Cheers to Growth [Dru vs Sune]

[Drustan]

Why couldn’t he be perfect from birth?  Why couldn’t he have been Dra’sin from the beginning?  Why did he have to be a Halfling with only a fraction of his potential realized?  Why did he have to toil?  Work?  Struggled…?  These were questions that cycled perpetually through Drustan’s head while he was a human and in the advent of his ascension.   In the past, the swell of questions would have appeared readily on his face as stony apprehension; an expression all too serious and wracked with nerves for his youthful appearance.  Since the day his soul had been seared away to the inferno of his magi core, he’d found resolve.  A peace of mind, to some extent, where indecisiveness no longer had such a strong hold over him.  He could perform now—not only perform, but act with surety and confidence in his choices, and the strength to take responsibility for his actions.  And he didn’t need praise, but when he received it was a confirmation that he’d evolved to become something greater than he once was.  He’d started from the bottom—weak willed and juvenile—and now he was here.

Still, there was more he had to learn.  Conveniently, there was another who had much to learn, and conveniently, Drustan had lessons to teach.

An unmoving statue carved from marble, Drustan stood at the center of the Coliseum’s pit, his burning, vermillion eyes boring into a point on a distant wall.  Within the walls of Celesin—Lu’rae—there was no need for pretense; for this lesson, there was no need for his typical decorations.  His broad shoulders existed bare, absent the white symbol—his cape—that shouted his position among the Primoris; where normally a coat and vest defending his torso and housing the decorations of his work would have been placed beneath it, instead a loose, sleeveless beige shirt clung loosely to hardened muscles.  His ensemble was completed by a pair of loose fitting navy slacks, high boots, and his usual plated greaves.  Some part of him was defended beyond his natural defenses.  His forearms, however, lay bare.  The reason?  The monolithic war axe that served as his primary weapon, shifted from its usual placement at his arms.  It felt like a decade since the metal tool, its edge glowing a dull orange, had been produced for any reason other than intimidation.  Presently, the weapon had been removed from its pocket dimension to serve as the Ignis’s primary mode of defense—to use it offensively seemed excessive… but who knew what would happen in the heat of battle.

Who did the Primoris intend to fight?  An invitation had been extended; whether that invitation would be accepted was now up in the air.  Some 15 minutes had passed with the Primoris standing as the Coliseum’s nucleus, and whether Dru was early or his student was late was of little concern to the figure that now leant his sweltering gaze to the sky, noting the sun and its placement for some sense of time.  In truth, Sune’ere was hardly his student; if anything, he was the burden of colleagues, Daul and Caden, and to some lesser extent, Fenris.  He, the Primoris Ignis, had the least amount of exposure and involvement in the prince’s life, and yet—for reasons presently beyond himself—he felt invested in endeavoring to correct the error of his colleagues’ guidance—and, by extension, see himself take a step forward in his own maturation as a leader and Dra’sin in Celesin.  Anyone else would have shifted a modicum beneath the weight of boredom; Drustan’s nose simply twitched from an errant itch.  That is… until finally he spoke.  “Do not disappoint me,” he vocalized barely above a whisper and at the lower register of his baritone voice.  He wanted Sune’ere to take his invitation, for many reasons, chief among them: so Nexxian wouldn’t ever happen again.

[Sune]

Sune`ere had taken time away from his usual scheduled eat, study, drink, work, drink more and then pass out to meet with Drustan. If he could of denied the request he would of, however it would be more pertinent to gain new test data on his weapons now, instead of testing them at a range. Live targets tended to give more comprehensive data after all. He needed to perfect his weapons. His aim and close-combat skills could use some work as well. Even if it ended like last time he fought against a Primoris', it would still give him vital data on what he was doing right and wrong.

Stepping into the arena Drustan had invited him to, he let his gaze fall over his opponent and try to determine strengths and weaknesses of his stance. Sune himself was in less formal clothing, but certainly battle ready. Combat boots laced tight, with loose black slacks belted to himself. Hanging from his weapon belt were a pair of nasty looking custom weapons, if it weren't for the precision of the handle and cross guard on the weapons, Drustan may of thought Sune had broken off the heads of two Bardiche's, with only a half foot or so to spare to grip the weapons. A simple leather pouch he had earned from his uncle with runic scrawl along it hung behind him. A simple short sleeved shirt was tucked in, so as to look professional, but not restrict his movement. A black tie and underneath each shoulder was the leather holster for a handgun that would seem much too large. Upon his forearms were a pair of leather over metal gauntlets. The tops of the hands had small circular openings onto some sort of tech that he had developed in his free time, which extended out only an inch or so from his actual skin.

