Welcome to Gaia! ::

Skylicker landed on his side, looking up quickly and then jumping to his feet. He eyed the individual ribbons of cloth the scarf had 'seperated' into and grinned. "Ah ha, so it awakens." he said, taking a few steps around Delv and then dropping to a low stance.

He had to be more careful now, he at least knew that much. He stood upright, mimicking Delve's earlier stance in which he held his arm blade out, in Crim's version he held the kodachi pointing outward, but sideways with the edge point away from his body. He spun the sword around in a circle in the air before him, then quickly pushed himself off on his right foot and toward Delve, bringing the kodachi inward from his left side as he moved and then slashing outward horizontally at him.

Crim`lowered his head, bringing his right arm up to partially block the incoming arm blade which tore into his sleeve a bit and scraped against his right arm. He used the crossguard of his knife to push Delve's arm blade up and away, using his body to push Delve back before jumping back out of his range.

"Hm... s**t." he said, looking down at his slightly ripped right sleeve. "Y'know how much I pay my tailor every year just to keep this jacket looking good? I mean, it's not like I could get a new one... This one is one of a kind and it fits just right. Y'know how it is... Finding the right fit..." he said casually, tossing his kodachi at a tree where it landed point down into the stump.

Crim` tossed his knife into the air, quickly grabbing it with a swift left hand as gravity took it's toll; He'd hold it before him in a reverse grip, crouching a bit and bringing his right hand up so that it was just below his blade. His right arm tensed and his hand opened and closed quickly as he closed his eyes and grinned, a cocky "Hm..." coming from his throat. His feet spread a bit, his left about 15 inches in front of his right and his knees bent, out a bit further apart than shoulder width. In a flash his eyes opened and they were locked on the man who stood across from him.

((Ack, no! Also... Our timelines are so messed up. rofl ))

((I could see it... xd ))

Crim` didn't move, not even turning to meet Delve as he began to circle him.

What the hell was he doing? He began to laugh, a low and throaty laugh... That... typical, gradual, building "Muuh-hoo-ha-hah" bellow that evil guys do, though Crim` wasn't really Sephiroth or Ganondorf, or even a villian for that matter. No undeniably evil agenda, in fact... He was quite the anti-hero, walking a thin line at all times between what he knows is right and what he knows is easy.

Love... or hate

Honor... Or the easy win

Self satisfaction... Or helping others

Maybe he was finally realizing that life is all about the...

GIVE AND TAKE!

Why he was even entrusted with a sacred ring to control the element of Earth of all things so long ago still, admittedly, was one of the many things that constantly boggled the man's perpetually clouded mind. Perhaps losing the flesh and blood arm he was born with was a bit of karmic payback for all the times he chose that easy path and did all those bad things.

"It's just... A weight I've got to carry..."

Perhaps it was the fact that he knew that there were much worse people in Gaia than himself.

"They've all got it coming to them... Just like me."

Many mothers would say that one should use the gifts given to them.

The Kodachi that Crim` so nonchalantly tossed at a treestump was not a gift but rather a purchase. Why use that when there are two gifts that have yet to be used on this night, he pondered to himself.

He reviewed the sources of his gifts.

First, the ring mentioned earlier. A gift from the chaotic and selfish Gods of 0wnage who, in all the time of their existence, have obsessively plotted and schemed to see their one single goal come to fruition: To see the world plunged into a state of constant and perpetual chaos. Not exactly the type of people you want in your Christmas club.

Then, the destructive artificial right arm which is more of a weapon in and of itself than anything else. A 'gift' from a corporation which makes it's fortune off of the same type of behaviour in people that the Gods of 0wnage strive on: War and violence.

Skylicker shook his head, blinking slowly as all these thoughts seemed to bounce around inside his head and collide instantaneously. He couldn't help but find it funny.

Had the man lost it? Perhaps it was all an act, psychological warfare towards the man in the white coat, if you will. Perhaps he had some sort of hidden agenda toward this man in this fight, or perhaps he had truly fallen into one of his inexplicable dazes that have been known to last for hours.

He did, but then he remembered the fact that a gift should not be wasted, even if the gift is... From a questionable source.

Nay...

Nothing should be wasted.

And so Delvenerrim the shady had made his way to his side and Crim` saw a large opening in front of him all of a sudden due to his old acquantance's sideways movements. What would he do with this opening? Why, he'd roll forward into it, shifting his body in such a way that he ended facing the opposite direction that he had been facing mere moments before. If playing Tomb Raider, why, that'd be the O button!

With a quick raise of his left hand in front of him after correcting himself and settling on one knee after the roll, and while still maintaining the grip of his combat knife in said hand, the pink-haired weilder of the Earth ring would use said ring to shake the very foundation at the base of the large tree close to the one his kodachi was stuck in.

And so the ring on the middle finger of his left hand glowed a furious green in that instant then subdued, the aura fading away after the brief and seemingly effortless action was complete. Through the rigorous training Crim` Skylicker had endured over all the time he's used this trinket of elemental potency a simple shift of the earth underneath an old rotten tree was childsplay and required so little concentration that dogs exert more effort simply making it connect with the hydrant. It was his duty, afterall, to renew the circle of life as it were... Or at least that's how he justified to himself that in many cases he knocked over trees to get himself out of a fix.

Not that this was a fix. The tree was just hideous. Straight out of a Tim Burton film, it was, and this was not Sleepy Hollow regardless of how much this particular area started to resemble it.

Then there's the noise! The sound of a large heaping oak falling is like none other! That cracking, that sudden feeling in everyone's gut that makes them question which way it's going to fall! With that same familiar creak the large, and I mean LARGE half-rotted tree would come falling down toward the two combatants. Delve would have to move ofcourse to avoid being crushed by wood... A fate no man should have to suffer. Skylicker himself well, he was already running away by the time the tree began to fall!