Step by step, breath by breath. Vine by vine, leaf by leaf. It started retreating as Rose's eyes widened at the sudden show. – He simply smiled, quite widely, white strings moving themselves, forming two tails behind him, their runes signifying names at their base, unable to yet be read by the others.
Rose blinked, she did not expect two tails. – One, yes, but two? That means he has found a relic. Clearly, they now knew it was connected to the peculiar earthquake that had happened before he arrived... They thought it was the angel he was with. Not being aware that there were multiple.
Fen stood in the back, his mouth opening wide as if to say something. – But in the end, there was merely silence. – Deafening silence, even something not even Tris quite expected, as he took a deep breath, smiling even more as his eyes followed the two. His movements took a dance-like grace.
His body seemed to be moving weirdly from afar. Why dance when you are in such a situation? – But this was not just a dance. He was listening to the rhythm of his soul, a soft song. Or as he could call it, the Soulsong. His first stance.
The way it worked seemed like this to him. – Drop strength, drop defence, agility is key, moved before they can hit, use your speed to cause force. And pierce the target, one attack, one hit. Agility seemed to be quite the thing in the end, he always liked it!
Rose and Fen could notice such movement, after all they've observed the way he fought multiple times, always told him off for still trying to work with a failed style. – But truly, it was hard to imagine such thing happening, mainly with how big of a failure it was. A piece of the core missing, which was its problem. Now filled.
The lady of the Vines took a step forward, now smiling. Without a forest, she could certainly say she was weak... That was her power in the end, the Realm gave it to her anywhere. Inside such a rock building, she could not do much. Perhaps a two-tailed fox could be her match! Who knew... Who knew.
The fox grinned, his ears flickering. – Yet his focus was somewhere else. It was clear she waited for him to act first. So he had a chance. – With her here, he was no longer worried about accidentally slashing a hole through the realms... She could patch it up if such happened!
So, his focus was on the feathers. – It hurt his head to try and think about them all. Such far apart, each in a different place, a different realm. – It takes a great deal of focus and intelligence to be able to manipulate them effectively. – But who was Tris, if not sly and smart? – He was no one if those didn't show his true name.
In his mind, images flashed before his eyes, feather after feather, snow, leaves, ice, sand, storms. And the list just went on, feathers spread across all types of land and circumstances. – Yet he still did his best. One by one, they started moving, floating slowly within the air before picking up speed.
Then, suddenly, one feather hit the air. Then a second, then a third. – Air shook at the pressure, as they proceeded to cut through it, rifts opening all around Tris as feathers began piling in. – The rifts proceeded to thread themselves closed with the same threads his tails were formed from. Clearly connected.
They came behind him, placing themselves in order as you could finally take a good look at them! – Unlike the other angel's wings, his were shaped like spades off some poker cards... Perhaps truly they were won over, gambling his life to the shadow things! – Though it was hella worth it.
They were like metal plates, stuck to each other... Yet such would have slowed him too much, even with his current agility... – So with a flicker of his ears, they began turning a puffy white. Perhaps similar to the puff of a fox cub, but as feathers! – They looked quite cute.
It made Rose give a small smile. She was quite proud of what he had just achieved, of course, she was still going to test his actual strength. But at least he was smart enough not to try and take a hit from her. – She underestimated him, perhaps just a tiny bit.. The outcome of this fight will be decided by how much exactly.
Rose's thoughts were still moving, yet they were too slow compared to the sly Kitsune standing before her. Or perhaps a Bakeneko? A Nekomata? Who knew at this point! Truly, he was just a fox with multiple tails. Because when he was born, he took the form of one creation of the people. A myth.
His body moved in a twist-like motion, agility past any limits. – Perhaps Rose could have outrun him even now if she were within a forest. – Now they were in a place where she had barely any power over plants, the only things being... Well, nothing actually! She was powerless on that aspect.
Tris's hand flicked, his glaive appearing next to him in an outburst of threads. – Grabbing its handle, his body spun once, flipping with a sudden slash as he advanced to Rose's left side, his aim straight at her leg!
And as such, Rose let out a groan, suddenly her leg was cut, crimson blood on Tris's glaive. – Rose took a swift step, she had no reason to back out. It would simply be in the fox's favour, and with a flick of her hand, she attempted to hit him!
But yet, failed as Tris had already made a safe distance between themselves. – It was clear she couldn't win, but she didn't wish to give up yet. – He won, she knew. But she also wanted to see for how long the boy could hang on, how long it took until exhaustion.
And he did not disappoint. – Suddenly, his wings turned into steel in a flick of his wrist, turning his body in a spiral, her turned and shot the dagger-like steel feathers at Rose! His body still moving and straightening itself swiftly as he sent them, taking his position once more, prepared for any attack.
Rose flicked her wrist, suddenly, a long sword of vines made itself known, with swift movements she hit every incoming feather, kicking it off its path. The blunt steel now falling onto the ground behind her. Her body moving and starting to close the gap between her and the sly fox.
Tris took his position, he had some time before she arrived as the feathers suddenly began to flash from the ground, starting to head back towards him. – Rose was not ready, as they hit her right in the head and kicked her off balance!
This gave him time to reposition once more. This time, he charges straight at her as she was regaining her balance, raising his glaive and aiming straight for her right shoulder. The hand holding her sword!
Time was more than enough. Rose raised her blade and deflected Tris's glaive in a swift strike. – Tris balanced himself into the air, using the deflecting force to send himself a bit more back. Making sure he wasn't the target of a counterattack.
Rose attempted to slash forward, but Tris was far back, he was sure such would happen. And she asked herself how much he actually evolved in the past few months, she has not seen him for... – Agile, smart, and a good weapon to use. He clearly actually took it into his two hands to train.
Tris grinned, clearly happy with himself, his agility and sly nature helped quite a lot in the end.. But one attack, and he goes down. That was simply the basic of the Soulsong, his body was soft. That was his biggest flaw in this moment, his wings were not strong enough to withstand an attack from pretty much a god.
Rose began moving forward once more, attempting to close the distance even more in the small amount of time she had before the next incoming attack was to come. – And it was not much. – Tris was already moving.
His body flipped itself once more in a swift circle, wings turning hard as steel as he let out a sharp breath. He could no longer concentrate too much on what he wanted to do. But all his feathers were sent out.
His figure was covered in a sudden spiral, steel feathers roaming around him at a massive speed as he moved forward right towards Rose! – Slowly, he was growing better at using them, at feeling them. And he was one to abuse that for this advantage.
The lady blinked as his sword moved, deflecting all feathers, and she attempted to attack him! Failing in an instant as her sword was bounced off. – While she theoretically could shatter them. Their force came from their current speed. Not just their form, cancelling some of the attack's speed!
Tris flipped his body in a spiral, all the feathers of steel moved themselves in one giant wing as he attempted to slam it into Rose with all his force!