"Same to you Primoris." Was the princes only reply. Sune would of made sure to keep some distance between them. He was certainly more adapt at ranged combat than he was at close quarters, and that could work more to his advantage. With thirty or so feet between them, Sune would waste no time drawing the newly made spell storm revolver on his right side into his left hand. He repeated the same motion with the other gun. Flicking switches on the outside near where a safety would normally be located with his thumb, and squeezing down with his middle and ring finger along the grip of the weapon, the rune was set and the charge for a more useful bullet was set. As the barrel of the left gun was leveled, Sune would pull the trigger while aiming at Drustan's center of mass. The metal slug was jettisoned down the barrel towards Drustan, as Sune's eye's and hands tried to track the Primoris' movements. Drustan had once before been subject to his particularly interesting brand of gun magic, maybe he wished for another taste as a simple projectile of lead hurtled towards him.

[Drustan]

The head of Drustan’s axe rested in the sand, heat radiating off its edge while his hands rested one on top of the other at the butt of the handle.  Its length was moderate; sufficient to allow one or two handed use.  Drustan flirted with both options in the course of combat.  But never satisfied with learning or mastering one mode of hand-to-hand combat, he’d spent considerable time without it, transforming his Primoris weapon into various other forms to augment whatever mode of combat was ideal for the situation he found himself in.   In his conflict with Daul—the Amazon titan—he’d used functions he’d never thought to wield before; Konstantine had outfitted him with a  weapon limited only by his imagination, and to date the Potentiae had been the only one to press the limits of what he could imagine.  And yet, in the beginning and at some point in the middle he made it a point to showcase his unarmed abilities; the power of his fists and other extremities were other things he prepared to utilize in his lesson for the day.

But for now, before anything else could be considered, his weapon of choice was his axe; its heated edge, sharp blade, and wide body had a number of functions Drustan appreciated, lending to its extensive use in both his tenor as a Lieutenant and as a Primoris.  However, the blades edge burned independently of any function of its construction, and Sune should have been equipped to observe this phenomenon upon his entry into the coliseum.  Drustan’s flaming eyes turned sidelong to observe the Prince’s entrance; the Primoris’ dissection of the royal’s armaments beginning long before Sune’s booted feet hit the sand.  His gun arsenal and the extraordinary league of ammunitions he employed had neither been forgotten nor disregarded, and Drustan expected they’d make an appearance at the master’s side.  The Primoris had already considered Sune’s typical modus operandi and prepared to operate with preconceived counter measures.  Sune could engage him in a long distance battle if it suited him; Drustan was well-prepared for the possibility.  To illustrate this, he made no outward attempt to correct his stance as Sune entered the pit and positioned himself.  “I’m glad you could make it.  I hope to teach you some things today.”  These were the only words offered as his hands found the handle of his axe.

The battle began swiftly.

Drustan’s left foot struck the dull side of the axe-head at his feet; right hand, twisted outward, blurred down the haft in tandem before his wrist twisted, arm picking up the slack on wrenching the axe-head upright where the force of his kick was insufficient.  The combination of these actions sent the axe swinging upward, flying into the path of the bullet that otherwise would have struck his torso with potentially ill effect.  If it was a normal bullet, it would be easily deflected with a resounding ping! off the blade’s surface.  The speed of Dru’s defensive action was undoubtedly inhuman; no mere mortal, as it were, would have succeeded in moving such a heavy weapon so swiftly, and yet Drustan made it appear as if he was wielding a weapon no more cumbersome than a stick.  The axe’s arc continued as Drustan’s left hand flew in to catch the haft of the axe as it rotated past the limits of his right wrist, arms pulling the weapon to his right as the blade, once again at his feet, cut into the sand and once again arc upward, blade turned to face Sune as the energy built within it was released.  

