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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 25, 2017 1:18:09 GMT
When Nergui first opened her eyes it was too complete darkness and a heat pressing against her from every side possible, sweltering and building with an intensity inside of her robes. It took her a few seconds to realize she had been face down in the dirt of a barren land. What did she remember? Where had she been? The heat was familiar like what she had encountered in Gyr Abania and the Abalanthia's Spine, warm but almost as if it could drop or rise at a moment's notice. This was not something important to focus on and instead the Xaela should be focussing on figuring why she was here when last she remembered it had been a standard fare of a day. Wake up, kill something, do some menial tasks for strangers, maybe slay an errant God revived by the beast tribes, go to sleep. Nergui was not the type of Xaela to point fingers at others and she had an unfortunately long list of opponents who have access to kidnapping or transporting people suddenly though they had never attempted as such on her seeing as they would not live to regret it. So more than likely this was not the doing of the Ascians or some remnant of Nidhogg's draconic army, nor could she imagine a voidsent still remaining who would have this power. Perhaps Alexander if the Illuminati of another world had revived him but that was a bit far-fetched. No most likely this was the doing of Omega in his bid to force her into the role of ultimate lifeform or some such nonsense that she no honest care for. Why was he the likely culprit? Because while most others might have tried to kill her only Omega would drop a Black Mage right next to what might very well be one of the largest concentrations of mana she had ever sensed, and with a small amount of effort to flip herself over the xaela could see why. An absolutely massive spire speared into the sky in the far distance, into the cloud-cover and disappearing even further up. It might have been a mile high at the lowest and from the general direction of that spire she could feel the aether, thick and dangerous. It blotted out the surrounding landscape and drew Nergui to the conclusion that either an ally was there or something Omega had prepared for her to kill as another challenge awaited. Either way it would be best to find out and so she reached out for where she felt the Dreadwyrm staff she often carried in this form to be waiting, reaching out to her in one part quivering anger that was a remnant of Bahamut who she had slayed to acquire the staff and one part recognition as it's master. The black mage began her trek towards the golden spire and it's hidden power, not aware of where she was or who she would meet. {stats - Black Mage}Intelligence: 3 (7) Strength: 4 (5) Speed: 4 (5) Stamina: 4 (5) Durability: 4 (5) Supernatural Energy: 7 Combat Proficiency: 7 Power Proficiency: 7
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Post by Kishar on Nov 25, 2017 2:22:42 GMT
It had been a bit since...well a lot of things had happened that made me question some of the very foundations that made me who I was. But right now, I had decided to put thinking about that to the side in order to empty my mind of thought and release some of that tension in a way that I very much knew how to do and was quite good at, at least for someone who wasn't dedicated to combat, and that was practicing the Martial Arts. Normally I used them to stress test my inventions, seek inspiration, and defend myself, but right now I was not doing any of that. All I was doing was emptying my mind and letting go of all unnecessary thoughts that would distract me from practicing my katas and movements. Instead of my usual attire that I normally kept deployed from my infinite resplendence amulet, I had it deployed in moonsilver mode, giving me a simple yet elegant silver gi that seemed to almost flow like water around me as I move, rippling more like a liquid held in place by suspension fields than cloth. It was the attire that I preferred to wear when I was engaging in a bit of practice with my arts, as it was a rather elegant facsimile of the simple gi that my sifu had me wear when I was practicing the arts under him. That one was made out of mortal cloth that I had woven myself under his direction, but it was almost identical in style if not materials.
With a deep breath in and out I took up the stance of the Solar Hero and Essence suffused throughout my being as I closed my eyes and cleared my mind of all thought. Instead of using my eyes, I relied on my mind to replace the field that I was standing in with a battlefield. On it were a number of demons of all kinds, and they were surrounding me. All small fry, but that was just what I needed to get my mind off of everything and just entrust my defense and offense to my trained reflexes so that I could reach nothingness. An attack launched from a Blood Ape is dodged by a slight movement of my head before being retaliated against with a punch to the gut, sending it crashing through the ranks of it's brethren. Another hit, this time from the other side is stopped with a block, and I pivoted through the attack to grab them before throwing them like a crashing wave through the ranks of it's bretheren, watching it explode into a shower of gore as it broke upon the body of a stronger demon. This continued for a long time, mindlessly and easily dealing with the enemies that came my way in my mind, retaliating back with proper force to ensure they pay for their transgression through the sharply honed instincts and muscle memory that my body held from centuries of training.
However, that all abruptly came to a halt when I felt a disruption in my mind, something had entered my sanctum, and judging by the lack of essence canons and lightning, it seemed as if they had no ill intentions. With a quick thought my clothing returned to my normal attire and my stance was dropped, and with another I would appear right behind the unexpected visitor, who seemed to have some sort of saurian features, almost like what a cross between a human and a dragon king might make if the human's blood were more dominant. Hmmm, I would have to try to see if I could make that, or at least something that looked like that. It would be a rather interesting project, but alas it would be something for another time. "Hmmm, so what brings you to my little abode? A sorcerer who noticed my little project, perhaps? Or maybe just a traveler seeking shelter who saw my tower? Oh but where are my manners, I am Kishar and I am the owner of this little place, may I perhaps ask your name?" I asked casually, not too bothered by her presence. After all, it was always nice to find new research specimens from this land, and she very much seemed to be interesting, on top of not being hostile.
