[ ATT :: 1 :: 1 ] Hyper Blitz defeats Draconic Embers

48 Hours complete.

Malic is disqualified and removed from battle.

Resume, Hyper Blitz.

Deimos looked to the heavens, through the haze that Bliss’ aura caused as it surrounded them, and trained his focus onto the soaring weapons and the heat weave; when facing a problem composed of several components, it was ideal to deal with them one at a time as quickly and efficiently as possible. Attempting to take on the situation all at once may leave one overwhelmed; start at the bottom and work your way to the top.

Heat, that wonderful thing that could warp even steel, fell neatly into Deimos’ discipline of the electromagnetic spectrum, allowing him to forcibly affect those thermal weaves; his right hand came up and, with a flourish of his wrist, Deimos’ prowess rocked outwards. The heat waves would diminish at a blistering pace, that by the time it should have reached the barrier proper, it’d be nothing more than a slightly tepid breeze, the majority of its power vented sideways where it would be harmless to either party.

And now those swords; he would deal with them and not offer Luna the same method of defense against it. Again, his mental prowess was unshackled, and the earth groaned in protest as if it had to bear the weight of a thousand men instead of just one. For each of the blades, even as they spiraled downwards to bear down against them, a telekinetic shunt pressed relentlessly against the very center of the swords. First as a sudden strike, then as an unceasing push; this would end only in one way, with the swords’ trajectory thrown off-kilter and the energy blades landing to either extreme of Deimos and Bliss, rather than directly on them.

And high above them all, something much more sinister was happening. The lens fitted itself, adjusting its overall alignment in the sky, until it could properly eclipse the sun; the sunlight, warm and powerful, streamed through the lens and provided the arcane creation with a nearly unending source of power. Over the entire arena, a shade of darkness was stripped from the surroundings, as if a single candle had been caused to flicker to life; those whose powers were rooted firmly in the dark end of the supernatural spectrum would find their powers gradually waning.

The anti-dark lens was fashioned to deal almost exclusively with Malic, who had vanished from the face of the earth, but it would work well enough against Luna should she try to access the same manner of magic.

Bliss never noticed it until now... He could see up Luna's dress. Wait... Is she wearing any underwear?! Oh, god! What a sight. Bliss was in lus---er, love.

"Mm... Look.. at that."

A devious smile replced whatever expression fitted him, but then remembered the situation yet again. That was one peek he would never forget. Regardless, he had to keep focus on his lens because another reason---he didn't have time to be looking up her skirt, although he wanted to. Luna's distortion wave. A fine defence, or even counter one should say. However, very easily worked through.

Bliss even aloud her to pause his work but his hands and mind focused and locked on the formation of the lens until this wave has passed on. And when it did, he continued the progress and construction until complete---unless she wanted to take the time to try and stop him again while leaving herself open to Deimos. Oh, yes. The advantage of having a partner to rely on; it was very comforting.

Moving on.

With the completion of his own lens, Bliss would finally reach across his stomach with his right hand and handle the hilt of his sword before slipping it from its restraint. Just grasping this blade consumed its holder with confidence, having knowledge of its otherworldly power. Thus, his arm pulled its sword from its home and the blue radiance emitted from the exposed metal thizzed and popped static. And once the sword's tip found freedom, it was swiped across the earth's surface to Bliss's right side where it would lift mere inches and hover over the soil.

And, from Bliss's side, the blade gradually began to sap energy from the protecting aura.

Luna was distraught as the pinch of isolation was cast upon her form; Malic was gone. Luna’s eyes seemed obscure and glossy as she watched her swords be diminished by Deimos’s psionic attack. Luna seemed pretty apathetic about this brief point in time, so much that she didn’t even try to counter Deimos’s psionic attack with her own. Luna’s large hat shifted slightly as she lowered her head; defeated. Was there a point in continuing this battle now?

However, just as Luna seemed ready to rise that little white flag, her orbs fell onto Bliss and her cheeks blushed a furious crimson. Was he looking up her dress?! Luna looked appalled and almost fell off her staff as she crossed her legs underneath her dress, concealing the fabric underneath.

