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Mysterious cloaked guy
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A vast barren field was all that remained.
Once, here, in the endless plains, life had flourished. A rolling, neverending infinity of green. Back then, creatures of nature had thrived, brought forth into existence, lived their inevitably short lives, and died, ever cycling through the circle of life.
Such a pity, then, that it would abruptly stop so suddenly, so soon.
The figure stepped forward, his tattered gray cloak fluttering slightly in the light breeze, practically all that remained of mother nature's reign here. The ground was dry, cold rock, cracking slightly with every step that the figure took. He glanced forth at the horizon, where the long stretch of deadness continued. Would his adversary come? Had he, himself, been a fool to return here, to fight a long-forgotten duel that had never truly come to an acceptable conclusion?
He shrugged to himself ever so slightly, bits of travel-stained dirt rolling off his garments as he crossed his arms and waited. He knew that, so long as the Juno Knight had learned of the summons sent forth by him, he woud, in all likelihood, come. And so he set imself resolute, ready to finish what should have been completed long ago.
A fight, somewhat pointless to many should they witness it, but one whose outcome would prove a point. Life or death. Existence or destruction. Both children of the driving force of the multiverse, change. Which would it be, truly, that was the dominating force in the game that all of Creation played?
The figure continued to wait, as long as eternity if need be. He would find the answer. He
would.
Shuryou Gospel
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The area became disoriented and reality warped, as things began to settle a white sword shrouded in darkness materialized causing the area to darken. The sword stood there and a faded vision of the white knight knelling down there holding the sword to the ground but then vanished. The sword fell down but made no noise as it hit the ground. Other parts of the area were warped, bits and pieces of a walls and ruins, some things from the previous arena began to show up…
Eidolon X
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I thought I was the only one who could appear out of no where in a full-body-covering cloakupo, make a dramatic entrance with some nice scenic prose, and challenge Excal?
Has this place really changed so much?
Excal
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A figure in blue and silver armour marked with the crest of Creation walked up behind the Mayuri Warrior and laid a gauntlet clad hand upon his shoulder. "He may be clad so that his face is shrouded, but he's all but told us his name. And, I think this guy has managed to get as much right to the entrance and challenge as you and Reako have." And then he walked on to face Shuryou.
"Hmm, do we not have a duel of our own, Emperor?" with added accent on the title, letting his disdain come through. "I should hate to think that this diversion should be enough to keep you from defending your throne and your precious future."
And with that said, the Juno Knight turned to face his old and ultimate foe. He unsheathed the blue crystaline blade of his weapon, the Sword of Creation, the Juno Blade. The Eight Elemental Gems shone with their inner light from the golden hilt as he swung it easily while bringing his shield to rest in front of himself.
"Cyril Shinsei," Excal said to the man in shadow. "It has been too long since last we met in battle. I know your cause for being here, but the Void shall not have this land. Do what you may, this land shall survive."
And with that, he stood ready to recieve any attack.
Cyril Shinsei
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The figure swung around to face his adversary who had just so spoken, this time the faint light in the sky clearly illuminating his face to reveal, unsurprisingly, that the Juno Knight had spoken true. As he usually did. Cyril Shinsei stood and managed, of all things, a perfectly candid little smile.
"Excal Irius Burned," he said, "you do wound me. Without much thought to it at all you have already come to a conclusion upon the purpose of my arrival and that its goal is to make war upon this minuscale land." He shook his head gravely, as if this had been the last thing from his mind. Perhaps it was. Perhaps not. "If the Void desires to consume Creation, it shall be on a..." he paused slightly, chuckling. "...shall we say, grander scale." He spoke with tone that made it appear that the years of realizing his fate and his role had driven the Emissary of Destruction somewhat mad.
"Nevertheless," he continued, "You do know why I am here, and you are here. We came to meeting once, long ago, to settle a matter, and it has not yet been resolved." He raised his right hand in an almost reluctant gesture, and with a sudden hiss of arcane energies his polearm phased into existence. He grasped it slowly, its enscribed runes humming and throbbing with energy as, for the first time for years, it sprang to life.
