An urge to fight (Tristan)

[Aiyon]

With a sharp crackling the small ring of light floating in the air disintegrated. Tas sat back from where it had been, resting against the tree behind her, and considered.
She was taking a little time to do some spell development while waiting for her aquaintance to arrive. With a wave of one hand the circle reforms in the air and she starts poking it with her finger again, rearranging its parts. The task was time consuming to the extreme, but at least she was in a nice place for it. She'd gone to a bit of trouble to pick this place after Tristan had contacted her. Her mind wandered as she worked.

The chosen site was at the edge of a large field which bordered on a forest, with a river flowing along two of the other three sides. The field itself offered little cover and was deserted except for grass and small stones, while the forest offered shade from the sun and also blocked line of sight. The fourth side of the field was marked by a collapsed stone wall, adding to the general feel of emptiness.
Tas had been very careful in choosing the site; it wouldn't give her any real advantage or disadvantage in what was coming, except that there was a rich range of ambient elements for her spells to choose from if she cast in the right place. Which brought her mind to why she was really here.

She was here to fight with Tristan. And probably his dragon too. He was far stronger than her, so fighting would be difficult. As would winning against such odds. There would be no holding back on her part... though why Tristan suddenly wished to fight her was a mystery. She never saw it coming.
With a quiet sigh Tas jabs at the circle, adding a new rune to the mix. It would keep her occupied until he showed up.

((OOC: this ok for you Tristan?))

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: Tristan can fight any where.

The hunter walked through the forrest, trudging along to the destination on the other side of the forrest that could be seen from the main entrance of the Training Grounds. Tristan usually fought on that first side with the swamp and snowy hill caps far on either side, but Tas had chosen the location. Wonder why she chose the far field. Igneus projected to his partner. The dragon could now communicate with the world, projecting his 'thoughts' to the audible plane. But this communication was mental, and therefore silent to those around.

[Don't know. I'm just lazy about it and usually fight back on the foreground. Fuck the rest of the terrain unless I'm specifically training on that topography.] Throwing crude curses in with higher grade vocabulary? Yes, Tristan was an odd fellow. The man shoved branches and brush from his path as he clumbered through the forrest. A couple of minutes later, he emerged from the forrestation, feeling Tas on the far side of the tree he emerged around.

A look at the seal of light in the air rose an eyebrow. This girl was peculiar in her style of magic. Very much so, as was revealed in Jerusalem when she turned into a suit of armor that could squeeze Igneus in his medium form if he scrunched up as best he could. "Yo." He said simply, stopping against the tree, careful not to lay his head on Igneus on his right shoulder as that shoulder pressed into the pine. Or was it a spruce? No. Spruces hardly revealed their trunks.

...Ahh fuck it, Tristan was never all that good with identifying plant life. Just knew what shit to avoid, and what herbs that healed you. Basics for a hunter. Now a mage, and a pretty damn strong fighter, this fight would probably be well on the easy side for Tristan.

[Aiyon]

The sudden voice behind Tas broke her concentration and made her jump. She'd been gently nudging a rune along the circle, but now poked it with far too much force. It crackles at her as she looks over her shoulder at Tristan, eyes wide with suprise. Then she shakes her head and smiles slightly at the little dragon before glancing back at what she was doing.

"... Yo yourself. Didn't know you were a sneaker."

The aggreived rune that she'd poked splutters and then vanishes, leaving the rest of the arrangement floating mutely in the air. Tas waves a hand and it disappears completely.

"Well, here we are then, so lets start... though i don't get it. Why do you two wish to fight me anyway?"

She straightened up as she spoke and turned to face them, watching expectantly.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan grinned slightly, he hadn't planned on sneaking up on her...he was just a ninja like that...literally. He shrugged when she looked to respond to the comment, then shoved off from the tree when she said her next sentance. "Don't know, really. Maybe it's that armor form of yours. Maybe I've resolved myself to beating every one in the school at least once. Maybe there was no reason." Most likely that first one...Tristan didn't really give enough of a shit to be determined enough to kick everyones ass, though he'd done a good enough job of it so far.

He took a light stance before charging off, Igneus simply hopping and letting Tristan's forward motion pull the two apart. Not full blast, but fast enough. Tristan was at the pinnacle of human exellence with his speed, though he wasn't using it that much now. The hunter came in without any sort of weapon and made a fairly quick testing jab. Always test your opponents reaction time before going in full blast. And if people didn't know that, all the better for the one doing the testing.

