[IC] The Guild

[aviendha]

Grey continued to sing, but her song became distorted, and odd. No longer was the meter a familiar rhythm- now, it continuously changed, from fours to threes to sevens, from halves to wholes to sixteenths, altering and switching within several different tempos without hesitation. Disorienting to the listener, as there was no predictable beat whatsoever, it was the sort of esoteric music which only a musician could understand (or enjoy). A musician, and her shadows, that is. She paused every so often to take a breath, the only consistency in the song.

The first shadow flew in from above, then dissipated above Kaito, creating a shroud of darkness from above. It was not nearly enough to blind him, that would take hours to create, but it was enough to dim the area, as though a fog had set in. The two flanking Kaito, with identical motions from either side, rushed in, each reaching out with a dozen clawed arms, their forms shifting into grotesque and foreign shapes reminiscent of nightmares. They swiped with precision, with impressive speed and force, aiming at every joint they could see in Kaito's body.

The one in the rear, however, did not approach. It stopped, a few spans away from Kaito, poised and ready to fight. Unlike the others with their constantly changing bodies, this one seemed to be slowing, settling in on a preferred form. It had not decided yet, but it would soon enough.

The blood pooling in Grey's upturned palms had begun to drip down her arms, mingling with the sweat pervading her skin. It was not torrential, but it was enough that the audience could see that her hands were injured. Her robe clung to her skin along her upper arms and chest and back, where the sweat had soaked through the thick fabric. She kept singing to strengthen her beasts, tensing her muscles, her eyes locked shut. Her trust was in those shadows.

[SaintRice]

@Damiann47

---

Gareth turned back to the circle of flags as he listened to Silvia's response, an ever amused expression played across his face as he watched the fight. Despite his nonchalant countenance, he was quite invested in the actions that took place within the fight, it was impossible to tell who would be a truly good opponent without knowing the depth of their strength and skill. As the combat continued, Gareth looked back toward Silvia, smiling back at her grin playfully. His eyebrows rose as he heard about Silvia's capacity for magic and thoughtfully pursed his lips for a few moments. After a stretch of silence, Gareth replied with a fairly interested tone,
"I actually have a bit of a knack for magic myself. I've never tried seeing if other people could do what I do though, it's basically what separates me from the villager type."
Gareth quickly faced Silvia, his eyes filled with a sorts of childish excitement. "Here, watch my first punch."
With a slight exhale, Gareth punched forward with his right arm in a straightforward manner; however, with the punch's power only utilizing the muscles of his arm and without stance, it was fast, but nothing impressive.
Gareth glanced back towards Silvia playfully when suddenly, his eyes glowed with an extremely faint green illumination and he bared his teeth in a wolfish grin,
"This one with magic." He faced back forward followed by a slower exhale.
Strands of translucent green magic began to circle around his arm in a spiral before quickly merging into ribbons. The agglomeration of energy occurred in an instant before Gareth's fist shot forward. His action was invisible to the normal eye. A muffled shock wave shot out parallel to the trajectory of his fist as the compressed air around his fist quickly expanded back out like a spring. Gareth winced at the steam rising from his arm as he quickly shook his hand in a panicked fashion, as if trying to shake off the pain. With a proud smile, he looked back to Silvia as if saying 'how about that?'
"That's my magic, if you're interested in learning, I'd be interested in teaching since I don't know if other people can use it or not." Despite having revealed his only strength, Gareth seemed all too willing to reveal everything in a happy fashion. It was almost as if he did everything in his power to strengthen those around him so he'd be less likely to win.

[Bell]

Artura watched the fight with mild interest. Not that she strictly WASN'T interested. It was just that the fights were more for the other guild members. She knew rather well what they could all do. After all a display of ability was a required part of the process to join the guild. She knew all their strength, but they didn't quite know hers. Perhaps she might change that at the tournament... a surprise duel between the winner of the tournament, and herself. She didn't know yet, still something she was contemplating. Perhaps... perhaps not.

She sat up and looked to the side at Shandria, wanting to ask something of her, but once again was unsure if she should. Shandria seemed to be watching the fight... and she was about to ask her to go do something but she wondered if she might be ruining the tournament for her if she sent her off to be running an errand during it. She didn't know how long it would take after all. Finally she decided to ask anyways. Wouldn't hurt to give her the option.

