A suffocating mist hovered over the once green plain and in the sky an almost dazzling number birds circled overhead. As Vua strides purposefully across the now deserted field his enchanced senses detect the low moans of the displaced souls that now inhabit this arena of battle where their frail bodies once lay. He sets to work.

He offers each of them a choice. To pass completely over as spirits in peace, or to join with him and achieve immortality. They ask for some time which he grants. "Afterall," he says to himself with wry amusement. "It is a life-altering decision."

Vua can hear the distressed calls among the crows above and stretches his insight across the Plain. "Someone is coming." He whispers...

Virna stepped slowly on the forsaken land. A poor victim of her cruelt flew from behind her and crashed into a tree. She saw someone standing in the midst. "Hm, A visitor? Perhaps he would like to die like the rest."

Drawing himself to his full height Vua casts a small glamour upon himself.

"Who dares to disturb my work!"He bellows. Seemingly magnified to many times it volume the voice thunders over the field of battle like some enraged diety. shrinking back to a more normal tone Vua says "If you wish to keep your soul it would be wise that you leave."

She laughed, "and what are you going to do about it? I do not fear you, whoever you may be." She prepared to attack. Her eyes glowed red as she stared into his.

With his eyes meeting hers, Vua graciously tipped his head toward Virna before taking up his staff. Gripping the serpent's neck with both hands he started to utter in rasping tones. The snake's body flattened out becoming sharper than any blade.

"Like my pet do you?" Called Vua. "He shall be a part of you soon enough." Then he laughed, a rich basso that belied the purpose of it's humor.

Holding the weapon in front of him, Vua waited on his opponent...

(The first move's yours, Good luck :P ;) :P )

"Fine, I was bored anyway. Killing you should be pleasureable." Lengthening her claws she made the first move by slashing at his neck. She coninued with several hit and retreat attacks while observing him and determining his fighting style.

Lazily Vua turned his upper body allowing only enough movement to avoid the blow. He swung his blade in return only to find thin air.

"She's sizing me up." he thought to himself as he parried a series of fast strike and fade attacks and then countered slashing his long blade in a random series of high and low strikes, repeatedly aiming for the shoulders and thighs...

"I suppose you'll do. Good fighters are so hard to come by these days." She allowed him to hit her in one spot so that it only grazed her arm. She grabbed him and attempted to cut him with her claws which were now dripping with blood.

Held by the lapels of his tunic Vua realises that he is in a very difficult position. In Virna's grip he has neither the ability to dodge the blow or the time to bring his heavy blade to bear. With astonishing pace Vua raised his right arm to meet Virna's crimson-stained talons, trusting to the power of his ward to turn the blow.

Grimacing as the claws create furrows in his lower arm, Vua uses the pain to power his attack.

"Luminoct!" He cried. Upon his command a arc of dazzling blue-white lightning flashes to life from Vua's fingertips, bridging the gap between them...

She was thrown back and hit the ground hard. She stood back up and grinned, despite the fact that she was in major pain, "You may have managed to hurt me, but now you are poisoned. How does it feel to have your life drained away?"

Vua leant heavily on his blade, his legs seemed to be three times their normal wheight and filled with liquid fire. Yet there was hope.

"Clever move, girl!" He weakly croaked. "But did it not cross your mind that I would prepare for such an assault."

Weak as he was Vua could feel his body purge itself of the toxin. With every pulse of blood coursing through his veins he could feel his heart beat harder and faster. "Just a little more time," he thought.

Vua straightened. A slow and deliberate gesture so as to stall for time. He looked across to Virna.

"Unfortunately for you, the task of taming a pet such as mine required me to take certain precautions. A small oversight on your part, I can imagine."
As the last drops of toxin flushed away, Vua raised his blade to continue the battle.

"Very well. I would have been very dissapointed if you died that easily. Prepare yourself to die."

"Death defender" she drained some of his defenses and added them to herself. Extending her claws once more she attacked again, this time it was merely an aversion. As she came in close she quickly shifted to the side moved behind him stabbing at his neck.

Even drawing upon the full measure of his Talent Vua could feel that this encounter was starting to take its toll. With Virna sapping away at his strength he is left with few choices. Using his insight to survey the area Vua can sense several nearby bodies, most of which left as they fell with their weapons intact. He sees it

Taking the broken oak haft in a firm mental grip and willing his muscles to obey, Vua abandons his blade and drops into a rough forward roll. Vua finds his feet and turns toward the attack, summoning his blade and magically hurling the broken spear at Vina's unprotected back...

The spear hit her should and broke through to the other side. Blood sprang forth from the wound and dripped into a puddle on the ground.

Once again her evil smirk returned, "now you will see what you have unleashed," the blood sprang forth into her hand and transformed into a long blood colored spear. She hurled the spear at him. It changed into a red lion just before it reached him and made several attempts at thrashing his flesh. Virna watched in amusement.

Vua dodged the beast's swipe and countered slashing at the abomination with all his might. Vua cursed as the blade passed completely through the blood-lion without even making a mark.

"Should have known better." He thought to himself. Concentrating, Vua took hold of his frustration and harnessed its power, drawing to himself all the malign energy that his anger could command. He backflipped, distancing himself from the beast as he called upon the force of the elements.

Bringing together his outstretched hands, Vua unleashes a gust of icy wind that freezes the blood-lion in its tracks and sends it hurtling into the trunk of a gnarled yew tree where it shatters like crimson glass. He returns Virna's smirk.

"Doesn't that just make your blood run cold." He quips, unable to restrain himself...

She laughed meniacally, "Not at all."

The blood grew hot as lava and melted through the ice. It reformed but stood silently waiting. "So do you like my pet? Would you prefer for me to kill you or maybe I'll just let him tear at your bones limb from limb, slowly and painfully."

"Promises, promises." said Vua. Favouring her with a rare smile that was almost entirely genuine.

Vua Reached into his travelling pouch and withdrew a small blade its handle intricatley carved from a single large tooth. He began to chant, his voice hoarse as opposed to his usual rich basso. calling out his native language he cried.

Come to me through mist and snow. Areon son of four winds." As he chanted his hands once again disappeared into the pouch this time withdrawing a single feather. Still chanting Vua drew the bone dagger across his hand and pressed the feather onto his bleeding palm. He then threw the feather into the air as he finished the chant.

The feather blew away and for a fleeting moment Vua thought that the summoning had not worked before all of a sudden the feather stopped in mid-air transforming into a giant eagle seemingly made of mist. sweating profusely, he met Virna's eyes and nodded...