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Damrius pulled in a charge, and switched hands with the Leaverite sword. His left hold that, and in the blink of an eye his Spirit Reaper was out. Not that it was supposed to be used here, or that it woudl be of any use, but, it would help.

He started towards Silver as well, except moving exceptionally faster than Silver would remember. No extra energy, just pure speed he had obtained on his... venture.

His Spirit Reaper would be thrust edge first into Moonblade's spear, where it curved from the original blade, with enough force to push it back, and his Leaverite sword would strike out towards moonblade's neck.

But, Damrius wouldn't over extend. In fact, he would end up floored. But, because of the way he had his right leg, behind him, Damrius fell down on his right now, while his left was tossed out on him.

Damrius pulled in a charge, mid fall, and looked up at moonblade. He knew he woudl have little time to react, but the weakness game could work to his advantage.

A echoed down the steps followed by the tell tale click clack of boots on stairs. Maximos, shook his head as he emerged from the stairwell, he had seen this place one to many times. Not this exact room, but this void...it felt so odd, the air was thicker here and everything felt...unnatural. He knew there was someone down below, his right eye told him there was a soul down below.

Now, he had sworn off fighting...killing...and all those sorts of barbaric things. But a good spar was good exercise, and quite honestly no one was really going to get hurt.

He wore a blue pinstripe vest matching the dark blue color of his spikey hair. Beneath it was a black formal dress shirt, and off course attached to his breast pocket was a small white skull insignia. Maximos always wore his Reaper badge somewhere.

His left arm jingled as his silver watch adjusted itself slightly. And his right arm twitched as he lifted it to adjust his large reading glasses. The big round frames hid his white right eye, and black left eye. Though the white seemed to slightly glow.

So, Mr. Damrius...

He said, emerging from the stairs and leaning on a conspicuously placed candelabra on the wall. His right hand was gloved, and it gently served as the focal point for his wait.

It looks like yooooowooa--SMACK.

You see, Maximos hadnt infact leaned on a candelabra at all, but a switch. For a split second the ground rumbled before a few of the tiles on the ground randomly rose. Some came as high as the waist, others the neck, others the knee, and yet still others went all the way to the ceiling forming pillars. The tiles did not constantly change, it was just one single switch adding a bit of flavor to the battleground.

Ow...

Maximos said, hefting himself off the ground, dusting off his pants.

Shall we begin?

Alright then.

Maximos took to rolling up his sleeves, first his left sleeve, which revealed...an ordinary arm, and was to just about his elbow. Then the right, which revealed bandages leading from inside the glove up past his elbow where the rolling stopped. These bandages were fresh thankfully, none of the icky stains he had to deal with at times. His right arm twitched randomly, then rose to adjust his rather crooked glasses, and use the bandage to dab a small scrape on his forehead.

And then he was set.

Whenever your ready.

He said, adjusting his glasses. He had already taken in the terrain, memorized the stone locations and calculated the basic speed at which he could traverse it. He was very ready.

Damrius was doing better. In the olden days he would attack directly, and now he was thinking objectively, siezing the higher ground, and trying to keep distance in order to size up his opponents capabilities. It was very good!

In a more serious battle one can hardly expect their opponent to stand completely still while one preps themself, but Maximos did just that. He stood in exactly the same spot, and waited.

Thats good Damrius!

He called up to his opponent. True to its words the pillar came like a bullet from on high. Taking it directly would have caused too much damage too early. It was entirely too late to counter it, and trying to stop it cold would take entirely too much effort and leave him open. And so Maximos did none of those things, as the pillar came at him he side stepped extending his right arm. With a crunch, that cursed arm of his gripped the flat tile top, his fingertips digging into the stone. If it had been his left, it would have surely been broken, his fingers crushed and his shoulder dislocated. That pillar was coming fast. But, his left was...different. Using the attacks momentum Maximos was whipped around in a lightning quick 360, his black dress shoes leaving rubber streaks on the floor as the sheer force of the attack propelled him. And as the 360 was completed Maximos released the broken pillar sending it soaring back at Damrius also like a bullet.

