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Post by Althea on Dec 22, 2016 22:58:55 GMT -6
It was fair to say that the field of archaeology in Nabata sometimes got, ah, testy. To say the least. The heavily limited timeframes of availability of new excavations and the sheer difficulty of operating at all in the savage weather bore heavily on one's emotions, and desires to be the first to claim and reveal knowledge to the rest of the world ran high as well. Competition of a sort. Most archaeologists wouldn't (admit) planning to make off with their finds, though admittedly some would - the grimoire she had found was one of them. But they were still used for studying. It was selfish certainly, but if the finder truly believed they were the best suited to discover the secrets of their so-called baby, well, there was no law against that.
But if she was to hazard a wild guess... the albino shaman didn't really get the feeling that these rough looking gentlemen were as interested in the history of Nabata as they were in what it could do for them. "Cmon, you just have to look the other way, or better yet leave this place to us, and you can be on your merry way missy." No, she was fairly sure indeed that they were not here looking to ah, 'guard' whatever the mediocre treasures in this tomb. "No," she responded simply, rewarded by the look of confusion and frustration in the masked man's face.
"Look, we can do this the easy or the hard way-""Oh, weren't you just here to help guard this place?" Her voice was airy but firm as Althea immediately called the man on his changing story, and he swore under the fabric before turning back to her with his eyes fierce. "Yeah, no crap, stuff in there will sell for a couple hundred gold, maybe more." Interesting, he had an idea of its value? That meant that these... sour individuals had been led here by leaked information, not simple chance. "Now look, I aint ever liked to do up a pretty little thing like you like a stuck pig, but you don't get the f**k out of here I will open you a new throat and leave you to die in the sand, bitch. Now MOVE."
It was... not... wise to antagonize four armed men, Althea was vaguely aware, but throughout the conversation more and more of her mind had begun to be tinged in red, her vision tunneling from wide to focusing only on him. This was a miscarriage of justice, a waste of artifacts from another age that could have revealed more about a past civilization and perhaps even allowed them to date which era they came from. As pliable as she usually was, the shaman found herself rapidly losing her temper entirely, becoming more mule than mage. The fact that there was literally zero chance of her winning a fight against four men barely even registered as a minor concern to her. She had to at least TRY.
"No." Her gentle voice was filled with a fervent force almost alien to her, not so much an alien possession as the placid woman's deep seated ire coming to light amidst darkness, her hands coming up as the light of the sun began to warp and disintegrate amidst the shadow. "I will protect this place."
The ringleader took a step back in surprise, expecting a surprise attack, but he had overestimated her entirely - casting that quickly and effortlessly was not in her ability. It only took a moment for him to regain his composure though, yanking an ugly long knife from his side and spinning it around for an instant before holding it before him in what she... assumed was a battle stance. "Alright boys, if she wants to throw her life away, let's oblige the little missy."
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 23, 2016 1:16:49 GMT -6
Throughout her admittedly short life, Circe had only been to Nabata once, despite the fact that her family owed the vast majority of their wealth to the natural beauty that laid hidden beneath the endless sand and rock. That had been quite the family outing, though. All the way to Khan Yunis! Yes that had easily been the worst family vacation she could have had. Her parents had forbidden her from practicing any magic during the trip, to make sure maximum boredom was ensured.
Of course that hadn't been the case. They had been worried for her, just as they were worried for her now. Nobody in her family had done something so bold or daring. It had been her father who sealed the trade partnerships with Nabatan business and increased the wealth of her family, and the success of their store, but expanding a business that had already been built was not quite the same as becoming the first magus known to your family. Yet despite that Circe had very clear natural talent. She wondered if any others in her family had the gift, and never had the opportunity or initiative to explore it.
Still, the fears of her family would not sway her! In fact they spurred her ever onward, and fueled her desire to learn more. Most of her practice had been in confined areas throughout Etruria, so naturally Circe thought it prudent to head to the country with by far the most open space...that wasn't flammable. Sacae's sea of grass was not ideal to practice any sort of magic that could start a blaze, and two of the elements she had learned from her Trinity tome could. With wind to fan the flames as well!
Yet it was strange, really. How fate worked. Circe had made the objective decision to travel to the most barren country on the continent. Yet despite all of that, somehow, she could hear voices growing louder and louder the further she walked. Her father had told her stories of Nabatan bandits. Men and women whose villages had been lost, or perhaps they had been exiled from them, and thus took to assailing travelers and convoys. When her family had traveled to Khan Yunis they had hired protection. Circe's magic was her protection, but what if someone was being attacked, and they were defenseless?
Circe took a breath and adjusted her course. She did not fancy herself a hero, but she did have a conscience, and even worse she had a naturally strong sense of curiosity. Circe owed to herself and any potential victims of a mugging to at least inspect the situation at hand.
As she neared, though, she realized that she had not selected a barren sect of the desert. Holes had been dug into the dunes, and Circe could spot chunks of rock that appeared to have been excavated out. Chipped away and inspected. Had she happened upon an archaeological dig site? Already Circe's mind began to formulate a hypothesis. Thieves often had a fondness for dig sites. Valuable relics from the past could be passed off on the black market for quite the price. Perhaps these were no mere desert bandits after all. Circe flipped open her satchel and drew out the sole object within it: her Trinity tome.