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 25, 2017 4:10:21 GMT
It had taken some time but the walk was worth it to see the tower even closer than before, off in the far distance and beyond the eyesight of an average human were other such buildings, or at least she assumed so from the quiet power emanating off from the sides as she stared. Nergui had yet to actually reach the tower but at this point it was hardly needed with the height of the spire allowing her to spy it in quite good detail from even this distance. Of course it was to be presumed that someone had noticed her entrance into this land and had it not been for her current class the fact that a massive amount of aether had suddenly appeared so close would have easily slipped by. As it was the void whispered and like all good mages she listened to the warnings. Nergui spun in an abrupt heel-turn as the other began to speak, her tail rising despite herself as she beheld the figure before her. Smaller than herself and clad in a mixture of gold and white; She was polite though with an attitude as if unbothered by the intrusion and even so kind as to present her own name, a rarity for those Nergui often tended to run into. It was a sad thing the xaela was unable to keep herself from mentally comparing the woman to Elidibus, white, gold and polite all over. It was the power which truly captured Nergui's attention, a deep well of aether sat within this small frame and challenged that of even those terrible things which had been confronted in the past. Memories of staring upon the dreadwyrm, of Zenos and his twisted fusion with Shinryu, of King Thordan and his wards. Kishar might even be capable of challenging the likes of Midgardsormr a run for his money. It was intimidating for a moment to be sure, her tail propping itself up and caught speechless for a time before her composure returned and the mage lent a short bow to Kishar. It would be terrible to not greet such politeness on the rare occasions it seemed to rear itself in her direction, "Сайн уу." she greeted in her mothertongue before continuing in Eorzean basic, even if she was in another world it seemed that the language was at least consistent, "I meant no offense by intruding I merely felt such a huge gathering of aether it was hard to resist. Most often in my experience when this much magic is concentrated in one area it often leads to beast tribes summoning their savage gods. Unless you are going to try and control my mind too? In which case I will ask politely that you don't." she chuckled at her own little joke while sufficiently sure that this woman would not turn out to be a mind-controlling monster god, "My name is Nergui Tumet, chosen of Hydaelyn and dabbler in most arts."{Translation}"Hello." {Stats - Black Mage}Intelligence: 3 (7) Strength: 4 (5) Speed: 4 (5) Stamina: 4 (5) Durability: 4 (5) Supernatural Energy: 7 Combat Proficiency: 7 Power Proficiency: 7
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Post by Kishar on Nov 25, 2017 4:43:46 GMT
It seemed that whoever my guest was, either I reminded her of someone terrifying or she had the ability to get a good idea of just the kind of being I was, or even perhaps both. To her credit, however, she seemed to rather quickly deal with what she had just witnessed and return the niceties, which was some points in her favor, especially considering she managed to reply back with a joke and more casual tones rather than terrified obedience like what so often happened when I ran into people in Creation at least. Not that such a reaction was unwarranted given who and what I was, but it was very much not something I took pleasure in unlike some of my peers. So to say that it didn't happen here was rather refreshing to say the very least. A bit of Essence helped me discern her initial greeting in a foreign language before she slipped into what seemed to be the standard language for this realm that I had learned with a bit of effort after being initially exposed to it. "Hmmm, you must also be from a rather low-Essence world then. This is fairly average for where I come from, if a little high thanks to the five manses that I have constructed here. I just used a bit of my power to reshape this place to be more like where I am from, along with tweaking it's relationship with to...how would I say it in this language? The fundaments of reality? Yes that ought to do," I said, nodding a bit to myself as I tried to translate how I would quickly explain the Shinma to someone.
I turned and began to walk, indicating that she ought to follow me since she was here and saying, "Well then, it would be rather rude of me to refuse a fellow Chosen and a god-slaying one, even if you serve a different deity and slay different gods. I might as well show you to the parlor myself since I would have to wait otherwise." It would be interesting to talk to what was essentially the equivalent of an Exalt from another world, even if it seemed she worked a bit differently, at least as far as I could tell. "So then, you said your name was Nergui, didn't you? You mention you dabble in a number of things, but what in particular do you usually prefer to work in? I tend to work in the crafts, particularly Magitech and Genesis, though I do work plenty with wyld-shaping, medicine, Sorcery, and a number of other topics including the martial arts. One of the benefits of being one of the Chosen of Sol Invictus is the sheer amount of time I have to study Creation. Mortals are lucky to live 400 years with treatment, I'm about six times that give a couple centuries and plenty of time to go," I said, trying to make a bit of small talk with the mage that I was walking with. I wasn't sure how old she was, but obviously any god worth their salt would make their chosen able to live for a long time so they could utterly master their power and be as useful as possible, right?
