<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/ivOJI1t.jpg)</div><strong>Name</strong>:  Maya Kritri (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1864703)<br/><strong>HP</strong>:  51/51<br/><strong>Status Effects</strong>: Normal<br/><hr/><br/>Maya left to prepare with the same dismissive, flippant attitude she'd carried herself with during the rest of the competition.  Still, as she reclined in the preparation room she closed her eyes and considered the competition at some length.  She mused over their performances during the rest of the trials.  Perhaps that was the only advantage she'd gained in the competition so far...no one had any idea what Maya was actually capable of, whereas everyone else had tipped at least a portion of their hand during the previous obstacles.  She had no inclination to change her repertoire of magic, though of course even as small her pool of spells was she was perhaps the most flexible of the casters that had gathered given her skill with illusions.  However, mages were typically more resistant to her skills than others, which made for an interesting conundrum.  Still, she had her own ways of ensuring victory.  So, eventually, she refreshed the few spells she had actually used, gathered up the rest of her magical equipment and set back out into the arena to face whoever it was that her first opponent was going to be.<br/><br/>She was far from the first to return, some others already gathered around and seemed to be waiting or stretching or meditating.  Maya simply stretched her arms up over her head for a moment before finding a place to stand nonchalantly observing the others until the rest gathered from the preparation rooms.  She paid special attention to Dask, keeping an eye on the one that seemed to have taken some special interest in Maya earlier for reasons Maya didn't know.  Her attention eventually returned to the goddesses as they explained the next part of the competition and arranged for the different pairings.  Maya's eyes shifted to the Arcane Warrior who had been selected to battle her, her mind going back to remember how he did in the previous challenges.  He seemed like a well-rounded opponent, which would make it more difficult to exploit any one particular weakness.  But it would likely mean that his strengths would be less pronounced compared to his other weaknesses.<br/><br/>The warrior's comments annoyed Maya a touch, bringing a little frown to her lips though a little smirk soon returned as she shrugged slightly, "not all of us can be amazin' at everythin' we do," she commented.  She wondered for a moment what would happen should she end up killing her opponent, it didn't seem to be covered by the rules, so she didn't consider the option to be against the rules.<br/><br/>There was very little wait between the announcement and the commencement of the battles.  The protective domes went up and the combatants were "sealed" inside.  She had little time to consider strategy, but already formed an idea.  In the space of time between the domes forming and squaring off with her opponent she had drawn upon one of the blessings she had received and split herself in two.  It was a relatively simple gambit to begin with, one that she hoped would give her enough of an edge against the more martially inclined foe.  "Bet this be like one" the first of the two copies began to speak, followed by the second, "o' yer fantasies, eh?" she quipped.  The twins moved apart slightly, making it more difficult to cleave both of them at once.<br/><br/>"I'll be glad to be rid of you," he responded, "pity I'll gain so few points for my trouble."  He decided to focus his attacks on one of the two, guessing that one was an illusion of some kind.  His eyes flashed as he cursed the real Maya and went in for a quick charging attack.  Maya could feel the curse sapping her strength, she wasn't too surprised, but her baited attempt to lure him to attacking her seemed to work to her advantage as she had planned.  When he struck her she finished the casting of her Greater Invisibility spell, to further reinforce the idea that he had slain--and dispatched--some form of illusion, leaving only the "real" Maya behind.<br/><br/>"Saw through my charade, did ya?" the clone commented while the real Maya invisibly retreated.  "Well, be a dear and stay over there a while will ya?" the clone added as black tendrils slithered up like shadows below the Hexblade's feet.<br/><br/>"More Illusions?  What kind of--" he retorted, recognizing the illusion for what it was, though not ready for what the realization would bring, "what, what is this?  What manner of demon are you?" he questioned as he began to struggle against the black tentacles.  Their malleable nature did little to damage him, but were successful at holding him in place, at least for now.<br/><br/>"Who knows?" she asked with an exaggerated shrug.  As he struggled to extricate himself from the tentacles the air around him filled itself with a thick, greenish fog, though this was a far more real effect of a poisonous, deadly cloud.  He wouldn't be done in so easily by that, though, but it would suffice to weaken him over time if he didn't escape quickly enough, which she didn't intend to allow him to do.  With the small advantage she had gained She put walls in place to slow the Hexblade's progress and prevent him from leaving the area of the Cloudkill spell.  Despite his strengths it was wearing him down slowly but surely.  The fake copy of Maya continued to move around the outskirts of the cloud, confusing him with her presence and drawing him towards areas that were less safe than before.  With his constitution sufficiently drained he was eventually able to exit the cloud of poison.  It wasn't until then that Maya decided to reveal herself once again, the invisibility dropping away.  She had a bored expression on her face and she shook her head slightly.<br/><br/>"I'd expected a little more," she explained before asking a question, "What was it you ended up seeing in the tower of despair I wonder?"  though the question was more to simply prime his mind for an onslaught of phantasmal assailants draining his will away much like his body had already been drained.  He steeled himself against the attack admirably, but Maya's magic proved to be too overwhelming for him this time.<br/><br/>"You should be more polite," she suggested to the all but defeated foe, a single ray of flame shot from her outstretched fingers towards the man.  He had some resistance to the spell, naturally, but given his weakened state it was enough to knock him unconscious and secure the win for Maya.  The damage wasn't nearly as much as she might have hoped, it seemed the Hexblade would likely survive after all.