Nokamata: Illusionary Phasing (Success)

She didn't laugh... But at least she had a faint, trying smile on her face. "Heheh…" she couldn't find the will to laugh so soon after that predicament.
"Phew..." silence... Peace...
If only it could always stay like this. Not that she wouldn't grow bored eventually, but safe from threats like that.

"... I can't sit by idly any more while they get away with their antics." she stirred, keeping her back to the grasses and staring up into the evening clouds. "--but I'm too weak. Too weak as I am, and not only are there so many of them, they have better gear. Better weapons and armor..."
"Better tools and alchemic aids..."

"--and the vision of Roma, can not live so long as they exist." her left hand tightened into a fist, irking with a writhing screech of strained steel. "I just..." she grumbled, growled and finally an unintelligible shout accompanied her flexed fist being slammed into the ground.

"I hate this... I stand to see Roma's Hand bring an end to it... To tear them down from the inside, if I could..."

"If only I could push my illusionary abilities further..."
(Selena Nokamata)

Morden could tell she was frustrated, placing a consoling hand on the smaller woman's shoulder.

"So you know the solution to that, right? You have to push yourself further." he said, as if it would be that simple. The drakanite had smashed through the own barriers his own body tried to put up, reaching the fullest potential that he likely would.

He may not have been the strongest warrior in the land, but he was not a slouch by any means.

"You know of at least one place where Barsburg will not be allowed into easily; the north of Theria." he intoned, before he turned to spit into the grass beside him.

"Don't you dare think about doing anything stupid like trying to join their forces from within. It's too dangerous. I've already got one friend serving in their ranks, albeit temporarily, and I refuse to have to worry about a second one."
(Morden)

There was a moment's pause... Clearly thinking on the matter.
Arch was still amongst their ranks, and try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to really do it.

Then again, there was another way... At least, something she teased in jokes and prodded at with theory.
Time and time again, it returned to the forefront of her wonder.

"...What if... I don't have to actually join their forces?" she asked of Morden. "What if I could just hone my ability, why control over illusionism the same way I cloak my weapons." she claimed, her eyes sifted over to the drakanite.
The expression across her face implied of a glimmer of hope.

"Usually, I cloak my weapons so no one can see them before and after a battle and... To this day, not a soul has ever caught on." A pause.
"What if, I could cloak my entire body... Entirely? Nothing like my camouflage. Just, outright invisibility?" she asked. "Surely, there are invisibility potions but, with illusionism I can do it organically. No need to worry about it simply fizzling out." she explained.

"I'd just... I'd have to really push it to an extreme. I don't know exactly how well I could do it but... I think it can be done."

Then, the question:
"... Do you think you could help me hone that skill?"
(Selena Nokamata)

Morden lingered in the air, cradling his chin in one hand as he considered her proposal. Playing with a person's senses was a powerful tool, as well as being able to magically mask your presence. But would it truly work? Even against their technology?

"I don't know how well it would work against their gadgets, but I'm happy to help if you think I can be of use to you." he replied, shrugging lightly as his body slowly descended the rest of the way to the ground.

Grass crunched underfoot, slitted hues gleaming as he pushed up his sunglasses to reveal them. Standing to his full height of nearly seven feet, the drakanite's wings curled inwards to wrap around his torso like a second cloak, the talons at the tops of his wings locking together as a makeshift clasp.

"So what do you have in mind?"
(Morden)

Selena's body curled at her volition, legs reared back to roll her backwards... Before flexing at her abdominals to send her upright to her feet from the ground. Now, her back was turned towards the drakanite… and she'd pace for a few feet forward humming aloud to herself.

"It probably won't work against their gadgets... But ultimately what matters is their own senses. If I can convince them into thinking that their gadgets simply aren't working, then it doesn't matter if their gadgets work on me or not." she claimed, hoping her assumption was correct.
"You saw that encounter before, right?" she asked, poking back at the reference Morden made about the battle.

