It was a strange, almost surreal experience. Being surrounded by a wall of spearmen in gleaming steel plate was not a situation normal people usually got into. Never mind the part where James found himself in a completely alien dimension after being spirited away by one of his mischievous patrons, Nereid. So, for no discernible reason, James Keradin had appeared out of thin are in the middle of an open market somewhere in the dragon-ruled country of Najal. As of now, the young invoker was seated on a bench with his back to a lovely marble fountain, calmly staring at the armed guards who were so diligently reading him his rights.

Apparently he had none, for witches were exiled and witchcraft outlawed centuries ago as per the edict of dragon king Hatalaskerlis. Only the highest-ranking defenders of the realm were allowed any sort of magical power. Sadly, James was not one of these fellows. Hell, he barely even cared about the safety of a world he had never been to. That in mind, it came as no surprise(to the invoker, at least) that when the lead guardsman read aloud that those who demonstrated their witchcraft unsanctioned by the king were to be executed on the spot when James incinerated the lot of them with a blast of supernatural fire.

Those townsfolk that had gathered to watch screamed and scattered, their curiosity quashed by the overwhelming need for self-preservation. The charred bodies of their knights helped somewhat as well. That grisly task completed, James leaned over the rim of the fountain and dipped one finger inside the cool water. He twirled the digit around, waiting for that bubbly little waif he called a patron to take him back to his own realm of existence.

Meanwhile, some thirty paces away, the second contingent of guardsmen stared slack-jawed at the remains of their comrades. The captain swallowed hard and steeled himself in an attempt to strengthen the resolve of his troops. He waved someone forward, a young man dressed quite differently from the rest. "You're the cleric, correct? You have dealt with the arcane before, if I am correct." the moustached captain waved him forward, a grim expression set on his face, "You are the only one nearby who can engage him safely. If you could hold him in place for a few minutes, we could have some mages down here to restrain him."

The captain and his men jogged off with whispers of good luck and prayers for the man who was most likely about to die. Of course, they still expected him to fight. The blue-haired man had blown apart a retinue of innocent soldiers without even blinking. He had to atone.

The captain swallowed hard and steeled himself in an attempt to strengthen the resolve of his troops. He waved someone forward, a young man dressed quite differently from the rest. "You're the cleric, correct? You have dealt with the arcane before, if I am correct." the moustached captain waved him forward, a grim expression set on his face, "You are the only one nearby who can engage him safely. If you could hold him in place for a few minutes, we could have some mages down here to restrain him."

Omni Excel was sitting down on a small wall near some stairs that led up to another district, it was used to divide the current area from the market down below. The kid that was in the market near the fountain was now leaning over the pull of water and was swirling their finger in it. Omni Excel also went by the name of Kynn Lightcaster; neither were his real name, but 'Kynn' was the name he gave to the guards when he agreed to be their cleric for the time being. He needed a bit of money and all he had to do was heal a sick soldier or two every day. Plus the job gave him a place to sleep and a large amount of food to eat. What more could he ask for?
He had his right knee bent so his foot was up on the wall, his arm resting on his knee as he watched the events unfold. "Very well..." He began charging up mana just in case he needed to put up a quick defense.
"I will deal with him."

Kynn was dressed in his matching tan military jacket and pants with the dual sword belts hanging from his waist. The Silent Serenade hanging on his left hip, and the Fantasia whisper on his right. He also had his bow and arrow quiver hanging from his back. The 'young' cleric hopped off of the wall as he now spoke up.
"You there, little girl near the fountain. My name is Kynn Lightcaster, and I am the town's acting Cleric. You are hereby under arrest for the killings of the town guard. Surrender now and we will deal with you in a orderly and peaceful manner."
There were a few hushed whispers that went around and a few giggles from the people that hadn't actually seen the guards die from the invokers fire, and they were now trying to see what was going on in the market.
One of the guards slowly leaned over and whispered "Sir, that there is a boy... and I don't think he is a child...
"Oh, yes. Of course. Um, clear the area for me please. I don't want any one else getting hurt." He cleared his throat. "I meant to say, you there little man. Come now, there is no need to be violent."
There were a few more giggles as the guard obeyed his orders and started waving the crowd of people back to form a large circle around the two magic users, but the people wanted to see what would happen next and wouldn't completely leave.

Kynn wanted to get closer, but he didn't want to rush towards the boy seeing how he had just obliterated a hand full of guards without any effort. Using his left hand, Kynn drew the gold rapier from its scabbard, the weapon known as the Fantasia whisper, and stuck the point of the weapon in the ground close to the wall he had just hopped off of. He slowly began to circle the fountain from west and going down and around towards the east, keeping a distance of about thirty feet. He kept his eyes on the boy. Kynn was surveying the area around them so that he would know how much room he had to work with in case they got into a fight.

"Mhm. Yup." James nodded at the water before moving his posterior in a circular motion, "I dunno...." instead of his own reflection, a sprite-like face looked back at the invoker with a devilish grin. Nobody but James himself would be able to see the sending and the Nereid within the fountain and to most normal people, it would appear that the young man with the freakish hair was having a conversation with himself. "I get that, but when do I get to go home?" the boy creased his brow as if something absurd had been said, "What the heck do you mean fight? I just fought-"

"You there, little girl near the fountain. My name is Kynn Lightcaster, and I am the town's acting Cleric. You are hereby under arrest for the killings of the town guard. Surrender now and we will deal with you in a orderly and peaceful manner." James turned his azure gaze towards the speaker, his mouth quirked downward in displeasure. The water behind him rippled and James nodded.

