Zed Arybai Vs Taxim.

[Angel]

*The city lies largely deserted, cleared by the rumour of a battle not far in the future. For now, it sets the ideal stage for Zed day. He's found the best vantage point he can, perched on the corner of a church tower, and looks over the hazy city. The morning mist is just burning off into what promises to be a hot day. The air already feels heavy and sticky, making Zed's feathers all clammy and he shakes them out periodically as he waits.

The electricity in his palms zaps occasionally in tightly controlled excitement, sending blue sparks to the copper lightening rod running up the spire behind him. A movement in the city below catches his steely blue eyes and he watches like the hawk in his sigil.

[Taxim]

As the small feet of the child gently pad a way across the dusty floor, he turns blind eyes upwards, staring at the blue sky. He "looks" around at his surroundings, the mental images of the entities inside his masks whispering directions and observations as he moves.

The feral beast was talking in a rather fast speed about how the air "didn't smell right" while the spirit in the black mask was hissing her delight at the state of the city. Either one of them would like to come out.

The small child took one more look around before reaching into his jacket and removed the black mask from its holster...

[Angel]

The way this child walks spurs him into motion, no doubt that this is his challenger now. His wings snap out as he falls from his perch, gliding effortlessly on the warm air to street level. The wind over his feathers makes them thrum and gives some warning even before his shadow flits over his deceptively young opponent.

He lands some two hundred yards down the road and tucks his wings in close before turning to face the intimidating black mask. Unperturbed by it, he gives a very faint smile,

"Little one! This is my city, mine and my Masters. In coming within its bounds, you have thrown down the gauntlet; do you wish me to take it up, or should I let you leave?

[Taxim]

Paying no attention to the newcomer for the moment, Taxim simply slips the mask onto his face before turning his gaze to his challenger.

"We do not believe we have thrown anything down yet strange one."

With a small clicking sound, the mask latches onto his face. The eyes behind the mask grow red while the childs clothes seem to melt into a smokey grey colour, then black. If you listen carefully, you can just make out the whispers the mask makes to him.

"Pick up the gauntlet if you wish."

The final change starts as a long black pole, seemingly wooden, seems to "leak" from the boys palm to extend up little more than his height. The boy raises the staff before gently pressing the end to the floor so the staff stands upright.

If his challenger was paying attention, he would note that he had grown a little also.

[Angel]

Zed's smile fades into interest, the changes the mask makes are glaring to him, trained as he is to exploit a persons physicality. The ethereal nature of this one's 'body' makes him suspicious and somewhat regretful that his more subtle techniques may not work on him. However, the masks lined on his belt spark his instincts and hence he pays them close heed.

"Very well, if you will not leave, it comes to this." He puts his hands to his belt. "Though nonetheless, I am loth to strike first..." A faint and teasing grin flickers briefly over his face.

[Taxim]

"Very well."

The child simply taps the staff on the floor once, causing the large orb on the top to crackle and shimmer slightly. It is quite easy to see that touching this would bring considerable pain from the almost electrical looking tendrils that were now encircling the sphere slowly. It promised either high-degree burns, or an annoying heart-failure.

Taxim slowly grasps the scarlet cloth grip and raises it calmy towards his challengers head.

[Angel]

Zed raises an eyebrow, the gesture is somewhat futile given the distance between them, 200 yards. He steps forwards softly, his worn boots making a faint crunching on the un-swept streets. Not wanting to be outdone by the mockery of electricity, arcs of the true energy flash from hand to belt and on to the other. The charge is not only for show, it's building up at a phenomenal rate. The heat in the metal of his belt is soon at the limit of what his clothes can take and he lets fly for the childish façade.

The blue arc flashes with the speed of its heavenly brother, intense purple-blue light carving a path on Zeds eyes. They recover in moments, used to such abuse. The erratic and unpredictable means of attack is drawn to its target inexorably and has enough charge to splinter steel.

[Taxim]

(In our defence, we were only aiming.)

Taxim had expected something like this. With a flick of the rod, the energy the rod had been storing expelled in the form of a black sphere which rapidly grew untill it covered the boy.

The rod realeased all its power, letting the charge come as it smashed into the black sphere, smashing the sheild. The force pushed the child back two steps, much to the masks annoyance.

The dark entity in the mask was now screaming threats and curses as Taxim once more funnelled energy from the earth to the staff. This time, he took a step forward, took the staff in both hands and sent a metre-long beam of what seemed to be black light shooting towards his opponent at a surprising speed. Hopefully a beam as hot as core-lava might convince his opponent to stop playing mocking games.

[Angel]

((Tis a small detail, easy to over look, but I couldn't help myself, since it made the construct was all wrong, sorry ))

Zed allows the attack to end in the abrupt way that is natural, since the electricity doesn't seem to be conducting to earth, and observes what the staff can do closely. He has suspicions that it is just a tool for power from another source, like Zed's belt, but every tool has its limitations and he intends to find them.

It's mainly hard-trained instinct that pulls him out of the way of the projectile and it skims past him at a safe, if rather warm, distance. The distinctive smells of ozone and burnt air linger behind it and then the sweltering heat hits him proper. He dances back from its path by another few steps.

Still keeping a careful eye on his opponent, he surveys the damage caused my the black-light. The concrete and steel superstructure of the building behind is just gone in places, dripping in a way concrete shouldn't in others. He is mildly surprised, but it doesn't shock him. This is not an opponent to underestimate.

Zed is definitely convinced.

He decides to go for a more subtle approach this time, and unobtrusively sends his charge through the copper cables just beneath the surface of the road to attack Taxim from below. Hopefully it will be hard to detect, but he sends another bolt straight at Taxim as distraction.

