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The guild hall was bustling with activity, mages finding jobs to take and relaxing in the company of their fellow guild members. Emmeline was quietly taking in the atmosphere, not quite finding her place among their ranks, as she had joined only a few shorts days ago. Bright burgundy eyes sought to catch another's gaze, hoping for a conversation to finally break the ice with someone and allow her to be integrated into Dragon Gunfire's daily life.
A crimson-haired Mage sat down next to her, tossing a knife in the air and catching it. "Hello there," he said. "I'm Matthew. I heard you're new around here." He wore a massive grin, like he was high on life.
She brightened up as he took a seat next to her, a smile pulling at her pink-glossed lips. "Hi Matthew, I'm Emmeline. And yeah, I just became a mage here. How are you?"
"I'm good," said Matthew, his grin still etched onto his face. "You could say, I'm one of the veterans around here. I participated in the Grand Magic Games last year. You've only been a member of the guild for a few days right?"
"I remember seeing that, you guys came in fourth, right? It was a pretty tough competition that year." She doesn't mean anything bad by it, as she saw the merits in the guild's valiant fight and knew that it was all in the luck of the draw.
"Yeah I guess," said Matthew. "I think Jason took the loss the hardest though. He still wants to rematch that Izar guy. I for one, couldn't care less about the results. As long as I win."
Two other mages walked in and sat next to Matthew.
"Hey Matthew," said a man with a black jacket and pale skin. "You acquainting yourself with the new girl?"
"Just showing her the ropes," said Matthew.
"It's nice to see another girl around here," said a girl with brown hair tied back in a ponytail and a cap. "I'm Lela," she said as she reached out her hand to shake. "You're really pretty."
"There were lots of good matches regardless, it was fun to watch you," she says with a happy smile. As the woman reaches out her hand, she accepts the handshake. "Thank you, it's nice to meet you, Lela. You're very pretty too."
"Don't get any ideas," said Victor, putting his arm around her shoulder.
"Oh Victor! Stop it!" Lela playfully smacked him on the shoulder.
"So," said Victor, "are you going to put her through the ritual."
"I was getting to that," said Matthew.
Emmeline watched the exchange, "I was simply returning the compliment, no need to get defensive." At Victor's question, she tilts her head to the side. "Ritual? What ritual?"
"Well you see," began Matthew, "every time we get a new member, we pick a willing participant, and have a little sparring session, testing the waters to see how strong they are. Helps newer members get on teams."
"Oh, that sounds cool," she says, wondering who among the guild might challenge her. She seemed pretty non-threatening, a slight frame and rich girl look and attitude serving to make her look like nothing but a spoiled brat. "Who is going against me?"
"Your opponent will meet you at the Mercury Arena," said Matthew. "We want to keep you on your toes. We know you've only been here a few days, but if our reputation proceeds us, you could know the magic of your opponent."
Emmeline nods, "Should I head there now?"
"Yeah, yeah, go ahead. And don't be surprised when you see all the other members there as well."
"Well, alright then." She gets up from her spot and goes to the arena, passing by her room and having a boy the same age follow her out. When she arrived at the coliseum, she simply walks to the center, the purple-haired boy beside her surveying the guild members spilling in.
"What is this?" he asks, looking quite exasperated at having been dragged out here.
Numerous guild members had already sat in the spectator seats. Even Victor and Lela were sitting there, despite headed there at the same time as her. The only person not present was--
"Purgatory Dragon's Battle Axe!" Matthew cried as he flew down from above. His foot cloaked in flames, he aimed a powerful drop kick at Emme.
Emme glanced up just in time to see the flaming leg coming towards her. Her Magic Origin was released from its container, though seemingly nothing happened. She quickly sidestepped the kick, addressing Matthew with a disappointed look, less than a foot between them as he landed.
"That wasn't very nice. It's improper to surprise a lady." Garrison rolled his eyes, simply watching the exchange. It was unknown why he was there and not in the stands. Maybe he just hadn't bothered to make his way up there yet.
"You're pretty fast," said Matthew. His own magical aura flaring to life. "If you hadn't guessed, I'm your opponent. Why don't you make a move. Show me why you're the guild's chosen representative instead of me or anyone else."
Emme briefly considered his challenge, ultimately deciding to entertain him. She held out her hand, palm open, and quickly released a beam of Dispel Magic towards his chest. It wouldn't be enough to do serious damage, though it had the potential to wind him, and it would burn a hole in his aura as it made contact. She then leapt backward, putting a greater distance between them.
