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Reyin didn't have a lot of time to savor his short little victory. Something sharp scraped along his back, tearing through his t-shirt like it was a wet paper towel and leaving a good, six inch-long gash down his back. Were it not for the insane amount of rain, the blood would be easily distinguishable through the tear in his shirt.

On the upside, the pain in his back did wonders to distract him from the pain in his arm. A good thing, too, because he was going to need to use it in very short order.

The pain from the spike was enough to stand Reyin up straight, arching his back in order to try and get it away from the metal implement that was tearing through his flesh. This bought Arian enough time to plant her staff, but by the time she was able to come to a complete stop, Reyin was on the rebound.

"Thought those things were just for decoration."

He set his jaw, shook off the initial shock, and turned his head to get a good stock of just where his opponent was. Arian hadn't made it far, she was able to plant that staff to keep the separation between the two minimal.



"Should lighten up. You'll live longer."

As he humored her with the conversation, Reyin's right foot suddenly moved, taking a single large step backwards, since Reyin had never actually turned to fully face Arian, and his right hand snapped out for the girl's staff.

Unlike the girl he was fighting, Reyin wasn't acting on memory. He simply did things on impulse, acting before he even had the opportunity to conceive a plan. Coincidentally, Reyin's random acts of bravado (or foolishness), drove accomplished strategists crazy. There really was no telling what Reyin would do when faced with an obstacle, and hardly anybody could have predicted what Reyin was about to do, particularly considering he had a flaming sword at his disposal.

"S'what I do. Been great so far."

Assuming he caught Arian by surprise, his right hand was going to wrap tightly around the staff in between her two hands. His weight shifted to the ball of his right foot, he spun back to face Arian, lifting his left completely off the ground as he did so. As he was completing his spin, the sole of his left foot was pushed outwards, aiming to press firmly against the thigh of the smaller girl. It wasn't a kick so much as it was an attempt to establish a base, because as soon as he had solid contact Reyin jumped off the ground with his right foot, using the staff to stabilize himself as he unleashed a bicycle kick with his right foot straight upside Arian's chin.

Sure, there were plenty of opportunities for this plan to go wrong, but it just wasn't Reyin's style to do something practical if there was an opportunity for something badass present.

Assuming all went according to 'plan', Reyin would release his grip on the staff halfway into his rotation, only to land awkwardly on his head before falling onto his chest with a wet -splat-.

Hands down, Reyin was ready to push himself up, not really keen on getting a staff upside the head should Arian be quick to recover.

"AUGH!"

Reyin's arm seized up, inadvertantly pulling on the staff as the electrical current caused his muscles to contract in the most painful of manners. Much like a cramp of the worst variety, Reyin was scared to actually move his arm much more than the position it had been moved to, seeing as how any voluntary movement just made the cramp feel that much worse.

Reyin still followed through with his turn, because just standing there without fully facing his opponent was a horrible idea. He wasn't blind during any portion of his movement, thankfully, since his spin wasn't even a half turn, and his head was able to keep eyes locked on Arian the entire time.

Still, there wasn't enough time now to unleash the bicycle kick. Girl had a reaction time that he must have underestimated.

No time to snap off a witty comeback, Reyin jumped the moment he noticed Arian was using her staff as a platform to launch an attack.

Like Arian, Reyin was no slouch when it came to reflexes either. He'd played enough video games in his younger days, faced off against enough monsters in his adolesence, to understand the importance of a good and timely physical response.

Both of Arian's legs kicked out and Reyin planted the sole of his left shoe against the sole of Arian's right foot. Using the force of the kick as a base, Reyin leaned his upper body forward, pushed off with his left foot, redirecting his momentum upwards and slightly back.

His right hand managed to finally release its grip on the staff just as his right leg snapped up in a vertical kick, sneaking his foot in between both of her legs (if the two-footed kick had her legs aligned horizontally) to snap Arian's chin back with the toe of his shoe, or waiting until the last moment to turn his hips and whip his right foot across his body with surprising strength, smashing the top of his foot against the side of Arian's head, particularly the temple region (if her two-footed kick had her legs aligned vertically).