"Yeah, that guy just called me a girl...a little girl." James hopped off of the bench and drew himself up to his full height. A full three inches taller than the apparently near-sighted cleric. The fool went on to correct his mistake and state that there would be no need for hostilities. Was he joking? James felt his eyebrow twitch in irritation as Nereid giggled. "Oi! You do realize that I'm going to have my head chopped off just because I have a bit of magic, right? What makes you think I'll come along quietly?"

He was thankful that the crowd was a fair distance away. Unnecessary casualties were not his style. The invoker called upon the power of Aesr, spirit of fire, which summoned a series of red runes that seemed to writhe on top of his dark skin. Always one for the direct approach, James began walking directly towards his newest opponent with all the stoic grace of a man on an afternoon stroll. In his mind, James could feel Aesr's lust for the many flammable objects around the town as a dull throb in the back of his skull.

A shiver ran through Kynn's spine as the man walked closer to him. He was trying to keep his distance but this guy was trying to push forward. Kynn had now circled from the east side and was attempting to walk up north. There were a few market stands set up over there that he could use for cover, and also a large building wall. He liked when his back was up against a wall because it meant you couldn't channel magic around to strike form behind, he only had to worry about what was in front of him. The east side was scattered with shopping stalls as well, but there was still a large crowd of people slowly being pushed back by the town's guard.

The invoker now channeled some type of magic fire spell into his body, which triggered Kynn to quickly blink his strange blue cat eyes. Time seemed to slow down as he slowly opened his eyes back up, turning on his wizard's sight, also known as the 'True sight'; a simple divination spell designed to allow a wizard to track magical energy such as invisible creatures or mana being stored in a users body. It wasn't much, but it gave Kynn an idea on how much power someone was placing into an attack and also allowed him to spot out any tricky shadow creatures lurking towards him. There was no visible change to his eyes though, only a fellow wizard that activated his own true sight would see Kynn's eyes glowing with a hint of magical energy.
All while this was happening though Kynn never stopped gathering mana into his body. If the invoker were to attack he would attempt to counter it with an Abjeration spell.

With the point of the golden sword still in the ground, Kynn jammed it in a bit deeper to make sure it didn't fall over, and then pulled the bow from his back along with an arrow. He pulled the string back tight and shot it at the invoker's ankle, if he didn't jump back the sharp arrow head would go straight through and render his leg useless. It was a warning shot to say 'Stay back, or you will get hurt', but Kynn thought it was more effective to actually speak the words, so he did...
"Stay back, or you'll get hurt! Last warning, come peacefully and I will have a talk with the town guard. Perhaps I could arrange for a more civil sentence other then a beheading." Kynn doubted that they would listen because the man did kill a group of their own soldiers. Anything Kynn would say to them would be thrown out the window. Kynn pulled two more arrows out of his quiver and rapidly began shooting one after the other, just like before they were all aimed for the man's legs. He had the choice to proceed closer and risk getting shot, or to retreat backwards and create a bit more distance between them. Either way, Kynn quickly put the bow string back across his shoulder and picked Fantasia back up in his hand. He continued to watch the man as he made his slow circle now up towards the north end of the fountain.

This was already getting annoying. James sped up a bit, matching Kynn step for step so no the distance between the two did not grow any greater. He wondered why the cleric would intentionally put his back against a wall, given that there was only one enemy to deal with. James eventually shrugged. It was not of any consequence unless that particular wall had some sort of strategic advantage that he did not know about. Still heading straight for the cleric, James added more mana to Aesr's gifts in order to intensify it's destructive power.

That was a good move, considering the Lightcaster fellow decided loosing an arrow would be prudent. James did not slow down in the slightest as the projectile screamed through the air towards him. The instant the arrow came within an inch of the invoker, the Aesr armor activated. The ensuing blast of fire seemed to steam from the invoker's body like a breath of dragon's flame. The wave of heat would assail Lightcaster head-on with the destructive power of a flamethrower, reducing him to a state similar to the still-smoking guardsmen near the fountain as well as burning down any ensuing projectiles.

As the fire finished it's leap any observers would see the oddly dressed invoker still walking at a leisurely pace towards him. Assuming the cleric had not moved too much, James was barely fifteen feet from his target now and closing in. Less than half of the glowing marks remained on his body, an indicator of how much of Aesr's power had been expended in that attack. Deciding that it would be better to let the fire faerie's temper stew for a bit, a vaguely sword-shaped weapon of hyper-compressed water formed in James' hand, courtesy of Nereid.

Whatever the cleric had said had fallen on deaf ears. Well, not intentionally deaf, as James could barely hear anything over the roaring flames. Remembering the sword that Lightcaster had grounded, it was likely the metal was glowing hot after that attack...

