Cottonmouth

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Stockton's manalysis was able to track Raiya through her blink, locating her behind him. He quickly spun around and analyzed the oncoming threat. Rutger used his two hands to block her punch and grab her arm to lock her in place, but it wasn't at no cost. His barriers were completely shredded from contact with her fist, as well as receiving quite a bit of pain from the shock-wave. He was rattled, but quickly able to shrug it off. "I-if you planned on getting this close, you should have hit me harder, hard enough to finish this. But don't worry, I have no problem with drawing out your punishment as well."

"Frantumare." Stockton said, casting his own kinetic shock-wave spell through his arms and into Raiya's body. Frantumare was a spell used primarily for torture. It couldn't kill or cause someone to pass out, only create an immense amount of pain in one burst.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Father Stockton's eyes raced as he thought of a solution to Raiya's attack as fast as possible. Judging by the way it changed direction there were probably no easy ways to dodge, leaving only one option left. "Ghiaccio alito!" (Ice Breath) He shouted before extending his hand out. A glowing blue rune appeared in the air that spewed fourth a immense gust of snowy tundra wind. It collided with the fire serpent, creating a massive amount of steam as the two opposite elements cancelled themselves out. Only once he was sure that the attack was entirely nullified did he stop the spell and let the steam dissipate.

With a smirk, Stockton generated another manaegis hammer, this one much more proportional than the last, and propped it up on his shoulder. "Face it Mamushi, you're spells are no match for mine. My mana pool is much larger than yours, my experience is much greater than yours, and my spell library is much more numerous than yours. For every spell a low rate magi like yourself might think to cast, I already know three different answers to. Your only advantage on me is that you could win a physical battle, but I have no intention in engaging in such a barbaric mud-roll with you." Stockton explained, his usual deadpan voice showing a hint of self satisfied hubris now. "Your only hope would be to stop me from casting altogether, and your only way of doing that is currently preoccupied." He finished, referencing Nemo's anti-magic capabilities.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Rutger charged a barrier to block Raiya's twin attacks. Despite the mana-shredding capabilities, they weren't able to fully break through Rutger's advanced defense spell. However, possibly due to his aging eyes he missed the third attack. Just before it hit him, he seemed to sense it coming and tried to move out of the way. He was too late however, and the bolt pierced his latent barrier and gored his flesh. Even while trying to dodge, he suffered a moderate slash to his side.

Angered, Rutger telepathically slid his massive hammer towards Raiya to try to sideline her, afterwards at the end of the swing he let go, causing it to spin wildly towards Zuri and Travis like a extremely heavy frisbee. Once it would crash to the ground the hammer would dissipate

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Rutger used his blink to get out of the way of her blade's slash, emitting a high pitched ping noise when he activated it again. It was then while he waited for another strike he sensed something from behind. "Parlor tricks!" He yelled, looking behind himself at the last second to see Raiya's sneak attack. He didn't have the time to generate a proper shield like before, only emitting small barrier close to his skin to keep himself from being punctured as a last ditch defense.

Rutger grunted from the blow and was pushed airborne. While he wasn't cut by the strike, it did tatter through his robes a bit and bruise his side. Before landing back on the ground he shot out three lightning fast explosive blasts, one for each of the teammates.

As soon as he landed however, Rutger raised his arms up, generating a gigantic war hammer made out of pure purple mana and slammed it down on the ground towards Raiya with enough power to easily uproot the stone floor quite a bit. The creation was far too big to be used regularly, but with the use of telekinesis he was able to wield it. From the looks of it, this seemed to be a modified use of Felix's own manaegis technique.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Despite Raiya's amazing speed, Rutger was still able to track her quite efficiently. He made no attempt to dodge, instead uttering the phrase "Grande scudo!" Afterwards it projected a giant runic manashield to block Raiya's multiple blades. Despite the immense force it was taking on, his shield barely even began to crack. Unlike his partner, Rutger was a man of little physical capabilities. All of his skills were dedicated to the magical arts and advancement of his mind.

Rutger scoffed. "Blue, green, yellow, it doesn't matter what color you turn, you're a fool if you think you can best me all by yourself." He commented before adding another enchantment. "Veloce!" Rutger shouted, his drab purple mana-shield suddenly fading into a bright yellow. The shield suddenly grew so bright that it exploded with a potent flash, easily strong enough to temporarily blind someone's eyesight.

