[Undeniable Interests] Dust and Dander Repel Danger (Harper)

[Xalet]

"Actually..." Xalet began, hoping to dispel some of Harper's anxiousness, "Magic, except for Summoning, is not illegal. Also as a Human you've nothing to worry about. The reason I suggest outside of the city gates is if anything inside the gates is damaged by magic it is the responsibility of the magic user to pay for the damages." In a way Xalet envied Humans for that reason. In Syliras a Human was often granted a fair bit of leniency, compared to basically every other race. A crime that would net a Human imprisonment or banishment would probably result in death for another race.

"Excellent, you have my appreciation. I would also appreciate it if I did not get sent to the void during any demonstrations. Follow me, Harper." he replied, the slightest upward turn of his lips following that response before he turned to exit the shop. Sometimes it was difficult to tell if Xalet was making a joke, or just making a statement.

As they walked through the streets Harper found it a bit easier to navigate when following in the wake of the Alakak, mainly due to most people moving out of the way fairly readily. As they exited the main Syliras proper, Xalet led the woman north into an area of beautiful greenery just outside of the walls. The forest itself stretched without end, so thick and lush. Beautifully deciduous trees turned a variety of colors in the fall season, and leaves crunched beneath his heavy plated feet once they were within.

There was a sereneness to this stretch of wilderness, which was every bit as wild as one could possible imagine. The sense of security was because the Knights patrolled this forest, and the over-sized beasts found elsewhere were typically absent. "This is the Bronze Wood. Though you may already know that. When I am tired of the crowds within the city, this is where I come." as he spoke, Xalet was taking out his gauntlets, sliding the leather interior over his hands, flexing them softly. "When you are ready, Harper."

[Harper]

"Mm, I thought they frowned upon it all. But nonetheless, lead the way, and I shall show you the power of Voiding!" Harper exclaimed, somewhat excited. It had been a while since she had really practiced, and in a combat situation, at that. "And not having to pay damage costs is nice too," She added lastly as she followed Xalet out of the shop. She didn't reply to his remark about not being sent to the Void, because she honestly couldn't promise him that it wouldn't happen... Magic was unpredictable. Anything could happen. The streets seemed to clear up as they walked through. Or, at least, the people seemed to clear out of the Akalak's way. She wasn't sure if it was because he was a knight, or because he was an Akalak, but Harper didn't care; she was just happy that people were getting out of her way. Ending up in the forest, Harper was annoyed. While the scenery was beautiful, Harper did not like the forest. She always got eaten alive by bugs. And she did not like bug bites. "It's .. nice," She managed to say behind a disgusted mood. When he gave Harper the okay, she didn't waste anymore time. She automatically began to focus her Djed on one spot about five feet away from her; it was somewhat behind a tree. She was completely silent while she opened the portal, making no indication that it was there; if Xalet realized it was there, he might become a tad frightened. He needed to be frightened. As soon as the portal was open wide enough, Harper focused her Djed on the portal and on Xalet, creating a Pull that only attracted the Akalak to the portal. The Pull was strong enough to knock Xalet out from under his own two feet, and slowly drag him to the portal where he would eventually be thrown into the Void. What would he do to stop it? OOCGod, I am so so sorry for the super long wait; life has been super busy and hectic, and I just haven't felt like Harper lately. Sorry if the post is kinda crappy; and if you don't like the way Harper is going about "showing Xalet the Void," just tell me and I'll figure something else out. I just thought it'd be fun to see Xalet squirm and try to escape the pull. :3

[Xalet]

OOCNo problem, I hope you've regained your Harperness! And this is fine, I certainly don't mind a little stress now and again.

Xalet took those moments to observe at first. His hands crossed over his chest as he thought, "I was expecting something with more flash." Just the word 'void' brought forth images of swirling energy maelstroms and the like, but it seemed its actual creation was quite silent. No swirling magical winds or fiery flames. No loud crackling or popping. The Akalak had to admit to himself, perhaps he had just been the victim of Reimancy too many times and expected all magics to be equally as visually stimulating.