Oh, well this was very helpful. He figured the arrows wouldn't work, but it did buy him some time.
Kynn was still storing up energy for an attack, but now a large amount of it was heading straight for him so he decided to use that instead. Kynn stopped walking for a bit and plucked the golden rapier out of the ground and pointed it at the flames coming towards him, he then shouted out "FUEGO into the sword!" and focused the magical energy into the golden rapier. It was an evocation/thaumaturgic spell used to temporarily enchant his sword with fire. The sword acting as a conduit to channel the energy. He did this all the time to engulf the rapier in flames to create a flaming sword, which was the exact purpose for the runes engraved in the blade so that the sword wouldn't break when he placed spells on top of it. The runes designed to make the weapon indestructible were now straining a bright orange hue as the blade fought the heat from melting or warping the blade into useless hot goo.

The flames never left the blade of the sword though, and never moved down to the hilt, the runes kept it neatly in place from the bottom of the blade all the way up to the tip. It was a bit hot to hold, but it just made his hand sweaty, he didn't have to worry about the weapon slipping though because the rapier's hilt wrapped around his knuckles so that he could keep his grip; it was a bit like holding a very hot torch. He now took a step forward and struck the Silent serenade into the hole in the ground (the same one made by the gold rapier), to continue walking in his slow circle and now heading over to the west side of the market again; which was exactly back where he had first started. He now had a good idea of their battle field and could start fighting for real. Gripping both swords as tight as he could, he took off in a blurring sprint towards the west side of the fountain, and quickly released the flames that were stored on top of the Fantasia whisper in a slashing arc from his right and out to his left while calling out "Fuego!". The inferno of flames lashed out in the exact motion he swung the sword. The gold rapier acting as a magic wand to shoot a thin wave of fire straight towards James.
The effects of getting hit by it would be exactly the same as the invokers earlier attack because he was using the exact same energy, just shooting it back towards him. All the while he continued storing up more mana...

"Well, surprise, surprise! The cleric has some moves after all!" James flashed a broad gin at Kynn, pointing at the flaming rapier with his own liquid weapon. It was not every day that someone(even a fellow practitioner of magic) could so easily grasp Aesr's flames without feeling her bite. A mental nudge from the nether, a yearning to reclaim the fire and burn down the insolent whelp that so callously handled it pushed against the invoker's psyche. James snickered as the cleric came on once more. Aesr's maaaaad...

It seemed that the fire faerie would get her revenge soon, for Lightcaster decided to give James a taste of his own magic. Showing someone else how it felt to be dealt what they dish out would normally be a fun and effective tactic, but it was exactly for that reason that James sprinted directly into the fiery wave. The mystic fire washed over James with no more than a gentle caress, reforming as glowing runes along the invoker's body once more as he dashed towards Kynn again. That move had probably been one of the worst things that Lightcaster could have possibly done, as it had been a mandatory part of each contract that James made with his patrons that their powers, no matter how twisted or manipulated, could never harm James in any way.

In fact, Lightcaster had merely reinforced the invoker's offensive armor. Speaking of reinforcement, as James neared the fountain he called upon Aesr once more to add a second layer of magic runes onto his form. As James cleared the remaining gap between himself and the cleric and made for a diagonal slash with his water-weapon, he appeared to have twice as many squirming words of power on his skin than the first time he used the power. If that was not an indicator of what Lightcaster had just down, he did not know what was. The attack would come in from the right, cutting the man open from shoulder to hip if he did not counter.

Expecting a parry or at least a backtrack, James utilized the power of Nereid again to instantly form a lance in his left hand that was already stabbing for the man's gut with it's extended reach. The movements were as fast as if James had been swinging around daggers, for although hard as any normal metal, the water itself was much lighter.

Oi, that was unexpected. The man ate up his own flames and recharged his energy, he didn't see that coming...
It dampened his plans a small bit because he was hoping to knock the man away from him, but now he had to do a full out offensive attack. His sprint had helped him to complete his circle, but it also brought him a bit closer to his opponent. As the first water attack came toward's him, Kynn swung up and outwards to his left with the golden rapier while screaming out "Fulgury into the sword!".

Kynn was trying to store energy up but the way the battle was going he didn't have a chance to. Out of the 100% of energy he had left, he was now using 50% of it for his current attack. The Fantasia whisper slashed upwards to meet the weapon made of water, but it was now enchanted with lightning. Kynn didn't know if the invoker's weapon was solid or not, but either way the electrical charge would disrupt the flow of water and travel through it towards the wielder's hands, and continue on through out the rest of his body with an intense volt of electrical energy. If it were to be a direct hit it would leave his opponent temporarily paralyzed as he was electrocuted.

Kynn didn't stop the attack though, he followed the leftward slash by spinning around and bringing the silver saber up in a arc from his own right up to his left, his forearm was aimed up towards the sky as he brought the blade around and upwards to counter the invoker's second weapon. The second attack was aimed to slash the invoker from his hip up to his shoulder; however, the attack didn't stop there. Kynn followed the motion as he spun around once more, the deadly golden blade of lightning now coming around for a third spinning strike, but this time he was bringing the weapon around and down to slash from the top of the invoker's left ear and slice across his face to his lower right chin. The series of spins never stopped, he began taking quick steps closer to press the attack, repeating the motions over and over again in a deadly high speed flurry of alternating high and low slashes that whistled though the air. Kynn's thin lightweight rapier and saber matched the speed of his opponent's elemental weapons blow for blow. The swords weren't strong enough to slice bone, but a good slice to a major artery was equally as deadly.
All while this was happening he began to recharge up a bit more mana...

