[Zorolo] Wisp's Graduation Thread

To Wisp,

Meet me in a town in Rubato, I’ll fill you in later.

From Zachary

The directions on the back showed a small map of the area with an X circled in one spot. The rabbit girl looked up to see a town in front of her, the young adult’s rust orange shirt flapped in breeze that flung sand around her jean covered legs. Her gray and blue hiking boots were the only thing keeping the hot sand off of her feet, as she walked towards the town.

Her black jacket that was tied around her waist hid the two weapons on her hip, held up by a spare strap of leather from a shoulder bag she had, at one point. The weapon on her right was her swordbreaker, while the modified main-gauche was on her left. Both were still as sharp as she had received them from Zachary, while he was her teacher.

I hope I’m not lost… Wisp’s shoulder length brown hair moved in the wind, but still hid one oddity about her, her six inch long rabbit ears. She looked around again, before glancing at the map, and turned it around a couple of times to line everything up with her position. Good, I’m not. Now, it should be up ahead…

After walking past three buildings, and other people, she checked the map and found out she was where the X was marked. Guess I should wait for him… The rabbit girl just stood there, and looked around, standing in what could be described as a town square, minus the huge crowds of people.

Agra. It made sense enough for it to take place here. After all, the citizens still recalled when a man with black wings and a woman with shadow magic fought here. Although it was just a myth among the people here, since only a few saw, it was revered as a battle between good and evil. Demons and angels. If only the poor people knew just how close they were, but how wrong their sides were.

At least, as far as Zachary saw it.

Even so, Agra was a simple place. Mostly brick and stone buildings, some of the few things that could withstand the intense heat, stood in the town. Aside from the train station a little ways out of the city limits, there wasn't much here aside from pubs and villagers. Still, if you knew what you were looking for, you could find the traces of a battle. An intense battle at that.

That had been why Zachary had chosen Agra.

Outside of the paved, stone streets, the sandy back alleys were where all the dirty deeds and dark stuff of the town took place. In retrospect, this place wasn't very different from a normal town or city in Rubato. Again, the only exception was that this place had been a battlefield. For that reason alone, it would suffice.

The dusty winds blew through the air as the cloaked man continued to watch his student from atop one of the stone buildings. The odd thing that Zachary had noted is that no building in Agra stood much taller than two stories, making discretion a bit hard to come by. Still, when the important part started, discretion wouldn't mean anything. Right now, it didn't anyway.

The ice innate watched his student with a smile as she entered into the town center. Noon had come and gone, luckily, and the sun was starting to set. The temperature was starting to cool down, which made the normally unbearable desert an easy place to be suddenly scourged by bandits and brigands looking for a quick buck. Then again, some places were smart enough to enlist the help of Sellswords, mercenaries, to keep that stuff down.

Even so, the time had finally come. She was finally ready, and he'd show her just how strong he had grown as well. But first, he actually had to move from where he found himself standing. And, to make matters worse, where he had stood, still as a statue, for the past two hours.

With a powerful leap, the Replicator leapt down and landed next to Wisp and smiled at her. The bunny-girl wasn't one to be easily shaken, so his landing came as little more than a shock. After all, he had done stranger things in the Dome. With a quick flick, the ice mage discarded his cloak and smiled at the wind mage. "It's been a little while, hasn't it?"

Wisp simply smiled. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Candy-cane," she said with a smile.

Zachary narrowed his eyes but simply shrugged it off. "I told you not to call me that, and I'll hold you to that," he told her, sneaking in a smile as he looked at her. "I'm sure you know why I called you here."

"Actually, I don't. You weren't very descriptive in your note."

"Yeah..." he said, narrowing his eyes at the ground. "I've never much liked notes. After all, I'm not like Z. Anyway, I'm here because today is the day you've been waiting for. Today is the day your training ends forever and you become a graduate of the Dome. First, however, can I please see your Main Gauche?" the ice innate asked her as he quirked an eye.