Of course he got his stimulation all right, in the form of some strange, almost magnetic pull coming over his body and all of his possessions. "Hm?" he felt the discomfort of something otherworldly pulling at his body when suddenly one foot was pulled out from under him, with his second following close behind the first. Had he been prepared it could have been possible for him to take up a defensive stance of some sort and reinforce his base, but without being able to actually see what was pulling at him the very sensation came across like being tripped without being able to respond to your opponent.

Xalet was not a small target, and with all of his armor and equipment weighed close to four hundred pounds. His body slid across the ground, but luckily at a slower pace than a common man wearing rags might. Large scores were put into the forest floor where the plates of his armor caught, kicking up dirt and grass and staining those beaten flats of metal even more than they already were.

"Harper?" he said, trying to rise up in a sitting position, but it seemed the more he attempted to right himself the more distance he moved due to a lesser friction of having less bodily surface area scraping along the ground. "Maybe next time you'll listen." his darker voice taunted, quite amused at the situation. However, neither soul would have wanted it's body getting lost in an area of cold, dark, dangerous space, and so Xalet found himself pulling his gladius from it's sheath, "Harper!? What is this!?" he shouted, his tension rising. With his strength he jammed his gladius point first, as blunt as it was, into the earth beside him, attempting to halt his progress.

[Harper]

Harper let out a joyful laugh as a smile crept across her face. The entire situation was funny to her: a small, weak, frail human girl sucking a huge Akalak man into the Void. Why shouldn't that be humorous? Harper continued to laugh as the large man was drug across the ground of the disgusting forest floor, and finally said: "This is the Void, sir Knight: cruel and cold." It was proving much more difficult to pull the man, though. He was rather huge, and Harper hadn't realized how much he weighed until she started the Pull. She wasn't going to be able to keep this up for very long; she just wasn't a skilled enough Voider. She began to sweat and pant, feeling the drain on her Djed. Don't overgive, don't overgive, She kept thinking to herself. When Xalet stabbed the sword into the ground, it kept him from moving any further; Harper didn't make the Pull strong enough to suck him in at a fast motion on purpose. She didn't want to send him to the Void, she only wished to show him its danger. Harper, just to be playful, released a large amount of her Djed that caused the Pull to grow much stronger; this force was strong enough to rip Xalet's hands from his sword in the ground and pull him towards the portal at a fast rate. But Harper released the pull before he reached it, and allowed the portal to begin closing. "That is the power of a Voider. We can be a dangerous bunch, so it is best that you avoid them." Harper let out a deep breath and sat down upon the ground, as nasty as it was. Creating a Pull on the Akalak took a lot out of her; the man was huge and heavy, and Harper wasn't too great at Voiding just yet. She still needed much practice. "Ha, I'm sorry if I startled you with that. I was just having a bit of fun," She explained as she played with the blades of grass on the forest floor. "It isn't often that I get to play." She smiled at him with a tired, hollow face.

[Xalet]

Clenching his teeth Xalet felt his grip tightening, his knuckles going white beneath his typically purple skin, shrouded by his gaunlets. His helmet was still in his pack for he felt he had no need for it in a situation like this. Good thing too, it felt like it could have been pulled off of his head. It seemed his physical conditioning was working well enough. The Akalak was no tighten, but with the naturally large frame of his people combined with rigorous strength training designed by his Patron he had a good amount of muscle to call on when needed.

Eventually though his muscles started to fail. "Impossible..." he thought, his grip slipping at first before his gladius tilted to the side, cutting through the ground and causing his hand to come off of the hilt completely. Dealing with the voice was worse than weight lifting. The pressure was everywhere. On his feet, his neck, his arms...there wasn't a spot on his body that wasn't determined to move toward the Void.

"This magic...is overpowering me." his mind rolled that thought about, while his physical body could do little more than grunt. With his Akalak vision he could see the radiating cold of the Void staining the ambient temperature of the surrounding forest. It looked like it had no heat at all.

