Push and Pull

[Aiyon]

She was not really paying much attention when Cephros was tagged by her spell, her mind already grappling with some more magic. Three circles were now in play around her as she floated backwards, slowly putting some more distance between them. Two yellow ones around the barrel of her cannon, her Forge spell, and one lare blueish one completely surrounding her. The Shadow spell.

There is just enough time for Cephros to get to his feet again before these spells are done. There is a flare of light momentarily hiding Tas from view, and when it is gone it leaves behind arcs of crackling purple energy crawling slowly across the surface of her armoured body. While it was in fact harmless, it did look quite dangerous to touch. It was only a little misdiriection on Tas' part, the blue circle had aparrantly enhanced her defence with this energy field... while actually the entire visible Tas was just a duplicate. The real one floating silently and invisibly nearby.

The solid illusion now drifted to the demon's right, circling in a fairly cautious manner. The real, invisible Tas rose slightly before also circling, this time to the left. She was careful to stay downwind from her opponent, but other than that she was waiting for his next move.

[Chephros]

Getting up and seeing the electric field, Chephros simply smirked. An electric field wouldn't help when one didn't approach, and so Chephros wouldn't. Instead he would send a shockwave to test if it was a shield of force, in which case it would absorb the weak thing, or if it was simply an energy shield, in which case the manifestation of kinetic energy would pass right through and hit the 'being' inside. Being an illusion, it would likely waver from the hit and passthrough, but he didn't know it was an illusion. Yet.

From here he couldn't do much again, but he also couldn't fly anymore. His wings were pierced in four places, three decent sized gashes and the clips on the wings, and then some cuts on his torso from the Sickle Wind that hadn't hit the armor. About ten or so of those and they were small, but it was still quite bad. Moving hurt, but he would bear it. It wasn't like him to lose just because someone turned into a mass of metal with a portable cannon and had the ability to create invisible weapons. That would just be stupid of him.

He still retained about seventy percent of his overall energy, having used a quarter on the initial Helix hits and then the rest on the two shockwaves, one now, and the one from earlier in the library. He had to be very careful here not to put an immense mass of energy, all of his remainder, into a single strike. While it could very easily win this match for him, it could also kill him. The second was a definite, which would actually make it a default loss for him. He had no idea if a demon could be resurrected, so he wouldn't try.

[Aiyon]

When the shockwave strikes the illusion it shakes a little, its single eye blinking in mock suprise. The crawling energy hesitates, quivering under the force as it clings to the plating before resuming its random movements again. Whatever the magic was, it was not a shield of force. The floating metal had been touched by the demon's magic. "I know you can do better than that, little demon... so c'mon! Do it!" the illusion taunts loudly, still doing nothing but slowly circling around the demon at a fair distance.

Barely a hundred meters downwind from Cephros Tas watches her creation proudly. The illusion was solid, it could be struck, it could be pushed, it could be bent and buckled. It just wasn't especially durable. The only thing she'd been able to give the replica was its own spirit, but those that could sense such things were not exactly common.
She sights the cannons of both forms on Cephiros, the illusion from the front and her invisable, and real, one from behind. She'd wait for the moment to use her cannon, as when she did she'd become visable again. The fake cannon roars as it fires a shell, aiming well above and to the side of the demon. A warning shot. "I said c'mon! We've not got all day you know!" the illusion taunts again.

[Chephros]

Chephros just blinked and stood there. There was something incredibly wrong with this. The taunts, the defensiveness. Normally she was actually doing something, sending streams of attacks for him. Hence why he was down for a bit through the clip and the wind strikes. However now it was this armored figure with energy in front of him. However, now he had an idea. The hit of the shockwave was normal, but the clingyness of the electricity wasn't. Normally lightning and electricity only stopped when the circuit was cut, thus it stopped moving or dispersed. When it was grounded it dispersed as well. As much as he had dealt with magic, he still didn't believe it was a shield, just a current of random energy surrounding the image. If he could pierce it...

And so he started walking forward. The warning shot passed over his head, as did the following taunts. His pale green eyes leveled with his target's one and he simply walked forward. Yes, this was painful, yes he was slow. His wings were completely tucked into his back and his tail was rigid behind him. He wasn't about to get anything else hit and thus lose more blood and have to end this fight prematurely. That definitely wasn't like him. It also wasn't like him to lose his head in a fight, albeit that happened a lot, he normally just created a plan, but ended up winging it all afterwards because nothing worked like it was supposed to. Point in case, the combat test of his.