The nerve!! That perverted feline!!!

Luna’s motivation seemed to enter her frame again and her countenance looked determined to extirpate that pervert…and his partner too.

Now that battle was engaged once again, it was time to focus on what had happened and what was going to happen. First of off, Luna’s attack, as stated before, distorted energy patterns to the point where the trail was broken and the energy could not accumulate. Almost like a sound wave breaking glass. By Bliss lingering the energy in the middle of the wave, he merely sped up the destruction of it. The lens would not be created. As for Deimos’s len, Luna rarely used the dark arts. All her negative energy was within Malic, who was now gone.

Luna, being able to think again, started to see the silver lining in not having a partner. She could use much more powerful attacks without having to worry about her partner being damaged. At the same time though, she would be more vulnerable to these two men. Bliss’s sword would not go unnoticed, though Luna would do nothing to stop it as her staff retreated, carrying Luna towards the edge of the field and to the ground. Her boots touched the ground and Luna stood on her own as her staff stood vertical next her.

Luna would have to improvise a partner and she now wished she had her dragon with her, but that could not be helped. Luna glanced up and looked to the Sun, recording its position before looking towards the shield again.

“This ends here.”

Luna’s digits glowed a purple color and she pressed each of them to their opposites. Luna’s soft lips started to form the ancient language of the draconic, her fingers illuminated with mystical energy. Luna pressed her index fingers together then traced a circle in the air, energy cutting the air as if she was drawing with two markers. A small circle was formed in front of her chest, but that wasn’t it. High above them, in front of the rays of the angular Sun, a much larger circled formed. Proportional in shape but different in size, the circle was larger than the area. Luna’s eyes continued to attentively stare at her opponents as her fingers moved to create another scar in the air in front of her.

What was Luna doing? This would be an enigma for a short amount of time. However, by the time the secret would be revealed, her opponents would be at death’s door. They could try and stop her, but it wasn’t going to be easy…no matter how many people they had.

Deimos, indeed, did not look at that.

Deimos recognized error and inefficacy in his machinations the very instance that they failed to be fully realized; he felt no diminishment in power, saw barely any reaction stem from Luna herself and already noticed that Malic himself had long since vanished. Thus, the lens he had fashioned to tell with Malic’s proprietary source of energy was useless and, thus, something had to be done about the whole situation; why waste when one can recycle? With nothing more than the slightest flux of his mental prowess, the lens destiny was rewritten; spider-veins ran the ambit of its structure, as if struck by a mighty hammer, and then shards of itself began to flake off. Well, not so much flake as much as violently projected outwards, towards the circle of alien formation.

The shards began to align themselves inside of the circle, seeming to make their own formation, and then energy began to arc through them; Deimos did not have powerful knowledge of runic magic but, as affirmed before, he was at least rudimentarily efficient in its paths and could fashion, at the very least, the negation glyph he was currently forging. Orange electricity surged from one piece to another to another, forming an interconnected web of magical disjunction at the very heart of the forming circle, to do away with it long before it could ever come to fruition.

Should it prove more resilient than assumed, the infectious orange energy would come into play then and only then; for now, this should be enough.

“I grow weary of this battle Bliss. Let us end this soon, before I become completely impatient.”

His left hand rose, which was a welcome reprieve to the right hand that seemed to be orchestrating everything he had done to this point, and the tips of his fingers pressed forward into nothingness. At first, it seemed that Deimos had done absolutely nothing, but the gentle creaking and rocking of the earth soon made it clear that this was not so. As if it were being wounded, the ground grew porous, holes opening wide and plenty, from which poured a nearly gaseous trail of black spores. Those spores condensed tightly, forming no less than 10 iron spheres, and behind the barrier that Bliss had erected, Deimos seemed almost to smile.

