Test your Might! (RP PRO tryout - Grace vs Emblem)

Just before I begin this, for all of you wondering, there have been afew concept the TTRPG staff have been developing over the past days. One of them is called the RP PRO, and I suggested a practical test to see how it works and how able it is to incorperate writing styles etc etc.

In this test fight, Grace Koori will fight Emblem Trailblazer. It is not canon nor should it be perceived as such, although all our character's abilities apply.
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It was a solemn day. Although Spring was right around the corner, this day had harbored nothing but dark clouds, thunderstorms and sharp cold winds. It would be advisory to cuddle up to anything warm. Emblem Trailblazer did not feel the negative effects of the weather, for his masterful pyromancy was always working in the background, making sure his metabolism and temperature were at peak function for whatever it was that he wished to do. That same pyromancer however, had much rather been somewhere else. Reading a tome with a grand cup of coffee was one of those things he had much rather done then this.

But it had to be done. Emblem stood in the middle of a grassy football field in the middle of the Old Stadium. Not much unlike a coliseum, it was one of Jump City's older buildings and looked much like one of it's Roman counterparts. It was old stone, eroded by winds and rain, and battered by wind. A stray set of leaves flew over it's countless stone seats, lost in the wind. It was the perfect place for what was yet to happen.

Emblem Trailblazer had seen a plethora of possibilities at what had been a short note. Here, he would face one of those self-proclaimed heroes. Yet, instead of setting up traps or devising a master plan, he had to come alone. Not even Krious should join. For all that it sounded like a trap, Emblem had a suspicion that this was something very different. He did not pick up any other heat signature in the area next to his own. He was alone for now....Or he was facing that female Titan he had seen in the Jump city Park. She was capable of some spellcasting to aid her side, but she was the opposite of Emblem's flames...and with that...she had a complete disadvantage against this master of flames.

Brisk winds cut past Emblem as sharp knives looking for something to sting. He had waited for some time now. Emblem sat down on the lush grass, folding his legs. A small circle of flame appeared around the battlemage, a perfect circle of pure heat and light. Emblem's mind was set for battle, which only these flickering flames could provide some much needed distraction from.

''If ya gotta be dumb...ya gotta be tough.''

For all it was worth, Emblem wondered why one would issue such a challenge. Sure, some Titans and other heroes would want to show off, some would want to defeat Emblem and bring some sort of peace...some would want to improve by means of fighting...but...Emblem? That one who has transcended all boundaries, is willing to kill..and wield fire like none others. There were plenty of thieves and criminals in Jump City to hone one's skill on.

A few minutes past as Emblem stared into the flickering flames absent-mindlessly. One moment however, he felt someone or something was drawing near. His heart was racing in the delight of battle incoming. The brilliant caster stood up as quickly, awaiting his incoming foe.

''..So it is you.'', said Emblem as he corrected his white braid of hair, flipping it over his shoulders again. He was going to enjoy this...

It was a wonderful day for a fight, Grace thought. She didn’t feel the cold. It simply wasn’t in her physiology to feel cold. Instead, she felt invigorated on days like this. The sun was hidden away behind weeping clouds, and the temperature dropped enough so that Grace almost felt at home. The wind blew in her face, fanning her black hair out behind her like a shadowy cape in a sudden lightening flash.

Grace wasn’t wearing her usual black outfit. Instead, her skirt and t-shirt were white. White stockings covered her legs. The color would make it much easier for Grace to dispel heat, but it would make absorbing it slightly more difficult. She expected a firestorm ahead, so she didn’t want to be absorbing as much heat today.

Grace arrived at the football field. She could sense the demonic power radiating from within. That had to be Emblem.

The Titans had been so kind to Grace in the past year. Although she had never truly shown appreciation for their kindness, Grace was thankful to have comrades. They had helped her grow stronger, taught her more about the Southern world, and even battled Grace’s brother, Argo to win her freedom from Necati. But truth be told, Grace was tired of being one of the weaker Titans. She was tired of having other people fight her battles for her.

She thought about Will. He had proven himself worthy to be her husband, but was Grace worthy to be his wife? Grace had always struggled with her sense of self-worth, and that was why this fight needed to happen.

Emblem, a fire-mage with demonic blood, was the symbol of Grace’s weakness. The villain had eluded the Titans time and again, and Grace had found her own abilities to be lacking when trying to fight him. She would not retreat this time. She would prove to the world, and to herself, that Grace Koori was someone who deserved respect.

“Yes. It is me,” Grace said, responding to the fire-mage’s welcome. She was slightly surprised that he had actually shown up. It showed some sort of respect, Grace decided.

Her message had been vague, but Emblem had assumed that Grace had written it. And now she was going to kill him.

Emblem already had flames burning to warm him. Grace glared at him with her icy blue eyes. A thin layer of ice armor formed around her body. It was mostly for extra agility, since his fire would eat right through the ice anyways. She had to try to dodge his flames, not block them.

“You know why you’re here, Emblem. I challenge you to a duel for your very honor.” Grace reached her hands to the sky and clenched her fists. Giant ice cubes the size of cars would form in the clouds and drop to the earth. They fell above and around Emblem, hopefully forcing the fire mage to focus his fire magic on defending himself. Grace was hoping that Emblem had a limit on how much fire he could spew out. If possible, she would break that limit. Right now, however, she was making it rain frozen, crushing death upon Emblem.

''Course you know...T'was your message! As for honor...''

Emblem had wanted to deny that honor had anything to do with this. Whilst he had some of his own rules, he wasn't here because of some honor. He was here solely for bloodlust.

''...words that lost their meaning in time, nothing more. This is about your life, or rather...your death!''

Emblem stood up as Grace raised her hands. In terms of spellcasting, something big was going to come due to her stance. Due to her affiliation, Emblem could guess it was going to be ice-related. As some of his spells required his hands to be lifted into the sky....and they all had one thing in common...!

Emblem looked up at the sky and deduced just the right thing. Area of Effect magic hailing from the sky itself. Large cubes of ice were coming straight for him. It made Emblem wonder. Why wouldn't he simply run for Grace and try to take her out? She would want all those ice cubes on herself simply because of their velocity..

Yet the cubes came down too fast, encircling the fire mage, with the intention to take him out quickly. He admittedly hated to use any defensive fire spell, so he wasn't going to. Such a simple barrage of pure cold would not withstand what he was going to use.

