Rivals [Takumi's B-Rank Exam - Held by Mura Kensho]

Takumi had received Mura's letter and instantly jumped into action, collecting the items he would need. He was finally ranking up... he couldn't let himself look foolish in front of his old rival. It was finally at a time when Mura and Takumi were equal in terms of magic power... now to figure out who used it better.

As the young mage approached the tower, he saw his young rival standing before him, waiting. It was time for a fight, and one way or another Takumi intended to prove just how strong he had become to his rival.

"Well Mura, here I am" Said the young mage, motioning for his pets to stay where they were for now. He stepped forwards until he was right in front of Mura, ready for whatever challenge he was to be given. His weapon strapped to his side, in a sword form, he let the hood drop from his head so that his face was no longer covered, cloak with the wings of freedom flapping in the breeze. "This is my battle, so Coal and Wist will be spectators, alright?" He would whisper, low enough that his pets could barely hear a word, knowing both would protest to his decision.

"Ascend the tower... challenges prepared... he really doesn't intend to go easy on me.... good."

Takumi looked up as Mura dissapeared, and sighed. Time to get cracking, eh? He was going to show Mura he was ready, and he's wasn't going to let these challenges get the best of him! With one final encouraging look at his anxious companions, he turned and entered the tower. There was no way these guys were beating him!

It wasn't all that bright in the tower, the dim, gloomy lighting annoying Takumi just a tiny bit. With a sigh, he let sparks dance from his skin, illuminating the place a bit better than before. As he ascended, he noticed he didn't seem to be making any progress, the stairs seeming absolutely endless. After about an hour of climbing, he paused, wanting to conserve his strength for the trials ahead. But little did he know the first was already coming... as Takumi sat down for a moment to catch his breath, little balls of light begin appearing around him. They were almost... cute. But they probably weren't anything nearly as harmless as they looked, Mura wasn't going to make things that easy.

He stood up, looking directly at the orbs hovering in front of him. "You want me? Come get me!" He roared, charging with a plan already in mind. These probably weren't all that strong, he could probably take them out with one big spell, but he had to avoid getting hit by whatever they could do. He closed his eyes for a moment and... "Electrical Field!" He cried, a field of lightning forming around him, any of the orbs that touched the field would be damaged a great deal. But it wouldn't be quite enough for him to destroy them completely, he noted, as the orbs kept coming closer. With a sigh, Takumi did the one thing he knew would help him get past. Sparks would begin flying off his feet, bright blue, as he rushed amoung them as fast he could. One brushed his arm, causing him to wince as he felt his power drain a bit. So that was what they did... no matter, as he moved, the sparks propelled him to go faster, Flash Step Kicking in and his speed increasing a large amount. He rushed faster, managing to get past without being touched again.

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He was past! Now to keep going. His Flash Step would wear out soon, time to get as far as he could before it ran out. Takumi raced as fast as Flash Step would carry him, heart pounding as he waited for a ghost to pop out or something. It was always ghosts with Mura. But he wasn't going to let anything stop him, not today! Determination flashed across his face, and any who saw him knew he wasn't going to give up until he was physically unable to move any more. No giving in, no backing down, not today! "I'm not giving in! I will reach the top!"

Watching from the sky, flying above the tower, his pets watched his progress with interest. He was determined to get past the obstacles in his path, alright. Coal smiled down at her master, while Wist watched in silence, both rooting for the boy who had changed them so much from the horrible creatures they once were. Takumi had saved them, and they owed him everything.

Meanwhile, Takumi kept charging forwards, determined to make it to the top as soon as he possibly could. As he charged forwards, he felt an odd presence up ahead. A ghost... has to be. He slowed his pace purposefully, so as not to run headlong into any traps the ghost may have. He was not about to be outsmarted by some ghost, that was for sure!

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Takumi made his way cautiously up the remaining steps until he stopped where he had felt the odd presence. This was it... the next challenge. A strange light illuminated the space here, much to Takumi's surprise, was it a trick? As he pondered this, an old man with a black staff soared in front of him, appearing to be rather confused. "Are you my next challenge, old-timer?" Takumi asked simply, observing the ghost. The ghost turned, facing Takumi now, slightly less confused now.

His physical form manifested itself before Takumi, as Takumi stood before him. The ghost looked at Takumi, noting a fairly powerful magic power coming from him. Takumi stared right back at the ghost, unblinking and unwilling to break his gaze first. "Young mage, would you mind a challenge?" Asked the ghost, watching for Takumi's response carefully.

"This is a rank up exam after all, so it's not much fun if there are no challenges."

