Dakota vs. Valentine

Dakota was happily chattering to her parents, telling them all about the exciting adventures she’s gone on when it happened. The groaning and moaning of a building that could easily be brushed off as a creaky board or the crumbling of earth much farther underneath them. However, the second boom brings with it thousands of spewed stones and panic. Dakota’s ears ring, and she’s lucky that her vision remains true as she sees everyone rush their family members down into the basement. She’s quick to jump into action then, and grabs her parents hand’s, all but dragging them along with her to the stairs.

Sighting Scorpius make the slide, she adds her ice magic to it, making the surface even slicker for them to ride down. She stands by the stairs, deflecting any wayward attacks to protect the fleeing. Her ears continue to ring, leaving her to rely on her sight, though with the battle cries and sounds of war around her it doesn’t truly make a difference. Kalina moves to take her place, and she leaves the basement door to the young Inari to protect.

She picks her way across the guild hall, careful to not interfere with any fights until she is stopped by a boy who is obviously younger than herself, but still taller than her by a few inches. Curse my genes, she thinks to herself, shedding a mental tear. She’s quick to dispel any of these thoughts, however, when she finds he is obviously traveling to the door she just left. She shouts “Ice Make: Shield!” and a thick wall of ice appears in front of him, stopping his path. The words Fire appear in front of him, and the ice quickly begins to diminish into nothingness, and Dakota coats her hands in a layer of ice, preparing herself for a battle. Valentine barely glances in her direction as he moves to go towards the basement again, to which he is intercepted by Dakota.

“Where do ya think you’re going there pal?” Dakota questions, her eyebrows quirking up almost comically. Valentine rolls his eyes, merely changing his course to try and get around her, which again, he is stopped by the red haired girl. He tries several more times, though gets nowhere, and Dakota begins to question who let such a child into a guild, let alone a dark one, when he suddenly stops, and looks up at her with a menacing glare.

“Look here if you don’t let me past, I’m going to reduce you to the rubble you stand on!” He shouts, his fists balled up as though to punch her. Dakota almost laughs at the notion, because his arms are anything but muscular, and she worries that if he even trips he’ll severely injure himself. She once again gets into a fighting stance, and stays stubbornly in his path.

“I’m not letting you get anywhere, unless it’s back out that door! Now get lost or fight me if you want to get there so badly!” Dakota’s demeanor changes almost instantly as she says this, her eyes narrowing as she surveys her opponent. Valentine shakes his head exasperatedly, and summons the words Electricity and Wind with a flick of his wrist, and the magical words rush towards Dakota. She’s able to raise up her arms and shout Ice-Make Shield before they make contact, and they are diffused upon immediate contact with the ice, leaving her unscathed. Dakota then focuses her magic energy into her hands, and from it, summons seven eagles, which all fly at the younger boy. He dodges almost all of them, and places a Fire incantation on the rest.

He stands calmly in front of her, exactly as before, and Dakota shakes off any doubt she has at the outcome of this battle. I won’t let my guildmates down. Even if I fall, I will continue to stand up again until I can no longer move. She strengthens her resolve, and runs at Valentine, storing a bit of her magical energy into her fist, and moves her fist to punch Valentine in the face. The ice disappears with another Fire enchantment, though she presses onwards until she feels her knuckles come into contact with flesh. Using the bit of magical energy she stored, she releases it, which causes Valentine to be pushed back with the force. A jagged line of ice cuts into his skin at the jawline, and a small bit of blood seeps out from the wound. The ice melts within a few seconds, though the cold has stopped the bleeding, and Valentine stares at Dakota, eyes sharp and analytical.

“An Ice-Make mage. I believe a much more experienced one was in the GMG, yes? You’ll be no issue at all then, since I’ve studied her fighting techniques.” Valentine says, hoping to strike a chord, which he does, and Dakota bites the inside of her cheek. Well, at least I haven’t learned anything from Umi. This way I’ll at least be somewhat of a surprise to him.

He makes another Electricity enchantment, this time paired with Paralysis. Dakota ducks and rolls away from the floating words, and is able to get by with only a few scorches along her skin, and quite a bit of static electricity on her clothes. The electrons cause a foreign stiffness in her muscles, and she assumes this is caused by the Paralysis. Then I’ll just have to get rid of the electricity. She thinks, forcing her left fist into her right palm, and she uses Ice-Make Lion, which summons a large lions head. The mouth gapes open, and through steady concentration, Dakota is able to force the electrons out of her body and into her creation. The lion lets out a roar, and although no sound is released, thousands of ice needles are shot out, each fused with a tiny bit of Valentine’s leftover electricity. Valentine constructs a Fire Wall in front of him, but it is overwhelmed after the first few hundred needles pass, and he’s struck by at least three dozen needles before he can bring forth another wall to deal with the rest. Holes are ripped through his clothes, and his skin is stuck with the needles, though otherwise, he seems fine.

Dakota looks at her opponent wearily, and she prepares herself for something much bigger to come. There’s no way they’d bring somebody this weak to a guild war. He has to be stronger than this. She thinks to herself, preparing Ice-Make Gloves again.

