[h1]Nidhogg[/h1]

"Hmph, you sound like you'd fit right in with our group of misfits, anarchists, and adrenaline junkies. Our guild's all about having a good time and all . . . and I must say, quite the bold statement there, makes one wonder if you have the strength to back up that claim." Nidhogg spoke with a slightly skeptical tone, but before he could continue, one of the matches had started. It was a pretty entertaining bout, and one that quickly turned around near the end, which brought it to a somewhat surprising conclusion. [i]Hmm . .. the boy clearly intended to kill that woman in those final seconds until he suffered a blow to the head, than he looked as if he had no idea what was going on. How interesting, I might have to keep an eye out for him, see if he reaches a level of darkness I can truly enjoy.[/i]

Before he could think to deeply on the matter, a particularly delectable scent wafted past him, the pungent odor of murder and sadism so thick he could taste it on his tongue. He savored the scent, closing his eyes and taking it in with a slight shudder working it's way through his body His stomach, which he had just filled not to long ago, rumbled with gluttonous need of the stained flesh of the sinner who had such a delectable aroma, who soon appeared before him in an admittedly comical fashion. All of his guildmates would now that this was obviously someone here to kill him, because Nidhogg didn't make fans, he made enemies and lunch, usually at the same time. And while normally he'd never fall for such an obvious ploy, he sensed something in this woman, a sense of darkness that he could relate to in some fashion. Besides that, it'd been a while since such a tempting meal had presented itself to him, and he wasn't about to let it get away. So he decided to play a part he hadn't played in a long while, if for no other reason then because he was getting a little bored and a little pretend always helped him to enjoy his meals.

His eyes gazed up and down her form with a barely restrained need as a sly grin grew across his face, years of practice schooling hiding the look of primal hunger under one of barely restrained lust. In truth, the two weren't that different and it was one of the easiest emotions to fake for him. 

"Well, anything to help out a fan, though I must warn you though, my skills as a mage don't translate to my handwriting, so please forgive me if i doesn't look to polished." Nidhogg rose from his seat with a predatory grace, turning around to the group to give them all a small wave and a smile, before turning to follow the green haired dairy cow towards whatever dark corner she planned to kill him in. As soon as they were out of earshot, he spoke to her in a low voice, still keeping the same tone of anticipation as before. "So, before we go see the little tyke, could we possible stop by someplace where we can have a little uninterrupted talk. I'm sure we can have plenty of fun together before we meet up with her, unless you left her all by her lonesome."

[@Oblivion666]

[h1][color=DarkRed]Argus Leandros[/color][/h1]

Argus didn't appear to react at all to Marlene's spell, causing his feet to be somewhat incased in the crystal themselves and sticking him in place. Not only hat, but with him seemingly defenseless as he currently was, it didn't seem like he'd be able to block properly. His head was hung low over his eyes, and it was almost as if he'd given up. However, as Marlene's blade seem to be ready to slice through him, he suddenly raised his arm up to intercept the slash. The crystalline construct would cut deeply into his flesh and muscle with a sickening squelch, but remarkably didn't cut all the way through. Argus had decided that he wanted to get a hit on Marlene now, rather than continue this game of cat and mouse, but he knew that she was pretty quick on her feet and her crystal was stronger than he gave it credit for. So, if he wanted to gain the advantage, he'd have do something unexpected to throw her off. So, in preparation for his next attack, he'd been focusing a crazy amount of his magical energy into the ground using Crimson God's Blessing, having changed it's property to fire for max spread, as well as increasing the durability and density in his arm seconds before Marlene struck. By the time he'd intercepted the attack, the outer edge had spread to a range of 14 meters, so it'd make escaping hat happened next rather difficult, to say the least. 

Attempting to take advantage of the shock she should've felt from the tactic, Argus instantly struck out with his free hand, attempting to grab Marlene by her wrist in an iron grip(also increased by his magic) as he activated his spell with a menacing whisper, blood red crimson eyes staring into intense emerald green with all the ferocity of a wild fire.

"Crimson God's Advanced Art: Hell's Retribution."

And then, the world would explode into black and crimson flames as a veritable geyser of intense fire shot up around them, spreading out rapidly to match the spread of the flames underground, but also weakening as they did so due to their being less concentration in the outer edges. The flames would rage past Argus, leaving him relatively unharmed compared to what Marlene is likely to go through. Due to the lack of proper charge time, Argus had to push his own emotions into the attack to get it to this level of intensity, as the flames climbed to a staggering height, visible from nearly all over Crocus for a second or two, before suddenly disappearing in the next as the column imploded on itself, compressing all of the energy into 5 meter dome of swirling inferno that caused the earth to shake and shatter again with the force of impact, before blasting outwards with another, much stronger shockwave that would definitely be felt by everyone nearby, sending up a great big gust of hot wind to smash into the nearby tree line.

Argus would be left standing in a rather obliterated looking crater, black and crimson flames still raging all around him as he took in large gasping breaths, the fatigue of the attack hitting him hard, as well as the backlash from his physical enhancements. His hands would clench on reflex as a great amount of pain would bombard his nervous system, the veins in his arms glowing with a sickly  red and black energy as they burned their way through. The attack had definitely been a powerful one, and he'd taken a big risk to attempt landing it. Both of his arms would be unusable for a bit longer, and he was to tired to actually move, so if that didn't hit or didn't give her a similar level of damage . .  he was screwed. He did have one back-up plan, though, which would only work if he had gained physical contact with his last attempt to grapple her. If he was still holding on to her likely injured form, he'd let go and back away slowly, taking a moment to look at his injured arm through squinted eyes(the blade would've definitely been destroyed in that final attack). Due to the enhancement he'd given the limb, it wasn't bleeding out as much as it should have and the bone that had been cut was set into place, but it was still a pretty bad wound. Not the worst he'd ever gotten, of course, but still pretty bad. His brain was now pretty addled as the pain became so great that he was turning numb, his body trying to protect him from the messages from his arms as it tried to keep everything in order, and thus, Argus was feeling a little loopy. As such, as he looked at his injured, near useless arm, he couldn't help but notice that his sleeve was missing. Following the appendage, he'd find that his clothes had been completely incinerated in the attack, leaving his scarred body completely bare for all to see. He found it kind of funny, as i was like he was getting his own just desserts for what got him into this mess, but his amusement probably wouldn't last long, as he wasn't the only one within range of that final attack, and even if some of those people didn't take damage, the likelihood that they'd be feeling a slight but chillier than before would be very high. Argus was probably not long for this world at the moment, and definitely in some deep shit. In a sense, it was probably a good thing that he was about to two or three seconds away from fainting, as it'd save him from feeling the pain of the ass-kicking he was probably about to get. Unfortunately, he'd be unable to get a final appreciation of his actions either.

[@Lmpkio]

[@Lugubrious]