Magical Teacher Professor Landry! - Episode 3: Bad End?

[Teal Mage]

Faint and pale, a blanket of aqua-tinted white mist hung over the black and brown alternating tiles of the Field of Honor's second tier. Glowing faintly with the lightless radiance of the supernatural, the mist did little more than outline the dim shadows of the three humans within it. A corona of darkness surrounded one, a beautiful red-head in a ripped blue dress, as her leg lashed out in a vicious spin-kick, connecting solidly with her short haired opponent and sending her flying down the hallway. The red-head landed with a sharp click, the mist around her seeming to glimmer, as she flowed gracefully from a slight crouch, back to a standing position.

With impressive coordination, the short haired girl turned the kick's momentum into a back flip, landing deftly in a crouch several meters distant. A pair of black-tipped tan coyote ears crowned the girl's head, and curved dog's tail of similar coloration was visible at her back, emerging from a hole in her sleeveless white dress. Around her slim frame, a corona of pale aqua - a more intense version of the mist that surrounded them - danced and tumbled, as she drew a pair of curved fighting daggers from sheathes hidden on her person.

"Behind you!" The short haired girl cried.

A dark shadow appeared in the mists to the red head's right. Hissing, the shape of a white and gold serpent resolved itself, flying through the mist shrouded air, jaws wide, toward Diana's pale throat.

"Damnit, damnit, damnit!"

Swearing, the third figure burst out of the effervescent mist on Diana's left. Clad in a dark suit jacket, the young man's long black hair spilled out in his wake, each strand outlined by a thin aura of supernatural light. His dark dress shoes pounded the marble beneath him, as he raced toward the short haired girl - who now stood facing him. Aura dancing wildly, the girl's pale eyes glinted mischievously, and a smile split her tanned face.

"Oh Kooooooh. Don't let the City Girl do all the hard work!" Hie Mica voiced a faint giggle. "Let's have some fun!" The pale silver of her daggers glittered menacingly, as her hands tightened on the weapon's white leather grips.

Atop the green-outlined youth's head, a pair of jet black canine ears twitched with annoyance, and his brown eyes burned. "Hie!" Sticking out of a hole in the back of his dark slacks, the youth's wolf tail lashed, coarse black fur bristling with indignation. "I swear if you call me that one more time," the intense forest green of his aura flared brightly, as he landed before his short haired foe, dropping to a crouch, and narrowly avoiding a probing slash from one of the girl's knives in the process, "I'm gonna kick your arms off!" His hands dropped to the marble tiles -

* * *

- "Tsk." A breath of annoyance passed Diana's lips, as she coolly stepped back, red hair and tattered blue dress wafting out in her wake.

Hissing, the slim white form of the serpent broke the mist directly in front of the girl. Reptilian eyes glinted, as it twisted, mouth snapping shut on empty air. The edged blade capping the creature's tail lashed out -

- Distractedly, Diana's hand snapped out, closing firmly on the smooth ivory of the serpent's body. The mist around her body glittered, as she twisted, strands of vivid red hair swirling around her face, and indifferently sent the creature back the way it had come. Her eyes and body language clearly articulated her thoughts at that moment, A waste of screen time.

Hissing in outrage, the snake plummeted out of sight, vanishing into the dancing mists below the second-tier balcony.

* * *

Limbs outlined in a blaze of emerald light, Kohana's dark-clad legs swung at the side of Hie's white dress. Pale aqua aura burning bright around her, Hie lifted a foot, turning the momentum of her missed slash into a sharp pirouette, narrowly pulling the girl out of her cousin's reach. The hem of her white dress swirled around her ankles, and the girl's gaze snapped back over her shoulder. Fully dilated, her pale eyes fell upon Kohana, and she planted her uplifted leg on the tiles beneath her.

"You hear me!?" Movements fluid, Kohana's legs completed their lashing arc, and slid back to the ground beneath him. Burning green, Kohana's eyes met Hie's unflinchingly, "Now cut it out or I swear I'm gonna skin you alive!"

