[b]Iron Inigma vs tough love[/b]

The last battle was anticipated with more loud cheers and cat calls, as Sheldon played the crowd up and seemed to be enjoying himself, strutting around,[color=ec008c] "And the last Battle shall be Mark and Serma of Iron Enigma and Heather and Evangeline of Tough Love!"[/color]

Luna would have a short argument with her guild master over her going and fighting. Insisting quite forcefully that she was fine, Luna would quit the conversation and head towards the stairs that lead to the big entrance to the arena. Mark would've watched the spectcal, amused, before heading down and simply jumping over the railing and into the arena. Landning with a small puff of dust next to Luna. [color=FFDDD0]"So, how shall we start? The old one-two, or blunt-force-trauma?"[/color] The Maker mage said, seemngly without any concern over the opposing team hearing them. [color=FFDDD0]"So far though, they seem like a bunch of pushovers, so let's go flashy."[/color] He said the last part somewhat jokingly, as if meaning to egg on their opponents, though there was a hint of actually meaning it.

Luna thought for a moment, continuing on her way towards the center of the arena, before responding.[color=0000FF]"Let's go the one-two, and don't underestimate them. I don't look too scary either."[/color] Arriving at the center of arena, Luna would come to a stop; Mark would move to his guild mate's side and lean on her shoulder, considering her decision. He wasn't much of one for big entrances, and a kind someone had already taken the liberty of introducing him to everyone already. He was sure that they were as hyped as they were going to get for this fight anyway. Taking a deep breath and mentally preparing himself for the fight, Mark waited to see how his opponents would come onto the field and act, and if he could discern their magic before the fight began.

In short order the representatives of Tough Love appeared.  The face of Evangeline as she emerged from the stairway lackadaisically dragging a mace behind her betrayed nothing but a disinterested boredom, as if the entire event were merely an obstacle on the way to her next siesta.  Sanguin, meanwhile, hid her face beneath the visage of a crimson wolf, leaving it to her quick, erratic movements to define her personality.  They approached the center of the arena without any sort of synchronization or special effect; evidently, in the wake of back-to-back losses in the arena, these ladies planned to get serious.

A disgruntled sigh finally broke the silence that had settled over the battlegrounds of the Doma Flau.  [color=00FF7F]"Guess we got to do it.  What you thinking, San?  How we going to do this?"[/color]

The black steel scimitar of Sanguin, Lupa, had already been drawn.  Unlike her partner, who specialized in monster hunting, she was versed in the art of war.  The reply Evangeline's question forced from her came as a husky growl, packed with threatening savagery even for an ally as long as her wild persona reigned over her.  [color=800000]"Surround them!...Beat them down!...Trap them in a raging spiral with me in the middle!  No human can survive a tireless onslaught!"[/color]

Mark smirked at the contrast between his two opponents before standing up properly. [color=FFDDD0]"Maybe a human couldn't survive a tireless onslaught, but I have yet to meet any such thing yet. I find most things tend to start tiring out after they've got a few holes or big bruises in them."[/color] He'd say to Sanguin, a lethal smile appearing on his face. [color=FFDDD0]"Espescially if one of those holes is through their face."[/color] He'd laugh softly, crossing his arms then uncrossing them, wanting them free to fight. Luna simply stood where she was, her enchanted cloak hiding her face from view. Mark let his last statement hang in the air for a little bit before finally speaking to remfy the tenseness likely caused by it. [color=FFDDD0]"Anyway, I don't think outright murder is allowed, so let the best fighters win."[/color]

A laugh from Sheldon echoed across the arena.  [color=ec008c]"Looks like this fight's about to ex-PLODE!  Ready...go!"[/color]

As the announcement to begin fighting was given, Luna wasted almost no time in summoning her eclipse armor and weapons. Luna then would take a step forward and hold up her halberd. [color=0000FF][i]"Light of the eclipse!"[/i][/color] Darkness would consume the arena, and Mark would follow up pretty quickly.

[color=FFDDD0][i]"Shadow Make, Fan of Lances!"[/i][/color] He'd make a movement, and, as he described, a fan of blunt lances would launch themselves towards the general area the two had been. The temporary shadow created by Luna's magic would hide the spears as they traveled towards their targets rapidly. As the artificial darkness finally began to fade, both Luna and Mark waited to see how their enemies reacted to their joint attack.