Wasting no time, Takumi attacked. A ball of lightning began forming in his hand- his lightning blade, his second most powerful spell, second only to his roar. His Flash Step finally wearing off, Takumi wasn't moving quite as fast as he would like, but fast enough to catch the ghost off guard, landing a solid blow to the ghosts stomach. Any normal Human would be bleeding out, As it was he still put a hole right through the ghost of the old man. Too late, he realized his blunder as said ghost used the opportunity to shoot him point-blank with a fireball. Takumi made no noise, determined not to show weakness in the middle of his exam. Gritting his teeth, he lept clear, already tired of this challenge. He needed to get to the top! "I'm not going to let you slow me down! He shouted with a fiercely burning gaze, determination rolling off him in waves. His determination was sure to be shocking to his opponent, but not to those waiting for him at the top. Takumi would never give up now that he had made up his mind to beat this test, nor would he falter in the slightest.

His next move was going to be a bit more tricky to pull off. The familiar lightning whip would begin forming in his hand, as his opponent launched another attack, this time a water canon. Scrambling out of the way, Takumi grinned. If he were to generate an electrical field in the leftover water... this would be over sooner than he had originally thought. Ignoring the water, as if he hadn't noticed, he lashed out with the lightning whip, landing a hard blow to the ghosts arm.

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Takumi was hardly able to contain his smirk as he dodged back and forth, trading blows with the ghost, using his scythe rather than spells, biding his time until he could generate the field and increase the amount of damage he was going to do to the maximum. It was nearly time... he was going to get past this ghost and make his way to the top of the tower, no matter what stood in his way. As the ghost launched another fireball towards him, Takumi took it, purposefully making it look as if he had tried to escape. Falling to the ground, as if he had taken severe damage, his hand landed in the puddles of water left behind by his opponent's spell. Perfect.

His grin finally spread across his face, he let the lightning spark from his fingers, travelling through the water, all the way to where his rather surprised opponent was standing. The lightning arced through his opponents body, probably quite a nasty shock. His grin widened furthur when he used the opportunity for his next spell, his scythe cherry blossom storm, which would swamp the ghost in razor petals for incredible damage. When the cherry blossoms cleared, the ghost was already fading, a smile on his face.

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"You really are a good friend of my grandson." Was the last thing the ghost said as he faded away with a smile. An expression of confusion broke across Takumi's face as he pondered what that meant. "What was that supposed to mean?" he wondered, pausing for a moment. Shaking his head, he ignored the statement, moving to begin climbing once more. These challenges were too easy... he needed more of a challenge if Mura really intended to stop him. Takumi decided to move a bit slower than before, conserving his strength for whatever awaited him at the top of the tower. The last challenge would be the one Takumi needed to focus on the most, no doubt about it.

He kept watching, half expecting a ghost to pop up at any moment. He wouldn't put it past Mura to do that, not at all. As he ascended the stairs, he couldn't help but wonder what Mura had in store at the top. What sort of final challenge was in store? What was Mura going to put him through before he could rank up? He knew not what was ahead, but he did know he had to keep going, he was not going to fail this exam.

He couldn't let himself fail, especially if all these challenges were various ghosts. He was a NECROMANCER  for God's sake! If he were to get beaten by undead such as these, he would never forgive himself. And more importantly, he wasn't going to fail at any challenge his rival had created. No way was he letting himself lose to Mura, or his ghosts.

As he pondered on this, a familiar presence could be felt up ahead. It was Zirconis, one of Mura's spirits... did that mean he was almost at the top? Or was this another challenge? Knowing Mura, it was probably the latter, better safe than sorry, right? So Takumi prepared himself, still refusing to take out his scythe until the very end.

He approached the presence as he jogged up the steps to where the spirit dragon would be waiting.

"Zirconis. I take it you are my next challenge?"

The dragon nodded solemly, and seemed to be quite determined. He seems like this is more personal than anything... I guess I better be on my guard.

Now was not the time to waste time, so Takumi got ready to attack. It wasn't the strongest attack in the world, but it would work for now, as he created a lightning storm inside the tower, the bolts hitting the ground all over the place. These bolts would only do half rank damage, but if enough hit could have devastating affects to the target. Only 2 of the original bolts hit Zirconis, much to Takumi's dismay.

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His blue eyes widened as only 2 bolts hit, to his dismay. They hardly seemed to affect the dragon, who hardly blinked at the attack as the bolts continued raining down around them. Takumi would have to avoid his own lightning as well, since he couldn't consume it it would still do a fair bit of damage to the young Slayer. Zirconis clearly wasn't all that impressed, as indicated when he opened his mouth and breathed jade shards directly at Takumi. The shards moved faster than Takumi would have thought, catching the slayer off guard as they hit him head on. Winning at the brutal force that the shards had hit him with, he just barely had time to grab for his scythe and block as the dragon attempted to catch him with his claws. The dragon was definitely determined... was he trying to kill Takumi? No, that couldn't be.This was just a rank up exam, there was no way, right? Mura wouldn't give him any challenge he thought would kill him.