Valentine writes Poison into the air, though writes it twice, which makes Dakota question if she knocked him in the head a bit too hard. Nonetheless, the words charge at her, and the end of the words catch on her arm as she tries to sidestep it in her confusion. The effects are immediate, and she cries out as a searing pain wraps around her bicep, and the letters fuse together to form a band around it. She grits her teeth, and raises her fists into a fighting position again, though concern flashes across her face for more than a few moments. What if I die because of this stupid poison? She thinks, but her thoughts are quickly dismissed as Valentine tells her the poison will only kill her if she leaves it in her system for more than forty-eight hours. With that out of the way, her eyes shine with a renewed fighting spirit.

“Well then, since I’ve got nothing to worry about, let's get this show on the road!”She says, and she charges at him, a newfound vigor coursing through her veins.

She launches a kick straight into his gut, and it lands, and Valentine gasps as the air is knocked out him. She ducks to go in for a tackle, but with Dakota in such close proximity, he is able to plant two other enchantments, Fire and Burn, this time along the back of her exposed neck. She screeches as the pain overtakes her, and scrunches up her neck in order to protect it from further assault. She quickly backtracks out of his reach before he can get in any more tricks, and she reaches an ice-covered hand to the back of her neck, and the cold is enough to decrease the pain to bearable, and she rolls her neck to get rid of the tension.

She looks at her battle partner, who looks in a slightly better condition than she feels, though he’s definitely favoring his left side from when she had kicked him, and a large bruise is already forming on his jaw from her punch. Then again, she favoring her left arm after the poison landed, so she feels as though the playing field is fairly even. A light blue aura surrounds her hands as she strengthens her gloves, waiting for Valentine to attack.

He glances towards the basement door, and Dakota looks as well. Right as she turns, Valentine writes Wind in the air, and it rushes towards Dakota, who is too unprepared to even try to block it. She is launched a few feet backward though she is able to lean backward and flip off her hands to her feet again before she hits anything. Back on her feet, she charges forward, and as she gets within 15 feet, she suddenly stops, and slams her hands onto the ground, creating a dome around herself and Valentine. She’s panting with the effort it took to get over here, as well as putting and keeping the dome up, though her face remains in a steady, mischievous smile. Valentine is taken aback by the smile on her face, and is quick to assume she’s delirious from the pain she’s been put under and summons the word Earth, and it is launched towards Dakota. She is able to demolish it with a solid punch, and the debris fall around her. Valentine launches the same spell, and she rolls under it this time, and it hits the ice behind her. It cracks the dome, though the is able to restore it in an instant without even having to think about it. Using the momentum from the roll, she leaps up and charges at Valentine, landing a blow across his chest, and knocking him into the wall. He slumps down against the ice, and Dakota watches him carefully. If I dismantle the dome now, I’ll have more energy to fight. She thinks, and she almost does before another thought interrupts her. She concentrates her magic energy on the area around her, and the temperature begins to drop dramatically, and in seconds it's freezing and still continuing to drop lower. Valentine’s lips and fingernails turn blue with the cold, and he looks up at Dakota with anger. He ignites Fire in front of him, and Dakota lowers the oxygen level in the dome as well, and it disappears. Both their breathing becomes labored, but Dakota keeps a level head as she continues to drop the temperature.

“Just give up.” She breathes out, and her words barely reach Valentine over his chattering teeth. “I’ll get rid of the dome, and you can get out,” She adds, already feeling quite a bit of fatigue from having the dome up for so long and controlling the components within. Valentine keeps his mouth shut and continues to slowly draw in air from his nose. He doesn’t nod or shake his head, and Dakota lowers the temperature even further. Please give up. I can’t keep this up much longer. She thinks though keeps the thoughts off her face. Her mischievous smile has changed into cocky, but Valentine can sense her magical aura growing weaker the more time she spends keeping the dome up. His own physical capabilities prevent him from raising a single hand to fight her with, and Dakota can’t move from her current position lest her concentration be broken and her plan crumbles around her.

The two are in a stalemate, their gazes locked. It's a test of stamina, and they're both at their limits. Valentine is the first to move,and creates a meager Fire enchantment barely larger than his own fist. The attack heads straight for Dakota’s chest, but with the frigid air, its nearly diminished by the time it reaches her, and barely scathes her, but she still cringes. ''I could’ve avoided that. What a great mage I am.'' She pours more of her magical energy, and by now the temperature is low enough to where Valentine can hardly bring in a single breath. “Just… Give up…” Dakota breathes out and Valentine nods his head as best he can. Dakota drops the dome, and without the wall behind him, Valentine flops straight back. Dakota grabs Valentine by the front of the shirt, pulling him up to look her in the eye. “I am going to let you go because it's obviously a mistake you’ve ended up in such a terrible guild. Leave while you can, and don’t make me regret this decision.” With that, she lets go of him, and then flops down onto the ground herself, utterly drained even though her fight had to be one of the easiest ones in the guild. Valentine remains on the ground, unable to even sit up, his muscles still frozen stiff.