She had learned how to cast basic fire, thunder, and wind magic without the use of the tome as a direct conduit...but her magic was a bit more powerful and stable if she did grip it. Even better if she had the chance to read her incantations. Words of a lost language that enhanced her focus and called to the spirits of nature.
Climbing to the top of a particularly large dune, Circe could see it. A rather gorgeous woman, with fair skin and even fairer hair. White as snow. Yet she stood surrounded by four bodies. They looked to be men, and they were indeed armed. Despite the odds that obviously overwhelmed her the woman did not back down. In fact, from what Circe could hear of her voice, she sounded quite determined to stand her ground against these men. She held a hand out before her and...light itself seemed to warp.
Was that elder magic?
Again, her conscience cried out to her. The odds would be against their favor, but Circe did have a good vantage point. She also had the element of surprise. So, rather than rush down and put herself and the white haired woman at risk, Circe remained in her position. Her knees shook only briefly as she bent them, and lowered her body into a stance of readiness. Her fingers rapped against her tome as her eyes focused on the foes below.
If they so much as lifted a single weapon, Circe would strike.
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Post by Althea on Dec 23, 2016 21:46:42 GMT -6
She had cast Flux before. Althea was ah, not the ideal magic user, but neither was she a hopeless idiot; she knew the basics of the school. Her family had admittedly disintegrated early in her schooling so Althea had never had the support or time to really focus on it, but at the very least she could cast a basic Flux spell - congeal an orb of darkness, strike at a foe with it, or at the very least scare off the average highwayman who had no knowledge of magic and simply assumed that the use of Nether magic meant that one was a terrifying and trained adversary who could steal their souls and damn them to an eternal hell.
But this time, it felt... wrong. The interesting thing, Althea couldn't help but note, is that she was doing it wrong. Well, not wrong. But... ineffectively. The seal was leaking magic. She wasn't manipulating it efficiently. She could fit so much more into the bounded field if she just... adjusted it like... the distracted shaman tried to word it right in her head, but couldn't. Somehow everything about the Flux spell just seemed to be terrible, and yet she couldn't explain why, and anything she did to change it seemed right but she couldn't explain that either.
Althea! Pay attention!
Oh! Yes, there was a fight going on- Althea lifted her eyes just in time to see the masked man's knife coming at her low, under the still coalescing orb of shadow, and her concentration imploded almost as quickly as the Flux spell destabilized into useless puffs of dark smoke and magic. Unlike a normal Flux spell though, the alterations she had been beginning to make had overloaded it more than she realized, causing a wave of magic to erupt outwards in every direction, hurling Althea backwards out of the way of the scything blade and arresting the raider's forward momentum entirely before throwing him back far more harshly, the frontal wards of her spell never as sturdy as the ones that had kept it from backfiring on her.
That all said, a disintegrating spell would never do nearly as much damage as a channeled one, so it served little more than to disorient Althea and knock the stuffing out of the man for a moment as the rest of the crew prepared for an actual fight. One pulled out an axe, while another began to conjure a fireball, and the fourth simply stood waiting for an unknown moment. Althea had accomplished little than buying herself a momentary respite.
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 24, 2016 1:33:42 GMT -6
"Okay Circe. Focus..." Her own thoughts served as small comfort as, sure enough, one of the men raised his axe. That was all she needed to see to know that she had to strike. There was just no way she was going to allow a lone woman to be attacked like that. Ganged up on just so that could steal from the dig site. It was...it did not enrage Circe, but it was just too wrong. Too horrid. Besides, what was the point of learning and studying magic if not to utilize it? To apply it in every way, outside and inside of combat scenarios?
Besides, Circe always did like a challenge.
She drew a deep breath and raised a right hand and focused on the ground. Her being called out the the latent nature spirits that danced unseen around her. Every magus of anima had a particular element that called to them strongest. To dance their dance and connect with their essence. It could almost be defined as an affinity, her mentor had told her. From Circe's experience with her Trinity tome: Fire had always been the easiest for her to call upon.
And so she felt heat build at her fingertips, sparks igniting into flames proper to combine into a fireball. In terms of true magic neither the size nor intensity of the flame was impressive, but Circe was determined to make the most of what she could manage. As the the white haired woman knocked herself and one of her assailants away with what appeared to be a miscast Flux spell, Circe watched as the other two brigands drew their own weapons. One...was a mage? The other had an axe!
Before the man with the axe could draw close Circe hurled her fireball down at him. It crackled and sizzled in the air as it traveled towards her target! Her aim had been true, and it struck against the axeman's dominant arm, forcing a scream of pain from him as the flames licked away at his flesh. Unfortunately Circe had taken one step too far to make that throw, and found her balance thrown off completely. She struggled to maintain her footing atop the dune, but ultimately tumbled forward, letting out a cry of shock as she rolled down the large dune of sand.