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 25, 2017 5:20:50 GMT
Something such as this was considered the norm where this Kishar had come from? Perish the thought and bury it in the graves of the Ascians themselves. Perhaps this person's reality was skewed by some terrible power or they themselves had no understanding of the difference between a lot and a little to a normal person. Though Nergui would not feel insulted at her world being thought of as low-power, she had seen the voidsent and battled with the warring triad and there was little that could convince her that world was weak. Perhaps Kishar had just been speaking idly but it seemed that she had stumbled into someone who could freely and ably contort reality to their whims which was really not something that Nergui needed in her life again. First Elidibus and his summoning of the warrior of darkness to Omega and his twisted dimension of the deltascape, Reality warpers were giant pains in the ass until they finally died in some fittingly overdramatic way.
"Truly? I will not say reshaping the world is impossible for my people but it is not often used. The ancient Allagan empire was much more adept at altering reality and often created wondrous engines of war to conquer lands. I've heard some theories of them even attempting to reach space, but well they died out long before that dream ever came to fruition." she shrugged despite being behind the other as Kishar began to lead the way. Nergui took the moment to scan the golden woman again, picking away at the pockets of aether that were her and those that seemed to surround her. It was almost impossible to say what they did exactly but she could tell this woman was not defenseless for even a moment while her back was turned. Good, always nice to see someone ready to fight at the drop of a hat. Something terrible might happen if Nergui offended her new host but it was tempting to see how the other would stack up to the foes of her past, the likes of Zenos who made gods bend at knee with his sheer mortal power alone.
"Hoh? That is quite a resume you have there, though I'm hardly a practiced woman in the likes of alchemy or medicine-making I am quite capable of weaving clothes and smelting armor. Indeed I can even recreate Allagan armor with the proper ingredients! Though truly I am a warrior first, the arts of healing, of swordsmanship, or magic, and the abyssal energy." The most shocking part here was that Kishar was in fact 2600 years old at this point and apparently had a much longer life to go, if a bit frightening at the concept of immortality, "Age hm? Well I'm not exactly all that old, I've only reached the age of 24 years recently and have been strengthening myself for only three years at this point. I'm sure I still have a long time to go but I'm not going to guess on how much longer I will live."
"But! If you are interested I am currently equipped for the use of Black Magic at the moment, Kishar. The manipulation of void-dipped aether to destroy and twist anything in my path. The necrotic energies can be a hassle sometimes when voidsent come after me but most of the time the power tradeoff is worth it."
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Post by Kishar on Nov 25, 2017 6:12:23 GMT
What she said was rather interesting, there were a few designs that I had for powering the Directional Titans and other objects with Protoshinmaic Vortices, along with designs for attempts to draw more power out of them than just the coronal ejections that came off of them. That was on top of the fact that shaping was rather useful for speeding up construction, among other things. That was in addition to the fact that our charms and sorcery could be considered reality warping depending on how you defined the word, so I was rather curious if her world basically ran on rather advanced thaumaturgical processes that worked within the laws instead of manipulating them. Or perhaps someone created a foundation out of something similar to Shinmaic Calibrations? No matter, it was unlikely to be something I could test unless I was there and I had plenty of other things to do in the mean time rather than speculate about how yet another reality worked. "Reality Warping, as you call it, is rather common among the Chosen of my world. Essence is the very fabric of reality, and that is what we use in order to power everything that we do: magitech, artifacts, charms, sorcery, and even these manses all use and channel it. More blatant warping is what we call Wyld Shaping, where we go out into the primal chaos around our world to shape entirely new things, or more quickly create existing things, with just our will," I said, as I shifted my clothing to be represented in starmetal instead of orichalcum, changing the highlights from gold to a purplish silver.
With that, I reached into the Elsewhere pocket to pull out a Protoshinmaic Vortex I had created for study and handed it to my guest. "This is an example of the current bleeding edge of Wyld Shaping technology, it is a miniature wyld-continuum contained and used for power. I believe it would be the equivalent of a miniature universe if I am speaking in this tongue," I said, giving her a smile and letting her look at it a bit before continuing. "Its a rather powerful device, though you likely aren't even noticing it's true potential. All of the energy you are seeing is just the coronal ejections. I'm currently trying to figure out how to tap into the internal geomancy for even more power. It could increase the power available for use from it by order's of magnitude quite easily," I said nodding to myself before sighing, "The only real issue is that if it's damaged or misses maintenance by one of the Chosen of Sol Invictus, it's likely to explode and return everything in a mile radius to primal chaos. Not that I couldn't fix it, but it would be a bit of a hassle to totally re-stabilize since I would need to treat it like a wyld zone rather than normal reality even after I fixed it."
