dagger. Now the Replicator could listen and... He didn't hear anything, honestly. This had two distinct possibilities: either Joker had landed quietly, or his attempt at a counter attack failed.

Either way, it didn't matter. The ice mage started at healing up his wound. He'd have to repair his armor later, but for now, Zachary opened his eyes. The limited darkness flooded back in and he could see okay. The darkness made sight a little more limited, but still, being able to see and respond was better than having to get stabbed or cut to respond.

About to attack again, Joker felt his leg give out beneath him, sending him down on one knee abruptly. A quick glance showed that there was indeed a steady stream of blood escaping his leg, making it now useless in holding his weight.

"Ara?! Of all the things to happen when Joker has the upper hand!" Glaring down at it he then directed his gaze towards Zachary who was now squinting hard in his direction, Azul and Rosso again brought up in a defensive pose.

"Tis all your fault Joker can't move!" Hopping up on one leg, Joker spun his daggers around. Zachary couldn't see him still, so Joker thought the least he could do was even the odds a bit. Limited mobility being the name of his form of pay back.

Holding out his left dagger, Joker willed it to pass through Zachary's right leg and sever the ties that bound it to his control. The blade moved in a swift arc, shortening the distance between the pair and passing through the leg with ease. Nothing was visibly torn, indeed Zachary would have felt nothing from its pass.

Nothing but the sudden deadness of one limb as it buckled beneath him.

"Ara, now we fight on more even ground. Joker does have to ask before this battle comes to a close... why is a man Joker's age trying to start a family?! Too young and irresponsible an age to have one!"

Joker hoped the question would keep the boy occupied and distracted - Joker didn't think he could move from his position unless he used portals or literally threw is body in a direction.

It was the most odd of phenomena that the ice mage had ever encountered. There was no wound, and yet, he couldn't move his left leg from the knee down at all. It was clearly attached, he noted, there was just no feeling. It seemed almost as if the entire leg from the knee down had somehow been cut off or severed in a way that it only seemed to be attach. Even so, Zachary found that idea to be completely outrageous and silly. All that was wrong was that he couldn't feel his leg... although how did one go about fixing that.

"Touche," the Replicator responded as he sat down and stretched his numb right leg out. "Seems both of us are down one leg. Although I'm not sure how you did the trick you just did, stealing away the feeling in my leg and what not, I can tell you that you're still at a disadvantage because, well, I've still got plenty of weapons left to throw your way."

The moment the amateur sorcerer finished his observation of the situation, thought rushed towards him. What the man had said suddenly struck an odd chord. Maybe it had been something that Rain or Cadenza had told him... Maybe it was some part of him that agreed... but again, confusion just replaced any sense of understanding that the ice mage formerly had.

Why... do I want a family? I thought it was to make Arietta happy... but if I just make her like Monroe, a servant to the home... I would only be making things worse. I thought it was my only choice... but I seem to have other ones... I'm so confused though... what do I do now? How do I proceed with my life.... things aren't as simple as this battle. I can't just beat on things until they make sense... I need to reason and logically deal with my problems... but there's just so much I don't understand... what can I do?

Zachary pulled back his arm and, with a powerful flick of his wrist, launched Azul towards where Joker lay. The blue haired man laid back just enough to narrowly evade the sharp edge of the amateur sorcerer's sword to avoid any damage. The fact the Replicator was now distracted didn't help his aim any, still, he was intent on fighting until he figured something out.

Joker continued to lay back; he was admittedly tired and long drawn out battles just weren't his forte. Zachary's last comment about having weapons to throw away did spark an idea in Joker's head though. It would be a glorious finishing move.

Sitting up, he gave a little laugh, "Ara, you didn't think these were the only weapons Joker had did you? Joker's grenades should have been clue enough." As he spoke he opened a portal behind him, a vast one that looked into his 'armory' of sorts back in the Dream Realm.

A giant wall was adorned with all manner of swords, maces, axes and pole arms. Each one was of a distinct style and make,taken from the various dreams Joker had visited. None of them were magical like his daggers, though all had the same origin in Dream Ethers. There were also handfuls of his flash and frag explosives littered among weapons, just to add a little more bang and sparkle.

"All Joker has to do is tilt this portal and all these weapons will come flying at you, so Joker says to give it your best shot. Can you make enough weapons to block all of Joker's?" Joker had to admit that he respected his opponent and as such had complete faith in his ability to at least scrape through this alive. If it weren't for the weird armor on his arms that blocked Joker's daggers, he would have simply cut all feeling from his limbs and left it at that.

This, however, was a grand finale of a finishing move. Opening a portal that big, while it was only a single layer, still strained Joker mentally and with a mental twist he tipped the side within the Dream Realm so that the weapons fell down, hit the portal and changed trajectory to shoot horizontally towards Zachary.

"Don't let Joker down and die, Red!" Even as he yelled his last taunt Joker was turning his daggers upon himself, beginning the grinding process of dragging it through each limb and cutting the fatigue and pain from his body.