There was a wink, like the flicker of a star, which was the advent of the electrokinetic prowess that Deimos was so a master of; the spheres were railgunned at blistering speeds, so much so as to stun the air, and would reach Luna in less than the blink of an eye. It was not an infallible speed, but if caught off-guard the woman would most surely die.

A white flag? Why would anyone want to give up when this was going so good? In fact, what would people say if Luna continued on through the tournament?

What if...

Bliss's eyes ignited and flared with an irresistable urge to suddenly pause the fight and propose a kind of offer; to throw the audience, and teams, a curveball. And thus, with that said, Bliss suddenly absorbed the remaining energy of his projected aura into his sword in a single pulse and swung the edge's tip toward the sky.

For a moment, the metal shone as if its flat surface caught the rays of the eclipsed sun. Then, in a brilliant flash of colors, the arena---and even outside of said area---was masked in an anti-magic barrier which diminished all traces of mana, energy, power or influence by external forces. Any powers attempted to be used would be found useless, a static disrupting its use. Even the lead spheres projected by Deimos would lose their velocity and fall to the ground at Luna's feet.

"Stop! Everyone calm da' fuck down!"

Bliss, although holding his sword in his right hand, lifted his hands with their palms parrell to the ground as if to say "hold on".

And, of course, Bliss dropped his hands laughing as if what he said was some kind of inside-joke. He turned toward Deimos, stepping close so he may whisper and go unheard even by those with an acute sense of hearing. A single idea was given, leaning back to get either a nod or shake of Deimos's head.

Assuming the reply would be a yes, Bliss would toss his sword to Deimos---the hilt pointed at the man---and turned to Luna and approach the female. Of course, giving up his sword meant he would be very well defenceless. Without a weapon, and inside the dome of an anti-magic barrier, the meeting was to be a negotiation with peace in-between.

Leaving but five feet between Bliss and Luna, he stopped and gifted her with the familiar smile they had all been victim to many times throughout the current battle.

"We wish to compromise, dear player of Draconic Ember. You are without a partner, at a disadvantage. We offer you advancement into round two, with someone at your side."

Bliss paused, clearing his throat whilst his hand drew behind his back, palms folding into one another as his eyes locked into her's.

"Our request is you surrender to Hyper Blitz. Deimos will step aside and you will continue on with me, under our title. Of course, this won't go without something offered to you."

A single eyebrow lifted, the corner of his lips curving.

"If we win, I will offer to you: me, for an entire day. I will be subject to your every desire, inclined to listen to every command---a slave. Of course, if we lose---and trust me, I'd rather win this train of battles and claim championship than lose---you must allow me to take you out on a date."

Bliss couldn't help but allow a few snickers escape him, but coaxed hisself down into enough seriousness to hear her out.

Luna’s respect for Deimos never faltered and she honestly still wished she could have met him under different circumstances, but taking out Luna wasn’t going to be that simple. The reutilizing of the lens was witty, but Deimos would be temporarily stumped to know that this attack against her rune had no effect whatsoever.

This was one of the beautiful enigmas to be revealed about this mysterious rune. This ancient draconic rune that did not work that same way Luna’s other runes did, thus why it took longer to accumulate. Like dragon’s scales reflecting magical attacks, this rune within the sky was immune to such assaults. You had to reach beneath the scales and penetrate the heart. The formulating rune within the skies was the scales, but where was the heart? Luna held the pulsating energy within her grasp. Yes, in order to defeat the rune within the sky, they must destroy the developing rune hovering in front of Luna’s chest.

Alas, Deimos did attempt to harm Luna, but this would prove ineffective as well. As stated, Luna could read energy patterns. In order to create something deep within the ground, you had to focus your energy towards the ground. With those simple facts in mind, moments after Deimos’s hand extended and cast the energy, Luna’s staff slammed its head down into the ground, its tail brushing against the brim of Luna’s ankle. Energy drainage began, coursing throughout the earth beneath them. Luna was unaffected because the staff was touching her. Originally, since at this point Bliss’s shield was gone, the vacuum would effect them too but …

"What in the world?!"

