Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jun 28, 2015 18:36:36 GMT
The clouds rolling in smelled like rain - a fact that Kotone, of course, wouldn't miss. All dragon slayers had senses similar to the beasts that they gained their power from, but those like herself and Raven (for their own reasons) had even greater senses than that. The other girl was already wet, and Kotone, herself, didn't much care either way. She didn't get cold, and she actually kind of liked the rain sometimes.
"You've the right of it," Kotone nodded. "Dragon slayers have the senses of dragons. We gain a lot of our abilities through a ritual only a true dragon can perform. We've all got a little dragon in us, as well." A dragon slayer couldn't train a dragon slayer. Kotone's daughter would only have comparable powers if one of the dragons felt the need to train her themselves.
"I'd be disappointed if you weren't able to gather at least that much from what we were saying," Kotone chuckled, obviously amused. This girl was even more observant than she was - quite the feat, if Kotone did say so, herself. Not that she was saying this aloud. "I'll take complicated. Everything with Raven is complicated. He doesn't seem to want it any other way. Stupid." The way she insulted him suggested a measure of sympathy, not anger or even any amount of actual condescending thoughts. Maybe it was the grin that accompanied the words. It wasn't cocky... but perhaps a little sad for him.
"If you want to know about me though," Kotone shifted slightly the first sprinkles of water fell from the sky. She wouldn't move if this woman didn't. "Normal for a dragon slayer is a lot of traveling and a lot of fighting, if most of my life had anything to say about it. Most of us are protectors of sorts. It's what we were raised to be. So, normal for me is not normal for a dragon slayer. Not anymore."
"I'm afraid I don't know much about devil slayers either. I've never gleamed much from my few encounters with the other, though I expect you're pretty powerful. It'd be interesting to see exactly how powerful, admittedly." Kotone was extremely competitive by nature.
Razhiel was appreciative that Kotone thought to be curious and talk to her. She found it interesting to say the least. Dragons and rituals. Having a little dragon in them would explain the extreme otherness of their smell. Not necessarily a bad thing she thought as she gave a small sigh.
She couldn’t help but think that maybe Raven did the best with what he was dealt. Complicated may have been the only path given to him. Though no matter how much you tried you could not be on the good side of everyone. It seemed, despite Kotone saying they ended their friendship, she still cared about Raven.
Those with great power tended to be game changers. She understood the road of traveling and fighting. This dragon slayer seemed to have gotten past that and found something to anchor her. Razhiel hoped that Kotone would be able to have that forever. It was rare.
Razhiel tilted her back, eyes closed as it began to rain. She opened her mouth allowing a few drops of rain to fall within its confines before closing it again. With each breath taken she could feel her magic begin to flow faster within her, an endless current as it circled within. Violet eyes opened to stare into the rain and the dark clouds above. She could feel the charge in the air, the intensity held within the clouds. ”I would expect devil slayers to share a base amount of similarities much like dragon slayers do. The rest would vary in abilities, elements, power… creativity, resourcefulness. “ She shrugged before looking back at Kotone a smile playing upon her lips, her eyes lit up. “What did you have in mind?” Razhiel was game. And she had a feeling both of them would have certain advantages with the storm around them.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jun 29, 2015 3:56:18 GMT
Kotone had always cared about Raven, even when she hated him. Even when she'd actually thought she hated him for lying to her about who and what he was. It was the reason she had always been so easily riled up by him compared to other people - a trend that would probably continue to this day. Fortunately for everyone, the guy she'd ended up with wasn't one for riling her up.
This girl was closer to Kade than Raven. As much as Kotone was extra competitive lately after being out of the action for so long, she didn't exactly just look at her and want to punch her. She wanted to know what Kotone had meant? "It's not exactly unusual for me to challenge someone to a friendly or semi-friendly match to see who's the stronger or more skilled wizard," she explained.
"You're lucky you're not like Raven, or it might have brought out my more competitive side already. He had a way of making me just need to show him up even though we've always been close in strength." That the ice user was a match for a fire user was usually enough to impress people. Not Kotone though. She had always had to win. "So if you want to, that's up to you. I don't usually go out of my way to get into a fight with strangers who aren't asking for it anymore."
Razhiel jumped down from the railing, arms loose at her sides. So she wants a friendly match, a show of strength… She had not ‘stretched’ her magic in awhile, not to the extent this battle would need. She was not used to being challenged… friendly-like. Kotone’s comment about not being like Raven had a slight frown appearing on face. Everything she had learned about him today would have to be gone through when she was alone. She could not be distracted nor torn when she encountered him.