"Um..." she thought for a moment before handing him her swords and watching as ice covered his arms as he took the weapon in his left hand. In a second, the ice warrior closed his eyes and then opened them again. With a quick move, he flicked the weapon over and handed it off to Wisp with nothing more than a smile.

"Before we begin, I have two things to show you. First, my new powers, and also, I want to test something." In the Replicator's right hand, a bow, in the exact shape as Monroe's, appeared and in his left, a copy of Wisp's Main Gauche appeared. The ice mage closed his eyes again and focused on what he had been working on. Suddenly, the modified main gauche glowed and took the shape of an arrow. Quickly, the red haired warrior mounted the arrow on his bow and drew the string back. With a release, the arrow rocketed off.

The only problem was that the arrow curved far to the right and blew a hole on the top of someone's roof. "Whoops... I still can't control or aim the arrows with that bow... but the modified sword into arrow seems to be more effective than normal arrows. After all, it blows up," Zachary said as he smiled at Wisp. After the ice mage had fired the arrow, the bow had shattered into small bits of ice powder and floated away, but still, he knew that he had a good idea, he just needed to figure out a bow that wouldn't break after being used and a way to aim his moves.

"I'm a Replicator. Using Metalloid Ice, a special material I can create with my magic, I can reproduce the image of weapons and wield them in combat. Voiding the bow I just made, they're all pretty effective. Now then," the ice mage said as he leapt back and held his hands out, calling out the short swords he so favored, "shall we begin?"

(OoC: The gauntlets are not in Wisp's profile yet. I hope I got Zachary right, though... >.>' )

Wisp sheathed her Main Gauche, and changed her stance to where her right foot was in front of her body. “Sure, I‘m just going to use my magic at first, though...” Zachary nodded, before he darted at her, both weapons trailing behind him. As he got close, he attempted to slash her with both weapons, but two leather gauntlets came into view on her forearms.

The gauntlets were made out of an orange-brown leather, with bands of some kind of gray, shiny metal woven in into the outer side. The metal looked like it was weaved for a basket, basically.

Two, pale gray circles suddenly floated above the basket weave of metal on the outer side of the gauntlets, the metal glowing the same gray. His swords connected with them, but stopped, without making a sound. The ice mage, looked at them for a second, “That’s new…”

The rabbit girl nodded, and her teacher backed away again, and watched the two shields of wind magic fall. He came at her again, but a Gale Edge phased into view from the air in-between them and launched him backwards, nearly causing the Replicator to fall over.

“I see you don’t have to move much in order to use your skills, right?”

“Not much anymore. Others, on the other hand, yes.” She replied and leapt up four feet and landed on a gray plank, in order to dodge one of his swords that he threw at her. The ice mage easily leapt up to her, and slashed down at her, only to have a dark gray cylinder slam into him. The impact rang off of some kind of armor, she guessed, as Wisp watch him land on the ground, and stood up. This is good to see how I am, even though this isn’t over yet. It’s good, since I’ve only been practicing on my own for a while now…

Zachary smiled at his student as he slid to a stop and formed a second short sword in his off hand and smiled. "Those are some interesting gauntlets, Wisp. Time for me to show you some of my own new skills and weapons," Zachary stated with a smile as he crossed his swords over his chest and behind so their backs curved against his back. "Now then, catch!" the ice mage said as he tossed his two blades.

The short swords spun like boomerangs towards their target. Just as they arrived where the wind mage stood, quickly she leapt out of the way. Still, undeterred, the ice mage rushed forwards and extended his hands, grabbing the handles of his swords he passed and leaping into the air after his student.

A flurry of slashes rushed towards the bunny-girl, who quickly moved her gauntlets to intercept the attacks. Slowly, inch by inch, the wind mage found herself being pushed back. A powerful burst of wind pushed the Replicator back suddenly and forced him to counterattack in a different way. The red haired warrior pulled his swords back and threw them again.

