Honing the Body to Sharpen the Mind

[Lucian]

Lucian let his shirt fall to the ground as he stepped into the sand-strewn training area. He flexed and stretched a bit, it would feel good to work out physically after spending all day in classes strengthing his magical abilities. Lucian threw a few practice punches and kicks to get himself back into the rythm of physical fighting.

If only I had an opponent,he thought with a bored sigh as he continued through a warm-up regiment of practice punches and kicks. He moved as if he were fighting an invisible opponent, it felt good to use his muscles again instead of his mind. Energy seemed to flow into his limbs as his attacks speeded up as he neared the end of his little warm-up ritual. Lucian cracked his neck and shook his body alive, "I need someone real to train against..." he muttered, kicking at the sand agitatedly.

[Darah]

"If you would like, I wouldn't mind taking you on" Darah said as she got off one of the spectator benches and walked up to the boy who had muttered something about needing some training. The girl was dressed in a brown coat with a hood which covered her except for her thin purple lips and pale green chin.
"Sorry, I overheard your words..." Darah apologized for the rudeness. She had rather good hearing since birth, but mostly because of the family curse she had upon her.

Darah hoped she wouldn't scare Lucian like she did to most people. If she removed her hood, Lucian would most probably scream. It is not everyday that you find someone with horns growing out of her head and pale green skin with some patches of scales here and there.

[Lucian]

Lucian grinned appreciatively, "Ahh that would be most helpful. How would you like to fight, being my opponent I will give you the choice," he said, as he crossed his arms over his bare chest and awaited her decision.

[Darah]

Another person who asked for conditions in a fight. When will people know that setting conditions only dulled a fight? Besides, why set conditions if your opponent breaks them? It not like they had to follow the rules of engagement.

"None are necessary. This is just a training session. Should there be any rules of engagement needed, let's make it so that no one receives any permanent damage. This is after all only a training session." Darah said in her usual soft voice.

[Xal' Kanas]

*It seemed a fight was about to unfold. I stood far away from the two, too far for their eyes to see. My mind's eye allowed me to see them perfectly though.

My robes blew little in the meager wind, bits of dirt and sand bounding off my head wrappings.

I had been watching Darah for some time now, watching her grow in power. She, Jyo, and a few others were all on my list...*

[Lucian]

Lucian nodded, "Alright then, I will try not to hurt you, but be forewarned I tend to get lost in the heat of battle," he said, grinning faintly, "So then, how about I make the first move?" he said, touching the wither rune on his left arm and the lightning flesh runes on his right arm, activating Debilitating Touch and Jolt respectively

Lucian grinned as he darted towards his opponent. He ducked down in a feigned sweep kick and went to touch her on the leg with his left arm which would cause her to feel woozy as was the effect of Debilitaitng Touch. If that was successful he would shoot upwards, catching her under the chin with an electrified uppercut courtesy of his Jolt spell.

[Darah]

Should one day Darah be cured of her curse, she would no longer be such a fighter as she was right now. The spell -or more of a condition- hex+ of hers only activated because of the demon's curse casted upon all those of her clan. The clan which no longer existed save Darah.

As Lucian approached, Darah felt a familiar presence. That same feeling she had when she was fighting Jyo. The feeling of being watched. It was him again. The mysterious guy whom Darah did not know of. Darah had no time to send him a glare again because Lucian was getting very close. Too close. The person dressed like a mummy had distracted her from paying attention to what really mattered: the current fight.

Darah had no time to react as she felt fingers upon her bare foot. Instantly, she felt her mind grow weak.
A mind alteration spell... Darah realized as she casted 'state of mind' upon herself to keep her steady as Lucian rose up to deliver an uppercut. The blow hit her, but the electricity was nullified due to a layer of mucus around her body. The transformation of hex+ was complete.

Darah felt her body being lifted up with the blow of Lucian's punch. Obviously this person was quite the body builder. As her body flew upwards, her taloned feet lashed out at Lucian's chin to give him a taste of his own medicine. The young girl flipped herself backwards in midair and landed softly on her padded feet, still garbbed in the brown tattered cloak.

