To Accuse a False Thief (Darius Andreas)

OoC: Okay, this time the battle Darius and I are doing is Naroh vs Ceto. I need to warn the reader that this will be intense, as Ceto is weak to fire while Naroh is weak to ice, and coincidentally, Ceto has ice magic while Naroh wields fire magic. Let's begin!

BiC: It was a late spring afternoon. Ceto had just recently finished a tasty meal of fish and decided to find someplace to turn into for the night. Trotting a long the foot of a mountain with a stream going down it, he looked for anything that might look like a cave or good place to sleep. There were lots of trees and rocks around in the area, and it wasn't hard for Ceto to spot a little rock "tent" nestled near a part of the stream. Liking the look of it, he quickly dashed over there and laid down comfortably. It felt good to be off his hooves after so much moving around and traveling.

Time went by, and soon it was after dark. Ceto was by now beginning to feel tired and laid Blizzaron and its sheath nearby so he wasn't laying on them. It only took minutes for the exhausted Centaur to fall asleep for the night. In his dream he saw Erani, the beautiful Centaur whom he was in love with and missed so very much. One day they would be together again, he knew, and he slept so soundly that he didn't wake to a human snooping in and around the "tent" early that morning.

It took the loud footsteps of the running human to even partially wake Ceto from his slumber, and he barely made out brown hair and green clothing as the human disappeared into the night. Not realizing what was happening, Ceto fell back and slept once more, and this time didn't wake until the sun was high in the sky hours later. The water in the stream was flowing gracefully outside the "tent" and Ceto slowly stood up on four hooves, looking forward to a breakfast of fish. However, before he could even leave, he noticed something was wrong.

It felt as though something was missing. Ceto peered around the "tent" and discovered Blizzaron was no where to be found. Then, he realized something didn't feel right about his attire, and upon placing a hand to his chest, realized the Ice Medallion was gone as well.

"WHAT?! NO!" Ceto screamed, angry and terrified of being robbed of his most valuable possessions. Checking his belt, he still had his dagger, but he did not have as good combat skills with it as he did with Blizzaron. Not wanting to waste any time, Ceto bolted away from the "tent" as fast as he could on his hooves in search of his stolen possessions and did not stop until he could find either the thief or someone who could help him.

"Wait a sec, I saw a guy last night...brown hair and green clothes," Ceto recalled, finally realizing what he'd seen while half-asleep the previous night. "I bet he did it!" Trying to follow the same trail, Ceto huffed and panted until he finally spotted a figure in the distance that looked like a human. Upon getting closer, he made out not only brown hair and green clothes, but sitting behind a couple trees just barely tens of feet away from the human, was Blizzaron and the Ice Medallion.

Without a moment to lose, Ceto charged with his dagger to pursue the human, which was a man, who appeared to be the thief.

"HEY! YOU THIEF!" the Centaur shouted with anger. The man had just shot a fireball from his hands, seemingly training with fire magic. He put a shocked look on his face as Ceto was about to attack.

"Hey, what the--?!" he shouted. "I'm no thief! What are you talking about?!"

"MADMAN! You lie!" Ceto shouted as the man drew a sword he had at his side and clashed it with the Centaur's dagger. "If you weren't a thief, my staff and medallion wouldn't be right over there with you, you bastard of a criminal!" Ceto, enraged as ever, wasn't going to believe the man for one second.

OoC: Alrighty, there you go. Naroh's the one being accused of stealing Ceto's stuff, Dave, but he didn't actually do it. The real thief framed him and is long gone. Still, Ceto is very angry.

Poor Naroh didn't have quite enough strength to push the Centaur away. It was pushing Naroh back, further and further. To get out of this one-sided clash, he fell to his knees, while bending way backwards, causing the Centaur to be sent forward, and over him, as there was nothing to push against anymore.
Naroh stood up and looked over at the Centaur, which was regaining it's balance. "Hey, look, man. I don't know what'cha mean. I didn't take that staff."
"You... LIE!" the beast retorted, turning around, and looking fiercely at the man.
"No, dude... I'm not lying. I saw it there when I-" He stopped talking for a moment take a step to the side, and let the charging Centaur pass him. "-got here. I would never even touch the things... they're... so cold. Not my-" Again he dodged another charge. "-style, man." He could tell the Centaur wasn't listening to him, so he figured a little show might be needed. As the beast charged again he stood right in front of it, his sword sheathed on his back. As the beast drew near he narrowly dodged and grabbed it's black cape. The force of the momentum flung him onto the Centaur’s back. He knew he only had a second to act, and so he quickly engulfed his hands in bright flame, and slapped them against the creature’s back. He was promptly thrown into the air as the creature kicked, sending him several feet away.