The swords whirred through the air towards their target who landed and quickly leapt back as the swords buried themselves into the ground. "Not good enough!" Zachary said as he appeared in front of her and thrust his fist into her stomach and fired her back into a nearby building. "Sorry, Wisp, but this isn't training. If you want to defeat me, you'll need to come at me with all of your strength!"

"However," Zachary said, resting his left hand against his hip and raising his right hand into the air with the palm pointing up and looking confident, "I'll just fight you with just my fists until you prove to me that you're ready to fight seriously." I'm sorry about this Wisp... but after what I had to survive in order to graduate myself... this has to happen. Please don't hate me... I'll make it up to you one day... I promise.

After smacking into the wall, she stood up and coughed for a moment. Wisp looked at him, and she felt something twitch in her mind, but forced it away. I understand Zachary. She nodded, and darted straight towards her teacher. He aimed a punch at her, but she vaulted over him and delivered a strong kick to his side, hitting his odd armor underneath his cloak.

The impact made him step away from her, before the ice mage nearly socked her with his counter punch. She let out an Air Shot, but it was aimed bad and went past his head, only to explode in a loud bang. The rabbit girl saw him wince, while she was unaffected. Her teacher started his attack again, not letting her get too far away from him.

She put one foot onto Sky Pillar’s plank, but kicked against it, which sent it smacking into him and forcing the Replicator away from herself. I can’t attack him, due to that armor on him… but I’m not going to use my weapons yet.

The shapeshifter watched as Zachary ran at her again, and spun a kick towards her head. She ducked quickly, before delivering an uppercut, which caused a Shadow Spire to react as well. Both attacks of hers connected, and sent him away from her.

Zachary's body soared through the air for a moment before he felt his body hit the ground. Aside from being lucky that his armor absorbed most of the impact, but still, her attack had hurt. She was much stronger than she had been... then again, so was he. The ice mage stood up and dusted off his robe as he smiled at her. The ice mage crossed his arms and smiled at her as he continued to plot what he would do next.

The ice innate cracked his knuckles as he pulled his body back a little bit and prepared to strike. The red haired warrior rushed forwards and attacked again. His fists moved quite quickly, but the young woman evaded each move with timed precision. A powerful punch aimed for her sternum met air as she bent back suddenly and kicked the ice mage in the chin. The Replicator stepped back slightly as he lowered his head to look at her, preparing to attack.

The woman finished her backflip and pulled her fist back and thrust an Air Shot at the ice mage. A powerful burst exploded into his armor and caused him to skid back slightly as he stopped his backwards movement. The ice mage ducked low and rose suddenly in a roundhouse kick that narrowly missed Wisp's head as she ducked and spun about, striking his legs as he landed and causing him to fall on the ground.

Well... she's gotten pretty... agile since our training finished. Zachary smiled as he thought about how much Wisp had grown since their training had ended. I guess I'm still imagining I'm fighting the Wisp I trained with towards the end... If I'm not careful, she'll beat me before I can even begin to really fight back, the ice mage thought as he moved forwards and leapt upwards slightly.

With a quick and powerful roundhouse, he missed again with an attack that was aimed at Wisp, but even so, he was prepared this time. The ice mage touched his hand against the wind mage's shoulder and pushed over her, sliding to a stop after his pass and shoulder tackled the woman suddenly. The ice warrior looked at her and smiled. "You're impressing me more and more. Still... we'll keep at it. I think we're almost done getting a feel for each other."

Wisp stumbled forwards a bit, before she quickly turned around and launched a kick towards her teacher. He jumped back, before launching another group of quick punches aimed at her chest and shoulders. She stepped to his left, and leapt back onto Sky Pillar’s plank to avoid a side kick, before replying, “Ok.”

Zachary just started to turn towards her, before she flicked her hand towards him, and a massive, dark gray cylinder slammed into his chest. The ice mage skidded along the ground, before almost crashing into the wall behind him. The rabbit girl quickly noticed that the people in the town had vanished from sight, for some reason.