Maximos had keyed in one extra factor in his calculations, the human body has no wings. Thusly, is usually vulnerable in mid air. Now he would test the mans ability to adapt.

It was a wise opening move, it just didnt have as well a follow through as Damrius might have wanted. Still, thats just as much a part of fighting as attacking and defending is.

Now Damrius had made a wise move in trying to use the terrain and attack above Maximos, his only mistake was in timing. You see, Maximos did want to see if Damrius was going to openly attack him to start the match, so he stood still. Now, that first round was over, he certainly wasnt going to stay in one place while his opponent fell, and stood.

When Damrius stood Maximos would have already been long gone from where he was standing when Dame was hit. His speedy legs had carried him over three hurdle sized obstacles. With a jump, he smacked his bare hand against a pillar using his loose grip to provide him with the friction necessary to swing behind the pillar and take cover. His opponent had a long range attack, Maximos did not. Whats more, his opponent had the high ground. Maximos did not. The only equalizing factor was that Maximos had his back to this pillar, and Damrius, though a few dozen feet away had his front to it. Which meant, neither man new exactly where the other was.

Another challenge, to be able to find ones opponent, without revealing onces self or opening ones self to attack. The Shadow, placed his right arm in front of himself with his fist pointing toward the ground. An ominous black aura seeping from his arm, to the shadow of the pillar connecting the two in a very stealthy manner.

The aura formed swirling around itself forming into 3 icky black ethereal tentacles, each semi transparent, the tentacles swirled with the shadow gaining body and depth as the took the black ichor within them.

A grimace spread across Maximos' features...this arm was cursed after all. Its abilities were useful but they hurt, each and every one of them. And then the sound caught his ears.

Thunk! Thunk!

Each was the hollow sound of stone knocking against empty stone. A smirk blended with the slight wince on the Shadow face. Damrius was thinking, very impressive indeed. Now with supersonic hearing he could have heard the tick of Maximos' watch, or his breathing or heartbeat. But Damrius was performing one of the oldest, simplest and yet most useful tricks in the book. It worked on two levels, if the pillar was hit, a less intelligent opponent might believe he was found and leave cover.

The only flaw was that unless you struck the correct tower first, your opponent had the chance to plan a defense or counter assault.

Maximos estimated there were at least 2 more towers before Damrius reached his which meant that if his plan was to work he would have to move fast.

Thunk!

That meant one tower left, and then his.

Now! Maximos bolted out from the tower, his right arm dragging back. The didnt seem human at all. It was warped, it seemed as if he was attached at the shoulder to something massive...something black and wispy...A shadow! More directly, the shadow of the pillar he was resting against. Meaning it was quite large and quite thick. With a heft he launched the massive limb forward, the wispy black limb ripping across the room, the massive hand at its end gripping into the pillar just as Damrius' attack was hurdling toward it.

Hmph!



He let out an audible grunt as he retracted the massive arm, pulling him at the tower like a tether line, allowing him to impact the tower just a split second before Damrius' attack did. Immediately his left arm wrapped around the tower, giving him while the massive right arm caught the oncoming rock dead in its path.

It would look as if a giants arm was attached to Maximos' right shoulder, and it was holding the rock Damrius had just kicking in its massive hand, more directly in between two of its fingers. Maximos appeared to be catching his breath, his right eye squinted slightly in pain for the use of the arm.

Very good Mr. Damrius!

Maximos called out across the battlefield.

Strategy, Patience, and Forethought. Now, lets test your defense!

And with that waring he let the rock fly back at Damrius, it may have been a small projectile but it was flung like a cannon ball, it even had a bit of a dark aura around it prolonged contact with the cursed arm.

The key here was to see how well Damrius caught small details. Such as the length of Maximos' arm when it was whiplashed. Strategically Maximos had stolen the high ground, and now had reach, he could extend this arm over most of the battleground. Which meant Damrius now had to find a new way to creatively defend while trying to assault.