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 Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 6:18 pm
[[Remember, guys. Rei put up a barrier. No one can get in to where Rei and Amelia are, and neither of us can get out. D:" Unless you personally can fly, I suppose.]]
Amelia still didn't quite understand what had happened as she approached Rei, standing near what looked like a writhing mass of elder magic. He had been wounded, taken downstairs, and now... now he was acting as if someone had flipped an "evil" switch in his brain. Amelia knew better than to try to talk him back to normal. Knowing him... it wouldn't work. She gripped her lance tighter.
Amelia skidded to a halt, finally up to where Rei had run. The man from before in the house (I think... yeah, Oujay was his name, Amelia thought) was surrounded by coils of black magic. Amelia scowled. Her grip shifted on the lance, readying to stab instead of slash. At his sudden appearance of the Heal staff, however, a warmth surrounded her wound and it disappeared. She looked down for just a moment, putting her fingers to her side through the cut in her shirt. Perfectly healed. When she looked back up, waving tendrils had snapped up and surrounded them. No way out.
Amelia stared Rei down. She hated to let him know just how much his words affected her, and she kept her gaze firm, mouth set in a firm line, but her knees were shaking a little. He was prepared to kill her. And she wasn't prepared to kill him. "Rei... I know you're in there somewhere," she murmured, taking in a deep, steadying breath. She stood up straight, grasping the shaft of the lance tightly enough to whiten the skin on her knuckles. "But if you won't listen to me, then I guess I'll just have to beat you back to your senses!" As soon as the last word left her lips, she was running at Rei, the blunt end of her lance swinging at his hip with the intent of knocking him down.
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:04 pm
Mallow and I have agreed on this music for the fight. XDRei braced himself for an attack by the rushing General. But, her swing to his side caught him off guard, knocking him to his hands and knees, facing Amelia. Before she had a chance to continue the assault, Rei was pulled back to his feet by two tendrils.
"Come now, Hunny-tan," he said in a mocking tone, "all bark, no bite?" A tendril came out of the boy's wound, wrapping along the arm until it reached his hand, where it became similar to a small dagger. "With the state I already put you in, I shouldn't have to tell you this, girl." He rushed at her, bladed hand in a wind-up for a punch. "FIGHT TO KILL!"
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:12 pm
Amelia was ready to strike again with the blunt end of her lance when he spoke, and the familiar name made her freeze. The Rei that danced like a crazy rabbit and shouted unfamiliar references was the one that referred to her as Hunny, not the Rei that was ready to hurt her friends and... well, kill her.
Amelia didn't seem to remember she was in a fight until he was screaming right into her face, and she shrieked, striking the head of her spear at his forearm. Keep him from wanting to move that arm, then he wouldn't be able to punch. "I'm not killing you!" she snarled at him. One foot moved to kick him where she knew it'd hurt most. She didn't care what he said or what he tried; Amelia wasn't willing to kill Rei.
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:49 pm
The druid took a kick to the stomach, letting out a hoarse wheeze. Had Amelia aimed a bit lower, there'd be... some problems. The girl's swing at his arm didn't help, either, making the tendril shriek, as if it were alive. He doubled over, gasping for air, fists on the ground. As he panted long, shallow breaths, the tendril on his arms sunk into the ground, shooting out and grabbing Amelia's spear.
Standing up, Rei had a victorious grin on his face. "You think that'd really do anything to me? I've been through far worse." Stepping back, he put some distance between the two before relinquishing the tendril on the spear. "Pick up the pace, little girl. Make this fun." He cracked the bones in his neck, giving Amelia a chilling glare. "I want you to die slowly, so your incompetent little man of the cloth can see you squirm, and then I'll kill him, too."
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Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2009 7:58 pm
Amelia moved to dig her lance into Rei's arm -- even if it was going to seriously hurt, it'd keep him from moving that arm, and that was definitely going to tip things in her favor. Before she could reach his flesh, a tendril snapped out and grabbed onto her spear. She couldn't pull it away; her weapon was stuck while he put distance between the two of them.
Amelia stumbled back a step as the tentacle released her spear. "I want you to die slowly, so your incompetent little man of the cloth can see you squirm, and then I'll kill him, too."
The General shifted, gritted her teeth. "Don't... don't you dare...!" she hissed. Without another word, she was running at him, the blunt end of her spear moving to jab deep into his gut. How dare he threaten her -- threaten Rhys! -- like that! He was going to pay!
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:36 am
Said man of the cloth stood just outside the barrier, examining it closely. Light magic generally beat up on dark magic nine times out of ten; on the tenth time, the light magician was generally much weaker than the dark practitioner. Still, Rhys knew strong magic when he saw it--it seemed unlikely that even with a good strong Light, holes could be punched in the barrier.
For that matter, how is Rei doing this, he thought. Dark magic requires more energy than either Anima or Light. To hold up a barrier like this for this long is unnatural. Is Rei really a different aspect of himself, or is someone else pulling Rei's strings?