She let herself drop to the ground, before something twitched in her mind again. The ground looked like it was spinning at a rapid pace, while she was standing still. What’s going on…? The shapeshifter looked as if she had zoned out, not focusing on anything for the moment. That’s when she heard an soft laugh in her mind. What was that…?

A cold breeze began to swirl around the ice mage as he stood silently. That attack had caught him by surprise. He placed his hand on his chest plate and felt something interesting. A crack had formed along the sternum and spread outwards from there. The air began to cool little by little. Although the Replicator had almost not formal learning of chemistry or physics, he knew that, for some reason, when it got colder, air moved slower.

Still, as the ice mage calmed down and stretched out his fingers, he felt the air warm up slightly. Taking another deep breath, the red haired warrior looked at Wisp, who had seemed to have stopped her offensive. He had to focus; he couldn't waste Mana on small things like cooling the air. He had to conserve enough of it for when the real fight began to be able to fight on par with his former student.

Still, so far, she had prove herself amazingly capable of going blow for blow with him. Her movements, attacks, and even her defense had improved greatly since they had last trained together. Still, if she wants to overcome this final test... she'll need to give it everything she's got. She'll have to hit me with everything she's learned. If she has to fight using everything, I'll have to do the same... at some point.

"Still," he said softly, "if you're going to fight me like this, we might as well have fun a little. After all, my teacher fought her student here, not too long ago. Rumors say when she returned to Rubato, she met a man I fought a while ago here. She defeated him and left him wounded. I'm fighting you here because that man is no longer among the living, and his soul would surely enjoy a good battle, I think."

Zachary leapt up from where he stood and moved towards Wisp. "So then, where were we?" he asked, aiming a powerful punch towards where she was standing.

Wisp came out of her daze just in time to leap backwards, and watch the ground buckle under his fist. As Zachary stood up, she pulled up and kicked against a plank of air, which barreled towards him. It missed as he leapt up again, and the Sky Pillar plank vanished a moment later.

The shapeshifter fired off four Air Shots, which exploded into slashing rings when they got close to him, but didn’t stop her teacher’s descent, as he lead with a downwards kick. As she hopped back, he landed a swift kick to her stomach. She fell to the side and almost hit the ground, before another plank stopped her fall.

The ice mage attempted to strike her with a fast downwards kick, but she thrusted her hand out, and a solid pole of air through him away from her. When the young adult stood up, she held her stomach for a moment before coughing again. She watched him land a couple of feet away, before appearing in front of her again, and tried to sweep her legs from out under her.

The rabbit girl hopped back again, and attempted to land a punch to his left shoulder, but missed on purpose. Stepping back from a fast uppercut, Wisp twisted her body to the right, and her high side kick connected with his right shoulder, knocking Zachary off balance. She then pounded away at him with three poles of air, at random intervals.

As the bunny-girl landed, her poles quickly struck the ice mage in his chest plate with speed and accuracy. Even as sporadic as the strikes were in placement, he could feel it. Each strike was bringing his chest plate closer to the breaking point. Blows to his entire chest, upper body and abdomen, rung through his armor into his body, making him wince slightly as he simply stepped back with each strike.

A series of palm thrusts followed each of the moving attacks. Each strike hurt a little bit more and more. The crack in his armor grew larger and larger. Before long, the plate would threaten to simply shatter if hit hard enough. And here was the strike to do it.

Wisp brought her arms back and made a final, powerful thrust with both palms, launching all three attacks at once to strike the ice innate. Finally, the warrior had enough. He wasn't sure why he had stood there, or even why he was fighting any longer, but he knew if he wanted to continue to fight, he would need to evade this attack.

The Replicator stepped to the side and evaded the attack, even if just by a hair, and swung his right arm in an almost close line style towards his student. The wind mage ducked under the attack and threw a quick low roundhouse aimed at the ice warrior's legs, but he merely leapt back a little to evade it. As her leg finished coming around, the bunny girl stood up at a diagonal angle and thrust a powerful Air Shot at his chest.