"I can use my power to create weapons... Swords! And I can make them do whatever I want." she emphasized, "Reality can be whatever I want, if I'm strong enough to enforce it." she sung with a serious undertone. "Though, it doesn't mean anything if I'm not strong enough to really dominate their perception." She stroked at her chin, prodding at her bottom lip in ponderance.

"Mmmm…"

The drakan towered over her, leaving no contest as to whom was physically superior in their encounter - as though it ever were a question.
"I need you to push me... Whether it'd be through mental exercise, spars, small missions... Anything that can push my capabilities to that next level."
(Selena Nokamata)

As she kipped up to her feet the drakan's sapphire eyes followed her.

"I suppose that's true, but it's still a gamble." he began, raising one finger as an idea came to mind. "However if you knew what it was their machine's sensors were tracking, you may be able to find a way to mask that specifically as well. Would eliminate your other concern completely, but that means getting hands on their machines and picking them apart to know how they tick."

It certainly wasn't impossible, but quite bothersome.

"I saw them, but do they have physical mass or are they simply illusory?" he asked, quite unclear on how the magic worked. While he himself dabbled in the complex force of time itself, toying with the senses was not something he could do.

His foot tapped a steady tempo against the ground. Could he really help her?

"Well, I can certainly try at the least to push you." he decided after a few moment's reflection. It wasn't as if he really had anything more pressing to do with his time, anyway.

"Would you care for a spar now, then? I'll warn you that holding back isn't really my forte. It's difficult to restrain yourself when you attack with explosive force, after all."


(Morden)

Morden asked, and thus Selena would answer:

"So, I've studied the metaphysical domain and have come to theorize them all as a single magic..." she started.

"Illusion? It is just the first step, a two-dimensional construct worked to temper the senses of those around it to see it as something otherwise. It works for quick tricks, but with a bit of focus, they can always be disrupted and swatted away at this level." she explained, "However..."

"The same can not be said on the third dimensional level." she claimed, "That is when they are given depth. With depth, comes sturdiness... Feeling... You can reach out and phase through a two dimensional construct, because it was never there. However, by ascending to the third dimension? You incorporate spatial manipulation, a sect under gravity magic."

A brief pause. "This is when you can reach out and touch... Feel, and experience it." Selena nodded, "I can create a meal, and you could taste it... Chew it... Swallow it... And in every regard, it was there, except it wasn't. The body may act sated, but it will come up short on nutrients. Great for losing weight, but terrible for survival." she shook her head.

"There is a final level to Metaphysical magic that I've been studying and practicing still... Though, it's a lot harder than the first two." she claimed, "Pushing into a casting of fourth dimensional illusionism... Transcending the domain of time." She took a deep inhale and exhale.

"So, in short... Those blades not only looked like blades..." she smirked, "They cut like blades. In every regard, they were real blades, created by just my mere thought!" she rose her hands into the air to cheer for her success - gun already packed away for its scabbard on her back.
"--But yeah, a spar would be fine. A good start anyways, I have no idea how I'd even begin to incorporate myself against you, but I could certainly just give it my all and see what happens." she stretched, readying herself.

(Selena Nokamata)

Morden assumes the Inferno Blade stance!

The instruction was certainly informative, as Morden kept quiet to allow her to speak without interruption. Only when the subject changed from the limitations of her magic to the spar did he allow himself to speak.

"I'll admit some of that didn't really make sense to me. I don't do well with elaborate explanations. I'm not exactly bright over here." he remarked, "But it certainly sounds like you could improve upon your magic to a high degree with a bit of clever application."

With that said, one scaled hand reached back over his shoulder for his weapon. The battle axe was massive, its Arcanium edge gleaming brightly in the sunlight. His wings beat the air as he ascended to the skies, his mana circuitry glowing hotly within him as he forced his mana's flow into his weapon itself.

He wasn't joking when he said he played with explosive forces. Each blow of his weapon would cause a small combustion on impact; it was like getting hit by a freight train with a bomb strapped to it in summation.