"Shandria, I haven't seen my daughter about. Can you go find her for me? You don't have to if you'd rather watch the tournament, I can go do it instead. After all, no telling where she is or how long it will take to find her. She might have run off into town... or still be asleep. I can't really say for sure. Either way like I said, if you don't want to go, you don't have to. I'm mostly just wondering if you're that interested in the fight or if you wouldn't mind going to do something else for however long it ends up taking."

[Damiann47]

@SaintRice

---

Silvia gave a little applause after witnessing Gareth's display. "Pretty neat, maybe a bit sloppy, and looks like it hurts, but neat." Despite her words, it was pretty clear that she actually was impressed from her tone alone. She then laughed and with a smirk shook her head. "Its also pretty obvious you're not used to using your fists, you got the raw strength with those muscles of yours, but the follow through was clumsy, you'll lose a lot of power before you could even land the punch... well when not using magic I guess, that would probably give someone a new hole. I'm not kidding."

With a load groan Silvia flopped back onto her back, paying a little less attention to the fight in all honesty, especially since she sensed it was about to come to an end soon. After a few moments of silence she then spoke up, staring at the blue sky above. "Yeah, I'll do that if you're seriously offering some magical training. We can help each other, like I can teach you a thing a little bit about kicking and punching. You got your blades, but you gotta admit it'll be pretty damn helpful when your own two hands are deadly weapons in of themselves." She raised both hands to cradle the back of her head, her eyes closed as she was notably relaxed in spite of the excitement happening within the ring.

[Torack]

The darkness around Kaito Fen didn’t hinder his skills in anyway – even if it was pure darkness. Instead, he kept his eyes closed, as the dimness of the shadow along with the shadowy figures would confuse his eyes, and that damned music coming from Grey Skies would only further disorient him. Instead all of his attention was on the writhing forms of the two dragons in the center of his mind’s eye and the two flanking creatures that were now beginning to attack him.

Kaito Fen exploded into motion. On the balls of his feet, he danced around in a frantic, almost chaotic fashion, his swords swinging with such skill that it seemed they were everywhere at once as parried and tried to counter every single attack from the flanking beasts. He felt more than a few hits land on his exposed chest, felt the blood escaping his open wounds, but this only drove him to put everything he had into destroying these two massive beasts.

Suddenly, he rushed towards the creature on his left, swords whirling and keening in the air as he tried to get beyond its arms and into its misshapen body.

[aviendha]

The creature on the left jumped into the air, several spans above Kaito's head. The creature on the right followed suit, soaring above Kaito; both landed behind him, on top of each other, their forms combining into one massively misshapen beast. Now much slower, it moved not to swipe at Kaito himself, but to grab at his blades. Now with dozens of unpredictable arms, its huge form was nearly overwhelming.

Meanwhile, the stationary beast at the front had solidified into a singular shape. It had chosen to mimic Kaito, complete with the mask, the flowing hair, and the blades. Watching intently, the silhouette seemed to practice, reflecting Kaito's motions in due fashion. As he fought against the other beasts, it began to extrapolate, and think on its own. It used Kaito's style- what it had observed, to assume its own stance and movements, developing a strategy of its own. Once Grey was satisfied that it was prepared, the beast rested, and, mockingly, took off its mask, and began to polish it with nonexistent oils.

Grey's face twitched with concentration, as she suppressed a yawn. Her lack of sleep was catching up with her- she had woken at sunset, and she had now surpassed her usual waking hours by just a bit too long. The exhaustion was almost enough for her to lose her cool, but she just barely managed to maintain her calm.

[Torack]

Kaito Fen opened his eyes the moment the two creatures joined together, a mixture of emotions crossing his face within the mask going from shock to disgust then to wonder. When the arms reached out for him, he noted the slowness of the behemoth before him and dodged out of the way of a few before he realized they were going for his swords.

In the span of a few moments he closed his eyes and refocused the center of his mind’s eye replacing the two writhing dragons with a large magnificent sword. And Kaito Fen shifted his dance into another. Song of Ten Thousand Blades.

His swords became like fans around him as he moved through the slow and massive arms, swirling around them when through the shadow he saw… was that himself?

Kaito Fen suddenly threw a sword at what he hoped was the creature’s chest, hoping again well it would land and slow the creature even more. The moment he threw the sword, he ran at the false Kaito Fen unsheathing his last sword and began whirling it in time with the other and shifted it mid-run to make a sort of eight figure around him in case those massive arms reached for him.

