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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 11, 2011 16:01:55 GMT -5
"Even at half your strength your formidable by Human standards," Drystan said with a grunt as he felt Clyde's blows knock against the flat of his blade, "but this could pose a problem..."
"My sword is made of a special alloy I created through my research," Drystan said as he continued to block punches as Clyde tested his weapon, "it acts as a catalyst for Reishi. Using Reishi in its creation gives it a harder composition than most steels, and makes it more effective against Spiritual enemies."
When Clyde slammed his hand on the floor, Drystan anticipated what would happen next, and jumped sideways as fast as he could. The spear came out of the ground just as he had expected, but Drystan was still too slow to doge it, and it whizzed past his retreating left arm, leaving a small gash, tearing off part of his cloak in the process. Despite the flash of pain, Drystan still managed to block the incoming slash from Clyde, but the attack pushed him backwards. When he came to a stop, he smiled and looked at Clyde.
"Like I started to say earlier," Drystan said quickly, "you're more powerful than I anticipated, which leads me to believe your power has grown exponentially since Jake last saw you. With so much power already in your hands, and no memories at least of understanding Alchemy, it would be difficult for you to learn that much precision. However, you have enough power to convert one material into another with minimal loss...your power is not Alchemy, but rather a catalyst for it. It acts as an amplifier for a power that is dormant in all humans. You act on instinct and push your reiatsu onto objects, and this makes it moire...bendable, softer and easy to manipulate. The Alchemy you perform is very crude, which is why when you release your hold on it, the energy recoils and the transmutation falls apart."
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Post by Clyde on Apr 12, 2011 22:12:15 GMT -5
"It's true, the fights I have gotten in recently have dramatically increased what I could accomplish with my power. Hou-renkenjitsu has been changing as a result." He listened to the alchemists words carefully, even as he was pushing his spear against Drystan's blade, which held up surprisingly well against Clyde's own weapon. "What I have now has helped me win countless fights. But it's as you say, without the proper knowledge of how it works, I'll never have a firm grasp of how to handle these battles. ...My battle with Kyoshin proved that much. I could only do so much until my powers could no longer touch him." He commented on his power as he moved back from his grapple, swinging his weapon horizontally this time at the other human.
"But that's why we're here. With your help, I can bring things a step further." He quickly changed the shape of the weapon as it came in contact with his ally, turning it into a sword-like shape to better match the blows he would be exchanging with Drystan. "So let's keep moving." He would swing his weapon a few more times at the other human, but due to his fatigue he would be easier to follow and if Drsytan watched carefully could see an opening in his swings.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 13, 2011 20:32:39 GMT -5
Drystan blocked the slashes, and noticed that Clyde was being sluggish, which didn't do much to help Drystan's ego, since he was still barely keeping up with the younger man.
"I'll show you what else is possible when you transmute pure Reishi," Drystan said as he jumped back from one of Clyde's slashes and held his left palm out, "it may be a form of attack your familiar with."
As he spoke, a Runic Circle weaved itself in the air, glowing a bright purple just like Drystan's reiatsu. The circle would be just a bit larger than his hand, and hovered in front of it. After a few seconds, it fired a wide beam of heated light, yellowish in color. The beam headed toward Clyde rapidly, much in the same a Cero moved.
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Post by Clyde on Apr 13, 2011 21:13:11 GMT -5
Clyde's eyes widened as he recognized the condensing of Drystan's Reiatsu, it was very similar as a hollow's cero. He brought his sword of reiatsu upward to to meet with the blast, not currently having the reflex's needed to move out of the way. He managed to hold the blast back for as long as he could but eventually it made its way through his reiatsu and slammed into his left shoulder sending him backward. Despite this, he still managed to land on his feet even if he skidded backward for a small distance. "...It looks like there's a lot more you can do with this than I imagined." The young man commented calmly.
"In my current state my weapons are no good like they are, the reiatsu is losing its solidity under too much pressure. ...I guess this is as good a time as any to try and use the basics of Alchemy. If there is one way I'm going to learn it quickly, it's this way." Clyde thought to himself carefully as he stopped his movement, throwing his hand down to the ground causing a clap to echo in the room. Quickly he tried to send his reiatsu across the floor towards where Drystan stood, and manipulate its shape to sink into the ground suddenly and make him lose his footing. However, the move was slow and would be easy for the other human to dodge if he was paying attention.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 17, 2011 18:48:56 GMT -5
When Drystan saw that Clyde was changing tactics, he recalled how the younger Alchemist had used his environment in battle against the Arrancar, and decided to jump backward into the air, and use Alchemy to condense Reishi beneath his feet, causing him to appear as if he were standing in the air.
"I think the best way for you to learn Reishi transmutation is to start small," Drystan said as the ground where had stood collapsed slightly, "walking on air can be a bit tricky, but it doesn't require anything more than moving the Reishi in the air. Give it a try."