For the first time in this battle, the god damn cleric managed to make instill some caution in James by biting back. What should have been a normal parry became an electrifying riposte as the invoker and cleric met blades. James went reeling backwards, stumbling a few steps after the first blow and avoiding Kynn's follow-up entirely by accident. His water weapon shivered in displeasure for a moment before resuming it's forced shape. It was only through the virtue of the Dryad's generous nature that James was reminded of the forest-spirit's abilities. Activating them with all do haste, James allowed the aquatic polearm to dissipate and met the cleric's attack with one of his own.

Dipping under the leftward swipe, James brought his weapon around for a cut at Kynn's ankles. The attack was somewhat sluggish as the effects of the jolt had only just been purged, but the invoker made up for this by narrowly dodging each attack as they came. Despite the practiced repetition of his opponent's movements, James was hard-pressed to escape the assault with every bot of him still attached. It was not until he reached out to his darkest patron, Thanatos, that James found the confidence to counter.

An orb of the purest darkness no larger than a fist appeared in the path of the charged blade. It was a tear in the fabric of reality, a spot of oblivion that would tear apart the sword at the point of contact and render the weapon effectively useless. Given that Lightcaster was not only moving through practiced forms, but gaining speed as he did so the cleric would either have to expend a considerable amount of magic for a dispelling or literally stumble over himself in an attempt to escape losing a formidable weapon.

With that done, James retreated a step out of the cleric's range and added yet another layer of glowing runes to his skin, courtesy of Aesr. Small cuts and nicks along his skin where Lightcaster had gotten close to connecting faded away in wisps of verdant light as Dryad mended his wounds. In truth, the heal-over-time spell helped much more for the jolts to counteract their debilitating effects than the physical wounds themselves. An instant later the invoker came in low with a slash at Lightcaster's shins which was quickly followed up by a rising strike that would begin cutting at the groin and up from there.

If Lightcaster had not chosen to counter the orb of oblivion and stumbled instead, the attack would be used to devastating effect.

As the man was shocked from the electrical rapier he did something that Kynn was hoping for, he retreated backwards. Kynn's wizard sight allowed him to see that a strange energy washed over him to repair the electric effects. Kynn now understood what he was fighting, the man was almost like a conjurer, he made a pact with a being and they granted him power. Kynn didn't know what all the invoker could do, but he understood a bit better in what he was dealing with.
"I see you have skills with your swords and that you are trying to beat me with physical attacks. Very well, give me your best shot." A childish grin now stretched across the fairy boy's face.

As the man fled, Kynn's next attack missed as he brought the Silent serenade around to slash at the man's top left ear once more. What the invoker didn't know was that the flurry of attacks was a defensive maneuver, it was never meant to strike, simply to make your opponent flee to create distance. Kynn didn't like being trapped by constant attacks from his opponents, so he tried to control the fight by slowing the battle down.
As the golden rapier came around for its final time, Kynn now did a horizontal slash to slow his own momentum down so that both arms were straight out to his sides. At the exact same moment the invoker was slashing for Kynn's ankle, which the cleric simply avoided by lifting his leading leg so that the weapon passed by without doing any damage.

The invoker now fired some type of gravity ball. Kynn's wizard sight showed him how much power was placed into the compacted ball, and he knew that touching it would be bad news, so he decided to avoid it by taking a step back; the other man mimicking him to do the same thing. Kynn braced himself because he knew that his opponent was preparing a strike, so he raised his right arm that was holding the Serenade up to his chest, so that the blade's point was near his left shoulder (but of course it was not close enough to cut himself); and he had the left handed electric rapier out in front in a classic en garde position, both knees slightly bent. As the invoker closed the distance and struck at his shin, Kynn did a small leaping motion to the man's right side (Kynn's left) and landed in a crouch, making sure to steer clear of the gravity ball. This meant that as the invoker now brought the weapon up to slice from groin to head, the attack would completely miss Kynn, and the cleric would now be directly on his opponent's open side about four feet away.

Kynn instantly lunged forward out of his crouch and brought the rapier up in an angle to pierce the side of the invoker's neck. The effect of getting hit by the perfect thin blade would be that the electric weapon would strike straight through the side hollow point of his throat and come back out the other side, sending deadly static pulses throughout the man's body. It wouldn't be a instant kill, but the man would slowly bleed out as his wind pipe would now be punctured and filling with blood. The end result would be that the invoker would slowly choke and drown from his own blood...

The situations in which James found himself unprepared or shocked by the skill of a single enemy were few and far between, but at this moment the invoker was wishing he had not so hastily used his powers. Right off the bat, James had called upon the two patrons he was most familiar and comfortable with: Aesr and Nereid. That's two. That would have been fine and dandy if his opponent had not followed by doing two specific things. Displaying an effective immunity to Aesr's flame was the first, while boasting a superior skill in swordsmanship was the second. When Kynn began to beat him back with a sudden charged assault, James reached out to the healing powers of Dryad almost reflexively. Three.

Now, as James recovered from what would have been a slash through thin air, he cursed himself for trying to divest the cleric of that infernal electric weapon. Rousing Thanatos from his slumber had brought his called patron count to a total of four for that day, leaving the invoker with but one more supernatural being his contract would allow him to call for aid for this battle. That severely limited the remaining versatility of the invoker. Still, the battle would go on, for James had no intention of dying in some backwater dimension.