Here however he simply kept walking towards his apparent opponent. If he was to be hit with lightning, so be it. If he was to be shot he would block it. To that point he held his right arm up in front of him, the wrist blade pointing to the sky. The triple blades would be nice protection from the solid shell, granted he could force it away from him. A shockwave would work nicely there, the force pushing against the blade to repel the cannon shot. His gaze held still and a smirk pushed it's way onto his face.

"How about I just rip apart your armor piece by piece. Does that work for you?" His tone was low, evil, and almost held a hint of laughter in it. Battlelust did that to a person. "Or should I just cause an explosion inside of your armor?"

[Aiyon]

Tas fights the urge to just laugh at the bravado, and then with a mental shrug gets her duplicate to laugh instead. "No, not really..." the clone chuckles. "I am rather attatched to my armour right now. Care to try again later?" As it speaks Tas again starts shifting some magic about, considering her options. Unfortunately in her desire to keep her distance, she didn't have any spells to attack with now. Oops.

The illusion is not allowed to be idle though. It begins to back away, at odds with its confident talk. The purple energy crawling over its surface flickers, glows, and then twists around forming what look like dense purple slabs of material over the existing plating. Aparrantly she was enhancing her armour plating with whatever magic that was... it wasn't really magic though, and it wasn't enhancing. It was little more than a solid visual illusion, just like the apparation it was supposedly enhancing. "You know... i didn't really want to fight." the fake said thoughtfully after a few moments of silence. "Oh well..."

Reality lurches slightly around Cephiros as the invisibility spell temporarily breaks down, revealing the other Tas a way behind him. The quiet that had descended on the fight is interrupted by the dragon roar of the two cannons. Seven shells tear in at Cepheros, four from the clone (they'd do little more than bounce off, plus it had infinite ammunition anyway) and three quite real ones from Tas herself, all homing in on his waist as their target.
The only real drawback of the assault was that Tas was now visable again, the circles of her Forge spell working to reload the real cannon. She keeps her attention firmly on the demon as she waits for her invisibility to reinstate itself again, which might take up to a minute if she was unlucky. Just in case, she drops the visual changes on her double so there were now twin armoured forms drifting about, maybe to add a little confusion to her opponent.

[Chephros]

As his wings kept bleeding, Chephros simply felt the conscious thought of how he was going to fight his opponent slip from his grasp, and instead felt an odd rhythm find it's way to his heart, his mind, and his body. He liked it, and it continued. He also felt the need to push his energy to that rhythm, but didn't have the control to do that yet, so he wouldn't. On the exterior, lines of crimson red would start glowing down his arms and twist into odd patterns that could almost be runes. They would cross, intersect, twine, go straight, curve, do everything. They wouldn't completely cover his arms, no, instead they would make it look like a complete tattoo of runes covering them. Then the lines would spread to his legs, while continuing their glow.

Alastor's Fury. Alastor was, to the Christians, the Executioner of hell. Chephros, was undergoing a Blood Frenzy, exactly like a berserker almost. His body was getting stronger and quicker, his mind changing to go with the rhythm of the fight instead of whatever plans he might have wanted. His mind recognized what was in front of him as an illusion as the bullets bounced off him. The other shot had nearly killed him to stop and so as he continued forward his left heel touched down and his right leg flipped him around. His right arm was in the air, his left close by. They formed an X in front of him and aimed towards the incoming bullets.

He noticed the change in his body's speed when he noticed his eyes catching the bullets faster, but he didn't really have time to think, despite the ability to do so slipping anyway, and he had to act to stop the incoming assault. Six of the black points came from his arms, two from his shoulders, two from his elbows, two from the top of his curled fists. They all hit the same point, the interception path of the bullets. The first one would hit him while he started moving backwards, albeit he had nowhere near the same speed as the bullets, but they were over 100 meters away and he had only done two movements with upped speed and then cast an almost instant magic. Still, it had too many drawbacks. The bullets hit home and the shock moved him back. It also reverberated through his body, up his spine, into his shoulder blades, and pushed out more blood.

