Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Dude are you kidding?!? This is fun haha, Didn't expect that in the least, kinda part of the way I RP, I let my RP partners get more hits and whatnot in the more they surprise me))

Gaius tumbled through the air for a moment before years of experience from everything from skydiving to base jumping took over. He shifted his balance and quickly controlled his spin, changing his trajectory slightly on the way. His voice could barely be heard as he shot through the air, "It's all the same to you Shinigami, you can't seem to accept you have equals."

Right as he dissapeared into the mass of vines, which of course wouldn't harm him,(what kind of Doll would Brutus be if he did?) The blast of energy he had stored in the ring roared out of the writhing mass. It was preceeded by a few seconds by a quickly glowing bright light, much like what a train appears to be as it shoots down a dark tunnel. The damage would be comparable. Searing and charing vines on its way out, it was a solid beam of pure energy, that if you had to you could swear it smelled and 'tasted' of earth. It easily had a seven foot radius, a direct hit would end the fight then and there, a glancing blow would severely damage whatever it contacted. Gaius silhouette could be seen among the shadows of the roots and vines, he stood on two particularly large specimens. "Protection? Against flame? Brutus? Of course." He guffawed, that was certainly absurd, an icy plant lacking protection against fire? Ridiculous!

What little could bee seen of him as the vines damaged and destroyed by his own blast began regenerating, at an extremely fast rate. The blast of purple fire collided with the mass of vines sheering many of them off, burning them into nothing, leaving what looked like a large stump of vines where they exited the ground. Already they were wriggling, beginning to regenerate, to grow back, and rebegin their assault. But wait, Gaius had been in there...The Doll was still alive...that meant!!!

Gaius was behind Lerato, his reiatsu hidden once more, he wasn't even breathing. He just stood quietly. He had expected the Shinigami to survive the blast of energy, it was a very straightforward and predictable attack after all. "See, that is the thing about Brutus here, he is designed to withstand just about anything." He stressed the 'just'.

"Look at him now, he seems bigger doesn't he? Ohh around five feet taller by now I'd think? And how much colder do you think it is? I'd say it's easily negative thirty by now. With that gash? That blood loss? And the cold? Did they ever teach you wilderness survival in that Shinigami Academy of yours? Unless you do something quick I'd say it's quite possible you're already dead." He stood ready the entire length of his relative speech, ready to react, dodge, block, parry, and just about deal with anything Lerato would do next.

"I'll make you a deal, if you survive the next five minutes and don't give in to hypothermia I'll call him back, teach you more about us Ravens." He winked slyly, he knew this would be fun, and hell, the kid was putting up a fight. "Hell, just to make this last longer I might just heal up that little gash you got there, not enough to let you use it again this time around, but so you don't bleed to death."

((Sorry, I don't mean to rush it. I really want to get this out. lol I got adrenalin pumping haha.))

"I've been fighting Shinigami for years, heck, I've had to kill a few lest they kill me. I've yet to meet one who didn't consider himself in every way superior." Gaius blinked as he sensed the reiryoku going into this opponents weapon. As it flicked out and the wave of energy followed his shield flickered out once more, absorbing the slash of energy before it had a chance to spread out. Then the shield was a bracer once more.

"Are you ready for my last two ARMS? They are quite...interesting. Mars' Spears. Mercury's Wings." Two more static shocks of the alchemical and reishi energies flashing once more. Gaius was covered almost head to toe in dark blue steel like metal. His hands flashed forwards. His limbs themselves moving at what Lerato would see as Shunpo speed. His fist flew towards the Shinigami's gut, seeking to take the breath from him. His other released his blade, and sought to grip Lerato's head, and then fling him backwards. Whether in success or failure it would flash back and regrip the blade before it had fallen an inch. Gaius cricked his neck to each side, it popped loudly multiple times, it sounded like a tree was breaking. His eyes flashed, literally. The alchemical energy from the release of his ARMS and preparing the release of his Mark was flooding his system. Beginning to heighten his reactions, speed, strength, power, nothing would be left unchanged. His eyes took on an almost steady glow of the same blue as the armor. As his lips quirked up ferally he spoke, "You warned me you had trouble controlling your blade. Now I warn you. I have trouble controlling what will be coming in exactly two minutes and twenty-seven-point-zero-nine seconds. This is only the second time I've done this.

The ring began flashing rapidly. Drawing in small amounts of reishi from the air and releasing it as spaghetti noodle thick bolts of energy. Enough to cause pain, enough to draw blood, or cause a small burn. Enough to annoy. Enough to aggravate. They came fast and furiously shooting towards Lerato as if bullets from a gun.

