Better than ever

[Darah]

It was a sunday morning and Darah had woken up to good news. Her son, Gekko, had his shoulder all healed up since that time when mother and son went down to the Academy's sahara base on the earth and one of the enemy minotaurs there cleaved an axe into his shoulder. It was a good thing that the scales of a basilisk are very hard and tough otherwise the axe could have cleaved right through Gekko.

Now that Gekko's shoulder was fine, it was time for Darah to test if Gekko had lost any of his touch during recovery. In the academy, Gekko was supposed to be kept in a disguised form of a basilisk lizard. The only place allowed for him to be in his true form was the training grounds. That's where the couple of mother and son stood at now. Darah with horns, pale green skin, t-shirt and jeans together with Gekko, more than five feet tall, over 4 metres in length, triple horns on the head, deadly claws and fangs, dark green skin, barbed tail and rippling muscles.

First, Darah sat on Gekko's back, the very same back that had carried Darah away from the carnage of Aceh. Gekko immediately took off, loping around on his six legs in a lizard like movement. Gekko didn't lose any speed since the sahara base incident and Darah was relieved. She stood up on Gekko's back as Gekko charged around and swung her claws out to the sides, pretending that she was hacking heads off centaurs. It felt great. A mother and son bonding moment.

After a few laps around the training grounds, Darah and Gekko came to a stop and Darah jumped off her son's back, landing gracefully on the ground. She turned around and hugged her son's neck, telling him how much she loved him. Gekko replied and called her: Mama. That's how he always showed affection for his mother.

Darah turned around to face the people who have gathered, watching the display she and Gekko had put on.
"This kid is alright." Darah called out to the spectators "He has had his training for the day. Now any of you want to help me loosen my muscles?"
Darah was challenging any one of them to a fight. Some looked discouraged, having seen Darah's performance while on Gekko's back.

[jyo]

"Why not. you seem a speedy little devil. You could prove a challenge to me." Said a tall blode young man in a long red coat. He was genuinly impressed at the display shown. he knew if he went all out it wasn't up to his level. but this could be a fun fight. and in the training ground where it was a test of skill not as much as overpowering a foe. A highly ranked person could be crushed by a newcomer.

Jyo unsheathed his weapon and stuck the blade in the ground next to him.
"The question is what are the battle conditions?" He asked. He had seen this person around here and there though they had never met. And he had heard a few things here and there. The thing this person had on Jyo was speed. And Jyo had a trick up his sleeve called the hypertime spell.

[Darah]

Darah looked at a young man who had called her a 'devil'. She has heard that one plenty of times before when people accidentally saw her horns and ran off screaming the word. The person who addressed her as such was a blonde and was garbbed in a red coat. Also, when he unsheathed his blade, Darah knew this person would be a swordsman. She had faced swordsmen before, a lot of them she had beaten.

Darah knew this one. Yes... He was one of the higher ranking mages of the Academy and had been in the sahara base when the monsters struck. Jyo was his name she had heard people call him by.

He asked for conditions. Does one need conditions in fights? You'll never fight to full satisfaction nor can you win if you fight fairly.
"Conditions? None other than we don't bring our kids into this fight. This will be a one on one training session, so no permanent damage."

With that, Darah hugged her kid's neck before sending him over to one of the spectators' benches.

[Xal' Kanas]

*I stood away from the stands, no one making eye contact with me. Not even so much as a glance. It was as though I was a ghost. Good. I didn't want too much involvement, yet. I was here to watch... For... talent.

I looked on as two people seemed to be preparing for a spar. A wizard I had had my eye on for some time, Jyo. Also, a newcomer. A girl whom I had never seen. But, my mind gave me her name as soon as I wanted to know. Darah.

Hmm... An intriguing battle. One I would have to watch.*

[jyo]

Jyo smiled.
"That works. My conditions are for fair fights is I can. Anyways you seem to be a very able opponet." He said. He shrugged his coat off letting one of the sleeves be caught by his right hand as the left arm came free and he tossed it to the side to hang on a tree branch. He brabbed his sword with his left hand raising it in a sturdy variation of a fencing stance.

"We haven't been properly introduced. I am Jyo Mashima." He said waiting until he learned this person's name before he attacked.