[Lucian]

Lucian grimaced as the talons raked across his chin. He grinned fiercely, Now the real fight begins, he thought as he watched her intently. "Talons...interesting I have blades of my own," he said as he touched the earth and flesh runes on his left arm and it transformed into a stone golem arm. He touched the sword and flesh on his right arm and grimaced as a curved and razor-sharp blade of bone sprouted from his wrist.

He dashed forward again, holding his stone arm in front of him like a shield. As he neared her he went into a slide, suddenly he stabbed his wrist blade into the ground, halting his advance as he was right infront of her. He quickly slammed his stone fist down, projecting the lower half of his body up into the air as he aimed a kick at her chest.

[Darah]

(Crappy post from me x.x Sorry, not at the top of my game right now. And sorry if I may have misread your post as I'm still learning how to rp fights ><)

It is obvious by now that her opponent was one of those rune mages. Very strong, but they were restricted by their runes. Darah wanted to experiment what would happen if she burned away all those runes from Lucian's arms. Would he still be able to cast his little spells? Probably, if he scratched some new ones onto himself. The only thing keeping Darah from actually burning the boy was the rules of engagement. This was only a training session, nothing more. Not to mention she herself had set the rule for no permanent damage.

Lucian touched his arms, changing one into a stone arm and one into a claw. With that the young man advanced towards her, shielding himself against any possible oncoming attacks with his stone arm. Fine, if he wants it to be a shield, then let it be a shield. Darah spat out some base poison at that stone arm. pH 14. The stone would corrode if Lucian didn't do something about the alkali.

Still Lucian advanced. He slid towards Darah as he did before and plunged the claws into the ground. The stone arm was used as a weight to drag his upper body down, raising up his lower body upwards and letting his legs launch a kick at Darah. The move was very original and stylish, but it lacked efficiency. Stopping the momentum with the claws and having to raise his lower body upwards gave Darah too much time to react to the attack. Darah blocked the kick by crossing her arms in front of her body, taking the blow on her scaly forearms. Acting quickly while Lucian's limbs were all preoccupied, she kicked at Lucian's body with the flat of her right foot. No sense using the talons if she didn't expect some permanent damage.

[Lucian]

Lucian grimaced as her foot came down on his chest. He grimaced but at the same time he grinned, "Finally a physical challenge," he said as he flipped backwards away from her after the stomp attack. His arms returned to their normal state and he readied himself for another attack.

Lucian charged at her again, this time however he leapt to her side, quickly touching the sky and mystery runes on his right arm. A ball of aether, what appeared to be quicksilver-like energy appeared in his hands. He launched it at her and quickly touched the howl and explosion runes on his left which sent a bolt of sound screaming towards her, riding behind the aether blast giving it a boost of speed.

[Darah]

Finally a physical challenge? Surely Darah was not the only one in Arcane Academy who focused more on physical damage than spells to win in a fight. Lucian must have been fighting spellcasters more often as of late. It didn't quite matter to Darah though, just something to think about.

Lucian flipped backward and charged again at Darah. He sure was headstrong, constantly keeping up on the offensive. Instead of a frontal attack, Lucian suddenly leapt to Darah's side. As a reflex, Darah jumped backwards but facing Lucian to see what sort of trick he may pull. The young man touched two runes on his arm and instantly, an energy ball of some sort formed in his hands. It looked potentially dangerous and as it sped rapidly towards Darah, she spat out a little of the coating mucus at it, causing the ball of energy to explode before hitting the intended target: her. However, what was next to come affected Darah a lot. A loud and high-pitched scream came from Lucian. Did he somehow have female vocal cords to produce such a scream or was it one of his runes. Under the effects of hex+, Darah had improved senses. Thus, the screaming hurt her ears tremendously and she pressed her palms to both sides of her head.
If he wants to mess with my senses, I'll mess with his!

Darah sprayed her confusion poisons out at Lucian. To increase the chance of hitting Lucian, Darah had sprayed it widely like an aerosol can. A small whiff from the noxious poison wouldn't do any physical damage, but it could make you receive one or more of the following:
a) instant knockout due to inability to handle the putrid and pungeant smell
b) make you dizzy, neaseous and vomit ten times over until knocked out from too much vomitting
c) make you dizzy, have a nerve-racking headache accompanied by confusion

In fact, the poisons didn't need to directly hit Lucian. It could hit the floor around him, it could just be in the air around him but that would be enough to let the effects take place.