"Come on in Brutus." Gaius whispered, his voice carrying on the wind as it blew in Lerato's direction. The plant flashed blue, one last blast of intense cold reaching out like a hand towards Lerato before pulling back in. A large flawless gem sparkled as it fell to the ground. He waved his hand and a thickened sheet of reishi picked the jewel up and flung it into his waiting hands. A moment later it clicked home into the pommel of his gladius.

His Mark began glowing brighter and brighter, pulsing with a violent light. He shook his head trying to dispel the incoming chaotic thoughts and emotions. His hand raised, fingers spread, out as if too touch Lerato. And then he was, his ARMS improved Blitz carrying him there in an instant. His fingers settled gently on his head, "I'm not very good at this, it will likely be messy and somewhat painful, but I swear in this moment I mean you no harm. Ernuern Sie." Gaius took on a light blue aura as the reishi in the air and ground dissolved and rushed towards him. With a mental push and a wall of the building alchemic pressures inside him he forced it away from himself and down his arm. It flashed, gaining a slightly red cast to it before it collided with Lerato, rushing into him. He would easily be able to feel the rushing in of a foreign energy. The pain wouldn't be horrible, but nor was it comfortable. He would likely feel as if the channels that carried his reiatsu about were bursting, and the relatively unfamiliar energy flooded them. If Lerato didn't fight it he would feel and see his injuries glowing a bright blue with the occasional spark of red firing out. His hands, rubbed raw mere seconds ago would quickly heal with little more then a tender scab. The gash in his hand with a barely closed scar, likely to quickly dissapear with proper healing.

He flashed away once more back to his original position as Mercury's Wings faded away. He fell to one knee, forcing that much about that quickly on another unused to it was taxing. Jupiter's Ring, winked out of existence. He coughed, and with the bit of composure that came with the pain of the wracking cough, away went the bracer, Vulcan's Shield. With every piece that left him, some of his energy and previous vitality returned. "Retaliate..." And then it too, Mars' Spears, was gone as well, leaving Gaius with only his gladius. "...Zündstoff." He levered himself back onto both feet, restored by the new source of energy, his Mark, coursing through him.

Liquid metal reminiscent of his ARMS poured up from the ground and formed a wiry skeleton, shaped like the human circulatory system, in an instant. Quickly globs of stone, shot towards if from all around as if handfuls of mud thrown at it. Moments later a vaguely human shape was completed and a metallic skin bubbled up from underneath, forming every shapely detail perfectly. The darkblue tint of the metal swiftly changed to very accurately resemble a very suave and sophisticated American business man in a white suit complete with tophat and cane. Everything seemsed normal about him except for the slightly metallic sheen to his entire surface, and his piercing bright red eyes.

The 'man' slowly extended his hand towards Lerato as if to shake, " My name, is Zündstoff, pleasure to make your acquaintance, and your name is?"

Zund's eyes flashed, How rude... The flash didnt effect him in the same way it would an organic creature, yes he was blinded, yes he was deafened. But he didn't hear and see in the same way a human, or Bount, did. His artificial body quickly adapted as the bright flash and loud noise slowly faded. He wasn't able to see perfectly but he easily made out the faded outline of Lerato rushing him. That outline was quickly disrupted by two sources of light, one of which was headed for him.

It was like one of the flashbang grenades he had encountered numerous times in his black-ops carreer. Only instead of a simple flashbang, it was as if it had met a nuke and they had decided to see what a child would look and sound like. This was the result, Gaius was relatively used to the feeling, and so while he was still blinded and nearly deafened by the attack, he wasn't knocked to his feet puking up his last three meals. The wave of energy lashed into him, the electricity coursing through his body spasming his muscles, tensing and untensing constantly, keeping him upright. The sheer force and edge of the wave of energy opened up a shallow gash crossing his left bicep and up over the left side of his chest and over his shoulder.

His Mark pulsed angrily, drawing more heavily on the alchemic energy inside, the gash began knitting itself together, without the characteristic glow that came from the use of reishi. He Blitzed forwards, his footsteps feuled by the energy, left scorched and flaming prints behind on the bare rock. He appeared in front of Lerato and swung a simple right hook. His normal monstrous power bolstered by his Mark would make the simple blow powerful enough to turn bones into dust were it allowed to hit. Luckily for Lerato his sight still hadn't fully returned, everything seemed to be inky blots, the strike wasnt the most well aimed, though without intervention would still strike. He had used his well tuned sense of reiatsu locate Lerato and initiate an attack before he could follow up and turn the tide of the battle against him.