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Post by Clyde on Apr 18, 2011 16:50:58 GMT -5
"Hmm, I've seen shinigami and the arrancar use that technique as well..." Clyde examined Drystan's movements closely, seeing how the reishi moved around his feet as if it were platforms. Well, he wasn't really "seeing" it, but he could sense it like any other kind of reiatsu. "Alright, here I come." He warned as he formed a club like weapon in his hand moving forward slowly. As he approached he would pick up his speed before jumping into the air trying to convert the reishi in the air as Drystan did, but only managed to get it to fit around one foot, causing him to lose his balance and smack his chin across the floor. "Ow." he said rather casually before his foot fell to the ground as well.
"Again!" He shouted immediately raising to his feet like nothing had happened. He moved back a few paces and attempted again, this time getting both to appear momentarily but not enough to run on causing him to just land back on the ground. "Again!" He yelled out once more as he gave it another attempt. This time, though, he had it, he compensated for the lack of control he had by creating a larger radius of reishi around him allowing him to move with it. Not bad for his first time trying to figure the ability out.
"Let's keep going, Drystan." He said as he moved close, finally swinging his weapon at his ally. "I need to learn as much about my power as I can for these upcoming battles."
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 19, 2011 23:15:09 GMT -5
Drystan laughed lightly at Clyde's initial attempts, but smiled broadly as he finally succeeded, by improvising and creating a layer of reishi within a certain perimeter. When Clyde finally managed to get a hang of it and made his way towards Drystan to swing his weapon at the Alchemist, Drystan decided it was time to a change of weapon, and turned his sword into a golden spear in a flash of violet colored light. He would jump backwards and further into the air as the weapon changed, and when it was done, he made a slashing movement at Clyde's weapon to get things started. "You're pretty good at this for someone without the Vision." Like this but obviously golden. |
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Post by Clyde on Apr 20, 2011 16:15:54 GMT -5
Their weapons collided causing a small amount of reiatsu to burst out of their weapons like sparks. The two would exchange blows for a few minutes, Clyde changing his weapon into the normal spear of energy that he used making the two clash with similar weapons. Clyde managed to move with Drystan even if he had some difficulty keeping the reishi at his feet. The two would be moving across the room without touching the ground, and with each attack it seemed the human was getting better at moving despite his lack of knowledge.
All of his battles and experiences up until now had trained his body and reiatsu to very high levels of power. He had merely lacked the knowledge to use his abilities to its fullest. Now that he was learning, it was easier for his body to adapt thanks to his abundance of energy. Jumping back from their clashes, he swung his weapon up and then down vertically, yelling "Crescent Slash!" This caused a wave of reiatsu to separate itself from the spear and move towards Drystan. Meanwhile Clyde released his weapon and quickly placed his hand to a nearby pillar, sending his energy from the pillar to the floor right underneath Drystan. He'd use alchemy on it, causing it to rise up like a platform and push him towards the attack.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 20, 2011 22:31:40 GMT -5
Drystan quickly released his hold on the reishi beneath his feet and dropped below where the attack was heading for. When he saw that Clyde meant to use his surroundings to push him, Drystan smiled, and pointed his hand at the rapidly rising pillar of stone. When his hand came into contact with it, there was a flash of violet light, and the pillar parted around him, only to join up again above him. As the pillar continued to move up, Drystan would stand in the space he had made, and smile at Clyde.
The crescent shaped blast of energy hit the pillar, which crumbled at the top and came to a halt, with Drystan perfectly unharmed. "Experience really is the best teacher," he said with a laugh, "and you are a phenomenally bright student."
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Post by Clyde on Apr 21, 2011 13:57:45 GMT -5
"Thanks for the compliment, you're a pretty good teacher yourself." He said sincerely to Drystan with a light bow to of his head, "However I wouldn't laugh off that attack so soon..." He paused for a moment as his reiatsu flared again, bringing attention back to his hand that was still pressed against the wall.
"I haven't moved my arm." It's reiatsu was still surrounding the area Drystan had now encased himself in. As he revealed the simple fact the portion that remained around Drystan would change shape and move to constrict around his lower half.
"Here I come!" He warned as his hand left the wall, surprisingly leaving the shape of the floor as he left it. It did not return to its original form. He then ran towards Drystan reforming his spear preparing to swing it across his chest with the blunt side of it.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 21, 2011 14:22:14 GMT -5
Drystan swore lightly in surprise as Clyde used Alchemy to constrict his legs. His mind worked faster than most budding Alchemists, and that was saying something. This guy really was just full of surprises.
"And I wouldn't assume a victory so easily," Drystan said as Clyde ran toward him, "if you know to the very last detail what was done, Alchemy can undo nature itself."
