Intermezzo

[Shaon]

((Takes place during Birth of a Spirit))

"Hey, you," the wolf growled, approaching his underling. "Get up. Stop moping. Time to train."

Kazumaru looked up at the God. "I don't want to train." he said, simply, before looking back at the ground.

"You don't have a choice," replied Articus, grinning. "'Tis your dear old Goddess's orders, and you know not to disobey her."

The Spirit smirked. "To the Pit with her 'orders'. I ain't training with you today."

The grin quickly turned into a snarl. "Is that a threat? Do you remember when we first met, Spirit?"

"Yes." Kazumaru said. "You utterly destroyed my friend's arm." The Spirit's voice quivered as he said the word 'friend.'

"To hell with your friend," the wolf said, mildly irritated. "Your friend is dead, Kazumaru. He's not going to reappear magically! Do you know how many souls there are in the Afterlife? There is about as much of a chance of your friend becoming a spirit as you becoming halfway competent!"

Kazumaru stood up. "To hell with you, you miserable *happy spices*." A crackling sound came from his arm. "TO HELL!" he shouted, throwing a bolt of lightning at the God.

Articus was mildly surprised at Kazumaru's sudden hostility, yet easily dodged the lightning bolt.
"Aha! Finally, some semblance of a challenge!"
Grinning yet again, the wolf sent ice shooting underground towards the spirit.

Kazumaru jumped towards Articus, knocking his top hat off in the process, and hurling several more bolts of lightning. "Roast wolf is a delicacy where I come from, Ice God!" he shouted, his voice deeper than usual.

Articus ran into the air, forcing a bridge of ice to form below his feet. He paused, slightly, behind Kazumaru, as he shot lightning bolts at complete random, apparently not even attempting to aim at the god behind him.
"Are you blind, today, spirit?"

Kazumaru landed on the balls of his feet. "NO, I'M JUST NOT VERY GOOD AT AIMING!" he shouted, running towards Articus and hurling more lightning bolts and hoping they'd actually hit.

"It's somewhat obvious! You were shooting in the opposite direction!" The Wolf taunted, standing above Kazumaru's head.

The Spirit did not even dignify this with a verbal response, instead opting to uppercut the God.

The god continued to grin, instead opting to take the punch and freeze Kazumaru's hand with it.

Kazumaru misted his wrist, and pulled his stump away. "Groovy." he muttered, before shooting more bolts of lightning at Articus

Articus jumps from pillar to newly-formed pillar, dodging the bolts with ease. "Starting to get predictable, Kazumaru! Try harder."

Kazumaru clapped his hands together, and his body turned into a mist, leaving his clothes to drop to the ground. The mist formed around Articus. "How's THIS!?" The deep voice, seeming to come from every direction, boomed, as lighting bolts streaked towards Articus.

Articus laughed, leaping to the ground, a dome forming over him as he landed.

Kazumaru's body briefly reformed on the ground, beside the dome, before transforming himself into electrical current and phasing through the dome, leaving hole where he'd went through.

Articus snarled, backed into the furthest part of the dome.

Kazumaru grinned and put one hand against the ice of the dome. Electricity raced across the dome and came out behind Articus, while Kazumaru threw bolts of lightning from his stump.

The electricity stunned and surprised Articus, jolting him a few feet into the air. "Stop!" he yelped.

Kazumaru smirked and shook his head, instead sending more lightning at Articus in the same way, but from the opposite direction, melting the ice on the other side as well, causing a bit of a sag to form at this weak point.

Articus fell to the ground. Electricity is not a fun thing when you're made completely out of water.
"Stop! Stop, goddamn you-" Articus froze in the sudden realization of what was occurring.

Kazumaru remained silent and failed to obey Articus' order. Instead, he held his hand and the stump in front of him, and pumped all the power he could muster into Articus. Given who he was, this was a fair amount. He was visibly panting now, and he looked a little unsteady on his feet

~Kazumaru, stop.~

The voice of Paranesia echoed through their minds.

The dome was gone. The ice pillars were gone.

~Kazumaru, I command you to stop.~

Kazumaru recognized the voice and it, coupled with his exhaustion, was enough. The tired, very naked, crazed-looking Spirit of Electricity swayed back and fourth momentarily, before falling backwards and involuntarily collapsing into a puddle of water.

The illusatory fox appeared, walking over the puddle with a splash.

She nudged the similarly unconscious wolf. ~You've had enough.~