From inside the darkness came a strange sound, a sort of crystalline beat accompanied by the steady and powerful sound of wind.  When the Iron Enigma wizards were able to see their opponents again, only Evangeline remained where she had previously stood, and around her the sandy ground had been altered.  Webbed veins of an airy blue mineral loosely formed a circle around her, and from the magic crystal exuded a gathering gale against which Mark's lances were mere twigs, blow up and harmlessly away.

The instant Evangeline's sight returned to her, she started moving.  To say she ran would have been an overstatement, but nevertheless she erupted into a halfhearted jog, dragging her mace behind her.  Where the weapon plowed through the sand, more crystals grew, and it wouldn't take a miracle worker to observe that she meant to encircle Mark and Luna completely in the veins of crystal.

A much more difficult occurence to observe was a red-furred dire wolf only a few feet behind Luna and closing fast.  A hundred and fifty pounds of fur, muscle, and gleaming fangs leaped toward her, surrounded in a blood-red mist and a fraction of a second away from closing her jaws around Luna's shoulder.

As Sanguin bit down on Luna's shoulder, she'd find the young mages' armor to be tougher than anything she's ever tried to bite before, and wouldn't leave so much as a mark. The armor would also seem to give off a burning cold sensation, simmilar to Dry Ice, but not nearly as physically dangerous. As Luna registered the attempted bite on her shoulder, she would quickly turn and attempt to slam the pommel of her sword onto the top of her opponent's head, following it up with a stab with the blunt end of her halberd. This attack would then turn to a mostly vertical downwards slash with both bladed weapons, followed finally by her stabbing them both forward in the direction of her opponent. [color=0000F]"[i]Solar Flare![/i]"[/color]

The instant Sanguin discovered that her bite wasn't working, and was in fact hurting her quite severely, her steel-trap jaws released and the wolf flipped off, avoiding Luna's counterattack.  A rush to the side evaded the double vertical slash by a hair, and as she dodged Sanguin shifted back into human form.  Not relenting in the slightest, the warrior charged forward to check Luna with her shield.  Fighting in many battles had taught Sanguin that where blades failed against armor, blunt force should prevail.

Mark would chuckle as he watched the opponent with the mace lazily jogged around them, and he moved so that he'd intercept her when the circle was three quarters done. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Light Ice make, greatspear.[/i]"[/color] The spear that formed in his hand was long, and made from light, and tipped with ice to make it blunt. He'd spin the weapon in his hand once, feeling its weight, before charging Evangeline head-on, stabbing at her stomach with the spear before jumping back.

Though she moved her mace with about as much vigor as she articulated the rest of herself, Evangeline knew her timing and started swinging early to compensate.  Her heavy mace-head knocked aside the incoming ice spear without breaking it, and the tall woman sighed, [color=00FF7F]"Buzz off, I'm working here."[/color]  A cough tore from her mouth, and she doubled over to unleash a stream of what looked like fog from her gullet.  The mist resolved itself, however, into the shape of vile, vaguely serpentine Wind Wyrms, each about a meter long, which wove through the air on rows of tiny wings to chow down on Evangeline's opponent.  Relying on them to keep Mark busy, the Tough Luck sorceress forged ahead on her path.

Luna watched as her opponent began shifting to charge and hit her with their shield. The celestial wizard back pedaled a few steps as Sanguin charged, and she attempted to strike with both her weapons in an x-patten to hit Sanguin's shield as she charged. She was hoping that the attack would at least weaken if not stop the attack entirely, though she was holding back. The power behind her weapons was not that of what it had been when she destroyed the two stone giants in the castle on day two, and a strong opponent likely wouldn't be stopped or harmed by the attack.

A roaring, berserk shield charge would not be stopped so easily.  Luna's strike, not only against a shield but with power reserved to boot, failed to turn aside the assault of the taller, more muscular woman, and Sanguin crashed straight into the Iron Engima sorceress with nearly all of her might preserved.  That very blow, however, knocked Luna clear, giving her opportunity to work a spell to take revenge for that skull-rattling bash.

