by Harlon Banks
"If you really want to have a one on one match with me without any intent of at least getting to know one another as possible teammates in the future, then fine. I'll humbly accept your request."
Melissa suddenly lunged from the canopy at Thrain's backside with a sudden burst of speed from cover. The air streaking phantom blue as it trailed her lunge while sharpened eyes locked on his neck. The curved blade of her obsidian black Karambit knife blazing over in a sheath of refined energy that seemed to shriek like a ferocious beast. Reach and sharpness amplified to the lengths of a spectral sword of sorts wielded reversed in her left hand as she arced it forward to bite into flesh! Her emotions from earlier still clawing at her mind, tunneling in on releasing her pent-up anger from many years before all in one blow on Thrain.
She lost sight of her main goal; she tunneled in on killing Thrain...
Thrain suddenly flicked something over his shoulder at her that made the woman catch a breath in her throat. Thrain disappearing via high-speed movement afterwards leaving the Ylrah out in the open with a glowing object rushing towards her face. This violet colored thing shaped in the form of a tangible symbol made of Thrain's aura. A symbol Melissa neither knew the origins of nor had the time to decipher as it exploded into a grenade like blast of purple and blue essence with violent disposition! Its blast radius catching her off guard, the impact throwing her backwards and slamming her hard into a tree, blowing away bark and debris from the small impact crater she left. Her black sleeves blown and burned away from guarding against the blast at the last moment, warm toned arms singed from the heat and her body sizzling with residual aether from the impact.
Thrain reappeared in the same spot he'd vanished from moments earlier, only this time facing Melissa with a look of quiet, yet friendly smile. Paintbrush twirling through fingers of the right when he spoke to the injured woman again. No doubt that damaged her pride a bit.
"Just don't expect me to go down easily yeah? You aren't the only one with a few tricks up your sleeve." He beamed a smile at her only to be met with a highly ticked off, silent glare from Melissa. A glare that pierced through him with hatred that he began to notice was highly unwarranted. Where was all of this anger coming from? His eyes narrowing once more, that look of hers...
The young woman pulling herself to her feet and huffing a bit from fatigue. That explosion winded her a bit, she couldn't take too many more of those point-blank. Thrain noting that she'd still managed to hold on to her knife despite the blast, even though the aura she'd clad it in to raise its lethality had faded to nothing. Though, that didn't really concern him nearly as much as what happened next. His sapphire eyes widening in quiet astonishment when he noticed the burns spanning Melissa' arms began to disappear. A slight tinge of cold emanation from the fuming eerie bluish aether hazily visible around her. Her aura climbing in size, growing denser... Colder... Darker.
When aether hits a certain level of power, it becomes visible to the naked eye; even without the necessary perception requirements needed to see it normally. The denser the aura, the more rich the coloration. The larger the aura, the more prominent the feeling it exerts on the surrounding area after a certain threshold as well. This pressure can be molded into offensive and defensive abilities such as elemental attacks, weapon creation or physical augmentation abilities and much more. However it is very rare for such aura exertion to become vampiric in nature, draining the very life out of the surrounding lands. It was only then did Thrain finally piece it all together.
Melissa was a Nightborn from Shade Valley...
Thrain could tell more than ever now that this one was far more dangerous of an adversary than he'd thought. That cold feeling from her aura growing as it siphoned the very life from the trees, grass, even the crystals around losing their glow. A noticeable flare of energy coming from her eye hidden under bangs of black hair. What came next was an exhale, Melissa blowing ominous hued aura from her lips while that cerulean blue eye glared at Thrain. Her pupil quivering, before settling into a spiral upon itself and draining the mana that infused her iride into it. It looked like one were staring into a literal black hole when one gazed into her left eye now. Those swirling ripples of blue tinting the edges of her pupil with its color before meshing into raw blackness never to be seen again.
Thrain stopped twirling his paintbrush, the dark purple tip dripping again as his eyes took on a more... soft and solemn look barely noticeable in them. Just looking at Melissa in this moment, how her powers acted and how cold and unforgiving that left eye of hers looked when transformed...
It said a lot about her past and the things she probably went through. It was like looking at...
"So that's what this is about..." He thought to himself, a bit of sympathy welling in his heart but not brandishing outwards for her to see. Tensing up a bit when he saw the woman raise her left arm up, palm facing Thrain as if she outstretched herself to try to grab him from across the clearing. Despite this powerful, rising energy swelling within her. This heavy pressure being exerted on his shoulders from the sheer weight of her aether pushing down on him and the immediate vicinity, Thrain noticed something very profound. This singular detail causing him to actually smirk a bit more not out of cockiness, but anticipation! Black paintbrush twirled though grasp again at his hip, he couldn't hide his grin.
"Why are you smiling?" Melissa said very soft-spoken, her words empty and lacking emotion. That left eye of hers discharging a more powerful, phantom blue glow. Thrain quickly dialing back his excitement and shaking his head to show he didn't mean to give the wrong impression.
