Fateful Night (Ciroton)

The power. The power she felt was insane. Her muscles were stronger than ever, allowing her to move as fast and be as strong as she was when she had worn her armor. Still, there was one distinct difference between then and now with Emile: she was absolutely consumed by her desire to fight caused by her anger.

The lancer moved quickly, moving towards her target with great speed and slashing her spear wildly at him. The mage stepped back to avoid the potentially dangerous slash as he watched the purple haired woman continue to move. Emile quickly slashed her spear sideways at the mage, who stepped back to evade it again. Still, with each strike, this woman was drawing closer and closer to her target.

Finally, the Silver Beauty drew her spear back and over her head and swung it down at the mage, who leapt back. As Arin looked at the place the woman had attacked, he noted that a huge hole in the roof had been left from her attack. Emile was breathing hard, obviously wearing out. Whatever this new power was, she wasn't quite ready to use it like this, she would have assumed if she had been able to think completely.

The tiring woman looked at her foe and let out another roar as she stepped to the edge of the building she was on. With a powerful leap, she was again on Arin's trail, intent on fighting a little longer.

As much as she tried to hide it, the mage still managed to figure it out. Usually, when something awakened, the person would get really strong, but quickly degrade because of their inexperience. No matter how special she thought she was the mage knew that the high couldn’t last forever, and sought refuge in a … strategic retreat, of sorts.

Running and jumping to different buildings, Arin began charging another Ice Barrage. However, the Meteor Storm needed a lot of energy to work, so until he could build it back up, at best he could only use about ten more spells before resorting to melee combat. Naturally, he didn’t find that possibility the least bit advantageous, especially with an unknown power developing in the woman who probably wanted his blood.

After leaping a few more buildings, he turned around and waited. He needed her just a little closer before he’d unleash the spell and catch her off guard. However, the wait was like standing up to a speeding locomotive. Every foot she drew closer, the more his feet screamed at him to take flight, but his resolve was adamant.

Then, just as she got ready to unleash another one of her special attacks, he struck.

Icicles. Sharp, sharp icicles raced towards her. Emile looked at the blades of frozen water as the stormed towards. If she had some control over herself, maybe should would have wondered what was going on with these ice blades and where they were coming from, but as is, it didn't really matter. The purple haired woman just raced towards the ice spikes, her goal still being solely Arin.

Unlike the times before when she had guarded herself against these ice spikes, this time, the lancer just ran past them, avoiding the ice blades using the gaps between them with great expertise. Aside from a few small cuts here and there from the narrowest strike from the ice, the spear wielder continued to rush forwards.

The woman closed the gap between herself and the mage and began slashing her spear wildly, aiming the blade at the man. A few slashes all met to no avail still in harming this target, but the enraged warrior didn't seem to mind. After all, this was all the fun of the hunt. With a powerful diagonal slash, the man with multicolored robes leapt back and landed a little ways off.

Lightning began to erupt from the tip of Emile's spear as she moved it ready to strike. The lightning was far more intense than it had ever been before, lightning up the night sky with its power. "Gae... BOLG!" the woman yelled as he body exploded forward, becoming almost a giant ball of moving lightning.

A shame his magic had yet to develop any useful teleportation spells, for sure. As the roaring cauldron of lightning and rubble descended on him, Arin had little choice but to throw up the shield and hope for the best. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as the attack hit the shield, tossing him aside even though he managed to run a few good feet to avoid it connecting.

Still, his shield took the brunt of the attack, nearly shattering from the sheer energy of the attack. Thankfully, using attacks like that, especially at a new, previously unattained level of power, would tax her more then ever before. The mage severely doubted she could use many more attacks, let alone any as powerful as that.

Thankfully, signs of fatigue already began to show as she came to a stop, sweat clearly visible on her brow though she still fumed at his reluctance to yield. “What’s the matter?” Arin called out. “Are you getting tired? I can keep going for a while myself, perhaps you’ve finally met your match?” Her confidence gave it away the most. Her attacks and style felt as though she’d never met an equal, or superior opponent.

No answer came between her rigid breaths. Instead, only a new charge and more bolts of lightning hurled from her spear, one just grazing the side of his face. Looks like we’re coming to the end, he thought as he prepared another spell.

Slowly, the red mist vanished and Emile fell to her knees. The woman used her spear to keep herself from falling backwards of forwards, but she couldn't stand any longer. Her eyes returned to normal as she looked at the man. The lancer was angry, but not enough so that she couldn't control herself. The only thing that she could see over and over again was her battle with that man... that man who would have killed this one if they fought.

Her spear was probably out of juice, her body could barely move, and her armor was no longer existent. The purple haired woman forced herself to stand up and stumbled a bit forwards as she leered at Arin. "I don't care about you... I don't know why you're here or what business you have fighting with me... but I know you're not here on your own," she said, using her spear to force her body to stand.

The woman used the spear kinda like a cane as she moved towards the mage. "I can tell that you've got no business being here yourself, so why are you here? Who sent you? The sooner I have these answers... the sooner I can find that person and maim them."

Finally, the battle ended and the dust cleared. The purple-haired woman finally collapsed to the ground, clutching her spear like a cane. It could’ve been a farce, but the mage shrunk down his staff and approached he, keeping his guard high.

"I can tell that you've got no business being here yourself, so why are you here? Who sent you? The sooner I have these answers... the sooner I can find that person and maim them." She asked him as she struggled to stand.

Thinking back, the ice mage never said he couldn’t tell her who he was and why he sent him to battle her. Furthermore, he didn’t even know him, so why shouldn’t he tell her? She did deserve to know, after all.

“I was sent by a strange man named Zachary Leos. All he wanted me to do was destroy your armour and see if anything happened,” he replied simply.

"That bastard!" Emile yelled out as she punched Arin in the face. "All right then, you've got no choice. You're going to help me find that wimp Zachary Leos so I can show him what's what when he sends dogs out to get me. After all, a good hunter goes himself, he doesn't send dogs to do his business."

The woman stood up firmly, a renewed fire in her eyes as she cast her glance back to the mage. "You might have won the battle, but now you've got to help me win the war. Since the armor that you destroyed is quite expensive to make and time consuming for me to reforge and put together, you've go no choice but to help me. If you try to leave, I'll find you and maim you."

The lancer spun her spear and slammed the weapon into the ground and looked at Arin. "It'll take me three days to reforge my armor and get stuff ready to go. Now then, you've got some time to decide how you're going to find Zachary, but you're helping me find him. Now then," Emile said as she walked off towards where she had come from, "I've got work to do, thanks to you!"

Still rubbing the sore spot on his forehead, Arin watched as Emile walked away. He wanted to call out and tell her just who the dog was, but he thought better of it. As much as he wanted to finish her off, he conceded that she had a valid point. For all the time he spent trying to destroy her armour, Zachary could’ve done himself and probably faster then him, since it was apparent they met once.

Finding him would be easy enough, all he’d have to do if find a door to the dome and try and pick up on his leftover magical presence. However, the three days he had to wait for he would erase almost all of any remaining energy. It looked like he didn’t have much choice, and trying to fit into this place in the meantime would be troublesome.

After all, it quickly became painfully apparent that magic, had it even existed in the first place, had been overshadowed by technology a long time ago. Also, his money would probably also be useless here as well, not to mention his rather flamboyant attire and crystal staff.

Those problems could wait until morning. For now, he just wanted to find a nice tree to sleep under.