Matthew's eyes widened when the spell made contact. Although he wasn't substantially hurt, he noticed that his magical aura provided no defense. "Dispel huh?" He recollected himself, preparing to charge. "Let's see how well you handle this." Matthew snapped his fingers, a tornado of flames appearing around his opponent. "Purgatory Dragon's Rapture!" The tornado constricted on her position, and would soon cause an explosion if she didn't dispel it. However, Matthew was shrouded from view, and had already begun to run up to Emme's side, collecting flames in his hand. "Purgatory Dragon's Inferno Fist!" would be his follow up, causing another large explosion with the punch aimed to her side.
As the flames closed in, Emme opened her palm again, blasting a hole through the tornado and quickly escaping out the side. As he came up with a flame-ridden fist, she dodged out of the way again, holding out her hand. In an instant, Garrison transformed into a halberd, flying into her hand. She poured her Magic Origin into the polearm, and the halberd began to swirl with acid, the spots where it touched her hands not affecting her. She made a quick jab at his abdomen with the hook, careful not to put enough force so as to skewer him, but enough to draw blood if it connects.
The blade made contact, but upon doing so Matthew exploded into a burst of flames. His body contorted and moved around her weapon, arms reforming in front of her to grab onto her shoulders, followed by the rest of him. "Purgatory Dragon's Roar!" he called, aiming the blast point-blank into her face. Albeit, it was more of a warning shot. He wouldn't actually want to cause any permanent harm to the newbie.
Emme watched as his body turned to fire, vaporizing the acid that moved across her halberd. With a smug smile, she leapt back, letting her weapon go, which transformed back into a young man. Matthew grabbed onto him instead, and with a Dispel Armor incantation from his partner, the Dragon Roar was all but fizzled out as it made contact with him. He lifted his hand, a simple command of "Control," and the gaseous acid surrounded Matthew's head, aiming to cause him to inhale it. The acid would be removed as easily as it was breathed in, preventing it from doing permanent damage, but it seemed Garrison wanted the fight to be over very quickly. Emme watched from a careful distance, wondering how Matthew might escape this time.
Matthew, figuring out that his magic was ineffective, gripped tighter onto the man who had suddenly appeared, aiming to toss him over his shoulder and a fair distance away. Barely getting a whiff of the gas, Matthew already began to feel nauseous. A sphere of light suddenly enveloped his head, pushing away from the gas from his body, his hair sticking up as it turned golden as well. He moved out of the general location to avoid the gas before dispelling the sphere. He turned to Emme again, his grin still on his face, and motioning for her to come at him.
Garrison had little time to react and decided to roll with the toss, though, instead of allowing himself to be thrown completely, he gripped Matthew's shoulders as well and flipped over his back, landing a foot behind him. Now back-to-back, he was unable to prevent him from leaving and turned around as the golden sphere dissipated the acid around him. Emme waved to her partner and he jogged over to her, disinterested in the current happenings.
"You know, it wouldn't kill you to pretend to have fun sometimes," she says, hands on her hips.
"It wouldn't kill you to be less of a brat either, yet here we are," he quips, his body once again forming into a halberd. She twirled it once, lightning beginning to crackle across its form. With a quick burst of speed, she jumped towards Matthew, swinging the axehead towards his hip. As the blade was swung, the lightning sought to leap onto him, delivering a minor jolt at worst, though if the blade were to make contact, the shock would be far greater as the lightning tried to ground itself.
Matthew held out both his hands in front of him. "Holy Sphere!" he called out, a sudden wall appearing between the two of them. The halberd hit it, but the lightning was dispersed across its surface. Matthew motioned for her to try to strike again. "Come on. My defense is one of the best in the guild. No one can crack my Holy Sphere!"
Emme drew up quickly, jabbing her halberd at the sphere point first. She channeled her Dispel Magic through the polearm, effectively enacting Beam through the weapon itself, the pronged end helping to focus it even more. As it made contact with his defensive barrier, the Dispel tore the magic apart, burning through like a flame through paper. "Magic doesn't work on me, dumbass," she said, a devilish smirk growing, her halberd flashing momentarily, as though in protest, to which she only rolled her eyes.
That was just what he was waiting for. The second a hole was open in the barrier, Matthew fired a blast of light through, his Holy Shield, which would activate a stigmata and sealing her movements. He was fully aware this would only be a temporary measure at best, so right after he fired the blast, he flew forward, aiming a strong punch towards her face. Even if she dodged the beam, the momentary distraction would make it far more difficult to dodge his follow up.