Emblem tapped the ground with his flat palm. An tribal emblem of fire appeared, encircling him and everything around him within an approximate 8 foot radius. The ground itself shook and cracked open, a red glow seeping from the cracks themselves. Not a moment later or a moment too soon, a huge jet of flame shot up from the ground, all the way into the sky, engulfing Emblem in it's process.

The flames resembled magma in some way or form., but it surely wasn't that. Yet the fiery battlemage wouldn't have been surprised if the whole town could watch it. The heat emanating from this eruption came in shockwaves, but it weakened the incoming blocks of ice and vaporised them when they came in contact with the flame jet.

As the fiery jet stood tall, Emblem was nowhere to be seen, engulfed in the heat and light of the flames, barraged by a constant stream of ice blocks. Yet in the blink of an eye, the battlemage left his safe haven and charged straight for Grace, leaping over an large ice block in his path, again running straight towards her, clearing the ice block barrage in the process. The flame jet dies down the further he went away from it, his focus shifted on his opponent.

''This is not about cheap magic tricks. Now we test your might!''

As Emblem neared his icy opponent, he pulled back his right arm, clenched his fist, and shot it forward. Maliciously grinning in the process, Emblem could not wait to see what would happen next. Knowing his opponent had ice armor, this one had to hurt. His muscles tensed as his fists went straight for Grace, with the intention to break her here and now.

A huge pillar of fire ripped out of the ground where Emblem had been standing. Had he actually created a volcano? Grace could feel the heat from where she was standing. She had expected him to do something to deal with the falling ice blocks, and he hadn’t disappointed. Despite the size of her cubes of ice, they were not going to get past Emblem’s explosion. The ice that hit the fire head-on was vaporized within a second, while those that merely skimmed the fire went tumbling away to dent the soft ground in a circle.

Grace stopped pulling down ice blocks, and the barrage ceased. The last massive projectiles melted and sizzled in the intense heat. Now the only sound was that of the fire burning. Would Grace be prepared for what would come next? She expected a fireball to fly out of the inferno right at her. If that was the case, she would need to freeze the ground around her and pull up a make-shift shield of rock and dirt. Grace took a wide stance, keeping her center of gravity low. She would be ready when the fire came.

However, instead of a fireball, Emblem himself came running out of the pillar of flame, leaping over a fallen ice block and tightening his fist. He moved with surprising speed. Those white hairs on Emblem’s head didn’t signify age. He said that he was going to test her might. Physically, Emblem was clearly the stronger of the two combatants. Although Grace usually wouldn’t mind a close-quarters fight, she didn’t want to get close to Emblem. Freezing him with a touch seemed like a simple solution, but she had a feeling that he could simply thaw himself out. Her armor would do her no good if he empowered his attacks with fire.

He was close, and Grace wasn’t ready to fight him hand-to-hand. In a sudden blur, Grace would fly up and to her right at 60 miles per hour, easily distancing herself from Emblem. She was controlling the ice armor around her body, forcing it up into the air with her inside it. She could move quite fast in this manner, as long as she was able to stomach the inertia. As far as Grace knew, Emblem couldn’t fly. That made her the most agile player on the field, and she intended to take advantage of that.

Grace stopped flying away once she was a good 80 meters away from Emblem. She extended her hand towards the fire-mage. From the tips of her fingers five ice bullets were formed. She shot the bullets at Emblem with her mind. They weren’t as strong as metal bullets, but they moved just as fast and would hurt a lot. Strafing around the edge of the stadium, Grace would continue shooting bullet after icy bullet at her opponent. It was merely a front for her real attack. The very ice block that Emblem had jumped over a few seconds ago now rose into the air and flew towards Emblem’s back at 40 miles per hour. She would have pulled the massive block faster, but it was hard to control something so heavy from such a distance, especially while shooting ice bullets out of her other hand.

Grace made sure to stay in front of Emblem so that he wouldn’t see the ice block coming. If this worked, the fire-mage would have his back broken by the ice block running into him. A second later, Grace planned on dropping the block on his body.

( Let's get it started )

BANG!

With a sharp downward motion, Emblem's fist planted itself in the ground. His attack had missed it's desired target, shattering rock instead. She had cleverly moved to grounds where Emblem could not go. His opponent had some sort of flying ability. Emblem's eyes followed her intently as she created distance between the two combatants. For lack of a better thing to do, Emblem just looked at his opponent. He wanted to see what she would do next.

As the winds blew through his hairs, Emblem watched Grace pointed her hand at him. Great. Emblem's mind raced for some possibilities, but one could deduce this one was going straight for him. As Emblem tried to sidestep whatever was coming his way, he evaded one icy bullet. The other four dug into his left arm. Bleeding ensured as these fragments of ice pierced his semi-human skin. Even if it had toughened from all the pyromancing and the demonic infusion, they still went through.

Emblem, in response, looked back at Grace maliciously and formed a ball of fire in his hand, melting the ice bullets. One would suggest he had plans to put that orb of flame somewhere where it would hurt. His voice a little disturbed by the wind, Emblem shout out at Grace.

''What is this, acupuncture? When are we going to f...Oomph!''

Emblem's mouth had proven his point at that point as a large block of ice had charged straight at him. Crushingly colliding with his back, blindsiding the demonic master of flames. In response, Emblem literally exploded. A heatwave issued from all over his body, melting the block of ice. In this short burst, a little water drenched his hairs, but even that evaporated as he dispersed wave after wave. Emblem stood up and bent backwards a little. The warmth seemed to soothe his pain, but only a little. At this point, Emblem was rather glad his inner demon had elevated his toughness and increased his properties of taking damage. However, if there was one thing he did, it was underestimating Grace Koori.

As his back still stung, Emblem relocated Grace with a sadistic grin on his face.

''Good girl...my turn.''

As he finished his sentence, the immediate area's temperature raised several degrees and got dry as parchment as Emblem's eyes glowed white and his armed were covered in flame. With a sweep of both his left and right hand, fires spread all over the barren stadium, covering it's inner dome and surging upward, a minor threat only to his opponent.

Emblem formed the battlefield, commanding the fires and vaporizing all the ice around. Yet soon after, the fires seemed to retract back to Emblem. It wouldn't take one long to figure out there could only be one reason for this...Emblem had something planned.

