[37] nothing ever changes.

[darkenedred]

[Haou is settled on a bench somewhere, probably in the park. Full armor as usual. Not much to say, except that he is (mostly) unsuspecting.

There are certain people after his head that he is unaware of. To those people: here, have a chance to come beat the shit out of him. Possibly.]

((OOC: Mostly for Lina/Bard/whoever the hell else wants to

Comments

[unnatural_20s]

It had been ages since Red Mage had had a good old-fashioned boss battle. And it wasn't an ordinary one either; his quest-giver had been harmed. This "fall out boy" or whatever the kids called themselves these days had very nearly destroyed Red Mage's one link to the world of questing!

He didn't know what the deal was between this guy and Lina, nor did he care. The honor of a beautiful woman was on the line; Red Mage had no intention of letting the guy walk away unharmed. It was time to do this. It was time to do this right.

The mage walked straight up to Haou and rolled a dice on the ground. "3. Crap."

[darkenedred]

[A quirk of an eyebrow, and Haou pauses for a moment, simply staring at Red Mage for a time before lifting himself up and bringing the dark energy to the forefront of his mind. He decides to wait for Red Mage to make a move, however... if the dice are kind to him today.]

[unnatural_20s]

[He taps his foot impatiently.]

Look, I already know I fudged my Sneak Attack. Quit gloating and attack me already.

[darkenedred]

[With a skeptical sort of "if you insist" glance, Haou blasts a wave of darkness at Red Mage without much more hesitation, sort of as an experimental attack to see what the result will be, if he will defend or not.]

[unnatural_20s]

[As the dark wave rushes toward him, Red Mage rolls a dice again.]

17! Awesome!

[The wave washes over him more-or-less harmlessly.]

My turn!

[More ice spells. Are you tired of ice spells. I thought so.]

[darkenedred]

[Fortunately, or unfortunately, Haou needs no dice to judge the success of his moves. He flares a sort of wall of darkness in front of him to absorb the ice, more or less. However, it only covers his front, and his sides and back are unprotected, if you care to exploit this somehow.]

[unnatural_20s]

[Exploiting an opponent's weakness? That sounds like an actual legitimate strategy. You're talking to the wrong character, my friend. Red Mage continues to pump ice magic at the wall on the grounds that darkness is intangible and therefore shouldn't pose a problem. He just needs a second for the rules of physics to kick in. Totally.]

Any minute now.

[thelostseraph]

Could you have waited on this until we were no longer attached?

[With a somewhat irritated expression, Ledah looks on. He refrains from joining in the attack with the thought that fire and ice tend not to mix very successfully.]

[darkenedred]

[Haou watches incredulously, unsure if this guy is trying to look stupid on purpose to throw him off, or...

But he decides to take his chances, because this is becoming unamusing. And so the wall of darkness starts rushing forward, catching and tangling within it what ice it connects with and sweeping it off its course, causing it to lose its momentum and flow along with the wave instead.]

[thelostseraph]

Yet at the same time, I will hardly allow myself to be injured by this foolishness, you understand.

[Dark magic. There was something off about this man -- Not expressly demonic, persay, but certainly . . . something more than human. No matter. If Miss Inverse was to be believed, he was guilty of grave sin. No mercy for the damned.

A wall of flame springs up between the angel and the wave of darkness, reducing the shards of ice carried within to nothing more than a steaming pool of water. At the same time, the cleansing light cast by the flame reduces the strength of the dark magic, though not entirely rendering it ineffectual. Ledah steels himself for the oncoming blow.]