[SaintRice]

Gareth looked down at Silvia while he maintained his sitting position, an amiable laugh coming from his chest at her response, "That's exactly what I like to hear. This could be quite the beneficial relationship, since for me," Gareth looked back towards the current fight still occurring that had nearly reached the apex of its intensity with Kaito's swordplay pulling out all its stops. "Well, let's just say, my skill with my blades barely exceeds my fists." Gareth chuckled with a wry smile as he shifted his balance and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassingly. He looked towards Artura noting that she was discussing something with the dragonkin beside her, and had an urge to greet the two of them like a puppy craving attention; however, he had found a cozy place beside Silvia and simply decided to bask in the morning sun instead.

Eventually, Gareth spoke up again, inquisitively looking back at the fighter beside him, "So Silvia, tell me a little about yourself, my understanding is mage training is generally not cheap and obviously, you wouldn't be here if you stayed on the beaten path. What got you to join the Guild?" He asked in a genuinely interested tone.

[aviendha]

At the moment when Kaito threw his sword, and unsheathed his last, the monstrosity of dozens of arms caught the sword in one of its bulges, slowing it further. At the same time, it reached out to grab his legs, as his arms were preoccupied. They held on to his legs with an immensely tight grip, which would have forced any normal man to stand in the same spot. This elf, though, would probably only be slightly slowed, his stance now hindered by a dozen or so arms. The creature spat out the sword from its bulge, letting it land outside of the circle.

The shadow version of Kaito maintained his two swords, mirroring the skill and mannerisms of the real thing. It engaged with Kaito, finally, jumping and twirling around with relative ease, the dexterity of a thing without any real weight. As though made of water, it fluidly shifted its shape through the dances it had learned from its observation of Kaito; unlike the joints of a human being or natural animal, it just flowed through the motions.

It was not she who had learned Kaito's style. She had allowed the creature to learn, through observation- it would only last until the end of the fight, or the end of the hour, whichever came first, then the creature would dissipate back into the darkness, the knowledge forgotten.

Satisfied with the abilities of her creation, Grey stopped her song. She opened her eyes, and lowered her arms, and watched the fight. Indeed, she even sat on the ground, crossing her legs beneath her. Her eyelids were low, and a long, extended yawn betrayed her exhaustion. It was clearly taking all of her energy to stay awake.

[Torack]

The moment the arms grasped his legs, Kaito cut them on his left leg, pivoted on his right and turned, cut the rest of the arms, pivoted once more as he turned again all in one fluid motion followed by a savage upward thrust at the just-now engaging Shadow Kaito to parry an attack, then he swung his other sword in a sideways arch to open up his opponent’s midsection for a savage kick which he hoped would cause it to double over so he could roll over its back in order to get away from the massive behemoth behind him and focus all his will into fighting himself.

[aviendha]

As Kaito focused on the arms, the shadow took that opportunity to slice into his side. The blade sank into his skin, just above his hip, and the shadow seemed to relish in that moment. It then twisted the sword, deepening the cut, before withdrawing the sword, and raising it to defend from an attack by Kaito. It swung downwards with the other sword towards Kaito's exposed leg, only to shift the trajectory mid swing to defend from another attack. Engaging with each blow with speed equivalent to Kaito's own, it did not attack, except in feints- it merely defended, prolonging the fight.

The tired Grey let out a tenuous yawn, and laid down on the ground. Staring at the fighters, she admired her handiwork. She sang a few words quietly, barely audible, though this time recognizable in the common tongue, too tired to speak with the shadows' language-

"Pillow, please. Also a knife."

The shadows obliged, tenderly placing a pillow underneath her head. Grey shut her eyes, grasping the now ethereal knife in her hand, waiting for enough time to pass that it could solidify. She did not sleep, merely laid there- falling unconscious would unravel her constructs.

[Damiann47]

@SaintRice

---

Silvia's head lolled over to face Gareth, one of her eyebrows raised. "That's impressively perceptive of you, no I can't say the path of a mage is a cheap one to pursue. Well... if you know that then you can probably guess what sort of life I once lead." However she then sighed, and returned to her cloud watching though closed eyes, although she was still grinning all the while. "Sadly that's a story for another time, look at you Garath, trying to get a girl to share her past just like that." She playfully chided the man.

She raised her head ever so slightly to glance downwards at the duel. "By the way, those two know this is a friendly contest, right? Well... I guess Grey actually decided to take a nap, but still they really are going for it, huh? If I were our Master I would've declared a winner by now honestly, after all we got a day's worth of sparring to do." She looked up a the Berserker as if expecting him to agree with her, personally she was starting to itch for a fight of her own at this point.

