[00:21] While it was closer in the second half, it was still in his favor. As were most fights, in all honesty.

Charging in, the Drakenite was met with all sorts of troubles. Blasts of concentrated water, the very ground beneath his feet shaking, and even a thin mist of water beginning to rise up. A veil of water that only seemed to spur on the growth of nature around him.

Slender, thorn covered vines lashing out. Snapping, and grabbing - threatening to rend across his flesh with each attempt.

And then, as the fight drew to its close, the Dryad's hand rose. His fist closing, slowly, commanding for the beautiful blue roses that lined this thorns to disperse their petals. And as they do, those petals rise, swarming around him, creating a whirling vortex of pain.

Akin to a thousand blades, each cut sending a vile, toxin poison into the numerous tiny cuts they created.

A painful, dreadful experience to be put through.

And once it's all said and done, Keitaro found himself lying on the ground, the Dryad standing triumphantly over him.

"Two years my ass."

Scoffing, his hand waved - commanding his vines to lash out, wrapping themselves around his one good leg. Thorns digging into flesh as he does, and keeping him trapped there..

"But really, you asked for this, hm? You continued to poke, and poke, and poke. And now..?" He shrugs, his hand moving, causing that vine around his leg to squeeze tighter,

".. Well, this is your own fault. Really."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[00:26] As he watched them fight from the distance, the youngest Kang wants to step in.. Even so, Percival knew that he'd only be getting in the way. He had to wait as he always did, for things to end before he'd have a chance to step in. And once that chance came, it was almost like he'd rocketed over to stand by Keitaro as he laid on the ground.

.. And as vines began to snare him like a trapped animal, Percival would breathe in before the ground directly beneath Keitaro began to shake and tremble to try and disrupt the vines embedded in the ground.

As he'd try to tighten them, Percival swiped his hand through the air as a blade of wind would manifest and attempt to cut the vine instead. His intent was to free the Shenlong before he'd even speak, before it was too late.

"Stop! You need to stop, Ilui. You can't go around hurting all of your friends, or at least not your allies." He'd declare. In the meantime, he'd try and help the blue-haired magi to his feet as well.
(Percival Kang)
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[00:27] The fight went how he expected it to, but he let it happen simply to allow the release of their frustration. It seems his talk went ignored on both sides, but he knew it would be.

It didn't hurt to try, did it? Because actions clearly never worked out, and using Ilui as some sort of display that you should not become wasn't right either. But times like these... Are when it shows, when it really bleeds through as to why people paint him in such a negative light. But Keitaro had done nothing to help that.

''He deserves your compassion, even if you feel like he doesn't. And if you want to be a hero, you should realize that too.''

Vines move to wrap around Keitaro's good leg, in an attempt to snap and most likely render it useless. Adrian couldn't let that happen, but those vines were too strong to just destroy too. Instead, he comes forwardbetween the two of them.

Slits focus on the Dryad for a moment, shaking his head. ''That'll done, Ilui. You've won... Don't prove you are some animal, we both know it's not worth it.'' Did his words matter?

''He's on the ground, you are on your feet. If he challenges you again, then sure. But this time you've won, and you don't need to take it any further than that.''

Adrian could only hope, he would listen to reason. Because of those vines? Even he knew they were unstoppable in acting out his desires. Even if Keitaro's leg is broken, starting another fight wasn't the right choice.
(Adrian Rowan)
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[00:31] No other result was to be expected; not until he finally grasps the new technique of his own, not until he grows up, not until he heals. But the latest would certainly be difficult with the another wound inflicted upon him, but...

He endures.

No matter how much he persisted to try and fry the Dryad, it was all too difficult to actually pressure him- the constant floods of water, the shaky earth beneath his feet, and the countless petals that would swarm him did their job.

Yet, Keitaro never stopped planning. The second half was going better for a good reason - and that's because he adapts.

He can take defeat. He can take the pain. It's all a lesson for the future when he'll take on him again; despite his standing triumphantly, the Drakanite dismisses it with a careless, almost apathetic gaze.

"Your trick is easy to figure out. Took me just few seconds, even while wounded. I'll come back later, and the outcome will be different - and you know it."

"Say whatever you want to make yourself feel better. You're not even Ilui at this point - you're not someone I showed compassion or friendship to."

"Do your worst, monster."

But... what, the voices of people? He imagined them to either say something along the lines of how cruel he is- which is something he'd agree to- but to hear them say that they wish to stop it actually does the opposite effect of what Keitaro would want. His eyes widen, and he shouts.

"STAY AWAY."

"I don't need your help. He can have what he came here for. This is not your fight to decide outcome for."

That's all he can do right now, though. After being beaten, cut and incapacitated, speaking is all he can do. Even if he tried to resist, he had no strength in him to do so. To be told such things felt...

… humiliating. And it's not even from Ilui. He'd take what he's gotten himself into, and he didn't want it any other way.
(Keitaro)
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[00:33] And it's like that that she actually... had a conversation with the spirit and the like. Odd, wasn't it? To see something that was your father in image, but...

It wasn't hard to see how that went. Either way, the necromancer had been released. Back down toward the fields she'd go, and then she would come to a momentary halt as she witnesses the tail end of the fight there.

