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Steps onto the would be lake, and bites his tongue....he was cold. The entire forest had been chilly up to here....but this lake was entirely frozen. He furrowed his brow as he remembered the trapper down the path telling him this lake had never been defrosted, now understanding that all air on top of the lake was frigid and colder than most. Being barefoot had never felt so bad.

Biting his tongue, he lowers his arms and motions to his feet; moments later he feels a cushion of warm air circulating beneath is bare foot, supplying the support he needed to walk upon the ice covered lake. Smiling in excitement at his first real attempt at a 'wielder vs. wielder' encounter, he runs a hand through his soft short brown hair. Picking up his golden and ivory staff, he begins to walk briskly towards the center of the lake. If there was going to someone here....they'd be there.

Closing his eyes slowly, he felt the window whisp across his brow and play throughout his hair. As his eyes closed, his mind opened....and he felt across the lake with the wind for all forms of life, in the same manner he did while hunting...looking for something, for anything. He felt nothing, he felt no life sources or individuals, but rather; he felt a desire...he felt a single thought being emitted from the center of the frozen lake: Cold Ice.

He smiled to himself knowingly. He knew this Ice Master had been long dormant from the trapper down the way, but he didn't know how long. As he neared the center of the lake, he watched his breath crystallize in front of him....the golden cyclone necklace he wore with 'Koto' etched across its surface began swaying and shaking slightly, as if swayed by some massive wind...but he wasn't emitting any wind other than beneath his feet. He chuckled then, not a cocky laugh, or a worried one....more of a welcoming laugh someone would give when entertaining guests, although he knew he was far out of his element.

Gulping down the knot that had grown in his throat, he blinked and tried to forget the worry and doubt that just popped into his mind. Running a warm hand through his soft brown hair, he smiled to the bundle of massive energy that had surfaced amid the ice....the Ice Master. "Enjoy your beauty sleep? I've seeked you out to test my own abilities against another wielder...what say you?" he says softly into the wind, knowing that it will carry his message and voice to the distant being.

Chuckling heartily as the Ice Master's words reach him...he runs another hand through his soft hair....then raises his hands as a massive gust swirls around him, flapping his clothing and his hair as his deep brown eyes turn glowing white in the middle.

Leaning down to the ice beneath him, he keeps a wary eye on the Ice Master's whip, smirking at ideas on how to evade it. Upon touching the ice, he charges the air there with heat, creating a monumental amount of smoke and steam that wraps itself around him, keeping him warm and adding a very nice aesthetic touch.

"I, Koto McArdle, purveyor of Air and solo traveler, challenge you Ice Master to a test of strengths. While this may be my first, it certainly isn't my last...whatever happens here, I'll make sure to retell your story: The sleepy Ice Master that was defeated by an Air Apprentice" he said into the wind, smiling as he let the howling gusts he had raised magnify his voice and send it booming over the lake to the Master.

Raising his hands into the gale of smoke and steam, he spread his hands there, forming a long double tipped staff of air and steam, then upon completion, he grabbed at the smoke formed shaft, and lo and behold, it stabilized and formed into that exact weapon, a pure white double tipped staff with gold on its tips. Whirling it around his hands and then around his back, he brought it up to an attack ready stance....smirking to himself.

"Let us begin Master" he said softly, letting his words ride the wind to his opponents ears as he raised both hands and sent a gale at the Master, hoping to hold him back long enough to strike as he charged forward towards the Ice Master, double tipped staff at the ready and a wary eye on that whip. Thoughts about shattering the whip already crossing his mind.

Surprised as his own strength as he watched the Master's shield crumble upon a simple gale he had sent without the slightest of efforts, he almost forgot he was charging at the Ice Master until he noticed large amounts of ice hurling towards him.

Stopping in his tracks his twirled his ebony and gold staff with perfect balance, as if it were light as a feather. Smirking to himself he expertly knocked away the shards of the shield and halted the flying ice orbs in midair....knocking them away like baseballs and superheating the last remaining orb and watching it fall to the ground as water to instantly recrystallize. He felt on top of his game as his muscles flexed and his lips twitched with enjoyment, this was going much the way he had practiced....only then did he realize he had lost sight of the Ice Master...

It was then that he realized where the Ice Master had gone, he had never really stopped 'listening' to the wind and searching the lake for life....now that the Ice Master was awake, his spirit's energy was clearly readable...like a blip on a radar map. He stood looking perplexed as best he could, knowledgeable of the Master behind him...

