[Malevolence]

((OOC: Pardon the absence, I hate rehearsals))

“If you're there, I'm ready.”

A torch flew out from the darkness, and landed a few yards in front of Taere. Sparks flew up as the burning oil-soaked cloth spattered on the ground, and the torch rolled across the stone floor of the arena to rest in front of Taere. The flame was already beginning to die, so Taere closed his eyes so as to not ruin his vision in the dark. A woman's voice called out:

“You ready?”

“Of course I am, Ouri. Mind if I start?”

“Not at all.”

“Good.”

Taere raised his blade over his right shoulder, with the crystal blade crossing just under his jaw. The blue crystal of the blade sent out sparking purple and deep red refracted beams of light through the arena away from the torch. The fire of the burning oil soon went out, smothered halfway by the floor and finally extinguished by the humid air inside the enclosed space of the dome. The air itself smelled old, as if they were in a long buried ruin or a room that had not been opened in ages. But this was a modern arena, so that could not make any sense…Taere thought no more on it, and prepared for his first attack. Switching his Blacksun Filter on again, as complete blackness had engulfed the arena again, the thermal image of Ouri showing up bright as day in his vision. At the same time as he readied the Malevolence, she drew her own sword. The slight curve of the rapier was more obvious on the etched thermal image magically projected into his eye, as the heat from her arm traveled up into the metal of the blade. The silver of the blade most certainly would have reflected marvelously in the light, but, there being none, there was no glimmer of light coming from it.

Taere, remembering to watch for any hidden moves she might pull on him, Readied his blade in front of him. A single light source in the room became visible on Taere’s blade, in the jewel encrusted into the hilt of the blade. A bit of red glowed within it, and slowly the red traveled up the blade of the sword into the blue crystals, turning them a deep shade of red. The light shone out onto the arena, illuminating the area directly around Taere. Taere then brought the blade up above his head with one hand, and began to swing it in an erratic circle on the left side of his body with the other. The fiery radiance inside the blade grew brighter, and soon became intense enough that Taere could see without his Blacksun Filter. He switched it off, and, as he predicted, the red light was refracted and reflected off of Ouri’s blade with great brilliance.

Sensing the right moment, Taere pulled back the blade, and flung its tip outwards toward the side of the arena—that is, he held onto the blade, but thrust it out leftwards. As he did so, the fiery aura left the blade, but traveled straight and fast towards the wall, where it struck a single torch mounted on a wall hook. Instantly it an other torches on the wall around it ignited, setting off a chain reaction through a network of oil lamps. The lamps lining the entire ceiling of the dome lit up instantly, casting warm, bright yellow light down on the entire arena. Taere’s hunch was right. The arena was the square of an old ruined underground city. There was no dome, there was a cave ceiling miles wide and a city beneath it. They were in the half-mile-by-half-mile town square of a ruined, stagnated, underground Dwarven city. This could get interesting.

“And ‘Let there be LIGHT!’”

Ouri cast a “You’re retarded” look at him.

“Ok, yeah, that was dumb. Anyway, back to fighting!”

Taere’s face became serious again as he prepared to fight. He again raised the Malevolence in front of him, but in this case, he snapped his fingers. Instantly another light source began to glow from the hilt jewel of the blade, but this time, the color was a deep green. The green again moved up the blade and along the crystals, but this time, instead of staying within the blade, the green eked out of the crystal onto its surface. The glow began to solidify into globules of green liquid, which began to steam in contact with the particles in the old stagnant air. Taere whipped the blade around once, flinging off particles of the green fluid. As they hit the ground, the droplets instantly began to sizzle and burn the stone tiles. It was acid. The extremely caustic substance was concentrated earth element, which contains the domain of acidity. Taere, moving forward with this new addition to his arsenal, swung the blade back behind his head, and made a slash out toward Ouri’s chest. At the last moment, he pulled the blade away, and made a long horizontal slash at her back as he quickly darted past her on her right side. He then, using his momentum, pushed back on his feet, made a short armless cartwheel, and landed in a defensive position behind where he had made his strikes at Ouri…