milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

amascut,
zelgadiss

(no subject)

"I suppose it was overdue," mutters Zelgadiss as he enters the bar, eyeing the damage that has yet to be fixed. He'd seen worse damage from bar fights (and was the cause of a few of them), so isn't really impressed, unaware what really caused the damage to Milliways.

What's mildly surprising to him is that there is also damage to be seen outside, though time and the efforts of the bar patrons have softened the signs considerably. Must've been some fight, he thinks to himself, passing out the back door and towards the open area near the lake.

He hadn't expected the bar to appear. But really, what counts as unexpected when one is exploring a ghost-ship? Lina and Filia were busy dealing with that talking jar thing. Why shouldn't Zel steal some time away for himself? He needed to distract himself from his worry about Amelia - where she ended up after the explosion at the gatway, if she were all right.

So he does what always helps him calm some of the turmoil in his head (and heart), he practices.

If one were to venture outside this afternoon, they will find a stone-skinned chimera going through his sword forms in slow, measured movements.

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What was she thinking? Was she trying to pull of her best pheonix impression to welcome Milliways back to the land of the living and to welcome spring after a particularly bad Milliways winter?

There is another person needing distraction outside. She also needs to test her strength after recovering from her big flame out. She doesn't know how much she can trust this new body, being that it was partially formed from snot.

Eugh. It isn't snot. Amino acids are amino acids, water is water, fats are fats, flesh is flesh, blood is blood no matter how it started out. She just needs to stop thinking.

It isn't quite sword forms that she is practicing, because it isn't a sword that she weilds. It is a rough hewn wooden club, crafted to simulate the weight distibution of some weapon or other.

She notices the... well, it could be a troll or a golem, but it is on the small and lithe side to be either. And it would be a particularly well crafted and programmed golem to be using a sword in that way.

When she is fairly sure everything is working right, she approaches. "Hi, would you be interesting in sparring? Practicing by myself feels a little silly when there is a potential opponent a few feet away," she says with a smile.

Pausing in his forms, the chimera turns to look at the smiling red-headed woman.

Forgive him if he makes a few stipulations before accepting. He knows another smiling red-headed woman, and the experience has made him understandably wary.

"Physical sparring only, or magical as well?" he asks.

"Magic? You would be willing to do that?" Well, that is interesting.

"Hmmm, now I don't know wheter fetching a sword for this would be foolish of me or not." She pauses to think, and considers the club she was using. "You know, the oppurtunity is too rare to pass up. Magical and physical, if you allow me the time to retrieve a proper sword."

OOOO! Some actual fun!

"I can wait," Zel allows with a slight smirk. "It's been quite a while since I was able to spar here magically, as well."

The bar's grounds are already messed up. They can only do so much more damage. >_>

(ooc: Mwahahaha!)

She is grinning so much.

"Alright, then," she says before jogging back to the bar. After a quick trip back home, she comes back weilding a longsword made from some cyan hued metal.

No need to bring the fancy stuff to a sparring match, is there?

"My name is Sarah Black, by the way," while bringing the sword into a defensive position.

"Zelgadiss Greywords," he replies, bringing his sword back to ready.

Only a few moments pass before he is sure she is ready, and he begins the assault. Physical attacks only, at first, to ascertain this Sarah Black's skill with her sword. Zelgadiss is very fast, and though both their blades are longswords, he has the advantage in range simply due to the length of his arms.

Well, she may be on the mend, but she mends fast. She can't tell how much time Zeldagiss has had to practice, but she knows that she probably has the advantage in experience. Thousands of years of it.

She adapts to the speed quickly and begins playing with deflecting his attacks at odd angles that might give her an opening for a real attack. Her own attacks have been weak but increasing in strength and ... well, it may be getting tricky deflecting those blows at advantageous angles.

"So, by what fortune do you pratice both magic and swordsmanship?"

They can talk while sparring, yes?

Zelgadiss has been ~~gifted~~ cursed with accelerated speed and strength beyond that which a human is likely capable of.

"Natural talent," he says with a short laugh. He follows up an awkwardly parried attack with a quick rush forward, intending to strike her with his shoulder and thus possibly throw her off-balance.

If it feels like being struck by a human-sized rock, well...

Well, she better be used to it. Or else she isn't worthy of the title Slayer, much less Slayer Master. Let's ignore that she may be the matron goddess of slayers, she can't do much but answer the prayers of others in that regard. Not anymore.