The axe-wielding brigand dropped to the ground in an effort to put out his blazing arm, and the mage had been so startled by the surprise attack that he lost the focus to maintain his flame.
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Post by Althea on Dec 24, 2016 4:54:37 GMT -6
Kept up more by sheer stubbornness than any kind of good balance or supreme combat skill, Althea was already trying to refocus as she stumbled backwards, struggling with limited success to regain her balance immediately. She didn't have the time or opportunity to space out here after all, not when she was only one serious mistake or a few minor ones away from an extremely painful and likely drawn-out death, whether by point, edge, or flame.
While she didn't quite understand what was going on, Althea did see the burst of flame strike one of the further back attackers with full effect, though unfortunately not enough to incinerate him completely. Bit of a dark thought, but to be fair they WERE trying to kill her over what was at most a few thousand gold, probably less. So Althea didn't feel too bad about whatever happened to them. She was no pacifist after all, only avoiding combat out of practicality rather than kindness - she was merely weak, not actively unwilling to take a life. It was a ray of hope to have some form of aid though; she could only hope for an army, but even a single source would do greatly to help her survive.
In the meantime she did have the minor issue of her own role in all this though. She was regaining her footing, Althea realized, managing to skid to a halt before the blade-wielding man did, which reestablished some level of distance and initiative as well. Both factors useful for the matchup. Her mind managed to refocus itself as she focused on the tranquility of battle meditation, again feeling the Nether tugging at her senses, the anger pooling into willpower. He had struck at her. Wielding that emotion like a weapon, Althea frowned as she focused far more on her spell, dragging the living shadows through the seal into a malignant orb that pulsed and crawled within its confines before it spilled over, sinking into the dusty stone beneath her with minimal effect.
Righting himself, to his credit the swordsman looked only vaguely confused at the spectacle before grimacing and charging forward, faster than she was quite certainly, seeing an open path to immediate victory. And she certainly couldn't block the blade, not with her all too human flesh and tender dress.
But that wasn't to say she was helpless, either.
The would-be thief hesitated as he felt the air around him warp and the seal appear before him for a second, moving out of the way quickly but not quite quickly enough as his hesitation cost him the initiative. The Nether poured out of the rising orb, dripping on him, and the screams came instantly as the blackened pitch flowed over and through his clothing, consuming fabric and flesh and more gradually bone alike as his left shoulder took the brunt of the attack, his body spasming from the pain and shock alike.
It was a... somewhat more efficient form of Flux, Althea noted dispassionately as she tried and failed to continue to hold the spell within its confines. Controlling even a small link to the Nether was difficult and leaving it open only yea wide and so deep was even harder. She didn't feel much of anything for the man, more interested in what this interesting new evolution of Flux could do, but her assault was ended prematurely; not by her own failure, but by the man managing to yank himself away from the consuming maw of shadow, which was almost instantly followed by her releasing of the spell with an audible exhaust of breath. Goodness but that had drained her more than she thought. Stronger Flux, great, but greater cost to boot. Something to keep in mind for next time.
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 24, 2016 12:24:12 GMT -6
"Ow ow ow...that hurt a lot more than I thought it would." Circe mumbled under her breath. Worse still was that sand had gotten literally everywhere on Circe. The coarse and rough mineral had gotten in her hair and all throughout her clothes as well. Ugh, Elimine only knew how long it would take to get it all out. Ugh, she hated sand...
Er, off topic. The fight, Circe? Right. Having finally hit even ground after her tumble down the dune, Circe gazed up and scrambled to her feet. She witnessed the white haired woman continue her defensive with the use of what had to be Elder Magic. Or "Dark Magic", or "Witchcraft" as her lovely home of Etruria would likely label it. Frankly her family had never really shared in the propaganda machine Elimine's church system had become, but of course they had to keep up appearances. Circe made a note that, if the two survived this confrontation, the only payment she'd need for helping the woman out would be a healthy discussion to lean more about Elder Magic!
From the looks of it the woman had managed to successfully take the swordsman out of the fight. The screams of panic and fear he had let out during his assault from the nether were...disturbing, but the emotion was forced into the back of Circe's mind. She and her mentor had caused pain when she had helped him on a few missions. It was irritating that Circe was still...not quite used to it, but she needed to focus!!
The axeman was still rather crippled, even though he had succeeded in putting out the fire that had spread across his dominant arm. He had even dropped his axe in his panic, which left Circe face to face with the mage. He looked panicked, and she couldn't blame him. His two allies had been wounded quite swiftly, and if they didn't recover in time he would be wounded. Circe watched fire ignite along his finger tips and smirked. Fire was the most destructive element that the Trinity tome had access to. In fact, as a whole, it was the most destructive element their was, but that only depended on how far the flames spread, and how long they were allowed to burn.
Fire magic could do more damage to another than the lightning or wind magic that the tome gave access to, but it ultimately lost to them in a duel. It seemed the other mage did not know this, but Circe did. But before she got too cocky she forced herself to focus intently. Fire was the easiest of the three elements for her to call upon, but wind was by far the most difficult and vexing. She let her stance slacken, allowed her muscles to relax more than she'd like to, and raised both hands up to face the enemy mage face on.