Placing his hand on the stone that now restricted him, Drystan pulsed his reiatsu into it, and had the entire pillar he was rooted to begin to descend rapidly, the blunt end Clyde's spear narrowly missing Drystan's head as he moved downward. When it had reached a certain height, the pillar stopped descending, and suddenly a spike would come out of the top aimed at Clyde, while the stone around Drystan's leg reformed into a set of stairs that led up to the spike.
"I may be much slower than you," Drystan said as he began to run up the stairs, "but Alchemy is still my territory. You won't best me that easily."
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Post by Clyde on Apr 21, 2011 14:50:09 GMT -5
Clyde looked surprised as the spike came up towards him, looks like Drystan was more than prepared for his attack. Clyde even began to think he could give Virgil a run for his money, not because their strength was close to each other, but because he could use his powers so well.
As the spike came towards him he managed to create the reishi at his feet to stop his descent into it. Narrowly avoiding getting cut by it. He dipped down a bit though, breathing in quickly from exhaustion. His body was still hurt from his previous battle and doing quick movements like that were putting a lot of strain on his body.
"You sure do a good job of changing the tides of an attack." The boy complimented as their weapons met with each other, clashing once again. "You were clearly trained to be an expert in your field." The human swung his weapon several more times at Drystan as the two conversed, moving forward with each strike to try and push him off his stair case.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 25, 2011 19:24:56 GMT -5
"I'm the Flash Alchemist," Drystan said as he barely matched Clyde's blows, "my fighting style-Flash Alchemy-gets its name from me not the other way around!"
When he was finished talked, Drystan suddenly jumped off the stair way, plummeting toward the ground. About 5 feet from the ground, he would stop himself with Reishi in the air, and hold his left palm facing upward at Clyde. Suddenly a large runic circle comprised of violet colored light would appear in the air, as a burst of flames shot out of it toward the descending Clyde.
"A fast paced fighting style of Alchemy designed by the fastest minds in Scientia Libertas," he shouted with a smile as the flames roared, "Senkou-Renkinjutsu in Japanese, Alclistemy in Celtic. My Flash Alchemy won't be so easily beat!"
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Post by Clyde on Apr 26, 2011 13:15:00 GMT -5
Clyde, descending from his attack to follow Drsytan, held his spear vertically in front of him as he came towards the ground. As the fire got close the spear's shape expanded and changed to form around the front side of the boy's arm nearly instantly, becoming closer in resemblance to a tower shield that completely covered the boy from head to toe. As the fire hit the tower shield it would move around it, narrowly passing the boy's shoulders which felt the heat pass by.
"It's very formidable, and your intelligence with it makes you a very dangerous opponent. Where you lack in sheer power like most enemies I've fought you more than make up for with the mastery over your art." The boy complimented as he swung the shield against the fire, causing it to disperse. As he swung it to his side it's shape returned to that of the spear just as he came in front of the alchemist. With a downswing he would move his spear to strike at Drystan from the air. "But I will best it, if that's what it'll take to master my power!"
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Post by Drystan Deverell on Apr 29, 2011 20:38:37 GMT -5
"Alchemy isn't so much about power," Drystan said as he used the Reishi in the air to slow Clyde's attack, "as it is about balance."Jumping back after he had slowed Clyde's attack, Drystan turned his spear into a round buckler like shield that curved slightly, like a bowl, and split off some of the metal to make a short sword. "Everything you do with Alchemy is compensated. Every positive has a negative. If you can recognize that balance, you can take advantage of it."
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Post by Clyde on May 2, 2011 19:39:42 GMT -5
Clyde's eyes narrowed in focus. "...Every positive has a negative." He repeated as he brought his right arm up, pointing his spear at Drystan. Collecting his reiatsu around his arm he jumped forward and would strike at his allies sword and shield, causing the two to clash several times once more. After a few more blows were exchanged between the two he would jump backward and retract the reiatsu spear to form around his hand which he then placed to the ground.
Trying to build off of the information Drsytan was teaching him, instead of changing the shape of the floor beneath his opponents feet, he tried instead to remove a component of it with his reiatsu. The ground beneath Drystan's feet would begin to glow and turn into a paste like substance that if he stood in would cause him to start sinking into it. Clyde was attempting to use his power to break down the concrete into it's original form before it hardened. With a tightening of his hand, he would then attempt to return it back to its solid form and encase Drystan up to his arms in the concrete.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on May 4, 2011 15:17:19 GMT -5
Drystan was surprised with Clyde's quick learning, and as he began to sink into the concrete, he used Reishi to push himself up, but by the time Clyde had hardened it, Drystan had only managed to get down to his knees out of it.
"Ingenuity is a good thing," Drystan said hiding behind the shield and placing the hand with the sword on the ground, "but when you know the balance of how something works, you can skip a few steps in between."