Drustan wasn’t immediately gifted with magi usage; as with any untrained student, he worked off instinct; at this stage, instinct had been honed to some degree, becoming skill.  The energy collected in the blade’s edge came screaming from the weapon, slicing into the earth as a golden scar that was certain to withstand the test of distance as it blazed towards Sune, carving open the coliseum pit and cauterizing the opening in a fashion similar to what it’d do to a body of flesh and bone.  The veritcal cut was easy enough to dodge despite its speed—fast as the bullet shot at him.  Drustan didn’t intend to wait for Sune to get his bearings or test the waters;  Drustan remembered where their encounter had begun and ended last time; his first strike was made in light of that event.  Even after attacking, Drustan’s blade didn’t stop moving; instead the axe completed another rotation, twisting back to its position in front of Drustan while his counter surged forward, magi already leaving Drustan’s core to pump into his axehead.

[Sune]

Without any concious effort at this point Sune'ere could tap into his core for very basic buffs and enhancing effects. Hell it hardly drained him to enhance his sight and hand eye coordination. After all they were so very specific uses of body cascade that they barely even counted as a drip of his magi core. When one became that specific, instead of say modifying strength, or reflexes, or perception, it narrowed exactly what he needed down to a small amount of muscle coordination that would appear supernatural, but hardly take from his pool of potential. Weirdly it seemed to be an instinctual call on Drustan's part that his first shot wasn't powered by anything. Of course it wasn't the chargers set in the chambers of the weapons hadn't been activated until he had drawn them. They would of needed at least a moment to charge and etch their runes. Immediately following his firing of his left gun, the right his dominant hand would aim lower and pull the trigger. Runes now etched into bullets and potential energy from the air around them subjected and stored within the new bullet, the projectile would be aimed at Drustan's left kneecap, aiming to cripple the primoris. A large weapon like that and only one leg to support you? It seemed unlikely that he'd be able to hold himself up in that condition. On top of that the rune carved piece of lead now contained some kind of desired effect in it. When it struck ressistance, it would explode much like a hollow point would, which would be very dangerous should it strike flesh and bone. On top of that every shard of lead that struck would have a corrosive effect should it encounter biological material. Acid burning through a joint after the kneecap had been destroyed? If the Primoris took the hit in full he would no doubt be done, this was all while he was spinning his axe.

Of course there was a problem with how specific Sune's weapons were. Since the rune etching drew upon little quintessence within the air from latent magical forces, to make it more efficient it meant that his guns now had to be very specific. So the corrosive nature of that bullet would only work on biological material, not something like Drustan's axe. Assuming of course both of their attacks went off at around the same time, the second ringing of a gun being discharged may strike true or collide with the wave of energy being sent his way. If it did collide with the incoming attack, Drustan might have corrosive shrapnel to deal with, while Sune would have a rather simple in comparison attack to get out of the way of. While his perception was enhanced to take in most every detail, his reaction speed was not, but that was fine. Considering that he lucked out since his eye's would of been looking at where the energy blast launched from Drustan's axe originally, he knew that he would need to move. However he did not know just how wide the blast might be. While a simple side step may of done the job, the reaction was certainly exaggerated compared to the width of the blast that he would side step. Moving his right foot to snap against his left he hopped to the side of the extended wave of energy putting a good half a foot between himself and Drustan's intended target.

Assuming that Drustan had resumed his idling defensive posture Sune would pulls the triggers upon the grips, and begin to once more charge his weapons. The runes were quick enough to inscribe upon those bullets as they were loaded into the new chamber. A mere second or two since he landed upon his feet his was ready to fire off both guns again. He allowed his left gun to continue to charge while the right gun would aim towards Drustan's legs. Pulling the trigger Drustan may of already felt that Sune had reached into his Core Magi to establish his Force Projection in a minor way. Knowing where he intended to hit he simply made a barrier in the way of the bullet. Once the lead struck the little bit of resistance it would activate its rune and change from simple lead into a large expanding wall of Ice, that moved at only slightly slower speeds, intending to Impact Drustan as a wide wall of physical force intending to crush the Primoris.

