Time to train. (Tas)

[Aiyon]

"I know it wasn't unorthadox... i'm trying though." is her humble, yet pleased response. That she'd managed to make him fall (sort of) was a welcome thought, even if she knew he was holding back. But before she can move to take advantage of his balancing act her situation takes a turn for the worst as she is hauled off her feet. Tas hadn't heard clone A coming soon enough.

"Hkk... gah... ow..." she gasps as the air is crushed out of her. The sheer power of the bearhug is painful, but making things worse was the aching in her sides from the day before, which this pressure was intensifying. And she hadn't taken a pill to numb it today either. "Ouch! C'mon... c'mon... do something..." repeats desperately in her head as she feels herself start to black out. Her reflexive kicking, and even worse trying to use her arms to force the clone's open, wasn't doing anything. "Aha! Headbutt! ... ow." The headbutt wasn't a success either, as her long ponytail was trapped as well. Lowering her head had nearly doubled the hurting as she tried to tear her hair out with the move. Ow. Ow. Ow. OW! Dammit! Need a little room... to breathe... she thinks furiously, and then her mind stumbles over something. Some of her magic could help... forget Tristan, and damn not using it. Shockwave wouldn't do it, but maybe...

Tas grits her teeth, her eyes squeezed shut. "Runes... barrier..." she grates out in barely more than a whisper. With the first word the circles that had been around her arm appear again, shimmering slightly. Then with the second the key rune appears in her hand, though this time different from before. The pressure she was under abruptly drops from overpowering to merely intolerable as the magic fight back, a crackling glow appearing where A was touching her. The space gained would not get her free, nor give her leverage... the spell was not that powerful. And besides which, it was going to burn out in a few seconds anyway, it was already destabilising. But it was enough to let her hair slide... so she quickly curls, her head coming forward and her legs coming up. Then she strikes as hard as she can, her head slamming viciously back into the clone's nose while her heels power into his kneecaps. Thanks to her failing barrier spell she does this without fearing further injury to herself for striking at what felt like a rock, and hopefully the damned thing would drop her... if she was lucky.

A few seconds after she stikes, regardless of if it did anything, the runes on her wrist will shatter in a burst of sparks as the spell collapses. This display would shred the sleeve and criss-cross the arm with a random pattern of shallow cuts and scratches, the flickering glow of the weak barrier around her fading as it does.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Unfortunately for Tas, her strikes did absolutely nothing. If it had been Tristan holding her, that might have worked, but the clones were solid stone. Their joints weren't joints, they were moving rock. Tiny cracks had formed along its arms and torso, breaking the pigmentation slightly, as her spell took its effect. All she'd get from her physical efforts, though, was a bleeding head and sore heels. "Not good enough. Just because that might work on flesh and bone, doesn't mean you'll be fighting flesh and bone." He then thinned his eyes and the grip on the girl tightened.

Tristan hadn't forbidden magic, after all, the unorthodox can be utilized through spells, he just didn't specifically tell her she could use magic. "Right now, in a combat situation, that statue there would be squeezing you with all of its power and, if it had any magic, be blasting away. Think fast, act fast." His expression hardened for a moment and his tone deepened, "Retreat and you will fade, Hesitate and you will die." His mana began charging, she had only a short amount of time to get out any way she could before he unleashed his attack.

The air around Tristan's body began to distort with the massive amount of energy he was building, the spell he would unleash? Even he didn't know yet, but what ever it was, it would be devastating. Sun Tzu said, "The combat of the victorious is like the sudden release of a pent-up torrent down a thousand-fathom gorge." And guess who Tristan was.

[Aiyon]

This latest advice just gets head shake in responce, Tas was a little dazed after her failed strike. The barrier should have protected her better... and then, as if thinking about it was the cause, the barrier collapses and the wind is crushed out of her again. The brief respite had allowed Tas to regain a little of her composure, but she was still short on breath and needing air, a good reason for her to be silently cursing the clone holding her.

