[Duel] Timber!!

Carrying ten brushes - all in different sizes - a chisel and knife, magic paint, and hammer while wearing an over sized sombrero was no easy task.

Especially if one happened to be a petite teenager who currently happened to have forgotten that she was a ReQuip mage and could just summon everything she needed once she had arrived at her intended destination. After all, that was one of the major benefits of having her very own personal pocket dimension with unlimited storage. Unfortunately for her, this fact seemed to have slipped Valerie’s mind as she struggled to balance all the items and walk without bumping into people.

More than a few annoyed looks and squished toes later, she finally arrived at a secluded enough place perfect for what she had in mind.

“This will do wonderfully.”

Valerie nodded to herself, surveying the area and smiling with satisfaction. Once she’d dropped her armful of objects into a heap at her feet, of course.

The area was really quite peaceful and isolated from the rest of the busy capital city. A small fountain bubbled nearby, its shallow waters littered with coins both old and sparklingly new. The girl made a mental note to scoop some out later on, her amethyst eyes moving to settle on a lone tree that stood in the middle of the place like a sentry or guardian. Branches swayed in the gentle breeze, pale pink petals fluttering down every once so often. It was a pretty enough tree, she had to admit.

“It definitely needs some sprucing up though. Especially in a bold color. Like a magenta dinosaur, maybe.”

Delicate brows furrowing in thought, the girl picked up a brush and palette and then proceeded towards the tree. Behind her, the items she’d brought vanished as if into thin air - being that she had finally remembered to stow them away until needed. She placed a hand on the somewhat rough bark of the tree, trailing her fingers along the trunk until she found a spot she liked and then began to paint.

The universe seemed to object to having a magenta dinosaur painted on that particular tree - or at least that was how it appeared. Valerie had barely gotten a couple of brush strokes in before a polite male voice spoke up, coming from within the tree itself. What followed this strange event was even more out of the ordinary, as a young man - rather, the torso of one - phased out of the trunk as the girl watched in shock.

Letting out a small noise of surprise, Valerie backed up a short distance, almost tripping over her own feet in the process.

Thankfully for her though, she managed to stay upright. Was she having some sort of hallucination? Was this man a tree spirit of some sort? Perhaps the paint she had bought was a bit too magical. Or had the gods of nature taken it upon themselves to play some kind of joke on her for painting on too many trees? It all seemed equally plausible in her mind.

"Hmm. Curious."

Deciding it was best to just find out for herself, she sent her paintbrush back into the pocket dimension and walked up to the man, poking his cheek with a finger. It didn't feel like he was made of tree bark. His skin felt like a human being's and it definitely wasn't a hologram. The girl then went on to place both of her palms on either side of his face and squish him a little bit, all the while thoughtfully eyeing him. It hadn't occurred to her that this could just be a regular mage.

"What are you?"

As the man went on to boldly declare himself as the Great Tree Nekros, Valerie's curiosity morphed into gradual suspicion. She wondered if that really was possible. In a world of magic, not much was out of the realm of possibility, she supposed.

“Are you really? That's a silly name for a tree, though. Nekros. Makes you sound like some sort of crazed sorcerer that adorns himself with skulls and has delusions of world domination.”

Obviously, the thing she objected most to was his name rather than his claims of being a tree.

As the tree man person thing - Nekros - suddenly appeared to take notice of their surroundings and grow confused by what he saw, Valerie looked around as well, causing the sombrero to flop down and over her eyes. The buildings surrounding the area were new and foreign to him, at least he claimed so. And Crocus had once been a magical forest in its entirety, according to him. While this fact might very well have been true thousands of years ago, and he could have possibly been a tree, there was no way he had been around since that long. He was obviously lying.

The tree he had come out of seemed less than a decade old.

“Oh, you don't know? They're called speedos. These impressive structures you see before you were once tiny little grains. They're planted in the ground and they sprout up, growing roomy enough for people to inhabit them. Wonderful isn't it? You should ask the next person you meet to let you see inside.”

Valerie finished her explanation quite seriously, nothing about her demeanor or expression giving away that she had just lied through her teeth. The girl had to tamp down her urge to be extremely amused at what she knew would be a hilarious situation if he actually believed her. She didn't want to give away the fact that she was trying to dupe him, that would have been a shame.

“Oh!” Valerie exclaimed quite suddenly as if she had thought of something important.

“If I water your head, would flowers sprout from it?”

Though amusing, their little game of trying to see who could fool the other with the most outrageous of things came to an end. Valerie felt a tad disappointed at this as she had a knack for coming up with ridiculous statements and quite enjoyed using them at every opportunity she got.

Nekros gave in first, and properly introduced himself, choosing to completely phase out of the tree before he did so. He had remained quite the polite and formal gentleman all throughout their conversation. It was the sort of thing a lot of women would automatically like, though of course, Valerie was Valerie and oblivious to such matters.  Jaeger Nekros Krüger - as was the full name he stated, turned out to be a mage possessing a rather unique variant of Nature magic. It turned out he wasn't a tree after all, though surprisingly enough, the girl wasn't disappointed by this. She had seen more than a couple of mages that specialized in plant magic though none of them had ever merged so seamlessly with a tree, to her knowledge at least.

"My name isn't as fancy as yours... I'm Vale."

The sombrero she had been wearing suddenly disappeared, a sleek looking top hat taking its place. Valerie placed her fingers on the brim and tipped it in regards to his bow.

"What else can you do with your magic?" The girl tilted her head to the side and looked at him curiously, her interest in his magic quite obvious. "Oh I know! We should have a duel. I'm a mage as well." Upon uttering these words, Valerie called forth her Sentinel ReQuip. If he declined, she would just unsummon it.

The ReQuip mage eagerly awaited his answer, looking forward to fighting someone who could turn into a tree. Though Valerie wasn't against randomly attacking another mage if they annoyed her enough or if she really felt like it, she attempted to wait calmly for Jaeger to answer her. Something about his conversational manner had gotten her to actually wait for him to accept, rather than forcing him into a fight.

spells:

70% MP remaining.

sig:

10 magic bullets.

Upon Valerie's unannounced transformation, the man seemed to completely lose the cool and collected attitude he had going since they'd met. Instead, he turned into an excited fan - not unlike how one might act upon meeting a celebrity. This was extremely strange and unexpected as it was not the usual reaction she got when she used her ReQuip armor. Most people tended to get wary or upset, not excited. As amusing as this was, Valerie couldn't show any sort of expression while in her Sentinel form, sadly.

Fortunately for Jaeger, he seemed to recover quickly enough and steer the conversation back on track. The Sleeping Forest mage began to explain his unique magic in a short summary, all of it sounding like it would be highly useful in various situations. His magic was named Great Tree Arc, and he belonged to a guild called Sleeping Forest. Was that why he had joined that particular guild? Valerie found it funny to imagine he was the guild's 'gardener'.

Much to the ReQuip mage's glee, her new friend agreed to a duel between the two. She had been half expecting him to decline.

"ReQuip." Valerie answered right after he finished the sentence, activating her Pulse spell as she did so.

The spell would catch Jaeger as she was standing in front of him - since he had walked up to her earlier in their conversation. Without any hesitation on her part, Valerie shot five magic bullets into his head. It wouldn't kill him, as this was just a duel. But it would most likely knock him out.

Spells used.

armor active ability:

4 bullets remaining.

70% MP.