~I know. I'll have to conduct my field study in the action. Difficult, but it's been done before. Think it's the Society trying to steal my glory!?~ There were no delusions that the arrow that had landed was a sign of peace. Despite the clear lack of a white flag, arrows were instruments of war, not good will. Whatever it was preluding meant to do no good. Well, to Corban anyway. He flitted his fingers from the earth, a purple gaseous haze trailing them as he siphoned them into a crystal vial. Once stored, the gas began to clump into small spheres, revolving about each other like suspended magnets. He pocketed the vial, and stood up at just about the time that the scribe had freed himself from the confines of the arrows innards. When he had come to be a full man again, Corban's watchful eyes could elucidate several things that experience made him look for as he introduced himself. [list] [*][u]Cards[/u]: A common tool among mages and wizards alike. Possibly preturnaturally sharp. Strong chance they are used as quick-glyphs or runes, and ranged weapons. [*][u]The book[/u]: Self explanatory. High likelihood they contain spells that the owner has not fully committed to memory. Less likely is the idea that it is simply a book of pages to write runes, circles, or glyphs on, much like the runic wizards of Baldur. Even less likely is that the pages are an ammunition of some sort. Paper slingers were rare but not unheard of. [*][u]Quill[/u]: Normally something to be overlooked, but a mage wielding no conventional weaponry usually wielded others. Possibly a wand of some sort. Could also be a pen with which to jot down circles and glyphs into the book, or both. [/list] As quickly as he had summed up his opponent had he broken free with his attack. How rude! He really wanted to know what he had won! One thing could be said, though. He was at least partially right about the book. The components of the beam were simple enough to divine on the fly, and this much space between them gave Corban lead time. Energy in one of its rawest forms; light, seemed the be the primary ingredient, though the body bore mass unequal to the energy placed in the beam. A hand outstretched to his side, palms splayed wide open as a column of earth the length of his body 'popped' up from out of the ground and filled the empty gap. A spark told the story of the transmutation as it was converted into a proper metallic polearm. The blade? A halo of light that stretched its dimensions into that of a great drill-shaped sigil far wider across than Corban's body. [Sublimate] [Repel] While physical constructs like swords or hands could pass through with no issue, magic and its subsidiaries would be all but dusted by the channeled abjurative disjunction, while more empiric physical forces of nature such as kinetic energy would be repelled and diffused into the surrounding atmosphere, residual forces metabolized to power an ever-stronger disjunction. With both hands he leveled the weapon, tip of the blade meeting the blast for only a split second before it misted prismatically into thousands of diamond shards and a wave of heat that cut around him in a wide '<' shaped arc as it passed through the turbine. Those diamond flecks no sooner would begin to swirl and dance about their new master like a caribbean-blue snowstorm. Slowly, they began to coalesce in his free hand as he placed the butt of his weapon to the earth with the other. "So. Are you from the Society? I'll have you know I'm authorized to be on this land."