<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/3yvPjN0.jpg)<br/></div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Ralena Tharin</span><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Guild hall<br/><strong>With:</strong>Everybody<br/><hr/><br/>The instant the bell was rung, Ralena charged forward and let out a fierce war cry as she swung her fist right towards Gregory's face. "Alright, let's do this!" As soon as she closed in on Gregory, a wall of shadows would suddenly spurt forth from the ground, blocking her fist without Gregory having to budge so much as an inch. Ralena pulled back, just in time for the shadows to swing around and lash out towards her with a series of spikes that came from the solid mass. "The heck was that?" Ralena wasn't allowed to think about that for very long as Gregory turned on the offensive by dropping the wall of shadows and dashing towards her, his blade stabbing right towards Ralena before she put one of her gauntlets in the path of the sword and knocked it away. With Gregory over extended, Ralena was able to kick herself off the ground and launch her other leg towards him, blue light covering the area as her foot was now covered with a metal boot that connected smoothly with the side of the shadow mage's head and sent him knocking back. Landing back on her feet, Ralena put on a confident smirk before she took a small hop backwards to create some more distance and allow her opponent a moment to recover. She had learned from that shadow shield that going on the offensive alone wasn't going to be good enough, she had to be creative and either counterattack him when he was vulnerable, or circumvent his defenses.<br/><br/>When Gregory recovered from the kick, he looked towards Ralena with an irritated look in his eye, while Ralena simply taunted him forward. "What, that all you got?" Ralena seemed pretty full of herself, and the look of her bright and confident smile only made Gregory's gaze sharpen all the more as he regained his composure and pointed his blade towards her.<strong>"Not in the slightest."</strong>With his sword pointing towards the ground, he swept it across the floor and caused waves of purple energy to flow from the tip of his blade and charge towards Ralena. Of course, the white robed woman had no trouble dodging over the purple waves by simply jumping over the purple ground, but what she didn't expect was for a huge burst of shadow magic to erupt from the floor beneath her feet like a geyser. Purple magic flooded across Ralena's body, burning her as intensely as any flame as the martial artist let out a sharp cry and crashed to the ground. Gregory gave his blade a light flick and pointed it downwards in a resting position again, as he waited for Ralena to recover from the blow that she had taken. After all, taking a single attack to the face wasn't going to be enough bring down a CHAMPION RUNNER.<br/><br/>Growling in frustration at the way that she had been out-maneuvered, Ralena got back up to her feet and took in a large, deep breath. "Not bad." Gregory nodded, snapping his sword back up to a ready position while Ralena readied herself and ran towards him again, though this time she ducked down and tried to sweep him by his feet so that she could trip him up and hit him with a devastating follow up attack. Gregory's reply was to dodge backwards and press his sword into the arena ground, causing waves of shadow energy to flow through the ground exactly like they had last time. After all, if it worked before, why not see if Ralena would fall for the same trick twice, right? However, Ralena would prove that she was NOT going to fall for the same trick twice, as she quickly recovered her footing and waited until the last possible second, right before the purple energy was right below her feet, before the girl suddenly rocketed forward at speeds far above that of normal running. Anybody paying attention at that moment would see that the soles of Ralena's boots were glowing with magic power, as she channeled her aura into raw explosive strength without ever solidifying it into the weapons that she normally used. "I'm not that dumb! Eat this! BOOSTER FIST!" Still riding off the momentum of her newfound speed, Ralena swung around and delivered a powerful punch with her gauntlet infused fist right to the shadow mage's stomach, which caused Gregory to fly backwards and crash against the rune walls that were keeping them inside the arena. As Gregory slumped down to the floor, Ralena landed on her feet and looked over towards him with her arms crossed.<br/><br/>Gregory's breathing was labored when he returned to his feet, along with that, once he finally looked up to make eye contact with Ralena, she would be able to see that his singular eye that wasn't hidden behind white bangs was starting to glow purple with raw magical power.<strong>"You..."</strong>Ralena shivered lightly at the anger in her opponent's eye, and she'd be lying if she said that she wasn't intimidated by it. However, just as she was planning on taking a step backwards in order to make more distance, she found her feet locked in place. Her head jerked backwards, just in time to spot her shadow rising from the floor beneath their feet in order to wrap it's arms tightly around her, and lock her into place. "Wh- What the hell!?" Turning her head back forwards, she was able to watch the empowered Gregory extend his blade off to the side, the steel weapon now starting to simmer with purple magical energy as he approached her.<strong>"Shadow power: cage. Into..."</strong>He suddenly vanished, moving through the darkness as he appeared right before her not even a second later.<strong>"Shadow power: SLAUGHTER!"