Magi above the age of sixteen were pretty rare; most were contracted about the same age as Souta, in their early teens. He risked taking his eyes off the Wraith for a moment to scan the others; a couple of young ones, a few his age and older. But the one in front was an aberration, in his late teens to early twenties. Most Magi died or gave in before that age, which implied that he was either very powerful or just dumb enough not to understand his plight; perhaps both. Besides, that prissy hairdo did him no favours; the man was clearly just an overly muscled Chun-li crossplayer. Souta took a careful step backward, unsheathing his second sabre and making ready to move. The Wraith was his primary concern here, not some random perv- Before Souta could even finish insulting the Chun-li fan, the other Magi had gone and gotten himself killed... [i]Just an idiot then. Fair enough...[/i]

Taking the fool's demise as his cue, Souta took a step forward and took a breath to speak when he was cut off by the entrance of yet another Puer Magi. [i]For the love of God, this is taking the piss... How many morons are there in this city..?[/i] Dressed in deep edgy black and with a certain cockiness to his manner, this idiot was clearly going to die. Souta turned to the others as Mr Confidence stepped forward, oversized sword in hand. [b]'I give him odds of one in thirty. Any takers? I'll bet a bottle of brandy?'[/b] From the looks of them, he doubted any of the others would approve... But it wasn't as though he wanted to make friends here. If a bit of morbid humour convinced them to leave him alone, then perhaps Souta could nab his Cubes and leave this hive sooner than expected. Regardless of their response, he ignored the others and watched the idiot with vague curiosity. The attacks sent his way were easy enough to avoid; a little lean here, an elegant pirouette there and the blobs sailed past harmlessly. Unfortunately, it appeared his bet had been wrong, the idiot in black swaggering back toward them, the remains of the Wraith lying in a pool behi-[i]HOLY SHIT![/i] Souta didn't see the attack that took the black Magi's head, but damned if he didn't feel it, staggering back from the sheer shock.

He recovered his balance, switching back into a combat stance as the corpse hit the floor. [i]Fanfuckingtastic...[/i] he thought bitterly. Not only had the fool failed to properly finish the first Wraith, he had also set his own collapse up perfectly. Now the assembled Magi had not one, but two fresh Wraiths to fight and one had already proven its own resilience. None of the others had moved yet, prompting Souta to take the lead and dart forward. He gave the new Wraith a wide berth, using the piles of scrap to leap from peak to peak and get behind it, aiming for the wounded one. As he neared, he looked back over his shoulder to the other Magi. [b]'If you want these damn Cubes, back me up!',[/b] he roared, trying to galvanise them into action before they got themselves killed for gawping.