I nodded at what she said and replied, "So much like one of the Chosen of the Dawn then. I myself am more of a scientist as one of the Chosen of the Twilight. It's rather interesting to see someone who has learned so much and become so powerful in such a small span of time. It provides for quite a bit of power if less fine control I would probably assume. Even without the anagarthic magic and artifice of the Chosen, we live three thousand years at the least. With what I have learned, the theoretical time is over ten thousand years, but my world has only existed in it's current form for about 3600 years. If you would like, I could give you some treatments to help increase your lifespan and the like if you would be willing to give me a few samples to run some studies," I said, giving her a bit of a smile as I rather casually asked for bits of her to do science on. It was a fair trade in my opinion, longevity for some blood, flesh, and maybe other tissue samples. It wasn't as if I couldn't replace it all with some regenerative medicine after all.
I kind of looked at her a bit puzzled when she said that she was currently equipped with magic, like she had to switch between the things she did somehow and wasn't able to do them all at once. "You have to switch between the things you dabble in? That seems awfully inconvenient," I said, a bit puzzled by it before shrugging and continuing, "Ah, so you're also a Necromancer? That is a relatively new field where I come from but I am in the forefront of that field as well, trying to reach the final circle of it. It is rather elusive though, as it seems to require a connection to Oblivion that nobody seems to have. I'm currently thinking about developing an artifact to fix that particular issue though, I have a few ideas but they're currently in the queue of things I have to do behind the current project I have to do now among other things."
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 25, 2017 6:58:47 GMT
This little lesson on shaping and the wyld was quite nice, it seemed her people had continued where that decrepit kingdom had failed and began to go even further in a bid for what she only assume was more power or as she had heard perhaps one too many times 'SCIENCE!'. Even now the wall of energy she held in her hands which seemed to spew out enough energy to put a mountain of crystal to shame was only the very smallest portion this thing could push out. Truly it was an incredible device until she was told of the possible unmaking of everything within a mile should it be damaged or miss a servicing. It would be truly the best of all worlds if crazy people decided to stop being so crazy all the time but Nergui supposed that getting what she wanted all the time would be too much to ask for, even if she was a hero.
"I appreciate you showing this to me, Kishar, but I would also appreciate not being handed what is essentially a dozen 'Fouls' waiting to be cast." Not that Nergui didn't see the humor in being handed this device with no warning and then being told of the destructive capability it possessed. In fact she let loose a small snort at the thought of it, already resigned to some fate if this went off no matter what. A new offer had appeared as well, one with fine print Nergui was sure to tread carefully on, "Oh? Pray tell what these samples would be and in what amount. My white magic is quite capable but reviving myself from death is a tad draining." She joked somewhat, she would of course need to be garbed as a white mage to bottle a revive or else she would be forced to use one of those terrible pomanders she had found in the Palace of the Dead.
It seemed Kishar had caught onto what she had said earlier as well about having to requip each set to use the different abilities if she didn't grasp the full meaning of to use the different arts, "No fears, Kishar, while it is true I must equip different items to use different arts I have mastered the ability of doing so instantly." It seemed her new friend was also a researcher though she dabbled heavily in the art of necromancy. While Nergui was more than capable in aspects of it pertaining to White Mages the use of it as a Black Mage was expressly forbidden lest one become like the evils of the past. She had learned the secrets of the books of Nald and Thal and was privy to many secrets most Black Mages would be killed for knowing.
"Necromancy, hm? I suppose we are in the reverse here as necromancy is a long known art in my world. The revival of the dead is not impossible mages both white and black share some capability in it. White mages are capable of reviving the recently deceased as long as their soul has not departed too far. Black Mages though, well it is quite terrible the things we can conjure and death is no longer permanent when one ignores the corrupting influence of the void. I suppose that would be our Oblivion from the sounds of it, darkness and nothingness stretching for eternity. Nald'Thal watches the cycle but it is quite possible to step past him and steal back the souls of those long departed." she shrugged in after thinking of such things, Nergui had walked all of the Palace of the Dead and slain Nybeth Obdilord. Nergui had seen the Great Gubal library and tore it apart for the terrible secrets it held and had even drawn back her own friends from the brink of non-existence. While necromancy was a terrible thing in her past with a modicum of effort it would not be impossible to create the dark miracles her enemies had.
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Post by Kishar on Nov 25, 2017 7:37:36 GMT
I raised an eyebrow at her being wary of the device and shrugged, before taking it back and returning it to my pocket and reaspecting my clothing to Orichalcum as I much preferred the warm glow that it had. "It takes either a good bit of damage or disruptive reality warping to pop it, and the place I keep it doesn't have time pass. Besides, I have five of them socketed into artifact fittings in my skin to help bolster my Essence Pool and how fast I recover it, and another two socketed in a couple of devices that I keep on my person at all times. Its perfectly safe as long as you properly take care of them," I said with a shrug that revealed the vortex socketed into my gauntlet that covered my right hand. "Oh, you can do that? That means your soul structure and it's binding to your body is rather different than mine and others from my realm. Resurrection is something of a stubborn problem that we have yet to solve, though we are rather good at preventing death to the point where with preparation a person can survive pretty much anything done to them," I said, rather curious about what she had said but returning to the matter at hand, "In any case, you wouldn't have to worry about death or anything like that. Just samples from various organs that I could fix with a bit of regenerative medicine. We don't exactly have Sorcery that does that sort of thing, but our Charms related to Medicine do something similar though through a focus of our skill rather than just pure magic. It's cheaper to do so theres no real reason to create Sorceries that do things our charms can do."