Four feet was a relatively large gap in most situations, but dueling was not one of them. Although James managed not to stumble in recovering from his failed attack, he was not quite fast enough to avoid the cleric's next attack. It was in that split second that James made his final choice and pulsed with arcane power in a way that would make most magi nauseous. At the same time James both backtracked at an angle and brought up his left arm to shield his throat. This resulted in James gaining some distance, but not without the fine-pointed sword smoothly sliding through the flesh of his forearm and jutting out very close to his neck, all the while suffusing his body with massive electrical damage.

In pain James found his second wind and ripped his arm free of the cleric's weapon to practically leap back several steps. At this point James would be around five feet to the left of the cleric. The deep wound was already beginning to close thanks to Dryad's healing, but this would most likely be the last of that magic as it exhausted itself. What Kynn might find interesting is that James stood without suffering any sort of damage from the lightning of the enchanted sword. In fact, James' body now produced tiny flickers of blue electricity in addition to the fiery runes on his skin. Seeing as how he had to renew it anyway, James added a fourth layer to the Aesr armor.

As to the origin of the electricity, James had invoked the power of his final chosen patron that day: Atlantes. In doing so, the invoker could(for very brief periods of time) absorb and redirect other forms of energy. In this case, the lightning in Kynn's rapier was added to the steadily draining pool of mana within James, bolstering his magical power. James raised his aqua-blade in a forward guard with his wounded arm laying limp at his side. Even with Dryad's healing the limb would not be whole again for another few moments. Still, James grinned.

"Give up. This is your only warning." this brought a rousing round of boos, jeers and laughter from a crowd that James had all but forgotten about. The threats of a man who clearly seemed to be losing the fight may have seemed ludicrous, but James was sure that the cleric knew. Any practitioner of magic would be able to sense the mass of volatile mana within James at that moment. Based on how easily Aesr's fire could destroy a few armored foes, it would be no exaggeration to assume that he would be able to wipe out the town by now. Ironically, the cleric would be the only survivor if it came to that... But would he be able to live with himself, knowing that this could have been avoided?

As James diverted Kynn's attack with his forearm, Kynn pressed his assault by landing on his left foot and then jumping forward once more in a second lunge. This time bringing the Serenade, the one he already brought up to his left shoulder, down in a slicing arc so that as his weapon thrust into James' impaled arm the second blade would slice from elbow down to wrist; severing the cephalic vein and causing him to bleed out from the large wound in his arm if it were to connect. The man already began healing, but if the second attack hit, Kynn wondered just how much damage the man could repair? As the attack ended, so did the lightning around the rapier, discharging and flickering away.

James now retreated and Kynn let him, he preferred to keep at a safe distance, and so he also took several steps backwards behind him towards the fountain. He now stuck both arms out to his sides and struck the swords in the ground, still gripping the hilts tightly. If he was looking at the 12 o'clock position, then his swords would be at 9 and 3.
"Give up. This is your only warning."
"As well as yours. You have already lost the battle rather you know it or not. I would prefer if we ended this peacefully. You are outmatched and out numbered. Give up now, or you will surely meet your end..."
As soon as he finished speaking the words he spun around and turned his back to the invoker, each sword drawing a half circle, and where one ended the other connected so that it created a complete circle around him. He then proceeded to let go of the two swords that were stuck in the ground and sat down; crossing his legs as he waited for the man's next move...

"Heh..." that was not what James had been expecting. In his experience, clerics, paladins, and other followers of gods of light were loathe to put the lives of innocents in peril. Yet based on the odd array of powers Kynn had displayed, and his rather cavalier attitude regarding death in spite of his jovial words, James was inclined to think that 'cleric' in this world had a very different meaning than what he was used to. Still, James had to admit... The guy had some real cojones. It was a shame that he would most likely die within the next couple minutes or so.

Healing power notwithstanding, James winced at a second wound that he had not noticed beforehand. Kynn's secondary attack had scored the invoker's flailing arm, and while not hitting it's intended target, the blow did manage to slice open the softer tissue of his skin and even some of the muscle. Dryad had only been able to shallow the wound somewhat and staunch the bleeding. James knew that one wrong move would have his opened arm bleeding again. Most lesser men would have passed out in shock from the sheer pain of such a grievous wound, but invokers were made of sterner stuff than lesser humans. James shook his head with a short, meaningful stare at Kynn Lightcaster.

There could not have been more than fifteen feet between the two duelists. That was more than James needed. He could already here the whispers, people wondering where the dark-skinned magician's glowing tattoos had gone. In fact, not a single rune of Aesr remained on James' body, even the electrical aura was gone. With little more than a thought the invoker had withdrawn every ounce of magical power into his active mana reserve. Without warning, the air rippled around Kynn's position.

Both swords would become mere hunks of metal, and every bit of the cleric's aptitude for magic would disappear in an instant. Any existing magical effect would be erased as well. That was the power of Atlantes, the dark mage, to destroy all magic aside from that of the caster if only for a few seconds. It was further limited by a radius of five feet from the point of origin(Kynn). Planting one's weapons in the ground and assuming a seated position would eliminate nearly any effective melee assault Kynn could front before the fight would end.