As the fires rolled back to Emblem and swerved around him, one could observe his flaming silhouette to have his hands in front of him, at the height of his abdomen, their palms turned to face the ground. Lines of flame shot down into the ground, with Emblem turning to form a circle.

A strangely perfect circle formed, and all the flames that had only just now spread seemed stuck within this circle, following the circle's infinite line over and over again. Emblem stood in the middle, and turned his gaze to Grace.

''Hear my song, Ice witch!''

Emblem clapped his hands together and in that moment, dozens of projectiles shot up from the perfect circle, Emblem's eyes gazing contently as they shot up. Eerily so, these projectiles were not mere shards of flame. They warped and formed solid-looking flaming red skulls, cackling in a high pitch as they closed in on Grace fast. Dozens of flaming skulls, with a fiery burn after them, came straight for her.

''Organ of Hell, sing to me and feed on my foe!''

Words resounding upon the stone walls of the Stadium, but not words never heard before. Emblem had been sure to check out this dimension's set of known moves. Interestingly enough, when that one had turned evil, possessed by Hellion, it used Hell's Organ against his dear friend Krious. Coincidentally, Hell's Organ was one of the first moves the current Emblem learned and mastered. It was a dazzling attack, scaring mortals into death alone. The brave would still face a high amount of flaming skulls, awaiting a fiery burning death.

Emblem's gazed intently at Grace, seeing how she would fight this widespread launch of skulls. It was a marvelous sight to behold, and gave him some time to see if he could figure his opponent out a little. Always the scholar, Emblem wanted to know what made her tick. How did she function, how could she fly? His first test had already passed in momentarily spreading his flames around. He wouldn't do that again, but it dried the ground and the air to a certain level of height.

As the attack progressed, the culminated flames around Emblem subsided, as they were all shot up.

Her ice bullets were hitting him. This fight was going better than Grace had expected. She had made Emblem bleed before he made an orb of fire to absorb the icy projectiles. Just as Grace was sure he was about to hurl the fire at her, her ice block caught up from behind him and slammed into him.

It worked. Grace’s surprise attack from behind hat hit Emblem, but only to be incinerated an instant later. She had hoped that the ice block would cripple the fire mage, but he seemed to be a lot tougher than she had guessed. He was also able to explode with flames on a moment’s notice. That just wasn’t fair.

Still, the ice block had to cause him some pain, and in that fact Grace took hope.

Flames were spreading from Emblem to around the entire stadium. Grace floated back to a safe distance. She stopped shooting ice bullets at him, since the massive amounts of fire would easily be able to melt them. What was he doing? The flames Emblem sent to encompass the stadium were certainly impressive, but they weren’t a threat to Grace floating safely outside their reach. Was this merely a defensive move? Had Grace really injured Emblem that badly? She didn’t dare to be so prideful. Something was odd about the way the fire was spreading. Was it significant of something?

Now Emblem had shaped the flames into a perfect circle, swirling around him. With a clap of his hands, the fire mage summoned dozens of flaming skulls. This was bad, Grace thought. The flaming skulls turned their hollow eyes to Grace and flew through the air, chasing her. There were so many of them that Grace knew she wouldn’t be able to dodge them all.

Why? Why couldn’t he just send a normal fireball? Did all of this guy’s attacks have to be a piece of sickening art? The fact that she was being attacked by disembodied, screaming, flaming skulls was terrifying. Grace didn’t know her heart could beat so fast. If the fire didn’t kill her, she was sure the heart attack would. But she didn’t have time to die now.

She had to fight back.

Instinctively, Grace flew higher, striving to reach the clouds. She could hear the skulls screaming behind her. They must have come straight from Hell, she decided. They were catching up to her, but soon Grace was inside the clouds, surrounded by water and ice. Freezing the cloud as fast as she could, Grace brought the floating mist under her will. The frozen cloud particles would hurry to get in-between Grace and the flaming skulls, forming
a massive shield made of pure ice.

The first couple of skulls that hit the shield were destroyed by the impact and the flames dissipated. Unfortunately, that same impact also destroyed the ice shield. Water fizzled and evaporated underneath Grace’s feet and another dozen flaming skulls came piercing through the cloud’s underbelly.

“Oh great.”

She couldn’t stop this constant barrage of fire with a simple shield, even if she tried to repair the shield as it took damage. The heat was too intense and melted the ice too quickly. If she had some dirt nearby, she might be able to use it to create a stronger barrier. Grace realized that she should have flown down instead of up.

The skulls were catching up to her, even as Grace increased her flight speed. She flew through another cloud, but she didn’t have time to do anything creative. Instead, Grace gathered all the ice particles to herself, boosting her armor until she looked like a giant flying ball of ice. It wasn’t flattering, but it would protect her better.

One skull hit her, melting away a huge portion of her armor and sending her into a spin. A second skull hit fresh armor and would have given her whiplash if she hadn’t been held tightly in place by her boosted armor. As the rest of the skulls converged on her, Grace disconnected from her armor and sent it flying outwards in all directions. The thrown away armor impacted the remainder of the flaming skulls. Fire and ice destroyed each other in a dazzling explosion. Thankfully, the skulls were all at least a few yards away from Grace when they exploded, so she didn’t get fried alive. She did feel the heated shockwave, however, which gave her first degree burns on her legs, arms, and neck.

In spite of the pain, Grace realized that she had survived a terrifying attack from Emblem. “That…all you’ve got?” She managed to say quietly. She was talking to herself, and Grace quickly realized that she was in free-fall. She had gotten rid of her ice armor, after all. She could see the earth getting closer. Grace formed a thin layer of ice around her armpits and slowed her descent. Within a few seconds, she was floating in place just above one wall of the stadium. She let herself down slowly and stood on the stone wall, swaying slightly from side to side. Grace looked at Emblem and forced a smile on her face through her heavy breathing. “You... have bad taste in music.”

Up and up Grace went, effectively disappearing from Emblem's sight. Much to the pyromancer's delight, as dozens of skulls followed her into the clouds. The demonic spellcaster was well aware that her forte was inside those clouds, as they were made out of liquid. The ground as of yet was much dryer thanks to Emblem. He wouldn't easily explode again though, as it would always cost way more energy then it's real use. Not because of it's instant effect, but because of the fire expanding in all ways at the same time, costing much more energy.