[Lucian]

Lucian grinned as he saw his Aether blast distraction had worked and the Shriek spell hit her dead on as planned. The grin quickly faded though as he started to stumble. Damn, whatever she sprayed it must've been some sort of confusion poison.... he thought as his head began to pound horribly. Lucian knew he didn't have much time before the poison made it impossible for him to continue fighting so he would go for a last ditch attack.

Lucian quickly touched the earth and flesh runes on his left arm activating his arm of the golem spell and the sky and mystery on his right another ball of aether energy appearing in his hand. He threw the ball up and spiked it towards her with his stone arm to give it incredible velocity. He quickly touched his right-arm sky and mystery runes again summoning another aether ball which he threw at her while diving to the right.

[Darah]

The confusion poisons hit. This was a good sign for Darah as she watched for signs of weakening from her opponent. A stumble, good. Surprisingly, he could still move. Probably with every ounce of his willpower and strength left in him he is keeping himself awake. Darah knew however that it would only get worse and worse for the young man to remain conscious.

Lucian touched a few runes on his arms, forming the stone arm once more and another one of those energy balls. Much like playing volleyball, Lucian threw the ball up and spiked it at her with the stone arm for extra strength.
You have tried that before...
Darah cocked her head up to face the energy ball and spat out another shot of mucus at it which caused it to burst in mid air. However, by then Lucian was already at her side with another energy ball thrown at her. There was not enough time to explode this one in midair as it was already too close to her. Darah faced it with her arms crossed in front of her to try block out some damage. The ball exploded upon contact with her arms and a smoke covered the area.

The smoke cleared to reveal Darah on her knees but still conscious. However, her brown cloak had vaporized upon the explosion of that energy blast, revealing a 14 year old girl covered in dark green scales. There were two long serrated horns protruding from her temples. This was how Darah looked like under the effects of hex+. Darah felt as if her arms have been scalded although the coating mucus covering her arms took most of the heat.

Darah picked herself up and looked over at Lucian. She wondered for how much longer he could remain conscious. Certainly he was about to drop over soon. She decided not to take any more chances and gave him one last spray of the noxious confusion poisons.

[Lucian]

Lucian grinned weakly as the aether blast hit as planned and unfortunately another blast of the noxious gas hit his face. He gasped as his vision began to blur the smoke swept away revealing that his opponent was some sort of lizard woman. Lucian shook is head, he had fallen on one knee now fighting desperately to remain concious.

He pulled himself to his feet weakly and shuffled his way over to her. Lucian held out his hand weakly and, "Thank you...for....an excellent work out...." he managed to say. He had accomplished this through sheer willpower and now his willpower was just about up as he dropped to both knees, "Any chance....there's a......reversal spell?" he asked, shaking his head again. Blurring darkness gathered at the corner of his eyes and he desperately fought to keep it at bay but it seemed the harder he fought the more the darkness of unconciousness gathered as if to rally agaisnt his efforts.

[Darah]

Darah slowly walked up to the fallen young man. Perhaps she had gone over the limit with the confusion poisons. Darah didn't mind a bit but others would definitely avoid this person for awhile if he continues smelling like this. Worse, wherever anyone tries to move him there may be a trail of people who fall over from the stench.

As she reached the young man, the adrenaline fueling hex+ decreased and she changed back to her original form which was only a little better looking than the monster of hex+. Shorter and blunter horns, pale green skin with uneven rare patches of dark green scales.
"Shhhh..." Darah said softly as she placed a finger on his lips. "Rest for now..."
Darah walked over to the spectators' bench she was on before her fight with Lucian. On it were three bottles of tomato juice brought just in case something like this happened, a bottle of deodorant and a small bottle of liquid made from crush scented flowers.

Darah was young. She was only 14 and didn't know how to take care of injured people properly. Therefore, she practically emptied the bottles of tomato juice all over Lucian which will remove the awful smell of the confusion poisons. His head should clear within a few minutes. Darah sat down beside him and waited.