Colin's posts

"......." Addison was silent as he heard that.

"I see." he said.

"So I lost." he commented.

"Terrific..." he muttered.

"Wonder how many hunters here are gonna see that as a sign of weakness." he mumbled further.

"Guess the uphill battle got a little steeper." he then sighed.

Ash just sighed.

"Whatever." he said.

-Some time later-

Addison groaned as his eyes opened and he slowly regained consciousness.

"Ugh." he grunted.

"What... what was that?" he asked.

"The hell happened?" he muttered, as he realized he was in the medical wing of the guild, in one of the beds.

"She has a point." Ash admitted.

"It was a nightmare for Kelly as a teen." he said.

"Seriously. Wow." he mumbled.

"If you want to beat on someone, make it me." he then told her.

"I'm the one that allowed her to spar here as such." he reminded her.

"So this is pretty much MY fault."

Ash just pinched the bridge of his nose.

"......I see." he mumbled.

"Fabulous." he said.

"Just..... fabulous." he grumbled, as he made his way towards the ring.

"Dani, you know Emelie can save him." he said to her.

"And you know the special rules enforced by mana regarding death in here." he went on.

"I'm not trying to diminish your feelings or anything, but... I mean..." he then mumbled further, before just shaking his head.

"You REALLY had to pick NOW to go insane, Lily?" he asked the draydin.

"Ohhhhh dear..." one of the hunters said.

"This isn't good..." another said.

"Nothing good ever comes from Dani getting miffed like this..." yet another commented.

A few seconds later, Ash came through the doors, looking around.

He noticed something was happening in the ring, before making his way over.

"Woah, woah, woah, what's goin' on here?" he asked.

The one she had been fighting, Addison, didn't say anything.

Or... do anything. He didn't really move. Or breathe too much.

He just laid there. Silent and still, his eyes barely showing any signs of life, and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

"Holy hell..." she heard one hunter mutter.

"I've never seen Addison lose so badly..." they said further.

"Dani's probably not gonna like this..." another added.

After a few more seconds, the coughing stopped.

And was replaced by wheezing, with the sound of something gurgling in his throat.

Then, he seemed to have a few convulsions where he stood, and looked like he was trying to claw at his throat and chest.

However, nothing seemed to be accomplished by this, and he merely collapsed to the mat, motionless and still.

"SOMEONE GET EMELIE!" one of the hunters watching the fight screamed.

"I THINK ADDISON'S DYING!"

Sure enough, the petals surrounded her opponent, and started to surround him like they were a cyclone.

He took a few steps back, but when he tried to charge forward again, the petals all seemed to collapse onto him, and stick on his body, as though glued to him.

Her foe then took a few more steps back, as the ball of light from before vanished, the few rays shining from between the vines faded out, showing he had needed to concentrate to keep it glowing.

He frantically tried to pull some of the petals off of him, only for some to emit a light green mist, which caused him to start coughing violently.

The vines did, indeed, start to encase the orb and dim the light... but when she could see again, she saw the blonde.

He was almost standing under her.

And then she noticed he was in the middle of swinging his fist right at her, aiming right for her stomach.

'Gotta connect before all that light is smothered.' he thought, as he swiftly brought his fist towards her gut.

The blonde just cracked his back, seemingly violently with how loud it was, and smirked.

"I've had worse." he told her.

"A LOT worse." he said.

With that, he brought his hands forward, and created another glowing orb. But this one didn't fly right towards her. This one hovered in place for a moment, before rising upwards.

When it reached a certain point, it just stopped and hovered... but the glow started to get brighter and brighter... to the point where the light was actually blinding.

The blonde paused as he noticed that Lily wasn't in his field of view any longer.

'CRAP!' he yelled mentally.

He knew he didn't have the time to rip free of whatever was coating the mat, so he had to react fast. Taking a calculated risk, he assumed Lily would be aiming to incapacitate him by hitting the small of his back, so he lurched forward with his legs, and arched his back in a crescent shape. While Lily's attack DID still hit, it hit with less impact than it normally would have, and the blonde used that brief moment afterwards to forcefully rip his feet free of the sticky substance, leap forward, and turn around so he was facing her again.

"Ow..." he grumbled.

The blonde was keeping up with Lily as she circled him... and easily, at that.

However, he then noticed something strange.

'Huh?' he thought.

'I need to exert more strength to keep up with her as time goes on. Is she getting faster?' he wondered.

'Or... am I getting... slower...?' he then thought.

With that thought, he realized it was getting more and more difficult to move his feet, so he quickly glanced down to see what was happening.

"Huh?" the blonde muttered as he looked down.

"Woah!" he exclaimed, as he tugged at the vines, to find that they were impressively strong.

He then sighed and concentrated his physical energy into his leg muscles, and managed to tear himself away from the grasping vines.

"Ngh!" he grunted, as he pulled away.

"Damn." he said.

"You've got some strong vines there." he told her, before firing a brightly glowing orb of mana directly at her.

"Two." the blonde replied.

"The first one is that no killing intent." he said.

"We're sparring, not survival training." he reasoned.

"And we're in here until someone can't stand on their own effort." he told her.

"Beyond that, use whatever you have at your disposal, both physical and mana-related, to make sure I can't stand up without assistance." he said further.

"I'll be doing the same to you."