The Replicator simply leaned back and narrowly avoided the attack as it sped towards a building and cracked the wall. "Close," he said, smiling a little bit. His face had finally changed from the almost impassive, empty face had moments ago into something that seemed to have life breathed into it.

Zachary pulled his arm back and thrust a powerful punch towards Wisp, who pressed her hands on his forearm and pushed herself upwards and over him. The wind mage spun a few times until she landed and turned around. The ice mage followed suit and turned around to look at her. "Okay, done warming up yet?" he asked, smiling widely and almost laughing. It had finally hit him: this was getting fun finally.

“Almost…” The rabbit girl launched an Air Shot towards him again, but made it explode before it hit the ice mage. Unfortunately, it missed due to his side jump, as he charged again. He aimed a punch at her shoulder, but suddenly changed the attack when she tried to duck under it. Her teacher caught her left shoulder with a knee that sent her to the ground, skidding a bit.

Wisp looked at Zachary, before he came at her again, but Ebony Tooth sprang up, and pinned him. She watched as his armor began to fall apart slowly. She was going to get up, before she felt like her head suddenly felt like it was being crushed. “Ow…!” Wincing, she let Ebony Tooth release him, before his side kick threw her against a wall of a building.

What was that from…?The shapeshifter looked up feeling a little better now that the pain went away, before jumping to her feet. She instantly drew both of her weapons; her Main Gauche in her right, and her swordbreaker in her left hand. “Now I am…”

"Finally," Zachary said as he held his hands out. Quickly, magical energy surged from the palms of his hands as his short swords took their place in his hands. The two figures moved forwards suddenly before the air around the area between them shot up and began to flow outwards. The two had locked their blades tightly together. Wisp had expertly guarded the ice innate's right sword with her sword breaker, making him almost incapable of moving it, and their other weapons scraped against each other, sparking a bit.

A powerful surge of energy erupted as the two were both pushed back and stumbled a bit. Zachary's right sword came quickly forwards and clashed with Wisp's main gauche. As the swords clashed and moved onwards, the ice mage slashed over his head towards her. The wind mage quickly caught his left sword in her sword breaker and pushed his blade away, causing him to spin around.

The bunny-girl quickly lashed out with a quick lunge from her main gauche, only to have the tip clash against the flat of Zachary's short sword. Zachary had flipped the sword in his right hand into a backhand grip and used the movement to lock their blades. Quickly, the Replicator spun around and pushed her sword away.

The two warriors leapt back suddenly and the ice mage smiled. Quickly, the red haired warrior began to spin his swords in the palms of his hands. Stopping the blades suddenly, the ice mage moved again. This time, he'd strike quicker to see if Wisp could keep up.

(OoC: The spirals are not in Wisp's profile yet, going to add it after this thread is done...)

The blades of her teacher’s were blurring, while Wisp’s two weapons were just able to stop them from coming at her head or chest. She blinked, and the whole battlefield was covered in a thick fog, too thick to see anything, but she could. It was like someone draped a gray fabric over Zachary and his swords, but they were separate from each other. The one thing that was odd to her was the fact that she couldn’t see him clearly, due to the fabric blocked his face and everything, but his outline.

The ice mage kept moving, but she could see the trail he left behind, like the wake of a boat. The same thing happened with her swords, but their wake made it easier for her to see and block them. To everyone else’s view of the fight, the rabbit girl’s eyes had a faint gray spiral within them, as she began to easily block his attacks.

The shapeshifter pushed him back with an Air Shot, which cracked apart and launched four cutting crescents around itself, one nearly cutting into his face.

Zachary quickly moved his swords so they blocked the blades that had exploded from the Air Shot. The ice mage found himself breathing rather deeply as he spun his blades in his hands and looked at his student. She had clearly figured out how to read and evade each of his moves. Still, it was a lot of fun, he noted.

The Replicator leapt forwards and slashed his right sword and listened as it crashed against Wisp's sword. The second slash from his left arm came a little bit slower than his right strike, an intentional mistake, he used to clash with her sword breaker and push the bunny-girl back. The ice mage leapt backwards and spun quickly twice, throwing both of his sword at her.

