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"That would be greatly appreciated... especially since your rhymes aren't exactly the best I've ever heard." Alexiel noticed the distance between the minstrel and herself getting smaller and this made her frown slightly.

"A: You made an advance on me... B: I'm merely stating my opinion." Alexiel didn't even flinch as he moved around her. "Perhaps you should learn to deal with criticism... particularly constructive criticism."

Alexiel's pale lips turned up in a grin. A thought had just struck her...

"I am a poet, far better than you,
A master of both words and rhyme.
I think you'll find me hard to out do.
You've met your match this time."

"Oh my, I'm so scared,
Of a minstrel impaired,
A man who would draw,
On a femme so small.

If it's a fight that you want,
Then a fight you shall get.
This is not just a taunt,
This fight you'll regret."

Alexiel gripped the hilts of her dirks, watching the minstrel closely as she waited for him to make a move.

Korek lay on the gorund, rolling violently. The cries were diging into his soul further than he had hoped to let them. He was barely able to concentrate on anything now, and was also seeing images fromt he fire he had just tossed.

His body started to cramp slightly, and he was beggining to be overrun. One cry though happened to set him off though. It had said that he had been the death of a villiage that he had SAVED. This gave him a second to think. Wait a minute. None of this makes sense anymore. Most of these thoughts never happened, and the ones that are gettting me, were me helping, not destroying. The atack on my villiage was my fault, I know that, but I was still able to help. They didn't get me, and not everyone died. And that villiage, I helped save that girl, and I helped out with figuring out the Street Killer. This makes no sense. But, This is my advantage. Korek Told himself.

He began to run thorugh every cry carefully, and seeing that they were able to be balanced out. This had taken his Yin and converted it to all Yang. But, he was getting back. He Was covnerting the Yang back into the Yin. He had to balance them out though, give him an unbridled thought process. This, he was able to do quickly. As he did it, his eyes opened wide, and his ears cleared. He had finally acheived true inner peace. This was still trouble for him though. His night vision was no good, and lighting up any fire would just cause him to see shadows.

Korek had thought of an Idea. But first, he had to charge for energy. He took his chance, and started to charge as qucik as he could.

He stood this time.

His doppleganger was somewhere on the other side of the man. while he was over here.

reaching into his shirt tenma pulls out two kunai, pushing them into his sash for later use he charges 5 balles of flame on his hand again, it would hopefully be hidden by the blurs from the fire the man had thrown earlier so not seen, this time though they spun more rapidly, spinning until they swirled together into one bright flame.

now you'de think the same thing would happen to tenma, he would see images burned into his eyes, well no, tenma's eyes had been closed since the man threw the flame at him in the dark.

His eyes were useless if he had afterimages burnt into them.

Throwing the flame at the man he was fighting at the same time his doppleganger behind the man threw a flame much like it just lower so it would hit the ground.

on impact the balls of flame would have the same effect as the smaller ones before only much greater.

needless to say, it would hurt and take much more to dodge the radius of damage cause by both flames.

The flames exploded underneath and on him. It would do little other than make metal on his body redhot for a split second and burn his skin, but that wasn't what was going to finish him.

About 2 seconds after the flames were thrown both tenma and the doppleganger unsheathed thier swords. Both pulled the 3 kunai they had stuck in thier sash earlier threw them and charged after them, flame would be follow by kunai, then the two figthters.

Once tenma reached the man he would make a diagonal slash down across the mans chest, the doppleganger would make a horizontal slash at the backs of his knees.

His eyes were closed, but the dopplegangers were not.

The doppleganger fell backwards covering his eyes with his hands, his vision totally shot for the time being he dissipated, falling back into the darkness.

Tenma was pushed back by the telekentic push, thrown back more like it but the light would stop, part of the terrain effect was that light did little or nothing for distance.

if light you had would normally give you a cirle of light about 10 feet across, it would be 2 feet here. The energy would quickly dissipate into the air, but nonetheless tenma was thrown back.

landing on his back and sliding he stood up quickly, he even had a small afterimage with his eyes closed.

with a flourish another kunai was in his hand, and another flick of his wrist and it was flying at the mans chest.

He aslo began to moved, dodging side to side moving near less quickly this time ready to dodge what needed to be avoided while getting closer.

compared to the light click of tenma's steps the man sounded like a stampede of bull. It was easy to track him.

he began sprinting at the man as well, but alot more quiet than the man was. His footsteps hidden by the mans own steps.

Once he judged himself close he swung his blade horizontally, aiming at his waist.

another thing would happen here.

When he was running small pillars of light broke through the shadow, now it was mid twilight seeming but it wasn't because he lost concentration, quite the opposite.

in his left hand he held a kunai, as he slashed with his right he threw the kunai at the man, but here's the catch, the shadow energy he had been pulling into his body erupted, what seemed like thousands of kunai flew at him surrounding the single one he had thrown.

It would be damn near impossible to dodge, the kunai made from solidified energy speard out enough that any direction he moved he would be hit. or would he?