(http://imageshack.us/scaled/large/209/kdgr.jpg)<br/><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 18pt;">Ralena Tharin</span><br/><strong>Location:</strong>Shadow Crow headquarters<br/><strong>With:</strong>Luca, Alice, Lyuk<br/><br/>In the first of the four corridors, blue was clashing against red in a brilliant display of lights as Ralena battled fiercely against her opponent in the form of the older, taller man that wielded the same power as hers. Fists met with swords, swords met with shields, shields met with massive hammers, the constant cycling of weapons seemed to continue with no reprieve. Ralena was currently throwing out one of her chains towards the man, seeking to stab him in the shoulder before yanking him backwards towards her so that she could clobber him with a devastating attack. His parry was to reach out and grab the chain after juking to the side, instead pulling her back towards him with an incredible amount of strength. Losing her footing, Ralena started to fly in that direction before she recalled her chain and summoned her gauntlets, using her momentum to her advantage as she swung a powerful and fast fist right at his neck. "Hrrrrrragh!"<br/><br/>Since Ralena was too fast to dodge, the man countered by placing both of his forearms in front of his body and summoning a gigantic shield between them to block her punch. Skidding backwards, the man's shield suddenly shattered, the shrapnel shooting outwards for Ralena to dodge before she landed on the ground with a somewhat ungracious roll since she ended up landing on her back. Either way, she recovered quickly and was back on her feet in time to see that the man had drawn a sword and was charging at her. Ralena snapped out her right hand, creating a sword of her own and meeting him head on. "Are you in more of a mood to talk this time!? I want answers out of you!" The man was silent as he overpowered her, proving his superior strength as he won the battle of will and forced Ralena back. Ralena skidded backwards to avoid the slash that came next, tossing her sword away in the process as she flung herself with the momentum of his victorious clash. "C'mon, answer me!!!" After avoiding his next attack, Ralena extended her arm upwards into the air, where she created a colossal pair of axe blades with a large chain instead of an actual handle. Grabbing onto the chain, she yanked it down roughly onto his head. After the man avoided her attack by putting his sword in the axe blade's path, he glared right into her eyes. I told you before, some things are better off left unknown! If you don't know the answers about us, good! Keep it that way!"<br/><br/>Ralena shook her head, swinging the chain again and launching another axe attack on him. "You know that I can't do that! Why was I born? Where do I come from? Why do I exist? I can't live a normal life until I have these questions answered!" This Axe attack was much more powerful then the last one, forcing the man to skid backwards ungraciously as his red blade vanished. Ralena saw this as a moment of weakness, and she launched one more attack at him by flinging the chain in with full force down towards his head. "And if you don't feel like speaking up, I'll beat the answers out of you!" Moments before the axe was going to connect with him, he extended his open palm out towards the axe blade, a red energy field instantly erecting between the axe and him. Wait, what? There was a type of magic out there that Ralena's weapons couldn't brute force through? Well of course there was, he was using the same kind of magic as her! But this seemed like it was on an entirely different level.<br/><br/>Ralena could only control her power enough to harden it, solidify it into weaponry. However, whatever this mysterious substance was that was flowing within the bodies of the two mysterious mages, this man was able to control it in it's raw form, pure energy. It was something that Ralena had minimal success with in the past, as she found her power too much like vapor, something that would vanish if she didn't solidify it right away. "What? But that's..."<br/><br/>Suddenly the barrier exploded outwards, repelling Ralena's axe as though it were a mere leaf in a tornado, Ralena herself being along for the ride since she didn't let go of the chain in time. Ralena went slamming back roughly into one of the room's walls, her axe dropping from the ceiling to the floor with a heavy *thud* before it turned into blue vapor and vanished. Ralena groaned, grabbing her head as she forced herself off the wall. "How did you do that? I thought it was impossible to use our power like that." The man stepped forwards, the pure energy form of their power appearing again as a glowing red orb in his hand. "It's called 'aura' you mindless dreck. And there's a whole lot more about it then you could ever understand. I was being gentle with you up until this point, because I felt pity for your utter ignorance. However, my patience has run out, and it's time that you came to appreciate the full potential of this power that you've been taking for granted your whole life."<br/><br/>Ralena shook her head, wiping some of the dust from the wall off her lip as she took a lowered fighting stance. "So you're saying that you're finally gonna take this fight for real? Good, I'm done holding back too!"<br/><br/>Ralena was bluffing like hell, but he didn't need to know that. However, she was starting to get an ikling in the back of her neck that she was outclassed here, something that was confirmed all the more when her response to his threat was met with nothing but dark, cruel laughter from her opponent. This fight was only just getting started, it seemed.<br/><br/>...............................................................................................<br/><br/>As Lyuk wrapped his fingers around the sword, he'd find that the handle consisted of several thousand tiny needles that would prod into his palm if he were to grip it too hard. Effectively, if he were to plan on wielding the sword effectively, the needles would carve his hands open, both inflicting an incredible amount of pain on Lyuk as well as making his hands practically unusable after he finally dropped the sword, unless he got rather quick medical attention. However, there was another thing that would come to light as he gripped the blade, as the sword itself glowed with the same purple energy as the runes protecting the center stage. These ones read<em>make the sacrifice, endure the trial, seize victory.