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-Thud...BOOM!-

The kick to the chest forces Dash back onto the ground, hard.

Due to the state he was in, he didn't have the concentration or focus to perform a "safe fall". Meaning...

The back of his head would meet the ground first.

That would be it, K-O.

His body hurtled backwards, and smashed back into the wall. Needless to say, the wall was raped.

Purely raped.

A deepening crater was left impacted within the stone, by far- the largest blemish in the cathedral now. Wisps of smoke spiraled up and out of the crater...even as the second elbow came in.

There in the crater, Vahn lay. His mouth agape, blood dripping out of it, his eyes were glazed over with a sort of dreamy feeling. Debris settled about him, as his wholebody smoked and sizzled. He had both forearms crossed about his chest, and right now..his left was suffering the most for it. He had barely managed to protect himself at the last instant...his body feeling as if it would fall apart on him now. The eyes that stared upwards...were those of a shocked man.

What is this...

This...

Feeling of misery...

Of... Shame...?

Dammit!

His eyes tightened, the pupils dilating. His mouth snapped shut, blood and saliva flying. "WHAT IS THIS?!" The hoarse shout bellowed out from the crater, even as Vahn leaned his way out of the rubble...body shaking, blood almost coming out from every pore on his body, the roof of his mouth burned from acid.

THU-THUMP THU-THUMP

His heartbeat grew.

Louder.

Louder still.

Then it happened.

He would slowly feel his blood pumping, quicker, faster, harder. All of his body would suddenly move as his adrenaline surged. That would last a full 60 seconds before the pumping blood, became burning blood. It would feel as if fire itself was within his veins, like something was threatening to cook him from the inside out, and kill him! And it most likely would if he did not diffuse the flames he created immediately before he was burned alive... "AAAAAAGH!" Vahn's eyes were mere yellow dots now, streaming with pure primal rage.

Human rage.

Wisps of black flame seeped from his mouth, his cuts, eyes...all leaking out, pooling and mixing...forming that hideous demonic face above his body, even as the heat increased tenfold within the place.

He fell forward, raven locks standing on end even as the remainder of his upper clothing burned away.

He landed on all fours, legs bent, even as his hands dug into the floor. His eyes narrowed, the dots of yellow streaming outwards with the slightest motion of his head.

The heat continued to increase, before being pulled in towards a singular epi-center; namely Vahn. Ripples of of it could be seen emanating outwards now with increasing pressure.

"UUUAAARGHHHH!!!"

His head was thrown back even as the guttural roar left his throat. The area in front of Joshua literally exploded outwards as the air was superheated, a large crater forming in the ground from the impact of it.

Even as that happened, Vahn launched himself forward from his haunches; hands clawed and streaming black flame.

The atmosphere around him warped, forming the mental imagery of a great serpent baring it's fangs.

Forgive me for this...

And, as Griff kicked out towards Ryugi's face, Ryugi pulled back and twisted his torso around, his arm pulling the massive sword around his body, aiming to cut nicely into Griff's kicking leg. Ryugi was being careful not to chop the limb completely off, he did not want to butcher this man, but the blade would most likely stop directly at the bone above his knee. Severing tendons and muscles essential to using the leg.

Griff would most likely not be expecting this since Ryugi had made no attempt to attack before, and only dodged. Also, with his kick already in motion, and ballancing on one foot in order to perform said kick, his ballance and attempted reaction to the slice would be next to useless. At the close range of the encounter, and factoring in Ragnarok's large range, even if Griff attempted to flap back and out of the way, he would likely not have enough time, or space, to act.

Joshua would have brought his right arm up to try and deflect the incoming attack, but with the violent force of the flames and the rage-fueled strength powering the Mirror Slaying Blaze, his right arm alone wouldn't be enough to stop the attack.

Joshua clenched his fist tightly around the dull red glow that he harbored in his hand; the light seeping through the cracks between his fingers when he did and continuing to grow. Even with the heat of the flames and the force of the blow causing that arm to go nearly numb, and even as Joshua was thrown back through two rows of pews, he held that power tightly.




It didn't take a genius to see that this was a bad position to be in. Encircled by flame, confronted by an enemy that you couldn't get close to without being burned...

Joshua smiled. The black blood that had been running from the corner of his mouth now dripped from his chin, it ran past his eye from a cut upon his forehead, his arms had splinters of shattered wood jutting out from the skin, and though his right hand still gathered that glow around it, blood from his earlier wound oozed through his fingers and dripped to the ground beside him.

"Dance for me, Gale..." he said, slowly rising to his feet even as the snake of black flame coiled around.

The force of the wind suddenly increased tenfold; the interior of the cathedral becoming a storm as the wind whipped in a furious cyclone. Within a second all of the blood that had covered Joshua was gone, as well as the blood that had covered the floor; it had hardened, chipped to pieces, and been taken away by the wind. The floorboards all around shattered violently as well in the force of the wind, and the shards and splinters carried into the air, spinning violently about the room in a whirlwind centered upon Joshua.