"Right then, let's see how well your trickery avails you against me." he intoned, narrowing his gaze keenly on her figure. It would be a shame to leave ugly bruises and cuts on her, but there wasn't any other way that he knew how to fight.

His helmet was placed securely upon his head, arcanium like the rest of his equipment. He stood like a bulwark, ready to endure the magic she was going to assail him with for the sake of her own progression.
(Morden)
He was sturdy... Akin to an immovable object with explosive potential, if he managed to connect a hit... Literally.
Though, despite the clearing, there were still quite the number of trees around the clear spacing, easy cover from the bombardment she'd come to expect.

"I think I've come across something similar with Romulus. He tends to prefer gadgets that go 'boom'." she claimed, before analyzing her opponent. What exactly could she do here to turn this battle to her advantage? She needed to feel out her adversary, figure out exactly how they fought.

… And what better way than to disorientate them?

"Observe."

A flash of light manifested just feet away from Selena...
Followed by another...
And another?
Another... Soon encompassing Morden from all angles, but numbering no more than eight.

The light would subside, soon materializing into images of Selena, eachof which armed with their own rifle and glowing crimson eyes fixated on the drakanite. The air ebbed and shifted, almost as though in reaction to a vacuum -- for there indeed was.

Each manifestation actively siphoned at the illusionist's reserve, constructed naught merely of an illusionary veil to take her appearance, but of condensed space to simulate girth just as she explained prior.
They all spoke in unison, a legion of Nokamata united against the bulwark.

"--and in case you were wondering?" They started, "Each and every single one of us, can physically hurt you."
In sync, they lowered themselves into a hunkered stance, prepared to charge headfirst into battle.
(Selena Nokamata)
Morden would start things with a literal bang as explosions rippled across the sky around Selena. The hail of gunfire started to descend upon him, bullets biting into flesh where they found their marks against him. His weapon fell freely upon any version of Selena that came within range of him, all the while Morden tried to keep pace with the one he thought was the real her.

Wrestling against her magic when she tried to slow his pace, the dragon would continue forward in spite of every setback she tried to conjure in his path. What would it take to slow him down? Even when his sight was stolen from him he was unafraid, trying to keep mobile until his senses returned.

"Not bad, but this isn't going to be enough!" he bellowed, planting a foot into her abdomen to force her backwards. His weapon was raised overhead, and it likely resembled a guillotine ready to sweep down upon her. Turning the weapon sideways so that he used the flat side instead, the muscles in his right hand stood taut as he swung downwards.

The impact smashed into both Selena's shoulder as well as an unfortunate doppleganger that had strayed too close, clouds of dust thrown upwards as the ground started to buckle beneath the force of his attack.

"I didn't expect you to use time against me as well, I'll admit." he said, resting his weapon against his shoulder as he stepped backwards. "Get on your feet; I won't let you quit on me that easily."
(Morden)

She toiled to the ground, several clones vanquished leaving only a sore few remaining -- three others in total.
She pushed herself upright, panting heavily...

"I'm not quite done yet... Not by a long shot." Her eyes took upon their typical gleam, as the gravitational domain soon enraptured her hair and loose apparel to the air -- as though submerged in the aquatic element itself.

"Time magic is just a layer... Don't let it catch you off-guard too much!" She levitated off the ground, holding her hands off to her sides, disarming herself of her gun, suspended in her conjured gravity well. "I've got PLENTY more where that came from!" The screech of the metaphysical forcing itself into a realm it did not belong whined at the ears of all who'd be unfortunate enough to be present. Its grinding shrill resembled the sound of saws, slicing away at rampant, machine's pace constantly cawing away at a material that wouldnever yield.

Chronomancy had finally been re-introduced, used as a catalyst for gravity and illusionism: The result? The birth of emerald spheroids of pure radiance, clutched tightly within the woman's hands. Her tremoring grasp soon collapsed at their forms, spewing micro-streams of light from the crevices of her fists.