</em>In other words, much like what Gaius was doing just a couple of hallways over to Alice, this particular shadow crow only seemed interested in playing a couple of games with the Fairy Tail mage, and seeing if they had the strength of heart to truly do what was needed.<br/><br/>The Shadow Crows really were a mixed up bunch, weren't they? Looking at Emilia, she seemed rather soft spoken and almost honorable in that she gave Lyuk a direct avenue to victory. Plus there was Gaius the outsider who only seemed to be involved with the gang for kicks. On the other hand, Gregory and the as of yet unnamed Aura wielder both seemed hellbent on erasing their opponent off the face of the earth. The leader who brought all of these people together under a single united cause must be one hell of a guy.<br/><br/>That wasn't the end of Lyuk's troubles though, as the amps on either side of Emilia started to glow with magical energy before firing out large strings of magical bullets at him. He'd have to force his way through the bullets without getting filled with holes, wield the sword, break through the barrier, and stop the song in order to walk out of this room alive. Oh yes, and he was also on a time limit considering just how lethal Emilia's voice alone was.<br/><br/>...................................................................................................<br/><br/>Gregory seemed to be anticipating that he was planning on putting out as many of the candles as he could. After all, one couldn't manipulate shadow if the room was turned to absolute darkness. He was grateful that he didn't end up overestimating this Fairy Tail mage, Luca proving just as crafty as Gregory would have hoped out of an opponent. There was no honor in his motives though, he simply didn't see the entertainment value in an easy, almost effortless kill. He snapped his sword to the ready and chased after Luca, swinging his blade right at the Fairy Tail mage's head while he was distracted with putting out the candles. If Luca was watching, he'd notice that the flame never truly went out on any of the candles that he tried to put out. Rather, they'd become smaller and smaller, becoming almost the size of a fly before recovering quickly and returning to a full blast only a few seconds later.<br/><br/>It was going to take some effort to put these candles out, and Luca didn't have the kind of time or dedication to commit to candles when Gregory himself was diving at him from the front, while two shadow clones were performing a pincer attack, forming a triangle around the Fairy Tail mage as they came in closer. However, there was more then one way to play around shadows, and if Luca was paying attention, he'd notice that Gregory's living shadows could only come out where there were legitimate shadows on the ground, meaning that if he managed to balance himself so that he stayed in the light, he could buy himself some time to come up with a counterattack.<br/><br/>Easier said then done though, as even the real Gregory was no slouch, and he'd love nothing more then to push Luca into the darkness, where the Shadow Crow could attack him with full power.<br/><br/>.................................................................................................<br/><br/>Gaius shook his head, finding it adorable how Alice continued to call him 'red' even after he had introduced himself. He supposed some nicknames stuck more then he'd have cared to admit, but that wasn't really anything important, then, was it? When she made her statement about how she could tell he was a 'good person', before begging him to give up this crazy plan that the Shadow Crows had going, he rolled his eyes and spoke in a casual voice. "Alice, sweetheart, you don't know a thing about me. Honestly, I couldn't care less which one of you two manage to win, Fairy Tail or Shadow Crows. He didn't think he needed to say it, but obviously an S ranked illusionist mage would have no qualms with keeping magic alive in the world. However, his next words could potentially catch Alice by surprise. "I mean, a world without magic... Think about it for a second, it's not the most terrible thing ever imagined. Look back even as early as 70 years ago. The world was put in danger time and time again by power hungry magic users. People who wanted more power, more destruction, more pain. Zaref, Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, Heaven's Tower, any one of these things could have wiped the human race off the map if Fairy Tail wasn't there to save the day. Magic may be great and all, but would losing it really be the end of the world? Nah, that's why I don't give a crap if these Shadow Crow lunatics actually manage to pull their plan off."<br/><br/>He shook his head, getting off his high horse as Alice stepped forward. "Doesn't matter anyway, now just hurry up and pick a card."<br/><br/>When she did, the card would flip around to show the image of a man in shadows with his head down, a stick with a sack over his back as he looked down shamefully towards his feet. "The fool! You're a lucky girl, Alice. As promised, one limiter, 50% of my power gone." With that said, Gaius snapped his fingers, letting out a small groan of pain as a large purple rune appeared on the back of his neck. "There we go, that should even up this fight a little bit. Now, Fairy Tail mage, show me why you think this world is worth defending!" Gaius extended his arms outwards, snapping his fingers as three ghostly phantom copies of himself appeared between him and Alice. Unlike 'perfect' clones, these 'phantasms' were transparent and could easily be mistaken as ghosts had Alice not seen Gaius summon them.<br/><br/>The three clones charged towards Alice, one wielding a sword while the other two were unarmed. The one with the sword took the center and brought a descending slash attack down towards Alice, while the two unarmed phantasms tried to catch onto her flank and grab her. If they succeeded, Gaius would snap his fingers again. "Command: Destruction!" The phantasms would explode, catching Alice in a blast of raw magical energy as the Phantasms vanished from sight.<br/><br/>Even at 50% strength, this guy was a monster.