The pyromancer had a short time to take a deep breath and recuperate a little. Yet he knew that any moment, this little cold female could come back and lash out at him. Actually, he hoped she would. The reason why she had sent him a note was still unknown to him. Logically, one would dream of taking out a threat to all mankind, but did she think she was able to do this? Alone?

Yet, something about all of this bored him. His spellcasting prowess would keep her at bay, but where was the fun in that? Like this, he could throw every spell in his arsenal at her...and then what? Spells memorized and perfected by constant practice (on dummies and eventually live targets) didn't really get the blood pumping.

Magma dripped from Emblem's palms, slowly trickling to the floor. This semi-solid mass twisted and warped to form Emblem's Collapse axes, large one handed axes with which he could exercise some rather sharp pressure on his foes. He could toss them and slash with them...that's all he really needed. He wanted to get the adrenaline rush...and he was going to get it.

As Grace got back from the clouds, Emblem was a little impressed. She survived Hell's Organ. And her taunt would almost make it seem like the did it effortlessly. Judging from the time, that could easily as well have been a lie. None would escape the Organ unscathed, but it did not matter; there were more where that came from.

''You... have bad taste in music.''

A comment that had Emblem snicker for a moment. A proper reply however, was not far gone.

''Then let us switch tone, you're boring me..''

Emblem brandished his axes, small sparks flying as he impulsively rubbed them against each other. Again and again, clashing sharp metal upon metal. As the sparks flew off, they touched the ground, and started to burn. Six small dots of flame combusted and expanded, with the mage's grin getting larger and larger.

''If you wish to remain in the sky and away from me, you shouldn't have called me out at all. Those who cannot play with fire...get burned.''

The six flames now diverted erratically and warped, until six hellhounds were formed. Angry hellspawn, with flaming saliva dripping from their horrid mouths, their fangs seemingly hungry for any prey. Emblem understood fully well that if he had six hounds on the ground and two axes waiting to taste blood, Grace would probably not come down. So he decided to bring the fight to her.

Emblem opened his mouth, and one could almost perceive a small furnace inside it, his throat white with pure heat. In a single word of a language unknown, Emblem commanded his hounds to attack. Instantly, the hounds moved forward, using the coliseum’s upward structure to see if there was any way to reach this ice witch. Dualistic in all he did, Emblem also flung one of his axes like a boomerang at Grace. The axe itself was not on fire.

Emblem held his remaining axe in two hands as he looked at Grace to see how she was going to react. Emblem had sent 6 dogs at her and one boomerang blade, leaving some room for her to close in – just what he wanted. If she did, she'd only have a few flaming dogs to worry about. Flaming mongrels Emblem did not even appreciate, if only for their worth as cannon fodder and regular human scare tactic.

Emblem had a point. Grace had been the one to challenge him to this duel, yet here she was flying away. Her pride started to sting. This was a fight for honor, she had said. However, she felt as though she really didn’t have much of a choice. Was she supposed to simply stand there and die for her honor? Certainly she deserved at least the chance to survive this fight. Distance favored her in this fight, so why should she not use it?

She thought about flying in close to fight Emblem with melee weapons. He had even created two axes to accommodate this thought. However, he also created six giant, flaming dogs. What on Earth were those? Emblem must truly be a demon to think of such terrible things.

All thoughts of fighting close and personal left Grace’s mind. The Hell Hounds were charging, climbing the stands in an attempt to get closer to her. Grace reached down and touched the stone wall she was standing on, freezing it instantly. Flying backwards into the air, Grace forced her will upon the frozen wall. A large section of it broke off and floated into the air after Grace.

Grace didn’t notice the axe flying towards her until it had closed half the distance. She would shift over 15 feet within a second to avoid the huge flying weapon. It was overcompensation, but at least she was able to keep her mental hold on the frozen wall. With an effort, Grace pushed the wall at the incoming Hell Hounds, crushing 3 of them beneath the stone. The creatures were flattened and dissipated into the flames from which they had been born. The other 3 hounds had evaded the wall and were nearing the top of the arena seating area. As they leaped towards Grace, the frozen wall would rise into the air again. It had lost a lot of ice from the fall, not to mention the flames from the first three Hell Hounds. Only a fourth of the wall was able to rise from the ground, but it was still big enough. Grace brought the smaller section of the wall around in an arc, piercing through the three remaining Hell Hounds one at a time.

That dealt with Emblem’s attack. Grace was already feeling the strain of the battle. Emblem’s power was difficult to overcome, and all of his attacks took a major effort to avoid. Beating those Hell Hounds had taken so much time that Grace was sure she had no time left to counter-attack. Emblem would have come up with something new to send her way, she was sure of it. She had been acting defensively this entire battle, which meant Emblem would naturally take the offensive. Somehow, Grace had to change the fight around.

The ground was dry. Too dry to be of major use to Grace. Most of the moisture in the area had gone into freezing the wall. What else could she use to make ice with? There was the water in Grace’s body. It was dangerous, but she didn’t want to waste time right now going up to the clouds to get more moisture.

Freezing a small amount of water in her own skin, Grace gently removed it from her body and sent it flying towards Emblem. The ice would form an arrow in flight, and would travel towards Emblem’s face. The ice arrow wouldn’t impale him, however. Instead, it would transform at the last second into a patch that would cover Emblem’s mouth and nose. If this attack worked, it would prevent Emblem from breathing, if only for a few seconds. That would give Grace time to get more water.

A metahuman completely obliterating his hellhounds. What else was new? Emblem yawned as these worthless mutts were extinguished, one by one. He could summon a few more if he wished, but as always, they were useless. That one swing of his axe had more chance of hitting, but even that had missed seeing Grace moved herself several feet instantly. That was one impressive feature, but it did do nothing to lift Emblem's boredom.

The thrown Collapse Axe had turned around and came straight back for Emblem. The demonic pyromancer held up his right arm with open palm, catching the spinning axe elegantly. Emblem was in doubt. All this time, he had been dishing out at Grace but hardly received anything back. Should he keep this up? Emblem had time to think due to how Grace had exterminated the hellhounds, but he did not feel like it. The axes disappeared in flame as Emblem brought his hands up to his face, slapping his cheeks. If she wasn't going to do something very soon, Emblem was going to kill her. Then again, why the wait?