As he hurled his fireball towards Circe she felt the wind spirits, notably plentiful and powerful in the arid land of Nabata, dance and sway around her hands and arms. As their essences and beings communed in an ancient, silent act, air began to rush around her hands. By mid-flight the fire ball burst apart, opposed by the far faster wind magic that Circe had pulsed out towards it. The flames were too weak to withstand the force that her wind exerted, and it fanned out throughout the air until it dissipated into the tiniest of sparks.
While the other mage gathered more flames on his finger tips Circe straightened her stance. The wind magic offered by Trinity, especially with her poor affinity for the element, left it far from ideal when it came to dealing actual damage. Dispelling an enemy fireball, especially one so unimpressive, was about the best she could do. To combat fire with fire was not such a poor idea either: from what Circe gathered with no small amount of pride her flames were more powerful, burned hotter and, eh heh, were bigger.
But it was not the optimal move to make, even if it would stroke her ego oh-so nicely. The reason fire lost to wind and lightning came down to speed. And electricity was even faster than wind. Circe drew her arm back in a sharp, swift motion, hot lightning dancing along her finger tips, and when the enemy mage cursed and hurled his next fireball, Circe dashed to the side and threw her arm out at him. With a single shout she launched twin bolts of blue electricity at him. While the man's fireball was easy enough for Circe to dodge, her lightning had not been, and the hot beams of light struck him in the chest while his fireball sizzled and crashed into the sand seconds later.
The force of Circe's magic was enough to knock him off of his feet and onto his back, the heat and literal shock from the bolts leaving him a spasming, gasping mess as he writhed along the sand. He was not dead, nor did her lightning have enough voltage to interrupt the beating of his heart, but he was certainly down for the moment...
Though before Circe could give a fist pump of triumph a guttural roar erupted from far closer to her being than she was comfortable with. In fact she just about jumped out of her own skin. She spun around and saw the axeman she had burned earlier, axe held in his weaker left hand, as he rushed her with a twisted scowl on his face. He was so close Circe could see the marred, twisted and blackened flesh that had bubbled along his arm. Her fire had...really done a number on him.
"Gah! Ye bitch! Ye f****d me arm up!"
That was another way to put it.
Circe let out a cry of surprised and leaped to the side, able to successfully avoid a wildly inaccurate swing from the man's axe. It WAS his weaker arm, it seemed, but his feet were unfortunately fine. Just as Circe placed her palms on the ground to push herself up she felt the wind knocked out of her as the enraged thief dug his boot into her gut.
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Post by Althea on Dec 24, 2016 16:11:56 GMT -6
Well, she was officially confused. And a... little disappointed that the army coming to save her was an upside down girl half buried in sand after a precarious fall, but Althea couldn't rightly think ill of one who had come to help, who HAD helped her already, and it wasn't exactly like she was in much position to judge after all. Not after that failed Flux at the start of the fight and the second one not quite landing on target, anyways. Learning experience! She could still feel some level of an ache in her body after the drain of the last spell, but it hadn't entirely drained her yet. She could still fight. And she must fight, because even if the battle had ended, her foe crippled and mangled, the war was not yet won. There were three others... two... and they would fight until they reached their vengeance or their morale was broken.
It was possible they would fight to the last man of course, but Althea didn't see any reason that they would. They were just glorified scavengers after all, looking for a quick buck or a quick kill; it was likely that lightly wounding one or two would only draw their ire, but slaying a few or severely injuring enough of them should be sufficient to break them apart. Of course, that was easier said than done, especially given that she had struggled to put one out of commission and her Anima-wielding counterpart had been granted the element of surprise, an advantage that was now lost to her. She did seem quite proficient in the elemental magics though, albeit not at the levels of a specialist. Not that Althea was exactly an expert in judging the usage of elemental magic. But she had seen far stronger, and the... small part of her ego that didn't like being showed up didn't particularly want to admit that the other mage might be better than her.
Hmm. Pride. That was new. Not quite sure where that had come from either, a sensation she was getting used to these days, Althea strode past the crippled victim as he cowered against the warm stone in catatonic agony, his blade discarded and he in no condition to fight back right now. She couldn't spare the time or magic to finish him off though, the white-clad mage was dueling the mage in a rapid succession of elemental bolts back and forth before the axe user she had crippled took her to the defensive as well. The two women certainly shared the same weakness unfortunately - both had good offense, but their crippling lack of being immune to a sword (or axe) in the gut could easily prove to be their undoing.
But turnabout was fair play, as some said, and Althea could hardly stand to watch as her would-be savior was brutally murdered in front of her. Partially out of gratitude yes, but also much from simple pragmatism - the two of them combined were a far greater force than either individually. So despite the unpleasant feeling of the sun beating down on her as she entered the light once more, the tiredness seeping into her bones as she strained herself again, Althea focused once more on calling the Nether to her, a surprisingly petty desire for vengeance helping to fuel her focus as she channeled more of the hated darkness into the light of day. That said, she couldn't replicate the last attack - it was relatively large area for a flux spell, and very uncontrolled, not exactly two qualities that would do well for Circe's well being in such close quarters with the other mage she was trying to help. So rather than focus as much into the initial burst, Althea attempted to extend her consciousness through the Nether, grasping at the axe-wielder in a fragmented fashion as she continued to pour magic into the spell.