At the last available minute, and with amazing speed..he spun on the spot like a miniature tornado...emitting his own intense gale and this time, trying his hardest to send razor sharp winds at the Master behind him......as his ebony and gold staff met and clashed with the Master's own staff of ice, he gritted his teeth and growled...face to face with the ice Master "Well Master, things have changed since you last were awake....new strengths and strategies. While you were sleeping like a babe I was training and conditioning...I will win, I must win"

As he finished his words, his hair was flung upward with a gale of wind and a mirage of his staff, looking perfectly like the one he was locked in combat with the Ice Master with, 'swung' towards the feet of the Ice Master......while Koto knew it was just a mirage he had mustered with wind energy, he hoped it would distract the Ice Master long enough to land a blow or two.

Koto's breath crystalizzed in front of him as the force of the two staffs on each other sent him backwards...rebounding away from the Master and breathing heavily.....eyeing the Master warily.

Breathing heavily, his brown hair flapped faster and faster as his eyebrows furrowed. As he tried to formulate words to retort to the Master's words...he fumbled....unable to answer. As he fumbled with his words, so did he fumble with his magic.

As his armor of wind fell away for a split second....he clearly saw the face of the Ice Master.....he clearly saw the piercing blue eyes of Dragon Born. He clearly saw them....and for a split second...they saw him. They saw his momentary doubts, they saw his truth....they saw him. As he faltered, his mind fumbled with pure and complete honesty "I....I must win, because to win means that my training is paying off. If I lose, then my training must not have worked, if my training didn't work or help me grow....then I've spent time for naught." he fumbled out into the wind...his voice accidentally becoming magnified and rebounding all over the lake to come back at him and the Master.

As his voice hit him yet again, his eyes snapped open to a sudden and recurring thought of where he was and what he was doing. His arms outstretched in utter and complete strength as a massive cloud of steam and 70 mph hour wind surrounded him with humming energy....but not in time to stop the Master's claws from entering his furious gale. As he softly moved his staff to the other side of his body to deflect the Master's claws....he softly readies his staff again...preparing for Master's next physical attack....Dragon Born's words still stinging in his mind.

Koto opens his mouth to speak but is in awe of the Master's new form...his Dragon form. As he watched the master he quickly dived out of the way as he landed with the cracking sound of ice on ice....right where Koto had been standing. As he rolled away he raised his hands and sent a gale of sharp winds towards the Master's bulky frame....directed with focus.

As he heard the Masters words....they took hold in his mind. As he ran a soft hand through his flapping brown hair, he smiled and nodded to the dragon form before him, his own staff still outstretched. As he nodded he arched his back and flipped softly backward, his entire twirling tornado of steam about him forming into a single solid ball of energy, which he then shot straight towards the Master with amazing speed.

He understood now what he had been looking for. He had been looking for stability in his training....and the reason he had come here to fight the Master wasn't because he needed to prove his training was working and defeat the Master, but because he needed to continue training and the only way to continue training was to practice. Subconsciously he hadn't doubted his ability, but knew he might not win.....and now that Master Dragon Born made it clear what was needed......to learn from wins or losses....he understood.

No longer plagued with doubt about losing, he smiled up to the Master, and feeling the moisture wrapping around his staff, he glanced down in time to see it crystallize and wrenched from his grasp. As he watched his own staff whirling away from him, he chuckled and raised his hand slightly, smirking as his staff just faded into dust and steam...blowing away into the wind. He concentrated another orb of steam and smoke, sending it whirling towards the Master with all possible energy and focus he could muster.

He now didn't fear losing and as such, the energy he spent on doubt and uncertainty he could spend on focus....and as such he began to think much clearer and his attacks and strategies began to formulate faster than his breath in this god-forsakenly cold air.

As he runs another soft hand through his light brown fauxhawk hair, he laughs comfortably....nodding to Master Dragon Born "Yes Sir...focus has improved" he said softly into the wind, letting it carry his message across the air tendrils.

As he whisks away his final armor of air and stands pulsing with energy, he raises his hands and swirls them in front of him, creating a small wall of air....then, he leans forward and breathes onto the small wall....hoping indeed that this little trick he learned from an old manuscript really does work. As he breathed upon it, he raised his left knee, bent it in, and then kicked at the wall as hard as he could, backing up the wall with a mountainous amount of presurrized air..

As the wall flew towards the Master, it caught up both energ attacks that Dragon Born ahd sent....like a basket would a ball....and traveled quickly back at the Master.

Raising an eyebrow at his work, he smirked and winked to the Master through his traveling attack.....stretching his arm out he motioned with his right arm. He punched the air in front of him, but instead of a fist, it was an open hand. As his hand stopped at the length of his punch, a massive gale swept down from above, and down his arm it traveled into his hand....then as if from the erosion of eons of wind....a sword formed slowly from the wind. A crystalline pure white sword with gold fringe formed first the pommel and hilt...then the blade wrapped in smokey aura.

A true weapon of the air, the sword hummed as it was whisked through the air and Koto beckoned to the Master playfully, his wall still traveling towards the Master.