He made contact with the ground sooner than he'd expected, but got up almost as soon as he hit. He watched the Centaur "dance" in pain from the burns in it's fur, shaped like human hands. He laughed a little to himself, and, keeping his hands in flame, walked to the creature. "Man, you need to hold on for a moment. I didn't take your staff. I couldn't, can't, wouldn't, and won't. The things is way too cold for me."

This got the Ceto thinking. If he couldn't even touch the staff, then he must be very weak to cold. Not thinking about the accusation anymore Ceto ran to his staff full speed. He picked up his staff, and reached for the medallion, but was cut off when a blast of fire shot into the tree, starting to burn it. Ceto turned again to see the man standing there, waiting for him to attack. After a moment of thinking Ceto decided to play a "game" of sorts with the man. The game was merely to allow himself time to charge an attack with his staff.

Naroh watched as the Centaur trotted over to him, with a bit of a sly look on it's face. Naroh didn't think much, and charged at the beast. It blocked his attack, and pushed against the Naroh with it's staff. It now had even greater leverage, and pushed Naroh back with ease, as he was a few noticeable feet shorter than the creature. The two were only pushing against each other for a minute before the Centaur pulled away, and jumped back. Naroh fell forward, as the beast had earlier, except much harder. He jumped up and saw a beam of ice flying at him. It struck his arm, completely freezing it. He would have dropped his sword, but it was stuck in his hand now.

Ceto watched as the man fell the his knees, and then to his side. Save for a bit of shivering, the man was stiff as a statue. He took this moment to go pick up his medallion, and charge up a stronger attack. He was watching now, to see what the man would do, but nothing happened. The man only lay there, now on his back, shivering and chattering his teeth. Ceto thought it somewhat pathetic that only freezing the man's arm stunned him so much. Then he remembered the pain from the man's hands when they were lit. He looked at his back to see two human hand marks pressed into his fur.
"That's going to leave a mark..." he muttered in annoyance. Suddenly he heard a shatter of ice from a distance away. He looked back at where the man had been, only to see him charging again.

Naroh had been able to soak up enough heat from the sunlight to heat up his body, and melt the ice enough to break it. He promptly stood up, and ran again at the beast to attack. As he approached he jumped above the beast and fired four balls of fire at it. But the Centaur retaliated by firing several shard of ice at each fireball. There was now only steam in the place of the fireballs and ice shards. He lit his hands again, and fired another blast at the beast. The unpredictability of his aim with this attack worked to his advantage this time. It didn't directly hit the Centaur, but it skimmed along it's side, burning the fur there. The beast yelled out in pain, and quickly touched one cold end of it's staff to the front of the burn, and drug the staff along the burn, soothing the pain.

Naroh suddenly took notice of the tree, which was quite ablaze now. He ran to it while the beast was distracted, and standing near it, started to absorbed it's heat. If he could just stay a minute more, he'd have more power in his attacks. But that was not the case. During the time Naroh was down the Centaur had been charging it's staff, originally to attack Naroh. But plans changed.

Ceto looked at the man, now facing the tree, and seemingly sucking in it's heat. He could tell it was giving the man power... which was not helping HIM any. With his staff now charged with enough energy, Ceto shot an Ice Blast from it, directly at the tree. It sent Ceto reeling backwards for a moment. The man had heard the ice being fired from the staff, and ran as fast as he could away. The blast of ice hit the tree, freezing it in seconds, and killing the flame.

The two of them were now at somewhat of a pause. Naroh was standing around, with a smile on his face, as if he was having a good time. Ceto, on the other hand, was annoyed at the man, and ready to attack. They looked at each other from several feet away, both ready to strike at any second.

