To kill a goddess...

[Ninmast]

*Command Center*

Three seconds was a lot of time. His gauntleted hand slipped down her wrist to enclose her unprotected hand and intended to wrench it around as he "pulled away" his hand. The motion would likely break her wrist, but he would have unhanded her well within the three seconds either way.

With his visor blocking his eyes, the turn of his head to face the goddess was pronounced. "Carrie, right? Tell me this. What kind of fool is it that has a willing killing machine in the middle of a war and complains because it expects to be used?"

[Psi]

*Training Area*

Bob witnessed the explosion and started to clap, a smile on his face.

“See there guys, I told you it wasn’t that hard! Hey, buddy, what’s your name?”




*Command Center*

Ashal let him get near his hand and as soon as he turned his head she grabbed his, hard. She then turned to the right and threw her arm, as if throwing a frisbee, with more than enough strength to lift Jeff. She might even rip his arm right out of the socket; she’d done that a time or two before on accident. She then jerked it downward in a quick, effortless motion with the same amount of force and strength. If he held on he would either go flying into the wall or be slammed into the ground by her estimations.
Carrie continued along, not stopping, though she did pull back her swords when Ashal moved.

“2”

[Veros]

*Training area*

"My name's John, just had an urge to mimic the results I saw - didn't see your spell though," John began talking before he even began to turn to face Bob, he had no intentions of remaining there if the crowd started to form around him. As long as they were cluttered near Bob, he didn't have too much of a problem with them.

[Psi]

"Oooooh!" He started to move toward John, the others making a path. He patted John on the shoulder.

"So Johnny, how many times?" he said with a smile.

[Veros]

*Training Area*

John looked at Bob as he touched him, Why would it matter how many times? Just stick to the basic truth, might spot a blankly obvious lie.

"How many times? I saw the results just once, and that was my first real attempt at." Here atleast, he silently added in his head, but didn't say it out loud.

[Psi]

"No, no" Bob said waving his hand.

"Explosions, how many times can you make it explode?" He smiled again. Bob was only taller than your average man by about three inches. He wore a simple robe of red silk. When light hit it just right you could catch glimpse of the spells laid in it's fabric.

He was fairly thin from not eating, probably due to him studing so much. His eyes were a copperish brown and skin fairly pale. His dark hair complemented his eyes, making them seem to be brighter than they were. All in all he seemed very trustworthy and had the face of someone who could easily be your friend. He smiled as if he had done it a million times but his face was too young to show the lines of such previous actions.

" You know," he continued with a laugh and his smile, " Boom, boom, boom!"

[Veros]

*Training area*

"Not too many times, I'm not all to great at working with fire magic to be honest. Far better with other types of spells." John said as he noticed some of the finer details of Bob's appearance - seeing as how Bob was fairly close now. His appearance, the slender, pale skinned look reminded John of when he was far younger, back when he was still fairly new at magic.

Considering John was just shy of four millennia old, it was a long time back since he had that build. Now he was slightly tanned, and moderately toned, though with black and red hair and gray-green eyes. Yet, still slightly shorter than Bob, considering John was just about average height.

A light smile crossed his face, in return, despite the simple usage of words to poke at him, right as he noticed the small traces of magic in Bob's clothes. I've to inquire about that later.

[Psi]

*Training Area*

"Hmm" Bob sounded as he looked around. He spotted two dummies in a line with a space of about two feet between them. He turned back to John and pointed at the one on their left.

"Alright Johnny, do that one as many times as you can. Make it a spectacle for the kiddies." He tossed his head in the direction of the other mages who either watched the two or talked amongst themselves.

There were ten of them in all, with varying garmets. Some wore robes, one wore a full suit of plate armor, and another wore what looked like work clothes for a farmer. There was even mud and much staind on them. By this time most of the straw dummies on this side were destroyed. If you looked around, only about four were fully intact. But the wizards didn't need to fear about this, more were being brought in by a small fellow with snowy white hair, pulling a cart. He was coming up from a storage area to the East.

[Veros]

*Training Area*

John sighed, Be an absurd waste of energy. I'll just go with four shatters. "I'll give it a go. Might not be too many times." When John's hand flicked out at the dummy and it became encased in ice, it'd probably quickly become noticeable now that they were paying him attention - he was saying any kind of incantation. It was all mental casting, with just gestures to help guide the energy of the spell. Something he did simply out of habit mostly.

But when he pulled his hand up and the ice fragmented and the sound of it followed, he slammed his hand down, and with another sound of the ice shattering again - carrying of course bits of the dummy he spread his fingers apart. And the ice shattering again spraying outwards in every direction. His final movement was pulling his hand back towards him, and the ice fragments shattered again being almost nothing more than little slivers of ice now instead of the original large chunks as the moved towards both Bob and himself - only a few of the slivers even had a chance of making it to either.

The only other thing that might raise a deal of suspicion besides the lack of using a verbal spell, was the speed he linked the spells together and even the directional control he had over the ice fragments. Though, it could be accounted partly to a mixture of magical control over ice and the air. Using control of ice to make divides in the ice, then slam them instantly by a burst of air.

Probably gonna draw more than a little bit of attention...

[Ninmast]

*Command Center*

Just because he had glanced slightly to one side didn't make him blind, and since he already had removed his hand from hers and dropped it to his side by the time he turned, she would have had to bend down and reach for it, which meant it was a simple matter for him to simply pull his hand away. He tucked both behind his back as he awaited an answer from Carrie.