"This battle may be of little importance on the cosmic scale," he said, "but its outcome shall reflect all of which will occur. As Creation and Destruction itself sends their designated pawns in the game of fates to wage a meaningless little war." He smirked slightly. "And, besides, Excal, you took all the trouble to come here. I would not deny you the first blow." He leaned back, poised into a defensive fighting position - something Cyril had rarely done - and waited for the Juno Knight to strike.
Reako Somner
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"Hmmm, a battle between Excal and Cyril. THIS is something I haven't seen in quite some time. I suppose I will watch, though I don't concern myself as much with this world as I used to..."
Reako's thoughts began dwelling on the going-ons of a world named Gaera... and also recalled the time he spent here.
"I suppose the most I can do is watch this struggle, and possibly prevent any severe damage to this place which it might cause."
SRGPI
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In a swirl of dust, an old warrior named SRGPI teleported in, donning his blue faran robe.
"I haven't seen the likes of such old warriors in a long time...this shall prove to be an interesting battle."
Shuryou Gospel
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The shadow from the sword whispered a sound heard in the minds of those around...
"...Amalgam...Mathais...long ago..."
The emperor was around, but not quite there, as the choas rift left him between realties and time leaving only his sword as his only means of communication.
Excal
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The Juno Knight let his eyes wander over the battlefield, and take in the small crowd that seemed to have gathered to watch the fight. Already three old companions had come from the midst of nowhere to offer commentary on what was to be, as well as the child emperor, who was going to continue with his prattling from behind that sword of his. It all made sense, the days where a duel could have gone by as so much white noise having long since passed, but it grated upon him none the less.
"Sigh, it seems as though our longstanding differences are to be the cause of entertainment for the masses, Cyril. I had hoped that one day our differences might have been realised on a different Battleground, but it seems that is never to be. And so, let us bring an end to it."
With that said, he raises his sword in a salute to the Incarnation of the Void, the one who now stood for the opposite of all that is. And then, using his grasp of Time to synchronise himself with Cyril's attunement with its flows, he leapt forward to engage in some opening, tentative, swordplay. Now moving as quickly as his foe, no slower, but also no faster, he began probing for weaknesses, while hoping to show no weakness himself.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril frowned, clearly detecting Excal's link to the timestream, further evidenced when he suddenly moved faster than he remembered his old adversary being. Not surprisingly, as fast as him. It appeared that past knowledge would reveal little of what the Juno Knight had prepared for him now.
Ah, well, Cyril thought,
can't let years pass and not expect change in the world. Reflexively, while he mused upon this, his polearm and Excal's sword clashed and exchanged blows, the singing of steel vibrating throughout the arena - a sort of opening flare to the commencing battle. With now equal agility and reflexes, Excal gained the offensive hand, but Cyril was surprisingly adept at parrying and deflecting off his attacks. After all, ungodly speed had been his tactic for a long time, and while the Juno Knight may now be equally quick, he did not have the decades of training that Cyril had to effectively utilize his newfound advantage. One that would be stripped bereft soon, rendering the point moot.
Reaching back into the depths of the Void, Cyril silently, with an almost invisible flick of his hand in the midst of fierce swordplay, sent a torrent of destruction energies focused on Excal's aura. Fortunately, the effect desired was simple, and thus produced results almost instantaneously. With that, the void energies quickly lashed away at the ties from Excal and the timestream, effectively dispelling the effect. At the same time, he focused the remaining energies he had drawn into a buffer upon himself, rendering future attempts to attune or probe his aura difficult - at least for a while.
Timing this with a clang of their weapons, Cyril suddenly went on to the offensive with his speed advantage regained, unleashing a flurry of blows to overwhelm his opponent.
Shuryou Gospel
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As Cyril sensed out Excal's aura, another force with the same pattern aura yet slightly twisted came into his mind. As the timestream came apart the emperor who had been trapped become visible again.
"Life... This place is filled with the light of hope, my powers are diminishing... I need to recooperate..."
The emperor took his sword and walked wearly away and seemed to fade into a nearby shadow.