Her point about being able to switch instantly was still a bit less than convenient unless it had no drawbacks, but considering that seemed likely to be the case it still was rather inconvenient for her. It, however, was overshadowed about what she was saying about Necromancy from her realm, which seemed quite a bit different than the Necromancy from where I came from, and therefore was of great interest to me. "Hmmm, thats not quite what Oblivion is. Oblivion was a result of our killing of the Primordial Gods who were ultimately responsible for the making of Creation. Its essentially an error in reality caused by the fact that they never planned for their own deaths and it seems to be a place in the deep underworld that has destroyed every single concept in the 'place' it exists, including the possibility for anything to exist where it is. One of the major issues with resurrection I mentioned before, but the other is that souls tend to be recycled and reintroduced into Creation as new people with pretty much all memories of their past lives removed. So even if the niggling issue about the soul structure and such is fixed, its impossible to get back the long dead," I said, nodding a bit to myself. "Though if one has a reincarnated soul and some piece of the original its possible to clone them and recreate the memories, creating an exact biomotonic replicant of them. The main issue is that this only really works for mortals, since the Chosen have an additional soul component that cannot be duplicated that acts as the source of our powers and allows us to surpass human limits on skill and raw ability as well as giving us our powers," I said, explaining the issue at hand.
Soon enough we had passed the time that it took to get back to the tower and I decided to ask for a bit of a bout since I had been interrupted in the middle of training, and she did say she was a warrior. "Before we go inside, I would actually like to ask a little favor of you. You actually interrupted me in the middle of a bit of training I was doing for my Martial Arts, and since you mentioned that you are a warrior I figured you wouldn't mind being my sparring partner. Feel free to use whatever weapons you wish, I will be fighting unarmed and that isn't much of a handicap for me. Feel free to decline or impose any other rules you wish besides no killing and the winner helps get the loser back into shape and we fight until submission or knockout," I said, laying out what I was thinking for now. I kind of was interested in testing her ability as well, since she seemed rather skilled for someone her age and that made me want to try out my martial skills against her to see just what she could do.
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 27, 2017 2:41:44 GMT
It seemed the gap between their two types of necromancy were nigh-impassable but it was at the very least interesting to compare them and while it seemed the two were capable of generally the same thing the ability of her people to resurrect the dead was stunted by the fact that some cosmic force was already bringing the dead back to life through reincarnation. Surely the two of them could learn a thing or two from the other but this oblivion which seemed destroy everything was much different to the void which spread the corruption and was often the inevitable end of any fight between light and darkness. No matter which side one it would just result in another variant of the void and the remaining worlds would suffer all the more for the failure of those who had fallen, "I see, it's quite interesting that your world works on the cycle of reincarnation though it seems my void-based necromancy and your oblivion-based necromancy are not very compatible."
It would also be wise to not accept Kishar's offer immediately and not give up any samples to the stranger even if she was being assured that no damage to her body would be permanent and that Kishar would properly pay her for the samples. It was suspicious enough for her gut to twist in an uncomfortable way, what could be little to Kishar may in fact be large and terrible for Nergui, "Ah, I'll have to turn you down on the samples until you can show me an example of your work or I feel like I can trust you enough." she smiled in a genial manner and hoped she had not offended the other overly much but Kishar did not look like the kind of person to care one way or the other unless it disrupted her sufficiently enough.
The offer of a spar though was interesting and grabbed at Nergui in a way she had not experienced since her first bout with Zenos and that humiliating loss. Sent to a strange land to find a strange well of power with an even stranger master? It most definitely seemed like the kind of thing she would expect to find in an adventure or two, "Well Omega often sends me to these places with battling in mind so I'll just be grateful that you are offering a spar instead of coming for my life. It's quite annoying to be attacked on sight, you know." she chuckled to herself while going over in her head the best way to approach this spar, "I will show you more of the void if you would like. While the Black Mage forces the void to her will, the Dark Knight allows it to corrupt them then tempers that power. Now where shall our arena be?"
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Post by Kishar on Nov 28, 2017 4:40:14 GMT
I nodded along with her and added, "Indeed, thats at least how it's supposed to work and usually works. We do have an Underworld, but that is as a result of the glitch created by the death of the creator deities that I mentioned before. Sometimes souls who have lingering connections to the world awaken as ghosts instead, and they are what are normally used in Necromancy, along with the lower souls that represent the base desires and appetites of a person that do not enter the reincarnation cycle. Unfortunately, the splitting of the upper and lower souls upon death is one of the biggest obstacles to resurrection at the moment. Up until that point where the soul leaves and splits, we are able to defy death." It was a bit of a simplistic explanation, but I figured it would do without going into a large explanation of how the metaphysics of Creation went, and we were walking so such a thing wasn't practical. Perhaps another time when we had a place to sit, some tea to drink, and some snacks to eat. That would be far more conducive to such an extended discussion rather than the walk we were having at the moment.
