Mystic

"Go, Kendric, go!" Zauriel cheered, fists in air as he watched his childhood acquaintance battle the golems. Like everyone else, though, Zauriel failed to notice Kendric step out of bounds. "Oh...oh, no," he frowned, his eyes turning a dark purple as his hair shortened to ear length.
He watched with a curious and apologetic look as Kendric stepped back into the crowd, hair now short and red. He flashed his friend a smile of encouragement before watching the next two students take the stage. "Uh oh!" He exclaimed, turning to the red-head near him, "By my calculations...we're next!"

 

His eyes were locked on his opponent, only taking glances at his partner when there was no risk. Dodging the attacks wouldn't be too hard, his body was practically built for it, but he wasn't sure with Damion.

Recalling the strategy of the previous team, he yelled to his partner, "We take them out! Between the neck and chest, a disguised gem that's their power source! But..." He watched the hulking mass walk towards him, arms ready to smash him in to the ground. "I doubt we've got a dragon to help us with that." His mind raced, speeding through idea after idea, tossing out ones that wouldn't work for sure and working with ones that perhaps might have a chance. "Alright, Damion! Try and see if you can find and break that gem with your guns! Shouldn't be TOO big of an area to shoot at, huh?" He honestly didn't think that it'd be easy as that. Added with the fact that it was disguised and quite small, it seemed like a practically impossible shot, but it was worth a try.

Dodging another overhead smash, he jumped back, eyeing behind him now and then to maintain a comfortable distance from the ring while making sure that he had a tight grip on the cube. "If you can't find a gun that can crack the thing, well, I don't think a magic-fueled kick will do much. I'm better for distractions and running in this!"

 

A small opening between the chin and neck, if only there was an easier way to get them to lift their head up so that he would have a clean shot. But seeing as how nothing came to mind, Damion just changed the Desert Eagle in his hand into a sniper rifle and started to formulate a plan.

The odds of him taking out both of them in one shot was extremely low so there was no point in him even attempting to do that, but what he could do was trick the golem into revealing its very own weakness. The one problem was that if this failed, then he could end up hurt if not worse. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained so Damion ran towards the golem as it prepared to attack him.

As he did this, the golem again raised its fist again to attack. While the speed of its attack was sightly faster than last time, Damion was still able to dodge it. Then while the golems head was closer to the ground, he made his way right under where the weakness was, aimed the sniper rifle towards the gem and pulled the trigger. The bullet that flew from the barrel had enough force behind it to shatter the gem upon impact. With the power source destroyed, the golem began to shake as it was defeat, prompting Damion to move out from under it before he'd got crushed.

 

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Throughout the entire two fights before her, Sasha stood along the sides, nervously biting at her nails. With the way how the other four did before her, it only made her feel more nervous. This wasn't some simple duel which she though it was gonna be. I...I can't do this! How can I face such adversary? Even if I did have some sort of magical strength, how would it benefit me? There's no place for my magic to even have a presence! She jumped a little, hearing the sound of her partner's voice. She gave him a nervous smile and nodded. "Y-yes..I guess we are next." She shouldn't discourage her partner by acting unnerved. Right. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for her turn on the arena floor with Zauriel.

Just before she got to the arena, Sasha perked up after hearing Kendric's words. "The...floor?" She looked around and saw the cracks on the floor as he said. Even then, they were quite small and she wasn't powerful enough to do something significant...could she? No...she had to at least try. She nodded, grabbing the wooden cube. "Arlight then. Zauriel right? I'll hold onto the cube. I'll let you do most of the heavy lifting." If anything, she had to at least hold onto their objective and hopefully help out Zauriel if things got hairy.

 

Zauriel couldn't help but frown at Sasha. "Oh...okay, that works," he said, slightly defeated. Truth be told, Zauriel had wanted the box! It was so mysterious with its edges and corners. The young shapeshifter wondered what was inside and how it would feel to be inside of it! It looked so cozy. WHAT WAS IN THE BOX, DAMN IT? WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!