Luna’s staff fell to the ground and Luna felt a strain upon the magical properties of her body. Thanks to being a draconic, Luna’s couldn’t be effected by anti magic barriers; it would merely bounce off her body, reversing to the shield. Originally this would disable to shield immediately, anti-magic against anti-magic, but due to the fact the sheild was big and Luna was small, it would take about a minute for the shield to completely disperse. However, it was weakening by the moment as the effects of the barrier continued to ping pong back and forth with Luna’s body. However, Luna’s rune vanished, thus so did the rune in the sky. Luna was caught off guard and now she would have to start over.

Then Luna’s eyebrows suddenly rose as Bliss approached Deimos and whispered something to him. Luna kneeled down retrieved her staff, canting her head to the side and observing the two.

This is a trick right? They’re planning to physically attack me while my magic is down. They think just cause I am a woman I can’t take them both on! I’ll show those egotistical men!

Luna held her staff in front of her defensively before she noticed Bliss walking up to her. Luna blinked…and canted her head to the other side, her long green hair elapsing to the left. He was approaching her? Luna studied his demeanor for a moment before straightening her form and leaning onto her staff. Bliss seemed like he wanted…to talk? Is this what the barrier was for? Maybe he was just trying to pull a cheap shot…

No… he may be a jerk and a pervert…but I don’t sense deception in him. Not a cheating one at least…

Luna stared for a moment as he smiled, idly returning it with one of her own.

“Is there something wrong?”

Luna suddenly fell silent as she heard his words and her lips curved down slightly. He wasn’t serious…was he? Luna suddenly glared. So they did think she wouldn’t be able to win! Luna pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and bit onto it to hold her tension as she continued to hear out Bliss’s words.

Surrender was hardly something Luna desired to do, but she supposed that …it would be like joining another team, right? Luna turned her eyes from Bliss and those purple orbs fell upon the spot Malic previously stood. She was lonely…Luna turned her head back at Bliss…then she heard his last comment.

“What?!”

Luna’s cheeks flushed a deep scarlet and she completely lost her composure, being taken back and not to mention shocked. Luna was looked at him for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts. Suddenly Luna’s hand swung up, aiming to give Bliss a good slap across the face for suggesting she offer herself in such a way.

“First you look up my dress than you offer me this?! How dare you suggest that I bid my leisure for you! I have more honor than that!”

Luna paused and exhaled deeply, regaining her tranquility. She suddenly realized that she did just assault him, or attempted to. Luna gasped and placed her hand to her lips as if shocked at what she did.

“Oh, I’m sorry! Please forgive me, I just couldn’t control myself! You’re such a…strange man.”

Luna stared at Bliss like he was a never ending mystery…then her eyes shifted to Deimos. Bliss was strange but this one here…he was a jigsaw that Luna couldn’t even begin to solve. Gripping the staff tighter within her hand, Luna worked her way around Bliss.

This man who had provided such excellent strategies, rendered many of Luna’s attacks useless, and delivered many attempted blows to Luna was going to step down? She just didn’t understand it.

Those orbs never leaving the countenance of Deimos, Luna didn’t cease to advance until she was a few feet away from Deimos’s presence. Luna looked into his eyes, bewildered and curious.

“Why?” Would be the only word to exit between those soft lips.

When Luna looked across the battlefield and let her eyes met Deimos’, she’d find something there that could shake the cores of men; his eyes were monochromatic, just a single shade of depthless gray, and seemed to have no end. They were completely soulless, and seemed bereft of even the lightest scraps of emotion; they knew only function, only practicality and method, and that was all they seemed capable of holding. The only other way to even attempt to describe his eyes would be…cold; they were so cold.

He watched her with a detached sort of interest, or even some flavor of pity, like how a child would look at a caged lion or a defanged snake; a child that knew their ferocity, their danger, lay only in the past and what lay before them was a shell of their former glory. That was how Deimos looked onto Luna as she came to stand directly before him, like she was this…little thing to not be touched, for fear of her breaking beneath his touch.