Mark would blink in confusion as his opponent began retching, seeming to be vomiting. it took him a moment to realize what was really happening, and he would drop the ice spear, it vanishing as he did, before moving into a stance to cast another spell. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Ice Make: Floor![/i]"[/color] He'd put his hands on the ground, and Ice would form the floor as he commanded. He hoped that the Ice would cause his opponent to slip up, and either block the wind coming up from the other liquid, or allowing some of his other maker magics to come up under the gale force wind. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Shadow Make: Crystal Growlths![/i]"[/color] Shadows reached across the surface of his ice floor, and formed several large spiky crystals around him. One would try to appear under Evangeline, and two would appear amongst the wind wyrms, attempting to skewer them. The rest would appear in nowhere in particular.

In the time Mark worked his magic, Evangeline managed to put a bit of distance between herself and her opponent, only to find the sand turning slick and silvery beneath her feet.  She gave an unenthusiastic curse as she slipped and fell, hard, onto her bottom.  The impact jolted another swear from her, in such quick succession that the two practically blended together, albeit tonelessly: [color=00FF7F]"Shi-ammit."[/color]  No respite awaited her, however, as a dark spire shot up from beneath her, raking along the inside of her left thigh and making her very glad indeed she hadn't slid another couple of inches forward.  Groaning, she struggled to her feet.  Fortuantely, her Wind Wyrms fared marginally better.  Two vanished, pierced with impressive precision by Mark's spikes, but the remaining two got into their effective range and aimed serrated bites at the wizard's head and ribs.

Luna would yelp and grunt as she was thrown by the shield blow, tumbling across the ground about halfway across the battlefield before coming to a stop on her face. Grunting heavily, the mage began pushing hserself to her feet, and taking a deep breath she glared at her opponent that had sent her flying. Despite the power of the hit, and how far the small girl had gone, she didn't seem at all deterred. Looking around, she found she had dropped her weapons, and figuring she didn't have time to retrieve them befoe her opponent was on her again, Luna decided to summon one of her other two weapons. [color=0000FF]"[i]Blade of Luna.[/i]"[/color] A two handed sword formed in the girl's hands, and she began charging towards Sanguin. [color=0000FF]"[i]Horizon![/i]"[/color] Her opponent would then find themselves caught in the illusion of being on a plane of absolute blackness, with blistering winds and hollow whispering of the wind. Luna, hoping her opponent would be at least disoriented for a moment, moved her charge two paces to the right. She meant to be practically beside Sanguin when she began to turn and strike at the back of her opponent's legs with the flat of the blade. Luna would put her leg off to the side as she striked, hoping to throw her momentum into it.

When confronted with a barren void, Sanguin instinctively froze.  In in this bizarre and empty realm, her acute senses failed her, and her worldliness became as useless as her anger.  Not knowing whether or not a single step would send her plummeting into the abyss or tear her apart, the Tough Love warrior dared not chance a solitary movement.  Instead, she strove to bear the disturbing squall filtering around her as best she could, waiting for something to happen.  As such, when Luna went on the attack, she found an easy target, and her blade swept out from under her the legs of Sanguin.  Growling animalistically, she collapsed onto her back, and swung her scimitar wildly and repeatedly above her.

Mark stood up quickly as the two remaining wind wyrms charged him. The Ice floor and Shadow Spikes quickly faded into nothing as Mark rose his left arm to get into the path of the wyrms. He gasped in pain as one bit the side of his hand, and the other into his forarm by his elbow. Gritting his teeth, Mark made the motions to cast a spell with his good hand, it pressed against his now injured hand. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Light Make: Spears![/i]"[/color] Two spears would form and impale the two wyrms latched onto him, and he'd breath heavily through his teeth as he then casts a quick ice-make to cover up his bleeding injuries. [color=FFDDD0]"Ngh, that hurt."[/color] He'd turn to face his opponent, going back to using both hands, though he knew the Ice Make on his arm would only hold up for five minutes or so. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Shadow Make: Floor![/i]"[/color] A floor of shadow would form, and its surfact would be abnormally squishy and soft, almost like a mattress, but it wouldn't have any of the springyness. Not wasting any time, Mark would follow up the spell. [color=FFDDD0]"Light Make: Spear Barrage!"[/color] Lifting his right hand towards his opponent, a barrage of dull, white spears would leap from it, speeding rapidly towards Evangalene, but staying low to the ground.