Shaking off his box fascination (although not entirely), Zauriel focused on the golems as he stepped into the arena. His hair faded to its normal neck length and greenish hue. The horns were no longer hiding, growing in width and length as they curved to point behind him. Sharp ears pointed in the same direction. Beneath him, the clang clang of his steel boots echoed against the stone floor. Without thinking, Zauriel raised a hand to his chest, tracing the symbols etched in green. Small eyes focused on the two golems in front of them as Zauriel stepped in front of Sasha. 'Hm, what form would be best here?' He wondered as Kendric's words rang in his head (it helped having animal-like senses sometimes). If the golems had a tough-to-get-to weak spot, then Zauriel should focus on pow-

"Hey now!" He crouched in a green flash as a golem's arms soared over his head. "What speed!" He didn't even see the golem approach; it had been that quick! There was a click as his knees reversed and Zauriel pounced to the side, nails becoming claws as the golem brought down its arm like a hammer, shattering where Zauriel had been standing. In one fluid motion, Zauriel grabbed on to its arm mid-pounce and swung around behind the golem. Without commanding it, Zauriel felt his horns grow even more and harden. "Ah!!" He screamed as he lunged forward, striking the golem's lower back with his horns...but bouncing away. The young mage stumbled backwards, a bit dazed as the golem turned and threw its fist at him.

"Well, okay. Headbutts are out of the questi-" He was hit mid-word (HOW RUDE OF THE GOLEM?!) and flew backwards, smashing into the other golem as it moved towards Sasha, brushing Zauriel away as if there was no impact. "Ow...ow...ow," he groaned, moving to his knees. His skin was now a dark gray, turning right before the punch. Rhino hide was useful when it came to defense, but the golem's punch still almost took him out. "Sasha!" yelled the student, seeing both golems turn this attention to her. "Do not let them get in the box! That's my right!!" He demanded. Serious now, Zauriel crouched to all fours and raced foward, bones shifting to a feline structure for speed. As he ran, he could feel a pain in his spine.

 

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Sasha nervously stood there, watching Zauriel do his fancy movements all around the golems. It was both very odd...and strangely fascinating how he kept morphing and changing in different forms, adapting to the situation at hand. A bit too much actually. She then realized the situation at hand, watching Zauriel getting beaten left to right by the golems. "Zauriel! Are you alright?!" Thankfully, it didn't look like he was hurt too bad for him due to his abilities, though it couldn't be said the same for her. She would've ran and checked on him (sadly, a big pet peeve to check on that stuff), but she was in no position to do so.

Realizing that both golems lost their focus on him and started to make their way towards her, she clutched her grip on the box harder. She then was reminded about the dirt. She looked down and then too a deep breath. Alright...here goes nothing! She closed her eyes and stretched out her empty hand at the ground. "Gods that watch over the land and plants, listen to my pleas. Through the small and minuscule cracks, let your strength be known to thy foes before me! Strike them with your strong limbs and hold them in place!"

She slammed her foot on the ground, feeling a rush of energy seep off from her hand. After a split second, the ground shook as large roots and vines broke through the cracks, wrapping around themselves around the golem's legs, immobilizing them in place. "Oh my..I-It's actually working!" Never has she done magic this large scale, due to fear of injury. Already, she could feel her body grow slightly heavy and her chest tighten. "Zauriel! Between their neck and chest is their power source! Aim for the gem in there!"

 

The arena was a blur as Zauriel raced on all fours towards the golems, but his eagle-like eyes saw every detail. He could see Sasha say something as he neared the golems, but he was suddenly aware of a ringing in his ears that tuned out all outer noise. 'I must have been hit harder than I-' "-WHOA, BARREL ROLL!" Doing exactly that, Zauriel rolled off-course as Sasha's magic sprung from the arena floor, trapping the golems and thankfully missing him. Standing like a lion, Zauriel felt his spine pushing for his magic. Mentally sighing to himself, he gave in and a thick, green tail erupted from his back. The ringing in his ears were gone, but everything else still sounded distant. Looking down, Zauriel saw water forming. No, not water...sweat. He was suddenly aware of how fatigued he was as his body lowered closer to the ground. He started to pant and willed his eyes back to normal before spitting some blood from his mouth. His body was constantly changing and that was a strain on his magical reserves, but the changes he actually forced in the last few minutes were taking even more out of him. He shook his head intensely before realizing Sasha was saying something else. Unfortunately, all he could hear were his name and the word 'Gem.' "Now's not the time to think about jewelry, I don't think..." he muttered. "Wait, gem...the golems' gems!" Finally understanding, Zauriel dashed forward again, his bones aching to return from their current cat-like structure, but he kept his form...save for his two horns now suddenly merging into a single, golden, straight, and very sharp horn.