Without so much as a preparatory movement, James released the mass of mana in the form of the power of the patron that had first brought him to this dimension: Nereid. Kynn would feel a strong tug underneath his skin for a fraction of a second before every drop of blood was ripped from his pores in a violent explosion. Thanks to Atlantes, the cleric would have absolutely no defense against the assault.

It was gruesome, messy and not at all the invoker's style, but it was all James could think of to end the fight quickly. He took solace in the fact that the moment lasted less than two seconds, start to finish.

OOC: Cue awesome theme song!! >:O

---

The invoker's attack would have been devastating if Kynn hadn't of already countered it. The circle he had formed around himself with his two swords was a thaumaturgy circle, it could be used for all sorts of things but this time he was using it as a defense. As a fellow magic user Kynn would have thought that the invoker would have noticed by now, but he was so bent on ending the fight that he failed to notice subtle key movements that Kynn had been performing for the entire fight.
1. Stalling the fight to draw in energy.
2. Drawing a circle counter clockwise around the fountain.
3. Placing his right hand over his heart, channeling the energy from body, mind, and soul.
4. Drawing the second circle around himself and taking a position of concentration...

The first thing Kynn did when he sat down was activate the thaumaturgy circle with a small effort of his will. A blue transparent light shot up around them, completely invisible to the normal human eye, but any magic user would be able to see the energy. In this case Kynn had performed a very basic circle that would trap all magical energy inside of his circle, and keep all other energy outside.The spell the invoker attempted to fire at him slammed into the thaumaturgy barrier and created ripples of energy as it was repelled. These types of circles were normally used to contain demons, so Mr. invoker wouldn't be getting inside.

Kynn had been storing energy for the entire battle, and now he was ready to use it. He used a small amount to create his lightning sword, and now another small amount for his shield, but he still had enough to create the desired effect. He was using about 70% of his stored mana for this attack, the other 30% was placed into the shields. Shields? Yes, shields, there were two of them. Remember at the start of the battle when Kynn was scouting out the area? He was protecting the civilians by drawing a giant thaumaturgy circle, exactly like the one he was now sitting in. Silly invoker was clueless. Kynn began humming a jolly tune to himself. Within the two seconds it took the invoker to trigger his spell, Kynn used the next two seconds that followed to trap the invoker within the large circle that surrounded the both of them and the fountain. No physical being nor magical spell would be able to leave the circle from the inside. They were now both trapped in spellhold. The only way out would be for an outside source to break the circle, but that wouldn't be possible because Kynn created the circle by digging a hole in the ground with the tip of his blade, not using chalk. One of the swordsman would have to break the line with their own sword... but why would they do that?

Kynn now grabbed the hilts of the two swords that were lodged in the ground and pulsed energy into them, the two sword relics that were sitting on top of his own thaumaturgy circle were working as a conduit to focus his power to the outside to fill the larger circle with energy, IE the circle the invoker was standing in. He then called out "Magnus Mortis ventas servitaaaaaaaaaas!" As soon as the words were spoken a great gale was formed inside of the large circle creating a small tornado, the 'eye' was directly where Kynn was sitting. If the circle wasn't formed to trap the energy inside it would have wreaked havac on the town, but because Kynn drew the circle it was now contained and the town was completely safe. The Tornado winds couldn't kill the invoker because there wasn't enough wind trapped inside the circle, but it could tear the clothes off his back and fling him around. Because no solid nor magical object could leave the thaumaturgy circle the barrier would work as a brick wall for every time he hit it, and to make it worse the Marble fountain was now slowly being uprooted and torn to pieces, adding to the debris that was flying about. The goal was simple, use the magical gust of wind to throw the invoker and marble chucks around to knock the sense out of him. Even if he could heal, the average person would die from facing a Tornado head on.
Kynn now just had to sit back and relax and slowly feed more energy to keep the tornado going...

'Unexpected' was the best word for the situation that seemed to explode into sudden being around the combatants. The first and most obvious part of this that James became aware of was his failed attack. It was almost as if he could feel hundreds of Nereid's unseen grasping hands crash against the cleric's barrier. He also felt what could only be described as a crack in the circle, damage from the combined assault of his anti-magic and such a powerful attack. Before the entirety of hands of Nereid fizzled out, expended and useless, James recalled roughly a third of the spell's power back into his mana reserves.

A smirk met the young man's face for a moment when a howling gale tried to bull it's way through the anti-magic zone, courtesy of Lightcaster, only to be dispersed in an extravagant display of nothingness as the null-space did it's work. The newly secluded battle-zone was far from lifeless in the sudden lull between the attacks of the two spell casters. James gritted his teeth against the burning pain of his wounded arm and hissed a word of command. "Thanatos Piaculum."

An instant later, he was gone. In the twilight of the town, shadows seemed to come alive. The darkness vibrated, shifted subtly and writhed when looked at out of the corner of one's eye, calming when gazed upon directly as if teasing anyone who gazed upon them. Each and every one held a minute amount of the invoker's mana, such small amounts that even one trained to look for such things would be hard-pressed to notice. That, combined with the mass of magic radiating from the cleric's circle of power would serve to conceal James in his new incorporeal form.

