Wrong Guy, Perfect Place (Fight)

[Xeryth Varson]

Xeryth strode out into the training grounds, attempting to look as if he wasn't scared out of his wits. The boy had no clue what he was going to do out here, but he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that if he was ever going to survive outside of this academy, he'd have to be able to do something other than cower behind a few Psi Barriers and tie people's shoelaces together with Telekinesis. Thus, he stood out in the dusty field, surveying his surroundings with a false sense of toughness upon his face.

Throughout the grounds, people of all sorts were doing their thing, some were going at each other with wooden sword stand-ins, others, the more experienced fighters, using their real weapons. Meanwhile, some of the more magickally-oriented students were throwing spells at each other, and others yet were bringing about minions crafted seemingly solely from magick to do their bidding. Xeryth was amazed at it all, and not a little dumbfounded. Suddenly, in his mind, his psychic abilities seemed to be easily dwarfed by all these majestic and aesthetically pleasing powers. Shaking it off, Xeryth stood his ground, and noticing a few rocks of medium size strewn about, he focused upon them, levitating them with his mind and lazily whirling them about his body.

All in all, he put on a pretty good show, and from the feigned look on his face and the blatant use of his powers as an intimidation factor, Xeryth was trying his hardest to make himself look like he wanted to face off against someone in combat.

[Negi]

Negi Taltos was all on his own now. Big brother was out exploring the halls of this academy and Negi was left to fend for himself. Takign his own time Negi wondered out onto the practice field on accident. Teh first thing he had to do was gasp at the shear amount of magic he felt in the air. It was stunning to him, he was unable to think of the numebr of mages that must be here to create this energy. There was one area however, that was devoid of ANY magic, that was the area around Xeryth. Negi had heard his brother say something about a powerful psychic at the school, maybe this was him.

"Maybe he would be a good starting partner...."

Negi said outloud before he realised it. Quickly shutting up Negi crossed the grounds and stood in front of the psychicly gifted young man.

"Umm you wouldn't happen to be.. Xeryth would you....?"

[Xeryth Varson]

"Hmm?" Xeryth turned to face this new person. Interestingly enough, the boy looked a lot like Junpei, almost as if he could be his little brother. The boy had asked a question of him, asking for an affirmation of his name, which he had, amazingly enough, gotten right. Xeryth's eyebrows lifted, he was amazed that anyone at this school save for his teachers and perhaps Onira and Junpei knew his name. Letting the stones slowly float back to the ground, Xeryth decided to keep with his tough pretenses, at least, as best as he could. It was incredibly taxing on him, as far as his emotions go, for this was something he was completely unused to.

Deciding upon a course of action he normally never took, Xeryth closed his eyes and dove into Negi's mind. He could already tell just from the boy's approach of his basic intentions; that he was intrigued by Xeryth's lack of magickal ability and excess of psychic power, and that he was considering a training partner, but he had to put himself in the mind of this young one to find what it was he wanted to know. He didn't have to go far, for the information needed was something no one ever really kept well hidden from the world, especially this particular youth, who seemed rather happy go lucky. Finding what he needed, and exiting before Negi could most likely do anything about it, Xeryth spoke.

"Yes, Negi, I am. You're Junpei's brother." The words were spoke not as a question, but as a statement. Negi would know from the fact that he had felt Xeryth in his mind that he had gleaned the information that way. Without giving him a time to react verbally to it, Xeryth spoke once more, this time asking a question of him.

"What is it you wish, Negi?"

[Negi]

The presence in his ind was... strange, yes that was the word Negi would use to describe this. It wasn't warm it wasn't cold it just was. Negi wondered how others felt when their minds were invaded by someone else. Frowning, Negi scrunched up his nose a bit, he didn't like non-magic users. It wasn't easy to tell, mainly ecause had had to deal with them all his life, so it was a well hidden fact.

"It's nice to just go into someones mind you know. You may be psychic but that doesn't give you the right. I don't go around using magic to force information from you."