Small blades, splinters and shards of wood, even the wind seemed to bite at both of them as it whirled throughout the cathedral; the walls groaning in protest as they tried to resist the hurricane-force winds. As much of the debris was wood, Vahn's flame would act as a catalyst, and the entire interior of the cathedral would become one huge firestorm that threatened to not only bring the entire building coming down, but to pick both combattants up and carry them with it.

Joshua held fast where he was... not because he was waiting for Vahn to come, but because to take a step in any direction would send him flying through his own attack. There was nowhere to run, as blades of blood and splintered wood whirled around in every direction, and the fangs of the serpant were closing in.


It was like slow motion; the storm happening around them, and the two, in the center of it all, alighted with black flame. Joshua's hand slipped from the sword hilt, and he brought both bracers to bare against the great serpant's fangs.

There was calm for but an instant. Without that physical connection Gale's powers were limited and she had used up most of her energy to create that twister, she would be unable to try that again for another day or two. As the winds slowly died, the debris hung weightless in the air...


The serpant struck swiftly, the earth shaking at impact even as it was blown apart. Dirt and debris flew everywhere, the shards that hung in the air were shot outwards from the force of the blast and embedded themselves within the walls of the cathedral, and even the walls themselves were beginning to crumble. The few pews that were still undamaged were upturned as the earth quaked, the windows shattered and rained down upon the ground, and stones fell as the ceiling caved in over the altar, crushing the organ which had stopped playing long ago.



"What is it?"



"Maybe a little..."



"...well, it's been a long time."



"Heh... since when were you the one to give pep talks?"



"Yeah... me neither."

Joshua opened his eyes and took a look around; the ceiling was a lot closer than it used to be, and his body felt almost weightless... no, there was that feeling inside, and the ceiling was moving again. Falling, that would do it.

Below, Vahn was at the center of where he had been standing, surrounded by burned and cracked earth in all directions, still burning with that same black flame. Another look behind showed that the wall was getting closer, too. Now if only...

The left leg moved... then the right. The left arm followed, but the right seemed to refuse. Then there was the burning feeling.



Joshua kicked his legs out, turning himself over in the air even as he subconciously activated the spell trigger to activate a prepared mobility spell. His feet touched upon the wall, and he dropped down to one knee as if it were the ground itself. Frantically he tore at the few strands of fabric left that bound the smoldering bracers to his forearms; pausing only long enough to stare at the way that the right had bent inwards, before he shed the both of them and let the scalding sheets of adamantium fall to the earth below.

"Where the hell did that come from...?"

Joshua rose to his feet again on the wall surface, staring down at Vahn, who had just 'unleashed the beast' all over the building. It was still shaking, hell, the ground was still shaking as the enormous tree limb that the cathedral rested upon swayed slightly.

"Rrr..." The gutteral sound of an almost feral growl escaped him, as Joshua reached across to grasp his right forearm with his left hand. Now that the bracer was gone, his left arm showed the black tattoo that ran across it and to the back of his hand; marked with spell verses, circles, and jutting shapes, it looked almost as if a black flame were enveloping his arm.



The bone set, popping back into place with little but a flinch; nearly a century of medical training put to use in a single gesture. The right hand still glowed fiercely with that red light contained within it, but as the left stayed pressed against the skin on his right arm, it glowed hastily with a soft blue light which subsided in a second.



Joshua opened his right hand, the charged energy crackling in the air. He stood upon the wall, covered with burns, charred blood coating his arms from where they had been lacerated by the wood splinters, and the look of a devil in his black, colorless eyes. With a sweep of his left palm across his right, the red glow divided onto both hands, and Joshua dropped into a much lower stance than he had used before; his left arm held in front of him, his right held back.





(( Hokai... finally done. ><" ))

Joshua laughed, baring fangs as he did, and stretched his arms for a moment; the charred skin splitting anew and letting more of that black blood run down his bare arms and stain the tattered remnants of his shirt.

"I see... so that wasn't you back then, attacking with so much anger."

He stepped forwards, off of the wall, and dropped gracefully to the ground after a single flip in the air; landing with his left fist against the ground, his right arm still out behind him.

"...devils often live in a hell of their own creation."

"I do..."

Joshua resumed his stance, standing up slightly from where he was crouched upon the ground. His right arm behind, his left arm forwards, with the crimson hue still present in his half-closed hands.


Joshua responded by taking one step forwards when Vahn neared; shuffling forwards first his back foot, then his front again; and when Vahn dropped for the sweep, Joshua instead went up.

He performed a moonsault over Vahn's head, flipping high enough into the air so that he cleared the other man, and both hands whipped out as he passed over to jab two fingers with each into the tops of Vahn's shoulders.

Vahn would feel a sudden burst of explosive pain in his shoulders, yet find the area completely numb for the next few seconds if he tried to move his arms. Meanwhile, Joshua would land in a crouched position behind Vahn; his hands held at his sides with two fingers extended from each, and the red glow persisting.





(( Wasting the 3 turns of Negative Energy charge to increase the stun effect on the opening strike. ))