No matter what the case, Reyin's sudden change in elevation meant that all of the needles went zipping right underneath him, leaving Reyin none-the-wiser as far as the staff's secret ammunition was concerned.

Following his kick, Reyin ended up landing without much fanfare about three feet back from where he had began his little escapade. The fire lining his sword was dying out, though Reyin had no explanation for why some of the grass was suddenly on fire.

"So...any more booby traps I should be aware of?"

The fact that he booted an iron jaw caused Reyin to favor his right foot a little bit more when he actually landed on the ground. Most of his weight shifted to his left leg as he shook out his right foot, followed soon by the shaking of his right arm. Even now he didn't have full control over the upper arm, where muscle spasms caused his bicep to shudder involuntarily every few seconds.

Reyin clenched his right hand into a fist and shook his arm at the elbow, trying to somehow work the odd sensations out of his arm. It wasn't very successful, but at least it made Reyin feel better.

His back felt like there were fire ants crawling all over it, his little acrobatic stunt causing the wound to widen even more, and now, to top it all off, he seemed to have struck a nerve with his opponent. It wasn't like Reyin was trying to piss the girl off. In fact, it was just the opposite, he was hoping to keep her calm and relaxed. Seeing just how pissed she was, most notably when she refused to answer his question with anything but a charge, caused a bit of a frown to cross Reyin's facial features.

"Guess I'll take that as a 'yes' for now."

'Kay, so...elbow spikes, electro-gloves, fire-in-a-bottle, super jaw, what else was there? Waitaminute-

Reyin didn't have any more time to complete his mental checklist. Arian was charging, and he had to react. He waited until the woman was about ten feet in front of him, took a step to his left, and just bolted at an angle both towards and away from Arian at the same time. Whatever he was running at, it definetly wasn't easily seen from the stands. For all the spectators knew, it was just the blood loss affecting Reyin's vision.

The closest Reyin got to Arian, unless she changed her path, was going to be about five feet. Easily within range of her staff, but not much else.

It was only when Reyin got closer to the object of his desire would people actually be able to follow his gaze and notice the discarded bow laying in the mud, nearly covered by water by this point.

Kind of a horrible idea on Reyin's part, though, considering how he didn't even so much as look at Arian as the two ran past each other.

Whatever he had planned with that bow, it must've been pretty awesome in his head.

"WHOA-OOOF!"

Reyin didn't really manage to keep himself from tripping, but he wasn't exactly trying to either. He knew it was coming, Arian had already shown that she wasn't going to be very merciful, and it'd be silly to assume anyone else would pass up on such an easy target. Nope, Reyin ate it, and ate it hard. He landed on his chest first, then slammed his face into the mud, skidding the rest of the way to the his intended target, kicking up a large amount of grass, mud, and water in his wake.

As he slid however, his right hand managed to snag ahold of the bow he had been running after. The weapon was tucked tightly to his chest, hopefully hidden from view thanks to all of the flooding. Reyin's left arm had also ended up underneath his torso, though thankfully the sulfuric mixture had long since burned itself out, leaving Reyin with little more than a warm sword laying flat against his chest as he finished his slide.

Arian was about four feet away when she jabbed down with her staff towards his head, about which time Reyin began rollingl to his left, catching the edge of the staff against his temple in the process. His vision swam for but a moment, followed by a brief wave of nausea, but Reyin had banked too much on this already. He wasn't going to stop now, and, in testament to his excellent abdominal conditioning, Reyin sat halfway up as though he were doing a situp. His bow was now in his left hand which had the weapon raised as though it were ready to fire. That was pretty silly though, everyone in the stadium knew Reyin hadn't brought his arrows. Then attention would be brought to the sword he now held in his right (or at least, somehow managed to balance between two fingers), bowstring pulled taught, and the pommel of his longsword nocked as though he were preparing to fire an arrow.

Wait, what?

Oh yes, Reyin was very serious. And with a wink, Reyin loosed the sword and let it fly towards Arian's left shoulder. Normally this would be a horrible idea, but Arian wasn't more than six feet away, just outside of stabbing range, but well within...uhh...firing range?