The blades spun like frisbees moving towards their target. The wind mage quickly evaded the two with minor movements, but Zachary didn't stop there. Quickly, after his feet slid to a stop, the ice mage began to chuck sword after sword at her, each one spinning like a boomerang towards their target.

The Replicator knew that no matter how hard he tried, the girl would evade each of the thrown weapons, but for now they seemed to be working. Finally, after he tossed the seventh blade, he rushed forwards, intent on taking advantage of how shaken he was sure Wisp was bound to be. A long sword formed in the ice mage's hands as he continued to run forwards and quickly horizontally slashed it at Wisp.

The bunny-girl leapt over the attack and landed, jumping back a little to regain her balance. Zachary turned and pointed the long sword at the woman, smiling. The sword was a little over three feet long and two and a half inches at where the blade started, but thinned slightly as the blade moved up until it completely thinned to a point. Aside from the tip, the blade was, at thinnest, nearly an inch a three quarters wide.

The sword rested in Zach's right hand as he took the blade into both of his hands and lowered it to his side. He'd have to strike quickly and effectively. That was his best hope to win. The Replicator leapt upwards and heaved his sword over his head. As he neared the female warrior, he swung his sword down quickly, intent on reminding her of his special skill with this kind of weapon.

The faint gray spirals in her eyes vanished suddenly, leaving her seeing black, before her ears caught the sound of air coming towards her, and just managed to sidestep his sword. That was close… why did it go away…? Wisp didn’t have much time to think, since her teacher’s weapon blurred at her, which she barely blocked with her Main Gauche.

“You’re slower, Wisp, is something wrong?” he asked as he tried to slash at her shoulder, which she caught it with her swordbreaker.

“I… don’t know…”

Zachary spun his sword in his hand and smiled at her. She's worked very hard... but I can't simply end this yet... I need to see just how strong she's become. Whatever is bothering her... I can't ignore that business. Still... I must know... that she's ready to be in the world without someone... that she can protect herself... that I... that I know she won't get hurt and need someone to save her. As much as I like Wisp... I don't wish to follow her everywhere.

The ice mage's smile lasted for a few second as he looked at the ground. "I don't know what's wrong, Wisp, but I do know this: if you don't try to pull yourself together and keep at this battle, you may not survive this fight. If you can't even fight against me as I am... how will you be able to deal with stronger foes that may one day step in your path? How can I know that you'll be safe when you're in the universe? How can I know that... I won't lose you... like him?" Zachary asked, lowering his eyes as he pushed back his tears.

Zorlo... I hate you Zorlo! How... how could you do that to Selene... to Cadenza... to everyone... to me? the Replicator asked himself as he looked at Wisp, anger burning in his eyes. Why did you have to leave? Why couldn't you just... not go that far... why couldn't you just... live? What reason does that give Monroe or I to live... if you're so willing to throw away your life for this greater good crap you always talked about? Why should we protect people with our lives that we don't know?! Why is it we're protecting people who don't deserve it?

"Damn you... damn you Zorlo... If you can't even effectively protect your wife... how is it that I'm likely to be able to protect anyone? So much power... and yet... you died... WHAT DOES THAT SAY FOR US?!" the ice mage asked as his eyes became inflamed with anger as he looked at Wisp. "I won't always be there to protect you, Wisp. You won't leave here until you prove that you can survive an all out battle with me!" The Replicator let out a cry as he rushed forwards towards Wisp. He would know she would be safe before she would pass.

I must have triggered something… “I understand Zachary,” she muttered as the rabbit girl just stood there, before the chaos erupted. The screeching of blades was heard, but their weapons were a blur, as the two moved in a small circle for a moment. Apparently, Wisp was able to block faster now that she seemed oddly calm.

