As the conversation dwindle to a close the party seemed to arrive with there destination. It was an ash grey building with a complimentary fence around it and yet unlike the others that were made purely of the strange material with some embellishments to make it look more acceptable this building was made of much paler material, though still identifiably the same stuff. It had dark highlights and carvings that didn't appear to be runes at all, just more pleasing structures.
"This is my family's estate in this city. It's an important trade hub so we have a small compound here. If you are ever lost, try and look for this building. It isn't the tallest but the paler colour scheme should make it stand out well enough" said Gareth.
"Yeah, what's with the ash grey everywhere, surely you guys don't think this actually looks good?" asked Kat somewhat sick of the recurring plane grey buildings.
Gareth coughed awkwardly at that with a slight heat rushing to his face, though not enough to be noticeable "Well, um, the material is extremely good for defensive wards, at least twice as good as ordinary materials and it's relatively inexpensive, Green's family actually developed the stuff"
Green shimmered a moment and then stood still. Kat kept looking at Green oblivious to the obscuring ability she'd just use so when Green turned to face her she was shocked to see that Kat hadn't lost track of her at all. Pouting she looked to Gareth for help, but her spell had worked, and he couldn't see her at all. Green's face went bright red as she hid in front of Gareth to hide herself from Kat's view, however this also failed spectacularly due to the parties march forward and so Gareth promptly bumped into his poor fiancé he looked up at him with sad eyes.
Gareth started to sweat and look awkwardly away. He wasn't quite sure what he'd done to earn Green's disapproval, but he wasn't about to stop her acting so adorably. Kress and Kat just shook there heads at the display for similar reasons. The party stood around awkwardly for a few moments in the entrance to Gareth's estate before he finally decided to do something.
"Well, anyway. . . Follow me I suppose, I've got a training area out the back" said Gareth heading around to the left of the estate through, moderately well-kept gardens. They were the same mix of over abundant colourful flowers, and while it was clear some effort went into arranging them the sheer volume and variety of them limited the ability of the gardeners to make them anything more than vaguely presentable.
As they rounded a corner, they came upon what looked to be a square concrete box. Kat once again recognised the horrible looking ash grey material. *Really? I mean I get that this stuff is supposed to be good for magic, but this is excessive right? It ruins the garden, hell it ruins everything to have a box just in the middle of your backyard. What were they thinking?*
Gareth approached the stone doors and slowly pulled one of them open. Kat was tempted to help him with it but seeing that the others were standing back unmoving she decided to do the same. Well, Green was awkwardly fidgeting, but Kat had learnt this was a standard state of being for Green and didn't think too much of it.
As the door inched open under Gareth's power it revealed. . . More grey material. To Kat's disappointment but not surprise, the inside was simply more grey stone. Nixilei noticed Kat's sighing but didn't comment. "Welcome, to the training arena. It'd be nice to have a quick spar, if you are interested Kat, just to see where you stand" said Gareth.
*Is this really necessary? You are all trained fighters. I suppose if you insist.* "Sure, who am I fighting?" asked Kat
Gareth went to answer but Kress jumped in with "You'll be fighting me" as he strode towards the other end pulling out his dual swords.
"Take it easy on her Kress" shouted Gareth
"Of course" smiled Kress.
Kat walked to her position roughly opposite Kress on the other half of the arena. "So what are the rules going to be" Kat asked as she started stretching.
"There are none" said Kress grinning.
"What he means" said Gareth in a forceful tone "Is that the arena is enchanted to stop damaging blows. Bumps and bruises won't be stopped but serious injuries and especially death will put a shield around you preventing further damage from being dealt"
Kat nodded in understanding and got ready to fight. She wasn't a professionally trained fighter by any means, but she'd faced off against a few bullies in her time and kept herself quite fit with her trips to and from school. Her main source of confidence was actually her healing ability, the risk of injury didn't scare you as much after having gravel scrape your face off and successful recover.
Kat and Kress took their stances waiting for the signal to start. Kat wasn't exactly sure if they were waiting for a signal at all, so she just stood ready, wings flared slightly and body positioned into a fighting stance. While Kat was mostly relaxed, Kress looked like a taught string. Ready to unleash a flurry of blows when Kat showed the slightest opening. Of course, it was difficult to find an opening when your opponent was well outside of your striking zone.
This didn't seem to deter Kress though as he stood unmoving be ready for the slightest twitch. After staring at each other for a good minute Kress decided that it was time to move forward. Despite Kat's claim she wasn't really a magician, he had been waiting for her to start casting a spell. That was always the best time to charge a wizard, as it took some time to finish chanting, and if you scared them enough it would backfire. Kat taking a fighters stance had thrown him well off his game.
Charging in Kress went straight for a double slash towards Kat's neck. For Kat's part her demonic energy instantly reacted. Her eyes glowed and the world seemed to slow down immensely. Kat was able to watch the oncoming Kress with fascination instead of fear and saw the slash coming from miles away. As the swords came down Kat simply bent her body backwards and let the swords sail over her.
Not to be outdone Kress pivoted on his foot to try and bring the swords back around splitting them up this time to target the space where Kat's head should be and the space where her midsection was. For Kat however the attack was just as easily dodged as the first. Dropping down into a crouch to duck both swords she moved in close and used her moment to land a fist straight into Kress' stomach.
A brown light flashed, and Kat felt like her hand impacted a stone wall. Kat stepped back and dropped her arms thinking that she'd triggered the arena's shield ability. Sadly for her, or perhaps for Kress, this was not the case, Kress had used his mana to harden the leather on his outfit and protect him from the main portion of Kat's strength.
Kress was shocked Kat even had the chance to strike back, and charged once again, doubling the ferocity of his attacks. Coming from the left and right mixing and matching his duel bladed strikes trying to catch Kat off guard and land even a glancing blow.
And yet, to Kat's eyes it was all just so slow. It was only a matter of moving her body just slightly out of the way each time. Even her flowing Kimono went untouched in his mad flurry of blows. The attacks continued like this, left right up down, dodge dodge dodge.
Kat was getting rather bored. The fight wasn't challenging, and Kress had given up using any interesting technique. He was simply trying to swing as much as possible and overwhelm her. *I guess I should just fight back then.* Pouring her demonic energy into her arms Kat was surprised to see her nails glow with purple light.
Changing her idea, instead of going for a punch she slashed downwards with her hand in a sweeping motion towards Kress. Right before it impacted his shoulder a glowing light encapsulated him, and a boom resounded throughout the hall.
Kat blinked, trying to banish the sight from her eyes, and yet it remained. The area around the impact was coated in ice, even with the barrier Kress had icicles forming on the edges of his armour. Kress shivered slightly, though whether it was from fear or cold no one, perhaps not even Kress truly knew.
Kat was shocked, simply taking in the apparent power of her strike. It seemed that pushing energy into her nails provided some shocking effects.. She didn't really know how this compared to a normal wizard but the ice coating the arena indicated to her it was powerful enough.