Whether or not the sword actually struck its target, Reyin would roll back onto his shoulders, then kip up to his feet, still holding his bow with his left hand. He would have tried to rush in, close the gap and try to capitalize on what would have been at least the surprise factor of having a sword-turned-arrow fired at you.

Reyin stopped, shook his head, and started slamming the base of his palm against his forehead. Something was wrong, and that blow to the head from the staff (which had also resulted in a small laceration along his brow) was probably responsible.

What seemed to be the problem?

Reyin couldn't get the opening instrumental from Journey's Separate Ways out of his head.

Now, Reyin had a good vertical jump. He could rival most basketball players his age in that category, but there was no way in hell he was capable of jumping forty-two inches from a standstill. Couple that with the fact he was still trying to figure out why a classic rock single was still banging away against the inside of his skull.

Still, couldn't fault the guy for trying when his legs coiled and he sprung into the air. Reyin could clear just under thirty-five inches with his vertical leap, a true sign of a gifted all-around athlete like Reyin himself was. As he jumped, he tucked his knees in towards his chest, trying to get as much of his body out of the way of the flaming things as much as possible.

Unlike last time, Reyin didn't have something to spring board off of in the middle of the air. The lower half of each shin was basically pelted with flaming needles. When Reyin landed he nearly fell over, not expecting the needles to actually be three inch long spikes that, well, also happened to be on fire.

On the bright side, at least he didn't have to worry about bleeding from those wounds, since the fire cauterized them rather quickly. On the downside, his legs were now on fire.

"Nngh..."

Reyin hobbled a little bit, taking a small amount of time to gauge just how much damage had been done to his legs. Too much to consider fancy acrobatics, and with every passing second, as the fire continued to burn away at his legs, he considered just giving up on standing altogether. His concerns faded shortly, because for some reason, that music was even louder now. And when he opened his mouth to talk...

"Here we stand..."

Wait, that's not right.

Reyin's right hand moved to grasp the hunting knife at his waist, freeing the only bladed weapon left in his arsenal as he stepped, or more accurately, stumbled, a step backwards and to his left. The tip of the short sword came dangerously close to Reyin's body, slicing through the front of his shirt cleanly and leaving a thin red mark against the bare flesh on the very front of his chest.

"Worlds apart hearts broken in two, two, two~"

Apparently I'm singing now.

At least Reyin had something comparable to a decent singing voice, or this really would have pissed Arian off. No time to think about his spontaneous concert, Reyin was stepping back in, switching the grip on his knife and stabbing down towards Arian's right hand just as it was completing its slash. It was a quick little move, just intended to do enough damage to disarm the girl instead of piercing clean through the appendage.

"Sleepless Nights..."

Reyin retracted his knife and took a couple of hobbling steps backwards, obviously still reeling from the damage his shins had taken on account of the needles and not wanting to press any sort of advantage the stab might have given him.

"Losing ground I'm reaching for you, you, you~"

Dammit, this song isn't even good for a fight.
((Edit at 9:17 PM on account of me being retarded.))

Boy she was maaaaaaaad~

Just what Reyin had wanted, really. He could have done without having the strange compulsion to sing, but Reyin's plan had worked to perfection somehow. An angry opponent was a predictable opponent. Sure, it was like prodding an angry snake, but at least Reyin had removed all doubt about whether or not this snake was going to bite.

With Arian angry and Reyin somewhat delirious, things were going to get interesting, and in a hurry.

"Feelin' that it's gooooooooooooooooone~ can't change your mind"

She struck before Reyin's stab could even be retracted. She was a quick little bunny, but with his bow at his side, all Reyin had to do was turn the weapon and 'punch' upwards. Some luck was on his side with the timing, but Arian's punching hand slipped right through the gap between bowstring and shaft, and managed to pierce his thigh, but not nearly to the extent that she had been hoping.

The puncture wound was only a couple of centimeters deep, hardly as deep as Arian would have liked before the bowstring pulled taut and ripped the knife right back out of Reyin's leg, carrying Arian's left arm back up with it.

His initial hope of being able to punch Arian square in the face was kind of shattered, though, since the woman decided to crash right into his upper body immediately following her stab, causing Reyin's right arm to be pinned in between their two bodies.

The situation could have been better, but Reyin would have to make due with what he had.