He looked upward. Although Rei's barrier was formidable, it wasn't absolute--he could see the tendrils hadn't formed a perfect dome, at least not yet. The darkness was formidable--at this close range, he couldn't see anything through it--but there was still as of now a way around it.
He closed his eyes and relaxed, taking a calm attitude.
Open up your senses...
It was easy enough to detect the Druid--simply follow the tendrils' magic to the source. Amelia, however, was nearly suffocated by all the dark energies until he felt a faint surge of righteous anger. Righteous anger that was moving in Rei's direction.
Bingo.
Slowly, still staying in the trance, he dropped the Light tome to the ground. His hands then reached back into his robes, finding another tome: Illusion. He couldn't help Amelia directly, that much was true. But help her he still could before much more time passed.
(EDIT: Now that I've seen Renault's post in the other topic...)
He heard a vague shouting from Renault's voice off in the distance, but couldn't afford to guess what he was getting at. Not yet. He needed as much concentration as he could get.
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:15 pm
"...this has all been done before." Rei's hands shook, dark energy arcing across his fingertips. "How long will it take to do it again?" Rei balled his fingers into a fist, pulling out a large tendril directly in front of Amelia, knocking off part of the spear.
"You've shown your hand, drop the cards and give up." Rei made two tendrils shoot out of the ground in front of him, their movements almost taunting Amelia. "...foolish girl, just give in."
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 4:18 pm
Amelia faltered, stumbling back a step as his magic slashed off a good four or five inches off of the end of her spear. She stared at the hunk of wood now sitting on the grass and glared at Rei. She didn't move away from her spot on the grass yet, ignoring the tendrils.
"I am not giving in," she muttered, pausing. She looked at her spear, then him. Amelia didn't want to fight, not when this was Rei, but... she had to. "...Please. I don't want to hurt you." Amelia gripped her spear tightly, shifting. She held the spear in front of her parallel to the ground, intending to ram him and knock him down. "I can survive your bullshitting, Rei."
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Posted: Mon Apr 06, 2009 5:47 pm
A faintly glowing butterfly perched on a nearby branch, observing the fight.
And another.
And another.
In short order, an entire swarm of glowing butterflies was now perched, observing Rei and Amelia facing each other, talking.
Don't want to hurt Rei. Right. Well, they can't anyway.
As the swarm they were, they hurtled down towards Rei, surrounding him in an annoying display of fluttering magical wings and golden light.
They couldn't directly harm Rei, but that wasn't the point. These were MAGIC butterflies. Light magic, no less. The dark tendrils' nexus was Rei. Their power came from Rei. Shut off the connection between nexus and tendrils, and the tendrils would lose power and begin to fade. Then for at least a brief moment, Rei would be in trouble--both Rhys and Victoria could break through to him, and three-against-one wouldn't work out well.
The magic connections stayed strong at first, but as the swarm intensified and swirled around him, they frayed, finding trouble breaking through the numerous holy lights. Losing their source of energy, several tendrils began to wither. The two blocking Amelia's path remained standing, but largely due to their close proximity--even then, they didn't seem nearly as strong as before.
Just a bit more... keep him busy, Amelia. I'll destroy this wall and get through!
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 2:31 pm
Fascinating. It was a gross understatement of the extent Victoria could describe the intricate detail Rhys put into the summoning of his own light magic. The female bishop could only dream of having that much control... to bend into shapes! Puzzling, but also so very interesting!
She did manage to keep a straight face though. "Let's end this quickly, my fellow light user. Fighting against one's Order is never pleasant." Truth be told, she sort of experienced it. Although fighting with words wasn't exactly the same as with weapons, the outcome was the same: life or death.
The heated debates between the higher echelons of her Order lead them to split up, as it was a matter of life and death. Stay, the wyvern riders will find you. Leave, you have a chance to hide, but you'll always live in fear... there will always be the fires of war, and there will always be despair. Of course, that's what they thought anyway. Victoria was hopefully on the way of proving her Elders wrong, that even after it's faced peril, an Order can stick together, protect each other...
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:50 pm
Rei stopped, taking a step back at the ethereal butterflies descending upon the battlefield. Of the two Bishops he'd known of, only one would try an approach like this. The other would actually do something useful... But, looking at the tendrils around his wither, his focus reset.
While the General was distracted, Rei called up a new group of tentacles, increasing the size of the circle by a few yards in diameter. Turning back to Amelia, Rei continued his verbal assault.
"Can't even fight your own battles, can you? Pathetic." The withering tendrils thrashed about, destroying the vast majority of the small phantom insects. "Gotta leave it up to your two fathers to get you out of everything. Just run crying back to them." Rei pulled another tendril out from directly behind him. As it coiled its way around his chest and stomach, he severed it with a stomp. Now we can't have her aim for the organs anymore. Puncture wounds would be just terrible.
