YAY VIOLENCE WITHOUT CONSEQUENCES [OPEN]

[inthirds]

WHO: Zelgadis and others just get in here ok
WHERE: A vacant lot all groomed and abused for sword&sorcery practice
WHEN: Next week...pick a day
WARNINGS: Idk yet
SUMMARY: Magic and swords and spars and spectators and whatever else happens happens ok? ok
FORMAT: No (whatever you want)

Comments

we don't need no stinkin timelines

[speedofnaked]

It wasn't hard to figure out where Zel was going every day. It was so inadvertently obvious, it never needed to be stated. And that was fine with Terra; it left her to follow her own habits in the meantime, catching up on a City that hod not stopped moving, growing, changing in their absence.

But for all that needed to be done, it didn't mean she couldn't drop in on the person she saw most frequently. She popped into that familiar lot with a practiced warp, landing seated atop one of the still-standing but much abused earthen pillars of Zelgadis's own creation.

The heels of her boots clunked dully against rock, but she made no overtures of greeting to catch his attention. She was content enough to watch, for the moment.

[inthirds]

Zelgadis' neck and spine were sent to tingling, an early and useless alert for the oncoming pulse of magic making his breather moment a fairy tale legend. He dug his heels in and thrust his arms forward, elbows locked, and cast his Flare Shield preemptively. Rising heat made Windy Shield a dumb idea, for one. Another ice volley wouldn't be cold enough, for another.

It wasn't doing a whole lot of good, however. That became apparent very quick, despite the fact that the ground around him was boiling a little more than the ground behind his shield. For all of a few seconds, at least.

Deja vu. On fire. Again. But this time, the source wasn't a fragment of his world's head honcho of evil.

It was his girlfriend.

[speedofnaked]

Who didn't even have the decency to look exhausted from that kind of spell, either. She shook her arms, as if to remove ice crystals that no longer had a chance of existing, before moving to a more defensive stance.

[inthirds]

Offense would have to wait for Zelgadis to tug his cloak and hood off and cast them aside, spare them from further damage. He only had one of those, dammit, and he wasn't very good at mending. The rest could be managed; he swatted flames off his shoulder, flicking ash away as a second thought to his gesture.

Digu Volt was lighting, as directed as it could be for its nature, not worth underestimating as being as small-time as its size. It didn't need to look like Zeus' wrath to carry the impact, especially when the caster behind it had extra oomph to spare. And to be fair, Zelgadis was getting fairly annoyed that he was being so visibly spanked. He wasn't even trying to let her win, okay.

[speedofnaked]

It was good that Terra didn't have a sword in hand to better catch the lightning; better still that she didn't have a weapon to drop. It hit her harder than fire ever does, and the damage here was more visible than the bludgeoning of ice. She struggled to keep her balance, taking steps forward and back, her arms and her body shaking as electricity raced over and through her. When the crackling ceased, smoke rose from her shoulders and her head, and even at a distance the beginnings of burns shone against her skin.

Now she looked to be showing injury to the fight; regen had already worn off, and the heave of her chest as she panted for breath was more apparent now. Dodging seemed less likely now, but from the glow of her hands, the fight was not yet over. She hadn't even taken a knee, as he'd done to mere poison. She looked like she wanted to, though.

But it wasn't surrender that came out--it wasn't even cure. Like fire against fire, now was electricity versus electricity, and Bolt two came down from a cloudless sky, blue and

[inthirds]

And this one had wire for hair. And demon speed, too, but who outruns a lightning strike when it's struck?

He reeled, smoking, and for a few seconds he forgot what he was angry about - just that he was. That...probably had something to do with being struck by lightning. He was still much more fleshy on the inside, after all. And nauseated - where was Slyphiel and a quick Dicleary when it was actually needed?

He needed Power Words, mumbled or otherwise, spat as he stood with his legs spaced to keep him upright. Dust rose and spun along with the wind he called -- "D-Diem Wind," -- the speed rising rapidly and sending anything not stuck to the ground a ways away from him. Clear the field, clear his head?