[Darah]

What is this guy? An absolute gentleman or a total idiot? There is no point in fighting fair if you are up against someone who won't. You'll only get yourself backstabbed and then killed.

Darah watched as Jyo drop his coat off and raise his sword. When he is given the signal to start, Jyo would most likely attack first. Still, Jyo was not the reason Darah's spine was tingling and gave her the feeling that something was amiss, as though someone was staring at her.

Darah tilted her head slightly up and scanned the training ground areas. No one... wait! There was one person, quite a distance away looking at her and Jyo. He was too far for Darah to make out who he was. Darah focused her eyes on the figure and gave him or her an angry glare, asking the person to get lost or at least keep his eyes elsewhere. Then, Darah focused back on Jyo as he introduced himself. Darah already knew his name.

"Darah."

[jyo]

"A pleasure" He said giving a slight bow and then he gave a small smile.
"Well let's begin." He said. he then lowered his right hand to his side with the palm open and face down. A small shwish of air signified something had happend. but it wasn't clear as to what.

He came in at Darah not quickly. But fluidly with his weapon kept almost rock-steady. he noticed a presence near them. But felt no hostility towards them. Just curiousity. So he had ignored it.

His attack would be a simple diagnol slash to the left. His right hand was still kept in the same position. He was going simple at first to get an idea of what his foe's abilities entailed.

[Darah]

The thrill of a fight. The battlelust in the blood. The bloodlust dwelling in the mind. It was what Darah enjoyed most about fighting. As Jyo approached closer with his sword, Darah's poisoned blood began to fill with adrenaline and the spell hex+ began to take effect.

The right hand of Jyo. There was something going on with it, Darah didn't know what. For now, she'll just be cautious about it while she focused on the sword. She had enough time to see the attack coming. Jyo afterall needed some time to close the distance between them. As the sword fell, Darah caught the blade in the palm of her platinum gloved right hand. With her left hand, she clawed at Jyo's lower abdomen. It was a simple attack and easily evaded, but to evade it one would be likely to lose their balance.

[jyo]

Jyo smirked seeing the left hand come in. It was on his right. the perfect side. His right palm faced the incoming attack and Darah would find an invisible barrier blocking the attack. Jyo easily pulled his weapon free and lept back as he converted the energy spent for his shield spell into his forced ram spell. he had learned how o suppress the beam into it's old small blast of force.. it was aimed at Darah's gut. not too powerful but enough to make her take some steps back.

Jyo had used his levitate spell as he jumped to get extra hieght and distance. he landed very lightly as though he had only stepped off a curb. He had a smile but not on of arrogence.
"I was correct. You are quick. Faster than I could normally move" He said with a small chuckle of good humor. He decided to stay there and see what Darah was like on offense.

[Darah]

Strange...
Darah found her left claw hitting what seemed to be mid air. A glass, perhaps? A shield of some sort for sure. The next thing Darah knew was that invisible solid shield hitting her. She watched through the transparent shield as Jyo levitated backwards away from her.
No running away!

Using the solid force as a jumping board, Darah leap frogged over it and instantly closed the distance between herself and Jyo to two or three metres. However, what landed on the floor was not a monster-like child. It was a real monster that had taken Darah's place, or more likely a demon. Hex+ had taken full effect and now the girl had long serrated horns, dark green scaly skin, talons as feet, and her eyes were fully black. A layer of mucus began secreting out of her skin, covering her entire body.

Even before she had landed, Darah had already calculated the distance between herself and Jyo and the moment she landed, she spat out a large quantity of the confusion poison at Jyo. For maximum contact with Jyo, Darah had sprayed the poisons at him like an aerosol can. The confusion poison did no damage to the body at all, but it smelt so terrible it would make you vomit ten times over if you didn't pass out from it first. Even after vomitting, you would feel unbearably dizzy and may even get temporary confusion.

[jyo]

Jyo's eyes tracked Darah's movments and e saw she had used his spell to jump
How very clever. Next time I'll actually put some sort of blast into it. He thought. Not many were smrat enough to think of that. he himself had never used his Forced Ram spell that way to to his levitatition abilities. He noticed Darah change. There was now a demon bearing down on him. A poison shot out.