''I've played around enough. I am going to kill you now. Disappointing creature...if I had known your name I would have exterminated your entire pathetic family in response to your weakness. I suppose Krious can fix that problem for me..''

Emblem pulled his legs together, engulfed them in dark red flames, and spread his arms wide. The flames spread upward and like a line, it moved to the ends of his fingertips. His hands warped in the smoke this dark flame left, but his fingertips were glowing menacingly. Emblem was preparing something big. Yet in the middle of his preparation, he suddenly stopped. Grace had fired something at him. A single projectile, small..meaningless. Yet Emblem was craving for some excitement, even canceling his supposedly killing spell. Emblem stepped out of his stationary stance, and moved towards the projectile, in the middle of it's trajectory.

''Come on...hit me....HIT ME!''

As it came closes fast, Emblem could glimpse an arrow of sorts. The mad pyromancer threw himself in front of the arrow head-first, wanting to experience some feeling next to boredom of repetitive spellcasting. His wish was only half granted, as the arrow exploded to cover his mouth and nose. Emblem was surprised at this ice covering his airways.

Surprised in such a degree that he clawed at his frantically with his hands first before doing what he should have done. Emblem breathed out, his throat lighting up as it had shown to do so previously. The ice melted from his mouth and a small jet of flame, at most three feet long and two wide, shot out. Emblem couldn't breathe in to perform one of his patented fire breaths, so this had to do. With a new breath of fresh air, Emblem made the flames surge through all his airways. The ice cleared away as it melted, but it was not without consequence. Emblem coughed and bleck out a plume of black smoke from his nose. He'd normally never have fire go that way, so it wasn't used to it.

Emblem slapped his cheeks again and clawed at them, red scratching marks becoming visible easily. How aggravating was this? His opponent made a move, but a defensive one at it, only slowing down Emblem, hardly hurting him. The arrow itself would have accomplished much more.

''You maggot! BURN!''

Emblem shout out against Grace, not contend with how this fight was going. Emblem had the ground shake a little, before a rather peculiar Emblem was shown on it in fire. It looked like a straight line, it's tip on fire, with one branch that ended in a small dot and the other in a sharp tail of sorts. Emblem's eyes turned to white and his white hair shot up as he opened his mouth. Were one to gaze down his throat, they would see white flames burning, devouring, consuming. Emblem cocked his head back, then back forward. With a low demonic voice, one could hear the words ''Rodgort Invocation'' being hurled through the air. From te pyromancer's mouth spawned flames, white-hot and surging forward towards his opponent. The flames went quick, burned intensely, and spread over a large area.

Emblem fully realized this attack was more effective the closer his opponent was, but he was able to cover the distance. Whilst the attack took some time as the flames kept pouring from Emblem's mouth, it stopped as soon as it was executed. Emblem's throat was human enough to not be able to take more of such flames. The master of flames coughed multiple times, black smoke again exeting his mouth in small plumes. With a few waving movements of his left hand, the plumes dispersed. Emblem saw sizzling rock and felt the heat. He couldn't really see clear though, he needed a little time to recover from his iconic flame breath. It was devastating, widespread, elegant..but busted his throat every time. Deep breaths were all he could do to combat it.

''If you're still alive...come out and fight. This is MORTAL combat, not some friendly Titan sparring bout. You should have known this before you laid your life on the line versus me.''

Emblem tried to find Grace, but would wait for her to make a move. He was not happy to have to initiate everything...

Emblem had stood still and taken Grace’s attack to the face. If he would do that for every attack she made, this fight could have been over a lot sooner. But assuming that he would do something so ridiculous didn’t seem wise to Grace.

The ice arrow changed its shape and covered Emblem’s face, as planned. During this time, Grace flew towards the clouds as fast as she could. She needed more moisture and more cold. She was getting close when Emblem shot white hot flames from his mouth. Grace had no intention of getting anywhere close to those flames. She kept flying up towards the clouds, trying to distance herself from Emblem’s attack. The farther the flames had to travel, the more they would dissipate.

Glancing back, Grace realized that the distance wasn’t going to protect her completely. The fire was unbelievably powerful and just kept coming. How much heat did this guy have? Could he burn entire continents with his breath?

Grace reached the clouds with the white flame close behind her. The intense heat collided with the heat and the two elements battled each other with the sound of a waterfall. Grace could see tornados forming all around her as the blistering gas pushed aside the cooler air above. This fight was ripping the very sky apart.

The wind overpowered her and Grace found herself spinning horribly in a whirlwind. A lick of flame melted through the armor on her arm and burned it in a flash. Grace let out a scream, but couldn’t hear it over the howling wind around her. In a panic, she threw all of her ice bending power into a sudden flight out of the tornado.

Grace had no idea how fast she had moved, but it had been too fast. Something around her abdomen felt like it had ripped. Her body had not reacted well to the sudden enormous g-force that was applied to it. Her arms, legs, torso, and face felt like they had been shaken. The blood in her body was all pushed to one side, and slowly started to circulate correctly again. She coughed, and blood came, falling to the ground. Was she spinning?

Looking down at her burned hand, Grace was disgusted by the red and purple skin that now covered her limb. Her current sickness made it look blurry, too, like Emblem had burned away the very definition of her body.

But this fight was not over. The ice-mage now had moisture once again. Grace took a moment to collect herself and then reached both her arms out towards the clouds around her. She formed a duplicate of herself out of ice and sent it flying down towards Emblem. It would stay at a good distance so that Emblem wouldn’t be able to tell it was a fake. At least, Grace hoped he couldn’t tell. Once it was under the clouds, the duplicate would start shooting ice bullets, made from its own ice, in Emblem’s general direction.

Meanwhile, Grace would fly down from the clouds from the opposite direction, behind Emblem. She would form a giant ice hammer with a head the size of a car. Strafing across the arena, Grace would swing the giant hammer at the fire-mage’s demonic body, hoping to crush him beneath it.

Emblem, after his taunt, coughed heavily a few times. How foolish of him to let a dragon breath soar up until the heavens. Whilst he had the skill, he simply did not have the throat of a dragon. He had the physique of an demonically empowered human, but that didn't do much for your throat. Even Emblem would have to admit that he went way too overboard with this attack, his blind rage got the better of him on that part.