"HERE!"

Through time, her arms gattled in their rapid toss-up, lobbing blast after blast for the Drakan, careening in their descent to erupt in domes of alabaster light, shredding at solid ground not quite sullied by the explosive magics just yet. What grasses may've survived would be aged into ash, whilst the rest of the metaphysical entanglement would concussively ebb and shove at their target.

The world underfoot quaked, as power levels were pushed up to properly test one's limits.
(Selena Nokamata)

She was getting closer...but it still wouldn't be enough.

Refusing to relent for even a moment, he lashed out in similar fashion to before. Bellowing cries intended to rally her into action rang out amidst the sound of explosions and the auditory assault Selena had manifested.

"You're getting better." he rasped as they briefly disengaged, Morden's grip adjusting on his weapon's haft. He tried to keep count on how many clones she still had in play...was it three?

As his wings spread to their full span, he willed himself past his body's own protestations. His style of fighting relied too much on his own endurance, causing him to be dangerously reckless which was strange given how cautious he was otherwise.

"Good! You're adapting as well as you can given the circumstance." he said, wiping a bit of her blood from the edge of his axe. His armor was also lightly peppered with it, as well.

"I think we can make something out of you yet, finish the fight strong at least!"
(Morden)

"What... Is this?" Selena kept finding even her best efforts, triumphed and despite her greatest efforts it seemed to amount to the same:
Crushing...
Disappointing...
Failure...

No more clones to rush to her aid any longer... For the last one had dropped at her feet.

"It's like slamming up against a solid wall." she grumbled aloud to herself, rifle falling before her recently vanquished clone -- a construct that began to ebb away into alabaster flakes.
She clutched at her left arm, aching... Pulsating... Was it from earlier? The pain certainly wasn't getting any better.

"No matter how hard I strike at it... Or what angle I try, it just falls flat all the same." she claimed, trying to eye down her opponent. "--and it doesn't look like really putting so much of a crack in his defense."
The man gave her motivation, but she was looking at things from a different point of view. What mattered was, at the end of the day... Could she make him stagger?

For a brief moment, she saw something...
Something about the way the man prepped himself, how he was situated...
Something about it all, coupled with her fastened stature in preparation to him.

Reality as she knew it flashed back, years back... Back to her much younger days as a mage:

Where Morden stood, Jaxxun idled in wait...
Instead of her leather armor, she dawned naught but her black mini-skirt...
A training session of 'Giants':

A slow inhale... And slow exhale...
Her body, growing relaxed odd given her current predicament. Though, with no more doppelgangers, she seemed oddly... Devoid of oddities? Something was up.
She had conjured displays of her third dimensional casting... But now? It was time to push it to the next level.

She reached out, summoning her rifle from the ground to launch into her clasping digits. Without much moment's delay, she turned the rifle to her adversary, sprinting... Right for the man? Had she not learned her lesson? She was supposed to be keeping her distance!
Though, focus on her persona could warrant curiosity...

She moved, yet... There seemed to be an odd shifting of her person, as though her own body was out-of-sync with its intended position in reality. All the while, she continued to pull her rifle's trigger, unveiling enchanted rounds for the Drakan's figure.
(Selena Nokamata)
Morden's grin broadened at her charging him. His eyes had difficulty following her movements, as they seemed janky in a strange way. Was she using time to alter her own motions? He hadn't thought to do that, only reverse its flow to heal himself from injury.

Without any more doubles to stand between her and the full weight of his attention, this fight was decidedly shorter. In hindsight he should have reduced his circut's mana output so the fight might have been able to go on for a bit longer. His axe strikes fell heavily, her leather armor likely not doing much to dampen their impact against her small frame.

It pained him to have to teach her such a painful lesson, but this was what she'd asked for wasn't it? Gliding forward, the grass swayed as if caught in a breeze as he sped by. Her own body quickened in response however, and he found himself unable to keep pace.