His hands had begun desperately clawing at the ground when finally the pull stopped. Flopping down onto his back the squire felt just how exhausting the ordeal had been. He thought about how dangerous that was. Very dangerous. In fact, Harper was too dangerous to be left alive, he could kill her now, while she was tired. No one had to know exactly how the whole event went down...

"No!" he quickly kicked those thoughts out, dishonorable as they were. They were not his own, after all, although sometime it became difficult to tell. He had asked for exactly what he had gotten, of course she did take a bit too much delight in his tension. After all that, he panted slightly, "...Squire..." correcting Harper about her 'Sir Knight' comment. "And as I said, I cannot simply avoid them. If a Voider were to threaten Syliras or it's people, I would need to find a way...to stop them."

[Harper]

"Squire, excuse me," She replied while looking at her nails. Harper sighed and looked above her, into the limbs of the trees. She watched as the wind blew through them. It really was quite beautiful. She never really payed attention to such things, but when she did, she really tried to take on the beauty of it all. The world really was a beautiful thing, even if it was as messed up as Mizahar was. "Well, honestly, if you really want to be able to stop them, I'd learn Auristics. With that, you can sense and see when someone is using Djed, and stop them before they have the chance. Also, if you get good enough, you might be able to predict what someone is about to do. I hear it's a rather good skill," Harper said. She knew all too well about Auristics, truth be told; her father used it against her, and Harper would never forget that. "If you want, I can really step up my game and fight you with my full power, but that could end very badly, and I'm not too sure that you'd like me very much afterwards." If Xalet only knew what Harper was fully capable of. If he said yes, he would not only experience her Voiding, but also her Leeching. Combined, she was a deadly force to be reckoned with.

OOCIf you decide to let Xalet agree, Harper is going to be pretty rough with him. But I'll leave plenty of room for him to fight back; it's a full-on sparring match at this point! If he doesn't want to continue, then they can just talk more about magic, I guess. But I think a hands-on learning experience would be best, and Harper needs to practice combat too.

[Xalet]

That wasn't exactly the answer Xalet was hoping for. "Auristics is out of the question. I'll have to find another way." he replied. Clearly Xalet was heavily resistant to ever relying on any type of magic, even Aurisitcs, which was considered universally to be potentially the absolute safest type of personal magic one could practice. Perhaps he had a phobia of magic? Outside of being particularly disheveled from being propelled toward a hole in the air that led to someplace quite hostile, he didn't seem to show much fear in Harper herself, despite the magic she possessed.

There had to be another way. Perhaps he could train his eyes to watch for magical manipulation? Apparently not all of it was very overt, however. That would make things difficult, especially if using the magic got easier the more powerful its wielder became. Perhaps his infra-vision could come in handy? If the Void was a portal to a place cold, then it was possible the distortion in the infra-red spectrum could be easily observed by an Akalak. That just brought more attention to what already was, however, and didn't so much prepare Xalet for the impending magic. What he needed to be able to do was predict a person's actions...somehow.

"I appreciate your concern, Harper." Xalet said as he pulled himself up to his feet. His plate armor clamored slightly together as he righted himself, stretching out his shoulder that had previously been anchored onto his training gladius. He walked over to that weapon, yanking it free from the ground before sweeping the blade out to his side, tossing bits of dirt from it's length onto the ground below.

"But I'm willing to give it a try. I wouldn't consider it a fight, just an educational experience. I'll say though..." he paused for a moment, unstrapping his shield from his back, causing the wood-bound heater to swing around and into his hand. He slipped his forearm through the straps, flexing his fingers and testing it's grip, "...I'm no pushover, and you do appear to be of relatively slender build."