[SaintRice]

@Damiann47

---

Gareth chuckled at Silvia's rhetorical inquisition, simply shrugging off the rejection to her past without pressing further. His wistful countenance aligning with the twirls of his wrist as he worked out the strain in his arm. His smile turned playful as he looked towards the sky, "I think they should be able to fight until the last straw, I think I would feel unsatisfied if a fight was prematurely decided even if it was my win. As for Artura, I think there's a reason she's our Master, my initial impression of her is that of a shrewdness that I lack." There was a moment of pause as Gareth reviewed the conversation in his mind, followed by a sudden amused laugh as he faced the fighter looking up at him, "I am also extremely excited to stretch out my muscles a little bit too."

Leaning forward so that his elbows rested on his knees, Gareth watched the fight with his chin resting on his forearms, his eyes focusing on what he could learn, specifically, Kaito's swordplay. Eventually, he spoke without turning his head towards Silvia, "If Kaito teaches me swordplay, and you teach me unarmed combat, wouldn't I just be too powerful?" The question was posed more as a joke but it almost seemed as if Gareth was genuinely worrying about it.

[Torack]

The cut, although not that deep, bothered Kaito and along with the pressure from his Shadow double, his concentration threatened to shatter. But he couldn’t let it; he took this risk to put on a grand show, a few more scars on his upper body would be a fair price to pay for an exhibition like no other. And that thought pushed him harder, pushed him to ignore the pain welling from all the cuts and scratches on his body, and to ignore the blood streaming down his exposed half like rivulets.

And so he danced with his mirror image, matching stroke for stroke, feint for feint. Although, he had to admit he noticed Shadow Kaito slowly gaining the upper hand the longer they fought, and if he continued with the same dance, he knew it’d be the end. Of course there existed the slight fear of how far Shadow Kaito was willing to take this fight – a thought that ran through his mind as he dodged and countered. Then, suddenly, he shifted into the Wrath of The Twin Dragons, all thoughts focused solely on pushing his counterpart and putting him on the defensive. He feinted, stepped back and continued the duel, turning round in large circles as the two of them danced.

At the far end of the circle, just before he was about to complete a savage set of swings, he noticed Grey Skies laying down as though asleep. His eyes widened in momentary shock mixed with anger and humiliation.

Enraged – and in one complete maneuver – he savagely parried a couple of attacks from Shadow Kaito, turned, sheathed his weapons, and walked out of the ring to collect his fallen swords barely recognizing that his wounds had suddenly somehow disappeared.

[aviendha]

The Shadow Kaito lowered his swords, and walked forward to the edge of the circle. Staring after its opponent, it dropped its swords, and disappeared, letting out a sigh like hissing steam. Grey had been observing through the shadows, watching through the eyes of her creatures. At the sudden change, Grey sat up, and her pillow and knives disappeared. Frowning, she watched as Kaito stalked out of the ring. After a moment of confusion, she pushed herself to her knees. With difficulty, she tried to stand up. An extended yawn escaped from her lips, her eyes fluttered, and she collapsed to the ground.

The energy it had taken to maintain the Shadow Kaito- to even create it and the other creatures in the first place- was more than the girl could actually manage. That, coupled with her intense exhaustion, and the blood loss incurred from her rope-like burns on her hands, caused her loss of consciousness. She crumpled, hitting the floor with a sickening crunch. Her hood fell over to cover her face.

The other creature, the dilapidated and monstrous figure, gradually shrank to the size of a kitten, hanging on to its form just long enough to crawl over to Grey, and curl up beside her. It dissipated into the air, like its fellow.

[Damiann47]

@SaintRice

---

Silva let out a sarcastic laugh. "Yeah, I'll be so scared if you were vaguely able to throw a punch and know which end is the sharp bit on a sword." She good naturally scoffed and sighed, staring up at the heavens like always. "Besides I don't think Kaito's style would fit you, he's all about fancy fast movements and spectacle. I don't think that describes a bit ol' brute like yourself, eh?" She playfully gave him a light kick from where the laid. "Hope you don't mind being called a brute, Gareth."

After that she fell silent for a while longer, it seemed that Gray had finally passed out. Silvia wasn't too surprised that Kaito won, and in a small way was somewhat glad that the duel had finally ended. Still seeing as their Master hadn't declared the next match up yet she was more than content to stay put. As if she didn't see the match end, she turned to the other man. "Say, Gareth? What sort of jobs are you looking forward to doing? You out to help the little people, or do you want to claim glory for yourself?" She posed the question to the berserker.