" I'm game." Razhiel stated simply with a half smile.
Most often Razhiel had to consciously make her magic ‘dormant.’ So it wasn’t so much as calling her core to the forefront as finally letting it go, opening the gates so to speak. Her magic filled her being, moved like a serpent beneath her skin, making her skin and touch shocking. Hair that was visible stood up from the little hairs on her arm to the short hair on her head which, though wet from the rain, now looked as if the wind blew through it. Violet orbs seemed to be lit from within. This was her natural state. If she focused she could make her touch more than just shocking.
Facing Kotone, Razhiel nodded and than her body was in motion. Her face showing nothing but pure focus. Her movement, a signal, as lightning struck from the sky touching down in numerous places along the pier and water, one struck Razhiel herself, her body’s charge attracting that from the sky creating a pathway. A reason she had to actively hold her magic dormant, especially in storms. Her body’s charge and the charge in the air around her attracted lightning. They were close enough to each other that Razhiel opted to begin with close combat.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jun 30, 2015 0:56:47 GMT
The woman accepted, whatever thoughts she had practically vanishing from her face. Kotone knew what that meant, and didn't flinch a bit when lightning started coming down. It had the smell of magic; not natural lightning. This was her magic, magic she was letting go. Well, she wasn't the only one. While her opponent's face turned blank, Kotone's own expression only grew more excited. It was like the very idea of getting to test herself in a fight was awakening something that had laid dormant for so long.
The ground around kotone frosted over as the temperature around the two dropped to nearly freezing temperatures. Eventually, it felt like the seasons had suddenly changed from summer to the middle of winter in a much colder climate. "In that case," Kotone had brought her sword, as she always did. But for now, she discarded it along with the scabbard. She had no intention of using weapons unless the other did. "I went first in the last fight. I think it's only fair that the guest goes first. So... It's your move."
The expression on Kotone’s face was what Razhiel felt inside. Exhilaration that hummed within. To be able to let go of it all, no restraints, no holding within. The sun had fully left this side of the world, the darkness set it. The brilliant flashes of lightning put everything into relief before it went dark once more. The only light sources being that of scattered lamps across the shore. Though the lightning strikes were sporadic, they were frequent.
The chill in the air, the frost at their feet, an early winter to contend with the heat Razhiel exuded. Her body at rest was normally hotter than that of a human’s and with her magic fully released it became even hotter. The more magic she used and depending on the spells she used, that number would increase even more. Her breath steamed as she exhaled. She raised an eyebrow as Kotone allowed her to go first. Before Kotone had finished speaking she placed her hands apart, palms facing each other as a stream of lightning appeared between them. The stream growing thicker with each passing second until it was about three fingers thick. She brought her hands together in a movement to fast to track similar to a clap. When her hands met it was not so much a clap as a deafening roar of thunder that was released creating a sonic boom with a physical presence enough to damage ears within range and push Kotone back.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jun 30, 2015 15:26:02 GMT
Kotone hadn't even finished speaking before her so-called 'guest' began her assault. She moved an arm defensively, a shield of ice appearing in front of her. The sonic boom was deflected with relative ease, still loud but keeping the most damaging part out of her eardrums. She could deal with a bit of ringing; she'd had worse before. Not bad, but Kotone wasn't going to sit there taunting her before she even knew how strong the foreigner was. She'd become aware over time that there was always someone stronger, and you couldn't tell who it was going to be until it happened.
Her turn. Gathering up further energy, Kotone's eyes glowed a more icy, arcane blue. Near her, the temperature dropped dangerously low, and her physical abilities were supercharged, though that part was hardly noticeable until she moved. She raised her hand as if holding a weapon, swinging it as she dashed to the side to try to put Raz off balance. The swinging hand quickly turned into a chained kama, flying at her with great speed. Once it struck, hit or miss, it shattered into dust, and ice erupted from the ground around her target, attempting to throw her off her feet.
With a stroke of her arm, Kotone raised her arm and deflected the attack. Razhiel hadn’t expected it to hit and it gave her an idea of the dragon slayer’s reaction time. There was an increase of pressure in the air, a signal of magic building up, confirmed by Kotone’s brilliant eyes. Eyes on Kotone, she watched her body rather than the swinging hand. Balanced on the balls of her feet, Razhiel was ready. Catching the slightest movement in body Razhiel bent backwards at an almost awkward angle, the chained kama flying centimeters past her face. With a show of flexibility and strong back muscles she straightened but before she could respond in kind, ice slammed upward from her feet. Razhiel rolled forward, stopping with both hands spread on the wood of the pier down on one knee facing Kotone. The frost on the boards melting at the touch of her hands and feet.