The air began to hiss sinister curses that the mind struggled to understand due to their vague familiarity, but ultimately could not comprehend. Most of the effect was for show. In truth, James was barely ten feet below Kynn phasing through the stone. Every few seconds James would send a distant shadow flaring up with a larger amount of mana, just enough to be sensed before fading as quickly as it had come into being. If James had been granted anything approaching a mouth in his shade-form, he would have smirked. In this form, he felt no physical pain and his wound was just a bad dream.

Now, we wait.

Kynn jumped as the force slammed into his invisible barrier. He turned around to see what was going on when his wind spell failed to activate. He let off a disappointed sigh as he stood back to his feet. "Of course... I thought this was going to be easy. Nothing ever is. Alright mister invoker, we will play. You were able to counter my wind, but lets see if you can counter my next attack."

He now grabbed the gold rapier out of the ground and twisted it around in a circle in a corkscrew motion, making the hole in the ground bigger before pulling the sword free. He left the Serenade as is. His wizard sight allowed him to see the small movements of the shadow lurking about, and although they weren't hurting anyone at the moment, they still sent a wave of fear through him. He had a very bad experience with a shadow demon once, and he didn't want to repeat the scenario...
The shadows were distracting, but at the moment all they were doing were taunting him so he tried his best to ignore them. He attempted to keep his fear of the shadows under control as he scanned the area for the Invoker, looking to see where he had run off to. The circle was quite small so he couldn't have gone far. He first looked 360 degrees around him but he saw nothing. He then turned and looked up in the sky to see if the invoker flew up above him. When he didn't see him around the circle, nor above him, the last logical conclusion was "He is below me..." He looked down and saw the feint glowing energy of the invoker moving around. What was he planning?

If the man was able to move through the earth the way that he was, then Kynn figured that an earth attack would be useless. He began gathering mana for another type of attack instead. He quickly unbuttoned the top half of his military jacket and pulled his arms free so that the jacket was hanging loose around his waist. After he was done he released a very small amount of the mana. "Aright, I hope this works... Manacatoptric Crux."
A feint blue glow of light pulsed around him after he spoke the words before quickly fading away again. He now stood in a ready position, both hands gripping the hilt of the sword and holding it low near his stomach and out in front of him to guard any attacks that might come his way...

Being without a corporeal form was an experience James never tired of. Living without the aid of a heart, lungs or brain in a form that defied the laws of nature was a magic that the invoker studied extensively for the sheer fun of it. Realizing that his mind was wandering, James snapped his attention back to the situation at hand. He could feel the strands of magic that had been threatening to fray under lax attention. Up on the surface, shadows tore and raged in a haphazard dance that frightened all those citizens in attendance. The power of Thanatos would not last much longer, but James intended to make the most of it.

James stared at Kynn and laughed in soundless mirth. In this form, he could see through solid objects as if they were made of air. James could see the cleric quite clearly peering into the ground directly at him. Mage sight? he mused. That apprentice-level spell was the farthest thing from a battle-worthy spell that James would have ever considered. Being able to see the flows and ebbs of magic was not something that would be particularly useful in most situations, especially for someone sensitive to the arcane anyway. Unless of course, you faced an opponent that relied on magic as a means of evasion.

Clever. in response to his interest and irritation, the shadows jumped and began to ripple, lifting off of the ground and the darker corners of the city into the three-dimensional world ever so slightly. Dryad. Kynn's only warning would be the abrupt disappearance of about two cubic feet of stone beneath his feet and a small storm of blade-edged leaves with the strength of metal slicing into him from below. The blast was much like a mine in scope, and would fire the bladed projectiles roughly ten feet out from the point of origin.

Meanwhile, James pressed upon the top of the stone. It felt comparable to the surface of water, resisting for the briefest of moments before giving way and allowing the shadow-form invoker back into the realm of light. With a deft flip and a split second of vertigo, James found himself crouching over a spot adjacent to the one Kynn would be forced to vacate. He hoped that his current appearance would ward off any close-range attacks for fear that the entropic energies that animated James would harm the cleric. It did not matter overly much, as the shadows around town intensified further with a greater feed of mana.

Kynn spent years perfecting his magical abilities to fight demons, not humans, or elves, or monsters. He focused all of his energy honing his skills to slay nothing other than demons. They were monsters that normal eyes couldn't see and normal weapons couldn't harm. So naturally when the man turned into a shadow, Kynn's mind went to work on all the different ways to defeat a shade. His thought was cut off though when the ground abruptly disappeared and he found himself flailing in mid air. His right hand instinctively reached out and grabbed the Serenade that was still stuck in the ground as he fell into the hole. The sword's hilt kept him from dropping too deep into the hole and he used his feet to help push him back up to safety. As for the leaves, well they were already countered and he didn't have to worry about them.

Catoptromancy is a form of divination magic that uses mirrors to perform its spells. Such as trapping a person in the mirror, or using the mirror to see the future. The word Catoptric means to 'reflect' or a 'mirror'. And the word Mana is a natural energy source that all living creatures have. Some people have learned how to manipulate this energy, they are called Mages or wizards. Another simple word for Mana is magic. Combing both Mana and catoptric together creates 'Magic reflector',
and that was exactly what his previous spell did. A bright blue light washed over his body as the razor sharp leaves hit and was reflected around him rather then going through him. It didn't reflect it back to its caster, just randomly in every direction away from Kynn. As the leaves finished their assault his shield faded away and dispersed.