[Drustan]

Drustan learned of the bullet’s composition prior to his successful block, but couldn’t say he understood it fully until his axe succeeded in deflecting it elsewhere.  The same would hold true for the second bullet.  The Prince was precise—expected of someone using guns and specializing in ranged combat—while also being tactful.  Drustan’s crimson eyes beheld the second shot leave the barrel of Sune’s gun and race towards him, timed to strike when the Primoris would have preferred to flow into his offensive counter, and yet he stalled—and by extension, stalled the release of that heated arc of energy—to address the second bullet.  It wreaked of sorcery; the rune etched into its body bleeding magic out into the world that only Dra’sin and few other knew; a sensory world of energy and force that remained invisible to the average life form beyond inexplicable feeling.  The brief pause in Drustan’s action came at a price; energy was spent and lost as his muscles exerted the effort to slow the momentum of his axe, which in turn rested in the immediate vicinity of his knee instead of sweeping by to be positioned for the slash.  And yet, to Drustan, this was an insignificant hindrance, and how he chose to stop it’s intended explosion should have been of importance to Sune, if he could witness the feat itself.

As a Dra’sin, he should have been able to; from the start, he should have seen the magi in the axe head; seen its origins from Drustan’s core; recognized it as an application of core extension, and then perhaps tried to address it.  Or maybe he was just testing Drustan in the same way the Primoris was testing him?  The second bullet, pumped full of arcane sorcery and intended to wreak some manner of biological hazard on Drustan stuck fast to the surface of the axe and held, while the weapon itself, albeit slower than when it first started its spinning, continued along its original path, arcing upward before slicing into the earth to unleash that angry slice down the coliseum, where—if Sune preferred to dodge—the slice would smash into the wall behind him, marking the coliseum wall with a loud bang, and dying there where it would cause the Prince no more trouble.  The bullet remained glued to the head of Dru’s axe; caught as if gripped in an invisible fist, and held there until the natural effects of his magi eroded the magic contained within.  Drustan’s expression through the fast-paced exchange hardened, mild irritation playing a role in the seething gaze he leveled on Sune while his axe spun back into position, magi filling the space left empty by the previous cut.  But it was a mistake to assume Dru would remain idle; on the contrary, in the second leading up to Sune’s third attempt at harming him, the Ignis choked up on his axe, tightening the revolutions of the axe head till it could be thrust forward;  a thick column (3-foot diameter) of warped space, dense with magi, and fast as a baseball pitch thrown by a professional, rushed for Sune from the pointed head of the axe to first come in contact with his third bullet.

It wasn’t intentional that the two attacks collided—merely the assumption that the Prince would go back on the offensive once he’d succeeded in avoiding the arc, which spoke volumes about his own abilities in magi.  Dru knew where one of his inefficiencies lay; conveniently in a place that they both were lacking in respect to others of similar station.  Would there ever be a better opportunity to flex his newly acquired, Dra’sin-muscles?  The bullet and the head of the column collided (presumably somewhere in the middle) with the expectation that whatever Sune had to offer would simply be knocked off course, and yet once again Sune’s bullet reacted to resistance.  Since the first hadn’t exploded, Dru had no precedent for the tendency of the Prince’s bullets to react to resistance.  This would be his first demonstration, and for better or for worse, it was an arguably grandiose exhibit.  But did Sune know that one of Drustan’s elemental affinities was water?  The massive wall of ice that erupted from impact with the column could perform one of three things: (1) shatter immediately from the impact; (2) continued along its path with a sizeable hole punched through it; (3) or be stopped dead in its tracks.  In the milliseconds leading up to the ice’s collision with his body, Drustan forced a combination of all three.  It was simply too good of an opportunity for him to pass up his element being brought to the table; to waste the opportunity would have been exceptionally foolish.  And so the column of magi held fast; like a battering ram, it withstood the impact of the ice wall with no small effort from Drustan, who on pure reflex hunkered down with bent knees and provided backup for his pillar of magi.  With any luck, the wall would either shatter or simply slide along the exterior of the column; whichever occurred, Drustan, in a fashion similar to the bullet, sunk veritable magi-teeth into the wall, and attempted to force a change in the ice, and because it was his element… loosening the molecule bonds that held it together to bring it to its liquid state—in theory—should have been easy.  And for Sune, detached from the bullet and wall, and lacking in the technique necessary to battle Dru for its control, would hopefully have no option but to watch his wall of icy surrender to Drustan, turning into a cascading wave of water that immediately began to collect and spiral around Drustan, always at arms length from himself.