The foul attitude dies when she is struck by a sudden idea. She was facing a statue based on a person. So what if she took off its head...? It's stop a person, so it might stop this blasted clone. But how?
Tas takes a few precious seconds to think about it before her mind stumbles over a few of her minor abilities. If applied properly, they could do the job, but applied wrong, she didn't want to think about it any further than that. Instead she hastily gets busy with her plan, as Tristan's buildup of magic was hard to miss now. The circles of her Runes spell appear again around her lacerated forearm, and she deftly inserts the "Blast" control rune, borrowed from one of her other spells. A modest amount of her power feeds into the rune, and she creates a minor explosion just behind Clone A's neck. Then, a split second later, she holds back the spell. After it had detonated, but before it could do anything except glow prettily.

The first stage now accomplished, Tas squeezes her eyes shut, focusing on holding that spell locked. Then she triggers the second stage, using her Forge spell on the frozen explosion.
It works as she had expected... the spell reloads the explosion so it detonates again, but it then immediately freezes with its predecessor and Forge reloads it again. As long as Forge remained in effect and the explosion was frozen, this split-second cycle would continue to build up power until Runes overloaded again. Tas bends all her willpower to keeping the energy in check as long as she can, blocking out everything else.

She only holds out for about three seconds before the overload occurs, and she is granted more cuts to her arm. The result would be a lot less pleasant for Clone A, however, as without her holding it back the molten energy behind its neck was now free. And to celebrate this freedom it detonates, with respectable, if noisy, explosion. Somehow Tas doubted the piece of animated rubble holding her would react well to such an outburst.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Tristan's mana built to the point where loose sediment began rising and his hair began waving about as though the scene was ripped from a cheesy anime. He saw the light but did nothing about it, if she was about to get out, let her. The clone held firm and unmoving. If any thing, the grip tightened even more when Igneus saw the magic taking form. Tristan slid back into a stance, his right arm forward by his right knee, his left arm chambered, both hands in tight fists. His legs were in a right front leaning stance, or 'Migi Zenkutsudachi'.

Larger chunks of debris began flying up as Tristan's power built. He'd only done this sort of thing twice. Once in Vichy, and once against that worthless whore of a fake Crusnik. Neither time was releasing this spell. Neither time released the same spell as the other for that matter. Hell Tristan didn't even know what he'd fired off against the girl, though it had been stopped by the security. This time, that wouldn't happen, tristan wasn't going that far...but he was going far enough.

Boom.

The magic behind clone A exploded with force enough to damage carbon steel. The clone's upper torso was blasted to bits, the shockwave of the blast shattering the stone and causing it to collapse on the ground. The arms too fell, but Tristan's next words would reveal Tas' fate, "Too late!" His energy peaked and huge chunks of stone began rising up...

[shadow=white,left,200]"EARTH SLASH!!!"[/shadow]

The booming roar echoed and the hunter smashed his left fist into the ground in a lightning fast, yet exaggerated movement. The greatest hills around the world were equaled by the earthly chaos that had just been unleashed. Even some of the smallest mountains had just been rivaled. The entire area for several hundred yards infront of Tristan and a few hundred feet off to the sides was utterly decimated in an insane manner.

Huge pillars of jagged rock and dirt had flown from deep within the surface of the ground. Luckily the destruction hadn't reached too deep into the surface of the floating island or it would have broken through the layers of the underground Academy. As it was, throughout the island, it would feel as though an earthquake had just hit. Toward the furthest edges it wouldn't feel as though too much had happened, but the areas nearest would be jarred quite a bit. It was a good thing they had been fairly isolated within the confines of the Training grounds with snowed hills and forrests close by.

Tristan had annihilated Clone A, his earth slash attack demolishing it in its entirety, even the small magic core within it that allowed it to reform. Luckily the other two were still intact, though they had fallen over from the seismic effect. Igneus and Tristan's gear had felt it too, they'd gotten the worst of it, the ground splitting slightly and moving under their feet, or at least feeling as such.

The hunter fell to his rear, the immense energy drain had exhausted him to minute proportions of energy, though that would recover with time. Mainly his fatigue was the sudden release of such pent up energy. Sun Tzu had been right with that statement...only Tristan didn't know any water spells...yet.