"If we can't go oooooooooooooooooooooon~ to survive the tide. LOVE DIVIDES! Some-"

He snapped up with his left knee, driving the joint just below Arian's sternum, pushing the air right out of her lungs, hoping to cause her to keel over from the force of impact.

"-day, Love will find you."

Reyin tucked his head, and hopped forward and up with his right knee, breaking the rhythm of his song by hissing with pain as the needles embedded in his lower leg shifted from the contraction and relaxation of the muscles there. Reyin didn't need much room though, it was enough of a hop to get Reyin just enough room to perform a half-assed flip, landing his shoulder blades against Arian's back and effectively rolling across her back to land. No longer were the two fighters chest-to-chest, but they were now back to back.

"Break those..."

Reyin's left hand released the bow, as he had performed this stunt, and immediately upon landing his right spun the knife in his hand so that he held the hunting knife in a reverse grip, only to turn and plunge the entirety of the hunting knife into the bicep of Arian's left arm.

"...chains that bind you!"

God I hope we're not miced up.

"GUH!"

Reyin hadn't expected a foot to slip behind his already-compromised right leg, let alone sweep and attempt to drop him flat on his face. Reyin reacted surprisingly well, or...maybe not so well, depending on who you were asking.

His right leg split backwards, causing Reyin to drop straight down. The only thing saving Reyin from a very unflattering faceplant being that his left heel shot forward, causing Reyin to do the splits and tearing a hole in the bottom of his athletic shorts as his pelvic region actually bounced off of the turf.

"One night, will remind-"

"AGH!"

The reason for his scream was rooted in the fact that, as soon as he had his manhood threatened by the splits, a spike pierced through the bottom of his ear lobe and ripped part of the way through his cheek, missing his back by the virtue of him suddenly changing elevation.

"you..."

His head tucked forward, at the very least freeing his ear from the spike just in case Arian was going to get a nasty streak.

"How we touched and went our Separate Ways!"

Reyin's right hand slipped backwards, grabbing a handful of the needles that had stuck into his shins courtesy of the staff earlier. He ripped the needles out, causing several squirts of blood as the previously cauterized wounds were ripped back open, and then threw his upper body to his left, basically flopping himself onto his left side.

"If he, ever hurts you-"

Reyin rolled towards Arian, rolling onto his stomach, pushing up with his left hand in a very strange variant of a one-handed push up, and jammed four or of those three-inch-long needles into Arian's right foot.

"True love, won't desert you!"

After ramming those needles into her foot, Reyin once again shifted his weight to his left, rolling himself onto his back just in case Arian wanted to try elbow-dropping him or something while he was on his chest.

Oh. Hey. Fire.

Fire hot.

Fire very hot.

For some reason, instead of screaming all Reyin could do was just sing -louder-.

"YOU KNOW, I STILL LOVE YOU"

Reyin wasn't exactly concerned with Arian after completing his stab (the action itself was fairly quick, by the time he had committed to it he didn't even know he was on fire), but immediately afterwards Reyin wasn't just rolling onto his back. He was rolling across the field, doing what every single firefighter had told him to do since preschool. For some reason, this fire just wasn't wanting to be put out. His back still felt like it was burning, and all the mud and grass he was getting into the slash on his back wasn't exactly very soothing, either.

"THOUGH WE TOUCHED AND WENT OUR SEPARATE WAYS."

Struck with an idea, Reyin sat up and frantically removed his shirt, dumping the torn and beaten up piece of fabric off to the side and, with it, most of the fire that had been burning away at the soaked thing.

Now feeling better (though some flames still licked at his now bare back), Reyin looked over his shoulder to where Arian would have been, checking to make sure she hadn't pursued him while he played firefighter.

His bare back was a mess, what parts weren't covered with mud were visibly blistered. The huge gash across his back was charred around the edges, the vial seeming to do wonders to at least slow the bleeding in that region.

Depending on what Arian was doing, Reyin would either slowly push himself to his feet, taking time to walk over and retrieve his longsword if she refused to charge, or he'd be scrambling to his feet and attempting to avoid tripping over himself as he rushed to get up before Arian arrived. Whatever the case, he'd keep singing.

"Troubled times..."