Katon looked un-amused. He stood his ground by Zeref. The desecration demon slashed at Caedes with it's wickedly sharp claws. Caedes jumped, avoiding the claws. He slashed down, severing one of the demons fingers. Blood gushed out, as Caedes stuck his other hand in the stream. He pulled out a fully solidified blood shield, and the places where the blood touched his arm turned to solid armor. Caedes body glowed bright red. The monsters veins began to puff up and swell. Caedes slashed with his sword, causing one to burst. The blood surged out like a river, drenching Caedes. The monster exploded in a shower of light. Caedes stood, now completely covered in solidified blood armor, sword and shield in hand.
"Well, we have a summoner. And a dick. Not mutually different, though." Strider said under his breath. He wondered what he could do without getting bitch-slapped to hell. He had an idea. He rushed backwards, towards where he had earlier fired the arrow and fought against the demon scouting party, a while back. He climbed the wall, and ran backwards, with a single idea in mind. To pull a dropkick. Or something similar. As he reached the gates, he didn't stop. He jumped right off the ledge, and nearly got to them, so he brought his blade while affecting its gravity, an old trick, right on Katon. Caedes could deal with Zeref.
The blade collided with metal. A metal padding on Katons hand met the sword. Suddenly the gravitational force vanished. Katon diverted Strider to the ground. "Hm.. Gravitational energy? No clear opposite.. I can do anything with this magic." He said, intrigued. In his palm was a ball of flame, which changed to lightning, then to darkness, to some weird purple looking stuff, and back to lightning. It shot from his hand, expanding an electrical wall as it moved at Strider. Zeref grimaced. "Such a waste.." He said. He held out both hands. Two red circles with dragon skull symbols spun where his palms were. He gripped at the air as they appeared like locks. He twisted them. The clouds suddenly became brighter as a gigantic red circle with a dragon skull appeared. "Black dragon Ulamog." He said. A dragons head punched through the circle in the clouds. It's eyes were red, it's scales pure black.
Oh shit, went Strider's brain. His organs were clearly sick of dealing with shit like this. "Oh nuuuuuu" he mumbled as he dove away, and forcing a bit of sand from in front of Katon to rise up and rebel against its long slaving master, gravity.
The sand immediately flattened. Katons hands filled with more lightning. "Gravity is a plentiful energy, isn't it?" He said. "I've never fought someone with this before." He finished. The electricity in his hands changed to fire, as he two large balls of flame at Strider.
"Ah, for fucks sake, more elemental magic? Has ANYBODY HEARD OF ORIGINALITY?" he yelled, knowing well that this was stupid, and that the user had no control over WHAT magic he received. He ran towards the side to dodge the fireballs, and then, as he approached the wall again with all that momentum, he kicked off of it, allowing him to run towards Katon. "And gravity can be quite the bitch, as you will now learn." he said to Katon, although he meant that it annoyed HIM more than it did anyone else.
Katon side stepped out of the way, letting Strider run past him. The dragon emerged further, coming out of the clouds. It's gigantic wings flapped, causing a noticeable breeze. It's back was covered in several spikes running down it's spine. It had two large, buff arms with claws that made most weaponry seem like toys. It's tail was long and ended at a point that looked like another blade. It blew a small huff of fire to clear it's lungs. Zeref pointed at Caedes, and the dragon snapped to look at him. A red ring appeared in front of it's mouth with a flame symbol on it. Fire shot out in a precise beam, aiming for Caedes. A miniature explosion occurred, and when the dust settled Caedes shield arm was raised, and the shield destroyed.
Strider nearly face palmed himself to death, but then he realized he couldn't, currently. He slid to a halt, and decided that gravity manipulation was definitely not the way outta here. And this guy didn't carry a weapon. And conveniently, Strider had a Daedric Blade. He turned back towards Katon, noting the dragon, and nearly shivering at the sight, but he would have to deal with Katon first. He approached Katon much more carefully this time, taking care to be on dodge footing instead of attack footing as he made his way forward.