As Emmeline's halberd was in the path of the stigmata, she simply had to flare her Beam out to Shield for a moment, a square absorbing the effects of the spell. As he jumped toward her, narrowly avoiding the halberd point, she quickly rotated, swinging her halberd to catch his mid-section on the polearm and smack him like a baseball, pushing him several meters away. Due to his own quick movements and dedication to the punch, it would be hard to stop in time to dodge around her swing. "C'mon fire boy, kick up the heat before I get bored!" she goaded.
Matthew fired flames from the bottom of his feet, causing his body to suddenly jolt upwards, narrowly avoiding the halberd while simultaneously increasing his movement speed, causing his attack to move at an even faster rate. "Are you kidding me? I'm just getting warmed up!"
As he surged upward, Emme tossed her halberd forward, raising her hands to enchant a Shield in front of herself before leaping back. He would no doubt smash through the barrier, as it would do little to stop his physical strength, but his flames would be all but extinguished, at least momentarily. Her halberd transformed back into a human, hands raised. As Matthew dropped towards Emme, she fired off Beam, Garrison firing off six Bullets in rapid succession, with the red-head in the center. Lightning was aimed at the back of his knees, elbows, and shoulders, the Dispel beam heading straight for his gut. The lightning would temporarily paralyze him where it made contact, preventing him from bending or stretching his joints in those areas and the beam would deliver enough blunt force to knock the wind out of him.
Matthew suddenly sprouted wings made of flames, taking to the skies with a boost of flames. However, he still couldn't move quite fast enough. The lightning hit him on his legs and feet, although they missed their primary targets. The wings turned golden as he stayed high in the air, lighting cackling around his lower half. "That stung. Hopefully this will sting more. Holy Wrath!" Spears of light rained down onto the arena floor. Some went directly towards Emme and her weapon, but others simply stuck into the ground, around or otherwise near the pair. That's when they detonated in smaller explosions of light and heat.
Emmeline reacted as quickly as she could, throwing up Dispel Armor to absorb the magical attacks. She was a little too late, one of the spears catching her on her shoulder and another hitting her foot, the rest being absorbed by her armor, effectively negating its effects. Garrison had created his own defense, Surge shrouding him in a cloud of lightning, though he also took a hit to his chest. He looked completely unaffected, however, whereas Emme had cringed, cursing at the lacerations. She made a motion with her head and he nodded, raising his hands to Matthew. Instead of firing off another attack, however, he took control of the residual lightning around his legs, making a crushing moment with his hands, causing it to constrict, delivering another shock to his legs. She followed up, surrounding Matthew in a cloud of Dispel Magic, completing her Surround spell. This would cause Garrison's connection to break, but more importantly, it would destroy Matthew's wings, causing him to plummet to the ground, and where she would be waiting, Garrison becoming a halberd, with which she would swing the butt of the polearm towards his temple to hopefully deal a knockout blow.
Matthew fell to the ground. Emme went in for her attack, but Matthew only smiled as the halberd made contact. He skidded across the ground, blood dripping from his head, but he got back to his feet, seeming a little groggy. "I don't get to use this that often since people have trouble dealing lasting damage to me. I can heal from this kind of damage, but where's the fun in that!" Matthew's aura became much more intense, his magic power drastically increasing. "Draco Meteor!" he shouted. He propelled his body with his flames a breakneck pace. He was moving so fast it was almost like he was teleporting. He aimed a strong punch towards her gut.
Emmeline enchants a Dispel Shield a little more than a foot in front of her, much denser than the one before to hopefully stop him fully in his tracks. As Matthew is nearly upon her, Emmeline allows Garrison to form back into a human, standing as a sort of barrier in front of her though still behind the Dispel Shield, where he would tank the physical portion of the attack if the shield did break. After this, Emmeline would slide under his somewhat wide-footed stance, a hand full of Dispel Magic, and she would grab Matthew's ankle between the gap in his pants and shoes, surging the magic through his body with even the slightest of touches, completing her Invasion spell to deprive him of Magic completely.
Matthew plowed through the barrier, his speed and power having been drastically increased by his Dragon Rage, his attack still going straight on to hit her human weapon. "Hold on, hold on!" called Matthew. His wounds suddenly healed as flames covered his injuries. His magic power dropped back down to normal. "You used your living weapon as a shield? I would say that was fitting if he was a shield, but come on man. You're a lot tougher than I thought you were, I'll give you that, but god damn." He hopped out of the arena, walking towards the exit.
Victor and Lela looked at each other in the stands. "I think that means she won."
Emme cocked her head to the side in confusion. "What's got your panties in a twist? Sure, he's my weapon, but I can't force him to do anything, he could very easily move out of the way and make me take the attack." She puts her hands on her hips and Garrison shrugs his shoulders.
"Whatever, I'm going back to sleep," he says, leaving the arena.