[Taxim]

"~The floor. It is not right, it is not riiight... Moooooove... NOW!~"

The dark voice inside the childs mind was shouting at him, his eyes scanned the horizon as the many visions flickered out and in. Lastly, the calm, cool voice of the earthen one spoke.

"~The ground. She shrieks. Do you see? Hear?~"

Sure enough, he could hear the moan of the ground as the power moved through it. Now he could hear another voice: It was the dark one again, screaming tips at Taxim, not too gently either.

"~MOVE NOW YOU IGNORANT BRAT, DO IT NOW! CAN YOU NOT SEE?!~"

Taxim raised his head towards the large bolt of electricity flying towards him. His eyes widened and he instantly turned and searched for any footholds on the building behind him. He found a couple and raised himself about three feet off the floor, which would hopefully put him out of distance of the charge flowing through the rods. From the mask, and the unstoppable moaning it was giving, he raised the staff and held it up behind him. Drawing power from the masks on his belt, he was able to focus the energy into the staff, which with a small flick, formed a small shield in a peculiar way.

First, four points of black light shone out about a metre infront of him in the shape of a square, all points one metre from the one below/above and to the side. The staff then weaved black lines between each point within seconds untill the staff had formed a small black square infront of itself. Taxim then held this up infront of the incoming beam, hoping to reflect it, get rid of it, whatever, so long as it didn't touch him. He then held this in front of his back as his front hugged the wall.

"~Idiot child...~"

[Angel]

Zed blinks in surprise as Taxim avoids what he should not be able to see, and his estimation of him goes up another notch. But there's still an opening. Pity Taxim doesn't seem to understand the nature of his weapon.

He lets the failed surprise attack strike into the concrete around the copper telephone cables. They weren't quite big enough to hold the current without his help and they dump it into the surrounding concrete. The sudden energy vents itself as heat and the concrete explodes upwards, not far from Taxim's hold on the wall. Shards of concrete even reach Zed, standing back on the road. He slides sideways out of their way.

The shield Taxim puts up, however alarms Zed far more. The electricity scatters off of it, no longer under Zeds control because of some strange mingling of the black light in the shield. It spikes away, stabbing into anything earthed in the vicinity. A metal downpipe explodes into fragments to Taxim's left, shards embedding themselves inches into solid tarmac and one whizzing by Zeds arm draws a line of dark blood across his forearm. another shard of the electricity smashes into the ground, the metal frame of a window, and soon it is raining shards on semi-molten glass and metal.

[Taxim]

The feral beast was whining and searching for crannies inside it's own mask while the dark one merely laughed at it. Taxim thought it rather saddening.

The child covered his head from pure reflex while the mask shouted an insult and took controll of the staff. The staff seemed to crackle as the window exploded, sending out a pulse with the sound of an underwater explosion which hit the glass, sending it flying in all different directions.

Taxim took a small sigh of relief, then the ground below him exploded from the charge about the same time as the drainpipe. The following explosions caused a large section of the wall to fall in on itself, which in turn threw Taxim panicking all the way down a floor and onto a "soft" mat of large broken peices of wood.

With a small cry, the child removed a large, three-inch long splinter from his arm which was roughly a couple milimetres into his skin.

"~Children! They always complain about the simple things..~"
"~Leave him be, he is a good child and he is trying his best...~"
"~I DON'T CARE! Give me a hand here... I'm taking controll!~"

Taxim began to panick as the mask laughed. Darkness soon began spreading through his body as the earthen spirit helped in it's own way...

[Angel]

He ducks with his arms over his face, the shards of glass singing past him. They make a sound like rain on the tarmac. His forearm burns where the white hot metal from the drainpipe had scratched him. He looks at it briefly with an annoyed click in the back of his throat. Angel will scold him for getting marked...

Zed sidesteps the spreading dust cloud, trying to get a good view of the situation. Something is so far off about his opponent that he is on edge, but the feeling has a sense of familiarity, strange.

The faint smell of blood joins that of ozone and dust, it would seem he has a way of tracking this.. ah, child? The dust clears slowly and so he moves with caution.

He's at the ruined wall before he feels it, stopping at the entrance to let his eyes adjust. A dark heavy mind is moving, taking control.

[Taxim]

"Aaah... there he is..."

The mask pointed and he followed. His shape resembled the child, only now his eyes had white pupils amongst the red and his skin was as black as the midnight sky.

The masks had taken control, and now he could even smell his opponent. The mask decided on drastic measures. Taxim switched his grip on the staff, holding it with both hands, the long point aimed towards the peice of wall the masks identified.

The orb crackled once more as the dark energy slid down the staff like water. Breaking into a run, the mask took control and smashed the staff through the weakened wall and released the energy in a thin beam, aiming to impale his opponent first, then liquify the rest of what had been targetted as the gut area.

[Angel]

The only warning Zed gets is a heavy killing intent before the wall shatters outwards. Over taking the flying boulders comes the beam, burning any dust stupid enough to get in its way. The moment seems so slow and inexorable. his body is too slow to keep up with how fast he can see, think in this moment.

The beam seems to chew so slowly through his jacket, shirt, then the heat comes, slowly at first until he can feel the blistering then everything moves very, very fast. It rips through him like a metal bar, through his front, just below his ribs and out the other side.

It fells him and he lands on his back with an throaty scream, his body back in his control. The red stain spreads too quickly, in the dust and his shirt, it seems the heat hasn't cauterised it. He notes this in bleak amusement, this magic is so unpredictable... the chaos in its controller is impossible to read. The pain is fading and Zed knows faintly that he's going into shock so that his body can repair. But now is not the time. With psychological tooth and nail he fights it, he needs to be able to move when his enemy comes to finnish him off.