The grasping tendrils that spewed from the sands near Circe were not quite physical, Althea knew nothing of Ruin magic to make them truly comprehensive, but the pooled magic was semicorporeal and thick enough to partially arrest the man's movement nonetheless, coiling around his feet and trying to pull back his axe arm to give the other mage time to recover. But it was much more draining than she had anticipated, and her will against his strength was a less than ideal match as the enraged killer ripped his good arm free of the few tendrils that rose high enough to reach it easily, pulling his way through the thicker lower restraints as well, and with each one severed the mental backlash struck against Althea's concentration directly as each part of her returned slightly wrong. It wasn't much in the wise of true bondage, but she could only hope that it had given the mage some time to recover and an opportunity to make use of.
She couldn't see where the fourth man had gone, though. At least not in her field of vision. That too served to weaken Althea's concentration, but she could not spare what remained to search for him.
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 24, 2016 18:09:12 GMT -6
If she had thought her earlier tumble down the sand dune had hurt, then she'd have to describe the boot she had taken to the stomach as agony. Circe had always been a bit of the overdramatic type, though. It hadn't hurt THAT much, and near as she could immediately tell that she had not sustained any serious damage. No extremely sharp pain to indicate a shattered rib, but it felt like she was trying to digest a rock all the same. Despite the pain she did her best to focus. In a defensive situation like the one she had been currently forced in, Circe thought it best to depend on her dominant element: fire magic.
Just as sparks began to ignite in her palm, ready to try and catch the man's boot to light his entire leg ablaze, she instead watched as the axeman was taken captive by inky blackness, no doubt the result of the white haired woman's nether magic. Circe hadn't really given the the elder magic user any real credit, but she did certainly seem skilled enough. Capable, for sure, which made Circe's little rescue operation easier. However the midst of the battle was hardly the time to assign any praise. Circe was still on an emotional high after her earlier duel with the other mage, who would no doubt recover soon enough.
All the more reason for Circe to finish the restrained axeman.
The dark haired mage scrambled to her feet, dispelling the flames in her hand in favor of more blue sparks. Lightning crackled, loud enough for even the white haired shamaness to hear, before with a sharp motion Circe thrust twin bolts of electricity at the man. They crackled and arced through the air, eventually striking the would-be thief directly in the head. The heat, force, and raw voltage packed in Circe's magic was enough to completely silence the man. His body convulsed as the magic forced his body to become a circuit, electricity passing through his system and dispelling itself through the ground.
His body fell limp, steadily falling towards the sandy earth beneath him, held up only by the inky restraints created by her rescue-ee.
Circe breathed a sigh before she brushed a few bangs from her eyes. Had to retain her poise and composure, after all. "Now then." Before she addressed her makeshift ally, she instead turned between the three downed men. Well, two men downed. The other cowered in the fear and pain the other woman's elder magic had caused him. "Maybe the three of you..."
Wait...three?
Oh no.
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Post by Althea on Dec 24, 2016 18:56:15 GMT -6
Those restraints evaporated almost as quickly as the man toppled, Althea both unwilling and unable to sustain them for long. Partially because it would be a precious waste of her limited magical energy to restrain an unconscious and very possibly dead man, and partially because she literally could not hold them any longer; without a deep understanding of the more physical manifestation of Nether magic she could but harry and slow, not actually hold, and even that was extremely draining given her inefficient method of doing so. The tendrils retracted into the ground even as they disintegrated, what survived the descent into darkness reforming under her and sinking back into her body.
Still, despite the light headache as her mind sought to restructure itself properly, Althea found herself... admittedly somewhat flushed with the excitement of victory, not a concept she would have ever really applied to herself in the past. Caught in the moment, she managed to smile weakly at Circe, albeit genuine in its simplicity, truly happy to have seen the end of that fight with her various internal organs still inside and her extremities attached. "Thank you." Intended to be uttered with absolute grace and serenity, the words came out slightly raspy instead as the shaman found her breath coming slightly harder than she had anticipated. It was... sort of pathetic, that two or three casts of Flux was already enough to tired her, but she still had a decent reserve of magic left, and her mind was capable of more. It was more her body that threatened the balance for now, though Althea believed it was simply overexertion and nothing too serious.
For the time being, though, it seemed that they were out of the woods and mostly uninjured, though neither she nor the other mage were entirely unscathed. Still, they were... definitely less injured than the other guys, which was a good start, ha ha. Speaking of other guys though, Althea turned a worried eye down to the fallen mage that Circe had (figuratively) taken apart, and followed it with a glance back to the swordsman she had (literally) taken apart. Even assuming Circe's latest victim was no longer a problem, that left two somewhat alive jerks to deal with. Returning her gaze to the approaching mage, Althea continued. "Should we... tie them up, or...?" The sentence clearly ended in a question mark, the shaman quite frankly completely out of her depth and not sure how to get back into the kiddy end of the pool where things were simple and not full of dead people. "Oh, ah, I'm Althea."