There was no preamble, her magic streamed through the wood straight at Kotone. Lightning bolts spearing upwards from the wood beneath her feet while simultaneously lightning shot down from the sky, no longer randomly striking but given a destination- the immediate area around Kotone.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 1, 2015 17:53:09 GMT
It didn't matter who they were; every lightning user was fast - faster than your average wizard at any rate. Faster than said lightning wizards was their magic, all of which Kotone had had to learn to contend with against more than one opponent. She felt the electrical current given a destination more than she saw it; a blast like that would really sting.
Kotone hadn't really had to contend with ground currents before; her other opponents hadn't been that creative, instead sending either their own bodies or pure electricity straight for her. Worse than any blast of electricity was the tingling and numbness that came with it, reducing movement speed and agility in general. The dragon slayer couldn't let that happen.
Kotone instead created a buffer of ice underneath her, almost like a platform. The electricity would still come, but it had its own magical barrier to strike through, which would disrupt some of the flow. Kotone was struck, gritting her teeth as she attempted to diffuse the worst of it.
The moment it was over, she flicked her wrists as if to get some of the feeling back. "Not bad," she admitted. "But I can do better." The water in the air suddenly condensed into crystals of ice, thousands... maybe even millions of them in a sudden, completely still flurry of hail. With a snap, the hail balls assaulted her opponent in all directions. Kotone wondered what answer she would have to that.
Razhiel felt the impact when the lightning hit. The ice platform blocking the weaker currents and taking some of the strength from the stronger ones as they blasted through. Quick thinking, decisive action, and fast reflex. She expected nothing less from the ice Dragon Slayer. ‘ At Kotone’s words, Razhiel grinned. She couldn’t help it. And she believed every word. That didn’t mean she would not counter and match it.
The rain, which had been ever present this far into their ‘friendly’ duel, was turned into individual hail balls. Razhiel was expecting the rain to be turned on her at some point, though she had yet to decide exactly how she would react.
Time was out, there was not thoughts to process just reaction. A spear of lightning appeared in her hands as the first balls of hail pelted her. Though her skin was hot and the hail melted, she would have tiny bruises from where they hit. Her hands twirled the spear, much like a baton. Her body circling, dipping, and twisting as her hands moved faster yet. This blocked a lot of the hail, the fast movement and the solid mass of lightning creating a semi decent shield though it was physically exhausting if she kept this speed up. She built up the lightning within her body, the current within spinning faster and faster. The hue of her skin masked as the lightning fully raced along her skin, a visible barrier. A white blue blur. With a mental ‘push’ the lightning burst from her skin, as if her skin had expanded in a complete circle eight feet from her form. The lightning, similar to a solid barrier when it burst from her skin threw off an exuberant amount of heat. The lightning being hotter than that of the sun, melted the hail it came into contact with, the resulting heat doing the same. In that brief moment of time where the hail was cleared within eight feet of her she halted her ‘dance,’ and threw the lightning spear at Kotone. The lightning burst flew back at Razhiel, seeping beneath her skin once more. Her clothes, which were resistant to heat to a point began letting off steam.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 2, 2015 15:12:31 GMT
A spear of lightning and some fancy twirling seemed to be all the woman needed to clear the hail. Kotone couldn't help but wonder if the same solution would have been so easy if she wouldn't have made it less lethal than she would have in a real fight. Oh well, she could only find out if she were willing to kill the girl, and she kind of wasn't. She'd never been one for killing, despite the sharp sword and the sharper tongue.
After a moment, Red grew tired of the parrying, using her lightning as a barrier to push back the ice and destroy it. Kotone couldn't help but grin; she would have done that first instead of wasting time. She would have also probably thrown the spear just like Raz had. Kotone was fighting with her enhanced abilities activated, and from her vantage point watching the woman work, it wasn't out of the question to simply dodge... so she did.
Kotone leaned out of the way, the sizzling and cracking spear flying withing four inches of her face. Kotone stomped the ground, her sword flying from where she'd left it to her hand with the aid of ice shifting under it like earth. She pulled it free from the sheath with a flick of her wrist, the magitek-powered device shifting to the nonlethal edge rather than the razor sharp one as she did. Around her, four long shards of ice in the shape of spears (but more blunt in the case of the friendly fight) appeared, and as she moved to close the distance, they launched like bullets aimed straight at the redhead.
