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A slight correction would be in order: Rain's hand was clenched as a fist while Maximos was insinuating that Rain was the only survivor of the Dead Forest battle; it was no longer after the confession that it was a joke.

This. And if you dont, what are you fighting for!? I did what I did to protect my loved ones, as I have always done. As I will always do. As I do now, to save her, you, all of this, from a fight have nothing to do with! And all while your daughter sits safely at home relaxing! You brought poison into my life, when you acted without thought, without even a simple question! And yet you threaten me for responding?!


"Save... her?" Rain would respond, interjecting as Maximos began to lose his temper. Who was he trying to save? Family? Oh, right! He had a sister. What was her name again?

...

"... Teira..."

Suddenly, a hundred times a hundred memories would flash in Rain's mind, everything up to this point finally catching up to him. The tournament. The Forest. The Firebrand. In fact, Rain would stumble back a step and holding a hand to his head as if under a great deal of mental strain, before composing himself once more.

I am what I am Rain! Someone has to be! Now get your priorities straight, or get out of my sight!

"No..." Rain would respond. Looking Maximos in the eyes with a steely disposition he hadn't shown the man up to this point, he would strand his ground.

"No, I won't. I have a responsibility I must uphold, and I'll be damned if you deter me from that. You can't cow me with a few harsh words and a show of force, Maximos. I have a job to do, and no one will deter me from it." Pausing, he would walk over to the bar and pick up one of the shards of broken wood, holding it up between his index finger and thumb, at eye level, inspecting it.

Smirking, he would look at Maximos once more. "Do yourself a favor, and when Lucind gets back, ask her how I got so badly hurt in the Forest; who I was trying to save. Or not. Pursuit of knowledge is a personal quest, not one I can force upon you."

Waving off the orders flying around to take up arms, Rain would go over towards the table with an interesting looking map sprawled across it. "And that's FORMER captain!" he would call out with his back turned, lifting a hand to wave off the so-called impending threat.

Really, how many people did you need to take care of one baddie?

The moment the pissed off redhead had started taking care of Malice, Lucind, slowly walking around them, had placed a hand on the strap which was holding the guitar on her back: the instrument was reverberating with the pressure of the sonic shield surrounding the Siren's body; its pegs were groaning while the strings became alive and could hardly stand being restrained any longer.

Then, Malice's tongue aimed to restrain Sun's arm and Lucind pulled the strap to have the guitar slip over and around her shoulder. She started singing again - or was she addressing the fighting men? - you couldn't even understand a coherent sentence, as if you tried listening to someone how was sitting on a fast riding carroussel. The sonic storm around her became alive, once more blurring her silhouette, when--

Pang!

One of the strings forcefully broke free to shoot towards Malice - rotating in mid-air and being enforced by sound waves making it vibrate on high frequency - in order to wrap around his arm right under the shoulder joint and remove the weapon carrying limb.

Scarker stopped dead in his tracks at Maximos's outburst. He blinked a few times and then realized there was only one response to such a thing.

"Oh."

The syllable barely left his mouth before he was sprinting at his best pace, pulling in magic energies almost as fast as he was running. It didn't take long to round the building, but he was still a little too far from the battle to be any use, so he ran. And charged. And smiled.

"Time for me to have some fun! Try to enjoy your trip to the end!"

Thats better.

Rain was moving with a sort of intensity. He had goal to him, purpose. Much better. Maximos would of course keep his fierce expression. It seemed a motivating force for the fighter.

Rain of course did not know that Maximos had watched all of the events in the Dead Forest before arriving. And Maximos wasnt telling, with the same intensity he made for the door. Though he would look back at Rae and shake his head. She was so afraid, she would make the very action she was afraid of. She looked...soulwise, almost exactly like she did trying to tend to Vahn. She was so afraid of what one person thought, she would abandon the rest, so when that one person saw what she had become and snapped at her...she would have already chased off everyone that could help.

A vicious cycle. Maximos was very thankful he wouldnt be so easily chased off. She'd have someone to lean on....even if it killed her.

Outside however! Malice proved that a tongue can truly be a disgusting thing. And Lucind proved that guitars were far more deadly that even Maximos previously knew. He's turn his head to Damion, and shake it with a sort of proud smile on his face and say.

When you get him riled up, he's something isnt he?

Sunstrike, of course. His arms folded across his chest. He was support. Back up if it was need. Tag team member if it was required. Something about in his mind, something recalling his past said that if he and Sun actually worked together the Firebrand...being a bar...wouldnt survive.

If Scarker actually used his eyes, they would have widened in shock at what was happening in front of him. Magesight revealed the runes, menory recorded the spell, but only the cleats of his boots and the energy that he had gathered could stop the mage one meter from the towering inferno that suddenly erupted.

Still, he wasn't daunted. He was far enough away to only be bothered by the heat. He switched one of the swords in his left hand to his right and waited for an end to the inferno so that he'd know if he was needed.