[Aiyon]

For a few long moments, as the rumbling of the disturbed earth subsides, there is no sign of Tas. From her position with Clone A she'd had an up-close and personal experience with his spell, a spell of such potency was extremely dangerous. More time crawls by, then, nearly a full minute after his stike had ended, a flickering hand appears over a large chunk of stone. Quickly followed by an arm, then the other, then Tas herself is there, hanging wearily over the rock panting. Her body shimmers slightly as an energy field around her flickers in and out of visibility, briefly hiding different parts of her from view.
The field was why she'd survived the blast so well. Just before Tristan's spell hammered her like a freight train she had reacted instinctively with a spell. If it had been her shockwave spell she might have been crippled by now, but she chose another spell, much better suited. Even if it did backfire sometimes. So Tristan's massive display of power had indeed washed over her, buffeted her, knocked her about, but through it all her Layer spell had given her shielding. But the shielding was not perfect.

Even with her spell to take the brunt of the impact, Tas was in bad shape. Battered, dusty, torn, breathing raggedly and glaring at Tristan with slightly wild eyes. She small drops of blood seeped from her here and there, the results of flying stone shards that the shield had been too busy, or simply unable, to repel. And on top of that, her energy reserves, her single greatest strength as a caster, had been all but wiped out. Ravenously devoured by her defence as it had tried to save her from harm.

In this respect, while it obviously hadn't quite worked, it had kept her from being smeared against the ground. She'd be thankful for that later, after she gave Tristan a small taste of his own medicine. An attack of such ferocity had no place in a practice fight, and she already had a follow-up idea. And it was really his fault, as she would copy what he did the day before.

Her right hand, decidedly worse for wear, jerks behind her back and pulls out her charge. Then with a flick of her wrist she sends it spinning in Tristan's direction like a frisbee. Its angle was high, it was going to sail past a few meters over him, but she didn't mind that... as she'd summoned a rune to her left hand, which she thrusts at the wobbling disk flying past him. The fire rune.

Six tiny fireballs spit from her palm before she hastily drops back down behind the rock for protection, praying that the rock and what was left of her layer spell would protect her. The fireballs were not aimed at Tristan... they were aimed at the explosive, and at least 4 of them were going to hit it. And if they did, the explosion from the day before would repeat itself.

And hammer Tristan into the ground.

((Sorry about the delay. ><))

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Breathing somewhat heavily, Tristan looked around for his opponent. "Damn...Over did it on that one. I gotta get used to these earth spells." Understatement? Damn right. Tristan had vastly over powered that spell. An entire army, if in formation, could and likely would have been utterly decimated by that attack. Then again that's talking about humans...This rather short girl was a mage. Albeit, the lowest rank, but a mage.

Fuck...Didn't know it could do that much damage... Igneus projected, readjusting himself. [Yeah well, I almost drained myself. Only got a few spells left before I'm done, mana wise. Have to steal some.] He thought to his partner, looking back up to see Tas clambering on top of a rock. "At least I didn't kill her...." He chuckled to himself, then saw the look in her eye just before she flung something at him.

['The hell is that...? Oh, shit!] He began to back peddle away, that charge was nothing to fuck with. Fireballs? Didn't she already know he was immune? [Wait...The fire armor. Oh fuck.] He thought, then used one of the last bits of energy he had. In an instant, Tristan was gone and the charge was going off. The massive blast hit like a shape charge, most of the energy flying straight down, where Tristan just was, but he wasn't any more, and thats what mattered.

"Nice try." Tristan said from behind Tas. Double time had just saved his ass once again, getting away all but flawlessly. "Now this gets physical." And he took off, his blinding speed having him practically teleport up to Tas and give her a hard shot in the back. Stomach if she turned to face the hunter. He hadn't used his other chakra spells...no need. His speed enhanced his power so greatly that he'd probably kill her if he'd thrown in strength too. Not to mention he probably didn't have the energy to activate two of those spells....

