Cold Passion - Private

There were some things that couldn't be done in teams, things that you couldn't ask your allies to help with, things that you couldn't expect of your friends. Kaori had come to Fiore to hunt down her brother, and that mission had somehow lost its priority amidst the various misadventures between herself and her friend. Kaori had been given a reminder that she wasn't the strongest wizard in her guild for the sake of being able to bear that kind of weight while denying it, she was given that power to fight her brother and bring him to justice. The last time she faced him, she would've died had it not been for a random member of Gisen's magic clan being present to save her, something she wouldn't have the luxury of forever. The battle between herself and her brother would be destructive the next time they met and Kaori needed to ensure she was the victor. Her becoming a Wizard Saint meant the Magic Council had acknowledged her potential to do good, as well as her immense power. There were opportunities to climb the ranks either by just being promoted or by challenging someone, and the latter option was Kaori's choice. To beat the top saint meant that Kaori was the strongest wizard among the current set, which would be just as good as being strong enough to beat Saia. With that in mind, she had sent her servant, Ikuchi, with a letter to the Magic Council to forward onto their current number one.

'To whom it may concern,

My name is Lareci, Kaori of the Lareci Clan. I understand that you currently hold the title of Wizard Saint number one and that the only method of obtaining said title is to either defeat you, or hope something unspeakable happens to free the slot. Should the latter happen, my goals will be an impossibility. I hereby challenge you to an official match as both; a test of my skill, and an attempt to relieve you of your position. I'll request that you not hold back against me, and I'll do the same service for you. My only request is that the two of us are the only combatants, anyone present from my part will remain as a witness.~K.'

That letter was some time ago, and Kaori had been made aware that she'd be granted her chance at fighting her. She had no knowledge of Izayuki being a guild master, which meant she had no knowledge of her access to ultra powerful spells. She had no knowledge of Izayuki beyond her being the allegedly most powerful Wizard Saint. Kaori was a more ambiguous saint since not much was known about her abilities, only that she was a clan leader and a guild ace. There was speculation on Kaori's magic being holy, which was mostly incorrect, but there was never anything to confirm that information.

Kaori was waiting in a large clearing, wearing a pair of golden gauntlets that had navy blue symbols on the back of the palms. The hands were bare, meaning that Kaori could also wield a sword if she needed but for now kept it at just the gauntlet. While the weapon was her zodiac spirit, Aquarius, the weapon was inactive, meaning that if she wanted to use Aquarius's power she'd have to call on her spirit. So for now it was just a really powerful weapon and nothing more. Izayuki would find Kaori sitting on a large rock with her eyes closed, opening them just as the woman... animal... thing arrived and star at Izayuki with fierce ruby eyes. Kaori would then stand up and lift her hands to her chest, grabbing one fist with the other hand and bowing to her to show respect. "Thank you for coming out here." she would say in a calm tone. "I apologize for having you go through all this trouble. I'm not one for pointless accolades, but this time I need to prove something to myself."

Izayuki might notice someone touching her ears, two gentle squeezes before a male voice said "Master, her ears are real." which caused Kaori to rest her forehead in the palm of her hand. "Ikuchi... you've fought alongside a lamia and this is what surprises you?" she'd say with a fairly unamused tone. "Master, they are cute." Ikuchi would reply. "Just go sit on the sidelines." "Yes, master." Kaori would look at Izayuki with an awkward smile and say "I'm sorry about him. He likes cute things... and small things, and combinations of the two."

Kaori walked up to Izayuki and took her handshake, giving a gentle smile. "Orewa Lareci, Kaori. Yoroshiku." she said, the words translating to 'My name's Kaori Lareci, it's nice to meet you.' roughly. Afterwards, Kaori would turn and take a few steps away to stand halfway between the center of their mountain top battle field and the edge of the mountain. It was fairly small, and Kaori wasn't quite sure how to use this field to her advantage. There was no cover, nothing for her to dip behind and vanish. She was exposed... like a nerve, and it was her hope that her opponent wasn't the kind to randomly pull out a minigun. Kaori took a deep breath and entered her fighting stand, a common hand to hand stance where her legs were slightly parted and one hand was kept closer to her body, palm open and slightly angled to make attacks and the other extended, palm open to block incoming ones. Ikuchi held one of his hands up while saying "Let the battle between Kaori Lareci and Izayuki Hyoujin-Riyasu-san... BEGIN!"