[Shandria]

Shandria pulled herself up and looked around, scouting the area as if she was just going to up and spot the Guild Master's daughter while she herself could not. The eyes of a dragon were good... but the eyes of Artura were good too. She pulled herself up and stretched with a yawn. The fight watching was fun but, now that the first fight was over the Dragonkin wasn't as interested. The second fight hadn't started, and so she had time... though she was sure the next two would start fighting the moment she was out of eyesight. She tapped her fingers on her thighs, wondering where to look first. She'd have to check the guild... if the girl wasn't off somewhere else entirely.

She walked off, waving her hand with only a short "Yeah yeah I'll sniff her out." With that, she was off. She started checking the oddest of places. Every broom closet, every crawlspace. You never know... She worked from the most unlikely places to the most likely, until finally she was opening the doors and peeking into bedrooms to see if she was in one of the guest beds perhaps. In a matter of about ten minutes she had every single room checked except for the girl's own bedroom. Or was it the Guild Master's room? She didn't know, but it was time to find out! She turned the knob and peeked in, eyes adjusting to the dark as necessary and peeking around.

If the girl wasn't in here... then she wasn't in the guild at all. And if the girl was in the room, Shandria would sneak in ever so quietly with the stealth of a dragon... just, not a dragon... and come up to the bed only to pounce onto it with a bounce and a quick "It's time to rise and shine as the humans say!" (Unless she had been found somewhere prior to checking the bedroom. Just assuming a usual -still asleep- deal.)

[SaintRice]

@Damiann47@Bell

---

Gareth could only smile bitterly at being called a brute, but he couldn't say the name was undeserved. He watched the fight, sympathizing with Kaito as he stormed out of the arena to retrieve his blades. Although in his eyes, Kaito had lost the match since he had left the marked arena, he wasn't entirely convinced of whom the victor in a real fight would be, thus his features formed a slight, dissatisfied pout.

Gareth stood up with a sigh, patting off his trousers, "I take whatever I can get." He answered Silvia with a wink over his shoulder. "Now, let's see if we can't help tuck the shadow girl into bed, she's fought hard and I believe it to be well past her bedtime. Who knows, we might even free up the space for a bout of our own." Gareth proposed as he walked towards the flagged arena. While moving towards the circle, he waved at Artura with an attentive greeting, "Good morning, Guild Master. Could Silvia and I possibly make a bid for the next fight?" His amiable smile turned into a wolfish grin at the thought of imminent fighting, Gareth's canines bared.

[Damiann47]

@SaintRice@Bell

---

Silvia grinned with clear enthusiasm and in one movement quickly jumped onto her feet, literally so. She accompanied Gareth as they approached their Guild Master, she was feeling pumped about the prospect of a good fight. From her conversation with the man she was convinced it'll be a great duel, and while perhaps she felt a tad mismatched with the berserker, she definitely wasn't going to let these tiny, nagging feelings get in her way. When they were in talking distance with Artura she gave her own friendly wave. Then after her soon-to-be sparring partner suggested they take the next fight, she imminently nodded to show both her agreement and approval. "Yeah pretty much, I'm damn excited to take on Gareth in the ring." Her smirk alone was enough to convey the genuine feelings of her words.

[Bell]

Artura bounced her leg crossed over the other, fingers tapping together as she watched the fight. Not the best outcome, she would have preferred if both sides were taking it more seriously. Kaito seemed more insulted than honored by the outcome. Maybe she would step in personally to give him a better fight than someone who was already ready to fall asleep. Either way, as the two approached she looked down at them with a shrug. "I don't see why not. The most likely to win are the enthusiastic, even if not entirely assured. Nothing more enthusiastic than approaching and asking to be next."

She stood up and called out to all who were watching. Not even the onlookers knew what to make of the outcome of the first round. "Next will be Gareth versus Silvia." Looking back to the two she added "Take it seriously, that last fight was just a little disappointing. It's hard to bond with someone when you insult them in combat.

With Shandria off to find her daughter, Artura sat back down, one leg over the other and tapped her fingers on the armrest. A few members of the guild who were on healing duty came forward to lift Grey up and remove her from the ring. The moment she passed the flags any wounds would be healed, and more importantly she would have just as much energy as she had when she entered, maybe giving her just enough energy to wake up and go find a real bed somewhere.