Maybe Grant was right and the Gods truly loved to test him when he had thought he was done with their trials. Or perhaps this was just a spree of bad luck that seemed never-ending. Regardless if it was both or neither, Wesley didn’t believe in such things. 

He knew Grant was one of those men that focused on the negative. Sulking in his own despair and what happens to him. While that was good for him, Wesley wasn’t such a man. There were times to feel sorry and times to stand up on your own two feet with your back straight, weapon in hand, and face your opposition. Any man who did that could get anything done. Wesley believed that and as the multiple Ren’s came at them, his resolve would shine much like his mist along his blade was doing.

[color=fff79a]“Don’t be like that. Perhaps you just need to look at things from a different perspective,”[/color] Wesley said, encouraging Grant. 

When Grant’s bullets flared, piercing through one of the Rens, Wesley gathered mist at the soles of his feet, propelling him upward. Though it was only temporary, it had provided him with enough leverage over them to twirl his body in the air, twisting and contorting to where he had shot off various rays of magick down at the Rens, though, they were only meant to be a distraction. While they focused on deflecting those, creating somewhat of a smokescreen in the process Wesley used that covering to sneak behind them, his sword raised high, shining with bright light. 

Whether or not they saw this wouldn’t matter, for as his blade came down in a single, vertical strike, an excess of his mist unleashed its wrath upon the Rens.
[hr]
Jaakuna had understood exactly what that meant. He was all too familiar with how halucinations worked and what they did to the psyche...well, probably not first hand, but his mother had suffered from them due to abuse of foreign substances that were all the range back then, but he certainly knew. They made you see things that weren’t actually there and made you do things that you wouldn’t normally do. For his mother, it was running around the house naked, claiming to be a bird, flying through the skies. Only thing it did was bring a great amount of discomfort for both Jaakuna and his brother. 

At least for Savayna, it was just seeing him as her enemy. Not ideal, but a lot better than being scarred by seeing your mother’s nude form running around every inch of where you were born.

He shook his head, regaining his focus on Savayna. She had a crazed look in her eyes. It was both one of blinded, misguided rage and a loneliness that he had known she had feared for so long. Whatever it was about this Zodiac Spear and why Shion would put such a powerful series of traps within it, he’d never understand, but one thing that Jaakuna knew was that time was on his side. All he had to do was survive the incoming onslaught that he knew was coming his way from Savayna’s enraged state. If he did that and allowed Nadeline the time to find the right spell and execute it like he knew only she could, this could end up being not so bad.

And in the time that he took to regain his focus, Jaakuna spawned his own tornado that met the one that Savayna had attempted to launch at them. It was a literal snap of his finger. As soon as his index, middle, and thumb fingers snapped, traces of red and orange mist had flowed from it in a very thin, almost invisible string of magick and then, in the blink of an eye, expanded into a veil that hovered over both Jaakuna and Nadeline. 

As soon as Savayna’s tornado had made contact, steam immediately covered the area due to the cancellation natures of fire and ice. The cold from Savayna’s element and the hot from Jaakuna’s made a sizzling sound, then came to a complete stop, both attacks fizzled after one minute passed of it being at a deadlock. 

[color=lightblue]“No! Noo!!”[/color] Savayna roared, charging at Jaakuna at full speed. 

She sent a flurry of erratic sword strikes at Jaakuna. Most of them were dodged. Jaakuna’s speed was inhuman. No matter how many times she went to thrust, strike, and stab, Jaakuna evaded them with little effort. At some point, they had been moving at such blinding speeds that, to outside observers, they were like two dashes of red and blue. 

As they came to a stop about twenty paces away from where Nadeline was, Savayna snarled at Jaakuna. [color=lightblue]“Stop running away!”[/color] Savayna roared, sending a wave of Blizzaga towards Jaakuna’s direction.

Smirking, Jaakuna held his hand out. It began to emit a fiery glow and a wave of fire met Savayna’s chilly blast. For a moment, it seemed like it was evenly matched. The two opposing elements once again created a cloud of steam, but then Jaakuna chuckled to himself. In that moment, he saw Savayna’s widened gaze as the fire consumed her attack and, at the last second, she rolled forward, ducking underneath the overwhelming hellfire. Jaakuna had surmised that she saw it would’ve killed her had she not done what she just did.

After one moment, he ceased the blast and Savayna rose from the heated smoke, her body twirling as her heel came for Jaakuna right cheek. He had seen it coming a mile away, so he simply raised his corresponding hand to block the kick. Furious, Savayna went on the melee offensive. Her legs and arms delivering kick and punch after kick and punch, to which were all blocked and evaded by Jaakuna.

All of his efforts made Savayna reach the point past her boiling point and something in her eyes flared. Her eyes went completely solid - or so it appeared as such. They were like literal crystals of ice and before Jaakuna had a chance to react, Savayna had his throat gripped by her hand, transferring absolute zero temperatures into his body and slowly, the fire that resisted the cold was fading. At some point, Jaakuna had felt all of his limbs going numb as if they were frozen and any access to his fire magick was severed. 

Even his voice was being slipped away. 

[color=lightblue]“If you will not leave me alone, I will force you to!”[/color] She yelled in his face.

Though he couldn’t move, use any magick/mist, or speak, Jaakuna, surprisingly, had all access to his senses, so her words didn’t fall on deaf ears. [color=ed1c24][i]I sure hope you're ready, Nadeline...[/i][/color]