Carth's magical adventure, ROUND TWO, MOTHERFUCKERS!

[Anastasia]

"BEGIN!" the annoucer shouts, his voice echoing. On the heels of it, the woman raises her hand. "Tranquility of the air," she says clearly, the crowd and everything but the beating of your own heart silent.

Smiling at you, she speaks. Her voice is achingly clear and vibrant in the imposed peaceful silence, like a clarion call in the night. "Shall we begin?" She smiles almost playfully, her face only ruined by the sightless, white eyes she has.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat exhales, openly holding his knife in a fist. "You first," he comments, wryly.

[Anastasia]

"Thank you, Carthrat," she says, her good humor evident. Raising her left hand again, she speaks in the silence.

"Stillness of the world," she says, and like runny paint, the world around you melts away, leaving only a black backdrop. Only the red sand is left as flooring, stretching far beyond it's bounds like a newly created desert of blood.

[Carthrat]

"A penchant for the dramatic, I see," witticizes Carthrat, starting to advance on the woman.

[Anastasia]

"Yes," she agrees cheerily. As she says this, she floats up perhaps a foot off the ground.

"Can you defeat an entire world?" she asks, waving a hand at the blackness. Humming, low key waves of energy begin to spin around her - blue orbs of concentrated energy, perhaps the size of a basketball, spinning in a wide circle around her. "This is my reality," the woman nods and smiles almost cutely, her hair bouncing a bit.

[Carthrat]

"A Genius Loci," says Carthrat, shaking his head. "How excessive.."

Hoo. Boy, did Carthrat hate magic.

"But there's nothing I can't defeat," he replies, smirking.

[Anastasia]

"Well then," she says, stretching. "Let us begin!" With that...

"Echoing nightshades all around me, strike!"

From the darkness, a orb whizzes out. It's simple enough to sidestep, though, like it was a warning shot.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat takes the opportunity to dodge around the missile and close some of the distance between himself and the woman.

She probably had some kind of magical protection up, he reasoned, flinging the knife at her to find out just what.

[Anastasia]

The knife flies truly, right at her. One of the orbs spinning around her, however, alters it's path slightly to parry the knife.

The knife and the orb hang into the air, the both fall to the ground, the energy dissipating as the knife falls.

"Nightshades that live in this eternal gloom, come unto this land!" Her second invocation causes a sword modeled block of energy to zoom right at you!

[Carthrat]

Carthrat yanks his own blade out it's sheath and tries to parry the black blade, trying to advance towards the woman as he does so.

[Anastasia]

The shadow blade and the material blade meet a moment, both clashing before the black blade is knocked aside.

Still smiling, she raises her hand again.  "Garb of the night," she calmly declares, the shadows springing out to cover her! They wrap around her body, rendering her invisible to your well trained eyes.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat doesn't pause at all, continuning to walk towards the womans last position, while activating his scanner in one hand and using it to approximate her location.

[Anastasia]

"Anomaly detected."

This is the expected result, although it's showing one large anomaly versus several smaller ones. However, it instantly shows where the woman is, several feet back from where she was standing.

However, you can see a shadowy shape moving towards you, in the image of the woman, from where she vanished. From your sight alone, that should be her.

[Carthrat]

Carthrat flinges his Zippo lighter, waiting until the woman gets close enough to catch the full brunt of the blast.

She's a mage! She'll live!

[Anastasia]

The roaring flame bursts forth from it's tiny cage, passing through the shadowy woman like nothing, causing it to flicker and fade away. It then plows through towards where the scanner said the woman was!

With a flash of light, it hits a barrier just in from of her, the magess's black arms now reaching out and visible in a protective light barrier. From the way it's glowing on her arms, it's a technological personnel shield, much like your own.

While they meet, the darkness all around you flickers, and the silence blinks, crowd noise coming through for a moment of pandemonium. Then, having stopped the fire, her arms vanish, the absolute darkness and silence reigning again.

"Sword of the night, club of the inky darkness, assault!"

Noticably, her calm voice has given way to a note of annoyance now.

Several swords and clubs made of pure black darkness appear, at least seven by your hasty count. They surround you, like a vanguard of hateful beasts wanting nothing more than to rip you apart.