"Why hello there!" Ashe yelled to Katon. He had switched with his shadow as soon as the fight started and now had an arrow nocked at full draw. The head was extremely heavy, for piercing armor, not that he noted any significant abundance of it, but the draw weight of the bow could launch it at very high velocity. He had seen Strider's strategy, or perhaps he gave him a bit more credit than due by calling it one, of annoying his opponent, to distract him. "I don't quite recommend you move mate, arrows travel faster than you might think!" He called out. No use shooting his arrow prematurely so he just dodges it. Also, perhaps direct confrontation was not the best option. As far as he saw, they had no reinforcements coming, and that dragon looked like one tough bastard.
Katon moved. His fist moved with rapid speed at Striders face from the side. The dragon dove. Caedes moved, barely escaping the teeth that destroyed the road. But immediately he was met with claws that slashed him open. He moved back, the blood solidifying before he lost any. He charged, bringing the sword down on the dragons scales. The sword broke and turned to dust. It moved, biting at Caedes. All he could do was use his arm, which was now impaled by dragon teeth, to hold the mouth open. He realized he miscalculated the second a red ring appeared with a fire symbol. A large explosion of fire shot from the dragons mouth. When it cleared, several parts of Caedes body was held together by solidified blood.
The fist hit Strider square in the jaw, and nearly threw him off balance, and to the ground. But no, not this time. Strider grinned and spit out blood, and then brought his blade up. "Alright, Mister Hand to Hand. How about we do this the old fashioned way?" and he shoved the blades tip into the ground. But this was probably a stupid idea. Meh.
Katons body became a blur. He suddenly appeared mid-air, spinning clock wise with his foot heading for Striders face.
"Allllllllllright then!" he said, as he brought his hand up to block the kick. It hit his forearm, and caused considerable amounts of pain. But he could take it. He gritted his teeth, and punched with his other free hand
Strider grunted as he hit the ground. The hard rock hurt like hell, but still. But here was the opportunity for him to show WHY he didn't use his sword. He reached to his leg, as he lay on the ground, and pulled out the dagger he had since yesterday. He stabbed upwards, towards his leg. "CHEATSY DOODLE"
Katon moved, shifting his weight. The knife missed as he put himself on top of Strider, and pinning down the knife hand with his left leg. He proceeded to punch down at Striders face.
"Ah, for fucks sake. FUCK IT" he yelled as he moved his head sideways to dodge the punch. Not good. He was pinned down. EVEN MORE DIRTY FIGHTING WAS THE ANSWER. He kicked upwards, trying to get the bugger in his Gravity damned balls
Arrow let his arrow loose. It flew straight to Katon, standing on top of Strider, an easy target. If he didn't move the arrow would likely hit his head, and continue on, taking said head with it. He reached into his empty quiver, trying to create another arrow. "Fuck." He cursed as he closed his fist onto air. He needed his shadow to create the arrows, and he was probably still at the machines, slowly making his way here. He threw the longbow on the ground and charged. It seems this battle would come down to fists.
Katon moved to the side, pinning down Striders leg. The shadow arrow dissipated. Katon smiled. "Dark energy! And the opposite is light.. Now judging from your sword, sir, I'd say light energy won't like you too much." He said. His hands glowed with white light as he brought them closer to Striders face.
"Oh, quite so, my dear fellow, but you see, I'd rather not have that. So do excuse me if I try to stop that." Strider grunted. This guy.............. It felt like the end now. With all his snarkyness and lack of will to live, he guessed that the former may have now dropped out. Or had it? Well, for now, he didn't wanna die. He remembered the words of Gravity, "Use it well". He grunted, and tried to break the lock on his legs. Its was not how he ever expected to go out. Held in a gay-ass position by some dick, inside safe grounds, the CASTLE! He was weak, that was all. He closed his eyes, as the feeling sank in. His will refused. NOT LIKE THIS! NOT LIKE THIS!, his mind yelled, his very conscious yelled. Whatever part of him existed that made him Nephelem refused. He tried twirling his hand, attempting to stab the guy's ankle, since that was the least he could do. If he succeeded to distract, his left arm wasn't in danger of getting cut off, so he could try something better. He put any force he could into the stab. You stupid fuck, mate, dropping your sword and all.