And among all the foolish thoughts in his head, the one that stood out was 'Aw... I know that spell already... At least now I know how to extend it...'

First, the reactionary part of the post, in respond to Lucind's attack.

Something peculiar would happen that probably only Lucind would see, and Sunstrike would feel. Possibly not Sunstrike though, as per the aggressiveness of his following actions.

The wire from the guitar would wrap around the joint like intended, and would slice clean through. However, the opposite would happen that she was aiming for; the rest of Malice seemed to fall back from the arm, rather than the arm falling back from the rest of Malice. It was like there was no wound at all, and he was still swinging the sword horizontally. The tongue wrapped around Sunstrike's wrist would loosen as there seemed to momentarily be a lapse of resistance from the swordsman going limp.

But the right arm would still swing the sword horizontally at Sunstrike's legs, hovering there for a moment, before flames would consume the view from everyone else.

FOOOOOOOOM!

And now for the other half of the bad news.



As the pillar of flames rose from the earth consuming both warriors, a bubble of noncombusted air could be seen immediately around the sword, like a teardrop with it at the very bottom. Again, Lucind, from her perspective, would probably be the only one who would see this.

The good news is, the blood that Sunstrike had shed would be disintigrated in the attack most likely before the sword fully vacuumed the droplets from the man's flesh across the space between them.



Though his weapon would be, for all intents and purposes, unharmed, things would not bode well for Malice himself, nothing but a kneeling charred skeleton before Sunstrike after the attack finished, and a black boney arm weilding a hovering sword for a few seconds before they fell to the ground.

Everyone except for one.

Beautiful.

Maximos' left eye saw a pillar of blinding flame. Maximos right eye however, flaring up in purest white saw everything. It saw the runes inside of Malice before they were fire. It saw leylines gathering defensive arcanum. And it saw, that the body had no power. The power lie in the sword. Unfortunately for it.

The sword was nothing more than an item.

As flames raged, Maximos stepped forward. His right hand reached out to his side, angled down toward the ground as a myriad of small black hands seeped from beneath his bandages carrying behind them ribbons of black substance. The hands reached and lashed hungrily at the air as the Shadow took casual steps.

The fire faded, and what was left, was a skeleton and a sword.

Ooh, what a revolting spectacle.

Reaching down specifically with his right arm, to pick up the sword. Lashes of black reached hungrily as the fingers of his gloved right hand grabbed the sword, the hands of black joined the. They grabbed at the hilt, parts of the blade, the pommel. They scurried around on fingertips inspecting the sword for what it was.

Likely the sword had magical defenses and abilities...



....which would find themselves rather rudely shut off. That meant that even if the hand was alive, when Maximos grabbed the blade, it likely wouldnt be. Attempts to "power up" would only feed the arm that held it, and in turn feed the hunger that restrained it. It was a vicious endless cycle. Granted a living being, in a real body, not an item would not have any of these troubles. But a magic sword....would. Maximos was fully able to be felled by a sword, but by a sword not by its magics. Seeing what it had done to the body of Malice, the curse sword may even try to infiltrate the shadow himself!



Only to find that thanks to the lovely gift Maximos wore around his neck, it would be entirely unable. Maximos would hold the sword as if it were an afterthought, non-chalantly at his side. It was clearly powerful, and likely old, and evil, and would have a nice place in Walter's Vault along with thousands of other swords and weapons of the same or alternative alignments, thousands of years older and stronger. Or....maybe Maximos would keep it for himself. He loved collecting swords. That was all for later, as he turned to the object of his attention, Sunstrike, and said.

Nice one Sun! I didnt know you could do that!

And then to Lucind, as his foot poked a guitar string.

Or you, that!

A smirk.

You two've been holding out on me.

"The hell...?!" She couldn't help exclaiming once smoke and ash vanished to give a free view on Sunstrike.

Lucind even felt the urge to go and have a closer look at the man - but that would've been a tad too impolite.

She still walked closer but only to pick up the guitar's string which immediately started buzzing again, even though it was black and all charred just like what was left of Malice. That...had been fun. Maybe she should make it part of her arsenal.

Smiling and nodding at Sunstrike who then addressed Maximos in a more private manner, the Siren started releasing the sound waves which dissipated in an upwards spiral, still carrying parts of the woman's melody.

"--!" Just before the last trace of the shield was gone, she hastily reached into her coat to take out the bottle of rum...only...to watch it fall apart into many, many tiny pieces, the glass giving in once the sonic pressure had vanished and spilling its content all over Lucind's hand and the grass.

"...well...fine then."

Rubbing her hand clean, she turned around to walk back to where she had just come from:

"I'll go and get the Hummer! This time really, heh."

With that, she strode away, finding that the walkie talkie didn't work all too well anymore, too, but still enough to be able to ask John if he was okay and to inform him they were ready to get going.