A maniac grin split Hie's face, as her muscles tensed -

Bursting free of the mists behind Kohana, Diana swept up on Hie. Dark supernatural light burned bright around her frame, as her hand darted out, and fell on Hie's exposed tail. Grip firm, the directress tugged hard on the tanned appendage. Then, muscles tensing, the red head lept further down the hallway, releasing her target's tail as suddenly as she grabbed it.

Letting out a yelp of surprise, Hie jumped away - tail slipping from Diana's suddenly loose grasp. Her bare feet landed soundlessly on the marble tiles, only a few steps away from the lacquered wood of the second floor's banister. Pale eyes darted warily from Kohana to Diana, as she brought her twin knives up defensively before herself.

"So, you two know each other then!" Diana called brightly, tattered dress swirling as she spun round to face them. "Where abouts are you from? Do you have anything you'd like to say to my fans?"

Hie giggled. "Of course!" The girl gestured loosely with her left hand, the dagger held within it pointing back in the direction Diana and Kohana had come from, and her aura flared. In the far north-west corner of the hallway, there came an answering bloom of pale-aqua.

And a black bladed claymore clattered to the tiles in front of her.

"Fire in the hole!" Hie's hands snapped back, before lashing outward - curved daggers flying from her fingers, and swirling end-over-end through the mist filled air. The silvery weapons quickly bore down on their targets, one aimed at Kohana, and the other at Diana.

At her feet, the draconic form of the black dragon slowly began to rise again.

* * *

Above the main level of the Field of Honour, dark grey storm clouds milled and swirled, all but obscuring the psychedelic purple void where the battlefield ceiling should have been. From the clouds, light leaked down, filling the checkerboard marble expanse with faintly gold-tinted ambient radiance. Those same checkerboard tiles flew beneath the soft-soled black shoes of Sao Opallios, as the brilliant eyed girl dashed north, escaping the enfilade of wind, water and bone at her back. She quickly arrived at the mid-point between the north-most Ninja Butler's. Brilliant blue supernatural light flowed calmly around her frame and, in her dominant hand, a length of blue-green ephemeral crystalline energy glinted.

The west-most of the two robots broke away, dashing south, while the east on sprung toward her, a steak knife flashing in his hand -

Sao's energy sword bisected him.

That was one.

* * *

Green spheres of energy erupted from the smooth grey stone of the newborn wall on the south of the Field of Honor. Slightly larger than a tennis ball, the orbs of light flew in straight, swift, lines, one aimed at each of the Amaranth Students who stood near-by.

Thinking quickly, Sean threw himself to the brown and black tiled floor beneath him, and dragged his still-stunned-classmate with him. Ever the pragmatist, the Canadian turned in mid-air and landed on his back, holding Jackson Hall tight to his well-toned chest; a human side against any unfortunate maulings by a certain magical mountain lion. Green orbs of energy passed above the pair, striking solidly into the brown stone of the pillar above them. The balls rebounded away, flying further into the Field before landing on the tiled ground and, eventually, coming to a stop near the prone form of the pale blue statue to their north.

...how anticlimactic.

Some distance away, Astarte proved herself to be no less quick thinking than her Canadian classmate. Yellow aura gutting out, the swirling bandages of the elaborately dressed mummy ceased their frenzied motion and quickly wrapped themselves tightly around her black gloved arm. Trusting in the supernatural arts of her mother, Astarte raised her right hand at the last moment, using it to block the path of the energy ball aimed for her.

Her arm was knocked back, hard, against her chest by the impact's force, but the orb was deflected – straight to the south. It passed through the grey stone wall in front of her, as if it wasn't there.

Thunder cracked, then a roar of outraged surprise exploded from the other side of the wall.

…she'd gotten lucky?

Mysteriously, the puma now lay in a crumpled heap far to Astarte's north-east, near the crimson barrier of the Firewall. The pale green aura around the creature flickered only weakly, and, if not for the subtle-rise and fall of its body, it would not have been difficult to mistake the stunned creature for dead.