"Ah, it's nothing! It's just well, your power is amazing is all. No doubt about it... Even if you can't control it." He explained, scratching the back of his head rather sheepishly hoping she didn't think he were down talking her. Melissa tilting her head ever so slightly, the energies amassing in her left and hidden right eye respectively confirming Thrain's assumption. They were unbalanced, greatly so and constantly fluctuating in trying to find said balance. No doubt despite her calm, outwards demeanor...
"Just maintaining this awakening of yours is taxing your body heavily ain't it? Especially your mental and spiritual stamina. You're banking all or nothing now on taking me down head on over going the usual stealth mode. I'm extremely impressed and amazed at your strength, Melissa. I really am!" Thrain commended with a genuine smile of approval that once again fell on deaf ears to Melissa. Even at this very second, he could feel her aether infusing her body with empowerment while simultaneously charging up within her eyes. She was about to hit him hard with something never shown to anyone else before. He had to respond in kind, out of simple respect for her prowess and her words...
Forget the goal of this examination. Thrain wanted to see what Melissa could do! Melissa at the same time, had something to prove not to Thrain, but herself. The man didn't notice it, but internally the young woman was experiencing terrifying trauma.
"I don't know why I succumbed to going this far..." She whispered in her psyche while watching Thrain begin to swipe his paintbrush across his left arm drawing multiple sigils in the span of a second or so, all up the extremity. If it wasn't for her enhanced perception, she'd have thought he barely touched his arm with that brush before all those glowing purple and blue symbols appeared. Her body began to quiver, not from excitement though. No, her body began to quiver, to tremble, from one raw emotion that begun to rapidly encompass her very being.
Fear...
"Witch! Devil spawn! Monster!" A multitude of disembodied voices screamed in her head, her aura fading away slightly as she winced ever so slightly in her gaze at Thrain.
"What are you doing Melissa!? Are you really so weak that you let your own powers terrify you!? Subjugate your goddamn nightmares or you will be NOTHING!" A woman's voice barked furiously at her! Melissa' aura flaring up again in that next instant from decline.
An image of her younger self, screaming her poor heart out in the corner while visibly trembling came next
. Eyes quivering with fear and her hands clawing at her head tightly gripping her hair. Curled up into that small, dark corner in an expanse of raw blackness as far as the eye could see. Apparitions and their shadows flickering and dancing across her visage as if looking over her being the cause of her terror.
Melissa began visibly shivering, her hands snapping up to grab her head as she fell on her butt and stared at the ground frightened beyond understanding. Thrain blinking a moment, his earlier excitement vanishing immediately as he rushed over to aid Melissa with little care for his own well-being. Before he got too close though, something happened...
She couldn't do it. She thought she could but she couldn't... The nightmares were too strong.
"Help me... HELP ME!"
Melissa let out a shrill scream that pierced the air with powerful vigor into the eternal night. This accompanied by a blast wave of her aura outwards that made Thrain raise an immediate barrier of bluish energy before him using the markings on his left arm. Skidding back a bit with a grunt, his eyes narrowed with concern at Melissa. His assumption was right... Melissa tried to use powers far beyond her level of control in her emotional state. Quickly dispelling the barrier and readying his brush again, he swiped the air in front of him drawing markings. Melissa' terrified screams amplified and echoing in the darkness of the forest overcoming all ambient noises around. Moments later those glowing symbols hovering in the air transformed into two large wolves of raw golden color with deep hued purple eyes.
The beasts suddenly lunged to attack Melissa! Her left eye discharging another burst of aether in a streaking color before something unsightly, birthed itself into existence to defend her! An abhorrent roaring booming outwards, Thrain looking taken aback!
...
"What the hell!?" Jonath skid to a stop some many ways away and veered his head towards the piercing cries of a woman. Sensing that dense and cold aether from all the way where he was even with wide eyes. "Is that Melissa!?" He asked aloud with concern, suddenly bolting towards the direction he heard her screams. As he ran, fluently dodging brush and trees with a returning agility and finesse he were all but used to now, his mind raced trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Did Melissa get attacked? If so by what? Who!? Why was her aura raging like that!?
Right as Jonath vaulted over a fallen tree, before his boots even landed on the dirt before him, he saw a blur rushing him from his right. Barely managing to veer soft glowing pale eyes over in time to see it and bring his arms up crossed over his face and neck to brace himself.
"Shit!"
BANG!
The trunk of a tree found itself blown apart with Jonath slamming into it with such unnatural force. His body lifted completely off the ground and his hands grabbing at Kelgard's right, which was tightly wrapped around his throat while his left stayed casually in the pocket of black pants. The aloof Nightborn effortlessly holding the amnesic off the ground, crimson eyes looking all the indifferent to whatever was happening between Melissa and Thrain. Fucking hell, of all the goddamn times to run into him!
"You should be more focused about your own well-being, don't you think?" Kelgard's smooth, deep baritone sounded all too indifferent as he spoke to Jonath. Just looking at how lax he was despite having Jonath pinned to a heavily damaged tree spoke volumes about his strength and attitude already. Jonath managing to shoot a menacing glare of anger at Kelgard while fingerless gloved hands gripped his wrist in defiance. Strangely enough, Jonath didn't even realize he'd just forgotten all about Melissa in that moment. A new feeling he hated all too well overtaking rational thought. His own grip tightening on Kelgard's as a growl left his throat and pale eyes flared up with energy of their own.