OoC: Dang, Dave, you're good. This'll be more intense than I thought! Cuz you've given me lots of ideaz for now AND later. ;D

BiC: "Don't give me 'it's too cold'!" Ceto snapped. "I see now all you could have done was engulf your hands in fire like that to keep the cold away!"

"Hey wait, but I--" Naroh didn't get to finish his sentence. Ceto was charging at him again, both of them now knowing they were weak to each other. At first it was staff vs sword again, both clashing here and there as they fought it out hard to determine whether it really was Naroh who had stolen Blizzaron and the Ice Medallion or not. But pretty soon Naroh was starting to switch back to fire and looked at the tree, apparently hoping to melt the ice all over it. Ceto had to stop him, or else he had no chance in this battle.

Thinking quickly, Ceto pointed Blizzaron to the ground and created an ice cube about half his full height and then froze the ground around him with ice with Sleet Sheet. He pushed the ice cube around on the ice and within seconds it slammed into Naroh and sent him sliding into a bush at the edge of the woods from which Ceto had first come. Ceto, having time to be careful now, stepped off of the ice blanket onto unfrozen ground. With the sun so warm, however, the ice would not last long.

But still, as Ceto watch and waited, he somehow could feel power coming to the staff quicker than usual, but still slowly. Naroh was slowly emerging from the bushes, his hair and clothes covered in leaves and twigs. His teeth were chattering again and he was looking a bit stiff as he struggled to get to unfrozen land in order to absorb heat again. Ceto still remained concentrated on the power that Blizzaron was gaining. He thought perhaps the immense amount of ice could be the reason and stayed as close to all of it as possible.

OoC: Yeah, this post is short, but I really don't have anymore to add right now lol. And Dave, the frozen ground can melt, but keep the tree frozen for a while longer and the sun blazing for awhile longer. I have some ideas for my next post.

“Man… y-you… are a psycho…” Naroh stammered, finally getting in the full glow of the sun. He stood, still shivering, and put his arms out, and up. He kept an eye on the Centaur as he soaked in the pleasant heat. He could feel his strength returning, and as such, decided to take a little shot at the beast. He charged a small fireball, about four inches, and tossed it at the Centaur. He missed purposely, just wanting to get it’s attention. The ball hit near the Centaurs feet and it jumped back. He spoke to the creature again. “Hey now, look. I didn’t take your staff. If I’d touched it with my Fire Fingers, either it’d still be too cold, or it’d melt! There is NO way I could have- OH GOSH!” Naroh dropped flat to the ground as several shards of ice shot out in his direction. They missed and Naroh jumped back up. He tossed another few fireballs at the beast, still trying to get it into a battle. He couldn’t let it charge up near the tree too much longer, or else it’d grow too strong.

Ceto dodged the first couple of fireballs, but the third one struck his cape, starting to burn it. He heard the man laugh as he tried to kill the flame with his staff, and breath. After he was sure it wouldn’t light of fire again, he turned and, continually twirling his staff around, he started shooting out shards of ice several times whenever one end of the staff was pointed at the man. While the man dodged most of the shots, a good few got him, and he dropped down.

Some of the ice shards had pieced Naroh’s skin, causing him great pain, and weakening him more than they should have. He fell down in a slump, not moving a muscle. He wanted all the energy he absorbed to go towards melting the ice, and healing himself. He just hoped that the Centaur wouldn’t come after him now. He doubted it would, as it seemed it was focused on charging it’s staff to it’s possible full power. He lay there… the ice had melted, but he wanted to close the wounds, if nothing else. He did so, having absorbed enough heat to heal the skin, and got up. He quickly shot two five inch fireballs at the Centaur, this time in anger. He was annoyed now. It wasn’t fun anymore.

OoC: Yes yes, now comes the good part!

BiC: The two just stared at each other, both in anger, and both still absorbing power from the ice and the sun. Ceto stood by the frozen tree and what remained of the Sleet Sheet while Naroh was baking himself in sunlight nearby. The two kept trying to hit each other with fire and ice, but all that resulted from it was steam from the two colliding. This couldn't go on much longer or both fighters would tire themselves out. The fire and ice canceled each other out and did nothing for either one. They just stood there, trying to regain the urge to fight after so many blasts of fireballs and ice shards.

