Blizzard 2

[21:23] Astelle Nora says, "Hmmmm."
[21:23] Agnimazud Ishwaratu asks, "Mm?"
[21:23] Astelle Nora exclaims, "I should practice the thing I was working on!"
[21:23] Astelle Nora exclaims, "With the ice!!!"
[21:23] Astelle Nora exclaims, "It might be easier here!!!!!"
[21:23] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Well, yeah... I suggested that before."
[21:25] Agnimazud Ishwaratu asks, "Though... there any way I can help you train?"
[21:25] Astelle Nora says, "Hmmmm..."
[21:26] Astelle Nora says, "...not sure."
[21:35] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Well..."
[21:35] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Uh... I'm going to keep meditating I guess."
[21:36] Astelle Nora exclaims, "And while you do that, I'll cough up a bunch of cold air!!!"
[21:48] Astelle inhaled deeply and gathered mana into her lungs. As usual, the girl had a very, very strange method of doing just about everything. In this case? Creating a blizzard. Rather than constantly forming ice crystals around herself, or simply decreasing the temperature, Astelle thought the best way to accomplish this was to control the weather herself. How, you might ask?

Well, she coughed up that frozen air, and when it rose up, it coalesced into a... cloud? This was one of those ideas that was very much in the 'crazy enough to work' category, because, just as Astelle intended, snowflakes began to drop from the cloud; barely noticeable, but present.

"I just gotta do this... except STRONGER!"
(Astelle Nora)
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[21:51] Seemed they were going to be doing their own things. Still, he felt just as connected to her all the same. It was nice to just have her around, working on his training while she got to work on hers.

Everything about the current situation, even though it wouldn't last long, was magical despite the circumstances. His left arm was broken, he was an outlaw and he was holed up on a freezing mountain...

But he couldn't be happier, honestly.

In that moment, the intensity of his Occult flames started to wane and exude less heat. Right, balance, balance... while his love for Astelle was important, he couldn't become blinded by it. There were very real issues to address here. Unlike most who'd be better off living in a lofty, ignorant bliss, he had to stare into the abyss, and lock gazes when it stared back.

This concentration caused the flames to spark and subsequently erupt out from Agnimazud's person, eventually simmering down and radiating around him at a normalized level. "...Astute realization, dork."
(Agnimazud Ishwaratu)
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[21:54] * You have been awarded 4 Roleplay Points! *
[21:55] Astelle Nora exclaims, "I just gotta... figure out how to do it!!!!"
[21:58] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Uh huh... well, that's obvious."
[21:59] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Mmn... Asty... let's have a quick spar."
[22:00] Astelle Nora exclaims, "Sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
[22:21] At first, the battle was entirely lopsided... and admittedly, it felt good to be on this side for the first time ever since he'd met Astelle. Even when he was able to claim victory over her, the battles had a lot of back and forth, and the struggle was taken to tooth-and-nail levels of direness. Now?

The power of the Occult made Agnimazud's swordplay overwhelming, even with only access to his right hand. The reach of the daemonic powers was overwhelming--if there wasn't a volley of destructive, pitch-black orbs of magic being flung out at a mere wave of the Drakanite's hand, then the land around him was being decayed and drained of life from his ability to corrupt everything around him following the steps of his greaves.

Astelle would also find her life force consistently being sapped from her against her will, and each time it happened, bruises and other injuries sustained from bludgeoning water and ice faded away as if they were never taken to begin with. As the battle raged on, Astelle seemed to be regaining footing and becoming accustomed to fighting and maneuvering through the pressure put down by his Occult magic, but Agnimazud also proved to be considerably more durable than ever before. Even when it seemed like he was nearing his last legs, the hardening of his body's natural scales and the compaction of mana woven to completely match his form as an added barrier allowed him to withstand punishment that would otherwise bring him to his knees.

It gave him enough of a window to use his magic to rip Astelle's life essence from her body directly, causing her to faceplant into the snow while also rejuvenating some of his own wounds and bringing the battle to a conclusion. Panting, the teen approaches Astelle and flips his unwieldy blade over his shoulder, sheathing it beneath his cloak and offering his clawed gauntlet down for her to take. "Looks like you've got a lot of training to buckledown on, my cute little pupil.~"
(Agnimazud Ishwaratu)
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[22:41] Astelle was not used to fighting Agni at all, like this. The draining of her life hurt a lot more than it did before, too, and seemed to mend his wounds more than ever. There was a gap between the two of them now that could not be ignored, both in strength, and the variety of their skills. However, Astelle held her own. While she lost at first, and badly at that, the fact that she adapted so quickly showed that she was just as skilled as ever.

