Quest Connection - VanHale Manor

[Ike]

Ike moved her hand to the mark and concentrated on unlocking this power they had again. Ike brought his hand up to the hilt of his sword. He knew he had to fight soon and he had a hunch who it would be, so he had to take every moment to prepare. He tried to remember how Max hit him and gathered everything he knew about him.

[Deleted]

The power welled up inside him and he felt the door shift then sudddenly sereph-lyns heart started to race furiously throwing off his focus her panic of the closed space, the fury, it turned the gold power black and instead of moving the door he exploded it by accident.

[Deleted]

While the smoked cleared, everything seemed to come back into view. There laid Nero on Maggie's bed while flipping through her diary. Elroy leaning on the exit door and lastly Max standing just a few feet away from Ike, directly across from him. There he gently rested his scythe-sword on his shoulder, raising an eyebrow to Ike. Somehow, someway, Max felt something strange inside him. Ike was somehow different. Other than standing alive in front of him, something else bewildered him. Regardless he shook it off. He still seemed like the same pip-squeak since last time. "Back from the dead, huh?" Max sighed deeply. "This time...This time I'll make sure you stay..." Max cracked his knuckles. "Allow me to reunuite you with death!" Max swung his heavy scythe towards Ike, lashing towards his head. The other two, Elroy and Nero simply observing.

[Ike]

Ike could follow Max's movements perfectly this time, he didn't know if it was him that got faster or Max was slower due to his scythe. Ike noticed the trajectory of the scythe and simply dashed forward, so the blade of the scythe was behind him. He left Sereph where she was. He slightly unsheathed his sword and turned towards the scythe with his sheathe to catch the handle of the scythe and to make sure Max could not simply pull his scythe to behead Ike. "You've gotten slow." He smirked as he blocked the hit with ease and moved his free hand into the pocket of his cloak to grab his dagger.

[Deleted]

Sereph-Lyn spoke a soft word and her chakrams appeared in her hands. She was listening for any movement against her. "Ike," She listened closely and tried keeping a tab on him. After all he did have two loud pounding hearts and heavy breathing from the excitement he felt when he fought. Sereph locked on to it and stayed in a defensive position.

[Deleted]

"Yeah right! I'm only taking it easy on you, rookie!" Max retorted back to Ike. He then pressed a button on his scythe, splitting the weapon into two. Making the handle of the scythe a double-edged sword. The blade of the scythe simply dropped from the separation of the weapon and in the confusion of it all, Max took this opportunity to try and surprise attack Ike. He lunged towards Ike's chest with it and to make it more difficult for Ike. With his free left hand, Max pulled a thin metal string coming from the blade of the scythe, which had dropped from separating the Scythe, towards Ike's back. A two way attack coming at him at once. "You're as good as dead!"

[Deleted]

Sereph heard the weapons mechanical noise. She heard the whistle of the attack and made a move. she whipped the chakrams as hard as she could. "Get bent!!" She she snapped. The chakrams whipped toward them and got all tangled up in this wire that he had interfering with one of the sides of the double sided attack. The other cut through the air toward the voice that was max. "Are you alright?" She called to ike twisting her head listening for his response.

[Ike]

Ike saw Sereph's chakram get tangled in the wire and he used that second to begin his aggression. Ike twisted away from the sword, which was aimed at his chest, and drew his sword while in his twisting motion. As his twist ended, he ended up with Max's sword behind his back. He went with the flow of his twist to slash his sword, with more force. His slash was aimed at the shoulder Max was using for his sword.

[Deleted]

Max gritted his teeth. He didn't want to admit it, but atlas it was true. The pip-squeak he was now facing was on the same level as he was, but how? What was the source of this new power? Max could not allow someone such as him to pass him. Coming back into thought, Max reached high and caught the chakram with his left hand, letting go of the string at the same time. With the chakram already high in the air and close to Ike's sword range, Max simply moved it towards the sword at an angle, hoping to get the sword stuck within the weapon's weird design. With his sword hand, free and open. Max spotted another target, the girl who had thrown the chakram. Max with the little force he could make, threw the sword towards her, while using that force to now swung at Ike with the now free hand towards his head.

[Deleted]

Sereph heard the weapon, but didnt know it was headed for her. She was weaponless now having been unable to retrieve her chakrams and was swivaling her head from side to side.

[Ike]

Ike had foreseen that Max would attack Sereph, and as soon as Max's sword left his hand Ike closed his eyes. He searched inside his mind for the connection he had with Sereph, the trace that went back to her. He kept thinking: 'Sereph duck!' but he wasn't sure if it was working, a second passed and the sword had nearly reached her. All of a sudden he saw the thin line between him and Sereph light up, and he took it as a sign she had recieved the order. His eyes shot open and he saw the punch coming for him. Ike let go the sword he was holding and ducked down just in time. He summoned his second sword into his right hand on his way down and slashed at the back of Max's leg.

[Deleted]

Sereph felt him tugging at the line and then his words snapped into her head. With that she had hit the deck. "Thank you," She thought. "If you can get me my weapons back i can keep watching your back, so to speak." She rolled back to her feet and brushed herself off. "For the record rolling in a dress is not simple." She said at random.

[Deleted]

"Seem's like you are able to predict my moves. So let me give you something you cannot predict or dodge!" Max's body began to protrude a white aura. Max let go of all the weapons in his hand and quickly sprung from the floor and into the air. The whole room was then lit with a bright white light, blinding everyone for a few seconds. As the room seemed to come back into view, max was in between Ike and Sereph-Lyn, punching the ground. Boom! An explosion protruded between them, causing damage to both of them evenly. Tearing clothing, and wounding them. Max's fists had also taken damage, with severe burn marks, but nothing too severe. The explosion was rigged so that it moved in a straight line, so it would not affect the two bystanders, Elroy and Nero. Smoke filled the room with the after affects of the explosion and a shadow showed. There stood Max, with his complete scythe around Sereph-lyn's throat.

[Ike]

Ike got back up from his knees. He saw Max standing behind Sereph holding her hostage. Suddenly the wounds caused by the explosion didn't really bother him that much nor did he feel any pain. "You're such a pussy." Ike spat at Max. This was a low act even for Max, he did not think he would lower himself to something like this. "You can't beat me so you go after Sereph?" He smirked, he realized Max was now the one running from him. He could feel Sereph's fear in his chest and it was feeding the rage inside him. Ike kept a straight face trying to keep his emotions down but it took him a lot of effort. "Just flee and leave her, I won't ask anything more for now."

[Deleted]

Sereph"s heart was consumed with terror but her face was smooth as a china doll again. She showed no fear. Only words swam into ikes mind. "He's got me... I am also really cold... This leads me to believe that my clothing have been compromised and that my body is in an inappropriately revealing position... be honest, how bad are they? And Please save me... and i will need your cloak if thats okay..." The terror was almost overwhelming but her thoughts coming from her mind without emotion were simple and direct. "This isn't good..." she thought to him. She assumed he was going to save her, at least her faith had not gone, it was unwavering.