[Sune]

Sune'ere groaned as the first rune shot was destroyed prior to it detonating. Did his target not understand just how important that this data was to him, that it needed to be collected? Then again it had tipped Drustan's hand just a little more to show Sune exactly what he needed to know, just how far along this Primoris was in his training. He needed to prove to his family that he could take on more than a scrub lord of a magician that thought itself a god. As the last bullet went out and collided with Drustans own attack only to be taken from his grasp he would grin. The wall had served it's purpose of hiding where he would move next. Flicking the next bullet into the chamber while the ice wall was still being broken down, he came to step to his left with his right hand raised and pointing towards his targets head. Seeking only a little of his own power, he would extend his core along his forearm, and grace the current bullet in the chamber with his own core magi. Just a small amount, but enough to make this piece of rune laden lead more dangerous than anything else he had fired.

Pulling the trigger he aimed to send a magi laced bullet directly at Drustan, to pierce his defenses, and if he in fact didn't live up to the hype of what a primoris should be, maybe even his skull. All it was, was lead flying at him at easily two times the speed of sound. Surely that shouldn't be so hard for someone hand picked by his father. Then again, Fenris had trouble with a bottle in a damn bar, so one never knew.

Holstering his revolvers in one fluid motion he also bent down, and readjusted the flow of Magi within his body, moving from precision targeting he now required his body cascade to work its magic on his speed and mobility. While he was no Caden, he was also no slouch, having been built more for dodging and quick strikes unlike his bruiser twin and sister. Drawing his hands along his gauntlets until a pair of rune words his teacher had taught him manifested.

Running now towards Drustan his hands clenched into fists, his eye's blazing and his force projection field a mere five feet in front of him to keep him aware of any incoming threats. His mind was moving on overdrive, attempting to pick up where the next attack would come from. His right forearm coated in core magi would strike out at Drustans gut in a low but powerful hook intending to not only knock the wind from him, but do to him what his core did to everything.

[Drustan]

The wall of water was more than a wall of water.  Among the primoris, only apex predators existed—monsters—each of them sufficient to terrorize a corner of the globe.  They were larger than life beings, and in the tiny coliseum, one among their ranks was effectively biding his time.  Of the four pillars of Celesin and the Emperor—the head of the unstoppable machine—only Drustan—perhaps paradoxically—had an aquatic creature that represented him with any sufficiency.  A shark.  As the Primoris Ignis he was expected to be fiery and explosive.  Perhaps Sune’ere was expecting something similar to his brother and sister—humbling power channeled into overwhelming destructive potential; something to make even mountains bow.  Or perhaps Drustan was the mountain, and Sune wanted him to bow?

Whatever the prince’s plan, Drustan had finally had enough of his guns and bullets.  The deluge at his fingertips walled him in; if as ice it was blocking his vision of Sune, then as water it was blocking Sune’s vision of Drustan.  But the wall of water was more than a wall of water in Dru’s grasp; the weapon he’d been armed with was as perfect a tool as the very ax choked by the thick fingers of the titan’s right hand.  Like an extension of the man’s body, it responded to stimuli with the same knee-jerk response time as the man himself; this was the strength of a Dra’sin.  He was nature, and nature bent to his desires like a limb, and as the bullet breached the surface of Drustan’s new watery extremity, it shuddered, sending ripples all over its body before it snapped to converge on the bullet.  Bullets tended to fall apart when passing through air; through water, the effects were even greater.  Forced to drag itself through no less than 5 feet of turbulently churning water, the bullet’s momentum would be gobbled up; saturated with magi, the substance was almost guaranteed to be viscous, and filled with the same teeth and hooks that Drustan had employed on Sune's bullet and on the ice.  Still, a chance the bullet would make it through existed, but it would make it through as a normal bullet as all its enchantments were eroded away as if passed through metaphysical acid.  When finally the bullet emerged, destined to collide with Drustan’s head, it shot out as a regular bullet at best.