Kynn was now back up on his feet, paying little attention to the leaves that tried to harm him. He stepped out of his thaumaturgy circle; he had smudged the line earlier when he had pulled the golden rapier out of the ground and had rotated the blade around like a corkscrew. He now raised the Fantasia whisper up towards the sky and called out "Sol borealis sanctum!"
As soon as the words were spoken a bright light shot down from the sky and struck his sword, radiating 360 degrees around him with its blinding light. Unlike his other spells, this was not normal magic, it was holy magic. This was a twofold spell, anyone looking at it would be blinded by its solar flare but it would also smite all shadows within Kynn's magic barrier that he had created earlier. He had stored up a large amount of energy to slowly feed it to his tornado spell to keep it going, but when the spell failed he had all that built up energy and no spell to place it in, so the only choice he had was to just keep storing it. He now released all of that mana as he pointed his blade at the invoker's chest. "Sol arrooooooow!"
The bright light that was shining down onto his sword shot off like a bullet toward's the invoker; the sound like that of thunder. If it hit him it would not only smite him if he remained a shadow, but the intense heat of the light would also burn him like a laser. He kept the stream of light going in case the man tried to move and would simply redirect the light to hit him. It was a continuous beam of light with all the energy that his tornado was suppose to have.

Already was the weight of a physical shell threatening to bear down on James as Kynn readied his next attack. Instead of facing what was to come in his true body, James allowed himself to sink two inches into the stone. While his body was no longer made up of living shadow, the terms of the contract with Thanatos stated that he would remain incorporeal so long as he a in such a situation that would leave him trapped, harmed or dead should he become tangible. Floating through solid stone definitely counted among those scenarios. In any case, staying intangible kept James from allowing his wounds to worsen or affect him. Still, it would do little to protect him from the concentrated beam of light.

"Too obvious." he whispered with a small amount of disdain. Where James came from, when someone pointed anything at you, be it a finger, wand or antennae, some deadly ray or blast of malevolent force followed without fail. It was only natural for James to call out across the Immaterial to invoke the dark wizard Atlantes. Still settled in a crouch, James felt the raw power of the light magic tear into his immaterial flesh. The sensation was barely a thump, as the energy broke around James as a river flows around a boulder. James placed his own stored mana into this new defense, dispersing the various shadows and mana clouds throughout the town and gathering them in one counter.

James was grinning as the power surged in to him. With each fraction of a moment that passed, Kynn was feeding the invoker's mana-pool with his own attack and providing fuel for more spells. Despite having expended a good portion of his stored mana to be able to absorb the attack in the first place, at this point James was already back up to that level, having gained Kynn's charged blast. The moment Kynn ran out of energy or simply ceased the beam, James would use his new swell of magical energy to attempt to tear out the cleric's blood once more with Nereid's power. Indeed, James figured there would be little the cleric could do this time. Kynn had spent a vast portion of his power only to have an opponent add it to their counter. Even if he could erect a defense, at best it would mitigate the damage just enough so that he would not immediately perish.

At worst...well, James would wish he had brought an umbrella.

((I'm pretty sure the effects are the same as the last one, just multiplied by Kynn's own attack.))

Kynn let the beam continue to fire...
Until he realized it was being funneled into the invoker's body. He immediately cut the mana flow from the beam, but it would be too late. He had forgotten to reactivate another defense after using his mana reflector shield. He cursed himself for his recklessness. This is what happens when you don't have a proper master to teach you magic. His self taught lessons had just placed him in a dire situation. He could try to throw up a sloppy defense for whatever the invoker was going to throw at him, but he just wouldn't have enough mana in his body to get anything effective off.

He felt a strange tingling as Nereid reached her ghostly hands into his body to rip the blood right out of his veins. His wizard's sight allowed him to see her, but without magic there wasn't much he could do but just look at her. The one thing he could prepare to do was prep for hitting the ground. He sat down and let the Reaper approach. Because he was a shapeshifter, he could try to do a massive shift at the exact moment his blood was ripped from him, but it would pain him to an endless degree to do so. He decided to do something else instead. Something he had never done before. He hoped it worked...

He shifted his own body to open small holes in his veins and skin, allowing the blood to flow free. The wound was biggest around his waist. The blood was ripped from his wounds just as the invoker had planned (two-three pints?). The result would look like he spontaneously began to bleed from head to toe. Kynn became lightheaded from the blood loss and collapsed. He didn't black out, he simply lost his balance and fell back to lay down. He began gasping for air and choking as his life was slowly fading from him. Now to put his plan into action. He had died before, he knew the feeling. He had to mentally slap himself a few times to get his mind's attention.
Don't black out!
Slap.
Stay awake!
I'm up...
Slap.
I'm UP!!!
Good. We have work to do.
Okay. What is the plan? I seem to be dying and bleeding out. This was dumb to create wounds in my own body...
No, it will work. Shapeshift into a smaller form and try to suck the blood back into your body.
What...?
A smaller body will require less blood to function. It will work.
So how are we going to do this?
Shed your old body and leave it behind...


Kynn slowly began the process of shapeshifting.
"Wha-wh... Hey... Wha..." He was trying to talk to the invoker, but words were a tough thing at this point.
By now, the invoker would be taking some type of action as he saw the Cleric laying in a bloody pool. What would he do to the helpless Cleric??