"Oh, now what?" Travis groaned as he felt the ground rumble beneath him.

From the earth arose a multitude of massive stone partitions, each forming an enclosure around each of the commencing duels. Travis was completely caught of unaware of how Thadeus's intention on he saw these battles to flow. It was almost as if Thadeus was treathing this engagement as some kind of tourney almost however vocally, the didn't want anyone to coordinate with their respective allies; a troubling factor Travis would have to take in to account. He was all alone now, by himself, against a more powerful adversary. If he was going to make it out of here, he had to make the most of his reserves in the best way possible.

However, planning would simply have to be done on the fly, now that Alya was on the move. Whatever calming aura she had projected before, now became something more sinister than Travis has anticipated. Already, Travis could feel the sense of negativity and waning from this hazy aura, gripping at him and sapping him of will. Out of instinct or reactive reflex, Travis took several steps back, hoping to put distance between himself and Ayla. It was clear now that Alya was going to be more difficult to manage, now that getting to close would compromise his effectiveness to stand against her.

Speaking of which, whether she took Travis' goading seriously or not, she quickly closed the distance and swung her staff down to his feet. The glowing runes upon the staff were evident enough to Travis that he quickly surmised that they served as an extension to Alya's dark influence. With a brief yelp, Travis quickly leaped backwards, already having the slight advantage of already moving away to prevent contact from her runic staff. Anticipating a follow up, Travis extended his hands forward and produced the holographic images of his newly created backdraft spell within each palm. With the a sliver of mana pushing into each rune, the spells instantly detonated, vomiting twin torrents of surging flame that lunged at his attacker. 

At such pointblank range, Travis would not think Alya would have have amble time to outrun or evade an artificial backdraft, but what damage his spell would cause was not of his concern. What was on his mind however was to keep to the building strategy in out playing his opponent. Just before casting the explosive runic spell, Travis was sure to leap backwards and allow the momentum of the detonations push him back into a more position where he could have plenty of room to make his next maneuver while he channeled more mana.