Jyo charged his mana again useing his hypertime spell to move twice as quickly as normal. he actually had left a gale of wind in his wake as he darted to the side. His weapon was then covered in bolts of lightning as he slashed upwards at Darah/Demon's shoulder as he went by. As soon as the slash was done the lightning faded and he also snuffed out his hypertime spell. this would be a good chance to train on useing his magic in short bursts instead of constant use.

[Darah]

Darah usually had an upside on her opponents and that is her speed. However, there have been many other mages she had fought with who used spells to increase their speed while fighting her. Jyo was no exception as he sped up to dodge the poisons she had spat out. Darah was used to fighting these little 'fake sprinters' as she called them. Her demonic vision with those black eyes could see the world in a few ways: normal vision, night vision, heat vision and a few others. In this case, Darah used heat vision and saw the world in mostly black but there was a red figure with trails of orange streaking out behind it. This was Jyo and Darah could estimate from the orange trails the speed that Jyo was running at as well as his direction. He was coming towards her with a long blue object in his hands. His sword. Strange though that there were yellowish sparks around the sword. This meant something like electricity. Jyo's blade must be an enchanted one. The yellow sparks on the sword helped Darah see the direction of the sword as Jyo slashed his blade. Darah twisted her body as the sword cut slightly into her right shoulder but by that time, her platinum claws would already be at his hip. The electricity from the sword couldn't get to Darah because of the mucus surrounding body which had a negating effect on electricity.

[jyo]

Jyo noticed his weapon had scored a hit. But the magic he had charged into it was not effective. the body Darah now had wasn't effected by that aspect.
Curious. But of course this is still all about learning what Darah is capable of. He thought as he slid away again. He pointed his right index finger at her launching a jet of fire at her from it to see if it would be effective or not. If it wasn't he was pretty mucg reduced to useing th forced ram spell. Darah was a good foe. Able to keep him on his toes.

But as he was ready to slide away he saw the claw come in. He wasn't able to brng the shield spell up in time. She had attacked at the same time. But had done so below his field of vision. He had moved enough to make it so he had a shallow cut. He grinned.
"Not bad. Looks like I just might have to kick it up a notch." he said. He was slightly irritated his had lost the charge of his firestream spell when hit. But he didn't really care. He just didn't like wasted energy.

[Onira]

Onira's violet eyes watched the battle. He had been sitting with the other spectators, and was quite enjoying this little tussle. Very unexpected to see the higher ups fighting the apprentices. But Onira guessed that added some variety. Anyway, it was very fun to watch. This Darah person was quite the stranger. Her techniques were different to say the least. Covered in mucus. Spitting acid. And all Onira could do was use the surroundings. Maybe he'd study up on some magic later. But, for the time being, his eyes were locked onto the two.

The Mashima person was quite adept in melee combat it seemed. Wrapping his sword in electricity, plus that incredible burst of speed. Onira prided himself in the fact he could hold in melee combat, however, even Darah was stronger than him in the way of speed. This sort of made him slump. However, he didn't REALLY care. He knew that he could do more than just fight melee style. But, it wasn't about him. It was about the fight, and what a fight it was. Between the speed the mucus and the electric blades, one just didn't know where to look.

"What a fight!"

Onira sat back letting the display rest in his mind. He figured he'd let that be all for the time being. It was time to just watch. Sit back, and watch. However, he couldn't just watch. He needed a drink. But, wait it would. All would.

"C'mon, just wait a sec."

[Darah]

An eye for an eye. Jyo had slashed Darah slightly on the shoulder and Darah had hurt him for more or less the same amount of damage at his hip. Now the two fighters had some distance between them. Breathing space until one of them could catch their breath and attack again.

Through deep breathing, Darah recovered quickly without lowering her adrenaline levels which were crucial to keeping her in hex+ form. She stared at Jyo who must have been more or less prepared to fight again too. However, Darah did not take the offensive. She had seen that Jyo had a spell to increase his speed by quite a notch. If Darah attacked, Jyo may still have the chance to evade the attack. Like a cheetah, Darah had to know when to strike and when to just lie low, otherwise she would just be wasting her energy and the cheetah would return home with an empty stomach.