…now what?

* * *

Loosening a roar of fury and pain, Shinobu rushed headlong into the torrent of broken dishware and powerful winds. Fragments of bone pelted her, a handful lodging shallowly into the front of her body and causing small welts of blood to spurt, but most shattered on impact leaving bruises beneath the orange fabric of her kimono. The wind tore her golden hairpins out, causing her black hair to billow behind her as she closed on the robot to her south. Cuts blossomed at the edges of her form, lucky shards slashing her in passing, causing puddles of red to leak into her white-under-kimono.

Then, she was in front of the east-most south robot.

And had horns.

Loosing a computerized shriek of terror, the Ninja-Butler threw its hands up, and made to run, "Eeeeeeeeiiiiiii! Monster gir -" Shinobu's spiked club took him full in the side and, in the instant before he was launched into the air, the Oni could feel the crumpling of the robot's body armour beneath her powerful strike - it had almost seemed to be made of paper.

Chest shattered, the south-east robot sailed swiftly through the gold-tinted air. He slammed full into the back of his southern brother, who appeared to have been attempting to flee from the, now horned, long haired, red skinned and tattered kimono-clad figure that was Shinobu.

They both exploded.

"That's not kung-fu, idiots." Shin growled softly.

* * *

"You're all gonna pay for this!"

Jay Miles' dress boots tapped loudly against the marble tiles beneath him, as he charged west, his baseball bat glinting gold in the warm light that filled the Field of Honor. Yellow-green energy raged in a fiery tumble of motion around his body, the hue contrasting vividly with his bright red necktie. A white teapot flew past his head, but he ignored it; dark eyes instead fixated on his target, the lone female robot in this battle.

She was running away from him.

"Princess Teanne!" From the north, the robot that had fled from Sao and her strange sword appeared before Jay. In the silvery being's delicate hand, a steak knife glinted, as it landed directly in the baseball player's path. "You will not harm the Princess!" He declared, snapping his hands together, fingers working around the cleaver to form -

Jay's bat took him full in the side, sending the surprisingly light robot into the air. The being flew far and fast, eventually striking the tiled floor far to the north-east. Silvery body-parts scattered, as the being's fragile structure was shattered on impact, and the faint red aura around its frame gutted out completely. It appeared that these robots really were pathetic.

"Teabomb!"

Unwilling to allow the sacrifice of her four servants to go to waste, Teanne had run far and fast. Now, she stood far to the north-west of Sao and Jay, her soft-soled black shoes dangerously close to the Field's edge. Once again, the long haired robot-butler-princess had folded her hands into a handsign, and once more, a spherical white teapot had appeared before her. A pulse of force sent the floating piece of bone-china toward the still-approaching form of Jay Miles.

How vexing.

* * *

On the far east side of the Field, a worm lay in a slowly spreading puddle of its own fluids, at the high-heeled feet of Johanna Imirsdotter. Flecks of white and blue floated up from the hem of her robes, as the virulent deletion acid continued to leak out from the dead worm's maw, destroying the luxurious material of Jo's robe with insulting ease. Eight shadows, all faint, fanned out around the pale girl, as if the faint gold light that filled the Field was, in fact, cast by multiple sources.

Vivid red blood dripped slowly from the vicious-looking ice-talons that now capped the snow-white hands of the Jotun, as she turned her coal black eyes toward the masked sorceress on the far side of the eastern platform. Chanteuse supernatural light fluctuated around her body, a sharp contrast to the white haired girl's calm and dispassionate words.

"You still haven't answered my question." She shifted her robe and more pixels sprayed into the air. Through the gapping hole left by the now-dead worm's death-throw-attack, a hint of red was visible. "Strange woman, Marisa Grimaldi." Jo declared calmly, as her aura fluctuated around her, "You will be defeated." Muscles of enchanted snow tensed beneath her, before the Jotun launched herself forward in a burst of motion, another burst of coloured pixels appearing in her wake.