"I will not go down that easily, Zirconis!" Roared the slayer as he lept backwards a few feet, surveying his opponent. The dragon was large, and with that hardened skin would be difficult to defeat. But he had confidence he could beat the dragon, it was his magic, after all, dragon slayer magic. He wasn't losing, not today or any day, and not to Zirconis! He was going to make it to the top of this tower, where Mura was waiting. He would not fail! The short man sized his opponent up, who was rapidly advancing, ready to strike once more. The dragon's tail came out of nowhere, bashing the side of Takumi's head and sending him tumbling down several steps. Dimly, as he landed in a heap on one step, he seemed to feel wetness on the side of his head that must be blood. His ears were ringing from the harsh blow as the dragon stood over him, looking down on him with some emotion in his eyes that Takumi couldn't identify just yet.

"Are you finished?" He would ask as he looked down on Takumi, who was struggling to get up. The short man wouldn't answer immediately, but as he stood on shaky legs, he looked the dragon directly in the eyes and gave his answer.

"Not on your life, Zirconis!" He spat as he finally stood to his full height, head now bleeding from a gash just above his left ear. The blood soaked into his black hair, and some trickled down his face as he glared defiantly at the dragon. This was not going to be the end of his exam, not on his life. He had to do this if he ever wanted to be stronger. The gods in his head were screaming now, telling him to crush Zirconis, and to move on, but he had other plans. They did not include crushing the dragon, but rather simply making him see that he would not defeat Takumi. The small slayer charged in with blade in hand, leaping forwards to whack the dragon on the side of the head as hard as he could manage without injuring the dragon. All his strength was behind the blow, though once again it seemed to do very little damage to the large dragon, who, with one sweeping movement, threw Takumi off, roaring. Takumi was not daunted by this, getting to his feet after he had landed in an ungainly heap. This was all part of his plan to assert his dominance...

As he stared at the dragon, Takumi made the next move, once more summoning lightning to his hand. The lightning blade formed once more, deadly and destructive in its capabilities. He would not aim for anywhere too painful, though he was certainly going to make sure this slowed the dragon down somewhat. He charged in, lightning held in his hand and full of intent to disable rather than kill, his attack landed on the dragon's leg, rather than his heart, which is where Takumi would have aimed had he intended to kill. As it was, the lightning still hit the leg hard, causing it to go out from under the dragon in a painful manner. Takumi's eyes brightened at this small victory that caused Zirconis to pause, having hit him only a few times the dragon wouldn't sustain any of the damage for long, but that wasn't the point. The point was to weaken the dragon until he admitted defeat, not to kill. As Zirconis went down his claws caught Takumi's leg, the one with the limp, causing blood to instantly well from the gash it left. Takumi himself let out a cry of pain as he went down too, right next to Zirconis. Dammit! That had been painful, but he was more worried about the fact that it would slow him rather than the pain. That was it! Time to show this dragon what he was really made of. Hoarsely, he commanded his scythe to dissolve into cherry blossoms, which were surely painful as they came down on the dragon all at once, burying him beneath a massive amount of pink petals. The petals would shred at the dragon's resistance, though they weren't enough to kill the dragon, obviously. Next, with a roar, Takumi would call for his undead servant, Argentum. The silver skeleton appeared in a flash of lightning, attacking Zirconis mercilessly as he got up. The skeleton himself also wasn't enough to finish Zirconis, his attacks frenzied, but not for long as the dragon swept his tail at the skeleton and caused him to fall apart from the blow.

Takumi was next, as he stepped forwards to look Zirconis in the eye. “I told you I would not give up. I meant it entirely” he would say as he made the next move. The roar would burst into existence, hitting Zirconis at point blank range, as Takumi had stepped closer to look the dragon in the eye. The lightning swallowed both dragon and man in a shower of blue sparks, and when the sparks cleared both were on the ground. Both were battered, though Takumi's eyes showed far more resolve than they had yet during this exam, as he stood up and faced Zirconis. “Do you yield?” he asked, blue eyes burning with resolve. Even if the dragon wanted to fight still he would keep going. But this was not to be the case, as Zirconis nodded firmly. “Then I shall move on, thank you for giving me a challenge.” With these words, Takumi would limp onwards, up to the final steps of the tower, and towards where Mura would be waiting for him.