As he spoke, there would be a flash of violet light, and concrete would shoot up around Clyde, not liquid, but solid flowing like liquid. Drystan was moving all the particles one at a time, instead of removing some and altering the remaining and putting them back. This quickened the reaction, doing what Clyde had done to him much faster.
As the concrete rose around Clyde, it began to recede around Drystan, and by the time the concrete was up to where Clyde's arms would have been if he didn't escape, the Flash Alchemist would be standing in a pit just a bit taller than he was. He placed his hand on the wall of the pit, and used Alchemy to make a tunnel, which he ran into, sealing the entrance. When the entrance was sealed, he used Alchemy to make several small holes around the ground below Clyde, some of them being air holes that led to the tunnel, others just random to throw Clyde off.
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Post by Clyde on May 5, 2011 13:52:00 GMT -5
Clyde kept his head right where it was and with a burst of his power created a wave of reiatsu that collided with the concrete that raised around him. With a flash, Hou-renkinjistu broke down the concrete into reiatsu which Clyde formed around his arm creating a swirling mass of gray reiatsu around it from his elbow to his fingertips. "A little too close..." He sighed to himself, lifting his body up slowly due to how sore his body currently was. His eyes looked around for Drystan, but noticed that the other human had somehow vanished.
Looking over at the holes in the ground he realized that Drystan had buried himself underground, leaving holes for air as he went by. The human boy looked carefully at the holes and lowered his arm towards them before releasing the swirling energy that he had around him. In a flash, several tendrils of reiatsu ripped out of his arm like branches of a tree, growing and dividing into the holes around him. Each one would follow the paths downward, aiming to flood Drystan out of hiding.
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Post by Drystan Deverell on May 8, 2011 17:22:30 GMT -5
Drystan was waiting for Clyde to make a move, and when he saw the light coming down from his air holes fade, he knew what was happening. Placing his hand on the ceiling of his tunnel, he surrounded himself in a concrete box, stopping Clyde's reiatsu attack from reaching him. He turned his sword and shield into a pair of metal gloves, which were perfectly fitted to his hands. When he heard the reiatsu smash into the side of his box, he used the transmutation circle on his left palm to weave a circle of light in the air, aiming to send the fight now. Beneath Clyde would erupt a coffin of heavy iron, encasing the young Alchemist, then closing at the top, with a single slit for him to see out of. Drystan would surface in front of the box in a flash of violet light, just as a series of iron spikes would jut out of the inside, none of them aiming to impale Clyde, but only to leave one or two small scratches on his arms and legs. "This is what they call a 'checkmate' in chess," Drystan said looking into the eye hole smilingly, "never did like the game much, but its a good intellectual exercise." |
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Post by Clyde on May 9, 2011 16:54:05 GMT -5
Clyde wasn't exactly surprised to see Drystan create some form of retaliation at his feet considering the similarity of their power. Instead of manipulating his own power, Clyde should have manipulated the floor instead to trap the alchemist instead. Unfortunately for the human, his reaction time was slow and he had little time to prepare himself for the sudden reveal of this coffin like shape surrounding his body. Iron spikes made from the same material as the coffin would moving around the inside of the structure, cutting the boy in a few areas.
"Chess? I've never heard of it, but I'll take your word for it." The young man answered calmly from within the coffin, taking in slow breaths from his exhaustion. from the outside, the iron maiden would glow a gray color before dispersing into light revealing Clyde within it. He fell to one knee as he released himself, however from exhaustion. "I think that's as far as I can go right now anyway, I need my body to be able to recover." he reasoned, conceding defeat to the alchemist.
He moved his body into a sitting position, being close to the floor already. "There's a lot to my power I never knew about, Drystan, and I thank you for helping me learn the basics of alchemy..." There seemed to be hesitation in his voice, "But there's something more to this, more to Hou-renkinjitsu, I know there is." the human lifted his right arm and looked at carefully as energy cackled around it. "When I fought that espada Kyoshin, something happened. I was reaching for so much reiatsu that I came across something...different from all of this, all you have been teaching me. But...I couldn't figure it out, it was like I had a mental block preventing me from accessing it and when I couldn't I understand it nearly drained me of all my strength." He explained.
"This training has truly helped me understand the nature of my power and alchemy. But whatever I came across in that battle, there's still something preventing me from using it." His eyes looked at his arm with determination, fervor. He knew that even with this training, if he was gonna fight Karzan on equal terms he needed to completely master his abilities. He could not leave this portion locked away; he needed completely understanding.
"I realize we don't have much time until the espada do some major damage...but I must discover the depths of Hou-renkinjitsu, I must figure out what happened at the end of our battle! So I ask you, Drystan, if training my body can't allow me to understand the power being locked away...is there some means of training my mind to remove this mental block? Perhaps some form of meditation?" He posed the question with some significant weight in his voice.
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