And there's wind that picks her up, and she's placed right behind the Dryad, a delicate motion dictated by the precise control she had over wind. She's exhausted. All of this stupidity for what, again? Just for the man's spirit to tell her to allow her to go.

It wasn't worth it.

"Ilui," she says quietly as she stands behind him. "Let's go." She doesn't like the prospect of everyone coming down on him, but... The exhaustion that etched itself along her features was nearly palpable now.

Monster, screaming to stay away, but...

"Please."
(Thalia Elisheva)
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[00:36] For his own part, Samael hadn't really done anything to help the situation. But, honestly, he hadn't done or said all that much. He followed close behind as the two went off to take out their frustrations-- or, rather, Keitaro intended to take a beating due to some sort of heroic sense of justice. Or something.

It was amusing enough to watch, he supposed.

He leaned against the nearby building, watching with intense, bright green eyes. The outcome was predictable, and in the end, so was the reaction of everyone else. He wouldn't interfere, though. Samael had said it before: he was not a hero.

Though at the shouting and the drama, it takes a considerable effort not to laugh. A sneer twitches over his lips.

"What a good little martyr," he commented, mostly to himself-- but perhaps for the benefit of those around, as well.
(Samael)
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[00:37] She stepped out from the crowd, watching in judging silence.
(Reito Shimasu)
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[00:48] A rumble..

Sadly, those vines of his were out for blood. Try as he might, their grasp my loosen slightly from the rumbling of the earth beneath them..

And yet, that cut of wind only served to make things worse--.. It's cut, cleanly through the middle. And yet, as soon as it was, another vine sprouted in its place. Its like something out of a horror movie, they were unrelenting.. And so, since danger was sensed, their mangled vines only grew larger..

".. Are they really my ally, Percy'?"

As if he didn't care about what pain those vines were currently putting the Drakanite through, he spoke in a calm tone of voice.

"I mean, he spends his days insulting me. And goes as far as to threaten me years in the future, for some odd reason. At some point, I've got to show him why that's a bad idea. I'm helping him, if anything. It's a good lesson to not run your mouth, hm?"

And then, over towards Adrian,

"You said something earlier, and I want to correct you!" Still, those vines wrapped around the boy's leg.. "We're still friends, Adrian. I think it's just in your head that we aren't, y'know?"

"And what you're asking is silly, don't you agree? You're telling me to stop, and wait for him to do what..? Come for my neck? Attack me? Belittle me in the streets? Spread my business around as if it were his own?"

A scoff,

"Crazy.."

".. Do my worst, you say? Stay quiet, you've already lost. Your life is in my hand, and if you ask me? That leg is mine now." Yeesh..

He turns, facing Thalia with a smile, his head canting ever so slightly to the side..

"You sure you want to go? He was annoying you as well, always following you around. Trying to get you to come talk alone.. Hm? But-- I'll make a deal!"

With that, those vines retracted. But not without their thorns raking across his skin as they do, leaving gashes behind in their wake,

".. I'll let you off with a warning this time, hm?" Yeah, a warning.. "Drop your little 'two year' thing, and leave me alone. That's all I ask. If you don't, and you still try?"

"I will rip that leg off your body the next time you come at me, Keitaro."
(Ilui Elisheva)
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[00:53] Brynhild is here to support Adrian, watching it unfold with disdain. Don't mind her.
(Brynhild)
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[00:53] All of his energy for this situation had already been expended. His eyes are on Keitaro, though he does not know him, and then they close. A deep breath is drawn, and then he pivots on his heel, and storms off.

It's all par for the course. The hero rises above the adversity, he thinks rather dramatically, the novelist in him demanding it. Regardless, it isn't his place anymore to say what he thinks. That time passed. It'd been put to mettle and, as he always did, Ilui turned out to be the greater.

He only hopes, for Ilui's sake, that when he finally loses one of these ill-advised contests, that his opponent shows him more mercy than he had shown everyone up to this point.

And he hopes, for Keitaro's sake, that he thrives in spite of all that is against him and that he finds the strength to back his ideals.
(Siegfried)
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[00:55] As another vine sprouts in its place, the youngest Kang would simply create another blade of wind to cut the next, and the next in his attempts to stop Ilui from harming another person. Eventually, he'd have to stop as he'd realize that they were playing his game, and there was no peaceful way to end it.

He breathed in heavily, before sighing outward. He glanced to Adrian with a frown as he'd realized he's failed.

"..Yes, he's your ally. My ally. Our ally .. There's more important issues than someone calling you names, there's more important things to worry about than this." He'd declare, as if he hadn't stomped Aaron Rowan nine feet into the ground for calling him 'Pervy' once.

As the vines retract into the ground, he breathes a heavy sigh of relief at Keitaro's temporary safety. He steps back, even as the Shenlong is threatened..

… There was nothing he could do to stop it the next time, except be there.

"..Please, stop insulting him." The Kang suggests. There was nothing he could do but play the Dryad's game.
(Percival Kang)

[01:10] Percival frowns, stepping over closer to Adrian.
(Percival Kang)
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[01:10] Percival Kang whispers: I wish I could help. But I can't. I can't step in once he starts.