[Harper]

Harper frowned at the Akalak. If he's not willing to learn Auristics, then I'm not sure what to tell him. It was difficult for Harper to give him advice on this subject. To her, a magic user could topple anyone, especially someone who knew nothing about magic. The answer, in her opinion, was to also become a wizard. But Xalet would obviously say no to that idea also, so she didn't even voice it. But then he agreed to her spar. She smiled and slowly picked herself off of the ground and dusted her black cloak off. "It will surely be educational," She said in a cynical voice. She was excited now, seeing she was about to be able to practice her Leeching. It wasn't often she was able to, seeing as no one wanted to be her practice dummy. "I might be physically weaker than you, but I do believe that I will be somewhat of a challenge. Now, ready yourself, Xalet, because I am about to come at you with everything I've got." And with that, Harper began to chant. She pulled her hands up to her breasts and formed a symbol wither her fingers. It resembled a triangle, for she only used her first two fingers on either hand. Then she began to chant over and over again in a low, slow voice: "Naaaaaaaaaaa..... Naaaaaaa..." It was something she often did as a young wizard, helping her concentrate. But she was doing it for an entirely different reason this time. She wanted Xalet to realize that she was opening a portal, and give him a chance to react. She was curious to see what he would do. So, as she opened a portal about five feet away from the Akalak, and hummed her eerie chant, she waited for him to counter.

[Xalet]

Xalet did a good job at keeping himself from looking nervous, but truthfully a sweat had already formed beneath his gauntlets. The leathery soul of those armored gloves gripped his gladius tightly, the short bladed weapon hanging down at his side. The large heater before him sat in it's typical defensive position, but would it really be of any use? Xalet had found his equipment to have some effect in defending against the more direct magics, such as Reimancy, a popular and devastating magic...but what about the Void?

There had to be a way around that suction, Xalet just had to figure it out. Was the Void moveable once created? There was only one way to find out, of course just before Xalet started to charge a voice echoed in the back of his mind, "Let me do it. You'll hold back too much and get us both killed. You think it won't happen? Every Mage is insane, just at different levels. Every woman is also insane, put them both together and you've got something that won't think twice about erasing an Akalak. Fight fire with fire Gods be damned, let me do it."

Xalet thought about it for a moment, but that was long enough for him to discard the very idea. He had already wasted too much time, "Not a chance." he responded internally before darting off at a tangent. Normally Xalet moved directly at his opponent, engaging by closing off the distance as quickly as possible due to the short range of his sword. For this, he decided it was best to keep her between him and the portal in anyway he could. His movement was much like a semi-circle, but already he was trying to determine what he would do once he caught her. Hitting a young, unarmored female didn't exactly seem very sporting.

[Harper]

When the Akalak began to charge at Harper from her side, she let go of the Djed. Her main goal wasn't really to keep the portal open, but to get Xalet near her. As he grew closer to her, she realized how absolutely huge he really way. She had noticed before, but the sight of him charging straight for her... It gave Harper a bad case of the nerves. She had done well up until this point to keep her emotions at bay and stay calm, but when the boulder of a man was near her, she felt her heart drop into her stomach. Oh gods, what have I gotten myself into? As soon as Xalet was near her, Harper would go straight for him in any way that she could. Physical contact was necessary for her strategy. In the process of trying to grab onto Xalet, Harper veered around the man with awkward footing, trying to avoid him. She ended up getting hit in the face by the large man's shoulder, splitting her lip open and causing it to bleed. Letting out a grunt and trying to ignore the pain she was in, Harper landed her hands on his shoulders and began to leech some of his Djed. Harper automatically began to feel the alien Djed in her, and with it she knew that she could open and control a portal well enough to destroy the Akalak... .. but for how long would he let her hold on? OOCOkay, I just winged this part of the fight because I wasn't exactly sure what Xalet would do. If there's any problems, let me know and I'll fix it. I let Harper get hurt 'cause I don't want her to seem too strong; don't be afraid to let Xalet get mad and punch her in the stomach or face a few times; she's strong, so she'll handle it. Also, the Leeching will be painful on Xalet, but he should be able to get her off easily. <3