"Let go of me damn it!" He barked viciously! The next thing he knew he found his body smashing deeper into the thick tree that braced his impact, tearing clean through it and tumbling across the ground as the large plant toppled over with a crash nearby. Kelgard had sent him flying with a simple punch, eyes still looking nonchalant and unfazed while his left hand which dealt the punch faster than Jonath could even notice, returned to his pocket. Stepping over the debris with a slight pop of his neck, the Nightborn approached the cloud of dirt and dust kicked up by Jonath's impact with zero concern.
"I'm here to take you down and get this exam over with." He calmly said. He didn't care about what was going on with Thrain or Melissa nor did he really care about Jonath's own motives. He simply had decided to end this as quick as possible over taking a nap like he initially planned.
There was a shift in the air, Kelgard slightly widening his eyes in surprise. What came next was Jonath exploding towards him with a blur of silver energy and...
Wielding a wicked looking scythe colored like the moon in both hands...
"Just try it!" He cried out before a vicious attempt to cleave Kelgard's throat out with that double-edged, crescent blade followed! Where did this sudden surge of strength come from!?
You Reap What You Sow
The Challenger Chapter Sixty-One: You Reap What You Sow
Know thy name, and remember...
The air screamed in agony from a wickedly sharp blade slashing through it. A streak of red arching across the sky and splattering along the bark of a nearby tree like painted streaks. Kelgard's crimson eyes for the first time since his début, widened from a level of shock not even he could consciously keep hidden. Skidding backwards with arms raised to protect his throat, a large chunk of flesh carved right out of both limbs from Jonath's vicious ambush with a surge of power. Underlying bone, tissue, and nerves exposed, bleeding profusely from the injury to his arms as he narrowed his eyes at his adversary.
He didn't expect such a drastic and sudden explosion of power from this one... At least, not on the scale it was currently at now. Jonath's aura was noticeably denser, more vivid and untamed compared to that release back at the facility. The pale eyed Nightborn standing before him a few meters away and bearing a noticeable new aesthetic to his visage. Black streaks painted his once all hair, as if the silver coloration had been devoured by the deepest shadows of the night. His eyes transformed again as well, prominent pale glowing pupils shaped like crescent moons with thickened limbal rings that swelled with mystic energy. An empty, glassy look to his gaze, having become a mute immediately after his cry of anger moments earlier.
It looked like... Jonath were in a trance...
The amnesic outstretched his pale left arm, his crescent curved scythe blade of gleaming silver turned slightly to reflect the ghostly glow of the moonlight. The long shaft perfectly straight and slender, gripped tightly in grasp. The posterior end bearing a forearm's length of broken chain length that rattled and echoed ominously every time the wind blew. Kelgard noting this strange awakening with recollected demeanor and bearing his typical apathetic gaze again. While he was never one to go around underestimating people, this was something he couldn't have gauged. No matter much he thought he knew.
Oh well, it didn't matter to him really.
The bloody wounds on his arms sealing over at high speeds, regeneration making it as if the injury never happened. Hands brought to his sides again yet not daring to move back within pockets. Instead, they remained subtly tensed, fingers flexed slightly as the black-haired man closed his eyes and popped his neck. Boots shifting in the dirt equally distributing his weight while he rolled his shoulders loosening up. The forthcoming breeze playing with his black hued hair and caressing his cool toned light skin.
"That was a pretty good ambush. Going straight for the neck wasn't too bad of an idea either." He said calm, nonchalant and to the point. Arms moving back into his pockets surprisingly while he inhaled deeply, closed his eyes and leaned his head back as if planning to look up at the sky. A sudden red tinge to the air outlining his body, dark red droplets of what appeared to be blood floating up and around his visage followed by a disappearance of his own energy. There was no intention of gawking at the amnesic's new surge of power, nor was there any intention of c
hanging tactics or running away in fear. Red eyes slowly opening to gaze up at the night sky and admire it.
Regardless of how much power this Nightborn showed, Kelgard intended to crush him all the same.
Jonath tensed up on his grip, suddenly swiping scythe through the air with one arm behind him. The sinister weapon primed with blade near the ground, inner edge curved upwards while the shaft braced against his backside. Silver pale energy screaming to life as winds blasted up around him in a torrent from his energy. Suddenly, he tore up the ground in a sudden burst forward towards Kelgard... The latter retaliating with a forced exhale and snapping his upper body back forward as a violent burst of bloody colored energy erupted outwards from him in a powerful, overwhelming torrent of red hue that overtook the colors of the forest around.
Meanwhile...
"Huh!?" Min quickly veered her head off in the direction of that sudden explosion of energy Jonath emanated. Golden eyes widened with both astonishment and deep confusion. That aura... That was Jonath!? A part of her unconsciously started to run over to the where she pinpointed the surge; though she quickly stopped herself. Tilting her head in deep thought a moment on what to do about this.