"I will continue to watch, wait, plan, and ultimalty conquer this land. Knowledge is power, and I will choose when the next battle for the world will take. For now, Excal's soul seems to be an intriguing part to explore while I have it."
Excal
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Excal could feel his resonance with Cyril fading away as his Void energies washed over the Juno Knight, but he held back in a defensive pose and concentrated on the link, managing to hold it together. He repressed a smile as he saw Shinsei charge towards him, expecting a rather sluggish foe now, and Excal saw no reason not to oblige. Trying to hold down his reaction time, he relied on his shield to hold back the brunt of the assault, trusting to his blade and his scrambling dodges to avoid the worst of it, allowing a fair number of minor blows to land until he saw an opening. Then, taking advantage of his speed, he lashed at Cyril's torso as quickly as he could, hoping to catch him off guard, and score a telling blow.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril continued to press on the offensive, attacking rapidly with his polearm. As expected, Excal slowed down, changing to the defensive, but even as he struck he felt something was wrong... subtly, he felt Excal's aura shift, and realized that despite his buffer the Juno Knight had managed to reachieve the previous affect. This realization came a bit too late as Excal suddenly thrust up with a burst of speed, aiming at his waist. Cyril, unbalanced from in the middle of a fighting stance, was only barely able to deflect off the blow with the lower tip of his polearm, barely warding off the sword plunging deeply into him. As it was, it hit his mithril mesh and pierced in, albeit in a non-vital area.
Annoyed at having been caught off-guard at his own game, Cyril quickly dropped his polearm for greater momentum and struck out with his free hand, armed with the cestus, directly at Excal's chest. The movement would be quick, a simple counter, and with luck would tip the odds in his favor. He noted to fall back and recall his polearm after striking, while beginning to draw the beginning eddies of a spell into his mind.
Excal
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The Juno Knight saw the cestus heading towards his chest, but wearing plate mail makes such attacks not really worth guarding against. And so, he halfheartedly tried to knock the blow aside with his shield while he attempted to take advantage of Cyril's having dropped his weapon by raising his left arm and trying to smash Cyril's face in witht he pommel of the Juno Blade.
The attempt done, he leapt back, allowing space to warp around and behind him to carry him much further than usual, though the passage was choppier than it usually was. Once he was settled down, several yards away from his opponent, Excal decided to see what his situation was, and sit on the defensive for a bit. And it was in that quick check that he realised the true purpose of Cyril's attack. He could feel the tain of the Void upon him, and realised that he had been hit with a Dimention Lock, an odious skill Cyril had used on him before which would prevent him from teleporting in any way, shape or form. And now he'd have to figure out a way to dissolve it, or lose a valuable option in the fight.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril allowed himself a small smirk as his attack hit home. As expected, Excal didn't really try to dodge such a simple counter, especially one that would normally be passed off as negligible, but in due time he'd find out his mistake. At the first attempt at teleportation...
And, as such, the Emissary was more aware of Excal's speed this time, and thus narrowly managed to dodge the hilt of the Juno Blade crushing into his face simply by moving his head to the side. As Excal leaped back, Cyril did the same, the polearm phasing back into existence and gripped by his right hand. As his feet hit the ground he finished mentally preparing the spell he had begun drawing before and cast it immediately on his opponent with a thrust of his hand.
Streams of ultrathermal energies quickly lashed into Excal from all sides, encompassing into one solid sphere of plasma which then exploded into a massive internal burst of flames as Flare struck him. Cyril paused only a second after the casting to shield himself with his customary Astralic Shield spell, which would reduce most damage from incoming attacks, and then hyper-drived straight to the hopefully stunned Juno Knight, bereft of his teleportation abilities, and engage him in a fierce melee with the upper hand. With the manueverability advantage, he intended to keep Excal busy defending from his attacks, while always having another attack spell ready in case his adversary managed to get a moment's respite.