Negi might come off as snobbish but that was Negi. He may be far advanced in magic and mental power, but he was still a ten year old kid and spoke what was on his mind. In a way peoplesaw it as pure and innocent, but others would see it as rude and childish, Negi knew not which this man would chose.

Taking out his staff Negi held it lightly in hsi right hand and faced Xeryth full on. IN the next instant his demeanor did a 180 and he was happy go lucky again. It seemed the Taltos children had mental querks that made them... special. Their magic may increase due to this mental split, but it also meant they made enemies easily.

"I want to train with you of course, while else would I be out here?"

[Xeryth Varson]

As Negi began his little tirade on the rights Xeryth had and didn't have, going off on a mini-rant on the fact that he had entered his mind for a moment, Xeryth merely listened in, a disinterested look on his face. In all truth, the boy was a little ashamed of himself, but he was trying to get what he wanted, and he had figured that making himself look like a desirable opponent would net him a better chance of finding someone to train with him than by walking in looking like he was lost, like last time.

In reply to the boy's words, Xeryth merely shrugged, until he heard the words he was looking to hear. Upon affirmation that the boy wanted to train, Xeryth immediately dropped the act, an ashamed smile crossing his face.

"Good... good. That's... what I'm here for as well... sorry to have done that to you, it's not something I often do. Either way... if you wish to train with me, then, come do so. Feel free to use your magick at your own discretion, hopefully I'll be able to defend myself..."

Xeryth took two steps back, but didn't bother putting up a fighting stance, as he knew his fighting abilities would do him little good here, for two reasons. One, he was fighting a spell-caster who would most likely attempt to keep his distance, and two, even if he were not, Xeryth's melee fighting prowess was next to nothing, and would earn him a loss faster than anything else.

[Negi]

Negi nodded slowly and took two steps back as well, there woudl be no strength of body in this fight, merely strength of mind. Negi didn't know if he coudl win against a telepath, but he knew that he coudl put up a good fight. However, first thigs first. Placing his hands on himself Negi scouraged around through his mind for a certain spell he hadn't used in ages, and found it.

"Gaia gaia gaia nos re talo..."

A thin layer of rock grew over Negi's entire body and then took on his appearance and gave him same freedom of movemnt. Negi smiled, he was going to have to practice this spell. For now it may provide one or two hits and then fail, but for now, he coudl take two hits and be fine.

Taking the initiative as he always did Negi brought his staff to bear and began another spell, this time pointed at Xeryth, nothign to strong, just a simple attack.

"Practe bigi nar."

Five blue lines came out of the staff. Two raced up, one raced right, one left, and the final one came slowly toawrds the front. The bolts woudl all arrive at the same time and splah over Xeryth, probably causing stress all over his body if he was unable to deflect them all. Negi hoped this man defended, he was after all a friend.

[Xeryth Varson]

Xeryth had already entered Mind's Eye View, and was now, due to his extreme practice with the state of perception, watching all the incoming events through his mind and not his eyes. He said nothing as the boy made a sort of rock-solid entity around himself, covering himself in what seemed to be a kind of armor. Xeryth had no idea the strength of this armor, but he knew it would be just another annoyance to have to whittle away before he could get to the boy underneath.

Jumping back a bit as the attacking beams flew forth, Xeryth visualized a Psi Barrier right where he had been standing. The beams all connected right at the barrier, bouncing harmlessly off at various angles, and shattering the barrier. However, Negi would not even realize the barrier was broken, and, in the scheme of things, it would not matter. Using this time, Xeryth then focused, visualing a rush of psychic energy barreling forth towards Negi. The psychic burst manifested itself as an unseen punch, but could be heard rustling through the air faintly, heading straight for the boy's chest.

With that thrown, Xeryth then put up yet another Psi Barrier halfway between himself and Negi, a medium sized one, about half his height, hovering in the air at about his own midsection. Negi would most likely not be able to see it, but it was there.