Rei raised his voice, letting it echo through the plains. "Come on, Rhys! Butterflies? Is that the best you can come up with?" He let out a maniacal cackle. "I mean, I know you're weak, but this is too much! Just let me have my way with the girl, and then you can be corpses together!" Rei looked back at Amelia after having implied a grim future for the girl, smirking as two more tendrils, each coming from the nearly-impossible-to-see wound, wrapped around his arms.
"Are you ready to die?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 3:58 pm
Across the vast expanse of the mind, words dredged themselves up in Amelia's memory, spoken in dark times by a wise man:
"When the time comes, don't hesitate. Just act!"
It was time.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:04 pm
Amelia's eyes went to the butterflies, staring at them. They were delicate, white, and... clearly not normal butterflies as the tentacles began to wither and crumple. She felt her hope soar. That's gotta be Rhys. It's gotta be. Father Renault and Victoria wouldn't take this sort of approach! Amelia shifted her stance. "Rhys, keep it up!" she shouted. Amelia started back towards Rei, but froze as the tendrils thrashed and attacked Rhys' magic, effectively destroying it.
"That... easily?" she whispered. With the new tendrils waving around, Rhys' attempt hadn't accomplished anything.
"Can't even fight your own battles, can you? Pathetic." Amelia looked back to Rei, and the dark look crossing over her eyes definitely made her look a little scarier. Sure, she was a small blonde girl who looked rather scrawny without her bulky armor on, but there was no doubting the lithe muscle in her arms and legs, easily visible with the short white skirt and red polo shirt. "Gotta leave it up to your two fathers to get you out of everything. Just run crying back to them."
"Leave them alone!" Amelia shouted, form tensing as she adjusted her grip again on her lance, though despite the flaming look in her eyes, she hadn't moved any closer. Rei seemed to be ignoring her, shouting to Rhys. "Just let me have my way with the girl, and then you can be corpses together!"
Amelia scowled, eyes watering as her knees began to tremble. "I won't let you...!" she hissed, taking a shaky step forward.
"Are you ready to die?" he asked her, now covered by elder magic. He was shielded now, and Amelia was still without armor.
Before she could speak, she thought of the Host Club party, Siegell's final words before disappearing from sight. "When the time comes, don't hesitate. Just act!"
Amelia stared at Rei. Her knees locked in place, no longer quivering, and she turned her lance, spearhead glinting in the sunlight, aimed in steady hands for his sternum. "You... you should be asking yourself the same thing."
"I don't know if you're still our Rei, if you're an imposter or just using his body, but... I can't let you run free. So no, I am not ready to die. But you had better be." With those final words (a small voice in the back of her head hoped that it had sounded as epic as it had seemed before she said it), Amelia let out a roaring sound of defiance, running straight for Rei, aiming to plunge the spear into his gut.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 4:20 pm
The surviving butterflies disappeared, and Rhys snapped back to consciousness. Are you serious? Okay, that's just borderline godmoding now. Right! But... now what?
He looked up. Those tendrils looked imposing...
He felt something stir within him... anger. Envy. Perhaps some fear as well. The darkness swirled within him, coming to a point...
Shockingly, it had a voice.
You know, it said to him, You're going about this the wrong way. Darkness and Light... don't HAVE to be enemies. Turn the darkness to your advantage. THEN beat that little p***k to a pulp.
Rhys wasn't sure he liked the sound of that... Amelia up 'til now had done everything she could to AVOID hurting Rei. But maybe..
Go on. How long have you stood in the shade while others have gotten glory that could rightfully be yours? How long have you played the role of "Jester" when really, you have a chance at something greater? Need I remind you exactly why you came to this land!?
Rhys growled. Then looked upwards again. Yeah... yeah. They may be a wall, but they're a magic wall. I don't HAVE to destroy them--with my magic, they're like any ordinary fence.
This time he dropped the Illusion tome, picking up instead the tome of Light. He focused strongly on the bottom of the tendril, focusing energy into a single point.
It'd have to be fast. This could be dangerous--too slow, and the magic would reform and catch him within, which could likely be the end of it, not to mention a foot. Too fast, and he'd find himself without a handhold...
The Light spell seared into the side of the tendril. The objective was not to destroy, but to redirect. Redirect the darkness so instead of wasting itself fighting through the light, it would bend inward and continue upwards.
Rhys gained a foothold, and in this slow manner quietly began to climb.
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Posted: Tue Apr 07, 2009 5:09 pm
"He's insane!" Was Victoria's first reaction. Did she see that, the priest climbing up the wall? What a crazy thing for him to do, when he could be walking right into a trap.
However... the woman did find herself mimicking him, as to not be either left out of the action... or useless. "Father Rhys, if you go by that..." she tried to imitate the same climbing, the same footholds with her lightning tome, being aware of its uses left.. "You are the craziest man I've ever met!" she commented. "Why in the name of St. Elmine are you doing this for?"
"And why in Ashera's name am I following him?"
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