"Zero, one, one, zero, zero, zero, zero, one… "

Loosing a shriek of rage, a blast of deletion acid flew from the maw of the nearest worm to Johanna. Yellow-green aura flaring bright, the girl vanished into a veil of mist, as the deadly green fluid struck the spot she had stood in moments ago.

"Zero, one, one, one, zero, zero, one, zero… "

* * *

Aura flaring yellow, the translucent and delicate looking wings of Dalbhach Nuada beat downward, loosing a powerful pulse of fae magic and driving the tuxedo-clad being into the air above. Twin jets of green fluid flew through the space the dark haired man had occupied instants before. The opposing streams of virulent liquid brushed each other in passing, spraying green pixels into the air, before falling harmlessly to the ground, several paces away. Two creators quickly formed, one on each side of the Sorceress's firewall.

Grinning confidently, Dal's green eyes fell upon the chanting sorceress. "…suicide seems a bit extreme, doesn't it?" The Fae began, his gold as calm as his tone, as he settled into a logical argument, perhaps seeking to try and confuse his foe's computer-like mind. Below Dal, the Sorceress's worms began to loft jets of deadly green fluid toward him; but if the Fae took note of these projectiles, his tone didn't betray it. Luckily for him, the worms proved to be poor archers, at first at least.

"Zero, zero, one, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero…"

Similarly, if the Sorceress was fazed by the Fae's words, the tone of her chant did not show it.

* * *

Leaving a second corpse in their wake, Johanna and her newly generated twin raced toward the next summoned worm in their path toward the Masked Sorceress. In the air above the, Dal was surrounded by a calm corona of golden light, as his dragonfly-like wings beat rapidly, keeping him aloft. He was speaking, and, as the twins neared their third target, the words resolved into something they could make sense of.

"…wait, you wouldn't be speaking about Jo and I, would you?" The Fae asked, conversational tone taking on a hint of good-natured confusion.

"…Jotun..." In another deadly high-five, the twins struck their chosen target from behind, reducing its jet of deletion acid into a gurgle, as it collapsed boneless to the stage at their feet. "…Fae..." The pair broke apart, each one making for a different worm, as Dal danced back in the air, narrowly evading the most accurate acid blasts yet.

"We've been around since the beginning." The worms swung their eye-less gazes toward the fast approaching twins, Dal temporarily forgotten, in light of these new threats. Green acid bubbled into their tooth lined maws. "As much a part of this world as the clouds in the sky."

Jumping away at the last second, the twin Johanna's evaded the acid jets cleanly. Under her mask, Marisa Grimaldi's white irises darted from one Johanna to the other, as they leapt forward, vicious-looking ice-claws cleanly severing the ball-like heads of her last two worms from their bodies. Her hand snapped a gesture toward the real Jo, and a new Firewall erected itself between the Sorceress and the original Jotun.

"Downright normal compared to an 'abnormality' of your calibre." Dal stated firmly, by way of conclusion.

"Zero, one, one, zero, one, one, zero, one…" Swinging toward the clone Johanna, Marisa brought her white-gloved hands up before herself warily, as her white-slippered feet shifted subtly. It appeared that she intended to enter hand-to-hand combat with Jo's clone, rather than erect a fourth fire-wall between herself and the girl. "…zero, one, one, one, one, zero, zero, one…"

Her chant was barely a third of the way done.

[Overcast]

Jay smiled as he saw the pathetic little bot get creamed under his bat, his eyes staring down to his target of Teanne. A name to put on his vendetta. He resumed his chase but came skidding to a stop when he saw Teanne summoning up another pot of deadly tea. He winced, he didn't think he could just dodge it out this time, it was coming for him. He had to think of a way to jump the hurdle,

Dammit how do I stop this. Bat? No, aluminum, it'll be like the time I left it next to the fireplace. Can I hit a rock at it? No, stupid place turned to tiles. Robot? Too far away. Dammit it is coming, what can I do!