It was one of those moments in Zachary's life, which were becoming all too frequent as well, in which he found himself gridlocked between life and death, not in a literal sense as he seemed to see Cadenza struggling with. It was the most absurd thing that the ice mage had ever seen in his life. A massive portal that simply archived seemingly endless numbers of weapons. Aside from Joker's daggers and the few trick weapons he had pulled, the Replicator hadn't suspected anything too big.

But this... was HUGE!

A massive vault containing all manner of weapons within it and more. Such things belonged in legends or in fairy tales of epic villains... but who would have imagined such a vault being possible. Then again... Zachary thought as he crossed his arms over his chest, this guy has done a lot of things that I would have judged impossible before this fight. After all... that gateway... portal type thing gives me an idea... not quite complete... but I suppose I can try those weapons out.

The amateur sorcerer swung his arms to the side and globs of Metalloid Ice quickly formed replicas of the sword main gauche... minus one vital thing: the side hand guard. Zachary had been working on this for a while. By removing the side guard and making the rest of the hand guard smaller, he could make arrows more effectively, but this purpose suited these weapons as well.

Throwing swords.

The ice mage pulled his arms back far and swung them across each other. The blades exploded from his hands towards the other blades. Eight of the throwing swords flew threw the air and hit another sword, but it was in that moment that the ice mage realized the caliber and shear number of weapons there were... eight weapons was like a drop in the bucket.

The red haired warrior ducked his head behind his arms as the blades rocketed past. A few stabbed into his abdomen, but most scraped off his arms or cut a few pieces of hair. Swords stuck out of Zachary's armor, having embedded themselves enough to be stuck, but not enough to have caused any damage. Still... at least three swords were now sticking into his gut, and one even stuck out his back. He didn't know how much longer he could last... the weapon barrage just continued...

And finally...

A flailing mace, one that had begun to spin after being hit by a throwing sword flew on and landed the definitive final blow. The mace flew over Zach and struck him hard in the back of the head. Pain and exhaustion mounted in that moment... and the ice mage fell over. The hail of blades still occurred... but they no longer had a target now that their foe was laying flat on the ground... voiding the three swords sticking out of his stomach.

The portal leading to Joker's now depleted armory dissipated into purple smoke, the weapons it had unleashed also dissolving - the last being the three swords that stood upright in the vicinity of the Replicator's middle.

Joker was getting to his feet, wobbling from the heaviness in his head coupled with the energized feeling in his de-fatigued body. If he had known he would feel so out of balance he wouldn't have bothered, preferring his body to be in agreement with his mind.

Disoriented, he staggered as he made his way to the fallen red head and fell beside him to stare up at the sky. He needed to work on his technique; obviously having a tired mind coupled with an alert body only made him incapable of proper movement, cancelling what good it was meant to do.

"Na, red head. Joker never got your name before this battle started."

The sky overhead was a bright blue; Joker found it quite relaxing to look at as he continued speaking to the still form beside him.

"It was a good fight, yes? Joker had fun with it. It was very different from the other fights Joker is in, where people really want to kill Joker. Joker is glad red head didn't have that inner killy voice..." sighing Joker raised a hand up to push back some hair and winced as, his hand moving quicker than his mind thought it would, socked himself in the face.

"Gyaaa! Joker needs to fix this..." gingerly putting his hand down where it would be safe on the floor, he twisted his head to look at the Replicator.

"Heeey, tell Joker something. Have you figured out what you'll be doing?" deciding to risk it, he raised his arm again and started poking the inert form, jabbing the boy in the ribs repeatedly. It did occur to Joker that he would be annoying the ice mage if he was conscious but... this was Joker's way of trying to befriend the boy.

OoC: Sorry this took so long and and ... its sucky ;-;

OoC: It isn't sucky. I like your ending. *Posts to wrap this up*

BiC: The ice mage looked idly at the sky as his wounds began to release mist from the healing magic that seemed to flow into them. The poking had effectively woken the red haired warrior up, so why not answer this guy. After all, it wasn't like one little question wouldn't hurt, right? Well, the only real factor that Zachary put into this problem was that he'd have to answer it properly.

"Well... I haven't quite figured out what I should do yet."

A simple enough answer. After all, not everyone could answer every question with a yes or no at any time. This was a question that required thought and complete focus, otherwise time would be wasted giving it an immediate answer. This fight had taken his mind off the topic all together, so answering it now seemed kinda silly.

The Replicator looked at the man and smiled slightly. "Even so, just because I don't know what to do about my problem doesn't mean I'll always not know. One day, I'll figure out what it is that people really want and then I'll be able to do just that. After all, I can't claim to completely understand what she wants, but I can say that I want to know, which is good enough for now."

The amateur sorcerer released a small smile as he decided to introduce himself. "Also, my name is Zachary Leos. Nice to meet you, Joker," he said with a laugh as his wounds finished healing.