[Negi]

Negi watched as his blue beams were sent off and harmlessly disipated with no target. Soon after he was hit, full force in the chest and slid back a foot. Luckily his stone skin spell took the full force nad crumbled off harmlessly. Taking advantage that this man was obviously using his psychic obilities exclusively Negi decided to have fun.

"Flet, une bente."

It collided with a barrier and Negi frowned again. Setting his hand adn staff out Negi chanted out.

"Flet, une bente.Flet, une bente.Flet, une bente."

Three spells would form right after another and all three would punch into the barrier. The first two would break it and the third would be the kicker. Immediately after that barrier would drop the third would slip in and wirl around Xeryth, assuming it made it that is.

[Xeryth Varson]

Negi's initial attack was stymied through the use of Xeryth's little barrier, and, in typical childish fashion, the younger boy set about to simply try and try again until it would get through. Unfortunately for Negi, however, once his attack did penetrate the barrier, Xeryth would no longer be there.

As the boy began his triple incantation, Xeryth took off in a dead sprint, running off to his left and curving as he did so in order to run an angled route around Negi. To better describe this: If Xeryth were to continue running, he would make an entire circle around the younger boy. Xeryth, however, did not continue running, but as he ran, he focused three quick psychic bursts at his opponent. These bursts, however, were less intensified than the original due to their number, and since he was running, Xeryth had to manually direct them, by thrusting his right hand out toward Negi's body. Thus, these burst could be more easily seen than the original. Xeryth would stop after running a quarter circle around to the boy's right, and thus would be facing his right side, if Negi did not move to face him.

[Negi]

Negi gritted his teeth as al the attacks were avoided. Following Xeryth, Negi turned slightly to keep the opponent in view the whole time, first rule his borther taught him about fighting. As three punches were sent at him Negi realised what they were, the same attack would not work twice on him. Rolling off to the side Negi smiled as he did and came out with both hands out, raised at Xeryth, Negi was smirking.

"Practe bigi nar!"

Five more bolts shot out at Xeryth, only this time they were set for a staggered hit. This would mean that five differently timed impacts would hit. Assuming Xeryth was able to block one he woudl still get hit by the other four. If he coudl raise five shields he woudl be vulernable to another round of attacks. Now it was truly a battle of wills. Since Negi had plenty of energy to use he knew that it wouldn't be long before Xeryth was either pulling a headache or maybe even taking physical damage. Thankfully the arrows were not set with so much energy they would kill, just stun.

"Practe bigi nar!"

Another barrage followed the first and Negi grinned, he could pound Xeryth for a while since his arrows were using about 1/10th their normal power.

[Xeryth Varson]

Xeryth saw the first set of bolts rushing in to meet him, after his own attacks had been dodged. Frankly, Xeryth wasn't too surprised to see the Psychic Bursts dealt with, as with his limited amount of focus, he could not focus a powerful and stealthy enough blow to do any amount of damage, and most likely would not have been able to pierce through that annoying rock skin Negi had thrown up. However, there was no time to deal with that now, as five blue bolts were rushing in toward him, all in a row and ready to do damage.

Throwing up his left forearm to block, Xeryth did one of his favorite Psi Barrier techniques. Almost instantly, the Psi Buckler was created, a footlong round Psi Barrier that, due to it's rather small size, was near-invulnerable to attack. Xeryth invented this move back in the days of D-13, and as such, it was quite easy for him to pull off, much more so than a Psi Barrier of any other size. The bolts splashed into it, each about a second apart, and bounced off harmlessly.

After Xeryth set himself, he mentally focused upon the rocks he had left over where he had first stood. They began to lift up in the air slowly, making no noise, and hovered there during the initial barrage of magickal arrows. As Negi began to speak out the incantation to derive a second set, however, Xeryth flicked his fingers on his right hand toward the young mage, and the three rocks flew toward him at blazing speeds, aimed for his back and side.