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 24, 2016 19:33:24 GMT -6
Ah, there it was. Almost as soon as the restraints gave way and those pitch black tendrils slunk away to the shadow of their mistress, said white-haired mistress uttered some raspy words of gratitude. Circe thought little of it, really. The arid desert air had begun to affect her own throat as well. In her second satchel she had two skins of water, along with other provisions, and she would no doubt hurriedly take a swig once she had a spare moment. Though as Circe gazed from the woman's...admittedly beautiful visage, she could see fatigue as well. Circe had heard that elder magic was especially taxing to cast. Perhaps it had simply taken its toll.
But the woman had not just uttered a "thank you". Not just some raspy gratitude. No, she had posed a good question. What were the two of them to do with the downed men? Circe had...admittedly never been in this sort of situation before. If they left them here there was too great a chance they would simply attempt to steal again. There were no local authorities to leave them with either. Did they tie them up and leave them to die? That...did not sit well with Circe. If she could avoid loss of life she would gladly take that chance.
"I...admittedly did not think of that when I came down to help you." Circe uttered with a small chuckle, aware of the minor humor in their odd position. However there was still the fact of the missing man... "I think we can tie them up and try to inform local authorities. Odds are if these men have been a problem at all we could even get some sort of a bounty out of it!" Money had not been her initial goal, but she spoke loudly for a reason. If the fourth man had not fled, he was likely to try and strike at them from the shadows. Much like she had done at the beginning of the scuffle. So, even whilst she spoke, her gaze flicked about.
Hopefully if she "sounded" confident that the battle had been won, she could lure him into a false sense of security. If only there was a way to fill her impromptu ally in on the plan.
"And oh, not a problem. We mages have to stick together, hm?" Circe gave Althea not one wink, not two winks, but four. Not...very subtle, but it was all she could think of. It was better that they kept a mild distance from each other as well, so they both did not go down to a single surprise attack, so Circe stood still. Her hand rubbed her toned belly gently, in an attempt to soothe the pain that still throbbed from the hard kick she had taken. "And my name is Circe. Circe Alexandra."
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Post by Althea on Dec 25, 2016 0:57:17 GMT -6
Althea's smile gradually grew more forced and slightly confused as Circe continued, culminating in a very confused blink and the smile having fallen halfway off her face and beginning to drip down her dress in the wake of four incredibly blatant winks. Was - was Circe flirting with her, or trying to communicate in Morse code? Althea realized that she needed to start carrying a book on how to react to blatant lesbian overtones if this was going to continue, or in deciphering code, or possibly both if she was to deal with flirting in Braille...?
"...Given the distance, we would still likely be sentencing them to death before discovery," the slender mage responded evenly, not reproachfully so much as matter of fact. She DID actually like Circe's idea, quite a bit in fact - Althea was NOT completely immune to the seven deadly sins, greed among them, and while the idea of getting paid for her 'good' deed hadn't occurred to her, she liked it quite a lot. However, the raging heat of the day, along with the fact that the journey was not trivial, meant that by the time they got to civilization, reported it, and the authorities responded - if they responded at all, which was not a given, desert guards rarely ventured further than necessary into the desert except on very solid info - the men would likely be dead from heatstroke, dehydration, or scavengers.
A gasping gurgle dragged the frowning shaman's attention behind her very quickly, whirling in place to see a spear of pulsating light sticking out of the fallen man she had left for half-dead in the wake of her attack. His throat had been impaled by the seemingly hard-light construct, unable to do more than twitch as his gurgles faded to silence.
And from the silence came light, a man standing there looking down at the cooling corpse where he most assuredly had not been there before. Like a heat mirage of sorts, the light... refracting off of him oddly within the shade of the stone ceiling. "We mages have to stick together," he mimicked, dryly and without heart, though there was a small undercurrent of mockery to his words. "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, girls," and he turned to look at them, but where his face should have been there was only a sort of... space that should be something, distorted and warped. Not an eldritch horror per se, but very odd indeed. Even his voice was strange, modulated in such a way as to make it slightly difficult to identify. "I wonder which of you will break first?"
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 25, 2016 2:02:58 GMT -6
Althea...had a very expressive face, it seemed. Circe struggled to read the woman's expressions, but at least when she had spoken it made sense. Too much sense, enough that Circe couldn't even pretend to ignore it. To think that they could leave these thieves tied up, in the middle of the desert, with no provisions or at least free access to water, only for the thieves to be scooped up the guards of the nearest town and brought to proper justice was foolish. Circe had known that even when she had suggested the idea.
Yet she had spoken it nonetheless.