Fast reflexes and the Ice Queen dodged the spear. She should have created more… Too late for that though. At Kotone’s grin, she smirked and bowed her head slightly in acknowledgement. She couldn’t help but wonder if it were because she had not battled in years or if it was because it was not a life or death battle and she was not accustomed to that. With Kotone’s sword flying into her hand it seemed weapons had finally come into play.
Whipping her hand out with a flick of her wrist, a cord like stream of lightning emerged. Much like a whip, the end of the lightning wrapped around her scythe lying near her jacket and as she flicked it back, the scythe flying towards her, she grabbed it by the handle out of the air. The scythe more like an extension of her arm as it became imbued with lightning, the edge of the blade glowing as a barrier of lightning 'dulled' the edge.
Gripping the scythe with both hands, she hit one spear with the blade end of her scythe and another spear with the curved handle. A slight step to the side, she dodged a third. The four, though dull, cut her forearm as she didn’t dodge it completely. Without flinching she turned to Kotone, her scythe slicing in a downward upward stroke and continuing the momentum, used the end of the scythe in a stabbing motion, from which a lightning strike burst from- branching as it traveled.
Post by Kotone Lazarus on Jul 3, 2015 15:56:17 GMT
The weapon Raz wielded was somehow fitting. Elegant and beautiful in its own deadly way. Not that Kotone was trying to wax poetic in her own head as she formed a shield of ice to stop the attack. The blade sunk into the ice, actually piercing through it, though not damaging enough to shatter the ice itself. Kotone wasted little time, throwing the chunk of ice to the side and the blade along with it even as she reinforced the ice to keep the weapon stuck in it and the weapon's natural balance off, at least for a few moments.
Kotone didn't have time to waste; Raz would have an answer within moments. Kotone needed to keep her off balance and get in close; staying this far away only helped her already considerably skilled opponent. Between her fingers, shuriken of ice formed. With a swooping motion from both arms, she threw all six of them in a spread pattern while dashing forward with her wind and dragon slayer-enhanced speed. Once she got a bit closer, she attacked yet again. She used her dragon roar, though she'd learned to fire it from her hands, so rather than a roar it appeared to be more of a solid beam of extremely cold energy. This one was aimed at Raz's legs, the aim being to get her to move in a way that Kotone could react to while Raz was in midair.
When a wall of ice appeared and her blade sunk in it, Razhiel was about to put her weight behind the attack when Kotone reinforced the ice and threw it to the side, efficiently taking the weapon from her hands. Rather than fight the ice, Razhiel let it go and prepared to attack, close combat, with her hands.
After releasing Razhiel of her weapon, Kotone launched straight into another attack. Her hands empty, she formed slim, small bolts of lightning that shot forward and exploded the shuriken upon contact before they could reach her. What she didn’t account for was the slayer’s incredible speed, faster than anything she had seen as of yet. With her speed, Kotone launched another attack putting Razhiel on the defense.
The already chilly, frosty air seemed to decrease in temperature as Kotone released her attack. Razhiel pushed off the boards of the pier. The side effect of the use of her lightning, extremely high body temperature, unable to completely dispel the cold. Her breath frosted in the air as she attempted a flip over the fast approaching Kotone in an escape from the Dragon Roar aimed at her legs.
Raz had played right into what Kotone had planned; she was jumping to avoid the blast, which meant that she was vulnerable in the air. Perfect. A sword of ice appeared in her hand, dulled on the edge so it wouldn't be lethal. In the same movement that created the blade, she swung at the airborn devil slayer with as much speed as she could muster.
Whether the attack connected or not, she created a second sword. She wasted no time, swinging again to try and finish the fight as quickly as she could. She wanted to enjoy the fight, but despite her status, the dragon slayer had something to prove: That she hadn't fallen too far behind in the last year.
She remembered what it was like when she was younger, having lost her first big battle in a long time. The arrogance she'd built up had collapsed in on her, and she'd had a tough time rebuilding her self image, as well as her strength that she'd 'thought' she'd had. Unlike then, she was paranoid that she wouldn't have the strength to deal with a future threat, and she needed to know she was strong enough to handle anything.
The second swing either a turned into a flurry as she tried to keep her opponent off guard, or if Razhiel managed to attack back, she instead went on the defensive, looking for an opening.