[Psi]

(Oh crap, I thought he grabbed hold of her hand was gonna yank it. Why couldn't you just say he released her wrist and dropped his hand to his side?! Gah, Ninmy, disregard my post of her Ashal tossing him around like a rag doll.)

*Command Center*

Carrie replaced her swords in their respective scabbards with ease. She looked from Jeff to Ashal.

"You shouldn't let the soldiers touch you; it makes them think highly of themselves." Carrie addressed Ashal. Her voice was cold and sweet. It was seemingly perfect, if not mechanical.

Carries eyes shone blue with the color of the sea but held no life. They saw, analyzed, and transferred information; nothing more, nothing less. No feeling showed in them or on her silent face. Her hair had a sheen to it that made one question if it was real or not. The white strapless gown she wore gave off the same sheen. Various gems glittered along it in a line that wrapped around it several times. Two swords sat on each hip.

There was a silent humming of power around her. Together the perfection of her features, the humming of power, and by the way she carried herself gave the viewer an idea of why she was called a goddess.

“You never let me have fun anymore.” Ashal sighed.

“This one might also be dirty. He may carry a disease that could harm you. I need you.” Carrie’s eyes shifted to Jeff and studied him up and down as she said this.

“Glad to hear you care. I’m going to use him for the event today. That okay with you?” Ashal asked casually, looking at her hand as if to check for any germs.

Carrie turned away from them both, looking back to the balcony.

“Do what you please with him, I care not.” And then she was back where she had stood before, walking back towards the maps.

Ashal sighed once more and shook her head. “You know anything about politics?” She asked Jeff after a moment.



*Training Area*

Bob let out a long whistle and clapped. The other mages followed. They were paying more attention to the dummy than the caster to notice the lack of words.

“Nice control, I like how fast you did that but I said make it a spectacle…Here like this.” Bob said making a gesture with his hands for everyone to move back.

“Welcome to Bob’s Explosive Finale! I’ve got the spectacle you want, no Need!” He addressed the crowd. It received a few chuckles, whistles, and a shout to hurry it along. Bob grunted something about not being appreciated and turned to his dummy. He spread his feet apart took in a deep breath.

“One!” he shouted. And the stick the dummy was on exploded sending the whole of the dummy upward.

“Two!” he followed after half a second. The dummy froze solid and the center exploded, it sent a head flying further upward and two arms to the side.

“Three…” and the head and arms exploded with a flurry of colors, pieces began to rain down.

“and Four…” He turned to face the crowd as the pieces started to pop and fizzle in small explosions that made them look like mini fireworks. Bob let out a long sigh as the crowd cheered and clapped.

“Now that is a spectacle.” He said to John, with an exhausted smile.

[Veros]

*Training Area*

John shifted uneasily at the clapping, but considering Bob was just started up his explosions, no one would notice most likely.

Interesting use of magic. But he looks exhausted. And seems colored fire is a go. When John grinned back at Bob, the one thing Bob would notice - John didn't even look the least bit tired from using his magic to make his own four explosions. Considering the primary difference in the two of theirs magic, Bob's from the energy of their soul and John's from a personal mystical 'pool' of mana - John wouldn't become physically exhausted from his magic more often than not.

"Thanks, nice light show, but seemed to have taken a good deal from yourself though," the last half of the sentence, John had lowered his voice a bit for it.

[Ninmast]

*Command Center*

The ranger turned his head back to the General when she asked what he knew about politics. He had largely ignored their banter. It was irrelevant to him. "I know it is often faster simply to remove the heads of the politicians than to wait for them to accomplish anything."

[raptorman]

A figure dressed in robes of fine black and silver silk stood walked towards the entrance to the command center. The movement was graceful and smooth, seemingly elegant. Those who looked his way often continued to stare till he had passed from site. He like Carrie seemed to emit an aura, though his was not so pleasant of one. His form though fair was not quite so fair as hers and the aura he emitted though faint was one of despair deep and all consuming.

Zaltias had a faint gentlemanly smile on his face. And his slightly blue tinted skin made him seem even paler than he normally would have. He had been waiting for an expected summons from Carrie for he had an individual proposal to speak with he about but no summons had come. He was willing to chalk it up to simple forgetfulness and so he walked up before the command center and spoke smoothly to the officer at the gate.

"Kindly show me the way to Carrie. I have a personal proposal to speak with her about." His voice echoed oddly as he spoke and a slight feeling of alien otherness seemed to exude from it even as he was not actively trying to manipulate the officer on guard. "It would be best if I was allowed to pass my friend."

[Toriji]

"Hah!" Cylox laughed out loud at the display. "That proves it! This place could use some real magicians." He began counting on his fingers, words pouring out of his mouths in what seemed to be chopped up fragments syllable-by-syllable. He held out his hand after he finished. "My only unique and personalized spell. Fusion Break!" A single dummy lit into a large flare of light. As it broke away each fragment pulled back in with a series of mini-explosions that clapped in rapid succesion like the sounding of bullets from a gatling gun. The dummy was quickly reduced to a pair of smoking straw legs. "Heh, that's a spectacle my friend. And I'm hardly the magician my friend Toriji is. You'd shit bricks watching some of the stuff he can do."