As fact would have it...he didn't have energy for much of any thing except basic fire attacks and his Seoligna spell after using Double time. Didn't matter though, he was still going to beat her to the point where she'd have to use every bit of knowledge and ability to hold up that candle infront of Tristan.

[Aiyon]

This sudden turn of events was not to the girl's liking. One moment she had been hiding behind the rock listening for an ear-shattering blast. That she got. But with it she got an unexpected voice behind her, and then an extremely solid impact in her back. Only the flares of energy from her shield kept the impact from being a serious one, though it did send her reeling against the rock in front of her. "Hitting in... the... back isn't... polite, dammit!" she snarled. "Whouf!" she exclaimed a moment later.
In the heat of the moment she had made a slight error. With irritation and suprise warring for supremecy in her Tas had stopped thinking on her feet, something Tristan probably wouldn't recommend. So she'd spun around to launch herself at him, only to meet his fist as it flashed into her gut.

Her magic already all but tapped out was not up to this. Layer, already inefficient with energy, now worked to preserve Tas from being crushed between the fist and the rock... and in doing so drained the last of that strength. The shield bursts like a bubble, leaving Tas to endure most of the impact.

Which went about as well as any human could expect, when taking a strong blow to the stomach. She may have been breathless before, but this blow left her severely winded. She doubled over gaping, only able to draw a shuddering breath at irregular intervals. Retaliation would have to wait, breathing was a bit more important.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

Mental fortitude gave its hand now, Tristan's two remaining clones lept up the rocks with relative ease. One was standing on the rock behind Tas, the other was off to Tristan's right. "You could be annihilated right now. I still have energy, if in tiny ammounts, and I still have my physical prowess." Another lesson was coming up as Tristan pushed her to full stature with his armored hand.

"Never block if you can avoid. You wouldn't be nearly as drained if you'd managed to run away from my Earth Slash rather than just shielded yourself from it." There was still an aura of power about Tristan, his stamina coming to its normal levels after that exertion.
This was the worst case scenario for someone. No energy, and enemies left to fight. "At all costs, you can never get your self into these positions. Even if your cornered, if you have energy, you can release a devistating all or nothing that leaves you in no worse a condition than you are now. At least then, if your attack worked, your safe." His heavy hand rested on her shoulder, and Igneus flew over to rest by clone B's feet, the one behind Tas.

It was probably over, and she'd probably had enough for today. Tristan would be ready to go in a few hours as long as he got his hands on some blood, but it was up to her. Can't force someone to train unfortunetaly. Granted you can randomly attack them but, that wasn't how Tristan worked...On Babylos at least.

[Aiyon]

Tas had remained more or less silent during this latest bit of instruction, though she was a bit too shaken to really respond to it. When he put a hand on her shoulder she draped that arm over it, using it as something to lean on.
"Yah..." she finally gasps. "Shoulda... replaced... the charge... then..." Falling silent she shakes her head and then mimes slapping something onto his arm with her free hand. She didn't have the breath to explain that she couldn't have dodged his attack... and were it not for the shield she'd have been seriously hurt. But odds were he had already guessed that.

Another pause follows as she regains a little more of her composure before she eventually speaks again. "Congrats... i guess. Easy win, but... enough now. Mey was right." The last was a pained admission, referring to the rapid healing she'd undergone. She could feel those injuries as well as today's, and she was finally fumbling at the bottle of pills in her holster. Now that the fighting was over she could endure their anti-walking side effects.

[Tristan Knightrhode]

"Right then, same time tomorrow. Come on." He picked her up again, almost effortlessly pushing her off her feet and into his arms. The clones crumbled and small orbs of glowing white hovered where they had just been. Clones B and C hadn't been reformed, just A, so their mana storages were totally intact. The orbs returned to Tristan's body, and he disengaged his chakra. Igneus transformed into his medium form once again, and the hunter got up onto his partners back.

"I'm gonna have to take it even easier on you. Maybe I'll just have you fight Igneus in his small form. Should be easier. He has less spells than I do, and less energy." Igneus blew out flame in a snort then, and activated his teleportation, zooming them through the utter nothingness and into the recovery wing again.

OOC: short >.>