The magus had not even been given the opportunity to reflect as to why that could have been, or even suggest an alternative or compromise. Althea had missed her little "reminder" that the battle was likely not won yet, but it seemed that the fourth man was either truly pragmatic or foolish. Rather than attempt to cast his light magic at them, he had instead utilized it to silence one of his defeated men. The swordsman that Althea had subdued into a pathetic state, wracked with terror. Circe's eyes widened at the sheer brutality of the act: he had impaled the swordsman's throat with a spear of light magic.
That was...at least moderately advanced magic. To create a solid construct out of light magic and launch it with enough power to pierce a man like that required experience. Circe did her best not to gulp as she looked up towards their seemingly final foe. He would not be as easy as the others had been, and they had no advantages for this fight. No doubt the man had watched their every move. He'd seen all three basic uses of Circe's elements, and the...power yet instability behind Althea's Elder Magic.
Circe's heart began to race. The only advantage had was numbers, and Circe was not about to wait for Althea to start leading the charge. "Can you restrain him like you did the other man?"
The question came swiftly, and Circe tried to speak in a whisper, but her eyes never left her foe. She needed to focus her magic and intent on him, lest she be too slow to cast. Light magic was fast. That much her mentor had shown her. It was quick but ultimately believed to lack the raw destructive power Anima and Elder both had. Unless Circe could get close it was likely she would need to rely on lightning-based magic in order to match her foe's speed. And so blue lightning crackled around her dominant hand, tome held tightly within her left.
Where Light magic was fast, Elder magic was for some reason deemed to be slow. Perhaps the effort and concentration it took to cast it led to this belief, but Circe was not going to risk it being outright wrong. "I can try to keep him distracted while you set about restraining him." It would be a lot more helpful if Circe actually knew what Althea was capable of, beyond what she had witnessed during the earlier stages of the fight. But unfortunately that was a luxury that was lost to her. She could only strategize around what she knew.
However, for all her admittedly impressive analyses during a situation she had very little real experience in, she had failed to truly take note in the man's odd visage. The shimmer that slightly warped his form. Instead Circe merely thrust a hand out and let her bolts of lightning loose. "You'll break first!"
Not her best one-liner, but...it was her fast chance to use one. And she was rather frightened.
Terrified, actually.
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Post by Althea on Dec 25, 2016 4:45:41 GMT -6
Could she? Althea wasn't much of a duelist, but it didn't take a great deal of brain power to be politely reminded that Dark magic was not exactly advantageous against the Light... which was actually sort of ironic that she played at being a hero - anyways. Even by the standards of dark magic users, she was... not necessarily the fastest of them, either, and this opponent was clearly beyond her skills by a significant margin. What she didn't know were the limits of his magical offense. Was he a trickster who could only strike from the shadows, or a killing machine who had simply elected to watch while they fought for personal reasons, or somewhere in between?
It was difficult to tell if Circe was overly aggressive or she was simply overly cautious, but the differences in their approaches were clear immediately - Althea would have suggested trying to probe the man's defenses from a distance or even defuse the situation verbally before fighting, whereas Circe had leaped straight into the fight. In fairness, the talking thing probably wouldn't have worked anyways given that the guy was a freakin' sociopath, so it's not like she was really arguing with Circe's decision. It was a fair question regardless though - COULD she restrain him? Althea was uncertain. If he didn't move, and didn't cast magic, and didn't notice, sure, but...
"I can try," she stated flatly, quietly, looking somewhat doubtful but game for trying it nonetheless. "I believe he is using the power of Aura to warp his image, though. Be wary of tricks." Hey, that was... actually literally the first time that her knowledge of tomes had been useful, at all, ever! Woo! Althea had never actually seen it cast, but she knew of the tome academically at least. It could refract rays of light to deceive foes with all manner of uncommonly unholy trickery, somewhat similar to the usages of the Worm tome. As far as she could tell, though, their opponent was just wasting it to... alter his face somehow?
It wasn't until Circe was already moving out and Althea had been left to begin trying to solidify the spell that it occurred to her that Aura's usage could, in theory, be extended to one's own body - that it was said to be able to make a man invisible. Was that how he had vanished? She had entirely forgotten about the fourth man of the group until his reappearance, he had simply been there one moment and then... not there. But wasn't invisibility a more advanced usage of the tome? There had to be something she was missing, she HAD to believe that, or their opponent might outclass them so immensely that any sort of assault at all would be completely futile.
Still, she dutifully began to cast as Circe launched twin attacks at their foe, though the lightning was liable to do more damage than... that... retort. The strangely obscured man apparently disagreed, casually tossing an orb of light into the path of Circe's projectile that consumed it with no apparent ill effects before it began to lazily drift towards the louder Anima mage. He... hadn't actually reacted at all to Althea's own casting, seemingly completely uninterested and not planning on staying mobile...?
Her spell was nearly done, but there was a sense of some sort of wrongness pervading the fight she didn't quite understand, and that bothered Althea quite a bit.