Zauriel wasn't sure how fast he was moving, but in his head, he had now taken the form of a green blur. He dashed around the golems until he was near Sasha, facing them. "Unicorn horn, go!" He sprung forward, dug into the ground with sharp claws, lunged himself even closer, then kicked off the ground and jammed his new horn below a golem's neck with all the force he currently had. Zauriel felt the nearly indestructible horn of a unicorn crack on impact, but with a reflex he didn't know he was capable of, he magically forced it to reform.

Crkk-sszzle-BLAM!!

The mini explosion sent him crashing to the ground, landing on his tail. The horn disappeared beneath his hair and no other took its place. Cautious green eyes quickly looked up and saw...the golem ceasing to move as smoke emanated from its chest. "Yay, one down!" He cheered, throwing a fist up. Then, without warning, Zauriel fell completely on his back. An upside down Sasha was all he saw, everything else was blurry and dark. "Hey...why don't you get the other one and I'll just...be...right...ba-" then everything went completely dark as Zauriel's skin turned to green wax.

 

​

It was very hard for Sasha to concentrate on her focus on her magic. She was rather dazzled and distracted by Zauriel's attack on the golem. With an always changing form, he never seemed to hit with the same effects and vice versa when taking hits. It's like when a species adapt to the environment in certain situations. Except this doesn't take thousands of years as it all happens in an instant. Though it wasn't until he charged at the golem with his "unicorn" horn that she snapped back to the situation. His work was great, letting her magic ease with one less golem to constrict with her magic. Of course not clean and free.

With Zauriel down, she was seriously concerned for him. He hit the ground rather hard and was already beat up before his attack on the golem. Right...if I need to prove myself...I need to not only fend for myself...but for others as well! She turned back to the golem, straightening her posture. She stepped back, letting the overgrown plants loosen. If I'm gonna beat this...I need everything...even if it does need more than I can give. She took a deep breath. As the golem started to make its way towards Sasha, just before it started to wind up for an attack, she out a loud yell before forcing all of her magical strength upon the golem.

Following her yell, a massive root tore through the ground and slammed into the golem's gem area, shattering it as the golem fell back onto the ground with a mighty crash. Sasha collapsed to the floor, clutching her chest as she breathed heavily and ignoring her bloody nose. "G-gods...w-we did it..." After a small breather, she crawled over to Zauriel. She sighed in relief, noticing he was only knocked out, confirmed with a pulse she felt. "This is only going to get harder from here on out..." With a small smile, she propped his head onto her lap and pulled out a cloth from her pocket to wipe off the blood from his mouth.

 

"I am not sure that I can handle 'harder' at the moment," Zauriel's soft voice chirped, though his eyes didn't open. His skin had turned a faint green and the horn and tail were gone, leaving a greenish boy resting on Sasha. His skin had become thin, revealing his veins. The marks on his chest were glowing faintly doing something only he was aware of. Zauriel tried to open his eyes, but realized one of them preferred to stay close. Peeking at Sasha with his other eye, he forced a smile. "I am glad to see that we have won, though. I..." he sighed, the words struggling to come out as a little blood appeared on his lips. "I had a good par-partner. I hope m-my perfor...mance met your standards as well..." He closed his eye again, taking deep breaths.

In his head, an argument from long ago replayed itself. Family obligations, what Zauriel owed everyone, and his so-called 'purpose' in life were made clear against his objections as he was marked with his family crest. The pain had been excruciating.

"Oh!" He shot up suddenly -one eye open- as if all his energy had returned. "What is in the box?!" He demanded from Dean Fey.