Rutger used this chance to teleport to Raiya's side and attempt to blast her below the ribs with a magically enhanced concussive blow. When Rutger used his teleport, a ping like noise could be heard.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

Rutger's deadpan face cracked a smirk after Raiya's outburst. "They should of never exiled you, they should of put you to death while they could... If you oppose us, you oppose God himself. That's why today it will be His will to crush all of you to dust, through me." Rutger replied, extending both his arms towards the group. "Consider this your belated execution!" He added before firing off a navy colored ball of energy towards the trio. It quickly expanded, doing more and more shock damage to the pillars it passed by as it sailed. By the time it reached the group it was bigger than an oncoming truck, brightly lighting up the dim room with it's glow and ready to explode on the first physical thing it touched.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

"If I knew everything there was to know about you, you'd probably be more interested in talking with me, wouldn't you?" Rutger replied, referencing her parent's death. "But yes, I remember you, little renegade Raiya Mamushi, always scuttering around and causing havok. To this day I still wonder why Felix put up with a worthless thing like you. Some said you were a prodigy, but the truth is you're just wasted potential. But Felix saw that eventually, didn't he? ...Let me guess, it wasn't really Felix's choice for you two to join forces again was it?" Rutger asked.

With his hands resting behind his back it was impossible to see that he had already charged a spell in advance. "And was Felix really wrong to give up on you? Look at what you've become, you haven't been training for this, you've been holed up in that penthouse getting wasted with the rest of the riff raff. The last thing I'm gonna do is give up to a degenerate punk like you." Rutger finished.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

After Travis and Zuri reached the other side of the obstacle, the trio would continue down the hallway. It went on for a while, thankfully this time without any more tricks. However eventually they'd meet the sight of arrows stuck into each side of the wall in patches. Clearly the byproduct of a trap already sprung by someone else.

Once the hallway ended, it widened into a much larger room, one with multiple pillars on each side leading to a giant sealed runic door. Unfortunately, they weren't the first to get there. In front of the door stood Father Rutger Stockton, the older more experienced half of the duo sent to combat the group. At least this meant he hadn't gotten his hands on the paragon yet either.

Rutger wasn't looking at the group, he instead eyed down the door with his back turned to them. Periodically glancing at an old looking tome he was holding open with one hand. Hopes that he hadn't noticed them yet were dispelled when they reached the entrance of the room. Rutger perked his head away from his book, closing it afterwards. "Mind giving me a hand with this?" He called out with his dry, eerily calm voice. While he didn't say it sarcastically, or jokingly, one would suspect he didn't really consider garnering their assistance.

Rutger then dispelled his tomb with a slight sigh and slowly turned around to face the trio. He rested his empty hands behind his back and waited.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The spiral stone staircase went down for ages, to the point where someone might begin to question if they've been caught it some sort of elaborate illusory trap, looping them around endlessly. But eventually something would change in their surroundings. After going down far enough the trickles of running water could be heard. Maybe it was connected to the running moat around the temple's area?

After reaching the end of the spiral staircase, it opened up to a long and wide hallway, this one less inviting and perilous than the treasure filled rooms from before. After a few yards the floor of the hallway dropped off entirely. Far below, roughly fifty feet, was a running pool of water that would lead a ominous place unknown. The drop spanned roughly forty five feet across, and the only way across was multiple pillars that jutted out from the water into small stepping stones only a little bit bigger than the average foot. They were spaced out randomly at a distance one would have to hop slightly to get to the next foothold.

Paragon's End [Modern/Fantasy/Anime/Adventure]

The smell in the air were rather dull, sterile in fact. Nothing smelled musty or old, as if the interior was perfectly maintained. There was no coating of dust covering any of the treasure. As for the routes, the same metallic smell of gold and silver seemed to flow from all of the paths except for the stairwell down. Smells of fresh water seemed to draft up from the depths. It's possible the other routes only led to more of a livable fortune laden castle.

Upon closer inspection of the spiral staircase, it seemed that there were crumbles of stone all around it, as well as coating the steps themselves. It was the same stone as the floor was made out of. It looked as if the entire staircase had been hidden under the floor before, but was freshly uprooted by something. The dust of the rock being smashed was still lingering in the air.