That changed though, when an almost black cylinder threw her teacher backwards and into an alley. He quickly stormed out of there, and charged at her again, but he had two short swords now. Throwing them at her, Zachary kept up this onslaught, but she dodged them by flitting from one plank to another, slowly heading towards him. Gale Edges spread out all over in an attempt to give her enough room or time to dodge some of the closer swords, before she unleashed a new skill, via slashing both swords at him; three Gale Edges stacked on one another. Hawk Wing? Oh well…

The attack hit the ice mage in his legs, as he tried to leap over it, and made an attempt to slash down onto her shoulders. Unknown to her, both her weapons glowed a bright gray, before she struck his swords with her own. The resulting blast made him sail over a building, while she skidded back on Sky Pillar’s plank, as she stood up. Her rabbit ears were pulled back in a slightly aggressive way, as Wisp looked at the faint dust cloud of where Zachary had landed.

Zachary stood up slowly as the dust settled around him. He took a few breaths as drops of sweat, crystalized into ice drops, fell from his face. In the few moments they had clashed, it had truly been fun. It wasn't any longer about survival, or what would come next. Simply the battle at hand that had importance. Magical energy seeped from Zachary's hands for a moment as he created his short swords and smiled.

Yes... yes... I had forgotten this. I've spent so much time allowing myself to grieve and suffer from the thoughts of what Zorlo had done... I had forgotten that he and I are not the same. If I am to survive, I must grow stronger, as he sought to do. I must increase my power and face my foes with everything I've got. Every trick in my book. Every weapon in my arsenal. To protect myself and those I care about... I've no choice.

"Wispy... you've done well, but I think you and I both know that we can't keep this up forever. We can fight and fight, but until we've used our full power, I can't say that either of us will truly know if you are ready if we don't use everything in our capacities in this next attack."

"Come at me full strength!" Zachary said as his swords began to glow and slowly plumed into jagged, wing like edges nearly twice the length of his normal swords. The ice mage crossed his blades over his chest and so that their blades pointed behind him. Magical energy flowed around the blades as he held them tightly.

The Replicator was ready to make his last move. "Take this! I'm coming at you with everything I've got!" the ice mage yelled as he began rushing forwards and prepared to make his final slash. After that, win or lose, he'd know if Wisp was truly ready.

Wisp just nodded, before she lowered her weapons for a moment. She was charging them up, despite not being able to tell that. Both weapons became covered in a light gray fog, which spun around the blades, and then she locked her Main Gauche into her sword breaker, along the first tine.

The rabbit girl charged as well, the marking on her arms and legs glowed the same light gray. Behind her, there was a swirling fog following her, while Zachary had something like blue wings behind him.

She held her weapons differently though, her Main Gauche was on her right, with it’s blade trailing behind, while the swordbreaker was across her chest. The two fighters got closer, and that’s when it happened. She watched her teacher slash at her in almost slow motion, while she counter-slashed. Instead of the normal Gale Edge, a massive Air Shot came out, right behind the two blue crescents that came at her.

The two attacks hit, and there was a start of both of them moving backwards, but the Air Shot exploded. Four crescents of air came out, two hitting Zachary, before the sheer force of the explosion sent both slamming into a building wall opposite from each other. There were two slash wounds across Wisp’s stomach and upper part of her shoulders, while part of the top slash was on her face.

The two wounds burned, but it was severely cold at the same time, the one on her face fell across her forehead, due to how low she had ducked when she ran at him. The pain seemed to get even worse as a wind gust picked up, but it was one after effect of the blast. The other was a massive crater were they once stood in the town square. The paved area had a giant web of spider like cracks running all over it.

Zachary laughed. And laughed. And laughed. And laughed a little bit more before he finally stood up and dusted himself off. His whole body hurt, his magic was low, and he loved every moment of it. "That was good fun," he whispered as he walked towards Wisp.

Upon the ice mage arriving where his student lay, he knelt down and smiled at her. "Good job," he told her as he ran his hands just over where her wounds were and the magic in the ice vanished and healed her wounds completely. "You've worked very hard, and after all this time, I can finally say this with pride."

The Replicator paused as he continued to smile and stood up, holding his hand out to his student. "You pass!"