Let Them Sing
EXP: 155,108, Level: 17
Level completed: 18%,
EXP required for next Level: 14,892
When I’m ready?
She was everything that Shinsou Vaan Osiris had not expected.
Behind his stoic expression glowed amusement, albeit kindly intended amusement, as the anticipated attack failed to materialise and instead the redheaded youth gave way. As the Telgradian looked at the shimmering glass chambers spread before him, he wondered how many of the people he had faced here had actually been eager to allow him this kind of time.
Surely, it couldn’t have been more than a handful, because those that had been in the Citadel with Shinsou Vaan Osiris knew that to give him such respite risked inviting a quick death. It would come, perhaps, from a pulsating kaleidoscope of dark lances from above or, worse, a release of the arcane power in his sword; power that would surge like adrenaline at his every whim. There were few people who had truly felt the full force of Enpera’s unsealed power; immutable and destructive in the face of all comers, but those who knew what lay beneath certainly did not entertain the idea of giving Shinsou a window of opportunity to coax it out.
Whatever the established precedent, there was no arrogance or undue surety in the girl’s words as the redhead’s aura flared brighter and more focused than his. The spell-sword decided to find courtesy within her decision to allow him the first move, instead of the sheer naivety he momentarily suspected was responsibile.
Who said the youth of today weren’t polite, eh? Shinsou mused to himself, Well, seeing as we’re holding the door open for each other here, let’s start off slow. How good are you without that bow?
Alongside him, accompanying his thoughts, a jet black vine of dark matter crawled out from his feet, stretching and snaking with tempestuous hunger across the polished floor. It throbbed for a moment, almost as if alive, waiting for Shinsou to bend its will. Usually, this ability was used incognito; a silent thing used to surprise or ambush a clumsy or inattentive opponent. Here, though, where every surface betrayed the art of subterfuge, it would be put to a more crude use.
The Telgradian stepped forth, his two echoing footfalls upon the glass floor disguising an incantation.
The dark tendril snapped through the darkness, leaving behind a dazzling and disorienting afterimage which disappeared almost as soon as it had manifested. He took care to avoid harming the foreign girl, but instead directed the hazy black limb towards her bow. The spell wrought havoc on the optics of the room; the jet flash reflected many times into the highly reflective vaults and polished recessed alcoves as a dackdraft wafted through the limp strands of his hair, but its true intent was to coil around the shaft of the bow and cast it into the oblivion below their shimmering arena. An onlooker may have questioned the non-lethal intent; this was the Citadel, after all, but Shinsou knew that to truly learn about someone, one needed only to apply time and pressure. It was how all things were formed, from the creation of basic elements to the complexities of a living person.
It would be unbearable for the Telgradian to have seen Felicity’s green aura and not understand it, and by the same measure agonizing to not be able to fathom the depths of her abilities. Without her bow, Shinsou guessed he would probably see her at her most vulnerable, and that always got results.