This continued with the three bullets, and each time his body shook as the impact cratered against the six spikes. On the third shot, the spikes withdrew and Chephros looked at his opponent. He smirked wildly and started running forward. He kept his right arm close to the ground, and then pulled off a small stunt to keep his path a mystery. He stuck the blade into the ground and ripped it to his left, then pulled his legs up, and tucked himself into a sideways spin. Moving four meters to his right and several meters forward still, he continued running. He just had to get close now and he could attempt to rip apart the real one, unless it became invisible again. He didn't know it would be a minute before she recovered, and he would be there in half that time. Any shots aimed for him, that were homed to his waist, would definitely miss.

While they could move fast, inertia was stronger. Turning a shell that was fired from a cannon four meters instantly in a range of less than one hundred was definitely hard, if not impossible.

((Based off bloodloss, Str/Dex +5, Wis(technically /End) -5))

[Aiyon]

"Aww... don't you wanna play anymore?" the fake Tas called after the demon as he plunged away. It graced him with a few more shells speeding in his direction, but as he already knew they were harmless it was just noise now. Besides, he looked too focused.

The real Tas sighed silently to herself. An abrupt reversal was disappointing, but not exactly unexpected... but doubtless he'd now keep track of which was which quite well. So, since she could really do without the energy drain, she cancels the Shadow spell, causing the illusion to abruptly snap out of existance. This only took a matter of seconds and she had plenty more until he got close, especially since she was backing away again to prolong the inevitable.
If she could have smiled then she would have, an evil little smile. He'd got closer to her, so it was time to try again. The red runes of her Effect spell appear above her as she watches him getting closer. "Come on in." she murmurs happily as the spell charges, and when it is done Tas yells at him as the circles break up. "Sickle Crush!"

The air in a 12m radius around a point barely a meter in front of Cephros lurches, twists and suddenly comes alive. Wickedly sharp blades of invisible air flash in on the center of the effect area with immense speed, timed to coincide with when the demon was expected to reach the center of the spell. Not that avoiding that point would save him, as the blades were coming from all directions. Effect was a more potent spell than Focus, so its blades were stronger and could cut deeper. And, as an added risk, Tas sends another two cannon shells tearing at him, this time aimed at his wings and his arms. Tas experiences a moment of guilt over this; she'd been deliberately aiming at his magnificent wings for a lot of the fight... they were just large targets, unfortunately.

Once again she calls up her forge spell to replace the two newly departed shells, deciding that she might not get chance to do so when he got into melee range. She was relying on her cannon a lot for combating the demon, though it was doubtful he appreciated that.

[Chephros]

((So you know before hand, that spell gives him a nice +3 to str and dex to add to the beginning, and subtracts two from the others. 8 point difference...That's a pretty nice effect if I do say so myself. Put's him near death, but hey, it works.))

The effect spell was a nice dodge, surely, but his armor was also incredibly nice. Only his wings would be ripped by the spell, but that didn't matter. Because effect had a thirteen meter lead on him, he was under it for only three seconds. That was enough for him to catch a gash on his torso though, his back, almost cutting his spine or a wing connection to a blade, and two cuts on his legs. The blood splattered the ground and his fury only increased, upping his strength and speed more. An unexpected last cut on the wing nearly made him trip with the blinding pain, but his body took over, compensated by pushing off with both arms, and he flipped forward, still moving faster. He was almost fully sprinting right now, and aimed directly at his single target.

The shells were coming close though and his arm dove down again. This time he ripped to the left, in case the shells were expecting the flip spin to the right for some...odd reason. They were close, so their turning ability was incredibly off and the shells flew like always. Who knew where they went if they didn't ground themselves. Perhaps they slammed into a wall. God forbid they hit a teacher or another student. That would just be a nightmare. And not the good kind either.

Coming within ten meters of Tas, Chephros saw the blank spot on top, and jumped up. He grabbed the Cannon and his hand slid over the side, but his claws grabbed hard when he neared the top and his body halted. His left hand was grabbing the cannon. His eyes shot to the opening and saw the apparent 'eye', but didn't know it couldn't be touched. Being an almost animalistic fighter he aimed his already rapidly curving right arm there. He hadn't held it and so the running, jumping, twisting, and all force was behind it. The blade was aimed with his arm, bent at the elbow to pierce straight.