Dammit his feet really hurt, the damn things had loosened due to his sprinting and had slapped repeatedly against his heel at every stride, damn dress shoes just weren't...wait,

SHOES!

He thrust his right foot down on the left shoe, the loosened thing slipping off as he kicked it up into the air, free hand catching it. He dropped his bat and got into pitching stance,

"Here comes the wind up,"

His other hand gripped the shoe and he lifted his foot up. He pulled his arm back, eyes staring down the pot to make sure he knew where he was aiming,

"And the pitch!"

His foot slammed into the ground, his shoed foot lifting into the air, his throwing arm flinging the shoe with all his strength at the steaming projectile, picked up his bat started to move, but felt off balance. So he worked off the other shoe, he might as well go bare if he was already half way there.

And then a terrible idea. He kicked the shoe into the air and got into batting stance smacking the thing like a line drive right at Teanne. Two can play at this game!

[Riin Whitewind]

Leaving robot debris in her wake, Sao pelted after the back of the retreating butler. Sword held low at her side, dress hiked up around her knees so she could run, she was sure that she looked ridiculous rather than dangerous. Why am I fighting in a dress, anyway? Nothing of this situation makes se- She pushed the thought aside. There was a time for puzzles and panicking, but the middle of a melee was not it.

Catching up to her target, the swordswoman brought her sword up in a quick sweep. The bright blue light passed through his hips, emerging cleanly from the other side. Confident the strange ninja robot butler was disabled, Sao stopped to get her bearings. A surprised smile on her face, she watched an angry, cherry-skinned version of Shinobu clear out two robots on her own. And to think she had thought Shin was the one that needed help.

Sao headed back southeast-ish toward the battle between the 'lady' robot and Jay. He might not need her help either, but she was going to be there as back-up just in case. Behind her, the android collapsed onto the checkered floor, reaching feebly for its now-separate legs. Corrosion crawled up its torso, eating through the cloth and circuitry with horrifying patience. Its aura, a faint red, faded soon after.

[Girasol of Chaos]

Panting, she dropped to one knee and observed her allies. After her shining moment of badassery, Shinobu's body was starting to catch up to her. While she was busy smashing and exploding the rather light and weak robots, Sao and Jay had taken out the other two henchmen. They were now pursuing whats-her-face who throws tea-she didn't quite hear the name. Despite her fatigue, a broad grin brightened the oni's face.

The smile crunched into a wince as various bruised areas began to make silent groans. Morbidly curious, Shin wiggled one of the shards embedded in her chest before removing it, clenching her jaw. Yeah, that was definitely painful. It would be difficult to move if she left these in, not to mention stupid. Might as well get it out of the way. Bracing against her club for support and comfort, the oni began to meticulously extract the shards. Most weren't in too deep, but blood was beginning to badly stain her under kimono. It was ruined.

Wait, why was she worried about that? Oh well, at least her hair was free from those clips. It kinda felt nice all loose and wild.

Another mental flinch. She was tired.

Shin tried to distract herself from the pain with different topics. Her thoughts were as various and scattered as the cuts the received from charging headfirst into sharp objects. Once in a while her mind would blank out. Yeah, this break would do for now, but she would need to rest soon.

[Astral Harmony]

Astarte was slammed hard on her back, knocking the air out of her and causing her head to throb in agony. This had hurt worse than when Linda had body slammed her that one time. At least then there was a soft mat.

Protesting against her aching body, Astarte forced herself into a sitting position, then struggled to her unsteady feet.

None of this made any sense. Astarte felt different at some point, then she was back to normal but now in a dress, and where the hell did all these creatures come from? She had never encountered a summoner before, or at least none that had revealed themselves to be before her eyes, but all these creatures didn't just come out of nowhere...or perhaps they did? Astarte couldn't tell.

She wanted to help Vanilla and Gorgeous. Even though they were from Shuyin's class, they were still her friends. But right now, it seemed to best way to save them and stop all these monsters was to put an end to the fighting.