Zund frowned in concentration, trying to pinpoint the location of slashing arc of energy. Unable to do so with any sense of accuracty he stamped the foot of his cane on the ground. The resulting explosion shattered the rock sending shards flying in every which direction at extremly high speeds. He ended up sailing backwards for several yards before his back was to touch on the ground, like was was a rock skipping on water. Before it could he hit a slight bump and an even larger explosion sounded out. Even more rocks and jagged stone flying about accompanied by flames. He flew up into the air over the other two combatants. With luck he would come down on top of them and the resulting explosion would kill both... But such would not be his luck. He soon reached apogee and began falling towards the earth, from a couple hundred feet up. He sighed, he would land several meters to the South of them, the concussive blast, shrapnel, and flames would still deal a tasteful amount of damage at least. He smiled it would have to do. "Let me try again, Lerato, my name is Zundstoff...and now you will die." Though he was shouting all the noise and the air rushing by as he fell would likely drown it out.

"I'm very old, and I've been a career soldier for almost all of it. I've been through almost every variation of a flash-bang grenade they have come up with. Now I have another to add to the list." He knew it was likely his punch would be blocked or dodged easily. But his sight was almost back at its peak now. He could make out details just fine, although the edges of things still had a slight blur to them. His ears however had recovered just fine. When Lerato began incanting it brought up all of Gaius' memories of fighting against Kido users, within moments he had it identified. Even before he spoke the name of the spell. "Sokatsui?" Gaius Blitzed backwards. As he did he ducked, he passed cleanly underneath Lerato's arm and its accompanying ball of energy. Both fists came back and thundered towards the Shinigami's lower back. They would hurt...alot.

Zund was mere meters from the rock when he smiled speaking again. "This will be fun." All was calm, a few bird calls coudl barely be heard as the area quietened slightly. Then he hit. It sounded as if the world it self were breaking. Fire and explosively expanding gasses fired outwards in every direction to wash over the other two combatants. Dust billowed out and above forming its own miniature mushroom shape. The top of the plateau they fought upon cracked and shook. Great sections ranging in size from that of cars to large house separated and fell off tumbling into the gorge below.

Zund couldn't tell what had happened to the other two. The dust and boulders were still settling from his short fall. He picked himself up off the ground and brushed at his clothing, attempting to rid it of the dirt it had gathered. He touched his lip. It was broken...he could feel it, it of course wasn't bleeding, he didn't have blood. But that was just insulting. He pushed the jagged ends back together as best he could and looked around, curious to see how his idiot so called 'master' and his opponent had fared.

[Sorry this has been so long in the making Mitch. To be honest I just haven't had any desire to rp lately, but you deserve more than me putting this off and I apologize.]

There wasn't much he could do for a dodged kido, especially when the spell in question was one shot, instead of controlled like many of the tendril-like spells, but he could do his best to avoid the man's counter. Though an awkward maneuver Lerato slumped to the side with his left arm extended, planting it into the dirt as he lifted his lower body straight into the air with a standing cartwheel. Just before he was able to twist his hips and turn his body to evade the attack completely Giaus's left fist collided with his side, cracking two ribs and easily bruising many others. The attack made him over rotate, swinging off balance before tumbling to the ground below. After regaining his breathe he looked up, a flash of light washing over the area before the two men. "Get down!" He gave as much warning as he could, channeling his reiatsu into both hands before focusing on an oval shape in front of him. "Bakudo #39, Arc Shield!" A moment or two later the earth started to rain down upon them. Luckily the two of them were close enough that most of the large objects were sent flying away from them. The smaller ones however started to rain down on them like overly sized hail.

'Son of a b***h...' His reiatsu flared with each collision, constantly fixing the small imperfections in the shield keeping him safe. All he could do was wait for the onslaught to end and hope that his opponent had managed to survive. After what seemed like an eternity Lerato let the spell dissipate into the air around them. The plateau looked like a well-worn battle zone, craters in the sand and stone, the smell of heat in the air. "Giaus, are you alright?" He didn't bother looking around; he had grown accustomed to the man's average reiatsu level and kept him in the back of his mind while keeping the golem at the forefront. "You're crazy, you know that, right?" He inquired, holding his bruised side with his opposite hand. "I could understand you attacking me, but attacking you're own creator. If he ends, then so do you. You have to realize that." He snapped, waiting for the right moment to move. 'This is getting tedious...' He thought, trying to concentrate on the two individuals at once.

[With a small victory of one more vote, I am the victor. Thank you Mitch for the excellent battle.]