</strong>His sword now burned with purple energy, as he slashed it through the trapped Ralena several times, each swing of the blade leaving a line of thin purple energy in it's wake as he did performed about 5 slashes in total before turning his back to her and sheathing his blade. He took one step away, and the purple magic suddenly exploded in a violent final burst that sent Ralena crashing backwards as she landed on her stomach and skidded back almost the entire length of the arena.<br/><br/>Silence filled the Arena for a few seconds, and just as the guild master was about to declare Gregory as the winner, a small cracking sound, one that sounded like glass that was on the verge of shattering, came from the battlefield. Before the battle was called, all eyes turned towards the source of the cracking sound, Ralena. The black haired girl was somehow getting back up to her feet, breathing heavy as flakes of blue metal fell off of her body. "*Huff* *huff* What? Never seen Aura Aegis before? *huff*" Gregory seemed more irritated then anything else as he turned back to face her, his sword once again leaving his sheath as he entered an aggressive stance and prepared to finish her off. Ralena was battered, bruised, and a few cuts could be seen along the shoulders of her robes from where she hadn't been able to shield herself from his attacks. Even though she was still standing, she didn't seem like she was in any condition to retaliate against him. He darted forward, smashing the hilt of his blade against her stomach and knocking her off her footing before he sent another purple wave of energy right through her stomach, which sent Ralena tumbling back against the wall where she crashed and sank down, landing on her ass with her head lowered. "Ugh... damn..."<br/><br/>Since Ralena was still awake and hadn't surrendered yet, the fight was still going. Gregory approached her with slow and methodical steps, content on finishing her off now that she was down for the count.<strong>"Just end this already, you've lost."</strong>His steps continued, up until that exhausted frown on Ralena's face turned into a bright smirk as she turned her hand upright so that her palm faced towards the ceiling. "Heh... Not a chance. Hope you don't mind me borrowing your trick." Curious, Gregory stopped and looked around as Ralena's index and middle fingers pressed against one another, and she suddenly jerked them upwards and brought her hand off the floor. The moment she did that, chains suddenly flew from the ground all around Gregory, wrapping around his arms tightly before they locked into place and kept him trapped. With Gregory locked down, Ralena stumbled awkwardly as she got back up to her feet, and she looked over at him with a fierce look in her eye, though her smile never faded. "Trap the enemy in place, and hit them with a truck! Now it's my turn. MAGE CHAINS, INTO..." Ralena's right arm held off to the side, and even though her gauntlets were already summoned, her hand continued to glow with blue magical power, although this time she wasn't solidifying that power into the form of any weapons. Instead, she kept all that raw magical power concentrated in her hand as she rushed forward, her now super charged arm reaching out towards Gregory. "FINISHING MOVE! OPEN PALM ERUPTION!!!"<br/><br/>Ralena connected her glowing hand with Gregory's face, and all of that built up energy suddenly exploded forward with force that sent Gregory crashing to the floor as Ralena stood as the victor, one of her shoulders slumped forward with her right arm lowered towards the ground lazily. Ralena's breathing was heavy and ragged, and she, along with the baited breath of the entire audience, waited for the smoke of her climactic attack to clear in order to see that Gregory was out cold on the floor. The crowd let out a delighted cheer as Ralena put herself back in a proper posture, a grin now permanently plastered on her face as the guild master stepped up onto the center stage and called the match.<strong>"WINNER OF MATCH ONE! RALENA THARIN!!!"</strong>Ralena's fist soared towards the sky as she shared in with the roars from the crowd.<br/><br/>With that, it would be time for the second match to start, Alice and Emilia both being called down to the battlefield in order for their fight to begin. The Guildmaster began the same title card reading as last time, as Ralena stepped down and got out of the way.<strong>"And now begins round two! In THIS corner is Fairy Tale's latest songstress, her voice secures victory for all of her comrades, and her bark IS her bite! EMILIA SOUTHWIND!!!"</strong>Emilia stood proudly on the floor, waving to the crowd as they roared. With a wave of magic, she pulled a magic microphone out of the air in front of her, and spoke in a bright voice. "Wish me luck! Everyone~" After the crowd settled, the Guildmaster Romeo continued.<strong>"Aaaaand in this corner, Fairy Tail's adorable gunslinger, a symbol of victory in her own right, and a fearsome opponent. Don't underestimate her! ALICE DESCHAIN!"</strong>And that, of course, would be Alice's queue to feed the crowd and get them pumped up for the second match, before the Guildmaster said those final decisive words.<br/><br/><strong>"ROUND TWO, EMILIA VS ALICE, BEGIN!"</strong><br/><br/>..................................<br/><br/>As Alice's match began, Ralena made her way down into the crowd and slumped into a chair as she nestled her forehead squarely in the sanctuary of her palm. "uuuuuuugh...... Anybody got some water? Or tea? Something like that?" Considering how intense that fight had been, it would be no surprise that Ralena looked like she had just ran a marathon through a minefield before she took her seat. Her head rolled towards the arena, where she gave a half-hearted pump of her fist. "Yeeeeah, go Alice, you... you got this... ugh."<br/><br/>She seemed exhausted, but if anybody felt like giving her a hand, she was open for conversation and interaction.