Black plumes of smoke were coughed up again, a routine he'd already get sick of. On the other hand, Emblem did have to say that he was intrigued by the weather's reaction to his breath attack. It was grand, such a fervor was found in that tornado. But speaking of which, where was that fierce yet boring opponent?

Emblem's answer was presented as he looked up. A flying opponent, shooting ice towards him again. Shards of ice shot towards him at high speed, and Emblem did his best to dodge them. He had to go easy on the flames for a little moment, lest he'd use his throat again. But for as much as he had focused on an offense, Emblem had no proper defense against these shards. Small cuts and wounds formed on his body as his shirt ripped open slightly, showing his scarred but extremely powered-up torso. One would think his muscles would blow up at any moment.

...And still, something seemed off. The one he faced was fierce in what she did, no doubt, but it was repetitive. Ice Bullets, ice bullets and some more ice bullets. As Emblem had put up his arms to shield him against the incoming attack, he noticed a pattern of sorts, but still, it was bland. He was sure that the Titan would notice it was effective, but would not be much longer? No matter...

Emblem formed a fist of flame and coated his hands in it, effectively raising the heat and withstanding the shards of pure ice. They still had an impact, but it was tolerable. Yet the assault did not stop. Emblem felt there was something wrong and decided to check the area for heat signatures. He hated this fancy stuff, but he had to locate and confirm.

Emblem's eyes broadened as he felt Grace's heat (or lack thereof due to harsh cold hammer), behind him! Quickly, the fire mage leaped up and twisted in the air to face his opponent, his shielding arms still coated in flame. Yet he did not see the mage...he saw a giant hammer coming his way. Unprepared for this, Emblem took the brunt of it, and was slammed into the ground. The force behind it however, pushed him on and bounced him against a nearby stone wall. The wall crumbled and collapsed upon the reckless tyrant.

And for a moment, all was silent but a single rock skidding off the pile which now held the battlemage. Yet the peace was not as long as one may have hoped. A few rocks moved, and some more...then the whole pile exploded. Emblem stood upright, his knees bent a little, with one brick in his hand...if that truly was his hand.

Emblem was breathing heavily, the hammer had dealt him heavy unforseen damage. As he looked, his left eye was closed and bleeding and his back seemed to have taken quite some punishment as well. His flames had not had any effect on the massive block of ice, and the concussive force had dealt quite a blow. It was the fight Emblem had wanted, the lust for fighting in which he relished...and which had unlocked his greatest asset. The pyromancer licked a little blood off his lips as he looked at Grace.

His arms might have been severely damaged, but one could not see as instead of regular human arms, Emblem now had the arms of a demon. They were crimson and warped dark red, with eerie blue lights at the joints and fingers. They looked corrupt...evil...and extremely corrupt. Yet their power was apparent as Emblem crushed that one brick he had to dust. Even if his arms had been damaged, they were not here anymore, complete rewired into something else entirely.

''So you finally whipped up the spine to face me directly. Good girl. Keep the toy, you might need it..''

With that, Emblem slammed the ground with both fists, shattering and splitting open that which he stood on. In this mindless act of random arena destruction, Grace could see Emblem, again, running straight for her. This time however, the demonic fist was attempting to hit her. Different from this time were Emblem's eyes, who seemed to be completely white, his murderous grin...

Whether or not he would hit, Emblem's duality ensued a follow up. Were he to hit and shatter his opponent, Emblem would explode in a fiery hell, a small but hot sphere of destruction. Were she to avoid again, Emblem would twist his upper body and point his unused left arm at Grace, wanting to shoot her with a jet of white hot flame.

Grace let out a small cheer. She had hit him with the hammer. She had been nervous there for a second, when he had turned around. Fortunately, it seemed that Emblem wasn’t quite ready for a giant, floating hammer.

Levitating the massive ice weapon back into the air, Grace expected the fight to be over. To her surprise, Emblem stood again. How tough was this guy? On top of that, his arms seemed to have been replaced by creepy red arms. Grace’s senses were telling her that something was very wrong with those arms. They were radiating demonic power far stronger than Emblem was himself. Although Emblem looked quite injured, those arms didn’t seem to be tied to his well-being. Grace wasn’t sure if Emblem was even controlling them. He had become an abomination.

Emblem crushed the rock in his hand. Those demon arms were strong. He then further displayed the power of his new arms by slamming them into the ground. The stones shattered beneath him and crags opened within the earth. That strength wasn’t natural. Grace realized that she had to treat Emblem as though he was a real, full-blooded demon.

The only good news was that Emblem seemed to be losing control. His eyes were pure white, and she could sense the unrestrained rage building inside of him. If he had lost control, then maybe she could make use of it. Emblem ran right at her, attempting to hit her with one of those demonic hands.
That wasn’t going to happen. As Emblem approached, Grace flew into the sky. She was barely able to avoid the reach of the demonic punches. Apparently, her motion sickness from earlier was still slowing her down. She had been flying circles around this guy earlier. Or were those demon arms making him faster, too? Grace hoped not.

She formed an ice bullet from her hand, but before she was able to send it shooting off at her feral opponent, he shot a stream of white hot flame shooting right at her. He was still in control of fire as well? Grace hadn’t planned on that. She didn’t have enough time to dodge and braced herself for the pain that was to come. The ice armor around her grew just a centimeter thicker before the fire hit.
Grace felt the intense heat eat through her armor. It charred and burned her skin with an indescribable pain. She was not completely charred, however, mostly by accident. As she tried in vain to rebuild the ice armor to protect her, she pulled heat from the air to herself. She pulled the heat from the fire directly into her body. Grace had gotten sick from absorbing too much heat before, but that had all been nothing compared to this. She could feel every cell in her body being filled with potent energy. Was this what it felt to be a fire-mage? Either way, her body couldn’t handle this much energy. Her blood was almost boiling and her brain was shutting down. Grace could see her vision tunneling in and could feel herself losing her grip on reality. Her body fell towards the ground, teetering on unconsciousness.

But no. Grace could not allow the fight to end now. She had to beat Emblem to prove that she was worthy enough to be a Titan. She had to prove that she was worthy of being Will’s wife. She had to prove…she just had to prove.