The mountain Sune wished to topple stood his ground then, leaving the bullet to collide with his forehead as he deliberately turned and faced it, the water circling around with the turn, synchronized to his every action.  With flesh and bone denser and tougher than concrete, the Primoris took the bullet to his forehead with little detriment to himself.  Lead scratched the surface of his epidermis and dented nearly flawless skin.  But the primoris continued to turn, and so did the wall of water, leaving beads suspended in the air in its wake.  In this time, Sune began rushing in, seemingly abandoning his guns, though the damage to Drustan’s patience had already been done, and the stage had been set for the Primoris’ counter.  The wall of water was more than a wall of water, rising to self-evidence in the wake of its rapid revolution around its controller, and the rain left behind as it traveled.  Sune would notice as his field of awareness came in contact with Drustan’s.  It was a noticeable static hum that existed at a fundamental level perhaps a breath above the level magi itself worked on.  An electromagnetic field, surprisingly strong given its proliferation through air, but sufficient to explain the near precognitive means by which Drustan had responded to his bullets thus far.  Additionally, the mist left trailing in the air were themselves fastened to particles of Drustan’s core-magi, for purposes already in progress.  Sune, capable of seeing these things, would be made aware of the very first level of Dru’s defenses, by far the most subtle.  Similarly extended some 5 feet around the Primoris, the interaction of the fringes of their respective fields would give Sune some 10 feet to rethink his direct charge at the Primoris.  With this knowledge, Drustan hesitated to respond, instead keeping full control of the water now defending his front, hi rear, and his right flank.  The prince was left free to continue surging forward into the veritable ring Dru left open, his body turned to offer the prince his left flank, but he would be hard pressed to dodge the columns of water that sprang from Drustan’s rear to intercept Sune, the first aimed at his face, and the second trained on his left foot.  

[Sune]

Sune'ere was not keen on running headlong into a trap. While his perception would of been modified to a mere fraction of what it was previously, he could see that every bit of water that had been transferred to Drustan was now infused with something a bit more volatile than just water that was under his command. This wasn't something that he could rectify with sheer brute force. Though it was questionable, after all his core may be much farther developed than Drustan's in terms of pure age. However completely draining himself was not a prospect he wished upon himself.

He did not come to a dead stop but instead readjusted his path. Taking a sharp left once his Force Projection field realized just what kind of bad news he was getting into. While he did not move towards the Primoris' exposed flank as Drustan may of hoped he seemed to be incapable of letting off the pressure. Two timed collumns of water would make to intercept him, and if he tried to dodge one, he would more than likely be struck by the other given that they would be attacking him from his exposed right side. Gathering his will he opted to keep moving as stopping his momentum in this fight would surely be a death sentence. He knew the projected path for column that was moving towards his head instead of his foot. Unless something suddenly changed he would outstretch his gauntlet covered hand to intercept it before it could hit his head and possibly his body. Coating his limb with Magi and continuously pumping it in to counteract what Drustan was doing would be neccesary in the first second that his limb met with the water. The main reason was to protect him from having that sandpaper effect destroy his limb and turn him into a howling mass of pain and regret. The secondary was to protect the inner layer of his gauntlets from being interfered with.

While Sune'ere was nowhere near the level of the Primoris when it came to his Magi abilities, he obviously supplemented himself with other methods of attack to make up for that lack of skill. And when you considered that he also spliced said skills with his magi abilities, it made him a very forward thinking fighter indeed. The very moment the water touched his gauntlet he would call upon his ascended magic, and drain the heat from the fluid, causing it to become ice in his grip, and much more easily stopped without having to risk any splash back. Drustan could of course contest this, assuming he retained a connection with the column, and pumped Magi into it to not only work past his own gauntlets armor, but to also undo the ascended mages manipulation of a most basic rote.

The excess heat was siphoned into the other gauntlet which would quickly draw the long bladed weapon and use that to heat up the edge to a fiery sheen. As he continued to move he would break off the pillar of ice now in his hand and toss it towards the edges of the arena, out of Drustans own Force Projection field. Sune would then veer back in towards Drustan, leaving ten feet between them, but focusing his Force projection forwards instead of all around him. Once the Primoris in his entirety was within that field, he would begin a flurry of slashes with his long bladed and heated weapon. Though none would physically connect, he would extend their kinetic, heat and of course magi laced energy through his own force projection. Intending to cause a moderate amount of damage to him by way of hitting exposed skin with a heated magi blade, but also should the slash be countered or dodged, or even just simply miss its mark by the sheer amount of swings he was doing, the heat of the blade would be transferred into the water, causing it to in the span of a couple of seconds boil to flesh searing levels. Once the heat he had stolen from the water was used up, Sune'ere was not opposed to using his own stores of Magi, or his own body heat. He intended to teach the Primoris' a painful lesson about how fickle the nature of water could be.