[Aiyon]

"Hey, what...?"

Her reflexes took a few moments to kick in, and what was worse they sent her backing away from him instead of doing something sensible. Like getting out of the way. She even stumbled a bit as she backed up, heading into the field... either her reactions were quite slow or she was seriously faking it to get his guard down.

Unfortunately for her it was the former, and as he bore down on her she set off her defence against such situations. A flicker of a green circle around her waist, then a split second later a potent wall of force strikes at Tristan and Igneus to drive them back. They were both well within range of her Shockwave spell, as was the tree they'd been beside which creaked dangerously under the load, some of its branches even getting blasted off.

Tas lost her footing as the spell went off and fell over on the grass. She scrambled to her feet as another, larger circle appeared around her, her shift spell morphing her to her other form when she was upright. She starts moving upwards and backwards, hoping to get as much distance out of her Shockwave as she could. There was no way the other two would be given a cakewalk for this fight. Tristan was powerful, though... it was unlikely she could get far before he was after her again.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Not all that quick. Tristan had almost hit her and he wasn't even going full force. He saw the flicker of green and jumped back. He was moving slower than the wall, however, and was pushed back a several yards. Igneus simply curled himself into a ball and soared through the air until he hit the ground, rolling back then unfurling himself. Surpisingly, it didn't hurt...at all. Neither one felt any pain from the shock wave, which was extremely odd.

The small dragon shot a ball of lightning energy at the girl who had taken her armored form. It wasn't all that strong, and only about six inches in diameter, but it would still hurt. Igneus' way of saying 'bite me, bitch' as he wasn't fighting. He never did unless the odds were stacked against his partner. Tristan slid along the grass, digging groves in the flora and earth. The hunter then shot forward, now at full blast, four times faster than the girl, let alone in her armored form.

Tristan lept high into the air and slammed his fist into the face plate of the helmet, full force, causing as much damage to the metal as physically possible. That form would be iritating to fight, but it seemed not to be able to fight in close quarters, so he'd rush and beat it to a tinney pulp until she changed back or gave up. Another blast with an armored fist by near in-human strength as he practically stood on the huge thing of metal.

[Aiyon]

Igneus' lightning caught Tas on the right shoulder and prompting her to swear. The energy crackled over her shoulder leaving it with a nice pattern of scorchmarks.

"Ow... uhoh."

She caught a glimpse of Tristan coming straight at her before she saw stars, the shreik of tortured metal ringing loudly in her ears. The impact was a serious one, she could feel it. Her face had buckled inwards and the area where her eye floated had become narrower. The initial strike rocked her back and forced her to flying around, hovering nearly four meters in the air, but the unexpected second one sent her end over end... unless Tristan was holding onto something he would get thrown off. And after a few seconds she seeks to actively encourage this anyway by casting another shockwave as she struggles to right herself.

Damn that Tristan, closing in like that... he's bound to know she can't handle it now. What a lousy start to the fight...

[Spells: Shockwave (again)]

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: Ooh, fun ^_^

Booya, two strikes, right out the gate. Only problem, she was upside-down now. Tristan was only partially holding on with his legs, pressing into the metalic sides. He began to fall off when, boom. Another shock wave sent him flying toward the ground. There would have been a fairly painful impact that would incapacitate him for a few seconds...that is, ofcourse, if the hunter didn't have the ability to stop himself mid-air.

The man stopped several inches from the ground before he was off again, soaring up in a wide arc. His various elements and chakra had activated, pulling out his flight spell. The combination of the elements and such expended less energy over all, than one singular element. He zoomed high up at over fifty miles an hour, as he could fly alot faster than he could run. He came to an abrupt halt before spinning around through the air and zooming back down, heading right at Tas.

As soon as he came within two feet, his fist shot forward and would crash, with even more force than before, into Tas' armored body. Tristan was wondering, then, if the damage delt to this armored form, transmitted into her human form. If that was the case, she wasn't going to want to change back for a few weeks.

[Aiyon]

((OOC: She's gonna feel that in the morning ))

When he goes flying she twists in place, trying to follow him. At the apex of his flight she recklessly unloads her cannon in his direction. Unfortunately this was as he dived, and all three miss their target, leaving her strafe cannon out of ammo. A brief flash of panic engulfs her and two new circles appear pointing towards the forest as she casts her Boost spell. Range... this was all about range now....