Grace reformed enough armor around her shoulders to allow her to fly again. She flew backwards into the air right towards where her giant ice hammer floated, waiting for her. She did not fly fast enough to outdistance Emblem, for she was baiting him. She was counting on Emblem’s bloodlust to make him rush to attack her with his new demon arms. As she approached the ice hammer, it split in two and allowed her to pass in between the two neatly-cut halves. When she had cleared the back edge, the two haves connected once again and swung right for Emblem. At least, they would if he was charging headlong at her, and thus the hammer.

(( I believe it's best to round this off soon. A few posts each, then have a few other judges check it? Or shall we go on into overtime murder brawl?))

Pure heat vibrated off of Emblem as he charged straight for Grace. Almost predictable, but regretfully, his attack had not hit. Just like the previous time. However, unlike the last time, his follow-up had hit his opponent. Emblem could see victory within his grasp, and was actually almost sad about it...Finally his opponent had put up a fight...only for him to end it so soon...

As Grace moved away a little, Emblem expected her to distance herself again. The pyromancer wished to sprint after her again, but he could not, for his body had taken a lot of painful hits. All the cuts from the ice bullets as well as the crushing blow had him lose a lot of heat.

Even if he was being spurred on by his inner captured demon, Emblem's human body was losing heat. All this time, Emblem had subconsciously kept his body at peak temperature for fighting, a trait shown by those of top-tier mastery of the art of pyromancy. This was costing him some energy and in this case, his momentum. That ice hammer had taken a lot out of him...this toy needed to be dealt with. Drops of blood from somewhere near his hairline lined his face crimson and dripped on the ground.

Emblem's body moved back a little, but rebounded forward, sprinting towards Grace with murderous intent. Emblem's arm were heavier, slowing him down a little, but with his strong physique he was still able to create some speed. He had to stay on top of this situation, his humanity sacrificed partially to obtain this power should never be in vane.

Satisfied with the fighting spirit his opponent had found, Emblem would only respond in kind. As he chased Grace, he fully understood she was flying at less then optimal speed. She was either getting tired...or she wished him to follow. Emblem's demonic grin did not falter as he would happily oblige to such a request.

As they made way for the giant ice hammer, which seemed to float in mid air, Emblem realized something. He had fully known she used magic, but not in the way he was used to. She was more of a telekinetic. She did not cast spells alone, she shaped and moved the ice with her mind. This would explain a lot of irregularities Emblem had noticed before. It would also explain why she'd do everything to keep that ice armor on...

Yet Emblem did not have this confirmed. The hammer had split open and Grace had taken it's handle. The hammer formed one again, denying passage for Emblem, who was hot on their tails. She was going to slam Emblem with it again, thinking her previous plan had worked just fine.

For a split second, Emblem wondered why she would grab the hammer's handle if she was an ice-type telekinetic, corrupting his thoughts form earlier.

This time however, Emblem was prepared for what came next. Fire had compiled under his feet and Emblem leaped up high, the ground scorched as he took off, flying straight for Grace and the hammer. If she was doing the same, so was he. Emblem tried to slam the hammer with his demonic fist, attempting the shatter the massive block of ice entirely.

With a roar, Emblem's large demonic fist connected with the hammer, shattering it to smaller pieces in an explosion of force. Falling down due to the kinetic force in the hammer, Emblem went for the ground. He twisted in the air to catch himself, but knew fully well he was in trouble.

For whilst he had shattered the hammer, the run, leap and slam had taken up quite some momentum. He needed to catch his breath for a second and reimburse the rage...but Grace was close by, with smaller shards of ice...And he wasn't able to fly away. All he could hope for was her to hit him in a way that would fuel his rage.

OOC: I’m fine with this being my last post, actually.

BIC: The giant hammer swung itself through the air at the oncoming Emblem, who propelled himself into the air with a blast of fire from his feet. This was it, Grace thought. This was her last chance.

Emblem slammed on the hammer’s head with his demon hands, and a shockwave could be felt as the two forces fought each other. To Grace’s horror, the hammer shattered into hundreds of ice shards. Had she failed? Had her final, desperate attack really done her opponent no harm? No. She could see that Emblem was falling. Her ice hammer had served to harm him to some effect. Unfortunately, Grace couldn’t see how much damage he had taken, for she had her own problems.

Grace was losing consciousness. She was completely overwhelmed by the heat that Emblem had blasted her with just a moment ago. Her body couldn’t handle this much heat, and she didn’t know how to vent it out. Grace’s stomach felt like it had turned to iron and was pushing against her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. Why couldn’t she breathe? Ice control had now become impossible, and she felt herself falling. She couldn’t command her armor to float in the air, so it was only a matter of time before...

She hit the ground. The impact shook her body and cracking the ice armor that was meant to protect her. Her ribs cracked and her shoulder snapped. Grace closed her eyes, overwhelmed by the pain. She passed out. The shards of her destroyed ice hammer fell around her unconscious body, shattering as they hit the charred earth.

The fight was over, at least for Grace. She had given everything that she had in this fight. What would happen now was out of her control.

Grace opened her eyes. Suddenly, she didn’t feel any pain. The world looked different now. She realized that she was viewing the spiritual realm. This had happened a few times before. She had even entered this astral state intentionally once, though she had promised herself to never do it again. It seemed that she always ended up entering her astral form when she was close to death.
Looking around, there was only one being close by. It was powerful and very evil; it had to be Emblem. Great, now maybe she could run up to his soul and kill him.

But wait, he clearly had a demonic aura. Was he a half-demon, possessed, or was he actually a pure-blood? Either way, he would clearly have the upper hand in a spiritual battle. Grace hesitated. Did she really want to fight a demon in its natural realm?

She didn’t have any other choice. Walking towards Emblem, Grace’s astral body would enter Emblem’s body. It was a dark, twisted place, filled with fire and black magic. There were two souls present. One was Emblem, a mere human. The other was a powerful demon. Grace wasn’t sure which one to attack. If she killed Emblem’s soul, the demon might take full control of his body. She decided to attack the demon directly.

“I don’t know who you are, but I demand that you leave. I am the Bride of Death himself. I am Grace Dore!” Grace formed a scythe out of the white light of her soul. She was surprised for a moment. There was not darkness in the weapon. The stain of Necati had weakened in her. Lifting it high above her head, she slashed the soul weapon at the demon.