And she decided to start on the puma. If it lived, it was only going to cause more trouble. Fighting against her ouchies, Astarte walked toward the stunned puma, trying to concentrate in order to start up her drill again.

[Bard The 5th LW]

'Brace yourself.'

'Any second now...'

'Oh God just hit us already.'

Sean slowly opened his eyes to find that they managed to come out unscathed. This was a shock. How long was he on the ground with Jack? Disgusted, he let go of the guy and pushed him. With a mighty swing of his legs he brought himself back up to his feet. Once standing, he brushed the dirt and grass off his tux. He didn't know why he was wearing it, but that was no excuse to keep it in bad condition.

"Welp, disaster averted. At least one disaster..." he said, trying to ignore the awkwardness of the previous moment. He was really hoping that no one got hurt.

---MEANWHILE ON THE OPPOSITE END OF THE FIELD---

The creepy snake girl laid on the grass unconscious. A heavy wound was smarting on the back of her head, and her skin (scales?) had taken quite a melting from Sao's attack. Guess she was sorta alright?

---SEAN AGAIN---

"Well come on we may as well kill the puma!" Sean exclaimed as he pulled Jack from the ground. He was just manhandling that guy all over! "Once the cat's done we can do something important."

Without checking to see if Jack was going to follow, Sean began a cautious advance towards the puma, with positions fairly reversed he felt confident. He began to prepare and attack, and a small cloud of ice and snow began to circle his hands as he lingered just a few feet behind Astarte.

Needless to say, he was totally to ice this cat.

[Steel Shadow]

Diana wasn't sure this was how a hostile interview was really supposed to go, but she wasn't going to complain. No one'd be able to say this interview was boring! Sure, the daggers were bit unorthodox... She hadn't seen any professional interviews where the person being interviewed was actively trying to physically maim the interviewer*, but that was probably because most interviewers started running at that point! Diana was far to dedicated for that! She'd never reach the top if she didn't give every opportunity her all!

Of course, now Hie was throwing things. Ha, she had disarmed herself! Now Diana just had to deal with the dagger heading her way (and hope Koh would do the same to his) and then her plan could continue!

She focused. All she needed to do was grab the dagger out of the air before it hit her. It was a move she'd seen dozens of times on tv! How hard could it be, really?

Her hand lashed out and grabbed the crescent dagger by the handle. There, see? Easy!

...Wait.

Diana blinked and looked down at her downturned hand. A dark red line ran down the back of it, blood welling to the surface, slipping between her knuckles and across, all the way down to the base of her wrist. It was a shallow cut, barely stung at all, and it stopped four milimeters short of the strange camera bangle.

For a moment, Hie felt a surge of murderous intent that could have crumbled a mountain.

Then it passed and Diana was smiling... And yelling.

"Koh, this is really, really important! It's the most important thing ever!! I am going to tell you to do something and you have to do it. No hesitating, no questions, no getting stabbed, you get me?!? Everything hinges on this! It is without a doubt the most vital instruction you have received! Ever!! In your life!!! So I hope you are listening!! I'm going to tell you now, are you ready? Ok, here we go!!" She took a breath. "Oh, incidentally, what are you two studying here? PE?"

Huhm. That may have spoiled the moment, that. She'd probably have to edit things later. Best to focus on the plan for now. "Right! Listen close! The plan is: Follow me!!!"

And with that she spun around and sprinted down the corridor.

*Of course, the list of other things Diana hadn't seen before today included Dog Boys, Dog girls, strange light shows that didn't show up on camera, Mass geographical shifts, trees turning into balconies, spontaneous fancey clothing, and Dragons. She'd seen a snake at a zoo once though.

[Dracorion]

Awkwaaaaard...

Sean kept his tight hold on Jack as a human shield way after the energy balls had rebounded off the pillar. "For God's sakes man, will you let go already?" He exclaimed at the Canadian, as his patience snapped. Fortunately, Sean did throw him off, then proceeded to drag him to his feet, saying something about killing the mountain lion.