By now, however, so much ice was lying around and the sun had been shining warmly for so long that both warriors were beginning to feel strange. Ceto, for a second, thought he felt Blizzaron vibrate but decided he was imagining it. Seconds later, however, it vibrated again, telling Ceto he wasn't paranoid. Naroh was standing nearby, looking like he was in pain even though he had healed his wounds. He looked up at the sunlight and his hands were spread out in front of him. Ceto tried to control Blizzaron's vibrations, but it was no use. The staff had absorbed more power from the frozen tree and the Sleet Sheet than it had ever before.

"Ugh..agh..." Ceto stammered. Something was up with his mind now. The same seemed to be going on with Naroh. The man's hands were down at his side now, and he was grimacing as if a sword had just been driven into his gut. Suddenly, Ceto's eyes turned completely white, his pupils not showing. The orbs on either end of Blizzaron glowed as bright as the sun with more power than it had ever gotten before. It was a new ability: Staff Charge. Now Ceto could use any of the ice attacks with twice as much power as before.

Naroh was now facing Ceto with burning yellow eyes in the same sense that Ceto's had turned white. Both were so full of power that they just barely had control over it. Naroh rose his hands, and the flames that now engulfed his hands were so large, they'd grown more than twice the size of what they originally were. Getting the urge to jump in the air, Naroh used all his strength to jump, and then fired blasts towards the ground. Before he knew it, he found himself flying in the air with his fire blasts. He had learned a new skill too: Igneus Verto, out of all the power absorbed.

"THIEF!" Ceto kept accusing, his anger still built up, and his eyes completely snow white and glowing. The two were now both so powerful, that there would inevitably be much destruction in the battle's future to come. While in the air, Naroh launched another fire blast just as Ceto launched an Ice Blast, both larger and twice as powerful as before. Neither realized how devastating the results could be.

Energy was surging throughout Naroh’s entire body. This was more energy that he’d felt… ever. His Fireball spell was so easy to cast now, that he could do it while he was flying. He’d heard of such a flying spell before, but had never seen it done, as there was no one who could hold enough energy to start it. It was known as Igneus Verto to a Callidus Magus, and Burning Flight to a Novus Magus, such as Naroh. As he shot several huge fireballs at the Centaur, it shot a strong beam of ice at him. The two attacks continually struck each other, creating pressure in the air around where they hit. It didn’t take long for the powerful attacks to create enough pressure to cause an explosion of incredibly humid steam, and a shockwave. The blast slammed into Naroh, sending him hard to the ground. When it struck Ceto, he was sent falling backwards, with the pressure of the explosion pushing him into the ground slightly. Both were dazed somewhat, but they had so much power that the effects lasted mere seconds. They both got up swiftly and fired at each other again. The shots were either dodged, or countered by the other’s attacks.

It took several minutes of this for Ceto to finally hit Naroh, square on the right shoulder. The force at which it hit the man sent him reeling back, and then falling down. He was down for only a moment, however, before he got up, and drew his sword. He was obviously effected by the ice, but with the power he had he was able to overcome that. His sword was glowing now, as if it were being newly forged, but it’s metal was not weakened. It was glowing a very bright orange, while Ceto’s staff was glowing with a strong blue light. Bother weapons were impervious to each other, yet the only things that could win this battle now. Both Ceto and the man charged, smashing their weapons together, creating a shockwave that could be seen. While Ceto could hold the man back with his own strength, the fire mage could attack much quicker with his one-handed sword. Every time the weapons clashed, another shockwave was emitted, though not powerful enough to push either one of them.

Naroh kept on with his relentless attacking, keeping the beast defensive, while he charged an incredible Inferno Blast. He ceased attacking suddenly, and was forced to go defensive as the Centaur quickly starting to flip its staff all around. He blocked a final attack before shooting into the air again, and firing a highly powered blast at the creature. He saw the Centaur put its staff up, and create a thick shield of metal-like ice. It withstood his blast initially, but couldn’t stand up against the continual heat if his blast. The shield was broken, just before Naroh stopped firing, and the beast was hit hard by the blast.