Sometimes all that was needed was brute force over magic. Then again, sometimes that got you killed just as easily.

((Yes, we talked about that beforehand. Yes, we agreed to do it.))

[Aiyon]

There was not much time for her to realise that she'd barely hit him before he was upon her. That's what happens if you get distracted during fast events, really.
"What the... ouch!" Tas cries as she suddenly has a large sharp object going through her eye. It wasn't the spike in the glowing eye that had hurt her, though seeing a cross-section of it was disconcerting, rather that the spike had pierced the thin plating in the hollow behind. It felt dangerously close to her core in this form, which translated internal injury for humans. She had to get him off, and fast!

With that in mind she reflexively rocks back slightly, as she had started to when he used her as a ladder, so that he is directly above her and then there is a flare of green light as a rune circlet flickers around her waist. And then her shockwave spell tears at Cephros, trying to forcibly throw him up into the air.

"You should be careful with that... could take someone's eye out." she adds as an afterthought just after the spell triggers.

[Chephros]

((Just for effect, one more switched point.))
The shockwave hit him in the stomach, his body hunched over, and he flew up several feet. His wings wouldn't open, they were too weak to at this point. However, while his mind was slowly closing his plans as he didn't have the thought train to form more than: Run, slash, run, slash. He also knew that he was losing too much blood and was near death. Going up his body came straight up but was at a slight angle to land behind Tas. Sadly his right arm was the one farther away. Using momentum force he whirled over in place and had his back to the ground. He was going to hit flat, literally. What fun the recovery trip was going to be.

And so as he came down his right arm dragged on the back of the armor, creating a nice gash on the back. It probably cut through the outermost layer, but that was all he could do. A straight punch probably would have been much more effective, but right now he couldn't do anything such as that. Hell, he was falling from several meters up, he couldn't do anything. And so, with that gesture, he slammed on his back and the force screwed him up completely. His wings hit together slightly, blood sticking. His ribs absorbed the force, and it centralized causing him to breath shallowly even while half unconscious. His eyes became a paler green, if that was possible, and almost looked white completely. Not having a black iris was...interesting sometimes.

[Aiyon]

Tas had jerked forward slightly as a lance of pain went down her back, followed by a meaty thud behind her. She spins quickly on her axis and then stops, looking down at the still demon on the ground.
It was a forboding sight really, someone down, wounded and helpless... while this large 'thing' loomed over it, looking on silently with a glowing eye, yet without any sign of motion or intent. In truth, Tas was deciding what to do next, she was only outwardly motionless. From the feel of it the slash down her back was shallow, hardly worth bothering about. It had barely broken the outer layer of her plating. Her eye flickers, shifting slightly to look at the acadamey in the distance. Here was the problem... this demon, who had never told her his name, seemed to be out of commision. He needed attention, but her armour lacked arms, she could not carry him. And as a human she couldn't make the distance under his weight, as he was bigger than her.

Then she blinks, looking back at him once more. Still no movement. A large yellow circle of runes appears around her, shifting her back to her human form. Tas lands on her feet and then staggers slightly, shaking her head in an attempt to clear it. She was feeling a little unsteady thanks to a headache and a nasty cut in her scalp, leaking blood down the side of her head. Then she steps up beside Cephros and crouches, looking carefully at him. "I told you i didn't want to fight." she says mournfully, shaking her head again before gingerly taking one of his arms and lifting it.
Slowly, very slowly, she eases him up and then drags him onto her back, one arm over each of her shoulders and determinedly ignoring the way she was getting his blood all over her. Then she tries to stand under his weight, her legs immediately struggling to cope. "Jeeze... what's with the weight, huh?" she grunts and then takes a deep breath, the yellow circle appearing again.

A few seconds later her armour form is once again hovering at the battlesite, tilted slightly forward and with a badly injured demon boy on its back, positioned so that he won't fall off. Many parts of its plating show bloodstains now and its eye flicks about for a moment before it starts moving, drifting off towards the buildings in the distance. Next stop for him was with the docs in the medical wing, and maybe her too. Her head hurt.