Unfortunately Tristan reaches her three seconds later, two seconds before the spell can trigger. His third punch, exceeding the two before it, ploughs into where her left hip would be. Fortunate because her cannon was on the right, but also extremely unfortunate in general. Once again the shreik of stressed metal fills the air as the plating on her midrift buckles, one side panal stripping most of its rivits and hanging loose, and Tas is sent into a nasty spin. As she whips around the circlets of her Boost spell follow suit, and when they go off she's pointing roughly at the center of the field. She blurs in extreme speed and vanishes, a split second later grass, dirt and stones are sent flying all over the place as she ploughs out a deep trench in the field, getting as far as the river on the opposite side.

Tas comes to rest floating on her back a few centimeters above the surface of the river. A few chunks of dirt drop off her into the water but she is otherwise unmoving... pretending to be just a little bit stunned from the impact she'd just undergone. The loose side panel had vanished as well, leaving a raw tangle of warped metal on her side where it had been.

((OOC: And that too... ))

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan withdrew his fist and straightened himself out, hovering in place high above the ground. He watches Tas go flying down with satisfaction, only to be stunned when she dissapears. "What the hell?" He says dumfounded, only to hear the massive impact and look up. "How the hell she pulled that off I don't know...But it doesn't matter!" He said, then shouted. And once again, he was off at full blast. "KAMATAICHI!!" He roared, swinging out both of his arms in wide arcs. Three invisible blades of wind shoot out from each arm and soar around, spinning at a decent rate.

Tristan angled himself down then and kept control over his six wind scicles. They entered the river and make wakes of spurting water as they moved in at insane speeds, right for Tas' metal body. [Ignite] Was what Tristan thought then, opening his maw and hurling a massive blast of flame from it. He was about a hundred feet away now, an his fire ball soared even faster than he. The six blades lit up and exploded, inches from Tas' body. If she was to be blasted upward, that fire ball would nail her right in the face with an astounding ammount of force that could only come from this crazy black clad basterd.

A triple threat. Or more so, heptuple. Seven attacks, almost all at once. Through his own flame, Tristan would fly forth, sending another hammering blow to Tas' body. Only this time it was a double fisted strike, and would cause twice the damage, if she wasn't already demolished.

OOC: just felt like throwing this in there for your destr- entertainment.... >.>;;

[Aiyon]

This was getting messy. She could feel things... magical things... racing at her. Very close. And that massive fireball was extremely worrying, her thick plating was not magic-resistant. Instinct yells at her to run, to fight back, but she can not. She is too slow. So she moves in the only way that could be useful and stops hovering, dropping like a rock into the river.
As Tas hit the water she set up another spell, her Focus spell, and pointed it at Tristan. Casting it now would involve water, which she considered a logical counter to his fire, though the other element it would take was questionable. She wasn't sure.

Then the first part of Tristan's assault struck and Tas' downward motion was drastically boosted. The explosions above her were definitely magical, she knew because as she slammed into the riverbed a few meters down she could feel long cracks developing in most of her front. Ordinary explosions of that size wouldn't have done that.

The spray from the blasts had barely begun to settle when Tas' focus spell went off, drawing water and earth to create a mighty geyser of sticky, slimy swamp mud. The torrent of mud blasted up through the wake of Tristan's air spell straight at him.

While the burst would last for a few seconds and couldn't really hurt, most people wouldn't like being sprayed with such stuff. Tas also finally decided that her armour form wasn't working in this fight... she had to get to the shore and change back. As a human she might be able to dodge some of his strikes, but staying like this she would surely be hurt. Hurt badly.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

OOC: i feel this playing now 0.o;; ignore the video...

"WHAT!?" He shouted, stopping. He saw the up-flux of water, surging straight up toward his fire ball. The ball of orange and yellow flame was engulfed, but that engulfing gave Tristan just enough time to begin acending...and damn fast did he do it. He zoomed straight up and flashed his mana again. "TEOLUS!!" He shouted, spinning with a whipping motion to his arms. An enourmous whirlind drove up through the air, Tristan's path seeming to wake with a massive vortex of deadly wind.