While Ceto had seen that the man had found another spell, Inferno Blade, another had come to him, out of the blue. It was a very strong shield made of an ancient material only the strongest ice mages could create. There was no known name for it, but it was a metal-like ice that was strong enough to hold back most fire mages in battles, except those with the strongest power. However, Ceto was unlucky enough to have apparently encountered one of those mages, and he’d broken through the shield. Ceto took heavy damage from the pure force of the hit, not to mention the heat. But he wouldn’t let that stop him now. He jumped up from the ground and fired his Snow Cannon attack, blasting Naroh’s entire body with an enormous reinforced snowball. This sent the man into the air, far away. But only a moment later did he slam into the ground, creating a cloud of dust. He’d taken heavy damage himself from the snowball, being sent so high, and from the impact with the ground.

Naroh got up and looked around him. The playing field was even for a moment… both were injured greatly, and both were very powerful. But his enhanced vision was failing him. It was slowly returning to normal. He felt the power seeping out of him, but knew it was a good thing. His physical body couldn’t take so much power yet, and he had no desire to transform into a fire spirit at this time. As far as he could tell, the beast would be holding onto its powers for a while still… His choices now were give it everything he had while he could, or play defensively to regain the strength he knew he’d lose after the enhancement wore off. Irrationally, he chose to give it his all, and go on a frenzy to beat the Centaur back as best he could.

OoC: Awesomeness, Dave.

BiC: Naroh only had one chance to stop Ceto's power before his own ran out. Quickly, he coped with his major damage and ran towards the white-eyed Centaur at top speed, reading a blast with Fire Fingers. Though his control at the move was not great, he tried with all his might to make it hit, and in seconds the enormous blast was fired. Instead of directly hitting Ceto, however, it bounced off of the ground and struck his underside.

"GAAAAUGH!" Ceto bellowed, the flames covering half his body. His fur was burned half off as a result and his legs were weakened. His white eyes began to return to normal as the pain intensified. The glow on Blizzaron began to vanish as well. The Staff Charge was disappearing fast. To counter, Ceto quickly struck the ground again with a Sleet Sheet, this time covering almost, but not quite, twice the area as before. Naroh, now returned to normal, ran as far as he could, but slipped before he could reach unfrozen land.

"GAHOW!" he shouted as he fell right on his chest. He quickly stood back up on the ice, trying to regain his balance. Naroh shivered rather badly, but started to slide on the ice to keep himself from falling again. Pretty soon he found himself actually ice skating across the ice while firing fireballs everywhere. Ceto stayed where he was, trying to ease the pain, but it was no use. It seemed like this battle wasn't going to end well for him. But he couldn't give up! Not now, not ever!

The ice began to melt quickly, however, from Naroh's fireballs, and Ceto was able to move around a bit while dodging each one just barely in order to keep his balance on the ice. To help even more, he activated Snow Staff and let the fireballs hit the snow, turning them into steam. He just had to keep at it until he could regain enough energy to keep fighting back, he just had to, despite the immense pain he had accumulated. Naroh was severely injured as well, but still kept at it as he skated on what remained of the Sleet Sheet ice.

Soon, Naroh decided to try something new. Using Fire Fingers again, he leaped in the air, and started to spin. Soon, the flames on his hands formed a ring around him and once he landed, he kept spinning and headed straight for Ceto. Ceto gasped in shock and tried to run, but forgetting he was on ice, he slipped and crashed on his forelegs. Naroh, not seeing where he was going now, tripped over the Centaur and went sliding at great speed across the ice, forming a completely melted path in it due to the fire ring that surrounded him.

"AAAH!" he screamed in a strange way due to his sliding away. He ended up burning some grass along with it. Ceto was struggling to get back on his hooves and wobbled his way up.

"Ugh...Agggh...that guy is good..." he stammered. "But I must go on...and punish him...that thief!"