It just took time.

Bit by bit, though, Astelle noticed something. The cloud she created above didn't fade as the fight went on. No, the opposite happened, in fact. As the ensuing area grew colder from her utilization of ice, the cloud actually grew in size, and the amount it snowed follow suit. Astelle noticed this; how could she not? While she lost this fight, she still won a victory of her own. Despite being on the ground, she had a big smile on her face.

"Little bit!""

Progress was progress, after all!

Of course she took his hand and helped herself up, though. She wasn't going to keep sitting on her butt just because she was too busy staring at the results of her work.
(Astelle Nora)
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[22:42] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "I know before long you'll be matching me, though. And I look forward to that."
[22:42] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Admittedly, it feels good to be strong enough that I can consider myself your 'teacher' without it feeling weird."
[22:44] Astelle Nora exclaims, "Let's go again!!!"
[22:49] Agnimazud Ishwaratu asks, "E-eh...?"
[22:49] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "Well, alright."
[23:02] Fighting with only one hand available to him was becoming a lot easier the more he did it. Initially he was surprised Astelle was so raring to go for another spar, but... it had been quite a long time since they were able to fight together. Also, while he certainly wouldn't have a broken arm forever, adjusting to the huge weak point on his body as well as the inability to use the limb was helpful practice.

All that aside, this was Agni. He loved to fight under almost any circumstances. Once the first exchange of spells began, a wide, toothy grin was etched on his visage from the excitement wrought from battle and the adrenaline it flooded him with. This time, the battle was not nearly as one-sided. Astelle was a very quick learner after all--downright a natural in every sense of the word. Agnimazud had to shift to hardening his scales more frequently as well as using his mana as a barrier and alternating between these defensive buffers to survive the increased pressure from Astelle's ice and water magic.

The difference showed, as rather than having to claw his way out from a clutch situation, the teen Drakanite was just consistently sturdier all throughout the battle. That, combined with the fact that Astelle had to deal with her life force being stolen right from her if the Agni so much as looked at her, it made for a very stalwart knight of an opponent. The battle was concluded when Agnimazud's right hand waves in an arc before his chest, instantaneously firing off a barrage of pitch-black that drowned out all color in their wake before erupting into larger, darker explosions of Occult magic.

When the obscuration from the slew of spells faded, Astelle would once more have been rendered unto the ground. Just as before, Agni rushes over to her, offing his clawed hand for her to take. "You already did a hell of a lot better... you're kind of scary sometimes, heh."
(Agnimazud Ishwaratu)
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[23:11] For a girl who often came off as daft, Astelle really was a quick learner. Her fighting style was every bit as fluid as the water she used, allowing her to figure out what she needed to and adjust. Unfortunately, the gap in their power was still present, and all the adaptation in the world couldn't close that gap. Agni himself would have to be bad at fighting for that to be the case, and he very much wasn't.

However, the point of this was not to win; the point was to see if she could further bolster the power of the cloud she created, which she did! More and more snow rained down upon the battlefield, although it didn't give her any kind of advantage. It merely confirmed that her ideas held some merit, as impractical as it may be to utilize at some point.

And the cloud still remained even when she lost, but the snow conspicuously stopped. While Astelle was on the ground, and Agni was offering him her clawed hand...

'You're kind of scary sometimes'

...an icicle dropped from one of Astelle's clouds, slamming into the ground right next to her. If she was just a few inches to the left, she would've been skewered by it. So she awkwardly looked at the icicle, and back to Agni, and in order to diffuse the awkward tension, she gave the most Astelle response imaginable.

"...boo!"
(Astelle Nora)
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[23:16] All Agni can do is blink a few times, witnessing what might have been the death of his beloved by her own hands. He stares incredulously at Astelle, just... at a total loss for words. "I--what--you--"

No matter how he tries to start a sentence, he just has no idea where to go with it... no, he doesn't know where to begin. Well, there's always old reliable.

"...You are SUCH a dork, it's unreal. Ugh, you gotta be more careful! Jeez..."
(Agnimazud Ishwaratu)
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[23:20] And naturally, Astelle responded with her same old reliable response, too.

"I am not a dork."

A smile, given as if she didn't just almost kill herself.

"I'm just Astelle."
(Astelle Nora)
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[23:20] Agnimazud Ishwaratu says, "I take it all back. I hate you. Bah. I'm gonna go to sleep."
[23:21] Astelle stuck her tongue out!!!!
(Astelle Nora)
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