 

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Sasha smiled, continuing to dab at her face. "Hehe it won't be just you and me doing this all alone. We'll have others with us. Hopefully, it won't be such a burden on both of us." She sighed, sitting back as she was mostly done with her work. "I should be saying that to you instead. You were doing most of the work. If I took a hit like that, I probably would come out with something broken or even worse. I'm at best the support. Doing magic on that sort of magnitude almost drained me." She stuck a piece of cloth in her nose to stop the bleeding. "I hope MY performance served you well. My injuries are nothing compared to yours even if you do manage to repair your injuries."

She jumped a little seeing him sit up suddenly. She looked up at Kendric and nodded. "Sounds like a good idea! Wanna come along with us Zauriel? Err...I mean if you're in such a condition to do so."

 

Tal had watched the rest of exam in silence. She wasn't sure if there was anything she could have said out loud anyway. Not that she really had wanted to. She was already occupied with conversation, with Ember. He was mostly mumbling in dragonspeak. She could easily drone that out even though the voice was directly in her head. It was when he started to speak half in dragonspeak and half in normalspeak that she was forced to pay attention.

"Ombrah deyor but I had hope we would suraks del menas co-"
"Ember I have no idea what you are trying to say. I don't think I know what Obrah means..."
"No meaning."
"It has no meaning? It's a nonsense wo-?"
"No it means no meaning."

Tal shook her head and watched Ember fly around again. Now that his presence was known, she wasn't bothering to hide him again. He flew back towards her and perched himself on her shoulder and let out a whine and she rolled her eyes, "Food?"

She searched through her bag for some meat he hadn't finished eating yet and brought it up to his mouth, he bit into the piece and started to devour it, leaving a mess on her shoulder but she didn't mind it too much. Especially since it was a normal occurrence anyway. When she heard the exam was over, she listened to the conversation and heard Kendic's mention of the center of town... which she assumed had something to do with going to the festival. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go but she could at least go and see if she wanted to stay.

Tal heard him mention the box and she placed her hands up to her chin in thought and then shook her head laughing, "Maybe it was just a rock? It's probably one of those things where people keep repetitively asking themselves maybe there's more in that box than we think and it turns out to be something worthless?"



Meanwhile, at the center of town already. Jen was sitting and waiting for the parade to begin. He had nothing else in mind to see, otherwise he'd be doing that instead. He was very bored, and wished he had done something else to occupy his time with.

Jen was glowing a very soft white, something not too noticeable but it was there. He had another copy of himself prancing about. Looking for things he might need, finding something new and entertaining to suit his need for something to do. He wasn't sure if he would be very successful, so he was perfectly alright with the wait for the parade.

Jen was eating a sandwich, he was not sure what type exactly, he just made a sandwich earlier on in the day with what he had around him. He almost didn't want to know, because it wasn't very tasty. He just needed something in his system to make it until dinnertime. He looked around at some of the pedestrians around him. A lot were students where he was, but there were quite a few people who didn't look like they were even from Zenith. Most of the time people who came to the festival were the higher ups in class systems, but he was fairly certain he saw quite a few lower class people here. He assumed it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime trips people try to make. They blended in more with the students than the figureheads anyway.

Jen continued eating his sandwich looking around to see if his clone would be making appearances anytime soon.​

 

As the last group when up and took the exam, Damion was very impressed by how they managed to take down the golems. It really was fortunate for them that the prior teams had lead to such destruction of the ground, otherwise it might not have worked the same way as it did.

Seeing as he had nothing better to do right now, heading to the town center was as good of a idea as any. "Sure, I guess I could tag along." Despite normally not being all that willing to join large groups of people, he needed get over that part of him and this would serve as a stepping stone.

 

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Tal heard Kendric's question and rolled her eyes when she heard the name he had come up with trying to figure out the name. She looked over at Kendric and answered, "Burthrafor. That's the name he was born with, but he changed his own name to Hazbringzer..." as she thought about the explanation she started glowing blue and spoke, "Azaisa srez as kor. Kenar malzeymah tu pars Ember naregan ke pa- oh." she realized what was going on and her aura disappeared and she scratched her head embarrassed.