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Takumi paused for breath as he reached the top of the tower, bursting out into the light of the rapidly setting sun. For some reason, this calmed him, as he ordered the gods to take physical form and watch from the sides. He was pretty tired, but he knew what was coming as he emerged, the gods manifesting around them and watching from the very edges of the top of the tower. His eyes caught sight of Mura, and knowing what was coming, a fight, he stood up straight as a pole. He set his one healing spell into effect to help himself recover enough to properly fight Mura, and stared at his opponent directly, nodding as his hunch was confirmed, that he would in fact be fighting Mura. He was already tired, and weakened, but Mura was fully rested.

He knew he hardly stood a chance, but with his exceed landing next to him and the gods watching, he knew he had to do his best. Apollo looked a bit worried, but Takumi flashed a reassuring smile at the god he had grown particularily close to and got ready as Mura started out by binding Kyuken to his spirit blade, which grew enormous as Mura charged him. He didn't have enough to completely block as he raised his double edged scythe up into the air in order to block, he still ended up catching a blow to the shoulder. Blood welled from where he had been hit, but gritting his teeth, he ignored it, knowing the blue aura surrounding him would do its job and help heal him. As blade met blade, he grinned, feeling the familiar rush he got when fighting Mura. Their fights were always interesting, and now that the two blades were crossed, Takumi did his best to push back at Mura, trying to force the crossed blades closer to his opponent. He wasn't exactly calm, no, he was excited, but he focused himself solely on this fight, forgetting Coal, the gods, and Wist watching him, and just threw his whole energy into this. A new jolt of adrenaline hit the slayer as he lept backwards, having been unsuccessful in pushing the blades closer to Mura, and surveyed the tower. It was closed in except for huge windows, meaning it was not a great space for the slayer. It was cold, it was closed in, and it was up high. If Takumi were to look out a window he knew he would throw up.

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The dragon slayer was not prepared for the floor beneath them to break, at all, so when Mura vanished as the floor collapsed directly beneath him, Takumi panicked for a brief second, until he realized Mura wouldn't go down so easily. So he waited, muscles tense as he prepared for the attack that was sure to come. And come it did. Too late to dodge, he noticed Mura's attack, and rather than block, the slayer mage actually reached out, grabbing the spirit blade with his bare hand...

Disregarding the wounds that grabbing a blade with his bare hands had resulted in, the mage would grin at his rival, despite the pain, the look on his face was truly frightening. He had gone down on one knee from the force, and the shock of the impact spread through his whole body, but all he noticed was his rival. "Don't underestimate me, Mura," said the slayer with some difficulty, as he was in a fair bit of pain, but regardless of that, he stood up. "After all, I can't let myself lose to my rival so easily."

Drops of blood from one of his cuts hit the floor, but those two bright blue eyes focused on Mura. "Now, it's my turn." With those simple words, Takumi launched into motion. Familiar blue lightning surrounded the mage's hand- his lightning blade. He went directly at Mura, and if the blade hit, it could cause some pretty large damage. However, Takumi was moving more slowly than normal, and unless Mura wanted to get hit, he would more than likely be able to dodge. If that attack hit, Takumi would grin as he looked at his rival, making sure that the other mage wasn't discounting his abilities. A dangerous look was flashing in his eyes, the one that showed he would die before he stopped.

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Mura would easily dodge his attack, which caused Takumi to smirk. He knew Mura would easily dodge, but he decided instead to change tactics halfway through. So when the tree grew up, large and strong, in an attempt to subdue him, the man used the one technique he knew would probably save him yet hurt him worse at the same time. A large flower of lightning blossomed above his head, which would then explode, blasting everything within 15 meters, including himself. The slayer would be thrown to the ground by the explosion he had caused, now in even more pain then before, but he did not cry out, instead grinning savagely.

"I'm not... done... yet, Mura, just wait..." he would say, pain evident in his voice as he struggled to get up. Black hair flopping in his face, blood dripping from several wounds, he managed to get up, albeit rather slowly. Finally, he knew it was time for the one technique he had been saving. A high, shrieking, call came out of his mouth, the call of one dragon to another. His dragon friend, small, but already deadly, would appear, 5 meters of pure scaly muscle. He petted the dragon's face, before facing Mura again.

"Meet Rei, a dragonet who comes when I call." Takumi said, before swinging one leg across the dragon's back with a grunt. Soon he would be mounted on the dragon's back, two pairs of eyes now staring at the shaman, sapphire and gold together. Rei would be his legs, since he could barely move his, and the two would be working together, though they had to move fast. However, Takumi forgot to account for Mura's tree, and was knocked away from Rei, spitting curses the whole time. It looked like Mura had won... for now, anyhow.

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