As uneffective as they ultimately were, Evangeline's wind wyrms had done their job and kept Mark distracted.  Seizing the opportunity with no small amount of groaning reluctance, the monster hunter turned her lackadaisical trot into a ponderous jog, and so managed to complete the huge circle of aero crystal.  The completed formation began to pump large quantities of air toward the center of the circle, where Luna and Sanguin now fought.  When Mark's Spear Barrage hurtled toward Evangeline's position, the projectiles became buffeted by the gale-force winds and thrown to the center as well.  Doubtlessly, the currents also influenced Mark, and the Tough Love stratagem was plain to see: Evangeline sought to trap her opponents in the middle of a tough-to-escape storm with Sanguin.  Exactly why this plan evoked such faith and confidence from the sisters-in-arms, however, remained unknown for the time being.

While Sanguin struggled to get to her feet, her teammate spewed some more wind wyrms out to get caught in the maelstrom and sent toward the Iron Enigma wizards, adding to their problems.

As Sanguin went down, Luna made sure she was well out of range of her sword, and the illusion would quickly fade. Raising her hand towards her opponent, Luna would cast another spell before she got up. [color=0000FF]"[i]Solar Flare![/i]"[/color] The bolt of fire shot from her hand towards her opponent, aiming for her sword arm, and hoping to disarm her as well as cause injury. Moving quickly to follow it up, Luna would attempt to press her foot to the other's chest and hold the tip of her sword to her lupine opponent's neck if she could. She could easily be thrown off-balance, however, by one of the wind wyrms flying towards her hitting her in the head or leg.

Mark cursed under his breath as his attacks were re-directed yet again, and they would dispell before doing anything, and he held his shirt down with one hand and relentless amounts of wind billowed past him, forcing him to brace against them. [color=FFDDD0]"God this wind is annoying."[/color] He'd murmur, crowching down onto one knee. [color=FFDDD0]"[i]Ice make: Floor![/i]"[/color] Ice began spreading across the ground, and covering everything unfortunate enough to be low on top of it. Mark was visibly drained by this, as the ice was a solid inch thick. Mark looked up to watch his two opponents, waiting for an attack to come from Evangeline as he covered her crystals with ice.


[b]Master Jamie[/b]

Jamie smiled at Amelia, and nodded, giving her order to the cashier, she looked back to Jane. [color=f26522]"Well, we're having ice cream if you would like some."[/color] She said, as Sam eagerly watched her ice cream being made, dipped into some liquid chocolate and sprinles, waiting for the cone to be handed to her. Jamie, anticipating a mess, retrieving a army of napkins. 

[b]Gabriel[/b]

Gabriel fell, not for the first time, onto his back, having once more tripped over his own feet. The stick he'd been using as a wooden sword had splintered and a sharp end had pierced his hand. He sat for a moment, dirt covered, sweaty and now bleeding. He examined his hand, grimacing, but there didn't appear to be anything in the wound. Figuring he had made more of a fool of himself then normal, and glad no one had been around to see, he walked back to camp, and was just changing shirts, his hand bandaged, when the guild marched into camp. 

He blinked, wondering what was going on. Weary, he listened to the situation, wishing he hadn't used so much energy on the flotation lacrimas at the event. He grabbed his pack, mainly for the water in it then anything else, and waited for the orders that would surely come. 

After a moment though, he summoned his bear cub, sending it off with a message for Michael, despite what had happened, he didn't want to leave his brother in the dark, with his disappearance. 

[b]Jessie[/b]

Jessie gave a laugh, [color=f6989d]"Or you'll get it"[/color] She said, before once more falling into her role,[color=f6989d] "Well, certainly these games will show us if the guilds can work together, rather then let the battles influence their relationships! There has been trouble among the guilds, but certainly Dragon Fang and Phoenix Wing have a good working relationship, with their masters being comrades. They appear to have wrked out their differences from yesterdays shocking battle, can the same happen with Frenzy Plants grudfe against Phoenix Wing for Damian's amazing wing against Hyun? Well, we shall see!" [/color]As the last battle started, [color=f6989d]"Well, this battle is certainly shaping up to be interesting, Tough love may just show us what they are made off!"[/color]

[@hatakekuro][@zarkun][@joshua tamashii][@roseletta][@lugubrious]