Excal
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The waves of pain from the Flare spell washed over the Juno Knight as he stood there. But having been in a defensive position, he managed to keep focus on Cyril through it all, and so managed to spot his protective spell, and realised he'd have to deal with it. Knowing also that Cyril liked to take advantage of his speed by constantly harrassing his foes, Excal was ready for the charge that came afterwards, and he readied a small combo of spells to deal with it.
First, he used a bit of Space magic and, in much the same way he had facilitated his own leap back, he hindered Cyril's leap forward, by having the space between them expand. Cyril was still moving forward, and wasn't even hindered that much, but it was meant to put him off stride, and throw off his timing. Excal then used this for a quick one-two punch. Leading forward with his shield, he sent a fairly powerful Disjunction Spell at Cyril's barrier. Then he followed this up immeadiatly with one of his favourite combinations, Quick Hit and Crimson Blade. Quick Hit used a blend of Time and Space magic to allow Excal to move faster than before, and to allow him to cover distances faster than he ought. And Crimson Blade would allow him to draw health from Cyril to replenish what had been lost from the Flare spell.
After charging past Cyril, and slashed at him in the passing, Excal whirled around to prevent any shots at his back, and resumed his defensive stance.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril felt the fabrics of reality distort around him again as Excal pulled some more manipulation on space magic. Deciding that it was time to deal with that before it grew more troublesome in every attack he made, he reminded himself to pull out a rarely-used tool he had had for a while but never bothered to utilize too much.
As it was, traveling at several times the speed of sound sort of negated Cyril really being thrown off his target, but the slight pause was enough for Excal to cast a spell. One that Cyril was all too familiar with, because he had employed it commonly enough, as a powerful Disjunction spell slammed directly into him, too quick to absorb into his polearm. It instantly vaporized the astralic shield he had set up earlier. Fortunately, his equipment was well-shielded from the effects as the majority of the spell's power struck the shield, and his polearm continued to function just fine.
Excal apparently had been ready for him, but he'd still miscalculated Cyril's speed by wasting a moment to dispel. His Quick Hit activated just as Cyril simultaneously slammed into the Juno Knight at full force, causing their attacks to bounce off of each another. He then felt Excal beginning to draw upon some kind of draining attack, but he didn't care, as the Genesis Orb would negate most of the effect, and thus he took the moment's respite to again attack. Quickly regaining balance and again assessing his reflexes, he shot out his polearm like a javelin at Excal while simultaneously casting Meltdown, sending a massive ray of radioactive energies directly at his opponent.
Excal
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Excal allowed himself a smile as he saw what Cyril was doing, casting a ray spell at him. Raising his shield, the Mirror of Creation, he placed it where it could intercept the spell aimed at him.
A mirror works by having a sheet of glass in front of a reflective surface. This allows everything to be smooth and so enable the reflective bit to do so with purity. The shield has a layer of each of the eight elements to make it a force of Creation, but the first two are the reflective Light, and in front of it, a smoothing layer of Order, to make it a potent magical mirror. This is because it was specifically designed to reflect the spells of the Void away from the champion of Creation. And Excal fortified it, tossing on a quick Reflect spell to ensure it could send this potent spell back at Cyril.
The only real hitch as this happened was Cyril's spear. Excal attempted to parry it, but it struck a glancing blow which left Excal unable to hit Cyril with all of the Meltdown. That done, he started preparing a spell of his own, to deal with the Dimention Lock.
Cyril Shinsei
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With a thought, the polearm immediately flickered back into Cyril's arm as it glanced off of Excal's sword. Fairly good timing, as well, because a fraction of the Meltdown spell he had casted was screaming right back at him. The energy from the spell quickly drew into the runic polearm, promptly absorbed.
Damned barriers, Cyril thought as he mimicked Excal, and similarly casted Disjunction directly on the Juno Knight, bypassing the shield - not that it was likely it would have reflected it anyway. It was a rather simple thing to do, but terribly effective. Even as the spell was finishing Cyril leapt through the air, hyperdriving again to seemingly attack the Juno Knight; but this time, it was a feint. Rather than attacking, he appeared about ten meters behind Excal, grasping the already-drawn Rod of Control in his other hand, and directed a massive surge of telekinetic power coupled with a surprise mind blast against the Juno Knight at his back to send him flying away. It was becoming painstakingly difficult to catch his adversary off-guard, but this Cyril felt fairly certain he had managed to score a solid hit. He readied to counter any Space magics Excal might attempt to utilize with the Rod fully ready to use, while prepping other spells.