That much momentum is hard to resist if you are adamant about keeping balance. But such things are for Guthixians. Stupid sticks in the mud.

She kicks out with her rear foot pivoting on the other and letting Zeldagiss give her some angular momentum, kneeing him in the back to help him get to wherever he was going.

It does get her to drop her sword, though. It might have been on purpose, as a water spell splashes off Zeldagiss. Maybe that will give her enough time to pick up the sword again.

Rather than waste time, he lets himself fall, rolling to a quick stop. A fireball the size of a hula-hoop erupts from his hand to fly at Sarah as he gets back to his feet, bringing his sword up once more to press whatever time advantage he has.

There is time for the sword.

Oh, that's an impressivelly sized fireball. She sets up a quick defense and the fireball mostly dissipates when it reaches her. The sword catches some of the fire and warms, but...

"Huh, well, you are using magic that is a bit kinder than mine with regards to metal."

The is some defending and backing up until she deflects his sword very awwardly and she connects with an elbow to the face.

Obviously, bad idea, painfully bad. She recovers by trying to get behind him again.

"Really?" he grins, turning to follow her with no lessening of the fast pace of battle. This is a chimera who can ricochet bullets and crack cannonballs with his skull. "I suppose I might have to change that. Astral Vine!"

So what if a sudden lightning-strike comes from nowhere, imbuing his sword with torrents of spirit magic and setting it to glowing as deep a red as her sword is blue? The chimera is grinning a rare grin as he speeds up, sending a sudden flurry of attacks Sarah's way, aiming always where her defense seems weakest and most awkward to block, seeking to force her backwards towards the lake.

Ack! The lake? The wet wet lake?

"Much." Block! Block! "Too kind." What is that metal? Elemental? No, Elemental is much too soft.

She's blocking like mad, as if she hadn't injured herself throwing that elbow at all. Look at it, in fact. No blood, no bruises, no marks at all. For someone who uses the sword as well as she does, she lacks the scars that might identify her as a warrior.

One attack that she catches rattles both swords much more violently than the impact should have.

Thick vines erupt from below Zeldagiss, entangling him. 15 seconds of breathing room so that she can back away to some place more advantageous, drop her sword once again, and start firing off spells.

It's raining fireballs and boulders. The boulders don't stick around after they have hit, so at least Zeldagiss isn't getting buried.

He isn't going to stay idle for those fifteen seconds, of course. His magic-imbued sword is cutting through vines left and right. Until, of course, the hail of fire and boulders.

"Bomb Di Wind!" Zelgadiss calls quickly, creating a hurricane-force wind upwards from his free hand, blasting away both boulders and fireballs. What few vines his sword hadn't yet reached are quickly taken care of.

Dodging quickly to his left, Zel casts his non-sword hand against the earth with enough impact to send out a mild shock-wave. "Dug Haut!" An earthquake just jarring enough to endanger one's footing if one is not expecting it is all the warning given before a wide path of twelve-foot tall, sharp stone spikes erupts violently from the ground, speeding from Zelgadiss' hand towards Sarah and the lake behind her.

O.O

Time to use things not in the standard spellbook. Several of the spikes in front of her take off into the air cuasing her to duck while they pass overhead. The rest of Zeldagiss's spell which made the ground suddenly unfriendly, does manage to knock her down, but at least she didn't have far to fall. Tumble is more like it.

She rights herself in time to shout a command to the spikes which where careening toward her opponent. Well, she would have shouted out explodious at the rock, but then... Isn't a better use of her time and to summon up a fire tornado and let the big rocks crash into him whole than to turn those rocks into million of pebbles that fly in a million directions? explodius might not even work with something that big.

So theres several 12-foot stone spikes homing in on Zeldagiss and a firestorm wandering down the path he just made for it.

All while Sarah climbs her way off the unfreindly terrain and away from the lake.

Well, her sword is probably lost.

"Rune Flare!" calls Zelgadiss as he leaps aside, sending a multitude of energy-darts at the rock spikes, which explode upon impact, scattering tiny bits of rock every which way. He heads swiftly towards Sarah, seeking to go around the fire tornado to get to her.

The light of the fire tornado is enough to give them second shadows, flickering alongside that cast by the sun.

