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[Beast's Castle ~.~ Courtyard]

Anthony watched as the first tessen bounced off his gauntlet, then began to laugh. "What are you trying to do, Dawn? My gauntlets are pretty thick." ...though you can't say the same about his skull.

The second tessen was more successful. Upon impact, the young man fell back, his chain loosening its grip around Dawn's ankle and his Gigawatt Blade dismissing itself. The bonk to the head put things back into perspective for the knight. He was definitely not acting like himself, which was a bit frightening even for himself.

Slowly sitting up, Anthony rubbed his forehead where the tessen had hit as he retracted what remained of his chain back into his gauntlet. "Ow...," he muttered, the effects of Vehemence wearing off as his stats returned to normal. He looked at Dawn with unbelieving eyes, surprised at the damage visible on her body. He wanted to apologize, but the words didn't come out of his mouth. All he did was look away in shame...

"Maybe I went a bit overboard..." he finally said, standing up on his feet. "You get a free shot. Anywhere you like... just, you know... not below the belt. Or I'll kill you--just kidding." He began to laugh, but said again, "But seriously. Not there."

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Courtyard]

Her statement was definitely not comforting... with good reason, too.

Anthony felt his life force being sucked out of him, and when it was finally done, he fell to his knees, feeling dizzy and weak. "That was eeeeevilllll," he said, slowly getting back onto his feet. "That was like Force Drain from Star Wars. You're like a sith, Dawn."

Suddenly, Anthony created two small balls of electricity in each hand and tossed them at Dawn, but one fell short and landed a couple of feet in front of her while the other landed a bit behind her to her side; however, they did not fizzle out. Instead, they remained there, sparking and cracking beside the girl.

If Dawn began to dance once again, all the knight had to do now is snap his fingers, and the lightning grenades around the girl would erupt violently.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Courtyard]

"Star Wars nerd?!" Anthony snapped. "Who you calling Star Wars nerd, you muncher?!"

Drats... distracted again.

Before he knew it, Dawn was sprinting in his direction, rendering his lightning grenades useless, but at least they were still there just in case he needed them.

Her speed was too great for Anthony to match. Her attack connected and the young man was forced back from the blow, though he quickly responded by shooting out a lightning entity of himself out of his body and at Dawn.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Courtyard]

Immediately, Anthony raised a hand defensively before him and created a polarity wall, a shield entirely created out of electrical energy, to block the wind blades; however, since Dawn's magic strength was significantly greater than his, the shield dispersed after absorbing most of the first blade's damage after colliding with it then carried the remainder of the damage through, followed by the second blade. The attack knocked the young man down, but not without giving him a nasty cut across his mid-torso first.

The knight winced in pain as he sat up and grabbed his chest. His clothes were already mending themselves and quickly covered the bloody gash behind them. Dawn was no easy opponent. Her status seems so well rounded, it would be difficult for Anthony to do anything outside of close-combat.

He needed to close the gap and keep it closed. So... he did the opposite. He created a distance.

"Can't catch me, sucka!" Anthony shouted as he turned and hightailed out of the courtyard, up the stairs, and into the castle after smashing a hole with his gauntlets large enough to fit through in the large doors.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Foyer]

Once inside, the knight hid behind the immediate wall to the left and waited for his opponent to come while using his Radar Pulse ability to create a mental image of his surroundings and the distance between him and Dawn. He crouched and pressed the palms of his gauntlets against the floor. When the girl was in range, he would extend his chains and navigate them through the floor until they resurfaced and wrapped themselves around the girl's ankles, preventing her from moving.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Foyer]

Anthony fell to the floor once again as pain shot through his body, forcing him to curl into a ball. He groaned through gritted teeth as his innards felt as if they were churning. "Not... this... again...," he managed to grunt, screaming a bit at the end. However, he was able to escape from this last time by using magic. He could do the same this time.

Slowly inching his hand in front of him, he grunted yet another word, "Thundara!" Suddenly, a large storm cloud formed above and came from it several thunder bolts. Thunder bolts rained down from the storm cloud, covering nearly the entire foyer.

Things got a bit hectic after that...

The attack had set ablaze to the more flammable items in the room, such as the curtains and rugs, and the flames quickly spread. If, for some reason, the Thundara had not phased Dawn, surely the fires would force her to stop dancing and move away, allowing the knight to get back onto his feet, though he had no intentions of running back outside, but rather to finish the battle under the new circumstances.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Foyer]

Anthony suddenly found himself swirling about the room uncontrollably in mid-air. The winds spread the fire in the room like wild and, much like a vacuum, began to suck up the flames. Before he knew it, he was in a twister inferno, which burned at his skin and set parts of his clothes ablaze, though fortunately they mended themselves before anything inappropriate would've been revealed. To make matters worse, the winds carried and crashed the knight into the pillars (sometimes even being forced through them) and walls around the room.

Finally, the winds grew weaker until they came to a sudden stop. Anthony fell to the ground, momentarily immobilized from pain and feeling dizzy and sick to his stomach from all the twirling. Debris from the broken pillars and ceiling chipped away and fell around the room as the knight laid motionless on the floor. His fingers twitched, the first sign of movement since he had fallen, before his hands slowly recoiled to his sides to help push him back onto his feet.

"It is time...," said Odin, knowing the young man had reached his limit after sustaining so much damage.

Cue: Sons of War

Anthony rose to his feet haphazardly, swaying left to right as he attempt to regain balance until he finally stopped, his arms dangling at his side and his head bowed. "That was good," he finally said. "One heck of an attack..." He raised his head and grinned at Dawn, then said proudly. "But mine's better."

Slamming his gauntlets together, an explosion of electricity shone from them as a small summoning circle appeared beneath him. The electricity slowly began to dim and contract until a thin blue outline hugged his weapons before glowing a bright white color as their shape began to manipulate. Pulling his hands apart, a large beam of light stretched across the gap in a shape of a sword; however, due to the intensity of the light, its appearance was difficult to make out.

Finally, the light began to dim and the new weapon was apparent to everyone. In his hands, as a substitution for his gauntlets, Anthony held Zantetsuken, a great blue misshapen sword usually wielded by his summon Odin.

Positioning himself to attack with his new weapon at his side, the room grew dim, despite the surrounding flames, and time seemed to have grown still. In a blink of an eye, the knight finally dashed forward, clearing the gap between him and Dawn and appearing behind her, while passing his weapon through the girl in the process. Anthony turned to face his opponent's back, then fell to a knee from exhaustion as the weapon disappeared with a flash of light. The attack was a success and soon the tessen-wielder would feel the delayed pain overwhelm her to the point of unconsciousness.

[Beast's Castle ~.~ Foyer]

The young man struggled to his feet, then limped his way over to the girl's unconscious body. "Oi!" he said, playfully kicking Dawn's side. Just then, the scenario around them flickered and faded away and they were no longer in the foyer of the Beast's Castle, but within the Mirage Arena--or what Anthony liked to call it: "The Danger Room" (the name of the training room in X-Men). "Battle's over. I won. Now get up, woman. I believe we should celebrate by you making me a sandwich."

With that, he continued to limp towards the exit, but did not leave before craning his neck to glance over his shoulder at Dawn and say, "Are you comin' or what?"