The huge tornado halted the water in a huge blast of devistation that pulled up all of the water from the mud flow and stretched down to the river itsself. It tore up the water and river bed, likely doing some damage to Tas before Tristan dispelled the city destroyer. He hovered high over head as the rain poured down in muddy bits. The river smashing down over Tas would likely wash her to the shore, where Tristan would dive bomb her with immense intensity.

"YOU'RE MINE!!" He shouted, spinning in his powerful decent. Dragon fire armor was activated to keep the water at bay and add that much more damage to Tas when the hunter plowed into her at a dropping speed of now over one hundred miles an hour. Tristan's flight had blasted him past his terminal velocity and was now a spinning drill, heading straight for the ground, fists first. If he missed, it would take a while to recover, but if it hit, or even offered a glancing blow, the rewards were well worth the risk.

[Aiyon]

The upheaval of the water caught at Tas and threw her roughly to the side. She was extremely suprised by the event, as she'd thought Tristan could only manipulate fire and air... not water. She'd have to remember that.

Well, she was on the riverbank again thanks to Tristan, so it was time to go human again. That this is a mistake becomes painfully obvious while the circlet for her Shift spell appears, as she clearly hears "YOU'RE MINE!!!" from above her. As the spell starts to do its work she frantically tries to roll to one side, but doesn't quite make it.

Pain exploded along her right side at Tristan clipped her, and she couldn't help crying out in pain. Metal warped and plating broke loose as Tristan ploughed through... a mere clip it may have been, but it was an extremely nasty one. Her strafe cannon, directly in his path, was completely severed from her and driven into the ground along with numerous plates (or fragments of them), rivets, bolts and other bits of metal mangled beyond recognition. If he had scored a direct hit he'd have torn straight through her, causing horrific amounts of damage, though it doesn't occur to her to be grateful for that small mercy as she becomes her usual self, lying on the ground beside him.

Now human again Tas haltingly lurches to her feet, teeth gritted and bleeding heavily from a large number of wounds. Everything Tristan had done to her in her armour form had translated over; the cracks were long gouges in her skin, her left upper arm was scorched, her face was battered and bleeding, her nose was broken, blood flowed freely from her left hip while her right side... had clearly seen better days, from her waist all the way down her leg. With a silent snarl she pulls the explosive charge from its box with her free hand and flings it at Tristan, managing to land it on his shoulder. She pictures the number three in her mind and then tries to run... but quickly stumbles to just a limping walk, her breathing ragged as she nearly collapses. It hurt too much.

Seconds later the charge detonates. If it is still on Tristan then clothing it is stuck to will also explode.

((OOC: Her desert eagle is beneath Tristan's fists... and a little dented / cracked too, though still in one piece.))

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Catastrophic...Impact.... Just kidding. Tristan did put a crater in the dirt, but it was only a couple of feet deep. He pulled his fists out of the dirt with a grunt and a swift yank. The impact had jarred his entire body, though his armor still flared. Then, boom. Tas had done something...Something distructive. Did she self distruct? At this point, now soaring through the air, Tristan, for the first time since coming here, felt concern for someone who he could have caused to die.

He had absolutely no problems with killing people...but not students of the Academy, not while simply fighting. His dragon fire armor had exploded the charge she'd thrown at him just before it had hit the man, sending the brunt of the blast up and toward Tas, though Tristan didn't know what had happend, he didn't see any thing. Now sliding through the dirt, Tristan rolled and came to a stop on his feet and hands.

A look of genuine fright stretched across his face as he looked toward the shore where the blast had errupted from. His left arm was banged up...not too bad, but enough to have blasted through the dragon hide coat. He then ran forward, full blast, before taking off in a low flight. He looked through the smoke as best he could, but he wasn't Raiden...he couldn't see through the smoke.

Not a single thought ran through Tristan's head other than whether or not he'd killed her.

[Aiyon]

Tas didn't realise what was going on at first as she flew through the air like a ragdoll. Then she noticed she wasn't standing, and that the ground was moving by quite quickly. This wasn't good. She lands awkwardly in the field and bounces, tumbling through the grass and stones for several meters. She ended up sprawling gracelessly face down on the ground, quite distance away from where the blast had been. Getting up was out of the question, she was tired, bruised, and had broken her right leg somewhere along the way.

"Hookay... fire and charge... baaaaaaad idea. Yeah. Ouch."

Every time she tried to draw a deep breath pain blossomed in her side. She must have cracked a rib or something when she landed as well.