Victory was within the iron grasp of Emblem, the tyrant of flame. Grace had lost consciousness after she bounced off the ground. His heat was victorious, although Emblem felt a sting of failing pride as he had not studied is opponent properly. Had he done so, the flow of battle might have been in his favor much more. His anger would do that at times.

As Emblem moved in for the kill (and he had already decided how) he suddenly felt the Chalice's effect activate. Someone had entered his mind. Was it Grace? Poor her. The longer one would be in Emblem's mind, the more twisted one's own soul could get. A painful exercise, he would assure you.

Emblem sat down on the ground, his legs folded. The pyromancer closed his eyes and breathed in and out slowly. Entering his own mind, he soon found out who he was facing. It was Grace after all. So she had a form of mind-magic as well. Emblem hated mind magicians..with a fiery passion.

As she wandered around the dark twisted void, Emblem sought to remodel it a little for her. With a thought, Grace would find her close to brimstone and lava. It wasn't hot as it wasn't real, but it looked like hell, and that would say enough. Hellion had joined Emblem in facing Grace.

Emblem watched her with a wide human smirk, not saying a word. Her reason of entering his mind would become clear soon enough, but it was of no importance to Emblem. With another thought, a throne rose from the ground, created from black rock, smoldering stone, and skull-shaped carvings at several places. He was the master of his mind, and she would know.

Yet Hellion seemed secure about his position as well. He would show the same arrogance as Emblem, not saying a word. His presence and appearance alone would look menacing enough.

“I don’t know who you are, but I demand that you leave. I am the Bride of Death himself. I am Grace Dore!”

Emblem was surprised. Was she going to try and perform exorcism? Who did she think she was? She had made on fundamental flaw in her reasoning. As she formed a weapon with her mind and slashed at Hellion, Emblem watched intently. He had a few things to think about, sitting cockily on his throne. As the blade slashed the high-tier demon, he shouted in pain before using his wings to fly up and create appropriate distance. Emblem snapped his fingers to get Grace's attention, and talked solemnly but calmly. His voice seemed to echo, as if it bounced off the walls several times.

In the real world, Emblem's demonic arms had lost their demonic properties by several increments. His arms were now more human then every, but still looked dark red with blue bright lines. His strength however, was somewhat lost as his human arms were broken by the ice hammer some time before.

''Exorcism, ms. Dore? If I am correct, one would need an entity who is possessing someone. Not the other way around. Hellion is controlled by me. Now seeing your name is Dore, you must be in league with that annoying human Krious had fought before. A shame he was corrupted by Necattii, he would have been properly dead otherwise.''

Emblem huffed and leaned on the other side of his throne.

''I am the master of my mind. You have no business here.''

''Then kill her while she is in it!.''

Emblem gazed over at Hellion, who had rejoined their company, albeit with a large scar across the chest. This was as close as a demon would get to bleeding, Emblem was actually impressed by the hit.

''You were not so..edgy...or weak when we first met Hellion. What has changed?''

''Your human mind, fool!''

''Excuses, hellspawn. Look at her. She has put up a nice show, and you blame me for your incompetence?''

''Were you to actually access your own arsenal, were you to actually read her moves, you'd have known how to beat her sooner.''

''Right you are...but where is the fun in that?''

''You will pay for this insolence once, Emblem Trailblazer. I have no need to prove myself to you,..''

Hellion disappeared in shadows, unsatisfied with Emblem's intentions. Emblem huffed in delight on his throne. The shadows behind his throne started to twist and warp as they formed a male body. Out from behind the throne stepped none other then Psychosis. With a wicked grin, Emblem asked Grace:

''..So this is your beloved man?''

Emblem pointed at Psychosis. This image was made of Emblem's recollections. Parts that were not completely known were darkened, but the overall resemblance was uncanny. Emblem stood up from his throne and walked towards this hooded Psychosis and Grace.

''You know...weakness comes in many forms. Illness, death...but if I had my will? There'd be a new ring in hell, just for those who infect the mind with their magics. Tis an ancient evil really. I do not know how much you know of this world's metahistory as it is a pool of knowledge that is all but alive...but a lot of historic figures were mind magicians.''

Emblem pushed Psychosis' head down bluntly, making him stare at his own feet solemnly. This conjured image still said nothing, his chest only moving a little to reanimate his breath. His head bobbed a little, but he did not mutter any word.

''People such as Shahrzād, better known as Scheherazade...many Egyptian Pharaohs, well known religious convertors...I could go on for ages. Seducing women, cunning and conquering men. All of them shaped history as we know it, by infecting the minds of others. Putting in excess information to flood one with emotions and indecisiveness, despair, sorrow...or a false sense of joy. I knew from day one that my mind should never be infected with mind magics, or I would set the world ablaze.''

Emblem paused, and stared at Grace intently. His hand on Psychosis' shoulder, he continued his monologue.

''Not that I would mind, but if I am to show this world it's true colors and baptize it in flame, it shall be by my hand and mine alone. Humans have been corrupted and warped all the way from the beginning. Do you really believe a snake once persuaded one to eat an apple, that would later cast them out of paradise? Man's temptation and sin knows no bounds. I can sometimes even wonder who the real bad guy is...which brings me to you both...here...in my mind.''

Emblem's sadistic grin reappeared, his arrogance radiating as he pushed Psychosis towards Grace a little. The conjured image was in between now..

''If you truly are the Bride of Death, Death itself should not faze you..''

In a flash, a blade appeared in Emblem's hands. It was a cruel steel wrought blade, carted along the side to inflict many of gruesome injuries. Unlike Grace's weapon, this one was completely black and radiating crimson red. Emblem impaled Psychosis from behind, the blade coming out at the front, pointed at Grace. The image of will fell to his knees, his eyes wide open and his mouth ready to scream...yet no sound came out. Emblem pulled out the blade, and grabbed Psychosis' head.

''I so love my job...''

With one large pull, Psychosis' head and spine were ripped and separated from the rest of his body. One knew Emblem had never done this on Psychosis, but had such vivid memories of all his other escapades that this was nothing more then a mere reminder of his many decapitations. As the conjured image of Psychosis fell to the ground and dispersed into shadow, Emblem would relish in the sight of Grace.

''You are next. Do you wish to die in my mind...or burned to cinders in the real world? A generous offer for a deserving mind magician, I'd say..''

((Time for judging. I have one more post then you if I am correct...they'd have to consider that as well.))