I shrugged at what she said as we moved along, generally not bothered by having my offer turned down. "I can demonstrate for you after this is over, I have a fully stocked medical suite and it just so happens one of my genesis constructs managed to get herself hurt in the mines. Shes undergoing pre-operative procedures, although they aren't strictly necessary with my skill, so that it will be easier on my energy and on her body. If you would like to watch I would be glad to let you view it from the viewing suite," I replied, rather interested in seeing how she would react to the offer. I was also rather interested to see how familiar she was with proper medical procedures considering it seemed that her world had a completely different way of treating injuries than mine. It would be rather interesting for her as well more than likely considering the fact that she would be being exposed to a miracle of Solar Essence used for a more creative and restorative purpose, as opposed to the duel I had proposed and it's showing of more destructive purposes.
With a thought my clothes once again changed, shifting smoothly from the hardlight clothing that I was wearing to the simple moonsilver gi that I had been wearing earlier which still flowed more like liquid metal instead of cloth. "Then it sounds mutually beneficial, even better. I completely understand what you mean about being attacked on sight though, I've been in a war or two myself. One of which involved killing one of the two creation deities that fled their demise and came back retooled for war. Not a pretty time," I said, sighing and pushing the memories back through force of will. With a deep intake and exhalation, I took up the form of the solar hero, my body seeming to glow slightly with the energy of the unconquered sun that flowed through my veins, hardening my skin against impact and infusing me with the unlimited arete of the Chosen of the Sun. Not only that, but the mere act of doing it caused my bracers to flare to life, further increasing my skill in battle through resonance between the Orichalcum prayer strips they were made of and the Essence of my soul. "Our field is here and throughout this entire area if you so choose, don't worry about damage, it's easy enough for me to fix what is breakable and the important stuff is nigh-indestructible. Use whatever techniques you like, I do not mind," I said, doing my best to get in the mindset before adding, "Feel free to take the first blow, it's the least I can do since I proposed the duel."
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 28, 2017 7:47:31 GMT
Looked like it was time to start the fight and apparently the arena was all of this enormous area around them which was nice considering she was often pinned between two large walls and forced to fight in small hallways. Not having to worry about places to run would be lovely. Not only that but she was being invited to view some sort of strange operation Kishar was to perform on what she supposed was a worker of some kind, "Certainly, after his bout I would enjoy seeing your art of surgery. I'm not quite familiar with it as most of my injuries were taken care of with white magic and only the Garlean's truly need surgery but I would appreciate the learning experience."With those words it was time to begin and her host was ever so gracious in giving her the opportunity to have the first attack. It almost seemed like a trick for Kishar to pull out something from nowhere, counter her first move then proceed to humiliate her in some way but Nergui would give the other the benefit of the doubt. Rather than voice any complaints over getting first hit she pulled from the aether a crystal of red and black, sharp lines carving a symbol inside of it as a light was released and consumed the xaela for a moment. When the light faded her attire had changed and what had once been flowing robes and leather belts had transformed to a blackened metal which surpassed even adamantines nearly impenetrable defenses as an artifact passed down from the Dark Knights of old. Held in the warrior's right hand was a blade easily taller than herself made of crude looking metals and sharpened into a fine blade on one side thought that would be difficult to tell as multiple rings of light surrounded the blade and began to empower both itself and Nergui. Her armor was all spikes and plate stacked upon one another with patches of chain where the armor was the weakest. Yes, this was the epitome of armors for those her class, the corrupted power of the void most easily channeled through these long lost metals and protecting her from only the mightiest of blows. She was far from done yet as her abilities began to activate, purple lightning crackled along the surface of the armor as a red aura surrounded the woman and abyssal energies surged forth to empower her, granting Nergui access to powers far beyond that of a base human, "Well then, let us have a wonderful spar."Like all things in life it was best to start off with one of her stronger attacks to properly gauge her opponent. Should Kishar fall then the it is a success and should Kishar survive then Nergui would know better what to do next. First she activated the dark arts as archaic forms shaped themselves under her feet and from the four corners of these shapes violet tethers connected to her to empower the next attack made. From that she activated the dark art of sole survivor and focussed her animosity towards the form of Kishar, the void rumbled within her mind and twisted about in the shadows of her aura to take aim at Kishar in particular with her next attack. Prior to the attack Nergui made sure to activate her defenses as well with the art of Shadow wall reinforcing the aura surrounding her to turn it into a tangible force to lessen the blows made against her and the regular magic of rampart to further reinforce that. With all of that she was ready and made the opening move, two strikes lashing out in an upward moving pattern as she took to the air to complete the blow with a third downward strike should Kishar fail to dodge or stop the first two. While normally 'Carve and Spit' was a weak ability meant only to allow for mana recovery when combined with dark arts it tripled in damage at the cost of the mana it would restore, as waves of corruption seemed to leak from the blade with each passing strike. Further cementing this would be the sole survivor art that focused Nergui's hate onto a single target for a short time and turned the void from a corrupting force to beast lashing out at whoever had offended it's master so. {Stats - Dark Knight}Intelligence: 3 (4) Strength: 4 (7) Speed: 4 (6) Stamina: 4 (6) Durability: 4 (7) Supernatural Energy: 5 Combat Proficiency: 7 Power Proficiency: 5 {Dark Knight Armor}