As soon as Sean let go again, Jackson fell to his knees. Leaning back into a sitting position with his legs crossed, he surveyed the situation. The puma lay on the ground, the wall it had been hiding behind having disappeared. He guessed Astarte had something to do with its current condition. At the moment, the mummy was approaching the animal.

Nearby, Jay, Sao and Shin were finishing off a pack of what looked like the robots that composed the band. Weird. Jack wasn't close enough to see what was going on with anyone else, so he turned back to the mountain lion. "Is it dead?" He called to Astarte and Sean.

At the same time, Jack was vandalizing his suit. He'd already taken off the jacket and vest, which were now lying crumpled next to him, and was in the process of undoing the tie.

[Astral Harmony]

Astarte stood over the puma. "Nah, it's still alive," she said back to Jack and Sean. "Seriously, where the hell did all these things even come from? Y'think they're actually Shuyin's students or something?"

Astarte's dress had seen better formal ballroom parties. Grass stains and dirt smudges decorated her dress here and there, and there were even a few tears. Her orange hair was a rough and surprisingly sexy mess. Miraculously, the roses and frills were all in very good condition.

Just what the hell was happening, anyways? While Astarte wasn't completely against the battle, this was supposed to be a duel between Landry and Shuyin, wasn't it? So why the hell was all this going on? Why was Gorgeous and Vanilla involved? Why were any students involved at all?

Astarte clapped her hands on her cheeks to work herself up, then managed to get a drill going despite the protests of her aching arms and head. This had to be it. This was what Landry was talking about. Oh, if only she understood it sooner!

"This! Is! Love and Fighteology!" Astarte shouted like a Spartan and then attempted to drive the rotating drill into the flank of the puma.

[Arhra]

A pair of Jos sprinted for the Masked Sorceress, strewing twitching and disolving pieces of worm behind them. Dalbach was up in the air, talking.

Jo was feeling a little cross with him.

She was close, so close, approaching the sorceress from both sides. Her opponent snapped a gesture at Jo and then turned to face Jo's double, taking up a fighting stance.

Angular lines of burning light swept through the air and became a wall of fire, wider than her outspread arms and closer than that span. Too close. It had been placed precisely perpendicular to her direction of motion and was redolent with artificiality, no heat coming off it at this distance.

Her ice clone charged on, frozen talons at the ready. She didn't want to let this sudden change in tactics psyche her out.

Jo jerked back in surprise, she couldn't help it. The wound in her side stabbed at her as it was suddenly pulled at and she set her foot down awkwardly as her momentum carried her along. Her ankle buckled, her weight falling on it from a bad angle and she stared ahead, trying to recover from her stumble.

There was no time to think it through. No time to stop.

If she hit or even burshed against that barrier there would be consequences. It was a barrier that made mystical talons of living ice violently cease to exist. The possibilities for full contact didn't really bear dwelling on.

The one consolation was that she could feel the closed space of the arena had been made into its own tiny world, half a step out of alignment with Midgard. Chances were any injuries would all be in her head.

And stay in her head, but she didn't want to think about that.

Jo had her suspicions about the firewalls but they hadn't yet gelled together into a concrete theory about its mysteries. It could be summoned to arbitrary coordinates. Multiple barriers could be summoned without much effort, even while the masked sorceress was in the middle of doing something else. From her test with her ice double, it was incredibly reactive.

Compared with level of power the worm creatures were invested with, it seemed... out of proportion. It was quite possible the masked sorceress simply didn't have the same level of experience with them though Jo supposed.

If it was as dangerous as it appeared, even just clipping it as she tried to twist out of the way would leave her little better off. Even if she managed to miss it, it left her trying to recover in between a wall of fire and a sheer drop with a madwoman to keep her company.

And the sorceress had known - had she known? - it was the real Jo when she'd placed it.

Jo gritted her teeth and looked away, raising her arms to shield her face. Maybe she'd guessed right, maybe she was lucky. It was irrelelvant now. All she could do was ram into the firewall shoulder first and hope she could withstand it.