Opting to use that time instead to cause a few of his injuries to simply disappear, time reversing to before he'd taken the damage from them. Next her body would start to feel strange, as if it were a great deal more frail than she actually was.

With that in mind she couldn't hope to weather his assaults now. His axe fell, a retaliatory shot fired from her rifle still managing to bite into the flesh of his shoulder before he vanished to strike again at her blind spot twice more, flecks of blood staining the grass.

She tried to press backwards but it wasn't enough as he lunged after her, his expression twisted in the frenzy of the moment into something almost savage. The flat of his axe fell upon her like a hammer, causing her to bounce once off the ground.

The earth exploded from the concussive force of his attack, a small hole forming that she would have to crawl her way out of.

"That was...well it's difficult to describe. But it was an entertaining bout nonetheless." he said, crouching at the edge of the hole as he peered down at her. "Are you all right?"
(Morden)

It all seemed to imitate the flashback perfectly... Play-by-play, down to the initial strike. Where Jaxxun's blade would slash, Morden's axe would come down...
This time, rather than being abruptly halted by copper armor? It'd come to crash into leather, far less sturdy than its metallic counterpart. Her body toiled and rolled, tumbling until she'd find herself soaring backwards... Her feet carved into the soils as she sought to slow herself down, bring herself under some sort of control.

Though, the drakan was hot en pursuit...
She couldn't stop. She couldn't let him get another clean shot on her after-all.
Perhaps, she could manage -something-...
Some sort of grasp on her goal, to grab ahold of the concept and tip the odds ever so slightly in her favor? In a barrage so hopelessly surmounting her odds? One could question why she didn't simply submit.

Something didn't feel right... As though the very domain she was trying to tap into was working against her. She felt tired, frail -- as though her body ached from a defeat already suffered. Didn't she recover from the last fight? What was this? Morden didn't seem in the slightest bit phased, and charged onward -- leaving time itself to slow for her. Her mind was racing... Attempting to breakdown the situation she was in. This was not -just- chronomancy working in her favor to slow down time around her, but her perception kicked into high-gear: sheer, unadulterated focus.

"He was using... Time Magic?" she thought to herself, "Yes, that was what I saw earlier..." she surmised, flashing back to an instance where Morden seemingly imitated her previous barrage of emerald cannonade.
Unlike the flashback with Jaxxun, she wasn't going down in one-hit. In fact, this brawl was still going, even if her heavy breath and aching bones implied it was on its last limb.

A single gunshot was managed in trade for an axe's dive, nipping at flesh... Enchanted with metaphysical taint...
Perhaps, that was the edge she needed? One could hope. What would that even mean for Morden?

Morden blitzed out of view, completely... Gone?! No, she saw him do this before. Certainly he was leagues faster than her but...

Slash.

She stumbled forward, lips agape - the pain, far too intense to react accordingly.

NO! She defied it, casting her very delusions upon her own vessel, blocking out the pain to enforce her focus. She couldn't let the man simply take this win without a fight till the end!
Time came to a crawl, her mind rushed... And soon, the very imprint of chronomancy cursing her vessel was unwound at, as though untangling interwoven wire.

Morden blitzed into being, axe already risen for another swing.
"There!" Selena's eyes flickered to ascertain her sights on her opponent. The axe fell at a crawl's pace for her gander, her body still as though hopeless to merely eye this swipe against her person.

Spatial manipulation sought to condense at the air at the axe's fringe, slowing it, even if by mere nano-seconds... Every unit of time counted.
Her eyes flared in such proximity, though as to the illusionism employed? It could only be a mystery, as if anything could work at such a fraction of a second. Then, there was the domain of time... twisted and warped at, at the unseen level.

All of the many possibilities that'd immediately follow...
All of the outcomes...
All of failures and successes... The stratagems she simply never took...
--and unlike the many applications before? She finally bared witness to: A window.