As soon as Ikuchi said 'begin' Kaori immediately shouted "Wrath Blossom!" to form a pair of light violet flowers to bloom on Kaori's wrist. They were the combined form of two of her spirits, which let the battle remain one on one, but gave Kaori the benefits of said spirits. Excess mana was pulled from Kaori however and a barrier formed over her body, signaling that her "Eclipse Barrier" had automatically activated at the exact same time as her spell. Kaori's "Eclipse Aura" had also activated at this time, which would increase her power considerably and make her that much more dangerous. Kaori would point up to reveal that the moon was beginning to move over the sun, creating an eclipse much faster than normal. As this happened, she'd feel the abilities of her equipment immediately being disabled. Her equipment would function normally otherwise, but their magic had been put to sleep- leaving her without the benefits of them. No item would be safe from this effect as it was equal to Kaori's rank, a byproduct of the fusion making the base spell stronger. Not even a second later and the eclipse was complete and a ray of light shot down, destroying the snow for 200 meters around Kaori as well as dealing incredible damage to Izayuki if she was unable to escape the colossal radius before it hit her. Had anyone else been fighting Kaori alongside Izayuki, they would take half of that damage.

If Izayuki had attacked Kaori, or cleared the roughly ten meter distance they started with, Kaori would let her attack hit her barrier, not knowing the extent of her power. Assuming the attack was the same rank as she was, Kaori would regain some magic power (rank based, refer to Eclipse Barrier) from it but her barrier would pop and absorb no damage due to the difference between power levels. If Izayuki's attack a melee attack, meaning she was within Kaori's strike range, Kaori would vanish after being hit and reappear behind Izayuki with her metal gauntlet glowing white, signifying she had used a spell (Burning Heart) and was attempting to hit Izayuki with it. If the gauntlet touched Izayuki or her equipment at all, the magical curse would be transferred, which would begin chewing away at the life of whatever it touched. The burst spell would be attempted regardless, and if for some reason it didn't work, Kaori would do the sensible thing and try to hit Izayuki without it.

The generated icicles would fail to hit their mark as Kaori, instead of moving to a side, had entered a forward roll while also using her telekinesis to push herself forward and let the ice hit the ground, quickly roll to a running start and quickly continue charging Izayuki. Upon her hand being grabbed, Kaori smirked and vanished. She figured that the ability had something to do with first contact, as that was the only defining moment thus far. She made sure Izayuki touched her before using her power to negate negative effects in order to kill that effect and reenable her teleportation and dash abilities.

As Kaori's hand was grabbed and Kaori killed the effect, Kaori would use her Burst Spell to be gone and in her place, leave behind a copy of herself that was inanimate but very much solid. Izayuki would be unable to tell the difference. As her claws impacted it, the clone exploded to deal a very minor amount of damage. This damage was an Area of Effect and didn't target Izayuki, thus, the buffed damage was unable to be reversed. Kaori's Burst had released a bright flash of light that would normally blind enemies, but for Izayuki, just blur her vision and dealing damage while Kaori appeared behind her. This damage was also an Area of Effect that didn't target Izayuki, and thus, the damage could not be reduced. The woman would feel herself being immobilized completely, and unable to move.

"Equilibrium." Kaori said calmly, her body being covered in a dress that would prove problematic for Izayuki. The armor had reduced Izayuki's buffs, not cut them in half, not applied a debuff, but reduced all existing buffs on her. They also reduced all existing debuffs on Kaori, and, had several added effects. With Izayuki frozen in time, Kaori had also said "Angra Mainyu" directly after her Equilibrium to bring out her final requip, a spell of immense power that was the true reason she chose such a remote area. Izayuki would begin seeing her worst fears in front her very eyes, hear voices telling her, her every terrible deed and insecurity, feel as though she were being dragged to hell itself by the people she's killed- of course, those were illusions. This aura would deal more area of effect damage that targetted no one, and thus, was unable to have the power reversed.

Within the past few seconds, Kaori had negated Izayuki's contact ability and avoided being damaged at the cost of losing some magic power. Kaori had also used two requip spells in rapid succession to create a massive amount of Area of Effect damage that didn't target Izayuki, and thus, was unable to be debuffed. As Kaori's magic was strained during those spells, her lacrima pump had restored her with three Lacrima Crystals that were kept within the small bag on her left hip, secured to her being.

If Izayuki had some ranged attack that she would try to use, or if Izayuki had used no attack due to being immobilized, Kaori would instantly vanish and reappear nearby, but not directly next to Izayuki, with nine clones of Kaori standing around Izayuki using her Shadow Clone spell. She would see a small item tap by her feet, an explosion lacrima that Kaori was always carrying in sets, courtesy of Lamia Scale's Armory, and explode to deal decent damage to an okay radius. This explosion would set off the other clones, and each would explode to deal bits of damage to Izayuki that also couldn't be debuffed due it it being an area effect that had no intended target. In total, this would make up approximately five seconds of real world time to occur. Kaori didn't know if Izayuki was only reversing spells that targeted her, she was just taking a shot in the dark.

Once the paralysis from Kaori's earlier spell had worn off, if Izayuki had attacked, Kaori would wait till the last second before vanishing and letting her hit another clone. This would be Kaori's "Substitution" spell that would concuss Izayuki again and leave a clone in Kaori's place. Kaori would only reappear once the clone was dead, but the clone would instantly explode as well, to injur Izayuki further if within 2 meters.