"Er sorry, Burthrafor was a name that would always indicate he was a runt. So he changed his name to what translates roughly to Ember. Or that's what he said from what I know it probably translates closer to spark than ember but I..." Tal went silent when she realized she was going off on a long tangent and she looked away and roughly summed up, "I just call him Ember."

"Brinnah, why are you acting embarrassed. They just asked a question..."
"I went off on a tangent."
"No ones going to judge you for that."
"It's not that I don't care if I'm judged, it's the fact I used more words than I needed to."

Ember let out a small roar and climbed up Tal's hair and he curled himself up in her hair and started to nap.



Jen had not known that he had been addressed. He knew someone had bumped into him but he figured that would happen a couple of times. He was more interested in the festivities than anything. All the people in the celebration with glowing auras of different colors. And at this moment, he could also be included in that group of people with auras glowing right then.

He felt someone type his shoulder and saw himself and he spoke, "Everything all done then?"
"For now. I didn't think you needed anymore real food... I did get hippogriff eggs though."
"Please tell me you mean the chocolate eggs."
"Of course I mean the chocolate eggs."
"Well, thank you for letting me be the lazy one."
"I don't think I have a choice when you're the real one."

The clone handed Jen the chocolate egg and the money he had and placed his hand on Jen's shoulder and was absorbed back into him. Jen stopped glowing and then grabbed his hand and broke the the egg and started eating it. He wasn't going for any of the special surprises and stuff inside the egg yet, but the egg was larger than his head. He only got these eggs when the festival was going on anyway, so he was excited to eat all of this chocolate. He continued sitting in his spot and eating.​

 

"Well, not really. Though I don't think that it would work on anything other than guns." Damion answered. Considering the requirement that his power needed for him to change his gun's appearance, he doubted that it would work if he tried changing food. Still it might be something worth trying at some point. It would be something if he could do that with food, but he'd have to wait and see. Right now he was more concerned with heading to the parade so he followed behind Kendric as he opened the door.

 

"The Knights of Eridis..." Zauriel watched the knights march by, his eyes shifting to the gold of the knights. He could feel his body wanting to change even more, but it lacked the energy to do so. The shapeshifter excused himself quickly and quietly from the group and darted through the crowd. Reaching the edge, he crouched like an animal and kept his eyes on the Knights. Voices in his head rang clear, agitating him. As always, the Knights of Eridis reminded him of a past which he was not fond of. Unfortunately, Zauriel couldn't help but bask in the energy of the festivities. It was almost enough to make him forget about his childhood pain. Almost.

Snapping out of a trance as the Knights left his field of vision, Zauriel turned to Kendric and the others. "Well, that is always a pleasure, is it not?" However, it wasn't Kendric he spoke to, but a total stranger. "Oh! Excuse my manners. I seem to have mistaken you for someone else." Without giving the stranger time to reply, Zauriel was gone. The marks on his chest glowed faintly and Zauriel felt almost good as new...well, maybe not new; more like refurbished. There was so much energy in the crowd and the atmosphere was helping him heal. Zigzagging his way through the crowd, Zauriel realized that he actually could not find the others. "Oh, great...now I seem to have lost the others and myself..." he groaned. Re-prioritizing his search, Zauriel turned around and laid eyes on the magic screen. He studied the world leaders, both impressed and apathetic.

 

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After going through the streets of the city, making turns at the alleys to avoid the large crowds, they eventually got a good spot in the alley where she could get a view of the parade. Truth be told it was somewhat tiresome for her to follow them along as she wasn't 100% all together since her last fight with the golems. Other than that, she always tried not to go to these parades. She really had little to no interest in political events. Except today was a special day since all of her friends went out to the event. Since they went, she might as well tag along since this is her "first" time at the parade.

Sasha looked back at her friends to see how they are faring in this parade. She was specifically looking for Zauriel since she still had that nagging concern after the battle. Though he was apparently not in the group. She looked around for an odd looking person, morphing every five seconds. She sighed and looked back at the others. "Do you guys mind holding up here? Zauriel went off somewhere and I'm a bit concerned for him." Without another word, she made her way through the crowd, searching for him.