All that was left, was to leap into it... Leaving the current reality devoid of an iteration as it rightfully should contain! It was a convoluted process, heavy strain on her eyes that'd now shift sanguine throughout the sclera to match -- on the verge of crying blood.
The axe finally carved into her flesh... Wait...
It passed through, without drawing blood? Easing through akin to butter...

In fact, it'd phase further than it was likely intended, as though meeting no resistance.

Just as it'd leave her image, her person flickered back from the purgatory of splintered realities, having defied nature and reality yet again -- if only for a single strike.
She stumbled backwards to give herself some space, though Morden wouldn't have it, immediately following up with the flat of his axe to blast her into the ground.

Selena's eyes bulged... Their gleam ceased, and exhaustion took over.
At last, she could lie in a crater of the drakan's making, and wait there.
In pain...
Knowing that her only success was naught but nanoseconds in duration...

"I'll... Be alright." she groaned.

(Selena Nokamata)

Morden's brow was decidedly furrowed as he replayed the battle in his mind. At one point his axe seemingly...phased through her? What was that about? Had she simply conjured an image of herself for him to cleave through? No...he'd landed a clean hit only seconds prior so it shouldn't have been possible for her to react so quickly even if she was toying with time's pace.

Sliding down into the hole he'd made, the drakanite would try to pick her up and hop out of the hole, gently placing her down on the grass to properly collect herself if she allowed him to do so.

"So, mind telling me what that was?" he asked, "You pulled something off during the fight, unless it was just a trick?" Taking a rag from his pocket he started to clean the edge of his weapon, before returning it to rest on his back.

"Well?" he asked, peering down his nose towards her.
(Morden)

The woman dusted herself off, panting... Coughed a bit, but otherwise, she seemed to be rather okay. Nothing was outwardly damaged beyond repair outside of some scuffs and bruises -- she'd be alright.
She heard Morden, but for the most part spent her focus on her aching eyes... She was crying blood, sclera as red as her pupils to leave her seemingly pupil-less.

Unaware of this, she turned over to Morden, streaks of red symmetrical on her cheeks to take on the façade of a depraved doll.

"I tried pushing my illusions to the next level." she claimed plainly.
"I pushed them for the fourth dimension as I said I'd try when we started, and incorporated time into things." She blinked once... Twice, before tapping at the blood stained cheeks of hers and observing her sanguineous digits.

"Oh... Oh Kraus."
Another glaring weakness to concern herself over.
"I didn't think I'd turn out like this, she took her forearm to blotch at her face, attempting to wipe off what she thought to be a small amount of blood, all the while she continued to explain.

"I couldn't move out of the way of your attack. I could try to slow it down with gravity and spatial manipulation, but you were too strong in my previous attempts." she explained, relinquishing her arm to look at Morden now.

"Then, I tried simply deterring you by obstructing your vision, but that didn't work either..." she sighed, "So, when I was pressed for options, I felt something working at me. Weaker than I usually would be in a fight..." she explained, squinting at the drakanite -- was her vision blurring?
"Given you were using Time magic as well, I assumed you were trying to accelerate my body to a point after the fight to win it faster... and that gave me an idea." she smiled, "I tried peering into different possibilities at first, tried anticipating your attacks, but I would never be able to react in time regardless."

"So, I simply used Time, the same way we use 'Space'... And moved through that." she chimed.
"It was hard, like I was being pushed back where I was supposed to be, and I couldn't really go far in any direction, but I didn't have to." she blinked once more, brushing her arm to finally sate herself of the badgering sensation screaming at her to clean her face.

"I just had to move -enough- in any direction on the temporal plane to avoid the time you would've hit me, a mere second dimensional illusion took my place and shortly afterwards I was forced back. Thankfully, not with your axe still -in- me."

The fact that it even worked was a godsend, the odds of her doing it again so soon felt outlandish though. Her body was punished for the act... But perhaps, training could change that?
(Selena Nokamata)

Morden says, "Well..."

Morden says, "At any rate it was quite jarring."

Morden says, "Normally when my weapon goes through someone there's a blood spray."