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Post by Kishar on Nov 28, 2017 8:30:03 GMT
She was quick, far more experienced than I gave her credit for, that much was for sure. Without dipping into the wells of arete bubbling inside of me, I would be unable to properly parry all three of the attacks. The first two were dealt with as they came, turning aside the blows without any weapons, one of the blows parried with the essence armor piece on my leg, the other with my bare right hand. However, that left me open for the third strike. Dodging wasn't an option with the size of her blade and the range I was currently at and her apparent skill level. That only left one last option, to take the hit. Normally taking a hit like this head on without blocking would be suicidal, but I was not a normal person. I was Chosen by the Unconquered Sun, his Essence of Perfection ran through my veins and with it any feat was possible. With it and the skills possessed by virtue of being Chosen and honing them over centuries, I could do anything if I put my mind to it. And so I would do so right now. I willed my skin to be as hard as the magical materials, and with a surge of essence just as the blow was about to land, my skin flashed with the radiance of Orichalcum as I kicked away from her, the blade drawing harmlessly against my skin, which was now temporarily as hard as orichalcum.
"Quite impressive, I had underestimated you due yo your young age, Nergui. I had figured that I could have easily started off going easy and ramp it up over time," I said, before taking a deep breath. With a quick exhale Essence infused my body and my anima flared Iconic, raging in a bonfire of gold, deep red, deep blue, and deep purple around me. For a few brief seconds an orichalcum clockwork dragon curled around me as the very Essence of my soul shone through the Essence that I had just spent. "However, I now see that I have to start at a bit higher level than I had expected and ramp up more quickly from there. It is quite commendable, and I think that we both will get a great workout from it," I said, smiling before dashing at her, at an easy pace of about 72 m/s. I hadn't ramped that up yet, so it was still relatively low for me. Upon reaching her, the dragon would flare up again as I pour essence into my strikes. The Force of the Five Dragons combined with Fists of Iron, the Thunder Hammer of Heaven, and the power of the Shockwave technique all coalesced into my strike. Quickly planting my feet so that I could deliver the blow correctly, I launched the blow straight at her center of mass to render it harder to dodge. Normally such a thing would have easily been parryable, but the force was not conveyed not in my fists, but the shockwave that I bled my punch's force into, rendering it so that she would have to dodge it instead of blocking. If it connected, it would likely send her flying quite a distance, but luckily nothing was behind her so she would just fly the entire distance instead of smacking into something.
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 29, 2017 4:50:30 GMT
It seemed as if her opponent was more skilled then Nergui had first presumed her to be with the woman being able to dodge both of her initial strikes before tanking her final downward strike. While not the most powerful combo she could pull off it was certainly one of the most powerful as a Dark Knight and the other had weathered a blow from it looking none too worse for wear. At the very least it seemed Kishar was going to begin taking this fight much more seriously which was lovely for Nergui who just loved being right about her opponents actually holding back and having to beat them down again, even if she had not yet gotten around to beating down Kishar for a first time, "Well I'm glad to have beaten your initial expectations, I'll endeavor to continue doing so from now on!" she exclaimed excitedly as Kishar rocked forward and burst towards her with an impressive amount of speed.
Speed that was a tad too impressive in fact as no sooner had she had the time to activate 'The Blackest Night' and become enclosed in a barrier to void magic than was it assaulted, her blade moving to cover the entirety of the side as Kishar slammed into her. The first thing to happen was the barrier around her shattering apart, the corruption flowing back into her and creating pockets of darkened aether within her blood. The next thing to happen was the force of the shockwave lifting the Au Ra from her feet and sending her flying away for a bit over two hundred meters, her body bouncing around inside the metal armor as much as it would allow as she forced down the cry of pain at the surprisingly harsh attack.
It was definitely a new experience to be airborne for so long against her will, especially in such heavy plate armor as her sword skidded into the ground for a few moments to furrow a line into the ground before it too came with her into flight. Interesting would a good word for it, along with terrifying, agency robbing, and a wonderful deal fun only because it had happened during a friendly spar, she might try to learn to fly herself one day without the aid of a mount. It could have been no more than a few seconds that she was airborne but felt as if minutes she spent casually spinning back through the air before coming to a skidding halt into the ground, armored hand gouging out dirt as she fought to slow herself through sheer physical force, "Right, so it's going to be one of those fights then..." Nergui coughed out as she rose to her feet and prepared to continue the fight. On the bright side she would soon be ready to release another hellish combo if she could restore some mana.