[Drustan]

Drustan was by far the youngest among them, with a core still in its infancy.  However, for the majority of Drustan’s life, his fractured magi required the sacrifice other primal parts to his being, which he was just as stingy with spending.  Drustan embarked then, in the early stages of his magi training, when he was yet a human, on a journey to obtain the magi-efficiency reserved for knights millennia his seniors.  It didn’t take Drustan a lot to perform tasks, and his stamina and durability were his trademarks—his inhuman strength came with the package.  His overall combat ability was such that he could become a Primoris without being a Dra’sin, and now that he was one, his attributes had only risen.

Drustan thought he was clever.  When the water struck Sune’s arm, Drustan intended for it to be a big glob – which wouldn’t end up in hand, but consuming it, which was essential to the steps that followed.  After the glob and Sune made contact – the effected segment of his body only marginally significant – Dru started to pull his magi from the medium immediately, absolving Sune of any concern that his arm might be shredded by the watery gauntlet.  The price for this gift that was the energy keeping the water liquid; pulling his magi from the substance would drain it of that thermal energy, sticking the Prince with an arm encased in ice.  With any luck, this would hinder Sune to some degree, and make him rethink shooting ice at the Ignis in the future.  It would be a beautifully executed contrapasso.

Unfortunately Sune seemed to have similar machinations, staining the glory of Drustan’s trap.  Still, there was no contest for the water as Drustan pulled back his magi, and severed his connection to the arm of ice with a sharp snap.  Drustan’s plan still went forward however lesser it’d become because of Sune’s shared idea.  What’s more, the weight and size of the ice column now suckling Sune’s arm would, with any luck, stop him in his tracks, and prove more difficult to lift and throw with it eating his outstretched limb.

Sune’ere’s other idea to stay moving and out of arm’s reach of the Primoris had to be dealt with.  Sune’s mobility was his strength and Dru’s enemy, and with the ice that problem would hopefully be solved.  But, the Primoris also didn’t wait for a confirmation.  The axe at his side flashed a brilliant orange, and shot to Drustan’s hands as two beams of light.  Golden gauntlets, glowing with heat as if freshly forged, materialized over his hands with thick, serrated blades running over the top like the massive teeth of some gargantuan shark.  With an austere glower on his face, Drustan launched himself at Sune, golden teeth newly barred, squall at his back; and entered into a mad dash for the Prince while the latter busied himself with channeling energy, drawing his blade, and directing that stolen heat to it.  Drustan’s powerful legs sent him striding far to the left, off the line created by Sune to direct his heated.  Assuming the Prince would adjust his aim and try again, the Primoris repeated the aforementioned action, but to the right, and repeated the process with enough variance in trajectory as to be largely unpredictable, making sure Sune would have to sacrifice time or more energy just to outpace the Primoris – time and energy he hopefully didn’t have if he’d wasted any dealing with the ice column intended to immobilize him.

This of course left room for Sune’s plan to work flawlessly with the watery tail behind Drustan, which was poised to take every heated strike from the slashes of energy.  But, water, when it expanded that quickly, tended to do so as an explosion; and at a rapidly dying 10 feet, Sune was destined to get scolded by his own attack.  Drustan, essentially racing ahead of the steam bomb, all but ignored it in his bid to rush Sune, unconsciously using it to add pressure to the Prince who would probably want to move just to avoid it.  Drustan didn’t care about the scalding – whatever mist and steam bit his backside as he fought was unfortunate but easy to ignore—again, the sheer thickness and toughness of Drustan’s dermis was a sufficient defense against such tactics.  Still, the proximity of the water and the speed of its expansion would eventually catch up with him, and it’d weight more heavily on his sight than his ability to move.  Then again, Drustan’s electroreceptive sense was still active, and a foggy terrain was perfect for him.  So, when the scolding misty bath washed over him and his opponent in the seconds that followed, Drustan had no problem finding his prey. The flank housing Sune’s sword arm was immediately seized, and the Primoris dropped the hard-soled foot of his left leg into the back of Sune’s knee to bring him down; down to a level where the flat side of Dru’s bladed left hand could smack into the side of Sune’s head and stun him.

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