[speedofnaked]

Holding her arms up as a shield was little barrier against a wind so powerful, and light as she was, it was surprise to no one that it threw her backwards. She slammed against a fresh grown pillar, feet failing their duty beneath her; Terra slumped to her knees, catching her body on burnt palms before she fell face-first into the gravel. Sweat rolled down her face and stuck like syrup to her neck, probably thickened by blood. She lost track of where her wounds were

[inthirds]

He saw her rise and groaned. Perhaps the poison, but there was a foul feeling hanging over him, worsened by the sight before him that he was responsible for. Was it...supposed to be fun? Nobody was laughing anymore. They were just blasting the tar out of each other. What was the point, again?

He realized winning wasn't going to make him feel better, and dropped to his knees and sagged. One hand lifted to numbly swipe the last shred of sleeve dangling uselessly at the shoulder, still steaming from the lightning strike.

Yield, he thought, but wouldn't say.

[speedofnaked]

Where she rose, he fell, and it took Terra a long moment of staring to understand what Zelgadis was getting at with that posture; longer still to force herself into motion. Her gait was unsteady across the the scorched ground, heels crunching and wobbling through gravel. It was more than long enough time to allow him to rise, to command a final blow, but no such thing came.

Terra fell once more, but it seemed more of an intentional drop this time; her legs splayed to her sides, feet pulled in, and one palm down held her steady, mere inches from where Zelgadis knelt. Her other still-glowing hand crossed that short distance, laying carefully against that tangle of wire. "Antidote" was a murmur, but just like that the power fled her, chasing through his body, consuming and destroying what toxin she'd inflicted there.

She exhaled in a hard puff, but not even the cuts on her face kept her cheeks from pulling back into a smile. "You've gotten better."

[inthirds]

The praise wasn't a comfort. The antidote was, though only enough to keep his head from spinning and stomach roiling. She might as well have said Good job getting your ass kicked while simultaneously trying to set your girlfriend on fire. He could hear the remark very distinctly in Lina's voice, which didn't help matters. Never mind the fact that both of them agreed to spar! That was different in his brain. His stupid, fried brain.

He grunted, grumbling something that may have been words in thought, but not necessarily in execution.

Poison-free, yet still feeling scummy. That was him.

[speedofnaked]

Sure, it had taken the better part of a year for her to pick up on the trend, but getting the grumble treatment from Zelgadis was rarely, if ever a good thing. The smile weakened, the corner of her mouth digging into her cheek for uncertainty. The hand that had provided healing (and some dirt) dropped, finding its way to his matching partner. His stone skin wouldn't register much feeling, especially after a beating like that, but the gesture counted for something, didn't it?

"Zel?" she called, trying not to let the worry overpower her voice.

[inthirds]

His Huh? was rather spacey, still wading through one of those clouds of misery he was apt to getting stuck in. The sound prompted him to blink and actually acknowledge the hand, which in turn prompted him to lift his head and blink again, looking more confused than miserable. Huh? What?

"I--huh?" He was suddenly unsure if there had been more words before that. "What?"

[speedofnaked]

That was better. Her expression eased off into something milder, but adrenaline made it hard to keep a smile off her face. "I lost you there for a while."

[inthirds]

"S-sorry," he stammered, starting to flush. It was hard to remain cranky and miserable when she was smiling. After getting singed? Really? All the girls in his life were crazy.

[speedofnaked]

But as nice as that flustered look on him was, they still had some burns to deal with. Rather, she had burns to deal with; it was hard to tell if his skin could burn. Terra was pretty sure she could already feel her skin blistering over in patches. Leaning back and lifting both her hands to her chest, the build for this spell was much quicker than the others; there was barely time for an inhale before she murmured the name.

With "Cure three," a glittering barrage of white stars burst to life like fireworks, if the sound of explosions were replaced by chimes. Every scrape was sealed up, every bruise blotted out, blisters undone; in the few seconds it took for the spell to run its course, Terra had visibly gone from beaten and bloody battlefield escapee to looking like she'd just rolled out of bed. The same could have been said for him, if he ever wore his damage as superficially as she, but the spell burrowed beneath the skin as well. Even muscle aches were taken care of

[inthirds]

Sure, it was magic, but it wasn't as to-the-grindstone as spells from his world were, and it was more than a little strange to have such a sudden turnaround from beatdown to upbeat in a matter of seconds and -- chimes? So weird. Zelgadis blinked more than a few times throughout the little blizzard of starlight, almost unwilling to breathe any of it in.

His shoulders sagged when he exhaled, all said and done, and he caught her look on the tail end of that once-over.

"I need to learn that one."