Sasha would wander off to deal with the minions of this gold fiend, while Erika would deal with him proper. This wouldn't be an easy fight, especially since the man seemed to have gotten to this status through effort, rather than riding on the backs of others, that and Erika was purposefully holding back on her actual abilities, as while she enjoyed using others, she wasn't the most trustworthy or trusting type. If she could lie and shift her form, why couldn't others, it wasn't quite unhealthy paranoia, but it was getting close to it as she started to carry out various ploys. No matter, right now she had to keep her head in the game or else she might end frozen within some kind of crystal, at least that's what the report she had read on the man had detailed him using and being skilled with. It was a neat read, but for him to end up being so arrogant disappointed her, she was hoping he would just lay down his arms and walk away with his head held high, she didn't wish to spill the blood of one with so much potential, but now she had too, and it was all his fault, because remember Erika could never be fault.
His attack was sudden, and without mercy, Erika would have admired it if it had hit, but thankfully the distance between them was enough to allow for a side step. Still, the gold crystal seemed to pierce into the wall, which meant it was one of his testing attacks, he could probably pierce through all of Erika's little tricks if she wasn't careful. Erika had a few options, but she decided to take the one which was most entertaining, which was to rush towards him across the bridge. Foolish? Why of course it was, but that was the point if he was a good battler he would realize that Erika had something planned and would perform an odd attack rather than the direct one, so she was testing his metal and his style. Thankfully for Erika Goldshine moved backward towards the central part of the elevated platform, guarding the door to the treasure room. He wasn't going to try to waste his energy, he was instead planning something completely different, probably a trap, well Erika would just have to trigger it and hope for the best.
Arriving on the platform proper, Erika moved forward, but this time with a more swagger-filled stride rather than a run.
"Clearly you wished for me to venture up here, how odd I would have thought at least one attack would be thrown my way."
"It's risky to have you hide down there, with the bunny brigade running around. I doubt my men can actually hold her off for long, so instead of dealing with the two of you..."
Goldshine snapped both of his fingers and the edge of the platform began to crystallize at an alarming rate. Walls formed within the blink of an eye, and now Erika was trapped up there with him.
"I'll just deal with you one at a time, far easier."
Despite the small size of the now crystal chamber, a clap could be heard ringing out within it.
"Goldshine, if I had a hat I would tip it to you, this is a well thought out trap, and well adapted as you figured out my bullheaded style and quickly took advantage of it. I can see that you have gotten this far not by luck, but by skill, however, there is but one problem with this trap."
"Oh, due enlighten me."
"You see, this type of trap can only backfire under one condition, that the opponent you were fighting was trying to keep their abilities secret from their travel companions. Oh sure I've used the tip of my abilities, but thanks to these walls that block all vision, well I don't have to hold back anymore."
"Don't underestimate me, this isn't just to keep you locked in here, but to become your tomb!"
From the wall sprouted a bunch of rough projectiles, which violently tossed themselves towards Erika's direction, skewing her body in the blink of an eye... or did it? A small chuckle could be heard from within the mass of crystals that pierced through a now shifting form threads wrapped around the chunks and began to pressure them until they snapped into a glorious golden sparkle in the air.
"Like I said, I haven't actually begun to use my abilities."
Goldshine felt a chill from Erika's words, her tone was far different, it was as if she was an entirely different person right now. oOldshine still had a chance, though, Erika had played part of her hand, and this meant that such attacks wouldn't work as well. he'd just have to adjust his tactics a bit. As Erika threw threads out towards him, he would throw up a wall of crystal to try and buy time, but as he started to think of a way to trap and crush her, he felt it, his crystals, they were being drilled through?
Tiny thread ends started to emerge from within the crystal wall, and with a shattering explosion, Erika Emerged on the other side and lunged towards him. Dodging to the left side gold shine formed armors around him made of crystal to stop the threads, for but a brief moment, from attempting to get inside of him. He figured it out now, Erika wasn't about being deadly in massive attacks, but all about taking you down from the inside, killing you in the slowest and most painful way possible, especially if she wasn't holding back. This meant he had the advantage, and could perform a quite deadly attack against the girl. Unleashing hell, he decided that it was worth ti against this one to one shot her right here and now. clapping his hands together, the entire chamber had crystals rapidly grow within it and swiftly enclosed clamping and crushing all but him within the chamber. Releasing the blow as quickly as it hit however as to avoid losing mobility, Gold Shine moved towards the middle of the platform, about ready to lower the crystals and check on his men at arms progress with the other girl. It was dirty and he couldn't perform it much, but it surely killed her in one blow, one couldn't weave their way past that attack. Then it struck him, through his crystal armor, the threads drilled and grasped his heart from behind, tearing it out for his eyes to see his still beating heart before his death. Whispering softly into his ear, Erika held a smirk of delight.
"You were really close to killing me, as a matter of fact you would have killed me if it wasn't for one little thing about myself. You see my magic isn't, just threads, it's the manipulation of a time line represented by my threads, I simply just returned to five seconds before I would have died, and would you look at that, I am alive. it's okay, no one could actually predict that, or at least no human could."
As Goldshine fell so too did his crystals, and the chamber which blocked all form of communication outside of it was finally gone, and conveniently now Erika was right next to the treasure. Dropping his heart into the ground, she pulled out her handkerchief and wiped her hand down, no use in keeping her glove dirty, it would just look bad in the long run after all. Looking down towards the rest of the chamber it seemed that Sasha had completed her part of the battle, which was good Erika didn't feel like doing any more work than was needed.
"Sasha, are you ready to recover the treasure?"
Total WC: 6852/6200
Post WC: 1306