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Circe Alexandra
Mage
"But I just wanna play it right, We're gonna get there tonight"
Posts: 64
Affinity: Anima
Profile: Circe
OoC Alias: Ars Sanctum/Tsunderis
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Post by Circe Alexandra on Dec 25, 2016 13:00:11 GMT -6
While Circe was pleased to hear that Althea still had some fight left in her, there was something about her tone that did not help to inspire confidence. However Althea did bring something to Circe's attention, something that she had most certainly under-looked. The use of the Aura. Light magic that manipulated waves of light to create illusions. A truly skilled user could even create proper illusions with the tome. Circe hadn't noticed the strange way light seemed to bend around the man, but at least she could at that point. It was possible that the Aura spell was what had allowed the man to seemingly disappear, early on in the day.
Though she did make a mental note to be more aware, if she could help it, for this fight and others to come. That small mistake could have had a...high cost, to say the least.
Looping back to the whole 'confidence' thing, even worse than Althea's even tone was how easily the man had dispelled her magic. He almost made it look easy, conjuring his sphere of light before he lobbed it towards her like an old man tossing a ball to an even older hound. The orb absorbed her twin bolts of lightning without so much as a reaction. Was his magic THAT much stronger than her own? In all fairness it was not as though that casting had been the maximum amount of power Circe could output, it was still jarring to witness.
The pay-off seemed to be that the man's sphere, which if Circe was not mistaken was cast with the "Shine" spell, did not move all that swiftly. Was it a ploy? To force Circe to move to a position that he had already calculated? In a battle like this Circe knew she had to try to keep thinking ahead, rather than simply react. The man had already proven his cunning, and he was on the verge of outright proving magical superiority as well. Althea's elder magic had power to it but she was not certain the woman was any-more skilled in a duel than Circe herself was.
Circe took a few steps back and to the side, her eyes flicking between the Shine spell, the man, and Althea. Electricity crackled around Circe's body, thin bolts of blue lightning arcing to and fro, but she did not launch anything. She merely kept herself as ready as possible for whatever was to come.
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Post by Althea on Dec 27, 2016 1:35:05 GMT -6
The pull of the Nether grew stronger as the spell finished forming, and Althea let it drop, the inky tendrils sinking into the burning sand beneath her and invisibly streaking towards the unconcerned mage. A solid cast, regulated well, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of worry nonetheless. They were winning, weren't they? Two against one, she was about to land a hit, and if he was actually using multiple tomes at once he should run out of magic power quickly especially with large attacks like that. On paper it looked like a reasonably good matchup despite the downsides. It just didn't FEEL like one.
The congealing shadow erupted beneath the mage, writhing and tearing apart his body like the spell should NOT be capable of. At first Althea thought she might have accidentally overcharged the spell or be capable of far more than she thought, but despite the distance she could see something was wrong almost immediately - the Nether wasn't actually eating through or restraining anything, the man's body was simply... disappearing... into light, like a hallucination that was falling apart.
And then her whole world was light and sound, the sand rushing up to meet her, and Althea was dimly aware that she had been struck but oddly slow to comprehend it before the burning heat and gritty solidity of the ground jolted all conscious thought from her mind entirely as her body bounced off of Nabata's endless sand.
It wasn't until the second impact as she hit the sand again that Althea vaguely recognized that she was being propelled forward, that her back hurt just as much as the front, and yet it was strangely difficult to connect the two to the obvious conclusion: that she had been struck behind. She wasn't really used to combat. At least, not fair combat, where the other guy had a chance of DOING anything, where you ran a real chance of getting hurt or even dying. Usually she just scared people off by starting to cast Flux, or at worst hit something from a good distance and then they ran away - most would-be thieves preyed on the helplesness of their victims; pretending to be strong often had them scurrying away.
Elsewhere, the orb that had been slowly approaching Circe's position at the time detonated violently, a very similar blast of light and force that Althea only saw imperfectly from the side as she skidded to a slowdown. It was finally coming home to rest that HOLY crap this was real combat, that she was actually in direct personal danger with no one to shield for her and no mercenary heroes to ride in and rescue her.
It wasn't until Althea managed to arrest her movement and stare back at where she had been, holding herself from lying on her back with her elbows against the burning sand and her hands shaking slightly, that it actually clicked that the almost 'masked' man was standing there, his hand still outstretched from the blast that he... must have used against her, bits of sand still raining around them. She couldn't see if he was smiling or not, but it sure felt pretty damn smug to her. But how the hell had he GOTTEN there? She had heard of mages teleporting, but it was a rare and powerful ability that she had little knowledge of - only that it was probably really f**k**g bad news if he could actually pull it off. But if he WAS that strong, why had none of his attacks save the first been that lethal? Yes, he had killed the fallen man, but that one had already been near death, and despite good power she hadn't shown off anything truly lethal yet.
Focus. Prioritize. Try to break down the situation. Despite still feeling a bit woozy she tried her best to tear it apart and understand it, but very little came to mind instantly. Instead she realized that she had no idea how Circe was doing, and that since she was... clearly outclassed, that was probably a safe priority. "Circe!" There was a level of frantic hope in Althea's response, not able to take her eyes off of the enemy magic user either out of fear, courage, or need for preparedness, she didn't even want to know. "Are you alright?"
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