For all intents and purposes, Deimos was a statue before the woman; he was unmoving and unfeeling, a wayward wind failed to move even the very tips of his blazing hair, and those ashen eyes bore holes into the witch’s. Her question, however, seemed to shock life into him; suddenly his clothing fluttered in the wind, suddenly he found the power to blink and the security to let his heart beat. Suddenly he could offer her a smile, no matter how sinister and horrid it was bunched up on his lips, and his eyes could shine slightly, no matter how hungry they looked.

“Why?” Deimos echoed her word, and it fled his lips like bats out of hell, frightened for all the turmoil that goes on within the mind that forged them. “Why not? Why fight? What’s all this leading towards? There’s nothing here, waiting for me, but a test; everybody else has come here to prove themselves.”

He did not move his eyes from hers, Deimos made sure that an absolute line of connection existed between their sights.

“But this is a land of mortal men, and those are chains that I escaped too long ago, dear. Grown men were never meant to play in the children’s sandbox, and that’s all my presence in this tournament would bring; a dozen sandcastles toppled and a dozen children crying to no avail.”

Arms came to cross behind him, palm in palm and resting against the small of his back, as he finally cast those pools of liquid gray to the skies, scouring whatever could be found there; not searching for answers, for Deimos already knew everything that he must know, but merely to look.

“Besides, I have much more important things to do than clash blades with fools. I’ve come here to shape the world, why put it off any longer than I must? You won’t be satisfied by this, I’m sure. If you seek vindication after all of this is over, come find me. Look to where the stars shine brightest.”

And sparing only a single sidelong glance to stall him, Deimos thus spun on his heel and began to briskly walk away; when his body should properly breach the anti-magic field’s limits, he simply vanished. No lights, no smoke, no Deimos.

[Exit: Deimos Barrett]

Although Bliss's hand were behind him didn't mean he couldn't get away from something so simple such as a slap across the face. His eyes merely caught a glance of her hand and instant, as if by reflex, his back bent backward just enough for her hand to catch air. Once the limb passed, he straightened again. He had to admit, something just of that sort was coming his way anyway---why not let it slide?

He shrugged, first, and then nodded to accept her appology. He kept a calm, with ties of seriousness, mood about him and watched with wondering eyes as she moved around him to study Deimos, obviously the more interesting between the two men. Still, Bliss kept quiet and walked at Luna's side, a few paces behind and stopped when she stopped.

And, as if Bliss were invisible, he was like an idle, patient statue until Deimos made his leave before the feline's voice found audience once again.

"Well then, Luna of Draconic Embers, will you accept the terms and join me in finishing this tournament?"

Luna had found herself spellbound by those grey voids upon Deimos’s face; she couldn’t help but try to peer deep within those orbs and into his soul, hoping to find answers. She desired to solve this enigma of a man, and his words only caused her mind to inquire more about him. However, Luna remained silent. His words were hypnotic and stole her voice from between her lips with every phase.

Why did this man intrigue Luna? A physical attraction? No. Although Deimos was indeed attractive, Luna wasn’t the type to fall for such simple factors. It was Deimos’s mind that intrigued Luna; he was witty, brilliant, and philosophical. This made Luna want to know more about him. Alas though, Deimos had disappeared.

But this is a land of mortal men, and those are chains that I escaped too long ago, dear.

Those words echoed throughout the depths of her mind as Luna tilted her head up towards the sky and reflected on her own life.

“I wonder…” she said to herself. “…if I am still chained.”

As Luna pondered, the words of Bliss tickled her ear and she cast an oblique glance at him. Luna stared for a moment before turning her body towards him. Those lips curved into a warming smile.

“Bliss, wasn’t it?”

Luna extended her arm and pressed a digit to the rim of her large hat, tilting it up and allowing her face to glow warmly in the sunlight. Two strangers joined together by faith, soon to be fighting side by side against the trails of the tournament.

“I accept your terms...”

Draconic Embers submits to Hyper Blitz.

Hyper Blitz advances with Luna replacing Deimos.