The fire tornado, like most magic of her world, has an annoying homing quality to it. Magic can't miss, but a well trained magic user can avoid getting hurt too bad by it.

Well, enchanted projectiles can miss, just like any projectile can. The magic can provide an extra oomf when the projectile hits its target, but a magical guidance system. Nah, that would be cheating. She's going to hold that secret until the nations of the world are ready to try destroying eachother again.

So the fire tornado adjusts its path.

Huh... which way to run? Does she try keeping the tornado between Zeldagiss and herself?

Nah. She observes which way he choses to go around the tornado and runs to meet him. The blasts of frigid air and sleet she is firing off are much faster in getting there, though.

Wow, she hasn't had the oppurtunity to pull out the ice spells in a very long time.

"Balus Wall!" Zel calls out, ringing himself with a wall of fire to take the brunt of the cold and ice. But he's still dodging that fiery tornado, and would rather not see what happens when a fire spell of that magnitude and a fire-shield meet.

Best to try and avert that if possible. Abandoning the shield, Zelgadiss flings his longsword at Sarah.

No, not at her, just behind her. The keen blade sticks into the shadow she casts on the ground, holding her fast.

Magically guided projectiles? HEY!

Why is she stuck? It's like she's pinned to.. something.

Seriously, her shadow?

The fire tornado fizzles out. Nope, it wasn't that one. She looks up at the sun and mumbles a Gee thanks, Dad. in Kharidian before heading over to the sword to fiddle with it.

It wasn't her dad's fault, strictly speaking. Wrong world, wrong sun. Wait, can that bright shiny thing in the sky be called a sun? Oh, why not, it feels like the real thing.

Okay, the sword isn't coming out, so she elects to gnaw on the sword hilt. Maybe there is something there. A release mechanism or something.

Oddly, part of her shadow gnaws at the sharper end of the blade.

It's a good sword. It'll live. So to speak.

Zel's just glad to find that fiery tornado gone. He would rather not have to tangle with that.

So he walks over to where Sarah is still pinned to her shadow, smiling slightly. "Shall we call it a draw?"

"Gnarrgnarrgnarr,"

Huh?

When Zel is in reach, Sarah's shadow elects to graw on Zeldagiss's leg.

Well, not gnaw. Gum.

There is a very catlike growl from Sarah before she sighs and consents. 'Tis sparring, not a fight to the death.

Meanie.

"Next time I'll know to use more overhead fireworks... I must admit, you are very skilled. I would say you would make a fine slayer, but I don't know how good you are with ranged weaponry yet." SMIRK

"Ummm, could you release me now?" she asks as sweetly as she can.

Zel... eyes the shadow gumming his foot. But it's a shadow. It doesn't hurt.

"Maybe we'll find out, some other day," he grins, and holds out his hand. "Can you not free yourself? Oh well. Lighting!"

How do you erase the shadow holding you fast? A simple light spell will do the trick.

Oh duh, she was thinking of using that as away of avoiding getting caught, but not as a way of escaping?

Silly snot for brains.

Oh no, she is thinking of it again. Ugh.

After shaking off that thought, she asks, "Are you hungry? Sparring always makes me hungry. We should eat."

Just a suggestion. Though her stomach is making sounds in protest of the narration's reduction in urgency. THAT'S A COMMAND, DAMMIT. AM I GONNA HAVE TO HYPNOTIZE SOMEONE? FEED ME!

"Sounds tempting," he says. "That much magic in a short period of time burns a lot of energy."

Being a chimera means he has less of a dependence on vast quantities of food than, say, Lina and Gourry, but food is good. He could use a good meal - it's not likely he's going to find one on the ghost ship he entered the bar from, anyway.

"I'll join you," he decides. "Drinks are on me, in appreciation. I haven't had the opportunity to spar like that in quite a while." Usually, the only time he uses his magic is in deadly earnest.

The people of her world cheat when it comes to magic. Or runestone, you miracle of magic storage you, Where would humanity be without you? There is a way to develop something live a natural talent for a certain type of magic, but it takes more than one lifetime.

All the earth, wind, and water based spells where taken care of by runes, but fire..... that's her thing. Well, perhaps a bit of death based magic pepered in for extra oomph.

"Me neither, most of the people who approach me for lessons are humans these days and think they can get away with just whacking at things with a sword," she says, leading the way and grinning. Then she looks back, "Say, what are you, by the way?"