The issue with the Dark Knight as compared to the Paladin who could weather throw a torrent of blows with their shield or the Berserker who allowed their injuries to fuel their rage was that this class required high amounts of mana consumption to continue to fighting effectively and the quickest way to replenish would be to allow a blow to land which Nergui felt was a rather foolish thing to do in this situation. Instead she would have to wait for the blackblood to fill her veins properly before unleashing some of her more potent attacks to refill with the aether stored inside of the corruption which had already begun to fill her. More archaic symbolism pressed into the ground beneath her as those tethers returned and inspired the void power she wielded, sword raised high into the air as she channeled her might through it.
With a mighty downward slash the xaela unleashed the power stored into the blade in a blast towards the distant figure with three spheres of void power erasing the ground before disappearing as the beam left her blade. A wave of dark violet lightning arc forwards and carving a groove into the ground from the sheer pressure it possessed as it passed, a speed far surpassing her own as and growing faster as it approached the target. Nergui could feel her own mana waning as the combo left her and tsked in annoyance while reverting to the 'Grit' stance to better manage her own damage absorption and prepared to take punishment to fuel herself until her class change was ready once again.
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Post by Kishar on Nov 29, 2017 6:18:33 GMT
I quickly followed up after the attack, but of course she flew far too far too quickly for me to be able to completely catch up before she recovered from the blow I had dealt to her. This was fine though, I was ready for whatever she would throw at me. I was, however, rather intrigued and amused by what she had chosen to attack me with now. After all, I had just been finishing up my training on a charm that would let me do just that, and this was a perfect opportunity for me to try it out. I hadn't used it before as I wanted to do something else, but this seemed like a great chance to try it out. So instead of trying to dodge the attack, I met it head on with a punch and an enhancement of my soak so that I could deal with the damage. I could feel it burning against my fist, but that wasn't a concern. With a force of will my body subsumed the energy of the attack as I flew towards her, not bothering to stop my charge as the energy raged against my body and threw off sparks. I would have to release it soon, but it would be much more fun this way for sure. I wanted to make this thrilling and mind-numbingly intense for both me and her, so this would provide the best opportunity for it, I was absolutely sure of that part.
As I got closer, I threw myself into a rolling front flip in mid air, turning into a kick with my heel coming down toward her from above. As the back of my heel pointed down at her, I released the beam from that point, causing the huge beam of energy to push me back into the air and reverse my flip in mid air, along with whatever it had done to her. The thrill I felt from the fight was something that I hadn't felt in ages, it had been so long since I had a friendly opponent who was of a class to make it fun for me, even though I definitely not fighting at full power yet. I had several tricks I had yet to use, but this was definitely one of the ones I liked the most. I had just came up with that one on the fly, but it was great. When I landed I would prepare to defend myself, ready to deal with whatever she inevitably had for me next. After all, I was sure that she was fine after that, even if the dust cloud that it had kicked up was obscuring my view of her, she was definitely too strong for that to have seriously hurt her. I could also still sense her magical energy from within the cloud, the power of my anima letting me take in data that I would analyze later about what exactly her powers were and how they worked.
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Mister Bluecoat
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Post by Nergui Tumet on Nov 29, 2017 7:14:34 GMT
Of course the golden girl would have some sort of trick up her sleeve to turn another's attack around and back towards them, and here Nergui had just presumed it was arrogance that had caused Kishar to rush towards her attack in such a way that was strangely elegant and to the point, nothing fancy like she had seen many monks taking to doing, only the act of somehow catching the energy and using it for her own means. In those scant few seconds in which Kishar jumped into the air to kicked the energy back down towards Nergui the woman had activated 'Bloodprice' so as to have the void feed her mana in return for any pain inflicted on her. It was a better idea than just taking the attack at it's full brunt, her previous barriers and grit position weakening the attack by a significant amount before it consumed the entirety of Nergui for a moment and vanished into wisps, the woman who had tanked it none too worse for wear.
She could feel the void fill her with power once more and deactivated 'Grit' as with this much damage taken and the previous fighting she would have enough power to activate her strongest Dark Knight combo once before switching to a new class. As had come so usual by now Nergui activated her Dark Arts, feeling the drain on her newly replenished mana stores but it would be worth it as she lunged forward to the just landing Kishar while activating the ability 'Bloodspiller'. This ability in particular was different from the usual host as instead of using actual mana from her it instead made use of the pockets of corruption running through her veins, taking it and using them to summon a pincer like attack on the target. Further aiding this was her grit form which while normally weakening attacks when combined with 'Darkside' it further pushed bloodspiller.
The attack was a little lame in Nergui's own opinion but things must be done how they must be done so she pushed off of the ground into a strange spin in the air, a vortex of void energy opening under where Kishar stood as her target point while her blade shined with the ominous gleam of her blood's power to create a possibly devastating attack. While not the strongest attack throughout all of her classes it was easily the strongest of those in the tank class.
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