Excal
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Excal flipped over and his thoughts locked as though a wrench had been slammed into the gears of his mind as the psionic attack hit him. He had known that Cyril had psionic abilities, but didn't know they'd be so strong. Only Reako had ever been this strong so far as he had known. However, his experiences from battling the psionist had prepared him for this, giving him two instincts for this situation. The first was to continue with what he had been doing, which he gamely did. And, the second, to get the hell away so he could reorganise his thoughts.
Calling energy through his blade, he channelled the power of creation through his armour, dispelling the D-Lock and restoring some of it's strength after the disjunction. Then, he discharged the energy in a pulse, a shockwave which would blind and disrupt Cyril at least a bit. Which he followed up with a simple spell. A quick warp spell, destination, other side of the field.
Cyril Shinsei
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The surge of Creation energies slammed into Cyril, and try as he could to evade it, as a shockwave - and a fast moving one - it was somewhat difficult to get out of the way. The runic polearm couldn't absorb even a single erg of the energy, and he found all his senses blinded as the pulse passed through, although no physical damage done. Quickly regaining his bearings with the same psionic training Reako had given him (and mentally thanking his old friend for it, since it had just given him a fairly large advantage) Cyril immediately scanned the area for Excal.
Nowhere.
It was then he noticed that the D-Lock link to the Juno Knight was gone. Damn! That must have been part of the surge... he immediately traced the areas for auras, and found a faint one nearly on the other side of the field when he detected a recent space disturbance.
Teleportation... As it was too far away from him to directly move, Cyril likewise teleported to the locale, preparing to press his hard-earned advantage by casting Haste and several Quick spells before barraging the Juno Knight, possibly attempting to get another solid hit in with D-Lock. And if not, he readied Void Cancel in case Excal began a game of teleportation with him, as he expected him to.
Excal
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Excal's first instinct was to warp out, which he did. The subsequent shock was painful, and he was hurting badly as he dropped into exsistance partway to where he was going. Cyril followed up by attacking once again. He tried to parry, he even used some Haste spells to try and catch up, but it wasn't working, and so he pulled out one of his backups, using a burst of high powered Chaos inbetween them, accepting the pain from it as he blew them both away, and hoping it would hurt Cyril more.
By this time, his mind was finally close to clear, and he began a few surprises to aim at Cyril when he charged back at him.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril kept up the melee, even throwing in some nearly instantaneous Dispels into the mix whenever he caught Excal trying to cast something, presumably a hastening spell or the like. He kept up a constant rhythm, and thus was well into a flow when Excal suddenly unleashed a chaos blast upon both of them, and the only saving grace that kept Cyril from flying uncontrollably off was that his adversary calling upon a base element like that gave him a split second's warning. Bracing himself for the blast, he was still knocked back, but managed to regain momentum quickly as he normally did.
He raised the Rod of Control, and began solidifying the air immediately around Excal, keeping the effect centered on him as to sluggish down his movements. He kept void cancelling handy in case Excal broke out of the pin through teleportation, and began a series of hit-and-run strikes, raiding Excal from the air with his polearm and flying off out of reach with now MUCH better speed, all the time preparing more spells to use.
Excal
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Excal knew he was in no small amount of trouble as he finally regained his senses. His recent attempts at dealing with Cyril had proven ineffective since he had taken that psionic blast to the head, and the battle was now rapidly turning against him. Strengthening this impression was the fact that now Cyril had regained his old speed advantage, and was now heavily intent upon pushing that advantage. Even worse, Excal found that teleportation of any sort could have drastic consequences in this fight. And now he found himself injured, kneeling on the ground, and Cyril was both actively throwing dispels at him and now hampering his movements. Truly, a bad situation.