As Naroh slid along the ground, he curled into a ball, and rolled until his feet hit the ground. At that point the stood up, caught his balance, and turned around. The Centaur was gaining power from the Ice it had created. Naroh liked a fair battle, and thought this was kind of cheap; using your own magic to energize yourself like that. But, he knew he’d have be cheap himself now, to win. He charged, and shot a few fireballs at the creature to force it away from the tree, which had all but lost the ice. As he charged an Inferno Blast, he would fire an occasional fireball, just to keep the Centaur distracted. But he wasn’t just standing there himself. Using the same strategy, the Centaur was firing ice shards at him now and again, as it tried to heal itself. He finally had an open chance now; the Centaur had just fired again, and he dodged, but as he jumped he fired his fully charged Inferno Blast at the tree, purposefully lighting it on fire this time.

Ceto was nearly healed, but had seen the man using the same strategy that he had been using. He didn’t care much though, as he needed to heal. However, he would have to put that on hold for a moment. The man had shot a blast of fire at the tree, quickly lighting it again. This was to Ceto’s dismay, as he now had to get far enough away to be able to use his ice again for healing. But now the man had his own source of healing. This battle was going to keep going on…

Naroh was tired out form the fighting, but stood near the tree, sucking up the heat emitted as it burned. It was several seconds, though, before he lay down on the ground, on his side, as if he were sleeping. He almost was. The enhancement he’d gone through pulled a lot of energy out of his body, as well as from his aura. He was weary, and needed sleep, but he couldn’t rest much longer. Soon the beast would be healed enough to fight again, and he’d be forced to defend himself. There was something more he could do, though. He stood up on his knees, and launched some fireballs at the ground around him, to create a ring of fire. This channeled more energy to him, and helped him heal faster, as well as become more awake.

The two combatants were now both doing nothing to attack the other, just healing, and resting. Naroh spoke up over the distance.
“This… is pointless. I’ll never admit to stealing your equipment, because I never did!” Ceto wouldn’t listen, however, and shot several shards at Naroh. They didn’t get through all the heat though. “And what does it matter anymore? You have them back, dude. We’re just killing each other now… It’s ridiculous.” His talking was put on hold now, and he couldn’t rest. Ceto had healed himself enough to fight again, forcing Naroh, who’d healed enough himself, to fight again. Naroh got up, and using his Inferno Blast, burnt more and more around him. He was trying to keep Ceto away from him, but while doing this Ceto was using Blizzard to kill the flames Naroh was creating. Both of them were using their more powerful attacks, effectively countering each other. It was now that Naroh, after burning an area closer to himself, shot his blast out at Ceto, with several fireballs surrounding it, as a combo attack. Ceto had managed to avoid the main blast, but the heat from it, and a few fireballs struck his left side.

Naroh now had a clear moment to fire more and more fireballs at Ceto, every few striking their target. He had a very distinct advantage now, and kept tossing the balls of fire at Ceto. But he failed to notice the staff that Ceto carried being pointed at him… It fired the Ice Beam at him, freezing his arms, legs, and lower body, as it hit the ground. He was stuck in place, and VERY cold, but the fire was helping to melt the ice. He still had an advantage even now. The ice was melting, and Ceto had been stuck many times by his fireballs. He watched as the beast struggled to put out the burning fires all over it’s side. By the time Ceto had gotten all the flames out, Naroh was free, and warmed up again, some.

OoC: Okay, I'm finally getting to this. XD

BiC: "It isn't so much that I think you stole my weapon and medallion anymore!" Ceto replied as he looked at Naroh. "It's more so that you're after my neck! The only way to protect myself is to fight back!"

With that, Ceto stood up, but his legs felt so weak from being burned so much that he could barely move around. Thinking fast, he had to come up with a new strategy soon or else he would not be able to put up any fight at all. Suddenly, almost without thinking, Ceto plucked Naroh from the ground by the collar of his hoodie and tossed him into a tree nearby. Naroh hollered in pain when his side slammed into the trunk of the tree and slumped on the ground when he landed. Ceto then attempted to strike him with Ice Beam, but missed due to Naroh rolling out of the way. He answered Ceto's attack with a fire ball, but it was blocked with an Ice Shard attack, turning it into nothing but steam again.