However, the Juno Knight wasn't totally unprepared. Calling upon Darkness and Chaos, he prepared a nasty little spell and focused it for a burst right in front of himself. This spell ate away at enchantments such as haste and protection spells. It took them, and it shattered them as if they were glass. And, as if they were glass, those shards of spells sunk into the person they were cast on, hurting them in the process of dispelling their effects.
He then sprung up, leaping back and using an Order burst to push back Cyril without any drawbacks to himself this time, and cast a simple Time spell, foretelling, which would give him instinctual knowledge of the upcoming five seconds, and allow him to know where Cyril will strike and to parry it.
Cyril Shinsei
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As Cyril lunged in for his latest hit, he felt Excal prepare finishing a spell that he had begun before as his adversary had recovered from the mindblast. Unfortunately in the midst of attacking, there was little he could do to dodge it, so he instinctually used his polearm to try to stop the spell. The powers of darkness and chaos struck against him, quickly and, being base elements, only a fraction of it was absorbed into his runic polearm, the others striking home. Thankfully, all he happened to have on him was a hastening spell, and so he felt little feedback, but it was dispelled nonetheless.
A burst of Order struck him to push him back, but the Rod of Control hummed, and countered the effect with an equal push of its own, barely causing him to move more than an inch. As such, he clearly saw Excal casting some other spell - a divination of some sort involving time - and shrugged, weaving a disjunction spell by using the previous charge in his runic polearm, and discharged it at nearly point blank range, thinking it was unlikely Excal could reflect it with his shield in time. No need to let the Juno Knight have support spells on him.
Having not drawn on his own stored spell energies, Cyril hyperdrived away and made the best of them. First, he used an Aero spell to knock Excal into the air, supplanted by another burst of telekinesis from the Rod of Control. Then he unleashed Flare after Flare spell on the Juno Knight, the dark flames converging and tearing his opponent apart with their power. With void cancel handy, the lockdown on Excal would be deadly.
Excal
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Excal flipped through the air, but this time he had foreseen the tactic coming, both with and without his ill fated spell. And, instead of falling, he used a levitation spell and used the momentum Cyril had given him to fly up into the sky, while he quickly tossed what he hoped to be a worthwhile aural decoy down to draw off the first assault Cyril would launch at him.
He then used the seconds gained by this to weave a shell around himself, to weaken the Flare spells being hammered away at him. Then, with nothing better to do while he was getting hammered away, he used three small techniques. He opened with Resosnance, then he recast Foretelling, and finally used a small barrier of Light that would take a disjunction hit for those spells, getting dispelled in their place. And, he got ready to recast it when necessary.
When the barrage finished, he cast Curaga on himself, to recover from the damage he had taken and then floated there, expectantly, ready to counter Cyril once again.
Cyril Shinsei
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Cyril merely raised his polearm as he caught Excal in the middle of furious spellcasting after his Flare barrage had finished. Unfortunately, the motion was too late to absorb any of the previous other spells he had casted - none of which he was able to identify, due to currently blasting him wtih Flare after Flare - but it was enough to catch the Curaga spell, sapping Excal's MP and preventing a nice chunk of damage from being negated.
Again, he shot out with Disjunction, thinking that would dispel whatever the Juno Knight had casted - wouldn't Excal learn? - then re-hasted himself, and struck out at Excal in a repeat of his air raids, this time biding his time in preparation for a larger assault. He would wait to see what Excal tried to pull off and deal with it appropriately.
Excal
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Excal was slightly dissapointed that his curative spell had been partially absorbed, but there was nothing to be done for it. He then parried Cyril as best he could, holding his own now that he was equally quick. And, when he pulled back to cast his spells, Excal siezed his chance. First, he chaged his armour with Creation energy once again. It worked to dispel the Dimension Lock, so hopefully it would now work to protect him from whatever it was that ripped him out of his warping. He then covered that as well as his previous two enchantments with another shield, and waited for the proper moment when Cyril charged again.
This time he was fully prepared, and at the right moment he warped to right behind the fighter of Void, hitting him with another Quick Hit/Crimson Blade combination, and then holding onto the haste, and continuing his assault upon Cyril.