Ceto's legs began to feel a bit stronger again, and by now he could trot. He moved as fast as his injured legs could move him, and decided to trail a Sleet Sheet behind him. Naroh ran after him, skating carefully across the grounded ice so as not to fall again. He attempted to hit Ceto with fire balls again, but because Ceto ran in a zig zag pattern, he dodged a lot of them with ease. The chase went on for awhile, and soon, Ceto lost track of where he was going. He kept going in the zig zag pattern constantly, speeding up every now and then from his legs getting better.

Pretty soon, however, Ceto approached the edge of a downward slope and didn't notice it. He tripped where the slope began and tumbled downward towards a large lake at the bottom.

"GAAAAH!" he hollered. Naroh, because he had been following, slid off the end of the Sleet Sheet and tumbled down after. The two landed at the edge of the water in the lake, and just lay there. Instead of getting up, they both lay motionless and unconscious, Naroh face down across Ceto's hind legs. Naroh's face was completely in the water, but luckily he was not breathing. Ceto was almost completely surrounded by shallow water.

After a moment's peace, Naroh regain consciousness, and looked up. His eyes hadn't focused yet, so he couldn't see clearly what was around him. But he did feel something. It was like he was flying, while still half-conscious... he felt like he was drunk, and just floating up. But the "floating" stopped shortly after, and he was now falling. Naroh focused his vision just in time to see the rocky shore of a lake before he slammed into it, waking him up completely. He attempted to jump to his feet, but he was so sore that he just fell back down. At this point he didn't think he could even manage to make a fireball, so he'd have to rely on his sword from here on out, but that was good for him, as he'd trained way more with Aronade, than with his magic.

Momentarily he realized why he went flying; the beast had kicked him off into the air. He guessed this because when he first opened his eyes he'd seen a blur that was colored like the beast, and there really was no other explanation. He slowly stood up and looked over at the beast. It seemed to be just as injured and weak as he.
"You... you know... This entire time, I've been defending myself from your... your relentless attacks. You're the aggressor here. My gosh, I was just wandering about, minding my own business... and out of nowhere you charge at me," Naroh said while panting hard. "But... seeing as you seem to intend not to let this end, even after I try to stop, I suppose it's... my turn." Without a moment's pause, he drew his sword from it's sheath, and charged at the beast. His first blow was blocked by the staff, as was the next. His attacks were slow, and the beast's defenses equally so. It wasn't very epic of a battle at this point. The two went on for a few more attacks before they just stopped.

After the final attack Ceto spun around, facing away from the man and started to kick the ground, sending tons of rocks flying at him. The man hadn't expected this, and took the full force of all the rocks hitting him. It was taking a big toll on him, but he escaped by simply falling. The rocks were flying in an arc, so dropping to the ground put him were the rocks wouldn't get him. When Ceto stopped and looked around he saw the man right behind him. Without much thought, he kicked his hind legs, attempting to shove the man away, but instead of being struck, the man jumped up, and came down with his sword. Ceto merely side-stepped to avoid the attack, but after the man landed, he stayed low and swung his sword just above the ground. It struck Ceto's left, forward leg, but didn't do much more than cause a slight sting, since the man's strength was very low at this point.

BiC:"Whoa, wait a minute," Ceto said with emphasis. "You're blaming this entirely on me?" The Centaur had just blocked another one of Naroh's attempts to strike with his sword.

"Yes. None of this would have happened had you not kept going after me!" Naroh insisted.

"Ha. It looked to me like you took pleasure in seeing my butt roasted in your flames," Ceto replied, and put away Blizzaron. "I didn't want to have to freeze you to death, but I got so angry that I didn't take even a second to think you could have been framed."

"And that's exactly what happened," Naroh confirmed. Ceto simply stood there and thought through the events of the day and previous night. The thief looked like Naroh from what he remembered, but he still could have been framed. It just hadn't been that obvious to Ceto from the start. With that, the Centaur turned around and began to walk away.

"Now I realize why I couldn't quit believing it was you," Ceto said. "The real thief looked like you from what I saw. I saw that hair color and the green of that sweater. Now, I must take leave, because fighting anymore is pointless." Before Naroh could answer, however, Ceto had already begun to gallop out of sight.

OoC: And that ends this battle.